Super Paper Chopper
by Mechanical Oven
Summary: After being lured into a trap by a party invitation, Chopper must save all worlds from a new group of foes from different dimensions and an old enemy. Can he and his friends save all worlds? Or will they be destined to be destroyed in a matter of time...
1. The Story of the Dark Prognosticus

**Well, here it is, people! It's the sequel to Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars! The third in the Paper Chopper trilogy! Yup. But, how about we get something done with first... First off, if you don't like OCs, then this is probably not the story for you (Yes, critics, that means you too. If you dislike them, then don't bother reading it instead of telling me that I shouldn't use 'em). All right? Good.**

**By the way... If you didn't read Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars, then I would HIGHLY recommend going back to that and the first one. This DOES have some major spoilers from Paper Chopper, Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars and also Super Paper Mario. Really, it's recommended that you read that right now before going here. Why? Well, you'll see... But if you go on without reading them... Well, I can't really stop you, can I?  
**

**So… I suppose it's time. I give you… Super Paper Chopper!**

* * *

_Ahem! Today… I'll tell you the story of the lost book of prophesies. _

_This prophetic book was a mysterious tome full of stories of future events. Of course, many people craved the book, wishing to glimpse their future. But no person, after obtaining this amazing book, ever found happiness._

_The reason? The book held frightful secrets not meant for people's eyes. That book came to be called the Dark Prognosticus and was sealed away for all eternity. No one knows of the person who wrote this book. It had been heard that this person wished to ruin the lives of people. But, in the end, the creator's identity was shrouded in mystery._

_This…is the tale of that forgotten book's last owner. It is a tale of love…and darkness…_

* * *

Out in a beautiful green landscape, someone dressed in a dark gray cloak and hood began to make their way up a hill as it rained. The person's face couldn't be seen through the cloak nor could his hands or feet be seen as well. The only thing that could be seen through the robe was two, white glowing eyes.

_"Five whole months without teleportation… Why did this have to happen to me?! What did I do to deserve this?! Those ungrateful little fools!" _

As he made his way up the hill, he saw the place he was looking for: the Temple of the Dark Star Scepter. He looked up at the large temple silently before making his way up there.

_"If only I had my teleportation powers… All I could see before going here was a bright explosion that disabled my teleportation powers and sent me to this dreaded place for five months! I wish to strangle that person to DEATH!"_

When he made his way to the front entrance of the temple, he placed his hand on the door and shattered it into rubble with light purple energy around his white gloved hand.

_"If I am correct, then this temple must hold the __**Dark Star Scepter**__ – the weapon I need to regain my teleporting abilities…and hopefully it'll be what I need to make the universe pay for what it has done to me!"_

When he made his way into the dark hallway, he noticed that some of the statues had people with faces that reminded him of his grandfather. One that was destroyed by a ten year old boy five months ago…

He didn't know what happened after that, but it's possible that the universe was saved after that. What about his friends? No. He didn't really have any friends. Even when he was with two other people, he didn't consider them to be "friends". One always called him "shadow-freak" instead of his name, which he got tired of, and the other's speaking consisted only of grunts and growls.

_"I have to leave all of that behind right now. I can't keep thinking about it any longer. All that matters is that I get what I need from this dark temple. No one shall get in my way!"_

When he made his way up the stairs, he walked into a large room with a pedestal in the center. He saw a weapon in the center that almost resembled the Star Rod – the only thing that could even counter this weapon. This weapon, however, had a dark purple handle with a black spike on the side of it from the bottom and the top. The star that was on the top was a dark, misty black color. In fact, there was a dark mist surrounding the Dark Star Scepter all together!

"So, this is the legendary Dark Star Scepter…" the small, hooded boy began as he made his way to the scepter. "It's not what I expected it to look like, but it will do, I suppose…"

Before he could grab the scepter, the two statues began to move. They were two, armored men with large axes. They were a lot bigger than what the robed boy was the size of, that's for sure.

"Halt! Who dares enter the Temple of the Dark Star Scepter?!" the statue boomed. "Identify yourself right now!"

"Very well, then…" the cloaked boy removed his robe, revealing his true self. He was a black, spherical-shaped being with white gloves with a golden ring on his wrists, small black cuffs on his wrists and two black feet. His eyes were a glowing white and he also has a white mouth. "I am Tipral, a prototype of an ultimate being! I've come here to take this scepter and punish the universe for its existence!"

"This scepter is not to be claimed by anyone," the other statue retorted. "Its power is too great, even for you! I would suggest you leave this place at once…or else you will be slain here!"

"Well I'm certainly not turning back. I came here for the scepter, and if I have to fight you guardians, then so be it!"

"You are foolish to oppose us!" the statues shouted in unison. "But if you wish to fight, then we shall give you that honor."

Tipral clenched his fists as the statues charged at him with their axes. Before they could even hit him, he jumped in the air and swung his arm, throwing light purple spear-like energy at his enemies. The two statues lost one of their arms and were sent flying back to the wall.

"Huh? What kind of power is that?!"

"It's called Star power," Tipral answered as he landed on the ground with his arms crossed. "No one but myself carries such power. I know you would want me to spare your life and all…but that's not going to convince me otherwise!"

"Wait… You…" It was already too late to continue. Tipral floated off the ground and unleashed a Star Blast, sending a huge wave of Star energy in the room. Both statues and everything around him got destroyed in the process.

"Hmph… What a waste of time." As he landed on the ground, he walked over to the Dark Star Scepter. "Finally! Now I'll have what I need to punish this whole universe! Although I'm not one to use weapons, this is the only way I can extend my teleportation abilities to travel through dimensions!"

As he grabbed the scepter, he felt an intense amount of dark power surge into his body. It didn't harm him, but it certainly made him feel like he was much stronger thanks to it.

He held it up high as dark sparks emitted from the scepter. "Ah, yes… Now I've finally got what I've been looking for! Now to get out of this blasted temple…"

Tipral made his way out of the temple, but he seemed to notice that all of the rain was gone. In fact, it was quite sunny, which was something he loathed.

"The sun... Why at a time like this?" Tipral raised his scepter to cover the bright sun. "Maybe I'll block out the sun with this scepter so I don't have to see it ever again!"

Before he could do so, though, he heard two other voices nearby.

"Blumiere, is this really a good idea coming here for a picnic?" a girl's voice asked. "I mean, by a temple where the Dark Star Scepter resides? This doesn't feel like a comfortable place..."

"Relax, my dear Timpani. Things will be all right. Nobody really comes to this place anyway." a man's voice assured. "And the guardians do a good job protecting the scepter. No one even tries to go after it because of how imposing they are!"

Tipral looked down at the scepter. The same one that the two were talking about. _"Those guardians do a good job protecting this weapon? Please... They were hardly a challenge! But since there are two people here, I should test this weapon on them!"_

He was able to float off the ground and make his way to where the two voices were. It was surprising that he could float off the ground with his new power, but he decided not to question it and simply followed the location of the voices.

Over a hill, he saw a blue man in a top hat and white cape sitting down at a picnic table with a human girl with light brown hair in a white dress. They seemed be talking to each other. The girl was giggling, too.

Tipral took a look at the girl. For some reason, he couldn't help but remember something else a thousand years ago.

"That girl... She almost reminds me of..." he quickly closed his eyes tightly and clenched his fists. "Gah! What was I just thinking?! All of that is behind!"

Tipral gripped his scepter and then he began to float over to the two. He overheard their conversation while he approached them, but they didn't seem to be talking about anything important.

"So, Timpani… Would you like to see what this world holds?" the man asked.

"I would love to, Blumiere…" Timpani smiled. "But I'm not necessarily sure with that temple over by the hill... Even with the guardians, someone might want to acquire that scepter."

"Even with the guardians, the temple is sealed," Blumiere assured. "It's not easy to breach through the temple's door. No one has even succeeded in breaching that place for centuries!"

"Well it looks like that has changed then," Tipral interrupted as he landed on the table and glared at Blumiere.

"Who… Who are you?!"

"My name is Tipral. And I happened to overhear you talking about how impossible it was to breach that temple. Well, if you thought that the Dark Star Scepter couldn't be taken from its place…then take a look here!" Tipral held the scepter up so Blumiere and Timpani could get a better view. "Thanks to this, my powers have been increased drastically! I was considering testing this out, and since there are you two sitting here, perhaps I can test it on you."

"You will do no such thing!" Blumiere cried, taking out his cane that had a blue diamond-shaped sapphire attached. He was about to fire some blue energy at him, but Tipral stopped his attack by knocking his cane onto the grass. He then knocked Blumiere onto the grass with a light purple glowing fist. "Guh! For someone small, you do put up a fight..."

"Size does not matter in this situation," the dark being hissed. "I've been through a lot lately, and I'm pretty angry, so taking it out on you is something I will gladly do!"

Blumiere let out a grunt while trying to reach for his cane, but Tipral grabbed his arm and squeezed it as hard as he could. "Gak! Stop… Stop it right now!"

Timpani could only gasp at the situation as Tipral let go of Blumiere's arm. "Hmph... Honestly, hurting you like this isn't worth it. I think I have a better way."

Tipral twirled his scepter before aiming it at Blumiere. "Let's see what this thing is truly capable of!"

"NO!" Timpani cried, rushing over to Blumiere as Tipral fired a dark star in his direction.. She pushed him out of way, taking the hit instead.

"Tim… Timpani!" Blumiere gaped. He rushed over to his weak wife as she started to cough in pain.

"So it looks like she decided to take the hit instead. That doesn't change anything, though." Tipral aimed the scepter at Timpani. "So... Wanna know how it felt for me when I was left in this world for five months?"

"You... What are you planning?" Timpani coughed.

"I'm just going to show you and your husband how it feels to suffer. Starting with this!"

He zapped Timpani once more, but this time instead of hurting her, he sent her out of the dimension, leaving Blumiere in utter shock.

"You… You monster!" Blumiere exclaimed. "How could you do such a thing?!"

"Now that she's out of here, let me get back to you," Tipral approached Blumiere and smacked across the face with his scepter, but he noticed something drop from him. It was a black book with a diamond shape embedded in the center. It was a strange book, to be sure…

"Hmmmmm? Now what's this?" Tipral bent down and picked up the book.

"No! Don't look in there!" Blumiere begged. "It's too dangerous for anyone to open and read! You won't find anything that'll help you in there! There's no telling what will happen!"

Tipral ignored Blumiere and opened the book. "So… They call this book the **Dark Prognosticus**? What an interesting name for a book. This seems to say some interesting stuff…"

"I'm warning you, dark being... My ancestors couldn't handle that dark book, nor would I expect you to handle it..."

Tipral began to flip through the pages of the book quickly before closing it. It didn't seem like he was going to listen to Blumiere.

"I've decided to let you live for now," Tipral declared. "I see no point in toying with you any longer. I have the ability to leave this dimension now, so I'm going to go pay a visit to a certain someone. I think he'd appreciate my return. As for this book... I will put it to full use by revealing dark secrets that could help me in the future.

"But…" It was too late. Tipral was able to teleport his way out of the world. Blumiere could only feel sadness in his eyes, realizing that the woman he loved was now gone. Things were settled three months ago, but now this had occurred. But there was something else in him that was also returning. A feeling he once had during that time.

He grabbed his cane while clenching a fist, and his eyes changed from sad to an angry orange as he hissed, "You… You will pay…roared Count Bleck!"

* * *

**There you have the main villain of this story! Remember at the end of Paper Chopper 2 where it was said that Tipral's whereabouts were unknown? Well... You have this. That's all I'm going to say, though.**

**For now, leave a review if you'd like. Constructive criticism and that stuff. Except flames. They're not welcome. :P  
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	2. How Tipral Summoned The Void

**Before we get started with this chapter... Maybe I should say that there ARE spoilers from the other two Paper Chopper fics (and spoilers from Super Paper Mario as well). I would highly suggest reading through those before going to this one (even though I think the first one really isn't as good as the other two...). But, I won't stop you if you don't listen, but I AM warning you. I don't want you to get spoiled by previous events from the other stories that are mentioned in this story.  
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* * *

A small, pale green ten year old spherical-shaped boy with skinny arms, white gloves, green shoes, and two antennas on his head was watching the 4Kids version of Sonic X at the moment. This little boy was known as **Chopper**, and he had once saved the seven Star Spirits and restored the Star Rod two years ago and acquired all twenty Crystal Stars to save Dream Land and the universe five months ago. He was in his mushroom house on a planet called Clara and was watching a scene from Sonic X involving Eggman scolding a villain he never saw before.

He had gone through a lot at the start of four, when an evil demon knight named Maquano invaded his birth planet and destroyed it. Chopper was thankfully rescued and taken off the planet and brought to his new home planet, Clara. He and Maquano became long-time enemies through the years, and many times he had to stop him whenever he returned.

But not everything was bad. Sure, he lost his entire species with the exception of one, but he was able to move on from that terrible experience and travel to other worlds, where he met many new friends. His first true friend he ever made was Flyer, who he met at the age of five. Chopper even met famous people such as Mario, Sonic and Kirby!

There were two major pictures he kept on the table next to his red sofa. It looked like his friends from his last two adventures were in the pictures. Friends like Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Yosho, Kayzee, Mallow, Ghoster and Geno were in the first one. He traveled with them two years ago when he was originally going to take a vacation.

The other picture had his friends from five months. They were Vivian, Scrub, Kirby, Shadower, Bombette, Heartsy, Mario, Sonic, Flyer and Tamber. He traveled with them five months ago, and he remembered the quest being one of his most dangerous...yet most exciting.

But now things were peaceful, especially outside, which was looking beautiful. Chopper was sitting on his red sofa wide awake. He was originally going to sleep, but he decided not to and watched the show.

_"It's one thing to take them prisoner and threaten them. But when you actually HURT someone, that's going too far!" _

"You gotta be kidding me… THAT'S what he says?" Chopper guffawed. "I mean… I know Eggman's been a little helpful toward Sonic at times, but this isn't something I'd expect... It's just plain stupid!"

He tried to turn the TV off with his remote, but it didn't seem to work, to his dismay.

"Come on! Turn off, TV!"

Chopper pressed the button on the remote harder. But sadly, he had no luck. He pressed even harder. Still no luck!

He got up and pointed at the remote. "You are becoming a worthy foe, TV remote… You just won't turn off…"

After a couple of tries, he had enough.

"_**AUGH!**_" he threw the remote at the TV, and the screen broke, making his eyes flash white for a moment before realizing something.

"Wait a second… Couldn't I have just gone to the TV and turn it off?"

He smacked his forehead, realizing that he could've just done that. "I should've done that… I feel like a complete idiot now. But, since the TV's off, I might as well do something else, like go outside! ...Nah.

Chopper stretched and lied down on his red sofa. "Man, it sure has been peaceful for a while. And it's great! No Maquano, no Bowser, no Grodus, no Gemerl, no Shadow King and Queen, and definitely no King Dedede! Just a peaceful planet with no villains!"

However, he noticed something slip under the front door. It looked like a black letter. "Huh? A letter? I wonder who sent it."

Chopper went to the door and picked up the letter and he began to read it. He felt like it would be another warning from Maquano like the Mayor showed him with the letter. But instead…

_Dear Chopper,_

_I now see something in you. You're a hero to this planet, and a party has been thrown just for you! I've been watching you, and I think the time has come to celebrate your heroism! The party is in the upper jungle, in Trinado's Castle. I will not take "no" for an answer!_

"A party? On my planet? Whoa! Somebody decided to throw me a party! Awesome!" Chopper cheered as he jumped up in joy. "I don't even have to leave my planet to go to the party! …But there's no return address on here…"

Chopper was about to open his door, but then he looked at his TV. He thought for a moment.

"Meh… I'll get Flyer to fix that some other time…"

Chopper left his house and he quickly ran fast through the jungle. After ten minutes, he was able to reach the upper jungle, where the castle the party was awaited him.

* * *

**Trinado's Castle-**

"Well, I'm here!" Chopper said as he came in. "And it didn't take me long to get here. It feels so GOOD that people are celebrating for me!"

Chopper entered the castle and gaped as he saw it was decorated with balloons. One decoration that stood out the most was a pale green heart, which hung on the wall. There was also a table with chips and dip and fruit punch.

"Boy! Whoever set this whole thing up was so generous! I love it! Especially that pale green heart!" Chopper smiled, but he saw other people he recognized. Ones that he hadn't seen in quite a while.

He saw some friends he had met five months ago. Very familiar ones to be exact. The first one he saw was the pink little Star Warrior with rosy cheeks and red feet. From what he knew, this was Kirby.

The second person he could see was a blue hedgehog with black eyes (most characters have black eyes in Paper Mario, hence why Sonic has them here), white gloves, and red shoes. He was known as Sonic the Hedgehog. Obviously he was famous for being the fastest thing alive.

Chopper could also see two plumbers. One was shorter than the other one, had a red cap, blue overalls, white gloves and a cool mustache. The other one was taller, but younger. He had a green cap, blue overalls, white gloves, and a mustache that looked a little different than his older brother. They were Mario and Luigi, and they do more than plumbing.

He also saw three others that he recognized. Chopper was both pleased and disappointed to see them. The first one he looked at was a ninja cat with blue hair and black eyes. He had a katana that he used for his ninja skills and fighting. This cat's name was Blade, and he was considered to be the leader of the three.

The second one of the group was a yellow Chihuahua with leather armor, two pistols, an assault rifle, and a sniper rifle. He could use his ears to fly also, which Chopper never saw before. He was actually a bounty hunter, but he could never get a girlfriend, no matter how hard he tried. But, he doesn't give up on that. He is known as Bang, and he is considered to be…quite an idiot.

The third and last one of the group was a red mouse, but he was actually an undead too. He was wearing black armor and was holding an axe hammer, which is an axe on one side, and a hammer on the other side. He is a mercenary and also a psychopathic murderer. His name is Night.

"Hey guys!" Chopper greeted them all with a mile. "It's been a while, hasn't it? I didn't know you guys were coming to celebrate for me! I'm sure you guys sent me the letter, didn't you?"

"Poyo. (Yeah, it has. Good idea on throwing this party.)" Kirby smiled. "...Poyo? (…Wait, did you say you got a letter? We got one too that's celebrating about us. …But I think you threw it.)"

"Huh? You got an invitation celebrating you guys?" Chopper gawked. Everyone else gave him a nod. "…How strange… Why invite us? And don't look at me! I didn't even have a part of this!

"How come it's on your planet then?" Blade wondered. "That would most likely make you the one who sent them to us."

Chopper shrugged. He had absolutely no idea they'd think he threw this party.

"Wait a moment… You said you didn't throw the party? Well, if you didn't throw it, then who did?" Sonic asked while tapping his foot.

"Why… I threw it! So nice of you to show up. Yes… I've been waiting for this moment…"

"Huh?" Everyone looked around for the voice. Sonic stopped tapping his foot and looked around.

"Who said that?" Chopper asked, unsure if it was friendly, but it sounded familiar to him. And when something sounds familiar to him, it DOESN'T sound friendly.

"Oh, boy… I don't like the feeling of this. That voice sounds like something evil…" Luigi shivered, starting to cower a bit. A black box outline appeared and Tipral was shown floating above everyone. Everyone gasped at the sight of him.

"Wh-Who are you?"

Tipral gave a simple introduction to everyone with a simple bow while still keeping his angry look. "Those who forgot who I am, I will introduce myself to you all. I am **Tipral**. I am the chosen executioner of the Dark Prognosticus, the one who has returned to his own dimension…to get revenge!"

"Huh? What? Dark Prognosticus? Revenge? Where were YOU all this time?" Chopper asked.

Tipral looked down at Chopper. "Oh, Chopper… You really think I would forget about you? Remember when you destroyed the dark core and Maquano? That explosion ended up sending me to another world! I couldn't even use my teleportation powers! I was seething with ANGER!"

"So… After I 'somehow' sent you to another dimension, you managed to return here to get your revenge on all of us?"

"You would be correct," Tipral slowly nodded. "But I don't need help from any demon like Maquano this time! I have gotten something so dark, that the Tribe of Ancients had to seal it away for its power being so great! Do you even know what I'm talking about?"

"And what would that be?" Sonic asked.

Tipral held his scepter up high. "This is what I'm talking about! This is the Dark Star Scepter! With that, and the Dark Prognosticus, I will be the most powerful being in the universe! I have finally found the key…to destroying all worlds!"

"D-D-Did you s-s-say… Dark Prognosticus? B-But… I thought that thing was gone!" Luigi stammered as he backed away.

"Yes, you green capped coward. The Dark Prognosticus," Tipral spat. "I was able to steal it from a weird-looking guy with a monocle and top hat and a human girl! I _did _destroy their love by sending the human girl somewhere else. I'm sure that guy Blumiere will suffer badly."

"Hold on a second…" Chopper started. "Was it YOU that gave all of us those invitations to this stupid party?"

"Yes. It was _I _who sent you all of those invitations! And you thought there was going to be a party… I hate parties, and I would NEVER throw one! Especially to my enemies… My reason for bringing you here is because I wanted to lure you into my trap! After thinking, I found out that you all are the biggest threats."

"What? You're going to destroy all the worlds? That's gay!" Bang pouted while Blade face palmed.

"YOU'RE GAY!" Blade retorted.

"That was quite offensive, too..." Sonic trailed.

"C'mon! Why destroy all worlds?" Night guffawed. "I won't be able to kill anyone if all worlds are gone! That ain't right!"

"Forget this! I'm outta here!" Bang declared as he made a run for it out of the castle like an idiot.

"I'll go check on him," Night lied before he ran out of the castle too and saw Bang fall off a cliff.

"_Sigh_… I'll go get you…" he jumped off the cliff as well, hoping to find Bang and get out of here.

"I see those two did not wish to suffer," Tipral said as he watched the two leave. "Then again, they're probably the least threatening, so I don't care too much. I suppose you people wish to flee too, right?"

"Yeah! I'm getting out of here!" Luigi cried, getting ready to flee as well. However, that changed when Mario grabbed a hold of him and pulled him back. "Bro! Stop it, please!"

Mario: You're staying here!

"We're certainly NOT fleeing!" Chopper retorted. "There's no way we're going to make a run for it! The best thing to do is defeat you, and that's what I intend to do!"

Chopper clenched his fists as he jumped in the air to stomp on Tipral, but he was simply thrown back by the square-shaped barrier surrounding him.

"What the heck?" Chopper jumped on him again, but he still had no luck. He even tried to kick him! That…didn't work.

"Crud! Nothing's working… Hold on a second!" Chopper jumped onto the wall and performed a wall jump to stomp on Tipral. It still did nothing. His mouth nearly dropped at the sight of this. Even Blade's mouth dropped!

"OK… WHAT? Tipral is protected by some shield?" gaped Blade.

"Your attacks cannot harm me! Now, watch what powers **I** have!" Tipral waved his scepter, making dark energy fill the scepter and shot a dark star at Chopper, which instantly knocked him back. Everyone could hear his cry before he fell over on the party floor.

"Chopper! Are you OK?!" Sonic exclaimed.

Chopper didn't respond.

Everyone stepped back and glared at Tipral, getting in their fighting stances, but Tipral didn't seem at all threatened.

"You honestly think you can all take me on? Pathetic!" Tipral scoffed.

"All right, Tipral!" Blade began as he unsheathed his katana. "You've gone far enough! We're all going to take you on right NOW! I'm sure five against one will surely be tough for you!"

Everyone was ready to make an attack on him…except for Luigi. Mario nudged his younger brother to get him to help. However, he just crouched down and went to the corner of the room. Mario face palmed and dragged his brother back to everyone else.

"No! I'm NOT going to fight!" Luigi cried. "I know my Super Jump is impressive, but I'm not going to risk my own life against an evil shadow…whatever he is!"

"Tssh… All of you are not worth my time." Tipral scoffed. "I would win this fight by a landslide. Then again, I don't intend to destroy you at this point. I have something planned especially for you five!"

"What?" Blade was mortified, as were the others as they stepped further back.

Tipral threw the Dark Star Scepter up, causing it to spin around. A big, purple portal was created above him, and Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi were sucked into it while screaming in horror.

"Poyo (AGH! Help me!)" Kirby yelled.

Mario: Mama mia!

"HELP ME PLEASE!" Luigi cried in fear.

"WHOA!" screamed Sonic.

"YAGGH!" yelled out Blade.

After their screams, they were gone.

"Excellent! Everything is going as planned!" Tipral declared. "With them, I can accomplish my goal to create the **Chaos Heart**! The Dark Prognosticus has been very useful at this point. I'll just leave Chopper there. There's honestly no way he can stop me alone. …But if he finds the source of power to defeat the Chaos Heart… No! I won't get to there! I must focus on creating **The Void**!"

The dark being hovered down to Chopper and gave him a glare. "It is hopeless now, Chopper. There's no possible chance of you stopping me. I've been waiting five long months to get revenge, and now I am back! If we ever meet again, I'll kill you!"

Tipral waved the Dark Star Scepter and was then gone. All that was left in the castle was Chopper, who was unconscious.

* * *

**Twenty minutes later-**

"Wake up, Mario!" a voice called out. Mario opened his eyes and saw a green sky and a couple of mountains in the distance. They appeared to be in some battle stage of some sort.

"You OK, Mario?" Sonic had his hand out and pulled Mario up. He nodded to his blue friend and looked at the place. The stage was a black color, with some red to it. This caught Mario's attention, as he recognized this place from before.

"Bro! I'm glad you're OK! Everyone's OK!" Luigi sighed in relief.

"Poyo… (Yeah, everything's fine. But… Where's Chopper?)" Kirby looked around, but they didn't see him.

"Hmm… Yeah, Chopper isn't with us. Did he get sucked into the portal like we did?" Blade wondered. "But where ARE we anyway?"

"You're in **Sammer's Kingdom**. I brought you here for a reason." Tipral appeared over them, which got them all in their fighting stances.

"Tipral!" Sonic growled. "What're you up to this time?!"

"Now that I've brought you here, it's time to bring out the Prognosticus!" Tipral took the Dark Prognosticus out and he began to read what is next. "Hmmm… 'The dreams of a pink puffball, a blue hedgehog, a blue cat, and two plumbers shall awaken the Chaos Heart and cause havoc all around the universe.'"

"Poyo? (Hmmmm? What does that mean?)" Kirby gawked.

_"I must take their dreams that are full of love and use their dreams to make the Chaos Heart," _Tipral thought._ "Using my scepter on them will probably kill them. I need to exhaust them instead."_

"Now, let's get started, shall we?" Tipral waved his scepter like a wand, and three villains were summoned. They looked familiar to the heroes. They saw Bowser, Dr. Eggman and King Dedede standing in front of them. Everyone's mouths dropped.

"Poyo? (What's King Dedede doing here?)" Kirby guffawed.

"Huh? What's going on? I was just about to kidnap Princess Peach and…" Bowser paused when he saw Mario and Luigi. "Hey… I know that 'stache from somewhere… _**MARIO!**_ …And Luigi? Hold on a second, this place looks familiar…"

"Who the heck are you guys? And why am I seeing Kirby here?" King Dedede growled as he gripped his hammer and brought it down on the pink puffball.

"Well well well! If it isn't Egghead! Never knew you'd be here!" Sonic scoffed.

"You know my name's Dr. Robotnik! And… Hmm? I remember seeing you before…" Eggman trailed while he looked at Blade.

"Oh, yeah! I think my friend accidentally went through your security system and got his ass kicked. I had to get him out." Blade recalled. "But what's with this? Why did you bring them here, Tipral?"

"Are you responsible for bringing us here, weirdo?" Bowser asked.

"You could say so. …And my name's 'Tipral', not 'weirdo'!" Tipral was still beginning to remember the bad memories between him and Mysterious. "I brought you here so you can fight to your consent! Go ahead and have your battle and do what you usually do!"

"Really? That's it? Then this should be easy pickings! C'mere, Kirby!" King Dedede raised his hammer up and began chasing Kirby around like a cat and mouse…except King Dedede was the cat and Kirby was the mouse.

"Poyo! (Ack! Stop it!)" Kirby yelped.

"Bwah ha ha ha! Then if we're going to fight, then I will trounce Mario so I can take Peach all to myself!" Bowser got in his shell and charged at Mario, only to have him jump out of the way.

He pulled his Ultra Hammer out and whacked Bowser in the belly, causing him to cringe. Mario saw Luigi was just at the corner and sighed. Unfortunately, he didn't see Bowser punch him off the stage.

_"Come on, Luigi! Help me here!" _Mario thought as Luigi ended up falling asleep so he wouldn't worry about the fight.

Sonic and Blade were doing fine with Eggman. His machine was the ball and chain he used the first time he fought Sonic with. But it was easy for him to get hit, and Sonic kept hitting him with his Spin Jump.

"Argh! Curse you, Sonic!" Eggman growled. Tipral watched the fight, and he was pleased. He looked at Luigi, who was already asleep.

"Well he was easy to take care of…" he waited patiently for them to get tired, and after about twenty minutes, the fight continued, but much more slowly. Everyone was at this point, exhausted.

Tipral looked at the Dark Prognosticus again and found something…interesting. He wasn't happy at this moment. "DANG IT! I could've done that and not this! …Well there's no going back. I don't know where I could find a princess anyway…"

"Ooooog… This fight has been going on for a long time… Is this fight supposed to be to the death?" Bowser wheezed.

"God… This is the worst day I've ever had!" Blade growled. "First I get sucked into a portal that takes me here and now I'm taking on Eggman, who is getting tired himself! What could possibly make this day worse?"

"Let's not…get there right now, Blade," Sonic wheezed. "We gotta finish Eggy here before we're dead! So, bring it on!"

"Must…hit…Kirby…" King Dedede was bringing his hammer down on Kirby slowly, and everyone else panted. Mario was the first to drop to the ground, as did Bowser. One by one, they all collapsed from exhaustion.

"Hmmm? That worked out better than I thought. Now it's time to begin!" Tipral floated down to the ground and got rid of Bowser, Eggman and King Dedede. Afterward, he pulled his Dark Star Scepter out.

"Dark Star Scepter! Take their dreams and summon the Chaos Heart back to all worlds!" Tipral waved his scepter and pink energy came out of all five. Once they were together, everything began to shake.

"Yes… Yes… YES!" Darkness surrounded the dream energy and a black heart appeared, absorbing the dreams and making things shake even more. Tipral held the Chaos Heart up high.

"Now! Summon The Void! The destroyer of all worlds! Let all worlds be destroyed in months or possibly days! Consume it all, as told in the prophecy, and leave nothing behind!"

With a couple of flashes, Tipral began to see something form in the sky.

* * *

**Much, much later-**

"_…...pper_…...Chopper…..."

Once Chopper opened his eyes, he saw he was still in Trinado's castle, as well as a rainbow butterfly that caught his attention He got up and quickly yawned while stretching. The butterfly thought his voice sounded a little cute.

"Whew… That sure was something. What happened anyway?" Chopper as he felt a little drowsy, rubbing his head in the process.

"Are you awake?" the butterfly asked curiously.

"Well… Pretty much." Chopper stopped rubbing his eyes and saw the butterfly in front of him. "…Wait, butterflies can't talk! How… How is a butterfly talking to me? They're…animals, not rainbow-like!"

"I'm not really an animal…" the butterfly trailed. "To be honest, this is not my real form… I'm really a… No!"

Her shout nearly startled Chopper. "Huh? Are you OK? …I guess you remember something, did you? Well, how about telling me your name?"

"My name? Ummm… My name is **Tippi**… I am what is known as a **Pixl**… A sort of fairy…"

"Pixl, huh? Never heard of that before… Ooh! Are you my Fairy Godparent?"

Tippi ignored the child's last sentence. "Chopper… I came here to find you…"

Chopper suddenly had a feeling of alert, considering that he had no idea who this fairy thing was. He got in a fighting stance as he glared at Tippi.

"You came here looking for me? If that's the case, then you must be one of Tipral's minions that came here to check on me!" Chopper cried. "I'm sorry, but I will NOT let you take me to Tipral!"

"Relax… I am not an enemy…" Tippi assured. "In fact, I have come to you for your help… I have come here for a very important reason…"

Chopper lowered his guard and stopped glaring at her. "Oh, really? You came here for an important reason? Well, why did you come here to find me anyway?"

"You know your counterpart? The one named Tipral?"

"Yes, I know him. I've known him ever since I saw him in that Dark Steeple. He's the complete opposite of me. But, how do you know him?"

"…What? I… Umm… I know nothing about him! What are you implying?" Tippi stammered.

"Well, you somehow knew Tipral, despite me saying his name first..."

"…OK, let's just say that…I've had an encounter with him. He stole the Dark Prognosticus, which has been sealed away by the Tribe of Ancients, like the Dark Star Scepter. If we don't stop him, he is going to destroy all worlds with The Void… That's why I have come to find you…"

"So… You hate Tipral's guts as much as I do?" Chopper questioned. "Interesting… Maybe I'll consider helping you… OK! I'll do it!"

"Then we must go now… Come with me… Yes, if your friends are to be saved, then you must come…"

"Well… Looks like I've got a new adventure coming! It's about time something happened after five months!" Chopper smiled, but the smile didn't last long, as a boxed outline appeared around him.

"What the heck? What is this?"

"Let us go…"

"Wait! Hold on a mom-"

The outline around Chopper flipped, and he was gone. Tippi had a boxed outline around her and the boxed outline flipped, making her disappear as well.

_"_…_IS THIS BECAUSE I ASKED IF YOU WERE MY FAIRY GODPARENT?"_

* * *

**In an unknown place to Chopper-**

A boxed outline appeared, and it flipped. Chopper came out of the outline and started panting, even though he wasn't tired.

"Whoa… That was fast! Where in the world am I, Tippi?" Chopper wondered. "...Tippi?"

After five seconds, the Pixl fairy appeared, and Chopper saw he was standing on the top of a white tower. He saw pillars that looked like they were drawn but not colored, and the sky appeared to be light yellow.

"Oh ho! Well, well, well… I see you've come back so soon, Tippi! …But this time you've brought a child!"

"Who said that?" Chopper asked, bringing his arms up in case if it was an enemy.

Chopper lowered his arms when he saw a wizard with a white, long mustache, a blue hood covering his face that only showed his yellow eyes. His body was yellow, but it had some blue on it to. There was was a green orb with a star right below his mustache.

"Chopper, this person here has saved me from the clutches of Tipral…" Tippi informed.

"For some reason… This guy looks _pretty_ familiar…" Chopper pondered. "He reminds me of those two wizards that I've seen back in the Mushroom Kingdom and Rogueport..."

"So Tippi, who is this little round boy you brought?" the wizard asked. "Pale green, two antennas, white gloves… And green shoes! Tippi, you have really outdone yourself…"

"He matches the description of the hero in the hidden pages of the **Light Prognosticus** perfectly…" Tippi noted. "And his name is Chopper."

"Light Prognosticus? Am I…special, in any way?" Chopper asked as the wizard chuckled and patted him on the head.

"I welcome you, Chopper. You are the hero that is meant to save us from The Void. So… That _does _make you special! Very special indeed. Oh ho ho ho ho! Welcome, small child!"

Chopper jumped up in surprise as he looked around at the area. "Really? But hold on a second… Where _am _I? This place doesn't even look like my home planet! It's… Kinda weird, but…cool at the same time…"

"This town is called **Flipside**. You have come far from Clara of your dimension…" the wizard trailed. "Of course, our fair Flipside is in no dimension at all! No! In fact, it is BETWEEN dimensions! I know this town more than anyone else, so I'm not lying."

"Between dimensions? Wow, I'm pretty far from home… This is the farthest I've ever been. But first off, who _are _you? You never gave me your name…"

"My name? Well, my name is **Merlon**! I am a descendant of the Ancients who created this town. I busy myself studying musty, ancient texts to forestall the end of all worlds! Of course, I think my time has come for that one."

"The end of all worlds? What's that? And what's going on?" Chopper asked.

"So you wish to know about the end of all worlds? What's happening right now, you ask? Mmmmm…" Merlon let out a sigh as he closed his eyes. "So Tippi has not yet told you, I gather…"

"I think she said something about The Void. But where is it?"

"Well then, Chopper… The answer…hangs above you."

Chopper looked up and gasped as he saw a small purple void of darkness hanging from the sky. But it didn't look too threatening to him, especially at a size like that.

"Do you see the gathering thing in the sky? It is a hole in the very dimensional fabric of space! This is The Void Tippi was telling you about. Such a strange phenomenon…"

"That puny thing up in the sky? That's nothing!" Chopper scoffed. "I don't think it's THAT threatening, to be honest."

"Yes, it is true that it may not look threatening, but in time it will grow. And in the end, it will swallow all existence… All worlds, all dimensions… This void was created by our enemy, Tipral, who has stolen the Dark Prognosticus."

"'A pink, small warrior… A blue spiked hedgehog… A blue ninja cat… And two plumbers… The union of their dreams will call forth the Chaos Heart, the consumer of worlds… And the Chaos Heart will ravage the sky, and so bring forth The Void…'" Tippi quoted.

"Huh? What did you just say there, Tippi?" Chopper gawked. "Hold on… Those people sound like Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi!"

"The passage Tippi just quoted is from the Light Prognosticus, a book created by my ancestors," Merlon explained. "The book also says this: 'The Void will swallow all… Naught can stop it…unless the one protected by the dark power is destroyed. The hero with the power of twenty **Pure Hearts** will rise to this task' …So it is written."

"Wait wait wait… Hold on just a sec… I thought there were EIGHT Pure Hearts! I mean, Mario told me he got eight of them three months ago. Why is there twenty?"

"Tipral…has messed with a lot because of his actions. He tried to destroy the Purity Heart after hearing about what it could do, but because of how powerful it was, it ended up breaking and leaving its power weaker and spread out through many dimensions. Twenty were created from this, and without the Purity Heart, we cannot defeat the Chaos Heart."

Merlon held up a beautiful indigo heart, which Chopper gazed at in amazement.

"Ooh! That looks really nice!" Chopper gaped.

"This is one of the twenty Pure Hearts. You are surely the hero spoken of in the pages of the Light Prognosticus when a shadow of the hero would resurrect The Void. You are the only one who can defeat Tipral and save our worlds! Chopper! Take this and save all worlds from destruction!"

"Hmmm… All right. I will take it!" the Star Warrior declared. "But that's because I don't want all worlds to end! I love my world, and I wish it wouldn't go..."

"Excellent! You truly are the hero who comes to help us after Tipral resurrected The Void! You are the hero of the book of legend! My eyes never deceive! So… _Ahem! _Chopper, our brave hero! Take…_THIS_!"

The indigo Pure Heart floated to Chopper as he raised his arms and held it up.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**The Pure Heart has been thrust into your possession!**

With the Pure Heart in his hands, Chopper put it away so he wouldn't have to gaze at it the whole time.

"Now, great hero Chopper…" Merlon began. "Your first task awaits. You must take this Pure Heart… You must place it in the **Heart Pillar **in this town. Tippi will lead you there. Return to me when you are through with this task!"

"All right! Got it!" Chopper nodded.

"This way…" Tippi trailed as she flew over to an arrow pointing down by the left. Chopper noticed ten columns drawn and also ten empty hearts above them before following Tippi.

"Hmmm? There's an arrow pointing down… Tippi, what does that do?" Chopper asked.

"Please don't ask questions and hit the button…" Tippi sighed, which sounded unhappy to him.

"Umm… OK…" Chopper, who didn't want to ask questions, pressed the button and an elevator was drawn, taking them down to the second floor. He saw a couple of houses and shops as he stepped out of the elevator door.

"Whoa… This place is REALLY weird… The people here even look weird! So much weirder than my world…" Chopper saw some people that had heads shaped like squares and bodies that were squarish as well. Or rather, they were rectangular pieces.

"This way, small child… Come along, please…" Tippi flew on ahead to the next elevator, while Chopper looked confused.

"Why is she calling me 'small child'? Weird…" Chopper ran over to the elevator while moving his arms back and letting his feet move a little faster, as if his feet were a wheel. However, he went a little slower to see the people around him. They didn't creep him out, but he was confused by the looks of how they were.

He made it to Tippi and pressed the button to bring him up to the third floor of Flipside. He could see some poles with lights on them in this area.

"The Heart Pillar is this way… Come on, please…"

Chopper quickly moved to the left, with Tippi following him. Chopper then crashed into a big white pillar

"Ouch…" Chopper slowly stepped back from the Heart Pillar. A tint of indigo was at the bottom of it. It also had an empty heart in it. "Is this it, Tippi?"

"Yes, this is the Heart Pillar… You must place the Pure Heart in there. It will take us to our next destination."

Chopper touched the Heart Pillar and a wave of light came from it, causing him to step back. The indigo Pure Heart came out itself and went into the pillar, causing an indigo clock to appear around it.

"Whoa... What a strange clock..."

At that moment, on the top of Flipside Tower, a red door appeared by the elevator. Chopper looked amazed as the clock disappeared.

"That was…pretty cool! I don't know what was cooler. How the Crystal Stars appeared in the Fountain of Dreams, or this."

"Well done, child… Now, let's return to Merlon…" Tippi suggested.

"All right, but quit calling me child!" Chopper frowned. "I know I'm a child and all, but I'm not stupid and that's NOT my name! But let's just go anyway."

Chopper headed back to the tower with Tippi, and Merlon was pleased to see them return.

"Ah, the two of you return!" Merlon greeted as Chopper and Tippi walked over to him, who was standing by the red door. "Look! A door has appeared! This 'dimensional door' was made to lead the hero to another Pure Heart. Yes, somewhere beyond this door lies one of the nineteen other Pure Hearts… …Tippi. You must use your power to help Chopper find this Pure Heart and return here."

"Of course…" Tippi replied.

"And Chopper… I have something to give you that will aid you on your journey." Merlon took out a red pipe with red and white stripes on the top and gave it to Merlon. "This is the Return Pipe. This should surely help you on your quest!"

"Huh? The Return Pipe? What does it do?" Chopper asked.

"With this, you will be able to return to Flipside from anywhere in the universe! If you feel like you need to return in a hurry, use this."

"Gee, thanks!" Chopper gave Merlon his cute smile as he thanked him.

"…The Light Prognosticus foretells that the hero will meet a 'dimensional governor.' And from him, the hero will learn the **dimensional technique**… I am most certain this refers to my friend, the Flip Wizard, **Bestovius**. Go now through this door to seek Bestovius!"

"Well, let's get going…" Tippi trailed.

"Woo-hoo! All right! Let's do this!" Chopper cheered as he let out one final jump before going into the red door, with his new helper, Tippi, following him.

At this point, their quest to find the nineteen other Pure Hearts had just begun.

* * *

**Inside The Void, in a castle-**

Tipral was in a dark area in a castle. The background was all black, and he was standing on a black platform with white vertical and horizontal stripes. The outline on it was a white color

"And so… It begins." Tipral declared. "But… I cannot do this all by myself. I will need some minions to give me a hand. I'll need at least four. Perhaps this Dark Prognosticus will give me a hand."

Tipral grabbed the floating book and opened it to see what minions he could have to help him. He was pretty interested to see what was in there.

"Hmmm… I see… Apparently one of them is dead… But that isn't a problem for me with this scepter. I shall bring these four right now!"

Tipral pulled out the Dark Star Scepter and waved it to summon minions to aid him. He didn't want minions like Goombas or Waddle Dee. He wanted strong and unique minions that could help him.

The first one that appeared had googly-like eyes and was a light peach color. He had a beard, and it looked like he had an angry expression on his face. He was wearing a red shirt with a brown muscle shirt over it. His arms looked like they were rectangles, but his hands weren't. Despite his rather silly-looking appearance, he was a burly and tough guy.

"Eh? What in runnin' dog tails?! Where am I?!"

"So… You are O'Chunks… Am I right?"

O'Chunks made a pose. "That be me name! Who are yeh?"

"My name is Tipral," Tipral introduced. "I'm the one who brought you here and require your assistance. This is my castle. **Castle Tipral**."

"Castle Tipral? Eh?" O'Chunks looked around the room and scratched his head in confusion. "But this place looks like Castle Bleck teh me! 'An what do yeh need me fer, anyway?"

"I'll tell you everything as soon as I get everyone here. Now, let's see who's next…" Tipral opened up the Dark Prognosticus and read the next part. He saw something that was surprising to him.

"…A shape-shifter just like me? And it says it's a little girl. Hmmm… When do I remember seeing a little girl that can shape-shift?" Tipral didn't want to question this, so he waved his scepter to summon the minion.

The next person who he summoned was a little green girl with a square head, pink rosy cheeks and pixel-like pigtails. She was wearing a lavender dress with a purse on her arm. Her arms and legs were small black sticks. He didn't know her, but Chopper did meet her before five months ago. It was one other than Mimi.

"Wait… Where am I?" Mimi gawked. "This isn't Merlee's Mansion! I was JUST in the middle of letting the boys look at how cute I am!"

Tipral looked at her strangely. _"I swear I've seen this girl before when I was at the arena in Hell… Is this book telling me this is the one I need?"_

"Aye? Wee Mimi? Yer 'ere too?" O'Chunks gaped. "Is this the other person yeh need teh help yeh?"

"Yes, she is the second person I need for my plans," Tipral replied. "Let me guess: You're name is Mimi, isn't it?"

"You… You know me? Does this mean…you're my soul mate?" Mimi asked, taking a good look at Tipral.

"Soul mate? No. I called you here because..."

Mimi let out a squeal as she hugged Tipral, with hearts in her eyes. "EEEEEEEEEE! You're just the kind of boy I'm interested! You're dark, evil-looking, and CUTE! You remind me of the count, but much younger and cuter! Maybe I might just find the boyfriend of my dreams!"

"Gah! Get off of me!" Tipral forced Mimi off of him with his scepter's power. She just put her hands behind her back and giggled.

"I'm so sorry! I just really like you, that's all! Tee hee hee!" Mimi giggled as Tipral read the book again and was surprised.

"Hmmm? This is interesting…" he trailed as he waved his scepter while reading the book.

The next person Tipral summoned was half hedgehog, half Dark-Creature with gray fur. He had a moon crescent on his head with the point of the crescent pointing up, also having black gloves and black shoes with white stripes. This guy is known as Dark Doom.

"What the… Who summoned me? Whoever did that, you're DEAD!" Dark Doom growled before calming down. "However, I might let you off the hook, considering that I'm not longer in prison at the moment."

"Eh? Who the heck is this guy 'ere? I've never seen 'im before in me whole life!" O'Chunks gawked.

"He doesn't seem so nice…" Mimi added.

Dark glared at the two of them. "Do you guys even know who I am? My name is Dark Doom, king of the Dark Creatures! Obviously you're just trying to pick a fight with me."

Dark saw Tipral, and he instantly recognized him. "…Wait a minute… I remember your face from somewhere… What are you doing here?"

"Don't ask any questions now, Dark. I have a GOOD reason on why you're all here." Tipral answered. "Now let me summon this person. Apparently, he is dead, so this might be tricky. I'll need more dark power to bring him back.

Tipral started to use his scepter to summon this last person, which he succeeded in doing. The last minion had a mask that had one side being lavender and the other being black. His eyes were black on the lavender side and yellow on the black side. He was wearing a jester hat that was light yellow and purple. His outfit looked the same color as his hat, and his gloves and boots were black with the outline being white.

"Ah ha HA! At long last! I have returned to the real world like a child who desperately wants attention!" the jester cheered. "Oh, how enjoyable it is to be back!"

"Hold on a minute… The last minion is supposed to be some kind of clown wearing a mask? This isn't right…" Tipral looked at the book, and it did say that Dimentio was another minion.

"Oh, but it _is _right. I greatly thank you for your help, sir! Allow me to formally introduce myself!" the jester flew over to Tipral and gave him a bow. "I am the master of dimensions, pleaser of crowds… I am…Dimentio! And might your name be…Tipral?"

"How do you know my name?"

"Oh... I just heard it once..."

"Eh? Why did yeh bring Dimentio back?!" O'Chunks gasped as he glared at Dimentio. "'E tried teh kill us all! Yeh shouldn't trust this no-good traitor!"

"O'Chunks is right! He betrayed us at the last moment and almost killed the count! You CAN'T trust him, Tippy!" Mimi begged.

"_Tippy?_ Are you serious?" Tipral growled.

"Well, the nickname is really cute..."

"Dimentio? Really? Is this some kind of joke?" Dark gawked. "Seriously, I hate clowns. If you're going to play jokes on me, then don't even try."

"Oh, does somebody need entertainment? I can give you as much entertainment as you need! Juggling, getting hurt, anything you want me to do!" Dimentio grinned. He had his hand on his shoulder, which made Dark angry.

"What the… Why's your hand on my shoulder?" Dark questioned. "Get your hand off of me before I pry that mask off of your face and shove it up your… Forget it."

"So… You all say that this Dimentio is a traitor?" Tipral turned to Dimentio. "Is this true, clown?"

"Me? A traitor? Oh no! That was all just a little act I pulled off!" Dimentio assured. "I concur, I did do some terrible things back then, but my changes are like a thousand pencils being flung at a baby! I will certainly give you the help you need."

"Fine, I'll let you stay," he declared.

"Do not fear, Tipral, my friend! I will certainly not play such a silly act like I did on the count! I promise you that!"

"I need you anyway, so I'm not going to deal with your words. Now, the reason why all of you are here is because there's a certain hero name Chopper. Apparently, he is trying to save the world by getting all twenty Pure Hearts. I even overheard him saying that he'll collect the twenty Pure Hearts. Too bad the scepter couldn't destroy the Purity Heart on its own..."

"Chopper? You mean that pale green kid that always got in my way a long time ago?" Mimi recalled. "You know, you do kinda look like him. But you're much cuter."

"Yes… That Star Warrior must go. I have dealt with him in the past and I want revenge against him and the world. We can have our perfect world once we get rid of him."

"A perfect world? Are yeh sure yeh'll keep yer promise?" O'Chunks wondered.

"Yes, I certainly will," Tipral nodded.

"Oh... Then maybe yer tellin' the truth!"

"Ooh! A perfect world! I know my perfect world! Hanging out with you would be it!" Mimi began to think of her and Tipral looking at the moon, holding hands together.

_"I've only known this girl for two minutes and she's in love with me?!" _Tipral thought as he raised an eyebrow.

She sighed dreamily as she imagined them getting closer and closer until...

"And I thought your ideal world was a gem-filled pool with hunky lifeguards…" Dimentio snickered.

Mimi heard him and turned to him in anger. "DIMENTIO! What gave you that kind of idea?!"

"Don't you remember, Mimikins?" the jester replied with a smirk, which was enough to tick her off.

"Have you been reading my diary again?! ...Ummm, forget what I just said!"

"I don't think we can trust Dimentio, still…" O'Chunks trailed. "'E might try teh pull somethin' on us! I'm sure 'e will!"

"I don't really know who he is, so I don't really know or care what you guys are even talking about," Dark muttered.

"Guys… You will all have your dreams come true once The Void swallows up everything," Tipral assured. "But, for that to happen, we must follow the instructions of the Dark Prognosticus. Do we all have a deal?"

"All right, I'll do it!" O'Chunks nodded.

"I'm in! I can't say no to a cutie like you!" Mimi giggled.

"I'm in also. With my army, we'll be unstoppable!" Dark grinned.

"Of course I'm willing to help!" Dimentio happily nodded.

"Good… The first thing we must do is get rid of the hero of the prophecy, Chopper." Tipral informed. "He is possibly going to find the second Pure Heart in **Lineland Road**. One of you must go there and stop him."

"_**TIPRAL!**_"

Everyone covered their ears once O'Chunks blurted out Tipral's name.

"Don't shout that loudly!" Dark cringed.

O'Chunks gave him a small glare before turning to Tipral. "Lemme take care of this kid that yeh seem teh 'ate so much! I'll give 'im a nice taste o' O'Chunks!"

"Very well, O'Chunks. I'll let you take care of Chopper." Tipral nodded. "And do not worry if you end up crushing him. That's exactly what I want!"

"Yeh can count on me, Tipral! I'll rain down like a fat thunderstorm! I won't fail yeh!" O'Chunks declared before he turned to the other three. "Mimi! Dark Doom! Dimentio! Yeh should tag along! Yeh could witness a proper chunkin'!"

After giving a wave, the bearded warrior jumped off the platform and took off.

"Mmm… I do enjoy a good chunking… Well, then… I believe I'll head out as well! Ciao, Tipral!" Dimentio grinned as he snapped his fingers and disappeared with a slight ripple from the air. Apparently he had the ability to teleport to places using his magic, from what Tipral could see.

"I think I'll sit this one out. You know, just so I can be with you, Tippy!" Mimi giggled, smiling at him. Tipral, on the other hand, didn't seem to care.

"I don't have anything to help me go to different places," Dark noted.

"Well too bad for you!" the green girl spat. "Maybe you should stop being such a grump for once!"

"Here, take this," Tipral took out a black cape and tossed it to Dark.

"What's this supposed to be?"

"That cape will help you teleport to different areas or dimensions. Just cover yourself with it and you'll be able to teleport. It can also be used as a shield to protect yourself against projectiles."

"Really? That's interesting..." Dark trailed as he put on the cape. The bottom edges were a bit pointy, which seemed to suit him. "I'm not a big fan of capes, but if I need this to get to another world, then I will."

"So, you're ready to go out, right?" Tipral asked.

"I'd rather not go out JUST yet... I want to get to know this castle a little more before I set out to stop Chopper for you. He isn't a big threat to me, but I'll be willing to destroy him for you. Just not right now."

"Very well. You two can sit this one out if you want."

"YAAAAY!" Mimi cheered as Dark tested out his cape by teleporting out of the room. "So, Tippy... Can we spend some time together?"

"Maybe you should try to get your room ready," Tipral suggested. "After all, you're most likely going to live here."

"Well, if that's the case, then I need to get everything ready! I need to get all my outfits and perfect my room so it looks cute!" Mimi gave Tipral a quick kiss on the cheek, making his eyes widen. "I'll be back, Tippy! Just don't forget about me!"

When Mimi teleported out of the room, he wiped her kiss off, not caring about it anymore, even if that was the first time he ever received a kiss. With him alone, he began to think about Chopper's quest and his hatred of him.

"Chopper, just try and stop me… If you manage to make it here, I'll be ready to defeat you. Without your friends, there's NOTHING you can do to stop me!"

And he was indeed correct.

* * *

**It was NOT like this when I originally made this chapter. It's a lot longer, and the dialogue is a little different. I even made the others have a part in making the Chaos Heart as well! The whole marriage thing for this wouldn't make it original, honestly, so I went with the dreams instead. ...And don't expect those three villains to appear so much.**

**I kinda thought of the idea of Mimi being interested in Tipral because she would probably be interested in the dark kind of people, kind of like how she had a crush on Count Bleck. Plus, they can both shape-shift too (if you hadn't read Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars yet).  
**

**I don't own Blade, Bang, Night, and Dark Doom, just to let you know. My friend let me put them in this fic, and they belong to him. So **_**I'm **_**not the one you should be suing for putting them in here!**

**Next chapter, the adventure will definitely unfold...**


	3. The Adventure Unfolds

_Chopper was called upon once again to save the world…no small task. Could he prevent Tipral from destroying all worlds? Will Chopper ever find his friends? A truly interdimensional adventure was about to being…_

**CHAPTER 1-1**

**-The Adventure Unfolds-**

The first world that they were going to was starting to get drawn. Trees were revealed, and the ground had dirt and green grass, as well as flowers and bushes, while the trees were pixel-like. It was simply beautiful, especially for the beginning of the adventure.

A red door appeared, which Chopper walked out of with his "friend" that decided to go with him. Though Tippi was reluctant to help, she had no other choice but to travel with this child.

Chopper began to stretch and let out his childish yawn. "Oh, boy! It sure is a beautiful day out here! The air is nice here…" he smiled and turned to Tippi, who was unsure of what to say.

"Tippi… You kind of felt, well… A little reluctant to go with me. Just how you sounded made me think you actually didn't want to come with me. I mean, you can tell me if you're not happy to be here."

"No, it's not you. It's just that I was forced to become this again…" Tippi trailed. "You seem like a nice boy, I'll admit… But I don't know you that much and I can't necessarily trust you yet…"

"Is that the reason? Huh… Well, sometimes you can't really trust people you first meet."

"I don't have a large amount of distrust in you, or else I wouldn't be with you... You are, after all, the hero of the prophecy..."

"I guess that's true. I guess I can trust that you'll be helpful. Anyway, we gotta find that Pure Thingamajig that the door led us to. Now where could it be?" Chopper wondered as he began to look off at the distance.

"Hmmm… I feel the Pure Heart. But it's still far from here… Merlon told us to find his friend, Bestovius, to learn that dimensional technique. We'd better go find him…"

"Oh, yes! We gotta go find Bestovius! That's the important part!" Chopper realized.

"One more thing… If you want to learn about anything, just use my powers… I know about many things that you probably don't…"

**Simply point your Wii Remote at the screen and Tippi will focus on where you point. Then, just press (A) over anything framed in red to hear more about it. Feel free to ask Tippi about anything or anyone you want!**

"...Huh? What was that?" Chopper gawked.

"What do you mean?" Tippi wondered. "Do you have a question to ask me?"

"Errr... No, not really. We just need to move on and that's it." Chopper started off with only 10 HP, just like all the other stories. He began to start moving through the path to the right, running by a yellow ? block and another pair of brick blocks that reminded him of World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros.

"Hmmm… I wonder what's in here." Chopper punched a yellow ? block underneath him and a Mushroom came out, sliding off the blocks and coming down. Chopper used his Inhale to swallow it.

**This is a Mushroom! Grab these to recover HP.**

Though he would've questioned what he just heard, Chopper decided not to. He recovered 10 HP from the Mushroom and stomped on a Goomba ahead while performing a Stylish as he bounced off. To his surprise, they only had 1 HP compared to their usual 2. Regardless, he carried on until he found something up ahead.

"Hey, there's a solid wall here!" Chopper braked in front of a couple of brown blocks that were unbreakable and couldn't be destroyed. All he could do was hit the brick block under him and jump over the wall with it.

"I guess we can't go over there…" he jumped down onto the other side and also a pit and saw pink pig-like enemies that were in the shape of a square, mouths and small legs. These were Squiglets, and they had 2 HP.

"These guys have 2 HP? I guess it'll take more to take them down…" Chopper inhaled the Squiglet and spat it toward the wall to defeat it. They saw a house up some steps, so Chopper went up there with Tippi.

"So this is Bestovius's house… Well, Chopper, we better go in to get that ability…" Tippi suggested. Chopper hit the Save Block first, and then he walked into the house, which looked empty.

"Huh? There's nothing here! What gives?" Chopper asked as he looked around the room.

"This is not an empty house…I remember being here before..." Tippi recalled. "There _was _a door here. I can feel something in this room… Chopper, I can help you find hidden things around here. Why don't you use my power to look around?"

"OK, let me try to see how I can use your power…" Chopper paused for a moment. "…Hold on, how DO I?"

"It's very simple…" Tippi floated over to Chopper and disappeared. Chopper's eyes turned to a rainbow color, and everything felt dark around him. "Don't worry… I'm still here. I'm just in you. Look around for anything. You might find something…"

Chopper's eyes were shooting a ray of rainbow light, and he saw a hidden door in the room. "There's a hidden door here, Tippi! I can see it!"

"Yes, I can see it… Let me make it visible for you…" Tippi reappeared back outside of Chopper, and they both saw a door in front of them.

"So he hid the door again… Well, all we can do is go in…" Tippi followed Chopper through the door, which was also small.

"Another small room? Well there's not much here..." Chopper trailed.

"Hmmmmmmmm?"

Chopper saw a shaman that had a purple face, glasses that had a white outline on them, a blue weird hat, a red cape with a yellow trim and a white pixel-like mustache. He was also on a pixel cloud. From what Chopper knew, this could very well be Bestovius.

"What is this pale green kid with the antennas that stands before me?" Bestovius wondered. "And how does it have the audacity to address my multi-colored glory? …How did those white gloves detect my secret door…"

"Ummmm... I did it...somehow." Chopper said as he blinked.

Bestovius got a better look at him, and he was utterly shocked. "Wait right there! pale green skin…antennas…child-like face…green shoes…white gloves. Hah! You have the looks like the hero of prophecy! You must be the great…"

Chopper gasped as he pointed to himself. He even began to smile as well.

"_**HERO**_…impersonator!"

Chopper instantly fell over.

"What a costume you've dressed yourself into! You look like you leaped out of the hidden pages of the Light Prognosticus!" Bestovius laughed as Chopper got up and shook his head.

"REALLY?! How could I possibly be impersonating a hero?!" Chopper exclaimed. "This isn't a costume either! Why are you taking me for someone else?"

"This is Chopper!" Tippi spoke up. "He has the looks of the hero because he IS the hero… Merlon told us to find you."

"Merlon?! He's the one that sent you? Only his full-bodied beard rivals my hair magnificence…" Bestovius trailed.

"What's so important about mustaches?" Chopper asked.

"If only I could shave that beard off, my beard rank would be number one! Anyway, if Merlon thinks you're the true hero, then I believe you probably are. _I think_… Well, then. As the ancient prophecy foretells… I, Bestovius, will bestow upon you the ancient secrets of dimension flipping. …For a normal fee of 10,000 coins!"

Chopper's mouth dropped before he had to pick it up from the ground. "10,000 coins? Wh-What? …OK, lemme check how much I got."

He checked how many coins he had…and all he had were 10.

"OK, that's ten coins. Only 9,990 to go! Let's go get a lemonade stand set up, Tippi. That's a way to get coins." Chopper was about to leave the room, but Tippi pulled him back to Bestovius.

"No! We're not going to be doing that, Chopper…" Tippi wondered how she was able to drag him back over to Bestovius, since she was just a Pixl. But that didn't matter when she turned back to Bestovius. "That's preposterous! Why 10,000 coins? You can't charge him that much money! He's only a small child, and children his age wouldn't have that amount of money! Not to mention you can't charge to teach the hero of prophecy!"

"Why not? Even the great and splendiferous Bestovius has certain…expenditures." Bestovius explained. "Why should the hero get the world delivered to him on a well-garnished platter? These heroes just think they can get away with shaking people down for free skills! A mere 10,000 coins should be nothing for a hero of the universe. What do you say?"

"Hmmmm… Let me think about it. _**NO!**_" Chopper exclaimed. "Why would I pay you 10,000 coins when I don't _HAVE _any? So no way, Jose!"

Bestovius sighed and rolled his eyes. "I see. So you refuse to pay me 10,000 coins. So be it. I will settle for just taking all the coins in your pocket. Do we have a deal?"

"No way! I'm not going to give up all my coins! Too risky, I'd say. I might need this for something important!"

"Still you refuse? So be it. Though it makes me ill, I will waive the nominal fee and teach you for free. Do you agree to this?"

"For free? Then... Yeah, I'll do it."

"Scintillating! Let us begin!" Bestovius floated over to Chopper and began to perform a spell on him.

"Flimmidy flammidy flooom! Diggidy daggidy doom! Zibbidy zabbidy zooom! _**SHABOOOM! FLIPPOW!**_"

A bunch of outlined boxes appeared around and went into Chopper. What was strange was that they didn't feel painful to him. It felt like he just gained a brand new power.

"Whoa… Did a bunch of boxes just go into me?" Chopper gaped. "And it…wasn't so painful. Can anyone explain to me what just happened?"

"I, Bestovius, have granted you the ability to flip between dimensions. Yes, now YOU can do such a thing, unlike your friends! You may brag all you want to them. Press (A) to slip between the very fabric of space and flip between 2-D and 3-D! Well, what do you think? Mind blowing, isn't it?"

"Uh… Sure, I guess it's mind-blowing, but I have no idea what you mean by an (A) button. Can you explain this to me?"

"What is this (A) I speak of? I assure you that if we are being watched from another dimension… Those beings would understand."

"Watched from another dimension? Now who would wanna do that?"

"But you lack the antennas for full comprehension. Just remember that you can use this ability to find hidden items and secret paths. But beware: use your new ability too long, and **you will lose HP**."

"All right, thanks for the help!" Chopper left the room and decided to use his awesome ability. A black outlined box appeared around him, and he flipped into 3-D. He saw a red rug in this room and also a Fire Flower and Shell.

**Use the flip ability to flip into 3-D! Flip between 2-D and 3-D to get through tricky situations and find secrets. While you're flipping, the Flip Gauge in the upper left will start to drop. If your Flip Gauge runs out, you'll start to take damage, so flip back before then! Flip back to 2-D to build up your Flip Gauge again.**

Chopper raised his arms up and flipped back to 2-D. "Huh… So that's how to do it… Cool!" he left the house and ran down to the brown wall that was in the way. Tippi took a look at it too.

"I would suggest flipping here, Chopper… I can feel that this is the way we need to go…" Tippi informed.

Chopper flipped again and saw he was able to break the physics of 2-Dness and walk around the brown blockade to a red door with a star with a rainbow frame around it.

"Nice door," Chopper smiled as he opened it and walked right in to find another area he came out of from the door. It was still flat, but this time there was a Koopa Troopa with sunglasses and a green shell.

**Defeat enemies to earn points! When you earn enough points, you'll level up and increase your HP and attack power. Press (+) to go to the menu and see how many points you need.**

"I need points to level up? OK… This is a lot different than how I used to level up. No Star Points? No partners? …OK, I can live with that. Sometimes a hero needs a little break of having partners with him."

He jumped up and he stomped on a Koopa, making him hide in its shell. Yeah, apparently these Koopas were on Tipral's side. Afterward, the Koopa shell was kicked and it knocked a couple of Goombas and Koopas up ahead.

"That was easy!" Chopper said, but Tippi was alerted when she saw the Koopa shell coming back toward him after hitting a tall pipe.

"CHOPPER! BEHIND YOU!"

Chopper turned around and saw the Koopa shell coming toward him. His eyes widened, but he jumped over it without getting hurt.

"That was close… Now let's see what we got here." Chopper walked over to the tall green pipe ahead. There were two others ahead, and since he didn't feel like jumping them, he flipped to go past them.

"Watch out for bottomless pits…" Tippi warned as a pit was coming up ahead. Chopper flipped back after going past the pipes, and he hit the blocks nearby with the Goombas, taking them out.

"Hey! A Mushroom!" Chopper smiled as a Mushroom came out of one of the yellow ? blocks, so he ate it to recover 10 HP. He didn't need it, but he _did _have an appetite… But enough about that. He crossed over the pit and found three yellow ? blocks and one above it, as well as two Squiglets.

"What ARE those creatures? They look very weird, honestly… Got any idea of what they are?"

"Certainly…" Tippi disappeared and Chopper's eyes turned rainbow again. He looked at the Squiglet and scanned it…or rather, tattled it.

"This is a Squiglet… It's a small little creature that scurries around on its many legs... Max HP is 2 and Attack is 1. There isn't much else to say about Squiglets... When it spots an enemy, it gets excited and hops up and down..." Tippi informed before she reappeared by Chopper so his eyes wouldn't be too bright.

"Interesting…" Chopper spun his foot around on the ground to hit the two Squigs, which defeated them. He hit the yellow ? block on the top to find a flower. Something happened when he grabbed it, however…

**This is a Happy Flower! For a little while, flowers with coins will rain down!**

"Ooh! It's raining coins!" Chopper began to grab some of the coins that were coming down, while Tippi groaned.

"Ugh… I'm going to get nowhere with this boy…" Tippi muttered as she grabbed Chopper and dragged him over to the huge bottomless pit and also a couple of hills in the background. "See if you can find anything in 3-D here… _And don't even think about messing around…_"

"OK, fine. You always seem so…dull." Chopper frowned as he flipped into 3-D and found the hill in the background was a hill he could walk on, so he crossed over by doing that and flipped back to 2-D afterward.

"OK, we're not too far now," Chopper said as he jumped up the steps and over the gap and defeated some Squiglets and a purple Squiglet called a Squig. He was led to a red door at the end of the area, since a wall was in the way.

Even if Tippi was annoyed with this boy, she knew he couldn't get himself in any trouble, but she followed him through the door to another flat area. There wasn't much here except for a spring that led over the big hill and a rainbow-colored slinky enemy that bounced around.

"Weird enemy…" Chopper jumped and spun his foot around to kick the Sproing-Oing and make it into smaller ones. A simply spin kick on the ground finished them off.

"If you wanted to know, those were Sproing-Oings... They're not really a big threat whatsoever…" Tippi informed as Chopper jumped onto the spring to launch him over the hill and to the other side to meet a couple of Squiglets.

"Why are they jumping up and down? Are they running on sugar or something?" Chopper asked. Tippi ignored him and waited for Chopper to take them out, but she noticed when he hit the yellow ? block around, a Zombie Shroom came out.

**Run for your life! It's a Zombie Shroom! **

"What do you mean 'Run for my life'? And who's telling me this anyway? Hey! If you're out there, I'll take you on and…WOOOAH!" Chopper jumped and he defeated the Zombie Shroom with a simple stomp. With that, Chopper flipped into 3-D when he found another hill and he found a TON of Squiglets there. He gasped, but he knew it was time to put his Fire Flower to good use.

"OK, time to plant you!" he planted the Fire Flower and it spewed out fireballs at the Squiglets, burning each and every one of them. Luckily, he leveled up and his HP increased to 15. Not bad at all!

"Nice! My first level up, and in the first level! This is just awesome…" Chopper flipped back to 2-D and found some more brown stairs that led up to a red door.

"This is the last part of this area… I can feel it…" Tippi trailed.

Chopper nodded and found three pipes ahead. They were short, but Piranha Plants came out to attack. But, he had an attack that Mario didn't have to take them out.

"OK, there are Piranha Plants here. No big deal! A good spin kick should take care of them!" Chopper knocked the Piranha Plants out of their pipes with a simple spin kick. There wasn't anything else, so he moved ahead to find another yellow ? block.

"Let's see what we got!" Chopper punched the yellow ? block, and a yellow star came out, and when he touched it, he felt an immense 8-bit power in his hands.

**This is a Mega Star! Use it to grow to mega proportions and trample your enemies.**

"Whoa… I'm feeling…power within me!" Everything went blank for him, and all he could see was 8-bit versions of himself running around. He was suddenly changing… No, he was being redrawn…but as a giant 8-bit version of himself. Paint got splattered on him so he was colored.

"Holy… I'm 8-bit! Now it's on!" Chopper cheered as he found a lot of brick blocks and enemies up ahead, so he began to trample through everything in sight. Even the Goombas ran away from him.

"No! Oh no! For Goomba's sake, don't trample me!" the Goombas cried.

Unfortunately, they were knocked away by Chopper, who didn't even hear them. The Mega Star didn't last very long, as 8-bit Chopper exploded back into his old self.

"Awww… I loved that!" Chopper sighed, but Tippi poked him. "What is it, Tippi?"

She flew over to a block with a rainbow trim and a star in it, which happened to be a Star Block.

"This is called a Star Block. Just strike this and we'll end the level." Tippi informed.

"Oh... OK. That's not too bad." Chopper ran underneath the block and gave it a good punch. Twenty stars of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, gray, pink, white, forest green, dark orange, light blue, red orange, silver, dark gray, brown, pale green, dark purple and black came out of the block.

"Wow… Look at those stars… They look beautiful!" Chopper smiled as he gazed at them. "I've never seen anything like this!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_And so Chopper came to learn the stupendous ability of flipping between dimensions. But there wasn't any time to celebrate: Chopper still had a Pure Heart to find. The trail of Lineland Road is long, but was overrun by savage beasts. "Follow me," Tippi said, as she flew towards the trail that continued on to Lineland Road instead of the mountains to the left. "Uh… Are you sure this is the right way? This place still feels kind of the same…" said Chopper as he followed her. The Pure Heart was hidden somewhere on that road._

* * *

**Well, there you go, people. That's the first part of Chapter 1 for you in a nutshell. :P**

**And no, we don't go to Mount Lineland. This time it's all Lineland Road, baby! So... It's time to get my brain to act up. Anyway, that's all for now. It may look a little repetitive, but it's only Chopper at this moment. Things will get better afterward (I think). Trust me.**

**And another important thing... In Super Paper Mario, there were about four levels in a chapter. For this, there will be five. Why? Well, there's a lot I wanna throw in here, and for Chopper "tradition", it would probably be five levels in a world.**


	4. Running Up the Hills

**CHAPTER 1-2**

**-Running Up the Hills-**

Chopper and Tippi were still far from their destination. However, at the beginning of the area, there was a little bit of dirt that led to Mount Lineland, which they were not going to. Tippi felt the power of the Pure Heart coming from the way they were going. The road began to feel a little bumpy, having a few hills and slopes. No speed boosts. Just a couple of loops and a big hill that wasn't possible to jump over.

"That other way we could've taken looked like a desert. To be honest… I'm not much of a desert person. It's a good thing we're going this way!" Chopper smiled. "I mean, look at it! It looks so…nice! I could run through here if I wanted!"

"Yes, I suppose you are right, Chopper…" Tippi trailed. "I thought this place would be simple, but it looks like this place is full of loops… Seeing as you can move fast, you probably won't have a big problem…"

"I've gone through loops before, so I shouldn't have a problem with this. Hmmm… I wonder how far this place extends." Chopper raised his arm up and tried to get a better look. The Void as of right now looked like a small dot.

"Well we can probably take as much time as we need, right? The Void is pretty small at the moment. I think we can do this!" Chopper was about to press on, but Tippi spoke up before he could go, causing him to brake.

"It's a good idea… This place is so strange… However, I feel that the Pure Heart is beyond these loops…but it's still far, far away. Something tells me you'll need to put that new skill of yours to use."

"Oh, you mean this?" Chopper flipped into 3-D with the boxed outline around him and found a Waddle Dee in the third dimension, which caught his attention. It was holding a spear that could be pretty deadly.

"Uh oh…" Chopper inhaled the Waddle Dee before it could even attack and went back to 2-D. Unfortunately, his speed was slowed down a little with an enemy in his mouth, so all he did was spit it out toward a Koopa Troopa.

"Oof!" the Koopa got knocked away, and down a small hill, a Paratroopa was flying toward Chopper. Inhaling wouldn't work on this guy, though. It had wings, and because of that, trying to catch it wouldn't be as easy.

"I would suggest stomping on it…or perhaps use a spin kick…" Tippi suggested.

"Oh... Well that's not a bad idea." Chopper realized as he jumped and spun his foot around to kick the Paratroopa. Its wings came off and it plopped onto the ground, allowing Chopper to stomp on it and kick it away.

The funny thing was that the Koopa was going through the loop down the slope. It knocked a bunch of other Koopas and then fell off the cliff past the big hill. It was time to move on, so Chopper began to go down the slope, allowing his speed to increase as well.

"Ah, here we go! THIS is what I've been wanting to go!" Chopper clenched his fists and spread his arms out as his speed increased. He slowed down a little going through the loop, but it didn't stop him. The road curved up a little, which went up the hill and he was off the ground in no time. He was up in the air before landing on the large hill.

There was a huge gap that led over to another big hill. Down below was nothing much. Well, there was a ground, but a spring could be taken to go back up. It was only for the left hill, though.

"Huh? What's that box thing in front of me?" Chopper stared at the outlined box and the other rectangle boxes that flip. He checked for anything in 3-D, but he found nothing. No bridge. No nothing.

"It's really simple," Tippi started. "Just stand in the box and you'll be taken to the next hill… It's not that hard..."

"Are you sure?"

"See for yourself..."

Chopper shrugged and stood in the box. The other boxes began to take him over the gap and to the next hill.

"Whoa... That was strange! I never knew something like that could happen..."

"Yes, I know... I suggest we keep going..." suggested Tippi.

Chopper blinked at the rainbow Pixl before he went down the hill with a simple jump and saw a big green block. A blue ! switch was stuck in there, but once he flipped into 3-D, he was able to reach the switch and stomp on it. A spring was drawn right by the big hill that led up to the door, which was good. Tippi flew up ahead to meet him at the door while he used the spring to make it up there himself. He smiled as he jumped up to the red door.

"You seemed to move on ahead… Hold on, I know why. It would probably take you too long to follow me up a spring, right?" Chopper asked, while Tippi was in a little trance, thinking about something else.

"Tippi?" Chopper poked the small little fairy, which made her stop pondering.

"Nothing! Let's just keep moving…" Tippi opened the door and they walked in to find a flatter area with a couple of pipes and some bottomless pits. There were some hills and some smaller ones to jump onto, but there may be something hidden around here…

"This feels like the last area we were in! This shouldn't be a problem!" Chopper stretched and ran on ahead, jumping over the bottomless pits and also attacking Piranha Plants that popped out of the pipes with a spin attack.

"OK, I'll be honest… I'm zooming through this place like never before!" Chopper already took out a Piranha Plant and even found a hidden Shroom Shake behind a pipe in 3-D. Not to mention there was also a hidden brick block that drew a ladder.

"Interesting… Go see what's up there…" suggested Tippi.

Chopper looked a little confused at this point. No, not because that Tippi wasn't being annoyed with him…yet. But he looked confused because the ladder was weird.

"Ummm… Tippi, are these things REALLY ladders? ...Well, I don't think it really matters. I guess I should give it a try." Chopper grabbed onto the ladder and began to climb up. He didn't go slowly because that would waste time. At the top of the ladder were a couple of small, puffy clouds with smiles.

"Whoa, this is interesting! There are some coins that I can collect! Nice!" Chopper traveled on the clouds to grab the coins and then he jumped off, landing right on the hill with a couple of Waddle Dee and Koopas.

"Hmmm… I wish to get some information on those odd enemies. Hold still, Chopper…" Tippi went into Chopper's mind and began to tattle on the Waddle Dees to find some information on them.

"That's a Waddle Dee... It comes from a world called Dream Land, and is a servant of King Dedede… Max HP is 3. Attack is 2. Defense is 0. If they have spears, don't go near them. They can hurt you if you're not careful... Inhaling is recommended against these enemies. You probably saw them before, but I find them to be weird like the Koopas…" Tippi informed.

"You find things weird, and I do too. We both have something in common." Chopper realized as she got out of his mind and watched Chopper inhale a Waddle Dee and spit it at a Koopa, beating both of them down.

"Look up ahead, Chopper!" Tippi flew a little ahead, and the hill led down to some small little hill moving up. But some gray spiky enemies called Spiny Tromps were rolling down. This got Chopper in his fighting stance.

"Great… More enemies!" Chopper rushed toward the Spiny Tromp and attacked with a spin attack. However, it didn't harm the enemy, and Chopper got hurt by the spikes it had.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! It HUUUUUURTS!" Chopper cried. Tippi groaned and flipped him into 3-D herself.

"You can avoid the Spiny Tromps if you stay in 3-D. I know it works… Trust me…" Tippi informed as Chopper was able to recover from the damage and walked up the slope to the door. A yellow ? block was sitting there for Chopper, so he hit it to get a Mushroom.

"All right, I'm ready to head on in!" he opened the door, and they both proceeded on to the last area of Chapter 1-2 - only to know that this one was much bigger than the other two they had been in.

Once Chopper came out of the door, he found the area straight. There was a fat Koopa with spiral glasses and a red shell and boots up ahead that looked familiar to Chopper. Someone by the name of Kent C. Koopa, to be exact?

"Uh oh… Not that guy… I was hoping I wouldn't see him again!" Chopper sighed. "Though, he had helped me before..."

"You know that big Koopa?" Tippi wondered.

"Yeah, I met him two years ago in the Mushroom Kingdom. He attacked me in a Garbage Pit, but he ended up giving me something for beating up his boss. Kind of strange... I wonder if he's good."

"Oh... I see..."

A pipe was right near Kent C. Koopa that led to a house in the background with a green roof. Chopper walked over to the big Koopa first, who looked at him for a second.

"Hold on a sec…" Kent C. Koopa pondered as he stared at the pale green Star Warrior. "Aren't you that kid named Chopper I had to get rid of two years ago? What are YOU doing here?!"

"Well, I should be asking you the same thing!" Chopper retorted. "How did you get here? Don't tell me Tipral sucked you into these weird dimensions too, didn't you?"

"I have no idea… Honestly, I was sleeping in my house and BAM! I'm in this strange place. But I thought about trying to get some money, so I decided to stand guard here and allow no one through. So... You considering passing through?"

"Yes, we would like to go through..." Tippi replied.

"What the... What's that butterfly you got there? ...Meh, it's not worth hearing anyway. Listen, Chopper, if you wanna get through here, then you'll have to pay me 1,000 coins."

"No way!" Chopper replied sharply. "I thought you were good after I beat up your boss?"

"Hey, I said I didn't like how you beat up my boss! And I do remember telling you that if we ever met before, I wouldn't be so friendly."

"But we sincerely need to go through..." Tippi noted. "We're trying to find a Pure Heart."

"Either you pay me 1,000 coins, or you can't move on through! That's final!" Kent C. Koopa declared. "And even then, you wouldn't be able to get through 'cause there's a large chasm up ahead."

Chopper and Tippi noticed a chasm past Kent C. Koopa leading to a town called Lineland Town.

"Oh, dear... I never knew that."

"And I believe that's the only way through. The only thing you'll have to do is pay up. That is...unless you think you can take me on, kid."

"I'm not going to waste my time fighting you," Chopper stated. "There's more important things than just fighting a big Koopa."

"Well... Then don't even think about going into that pipe! You won't be getting past here anyway!"

Chopper decided not to listen to Kent C. Koopa and jumped into the pipe and appeared in the background. He was able to walk over to the house and enter through the door. Inside, the house's walls were pale green, and almost everything else was that color. Up the stairs, they noticed sweat drops on the bed and a pale green switch.

"What a strange house..." Tippi trailed.

"Hmmm… Hold on a minute…" Chopper flipped into 3-D and saw a pale green square-shaped person with two antennas, square-shaped green feet, and a spear. He was looking worried for a second…until he saw Chopper.

"Whoa… This is odd… Hey! HEY! You can see me!" the guard gaped. Chopper gave him a simple nod and he cheered. "This is unbelievable! I've been freaking out here for days, and finally someone actually sees me! …And you even look similar to me too! Man, what a RELIEF!"

"How did you end up like this?" Chopper asked.

"Well… I was just getting up to go get my lemonade, since I love that stuff, and I find myself in this mess! I was trying to get help, but I couldn't find anyone! No one heard or seen me! I thought it was all over…but then you came here. Anyway… You think I could hitch a ride with you so I'm back to my dimension?"

"Sure thing!" Chopper flipped into 2-D and so did the guard. He smiled and jumped in joy.

"WHUH! We did it, man! I'm back to normal! You really bailed me outta that one for sure! That 3-D business was freaking me out BIG time! Anyway, my name's Pale Green. It's nice to meet you! So… Any way I can repay you?"

"Actually, there is one thing…" Tippi began. "There's a huge chasm outside that we need to cross. On top of that, there's also a big Koopa in the way as well."

"So you want to cross the chasm, huh? Well, all I can say is that you found the right guy for that! But hey, I've got to warn you. You know this place is called Loopasse Pass, right? I'm only allowed to let a choice few across the bridge. It's in my job description. I mean, that's why they pay me to stand here. Are you sure you want to pass on through?"

"Of course!" Chopper nodded.

Pale Green pondered for a moment. "Hmmm… Well, you did save me from being trapped in a parallel dimension and all… You were pretty generous with that. OK! I'm just going to ask you a little question. Get the right answer, and I'll let you pass. Sound good? Here we go. What's the most manly color in the entire universe? Pale green or yellow?"

"Obviously it's pale green!" Chopper answered cheerfully.

"Oh, you are SO right! I knew it! You and me, we see eye to eye on fashion. All right, I'll go get that weirdo outta the way and open the bridge for you! Sound fair enough?"

"Yeah!"

Pale Green walked over to the switch and pulled it down. Outside, a bridge was beginning to get drawn, and Kent C. Koopa was thrown up into the skies, causing him to let out a scream. The bridge was pale green to represent Pale Green's color.

"OK! You're all set! Take care now!"

Chopper waved goodbye to Pale Green and left the house and crossed the bridge over to a small town. The residents there had some weird triangles on their heads, while the females had round heads.

"Weird people… But we need to move on." Chopper walked through the town and saw another chasm ahead. At the other side was a Star Block. The exact thing that they needed to clear the level. "No! It's all the way over THERE? …What else can we do?"

"There's a house over there. I suppose we can go over there and see what there is…" Tippi suggested, pointing to the house in the background. The roof of that house was a yellow color, which was a lot different than the other. But Chopper didn't care and went down the pipe and went to the house in the background.

"This place is full of yellow colors… Weird…" Chopper walked up the stairs and gasped when he saw someone with the same kind of head, but some smaller gray feet and gray wings on his head.

"Whoa! This guy looks like my friend Flyer!" Chopper gaped.

"Who's Flyer?" Tippi asked.

"My best friend. Only this guy looks a bit...stranger. Don't suppose his name's Yellow?"

"Yeah, my name's Yellow," Yellow replied. "Is there a problem, pale green kid?"

"Er… No. Nothing." Chopper sweat dropped. "We just need to get across that chasm that's in the way. You ARE the guard, so you can do that, right?"

"Oh, the bridge? You want to get across?"

"Yes, we need to get across the chasm..." Tippi answered.

"Sorry. Can't do that. It's the law around here. The only way you can get across is if you ask the mayor, Yerfeys, to go across. If he lets you, I'll let you through, OK?"

"Sounds fine to me…" Chopper left the house and walked over to the closest house to find an old guy with spiral yellow glasses, a large rectangle-shaped head, along with other small rectangles on top. He was quite fat, and he had a gray mustache and beard. When Chopper approached him, the ten year old had a feeling something wouldn't go right.

"Whuzzit? Who are you?" Yerfeys asked.

"I'm Chopper. And are you Yerfeys?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah, that's right! I'm the lazy elder of this place!" he answered in a cranky tone, making Chopper's eyes shrink. "You kids better get off of my lawn now, or else I'll call the cops on ya!"

"There are no cops around here! And you don't even have a lawn! All we wanna do is pass through town."

"There's nothin' interesting around there! Nope! Nothing at all! All there is around here is just a stupid road…and some castle that just appeared recently."

"A castle?" Chopper's eyes grew to normal size as his antennas sprung up.

"Yeah! A castle! But it's not like it's anything important, 'cause I can't let you pass."

"Hey! I-"

"And this fat stomach has something to tell you. You know what it says? YOUR FACE! So get out of here before I throw some of my greasy food at you!"

"Hey! Don't be cruel like that! I'M the hero!" Chopper declared.

"PBBBBBT! If you were a hero, you'd have some weird hand thing with you! And do I see a hand with you? NO! Why? YOUR FACE! That's what!"

"A floating hand, you say?" Chopper wondered as he showed his glove.

"NOT THAT HAND, YOU IDIOT!"

Chopper took his glove off and began to make it float around like a ghost.

"OoooOOOoooOOooOOooOOoooOO…"

"I mean a **Pixl that's shaped like a hand**!" exclaimed Yerfeys. "Idiots these days!"

"A Pixl shaped like a hand?" Chopper wondered as he put his glove back on. "I'll be back…"

He left the house and walked into the one next it to find some curtains. However, he could see a pipe behind it, so he went in there by flipping into 3-D. Chopper found a little underground pathway with a bunch of Thwomps coming down.

"Well, it's 3-D time again!" Chopper flipped once again and walked right past the Thwomps by going around them to the door ahead, which led into a small room with nothing of interest.

"I think I see the problem here," Tippi went into Chopper and found a hidden door. "This is it. Let me make it visible for you…"

She made the door visible and then came out of Chopper, who walked into the next room to find the door shut, as well as a big chest.

"Oh, no… The door… Now we're locked inside…" Tippi trailed.

"Hold on a minute!" Chopper walked over to the big chest and kicked it a little. "Hey, maybe there's an upgrade to something I have, like some Super Shoes! Oh, I would really appreciate some right now..."

But before he could open the chest...

"_**Sweet freedom!**_"

"What the heck?!" Chopper jumped back in fright as the chest opened. A square-shaped Pixl with its outline being red and orange, having five blue round fingers with the center of its fingers being orange, and a red tail came out of the chest.

"Hmm? What's this? I'm finally out of my chest?" the Pixl wondered. "Then that means the legendary hero has come at last! I was stuck in there for quite a while thanks to a being that reminds me of you a bit. I was forced to wait for the hero that would help at this time to come. But, it looks like he has arrived at last!"

"What in the world…" Chopper gawked.

"You… I've seen you before…" Tippi trailed as she took a look at the Pixl.

"Are you a Pixl or something?" Chopper wondered.

"Why…YES! I am indeed a Pixl! My name…is **Thoreau**! You must have come from a far away dimension to find me." Thoreau noted. "I've been DYING to lend my skills to the hero. And, glorious day, here you are! Do take me with you… You simply must!"

"Sure! That old smelly fat guy won't let us through with out something like you."

"You will, then? Smashing!"

Thoreau flew over to Chopper and circled around him. Chopper held him up in the air with a smile.

**The throwing Pixl, Thoreau, has joined you! Use him to pick up objects and enemies, and throw them too! You can even throw anything while jumping! To switch from using Pixls, to the hero's attacks, use the [B] button.**

"With me on your side, one may grasp objects with great vigor! Simply press (1) to use my throwing ability!"

"(1) button? What's everyone talking about?" Chopper gawked.

"What's this (1), you say? You need not worry. The great being that watches us will know what it is." Thoreau assured. "Just remember that I can grasp objects and enemies and hurl them with gusto. Grab something with (1) and press (1) again to throw it. You can switch to using me or using your own attacks with [B]."

"[B] button? What the heck? Don't even answer though, 'cause I don't wanna have to deal with people saying 'What's this (A) or (1), you say?'"

"All right, but try to get acquainted with my useful talent right now. You will need to use my ability my ability to get out of this room. Ready, steady, GO!"

Chopper looked at the small little block, and he shrugged and sent Thoreau to grab it and give it to him. He was holding it up just fine, which was really odd for him considering his physical strength. Nevertheless, he threw the block at the blue ! block high up, which got rid of the cage.

"_**Glorious day!**_" Thoreau cheered. "Consider me fully at your disposal. Now, to adventure and beyond!"

"Great! Now let's go pay that fat old man a little visit!" Chopper smiled.

* * *

**Mayor's house-**

"Didn't I tell you that you're not the hero unless you have a floating hand with you?!" Yerfeys exclaimed as Chopper returned to his house.

"Hey, now..." Chopper began. "I don't think you should..."

"Get off my lawn now! You don't have a Pixl shaped like a…" Yerfeys dropped his cane when he got his eyes on Thoreau.

"Hello there, sir. Are you…all right?" Thoreau asked.

"Wha-WHAAAT?! You do?!" Yerfeys gaped. "Er… 'Course you do! I knew you were the hero all this time! I'll give that Yellow feller a call. He'll let you pass on through!"

"Wait, how are you going to call him?" Chopper gawked until he saw Yerfeys pull out a cell phone. "What's that device?"

"I believe that's a cell phone..." Tippi informed.

"Really? ...Never heard of it."

"Hello? Yellow? It's me, Yerfeys." Yerfeys called. "I said Yerfeys… YOUR FACE! YOUR FACE! I said Yerfeys, not your race! This hero feller wants to get across the bridge. Yes, I told him about the lawn. Ah… Yes. Let's keep that between us. Just let the antenna kid through."

"The lawn?" Chopper gawked. "...Oh, yeah."

Yerfeys quickly hung up and looked back at Chopper. "Just get off my lawn and go talk to Yellow at the edge of town… GET OUT! …But before you do, I gotta warn you about those monsters up ahead. Y'see, we keep that chasm there to keep the monsters out, you know what I'm saying? Keep an eye out for the castle. I'm sure there's something there. The treasure is in that castle, but it's ruled by some Koopa. Now GET OUT!"

With that, Yerfeys kicked Chopper out of the house, who gave the house a glare. But hearing the word "Koopa" seemed to bother him a bit.

"A Koopa in the castle… Don't suppose that could be… Nah, couldn't be!"

Chopper decided not to let it bother him too much as he returned to Yellow's house, who seemed to be waiting for him.

"I got a call from that Old Man Yerfeys," Yellow noted. "So you're that hero kid, huh? I expected you to be more of a grown person than a kid. You remind me of a 'friend' of mine named Pale Green. Let me just open the bridge for you first."

Yellow pulled the lever down and a yellow bridge appeared outside. "There! Done and done! Could I ask you a question? Which color's better? Pale green or yellow?"

Chopper sweat dropped, realizing that if he picked pale green, he'd probably get angry at him. So he had an idea...

"Ummm… Both!"

"Wait... BOTH?! Grow a spine! And when you do, you can use it to get out of my house!" Yellow roared as he kicked Chopper out of the house, who was sent flying out of the roof and fell on the grassy ground right by the bridge.

"Chopper! Are you all right?" Tippi asked as she fluttered over to him. Chopper slowly got up and shook himself.

"That guy's serious about his color… But who cares? Let's get going!" Chopper walked across the bridge and to the Star Block. Knowing what he had to do, he gave the Star Block a good punch.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the wind getting a little strong, Chopper's antennas began to blow back through the breeze. The sweet scent of the flowers on Lineland Road gave the hero a nice feeling. It wasn't long before Chopper and Tippi found the right location to go: Lineland Trail. Along the beautiful trail, Chopper and Tippi continued their search…_

* * *

**Yerfeys... Yeah, since there was Watchitt, there had to be someone with a name similar to something someone would say. And Pale Green and Yellow are somewhat similar to Red and Green from Super Paper Mario too, if you couldn't tell. Anyway, I guess that's it for now.  
**

**...Maybe a mini-boss will be introduced in Chapter 1-3? We'll see about that.**


	5. The Road to Danger

**CHAPTER 1-3**

**-The Road to Danger-**

Chopper looked at how far the road was. He could see some new enemies around this time. There were yellow enemies with square-shaped heads and headphones that were turned all the way up. They were capable of firing sound waves from their headphones, which were possibly dangerous at a high volume. But Chopper didn't feel too worried about them.

"How far does this road go?" Chopper asked. "I can see that some of the trees aren't around here, but some of the bushes are. Why can't I even look through them? …I'll be honest, this place is just weird. I can't really do anything."

Tippi simply rolled her eyes. "I take it you're still not used to being far from home, aren't you?"

Chopper gave her a nod, but there was one thing bugging him that he just couldn't not ask. "Say, Tipps… How did you even end up as…that? You said you're someone else. What…_are_ you?"

"Tipps? Why are you calling me by that?" Tippi asked.

"Sometimes I get carried away with names. I end up calling someone by a nickname! For example, I once called a friend of mine Kirbs. Plus, you give me tips so that's why I called you that!" Chopper kicked a Squiglet that was walking toward him. It was immediately knocked out of the road.

"Ugh… You seem to remind me of a girl that always got on my nerves so much. Hold on… You're nothing like her. You're just a small child…_that needs to get a brain…_" Tippi muttered. Chopper's antennas sprung up and he gave her a glare..

"I heard that! You do NOT want to get me mad now, Tippi! You might regret getting me angry! There's probably a reason why Merlon sent you here with me, so we need to get a little more acquainted and work together! C'mon! You're no fun! I'm usually used to having people travel with me, but I guess this time I'm going solo. …Though you're something, Thoreau…"

Chopper took a look at Thoreau, who didn't speak back to him. "…You don't speak? Aw, that's no fun for me! Looks like it's just you and me, Tippi. You said you can feel the Pure Heart's location, is that correct? Do you have any idea where it could be?"

Tippi pondered as she slowly fluttered ahead. "Hmmm… Well, I think I remember Yerfeys saying that there's a castle at the end of the road. If his words are absolute, then the Pure Heart could possibly be somewhere in that castle… We'd better not waste any time now…"

"Good idea!" Chopper saw the area was a little short, but it had a couple of pipes that contained Piranha Plants. A couple of Squigs were here, but four yellow ? blocks were much closer to him.

"Great… Squigs are around here. This could be a problem. Wait, they've only got 4 HP, so what am I babbling about?" Chopper stomped on the Squig twice and then he jumped backwards. The Squig shot coconuts from its mouth toward him, which hit him in the face.

"So you want to play rough, huh? All right, then I will!" Chopper clenched his fists and once the Squig shot another coconut, he inhaled it and spat it out. Instead of being a coconut, it looked like a yellow star. The Squig was knocked away from the hit and defeated.

"All right! Now let's see what we got in these blocks!" Chopper punched under the blocks, but he got nothing except for a red Fire Flower. It resembled an NES Fire Flower. Despite not knowing what it was, he grabbed a hold of it, and suddenly he felt the pace around him increase.

**This is the Speed Flower! It temporarily speeds up time. You'll also earn triple points and coins while it's active!**

"Whoa! Ifeelsofast andI'mtalking sofast! Idon'tknow whyIam butIjusthave thatfeeling!" Chopper said as if he was having a sugar rush. He moved faster than ever and performed a spin kick on the Piranha Plant that popped out of the pipe, picked up a Motobug with Thoreau and threw it at the Buzz Bomber.

But then he leveled up and his Attack Power increased, which allowed him to do more damage. And that allowed him to take out some of the Motobugs that were charging at him ahead.

Chopper was just moving as usual through the flat area, but then he stopped when he saw a pit of spikes and a couple of rock enemies called Bald Clefts across the spikes. Chopper wanted to get a look at them but he couldn't.

"Think you can help me with this, Tipps? Got any information on them?" Chopper asked. Tippi went into Chopper's head so she could gather information on the two rock enemies.

"That's a Bald Cleft. You might confuse this rock-hard foe with a rock… Max HP is 2. Attack is 1. Defense is 2. Flame attacks will not scorch this foe… You can flip it over with an explosion. Once that is done, it will be vulnerable to attacks…" Tippi informed before leaving Chopper's head.

"…So if fire won't work, then I should just inhale them!" Chopper jumped over the spikes and inhaled one of the Bald Clefts. He spat it out at the other and it knocked them both out of the area. A yellow ? block was right beside him and a Mushroom came out after hitting it. Inhaling it, he recovered 10 HP.

"I still don't understand why these things instantly heal me instead of using them as items. I wonder what the Shroom Shakes taste like…" Chopper pulled out a Shroom Shake and was about to open it until Tippi got in the way.

"Don't drink that!" exclaimed Tippi, making Chopper nearly yelp. "You should use it whenever you're low on HP... That's a good time to recover any damage you've taken... Trust me, I've seen this before... That's personally my thoughts…"

"Really? Ummm… OK!" Chopper turned toward the right, but he stopped when he saw a dog-like creature with a red and yellow round tail spinning around. Well, when he got near it it became dog-like and tried to bite him.

"What IS that thing?" Chopper asked.

"That's a Jawbus… I would suggest attacking the tail behind it. That's its only weak point. You should be fine there once you're behind it…" Tippi noted.

"Oh... That doesn't seem so hard..." Chopper flipped into 3-D and stomped on the Jawbus's tail three times before defeating it. Apparently it was guarding a red door.

"Yes! The door! Now we can move on to the next area! Let's move, Tippi! …And Thoreau!" Chopper opened the door and he and his two Pixls headed on through to the next area.

Chopper came out of the door and noticed a chicken robot and a robot with drills trying to dig through the floor. They were near a rock on the ground, and they were certainly not doing their job well.

_"Oh, geez... Not these guys..."_ Chopper thought, face palming at the sight of them and their annoying voices.

"C'mon, Grounder! Get to it!" ordered Scratch, trying to use his wing-like feet to badly dig into the ground. "If we don't get out of this place, where else will we go? We can't even find Dr. Robotnik anywhere!"

"Yeah, I know! How did we get into this mess?" Grounder moaned. "I bet you angered Dr. Robotnik again, like you always do!"

"What? ME?! Well what about you?! You're not much of a help when it comes to catching Sonic! Now keep digging before I have to kick your butt!"

"I can't really dig when this rock is in the way! Do you have any idea on what happened to the environment here? I can't seem to do much around here! Not much free space to move!"

"Yeah! We had plenty of room to walk around in our world!" Scratch recalled.

"It's like we're in a different dimension!" Grounder realized while digging. Some dirt ended up getting on Scratch's face.

"Hey, Big Nose! Watch where you dig! Ya got dirt on my face!"

"Serves you right, Beak Face!"

Grounder stopped digging for a moment as the two started to argue stupidly and call each other names. A small scuffle occurred between the two, but it was mostly consisted with slaps.

"Those two look like they need help… I suppose we could give them a hand…" Tippi suggested as she trailed off toward them, but Chopper pulled her back while shaking his head. "Why not, Chopper?"

"Those two are not friends," Chopper informed. "They've tried to fight me before but ended up failing because of how stupid they can be. But even with their stupidity, I don't want to risk them seeing us. The situation might be worse for us."

"So you've met them before? I see… Well, there isn't much we can do around them anyway…"

"Yeah, it's better that we leave them be," Chopper jumped over the two dumbots before they could even notice him and stomped on a few Waddle Dees before flipping into 3-D to find a pathway to another area to the left.

With Scratch and Grounder, however, things still didn't work out for them.

"I can't believe Dr. Robotnik made you!" exclaimed Scratch.

"Hey, didn't you make me?" Grounder asked.

"Wait..." the two stopped fighting as Scratch pondered. "Come to think of it, you're right! Didn't I pull that switch?"

"Hmmmmm... I don't remember."

"Who really cares? Let's just get back to work!"

The two got back to work, with Grounder using his drill to dig through the ground. But because he was near a rock, his digging wasn't working as well.

"This stupid rock's in the way!" Grounder cried. "And I can't dig through it!"

"Well, now! It looks like you two have been sitting like two fried chickens that need to be flipped over by a spatula!"

Scratch and Grounder: ?

The air near them began to distort and implode as the jester Dimentio appeared in front of them.

"What the… Where did you come from? Did the circus come in early?" Scratch asked.

"Circus, you say? Oh, no. I'm just a simple magician who enjoys magic tricks!" Dimentio smirked, making a couple of cards appear. "Here, pick a card! Nobody knows where it will take you…"

"Ooh! I love card games!" Grounder grabbed a card and read it. "I go to a new world? Ooh!"

"I got the same thing too!" Scratcher exclaimed. "Ha HA ha HAAA!"

"How magnificent! Allow me to take you there myself!" Dimentio raised his two hands up, and the two were instantly teleported out of Lineland. They left out a slight shriek as they were sent out, which Dimentio liked to hear.

"Ah, yes… Now what was I here for again? Oh, yes! I came here to see a good chunking! Surely O'Chunks will just LOVE to get rid of that boy. I'll need a good introduction for him and that butterfly of his. He'll probably only take me as some harmless clown! Ah ha ha ha ha! …But we shall see about that!"

With a snap of his finger, Dimentio teleported out of the area.

* * *

**Up ahead-**

Chopper rushed through the small 3-D trail that led to another area of the road. "How come everything isn't all 3-D like my own world? Tippi, you saw how my world looked, right? It felt more 3-D than here."

"Yes, I do remember… It felt great…" Tippi said sarcastically. Chopper ignored her comment and crossed the pathway between the two areas. He flipped back and saw some Bronto Burts, which were purple insect creatures that could fly in the air.

"These guys? Great… I hate them!" Chopper frowned. "At least I can do an air attack though…"

He jumped up and used a spin kick on the Bronto Burts, which was good enough to take them out. They only had 2 HP since they were airborne. There was nothing else around except for a statue with a dragon face. Something was written on it, so Chopper rushed over to the statue. He didn't see the writing on it but he looked at it.

"What a WEIRD statue…" he trailed. "Hold on, there's some writing on here. Let's take a little look."

"Yes, I believe that is necessary..." Tippi agreed, reading the writing too.

_****Lineland Signpost****_

_Find ye the tall red tree of fortune, and walketh around it three times._

"'Tall red tree of fortune'?" Chopper gawked. "OK… I don't think I even saw any red trees around here. Let's just go back on the road."

Chopper headed back with Tippi by going into 3-D and decided to continue on ahead.

"Hold on… I'm seeing a red tree up ahead! I think we should check it at this moment!" Tippi suggested.

Chopper followed her over to the red tree by the end of the area while taking down a couple of Bald Clefts and Motobugs in his way. Upon reaching the tree, he quickly by it and looked up.

"Yeah, this is the one. How do I go around it three times, though? …Wait! I just have to flip!" he flipped into 3-D and saw the tree itself was 3-D.

"Interesting… The tree is also 3-D…" Tippi said. She watched Chopper move around the tree three times, which caused a door to be drawn and colored red up ahead.

"Well, that certainly worked!" Chopper smiled, flipping back into 2-D. "Let's go!"

He entered the door with Tippi to find a couple of yellow ? blocks in the next area and two Hammer Bros. Chopper rushed over to them and knocked one away by punching under a yellow ? block. A Mushroom came out of it, so he ate it to recover 10 HP. He finished the other Hammer Bro. on the upper blocks.

"I gotta say… There are so many enemies around here! Hammer Bros., Motobugs, Bronto Burts, everything!" Chopper noticed a huge bottomless pit nearby, but one of the rectangle boxes that flip left and right or up and down were by the upper yellow ? blocks. He decided to let the boxes carry him across the gap and over the brown blocked wall to find five more yellow ? blocks. One of them contained a Zombie Shroom while the others contained coins.

"How do Mushrooms even become Zombies anyway? Do Mushrooms…die?"

"I honestly don't know…" Tippi answered. "I've never even seen a Mushroom die…"

"Oh well," Chopper shrugged and waited for the Zombie Shroon to come back so he could pick it up with Thoreau. Despite holding something, he was still able to move fast as he usually did. It was thrown at a Boomboxer, and that got knocked toward a squishy soft creature called a Cherbil.

"That's a weird enemy…but I'm not going to bother tattling on it. Let's go!" Chopper decided while he walked over to a hill that went up to a brown block platform. Near it was another platform but with other blocks to prevent Chopper from jumping on it. Basically they were brown blocks shaped like a rectangle, but with one block missing.

"I think I can get Thoreau to hit the switch in there. Let's see what happens!" Chopper threw Thoreau through the little opening to hit the switch, causing more boxes to appear.

"Another ride, I presume?" Tippi wondered.

"You bet!" Chopper walked into the box and let it take him over the pit and to a platform that was on a hill going down. As SOON as he jumped down, the hill made him move faster and get to the door, where a Save Block and a yellow ? block was waiting for him.

"I guess there's another Mushroom?" Chopper looked up at his HP for the moment. "Nah, I don't need another. I'm at full health! I can save, however."

After hitting the Save Block, he proceeded over to the door.

"Be careful, Chopper…" warned Tippi. I have a feeling there might be something dangerous through there…"

"Are you kidding me?! EVERYWHERE I go it's dangerous!" Chopper explained. "Even going to the store is dangerous! Heck, even playing the guitar is dangerous! Seriously, being alone is dangerous for me. And that's why if I get attacked, I'll use Thoreau as a shield!"

Thoreau's eyes widened in fear. "But… Why me?!"

"Oh, NOW you talk… I was only kidding when I said that. Anyway, let's head on through the door." Chopper opened the door and he walked into a small, flat area with no bushes or grass. Up ahead was another door.

"This feels…not so bad…" Tippi commented.

"This is it? Nothing's around here? Oh, well… Let's just move on." Chopper moved forward a couple of steps until he heard a bold, Scottish voice roar through the sky, making him jump up a little.

"_**GRAH-GOOGLY!**_" a Scottish voice called out. "So yer the lad who's stickin' his 'tennies in me boss's business!"

Chopper searched around for the voice, but he found nothing and was left a bit confused. "Where's that voice coming from! Show yourself!"

At that moment, O'Chunks came down onto the grass and stomped on the ground to knock away the two doors that were in between them. The bearded man began to chortle at them as Chopper walked over to him.

"Yeh shouldn't 'ave messed with Tipral after what yeh've done teh him!" O'Chunks cackled. "Now I'm gonna 'ave teh get chunky on yeh!"

Tippi was left alarmed by the bearded man's presence. "O'Chunks? What are you doing here? Are you…working for Tipral?!"

"Hold on, Tippi… Let me speak with this guy." Chopper stepped up in front of O'Chunks. "So you're one of Tipral's thugs, are you not? You certainly look like you're one!"

O'Chunks made a pose while waggling his finger. "O'Chunks is me name! An' I'm no common thug, little lass. I thug fer the darkest o' darks, Tipral hisself! It's time that yeh've been taught a lesson fer messin' with 'im!"

"Messing with him? I didn't do anything to him!" Chopper gaped. "The last time I've ever met him was in Dark Subspace World when I defeated Maquano! I know he said he was taken somewhere else after I destroyed the core, but I swear that I didn't even TRY to do anything bad to him!"

"Chopper might have a point, O'Chunks…" Tippi defended. "I know for a fact he didn't do anything to Tipral…"

"Shut it, 'tenna-freak!" O'Chunks grunted. "One more word from me Tippy-boy an' I come teh make yeh _feel some hammage_!"

"Uh… What do you mean by 'hammage', guy-with-beard?" Chopper asked. O'Chunks stopped waggling his fingers and looked confused.

"Hammage? Ehhh… Make that 'damage!'" O'Chunks paused for a moment to ponder, suddenly forgetting what to say. Instead, he stomped the ground angrily. "Whatever, then! Not that it matters a pinch o' stew in a grassy lane. Yer a goner!"

"Ugh… Sometimes O'Chunks doesn't even learn to listen to us…" Tippi groaned.

"Look, O'Chunks… Don't you even have an IDEA on what Tipral's trying to do anyway…?" Chopper asked.

"_**DEH!**_" O'Chunks shouted. "Me boy's usin' powers an' whatnot teh bring back some order teh this 'ere world! Besides, 'e's just tryin' to make the world a better place! An' an enemy o' Tipral's be an enemy o' mine! They all get chunked!"

"Hmmm… O'Chunks seems to be an a lot scarier than the other enemies we've faced so far…" Tippi noted. "Maybe you should use my power to investigate him when we start the battle, Chopper…"

"Hmmm… Good idea, Tipps!" Chopper agreed.

O'Chunks raised his fists in the air. "Enough is enough already! Yeh had yer talkin', but now it's time teh thunder down from on high an' deliver a beatin' that yeh'll never ferget. _**CHUNK ON IT!**_"

At that moment Chopper used Tippi's power to get some information on him.

"That's O'Chunks. He's a big, bearded warrior of a man... He's probably the brawn of Tipral's minions… He can grab you by the feet and hurl you… If you're in reach, he'll toss you, so keep your distance… If he ground pounds, you might be able to inhale one of his attacks and use it against him… You can also turn the tables on him and use Thoreau to send him flying…" Tippi informed.

"Interesting…" Chopper's eyes turned back to his black color and saw O'Chunks jump up in the air to attack with a ground pound. He stepped out of the way to let him come down, making two stars appear around the bearded minion.

"Here's my chance!" Chopper inhaled one of the stars and spat it back at O'Chunks, knocking him back. O'Chunks tried to grab Chopper, but he was too quick. Chopper was able to stomp on O'Chunks's head and jump away from him. The Scottish warrior was enraged and he charged at him with a shoulder attack.

"Uh oh…" Chopper got knocked back by this attack and fell to the ground. Before he could get up, O'Chunks grabbed his feet and began to swing him around.

"Now it's me turn teh show you some chunkin'!" O'Chunks laughed as he let go of Chopper, who began to fly all over the place because of being smaller and lighter than him.

"Ow! Ooh! That hurts! My antennas!" Chopper yelled.

He had a puzzled look as he fell to the ground. Tippi floated over to him and got him up.

"Get up, Chopper! You can't give up now!" Tippi shouted as he got up.. O'Chunks made a stupid dance, which left him open for an attack. "This is your chance to attack! He's left himself open at this moment!"

Chopper nodded and he leaped toward O'Chunks and stomped on his head, stopping him from dancing. What a stupid move, he thought.

"Grrrrr! Yer startin' teh become annoyin'!" O'Chunks tried to punch Chopper, but he ultimately failed and got hit by a spin kick that Chopper performed as he landed on the ground.

"This is just easy! I think I'll…" Chopper was instantly punched by O'Chunks and was knocked to the ground, moaning in pain. "Ooooog… Well, this guy really seems to be putting up some sort of fight…"

O'Chunks made a pose with his fingers, but when he noticed Chopper getting up, he brought his attention back to him by trying to grab him. It ultimately failed when Chopper hit him with a spinning kick. Afterward, he threw Thoreau toward him and was holding the bearded man up.

"Wow. I didn't know that I could hold a strong guy like him up like this…"

"That's the great thing about my power!" cheered Thoreau.

"'Ey! Who turned the whole place upside down?!" O'Chunks exclaimed.

"Uhh… I did?" Chopper threw him and left him dizzy, so he made another attack with a simple jump. This made O'Chunks even angrier, making him jump up in the air and come down with a ground pound. Chopper jumped out of the way and inhaled the star and left O'Chunks a bit dazed. He was almost done…but O'Chunks still had it in him to fight back.

O'Chunks let out a battle cry and charged at his enemy. Unfortunately for him, his enemy jumped up and stomped on his head, causing O'Chunks to beg for mercy and kneel down.

"_**I'M CHUNKED!**_" he caught his breath for the moment before he spoke again. "Me chunks…yeh failed me! I got pummeled an' yeh barely broke a sweat. 'Ey… What kind o' strange li'l boy are yeh?"

"Who? Me? Why… I'm-"

"This 'strange li'l boy' is none other than…the legendary hero, Chopper!" Tippi finished, cutting Chopper off, who gave her an annoyed look.

"Chopra, 'ey?" O'Chunks pondered a bit. "'Tis an odd name, yeh, but yeh can beat yer bebby I'll remember that!"

Chopper jumped up a little and shook his head. "Chopra? What are you talking about?! My name's CHOPPER!"

O'Chunks got back up and he stomped on the ground with his foot. "Yeh remember this, Chopra! If yeh didn't look like such a wee toddler, I wouldn't 'ave taken it so easy on yeh! But 'ey, I have the give it up fer yer effort. Yeh fought hard, so let's consider this a tie, eh?"

"A tie? But I beat you fair and square!"

"Yeh better get some chunks o' yer own fer next time, though, 'ey! And while yer at it, why don't yeh shine those shoes o' yers!"

"…Why would I need to shine my shoes if I'm mostly running around here?" Chopper asked while looking a bit puzzled. He ended up face palming.

"'Till we meet again, 'ey! **CHUNKS AWAY!**" O'Chunks waved goodbye - and rocketed up from the sky in a way you would never expect: by farting. Chopper coughed as the bearded warrior flew up.

"Augh! That was _disgusting_!" Chopper wheezed.

"Did you even understand a word that O'Chunks was saying…?" Tippi asked.

"Not at all," Chopper replied while smiling. At least the doors were back, so he went through the door ahead to find a small little hill moving upward with some Bronto Burts and a Motobug. Up ahead was a HUGE bottomless bit and some platforms that led higher up to the road.

"Interesting… I guess we're going to be traveling higher up from here?" Chopper asked.

"I guess so..." Tippi answered.

He ran up the small little hill and jumped onto the moving platforms. He had to be careful here. Paratroopas were around here and if he bumped into them, he would end up falling.

"Be careful Chopper..." the butterfly Pixl said with concern. "If you're a goner, then I don't know who will save all worlds..."

Chopper had to stomp on the Paratoopas in order to make it to the other platforms. Luckily, he made it to the upper area of Lineland Road, where a Star Block was waiting.

"There it is, Tippi! The end of this chapter! But… I don't see any castle anywhere…" Chopper walked over to the block and punched it with his fist as he jumped up.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_I can feel the pressure getting…lower," Chopper said as he moved up the hill with Tippi. It seemed that Lineland Road was no longer becoming a road. Chopper read a sign that read "Lineland Highlands," indicating that the rest of their journey through here would be higher up. "What a very strange place this is... I never knew that Lineland Road would become this…" said Tippi as she looked down from the hill. Chopper made sure not to look down and focused on the highlands. They were becoming one step closer to the castle at this very moment…_

* * *

**That Scratch and Grounder cameo was a bit random... :P  
**

**But that's not really important. What IS important is that Chapter 1-4 will take place higher up in the world! Expect a cameo by another character next section!**


	6. High Up On Lineland

**CHAPTER 1-4**

**-High Up on Lineland-**

"Chopper… I can feel the Pure Heart far from here…" Tippi informed. "I'm not exactly sure where though, but I can feel the power coming from… The castle? That must mean we're not too far from the Pure Heart…"

"We're not? Oh, that's nice!" Chopper smiled. "I know this place is beautiful, but it feels like we've been out here for a LONG time… You know what I'm saying? Now, let's see what's around here…"

When Chopper took a look at his surroundings, he noticed how bumpy the area was, and there were no trees in sight. There was some grass and bushes where he stood, though. It actually felt pretty nice to him. He also saw some Koopas, Motobugs, and a strange new enemy that looked similar to the Waddle Dee but with one big eye instead of small two eyes.

"Hey! That's a Waddle Doo! I wonder what it's doing here…" the Star Warrior pondered. "Hold on a moment! Let me think for a moment… They have an ability… Wait! I think I know what to do! Just watch what I do, Tippi!"

Chopper rushed over the small hill and jumped on the Koopa to make it retreat into its shell. After he did that, he kicked the shell into the Motobug, knocking it away. The Waddle Doo shot a beam that knocked away the Koopa shell.

"That enemy is smart, to be honest… I wonder what happened to those Catch Cards that used to be around that can help deal more damage to them…" Tippi wondered.

Chopper inhaled the Waddle Doo, and as soon as he swallowed it, he changed to a light yellow color with a hat that looked more like two hats. One was a red color and the other was light orange with white polka dots. His shoes turned into an orange color, and he was holding a wand with a blue orb, which could fire beam energy.

"Ah! Now THIS is something!" Chopper cheered, looking at his wand. "I've become Beam Chopper thanks to this! It's kinda odd I became this… I mean, this is one of the FIRST ability I've ever gotten a hold of. I had it the first time when I went to the Mushroom Kingdom and then when I went to Rogueport."

"So I take it you went on more adventures besides this?" Tippi asked.

"Yeah, I've went through A LOT! They usually start off with me rescuing a princess named Peach, and then I usually have to finish off my quest by saving the WORLD! Looks like there won't be any rescuing a princess through this whole thing. I don't think I'll even see Princess Peach at all…"

"Princess Peach? Oh, yes… I remember her… She was someone I met before. …Wait! Forget what I just said!"

Chopper looked a little confused and gave her a suspicious look. "Are you OK, Tippi? You sound like you don't want to talk about anything. How DO you even know her? In fact, how do you know about Tipral? You sound like you've met him before that."

"Well... Ummm..."

"Actually... I don't think that's very important at the moment." the ten year old said, cutting Tippi off. "We need to get moving!"

Chopper jumped over a Paratroopa and struck a Waddle Dee with his beam. Some small little blocks were piled up on the ground too. They could be destroyed with any attack that's not a jump.

"I've seen these before. I know how to take care of 'em!" Chopper swung his wand and a beam fired out, destroying them. He was able to move along down a hill and through a loop before he found some Waddle Dees carrying spears.

"Great… Now they have spears? OK, I've dealt with this before…" Chopper jumped out of the way when they tried to poke him with their weapons and charged up a beam and fired a blast of energy at them, knocking them away. "Woo! This is just great! It feels good having this ability! C'mon, Tipps! We still gotta get moving."

Chopper moved on and ran up a hill and reached a red door that was surrounded by small little yellow blocks. The ones that he destroyed before were the same as these, so with his beam attack, he destroyed the blocks and opened the door.

"Let's get moving," he said as he walked into the door to the next area. Tippi followed him through and they found a flat area that was full of Hammer Bros. and also more Waddle Doos.

But there was something that caught Tippi's attention. She saw a short yellow man with a triangle-shaped head, glasses and a TV camera. The green and tall one had a round head, headphones and a microphone that could hang over to people when they were speaking on TV. The last one was a pink man with a square-shaped head in archaeology gear. They were being blocked by the Waddle Doos. But the adventurer looked fearless…at least that was what he thought he was.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!" **_the adventurer shouted. "'And then we were surrounded! But, knowing that we were great adventurers, we knew how to fend off the beasts! It may not be an easy task for us, but…"

Before the man known as Flint could continue, he saw Chopper jump in the way and defeat the Waddle Doos.

"Huh? What the crag?" Monzo gawked.

"Whoa, you're cragging me. He be good…" Hornfels gaped, while Flint's mouth dropped after the Waddle Doos were gone.

"'…But then we noticed something else!'" Flint continued, trying to go on with the show. "'That creature… It looks like it's a rare one! I knew I had to get a better look at it. We'll be back after these messages, OK?' …That means cut, Monzo!"

"Ooh! This is good stuff, brah!" Monzo grinned. "Ya. This stuff is the CRAG! It be one cragging memory!"

"Uhhh… Excuse me?" Chopper turned to the Cragnons that quickly became silent. "Hey, is that a camera? Am I being filmed on TV or something?"

Chopper walked over to Monzo's camera and got a closer look at it. "Hey! It is! I'm on TV! Hi, fellas watching!"

"Chopper… We don't have time for this…" Tippi flew over to Chopper and tried to drag him away by his hat. "There's no time to be speaking to these people. It's best if we move on..."

"Oh, fine… I guess we'll go." Chopper spread his arms out as he ran on ahead, only to stop when he was at the edge of a cliff. "Holy… All right, I think this is a bit dangerous…"

All he could see were a couple of tall platforms with green ovals. There were even a couple of mushrooms in red and pink colors. The pink ones were the ones he could bounce on.

"You might want to be careful around here… I would advise using one of the Paratroopas to bounce on in case if you fall…" Tippi suggested.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I'll keep that in mind, Tipps." Chopper jumped off from the ground and landed on one of the platforms, while Tippi rolled her eyes after hearing that name.

"Take this!" Chopper electrocuted a Motobug with his Beam ability when he landed on one of the mushrooms. A yellow ? block was also floating above too, so after he destroyed the robot, he inhaled a Mushroom that came out of the block, recovering 10 HP. "Mmmmmmm… Those sure are good! They've always been good! Heck, when I start a new adventure, the Mushrooms are so tasty! I guess it's also because I haven't eaten them in a while."

He jumped onto one of the pink mushrooms, which let him bounce off it. A Buzz Bomber was unfortunate to get hit by Chopper's Spinning Kick, which easily took it out.

"Hey, I think my HP just rose up by 5," Chopper gaped as he landed on a platform after bouncing off the pink mushroom for a while.

"Well, that's nice to hear..." Tippi trailed, noticing Chopper having fun on the mushroom platforms.

"Honestly, this is fun! You gotta do this some time, Tipps!" Chopper said cheerfully as he performed a flip onto a red mushroom. A Motobug was ready to charge straight at him, but he destroyed it with a beam attack from his wand.

"I would do that, but unfortunately, I can't because I don't have feet…" groaned Tippi as she followed Chopper onto another mushroom he jumped onto. It was simply solid platforming.

"I don't know what else to say right now. This is just basic platforming. Nothing else." Chopper said as he stomped on a Paratroopa, sending it down the cliff and allowing himself to land right by a red door. He watched it plummet down the sky, which made him cringe a bit because of how high he was.

"We should get going, Chopper," Tippi suggested.

"Don't worry, I'm going in. No need to nag…" Chopper frowned as he opened the red door. Tippi rolled her eyes and followed the young Star Warrior into the next area that they were walking into.

"Hmmmmm… Well, this place doesn't have any platforms. And not to mention there aren't any bottomless pits." Chopper looked around at the area. "I guess this place might be a little fine."

Tippi fluttered on ahead as saw a huge wall moving upward. It looked like it was facing in a 3-D way. "You might need some extreme speed to get through that huge wall, Chopper… Do you have anything that can make you charge up your speed?"

"Why, I certainly do!" Chopper answered optimistically. "It's called my Speed Dash. Basically, I can charge up my speed so I can go RIDICULOUSLY fast! Just watch what I do, Tippi. You'll be amazed for sure!"

He began to spin his feet rapidly in the figure-8 position.

"I do say… That is rather fast." Thoreau commented. "So this is what the legendary hero can do!"

"The 'legendary hero' can do more than this, you know, Thoreau…" Chopper came charging toward the wall. There was a little hill that allowed him to run up the wall. Before he knew it, he was running up a wall in a 3-Dish way.

"Woo hoo! This is REALLY fun!" Chopper squealed as he made it up to the top of the wall. After landing, he noticed there was a huge field in front of him. He saw how vast it was when he went into 3-D.

"This place is HUGE!" Chopper gaped while he walked around the area in 3-D. A yellow ? block was hidden in 3-D, along with a few other things.

"What's in there?" he jumped under the block to find a Zombie Shroom pop out. "Oh, boy! Not a Zombie Shroom!" Chopper destroyed the evil Mushroom with a single beam attack from his wand.

"It seems as if you don't need my help, hero," stated Thoreau.

"Well, you're with me, so I would obviously need you. But, you're a bit strange for a…uh…Pixl. Last time I remember, I had actual people that joined me on my quest… You don't speak as much as my other friends."

"Hmmmmm… Well it's most likely because you're in these worlds and your friends aren't here. I would love to give you as much advice as you need, but you're simply plowing through everything."

"Yeah, I'll admit that," Chopper replied. "I've been going through everything in my path so far without most of your help. What's up with that? What ever happened to 'taking turns in battle'? Meh. Honestly, I find this a little more enjoyable."

"Chopper! Pay attention to your Flip Gauge! It's almost empty!" Tippi yelled, catching Chopper's attention.

"Ow! Don't yell too loud! That hurt!" Chopper raised his arms up and he flipped back into 2-D. "Well, there goes the PERFECT landscape! If only my Flip Gauge was infinite…"

He noticed he was standing right next to a green block. "Oh. I didn't see that there. Sorry! All right, Thoreau… I think it's time to put you to use!" Chopper tossed Thoreau at the block, who gave it to him to hold up.

"Man, I can't believe I can pick this thing up! It's almost as weird as picking that chunky guy up…" Chopper was still able to move a little fast while carrying the object. There weren't any bottomless pits, but there were two rows of brick blocks with two Hammer Bros. throwing hammers.

"Heads up, guys! Chopper's here! Don't let him get to the castle or else you're fired!" the Hammer Bro. captain shouted.

"Uh oh… Looks like these guys are asking for it!" Chopper gripped his wand as he was about to charge up a blast. One Hammer Bro. noticed him charging up an attack, so he threw a hammer straight at him, knocking his Beam ability away as a yellow star.

"Ack! No! Not my Beam ability!" Chopper chased after the star that was bouncing, but he was too late. The star already shattered. He was left with no ability in his hands. At least, right now he was.

"Oh, now you're going to regret that!" Chopper clenched his fist and knocked a Hammer Bro under him to the ground. He finished the enemy off with two stomps. "Now to take care of the other Hammer Bro…"

He turned to the Hammer Bro. on the ground and inhaled it. Tippi wasn't sure what Chopper was going to do, but he ended up swallowing the enemy.

"Did you just…swallow that enemy whole?" Tippi gaped.

"Why, yes! Yes I did, Tippi! Yeah, I know you find it a bit strange… I find it a bit strange, too!" Chopper looked at himself for a moment and felt disappointed. "Aw, man! I didn't get any ability?"

He sighed and before moved on ahead. There was a red door up on a tall red mushroom. The flipping rectangles up on the top row of brick blocks would lead him to there, so he got up to the top and let the rectangles do the work for him.

"I'm still wondering why these rectangles are so weird. I swear… I've NEVER seen anything like this before in my entire life. Ever." Chopper said as he landed right next to the red door.

"You'll get used to it, Chopper…" Tippi assured. "Things appear new to you, but you'll get used to their surroundings sooner or later… That's what usually happens around here."

"Yeah, good point," Chopper walked into the next area to find more cliffs down below. Unfortunately, there were only invisible green platforms instead of mushrooms or platforms.

"Hmmmmm…" Chopper looked up at the green block he was still holding. "Maybe I need to put this somewhere…" He flipped into 3-D to find a little green hole in the ground. He decided to drop it and push it into the hole.

Chopper instantly flipped back to 2-D, where he saw the platforms appear. There were light green and dark green platforms. The light green move, while the dark green will fall if he stood on them long enough.

"All right, let's see here…" Chopper jumped right when the green platform got close to him. He waited patiently for the next platform to get closer so he could make a jump. "I find this INCREDIBLY dangerous!"

"It's obvious that it is for you," Thoreau explained. "You ARE the only one here that can't fly in any way. …You do have a way of flying, do you not, hero?"

"Oh, I can fly…that is if I'm Super Chopper. I don't have anything that can transform me into that, though. That form has saved me TWICE from two villains. One was corrupted while the other was incredibly evil."

"That's a bit interesting, if you ask me. That even proves you're the legendary hero!"

"Heh heh heh… I don't think I'm really that 'legendary'. I'm just a normal kid. Scratch that. I'm a WEIRD kid." Chopper explained as he jumped his way over to the red door after going past the green platforms.

"Well, surely you are! I can feel it inside of you, hero!"

"You should just call me Chopper. That IS my name, you know… Even Tipps calls me Chopper, don't you?" Chopper looked at Tippi, who slowly nodded. "…Are you OK, Tipps?"

"Huh? Oh! Yes… I'm OK, Chopper. I was just…thinking about something for a minute…" Tippi answered. Chopper shrugged and opened the door to another area. This one was flat, but a wall was blocking the way.

"Crud! There's a wall! Hold on a moment…" Chopper raised his arms and flipped into 3-D. "Dang! Well, there's no use to that."

He flipped back and he walked over to the wall. There was an underwater pathway down below.

"Oh… OK. I guess I gotta go for a little swim! I just hope you guys can breathe underwater…" Chopper took a couple of steps back and jumped into the water. He looked at his two fellow Pixls, who appeared to be just fine.

"All right, swimming… Let's see how that works." Chopper let himself sink to the bottom and then began to swim to his right. There were some Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers in the water, so he had to be a little careful. "Hey, Tipps, mind if I use you to Tattle these guys?"

"I guess I'll help you…" Tippi went into Chopper and tattled the two enemies.

"That's a Cheep-Cheep. Like most fish, it lives entirely underwater... Max HP is 2. Attack is 1. It swims along lazily minding its own fishy business... No important characteristics of note... It's a fish..." Tippi informed. "That's a Blooper. It's just a squid that swims around freely… Max HP is 2. Attack is 1. It only attacks by ramming into you… That's really all there is to it…"

When she left Chopper's head, he blinked for a couple of moments to see a bit better.

"Uhhh… OK. I guess that's a little intriguing." Chopper tried to inhale the fish underwater, but all he could do was shoot bubbles. "Great… I can't inhale anything underwater. I guess squirting bubbles is the only way…"

Chopper squirted a couple of bubbles straight at the Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers, defeating them instantly. He swam up to the surface when he found an exit and was in front of a red door. A sign was right beside the door.

"What the heck?" Chopper walked over to the sign and he took a good look at it.

_*****Lineland Signpost*****_

_If ye seeith a green platform between two forts, press the (1) and (-) button at the same time for something interesting to appear!_

"Hmmmmm… Interesting stuff here." he walked into the next area to suddenly get a surprise.

"_**HEY! YOU!**_" Chopper stopped when he saw a fort dead ahead. Some Koopas happened to be calling out to him. "What do you think you're doing, stepping in our territory?! Sorry, dude, but you gotta leave, or else we're bringing the big guns down on you!"

"Big guns? Like you even have any…" Chopper snickered. He saw the Koopas bring out a couple of Bill Blasters. "Oh… Now I see them."

"Take this, Chopper!"

They let some Bullet Bills fire directly at Chopper, but this didn't stop him from giving up. He inhaled one of the Bullet Bills and swallowed it, which made him don a blue floppy hat and a bomb.

"…Uh oh!" Chopper noticed the bomb was about to blow up, so he stomped on the other Bullet Bill and threw the bomb at the Bill Blaster, destroying it.

"Aw, crud!" the Koopa went in it shell to hide, and it was eventually kicked by Chopper's foot, sending it toward the Waddle Dee and Motobugs that were on their side.

"Wait a minute… Why the heck are there Waddle Dees and Motobugs here?! This is REALLY confusing…" Chopper trailed with a puzzled look. Nevertheless, he found a green platform and he jumped on it.

"OK… Let's see what I have to do." Chopper tried to make a number one sign while also trying to make a dash sign with his fingers as well. He wasn't sure what that sign meant, but perhaps this was the best idea.

Surprisingly, it worked.

Chopper turned to his right to find a couple of gray stairs appear. He saw that the stairs led to a gray castle.

"So… This is where the castle is…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, I can't believe we've already found it!" Chopper cheered. "Man, I'm completely stunned! It reminds me of a castle I would usually see around! …Meh, it's kinda lame, if you ask me."

He walked up the stairs and crossed a bridge that led over to the entrance of the castle. A Star Block was floating there by the entrance, so he approached it and gave it a good whack.

"We're finally done with this level! This was pretty cool, especially that part where I got to go up the wall!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Somehow, Chopper had all the strength and courage to travel his way through the dangerous Lineland Road. Right in front of Chopper and Tippi was the castle Yerfeys was warning them about. "So, this is where it is, huh? Interesting…" Unfortunately, the castle didn't have many windows, so not much sunlight came in to lighten the rooms up. But for some reason, Tippi felt as though the castle was filled with many dangers… What could it possible be?_

* * *

**If anyone doesn't remember, there are five chapters in each area. Just a little heads up for ya for those who wondered why this wasn't the final part of Chapter 1.  
**


	7. Monster of the Castle

**CHAPTER 1-5**

**-Monster of the Castle-**

"Chopper, I can feel it calling… The Pure Heart is nearby… But, wait… I sense something else emanating from the castle. Be careful, Chopper… Something else is waiting for us ahead…" Tippi warned as they set foot inside of the castle.

Chopper looked at his surroundings. They were both in a room with some stairs going up to a door ahead. That's just about it. It almost felt like a castle Bowser would have back in the old Super Mario Bros. games. It was just…dull. Nothing else.

"So we're getting closer to the Pure Heart? Well that's a relief." Chopper sighed. "But, I don't understand why it has to be in a castle like this. It's…kinda lame if you ask me."

"Yes, I suppose this place is a bit…bland…" Tippi trailed. "But, if the Pure Heart's located in this very castle, then we have no other choice but to make our way through here…"

"Just think about it, hero! There may be obstacles that you might need my help for!" Thoreau said cheerfully. "…Maybe not, but there's a possible chance."

"Yeah, I know that… But I'm still a bit worried about my friends. I haven't seen them in such a long time, but now they're gone once again." Chopper turned back around. "But you're right. Maybe there's some interesting stuff in this castle. Plus, I could probably give a beating to some enemies."

"We'll see what we can find ahead… For now, you should get going…" Tippi suggested.

Chopper nodded and he made his way up the stairs and to the door. There, he found a room with a couple of lava pits and then a pathway up ahead that has Firebars spinning around. In the center of the two lava pits, there was also a yellow ? block and two Hammer Bros.

"Oh, this should be easy!" Chopper began to use his Speed Dash to speed through the room. "I'll just speed my way through here!"

"No, Chopper! Don't use your Speed Dash just yet!" Tippi cried.

Chopper immediately stopped and turned to Tippi. "What's wrong, Tipps? It sounds like something was bothering you. Can't we just speed our way through here?"

"Although you THINK that that's a smart idea… It's most likely going to get you fried in the end." Tippi fluttered over the Hammer Bros. and over by the lava pits. "You're going to fall in these pits if you did that. Take it a bit slow."

"Oh, fine… Have it your way." Chopper inhaled the Hammer Bro. that was in his way and he spat him out at the other to send them to the Firebar over by the door up ahead. Good thing it wasn't locked.

"OK, let's see what's in this block first things first," Chopper punched the yellow ? above him to make a Mushroom appear. "Mmmmmmm!"

He managed to inhale the Mushroom before it fell in the lava pit. He noticed a little pathway up above him, so he jumped on the block to reach up there. A ladder brought him down to a chest that contained a Life Shroom.

"A Life Shroom? Isn't it a bit too early for these things, though?" Chopper questioned as he put it away.

"Well, I suppose it's better that you hold onto it…" Tippi suggested.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do," Chopper put the Life Shroom away and he made his way up the ladder and over to the door he saw before. It led him into a room with a couple of more Firebars and two doors. One was locked, while the other was floating up at the end of the room.

"Meh, I'll be cheap and avoid these Firebars," Chopper threw his hands up in the air to flip into 3-D. Then he made a dash over by the floating door. He noticed two yellow arrow blocks that were in his sight, plus a Squiglet.

After taking care of the Squiglet with a stomp, he hit both blocks and flipped back into 2-D to reach the door. He found a couple of Thwomps coming down on the ground in order from the one at the front and the one to the back.

"Well, now I believe you can use your Speed Dash for this," Tippi confirmed.

"Finally!" Chopper began to run in place until his feet were in a figure-8 pattern to make a dash through the Thwomps with all of his speed. He made it up to a chest that contained a Castle Key.

"Woo-hoo!" Chopper immediately flipped into 3-D to get past the Thwomps. He knew that a Speed Dash PROBABLY wouldn't work, considering that he might just get hurt instead.

He made his way back into the other room and then he avoided the Firebars to make it to the locked door. There, he unlocked the door and walked into another room with some lava pits, but also there was this large, metallic, square-like net that he could climb on if possible. Koopa Troopas were on it, that's for sure.

"Hey, this is just like one of those things I used to see in Super Mario World! I never knew there were these here!" Chopper smiled as he jumped onto the net and he began to move to his right on it.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Tippi asked.

"Oh, relax! Just watch what I can do!" When Chopper saw a Koopa climbing to the left on the other side, he knocked him off with a simple punch to the net. It knocked the Koopa off into the lava.

"Ooh… I don't know if that was really a good thing or not…" Chopper said with a guilty look on his face.

"Everything's all right, Chopper," Tippi assured. "Just keep going. We don't have an infinite amount of time here, you know… If we stay here on that metallic net all day, we're going to get nowhere…"

"All right, fine," Chopper moved to his right on the metallic net, knocking any Koopas that were on the other side. He made sure not to get hit by any other Koopas moving by to his left.

"It appears that the red ones go a bit faster than the green ones," Thoreau stated as he watched the Koopas move.

"Hey, at least you're not the one doing this!" Chopper groaned as he kicked a Koopa next to him, knocking him into the lava. "You can fly around, while I have to jump! It's a lot easy for you Pixls!"

"…Yes, it is indeed," he agreed.

Chopper noticed that there was a pipe up on the ceiling near the door nearby, so he checked the pipe up there first. He was a bit surprised that he can enter pipes from up on the ceiling.

He found a large room with a slope going down to a loop up ahead. It was also leading up to a Boomerang Bro. that was guarding a chest.

"Sigh… Why did I have to be put up to this?" questioned the Boomerang Bro. "First we get sucked into some void thing, and now I'm stuck here guarding this stupid key! When is King Bowser going to give me a promotion?"

Chopper looked off at the distance. All he could see was a loop down the slope. "Oh, whatever. I think I can nail this without a problem! I'm Chopper, for Pete's sake! I practically nailed a demon!"

Tippi rolled her eyes at him as Chopper started to charge up his Speed Dash ability. Thank goodness this ground was made of stone, or else there would be dirt all over her, that's for sure.

"Here we…GOOOOOO!" Chopper made a huge dash down the slope with his feet in a figure-8 pattern. He was easily able to run through the loop and knock the Boomerang Bro. over.

"OOF!" the Boomerang Bro. fell over on his back. "Ah, crap! Don't tell me we have an intruder here!" He managed to get himself up and turned to the wall where Chopper bumped into.

"Wait a sec… You're that Chopper kid Bowser's been talking about! Yeah… You're obviously him! Those antennas and shape shows it…"

"Oooog…" Chopper pushed his face off the wall. "Wait… Did you say Bowser?"

"Well of course I did! Who else do you think I was talking about?" the Boomerang Bro. pulled a boomerang out. "…But, since you're here, looks like I gotta do what I gotta do! Can't let ya get that key from this chest!"

"Oh, this'll be easy," Chopper walked over to him after he ducked one of his boomerangs. He managed to inhale him and gain the Cutter ability, now wearing a yellow cap with eyes and wings that resembled a duck. There was also this large yellow blade on it as well.

"What is that supposed to be?" Tippi questioned.

"This is my Cutter ability," Chopper began to adjust his cape a bit. "Yeah, I know it almost looks like a duck, but I can throw the blade on top of it at anything I want. Plus, I could use it as a weapon if I wanted to!"

"Interesting…" Tippi seemed interested at this as Chopper opened up the chest to find a Castle Key inside.

"Time to make my way back!" Using another Speed Dash, Chopper made his way all the way back to the door. But this time, he was able to brake when he made it over to the red door.

* * *

**Back in the other room by the locked door-**

"Whew… I finally made my way back here." Chopper sighed in relief as he pulled the key out to unlock the door. He walked into a room that had some more lava pits, but with sets of blocks that were floating above the pit.

"Geez! I don't see lava so often! The last time I've seen it was when I was in Hell!" Chopper jumped over the sets of blocks to two doors. The one on the bottom was locked, and the other wasn't, so he took the way up into another room.

He noticed a pipe in front of him as he made his way down the ladder. Up on the ceiling was a blue ! block floating still.

"Well, I don't see much around here…" He immediately turned around as a Squiglet dropped down from the pipe. "Whoa! Enemy in sight!"

He pulled the cutter off his helmet and he sliced the Squiglet up. It disappeared like smoke for some reason, but he didn't care.

"Oh, _heroooooo…_" Thoreau sang. "_Perhaps now is the time for my power to come into use…_"

"You don't need to sing that to me, you know…" Chopper rolled his eyes. "And stop calling me 'hero'! Just because you joined me doesn't mean I'm ACTUALLY a hero…"

"Hmmmm… Yes. I see…" Thoreau was sent by Chopper to grab the next Squiglet that came down. When he gave it to Chopper, he immediately threw it at the blue ! block above him.

"I wonder what that…" Chopper could feel a bit of shaking before he could finish, "…Never mind."

"Something happened outside of the room…" Tippi predicted.

"You don't need to tell me that. I already know something happened outside of the room." Chopper groaned as he climbed up the ladder back into the other room. He noticed in the sets of blocks that there was a key.

"Ah! There we go!" He made his way over to the key by jumping on one of the brown blocks. Unfortunately, he couldn't fit between two blocks.

"Perhaps I could be of assistance?" Thoreau suggested.

"Yes, you can be," Chopper smirked as he tossed Thoreau between the two blocks. He managed to grab the key and give it to him. Now with it, he went down to the locked door and he unlocked it with the key, entering another room.

"Uh oh… More lava pits! …With fireballs coming out!" Chopper gaped as he saw himself surrounded by two lava pits. He noticed that there was even a Magikoopa that was firing a spell at him.

He managed to duck the spell and throw his cutter blade straight at the Magikoopa. It didn't finish him off yet, but once he jumped over the pit and rushed at him with his blade, he knocked the Magikoopa out of the room.

Chopper took notice of a square outline right nearby, so he immediately flipped into 3-D to check it out. To his surprise, he found a secret passageway leading to another Castle Key.

"These puzzles get easier and easier…" he sighed as he rushed over to the key and flipped back, returning back to the room. The locked door was over to his left, so he rushed over there with his speed and his jumping skills.

"This room is small…" Chopper walked into a room with some steps going up to a floating door. He checked to see if there were any yellow arrow blocks around. Sadly, there weren't.

"I believe there's something hidden around here…" Tippi said.

"Then I better use you then!" Chopper flipped back into 2-D and he let her use her power, making his eyes glow a rainbow color. He noticed a hidden platform that the red door was sitting on.

"There's something here… I'll show it to you…" she said as she revealed the hidden platform, allowing Chopper to walk into another room.

All he found in the next room was a spring leading up higher into the castle. That's pretty much it.

"This is all there is? Meh… I guess I'll just use it." Chopper jumped onto the spring and he let himself soar up to a higher point of the castle, landing on a platform with a red door. There was also a Save Block there too.

"I suppose we're getting closer to the top of the castle…" Tippi trailed. "I'm feeling the Pure Heart from up there…"

"Wait a sec…" Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a hidden brick block that revealed a ladder. "Heh heh! Good thing I flipped there!"

Flipping back into 2-D, he climbed up the outlined ladder to a higher platform. He could only find a sign and a yellow ? block. Of course, he hit the block first to claim a Mushroom. Then he checked the sign.

_***** Tips to the Hero *****_

_Those who fight bigger enemies must watch for the stars that appear. If thou findest a star, thou must inhale it and spit it at thy enemy, smooshing him into tiny bits…if that is possible._

"Weird sign, but it gives some good advice," Chopper jumped down to the door to a small room in height, but a large room in length. He noticed some fireballs coming straight toward him.

"Chopper! Watch out!" Tippi warned.

"I got this, don't worry!" Chopper rushed straight toward the fireballs, sliding under the ones that were a bit close to him and jumping over the ones that were right over by his feet. At the end of the passageway was a bridge…and on that bridge…was Bowser.

"GWAAAAAARGH! I can't believe I've been doing nothing but spitting fireballs all day!" Bowser groaned, feeling a bit exhausted at this point. "All because of that stupid dark weirdo, I'm stuck in this castle! I can't even fit through that pipe ahead! Plus, I'm a bit scared of jumping down through that other room! What am I going to do here?! GAARRGH!"

Bowser stomped angrily as Chopper walked over to him, giving him a nice hello.

"Huh?" Bowser was a bit startled, but he noticed Chopper. "Ch-Chopper?! What are YOU doing here?!"

"I'm starting to wonder the same thing about you…" Tippi replied.

" Well, I was sucked into a portal by some dark dude that looks just like Chopper and… Huh?" Bowser noticed Tippi beside Chopper. "What the… What're you doing here, Tippi? I thought you disappeared after…well, you know."

"It's a long story. I don't have the time to explain things. Could you just let us through so we can look for the Pure Heart?"

"The Pure Heart? There's a Pure Heart here? How was I supposed to know that? I could've… Wait, hold on a minute!" Bowser glared at Chopper. "Why should I be helping YOU, out of all people?! It looks like you pretty much trashed my castle anyway!"

"Look, Bowser… We NEED to get past here. Could you PLEASE let us through?" Chopper asked nicely.

"_**NO! **_I'm NEVER going to let you through here, no matter what! You've ruined my castle twice, but thrice has gone long enough! _**BWARRRG!**_"

Bowser stomped on the ground real hard, knocking both Tippi and Thoreau away. A barrier was suddenly revealed to be behind the bridge, only leaving Chopper and Bowser on it.

"What the… You blocked my two Pixls from helping!" Chopper gaped.

"This fight is between you and me, Chopper! Since you've ruined my castle for the third time, you're about to enter a fortress of PAIN! Yup! No more sequels! It's gonna end right here, right now. ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Bowser jumped back and started off by spewing flames in front of Chopper before he could even make a move, turning him black with soot.

"Ack! This isn't good!" Chopper quickly shook the soot off of him as he tossed his cutter blade at Bowser, knocking him back a bit. He was also able to jumped out of the way from Bowser's claws.

"ARRGH! Get back here, you coward!" Bowser roared.

"Oh, hang on a moment!" Chopper smirked as he jumped off the wall and then back down on Bowser. "…Ouch! I completely forgot about the horns on his head!" He held his foot in pain as he shed a small tear.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Oh, how sad! One of my horns hurt you!" Bowser brought his arm back and he slammed his fist into Chopper, knocking him back to the wall. His Cutter ability didn't wear off, on the other hand.

"Chopper! Don't give up!" Tippi shouted.

"Ugh… Don't worry, Tippi… I'm not going to give up the fight just yet." Chopper slowly got up as he saw Bowser spewing out flames in his face. He managed to jump on the wall and jump over Bowser so he was behind him.

"Wait… Don't… AGGH!" Bowser screamed as Chopper slashed at Bowser's tail with his cutter blade. "I'm gonna get you for that!"

Bowser turned to Chopper, but he was struck by his Final Cutter attack, slashing at him twice and then rising up and coming down with his blade.

"Heh heh! I guess this is what it feels like to use a Final Cutter! Wait until Kirby hears about THIS one!" Chopper smirked, tossing his blade at Bowser once again.

"GWARGH! Now you're in for something, Chopper!" Bowser got in his shell and then he rammed straight into Chopper, knocking him back to the wall once again. It didn't feel too bad, considering that he's been hurt by him countless times before.

"If only I had my hammer or Master Shoes… I could take him down!" Chopper remembered that he gave his hammer to his little Yoshi buddy, Scrub, back in Glitzville. Ah, the good memories. As for his Master Shoes… He ended up losing them after an incident with him and the washing machine…

"Well, I still have my cutter blade…" Chopper gripped on it as he tossed it at Bowser once again. It didn't do too much to him except leave a small little scar on his belly.

Enraged, Bowser spewed out more flames, burning Chopper and also knocking his ability away. He gasped as the yellow star containing his ability was destroyed by Bowser's fireball.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Looks like you're doomed now, Chopper! No more abilities to help you this time!" Bowser cackled.

"Oh, yeah? Well I still have my pride!" Chopper retorted.

"What is that supposed to mean? !"

"Oh, nothing…" Chopper delivered a sweeping kick on Bowser's face as he jumped up to him, leaving a couple of red marks on his face. Bowser managed to knock him back to the wall like a soccer ball with a simple kick.

"It's a good thing you're light, 'cause you make a great soccer ball!" Bowser cackled.

"Well you make a great punching bag! HI-YAA!" Chopper threw his arms up to flip into 3-D before Bowser could fry him with his fire breath. He flipped back to 2-D from behind and he grabbed Bowser by the tail.

"Are you serious?!" Bowser growled. "You can't even hurl me around with arms like that!"

"Urgh… Maybe I can!" Chopper used all of his strength to move Bowser around, but he failed miserably. "…Maybe I can't."

Bowser managed to shake Chopper off of his tail and fry him up once again. Chopper couldn't believe that Bowser was bringing him down so fast! Especially the fact that he's in the fifth part of Chapter 1, for Pete's sake!

"Chopper! I know you still have something in you! Try to win this!" Tippi shouted.

At that moment, Chopper began to remember all of the people that were cheering for him to stop him nemesis five months ago. He clenched his fists and he flipped back into 3-D again.

"BWARGH Now where did that little creampuff go?!" Bowser roared.

"Hey, I'm over here!" Chopper called out.

Bowser turned over to the left where he found Chopper standing right over by the wall. He seemed to be laid back, minding his own business when the Koopa King saw him. The sight of him made him enraged for some reason.

"I'm going to finish this off once and for all!" Bowser growled as he got into his shell. As he charged straight at him, Chopper smirked and jumped out of the way, making him crash into the wall. A yellow star appeared before the Star Warrior's very eyes.

Chopper could remember these words from the sign: _"Those who fight bigger enemies must watch for the stars that appear. If thou findest a star, thou must inhale it and spit it at thy enemy, smooshing him into tiny bits…if that is possible." _

"All right, I guess that I gotta use that!" Chopper used his inhaling ability to suck the star into his mouth, making him looked a bit puffed up.

When Bowser managed to get back up, he roared. "NOW you're finished!" He prepared to unleash his flaming breath upon him, but when Chopper spat the star at his belly, it knocked him over on the ground. Bowser ended up admitting defeat in the end.

"Rrrrrrrrgh! I can't believe I lost that fight!" Bowser pouted. "It's not fair!"

Tippi immediately fluttered over to Chopper as the walls disappeared. Thoreau also floated over to him as well.

"Are you OK, Chopper?" Tippi asked.

"Yeah… I'm fine I guess. I got a little bit of wounds, but that's not much. At least I managed to defeat the monster of this castle!" Chopper sighed in relief as he wiped his brow.

"Chopper… I don't know how to say this… But… Bowser is not the monster I was talking about…"

"Wait, WHAT? !" Chopper eyes suddenly bugged out. "Are… Are you telling me that there's ANOTHER monster in this castle!"

He turned over to the moaning Bowser. "Bowser! Tell me this: is there something up on the top of the castle?!"

"Grrrghhh… I… I don't know. Last time I checked up there, I didn't see anything but the sky."

"Hmmmmmm…" Chopper pondered a bit. "Well, I do recall Mario saying that you helped him find the Pure Hearts. Do you think you could help us find them, Bowser? I think we could use your strength, if possible."

Bowser slowly got up and glared at Chopper. "No way! This time I'm NOT helping the good! I'm grade A, 100% prime-cut final boss! There's no way I'm going to help you! Now get out of my way! I'm getting out of this place!"

Chopper was immediately pushed out of the way as Bowser stomped his way out of the room.

"Well that was certainly nice…" Tippi rolled her eyes. "But we don't need his help. Surely you can find that Pure Heart yourself."

"Yeah… Hopefully I can…" Chopper moaned, getting up. He noticed a Save Block, a yellow ? block and a pipe over at the end of the room. "There's my way out of here, for sure!"

He hit the yellow ? block first, consuming a Super Shroom that immediately healed all of the damage he took from Bowser. He hit the Save Block next and, at long last, he made his way into the pipe.

* * *

**At the top of the castle-**

After all of the pixels of Chopper came back onto his body, he took a look at the huge view from the top of Lineland Road. It was THAT high. So high, that they were almost up to the clouds.

"Holy crap… We're INCREDIBLY high… This is the highest I've been in this dimension!" Chopper gaped as he stepped onto the stone ground. He stopped as soon as the pipe behind him disappeared.

"Well, looks like there's no turning back now," he sighed, turning back. It was certainly bigger than any other they were in, too. But, as soon as he took a few steps, he was suddenly interrupted.

_"**HOLD IT!**__" _a computerized voice called out.

As soon as the voice called out, Chopper began to feel some intense shaking coming from the ground.

"Whoa… What's going on here?!" he exclaimed.

At the very moment, a small, yellow mechanical dragon appeared before his own eyes. Yes, it was a SMALL one. Only its head and a part of its body could be seen on the castle ground as it roared.

"Oh, come on! Tippi, you said that it was a freakin' monster!" Chopper shouted. "What do I see here? ! A SMALL DRAGON! This isn't really what I was hoping for, you know…"

_"INTRUSION ALERT. LIFEFORMS DETECTED. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY OR BE PURGED." _the mechanical dragon stopped as it noticed Chopper.

_"WAIT. SCANNING INITIALIZED. PALE GREEN LIFEFORM DETECTED. WHITE GLOVES DETECTED. LEVEL 10 ANTENNAS DETECTED. COULD IT BE? HOLD YOUR POSISITON."_

"…Level 10 antennas? Do my antennas seriously have a level or something?" Chopper questioned as the dragon's eyes began to scan him. It was trying to see if it could find him in his database.

_"SCANNING COMPLETE: ONE POSITIVE MATCH. SYSTEM OVERLOAD! LEGENDARY HERO DETECTED!" _the dragon glared at Chopper. _"I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO SHOW UP, HERO. I AM KNOWN AS DRACKTAIL. I AM PROGRAMMED TO DESTROY THE HERO, AND THAT'S WHAT I INTEND TO DO."_

Dracktail tried to chomp on Chopper, but he simple kicked the little dragon down.

"Come on! This isn't even a challenge!" Chopper pouted. "I can kick this thing's butt with a blindfold and both of my arms behind me! This is a joke!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Oh, yes… It is indeed! But I can certainly fix that up for you!"

"What the…" Chopper gaped as he heard a mysterious voice coming from the sky.

_"**WHO SPEAKS?!**__" _bellowed Dracktail. At the very moment, Dimentio appeared using his magnificent teleporting abilities.

"Ah, so you are the one named Chopper, are you not? You certainly do have the looks of Tipral!" Dimentio chuckled. "It's so pleasant to meet you! …And your antennas! I am Tipral's master of dimensions, the pleaser of crowds… I am…Dimentio! Remember the name well…"

"What the… Since when did Tipral have some kind of clown for a minion? First a Scottish guy and now THIS? !" Chopper gaped.

"You… What are you doing here?" Tippi questioned. "I thought you…"

"Hush now, my dear! I don't have time for explanations… I just came here after overhearing Chopper say something about this fight being a bit 'too easy', did you not?"

"Wait… You overheard us? But… Why?" Chopper questioned.

"I can do many things, Chopper. I _am_ a magician, after all… After hearing what you said, I thought, 'Why not make this a challenge for him?" And besides… It would be very DULL if your journey ended so easily… I think it needs to end on a bright side…with magic!"

Dimentio turned to the small mechanical dragon and, by raising a finger, he was able to zap Dracktail's antenna.

_"**BZZZZZRRRRT.**__"_

Dimentio smirked at the sight of Dracktail. "Ah yes… That is much better… Now you and this robotic dragon can spend some quality time…Yes, quality snack time! When he snacks…on you! For you…ARE the snack! _Ciao!_"

"What did he…" Chopper was not only interrupted by the sound of Dimentio teleporting out of this world, but at Dracktail's voice.

_"BEEEEEEEEEEP._ _I AM ERROR! PRESS ANY KEY TO RESTART. …SYSTEM NOT FOUND! INSERT INSTALL DISC. NO DISC FOUND. PUT IT IN THE RIGHT WAY, RETARD. NO RESPONSE. SYSTEM MAY BE BUSY OR MELTING INTO SLAG. APPLICATION ERROR. SAVE YOUR WORK AND QUIT. YOU LOST EVERYTHING. WAY TO GO, GENIUS. WAITING FOR PROCESSORS. '404 computer hamsters not found.' THREAT LEVEL UPGRADED TO JELLY ROLL 1. DETONATION IMMINENT."_

Chopper gaped as the size of Dracktail began to grow. He grew A LOT bigger than what he was before. He was certainly bigger than Chopper, that's for sure!

"Whoa… That crazy clown person really knows how to use magic!" Chopper gaped.

_"**BEEBLEBLIP! **__C:/ run query identification. C:/ run insult generator. C:/ results: go away yeti-lip! __**CTRL ALT DEL!**_"

Dracktail's eyes began to glow as it immediately soared up into the sky, revealing its entire body, and boy, was it huge.

"God! Not even I fought something that large! …Except some dragons five months ago. But, there's something about Dracktail's name that makes me think about them. Hmmmm…"

Chopper pondered a bit before Tippi snapped. "Chopper! We don't have time to be thinking about something right now! Look above you!"

"Huh?" Chopper saw Dracktail soar into the background and make a U-turn straight at him. "Whoa! I gotta get out of the way!"

Using his Speed Dash, he managed to get out of Dracktail's way, but he soon found it gliding over him afterwards. Chopper gaped as he saw it make another turn…towards him.

"It's going to fly in from the right, I can sense it. You should flip back into 3-D…" Tippi informed.

"Then that's what I'll do!" Chopper threw his hands up in the air as he stepped out of Dracktail's way. "Hmmmm… I think I should get on him."

With a simple jump, he got on Dracktail's back and he was soon up in the sky with the mighty mechanical dragon.

"Before we get started… I need to find a weak point. I'm gonna need your help, Tippi." Chopper allowed Tippi to make his eyes turn to a rainbow light as he began to gather information from Dracktail.

"That's Dracktail, the robotic guardian of the Pure Heart. It's quite enormous... It can fly and swoop down with its big open mouth... But I think the antenna-like horn atop its head is its weak spot... I think you're going to need to use Thoreau to hit it..." Tippi informed.

"All right, so I gotta hit that antenna thing over there. Good." Chopper smirked as he ran over to Dracktail's head. He noticed these small robotic creatures with duck-like beaks called Drackles appear.

"Perhaps now is the time to use me," Thoreau suggested.

"Yeah, I'll get to that," Chopper tossed Thoreau at one of the Drackles and then he threw it at Dracktail's antenna. The large, mechanical dragon screamed in pain as its eyes looked up at Chopper.

"That seems to be working… Try to throw it at Dracktail two more times." Tippi suggested.

Chopper managed to grab two more Drackles and throw them at Dracktail. The large dragon decided to shake Chopper off by moving in a circle.

"Uh oh… This thing is trying to get me off!" Chopper tried to hold on as hard as he could, but he was starting to slide off of him.

"Wait! It's possible for you to make a jump back onto Dracktail's head!" Tippi informed as she saw Dracktail's head in front of her. "Jump! Now!"

"Huh? All right!" Chopper jumped off of Dracktail's tail and he landed right on top of his antenna with a stomp, causing pain to the dragon.

"Wow. I never knew I was going to land on this thing's antenna! So, how many times do I need to do this to him?"

"You need to do that to him four more times in a row before he's finished," Tippi replied.

"Four more… Crap. I was hoping it would be less! …Oh well." Chopper managed to throw two more Drackles at Dracktail again, making him go in another circle.

"OK, just like before…" Chopper watched for Dracktail's head to appear in front of him before he jumped. When it did, he immediately made a jump on his head, stomping on his antenna while at it.

"Ha HA!" Chopper smirked as he made a pose. "Score one for me again! …Well, more like twice, actually."

He threw two more Drackles at him before Dracktail tried to shake him off. This time, however, it did a little corkscrew. Because Chopper didn't see it coming, he fell off Dracktail and he plummeted to the top of the castle.

"Oof!" Chopper pushed himself back up as he saw Dracktail charging straight at him. "Uh oh…" He did another Speed Dash in order to avoid it charging at him, but when he saw Dracktail glide over him, he knew something was going to happen.

"Watch out, Chopper! Dracktail's coming straight at you… You need to get out of the way…" Tippi informed.

"Yup, I'll do that!" Chopper threw his arms up as he flipped into 3-D, moving out of Dracktail's way and then jumping on top of him to deal some more damage to him.

"All right, this should be easy pickings! Just two more rounds!" Chopper grabbed one of Drackles he found in sight and he tossed it straight at Dracktail's antenna, causing some immense pain.

_"ARRRRGGHHH… SYSTEM CRASH IS STARTING TO ENGAGE!" _Dracktail shouted as it screamed.

"Well, sorry for making you crash," Chopper groaned. "Can't you just give up or something? Or do I have to shut you up with my awesome hero skills?"

Dracktail didn't respond. "What? No response? Oh, all right… I guess I'll just do this." Chopper grabbed two more Drackles and he tossed them at Dracktail, causing him to circle around once again.

"This time you're NOT going to let me off of you!" Chopper retorted as he readied himself to jump on Dracktail's head. Luckily, he succeeded, and he also got to stomp on his antenna twice before landing on his head.

"Only one more hit to go and he's defeated," Tippi informed.

"Heh heh heh! That's awesome!" Chopper tossed Thoreau at one of the Drackles and he held it up, ready to throw it at Dracktail.

"Any last words, Dracktail?" Chopper asked.

He got no response from the mechanical dragon.

"Nothing? Oh, fine… _FEEL THE WRATH OF MY LEVEL 10 ANTENNAS, FOOL!_ _**HAAAAAAAAAH!**_"

Chopper finally finished off Dracktail after he threw the last Drackle at its antenna. At that moment the mechanical dragon had enough.

_"**SYSTEM** CRASH!" _Dracktail screeched._ "__YOU… YOU ARE TOO STRONG! YOUR SKILLS AS A HERO ARE TOO MUCH FOR MY ERROR. MY CIRCUIT IS SMOLDERING. I… I…" _

Before Dracktail could finish, his whole body except for his head began to explode, showing that it had a spine.

"Whoa… Robots have spines?" Chopper questioned as pieces of it began to fall. "Well… Looks like I have to make a jump for it!"

With one jump, he made his way back down to the top of the castle. He happened to notice a red door appear in front of him, to his surprise.

"What the… Where does this lead?" Chopper opened the door to find himself in a chamber with small steps leading down to…a dead end.

"Wow. This is a beautiful place." Chopper smiled as he made it to the bottom of the stairs. "But where is the Pure Heart? Shouldn't it be here somewhere?"

_"Welcome, little hero. My name is Merlumina." _a soft, calm voice whispered.

"That voice… It sounds so calm; it makes me want to fall asleep…" Chopper yawned. He looked up to see a spirit of a woman in shades of blue with beautiful white hair float down to him.

_"I am a dormant soul… I have waited for you for a long time to give you the Pure Heart after the seal was broken again. Your presence here must mean that The Void has come back, and will swallow up all worlds and collapse."_

Chopper was about to speak, but then Tippi interrupted him. "Yes, unfortunately they have because of Tipral… That's why we're here…"

"Yeah, what she said," Chopper added.

_"Before I give you the Pure Heart, you and I must speak. Listen well, hero." _Merlumina informed.

"Speak about what?"

_"I must tell you what happened many years ago. It's important for the hero to listen and remember this story."_

Chopper seemed a bit puzzled, but then he sighed. "Oh, fine… If you have to do so, then go ahead and do it. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"

Merlumina smiled at the child and then she began to explain her story. _"Long, long ago…my people built a civilization hailed as a beacon of culture. Sadly, despite our power, there was one thing we were powerless to stop: The Dark Prognosticus. Nobody knows who authored the dark book. It foretold the events of the future. On the last page, it was written that a chaotic power would devour the world."_

Chopper was starting to daze off a bit, but Merlumina didn't seem to pay attention to him, now that she turned around.

_"We knew it had to be stopped. Our greatest minds devised a great plan to stop tragedy before it happened. We needed something with the pure essence of love to confront this chaos. Researchers set to work…and they created the Purity Heart. We divided the Purity Heart into eight pieces and hid them in different dimensions."_

"Eight? But, last time I heard, Tipral ended up dividing them into twenty." Chopper informed.

"_Hmmmm… Yes. He did do that, if I recall. …But we'll discuss about that later. I must finish the rest of this story." _Merlumina cleared her throat. _We hid them for their own protection, waiting for the day the hero would arrive. Everything was going as planned. Or so it seemed… But the wheels of destiny began to spin wildly out of control. It began with a very small incident… At that time, I was young and quite beautiful…"_

At this moment, she started to go off on a tangent. _"It started the day I met two very fetching young men. And, you see, my life set sail toward a maelstrom of love. You see, I asked one out, but… However… It was…well, you know… Basically…it… And then, I said… And he said…And then…"_

Chopper let out a yawn before his eyes starting to slowly close from her soothing voice and started to fall asleep. Even Tippi was falling asleep, landing right on top of Chopper's head.

* * *

**Many, many hours later-**

_"… And THAT is why we hope the Purity Heart will have the power to defeat chaos. To save all worlds, we must find the eight…well twenty Pure Hearts that form the Purity Heart."_

Merlumina turned back to Chopper. _"And that is all I have to say on the matter. Were you listening carefully?"_

Chopper snapped out of his sleep and nodded. "Yup! I listened to every single bit! Especially the part about…er…um… Well, let's just say that I listened to the whole thing!"

_"Excellent… I did tell the short version, so I wasn't sure if you would fully understand. It is up to you to find the Pure Hearts, for they are our last and only hope. Go forth, hero, and save the worlds… We are all depending on you!"_

Merulimina called forth a red Pure Heart that floated above her. It began to float above Chopper as Thoreau started to dance.

"Huh? Why's Thoreau dancing?" Chopper questioned.

But it was a bit too late to answer his question. The red Pure Heart floated down to Chopper and he began to hold it up proudly, like he accomplished something great.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Before disappearing, Merlumina had entrusted Chopper to save every world. She had waited three months to deliver the message to this new legendary hero. With the second Pure Heart in hand, Chopper was in great spirits. But eighteen Pure Hearts still remained to be found, and the journey had just begun… With a flutter, Tippi said, "I think we'd better return to Flipside…" The weight of every world's fate once again rested on Chopper's shoulders… If he even has shoulders…_

* * *

**Well, there's Chapter 1 for you guys! I know it's a lot different than the other two Chapter 1's in the last two Paper Chopper stories - with it having pink and all that. But, you know... It can't always have pink...and it can't always have party members like Vivian or Koopla...or even Bruce.**

**Anyway, we're gonna see something interesting in the interlude, that's for sure!**


	8. Chapter 1 Interlude

**So, you wanna see something interesting in this chapter interlude? Well… I guess I'll give you something interesting then! Don't worry, there's going to be something big that could happen here. What, exactly? Well… You'll find out.**

* * *

"Fer… Fergive me fer me loss, Tipral… I've failed yeh! I've never felt less chunky in me life! That Chopra gave me a good beatin' back on Lineland Road!" O'Chunks wheezed as he was down on his knees. "Make me do anythin' yeh want me teh do. I deserve teh be punished…"

Tipral looked down at the exhausted O'Chunks as he was reading through the Dark Prognosticus. _"Hmmmmm… If I punish him severely, then it won't make me look like a good leader. But I let him off loose… He's not going to get anything from it. What to do…"_

Dark looked down at O'Chunks. He began to smell the air. "Auuuughh! Do you use deodorant or something? ! You smell HORRIBLE! You smell worse then that Eggman person!"

"'A warrior never needs teh shower often,'" O'Chunks quoted from a book he read. "I don't need the water teh help me stay clean! When yeh 'ave bad body odor, it makes things easier fer yeh!"

"So, Tipral… What're you gonna do next? O'Chunks literally got his ass handed to him by that kid. I guess that he's the real deal."

"Hmmmmmm… I expected this to happen." Tipral pondered after closing his book. "So he IS the Hero of the Light Prognosticus after all. O'Chunks, I want you to go back to some training. Perhaps that'll help you learn your mistakes from fighting Chopper."

"Wh-What? ! That's it? All I 'ave teh do is train harder?" O'Chunks lifted himself up. "Great toucans in gravy! That ain't such a bad punishment at all!"

"I'm back, Tippy!" Mimi came into the room in a beautiful purple dress and her hair curled up. "Do you like how I look? I did this just for you…"

"Mimi… Get off of my platform. This is no time to be flirting with me. You just met me anyways…" Tipral grumbled as he read the book again.

Mimi raised an eyebrow. "Are you still reading that book? What about ME? !"

"What about you?" Tipral closed the Dark Prognosticus and he looked at Mimi. "I'm sending you to the next Pure Heart location. There, you will stop Chopper. I want you to find him and bring him to me…_alive_."

"I'm going out?" Mimi squealed and she hugged Tipral. "Oh, thank you, Tippy! I promise that I won't fail you!" At that moment, she teleported out of the room.

"Are you sure that that girl can take down Chopper?" Dark questioned. "I mean, I don't think she's got as much strength as O'Chunks…who was literally DESTROYED by him…"

"Relax, Dark. I've granted Mimi powers potent enough to ensure that she will obliterate Chopper. Still… I have to be a bit careful, because I've discovered something else in this book…"

"'Ey? And what would that be?" O'Chunks questioned.

"There is more than one hero, I believe… If it could be one of the others that was in that castle…" Tipral pondered. "Dark! I want you to explore the castle and look for anyone that hasn't been brainwashed! Failure is not an option!"

"Understood," Dark nodded, pointing to the moon crescent on his head. "Surely I'll be able to brainwash them thanks to the new powers you gave me with this moon crescent." He looked up at his third eye on his forehead, which was closed and then he departed by wrapping his black cape around himself.

"As for you, O'Chunks… I'm going out somewhere. While I'm out, I want you to stay here. Understood?" Tipral teleported out of the castle with the Dark Prognosticus.

O'Chunks's eyes widened. "Aw… I… Gah, this really tweaks me chin hairs!"

* * *

**Outside of Castle Tipral-**

"Poyo… (Ugh… I don't feel so good…)" Kirby slowly got himself up, but to his surprise, he was not to Sammer's Kingdom. He was standing on a black ground with white outlines. Up in the sky was purple darkness, or better yet, it was inside of The Void.

"Poyo? ! (Hello? ! Anybody? ! Chopper? ! Sonic? ! Mario? ! Where are you guys! ?)" he exclaimed.

He then started to remember something. "Poyo… (Wait a minute… Now I think I remember what happened! I think Tipral returned and he made me fight King Dedede until I was exhausted! But… Why?)"

"Hey, is that Kirby over there?" Kirby turned around to find a Waddle Dee with a spear and a Hammer Bro. They didn't appear to look brainwashed.

"So you finally woke up, huh, pink creampuff?" the Hammer Bro. asked.

"Dude, don't even TRY to talk to him," the Waddle Dee retorted. "You won't be able to understand a word he's saying! Listen, Kirby… We don't have much time here. Some dark dude is coming around these hallways and brainwashing people! It's a disaster!"

"I can't even find King Bowser around here either! I'm trying to look for that guy, but I can't find him anywhere!"

"Yeah… And I don't know what happened to His Majesty… I can't leave him behind like that! It's…horrifying!"

"As for the others… Like that blue hedgehog, that blue cat and those two Mario Bros. guys… We don't know where they went either. You're the only one we've found so far, creampuff."

"Poyo? (What's going on here?)" Kirby asked.

The Hammer Bro. looked confused. "Yeah… I don't understand 'Poyo' language. But, the thing is… We gotta clear this area, NOW!" He turned to the Waddle Dee to have a small little conversation before he turned back to Kirby.

"This Waddle Dee here is going to escort you, OK? You guys make a break for it. While you guys are getting outta here, I'm gonna go help out my men! King Bowser would burn me to a crisp if I left 'em! Leave no Koopa behind! Good luck out there, creampuff! _**HAIL BOWSER!**_"

As the Hammer Bro. left, the Waddle Dee walked over to Kirby. "OK, Kirby, we've gotta EVAC this zone! Let's roll!"

Kirby nodded and he immediately made his way over to the black door next to him. He may not be fast like Chopper, but at least he can stay up in the air as long as he can by floating, that's for sure.

When Kirby and the Waddle Dee made their way inside of the castle, they saw all of the dark torches around them. The flames were even black as well! It's like everything was black but with white outlines!

"You. Give up. There is no hope for escape."

"Poyo? (Hmmmmm? I can hear something from down below…)" Kirby looked below the platform to see the Hammer Bro. from before facing two Koopa Troopas wearing sunglasses (the ones that Chopper faced in Chapter 1-2).

"All hail the glorious Tipral!" the Koopa shouted. "Do not resist… Submit to his rule. You will love it."

The Hammer Bro. growled and he pulled out his hammer. "What's this insubordination? ! Johnson! I am your CAPTAIN!" He pointed to the ground. "Drop and give me twenty!"

"Listen, Hammer Bro… Your orders mean nothing now." Dark appeared in front of the Hammer Bro. with a threatening look.

"Didn't you see that they've sworn their allegiance to Tipral? You can't do a thing about it! …But, since you're here… I might as well start testing out my brainwashing powers…"

"You just messed with the wrong Koopa, dark dude!" the Hammer Bro. growled. "I don't serve anyone named 'Tipral'! I serve Bowser and ONLY Bowser! You go tell this 'Tipral'…"

Before he could finish, Dark fired purple energy at him from his moon crescent. "_**HYUUUUUURK!**_"

His eyes turned red after the purple energy disappeared. "_**HAIL TIPRAL!**_"

Dark looked at him with a grin. "Yes… Excellent! Now that makes things a bit better… Now, listen here… There are still some minions that haven't sworn their allegiance to us, so why don't you look for them?"

"_**YES, SIR!**_"

The Waddle Dee shivered at the sight of the Hammer Bro. being brainwashed. "Holy… I can't believe we just witnessed that! He… He got that captain guy!" He looked up at Kirby.

"Listen… If they find us, then it's GAME OVER for us! We've gotta clear this area STAT!" Both he and Kirby jumped off the platform and then they walked over to the door to their left to a room with a staircase going down to a door ahead.

"Poyo! (I bet we'll be safe over there!)" Kirby made his way down the stairs and to the door. At least he had the Waddle Dee to keep him company…

When they walked into the next room, they noticed that they were outside this time. They were led into a dead end…over by a cliff.

"Oh, no… OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We're at a dead end!" the Waddle Dee cried as he looked down below.

"Poyo… (Well we can't stay here forever. We have to get out of here immediately and find another way out!)" Kirby suggested.

"Ah, so there you are… We've been looking for you!" Kirby turned around to find a grinning Dark with other brainwashed minions such as Koopas, Goombas, Waddle Dee and even Motobugs.

"Poyo! (Hey… I remember you!)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo? (Weren't you the one that got in our way when we were hunting for the Crystal Stars?)"

The Waddle Dee stepped up in front, aiming his spear at Dark. "Go find some cover, Kirby! I'm trained to fight scum like this! …Although King Dedede wasn't really the one to train us, though…"

"You think you can take me on?" Dark zapped the Waddle Dee with his brainwashing powers, turning him into a Waddle Doo.

"ALL HAIL LORD TIPRAL!"

"Hmph… Well, it does feel nice to find someone that helped Sonic find those Crystal Stars. How nice…for me! We could use someone who can inhale anything in sight such as yourself on our side!"

"Poyo! (I'll never join you!)" Kirby retorted.

"I don't know what you just said, but it sounds like you just said no. Sorry, but when my hypnotic powers reach you, there's no saying 'no'!"

Kirby grumbled to himself as he glared at Dark, but before he could get brainwashed, a white square outline appeared around him.

"Poyo?" Kirby was suddenly teleported out of the room in some kind of magical teleportation.

"Huh? ! Where'd he go? !" Dark growled. "…Bah! Forget him! It's not like he was going to be the most useful person for us anyways… He's too slow. Besides, that plan Tipral told us is going smoothly. There's no need for him."

* * *

**Meanwhile, over by Dream Land-**

"Hmmmmmmm… That void in the sky… It's so small, yet it's…strange." Meta Knight began to study The Void up in the sky. It was incredibly small at this moment, but soon it would grow.

"Sir Meta Knight! This is strange…" Meta Knight's servant, Sword Knight came into the room. "Weren't the Crystal Stars supposed to protect the universe from any danger? What I'm seeing here is some darkness up in the sky! How is this even possible?"

"I don't understand either, Sword Knight. We've never had something like this five months ago… And not to mention I haven't seen His Majesty anywhere either. Something strange is going on here…"

Meta Knight continued to look out the window until he saw Tipral appear in front of him.

"Ah, I've been looking for you! Meta Knight, isn't it?" Tipral asked.

"Hmmmm? Who are you? You almost resemble…Chopper a bit."

Tipral gave him a bow before introducing himself. "My name is Tipral. I am Maquano's grandson, the one that shall bring the universe to an end thanks to the Chaos Heart! There's nothing you can do about it!"

"I thought all of those villains gave up on evil five months ago. Why haven't you?" Meta Knight questioned.

"That's because I was teleported to a strange area where I couldn't get out, since my teleporting was disabled. But, thanks to this weapon, I was able to not only gain my teleporting back, but the power to get anything that I desire!" Tipral held up his dark and powerful weapon, the Dark Star Scepter.

"How were you able to create that black hole if the Crystal Stars are protecting the universe?"

"The Void swallows anything in its sight. It'll swallow any light in its path! Therefore, you cannot stop it! It will grow bigger each day…until it swallows this world up."

Meta Knight grabbed his golden sword and he pulled it out, showing his powerful Galaxia sword. "Then I shall put a stop to you!"

He rushed straight at Tipral, swinging at him. Unfortunately, Tipral managed to block the attack and hurl a shadow ball at his face.

Meta Knight immediately shook his head. "So… You wish to face me, do you? Very well! I won't be afraid to fight!"

He flew straight at Tipral with his sword, but his sword was blocked. "You're rather foolish if you think you can fight off the new Lord of Darkness! I think I have something in store for you!"

"And that would be…"

"How about you take a nice trip to where there IS no dimension! How about…between?" He twirled his scepter, summoning a smaller version of The Void to suck Meta Knight in.

"Arghhh! No… I can't…" Meta Knight tried to fly away, but he was too late. He was sucked into the black hole.

"Sir Meta Knight! NOOOO!" Sword Knight cried.

"Excellent! Perhaps he might see Chopper? Time will tell…" Tipral waved his scepter before disappearing, returning to his own castle.

* * *

_I remember that day… The day when I was first born… I heard these…voices._

"_What shall we do with this person when he's done?"_

"_We don't have an answer yet. We're supposed to give him to his mother. He's designed to be the new ruler of the Shadow Kingdom!"_

"_But what if this experiment fails? Then what shall we do?"_

"_Relax. Things will be all right. I'm sure that there won't be any system failures. But, he's looking quite good at the moment. Just a few more days and he'll be ready go out and explore!"_

_Ah, yes… Those were the words I was starting to hear as I was being created. But, everything turned in the future for me…_

* * *

**Back on Flipside Towers-**

"Whew… What a walk! I can't believe we even had to listen to an extremely long story. Yeah… We've been going through A LOT of dialogue lately…" Chopper huffed as he walked out of the red door. He took notice of the empty heart above the door. A red crystal heart appeared above it.

**If you get a Pure Heart, you can choose to visit specific sections in each chapter.**

Chopper looked up at the text above him and he inhaled it. "Mmmmmmmm! Now THAT was pretty good!" He let out a small burp before turning back to Tippi.

"That was a bit uncalled for…" she groaned. "But, let's just go to Merlon's place… You remember where that is, right?"

Chopper shook his head. "It's on the second floor to the left…"

"Oh, OK," Chopper took the elevator down to the second floor, only to get a greeting from Merlon outside of his house.

"Oh ho ho! You return so soon?" Chopper turned to his left to see Merlon. "I can see from your faces that it went well, indeed… Let's head back to my house so you can tell me all of the details. Please, step right in."

Chopper followed Merlon into his house. He noticed the blue walls and the shelf full of books and chemicals. He also noticed a white book with a star in the center in front of him at the entrance.

"What's that book over there?" Chopper asked.

"I see you're curious about that," Merlon chuckled. "That is the Light Prognosticus. That is the book that can counter the book Tipral holds, the Dark Prognosticus. But, how was your trip, dear friends? Did you find a Pure Heart?"

"We sure did!" Chopper pulled the red Pure Heart for Merlon to gaze at.

"Oh ho, such pure brilliance… This is a true piece of the one true Purity Heart!"

"Yes, we met Merlumina…" Tippi explained as Chopper put the Pure Heart away. "She gave it to us…"

Merlon's face looked surprised. "Wh-What? ! Lady Merlumina? ! You were well met. She is an ancestor of mine. She was the one who wrote the Light Prognosticus to counteract the dark one… Merlumina and those who followed her built this town. They are why we are here."

"M-M-M-MASTER MERLON! B-B-B-BAD NEWS!" a strange, blue-headed man came walking into the room.

"Man, I'm still not used to the people around here… They're all so weird…" Chopper grumbled.

"What is it? !" Merlon exclaimed. "Get a hold of yourself, lad…"

"Y-Y'see… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um… Um…"

"Just get on with it!" Chopper shouted.

"Um, y'see… Two weird, spherical-shaped people fell from the sky! One seems to be a bit conscious, while the other doesn't appear to be!"

"What? Two people fell from the sky? What in the worlds?" Merlon asked.

"I dunno! Just, please! Get in the elevator and come up to see it!"

"So, it shall be! And you, Chopper, come along. We may need your presence as well!" Merlon followed the strange-looking man out of his house and over to the elevator leading to the third floor.

"I wonder who those two could be," Chopper pondered as he walked out of the house. "Y'know what? I think this calls for…my Speed Dash!"

"Chopper… I don't think…" Before Tippi could finish, Chopper charged up his Speed Dash by going into a figure-8 pattern and then blasting off over to the elevator. "Ugh… Sometimes he never learns…"

* * *

**Up on the third floor-**

Chopper gaped when he saw one of the people slowly getting up. "M-Meta Knight? !"

"You know him?" Tippi questioned.

"Yeah. He's the one that saved me from my birth planet when it was getting blown up. I feel like I owe him big time for that." Chopper immediately rushed over to Meta Knight, who felt a bit drowsy.

"Ugh… What just happened?" Meta Knight turned his head to Chopper. "Ch-Chopper… Is that really you?"

"Yeah, it's me, Meta Knight," Chopper nodded. "But what are you doing here? That's the question…"

Meta Knight tried to walk over to Chopper, but fell over. "Ugh… Chopper, I don't feel so good. I need something to regain my energy. Find me something… Please."

"I'll do that, but let me see what's going over by Merlon first. Don't worry, I'll still help you." Chopper walked over to where Merlon and the blue-faced man were standing.

"Um, yeah, so I was just looking up at the tower, and then he fell outta nowhere!" the blue man explained while pointing down at a pink puffball.

"Hmmm…" Merlon pondered as he looked at the puffball. "He does not look at all familiar to me… Who could this be?"

Chopper gasped as he saw his friend, Kirby, lying on the ground. "Kirby…? He's the one that fell from the sky?"

"Hmm? You know who he is too?" Tippi questioned.

"Yeah! I met him five months ago! We went on this adventure before that had to do with collecting the twenty Crystal Stars. Unfortunately, he ran into Tipral just like me. As for Meta Knight… I don't know how he got here."

"Meta Knight?" Merlon looked over at Meta Knight, who was trying his best to use his arms to get over to them. "Ahhh… So he is Meta Knight."

"Is there a way we can help them?" Tippi asked.

"I must think for a moment…" Merlon pondered until he found the perfect solution. "Ah, yes! I know! Chopper, you must go to the chef named **Saffron **on the first floor of Flipside. I am sure she knows a warming and revitalizing recipe for your friends… Once they revive, we will be able to ask them exactly what happened. Now, off with you! Find Saffron the chef on the first floor!"

"All right, I'll be back!" Chopper made his way back to the elevator with a Speed Dash with Tippi following him.

* * *

**First floor of Flipside-**

"Saffron's shop is over here…" Tippi fluttered over to the building with a pot sign in the front of the house. "Let's go!"

Chopper, using his speed, made it over to the house in one second. Inside, he saw a lime-green woman with an apron standing over by the counter in the yellow house.

"Welcome to Sweet Smiles!" Saffron greeted them happily. "Ooh, sugar, our dishes will turn that little frown right upside down!"

"Really? That sounds great!" Chopper smiled until Tippi poked him. "Err… I mean, we came here because one of my friends is out cold and the other is too weak to move around."

Saffron gasped. "What? They are? Oh, mercy! Well, listen here, sugar… they sound like they need some Spicy Soup! All I need are two Fire Flowers to make a pot of soup that'll warm them up in a jiffy!"

"Oh, really? In that case…" Chopper pulled out two Fire Flowers. "Here you go!"

"Two Spicy Soups, coming right up, sugar!" After Saffron twirled her spoon, she immediately got to work. She was singing a song while she was working on the soup as well.

"Ooh la la la la YUMMMM! Put it in your TUMMMMM!" For some strange reason, a pink heart appeared over her head as she started to finish up.

After twirling her spoon once more, she returned with two bowls of soup. "Sorry about the wait, sugar…but it turned out just right! This ought to wake up those friends of yours, sugar! Go on, now! Get it to them as quick as you can!"

"I'm on it!" Chopper began to charge up his Speed Dash until Tippi stopped him.

"Wait, Chopper! You might spill the bowls if you move fast! Take it a bit slower…" she suggested.

"Awww… That's no fun! Fine. I'll take it _slower_…" Chopper pouted as he walked out of Saffron's kitchen. A bunch of people could smell the delicious soup. As much as they wanted it, they found out that he's giving it to two people.

* * *

**Back on the third floor-**

"Here, Meta Knight. Take this bowl of soup." Chopper handed Meta Knight the bowl of soup.

"Thank you, Chopper…" Meta Knight wheezed as he took the soup. "I'm going to need to take this mask off."

He took his mask off, revealing his yellow eyes and his Kirby-like appearance. After gulping down the soup, he felt some of his energy coming back.

"Ahhhh… Much better!" He managed to get himself up and put his mask back on. "I thank you for the help, Chopper… If it weren't for you, I probably would have passed out…or even died."

"What are you doing here, though?"

"There's no time to explain. Give that last bowl of soup to Kirby! He needs it right away!"

"Got it!" Chopper slowly made his way over to Kirby. Merlon stepped out of the way for him to give Kirby the soup.

After making him gulp it down, Kirby started to moan for a bit.

"Oh ho… It seems to have worked." Merlon stated.

Kirby slowly got back up and he yawned. "Poyo…? (What just happened? It almost felt like I had something so good… I need more!)"

"Kirby!" Chopper shouted. Kirby turned around with a red ! over his head as he saw Chopper and Meta Knight.

"Poyo! (Chopper! …And Meta Knight? What are you both doing here? In fact, where are we?)" he asked.

"Hmmmm? I don't understand a thing that he just said…" Tippi gawked. Chopper began to translate what he said and she understood. "Oh… Well, Kirby… This is Flipside…"

"Poyo? (And who are you?)" Kirby asked as he turned to Merlon.

"My pink little friend, I am called Merlon. And that is what is known as a Pixl. Her name is Tippi."

"Poyo? (Wait… You can understand what I'm saying?)"

"Why of course! As a wizard, I am bound to know what you are saying. Come, let us adjourn to my house. I would be grateful if you and Meta Knight would tell us more there."

* * *

**Some time later at Merlon's house-**

"…Poyo, (And then before I knew it, I awoke and saw Chopper, Meta Knight and Tippi,)" Kirby finished the rest of his story. Meta Knight had already finished explaining his part as well.

"Well, my friend… That is the most assuredly a tale of woe and troubles." Merlon commented. "And you, Meta Knight… You say that Tipral ambushed you and brought you here, is that true?"

Meta Knight nodded. "Yes. I tried to fight him off with my sword, but he was too strong. I don't think he even brought my servants here… Now I'm starting to wonder how they'll do."

"Poyo? (Chopper… What do you suppose happened to Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi?)" Kirby asked.

"I'm not sure… Wherever they went, I'm pretty sure that they're someplace in that castle you were in…or they could be somewhere else, just like how Meta Knight got here. Only time can tell."

"Merlon… What should we do next?" questioned Tippi.

"'And one Pure Heart shall lead the way to the next…' So it is written. There are still more Heart Pillars to be found in Flipside, young ones. When you find the next Heart Pillar, you must set a Pure Heart in it. And when you do so, a door to the world containing the next Pure Heart will appear."

"Understood," Meta Knight nodded.

"And…my intrusion tells me the next door may lead you to the mysterious **Merlee**. Like Bestovius and I, Merlee is one of the Ancients… We are like long-lost cousins. Yes… I am sure that Merlee has an ancient treasure held in her hands. If my instincts are correct, then that must be the next Pure Heart we seek. I must tell you, the Light Prognosticus also speaks of her magical powers…"

"Poyo… (So, we just need to find this Merlee person, is that it?)"

A red ! appeared over Merlon's head. "Oh ho, are you going as well? You should not tax yourself. You've only just recovered…and it may be dangerous."

"Poyo! (What? You expect me to stay here and do nothing while all worlds get destroyed? I can't do that! Besides, it's not a good idea to leave Chopper to go off on his own! He wouldn't have many people to talk to!)"

"Yes, I should go as well," Meta Knight said, reaching for his sword. "…Huh?" He noticed that Galaxia was missing.

"Meta Knight… Is something bothering you?" Merlon asked.

"My sword! It's…gone! Did Tipral manage to snatch it from me…? …Or did he separate it from me? Urgh… Without my sword, I cannot go…"

"Well… Then if you cannot go, then perhaps you could be of assistance? If you could, would you guide Chopper to any Pure Hearts that you find around Flipside?"

"I could do that. When I finally get a hold of my sword, I'll try to see if I can do something to stop Tipral. But, right now I must look for my sword. Have you walked into any other worlds, Chopper?"

"Yeah… Up on Flipside Tower, there's a red door. You can look through there if you want – but just watch out for any old men and a wizard that tries to give you a fee on _certain_ abilities…"

"I see. For now, Chopper… Kirby will help you. I'm pretty sure both of you could make your way through the second door easily. As for me… I'm going to look through that red door."

Meta Knight made his way out of Merlon's house and up to the tower.

"Well, he seems to be in a hurry," Merlon chuckled. He looked back down at Kirby. "So, Kirby… Are you sure you want to do this?"

Kirby only gave Merlon a simple nod. "Very well. I suppose it's for the best that you help Chopper."

**Kirby has joined your party! ****Now you can control not just Chopper, but Kirby as well! With his inhaling ability, he can inhale as much stuff as he wants to and deal damage to enemies by spinning them out! He can also inhale air and float up or over things you can't normally get over. Also, if you press down on the D-Pad, Kirby will get in a defensive position, where he won't take little damage from an attack!**

"I guess we need to find the next Heart Pillar…" Tippi stated.

"Hmmmmm…" This friend of Chopper's is headstrong, to be sure. How very refreshing. I insist you take this."

Merlon gave Kirby an Old Key. "There are secrets in this town that I do not even know… This may be one of the keys to uncovering them. Quite literally, in fact. Please, use this key wherever it fits here in town. I'm sure you'll be able to use this near my house… I will continue to read the Light Prognosticus and look for any clues that may help. I am sure that musty old tome still has much to teach us. Yes, much indeed. Now, Chopper, Kirby… Do all you can to stop Tipral's evil plans!"

"All right! Let's go, Kirby!" Chopper suggested as he and Kirby made their way outside to town.

"Poyo… (There are so many weird people here… I'm not used to it!)" Kirby gaped.

"Well, I had the same feeling as well. Let me have the key for a sec… I'm gonna see if there's anything around." Chopper grabbed the key from Kirby and then flipped into 3-D to see what was around.

"Poyo? ! (Hey! Where'd you go, Chopper? !)"

"Oh… I almost forgot." Chopper flipped back to 2-D. "Let's see if I can get you into 3-D too…"

Grabbing his arm, he flipped into 3-D once again. This time, Kirby was in 3-D with him. They noticed to their right, a locked gate, so Chopper put the key in its place and walked out to the outskirts.

"Whoa… It's a lot different out here than at town. How interesting…" Chopper gawked as he could still see The Void from the sky. "HA! You're still as small as you're usually are!"

"Poyo? (What is that supposed to be anyways?)" Kirby asked.

"Oh, that? Well… It's The Void. Basically, it gets bigger in an amount of time and it'll destroy everything. That's about it. But for now, let's see what we have around here."

Tippi tugged on Chopper's antenna. "Move to the right… There's a pipe over there…"

"Oh. Why thank you, Tippi." Chopper jumped over a large block as he made his way over to the pipe. They both made their way down to the first floor of Flipside Outskirts.

After jumping over a bottomless pit, they both took notice of the Squig that was shooting a coconut at them.

"Poyo! (Leave this to me!)" Kirby inhaled the coconut and he spat it back out at the Squig, knocking it out of the area. Chopper finished the other one behind the tall block with a simple stomp.

"Well, at least your inhaling works. Now let's see what we can find in 3-D." Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm and he flipped into 3-D once again. He noticed that the block he jumped over had a red arrow pointing to the right to another area up ahead.

"Poyo… (Whoa… Now THIS is weird…)" he gawked.

"Tell me about it! I'm still not used to this whole 2-D and 3-D stuff! I remember back five months ago when everything was all 3-D! Meh… I'll get used to it sooner or later…"

They made their way even FURTHER from the outskirts to find two blocks holding up another block that contained a Heart Pillar to their right. There were some other floating blocks, but they didn't need to use them.

"Poyo? (Is that the Heart Pillar you were talking about?)" Kirby questioned.

"Yeah, that's the one," Chopper confirmed. "Let's go check it out!"

Chopper made his way over to the Heart Pillar, but he noticed that he couldn't make the jump up there. "Crap! My jump's not high enough! I don't think wall jumping will help me either!"

"Hmmmmm… Then how are we supposed to get up here?" Tippi pondered.

"Poyo! (Leave that to me!)" Kirby made a pose before puffing himself up and floating up to the Heart Pillar.

"That was strange…" Tippi gawked. "I never knew that your pink friend could do something like that…"

"He can do many thing!" Chopper smiled before looking up at Kirby. "Hey, can you get me up here? ! I have the Pure Heart!"

"Poyo! (I'm on it!)" Kirby opened his mouth and he started to inhale Chopper like a vacuum. He turned to the Heart Pillar and he spat him out at it, making his face hit it.

"Ugh… Some day I'm gonna need surgery on my face…" Chopper groaned as he pushed himself off before rubbing his face.

"Go ahead, Chopper… Place the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar…" Tippi suggested.

Chopper took a deep breath as he noticed the wave coming from the Heart Pillar. Bringing out the red Pure Heart, it floated up and it was placed in its pillar, creating a red clock that started to tick.

At the very moment, an orange door was created over by Flipside Towers.

"Poyo… (So… Where do we go now? In fact, do we get any cool abilities after collecting a Pure Heart?)"

"I don't think so…" Chopper frowned, pulling the Return Pipe out. "Yeah, it kinda sucks that we can't get new abilities. But, I guess we're gonna have to use our own moves to fight off enemies. C'mon, Kirby! This'll take us to the tower!"

They made their way down the pipe and in no time flat, they were back at Flipside Towers.

"There's the next door…" Tippi informed. "Let us to…"

"Poyo! (I can't wait!)" Kirby squealed as he followed Chopper and Tippi into the next world. From the look on his face, he felt so excited. Probably the most out of many months of doing nothing…


	9. The Islands of Gloam

"_Poyo… (Well, this is pretty interesting… So you have to go through these doors to go to the next word? It sounds interesting!)" Kirby was enticed by what Chopper explained to him what he had to go through in the first world. He recalled something about seeing Bowser and fighting off a monstrous mechanical dragon. "Yeah, I finished off that dragon with the wrath of my level 10 antennas! That was pretty awesome!" With Kirby at his side, Chopper set out once again, bound for adventure. This time, our heroes were tasked with finding the mysterious charmer, Merlee. If Merlon was right, then Merlee was the key to finding the next Pure Heart. Never one to flinch from danger…sometimes, Chopper set out to find Merlee's mysterious mansion, even if they were forced to start a bit further from Gloam Valley._

**CHAPTER 2-1**

**-The Islands of Gloam-**

(Ugh… I'm definitely not looking for Chapter 2. It is, by far, my least favorite chapter in the entire story. The reason? Well… It's not really THIS part, to be honest. It's one in the future. This one, however, I don't really have any problems with. The last three parts in this chapter don't have much action (well, there's the boss and all), but this one will certainly have it. But, enough talking. I think you should get to see what's up ahead for Chopper and Kirby)

As stuff was beginning to get drawn, some beautiful grass was starting to appear in green colors. The place didn't seem all that flat, though. It felt a bit on the bumpy side. When everything was colored, everything started to look a little summery with the sky being orange and the water being orange.

As the orange door appeared, Chopper and his new party member Kirby walked out of it to see where they were.

"Strange… I don't recall the door leading us somewhere around here…" Tippi remarked as she looked at the grass and the small hills. "Something must not be right here… Did Tipral toss the door someplace farther to further our progress?"

"Poyo? (Tipral? So he's behind something, isn't he, Chopper?)" Kirby questioned.

"Yeah, he's been causing a bit of a ruckus lately! I'm getting a bit tired of him now, now that you mention it." Chopper turned back around and he looked around at the view. "Say… This is a nice place! It kinda reminds me of Sunset Hill for some reason…"

"Poyo? (Sunset Hill? Ahhhh… I remember that place. Good times…)"

"Sunset Hill? What kind of place is that?" Tippi questioned.

"Oh, it's this beautiful place that's back on Earth where this town was surrounded by these other areas. But, maybe it's best not to speak about that. We're in a new world now, y'know."

"I suppose…" Tippi fluttered on ahead. "I can feel that the Pure Heart is…pretty far… It might take some time to get through here, I believe…"

"Then let's get going!" Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash as he brought his arms back. "I'm going to speed through this level with easy!"

He immediately blasted off, running through the small hills until he got to a gap between the grass and a grassy platform up above the water. There was no way he could make that jump.

"Poyo! (Wait up, Chopper!)" Kirby started to pant as he finally made it to Chopper. "Poyo… (Slow down, will you? I can't run as fast as you, don't you remember?)"

"Oh, yeah… Sorry, Kirby. But, at least I finally stopped." Chopper turned to the grassy platform above the water. "I don't think I can reach that…not even that Bronto Burt could help me make it up there."

Kirby noticed the Bronto Burt and he immediately inhaled it and swallowed it. Unfortunately, nothing happened.

"Well what was the point of that?" Chopper questioned.

"Poyo, (I don't know,)" Kirby took notice of Thoreau. "Poyo? (Hey, Chopper… Who's that hand-like thing that's behind you?)"

"You mean Thoreau? He's a Pixl, just like Tippi. Except that he gives me this cool ability to grab things and throw them at enemies. You wanna use him? I know that you can't jump on enemies, so it would be fair…"

"Poyo? (Really? You would do that? You know you don't have to…)"

"Well, I have Tippi here, so I think it makes sense that you should have a Pixl of your own. Here, take Thoreau." Chopper let Thoreau go over to him.

"I hope I can be of good assistance, hero," Thoreau hoped as he looked at the second hero, Kirby.

"OK, Kirby… For right now, you're gonna have to make your way up there with your floating." Chopper suggested. "…And then try to help me get up there afterwards. Don't worry, it'll be all right."

With one nod, Kirby inhaled a bunch of air before floating up to the grassy platform. He turned around and used his Inhaling ability to get Chopper onto the platform – without him going into his mouth, of course.

"Poyo? (So, this red door is where we need to go?)" Kirby asked. Chopper gave him a nod and he walked through it to another area. This time, they were on this little island with a Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo.

"All right! Now it's time for…" Chopper's jaw hit the ground as Kirby swallowed the Waddle Dee and then swallowed the Waddle Doo to gain the Beam ability. "Oh, come on! I didn't even get a chance to make a move!"

"So he can gain abilities just like you…" Tippi raised an eyebrow as Kirby started to make his way over to the next island ahead by floating. He could even do some damage to the Bronto Burts when he exhaled a big puff of air. He then proceeded to float over and avoid cannonballs being fired from cannons floating in the water.

"Are you kidding me? I have to swim through all of that? !" Chopper gulped as he looked down at the water. "All right… I'll be a man and do this. …No! I'm NOT a man! I'm a ten year old kid!"

"I don't think you can even use your Speed Dash now…" Tippi stated.

"Yeah, I know that, but that's not going to… Wait, I got a better idea!" Chopper flipped into 3-D and he immediately jumped into the water, going around the cannons that were in the center.

"Yup! This is by far the best idea I've ever came up with!" he declared as he got on the island and flipped into 2-D. He and Kirby were on this smaller little island. It was almost like some platform.

"Kirby, try to slow down a bit. I can't cross this water so easily like you." Chopper panted, taking a seat on the grass.

"Poyo… (Well, sorry if you can't keep up…)" Kirby turned to a Blooper that was floating out of the water and he destroyed it with a charged beam attack. It even knocked some of the other Bloopers coming out on the other side.

Kirby jumped on another platform nearby and that's when he began to float over the water to a larger island ahead. He was easily avoiding the cannonballs being fired at him, making Chopper a bit annoyed.

"This isn't what I was hoping for when we would work together," Chopper groaned. He noticed there were some fish with goggles in the water. He decided to check what they are using Tippi's powers.

"That's a Blipper. All it really does is swim around… It's only a fish, so it's not much of a big deal…" Tippi informed. Chopper decided to see what those cannons were, so he checked them out with Tippi's power.

"That's a cannon. It simply shoots cannonballs at you in any direction. You can't defeat it, so all you can do is avoid it… However, you can inhale the cannonballs and use them against any other enemy if possible…"

"All right, thanks for the tips, Tipps!" Tippi rolled her eyes at that "pun" he made (that wasn't that great, I'll admit). Chopper waited for the right moment to jump. If he could jump on those Blippers, then he didn't have to swim through this madness.

After stretching, he immediately jumped on the Blipper closest to him first, performing a Stylish and then stomping on the next one. He noticed Kirby was waiting over by the island up ahead.

"Well, at least he's waiting," he sighed in relief as he stomped on the last two Blippers to make his way over to the island. He noticed that this one had some coconuts on the palm trees and a wooden block that can be thrown at a blue ! block up on the island ahead.

"Poyo? (How are we going to get this block over to that island ahead? There's no way I can pick up an enemy from the water, because I'll just sink down into a bottomless pit! Isn't there a way to get across?)" Kirby started to ponder.

"Let me see what's around," Chopper threw his arms up in the air and he flipped into 3-D. He noticed a path of yellow ? blocks were leading across to the island. "Ah! There's the problem!"

"Poyo? (What is it?)" questioned Kirby.

"Oh, it's simple," Chopper explained as he flipped into 2-D. "I saw a trail of blocks that can lead us over to the island! …Just watch out for the coconuts first. I think those'll explode if you get close to them."

"Why not just inhale them yourself?" Tippi suggested.

"Hmmmmm… You make an excellent point, Tipps." Chopper got rid of the coconuts by inhaling them and swallowing them. "Mmmmmm! It's been a while since I had some good ol' food in my tummy!"

"Are you always hungry?"

"Well, duh! Why do you think I can use this inhaling ability? But, anyways, let's just get started already." Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm and they flipped into 3-D. Using Thoreau, Kirby grabbed the box and they made their way across the row of blocks to the other side.

After flipping back, Kirby jumped and threw the block at the blue ! block, making a Door Key come down from the ground. Kirby was the one to get it.

"Hey, what's this?" Chopper saw a microphone sitting down on the ground. He shrugged and swallowed it to get the Mike ability, giving him these cool headphones. Unfortunately, the attack can only be used three times.

"Poyo… (Only use that when it's necessary…)" Kirby warned.

"Don't worry, I will," Chopper assured as they walked on ahead to a bunch of coconuts on trees and even a lot of Waddle Dee and Bronto Burts.

"Now THIS is when I can put my singing into action!" Chopper began to sing a song through the mic in his horrible singing voice. He knew just what song would be fitting for it.

"Who's the girl next door, living in the haunted mansion? You better learn my name, 'cause it's Ashley!" Because of the bad singing voice, all of the enemies exploded into white smoke. It was THAT bad.

"Well, I sure did something… Let's move on." Chopper made his way over to a small little pool of orange water at the end of the island. He and Kirby jumped into the water and into the door.

"Oh, god… Don't tell me we have to go through one of these swimming levels now, do we?" Chopper groaned as they stepped into another area that was all underwater – except for an island up above them.

"Poyo? (What's wrong with swimming underwater?)" Kirby asked. He was suddenly wearing goggles, but his jester-like hat wasn't on him now.

"What's wrong with it? Don't you understand that water areas are the WORST? ! Sure, I love a good swim and all…but then there's the fact that my inhaling doesn't work in here, so all I can do is squirt water at my enemies. Too bad we don't have a sword, 'cause we could slice through some of the enemies here."

"Hmmmmm… Well the water's not too bad." Thoreau stated.

"Poyo… (It's a good thing Sonic's not here… He hates the water more than anybody in the world! I mean, did you see his face when we were going through that temple on Clearno Island? That was hilarious!)"

"Oh, yeah! That was funny!" Chopper swam to the right and he began to squirt water at the Cheep-Cheeps and Blippers that were in his path. Kirby did the same thing as he followed Chopper through the watery area.

They came across a locked door when they swam for about thirty seconds, but the bad news was that it was locked.

"I remember there being an island above us… I suggest we take a look there…" Tippi suggested.

"Good idea," Chopper swam away from the locked door and he made his way up to the surface. Just to make sure there wasn't anything else around, he flipped into 3-D. All there was were some Blippers and Bloopers. That's just about it.

After reaching the surface, they took the time to dry themselves off before going into another area. After some time, they walked in to find a grassy area with some Bronto Burts flying around and these small yellow blocks that are on these platforms that a spiked Cyclops was hitting each time it moved up.

"Let's see what that spiked monster is," Chopper used Tippi's powers once again to gather some information. Kirby nearly gawked when he saw Chopper's eyes glow a rainbow color.

"Poyo? (What the… Are you all right?)" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm all right! Tippi just went in my head just to help me find some information on that thing!" the ray of rainbow colors shone upon the Gordo and in no time, Chopper began to get some information.

"That's a Gordo. It's a creature that can only move in four directions… You can't defeat it. All you can do is avoid it… But, you can get rid of it if it flies up into the sky…" Tippi informed.

"So, what you're saying is that… Oh, hold on a minute. We got some enemies coming up!" Chopper pulled the microphone out again and he began to sing another song in a horrible voice. It killed every single enemy around them – but not the block.

"Poyo! (I'll take care of the Gordo!)" Kirby jumped on the platform and he swung his wand, firing beam energy at the block. The Gordo immediately flew up into the sky, never to be seen again.

"Well there goes the Gordo," Chopper gawked before moving on ahead. There may not be any loops around here, but he can surely run if he wanted to and do some jumping as well.

The area wasn't too big, but when they walked through the door, they found a bigger area with some pipes and even some Goombas and Koopas, to Kirby's surprise.

"Poyo? (What the… Chopper, aren't these enemies we've seen back in Rogueport Sweres?)" questioned Kirby.

"Yeah, but heads up! That Goomba's about to headbonk us!" Chopper jumped out of the way before the Goomba could attack. He simple finished it off with a stomp before stomping on the Koopa, making him hide in his shell.

Chopper stepped out of the way to allow Kirby to kick it, knocking the rest of the Goombas and Koopas away until the shell came back at them from the pipe. But, all they had to do was jump over it.

"Let's just be cheap and flip into 3-D. We'll simply go around everything!" Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm and he flipped into 3-D, going past all of the pipes and enemies and to a…door covered in bricks?

"Huh? Why's this door covered in bricks? Think you can destroy them, Kirby?" Chopper stepped out of the way so Kirby could charge up a beam attack.

"Poyo… (I'll try…)" Kirby unleashed the powerful beam attack, but, to his surprise, it didn't work.

"Crap… I guess it did nothing." Chopper face palmed as he turned around. "Hold on… Maybe those pipes might lead us somewhere… Maybe we ought to take a look at one of those!"

When he saw the Piranha Plants rise up from the pipe, he immediately used his last Mike attack, singing in his horrible singing voice once again to kill off the plants. He immediately checked one of the pipes for anything. Luckily, the middle pipe led him down somewhere.

"Poyo! (Wait for me!)" Kirby shouted as he jumped into the pipe after him.

* * *

**Underground-**

"Poyo? (What the heck's that thing over there?)" Kirby questioned, pointing to a worm-like creature with this strange mouth and a lot of legs. Chopper decided to get some information by using Tippi's power.

"That bizarre creature is a Shlurp. It has tough skin and an appetite for everything... No attack will work... But Shlurps are just as fragile inside as they are tough on the outside... Maybe you should try feeding it something that would give it indigestion..." Tippi informed.

"What? No attack will work against it? ! That's not good! Then how do we get past it?" Chopper exclaimed.

"I'm pretty sure you can find something around here…" Tippi assured.

"Poyo! (Yeah, she's right! I can see a blue ! switch over by the corner! I think I can reach it!)" Kirby puffed himself up as he floated up to the corner of the room by the right. After letting out the puff of air, a door was made.

"Hmmmmmm… I get a strange vibe from entering this door, but I'll do it anyways." Chopper opened the red door and he walked into a small room with a Motobug charging at him.

"Heads up, Kirby!" Chopper shouted. Kirby immediately sent the thing to the wall with one charged up beam blast. That caused paper to flip in the center of the room, making a large chest appear.

"Poyo! (Hey! There's a big chest! I bet it's a new upgrade!)" Kirby bet.

"An upgrade? Oh, boy! I can't wait to see that new hammer!" Chopper opened the chest, hoping for a hammer to come out.

"_**KA-BOOOOOOOOOM!**_" the voice came out of the box and, of course, just like Thoreau and Tippi, his speech bubble was just the same.

"Poyo? (What was that?)" Kirby questioned.

To Chopper and Kirby's surprise, a Pixl that resembled an angry missile came out of the chest.

"So, ya finally got me outta the chest? BOOM! Well, I'm glad you finally did that! KA-BOOM! I thought for a minute I was going to EXPLODE in there! EXPLOSION! But, anyways… Allow me to introduce myself. BAM! The name's Hommissile. My game is blowing things up! BOOM!"

"So Thoreau's not the only Pixl besides Tippi… This is rather strange…" Chopper pondered a bit before Hommissile floated down to Chopper to take a look at him.

"Hey! You! Listen to me! KA-BOOM! I've been sitting in that chest for 1,500 years waiting for the hero! …Wait, if I'm free, does this mean you're… Holy… So you ARE the hero! …Boom?"

"Strange… I've never seen a Pixl shaped like a missile before…" Tippi gawked.

"Well, I can't do anything else besides homing in on enemies and exploding! BOOM! Look, let me ask you a question and then I'll see if you're worthy. OK… Now… If there's one thing I want to do right now, what would it be?"

"Would it be to explode?" Chopper guessed.

"Ha HA! You got it! So you ARE the hero after all! BAM! I feel like I could explode with delight! C'mon, now! I think you're worthy of my power!" Hommissile circled around Chopper before he held him up.

**The angry, but delightfully exploding missile has become your friend! Use Hommissile's power to fire at anything in sight and blow it up! This is useful when you're trying to blow up cracks or bricks.**

"And now, with you on my side, we shall blow everything up in sight! BOOM!" Hommissile declared.

"And that I shall do!" Chopper smirked, now having a Pixl buddy of his. "Well, looks like we both have something useful in our hands, huh, Kirby?"

"Poyo… (Wait, we can finally blow up those bricks in our way with him! We should head back there!)" Kirby suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me! But, let's see if we can take care of that Shlurp back in the other room. I gotta test Hommissile's ability!" Chopper smirked as he walked into the other underground room. The Shlurp was still moving around, making its way over to Chopper and Kirby.

"Take this!" Chopper sent Hommissile straight at the Shlurp's mouth; inhaling the thing…and having it explode from the inside. In no time at all, it was gone.

"Let's go back to the door so we can finally get through it and hopefully find a Door Key," Chopper suggested.

* * *

**At the door-**

"All right, do your thing, Hommissile!" Chopper tossed his new Pixl at the bricks blocking the door, causing an explosion to occur. A red door was revealed to be behind it.

"Ah, that felt good! KA-BOOM!" Hommissile said with joy.

"Let's go!" Chopper opened the door to another area. It was a smaller one with a little pool and some lily pads. Across the water were three Waddle Dee holding spears. They seemed to be talking.

"Poyo… (Well, looks like we've got some Waddle Dees to take down…)" Kirby began to float over the water to the other side. Chopper, on the other hand, was forced to jump on the lily pads.

The Waddle Dee turned around and saw Kirby. One of them threw their spear at Kirby, knocking him into the water. But, since he was able to get back up, he immediately swam back to the surface.

"This should take care of 'em!" Chopper threw Hommissile at the three Waddle Dee, knocking them away from the huge explosion.

"That took care of them…" Tippi gawked as a chest was being drawn. Chopper opened it to find a Door Key inside.

"Ahhhh! Now we've got the key! Took us long enough… Anyways, let's head back, since we've gotten find Merlee's Mansion…wherever that could be."

* * *

**Back in the water area-**

"Poyo! (I feel like I could take a swim through this water all day!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he began to swim backwards underwater, looking a bit relax. Chopper wanted to question why, but he thought of something else.

"So… You'd rather swim here in this water filled with baddies that most likely want to kill you, right? 'Cause that's what I'm seeing here…"

"…Poyo. (Yeah, good point. I think I'd rather go to Merlee's Mansion instead. Besides, that place is a MANSION, so it should be quite enjoyable. At least… That's what I think it'll be."

"Hopefully it will," Chopper agreed, swimming down to the door, getting rid of any Blippers by squirting water at them or firing Hommissile at them. He found out that using the missile Pixl worked better.

Making it back to the locked door, Chopper put the key in the lock and then they immediately made their way into another water area. This time, they saw a larger island up ahead, but they could hear someone's voice over there as well.

"Hmmmm? That voice sounds familiar…" Chopper hit the yellow ? block that was right by the door. A Mushroom came out, to their surprise, but, since Kirby had less HP at this moment, he took it.

"Poyo… (Now let's take a look at who's moaning…)" Kirby made his way up to the surface and onto the island. Chopper, on the other hand, hit the Save Block right next to him first.

"Ooooog… I don't feel so good…" Kirby gaped when he saw King Dedede lying face-flat on the ground with his foot twitching. "What… What happened? In fact… Am I dead?"

"Poyo?" Kirby poked King Dedede's robe before he immediately got up.

"What the… Kirby? ! What are you doing here? !" King Dedede exclaimed when he first saw Kirby. He nearly gaped when he saw Chopper jump out of the water. "Wh-What? ! Now there's Chopper, too? !"

"King Dedede? I haven't seen you in a while…" Chopper recalled, walking over to the fat king. "Last time I saw you, you gave me and my friends those cool medals. Did things turn out better in Dream Land?"

"Poyo… (Not really… He's been stealing people's food, that's for sure.)"

"I did NOT!" King Dedede retorted. "Now, let's get down to the chase! Tell me where we are NOW! And where are my men? I need them to help me!" He turned to see a Waddle Dee walk over to him.

"Hey, minion! I need you to help me find out where I am!" he spat. Unfortunately, the Waddle Dee didn't listen to him and he simply walked away. "Hey! Where do you think you're going? ! Don't leave me here, you fool! You're showing disrespect to your king, you know!"

"It's hopeless… You're not going to get him to change…" Tippi stated. "Your minions don't work for you anymore… They are now minions of Tipral. I'm sure that he's the one responsible for you being here…"

"What the… Since when did you two have a talking butterfly? …And two other weird things shaped like a hand and a missile! GRRAAGGH! Where the heck am I? !" King Dedede felt like he was going to pull his hair out.

He felt something hit him from behind. It came from a Squig on the island. "What the heck is THIS thing? It honestly thinks it can hit me like that? ! Oh… Now I'm pissed off!"

King Dedede pulled his large hammer out and he slammed it on the Squig, squishing it entirely until it was dead.

"You guys are next!" he growled, turning to them. "You, Kirby… You're always getting in my way of my plans! And then you, Chopper… You're responsible for beating me before… Now I'm going to get back at you!"

He raised his hammer up in the air before slamming it down in front of Kirby. A yellow star appeared before their very eyes.

"I got this one!" Chopper inhaled the star and then he spat it out at King Dedede in the stomach, making him hold his belly in pain.

"Oi! You're gonna pay for that, Chopper!" King Dedede brought his hammer up and he tried bringing it down on Chopper. Unfortunately, for him, his attack missed because it was so slow.

"Let's see what we can get from him," Chopper smirked as he began to use Tippi's powers to gather information on King Dedede.

"That's King Dedede… He's supposedly the ruler of Dream Land…or at least that's what he says… He'll try to hurt you with that giant hammer of his. If he does, you'll most likely become flat… Luckily, this attack is slow, so you'll probably have a chance to get away before he does so… He might also try to inhale you, stomp on you and fall over on you… But, just like his hammer, that's a bit on the slow side as well… The main difference here is that you're faster than him, and that's all that matters… Using Hommissile would be a bad idea either…" Tippi informed.

"Hmmmm… Well, that's some good advice, Tippi. Better throw Hommissile at him!" Chopper threw his missile Pixl straight at King Dedede, knocking him back with an explosion.

"Oof! Wha…? Now these things have powers too? ! Oh, come on! This makes me MAD!" King Dedede jumped up and he stomped on Chopper, flattening him. However, he was soon struck by a charged up beam attack from Kirby's Beam ability.

"Oh, you really think I forgot about you, huh?" King Dedede grabbed the Waddle Dee that walked away. "Take this!"

He threw the Waddle Dee straight at Kirby, but he simply got in his defensive stance to take very little damage, making the Waddle Dee bounce off. Afterwards, he got rid of the Waddle Dee and then fired some beam energy at King Dedede once again.

Angered, King Dedede slowly made his way over to Kirby. He pretended to trip so he would fall over him. Of course, that was his usual move. When he got up after flattening Kirby, he used his inhaling ability himself to inhale him and spit him out over by the water.

"Heh heh heh! I'm so awesome! You still can't take me down, Kirby!" King Dedede chortled until he felt an explosion coming from his back.

"Huh? !" He turned to find Chopper clenching his fists at him. "You're still up? I thought that stomp attack would've got you! Grrrrrr!"

He brought his hammer up, attempting to hit Chopper with it. Unfortunately, due to his speed, he wasn't able to find out where he went. It ended up leading to him getting stomped a couple of times.

"Woo-hoo!" Chopper made a couple of Stylish moves until he landed no the ground and got grabbed by King Dedede.

"Now I've got you!" He whacked Chopper in the face with his hammer, knocking him back over to the water where Kirby was in. It looked like King Dedede was the winner, to his surprise.

"Whoa… Did I seriously win that fight? I don't believe it! I defeated my long-time nemesis and an enemy that almost ruined an anime! I RULE!" King Dedede started to do a dance until a coconut fell on his head.

"Oof! …What the heck was that?" King Dedede questioned, rubbing his head. Unfortunately, he didn't see Hommissile coming straight at him, knocking him back again.

"All right, let's get back to business!" Chopper jumped out of the water, quickly shaking himself before charging at King Dedede. Kirby got out as well and he began to charge up another beam attack.

"Poyo! (Stand back, Chopper! I've got a beam attack with King Dedede's name on it!)" Kirby fired the beam blast straight at King Dedede when he had the chance, causing some damage to the king.

"_I gotta take that Beam ability out of Kirby!" _King Dedede thought. He immediately inhaled the air as he puffed his stomach up like a balloon, floating around. He came down on Kirby to knock his Beam ability into the water – which turned out to be a success.

"Poyo! (No! Not my Beam ability!)" Kirby cried.

"Heh heh heh! Now this should be easy pickings!" King Dedede tried to grin, despite the fact that his cheeks were puffed up. Chopper managed to get all the air out of him by stomping on his head.

"Oof! …You made a cheap move there, kid!" the king collapsed on the ground, but he immediately got up and he began to slam his hammer at Chopper, despite the fact that he dodged his attacks.

"Stop moving so fast! Get back here!"

"No way!" Chopper turned around, sending Hommissile at him to knock him back over by Kirby.

"Poyo! (All right, I'll try something else!)" Kirby tried to dodge King Dedede's hammer swiping at him and block one of his other attacks by bringing his arms up. When the king slammed his hammer to the ground, that's when he made his move. He inhaled the star and spat it out at the king.

"All right, looks like he's close to being finished… I'll try to make a blow then you made the next move. …Although, I think I DO have some sort of plan!" Chopper rushed at King Dedede. When the king turned around, he was struck by Chopper's Spinning Kick attack, hitting his face a couple of time, sending him back.

"Grrrrrrrr! You'll regret that!" King Dedede managed to get a hold of Chopper and slam him to the ground with his hammer. He then turned to Kirby, panting.

"All right, Kirby… You're next!" he growled, raising his hammer up.

Chopper slowly raised his head up, to Tippi's surprise. "Chopper? What… What are you doing?"

"What do you think it looks like? I'm trying to help Kirby! …Hommissile… Go after Kirby." Chopper smirked.

"If I must… Then I shall… KA-BOOM!" Hommissile flew over King Dedede and went straight to Kirby.

"All right, Kirby! This is it!" King Dedede was about to bring his hammer down on the weak hero.

…Until he saw Hommissile coming his way.

Kirby knew exactly what to do. If he used Thoreau, that wouldn't be a safe thing. So, he inhaled Hommissile and he spat him out straight at King Dedede, putting an end to the fight once and for all.

"_**OOF!**_" King Dedede collapsed as Chopper and Kirby walked over to him. "Urggh… I can't believe I was beaten…by two creampuffs! How could this happen to me? I thought for sure that I had this!"

"I'm certain that you know that speed usually beats power…" Tippi stated before King Dedede got up.

"All right, listen. I give up. You guys win this fight for now." King Dedede panted as he looked around his surroundings. "But there's one thing I'm a little curious about… Where are we?"

"We're in Gloam Valley… Or, we MAY be getting there… I suppose Tipral was responsible for sending you here…"

"Tipral? You mean that weird dark guy that looks just like Chopper? Yeah… I remember him sending me somewhere strange… But why am I suddenly here? Why was I taken here in the first place?"

"We don't know why. We just found you here and you attacked us." Chopper replied. "But, it would be nice if you gave us a hand. We tried asking Meta Knight…or rather, he said he would himself, but he couldn't 'cause his sword's lost."

"Are you freakin' kidding me? ! There's no way I'm helping you! Why would I join up with my biggest enemies? I don't have a reason to!"

"But your strength could be of great use…" Tippi said.

"Pbbbbbbth! Like I even care! Get out of the way now! I'm gonna see if I can find anything around here!" King Dedede pushed Chopper and Kirby out of the way and he jumped into the water.

"Well that was rude… Oh, well." Chopper turned to the door ahead and he made his way into another area that was flat and only contained some Waddle Dee and Bronto Burts. At the end of the area was a Star Block.

"Poyo! (What's that thing all the way at the end?)" Kirby questioned.

"That's a Star Block. We can end this level if we hit it. That's what I'm gonna try to do!" Chopper got into a Speed Dash and he rushed his way past the Waddle Dee and Bronto Burts, knocking them back until he got to the block.

Kirby finished the Bronto Burts by grabbing one with Thoreau and throwing them at each other. When he finally got to Chopper, the lime-green Star Warrior punched the block from underneath to break it and put an end to this chapter.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and Kirby were still a bit surprised to see their enemy, King Dedede around Gloam Valley. But even still, not even he agreed to help them out. "He did the same thing that Bowser did," recalled Tippi as she followed Chopper and Kirby through the grassy plains to their next destination. They knew now that they were getting closer to Merlee's Mansion at this point._

* * *

**Well, yeah... Super Paper Mario's Chapter 2-1 is a bit different than Super Paper Chopper's 2-1. Well, the 2-1 of SPM WILL be Chapter 2-2 for this, just to let you know. I DID say there were five areas in each level, right? Well... I gotta add an extra one just to make it seem a bit interesting.**

**Anyways, I'm pretty sure Chapter 2-2 might be a bit shorter, honestly... But we'll find out sooner or later.**_  
_


	10. Bogging to Merlee's

**CHAPTER 2-2**

**-Bogging to Merlee's-**

After their long walk, Chopper and Kirby finally made their way to the REAL part of Gloam Valley. No more islands this time. Most of the area was filled with mostly grass and these strange plants. They were curled up in a strange way… To Chopper, it looked like it was curled up in a way Vivian's beautiful pink hair was curled when he saw her hair five months ago.

Kirby began to poke Chopper after he looked up at the plants. "Poyo? (Chopper… Are you OK? Could you snap back into reality or something? We don't have time for you to be daydreaming about something!)"

"What?" Chopper shook his head and turned to Kirby. "Oh… Sorry about that, Kirby. Those plants sort of reminded me of someone's hair for some reason… Hair from five months ago, actually…"

"Hair? That plant reminds you of someone's hair?" Tippi seemed a bit confused with what Chopper was saying.

"Poyo… (Hold on a minute… Those plants are a bit curled up like someone's hair you knew from five months ago. Wait a minute… You don't mean Vivian, don't you?)" Kirby seemed a bit surprised, but he grinned at him.

"Yeah, I do… Yup, those plants remind me of her curly hair…for some strange reason." Chopper started to remember the last time he saw that girl. She was so sweet, it was hard NOT to miss her.

"Chopper… Are you thinking of a girl?" Tippi questioned, making Chopper blink for a moment and give Tippi a confused look.

"No, not really… I'm just recalling about that plant, that's it. But, let's not waste any of our precious time. 'Cause I bet YOU might have someone you're interested in, Tippi! I bet it's…"

Tippi felt a bit nervous.

"MERLON!"

"Wh-What?! OK… I'll be honest… I don't have any feelings for Merlon at all… Our ages are vast, and there's no way I could be in love with him…" Tippi grumbled, glaring at Chopper.

"Hey, I was just kidding! Sheesh!" Chopper turned around. "Learn to take a joke, Tipps… But, anyway… Since we don't want to waste any time, I think we ought to get going, right, Kirby?"

"Poyo! (Yeah, I think we ought to!)" he agreed. "…Poyo. (Oh, and that was pretty funny, saying that Tippi likes Merlon. That was a good one, I'll admit.)"

After a bit, Chopper finally moved on. He noticed a yellow ? block on a grassy platform nearby. There were two Koopas with red shells with sunglasses, so these guys were obviously Tipral's minions.

"All right, you take care of that Spiky Goomba and I'll handle those two Koopas," Chopper declared. Kirby nodded and he used his inhaling to eat the Spiky Goomba and spit it out – since using Thoreau on it will make him get hurt instead.

"And now… Take this!" Chopper stomped on one of the Koopas, but he stopped when he saw a boxed dotted outline on the third Koopa. "What the… Tippi, what the heck is that thing on that Koopa?"

"That dotted outline?" Tippi looked over at the outline the Koopa had. "If an enemy has that, then they can flip into 3-D, just like you… Don't think you're the only one around here that can flip…"

"Interesting story, there… Well, as long as I'm not in 3-D, he can't get me." Chopper stomped on the closest Koopa and he kicked him at the others, knocking them out and making the Koopa in his shell fall in the water.

When Chopper jumped over to the next grassy platform, he saw that there was a gap. "Hmmmmm… I bet I can jump that!"

After stepping back, he decided to charge up a Speed Dash. When Kirby saw him hit the wall, he began to snicker until he got out of the water and looked at him with a glare.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Poyo… (Well… Er… Nothing, really! But, if you want to get across that gap, then I'm gonna have to do something about it. I _can_ float around, you know…)" Kirby smirked as he inhaled a bunch of air and then began to float over the wall to the other side.

"How am I supposed to get up there?" Chopper pouted until Kirby used his Inhaling ability to get him over there. Luckily he didn't go inside of his mouth like in Flipside Outskirts. Oh, the horrible memories…

They came across another pond, but this one had platforms that could very well sink into the water if you stood on them long enough. Chopper took out the Spiky Goomba that was making its way into the water with a Spinning Kick move.

"Poyo? (Wait, you can do that on the ground, too?)" Kirby gawked.

"Why, of course I can! I mean… It's more effective if I use it on the ground anyway…" Chopper replied, making a jump onto the platform. "Careful here, Kirby… You don't want to stay on this one for too long. It'll sink in the water."

Kirby nodded, but instead of jumping on the platforms, he floated over the water to the other side. He seemed to notice some grassy platforms up above Chopper as well, making him land on those instead.

"Hey, Kirby! Where are you going?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"I think he found something…" Tippi looked over across the next pond. She noticed the door ahead was locked. "There's also a pipe above the door… I believe that Kirby might be able to find the key…"

"Well I'm gonna see if I can get up there," Chopper threw his hands up and he flipped into 3-D. He discovered more of those yellow arrow blocks, so he hit them and flipped back into 2-D to jump on them and reach the grassy platforms.

"Wait up, Kirby! Don't leave me behind!" Chopper made his way across the grassy platforms and then followed Kirby into the pipe above the red door.

* * *

**Underground-**

"Poyo! (Hey, look! It's more of these pig guys from Flipside Outskirt! I wonder what they have…)" Kirby grabbed the Squiglet at the front with Thoreau and he tossed it at the other one.

"I'll handle the Squig," Chopper jumped over to the Squig and he finished it with his Spinning Kick attack. This triggered a chest to appear after paper flipped off of the background.

"Poyo! (Ooh! A key!)" Kirby opened the chest to find a Door Key. "Poyo! (Now we can open that door!)"

* * *

**Outside-**

Now with the key in their hands, they trotted through the next area to find some Paragoombas bouncing around the area and also a couple of windmills. It looks like this place seems to save some energy instead of using oil. How nice…

"I can see a pipe in the background… But I can also see a door up ahead…" Tippi fluttered over to the door. "I say we go through here first…"

"Fine by me," Chopper made his way over to the door to a smaller area with some strange-looking guy in a prison outfit. He also had this boulder thing stuck to his leg for some strange reason.

"Poyo, (Hey, this guy looks somewhat like a human,)" Kirby stated while looking at the prisoner.

"We should go talk to him," Chopper walked over to him and greeted him in a polite way. "Hey there, my name's Chopper! My friend and I are trying to find our way to Merlee's Mansion. Got any idea where that could be?"

The prisoner glared at them. "There are two things I hate in the world… Kids that are pale green, and kids that are pink. _So take a hike, you stupid little kids! Go up the road to Merlee's Mansion, will ya__?_"

"Hey hey! Settle down there, dude!" Chopper glared at him. "We were just trying to be nice! …And it's not like we're not old people with mustaches… We're good guys! People that are here to help!"

"You kids always have to be so annoying with your loud noises and such! Those noises are probably worse than what old men are like…just like that man I saw a couple of months ago and that hot babe he had with her… Man, she was just…hot."

Chopper suddenly had an idea when he looked at Tippi. Sure, she may be a butterfly, but maybe she WASN'T… Or, that's what he's betting.

"Well, good sir… I, Chopper, DO have a 'hot girl' with me, you know." Chopper stepped out of the way and pointed at Tippi. "She was transformed after she was cursed, but she used to be a beautiful girl! I'm not lying!"

"Chopper? What are you…"

"_**HOT GIRL ALERT!**_" the prisoner blurted out. "We must've been fated to meet! Yes! You are my destiny! Please! You must go out with me!"

Tippi started to blush furiously at Chopper, but he told her to go on with it…as bad as it sounded to her.

"Tee hee! You are a very silly man… I'm very sorry…but I really must be somewhere…"

"Where? Merlee's Mansion? I wouldn't go there if I were you! You'll get trapped and bad things will happen!"

"What are you talking about? Being trapped? There are bad things going on over there?" Tippi questioned, out of curiosity. Unfortunately, her memory of Merlee's Mansion wasn't that good after three months.

"…Oh man oh man oh man oh man… I don't even want to remember it! But now that you're with me, you don't have to worry about all that, baby! Because I am your fate… Your DESTINY!"

"OK, look, man… You're getting a bit too hyped up now. I don't even know if she's got any other form or not. You're… You're just flirting with some kind of butterfly!" Chopper shouted. "…No offense to you, of course, Tippi."

Tippi didn't seem too offended, since she was able to help find some information on what Merlee's Mansion is like. With that out of the way, they immediately left the area and returned to where they were before.

"I think I can see one of those flipper things over on a platform," Chopper pointed to the platform across from the green pipe that had a Piranha Plant. "I'll take care of the Piranha Plant."

Chopper sent Hommissile straight at the Piranha Plant, killing it within seconds. He and Kirby immediately jumped on the pipe and made it onto the platform.

"Poyo? (What the… What the heck is this thing?)" Kirby questioned as he saw Chopper being transported a bit higher up thanks to these weird things.

"These things? Well, I call these things…uh…Flippers! Yeah, that'll work just fine! Basically, they'll take you up here if you stand in that red boxed outline. Don't worry, it's not too bad."

Kirby took a deep breath and he stepped into the red outlined box. The Flippers began to take him to a brown platform. There were other ones, but it looked like only he could get across them.

"Oh, crud… Looks like I can't make my way through those platforms…" Chopper groaned while face palming.

"Poyo! (Then I'll try to see if I can get us anywhere!)" Kirby began to float over the platforms and over to the pipe ahead that was above the door that led to the previous area (not the one with the prisoner).

Kirby noticed the pipe he was standing on. Without hesitation, he went down it and into the background. He noticed that he was standing on these rocky little mountain platforms, but he didn't care and he made his way over to the blue ! switch at the end.

"HAVE YOU FOUND ANYTHING INTERESTING OVER THERE?!" Chopper exclaimed, shouting to Kirby in the background.

"POYO! (I FOUND THIS SWITCH! I'M GOING TO SEE WHAT IT DOES!)" Kirby yelled back, hitting the blue ! with Thoreau. A door was being drawn right below the platform with the Flippers.

"OK, KIRBY! YOU CAN COME BACK NOW! I FOUND A DOOR THAT SHOULD LEAD US SOMEWHERE ELSE!" Chopper shouted.

In no time at all, Kirby returned to Chopper and they made their way into another area. There wasn't much else around except for some brick blocks and some blocks above those. One of them had a yellow ? block in the center.

"Now let's see what we're gonna have in here!" Chopper jumped onto the brick blocks and then punched the yellow ? block from underneath. To his surprise, he saw a Mega Star come out.

"Holy crap… A Mega Star! I haven't seen these since… Lineland Road!" Chopper was shaking in surprise.

"Poyo? (Huh? That's an interesting star.)" Kirby walked over to it and before Chopper could touch it, the pink puffball managed to grab it instead. He started to feel something very powerful in him.

"Oh, man! So close…" Chopper sighed.

He gawked as he saw an 8-bit version of Kirby being drawn in his very eyes. When he was colored, he began to move on, smashing everything in his way by simply walking into it.

"Poyo? (Why do I feel so…lightheaded?)" Kirby questioned as he knocked all of the Koopas, Goombas and Waddle Dee out of there. It felt like he could crush ANYTHING in his path.

"I better follow him…but not too fast. I don't want to get hit by him, that's for sure." Chopper followed Kirby with his speed, but not at full speed.

Unfortunately, for Kirby, when he reached the end of the area, the power wore off, turning him back to his normal self. At least he managed to hit the Save Block, that's for sure.

"All right, we might as well move ahead…" Tippi trailed as they all headed through the door to another area. They were facing another pond, but this time there was a Cheep-Cheep in it. There was also a yellow ? block beside them.

"Let's see what we got in there," Chopper punched the block from underneath, making a…blue Fire Flower come out? Well, it reminded Chopper of the Fast Flower from Lineland Road, but he took it anyways…and things started to feel…straaaaaaaaange…

**This is a Slow Flower! It temporarily slows time to a crawl. You'll also earn triple points and coins while it's active!**

"Hooooooooly mooooooleeeeey… Whyyyyyyyy iiiiiiis iiiiiiit sooooooo sloooooow?" Chopper questioned as he tried to jump over onto the grassy platforms above him. He noticed that when he stomped on a Waddle Dee, he got some point points.

"Pooooooooooyooooooooo… (I haaaaaaaaaaave noooooooo ideaaaaaaaa whyyyyyy…)" Kirby replied, floating up to the platform to follow him. They made their way across until they came up to a pipe.

There really wasn't anything down there. At least, that's what Chopper found out after going down there. That's when the Slow Flower wore off, bringing the speed back to a normal pace.

"I suggest we move this way…" Tippi trailed as she saw a platform with a bunch of brick blocks. Hommissile immediately smirked as he poked Chopper.

"Yeah yeah… I know what I'm gonna do." Chopper jumped onto the brown platform, defeated that dog-like monster that was in his way and he blew up the brick blocks in his way, allowing them to go up to the…four doors?

"Wait, why are there four doors?" Chopper questioned as he and Kirby got up to the platforms. "Which one do we take?"

"Poyo! (Let's check the first one!)" Kirby suggested. Chopper shrugged and entered the door into another underground room. All they saw was a Spiky Goomba – that got defeated by Chopper's Spinning Kick attack,

"Nothing else here?" Chopper flipped to 3-D, only to find another Spiky Goomba. He got rid of it with his simple attack and then they left that room and checked the second door to their left.

"Uh oh… Not another Shlurp! Quickly! Defeat it, Hommissile!" Chopper threw Hommissile straight at the Shlurp. He destroyed it from the inside, killing it instantly. But there was still nothing around here!

"We might as well try the third door…" Tippi suggested.

As they left that underground room, they jumped over to the third door. But after Chopper pondered, he jumped over to the fourth one instead.

"Screw the third door. We're going through here!" He walked into that door to find a Spiky Goomba in the room. Of course, Hommissile literally obliterated the mushroom with one explosion.

"Poyo? (So what are we supposed to do here?)" Kirby asked.

"Let me check," Chopper flipped into 3-D again to find some brick blocks blocking a piece of the floor nearby. "Ahhhh!"

Throwing Hommissile at it, a hole was created. They immediately jumped down to find a blue ! switch nearby. With one single kick from Chopper's foot, a bunch of shaking started to occur.

"Poyo? (What was that?)" questioned Kirby.

"That was awfully rumbly… Something must have happened outside…" Tippi informed.

* * *

**Outside-**

"Well, you were definitely right when you said something happened outside, Tippi," Chopper stated as he found a fifth door. This one was a bit different from the other ones. Instead of its rainbow-like frame, it was a simple yellow color.

"Poyo? (Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!)" Kirby opened the door as Chopper and the rest of the group made their way to the next area. They could see a large mansion in the background.

"So, we have to make our way into the forest that leads to Merlee's Mansion, is that correct?" Chopper questioned, looking at the trees. "This might not be hard for us to…"

At that moment, Chopper was struck by some pink gas. He couldn't do anything else because the gas caused him to fall asleep.

"Poyo?! (Chopper?! Are you there?!)" Kirby started to shake Chopper, instantly waking him up. "Poyo?! (Why were you suddenly sleeping?! You know this isn't nap time!)"

"I didn't fall asleep on purpose!" Chopper retorted as he turned to a pink enemy that imitated a butt. "I'm pretty sure that thing did. …Say, what is that thing anyway? I think I should use Tippi's power on it."

And that he did. He found some INTERESTING information on it. Information that seemed a bit funny…yet freaky at the same time.

"That's a Cherbil. It's a nasty gasbag that spews a plume of sleepy gas… That gas will put you to sleep, so don't go sniffing it… Some say the gas comes from their mouths. Some say it comes from elsewhere…" Tippi then realized where it could be coming out of. "…Oh, dear…"

Chopper's antennas sprung up. "Awh… AWWWWWHHHHH! There's NO way I'm gonna touch that thing! If I'm supposed to be stepping on a butt, then count me out! It's almost like it's farting sleepy gas!"

"Poyo… (Yeah, I second that. I suggest we take these things out with Hommissile. I'm NOT going to use Thoreau on those things…)" Kirby backed away from the Cherbil as it, uh, "farted" more sleepy gas.

"GO AWAY, BUTT-FACE!" Chopper shouted as he threw Hommissile at them, killing them within a second. "Phew… That was a close one. Looks like we don't have to deal with them anymore… I mean, whose idea was it to include that in a story? It's so inappropriate!"

"At least we made it to a Star Block…" Tippi trailed, glancing at the Star Block ahead.

"Allow me to do the honors," Chopper rushed straight over to the Star Block and smashed it with one punch, breaking it into twenty stars. He started to wonder if those colored stars meant the color of the Pure Hearts for some reason…

**END OF CHAPTER**

_On the far side of the beast-ridden swamp, Chopper and Co. found an imposing residence. "Poyo! (So this must be Merlee's Mansion!)" squealed Kirby with glee. If our friends could only find the Pure Heart quickly, their quest here would end. But when has fate ever set Chopper on such a simple path? Brimming with anticipation, our plucky heroes plunged into Merlee's Mansion…_

* * *

**Those Cherbils... I wonder who thought of those monstrosities...**


	11. Tricks, Treats, Traps

**CHAPTER 2-3**

**-Tricks, Treats, Traps-**

"Well, here we are… After going through that dreadful forest, we're at the mansion…" Chopper sighed in relief as he looked at the size of the place. "Well, it's nowhere near as big as King Boo's Mansion, that's for sure. That place was one of the biggest mansions I've ever set my eyes on… But, this one does look like it's bigger than Bow's Mansion, that's for sure."

"Poyo… (And what a relief we didn't have to wait for someone to go to the bathroom for about an hour…like Professor E. Gadd!)" Kirby recalled, thinking of that horrible moment in Boo Forest.

"Chopper… I see something over by those bushes…" Tippi trailed, taking a glance at a block behind the bushes.

"Oh, really? I better check it out then!" Chopper threw his hands up and he flipped into 3-D. He saw a path to the grass that led him to a Coin Block. With a couple of hits, he managed to grab some coins and flip back into 2-D.

"I think I saw a sign before flipping to 2-D… I wonder what it said." Chopper walked over to the front entrance and flipped into 3-D. He took a look at what the sign had to say. He looked quite surprised.

_Welcome to Merlee's Mansion! Home to the great wizard Merlee! If you ever need to see Merlee, go to the crystal ball in the first room! There, you'll find her standing. She can see through the future and give you good luck! …For a small fee, of course. To the hero who can read this: she is in this mansion!_

"Interesting…" Chopper had a strange look as he flipped back into 2-D. "All right, guys… Let's get a move on, shall we?"

Chopper walked over to the front door and he knocked on it. But, that didn't matter too much because Kirby already opened the door. Plus, the door was already unlocked, so what was the point?

"Kirby… Why'd you open the door like that? I find it more polite to just knock first before going in." Chopper gave him a glare.

"Poyo? (What? This mansion's big! There's no point in waiting for Merlee. I think we should just go through instead anyways.)" And with that, they walked into the first room of the mansion.

There wasn't much to describe the mansion. It's just…one of those mansions with windows and wallpaper. There IS a red rug on the ground, if that's anything important. Unfortunately, that can only be seen if you flipped into 3-D – which only Chopper would most likely see.

Kirby jumped up in fright when he saw the giant dog-like creature walking around in the room. Its mouth was like a rectangle and is had these sharp teeth. It's a blue-green color with purple polka dots on it.

"Poyo! (Eep! Chopper! Watch out for the thing!)" Kirby shrieked.

"What IS that thing?" Chopper questioned. It didn't seem to notice them just yet. He also noticed that Kirby was shivering in fear. "Hmmmmm… Tippi, can you help me identify this thing?"

"I'll try…" Tippi identified the creature in the same procedure as before. "This is one of Merlee's pets, a Gnip... They're just getting you out of harms way when they kick you out of the mansion... They look scary, but they're actually quite nice..."

"Interesting… Don't worry, Kirby. Tippi said they're quite nice. I'm sure they're just going to…" Chopper turned to see the Gnip charging at him. "Aw, crud… Don't tell me we're gonna…"

* * *

**Two minutes later-**

"Oof!" Chopper and Kirby collapsed as soon as they were thrown out of the mansion by the Gnip. "…So much for being 'nice'…"

When Chopper got up, he saw that Kirby was shivering. "Oh, come on! They're not THAT scary… I know you're probably going to say, 'Leave me here!' and all that…but I don't want to leave anyone behind."

"Poyo…! (But… I just can't…! Did you even SEE that thing?! I can't take something like that at all! And how are you not scared? I mean, that thing ate us and then spat us out here! Wasn't that HORRIBLE?!)"

"It would've been horrible if that thing really DID swallow us. But it didn't appear to harm us at all. Besides, Tippi even said that they're trying to get us out of harm's way… But, why would they be trying to do that?"

"That's a question that might not be easy to answer…" Tippi trailed, glancing at the front entrance again.

"Poyo… (Well, I suppose you're right… Besides, your fear is A LOT worse than mine, that's for sure. I mean… You're afraid of Heartsy's kisses!)" Kirby began to snicker at him.

"Hey hey!" Chopper snapped, shivering a bit. "Don't ever bring that up, please! Being around her made me feel so scared! …She could've pulled one on me any second! Thank goodness there's no other girl that might fall for me be like her… I'm a bit relieved. But still… I do miss her."

"Umm… Guys? We still have a mansion to go in…" Tippi interrupted, trying to get their attention.

"Oh, yeah… We need to do that. I have a little plan on getting us through anyway. I'm sure those Gnips can't go into 3-D." Chopper smirked as he walked in.

"Poyo… (Sometimes I wonder why I even do this…)" Kirby sighed as he followed Chopper back into the mansion, where he felt him grab his arm and flip into 3-D.

"Poyo! (Hey… Those things are 3-D too! …But it doesn't look like they can get us…)" Kirby stopped when he saw a crystal ball up ahead over by a door. "Poyo! (Chopper! I can see that Crystal Ball!)"

Chopper gaped as he made his way around the Gnips and over to the crystal ball. Unfortunately, he saw no sign of Merlee.

"What? Merlee's not here? This is madness, I say!" Chopper grumbled. "Well, all we can do is go through that door. We better make it quick, 'cause my Flip Gauge is starting to come down!"

Once they made their way into the next room, they saw some stairs up ahead leading to the second floor. There were a couple of doors there, while on the first floor, there were doors over there…and a large Gnip named Gnaws chained to a locked door up ahead, making Kirby turn white with fear.

"Kirby, relax! That thing can't hurt us as long as its chained to that door! …But it looks like that lock is holding him. Though it may be a risk… We're gonna have to unlock that door."

"Hold on, Chopper… There's someone else here…" Tippi trailed, looking at a little green girl in a maid outfit.

"Hey, maybe she might be able to tell us where Merlee is!" Chopper smiled as he walked over to the maid. _"Huh... This girl sort of reminds me of someone I once saw five months ago… Meh, I don't know…"_

"Well, hi there! Big welcome! Welcome to Merlee's Mansion!" the maid curtsied. "I'm Lady Merlee's handmaid! My name's Mimi! But you can call me Mimikins if you want!"

"Mimi? You mean a little girl such as yourself is working for Merlee? What is this, child labor? I thought Merlee was a nice wizard! …Oh, never mind. I'm sure you have a reason for being her, uh, maid…"

Mimi gave him a strange look. "Errr… Yeah… Anyway, you're here to see Lady Merlee, aren't you?"

Both Chopper and Kirby gave her a nod.

"How super for you! Lady Merlee is on the second floor, in the farthest room. Just head on up there whenever you're ready! Oh, golly, but listen…"

"What is it?" Chopper questioned.

"DON'T YOU DARE GO INTO ANY ROOMS BY ACCIDENT, OR ELSE! …Enjoy your visit, OK?" she ended her last sentence with a cute smile.

"…For some reason you seem a bit suspicious to me," Chopper raised an eyebrow at her. "…Nah. I don't think so! You're a bit too innocent to be one of those suspicious people. Children like me aren't like that."

"Poyo… (I don't know, Chopper… She COULD be a bit suspicious…)" Kirby said.

"You prove an excellent point, Kirby! She MIGHT be suspicious! …Meh, we'll find out later. Right now, we gotta go see Merlee." Chopper jumped onto the staircase and made his way up to the second floor. "She said it's at the farthest room here… So we shall go there!"

Chopper and Kirby made their way into the farthest room on the second floor to find nothing else but a green button at the end of the room.

"Oh, there's something there!" Chopper made a Speed Dash over to the button and he pressed it, triggering the windows to be locked tight by cold, iron bars. The ceiling was then covered in spikes and it was coming down on them.

"Poyo! (That was a bad idea! Let's get out of here!)" Kirby shouted…until Chopper grabbed his arm and flipped into 3-D.

"Oh no we're not! Tippi was just telling me that there was something above here. Maybe we can get on the ceiling and make our way up there. I'm sure we'll find something interesting…"

They immediately jumped on the ceiling and went back to 2-D. Afterwards, when the ceiling hit the ground, it began to go up to the REAL ceiling. That's when Chopper hit a yellow ? block.

"You know… I could probably use this block as a shortcut. I mean, I think there's a chest up there… Yeah, I'm gonna take a risk and do that." Chopper flipped into 3-D and he jumped on the block and then onto the platform that had a chest. He found a Mansion Key from it.

"Ah, nice! Now let's get out of here before something bad happens!" Chopper suggested. Kirby nodded in agreement and they made their way out.

* * *

**Lobby area-**

"Listen, Mimi… We went up there to see if Merlee was there, but we didn't find her anywhere." Chopper informed.

"What? Lady Merlee wasn't in the farthest room on the second floor?" Mimi gawked.

"Nope. Not at all. In fact, all we found were spikes that were trying to kill us."

"Oh, golly… What a big old messy-poo I've made of things!" Mimi frowned. "Lady Merlee must be in the CLOSEST room on the second floor. Please try there!"

"Well, we will!" Chopper turned to Kirby, shaking his head. "No we're not, 'cause we're going to go to that door over there."

"Poyo?! (Really?! I don't think I can take it!)" Kirby cried.

"Ugh… Just do it, Kirby…" Tippi groaned.

"It'll be simple. Just watch!" Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm and he flipped into 3-D. They simply made their way over to the door, where Chopper pulled the key out and unlocked the door, breaking the lock off and freeing the dog.

"_**GrrrWAARGH!**_" Gnaws made his way over to Mimi in anger.

"_**EEEEEEEEEEK!**_" she screamed as she ran out of the room with Gnaws chasing her. The heroes gawked in surprise.

"So… That savage beast just went after her, and paid us no mind… I'd like to think we look rather tasty… What do you think it means?" Tippi questioned.

"Look tasty? I highly doubt we'd look tasty…" Chopper murmured.

"Right… I think this mansion has some other secrets around here… I believe that there are…"

"Poyo… (Thank goodness that it didn't go after us… I guess you were right when you said that it's trying to keep us safe…)" Kirby sighed in relief as they made their way into the next room. All that there was was a Star Block.

"Huh? That's it? This is the end of the level? How disappointing… We didn't even get to fight." Chopper groaned as he hit the Star Block, ending this chapter…for the eighth time…

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and friends kept up their search, delving ever deeper into the mansion. Wherever the heck they looked, there was no sign of Merlee. "Well we're not getting anywhere… I hope we actually find her." complained Chopper as they were looking through the mansion. Where was this mysterious woman? "Ah, maybe…this way…" So said Tippi, trying to sense the Pure Heart's location… "I hope your right, because I'm starting to not like this place…" Chopper replied to Tippi. With dread dangling like a broken chandelier, our heroes hurried onward…_

* * *

**Oh, how dreadful next part will be... Oh, how dreadful...**_  
_


	12. Breaking the Bank

**CHAPTER 2-4**

**-Breaking the Bank-**

There wasn't much around here. All they could see in this room was a door up ahead and a yellow ? block with a purple vase on it. Chopper wondered why there was a vase, but he decided to look up at it.

"Look at that vase," he gawked. "That thing must not be worth a lot. It's not the nicest-looking vase I've seen, honestly…" He wished that he could hit the block, but he wasn't too sure if that would be a wise decision on his part. Tippi wasn't even sure if that was a great idea either.

"Hmmmmmm… Yeah, I don't think we can do anything else around here. I WISH there was, but looking around here… Yeah." Chopper looked over at the door. "Well we could try that door."

"Poyo! (Wait! We can't leave this block!)" Kirby skipped underneath the yellow ? block.

"Wait! Kirby! No!" It was too late. Kirby already jumped under the yellow ? block, causing the vase to fall over and break.

"Well nice going, Kirby… You broke the vase!" Chopper face palmed until he suddenly heard a door open.

"_**NYAAAAH!**_" Mimi ran into the room, looking down at the broken vase pieces. "No… My vase! The thing I love more than anything in the world! It's… It's… It's broken!" she cried.

She immediately looked up at Chopper and Kirby in anger. "You broke it! You broke my most favoritest vase! And I only got that thing fixed three months ago!"

"Look! Listen, little girl! I'm pretty sure we can explain things around…" Chopper was cut off when Mimi screamed in their faces.

"_**DOOFUSES! **_I loved that vase more than ANYTHING! And you BROKE it! NYAAAAAARGH!"

"Poyo… (It was only an accident…)" Kirby chirped.

"Oh, don't think you're going to be getting out of here, you doofuses!" Mimi growled, stepping away from them. "When someone breaks something, they're forced to pay that thing! And don't think you're going to be leaving here… You're gonna pay for that, you know! I'll have you know that vase cost 1,000,000 Rubees…"

"1,000,000 Rubees? What the heck is that kind of currency?" Chopper questioned.

"_**So hand over that money! Now! Or else you're DONE FOR!**_"

"Rubees? Oh, I don't believe Chopper carries any of that particular currency with him…" Tippi trailed.

"Don't suppose that those things are like coins, aren't they?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo? (Or what about Deden?)" Kirby asked.

Mimi backed away in shock. "Coins? No one uses COINS anymore, you peasants! And I have no idea what that pink doofus behind you just said anyways, but I'm sure that it was HIS money, too! I SPIT on your coins and whatever he just said! …So what are you saying? Are you telling me you don't have any Rubees at all?"

"No Rubees here," Chopper showed his inventory, which had nothing but coins. "Sorry, but we can't pay off your Rubees. …But come to think of it, those things sort of remind me of those Rupees in Zelda…"

"Well, guess what? You two will just have to work it off, then!" Mimi declared. "Until you work off your debt, you naughty little things, I OWN YOU!"

"Wh-What? You can't own us?!" Chopper protested. "You don't even have PAPERS that say you do!"

"Poyo! (Yeah, Chopper's right! There's no way you can do this to us!)" Kirby growled.

"Too bad for you! In Merlee's Mansion, you have to work either you like it or not! There's no way out of here for you either! _**ENJOY LABOR!**_" Mimi was about to leave, but she stopped for a second and turned back to the two heroes.

"Yes, so, you can earn Rubees in the generator room on the top floor. Once you earn 1,000,000 Rubees, you come pay it off in the room at the bank. You can also check the balance of your debt there. _So! Get to work, servants!_"

Chopper and Kirby were left with a gaped look upon their faces as Mimi left the room. 1,000,000 Rubees? ! How could they make that much money? !

**Chopper and Kirby and now saddled with a 1,000,000-Rubee debt! OUCH! I wouldn't wanna be those two…**

"Well, this is nice… Now we're forced to pay off a debt…" Tippi sighed.

"Yeah, I know how you feel, Tippi," Chopper replied, letting out a big sigh. "This sucks! I was hoping we would be able to do some fighting or running! Now we're forced to pay off a debt! Not fun at all!"

Chopper jumped up to the third floor thanks to the platforms and he noticed a couple of prisoners like the guy back at Gloam Valley. _"Was that guy right? Is this place really some kind of trap?"_

"Poyo? (Why don't we try this first room over here?)" Kirby suggested, pointing to the door they were closest to.

"We might as well go in," Chopper nodded, opening the door. That's where they could see some prisoners jumping under this electric block that seemed to have some sort of power in it. They were also trying to avoid this spark that was moving around the platform as well.

"_**JUMP, LITTLE FLEAS!**_" Chopper and Kirby noticed someone with a headdress called an Ackpow holding a whip. Although it wasn't long enough to hit the prisoners, the loud noise made them get to work.

Work those skinny little flea legs! Unh! Make it burn! Jump like you mean it! Ever since Boss Mimi came back, she wants you all WORKING now! She hates the dark like she hates brussels sprouts! So WORK IT! MOOOORE POWER!"

"Oh, god… This is almost like how the slaves had to work! This is…pretty bad!" Chopper gawked, seeing some of the prisoners get shocked by the sparks coming their way. "Why would Mimi do something like this?"

"Ugh… I hate that you both have to go through this…" Tippi trailed, glancing at the prisoners.

"Well, it's probably going to take a while, but we have to do it," Chopper took a deep breath before making a big leap over the prisoners and to the Ackpow. Kirby simply floated over to him.

"Yeah… We need to work here and all that. Is this the generator room?"

"Yeah, this is the generator room. Hit blocks, make energy, earn Rubees! Unh! Rubees make the world go up, down, 'round and 'round! You wanna work here too?" the Ackpow asked.

"Well, we just told you that we need to… So, yes." Chopper groaned.

"Unh! LOVE the energy, kid! Just find an unused block and jump like you mean it! Another day, another Rubee! Unh! Rubees are life! Unh! Jump! Rubee! Jump! Rubee! When you're done jumping, come talk to me. I'll tell you how many Rubees you earned. Oh! And watch out for our 'motivational sparks' that travel along the floor!"

"All right… Looks like we gotta hit some blocks, Kirby… Hopefully we can do it, 'cause I think that this could take a while." Chopper and Kirby jumped on the platform and they hit the block.

"You gotta do more than that, fleas! MORE!" the Ackpow used his whip to make a loud noise, making the two start hitting the block as fast as possible.

* * *

**119 more jumps later-**

"Oh, god… Now my fist hurts…" Chopper moaned, looking at his fist. It felt a bit swollen. "If only I had a Mushroom to eat, I'll feel much better…"

"Poyo… (How about we stop right now and go to that dude who told us to get to work…)" Kirby moaned as he jumped off the platform with Chopper. They wanted to sit down and relax, but they knew they had to get their Rubees from the Ackpow.

"Want your Rubees, do you, little flea? Well, fine. For your utterly average work, here's an average sum of Rubees." the Ackpow gave each of them 120 Rubees. "Come back here if you want to get more Rubees, fleas!"

"Yeah, we will…when we have the time." Chopper and Kirby left the room and went down to the second floor. They could see a huge gap that they could get across that leads to a door.

After bringing Chopper across, Kirby walked into a room with another Ackpow and a prisoner to their left. Chopper noticed a yellow ? block, which he immediately went after, making a Mushroom pop out of there and help him recover from punching the block.

"Ahhhhh… That's much better…" Chopper sighed in relief as he walked over to the door. "Let's go, Kirby."

"Psssssssst! Hey! You two!" the prisoner that was right next to the door whispered to them. "So, you two must be new gerbils here, right?"

"Gerbils?! We're NOT gerbils!" Chopper retorted.

"Shhhhhhhh! Don't let that guy hear you, kid! Listen! I hear that you wanna make Rubees faster than before, don't ya?"

"How do we know that we can trust you? I was always told not to talk to strangers, you know…"

"Trust me, gerbils… This is a pretty darn good secret. It'll get you to make Rubees faster! I'm pretty sure you wanna know about it… Just slip me 100 Rubees. I'll tell ya somethin' good. Honest. It's prime info."

"Fine. I'll sacrifice my 100 Rubees." Chopper handed 100 Rubees over to the prisoner, who grinned.

"Ahhh… Good choice there. Trust me. This REALLY is prime info." the prisoner grinned. "I'm gonna give you the VIP passcode. The secret code is…5963! What good is it? That's a secret! Duh! Just remember 5963, gerbil. Thank me later."

"Yeah, whatever," Chopper rolled his eyes as he and Kirby walked out of the room, but Tippi stopped for a second before they jumped off the ledge.

"Hold on… I can feel something through this wall… Could it be the Pure Heart?" Tippi fluttered over to the wall to the left. "Chopper… I'm sensing some strange energy coming from this wall… It would be a wise decision to use your flipping ability…"

"Then we shall!" Chopper grabbed Kirby and they both went into 3-D. They noticed a red arrow pointing to the direction they had to go. A large chest was waiting before their very eyes.

"Holy… It's another chest! I hope we can get an upgrade this time!" Chopper smirked as he kicked the chest open. "And… It should be coming anytime soon!"

"_Know the secret?_"

"Poyo? (What secret?)" Kirby questioned.

"_**'**__**CUZ I DOOOO!**_" an upside-down triangle-shaped Pixl came out of the chest. It had a pink outline, but with some orange as well. It sounded like it was speaking in some sort of cowboy accent.

"So, do ya know the secret, pard?" the Pixl asked. "Well? Do ya? Iffen you close yer peepers…and imagine real hard…that the world's gone… Why, it's just about the biggest dern thrill ever!"

"Poyo… (I can't understand a THING that this…Pixl is saying.)" groaned Kirby.

"_**WHUH-HUH?**_" the Pixl stopped and looked at Chopper and Kirby. "My senses are tellin' me that you're the heroes! Whoa… Hey, welcome, pards. Got some bad news, though. Looks to me like yer a bit lockin' in thrills. I can't give my power to anyone who's too skinny in the thrills department. So here's what we do, pard! I'll recharge yer thrill gauge over the next ten seconds!"

"Thrill Gauge? OK…"

"You ready? Here goes! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE! TWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

At this moment, Chopper and Kirby began to fall asleep.

"FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUR! SEVENTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN! THREE-POINT-ONE-FOOOUR! ONE MARZIIIIIIIIIILION! _**TENNNNN!**_" Chopper and Kirby immediately snapped awake.

"Now yer all chargified, pards! Yepper, now you've got yer thrills! Now remember, we Pixls got loads of power, so you'd best be real careful with us! We had a little dustup with them Ancients 2,000 years ago…but we're pards now. So let's go have us some thrills, huh? C'mon!" the Pixl circled around both Chopper and Kirby, who held him up after he was above them.

**The sideways-turning Pixl name Slim is now your pard! You can use Slim's power to turn sideways and avoid traps or enemies! And when you're sideways, you won't take any damage…as long as you're standing still!**

"So now ya know the secret, huh, pard?" Slim asked. "Don't ya? Playin' hide-an-seek is the biggest thrill you can find! You oughta try it!"

"So, let's see here… We can both share Slim, since we both have a Pixl of our own." Chopper declared. "How does that sound. Kirby?"

"Poyo! (I'm fine with that! I'm pretty sure that won't be a bad thing either. Let's go find that VIP room and make some more Rubees.)"

They managed to make their way up to a door with a little code. This is when Chopper knew that they needed to put in the password. So, he put in the password 5963 and pressed enter.

To their surprise, the red light turned green, allowing them to walk in. They started to see these wheels attached to the ceiling. It looked like those wheels that the hamsters would be using.

"What a strange room… Does Mimi think that these people are HAMSTERS? ! That's just wrong…" Tippi trailed before getting interrupted by a voice.

"_**RUN, GERBILS!**_" Chopper and Kirby gawked when they saw, yet again, another Ackpow with a whip.

"'Round and 'round and 'round she goes! When I'll retire, nobody knows! Big Boss Mimi hates the dark more than old ham! So move those gerbil legs! POOOOOOWERRRR UUUUUUUP!"

"Wow, what a jerk," Chopper grumbled before he and Kirby walked over to him to make some Rubees.

"This is the VIP generator room," the Ackpow began. "Run in a wheel, make volts, earn some cash! Yeah, major upgrade from that other room! You'll earn crazy Rubees in here! Unh! So, a new gerbils, huh… Hungry for Rubees, gerbil? You wanna work here?"

"Well, that's why we're here…" Chopper replied with an annoyed look on his face. Kirby gave him a nod.

"Great, great, just hang on for one second for me…" He turned to the prisoners. "MOOOOOVE, GERBILS! MOVE! Y'know, sometimes I wonder why I do this…but it's pretty much simple: work is just heck of a fun thing! You ready?"

"Sure, we're ready," they both replied (with Kirby saying "Poyo", though).

"Good answer! Now get in there, gerbil! MOVE!" Two wheels opened up for both of them and they immediately jumped in. They knew they were gonna have to run through those things for a while.

"Poyo. (You know, Chopper… You said you wanted a chance to run, right? Well… I think now's your chance to make a lot of Rubees by using a Speed Dash!)"

"Yeah, you're right… I might as well do this, then!" Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and he began to run like he was never able to in Gloam Valley with all of the water and platforms.

* * *

**Some minutes later-**

"Ugh… I think I'm done here…" Chopper panted as he began to slow down and collapse. Kirby felt a bit exhausted as well.

"Awwww, what's the matter? Tuckered out, little gerbils?" the Ackpow scoffed. "Hmmm… I wouldn't call you the star of all gerbil-kind, but that wasn't too shabby. C'mere. It's not exactly a gerbil banquet of Rubees, but it's nothing to sneeze at."

Both Chopper and Kirby were released from their wheels as they walked over to the Ackpow.

The Ackpow shouted "Here!" as he gave Chopper 13,689 Rubees and Kirby 8,753 Rubees. That was enough for now, so they went over to the room next to them, which was filled with prisoners.

"Hold on… I think there's someone in 3-D. Let me just check for a sec…" Chopper threw his arms up in the air and he flipped into 3-D to find a prisoner over by the corner of the wall. "I'm starting to question WHY he's standing here…"

But, aside from that, he walked over to him. ""Hmm? You found me? I never knew that someone would ever find me… Anyways, I have some nice info I can give ya. It's BIG. I'd charge you 10,001 Rubees for it, but I'll charge you 10,000 Rubees! Sound good?"

"I guess I have no other choice," Chopper ended up sacrificing some of his Rubees to the prisoner.

"Good choice, buddy of mine! Looks like someone told you to listen to strangers! Listen, and listen good. Mimi was napping, OK? And I heard her start sleep-talking… And then she whispered…41262816… Think it's her boyfriend's phone number or something?"

"Boyfriend's phone number? Hmmmmmm…" Chopper flipped back to 2-D and he walked out of the room with Kirby.

"Poyo? (Did you get any information?)" questioned Kirby.

"Yeah, I DID get some nice info… Some guy told me that Mimi was whispering 41262816. That sounds like some sort of code. Now that I think about it, we didn't look around here…"

Chopper grabbed Kirby and flipped into 3-D to find another secret pathway. They found a brick block that created a ladder for them to climb up. It turns out that it led them up to a secret room with electric fences moving around!

"Electric fences? Let's see what's through here…" Chopper took a couple of steps until he got shocked by the electricity. "…Bad idea."

"Say, pard! How about you start usin' my ability?" Slim poked him. "Yer probably gonna need to use it now!"

"Well, looks like we're both gonna have to make our way across this fence, Kirby," Chopper stated, getting ready to use Slim.

"Poyo, (I'm fine by that,)" Kirby replied, getting ready to use Slim's ability as well. They were surprised when they turned sideways. In fact, they couldn't see each other.

"Hey! Where'd you go, Kirby?" Chopper began to move around, looking for Kirby.

"As long as you're standing still, you won't be seen…" Tippi informed. "You'll see each other when you move…"

"Hey, this reminds me of that curse I once had! …But I don't think I have it anymore. Oh, well…" Chopper and Kirby made their way through the electric fences and to a safe.

"Poyo? (Hey, Chopper… Was a safe really meant to be here?)" Kirby questioned.

"No idea… But, I think that that guy might've told me the combo! Let's see if it's right!" Chopper put in the code 41262816, which ended up opening the lock, revealing a TON of Rubees.

"Poyo! (Holy… We just hit the jackpot on Rubees!)" Kirby gaped.

"I was going to say we hit the jackpot on fruit snacks, but Rubees are OK too!" Chopper noticed that after collecting them all, they had enough to pay back the debt. "Nice! There were a million Rubees in here!"

"Well that's a relief… Now we can pay off that debt…" Tippi trailed.

* * *

**Down at the first floor-**

"Hopefully this door's open, so I'm just going to open it," Chopper opened the door that was across from them at the beginning of this chapter to find themselves in a bank-like room. They noticed Mimi was in a different outfit this time.

"Oh, hi there!" Mimi greeted in a sweet voice. "Big welcome! So happy to have you here at Rubee Savings and Loan!"

Chopper and Kirby smirked as they walked up to the front desk. "First off, THANKS for taking out a special Rubee loan! Now, what can I do for you?"

"We're here to pay off our debt," Chopper and Kirby pulled out all the Rubees they had and they placed them on the front desk.

"Super! Let me just take all those Rubees off your hands! There you go!" Mimi grabbed all of the Rubees and she put them away in another safe. They noticed that the 1,000,000 on the wall turned to zeroes.

"Well, thank you SO much for paying off your Rubee loan in…full…?" Mimi started to freak out. "_**WHAAAAT?**_"

"Ha HA! Now we've got you!" Chopper gave Kirby a hi-five as Mimi began to freak out even more.

How did you earn enough Rubees to pay it off? ! That's not supposed to happen!" Noooo… You've broken my wonderful curse!"

Mimi floated up angrily. "NYAAAAAAAH! _**I'LL GET YOU!**_"

"I don't think so," Chopper smirked. "It looks like you…"

She gaped as her eyes widened in shock. "Aaaaaaaa…" At that moment, she exploded into pieces.

"_**LOST.**_"

"So, that young imp put a curse on this mansion, then… But who was she, really?" Tippi started to question. She still seemed to not remember about this place still. "I'm worried about Merlee… We must hurry to her aid…"

"We better do that. Let's go, Kirby!" Chopper grabbed Kirby to flip into 3-D, where they used Slim to go through the bars that led to a Star Block. At that moment, Chopper smashed the block and ended this chapter.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_The mysterious Mimi disappeared in a bizarre explosion… What exactly was her plan, and why on earth did she try to enslave Chopper and Kirby? After the incident, Kirby noticed stairs going down. "Poyo. (We should check those stairs out. They could lead to where we gotta go.)" suggested Kirby. "Gee, I wonder if Merlee could be down here…" wondered Chopper as they went down the stairs into the basement. They took the path, since there wasn't anywhere else to go. Chopper said, "I hope she is here. Or else I'm gonna get ticked off…"_

* * *

**Well, we're finally out of that dreadful part. At least next part is a lot better, that's for sure. What? It's got some action it it, and I know you guys want some action!  
**


	13. The Basement Face Off

**CHAPTER 2-5**

**-The Basement Face-off-**

"Oh, finally… So we're out of that dreadful place…" Chopper sighed in relief, walking into the basement. They noticed the wooden stairs that led down to a door ahead, but that's just about it. "I suppose we're getting closer to that Pure Heart, now that we're down by the basement. Whoa… What a relief! …But I don't like the spider webs here. It brings spiders, which usually are a bad sign…"

"Yes, you're right, Chopper…" Tippi trailed. "I can feel the Pure Heart coming somewhere down in the basement… Its tremors are getting stronger… But the thing is… I don't know exactly where it is…"

"Poyo? (Then, that means we're gonna have to look all over the place down here? Isn't it a little too dark, though?)" Kirby questioned.

_"Ah! Hooray! Whoopee! Thanks for coming to look for me!" _a ghostly voice called out, startling Chopper and Kirby.

"Huh?! Who just said that?!" exclaimed Chopper in fright. "Show yourself, you ghostly person!"

A spirit of a woman appeared before their very eyes. This person was in a red dress and wore a yellow hat. Her red hair was also curled up, just like Merlumina's was, and she was wearing glasses as well. Although her voice was nothing compared to Merlumina's it wasn't too bad…

_"Beautiful, mysterious Merlee! Mistress of the house, it's me! So glad it's you I see!" _Merlee's spirit said in rhymes.

"Oh, no! We're too late!" Chopper cried, gaping at Merlee's spirit in sadness. "Merlee's dead! Now how are we going to get that Pure Heart? …Wait, Merlumina was a spirit and she had the Pure Heart in her possession…"

"Poyo! (I can't believe we're too late to help her, though!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (She's dead!)"

"Calm down, you two…" Tippi rolled her eyes. "She's not dead… I'm starting to remember that she would use this form to get in contact with someone…"

_"She is right, my friends, for I am not dead," _Merlee assured. _"So long have I waited for you to come. Your arrival is way past due. But we can't meet like this, oh no, for something's amiss. An evil one is after me, and safe and sound I cannot be. In the basement do I dwell, maze-like rooms are my cell, you will find me, I can tell… And…if you do, take care… For…your eyes…may err… Trust nothing...foul...or fair…"_

"Hmmmm? Is everything all right, Merlee?" Chopper questioned as he saw her spirit starting to fade.

_"No… I cannot…last… My power…is…fading…fast… The distance…is…too…vast…Are…you…ready to find me? Beware…if you do, I plea…" _It was too late for her to finish. She disappeared out of thin air.

"She's gone…" Chopper trailed, seeing her spirit gone. "So, she's somewhere down in this basement, is that correct?"

"Yes… If she has the Pure Heart, then it's down there for sure… I can feel its presence from down there…" Tippi fluttered down the stairs, turning to Chopper and Kirby. "Well, we don't have much time… Let's go!"

"Right!" Chopper made his way down the stairs in a blink of an eye. He waited patiently for Kirby to come down, since he's very generous and also for the fact that there was a yellow ? block near the Save Block.

Once Kirby made his way down, he hit the yellow ? block, making a Mushroom pop out. They both shared it to recover some of their health before going into the second door – closest to the Save Block.

"Poyo… (Oh, don't tell me this is going to be a maze…)" groaned Kirby as they found themselves in a room with a door nearby and a door above it on a wooden platform. There were two yellow ? blocks as well.

Chopper hit the first one, which contained a coin and then the second one, which contained a Zombie Shroom – that was soon taken out when Chopper stomped on its head.

"We ALWAYS have to run into these Zombie Shrooms…" Chopper trailed. "But, hey! At least I got to hit something!"

Kirby gestured Chopper to take the upper door, so he simply floated up while he had to jump on the block and go into another room, starting off at a door to the upper left. The room looked the same – but with a yellow ? block below and some block platforms that can help lead over to the other door.

"Poyo? (What's that thing?)" Kirby pointed to a large eye that seemed to be looking up at them.

"Hold on, let's see what Tippi has to say," Chopper allowed Tippi to go into his head, allowing him to stare at the eye for five seconds until Tippi gathered the information from it.

"It's a Mister I. These bizarre foes can't help but give you the evil eye... It will shoot sharp glances at any enemy it spots... None of your attacks will work... Try flipping and spinning around and around it..." Tippi informed.

"A Mister I? …I think I'm going to call it Mr. I for short. But, you say that we have to walk around it? …Well, I don't see anything interesting down there. It's probably going to be a waste of time."

Chopper avoided Mr. I's lasers that it fired as he jumped over to the wooden platform ahead. He and Kirby entered the next room, which had a nice, red wallpaper with a shade of purple. It was definitely a clean room, to be sure.

"Poyo… (Huh… Well this room seems a lot nicer than the others…)" Kirby stated as he saw a wall to their left.

"Poyo, (I don't see anything here,)" Kirby informed, but when he looked up, he saw an upper floor. "Poyo! (Wait! I'm just kidding! There's a floor above us!)" He began to float his way up.

"I'll see if I can find a way up there myself," Chopper threw his arms up in the air to flip, only to find some arrow blocks that could help him make his way up. So, he jumped on the ones that were the closest to him and then hit the two arrow blocks to bring them into 2-D.

After that whole procedure, he made his way up to where Kirby was and began to sit down, exhausted.

"Man… I guess it wouldn't been a better idea if you inhaled me than use all of that energy to get up here. But, resting in this room isn't such a bad idea…as long as you're away from the edge."

"Ahh, yes, how very nice… Thanks for coming! Thank you twice!" Chopper quickly stood up when he heard Merlee greet him.

"Merlee!"

"Poyo! (Merlee!)"

"Mysterious and so lovely, mistress of the house you see… It's me, Merlee! I shine on, like the brightest star, calling to you from miles afar… And I knew that soon I'd see you buzz on by, little bees. Hee hee hee hee hee!"

"We've come seeking the Pure Heart…" Tippi trailed.

"Oh, yes, of course, I know! The Pure Heart for Chopper! …And Kirby!" Kirby pouted when Merlee nearly forgot his name, but nevertheless, they both nodded.

"For you, yes, I'll gladly part with that purest Pure Heart. Mmm, but there is a wee fee: yes, yes, 10,000,000 Rubees! Quite a bargain, you agree? So, folks, if you'd be dears, sign this dotted line here, and it's yours, free and clear!" Merlee pulled out a contract and pen.

"Wait, since when were we talking about FEES?!" Chopper exclaimed, giving her a glare. "Sorry, but I have to decline that offer. You never said you were going to give a fee to us or anything…"

"If you lack the Rubees now, a smallish loan I could allow," Merlee assured. "You can work it off somehow. Just sign here, my dear…"

Chopper and Kirby, once again, declined the offer, shaking their heads at her with a glare.

"…OK, here's what we'll do. Have I got a deal for you! Sign up for a loan, and boom! A free gift! Away with gloom! A Super Mega Ultra Shroom! Just sign here, my dear…" Merlee pulled out another contract.

"While a Super Mega Ultra Shroom DOES sound nice… I'm not going to take it." Chopper declined once again.

Merlee rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine, you bargain hard, I'll also throw in Breadward, a Pixl made of oats and lard. Isn't that so nice of me? I'm the best, don't you see? Here, dear, sign and cheer…"

"Ewww! That sounds gross! No way!" Chopper gagged.

"Poyo! (I'm not going to eat something made of lard! That's disgusting!)" Kirby gagged.

"_**NYAAAAH!**_" Now this is when Merlee started to get angry. "Idiots, the two of you! Turning down such a coup! None of you have a clue! Here it is: your last shot! Sign right now, on the dot!"

"What are you even offering us?!" Chopper exclaimed, pushing the contract away. "For the last time… NO!"

_"Good choice, for my sake…" _Merlee's spirit appeared once again, to their surprise. _This Merlee's a total fake… Listen not! She is a snake!"_

"Huh? What's going on here?" Chopper gaped as Merlee's spirit disappeared. "If that Merlee up there was the real one… Then who is…"

_**"**__**Mimimimimimimimi… No point in trying to fool anyone now… I guess now's the time for me to reveal myself!" **_Purple smoke surrounded Merlee, transforming her into Mimi.

"You again!" Chopper got in his fighting stance.

_**"**__**Gee, lookee here! The girl you thought was a handmaid or a Merlee imposter… She's the faithful servant of Tippy, master impersonator Mimi!"**_

"…Tippy?" Chopper felt like he was going to burst in laughter. Kirby, too, couldn't help himself either. "Oh my gosh! THAT'S a good one!"

"Poyo! (Don't tell me! She's in love with Tipral, isn't she?)" Kirby laughed.

"I have to admit… That is a funny name for someone evil…" Tippi giggled.

_**"****BE QUIET! BOTH OF YOU!" **_Mimi snapped. _**"I don't care what you say! That will ALWAYS be the name that I call him, either you like it or not! …But that's not what I'm here for… I want my revenge!"**_

"Revenge? For what?" Chopper questioned until he stopped to take a look at her. "Wait… Don't tell me you're THE Mimi that was always bothering us back five months ago, weren't you?"

_**"****That's right! That's the same one! You thought I wouldn't make a return, didn't you? Well, I swore to myself I would get back at you, and now I'm going to!"**_

"Look, maybe we could settle this peacefully… You know, have a treaty? You can tell Tipral that you beat me and he won't have to worry about a thing!"

"Poyo! (Yeah!)" Kirby nodded in agreement with Chopper.

_**"****No way! I was thinking about settling this peacefully, but it looks like you didn't want to before, so TOO BAD!"**_

"Oh, crud… Then this could get ugly…" Chopper whispered to his friends.

_**"**__**Oh, do you want to make things ugly, huh? Well, that's super. Let's get ugly. **__**TRUE MIMI COME FORTH!**__**"**_

After things began to shake, Mimi graphically snapped her neck. Both Chopper and Kirby gagged and covered their eyes from the horrific sound of her cracking neck. Her eyes began to widen as her head began to spin around.

"So…horrifying…" Chopper shivered.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Mimi's head upside down with her whole body floating up. They seemed to notice that there were six spider legs on her head that looked…really gross.

_**"****Mimimimimimimimimimimimi…"**_

"_**YUCK!**_" Tippi gagged.

"I'll say!" Chopper agreed.

_"Please, my friends, beware," _Merlee's spirit appeared once again._ "A barrier protects her there. In fact, it's everywhere. I think attacks may well be useless against such as she."_

"Attacks won't work? Ugh… What shall we do then?" Tippi questioned.

"I say we…RUN!" Chopper suggested.

"Poyo! (I agree with Chopper! We need to get out of here before that horrifying…THING tries to kill us…or even eat us! …If that's what Mimi is even going to do that to us…)"

_**"**__**MIMIMIMIMI!**__**" **_Mimi cackled as she crept her way to the heroes.

_"Chopper is right. You must flee. Come and find the real me. I am hiding, look and see! If you can, my magic may weaken her and win the day! Hurry, hurry, don't delay!"_ Merlee's spirit disappeared from their sight.

"All right… So we need to find a way to avoid Mimi… I think I know how I'm getting past her." Chopper made a dash at Mimi, but he immediately slid under her to get to the door.

"Poyo! (I'll float over her!)" Kirby inhaled some air and began to float over Mimi, avoiding the Rubees that she fired at him, making it to Chopper and allowing them to go into the next room.

They didn't find much around this next room. It was a pretty small area, they both had to admit, but there were some purple bats called Swoops hanging from the ceiling, wanting to come down at them.

"Oh, we can take them down!" Chopper smirked as he tossed Hommissile at the Swoops, destroying them instantly. "Heh heh heh!"

They came across a skinny hole that was practically impossible to fit. The only way to get through that…would be to turn sideways.

"OK, we ought to use Slim now," Chopper suggested. He and Kirby immediately turned sideways and slipped down that little hole, leading to a door. That's when they stopped using his ability.

"All right, let's go before we have to run into Mimi again…" Chopper trailed as he opened the door to another similar room to the others. But this time there wasn't a door to the bottom right.

"Which one should we take?" Tippi asked.

"I say we take the upper right," Chopper made his way up by jumping on the yellow ? blocks that were below the door in 3-D and then jumping to the door above him. Kirby simply floated up there.

They walked into another similar room from the bottom right door and, to their surprise, they saw a blue Cherbil shooting its icy gas at them. Although Chopper didn't want to do it, he ended up stomping on it to defeat it.

"Ugh… I can't believe I had to touch that thing with my feet…" Chopper gagged.

After they made their way up to the door above them, they came out of a door to the bottom left in the next room. Two Shlurps were crawling around, so Chopper simply threw Hommissile at them, causing them to explode from the inside.

"Poyo? (Uhh… Chopper? How… How do we get up to one of those doors up there?)" Kirby questioned, looking at the two floating doors above them. "…Poyo? (…And why do I see fireballs coming at us?)"

"Fireballs?" Chopper looked up to see some fireballs coming down at them. He immediately rolled away as soon as the fireball came near his feet.

"Since when do torches shoot fireballs at us? !" he exclaimed. "God, could this get ANY worse? !"

_**"****Mimimimimi…" **_Chopper gaped as he saw Mimi appear through the door they just came out of. _**"Thought that I wouldn't be around here, did you? I KNOW where you're going, dummies!"**_

"Well too bad for you, Mimi!" Chopper clenched his fists. "You're going DOWN!"

"Chopper! Don't attack her! Your attacks won't do a thing to her!" Tippi exclaimed, only to be ignored by the Star Warrior when he made a jump on her. But this only helped him get to the door to the upper left on a wooden platform.

"Thanks, Mimi! You're going to help us get through here!" Chopper smirked as he waited for Kirby to float up to him (along with Tippi) to run into the next room. Mimi screamed at them as she disappeared.

"Whoa… Take a look at THAT." Chopper gaped as he walked into a different room. They could see a large Boo covering his face, but as he turned to Kirby, the Atomic Boo made its way to him.

"Poyo! (Hey! Don't turn back! That thing's going to attack!)" Kirby yelped until Chopper fired Hommissile at the Atomic Boo while facing away from it, destroying it in a matter of time.

"That was…impressive…" Tippi stated.

"Yeah, I know about these guys. If you look at them, they're not gonna move, so I just thought 'Why not just attack it while staying behind? That always works!' and that, I did! …Now let's go."

He turned around to see no stairs, but there were marks. "Ummmm… Can someone explain why there aren't any stairs?"

"I believe you need to use my power…" Tippi trailed.

"Oh, OK!" Chopper used Tippi's power to find hidden stairs. "Ah! There we go!" In no time, Tippi made them appear for them, allowing them to go up the stairs to a room with two doors. They were…doors to the bathroom.

"There's a boy's room and a girl's room… I guess you're going to have to go into the girl's bathroom, Tippi." Chopper stated as he hit the yellow ? block to make a Super Shroom pop out. "I'm not going in there, that's for sure…"

He and Kirby split the Super Shroom so they could both heal. "On second thought… Nobody's around here, but the thing is… I'm not one of those perverted boys that want to go into a girl's bathroom…"

"I know you don't, but I believe that we have no other choice…" Tippi fluttered over to the girl's restroom. "It won't be too bad… No one's here anyways…"

"Poyo… (Well, I guess we have no choice. Merlee COULD be in there…)" Kirby opened the door to the girl's bathroom and he and Chopper walked in.

"Strange… I don't see any of those urinals here… Do girls even use urinals or something?" Chopper questioned.

"…Maybe it's best if you wait until you're older about this…" Tippi suggested as she fluttered to one of the stalls.

"I'm going to knock on one of them," Chopper walked over to the third stall to the left. When he opened it, he heard it flush unexpectedly.

"Hee hee hee hee hee!" a voice giggled from the toilet. To their surprise, they all saw Merlee come out of the toilet with bugs flying around her.

"Eeeeeuugh… You came out of the toilet? That's not nice…" Chopper gagged.

"Hee hee hee hee hee!" Merlee giggled. "Found me! The real Merlee! I shine on, like the brightest star calling to you from miles afar." She got out of the toilet and landed on the ground.

_"Hmmmmmm… Wasn't Merlee a bit different from before?" _Chopper thought._ "…Well, this is a different Merlee, just like the Merlon here is a different Merlon. But, why are there so many different kinds of wizards around these parts?"_

"The real Merlee? Truly? But why in a place like this?" Tippi questioned.

"I'm afraid that Mimi freak was too robust, and I too weak… The Pure Heart I quickly took and hid where she would never look… But now you're here. Hooray! This bad tide will turn today! Soon that awful Mimi pays…You two and I can now join up to teach that tiny, bratty pup a lesson. Now let's power up!"

_**"**__**Ooh, I don't think so…" **_To their surprise, Mimi appeared out of thin air (in her spider form, of course) in front of everyone.

"Oh, crap! She found us again!" Chopper shrieked.

_**"****Mimi!**_" Merlee screamed as the cackling Mimi came creeping over to her. The ground began to shake as there were a couple of bright flashes.

After the flashes were gone, Chopper noticed two Merlees standing in front of him. "What the heck? Now there are TWO Merlees? …I'm certain that ONE of them is the real one."

"Stop pretending to be me!" the first Merlee cried. "Everyone knows you are Mimi! Come on, friends! Attack! We can drive her back!"

"What is this you talk about?" the second Merlee questioned. "You're the faker! And a lout! Don't be fooled by her act! Get her now! Now! Attack!"

"It's me! The real Merlee!"

"No, it's me! The true Merlee!"

"Look at us very closely," the first Merlee turned to the confused Chopper and Kirby. "One of us has real beauty…and one is fake as can be"

"Oh, please, you make me gag," the second Merlee shouted. "I am hot; no need to brag. And you… Well, you're a hag."

"Grrr! What a fib-maker! You're such a fake faker!"

"Oh, now, come off it, dear. You're a dog from eye to ear! And your breath reeks, I fear."

"BIG PIG!"

"CHOW COW!"

Both Merlees came charging at each other like cats, bumping into each other and kicking each other fiercely. One of them dodged the other's attack and laughed, by the other came charging back, knocking her down. It looked like nothing was getting settled between the two.

"Wow… It's so hard to tell the difference." Chopper gaped.

"Poyo? (But which one is the REAL Merlee?)" Kirby questioned.

"This is going nowhere, see…" the first Merlee wheezed. "Let's let them pick a Merlee and settle it: do you agree?"

"Sounds like a good thought," the second Merlee agreed. "'Cause I'm the real me (hot) and you really aren't (not)."

"Hee hee hee hee hee… Oh, how much do you amuse! You're a fake! You will lose!"

"Hee hee hee hee hee… You're fake, you stupid fake! We all know you're the snake!"

"_**IT'S ON, CON!**_"

The background suddenly exploded, making some strange computer person with a purple bow-tie and a top hat in red and yellow stripes called the InterNed suddenly made its appearance, to Chopper and Kirby's surprise.

"IIIIIIT'S the 68th Annual… 'That's My Merlee!' show!" the InterNed announced. "How're you folks doing? Let's get going! You two are gonna ask these two Merlees a total of FIVE questions! Listen closely to those answers, 'cause at the end, you gotta pick the real one! Oh, but that's not all! Pick wrong, and there could be some di-SAS-trous results! Now, for our first question!"

"Wait, what the heck's going on?" Chopper questioned. "First there are two Merlees before my very eyes and now there's THIS? ! This all doesn't make ANY sense! Please explain what this all is!"

"You're in a game show, little boy," the InterNed explained. "All you have to do is ask these questions that are shown. After five questions, you have to decide who you think the real Merlee is."

"Oh… So this is like that little game show with the Thwomp…only this time I'm the one asking the questions. Fair enough."

Chopper pondered for a bit until he finally chose his question. "What do you want more than anything in the world?"

"What a GREAT question!" the InterNed commented. "What do you want most right now?"

"Crystal ball, the newest kind! Nice ones are hard to find!" the first Merlee answered.

"I want a boyfriend, please!" The second Merlee said. "I'd love a guy to squeeze! One that's dark and cute-looking!"

"Ooh, VERRRRRY interesting answers!" commented the InterNed. "Now for the next question!"

Kirby stepped up to the stand, pushing Chopper out of the way. "Poyo! (I got a good question here! What's your favorite animal?)"

"What kind of question is… Oh, never mind. It IS one of the ones that are listed…" Chopper gladly told the InterNed what Kirby was trying to say.

"What a CUTE question! What is your favorite kind of animal?"

"A little bear cubbie, just as cute as can be!"

"An adorable little demon, all sweatin' and steamin'!"

"Oh, indeed, indeed!" the InterNed nodded. "Time for another question!"

"Well… This might be one of those odd questions… But I'm gonna ask it anyways!" Chopper declared, looking up at the two Merlees. "If there's one smell that you like… What would it be?"

"Hmm, this one is sort of off the beaten path…" the InterNed trailed. "What is your favorite smell?"

"Fresh air, I swear!"

"Old cheese, yes, please!"

"Well, what do you know? Next question, please!" the InterNed turned back to Chopper and Kirby.

At this point, Kirby was a bit unsure of this question. "Poyo? (What kind of question is 'What do you wash first' anyway? That's… I don't know if that's much of a good question…)"

"Hmmmmm? Did the pink one give a question?" the InterNed questioned. Chopper sighed as he translated for him. "Whoo! This question is a little risqué, folks! What is the first thing you wash in the bathtub?"

"Not that you should care, but I wash my bangs of hair"

"I start with the tile mold, then the faucets, hot and cold…"

"Now! Time for out final question, folks!" the InterNed announced. "Excitement! Which will it be?"

"…WHAT…were your nicknames when you were both a kid?" Chopper asked.

"Hmm… This question might stir up some childhood trauma!" the InterNed stated. "What was your nickname as a kid?"

"It is not a name to boast, but I was the 'Bashful Ghost'."

"Not to go and make a fuss, but I was the 'Odd Porpoise'."

"Well, folks, that was all five questions!" the InterNed announced. "So… Which one is the real Merlee? Search your minds! LET'S HAVE A GUESS!"

Chopper turned to Kirby and Tippi. "Hmmmmmm… Now that I look at it, some of those questions from the second one really gave it away. I don't think that's the real Merlee… Don't you agree?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, I can agree with you on that,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (The Merlee we saw had flies flying around her. The one closest to us appears to be the one with the flies…)"

"Then it's official!" Chopper turned to the InterNed. "We pick…the one closest to us!"

"You suuuure about that? You gotta think good and hard, folks!" the InterNed warned. "You don't want to choose the wrong Merlee, or else something bad's going to happen to you!"

"Yes, we're sure…" Tippi answered.

"Well, enough suspense! Let's see if the one you picked is the real Merlee… A fateful moment, folks! I'm on the edge of my seat!"

Chopper and Kirby immediately prepared for themselves for anything that one of the Merlees might throw at them. There was this drum roll that they were hearing as they prepared themselves.

"_**DING! RIGHT!**_" the InterNed announced, making everyone cheer. Chopper and Kirby were a bit confused on HOW the InterNed knew who Merlee was…or even the fact on WHY he didn't help them.

"Hee hee hee hee hee… Well, of course, obviously! Nobody could copy me!" Merlee giggled.

The other Merlee, on the other hand, was steaming. _**"**__**Stupid-heads… I'd mimicked her perfectly! You know it! … I guess I'll congratulate you…by tearing you into little bits like stupid confetti!"**_

As Mimi transformed into her girl self, the whole game show was broken into block pieces. She immediately cracked her head to transform into her spider form before anyone could make a move.

"Oh, god! Not again!" Chopper shrieked covering her eyes once again.

_**"**__**U-Urr… URK! URK!" **_Mimi wheezed as she was back into her disturbing spider form.

Merlee, on the other hand, made a run for the door out of fear._ "I will cheer from over here! Rah! Rah! Whoosh-bing-bah! Hit 'er in the knee! …If she has one. Does she?"_

Mimi simply cackled. _**"**__**Heeheeheeheeheeheehee… She's a fast one, isn't she? Oh, golly, well, whatever. I'll finish you off first! **__**MIMIMIMIMIMIMI!**__**"**_

"Poyo! (We're not afraid of you! Bring it on, Mimi!)" Kirby got in his fighting stance, along with Mimi.

"Hi-ya!" Chopper rushed straight at Mimi, attacking her with his spinning kick. Unfortunately, he still didn't do any damage to her.

"Oh, yeah… She's still invincible… I nearly forgot about that…" Chopper grumbled until he saw Mimi climb up onto the ceiling. "Oh, great! Now to make things worse… She's up on the ceiling!"

Mimi began to drop Rubees down from her head in a strange way, but since stepping on them would hurt, Kirby simply grabbed one using Thoreau.

"Poyo… (Well, I guess Thoreau's ability comes to good use here…)" Kirby stated as he held up the Rubee. They could still hear Merlee's chants coming from the other room, but they seemed a bit useless…

…Until they saw a bunch of hearts coming from the door. They noticed that the barrier around Mimi was gone.

"Hit her with a Rubee, Kirby!" Chopper shouted.

Kirby nodded and he threw the Rubee straight at Mimi, sending her straight to the ground with a confused look.

_**"**__**But…what?" **_Mimi gawked._**"Why can you damage me? I'm supposed to be all INVINCIBLE! Tippy's power was supposed to protect me!" **_Chopper and Kirby still snickered from the nickname.

_"Rah! Rah! Whoosh-bing-bah!"_ cheered Merlee. _"You can now hit her, dears! For this is no normal cheer! This cheer is magic, woo! Her magic barrier is through!"_

_**"**__**Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? When did this happen?" **_Mimi questioned before letting out a big scream._** "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! This wasn't supposed to happen! Now I feel completely vulnerable!"  
**_

"Well, looks like that that makes things better for us!" Chopper struck Mimi after her screaming, making her a bit dizzy. Unfortunately, they couldn't make another move on her just yet, since she threw a Rubee at Chopper's face.

"Oof! Not these Rubees!" Chopper shouted, throwing the Rubee off of him. "Hold on… Tipps needs to give me some information on Mimi." he used Tippi's powers to find some good information on her.

"That's Mimi. She's a slightly childish shape-shifter that works for Tipral... Just go for the head when you attack... She will briefly stop when she gets hit... That is when you should go on the attack... She might also hang from the ceiling and throw Rubees at you..." Tippi informed.

"Well, I guess that's SOMEWHAT interesting…" Chopper jumped back when Mimi tossed a Rubee straight at him. She then proceeded over to the wall and onto the ceiling, dropping Rubees down.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby grabbed a Rubee with Thoreau's ability and then threw it straight at Mimi, knocking her to the ground, allowing Chopper to stomp on her head, leaving her dizzy.

Since there was another Rubee, Kirby used Thoreau to grab it and then threw it at Mimi, detaching one of her spider legs.

"So… All we have to do is get rid of all of her spider legs and this battle will be ours! It doesn't seem to be a bad thing…" Chopper tried to rush at Mimi, but she summoned a wave of Rubees at both of them, making them hold their feet in pain from the pointy Rubees.

"Grrrrr! You're going to pay for that!" Chopper tried to strike Mimi, but when she tossed a Rubee at him, he immediately slid under her to avoid the attack. That's when he fired Hommissile straight at him.

"Heh heh heh! Now that you're dizzy… Time to make my move!" Chopper smirked as he landed a jump on Mimi, detaching her second leg. She only had four more left, to their surprise.

_**"****Mimimimimimimimi! You're not going to win so easily!" **_Mimi knocked Chopper away with one of her spider legs, sending him straight to the wall.

"Hmmmm? I didn't know Mimi could do that…" Tippi trailed, taking a glance at Mimi, who crept her way to Chopper.

While she did that, Kirby grabbed a Rubee that was left on the ground with Thoreau and he struck her with it, making her dizzy.

"Poyo! (Now, Chopper! Make your next attack!)" Kirby shouted.

"Thanks, Kirby!" Chopper jumped off from the wall and he landed a stomp on top of Mimi's head, leaving her with only three spider legs left. "This fight is seriously a joke… We're CREAMING her!"

_"Hee hee on you, dearie! Now you shall see the way a good cheer wins the day!"_ Merlee cheered from the other room.

"Ugh… Why did she have to wait out there to help us than stay here?" Tippi rolled her eyes as she turned back around to see Mimi knocking both Chopper and Kirby away with her last three spider legs.

_**"****I need to get to somewhere safe…" **_Knocking Chopper away, Mimi climbed up onto the wall and began to drop Rubees. Two of them were dropped and inhaled and grabbed by Chopper and Kirby.

Once Kirby knocked her down with a Rubee, they waited for her to fire another Rubee before Chopper spat the Rubee in his mouth at Mimi. Once he did that, Kirby grabbed the other Rubee and got rid of her fourth spider leg, bringing her to two.

_**"****EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! I'm only down to two spider legs! This is… This is horrible!" **_Mimi screamed.

_"Yes! Yes!"_ Merlee cheered again. _"Our team's best! __**GOOO…TEAM!**__"_

"You're barely doing a thing!" Chopper shouted before he made her dizzy with a spinning kick attack. With one stomp attack, he managed to bring her down to only one leg.

"Poyo! (We're almost there!)" Kirby cheered before he got smacked away by Mimi's spider leg.

_**"****This isn't over, dummies!" **_Mimi climbed up onto the wall to drop another Rubee, but her efforts were fruitless when Chopper sent Mimi down with Hommissile. With one stomp, she was left dizzy.

"OK, Kirby! Finish her off!" Chopper shouted.

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby grabbed the Rubee left on the ground and he threw it straight at Mimi, detaching her last spider leg and sending her straight to the ground.

_**"**__**Mimimimimiuuuuuurgh… B-But how could you…It's impossible… How…" **_Mimi questioned as she began to explode.

Chopper and Kirby were about to cheer, but then they noticed Mimi was still alive – only she was back in her girl form, but a bit slouched, and her eye seemed to be twitching.

_**"****Uurr-urrk… URK! URK!" **_Mimi wheezed._**"Don't think…you've beaten me for good, dummies… Next time you won't be so lucky… Remember that… Stupid-heads! UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURK!"**_

Mimi floated up in pain, disappearing from their sight by teleporting with the boxed outline around her. Chopper jumped up in surprise from the teleportation.

"Wait… That teleportation DOES feel a bit familiar to me. It kinda reminds me of my flipping!" Chopper gaped.

"Poyo! (Well, now that she's finished, I think we need to celebrate!)" Kirby smiled at Chopper, who gave him a nod. They began to do a little dance with the Kirby victory music playing in the background.

After their final pose, Merlee came walking into the bathroom, congratulating the two heroes.

"Fine job on that Mimi, yes!" Merlee complimented. "The Pure Heart's safe, evil's repressed."

"Yeah, thanks for the compliment… But you should've helped us…" wheezed Chopper, getting out of his little pose.

Merlee ignored Chopper's words. "So, the Light Prognostacius was read by you, yes? It was written there that I and my ancestors waited by the Pure Heart, staying spry… But something wasn't written there, and of it you must be aware. There is another prophecy: a heart of chaos can only be beaten by four of mystery… But pure chaos can only be beaten by six heroes. Six heroes unite, their hope burns forth light to shatter the walls of blight. That is how despair, it dies, such is what we prophesize here in the home of the wise."

"Four to beat the Chaos Heart…but six to defeat pure chaos? What does that mean?" Chopper questioned.

"I am sure the pair of you, Chopper, and Kirby you too, are the first of the heroes true. So, then, it falls to you, to find the other heroes two or four. I would guess, if I had to, the others might be known to you. Now, finally, let me be! I hereby do my sworn duty! There! From me it parts! Here, heroes! A Pure Heart!"

Merlee pulled out an orange Pure Heart that began to float above Chopper. To his surprise, not only was Thoreau doing a dance, but Hommissile and Slim were dancing as well!

"Poyo? (Huh? What's with the Pixls?)" questioned Kirby.

"I don't know, but that's not what we should be worrying about," Chopper smiled as he held up the orange Pure Heart.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Tipral's servant Mimi had laid a nasty trap for Chopper and friends… But with the help of Merlee, faithful defender of the Pure Heart, the day was won. But who were the other four…or five heroes mentioned by Merlee? With seventeen Pure Hearts yet to be found, Chopper knew this adventure had only begun…_

* * *

**And so, Chapter 2 has finally been put to an end... Well, it's not dead, but it's FINALLY over. First we have the disturbing Mimi (while I can handle spiders, how she transforms just...isn't right), and then we have Chopper and Kirby going into a girls' bathroom. How messed up could this be?**

**But, hey! They did a little victory dance, so that was a bit cute, I suppose... :P  
**


	14. Chapter 2 Interlude

**More interludes? Well… If you want an interlude, then you've come to the right chapter. But, we'll see what happens next with Tipral…and possibly someone else? But… Who could it be? Well, you're about to find out.**

* * *

"Tippy… I'm so sorry! I couldn't beat Chopper and his friend! They… They were just too strong for me!" Mimi wheezed, standing right on Tipral's platform once again, which started to get on his nerves. But, once again, he decided to let her stay on it, even if it meant to keep her from getting in a fuss.

"I saw this coming," Tipral replied, pulling the Dark Prognosticus out. "I'm pretty sure he's taken you down in your spider form before, has he not? I'm almost certain that he has…"

"Do I have to do anything in return?" Mimi asked.

"Find out what you did wrong and come back here when you're ready, Mimi," Tipral closed the Dark Prognosticus and looked at her. "But you're going to have to give me an idea of a trap for next time on Chopper. If you fail to… Well, there are going to be some consequences for that."

"Oh, thank you Tippy!" Mimi gave him a hug and even landed a kiss on his cheek. "I will give you the BEST trap that you'll ever see! Trust me!" she giggled as she teleported out of the room.

"Ugh… Good thing nobody saw that." he grumbled, wiping Mimi's kiss off of him. "Though I've never gotten something like that… I don't approve of it!"

"_**Tipral!**_" O'Chunks came falling down from the ceiling. "I beg yeh, gimme the honor o' whalin' on this pack o' nambly-pamblies! I swear of me whiskers that I'll spank 'em like naughty little Cherbils, I will!"

"So, you think you're all ready to go then? I suppose you've finished lifting all of those weights on your training, right?"

"Eah… Y'see… I…just got a wee bit left. I'm takin' a break 'ere. Me trainin' does take time, Tipral! Liftin' 1,000 weights fer yeh is a bit tough fer the likes of me!"

"Ugh… Well, what did I miss?" Dark asked while making his appearance through his cape.

"Hmmmmmm… Actually, you're one of the people I've been looking for, Dark…" Tipral remarked. "You see… I think now's the time for you to go out and stop those heroes once and for all!"

"Hmmmm? I'm up already?" Dark raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect to be going up so soon… But, I'll do it…right after I find some more people in this castle that are still not loyal to you. I gotta work on that first, y'know."

"Yes, yes… I understand. If you can't make it then, I might as well send… Dimentio! Come to me!"

Dimentio made his appearance through his magic. "And so I arrive, like a sudden windstorm at a kindergarten picnic!"

"…What the HECK did you just say? That didn't make any sense to me." Tipral said with a confused look. "But, enough talk. I'm pretty sure you would like to face Chopper, do you not?"

"The heroes, you say? Oh, yes! I will do as you say, Tipral. Besides, I was always wondering how much of a challenge Chopper would be… Perhaps now I'll get to enjoy a fight! Now, if there is nothing else, I'll just be on my way. Ciao, Tipral."

At that moment, Dimentio disappeared from their sight. "Well, I guess I better go. I'll dispatch of Chopper as soon as I finish up with the people in the castle." Dark left the room with his cape.

"I guess I better be goin' now," O'Chunks jumped off the platform and made his way back to his room.

Tipral, on the other hand, looked up. "Hmph… So, you honestly think that you're going to stop me, Chopper? Even with Kirby on your side, your efforts to stop me will be in vain! You have no chance if winning now!"

He immediately teleported out of the room, leaving nobody left in the room.

* * *

**Outside of the castle-**

"Ugh… What happened?" a certain blue hedgehog quickly got himself up. He looked around the room for anyone, but all he could see was the darkness up in the sky and the black floor he was standing on.

"Whoa… This is weird. First I'm in a castle located on Chopper's planet, then I'm at some kind of kingdom…and NOW I'm out in this darkness? What the heck's going on here? !"

"You awake, Blue?" a Goomba called out. A Motobug was right beside him as well.

"Yeah… Hey there, bad guys. What's going on here?" Sonic questioned.

"Yeah, we're doing OK," the Goomba replied. "But, at least you're here! Good to see that you made it! _Figured he was done… Dude is tougher than he looks._"

"So, yeah… This is a strange question to ask, but have you seen Kirby, Blade or even the Mario Bros.?"

"Nope. We didn't see any of 'em." the Motobug replied. "You're the only one we found. Let's hope they're OK. _Get a load of this moron!_ _Who cares about his friends!_"

"Near as we can figure, most of the other minions got captured or something," the Goomba stated. "And we're probably next! _Why is this hedgehog so calm? ! We're behind enemy lines!_"

"Soooo… Sonic, old buddy!" the Motobug jumped up a little. "What do you think about getting us out of this evil place? We're thinking you open the path for us…and we all bail. Whatcha think?"

Sonic shook his head. "Sorry, but I can't do that. I mean, leave all of my friends behind? I couldn't do anything like that! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! I made a promise that I wouldn't leave anyone behind."

"Man…wow," the Goomba gaped. "Apparently I DID expect you to say something like that. Aren't you the defender of the helpless? No one else can help us! We beg of you for your help!"

"…Fine. I'll help you guys." Sonic sighed. "I personally DON'T like to help out the enemies, but since you guys are trying to get away from Tipral's grasps, then we have to work together."

"Oh, you are the BEST! _Man, that was waaaaaay too easy. What a sucker!_"

"We'll be right behind you!" The Motobug stated. _"But once things get rough, we BAIL!"_

"This way, then!" Sonic made a dash over to the door to their left. He wasn't getting tired of running, that's for sure…

They came across some stairs in the next room, which led to the inside of Castle Tipral. The Goomba and Motobug followed Sonic down the stairs to the door up ahead, leading into a smaller room with a door nearby.

"Hmmmmm… That door is VERY easy to see…" Sonic walked into the door ahead, leading into a larger and longer room.

"Well, I'm gonna have to go a bit faster here," Sonic's feet began to turn to a wheel as he ran all the way to the left until the Goomba and Motobug stopped him.

"Sonic! Wait up!" the Goomba and Motobug finally made their way to Sonic, who didn't even look exhausted.

"Oh, crap… Don't tell me we're at a dead end!" the Goomba gaped as he saw a wall nearby. "It looks like the end of the line here"

"Oh, man… You're right about that!" Sonic gaped. "Now what're we supposed to do?"

"We should look for another way out," the Motobug suggested. _"This hedgehog's useless. _If we stay here, we'll definitely be spotted by—_**GAZOOOORT!**_"

The Motobug felt some purple energy zap him. "_**HAIL TIPRAL!**_"

"Uh oh…" Sonic gulped.

"_**MOTOBUG-WITH-NO-NAME! NO!**_" the Goomba cried.

"Well, well, well! Look what we have here!" Dark grinned as he walked over to Sonic. "I never expected YOU to be around here, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Dark? What the… I thought you were in prison!" Sonic got in a fighting stance.

"I was…until I was taken out of there by Tipral! Heh heh heh! And thanks to him, I can brainwash anyone that I want to…such as yourself!"

"There's no way I'm going to give in to the likes of you! Not even your army could take me on!" Sonic looked at the army of Motobugs, Buzz Bombers, Hammer Bros. and even Goombas.

"Oh, man… Poor Motobug-with-no-name…" the Goomba mourned. "All right! I think it's time for me to Goomba-up!

The Goomba walked up to Dark. "Hey, dark dude! You got any room for one more?"

"Wait, what are you DOING? !" Sonic exclaimed.

"What do you think it looks like I'm doing, genius? ! I'm joining the winning side!"

"Hmmmm… Well, I guess you made a good choice, Goomba. You can join us…only if you swear your loyalty to Tipral!"

"Hey, count me in, dark dude! HERE WE GO, TIPRAL, HERE WE GO! LOVE THAT ULTIMATE LIFE FORM!"

"You… You dirty traitor!" Sonic scowled.

"All right, now that that's taken care of… You guys hold Sonic down! I'm going to brainwash him now! Then we'll have a super-fast hedgehog on our side!" Dark grinned.

"_**YES, SIR!**_" all of the minions immediately grabbed Sonic's arms and legs.

"Grrrrr! You're… You're not going to get away with this!" Sonic growled.

"Oh, but I am!" Dark was about to zap Sonic…until a box appeared around the blue hedgehog and teleported him out.

"WHAT? ! How? ! How did he disappear like that? !" Dark face palmed. "Bah! Fine! Looks like another one got away this time… I might as well take it all out on Chopper and his friend…"

Dark wrapped himself around with his cape and he was gone before you knew it.

* * *

**Out on Lineland Road-**

"Hmmmmmm… I haven't seen my sword anywhere." Meta Knight was flying over the whole place instead of traveling on foot like Chopper did. All he could see were Squiglets and even a castle off at the distance. He noticed a red door up on the top of the castle, but where did it lead to?

"I'm not going to bother looking through that castle. There's no way it would be somewhere around there." Meta Knight shook his head as he flew up to the top of the castle.

After landing, he saw how high he was. He was pretty close to the clouds, to his surprise.

"If Chopper said he roamed through these parts, then I'm sure he's responsible for revealing this door. But for some reason… I feel like there was something up here as well…"

Meta Knight noticed a Drackle laying on the ground. It got up and tried to attack, but Meta Knight managed to knock it back with a simple kick.

"If only I had my sword, I could slice this thing in half. Sadly, that's not the case. Not even a Flip Wizard and an old man named 'Yerfeys' was able to help me with my search for Galaxia…"

Without hesitation, Meta Knight made his way into a chamber. He noticed the footsteps on the ground that reminded him of Chopper.

"So… Chopper HAS walked through these parts. But, the thing is… Why is there a block at the end of this chamber?" Meta Knight walked over to the Star Block until he was interrupted by a calm voice.

"_Welcome, hero…" _Merlumina once again, appeared before Meta Knight's very eyes, but her expression changed as soon as she floated to the ground.

"_Wait… You're not the hero that I was speaking to… In fact, you're not one of the heroes from the Light Prognosticus, if I could recall…"_

"Light Prognosticus? What is that?" Meta Knight questioned. "All I came here is to look for my sacred sword, Galaxia. It is a weapon that I've been caring ever since it was passed down to me."

"_Galaxia? Unfortunately, I know no such thing. I haven't seen a sword make its appearance here. But I can explain to you about the Light Prognosticus. It started 1,500 years ago, when I was a beautiful young women… I can remember the time with those…and then he said…and I said…"_

"In all honesty… I don't have time to be listening to this. I really need to get going if I can't find my sword. I'm sure Chopper or Merlon could explain all the details to me."

"…_Very well, then. If you wish to return here, I'll be waiting for you." _Merlumina sighed as she slowly began to disappear…

"Hold on a moment… I think that that old man wanted me to give you something…"

* * *

"_So… Have we decided on a name for this being?"_

"_Hmmmmm… I was thinking along the lines of 'Dark' or even 'Shadow'. Those sound like fitting names!"_

"_No, no! Those names are just too…common! We can't be unoriginal when we're thinking of a name for this being. His mother wouldn't be pleased with the name anyways!"_

"_Yeah… That's understandable. We need a name that can be interesting…yet unique at the same time."_

"_We should save the name 'Shadow' for someone else."_

"_Hmmmmmmmmm… I think I've got the name!"_

"_What are we naming him?"_

"_We shall call him…Tipral."_

* * *

**Back on Flipside Towers-**

Chopper and Kirby made their way out of the orange door, where they saw an orange crystal heart appear above the door.

"Poyo! (Hey, that kind of reminds me of the Crystal Star for some reason!)" Kirby gawked while pointing to the heart.

"Oh ho, welcome back, friends!" Merlon greeted. "How was your journey this time? Did you find Merlee and obtain the Pure Heart?"

"Yeah, we did it, that's for sure," Chopper nodded.

"Merlee said that we would need the power of four heroes to stop the Chaos Heart…but then she said we need the power of six heroes to stop pure chaos…" Tippi informed. "But I don't know what that means…"

"Oh ho, is that so?" Merlee questioned. "There is more than one hero? Well, if Chopper and Kirby are two such heroes, then you still need two or four more…"

"Yeah, I wonder who…" Chopper's words were interrupted by the violent shaking coming from the sky. "What's going on? !"

"Look, over there…" Tippi glanced up at the sky, where The Void began to grow a bit larger.

"Poyo? (What's that up in the sky? )" Kirby questioned.

"That is The Void," Merlon informed. "And it has grown…"

After the shaking stopped, Chopper and Kirby took deep breaths. "Hmmm… I fear that our time grows short, dear friends… I will return to the Light Prognosticus. You young ones seek the next Heart Pillar."

Merlon made his way to the elevator until he remembered something. "But first… Allow me to tell of something that mystical book has already divulged to me."

"_Oh, boy… Another one of these…" _Chopper thought while groaning inside of his head.

"One person will determine whether the Light or Dark Prognoticus predicts truly… Both books refer to him as the 'dark one', but I know not what this means… I must return to my study to solve this conundrum." Merlon finished before going down the elevator.

"The 'dark one'? Hmmmmmmm… Now who could THAT be?" Chopper pondered before being dragged down the elevator by Kirby.

"Poyo… (So, where do we go from here?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, I think we ought to go down to where we were before. I mean, down to the first floor outskirts, that is." Chopper suggested.

* * *

**First floor outskirts-**

"All right, we never got to see what was ahead," Chopper noticed at the end of the area a pipe with two brick blocks in the way. "Oh, this is going to be easy! Hommissile can take care of this for sure!"

Chopper fired Hommissile straight at the brick blocks, destroying them and allowing them to go down a bit deeper into the outskirts. Tippi could feel the presence of a Pure Heart around here.

"Chopper… I can feel a Heart Pillar coming from the wall ahead…" Tippi fluttered over to the wall. "I think you're going to need to flip to find a way through here…"

"Well, then I shall!" Chopper jumped over a red block and a pipe to make his way to the wall. Flipping into 3-D, he saw a little slot that he could fit through. Using Slim's ability, he slipped through and made his way to the Heart Pillar.

"Here we go! Now to put the Pure Heart where it belongs!" Chopper smiled as he brought out the orange Pure Heart, which made its way into the Heart Pillar and created an orange clock.

"Poyo… (I wonder what's going to happen..)" Kirby pondered from the other side of the wall.

Up at Flipside Towers, a yellow door was drawn and created right beside the orange door.

"Well, we ought to see what happened up there," Chopper brought the Return Pipe out and he and Kirby made their way back to the tower. They saw Meta Knight walk out of the red door.

"Meta Knight!" Chopper made a dash over to him. "How was your trip through Lineland Road?"

"Terrible. I couldn't find Galaxia anywhere." Meta Knight replied. "I was forced to do something for an old man, though…and a wizard. But that's not the point. I can't give up my search so soon."

Meta Knight looked over at the orange door. "I'll check through there next, then I'll go check through the yellow. Rest assured, Chopper… I'll be fine."

"Wait! Don't go in…" Meta Knight already walked through the door. "…That'll lead to Merlee's Mansion! …And that place is BAD!"

"Poyo… (We don't have much of a choice… We might as well leave him…)" Kirby suggested.

"Ugh… Well, I guess so. Let's head through this yellow door." Chopper opened the yellow door and he and Kirby made their way through. Hopefully this world wouldn't be as painful as the other.


	15. When Geeks Attack

_Chopper and his new friends opened the door, unsure of what they would find. All the while, Merlee's words about finding the "other two or four heroes" rang in their minds. Were these other heroes somewhere in this new world? If not, where? Meanwhile, the creeping void grew larger in the skies above Flipside. The hopes of all worlds rested on the heroes finding the next Pure Heart…_

**CHAPTER 3-1**

**-When Geeks Attack-**

When the background was being drawn, not much could be seen except for a flat ground, but as soon as everything was colored in, everything looked pixilated. It was almost like a huge 8-bit world, but that really wasn't the case here. There's the green grass and the dirt below it, along with some pixilated bushes as well. It's almost like Lineland Road, but it wasn't so pixilated like this place.

The yellow door appeared and out came Chopper and Kirby. They looked a bit confused when they saw this whole world. It felt so…strange to them.

"What the heck? What kind of world is THIS?" Chopper questioned, looking up at the pixilated clouds and the sky. "It reminds me so much of…when I was four. The background back then felt so weird compared to what it is today."

"Poyo, (I can agree with you on that,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (It kinda reminds me of back then as well.)"

"So this is where that door leads…" Tippi trailed. "I suppose the next Pure Heart must be nearby…"

"Wait, it's nearby?" Chopper questioned.

"Hmm… This is odd… I can feel it nearby, but where could it be…" Tippi pondered. "Well, I'm—AAACK!"

"HUH? !" Chopper noticed a long, sticky pink tongue grab Tippi out of nowhere. "What in the world was THAT? !"

"Poyo! (I have no idea!)" Kirby shrieked.

"Ner-herrrr herrr herrr herr!" a geeky voice chortled, making Chopper and Kirby shiver in fear. No… It couldn't be THAT kind of voice, was it? The voice that sounds like…someone who's…a geek.

A green chameleon wearing spiral glasses, a yellow T-shirt with a Mushroom and star on it and a belt filled with many gadgets appeared before their very eyes. Chopper and Kirby shivered, yet they got in a fighting stance.

"I knew it! …A nerd!" Chopper shouted.

"HI-TECHNICAAAAAAAL! I caught a super-rare pixilated butterfly! And it looks exactly like Francine!" the nerdy chameleon said in a nerdy voice. "My friends at digibutter. nerr are going to freak when they get word of this find! I must bring it home. I can't miss this week's episode of 'Grodus vs Gemerl Affairs'! No way am I going to entrust my digital Recordomeow to tape an episode so epic. This is so hi-tecnicaaaaaaal!

"Give Tippi back, you geek!" Chopper tried to jump on him, but he disappeared before his very eyes. "No! Tippi! She's…gone!"

"Poyo? (Now what're we going to do?)" Kirby cried.

"Whoa-ho-ho! A kidnapping! It's Game Over for that Pixl now… It's such a shame that that geek has to go nab another butterfly… Is he seriously into butterflies or something?" the voice that whispered to itself sounded like a Pixl voice, which got Chopper and Kirby's surprise. It was coming from one of the bushes.

"Hey… That voice sounded like a Pixl! …But from who?" Chopper walked over to one of the bushes and he shook it until a Pixl shaped like a spiked ball came out, frowning at the two heroes.

"Who are these two? A friend of the butterfly girl that got nabbed?" the Pixl questioned.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, me? Well…er… My name's Barry. I'm not one to go talking to people, but since you found me out, I guess I'll have to talk to you. So, you're friends of that butterfly girl, right? Well, that's a pity. That geek that grabbed her? Francis. Basically, the nerd to end all nerds."

"Poyo… (Yeah, he seems like a nerd for sure…)" Kirby agreed.

"Plus, he's got this thing for butterflies! And, well, all things nerdy, too. If he gets his sweaty mitts on something he likes, there's no getting it back. He collects stuff and keeps it in his big fantasy fortress. It's like geek paradise."

"So, where can we find Fort Francis anyway?" Chopper asked. "I'm pretty sure someone of your intellect can tell us where that place is."

"Whoa now, you want to know where Fort Francis is? I mean, come on, look, nobody likes having their butterfly kidnapped by a geek, but it's dangerous! You might possible get…geekified."

"Geekified? I'm pretty sure we can handle that place. Trust me, I've been through worse situations than THAT. I mean, I had to TRAVEL THROUGH HELL! I even took down an entire species, for that matter! …But just barely…with friends."

"Still set on it, eh?" Barry raised an eyebrow. "What a tender moment. I think I got something in my eye here. Listen, let me give you some travel tips. You listening? Good. All I got for you is three critical tips, so remember all of 'em!"

Barry cleared his throat. "Here's your first tip! A bunch of no-class jerks are holed up in this castle up ahead. It ain't gonna be easy getting past 'em. But here's the juice: it's an old castle. You do your thing with that **red X mark**, and maybe something will happen for you. Now for my second tip! If you somehow pass those clowns in the castle, you'll see an ocean. Can't miss it. A scaaarrry sea monster lives there. The beast is huuuuuuuuuge. And cranky. But if you attack its **red flipper thing**, something good is bound to happen. And here's the last tip! Once you swim your way through that ocean, you'll see a path that takes you to a humongous tree. The path is long, but it shouldn't be tough. Also, there's a huge gorge on the other side of the tree. There's no jumping across it! Look for the **red wind** and do something with it. Then you can get across."

"All right, that sounds like good advice," Chopper smirked.

"Oh, and just to remind you… I think I'm gonna have to tag along with you. Yeah, I know it sounds a bit…strange, but I think it's best. Plus, I feel like I'm getting the 'hero instinct' coming from you two. Perhaps I can be of good use to you."

Barry circled around Chopper and Kirby and they both held him up as soon as he was above them.

**The Superguarding Pixl, Barry, has joined your group! Using his ability, you'll be able to deflect any attacks sent straight at you! …Or you can simply strike an enemy from close by with his ability!**

"All right, so now that we've become friends… I think we need to go look for your, er…girlfriend, right?" Barry looked up at Chopper, who gave him a glare while he began to blush.

"Tippi isn't my girlfriend, you know…" he retorted. "WHY does everyone think that any girl in my group is considered to be my girlfriend? First Bow, then Vivian, and then Heartsy! Gimme a break!"

"Poyo. (Well, there's not much else to do now. I think we ought to get going, then.)" Kirby suggested, making his way over to a small gap leading down to a bottomless pit ahead.

"This should be easy," Chopper smirked as he jumped across the gap and over to some hills with some Motobugs moving around. They would have to jump up these, since there's a tall pipe in their way.

"These guys should be easy to beat," Chopper said with ease as he stomped on the Motobugs. Kirby, on the other hand, inhaled a Koopa on one of the hills and spat it out at the Piranha Plant at the top of the pipe that popped out, defeating it instantly.

When they made their way to another bottomless pit, they noticed two red pipes on each side of the edge. "Poyo… (Well, there's no way we're going down there, that's for sure…)" Kirby trailed.

"Hmmmmm… Let's see what's around here." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a yellow arrow block right by the pipe. He hit it to bring it to 2-D, then he flipped back. "Let's see where this leads."

Chopper jumped onto the top of the pipe to find another block. After punching it, a ladder was drawn for them, allowing them to climb up to a platform with a red door. Now they knew where to go…

Walking into the next area, they noticed that there were these large gaps and even some small little grassy spaces that looked tough to jump over. But the interesting thing there was the yellow ? right next to the door.

"Poyo? (What's in here?)" Kirby wondered as he hit the block. To their surprise, a Mega Star came bouncing out.

"Holy crap! I'm getting this one!" Chopper rushed straight for the Mega Star, but Kirby pushed him away and grabbed it first, transforming into Mega Kirby.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper shouted, almost about to swear for missing the Mega Star. But, he had to follow Kirby through the area as he destroyed everything in his path, from Motobugs, Buzz Bombers and Koopas.

"Wow… This does seem to be a bit of a bigger place to use the Mega Star…" he stated, looking up at the atmosphere.

"Too bad I don't have one of those…" Chopper whimpered, jumping across the bottomless pits to follow Kirby. After he smashed through a pipe, his Mega Star ability wore off, bringing him to a red door.

"Poyo… (Aw… I was hoping that I would be able to use it longer…)" Kirby wailed.

"Don't worry, we'll find one some other time…but that one will be mine," Chopper smirked as they walked into another area. They weren't all the way to the left this time, but they were in the middle. There were a TON of blocks around here, too.

When they landed on the ground, a Koopa was caught off guard and ran to the right, hitting a yellow ? block to get a Mega Star from it.

"Wait… Now a KOOPA can use something like that? !" Chopper gaped, seeing how big the Koopa turned out to be. It was an 8-bit kind of Koopa, just like in the original Super Mario Bros. games.

"Poyo…? (Uhh… What do we do now…?)" Kirby asked.

"The only thing we CAN do is RUN!" Chopper immediately turned around and fled from the Mega Koopa. Kirby did the same thing, even though it wasn't easy for him to get away from the Koopa.

"Let's see what's in here," Chopper managed to find another yellow ? block, and luckily, a Mega Star came out. THIS time he was the one to get it, and with that, he was able to turn into Mega Chopper.

"YES! Now I've got the Mega Star! …But will it actually do anything to the Koopa?" Chopper took a couple of steps towards the Mega Koopa and, to his surprise, he knocked it away. He then proceeded to the right, destroying everything in his path until he turned back to normal and found a blue ! block and a sign.

"Poyo? (What does the sign say?)" Kirby questioned. He decided to be the one to read it, but it looked extremely confusing to him.

_**sepip der eht**__ eewteb ni llaff_

"What the heck? Those words look backwards…" Chopper tried to get a closer look at it. "Well, if you unscramble the words, or read it backwards here, I think it says, 'fall in between the red pipes'. Yeah… I think I remember there being two pipes back in that other area."

"Poyo! (Then let's go there!)" Kirby suggested after hitting the blue ! block, making a platform appear at the red door. Now they were ready to leave this area.

* * *

**Over by the red pipes-**

"All right, so basically we have to climb down this ladder and go down that pit between the red pipes. I think that's all we have to do." Chopper explained, looking down at the pit from the door they just came out of.

"Poyo… (OK, that sounds pretty simple…)" Unfortunately, Kirby accidentally hit Chopper, making him fall down into the pit. "POYO! (CHOPPER! ARE YOU OK?!)"

"OOF! …YEAH, I GUESS I'M FINE! …BUT NEXT TIME, _DON'T_ TURN AROUND WHEN YOU'RE CLOSE TO ME!" Chopper shouted from the pit.

Kirby shrugged and he floated down the pit. He noticed that he and Chopper were in this underground area, but it felt a lot different from the other ones. This one…seemed a lot like the underground area in World 1-2 in the original Super Mario Bros.!

"Heads, up, Kirby! We've got some Gloombas coming at us!" Chopper warned, pointing to the two blue Goombas that were walking their way. Luckily, Chopper finished them off with two stomps.

"Poyo? (Does all of this Goomba stomping caused genocide or something?)" Kirby questioned after exhaling a puff of air out and landing on the ground.

"I don't know… I think Mario's caused some genocide, that's for sure…" Chopper hit the yellow ? blocks that were right next to them. One of them contained a Mushroom for them to gorge down on.

They then jumped over the blocks that were piled up, ignoring the Gloomba walking between two of the blocks and made their way to two Koopas. Chopper immediately stomped on one and kicked it at the other, knocking it back over to a pipe where two Gloombas were near.

"Poyo… (That Koopa shell didn't kill those Goombas…)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo! (If only Tippi were here, she'd be able to find some info on these guys!)"

"Yeah…" Chopper stopped when he saw a Piranha Plant pop out of the pipe. "Maybe it's time we used your ability, Barry! Maybe you can kill these Piranha Plants!" Chopper found himself in a spiky shield when he jumped towards the Piranha Plant, defeating it instantly.

"My powers are mostly good for deflecting abilities," Barry informed. "It's kind of like Superguarding, if that's something you've done before."

"Yeah, I've done it before," Chopper used a spinning kick on the other Piranha Plant over by the next pipe, defeating that one and jumping over the other pipe that led up to a gap that led to some stairs.

"Poyo! (This should be easy!)" Kirby simply jumped over the pit and went up the blue blocks that formed stairs. He saw a couple of platforms moving down and also goes moving up. In between those was a platform with some blocks and a Koopa with a red shell and sunglasses.

"That must be one of Tipral's minions," Chopper stated as he stomped on the Koopa and kicked it off the cliff. "I'm betting that the ones without them belong to Bowser, while the others are Tipral's. It makes sense."

After they both crossed the platforms moving up, they came across a pipe that led them back outside in the Bitlands.

"We're back out? Interesting…" After taking a few steps, they both ran into two Koopas with soccer-like shells and even soccer shells. These guys are called Koopa Strikers, and boy, do they enjoy soccer!

"Poyo… (Uh oh… Looks like we have company...)" Kirby gaped as both of them got hit by two soccer shells.

"Looks like we're gonna have to fight back," Chopper pushed the shell off of him and then he kicked it straight at the Koopa Striker, knocking him back. Once he was flipped over, he beat him down with a stomp attack.

Kirby took care of the other Koopa Striker by inhaling him and spitting him out at the other soccer shell, defeating him instantly. This allowed them move on, defeating more Koopa Strikes, but then more Koopa Strikers appeared on a row of yellow ? blocks.

"This should be easy," Chopper knocked the Koopa Striker on the block into his shell by punching the block he was standing on. They kind of ignored the other one for now and moved on ahead.

"_**HAAAALT!**_" a Koopa Striker brought the palm of his hand up at Chopper and Kirby as they stepped closer to a small, pixilated castle. "Yeah, you two! This is our fort! And we don't like chumps like you two geekin' up the place! You're about to get flattened into a pancake, courtesy of my shell!"

The Koopa Striker turned. "Come on out, fellas!" With one whistle, a couple of Buzz Bombers, Motobugs and Hammer Bros. jumped out of the castle, getting into their fighting stances.

"_**YEAAAAHHH!**_"

"Come and get some, punks!" the Koopa Striker pulled a soccer shell out and he kicked it straight at Chopper, only to inhale it and spit it straight back at him, knocking him away and leaving only some Hammer Bros., Motobugs and Buzz Bombers.

"Those Buzz Bombers might be tough to get, since they're flying up high. I think you should grab one of the other enemies and throw it at that thing. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to hit it."

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby used Thoreau's ability to grab the Motobug and throw it at the Buzz Bomber, knocking it down to the ground to allow Chopper to finish it with a spinning kick. He then deflected a hammer with Barry, sending it straight back at him instead.

"All right, let's see what we have up ahead," Chopper jumped off of the small castle and he found another one up ahead. This time there was a Bill Blaster that was firing Bullet Bills, but not at them.

"I think I could get something from those… Let's see!" Chopper inhaled the Bullet Bill and he suddenly gained a light blue, floppy hat. He was holding a bomb, which he threw straight at the Bill Blaster.

"Poyo… (I don't think that's enough to take it down… You're going to need more, Chopper…)" Kirby informed.

"Yeah, yeah… I know that." Chopper pulled another bomb out and tossed it at the Bill Blaster. This time he managed to destroy it, leaving a Buzz Bomber and two Motobugs on the castle.

When they got up on the castle, Kirby took care of the two Motobugs by using Barry's ability, while Chopper grabbed a bomb and threw it at the Buzz Bomber, blowing it up entirely.

"Ah! I see the red X over at the bigger castle! Hero, do you see it?" Barry glanced over at the larger castle filled with Hammer Bros., Motobugs and Buzz Bombers.

"I can see it all right… I'll do what you said before and blow it up." Chopper and Kirby made their way over to the larger castle. With one bomb placed in front of it, the whole castle began to explode.

"_**WHHOOOOOAAAA!**_" All of the enemies in the castle began to fall from the sky, landing on the ground around Chopper and Kirby. They didn't seem too injured, which wasn't good.

"Oooooog… That hurt…" a Motobug moaned. "All right, listen here, you two! Nobody, and I mean NOBODY trashes our castle like that! I think you guys are gonna have to pay for that!"

"Pay for it? So… How much do we need to give you?" Chopper pulled out a couple of coins.

"Oh, shut it, you!" the Buzz Bomber snapped. "That fort was so cool! …But then you and your pink friend came and ruined it all for us! Try to escape all you want, but you're surrounded!"

Chopper clenched his fists and got in his battle stance, along with Kirby. "Listen here, you guys! We don't have time to fight you guys! We've got a Pixl girl to rescue. Seriously, it's important!"

"Hey! I get what you're trying to do!" the Motobug blurted out. "You're trying to rescue your girlfriend, is that it? Man… Boys sure do love to rescue their girlfriends, that's for sure…"

Chopper pulled a bomb out and threw it straight at the Motobug, making all of the enemies aim their weapons straight at him.

"Poyo… (You just HAD to do it…)" Kirby sighed.

But before they could get blasted, they heard a sound coming closer to them. It sounded like the sound…of someone dashing towards them in a ball.

Chopper's antennas sprung up as he saw a blue ball crash through all of the Motobugs and Hammer Bros. and jump over them to finish off the rest of the enemies around. The blue ball uncurled himself and was facing away from them.

"So, I guess you guys didn't expect me to come here, huh?" the blue hedgehog turned around, smirking at the two heroes while waggling his finger.

"Sonic!" "Poyo! (Sonic!)"

"Chopper! Kirby! Man! I didn't expect to see you here!" Sonic gaped. "…Well, actually, I was told by some injured Koopa that you guys were roaming around here, so I decided to make my way here as well!"

"Sonic… How did you even GET here?" Chopper questioned.

"Well, it's kind of a long story… After that 'event' in that castle on your planet, I found myself in this strange place. It looked a bit peaceful…until our enemies showed up. I don't know why Tipral summoned them either. Afterwards, I found myself in a dark world and then I somehow escaped before being brainwashed… But I'm glad that I'm somewhere safe. It wasn't a safe place out there… Anyways, what are you two doing here?"

"It's a long story too," Chopper warned. "And I mean it's a LONG story. It might take a while for you to understand the whole thing, but I think it might be a bit important, considering that we're in a BAD situation…"

* * *

**A couple of minutes later-**

"…And now we're trying to rescue Tippi from that nerd Francis," Chopper finished.

"Hmmmmmm… Sounds a bit interesting to me!" Sonic said with a surprised look. "So you need to collect twenty Pure Hearts to save the universe from The Void? That sort of reminds me of the Crystal Stars… But this time Tipral is the one that summoned it. Listen, Chopper… I don't think you can do this on your own. Oh, no. I think I'm gonna need to help you with this."

"Really? You're going to help us?" Chopper's antennas sprung up.

"Well, I think it's best that we stick together," Sonic responded. "I mean, after that incident, we can't lose each other again. If we're going to stop Tipral, then we have to work together! C'mon, Chopper! I bet it'll be fun!"

"I suppose you're right on that, Sonic. It's best to stay together. …Welcome to the team!"

**Sonic has joined Chopper's party! With him, he can run fast just like Chopper and even jump in the air with his Spin Jump. This allows him to hit any enemy above him without getting hurt… Or he could attack an enemy by using his Homing Attack. If he ducks, he can also perform a Spin Dash that is capable of knocking through enemies!**

"So, how about we get going, huh?" Sonic suggested, making a pose.

"Huh? Sonic? !" All three of them were interrupted by a familiar voice coming from the right. They noticed Dr. Eggman in his hovering machine as usual. "…And not to mention that boy Chopper as well!"

"Eggman? What are you doing here?" Sonic questioned.

"I should be asking the same thing to you, my friend. To think I was the only one around this world… I can't even find my way back! But now that you're here, I have someone to toy with! …Better yet, I have THREE to toy with!"

"Sorry, Eggman, but I don't think you're going to do such a thing," Chopper objected, pointing to him.

"Grrrrrr! How many times do I have to say this?! My name's _Dr. Robotnik_! Just because I'm shaped like an egg doesn't mean that's my NAME! …Bah, I don't have time to speak. I think now's the best time to use my ultimate weapon!"

Eggman pressed a button and a ball and chain appeared Eggman's mech. "Behold! This…is my greatest creation!"

Sonic snorted. "That's it? That's the best you could come up with? Oh, come on! That's… That's just LAME! I mean, you had a huge freakin' robot back in Starland Galaxy for Pete's sake!"

"Yes… Well… Er… This one has a powerful attack! Allow me to test it out on you!" Eggman pressed a button and the ball began to come towards the blue hedgehog. But, since it was too slow for him, he simply stepped out of the way.

"Pbbbbth! I don't even need my speed to avoid this thing!" Sonic scoffed, forcing Eggman to press another button that made it go faster. "Whoa! …All right, now you're playing tough…"

"So, you three… Shall we get started? As soon as I'm done with you, then I can finally make my way out of here and back to my own world!" Eggman tried to hit Sonic once again, but he jumped out of the way and struck his floating device, making Eggman cringe from the damage it caused to his machine.

"Oof! You little…!" Eggman gaped, knocking Sonic away successfully with the giant ball below his machine. Chopper immediately charged straight at Eggman's machine and fired Hommissile straight at him.

"Whoa… What's that thing you got with ya?" Sonic asked.

"This? This is a Pixl. They give you these cool abilities. Here. Why don't you try Barry? Maybe he'll be helpful." Chopper handed Barry over to Sonic, who gladly took him.

"Let's see what I can do with him!" Sonic managed to shield himself in spiked shield, protecting him from the giant ball. It ended up hitting Eggman's machine instead, causing some massive damage.

"Urgh… My machine!" Eggman wailed, pulling his blaster out and firing straight at Sonic. "That ball may be slow, but THIS isn't!"

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby jumped in an inhaled the laser fired towards Sonic and then he spat it out at Eggman's mech, stunning it and allowing Sonic to deliver a Spin Jump upon the mech.

"If only I can get him down to the ground, I could take him out with a Spin Dash…" Sonic grumbled, jumping once again to perform a Homing Attack on Eggman's mech.

However, Eggman still had a trick up his sleeve. He managed to stun Sonic with one shot from his blaster, keeping him from moving for a bit.

"Oh ho ho ho ho! Now you're stunned!" Eggman cackled. "This should be easy…OOF!" Eggman got knocked back by Chopper's spinning kick attack. He then grabbed Sonic and pulled him away from Eggman.

"While Sonic's stunned, we gotta take care of him, Kirby," Chopper stated.

"Poyo! (Yeah, we got this!)" Kirby inhaled another blast that Eggman fired at them and spat it back out at his own mech, while Chopper managed to bounce off Kirby's head and land right on Eggman's head.

"Grrrrr! Get off of me!" Eggman swatted Chopper off of him by smacking him across the face with his blaster, leaving a red mark on his face.

"OWWWW!" Chopper cried, rubbing his bruised cheek. "That seriously hurt! I mean… GEEZ!" Too bad Heartsy, Bow or Vivian weren't here, since they generally would kiss him if his face got injured. …And somehow, it would usually heal.

"That's what happens when you try to jump on me, you fool!" Eggman scoffed.

"Urg…" The paralysis on Sonic ended up wearing off, allowing him to move again. "Yeah! Now I'm finally able to start moving again! YEAH!" Sonic charged straight at Eggman, curling up into a ball and striking him with one jump.

"I wish Tippi was here… She could give some information on Eggman…" Chopper muttered before firing Hommissile straight at Eggman's machine.

They could see all of the sparks coming from Eggman's machine, meaning that this fight was most likely going to be finished soon, until Chopper and Kirby got stunned by Eggman's stunner.

"This should be only between you and me, Sonic!" Eggman stated, lowering his blaster and grinning at Sonic.

"Chopper! Kirby!" Sonic gaped as he saw his two friends paralyzed. He turned back to Eggman, clenching his fist. "All right, Eggy! I think you crossed the line far enough! …Though you have done it a couple of times already…"

"Yeah, I know…and it feels so good!" Eggman pressed a green button and his ball began to spin around incredibly fast. "Let's see you get through this one, Sonic!"

"Oh, I will!" Sonic grinned as he looked at Barry. "C'mon! I think you'll be of good use here!"

"I'll make sure I give you as much help as you need," Barry assured, surrounding Sonic in a spiked shield as he rushed towards Eggman. With one jump, he managed to slice the ball in half and strike Eggman's mech, blowing it up instantly.

"I HATE YOU, SONIC!" Eggman yelled as he flew far from here. Unfortunately, there was no talking to him, that's for sure…

"Whew… I thought for a second I wasn't going to pull it off!" Sonic sighed in relief, turning to Chopper and Kirby, who were able to move again. "You're a bit late, you guys… I already finished off Baldy McNosehair."

"Baldy McNosehair?" Chopper tilted his head.

"It's a nickname that I gave Eggman before, remember? That name is just… It's just perfect!" Sonic laughed. "But, anyways… I think now's the best time to get moving, yes?"

"Yeah… Too bad I rarely got a chance to use my bombs on Eggman, though…" Chopper grumbled, but he stopped once he saw a Star Block up ahead. "Oh, never mind! We can move on!"

"What's that?"

"It's a Star Block. It'll end the chapter for us! Just watch!" Chopper rushed over to the Star Block, punching it and breaking it. Sonic gazed at the twenty crystal-like stars that appeared as they circled.

"Oh… So that's how you end a chapter? Interesting…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Sonic on their side, the three heroes became a great team. Now that Sonic knows about their quest, he'll know what to do. Chopper then stopped, as he saw water. "Looks like we gotta go for a swim," stated Chopper as he looked down at the water. Sonic didn't like this, since he has had bad memories of swimming through water. "Can't we go another way? I can't swim!" begged Sonic. "Don't worry. Me and Kirby can swim. We'll help you as much as possible." Sonic hoped this was true, because he's not that good of a swimmer. They had to go through the Tile Pool to get to Fort Francis. To Sonic's dismay, that is…_

* * *

**Yup! Now we have Sonic in the group! ...Too bad he's gotta go through some torture next chapter, if you know what I mean, people who played this game before...**


	16. Bloops Ahoy

**Now, you're going to see something that Super Paper Mario's 3-2 didn't have in here. What's that, exactly? Well… If you played through some Sonic games, then you might be able to figure this out. I mean… You KNOW that Sonic can't breathe, right? Well, what's there to offer him in this place? You'll find out sooner or later… Of course you'll find out right now!**

* * *

**CHAPTER 3-2**

**-Bloops Ahoy-**

"Well, looks like we're down in the ocean…" Chopper stated, looking at his surroundings. The bubbles around them all were pixilated like everything else around them. In the background, some seaweed and coral could be seen and there were even some green Cheep-Cheeps swimming around. There are also these weird mechanical fish in the water too called a Chopper, which was surprised to Chopper after noticing the text that was put up above.

"Whoa… That thing's seriously named after me? What the heck? ! …Or is it the other way around?" Chopper pondered a bit before hearing some choking. "Whoops! U almost forgot about you, Sonic…"

Sonic noticed the timer was beginning to start. That's when he immediately rushed over to a pixilated air bubble to gasp for some air. Why there were air bubbles here, nobody really knew.

"Poyo? (Can we even talk to Sonic? The water keeps him from speaking…)" Kirby stated, looking at Sonic.

"Well… He's gonna have to deal with it, unfortunately. I know how he feels about it, but we can't just sit here and choke. We've got some swimming to do!" Chopper swam over to the Chopper and he threw a bomb straight at it, blowing it up.

"Mmmmmmgggggfffhhhhh!" Sonic choked, but what he really was saying is, "You can use bombs underwater?"

Chopper and Kirby looked at each other with confusion until the timer started to go off again, making Sonic grab another air bubble before trying to make his way through the water. Unfortunately, his speed was altered while being underwater.

"Oh, yeah… I can't move as fast thanks to the water…" Chopper grumbled. "I don't even think my Speed Dash is so effective now!"

Sonic first hit a yellow ? block that was near him, making a Mushroom pop out. When Chopper noticed it, he suggested that they all split it so that they could all have a piece, allowing them to heal.

They made their way to a gap where the water current was trying to suck them in, but the only one that had a hard time getting past it was Sonic.

"OK, hold still, Sonic," Chopper grabbed Sonic and he tried as best as he could to swim through the current without being sucked in. Kirby didn't have any problem, but he sure had one, since he was carrying someone!

There wasn't much else around except for some blocks that got in their way for Sonic, forcing him to jump over some while Chopper and Kirby happily swam through. However, Sonic DID notice a TV-like box with a water drop.

"Mmmmmggfffhhh!" Sonic immediately rushed to the box before he was about to drown (and if he drowns, THAT'S an instant game over right there). As soon as he hit it, he was surrounded by a bubble shield.

"Oh, FINALLY! I can breath once again!" Sonic gasped, coughing a couple of times. "I thought for a second that I was going to DROWN!"

"What's that around you anyways?" Chopper questioned.

"Oh, this? This…is a Bubble Shield! I remember this baby when I had to go through Hydrocity! This thing was a LIFESAVER! If I had anything that I wanted to use more than anything, it would be this thing."

"Poyo… (Well that's interesting… You use a shield that's like a bubble. What exactly does it even do?)" Kirby questioned. Chopper translated what Kirby said to Sonic so he would understand.

"What can it do? Well, instead of my Homing Attack, I pretty much bounce on the ground. It can make me jump a bit higher, but that's just about it. But, enough talking. Let's keep going."

They made their way to a little tunnel where Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers were blocking the way. Sonic simply defeated them by attacking them with his Spin Jump, allowing them to proceed out of the tunnel and seeing six stumps on the ground.

"Hmmmm? Now what are these stumps doing here?" Chopper questioned.

"Maybe we'll find out in the future…or possibly later in this area…" Sonic predicted. He noticed a big square-shaped wall floating in the middle of this area too. "Aw, man! We're at a dead end!"

"Not yet, Sonic… When there's nothing around, there's always flipping!" Chopper grabbed Kirby and Sonic's arms and he flipped into 3-D. Sonic gaped at the sight of being in 3-D.

"Whoa… I never knew you had such a power like that… Where'd you get it?"

"From some cheap wizard named Bestovius. I'll tell you all about it later." Chopper swam up to the pipe that could be seen. "Let's see where this pipe will take us… I'm a bit curious."

Going down the pipe, they all found themselves in some strange-looking underwater tunnel. They couldn't see the surface, so they knew they were deep down somewhere in the ocean. But they could see a pixilated sunken ship in the background, though.

"Hmmmmm… Nothing much here…" Chopper stated as he began to swim over to a whirlpool, but stopped when a giant tentacle rose from the pit nearby in an attempt to grab him.

"I got this!" Sonic used Barry's ability to strike the Blooper's tentacle, making it moan in pain as it sank back down. "Now we can get a move on!"

Sonic tried his best to make it over the whirlpool, but since he's a bit slow underwater, he was close to getting sucked in. Chopper was lucky enough to grab him before he got stuck in there.

"Poyo, (Maybe you ought to hold on to Sonic if we're going to make our way through these waters,)" Kirby suggested.

"Why do I have to do that, Kirby?" Chopper questioned. "Can't we both take turns? I mean… I DO have the bombs, which are probably capable of taking down any of the enemies around here… Just saying."

They were about to swim ahead until Kirby noticed a little cave up above them near a tentacle that rose up. They made their up out of the water and into some small cave with a pipe in front of them.

"Whew! We're finally out of that madness!" Sonic sighed in relief, despite the fact that his Bubble Shield is still around him. "Let's hope we don't have to go through MORE water…"

"Yeah, I highly doubt that we won't be seeing more water," Chopper predicted, going down the pipe into another cave-like area. The music changed to that underground theme, to his surprise.

"Poyo? (Why did the music suddenly change?)" questioned Kirby.

"I don't know, but let's forget about that, OK?" Chopper suggested, noticing two Spike Goombas in the tunnel.

"Leave this to me!" Sonic curled up in a ball and began to charge up a Spin Dash. As he crashed through both Spiky Goombas, he ended up falling into more water, resulting in him sinking.

"We better follow him!" Chopper charged up a Speed Dash before rushing through the small tunnel and down into the water. Kirby followed Chopper down and, to their surprise, they saw Sonic got hit by a Blooper, resulting in his Bubble Shield being destroyed.

"Uh oh… His shield's gone!" Chopper tossed a bomb at the two Bloopers with a boxed, dotted outline around them, destroying them. "We better get you to the next door FAST!"

Chopper grabbed Sonic and he swam over to the door nearby before he could drown. They noticed that after all three of them walked into another room, a cage was drawn to prevent them from going back.

"Oh, crud… This is just like in that underground room where I met Thoreau…" Chopper looked over at the stump right beside them. "I guess that's the only thing that can help us get out of here.

"Mmmmmgggggfffhh!" Sonic began to choke as the timer began to go off. When an air bubble appeared from the ground, he grabbed it to get more air.

All of the Choppers and Cheep-Cheeps in this area were cleared with Sonic's Spin Jump and Chopper's bombs, resulting in a large chest to appear in front of them.

"Mmmmmggffhh?" Sonic tilted his head, when he really meant, "Is this another upgrade for you, Chopper?"

"I think I know what it could be…" Chopper kicked the chest open with his foot, waiting for a voice to shout from the chest.

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic: ?

"Well, hello to you all!" a Pixl resembling a light blue screw with gray outlines. "I didn't think that I would be seeing people around here for these 1,500 years! What does this mean, you ask? Why… I'm sure that the hero has come!"

The Pixl looked down at Chopper. "Hmmmmm… Let's see here… You DO look like the hero, but I don't know about you… You're… Actually, despite your cuteness, you probably couldn't handle such power from me. But, no worries. I think you're still pretty cool."

Chopper slightly blushed. "Yeah… Well, looks like I'm not taking him then."

The Pixl floated down to Kirby. "Now let's take a look at you! You're one of those heroes too, but you're too pink and fluffy. Sorry, but I don't think my powers are going to be helpful to you. You're too…light. I don't mean to offend ya in any way. I still think you're cool!"

"Poyo… (Well he doesn't seem to be rude…)" Kirby stated.

Lastly, he floated over to Sonic. "Now, let's see here… You look like an interesting character! You may not be able to breathe underwater, but you look like the one with the cool attitude! And that blueness on you… AWESOME! I think I'm gonna stick around on your side. You're probably the one worthy of me. You can call me Screwdy!"

Screwdy circled around Sonic before the blue hedgehog held him up (before the timer went off again).

**The corkscrewing Pixl, Screwdy, has become your friend! With him, you can perform a corkscrew attack that's capable of pounding on things such as stumps and even screws!**

"With you on my side, we'll become an unstoppable force! C'mon, my man! Let's show the world what we're capable of!" Screwdy smirked.

Sonic smirked and gave him a thumbs up before inhaling another air bubble. _"Sometimes I wish I had that Bubble Shield again… If I have to travel around here like this, then I KNOW for a fact that I'm not gonna get anywhere…"_

"Well, Sonic… Why don't we start by hitting that stump?" Chopper suggested, pointing to the stump.

Sonic merely shrugged and he jumped on top of the stump, jumping and doing a corkscrew as he came down on the stump, making it go into the ground and destroying the cage around the door.

"It… Mmmmmgggfffhh!" Sonic started choking before he could speak, making him grab an air bubble before they made their way out of the room.

* * *

**Back in the other area-**

"Poyo… (I wonder what'll happen if we go to the right of this water area…)" Kirby wondered before diving straight into the water. Chopper decided that he should stay in the small cavern with Sonic, just to make sure he wouldn't go insane from being in a water area.

Kirby was forced to wait for the tentacles to lower down before he could find another cave. This one had a portrait of six stumps. For some reason… It reminded him of stumps that they saw before.

"Poyo? (Could it really be THOSE stumps? I swear that they remind me of those…)" Kirby remarked. He saw that the second, third and fifth stumps were flat in the ground, while the other three were still up.

"Poyo! (Hey, I better tell Chopper and Sonic about this! Maybe they'll be able to figure it out too! …Of course, I'll tell them about what stumps to hit, that is!)" Kirby swam back into the water to tell both Chopper and Sonic.

* * *

**In the ocean area, by the stumps-**

"Oh! Finally! Air!" Sonic managed to grab a Bubble Shield, surrounding him in a bubble filled with air. "Sweet sweet air!"

"Sonic… Kirby told us that you need to hit the second, third and fifth stump that's right in front of us…" Chopper recalled. "I think NOW'S a good time to use that Pixl of yours… OK?"

"Oh, yeah… I forgot. Let's do this, Screwdy!" Sonic grinned as he used a corkscrew on the second, third and fifth stump, causing a door to be drawn in between the stumps. "Too easy! Piece of cake!"

"Sonic… Let's not get with the cheesy lines at this point. They just seem so…cocky. …But I think I'm a bit cocky too, so don't blame yourself either." Chopper opened the door and they all headed in another ocean area.

"Heads up, guys! Those purple Choppers are NOT to be messed with. Plus, they're pretty big." Sonic warned, pointing to the purple Choppers that were swimming around this part of the area.

"Oh, boy… That's not good. But we can take those things on! I'm PRETTY sure that we can!" Chopper pulled a bomb out and he swam towards one of the Choppers, throwing a bomb at it.

"Wait… It's not dead yet?" Chopper threw one more bomb at the Chopper, blowing it up. "Oh, so it takes TWO hits to beat this thing… Dang. Why do the enemies have more HP than before?"

"Poyo, (Maybe it's because we're not in turn-based battles,)" Kirby answered. "Poyo. (We're not taking turns around here anymore, now that you think about it.)"

"You're right. Now let's get a move on," Chopper continued to swim his way through the vast ocean until he noticed another sunken ship in the background. Unfortunately, he had to wait for Sonic to catch up due to his slow speed underwater.

"Heads up, Kirby! You got a Chopper on your tail!" Sonic warned.

Kirby turned to see the Chopper coming at him, but he managed to drive it back by squirting some water at it. It didn't do much damage, but after doing it a couple of times, he managed to take it down.

"Well, that wasn't so bad… I don't think anything could get worse, now that you mention it." Sonic pointed to the pipe at the end of the area. "I mean, we already have the end of the level up ahead of us!"

"_**BLOOP!**_" a loud, monstrous voice caused all of the Choppers around the waters to swim away as the ground began to shake.

"_**BLUH-BLOOOOP! (WHAT'S GOING ON?)**_" A couple of tentacles began to rise from the ground, destroying parts of the ground, but not all of it (to Sonic's relief, that is…). Some of them had blue suckers on them, but only one had a red one. But, what caught their attention was the gigantic Blooper in the background. It was the largest Blooper that they've ever seen.

"Whoa… Not even Bloopink was THIS big!" Chopper gaped.

"Bloobloobloobloop! (Hey, land freaks! How'd you like a tentacle sandwich?)" the Blooper roared as it tried to whack at Chopper, Kirby and Sonic.

"Watch out, guys!" Sonic jumped out of the way of a tentacle that rose up near him. Unfortunately, Chopper ended up getting hit in the face by one of them.

"Oof! Take this!" Chopper pulled a bomb out and he threw it at one of the tentacles. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do much to it. The Blooper didn't even yelp in pain either!

"Wait… Why isn't it working?" he questioned.

"Remember what I said before, hero?" Barry recalled. "When we're up against this thing, you need to hit the tentacle with the red suckers on it! Trust me, that's the only thing that will hurt him."

"Oh, you mean THIS one?" Sonic noticed the exact tentacle rise up near him. With one Spin Jump, he managed to make the Blooper cringe in pain.

"_**BLUH-BLOOP!**_Bloobloobloop! BLOOOP! (No! Not there! Please! Anywhere but there!)" it cried.

"Ha HA! Now we've got you!" Chopper tossed a bomb at one of the other tentacles, but sadly, it didn't do anything. "Crap. I guess I have to wait for the red tentacle to show up so I can give it a beating!"

Sonic attempted to attack one of the other tentacles, but it simply knocked him back after being whacked at.

It didn't take long before its red tentacle rose up, allowing Chopper to pull a bomb out and strike it with it, causing the Blooper to cringe in pain as it brought its red tentacle down.

"Bloobloobloop! (You monster! How could you do such a thing to my poor tentacle? ! Take this!)" the Blooper managed to knock away Chopper's ability by whacking at him with its tentacle.

"Oh, no! Not my Bomb ability!" Chopper tried to swim for it, but since he can't inhale underwater, he had to let it go.

"Poyo… (Oh, poor ability…)" Kirby mourned before the red tentacle appeared right before him. With one squirt of water, he managed to make the Blooper cringe in pain once again and this time, make it give up.

"_**BLOO-ooop!**_" the Blooper cried. "Bloo-ooobloop! (OK! OK! I had enough, land people! I don't want to suffer like this just like three months ago!)" the Blooper sank down to the depths of the ocean, never to be seen again.

"Wow… That was it? That was the whole fight against a giant Blooper?" Chopper's eye began to twitch. "What a joke! I mean, BLOOPINK was harder than this! And he was smaller than THAT!"

"Chopper, let's not complain," Sonic suggested. "We took care of the Blooper, so now's best to get out of this dreadful water."

Sonic immediately made his way over to the pipe. "I'll meet you guys up at the surface. …I might be kissing the ground, too."

Kirby began to snicker. "Poyo… (Sonic's in love with the ground…)"

"I'll say!" Chopper snickered, following Sonic over to the pipe, where they all found themselves up at the surface. They could see the oceans a bit close to them, but what was important was that they made it to the end of the level.

"FINALLY! Land!" Sonic began to bend over and kiss the ground. "I missed you, ground!"

"Heh heh heh…" Chopper smirked as he walked over to the Star Block and smashed it with his fist. "That closes this chapter!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Oh, sweet land! I missed you so much! I thought that I was never going to get out of the water!" Sonic continued to ramble on about how he was finally back on land. He definitely felt happy, now that he could run as much as he could. They may have been out of the waters, but they were still a bit far from Fort Francis. "Now, remember…" started Barry. "There's a long way to go before we can make our way to the tree that's far from here… Hope you all can move through loops, 'cause that's what's gonna be around here!" At that very moment, Sonic began to think about Mobius. He knew he was up for something…_

* * *

**Yeah... I didn't like that the fight with the Blooper was so short... It was a bit disappointing. But, I'm pretty sure the next fights will be a lot interesting... Yeah, I KNOW that they are, 'cause they're all going to be up against some tough people (though, I don't know if the boss will be hard or not. The Attack power in this story's a lot different than what the Attack power the boss has is Super Paper Mario. Y'know, just to make it tougher).**

**Also... I actually like Barry? Why? I have this great teacher with a last name Barry! That's a good reason, right? Anyways... Review if you want (and don't move on ahead unless I edited that. It's going to be a bit different than what it looks like now...or unless you're reading this much later, where all of this is done...  
**


	17. A Run Through the Bitlands

**CHAPTER 3-3**

**-A Run Through the Bitlands-**

"Oh, yeah! Now THIS is what I've been wanting to see this whole time! Come take a look at the view, you two. What you're about to see if perhaps one of the greatest places I might ever see around this world." Sonic grinned as he saw a whole area filled with some slopes going down and a couple of loops. From his perspective, this felt like paradise, but in Kirby's, this didn't feel too good. Of course, HIS paradise was being on a grassy land filled with food such as apples or Max Tomatoes. Chopper's…well, it's hard to explain what his paradise would be (probably because the creator never had any idea of what paradise he would have, perhaps?).

"Hmmmmm… You REALLY consider this to be greatest place in this world?" Chopper questioned as he looked at the whole place. "Yeah… That is somewhat agreeable on my part. I mean, it looks cool, enough said."

"Poyo… (This really isn't the kind of world that I feel comfortable in…)" Kirby mumbled. "Poyo… (I mean, I'm not as fast as you two… I'm pretty much slow…but not slow like Bowser…)"

"Relax, Kirby. I can help you through this place if you want me to. All we have to do is…" Chopper stopped when he saw a purple laser fire. He immediately jumped out of the way, grabbing Kirby as well.

"What in the world was that?" Sonic questioned.

"So we finally found you! Excellent!" the blue hedgehog turned to see these strange gray aliens in black and purple armor firing its weapon at them. "So, Sonic… You really think that you'd be making your way through here? Think again!"

"Dark Creatures… So you guys are back, is that right?" Sonic got in a fighting stance, ready to strike the evil alien with a Homing Attack.

"You really think that our leader would stay in prison like that? He was lucky to get out. We don't know how, since he never explain it to us… But, what's important is that we stop you heroes from collecting the Pure Heart!"

"Pure Heart? They're here to stop us from getting it?" Chopper dodged the purple lasers being fired at him and he struck the Dark Soldier with a spinning kick. Sonic immediately knocked him back on the grass with a Homing Attack.

"Try what you want, but you're already outnumbered," Sonic stated, smirking at the Dark Soldier.

"I'll wipe that smirk off your face!" the Dark Soldier fired another blast, but this time Sonic struck him with a Spin Dash, knocking him out of the area. He even rolled down a slope to a red door as well.

"Well, looks like you made your way down to the door already," Chopper sweat dropped as he let the small hill make him go faster down to the door. Kirby simply slid down, being capable of doing that.

When they walked into the next area, the first thing they saw was a wall that both Chopper and Sonic could run up. It reminded Chopper of when he was back at Lineland Road…or better yet, high up there.

"Oh, boy… Now THIS is something I've been wanting to do!" Chopper smirked as he made his way ahead, running up the wall at an incredible speed. Surely that this would lead up to a door nearby, that's for sure.

But it only led down to a large hill with a loop. "Well, looks like we're not done YET…" Chopper landed on the hill and he began to make his way down, going through the loop. He could see Sonic was following him too, but with Kirby with him.

"Don't worry, Chopper! I got Kirby here, so you don't have to worry about him!" Sonic assured.

"All right, good!" Chopper immediately stopped in front of a Motobug that tried charging at him. He could see two other platforms that are moving up and down. But, the second one seems to be at a higher elevation than the first one.

"I got this!" After Sonic let go of Kirby, he simply defeated the Motobug with a Spin Jump. A forest creature was released and it ran away in joy. "So Eggman still keeps those poor critters in those machines?"

"I guess it looks like it," Chopper agreed, jumping on the platforms to reach the door. "I can't believe that that door was easier to get to. I was hoping for some kind of challenge, but I guess not…"

Chopper walked through the door with his friends to find a flatter area this time. They noticed some bottomless pits around here, but what caught their attention were the stumps that were right in front of them near the large gap that was most likely too hard to cross.

"Well, this is interesting! We've got some stumps that we can take care of!" Sonic began to hit the stumps using Screwdy's ability. Unfortunately, doing that to the six stumps didn't do a thing.

"That did nothing? Aw, come on! That's WEAK!" Sonic pouted while kicking the ground.

"Hmmmmmmm…" Chopper pondered before looking at the stumps. "Say, Sonic… Maybe you ought to bring those stumps back up. I wanna see if there's some kind of puzzle here…"

"Ya want me to use my corkscrew on those?" Sonic's ears perked. "But how could I even do it when they're already in the ground?"

"Just try," Chopper suggested. "You never know… You might find something interesting through all of that."

"Oh, OK… I guess I'll hit them again." Sonic hit all six stumps with his corkscrew attack, but it didn't appear to do much except bring them back up. "Whoa, they can rise up from the ground?"

"It looks like it… Well, I'm going to check what's around in 3-D." Chopper threw his arms up in the air to find down arrows on the first and fifth stump. He also noticed a Catch Card right behind a bush, so he grabbed it and put it away (the difference about Cards in this is that it doesn't allow you to do more damage. It gives you an HP bar of the enemy and information on it. Yeah, I thought the whole card thing made SPM a bit on the easy side).

After flipping back to 2-D, Chopper jumped onto the first and the fifth stump. "These are the ones that you want to hit, Sonic. Trust me… These are DEFINITELY the ones that'll let us move on."

"All righty, then!" Sonic used his corkscrew on the first and then the fifth stump, causing a bridge to be drawn over the large chasm. "Yes! Now we can make our way through this place!"

"Poyo, (All I can see is a wall up ahead, but I also see a spring,)" Kirby looked up and gaped when he saw some grassy platforms floating up above them. It leads over to a door sitting on one of them.

"A spring? Heh heh heh! This'll be fun!" Sonic jumped on the spring, sending him up to the platform. There, he began to use his jumping skills to make it over to the door. He took down a Buzz Bomber that was in his way too.

Once Chopper and Kirby made their way up, they walked into another area. This one was a bit flat with no loops. There were even some bottomless pits around here as well and even a yellow ? block nearby.

"I bet it's a Mega Star!" Chopper smiled as he hit the block. Unfortunately, all that came out was a Happy Flower.

"What's that supposed to be?" Sonic touched it, making a bunch of coins rain from the sky. "Oh, I guess that's what happens when you get that thing."

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic began to collect the raining coins as they fell from the sky. The two Dark Soldiers that walked by stopped and looked at the heroes collecting all of the coins and big coins.

"…What are they doing?" the first one questioned.

"It looks like they're collecting coins," the second one replied, aiming his blaster at them. "And while they're distracted, we can simply blast 'em out of here! That'll be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, yes! Let's kill them…for Dark!"

The two Dark Creatures loaded their blasters and fired straight at the heroes. Sonic immediately took action by dodging the shots while break dancing. He them curled up in a ball and rammed into the first Dark Creature.

"Poyo… (That Dark Creature isn't finished yet…)" Kirby gawked as the Dark Creature slowly got up and tried to fire at Sonic. But, he was too fast for him. He jumped and struck him with a Homing Attack, turning it into a puff of smoke.

"Hold on!" Chopper stopped Sonic before he could attack the next Dark Soldier. "I wanna try something against it."

"And what would that be?" the Dark Soldier gawked as Chopper pulled the Catch Card out. A black outlined box appeared around the soldier as it began to spin around. To Chopper's surprise, he managed to transform the alien into a card.

"Whoa… So that actually worked? Wow." Chopper was nearly gapping as he picked up the card. "I can't believe I turned something into a card… Wow." He could see the HP bar of a Dark Creature up ahead now.

"Poyo, (Well, I guess that certainly did something,)" Kirby stated as he jumped over a bottomless pit and inhaled the Dark Creature. He spat it out at a Motobug that was coming towards him.

"Man… How far until we finally get to that nerd's castle? I feel like it's been a long walk since we were at the beginning of this world…" Chopper panted.

"Well it didn't feel like that to me," Sonic replied with a red ? over his head. "I think we ought to get moving anyways. We can't stay here forever, you know…"

As Chopper jumped smashed two brick blocks with a Goomba sitting on one of them, he came across a couple of pipes. One was a bit tall, but when he flipped into 3-D, he saw a yellow ? block that he could jump on to get onto the pipe. But what got him surprised was when he saw a Mushroom come out of the block. He wished that he could share it, but his HP WAS a bit low, so he ate it to recover some of it.

"What do you see, Chopper?" Sonic asked.

"Well, all I can see is a block that can take me up to the top of the pipe. But, I don't think I see much up there. Let me take a look." Chopper jumped onto the block and then onto the top of the pipe. He saw a brick block on top, so he hit it, making a ladder get drawn to some clouds with faces on them.

"Oh, I see what they did here… It's almost like that one area in Lineland Road!" Chopper climbed up the ladder to find a row of coins and a chest. Inside of the chest was a Super Shroom Shake.

After jumping down, he showed Kirby and Sonic the Super Shroom Shake that he got from the chest. Both were gawking at it before he helped them go around the pipe and next to another pipe, where a Piranha Plant popped out and tried to bite them.

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic knocked the Piranha Plant out of the pipe with a simple Spin Jump. That allowed them to jump on top of the pipe, but it made the blue hedgehog question himself when he saw his whole body become like pixels as it went down the pipe.

"What the…" Before Sonic could react, he was already underground.

"Hold on, Sonic! We're coming!" Chopper jumped down the pipe with Kirby to reach the underground area. All there was was a row of coins.

"This is it? Well this is disappointing… Wait, hold on a minute. Let's see if there are more." Chopper threw his hands up in the air and flipped into 3-D. He saw more than those coins this time.

"Ahhh! Now we're getting somewhere!" Chopper grabbed all of the coins before his Flip Gauge dropped to zero. "OK, guys. I think we should go back outside. Y'know, where it's better?"

"Poyo, (Good idea,)" Kirby nodded as they headed out of the pipe. They could see the sun shining brightly to the direction they had to go.

"Man, look at that sun you two!" Sonic smirked as he looked up at the bright sun. "You don't see things like THAT every day, do you?" He put his left foot on a small tree stump nearby as he looked up.

"Yeah, it sure looks nice," Chopper agreed before seeing a Fire Bro. coming their way. "Oh, I'll take care of this guy! This should be easy!"

Chopper's hand faced the Fire Bro., hoping to shoot a fireball or light ball. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Wait… I can't use my elemental powers on these guys? Oh, come on! …Wait, I think those gloves shrunk in the washing machine. I swear that I didn't mistake that bottle for the other!"

"Poyo? (What happened to your elemental Hand abilities?)" Kirby questioned.

"Well, you see… I was washing my stuff in the washing machine, such as my shoes and my gloves. I swear that I put the right soap in, but I guess SOMEHOW I had a different soap. I mean, I had this soap that would wash those awesome shoes and gloves I had, but they just HAD to shrink!"

"Poyo? (But the main question is that did they get switched around? If you swear that you had the right soap for the washing machine, then there could be something fishy around here. …Oh, and how did you get those gloves and shoes, by the way?)"

"I usually have more than just one pair, you know," Chopper replied. "It's like Peach as a lot of the same pink dresses and Mario with a lot of the same blue overalls. I don't get the whole thing, but that's how it seems to work. Sonic could have the same pair of gloves in his house too, you know."

Sonic looked at his gloves and shoes. "Yeah… You got a point there, Chopper. But, anyways, I think we should get a move on, don't you think?" He raced his way over the bottomless pit nearby and over some spikes that were near two Motobugs.

Chopper and Kirby jumped over the pit and the spikes and they struck the two Motobugs. Kirby simply grabbed one with Thoreau and Chopper simply stomped on the Motobug twice, doing two stylish moves.

"Hey! You can do some stylish moves? Sweet!" Sonic grinned.

"I know, right? This is pretty cool, I have to admit." Chopper saw a Koopa up ahead, but he forgot that he still couldn't use his fireball. "Ugh… I wish I had that move. I remember when I had those elemental gloves..."

"So you got those gloves in some Mechanical Box, right? I remember you said something about getting them there." Sonic recalled. "But, how did you get those other gloves from five months ago?"

"I got them in the Dark Steeple. You know where we first met Tipral?"

"Poyo! (I remember that!)" Kirby exclaimed. "Poyo... (It was when people in Twilight Town were turning into pigs...)"

"Yeah, that was not pleasant," Chopper sighed. "Ugh… If only I had those fireballs to take these guys down easily… Oh, wait… I have Hommissile to help me there! Go get 'em, Hommissile!"

"Right on! BOOM!" the missile Pixl charged at the Koopa, blowing him up to a crisp. This allowed them all to move on ahead, hitting a Buzz Bomber before getting to a door.

They were led into an area with a simple hilly floor, but with a passageway that's on the wall across this large gap leading down into some water. Sonic gulped as he looked down there.

"Oh, no… There's NO way I'm going to go down THERE!" he retorted, backing away. "If I have to fall down there, then that means I'm going to DROWN! You hear me? DROWN!"

"Calm down, Sonic… I think we can get across that gap with that little pathway going on that wall." Chopper pointed to the wall. "Luckily, if you're fast enough, you can make your way across that gap, which is what I intend to do!"

"What do you…?"

Chopper already charged up a Speed Dash and took off, running on the way in a figure-8 pattern across the gap onto more grass that led him down a loop and to a door that he almost missed.

"Whoa… I thought that I was going to miss that for a second…" Chopper stopped moving when he saw four Dark Creatures with their weapons aimed straight at him near the door.

"Well well! Looks like we found the great hero himself! We've been looking for you, Chopper!" the Dark Soldiers cackled.

"Wait… Why were you looking for me?" Chopper questioned.

"Well, you see… We…" Before they could finish, the four got struck by Sonic's Spin Dash. They were immediately finished when Kirby came and inhaled two of them and spat them out at the other two.

"Hmmmmm… They didn't finish their sentence…" Chopper groaned.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Chopper! We took care of them, so we shouldn't have to worry about them for right now!" Sonic grinned while hitting the Save Block right next to them. He then hit the yellow ? block that contained a Super Shroom.

"We're gonna have to split that up," stated Chopper as they each grabbed a piece and devoured it, recovering 20 of their HP.

And with that, they walked into the next area, with had this one grassy platform sitting on the ground for some reason. It reminded Sonic of the very beginning of Green Hill Zone (or Splash Hill Zone, too).

"Say… Why does this give me the 'Green Hill Zone' vibe?" Sonic questioned.

"Ah! So I finally found you!" a voice called out. To their surprise, they saw Dark appear on the hill nearby. "I've been waiting for you, heroes! This is where it all ends." He pulled his pistol out and aimed at them.

"Dark!" "Poyo! (Dark!)" Kirby and Sonic immediately got in their fighting stances, while Chopper looked a bit confused.

"Wait… Heroes? Don't tell me you're working for Tipral too…" Chopper face palmed.

"He promised me something if I joined him," Dark stated, glaring at Chopper. "And besides… He just wants me to kill you three – who are people that I DESPISE! So, I thought, 'Why not help that dark kid? He could give me whatever I needed!' such as…destroying you, Sonic."

"Hold on a second… I remember that Flyer sent me an email five months ago that you were in prison! …Come to think of it, when WAS the last time we had an encounter with you?"

"We fought him back in Hell, if I could remember," Sonic recalled.

"Yes, that was when we last fought. But anyway, I can't let you get your hands on that Pure Heart, Chopper. I may have been kept in prison for many months, but I certainly haven't forgotten my moves that I once used to fight you!" Dark fired a purple blast near Chopper's feet.

"And don't think I'm like those other two you fought before. It was that Scottish man and the green little girl, right? Yes… Well, anyways… My lunch is coming up soon, so let's just get this over with."

Sonic got in his fighting stance. "All right! Bring it on, Dark!"

"Very well, but you'll be surprised on what I have up my sleeves!" Dark managed to grab Sonic's leg before he could kick him and he threw him onto the ground. He aimed his pistol at him and began to fire…until he got interrupted by Chopper's green foot.

"Oof! Why you little…!" Dark knocked Chopper onto the wall of the hill with a simple blast from his pistol. He felt satisfied until Sonic grabbed his arm and threw him down to the ground.

"Man… I never thought he was gonna do THAT…" Sonic huffed as he got up. He jumped up and struck Dark afterwards with a Homing Attack when he got back up.

"Oof! Impressive… Let's see how your pink friend will like THIS!" Dark fired a purple blast of energy straight at Kirby, but the simply blast was only deflected back at him when he inhaled it and spat it out at him.

"Poyo! (Take THAT, Dark!)" Kirby did a little dance before Dark zapped him with the moon crescent on his head.

"Take THIS!" Dark made Kirby use Thoreau on Chopper and throw him at Sonic, knocking both of them down. After he stopped brainwashing Kirby, he made a dash at him, punching him in the gut and knocking him to the ground.

"Heh heh heh!" Dark spun his pistol around before putting it away while grinning. "Looks like the battle is mine! I might as well…"

He was hit in the stomach by a blue ball that knocking him over by the door. "You're gonna wish you never did that, hedgehog!"

Dark kicked Sonic off of him and he attempted to blast him again. This time, he managed to strike him, but he too got hit. Chopper's spinning kick attack was capable of hitting Dark in the face, leaving it a bit bruised.

"I almost forgot about the door…" Dark fired a blast over by the door, making a cage appear on it, preventing them from escaping. "There's no way I'm letting you out of here, fools!"

"Well that stinks…" Chopper sent Hommissile straight at Dark, knocking him back a bit more with an intense explosion.

"And what are those 'things' that you carry with you?" Dark questioned as Chopper avoided his sweeping kick.

"These things? They're called Pixls, and they're good for beating you down to a pulp!" Chopper threw Hommissile at Dark again, but this time he dodged it again and hit Chopper with his elbow.

Enraged, Kirby threw Thoreau straight at Dark and lifted him from the air. "What the hell? ! How is he doing this? !"

"Poyo! (Because the Pixl allows me to, that's what!)" Kirby shouted as he stunned him after a good throw. It allowed Sonic to strike the Dark Creature king with a simple Homing Attack.

"Thanks for the help, Kirby!" Sonic thanked. Kirby simple nodded to him before Dark could get out of the trance.

"En guarde! Swift Strike!" Dark aimed the palms of his hands straight at Kirby and Sonic. A purple crescent-like blade immediately fired from his hands and headed straight towards them.

"Poyo! (That's not good!)" Kirby took action by inhaling the attack, but when he spit it out, Dark immediately wrapped one side of him with his cape to block the attack.

"Holy… He can deflect abilities with that cape? In fact… Where did you get that thing?" Sonic questioned.

"Tipral was lucky enough to give this to me. While I'm not a huge fan of capes, he told me that this would give me the benefit of any projectiles heading my way. That inhaling ability of yours is useless!"

"Oh, yeah?" Chopper tried to use his inhaling ability to suck up Dark, but his efforts were fruitless when he saw that he wasn't even moving.

"Wait a second… I can't inhale him?"

"You fool! You're not going to get anywhere if you inhale me!" Dark knocked Chopper back with a simple kick in the face. "I'm surprised that you don't have those other abilities with you from before…"

"Blame my friggin' washing machine, why don't ya!" Chopper landed a punch to Dark's face. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do a lot, due to his weak physical strength.

"What's wrong with you, Chopper?" Sonic questioned. "Don't you realize that your punches WON'T do anything to him?"

"He's right, Chopper! You made a mistake!" Dark threw Chopper towards Kirby, knocking them both onto the hill.

He attempted to kick Sonic with his legs, but due to Sonic's impressive speed, he managed to spin around him a couple of times and land a Homing Attack on him twice.

"Be gone!" Dark summoned a couple of dark, small meteors to come down on Sonic. Some of them struck Chopper and Kirby, but they both managed to inhale at least one and spit them at Dark before he could even grab Sonic.

"Argh! You're gonna pay for that!" Dark used his powers that he got from his father to fired two red blasts of energy straight at them, but they were able to easily dodge the attack when Chopper flipped into 3-D.

"What the heck was that? !" he gawked.

"Chopper just flipped into 3-D, for your information," Sonic knocked Dark back once again with a Spin Dash.

As Dark got up, he growled furiously at Sonic. Before Sonic could curl up in the ball, he immediately grabbed him by the neck (if Sonic even HAS one that is… I've never seen him with a neck).

"All right, hedgehog! I'm getting a bit tired of you and your Homing Attacks! I think now's the time to put this to an end, wouldn't you say, my blue friend?"

"You can't snap his neck, y'know… He's got no neck!" Chopper shouted, striking Dark from behind with a spinning kick.

"Aargh! You little bastard!" he roared.

"Dude! Language!" Chopper did an uppercut kick on Dark's head, sending him up in the air. Sonic immediately jumping up and struck him twice in the air with a Homing Attack before he could hit the ground.

"DIE!" Dark slowly raised his pistol up at them in an attempt to shoot them, but he didn't have the energy to shoot. With one Spin Dash, Dark was already finished, collapsing to the ground.

"You… You…" Dark coughed, but he was lucky not to cough any blood. "You got lucky this time, Sonic… If this fight was only between us, then you would've been the loser here!"

"Sorry, Dark, but I think coming here was a bad idea for you," Sonic smirked.

"Oh, you'll be sorry when you get to that tree, heroes!" Dark grinned as he looked up at them. "I know a person that's up there, waiting for you!"

"Someone's waiting for us up there?" Chopper's antennas perked up. "And who would THAT be?"

"Heh heh heh! Like I'd ever tell you! You'll have to find out for yourself!" Dark slowly got himself up. "For now, farewell, heroes! Next time we have a fight, don't expect to be so lucky."

With his cape, he disappeared out of thin air.

"I didn't expect Dark to make his appearance here…" Chopper wheezed. "But you guys never told me about Dark. Did you…see him before I even had a chance to meet him?"

"Poyo… (Yeah… It was in Tipral's castle… He was brainwashing some minions with his new ability…but I somehow got away from him. I don't know about the others, though…)" Kirby explained while panting.

"Well, let's not worry too much about them yet. If we find them, we find them. For now, let's try to get out of this place." Chopper charged a Speed Dash and he made his way up the hill, across a bridge where Choppers were trying to attack and down a hill over by the Star Block.

"Wow… So the Star Block was over here? That's pretty interesting…" Chopper gaped.

"Well, go ahead! Hit it, Chopper!" Sonic suggested as he and Kirby finally made their way to him.

"OK!" Chopper smashed the Star Block with one simple punch. With the twenty stars out, it sealed this chapter.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Somehow, the heroes managed to stop Dark Doom and make their way through the hilly land. But before they could even stop for a break, they saw the imposing silhouette of Fort Francis. "Well, looks like we're not too far from the castle now," Chopper said in relief. "Poyo? (But why is it so dark around here?)" questioned Kirby. But before they could look up, they realized they were in the shadow of a huge tree. Chopper, knowing that this is the right way, set out toward the great tree…even though he is not a huge fan of climbing trees._

* * *

**Well, that one sure took me a while to get done. The fight with Dark Doom was a lot better than the fight between Dr. Eggman and the Big Blooper, in my opinion. But, this whole world isn't over yet, for there are two more parts of this chapter left.**

**...And I'm not much of a fan of the big tree, that's for sure. DX**


	18. Up, Up, and a Tree

**CHAPTER 3-4**

**-Up, Up, and a Tree**

"Oh, gosh… Don't tell me we have to go all the way up THERE…" Chopper gaped as he looked up at the giant tree. He could see a couple of platforms that led up to a large door that's a bit high up. Perhaps it goes to the inside of this large tree? Well, from what Chopper could see, it looked like torture. It brought back memories of the annoying tree that he once had to go up. That tree…was the great Elder Tree of Planet Clara – a very large tree that is filled with spider webs, spiders and Leafions. It might sound cool, but the whole spider thing isn't.

"Wowza. That's one mighty tree we're up against." Sonic gawked, looking at the size of the tree. "I don't know how we're going to make our way up that thing. It's almost like the size of… Well, I know for a fact that it is NOT bigger than the Death Egg. That thing was almost the size of a PLANET! ...Meh, I don't know what it's almost the size of anyways…"

"Poyo! (Well, I know for a fact that this tree is a lot bigger than Whispy Woods!)" Kirby recalled. "Poyo. (That tree may have been a bit of a pain before, but I think that this tree is a bit bigger.)"

Chopper decided to sit down and lay on the tree. "Well, I think we deserve a bit of a break, wouldn't you guys say so? After all of that traveling to get to the tree, we should rest."

"Poyo? (Shouldn't we rest when we're over by Fort Francis, though?)" Kirby raised an eyebrow.

"And what about Tippi?" Chopper's antennas perked up. "I mean, don't you care about that…whatever Tippi is supposed to be? You never gave much of a description of her, but I know you want to help her, right?"

"Yeah… I do want to. I mean, she's trapped in…a nerd's room, I bet…" Chopper gulped. "Everyone knows that a nerd's room is filled with so many…posters of girls, anime and other nerdy stuff!"

"Poyo? (What's nerdy stuff like anyway?)" Kirby questioned.

"Well… All I know is that they would usually have these posters of anime girls or something. Probably ones that they think are cute or something. …Like I'll ever have any of those."

"What about a poster of Vivian? What if she were drawn in an anime, along with girls like Heartsy and Bow?" Sonic snickered, making Chopper glare at him with his face turning red.

"No way, Sonic! Sure, they may look cute and all if they were in an anime, but I'm not interested in girls! You should know that already, since they have…_cooties_! I mean, you also have Amy on your tail many times! What about her?"

"Well… Uh… She's a different story!" Sonic backed away while Chopper snickered.

"Poyo… (Uhh… Guys… We still have something to do right now…)" Kirby groaned, pointing to the top of the tree. "Poyo. (We can't sit here and talk all day. We need to get up to the top of this tree.)"

Chopper stopped snickering and got up. "You're right, Kirby. We can't just stay here and snicker all day. We still need to rescue Tippi. …I mean, it feels a lot quieter without her around."

He started by jumping on the green platform closest to the bottom and then onto the brown platform that was at the same elevation as the yellow platform moving left and right. With a simple jump, he managed to get on and jump on another green platform.

"OK, guys! Now you try to make your way up here!" he shouted.

Kirby didn't have to worry. With his floating ability, he puffed himself like a balloon and floated up to where Chopper was. Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. He had to do what Chopper did without moving too fast.

When they made a few more jumps up the tree, they nearly gagged when they came across a green Cherbil. Well, mostly Chopper and Kirby.

"Oh, god! Not THAT thing!" Chopper backed away in fear, almost falling off of the grassy platform.

"Poyo! (There's no way I'm going to touch THAT! I mean… That thing might have something WORSE than the other Cherbil things! Green must mean it's…_poisonous_!)" Kirby shrieked.

"Oh, would you guys calm down? It's just an enemy!" Sonic grumbled before he took it out with two Homing Attacks. "There. Are you happy now?"

"Sonic… Do you realize that you attacked something that looks like a _butt_?"

"Yeah? And…?"

"That thing can poison you with its, uh…fart attack. I mean, that thing is DEADLY! It… It passes GAS!" Chopper felt like he was going to tremble in fear, but he was able to hold himself up.

"You guys are REALLY afraid of gas?" Sonic face palmed. "Don't you realize that the air is gas? If you feared gas, then you would be afraid of the atmosphere. It's the truth, thanks to Tails."

Chopper decided to forget all of that and jump onto the brown platform, where a yellow ? block lied. After striking it, a Speed Flower came out. Grabbing it, everything began to go incredibly fast.

"Whoa! Why does everything feel so fast?!" Sonic exclaimed, talking in a fast voice before he got hit by an enemy made of blue blocks called a Tileoid B. It only appeared to move around the platform they were standing on.

After Sonic struck it with a Homing Attack, they got double experience points from it. But that didn't matter. They simply made their way up to a brown platform, where they didn't find anything else around for them to jump.

"Hold on a second… Let me see if there's anything around in 3-D…" Chopper threw his arms up into the air and flipped into 3-D to find two yellow arrow blocks. After striking them, he went back into 2-D.

"Poyo! (Hey! We can finally go higher up!)" Kirby said cheerfully. "…Poyo. (Of course, I could've just gone up there myself, but since I don't want to leave anyone behind, I'm staying with you guys.)"

Chopper and Co. jumping onto the yellow platforms and landed on another green platform. "I honestly wish that we had a chance to run around. That's what I liked about the last area…"

"Well, sometimes we have to do some platforming. We're not all about speed anyways." stated Sonic as he looked at the large gap between them and the other platform to their right.

"Poyo? (You guys notice that little screen with the arrows pointing up?)" Kirby asked, pointing up.

Chopper looked up and he saw it. "Yeah, I can see it too, Kirby! Why put that there when we already KNOW that we have to go up? It's almost like they're saying, 'Hey, idiot! Go up!' or something like that."

Kirby giggled. "Poyo! (That DOES sound pretty funny! Only an idiot would be confused on where he needed to go!)"

"Guys… We need to get across here." Sonic interrupted, pointing to the large gap. This is where Kirby stepped up to do something. He floated over the gap and then used his inhaling to bring them both over.

"Oh, wow. I didn't know you were capable of doing that." Sonic gawked.

"Poyo? (What do you mean? I'm capable of doing anything that involved eating! What? You think I CAN'T do that?)" Kirby glared at Sonic, while the blue hedgehog scratched his head.

"It's nothing important," Chopper assured. "All that matters is that we need to get up this tree. God, I hate climbing this tree already!"

They jumped up a couple of platforms above them and realized they had to cross another gap. Kirby did the same procedure as before, allowing them to reach the other side. But what surprised them was when they saw a Sir Kibble throwing a cutter no a small green platform.

"Poyo! (I got this one!)" Kirby squealed as he jumped onto the platform and inhaled the enemy, turning into Cutter Kirby. "Poyo! (Now I can see what kind of abilities I'm capable of using now!)"

"Hold on a second… I see a stump over by the other platform." Sonic took notice of the stump. "Well, Screwdy! I think we can take care of that thing, right?"

"You're dang right we can!" Screwdy said in his happy-go-lucky voice. "Let's show that stump who's boss!"

Sonic nodded as he jumped onto the stump and performed a corkscrew on it. "Now I'm starting to wonder why I didn't use this corkscrew attack on Dark. I think it would've been a good idea!"

Once he struck the stump, a piece of paper in the center slipped off, revealing a yellow platform that moves from left to right.

"Oh, nice! Now we can get ourselves across!" Chopper smiled as he jumped onto the platform and then on a couple of others to land on a platform to the right with a Tileoid G moving around.

"Get off the block, you weird-looking thing!" he shouted as he punched the Tileoid G off of it after Kirby and Sonic made their way up. A Mushroom appeared and was starting to make its way off the platform.

"NO!" Chopper grabbed the Mushroom and split it into three pieces for all of them to eat, recovering some HP. "Whew! I thought for a second that we were going to lose that thing… Good thing we didn't."

They came across some Motobugs, a Poison Cherbil and a Koopa as they walked up more platforms. It felt like the same thing over and over until they got to a red door on a brown platform.

"Man, I can't believe we finally made it up to the top of the tree!" Chopper sighed in relief.

"Uhh… I wouldn't say so." Sonic slowly shook his head. He immediately pointed up. "There's still more to this tree. I know it's not going to be so fun, but we have to go through it, I guess…"

"Oh, god… Fine. We'll go through here. I just hope that we don't run into any trouble. I know Dark said something about someone waiting for us there… But the thing I'm wondering is…who is this person?" Chopper pondered.

They made their way into the door and made it into the inside of the tree. The floor and walls were all brown, but what caught their attention was the yellow platform moving up and down on a line (and THIS is where I actually hate this part of the level. I mean, REALLY! I think a lot of people don't like this part).

"Poyo… (Uhh… I don't think we can make it up to that platform up there…)" Kirby groaned, looking up at a platform to their right that a Tileoid G was going around on.

"Bleh. Let's just see what's through this pipe." Chopper was taken high up in the tree, possibly near the top. But there wasn't any door. All there was was a Save Block and a light blue ! switch.

"That switch looks…strange," Chopper raised an eyebrow as he kicked it. He felt a small amount of shaking that occurred for only a second. "What was all that?"

He noticed that the light blue ! switch turned into a light red ! switch. "Weird… But I'll see what happened down there." Making his way back down, he saw that there were two light red platforms that led up to a brown platform with a light red ! switch.

"Wait… That was weird. Since when did that appear?" Sonic questioned.

"Let's not worry about that," Chopper suggested as he jumped up onto the platform, only to be struck by a Crazee Dayzee's song, putting him to sleep. "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…"

"Poyo… (Uh oh… That Crazee Dayzee put him to sleep…)" Kirby struck the Crazee Dayzee with its next musical note that it fired and spat it back at it, defeating it. He then kicked Chopper, waking him up.

"Whoa, what? What just happened?" he questioned.

"Poyo, (A Crazee Dayzee put you to sleep,)" Kirby explained. "Poyo? (Why did you simply do something like that? I thought that was a stupid move for you to pull out for some reason…)"

"Oh, all right…" Chopper kicked the red ! switch, making it turn light blue. It led them to a light blue platform to their left and a yellow platform going up and down on a line. There was also one moving in a square direction.

"I can see another stump," Sonic stated, jumping on the platforms to make it to the stump. "I'm gonna see what happens!"

After hitting the stump with a corkscrew, a ladder was made for them. When Chopper and Kirby made their way to the platform, Sonic went down the ladder and hit the switch so a light red platform could appear near a platform above the moving yellow platform.

When they made their way up to that platform, Chopper immediately struck the Crazee Dayzee with a couple of stomps. It dropped a Shroom Shake for them, which was a relief and then they made their way up to the platform to their left thanks to the light red platform.

After defeating another Crazee Dayzee on the platform, they jumped onto another moving yellow platform to get on this other platform with a couple of brown blocks stacked up a little.

"Hold on, I'm going to see what's through here," Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a pipe sticking out of the wall. "Oh, so THAT'S what it was… How interesting!"

He was led into a room with spikes coming up from the ground for a couple of seconds and then down. "Oh, crud… I'm gonna need Slim for this. I wish I had Vivian or Bow to help me here…or even Kayzee."

* * *

**One trip to get Slim later-**

"All right, let's see how I can do here," Chopper attempted to use Slim's power to get past the spikes and over to the light red ! switch. He was successful, but he had to make his way back after turning it to a light blue color.

"Well, this is nice… I gotta go back!"

* * *

**Back over to where Kirby and Sonic are-**

"All right, let's try to make our way over to that Crazee Dayzee over there," Sonic suggested, pointing to the enemy. "I just hope we don't fall from its attack. That would be BAD!"

"Poyo. (But I can simply float up here if I wanted to. In fact, it would make this whole level easier if I just did that.)" Kirby said.

"Shhhhhh! Don't let them know!" Chopper shushed as he defeated the Crazee Dayzee with Hommissile. There, he found the same switch in front of them on top of these spikes.

With that, a platform appeared for them to jump to, but there really wasn't anything else around, which is why Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a sign. He read it, making his antennas spring up.

_Bomb the switch again._

"That sounds easy," Chopper flipped back and threw Hommissile straight at the switch without moving, creating a light blue platform to lead them up to some moving yellow platforms.

"Ugh… I really am dreading this place." Chopper groaned, forcing himself to do some MORE platforming to make his way to a brown pipe over by the wall to the left. There, they all found another room, but with a platform moving to the left and right with spikes on the wall.

"I think Slim could help us here," Sonic stated. "I mean, you can practically AVOID anything with him!"

Chopper brought Slim out and he managed to get past the spikes and over to the other side. He noticed the same switch as before, but only this time, he fired Hommissile at it to avoid being trapped by a light red platform that could be in his way.

"OK… Let's see what happened back out there…"

* * *

**Out of the room-**

"This BETTER be the end of this area…" Chopper grumbled as he jumped onto the light blue platform. Unfortunately, they couldn't get up to the blue ! switch above the platform in 2-D, so Chopper flipped and jumped onto the platform.

"FINALLY… We made it through that dreadful part! Now let's see what happens when I hit this…" Chopper punched the switch with his fist, causing a red door to be created above him.

"Hmmmmmm? I think a door was made… Let's see where that'll go." Chopper kicked the yellow ? block first to make a Super Shroom appear. He grabbed it and came down to the others to split it so they could all recover their HP.

"So, what happened up there?" Sonic asked.

"We should see what happened over by that pipe. I'm HOPING that we can get out of this part of the tree…"

* * *

**Over by the door-**

"Well, here we go!" Chopper kicked the door open and walked outside of the tree. This time, they were at the top, to everyone's relief.

"Poyo! (Oh, finally! We're at the top of the tree! And it doesn't look like there is another big puzzle to go through!)" Kirby shouted, sighing in relief. Sonic, too, was sighing in relief.

"Ah ha ha. Finally, you arrive!" a voice greeted.

"Wait a second… I remember that voice from…that castle on Lineland Road!" Chopper gaped as he saw the freaky jester floating above the platform that they were standing on at the moment.

"You don't wear tardiness well, Chopper," Dimentio stated, looking down at the hero. "I've been waiting for you all this time. I see you've brought some friends with you as well! How…magical."

"Poyo? (Whoa, Chopper… You know this creepy clown?)" Kirby raised an eyebrow.

"Hold on a second… This is the guy that Dark was telling us about?" Sonic grumbled. "I mean, this guy looks like someone who would be in the freakin' circus!"

"Ah, so you must be Kirby of Dream Land and Sonic the Hedgehog! It's such a pleasure to meet you two! I could recognize you by the pink icing softness on you and those ears that happen to dance upon your head. I am a humble servant of Tipral…" Dimentio did a little flip before finishing. "Master of dimensions… Pleaser of crowds… I am…Dimentio!"

"Yeah, yeah… I heard you before, Dimentio." Chopper got in his fighting stance. "Get out of our way! We've gone through ENOUGH pain, thank you very much…"

"It is truly enchanting to finally meet my hapless victims. I have prepared a special morsel of a treat for you!" Dimentio raised his finger and used his magic to take all four of them to a world filled with green.

"How about some…MAGIC!"

"What's with all of the green?" Chopper questioned.

"And…voila! You are now in Dimension D, a dimension of my own creation. In this mind-bending realm, my attacks are 256 times more potent!" Dimentio informed.

"Wait… 256? What the heck?! That's a bit…strong." Sonic gaped.

"Ah ha ha ha! Of course it is! With such power like that, I could obliterate you with a raise of an eyebrow! Now we must duel, like two gleaming banjos on a moonlit stoop!" Dimentio raised his finger and began to fire some of his purple magic at Chopper.

"Whoa!" Chopper jumped out of the way and clenched his fists. "All right, if you want a fight, then we'll give you a fight! Besides… I think you're probably going to be A LOT easier than Dark!"

"Oh, don't get your hopes up, Chopper…" Dimentio raised his finger and fired more magic particles at him. He inhaled one and struck Dimentio with it, making him teleport to the left of this dimension.

"Kirby! Get him!" Chopper shouted.

"Poyo?" Kirby turned, only to get struck by Dimentio's magic attack. Before he could strike, the jester floated to the center of the room and fired another magic particle at Kirby.

"Poyo!" This time, Kirby was prepared for the attack. He brought Barry out and deflected the attack back at Dimentio, knocking him back and causing him to teleport over by Chopper.

"Can you pierce this…illusion?" he asked before Chopper could try to stomp on him. Unfortunately, with a snap of his finger, he teleported and reappeared with two other Dimentios.

"Ah ha ha ha! Let's see if you can guess who the real me is!" cackled the three Dimentios as they each fired three magic particles, making it a total of nine being fired at them. It was so hard to dodge, that they all ended up getting hit by it.

"Ugh… This isn't going well…" Chopper grumbled.

"What are you talking about? We just started this battle!" Sonic clenched his fists and jumped into a ball, striking one of the Dimentios. Unfortunately, he ended up going through that one.

"Hmmmmm… Let's see if this one is it." Chopper made a jump towards the closest Dimentio and stomped on his head. He didn't go through this one, meaning that this was the right one.

"This is strange…" Dimentio pondered as he floated to the top of the room over by the left corner. "My attacks are meant to be 256 times more potent, but these heroes don't seem to be so exhausted yet. Perhaps there's something that made them a bit stronger as well?"

"Hey, Dimentio! We're over here, you know!" Chopper shouted.

"Oh, yes… I nearly forgot about you guys! I have a special treat for you!" Dimentio raised his hands up, creating some boxes that got both Kirby and Sonic. Chopper, on the other hand, managed to dodge the boxes and jump up to Dimentio.

"What the heck is THAT kind of move? !" he exclaimed.

"Oh, you'll see…" Dimentio smirked as he snapped his finger, causing some intense explosions from inside the boxes – two of them having Kirby and Sonic in them. The damage they suffered as a bit more intense than ever.

"Poyo… (Ouch… That was painful…)" Kirby winced.

"But now I have time to land a kick!" Chopper managed to do a sweeping kick on Dimentio, knocking him to the wall. But, he was lucky to get away with some simple teleportation.

_"Hmmmmm… He is rather strong…" _Dimentio pondered as he reappeared. _"So maybe he IS the hero after all! Even though he still doesn't have those gloves and shoes with him, he does put up a fight…"_

Dimentio lifted his finger up and he fired another electrical magical particle down that the trio. Sonic was able to land a Homing Attack straight at the jester, making him teleport over to the right.

"My, my! You are indeed tough ones! But let's see how you handle this!" Dimentio charged up a stronger magic attack and this time, a large magic particle came down upon them. "This one is capable of doing MUCH more damage to the likes of you!"

"Oh, yeah? Well let's see how you handle THIS!" Chopper made a dash over to the wall and jumped off to land a jump on Dimentio. But before the jester could teleport, he grabbed Chopper and threw him down at Sonic.

"Oh, that was just splendid!" the jester chuckled as he snapped his finger before teleporting with two other clones.

"Crap… Now there's two of them." Chopper clenched his fists and attempted a fireball. "Oh, come on! Why do I always keep forgetting that I DON'T have that fireball or light ball ability!"

"Well well! Looks like someone's lost their Master Gloves and Master Shoes…" Dimentio smirked.

"And why do you care about that?" Chopper raised an eyebrow.

Dimentio snapped his finger and a magical soap appeared in his hands. Well, the clones had them too. "This is Dimenti Soap, made by yours truly! This allows anything to shrink to the size of a peanut!"

"Wait a minute… YOU were the one that switched my soap to that?!" Chopper clenched his fists in anger and pointed at the jesters. "Oh… YOU'RE going to PAY for that, Dimentio!"

"Whoa… I never knew that this clown was the one responsible for shrinking Chopper's items…" Sonic gaped.

"Poyo! (I'll say!)" Kirby agreed.

"Ah ha ha ha. Such anger! You have the anger of your counterpart, Tipral! Oh, how lovely… Too bad that this has to be put to an end." Dimentio raised his hands up to summon a box.

"Oh, not this time, clown!" Chopper jumped before the box could trap him. He immediately fired Hommissile at the real Dimentio, resulting in him teleporting to the other side of the area.

"Whoa… Chopper's really kicking this clown's butt. He must be REALLY ticked about him losing his stuff…" Sonic gawked.

"Come back here, Dimentio!" cried Chopper, attempting to jump at him while Dimentio cackled as he dodged. "Come down here and fight me! I have a bone to pick with you!"

"Oh, how laughable! You can't even reach me!" Dimentio cackled. "I might as well have a nice laugh, since you're unable to hit me." He conjured up three magical projectiles that he fired down at Chopper and his two friends.

Kirby, being a bit ticked, took action by threw his cutter blade at Dimentio when he was close. He almost forgot about using the ability, but now he was ready to use it. With Dimentio near the ground, he slashed at him with the cutter again.

"Oof! Why you…" Dimentio unexpectedly knocked Kirby to the wall with a magical punch attack. "My my! Since when could I do something like that? I might as well enjoy it!"

"Not quite, Dimentio!" Sonic curled up into a ball and hit Dimentio across the face with a Spin Dash.

"Tsk tsk tsk! I'm afraid that speed isn't necessary in this fight!" Dimentio fired a magical particle at Sonic before he could attack him with another Spin Dash, knocking him to the wall.

Before Dimentio could cackle, Chopper tried to deliver a punch at him. Unfortunately, Dimentio was too quick for him. He grabbed Chopper's fist and punched him in the face with his own magic powers.

"No fair! Only I can do an elemental punch like that!" Chopper whined. "Unless… Hold on a moment… Could I even INHALE this guy?"

Chopper decided to give it a try. He tried to suck Dimentio up like a vacuum, but the jester was simply floating in the same position that he was in with a confused look on his face.

"Poyo! (It's not going to work, Chopper! Don't even waste your time doing it!)" Kirby shouted.

"Like a can of beans spilling from the ground, you all fall before me," Dimentio stated as he raised his hands up once again. "Perhaps now I can end this fight once and for all. Oh, how pleased Tipral will be! Your deaths will be so…_magical_."

"Oh, man… Stop with the similes already!" Chopper face palmed before he managed to deliver an uppercut kick on Dimentio, sending him up to the ceiling.

"Oof! …So you refuse to give up, do you? Well, very well!" Dimentio fired a couple of magical projectiles down at Chopper, but they were too slow for him.

"This is the end, Dimentio! This last attack will do it!" Chopper made a big jump up to Dimentio after the uppercut kick and with one last slamming kick attack, he sent Dimentio to the ground violently.

"Urgh… _Cough…hack…_" Dimentio wheezed as he collapsed. Kirby and Sonic managed to get up and glare at the evil clown as he wheezed. "Your blows are like miniature jackhammers wielded by tiny, angry road workers! How is this possible? This dimension makes me 256 times more powerful…"

"Well, let's see here… If your attacks were meant to be that powerful, then I suppose that _our_ attacks got stronger as well!" Chopper stated. "Yeah, that's an obvious one for you, clown!"

"Is that so? _…Aha…ha…ha…_" he muttered under his breath until he floated back up, looking like he immediately recovered. "Of course! This was simply an amusement that played out exactly as I planned! Were you amused? That was just an hors d'oeuvre! The next time we meet, you all will feast on a deadly eight-course meal!"

"A deadly eight-course meal?" Chopper's antennas perked up. "OK, now you've made less sense than before…"

Dimentio raised his finger once last time to bring them back to the Dotwood Tree. "Ciao for now, my foes! _…Especially you, Chopper…_" With one teleportation, he was gone before they knew it.

"So he's the one responsible for ruining my gloves and shoes…" Chopper pondered. "But… WHY would he do something like that? In fact, how did he know about my presence then?"

* * *

"Mmm… A little more, perhaps?" Dimentio appeared up in the sky. "They are strong, but they must be stronger yet to defeat Tipral. I must make sure they can face him when the time comes around at last…"

* * *

"Whew… I can't believer we made it through THAT battle…" Sonic sighed in relief while holding his arm. "Now let's find a way to get out of this tree. I'm getting a bit tired of it."

Chopper and Kirby agreed and they made their way up the Dotwood Tree. Unlike the other room, they weren't inside. But, they had to watch out for the Lakitus throwing Spinies down at them.

After climbing up a couple of platforms, they made it to the top, where they could see the wind blowing. They noticed that there was some red wind blowing along the tree.

"Remember, heroes… I said something about the red wind." Barry reminded.

"I wonder what happens if we touch it," Chopper pondered before being picked up by red wind. "Whoa… This thing's carrying me!"

"Poyo! (I wanna give it a try!)" Kirby cried, jumping on the red wind, along with Sonic.

"Wow! We're soaring through the air!" Sonic grinned. "Too bad I couldn't do this without Tails's plane…"

"Heads up, guys! There's a pipe up ahead! Get ready!" Chopper made a jump into the pipe, along with his friends. It took them to a grassy area, but this time, they were near the castle Francis was living in.

"I see the Star Block up ahead!" Chopper called out. "Time to hit it! _…What a relief._"

Chopper made his way over to the Star Block and he struck it before Kirby and Sonic had time to react. They were all relieved that that chapter was all finished…for now.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper, Kirby and Sonic scaled the tree and defeated Dimentio. The exhausted heroes were relieved to finally see the ivory towers of Fort Francis. Was Tippi safe? Was the next Pure Heart really waiting for them ahead? Their only answers were the strange voices carried on the wind from inside the fort…_


	19. The Battle of Fort Francis

**CHAPTER 3-5**

**-The Battle of Fort Francis-**

"Wow… Now that's one big castle…" Chopper gaped at the size of the large castle that was before them.

"Poyo… (Yeah, I have to agree on that…)"

"Sometimes I wonder how a huge geek like Francis could get a place like this," Chopper brought his attention back to the castle. It was a very large one, that's for sure. But, compared to the castle that he went to in Lineland Road, it wasn't as big. The castle was made up of…well, it looked pixilated and all that, but it really wasn't made of cool material. It was more old than new, from the looks of it. It basically looks like your average gray castle with a sign up at the front door…except that there isn't a bridge for them to cross filled with alligators and all that jazz.

"Boy… I wonder how Tippi's doing in there…" Sonic wondered as he began to think of the horrors that could be inside Fort Francis.

"Poor Tippi… I hope she's safe from all of that…nerdy stuff." Chopper shivered in fear of what it could be like.

* * *

**In Francis's room-**

Francis's room had these pink walls that would most likely belong to a girl's room, but there was a red door with two keyholes to the left. Over by the right of the room, Francis was holding a camera, taking pictures of Tippi, who was trapped in a cage.

"Nerrrrr herrrr herrrr herrrrrr! This is so hi-technicaaaaaal!" he grinned. "I can't believe you're finally back with me, Francine! Oh, how much I've missed you… This time, I hope you stay with me!"

Francis blushed as he took another picture of her. "I still don't know what this digibutterfly is! It's so…beautiful and undiscovered! Nerr! I need to document this thing right away!"

"_Chopper… Help…_" Tippi muttered as Francis took one more picture of her.

"Yessss! Shake that thorax! The guys on the digibutter. nerr forums will be sooo jealous when I post these shots online! They're gonna go 'Oh, man! I can't believe you discovered this hi-technicaaaaaaal digibutterfly! You're so awesome' and all that! It's so…hi-technicaaaaaaal!"

* * *

**Back outside-**

"Oh, god… I really don't have a good feeling when I think about how Tippi's doing…" Chopper felt like he had butterflies in his stomach. "Ugh… Why do I feel like I ATE Tippi?"

"Poyo? (Hey, what's that sign over there?)" Kirby walked over to the sign at the front door and he began to read what it said.

_No entry unless you __are a supergenius like me or a totally hot babe. For those of you who don't fit the category… STAY OUT!_

"Oh, god… So only hot babes can go in there? Where's Amy when you need her? …Not that she's hot or anything." Sonic stated, his face turning a bit red.

"OK, so apparently only geniuses like Francis and hot babes like…" Chopper's face turned a bit red too. "Ummmm… Moving on, now! We don't need to bring that up ever again…"

Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a pipe nearby. Using it, he went down underground room with a block and a blue ! block floating up.

"Good thing I have Thoreau with me," Chopper smirked as he picked up the block with Thoreau and threw it at the block. At that moment, a piece of the background flipped over to reveal a chest.

"Looks like this should be the thing to get us into that castle," Chopper stated as he kicked the chest open. He pulled the yellow key out and held it up. "Now to get into Fort Francis!"

* * *

**Back at the front entrance-**

"All right, now let's see what we have in store for us!" Sonic smirked as Chopper unlocked the door and headed inside of the castle. They all nearly gaped as they saw a walking…robotic cat walking towards them? It looked like it was wearing a maid's outfit as well. Other than that, the tiles are a gray color with a red rug as well. Over by the end of the room was a red door too.

"What the heck is THAT thing?" Chopper gaped as he saw the thing called a Meow Maid walking around. He decided to go over to it and poke it. "Uh… Pardon me, er…thing?"

"Welcome home, Master," the MeowMaid greeted. "How are you today, Master? I've been waiting to take care of you."

"Master? Weird…" Chopper scooted away from the MeowMaid as he and the other two walked into the door. They walked into a room with a couple of other MeowMaids and a large cat-like computer with two keyholes.

"So these robot cat things are Francis's…maids?" Sonic's ears perked as he looked down at the MeowMaids, which chanted, "Welcome home, Master," it crept him out, but he heard a voice coming from the two keyholes.

"Hey, guys! There's a voice coming from those!" he pointed to the two keyholes.

"I'm going to see what's through there," Chopper zipped over to the first keyhole and looked through it to find Francis holding a camera and taking a couple of pictures. But, who is he taking a picture of?

"Schweet… These are some of the best-looking pictures I've ever seen…" Francis drooled. "The resolution on these images is just breathtaking! It makes me want to… Nerrrrrrrrrr…"

"Oh my god… It's horrible!" Chopper gaped in horror at the flashes, but while the nerdy chameleon was saying, "Hi-technicaaaaaaal!", he checked at the other keyhole, where he saw Tippi muttering to herself.

"Tippi's in there, you guys! We have to get her out!"

"Poyo! (Of course we need to!)" Kirby nodded as he walked over to the door. "Poyo! (Come on! We don't have much time to lose!)"

The three of them walked into the next room, only to find nothing around them except for a MeowMaid. However, something felt a bit fishy in the room. Chopper grabbed both Kirby and Sonic and flipped into 3-D to find some blocks making stairs to the upper floor.

"Ah, so that's how you get up there…" he smirked as he jumped up to the upper floor. He saw a giant robotic cat-like toy that had a cannon for a mouth. The siren on this red SurpriseMeow fired a smaller, white cat toy called a MeowBomb. It ended up knocking Kirby's ability away, unfortunately.

"Poyo! (Come on! That's not fair!)" Kirby grabbed the MeowBomb and threw it into the SurpriseMeow's cannon. Luckily, it could fire and, because of that, it ended up getting blown up.

"Whoa… That was impressive!" Sonic gaped before they walked into the next room over by the door to the left. They were led into a room with two red doors hanging from the ceiling.

"Hmmmm… How do we get those doors down here?" Chopper pondered.

"Oh, that's simple!" Sonic looked over at Screwdy. "I bet we can get those things down! It shouldn't be too hard anyways!"

Screwdy nodded and before they could get to that door, some blue cat toys called PatrolMeows tried to attack, but Sonic's Spin Dash left them destroyed before going below the door.

"Here we go!" Sonic jumped and did a corkscrew, bringing the door to the ground unexpectedly. "Wow… I thought that someone's weight would be able to bring the door down… Am I…chubby?"

"You were back then, but you're not now, you know…" Chopper pointed out, reminiscing Sonic's old days of when he was short, chubby and had… Oh, let's not go there, OK (to make the fanboys shut up).

"Yeah… I was back then, but it didn't make much of a difference." Sonic opened the door, but he stopped when he saw a long path of spikes in the other room leading up to a door ahead.

"What's wrong, Sonic?" Chopper asked.

"Bad news, guys…" Sonic sighed as he turned back to the others in the other room. "There's no way we're going through there. There's a bunch of spikes blocking the way to the door!"

"Poyo? (Spikes? Couldn't I just float over there, though?)" Kirby raised an eyebrow. Chopper immediately translated what Kirby said to Sonic.

"No, Kirby… It's too far to use your Inhale to get us across. We should go to the other room." Sonic used a Spin Dash to get past the other PatrolMeows and to the door hanging above them. Using his corkscrew, he brought the door down so they could walk into the next room.

"This room looks a lot similar to the one we were in before. I think it'll be simple to get up there." Chopper threw his arms up to go into 3-D. The only flaw was that he couldn't jump up there.

"Poyo! (I can probably get up there!)" Without going into 3-D, Kirby floated up to the staircase. He used his inhaling ability to get Chopper and Sonic across, where they had to go up the stairs via 3-D.

At the top, they simply ignored the SurpriseMeow and walked to the door to go outside of the castle.

"Uh oh… There's no going across now." Chopper gulped, seeing no bridge to walk across. "How are we supposed to go up now?"

"Poyo! (Chopper! Look up there!)" Kirby pointed to the blue ! block that was floating up above them. It was a bit hard to reach for, though. However, they were soon interrupted by another siren sound.

"Oh, geez… WHAT NOW? !" Chopper turned to find yellow cat toys with wings called AirMeows flying over the big gap. They immediately swooped down to attack, but Chopper managed to knock one away with a simple kick.

"Poyo! (Wait, Chopper! Don't destroy them!)" Kirby shouted. "Poyo! (I can simply grab one of them and throw them at the block! I'm PRETTY sure that it'll make a bridge for us to cross.)"

"All right, Kirby… Grab one and we'll see what we can do afterwards." Chopper jumped out of the way as soon as an AirMeow came down to attack.

Kirby tossed Thoreau straight at the AirMeow and grabbed it as soon as the Pixl brought him back. With one simple toss, he was able to hit the switch and create a bridge for them to get to the other door.

"Sweet! Now we can take care of the rest of these guys!" Sonic grinned as he struck one of the AirMeows with a Spin Jump. Afterwards, he ran straight to the red door and waited for the other two.

"Let's hope we find something interesting through here," Chopper hoped as he kicked the door open. Unfortunately, the only thing they found in the small room was a green cat toy dressed like a maid called a SecuriMeow.

"Poyo, (Go talk to it,)" Kirby suggested. Chopper gave him a nod before going up to the SecuriMeow.

"You have reached the door to Master's private room," the SecuriMeow informed. "For security purposes, you must confirm your identity. Answer the following security questions with either 'true' or 'false.'"

"OK, go for it!" Chopper started to twiddle his thumbs.

"Video game soundtracks are totally high-technicaaaaaaal!"

"Uhhh… True?"

"Episode 127 of 'Grodus vs Gemerl Affairs' is pretty much the schweetest thing ever."

"Err… Yeah, I guess that's true."

"One day, I will own all of the 'Starship X-Naut' Series 3 collectible action figures."

"Most likely true."

"Now you must enter the passcode."

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he turned to his friends, who nearly shrugged. "Uhhhh… 1234?"

"MEEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWW! MEEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWW! MEEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWW!" the SecuriMeow shouted. "You are not the master! Deploy security measures!"

"Security measures?" All three of them gaped as they saw the floor disappeared before their very eyes. They ended up falling down into a pit with a huge red button, a red block and a Chain Chomp.

"Oh, crap! We gotta get rid of it!" Chopper fired Hommissile straight at the Chain Chomp, but even that didn't kill it.

"Poyo! (This should take care of it!)" Kirby grabbed Chopper using Thoreau and he threw him straight at the Chain Chomp, defeating it instantly.

"Kirby! Don't throw ME at it!"

"Poyo, (Well I couldn't help it,)" Kirby giggled as he grabbed the red block and threw it at the red button. Luckily, for them, this castle has a hidden pipe if you hit the switch, making that appear to the left.

"Doesn't Francis even know that there's a way to get out of here?" Sonic questioned. "Because if he did, then that means he's TERRIBLE when it comes to stuff involving security…"

"Meh. Let's not worry about that." Chopper took the pipe up to another underground-like room, but to their left was a bunch of PatrolMeows that had their sirens going off. On the other hand, there was a platform to their right they could take if they jumped on the yellow arrow block.

"Poyo, (Yeah, we're going to the right,)" Kirby stated as he jumped up to the platform. Chopper and Sonic followed him off of the platform and over by a cage with a big blue ! switch and a green Pixl that looks like a cross.

"Wait… I thought I saw something…" Chopper looked back at the writing that was on the wall.

_FOR FRANCIS'S EYES ONLY!_

_Room on the right: 2323_

_Room on the left: 2828_

"Poyo! (Chopper! Look over here! It's a Pixl trapped in a prison cell!)" Kirby cried out, making Chopper rushed back over to the cell. The Pixl that was in there appeared to be a female one.

"I thought for a second that no one would show up," the Pixl stated as she looked at the heroes. "Could this be? Are you three of the six heroes that I see? Please, help me out! I, Carrie, will do anything to be free from here!)"

"Poyo! (You gotta free her, Sonic!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (She's in some big trouble!)"

Sonic shrugged, but it might've meant that Kirby wanted her to be free. So, he simply hit the big blue ! switch with Screwdy's corkscrew, freeing Carrie from being in the disgusting cell.

"_**FREEDOM!**_" Carrie cried out."Oh, finally I'm out! I didn't know what I was going to do! Thank you, thank you! I've been shut in there for a long time… You'll never catch me in there again. I must repay you! I'm at your service. I'm sure you can find a use for my talent!"

"Poyo! (We'll definitely use your help, Carrie!)" Kirby said cheerfully.

Just before Carrie could circle around Kirby, she stopped. "Wait, hold on a second. Before we get all friendly, we should see if we're on the same page. You met Francis, right? What do you think of the guy? Your first impression?"

"He looked pretty nerdy," all three of them stated.

"Ah, I see. I see. Anything else about him catch your eye?"

"He's into butterflies."

"Oh? Yes, I see how you would think that. So…sum it up. What do you think about him?"

"He's just a big tech geek."

"So you think Francis is a… Nerdy butterfly fanatic? Basically, a tech geek?" all three of them nodded to her question. "Well…imagine that! You and I feel the same way about him! We've got great harmony. Yep, I think we'll work perfectly. Together, nothing can touch us!"

Kirby held up the female Pixl as soon as she circled around him. "Poyo… (She seems to be my kind of Pixl for some reason…) he pondered as he held her up.

**Carrie, the hovering-platform Pixl, has joined your party! When you are riding Carrie, characters such as Kirby will move faster and can breeze through spiked floors.**

"With me, you can get places in a hurry!" Carrie said cheerfully. "Go ahead, give me a spin!"

Kirby jumped on top of her and he began to hover around. "Poyo! (Look at me, guys! I'm hovering! This sounds like so much fun!)"

"Wait, Kirby! We need to get over those spikes!" Sonic shouted.

Kirby stopped and turned around while floating above the spikes, face palming. This sounded like a lot of pain to go through.

* * *

**Back over by the room with the spike hallway-**

"All right… We've managed to go through a lot of hell and back, but this isn't going to stop us! Let's hover over this!" Chopper said as he jumped on top of Kirby. Sonic immediately jumped on top of him so they could ALL make their way across.

"This is so…awkward." stated Sonic as they crossed the spikes. It was only for about ten seconds anyways.

They were led into another room similar to the one with the SecuriMeow. But, now that they had the passcode, they could go up to the SecuriMeow and enter the passcode 2323. It's that simple!

"You have reached the door to Master's super-secret lair," the SecuriMeow informed. "Only Master is allowed inside. You must confirm your identity for security purposes. To confirm your identity, answer "true" or "false" to the following statements:"

"Got it," Chopper nodded.

"Starship X-Naut" comics are never to be removed from their plastic sleeves!"

"True."

"Role playing should be no less than 180 hours long, not counting side-quests!"

"True."

"Fanny packs are both practical and stylish!"

"True."

"Please enter the secret passcode."

"It's simple! The passcode is 2323!" Chopper said with a smug look upon his face.

"…Welcome home, Master! Master's fantasy fortress is safe from intruders," the SecuriMeow welcomed as a big cat face appeared on the wall, along with the walls being green.

"Mrrooow!" After a strange…or rather cute meow sound, a red door was created right before their very eyes. They immediately took the elevator up to a room filled with a lot of posters and other accessories.

"HOLY… Where did Francis get a poster of Bow on it? !" Chopper gaped as he saw a pink poster with Bow on it before his very eyes. He thought for a second that she was winking at him from the poster.

"That Boo girl that was interested in you?" Sonic questioned. "Yeah… I think that's the one. She's kissed you a lot, I'll admit."

"Poyo! (Hey, there's even a Peach wig!)" Kirby picked up a wig that looked a lot like Peach's while avoiding the large BigMeow that was walking around in the room. "Poyo. (I'll hold onto it for right now.)"

Kirby made his way up to the platform above him, where he found a Fort Key. Chopper, on the other hand, found a Super Shroom in the yellow ? block that was all the way to the right. They all split it to recover their HP.

"Man… Seeing Bow on this poster really does bring me back to when I first saw her…" Chopper recalled. "It just brings back memories…"

"Chopper, we don't have time to be looking at posters! We've gotta get going!" Sonic shouted, walking into the elevator with Kirby.

"OK, I'll be there!" Chopper turned back to the poster. He began to whistle horribly as he grabbed the poster and rolled it up, putting it into his list of "Important Stuff".

_Bow Poster: A poster with the Boo princess Bow on it, along with her butler Bootler. She used to travel with Chopper two years ago and even had some kind of crush on him. Even still, Chopper remembers her as a helpful friend._

"OK! I'm coming!" Chopper rushed over to the elevator and they began to make their way over to the other room with the SecuriMeow that thought they weren't its master.

* * *

**Back at that room-**

"…Welcome home, Master!" the SecuriMeow welcomed as Chopper said the correct passcode. "SecuriMeow missed you!"

"Oh, crud… Hit the deck!" Chopper covered his eyes as soon as the cat face appeared on the wall and meowed before a door was drawn before their very eyes.

When they walked into the next room, they saw another room that had some interesting items. But what caught Chopper's attention was the Vivian and Heartsy plushie that was on the shelf.

"They've got a plushie of those two as well? Whoa… It's like Francis has been stalking all of us…" Chopper gaped, remembering the time he first saw those two.

"Uh… Chopper? Are you OK?" Sonic began waving his arm in front of Chopper's face.

"Huh? …Oh! I'm fine! Did you get the key that we need?" he asked.

Kirby held the key up. "Poyo! (I think these are the keys we need to get to the room Francis is in with Tippi!)" he shouted cheerfully.

"All right, we'll go there!" Before Chopper could leave the room, he immediately grabbed the Vivian and Heartsy plushie and put those into his list of "Important Stuff".

_Vivian plushie: Vivian was a girl that was abused by her sister, Beldam. But, after the defeat of Maquano, she lives in peace with her sisters. She helped Chopper out during those times and even had some kind of crush on him. In the end, she managed to kiss him all over his face – something she has never achieved throughout the adventure._

_Heartsy plushie: Heartsy was this pink girl that was endlessly in love with Chopper. She's a sweet girl, but there's no stopping her when she ever sees the boy that she loves. With her hammer, she helped Chopper collect the twenty Crystal Stars and save the universe. She wanted to marry him in the end, but she got her wish when Chopper kissed her in the end (despite that being painfully gross to him)._

Chopper immediately rushed to the door and followed his friends to Francis's chamber.

* * *

**Over by the, uh…MeowDoor-**

"All right, Kirby! Put those keys in its place!" Chopper shouted.

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby placed both keys in its keyhole before the MeowDoor meowed and accepted the keys.

"Hold on… Didn't Francis's sign on the entrance to Fort Francis say that only him and 'hot babes' could enter?" Chopper questioned

"Yeah… You're right! But we don't have any girls with us!" Sonic frowned.

"Poyo! (But I have this wig!)" Kirby held up the wig.

"But… Oh, god… I think someone has to go in there with that wig on. I know for a fact that it WON'T be me!" Chopper shook his head.

"Actually, I think you're the only one that could get in there. I would look NOTHING like a girl if I wore that, and Kirby probably couldn't speak to Francis. I think you're the only one that can fit that. I mean, you don't have a girly voice and all, but you can TRY to."

Chopper's antennas sprung up in utter shock. "You… You're REALLY going to make ME go in there? ! …Oh, fine! But I'm really freaking scared to do that!"

"Poyo! (Don't worry! We'll make sure we can come in just in time. Just say, 'Now!' and we'll bust through there!)"

"But… But… I'm not gay!" Chopper cried with anime tears down his face. "This is going to feel so awkward with him!"

Kirby threw the Peach wig on top of him before the MeowDoor could speak.

"_**Meeeoooooow!**_ _Both keys confirmed. Meow! Only Master Francis and 'totally hot babes' are allowed to enter. You may enter after I see if you're compatible with Master Francis… Please answer the following questions with 'true' or 'false'… Meow! "Video games and hot babes are totally hi-technicaaaaaaal!"_

"True"

"_If it's limited edition, buy it!"_

"True"

"_I have bought games that I never played."_

"True"

"_If it's got fierce giant robot on giant robot combat, it's an insta-buy!"_

"True"

"_They're NOT DOLLS. They're ACTION FIGURES. WITH REAL FIRE-PUCHING ACTION."_

"True"

"_I have dumped a friend over an argument about 'Starship X-Naut' propulsion technology."_

"True."

"_A schweet cover illustration is way more important than the story line."_

"True…"

"_Never pull the top copy from a pile of comics! Find the mint-condition one!"_

"TRUE!"

"_My first love was an anime character!"_

"TRUE!"

"_I love going on message boards and complaining about games I've never played!"_

"_**FOR THE LAST TIME! TRUE!**_"

"_**MRRROOOOW!**__"_

"…Huh? I did it?" Chopper raised an eyebrow as the MeowDoor made a red door appear before him.

"Remember, Chopper… Just give us the cue and we'll be able to bust through there! …Just try to do whatever you can, OK?"

"_Sniff…_ All right…" Chopper kicked the door open to enter Francis's chamber, but he stopped when he heard a nerdy voice.

"Nerrrrr! Who are YOU? !" Francis questioned as he saw Chopper walk in. "H-Hey! What are you doing sneaking into my room, huh? Ever heard of p-privacy?"

Chopper, readying a girly voice, walked up to him with a glare. "Ah! Now I've found you, Francis! Do you know how long I've been looking for you? !"

"_**For…ME? !**_" Francis started to sweat nervously. "O-O-Oh… O-Oh my gosh… It's… It's a hot babe…"

"_Oh, god… This… This really DOES feel awkward!" _Chopper thought, shivering at Francis.

"_**HOT BABE IN ROOM!**_" Francis began to spaz out as he looked nervously at Chopper. "Wha-What do I… Oh man… A REAL girl in my room! This is so hi-technicaaaaaaal! N-Neeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr…"

"Must…ca-ca-calm…calm down…" Francis stammered. "I'm get-get-get-get… Getting w-way too excited… Sweatles…forming… Can't talk to…girls… Must get…my…new…laptop…from…Frannypack…"

"_Wait… He seriously has to talk to a female through the INTERNET? ! …And I'm not even a GIRL!"_

"Booting up Swoon. exe! Activating Nerr2Babe interface mod with real-time wooing!" At that moment, the curtains began to come down.

* * *

**Nerr2Babe Interface Mod-**

Francis: "Welcome to my castle. How do you do? …Nerrr?"

Chopper: "Uh… What the heck is this? What's going on?"

Francis: "Nerrherr… I boot this baby up whenever it's time to the…heh…laaadies. Schweeeeet. Time for my program to work its magic!" (Where should I start…?)

Francis decided to choose "Speak" and followed up with "Talking to Hot Babe" – despite the fact that he's REALLY talking to a ten year old boy.

Francis: "What is your name?"

Chopper: My…name? Er… I guess you can call me Cho—er… I mean Chilivia! Yes! My name's Chilivia!"

Francis: "Chilivia? Why, that name sounds so chilly. Heh! I bet you've never heard of that one! Oh…I'm just drooling at the sound of it…"

[You received a straight answer. Francis's passion leveled up!]

Francis: (Oh, man… What should I do next?)

Francis was about to choose the "Smooch" option, but then went over to the "Look" and chose "Hot Babe".

Francis: "You're so cute…like a princess straight out of an anime or video game! You can be feisty, but I must say it…um…adds to your charm."

Chopper: "Wait, what? You REALLY think I'm feisty? ! I mean, what the heck? I CAN show you feisty if you want…if you want to lay it on thick like that, you'll get it!"

Francis: "Eep! I'm so sorry! I don't know what I was thinking! Oh…forgive me, my queen!"

Chopper: "Whoa, settle down there! I'm not even a QUEEN! I'm just a… Er… I'm just someone who travels around minding my own business!"

Francis: (Nerr herr… She's supercute when she gets angry…)

[Francis got yelled at! Chopper's charisma leveled up! Francis's passion leveled up!]

Francis: (What's my next move?)

Francis went to his "Inventory" option and chose "Give Item". He went to the "Pink Princess" Signed Poster.

Francis: "As a token of my affection, I'd like to give you a special present."

[Chopper received the "Pink Princess" Signed Poster.]

Chopper: "Errr… Thanks! …I suppose… It looks…er…nice?"

Francis: "You really like it? I knew a hottie like you would pick up on how premium this poster is. I got this baby at a totally hi-technical 'Punk Princess' anime event. I was going to get a CD, but I freaked when I saw this super-rare poster! The voice actor for the pink princess AND the director signed it, as you can see. As I'm quite sure you know, the director changed after season three, so it's rare. Plus, look here! The logo was done in extra-premium gold holographic foil! And the paper, oh man, it's UV resistant! So you never have to worry about fading. I could stick it on some backing board for you. How's that sound?"

Chopper: "Err… Yeah… That sounds…er…good?" (What the heck is he talking about? !)

Francis: "O-OK, you got it. Let me just take this guy back for a few minutes then, OK?"

[Chopper returned the poster.]

[Francis's satisfaction leveled up! Francis's passion leveled up!]

Francis: (Nerrr…what's my next move?)

Francis chose the "Think" choice and then "About the Future".

Francis: "Wow, we are like, so perfect for each other. It's destiny! We should get married!"

Chopper: "M-Married? ! Isn't that a bit… Wait a second… Who's even picking these choices for me? ! There's NO way, and I repeat! NO WAY am I going to marry this dork! Not one bit!"

[Chopper removes Peach wig. Francis becomes shocked and freaked out. Francis's passion deleveled twice.]

Francis: "Nerrrrr…? You're… You're REALLY not a hot babe? ! How… How did you get in here? !"

Chopper: "OK, listen here, nerd! I don't hate nerds or anything, but I don't like it when they're too 'geeky'. But, that's not why I've come here. I've come here for Tippi! Tell me where she is. Now."

Francis: "Tippi? Hmm… Tippi… Tippi…"

Francis began to check the selections for a "Tippi". Unfortunately, he couldn't find one.

Francis: "There's no Tippi command here! What is he talking about?"

Chopper: "All right! That's it! You better bring her out NOW!"

Chopper chooses his commands, which are: "Look", "Speak", "Think", "Food", "Eating", and "Pixls". He chose the 'Pixls" category and chose Hommissile.

[Chopper uses Hommissile! Hommissile exploded!]

Francis: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY GRAPHICS CAAAAAAARD!"

* * *

**Out of Nerr2Babe Interface-**

Francis slowly got up from the intense explosion Chopper delivered from Hommissile and he began to cry.

"That was the only known copy of the Nerr2Babe patch, and now it's gone forever!" he cried. "Nerrr… Why did you have to ruin my new patch? !"

"Look, I told you before… I didn't come here to play your games or anything." Chopper stated, glaring at Francis. "I REALLY didn't want to come in with that wig, but I was forced to do so."

"Chopper…?" the girlish voice that Chopper heard came across the room. There, he saw Tippi fluttering around in her cage.

"Tippi! You're all right!" he smiled.

"You… You came. To save me?" she gaped (if she even had a mouth, that was).

"Of course! That's the reason why we all came here anyways! There's NO way we're going to let you stay trapped there forever!"

"So… So you've come to raid my fort and steal Francine? W-Well… No! I won't let you!" Francis turned to Tippi and blushed. "B-By the way, I came up with the name Francine on my own! I thought of that last time I caught her! Isn't it schweeet?"

"Francine? Her name's Tippi!" Chopper retorted.

"When I first saw you, I thought it was a little weird that you could talk and everything. But the digibutter. nerr forum reaction convinced me you were hi-technicaaal! You're my only…_sniff_…offline friend, Francine…so no one will take you away from me!"

"Well, I didn't want it to come down to this…" Chopper frowned and turned to the door. "NOW, guys!"

At that moment, Sonic sped into the door with Kirby before the MeowDoor could block them from entering.

"So, you finally took care of… Wait, what happened?" Sonic questioned.

"More non-babes? Fine! If this is how you want to settle this, then so be it!" Francis pulled out a remote.

"_Eek!_" Tippi shrieked as the cage she was in lowered as the ground below her opened up, trapping her under the floor.

"Poyo? (Did he just hide Francine—I mean Tippi?)" Kirby gaped.

Before they could dart towards Francis, he immediately disappeared. "Nerrr! Can't see me?" Francis taunted. "That's 'cause my invisibility powers are totally hi-technicaaaaaaal! Little Francine is hidden, so you can't take her! Feel the wrath of the explosive Phi in the season finale of 'Grodus vs Gemerl Affairs'!"

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic prepared themselves as they began to hear footsteps. Before they could all react, they saw Francis appear over by the right.

"There he is! Get him!" Chopper darted towards Francis, but he disappeared before they could strike him.

"C'mon! You can't hide forever, Francis!" Sonic scoffed. "You're being a coward if you're hiding like that, you know!"

"Nerrrrrrrrrr! I don't care what you say! Francine is mine!" Francis reappeared and pulled his camera out. With one flash, he made everyone blind for a second before disappearing.

"Poyo! (This is so stupid! He can't hide forever!)" Kirby frowned.

"Oh, I can get him!" Sonic clenched his fists as he waited for Francis. Once he appeared, he pulled out a computer.

"_**MEOWBOMBS!**_" he shouted, summoning a couple of MeowBombs. But that didn't stop Sonic from striking with a Homing Attack.

"Gotcha!" he smirked before Francis could disappear.

"We gotta get rid of these MeowBombs!" Chopper kicked one of them away, while Kirby simply inhaled one to get the Bomb ability.

"Poyo… (All right… When he appears, I'm gonna get him…)" Kirby held a bomb out, readying himself to throw it at Francis.

"Nerrrrrrrr! See how you like this!" Francis appeared and he grabbed Chopper with his long tongue, swallowing him whole in his stomach.

"Poyo!" Kirby threw the bomb at Francis in rage, making him spit Chopper out.

"How was it in there?" Sonic asked.

"…Horrible…" Chopper shivered before he got up. "And I have a bone to pick with you!"

Chopper used a sweeping kick to strike Francis, knocking him to the wall, but he immediately disappeared afterwards.

"Now where did that chameleon go?" Chopper and his friends looked around the room for where Francis would appear again and, to their surprise, he reappeared right in front of Sonic.

"This should be easy!" Sonic bounced up on Francis after striking him with a Spin Jump. Kirby was able to jump on top of Francis with the help of Carrie.

"Poyo? (Wait a minute… I can stomp on enemies with Carrie?)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo! (That…is…AWESOME!)"

"Wow… Well, looks like you can jump on top of enemies with Carrie now, Kirby!" Chopper rushed at Francis, attempting a punch, but the chameleon acted like a coward again and disappeared.

"Come on, nerd! We're not bullies! All we want is our friend back!" Chopper fornwed.

"Well you still can't have my Francine!" Francis retorted, attempting to grab Chopper with his tongue.

"Not this time!" Chopper grabbed his tongue, which reminded of him when he grabbed a ghost's tongue before in the desert. Nevertheless, he managed to stun Francis by letting go of his tongue, which his him in the face.

"And here comes Sonic!" Sonic curled up in a ball and smacked Francis with a simple Homing Attack. He was able to strike him with a Spin Dash, but the nerdy chameleon already got away from him.

"Aw, man! I wanted to make a move!" Sonic pouted, kicking the ground.

"Poyo! (Wait! There he is!)" Kirby attempted to throw a bomb straight at Francis, but he immediately disappeared before he had a chance of attacking.

"Nerrrrr! My hiding skills are so hi-technicaaaaaaal!" Francis shouted as he grabbed Kirby with his tongue and gulped him down.

"POYO! (GET ME OUT OF HERE!)" the pink puffball cried as he began kicking in Francis's stomach.

"Get him out, you nerd!" Chopper managed to punch Francis in the stomach, forcing him to cough Kirby out, who was covered in some of Francis's saliva.

"Poyo… (Ewww… I know how you feel now, Chopper…)"

"Exactly," Chopper nodded and attempted to kick Francis, but he simply disappeared and reappeared all the way to their right.

"MeowBombs! Get them!" Francis shouted as he summoned some MeowBombs to attack Chopper and his friends. Unfortunately, it didn't do much when Kirby blew them up and even hit Francis with a bomb.

"This fight is getting so intense!" the nerdy chameleon cried as he disappeared from their sights once again. This time, he tried to strike Sonic by whipping his tail at him. Unfortunately, that didn't work out for him.

"Not this time, Francis!" Sonic struck Francis with two Homing Attacks before he could disappear. When he reappeared, he simply disappeared yet AGAIN.

After all three of them face palmed, Francis appeared and tried to grab Sonic with his tongue. However, the blue hedgehog was able to use his speed to stretch Francis's tongue and knock him into the wall.

"How painful…" Francis muttered as he got himself up. Unfortunately for him, he was struck by a punch from Sonic, which immediately put an end to the fight.

"NERRRRRR!" Francis fell over on the ground in pain.

"Wow… So my punch took him down?" Sonic looked at his fist in surprise. "That was pretty cool!"

As Francis got up, he immediately ran to the door, crying, "_**MERCY!**_" and immediately leaving the room.

"Whoa… I hope we didn't hurt him too badly." Chopper said with a worried look on his face. But then he stopped when he heard the ground over to the right open up, revealing Tippi's cage that emerged from the floor.

Once everyone walked over to the cage, it disappeared, freeing Tippi from the prison.

"Chopper… You guys came to save me…" Tippi trailed as she fluttered over to Chopper.

"Of course!" Chopper nodded. "We can't finish this quest without you! Plus… You're my friend. You're the good Navi."

"…Thank you… Thank you, Chopper!" Tippi began to shed a tear. "_I'm so happy…_"

A light began to emit from Tippi as she cried happily. Before the other three could shed some (manly) tears, they all were startled by the light.

"Huh? What the heck's going on?" Sonic questioned.

A yellow Pure Heart suddenly appeared out of thin air from Tippi. It floated above Chopper as he gazed at its beauty.

"The Pure Heart…? But…how…" Tippi trailed.

"Poyo! (I bet Tippi's heart just burst with happiness and release a Pure Heart!)" Kirby answered cheerfully. "Poyo… (Or…)"

"Chopper… I was just so happy when I saw that you'd come to save me." Tippi smiled. "Please… Take it."

"Of course we will!" Chopper smiled as he saw all of the Pixls do their little dance of theirs before holding it up. "It IS something we need, after all…"

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_The fourth Pure Heart appeared in a dazzling flash of mysterious light. What made it appear? The group was puzzled by this and many other riddles. "…So you're not hurt?" asked Tippi, full of concern. "Not at all. Well…maybe…" Chopper replied to Tippi. Somehow, Tippi seemed different than before. She had started to change a little. Chopper, Kirby, and Sonic with Tippi back started their long journey back to Flipside…_

* * *

**Yup... This is twice as long as this chapter originally was****, but Chopper now has a Bow poster, and a Vivian and Heartsy plushie! Now that...wait, why did I put that there? I don't know...**

**Anyway, the interlude's up next! I don't know how long that'll be, though...**


	20. Chapter 3 Interlude

"…And that's how the ruffians managed to best me," Dimentio finished as he was explaining to Tipral the events that occurred between him, Chopper and his two other friends. "Ah ha ha. They are strong, to be sure… Very strong. Dare I say… They might be strong enough to defy the prophecy!"

Tipral, on the other hand, wasn't satisfied. "Ugh… How can this be? Chopper defeated all of my minions so far? ! Proposterous!" He closed his book in an angry way as he glared at his minions.

"Sorry, Tipral, but those three heroes were too tough to fight," Dark apologized. "I tried, but I failed. That's how it goes around here, unfortunately. So… You can punish us if necessary."

"No, Dark. I won't punish you. It's not necessary." Tipral looked away, looking down at the Dark Prognosticus. "The Light Prognosticus is a false illusion that is trying to fool us. Only this book will help me find the answers to killing Chopper!"

"So, is killing Chopper all you wish to do, now that you hold the most powerful weapon in the universe?" Dimentio questioned, floating over by his shoulder, looking down at the Dark Prognosticus.

"Dimentio… Stop looking over my shoulder." Tipral pushed Dimentio's face away from him as he began to flip through the pages. "There's GOT to be something in here that can help me kill Chopper and his pathetic little friends! There HAS to be!"

"Tippy… You really sound like all you want to do is get rid of that doofus Chopper." Mimi floated up onto Tipral's platform and put her stick hand on Tipral's shoulder. "How about we can go to someplace like a dance…or even go out on a cruise where we can sit at a table together! …Or maybe we can even sit out at the balcony of the cruise and have a beautiful kiss! Or even…"

"You know, Mimikins… Putting your hand on his shoulder for more than ten seconds is considered to be rape." Dimentio smirked.

"Oh, shut up, you meanie-head!" Mimi retorted, giving Dimentio a death glare. "I'm just trying to cheer the boy of my dreams up! I bet you'd do the same thing! Oh, wait! You don't have a girlfriend!"

After hearing what Dimentio just said, Tipral's eyes widened in surprise. "…You're better off putting your stick hand off of me, then," he said while his antennas were perked up.

Tipral turned back to his minions. "Anyways… I suppose now's the time you all took a little break."

"A break! Yeh gotta be kiddin' me!" O'Chunks gaped. "I've been takin' a break fer the past few chapters! Are yeh REALLY gonna make me wait even longer teh give that hero a chunkin'? !"

"No! All that matters is that you take your break!" Tipral growled. "I have my reasons for this, but I refuse to tell you why! Return to your posts IMMEDIATELY! …And don't let me catch you sneaking out to ambush Chopper…"

"As you command, Tipral!" they all shouted in unison. "HAIL TIPRAL!"

After they all left, Tipral opened the Dark Prognosticus and looked through it. After two minutes, he closed it.

"It's time I paid someone a little visit…" Tipral grabbed his Dark Star Scepter and Dark Prognosticus and he immediately teleported out of the room.

"My my my! How interesting! Tipral always has some interesting conversations…to himself!" Apparently, Dimentio was eavesdropping on Tipral.

"Mm… Just what is our dear Tipral playing at? I thought I overheard him saying that he was going to pay a little visit to a certain…someone? Ah, well. I'll let him worry about that. I must attend to my own…projects."

At that moment, Dimentio vanished.

* * *

**In Merlee's Mansion-**

"This is a very strange mansion…" Meta Knight muttered under his mask as he walked around the Chapter 2-4 area. "I haven't seen much activity around here lately. Is this place…empty?"

Before he could take another step, he could hear something coming from upstairs. Without hesitation, he flew up to the third floor to find a prisoner talking to another.

"Didn't you hear? Those two gerbils managed to take down Mimi!" the first prisoner whispered. "I can't believe it! All this time we thought we were going to be trapped, but now we can go!"

"Yeah, that's awesome!" the other prisoner cheered.

They stood there in silence for about ten seconds. "Now what?"

"Well… I don't know what we're supposed to do. With Mimi gone, I don't have a freakin' clue on what to do. Do we…leave this mansion or something or stay here and wait for Merlee?"

Meta Knight seemed confused, but he tapped the prisoner closest to him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, sir. What is going on here?"

"Huh?" the prisoner turned around and gaped. "Whooooooa! Look at that mask! You look like you're one of those cool warriors…or even knights! Yeah, you're one of those knight guys! How cool is that?"

"Too bad you're a bit too late," the second prisoner frowned. "It would've been cool if you were the one that trounced Mimi instead of those two puffball guys. I mean, they don't look like heroes!"

"Those 'puffballs' happen to be some friends of mine, thank you very much," Meta Knight glared under his mask. "Chopper and Kirby are just doing their job, which is to collect all of the Pure Hearts. They're REAL heroes. Not me."

"What? Hey, you're a real hero! You just gotta BELIEVE!"

"No, that is impossible," Meta Knight turned away. "Would a hero try to take over their own planet with their ship? I don't think so. Would a real hero try to fight off a hero who's trying to save the world? No. I couldn't possibly be a real hero. Say what you will, but that won't do a thing."

Meta Knight turned back around. "Anyways… I am looking for my sword. Have you guys seen a golden sword with points on its side?"

"A sword? Nope. Never heard of it. If we did, we probably would've showed it to you. Maybe Lady Merlee can help you find it. Just to warn you… She talks in rhymes. Those can be annoying."

"Hee hee hee hee! Were you looking for me?" Meta Knight turned around to see Merlee facing him. "I see you've come to find a sword. But, unfortunately, I have not seen such a thing."

"Galaxia isn't here? Ugh… Are you sure that it isn't here?"

"It is unfortunate you lost your sword, for fighting is indeed your skill! Perhaps a key will cheer you up!" Merlee handed Meta Knight a key. "This is something I had with me. Perhaps it'll be of use to you, or maybe it could be a new sword!"

Meta Knight took the key from Merlee. "Hmmph… If I can't find Galaxia here, then there's no point in me being here. I'm leaving."

The masked warrior turned away from Merlee as he jumped down to the first floor, making his way out of the mansion. Merlee, too, had something to do, so she made her leave as well.

"Aw, crud! I just remember what I came here for!" the prisoner face palmed.

* * *

"_So, how goes the creation? Is he finished yet?"_

"_Almost. We just have to insert those rings there and he'll be finished."_

"_Why can't you just release him without the rings?"_

"_Well… You see… Doing that will simply unleash his almighty powers against everything in his sight. Not only would it be powerful enough to kill us, but it might even…kill him too. Do you get what I'm saying?"_

"_Yeah… I'm starting to understand this. But… WHY did you give him power that could possibly kill him without those rings on his wrists? ! That's NOT the way to create a living being, you fool!"_

"_It wasn't my fault, sir! Honest! I was only listening to the Shadow Queen! SHE'S the one that said to give him these powers! If there's anyone to blame for this, I say blame her!"_

"_Hmmmmm… Very well. I understand. I suppose now's the time to release him. Get the rings, my friend."_

* * *

**Up on Flipside Towers-**

"Oh, finally! We got out of there!" Chopper sighed in relief as he and his friends walked out of the yellow door. Sonic looked a bit surprised when he saw a yellow crystal heart appear over the door.

"Whoa, is that supposed to be some kind of crystal heart?" Sonic questioned. "It kind of reminds me of the Crystal Stars for some reason… Except that those aren't really collectable…"

"Guys… I'm so sorry…" Tippi apologized. "It was all my fault… And… Then… You all… Thank you so much…"

"Oh, don't sweat it, Tippi!" Sonic waggled his finger as he made a pose. "We're heroes! We do what we need to do! I mean, a hero would save the universe from an evil demon, wouldn't he?"

"Yeah, don't worry about getting kidnapped, Tippi," Chopper assured. "That stuff happens A LOT. Well, mostly with Peach and some other girls I might know. …Hold on. Come to think of it, you could be the third hero, Sonic…"

"Hero? You mean the Hero of Prophecy that you mentioned before?"

"I have been waiting for you, young heroes!" the old voice caught everyone's attention. They all turned to the left to see Merlon standing there. "Did you succeed in your search for the Pure Heart?"

"I guess we did…" Tippi trailed.

"Well, yeah, we did. Apparently, the Pure Heart came bursting from Tippi for some reason. I was a bit confused, but now that I think about it, Tippi DID say before that she could sense the Pure Heart nearby when we first entered the Bitlands." Chopper explained.

"Intriguing… So then… When you saved Tippi, the next Pure Heart just appeared?" Merlon pondered. "Mmm… How very interesting… I think that castle was once a swelling of the Ancients I told you of earlier. My ancestors have roamed far and wide in their dimensional travels."

Merlon brought his heads up to the heroes and began to quote something from the Light Prognosticus. "'In the castle beyond the great sea, we hid a Pure Heart and sealed it safely…'" Yes, I remember reading such a passage on the Light Prognosticus. The seal could only have been broken by a powerful pulse of love and trust…"

"Wait, you're saying that Tippi started to trust us after we saved her from that geeky Francis guy?" Sonic pondered. "Interesting…"

"And now there are three heroes!" Merlon looked over at Sonic. "Ho ho! I don't know who the other three are, but waste no time in searching, my friends!"

"Not a problem!" Sonic waggled his finger. "With my speed, we can mop the floor with Tipral and get those Pure Hearts! You can trust me on this one!"

"Ah, so you must be Sonic, are you not? Oh ho! Well met, Mr. Sonic! May your speed trample those fo—"

Before Merlon could finish, the whole tower started to tremble as The Void in the sky began to grow bigger. It was a big bigger than before now.

"What the… What just happened?" Sonic questioned.

"Oh ho… It seems The Void has expanded once more… Time is short!" Merlon spoke after the trembling stopped.

"We have to keep going…" Tippi trailed. "We must start by looking for the next Heart Pillar."

"There are matters I must attend to as well… I must search for any item of significance in the Light Prognosticus…" Merlon trailed as he left the tower to return to his house.

"Well, where should we go to now?" Sonic asked.

"Hmmmmm… Now that I think about it, I saw a Heart Pillar over by the outskirts of Flipside on the second floor… Maybe we ought to check over there? I don't know. It might be a good idea." Chopper suggested.

* * *

**Flipside Outskirts, 2****nd**** floor-**

"Yup. Just as I expected." Chopper pointed to the Heart Pillar all the way to the left that was being blocked. They could see a bit of yellow in the pillar, which must mean that the yellow Pure Heart goes in there.

"Hold on a minute… We got these stumps, though!" Sonic pointed to the five stumps that were on the ground. Two of them were up, while the rest of them were down.

"This is strangely interesting…" Tippi trailed.

"Well, might as well hit them," Sonic was a bit surprised when he hit the first two to their left. He brought the first one up and the second one down. But, that triggered the blocks to be destroyed, allowing them to walk over to it.

As Chopper felt the strange aura coming from the Heart Pillar, he brought the yellow Pure Heart out and allowed it to float into the Heart Pillar, making it glow yellow and making a yellow clock appear before them.

Up on Flipside Towers, a green door was being created.

"Well, what do you think happened?" Sonic asked.

"We go back to the tower to find out," Chopper pulled the Return Pipe out and he and his two friends jumped down into it to return to Flipside Towers, only to find Meta Knight walking out of the orange door.

"No luck… I can't find my sword anywhere!" Meta Knight growled.

"You had no luck in that world, did you, Meta Knight?" Chopper asked, walking over to the masked warrior.

"No… But I won't stop right here. Now that you opened up this world, I will search through here. I'll search every single world to find it!"

"What's so important about that sword?" Tippi questioned.

"Galaxia is a sacred sword passed down by my ancestors," Meta Knight explained. "I vowed to keep that sword safe from harm, but it looks like I failed to do such a thing. I bet my ancestors are disappointed in me. Lighten, I apologize…"

"Dude, don't go emo right now! It's not the end of the world!" Chopper snapped. "Just get a new sword, or better yet, find a Pixl shaped like a sword! I bet he or she will be able to help you fight off anything!"

"I would, but I can't find the type of weapon," he shook his head as he walked over to the yellow door.

"Whoa! Hold it right there, man! You don't wanna go in there!" Sonic warned.

"Poyo! (Yeah! That place has a nerd in it!)" Kirby agreed.

"A nerd? A nerd wouldn't be threatening to me. Besides, I'm sure there's something through here anyways. If I find Galaxia… Then I just might be able to give you some help."

Meta Knight made his way into the Bitlands as Chopper groaned.

"OK, fine. Go in there if you want." Chopper turned back to the green door. "All right, I guess it's time to make our way into this place!"

"I wonder what we're gonna be up against. What if it's a casino place or even a metropolis area…" Sonic pondered.

"I wouldn't be too sure on that…" Tippi trailed as she followed the three heroes through the door. For some reason, she felt a bit worried…

Will they be safe in this next world?

* * *

**Yup. Chapter 4's the next chapter...and one of those chapters that doesn't really have that many boss fights, unfortunately...**


	21. Into Outer Space

_After the not-so-fierce fight against the nerdy Francis, Tippi and the Chopper gang started to grow a bit closer. Behind a fourth door lay a whole new world that beckoned to them both. What awaited was vaster and stranger than anything they all encountered so far… In order to claim the Pure Heart, they would have to endure new, far-out trials…_

**CHAPTER 4-1**

**-Into Outer Space-**

Since the world first appeared as a blank, white world, the designer was forced to draw the whole setting for the area, starting with the stars in the background, which began to be colored. The rest of space was starting to get colored as well, showing the background to be a dark blue color, unlike Starland Galaxy, which looked a lot more beautiful than this outer space.

As the green door was drawn, the three heroes and Tippi, now reunited with them, walked out to find themselves floating in space.

"Mmm, stars everywhere… I believe we're in outer space, almost certainly… I think I remember being here…" Tippi trailed before she realized that they were in space. "Wait a moment… Outer space?!"

She turned to the three heroes with a worried look, only to find them just fine. "Huh…? You guys are all fine?"

"What's wrong, Tippi?" Chopper asked while tilting his head.

"Well, it's just…um…" Tippi began to stammer. "I just thought that you couldn't survive in space… Last time I came here with three others, they couldn't handle being in space. That's all…"

"That's weird… Usually when I'm up in space, I'm not suffocating. I guess that's what happens when I'm here as well. Don't you worry, Tippi, I bet things are going to be just fine." Sonic assured. "…Well, I hope."

"Poyo? (But, how come we're able to breathe in space, but Sonic can't survive in water?)" Kirby questioned. "Poyo… (I just don't get it… In fact, a lot of stuff just makes no sense!)"

"Hmmmm…" Tippi pondered. "Well if that's the case… Let's go, then! The Pure Heart is somewhere in this sea of stars…"

"Wait a second… How do we even move through this place?" Sonic questioned as he started to drift away from the others.

"Let's see…" Chopper began to move his feet like he was swimming underwater. He was starting to move through space. "Oh! I got it! Just pretend you're swimming underwater! …Except that you're not in water, that's all."

"Poyo! (Oh, that's easy!)" Kirby began to move around, making sure his blue floppy hat wouldn't come off (he still has his Bomb ability on, mind you). He was actually having fun.

"Crud… We gotta swim? ! That's something I CAN'T do! …Oh, wait. This isn't water." Sonic began to move his arms and legs around space, but he started to hear this jingling sound.

"Hey… You guys hear that?" Sonic's ear started to twitch.

"I don't really hear anything, unfortunately…" Chopper pouted, looking a bit disappointed at the atmosphere. "Honestly, our galaxy was a lot better than this! It was beautiful! Don't you all remember?"

"Oh, yeah… I remember being in Starland Galaxy… That was an awesome place, to be honest. It was…" Sonic stopped again as he heard the jingling noise. "There it is again! I heard that noise!"

Chopper's antennas started to twitch. "Yeah… Now I can hear it! But the question is… WHERE is it even coming from?"

"Poyo! (Look over there!)" Kirby pointed to the green "SOS" that was floating up towards them. There were even some sparks coming from where the "SOS" was coming from too.

"I think we should check down there…" Tippi suggested.

"That's what I plan to do! C'mon, guys!" Chopper made his way down to the sparkling light that the SOS was by. But, unfortunately, he found nothing. "I can't find anything around here!"

"Poyo… (Use Tippi's powers, then…)" suggested Kirby.

"Oh, yeah…" Chopper allowed Tippi to go into him and turn his eyes back into rainbow light. "Oh, boy! It's been a while since I had this happen to me! It feels so…strange…yet…so cool!"

Chopper could see a light green spaceship that was floating around here. "There's something here… For some reason, I feel like I've seen this before… The question is… What's it doing in the middle of nowhere?"

After Tippi made it visible, she left Chopper's head. She began to take a look at it.

"It's some sort of spaceship… Why have I seen something like this before? I'm starting to think.

A ticking alarm went off as Chopper touched it, startling all three of them away from the spaceship. They noticed that the lid began to open, making the air around them feel a bit cold. To their surprise, a green, square-shaped alien with five tentacles, an antenna with a star on it, and thick lips popped out of the spaceship.

"Squeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuurp… Squirple squeeple squinks! 'Morning, SQUIRP!" the little alien greeted after some yawning.

"What in the world…?" Chopper's eye began to twitch as he and his friends floated over to the strange-looking alien.

"Poyo… (OK, I know that we're NOT in our own dimension…)" Kirby stated as he took a glance at the alien. "Poyo. (Yeah. It's finally official. You don't see these kinds of aliens in Starland Galaxy.)"

"Hmmmmm… Let's see if this thing speaks English." Chopper looked at the alien. "WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING AROUND HERE?"

Unfortunately, the alien ignored his loud question. "You're the ones looking for the Pure Heart, squirple? Hm! Cuter than I thought!"

"Wait, who was he talking to?" Sonic asked.

"Well, it looks like he speaks English," Chopper sighed in relief. "…Hey, wait a moment! How does this alien know about the Pure Heart? ! Is he… Is he working for that faker Tipral? !"

"Noooooo! No scary faces!" the alien wailed. "You can call me **Squirps**. I'm your captain, squooork! And if you want the Pure Heart, we need to work together, squoop!"

"Hmmmmm… For some reason, I recognize this little alien…" Tippi recalled, still not remembering much from three months ago. "How can I not remember all of this? I know you're from somewhere…"

While Tippi began to ponder, the three heroes began to talk to Squirps. "So, uh… You have any explanation on why you're telling us this? How do we know that we should trust you?"

"Squirps can't tell much now, but you three must follow Squirps," Squirps informed. "Now, follow me, squiiiinks!"

"Poyo? (Follow you now?)" Kirby tilted his head.

"Dude, you didn't really explain to us WHY," Chopper shook his head. "Plus, we just met you! How do we know that we can trust a little alien like you? I still believe that you're working for…"

"_**SQUAAAACK!**_" Squirps's loud scream sent the three flying back. "You! You all heed the captain! "You all are space grunts now, and that is the ONLY rule! Your only responses should be 'Yes, sir!' and 'Gotcha!' Understand, squirkle?"

As the three floated back to Squirps, they replied with "Yes, sir," and "Gotcha,".

"Squeh squeh squeh squeh…" Squirps chuckled. "Looks like you understand your place, SQUIIIIIIIP!"

"Are you three all fine with this…uh…Squirps giving you orders?" Tippi asked. All she got from the three heroes were three nods. That's when she knew that they wanted to be a bit silent to prevent Squirps from screaming.

"Great! Let's get ready, then… _Squarp formation, squooogle!_" Squirps floated over to Chopper, since he was in front of him. "We'll 'squarp' directly to the Pure Heart. It's like warping, except Squirps invented it. In order to squarp, we'll need a lot of energy, squeeeeeerk. You're all brimming with power-up power, right? You must give it to Squirps!"

"Soooooooooo… What do I do, then?" Chopper questioned.

"You need to hold onto Squirps and give off as much energy as you can so we can squarp to the Pure Heart, squinkles!"

"OK… I'll give it a try." Chopper grabbed Squirps and he began to charge as much energy as possible. Tippi, Kirby and Sonic gaped as they saw Chopper surrounded by a red aura. Plus, his eyes were a red color as well!

"I…wanna…_**SQUARP!**_" Chopper shouted.

"_**SUCCESS!**_" Squirps fired a fireball that created a flash and then created this weird purple wormhole.

"And here we go… _**SQUAAAARRRRP!**_" Chopper and his friends floated into the wormhole, which began to suck them into another area.

* * *

**Somewhere else in Outer Space-**

As soon as they got out of the wormhole, Squirps got out of Chopper's clutches and looked around him. "…Squoh?"

"What's wrong?" Chopper asked.

Squirps had a bummed look upon his face. 'We're…not even close to our destination, squooops…"

"Oh, dear… That's not good…" Tippi trailed.

Squirps turned to Chopper with a glare. "Is that all the power-up you have, squirp? Good-for-nothing space grunt… Squirps was an idiot for thinking you had more… Well, good-for-nothings have their own good-for-nothing ways of moving, squaaank…"

The little alien went back into Chopper's clutches. "There's a ways to go before you all reach the Pure Heart… You must space-swim! Use (2) to shoot enemies with my Squrips Squirt Beam. If you hold (2), you'll be able to use Squirps Charge Beam. SQUIRP! Fire, space grunt! CHAAAAAARGE!"

"So… You're basically like a gun?" Chopper gave Squirps a squeeze, making him shoot a fireball. "Ooh! Now this is nice! I wonder if I can charge up a shot…"

He tested out to see if he could charge up an attack. Luckily, he managed to squeeze Squirps to make him fire a larger, deadlier fireball at two orange jellyfish enemies called Jelliens, making them toast.

"Poyo… (Well, apparently squeezing aliens makes them kill things around us…)" Kirby said with a blank look on his face. "Poyo? (What's next? Some…uh…evil clowns in outer space?)"

"Beats me. All that matters is that we take care of everything in our path!" Chopper moved his feet a bit more as he squeezed Squirps a couple of more times, destroying more Jelliens in their path.

"Hold on a second… How are we supposed to attack these guys?" Sonic questioned.

"I'm not so sure… You could try to use a Spin Dash or attack in your ball form, but I can't be too sure on that…" Tippi trailed.

"Do you find it weird that we're swimming through space, yet the asteroids around here are not even close to us?" Chopper questioned until he bumped into a small asteroid in his path.

"Squirp! You almost squished Squirps!" Squirps cried. "Watch where you're going, space grunt! You don't want to get Squirps killed, do you?"

"What? ! No way!" Chopper retorted. "I was just talking to my friends, that's all! You'd probably do the same thing if you were talking to YOUR friends! Yeah, I can bet that for sure…"

"It doesn't really matter, squoogle! We must continue to charge our way through these space grounds!" Squirps dragged Chopper past some of the asteroids that were around them and over by two Jelliens.

"Let me get this!" Sonic curled up in a ball and he made a dash at the two Jelliens, knocking them out of the area. He also almost ran into another wormhole.

"Whoa… We got a wormhole here!" he warned.

"Hold on a minute, Sonic!" Chopper continued to blast at the Jelliens around the asteroids. He even had to charge up a fireball from Squirps to fire at more than one Jellien to destroy them.

"Keep firing, space grunt!" Squirps shouted.

"I'm trying!" Chopper squeezed Squirps a couple of more times before all of the Jelliens were gone. "Whew… Well that's a relief! Now all of those…weird jellyfish enemies are gone!"

"Now we must squarp to somewhere else!" the alien announced.

"Wait… I have to charge up MORE power? !" Chopper gaped. "But… But… That's all I had to charge up! You're telling me that I have to charge up even MORE? ! That's just… That's impossible."

"No, space grunt! The wormhole over there, squinkles!" Chopper's antennas sprung up as he space-swam over to the wormhole Sonic was waiting at. Kirby, too, space-swam over to the wormhole as well.

"Poyo! (You don't want to forget about that Save Block!)" Kirby announced as he hit the block himself. They immediately went into the wormhole afterwards, being taken to another area in space.

"What are those things over there?" Chopper looked at the green and purple alien with light blue orbs surrounding it. He sued Tippi's power to examine the little alien monster.

"That Foton is a space organism that is orbited by small blue particles... Max HP is 8 and Attack is 3. When it senses danger, it... Well, it shouldn't be much of a problem unless you're surrounded by them..." Tippi informed.

"8 HP? Well… That's not TOO bad. But, still… It's almost like a Hyper Goomba…but without the charged attack." Chopper squeezed Squirps, making him shoot some fireballs at the Fotons.

"Wait… One shot doesn't kill them? Crud… I guess one more shot has to do it…or a charged one could take them out in one hit." Chopper fired two more fireballs from Squirps at the Fotons, destroying both of them.

"Poyo, (You're gonna have to be careful on those enemies,)" Kirby warned as he space-swam ahead for any enemies. He still had some bombs with him, so it would help to use those.

Over by two wormholes ahead, there were two more Fotons. Kirby immediately defeated them both by throwing a couple of bombs at them. That took care of them.

"Which wormhole should we take?" Tippi asked, bringing her eyes to Squirps.

"Hmmmmmmm… Squirps says take the lower right one!" They all listened to the alien and went over to the wormhole, taking them into another area filled with Fotons.

"Don't go to the left, squirp!" Squirps warned. "The wormhole over there will take you back to the other area you were just in! It's a BAAAAAAAAD idea!"

"Hmmmmmm… I suppose you're right." Chopper charged up a fireball and fired it directly at the Fotons over by the right, obliterating them within seconds. "Now THAT'S more like it!"

"Hey, Chopper… You see that Fire Flower in the background?" Sonic pointed to the stars that were making a Fire Flower. "Doesn't that remind you of those Fire Flowers that we always saw?"

"What are you talking about? I have one right here!" Chopper pulled a Fire Flower out of his inventory. "Although… I think these things are starting to become a little useless, now that the enemies are getting a bit stronger…"

"Oh… I thought you were going to think about that Elemental Hand ability that you once had…"

"Don't bring that up," Chopper warned, glaring at Sonic. "You know that I'm still peeved at Dimentio for doing that. What did he have against me anyways? All I really did was sit down and relax for five months! …And also explore."

"Poyo! (Hey, guys… We need to take the wormhole!)" Kirby space swam over to the wormhole and allowed himself to be taken somewhere else.

"Hmmmm… Well, we might as well move on…" Tippi trailed as she followed the two others into the wormhole with Squirps. That's when they saw those spherical enemies with white eyes and some electrical circle around them appear.

"Poyo! (Get information on it before it disappears!)" Kirby cried. Chopper listened and used Tippi's powers to gather information on it.

"That's a Warpid, a being of pure energy that can warp through space... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. It will pursue any new discovery... Don't allow yourself to be mesmerized by its slowly undulating lines..." Tippi informed.

"All right, I guess we ought to…" Before Chopper could shoot the Warpids it immediately disappeared from their sight. "Oh, great… Now we missed our opportunity to attack it!"

"We've got two others behind us!" Sonic warned. Chopper immediately turned and squeezed Squirps a couple of times to defeat it. The other two Warpids made their appearance, but were soon destroyed by a charged fireball from Squirps.

"Squirps thinks you're good at using Squirps as a weapon, squirp!" Squirp commented. "…But you're not the best shooter, that's for sure."

"Not the best? Meh… I don't care about being the best." Chopper space swam ahead, dodging any of the asteroids that were in his way, but he soon found himself at the end of the area with no wormhole.

"Wait a second… We're at a dead end!" Sonic gaped.

"Poyo? (Where are we supposed to go now?)" Kirby asked.

"Oops! Squirps is so sorry!" Squirps cried. "You need to go over to the left! Squirps is so sorry for forgetting this!"

They immediately space swam to the left, going past the portal they previously took to find another pathway with more Warpids. Chopper blasted them with a charged fireball, Sonic used a Spin Dash and Kirby threw bombs at them to eliminate every single one of them.

"Well that solves one problem… At least we can move on…" Tippi trailed.

"Through the wormhole, squarp!" Squirps shouted as all four of them went into the wormhole and into another familiar area. They checked to see if anything was to their right. To their relief, there wasn't.

"I guess all we have to do is move right, then! Good enough!" Sonic smirked as he took out some Jelliens in their path with a Homing Attack. He even took care of some Fotons that were past some asteroids as well.

"I can feel the Star Block at the end of this area… I know I can…" Tippi said, feeling its energy growing.

"So we're near the end of the level, is that it? Well, if that's the case, then we ought to keep going!" Chopper blasted the rest of the Fotons around them until they came across a background with some stars circling around this small asteroid with a pipe on it. There was even a small wormhole in there as well.

"How do we get in there?" Sonic questioned.

"Hold on a minute…" Chopper grabbed everyone else and he flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw a wormhole behind the asteroid. "Ahhh! There we go!"

As they got sucked into the wormhole, they were taken into the background, where they flew over to the pipe and were taken underground.

All that there was was a couple of coins and a yellow ? block when they came down. It was a bit disappointing, but Chopper managed to collect a couple of coins after flipping. Inside of the yellow ? block was a Mushroom that they all shared.

"Poyo… (It's not like we'll need it, but it'll do…)" Kirby split the Mushroom, allowing them all to take a piece to recover some HP. Afterwards, they left the underground room.

* * *

**Back outside-**

"Well that was a waste of time…" Chopper groaned as they got out of the wormhole. "All there was was a Mushroom! It was almost like some kind of beginner's trap or something!"

"It's not a big deal, Chopper… We're already getting close to the Star Block anyways!" Sonic pointed to the Star Block past the Jelliens.

"Ooh! You're right! …And you even knew where the block was, Tippi! That's pretty nice!" Chopper commented, making Tippi blush (despite the fact that he didn't know about it).

As soon as they cleared the Jelliens, they space swam over to the Star Block. With one kick, Chopper was able to break the block and conclude this part.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and the gang cruised through space, led by the young alien named Squirps. What kind of creature was he anyways? "What the heck is this creature supposed to be?" thought Chopper as he looked at the alien. And what was with those weird noises? Whenever confronted with a question, it would say, "Squirps is Squirps, SQUAAK!" All they could do is trust that he knew where the Pure Heart was and follow him. They were doing just that when something appeared ahead of them. It was a teeny-tiny planet. "I bet O'Chunks couldn't fit on THAT planet!" Chopper said jokingly. They headed to the planet to see what awaited them._

* * *

**Yeah... Outer Space isn't EXACTLY the greatest chapter in the story, but it's not too bad, in my opinion. It's better than chapters like 2, 12, and MAYBE 17. I know we haven't gotten to those two chapters in editing, but my opinion could possibly change when we finally get there. ...Hopefully.**

**In the next chapter... Chopper and the gang explore the small planet that O'Chunks probably couldn't fit on! ...And something funny happens with Squirps. :P**


	22. A Paper Emergency

**CHAPTER 4-2**

**-A Paper Emergency-**

(OK… Now that we're not in Outer Space…or rather, on some kind of planet that I don't really know about, things might be a bit different. By that, I mean we have to go through a level that's a bit annoying. But, at least its backtracking isn't as bad as a certain chapter in the other two Paper Mario games (don't get me wrong. I like those chapters, but they have some backtracking in it, which sucks). But, this is Super Paper Chopper, and if you didn't read back on the other two fics… You should've done that, y'know. Just sayin'. Anyways… No more of this note. We're moving on!)

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and the strange little green alien Squirps landed on the small planet called Blobule. It was a strange name, but Squirps explained to them that it's named after the species called Blobules. He said that they're these aliens with their mouths on their bellybuttons that say stuff like "Bloooog…" or something along those lines.

"Yeah… This is definitely one of those small planets. But at least we can stay on it." Chopper smiled as he looked up at the stars. He was able to see the stars of some of his friends, such as C-2 Choppor or Flyer (easter egg, much?). "But… Where the heck are we going anyways?"

"Somewhere on this planet should be an entrance to the Space Byway, squeeeork! Yup! It's a shortcut to the Pure Heart! With it, we'll be able to go to where I live! I bet you'll like it, space grunts!"

"Really… You don't say… And where might that entrance be?" Tippi asked.

Squirps grinned. "Squeh squeh squeh squeh… You're gonna laugh, squaag!" Squirps took a deep breath before telling the location of the entrance. "_**IT'S…**_Squirps forgot!"

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic immediately fell over on the ground in anime style, while Tippi muttered to herself.

"You don't KNOW? !" Chopper growled as he got up and glared at Squirps. "Well THAT was some nice info you gave us…squag. …Crud! Now I'M starting to talk…Squirpish!"

"Don't look at Squirps like that!" cried Squirps. "Everything's fine! I think there probably should be some clues around here somewhere, squirple…"

"What a wretch…" Tippi muttered.

Before Kirby and Sonic could comment, Squirps began to look constipated. "_**HNNNNGH!**_"

"Whoa… What's going on with the little alien?" Sonic questioned, looking down at the constipated alien. "He doesn't look too good…"

"Poyo… (Or maybe he's having one of those angry moments…)" Kirby predicted.

"What's going on, Squirps? Did you remember something?" Chopper asked, raising his eyebrows at him.

"No! I… I have to go potty!" Squirps cried. "I REALLY have to go, squirk! I can't hold it anymore! I… I need to find somewhere to go…like some kind of bathroom! Where is the restroom? !"

Chopper looked around the area. "Well, since there's no bathroom, why don't you go in a bush? …Oh, wait. There aren't any bushes here. Well, maybe you can go somewhere where we don't have to see! …Unless it's…number two."

Squirps immediately ran off, while Tippi rolled her eyes. "…Let's…look for some clues ourselves…"

"Well if he's gotta go, then he's gotta go!" Sonic stated as he followed the other two down this large gap. "Aw, man! My speed's useless around here! I can't use my speed around here!"

They didn't go too far, because they ended up running into a porta-potty. "Wait… So there's porta-potties in space? Why the heck are they around here? !"

"Squiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirps! It's occupied, squiiiiiiinkle! And whoever's in there won't come out!" Squirps cried.

The ticked off Chopper immediately knocked on the door, but what caught him off guard was a singing Pixl-like voice.

"Heeeere I seeeeeet, amore! Awaiting youuuuuu, amore! No more, no more, amore!" the Pixl sang.

"This is no time for some silly song, squirple! I've got a bathroom emergency here!" Squirps cried.

"Three months agoooooo, amore! I came in here to go, amore! So bored, so bored, amore! No toilet paper here, amore! I wait three mooooonths, amore! What for, what for, amore? Any paaaper, please, amore? Just a sheet for me, amore! Implore, implore, amore!"

"Squirps can't hold it! Hurry up! Squirple!"

"Wait… So there's been no toilet paper for three whole months? …And you haven't left that bathroom since?" Chopper gagged. "Oh, god! I hope you don't have any problems without it!"

"I don't loooove it, amore! I need some paaaaaper, amore! I cannot leeeeave withoooout it, amore! Please, please, amore!"

"Poyo? (Why does it say 'amore' after each sentence?)" Kirby questioned. "Poyo? (Is it some kind of Spanish Pixl or something? …Or is it one of those Pixls that tend to say 'amore' all the time?)"

"Whatever it is, we have to find it some toilet paper. I know we're made out of paper, but we're NOT using ourselves! That's just plain gross." Chopper walked over to the brown platform over by the wall.

"OK, then! So we explore the planet, find some clues and help that guy in the bathroom get some paper. Sounds simple enough." Sonic jumped onto the platform. He noticed he could jump higher than before.

"The physics of space allow us to jump higher, but we seem to move a bit slower now…" Tippi stated as she followed the three up the platform and across a gap where a white enemy called a Longator tried to attack by stretching its body.

Kirby immediately took action by pulling a bomb out and throwing it at the Longator. "Poyo! (We still need a bit more to take this thing out! You guys try to do something about it!)"

"I'll handle it," Chopper stomped on the Longator and did a little stylish move. He proceeded to stomp on it one more time before he was able to take down the annoying enemy.

"Man… What kind of enemy was that supposed to be?" questioned Sonic.

"It's a Longator…" Tippi informed. "It has a Max HP of 12, and an Attack of 3. Watch out when it stretches its head. It'll hurt you if you run into it… But it's easy to avoid and it leaves it open for an attack, so you should be able to strike it easily…"

"Hmmmmm… All right. That's not too bad, I guess." Chopper looked down below them to see a locked door. "Well, now I know that there's no way of going down there… Let's move on, I suppose."

They jumped over the gap to land on a brown platform and jumped up onto another higher point to find another Longator.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and tossed it at the Longator. Unfortunately, that didn't do enough, so he tossed two more bombs to kill it. "Poyo… (These things are pretty strong!)"

After jumping over the other gap, they made their way onto a higher point than the other. They noticed these rocks on the ground stacked together, from the bottom being big to the top being small. They looked up to see a sparkling white light that resembled a lightning bolt on top.

"That's a pretty weird light," Chopper stated. "What do you suppose that that could be?"

"I'm not so sure… But I think I remember something can do something to reveal something…" Tippi recalled. "Yet… I don't know what exactly can do such a thing…"

"Well we'll take care of that later. For now, we should just see what else we can find." Sonic made a Spin Jump across a couple of platforms and landed right near some brick blocks. "Man… It's hard for me to move with all of this gravity, but at least my jumping's a lot better."

Once Chopper and Kirby made a jump, Chopper looked at the brick blocks. "Only one way to take care of this…"

He tossed Hommissile straight at the blocks, destroying them within minutes. "Well that takes care of that. Now let's see what's up ahead."

Heading through the door, they found themselves in some sort of pit (not like a bottomless pit or anything). When they jumped out, they came across a Save Block to their left and a wall to their right.

"Poyo! (I can see something up there! …But I don't think you guys will be able to get up there if I did something about it…)"

"Then let's see what's in 3-D," Chopper threw his arms up in the air while being close to Kirby and Sonic and they all went into 3-D. They could see the crack that was right on the wall.

"Looks like we're gonna need Slim for this one!" Sonic grinned as he activated Slims's power to turn sideway. "I love taking control of these Pixls! …But which one is the one WE own?"

"Poyo! (Well, personally, I'm holding onto Carrie! I mean, she can help me get through anything, like lava or spikes!)" Kirby announced.

"Well, I'm still a bit unsure if I'm gonna keep Hommissile," Chopper looked at Hommissile, who had a disappointed look on his face. "Don't get me wrong! You're cool and all, but I don't think you're my 'main' Pixl."

"It's understandable, KA-BOOM!" Hommissile said.

All three of them slid through the crack and returned to 2-D to find a yellow ? block right above them. There was even one down a big step that led to these big blue and purple spring enemies called Boing-Oings.

Chopper immediately began to use Tippi's power to gather information from these weird enemies.

"This is a Boing-Oing... It's a stronger relative of the Sproing-Oing... Max HP is 8 and Attack is 3." Tippi informed. "If you hurt it, it will split into multiple Mini-Boings... If you don't time your jump perfectly, you'll get hurt... I wonder how it got so many pretty colors..."

"Strange-looking enemies… I know that I saw those Sproing-Oings from Lineland Road, but I didn't expect to see THEM again… Ah, well." Chopper stomped on the Boing-Oing once, splitting it into four. He then finished the four small ones off with some jumps while doing some stylish moves.

"Man… These things are so strange! Why do they split into smaller versions of themselves anyways?" Chopper questioned as he floated down to the ground.

Before they could take care of the other Boing-Oing, Kirby hit the yellow ? block, making a Speed Flower come out. Once he touched it, everything started to go incredibly fast.

"Ohmygodthingsarefast!" Chopper shouted as he took down the Boing-Oing with a sweeping kick attack, taking it out in one hit.

"Poyo! (Iseesomethingupthere!)" Kirby floated up to the left to find a blue ! block. Once he kicked it, two brown platforms that acted like stairs were made to help them go up or down from where they started in this area.

Going back to the other two, the speed ended up going back to normal. He told them about a brown platform being above them, so they followed him up to where he was before and they made it across the gap to their right.

"Man… I like jumping high and all…but I wish I could at LEAST move a bit faster…" Chopper jumped on the brown platform and then jumped across the other gap to land right by this strange tree with purple outlines.

"So… Squirps could've gone to the bathroom here if he wanted…" Sonic looked up at the tree. "…Unless it was number two."

"Poyo, (I bet it was number two,)" Kirby stated as he jumped over the next gap to a green door. "Poyo! (Hey! Let's see what's through this door!)"

The three of them walked into a little house with this weird yellow alien guy standing there. They felt a bit confused, but they remembered that Squirps told them these guys are Blobules.

"Bloog… Aren't you three fancy. Let me guess… You're hunting the treasure too, right? Well, go look for the elder. He knows stuff about things. Me, I plan on lounging…" the yellow Blobule began to relax.

"The elder? Well, I guess we'll do that then." Chopper left the house and returned back outside. But, when they looked down, they saw nothing but a pit with two pipes and a Boing-Oing.

"There might be something in 3-D…" Tippi trailed.

"All right, then," Chopper flipped into 3-D with his friends and they found a bridge to cross over to the other side. However, they ended up going a bit too far, which resulted in them falling off to lower ground. Luckily, a red door was right by, so they simply walked through it.

"Whoa… What the heck is that?" Sonic pointed straight at a strange enemy made up of several green squares arranged like an eel. Chopper was able to gather information from it, thanks to Tippi.

"That's a Hooligon. They are space creatures that are made up of many parts... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 3. It loses pieces of itself as it takes damage... The head is the weak spot... You have to hit it there to defeat it..." Tippi informed.

"Poyo! (This should be easy!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and he threw it at the Hooligon that was in front of them. Unfortunately, that didn't do enough to take it down, so Sonic used a Spin Dash to take that one out and hit the other three Hooligons.

"All right, I think this should do something," Chopper blew the Hooligons up with Hommissile's attack. With that out of the way, they jumped on the yellow ? blocks that acted like stairs to another similar door.

"Another one of those doors! Wow." Sonic kicked the door open to find a light blue alien. There wasn't much of a difference from it like the yellow one. It still had its mouth on its bellybutton.

"Ooog… A customer…" the blue Blobule noticed the three walk in. "Rare. Look, why not take a load off? Moving is…tiring. Whuzzat? Space Byway? Oog… Haven't seen one… Haven't eaten on either…"

"Well, that was interesting…" Chopper said in sarcasm. "We sort of wasted our time talking to him…"

* * *

**Back in the other area-**

They noticed to their right, they could see these blue enemies with propellers around themselves. Chopper decided to take a look at them using Tippi's powers.

"That Choppa is a strange organism that flies through the air...and dimensions... Max HP is 5 and Attack is 2. It's hard to track, as it occasionally flips... However, it occasionally stops to rest. That's your chance..." Tippi informed.

"A Choppa? Oh, come on! First those mechanical fish rip off on me, and now THESE things do? !" Clenching his fists, Chopper stomped on the Choppa twice before it can escape, defeating it.

"I'll take care of the other," Sonic attacked the other Choppa with a Spin Jump and then followed afterwards with a Homing Attack.

After defeating those Choopas, they came across a small little pit where a Boing-Oing was bouncing around. Kirby happily dropped a bomb so that he could destroy the Boing-Oing.

"Poyo! (OK, it's all clear!)" Kirby jumped into the pit, only to find nothing else but a wall that seemed a bit too high for them to jump up to. "Poyo… (Uh oh… I think we're at a dead end…)"

"Chopper, I would advise you to use your flipping…" Tippi whispered.

"You don't need to whisper to me, Tippi. In fact, you're a bit close to me for some reason…" Chopper noticed that Tippi was sitting right on top of his head.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Tippi fluttered off of his head. "It's just that… I was just getting a bit tired with fluttering around. I needed a break…"

"…OK, that's understandable," Chopper threw his arms in the air to flip him and his friends into 3-D. They noticed that there was a square-shaped hole that they could walk through.

When they made it to the other side of the wall, they went back to 2-D to find another Boing-Oing. Kirby happily placed a bomb in front of it to blow it up. That allowed them to jump on the brick blocks on the walls to get to a red door.

"Well, I don't see anything else around here, so…" Chopper opened the door and he walked into another area with his friends. They noticed some yellow ? blocks that were far from each other when they jumped off the step the door was on.

"Now let's see here…" Chopper hit one of the yellow ? blocks and, to his surprise, a Mega Star popped out. "Whoa! We gotta get that!"

"Mega Star? What's that?" Sonic questioned.

"Well, it's some kind of star that makes you grow into a gigantic 8-bit form of yourself and it allows you to pummel through everything in sight. Basically, you're invincible for a couple of seconds." Chopper explained.

"Really? If that's the case…" Sonic jumped to grab the Mega Star. That made him transform into a giant, 8-bit version on himself (like the 8-bit version on Sonic from the Master System, I suppose?).

"Oh, sweet! I can pretty much crash through anything in sight!" Sonic began to make his way through this area, trampling things from Fuzzies to Beepboxers. They all tried to run for their lives, but there was no outrunning Sonic.

Unfortunately, it didn't last too long. As soon as he made it to a big step that the red door was on, he turned back to normal. "Aw, man! I can't believe that it already wore off! Dang…"

"Well, at least you cleared the way," Chopper and Kirby managed to catch up and jump over to the red door. They all walked into another area similar to the other, but not as big as that one.

Once they jumped off the big step, they saw a couple of Beepboxers around. Chopper immediately used Tippi's power to gather information on it.

"This Beepboxer blasts blaring sounds at anyone it doesn't like... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 5. It gets startled by its own loud noises... Maybe it's mad because people keep interrupting its music-listening time..." Tippi informed.

"Its Attack is 5? Whoa… Watch out, guys… This enemy seems a bit dangerous." Chopper noticed that the Beepboxer was firing sound waves at them.

"Leave this to me!" Sonic curled up in a ball and struck every single Beepboxer on the ground with a Spin Dash. He came back to them with another Spin Dash to finish them off.

"I saw a pipe that we could jump on that'll lead up to another door," Sonic told his friends. "There wasn't anything else, but I think we should go take a look in there…"

"Hopefully there will be something that the Blobule in there has…" Tippi hoped as she followed Chopper and his friends onto the pipe and into the door that was sitting on the brown platform.

"What in the…" Chopper saw an old, purple Blobule sitting on a light blue ouch. His eyes were covered by his big white eyebrows and his mouth looked all wrinkly. He was pretty freaky to be sure.

"Greetings, young explorers…" the Elder greeted them. "Welcome to this remote land. You must be bushed, bloooog… I'm what's known as an active senior explorer. The name's Blappy. I'm 72."

"Nice to meet you, Blappy," Chopper waved. "My name's Chopper. I'm 10."

"Ah, so you're one of those young ones… How interesting… In my youth, while everyone hunted for snacks, I hunted the Big Treasure of Space. It's big. It's treasure. And it will be mine at last! I found this other clue in the space ruins! So, explorer to explorer… I'll cut you a deal, blooog… This clue for 1,000 coins! _**YOU BUY IT!**_"

"What the heck? !" Sonic gaped. "You REALLY expect us to pay you that amount of money? ! We don't even CARRY that much!"

"It's too expensive for you? ! Well, maybe a little, bloog… _Hackpth!_ _Bleeeeepth!_ Sorry. I've got a touch of lard-lung. Old Blobules tend to have that. Anyway, I'll cut you a deal: how's 100 coins?"

"Dude… I still think that's a bit expensive…" Chopper glared at Blappy. "In fact, how come you're not searching for that treasure?"

"What? Wondering why I'm not looking for the treasure myself?" Blappy gaped. "I'm old! I'm portly! And I DID look, bloooog! I just didn't find anything… _Ha-plapbth!_ _Blaaaaaaph!_ Uh, I mean, fine, 10 coins."

"OK, fine… We'll give you 10 coins. But it's not because you're old. …Though, I DO respect the elderly…unless they're evil." Chopper pulled 10 coins out and he tossed it to Blappy. The Blobule gave him an Ancient Clue.

"It looks like there's something scribbled on it…" Tippi trailed, looking at the writing on it.

_By rock man's noggin, when outer space is reversed, the door secret hides._

"I'm through with you, bloog… Go home now!" Blappy shouted.

"Oh, fine… We'll go." Chopper looked at the paper and remembered that the Pixl needed some paper. "I know this isn't toilet paper…but it'll have to do. Let's…_gulp_…head all the way back to Squirps."

* * *

**Back over by the restroom-**

"Any paaaper, please, amore? Just a sheet for me, amore! Implore, implore, amore! Paaapes, paaapes, amore! Looove the paaapes, amore! Oh more, oh more, amore!" the Pixl sang.

"Yeah, yeah… We got your freakin' paper here. This is all we could find." Chopper pulled the Ancient Clue out and slipped it under the door.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, amore! I've been waiting, waiting, amore! This paaaapes should do, amore! Flippay has a-waited for you! At last we meeeet, mi amore! My sweeeet, sweeeet paper!"

All four of them (including the constipated Squirps) could hear the toilet flushing. "And now we do part, amore! For down you depart, amore! No more, no more, amore!"

"Sq-Squips can't take it anymore! Squirps will burst! Evacuate all personnel!" Squirps immediately rushed to the door and opened it (which was unlocked, thankfully). Chopper noticed that the Pixl that came out was shaped like a blue square with wings that were in the middle of the outer part of him.

"_**RELIEF!**_"Flippay shouted in relief. "Eeet's a paper miiracle! Flippay is a-feeeeeling good! You bring Flippay the happy? Flippay has been a-waiting so long for you, amore! Si, for this momento! We Pixls are helpful tools, si? But we no choose matters, be they good or baaaaad! You have found Flippay, amore! From this day on, you and Flippay are a part of oooone! Flippay follows you, amore! Companion true, amore!"

Flippay began to circle around Chopper, who immediately held him up.

**Flippay, the flipping Pixl, has joined you! Using his power, he can find hidden things that you can't normally find yourself, or make enemies in 2-D dizzy or flip enemies in 3-D back to 2-D!**

"And now we continue our quest, amore!"

But before they could go, they heard the toilet flush. "Well it's about time…" Chopper grumbled as Squirps walked out of the bathroom, feeling much better.

"Phew…" Squirps sighed in relief. "Squirps feels much better. OK! Let's go look for the entry to the Space Bypass, squibble!"

"All right, I say we check that white light we saw before," Sonic suggested.

* * *

**At that white light-**

While making their way, they managed to find an Ultra Shroom Shake that would come in handy in the future. But, what was more important was that they got to the white light they saw before.

"OK… Here we go!" Chopper brought Flippay over to the white light and he managed to discover a Door Key. They immediately made their way over to the locked door, where they inserted the key.

"Uh oh… Fuzzies!" Chopper gulped as he saw a bunch of Fuzzies jumping around in the next and final area of this place. There were even those beautiful-looking trees that they saw before.

"I think a simple jump should take care of them," Sonic stated as he looked at them from afar.

"Oh, I can do THAT…" Chopper began to think about those Fuzzies that attacked Koopa Village, but he wasn't going to go back into another flashback, that's for sure. All that mattered was that he stomped on every single Fuzzy while doing a Stylish move.

Once that was finished, he landed right by the Star Block. "OK… Let's end this!" With one punch, he broke the Star Block.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and his friends headed to the Space Bypass in search of the Pure Heart. How on earth did Squirps know of the secret route? Our heroes stared suspiciously at him. "Why are you staring at Squirps like that?" said Squirps. "Are you falling for Squirps?" "Nope, not really. I was uh… Looking for a chocolate shop. That's it." lied Chopper. In the darkness of space, the eyes of Squirps glinted mischievously…_

* * *

**There really isn't that much to this part, which kinda stinks. But, who really cares? We have another part coming up, which is what I intend to get done.**_  
_


	23. The Gates of Space

**CHAPTER 4-3**

**-The Gates of Space-**

Our three heroes looked around at their surroundings. It was just space like before…to their disappointment. They didn't see any Pop Star, Clara or even Mobius around them. It was EXTREMELY disappointing that they couldn't see much around except for some stars and some green shooting stars that would shoot down from the upper right of the screen (or area, whichever suits you best).

"Man… I wish we could get a better look at stuff around here! But I'm starting to wonder for a second…" Chopper started to ponder as he looked over at Squirps, who is now much better after holding his…whatever the heck it is for a while back on Planet Blobule. "Where the heck are we?"

"This is the Space Bypass!" Squirps announced with a smile. "Yeah, from somewhere in here, we can enter the **Whoa Zone**. That's where we need to find a Pure Heart! C'mon, space grunts, look for the entrance, squeork!"

"The Whoa Zone? You gotta be kidding me! That sounds like a place that seems…whoay." Sonic gawked. "Exactly what is the Whoa Zone?"

"It's a prohibited zone, squirp. Some call it the 'Space Graveyard,' squoooiks. It's a complicated maze… They say once you go in, you can never get out… And supposedly, the Pure Heart is hidden at the very back of that maze, squinkly!"

"Poyo? (Uhhhhh… What? I didn't get all of that…)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo? (How would you even KNOW that? I'm still a bit curious on who you really are, you strange little alien…whatever the heck you are!)"

They all began to hear someone's stomach growling. Sonic immediately looked over at Chopper.

"Dude… That's not me with the growling stomach." Chopper grumbled.

"Squirple squeedle SQUIRP! I made some room with that pit stop! Now I'm hungry!" Squirps announced. "But don't worry about that, space grunts. Find that Whoa Zone entrance, squibble!"

"Something tells me that this might be a long ride…" Chopper muttered as he began to charge up a fireball to blast through the brick blocks that were floating around in the Outer Limits.

"Hey, what's that?" Sonic space swam over to the Shooting Star that was revealed underneath one of the blocks. He immediately grabbed it and put it away for safe-keepings.

"Heads up, Sonic! Jelliens dead ahead!" Chopper warned as he began to fire at the Jelliens with Squirps's fireballs.

"Whoa! I didn't notice them!" Sonic got in a ball and attacked some of the Jelliens. Unfortunately, he ended up crashing into an obstacle called a Hedron that was spinning around.

"Poyo? (What is THAT?)" Kirby questioned as he space swam over to the Hedron. Unfortunately, he got hit by it, resulting in his power being knocked away. "Poyo! (My ability!)"

"Oh, Squirps forgot to mention something, squoog," Squirps remarked. "You'll get hurt if you run into those Hedrons. Don't bother attack them, because you're only going to get hurt."

"Well, that's some…interesting advice…" Tippi trailed, following Chopper past some of the Hedrons and over to some Jelliens that were around a yellow ? block.

"Poyo! (Get 'em, Chopper!)" Kirby shouted. "Poyo! (I wish I could do something to help, but my ability's been knocked away!)"

"I'll get the block," Sonic simply kicked the block, making a Super Shroom pop out. "Oh, sweet! One of these Mushrooms! I say we split this thing so we can all recover our HP."

Sonic grabbed the Super Shroom and made it into three pieces for all three of them to recover their 20 HP. Once that was over with, they moved on ahead, avoiding more Hedrons coming up ahead.

After blasting their way through some brick blocks they came across a red X in the middle of space.

"What on earth is THIS doing here? !" Chopper gaped.

"This red X reminds me of something… I don't know why it's here, but I think you should use Flippay for this…" Tippi suggested. Chopper listened and used Flippay's power to reveal two large, green rectangles. The one on the left had some kind of hole.

"What the heck is that thing?" Chopper space swam over to the pillar with a hole shaped like Squirps. This made the green alien surprised.

"Squirble SQUAAAAAAAAK! This hole… What a lovely shape, squirp! I don't know why…but I want to be _squeezed_ into there! Someone squish me in!" Squirps cried out loudly.

"OK, OK! I'll, uh…squeeze you in!" Chopper "squeezed" Squirps into the hole.

"_**SQUEEEZIRP!**_" Squirps squealed as the pillars began to shake. A large, green door was soon created, making the three heroes gape.

"What is this thing?" questioned Tippi.

"It's a Space Gate, squirp! These lead from the Space Bypass to the Whoa Zone! Through this gate is the way forward, space grunts!" Squirps got out of the whole and went back into Chopper's grasps so they could make their way into another area through the door.

"Oh, look, another red X right in front of us," Chopper space swam over to the red X and did a same procedure. Unlike the other one, both pillars had a hole shaped just like Squirps. It was a bit odd to them, though.

"_SQUIRPLE-URPLE SQUEEE!_ Another wonderful shape!" Squirps squealed in glee. "I feel another compulsion… Must…get…_twisted_…into…there! Someone twist me in!"

"Uhhhhhhh… Well… Errrrr… OK, I'll 'twist' you into there." Chopper began to "twist" Squirps into the hole, but nothing appeared to happen.

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic: ?

"Hmmmmm… Something's not right here…" Tippi trailed.

"Something… Something's missing, squirk… Definitely… I can't shake it… There's only one solution…" Squirps pondered for the moment. "…That's right! Squirps must eat something yummy! Squirps will not move until Squirps eats something good! This I declare, squooooop!"

"Are you serious? You can't do anything unless we give you something to eat? ! Talk about lazy…" Chopper grumbled.

"Squuuuuuurgh… So hungry… Squirps can't move…" moaned Squirps. "Well, Squirps CAN move, but so very slowly… Squirps needs to eat something yummy!"

"Well eat this if you want," Chopper tossed a Dried Shroom that he had with him. "It's better than nothing."

Squirps tasted the Dried Shroom, but he didn't seem pleased. "SQUEE-YUCK! Squirps doesn't want something like that! Squirps needs something that's TASTY!" He spat the Dried Shroom out, making it go far, far away.

"Well thanks for wasting my Dried Shroom – not that I needed it or anything…" Chopper turned to Kirby and Sonic. "All right… I guess all we can really do at this moment is find a treat for him."

"I don't know how we can even FIND a treat for him around these parts," Sonic frowned. "We're practically in the middle of nowhere…"

"Poyo! (Ooh! What does this sign say?)" Kirby space swam over to the sign right by the door and he began to read what it said.

_O, chosen one, what will fulfill this strange alien's desire? Something sweet that starts with "cho" and ends with "late." This will open the way._

"'Cho' and 'late'? That sounds like chocolate! …If only I had some with me, we could give it to him!" Chopper grumbled.

"I bet the chocolate would've melted by then…" Tippi fluttered over to the wormhole. "I would suggest taking this wormhole…"

"Oh, that. Let's go through!" Chopper space swam over to the wormhole, leaving Squirps behind. They were brought to an area filled with a couple of light blue wormholes, Hedrons and relatives of the Hooligon, the Eeligon.

"Whoa… Those are a lot of wormholes… I wonder if we're going to find anything through them…" Chopper gulped.

"Poyo? (What about that wormhole?)" Kirby pointed to a light blue wormhole over by some brown blocks forming some kind of L.

"I guess we'll check there first," Chopper space swam up to the wormhole, avoiding the obstacles in his way until he got to the wormhole, which took all three of them into an area with a couple of brick blocks to the right.

"Well, without Squirps, it's not gonna be easy destroying those," Sonic frowned. "Hommissile could be an option, though…"

"Is that a store I see up ahead?" Chopper raised an eyebrow. "Man… I can't believe there's some kind of store! The last one I remember going to was the one in Toad Town…oh, and that one in Dry Dry Outpost."

"Toad Town? Wasn't that about two years ago or something?" Sonic wondered

"Yeah, it was… Same thing with Dry Dry Outpost. That place was a bit cool…but I'm not really a fan of deserts."

"Poyo? (Uhh… Guys? What about the store?)" Kirby poked Chopper by the shoulder. "Poyo… (We still need to get something for Squirps…)"

"Of course, Kirby! I was just remembering some stuff from back then…" Chopper space swam straight over to the store. He was surprised to see the door open on its own when they got close.

"Nice… So these doors open up on their own?" Sonic gawked.

Once they stepped into the small store, they put their feet on the ground. A salesclerk was sitting by the stand, waiting patiently for someone.

"HAVE A TWINKLY DAY! Welcome to Twinkle Mart! If we're not closed, we're open!" he suddenly began to break in tears. "WAAAAAAA! I was SO lonely! Since our grand opening, you're our second, third and fourth customer! I think I should have thought about location more when I bought this place…Whatcha looking for toady? Just grab whatever grabs your eye, Twinkle shoppers!"

"Hmmmmm…" Chopper looked at all the items. All there was was a Sweet Choco-bar, a Shroom Choco-bar and a Golden Choco-bar. Being the one to be a bit cheap, he bought the Sweet Choco-bar for 10 coins.

"The Sweet Choco-bar, huh? That'll be 10 coins! Does it twinkle your fancy?"

"I'll take two!"

"Wait, why two?" Sonic questioned.

"One for Squirps and one for me to take!" Chopper smiled cutely. "…What? If I'm hungry, then surely I need to have SOMETHING to eat! It's something that I NEED to have!"

"If that's all you need, then thank you for your service! Come back anytime! …Really! It gets lonely here! …You WILL come back, right?"

"Yeah, sure… We will." Chopper and his friends walked out of the Twinkle Mart and back outside. "All right, guys, let's get back to Squirps."

* * *

**Back to Squirps-**

"Squooooooog… Squirps needs some foooooood… Please… Squirps can barely move an inch…" Squirps moaned as Chopper floated over to him. "Space grunt! Did you bring Squirps something?"

"I have something for you here, but you better like it," Chopper pulled the Sweet Choco-bar out for him.

"Squirps is a gourmet! You think I'd be satisfied by something like this, squaaag?" Chopper gave a death glare at the little alien. "…But, you went to all this trouble, space grunts, so… I don't want to, but… SQUA-CHOMP!"

Squirps eats the whole candy bar. "_**TH-THIS IS…**_ The chocolate and nuts melt together, creating a full flavor with a clean finish! It's a sweet chocolate sonata written for lovers… It's _PURE COCOA LOVE_! Squoh… Squorgle…" Squirps began to smile. "_**TOOOOOO GOOD!**_"

"Ewww! This chocolate has nuts in it? I hate nuts!" Chopper tossed the Choco-bar into a hungry Kirby's mouth while Squirps suddenly got out of the hole and split into two versions of himself, making them go into both holes to create another door.

"What in the world…?" Tippi gawked.

Once Squirps went back to normal, he blushed as he floated over to the heroes. "Squirp! Sorry about that… Squirps got carried away…"

"Don't worry about it, Squirps…" Chopper replied.

"The goal is nigh, squoogle!" Squirps announced as he flew back into Chopper's grasps. "Let's go, space grunts!"

As the three heroes made their way through the door, they were right in front of the Star Block…with a couple of Warpids floating around. However, they were soon destroyed by some fireballs.

"Heh heh heh! That showed them!" Chopper smirked as he flew over to the Star Block. "This was a pretty short level, I had to admit… But, at least it's over with." With one kick, Chopper broke the Star Block.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After easily making their way through the Outer Limits, Chopper and Co. were getting closer to the Whoa Zone in seconds. "So, how far are we until we reach the Whoa Zone, Squirps?" asked the young, brave hero Chopper. "Oh, don't worry about that, squriple!" replied the young alien. "We shouldn't be too far from there. It's just beyond that moon." As Sonic looked at the moon, something looked a bit surprising to him. "Wait a second… That's no moon!" "Oh, excuse me! Squirps is so embarrassed!" Little did young Squirps know that a space station was blocking the way to the Whoa Zone. What could be through there?_

* * *

**Next part might be a bit interesting. Remember when I said there would be one chapter with something different than the others? Well... You'll see next part!**


	24. Space Station Rescue

**CHAPTER 4-4**

**-Space Station Rescue-**

"Strange… I didn't expect to see a large space station blocking the way…" Tippi trailed as the three heroes were on a platform below the space station. They don't know WHO exactly owns this thing, but they knew for a fact that Tipral must've placed it here so that the heroes could be stalled for a while. The only thing that caught their surprise, however, was this symbol of some strange-looking alien.

"Squirps is a bit surprised too, squirple!" Squirps moved over to an elevator that most likely would take them into the space station. "Unfortunately, it looks like the Whoa Zone is being blocked by this space station. Squirps didn't know about this thing being here, I swear!"

"Uhhhhh… We didn't know about it either, Squirps. We're not mad at you or anything. It just…happens." Chopper said with a confused look on his face.

"Oh, then Squirps feels a bit better," Squirps wiped his brow in relief. "Very well then, space grunts! We must forge on before…"

Before Squirps could finish, a blue ray suddenly came down on the little green alien. "Squoh? What… What's going on? !" Squirps noticed that he was being lifted from the ground. "_**SQUAAAAAAAG! HELP ME, SQUIRP!**_"

"Squirps!" Sonic tried to grab Squirps, but the ray of energy was too strong for him to pull the little alien out. Squirps ended up getting taken into the space station. "Drat! They got him! …But what do they have against him?"

"Honestly, I have NO idea…" Chopper trailed, looking at the young alien disappear from their sights. "But we can't REALLY let Squirps get kidnapped, right?"

He turned to Kirby and Sonic, who had blank looks on their faces. "Oh, come on, guys! I know that he's been a bit strange to us, but he knows where the Pure Heart is! …I think. But that's not the case. We NEED to save Squirps before we're too late on getting the Pure Heart!"

"Poyo… (But then there's the fact that we don't know what that imp is doing with us…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo. (You know, he could be leading us into a trap. Remember Mimi? She was being cute and innocent, yet she was truly an evil, creepy spider. Don't let Squirps fool us…)"

"Wait a minute… I remember something…" Tippi recalled, thinking about when she saw Squirps last time. "Guys… Squirps is not our enemy… I remember him helping someone get the Pure Heart before. Trust me… He is our friend!"

"That was strangely random what you blurted out, Tippi," Chopper gawked at the rainbow butterfly. "HOW do you know that Squirps is an ally? I don't think he's really evil and all…but I don't understand how you of all people would know…"

"Well… I remember three months ago, I met this green alien out in space with someone… He looked just like Squirps, which makes me believe that he's the same alien that I've met. He helped me and the other person go through space and through the Whoa Zone to the Pure Heart… I'm speaking the truth here. You would believe me, right, Chopper?"

Chopper noticed that Tippi was right in his face. "Whoa, Tippi! You're…a little too close to me!" the young Star Warrior stepped away from the Pixl girl. "Sheesh! You've been close to me A LOT lately…"

"Poyo… (I think she likes you, Chopper…)" Kirby snickered.

"What did Kirby just say?" Tippi questioned.

"Uhhhh… It's nothing personal, Tippi." Chopper walked over to a pad where he could bring the elevator down. "Look, now's not the time to be horsing around like idiots. We should be focusing on rescuing Squirps!"

After activating the elevator, it began to come down for them. All three of them stepped on the elevator and allowed themselves to be taken up into the space station. To their surprise, they could see a bunch of crates piled up and even some strange yellow, green and blue aliens holding blasters. They were triangle-shaped with triangle fingers and a tentacle on each side of their body. They looked a bit freaky, but they didn't seem to have any defense.

"What in the world? What are THOSE enemies? !" Sonic exclaimed as he pointed to the strange aliens.

"Hmmmmm… Let's see what Tippi has to say about them." Using Tippi's powers, Chopper managed to gather some information on these strange little (or should I say normal-sized) aliens.

"That strange alien is called a Trialien. They're a strange alien species that are said to be enemies with the unknown species that resembles Squirps… Max HP is 12. Attack is 4. It will fire a laser from its blaster at you if it notices you… It's not hard to avoid, but the attack can do some serious damage to you… There really isn't anything else to this alien. It's mysterious…"

"Trialiens? Weird name, but who really cares? I'll take care of 'em!" Sonic jumped over the crate and struck the Trialien with a Homing Attack, knocking it to the ground harshly. However, it wasn't beaten just yet.

"GHGHGHGHGHG! (Intruders! Intruders in the hangar area!)" the Trialien shouted. "GHGHGHGHGHG! (Don't let these intruders leave this place alive! The alien is ours now!)"

"Oh, great…" Chopper face palmed as he looked down. "These guys don't even speak ENGLISH! Now how are we going to fight off these baddies when we don't understand a word they say?"

"Poyo! (Then you don't care!)" Kirby smiled as he got on Carrie and finished off the Trialien that Sonic hit by landing on its head.

"GHGHGHGHGHGHGH! (Kill the intruders!)" a green Trailien fired at Sonic, but Chopper jumped over a crate and struck the evil alien with a couple of stomps, finishing it off with a slamming kick.

Up on the balcony, a couple of Trialiens were firing down at them, but they couldn't even reach for them, which stunk. However, Hommissile was able to go up to them and blow them up, to the satisfaction of the heroes.

"Heh heh heh! That showed them!" Chopper smirked as he jumped over to the silver door up ahead. "I suppose this should take us into another room. I don't know what'll be in there, but we ought to stay on guard."

After kicking the door open, they came across an elevator door in a small room. There was only one Trialien in the room, who immediately took notice of them and tried to fire at them. But, unfortunately, it was beaten by the heroes' own attacks.

"So, what was the point of that Trailien being there if it was going to be beaten by us?" Chopper questioned.

"I have no idea, but honestly, I don't even care!" Sonic grinned as he walked over to open the elevator door. "…What? I can't open this thing? ! Weak!"

Sonic continued to kick and punch at the door, but Chopper immediately pulled him away. "That's enough, Sonic. There's no way that kicking and punching that door is going to do anything."

"Ugh… Fine. What ideas do you have?"

"Well… How about we flip? That's always something that's important!" Chopper threw his arms up in the air with his two friends close and they were in 3-D. They noticed a red square on the wall up ahead, to their surprise.

"Poyo… (Wow. I didn't know that we would see something like that around here…)" Kirby gaped.

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing, Kirby," Chopper smiled as he used Flippay's power to reveal a hidden doorway. "Y'know, I always wonder why you're called Flippay. Kinda weird…"

"Well, eet's nothing special, amigo," Flippay assured. "Why, I'm just like every other Pixl, amore! I just wish that I will find the right lady for me." He looked over at Carrie with his eyebrows rising up.

Kirby immediately stepped in the way, blocking Flippay. "Poyo! (I don't think so, Flippay! We're not here to flirt with others! All that matters is that we find Squirps and get the Pure Heart!)"

"Calm down, Kirby," Chopper snapped. "I understand how you feel, but we can't ramble on forever! C'mon, guys! We gotta go find a way to get that elevator working!"

They walked through the doorway to come across two doors in the small room. There was a Save Block and a yellow ? block over by the right one, but they decided to take the one to the left first.

They seemed a bit surprised when they came across a couple of pipes and spikes below. Two Piranha Plants were in the pipes too. But, with Hommissile, they were able to blow the Piranha Plants out of their pipes.

"I suppose we have to jump onto those pipes to find the key…" Tippi trailed.

"That probably might be the answer," Chopper agreed as he jumped across the pipes and over to a chest. To his surprise, he found an Elevator Key. "Oh! I guess this is it, isn't it? How nice…"

Putting it away, he jumped back over to the others. "Now let's see what we can get to with this key," he smirked.

As they walked out of the room, Kirby stopped over by the other door. "Poyo? (Uhhh… Chopper? What about this door over here? I don't think we've checked to see what was through here…)"

"I guess we should do that," Chopper shrugged as he got the Super Shroom from the yellow ? block and then hit the Save Block. "Something tells me there's something bad up ahead…"

When they walked into the door, they found themselves in a small room with an inactive robot. The robot is some kind of battle robot, being a silver color with some black on it. There are some machine guns on it and even these big fists that could deal some massive damage to anyone if they ever touched it.

"What the heck is THAT thing?" Sonic pointed to the battle machine as he walked over to it. "It looks like some sort of battle machine that hasn't been in use for a couple of decades…"

While the three examined the robot, a dark, misty spirit began to appear. The only thing you could see from it were two, purple glowing eyes.

"_**Ugh… After all I've gone through, I'm nothing but a ghostly spirit! Crap! Now how in the hell am I supposed to give noogies? Especially to my older, idiotic brother Maquano?"**_

The misty spirit looked down at Chopper and his group of friends that were poking the robot. _**"Wait a minute… Is that that kid that I faced before? I remember fighting someone like him five months ago… Well, if that's him, then I can finally do what I wanted to do more than anything else: to be a boss!"**_

The spirit named Bob floated down into the robot and tried to take control of it. It was able to push all three of them back with great force.

"What the…! What's going on here? !" Chopper gaped.

"_**Heh heh heh! So, kid… Did you miss me?" **_Bob cackled.

"Wait a second… I know that voice from somewhere!" Chopper recalled.

* * *

_"Do you even know I'm Maquano's brother? You know, that evil old demon knight that's a wuss? I'm the better one around here, and I always try to go through his stuff and use his comb to comb my own hair…and also use his stuff for the shower. Sucks that I've never seen him without his helmet on. But, you better know that I AM his brother! So you better give me the ticket or else!"_

_"Or else what?" The lumberjack asked. Bob walked over to his motorcycle, and he began to rev it as loud as possibly. When Chopper walked over to the mill, he covered his antennas, due to it being so noisy._

_"Oh come on! Stop with the motorcycle already you fag!" Chopper shouted. Bob instantly heard that voice, and he stopped revving his motorcycle._

_"Hey… You're Chopper! Oh man, have I been WAITING to get you! Now I can finally become a boss…like I was trying to do! Yeah! I can finally achieve my goal!" Bob raised his fists in the air._

_Chopper's partners were confused about seeing Bob. Chopper tilted his head. "Who are you anyways? I never seen anyone like you? Tell us who you are."_

_"What? You never heard about me? Who do you think I look like? Yeah, I look like Maquano…sort of! Yes, I'm Maquano's brother! I'm the better and cooler brother of the two! Yep, me and my motorcycle are what makes me the best one!"_

_"What? I never knew Maquano had a brother! Get out of here, OK? I don't have time to face against you, you idiot!" Chopper said in anger._

_"Get lost already! We don't need to deal with the likes of you anyways!" Geno said in his battle stance._

_"Pbbbbbbbbbbbt! No way, doll! I'm taking you all down! I'm the best fighter there is!" Bob clenched his fists._

_"Well, at least they'll take care of him…" The lumberjack said. He walked back into the mill, and the eleven heroes had to face off against Bob._

* * *

"_**Yeah, you might know me as Bob the Douchebag! I'm one sexy guy! …But I wish I had my sexy body with me! But, I think this robot suit will do nicely!"**_

"Bob? ! Oh, great…" Chopper face palmed.

"You know this person from somewhere?" Tippi questioned.

"Yeah… He's my archenemy's younger brother. I heard that he likes to give noogies to his younger brother. I don't know WHY he does that, but that's what I've been hearing from him."

"Poyo? (Really? That's pretty interesting…)" Kirby gawked.

"_**Hey! Are you guys gonna sit there and talk like little girls, or are you gonna fight me like a man?" **_Bob began to pound his robotic fists together. _**"C'mon, scum! I'll show you how a REAL shadow demon gets the job done!"**_

Before they began to battle, Chopper immediately used Tippi's powers to investigate on Bob.

"That robot is called the SA-34. It's a robot that anyone could take control of to help with any work or invasions… However, this 'Bob' person was lucky enough to take control of it… Max HP is 50. Attack is 10. His Attack power is strangely high, so you want to avoid his attacks… Luckily, most of his attacks are pretty slow, so you shouldn't have much of a problem getting struck. Hommissile would be a good recommendation if you wish to stay far from him… Other than that, I really have nothing else to say… The SA-34 is just being possessed…" Tippi informed.

"Wow… An enemy with THAT much attack? I think this is gonna get ugly…" Chopper immediately jumped when Bob tried to shoot a laser at them. He managed to land on top of the battle robo to knock it back a bit.

"_**Ack! Why you little!" **_Bob attempted to deliver a punch in Chopper's face, but he was able to duck and deliver a sweeping kick that nearly tripped him, but not by a lot, due to his heavy weight.

"All right, I guess I'll make a move!" Sonic grinned as he rushed towards Bob and knocked him to the wall with a Homing Attack. "This fight feels like it's a piece of cake!"

"_**Why is it a piece of cake for you? ! I'd rather give you a noogie!" **_Bob grabbed Sonic and attempted to give him a noogie, until Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of him, making him let go of Sonic.

"Poyo! (OK, Chopper! You should use Hommissile to deliver an explosion onto him!)" Kirby shouted.

"Got it!" Chopper smirked as he threw Hommissile straight at Bob, knocking him back again with an explosion.

"_**That's a load of bull! How come this thing is so slow? ! Isn't this a battle robo? They're supposed to be TOUGH and QUICK!" **_Bob growled until he noticed that there were jets under its feet.

"Uh oh… Heads up, guys!" Chopper and his friends attempted to make a jump, but the battle robo already rammed into them.

"Ouch… That was a bit painful…" groaned Sonic as he took some heavy damage, along with the other two. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up! I don't care how tough you are! You're going DOWN!"

Sonic pulled the Shooting Star out he had in his pocket and he began to use it. He noticed that there were a couple of stars around him that he had to hit before he could show off its true power.

"_**What the hell are you doing?" **_gawked Bob before he got struck by a bunch of Shooting Stars. _**"Ack! Get 'em off! Get 'em off! Someone get these damn stars off me!"**_

"Poyo! (Hey! Watch your language!)" Kirby snapped as he inhaled one of the shooting stars and spat it at Bob, knocking him to the wall. He also got struck by a couple of more shooting stars while he was dizzy.

"Nice one!" Chopper smirked as delivered a jump on Bob's head, stunning him for about a second as he did a stylish move…until he was soon grabbed by the battle robo and thrown across the room.

"Ouch!" Chopper yelped as he hit the wall. "Oooooooog… OK, you MIGHT wanna watch out for that move. It's a big one, that's for sure…"

"Hmmmmm… I suppose you're right, Chopper." Sonic curled up in a ball and attempted to strike Bob. But, unfortunately, when he rammed into him, the battle robo managed to grab him in his ball form and toss him like a bowling ball back at Chopper and Kirby.

"_**Heh heh heh! This is so fun!" **_Bob cackled as he tried to punch the three. Unfortunately, for him, Chopper was able to toss Hommissile straight at him again, knocking him to the wall again.

"His HP is coming close to being down, Chopper…" Tippi trailed, looking at the amount of health Bob had. "One more attack should finish him off…"

"Leave that to me!" Sonic grinned as he made an attack on Bob with a Homing Attack, making sparks go everywhere as the battle robo hit the wall.

"_**What the hell…? ! This… This can't be!" **_Bob gaped as the battle robo began to explode, along with him. _**"CURSE YOU, CHOPPER! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME, YOU SON OF A…"**_

Before he could finish, he was gone, leaving Chopper to smirk. "Heh heh heh! Now THAT'S what you deserve! I honestly thought you would be finished up before, but I guess not."

"Poyo? (So, we're going back to that elevator, right?)" Kirby questioned. Chopper turned to him and nodded to him as they returned to the other room.

* * *

**Back in that other room-**

"And here goes the key!" Chopper placed the key in its rightful place, allowing the elevator door to open. "Come on, guys! We don't have time to be wasting our precious time!"

They rushed into the elevator to go up to a hallway with two doors. One had a green lamp above it, while the other had a red. A red Trialien was roaming around these parts, to their surprise.

"Don't worry, I got this," Sonic beat the Trialien with a couple of Homing Attacks, then he ran over to the door. "Looks like this is our only way of getting out of here, I suppose…"

Once Sonic kicked the door open, they came across a prison room. There was nothing around except for three Trialiens and a prison cell that was holding a green alien captive.

"GHGHGHGHGHGH! (Tell us now, alien! Where is the Pure Heart? !)" exclaimed the blue Trialien.

"Squoh? What are you talking about?" Squirps questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Squirps can't understand a thing you're saying, squirp!"

"Those aliens are holding Squirps captive…" Tippi gawked at the aliens.

"GHGHGHGHGH? (Huh? Did I just hear something?)" the green Trialien turned to see Chopper and his friends in the room. "GHGHGHGHG! (Whoa! We've got some intruders in this room!)"

"You shouldn't have said that out loud, Tippi…" Chopper groaned, readying himself for a fight.

"Space grunts! You've come to save Squirps!" squealed Squirps. "Squirps was getting worried that you wouldn't come here!"

Chopper immediately punched the green Trialien in the face and attempted to trip him with a sweeping kick. He immediately finished the little alien off by slamming his foot down on his head.

Sonic had an easier time with the fight. All he did was land a couple of Homing Attacks and he was victorious. Kirby simply swallowed the Trialien in one gulp, but didn't gain any abilities.

"Poyo… (Aw, man! I was hoping I would get an ability…)" Kirby pouted.

"But how do we break Squirps free from this prison?" Chopper questioned, pointing to the force field Squirps was trapped in.

"Leave this to me, amore!" Flippay flew over to the force field and used his power to get rid of it in no time, freeing Squirps.

"Squoh… That was… That was just…awesome!" Squirps walked over to the heroes. "Squirps it pleased that you freed him from the cell! Squirps managed to gain some information on how to get to the Whoa Zone! There's a pipe in some other room that you can take!"

"Where is this pipe?" Chopper asked.

"You need an Elevator Key to get to the top," Squirps pulled a red key out. "Here! Squirps wants you to hold onto it!"

Squirps gave the key to Chopper, who immediately put it away. "All right, looks like we have a way of getting out of this space station!"

They all rushed out of the room and walked over to the locked elevator door. After opening it with the key, they were taken up to the bridge of the space station. They noticed that it was a bit empty, however.

"Whoa… Talk about an empty room!" Sonic gaped as he walked over to the terminal. He noticed a place up ahead. "Wait… Is that…"

"Yup! That's the Whoa Zone! You might wanna be careful when we take a step in there, because it's not easy to get out." Squirps warned.

He went over to a lever and pulled it, revealing a pipe. "C'mon, squirple!" As the heroes followed Squirps down the pipe, they were taken outside to the front entrance of the Whoa Zone, where a Star Block was floating nearby.

"Well, what do ya know? We're here!" Chopper immediately rushed over to the Star Block and struck it with a jump.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and his friends managed to find their way to the Whoa Zone. Known to some as the Space Graveyard, it was said to consume all who entered it. "We're almost there, space grunts," said young Squirps. With his unblinking eyes glimmering, Squirps continued to forge onward. Will Chopper and his friends get the Pure Heart at long last? Or will they be stuck in the Whoa Zone forever…_

* * *

**Yes, and that concludes the space station. This chapter will soon come to an end after Chapter 4-5, which has the boss in it too. **

**And I put an optional boss in this because there were optional bosses in the other two Paper Chopper stories in Chapter 4. I think it would be a bit fitting, so that's why.**_  
_


	25. Mysteries of the Whoa Zone

**CHAPTER 4-5**

**-Mysteries of the Whoa Zone-**

"Wow… Take a look at this place. It's so…strange and…green." Chopper gawked as he looked at the white walls with a couple of small green squares and the green, glassy ground that had a couple of tiny stripes on them. Sonic tried to break through the ground with his foot, but that barely did a thing. It looks like this glass is pretty strong for their feet and attacks.

"We're here, squeeegle! This is the Whoa Zone! Squirps has finally arrived, squooody!" Squirps seemed so delighted, that he ended up shouting. "_**SQUIRPS IS HERE!**_" He practically made everyone cover their ears.

"Whoa, Squirps! You MIGHT want to lower your voice around here!" Sonic winced as he put his hands off his ears, listening to the echoes through the place. "Wow. You can even hear the echoes through here!"

"Poyo… (Yeah, I guess so… It almost feels like it makes you want to go 'Whoa!', which could be the reason why it's called the Whoa Zone…)" Kirby trailed.

"…Squirps can't wait!" squealed Squirps as he jumped up and down. "Squirps is going to scurry ahead. Follow Squirps when you can. But remember, space grunts, this place is a super-complicated maze… You'll get lost before you know it, so pay attention to where you're going, squeerp! Well, Squirps will see you guys later…at the spot where the Pure Heart waits!"

Squirps moved on ahead, leaving the heroes to gawk. He's just leaving them behind? How could he do something like that?"

"Well that's just great… I can't believe he left us at a time like this…" Tippi groaned, but she suddenly felt some strange power coming from this place. "Hmmmmmm… I CAN feel the presence of a Pure Heart around here… Wherever it is, it's somewhere in this place. Be careful, Chopper…"

Chopper looked down at the glassy floor to see his own reflection. "Weird floor… I can almost see my own reflection here." He squinted, but got startled when he saw a reflection of Tipral on there.

"WAAAAH!" he stepped back, almost falling over on Kirby. "I thought I just saw Tipral on there!"

"Well, you know what they say… When a place is called the Whoa Zone, you know you're gonna be in for a surprise." Chopper and Kirby looked at Sonic with confused looks. "What? I think it makes perfect sense!"

"Oh, never mind…" Chopper looked up at the solid squares. To him, it looked like you could jump on those. But, they weren't going to worry about that right now. All they had to do was go over to the door where a Save Block was near.

After saving, the three walked into a room with a skinny green platform above them with a Tileoid Y and Tileoid R. Chopper immediately used Tippi's powers to gather information on both of them.

"That's a Tileoid R. It is a mysterious creature that's made of many small parts... Max HP is 15 and Attack is 3. It can also crawl along walls and ceilings... Tileoids vary in color and ability. This red Tileoid is known for its high HP..."

"That's a Tileoid Y. It is a mysterious creature that's made of many small parts... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 3. It can also crawl along walls and ceilings... Tileoids vary in color and ability. This yellow Tileoid is known for its great speed..."

"All right, then let's take 'em out!" Chopper smirked as he attacked the Tileoid R that was making its way to them to the left. With a couple of sweeping kicks, he was able to defeat the Tileoid.

Kirby floated up onto the green platform where the Tileoid Y was moving around on. Using Carrie's ability, he got on her and jumped on top of the Tileoid Y once before inhaling it and spitting it out at the Tileoid R on the wall to the left.

"Thanks, Kirby! I'll take it from here!" Sonic jumped and delivered a Homing Attack upon the Tileoid R one time to defeat it. "I'm glad that we're finally getting to some fighting! Some GOOD fighting, that is."

"What do you mean 'good fighting'? We've been fighting a lot." Chopper gave Sonic a blank look.

"I mean that we haven't really done much in Outer Space. We've been doing mostly space swimming and walking on some sort of small planet. That space station was a bit dull, too! I think this place has all the action. We can even move at our own pace as well! I like that a lot."

"Poyo… (Tippi sure seems quiet…)" Kirby looked over at the rainbow Pixl. "Poyo. (I mean, she was speaking to us a lot when we were exploring Merlee's Mansion, but now she doesn't. Is everything all right with her?)"

Chopper turned to Tippi and translated what the pink puffball said. "Oh… Well, I don't have much to say, unfortunately…" she trailed, looking at the whole room. "You three seem like you don't need much of my help now…"

"What? Oh, come on!" Chopper nearly gaped. "If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here! …And that would be a bad thing! I wouldn't know what to do if I got up and saw no one in that castle. You're the sole reason why we're in this place…along with Tipral."

Tippi blushed. "Well… I suppose that's true… Thanks for telling me that, Chopper… It means a lot…"

Chopper smiled and nodded to the Pixl. "We better get going. We can't waste our time staying here." He hit the yellow ? block that was nearby, making a Happy Flower pop out. "…We have enough coins for now. I think 489 is enough."

"Poyo! (Oh, come on! I think we should just grab that Happy Flower just in case we need it!)" Kirby whined.

"OK, fine. Go ahead." Chopper allowed Kirby to grab the Happy Flower, causing a bunch of coins to rain from the room. He and Sonic managed to grab about 36 coins thanks to the giant ones.

"All right! We got 36 coins! I think that should be a bit helpful!" Sonic jumped over to the door up ahead, which had a green shading to it because of the atmosphere. A green Trialien was over by a yellow ? block.

"I got this," Chopper stomped on the Trialien three times while performing some stylish moves before taking it out. After hitting the yellow ? block, they found a nice Mushroom that they all split up to recover their HP.

"Hold on… I think you should take that platform above you…" suggested Tippi as she eyed the green platform above the door.

"Hmmmmm… I say we have a look up there." Chopper flipped into 3-D while being close to his friends so that they could flip as well. They found a door up on the platform that brought them into another room.

They found a yellow ? block to their left in the room and a large gap that had some Buzz Bombers flying around. Only a Homing Attack could get someone across like that…or you could simply float across.

"Heh heh! Leave this to me!" Sonic performed a Homing Attack on the Buzz Bombers, allowing himself to make it across. Chopper, on the other hand, hit the yellow ? block and got a Slow Flower from it.

"Whooooaa… Everything feeeeeeels soooooo slooooow agaaaaaaain…" Chopper shouted as the speed slowed down.

"Pooooooooyoooooo! (Whyyyy doooooes iiiiiiit haaaaaaave to beeeeee like thissssssssss? !) exclaimed Kirby as he slowly began to float over to the gap and use his inhaling ability to help Chopper across.

Luckily, when he got him over to the door, everything went back to normal, to their relief.

When they walked into the next room, they saw a blue, circular enemy and a chest in the room. But when they stepped closer to the enemy, a square-shaped blue light surrounded the creature.

"What's that supposed to be? I'm going to check it out." Chopper used Tippi's powers to gather some information on this enemy.

"That's a Barribad. It can shield itself with a strong barrier...Max HP is 4 and Attack is 2. It also shoots rings of energy from its mouth...You can't break its barrier, but you can flip to get places it might not want you to..." Tippi informed.

"Hmmmmmm… I have an idea!" Chopper pulled Flippay out and he used his powers to make the Barribad dizzy, breaking its barrier. "All right! Now we can take care of this monster!"

With one simple stomp, Chopper managed to take out the enemy and walk over to the chest. He found a Dimension Key. The name of it reminded him of that clown who ruined his gloves and sneakers…

"Well… Looks like we're gonna need to go back to that room we were in before going into 3-D. Boy, this is going to be FUN." Sonic groaned as the three of them made their way back to the room.

* * *

**Back at the room-**

Making their way through the door, they noticed these pig-like enemies sliding along the ground. They ended up bumping into it after taking two steps, which forced Chopper to find out what this enemy was with Tippi's powers.

"This bizarre beast is called a Pigarithm. Everything about it is just...odd... Max HP is ?. Attack is 4. It takes three stomps to finish off this piggy... But each stomp makes it smaller and faster... It's very hard to stomp the last one... Pigarithms often drop many coins, so you may want to hunt them if you're broke..."

"A Pigarithm? That's a weird name for this piggy…" Chopper started off by stomping on the Pigarithm, making it turn a bit smaller. With another stomp, it turned into a small, pink version, but it was a bit fast for him to catch.

"Poyo! (Oof! This thing is so hard to catch!)" Kirby attempted to inhale it, but it was a bit too far for him to get. In the end, the Pigarithm was defeated by Chopper's sweeping kick attack.

"We still have another one to take," Sonic fought the other Pigarithm on his own, but he did it a lot more easily then Chopper. Three Spin Jumps managed to take this enemy out and bring him over to the wall.

"I think we need to flip for this part…" Tippi trailed as she followed Chopper up the stairs after flipping into 3-D. He flipped back when he made it to the top, only to find two Pigarithms on the ground AND the ceiling.

"Whoa, wait a minute… Why is there enemies on the CEILING? ! This is just…weird." Sonic gaped.

"And we also have a locked door," Chopper mentioned after taking a Pigarithm out. Since Kirby didn't have a chance, he finished off the Pigarithm over by the locked door with Carrie.

"Poyo… (Now I feel better…but now I see a locked door right beside me…)" Kirby trailed.

"Then I'll take care of that!" Chopper pulled the Dimension Key out and he opened the door with it. When they walked into the door, they came out of a door up on the ceiling, to their surprise.

"Weird… I feel like I've seen something like this before…" he trailed.

"Remember in Starland Galaxy? We had to go through an intense gravity part. It was a bit of a pain…" Sonic remarked.

"That's not what I'm thinking about, Sonic…" Chopper started to think about Star Haven when he was in that whole gravity world. "I'm thinking more about Cyberspace than Starland Galaxy, Sonic… There wasn't A LOT of gravity around there, except for that Gravity Gadget place, but yeah… That's really it, I think."

Before Chopper could think of anything else, he got hit by a Pigarithm. This ended up making him attack the enemy with three kicks. Sonic finished the other Pigarithm over by the door with a Spin Dash, Homing Attack and a Spin Jump. They then proceeded through the door.

They found themselves in another strange-looking room. They were standing on a wall, but the pathway they had to move was going up the wall. Looking up (from their view), they saw a door above them.

Moving up sideways, they found a door down some big steps, but if they went up a bit more by moving higher, they could find another door. This is where Kirby used his floating ability to get to the door. He immediately helped the other two by using his inhaling.

"Whoa… What a strange room." Chopper gaped as they walked into a room with small steps leading down and a couple of Tileoid R and Y's roaming around. But after flipping, they found a little pathway that leads down below these platforms.

"Looks like we have a door that's on the ceiling… That's just great…" groaned Sonic.

"Maybe this block will do something," Chopper looked at the black arrowed block going up and down. After punching it, the gravity began to change. "Holy… We just defied gravity with a block!"

Going up the stairs on the ceiling, they walked into the door to a room they were previously in before – but upside down. It was the room with the Slow Flower that they founded.

"Looks like I can reach that gap with a Homing Attack," Sonic immediately crossed the gap with a Homing Attack, but he didn't find anything when he reached the wall. "Great… There's nothing here!"

"That's because I need to be over there, Sonic," Chopper grumbled as he managed to get across by using Carrie. He then threw his arms up in the air to flip so they could see the door on the wall.

"Squirps said that this place would make you feel confused…" Tippi trailed. "I, for one, am not feeling confused…"

Entering the next room, they found themselves on the ceiling on a room with a door on the floor, a hidden pipe behind a platform and a locked door to the right on the floor. Luckily, they saw a chest up ahead, so they quickly opened it to find a Dimension Key.

"Uh oh… Do we seriously have to go all the way back _AGAIN_?!" Chopper gaped after holding the key in his hands.

"It appears so… But I don't think it will be as bad as getting to this part…" Tippi commented.

* * *

**Back over by the room where they were on the walls-**

"Seriously, this place is so WEIRD! We've gone through MANY things around this area that I don't really understand!" Chopper shouted as they jumped down the gap that the previously crossed to find a door.

"Poyo! (Hey! Maybe this door will take us over to that wall that's over there!)" Kirby immediately walked through the door and, to his surprise, he was over on the wall that he said he'd be on.

"Well I'm not surprised on that. I just hope that we make it there in time…" Sonic mumbled.

"In time for what?" Tippi questioned.

"I don't know… In time to get the Pure Heart before one of Tipral's minions come and attack? I mean, we haven't run into ANY of Tipral's minions yet! I think they're waiting for us…"

Chopper pondered. "Hmmmmm… You DO have a point there, Sonic… But, we'll see when the time comes." He walked through the door, along with Sonic to go onto the wall Kirby's on.

When they crossed the end of the room, they walked into the door to find the same area that they found the key. Only this time, they were on the floor instead of the ceiling. Now they could unlock that door they previously couldn't unlock themselves.

"First, let me see what's down that pipe," Chopper flipped into 3-D so he could make his way down the pipe. The only thing he saw was a row of coins and a coin block.

After collecting the coins and hitting the coin block a couple of times, he returned to his friends and they immediately unlocked the door with the Dimension Key, taking them to a new room.

"Oh, it's just another one of those blocks," Chopper hit the block to allow themselves to go upside down. Across the end of this floor was another block that he hit to bring them back to the floor.

"Poyo? (Hey, wasn't there a door here or something?)" Kirby questioned as he pointed to a white, empty space shaped like a door.

"Yeah, you're right, Kirby… I'm gonna find a way to discover this door…" Chopper used Tippi's powers to find the hidden door.

"There's a hidden door here… I'll make it visible for you…" Tippi made the door visible so they could walk into a large room shaped like a square. They found more of those Hooligons on the ground.

"Poyo! (I got these guys!)" Kirby jumped on Carrie and attacked the Hooligons' heads, defeating them. "Poyo… (Uhhhh… Now I see another one of those blocks…)"

When Kirby hit the block, all three of them landed on the wall instead of the ceiling. "Poyo. (That block was a bit strange. There was a curved white arrow on it instead of the up and down arrow.)"

They found a couple of more Hooligons on the wall as they moved up, but they were soon defeated by Chopper's own feet. They noticed a locked door up on the ceiling after hitting the black block that was nearby.

"Oh, boy… I guess we're gonna have to find another key if we're going to get through here…" Sonic groaned.

"There there, my blue friend… Everything's going to be OK." Chopper assured. "I know that there will be a mountain of food to cheer us up. …And by us, I mean me and my tummy."

Sonic face palmed as he followed him and Kirby to the next black arrow block on the ceiling to the right. They then went down on the wall to a door that led them into a room with a chest on the ceiling and yellow ? blocks on the ground.

Taking the door on the wall, they founded themselves on the ground by the three yellow ? blocks.

"All right, let's see what we got in these things!" Chopper smirked as he hit the first one. A Super Shroom came out. "YES! We have some food! I KNEW that I would find food here!"

After splitting it up, they all ate their piece to recover 20 HP. Chopper then hit the next yellow ? block, only to have a Zombie Shroom pop out and scurry all over the place.

"What in the world is that?" questioned Sonic, pointing to the Zombie Shroom.

"Oh, that? That's a Zombie Shroom. It just moves all over the place and can be defeated like this." Chopper defeated the Zombie Shroom with a mere kick. "I thought this thing would jump on me and eat my brains."

The other yellow ? block contained another Super Shroom. Knowing that they were fulyl healed, they didn't need to have it, but they took it anyways just to get some more points. They then walked into the door and appeared on the ceiling.

"All right, let's get that key!" Chopper jumped down the steps and claimed the Dimension Key. "OK, I'm PRETTY sure that we're gonna be done with this place soon…"

* * *

**Back by the locked door-**

"OK… Here it goes…" Chopper pulled the Dimension Key out and unlocked the door, leading all three of them into a small room with a door on the ground to the left, a Save Block and a black arrow block.

Once he hit the black block, they all landed on the ground. This allowed him to hit the Save Block next, saving his game.

"All right… Here we go!" Chopper kicked the door open with his feet. When they walked into the room, they found themselves in a larger room than any other room they've been in.

"Wow… This room sure is big." Sonic gaped. "It's big enough for a boss fight."

"_**SLOWPOKES!**_" a high-pitched squealing noise could be heard nearby as they saw the little green alien, Squirps, waiting for the heroes.

"Hey, it's not our fault! If this place wasn't so confusing, we'd probably be here before you!" Chopper gave Squirps a glare.

"Well that's not the point right now, space grunts! Squirps was getting REALLY tired of waiting! Squirps almost gave up!" he shouted before calming down. "The Pure Heart that you're looking for is just ahead, space grunts!"

"Hmph! So you finally brought them here, Squirps… Not bad. You're a smart kid…for an alien." an unknown voice called out.

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic: !

Squirps began to blush as he smiled. "Squirple squeee! Stop it! Squirps is embarrassed!"

"…That wasn't us," Sonic whispered.

"Really? Then… Whose voice was that, squoh?" he questioned before he got stomped by a shadowy person that looked a lot like Chopper. Only that this dark figure had white glowing eyes, unlike Chopper, who has black eyes.

"_**SQUIRP!**_"

"Well well well… So we finally meet again, Chopper, my archenemy…" Tipral said in an angry voice as he was facing away from the heroes with his arms crossed.

"Wait a second… No… It can't be!" Tippi gaped as Tipral turned around. "T-Tipral?! What… What are you doing here?!"

"So, Chopper… Are you surprised to see me here?" Tipral asked the stunned Chopper. He looked over at Tippi. "…And who might you be? I swear that I've heard your voice from somewhere before…"

"I'm the one that you injured when you got your hands on the Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter…" Tippi glared at Tipral.

"Hmmmmm? You mean that girl? YOU'RE teaming up with Chopper?" Tipral pondered again. "…But for some reason, when I first saw you, I thought I recognized you for a second…"

"Recognized…me…?"

"Yes... But all of that is in the past, and I'm done with the past. What matters is the future – my future, that is!"

Tipral looked at the dizzy Squirps and knocked him away with a simple kick as he walked over to Chopper, who got in a fighting stance, along with Kirby and Sonic.

"So, Tipral… You decided to take us on yourself, is that it?" Chopper questioned as he glared at Tipral.

"You could say that… Knowing that my minions failed to defeat you, I had to see if you were stronger than I thought you'd be. I DID expect you to take down O'Chunks. That's something I KNEW would happen."

"So you were just trying to test us to see if we could beat you?" Sonic tilted his head.

"The answer is yes, and no," Tipral stated with a clenched fist. "You see… I do intend to kill you all. I even warned you before that if I met you again, I would kill you, Chopper. After all you've made me suffer through, it would be best to kill you in the worst ways possible!"

"If you wanted to end this battle, maybe you ought to use that Dark Star Scepter on us then! I DARE you to use it!" Chopper growled.

"Chopper! Don't encourage him to use that weapon!" Tippi cried.

"I don't need my scepter's power to take you guys down. I was able to put up a fight against you when I faced you back in Dark Subspace World. I could make this battle easier for me if I took your name and body! With the power I've gained now, I could do that! …But that wouldn't be the slow and satisfying death I want on you. Taking you down with my star powers is MUCH better!"

"Oh, so you wanna fight fair on us, huh?" Chopper smirked. "All right, Tipral! If you wanna give us some sort of fight, then bring it on! It's three against one! You're practically screwed!"

"That may be true, but it should be easier for me now that there aren't as many people with you now! Not even those pathetic little Pixls are REALLY going to help you against me…"

"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby tilted his head.

"Pixls are only meant to HELP the hero. They're not like partners from your last adventures! Many people think that they're boring and they hate them for being different."

"What? Oh, come on! They're not bad!" Chopper retorted. "And what does this have to do with the fight?"

"Your Pixls aren't as helpful as your partners! They may have one ability, but your other friends had more than one! I think this fight should be a bit easier for me because of that." Tipral got in a fighting stance. "Now let us battle! I had enough prattling for right now!"

Before Tipral could even attack, Chopper started off by using Tippi's powers to get some information on Tipral.

"That's Tipral… This dark being wishes to destroy the universe. I'm still a bit confused on what he meant by recognizing me… Max HP is 50. Attack is 5. Defense is 2. He'll throw a couple of Star Spears or any other Star powers in his possession at you… He won't use his Dark Star Scepter, but he can still conjure up some dark power with his shadow ball… Apparently, Tipral hasn't used the Chaos Heart's power to protect himself in this fight… I don't understand why, but if we defeat him, then we might have a chance of saving the universe… You simply MUST stop him, Chopper!" Tippi informed.

"Then this should be pretty simple!" Chopper clenched his fists as he rushed towards Tipral with a sweeping kick, only to have his counterpart grab his foot and throw him across the room.

"Hey! That's not fair!" he cried.

"Fair? Oh, I'm playing fair… This is how I would fight fairly!" Tipral swung his arm, firing a light purple spear-like projectile in his direction.

"Whoa!" Chopper quickly got up and jumped out of the way of the Star Spear. He was able to land right in front of Tipral and strike him with a sweeping kick from a left angle, knocking his counterpart back.

"Heh heh! Well that was interesting!" Chopper stomped on Tipral's head to perform a stylish move until Tipral grabbed him and slammed him to the ground and began punching him in the face with Star Punches.

"Poyo! (Get off of him!)" Kirby growled as he inhaled Tipral and spat him to the wall, making the area shake for a little bit before the dark being pushed himself off.

"You guys are doing a good job right now…" commented Tippi. "Don't let him stop you… If he manages to win this fight, it's all over…"

"Hmph! So, you like to play rough, do you? I suppose I'll do the same!" With a snap of his finger, all three heroes were struck by a small light purple explosion of Star Magic. "There's no escaping that!"

"Ugh… That was pretty painful." Sonic groaned, holding his arm. "Tipral's not really a pushover. With that defense on him, stomping on him is a bit difficult, not being able to do as much damage to him…"

"So, Chopper… Do you remember THIS move?" Tipral conjured up a shadow ball and hurled it towards him. The young Star Warrior was knocked back by the evil dark power within that move.

"Ugh… How come you can still do what while I don't have any Elemental Hand attacks? ! This is bull!" Chopper rushed straight at Tipral, but he ended up getting punched in the face by Tipral's Star Punch.

"Don't even try to charge at me," Tipral warned. "It's not going to work. Trust me, it's happen before, and it's not going to happen again."

Chopper attempted to punch Tipral, but he simply blocked the attack. "All right, then… I suppose this should make the fight a bit interesting!"

He tossed Hommissile straight at Tipral, making him fly back towards the wall. The dark Chopper crashed into the wall, but he was able to push himself off and throw a couple of shadow balls at the heroes.

"Oh no ya don't!" Sonic came rushing in, knocking Tipral back with a Homing Attack while he was in the air.

"Ooog…" Tipral hit the ground, but he wasn't going to give up just yet. When Sonic came down on him with a Bounce Attack, he knocked him away with a Star Kick, sending him to the ceiling.

"How pathetic… I thought you were tougher than what you used to be, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Tipral scoffed as the blue hedgehog fell to the ground in pain. "I could almost laugh at all of you for being so pathetic! …But I will not."

While Tipral was mocking Sonic, Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of him, but the pink puffball cringed as soon as Tipral grabbed his foot and swung him at Sonic across his face.

"Poyo? ! (What the… How can he even DO that? ! That's like something Metal Chopper could only do!)" Kirby gaped as he and Sonic hit the wall.

Tipral was about to taunt both of them, but Chopper came and stomped on his counterpart's head, knocking him back towards Kirby and Sonic, who both pummeled him with their attacks.

"Gah! You stupid little…!" Tipral drove the three of them away with a Star Pulse, firing a huge pulse energy attack that knocked all three of them to the wall.

"This fighting is starting to get so pointless!" Tipral grabbed Chopper and threw him over to the wall. "I can't believe I'm fighting you in a weaker state!"

"Hey, we're both even right now, Tipral! You have the same amount of HP that you had when we first faced each other. You shouldn't be complaining about it!" Chopper threw Hommissile at Tipral to knock him back to the wall.

"Let's see what you're capable of doing, Screwdy!" Sonic grinned as he made a dash towards Tipral and then used a corkscrew attack on his head.

"Gccck! …I see. So you want to play it that way." Tipral struck Sonic with his OWN sweeping kick attack that was able to trip him, allowing the dark being to stomp on him himself.

_"Come on, Sonic! Don't give up like this! You're a hero! You can't just let this villain win so easily!" _Sonic thought as he struggled to get up.

"What's wrong, hedgehog? You can't get up?" Tipral scoffed.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby inhaled Hommissile and spat him straight at Tipral, hitting him in the back.

"Arrghh! Why you little…!" Tipral turned his head to Kirby. "Oh… It's just you. This should be easy for me!"

With a snap of his finger again, he managed to knock Kirby in the air with his Star Magic ability. With one jump, he was able to kick Kirby to the ground with a Star Kick Matrix style.

"Oh, come on! That thing is so clichéd!" Chopper clenched his fist as he made a dash at Tipral. He was able to punch him in the face, but it didn't do much. "…I wish my punches were stronger than this."

"Too bad for you, Chopper!" Tipral grabbed his arm and then punched him in the face with a Star Punch. All Tippi could do was gaze in fear at Chopper, Kirby and Sonic being beaten up by Tipral.

"I think now's the time to recover some HP," Tipral pulled a Shroom Shake out, but that's when it hit Chopper. Using Thoreau, he managed to grab the Shroom Shake from him and take a drink from it himself.

"Say… These things aren't too bad! I can't believe they made a shake out of these things!" Chopper smiled as he wiped his mouth. "All right, Tipral! Let's do this!"

Chopper attempted to punch Tipral again, but his attack was block. Instead of letting Tipral punch him, he used his own head to bash him in the face, knocking him back a bit with a mark on his head.

"Oof! Very clever…" Tipral clenched his fists and attempted to punch Chopper, only to have him grab his arm and strike him with an uppercut kick attack that sent him up to the ceiling.

"Let's see how this works out!" Chopper smirked as he managed to jump up to Tipral and slam him down to the ground with one more kick attack.

The three heroes gaped as Tipral slowly got himself up. He wasn't finished yet? But… How was that possible?

"Get back here, you pathetic little heroes!" Tipral charged at the three heroes, readying a Star Punch. But when they all jumped out of the way, Tipral punched the wall instead.

"AAAARRGHHHH! MY HAND!" Tipral screamed as he covered his injured fist with his left hand. "This wall is made up of a powerful substance… Not even my Star Punch can break through this!"

"Well, looks like you're finished, then…" Tippi trailed.

"Not yet… I still have my other fist with me!" Tipral snapped his finger, summoning another Star Magic attack to attack the heroes. Chopper managed to dodge the attack, but the other two weren't so lucky.

"Take…THIS!" Chopper landed a slamming kick on Tipral to knock his head to the ground. With one more stomp, he was able to do him in. It looked like he was finally finished with the fight.

…Or was he?

Tipral slowly got himself up, knocking Chopper away with a Star Pulse attack. "Urghh… Not bad, Chopper… Not bad at all! So you are a bit tougher than I thought you would be. Congratulations."

He began to slowly clap as he cringed in pain from his fist. "…But apparently, thanks to you, I've injured myself. But this fight is still FAR from being over. I wouldn't give up so easily!"

"What do you mean? What do you have planned?" Tippi questioned.

Tipral pulled the Dark Star Scepter out and he twirled it. Looking at Squirps, he pondered. "So, you apparently made your way to the Whoa Zone with the helped of that little alien, yes? Well, I have a little idea!"

He created a darker version of Squirps that was standing right in front of Chopper. "You may refer to this being as…Spriuqs! …Or you can call him Dark Squirps if you wish."

Tipral also managed to transport him and the three heroes in Outer Space, where he grabbed onto Dark Squirps and aimed at Chopper, who immediately grabbed Squirps (who is no longer injured at the moment).

"What the… What's this?" Sonic questioned.

"Poyo! (We're floating in space! …But Tipral's got himself a dark version of Squirps!)" Kirby gawked at the dark alien.

"SQUAAAAAAG!" Squirps growled as he saw Dark Squirps's purple eyes glaring at him. "What is the meaning of this? ! Why is there another Squirps here? ! There's only ONE, SQUAG!"

"You tell him, Squirps!" Chopper smirked as he began to fire at Dark Squirps and Tipral, who cringed as he took damage from each of the fireballs that were being struck by him.

"Well, looks like I can't really help much… All I can do is THIS!" Sonic curled up in a ball and he struck Tipral. Luckily, for Tipral, he didn't get hit in his injured arm. That would be painful.

"Hmph! I don't need my fist to win this fight!" Tipral growled as he struck Sonic with a couple of dark fireballs.

"Whoa!" Sonic got knocked back over by Chopper and his friends. "Man, I didn't know that those fireballs were THAT painful!"

"Squirps's fireballs can definitely be painful!" Squirps smiled until he saw a green candy bar. "Space grunt! Get the candy bar! Squirps NEEDS chocolate!"

"Uhhh… OK?" Chopper space swam over to the green chocolate bar. When he began firing at Tipral, he noticed that Squirps was also firing missiles. What the heck?

"Squirple squee! Squirps loves to fire missiles!" Squirps squealed as he fired a barrage of missiles at Tipral, who got knocked back a couple of times from the missiles.

"Ugh… I'm going to need to push myself up a bit." Tipral pulled his scepter out and began to fire a couple of dark asteroids at the heroes. Chopper was able to shoot some of them, but he got knocked back by one of them, along with Kirby and Sonic.

"Take this!" Tipral flew over to Chopper and he tried to swing his scepter at Chopper's face. Unfortunately, he ended up hitting Squirps's face instead.

"Now you made Squirps angry… SQUOOGLE!" Squirps fired a couple of fireballs at Tipral, but when he twirled his scepter around, he began to deflect some of the fireballs being sent back at him.

"Oh, please… You really think you're going to kill me with a barrage of fireballs? This scepter could practically KILL you for all I care! It's the most powerful weapon in the universe!"

"Gulp! Now Squirps is scared…" Squirps gulped.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Squirps," Chopper assured. "We still have this in the bag." Chopper flew over to a blue chocolate bar, which created a barrier around them. This allowed him to attack Tipral with a couple of fireballs from Squirps.

"Poyo! (Hey, I wanna make a move!)" Kirby pouted as he watched from the sidelines.

Luckily, for him, when Tipral fired a couple of dark fireballs from Dark Squirps, he inhaled one of them and spat it out at Tipral, knocking him back towards the right end of the screen.

"Bleh! You're going to pay for that!" Tipral fired a Star Spear straight at Kirby, knocking him back with intense speed. He proceeded to fire more dark fireballs with Dark Squirps while Chopper fired fireballs with Squirps.

Both of them were getting hit, but the only difference was that Chopper was still surrounded by a shield…until it wore off. But, at least a red candy bar rose Squirps's Attack power.

"Ugh… How long will this fight last?" questioned Chopper as he kept firing at Tipral.

"I have no idea…" Sonic shrugged.

"This fight will only end with you dead!" Tipral charged up an attack from Dark Squirps and he fired it straight at Chopper, knocking him away from Squirps.

"This is more like it," Tipral released Dark Squirps so he could let him fight Squirps on his own. "Now we can settle this!"

"If only I had my super form to help me get through space…" Chopper muttered as he raised his arms up to defend against Tipral's punches and kicks. Unfortunately, he ended up getting kicked in the face.

"Oh, come on! Why do you always have to be like that? !" Chopper grumbled as he kicked Tipral with a sweeping kick. Little did Tipral know that Kirby inhaled him and spat him out at Dark Squirps.

"Poyo! (I'm just trying to help!)" Kirby said cheerfully.

"This should do something to," Sonic struck Tipral twice with two Spin Dashes, knocking him over to the right.

"Now, Chopper! Finish him!" shouted Tippi.

"OK!" Chopper made his way over to Tipral and then kicked him with a sweeping kick attack. But he knew for a fact that he didn't beat him yet, since Tipral was able to throw him into Kirby and Sonic.

"Man, you're being violent like Metal Chopper…" Chopper muttered under his breath.

"Don't compare me to Metal Chopper!" growled Tipral as he grabbed Chopper and swung him around in a circle, hitting Kirby, Sonic and even Squirps. Tippi almost got hit by this violent move.

"Let got of me!" Chopper struggled to break free, but Tipral let go of him and sent him flying.

"Take THIS!" Tipral hurled a couple of shadow balls straight at Chopper, while he inhaled a couple of spat them out at him, leaving him a bit weak – especially when he hit Tipral in his right fist.

"AUGH!" Tipral held his right fist in pain. "You little…! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Chopper made a dash towards Tipral and punched him in the face. With one sweeping kick, he managed to send him straight to Dark Squirps, who began to disappear after getting hit.

"What? How could this be?! How did I lose to the likes of you?!" Tipral exclaimed as they were transported back to the Whoa Zone. Chopper, Kirby and Sonic were happily fine while Tipral fell to the ground from the ceiling.

_"Stupid hand… If I didn't punch that wall, then this fight would've been easier for me!" _Tipral grumbled before he got up and glared at the heroes.

"Ugh… You three were lucky that I didn't use the Chaos Heart's power against you… So, don't think this is all finished, 'cause it's not. However, I'm going to let you go for now. I believe you already had enough from me."

"Yeah, good idea, Tipral…" wheezed Chopper, who was holding his left arm in pain. "Maybe you should take that Chaos Heart and get rid of it. Don't you KNOW what you're even doing? !"

Tipral folded his arm. "Of course. I read the prophecy. I know what's going to happen, and that's what I want it to be. You never know… Some worlds could be getting destroyed at this moment. Perhaps…your planet?"

Chopper clenched his fists. "I swear, if you do ANYTHING to my home world, you're going to regret it!"

Tipral looked at Tippi. "As for you… While I feel like I've seen you from somewhere from my past, I'm not going to let that bother me. This is now, not the past."

He glared at Chopper one more time before he teleported out of the room. Squirps came crawling back to the heroes, now recovered from Tipral's vicious attack.

"Ugh… That was awful, squirp!" he grumbled. "We have to pull ourselves together, space grunts… The Pure Heart is ahead! Come on, squinkles!"

Chopper nodded to the little alien as he and his two friends followed him into the door up ahead.

"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Squirps brought them here!" Squirps squealed.

"M-Mommy?" Chopper walked over to Squirps, who was gazing at something interesting to them.

"Oh, we're finally here…" Squirps turned to the heroes. "Come on! You guys need to say hi to Squirps's Mommy, squirp!"

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic gaped at the large, golden statue of Squirps's species. Her tentacles were much longer than Squirps's and she was holding some kind of scepter with a UFO on it.

"Mommy's been waiting very long for you people to arrive! And now you're all here!"

"…Wow. Seeing her reminds me of when I saw my mother… Except that she was never made into a statue." Chopper sniffed.

"Poyo? (Are you all right, Chopper?)" Kirby questioned.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"So this is your, uh, 'Mommy'?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, this is Squirps's mommy! The queen of Squirpia! Her name is Squirpina XIV!" Squirps answered.

"Oh... Yes! I remember her!" Tippi realized. "And that makes you..."

"That's right, squinkles! Squirps is the prince of Squirpia, a once-great kingdom… My true name is… Squirp Koroglaine Squirpina! Sorry for not telling you… Squirps promised not to tell! It makes Squirps a target!"

"Wow… Is it just me or is my head starting to hurt?" Chopper rubbed his head. "I just can't keep up with plot points this complicated."

"Poyo, (I have to agree,)" Kirby nodded.

"Long ago, Squirps's mother was told that destruction would come to the world," Squirps started. "To help save us from the destruction, the Pure Heart was needed... So Mommy hid the Pure Heart in the Whoa Zone, where no one could get to it. And so, 1,500 years ago, Squirps was put to sleep in a hibernation capsule, squeeep! Squirps was meant to bring the hero here…to protect the world, squirple!"

"Now I feel a bit bad for being a bit…mean to him at some times." Sonic frowned. All four of them seemed to agree with this.

"Squirps is OK. You guys didn't know Squirps was really a prince, so all is forgiven!" Squirps smiled, but despite this, he was trying hard not to cry in front of his own mother's statue.

"Listen, I know how your feeling with your mother being gone and all… I've had to go through the same thing. It's a bit hard, but as you grow, you'll start to become more independent. You WERE being pretty independent too! You helped us find the Pure Heart, and I have to say… I thank you for that." Chopper smiled at Squirps, who smiled back.

"Yeah! We really appreciate the help you gave us!" Sonic smiled, giving the young alien a thumbs up.

"Squirps thanks you, space grunts… Anyway, Squirps doesn't want to get off topic now. The prince of Squirpia, Squirps, has a message from the queen to deliver… Ahem! 'I bestow upon you the Pure Heart in the hope that you will save the world…' Here! Take it! Squirp!"

Squirps grabbed the green Pure Heart from his mother's statue and brought it over to the young Star Warrior. As the Pixls began to dance below the Pure Heart, Chopper held it up.

"Nice! This is a green one! That's something I like to see!" Chopper smiled.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Phew!__ Now that Squirps is all relaxed, Squirps feels kinda…tired…" said Squirps. And with that, Squirps lay down before the statue of his beloved mother. "Mother…" he said, his voice soft. "I did my best, right? Are you…proud…of me?" Then…slowly…young Squirps closed his eyes… This mission had weighed heavy on his tiny back, and he was proud to fulfill it. Knowing that Tipral was still around, Chopper, Kirby and Sonic made their way back to Flipside to prepare themselves for their next quest._

* * *

**Well well! Some of you might be surprised that the main villain is fought early in this story. I felt like I wanted to make things interesting by not making him stay in his castle all the time. I mean, he DOES have to do something against the heroes sometimes, right?**

**Oh, and there's also a moral at the end of this chapter! ...I wonder if you can find it.**

**In the interlude, we find out what's going on with Tipral and how his hand might be treated. Well, how WILL he treat it, now that it's injured?**


	26. Chapter 4 Interlude

**OK, I bet you wanna see Tipral and Mimi at least have a conversation for once. They didn't REALLY have one in the last couple interludes, but I suppose I'll make one between them. There's one right in the beginning of this interlude, actually! You'll see…**

* * *

"I can't believe those meanie-heads injured your poor hand, Tippy!" Mimi scowled as she was wrapping Tipral's hand in some bandages with hearts on them. "I can't believe that they would injure your hand like that! If there's anyone that deserves to get their hand injured, it would be that meanie Chopper!"

"Mimi… They really weren't the ones that injured my hand. I tried to punch Chopper, but I punched the wall instead. …And why are there so many hearts on these bandages?" Tipral was sitting down on a chair in Mimi's room.

Her room looked so girly. It was probably the girliest room that he's ever seen. Sure, Heartsy had a pink room, but it wasn't filled with so many girly things like Mimi's room has! Her pink bed was filled with many dolls. There were Squiglets, Demons and even a doll of Tipral. On the closet door he could see some drawings colored in crayon. One was a picture of a Rubee, another was one of Mimi stabbing Dimentio for stealing her diary and the last one was one of her and Tipral kissing. In his eyes, it looked like this girl really DID like him.

"Well, Tippy… These ARE my bandages, you know. I think a good way to heal that up would be with love!" Mimi giggled as she kissed Tipral's forehead.

"Ugh… Don't ever do that again, Mimi!" Tipral warned.

"Tee hee! But you're just so cuuuuuute!" Mimi began to pinch Tipral's cheeks, which began to annoy him. "Sure, you may look like someone I hate, but you have shapeshifting powers like me! Plus, you just seem to be my type!"

"Whatever… Look, I don't want you going over to my platform all the time when I'm speaking to the others." Tipral looked at all of the dresses in Mimi's closet. "And why do you have so many dresses? Don't you already have enough with you? Spending too much money is pretty bad, you know…"

"I just can't help it. I seem to buy sooo many dresses. But, I know for a fact that I look cute in them. You think so too, right?" Mimi softened her voice. She rubbed her stick hand on his cheek.

Tipral immediately got up. "I think I had enough for right now… I'm going back to my room."

"Wait, Tippy!" Mimi gaped as Tipral walked out of her girly room. "I wasn't finished with the bandages!"

She immediately followed Tipral into the hallways and over to his room. She noticed that his room was the exact opposite of hers. It was dark and it had a dark purple star in the center of the floor. The Dark Prognosticus was on the table and so was a picture of Tipral and someone else.

"Tippy! Don't go yet!" Tipral stopped and turned to Mimi, who was now in his room.

"What do you want?"

"I'm not finished with you hand, silly!" Mimi walked over to Tipral's hand. "Now THIS is what I wanted to finish to help let this thing heal." She kissed Tipral's injured hand, making Tipral cringe a bit.

"OK… That was nice of you to do that. Now, could you please let me get back to work?" Tipral groaned.

While Mimi giggled, she noticed the picture that Tipral had on the table. "Hey… What's this picture? It looks pretty old…"

She picked up the picture and looked at it. He could see Tipral smiling on that picture, but the other person couldn't be seen. It's almost as if…there was dust covered all over it (in which it cannot come off).

"That's a very old picture," Tipral explained. "I used to cherish that thing everywhere I went, but now it's no longer good. Once it was dropped in mud, I couldn't get a chance to clean the whole thing off."

"You mean that this is dry mud? EWWW!" Mimi let go of Tipral's picture, but it didn't look like her hands were dirty. "Say, Tippy… You look so cute on that picture! Why don't you ever smile now?"

"I wish I could smile, but after those 'events', I was peeved. Incredibly peeved. I couldn't even smile after that." Tipral glared at the picture. "I don't remember all the details, but something DID happen."

"You sound like you don't really want to talk about it," she rose an eyebrow.

"No, I don't wish to speak about this. I wish to rest a little before meeting up with the others. My hand is still in a bit of pain. But, I thank you for helping me put this in a bandage." Tipral nodded to the little green girl.

"OK, I suppose I'll let you rest," Mimi walked over to the dark boy and kissed him on the cheek. Despite cringing again, he simply patted her on the head, making her blush and leave the room in a good mood.

"Now that she's gone, I might as well get to my plans," Tipral walked over to his table, where the Dark Prognosticus lay. He opened it and began to read through it to where the heroes would go to next.

"A water world? Interesting… I heard that Sonic hates water. As for Chopper and Kirby… There's no way that water is going to stop them from traveling. However, I have an idea."

As Tipral closed the Dark Prognosticus, he looked over at the picture near him. He picked it up and gazed at it a couple of seconds with a straight face until he frowned at it in anger.

"Useless picture! I don't need you anymore!" Tipral threw the picture across the wall, leaving a big crack on it. "This thing doesn't seem to get destroyed so easily…"

He picked it up and glared at it again. "Fine. I'll keep this stupid picture. It's not like it's worth anything anymore." He placed it back on his table. The crack on it was right between him and the dirt on the right side. Not that he really cared or anything.

"As for the heroes… I cannot let them make it to this castle so soon! If all six are united, then I'm done for!" Tipral walked out of his room, but his antennas sprung up. "Hold on a moment…"

Tipral noticed a mysterious figure sneaking through the hallways. "Don't try hiding, fool. I know you're here."

The figure stopped, but it didn't bother to speak. That's when Tipral pulled his Dark Star Scepter out and twirled it before aiming it at the person.

"Intruders aren't allowed in this place, you know… Seeing who you are, I know the perfect place to put you!" He fired dark energy at the mysterious figure, making the person disappear from his sight.

"Good. I'm a bit surprised that he didn't even try to get away…"

* * *

**Later, in the main room-**

"Wow, Tipral… Yeh sure got injured… What happened teh yer hand?" O'Chunks questioned, looking at Tipral's bandaged hand. "…An' why is Mimi's bandages on that thing?"

"It's a long story, O'Chunks," Tipral didn't want them to think he lost to Chopper, so he came up with an idea. "My hand got caught in a machine. End of story." (If you read that book, you'd get the reference)

Mimi decided to play along, despite knowing what REALLY happened. "A machine? Oh, you poor, cute guy… I can't believe that that happened to you!"

"A machine, you say? Oh, yes, poor little Tipral… Accidents tend to happen a lot." Obviously to Tipral, Dimentio knew that wasn't true.

"I don't understand how a machine could leave your hand like that," Dark eyed Tipral's bandaged hand. "Are you REALLY going to keep those girly bandages on you? They don't look…that good on you."

"I'll be fine, Dark," Tipral assured, bringing his head up to his minions. "Now… I happened to come across an intruder earlier today. I can assure you that he's gone now. BUT, there could still be more intruders after that…event. So, I must warn you guys to be on the lookout, including the hallway where your rooms are. It may not be safe anywhere in this castle…"

"But who was the intruder?" Dark raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't get a clear view of him, but it looked like he wanted to be taken out of here. Strange… But, enough about that. O'Chunks, get yourself ready. I'm sending you to the next Pure Heart!"

O'Chunks's eyes widened. "Aw, yeah! Now we're goin' somewhere." He rose his fists up. It'll be me honor, Tipral! I, O'Chunks, swear to you… This hero's got a hot date with me feet! Chunks away!"

O'Chunks jumped off the platform, while Dimentio grinned. "Well, I suppose I'll be on my way as well. Ciao!"

He disappeared with a simple snap. Dark simple teleported out of the room with his cape to go back into his room without saying anything.

"So poor little Mimi doesn't get to be in the fun? This stinks." Mimi whined.

"Relax, Mimi. Things will be just fine." Tipral assured.

Forgetting that Tipral was still around, she stopped getting fussy and smiled sweetly at her "boyfriend". "Oh, sorry about that, Tippy! I forgot that you were here! …Actually, I like it when it's just you and me."

"Mimi, don't even try flirting with me again," he warned, despite her not listening to him and teleporting onto his platform.

"I don't have time right now," Tipral realized that he had to go at this moment. "I have to get going now. I have a little appointment…"

Tipral teleported out of the room, leaving Mimi to gape. "What? ! Now HE was to leave? ! What about cute little me? ! This stinks!"

* * *

**Over by Fort Francis-**

"This place reeks of geekiness…" Meta Knight began to waft the air at the front entrance of the castle. "I've searched all over these lands to find nothing else but a castle."

Meta Knight looked over at the plaque on the door. "What's this here? Something is written here… It reads: 'No entry unless you are a supergenius like me or a totally hot babe. For those of you who don't fit the category… STAY OUT!' This is strangely weird…"

Nevertheless, the masked warrior opened the door to find a MeowMaid patrolling the area. "What in the…"

"Meow! Welcome home, Master! I've missed you so much!" the MeowMaid slowly made its way over to Meta Knight to hug him, but it was only pushed away by him. "Hug me, Master!"

"I don't have time to hug anyone," Meta Knight retorted as he walked over to the door ahead to walk into a room with the big MeowDoor. Some geeky glasses were right beside the door.

Picking up the glasses, he examined them. They didn't appear to be hurt or anything. They were just fine…

When he walked over to the MeowDoor, the door disappeared and the MeowDoor glared at Meta Knight.

"Mrrrrrow! You're not master! Only master and totally hot babes can enter this room!" the MeowDoor was about to disintegrate Meta Knight with its lasers, but then he put the glasses on.

"_Ugh… This is definitely something I don't want to do ever again…" _Meta Knight thought as the MeowDoor stopped with the lasers and opened the door for him. Did it seriously believe that he was Francis?

But, who really cares? He certainly didn't. He walked into Francis's room to find Francis sitting by his computer without his glasses. He seemed to be grinning as he watched what was on there.

"Nerrrrrrrr! This stuff is so hi-technicaaaaal!" Francis drooled over the picture of Tippi.

"…I'm just going to go," Meta Knight dropped Francis's glasses over by the door and immediately got out of the geeky fortress.

* * *

"_Tipral is looking very good. Make sure the rings are on him IMMEDIATELY when he comes out. If not, then it might just be the end of us…"_

"_Wait… Did you say to wait a couple of seconds before putting the rings on? 'Cause I just opened the capsule…"_

"_You WHAT? ! Wh-Why did you do that? ! You just doomed us…AAAAGGGHHHHH!"_

"_TOM, YOU IDIOT! HIS POWER… IT'S BEING UNLEASHED UPON US ALL! WE'RE…DOOMED!"_

_That time… I killed a bunch of scientists… It was probably one of the worst things I've ever seen…but it gets worse as the years go by…but that only happened after some…events._

* * *

**Back on Flipside Towers-**

As the three heroes walked out of the green door, they noticed that a green crystal heart appeared above them. Looks like this world was finished for right now…

"Now we've gotten five Pure Hearts…" Tippi trailed. "This is turning into quite a collection…"

"Well, that's simply easy on why we've gotten five so far!" Sonic stretched and made a pose. "You got the blue blur on your side! Yeah, you've got Sonic the Hedgehog here!"

"Yeah, that's true. We all have some different abilities that can certainly help us take down Tipral…just like in the Whoa Zone!" Chopper smiled.

Yes, yes, tee hee hee…" Tippi giggled. "That said, we owe Squirps for helping us find this one… We should be grateful…"

"Poyo… (To be fair, I kinda miss that little guy…)" Kirby pondered. "Poyo… (That alien really wasn't a bad person, and I feel bad for not trusting him… To be honest, he would make a GREAT friend!)"

Chopper noticed how close Tippi was to him. "Whoa, Tippi… To be fair, you seem a lot different than before. What happened? It's almost like someone hit you in the head and made you all cheerful…"

"You think so? Well, ever since you three saved me from Fort Francis, I've been feeling really good… I feel like I could just hang around with you forever… _Tee hee hee…_" she giggled quietly at Chopper.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… OK?" Chopper said with a confused look.

"Ah, so you've all returned once again!" Merlon walked over to the three heroes. "How was it this time, then? Did you find another Pure Heart in outer space?"

"Yes, we found the fifth Pure Heart. And this one—" A sudden, painful flash emitted from her. "URK!"

"What the… What's going on? !" Chopper nearly gaped when Tippi slowly began to float to the ground like paper.

"Poyo? ! (Huh? ! Wh-What? !)" Kirby gaped.

"Oh, no… Tippi!" Merlon bent over and looked down at the poor girl. "What has happened? All of you, come to my house at once! Hurry, now!"

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic followed Merlon, who picked Tippi up and headed down to his house.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"Very well, let's all take a breath and gather ourselves here…" Merlon had Tippi placed on a light blue stand. "I'm concerned… Tippi may be unable to maintain her Pixl form for much longer."

"Pixl form? So you're saying that she originally was NOT like this?" Chopper questioned.

"Yes, you are correct, Chopper. You see, Tippi was not always a Pixl… I found her in her true form, exhausted, injured from a dark, fatal blow that hit her, and it felt like she was going to die… She was hanging by a thread, barely alive…so I took a desperate measure… Using my ancestors' magic, I transformed her soul into a Pixl…and this Tippi was born."

"Poyo… (Wow… I can hardly believe it…)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo? (But, where is Tippi from originally?)"

Merlon's head hung low. "Unfortunately, I don't know where she originally came from. She never told me. All she said that an evil being with two antennas attacked her and teleported her here. But I can't help thinking she did not come here by chance. Fate connects us…"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Tipral was the one responsible for that. Speaking of him, we ran into him in the Whoa Zone. To our surprise, we ended up defeating him…" Chopper explained.

"You found Tipral? …But if you defeated him, then what about The Void that still remains in the sky?"

Before anyone could respond, they felt some immense shaking in the room. "Whoa… I don't think that was good…"

"The Void was grown larger. And these tremors have become common, I'm afraid. Our situation grows more dire by the moment. Will the events written in the Light Prognosticus really forestall the foretold doom?"

Merlon looked back at Tippi. "Obviously Tipral is not finished with the fight just yet. I will watch Tippi. Young heroes, take the Pure Heart… Find the next Heart Pillar!"

With a nod, Chopper, Kirby and Sonic made their way out of Merlon's house.

* * *

**Flipside, first floor-**

"Poyo… (Say, Chopper… Didn't we come across that crack before?)" Kirby questioned.

"To be honest… I don't think we were at this floor. I only came down here just to find some soup for you and Meta Knight. But I suppose we'll get rid of that crack with Hommissile."

Chopper ran over to the crack over by the right of the town and blew it up with Hommissile. He then flipped into 3-D to go through the hole to find a new area.

"Hey, Chopper… What's that?" Sonic pointed to the white light in between two houses when they flipped back into 2-D.

"Yeah… I see it!" Chopper brought Flippay out and he used his ability on it to make a blue ! block appear, which made a new pathway leading to a shrine. It seemed to be pretty far from Flipside, that's for sure…

Upon entering the shrine (via 3-D), they noticed on the stain-glassed windows that there were wizards of Merlon's ancestors on the wall. There were also these blocks, starting with the right one, black, and all the way to a red block.

"Let's hit all eight of those at least once," Sonic suggested, hitting the black block. A bright light began to emit from that one and the one after that.

"Hey, this doesn't seem like a bad idea!" Chopper hit the other ones until he got to the red block. Once he struck it, the mirror between the stain-glassed windows broke, creating a doorway.

"I wonder where this leads…" Grabbing his friends, Chopper flipped into 3-D and walked through the doorway. They noticed that the wizards on the stain-glassed windows looked darker than before.

"What the heck is going on here? This place…is a bit strange." When Chopper kicked the door open, he noticed that the floor was a darker color than the floor in Flipside. In fact, the colors here were darker!

When they took the long road over to the town, they saw that the people were more of a purple color now with pointy noses instead of flat ones.

"Poyo… (This is very strange…)" Kirby gawked.

"Yeah, REALLY strange…" Chopper ignored the locked house that was next to him to the left and found a hole for them to get through in order to be in the town for real.

"It's like everything's the complete opposite…" Sonic scratched his head as he saw the elevator leading to the second floor was now to the right instead of the left.

* * *

**Unknown town, second floor-**

"I welcome you!" the first noticeable person the three heroes came across was a wizard who looked just like Merlon. But, unlike him, his robe was a dark gray color and his white mustache had a bit of red to it.

"Whoa… There's another Merlon? !" Chopper gaped as he and his friends walked over to the wizard.

"I knew you would come by eventually!" he chuckled.

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic: ?

"Ho oh! I can see that you would like to ask me where in the world we are! Ho oh oh ho! This place may seem like Flipside, but do not be mistaken! You WERE in Flipside, but then you flip-flopped sides… Friends, you are in **Flopside**!"

"Flopside?" all three of them gawked in unison.

"Which means I'm not the Merlon you know. I am the Flopside version, a different Merlon entirely… You may call me…Nolrem!"

"That's a pretty original name…" Chopper rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I do agree with you on the unoriginality," Nolrem agreed. "But don't you see? Ours has always been a story of two towns… But the only ones who do know about this flip-floppery are Merlon and I!"

"So no one knows anything about Flipside? Wow…" Sonic scratched his head in confusion.

"You all seem a bit surprised. Ho oh oh ho… There is a front and a back to all things, young ones." Nolrem chuckled. "Now, the Heart Pillar is one floor up! Go and place the Pure Heart within it! See you!"

Before going up to the third floor, they noticed a guy with a brown beard in 3-D to their left. He told them that he could make a pipe that could bring them to Flipside and Flopside for only 300 coins. Chopper agreed and he gave up 300 of his coins just to make a pipe that'll bring them back to Flipside…even though they have the Return Pipe to help them go back…

"Well, it looks like we finally have a shortcut," Sonic grinned. "How about we go to the upper floor?"

* * *

**Flopside, third floor-**

"Wow… Honestly, this reminds me of when I was bringing the first Pure Heart to its Heart Pillar." Chopper looked to see where the Heart Pillar would be. He saw that it was to his right this time.

"Bingo!" Chopper walked over to the Heart Pillar and he brought the green Pure Heart out. They all watched the same procedure from before as a green clock appeared in their very eyes.

Back on Flipside Towers, a light blue door was being drawn right next to the green door.

"OK! We did it!" Chopper smiled.

"You appear to be performing your duties efficiently!" Nolrem walked over to the heroes. "I just got a message from Merlon. Tippi's been revived! They are waiting for you three at the top of Flipside Tower. Hurry! You all must go there!"

"Got it!" Chopper pulled the Return Pipe out and all three of them made their way back to Flipside Towers in seven seconds-

* * *

**Flipside Towers-**

"You're all back," Tippi noticed Chopper, Kirby and Sonic return to Flipside Towers and walk over to the fifth door. "I'm feeling better now… Let's get going."

"Are you sure you feel well enough, my dear?" Merlon asked.

"I'll be fine," Tippi assured. "This is no time to stay in bed anyway. And I… I want to help Chopper…"

Chopper looked a bit confused when Tippi looked at him. "…Yeah, I suppose that makes sense…"

"Then I will not hold you back," Merlon stepped aside. "These good people will surely need your knowledge… Heroes. Please take good care of Tippi"

"Ugh… Galaxia was never seen in that world…" Meta Knight slowly dragged himself out of the yellow door. But, he didn't have much time to speak with Chopper and his friends.

"Wait, Meta Knight! That door leads into…" Before Chopper could finish, Meta Knight already kicked the door open and made his way into Outer Space. "I hope he can survive in Outer Space…"

"Poyo, (Don't worry, he'll be fine,)" Kirby assured.

"Are you sure…? If so, then we might as well get going…" Chopper opened the light blue door and he and his friends, including Tippi, who feels much better, walked into the next world.

* * *

**OK, so if you read my other two Paper Chopper stories, then you might know that for Chapters 1 to 8, Chapters 1, 5 and 6 are usually different than the ones. So, since we're going to Chapter 5, we're gonna have something different (and in my opinion) and better than the Cragnon place. Take a guess on what world it is. ;)**

**Anyways... Review if you wish. That's about it.**


	27. Swamints Under the Sea

_Still worried about Tippi's conditions, Chopper, Kirby, and Sonic opened the fifth door. They only had fifteen more Pure Hearts to find, but they knew that things weren't gonna get any easier for them. It almost felt to Chopper that they were almost getting closer to the end with The Void growing bigger each time they return to Flipside. What could possibly be awaiting our heroes in this next dangerous world they'll be coming across? As they made their way through, Sonic prayed to see loops in this next world._

**CHAPTER 5-1**

**-Swamints Under the Sea-**

As the whole scenery was being drawn, the background showed this beautiful town that looked somewhat unique, with some rooms being a bit pointy than most roofs. Below the town was some rocks that helped form a couple of waterfalls in the background. So, basically, this whole world is somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Just like all oceans, this one is a blue color.

As the light blue door appeared, all three heroes walked out of the door, but little did they know that they weren't even on the ground!

"Hmmmmm… Well this is definitely a nice view of this world…" Tippi gazed at the beautiful blue sky and also gazed at the whole town in the background. "This place sure is a beautiful sight…"

Sonic noticed all of the water, which began to make him shiver. "Aw, no! Don't tell me… Is this a water world? !"

"Judging by the waterfalls and the water that I can see in the background, it looks like this IS a water world," Chopper confirmed. "Sorry if you have to go through this, Sonic. Sometimes you have to handle water."

"For a view up in midair, this sure is a wonderful sight to gaze at…" Tippi trailed until she realized that they were up in midair. "Wait a minute… Midair? !"

"Uh oh…"

All three heroes looked down to see the large ocean. Since there was nothing else they could do except yelp for help, they ended up falling down into the ocean. The only one who didn't fall was Tippi.

"Oh, dear…" she trailed as she fluttered down into the ocean to find the heroes.

* * *

**Bottom of the ocean-**

Two light blue creatures down at the bottom of ocean with heads that are shaped like a half circle with a green body, had four arms and flippers for feet were playing a little game of catch. Well, they were apparently playing with a small, dead clam that these things took care of.

"Oh, boy… Dis is such a tiresome game." the first creature began to wipe his brow. "Dere's no point in playin' dis game when we have a big dark hole in da sky! Although it's hard to see from down here, it's NOT a pleasant sight."

"Yeah, I can agree with you on dat," the second creature caught the clam. "Why can't we find any help? Us Swamints NEED the help of a hero! Da elder even said that if someone fell from the sky an' sank ta da bottom of da ocean, then it would be da hero that we've been lookin' fer!"

"Well, I sure hope we find someone…" the first Swamint trailed.

They began to keep playing catch until three heroes crashed to the sandy ground. They didn't appear to be squirming around in the water. They were just…unconscious.

"HOLY CLAMS!" the Swamints were thrown back by the force of the three heroes sinking. "Whoa… I thought mah heart just stopped! ...Are joo all right, Jojo? Nothin' broken?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Paul," Jojo panted as he looked down at the heroes. "I thought fer a second I was goin' to lose mah…well, never mind about that. Anyways, don't suppose dat dese guys are 'Da Ones'?"

"Who're ya talkin' about, bub? All I see is a lime-green kid with two antennas, white gloves and green shoes, a pink puffball and some kind of blue hedgehog with white gloves and red shoes. Dat's all I'm seein' here!"

Jojo looked down at the blue hedgehog, who looked like he was choking. "Oh, clam! Dis guy looks like he's goin' ta choke himself to death! We gotta get dese guys to our home IMMEDIATELY! Maybe da elder can take a look at dem."

"Joo got it!" Paul and Jojo picked up the three heroes and carried them away from the spot.

Tippi fluttered down to the bottom of the ocean, only to find two Swamints carry them away. "You come back here right now! …Oh, dear."

* * *

**Inside a bedroom-**

"Ooooooog… What happened?" Chopper slowly brought himself up from the bed. He ended up coughing out some ocean water. "Ugh… Did I seriously have some water in my mouth? It didn't taste so good…"

He noticed that the tiles that he brought his foot on was a light blue color with a couple of fish decorations on them. On the walls, he saw a wallpaper that resembled the whole ocean. Too bad he coughed up some saltwater onto the floor. Now it'll feel slippery for them.

"Guys… Can you get up?" Chopper nudged Kirby, who was on another bed. He thought it would be best to get the saltwater out of him, so he grabbed him and attempted to punch him in the stomach, making him cough up the saltwater in him.

"Poyo! (Owwwww! Why did you do that, Chopper?!)" Kirby held his stomach in pain.

"Oh, come on! That didn't hurt!" Chopper retorted, looking at his fist. "My punches REALLY aren't that strong. I don't have that great of a physical strength, to be honest…"

"Uuunnngghhhh…" Sonic slowly got himself up, only to cough up some saltwater. He thought for a second that he was almost going to slip. "What's going on…? Where the heck are we?"

"It seems like we're in this water world… But the thing is, I don't know WHERE we are at this moment." Chopper looked around the walls. He noticed a picture of a strange person made of water with yellow eyes wearing a blue robe. He was also carrying a powerful golden staff in his watery hand.

"Hey, look at that guy on the wallpaper! He sort of reminds me of the Crystal King for some reason!"

"…Yah, Elder! We were just playin' some clam catchin' an' suddenly those three people through dis door landed in between us! Joo gotta believe us, man! We think that dey're the heroes!"

The door slowly began to open and Jojo, Paul and an old Swamint came walking into the room. Tippi too came fluttering in the room as well, now that the door was open. The old creature was holding some kind of walking stick and also had this cool white beard that almost looked as cool as Merlon's.

"Are you guys all right?" Tippi asked. Chopper, Kirby and Sonic replied with a nod. "Oh, thank goodness… I thought that you three were going to be in some big trouble for a second there…"

"So… Joo are the heroes that dese two were talkin' about, is dat true?" the elder eyed the three heroes. "Hmmmmmm… I was expectin' someone that was more…taller and muscular…"

"Taller? Oh, come on!" Sonic glared at the elder. "We've done things that some kind of tall and strong person couldn't have done! So you better take that back before we have to prove it to you!"

"Easy, Sonic… We're not here to get in fights." Chopper pushed him away and looked over at the elder. "OK… So why did you bring us here anyways?"

"And where in the world are we? And what are you…things?" Tippi also asked.

"We are called Swamints. We are the people dat live in dis world." the elder coughed. "Dis place is called **Pristine Palisade** – a world full of ocean beauty. Mah name is Elder Humpback. I am da elder of this town."

"Swamints? Pristine Palisade? What?" Tippi stammered. "What is with your accents?"

"Ah, so joo are curious about dis world, are joo… Well I suppose we shall show joo what our town is like. I suppose it would be right ta show joo all around before telling joo about our problems…"

Elder Humpback slowly began to make his way over to the door. Chopper and his friends had to follow him for about five minutes before they made it outside. Apparently they WERE at the bottom of the ocean, but they were surrounded by this huge glass bubble that all the Swamints lived in. All of the houses appeared to look the same, with pointy roofs. All they knew is that they were NOT in the town in the background.

"Do joo like our town? Marvelous, isn't it?" Humpback looked at the statue in the center of the town. It was that same person that Chopper saw on the wallpaper in that room!

"Uhhhhhh… Who's that guy over there?" Sonic pointed to the statue.

"I was just gettin' to dat, heroes…" Humpback coughed. "Joo see… When da big black hole appeared up in da sky, a heart rained down from the sky and landed in **King Neptunian's Palace**. The ruler of this world, **King Neptunian**, used ta be a very friendly person, but once he got his hands on dat heart, he has been corrupted with such evil… Sometimes he might try tah send his…seahorses and other sea monsters to attack!"

"So, someone named King Neptunian carries the Pure Heart? Could you take us to his palace?" Tippi asked.

"Joo… Joo're serious, right? I know that joo guys are meant to be heroes, but dat is a risky move! …But I remember some other person that we found in the ocean said something about going there to find his friends." Humpback pondered.

"Wait, another person? Do you know what he looks like?" Chopper's antennas perked up with curiosity.

"Errr… I don't exactly remember what he looked like… Sorry tah disappoint joo…" Humpback's head hung low. "If only he were here… Perhaps he could help you."

Suddenly, something struck him. "Wait a minute… Are joo guys able to make some attacks underwater? Joo might need something tah hit enemies from far away. I think joo can use it, kid." He looked at Chopper.

"What do you mean? What can you give me?" Chopper tilted his head.

"Somethin' useful… Follow me, joo people." Humpback slowly began to make his way over to a temple up ahead. Unfortunately, due to his slowness, they couldn't do much like this.

Sonic simply grabbed Elder Humpback with Thoreau and they made their way over to the front entrance of the temple.

"Huh? We're already here? I was expectin' ta be dere a bit later… Oh, well." Humpback opened the door, leading them into a big room with a couple of stain-glassed windows of some Swamint ancestors.

"Do joo see those people up there? Those are our ancestors. They're da people dat helped make this town." Humpback made his way over to a plaque on the wall. "Now, I've heard rumors about dere bein' a secret around these parts. Unfortunately, we don't know where, exactly."

"Hmmmmmm… I think I have an idea!" Chopper threw his arms up into the air and he was out of Humpback's sight.

"Wh-Whuh?! Where'd he go?!" Humpback exclaimed.

"Poyo, (Oh, he simply went into 3-D,)" Kirby answered. "Poyo. (It's this cool ability that allows you to switch between dimensions. You can find anything hidden around there! How cool is that?!)"

"Errrrr… What da heck is this person sayin'?"

"No one except for Chopper knows what Kirby's saying. Unfortunately, he already went into 3-D, so there's no stopping him now." Sonic began to tap his foot impatiently. "I hope we can get out of here soon. This place smells like fish!"

* * *

**Meanwhile, in 3-D-**

"Hmmmmmm… What's this?" Chopper noticed an orange pipe that was hidden in 3-D. "I better check what's through here! Hopefully it's something exciting!"

With one jump, he went down the pipe and into this orange cave that felt a bit hot. "Uughh… It's a bit hot in here. I thought the water was meant to be COLD! This is more hot than cold…"

He noticed up some small steps, there was a red orb with fire inside of it sitting there on some kind of pedestal. He decided to go over to it, until an orange Swamnit with a sun hat appeared before his eyes.

"Welcome! Yes, welcome! Welcome to the Fire Cavern!" the Swamint greeted. "I have been waitin' for joo, hero. I have been waitin' fer many years, smoldering like embers. Fer joo I have kept waitin'…and waitin'…and WAITIN'!"

"What the heck? Who are you?" Chopper asked.

"Mah name is Firemint. I'm the guardian of da Elemental Flame. Joo are late, hero. In fact, da last time I remember anyone comin' here was… _1,500 years ago!_"

Firemint was seemingly ticked. "Oh, waiting just burns me UP! But enough about that… …So, why have joo come?"

"Wait… You don't remember why I'm here?" Chopper groaned.

"Huh? Joo, uh… Dis place… Umm… Dis place of power… It is, uh… Dis place is…" Firemint looked at his surroundings, confused and sweat dropping. "Now, wait a second… Just what kind of place was dis, anyway? What was it dat I was plannin' on doin'? Am I allowed in here? Huh? Wait just a minute! Where am I? WHO am I?"

Chopper began to sweat drop. "Didn't you just SAY who you were?!"

"…Hm! I guess havin' no guests for 1,500 years takes a toll. Everythin' just seems to…_slip one's mind!_ Har diddy HAR! How humorous! So! I guess joo can do what joo want! I won't stop joo!"

As Firemint disappeared, Chopper walked over to the orb. "Now this is a strange-looking orb. It's got fire in it, too!"

When Chopper placed his hands on the orb, he immediately brought them back because of the intense heat. "YOUCH! IT BURNS!" Before he could start shaking his hands, he noticed that his gloves had a flaming aura around them.

"No way… Did I seriously…"

"Oh! Wait! I just remembered! This is the famed Fire Cavern, where we teach the ways of the blistering Flaming Hand!" Firemint's voice boomed as he came back into the cavern. "Yes… It is all comin' back… I have been waitin' fer joo. Joo want the Flaming Hand, right? Joo want ta master the fiery Hand Power known as the **Fireball**, do joo not? Joo do, right? Right? RIGHT? Joo do not need to tell me. Joor pose says it all."

Firemint summoned a fireball to appear floating on his hand. "I shall instruct you in the arts of the Fireball. First, you must choose to use your Elemental Hand attack with the [B] button. Once that's done, press the (1) button to toss a fireball, where joo shall fry your enemy into a delicious meal…if it's a fish, that is…"

"Oh, this is easy!" Chopper tossed a fireball and it began to bounce its way over to the wall, where it disappeared. "Man, it feels GOOD to have my Elemental Hand ability again!"

"Hmmmmm… I see no problem with joor skills, hero." Firemint bowed to Chopper. "If joo just do dis action near somethin' flammable, joo should have no problems! Surely dis skill will open new paths in joor life! Wouldn't joo agree? So… FAREWELL!"

Just before Firemint could leave, he remembered something. "Oh, pardon me once again, boy! But I just remembered somethin'! Dat ability can be used while your underwater. So, if joo have any problem swimmin' with any monsters, den use joor fireballs to defeat 'em!"

Firemint left for REAL this time while Chopper smiled at his hand with a flaming aura around it.

"All right! I can't believe I got one of my favorite abilities from five months ago back! This is just great!"

* * *

**Back over by the temple-**

When Chopper got out if the pipe and flipped back to 2-D, Kirby, Sonic and Tippi went over to him.

"Chopper! Are you all right?" Tippi asked. Chopper simply replied with a nod, but she noticed the flaming aura around his hands. "Wait… What is that you have in your hands? It looks…strange."

"It's my Flaming Hand ability, which is what I found via flipping!" Chopper smirked as he swung his arm, making a small curve of fire appear before their eyes. "I can't believe I got this back!"

"Ah, yes… Da Flaming Hand ability… Dat is what joo might need to make joor way through da waters." Elder Humpback slowly walked out of the temple, even though Sonic had to carry him out with Thoreau.

"Poyo? (So how do we get out of this place anyway? You never told us about that.)" Kirby questioned. Chopper immediately translated what Kirby just said to Elder Humpback.

"If joo want to find dat other person who was here before, den take the elevator up to da surface." Humpback pointed to the elevator near his house. "Don't worry, young ones. Joo won't be in da water at first. But, joo'll be getting' ta da water sometime up dere."

"All right, thanks, Humpback," Chopper thanked, waving goodbye. "We'll try to see if we can take care of that Neptunian person or whatever his name is. Trust us, we're gonna do it and get that Pure Heart!"

Chopper's feet were already spinning like a wheel as he made his way over to the elevator. A torch near the elevator didn't appear to be lit up, so, using his Flaming Hand ability, he tossed a fireball at it, making the elevator run.

"I wonder how that other person made his way out of here if he didn't have that elemental ability with him…" Tippi pondered.

"Well, maybe we'll find out sooner or later," Sonic predicted as he, Chopper and Kirby placed their feet on the elevator. That's when the elevator began to bring them up, away from Swamint Town.

"Ugh… Thanks goodness we're away from that town." Chopper sighed in relief. "I honestly couldn't STAND how those people spoke. It was almost going to drive me bonkers!"

"Poyo! (I agree with you! You don't wanna know how long that old man rambled while you were gone!)" Kirby had his arms folded as he began to remember Elder Humpback prattling.

* * *

**At the surface-**

As soon as they got out of the elevator, they found themselves standing on the stone ground. It was a little more of a light blue color, with the rest of the stone ground below it being brown. Some water was leaking from the brown stone, creating small waterfalls. They also took notice of the big water bubbles that were on these pedestals. It was almost a combination of old material and new material…

"Well well well! Look what we've got here!" Before the three heroes could do anything, they noticed two creatures wearing blue, light armor with fins on their backs and flippers on their feet. They were holding these pointy spears that could pierce through anything it touches.

"These guys look pretty strange… Are they a new breed of Swamints? Man, we Neptos hate those guys! But, this is a good time right now. I think you could be used a Pure Heart polisher!" the Nepto up front smirked.

"Yeah, these guys, being a rare breed and all, will be something to DEFINITELY tote back for King Neptunian! Let's get 'em!" the second Nept raised his spear and began to charge.

"Poyo! (Chopper! Quick! Use your Flaming Hand attack no these guys!)" Kirby shouted.

"Got it!" Chopper tossed a fireball at one of the Neptos, burning that one to a crisp. He tossed one more fireball at the other Nepto to burn THAT one to a crisp as well. "Wow… That was…pretty cool!"

"Hmm… It seems that Elder Humpback was right… The leader of these uncouth things apparently has the Pure Heart… We'd best try to find him…" suggested Tippi.

Chopper jumped on one of the steps going up ahead and then looked down to see a pathway. By the corner of the wall was a little curve for anyone to get up to where they're standing with some speed. There was even a loop up ahead, to Sonic's relief.

"Oh, good! There's a loop here!" Sonic sighed in relief as he jumped down to allow himself to get some speed. That's when he immediately ran through the loop and made his way over to a red door.

"We better follow him," Chopper grabbed Kirby's hand and he jumped down to the curve on the wall so he could make his way through the loop and to the door, where Sonic was tapping his foot impatiently.

"Man, why do you guys always take such a long time?" Sonic questioned while tapping his foot.

"Dude… You weren't standing there for that long." Chopper gave him a blank look before they walked in to the next area, where they found a bridge and a waterfall up ahead by the bridge. There appeared to be some floating platforms on the water.

"We've got more Neptos dead ahead!" Chopper warned as he tossed two fireballs at the Neptos that were throwing spears on the bridge.

"Now let's see what we've got up ahead," Sonic ran up ahead so he could jump onto the platforms floating in the water. There were about three of them, so he didn't have to worry too much. "Wow… So this is the ocean? I'm actually a bit nervous, now that I think about it…"

Sonic immediately made his way over to the red door, but he noticed it was locked. "Drat! Don't tell me I actually have to GO in the water? ! That's NOT what I wanna do!"

"Well too bad. Sometimes you gotta do it, Sonic." Chopper jumped across the platforms and picked Sonic up with Thoreau. "Since you probably won't jump in yourself, I'm gonna have to do this."

With one throw, Sonic sank to the bottom of the area. Good thing it wasn't the bottom of the ocean, because there was still some stone ground below him. Other than that, there was a spring over to the left that can bring up back up to the bridge and also an air bubble right next to him.

He immediately breathed in some air from the air bubble before Chopper and Kirby sank into the water where he was.

"Well, it sure has been a while since we were underwater… We ought to see what's around these parts!" Chopper suggested.

"Poyo! (Yeah! That sounds like a good idea!)" Kirby then frowned. "Poyo… (But the thing is, my abilities are pretty much useless… All I can do is squirt water! That's not going to help!)"

"Don't worry about it, Kirby," Chopper assured as he swam over to the tunnel to the right. They couldn't find anything else except for a couple of bubbles that were coming up from the ground.

"Mmmmmgggggffhhh!" Sonic covered his mouth in an attempt to keep himself from drowning, but that didn't do anything.

"Hold on, guys… Let me see what's down here." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a little hole leading down to two torches. All he did was light them up with a fireball. But the only thing he didn't get was…how can he use fire underwater?

A chest appeared before his own eyes and he opened it to find a Door Key. He went back up to his two friends to show them the Door Key before they made their way over to the spring.

"Mmmmmggfffff!" Sonic was almost about to drown until he jumped on the spring and got out of the water, landing on the bridge.

"Oh, thank goodness I'm fine!" Sonic gasped as he knelt down on the ground in relief. "I'm never going swimming EVER again…"

"Sorry to say this, but I don't think that's the last of the water we're gonna see, Sonic," Chopper said with a look that didn't make Sonic feel any better. "But look on the bright side! We've got the key!"

"I don't think this is going to be so easy for Sonic…" Tippi trailed. "But I still see no sight of that person that Elder Humpback was talking about…"

"I don't think we should be worrying about that person at this moment," Chopper stated. "It's better that we focus on finding the Pure Heart first. We'll get to finding this person later."

After they all jumped across the water with the three platforms, Chopper unlocked the door and they moved on to another area. Luckily, there wasn't any water, but there were these large, blue elephant creatures roaming around. There were A LOT.

"Poyo! (Whoa… Look at those things!)" Kirby pointed at the large elephant creature. Chopper thought that it would be a good idea to use Tippi's ability on them, so he immediately did that to find some _interesting_ information.

"That massive beast is a Muth. They roam the watery world of Pristine Palisade... Max HP is 100 and Attack is 6. They can trample nearly anything... They also have a lot of HP, so they aren't easy to take down... Many Swamints have risked fighting Muths just to prove their bravery..." Tippi informed.

"Are you SERIOUS?! These guys have more HP than what Tipral had! That's just ridiculous!" Chopper groaned as he shot a couple of fireballs at the Muth. He charged one fireball up that he threw at that Muth, defeating it and also making it drop something…pretty useful.

"Poyo? (Did it just drop meat?)" Kirby picked up a piece of meat called Bone-In Cut. With it, their Attack power can be doubled, which is actually something that's VERY nice…

"Gimme that!" Chopper swiped the Bone-In Cut from Kirby and he took a piece off. "We're all gonna eat some of this so we can all focus on our own Muth to kill. I think that'll be easy, right?"

"I think that'll work perfectly!" Sonic grinned while chomping down on his Bone-In Cut. "…It's not THAT great, but I feel like my Attack has been doubled! Now THAT is awesome!"

Sonic immediately rushed towards the Muth up ahead, bashing it with a couple of Homing Attacks. He did at least ten of them when he defeated the giant elephant beast. It didn't even tire him out!

"Poyo! (Leave this one to me!)" Kirby got on Carrie and he rushed over to the next Muth. It caught Kirby coming towards him and it prepared to charge, but it was soon trampled by Kirby's attacks above it. It was soon taken down easily.

"I think this one should be an easy defeat!" Chopper smirked as he tossed about ten fireballs at the Muth charging at him. It cringed as each fireball struck it, but it was immediately defeated, putting the fight to an end.

"That was easier than I thought it would be…" Tippi trailed.

"And… Oh, great, is that what I think it is?" Sonic gulped as he saw that they had a waterway to go through after the last Muth. But, it didn't seem to be too long.

They jumped into the water to find a small little pathway and a spring over by the end of the pathway by a wall. It wasn't a long way to go through, but there were no air bubbles for Sonic to grab, so that was a problem.

"Uh oh… A Nepto's swimming around here!" Chopper hurled a fireball at the Nepto to take it out. Then they proceeded over to the spring. Sonic went first, jumping on it and bringing him up to the surface. Chopper and Kirby followed up afterwards.

"And it looks like this concludes the level," Chopper stated as he walked over to the Star Block and broke it with one punch.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Now happy with his Flaming Hand ability in his hands, Chopper seemed to feel a lot more cheerful than before. "I can't believe that we have to make our way through this whole water world!" Sonic complained as they walked through the wet world. "This isn't the place that I've wanted to go to. Especially for a vacation!" Kirby wished he could shut Sonic up, but he knew that that wouldn't be the best thing to do. The big thing that Tippi began to wonder about was who was the person that the Swamints found before them? Could that person be a friend or foe? These questions plagued her head as they moved on ahead._

* * *

**To be honest, I did NOT enjoy writing how those Swamints spoke. It was getting a bit annoying for me. But, at least we got something ELSE interesting! ...I'm talking about that Flaming Hand ability that Chopper got. I'm pretty sure you're wondering why he got it in Chapter 5 and not Chapter 4. Well, I don't feel like answering that question! :P**

**Anyway, next chapter, we're... Actually, it's best NOT to spoil the next chapter. ;)**_  
_


	28. Pixls, Ninjas, and Oceans

**Something you might wanna know: Yeah, if you played the Sonic Nexus fan game, then I'm pretty sure you know what the Pristine Palisade world is. Don't kill me for putting this in the fic! I'm just doing what I need to do. That is all.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 5-2**

**-Pixls, Ninjas, and Oceans-**

"So it looks like we're far from that town under the sea…" Tippi trailed as she looked back the way they just came from. They weren't really anywhere big, but they weren't too close to the water. They were probably about fifteen feet above the water at this very moment, so it wasn't too bad (well, it wasn't too bad for Sonic, that is…). In fact, they couldn't see the water, except for the water that was in the background of the area. Things felt a bit fine around Pristine Palisade…for now.

"Thank GOODNESS we're away from that town!" Chopper sighed in relief as he looked the other way. "I honestly didn't want to be around those people… They really did freak me out big time. But, hey! I managed to get this wicked fire ability that will hopefully give us a hand!"

"Poyo! (Yeah! That should be a pretty helpful ability that you have with you!)" Kirby smiled as he looked at the flaming aura on Chopper's hands. "Poyo? (But I have a little question… Does that even hurt your hands?)"

"This? Nah! It doesn't do anything bad to me at all! I'm completely fine!" Chopper assured, but he looked confused when he saw Sonic was shivering. "All right, what's wrong, Sonic?"

"Well… I walked up ahead while you two spoke and I saw this lift that wasn't moving." Sonic explained. "You see, in order to get that to move… We need to go UNDERWATER! Yeah! Really!"

"Is THAT why you're shivering?" Chopper face palmed. "Great… This is just what we needed from you. We don't have time to flippin' complain!"

Chopper ran over to the edge of the ground they were on and looked at the platform attached to a couple of chains. It was sitting there, doing nothing interesting except for getting wet by the waterfall.

"Well, I guess you were right when you said that this lift isn't moving," Chopper looked up ahead to see a red door. "Yeah, we NEED to get these things moving ASAP!"

"But… But… I can't swim!" Sonic stammered. Tippi rolled her eyes at him and groaned.

"Poyo! (Seriously, Sonic! Stop with this right now! I thought your personality was meant to be 'cool' and not 'cowardly'! Think about all of the times you made your way through the waters! THINK ABOUT THEM!)" Kirby shouted as he shook Sonic. Chopper translated to Sonic what he said.

"Hmmmmmm… Let me think about when I managed to conquer the waters…" Sonic began to think for a bit. All he can remember is going through Labyrinth Zone, Aquatic Ruins, Hydrocity and even that temple with the green water back on Clearno Island.

"Yeah… I remember that I managed to conquer those water areas. Even still, there's NO way I'm going to let myself drown in the ocean! Sure, those places weren't that big, but the ocean is HUGE!"

"Dude… We made it through the Tile Pool!" Chopper shouted. "Don't you remember when we found a Bubble Shield? I bet you could use one of those to keep yourself from drowning. You had NO problems when you used that!"

"Yeah… Well… Err…" Sonic sweat dropped. "Well you're still not going to make me go down there!"

Chopper thought of something. "Hey! Is that a chili dog?" he asked, making Sonic look over to the right. The Star Warrior immediately pushed him off the cliff and into the water.

"Was that really such a good idea?" Tippi questioned.

"Nothing else would do the trick," Chopper replied, shaking his head. "Sorry, but this is the only way I'm gonna get Sonic into the water. I wouldn't light him on fire, though. That's a bit cruel."

"Poyo, (Well, we better get going then,)" Kirby jumped into the water and began to sink to the bottom. Chopper jumped down as well, making his way to the bottom as well. Just like before, the floor underwater was still the stone ground they were standing on before.

"See Sonic? This isn't bad isn't it?" Chopper asked, only to get a glare from the blue hedgehog. "Hey! I was just trying to get you down here! We're all in this together, you know!"

Sonic immediately grabbed an air bubble before they took the way to the left. There wasn't anything else to the right except for a brick block. The way to the left had this tunnel leading down to a pipe. Of course, there were some pipes on the walls that had Pristine Plants popping out. These plants are usually a light blue color with blue polka dots on them.

"I got these guys," Chopper tossed a fireball at the Pristine Plants that attempted to bite at them. He was surprised by the low amount of HP these guys had. It only took him two fireballs to kill one!

Going down the pipe, they found themselves in another tunnel. There were two waterways, but apparently when Sonic checked the upper one, it simply drove him back to the pipe.

"Mmmmmggggfffhhh!" Sonic covered his mouth as the timer began to start. Luckily, for him, an air bubble was nearby. He immediately grabbed it to get some more air into his lungs.

"OK, so it looks like we should check the lower waterway," Chopper took a couple of steps in the waterway, only to have the current drag him away from his friends.

"What in the… WHOA!" Chopper managed to grab a pole that was sticking on the ceiling, but it didn't feel like he was going to hold on any longer. "Agghh… Must…hold…on…!"

Sonic's ears perked as he grabbed another air bubble and made his way over to the waterway. Once Chopper slipped off of the pole, he managed to grab it next to prevent himself from bumping into Chopper.

"This looks like something that might not be easy for me to get through…" Tippi trailed as she fluttered into the waterway to follow Chopper. To her surprise, she wasn't getting dragged.

"Poyo? (Whoa… It doesn't drag you along?)" Kirby questioned before he got sucked into the current. Too bad he couldn't grab onto the poles that he ended up passing.

Once Kirby got to the end of the waterway, he saw Chopper and Sonic facing against a robotic, blue fish called a Chomper. Well, that's what Tippi said that it was.

"A fireball should do it!" Chopper swam up to the Chomper and he tossed a fireball at it. It wasn't beaten yet, but it was finished when Sonic attacked it with a Spin Jump and a Homing Attack.

Once Sonic landed on the ground, he noticed two unlit torches over by the end of the tunnel, but what got him surprised was when he saw a Bubble Shield. He immediately grabbed it, making himself get surrounded by a bubble.

"Oh, THANK YOU!" Sonic shouted as he threw his arms up in the air. "Thank you, gods! You REALLY helped me here! For a second there I thought I was going to…DROWN!"

"Poyo, (Now's not the time to be celebrating,)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo! (What we need to do right is is to get those platforms moving! Chopper! I think you need to light up those torches!)"

"That's exactly what I intend to do, Kirby," Chopper turned to the torches and he tossed two fireballs at them. They began to hear a bit of shaking coming from somewhere else in the area.

"We should check where that occurred…" suggested Tippi.

"Then that we shall do!" Sonic jumped over to the upper waterway. "I remember this one pushed me away before. If I'm correct, this one should take us back to that pipe!" And that, he was correct.

Chopper swam up to the upper waterway with Kirby and they allowed themselves to be carried by the current, let alone grabbing a couple of poles along the way as well (except for Kirby).

Once they got out of that underwater area, they were back in the first area. The Pristine Plants were still gone, so it didn't make much of a difference. They simply swam out of that little tunnel and got to the spring that brought them back to the surface. The platforms were now moving in a U-shape.

"Y'know… I always wondered about something that I never brought up before…" Chopper recalled. "We now have these 'Experience Points' and no longer 'Star Points'. What ever happened to those? And about those Mushrooms… Apparently they sap onto our HP instead of them being items!"

"What are you talking about, Chopper? It's always been like this…" Tippi trailed.

"Actually, it really hasn't," Sonic spoke up. "You see, in _our _world, when we would face an enemy, we would have to take turns making an attack. Right now, it doesn't appear to go that way. Chopper probably knows more about it 'cause he's gone through this a lot longer than us!"

"Poyo! (Or you can ask me! I've been on Chopper's quest a bit longer than you, Sonic! I do have to agree about this whole thing being weird with the Star Points and Experience Points. That, and also that these places are all 3-D unlike our worlds! It's just so strange to me!)"

"Well, I'll admit that it's weird that everything's in 2-D, but haven't we been through some 2-D in our past? If we can handle going through that, then we can certainly handle going through this. Besides…" Chopper began to stretch. "With us not having to take turns, we can beat the snot out of our enemies as much as we want! Now THAT'S something I like doing!"

"Chopper… Do you…enjoy fighting?" Tippi asked. "Because it sounds like you do enjoy fighting people…"

"Do I like fighting?" Chopper pondered, but replied by shaking his head. "In all honesty, I DON'T like fighting. It never solves anything… The only reason I fight is because people attack me most of the time. I gotta defend myself, right? Plus… After certain events on my birth planet, I was destined to be the one to foil Maquano's plans and save the universe. I didn't CHOOSE to be a hero. …Well, sort of, but if I was the only one to be a hero, then I probably would've had no other choice…"

"That's interesting… I never knew about that…" Tippi trailed before fluttering over to the platform. "Anyways, I think now's the time to get moving… We still have a palace to find…"

Chopper started by jumping on the platform. He waited for the platform to swoop over to the next platform that swooped over to him. It didn't take long for all three of them to get to the door ahead.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Whoa… Looks like we're already close to the water…" Chopper gaped as he walked over to the edge of the platform. Right below him was more water. There were also these spider enemies on the water called Striders that were on top of the water.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby got on Carrie and he jumped on top of the Strider three times before landing on top of the water. "Poyo? (Wait a second… I can float on top of the water with Carrie?)"

Sonic's ears perked. "Wait a minute… Carrie can float above the water? REALLY? !" He began to think for a moment. "Say, Kirby… You think I could borrow Carrie for this place? It's cause I can't swim and all that…"

"Poyo… (Sonic… You have that bubble shield with you… I'm PRETTY sure you can handle going underwater now…)" Kirby gave him a blank look as he pointed to the wall up ahead. There was nothing else there.

"There's no point in going over the water here… All that we can do is go underwater…" Tippi trailed.

"Great… Looks like I'm gonna have to go underwater…" Sonic face palmed as he made a jump into the water. Chopper shrugged and followed him down there, along with Kirby.

The first thing that caught them off guard was the Clubba wearing a scuba mask. This one apparently wasn't sleeping like most Clubbas. He immediately swam over to the group and knocked them all back, popping Sonic's Bubble Shield.

"Mmmmmmgggffhhh!" Sonic put his hands over his mouth as his face began to turn blue. There were no air bubbles in sight.

But he couldn't let himself drown, right? He immediately curled up in a ball and rammed into the Clubba, knocking him back. He also ended up rolling down a slope over to a spring by the wall.

"OK, I'll finish the Clubba," Chopper hurled two fireballs at the Clubba, defeating it instantly. "Hmmmmm… You think I can punch or kick with flaming energy? Let me try!" To his surprise, he was able to do a sweeping kick with flaming energy on his feet. Even his punch was surrounded by some flaming energy!

"Good! At least my punches won't be THAT weak. The flames will be able to do some damage to enemies now."

Chopper made his way down the slope. He got some increased speed, but not a lot due to the physics of water. Kirby, on the other hand, decided to swim instead of using the spring. Unfortunately, it didn't bring them to the surface. They weren't close to the surface after that dive anyways.

Chopper and Sonic used the spring to where Kirby swam over to. They noticed the bridge that they were going to be going across, but there was hidden pipe below the bridge in 3-D, thanks to Tippi.

"A pipe below here? Well, I guess I'll go check it out." Chopper threw his arms up into the air and flipped into 3-D to swim down to the ground where a pipe was settling with a Pristine Plant.

"Whoa!" Chopper charged up a fireball and destroyed the Pristine Plant in one hit. He then made his way down the pipe into an underground area…while still being underwater, that is.

What he found around him was a row of coins and a yellow ? block that contained a Mushroom thanks to using Hommissile. He grabbed it to recover some HP and then returned to the others with the pipe.

"Poyo? (So what did you find down there?)" Kirby asked.

"There really wasn't anything interesting except for a Mushroom," Chopper explained. I ended up eating the whole thing… Sorry if that disappoints you guys in any way possible…"

"Mmmmmmmggffffhh!" Sonic was shaking his arms violently as his face was still a blue color. "Mmmmmmmggffhh!"

"I can't understand a thing he's saying! …Meh, who really cares? We need to get to the next area, that's for sure." Chopper swam up ahead, only to find a wheel and door that was blocking them from moving ahead. An air bubble was right by the wheel for Sonic to grab.

"There's something written here…" Tippi trailed, looking at the sign right beside the wheel to the left. "Let's take a look at it…"

_Tips for using the wheel:_

_To use this wheel, press up on the D-Pad to move it to the left and press down on the D-Pad to move the door over to the right. That's only for closing the door. If you press up, then you'll be able to open up the door to your right and vice versa. Be careful, though… If you can't breathe underwater, you don't wanna drown while doing this… It's best recommended that you grab an air bubble._

Sonic immediately grabbed the wheel and began moving the wheel to the left to make the door to their right open up. Even still, he noticed the timer was beginning to tick as he finished.

"Mmmmmmmmggffhhh!" He immediately rushed out of the small tunnel and landed on a platform over by a wall that had an air bubble floating away. After grabbing it, he sighed in relief.

"Man, it must be tough for you to go through this…" Chopper stated as he swam down to Sonic. When he turned around, there was this big step, but there was a spike in the way.

"Great… This is just what we needed." Chopper face palmed.

"Poyo, (Well it's not that hard to maneuver,)" Kirby said as he swam down to the two. Sonic grabbed an air bubble first before jumping onto the next platform and then down to a door that was to the right at the bottom of this area.

"So Sonic has found the door already…" Tippi trailed as she fluttered down to the door with Chopper.

"Time to see what we have through here!" Chopper smirked as he opened the door to another area. They only saw this bubble-like shield floating on the ground and these small, square-shaped platforms covered in spikes that were floating underwater up ahead.

But on top of that, they could hear someone else. It sounded like they were at the surface, though…

"Poyo? (Hey… Can you hear that voice?" Kirby started to listen to the voice. It was a bit hard to hear, since they were still underwater.

Sonic immediately ran for the bubble, but when he touched it, he ended up going inside of it. "What the heck…? What's going on here? Hold on a second… I can breathe AND talk! Wow…"

But unfortunately, he was starting to float up. The bubble popped as soon as it hit one of the spiky platforms, making him sink all the way down to the ground where Chopper and Kirby were still standing.

"_Oh… Now I see what to do here! I just need to move myself around the bubble and avoid the spikes! That's not much of a challenge!" _Sonic thought as he got in the bubble again.

"Well there he goes again…" Tippi watched as Sonic moved the bubble around, avoiding any spikes that would pop it.

"I think I'm going to join him!" Chopper followed Sonic up by swimming. He wasn't getting up to him so easily, but he knew that swimming wouldn't be such a bad idea. Kirby followed him as well.

When they got to the top, they saw a slope leading up to a spring that would take them out of the water. That's when they could hear the person's voice easily.

"I can hear the voice much clearer now…" Tippi stated as she heard the person's voice.

"That's a good thing," Chopper agreed as he swam up the slope to the spring. He didn't wanna risk himself getting slowed down y the slope. Sonic, on the other hand, had to go up.

Luckily, for Sonic, when he jumped on the spring, he was taken out of the water and onto solid ground.

"Oh, thank you, air! I feel MUCH better!" Sonic sighed in relief as Chopper and Kirby jumped out of the water and landed on the ground where Sonic was standing, soaking wet.

"Well, that sure was something, wasn't it?" Chopper smiled until he saw someone sitting on a leaning chain with a lemonade in his hands. "Wait a second… What are YOU doing here?"

"Blade? You're here?" Sonic gaped.

"Huh? Who's there?" the blue ninja cat, Blade turned his head and nearly gaped. "…Guys? ! Is that really you? ! Wha… What are you all doing here? In fact, HOW did you get here? !"

Blade immediately stood up and kicked the chair away and finished his lemonade, throwing the glass somewhere else as Chopper, Kirby and Sonic walked over to their cat friend.

"Man… I didn't expect you to be here, Blade!" Chopper said in surprise.

"Wait… You know this person?" Tippi questioned.

"Poyo! (Yeah! He was at the 'party' with us where we met Tipral!)" Kirby explained. "Poyo… (It was pretty intense, I have to say…)"

"I didn't expect myself to be here surrounded by all of this…WATER!" Blade grumbled, looking at the ocean. "This ISN'T what I had planned! I could've had Tipral, but he caught me. I thought it would've been a better idea to just let him get me out of that castle, but he just HAD to take me somewhere that I don't like."

"Hold on a second… You were in Castle Tipral as well?" Tippi perked up.

"Yeah, ever since that whole battle at that strange world, I was thrown somewhere in his dark castle. Though I was able to find my way through that castle… I got caught and was sent here. Yeah, that's basically the whole story with me. Now, what's your story, you guys? And what is that rainbow butterfly with you?"

"My name is Tippi… I'm a friend of Chopper's…" Tippi introduced.

"Tippi? I bet you're another one of Chopper's girlfriends, aren't you? …Nah, I'm only kidding! Well, pleased to meet you…I guess."

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain this…but we've gone through a big while you were gone," Chopper began. "I was taken to this world called Flipside where I met a wizard named Merlon. Apparently, we have to collect these things called Pure Hearts in order to save the universe from…that." Chopper pointed at the sky.

Blade looked up. "Whoa… What's that supposed to be?"

"That's The Void. When it gets bigger, it's supposed to swallow this world up. I don't know when this world will meet its end, but I know for a fact that the world here may end…in time."

"Well, I think I ought to help you guys. If this is a bit troubling, then I AM going to help you, no matter what! I mean, you're probably going to need more help than just you three. And besides…" Blade drew his katana out. "…I'm a ninja!"

"Wait, why didn't I inhale you? I could gain the ninja ability!" Chopper was about to inhale him until Blade gestured him to not.

"I guess it's good seeing you again," Sonic gave Blade a hi-five. "I know you're my idol and all, but try NOT to get overexcited with me around."

"Oh, relax, Sonic. I don't get overexcited when I see my idol. I just think that it's cool seeing you around. That's all. So… Yeah! I'm joining you guys!"

**Blade has joined your party! With him, he can strike enemies by using his katana. His Attack power is increased by two due to his incredible skills with his katana. He can also toss some shurikens from a far distance, or he could stand on skinny platforms if possible. Like Sonic, Blade cannot survive underwater and needs air bubbles to keep himself from drowning.**

"OK, then! Now that we've met, please tell me you have something that can break that block over there…" Blade pointed to the yellow block with beady eyes. "I've tried slicing through it, but it didn't do any good."

"Ohhhh… I didn't know there was a block like that…" Chopper said with a blank look.

"What? You don't have anything that can break through that? ! Oh, god no! This is BAAAAD!" Blade face palmed until he heard his communicator going off. "Oh, hang on, I gotta take this."

He pulled his communicator out and he turned it on. "OK, what do you want, Bang? I'm a bit busy right now…"

"_Errrr… Do you have any idea how to open a can?" _Bang asked stupidly.

"Ugh…" Blade face palmed once again. "You need a can opener to open it."

"_A can opener? That's gay!"_

"_**YOU'RE GAY!**_" he shouted back, pointing to the communicator. Chopper, Kirby and Sonic immediately stepped away from him.

"Sorry about that, guys," Blade apologized, putting away his communicator. "Sometimes I just get pissed off whenever that guy calls me. He always asks the STUPIDEST questions!"

"Well don't worry about that, Blade. Things will get better…I guess." Chopper jumped over the block and he noticed a red door up ahead. "Hey, why didn't you look over at that red door?"

"Oh, that door? I didn't feel like checking it out. I was too lazy, I guess…" Blade grumbled as he jumped over the block and over to the door. They all entered to find a little pool.

"Crud… Not more water!" Sonic groaned.

"Deal with it, man! I had to go through A LOT of this crap! Thank goodness those weird Swamints rescued me when I fell in the ocean…" Blade grumbled as he jumped into the water and into the waterway that began to drag him to a spring.

The other three followed him down and got out of the water with the spring. Unfortunately, that's when they reached a dead end.

"A dead end? Oh, no…" Chopper gulped.

"Poyo? (What are we supposed to do now?)" Kirby wailed.

"Showed at last, did yeh?" a voice called out. Chopper's antennas immediately sprung up upon hearing that voice.

"Oh, god no… Don't tell me…" Chopper face palmed.

O'Chunks landed right in front of Chopper. "_**GRA-BLAGHY!**_"

"Who's this weirdo? Why does he look so…weird?" Blade questioned.

"'Ey! 'Ow dare yeh call me weird!" O'Chunks growled. "But, listen! I've not been made teh wait like this since that fine lass stood me up long, long ago!"

"Yeah, that was ME who stood you up long ago," Chopper muttered.

"Yeh did this teh break me concentration, didn't yeh? Yeh likes the cheatin', eh? Sorry to disappoint yeh! Yeh think I'd fall fer a bush-league move like that?"

"Dude… You don't know who you're messing with." Blade drew his katana out and got in a fighting stance. "I suppose you're one of Tipral's minions, right? I think I saw you roaming around his castle… But you're pretty dumb to face us! It's four against one, for Pete's sake!"

"O'Chunks… It's best not to follow Tipral… You're being misguided…" Tippi warned.

"Grrrraaa-BARGLE-FARGLE!" O'Chunks stomped in anger. "'Misguided'? That's not even a real word, yeh squishy bug! An' I had enough of yer yappin', yeh blue cat! It's time fer us the settle this once an' fer all!"

"Look, dude… We're trying to find a way to get the Pure Heart. We DON'T want any trouble. Y'hear?" Blade warned.

"Grah har har har har!" O'Chunks cackled. "Big talk fer a blue weird-lookin' cat! I'll be wantin' an apology! In writin'. An' I want it written with yer FACE!"

"Poyo! (That doesn't even make sense!)" Kirby retorted.

"Ah, salutations, O'Chunks!" a delightful voice called out. It sounded very familiar to Chopper, Kirby and Sonic.

Dimentio appeared, floating above O'Chunks. Blade looked a bit confused at this guy's dressup.

"Who's the clown wearing the weird hat?" Blade asked.

"Oh, I'm afraid the word 'clown' is a big typo on your part, Blade!" Dimentio corrected. "You may be confused on how I know your name… But allow me to introduce myself! I am Dimentio, one of Tipral's humble servants! It's an honor to meet you!"

"Dimentio? What a weird name…"

"Yeah, it's a weird name," Chopper clenched his fists, making a flaming aura appear around them. "All right, Dimentio, if you plan on teaming up with O'Chunks, then we'll battle! You and me!"

"Ah, I nearly forgot about you!" Dimentio turned to Chopper. "Once again we meet, like two small, rolling elephants in a muddy racetrack!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Chopper guffawed.

"What d'yeh want, Dimentio? ! I don't be needin' any help! Yeh'll just get in the way!" O'Chunks growled, glaring at the jester.

"Ah, a quadrillion pardons! Far be it from me to be a hindrance. Far, FAR be it! As it happens, I merely have an acquaintance in this watery land. I was just saying hello!"

"Sayin' hello, eh?"

The jester raised his hands up. "Yes, truly! And I saw you, and I thought, 'Perhaps my magic can aid in this fight!'" Using his magic, he transported all five of them to his own dimension: Dimension D.

"What the heck…? Where are we?" questioned Blade.

"We're in Dimentio D, a dimension created by me," Dimentio replied. "And rest assured, by big, burly friend! I'll hardly be underfoot! You fight to your heart's content! Ciao!"

With a snap of his fingers, he was gone.

"Wuh…" O'Chunks chuckled. "That doesn't sound too bad, I guess. Maybe I misunderstood that weirdo… Well, anyway, you lot are in fer it now! Meet the new-an'-improved O'Chunks!"

"Well we'll just see about that!" Chopper smirked as he used Tippi's ability to gather information on the bearded man.

"That's O'Chunks. He's Tipral's main muscle... Max HP is 40 and Attack is 4. He can grab you by the feet and hurl you… If you're in reach, he'll toss you, so keep your distance… But you can turn the tables on him and use Thoreau to send him flying." Tippi informed.

"That's kind of the same thing that you said last time…" Chopper groaned.

"Hold on… What's that thing you got with you?" Blade asked, pointing to Hommissile.

"Oh, that? He's a Pixl. He gives you the ability to send him flying into anything with an explosion. It's pretty cool."

"…For some reason, I feel like I want that missile Pixl…"

"You wanna use him? Go right ahead, Blade! I don't really think he's my main Pixl anyways… Enjoy using him, though!" Chopper allowed Hommissile to go over to Blade. Besides… He might need Thoreau for this one!

"See 'ow yeh all like this!" O'Chunks came rushing towards everyone with his shoulder, but Blade immediately struck him with a slash from his katana, making O'Chunks get knocked back.

"Ow… That sword does 'ave some chunks in it…" groaned O'Chunks.

"It's not a sword, you idiot! It's a katana!" Blade rushed once again, slashing at him one other time and then kicking him to the wall. "Look, dude, we don't have time to be fighting you! Why don't you just call it quits so we can find the Pure Heart?"

"Grah! I don't need teh listen teh yer ramblin'!" O'Chunks grabbed Blade by the legs and he immediately began to spin him around. After releasing him, the blue cat began to go all over the place, hitting the walls and the ceiling.

"Ugh…" Blade hit the ground, suffering some fatal damage, but this allowed O'Chunks to do a stupid dance.

"Looks like this is my chance to attack," Chopper hurled a fireball straight at O'Chunks, scorching him in flames. "Man, I love you so much, fire!"

"Agh! Who thinks they can interrupt me dance like that? !" O'Chunks growled as he jumped above Chopper and landed right on top of him with a powerful stomp attack. "Nobody ruins me dance! NO ONE!"

"Says you!" Sonic curled up in a ball and he struck O'Chunks in the stomach, knocking him back to the wall. That's when Blade threw Hommissile straight at him to leave him with some soot on him.

"Wow… This battle sure is going smoothly…" Chopper gawked as he struck O'Chunks in the face with a flaming spinning kick. "Look, O'Chunks… You're basically beat. It's four against one and you're ALREADY losing!"

"Yer just sayin' that just teh make me give up!" O'Chunks knocked all four of them back with a powerful punch attack. "I may be outnumbered, but me strength is what outnumbers yers!"

"Poyo… (Yeah, whatever…)" Kirby rolled his eyes as he jumped on Carrie and stomped on the bearded warrior's head, stunning him for a couple of seconds. Chopper managed to make O'Chunks trip with a sweeping kick, with fire added into the mix.

O'Chunks thought of an idea. He could obviously grab a piece of the floor and throw it at them! He immediately grabbed a piece and threw it straight at Blade, knocking him back a bit as the piece cracked.

"Whoa… That's some physical strength there!" Blade made a couple of signs using his fingers. "Fuujin no Jutsu!" Using his ninja powers, he managed to knock O'Chunks to the wall with a gust of wind.

"'Fuujin no Jutsu'? What the heck is that supposed to be?" Chopper questioned.

"It's a technique of the Wind God," Blade explained. "Only a ninja can use abilities like this…if they make the correct sign with their hands, that is…"

"Well that's interesting…" Chopper rushed over to O'Chunks and he punched him in the stomach with a flaming punch attack. "How's that, O'Chunks? Are you getting chunked right now? …Sorry if that sounded a bit cruel."

"Why are yeh apologizin' teh me, yeh wee lass? !" O'Chunks growled as he punched Chopper in the face, leaving a big red bruise on his face. "Yeh shouldn't be askin' me that, yeh little monkey butt!"

"Hey! I'm not a monkey butt!" Chopper did an uppercut kick attack, but it really didn't do much against him due to his heavy weight… "A little help here, Blade?"

"Gladly!" Blade smirked as he rushed towards O'Chunks. Making a sign with his hands, he created a couple of clones to bash at O'Chunks with their feet and katanas, leaving a couple of scars on his arms and rips on his shirt.

"Urrghhh… Come out an' face me, yeh wee coward!" O'Chunks shouted as he punched eat Blade clone, only to have them disappear into smoke.

"I know yer 'ere somewhere!" Luckily, O'Chunks managed to get the right Blade, knocking him up to the ceiling with an uppercut punch. "Gra ha ha ha! Now I'm gettin' somewhere!"

"Think again!" Sonic weakened O'Chunks with one Homing Attack, weakening him for just a little. "Well, I think he should be finished pretty soon."

"I'll take care of this!" Blade kicked O'Chunks in the face and with one slash from his katana, O'Chunks was willing to give up.

"GRRRRA-BLOOOOOOOOOORGH! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" O'Chunks cried as he knelt down. Dimension D began to disappear and bring them all back to Pristine Palisade.

"So, you finally had enough, didn't you?" Blade smirked as he cleaned his katana with a handkerchief before putting it away.

"BLARGH IT ALL! Bad enough that yeh beat me once, but twice is too much the bear! How can I show me face teh Tipral now, eh? I CAN'T! Put me out o' me misery!"

"Wait a minute… Are you serious? You want us to _kill_ you? !" Chopper's eyes widened. "I… I could never do that!"

"Get on with it! I'm serious! I have no regrets! Well… No… Perhaps I do regret not confessin' me love teh that sweet lass… _**BUT NO!**_ That's no way fer a warrior teh talk when 'is time comes 'round at last! So… Do it! Now! NOW! Finish me! End me game!" O'Chunks looked like he was ready to be put down.

Until…

"Well, salutations, O'Chunks! How are things, hmmm?" Dimentio appeared right behind O'Chunks. Once he heard the jester, he got up and turned to him.

"Di-Dimentio! Look, honestly, this is kind o' important!" O'Chunks cried. "How 'bout some privacy, eh?"

"Yes, yes, of course. I understand. Your honor must be satisfied… But, O'Chunks… Before you let your game be over, humor poor little me for a bit. I have something I rather think you'll enjoy. I DO wish you would try it out for me."

"_**YEH CRAZED LOON!**_ It's not the time fer…"

"Oh…it's not the time, hmm? Not the time for something that will aid Tipral?"

"Ooh… Fer Tipral, eh? Well, that do change a thing or two… Hmmmm…" O'Chunks began to ponder for a bit before making his decision. "…Fine, then!"

O'Chunks turned to the heroes with a glare. "You lot! Yeh took enough of a beatin' fer today, so I'll let yeh off easy-like! I tell yeh this, though: yeh better work on yer skills by the next time we meet!"

"Wait, what about all that drivel about not showing your face to Tipral and such?" Tippi questioned.

"'EY! SHUT IT! I live fer Tipral! I couldn't end me game without 'is say-so! Me heart is weak, sure, so I'm done with it! From now on, I'm all brawn, no brain! The past be nothin' teh me! All that matters is Tipral's future! All fer 'im! Chunks away!"

"Ah, it is time to part… Ciao!" Dimentio teleported with a snap of his finger and O'Chunks left by using his…farting rocket ability.

"What…the heck…was that? !" Blade guffawed as he saw the gassy clouds coming form O'Chunks.

"…You don't wanna know," Chopper gagged before a big, large chest appeared right in front of them.

"What the… What's this?" Chopper walked over to the chest and he opened it.

"_**Hey! Yo!**_" a Pixl resembling a hammer popped out of the chest. "Whuh? I'm getting' nothin'… So… You…ignorin' me? Or was that a 'yes'? Better try one more time… PLEASE TALK TO ME!"

"Ummmmmmm… Wow. A hammer Pixl? Now THAT'S pretty cool!" Chopper smirked. "But, who are you?"

"Ah, so you can hear me! Nice! Sounds good. Been a while since I've heard voices. Been a while since I talked. Now what was my name again? …Oh! It was Cudge! That's right! Gotta tell people how ya feel or they dunno… Gotta talk or no one hears ya! So, listen, weird question… You got a motto or what? Whisper it to me, huh?"

"Hmmmmmm… How about… Tipralisafaker!"

"Oh, yeah… That's perfect! I am LOVIN' that! It really got me now! Now, hang on a sec…" Cudge floated up high and began to shout the words: "_**TIPRALISAFAKER!**_"

Relieved to say that, Cudge floated down to Chopper. "So yeah, that's your motto… Words you live by, right? Right on! Good stuff! Feels like I know you now… What really drives you… Gotta say, it's inspirin'! Haven't felt like this in a while… Feels kinda like when I first became a Pixl! I gotta get on board this good-feelin' train! I'm stickin' with you!"

Cudge circled around Chopper and then was held up by the young Star Warrior with a smile.

**The hammer Pixl called Cudge, has joined your group! Swing that hammer to do serious damage! You can even break giant blocks now!**

"Oh, man! A hammer Pixl! Now THIS is something that I've been longing to have! …I think I just found the perfect Pixl for me!" Chopper smiled.

"Yeah! Feelin' good! Yeah! I got a ton of pent-up energy, lemme tell you!" Cudge shouted before a block appeared right to their left.

"Well, what do ya know? Time to show this block who's boss!" Chopper smirked as he magically pulled a hammer out and smashed the block, revealing a pipe that led them to the door in this area.

"It's a good thing that we found just what we needed for that door!" Blade smirked as they returned to the area they were previously in. With one smash of a hammer, Chopper smashed the block and walked through the door.

"What's that block up ahead?" questioned Blade as they walked into the next area.

"Oh, that's a Star Block. Just watch what happens when I hit that thing!" Chopper rushed towards the Star Block and smashed it with one punch.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Blade on their side, the three heroes became four. Blade began to entertain Chopper, Tippi, Kirby and Sonic with his interesting stories of when he was young and when he was training with his sensai. Some of the stuff he learned wasn't even that helpful for his later years! "I'm feeling that we're getting closer to the Pure Heart… Are we getting closer to the palace?" Tippi wondered as she fluttered on ahead. All that they knew was that they still had more water to swim through…_

* * *

**Updating this around 10:32 at night. Is that really a good thing? I don't think so... But, anyways... Yeah, I think you were expecting this guy to make his appearance. If you didn't know before, this guy is made by my buddy (who doesn't really go on this site). But, enough of that. This chapter...was one of the longer ones, I have to admit.**

**Anyways... We still have some more Pristine Palisade to explore. Yeah, there's A LOT.  
**


	29. Watery Ways to the Palace

**CHAPTER 5-3**

**-Watery Ways to the Palace-**

"All right, guys… If you're wondering where we are, I'll just answer your question right now: we're in the same world, but we're getting PRETTY close to that palace that the Swamints were talking about. What was that guy's name again? I think his name was something like…King Nepto? …No? Oh! Wait! It's King Neptunian! There we go! I thought for a second that I forgot that guy's name… What a relief that I didn't." Blade sighed in relief as the sat down on the wet floor, which was actually pretty close to the water at this moment.

"Wait a minute…" Sonic looked at the bottom of his sneakers. They were wet at this moment. "Why are my sneakers wet? Are… Are we near the water or something? 'Cause I DON'T like that! Quickly, guys! We need to find somewhere safe! …Err… Gimme Carrie, Kirby!"

"Poyo! (No way! I'm not going to give you my Pixl!)" Kirby retorted, preventing the blue hedgehog from taking his Pixl. "Poyo! (This is the Pixl I chose! You already have Screwdy!)"

"Sonic… Seriously. Calm down already!" Chopper retorted. "Every time we reach a new part of this chapter, we have to hear you complain. C'mon! Enough of it already! I bet you can handle more of this place!"

"…Fine. I won't complain. But if I'm the one that drowns, then it's your fault, you guys." Sonic pouted with his arms folded.

"That would be your own problem," Blade smirked as he walked over to the edge of the platform. "All right, so how far do we need to find this Pure Heart thing? If it's at that palace, then that's good. Does anyone have an idea where it could be?"

"From what I'm getting, the Pure Heart is just through this place…" Tippi trailed, fluttering over to the edge with Chopper. "The palace might not be far from this very area…"

"Well that's a good thing!" Chopper immediately tossed a fireball at the Strider that was wading on top of the water. "Well, what're we waiting for? We need to get a move on right now!"

With one jump, Chopper went sinking to the bottom of the water. Like before, there was still the stone ground that he felt. Up ahead was a slope going down to a pit. He gestured everyone to follow him.

Blade immediately pushed Sonic so he didn't have to cry about it. After Kirby made his way down into the water, he jumped in afterwards. Although he hates the water, he can surely hold his breath for a little bit.

"Mmmmggfffh!" Blade pointed to the Chomper that was up ahead. He immediately swam towards it and sliced it in half with his katana. He was lucky to have more Attack power then the others, that's for sure.

"Poyo… (Wow… That was pretty impressive!)" Kirby gaped.

"Although Blade couldn't understand Kirby, he knew that it was probably a compliment. But, of course, he needed air, just like Sonic, so they both immediately went to the air bubble near the edge of the little cliff they were near that led a bit deeper down into the ocean.

"We better be careful… It looks like things are about to get intense!" Chopper stated as he swam down to the ground. A Chomper tried to swoop down and attack, but with his hammer, he smashed it to the ground and killed it within seconds.

Kirby attacked the other Chomper by squirting water at it, but it was pretty useless. Sonic was the one to deliver the final blow to the robotic fish.

"Man… I wish I could swim a bit faster…" Chopper groaned until he realized he was underwater. "Hey… Wait a second! I almost forgot about something! Why not inhale the water?"

Chopper inhaled some of the water. Once he swallowed some of it, got himself a golden crown containing a cresting wave on his head. He also changed to a translucent blue color, with purple shoes.

"See? I think this should prove to me MUCH more helpful!" Chopper blew two air bubbles for both Sonic and Blade to get in to act as Bubble Shields. The two sighed in relief as they breathed in the air.

"Whew! That's better! I didn't know you could do that!" Blade gasped. "Well, I KNEW that you could copy abilities…"

"I guess all I'm good at doing underwater is blowing some bubbles. …Or rather, my squirting can be a bit more useful now!" Chopper swam over to some steps that led up to a red door, where a Nepto was guarding.

"Take this!" Chopper squirted a large amount of water at the Nepto, knocking it back to the wall. "Dang it… All that the Water ability is good for underwater is for swimming faster. I mean, these guys can MOVE in water! Not a very good thing, if you ask me…"

Nevertheless, he decided to toss a fireball at the Nepto instead, knocking it away from the area. He and the other three that made it up to him walked through the door to find themselves in a small tunnel with a couple of spikes on the ceiling and even in a small little pit.

"Oh, goody… Just what I wanted to see… SPIKES!" Sonic face palmed.

"Oh, quit you're whining, Sonic," Blade said. "These things can be maneuvered easily if you know what you're doing. Just watch!" the ninja swam in the middle of the tunnel. The spikes weren't really hard to avoid anyways, so it wasn't too bad.

"Hmmmm… I see…" Sonic attempted to jump over the spikes on the ground. After going through there, they saw the tunnel got a bit bigger in height, having a platform moving up and down over by a platform with a yellow ? block.

Kirby swam up to the block and hit it, making a Super Shroom pop out. They all grabbed a piece and allowed it to sap into their HP.

"Whoa… Hold on a second… These things SAP onto your HP? What ever happened to using them as items?" Blade questioned.

"Oh, that's a bit of a tough question to answer…" Chopper trailed as he whacked a Chomper with his hammer. To his surprise, a Shroom Shake dropped from it. "Oh! We use Shroom Shakes now, I guess…"

"Anyways, I think we ought to move on," Blade swam on ahead through the tunnel, only to get sucked in by the current. He was able to grab a pole up ahead before he even had a chance to get gored by the spikes on the lower step.

Blade managed to move his arms to the upper part of the pole to allow himself to be carried away by the current.

"I'll go up next," Sonic allowed himself to be carried by the current, along with Chopper and Kirby (though Chopper had to hold onto Kirby, since he couldn't grab onto any of the poles).

In the end, the current pulled them up and they were soon rocketing out of the water from a huge amount of water shooting up, allowing them to land a bit high up over by higher ground.

"Whoa… That was a bit intense!" Blade shouted as he quickly shook himself in order to get dry. "I haven't had that much fun in a WHILE!"

"Well, looks like things are gonna get even more intense," Chopper stated as he pointed to the large slope down below leading to a loop and over to a wall that can be run up. A spring was on the ceiling if they ever reached top speed.

"Oh, man! This is going to be so cool!" Sonic started by going down the slope and curling into a ball just in case if anyone tries to attack him. Of course, this wasn't necessary…

"I might as well follow him," Chopper prepared himself for a Speed Dash, running in place in a figure-8 pattern. As soon as he finished, he went dashing down the slope and through the loop, where the spring on the wall brought him down to a slope to the right that would lead to another wall with a spring.

"Poyo? ! (How come I'm not able to do something like that? !)" Kirby nearly gaped at what Chopper just performed.

"Dude… I know what you're probably saying, but you can eat things. It's best just to move on from here." Blade began to slide down the slope. "So are you coming or not?"

Kirby pouted as he slid down the slope. Instead of going through the loop, he took the slope down to the left where Chopper and Sonic went down. They came across another slope going down over by the water, but they noticed that both Chopper and Sonic were able to run on top of it.

"Wow… I can't believe I'm moving over water!" Chopper said in surprise. "That makes me feel like I'm a certain someone…"

Once he crossed through a loop, he ended up back underwater with Sonic. He was lucky to land his flaming foot on a Chomper swimming around in this area, or else he would've taken damage.

Once Kirby and Blade got to the two, they immediately looked at their surroundings. They weren't too far from the surface. In fact, they WERE pretty close.

"Well, if you two ever need any air if your Bubble Shield disappears, then you ought to jump or something," Chopper suggested, looking up at the surface.

"I think I'll be perfectly fine," Sonic assured.

"Oh, really?" Blade raised an eyebrow. "What if we're deeper in the ocean and you end up losing your bubble shield? Huh? HUH? ! Yeah, I thought so, Sonic!"

"…I didn't even say anything to you, Blade."

"Oh… I see…"

They decided to get a move on, walking through this little area to a door up ahead. A Strider was wading around in the water around here, but it was taken down after one slice from Blade's katana.

"Ya gotta love using this thing," Blade grinned as he swam over to the door. "This katana just kicks ass!"

"Dude! Language!" Chopper snapped. "You shouldn't be swearing right now! I mean, sure, I've said some bad stuff in the past years, but honestly, swearing isn't NECESSARY! You got that?"

"…It's just a WORD! God!" Blade kicked the door open to an area with a big slope going down, but they noticed some platforms circling around here. They knew that were deeper in the ocean.

"Better curl up into a ball here," Sonic curled up in a ball as he was taken down the slope. He ended up hitting a Chomper that was swooping down to attack, but he stopped when he saw a pit of spikes.

"That was TOO close! I thought for a second that I was going to fall down and get skewered!"

"You ALWAYS say stuff like that, that it isn't even funny," Chopper frowned as he swam over the pit of spikes and to one of the platforms in the water that led up to the surface.

With Blade helping Sonic over the pit, he brought him over to the platform leading to the surface. But he decided to slice a Chomper in half before he got to the platform.

"I sense some strange power up ahead…" warned Tippi as she followed Chopper out of the water and to stone ground. They saw this pink flower with a big, pink glowing orb inside of it.

"What the heck is that supposed to be?" Chopper asked.

"It's a teleporter. It should take you somewhere else in this place…" Tippi fluttered over to the end of the area. "From what I can see, we have a large ocean to cross… I don't see the palace anywhere…"

As the other three climbed out of the water, Sonic and Blade immediately shook themselves, while Kirby…didn't do anything.

"So, this brings you back to the good old days where we first met each other, doesn't it, Sonic?" Blade asked, nudging him.

"Oh, yeah… That first time I met ya…" Sonic pondered.

* * *

_"So… This is Ash Field, huh? This place looks pretty cool! Even if it has dullness to it, it's not too bad. At least we're still standing and breathing. Though, I gotta say some of this ash gets in my shoes…" Sonic dumped the ash in his shoes._

_"Hey, did I just hear Sonic's voice? …It can't be!" Sonic turned around and he saw a blue cat wearing ninja clothing gawking. On his back, he had a katana with a black and yellow-striped handle. The cat walked over to Sonic with a look of amazement, while Sonic looked confused._

_"Man… It's so awesome to see you. You know you're like a celebrity back on Mobius! I've been longing to see you ever since I was twelve…even though you were twelve back then too." he said_

_"So I got a fan? That's pretty cool! And who might you be?" Sonic asked._

_"Me? My name's Blade. Blade the Cat. I'm a ninja that usually does, well, ninja stuff. I'm sure you don't wanna know more about what I do as a ninja. I mean, I'm not OBSESSIVE at all! I just do what my sensai tells me to do…for the most." Blade brought his arm out to shake Sonic's hand._

_"So you're Blade, huh? Sounds like a cool name! It's a pleasure to meet ya!" Sonic shook Blade's hand, which felt like a REAL hero's handshake, unlike some others who have weak ones (and I don't count as a weak handshaker!)._

_"Hey, Blade! Who are these guys here?" called out a voice. Blade turned around and he saw his yellow Chihuahua friend, Bang. He was wearing leather armor and had a couple of weapons that he carried. This friend of Blade's is an odd one, because he thinks of himself as sort of a ladies man…even though he can't get a girlfriend (the last times he tried, he ended up getting a black eye)._

_Another friend of Blade's was with him too. His name is Night. This guy was a red furry…mouse! Yes, that's it! He's a mouse! But, the thing is that Night's an undead mouse. The cool thing about him was that he's in black armor and he carries an axe hammer – a weapon being half axe and half hammer. Night's a mercenary, but he has a hobby too like Bang: killing things!_

_"Oh, yeah… I forgot about those two. Well, mostly Bang." Blade said, which made Bang sulk. "But, enough about that. Who the heck are those people over there?" he asked, pointing at Chopper and his friends._

_"My name? I'm Chopper!" Chopper answered._

_"My name's Vivian," Vivian replied. Bang's mouth was agape and he zipped over to the shadow girl with a grin on his face. He was a little too close to her, which felt a little awkward for her._

_"Heh-HEY! What do we have here?" Bang's eyebrows rose. "Say, now… You're one cute girl, did ya know that? I don't normally say that to many girls – even when I got a couple of black eyes from them. So… What do you say we spend a little time together?"_

_Chopper immediately stepped in the way and pushed Bang back. "No way, Bang! Sorry, but she doesn't want to be with you. You're a dog, while she's a ghost. It doesn't match up!"_

_"What? You're defending her? Lemme guess… You like her, don't you?" Bang asked. Chopper's mouth dropped and he glared at him, blushing madly._

_"Wh-What? What made you assume THAT?" he asked._

_"Well, 'cause you went up to defend her! What else? You're definitely someone who likes her, which is what I can see!"_

_"Ahem… Do we need to do anything here?" Night asked._

* * *

"Yeah, I remember those times…" Sonic recalled. "What ever happened to Bang and Night anyways? Did you ever get in contact with at least Night? I'm assuming you already spoke to Bang…"

"Oh, how are they doing right now? I think that they managed to find their way out of Chopper's planet and get back to Mobius. Man… Bang was being such a wuss! I can understand why Night left, but Bang? Such a coward!"

"Poyo, (Well that must be a bit embarrassing for him,)" Kirby snickered. "Poyo! (What? That's so funny how he just leaves you!)"

"Let's not bother laughing, Kirby," Chopper suggested. "I think we should just get going before anything bad happens." Chopper walked over to the teleporter and gestured everyone to jump on it.

Once Chopper jumped onto the pink orb that began to glow. A light blue beam came down upon him and transported him somewhere else in Pristine Palisade. The other three followed him through that.

* * *

**The bottom of the ocean-**

"Oh, you gotta be KIDDING ME!" Sonic pouted as they found themselves deep in the ocean. The ground was no longer made of stone, but more like a marble this time, with the cover being a light blue color. Some capsules with blue glowing energy were on the ground as well and also some small, green plants.

"Well, looks like there's no going back," Blade stated as he saw no teleporter.

"No going back? ! Oh, come on! You're telling me that there's no way out of this ocean?" Sonic looked at the background and also looked up. The surface was incredibly hard to see. "Yeah… I think we're in some deep yogurt here."

"So what? You have those Bubble Shields on you! I don't see any problem with that…" Chopper walked over to the edge to find four platforms circling around. There was another set of platforms circling around that led to the other side of the large gap.

Kirby looked down to see if there were any bottomless pits. "Poyo! (Nope! No bottomless pits in sight! I guess things should be just fine…I guess!)"

"Then we shouldn't have a problem crossing through this gap," Chopper used his swimming speed with his Water ability on him to swim over the platforms and land on the ground ahead. Kirby followed him, but he had a harder time keeping up, so he inhaled water to get the Water ability. Unlike Chopper, his feet were red and not purple.

"Poyo! (Now traveling underwater should be MUCH easier!)" he stated as he landed on the ground. Blade was forced to drag Sonic over to the other side, but he didn't have a huge problem with it.

"Wow… I can't believe we're incredible deep in the water." Sonic panted. "How cold is it down here anyways? I can't exactly tell whether the water's cold or not."

"The water's pretty warm down here, to be honest," Chopper stated. "I think it's because we're so far from the surface that it gets a bit warmer. I think that's what I know of so far…"

"If that's the reason, then I don't think it should be a big problem traveling through here…" Tippi trailed as she spotted spikes over by the ledge below them.

Chopper made a jump over by the ledge, but he made sure not to touch the spikes. He ended up taking a Chomper out with his fireball, on the other hand.

"Hey, Chopper… I don't know why, but I feel like we've discovered Atlantis. Don't you think so?" Blade questioned.

"Atlantis? I've already discovered that place with my friends, Vivian, Scrub, Kirby, Shadower and Bombette! We KNOW about that place already!"

"Poyo! (Yeah! It was an interesting discovery for sure!)" Kirby squealed before frowning. "Poyo… (Too bad we didn't tell anyone else about it…)"

"Eh, who cares? I think it's better off being kept as a secret. …Just don't go telling people that we found that place, or else we might be in a heap of trouble…" suggested Chopper.

"You got it!" Sonic gave a thumbs up before jumping down to a lower part of the ground. There really wasn't much around except for these star-shaped robotic enemies covered in spikes.

After gathering information, Chopper discovered that these things are called Spinning Axis. It's pretty much impossible to jump on these guys or touch them with a Spin Jump.

"I guess I should hit these guy with something that doesn't involve me touching it," Chopper slammed his hammer on the Spinning Axis, but it was soon sliced in half by Blade's katana.

"Heh heh heh! That was fun!" Blade grinned as he swam over to the door ahead. The other three followed him down to an area with two yellow ? blocks separated from each other and a bunch of Spinning Axis, Chompers and Neptos patrolling.

Although it looked like a HUGE risk to just fight them all, Blade hit the second yellow ? block, making a Mega Star pop out, to his surprise.

"Whoa… What the heck is that?" he questioned.

"That thing's a Mega Star. If you grab it, you'll turn into an 8-bit version of yourself in massive proportions. Basically, you're able to destroy EVERYTHING in sight, which I think is GOOD! …But it doesn't last very long, which stinks." Chopper explained.

"Well I'm gonna try it out!" Blade clenched his fist that he caught the Mega Star on and he began to feel a huge amount of energy within him. That's when he grew to great proportions as an 8-bit version of himself.

"Ho ho ho! Now look who's incredibly awesome now?" Blade grinned as he stomped his way through all of the Neptos, Chompers and Spinning Axis that were in sight. Unfortunately, being down underwater, it slowed him down a little.

"We better follow him!" Chopper suggested as he swam over to Blade without touching him. He stopped when Blade turned back to normal and was already over by the red door.

"Well, what do you know? I got over here! Isn't that just amazing?" he asked.

As they entered through the door, they walked into another area where they had to drop down. Chopper started by sinking down to the bottom of the area, where he saw a couple of steps he had to go both up and down to the left.

"So we have to stop going right now? Interesting…" Sonic pondered as he moved on ahead, only to get hit by a Spinning Axis.

"Mmmmmgggfffh!" Sonic began to choke as he rushed over to an air bubble. He almost drowned, but the air bubble barely saved him.

"HA! Now you don't have a Bubble Shield on you!" Blade scoffed before the Spinning Axis struck him after its spinning attack, causing his Bubble Shield to pop like Sonic's, making him choke.

"Well, I guess that's what he gets for trying to mock someone," Chopper stated as he smashed the Spinning Axis with his hammer. "On the other hand, don't try to attack these things, Sonic."

There were some platforms that they had to swim up before they got up to a platform with a pipe that looked like they could all fit themselves through.

Sonic went first, curling up into a ball and letting the pipe transport him somewhere else in the ocean. Blade went up next, trying his best to curl up into a ball and follow him. Chopper and Kirby seemingly had no problem when it came to traveling, due to their shape.

* * *

**The very bottom-**

"Wow… Looks like we're at the bottom of the ocean." Chopper gaped as he placed his hand on the sandy floor. "Yeah, this is it all right. It also feels a lot darker than before. Not TOO dark, but kinda dark."

"Poyo… (I can agree on that…)" Kirby shivered before taking notice of the pink orb up ahead. "Poyo! (Chopper! I can see the teleporter!)"

"Wait a minute… I sense something else below these sands…" Tippi paused. "Chopper… I would suggest using my power to investigate what's going on…"

"No problem! …I guess." Chopper was starting to feel nervous, since it started to get quiet. Luckily for both Sonic and Blade, an air bubble was right by them for them to inhale. "Gee… It feels kinda scary down here, now that I think about it."

Chopper began to use Tippi's powers to investigate the area. With his eyes emitting a ray of rainbow light, he was able to discover some kind of blue glowing bulb sitting on top of the sand.

"What is this thing? It feels so…strange…" Tippi trailed as she turned back into her Pixl form.

"_**WHO DARES INTERRUPT MY SLEEP? !**_" the ground began to shake as an orange angler fish rose up from the sands. It was a bit big, but not huge like Dracktail. It was bigger than O'Chunks, that's for sure.

The angler fish looked down at Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade with its blue eyes. "Who are you people? ! Nobody has disturbed me in many years!"

"And who might you be?" questioned Tippi.

"I am the great Lord Droolhead! I sleep under these sands until my time of reckoning has come for King Neptunian! Now, tell me what you want right now! I know you're here for a reason…"

"Well… Ummmmmmm…" Chopper stammered. "We just wanted to go to King Neptunian's Palace so we could have some pizza with him! He invited us to his palace, after all…"

"Don't lie to me, you nitwit!" Lord Droolhead snapped. "If he were to invite you to his palace, you wouldn't be taking this way! You four are obviously going to his palace to claim the Pure Heart! And once you do that, you'll probably drain my home where I'll shrivel up and die!"

"Well… Something like that…" Tippi trailed. "But I don't think that that last part is something we would like to do…"

"LIARS! I can't believe such a story like that! If you refuse to listen, then a watery grave shall await you all!" Droolhead growled as he swooped down to zap the four with its electricity on its bulb.

"Whoa… This thing is impressive!" Chopper panted as he jumped away from the large fish. "I ought to see what you have to say about it, Tippi. You might give some interesting info on it!"

Using Tippi's powers, Chopper was able to gather information on Droolhead. The following information he got was:

"That's Lord Droolhead. He's supposedly a king of the ocean… Or, that's what he says, at least… Max HP is 40. Attack is 4. Defense is 2. While normal attacks will do the same damage to it, the boils on it are its weak point… I would recommend hitting those first… This large angler fish can only attack you with its electric attack from its antenna… That's not very threatening, but as you bring his HP down, his attacks will become faster and he might even shoot bubbles at you… All that matters is that you stop this monster from blocking you…"

"Let's see if I can actually hurt this fish," Chopper started by squirting water at Droolhead, but he realized that the water he squirted did nothing. "Crud… That was just useless!"

"Poyo? (What? Do you mean that these abilities are completely useless? …Wait, then I can't do a thing about this fight!)" Kirby began to cry.

"Wait, Kirby! I think squirting water up close might do something! …But we need to aim for its weak point. Blade! I want you to stab those boils with your katana. That might weaken it a little!"

Blade nodded before inhaling a bubble and he swam towards Droolhead, he tried to swat him with his fins.

"What's this? A challenger?" Droolhead tried to whack Blade with one of its flippers, but the ninja still managed to dodge the attack and stab the angler fish in one of his boils, making blood squirt out.

"AIEEEE! My precious boils!" screamed Droolhead. "Oh… You'll pay for that, you fool! YOU'LL PAY!"

Blade was swatted to the ground by Droolhead's flipper. That's when he started to choke from the water. He immediately got up and inhaled an air bubble to grab some air.

Sonic made his next move, trying his best to run after the angler fish. _"I hate that I'm fighting this thing while being underwater… It makes it even more difficult to win this fight!"_

Sonic could only attack Droolhead with a simple Homing Attack. Even so, he got zapped by the angler fish's electric attack, knocking the blue hedgehog onto Blade.

"Well, let's see what we can pull off," Chopper squirted water at Droolhead, but it did a slight amount of damage. That's when he immediately tossed a fireball at another boil, burning it off.

"AARRGHHHH! Why are you doing this? !" exclaimed Droolhead as he knocked Chopper back with his flippers.

Kirby swam over to Droolhead's antenna and he squirted water at it. It didn't do much, but it did make Droolhead zap itself.

"Away with you, pink thing!" Droolhead zapped Kirby with his bulb, but the pink puffball didn't give up yet. He swam over to one of his boils and squirted water at it, causing more screaming.

"Stop that right now!" screamed Droolhead as he tried to swat Kirby away again. "Ugh… I guess you are more than you seem…"

Blade smirked as he tossed a shuriken at Droolhead's face, piercing through his scaly skin. It screamed loudly, allowing the ninja cat to toss Hommissile straight at his face afterwards.

"I gotta say… You all are making this fight pretty easy…" Tippi stated as she watched Chopper toss a fireball straight at Droolhead.

"Well, you know what they say… Well, actually, I don't know what they say." Chopper used a spinning flaming kick on Droolhead to deal some heavy damage to one of his boils. He only had one more left on him, which didn't seem so bad.

"Oh, how rude of you to harm me like this!" Droolhead grit his teeth as he tried to chomp on Blade's foot, which didn't work for him. "It's time I brought this fight to a whole new level!"

Droolhead opened his mouth, letting out a large amount of disgusting bubbles. The purple ones resembled poisonous bubbles that would poison anyone if they got hit by them.

Chopper and Kirby fought back by simply spitting out other bubbles to counter the poison ones. Once those bubbles got in Droolhead's mouth, he began to cough harshly.

"Grrrrrr! You're going to pay for that!" Droolhead zapped both Chopper and Kirby with his bulb, stripping them of their Water ability and making themselves look a bit dark from the electrocution.

"Mmmmmmggfffh!" Blade clenched his katana and swam towards Lord Droolhead. He was able to leave a scar on the side of the angler fish with his katana, but that's about it. He got tossed away easily by him.

"Poyo… (This isn't finished yet…)" Kirby quickly shook his head as he swam towards Droolhead. He wanted to make sure he was RIGHT at the boil that he needed to squirt. Although it might not be powerful, it's all he needs to defeat him.

Sonic attempted at the boil, but when he was losing oxygen, he immediately grabbed an air bubble, preventing him from attacking Lord Droolhead.

"Well, we're practically screwed if we don't have some sort of miracle or something…" Chopper groaned.

"Poyo! (Not yet!)" Kirby squirted some water at Lord Droolhead's boil, causing it to pop and making the angler fish scream as a small amount of blood squirted from him.

"Uunnggghh… It… It hurts so much…" moaned Droolhead as he began to turn over. "Everything's starting to feel…dark."

"Wait… So this thing is SERIOUSLY dying from being squirted at? That's just…weird." Chopper said with a confused look on his face.

Once Lord Droolhead was gone, both Sonic and Blade immediately rushed to the teleporter as fast as they could. It seemed like they couldn't hold their breath for much longer.

"Poyo… (Wow… They REALLY want to get some air for some reason…)" Kirby rolled his eyes.

"Well what can you expect? They can't breathe underwater." Chopper and Kirby both went into the teleporter. To their surprise, it took them all the way up to the surface and in front of a large palace where a Star Block was floating by.

"_Huff… Huff… Huff…_ Oh, FINALLY! We're… We're out of that mess!" Sonic gasped and coughed. "Air… AIR! Sweet, sweet air! We're finally reunited!"

"Uhhhh… I guess I'll go hit the Star Block while you make out with your 'air'." Chopper said with a blank look as he walked over to the Star Block and smashed it.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Relieved to be out of the ocean, Sonic immediately walked over to the front entrance of the palace. "So we're finally at King Neptunian's Palace, huh?" he said while looking at the entrance. "I don't know why, but it looks like this place reaches down to the bottom of the ocean… Do we REALLY need to go far down there?" "Uhhh… Of COURSE we need to! That's where the Pure Heart is!" Chopper replied with a strange look. As they opened the front door, they were all surprised by the outcome._

* * *

**If you didn't know, Lord Droolhead is an idea that came into my head after looking at Lord Woo Fak Fak from Banjo-Tooie. I think some of you probably knew that already...**

**Next part: The four heroes enter the Palace of the Sea and see how disastrous it is!**_  
_


	30. The Palace of the King

**CHAPTER 5-4**

**-The Palace of the King-**

(OK, if you found the other parts of Chapter 5 to be a bit light-hearted, then get a load of these last two parts of Chapter 5. Well, it's probably the music that would make it sound a bit dark. It might also show how horrible the palace might look after King Neptunian got his hands on the Pure Heart. Oh, you're going to SEE how dreadful the characters might think of this palace. Trust me. You might disagree with me on this, and that's OK. But, anyways… We're NOT here to talk about how dreadful the Palace of the Sea will be. We need to get to this part, dang it! …Oh, and you'll see someone interesting in this chapter too)

As the door closed from behind, the four heroes stepped into the palace. The first room that they were in seemed a bit calm. There was no water in sight and the floor was made of marble. To Chopper, it reminded him of the marble ground back in Night Palace, but he wasn't going to make a comparison between the two places. They can also see a staircase leading up to a red door. They felt confused on why it's a small little room, but it wasn't a big deal.

"So this is the first room in Neptunian's Palace, huh?" Chopper bent down in order to hear anything from below. "Strange… I thought I would be hearing something down below this place."

"Perhaps things are somewhat calm around these parts?" Tippi questioned before a small light emitted from her. "Wait… I'm feeling the Pure Heart coming from below this place… Perhaps it's at the very bottom?"

"Then we'll find out ourselves!" Blade walked up the stairs and over to the door. "C'mon, guys! This door isn't going to open itself, you know!"

Chopper nodded and he made his way up the stairs in a flash, along with Sonic. As soon as they busted the door open, they saw the whole atmosphere in the palace change. The ground felt incredibly old…yet new at the same time. Things such as plants were shriveled up and dead and even the background looked a bit of a brownish color. Looking down at the water near the edge, they saw it was a polluted red violet color.

"This place… It feels so…horrible." Sonic gaped. "Why would Neptunian do this to his own palace? Let alone attack us back outside!"

"I feel that it's because of the Pure Heart…" Tippi trailed. "But we mustn't allow this whole catastrophe to slow us down… We still have a chance!"

Chopper looked at his reflection in the polluted water. "Eeeuugh… This water doesn't look too nice. I honestly don't think I don't want to take a dive in that stuff… Wouldn't you all agree?"

Kirby took a peek as well. "Poyo! (Ewwwww! That water's nasty! That's not the kind of water I wanna spend my time swimming in!)"

"I hear ya, Kirby, but I think it's the only way we're gonna get through this mess," Chopper took a deep breath before making a jump into the water. He sank to the bottom of the area, which was surprisingly big. The polluted water was not very good to breathe in, so he couldn't stay down forever.

"Bleh! This water's almost poisonous!" he wheezed. "Why even bother going through this madness? ! Why, Neptunian? ! WHY did you pollute your own waters? ! That's not very good for a king…"

Because Chopper couldn't take it anymore, he immediately swam up to the surface, gasping for air.

"Whoa, what's with you? I thought you could breathe underwater?" Sonic scratched the back of his head.

"Huff… Huff… Well of course I can… It's just… The water's like poison! Honestly, I'm not lying here. I don't know how long I can last down there without losing some HP. It's pretty bad."

"Wait… We'll get hurt if we swim in that water? Wow… That's pretty bad… How do we clean up the water then?" Blade questioned.

"I wish there was a way to clean the polluted waters, but right now, I think we have to explore them…just as long as we don't die from the poison."

"Hmmmmmmm… Drowning or dying from poisonous water…" pondered Sonic as he looked at the polluted water. "I can't really tell whether that or drowning would be a worse fate for me…"

"Well we gotta do either one," Chopper grabbed Sonic and threw him into the water. "Try to follow me if you don't want to be thrown down there as well."

He immediately jumped into the water. Kirby and Blade followed him down to the bottom where they saw some cut-down palm trees with only stumps in the background. It did indeed look horrible.

"Poyo… (Wow, you weren't kidding when you said that this place is horrible…)" Kirby commented.

Chopper tried his best to get a move on by swimming up ahead. He nearly gaped when he got to a slope that he couldn't really walk up on his own, where a Nepto that looked a bit mutated was swimming around.

"What in the world is THAT thing? !" he exclaimed.

"That's a Mutant Nepto. It looks like the polluted water has mutated this Nepto… It's a bit of a strong enemy, though… It's much stronger than a normal Nepto, so I would advise you to watch out for this monster…" Tippi warned.

"I'll try to shoot a fireball at it," Chopper tossed a fireball at the Mutant Nepto, but that wasn't enough to beat it. He was lucky to finish off the Mutant Nepto with his powerful hammer attack.

"C'mon! Let's try to get out of these waters immediately before I have to suffer from poison!" Chopper coughed as he stepped on the platform that brought him up to the slope going down. Once he went down, Kirby, Sonic and Blade immediately followed him down the slope.

"Mmmmmmmmggffhhh!" both Sonic and Blade began to choke as the timer started to go off. Luckily, so air bubbles were still there for them to inhale.

Chopper noticed the surface above them, where a door was located. He immediately swam up and caught his breath once he got out of the water. With the other three out, they rushed into another area.

They were standing on a platform that was floating on the water. There really wasn't anything else around except for the polluted water. And…

"'Coming to you live…from the foul waters that the Neptos call home. Lesser Cragnons would weep softly if they stepped into this palace. No one has set foot in this palace and emerged alive. Well, one may say that no one has never made it out of here. One except for someone by the name of…Flint Cragley!'"

"Oh, god… Not THIS guy again…" Chopper face palmed.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_ 'Into the Palace of Eternal Death! A Flint Cragley Cragtrotting Adventure!'" Flint shouted. "…No, no, wait a second… That'll never play well in the sticks. How about… _**CRAGLEY HO! **_'Taste Danger! Flint Cragley Vs. a Recragginated Mummy in the Palace of the Sea!' I wonder if that'll test well with the audience we have this weekend… Man, those Cragnons sure love this show…"

"Ya, brah. They really do crag this show! But why the crag do we have to be cragging around here? My crag's starting to hurt me on this raft!" the cameraman, Monzo, groaned.

"And you do realize that this craggin' show is on camera, you know, brah?" Hornfels stated.

"…What? ! Errm… I mean…" Flint stammered.

"Ah, excuse me… Sir?" Tippi raised an invisible eyebrow. "We would like to ask for some help. Do you know which way to go?"

Flint turned around and noticed the quartet. "_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'Suddenly, out of nowhere in the palace…mysterious, monstrous creatures…that are rather small lurched into view! Did they hope to dine on the fillet of Cragley? Would our hero meet their mandibles? Tune in after this brief commercial break to witness the horrid conclusion!' …That means cut!"

"What else do you want me to do, brah?" Monzo asked.

"What do you think, you dolt? ! Print and wrap it too!" Flint brought his attention to the heroes. "All right, what do you weirdos want right now? Can't you see we're in the middle of filming? ! …Say, you remind me of a certain creature back on the highlands in Lineland Road."

"Yeah, I remember seeing you there…" Chopper replied with a blank look on his face. What else did he have to say? "You barely did a thing back there. I practically had to save your own behind."

"Yeah, the kid's cragging right," agreed Hornfels.

"This kid's got some guts, cragging you like that!" Monzo grinned.

"Hey! Shut up, Monzo!" Flint retorted, smacking the Cragnon across the face. This resulted in Monzo dropping the camera into the polluted waters.

"Oh, crag… I dropped camera…"

"Now look what you've done, Monzo! You just dropped what little technology us Cragnons have! Without that camera, the Cragnons will be hopeless of what will be on TV! No more Cragtrotting Adventures!"

"There be other channels on Cragging Network…" Hornfels added.

Flint turned to Hornfels. "And those shows are HORRIBLE! MY show, on the other hand, is much, MUCH better! Who DOESN'T love someone going out and showing the Cragnons about what's around? Everyone loves it! Especially me, 'cause I thought of the whole show idea!"

Both Hornfels and Monzo gave him a confused look. "That means that we need to get the camera back, you morons. There's no way we're leaving that thing at the bottom of this dreadful water. It could be broken!"

"No, brah! See, that camera's waterproof. Camera crags down in water, camera not cragged by water. It's a cragging cycle that we know of." Monzo explained.

"Ugh… Great. Just great. Well, I'm not going down there." Flint turned to the four heroes. "Oh! I nearly forgot about you guys… So, listen here… We just dropped our camera into the water and were wondering if you could, well… Get it for us?"

"Get it for you? Why in the world should we get your camera?" Tippi questioned.

"What's the point in getting that camera when you're too lazy to do it yourself? You can't just tell other people to do the work for you!" Chopper gave Flint a glare. "So, no. We're not doing it, no matter what you say."

"What? You won't listen to the Great Flint Cragley? The one that explored the Floro Sapien Caverns and defeated the great King Croacus? The one that saved the Cragnons from being sprouted? You wouldn't bother to help a great hero such as myself! What a load of crag…"

"Sorry, but there's no way we're going down in there," Sonic shook his head. "Go get it yourself instead of making someone else do it, you lazy bum!"

"Well… I wish I could… But I can't."

"And why's that?" Blade raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's… It's because I can't swim! Us Cragnons don't know how to swim! And besides… I've never explored water in all my life! All I've been doing was going through caves! That's it!"

"So… You never swam in your whole life, yet you still want us to get your camera?" Chopper questioned. "Look, Flint… Even still, we're not going to get your camera. What's more important? A camera? Or four people swimming in polluted water?"

"He's got a point, brah," muttered Monzo.

"Oh, shut it, you! This is your fault, you know! How about YOU get that camera?" Flint snapped.

"Whuh? You cragging me? I can't swim! Don't you remember when you said Cragnons can't swim? Me Cragnon. Me can't swim."

Flint frowned. "Well, then we have a problem here… _Hmmmmmm… Perhaps this idea MIGHT work on them!_" He turned to the heroes. "Listen… If you get the camera for us, I'll give you something you might need?"

"Go on…" Chopper tilted his head.

"You see, I found this key while exploring this palace," Flint smirked as he pulled a Palace Key out. It was a light brown color. "Here's the deal: we know you need to find that Pure Heart. There's no way you're getting through here without this key. Even so, it's not easy to get to the door with all of this polluted water anyways. So, if you find my camera, I'll give you the key. Does that seem fair?"

"If you have the key, then how come you're not using it to move on?" Tippi questioned.

"Oh… About that… You see, we don't really have what it takes to get OVER to the door. It was floating on NOTHING! How do we expect to get something that's floating up in the air? We can't! That's the thing!"

Chopper pondered once again. "Ugh… Fine. We'll do your stupid little job. Are you happy now, Flint?"

"Ah, so my blackmailing DID work! So, I think now's the time for you guys to go off into the waters and search for that camera. So… Go off now, you little…whatever you weirdos are…"

"If there's ANY weirdo here, it would be you," Blade retorted. "C'mon, guys. Let's go find that stupid camera."

Chopper took a deep breath and looked down at the water. "Oh, man… This isn't going to be good." He looked up at Flint with a glare. "You owe us BIG time when we return with your freakin' camera."

Chopper, Kirby and Blade immediately jumped into the water. Sonic, on the other hand, began to lay down and put his hand on the right side of his head, looking a bit lazy at this point.

"Sonic, you're coming too!" Chopper jumped out of the water and tossed Sonic into the polluted water. He could hear him screaming, but it didn't matter now. He immediately jumped back into the water.

When they sank to the bottom of the water, they realized how deep the water was. They could only see some steps going down up ahead, but there were also some whirlpools and Mutant Neptos.

"Careful, guys… Those whirlpools DO look a bit deadly." Chopper warned as he began to swim down the large steps.

"Poyo? (Wait, what's over to the left?)" Kirby swam over to the left to find an orange, clear pipe. He tried to enter it, but the current only drove him away from it. He immediately went back to Chopper and the other two.

Blade started by slicing the Mutant Nepto up with his katana. While it took him two hits to take that thing out, the Mutant Nepto managed to deal some damage to him by spewing out poisonous bubbles.

"Watch out for those bubbles… Those things are very deadly…" Tippi warned.

Once the Mutant Nepto was gone, they landed on the floor. The very bottom of this very area. However, they noticed that there was a crack that they could probably fit through if they turned sideways.

Sonic and Blade grabbed an air bubble first before gesturing to Chopper on what to do.

"I think Slim is our only option at this point," Chopper, using Slim's powers, turned sideways and slipped through the crack to find another area. He lent Slim to the others so that they could make their way to the bottom as well.

"I don't see much around here…except for a tunnel up ahead…" Tippi trailed.

"How far is this camera anyways? Shouldn't it be around here? It's almost as if logic is starting to make it so that the camera is so far from here…and even…" Chopper paused when he saw the camera right in front of them.

"Poyo, (Well, looks like we found the camera,)" Kirby stated, trying to swim over to the camera until a Mutant Nepto grabbed it.

"Uhhh… Could we have that camera, please?" Chopper asked. The Nepto didn't even give a response. "Pretty please? With sugar on it? …Or how about with tacos on it…or bananas!"

He still got no response from the Mutant Nepto. It simply tried to ram into him, but he was lucky to get out of the way.

"Heads up, guys! We've got a Nepto to take care of!" Chopper gripped his hammer and slammed it upon the fish person's head, making it a bit dizzy for Blade to take care of with his katana.

As he finished the Mutant Nepto, he grabbed the camera with a smirk on his face…until a bunch of Spinning Axis came from the walls.

"Poyo? ! (What the heck? ! Now we have to fight THESE guys? !)" Kirby gaped.

Blade's eyes widened as he managed to make clones of himself. They all swam to each of the Spinning Axis and they sliced them all up with a couple of slice attacks. They then exploded, along with the clones, but they disappeared out of thin air.

Chopper began to cough. "I think it's a good idea to get out of this water… It's just…_cough_…horrible!"

They tried to look around for any exits, but all they could come across was an orange, translucent pipe over to their left. This made Kirby a bit surprised. He knew for a fact that he saw that before…

"Poyo! (I think that this should take us back to the other area!)" Kirby swam over to the pipe as fast as he could and allowed himself to be sucked into the current through the pipe.

"Well, looks like Kirby's found our way through," Chopper swam to the pipe and allowed himself to get sucked in, along with Sonic and Blade. They were brought back to the surface, where Flint was tapping his foot impatiently.

"Ah! So I see you've returned! Did you bring back my glorious camera?" Flint asked.

"It's right…cough…here…" Blade wheezed as he pulled the camera out. Flint gestured Hornfels to move the boat over to the platform so he could grab it.

"Hmmmmm… Everything appears to be in order." Flint stated as he examined the camera. "Nothing appears to be broken or dead. Hmph. It's not so bad… Good job, weirdos."

"Dude… You're the only weirdo I see." scoffed Blade.

"So, are you going to give us that key?" Chopper asked.

"The key? Oh, yes! The key! I think I have it here somewhere!" Flint began to check his pockets for the key. "…Wait a minute. What happened to the key? I swear that I've had it with me!"

"Hold on, brah… I remember something." Monzo recalled. "See, you find key, but you find it useless. You take Palace Key and throw it into the water."

Chopper's mouth nearly dropped to the ground. "You're… You're telling me that you DROPPED the key? ! So, that means we did all of this work for you for NOTHING? ! What a rip-off!"

"Hold on a moment!" Flint stopped Chopper before he could attempt to burn him. "I DO believe that you can find the key somewhere in these waters. I think it'd be easier to find than the camera!"

"Let's hope…" Chopper grumbled as he was about to jump into the water. He noticed that Sonic and Blade were staying behind. "Hey! Aren't you two going to help us find the key?"

"Well, let's see," Sonic pondered as he got down on the ground again, looking lazy. "I've been through the water long enough. I think now's the time I finally got some rest. Wouldn't you agree with me on that?"

"And I don't wanna go back into that water," Blade shook his head. "Listen, I know I can swim, but I don't like water. Cats don't like water, don't you remember?"

"Oh, come on! Not all cats hate water! Listen, if you two wanna stay here and breathe, then go right ahead. You're not being very brave by doing that, you know. Kirby and I will go find the key."

Chopper immediately jumped back into the water. Kirby turned to the two and stuck his tongue out.

"Poyo! (You guys gotta man up a little in water! It's not BAD…)" Kirby turned away from them and jumped into the water, donning his snorkel and goggles.

"Man, Kirby… How do you suddenly have those snorkel and goggles on you when you jumped into the water?" Chopper questioned as he swam down to the bottom of the area.

Kirby shrugged. "Poyo. (I never really understood why. Maybe it's because… Yeah, I STILL have no idea!)"

"I suggest you use my powers to investigate this area…" suggested Tippi as Chopper landed on the ground.

"I guess I should do just that," Chopper allowed Tippi to go into him so his eyes would glow and give off a ray of rainbow light. He began to search the area thoroughly, but he only came across a door past the crack.

"There's a hidden door here… Let me make it visible for you…" With her powers, Tippi made the red door visible for them. "Hmmmmm… I suppose we might find the key somewhere around here…"

"Well then let's find it!" Chopper kicked the door open to find themselves in a square-shaped room underwater with three platforms. A Spinning Axis, Mutant Nepto and a Chomper were around here.

"Oh, crud… I think we ran into some trouble!" Chopper tried to get out of the room, but he saw that a cage appeared around the door. "Great… Now we're stuck in here! Now how are we supposed to get out of here?"

"Poyo? (How about we beat these foes?)" Kirby suggested.

"Oh, fine…" Chopper started off by tossing a fireball at the Spinning Axis. "This one's the bigger threat, so I say we take this thing out first. Wouldn't you agree with me, Kirby?"

Kirby nodded and swam over to the Chomper. He may not have MANY attacks with him, but he knew that squirting water at the robotic fish isn't really such a bad idea, so he did that to destroy it.

As for the Mutant Nepto… Chopper decided to whack at it with his hammer. The Mutant Nepto wasn't finished after getting whacked in the gut. It grabbed Chopper and threw him over by Kirby.

"Ugh… These guys are definitely no pushovers. Especially when they're strong and muscular." Chopper groaned.

Kirby swam over to the Mutant Nepto next and squirted water at it. It cringed a little, but it was able to knock Kirby away. Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs before it ended up dying.

"Whew… OK, that was a bit too close." Chopper wheezed before he noticed the chest that appeared before them. Kicking it open, a Palace Key was revealed to be inside.

"So those enemies were guarding that key… Interesting…" Tippi pondered.

* * *

**Back in the other room-**

"…And then we found this palace and came here," Flint finished explaining how they got to this palace. "It was an interesting travel, I'd say…but with all of the monsters roaming around, it wasn't easy getting here."

"Hmmmmmm… Interesting story ya got there." Sonic said before Blade's communicator went off.

"Oh, great… Not again." Blade groaned as he pulled his communicator out, only to find out that it was Bang. "OK, what do you want this time, Bang?"

"_Well… You see… What is a four letter word for something that you can eat?" _Bang asked, making Blade face palm.

"Food."

"_Oh, thanks for the help!" _And on that note, Bang turned off his communicator, along with Blade.

Before Blade could rant on about Bang, Chopper and Kirby returned with the key. "Yup! We did the unthinkable, guys! We found the dang key!"

"The key…? _**CRAGLEY HO! **_'And, out of nowhere, we discovered the key that would take us deeper into the palace'"! Flint's tone of voice changed to an adventurous one. "'Would we ever see King Neptunian and put an end to his tyranny? Or will it backfire on us and we'll die! Find out next time!'"

"Well, I know how we're getting through this water," Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash. Before anyone could respond, he immediately took off, running across the water and over to the locked door.

* * *

**Next room-**

"All right, looks like we've got more water traveling to do," Blade stated as they helped get the raft onto the water on the platform they were standing on. "It's not as deep as it was before, but you guys find your own way through here. We've gotta go through all of this polluted water."

"Perfect idea! If I find King Neptunian, I'll tell you that you'll be showing up!" Flint stated while adjusting his hat.

"No! We don't want him to know that we're coming!" Tippi retorted. "If he knew that we were going after him, then we would most likely be in some big trouble! It's best that you keep quiet about it…"

"Ya, brah. Rainbow butterfly thing is right. We don't tell king!" Hornfels agreed.

"Oh, fine, Hornfels!" Flint groaned. "We'll find our own way through this place, but you four don't try to kill yourselves! This palace is FILLED with Mutant Neptos! They're quite deadly…"

"Yeah, we had to face them before," Chopper grumbled, remembering those Neptos back in that other room. "In any case, we'll meet you somewhere else. Hopefully we'll find you, that's for sure."

Chopper started off by jumping into the water and allowing himself to sink. To his surprise, he noticed that when they all got sucked through another current with small poles, the water level began to lower down in front of them. They could hear Flint grumbling over the fact that the water was down.

"Whoa… That's weird! I can actually breathe around here!" Sonic gaped, the water now being below his head. "Although, I don't think it'll be easy, now that the door is a bit high up."

"What about those four corks over there?" Blade pointed to the four corks at the end of the area. "Let's try jumping on those."

They all agreed and they jumped onto the corks. To their surprise, the water level began to rise up. They were lucky enough to make the corks move by using their own feet until they got to the door.

"Well that was a bit…strange. I didn't know we could actually DO that." Chopper said with a confused look as they walked into the next room, which was already underwater.

"Poyo… (And that's another strange thing…)" Kirby rolled his eyes as he swam over to the wall. A spring was right over there, so he simply allowed it to take him out of the water and onto solid ground.

"Hold up, Kirby! We gotta get there too!" Chopper shouted as he and the other two used the spring to get out of the water. They noticed the Star Block up ahead.

"Go right ahead, Chopper. Hit the block." Blade suggested.

With one kick, Chopper managed to smash the Star Block entirely.

_Our heroes surprisingly met Flint, a so-called archaeologist who loves to be on TV. But now that they were splitting up, the heroes knew that they didn't have to worry about his distractions. "Let's go this way…" suggested Tippi as she fluttered over through the hallway. As they traveled deeper into the palace, they felt the air getting more moist and warm._

* * *

**May not be the best part in the whole chapter, but we have the boss next chapter! I'm pretty sure some of you are looking forward to THAT. ...And thankfully, it's NOT King Croacus! :D**

**...And what's also cool is that we're getting closer to Chapter 7 (a favorite chapter of mine in Super Paper Mario and in this fic)! :D  
**


	31. The Wrath of King Neptunian

**Note: This chapter was first written around May 21, 2011. If you're reading this right now, then you'll know that the world did NOT end and that everyone's OK. That is all.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 5-5**

**-The Wrath of King Neptunian-**

"Hmmmmmmmm… Well, I don't see much of a difference between this area and the other area that we were previously in in this palace." Chopper stated as he looked at his surroundings. There was still the ruins in the background and all of the ruined plants on the ground. It still had that brownish, evil atmosphere in the inside just like in the second room of Neptunian's Palace. All that they knew was that…they were really getting to some deep yogurt…or rather, the deeper part of the palace.

The area they were standing in was pretty vast. They were standing on a platform that was near a waterfall of the same color as the polluted water that led down to a bridge. They didn't know where the water would be at this moment, but they knew they were at a higher point of this place.

"What I'm thinking is that Neptunian's room is somewhere down at the bottom of this palace," Sonic stated, looking at one of the windows. It showed some polluted water outside as well. "Whoa… This isn't good! If we don't do anything right now, the polluted waters might go a bit further!"

Tippi fluttered over to the window and noticed the polluted water expanding throughout the ocean. "Oh, dear… This is definitely not good… We can't let this happen!"

"Tippi, where is the Pure Heart in this palace?" Blade asked, walking over to the rainbow butterfly. "We need to find it ASAP!"

Kirby looked down over the edge and gulped. "Poyo… (Well, all I have to say is that the jump down is a bit…dangerous…)"

"A bit dangerous? Let me see…" Chopper walked over to the edge to see what was going on and his antennas perked. "Ummmmmm… Yeah, you have a point there, Kirby. BUT, you can simply float down there, unlike me!"

"Poyo, (But, then there's the fact that you've never gotten hurt from falling from heights like this,)" Kirby recalled. "Poyo… (Come to think of it, all of us never get hurt from falling from high up…)"

"Well then! If no one's going to make the jump, then I'll do it first." Sonic jumped over Chopper and Kirby while being curled up in a ball and he landed straight on the bridge. The waterfall was in the background, so it wasn't ACTUALLY falling on top of Sonic at this moment.

"Hmmmmmm… Thing's seem to be OK at the moment…" Sonic noticed a pathway up ahead that had a slope going down to a couple of moving platforms below the platform, which would eventually lead to water.

Chopper went down next, but he got a bit hurt from the fall. It was most likely because he landed on the back part of his head instead of his feet. "Oof! …That was pretty painful…"

"Are you all right, Chopper?" Tippi asked in a worried voice.

"Y-Yeah… I'm all right, Tippi." he replied while getting himself up. "Ugh… That was pretty bad, I'll admit. But I still wonder why you worry about my safety? You're almost acting like my mother!"

"…I'm sorry, Chopper. I didn't mean to get all worried… You look just fine…" Tippi apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Chopper brushed himself off and jumped out of the way as Blade jumped down and landed on the bridge with style. "Do you always have to be stylish when you land on the ground?"

"What? No way, man! I just do this 'cause I'm a ninja!" Blade stated as he stood up and pulled his katana out. "Just watch out, guys. I don't want you to get near this thing."

"I don't see the point in pulling that out right now," Sonic said in confusion.

"I'm only pulling this out because if we saw an enemy trying to attack us, I would have my katana ready." Blade explained, putting his katana away at this moment. "All right, so we're going now, right?"

"Poyo! (Hey! You're not leaving me!)" Kirby growled as he began to float down. He gave Blade a glare. "Poyo? ! (Don't you even know that I'M around? ! Sometimes you just ignore me!)"

"Oh… You." Blade turned his head to Chopper and whispered, "What the heck is your friend saying?"

Chopper gave Blade a glare. "He said that he's not happy with you ignoring him all the time. He's not an object, you know! He's just like us! Heroes! …So I don't think it's a good idea to ignore him. He DOES have the ability to eat you and take your abilities, after all…"

But before Blade could talk back, Tippi stepped in between the two. "Now's not the time to be fighting! We need to find the Pure Heart this instant! I don't want to be wasting precious time arguing!"

"…Yeah, I can understand that," Chopper nodded. "C'mon! Let's go find that Pure Heart!" At that moment, he went down the slope and stopped over by the edge of the platform that had water down below.

"Oh, man… MORE water? ! This is going to be bad…" Sonic groaned, but he jumped into the water anyways. Unlike before, the polluted waters didn't feel so bad like before. It felt…like regular water.

Once the rest of them jumped into the water, they were surprised that they weren't coughing. It actually didn't feel too bad!

"Whoa… I feel just fine in this water! I wonder what happened to make the water not so bad now…" Chopper pondered before swimming over through the small little tunnel-like area to find a door.

"Poyo, (Well, maybe we'll find out,)" Kirby predicted as he swam over to the door with Chopper. Sonic and Blade followed, trying their bests to hold their breath so they wouldn't drown.

They walked into another area, but they noticed that the water level was ridiculously low, that it wasn't funny. They were down in some pit where they couldn't get out with a simple jump.

"Crud… I don't see a way out of here…" Chopper groaned.

"Well, there's always flipping… Why don't you try that?" Tippi suggested.

"Hmmmmmmmm… OK! I might as well flip!" Chopper threw his arms up in the air to find a hole in the wall. "Ah! I think there's a secret passageway through here! Let's check it out!"

Chopper helped the other three through the hole, but they only found a small little room with a bird-like enemy called a Neptobird. Apparently these things are what the Neptos use to fly around.

"A bird? I don't know what that's doing here, but I might as well see what this thing can give me." Chopper inhaled the bird and swallowed it. He was now donning a Native American headdress on his head and two feathers on the headdress that can be transformed into feathery wings whenever he wanted to fly. Two red paint lines were drawn across both sides of his face as well.

"Poyo! (Hey! You've become Wing Chopper!)" Kirby gaped.

"Huh?" Chopper felt his head and he felt a headdress on his head. "Whoa… So I HAVE become Wing Chopper! That's…pretty interesting! I bet I can use it to get out of this little pit."

"Yeah, that's good and all… But what about us? How do WE get out of this mess?" Blade questioned.

"Well, you find a way out," Chopper got out of the tunnel and landed on the wet ground. "I'll try to see if there's anything above this place. Just stay here for right now until I return. Is that good?"

"Hmmmmmmmm… Oh, fine. Go right ahead and see what's up there. Just don't take long, 'cause I HATE waiting!" Sonic replied, beginning to tap his foot impatiently like he usually would.

"All right, Sonic. I'll be back in a second. You can come too if you want, Kirby." Chopper did a simply jump and then two feathers on his headdress transformed into wings that allowed him to fly out of the pit and over to a lever. To his left, he saw a familiar face.

"Ah, so you finally show up, strange creature!" Flint stated, sitting on the raft with his crew, despite the fact they were on dry land. "However, we made it here before you, so you're not really that fast compared to us."

"Uhhhh… That's because we were going UNDERWATER compared to you guys. It's MUCH easier for you guys to get through because you're on a freakin' raft! …And about the whole 'strange creature' thing. I could say the same thing to you. In fact, you're a weirdo."

"Oh, crag! You got burned, Boss!"

"Man, that's a good cragging diss!"

"Quiet! Both of you!" Flint snapped, making Monzo and Hornfels stay quiet. He turned back to Chopper in a calm voice. "I mean… Let's not get to this, OK? Arguments aren't going to get us anywhere, honestly. In fact, I know there's a door up ahead that MIGHT be the way to Neptunian!"

Chopper noticed that there was a platform up above the ground he was standing on. Over to his left, behind the raft, there was a lever.

"Poyo, (I'll move it,)" Kirby jumped over the raft, jumping on top of Flint's head and then landing by the lever. With one pull, a bunch of water began to fill the area. Actually, it filled the ENTIRE area except for the very top, where the door was on.

"Quickly! Over to the door!" Tippi shouted as Chopper began to fly up before the water even got to him. Kirby decided to swim up when the water reached the top. As for Sonic and Blade… The blue ninja cat was able to bring him up to the platform.

"Well, that sure was a good idea…" Sonic stated as he shook himself. "Now the whole place is flooded! There's no way I'm going to step in the water this time when it's practically impossible to get out!"

The four heroes left Flint and his camera crew and walked through the door into another area. This time, they were in a small area, but it wasn't filled with water, to Sonic's relief. But the thing that they saw around them was three pipes.

"A puzzle? This should be easy!" Blade jumped on the middle pipe. "I bet we just have to take this pipe here! I think that's our way through here!"

Chopper, Kirby and Sonic shrugged as they followed Blade down the pipe. But the only thing that they found out was that this small room they went in was underwater and filled with Chompers.

They realized that the pipe disappeared and there wasn't a way out. The Chompers all charged at the four heroes, ready to bite them down.

"Well, I guess we were taken into the WRONG room!" Chopper gave Blade a glare before he smashed one of the Chompers with his hammer.

Blade gestured that it wasn't his fault before he sent Hommissile at one of the Chompers. Sonic only needed to attack one with a Spin Jump while Kirby simply gained the Water ability to take down one of the Chompers.

As soon as they were gone, a pipe right next to them appeared. They went down the pipe before Sonic could even drown, taking them back into the previous room that they were in (with the three pipes).

"OK… So let's see here…" Chopper pondered as he walked over to the pipes. "So we need to choose the CORRECT pipe. I MIGHT remember seeing some sort of plaque over by that Neptobird. Should we…check it?"

"It might be the only way to find out where we need to go…" Tippi trailed.

"Well, then… This is going to be one heck of a ride. Backtracking, and even MORE backtracking! How nice…"

* * *

**One trip later-**

Chopper came back to the room, now feeling exhausted. However, that wasn't going to stop him from going into the right pipe. "OK… I checked the plaque and it had these letters on it: L, R, M, M, R, L. It's an easy one to memorize, I suppose."

"That's not a hard puzzle to memorize," Sonic stated as he jumped onto the pipe to his left. "Come on! What are you waiting for? We've got something to look for! …Whatever it is…"

They all jumped into the pipe all the way to the left to enter another similar area. Luckily, it wasn't infested with water. They came out of a pipe that was on the ceiling that disappeared as they landed on the ground.

"OK, we're in another similar room…" Chopper noticed a couple of Buzzy Beetles hanging from the ceiling. "Great… Now we've got some Buzzy Beetles with spikes on their heads on the ceiling."

"Poyo, (But your hammer is probably strong enough to take them down,)" Kirby mentioned.

"Oh, yeah… I know that fire doesn't affect their shell, so… Yeah." Chopper waited for the Spike Top to come down to the ground first. He then slammed his hammer on top of the thing, taking it out within seconds.

"Hey! I wanna try taking one down!" Blade pulled his katana out. "I bet my katana will work nicely against 'em!"

Blade grinned as he jumped over to the other Spike Top that dropped down. With a slice from his sword, he took the enemy out. He then cleaned his blade before putting it away with a smug look.

"Ummmmmm… Yeah. Let's get a move on, shall we?" Blade dove into the pipe to their right, with the other three following. This time, they were in a small room with these orange enemies with spikes on their heads called Spanias.

Blade sliced the two Spanias easily with his katana and then jumped into the middle pipe with the others, where they found two Mutant Neptos this time.

"Hold on, I wanna see what my Wing ability can do against these guys," Chopper waved a wing and a feather suddenly shot at one of the Mutant Neptos. "Hmmmmm… OK, not too bad."

He rushed straight at one of them and did a swooping attack, knocking it back to the wall. He flew up above the other Mutant Nepto and dove at it headfirst, creating a shockwave that dealt some immense damage.

"Well that certainly did some immense damage…" Tippi trailed.

"I know, right?" Chopper smiled as he flew down to the middle pipe. They found some more Neptobirds around here, but they were beaten down by Kirby's water squirting attacks.

"Poyo! (That was pretty nice!)" Kirby smiled as he jumped onto the right pipe. They all went down to the last puzzle, where there weren't ANY enemies in sight.

"Strange… I was expecting to see some enemies around here…" Chopper said with a confused look no his face. "Oh, well. I guess we should just move on."

They jumped into the pipe to their left to come across a room with a yellow block in front of them.

"Ah! We just need to smash that with a hammer!" Blade smirked.

"Don't mind if I do!" Chopper smirked, pulling his hammer out with Cudge's power. "Time to start smashing!"

With his hammer, he was able to smash the block, revealing a Palace Key before their very eyes. Once Chopper grabbed the key, a pipe appeared right in front of them, so they took it back to the first room in the maze.

* * *

**Area with Flint-**

"_**CRAGLEY HO**_" Flint shouted out while sitting on his raft. Monzo and Hornfels were still filming. "'Though we are stranded on this raft, I might start to feel a bit hungry… If we never get to shelter soon, then I soon might be eating someone's legs at this very moment! Oh, how awful would that be?"

"Boss… That don't make me comfortable…" Hornfels's legs started to shiver. "You give Hornfels goose bumps!"

"Oh, quiet you!" Flint snapped. "There's not even a chance that I would even eat you guys! This is just for the acting! 'But then… Out of nowhere… A monster came from behind us!'"

After hearing the door open from behind, Flint jumped. "ACK!" He stopped and turned, only to find Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade giving him a strange look. "Oh… It's only you guys…"

"And Boss thought a monster was gonna show up!" Monzo chuckled.

"OK, look… We're just going to go on ahead right now." Chopper pulled a key out and held it up. "This Palace Key should get us over to that door underwater. I understand that you can't swim…but if you REALLY want, we'll lower the water level for you guys so you can go on."

"Oh, that's OK. I actually like floating around here, honestly! …But please, go right ahead and lower the water level. I can't even swim!"

"Very well," Chopper listened to Flint and he swam down to the lever. Unfortunately, the lever wouldn't pull. "Huh? Why won't this lever pull? Come on, you lever! Don't make me use my…wing powers!"

"It's no use, Chopper… It's not going to pull…" Tippi trailed, making Chopper stop. "We'll just have to leave Flint and his group…"

Chopper frowned as he swam back to the surface. "Listen, Flint… There's no way we can change the water level. So… You're probably going to have to stay here for right now, OK?"

"Oh… Well that's a shame." Flint frowned. "It looks like I have no chance of getting out of here, then… It's not a big problem. Go on ahead."

"You sure, Boss?" Hornfels raised an eyebrow.

Flint turned to Hornfels. "Listen, there's not much we can do right now. If only I could swim, I would probably be able to follow them. Sadly… That is not going to happen. Yes, it's shameful."

"Well… All right… I suppose we should get going then." Chopper had a confused look on his face as he headed down to the locked door underwater. The others followed him down when he unlocked the door and opened it.

They were a bit surprised that the other room wasn't underwater when they first walked in. However, they did see two wheels with four platforms on them. But, these things weren't spinning around.

"Nothing seems to be working here," Chopper walked over to the edge of the platform they were on. He noticed across the wheels that there was a pipe. "Maybe we can try to get over to there!"

"Poyo! (Let's try to do that!)" Kirby suggested as he jumped off the platform and into the water. He noticed that there was a little block that couldn't be broken. However, it felt like there was something behind it.

As the others jumped down, Chopper threw his arms up to see what was going on. He saw a hidden pipe behind the block, so he went down and found a small little area with a Chomper and an unlit torch.

"Well, looks like I found out how to get things working," Chopper smiled as he took the Chomper out with a fireball and then tossed a fireball at the unlit torch, causing the ground to shake.

"I wonder what that was…" Tippi pondered as Chopper left the small room. He looked up to see a waterfall and the wheels moving to the right. "Ah… Now I see what it's done…"

They took the ladder to their left to climb back onto the platform. "So, what DID you find behind that pipe anyways?" Sonic questioned.

"Oh, I simply found an unlit torch. That's pretty much it." Chopper explained. "But that's not the case at this moment. We have a pipe to take!"

Using his Wing ability, he flew across the wheels and over to the pipe. Kirby floated as well, but Sonic and Blade were forced to use the platforms to get over to them. After that, they went into the pipe.

When they came out of the pipe, they found themselves in a small room on a bridge with a waterfall coming down. Below the bridge is some water with a hidden red door that is apparently the way they need to go. Across the bridge is just a couple of blocks.

"What a strange room… All there is is a bridge and a waterfall…" Sonic trailed.

"Ah ha ha. So! At long last, you've all come to play, like late-sleeping toddlers!" Everyone was caught off when they saw Dimentio and O'Chunks facing them on the bridge.

"Dimentio…and O'Chunks…" Tippi trailed, giving the two a glance as Chopper and his group of friends walked over to the duo, getting in their battle stances.

"Gee, I didn't expect you guys to make a comeback in this place," Chopper said in confusion as O'Chunks muttered.

"I bet they've come back for another fight," Blade grinned as he drew his katana. "I don't think this is even going to be a contest!"

"Ahhhhhhh… Do you not tire of collecting those worn-out, tiresome Pure Hearts?" Dimentio questioned. "I am not violent by nature, you know. I'd prefer to settle this peacefully, in fact. Say, for instance, you wished to go back to your world. I could do that for you…"

Chopper paused for the moment. "Wait… So you could actually take us back to our home?"

"Mmmmm-hmmmmm! I could very well do that for you! …But you might have to pay a small price for it." the jester grinned.

"Poyo… (I don't like the look on his face…)" Kirby trailed.

Chopper pondered a bit, but he finally shook his head and clenched his fists. "Thanks for the offer, but you can FORGET IT! Look, we love being in our own little world, but what's more important? Staying home and letting the universe get swallowed up by The Void? Or saving the universe itself from The Void?"

"Ah ha ha. I see. So it must be… Shall we begin?" Dimentio raised his arms up and used his magic abilities to take them all to Dimension D, making the four heroes face palm once again.

"Ugh… Haven't you learned? No matter how often we fight, it will end the same…" Tippi groaned.

"This fight REALLY isn't going to be so hard anyways," Chopper aimed a fireball at Dimentio. "If you're going to be a coward, go ahead and leave. The fight's going to end the same. Just give up already."

"My, my. Aren't you plucky? Same fight, same outcome… You are precisely correct. And…that…is…why…"

With a snap of his finger, a strange, green sprout magically appeared on top of O'Chunks's head, making him shouted, "_**BRO-CCOLI!**_"

"What in the world? ! Did he just put a sprout on his head? !" Sonic gaped.

"Lovely green hat, wouldn't you say?" Dimentio sang.

"It doesn't look too lovely to me," Blade grumbled.

"Dear O'Chunks! So strong, but so very dim! A child such as Chopper could learn his attack patterns. As such, I requested a few sprouts from my acquaintance to liven him up a touch. I call the boy 'O'Cabbage'! Don't be shy, O'Cabbage! Introduce yourself!"

"_**CAB-BAGE!**_" the bearded man shouted as he pounded his chest. It's almost like he lost full control of himself.

"What did you do to O'Chunks?" Chopper was ready to toss a fireball straight at Dimentio instead of O'Chunks. "Look, I know I trounce bad guys, but when you brainwash a villain that's a dolt… That's going a bit too far, in my eyes."

Dimentio ignored Chopper's words and cackled. "Ah ha ha. Simply adorable. Now remember, kids: eat your vegetables to grow big! …Except in this case though, a veggie will eat YOU! Have fun, now! Ciao!" And with that, the jester teleported out of his own dimension.

"_**AS-PARA-GUS!**_" O'Chunks shouted as he knocked all four of them back with a powerful punch.

"Whoa… Since when did O'Chunks do that so fast?" Chopper immediately got up and noticed O'Chunks was charging straight at them at a greater speed. He used his Wing ability to fly up and dive straight down at him headfirst to knock him back.

"Poyo! (Gather some information on him with Tippi, Chopper!)" Kirby shouted. After hearing that, Chopper used Tippi's powers to find some information on the Scottish warrior.

"That's O'Chunks. Dimentio has veggified him. He has no will of his own... Max HP is 60 and Attack is 5. He seems faster and stronger than before... But he will get dizzy after being thrown. That's your only chance... Don't let his quick movements confuse you. Just keep a steady head…"

"Oh, crag…" Chopper gulped. "Wait, when did I say 'crag'? !" He leapt out of the way when O'Chunks tried to grab him and shot a couple of pointy feathers at his direction, sticking onto his arm.

"_**CEL-ER-Y!**_" O'Chunks screamed as he was struck in the head by Kirby's jump attack (with him standing on top of Carrie, that is). Sonic delivered a Homing Attack on him to knock him back a bit further.

Getting even more angered, O'Chunks grabbed Sonic by the legs and hurled him straight at Blade, knocking them both to the wall. But he wasn't paying attention when Chopper hurled a fireball at him, setting him on fire.

"Say, Kirby… How about you get rid of those flames on him, will ya?" Chopper smirked. "Hopefully that that…sprout thing on his head will burn off with those flames…I hope."

"Poyo! (I'll do that!)" Kirby squirted a bunch of water on O'Chunks. His skin had a bit of soot on it, but it wasn't going to stop O'Chunks from shouldering Kirby straight into Chopper.

"Ugh… This isn't going too well." Blade quickly shook himself as he jumped towards O'Chunks. "All right, Chunky! You wanna fight? Then take THIS!"

Blade swung his katana a couple of times, making O'Chunks cringe, but he was still able to punch Blade in the gut.

"OOF! He… He punched me in the gut!" he wheezed as he fell to the ground, a bit unconscious. Before O'Chunks could laugh at him, he was soon stomped by Chopper's own feet.

"It's not over yet, you know…" Chopper smirked as he dodged O'Chunks punch by fluttering his wings. "You know what they say… If you can't reach them, you can't hit them!"

While O'Chunks was distracted with Chopper, Kirby summoned a Tidal Wave to come down on O'Chunks, knocking him straight to the ground.

"Hey, Kirby! Don't do THAT kind of move! What are ya trying to do, kill me? !" Sonic exclaimed shaking himself clean.

"Poyo… (Well it's the only way that I'm going to hit him… Sorry about that, Sonic…)" Kirby apologized before getting on Carrie to deliver a jump attack on O'Chunks, performing a stylish move on him as well.

"Oh, man… I forgot about that cool stylish move!" Sonic made a dash at O'Chunks after he kicked Kirby and he attacked with a Spin Jump. He managed to perform a little stylish move before striking him with a Homing Attack.

Now that Chopper was being chased around by O'Chunks while he was flying in the air, he allowed himself to fire a couple of more feathers onto his back. He then rammed into his back afterwards, though the bearded warrior fell on top of Sonic.

"Uh oh… Sorry, Sonic!" Chopper apologized. "I didn't mean to do that!"

"_**SPIN-ACH!**_" O'Chunks got himself up and grabbed Sonic by the arms, swinging him around and then releasing him to make him fly around in the whole place.

"Ohh… My aching…" Sonic moaned as O'Chunks did a couple of silly poses, allowing Chopper to toss a fireball down on his head. Unfortunately, the sprout on his head didn't burn off.

"How am I supposed to get rid of that thing now? A fireball doesn't do a thing to it!" Chopper frowned.

"I don't think you can use a fireball to beat it… You're going to need a lot more if you're going to defeat him…" Tippi trailed.

"Oh, great… I wasn't hoping for that…" Chopper groaned as he swooped down to strike O'Chunks. Unfortunately, the bearded warrior saw him coming and he grabbed him and kicked him like a soccer ball.

"Ack! Why does this always happen to me? !" he exclaimed as he hit the wall, leaving a red mark on his face as he pushed himself off.

"Don't worry, Chopper. I got this!" Blade tossed a couple of shurikens at O'Chunks. He managed to dodge some of them, but he got hit by a couple of them, to his displeasure.

"Heh heh heh! This is why I love being a ninja!" Blade grinned as he slashed at O'Chunks with his katana. He attempted to slice the sprout on his head, but O'Chunks managed to punch him in the face before so.

"Poyo, (It's almost as if O'Chunks knows that we're going after that sprout on his head,)" stated Kirby was he jumped out of the way from O'Chunks's punch. He managed to squirt water in his face. It may not do damage in real life, but it sure does do some damage here.

"_**GR-EEN BE-ANS!**_" O'Chunks shouted as he grabbed a piece of the floor and threw it straight at Blade, only to have him slice it in half before he could get struck.

"There's no way you're going to do THAT!" Blade retorted, rushing straight at O'Chunks with his katana. He managed to strike him once, but he was driven back by a stomp attack.

"Ugh… Go, Hommissile!" Blade threw Hommissile straight at O'Chunks, sending him flying through Dimension D with an explosion. "He's all yours, guys!"

Once O'Chunks landed on the ground, Chopper landed as well and he began to spin his hammer around with a hammer spin. While it did do some good damage, it wasn't enough to make O'Chunks give up.

"Whoa!" Chopper jumped out of the way when O'Chunks tried to snatch him. So instead, he jumped and attempted to stomp on him with a ground pound. That didn't work.

Chopper flew up using his Wing ability and he began to drop some sharp feathers down on him while he was trying to fight against Sonic, who managed to knock him back with a Spin Dash.

"_**AS-PARA-GUS!**_" O'Chunks yelled as he kicked Sonic back towards Blade. But he was soon interrupted when Kirby struck him with a watery tornado attack.

But before O'Chunks could make an attack on Kirby, Chopper swooped down and rammed into his head with his own head.

"_**Buh… Buh… BRO-CCOLI!**_" With that strong attack Chopper delivered, O'Chunks knelt down on the ground as they were taken back to Neptunian's Palace.

"_Hrrrrrrgh…_" O'Chunks groaned as the sprout on his head came off, turning him back to his normal self.

"Whoa… Looks like the attack did him in." Chopper gaped as he landed on the bridge. O'Chunks slowly got up and looked surprised.

"'Ey! What in gravy am I doin' in 'ere? !" he exclaimed before pondering. "Hunh? An' what are all o' YOU doin' 'ere as well? Oh, I get the picture! You lot wanted teh challenge the new, improved O'Chunks!"

"I believe you already said that before…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeh got pepper in yer pants, I'll give yeh that! But this time, yeh WILL get ruined!"

"Oh, great… Now we have to fight him AGAIN!" Chopper face palmed as he got in a fighting stance.

…Which was soon interrupted by a growling stomach.

"Chopper…" Sonic glared at the young Star Warrior.

"Hey! That's not my stomach!" Chopper retorted.

"Whuh-oh… Me belly's growlin' like a starvin' dog!" O'Chunks Warrior rule, number one: 'Never fight on an empty stomach! 'Tis madness!'"

"Poyo? (Fighting on an empty stomach is madness?)" Kirby questioned.

"Sorry, but we've got the call it a day! Can't go buckin' the warrior rules! Next time, though, yer DONE! Chunks away!" At that moment, O'Chunks rocketed away with his strange, farting ability that lets him rocket out with gas.

"Look…" Tippi fluttered over to the sprout on the ground. The sprout on his head… It looks like something I've previously seen before. I believe you could put that on if you wanted to. It looks as though it's nearly dead, however…"

Chopper shrugged and he took the Floro Sprout. "Well, what do you think? Would you care to try it on? I believe you'll be safe…"

"Well, I might as try…" Chopper hoped that he wouldn't be brainwashed, but once he placed the Floro Sprout on his head, he felt like nothing was affecting him.

"You…didn't turn into cabbage. That's nice, I guess… This could come in handy… You never know when we'll need that…"

"Well I'm not keeping it on," Chopper took the Floro Sprout off his head and put it away. "I look weird in that thing anyways."

"So… Where do we go now? All I see is a couple of blocks up ahead." Blade walked over to the blocks and he hit them from below. All he found were coins and a silver Zombie Shroom. Chopper used Tippi's powers to identify it.

"That's a Ghoul Shroom. It is an evil shroom monster that comes out of ? Blocks... Max HP is 10. Attack is 6. It can move very fast in a limited area... Its HP and Attack are high, so be sure to look before you leap..." Tippi informed.

"If that's true, then I'm ready to take it down!" Chopper tossed two fireballs at the Ghoul Shroom, burning it down. After that, he decided to look around for anything interesting.

"Nope. I don't see anything around here." Sonic said, shaking his head.

"Well that stinks… There's GOTTA be something here!" Chopper pondered before realizing something. "Wait… We just need to flip! I think we'll find something!"

Chopper allowed his friends to get close so he could flip into 3-D. Once in 3-D, they noticed they could jump off the bridge and into the water, where the door was settling down.

…But little did they know that Dimentio was eavesdropping on the whole fight.

"Mm… If they could beat that model of O'Chunks…then they are coming along quite nicely. Perhaps they really are the ones I have waited for all this time." Dimentio grinned. "Ah ha ha. I should prepare myself as well! So much to do, so precious little time…"

And with that, Dimentio teleported out of the palace.

* * *

**Next room-**

Entering the next room, they only found themselves in an underwater tunnel with a current sucking them through already. They ended up in a small little room with a tunnel above them, below them and one to the right.

"Looks like we have some sort of puzzle here… I don't like that." Chopper frowned. He decided to flip into 3-D to see if he can find anything interesting. He ended up finding an arrow pointing down.

"Ahhh! Now I see!" Chopper allowed himself to sink down so the current could carry him. Sonic and Blade grabbed an air bubble first before following him, along with Kirby to another similar room.

Chopper swam to the left after finding out that the arrow was pointing to the left in 3-D. They were taken down after the current sucked them to the left and then they were moving to the right, where they saw a couple of poles and spikes that would hurt them if they allow themselves to move in that direction.

"Don't let the spikes skewer you!" Chopper yelled as he grabbed the first pole and let go when he was away from the spikes. The other three followed through two more poles until the current started to bring them down to a new room.

As the waterfall took them down to the bottom of the palace, they noticed that the large room was a dark blue and no longer that horrible ruin-like gray and brown color. For once, this palace had a nice room with nice water.

That's not all. The room was also filled with air, thanks to the waterfall bringing them down to the ground. Up ahead they saw a large, blue door, along with a Save Block and yellow ? block.

"Well, it looks like we finally made it to the end of the palace," Chopper smiled as he punched the yellow ? block with his fist. To his surprise, an Ultra Shroom popped out this time.

"What the heck is that supposed to be?" Blade questioned.

"It's an Ultra Shroom! This should help us recover from that last fight with O'Chunks! It recovers 50 HP, for Pete's sake! We don't even have that much yet!" Chopper grabbed the Ultra Shroom and split it into four so each of them could eat it to recover 50 HP.

Once Chopper hit the Save Block, he walked over to the door. "Are you ready, guys? We're finally going to get to that Pure Heart!"

After everyone nodded, they walked into the next room. They were surprised by the beauty of the next room. It had a blue rug on the ground and even windows that showed the beautiful blue ocean…at the bottom of the ocean, that is.

"Wow… This room is very pretty…" Tippi commented.

"What? ! Who's there? !" Everyone paused as they saw the blue, genie-like watery king glaring at them with his yellow eyes. He looked a lot like what he was on the wallpaper in the Swamint town, but they were surprised when they saw some blue in those eyes as well, as well as long hair.

"I was never expecting any visitors like you people here!" the king growled. "Do you even KNOW whose room you just barged into? !"

Everyone was silent.

"This is the room of King Neptunian! I am the king of the sea, if you must know… This place is ruled by me, and only me!"

"Pardon me, your Majesty… But there's something we need to discuss to you about…" Tippi first spoke.

"Hmmmmmm? Hold on a moment… Now that I think about it, I heard about four people trespassing in my palace. I believe that you three might be the ones that were doing that, is that correct?" Neptunian asked, putting his finger on his chin.

"Well… No. Not exactly…" Chopper lied.

"I can see it in your face! You're lying!" Neptunian clenched his scepter as he glared at them. "I know why you've come here. You want me to stop attacking the Swamints, is that correct?"

"Yes, we would love that… But the question is… Why are you doing this?" Tippi questioned.

"Those Swamints were starting to get so annoying that I couldn't stand to hear them! Those accents of theirs… _**HORRIBLE! **_If you're siding with those Swamints, then be warned: you will not leave this place alive."

"What? It's just because of their accents? ! Are you RACIST? !" Blade growled.

"Racist? Oh, no… They've also caused some problems for me. You see… They've been tearing down some of my glorious statues that I've been proud to see! They took ALL of them down but one! They've also melted them and used them for many other horrible things!"

"Maybe it's because you're acting like a complete jerk! Why can't you just leave them alone and be good for one?" Chopper shouted.

"Good? Oh, no… They don't deserve any good! They don't even deserve THIS thing!" Neptunian held up the light blue Pure Heart that they've been looking for all this time.

"It's the Pure Heart!" Tippi gaped as all four heroes got in their fighting stances.

"Ah, so you like my little trinket, do you? I found this thing floating in the ocean a couple of months ago. It's such a nice little prize…for me, that is. I can see it in your eyes! You want this thing, don't you?"

"That's what we NEED to save the universe, Neptunian!" Chopper growled.

"Neptunian? ! How DARE you call me by my name? ! You may only refer to me as 'your Majesty' or 'your Highness'! Nothing else!"

"We don't give a crap on what to call you. We're NOT loyal to you!" Blade hissed, drawing his katana. "I can't believe you would DO something like this! You just took things TOO far with your own people!"

"Bah! I have no sympathy for those people after what they've done to me!" Neptunian stood up from his throne. "I had enough of your babbling. I think now's the time I took care of you myself. Consider this an honor…from the king!"

Neptunian raised his arms up, filling the entire room with water. He then floated up to the middle of the room. "How long can you fools hold your breath? This whole place is flooded, so there's no escape from here! Don't even think about using the door. It's not going to work."

"Rats!" Chopper kicked the ground as Neptunian fired a bubble from his hand at them. "I think that could be used as an air bubble if possible."

Sonic immediately grabbed the air bubble and he inhaled it, getting some air in his lungs. He then struck Neptunian with a Spin Jump.

"Let's see what we get from this guy," Chopper started off by using Tippi's powers to gather information on him.

"This is King Neptunian. He's the king of the sea… Max HP is 60. Attack is 5. Defense is 3. He'll try to attack you by using some water beam attacks, or even use lightning to strike you... Being a king of the seas, he can summon currents to strike you, or even bubble beams. Sometimes he might fire an air bubble at you... You can grab it to get some air, but it's not that useful if you can handle being underwater… I don't know why, but it seems like the Pure Heart really has messed with his mind… I remember Elder Humpback saying something about the Pure Heart driving him crazy… Is this true?

"Hmmmmm… You may be onto something, Tippi." Chopper smiled as he turned over to Neptunian. He was a bit distracted with Sonic, so he decided to toss a fireball at the king, setting him on fire for a couple of seconds.

"Ack! What in the world? ! How can you use fire in water? !" questioned Neptunian as he turned to Chopper, whose hand still had a flaming aura on it. Kirby, on the other hand, made two Bubble Shields for both Sonic and Blade so they could breathe during the fight.

"Bah! It's best not to question that!" Twirling his scepter, Neptunian fired a blue beam straight at Chopper, knocking him over to the door. He slowly got up and saw Blade strike him with his katana.

"Look, Neptunian… We want you to stop with all this madness right NOW! It shows how much of an insensitive person you are!" Blade growled, bringing his katana down on him vertically.

"Ugh… You pest!" Neptunian fired a watery beam from his scepter at Blade, but the ninja managed to make clones of himself. He made three, to be exact. One of them was hit by the beam, disappearing out of thin air.

"What in the world? ! What did you just do? !"

"I just made a clone of myself," both Blades smirked as they tossed a couple of shurikens at Neptunian. Some of them ripped through his robe, but the rips ended up going away. They harmed him, but the wounds simply disappeared from his genie-like body.

"What the… So my attacks didn't do a thing to him? What a load of bull…" Blade was soon struck by a beam fired by Neptunian. He was knocked over by the wall, with his Bubble Shield popping.

"Well, looks like Blade lost his Bubble Shield…" Sonic immediately jumped out of the way from Neptunian's bubble beam and then struck the sea king with a Homing Attack, knocking him to his throne.

"Poyo! (Hey! I wanna fight too!)" Kirby swam over to Neptunian and he struck him with a beam of water that made him cringe in pain.

"Hmmmm… Now that I think about it, you might be good to use against those other three!" Neptunian smirked as he twirled his scepter and aimed it at Kirby. However, all he received from him was another beam of water that knocked him to the ground.

"If only I could use my Wing ability…" Chopper grumbled as he pulled his hammer out. "Oh well. I guess this will do anyways."

Chopper brought his hammer down on Neptunian's stomach, making him hold his stomach in pain. "Oooooog… What exactly IS that thing you hold in your hands? How does it magically appear?"

"Oh, I'm the one doin' that!" Cudge informed.

"Ugh… You're going to pay for that!" Neptunian said, just like any other villain would say (and it's starting to get a bit clichéd with my writing) and he tried knocking Chopper back with a bubble beam, only to have the young Star Warrior jump out of the way.

"Come on, really? Are bubbles the only thing you can use?" Chopper scoffed as he kicked him in the face with a flaming spinning kick, leaving a couple of marks on his face for a few seconds.

"Hold still, you!" Neptunian summoned a watery fist to send him flying across the room with a punch.

"Kirby! Try to get rid of the water in here! I think it'll make the fight a bit easier for us!" Chopper cried.

"Poyo! (I'll see what I can do!)" Kirby nodded as he tried using his water powers to get rid of all the water. Luckily, he succeeded in doing so and got rid of all the water in the room.

"Ack! My beautiful water! What have you done to it? !" exclaimed the king as he turned to Kirby. All he got from the puffball was a water beam to his face. "Augh! My beautiful eyes!"

"Well that did something!" Blade said proudly as he rushed towards Neptunian. "With the water gone, we have more of an advantage!"

Before the king could get up, he was slashed in the chest by Blade's katana. He tried to defend himself, but the ninja cat was able to deliver another slash. This time, he struck his arm.

"Arrghh! Ninjas… It'd always tough to avoid their moves…" Neptunian brought his scepter up, which surprising (to Blade) blocked the katana easily. He immediately whacked Blade afterwards with it, knocking him to the ground.

"And now I shall finish you off with this!" Neptunian aimed the pointy part of his scepter down on Blade and began to charge up an electric attack. "Who says that water kings don't have electricity?"

But before Neptunian could strike Blade, Sonic bashed him with a Spin Dash, sending him flying over to his throne.

"You OK, Blade?" Sonic asked, pulling him up to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Sonic. Thanks for helping me there. I thought I was a goner." Blade turned to the water king and tossed a couple of shurikens at him. "…But we still have him to take care of."

"Yeah, that's true," Sonic came charging at Neptunian as he got up, but he soon summoned a bubbly shield around him, preventing anyone from attacking him.

"Ha ha ha! This battle isn't even over yet, you fools!" Neptunian cackled. "There's no stopping me with THIS!"

"Poyo! (Oh yeah there is!)" Kirby fired a water beam straight at Neptunian, but the attack didn't do anything to him. "Poyo… (He's right… We can't do anything to him…)"

"Not if I can help it!" Chopper used his Wing ability to fly up in the air and dive down on Neptunian's shield headfirst. Sure, it might hurt his head, but he was able to at least leave a crack in it.

"Ah! I see what you're trying to do there, Chopper! That's not too hard!" Sonic smirked as he jumped on top of Neptunian's shield. "OK, Screwdy! I think now's the time to put you to the test!"

With one jump, Sonic came down on Neptunian with a corkscrew, breaking through his shield and also hitting him with a powerful attack as well.

"HOW did you break through my shield? !" he gaped. "Unless… There were a couple of flaws to it…"

"Everything has flaws," Chopper stated as he fired a couple of pointy feathers at Neptunian. "If you're perfect… Then that means you're just some overpowered person that doesn't even deserve to be here."

"Hmmmm… That's true." However, King Neptunian wasn't going to let himself be distracted by these people. He attempted to strike Chopper with a water beam, but his attack missed.

"Can't hit what ya can't reach," Chopper scoffed as he rammed his head down on his with a big swoop attack, sending him flying across the room like before. He then tossed a couple of fireballs after landing on the ground.

"Arrgh! Take this!" Neptunian struck Chopper with a water beam attack, knocking him to the ground like before. But before the king could jab him with his scepter, he got up and stomped on his head, performing a stylish move.

Sonic came up next after seeing Neptunian knock his friend away. "All right, Neptunian! You asked for it?"

"Asked for what?" Neptunian turned, only to get knocked to the ground by Sonic's Spin Dash attack.

"THAT'S what you were asking for!" Sonic scoffed while waggling his finger at him. "And here's a little bonus!"

With one jump, he performed a Homing Attack on Neptunian. At this moment, the king was outraged, so he filled the whole room with water once again in order to prevent the heroes from breathing.

"That's right, you pitiful heroes! _Drown!_ You can't survive underwater like those pathetic Swamints, so this fight should be in the bag for me!" Neptunian grinned as he struck Sonic with electricity.

Sonic wanted to scream, but that would make him exhale some air in his mouth, so he tried as best as possible NOT to let out a huge scream.

At this moment, Neptunian surrounded himself with bubbles. "This barrier should do nicely while I zap you all to the underworld!"

"Wait a second… Those bubbles look like air bubbles…" Tippi trailed. "Maybe if Sonic and Blade grabbed those, they could get rid of that shield…"

After hearing Tippi, Sonic immediately jumped over to the barrier of bubbles around Neptunian. He inhaled each and every one of them, along with Blade.

"What the… What's happening to my barrier? ! Gah!" Neptunian was soon struck by Blade's katana after he got a hold of him. He even punched the evil king in the face after dazing him.

"Hmmmm… You are a rather tough cat, I'll admit – even for being able to hold your breath underwater! No matter… I still have one trick up my…"

Neptunian was soon interrupted when Kirby struck him with a water beam. "Poyo? ! (Can you stop the talking and fight? ! Come on! I don't wanna hear a villain boasting all the time!)"

"You little…!" Neptunian zapped Kirby with a lightning attack, knocking the poor puffball's Water ability away. Because it was underwater, there was no way of getting it back.

"Crud… Things aren't looking good here." Chopper gulped, despite the fact that he could still fight with his hammer. "I guess I'll throw in one more thing before I get hurt."

Chopper swam towards Neptunian and delivered a spinning hammer attack (vertically) on him, but he was soon knocked away by Neptunian's lightning attack, also stripping him of his ability.

"Aw, come on! That's not fair!" he whined.

Since Neptunian was distracted by the two, Blade immediately kicked Neptunian in the shin and struck him with his katana. He tried one more time, but the king brought his scepter up first.

"You won't win this!" he scoffed.

Unfortunately, he was wrong on that. Blade managed to conjure up some flames on his katana, which was good enough to slice through his scepter.

"No… My scepter!" Neptunian cried before Blade finished him off with a flaming slash. The king himself collapsed as the water in the room disappeared.

"This… This can't be… The king can't be defeated so…" Neptunian stopped at that very moment and closed his eyes shut.

"N-NEPTUNIAN!" a girlish voice cried out as a pink genie walked into the room. She was a bit similar to Neptunian, except she didn't have a scepter and she was much shorter than him. Some people know her as Queen Taki.

"Wh-What did you do to my husband? !" she cried.

"We've defeated him. Sorry, but it was the right choice to do." Chopper said.

Taki stood up and looked at the heroes in tears. "You don't understand, though! My husband… He was a great man. He always cared about me and all the people around the sea. He never meant any harm… Just please, don't kill him."

"We weren't planning on killing him, though…" Blade frowned, putting his katana away. "I didn't want to fight him, but he was the one asking for it."

"Y… Yes… I do understand that when he got something, it made him feel corrupt. He started to blame everyone for what they've done. In all honesty, those statues were being melted to make conservative solar panels to help the environment. But he had his reasons for getting mad at the Swamints."

"What did they do?" Tippi questioned.

"You see… The Swamints have been eating his favorite clams in the sea. He loved them very much and as soon as he heard about them eating them, he was angered by this. That might be one of the reasons why he started to hate them after finding a strange, magical item."

"Well! It appears that I had a feeling something like this was why the water's so polluted!" Just before Taki could finish the story, they heard Flint and his camera crew walk into the room.

"Flint? You made it here? But…how?" Chopper tilted his head in confusion.

"You're not going to believe this… But… I finally conquered my fear of swimming. Yes… I…swam." Flint announced as he walked over to the queen. "_**CRAGELY HO! **_'Emergency special report from Queen Taki! The devouring of King Neptunian's favorite clams drives him mad! Whither he rampage?'"

Flint brought his attention back to the queen. "Well this is some interesting news we've heard! I was thinking that there was something going on with the population of clams around here."

"This play well in Cragnon crowd…" Hornfels stated.

"Ratings EXPLODED, brah! It like 'Crags on Ice' meets 'Baron von Craggington'!" Monzo cheered.

"Oh, yes. My husband considers clams to be very sacred. He would never let anyone harm them except nature itself." Taki nodded.

"Well, I'll make sure I get the word through those Swamints! …If possible. As soon as the word comes in, those Swamints will never kill any more clams!"

"Thank you… Those Swamints started to enjoy them as soon as they migrated over to their side of the ocean. The Neptos were only trying to stop them from eating them. They didn't think that you were here for a reason."

"What about the polluted waters?" Tippi questioned.

"Things might be cleared up as soon as my husband gets back up," Taki took the light blue Pure Heart from her husband and turned to the four heroes. "While you hurt my husband, I knew that you were the heroes and had a reason for fighting. I can forgive you for this… This thing was meant to be held onto until the heroes' arrival for 1,500 years. I think it's best for you to take it."

As she tossed the Pure Heart above Chopper, all of the Pixls around him began to do their cute dance as the young Star Warrior held the Pure Heart up.

"Well, we may have hurt someone, but at least we got this," he smiled.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Men to true grit witness live what others can only see through crag-vision. That is what moves me to travel into the belly of the beast week after week. Thanks again for watching, and until next time…CRAAAGLEY HO!" Having wrapped up their latest shoot, Flint and crew went back to Swamint Town to alert the Swamints about Neptunian and soon return to their home. Chopper and friends clutched the Pure Heart as they walked back towards Flipside. Our heroes had taken a closer step toward overturning Tipral's dark prophecy…_

* * *

**And that concludes Chapter 5 of Super Paper Chopper! Yup! Now we're getting into some of the deep stuff here! ...While Chapter 5 was pretty cool and all, the next chapter might be a bit more...intense. If you don't believe me, then you'll have to see for yourself when we get there! ;)**_  
_


	32. Chapter 5 Interlude

**Here's an interlude for ya…if you even like the interludes, that is… :P**

* * *

"Hmph… So my arm's feeling a lot better now…" Tipral began to take the bandages off of his hand, now that it was finally time to take it off. Luckily, he didn't feel any pain when he was taking it off, so he felt relieved. He tried moving his hand to make sure he didn't feel any other pain. He was glad that it was feeling just fine.

"Good… Now I can finally fight Chopper once again." Before he could finish, he heard O'Chunks groaning through the hallway. "I suppose O'Chunks has returned… But, has he succeeded? …Or has he failed?"

Just before Tipral could sit on his bed and red the Dark Prognosticus, he began to hear banging on his door.

"Oh, please fergive me, Tipral! I've failed yeh once again!" O'Chunks cried through the other room. "I tried teh give them some chunkin', but it was I who got the chunkin'! Please fergive me!"

Tipral opened the door to his room and saw O'Chunks on his knees, torn up. "Whoa… I guess those heroes really done you in, didn't they?"

"Yeah… The first time I got teh fight them, I was taken to Dimension D by Dimentio. 'E told me that I would be stronger…yet I still lost! And the other time… I don't really know what happened there. An' now my stomachs gurglin' too!"

"Then find something to eat. Punishing you is a waste of time when I have a plan up my sleeves at this moment."

"A plan? What's this plan yer comin' up with?" O'Chunks asked out of curiosity.

"Oh, I'll discuss it with everyone when we have our little meeting," Tipral informed, turning away from him. "Right now, do something else, like eat something. You're hungry, right? Well go do that!"

"Thank yeh, Tipral," O'Chunks wheezed as he made his way over to his room. Once he opened it, he saw one side of his room with red walls, weights and a punching back made of meat and the other side with a ton of meat.

"I gotta get teh eatin' this stuff!" he grabbed a drumstick and took a bite off of the piece of meat. "Like what me great uncle said… Yeh got teh eat as much meat as yeh can! That's how yeh'll get strong muscles!"

After O'Chunks ripped the piece of meat off, he walked over to the punching bag made of meat and began punching it.

"Man… I'm startin' teh wonder what happened with me when I saw those heroes in that palace… We were suddenly at Dimension D an' then I was back in the palace! I even have these bruises on me arms an' legs! What's goin' on 'ere?!"

As O'Chunks punched the piece of meat, he started to see a bunch of sprouts around the room. "GOOD GRAVY! What are a bunch of veggies doin' 'ere?! I HATE veggies!"

O'Chunks backed away from the piece of meat that looked like a Floro Sprout. "Oh, me belly's startin' teh feel sick like butterflies flyin' in me stomach… This… This isn't good fer me!"

"_Oh, O'Chunks!_" the singing voice caught him off guard. Opening the door, he saw Dimentio floating in front on him. "Good evening, O'Chunks! You sure seem a bit…strange lately."

"Listen 'ere, yeh weirdo!" O'Chunks growled, grabbing the jester. "I know yer up teh somethin'! What happened after yeh took us all teh yer dimension? I know somethin' must've happened!"

"Ah ha ha ha. What makes you think that I would be up to something?" Dimentio chuckled. "I obviously haven't been doing anything wrong lately. I'm just trying to make sure we all succeed in defeating the heroes. Don't you see? That Floro Sprout I placed on your head was SUPPOSED to help you defeat them!"

"Hmmmm? So yeh DID put that veggie on me head!" O'Chunks dropped Dimentio, who floated back up. "But that leaves a question… I'm startin' teh see all o' these veggies around 'ere. Did yeh do somethin' teh me?!"

"I haven't done a thing! Honest!" Dimentio assured as he was holding a pink book with a red heart in the center.

"'Ey… Where'd yeh get that book?" the bearded warrior raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, it's a long story that's a bit hard to explain…" Dimentio smirked, taking a swift glance at Mimi's room over by the corner of the hallway.

* * *

**A couple of minutes ago-**

"Tee hee hee! Oh, Tippy! You're so cute! I could just snuggle with you all day!" Mimi giggled as she hugged her Tipral plushie while sitting on her bed. She was ignoring most of the other plushies and paying more attention to the Tipral one. "I loved seeing you in my room before! I hope you come back!"

Not only that, but she even doodled more pictures of her and Tipral holding hands, hugging, kissing, and any other romantic stuff with Rubees falling from the sky on a picture.

"Well, since I don't have much else to do at this moment, I might as well write something in my diary," Mimi smiled as she got off her pink bed and went over to her girly diary. Even I, the author, can't really stand this place she's in!

_Dear Diary,_

_Ever since I came back to this castle, I keep looking at that cute, dark boy all of the time! Man… Not only does he look cute, but I actually find him really hot! I hope to see him come out of the ocean and dry off with his hotness. …Hee hee! I'm seriously getting too distracted over him! It almost distracts me from fighting those doofuses! …But I know for a fact that Tipral won't read this. I mean, NOBODY ever gets my hand on my girly diary! …Well, almost everyone. Hope I get a chance to write in you later, because I think I might need to!_

_-Mimikins-_

The little green girl smiled and giggled as she closed her diary and put it in a safe place, like her shelf. She always placed something over it to make sure no one would see it, although no on really bothers to go into her room.

"I better get ready for what Tippy has to say!" Mimi opened her closet and checked all of the dresses she had. "…I guess I'll wear my purple one, I suppose. That one looks soooo cute!"

Little did she know that a jester was sneaking over to her shelf and taking her diary from her shelf…

* * *

**Meeting room-**

"All right, Tipral… What is it this time?" Dark kicked the door open to the meeting room and jumped up onto his platform. He saw Tipral standing on his platform with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

O'Chunks, Mimi and Dimentio soon appeared. "Ahh… So I see you're all here. Excellent."

"What's going on, Tippy?" Mimi asked sweetly.

"For your information, it seems that Chopper has gotten six Pure Hearts so far. He is getting closer to the halfway mark…" Tipral opened his eyes and clenched his fists. "I've finally found the next location of the Pure Heart!"

"The next location?! Where is it?" O'Chunks asked.

"It's somewhere in a place called **Desert Oasis**," Tipral informed, looking at O'Chunks with a glance. "I recently overheard that that place will soon be meeting its demise. This is our chance in stopping Chopper and his group of friends!"

"And what plan might you be coming up with?" Dimentio asked.

"It's a plan that'll hopefully stop those heroes. I'm going to need all four of you to take part in this mission." O'Chunks and Mimi were smiling, while Dark didn't care that much. "Now, this explanation is going to be long… So you're all going to have to listen very carefully."

"A plan to stop the heroes? …And this is, what? The third time you planned on this?" Dark groaned. "Look, Tipral… Your plans aren't working. At this rate, Chopper's going to be here any minute!"

"…And I said before that that world's meeting its demise soon, is that correct?" Dark finally stopped. "I thought so. Now, this plan is going to take some time to explain. I know that it'll HOPEFULLY work against those heroes."

* * *

**Later-**

"Why, that's one heck o' a plan yeh got there, Tipral!" O'Chunks shouted, raising his fists up in the air. "That plan sounds like it'll work! Now yer makin' one awesome plan!"

"I have to admit, that plan isn't too bad. I think it'll work." Dark grinned slightly.

"You're the best, Tippy!" squealed Mimi, but she stopped before she could even tackle Tipral.

"Ah… What a magnificent plan you have, Tipral! I'm astounded!" Dimentio grinned. _"This plan just might be the trick to make my plan move! I KNEW this day would come! Oh, how exciting!"_

"You heard the plan, so now go out and stop those heroes!" Tipral ordered. All four villains nodded and left the room with their own abilities. "Chopper… Be prepared… The next world you'll be going to won't be safe…"

* * *

_I began to look at myself carefully after the huge destruction I caused. I killed every single person in the room. All I found were these golden rings. They helped control my power._

"_What have I done to all of these people? ...And how exactly did I do this? This isn't what I've been expecting myself to be like…"_

_I began to explore the room, but I couldn't find a single person. Not one person in this room was alive._

_That's when I started to feel alone…_

…_Until I met this one girl._

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"Hey, Tippi! Are you still here?" Chopper poked Tippi, who started to have some strange vision.

"Wha-?!" Tippi paused for the moment and looked at the four heroes. They were right outside of the light blue door.

"You looked like you were on a snooze cruise," Sonic stated, looking at the rainbow Pixl in a strange manner.

"Well… I… Didn't you just hear something?" All she got was their heads shaking. "No? All right, then… It's just that… For a second, I thought I heard something in my mind… Like someone I once met before… I don't know who, but I just remember hearing that earlier…"

"_Cough…hack…_" Chopper's antennas sprung up when he noticed Meta Knight lying right next to the green door.

"Meta Knight?!" Chopper rushed to the fallen warrior. He seemed to be a bit bruised, and not to mention a bit weak. "What happened to you?! Are you all right?!"

"Ugh… Chopper…" Meta Knight looked up at him. "I walked through that door…but I couldn't find my sword. I was hit by many asteroids and electric enemies while floating through space. I thought… I thought I was going to die…_cough_!"

"Poyo! (Hang in there, Meta Knight! We'll…)" Before Kirby could finish, they all felt a tremor. Apparently The Void grew bigger than before. Only this time, most of the sky couldn't be seen.

"The Void… It looks as though it's gotten bigger. We need to open the door to the next world quickly… Let's hurry." Tippi suggested.

"We're not going anywhere yet, Tippi!" Chopper tried his best to pick up Meta Knight, but he needed to get some help from Kirby. "We've gotta help Meta Knight! I guess those asteroids really got to him…"

* * *

**Flipside, Second Floor-**

"Oh ho. You're back." all four heroes saw Merlon standing over by the door to his house. "And what's this? You've brought another hero here! Well met!"

"Why thank you!" Blade walked over to Merlon and shook his hand. "The name's Blade. I'm a ninja. A friggin' ninja, for Pete's sake! I'm going to make sure we save this universe and get all twenty Pure Hearts."

"I'm sure you and your ninja skills will come to great use," Merlon turned his attention to the others. "Have you all seen the sky lately? The Void continues to grow larger. I imagine that some worlds have already started to decay. I wonder how long our dear Flipside will be spared?"

"The Light Prognosticus doesn't say anything about how long we have?" Tippi questioned.

Merlon shook his head. "The Light Prognosticus was only written to counteract the dark one… As such, it's not truly prophetic, so it's hard to say how long we really have… And yet…I feel confident in saying that we do not have much time at all."

"Well, we can only go forward now. We can't just wait for all worlds to end, can we?"

"Of course you're right, my dear… I received a message from Nolrem recently… It seems that someone on the outskirts of Flopside has spotted a Heart Pillar. As you've no doubt seeking the next Heart Pillar, that is a good place to start. I will go back to the Light Prognosticus to look for clues."

"Wait, hold on, Merlon!" Chopper stopped Merlon before he could walk in. "Listen… We might need your help. Do you know anyone who could get some medical help for Meta Knight?"

"Ugh… I don't know how long I'll last… I mean, I'm not going to die, but I know for a fact that I'm dangerously injured." Meta Knight wheezed.

Merlon walked over to Meta Knight and looked at him. "What about…behind the mask?"

"My face is not for anyone to see," the knight snapped, glaring at Merlon. "…Excuse me. I just don't like it when people ask about what's behind my mask. It's nothing important, really. I even checked myself. My face isn't injured."

"If that's what you say, then I suppose I'll believe you," Merlon stated, looking at the bruises on him. "I believe I can get you some medical help. Just come to my house and I'll get some people to help you."

"Thank you… And Chopper…" Meta Knight eyed Chopper. "I was given this earlier by Merlee. I don't know what to do with it, but I'm sure you'll be able to put it into good use."

Meta Knight pulled a key out and gave it Chopper. "Use it wisely, Chopper. If you use it on the right door, I believe you might find something interesting."

"Hmmmm… Now that I think about it, I DID see a door in the back part of Flopside. I wanna check there first." Chopper brought Meta Knight to Merlon's house before he and his friends headed to Flopside via the blue pipe.

* * *

**Flopside, First Floor, Back-**

"See? I told you there was a door here!" Chopper pointed to the locked door. "Now let's see if this key will do the trick."

Pulling the key out, Chopper inserted it into the lock, which broke off. "Well, what do ya know? It actually worked!" Sonic grinned.

"Now let's see what we've got!" Blade kicked the door open, only to find a small room with nothing really interesting except for a brown chest. "What? This is it? Nothing else around?"

"…Except for this chest," Sonic added, kicking the chest open. All they found inside was a green Pixl shaped like a musical note.

"What in the world…?" Chopper tilted his head.

"Poyo… (What a strange Pixl…)" Kirby gawked.

"_**DOODLY-DOO!**_" the female Pixl chirped. "The bird, it warbles, _TWEET!_ The bug, it cries, _CHEEP!_ The frog, _RRRRRRIBBIT!_ The dog, _GRRRRRROWF!_ Goats and cars, _BLEEEET!_ All things sing, you see. To live is to make music!"

"Whoa… So this Pixl loves to sing…" Chopper said with a blank look.

The Pixl gaped at the heroes. "My words… Could it be… I've said something poetic? Could it truly be?"

"And you are…?" Tippi blinked.

"I am Piccolo! Your footsteps sang to me! CLOP! CLOP! And over again! Yet those sounds are not your everything, your all, your essence! _Nope!_ _I'll show you why!_"

Piccolo circled around Chopper and then she was held up by the young Star Warrior with a confused look on his face.

**The melodious Pixl named Piccolo joined your group! If you use Piccolo, different music will play depending on the character you use. …With some secret powers sprinkled in…**

"Use me to hear sound that matches your character… _POCCOLO-COLO!_" Piccolo sang. "The beat of your spirit… I will find it and play it for you!"

"Well this is certainly interesting…" Chopper began to use Piccolo's power, making her play a song that felt similar to him. It sounded…like the Rainbow Resort theme! "Wait a sec… I know that theme!"

"Now's not the time to be talking to that thing," Sonic said. "We've got a Heart Pillar to find!"

"Oh, yes… That's true." Chopper nodded.

* * *

**Flopside, Second Floor, Outskirts**

"Well, I know that this place looks pretty familiar," Chopper stated as they walked into the outskirts of Flopside. "It's basically all flipped around!"

"Poyo, (Hey, Chopper, look over there,)" Kirby pointed to the right, where there was an invisible heart, but no pillar. "Poyo? (Why is there an invisible heart, yet there's no Heart Pillar?)"

"Hmmmm… I think it's because we can't go over there yet." Chopper shrugged as he turned to the right. "Oh? What do we have here?"

He pulled his hammer out and smashed the yellow block that he saw in front of him, making a pipe appear. They decided to take it down to the first floor of the outskirts, where they saw green Squig-like enemies. Chopper decided to identify them with Tippi.

"It's a Squog. Essentially, these beasts are big, surly Squigs... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. Squogs will spit rocks at any enemy they see... The rocks they spit come at you quite fast, but you should be able to beat them easily." Tippi informed.

"There's two of them, so this shouldn't be too bad," Chopper stomped on both Squogs, performing stylish moves and taking them out. He landed between two rectangular blocks with a sign.

"I think I know what you need to do…" Tippi reminded.

"Of course!" Chopper made sure his friends were close so he could flip into 3-D. They made their way to the outer, OUTER part of the outskirts. There, they found a gap to their left and a yellow block disguised as one of those gray blocks.

"It's obvious that this is a yellow block," Sonic stated, looking at it. "I mean, it looks just like it!"

"I agree with you on that," Chopper nodded as he smashed the block. A red button was right by him, so he jumped on it to make a Heart Pillar appear before their very own eyes.

"Poyo! (There it is! Go put the Pure Heart in its place, Chopper!)" Kirby shouted.

Chopper nodded and pulled out the light blue Pure Heart. Once it was placed in its pillar, the light blue clock appeared and began to tick as a dark blue door was created up at Flipside Towers.

"Well, looks like the deed is done. Let's go back to Flipside Towers." Chopper suggested as the clock disappeared.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"A dark blue door now? Seriously… These doors remind me of the rainbow BIG TIME." Blade groaned.

"Oh, who cares? It is what it is! Let's just get a move on, shall we?" Chopper rushed into the dark blue door along with his friends. They knew they would be up for a difficult challenge ahead.


	33. The Desert in Danger

_Under the looming shadow of The Void, the world slowly drifted towards demise. But, the four heroes still had a chance to stop Tipral from destroying all worlds. Could our daring heroes stop Tipral and his minions? Or was the world doomed to be devoured? Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, and Blade ventured through the next door to find out…_

**CHAPTER 6-1**

**-The Desert in Danger-**

As the background began to get drawn, the ground looked a bit flat for this world. But once it was colored, the ground was not really solid. It was actually all sand. When everything else began to get colored, a big blue sky could be seen up above the sand and even some puddles were around on the sand. All the way to the left was the ocean, which explains why this world is called Desert Oasis.

As the heroes walked out of the dark blue door, they took a look at their surroundings. "Sand… Some puddles…and even some palm trees. This doesn't look too bad! Don't you think so, Sonic?"

Chopper stopped when he noticed Sonic looking up at the sky. "Sonic? Guys?" He decided to look up at the sky as well. He nearly gaped at the sight he saw.

It was The Void, and dang, was it huge.

"The Void… It's enormous here… Much bigger than it is in Flipside…" Tippi gaped as The Void practically covered the entire sky. "This dimension must be very close to destruction… We'd better hurry… We have a Pure Heart to find."

"Poyo… (Yeah, we better hurry…)" Kirby gulped as he looked at the huge, dark swirling vortex in the sky. "Poyo… (I don't think we'll have enough time to get to the Pure Heart…)"

"Don't say that, Kirby! I think we have a perfect chance of getting there!" Chopper shivered as he looked on ahead. There wasn't anything except for a flat ground and a couple of gaps with quicksand. There were even Pokeys roaming around here.

"So, shall we get started?" Sonic grinned, rushing straight at the Pokey. Unfortunately, he ended up getting hurt instead because of the spikes on the enemy.

"Ack! I completely forgot about these spikes! Dang it!" he winced.

"Hold on… Let's see what I can do." Chopper walked over to the Pokey. It ended up throwing a spiked piece of its body at him, but he was able to inhale it before it hit him. Tippi, on the other hand, blinked confusedly.

"Chopper, what did you just do?" she questioned.

Once Chopper swallowed the piece of the Pokey's body, his skin turned to a yellow tint, with his shoes having an orange tint. He now had a pink, spiky helmet strapped to his head. The spikes weren't out, but if he wanted to, he could surround himself with some pointy needles.

"What the heck? Now you have a spiky helmet strapped onto your head? This is just weird…" Blade grumbled as he looked at Chopper.

"Hey, don't diss the hat!" Chopper clenched his fists and suddenly needles sprung out of his helmet, protecting him from any harm, such as the Pokey's attacks. Luckily, he was close to the Pokey, so he pretty much took it out.

"Man, this is a lot stranger than the time I was going to learn probably the coolest thing from my sensai…but it just HAD to be something else." Blade recalled.

"What do you remember?" Sonic questioned. Blade began to think back when he was going to learn something interesting with his sensai.

* * *

_Over by a river, Blade was sitting down by the water, ten years of age, while his sensai walked over to him (you can decide what the sensai looks like, since I don't have a freakin' clue on what he would look like)._

_"So, Blade… Are you finally ready to learn one of the greatest moves as a ninja?" the sensai asked._

_"Am I ready? I was BORN ready!" Blade fist pumped as he stood up, grinning. "Am I going to learn to walk on water, like all of those other ninjas? …Heck, am I going to walk on the water like Jesus?"_

_His sensai shook his head. "No, Blade. You will not be learning how to walk on the water. That's not until you've mastered being a ninja."_

_Blade frowned. "Really? Aw, man! I was hoping that it would be that! …Well, am I going to make a dragonfly out of water?"_

_"No."_

_"Will I learn to turn into water?"_

_"Nope. Not that either."_

_"Oh, really? Well what about…"_

_"No."_

_"Wow… So it's none of those at all?" Blade seemed a bit confused at first, since he thought it would be one of those subjects. After all, they ARE at the river. "Well spill it out, old man! What is it going to be?"_

_"All right, Blade… I'm going to teach you…what is possibly the most fantastic ability that you'll ever learn in your life." Blade was starting to get incredibly excited about this._

_"Tell me, old man! I NEED to know!" he begged._

_His sensai smirked. "Very well then! Blade… I will teach you…" he pulled out a basket full of clothes. "…how to do your laundry."_

* * *

"And I still remember that from five years ago," Blade remarked, sighing in disbelief (he is fifteen, if you wanted to know). "That old man was going to tell me something AWESOME! …But it turns out that it was just laundry! LAUNDRY, I TELL YOU!"

"Well, that sucks for you," Chopper snickered as he got rid of the Pokey and walked over to the gap that had quicksand below. "I gotta say… This world doesn't seem TOO bad, but it stinks that this world might be meeting its end soon."

"Yeah, I agree, Chopper!" Sonic jumped over the gap and saw a Sand Cleft up ahead. "I prefer this place over the other world from the very START! And yes, I do believe that it's best to stay here. There's no water!"

"Poyo? (What about the puddles?)" Kirby pointed to some of the puddles on the sandy ground. "Poyo. (There's still some water around here, Sonic. Don't think you've gotten away from it.)"

"Wait, what the heck did he just say?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Sonic," Chopper assured, jumping over the quicksand and landing right in front of the Sand Cleft. Using his needles, he protected himself against the charging Cleft that ended up hurting itself.

"That Cleft is really stupid if it's really running into you when you have those spikes up," Blade snickered as he hit one of the yellow ? blocks, making a Mushroom come out.

"We're splitting that," Sonic stated as Blade sliced it into four pieces with his katana. All four of them recovered 10 HP from the Mushroom, but that really wasn't enough from what they have.

They came across some brown blocks making some sort of wall, so Chopper flipped into 3-D to go through it, only to find a couple of Squogs, but Blade immediately took care of them with some shurikens.

"Just remember: if an enemy's too far away, I'll just use my shurikens against 'em! Plain and simple!" Blade smirked.

"Yeah, that's not bad idea…" Tippi trailed as she looked up ahead. There was a huge gap with quicksand, but there were luckily some platforms that are above the quicksand. Ones that they could use to get across.

"Don't worry about the quicksand… You can still jump out of it if you're stuck…" she assured before a large Pokey with a flower on its head popped out of the quicksand. "What in the world…?"

"That looks like a Sand Pokey to me," Chopper stated as its big head began to come down on the heroes. However, the young Star Warrior brought his needles up instead, making the Sand Pokey get hit instead.

"Poyo! (My turn to finish it!)" Kirby floated up to the Sand Pokey with air inhaled into him and he let out a huge puff of air on it, knocking it over and making it explode out of thin air.

"That was pretty handy! I guess we don't have to worry about that thing now." Chopper smiled as he jumped onto the brown platforms. "Although there's no water here… It _does_ feel dry."

"Oh, you have a point there," Sonic said, his mouth feeling dry. "It's actually a bit hot around here!"

"That's why I hate deserts. There's BARELY any water and rain, and then there's the fact that it's HOT out! That's the worst part about this place. No. Friggin'. WATER!" Blade growled.

Once they jumped onto the top platform, they noticed that the next platform was a bit further ahead. The jump over the big brown-blocked wall might not be easy for our heroes to cross.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby squealed as he floated over to the platform. Well, it looks like someone can do it.

"OK, Kirby, all you have to do is wh-OOOOAAAAA!" Chopper was suddenly getting taken over to the platform by Kirby's inhaling ability. They didn't go in his mouth, but they fell off the brown platform and onto the sand, where a red door awaited them.

"Well, what do ya know? We finally found a door! Nice!" Sonic grinned as he opened the door for everyone to walk in. In the next area, the sandy ground was still flat, but there were some palm trees that could be seen. There were still some Sand Clefts walking around and also two pipes. At the end of the area was a locked door.

"Oh, boy… Looks like we have another locked door." Blade turned his attention to the Sand Cleft. "But first… We have this thing to take care of."

Blade looked down at the Sand Cleft with his katana and he struck the rock-hard monster. Unfortunately, he did so little damage to it because of its high defense. "Really? ! That's just not right!"

"I know what to do," Chopper brought his needles out and allowed the Sand Cleft to charge at him. Only that charge attack got the Sand Cleft to hit itself and take itself out, penetrating through defense.

"See? That's not so hard to take care of!" the Star Warrior smiled until a Sand Pokey rose from the ground. "Oh, schizzle… Now we're screwed."

"Actually, this is where I get to do something incredibly awesome!" Blade smirked as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Sand Pokey's head, taking it out. There WAS still a Pokey roaming around, though.

"Poyo! (Allow me to take care of that!)" Kirby jumped on Carrie and then floated over to the Pokey to give it a good jump. Though it didn't kill it, the Pokey tried hurling a piece of its own body at him, only to have the piece get inhaled and spat back at the Pokey, defeating it for good.

Chopper jumped over to one of the pipes. The first one, he couldn't go down, but when he checked the second one, the pipe ended up firing him up to a platform up above, where there was a pipe.

The other three went into the pipe on the sandy ground and allowed themselves to be fired out to the platform Chopper was standing on. There was a yellow ? block that only contained a coin, however.

"All for a measly coin?! Weak!" Sonic frowned.

"We still have this pipe to go down," Chopper stated, pointing to the pipe. "What? You honestly thought that there would be nothing else? C'mon! We need to go down here for a key, for Pete's sake!"

As soon as Kirby, Sonic and Blade jumped into the pipe, Chopper looked up at the large swirling vortex in the sky, holding his Vivian and Heartsy plushie close to him.

"What are those two dolls you have?" Tippi questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"These? They're… Wait, did you just say dolls?"

"Yes… I called them dolls."

"They're NOT dolls! They're plushies!" Chopper retorted, bringing the two plushies away from her. "They're people that I've known from five months ago. …And, despite the fact that I got kissed by them A LOT, they're considered to be friends of mine. I found these at Fort Francis, if you want to know."

"I see… You sure have gone through a lot before we met, that's for sure…" the Pixl trailed as she followed Chopper down into the pipe into an underground room filled with quicksand.

"Whoa… Why's this room filled with quicksand?" Chopper questioned as he landed in it.

"Quick, Chopper! Get out of it!" Sonic shouted, standing on an old platform with the other two.

"For what reason?"

"Just get out!"

"OK, fine!" Chopper jumped out of the quicksand and landed on the platform. But before he could get to speaking with the other three, a large, Sand Bug popped out of the sand and began to spit poison balls at them.

"Watch out!" Tippi warned. "If those poison balls strike you, you'll become poisoned!" Unfortunately, she was too late. Chopper was already struck by the poison attack, turning him to a dark green color (along with his spiky helmet and gloves).

"Ugh… I don't feel so good…" Chopper wheezed.

"Oh, boy… How are we gonna get rid of that poison on you then?" Sonic questioned, looking at the sick Star Warrior. "There's GOTTA be a way to make ya feel better! There has to be!"

"Maybe I could be of assistance!" Piccolo chirped as she began to play a soothing Rainbow Resort song. Not only did it cure Chopper of his poison, but it also put the Sand Bug to sleep.

"Poyo… (Whoa… Did you just see that?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo! (It looks like Piccolo's ability allows you to put an enemy to sleep! That… That sounds really useful against these enemies!)"

"No kidding," Chopper nodded, tossing a couple of fireballs at the Sand Bug until it ended up sinking to the bottom of the quicksand. "Sheesh! How much HP does this thing even have? It's pretty tough!"

Unfortunately, two more Sand Bugs rose from the ground and tried to spew out more poison, but Chopper managed to block the attacks by bringing his needles up. Kirby started to play the Green Greens song from Piccolo, making them fall asleep.

"All right, time to get to the killin'!" Blade grinned as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Sand Bug in front of him. He immediately finished it off with one last slash from his katana. "One for the ninja and zero for the Sand Bug!"

"Dude, it's not over yet," Sonic reminded as he jumped towards the other Sand Bug. He didn't want to fall in the quicksand, so he simply struck the enemy with a Homing Attack four times.

"There we go! Now that thing's gone!" the blue hedgehog sighed in relief as he landed on the platform.

They all noticed on the far right platform, a chest appeared. Kirby was the first to jump over to the platform and open the chest. But he seemed surprised when four shovels were inside.

"Poyo? (What the… Why are there shovels in here?)" the pink puffball gawked.

"Shovels? Let me see…" Chopper jumped onto the platform, making sure he didn't stomp on Kirby. He seemed rather shocked when he found a shovel. "Weird… Why would there be a shovel here?"

"I think we might need to use it for digging," Sonic stated. "But the thing is… How exactly do we dig for something?"

"Hmmmmmm…" Chopper pondered before figuring something out. He threw his arms up in the air and flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw an X in the middle of the quicksand.

"I think this might be the reason," he stated as he jumped into the quicksand. With his shovel, he was able to dig a pipe out of the ground. "See? We just need to find an X in 3-D and presto! We'll find something!"

They jumped into the pipe, only to come back outside from the first pipe in the area. The area was still clear from before, so it was all OK. But what Chopper did first was flip into 3-D to see if there was anything around.

Oh, he found something all right. He found two X's on the sandy ground. One by the door and one between the pipes.

"Time to dig for treasure!" he smirked as he walked over to the X mark closest to him. Using his shovel, he managed to dig a Door Key out. He checked the other X to find a Tasty Coconut that can recover 30 HP. Not bad, he thought.

Everyone else followed him over to the red door, where he unlocked the key they needed to move ahead. This time, they found an area with a couple of sand pits and hills as well. It wasn't really that interesting, but the door ahead wasn't locked, that's for sure.

"Watch out for those sand pits…" Tippi warned, sensing something big in there. "I can feel something coming from those… If you get sucked into them, you might be in some big trouble…"

"What about those cacti around here?" Sonic asked, pointing to the small and large cacti. "You think those will get in the way?"

"Oh, I completely forgot about those… You're going to want to avoid those too. You can't defeat a cactus, but you can surely avoid it if you jump over it…"

Before they could act, a Sand Bug popped out of the sand pit and spewed a poison ball at Kirby, poisoning him. But, that didn't stop the pink puffball from curing his poison and putting the Sand Bug to sleep.

With that, Kirby got on Carrie afterwards and took care of the sleeping bug. It dropped a Shroom Shake as well, so he grabbed that as well and moved on to a cactus-like enemy called a Cactin.

"There's no chance of stomping on those things…" Tippi warned. "You're only going to hurt yourself by doing that…"

"Then I'll smash it with my hammer then! …Or better yet, I'll burn it!" Chopper tossed a fireball straight at the Cactin, burning it instantly. But there was still another Cactin that was rolling towards them.

"I got this!" Blade sheathed his katana and then sliced the Cactin in half with one swing from his katana. "This isn't as hard as you think it is. …Well, that's only when you're a ninja. Otherwise, it's not easy to do this."

"Of course…" Chopper rolled his eyes and walked over to the sand pit ahead to find a Sand Bug pop out. But, just like before, he destroyed it with a couple of fireballs. No way was going to risk smashing that thing with his hammer…or with a jump or Needle attack. Too risky.

"Maybe you should check and see what's around in 3-D," suggested Sonic.

"I might as well do that then," Chopper flipped into 3-D to only spot some Sand Clefts walking around. Nevertheless, a good needle attack did them in when they charged at him. An X mark was near him as well, so he grabbed his shovel and began to dig for what was under there. But, to no surprise…he ended up digging a Cactin out.

"Agh! A Cactin!" Chopper pierced through its leathery body with his needle attack. "Whew… That's better! I was hoping that I'd get rid of that thing sooner or later… But, who cares?"

Flipping back into 2-D, they all made their way over to the door ahead. That led them to a small area with ruins up ahead. There weren't any enemies, but once they walked to the door, they felt some intense shaking.

"Oh no… The Void is starting to grow!" Tippi gaped as she looked up at The Void. It grew only a little, but the shaking was pretty intense for all of them.

"We better go inside then! It's a bit hot outside anyways." Chopper rushed into the ruins to a room with some Thwomps coming down on these pedestals, but they weren't coming down quickly like in that underground room back in Lineland Town.

"This shouldn't be too hard to maneuver. I've flipped into 3-D before and it makes this PRETTY easy." Chopper made sure his friends were close so he could flip into 3-D. There, they walked past the Thwomps and to the door ahead, leading them to a small room with a Star Block.

"Quickly! Hit the Star Block! We don't have much time to move!" Tippi shouted.

"I'm on it!" Chopper rushed over to the Star Block and he struck it with one punch – doing it faster than before!

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Knowing that they had little time to chit-chat, Tippi immediately fluttered on ahead through the ruins with the four heroes following her. "We can't spend much time standing to talk! If we don't get to the Pure Heart in time, we'll fail!" Tippi shouted as they came across a hole. For some reason, it felt like it was going to lead somewhere underground…_

* * *

**Sorry if there wasn't much to this chapter for some of you guys. Chapter 6 really isn't the longest chapter in Super Paper Chopper. In my opinion, it's one of the shortest, like Chapter 6 in Super Paper Mario. But, have no fear, readers! It won't be just two chapter in this world! There is plenty of stuff for you to see!**

**Next up: Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade venture under the desert where it's not as bad as being outside.  
**


	34. Oasis Underground

**CHAPTER 6-2**

**-Oasis Underground-**

Jumping down the hole in the ruins, our heroes landed underground in the Desert Oasis. Now that they were safe from all of the extreme heat from the sun (and not to mention the large swirling vortex of doom up in the sky), they could all relax and hopefully move through the place a lot easily, unlike being outside, which was a lot tougher for them with the Sand Bugs and Cactin.

This place looked strange to them, however… All of the sand on the ground was a purple color and not the yellow color that it usually is. They could also see some dead coral in the background and even some small grains of sand coming from the ceiling (not on top of them, just in other places). In fact, the landing felt a bit soft on the big lump of purple sand they landed on.

Chopper bent down and picked up a spec of sand and let it drop from his fingers. "Well… This is definitely a strange place to be in for sure. I mean, it's underground AND it doesn't feel like it's much of the desert! It's really strange…"

But before he could continue, they felt some shaking coming from above. Some sand ended up coming down from the ceiling. "Hmmmmm… It doesn't appear to be safe down here." Sonic stated.

"Poyo! (But at least we're away from the heat!)" Kirby said, sighing in relief.

"Don't get your hopes up, Kirby…" Chopper warned. "We might end up going back to the surface, where we'll have to see that large swirling vortex. As much as I don't want to go there, we probably have no choice."

Chopper decided to walk on ahead. "All right, guys… I think now's the time to start moving. We don't have much time anyways. Plus, I noticed some blue Waddle Dee up ahead, so we can fight some of those guys."

The young Star Warrior rushed towards the blue Waddle Dee. While it's the same as a normal Waddle Dee, its abilities are a bit upgraded, being able to dash at you easily. But, it met its demise from Chopper's needle attack.

"Poyo! (Wait a minute… Waddle Dee? I need my chance to make an attack!)" Kirby jumped over Chopper and inhaled the other blue Waddle Dee. He immediately spat it out at a green Pokey ahead.

"What the heck…? Did that Pokey just change to a green color?" Blade gawked.

"No, that's a Poison Pokey…" Tippi informed. "If you end up touching it, you'll get poisoned… I would suggest not using any attacks that involved touching it. Use a far-ranged attack to prevent yourself from becoming poisoned…"

"Oh… I see. Fair enough." Blade pulled a shuriken out and he threw it straight at the Poison Pokey. Unfortunately, that one shuriken wasn't enough. The freaky enemy inched closer, ready to throw a piece of its own body at them.

"Might as well blow it up now," Blade nudged Hommissile and then tossed him at the Poison Pokey, making its body parts fly everywhere – not that it was a bad thing or anything.

They noticed a huge skeleton of an extinct animal up ahead, where a Sand Bug rose up in front of them. But, it was soon taken down when Kirby inhaled a poison ball and spat it out at it, poisoning it, which was soon followed up when the pink puffball got on Carrie and jumped on the Sand Bug.

"You think we're gonna see a lot of these guys around here?" Chopper questioned.

"I think so," Sonic nodded as he noticed that he couldn't jump on top of the large skeleton. "Dang it! I don't think I have the jump to make that! …Come to think of it, what kind of animal was that?"

"It looks like it must've been one large animal…" Tippi trailed, studying the skeleton. "It almost looks like some sort of dinosaur…"

"Poyo? (Uh, hello? Are we going to stand here and talk? We can't do that!)" Kirby immediately floated up onto the spine of the extinct animal, using his inhaling to bring the rest up.

"Hey, I could've done that myself!" Blade retorted.

"Well don't whine about it, Blade," Chopper said, giving him an unimpressed look. "We're just going to get past this thing and then move on ahead. It's not going to be a bad thing."

As they were walking on the spine, Blade noticed a large, black rock with a crack in it. He decided to toss Hommissile straight at it to blow it up. He then jumped into the ribs and found a chest containing an Ultra Shroom.

"Niiiiiice!" Blade smirked as he jumped back up to the others. "I just found myself an Ultra Shroom! One point for Blade, and none for you guys!"

"Ummmmm… OK?" Chopper jumped off the spine and went up to a sandy hill with a bunch of sand grains coming down from the ceiling. A Sand Cleft was about to charge until Chopper brought his needles out, destroying the rock monster.

"Try NOT to use fire against those guys… I don't think it's going to work against them." Sonic stated as he hit a yellow ? block, making a Zombie Shroom pop out. But, it was soon beaten by his foot.

Running down the small little hill, they found another hill with sand coming down from the ceiling. The one thing that made them a bit surprises was when they saw the coral on the sand.

"You know… I'm starting to wonder why there's coral here." Chopper pondered.

Up on the top of the next hill, there were three small platforms. Two of them had Bronto Burts, while the other had a yellow ? block floating above.

Sonic started off by hitting the first Bronto Burt with a Spin Jump. Kirby immediately followed up by inhaling the other Bronto Burt and spitting it out to the left. Chopper then hit the yellow ? block to make a Mushroom pop out.

"Well that was pretty simple," he stated as he split it into four for all four of them to recover 10 HP. "Let's see what else we have up ahead."

After sliding down the sandy hill, they came across the end of the area. Unfortunately, for them, they were right next to a sand pit that looked inescapable.

"It appears that we have to take that sand pit down to a deeper area of this cave…" Tippi trailed, fluttering over to the bottom of the pit. "I can see something down there! I don't think anything bad will happen if we check down there…"

"Whatever you say," Chopper shrugged and jumped into the sand pit first. He ended up landing on another sand mound in a smaller area with another sand pit up ahead. But, there were three Poison Pokeys as well.

"Oh boy… Looks like I gotta bring out the fireballs." Chopper groaned as he tossed a couple of fireballs at the Poison Pokey at the front of him, taking it out with only three fireballs.

"I'll handle the next one," Blade pulled a couple of shurikens out and threw them at the second Poison Pokey. It didn't take as long as Chopper's fireballs (despite the fact that he CAN burn enemies with it), since his Attack power IS greater.

As for the final Poison Pokey… Blade blew it up by tossing Hommissile at it.

"Poyo! (That was easier than I thought it would be!)" Kirby squealed as he jumped over to the sand pit ahead. "Poyo! (Come on! We still have more ways to go, you know!)" With that, he jumped into the pit.

Chopper followed him down into a small little area with the walls made of sand. It was shaped like a circle, to their surprise. They made sure NOT to look up because of the grains of sand coming from the ceiling, but what was bad was when two Sand Bugs popped out of the sand.

"Oh, boy… We're gonna have to put up a fight against these things." Chopper groaned, getting in a fighting stance and hurling a couple of fireballs at the first Sand Bug.

"Poyo! (Wait a minute! We can't forget about this!)" Kirby immediately began to use Piccolo to put the two Sand Bugs to sleep. This allowed them to trounce the two Sand Bugs with jumps easily.

"THAT was easy! Now what's next?" Sonic stopped when a larger Sand Bug rose from the sand. This one had red eyes instead of the regular black ones, and it was even a navy blue color too!

"OK… How's about we get to putting that thing to sleep?" Blade began to use Piccolo's power to put the Sand Bug to sleep. But, alas, it did not work.

"What the eff? That's not right!" Blade tried a couple of more times, but the Mega Sand Bug didn't fall asleep. This allowed it to spit a poison ball at him, poisoning him tremendously.

"Urk! …Piccolo! I need help!" Using the Pixl's power, he managed to cure himself from the poison.

"I gotta be honest… That key Meta Knight gave us really does give us a hand here." Chopper smiled as he tossed a couple of fireballs at the Mega Sand Bug. "Let's see what you have to say about this thing, Tippi."

Chopper's eyes began to glow a rainbow color as a ray of light emitted from his eyes and flashed on the Mega Sand Bug.

"That's a Mega Sand Bug. It's an older, stronger version of the Sand Bug… There aren't many of these things around… Max HP is 50. Attack is 6. Like its cousins, it will spit out poison balls. Be careful though… Those poison balls are much deadlier and will last much longer than the other Sand Bug's poison attack. To me, these things look very strange…" Tippi informed.

Blade tossed a couple of shurikens at the Mega Sand Bug. But even that didn't finish it off…until Kirby inhaled one of its poison balls and spat it back at the enemy. That's when it was close to being finished.

"Might as well do it, now that it's unconscious," Sonic shrugged as he jumped and performed a Homing Attack. With that, a hole appeared on the bottom and that took them down to a lower area – which was a bit small with another sand hole ahead.

"There's nothing else but the little river, so it's not too bad," Chopper stated. "…Wait, what's water doing in the desert?"

"The place is called Desert Oasis, so there would be a reason why the word 'oasis' is in Desert Oasis…" Tippi explained.

"Ah. Now I get it." Chopper walked up to the mound of sand and jumped into the hole that led him and his friends onto another mound of sand. Sheesh! Talk about all of the soft landings!

Chopper looked at his surroundings and then turned to Tippi. "So, Tipps… I have a little question… How far are we from the Pure Heart?"

"The Pure Heart? I feel like it's still a bit far from this place… However, I do believe that this underground passage might lead us closer to the Pure Heart… But I can't exactly feel where it is…"

Before they could finish talking, they felt the ground above them shake. "There's no time to talk! We gotta MOVE!"

Crossing over another mound of sand, they found a little stream with two Cheep-Cheeps flapping around. They soon met their demise thanks to Chopper's needle attack.

They found another sand pit past the stream, but they knew that they didn't want to jump in there when they saw some smoke coming from it. A strange-looking creature with large pincers jumped out and tried to grab one of the heroes – or rather, try to scare them with the large pincers.

"Poyo… (Oh, it's those Snippers… I remember seeing those before…)" Kirby groaned, but he gestured to everyone about the three small platforms above the sand pit. They simply crossed the pit with those while avoiding the Snipper.

The next thing they came across was a little pool with some Glunks that were shooting projectiles up. Sonic didn't look so pleased with the pool.

"Oh, come on! We SERIOUSLY have to go into more water?" Sonic whined before seeing some brown blocks on top of the pool. "Oh, wait. Never mind!"

Since they decided to use the platforms instead, they easily crossed the pool and found another sand pit with a Snipper jumping up with its pincers. The difference this time was that the platforms were lower, but in the middle one, there was a yellow ? block floating above.

Chopper jumped onto the platform and struck the yellow ? block with a single punch, making a Mushroom pop out. Just like before, they split it so they could each recover 10 HP.

"Seriously, this almost feels like the same stuff over and over again. It's starting to get repetitive." Blade groaned.

"Does THAT look repetitive to you?" Chopper questioned as he pointed to more shallow water ahead with a little tunnel going down that was a bit deeper than what the water level is.

Since Sonic wanted to get it over with, he immediately jumped into the hole underwater. But what surprised him was that he ended up landing in a pool below this area that wasn't so deep.

After getting out of the water, he shook himself to get rid of the water on his fur. "Wow… That wasn't as bad as I thought it was…"

"_**GEROMINO!**_"

"Huh?" Sonic turned and saw a big splash hit him, getting him wet once again. "Dang it, Chopper! Why do you have to do those splashes? ! I just got all of this water off of me a minute ago!"

"Well it's not my fault that I wanted to make that jump," Chopper retorted as he jumped out of the water. Kirby and Blade landed in the water as well, but they didn't have a big splash like Chopper's.

Once Blade looked up ahead, his expression went blank. "You're kidding me, right? We have more sand pits to cross?"

"Well, let's not complain about it," Chopper groaned as he went on ahead, attacking a blue Waddle Dee that was past two of the sand pits with a simple jump. The last jump over the sand pit led him over to a pool with a tunnel.

"OK, I think now's the time to force Sonic to get moving," Chopper frowned as he looked at the pool of water.

"What do you mean?" Sonic questioned as he walked over to Chopper, only to have his eyes widen. "No. Just… No."

"Yes, Sonic. Just… Yes." Chopper stated as he pushed Sonic into the pool. "OK, guys! Grab him before he gets himself out!"

Both Kirby and Blade jumped into the water and tried to grab Sonic. Chopper helped out too so they could go into the tunnel up ahead, which led into an underwater room. Everything looked purple to them for some reason.

After looking up, Kirby didn't see a reason to swim up there. "Poyo. (Well, I guess we should swim down. Man… This place reminds me of a certain place on Rock Star for some reason…)"

"Well if we have to swim down, then it looks like we should do just that," Chopper began to allow himself to sink down to where the next tunnel would be. It wasn't that long until the next one, though.

"Mmmmmmggggfffhh!" Sonic began to choke as the timer began to go off. Luckily, there were air bubbles for him to take near the tunnel, so he grabbed one, along with Blade and then proceeded through the tunnel.

"It appears this time you have to swim up…" Tippi trailed as she noticed there was nothing down below.

"Let's hope we can avoid the enemies while at it too," Chopper began to swim up, whacking at some Blippers with his hammer, but he noticed that pieces of some ruins began to come down with spikes on them.

"Poyo! (Watch out! Those things can hurt you badly!)" Kirby warned.

"Don't worry, I think I know how to avoid them," the Star Warrior assured as he swam over to the right. Blade sliced another Blipper that was up ahead, but was forced to swim to the right to avoid another of those spiked ruins.

"I wonder why those things are falling down on us… Is it because of The Void?" Chopper questioned.

When they swam up to the next tunnel, they noticed that a piece of the ruins that was larger than any other came down. Luckily, they were able to avoid that and go through the tunnel.

They ended up getting out of the water through the tunnel and also found a ladder leading out of the underground desert area.

"Whew! Finally! No more of that water!" Sonic said, sighing in relief. "I suppose that that ladder leads out of this place, right?"

"Well, let's see!" Chopper climbed the ladder to the bright light above them. The first thing he saw after climbing out was The Void – which was still bigger than it was before. But it hasn't changed THAT much.

"Yikes… Talk about a big problem." Sonic gulped, looking up at The Void. "It really hasn't changed as much as before, but I don't like the sight of that thing at this moment…"

"Well we can't just sit here. We gotta press on!" Blade suggested before hearing two voices. Up ahead down the small sandy hill was a red and green Bandit looking at the sky with worried looks upon their faces.

"Oh, man… I can't believe that this world's soon gonna be at an end…" the green Bandit known as a Big Bandit gulped.

"No kidding, man… I'd rather be at another world than this place. I heard that there's a world where some people go fighting. It would be cool to go there, which may not be in as much danger." the Bandit stated.

"I wonder…" the Big Bandit turned to his left, where he saw the four heroes slide down the small hill. "Hey, dude! There's a couple of people here! How about we rob 'em of their cash? !"

"That sounds like a good idea! Hey! You four!" the two Bandits walked over to the four with smirks on their faces.

"Bandits…" Chopper murmured under his breath.

"Listen, we're a bit poor right now and we were thinkin' of gettin' some money. However, we're a bit too lazy to get a job, so we're stealin' from you guys! …So hand it over!"

"You gotta be kidding me," Sonic face palmed. "You want money from us, yet the world's going to end soon? ! What are you even going to do with the money anyways? !"

"What're we gonna do with it? Well… Uh… We're gonna be stinkin' rich!" the Big Bandit grinned.

"Get outta the way," Chopper pushed them out of the way like they were a door and moved on ahead.

"Now hold on a minute…" a purple Bandit called a Badge Bandit jumped landed on the sandy ground. "We know what you're looking for, you know!"

Chopper paused and turned around, along with the other three. "Wait… You know what we're here for?"

"What ARE they here for?" the Bandit raised an eyebrow.

"Both of you leave them be," the Badge Bandit ordered. "I'll talk to them myself. This is just between me and them, OK?"

"Sure thing, Boss!" "Got it, dude!"

And with that, the two Bandits went off while the Badge Bandit walked over to them with a smirk. "I hear you're lookin' for something called a Pure Heart, right?"

"Yes… We're looking for that…" Tippi answered, a bit suspicious about the Bandit. "But, how do you know about the Pure Heart?"

"Was told by some weirdo that there would be heroes comin' here. Y'see, I'm not REALLY a Bandit. I'm actually a double agent. I act like I'm a boss to these guys and also try to help the heroes."

"Could you take us to the Pure Heart?" Chopper asked.

"Sure thing! Just follow me!" the Badge Bandit walked up to the door ahead and opened it. "Just through here, guys. You can _definitely_ trust me with this!"

While Chopper seemed a bit suspicious, he followed the Bandit anyways. They only found a small area ahead, but in the center of the area was a chest.

"All right, you guys! The Pure Heart's just in that chest ahead! Don't waste any time right now! If you don't grab that thing right away, I think that dark swirling vortex might just stop you!"

"Poyo… (For some reason, that guy seems suspicious…)" Kirby said with a suspicious look on his face. But, still, he walked over to the chest with the others and opened it with a simple kick.

…Only to have the chest transform into a bomb instead.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as an immense explosion struck the four with immense force. Yet, they didn't seem to be harmed by it. They all looked dumbfounded after looking at themselves.

"Wait… What just happened?" Sonic asked.

"I have no friggin' clue…" Blade frowned.

"But… But… That explosion didn't even turn you black with soot!" the Badge Bandit stammered, his voice now sounding more…girlish? "That totally didn't even hurt you! This stinks!"

The Badge Bandit strangely teleported over to the four with a boxed outline around him. "Wait a minute… I've seen THAT before." Chopper gawked.

"So you thought you'd just grab the Pure Heart? You guys are so dumb! _Mimimimimimimimimimi!_" the Badge Bandit transformed into Mimi, who was now wearing a desert-like dress out in the desert.

"Poyo! (Oh, no! Not _HER!_)" Kirby gaped.

"Surprise! It's me, Mimi! You're all so silly! Did you crazy heads think that that Bandit would give you the Pure Heart?" Mimi giggled. "I bet that he's sleeping in his bed, being tucked all cozy in his bed. …Making cute li'l noises while his world goes bye-bye!"

"Mimi…time is of the essence. Stay out of our way." Tippi said.

"Poyo! (We don't have the time to sit here and play, you little girl!)" Kirby glared at her while getting in a fighting stance.

"You DUMMIES!" Mimi snapped. "The only reason I'm even HERE is to get in the way! I'm not all soft 'n' cuddly like Tippy! Nighty-night! It's bedtime for you! _**NYAAAAH!**_"

"'Soft 'n' cuddly'? That's NOT what would describe Tipral, you sick-twisted little girl!" Chopper growled. "Tipral is a cruel, CRUEL monster that doesn't care about the world! He doesn't care about you!"

"Quiet, you dummy! None of that is TRUE!" Mimi whined as she floated up in mid-air. "I'm gonna make you pay for injuring Tipral the other day!"

Using her Rubee powers, she surrounded herself with a couple of Rubees as she tried to swoop down at Chopper.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper made a couple of needles from his helmet come out and hit Mimi instead and not him. The little girl cringed as she flew back up.

"OK, time to see what Tippi has to say…" Chopper began to examine Mimi using Tippi's powers.

"That's Mimi, Tipral's shape-shifting minion… Max HP is 45 and Attack is 4. She has many creative Rubee attacks… But it's easy to guard against them with Kirby's Guard ability… Then wait for an opening! Remember, you can use Thoreau to toss her precious Rubees back at her… If you hit her enough, she'll flip, so flip after her…" Tippi informed.

"Take this!" Mimi fired a Rubee down at Chopper, but Kirby immediately stepped in and inhaled it and spat it out back at Mimi, knocking a couple of Rubees away from her and also hitting her as well.

"So this is another one of Tipral's minions, isn't she?" Blade questioned while making a couple of signs with his hands. "I never knew that there would be someone like her as Tipral's minions! She looks pretty harmless!"

"Harmless? !" Mimi growled as she fired a Rubee down at Blade, who didn't even see it coming.

"Ouch! What the heck? ! That was just uncalled for…" the ninja cat grumbled as he pulled his katana out. "You're going down, little girl!"

Even though he tried to strike Mimi, he ended up getting hit by the Rubees surrounding her instead. But it didn't stop him from tossing Hommissile at the little girl, knocking her to the ground.

"Ack! That really hurts!" Mimi whined as she got whacked in the head by Chopper's hammer.

"Generally I don't like hitting little girls, but this one's an exception," Sonic stated as he knocked Mimi back with a Spin Dash. He did this twice to her.

Once Mimi got herself back up, Chopper rushed up to her and knocked her back to the ground with a slamming kick attack. He immediately brought his needles up next to block her Rubees.

"Why doesn't my Rubees affect you with those needles up? !" Mimi complained. "It should be working!"

"Poyo! (Well we certainly don't care!)" Kirby inhaled one of the Rubees Mimi surrounded herself in and spat it at her, knocking her a bit.

"Golly, I almost forgot about something!" Mimi smirked as she flipped into 3-D. Chopper immediately went into 3-D as well, using Thoreau to grab a Rubee surrounding her and tossing it at her.

"Oh, crud… I forgot that you could flip into 3-D." groaned Mimi.

"And now I'm going to give you one heck of a beating!" Chopper growled as he shot a fireball straight at the green girl, sending her to the ground to allow him to bash her with his hammer.

"What ever happened to not hitting little girls? !" Mimi exclaimed as she pushed Chopper away. "I can't believe you're snooty, unlike Tippy! He's someone that's so dreamy…and hot!"

"Why would ANYONE like that cruel faker? ! Do you even know what I keep hearing from him? ! He says stuff like 'I'm going to destroy you!' and 'You're obviously the faker. I was created before you were even born!' Bleh! That's just getting obnoxious now!"

Mimi knew this was her chance to make a move. She fired a Rubee straight at Chopper, leaving a red mark on his face while at it.

"Ack!" Chopper rubbed his face from the pain on his left cheek while Mimi cackled and flipped back into 2-D. Chopper even got hurt because of being in 3-D for a while, so he was forced to flip back.

"Chopper! What happened to you?" Sonic asked.

"Ugh… Mimi hit me with a Rubee…. MAN! That thing HURTS!" he wailed.

"Sheesh! Who knew a little girl had the guts to hit a kid?" Blade blocked one of Mimi's Rubees using his katana. He was able to toss Hommissile at her to knock a Rubee out of her shield.

"Poyo! (Looks like I'm up to do something!)" Kirby inhaled one of the Rubees that Mimi dropped and spat it at the green girl, making her cringe in pain.

With Mimi to the ground, Kirby simply knocked her back with a simple little kick that he would use in the Super Smash Bros. games. With one last inhaling attack, Mimi was finally beaten.

"_**OUCHIE!**_" the little green girl hovered down to the heroes, now feeling a bit better. "That really hurt! You're all just a big bunch of bullies who hit cute little girls! But it doesn't matter an eensy teensy bit, hee hee! Everything's perfect! …What, you don't believe me? Look up at the sky!"

All four heroes looked up at the sky and nearly gaped at the large size.

"The Void… It's enormous now!" Tippi announced.

"No duh!" Blade frowned.

"_Mimimimimimimimimimimi!_ Yep, I sure got you meanies to waste LOTS of your time! Guess you'll have to give up looking for that dumb Pure Heart now!"

"This psychotic girl was only trying to stall us…" Tippi trailed.

"But it's not going to stop us from going!" Chopper glared at Mimi. "You, little girl, have been pretty bad! What is WRONG with you? !"

Mimi merely ignored Chopper. "Golly, you guys have really got your thinking caps on today, huh? Well, I did warn you that I was meaner than Tippy! Anyhow, it's sure a big old bummer I can't stay to play more with you guys. But this place is about to go kablooooey! Later, meanies!"

And with that, she teleported out of the desert before hearing Blade shout "Brat!" at her.

"Quickly! Let's get moving!" Chopper rushed over to the door ahead, which led into another desert area with a Star Block at the end of the path.

"Well don't just stand there, Chopper! Hit it!" Sonic shouted.

With one punch, Chopper struck the Star Block at the end of the area.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After the intense brawl with Mimi, our heroes knew that time was starting to run out. "Faster, guys! We can't risk to slow down and talk!" Chopper shouted as he ran through the sands. "Look at the SIZE of that thing!" While Chopper and Co. didn't wish to look at the sky, they were forced to look at it at some times to make sure time wasn't running out. All they could do was run on ahead…_


	35. Venturing the Flying Pyramid

**CHAPTER 6-3**

**-Venturing the Flying Pyramid-**

Now that our heroes were back outside, they knew they still had many ways to go. They also knew that they still had little time to move after fighting against the shape-shifting girl, Mimi, who really didn't come to kill them. All she did was distract them long enough so that they would have even less time to get to the Pure Heart…wherever that may be at this moment. Chopper was starting to feel bad for this world, now that it was coming close to destruction.

"Poor, poor Desert Oasis…" Chopper said in agony while he stopped over by a Cactin and striking it with his needle attack. "Why does this world have to end immediately? The other worlds aren't even ending like this! …Seriously, the world doesn't NEED to end! The only time the world ends is when the sun explodes or something like that! …But it doesn't look like it now."

"Poyo. (This place seems to offer a lot more stuff than Desert Sands. Such a shame that this world has to go, though…)" Kirby trailed, looking up at The Void.

"Ugh… Don't even remind me about Desert Sands." Chopper guffawed, remembering when he had to deal with the girl of his species, Heartsy. "Thinking about that place makes me remember all of those…red marks that were all over my face!"

"Pbbbbbbth! You seriously FEAR those things? ! Come on, man! They're not going to KILL you!" Sonic burst out in laughter.

Tippi, being impatient, began to tug at Chopper's antennas. "Chopper! We don't have time to talk about this! The world is slowly starting to end! Haven't you seen something like this? !" she cried.

"…As a matter of fact, I believe I did," Chopper responded, turning to the rainbow Pixl. "But I don't wanna talk about that place right now. We still need to find a Pure Heart somewhere in this desert."

"I can feel that we're getting closer to the Pure Heart… It seems as if…it's in some sort of castle…"

"Man, this feels like Lineland Road all over again!" Chopper sighed, remembering those times when he was alone. But being alone wasn't technically a good thing then. "Anyways, moving on."

After jumping over a pit of quicksand, they began to feel some shaking coming from the ground. At first, Chopper thought that a brother of Dracktail was going to show up and attack, but it was something else.

A large, brown muscular beetle-like enemy rose from the ground, ready to put up a fight against the heroes.

"What in the world is THAT?" Blade questioned.

"I'll check using Tippi's powers," Chopper replied as he scanned the strange beetle-like enemy. He didn't know what this thing's name was, but he was going to call it a Muscle-head until he finds out what it's called.

"This is a Sand Beetle. This bug loves to live under the sand for the most part… Max HP is 22. Attack is 5. Defense is 2. They usually try to attack you by going underground and shooting themselves out of the ground to strike you… They can also fly around to avoid some ground attacks, so try to strike them with something that you can use in the air if they do that… Make sure they don't grab you, or else you're going to be in some big trouble…" Tippi informed.

"Oh, wow…" Blade drew his katana out. "Then it looks like we have some major ass-kicking to deal to this bug thing!"

Blade immediately charged at the Sand Beetle with a slash from his katana. He was able to make a couple of clones of himself so the Sand Beetle would end up hitting one of the clones with its sharp-bladed arm.

"Wrong one, bucko!" Blade smirked as he sliced at the Sand Beetle again. Unfortunately, he was soon struck by the Sand Beetle's arm, knocking him to the ground.

"We'll finish this up," Chopper tossed a fireball at the Sand Beetle's back, drawing its attention to him. It flew over to Chopper in an attempt to hit him, but he immediately ducked like a pancake and struck it with his needles.

Blade got himself up and made a dash at the Sand Beetle. Using his katana, he sliced both of its sharp-bladed arms off, leaving it defenseless against any of their attacks.

"And this is how you finish this thing off!" Blade stabbed the beetle behind it's back, knocking it to the ground while it held a white flag up. Its body began to sink back down into the sand.

"Looks like it gave up and let us win the battle," Chopper smirked as he jumped over a pipe with a Desert Piranha in it. He simply beat it down with a spinning kick attack before going over to the door.

"We're finally at the door? Wow… I'm not surprised." Sonic said as they walked into the next area, which had a slope going down with some slippery sand. It reminded Sonic of Sandopolis for some reason.

"Hey! I think we can slide down that easily! Let me check…" Sonic stepped on the sand going down the slope and it immediately brought him down without any problems. There was another slope filled with slippery sand going down to the left.

"Poyo! (Hey! That sounds like fun!)" Kirby squealed as he slid down the sand next, following Sonic down to the bottom of the area.

"Meh, might as well follow them," Chopper shrugged as he slid down the two sandy slides to the bottom, where they saw a big stump and a door made of stone that was blocking the way.

"Guess it's time for me to hit this thing, right?" Sonic performed a corkscrew on the stump with Screwdy's ability to make the stone door collapse, allowing them to go to some quicksand with some platforms on top of them.

"Looks like we need to cross this quicksand to get over to the door. Fair enough." Chopper jumped on the stone platforms, which began to sink as he stood on them long enough. But, he managed to make it over to the door.

Kirby simply floated over the quicksand to make things easier while Sonic and Blade jumped across the quicksand by using the platforms. When they made it to the door, they pressed on ahead.

It was a lot flatter than the other area they walked in. This one had a lot of enemies roaming around, on the other hand…but there were a couple of brick blocks around this place as well, with one yellow ? block being close to them.

"Let's check and see what we got here," Chopper punched the yellow ? block, making a Mega Star pop out. "Whoa! A Mega Star!"

Everyone tried to snatch the item, but it was Chopper who managed to get a hold of it first. He transformed into a giant 8-bit version of himself and then moved on ahead, trampling all of the Bandits, Pokeys, Sand Bugs and Sand Beetles in his way.

"Now THIS is fun!" he said cheerfully until he got to the door, where he turned back to his normal size. "Awwww! That's not fair!"

Tippi urged Chopper to open the door after looking at The Void. He waited until his friends came, then he opened the door to the next area, which led into another similar area as the other, only with some Bandits rushing at them.

"Whoa!" Chopper immediately brought his needles up to knock the Bandits back before they could snatch his coins. Sonic immediately finished them off with a simple Spin Dash.

"That takes care of them!" Sonic smirked as he made a pose…until a Poison Pokey struck the blue hedgehog with part of its body, poisoning him.

"Allow me to help you," Piccolo flew over to Sonic and began to play a song that sounded like the Green Hill Zone theme. Not only did it heal Sonic of the poison, but it also put the Poison Pokey to sleep.

"OK, I'll handle this thing," Blade pulled a couple of shurikens out and tossed them at the Poison Pokey. He finished it off with a slice from his katana before seeing a sand pit up ahead.

Before they could jump over it, a Sand Bug came out and spat a poison ball at the heroes. Kirby immediately inhaled it and spat it at the Sand Bug, while Chopper hurled a couple of fireballs at it, defeating it.

Up ahead they noticed a large, violet colored platform shaped like an upside-down triangle. It was right below this weird kind of ship. It almost looked like it was…a flying pyramid?

"What in the world? What's a flying pyramid doing here?" Chopper questioned. "Oh, forget it… We might as well see what's in here."

They all jumped onto the violet pyramid-shaped platform upside-down and it began to take them inside of the ship. They knew for a fact that it was going to be a lot different than the underground area.

* * *

**Inside-**

"Poyo! (Whoa! Look at THIS place!)" Kirby gaped as the platform continued to take them up. The walls looked pretty futuristic and there were cannons on the walls that were shooting blue blasts of energy at them.

"Whoa! Incoming!" Blade deflected the shots back at the cannons with his katana, but they didn't seem to get destroyed.

"You can't defeat those cannons… All you can do is avoid them…" Tippi informed.

"Then time to use our dodging skills! …Whatever that may be." Chopper began to dodge the lasers being shot at him. He didn't want to do some kind of dance, because that would look plain silly.

They were soon taken to another room, where they saw these moving platforms of yellow and hot pink color. Some of them began to go into the wall, where there was a glowing color of that kind of platform. There was also a U-shaped wall with a yellow ? block inside of it in the center.

"We gotta jump up those at the right moment," Chopper stated as he began to jump up onto the yellow platform that was moving. Everyone else followed him onto the platform and waited for the hot pink one to move to the left so they could jump on it.

"Good god! Why do we have to do all of this jumping? It's really hurting my legs!" Blade whined as he continued to jump up the platforms with the others.

"Oh, would you quit your whining already, Blade?" Sonic suggested. "We're almost there, so quit with the whining already."

"Yup, we made it up!" Chopper jumped onto a platform that was near a passageway above them leading into the next area. "First, I wanna see what's in that yellow ? block."

Chopper jumped down to the yellow ? block, where he smashed it with his hammer to get a Mushroom. He grabbed it and split it into four and then brought it up to the others to help them recover 10 HP.

They immediately moved on up to the next area, where they found a small, dark room with nothing around them. But it did seem that this room DID hold some sort of purpose…

"Poyo. (Hmmmm… Nothing's really here, so we should just go on ahead.)" suggested Kirby as he walked over to the doorway ahead.

Chopper shrugged and followed him into the next room. But what they found were a couple of buttons. There was one of a tree, star, raindrop, moon, sun, carrot and cloud. Yet, the ladder leading up to the doorway ahead was locked.

"I don't know which ones we're supposed to hit!" Chopper frowned, looking at the switches while holding his hammer. "It's hard to judge which ones are the ones needed to be hit."

"Why don't we check back in the other room? It was dark in there…but maybe we should check in there…" suggested Tippi.

"Might as well," Sonic shrugged as he walked back into the dark room with everyone else.

"Wait a minute… Maybe your powers can see through the dark!" Chopper used Tippi's powers to scan the whole area. On the walls, he saw a tree, sun and raindrop.

"These symbols… I don't know where they came from… But, these symbols might be here for a reason…" pondered Tippi.

"Ah-HA!" Chopper had a light bulb appear over his head as he rushed back into the other room. "We gotta hit the buttons of that symbol on the wall!"

Grabbing his hammer, he slammed it down on the tree, sun and raindrop button. This triggered the doorway up the ladder to open up, and also allow them to move to the next room.

"Whoa… Take a look at THIS place!" Blade gaped as they climbed up the ladder into the next room. They could actually see some windows in the big room. However, The Void is really what they could only see through the window.

"I wish we could actually see the sky…" Chopper frowned as he walked up the steps. They seemed to be in checkered colors such as orange, green, blue and pink. There were also some blue diamond enemies that shoot these green blasts on energy called Diams.

"This'll be easy," Chopper smirked as he walked on the glowing violet platform, only to lose his Needle ability when the Diam struck him with one of its lasers. "Ack! My Needle ability!"

Alas, it was too late. The yellow star containing his ability fell down the bottomless pit below them. There wasn't anything he could really do about it anyways.

"Dang… Guess we're gonna have to press on without that." he sighed as he and his friends took the platform up to some more platforms of checkered colors, where they saw another violet platform moving from left and right.

"This looks pretty simple, to be honest," Sonic stated bluntly as he walked over to the violet platform. The others barely made it over to the pink-checkered platform that a Diam was floating above.

Chopper simply took the Diam out by inhaling it and spitting it out before another violet platform that was moving down came down for them to take, allowing them to go higher up in the room.

Landing on the orange-checkered platform, they waited for a violet platform over by their left to come to them. There was another one of these platforms that they walked onto next until they walked onto a green-checkered platform.

"Poyo… (Man… Is this the last one?)" Kirby asked, pointing to the cylinder-shaped platform while panting.

"It seems to take us higher up in the room, so I guess so…" Chopper panted as he stepped onto the platform. At that moment, they were taken up into a small room with a large Diam floating in the room.

"Oh, great… Don't tell me we have to fight THAT thing." Blade groaned, drawing his katana. "Is my weapon even GOING to deal any damage to this thing? …Unless I use an elemental attack with it."

At that moment, his katana was surrounded in fire energy as he sliced at the large Diam. We'll call it a Mega Diam, OK? That sounds like a good name for it. Anyways, Blade was able to slice through it, but it didn't exactly beat it.

Kirby noticed a regular Diam appeared above him, so he inhaled it and spat it out at the Mega Diam. Sonic followed up by using a Homing Attack on it, knocking it over to the wall.

"How much HP does this thing even have? …Meh, it doesn't make a difference. We should just beat this thing down!" Chopper smirked as he inhaled a normal Diam and spat it out at the Mega Diam. He then followed up by jumping over to it and using a slamming kick attack to knock it to the ground.

Once the Mega Diam floated back up, Kirby jumped on Carrie and then jumped on the Diam, destroying it with two jumps and allowing them to go up the ladder through the next area.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Huh… So there are two poles we can climb up…" Chopper grabbed the yellow pole to his left and he began to climb up. He noticed that there were some small platforms between the two poles and some over to the left.

"Poyo! (Watch out, Chopper!)" Kirby shrieked as he saw a circular-shaped electric spark with a face moving up the pole to Chopper.

"What the…" Chopper looked down at the electric enemy, making his antennas spring up. He immediately jump on one of the platforms to avoid the electric shock. "Dang! Why are there these guys here?"

"I'm not so sure… But I don't think you can defeat them…" Tippi informed. "The only thing you can do is avoid them…"

"Avoid them? Well that's just great…" Chopper waited for the others to make their way up the pole. Sonic ended up getting shocked, but it wasn't a big deal. Well, at least to HIM it wasn't a big deal.

After climbing up for about two minutes, they made it to the highest point of the Flying Pyramid. They were only in a control room with no enemies around. They could see what was going on outside, but there REALLY wasn't anything out there.

"Hmmmm… So where do we have to go now?" Blade asked.

"Over there!" Tippi looked over at the escape pods up ahead.

"Well, that looks like a way out of here," Sonic rushed over to the escape pod, which apparently was big enough for everyone to fit in, so everyone else rushed into it (including the Pixls).

"Hold on tight, guys… This COULD get a bit bumpy." the blue hedgehog warned as the escape pod began to take off further through the desert.

* * *

**Somewhere in the desert-**

When the escape pod door opened up, the four heroes walked out of the pod, stretching their arms and legs when they set foot on the sand. They noticed there was some rubble over by their left.

"Hold on, guys! We've found them!" the heroes turned, only to find some Dark Soldiers aiming their guns at them.

"Dark Creatures? ! What are THEY doing here? !" Blade exclaimed, drawing his katana out once again.

"Well well well! If it isn't the heroes! We never thought that you'd make it THIS far! …But it doesn't matter now. We've got you where we want you!" the Dark Soldiers began to fire rapidly at them.

"Whoa!" Chopper immediately jumped over the blasts that were being fired at him and stomped on one of the Dark Soldiers, performing a stylish move before slamming his foot on the alien.

Sonic decided to use a Spin Dash to knock the Dark Soldiers away with ease, and also making his way to the door up ahead as well.

"Hold on, Sonic… We might wanna freshen up first." Chopper suggested, hitting the yellow ? block over by them. A Super Shroom came out, so they immediately split it to recover 20 HP.

"OK, NOW we can go to the next area," he announced, opening the door for everyone to go in. They found another desert area with nothing around. It…was actually a pretty small area at the very least.

"Ah, so you finally show up, do you? I'm not too surprised." all four heroes paused as they saw Dark Doom in the center of the area, waiting for them.

"Dark? YOU'RE here too?" Sonic gaped.

"How did you get out of prison? ! …Don't tell me YOU'RE with Tipral, aren't you? !" Blade hissed, gripping his katana as hard as he could.

"Wait, you're another one of Tipral's minions…?" Tippi gawked. "…So O'Chunks, Mimi and Dimentio aren't the only ones on his side… And I suppose you guys met him before, is that right?"

Dark spread his cape out and let the wind blow through his cape. "So, you're one of Chopper's helpers, are you not? I guess this is the first time we've met. I am Dark Doom, the king of all Dark Creatures! …That is all."

"OK, look, can you just let us through? We don't have time for any of this. Just…get out of the way." Chopper was about to jump over Dark, but he grabbed his foot and slammed him to the ground.

"I don't think so! You're not going ANYWHERE! I'm trying to PREVENT you from going further, you know. Try that again, and I'm going to make it worse for you!"

"Ugh… It's just like before." Sonic rolled his eyes and walked up to Dark. "Fine. You wanna fight? Then bring it on!"

"Ah. Now THIS is what I've been looking for!" Dark grinned as he raised his arms, making his cape blow through the wind. "I've come prepared this time, so get ready!"

But before Dark could strike, Blade immediately rushed at him, slashing at him with his katana. "Ha! Now I've got you!"

Blade was about to strike him again, but Dark managed to grab a hold of Blade and elbow him in the stomach, making him gasp and fall to the ground.

"Now you know that you shouldn't mess with me," Dark brought his foot down on Blade's stomach again, making the ninja cat gasp for air.

Before he could shoot him with his blaster, Kirby immediately jumped on his head with the help of Carrie. "Why you little…! I'm going to get you for that!"

He aimed his blaster at Kirby and fired a blast at him, but the pink puffball was able to inhale the laser and spit it back at him instead, knocking him to the ground for a little while.

While he was on the ground, Chopper immediately used Tippi's powers to gather information on Dark, since he couldn't do it previously. She WAS in Francis's Fortress, after all.

"That's Dark Doom. He's one of Tipral's minions and king of the Dark Creatures… Max HP is 60. Attack is 5. Defense is 3. Dark will usually fight you with his martial arts skills or shoot you with his blaster if you're at a far range... He can dash at you if he wants, or he might even fired a Swift Strike or some meteors at you if he wants to. Those can be easy to dodge if you move fast, but they're not exactly the weakest attacks he has… They ARE strong. Very strong. And you say you've met him before, right? …If so, then this fight may not be too bad if you know his moves…" Tippi informed.

"I see… That's interesting…" Chopper immediately rushed towards Dark while he was getting up and landed a jump attack on his head, performing a stylish move while at it.

"Come back here you!" Dark tried to swipe at Chopper, but he was soon struck by a fireball. He used his cape to get rid of the flames on him, but that only got him knocked to the ground by a Spin Dash.

"Ack! So you think you can play tough, do you? ! Think again!" Dark hissed as he shot Sonic with his blaster after he got out of his ball form, making rings fly all over the place.

"Hmmmm… You seem to have a lot of rings in your hands, do you? Apparently you don't lose them all from one hit." Dark kicked some of the rings away. "No matter… I'll still enjoy beating you!" (Just to let you know, the amount of HP Sonic has is kind of like the amount of rings he has, if any of you were curious about that)

Dark was about to shoot Sonic again, but he was soon struck in the face by a flaming spinning kick that Chopper delivered.

"I'm not done yet, Dark!" Chopper smirked as he began to spin his hammer around, hitting Dark multiple times with his hammer. Once he was finished, he got knocked away like a soccer ball.

"Aw, come on! Why am I ALWAYS getting knocked away like a soccer ball? !" Chopper exclaimed as he fell face flat on the sandy ground, spitting some sand out as he raised his head.

"Poyo! (Don't worry, Chopper! We'll take care of the rest!)" Kirby assured as he knocked Dark to the ground from behind with a little kick. Dark managed to grab Kirby's arm and slam him to the ground.

"Stupid little…" Dark grumbled before he was kicked in the face by Blade.

"You should've stayed in your prison, you stupid alien king!" Blade hissed, attempting to slash at him with his katana, only to have Dark duck and punch him in the stomach with his fist.

"I'll NEVER go back to that damn prison cell!" the Dark Creature king snarled as he bashed him in the head with his own head.

Blade was able to block his next move and kick him in the face with his foot. He then followed up by slashing him with his katana.

"If you're not going to go back to your prison cell, then I might as well kill you instead," Blade announced as he tried to stab him with his katana. Dark immediately kicked his crotch to stop him.

"OOF! …So this is how it feels like to get kicked in the crotch…" he recalled, thinking about the times that Bang got hit in the crotch. And, trust me, it was A LOT.

"Heh heh heh! Too easy!" the Dark Creature grinned as he got up and began to punch Blade in the face until he got hit in the face by Sonic's Homing Attack, knocking him over by the door.

"Leave him alone!" Sonic growled.

"Aw, did I hurt your cat friend?" Dark chuckled as he got himself up. He then brought the palms of his hands out. "En guarde! Swift Strike!"

Dark fired a red cutter boomerang straight at the blue hedgehog, who jumped up and came down at him from an angle with a kick. He then kicked Dark in the face, making him cringe.

"Hey! Who ever said I couldn't punch?" Sonic grinned as he grabbed Dark and began to beat him down with some Spin Dashes. But the Dark Creature king was able to push him off.

"Ugh… Is THIS what has to happen when we fight like this? !" he growled as he began to fire blasts from his pistol at Sonic, who began to dodge the blasts coming at him.

"Take this!" Sonic delivered another kick, but his leg was soon grabbed by Dark, allowing him to throw him to the ground harshly.

"Hmmmmm… This fight would've been much easier if my brother didn't leave my army… Well, it doesn't really matter. I don't need that little maggot. He can go off on his own!"

"Wait a second… You have a brother?" Chopper's antennas perked.

"Yeah, I have one…or, at least that's what my father TOLD me. I don't necessarily believe him anyways. He looks NOTHING like me! …But it doesn't matter. I'm here to kill you, not talk about my brother."

After Dark finished with Sonic, he summoned a couple of small meteors at the others. Chopper and Kirby, being good inhalers, inhaled the meteors and spat them out at Dark, stunning him for a couple of seconds.

"Well looks like we can wrap up this fight," Blade smirked as he rushed at Dark, slicing at him with his katana once again. But Dark managed to knock him away with a punch. He was extremely close to strangling him.

"No no, Dark, we're not going to choke people," Chopper scolded as he kicked Dark in the chest with a flaming kick. He then did an uppercut kick on him to send him up into the air.

"Allow me," Sonic said as he jumped up and struck him with a couple of dashes in the air until Dark fell to the ground.

"Ugh… I'm not done with you yet!" Dark fired two red blasts of energy at Chopper and Sonic. They were both lucky to dodge the attack, but Chopper simply threw it back at him by inhaling it.

"I don't think my Needle ability would've come in handy in this fight, honestly…" Chopper trailed as he rammed straight into Dark with his head.

"You… You…" Dark almost felt like he was about to cough up blood. In fact, he had some blood over by his nose after getting beaten. "This isn't over yet!"

Well, it turns out that it WAS over for him when Sonic struck him with one more Spin Dash. That's when he finally gave in…but it didn't feel like he failed.

"Gah… So I was wrong…" Dark growled as he got up and wiped the blood off his nose. "But that's not such a big deal. Oh, no… Why don't you look up at the sky? You might be surprised!"

Everyone looked up at the sky, gaping. "Oh, no… The Void has grown much bigger now!" Tippi shouted.

Dark grinned, revealing one of his fangs. "Heh heh heh heh heh! Don't you realize what I was even doing? ! Just like Mimi, I was only trying to stall you! …And it turns out that it worked perfectly! Tipral's plan is absolutely FLAWLESS!"

"Tipral's plan? What does he intend to do? !" Chopper exclaimed, clenching his fists.

"Oh, nothing really…except to keep you here until this world gets swallowed up by The Void! ...But, now my work here is done. Have fun looking for the Pure Heart, you fools!"

With his ripped-up cape, he teleported out of the desert, leaving the heroes with worried looks upon their faces.

"No… NO… NOOOO!" Blade knelt down. "I can't believe he got away!" He began to pound his fist on the sand.

"We fell right into a trap! That green girl was only trying to stall us and so was he! …Now it seems like we're going to run out of time!"

Chopper walked over to Blade and smacked him across the face. "Get a hold on yourself, Blade! We can't be sitting here and crying over this! We just have to move FASTER! I'm sure we'll make it in time if we step on it!"

"Hold on… We're not too far now…" Tippi trailed, looking over to the door ahead. "If we take that door, we might find where the Pure Heart is… I can feel it…"

"Poyo! (What? Then we don't have time to lose!)" Kirby rushed over to the door, dragging the others along to the next area. All that they could see was a Star Block and a large sand castle up ahead.

"A sand castle? That's where the Pure Heart is? …I never expected a sand castle to be out in the desert. Isn't that more fitting for a beach?" Chopper raised an eyebrow. "Oh, forget it. Let's just go."

Running over to the Star Block, Chopper destroyed it with one punch.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Not only did Mimi stall the heroes, but Dark managed to stall them as well – and succeed. "I can't believe this world is soon going to be destroyed…" Chopper trailed as he opened the door to the sand castle. "It almost reminds me of when the darkness was enveloping on my home planet… It feels so sad with this world being completely destroyed." He couldn't tell exactly which was worse, but what mattered right now was that they had to search for the Pure Heart…somewhere in the depths of the Sand Castle._

* * *

**I was hoping to update this earlier, but since my brother was hogging the computer, I couldn't get a chance to update it then. Yeah, I hate it when that happens.**

**Next up: Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade venture through the Sand Castle, which is probably my second favorite part of this chapter...my favorite being the last part of this chapter (which we'll get to later on in Chapter 6). So, yeah... See you then. ^^**_  
_


	36. Enter the Sand Castle

**CHAPTER 6-4**

**-Enter the Sand Castle-**

"Who would've thought that a sand castle would be in this desert? I mean, really!" Chopper stated as he looked at his surroundings. They were in a small little room with some windows that could be seen, and also the sandy ground. Apparently this sand castle doesn't collapse when they step on the sand. But the only thing that confuses them is to HOW these people made a sand castle in the first place. You DO need wet sand to make a sand castle after all.

"Poyo, (You know, something tells me that there are giants around this desert and they created this sand castle after it rained,)" Kirby predicted, looking at a giant shovel over by the wall. "Poyo. (I think it makes perfect sense that it would've been made that way. It's the ONLY logical thing. Otherwise, I don't have a freakin' clue on who would make such a big place like this…unless it was a Tribe of Ancients who made this place, kind of like Fort Francis.)"

Everyone else turned their attention to Tippi afterwards. "The Pure Heart… I can feel its power at the top of the sand castle… Chopper… Kirby… Sonic… Blade… This might be our last chance to get the Pure Heart…"

"No kidding," Blade agreed while looking out the window. "The Void's grown a bit more after entering this place! Even look for yourselves!"

Everyone else gathered around the window to see what was going on out there. To their surprise, they saw that The Void covered up most of the sky. They could still see a sliver amount of it, but that's all they could see.

"Whoa… You weren't kidding when you said that The Void's grown bigger!" Sonic turned back over to the door ahead. "All right, no more dilly-dallying! We're moving. Right now!"

Sonic immediately rushed over to the door and kicked it open, but once he opened it to another room, he nearly gaped when he saw a bunch of Bandits waiting for them in the room.

"Uhh… Sonic? What's going…" Chopper couldn't finish after seeing so many Bandits in the next room.

"He-Hey! Looks like we've got some people who look like they could give up their money!" a Big Bandit grinned, pulling out a sack. "Let's sack 'em and get their money!"

"No way!" Chopper retorted as he inhaled the Big Bandit and spat him out at another Bandit, making them fall over on each other like idiots. Heck, some of the Bandits fell over when trying to charge at them.

"FAIL!" Blade scoffed while laughing at the Bandits, only to get rammed by a Bandit from behind.

"I got your coins!" he grinned as he tried to flee, but soon tripped thanks to Kirby, who took the coin from him and gave it back to Blade. He then inhaled the Bandit and…swallowed him.

"Poyo? (What? No copy abilities? Nothing? ! Aw, come on!)" Kirby pouted.

"It's not really a big deal. We can still beat these guys' butts!" Chopper smirked as he tossed a couple of fireballs at the Bandits, setting them on fire. He then knocked one away with a kick, while Sonic knocked them all away with a Spin Dash.

"Hey! I wanna join in the fun too!" Blade pouted, throwing Hommissile at the Bandits and defeating them in a second. "All right! NOW I get to do something awesome! We seriously kicked their asses!"

"Dude, what did I say about swearing?" Chopper glared at Blade.

"Just relax already. We can't argue like this when we have a dark swirling vortex destroying this place!" the blue ninja cat rushed over to a platform floating above the sandy ground and opened the door.

Moving into the next area, they saw a ladder made of sand going up to a platform above them. There wasn't anything else around them in this area, but it didn't really matter to them that much. They climbed up to the platform, only to be surprised by a Dark Soldier.

"Oh, god! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" Blade shouted as he attacked the Dark Soldier with his katana before it could even make a move on them. "Whew… That was a close one!"

"He didn't even have time to react…" Tippi trailed.

"Well, who really cares?" Blade walked over to the right to find one of those strange walls where you could see something from behind. "Hey, is there something over by this wall? It kind of looks like it…"

"Let me see," Chopper threw his arms up in the air and flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw some stairs leading up to an upper floor of this room. He brought his friends up there to find a door to their left and a Dark Soldier waiting for them.

"There they are!" the Dark Soldier began to fire rapidly at them with its blaster. Kirby inhaled one of the blasts and spat it out at the dark alien, making it cringe while Chopper stomped on it while performing a stylish move.

"And this should do the trick!" he declared, attacking the alien with a flaming slamming kick that finished off the Dark Soldier once and for all. He was surprised when it dropped a Super Shroom Shake.

"Poyo… (I actually don't remember what those shakes even taste like…)" Kirby trailed while looking at the Super Shroom Shake that Chopper was putting away. "Poyo? (Is it like a Super Shroom?)

"Hmmmmm… I don't know, honestly." Chopper replied. "But who cares? We have something to heal ourselves with, that's for sure!"

They walked through the door to find themselves in a hallway with a couple of Bandits and Dark Creatures roaming around. They noticed that there were some statues made of sand in the background. They looked kind of like Bandits, though.

"Hmmmmmm… Something tells me that this is some sort of Bandit hideout to me…" Sonic pondered.

"No kidding," Chopper replied, knocking a Bandit away that was coming near him with his hammer. He began to spin his hammer around afterwards while moving around the whole room, knocking away a couple of Bandits and Dark Soldiers.

Once they made their way to the door, they noticed that it was locked. Chopper threw his arms up in the air to check what was around in 3-D, but all he found was a hole going through the wall.

"What the…" He brought his friends into 2-D so they could see what was behind. It ended up bringing them into a secret room with some stairs leading up to a door ahead. Some Bandits were guarding the door, though.

"Oh, how nice… We've got more Bandits." Blade groaned.

"Stop whining," Chopper retorted as he stomped on the Badge Bandit, performing a stylish move. While he was up in the air, he tossed a fireball down at the Badge Bandit to burn him. Kirby then finished him off by inhaling him and spitting him at the Big Bandit.

"Whew… That was…easy, if you ask me." Sonic said as he opened the door up ahead. They were outside of the castle now, but they were up on some sort of bridge, where a couple of Bandits were waiting. They seemed to look more dirty than the others now. They look like…Desert Bandits.

"So where do you think YOU'RE going? !" roared one of the Desert Bandits, pulling out a club. "If you think you're going to be going anywhere, think again! This is OUR castle, punk! People like you aren't welcome here!"

"You wanna bet?" Blade pulled his katana out and sliced the Desert Bandit's club in half.

"Mommy!" he cried while fleeing from the heroes. The other Desert Bandits, on the other hand, pulled their clubs out and rushed at the heroes with all their might, trying to bash them with their brown clubs.

"Hi-ya!" Chopper gripped his hammer as hard as he could and let out a battle cry as he began to spin his hammer around, striking every single Desert Bandit in his sight all the way to the end of the bridge…where they could see a blue ! block up above them.

"Ugh… That was painful…" Only one Desert Bandit was left, who slowly got up from the pain he had to go through. "How do you do that? That attack you just pulled off with that thing… So strange…"

"Oh, I almost forgot… We're gonna need you for a quick second. Hold still, OK?" Sonic used Thoreau to grab the Desert Bandit and throw him at the blue ! block, triggering a door to appear.

"So that's where we need to go…" trailed Tippi as she followed the four into a room with a ladder nearby that leads up to an upper floor in the room.

"Might as well climb up here," Chopper said as he climbed up the ladder. There were two Desert Bandits that hit him in the head, but he returned the favor by doing a sweeping kick attack on them.

"Finish them!" he shouted as he saw Sonic strike both Desert Bandits with a Homing Attack. With that out of the way, they noticed two poles hanging from the wall that could help them reach another platform where a door was at.

"It's very simple to use that thing… Just grab it and it'll bring you up to the next pole… It's very simple." Tippi informed.

"Is that so? Well, then we ought to try it out!" Blade jumped and grabbed a hold of the pole, allowing himself to be sprung up to the next pole, which brought him up over to the platform.

Chopper did the same thing, only this time, he jumped off the wall and did a stylish pose as he landed on the ground.

"Was that even necessary?" Blade asked.

"Ehhhh… Not really. I just felt like doing it because I was bored." he replied.

Blade shrugged as both Kirby and Sonic made their way up to the platform. They then proceeded through the door, where they found themselves in a room with a large, yellow block in the middle of the room.

"They seriously think that they can hide what's behind here with this hammer? They're seriously screwing up with the design here." Sonic scoffed as Chopper broke the block with his hammer.

"Poyo! (Hurry! We don't have much time! We've got to…)" Kirby was suddenly transported into 3-D via Chopper's ability and they were then walking through the pathway revealed in 3-D, which led them into a small room with a Desert Bandit guarding a chest.

"H-Huh? ! Whoa!" the Desert Bandit woke up once he heard some footsteps in the room. Snapping out of his trance, he pulled out his club. "There are intruders intruding this place? This isn't good…"

The Desert Bandit let out a battle cry as he rushed towards the heroes. Kirby was able to make him trip so Blade could kick him in the face. When the Bandit got himself up, he tried to punch the ninja cat, but he managed to grab his arm and put him in a hold.

"Why are you doing this? We're not here to fight, you know!" Blade shouted.

"Look, man! We Bandits don't like it when you filthy rich people come into our fort! It wasn't easy making this place, you know! It could collapse any minute! But, I bet it's going to collapse when that big swirling vortex in the sky BECOMES the sky!"

"Listen… We don't mean harm." Tippi assured. "We're only here to get to the top of the Sand Castle… There's something that awaits us there…"

"Oh, so your friend of the rich people, huh? All you care about it stealing what dignity is left of us! We're so poor, we're forced to STEAL from people!" the Bandit hissed.

"Calm down, man!" Chopper snapped. "We don't KNOW any rich people! Heck, we don't really know anyone! WE can put a stop to that thing in the sky if you listen to us! Just… Please!"

"_**NEVER!**_" the Bandit got out of the hold and charge at Chopper, but soon met his fate when Kirby inhaled him and spat him at the wall, knocking him out completely.

"Poyo… (I really didn't want to do that…)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo… (Those Bandits really seem like they're just trying to protect what they have…)"

"Sigh… Well, if they're trying to hurt us, then we have no choice but to fight back…" Chopper sighed as he kicked the chest open, revealing a Sand Castle Key. It wasn't made of sand, that's for sure."

"Let's go back to that other door," Sonic suggested. "I'm sure we'll be able to reach a higher area in the castle now."

* * *

**Back on the bridge-**

"Hold it right there, rich people!" a couple of Desert Bandits were blocking the way to the door that they had to go through. "Where do you think you're going with our key? This place is only for us Bandits!"

"Oh, dear… I believe you're mistaken…" Tippi trailed. "We're not rich… We're just travelers, that's all…"

"Really?" the Bandits lowered their clubs.

"What? You think 646 coins isn't rich?" Blade asked. This caused the Bandits to raise their clubs up.

"LIARS! 646 coins is A LOT! You people are RICH! Therefore, you must leave…or else we will be forced to kill you!" the Bandits made their way closer to the heroes with angry looks upon their faces.

"Well, if you wanna fight…then we might as well fight," Chopper hurled a couple of fireballs at the Desert Bandits, setting them on fire. Sonic waited for the flames to disappear before striking them with a Spin Dash, which knocked nearly every Desert Bandit off of the bridge.

"Holy… How can they do that?" a Desert Bandit gaped while stepping away from the heroes. His arms trembled as he looked at them. "Mommy!"

The Desert Bandit fled before he could get hit. Blade merely said, "Wuss!" before they headed back into the left part of the sand castle. There, Chopper inserted the key into the door to allow themselves into another part of the castle.

"Hmmmmm… I don't see much around here." Blade said while scanning the room.

"Maybe I ought to check and see what's around here," Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a ladder over by the wall. Helping his friends get into 3-D, they immediately climbed up the ladder to find a door in 3-D over by the wall.

Entering the next room, they were in one of those other hallways that had windows and a door up ahead. There were some Desert Bandits waiting for them, however.

"Uh oh… Looks like we're running into a big problem here." Chopper gulped as he saw the large amounts of Desert Bandits.

"Hey! We found them!" the Desert Bandits immediately charged. Chopper, sighing because of what he has to do, threw a couple of fireballs at the Bandits, setting them on fire.

"Well, I guess I'll make my move now," Blade pulled a couple of shurikens out and tossed them straight at the Bandits. Some were still alive from the weapons, while others ended up dying.

"Ugh… How… How are they so strong? !" one Bandit wheezed, lifting his head from the ground. "If only we had stronger weapons, we could win the battle…but our weapons are made of only rock… It's not strong."

But before the Bandit could ramble on, everyone began to feel some immense shaking. Looking out the window, they realized that The Void grew a lot bigger.

"What… What was that?" the Bandit asked.

"Oh, no… The Void has grown bigger!" Tippi gasped. "We have to hurry!"

"Hurry? And why exactly would you do that?"

Before anyone could speak, both doors were suddenly surrounded by a large cage. The windows were also blocked, preventing anyone from escaping. Before they could freak out, Tipral made his appearance in the room.

"Tipral!" Chopper immediately got in a fighting stance, clenching his fists while a flaming aura appeared around them.

"You're too late, heroes!" Tipral bellowed. "You're all trapped! There's no way you'll be escaping from this room! I was lucky to set up a trap for you guys in case you got here a little sooner."

"Ugh… And who are you?" the Desert Bandit coughed, glaring at Tipral. "Did you trap us in this room? !"

Tipral turned to the Bandit. "I don't need to hear from you, you poor, poor Bandit," after twirling his scepter, Tipral fired a dark star straight at the Bandit, killing him within seconds.

"You just killed that Bandit!" Blade hissed, pulling a shuriken out. "He didn't deserve to die, you know! …But I know for a fact that YOU'RE going to die!"

He threw the shuriken straight at Tipral, but he nearly gaped when he saw the dark being of Chopper grab it with his fingers.

"Oh, Blade… You're so stubborn. You honestly believe that a mere shuriken is going to hit someone such as myself? I have the Dark Star Scepter in my hands! With it, there's no stopping me! …But enough about that. Thanks to the Chaos Heart, this world shall soon tremble under the hands…of Tipral!"

"Poyo… (Well, looks like he just spoke in third person there…)" Kirby trailed.

"How could you do something like this? !" Tippi cried. "You're doing such a horrible thing to the entire universe! What… What has it ever done to you? !"

"What has the universe done to me? It created a monster, that's what! A monster by the name of Chopper! …And also a monster that has caused enough harm to me for many, many years. Once all the worlds are gone, all of that will soon be put to an end! …And I will finally be able to be at peace forever."

"I can't believe you, you sick, dark being! All living beings have hearts. They're all priceless. You can't just…erase them from all existence!"

"Oh yes I can… I'm doing that right about now! With you all trapped in this room, you will soon perish along with this world. And then… There will be no more heroes to stop me!"

"You know that there are SIX heroes," Chopper informed. "Merlee told us that there are about six heroes, so even if you stop us, those last two will be able to put a stop to you! It won't be all over!"

"Then I'll simply look up on who those heroes might be," Tipral replied. "And I _do_ believe that I know who they might be… If I'm not mistaken, they should be…"

Before he could finish, he felt more trembling from The Void. "Oh, never mind. I'll let you figure out on your own. This world IS going to be destroyed, so there's no point in telling you guys. Besides, you're pretty much going to be nothing thanks to The Void."

"You're not getting away from us, Tipral!" Sonic curled up into a ball and attempted to strike Tipral, but he was soon gone.

"Poyo… (Great… Now we're trapped in this room with nothing else to do except to wait to die…)" Kirby groaned.

Chopper sat down and frowned. "So is this how we're going to spend the rest of our lives? In this room with nothing else to do? This is just great. I didn't want to die like this!"

"I hear you man! This is NOT the way to die! I wanted to die in a way that would make me feel proud, such as sacrificing my life to save the world." Sonic said before looking down at the sand. "But now it looks like it's going to be all for nothing."

"Maybe we could play a game of Go Fish!" Blade suggested, making everyone else give him a strange look. "Just sayin'. That's all."

"Well, we could pretend to play soccer," Chopper suggested. "But we're NOT using each other as a ball. That's just plain wrong."

"The only thing I can think of is…" Tippi was soon interrupted when she saw the cages around the doors disappear by some strange magical box. Even the bars on the windows were gone!

"Huh? What just happened…?" she asked.

"I don't know, but it looks like someone wants us to get a move on," Blade smirked as he walked over to the door. "Well I'm not going to stay here! How about we all get moving before we die!"

"Good idea," Chopper nodded and then kicked the door open to another room in the castle. Luckily, they came across a Star Block, to their surprise.

…But they were soon interrupted by Blade's communicator.

"Aw, damn it! I was hoping that it wouldn't go off at a time like this!" Blade grumbled as he pulled his communicator out. Just like before, Bang was calling him for a stupid question.

"What is it now, Bang?"

"_Oh… I was just wondering if I could use your computer for a minute. Think I could use it?" _Bang asked.

"What are you planning on using it for? …And how did you get into my house in the first place?"

"_You left your front door unlocked. I think it might be because of that party we were going to. …And I was just going to use your computer to research stuff about dogs. That's all."_

"No. I know what you're going to use it for, and we ALL know why you wanna use it. Sorry, but you're not using it."

"What IS he planning on using it for?" Chopper asked.

"…I'll tell you when you're older," he replied.

"Older? I don't get what you mean…"

"Really. I think it's best to know about this at an _older_ age. If you knew by now… Well, yeah. You're too young to know about it."

Chopper sighed. "Oh fine… I'll find out when I'm older. How old, exactly? Fifteen or something?"

"At the very best, I think it should be seventeen," Sonic stated.

"Seventeen? Then how do you two know about this when you're only fifteen?"

"Well… Er… Uh… MOVING ON!" Blade pushed Chopper out of the way and walked over to the Star Block.

"Really… What's the big deal about that?" Chopper questioned, looking at Tippi.

"I think it's best you learned about this when your older… Trust me." Tippi replied, urging him to go to the Star Block.

"Fine. I'll wait." Chopper grumbled as he struck the Star Block. He was only curious, that's all.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_As the world began to tremble from The Void, our heroes knew that this world was getting closer to meeting its fate with The Void. After venturing deep into the Sand Castle, the heroes knew that not only did they have to deal with the Bandits, but they also have to deal with The Void as well. "This way!" Tippi cried as she fluttered on ahead. Chopper, using as much speed as he could, raced his way deeper into the castle. He knew that they were getting closer to the top of the castle…_

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**Not a very long chapter compared to the others, but I think this is a good length for this one. I thought the conversation at the end of this chapter was a funny part. :P**

**Next up: The heroes finally make their way to the top of the castle...but will their efforts be in vain, or will they not? Find out in the next chapter of Super Paper Chopper! *shot for referencing Dragon Ball Z***_  
_


	37. The End of a World

**If you find this chapter a bit short, well don't yell at me for it. …Unless you like short chapters. But, this is DEFINITELY my favorite part of the five parts of Chapter 6. Why? Well it has something that's pretty funny that I seemingly think of a lot in this chapter for some reason… Anyways, here's the last part of Chapter 6! …We're getting closer to one of my favorite parts of this fic. ^^**

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**CHAPTER 6-5**

**-The End of a World-**

"…And so it comes close to an end now," Chopper declared, looking up at the sky at The Void. They could feel the intense shaking even from the inside of the castle. "We're getting closer to the Pure Heart as we speak…but I don't think we're going to make it at this moment. The Void is just…enormous!"

"Don't say that, Chopper… We have to believe in ourselves!" Tippi cried. "If we keep thinking negatively, we're not going to make it… All that matters is that we move as fast as we can before the end of the world is upon us…"

Our heroes were outside of the castle, on another bridge. They were definitely at an upper level than the other bridge – which was right below this very area. There were also a couple of Desert Bandits with clubs guarding the door up ahead. They were definitely afraid of The Void, but they weren't going to let the heroes through.

"There's no way you're getting past us!" a Bandit growled, gripping his club. "This next tower will lead up to the top of the castle, and there's no chance that we're letting a bunch of rich scum like you guys through here!"

"Would you shut up about the whole rich thing?! Do you ALWAYS have to say this to every person you see?!" Blade exclaimed.

"Poyo! (We're not rich people! We don't carry any rich stuff with us!)" Kirby shouted.

"Why can't you just let us through? We'll save your world with the Pure Heart!" Sonic shouted. "Even if this world dies, we can surely bring it back after we dispose of the Chaos Heart. You have to trust us!"

"We trust _NO ONE_!" the Bandits began to charge at the heroes. Instead of using fire or blades, they began to use their kicks and even their inhaling moves to fight them, since they don't want to scar them.

Blade grabbed one of the Bandits's clubs and whacked him across the face with his elbow. When the Bandit tried to grab his foot, he grabbed his arm and slammed the Bandit to the ground.

"Look, man… I know you want to protect your castle. We understand that." Blade said. "BUT, you can't just attack other people. It's just rude."

"We don't care what rich people say!" the Bandit retorted, trying to hit him in the head with his own head. Unfortunately, he ended up getting thrown off the bridge instead. Since the ground IS sand, the Bandit fell straight into the sand out of the castle.

"Sigh… These guys are just too stubborn."

Sonic waited for the Desert Bandits to make their move before he made his. "Go right ahead, Bandits. I'm not the one who usually likes to attack first anyways."

The Bandits all charged at Sonic, but they couldn't really hit him with their attacks. Sonic was just too fast for them…and they were too slow (*sees people with shotguns ready to shoot me*).

Once Sonic got behind the Bandits, he curled himself in a ball and prepared to attack them with a Spin Dash. He successfully knocked a couple of them off of the bridge, but only two were left.

"Argh… How are we losing so easily?! …And how do these rich, filthy people have these sort of moves? It's sickening!" the Bandit let out a battle cry as he rushed at Sonic, only to get hit by a Homing Attack. This sent him flying off the bridge.

"I hope they're OK," Sonic hoped before he ducked from the last Bandit's swing from his club. He grabbed the Bandit's arm and slammed him to the ground – except that he knocked him off the bridge instead…but not on purpose.

It was now Kirby's turn. He started off by getting on Carrie and stomping on a couple of the Bandits with her, performing some stylish moves as well.

"I got an idea!" a Bandit snapped his finger and then threw his club straight at Kirby. He used his Defend ability to defend himself from the attack, making him take barely any damage.

"Poyo! (Sorry, but you're going to have to try better than that to beat me!)" Kirby scoffed as he jumped off Carrie and inhaled the club. He spat it out straight at the Bandit who struck him with the club.

The other Bandits looked at the Bandit that was just knocked out. However, they weren't going to flee like him. They immediately charged at Kirby.

"Poyo… (I wouldn't do that if I were you…)" he warned as he opened his mouth, preparing to inhale some of them. The Bandits didn't listen, and soon they were being sucked into the pink puffball's mouth.

Kirby walked over to the left so the others weren't in his way and he spat the Bandits out. The yellow star that came out of his mouth was now sparkling, since he had more than one enemy in his mouth. There were only two Bandits left after the attack, though.

"Errr… We'll do what some others just did!" Being wusses, the three Desert Bandits jumped off the bridge themselves in order to escape Kirby's gut once again.

"Poyo! (Man, they sure are cowards!)" Kirby frowned as he watched them fall to the sandy ground.

With only four Bandits left, Chopper was the one to face the last four. He didn't want to use any fireballs, since it would probably deal some great harm to them, so he focused on using his hammer and kicks.

"All right, you wanna fight, then come and get it!" he taunted, allowing the Desert Bandits to pull their clubs out.

"Chopper… Are you seriously letting them come at you?" Tippi questioned with a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry, Tippi. I have a little plan." Chopper assured as he readied himself. Once the Bandits rushed at him, he jumped up and ended up stomping on one of the Bandits, performing a stylish move while at it.

"Hey! He's up there!" one shouted, attempting to get Chopper, but his efforts were fruitless once Chopper landed on the ground and began to spin his hammer around rapidly, knocking a couple of them away.

"Ack! What the heck are you doing?!" another Bandit exclaimed, getting hit in the face by Chopper's hammer. The attack was so strong, that most of their masks were beginning to crack.

"Oh, crud… Not my mask!" All four of them shouted in unison.

Before Chopper could get a glimpse of their real faces, they immediately jumped off the castle, too embarrassed for anyone to see them without their masks. …But, what DO they look like without a mask? That's the question…

…But they didn't have time to think about that. The ground began to shake up once again. Everyone looked up to see The Void grow once again.

"Oh, man… Now I'm starting to remember when Clara was being enveloped in darkness…" Chopper frowned as he looked up at the large darkness. He couldn't help but remember about Clara being enveloped in the darkness five months ago. It was right after he got a hold of the eighteenth Crystal Star.

"Chopper! We must get going!" Tippi snapped Chopper out of his trance, making him shake his head quickly and go over to the door.

"Sorry about that, Tippi… I was just remembering something…" he apologized. When he looked around in the room, he noticed that the room was pretty skinny, but there were a couple of ladders leading up to a door high up ahead.

"That must be where the Pure Heart is!" Sonic shouted. "If we make our way up there, we should be able to make it!"

"Yes… I can feel its presence from up there…" Tippi trailed. "This is our last chance, guys… If we don't make it there in time, then the whole universe might be doomed to The Void…"

"Yeah, we better do that right now!" Chopper immediately made his way up the ladder to the upper floor. He noticed that there was a yellow ? block right over by the next ladder. Hitting it, an Ultra Shroom popped out.

"Wow… We're already getting to the boss?" Chopper's antennas sprung up. "Wow… Talk about a short chapter! I can't believe it has even come to this! Can't you believe it, guys?"

"Poyo! (I know! This is so weird!)" Kirby agreed, while Blade was thinking of pulling a "That's what she said," joke (even though those can get old).

They all began to climb up the next ladder near the empty block, which led them up to a Save Block. Chopper immediately hit that block and then climbed up the ladder again to the door, which led into a small little room with a couple of statues…and a door up ahead.

"I bet our destination is up ahead," Chopper smirked as he walked past the statues. "Looks like we have a Pure Heart to achieve!"

"I'm ready!" Blade nodded, clenching his fists for whatever might be up ahead. "If we have to fight some sort of sand monster, then I'm ready to stop that thing! …Or if it's one of Tipral's minions, that is."

"Well, whatever it is, we're gonna be ready for it. So… Are you all ready?" Chopper glanced at the other three, who gave him a nod. "All right, then… Then I guess we better get going!"

Once Chopper opened the door, they were outside. However, they were at the top of the Sand Castle now. It was pretty big, but the only thing they could really see in the background was The Void.'

"The Void is so massive… It almost feels like the end of the world…" Tippi trailed.

"We're not giving up! Look!" Chopper pointed to the purple Pure Heart up ahead. "See? We already found the Pure Heart!"

"Poyo! (Let's grab it and get out of here!)" Kirby suggested.

But, just before they could rush over to the Pure Heart, O'Chunks landed in front of them, sending a shockwave that knocked them all over to the door.

"Where do yeh think yer goin'?!" O'Chunks growled. "Yer not gonna be gettin' outta here so easily!"

"O'Chunks? What are you doing here?" Tippi asked.

"I don't need teh explain why I'm 'ere! I'm doin' me job, yeh little butterfly! I don't wanna have teh smash yeh…but yer startin' teh get on me nerves with yer naggin'! It's NOT chunky!"

"Oh, stop with that, O'Chunks! We KNOW that you like 'chunky' stuff!" Mimi made her appeared via teleportation. "Golly! I can't believe that you dummies made it so far! I'm impressed! ...Not!"

"Poyo! (Mimi!)" Kirby got in his fighting stance, along with Blade, who was glaring at O'Chunks at the moment.

"First O'Chunks and now Mimi?" Tippi gawked.

"No, not yet…" Dark appeared using the abilities with his cape. "You may have beaten me up before, but that doesn't clearly mean that you're going to win. Take a look at The Void. You'll see why."

Sonic looked up at the sky. He noticed that The Void has grown bigger once again. "Ugh… I can't believe we're so close to the Pure Heart! …Yet The Void is so…massive!"

"So Tipral had a Plan B all along in case if we made it here…" Tippi trailed. "That…doesn't seem like it has any flaws in his plan…"

"Of course Tippy's plan is flawless! It's actually one of the greatest plans that he's ever come up with! Not only is he adorable, but he's soooo good at making evil plans to trounce you meanie-heads!"

"Wait, what did yeh say, lass?" O'Chunks raised an eyebrow.

"Ummmmmmm… Nothing!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Oh, I heard that crystal clear." Dimentio appeared above O'Chunks, Mimi and Dark. "Our dear Mimi just won't admit her love to Tipral!"

"Dimentio?!" Chopper got in his fighting stance this time. "He sent YOU here as well?! …Wow. I can't believe Tipral has sent EVERY minion he's got to take care of us. Just… Wow."

"DIMENTIO!" Mimi growled, giving the jester a death glare. "WERE YOU READING MY DIARY AGAIN? ! …Er… Don't listen to what I just said, all of you! Really! I mean it!"

"Your diary? You mean this thing?" Dimentio held out Mimi's diary, making the green girl almost scream loudly at him. "Oh, the secrets you put in this thing… I just LOVE looking through them! I even found an interesting note you put on here! Allow me to read it out loud!"

"Wow… Not only does Dimentio ruin people's gloves and sneakers…but he also reads from a girl's diary?" Chopper had an annoyed look on his face. "That's so LAME!"

Dimentio cleared his throat and began reading. "'Dear Diary… Ever since I came back to this castle, I keep looking at that cute, dark boy all of the time! Man… Not only does he look cute, but I actually find him really hot! I hope to see him come out of the ocean and dry off with his hotness. …Hee hee! I'm seriously getting too distracted over him! It almost distracts me from fighting those doofuses! …But I know for a fact that Tipral won't read this. I mean, NOBODY ever gets my hand on my girly diary! …Well, almost everyone. Hope I get a chance to write in you later, because I think I might need to!' –Mimikins-"

Everyone else looked a bit dumbfounded, especially O'Chunks and Dark. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade weren't so dumbfounded. They already knew that she liked him anyways. Mimi, on the other hand, was furious.

"You… You… YOU…" Mimi was about to crack her neck. "Dimentio… You're going to pay for reading that out loud!"

Before she could transform into her spider form, Dimentio floated down and grabbed her head, trying to calm her down. "Now, now… Now's not the time for any of this nonsense… We don't need any of that right now, dear Mimi."

"Let go of my head, dummy."

"Ah, yes. So I shall!" Dimentio released Mimi's head and floated back up. Meanwhile, Chopper yawned at them.

"You know… You're seriously wasting our time. Are you doing this on PURPOSE? We have a Pure Heart to get! …Oh screw it!" Chopper made a big leap over the heroes…until Dimentio created an invisible barrier to keep him from getting the Pure Heart.

"Ah ha ha ha. Did you honestly think that we would forget about you four?" Dimentio cackled. "Oh… I think we have something in store for you before your deaths! …Perhaps we should have some fun!"

"Fun? I don't like 'fun'…" Dark growled. "Torturing seems a bit better…or maybe shooting them!"

Dark pulled his blaster out and aimed it at Sonic. "You'll be the first one to get killed, hedgehog!"

Before he could pull the trigger, his gun began to float up to Dimentio's hand. "Oh, no, Dark… I wouldn't want to settle things this way! What would be the point of shooting them if The Void will just end their games?"

"Give me back my gun before I snap your neck," he warned.

Dimentio handed back Dark's gun. "Promise me that you won't use that thing. I don't want to have to go to such measures as to destroy it… You would lose your weapon if I did that!"

"…Fine," Dark grunted, putting his blaster away. "I'll play your little game… But make it quick though!"

"Screw your games, Dimentio! We don't have time for this!" Blade barked.

As Blade continued to yell, the jester twirled his finger around and created a little volleyball court with a net. There was a beach ball that came down on the hero's side of the court.

"What is this?" Tippi asked.

"It's a little game of volleyball," Dimentio explained with a smirk. "I've devised a little game for you all to play us! If you win this match, we'll let you get the Pure Heart! …If you have time, that is. BUT… If you lose… Well, I'm pretty sure that we'll think of something that we can use on you."

"I'm not playing volleyball," Dark retorted.

"'Ey! Quit bein' such a downer, Dark!" O'Chunks snapped. "It's not like anythin' bad's goin' teh happen teh us! We're gettin' outta here even WHEN The Void destroys this world!"

Chopper gave Dimentio an irritated look while he folded his arms. "This is what you have in store for us? A volleyball game?"

"Ah ha ha ha. Do you like it, my green little friend?" Dimentio chuckled.

The young Star Warrior let out a deep sigh. "Fine. We'll play your stupid game of volleyball. But, why do it in the desert? We're not at the beach!"

"You're in Desert Oasis, so you're technically near the beach, meanie-head," Mimi explained.

"Go ahead, Chopper. You go first…if you dare." Dimentio offered while the other minions got themselves ready for volleyball…except for Dark.

"I'm not playing this game. I don't care what you say. I'm NOT going to play a game of volleyball! It's a USELESS game!" Dark retorted.

Chopper picked the volleyball up and looked at it. _"This is strange… Why would Dimentio have us play volleyball? What are we? Trying to be friends? This is so strange…"_

"So, Chopper… Are you going to start?" Dimentio raised an eyebrow.

"Kirby, take the back. Same goes with you, Blade. Sonic and I will take the front." Chopper tossed the ball up and then jumped to punch the ball with his fist, sending it over the net.

"So now the game begins," the jester smirked as he patted the beach ball, but somehow managed to strike it over to the other side easily.

"Poyo! (I got this ball!)" Kirby jumped and slammed the ball over the net, making it hit Mimi in the face.

"Eeeeeeek!" she cried as he threw the beach ball off her. Apparently, Team Heroes got the point (we'll call the hero side Team Heroes and the bad guy side Team Villains? OK? I know it sounds weird…but it works).

"Ah ha ha ha. What's wrong, Mimi? Did you just get hit in the face?" Dimentio chuckled as Mimi gave him a death glare.

"Shut up before I hit you with this ball, dummy," Mimi warned as she slammed the ball down to the other side.

"I got it!" Blade used his fist to punch the beach ball over to the other side. O'Chunks jumped up and, using his strength, he slammed the ball to the ground, giving the villains a point.

"Gra ha ha ha!" O'Chunks cackled. "Now THAT was one heck o' a punt there! I don't think yer ever gonna see somethin' like that!"

"Oh, really?" Blade grumbled as he served the ball again. This time, he created a couple of clones of himself to make sure when O'Chunks slammed the ball, they would all go after the ball easily.

…And it was lucky enough to work.

"Good gravy!" the Scottish man yelled as he was struck in the jaw. "Yeh almost broke me jaw, lad! Yer lucky yer only a wee ninja compared teh me!"

"'Wee'?! I swear that you better not be telling the truth…" Blade warned, giving him a death glare.

Dark looked at the beach ball that bounced over to him. The villains all looked at him, hoping that he would pick it up. "No way. I told you before and I don't wanna tell you again… I'm NOT going to play this damn game!"

"Oh, come on, you downer! The ball's right there!" Mimi pouted.

Dark wished that he could shoot Mimi at this point, but he knew it would be best not to do that. So, he picked up the beach ball and punched it to the other side.

"I got it!" Sonic made a big jump and then slammed the ball to the ground…only to have Dark kick it with his foot. He was able to hit Sonic right in the face after slamming the ball one last time.

"Hey! You can't do that! That's cheating!" Chopper shouted.

"There are no rules to this game!" Dimentio chuckled. "Now, I believe it's my turn to make a move."

As he lifted the beach ball up, the ground began to shake. Now was when The Void started to slowly grow bigger and bigger each second. The heroes looked incredibly worried as Dimentio served the ball.

"We can't give up so soon… We gotta win this!" Chopper made a big leap and slammed the ball towards Dimentio. However, the jester snapped his finger, making the ball suddenly land on the heros' side.

"Poyo! (Hey! You can't do that! That's cheating!)" Kirby shouted, repeating what Chopper said before.

"I believe I already said that there aren't any rules," the jester smirked as he served the ball again. This time, Chopper wasn't ready to give in…but it was Kirby who hit the ball before him.

"Oh no you don't," Dimentio snapped his finger again and made the ball fall down on the other side of the court.

Chopper immediately took action. Using an uppercut kick, he kicked the ball into the air and then slammed it down on the other side with his fist, scoring a point for Team Heroes and making the score tied.

"Golly, you heroes sure want that Pure Heart, don't you?" Mimi questioned.

"Yes, we do need the Pure Heart…" Tippi trailed. "We would love to have that thing back right now… There's not much time to be spent here…"

After the ground shook again, Dimentio began to cackle. "Ah ha ha ha ha! Oh, I feel like I'm going to shed a tear. You heroes are so close to getting to the Pure Heart…yet we're in your way! This almost seems like a dream come true, seeing you suffer through this!"

"I've suffered through enough, thank you very much," Chopper clenched his fists, serving the ball over to the other side. Dimentio managed to teleport it to the other side, but Blade was able to hit the ball before it landed, making it go to the other side.

"We're NOT going to let you guys win! We NEED that Pure Heart no matter what!" Blade sneered.

"Well too bad, lad! We're not gonna help yeh get it!" O'Chunks growled as he smacked the ball back to the other side.

"Poyo! (Then we'll have to use this ball on you by force!)" Kirby stated as he kicked the ball to the other side. Little did he know that Mimi could now understand what the pink puffball was saying.

"Oh, please. There's no way we're gonna let you hurt _us_!" Mimi scoffed as she sent a Rubee to hit the beach ball. But the only problem to that was that the Rubee was sharp, so it poked a hole through the ball.

"Hold on a minute… If Mimi popped the ball… Does this mean that we win?" Chopper gaped as he looked down at the ball.

"Oh, my… It appears that my beach ball has been popped. Such a shame." Dimentio slowly shook his head, but he magically made a new one appear in his hands. "But I still have a spare!"

"You gotta be kidding me…" Sonic grumbled as the ground began to shake again. He made his move this time, hitting the ball with the palm of his hand.

"Ugh… This game is going on forever." Dark groaned as he simply smacked the ball away from him, wishing that he never had to touch that thing again.

Once Chopper smacked it over to the other side, Dimentio attempted to make the ball land on the ground, but Chopper acted quickly and was able to slam the ball on the sandy ground on the other side of the net.

"Whoa… Did I seriously…hit the ball over the net?" Chopper gaped. "That means… That means we've won!"

"Oh, yeah baby!" Blade did a pelvic thrust. "We beat you guys! Now you're forced to let us get the Pure Heart!"

But before anyone could react, they felt some immense shaking. This shaking was worse than any other that they've felt. Not only were the heroes starting to get scared, but so were the villain.

"Whoa… Look at The Void!" Dark pointed up at The Void. At this point, they couldn't see the sky. It looked like The Void BECAME the sky right about now. It even made some bright flashes.

"Whoa! We gotta get outta here! This world is about teh go! …But I'm not gonna stay here anymore! Yer on yer own now! Chunks away!" After waving goodbye, O'Chunks rocketed out of the sky via his farting powers.

"Later dummies! We sure got you!" Mimi scoffed as she teleported out of the world with her box.

"It'll be a good thing to see you heroes go. Goodbye…and I hope you enjoy the rest of your lives…in nothing!" Dark covered himself with his cape and he was soon gone.

"Well, I suppose I should make my leave as well. It's such a shame that you're not going to live to see your dear worlds perish… Ciao!" Dimentio was gone with a snap of his fingers. All that was left were the heroes.

"Quickly! We can get the Pure Heart!" Chopper tried his best to rush over to the purple heart, but the intense shaking and the flashes began to slow him down to great measures.

"I… I can't reach it! We're not…going to make it?!"

"No… Not like this…" Tippi's voice trembled. "We… We can't fail now…" After two flashes, everything began to feel wavy and then…the world was starting to disappear.

"_**ARRGGHHHHHHHH!**_" the last thing that could be heard was a loud scream coming from the heroes.

* * *

**Ten minutes later-**

_"Tipral… For some reason, I'm starting to feel like I DO know him from somewhere…"_

"Wait… I think I remember something happening the last time I was…myself! Tipral… He… He injured me and sent me to this world! Yes… Now I remember that… But I still can't shake the feeling that I recognize his face from somewhere _else_…"

While Tippi began to mutter to herself, she noticed where she was. They were back on Flipside Towers, right next to the dark blue door that they were in…which was still standing.

Before Tippi could nudge Chopper, she heard the elevator door open up. She noticed Meta Knight walk out, now feeling much better.

"Hmmmmmm?" Meta Knight immediately made his way over to the heroes. He looked down at Chopper. "Chopper… Chopper! Wake up, Chopper!"

After a couple of nudges, Chopper slowly got himself up. "Where am I…? Am I dead?"

"No, you're not dead, Chopper," the knight replied. "I don't know why you were lying on the ground like that, but something must've happened. Do you remember what happened before you were on the ground?"

"Ugh… All I can remember is…volleyball. We won the game…but we were too late to get to the Pure Heart. It's gone…"

Kirby, Sonic and Blade slowly rose from the ground. They too were surprised to see that they were still alive.

"Urgh… Whuzzat? Whozere? Ugh… What's going on here?!" Blade exclaimed.

"I'm a little discombobulated myself, so it's hard to say…" Tippi trailed uncomfortably. "At the very least, we seem to have returned to Flipside…"

"Poyo? (You mean… There's no more of Desert Oasis?)" Kirby whimpered.

Tippi fluttered over to the blue door. …The door leading to that world still exists, it seems… I wonder… Do we dare go back in… Yes. Yes, I think we should go through…"

"If you plan on going through that door again, I should come with you," Meta Knight suggested.

"No, Meta Knight. You stay here." Chopper ordered. "You don't have Galaxia in your hands. You're probably going to be in some huge danger if you walk through that door!"

"Chopper, you barely escaped that world. I'm not going to let you die this time. I should come with you just so you're not in harm's way."

"Meta Knight, don't be so overprotective. This is my mission, not yours. I need to finish what hasn't been finished. You should go back to Merlon and tell him we'll be there…hopefully."

Meta Knight didn't glare at him or say anything rude. "Hmph… Very well. If you need to finish what needs to be finished, then I won't stop you. You're becoming rather strong independently. Ever since I brought you to Clara, you weren't being dependent on so many people. I admire that."

"Thank you, Meta Knight," Chopper walked over to the dark blue door. "OK, guys… Let's head on in…"

After everyone nodded, they followed Chopper through the door. "Good luck, Chopper… You're going to need it."

* * *

**CHAPTER 6-1**

As everyone walked through the door, they all frowned at what they saw. Everything was all blank. The ground only had a white outline, but that's about it. The blue door disappeared as everyone entered through the World of Nothing.

"There's…nothing left," Tippi stated.

"I can't believe this is what kind if destruction Tipral is causing to the universe… Why would he do something like this? This is just so…depressing." Chopper frowned, trying to fight away the tears.

"Poyo? (But what about the Pure Heart? With that gone, there's nothing we could do…)" Kirby's voice trailed through the echoes. Because of nothing being around, their voices were echoing through the world.

Tippi began to feel something coming from far ahead. "Wait… I can feel something very faint. It's the Pure Heart! I can't believe anything is left here, but we have to go take a look."

"This is just so depressing," Sonic stated – although Chopper already stated it. "Is this what might happen to _our_ worlds?"

Chopper immediately lifted his head and clenched his fist. "There's NO way Tipral is going to do such a thing to our worlds! Tippi, I need you to lead us to the Pure Heart. I don't understand how something like that could survive the end of the world, but we might as well check it out. Come on!"

The young Star Warrior immediately began to take off through the World of Nothing. Since they knew it would take them a while to move through here, Kirby jumped on Carrie so she could manage to move a bit faster. Blade also jumped on Carrie so he could catch up to Chopper and Sonic.

While they were moving, they noticed the ruins of some small sand castles. Chopper thought that he could use his shovel to find anything hidden, but when he flipped, he frowned.

"Even when in 3-D, it all feels so blank…" he trailed as his voice echoed through the world.

"I wish there were people alive in this world… It just feels so heartbreaking that everyone's dead." Sonic frowned.

"Poyo? (What's that?)" Kirby pointed to a broken mask. It looked like something a Bandit would wear, to their surprise.

"It's one of those masks that the Bandits wear!" Chopper gaped. "But could they really be alive?"

"It doesn't look like it… There are only remains around here…" Tippi trailed.

"No kidding… I can see some of the ruins of the Sand Castle up ahead!" Blade pointed to the ruined Sand Castle ahead. It looked incredibly small at this point, but all they could do was move on.

* * *

**A bit later-**

After walking through the World of Nothing for quite some time, Tippi stopped when she noticed something up ahead.

"What's that over there?" Tippi noticed a heart stuck to the ground. Instead of it being purple, it looked more like a gray rock.

"Whoa… I don't believe it." Chopper gaped.

"Could that be… It's a Pure Heart! It seems an impossibility, but it somehow survived the obliteration of this world. Something about it seems off, though…"

"So… Do you enjoy this beautiful world?"

Everyone paused after hearing the voice. They gaped as soon as Tipral landed on the ground, but they were soon glaring at him like never before.

"TIPRAL!" they all shouted.

"I can't believe you survived the destruction of this world," Tipral growled. "My plan was FLAWLESS! …But somehow you managed to get out. I don't know how you managed to get out, but thanks to you, my plan has been BROKEN!"

However, when Tipral turned around, he noticed something about the Pure Heart. "What's this? This Pure Heart… It's made of stone! I don't know how it managed to stay in one piece…albeit turning into stone, but it appears that there's no way of using that thing to help you!"

"So you're saying is that it's useless?" Chopper raised an eyebrow.

"Of course! And since you don't need this thing anymore, I might as well take it with me." Tipral grabbed the Pure Heart and put it away. He then turned around, where he saw the four walk over to him.

"All right, Tipral… Tell us now!" Chopper got in a fighting stance. "WHY would you do such a thing to this world? ! Don't you realize what you're going to make every single world become?"

"Oh, I already knew what the worlds would be like," Tipral replied. "I knew that the worlds would become nothing, which is what I wanted to happen all this time. You REALLY think I wouldn't have known that?"

"I'm pretty sure you did… But the world doesn't deserve THIS kind of treatment? The WORLD doesn't do anything to you, Tipral. You're just hurting yourself by causing immense destruction with the Dark Prognosticus!"

"Does it hurt to destroy? It doesn't anymore." Tipral pulled the Dark Prognosticus out. "Anything that I don't like can never exist with one blink of an eye! I was thinking about doing that to your home worlds!"

"You wouldn't _DARE!_" Blade hissed.

"Poyo! (We're NOT going to let you do that to our worlds!)" Kirby immediately got in his fighting stance.

"Hmph! So you wish to fight me, huh? While my plan to kill you all with The Void was a failure, I suppose doing it myself will be more satisfying." Tipral put the Dark Prognosticus away and pulled his Dark Star Scepter out.

"THIS time, I'm not going easy on you like before! I WILL kill you this time with this scepter! There is no escaping the power of the Dark Star Scepter!" Tipral began to float up. After twirling it, he aimed it at the heroes. "Now you'll witness the TRUE power of the scepter!"

"…Says the faker who told me that he would use his true power against me in Dark Subspace World," Chopper muttered. "Do ALL villains have to say that? That's so…clichéd."

Nevertheless, Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate him.

"That's Tipral. He's known for being a prototype of the Ultimate Life Form…or, that's what I've heard. He's the one responsible for turning me into a Pixl… Max HP is 70. Attack is 6. Defense is 4. With the Dark Star Scepter in his hands, Tipral will now fired dark stars at you, or he might even fire ones rapidly… Be careful, Chopper… If you get hit by one of those, you're going to suffer some immense damage… But the worst thing is that not only can he float, but he can also heal himself with the power of his scepter… Also, if you're not fast enough, Tipral will summon a giant void to suck you in and deal double the damage that he usually deals… You simply MUST stop him! This could be the last battle we might ever have to have…"

"_**DIE!**_" was the first thing Tipral spat out as he began to fire multiply dark stars down at the heroes. "You have NO chance of surviving!"

"Run for it, guys!" Chopper cried as he began to run from the dark stars being fired, but he soon stopped when Tipral reappeared right in front of him.

"Where do you thin YOU'RE going? !" with one swing from his scepter, Chopper was knocked to the ground easily. He had a red mark on his cheek because of the scepter Tipral held.

"You'll be the first one to die, Chopper!"

"I don't think so!" Chopper quickly got up and tossed a couple of fireballs at Tipral, making him cringe in pain from the burn effect.

"Agh! Where… Where did you get this kind of power?!" Tipral exclaimed.

"I got it from these weird Swamint guys," Chopper smirked as he jumped on his head, doing a stylish move while at it.

Tipral managed to grab Chopper's foot and slam him to the ground. But before he could blast him with dark energy, he felt someone else stomp on his head. It was Kirby sitting on Carrie.

"Argh! You pest!" Tipral turned to Kirby and blasted him with a dark star, knocking him away from him.

"And now, where were we?" Tipral knocked Chopper away with one blast of dark energy, knocking him straight into Blade.

"Ugh… This guy is no pushover, that's for sure…" Blade grumbled as he got Chopper off of him and drew his katana. "All right, Tipral! You wanna fight? Then bring it! I'll take you out in one hit!"

"Go ahead! I dare you!" Tipral taunted, gripping his scepter as hard as possible. Once Blade got to him, he brought his scepter up to block the attack. He then snapped his finger to strike the ninja cat with Star Magic.

"Urgh… I won't give up so easily!" Blade grumbled, successfully striking Tipral with his katana.

Tipral shook off the damage dealt to him by Blade's katana and then turned to Sonic, who was dashing towards him with great speed.

…But Sonic's Homing Attack didn't get to him. The dark being managed to block his attack with his scepter and force him away with a dark blast, knocking Sonic to the ground.

"What the… What was that?" Sonic questioned as he got up. This time, he curled up into a ball and struck Tipral successfully with a Spin Dash.

"Ungh… I should've seen that coming." Tipral growled, floating over the ground and firing a barrage of dark stars. Chopper managed to inhale one, along with Kirby and they both spat them at Tipral, knocking him back a bit.

"You can give up right now, Tipral…" Tippi suggested. "It seems like you're not winning this…"

"I will NOT give up, you useless butterfly!" Tipral swooped down and knocked Chopper. He began to punch him in the face as fast as he could. "So you wanna feel how it's like to get punched so many times?! Well here you go!"

"Ack!" Chopper kicked Tipral off him and got himself up. With his enemy stunned, he used an uppercut kick to send Tipral flying up in the air. Chopper jumped up to him and slammed him to the ground with a slamming kick.

Once Tipral pushed himself up, he swung his scepter once again, firing a dark star towards Chopper. But, as usual, the projectile was inhaled and spat back at Tipral. But he was prepared. He managed to deflect the star back at him by spinning his scepter around rapidly.

"What the… How did he do that? !" Chopper exclaimed, panting as he got himself up.

"I'm not that stupid, Chopper… It was obvious that I would see that coming. But now it's time for a stronger attack! This should definitely decimate you all!" Tipral teleported above everyone and began to charge up some dark power in the Dark Star Scepter.

"What in the world is Tipral doing?" Blade questioned, looking up at the dark being. "Hey! We're down here, you know!"

"Yes, I know that, you idiot," Tipral grumbled as he waved his scepter around and fired a huge, dark beam down at everyone. He was able to strike all four of them, and boy, was the attack powerful.

"Holy… He just took 8 HP out of me!" Chopper gaped as he slowly got himself up, but was soon punched in the face by Tipral's Star Punch – which happened when he floated to the ground.

"Tipral… Stop this!" Tippi cried, seeing Chopper's face look badly injured.

"I have no intention of letting him live. After what he's done to me, death is what he deserves more than anything!" Tipral shouted as he attempted to punch Chopper again…but was soon struck by Blade's katana.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Blade warned, knocking Tipral away with a kick. "You're NOT going to kill you!"

After helping Chopper up, he offered him a Super Shroom Shake. "Thanks, Blade…" Chopper drank the entire can, making him recover 20 HP. He then threw the can at Tipral's face. That even did some damage to him!

"Heh heh heh! I can't believe a can can actually hurt him!" Sonic chuckled, soon getting hit by a dark star.

"I'm going to sew your mouth shut if you keep laughing at me like that," Tipral warned. "Now then…"

He turned over to Chopper, who apparently was gone. "Huh? Where did he go?!"

"Up here!" Once Tipral looked up, he saw a flaming foot coming down on his head. Chopper managed to stomp on him twice while performing a stylish and then avoided Tipral's dark blast.

"Grrrrrrr!" Tipral tossed a shadow ball at him, but it was soon thrown back at his face after he inhaled it. "You annoying little…"

Just before he could attack Chopper again, he was distracted with Kirby once again. The pink puffball's kick caused him to fire a dark star over at Sonic, who got struck instead of Chopper.

"Look what you've done!" Tipral attempted to swing at Kirby, but as soon as he was kicked in the face by him, he resorted to teleporting back up in the air.

"Very well… It looks like it's time for me to resort to a new tactic. Surely this attack will make you beg for mercy!" Tipral began to twirl his scepter as fast as possible. A large void began to appear before him and it started to suck the heroes in.

"Don't let yourselves get sucked in!" Tippi cried. "That attack is a forced to be reckoned with!"

"Argh! I know I can escape this!" Chopper swung his arms around like they were a wheel. His feet were even moving in a figure-8 pattern as he tried to escape. Luckily, the void disappeared and everyone landed on the ground.

"Hmph… So it appears I can only do it for a limited amount of time. No matter… I can still take care of myself." Tipral raised his scepter and he used the dark power in it to help him recover 20 HP.

"Wait… He can _heal_ himself?!" Sonic gaped.

"Poyo! (You've gotta be kidding me!)" Kirby pouted, jumping on Carrie again. "Poyo! (He's probably going to keep healing himself so he can win this fight!)"

"You just gave me an excellent idea, Kirby," Tipral thanked as he raised his scepter again, but Sonic reacted quicker than him and delivered a Homing Attack as he tried to heal himself, knocking him to the ground.

"Ungghh… How did you…" Tipral grumbled as he slowly got up, only to get hit in the back by a couple of shurikens. He was able to get them off of him and toss a Star Spear at Blade, knocking him to the ground.

He then made a dash towards Kirby with his air shoes, using his shoulder to hit him straight in the face. Tipral simply snapped his finger to strike Sonic with Star Magic, and then he struck Chopper with a dark blast from his scepter.

"Man… He did that so quickly!" Chopper wheezed, grabbing onto his arm as he limped over in pain. "How in the world did you do that so quickly? ! That's… That's just so weird!"

"You can do many things with this kind of power," Tipral frowned at them angrily as he charged up another dark beam. However, he was interrupted once again when Chopper tossed a fireball at him.

"You're not doing that ever again…" the young Star Warrior made a dash towards Tipral and managed to throw him to the ground with a flaming kick, injuring Tipral pretty badly.

"Ugh… So, you DO put up a fight!" Tipral quickly shook his head and tried to strike Chopper by swinging his scepter at him. But, like before, Chopper dodged the attack and struck him with his hammer.

Knowing that he might go down soon, Tipral knocked Chopper back with a dark star and then teleported back up to the air, charging up another one of his intense attacks.

"You can't escape this!" he yelled as he fired a huge beam of dark energy at the four heroes. He started off by getting Chopper first, then Kirby, then Sonic and then last but not least…Blade.

"Man… He just won't give up!" Blade growled as he attempted to jump up at him. While curling into a ball, he spun his sword vertically, hoping to strike his enemy, but he was unfortunate to miss.

"Oh, crap… I can't even get to him!"

Knowing that Chopper had to get Tipral down, he tossed a fireball straight at his counterpart. However, Tipral didn't let himself fall, no matter what was being thrown at him. He spun his scepter around and summoned another void.

"This should surely put and end to this battle!" he announced as he successfully managed to suck Sonic and Blade into the darkness. He struck them with a powerful dark attack that did double the damage of his normal attacks.

"Whoa! That attack is so…powerful!" Sonic gaped.

"No kidding, man!" Blade wheezed.

"Poyo! (There's no way I'm going in there!)" Kirby cried as he tried to fight his way out of the dark void. Unfortunately, he too was sucked into the center and was soon struck by Tipral.

"Foolish heroes! You cannot escape my true power! Do you even realize that? !" Tipral exclaimed.

"Urrgghhh… I can't…get out of here!" Chopper was getting closer and closer to the center than he could've imagined. Heck, Tipral was ready to end this battle once and for all.

"Chopper! I KNOW you have something to stop him! Use that!" Tippi cried.

"Yeah… I need to use it!" Chopper reached for his hammer and gripped onto it as hard as possible. "All right, Tipral… You ready for something interesting? !"

"It's too late for that to happen, Chopper!" Tipral was ready to strike Chopper with his powerful dark attack – but it was soon interrupted when the young Star Warrior whacked him with his hammer.

"What? !" Tipral immediately fell to the ground, but as soon as he got up, Chopper did a flaming slamming kick to knock him down to the ground. He also dropped the Pure Heart as well.

"No… How… How could I fail to beat you all? !" he exclaimed as he slowly got himself up. Part of his body was covered in some soot from all of the fire attacks Chopper delivered. Luckily, for him, his hand wasn't injured.

As he looked at the heroes angrily, he began to wheeze. "I can't believe this… Even with the Dark Star Scepter, I lose to you guys? ! Even with my plan to kill you all, it fails to work… Why do I always fail?"

"Well… It might be because you're weak…" Tippi trailed. "Even with that power, it doesn't seem like you're strong…"

Tipral jumped up a little and clenched his fists, being outraged. "WEAK?! Why you little… Fine. I'll admit my fighting style was flawed, but it's not over yet, Chopper… I will be back!"

He jumped over the heroes and used his air shoes to move at a faster speed. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade waved goodbye, knowing that there's no possible way that he can beat them now.

"Y'know, now that I mention it… Tipral IS somewhat weak. I thought he was going to be a huge threat, but it doesn't seem like it." Chopper smirked.

"Oh, look!" Tippi turned her attention to the rock that Tipral dropped. "He must have dropped it when he ran off. But this Pure Heart, it's…"

"…a rock." Blade finished.

"Poyo. (Yeah, it looks like a rock to me. It's so dull…and rocky.)" Kirby agreed.

"We'd better take it back to Merlon… He'll know what to do…" Tippi suggested.

Chopper raised his arms up as the Pure Heart magically began to float above them. "I still wonder why I'm able to hold this thing up when I'm not even _touching_ it…"

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

* * *

"Ugh… I can't believe that I can't stop Chopper!" Tipral wheezed as he slowly began to walk through the World of Nothing. "Did the Dark Prognosticus lie to me? ! It said that I could have the power I need to defeat my foes!"

Tipral stopped and pondered. "Hmmmmmmm… But now that I think about it, I didn't use the Chaos Heart's power to protect me from their attacks. Maybe if I used its power, I could've been victorious. For now, I should return to my castle."

"Aha ha ha. Well now… What's the matter, Tipral? Did those heroes give you an intense beating?" Tipral's antennas perked when he saw Dimentio appeared before his very eyes.

"Dimentio… What on earth are you doing here?" Tipral asked. "You should be back at the castle!"

"Well I felt like I needed to check upon you. It's part of being a good minion, isn't it?"

Tipral turned away from the jester and crossed his arms. "I feel like I'm a disgrace to my family. Even with such power, I can't defeat Chopper… I bet my dead family is laughing at me at this moment. I… I don't feel like I can show my face to my minions after my huge defeat."

"Perhaps that is for the best," Dimentio raised his hands, preparing to use a magic attack. Tipral sensed this and jumped away from the explosion.

"Dimentio! What are you doing?! You realize that you're attacking your own LEADER?!"

"You said yourself. You can't show your face to the world and your minions now. So get lost."

At this moment, Tipral glared at him. "And you're telling this to the one who would give you anything you want if all worlds were destroyed? ! I could have you killed for this… Or perhaps it is YOU that needs to get lost!"

"Such temper! Your eyes, they glow like the eyes of a cat at night!" Dimentio gave Tipral a sinister look. "You never realized it, did you? You're not the only one with a plan of your own. I too have my own plan, and if it is to be successful, then I need to be rid of you."

"So… This is treason, isn't it? Planning on usurping my leadership?" Tipral aimed the Dark Star Scepter at Dimentio. "You're making a foolish mistake, Dimentio… I suppose the others were right about you being a sinister clown."

"And correct they were! You honestly believe that I would change? Aha ha ha ha! Not for someone as sinister as I am! But I'm getting a bit off hand. I believe now is the time to take your final bow…"

Raising his hands once again, Dimentio created a box that surrounded Tipral before he could even strike him.

"Release me NOW!" demanded Tipral.

"Ah ha ha ha ha. Shhhhh. Don't worry. It won't be bad. I promise. Your minions aren't even going to find out about where you'll be going! …And for a special treat, I'll send those heroes just so you can have someone to play with…"

"You… I swear that I'm going to…" Dimentio interrupted Tipral with a snap of his fingers. Just like what he used to fight Chopper, the box exploded. Only this time…Tipral was gone after the explosions.

"Ciao…Tipral!" Dimentio smirked. "Now that I've taken care of him, it's now time for phase two of my plan: getting the count back!"

And with that Dimentio teleported out of the World of Nothing.

_The destruction of an entire world was great and terrible tragedy. But Chopper and his allies had survived the cataclysm and found another Pure Heart. The end of that world had dulled the shine of the Pure Heart they had found. Was the Pure Heart's power lost forever? The heroes set out for Flipside to find out…_

* * *

**I think you were all expecting that from Dimentio (well, if you played Super Paper Mario, I'm PRETTY sure you were going to expect Dimentio to betray Tipral at some point). ...But with that, things are starting to become incredibly intense. Yup... We're getting there, people.**_  
_


	38. Chapter 6 Interlude

_**Previously-**_

_"Dimentio! What are you doing? ! You realize that you're attacking your own LEADER? !"_

_"You said yourself. You can't show your face to the world and your minions now. So get lost."_

_At this moment, Tipral glared at him. "And you're telling this to the one who would give you anything you want if all worlds were destroyed? ! I could have you killed for this… Or perhaps it is YOU that needs to get lost!"_

_"Such temper! Your eyes, they glow like the eyes of a cat at night!" Dimentio gave Tipral a sinister look. "You never realized it, did you? You're not the only one with a plan of your own. I too have my own plan, and if it is to be successful, then I need to be rid of you."_

_"So… This is treason, isn't it? Planning on usurping my leadership?" Tipral aimed the Dark Star Scepter at Dimentio. "You're making a foolish mistake, Dimentio… I suppose the others were right about you being a sinister clown."_

_"And correct they were! You honestly believe that I would change? Aha ha ha ha! Not for someone as sinister as I am! But I'm getting a bit off hand. I believe now is the time to take your final bow…"_

_Raising his hands once again, Dimentio created a box that surrounded Tipral before he could even strike him._

_"Release me NOW!" demanded Tipral._

_"Ah ha ha ha ha. Shhhhh. Don't worry. It won't be bad. I promise. Your minions aren't even going to find out about where you'll be going! …And for a special treat, I'll send those heroes just so you can have someone to play with…"_

_"You… I swear that I'm going to…" Dimentio interrupted Tipral with a snap of his fingers. Just like what he used to fight Chopper, the box exploded. Only this time…Tipral was gone after the explosions._

_"Ciao…Tipral!" Dimentio smirked. "Now that I've taken care of him, it's now time for phase two of my plan: getting the count back!"_

_And with that Dimentio teleported out of the World of Nothing._

* * *

Back in Castle Tipral, O'Chunks, Mimi and Dark were in the meeting room, waiting patiently for Tipral to return. It's been about twenty minutes that Tipral was supposed to come, but he was nowhere to be found in the castle.

"Man, where did Tipral go anyways? He should've been 'ere by now… He's late." O'Chunks began to tap his foot in an impatient manner.

"Where could he have gone? I'm starting to worry about my dear Tippy…" Mimi said in a worried voice. "What if something bad happened to him? ! If something bad happened to him, I wouldn't have a boyfriend!"

"All I know is that he's late," Dark stated. "I don't know if he's going to be showing up here, but he better make his return, or else I'm gonna go off on my own."

"C'mon, Dark! Don't leave us like this! Yer startin' teh become close teh us – as much as an emo person yeh are…" O'Chunks trailed.

"Why do I act like this? Well first off, it doesn't seem like things are working out. I feel like the heroes are still alive…somewhere. And second of all, my life sucks. That's all I have to say."

"So, you all want to know the news about our dear Tipral?" Dimentio made his appearance in the center of the room.

"And where have YOU been this whole time? !" Mimi asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Why, I was trying to help Tipral fight the heroes! But, unfortunately… I have some bad news. Our dear friend Tipral…is dead."

Dark's eyes widened. "What? He's dead? !"

"No… No…" Mimi started to shed some tears. "Tippy can't die! H… How COULD he die? ! He didn't deserve to die like this!"

"Wait, if 'e died, 'ow come yer still 'ere?" O'Chunks questioned.

"While we were fighting, Chopper said he would spare me if I let him have the Pure Heart. As much as I wanted to fight back, I knew that I wouldn't win the battle. …HOWEVER… I happen to know someone who could replace our dear friend. He's an old friend of ours and I'm sure you would like him!"

"Who's the 'friend' that you plan on inviting?" Dark asked.

"Oh… None other than…Count Bleck and Nastasia!" With a snap of his fingers, two people appeared in the castle on the platforms to the right. The blue man was wearing a top hat, a cape and a monocle while the secretary lady was wearing these glasses that you couldn't see through if you tried looking.

"Bleck! Where… Where is Count Bleck?" spat the count.

"'Ey! It's Count Bleck an' Nastasia! Yer all 'ere!" O'Chunks smiled, especially at Nastasia.

"This is Count Bleck?" Dark raised an eyebrow. "Hmph… I believe I've heard about you before…"

"Huh? What's going on here? Where am I?" Nastasia asked.

"Why, you're in your own castle, of course! …Of course, this is no longer Castle Bleck. This is Castle Tipral!" Dimentio explained.

"Dimentio? You're still alive? ! …exclaimed Count Bleck."

"You know the dark boy who summoned The Void? He is the one responsible for bringing me back. But, I DO happen to know where Tippi went!"

"Tell Count Bleck this…" Count Bleck eyed him suspiciously.

"Your dear Tippi is being held hostage by a young boy named Chopper. He is collecting the Pure Hearts and is coming here to stop you."

"Wait, The Void? !" Nastasia gaped. "'K… I don't think this is such a good idea. We're not into evil anymore…"

"Timpani… My dear, sweet Timpani…" Count Bleck lowered his hat down. "She's being tortured by a young boy who has the power to stop the Chaos Heart. Count Bleck does not approve of this!"

The count opened a part of his cape, revealing the inside to be spacey. "Fine! Count Bleck will do this…but only for Timpani. If the hero thinks he will do something like this, then Count Bleck will do what it takes to end his game and save Timpani. But Count Bleck's watching you, Dimentio…"

"Ah ha ha ha. Excellent! I'm glad you approve of this!" Dimentio chuckled. "Now then… While you plan with your minions, I will go take care of some…business. It has to do with those heroes. Ciao!"

At that moment, Dimentio was out of the castle in no time.

* * *

"_You… You're a strange little girl… Who are you, exactly?"_

"_Me? My name's Timpani. What happened to everyone that was working on you? I heard you were supposed to be some sort of project."_

"…_They're all dead. I killed every one of them. I didn't mean to cause any harm to them, though. It just…happened. I couldn't control my powers!"_

"_Tee hee! It's OK, Tipral. You seem to get a bit nervous sometimes. Why is that?"_

"_I sometimes feel like I'm going to cause pain to innocent people. That's what I fear mostly."_

"_It's OK, Tipral. You won't cause any pain to me, because I'll always be a good friend of yours. Plus, those rings might be helpful."_

"_Yeah… I suppose your right!"_

* * *

**Flipside Towers-**

As the four heroes walked out of the dark blue door, a dark blue crystal heart appeared above it.

"It looks like we've cleared that world…at the cost of it being destroyed," Chopper frowned.

"Well, let's not waste our time right now… I think now's the time to head to Merlon's house…" suggested Tippi.

"You're right, let's get going," Sonic nodded as they walked over to the elevator. In no time, they were down the second floor and right next to Merlon's house.

They didn't bother to speak and they walked into the wizard's house. Merlon was surprised to see them return.

"Oh ho! The heroes return! Tell me, do you have the seventh Pure Heart?" he asked.

"Well… Maybe you should take a look at it, Merlon…" Tippi trailed as Chopper pulled the Pure Heart out.

"This thing is a stone… That's all I need to say." Chopper bluntly stated.

"Mmm… Hmm? What… What happened to it?" Merlon asked. "It reminds me of when a friend on mine brought a Pure Heart like this back…"

"The Void had consumed that world…and left the Pure Heart like this…" Tipp explained.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… I do not feel the typical energy from this Pure Heart. Even if you set this in a Heart Pillar, it would do nothing. What to do…"

"Well, not to get off topic here…but to me, that Pure Heart looks like it could blend in with the Heart Pillar." Blade said, imagining the Pure Heart going into the Heart Pillar.

"Blade… That was strangely random." Chopper said with a blank look.

"Poyo? (What does that even have to do with this anyways?)" Kirby asked with a blank look as well.

Chopper turned back to Merlon. "So… If the Pure Heart's like this… Then how are we supposed to save all worlds with a useless piece of rock?"

Merlon sighed. "To stop this prophecy, we must defeat Tipral, who started all of this… But to do that, we will need all twenty Pure Hearts, as the Light Prognosticus says. We are between a rock and a hard place…"

"A rock and a hard place? What kind of hard place, you ask?" Sonic questioned.

"Ah ha ha. The forlorn group of heroes, how they cry! The tears flow like sad chowder!"

"Oh, god… Don't tell me who I think it is…" Chopper groaned.

Dimentio appeared over the heroes, getting their attention. "You again? ! Come on! When do you EVER stop bothering us? !" Chopper got in his fighting stance.

"Oh, bad news for you! There is no way in this world to restore the Pure Heart… Yes, sadly, your hard work was all…in…vain."

"Poyo? (All in vain? That's not good…)" Kirby trailed.

"So we've been wasting our time collecting all of these Pure Hearts? !" Sonic's eyes widened in fear.

"Ah ha ha. Yes, it does, and that's why I decided to give you a consolation prize…"

"A prize? What do you mean by…" Chopper paused as soon as Dimentio created four boxes around the heroes.

"What the heck is this?" Blade questioned.

"Oh, no… This is one of Dimentio's more devastating attacks!" Sonic gaped.

With a snap of his finger, the four boxes began to explode from the inside. Merlon and Tippi could hear some loud screams as the explosions occurred. In no time…they were all gone.

"What…just happened? !" Melron exclaimed.

"Chopper? ! Kirby? ! Sonic? ! Blade? ! CHOPPER! Where'd you go, Chopper? !" Tippi cried.

Dimentio began to cackle as he floated down to Tippi. "It's quite simple… I fulfilled their wishes! I sent them to the next world! Ah ha ha. You do know who I am, right? I am your enemy, Dimentio! I serve Tipral! Well, as pleasant as this has been, I must leave. Ciao!" He immediately teleported out before Tippi could cry.

"It…can't…be… Chopper… No…"

* * *

**Yeah, I know. Short interlude and all...but that's what you'd probably expect from this interlude, right? It's MEANT to be short! ...But, hey! We have the return of Count Bleck and Nastasia. If you didn't understand, Count Bleck wants to destroy Chopper because he believes that he's hurting Tippi. **

**Next up: We find out where one of our heroes is, someone ends up falling in love with him, and someone also joins the hero on his quest to save the universe! ...Yeah, it's going to be a big one, considering that it's one of my favorite chapters. ^^  
**


	39. Down in The Underwhere

"Ugh… What happened, guys?" As Chopper slowly got himself up, he noticed where he was. "Wait a minute… This isn't Flipside! …Guys? Kirby?! Sonic?! Blade?! …TIPPI?! PIXLS?! Where ARE you guys?!" Apparently, it was just him. There was nobody else around.

He looked up at the background. Apparently he could see SOME of the sky. They had these strange blue rectangles that sort of fit well with the blue and purple sky. But, most of the background was filled with rocks, just like the ground. It was rather dark, almost resembling a cave.

"This place feels unsettling… It sort of reminds me of a dark, horrible cave…" Chopper trailed, pondering as he turned around. "Where could I be? In fact… Where are my friends, too?"

"_**WELL, HI!**_" a loud voice caught Chopper off guard. Once he turned around, he was greeted by a strange person made up of many black squares and a face with white eyes. The outer part of his square bodies was white.

"Ugh… What an unsettling look!" Chopper shivered.

"Well well well! It looks like we have a new face here! Hey there, new face!" the person called a Shayde greeted kindly. "So tell me… First time down here in **The Underwhere**?"

"Underwhere?" Chopper felt like he was about to burst in laughter. "What kind of name is THAT for a world?! Don't you mean UNDERWEAR?"

"Nope, it's The Underwhere," the Shayde answered, making Chopper frown. "So, you didn't answer my question before… Is this your first time down in The Underwhere?"

"Well…" the young Star Warrior was about to answer until he was cut off.

"…HA! Just a little joke. People don't arrive HERE twice! Hahahahahaha!"

_***Ba-dum cchhh***_

"Yeah yeah, very funny…" Chopper replied while rolling his eyes. "Anyway… I've never heard of this world before. Can you tell me what The Underwhere is?"

"Huh? What'd you say? 'What's The Underwhere?'" the Shayde gave him a blank look. "…You're kidding, right?"

"Sadly no, I am not kidding," Chopper replied while shaking his head. "I've never even heard of this place before in my life."

"Man, for a little boy with no extra lives, you're sure hilarious! Isn't it obvious? This is where people go when their games are OVER! Some call it 'World -1'…"

"You mean… I'm… I'm DEAD?!" Chopper gasped as he fell over and then looked up while raising his arms. "_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**_"

"Yeah, most people have that same reaction as you, so it's not like this is the first time seeing that… Although, you are a lot different than us Shaydes. So… How'd your game end, anyway? Poison 1-Up? Bad jump? Or did someone…"

"My game CAN'T be over! That's just impossible! I'm NOT going to accept this at all!"

"What? You say your game's NOT over? Hahahaha! Yeah, I've heard THAT before. Denial, always the first step. Maybe you just need to hear it from **Queen Jaydes**. She's the scariest thing in The Underwhere…and that is SAYING something. She rules over us Shaydes, and she'll tell you straight…your game is OVER!"

Before Chopper could continue to cry, he realized something. "Wait a minute… If my game is over, how come I'm not in Heaven or Hell? This… This is so strange…"

"Well, the way how it works out for some people is that if your game's over, you're sent down here. If you go see Queen Jaydes, she'll determine whether you go to Heaven or Hell. Those who are pure evil are locked up in Underwhere Prison. There's been a couple there…like some Demon Knight."

"Maquano? He's in this world too? Oh, that just makes thing better…" Chopper said sarcastically.

After walking past the Shayde, he noticed a white-faced Shayde over by a fountain. "Hey, how's your after game? Listen, if you feel tired, take a dip in that fountain. That'll power you right up."

"Hmmmmm? Is that so?" Chopper jumped into the fountain and before no time, his wounds were healed. "Whoa… A fountain that can heal you… That's pretty cool! …Though I don't get how it heals me when I'm already dead. …No, Chopper! You're NOT dead!"

After jumping out of the fountain, he overheard a white-faced Shayde and a dark-faced Shayde talking to each other about their deaths.

"Boy, if that Micro Goomba hadn't dashed out just as I jumped for that platform…"

"Oh, you swerved in midair, landed on a spiked floor, and ended you game, huh?"

"What? No! What kind of a jumper do you think I am? I cleared the spikes, easy! Then BAM! Bottomless pit."

"Ugh… These deaths I'm hearing don't sound so good… Could this place get ANY worse?!" Chopper said to himself as he rushed over to the red door where a Saving Block was. After hitting it, he spoke with the Shayde right next to the door.

"Oh, boy, I can tell you're new here. Let me do you a favor and tell you what's up…The River Twygz is up ahead, okay? Be REALLY careful not to drown. Word is, there are ghosts down there that drag you down, never to surface again!"

Chopper raised his arm in a way that he was asking a question. He asked the strange being about what would happen if they fell in the river.

"Huh? What? What happens if you fall into the River Twygz? Well, their aftergame ends! I figure they end up in the post-aftergame or something."

Chopper nearly cringed while thinking about the post-aftergame. Where exactly is THAT? Would that be considered Hell? Well, it didn't matter to him at that point. He immediately walked through the door into another area.

"Thank goodness I'm out of that area…" Chopper panted. "Those people sure were creepy… I'm glad my face didn't turn white." He noticed there were two pipes to his left and a pipe up ahead. They were a bit too tall to jump, though.

"OK, so it looks like I can't go to the left… That sucks. I guess I have to go the other way…whichever it leads."

But before Chopper could even flip into 3-D, he heard a soft, angelic voice singing in the area.

"Doo bi doo bi doo!"

"Huh? What the heck was that?" Chopper questioned, now off guard at the moment. "That voice…doesn't sound like _anything_ from this world… In fact, it sounded a bit calm…"

When the young Star Warrior looked up at the tall pipe to his right, he noticed a little angelic girl around his age with heart-shaped wings singing up on the pipe. Her hair was done up in a small bun, and quite honestly, she was a pretty cute girl.

"Ohhh me… I wonder if I shall meet my most special someone this day? Surely he is a prince of countenance fair, pining now to meet me…" the girl sighed sweetly, which got on Chopper's nerves a bit.

_"Ummmmmm… Let's see here… This place…is full of these Shayde guys. If she's planning on looking for her prince in this world… Yeah. Good luck with that…" _Chopper thought with an unimpressed look.

The girl spread her wings out and gazed at The Underwhere. "Quickly, my loving prince! Fly to me!"

Chopper looked around for any prince that would fly to her. _"Uhhh… Prince guy? Yeah, I highly doubt that one's going to show up. I think I might have to tell her?"_

"Pray, where is my charming prince?" the angelic girl asked. "Surely that call should hath brought him hither."

_"Oh, boy… Don't tell me she's one of those girls who speak in Old English!" _Chopper thought while face palming. _"Ugh… Those kind of people are annoying to understand…"_

At this point, Chopper had to tell her, but in a polite way, of course. "Ummmmm… Not to be hurt your feelings or anything, but I don't think your prince is going to show up."

The childish voice caught the girl's surprise as she glanced down what was below her. There, she saw Chopper's cute face looking up at her. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw him.

"Couldst it be…?" she gasped.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Are you OK?" Chopper asked, noticing that the girl was blushing at him. "There's something wrong with you… Why are you blushing at me, angelic girl?"

The angelic girl began to swoon over him. "I can't believest thou hast finally arrived, _**my sweet prince**_!"

Chopper's eyes widened in fear at those last three words. "P-Prince?! …Wait, are you talking to me?"

The little girl giggled cutely. "There is no one else hither, my prince! It is only thou and I! Oh, I hath been waiting for such a long time to findeth thee…but now thou hast shown up!" Hearts began to fly over her head.

"Ack! I'm not a prince, you…whoever you are!" Chopper cried in fear. "All I do is run around stomping on Darklings and defeating evil demons! Not some guy who shows off his hair or something!"

"Hee hee! Thou art even funny as well!" she giggled, staring down at him lovingly with her eyes sparkling. "Tell me thy name, sweet prince! I wish to knoweth thee!"

"For the last time! I'm NOT a prince! …But if you REALLY want to know who I am… Fine. I'll tell you. My name's Chopper. Chopper the Star Warrior of Planet Clara, and I don't understand why I'm here. Do you have an idea why I'm here?"

Once again, she ignored what Chopper said first. "Chopper… That is such a nice name for a cute boy like thee! Thou art exactly as I imagine! Adorable, light, full of heart, and a face like mine… Come fly to me! I am ready to receive thy kiss!"

She had her lips puckered up, ready to kiss her true love. "EWWWW! GROSS! I'm not going to _kiss_ you!" Chopper gagged. "Plus, I can't even fly! I don't have any wings! …Could you PLEASE take Meta Knight instead?! At least he's noble…and old!"

"But I dost not care about an older soldier. Thou art just the one I hath been looking for!" she squealed.

_"Ugh… It's like nothing will convince her that I'm not interested in her… It's like Heartsy all over again…" _Chopper groaned. "Look, I don't have time to stay here. I need to go see someone named Queen Jaydes. Do you know where she might be?"

Although she kept swooning over him, she heard his question. "If thou wants to see my mother, thou must make thy way over to the door ahead. Come back hither afterwards so we can spend some time in romance!"

"_Queen Jaydes is her mother?! …Well, I guess she IS a princess. Dang it! _OK…whoever you are. I'll go on ahead and find Queen Jaydes. I'll let you go back to…whatever you're doing. _And I'm NOT coming back!_"

Sighing in relief, Chopper flipped into 3-D, allowing the girl to go back to…whatever she was doing. He noticed two paths to take. The one on the left didn't appear to have much, but the one on the right seemed to lead the right way over some spikes.

"I guess I ought to go there," he said while jumping over the spikes. This time, he had to go to the left after jumping onto the next pathway to avoid some spikes and take the left pathway. There were still some spikes and bottomless pits to go over, but he managed to get past those easily.

After passing the last pipe, he flipped back into 2-D, but was soon surprised by a Dry Bones that rose from the ground.

"Whoa!" Chopper stomped on the Dry Bones's head, causing it to plummet back to the ground. "Wait a minute… Don't these things still live after stomping on them? I remember that fire is needed…"

When the Dry Bones rose up, Chopper tossed two fireballs at it, which caused it to be defeated. "Yeah, there we go! THAT'S how you get rid of the Dry Bones!"

He was also able to hit a yellow arrowed block in 3-D that allowed him to grab a Super Shroom Shake on the pipe – which was much shorter than the other pipes around the area. Afterwards, he walked into the next area.

"Thank goodness I'm out of there!" Chopper said, sighing in relief. "To be honest… I'd rather be talking to the Shaydes than that girl! That's like the fourth girl that has fallen in love with me!"

Anyways, he noticed the River Twygz was up ahead, but the only thing that caught him off guard was the strange monster person named Charold who was standing right by a canoe. The river itself was a light purple color, and surprisingly, it looked a bit cool from where he was seeing it.

"Thisss is the River Twygz… Its watersss are tearsss of centuriesss of sinnersss… For 4 coinsss…I will ferry you to the other ssside…" Charold offered.

Chopper looked at his inventory. "Wow… Even after I 'died', I still have all my of stuff with me? Why is this so strange? I mean… Oh, forget it. Here's four coins, you…strange person."

"Thanksss. Now we depart…"

Chopper jumped on the canoe, as well as Charold, but he was now holding onto a long paddle that extended down into the river. Using it, he was able to move the boat slowly through the river.

Now that he had a better view, Chopper looked down at the River Twygz, but after heating what Charold had to say, the river did not look pretty down below. He remembered that the Shayde told him that someone would get dragged to the bottom if they were to ever fall in.

Once the canoe made it's way over to the other side, they both got off the boat. "…Ssee you," was the last thing that Charold murmured before Chopper walked over to the door ahead.

"I demand to see the queen this instant!" Once Chopper walked into the next area, he saw a palace up ahead, but right next to the palace was a purple, demon-like person in a suit being held up by a familiar face that the Star Warrior has seen in the past. Two other D-Men were trying to push him away.

"Look, we can't have you roaming around here," the second D-Man warned. "You shouldn't even be out of your prison. This is the third time that you got out! How many times do we need to keep this up? !"

"It looks like you'll have to do it as many times until you let the queen bring me back to life," Chopper's archenemy, Maquano was starting to strangle the D-Man to death, but, to the D-Man, he was just fine. It was him all right. That black and red armor with the gray spikes sticking out from his helmet were obvious, and those black gauntlets and boots were an easy thing to tell as well. That cape and the red sword on his back was also obvious to Chopper.

"Maquano…? What on earth are YOU doing here?!" Chopper gaped.

"Hmmmmm? That voice… I remember that voice…" Maquano released the D-Man, who fell over on the ground. He turned over to Chopper with a surprised and angered look. "Chopper?! …So! It appears that you too have died! That's just perfect! I have to spend my aftergame with my biggest enemy!"

"Hey, I didn't come here on purpose!" Chopper got in his fighting stance, ready to fight his enemy. "Just get out of the way! I need to go see the queen!"

"Oh, I don't think so…" Maquano pulled out one of his blasters and aimed it straight at Chopper's forehead. "I'm the one who needs to see the queen at this very moment! I can't have you roaming around this world if I'm forced to stay here. So… I guess I should just kill you!"

Maquano pulled the trigger, but he noticed that it didn't fire. "What?! Why won't this damn thing fire?!"

"Look, man… When you were sent to your prison, you were stripped of all your powers." the third D-Man informed. "None of your powers are going to work, and they're certainly not going to hurt anyone."

"Grrrrrrrr! I can't believe it!" Maquano was about to grab Chopper, but he was soon stunned by a D-Man and handcuffed.

"Look, we can make this easy if you don't get out of your prison often," the first D-Man whispered. "I hate having to stop you all the time. I'll just make it clear to you: you're not escaping this place."

Maquano growled at Chopper. "I swear to you that I'll find SOME way to come back and get my revenge on you! I was so close to destroying the universe five months ago…but you had to _**ruin**_ it!"

"It's what I do," Chopper smirked as the D-Men summoned a portal to lead to the prison. They took Maquano there as well. "Well, I guess I can finally go speak to Queen Jaydes."

After going up the steps, he saw a couple of D-Men and Shaydes roaming around. He decided to speak to the first D-Man at the front of the stairs.

"Hi, how are ya, good, great. I'm a D-Man, prime go-getter and faithful queen's servant. You wanna see the queen, you gotta MOVE, kid, OK? She's real busy. Oh, and here's a tip: she knows all the bad stuff you did before you game ended. So don't play that 'I'm-a-hero' stuff down here. Just warning ya kid!"

"…But I am a hero!" Chopper frowned while walking away from the D-Man. He noticed a lavender-skinned lady up ahead with a dark pink crown that faded into black at the tip, a purple dress that curled up at the bottom and a black jagged collar with white outlines just like her crown.

_"Yikes! That Shayde wasn't kidding! She DOES look pretty freaky!" _Chopper thought as his antennas sprung up. Nevertheless, he walked over to her and spoke to the Queen of The Underwhere.

"You… What business have you with me?" the queen glared down at the Star Warrior. "I am Queen Jaydes. Mistress of The Underwhere! Ruler of those with ended games!"

"Yeah, I was already told that you're the queen," Chopper nodded, trying his best not to screw up.

"Here, in this place, your sins from your time among the living are weighed. If your sins are light enough, the bliss of **The Overthere** will be yours. But if not… _**You suffer for eternity among the game-overed!**_"

"The Overthere? I'm sensing some strange pattern…" Chopper pondered, but he certainly wasn't happy about what would happen if his sins were bad.

"Now let us weigh your sins…" Queen Jaydes squinted at Chopper, looking through all the things he's done in the past. "Hmmmmmm… From what I'm seeing, you have destroyed an entire species of dark monsters, destroyed an entire species of dragon-like monsters…and you also…saved the universe? This is very strange…"

What was even stranger was when she felt some bright energy within him. Hm? I sense a strange energy… Have you brought something strange into The Underwhere, by any chance?"

"Hmmmmmmm… Let me think… Oh! I believe I brought this with me!" Chopper took the dead Pure Heart out, shocking the queen.

"What is THIS?! No, no… It could not be… But how… It is badly damaged, yes…but what you hold is a Pure Heart! Who exactly ARE you, to have a Pure Heart…and what has happened to it? !"

"Well, it's a long story… You see…" Just before Chopper could explain, he heard a phone ringing. "…What was that?"

"Oh, wait, that is my phone… …Sorry, I have to take this." Queen Jaydes walked away from Chopper, who had an unimpressed look on his face once again.

_"The Queen of The Underwhere carries a cell phone?! Why hasn't Merlon given me any of those to contact with him?! I mean, Professor Toadsmeth did that!"_

While Chopper kept talking to himself, Queen Jaydes pulled her purple cell phone out. "What is it NOW, Grams? You know I am working…"

After receiving a response, Queen Jaydes jumped up in shock. "WHAT?! LUVBI IS MISSING?! Oh, mercy… I understand. Yes, yes, I will see to it. Mmmmm-bye!"

She hung up and sighed. "Great. Just what I need. I am already shorthanded… What am I going to do?"

Queen Jaydes slowly turned back around to Chopper, and then an idea struck her. "Oh! Perhaps you can help!"

"Wait… What do you mean?" Chopper questioned, tilting his head.

"You see, I just received a phone call. And who was the one calling me? It was the king of **The Overthere**, **Grambi**… One of the Nimbis vanished from The Overthere, and he asked me to look for her. But I cannot abandon my duties here in the palace…and my D-Men are all busy. So it must fall to you! Will you search for this missing person in my place?"

"A girl? I don't think I've ever…" Chopper paused for a moment, remembering that ONE thing a girl said to him in this world.

"Oh, man… Oh… Oh… Oh, crud!" Chopper began to shiver in fear. "I… I think I've seen that girl before! I believe that she was the one that…that was swooning over me! I think I might know where she is…"

Queen Jaydes took this as a yes. "Oh, thank you so very much. I apologize for asking this of you, but it would really help. The name of the missing Nimbi is **Luvbi**. Oh… and what is your name?"

While Chopper wanted to refuse to find the girl, who is named Luvbi, he answered, "Chopper."

"Chopper…" Queen Jaydes trailed. "Well, Chopper… May I hold on to this Pure Heart while you are busy searching?" She was able to lift the Pure Heart out of Chopper's hands without her touching it.

"H-Hey!" Chopper snapped. "I don't trust you with that thing! Even if you're the queen of this world!"

"Worry not. I just want a look. I will return it when YOU return with Luvbi. And in its place, allow me to give you this." She handed Chopper a triangular purple key, which floated above Chopper's hands.

"Word has reached me that someone has fallen into the River Twygz. Some said it was a dark shadowy person with antennas just like yours… That could not be Luvbi… Still, just in case, I would suggest that you check there first. This key will open a door to the underground waterways beneath the River Twygz. Please, I ask that you search the area thoroughly."

"Oh, boy… Don't tell me I have to jump into that river…" Chopper gulped, looking back at the door. "Fine, I'll go search down the river, THEN I'll go search for that Luvbi girl who fell in love with me…"

* * *

**River Twygz-**

"Ugggghhhhhh… I can't believe I actually have to jump into this river." Chopper gulped once again, looking down at the waters. "It shouldn't be too bad… I mean, this IS a river! …Just made of tears."

"I predict that you won't make it out," Charold predicted.

"Stop discouraging me!" Chopper snapped before he was pushed into the river by Charold. He slowly began to sink down to the bottom of the waters. The river began to become darker as he made his way to the bottom, which was mostly blue.

Once his feet were at the bottom of the river, he saw some skeletal hands roaming around, trying to grab the hero. Chopper tried to toss a fireball at them, but it didn't seem to work.

"What?! That's not fair! I can't kill these guys?!" Chopper gaped. "Not only that…but these voices are incredibly creepy! It sounds like they're saying, 'Come into…the river…' and 'The end…is near…' That's what I'm getting…"

He noticed that there were a couple of bubbles coming up from the ground. Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a hole leading down to a hidden little area where a locked door awaited.

"Oh, finally! This must be the way out!" he sighed in relief as he unlocked and walked through the door. He could no longer hear the freaky voices, but he was stuck in some sort of waterway.

"It's underwater, but at least Sonic's not here," Chopper smiled as he swam to the right through the waterways and then moved up in order to avoid the Underhand that tried to grab him.

After making his way up, he noticed a stone block that looked like it could be pushed, so Chopper pushed it down a little pit where a pipe was by the side. Down the little pit was a lever that apparently could flood or empty the room.

"I guess I might need to use this lever," Chopper said as he pulled the lever down, emptying the room of all the water. Now he could use the block to jump on the pipe and find some brick blocks blocking the way.

Once he smashed those brick blocks with his fist, he flooded the room again in order to make his way through. He began to take the waterway until he reached the end. He knew he had to flip, so he did that to find another pathway.

"I KNEW there was a hidden pathway here!" he said as he swam through the hidden pathway. After flipping back to 2-D, he swam over to where a block was. He forced himself into 3-D to push it down so he could jump on the pipe easily after lowering the water level.

With the water level down after pulling the lever, he jumped over to the larger room in the waterway and flipped into 3-D. He remembered seeing a bunch of Underhands blocking the way from this hidden pathway.

"Good thing there aren't any Underhands…" he sighed in relief as he walked through the pathway to a small room with a pipe and a purple door up ahead. He started by taking the pipe, which brought him down to an underground area.

"Oh… It's one of those coin things…" Chopper grabbed all of the coins and exited the room so he could take the purple door. He was led back outside, where he could see three fountains erupting a bunch of orange water up ahead and also a platform with someone over by the rock.

"Hey… I can see someone over there!" Chopper jumped off the edge and landed over by the first fountain. Turning around, he realized that he couldn't get out. "Oh, crud… Well, it looks like I'm trapped."

Chopper leaped over each geyser, which got higher as he jumped up. At this moment, he knew exactly who was over by the rock.

"Ughhh… What… What happened?" Tipral slowly got himself up. Apparently he doesn't yet remember what happened to him. "Hold on… Now everything's coming back to me! I was…"

Before he could finish, he noticed Chopper staring at him in surprise. "Chopper! How did you get here?!"

"I should be asking the same thing to you!" Chopper retorted, getting in a fighting stance. Tipral immediately got in one as well.

"How I got here is none of your concern. All that matters is that we finish our battle!" Tipral teleported behind Chopper and grabbed both of his arms. "You're really the only one that I wish to kill. I could honestly care less about the others."

"You never learn, Tipral," Chopper got out of Tipral's grasps and kicked him in the face. "No matter how many times you fight me, you're going to lose. It happened. Every. Single. TIME! You haven't won ANY fight against me!"

"Don't ever bring up those defeats!" Tipral punched Chopper in the face with a Star Punch, knocking him over to the rock. He immediately grabbed him and began to slam him at the rock violently.

"So how does it feel to feel this kind of pain, Chopper? Does it feel like the pain you get when your arm is injured? !"

After Tipral stopped, Chopper slowly got himself up. His face looked completely race from those injuries. But it wasn't going to stop him from rushing towards him and punching him with a flaming fist.

"You may have your Star Punches, but I can punch you with fire!" Chopper shouted as he brought his flaming fists down on top of Tipral's head, knocking him to the ground.

Tipral managed to get back up and snap his fingers at Chopper, sending him flying up. He was about to strike him with a diving attack, but Chopper managed to land on his feet and stomp on his head, followed by a flaming slamming kick.

"Ack! Even when you're alone, you still put up some sort of fight…" Tipral grumbled, wiping any spit drooling from his mouth. He swung his arm afterwards to fire a Star Spear at him.

Chopper inhaled the Star Spear thrown at him and spat it back at Tipral, knocking him off the edge and onto one of the geysers.

"Gah! You little pest! I should've left Twilight Town while I had your name and body!" Tipral growled as he teleported back to Chopper. They were both battered and beaten, so the fight was a bit close.

"Hmmmmm? You're not making a move…" Chopper noticed. Tipral was raising an eyebrow at this moment.

"Even though none of your friends are here… I'm still questioning why they AREN'T here. Did they get lost or something?"

"Something like that. You can thank your minion Dimentio for doing that dirty trick… Not only did he separate my friends, but now I don't have Tippi or the Pixls to help me either!"

Tipral stopped clenching his fists. "Wait… You were sent down here by Dimentio? Interesting… He sent me here as well." At this moment, he clenched his fist in anger. "I swear, I'm going to strangle him as painful as possible for what he's done! That dirty traitor!"

"Wait, did you say Dimentio BETRAYED you?" Chopper was starting to get curious.

"Yes, after our battle, he said he was done with me and sent me to this world. I don't know where we are, but it's definitely a dark world. Not too bad for me."

"Well, if you wanna know where we are… We're in The Underwhere. It's the world where all people's games end. …And what was surprising was that I saw Maquano here!"

"The Underwhere? What a stupid name for a world like this… And you say that Maquano is here as well? Where, exactly? In prison? Look, I don't need his help anymore. I'll just be off now."

Tipral searched for the Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter, but he noticed that they were gone. "What the… My stuff's gone! _**…****DIMEEEEEEEEENTIIIIIIIIO!**_"

"Yeah, you ALWAYS have to blame Dimentio," Chopper rolled his eyes.

"So, I'm down to just what I was before? Without that power, I can't crush the whole universe!"

"Tipral! Seriously? Even after Desert Oasis? Look, I understand that you've been betrayed and all…but we can't worry about that. I think it's best that we get out of this world."

"What do you mean 'we'?" Tipral raised an eyebrow.

"Well… You see… While I don't like this idea either… We both are trying to get to your castle and all too… But, I was thinking that maybe we should…_gulp_…work together to get out of here."

"Me? Help you? Why would I ever do that?"

"Because if Dimentio's the holder of the Dark Prognosticus, then I'm pretty sure we're both going to end up dead. I'm trying to stop the holder of the Chaos Heart, and I KNOW you want that. So, if we're both trying to find Dimentio, then I think it's best to work together."

"Hmmmmm… You do bring up an excellent point. Fine, I'll help you get to my castle. But once we're done taking care of Dimentio, that's it! Don't consider me a friend right now, because I'll NEVER be your friend!"

Chopper glared back at him. "Well I know that you're not going to be my friend. And there's no way you're going to be my friend either!"

"…But, there's not much we can do at this moment if our games are over," Tipral mentioned. "What can we do at this moment? Should we continue to kill each other?"

"Well… Uh…" Chopper twiddled his thumbs nervously. "You see… I met the Queen of The Underwhere and she kind of wants me to go find her daughter, Luvbi."

"You're looking for someone named Luvbi?" Tipral raised an eyebrow at him. "Why are you acting nervous about this person?"

"Uhhhh… Look, let's not get there. I think we should go over to where I saw her last time and tell her we need to bring her back to her mother."

Tipral folded his arms and closed his eyes. "Fine. If that's the only thing we can do at this moment, then we might as well do it."

**Tipral has joined your group! As Tipral, he can use many of his Star powers to defeat many enemies that can't be killed with usual attacks. He can also use his teleportation powers to get across areas or even teleport to ledges that are too high to reach! With his air shoes, he can move at the exact same speed as Chopper! **

"OK, now that we got that introduction taken care of…" Chopper turned over to the door over to the left. "There's no way I can get myself over there. Don't you have something to get us across?"

"Yes, I do have something," Tipral grabbed Chopper's arm and teleported over to the ledge. "Is that good enough for you?"

"Why, yes, it is," Chopper nodded as he and Tipral made their way back into the waterway.

* * *

**River Twygz-**

"Ugh… I don't like being here… Heck, I don't think I'll last against these Underhands." Chopper wheezed as he tried swimming up to the surface.

"Hmph. Not a problem for me." Tipral turned to one of the Underhands and obliterated it with a single Star Spear. "You know, these things may be immune to your attacks, but they're certainly not immune to _mine_."

"Just shut up so we can go find Luvbi," Chopper groaned.

* * *

**Back at the pipe after going to the fountain-**

"Uh oh… She's not there…" Chopper frowned. "She DID say that she was going to wait for me here… I wonder why she decided to go off."

"Perhaps it's because she got tired of waiting for you…" Tipral predicted.

"Maybe…" Chopper turned to the pipes to their left. "It looks like the only way to go it this way… But I don't think I can make the jump."

"Again, leave this to me," Tipral grabbed Chopper's arm and teleported him over to the pipe. They were now at the upper level of this area, where they saw a couple of pipes like before, but now with Frost Piranhas.

"Dang… I wish I could get those guys, but I don't think I can even reach them!" Chopper frowned upon looking at the Frost Piranhas.

Tipral helped Chopper get past the pipe by simply teleporting past it. They ended up coming across a Dry Bones, but with one snap of his finger, Tipral destroyed the Dry Bones instantly with Star Magic.

"Wow, for someone with a lot of abilities, you can pretty much take out anything," Chopper commented.

"I'll take that as a compliment…" Tipral grumbled after jumping over the spikes. He looked up at the Frost Piranha that came out of the pipe and decimated it with a Star Spear.

Teleporting past that pipe, they came across a Poison Cherbil. Though Tipral was going to jump on it, Chopper was able to beat him to the punch and take out the enemy with a stomp.

"Too slow, Tipral!" Chopper smirked as he walked over to the next pipe. He tried hitting the Frost Piranha from up there, but he wasn't able to aim that well to get it. Tipral had to finish it with Star Magic.

After passing that pipe, Chopper jumped over the spikes and defeated the Dry Bones with a couple of fireballs. "That always makes me feel happy! Burning Dry Bones is fun, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Tipral replied, helping Chopper get past the pipe next to them. They noticed three brick blocks near the pipe and also a red door. "Hmph. So we made it through all of that."

"No kidding. Let's head on through." Chopper panted as he opened the door to a smaller area with shorter pipes…with Frost Piranhas hiding in them!

"Doo bi doo bi doo!"

"Yeah, that's her all right," Chopper groaned, firing a barrage of fireballs at the Frost Piranhas. Past the pipes was another pipe at the end where Luvbi was floating above. She was smiling cutely as she thought about her prince (a.k.a. Chopper).

"That's the girl we need to find? She doesn't look like any of the monsters we've seen!" Tipral turned to Chopper. "You fear _her_?!"

"Look, it's hard to explain. Why don't _you_ go talk to her first?" suggested Chopper.

"Fine, I'll do that," Tipral jumped over the pipes and used his teleportation powers to get to the pipe where Luvbi was singing.

"Oh, hurry… Hasten to meee… Sweeet priiince…" she sang.

"You're not going to find any 'sweet' prince here, little girl," Tipral interrupted, making Luvbi angry as she glanced down at him.

"Foulness!" Luvbi spat. "What is this?! Thou art NOT the prince that I hath been seeking! Thou art too monstrous and hideous!"

_"So this is why Chopper fears this girl…" _Tipral thought, glaring at the Nimbi girl. "I'm not here to be your prince, you idiot."

"Talk not to me as though we have met! Speak now! What dost thou want of me?" Luvbi asked, acting like she was the superior one.

"Why am I here? Well, your mother wants you, and she also wants you to shut up."

Luvbi merely ignored the last sentence. "Thou came hither to find me? Pah! As if I would consort with a face so dark and hideous!" she huffed, sticking her "nose" up in the air. "I await a handsome and adorable prince! One that is more like Chopper! Understand? PRINCES ONLY!"

"You brat… You better not make me angry…" Tipral growled, clenching his fists in anger at the bratty girl.

"Oh, but hold on a moment… Ha HA! Dost thou claim to be the prince for whom I pine?"

"Do I have to repeat myself again? I said _**NO!**_"

Luvbi rolled her eyes. Priceless… Yea, verily… Very well then, hideous prince. Let us confirm thy linage. If thou art my prince, then surely thou knowest my name. Speak it to mine ears! If the name is true, then I shall admit thou art mine one and only."

_"I'm going to make Chopper PAY for making me talk to this little brat!" _Tipral thought, while Chopper felt like he was going to laugh at him for being scoffed at. "You're name is Luvbi. That's all I have to say."

"Ha HA! In thy face! My name is not Luv…" She soon realized that that WAS her name and soon her jaw dropped and her eyes were widened. "_**WHAAAAAT?!**_ H-H-How hast thou come by the knowledge of my name? No… Doth this mean…"

"Yeah, it means you SUCK!" Tipral scoffed.

"Nay! Nay!" Luvbi retorted harshly. "Such foulness! The very thought cannot be abided! I cannot date someone who is dark, hideous, and monstrous! Thou art NOT my prince, you hideous, hideous thing!"

"Listen here, you little brat! You're really starting to tick me off, you know that?!" Tipral growled furiously, clenching his fists in anger at the girl. "I'm not afraid to kill you, you realize that? ! If you even TRY to insult me one last time, you're going to be killed soon enough!"

Chopper gasped and immediately jumped in. "Tipral! No! We can't KILL her! She's meant to go back to Queen Jaydes! You know… Her mother!"

At that moment, all of the hatred in Luvbi went away and she began to swoon at the sight of Chopper. "Oh, Chopper! Thou hast come hither to rescue me from that foul monster!" she sighed sweetly as she flew toward him.

"H-Hey! Get away from me!" Chopper began to back away from Luvbi until he bumped into one of the pipes. "Q-Quit calling me your prince! I'm definitely NOT your prince, OK?"

"But thou art the cutest boy I hath ever met!"

"...You just met me about...fifteen minutes ago! Heck, you fell in love with me when you first saw me!"

_"What the… Is THIS why he fears her so much?!" _Tipral face palmed. "_How pathetic… Chopper can't even handle being around a girl that's in love with him! So sad…"_

Luvbi began to feel Chopper's soft cheek, now that he couldn't get away. "Thy cheek is so soft! I feel like I can leave a kiss upon it!"

Before she could even kiss him, Chopper immediately jumped over her and landed over by Tipral, shivering in fear.

"L-Listen, L-L-Luvbi… Y-Your mother wants you to c-c-come back…" he stammered.

"Pray, my mother wants me?" Luvbi frowned. "Why doth Mother always worry about me so much? Ugh… I guess I hath no other choice…"

Luvbi sighed as she flew away, making Chopper sigh in relief and Tipral to have a strange look on his face.

"I can't believe you actually fear her because she loves you," Tipral face palmed.

"Shut up, Tipral. Let's go back to Queen Jaydes." Chopper sighed as he made his way out of the area.

* * *

**Queen Jaydes's Palace-**

"Oh, Mother! There he is! That is my sweet prince!" Luvbi announced in a sweet voice as she smiled at Chopper, but once she saw Tipral, her smile turned into an angry frown.

"And that is the foul, hideous monster that is with him!" she shouted. "Thou art no prince! Thou art a _liar_! Thou approachest me at my mother's behest."

"Yeah, good going Tipral! You screwed up!" Chopper scoffed, only to get punched in the face by Tipral.

While Chopper was rubbing his cheek, Queen Jaydes scolded her daughter. "Luvbi! Mind your manners! You know this all happened because you wandered off without permission! Now! Apologize to that nice, dark person at once!"

"You know, I wouldn't really consider Tipral to be in the 'nice' category…" Chopper trailed.

"Um, yea… Luvbi trailed sadly with her head down in shame as she flew over to Tipral. "So, ummm, yea, I am sorry…that thou art so hideous."

"Hideous? That's not even a good apology…" Tipral grumbled as Luvbi flew back over to Queen Jaydes, but not before giving Chopper a wink, making him shiver in fear a little.

"Oh, Luvbi… You had us all very worried." Queen Jaydes smiled at Chopper. "Chopper. Please accept this as a sign of my eternal thanks. Here."

Queen Jaydes brought the revitalized violet Pure Heart out and gave it to Chopper, who was surprised to see it back.

"Whoa! The Pure Heart's back to normal!" he gaped.

"Wait… How is this possible?!" Tipral gaped. "Do you…"

"Yes, that is correct. I have power over life and death, you see. And with that power, I was able to use this power to restore this Pure Heart. I know not how you found it, but this Pure Heart shows that fate is on your side. Take good care of it."

"We will, Jaydes. Don't you worry." Chopper nodded while putting the Pure Heart away.

"And by the way, it may please both of you to know that your games are not truly over. Somehow, you were sent to The Underwhere while still very much alive… My power can return you to your world if you so wish… What would you like to do?"

Chopper and Tipral looked at each other with a surprised look. They were absolutely speechless. Nevertheless, they turned their heads to Queen Jaydes and nodded.

"Then I shall return you," Queen Jaydes's collar got larger as she spread it out. At this moment, she began to sing a little chant. "_**Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Jaydes, Jaydes, JA-JAYDES! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! GAMEOVER GAMEOVER GAMEOVER GAMEOVER GAMEOVER …CONTINUE!**_"

A dark pink star appeared over Chopper and Tipral as it began to pull them in. "At long last… We'll be out of this world!" the Ultimate Life Form sighed in relief.

"Good riddance," Chopper smiled.

"Farewell, my sweet prince…" Luvbi trailed sadly. "I'll miss thee…"

"I'm not your…" Before Chopper could finish his sentence, he and Tipral disappeared, leaving only the Queen and Princess of The Underwhere to sigh.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

At the top of Flipside Towers, both Chopper and Tipral fell from the sky and landed on their heads, falling on their backs afterwards. Their heads were slightly injured, but they managed to take the hit.

"Ughh… Thank goodness we're out of that place!" Chopper sighed in relief as he stood up. "I thought I was going to be trapped with that Luvbi person forever! It would've been a nightmare!"

"I would've had to deal with her insults again," Tipral grumbled as he got himself up. "Stupid little girl… I hope one day that I can strangle her."

"Chopper! You're alive!" a voice called out.

When the two turned around, they saw Tippi and a shocked Merlon walking over to them.

"C-C-C-C-CHOPPER?" Merlon bellowed. "But I saw Dimentio end your game… Then Tippi said you were here, so I thought I'd come and take a look, but… Wow… You're truly alive…"

"Yeah, we're both alive. It wasn't easy getting out of there, that's for sure." Chopper turned to Tipral. "But, I couldn't have gotten out of that world without the help of Tipral."

"Wait… Tipral?! Why is he with you?!" Tippi gawked.

"Calm down, Pixl. While you may think I'm here to kill you all…which I wish I could be doing at this moment, I've lost the Dark Prognosticus and my scepter. My power isn't as great now. I'm just…how I usually am."

"We don't have time to explain about what's going on right now," Merlon broke in. "We'll explain this back at my house. You can explain as much as you want, Tipral."

Chopper and Tipral followed the Pixl and wizard all the way back to his house.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"So that's how you did it, then…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, I found Tipral and we both had one goal: to get to the Dark Prognosticus. …Only he wants to get it back and I want to stop it. But, we both want to stop Dimentio, so we made an agreement to work together until then." Chopper explained.

"And don't get all friendly with me," Tipral warned. "Just because I'm here doesn't mean we're considered friends. We're still enemies…it's just that when there's a bigger threat that we both want to go after, it's best to take care of that first."

"Hmmmmm… Now that I think about it, I did find something written in the Light Prognosticus." Merlon mentioned. "It said, 'The seventh lost Pure Heart will make the lime-green hero and his evil counterpart work together…' But I also remember reading a quote that had to do with the 'dark one'. It said that the 'dark one' determines the fate of the Light or Dark Prognosticus…"

"The dark one…? You don't think that could be…" Tippi glanced over at the angry Tipral.

"Hmmmmm… I'm not sure if that's true or not…" Merlon trailed, looking at Tipral as well.

Tippi then turned her attention to Chopper. "Chopper… I never stopped believing you would return… But Kirby, Sonic, and Blade… How to proceed… Well, if you could come back, perhaps Kirby, Sonic, and Blade also can. But first, let's find a Heart Pillar where we can set this Pure Heart."

"All right, then!" Chopper nodded as he and Tipral walked out of Merlon's house. The Pixls also followed them as well, now that they were reunited with Chopper.

"So those Pixls give you strange powers… No wonder you were able to cause some injuries to me…" Tipral grumbled, looking at the Pixls.

"Well, since you're here… I might as well let you use one of them." Chopper gave Tipral Thoreau. "Here. I think you could probably use him to throw stuff at people. It's probably for the best."

"Fine, I'll take this Pixl. Now where do we go next?"

"We must take the Pure Heart to the Heart Pillar…" Tippi trailed. "If I'm correct, we need to go back to Flopside…"

"Flopside? What is this world, then?"

"It's Flipside. Apparently we're in between dimensions. It's kinda interesting…" Chopper walked over to the blue pipe ahead. "Come on! We don't have any time to waste!"

* * *

**Flopside Outskirts, First Floor-**

As Chopper and Tipral got out of the pipe that led them down to the first floor of Flopside Outskirts, they took out the two Squogs with their Jump attacks (Tipral can stomp on enemies too, you know). Up ahead, to the right, there was another pipe that they took to go lower down.

"What the… What's this block doing here?" Chopper raised an eyebrow as he rushed over to the block to his left. He simply pulled his hammer out and smashed it, but nothing happened.

"Well that was a waste of time," Tipral stated as he jumped over the pipe. He came across the wall, but he noticed that the top part had a little opening. "This should be easy."

"What do you mean?" Chopper questioned before Tipral grabbed his arm and teleported him to the other side. He saw a Heart Pillar right before his eyes. "Oh! Now I see it!"

Chopper pulled the violet Pure Heart out and let it go into the Heart Pillar, creating a purple clock that triggered a purple door to open at the top of Flipside Towers.

"Now what?" Tipral asked.

"We go back to Flipside Towers," Chopper pulled the Return Pipe out and they were immediately taken back to Flipside Towers.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"Hmph. So you have a pipe that can take you back to this place? Not bad…" Tipral commented as they both jumped out of the red pipe.

"Apparently a purple door is right up ahead," Chopper walked over to the door. "I don't know where this door's going to take us, but I sure hope it's not where I think it might be…"

"Where do you think it's going to take you?" Tippi questioned.

"We can explain if that's the place we're going to," Tipral informed as he kicked the purple door open. "I don't want to waste any time right now. It's best that we go! Now!"

At that very moment, he and Chopper rushed straight into the purple door, hoping that things don't turn out to be bad for them…especially Chopper.

* * *

**Oh, man... Now THIS was a pretty big chapter to write. I really like this one because of the twists and the humor. And I know people might think that Luvbi doesn't seem in character with Chopper. ...But, she HAS been looking for her prince, right? I think it would make sense that she would act like that around someone she loves. Plus, a lot of times little girls will act like that when they're in love with someone, so it makes perfect sense.**

**Another thing with Luvbi being in love with Chopper... Some of the princesses in Greek Mythology fell in love at first sight with someone, so I thought it would be funny to parody that - except with someone who's not part of mythology (Chopper). Most pairings involving him usually make fun of something anyway and are not to be taken seriously. :P  
**

**So, what do you think is going to happen? With Tipral helping Chopper at this moment, do you think they're going to get along? Will Chopper ever see Luvbi again? Will people squeal if they saw these two together again (I know a couple of people who find those two to be cute together for some reason)? Find out...in the next chapter.**


	40. Subterranean Vacation

_Dimentio's savage attack had separated Chopper from his friends… He had no choice but to work together with his biggest enemy, Tipral. But that still wasn't enough. Kirby, Sonic, and Blade were still missing. Just where were those three? And what new dangers lay ahead? It was time to venture through the door opened by the seventh Pure Heart. Once again, Chopper saw a nightmarish landscape beyond imagination…_

**CHAPTER 7-1**

**-Subterranean Vacation-**

When the whole background began to get drawn, it started to look familiar. The colors, the ground, everything around this world looked pretty familiar! It actually looked like a world that Chopper was previously in. One that he didn't like because of having to see a certain someone… A place called…The Underwhere.

As the hero and villain made their way out of the purple door, they began to look at their surroundings. "It's so dark here…" Tippi trailed, looking around at this world. "I wonder what sort of world this is…"

Chopper and Tipral's eyes widened in both fear and shock. "Oh no… No… NOO… Don't tell me we're back at the place where I was hoping we wouldn't return! Not…this place!"

"What are you talking about, Chopper?" Tippi raised an eyebrow.

"We were already here before," Tipral explained. "This is the world that Dimentio sent us. Apparently we ran into someone that I _**hate**_, but this person is someone that Chopper fears as well."

"Oh? So this is that place you told me about?" She received a nod from the duo. "Hmm. Then I wonder why the Pure Heart led us here… Surely there must be some sort of reason… But, I can't shake the feeling that this place feels familiar as well…"

"How could the Pure Heart be in this world? I mean, we've looked EVERYWHERE in this world! There hasn't been ANY sight of a Pure Heart in The Underwhere! …And I'm certainly not going to see the queen again."

"It appears that we don't have much of a choice," Tipral groaned. "I'm feeling the same way about this, but does this mean that I'm going to complain about it?! I don't think so… That's a waste of time."

"Fine, we'll go see the queen. But if we see Luvbi, then I'm going to need to hide." Chopper groaned jumping into the fountain to replenish his HP. Tipral did the same thing as well.

"_**WELL, HI!**_" the Shayde that Chopper met previously walked over to them. "Hey there, new face! So tell me… First time down here in The Underwhere? …HA! Just a little joke. People don't arrive HERE twice! Hahahahahaha!"

"Dude… You already said that to me." Chopper replied with an irritated look. "And actually, this isn't my first time down here."

"Good one, kid! You're… Wait a second… You DO look familiar to me… Did you suddenly come to life and get another game over again? …'Cause things like that CAN happen. A friend of mine had that happen to him!"

"We just came through the door…" Tippi confirmed.

"Well, that's weird… How can one come here…when they're not dead? Eh, I'm not gonna let it bug me. You gotta go somewhere, right? If you're looking for Queen Jaydes, go to her palace right away."

"Ugh… That's what we plan on doing… _And I know for a fact that it's certainly going to be PAINFUL_!" Chopper nodded.

While they walked by, two Shaydes were looking at the two characters and almost felt like they had to make some comments about them.

"Man, I gotta admit… Those two definitely look alike!" the first Shayde commented. "Except one looks a bit dark and rather fake. I think he looks weird, don't you think so, buddy?"

"Yeah, I gotta agree with you on that one!" his Shayde friend agreed. "But I swear that I've seen them here before… Is it possible for someone to come back to life and have their game end again?"

Tipral turned to the two Shaydes that were speaking. "Oh, hey there, little guy! So how'd your game end up? Did you fall into a bottomless pit like me? Or were you…"

"None of your business," Tipral snapped his finger and both Shaydes were disintegrated. "Hmmmmm… Now I'm starting to wonder what happens when someone's aftergame ends…"

Upon reaching the next area, they saw all the pipes and the spikes around the maze. Chopper, remembering that this is the place where he met Luvbi, began to shiver in fear in this area.

"Chopper… You seem scared… Why?" Tippi asked.

"This… This is the place where I met _her_!" Chopper gulped. "…But, I shouldn't be freaking out right now. We're nowhere near her at this moment. Plus, she's probably somewhere else! Yeah! I think so!"

Tipral rolled his eyes as he helped Chopper get past the pipe with his teleportation powers. They then jumped over the spikes and found a pile of Dry Bones lying on the ground.

"I'll take care of this," Tipral said as he swung his arm. He instantly took out the Dry Bones with a Star Spear.

"I thought that they can only be killed off with fire…" Tippi trailed surprisingly.

"Well they don't seem to be immune to my Star powers…" Tipral trailed. "I'm a test of the Ultimate Life Form, remember? I'm bound to have some pretty strong attacks. Ones that are stronger than Chopper…"

"Well how come I've always beat you before?" Chopper questioned. "I'm pretty sure that means I'm the stronger one…"

"That's because you weren't _alone_ when we fought! I was actually close to winning when we fought in that one area past those waterways. If we were to fight right now, you _wouldn't_ be the winner."

"Well, your plans still fail to work that well… They all have flaws! Even summoning The Void has flaws in its plans too! You've got the Pure Hearts that can stop the Chaos Heart! …By the way, how did you even summon the Chaos Heart?"

Tipral crossed his arms. "I took your friends' dreams. It was said in the Dark Prognosticus that those were needed to summon The Void. …However, there WAS another thing I could have done, but I think that would've been tougher to do."

"And what is that, exactly?"

"It's best for you not to know," Tipral replied bluntly as he teleported him past the next pipe, where they found a bottomless pit before them. A flaming being called a Lava Bubble appeared to rise from the pit.

"I got this one!" Chopper pulled his hammer out and smashed the Lava Bubble with one hit to defeat it. "Hmmmmmm… Maybe I could've inhaled it to get some sort of ability… MAYBE."

They jumped over the bottomless pit and came across another one. This time, Tipral took the Lava Bubble that rose from the ground with a snap of his fingers, striking it with some Star Magic. He then teleported Chopper and himself past the next pipe up ahead.

"This is the last pipe we need to get past," Tipral stated as he did his little teleport dash over the bottomless pit. "It shouldn't be too hard to get to the palace now."

"Yeah, I know," Chopper nodded as he smashed the Lava Bubble and jumped over the spikes and the bottomless pit. "Spikes and a bottomless pit… Two things that are clichéd in gaming life..."

He managed to get past the pipe with Tipral's help yet again and then he took out some Dry Bones with a couple of fireballs. "Now burning more Dry Bones is enjoyable! That's all I gotta say!"

They reached the next area through the red door to find Charold standing right next to his little boat, which was floating on the River Twygz. He was surprised to see the two back here again.

"Hmmmmmm? That'sss ssstrange… I thought that you guysss were back at Queen Jaydesss'sss Palace?" Charold gawked.

"And who might you be?" Tippi asked.

"I am Charold. I am the one who will ferry you acrossssss thisss river. I'll only do it for four coinsss…" he explained.

"Well, I don't think we need to go across," Chopper jumped on top of Carrie. "We can simply ferry ourselves across! _Hopefully, Kirby doesn't mind me using Carrie to get over here…_"

"Very well then… Sssee you…" Charold stepped out of Chopper's way as he began to move across the waters with Carrie.

"I don't need to worry about using that thing," Tipral jumped on top of the canoe and then began to move over the water using his air shoes. "I can go over the water easily with my air shoes!"

After making their way across the river, they headed on to the next area through the door. They were now right in front of Jaydes's Palace.

"Man… Coming back here reminds me of when I saw Maquano strangling one of those weird demon guys to death. He tried to kill me, but apparently he was powerless down here." Chopper pondered. "Serves him right!"

"I'd like to give him the finger after what happened," Tipral grumbled as he followed Chopper up the stairs and over to Queen Jaydes.

"It's Queen Jaydes…" Tippi trailed. "Now I remember seeing her!"

As soon as Chopper walked up to her, she greeted them. "Greetings. Welcome to the… Wait, why have you returned?! Have you all had your games end once again? If that's the case, I cannot bring you back to life.

Chopper and Tipral shook their heads at her while Tippi fluttered up to her. "You're Queen Jaydes, right? You might remember me from three months… My name is Tippi… I'm a friend of Chopper's… We… We've come to find the Pure Heart that is hidden in this world…"

The queen was struck with surprise. "What?! You are collecting Pure Hearts?!"

"You're dang right we are!" Chopper nodded. "...Wait, it would be obvious if I was carrying a Pure Heart before!"

"Oh, yes... I do remember you held one. I apologize for asking." the queen replied. "But now that I think about it, I realize you just might be the hero mentioned in the Prognosticus, Chopper… But could you really be…the one?"

"Does this mean you have the Pure Heart? I mean, we couldn't find it anywhere in this world, so that's why we're asking you."

Queen Jaydes frowned and slowly turned away. "Unfortunately, the location of the Pure Heart is a matter of utmost secrecy. There is nothing I can tell you… If you really must know, you will have to speak to Grambi, king of The Overthere."

"_**MOTHER!**_"

At this moment, Chopper was struck with fear when he saw Luvbi flutter up to her mother. _"No… She's still HERE?! This… This is really, REALLY bad!"_

"Great… Her again." Tipral groaned.

"My things are packed and checked thrice! I am ready to return to The Overthere!" As soon as she noticed Chopper, she gasped while hearts fluttered over her head. "…Oh, me! Thou returnest?! Did… Did thy game truly end this time, my sweet prince?"

"No… My game did not end…" Chopper groaned. "And please… Stop. Calling me. Your prince!"

Queen Jaydes was suddenly struck with an idea. "An idea strikes… Could you fine heroes take Luvbi back to The Overthere for me?"

"Huh? You're seriously asking a little boy around her age to take her back to The Overthere?" Tipral raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that he would never say yes to her…"

"Take her back? Why ever would you need us to do a thing like that?" Tippi questioned.

"After you returned to this world, my D-Men have been telling me about an intruder who has been roaming Underwhere Prison, freeing all the monsters kept in that place. It seems that this evil being might be looking for something. You never know… That person could be anywhere with that army… I'm not sure who it is, but I know I could never send my daughter alone with something evil lurking around. If you would take her back, I would gladly open the way to The Overthere for you two. I will also alert Grambi that you are coming to ask him about the Pure Heart. What say you? This is a fair bargain…"

"Well…" Chopper turned away from Queen Jaydes and Luvbi and was about to make a run for it…until Tipral brought his foot out and made him trip down the stairs.

"You're not going anywhere, Chopper," Tipral warned. "If you're looking for that Pure Heart, then you might as well say yes!"

Chopper slowly got himself up the stairs, breathing heavily. "No… I just can't do it! I don't want to be forced to travel with…her!" he cried, pointing at Luvbi.

"I don't want to travel with her either, but we have no other choice."

"Plus... I feel like I'd get sick if she was too close to me..."

"What? My presence makes thee ill, thou sayest?!" Luvbi's tone of voice sounded rather angry than before. "Trust in this: I take no joy in it either…though I don't take any joy from the dark, hideous one. But Mother says dost it, so thou DOST IT!"

"Ugh… FINE!" Chopper groaned, getting back up while looking annoyed. "You want me to take you to your home?! Then I'll do it! …But I'm only doing it because I can't find my friends anywhere, so please don't go all lovey-dovey on me, OK?"

The queen seemed rather satisfied. "…I thank you. With this unknown evil person about, my D-Men and I are busy trying to contain the damage…"

The queen and Luvbi backed away a tiny bit. Using her powers once again, her collar becoming larger than before, the queen summoned a large, purple door with a glowing white outline.

"Hmph! Impressive…" Tipral commented. "But not too impressive."

"Just go through this door and keep heading upward to The Overthere. And make sure Luvbi arrives safely in the care of Grams… I mean Grambi…"

"Don't worry, Jaydes. We'll bring your daughter back to Grambi…or Grams! We can do it in no problem! _I think…_"

Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper and giggled, making him shriek in fear. "Hee hee… But avert thine eyes whilst we climb, lest thou succumbeth to my cuteness!"

Chopper blinked a couple of times. "Luvbi… I really don't think I could succumb to something like...that."

She giggled once again. "Oh, Chopper, my sweet prince! When I look at thee, I can't stop to swoon over thee! Thou art just sooooo cute! Thy cheeks feel so soft…soft enough to kiss!"

Luvbi floated closer to Chopper and planted a kiss on his cheek. The young Star Warrior's eyes widened in fear while his mouth was wide open too. He was shivering in complete horror.

"Hee hee! That was for luck!" she giggled, giving him a wink.

"She… She _KISSED_ ME!" Chopper cried, trying to wipe off the kiss. His cheeks turned red, showing a red lightning bolt in a way of how he blushes. "GROSS! She gave me…angelic cooties! BLEH!"

Tipral face palmed. "You're acting like a kiss harms you. Just get over it already…"

"You don't understand, Tipral… They're just…_gross_!" Chopper cried. He felt himself being hugged by Luvbi.

"Hmmmmmm… It doesn't look like Luvbi has any problems traveling with you, Chopper…" Queen Jaydes smiled as she saw her daughter hugging the boy of her dreams.

"Oh, Chopper… Thou and I art going to be traveling together! Mine travels to The Overthere will finally be filleth with romance!" Luvbi sighed sweetly, rubbing her head on his cheek.

"Oh, please… I don't think Chopper has much interest in you…" Tippi rolled her eyes. Luvbi looked up at Tippi with an unimpressed look.

"Oh me, a sharpened tongue. Art thou jealous? Dost thou pine for the look-a-likes? For whom dost thou pine the most? My sweet prince? Or perhaps the dark one? And if thou dost hath a crush on my sweet prince, then surely thou art not going to have him…"

Tippi blushed furiously. "Wh-What?! I…"

"Thy cheeks grow red, and thy manners fluster, Tippi… A crush, hot as a thousand suns, burns deep within thy heart! Yea, verily. Alas for me, methinks. Anyways, I doth suggest that we movest on."

"I would certainly like to move on…" Chopper still shivered in fear while in Luvbi's clutches. "But could you PLEASE let me go? You're seriously making me feel nervous…"

"Oh, shuttest thy trap, you!" Luvbi giggled playfully, kissing him on the cheek once again.

Chopper: T_T

"Ugh… Just release him so we can get going…" Tipral grumbled.

"Oh, fine!" Luvbi pouted as she released Chopper, who immediately rushed to the door, trying his best to get away from Luvbi. Luckily, they were in a room where a Star Block was up ahead.

"Oh, thank you! Quickly! I don't want to get hugged again!" Chopper rushed towards the Star Block and he smashed it with one punch, trying his best to get as far away from Luvbi as possible.

…But it didn't look like he was succeeding.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_I hath been waiting many years to findeth my true love. And I hath found him at last! Thou look so adorable and cuddly!" Luvbi kept up this refrain as she traveled with Chopper and Tipral. She seemed to be a lot happier than last time she was escorted to The Overthere… Plus, she DID have a lot of energy in her, which made Chopper have even less. "Hasten thy small feet! Time waits not for those who slack!" "Wait… I'm a lot faster! Why am I walking?" Chopper asked out loud to himself. Tipral, on the other hand, was not so pleased to be going with Chopper…and also dealing with Luvbi. But, he had no other choice but to work with him. Kirby, Sonic, and Blade were still nowhere to be found… Were they safe? …So thought our heroes as they made their way slowly to Underwhere Road._

* * *

**Yeah, more of Luvbi falling in love with Chopper again...and pretty much for this entire chapter, if you all like this one-sided couple (I know for a fact that if Chopper was real, he would disapprove of this whole thing, 'cause, well, you know...). Of course, there's always her mocking people too!**

**Next up: Chopper and Tipral explore Underwhere Road, while having to deal with Luvbi.  
**


	41. The Sealed Doors Three

**CHAPTER 7-2**

**-The Sealed Doors Three-**

Chopper, Tipral and Chopper's "girlfriend", Luvbi were now in the new area of The Underwhere called Underwhere Road. While they didn't want to travel with the little Nimbi girl, they had no other choice. Everyone in the group wasn't really enjoying her being around, especially Tippi (if you didn't read what happened at the last part, maybe you ought to do that first before continuing on). Luvbi, too, wasn't happy with the group…well, mostly everyone. The only person she actually enjoyed being around was her "prince", Chopper.

Luvbi fluttered past Chopper and Tipral and looked on ahead. "At long last, we find it… Herein lies the way out of The Underwhere. This is **Underwhere Road**."

While the name sounded funny to Chopper, he still tried his best NOT to laugh at the name (I mean, that IS a bit immature for his age…or maybe not). Anyway, what he saw around him were brown, rock walls, some carvings on the walls, a rocky ground that looked exactly the same, and a couple of torches to keep the place lit up. Things felt a bit fine…at least, for right now.

"Underwhere Road? Tssh! This doesn't look like a road at all! Who's the idiot who came up with the name?!" Tipral growled.

Luvbi turned to Tipral with a glare. "That 'idiot' that thou mention doth happen to be my mother, you hideous creature! How DAREST thou call my mother an idiot?! She DOTH have the power to sendeth thee to a prison, thou knowest…"

"And will I even let her if she tries? I don't think so." Tipral gave a glare at her as well. "I'll say whatever the heck I want! I don't care of you're the Princess of a place named after some sort of laundry!"

"So, if we proceed ever upward, we'll eventually reach The Overthere?" Tippi asked. This almost felt like to Chopper that she was trying to pull off Luvbi's accent – and she certainly wasn't doing a good job at it.

"Yea, verily! One would think that to be obvious…" she groaned, but soon smiled sweetly as she turned to Chopper. "Pray, Chopper! Once we reachest The Overthere, mayhap we can speaketh the way of love! Dost thou want to discuss about our romance?"

"Huh?" Chopper jumped up a little and frowned. "What are you talking about?! I don't have any romantic interest in you! Relationships are just…gross! Plus, only old people like relationships!"

"Hee hee! I'll take that as a 'yes'!" Luvbi giggled, causing Chopper to fall anime style.

"The little princess doesn't seem to listen to you, faker," Tipral said while shaking his head in disbelief. "Only a bratty girl would not listen to what their boyfriend says to them mostly. …And I, too, have gone through this before."

"I highly doubt that Mimi would be worse than Luvbi. Sure, Mimi is probably the biggest brat in existence, but I don't think she's as obsessive like Luvbi." Chopper said as he got back up.

"You never saw what Mimi was like back in my castle…" Tipral grumbled. "She always floated onto my platform and always tried to impress me. …Although I will admit that she was a good minion for helping me heal my own hand. So, I think I'll give her some props."

"Well, we both have our opinions. You have Mimi going all over you, while I have this…girl going all over me." Chopper looked over at Luvbi, who turned her attention to Tippi before him.

"Pray, speakest to me, Tippi…" Luvbi began. "Believest thou in an idea of a soul mate? If so, dost thou have any advice on love?"

"Hm? Well, you know, I… I don't really…" Tippi trailed.

"Hmm… I shall mark that as one vote for 'undecided'." Luvbi decided, giving her an unimpressed look. "Or perhaps I should say 'unrequited,' in thy case… Ha HA!"

At this point, Tippi was getting a bit peeved. "What do you… Ridiculous! I mean, I'm not…"

"Will you both shut up? ! I don't want you to be talking about soul mates to love at the moment! It's nothing really special… Why don't you do something less annoying?!" Tipral grumbled, giving Tippi and Luvbi a big glare.

"Hee hee… Sweet Tippi! How simple it is to tweak thy chain!" Luvbi giggled until she glared at Tipral again. "How darest thou interfere with my conversation! Thou hideous, monstrous creature who livests in the ugliest side of The Underwhere!"

"Why you little…" Tipral was about to grab Luvbi and strangle her, but Chopper was able to pull his enemy away from her and get him to calm down.

"Dude! Calm down! We can't hurt her! You should know that already!" Chopper shouted.

"My sweet prince is right. If thou harmests me, then thou art certainly not going to get the Pure Heart…" Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper and rubbed her cheek on his. "I can't stop rubbing my cheek upon thee! It is so soft…"

"Get your cheek off mine!" Chopper shrieked, trying to get out of her grasps. "Ack! How does she have such a good grip on me? It's like her wings were meant to be able to prevent me from escaping!"

"If I was made to hugeth my sweet prince, then I am happy!" Hearts flew over her head as she kept rubbing her head on his. "Where hast thou been all of mine life? It doth feel like destiny for us to be together!"

"Uhhh… It's NOT destiny!" Chopper frowned, but as soon as he felt her lips touch his cheeks again, he began to freak out again. "GROSS! You kissed me again!"

After Luvbi let go, the Star Warrior gagged, his tongue sticking out in disgust as he tried to wipe the kiss off his cheek. After a giggle, the young Nimbi princess fluttered on ahead and turned to the group with a smile.

"So… Now I must forge onward. Catchest me if thou canst! Especially thee, my sweet prince!" Luvbi gave Chopper a wink before fluttering through the door, waiting for Chopper to follow her.

Tippi gaped as the door closed behind her. "That girl is a walking mood swing… I man, she's entirely unstable, isn't she?"

"When I get my hands on her, I swear that I'm going to make sure she's dealt with a bunch of fatal injuries…" Tipral grumbled as he followed Chopper over to the door, where a D-Man was guarding.

"Hey, is this your first time going through Underwhere Road?" the D-Man asked. "I mean, it's practically impossible to see what's through the room up ahead, you know…"

"This is our first time down here," Tipral confirmed, clenching his fist. "We just need to go after that little girl who mocked me…"

The D-Man wanted to question why, but he didn't. "Yeah, great, listen, through this door is The Underwhere's hot spot, Underwhere Road! The dark is so dark in there, you can almost taste it! And it tastes like danger. So, tourists huh? Listen, you guys aren't packing any fire or anything, are you? Sorry, gotta ask. We keep it dark in there on purpose, so we don't wanna spoil it!"

"Darkness? Oh, boy… I don't think I'm going to like this… Although I DO believe that I have fire with me." Chopper recalled, looking at his hand, which had a flaming aura around it.

"So you do, then! Great! I don't think you should have a problem getting through that dark room!" the D-Man laughed. "…And did the princess just walk through there, by any chance?"

"That brat? Yeah, she walked through there…" Tipral grumbled.

"Listen, pale green kid, I don't think you want to leave your girlfriend in there for a while. Nimbis aren't really ones who enjoy the darkness. You know what I'm sayin'? Though… I think that the princess has gone through this place a couple of times before…"

"Then step aside, D-Man! I have to… Hey! She is NOT my girlfriend!" Chopper frowned as he kicked the door open to find himself in a dark room.

"This…is weird. I can only see myself around this place, but it's like all of the darkness is made up of black scribbles… I wonder if I can see what's around me with Tippi's powers."

Chopper began to use Tippi's powers to search the area. He could see an unlit torch nearby, and he can also see Luvbi, who giggled as she looked at him.

"What art thou doing, my sweet prince? Dost thou have x-ray vision?" she giggled.

"Huh? This isn't x-ray vision!" Chopper retorted, blushing nervously. "And quit giggling! Why is it that you always have to giggle around me? It… It scares me!"

But, since he scanned her, Tippi had information on her, "That's Luvbi… She's an optimistic Nimbi girl… She's being sent to Grambi of The Overthere as requested by Jaydes… She also seems to have an immense crush on you for some reason, Chopper… For some reason, this girl flusters me…"

"Well that's some interesting information you've got, Tippi," Chopper rolled his eyes as he began to toss a fireball at the torch.

"Hold on a minute, Chopper… Why use a torch to look around this room while I can already see what's through here?" Tipral suggested, pointing to his white, glowing eyes. "I can see through the darkness, you know."

"Yeah, you can, but you can also see when it's light out," Chopper tossed a fireball at the unlit torch. "Plus, it's best not to have it dark because, well, Luvbi could try to surprise me with a kiss!"

Luvbi frowned as Chopper jumped onto the platform to the right she was on. "Thou dost not like the dark?"

"Well, I don't HATE the dark… I just don't trust people who like me with the dark. I'm pretty sure you're going to surprise me!" Chopper jumped onto the platform to the left to find a yellow ? block.

"Hold on a minute, Chopper… I should lead us through here." Tipral teleported straight on the platform he was on. "I know I seem to be acting kind of helpful, but that's the only way we're going to get through this. So that means YOU better not distract me, OK? !" He pointed straight at Luvbi.

"Art thou jealous that Chopper hast a girlfriend and thou dost not?" Luvbi asked.

"There's already a girl that likes me already," he replied while clenching his fist. "But I'd rather NOT explain it to you. Why should I, exactly? There's no point in explaining to someone who thinks I'm some sort of monster!"

"Calm down, Tipral… Sheesh!" Chopper punched the yellow ? block to make a Mushroom pop out. "Yup! We have a Mushroom!"

He split the Mushroom in half so he and Tipral could have their own piece. But as soon as they finished eating the Mushroom, the whole place began to go dark again, leaving Chopper a bit blind.

"Aw, no! It's dark again!" Chopper frowned. He heard giggling afterwards, making his antennas spring up in fear. "Uhhhh… Luvbi?"

He started to breath heavily as he jumped up onto the next platform. "AAAAAHH!" he shrieked, believing that an Underhand hanging on the wall was her. "Oh… It's just an Underhand…"

"An Underhand? I'll take care of it." Tipral jumped onto the platform and swung his arm to throw a Star Spear at the Underhand. "There. Now that thing is gone… Are you happy now, Chopper?"

"Well, that's not what I'm worried about," Chopper shivered as he followed Tipral up to the platform where they found a "Flippy". "Oh! I haven't seen THESE in a long time! I think the last time I saw one was in Gloam Valley…"

Tipral was the first to use the Flippy, which brought him over the gap. Chopper followed afterwards through the Flippy and jumped up two silver platforms that led to a dark blue platform with another Flippy that led them over another gap to the left.

"I can hear some Dark Boos teleporting around here…" Tippi warned. "Be careful, Chopper…"

"Dark Boos? Oh, man… That's not good." Chopper gulped as he followed Tipral up two more silver platforms onto another platform with another Flippy. Tipral snapped his finger to take out the Underhand to the left with Star Magic.

They jumped up two more platforms to land on a larger silver platform, but they were soon interrupted when a Dark Boo appeared right in front of Tipral and struck him with its tongue.

"Ack! You little…!" Tipral surrounded himself with some sort of Star-like barrier that struck any enemy that got close to him. This ability, if you didn't know, is called Star Burst (instead of using a sweeping kick if he ducks, he uses this move instead).

"That should take care of the Dark Boo, now let's go," Tipral teleported onto the small, silver platform over to the left and then over to the large silver platform with a couple of pillars and a door to the right. Apparently, this was the top of the room.

"You just HAD to leave me here…" Chopper trailed as he jumped up to the platform. "Say… Where IS Luvbi anyways? I haven't heard anything from her after it got dark… Well, except for giggling."

"I am hither, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled.

"Yeah, but where ARE you?" Chopper looked around the room with caution, only to get kissed on the cheek by Luvbi. "Oh, COME ON! Stop infesting me with your…cooties! It's _horrible_!"

"I wish to kiss thee on thy lips! Dost thou want to do the same?" Luvbi floated in front of Chopper, making him immediately fall over on his back.

"Bleck! I'd rather not! I know you girls like to kiss boys you like, but I, however, find those kisses of yours to be gross!" Chopper gagged as he got up and stuck his tongue out in disgust, wiping his cheek.

"She sure has a thing for you… A big one, in fact…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, and I find those kisses to be…_horrible_!" Chopper guffawed.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like this affected Luvbi. "Oh, thou art so sweet, Chopper! Thou DOST love me!"

"Huh? I didn't say anything about that! What do you…" Chopper felt himself being hugged by Luvbi once again. "Ugh… Does this ALWAYS have to happen? Please… Let me go!"

"Just drag yourself over to the door then," Tipral suggested, who was already standing right in front of the door.

"I'll try…" Chopper dragged himself over to the door while still in Luvbi's clutches. He noticed the hearts flying over her head.

"I feel like I want to put thee in jello and kiss thee all day!" Luvbi sighed lovingly as she rubbed her cheek on his, making Chopper's eyes widen in fear. But, he managed to make it over to the door.

"Ummmm… Are you going to open it?" Chopper asked.

"I tried opening it, but it feels like some mysterious force is blocking me…" Tipral pondered, looking at the door. "Listen door… I know that you're not an ordinary one. Reveal yourself!"

"A being that knows my true form? How intriguing…" Orange eyes that resembled Count Bleck's and an angry-looking frown appeared on the door, but not like Tipral's frown.

"Now! Queen Jaydes demands I guard this door, people! I'm Dorguy the First. Lotsa monsters around, folks. Lotsa monsters. So I've gotta do routine checks, OK? Sorry for the trouble, folks, but I need to make sure you're trustworthy."

"That sounds…reasonable," Chopper nodded, still shivering over the fact that he was in Luvbi's clutches. _"For the love of stars… I hope that Luvbi doesn't try to give me ANOTHER kiss!"_

"Just a couple questions. Answer them all correctly, and we're done here! Then you can head on through. Here's the first one! I'm warning you, though, these are pretty tough questions, so use those noggins."

"All right, then. Tell us the questions." Tipral demanded.

"D-Man A goes to the store and buys an equal number of tomatoes and eggplants. Eggplants cost 7 coins apiece and tomatoes cost 10 coins apiece, OK? D-Man A has 50 coins when he goes into the store. He comes out with 5 coins." Dorguy the First informed. "Those are the facts. Now! Who is the most powerful person in The Underwhere?"

"Obviously it's…Queen Jaydes," Chopper answered.

"_**DING-O! **_Correct! Not bad! I'm surprised you knew the answer to that! Next question! Shayde B buys 667 pens for 13 coins each and buys 108 notebooks for 42 coins each. He needs more money, so he takes out 3,756 coins from the bank and spends it all."

"Those are a lot of coins…"

"Oh, shutteth thy trap, you!" Luvbi giggled playfully again.

"But I don't wanna!"

"Those are the facts," Dorguy the First announced. "Now! What is my name?"

"You're Dorguy the First," Tipral replied with his arms folded. "How obvious is that one?"

"_**DING-O!**_ Correct! Now for the last question. Panda A and Bear B go to Apple Mountain for a day of apple picking, right? There are 120 apple trees on the mountain, and each has a 20-apple yield. A takes 10 seconds to pick each apple, while B takes 20 seconds to pick each apple. Those are the facts. Now! How many times did I just say the word 'apple'?"

"Hmmmm… I wasn't listening to that…" Tippi trailed. "Are you able to repeat that again?"

"Nope! I can only say it once! If you don't know the answer, then I can't let you pass!" stated Dorguy the First.

"Well the answer doth be obvious," Luvbi huffed. "The answer to that is six!"

"_**DING-O! **_Correct! You folks seem OK to me. Head on through." Dorguy the First's face disappeared as Chopper, Tipral and Luvbi headed on through the door to a small room filled with light.

"Finally! No more darkness!" Chopper smirked as he broke free of Luvbi's clutches. "And now I'm free!"

"Oh, I doth not think so…" Luvbi glomped Chopper. "Now I can see thee easily, so it makes things better for me!"

While Luvbi giggled, Tipral noticed three D-Men standing next to a small door. The other door next to him had a lock on it, so there was no way of getting through there.

"Chopper, did you notice the D-Men holding the door shut over there?" Tipral asked, pointing to the door.

"Huh?" Chopper looked up at the small door over by the right that was being locked. "What are those guys doing over by the door? Do they have that evil being held shut in there?"

Chopper looked up at Luvbi, who knew that she had to let him go. Both he and Tipral walked over to the three D-Men and asked what was going on.

"Huh? What do you two want? Look, we'd love to chitchat, but we're crunch-time busy over here, can't you tell?" the first D-Man snarled, trying his best to hold the door shut like the others.

"We simply must reach The Overthere…" Tippi explained. "But we don't know which way it is…"

"The Overthere, huh…" the D-Man pondered. "See that door on your left? It'll head you up there. But we can't open it right now. We've gotta guard this door. We trapped a weird blue psycho from The Underwhere inside."

"Blue psycho…?" Chopper pondered. _"Are they talking about Sonic? …Or even Blade?"_

"Yup, this thing in here is DEFINITELY the evil being that's been roaming around these parts," confirmed the second D-Man. "Can't have it breaching security, so we locked both doors just in case."

"This thing's just INSANE, lemme tell you…" the third D-Man explained. "Real crazy. If it starts going insane again, I don't wanna be the D-Man who has to stop it. Problem is, until someone subdues it, we can't use the door to The Overthere…"

"Then why don't any of you do it yourself? Unless you're too…chicken." Tipral scoffed.

"Hey! We're NOT chickens! It just takes three D-Men to barricade this door! What? You think you two can do it? 'Cause if YOU both can calm it down, we can open that door for you. …Wanna give it a shot? …Unless you're, well, you know, chicken?"

"I could eat a chicken if I wanted to, but we'll do it," Chopper nodded.

"I haven't had a chance to fight anything for a while, so I'll do you guys the favor and do it," Tipral responded.

Bah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I was just messing with you. Seriously, no one would ever be dumb enough to…" the D-Man paused. "Wait… Did you two both say 'yes'?"

"Yeah, we did."

All three D-Men gawked at the two. "_**Are you NUTS?!**_"

"Too bad I'm not hungry for nuts right now," Chopper murmured.

"Y-Y-Y-You're SERIOUS?! You actually think you can calm that psycho down?!" the first D-Man asked. _"Oh, man… I can't believe they're actually going to do it! Not even I could do something like that!"_

"Well, hey, yeah, great idea. Sounds like a smart plan…" the second D-Man trailed. "Tell you what… You head on in…and I'll mail your antennas to your next of kin! I'll even tell them that they're from you!"

Chopper looked up at his antennas. _"Well, I certainly don't want to lose my antennas… They're all I have for hair…and sense."_

"Look, my prediction? Your game's about to end." the third D-Man predicted. "If not, we'll help you on your way. Give it a shot, champs! …And don't come running out of here without a reason. …Unless you wanna make out with your girlfriend, that is."

The three D-Men snickered as they unlocked the door. "H-Hey! Quit calling Luvbi my girlfriend! I don't even LOVE her! That, and the fact that I'm too YOUNG to have a girlfriend!" Chopper shouted, blushing furiously.

Tipral was the first one to step into the room, but Chopper immediately turned to Luvbi, who began to look a little worried.

"Chopper… Dost thou really have to goest in there?" Luvbi asked with a worried look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm doing it. So…" Chopper pointed at the ground. "Stay. I don't want you going anywhere. It's best for you to stay…like a dog would stay when their master would tell them to do so."

Chopper turned away from her and began to walk over to the door. "Wait, my sweet prince!"

"What is it now?" Chopper turned around, only to get kissed on the lips by Luvbi. His eyes widened in fear and his arms were beginning to shake, along with the rest of his body.

When Luvbi moved her head away, she giggled cutely, while Chopper had his tongue out on disgust.

"GROSS!" he gagged as he rushed over to the door, crying in fear of the giggling Nimbi, who swooned as he left the room.

"Oh, Chopper, my sweet prince… I hopeth that thou art OK…" Luvbi trailed worriedly as the door closed.

"Man, that girl really seems to have a thing for that kid!" the first D-Man snickered. "Don't you think that those two were meant to be together? They do look kinda cute together, I'll admit."

* * *

**Through the door-**

"Ughh… Another dark room?" Chopper grumbled to himself, but he happened to notice a couple of torches. "Tipral, what's going on in there?"

"Why don't you see for yourself," suggested Tipral. Chopper shrugged and he tossed a fireball at one of the torches. That triggered a couple of other torches to be lit up. To their surprise, they saw Blade sitting over by the corner, making marks on the wall on how long he was here.

"I'm so bored! Really! I can't believe I've only been here for 13 minutes and 32 seconds!" Blade groaned, marking the thirteenth minute on the wall. "When am I going to be free from this place? I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Hey, Blade!" Chopper's childish voice was what caught Blade's attention when he walked over to him.

"Chopper?! You're here too?! Did those weirdos throw you in here as well?" Blade asked.

"No, they didn't throw us in here. They said if we could, uh, 'tame' the monster that was in here, they'll let us go through the door that we need to go through." Chopper explained as best as he could.

"What do you mean, 'we'? Is Kirby or Sonic here?"

"Uhhhh… No… You see, here's the funny thing. Tipral's with me." Chopper stepped out of the way, where Tipral could be seen right before Blade's eyes.

"TIPRAL!" Blade drew his katana out and jumped over to him, getting in his fighting stance. "What are YOU doing here? ! Haven't you already learned your lesson from before?!"

"Look, just let me explain what's going on first!" Tipral snapped. "You see, Dimentio betrayed me and sent me down to this place. I met Chopper there as well, but we both had a goal: to get to the Chaos Heart and Dark Prognosticus. Plus, I wish to get revenge on Dimentio for what he's done. So… I suggest you put that katana away and let us move on!"

"Why should I believe you, after all the things you've done? !" Blade hissed. "You've caused so many problems, that I can't believe you one BIT!"

"Tipral's right, Blade. That's the exact reason why we're here. We both need to get to his castle anyways." Chopper informed. "Just lower your katana and things will be OK."

"I can still hardly believe that… This is TIPRAL, Chopper! You know, the one that's trying to KILL us?!"

Tipral folded his arms. "Hmph! You still don't believe me after what Chopper and I said? So be it. While I don't care if you believe me or not, it's best that we get out of here… Trust me, Blade. I AM speaking the truth. And if you refuse to come with us, I might as well do it by force."

"Oh, I'll come with Chopper, just not you!" Blade growled. "How about YOU stay here while Chopper and I go search for the Pure Heart! Got that?"

"Like I'm going to listen to you. I guess I have no other choice but to settle things violently. Chopper! You get out of here, along with the Pixls!"

"Wait, what're you doing? You're actually going to FIGHT him?!" Chopper gaped.

"That's the only thing I can do, since he refuses to believe me. I don't need any Pixls to fight him! I can simply prove that I am not someone to mess with, even without my scepter!"

"Pbbbbbbbbbth! All right, then! I guess we might as well fight! It's going to feel good being the one to put you down once and for all!" Blade grinned, ready to strike. "Let's go!"

Tipral thought it would be a good idea to gather information on Blade with HIS powers. He learned that his Max HP is 70, his Attack is 6. He was a bit surprised that Blade doesn't have any defense, but he figured out that he can make clones and attack him with them.

"Take THIS!" Blade jumped up and came down at Tipral with his katana, but the dark being simply teleported behind him and kicked him with a Star Kick, knocking him straight the ground.

"What the… How did you…" Blade gaped before he was struck by Star Magic from a snap of Tipral's finger.

"You were asking for it," Tipral grumbled as he rushed straight at Blade. He punched him in the face with a Star Punch, but he was soon knocked away by Blade's kick, sending him to the wall.

"Oh, man… Which person should I even be rooting for anyways? I know Tipral is trying to clear things up with Blade, yet he's an evil villain as well… Yet, Blade is on my side too… Man! I don't know what to do!" Chopper began to bonk his head a couple of times.

"Maybe we should leave this room…" suggested Tippi.

"What? And go back where Luvbi is? Blah! You don't know how contagious her kisses are, though!" Chopper gagged, having his tongue out in disgust. "I just… I just don't want to be in her death hug!"

"It would be nice to stay safe, wouldn't it, though?"

"Well the D-Men aren't going to let us out until Blade is…yeah," Chopper grumbled, deciding to stay out of the battle by flipping into 3-D.

Blade attempted to swing at Tipral with his katana, but he managed to jump out of the way and hit the ceiling with his fists. A couple of rocks fell on top of Blade as the ground began to shake.

"Hey! No fair! You can't do that!" Blade snarled.

"I can do whatever I want," Tipral retorted, falling from the ceiling and stomping on Blade's head, performing a stylish move before tossing a Star Spear near Blade's feet, sending him flying back to the wall.

"God… Why can't I hit him? I only landed a kick on him and that's it!" Blade grumbled as he got back up. He tossed a couple of shurikens at Tipral and was happy to see that he got him with them.

"Shurikens aren't going to do much when you're up against a being made of darkness," Tipral stated as he grabbed one of the shurikens on him and threw it straight at Blade, who blocked it with his katana.

"Gah… This is getting to be annoying." Blade mumbled to himself as he did a couple of signs with his hands to create a couple of clones.

"You really think that a couple of clones are going to stop me? !" Tipral brought his arms up to block the attacks that the clones were trying to strike him with and then began to glow a light purple color.

"I'm warning you, Blade… When you get on my bad side, things get ugly!" Tipral swung his fists as he clenched them, making the energy around him greater than before. "_**Star…BLAST!**_"

Tipral unleashed a huge blast of Star energy that destroyed every single clone and even sent Blade flying to the wall.

"ACK! What…was THAT?!" he gaped, getting himself up. But things didn't look too well for him when Tipral rushed straight at him and punched him in the stomach with a Star Punch.

"Must…not…lose!" Blade knocked Tipral back with a kick and slashed at Tipral a couple of times with his katana. After three slashes, he charged up a flaming slash that scorched Tipral while knocking him to the ground.

"So, are you ready to give up now, Tipral?" Blade smirked while putting his foot on him while raising his katana up. "I guess I better finish you off. If my sensai were alive, he'd be proud of me…"

Tipral clenched his fists as he looked at Blade with his evil face. "I dare you to try, Blade. I won't gibe you any mercy!"

"What? I think you should be BEGGING for mercy here! Just watch this!" Blade brought his katana down on Tipral, but he discovered that he got his katana stuck to the ground. "What the…!"

"Looking for me? !" Tipral threw a shadow ball from behind Blade, knocking him straight to the ground. He walked over to the ninja and kicked him to see him cringe in more pain.

"What a pathetic little ninja you are! You can't even get up?! You're WEAK!" Tipral scoffed while folding his arms. "I'll tell you this: there are far, FAR better ninjas than you!"

"Urgh… Sure… There may be better ninjas…" Blade slowly got himself up and grabbed Tipral. "…But I'm certainly NOT weak!"

He bashed his head with his own head and let him go. With a kick, he was able to knock him to the wall.

However, Tipral managed to jump off the wall to head straight back towards Blade, but he too was ready to make the blow…until Tipral teleported before he could even get hit by Blade's punch.

"Aw, come on! Do you REALLY need to teleport?! It's getting ANNOYING!" Blade grumbled, trying to hit Tipral with his fists. He noticed that his katana was still stuck to the ground.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot about that thing…" Blade pulled his katana out of the ground, but was soon grabbed by Tipral, who punched him in the face a couple of times before he threw him to the wall on the right.

"Had enough yet, Blade?" Tipral asked.

"Ugh… No, Tipral… I'm not giving up until you're dead!" Blade growled as he rushed straight at him. Tipral was about to snap his finger, but he was struck by Blade's katana instead.

"Urgh… Not bad." Tipral teleported on top of Blade and slammed his fists down on his head with Star energy. While he was on the ground, he snapped his finger, knocking Blade back with Star Magic.

"Why don't you just believe me already? Chopper already told you that I'm telling the truth!" Tipral growled, looking down at Blade.

"Like I'll ever believe a fiend like you!" Blade struck Tipral with a flaming slash from his katana. He was able to bring his fists up to defend himself, but even that didn't help him that much.

Blade kicked Tipral afterward, but since he was guarding, he was only pushed back a little. Tipral immediately swung one of his fists and struck Blade with a Star Spear, followed up by a jump. He also performed a stylish move.

"How come you can perform a stylish move?" Blade asked.

"That's because the player is controlling me," Tipral explained. "Wait… Player…?"

Even though he was a bit confused, he still took Blade down with a slamming Star Kick, knocking him straight to the ground.

"Try all you want, but you're STILL not going to hurt me with all of your…" While Blade spoke, Tipral Star Kicked him in the crotch. "OH BOY… Now that hurts like a…"

"Oh, shut up!" Tipral snapped his finger and Blade was sent flying up in the room. He teleported up to him and slammed his fists down on him afterwards, sending him straight to the ground.

Once Blade hit the ground, he felt like he was going to cough up blood. He was badly injured at this point.

"So, how does it feel to lose to me?" Tipral asked, grabbing him by the shirt. He pulled a Poison Mushroom out. "I hope you like Poison Mushrooms! These things are _CERTAINLY_ good for you!"

"Wait, Tipral! Don't do that!" Chopper flipped back into 2-D and tried to pull his arm with the Poison Shroom away. "I don't want you to hurt Blade anymore… He's suffered enough."

"Chopper's right, Tipral… Lower the Poison Shroom…" suggested Tippi.

Tipral turned to Chopper. "Listen you! Don't try getting in my way!" he knocked Chopper to the wall with his fist. "I'LL decide when I'm done fighting your friend! NOT you!"

While Tipral was yelling at Chopper, Blade slowly got himself up, gripping his katana. _"Ugh… I can still win this! Now that he's distracted… I can go in and finish him!"_

Blade staggered over to Tipral, but little did he know that he could sense him coming. With a snap of his finger, Tipral sent Blade flying across the room with his Star Magic ability.

"Thought I forgot about you?!" Tipral teleported straight towards Blade and he began to knock him straight into the walls a couple of times before the ninja fell straight to the ground, letting out a few coughs.

"_Cough… Ch…Chopper… S…a…v…e…m…e…_" Blade wheezed.

Tipral looked down at Blade. He was about to finish him…

"Tipral! Leave him be!" Tippi cried.

At this moment, Tipral began to remember hearing someone cry out of him. He heard the words, "No! Don't do it!" in his head. After thinking for a moment, he lowered his head and arm and shut his eyes.

"…Fine, you've suffered enough," Tipral turned away from Blade and walked toward Chopper.

"Blade! Are you all right?" Chopper rushed to Blade's aid, taking out a Super Shroom Shake and giving it to him. "Man… I don't know why Tipral would do this to you…"

After Blade finished the Super Shroom Shake, he slowly got himself up. His body was covered in many bruises. After wiping some dirt off of his mouth, he looked down at Chopper.

"Chopper, I'm sorry if I didn't listen to you before I fought Tipral… I was just pissed off at the fact that Tipral destroyed an entire world. I think I let my emotions get to me first. ...However, I still find his actions pretty unforgivable.

"It's OK, Blade, but Tipral is actually telling the truth. Dimentio was sent us down to The Underwhere." Chopper explained.

"The Underwhere? …I'm not going to make any weird comments, but if it's The Underwhere? How come there's not any underwear around here?" Blade questioned.

"This isn't the Land of Clean Laundry…or the Land of Underwear," Tipral said as his eyes looked back at Chopper and Blade. "You could consider this to be in between Heaven and Hell."

"Oh, so it's like Hades, isn't it? How strange… Well, I guess I ought to go help you find the Pure Heart."

**Blade has rejoined the party!**

"Unfortunately, we haven't found any sight of Kirby or Sonic yet…" Tippi trailed, fluttering over to the door. "Let's hope that they're OK…"

"Let's hope I'm OK when we go through that door!" Chopper shivered, looking back at the door.

"What do you mean by that, Chopper?" Blade raised an eyebrow.

* * *

**Back outside-**

As the trio walked out of the door, the three D-Men that were guarding the door noticed them walk out of the door.

"Hey, it's you two!" the first D-Man gawked. "And your game isn't over… Did you run away or something?"

"Dude… They didn't run away. I just got my ass beaten up by Tipral, that's all." Blade wheezed. "And I'm NOT the evil being that you said was roaming around here! I'm a GOOD guy!"

"Wait… You're a good guy and NOT an evil monster?"

"Yeah, I'm not evil…"

"_**SERIOUSLY?!**_"

"_**NO WAY!**_"

"All right, cut it out already!" Blade growled.

"Oh… Sorry about that, weirdo." the third D-Man apologized. "We didn't mean to get all excited like that. The only thing that stinks is that that evil being is still somewhere on the loose. But, since we're not guarding the door, why don't you take this?"

The D-Man walked over to Blade and handed him a Door Key. "Thank you very much! …But what does it do?"

"This key will bring you up to The Overthere! What else? …But, anyway, it's all cool. That problem's finally solved… So, while you guys go to The Overthere, I'll just stay on watch here. You two go find the rest of those monsters out there!"

"_**WE'RE ON IT!**_" both D-Men shouted, going back to their posts, only leaving the one D-Man, but he had something to say to the heroes.

"Hey, lemme give you a little tip. Lots of dark areas around here, right? Solution: put a little flame to the torch sconces you see on the walls! That'll light up the place for awhile. Careful, though, they'll eventually go out. If you had some fire with you, get on torch duty, STAT!"

"So… Why exactly were you afraid of leaving that room? In fact, is The Overthere where the Pure Heart is?" Blade questioned.

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain why I didn't wanna be in here… You see… We have…"

"_**CHOPPER!**_" the sound of the girlish squeal made Chopper's face turn white in fear as he was tackled to the ground by Luvbi, who began to smother him all over the face with her girly kisses.

"ACK! Get off of me, Luvbi!" Chopper cried. "Stop kissing me! They're… They're so contagious!"

"Wait… Who the heck is she?" Blade gawked.

"That's a girl that we have to bring to The Overthere… Her name is Luvbi…" Tippi explained. "Apparently she has a big crush on Chopper… But he doesn't seem to enjoy it that much…"

"Pbbbbbbth! Is THIS why Chopper was afraid of coming here? I can't believe it!" Blade snickered, walking over to his friend, who was still being smothered with Luvbi's kisses. "Come on, Chopper! You can't take it like a man?"

Luvbi finished by kissing Chopper on the lips before looking up at Blade. "Pray, and who might thou be? Art thou one of my sweet prince's smelly idiot?"

"Smelly idiot? What'd I ever do to you?"

"Thou dost remind me of a cow. Thy tail is moving around, swatting at anything. Also, thou must have a brain the size of a pea!"

This was when Blade got angered. "You little… I get thrown into prison JUST to get this kind of treatment?!"

"Well, mayhap it is because I am so cute, while thou art more like an ugly duckling," Luvbi stated.

"All right! That's it!" Blade was about to grab Luvbi, but she fluttered above him and stuck her tongue out.

"Pray, Chopper… Why dost these people traveling with thee have to ruin our romance? I just want to be with thee only!"

"There's NO romance between us!" Chopper retorted, only to get a giggly response.

"Oh, Chopper! Thou art such a funny cutie! I'll movest on to the next room right now, so don't leavest me there!" Luvbi fluttered down to the door and left.

"Seriously… I can't believe a bratty girl like her has a thing for you! That's just…hilarious! I gotta think up of a good song!" Blade snickered.

"Don't start acting like Bang again!" Chopper grumbled.

"Chopper and Luvbi sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First co-" Blade stopped as soon as Chopper kicked him in the shin, forcing him to fall down, holding his shin in pain.

"Don't you EVER sing that song! EVER!" Chopper growled in annoyance.

"Hmph… I never knew you had that much anger in you." Tipral commented.

"Well, at least I don't have hatred like you do."

"Oh! You were…_oooog_…burned!" Blade snickered as he got up.

"Now's not the time… We need to head on through the next room…" suggested Tippi.

"Oh, yeah… And we need fire as well!" Chopper looked over at the torch. "I didn't even inhale fire yet, so I think now would be a good time to do so!"

Chopper inhaled the flames on the torch and swallowed it without burning his mouth. He got himself a fiery gold tiara with a green gem in the middle and his skin turned a light red tint with his gloves and shoes becoming a dark red color.

"Hey! I just got the Fire ability! Now THIS is nice!" Chopper smirked as he kicked the door into another dark room.

"Hey! Why's is so dark in here?" Blade questioned.

"Don't worry, I'll handle it," Chopper spewed out flames from his mouth at the unlit torch over by his right. It lit the torch and made the whole room light. They then immediately jumped on the silver platform to the right and then the larger one to the left.

"HA! Now you can't surprise me with any of your girly kisses!" Chopper smirked, pointing at the swooning Luvbi. "That, and if you try to touch me, you might get burnt."

"Oh, I'll find a way through that, my sweet prince," she smirked.

"Maybe you ought to give her fire powers so she could do that!" Blade snickered, only to get hit in the face by Chopper's flaming fist. "HEY! Don't use fire on me! That HURTS!"

"Mayhap that doth be a good idea, thou filthy cat!" Luvbi looked down at Chopper. "Follow me, my prince!"

"Hold on a minute…" Chopper looked at the Dry Bones that rose up in front of him. "I just have to take care of a little something…"

Chopper unleashed his flames upon the Dry Bones, destroying it within seconds. Then he proceeded up onto the small platform above him. However, he noticed that there were many of these platforms.

"So The Underwhere likes to torture us by making us jump these platforms? How interesting…" Tipral growled.

"At least I canst fly, unlike thee, yon hideous monster," Luvbi scoffed.

"I could honestly care less about you. I'm warning you… You DON'T want to get me mad. Ever."

"He's right. You don't wanna get him mad." Blade agreed, shaking his head. "Do you even know what he did to me back in that other room?"

"Well I dost not careth what thou sayest," Luvbi huffed as she watched Chopper jump up the platforms. "Dost thou need some help?"

Chopper stopped jumping and looked at Luvbi with an unimpressed look. "I can assure you that I don't need your help, Luvbi. I'm fully capable of jumping these platforms myself. Plus, I know you're gonna try to kiss me! Bleh!"

"I still want to punch her in the face," Tipral grumbled.

"Thou will not lay a finger on me! If thou tryest, then thou might as well kiss thy life goodbye."

"God, why is this girl speaking in that weird accent?" Blade whispered to Chopper. "What is she? Some Juliet wannabe? And I don't even LIKE that play!"

"What didst thou sayeth?!" Luvbi gave Blade a glare.

"Uhhhh… He said that I have cheese in my pocket." Chopper lied.

"But thou dost not have pockets, my prince," Luvbi frowned, looking down at Chopper.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Chopper guffawed. "If you're planning on swooning over me, I'm not going to be so happy..."

"She was just checking if you have pockets…" Tippi groaned.

"Oh, really? I didn't know that... I thought she was going to try to kiss me again. Say, how DO I carry things without pockets anyway?"

"And how come the whole room got dark again?" Blade asked.

"Oh, that? Lemme take care of it." Chopper noticed an unlit torch on a platform he jumped on and lit it up with some flames.

"I'd prefer to stay in the dark, honestly," Tipral stated.

"Well I wouldn't. I don't want to get any more kisses. They're gross!" Chopper gagged as he jumped on a large, silver platform with a door up ahead. "Hey! I think we made it already!"

"Finally… I've been waiting for this." Tipral walked over to the door and banged on it with his fist. "We know that you're no ordinary door! I would suggest that you show yourself!"

"Halt! What's this, then? Travelers have come?" the door was just like the other door, except this one had red eyes instead of orange.

"Queen Jaydes demands I guard this door, folks! I'm Dorguy the Second! Look, I apologize for the intrusion, but I've gotta run a quick security check, here. I've got a few questions. Answer them all correctly, and I'll wave you on through."

"Please dost so," Luvbi said. "I doth want to return to The Overthere quickly."

"_**Activate screen!**_" a screen came down above the heroes. Luvbi fluttered right next to it to get a better look at it.

"Oh, crud… Not these things!" Chopper face palmed. "These are the ones that I can't STAND!"

"Art we watching a movie?" Luvbi's eyes glittered at the screen. "This will almost feel like a date! Dost thou agree with me, my sweet prince?

"NO!"

"All right, Question One! Look closely at the objects on the screen, OK, folks?" the group watched as they saw a couple of shapes such as circles, squares and triangles move around the screen.

"Now, answer me this… How many red objects were there?" Dorguy the Second asked.

"I think there were three," Chopper answered.

"Hmm… Sorry, folks, but I'm not gonna tell you if you're right or not just yet. Question Two! Watch that screen now!"

The group watched the screen once again. All four of them tried their best to memorize what the objects were and how many there were.

"How many triangles were there, folks?"

"I've only seen two in there," Blade responded.

"Hoo hoo ha… Question Three! Eyes at the screen, folks!" they all watched the screen again. This time, all but the blue ones weren't moving.

"What color were the moving objects?"

"They were blue," Tipral said while rolling his eyes.

"That's your answer, eh? Now, next question! …Off the top of our head, what number question is this?"

"The answer doth be four," Luvbi huffed.

"Hey! Why are you answering these?!" Blade gawked.

"Shuttest thy trap, filthy creature!" she retorted.

"Getting tired yet, folks? Don't give up! This is the last question… Look closely at the screen."

The most that they could see on the screen were triangles. "What shape was the most plentiful, folks?"

"Apparently, there were more triangles out of them all," Chopper noticed.

"_**DONE!**_ Lemme just analyze your responses real quick…" Dorguy the Second began to analyze the responses for a quick minute and returned to the group. "Hoo hoo HA! P-P-P-Perfect! Amazing… I'm…impressed. Your brain ages must be very young, folks! Well, with brains that young, you must be good people! Head on in!"

"THANK YOU!" Blade shouted as he walked over to the door.

"I swear, if you were trying to pull off a Beedle impression, I'm going to bonk you in the head," Chopper grumbled as he walked into the door to another similar room to the other.

"Apparently the door that we need to go to is locked. Great…" Tipral groaned.

"Why don't we check the door over to the left?" Tippi suggested, glancing at the small, pink door with hearts.

"Ack! Not THAT room!" Chopper shrieked. "What kind of door IS that?! It… It burns my eyes!"

"Doth it burn thy heart?" Luvbi asked with a worried look.

"No… It only burns my eyes because I don't like girliness."

"Won't thou goest in there? Please? For me?" Luvbi asked, giving him the sweetest look as possible. Chopper slowly backed away from her, his face turning red in fear of the girl.

"Uhhhhhhhhh…" he stammered.

"Wouldst thou dost it for a kiss?" she asked, puckering up and getting closer to his lips.

"Get to the door, guys!" Chopper immediately broke for it, running straight to the door. When Blade and Tipral walked in, the Star Warrior looked at Luvbi and pointed to the ground.

"Stay!" he ordered as he walked into the room. He saw the walls were a yellow color, making the room look…not too bad. There were three creepy, old hags in blue, green and pink. The pink one seemed to notice them first.

"Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh!" I am Hagra, yes, one of the ancient sisters three… The Underwhere crones! Mm… Young ones, aren't you? Yes, _very _young. And where are you headed, flaming little boy, filthy cat and dark one?"

"Sheesh! She calls me filthy as well?" Blade gawked. "I'm a cat! And I'm NOT filthy!"

"We're looking for the Pure Heart…" Tippi trailed.

"You seek the Pure Heart, so you desire an audience with Grambi? Sounds serious… Well, you are not the only soul here with a problem, no…for I have one as well. Yes, I lent a certain book to a certain D-Man, you see…and now I need it back. Could you find him and get it back for me, flaming little boy, dark one, and uh…non-filthy cat?"

"Screw that! Don't trust old hags!"

"Blade! Be respectful!" Chopper retorted. "She's old, OK? I'm pretty sure she'd need our help anyways!"

"Oh, fine…" Blade groaned.

Hagra grinned. "Good, yes, good… Allow me to send you to where the D-Man in question is. And thanks for your help, yes… _**Hagracadagra!**_"

* * *

**Beginning of Underwhere Road-**

"Huh? Where'd she take us now?" Tipral asked.

"Crud… It better not be all the way at the beginning…" Chopper grumbled. He walked over to the D-Man that he noticed from the beginning. "Crud! We ARE at the very beginning!"

"That's horse…nah, I'm not gonna swear." the trio walked over to the D-Man. "Hey, dude! We're looking for a book that a hag wanted us to get back for her."

"Oh, the book? The one I borrowed from the hag? Yeah, no prob, no prob. Just finished reading that bad boy, actually."

"Sometimes people never learn that those things don't work…" Tipral murmured as he slowly shook his head after grabbing the book from the D-Man.

"Gotta say, that weight-loss plan seems kinda dubious. Yeah, probably a fad. But hey, thank that hag for me anyway, OK?"

"Yeah, and now we have to BACKTRACK!" Chopper groaned.

"Or better yet, we'll just teleport," Tipral grabbed Chopper and Blade's arm and they teleported back to Hagra.

* * *

**Back with Hagra-**

"Hm? Did you get the book back, flaming little boy?" Hagra asked.

"It's right here," Tipral threw the book at Hagra's face. What was strange was the fact that he didn't get hit by her.

"Ohh, this is it, yes, yes. See, I'm getting a little…paunchy in my old age. I thought I might try this 'No-Tummy Mummy Diet' to try and get back into shape… Thanks for getting this, yes. Let me give you this as a thanks, flaming little boy and his friends."

Hagra cackled as she gave Chopper a Door Key. "Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh! Good-bye, flaming little boy and his two friends!"

"Chopper and I aren't friends…" Tipral mumbled under his breath.

Well, needless to say, the trio walked out of the room and back to where Luvbi was flying around.

"Didst thou findeth what thou needest, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked sweetly.

"Yeah, we found the key," Chopper unlocked the door with the key, making the lock break off. "So, are you going to go in?"

"Yea, I shall," Luvbi said, blowing a kiss to him as she left the room.

"Heh heh heh! Luvbi sure 'luvs' Chopper, huh?" Blade snickered.

"Blade… That was a HORRIBLE pun!" Chopper growled.

"Save it for later. We need to get going." Tipral opened the door to another dark room, and hopefully, the last.

After Chopper lit up the room with his flames, they noticed that they were back outside instead of being inside.

"We art almost there! Art thou excited, my sweet prince?" Luvbi squealed.

"I'll be excited when you're not here…" Chopper mumbled.

"Pray, what was that?"

"Uhhh… I was just saying that I have a really bad itch!"

"Dude! That's not what you said!" Blade scoffed.

"Who cares?"

"Both of you shut up! We need to get up there!" Tipral pointed at the rocks above them. "Apparently, only I can get us up there, so I might as well do that."

Tipral teleported him and the other two onto the rocks so they could jump over to some silver stairs. They simply walked up the stairs until they saw more floating above them. Not only that, but there were Spiny Tromps coming down those steps.

"Hmmmmm… That might be a bit tough to maneuver…" Chopper trailed as he teleported up the stairs with Tipral's help. "I think flipping might work here."

Chopper flipped straight into 3-D with the other two to go straight up the stairs to a door. Apparently, Luvbi was happy to see the door.

"This doth be the last door!" she announced. "We'll finally be out of this world!"

"Great… So no more of this darkness… That's nice." Tipral groaned while walking over to the door. "OK, Dorguy, we KNOW that you're there."

Chopper decided to remove his Fire ability, no longer needing it. Everyone gave him a strange look. "What? It's not like I'm gonna NEED it…"

"Pray, Chopper! Thou hast the ability to steal abilities?" Luvbi questioned.

"Yeah, it's strange, but I like it," Chopper smiled.

"Oh, no… Travelers have come?" the door groaned.

"What do you mean, 'oh no'? We're trying to save the WORLD here!"

A face appeared on the door, but this one had purple eyes instead of red or orange. "Queen Jaydes demands I guard this door, people! I am Dorguy the Third. I've gotta take a sec and see if you folks are worthy to pass through."

"I suppose that this involves us having to answer questions, isn't it?" Tipral asked, rolling his eyes.

"Nope! This time I've got something better! Can I get a little… _**UNDERCHOMP!**_"

The ground began to shake over to the left and, to their surprise, three Chain Chomps ripped through the background. They were red, yellow and blue.

"If you folks are worthy of passing through, you should be able to beat these guys. So, if you wanna head on through, you gotta fight!"

"This is my kind of thing!" Tipral cracked his knuckles as the Underchomps charged at the three.

* * *

**Enter RPG Battle-**

Underchomp attacks!

Chopper inhales Red Underchomp and spits him at Blue Underchomp!

BAM! Red Underchomp and Blue Underchomp take 10 damage!

Red Underchomp attacks!

Chopper takes 5 damage!

Blue Underchomp breathes fire!

Now that's hot! Chopper takes 5 damage!

Yellow Underchomp expels stinky breath!

Chopper dodges like a pro!

Blade slashes at Yellow Underchomp!

Now that's deadly! Yellow Underchomp takes 12 damage!

Red Underchomp gathers strength!

Blue Underchomp Attacks!

Blade dodges like a pro!

Yellow Underchomp expels stinky breath!

Oh no! It's putrid! Blade takes 5 damage!

Tipral uses Star Magic on Red Underchomp!

It's deadly! Red Underchomp takes 10 damage!

Tipral defeated Red Underchomp!

Blue Underchomp gathers strength!

Yellow Underchomp attacks!

Tipral takes 5 damage!

Chopper uses Cudge on Blue Underchomp!

Blue Underchomp takes 10 damage!

Chopper defeated Blue Underchomp!

Yellow Underchomp expels stinky breath!

Oh no! It's putrid! Chopper takes 5 damage!

Blade slashes at Yellow Underchomp!

Now that's deadly! Yellow Underchomp takes 12 damage!

Blade defeated Yellow Underchomp!

You defeated the Underchomp!

You receive 6000 experience points!

* * *

**Exit RPG Battle-**

"Hey, check you folks out! You beat the Underchomps… Good work. Head on in!"

Dorguy the Third allowed the four to walk through the door. They were relieved to see a Star Block in the next room. Not only that, but they could also see a shining light near a star case as well!

"Just beyond those stairs is The Overthere!" Luvbi squealed. "I can't wait to show thee to Father, my sweet prince!"

"But I don't wanna!" Chopper whined as he struck the Star Block with his fist.

"We have to no matter what…" Tippi trailed.

"Crud!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Our heroes had found their way out of the dark and confusion of The Underwhere. Chopper and his friends now saw the sun shining brightly against a beautiful blue sky. This was the sky paradise Grambi called home, a place of joy called The Overthere. Somewhere above the never-ending layers of clouds waited Grambi himself. Chopper and his friends began to make their way up that fluffy road to above…_

* * *

**This was a pretty fun chapter to write. I know Chopper might've sounded pretty annoying during this chapter, but I had to make him overreact over Luvbi's affection. Plus, with Blade making fun of Chopper for that, that adds more insult to injury! *shot*  
**

**Anyway, other than that... Apparently we're going to EVERYONE'S favorite level! ...And just to make things clear, the next part WILL be different. It won't be the 7-3 level of Super Paper Mario. Oh, no... You'll see, though!**


	42. Crashing Through the Clouds

**CHAPTER 7-3**

**-Crashing Through the Clouds-**

The stairs were long, but as the four began their way up them, they began to see a bright light at the top. The eerie, dark blue sky began to change to a beautiful, light blue sky filled with clouds. Even when Chopper landed on a cloud, it felt very, VERY fluffy. He thought that he could rest on it all day (probably like many people who might lay down on a cloud. No, I've never touched a cloud before, but MAN, are those things fluffy like heck!). However, the one that seemed to be the most happy to be here was Luvbi, who was smiling cutely up at the sky.

"So… Apparently we've come up to heaven now…" Blade trailed as he frowned at all of the fluffy clouds around him. "I think it sorta sucks that we're dead now, don't you agree with me?"

Tipral groaned at him while his arms were folded. "We're not dead, Blade. The queen told us that our games aren't really over. Dimentio SOMEHOW brought us down here without actually killing us. If we were dead, I'm pretty sure that I'd be staying down in Hell right about now."

"Why would you think that?" Tippi questioned.

"Because of all the destruction I've caused, what do you think?" Tipral eyed Tippi. "But I could honestly care less about being here! This place… It doesn't fit me one bit! We should be back in The Underwhere right now!"

While they began to speak, Chopper could hear Luvbi speak as well. "Ah me, blue skies again! This is just the beginning of The Overthere. It is called **Overthere Walkway**. I must warnest thee… The trip to Father is long… Let us away!"

After Luvbi spoke, Tippi spoke up too. "Yes… That sounds well and good, but we have yet to find Kirby and Sonic… I'm so worried…"

"Hmmmmmm… I'm pretty sure that Sonic can take care of himself…" Blade trailed. "But for Kirby? Well, I don't have a freakin' clue. Hopefully they don't get in a fight with Tipral like me."

"You did that out of anger," Tipral bluntly stated while folding his arms. "Don't you realize that?"

"Well, wherever they may be, I'm hoping that they're OK… The last time I was separated five months ago was because of Metal Chopper." Chopper informed. "I know for a fact that Kirby was able to take care of himself. Hopefully nothing bad has happened to them. I wouldn't like that."

Luvbi immediately turned to Chopper with her sweet smile. "Pray, I would understand this, my sweet prince! Is yon Kirby and Sonic one of thy pets? Or art they more of thy servants that help thee find princesses?"

Chopper jumped up in shock and shook his head. "What the… Did you just call them PETS? ! I mean… They're my FRIENDS! …And would you please stop with the whole 'my sweet prince' thing? _PLEASE!_"

Blade was also shaking his head, but a bit more violently. "Hey, shut yon trap, Fluffy!" he barked. "Those two aren't pets at all! They're heroes! Awesome heroes, but they art not as good as me."

"Art thou trying to copy my sharpened tongue?" Luvbi asked, her face turning to a sarcastic look. "Thou mind doth seem a bit…dumb, just like thou art."

"Well, your mind seems to be… Uh…" Blade sweat dropped. "Wow… I'm seemingly lost at words here. I can't make a comeback?"

"Bah! I'd rather not listen to you guys speak on and on! I might as well move on ahead!" And before they knew it, Tipral teleported up onto the cloud above them. Though, they questioned why he was like this.

Tipral noticed a Buzzy Beetle with a spike on its shell and wings. "This shouldn't be much of a fight!" With one swing of an arm, he struck the Spiky Parabuzzy with a Star Spear, eliminating it within a second.

"Well, someone sure is a bit cranky…" Chopper trailed.

"Yea, verily… That hideous thing doth seem to have a temper…" Luvbi agreed with her sarcastic look on her face.

Tipral looked down at Luvbi with a glare. "You realize that YOU probably need to learn how to act more like… No, it would be better that you acted like that, but NOT bother me! Understood?"

Luvbi rolled her eyes. "Thou art nothing more than a big grump. Surely hast had a terrible past, hast thou not?"

Tipral's antennas sprung up as he clenched his fists in anger. "Don't you EVER bring up my past! EVER!" he growled, jumping down onto the cloud where the two heroes were on.

"What happened, though?" Tippi asked.

Tipral glanced at Tippi. "It's best that what happened back then should be forgotten. I don't want to have to relive that time. It's not like you're even going to care anyways, you little bug."

"You don't believe that I'll…"

"Let's save it for later, Tippi," Chopper suggested, interrupting the rainbow Pixl. "I think it's best that we don't get Tipral angry…or angrier."

"Well, if we art to not get into any fights, then I suggest that we movest on," Luvbi smiled sweetly at Chopper. "So, how dost thou like The Overthere so far? Doth it feel like a romantic place?"

"Uhhhhhh… Sure, I guess it could be considered a romantic place, but I HATE romance! Blah! Honestly, boys my age don't even LIKE romance! So forget all of that, all right? It's just not right…"

Luvbi giggled at him. "Oh, thou art so funny!" She fluttered up ahead and turned to the three. "For now. I shall movest up ahead. I'll be waiting for thee at the door at the highest point of the area! And don't sloweth down! I doth wish to get to Father soon!"

As she fluttered off, Tippi groaned. "I wish we didn't have to escort this girl all the way to The Overthere… Ever since she came with us, all she seems to do is get us angry… She really fluster me big time."

"You think you have it bad? Well what about me?" Chopper frowned, but he stopped when he noticed a caped enemy rushing towards him. "Actually… Hang on a moment…"

Chopper jumped over the caped enemy and with one inhale, he swallowed the enemy and gained a red cape and a golden winged circlet on his head. Although the cape was a bit long for him, it did make him look like a superhero.

"Hey! I'm…Super Chopper!" he announced, raising one fist up. "…Nah! I'm only kidding! I'm only Hi-Jump Chopper. I think that this ability should come in handy, don't you think?"

"Well, I'm most certain that it should help us get through the clouds…" Tippi trailed. "I suppose that Tipral's part was in The Underwhere, so I believe now it's your turn…"

"Hey! What about me?" Blade asked.

"No one cares about you, Blade! You're probably the least popular hero of the entire group!"

"What? I DO have fans! Why would you say that I have the least amount of fans? I bet I have more fans than you two!"

"Face it, Blade. You're a fan character. Do people like seeing fan characters? I don't think so." Tipral said brutally. "Even if… Oh, forget it. Talking like this is only going to slow us down."

"No kidding," Chopper agreed, jumping high up onto the cloud above him. He ended up hitting a Squog while at it, which surprised him for a little, but not by a lot. There was also a Waddle Dee sleeping on a cloud right next to him.

When Blade managed to get himself onto the cloud, he breathed heavily. "Wow… How come it's incredibly difficult for me to get up these clouds? The water wasn't hard for me to get through… How come this is?"

"It's because you lack the ability to jump high," Tipral stated.

"Too bad we don't have Luigi here…" Chopper trailed. "I heard that he's an EXCELLENT jumper! …But, at least I have the ability to jump high with this ability."

Chopper made a big jump up to the next cloud above him, while Tipral took out the Waddle Dee with his Star Magic. He then teleported him and Blade up to the next cloud above them.

"Are we going to be going up some clouds?" Blade questioned. "That sounds a bit boring, if you ask me…"

Luckily, the cloud above them wasn't so high. But Chopper ended up jumping a BIT too high. Luckily, his cape allowed him to float slowly down to the ground, using it as a parachute. To his surprise, he landed on an Ice Cherbil.

"Aw, come on! I had to land on THAT thing? !" he gagged.

"And what's wrong with that thing?" Tipral asked.

"Don't you even KNOW what that thing looks like? !"

"Ummmmm… No. You killed it already."

"Yeah, well it looks like a butt to me. Say whatever you will, but that's my opinion on it, and it's not going to change." Chopper landed on a cloud above Blade and Tipral and noticed a couple of yellow ? blocks.

"I'll hit the block," Tipral jumped onto the cloud and punched the yellow ? block, making a Super Shroom pop out. They all grabbed the Super Shroom and split it into so each of them could recover 20 HP.

"I don't think we're too far from the door…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like it," Chopper pointed up at the cloud above them. "I'll go up to that cloud. I think there might be some other stuff around this level of the clouds. Try to look for something."

Once Chopper jumped up to the cloud above him, Tipral looked over at Blade. "Well, we might as well search for something around here. I'd say we should start by taking the left and right way."

"Sounds good to me. Just don't abandon us, OK?" Blade took the way to the right, only to find a couple of Spiky Parabuzzies.

"This isn't much of a problem! Hommissile, you can do this!" Blade smirked at Hommissile and tossed him at the Spiky Parabuzzies. But, to his surprise, it didn't work against them.

"What the hell? Nothing happened? !"

"Well, these enemies ARE immune to explosives… BOOM!" Hommissile informed. "You might as well strike them with your katana. KA-BLAMMY!"

"Well, I suppose you're right," Blade drew his sword and rushed straight at the Spiky Parabuzzies. "You may have wings and spikes, but apparently I can't jump on you, so therefore, I can strike you with this! HI-YA!"

With a couple of slashes, Blade took down the Spiky Parabuzzies in one hit. "…What? Only one hit? That's…weak."

Nevertheless, Blade searched around the cloud for anything important. Unfortunately, that was not mean to be because there was nothing around except for a Long Last Shake. He simply grabbed it and put it in his inventory.

"Nothing's around here? Man, what a big rip-off!" Blade frowned. "I was expecting something a little, well, you know… Interesting!"

"You want me to make things interesting? Oh, I can do that…"

"Wait, who said that?" Blade gripped his katana, scanning the area for the voice. To his surprise, he saw a red, taller ninja cat land right in front of him. He looked a lot like Blade, but he had a scar on the right side of his face.

"Wait a second… I remember you! You're… Knife! You're my older brother, aren't you?"

Knife grinned at Blade, drawing his black katana out. "That's correct, my brother! You remember the time that you killed me? ! I was sent down here! …And man, and I PISSED about that!"

"Wait, you mean you're angry because you were sent here? ! Why would you be in THIS world?" Blade questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, the answer is simple… Somebody made a deal with me that if I found something called a Pure Heart, he would promise me that I would come back to life to get revenge on you! …But it appears that that isn't needed now!"

"Well, I'm certain that I don't think you're tough enough to take me down…"

"We'll see about that!" Knife charged at Blade and attempted to stab his chest. Unfortunately, his katana only bent and it ended up ruining it. Blade grinned as he looked up at him.

"See? I told you that it wouldn't work!"

"What? ! My attacks don't do a thing? !" the red ninja cat gaped as he looked down at his katana. "Urrggh! Curse the queen for stripping my powers! I swear, if I had them back, I would GORE you!"

"Pbbbbbth! I'd like to see you try!" Blade smirked and struck Knife with his katana. He left a small rip on Knife's shirt. "So, here's some advice for you, bro: don't try to mess with me. I killed you before, I could probably do it again."

"…I'm done here," Knife threw a smoke bomb to the ground and disappeared before his very eyes.

* * *

**Meanwhile with Tipral-**

"Hmmmmmm… I don't seem to see a lot of things around here…" Tipral trailed as he looked around on the cloud. The only thing he seemed to notice were yellow clouds called Ruff Puffs floating around. They had the ability to shoot balls of electricity at anyone.

Once one took notice of Tipral, it shot an electric ball at him. "An electric ball? This isn't even a real challenge!"

He tossed a shadow ball straight at the Ruff Puff and then finished it off with a stomp attack, performing a stylish move and firing a Star Spear down at the other Ruff Puff near him.

"I hear that these things are quite deadly to some people… But they seem like a complete joke!" Tipral scoffed as he landed no the ground, only to find an Ice Cherbil shooting its icy gas towards him.

He snapped his finger and destroyed the Ice Cherbil in two seconds, then he jumped on a small cloud that acted like a stair near him, which revealed to have two Lakitus riding on Ruff Puffs.

"Interesting… I expected to see some Lakitus here, though." Tipral pointed at the Volt Spiny that the Lakitu threw and destroyed it with his Star powers instantly. He then threw a Star Spear at the Lakitu to destroy it.

Looking up at the sky, he noticed another Ruff Puff coming down towards him, but he soon destroyed it in a blink of an eye by snapping his finger, striking it with Star Magic.

"Tssh! You honestly call THIS a challenge? ! I want something that can actually FIGHT me! One that's not small for my size! Still, I might be able to beat it, but I desire a challenge!"

"A challenge, you say? I can do that just for you…"

"And who just spoke?" Tipral asked, folding his arms. As he looked up, he saw a large, brown cloud with fat cheeks, pink eyes and boxing glove-like hands. To him, he looked like some kind of fart cloud.

"Hmmmmm… YOU'RE the one that wants to have a challenge? !" the brown cloud gaped. "You're not even my size! …But I can't shake the feeling that you remind me of someone I've fought five months ago…"

"A minion of Bowser's, huh? I suppose you're that fart cloud Huff N. Puff, are you not?"

"Fart cloud? ! I'm only a simple cloud, mind you! It's true that my name is Huff N. Puff, but there's NO way that I'm a fart cloud… My weight is probably heavy enough to crush even you!"

"Look, I'll fight you, but I don't have all day," Tipral said with a sarcastic look. "As much as I would want to beat you all day, I have to reach The Overthere. I have to deal with my enemy, Chopper, and his bratty girlfriend Luvbi. It's bad. Real bad."

"Chopper? You don't mean… Where is he? !" Huff N. Puff was soon struck by Tipral's Star Spear, shrinking him in size and making a couple of Tuff Puffs fall out of him.

"Listen, Huff N. Puff! You're NOT going to be the one that finishes him! That's MY job!"

"Ugh… So you're one of THOSE villains, aren't you? Well then… If you consider yourself to be able to defeat him, then let's see how you do against me! The fight won't be an easy feat for you, though…" Huff N. Puff grinned.

"Hmph! I can make it an easy feat!" Tipral's eyes began to glow a red color as Huff N. Puff froze in time, along with his Tuff Puffs. "See? That'll make this fight MUCH easier for me!"

Tipral did a couple of diving kicks on Huff N. Puff and then finished him off by snapping his finger. He also threw one of the Tuff Puffs using Thoreau, since he didn't use that Pixl in a while.

After he unfroze time, Huff N. Puff felt like he was going to explode. "Wh-What? ! Why… Why would you do this to me? I've never done anything to you!"

"I don't care if you did anything to me or not. What matters is that _I_ am the one that defeats Chopper, not you. My grandfather had his chance, but he failed to win. Now it's my turn."

With one more snap of his finger, Huff N. Puff exploded. "That thing wasn't even a challenge! I'm expecting to find myself fighting something MUCH more challenging…"

Tipral walked away from the explosion while his angry look was still on his face.

* * *

**Over by Chopper-**

With one big jump, Chopper went through the cloud where the door was and then began to parachute down to the cloud by using his cape. He seemed to be cheerful while parachuting his way down to the cloud. It reminded him of… Well, it seemed pretty fun when you're doing it, as long as he's not high up, though.

"Man! Now that was enjoyable!" Chopper smiled as he landed on the cloud. His cape ended up floating onto the cloud as well as he landed.

"The door appears to be over to the left…" Tippi trailed, noticing the red door and Luvbi, who was starting to become impatient.

"There thou art! I was becoming so impatient!" Chopper was about to flee, but he was soon in Luvbi's "death" hug.

"Ack! L…Luvbi! Get off of me!" Chopper cried.

"I was wondering if thou all were taking thy time, but since it is just thee hither, I can speakest the words of love to thee!" Luvbi sighed sweetly as she looked into Chopper's eyes while smiling cutely.

Chopper frowned at the Nimbi girl. "Speak the words of love? I don't know any words of love, no do I care!" he cried. "Keep this romance stuff to yourself, Luvbi! You don't wanna know how many times I feel like barfing when you talk about this…"

Luvbi remembered something, but that didn't mean that she was going to stop snuggling him. "Oh! I almost forgotest something! My sweet prince… Tell me more about thyself please."

"Tell me more about myself? Uhh… What do you mean by that? My background? Uhh… I think it's best that I DON'T talk about it."

"Oh, come on!" Luvbi began to slowly rub Chopper's cheek, making him blush nervously. "Surely thou art able to explainest to me… I'll givest thee a kiss if thou dost…"

"Well then you're actually helping me NOT explain!"

Luvbi frowned. "Hmph! And I thought that thou liked me!" she huffed, letting go of Chopper and turning away from him, sticking her nose up in the air.

"Ugh… But I don't! …Sure, you're all sweet to me and all, _probably a bit TOO much…_ But you do act like a jerk to my friends…minus Tipral."

Luvbi turned to Chopper and nearly tackled him. "Awwwww! Thou dost not have to tell me that thou lovest me!"

"Huh? ! I never said anything about…" Chopper was soon interrupted when Luvbi began to kiss him all over his face, from his cheeks, to his lips and all the way up to his forehead, although she spent more time kissing his lips.

"ACK! GROSS!" he cried, shivering in pure horror as Luvbi kept hugging him and kissing him every ten seconds. "Please… Think about my personal space…and my food!"

"Thou must have something that thou art hiding, my sweet prince! …Is it because thou hast another girlfriend? !"

"First off, I don't have a girlfriend, and second, I don't wanna tell you my background because it's too depressing. I mean, REALLY depressing, as in you might shed a couple of tears. THAT kind."

"Thy background is depressing? Well, what hast happened then? Thou art making me a bit curious."

"Ugh… Fine…" Luvbi let go of Chopper and he let out a deep sigh. "When I was four, things seemed to be fine. My mother, Tonberria, went to the Mushroom Kingdom to see Princess Peach before I was born and…"

"Thou meanest the Princess of Silly Peaches?" Luvbi interrupted.

"You know, Luvbi, you're being kind of rude right now by interrupting me," Chopper frowned, but then continued. "Anyways, my father, Toalune, helped fight against Nightmare, but when they returned, an evil knight named Maquano came to our planet to destroy it. I don't know why, though, but he just wanted to destroy it for fun, which gets me REALLY peeved. And… He was successful. I was taken off the planet because they believed I was the one who could defeat him. I was successful with that, but it made me wonder, 'What's next?' It was certainly not a great time… But, it has gotten better as the years went by. Sort of…"

Luvbi gasped. "Oh, Chopper… I doth feel sorry for thee…" she said as she gave Chopper a sympathy hug. "I'm sure thou hast a hard time getting over it. But that's why thou needest to have me hither!"

"What? No way!" Chopper got out of Luvbi's grasps. "I've gotten over that, so you don't need to worry about me. Through the years, I've learned to be independent. Don't you see it? Plus, I think love is for those old people."

"Love is not for old people! It can be for anyone!" she retorted. "But it may be because thou art so exhausted from climbing these clouds… Why dost thou not have wings? Thou and I canst fly up to The Overthere, look each other in the eyes and…"

"I think we get it already, Luvbi…" Tippi trailed.

Luvbi gave her a sarcastic look. "So, art thou still jealous of having a crush on my sweet prince?"

"Cr-Crush? ! But I've never…"

Before the two girls could get into another fight, Chopper immediately stepped in. "Ummmmm… OK, I don't want to have two girls start a fight, OK? Let's just wait for Blade and Tipral…"

Luvbi looked down at Chopper's cape. "Thou doth look like a superhero to me! …But why art thou not in golden armor?"

Chopper turned to Luvbi with a confused look. "There's no Knight ability, though. I've NEVER gotten an ability like that in my entire life. Plus, the armor's probably heavy, which will slow me down a bit."

"That's a bit true…" agreed Tippi.

"But seeing thee in shining armor will make me feel even more like a princess!" Luvbi sighed sweetly as she looked at Chopper. "But, it doth not matter much. Thou art too cute anyways!"

Before she could glomp him, Blade and Tipral made their way onto the cloud. Blade looked exhausted, while Tipral appeared to be just fine.

"Oh! You guys are back already? So… What did you find so far?" Chopper asked.

"There wasn't much around, unfortunately," Blade wheezed, falling on the cloud. "Well, there WAS something, but it just HAD to be my evil older brother Knife!"

"Knife? Why's his name knife?" Chopper questioned. "…Oh! Now I get it! There's a Blade and a Knife! I'm starting to understand… They both have to do with something sharp like a sword and knife!"

"Who is this Knife you speak of, Blade?" Tipral questioned. "I have a feeling that I might've seen someone like him before."

"Well, he's a red cat, unlike me. He ended up turning against my sensai after Dark offered him something. Not only that, but he KILLED my sensai as well! I was trying to avenge my sensai by defeating him and taking Dark Doom down, since he too was involved in this." Blade explained.

"Interesting… I never knew that." Chopper gaped.

"Art thou all going to babblest on like that?" Luvbi frowned, waiting impatiently over by the red door. "My wings art getting tired! Don't makest a cute, angelic princess waitest like this!"

"Shuttest thy trap, you brat," Blade retorted.

"Art thou trying to copy my sharpened tongue? !"

"No, I was trying to copy your sharpened pencil!" Chopper and Tipral gave Blade a big face palm. "Hey! I was just making a point! I bet she has a sharpened pencil anyways! …Right?"

Luvbi stuck her tongue out at Blade before looking over at Chopper. "Pray, my sweet prince! Thou didst not tell me what thy age is! Please tell me!"

"Uhhhhhh… Fine. I'm ten years old." Chopper groaned. "Are you happy now?"

At this point, Luvbi was swooning even more. "Oh, Chopper! Thou art the same age as me! It DOTH be true! We art meant for each other!"

"No way!" Chopper cried, making a run for the door, jumping over Luvbi and kicking the door open into another area that didn't appear to have clouds above him. There only some cloud platforms to his right.

Tipral looked around the area. "Well, it looks like this is why they call it Overthere Pathway," he said as he moved to the end of the cloud using his air shoes.

"Hmmmmmm? I think I can see something up ahead…" Over by the next cloud, he saw two dark blue monster-like enemies with rectangle-shaped heads, rectangles for their bodies and circular hands. These weirdos were also carrying sharp spears that could pierce through anything.

"And then I told that guy to buzz off! Man, was it hilarious!" cackled the first monster.

"But that ended up gettin' you beaten down a pulp, didn't it?" the second monster questioned.

"Oh, yeah. It was pretty painful. I thought I was going to lose my butt. Trust me: you don't wanna mess with him. He warned me that if I did that to him next time, he was going to cut off my own head!"

The second monster gasped, but he paused for a minute. "Wait a minute… How could you lose your head when it easily grows back? We Skellobits always seem to throw our heads at those Nimbis."

Once Tipral walked over to the two Skellobits, they stopped and turned to him. "What the… Who the fudge are you? Are you friends to that blue furry dude that we saw runnin' past here?"

"I have no friends," Tipral grumbled, clenching his fists. "Get out of my way! I don't care what you're planning; I just want to get through so I can get to The Overthere!"

The two Skellobits immediately aimed their spears at him. "Oh, so you think yer goin' to The Overthere, are ya? ! Well, sorry, kid! We're most likely goin' to beat ya to the punch! That place is ours! And it will be before that darkness in the sky consumes this world!"

"Yeah, which was made by me," Tipral said before snapping his finger, making the two Skellobits fall off the cloud with his Star Magic. "Useless enemies! I haven't found a single person that can match me! …Well, I suppose Blade put up a fight, but that's about it!"

"Tipral, who were those guys?" Chopper questioned, jumping onto the cloud before him. Blade and Luvbi followed up as well.

"They're nobody special," Tipral said before walking over to the edge of the next cloud, only to find a pole that would lead up to a cloud a little bit above him. He used it to climb up to the cloud, where he noticed that there were some Lakitus roaming around this part of the cloud.

"Slow down, Tipral!" Chopper shouted as he made a big leap over to the cloud without climbing the pole. Blade grumbled as he climbed up the pole to Chopper and Tipral.

"Oh… Lakitus, huh? Well this'll be a treat!" Blade grinned as he drew his katana, only to gape when Chopper soon defeated it with a couple of stomps. "Hey! That was going to be mine!"

"Sorry, Blade, but I got here first," Chopper smirked as he used his Hi-Jump ability to reach the small cloud above him. Apparently Luvbi was able to get to the door first before he could.

"Oh, crud…" the Star Warrior smacked his forehead. "Are you going to keep talking about how cute I am and stuff? It's really bothering me…"

"Well, I doth be thinking about when we can arrange our marriage when we maketh our way to my father!" she smiled.

"Marriage? ! No way!" Chopper retorted.

"But thinkest about how people will react! They will think we art so ADORABLE together!" Hearts, once again, began to fly over Luvbi's head. She then looked at Chopper and fluttered closer to him.

"Don't try using your cuteness on me!" he shouted, protecting himself with his cape. "I'm pretty much immune to cute things…and people!"

Luvbi grabbed Chopper's cape and managed to reveal his cute face. "I just want to see if we can practice our kiss before marrying!"

"No, we don't have time for any of that crap," Blade said as he got onto the cloud. "We're not going to be talking about any of this romance stuff. Don't you understand that he doesn't LOVE you?"

"Shuttest thy trap, filthy creature!" Luvbi huffed, fluttering over to the door. "Why dost thou have to ruin every moment for me!"

She made her way into the door, making everyone shrug and follow her through. All they could find was a large cloud with a door all the way to the right, but what they didn't see was someone fleeing from a cloud covered in spikes firing lightning at him.

"Will you quit with the lightning? ! Sheesh! I didn't do anything to you!" the person cried, running past Chopper and the group.

"Whoa! I think that was Sonic!" Chopper gaped, looking over at Sonic, but the others were paying attention to the cloud that flew above them.

Sonic stopped after noticing the group. "Hey! Chopper! Blade! What're you doing here?"

"We should be asking the same thing to you," Blade said.

"…Wait a minute, why do you even have TIPRAL in you're group? !" Sonic got in a fighting stance while glaring at Tipral. "You don't even seem to give up the fight, do you?"

"Calm down, hedgehog," Tipral snapped. "I'm not here to kill you right now. I have a little problem of my own, along with your stupid little friend. You can simply thank Dimentio for taking my stuff!"

"Dimentio? Why did he take your stuff?"

"Apparently he had a plan of his own," Tipral clenched his fists in anger. "When I find him, I'm going to strangle him as long as I can! That stupid clown deserves to die after what he's done!"

"So, you're here to get revenge on him, huh? But why would you side with us? We've fought you in the past, right?"

"Yeah, we did, but after realizing that Chopper was trying to get to my castle too, I had pretty much no other choice but to work with him. I don't have the powers to teleport to my castle, unfortunately."

"Well, you better not be planning something! 'Cause if you are, then you're going to be in some big trouble!"

**Sonic has rejoined the group!**

"So, this is one of thy friends, right, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked, giving Sonic an irritated look.

"…Who the heck are you?"

"Mine given name is Luvbi. I am the Princess of The Underwhere and Overthere and the hideous dark one, filthy beast and my sweet, adorable, lovable prince art taking me to my home."

"Wait, who's your 'sweet prince'?" Sonic raised an eyebrow, but when Luvbi turned to Chopper, her irritated look changed into a cute smile.

"My sweet prince is over hither!" She was going to tackle him, but Chopper covered himself in his cape again. "Hee hee! Thou dost not need to be shy, Chopper! It's fine!"

"Pbbbbbbth! Oh, come on, Chopper! You're afraid of HER? !" Sonic snickered. "She probably wouldn't harm a fly!"

"I wouldst suggest that thou shuttest thy trap, Knave!" Luvbi snapped.

"Knave? ! That's NOT my name! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! Get it right, please!"

"So, then I shall call thee Knave the Hedgehog," she huffed.

"Grrrgghh… Wow… For an angelic girl, she sure is a pain…" he groaned.

"Tell me about it," agreed Blade.

While they spoke, the cloud rolled its one eye and zapped Sonic with his lightning attack. It glared down at the heroes, ready to fight them all. Chopper immediately looked up and recognized the cloud.

"Hey, it's Kracko! I didn't expect you to be around here!" Chopper smirked, getting in a fighting stance. "Sorry to keep you waiting, but we had to have a little conversation! You ready for a fight?"

Kracko charged up some electricity as it tried to attack, but Chopper managed to use Tippi to gather information on it.

"That's Kracko. This large cloud is covered in golden spikes… I don't know where this thing came from… Max HP is 70. Attack is 5. This cloud will attack you by swooping down, or it might even zap you with its electric attacks… When it fired that beam attack, make sure you're far away from it as possible… The big thing about this cloud is that it's covered in spikes, so if you touch it, you're going to take damage. However, I believe that the Hi-Jump ability will allow you to hit him… I don't understand how, but it seems that you can do so…"

"Yeah, Tippi's right. There's NO way you can hit that cloud! Those golden spikes really show that you're not going to be able to hit it." Sonic warned.

"Uhh… HELLO? ! I have the Hi-Jump ability on me!" Chopper stepped back as Kracko fired a lightning bolt down on the cloud, almost hitting Luvbi.

"Whoa!" Chopper immediately pulled Luvbi away from Kracko and holding her bridal style. "Look, I know you wanna be around me and all, but… I don't want you getting hurt."

"Dude, do you care about her?" Blade questioned.

"Shut up, Blade! I'm just trying to make sure someone doesn't get hurt, OK? I do this with a lot of people!" he barked.

"Well…" Sonic decided to lie down and rest. "There's nothing I can do to attack that thing. All of my attacks involve me going into a ball. So, I guess it's all up to you guys to take him down."

"Got it!" Chopper rushed towards Kracko after it used its beam attack and struck the cloud with a Hi-Jump attack. Kracko cringed, but it wasn't ready to let itself get hit by him.

"I suppose I'm going to have to use my far-ranged attacks," Tipral swung his arm, making a Star Spear strike Kracko in the eye. It shut its eye closed in pain as it swooped down, knocking Tipral back by the door.

"Urghh… So I finally fight something a bit more challenging! Not bad!" Tipral quickly shook his head and was about to snap his finger until he saw Blade toss a couple of shurikens at it.

"You think its eye's going to bleed from all of those shurikens?" Chopper asked.

"Ehhhh… I don't know." Blade shrugged, dodging Kracko's swoop attack with a jump. This allowed Tipral to strike the large cloud with Star Magic, making it blind for a couple of seconds.

"All right! I'll take care of this!" Chopper smirked as he struck Kracko with his Hi-Jump attack. But, once he parachuted down, the large cloud zapped him with its lightning attack.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi gasped.

"Calm down, Luvbi. He's taken on things worse." Sonic groaned.

After he quickly shook himself, he struck Kracko with another Hi-Jump. He even added a fireball to deal a bit more damage, but he got hit by Kracko's spikes when parachuting down.

"Ouch! I seriously need to avoid those spikes!" Chopper cried, holding his foot in pain.

"Then don't use that stupid attack then!" Tipral shouted, hurling a shadow ball straight at Kracko's eye. He was about to teleport and punch it, but he realized that he would only be hurting himself from the spikes.

"What's the matter, hideous creature? Art thou going to attack it? !" Luvbi asked with an irritated look.

"Oh, shut up, you brat! I'm trying to focus on my attacks!" Tipral clenched his fists at Luvbi, not knowing that Kracko flew over him and zapped him with its lightning attack.

"Ugh… Stupid little cloud!" Tipral's eyes turned red as he looked at Kracko. The large, spiked cloud suddenly froze in time, allowing Tipral to get in a couple of hits by striking it with Star Spears and Star Magic.

Afterwards, he made Kracko go back to normal. However, it ended up dropping a Waddle Doo to attack them.

"Wait a minute… It drops those things…?" Sonic gawked. "Hey, Tipral… Mind if I borrow Thoreau for a bit?"

"Go right ahead. It's not like I'm going to use him." Tipral replied.

"Oh, I never knew you weren't going to use me that much…" Thoreau frowned, going over to Sonic. The blue hedgehog grabbed the Waddle Doo with Thoreau and tossed it straight at Kracko's eye.

"Yes! NOW I'm finally beating things down the way I want to!" Sonic smirked.

Kracko glared at the heroes as it began to fire some heavy raindrops at them. Sonic was the only one to get hit, but he certainly didn't like being rained with a bunch of water.

"Ugh… It reminds me of Pristine Palisade!" he groaned, shaking the water off of him while Chopper punched Kracko's eye with a flaming punch while striking it with a Hi-Jump attack.

"You know, I think he's close to giving up now," Blade smirked tossing Hommissile straight at Kracko's eye.

While Kracko literally shed a tear, it swooped down at Blade in anger, knocking him to the door, but was soon struck by Tipral's Star Magic. Kracko turned to him and fired a couple of raindrops down on him.

"Watch out, Tipral! If he uses an electric attack, you might be in some deep yogurt!" Chopper warned.

"Then why don't YOU distract him while I try to dry off? !" suggested Tipral.

"Then I'll do just that!" Chopper smirked, hitting Kracko with another Hi-Jump attack. By now, it appeared that this cloud was soon finished, but then it zapped Chopper and stripped him of his Hi-Jump ability with its beam attack.

"No way! He got rid of my ability? !" he gaped as he fell onto the cloud. Kracko dropped a Waddle Doo on him, but it was soon inhaled and swallowed by the Star Warrior, making him gain the Beam ability.

"I guess I'll hold onto this for right now," Chopper swung his wand, making a beam fire out and hit Kracko's eye.

"Just give me MORE time to dry off. I'll be ready to finish this thing off soon enough." Tipral said, still waiting to dry off.

"Man, you seriously don't wanna get zapped, do you…" Blade rolled his eyes as he weakened Kracko a little bit by tossing a couple of shurikens at its eye. By now, it looked like its HP was almost depleted.

"Thou can dost it, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cheered while ignoring the others.

Chopper groaned as he charged up a beam attack and fired it straight at Kracko once it swooped down to attack him. This left it stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Hmmmmm? I think it's almost defeated…" Tippi informed.

"Good. Then I can finish it off!" Tipral immediately made a dash towards Kracko, tossing a Star Spear straight at its eye. It suddenly made the cloud creature's eye exploded after the clouds disappeared on it.

Luvbi fluttered over to the group. "Well, that was a bit strange… But I cannot believest thou hast defeated that cloud, my love!" She hugged Chopper once again, making him blush nervously.

"Wow… She's clingy, isn't she?" Sonic asked.

"Yes… _Very_ clingy." Chopper frowned.

"So… Care to explain to me what The Overthere is, little girl? I'm pretty sure you're the one that knows about this place…"

Luvbi let go of Chopper and turned to Sonic. "The Overthere is where I livest. It is full of Nimbis such as mineself. So don't thinkest that thou can slow us down, Knave!"

"Slow you down? I can run faster than the speed of sound though! I couldn't slow anyone down! …And will you stop calling me Knave? ! My name's Sonic!"

"Hmph! Well I dost not careth what thy name is. I will only callest thee Knave!" Luvbi huffed, fluttering over to the door. "Don't dawdle around hither forever! My wings will get tired!"

"Wow… I can't believe she's acting like that towards us… How long was she with you guys?"

"Well, I can say that the queen of The Underwhere told us to escort her to The Overthere…" explained Chopper. "It's…very painful."

"What do you mean by 'painful'?"

"She…kisses me! It's _gross_!"

"Really? That doesn't sound so bad…" Sonic frowned, following Chopper and the group over by the door. They ended up coming across a cloudy loop in the next area, as well as some Lakitus floating above the clouds.

"Hoo boy! Now this is what I'm talking about!" Sonic smirked as he curled up in a ball and made his way towards the loop. After going through it, he ended up running into the Star Block.

"That's it? We already made it to the end of the level?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.

As soon as Chopper made his way through the loop, he gawked as he looked up at the block. "It looks like it… I didn't know it would be over so soon."

Nevertheless, you punched the Star Block.

"We art finally getting closer, my sweet prince!" Luvbi squealed.

"Stop calling me your prince!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After venturing through Overthere Walkway, our heroes began to see the clouds go higher up this time. "Makest sure that thou art not slowing down! I dost not want to maketh our way to The Overthere when thou all art moving so slow!" "I doth hope Father allowests me to marry my sweet prince!" Luvbi continued to babble on as they walked their way through the clouds. "GEEZ! I mean, do you REALLY have to say all of this? ! It's getting so tiring for me and everyone else! Just… Just stop with it!" Sonic couldn't take much of it, but they soon found a large cloud up ahead. Where could that possibly lead them?_


	43. Fury in an Apple

**CHAPTER 7-4**

**-Fury in an Apple-**

Chopper, Sonic, Blade and Tipral managed to make their way up to the large cloud without the use of being able to jump high. Even though Chopper felt like he wanted Luigi to be here, there was nothing he could do about it. Aside from that, they noticed all of the clouds above them. The sky itself was a bright blue color, compared to the dark blue color in Overthere Walkway. There was also a sign right by Tipral's side that had something interesting.

"It says, 'Stair 1,'" Tipral stated from the sign. "What do they mean by 'stair'? Tell us where we are this instant, you little brat!"

"Hmmph! Fine! I'll tallest where thou art, yon hideous being!" Luvbi huffed, turning away from him with her nose stuck up. "We art in **Overthere Stair**. It shall taketh us up to The Overthere. But I will sayest that it may not be easy for thee, for thou dost not have wings!"

"I do have my teleportation powers, you know. Even without the Dark Star Scepter and Dark Prognosticus, I can still teleport from a little distance, such as above a cloud or across a gap. I don't NEED wings to get through here!"

"I had that Hi-Jump ability from before. I don't think I would need wings to get through here." Chopper agreed, moving his jester hat a bit back, since the wind was blowing from behind.

"I knowest that thou dost not needeth wings, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled. "Thou art already able to maketh thy way up the clouds! Thou art so amazing, so there is nothing that can stopeth thee!"

"Ugh… So when are you going to stop praising me over everyone else when I don't technically do it?"

"Let's save it for later, Chopper," suggested Sonic, who was stretching his legs. "There's nothing we can do to change her opinion. All we can do is try to make our way to The Overthere, though."

"And that's what I WANT to do right now!" Tipral grumbled.

Luvbi fluttered right in front of Chopper. "So, my prince… Thou dost have money to buyest a wedding ring for us, dost thou not?" she asked out of curiosity while hearts flew over her head.

"Wait, you want ME to buy a ring when I don't even have interest in you? !" Chopper backed away while his eyes were widened in fear. "And let's be HONEST here! I'm too young to get married!"

"He does have a point…" Tippi trailed.

Luvbi gave Tippi an irritated look. "Pray, art thou still onto me like this? Thou aren't going to changeth what I sayest!"

Before Tippi could yell at her, she turned back to Chopper with her cute smile. "Well, I might as well maketh my way up Overthere Stair, so keepest up if thou canst! If thou climbest too slowly, the sun will set, so shaketh a leg, my sweet prince!"

Luvbi kissed Chopper's cheek before fluttering up to the end of the first stair. Chopper, on the other hand, was gagging and wiping Luvbi's girly kiss off of his cheek, saying that he'll disinfect his cheek when he gets home.

"Man, that girl is just… I don't know what to say." Sonic said with a confused look. "She seems kinda clingy when she's around you, but bratty around us. How did she fall in love with you in the first place?"

"Well, all I have to say is blame finding her," Chopper groaned. "When she saw me, she immediately fell in love with me."

"So, are we just going to sit here and do nothing? I mean, we have a Pure Heart to find!" Blade said.

"Oh, yeah. We better do that!" Chopper jumped up the first two clouds, only to find a Parabuzzy appear right in front of him. With a simple charged up beam attack, he destroyed the Parabuzzy.

The other three followed him up two more small clouds and then up onto one bigger cloud with an Ice Cherbil and three yellow ? blocks. Sonic took out the Ice Cherbil with a Homing Attack.

"We should check these ? blocks first," suggested Tipral, who hit all three. Coins came out of the first and third block, but the middle block had a Super Shroom. He took it and split it into four for all four of them to have, recovering 20 HP.

"I'm surprised that you're sharing that…" Tippi trailed surprisingly.

"Don't ask me why. If they die, then there's no hope for me getting to the castle." Tippral grumbled. "That bratty girl wouldn't want me taking her to her home anyways."

Chopper noticed a yellow platform moving down to the cloud that they were on and jumped on it. Sonic, Blade and Tipral also got themselves onto the cloud and waited for it to bring them up to a small cloud with a larger cloud above them.

"Oh, great. I can't reach that cloud!" Chopper frowned.

"Then maybe I should teleport us up there," Tipral grabbed everyone's' arm and teleported them to the cloud above them. They noticed between the gap of the two clouds, there was a Spiky Parabuzzie.

"I got this one!" Chopper pulled his hammer out and smashed the Spiky Parabuzzie with one hit. He then jumped onto the Ice Cherbil across the gap while performing a stylish move.

"Hey, there's a spring!" Sonic grinned as he jumped on the spring that sent him up to the next cloud above him. To the right was a cloud with eyes and to the left there were two Parabuzzies.

After the other three reached the cloud he was on, Blade turned to the Parabuzzies. "I'm better off taking these guys out with Hommissile… So…"

Blade sent Hommissile after the two Parabuzzies, exploding upon impact. "Oh yeah! Now THIS is pretty entertaining!" he fist pumped before hearing the sound of three bounces on the cloud.

"Oh, crap!" He jumped onto the cloud as well, sending him up to greater heights. He even skipped a couple of clouds as well!

"Huh… I expected there to be something here. Oh well." Chopper smashed the two Parabuzzies in their way with his hammer, then he jumped onto the other cloud with the face, which sent him up to a small cloud with a red door and sign.

"Another one of these signs? I might as well read it." After Tipral landed on the cloud, he walked over to the sign and read it.

_Here Endeth Stair 1_

"Well at least they're telling us that this stair is over," Sonic let out a deep sigh. "I don't know about this place… The water area was pretty bad, but if we fall, it's game over for us!"

"Oh, thou art going to be fine, Knave! Thy whining won't changeth anything!" Luvbi huffed.

"Stop with the 'Knave' stuff already!" Sonic grumbled as he walked into the next door with the others. Tipral immediately read the next sign that was in front of them before doing anything else.

_Stair 2_

"Yea, verily. We art at the second stair." Luvbi stated, fluttering up ahead, but not before turning to the others. "Anyways, I will be waiting for thee as always, my sweet prince! Stay cleareth from the enemies!"

She blew a kiss at Chopper before fluttering up, making the Star Warrior use his jester hat as a shield.

"Pbbbbbbbth! I can't believe you're scared when she blows a kiss at you!" Blade said, bursting in laughter. "It's so hilarious!"

"Shut up, Blade!" Chopper frowned, turning back to the right. He noticed a green angel-like enemy that was firing an arrow shaped like a heart at him. "Well, looks like I can get a new power-up!"

Chopper threw his Beam ability away and inhaled the green angel-like creature. He was now donning white, angelic wings on the back part of his head (or back), a bow and arrow with the arrows being heart-shaped, and a yellow, glowing halo on top of his head. Some may call him Cupid Chopper, but in this, we call him Angel Chopper.

Up ahead, they saw three yellow ? blocks together, along with a Boomboxer walking on top of the blocks. Chopper decided to test out his new ability by charging up an arrow attack and firing it at the Boomboxer.

"You look like you're some sort of angel," Blade commented.

"Well that's because I DO look like one!" Chopper frowned, hitting the three blocks. Two of the three had Zombie Shrooms, while the other one had a Speed Flower pop out, to their surprise.

"And what's that supposed to be?" Tipral asked.

"It's a Speed Flower. It'll make time go faster…" Tippi informed as Chopper grabbed the Speed Flower. Everything started to feel incredibly fast.

"Whatintheworld?! Uhohit'sincrediblyfast!" Sonic shouted.

"Shutup! Don'tspeak! It'snotgood!" Chopper shouted as he hit the next row of yellow ? blocks. He ended up knocking the Boomboxer off, but three Zombie Shrooms popped out of them.

"I'lltakecareofthese!" Tipral snapped his finger, striking each of the Zombie Shrooms that were moving around. Because of the Speed Flower, they got triple points for taking them out.

But, the Speed Flower's effect soon went away and the three heroes and Tipral were now going at a normal pace. Blade even took the time to take out the Parabuzzy near him with his katana.

"All right, now that that's taken care of… Let's move on." Chopper jumped, but was surprised when he found himself flying with his wings. "Oh! I almost forgot about those!"

He immediately flew up to the cloud above him, but saw nothing there, so he flew up to the cloud above. All there was was a Save Block, but nevertheless, he hit it anyways.

"Dang! I wish I was able to jump high!" Sonic grumbled, getting help from Tipral's teleportation to reach the cloud.

"Allow me to finish off that Spiky Parabuzzy first," Tipral jumped onto the smaller cloud with the Spiky Parabuzzy and destroyed it with a Star Punch. He punched it to the side so the spike didn't harm him.

With that enemy out of the way, they jumped over a couple of small clouds until they got to another Springy Cloud – a name that Blade came up with.

"Another one of these things? Man! They sure are throwing a couple of these at us, aren't they?" Sonic asked as he jumped onto the Springy Cloud. Chopper shrugged and followed him up as well, passing through many other stairs of clouds.

As soon as they stopped skyrocketing, they fell onto a cloud platform with another Springy Cloud. They took that one up to another cloud platform with another Springy Cloud.

"It's like we can use these to go up without even going through this whole place!" Blade grinned as he skyrocketed up to a higher cloud platform. This time, they found a Boomboxer and two Ruff Puff clouds.

"Uh oh… We're in some trouble." Chopper gulped, pulling an arrow out. "But I think I can handle these guys!"

He fired a single arrow at all three enemies, but he noticed that it didn't take them down yet.

"I'll finish this!" Blade drew his katana out and performed a couple of slices on the Boomboxer and the two Ruff Puffs. "Now THAT'S how you do it!"

"Well… OK. Fine by me." Chopper flew up with his wings and began to flutter over the cloud, taking care of another Ruff Puff cloud that wasn't destroyed by Blade with some arrows and fireballs.

"You know, that Ice Cherbil's attack up ahead can be countered with fire…" Tippi informed.

"Really? Well thanks for telling that, Tippi!" Chopper tossed a fireball at the Ice Cherbil across another cloud platform below the one he was previously on, melting the ice gas and also hitting the Ice Cherbil, taking it out in one hit.

"Do they seriously think that these guys are much of a challenge? They're EASY!"

"Well, what about those Ruff Puffs? I'm sure that those things could do some heavy damage to you with their electric attacks." Sonic informed.

"That's true, but they're not hard to dodge," Chopper flew up a couple of small clouds until he found another Springy Cloud.

"Another one of those? They make Overthere Stair seem easier for people who can't fly!" Tipral frowned as he jumped on the Springy Cloud. No one knew why he was frowning, but they followed him up to a cloudy platform with a Boomboxer.

"Heh! This should be another easy one!" Chopper smirked aiming a charged arrow at the Boomboxer. But, he stopped when he saw Tipral defeat it with a stomp and a Star Spear. "Hey! I was going to take care of it!"

"Well you're too late on that," Tipral noticed that there was a large gap over by the cloudy platform they were on and the other small cloudy platform that Luvbi was fluttering over at.

"There's a lift that's coming this way. We can take it to get over to that brat."

"Well I'm going to use my Angel ability to get across," Chopper used his wings to fly across the gap and make his way over to the red door. But he first looked at the sign next to the door.

_Here Endeth Stair 2_

"Oh… Well I guess this stair is finished. How many of these stairs are they?" Chopper questioned while scratching his head.

"Chopper!" Luvbi chirped, almost making Chopper get startled. "I canst believest that thou art looking so adorable with those wings and that halo!"

"Huh?" Chopper turned to the lovesick Luvbi, who blushed at the sight of Angel Chopper. "…Don't tell me you love me more when I have this ability on me, don't you?"

Luvbi giggled. "Thou art so silly! Dost thou verily think that I wouldst hate thee in that cute costume? It makes me love thee even more!"

She let out a sweet and cute sigh as she fell into Chopper's arms, who was now holding her bridal style. He, of course, was looking very nervous, with his whole body shivering and his cheeks turning bright red.

"H-Hey! Wh-What are you trying to pull off?!" Chopper stammered.

"My sweet prince! This doth feel like pure romance right hither!" she smiled while her eyes closed. Her cheeks were a soft pink as well. "Thou dost remind me of my kind…except thou art cuter!"

"Could you please not do this? You're making me feel incredibly nervous! I mean, my friends are probably going to…"

"Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt your 'moment'," Blade snickered as he jumped onto the cloudy platform, along with Sonic and Tipral.

Luvbi stuck her tongue out at the three before looking back at Chopper. "Oh, Chopper… Kiss me!"

She puckered up, ready to receive her kiss, while Chopper shivered in fear. Blade continued to snicker until Sonic nudged him and told him to be quiet.

"Art thou going to kiss me, my prince? I'm waaaaaaiting!" Luvbi huffed, frowning at Chopper.

"But I'm not a boy who enjoys kissing! Kissing is for girls! …And old people!" he gagged.

Getting tired of hearing Chopper go on on why kissing is gross, she brought her head up to Chopper and kissed him on the lips, even knocking him to the ground. She even kissed him a couple of more times because of how much she loved him!

"Yeah… Now that kind of reminds me of Amy right there." Sonic gawked. "Thank goodness that's not me."

"BLECK! Th-That was HORRIBLE!" Chopper cried, wiping the kisses off his face as he got up.

"Y'know, it's funny… I thought you were more mature than this?"

"Well, I am, Sonic… It's just that… I don't want to have a girlfriend!" he kicked the door open and tried to get away from Luvbi before he could be kissed by her once again.

"Oh, Chopper! Thou art so funny!" she giggled as she followed him through the door, swooning over the little hero.

"Bleh! Love is pretty useless, if I could say so myself." Tipral gagged.

"And why would you hate love?" Sonic asked.

"That's just because it ruins people's lives. They're stuck with that person. _Forever_. And if that person doesn't want to be with the other… Well, then they're going to have to go through a lot to break up with him or her."

Tipral walked through the door afterwards, leaving Sonic and Blade with confused looks. Nevertheless, they followed him through the door to the next area. They were all standing on a large cloud at this very moment, but there were still some clouds up ahead.

_Stair 3_

"Yup. That's what the sign states." Blade stated, reading the sign.

"Ah, so I've finally found you!" the sound of that voice caught Blade off guard when he saw his brother, Knife, standing across from him and his group of friends. "I see you've made some interesting friends, Blade!"

"Wait… Who's this guy?" Chopper asked.

"My name's Knife. I'm Blade's older brother. I was given a promise that if I found and killed the people who were searching for the Pure Heart, I would come back to life! It's pretty simple, if you ask me." Knife explained.

"Knife? What a weird name…"

"It's kind of a long story, Chopper…" Blade trailed. "Wait a minute… Last time I saw you, you couldn't even hurt me! What makes you think that you're going to win this fight?"

"Oh, I DO have things taken care of!" Knife grinned, pulling out a remote. "You see, I was given a garbage can robot to take care of you guys. All I have to do is get it out and presto! It's finished!"

After pressing the button on the remote, a navy blue trash can robot with red eyes and purple suction cups for hands came down in front of the group.

"As much as I'd rather WANT to kill you guys myself… My powers are useless. So, I suppose this will do better! I guess today is…GARBAGE DAY!" Knife cackled until the robot, Trashy, stopped moving.

"Uhhhh… What just happened?" Blade asked.

"Oh, it's just a little malfunction, I suppose. That's not too bad. …But seriously, get moving, robot!"

Trashy turned back on, but instead of attacking the heroes, it began to dance.

"Thou callest this a battle robot? Pah! It rather remindest me of a ballerina!" Luvbi scoffed.

"What the… I never pressed 'dance' on this thing!" Knife growled. "You useless piece of scrap metal! MOVE! …Or it might be this remote! That cheapskate…"

Knife smashed the remote, but it only triggered Trashy to stop moving and actually get in a fighting stance. "Oh… Well I guess that _did_ something. Enjoy the fight, 'cause I bet this thing'll kill ya!"

And at that moment, Knife disappeared out of thin air thanks to a smoke bomb.

"Ugh… I can't believe that this thing is holding us off…" Tippi groaned.

"Well, at least we can get some information on this thing so we can find a way to beat it!" Chopper assured, using Tippi's powers to gather information on the blue trash can robot.

"That's Trashy. It's a mechanical trash can that has suction cups on its arms… Max HP is 75, Attack is 5, Defense is 2. This thing will normally attack you by sucking you into its suction cups, or it just might throw its lid at you if necessary… It will also throw some garbage at you too... Ugh… I find that to be disgusting! Watch out when it summons small Trashers. Those could rush into you and distract you for a while… But they could be useful if you inhale them…" Tippi informed.

"All right, I got that!" Chopper smirked as he flew up with his angelic wings. As he fired an arrow at Trashy, Luvbi swooned over him as usual.

"Thou ART like an angel!" she sighed sweetly.

"Yes… We know that." Tipral groaned as he swung his arm, firing a Star Spear straight at Trashy. It didn't knock the trash can down, but it certainly made it cringe in pain to let Sonic knock it down with a Spin Dash.

Trashy pulled some garbage out of itself and it rolled it straight at Blade. He jumped straight onto it and threw a couple of shurikens at the garbage can.

"This fight is so easy!" Blade scoffed. "I mean, its attacks are INCREDIBLY easy to dodge!"

"Don't get your hopes up, Blade… It can summon a couple of Trashers if it wanted to…" Tippi warned.

Trashy made a signal and three pink trash cans came hopping over to it. It also pulled a bin out and threw it on top of Blade so it could throw a large Thwomp down on him that can deal heavy damage.

"Blade! Watch out!" Chopper shouted, trying to fire arrows at the Thwomp. Of course, it didn't work out. "You're going to have to dodge the Thwomps coming down on you! Tippi will tell you when to move and when NOT to move!"

"All right! I got ya! …I just can't see through this stupid thing!" Blade shouted as he began to move around with his arms wailing around. Tippi informed him to move to his right, so he did just that to avoid a Thwomp coming down.

"Let's just take care of these trash…" Tipral was soon interrupted when Trashy sucked him into its suction cup and then threw him into one of the Trashers.

"No worries, I'll get him out," Sonic struck Trashy with a Spin Jump first and then attacked the Trasher that got a hold of Tipral with a Homing Attack, blowing it up and setting Tipral free.

"All right, now you're going to suffer some true pain!" Tipral growled as he teleported in front of Trashy, striking it with a couple of Star Punches and Star Kicks…but he was then knock back by a piece of trash it fired at him.

"My sweet prince! Please dost something!" Luvbi begged, looking at him with her soft eyes.

"Just stop calling me your prince…" Chopper trailed as he charged up an arrow and fired it at Trashy, catching its attention.

Trashy grabbed one of the Trashers and dumped any trash that was inside. All that it could dump out were some small papers and a pair of underpants. It decided to throw it away afterwards.

"Yeah… I'm not too fond of these kind of robots…" Blade said as he got the bin off his head. He delivered a flaming slash on Trashy with his katana, setting the robot on fire. But, even with that it didn't take it out.

"Hold on… It's going to come straight at you!" Tippi warned, seeing Trashy charge at Sonic.

"Huh? Whoa!" Sonic jumped out of the way to avoid Trashy's rage. Once it turned around, Sonic struck it with a Spin Jump and then used Screwdy's corkscrew to bring its cover down.

"All right, so Trashy can't see us right now, so I might as well attack," Chopper smirked as he charged up an arrow and fired it at Trashy. It stuck to its butt, but it didn't yelp or any of that sort of crap.

"…Nothing else? Aw, man!" he dropped down on Trashy and stomped on him with flames on his feet, performing a stylish move as well as he landed on the ground.

Chopper fired rapidly at Trashy with his arrows, although not all of them hit the trash can. Some of them got sucked into Trashy's suction cups and were fired back at him. He ducked, but when the trash can came charging he was knocked away.

"What a wimp," Tipral stated as he snapped his finger, making Trashy get struck by Star Magic. He immediately rushed at it afterwards, striking it with a couple of Star Kicks before teleporting away.

"Do I seriously need to say that this fight is easy?" Sonic asked after striking Trashy with a Spin Dash. "This thing is just too slow for us! Plus, it's just trash!"

Trashy, after hearing Sonic, steamed with anger as it pulled out a large boulder of trash and tossed it at him, knocking him back over to the group like bowling pins.

"So it's putting up more of a fight… So be it." Tipral hurled a shadow ball at the battered-up trash can, then he struck it with a Star Spear. A hole was made in Trashy, leaving it severely wounded.

"Well, it's almost finished, I guess," Chopper stated, looking at the injured trash can.

"I'll finish it," Tipral cracked his knuckles before teleporting in front on Trashy. He brought his fist back to charge up a Star Punch and then after a couple of seconds, he unleashed his powerful Star Punch on the poor trash can, knocking it to the ground.

"Hmph. Still not finished yet?" Tipral jumped on top of the battered Trashy and looked down at it. The Trashers tried to help, but he destroyed them with a couple of Star Spears. There were even some flames around them.

"Whoa, hold on a minute, Tipral! We're not here to burn this whole place up!" Chopper warned.

"That will not be allowed hither!" Luvbi snapped. "If thou planest on burning this world, thou art going to payest!"

"Shut up. I'm not going to burn this world." Tipral retorted, kicking Trashy with an intense Star Kick. Apparently, this caused Trashy to malfunction. It got itself up and ran straight towards the cliff, falling straight into The Underwhere.

"It… It committed suicide?" Tippi gawked.

"Looks like it," Sonic stated, turning back to everyone else. "So… How's about we keep on going, huh? I can see a couple of Boomboxers up ahead that are sending their shockwaves at us."

"Wait, what?" Chopper's antennas perked before getting struck by a Boomboxer's shockwave. Blade was also struck by it.

"Whoa! Looks like these guys are asking for a fight!" Blade tossed Hommissile at the first Boomboxer, blowing it off of the cloud. Chopper flew up with his angelic wings and fired a charged arrow down at the other Boomboxer, destroying it.

"So… Luvbi, where do these enemies go after their games ended in this place?" Chopper questioned.

"I'll tell thee…if thou givest me a kiss!" Luvbi giggled.

"Well no thanks!" Chopper gagged as he turned away from her. She huffed as she flew on ahead to wait for the heroes to make their way up.

"Hey, look! Another one of these Springy Clouds!" Blade jumped on the Springy Cloud, which launched him through many other clouds. He landed right in front of a red door. However, Luvbi wasn't there.

"HA! That brat's too slow to get to us now!"

"I can hear thee, thou knowest!" Luvbi yelled.

As soon as the other three landed on the cloud, they also took notice of the red door. "We should see what's through this door," suggested Sonic as he opened the door to a small area with a white tree.

"What the… What the heck is that?"

"Wow… What a beautiful tree." Chopper walked up to the white tree and noticed the rainbow on it. "How come I've never seen trees like that? And what are those apples anyways?"

"Only one way to find out," Blade drew his katana and rushed towards the tree.

"Wait! No! Don't cut the tree down, Blade!" Chopper shouted, making Blade pause. "This isn't how you get fruit down from a tree! Plus, you're going to kill this wonderful thing!"

"What are you, a hippie?"

"No. No I'm not." Chopper gave Blade an irritated look as he walked up to the tree. "Look. If you want to get fruit down from a tree, you gotta use something that can knock the fruit down. Like this!"

He pulled his hammer out and slammed it on the tree. One of the light blue fruits on the tree fell off and landed right in front of Chopper. He picked up the Blue Apple and put it in his inventory.

"Say… This fruit reminds me of those fruit I saw back on my home planet up in the sky… Are they the same thing as these?"

"I wouldn't be too sure on that. If they have some sort of effect on you, then don't be too sure on that." Tipral walked over to the red door. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to waste my time in this world."

The group sighed as they followed Tipral back into the previous area they were in. To their left, they could see two Ruff Puff clouds charging up an electric attack as soon as they caught sight of them.

"This shouldn't be too hard," if Tipral were to smirk, he would be. He snapped his finger and struck both Ruff Puffs. After that, he stomped on the two while performing a stylish move.

"I got the Boomboxer!" Chopper fluttered up with his wings and fired three arrows straight at the Boomboxer, doing triple the damage a normal arrow would do against an enemy.

"Nice!" he smirked as he flew up to the cloud above. The others used the brown blocked platforms that acted like stairs up to the small cloud. They then jumped onto a larger cloud above them that had an Ice Cherbil.

"Oh great… Another butt." Blade rolled his eyes and he tossed a shuriken at it. The Boomboxer up on the brown platform fired its shockwaves, but two shurikens did it in.

They jumped up a couple of clouds until they reached two yellow ? blocks. One contained a coin, while the other contained only a Mushroom. Nevertheless, they all shared it and recovered 10 HP.

When they reached up to two more clouds, they saw that the next cloud above them was too high to reach. Chopper was able to fly up there easily, but the others couldn't get themselves up there.

"Oh, fine… I'll help you guys get up there. I guess it's for the best anyways." Chopper flew down to the group, with Sonic first grabbing his feet, then Blade grabbed Sonic's feet and Tipral grabbed Blade's.

"Are you sure this is going to work out?" Tippi gawked.

"Well, we managed to cross over a pit of spikes in Fort Francis with all three of us on Carrie at once. I bet we could do something like this." Chopper assured. "Right, Sonic?"

"Hmmmmm… Yeah, I remember doing that…" Sonic trailed. "I gotta say… That was probably the most awkward thing I've done in my entire life. No joke."

"Wait a minute… I just realized something."

"What?"

"There's no cloud above here."

Everyone except for Chopper: *Face palm*

"OK, so you're telling me that we did all of this for nothing?!" Tipral exclaimed.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeyup."

"Wow… You're probably the biggest idiot I've ever met." Upon hearing this, Chopper managed to drop Tipral on the cloud. The dark being was about to attack him, but decided not to.

"Hold on a second, I'm going to try something," Chopper threw his arms up in the air and flipped into 3-D. He saw a row of yellow ? blocks across. But, since he could fly, he simply flew over them while Sonic and Blade held onto his feet.

Once Chopper flipped back to 2-D, they were all on a cloud across from the other one. Tipral noticed that they were over there, but he wasn't going to make any comments, so he simply teleported over to them.

"OK, I know for a fact that there IS a cloud above us. However, I can't carry you all, since I'm not really good with carrying people heavier than me." Chopper stated as he flew up to the cloud above him.

"He always seems to act like a wimp, refusing to do things for others because he's not strong," Tipral stated.

"Well, he's only ten years old. You honestly expect him to be able to carry one of us? I don't think so." Sonic replied.

"Whatever…" Tipral groaned as he teleported both Sonic and Blade up to the cloud above them. Right next to them was a cloud with a red door. Luvbi was waiting over there, being impatient as she usually was.

Sonic struck the two Boomboxers with a Homing Attack before going to the sign that Luvbi was floating above.

_Here Endeth Stair 3_

"What tooketh thee all so long?! Why didst thou have to makest poor, cute me wait hither for a long time?" Luvbi asked.

"Luvbi… You can FLY!" Sonic shouted. "We, on the other hand, don't have the ability to do so. So, stop with it, OK?"

"Fine, Knave," Luvbi huffed, fluttering over to Chopper. "So, my sweet prince… How dost thou like Overthere Stair? Doth it feel romantic to thee?"

"No… And I don't want to talk about any more romance." Chopper gagged as he walked through the door. Everyone else followed him into another area of Overthere Stair, where they found a sign right next to them.

_Stair 4_

"God! How many of these stairs do we need to go anyways? ! I'm getting tired of going through Overthere Stair!" Blade groaned. "It's like this whole chapter's taking freakin' forever!"

"Shut up, Blade. We'll get there eventually." Chopper assured as he flew up two clouds and found a lift to his right. He ignored it and flew up to a cloud above him that led to another door.

"Hey! I found another door!" he smiled as the others made their way up to him.

"Wait… We're finally at the end of the stair?" Blade gaped.

"Don't get your hopes up, Blade. I saw a lift that goes even higher. Don't get your hopes up." Tipral stated, making Blade groan as they walked through the door.

"It's another one of these rooms…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, on kidding and… Huh?" Chopper noticed over by the tree to his left, Kirby was sleeping on it with a piece of a golden apple bit off. "Guys! Come over here! I think I found Kirby!"

"What?!"

"You found Kirby?!"

"Ugh… You found ANOTHER one of your friends?"

All three raced over to Chopper, where they found Kirby sleeping on the tree with a golden apple.

"You're right, Chopper… It's Kirby!" Sonic gaped.

"_Zzzzzzzzzzzz…_" Kirby snored.

"It appears that Kirby's sleeping…" Tippi trailed, fluttering over to the pink puffball.

"Of COURSE he gets to go to this place while I'm stuck in The Underwhere," Blade pouted, folding his arms. "And what did I ever do to go to that place anyways? I did good things…"

"Blade, I should be asking myself the same thing…" Chopper said with an irritated look. He turned back to the sleeping Kirby. "OK, Kirby… So how about you get yourself up and we can get going, huh? Kirby? KIRBY?!"

"_Zzzzzzzzzzzz…_"

"I don't think that's going to work…" Sonic trailed.

"I bet Kirby's in some sort of deep sleep. I highly doubt that he's going to wake up." Tipral growled.

"That's because you're not doing it right, Chopper," Blade walked up to the front. "Now THIS is how you do it! _**LEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIINS!**_"

"…What the HECK was that supposed to be?!" Chopper gawked.

"What? I had to try _SOMETHING_…"

"_Zzzzzzzzzzzz…_"

"Yeah… It's not working." Chopper said with an annoyed look, until he saw the apple beside Kirby. "Hey! At least I've got an apple to eat!"

But before he could eat the apple, he heard a familiar voice.

"Ah me… Prithee, tell me… Kirby, I presume?" Luvbi fluttered into the scene. She noticed the golden apple in Chopper's hands. "He hath eaten of the golden fruit. He lacketh the common sense, I fear."

"Golden fruit? You mean...this?" Chopper took a look at the golden fruit before Luvbi grabbed it and threw it off the cloud. "Hey! What was that for? I was going to eat that thing!"

"I was just trying to savest thee, my sweet prince," Luvbi said in a sweet voice. "I canst tallest thee what it is. The Overthere teemeth with magical trees whose fruit maketh many an odd effect. The fruit of golden hue maketh people so satisfied, they falleth into deep sleep. And I mean DEEP sleep… The kind thou dost not wake up from for a hundred years…"

Everyone jumped up in shock, except for Tipral.

"Wh-What?! A hundred years?!" Chopper gasped.

"But… But… That's not enough time to save the universe!" Sonic gaped.

"We can't go on without him!" Blade frowned.

"And I suppose there's something that CAN wake up this pink puffball, is there?" Tipral asked with an irritated look. Luvbi gave him a glare.

"Pray, wherefore would I know of such…" she paused for a moment and her expression changed. "Ah, but hold a moment… I do remember my father's words of long ago. Yea, he said one trees in The Overthere bore a taboo fruit that could waketh anyone…"

"Taboo fruit? So THAT'S what those apples are called…" Chopper trailed.

"So… What kind of tree would hold something like that anyway?" Blade asked.

"Pray… Wherefore should I know, huh?!"

"Well, obviously you live here…" Sonic trailed. "So, you _should_ know where it is…"

"Givest me a break, Knave! I dost not wander around hither looking for fruits!" Luvbi retorted.

"And why do you always have to start with 'pray'?" Blade questioned. "Now THAT'S getting a bit irritating…"

"Ugh… So, first we have to go to The Overthere, and now we have to look for some sort of fruit? That's nice…" Chopper groaned.

"I'd rather just see him sleep for a hundred year," Tipral said. "I'm pretty sure he'll be dead before then anyway."

"Tipral! Why do you have to be so insensitive?!" Tippi snapped. Tipral glared at her before turning away from her.

"So, yon Kirby… Thou all doth want to wakest up someone of such…gumballness…" Luvbi fluttered back over to the door and huffed as she turned to the group. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmph! Do what thou wantest! I am NOT helping! I am SULKING!"

"Yeah, go and fly away…_you son of a-_" Blade grumbled, only to get punched in the gut by Chopper. "Hey! What the heck was that for?!"

"Look, I know you hate that girl and all, but I personally don't find that to be respective to girls," Chopper stated.

"I respect girls! I mean, I'm not going to treat a girl with respect if she's going to insult me all the time. And why are you telling me NOT to be mean to her? Do you seriously LIKE that brat?"

"I don't like her at all, Blade… Having to deal with all of her kisses is pure horror. You don't understand, Blade… You just don't understand."

"Well, I'm pretty sure that's how a kid feels when they get kissed by a girl, but I'm pretty sure you'll grow out of that when you get older," Sonic assured.

"Says the one who doesn't like being chased by Amy…"

"Hey! …Er, whatever. Let's just find that apple. Hopefully we can find the right one…"

"Wait! What about the Blue apple I have?" Chopper pulled out the Blue Apple. "Maybe this is it!"

He shoved it into Kirby's mouth. "Well, I do hope this wakes Kirby up…" Tippi trailed.

To their surprise, Kirby turned into the size of an ant. Chopper, Sonic and Blade all gaped at the small Kirby.

"I-I guess it's not THAT one…" Tippi trailed as Kirby went back to normal size.

"I suppose the right one is somewhere that's not AROUND here…" Tipral stated with his arms folded.

"Then how about we get over there, huh?" Chopper suggested.

When they left the area, they noticed that Luvbi was fluttering beside the door. "Wait a minute… What ever happened to you 'sulking'? I don't see you sulking right now…" Tipral trailed.

"That is because I forgotest something!" Luvbi huffed.

"What'd you forget?" Chopper asked before he felt Luvbi kiss him on the cheek. "Ewww! That was disgusting!" he began to wipe his cheek of the angelic kiss as Luvbi giggled.

"Hee hee! I just had to givest thee another kiss! I just adore thy cute face!" she sighed sweetly as she fell into Chopper's arms.

"Uhhhhh… Please get off of me." he sweat dropped as he put Luvbi down. "We need to go find that fruit."

"Oh, fine! Then leave poor, cute me hither!" Luvbi huffed.

"We're coming back here, you know… You stay and watch Kirby for us, OK? We don't want anything bad happening to him."

"I'd rather stay hither and see thee. But, I guess I'll waitest for thee to returnest." she planted one last kiss on his cheek before waiting over by the door.

Afterward, they all jumped on the platform going up to two clouds (and Chopper wiped off the kiss Luvbi gave him). One on the left was smaller, but contained a chest that had a Shroom Shake after opening it. To their right, there was a Lakitu.

"I got this!" Chopper pulled an arrow out and destroyed the Lakitu with one hit. "Wow… Our attacks sure take out these enemies easily…"

At the end of the cloud platform, there was a Springy Cloud. They jumped on it and it launched them up to another cloud platform. There were two cloud platforms that were rather thick. But, they decided to take the one to the left.

"I see a sign here, but I don't see a door," Tipral stated. "Let's see what this sign has to say."

_Yellow Fruit Hither_

"Yellow fruit? I guess that's one of the apples. However, I'm not going to help you find it. You find it yourself, Chopper!"

"What? You SHOULD actually help us find the fruit!" Chopper retorted. "If we don't get Kirby back, then that means we can't go to your castle."

Tipral clenched his fist. "You little...! Fine. I guess I have no other choice! But that 'thing' better not even try to inhale me, or else he'll be thrown down a couple of hundred thousand feet into The Underwhere!"

"He can float, you know," Sonic smirked.

"I can still knock him out before I do that. But, for now… Try to find that stupid fruit."

"I have an idea!" Chopper threw his arms up in the air and he flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw a cloudy pathway to his right that led to a red door sitting on a small, cloudy platform.

"Oh… Well here it is!" Chopper headed through the door by himself to find another white tree with a yellow tint to it to his left. Compared to the other tree, this one was taller.

"Those are Yellow Apples? Those look more…orange to me. Meh. It doesn't make a difference." Chopper pulled his hammer out and he whacked the tree with it, making the Yellow Apple come down.

"I suggest that you look for more apples besides that…" suggested Tippi.

"Yeah, I'm planning on doing that," Chopper made his way back to the group and showed them the Yellow Apple. They decided to head to the thick cloud to their right to find another sign.

_Here Endeth Stair 4_

"This is seriously dragging on…and on…AND ON!" Blade growled as he kicked the door open.

"Dude… Calm down! Do you have anger problems or something?" Chopper asked while raising an eyebrow.

They walked into the next area to find a sign next to them, a cloud platform above them and a red door to their right. But, as usual, they took a look at the sign first.

_Stair 5_

"Yeah… Now let's look at what the door to our left has." Sonic suggested as he walked over to the door ahead. They all followed him through the door to find another small area, but with nothing around.

"Hmmm? There's nothing here!" Tipral growled.

"What a rip-off! We went into this area all for nothing!" Blade pouted.

"Oh, would you quit your whining? I'm pretty sure that there's something around here. We just need to find it." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a tree with Pink Apples. "Ah! There we go!"

He whacked at the tree with his hammer and grabbed the Pink Apple. He showed it to the other three after flipping back into 2-D.

"Where'd you find that thing?" Blade asked.

"Apparently, the tree was in 3-D…"

"Wow. So you had to defy logic to find that key? That's…pretty cool!" Nevertheless, they returned to the other area and went up to the cloud above them via flying with Chopper's Angel ability and Tipral's teleportation.

Over by a cloud platform to their right, there was another red door. They decided to check it out, but once they were in the area, the door behind them was locked by a cage.

"Huh? ! What's going on?!" Chopper jumped up in shock.

"Apparently it's more of those guys," Tipral pointed to the three skeletal enemies. One of them was a darkish violet color with a spike on its head and a spear standing on a small cloud platform, one was dark blue with a spear and one had angelic wings. Chopper decided to gather information on them by using Tippi's ability.

"That's a Skellobit. It's a foul monster that's made of bones... Max HP is 14, Attack is 5, Defense is 2. They poke at people with sharp spears... Don't land on the spear when it's pointed up... They were evil in life, so now they must dwell in the dark depths of the Underwhere..."

"That's a Skellobomber. It's much like a Skellobit, but it has wings... Max HP is 14, Attack is 5, Defense is might throw its head at you... It also carries Skellobait... Some say Skellobombers were bad Nimbis sent to the Underwhere..."

"That's a Spiky Skellobit. It's made entirely of bones. They are Skellobit leaders... Max HP is 14, Attack is 6, Defense is 2. It has spikes, so don't jump on it... It's said that only the foulest Skellobits are promoted to Spiky Skellobit..."

"So… I suggest we take out the Spiky Skellobit first. It's probably the most threatening of the three." Chopper suggested.

"I can take it out. My attacks ARE stronger, after all." Blade smirked as he jumped on the cloud and struck the Spiky Skellobit with his katana. One more slash was able to do it in.

Chopper fought the normal Skellobit. Although he wanted to shoot an arrow at it, he decided to hurl a fireball at it instead. With it burnt up, he charged up an arrow and fired it at it, destroying it.

"It's a good thing we can deal 14 damage at the very most when our attack is charged up! …Though it would only do about 12 on these guys…"

"It's not a big deal. There's only one more left anyway." Tipral snapped his finger and the Skellobomber was struck by Star Magic. He teleported over to it and destroyed it with a Star Kick.

With that out of the way, the cage blocking the door was gone. "Wait… Are you telling me that we went into this room for nothing?!" Sonic gawked.

"That was a waste of time…" Tipral trailed as he walked through the door. The rest exited through the door with him as well.

They noticed two blocks over by their right after leaving the area. Chopper struck the yellow ? block, which made a Mushroom pop out. They all split it to recover 10 HP and then Tipral hit the brick block. All there was were a couple of coins.

"All right, I guess that should be enough for us," Sonic stated as a platform came down for them. They took it up to a thicker cloud, although that cloud couldn't be reached with their normal jump.

"I call flying up there!" Chopper announced as he flew up to the cloud with his angelic wings. Tipral was forced to teleport him and the other two on the cloud. There was a sign right in front of them.

"I wonder what this reads," wondered Blade as he read the sign.

_Black Fruit Hither_

"RACIST!" Chopper shouted.

"Wait, how is that racist?" Tipral questioned.

"Oh, never mind," Chopper took out the Squog on the cloud before flipping into 3-D. He found a small pathway that brought him over to a red door. It led into an area with a tree to his right with a Black Apple.

"Those don't look so tasty…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, I hear ya, Tippi. This looks pretty nasty." Chopper whacked the tree with his hammer and grabbed the Black Apple. "…No, I'm not even GOING to taste this thing. It might make me hurl."

Chopper returned to the group and showed them the nasty-looking apple. Everyone but Tipral didn't like it.

"I could honestly care less about the apple, but if you REALLY don't want to hold onto it, I'll hold onto it myself," Tipral suggested as he took the Black Apple. "And don't think I'm going to eat this thing. After what happened to Kirby, I'm sure something bad will happen if I eat this."

"Maybe we should go back to Kirby?" Blade suggested.

"Ehhhh… I guess we could do that. We've got three apples, so one of them should work." Chopper nodded.

* * *

**Back with Kirby in Stair 4-**

"All right… So we've got a sleeping pink puffball, three apples, and a girl that HAD to kiss me before even going into this area." Chopper had his tongue out in disgust as he wiped his cheek.

"So… What fruit should we start with first?" Sonic asked.

"How about…" Chopper pulled the Yellow Apple out. "…this one?"

He tossed the Yellow Apple into Kirby's mouth. "Well, I do hope this wakes Kirby up…" Tippi trailed.

To their surprise, Kirby's eyes opened. "Poyo? (Huh…? Where the heck am I?)" Kirby asked.

"Kirby! Oh, thank goodness you woke up…" Tippi paused once two antennas appeared on Kirby's head.

"Poyo?! (What the?! Why are there antennas on my head?!)" Kirby cringed in fear. "Poyo! (Someone get me some scissors!)"

After more screaming, the antennas disappeared and Kirby was asleep once again. "…He fell asleep again. I guess that was the wrong one…"

"…Then we'll try the Pink Apple!" Chopper tossed the Pink Apple into Kirby's mouth. "Hopefully this one will wake him up…or else I might as well turn into a peach!"

While he wasn't predicting the peach part, Kirby ended up turning into a peach. "Dude… You just HAD to say it." Blade gave Chopper and irritated look.

"What do you mean?" Chopper turned and saw the peach. "Hey, look! There's a peach!"

"Chopper…! Don't…!" Chopper ignored Tippi and picked up the peach, but it soon turned back into Kirby.

"WOWZA! That was Kirby?!" he exclaimed as he dropped Kirby. "Wow… So that apple wasn't the right one…"

"We've got one more, though," Tipral pulled the Black Apple out. "This may not be exactly the right one, but we might as well try."

Tipral tossed the Black Apple into Kirby's mouth next. "Well, what about this one? Please, let this be the taboo fruit…" Tippi prayed.

"Unnnnngghhh…" Kirby moaned.

"Huh? Is he seriously waking up?" Tipral gawked.

"Unnnnggh… P-Poy- (Bl-B-)" everyone paused and looked down at Kirby, praying to see if he would be fine. "_**POYO! (BLAAAARGH!)**_"

Everyone went flying back by the loud scream Kirby made as he jumped up from the cloud. "Hey! That nasty-looking fruit worked!"

"Are you…all right?" Tippi asked.

"Poyo?! (Does it look like I'm all right?! I just ate something that tasted HORRIBLE! I'm not OK at all!)" Kirby growled until he noticed the group. "Poyo? (Guys? You're all here?)"

"Yup! We're here for you, Kirby!" Chopper nodded. Everyone else waved at Kirby except for Tipral.

"Poyo? (Wait, why is Tipral here? I thought he was trying to kill us all!)"

"I'd rather not explain it all. It's best…that we discuss it later." Tipral suggested.

Kirby frowned. "Poyo. (Fine, I guess I'll have to deal with you. But I'm watching you! Remember that!)"

"But, just to explain why we're here…" Chopper started. "Dimentio's attack sent you here. We're in a place called The Overthere. It's…not a bad place, but it's probably worse for me than for you."

"Poyo? (What do you mean?)"

"So, thou wakest?" a voice from behind called out. Kirby turned around and saw Luvbi, who looked a bit irritated.

"I am Luvbi. I am bound for The Overthere, and I take yon travelers with me."

Kirby looked back at Chopper. "Poyo? (So… Why do you say that it's worse for you than me? It's just a harmless little girl…)"

"You… You don't understand, Kirby…" Chopper shivered at the sight of Luvbi (although she wasn't paying attention to him right now).

"Pray, why dost thou speakest in this 'poyo' language?!" Luvbi questioned. "I dost not understand what thou art saying!"

"Yeah… You see, Kirby's not exactly one to speak like us. I can understand what he says, but you guys can't."

"Well, I suppose thou art right, my sweet prince!" she smiled cutely at him, but her looked changed as she turned back to Kirby. "I shall head onward, so dawdleth not! Hereth me, gumball?!"

As Luvbi fluttered away, she winked at Chopper before leaving the area. Chopper, being the kid he is, shivered in fear.

"Poyo… (Wait, so you're telling me that you fear her because she likes you…?)" Kirby gave Chopper a blank look. "Poyo? (I mean, did you see how she talked to me? What'd I ever do to her?)"

"Ugh… Don't worry about it." Tippi groaned, guessing what Kirby was saying.

"Poyo? (Well, anyways, I guess we ought to get going, don't you think?)" Kirby received a couple of nods from the three heroes, but Tipral didn't make a single gesture.

**Kirby has rejoined the group!**

"Well, here we go… Up to The Overthere!" announced Tippi.

* * *

**Over by a door in Stair 4 that they didn't go to before-**

"Poyo? (So why did we go over here anyway?)" questioned Kirby.

"We didn't go through this door yet, so we're gonna check out what's through here," Chopper announced as he walked through the door. This small area they reached had a couple of small clouds.

"Why are we wasting our time here? We have Kirby with us, so we should go find The Overthere!" Tipral growled.

"Be patient, Tipral!" Blade snapped. "There might be a reason for coming here!"

They jumped onto a couple of the small cloudy platforms to find another tree with taboo fruit. This time, there were Red Apples.

"Poyo! (Hey, those apples remind me of that Golden Apple that I had before I fell asleep!)" Kirby gaped.

"We don't need another apple! We've already woke up Kirby!" Tipral shouted.

"Well, we might NEED it for something!" Chopper whacked the tree with his hammer and grabbed the Red Apple. "Although, I don't know what this apple's going to do… That will remain a mystery until someone eats it."

"We might as well return to Stair 5," suggested Blade. "I'm seriously hoping that there aren't ten stairs to this place…"

"If we were only running, then I would like it a lot more," Sonic stated.

* * *

**Stair 5-**

"OK, so we went to the right on the cloudy platform above us, so we should see where the one to the left takes us…" trailed Chopper.

"Poyo! (Oh, that should be simple!)" Kirby began to float up onto the cloud, while Chopper followed him with his angelic wings. They came across a Springy Cloud that launched them up to another cloudy platform.

"Poyo! (That was fun! What is that thing?)"

"Well, Blade called them Springy Clouds. We decided to go with it too." Chopper explained.

"Yeah, and they're still cool!" Blade smirked.

"It appears that we need to go straight from here," Tipral stated, looking at the blue arrow on the cloud. "I can see another cloudy platform up ahead. I'll simply use my teleportation to get over there."

Tipral only helped Sonic and Blade over to the cloud. Chopper and Kirby were forced to fly over there with their abilities. They found another Springy Cloud on the platform that launched them higher up onto a couple of more Springy Platforms. They took them up to a cloudy platform with a couple of Ruff Puffs.

"Poyo! (Enemies! I've been waiting to fight some of these guys!)" Kirby inhaled one of the Ruff Puffs and spat it out at another one.

"Huh… So his inhaling ability DOES come to some good use…" Tipral trailed as he finished off the last Ruff Puff with a Star Spear.

Over by their left, they saw Luvbi waiting over by the door. Kirby, however, decided to read the sign first.

_Here Endeth Stair 5_

"Poyo? (What do they mean by 'stair'?)" questioned Kirby.

"We're in Overthere Stair, if you wanted to know. And it sure is nice…" Chopper sighed as he flew over to the door.

"Is this all of thy servants, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked.

"Servants?! We're NOT servants!" Blade growled.

"What? You really consider Chopper to BE a prince? I don't think he has any ancestors who were in royalty…" Sonic trailed.

"Yeah, none of my ancestors were. I don't think Nazuchi was even in royalty…" Chopper agreed.

"Well, I dost not care if thou art not verily a prince! Thou art still mine one and only!" Luvbi was about to kiss him, but he immediately zipped over to the red door in fear.

"Poyo… (Someone sure is afraid to be kissed…)" trailed Kirby.

Chopper immediately went through the door, while Luvbi swooned and chased after him into the next area. There weren't a lot of clouds around them, but there were definitely these small pillars with flowers.

"Where art thee, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked.

"Not here," Chopper was actually behind her, although he was reading the sign.

_Stair 6_

While he read it, Luvbi fluttered over to him and gave him another kiss on his cheek, making him cry in horror.

"Please! Stop!" Chopper was about to run over to the left, but there was a Skellobit in his way.

"Hey, it's another one of those monsters," Sonic gawked.

"Monsters, guess after this there will be one less to worry about," stated Chopper, feeling a bit better after wiping the kiss off of his cheek.

"…You stole that from somewhere, didn't you?" Blade gave Chopper a blank look.

"What? No way! I… Oh, OK. I did." Chopper slammed his hammer on the Skellobit in front on him twice before striking Reversya Cursya with an arrow. It only had 1 HP, so it went down easily.

"I'll handle the other ones," Tipral snapped his finger and he killed the other two Skellobits over by the platform that already went up. "Are THESE the monsters that were released from The Underwhere? If so, they're pretty pathetic."

"Yeah, we can take them out without them coming close to us!" Blade frowned as he hit a brick block. A Super Shroom popped out and moved towards them.

"Poyo? (Are we actually going to compete for that?)" Kirby asked.

"No, we're going to split it," Blade sliced the Super Shroom into five and gave a piece to each of them. They al recovered 20 HP and were just in time for the platform to come down for them.

They jumped on the next platform, which took them up to some light yellow (or white) Overthere platforms. They actually looked very nice, from everyone's eyes. Tipral even thought they were nice.

"Hmph! Not bad…for a place filled with light." Tipral stated as he jumped onto the first platform. "This place is starting to feel a bit more angelic with these platforms."

"I am surprised that thou art impressed…" Luvbi gawked as she watched the heroes jump on the platforms. "I thought that my sweet prince would verily be the one to like these platforms."

"They're cool… That's all I have to say." Chopper stated as he flew over the platforms. "They do feel pretty angelic. Does this mean we're closer to The Overthere?"

"I hope so…" Blade groaned.

"Well, we art getting close."

Blade: :D

As Blade jumped on a cloudy platform with a Skellobit (which he destroyed with Hommissile), he felt like he wanted to dance, but he didn't have time for that. He jumped on the Cloudy Platform with the others and were launched up to a cloudy platform with two brick blocks and a platform to the left.

They took the platform up to a couple of skinny pillar-like platforms. I don't know WHY there are floating pillars, but it's logic. You know… Nintendo Logic? But, let's not get off track here.

Chopper flew over the pillar platforms and onto the small cloudy platform above them, where he went up another cloudy platform. The others followed him via teleportation and floating.

"Poyo! (This place feels nice! I get to so a lot of floating!)" Kirby smiled.

They jumped up a couple of clouds to reach Cloud 70, where a sign was sitting over by, as well as a door. Chopper first took a look at the sign.

_Here Endeth Stair 6_

"Wow… We're getting close!" Chopper smiled as he walked through the door, followed by a swooning Luvbi and his friends.

"Yup… More monsters. Chopper, why did you say there would be less to worry about after that other one?" Blade questioned.

"It's just a statement," Chopper groaned as he looked over at the sign next to the red door.

_Stair 7_

"OK… Let's get a move on." Chopper slammed his hammer on the first Skellobit in front of him, then he fired a charged arrow at the Skellobomber up ahead. Tipral struck a Skellobomber that dropped a small, green skeletal monster with a spike on its head.

"What the… What's that?" Chopper questioned as he used Tippi's powers to investigate it.

"That's a Spiky Skellobait. These little creatures depend on Skellobombers... Max HP is 5, Attack is 4, Defense is 1. It has very chilly breath... They also have spikes. If you get hit by their chilly breath, you'll be frozen solid... They use the ancient magic of the Underwhere and the Overthere for evil..." Tippi informed.

"This should be an easy thing to kill," Tipral snapped his finger and he instantly killed the Spiky Skellobait.

They took the Springy Cloud up to a small cloudy platform, where they found another Springy Cloud that they took up. They were now over by some more pillar platforms that looked like they were making stairs.

"It's another one of these… Well, better get to platforming." Chopper decided to jump up these platforms instead of flying over them. These platforms helped them reach Cloud 74, where a Skellobit awaited.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby inhaled the Skellobit and spat it out somewhere else, defeating it instantly.

They took the platform over to another cloudy platform, where they soon found a chest over by a larger cloudy platform. When Chopper opened it, he found a Life Shroom, to his surprise.

"These? I haven't seen THESE in a while…" Chopper trailed as he put the item away. "I haven't really used them before…"

"Well, I think it's best to hold onto it…" Tippi suggested.

"We art getting closer!" Luvbi squealed as she hugged Chopper before fluttering up to the thick cloudy platform. This platform had some sort of Overthere building, and up ahead was a small cloud.

"Odd… I doth remember there were Skellobits hither…" she remarked.

"What do you mean?" Chopper questioned, jumping onto the cloud, along with the others.

"The Overthere tendest to be attacked by these monsters… They art usually hither…"

"Nyeah heh heh heh!"

"Huh? What the heck was THAT?" Blade drew his katana out, ready to fight whatever that cackling voice was.

"Why art thou so scared?" Luvbi asked. She turned around to find a small, beanish person wearing a gray cloak. "Ummmmm… Can I helpest thee?"

"Wait… Do I see a smile under that hood?" Chopper gawked.

"I have vengeance!" the beanish person pulled a blaster out and fired at Luvbi, sealing her in some sort of yellow bubble.

"Wh-What art thou doing?!"

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Have you the guessing of who I am?" the beanish person looked up at Chopper with his spiral glasses and his creepy grin.

"What a weird way of speaking…" Tipral trailed.

"Ummmmmm… Let's see… You're Maquano?"

"The knight of the demons? I say to you NO! You have not the knowing of someone with such fury?"

"Wait a second… Fury?" Chopper pondered. "There's only one person I know who likes to say the word 'fury' more than anyone else…"

The beanish person continued to cackle as he removed his gray cloak. It was Fawful in disguise! His cloak looked a lot different from before, however. Instead of the red cloak and hood, he was wearing a lighter red color with a yellow stripe on the edges of his cloak.

"Tellest me who thou art right now!" demanded Luvbi.

"Fawful has had the waiting for five months to unleash his fury!" Fawful grinned, aiming his blaster at Chopper. "You think I had the giving up back in the world full of darkness and subspace? !"

"You mean Dark Subspace World? I was actually wondering what happened to you then…" Chopper pondered.

"Why, I had the escaping! And soon, I will have fury…and chortles!"

"Are you honestly trying to fight us? We don't have the time for such nonsense!" Tipral said while getting into a fighting stance.

"An evil version of the Green Antenna? Fawful mocks you! …But I also have the admiring!"

"OK, look… If you want to fight, then fine. We'll fight you. Just make sure that Luvbi is safe and that you don't cause harm here. …But how DID you even get here?" Chopper raised an eyebrow.

"I have teleportation!" Fawful announced before firing straight at Chopper. "Now I have fighting! Face Fawful's fury!"

Before the fight could start, Chopper decided to use Tippi's ability to gather information on him. He was thinking that he would have the same abilities from before, but hey, he had to do something just in case.

"That's Fawful. He's a crazy little beanish person that seems to speak in a weird way…a way that I'm not so fond of… Max HP is 80, Attack is 6, Defense is 2. Fawful will tend to attack you with his blaster, or he might transform it into a laser sword – an incredibly dangerous laser sword, to be sure… If he shoots an orb of laser energy at you, you could inhale it and spit it back at him, or you could do the same thing with his ground pound… Overall, I don't think he's much of a tough person to fight with… He may not be a pushover, but definitely not as easy as Trashy… And I remember you saying you've met him before… You should tell me more about this…"

Chopper immediately jumped out of the way of Fawful's laser attack and flew up. He pulled an arrow out and fired it down at Fawful. While it didn't stick to him, it certainly did deal some damage.

"Hmmmmmm… Hold on a minute… Blade! Use your fire slash!"

"What for?"

"You'll see…" Chopper smirked as Blade jumped over to Fawful and struck him with a fire slash.

"OUCH! HOTNESS!" Fawful screamed. "It is the overheat!"

"Pbbbbbbbbbbth!"

"What's so funny about that?" Blade gawked.

"I like how he just says that 'it is the overheat'," Chopper snickered.

"That's a weird thing to say, but whatever!" Sonic curled up in a ball and attempted to strike Fawful. However, the beanish person was able to blast him with his blaster first before getting hit.

"I have the hurting…" Fawful adjusted his glasses and jumped in the air to come down on Blade with a ground pound. Two stars appeared as he landed on the ground, giving Kirby a chance to attack.

"Poyo! (I know what I have to do!)" Kirby inhaled the star and spat it out at Fawful, sending him flying towards Tipral.

_"Hmmmm… Now that I think about it, this person could make a good minion." _Tipral thought as he jumped on top of Fawful. _"I wanna test him to see if he truly is capable of joining me."_

Fawful pushed Tipral off him and changed his blaster to his laser sword. Tipral tried blocking his attacks with his Star fists, but ultimately, he was struck by Fawful's deadly laser sword.

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Fawful has victory!" Fawful cackled until Tipral pulled him to the ground.

"Let's see how you like THIS!" Tipral send Fawful flying over to Chopper with a simple Star Kick. _"He seems to be holding his own in this fight… I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea of letting him join me."_

As soon as Fawful got himself up, he saw Chopper rushing straight towards him. But, he managed to strike him first with his laser sword. Afterwards, the beanish person jumped and landed a ground pound on his head.

"Ouch! That's not fair!" Chopper pouted, knocking him back with a flaming kick. He pulled an arrow out and fired a charged shot at Fawful, who screamed weirdly afterwards.

"What kind of scream is that…?" Tippi gawked.

Fawful simply ignored Tippi and sent Chopper flying with his laser sword strike. He almost fell off the cloud, but he managed to get himself up and strike the beanish person with another arrow.

"Don't TRY to throw me off!" Chopper growled.

"Thou can dost it, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cheered as she swooned over her prince.

"Stop it already!" Chopper frowned as he threw a fireball at Fawful, who screamed about that the fire 'is the overheat' and whatnot. While Fawful was running around in flames, Fawful struck him with his katana.

Tipral came up next, sliding towards Fawful with Star power in his feet and sending Fawful flying up to the ceiling of the small building. He dropped to the ground, only to be kicked in the head.

"Ouch… I have pain…" moaned Fawful.

"Pathetic," Tipral mumbled as he was ready to kick Fawful again. However, Fawful raised his blaster up and blasted Tipral, sending him flying towards Chopper.

"Oof! Hey, watch it!" Chopper cried before he was whacked in the face by Tipral – who wasn't even facing him.

…But Tipral had a better idea. "You haven't been doing much. I might as well put you to good use."

"What do you…HEY!" Chopper was thrown all the way towards Fawful. They both went tumbling over by the exit of the small building.

"What was THAT all about? !" Blade exclaimed.

"Why should you care? Do you want ME to do that to you?"

"Well… No."

"Then don't bother me about it," Tipral rushed towards the two and struck both of them with a Star Kick.

"Hey! You're hitting the wrong person, Tipral!" Chopper shouted as he got himself up. "I'm on YOUR side, remember?"

"From what I remember, we're NOT on the same side. Didn't I tell you that while we ARE working together, we will NEVER be on the same side! Ever!"

"I have the surprising that there are two antennas in my face! Your rivalry is like scoffing down on sweet liquidy honey!" Fawful cackled as he struck both of them with his laser sword.

"Oof!" Chopper growled as he charged up an arrow and fired it at Fawful. The beanish person also got struck by another Spin Dash laid off by Sonic.

"What? I gotta at least help the fight!" Sonic stated, striking Fawful again with a Spin Dash.

"Urk… Fawful does not have the giving up yet!" Fawful jumped up and landed a ground pound on the duo, knocking them back from him.

"Poyo! (Let me help!)" Kirby inhaled the yellow star that appeared and spat it out at Fawful, stunning him for a couple of seconds. Blade immediately fired Hommissile at Fawful to do a bit more damage.

"It appears that Fawful's HP is a bit low now…" Tippi informed. "You might have a chance of winning!"

"Yeah, we better win this," Chopper delivered a stomp attack on Fawful and performed a stylish as he landed on the ground.

"Nyeah heh heh heh!" Fawful slashed at Chopper with his laser sword and knocked his Angel ability away.

"H-Hey! Why'd you do that?!" Chopper attempted to grab it, but the yellow star ended up disappearing. "Oh, great… Now I just lost an awesome ability that helped me get through here!"

"And now you are left powerless like a hopeless kid walking through the forest with nothing but a box of tomatoes!" Fawful cackled, kicking Chopper in the face with his own boot.

"Oh, so THAT'S how you wanna play, huh? Well, I can be a bit tough myself!" Chopper struck Fawful with a flaming uppercut kick that made him crash into the ceiling. Chopper jumped up to Fawful and brought him down with a flaming slamming kick, causing him to crash to the floor.

"Get out of the way!" Tipral knocked Chopper to the ground and then snapped his finger while in the air, striking Fawful with Star Magic.

"Urk!" Fawful got himself up and stomped on Tipral's head. Although, Tipral managed to grab his foot and slam him to the ground instead. "Why is Fawful losing more fury as he has the combating?"

"Because you're outnumbered," Tipral bluntly stated, attempting to snap his finger until he got struck by a blast from Fawful's blaster.

Fawful cackled until Chopper tossed a fireball at him. "OUCH! MORE HOTNESS! The overheat strikes again!"

"Ugh… Fine. I'll finish it." as soon as Fawful came over to him, Chopper ended the fight by pushing him to the ground. "There. You happy now?"

"Nrrrgghhh…" Fawful moaned as the flames on him went out. Everyone looked down at the beanish person in disdain. "What has gotten into Fawful… Fawful did the fighting…but had the failing…"

"Well, the fight was basically five against one, so it would make sense that you would lose…" Tippi trailed.

"Fawful…urk…will have the…returning…soon!"

While Fawful didn't move, he just stayed there. He was certainly not knocked out, that's for sure.

But, while they looked down at him, Chopper suddenly felt himself getting glomped and kissed by Luvbi, who was now free from the bubble.

"Oh, Chopper, my sweet prince! I cannot believest that thou hast savest me!" she squealed as she smother his face with her girly kisses.

"Ack! Get off me, Luvbi!" Chopper cried. The little Nimbi girl giggled as she got off Chopper, who began to wipe his face of the kisses. "GROSS! I mean, how many times did I say that? Certainly more than ten…"

"Anyways, we ought to check what's up ahead," Sonic suggested. "I see a cloud over there."

The six (with Luvbi with them) walked over to the small cloud, who looked a bit different from other clouds. The eyebrows was what caught their attention for the most part.

"Hi there, I'm Crunchy! I'm a newborn cloud! Pleased to meetcha! I've got big dreams! Big ones! I wanna be the biggest cloud I can be! I heard about this one guy that got big by eating a Mushroom. That would be SO COOL!"

"Sounds like Mario to me…" Chopper trailed.

"If you find a big-making thing like that, give it to me!"

"Well, I think we DO have something we could give you. Show it to him, Chopper." Blade demanded.

"All right, here it is," Chopper pulled a Red Apple out. "I guess you could try this out for size."

"Will eating this make me big? COOOOOOOL! Then I'll try it!" Chopper tossed the Red Apple into Crunchy's mouth. "Chomp… Snark…"

After Crunchy finished the Red Apple, he grew bigger than any cloud they saw. It was like…a Super Springy Cloud!

"The narrator stole me line!" Blade pouted.

"I did it!" announced Crunchy. "Now I'm a big cloud… From now on, just call me 'Super Crunchy'! No more little bitty cloud for me! And I'm real _bouncy_, so hop on top!"

"All right! I bet this should take us high up!" Chopper smirked. "Now we can all… Wait, where's Tipral?"

Chopper turned around and, to his surprise, he saw him talking to Fawful. "Tipral! What are you doing?!"

Tipral heard Chopper's call and teleported over to him. "I just had to take care of a few things with that beam,"

"Suuure…" Chopper gave him a glare. "Anyway, we've gotta get going. I mean, what else can we do anyways?"

"Poyo? (Go up?)"

"Exactly. We must go up."

They all jumped on top of Crunchy and were launched up to great heights. And by great heights, I mean off the planet.

"What…the heck?" Blade gawked as they were flying in outer space. "Did we just get launched into space?!"

"I bet we could see Squirps around here!" Chopper smiled, looking for Squirps. "No… I don't see him."

"Poyo! (Well there's no point when we're already going down!)" Kirby gawked as all five of them began to head straight down to the planet.

"Wait… The Overthere isn't a planet!" Chopper said before he fell face flat on a cloud. It was a soft landing.

When he got himself up, he was greeted by the sweet voice of Luvbi, who was fluttering right beside him.

"We art finally hither, my sweet prince! Just beyondeth that door is The Ovethere!" she squealed as she hugged Chopper.

"No… NO! Get off of me, please!" Chopper cried, but he brought his attention to the sign in front of him.

_Here Endeth Stair 7_

"What a relief," Chopper managed to get out of Luvbi's grips and walked over to the red door over by one of the Overthere buildings. "OK, guys! Let's get a move on!"

Everyone followed him through the door into a small area, but they all gaped as they saw the Star Block across the large gap.

"YES! We're FINALLY done!" Blade said happily. "No more climbing these stupid clouds!"

"You realize that if we fall, we'd have to make our whole way up here…" Tipral trailed.

"_**GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!**_"

"Where did THAT come from?!" Sonic gawked.

"From…somewhere."

Chopper decided to take a look at the sign before him.

_Here Endeth Overthere Stair_

_The Overthere Is Over There_

"Ha ha ha... Very funny..." Blade groaned.

"I think those are some pretty good words," Chopper smiled, but his expression soon changed. "…But there's the problem with crossing over this gap."

"I'll handle this," Tipral used his teleportation powers to teleport him, Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade over to the other side. Luvbi simply fluttered over to the group, since she doesn't need to teleport.

"Striketh the block and we'll be on our wayeth, my sweet prince!" demanded Luvbi. "Oh, I can't waiteth to showest thee to Father!"

"I'm not an object…" Chopper trailed as he struck the Star Block ahead.

"But thou art my sweet and adorable prince!"

"Stop torturing me, please! I beg of you!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_White clouds as far as the eye could see… Chopper and Co. had climbed through clouds and finally reached The Overthere. "Odd. No party springeth forth to welcome us," wondered Luvbi aloud. "Maybe they're at your father's place to surprise us," Chopper pondered. "It mattereth not. Father's shrine is just ahead, so we can walk there with ease." But they would not arrive at the shrine as easily as Luvbi predicted. Why not? Because something unexpected and dramatic was about to happen…_

* * *

**Once again, another chapter that I loved because of the humor. If you thought that Chapter 7-2 was funny, then you should've seen THIS! ...Though, I'm pretty sure there are some people out there that found that chapter funnier than this.**

**So... With all four reunited, we're finally going to The Overthere! And lemme tell you: It's going to be one heck of a chapter. And for the boss... I can simply tell you that the boss is certainly NOT Bonechill. It's something...a bit more challenging. That's all I'm gonna say for that one. :D**_  
_


	44. A Dark Magical Tale

**CHAPTER 7-5**

**-A Dark Magical Tale-**

At long last! Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Tipral have finally reached The Overthere! After such a long and annoying trip through Overthere Stair (that Blade hated more than anyone else in the group), they finally reached The Overthere. Blade kissed the ground, relieved to be out of Overthere Stair. But… The others weren't exactly happy still, especially Chopper. They still had one person that they had to worry about, and that person would be Luvbi.

"Wow… I have to admit, this is another one of those beautiful areas too…and NO! I don't mean it's beautiful for romance!" Chopper shouted, pointing at Luvbi. "If you're going to try to hold my hand through this whole thing… I don't think so, because, well, I'm just not going to do it! You know how I feel about you hugging me and kissing me, right?"

Luvbi giggled at Chopper. "Thou always love it when I givest thee hugs and kisses! I always see thee smiling!" While Chopper face palmed, she fluttered to the front of the group and turned to them.

"Soon we shall meet with my father, Grambi. Be thou on thy best behavior." she suggested.

_"Oh, we'll tell your father how much of a brat you've been to us…" _Blade thought while grinding his teeth. _"We'll tell him EVERYTHING about you throwing insults at us and being stuck-up..."_

"So, this Grambi person is your father, right?" Chopper asked. "And he's…uh…God? Does that technically make you a god? …Or a demigod?"

"Thou art correct. Grambi is my father and Jaydes is my mother. And yea, I doth be some sort of god. That is why my kisses art so soothing to thee." Chopper gave her a frown while she spoke about something else that had to do with her.

Pray, listen… I fell ill once, and my father never left my bedside…" she trailed as she held her two wings together and closed her eyes. "They hath an overprotective side, verily, and I grow annoyed of it at times. But mayhap it is my own fault for being so cute. They cannot help it!"

"Uhh… Yeah, cool story…" Sonic trailed.

"Uh, yes, surely…" Tippi trailed. "In any case, perhaps we better go meet your father Grambi…"

Luvbi opened her eyes and looked at Chopper sweetly. "Pray, my sweet prince! Thou hast not answered this question! Dost thou verily think I am cute? I know thou art cute, but dost thou think _I_ am?"

Chopper's eyes widened in fear as his cheeks turned red. "Well… I… Uhh… Umm… Ermmm… Mmmmmmmm… Hrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm… Hmmmmmmmmmmmm… The answer to, uh…that is… I guess?"

"Hee hee!" Luvbi giggled as she kissed Chopper on the cheek (again). "Thou art making me blush, Chopper! I knewest that thou hast had a crush on me!"

"Wh-What?! I never said anything about a crush!" Chopper gagged, falling over on the cloud where he saw a sign. "Hmmmm? What does this sign say?"

_Welcome to The Overthere_

"Poyo… (Well, it looks like they're welcoming any visitors to The Overthere…)" Kirby trailed as he saw Luvbi cling onto Chopper. "Poyo? (Are you seriously going to let her cling onto you like that?)"

"I tried, Kirby, but she just won't get off," Chopper frowned. He could feel his cheek being rubbed by Luvbi's, which started to make him nervous. "Could you please get off of me? You can do this all you want when we find your father."

"But that might be when we have to sayest our goodbyes…" Luvbi said as her eyes softened. "Why dost thou want to wait at the last minute?"

"Save it for later, you two. We have a Pure Heart to look for." Tipral said coldly, looking around the area.

"What are you looking for?" Tippi questioned.

"I remember that that brat said something about no Nimbis being around here," he stated. "If there's nobody around this place, then that means there must be some sort of problem going on here…"

"Yeah, I think we better get going," Chopper suggested, trying to get out of Luvbi's grasps. "I mean, do we seriously want to spend all this time with Luvbi kissing me and I having to say how gross it is (even though they ARE gross)? People who are watching us are probably getting tired of it!"

"But who careth what they thinkest! Our romance will be with us forever!" Luvbi declared.

"Hey! Bratty girl! Are we gonna get going? We're not going to sit here and watch you smother your boyfriend with kisses!" Blade said with an annoyed look on his face.

"Yeah, he's got a point," Chopper agreed.

"…Fine! We'll movest on then!" Luvbi huffed, letting go of Chopper, who began to breathe heavily from the death hug he was in.

While Chopper was free, he took the time to look at the area. The sky was a lot different from before (well, I wouldn't say a lot, but it IS different). Instead of all of the blueness that they saw back in Overthere Stair, they could see the upper part of the sky being a light blue and the bottom part being a light yellow color. Why the sky is different from before, I don't know, but it doesn't make a difference. Also, there are some small little stars in the sky and small pillars with orbs on the cloud platforms.

"Well, this place looks pretty interesting! I suppose we could take a little stroll around here, don't you guys think so?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo! (I would love to go on a little stroll here!)" Kirby said cheerfully. "Poyo! (I'm actually looking forward to meeting this Grambi person too! We get to meet the actual God!)"

"Oh, yeah… We're going to be seeing God! The one that watches all games!" Chopper jumped across a couple of small cloudy platforms to a small little Overthere building where a Skellobit was settling.

"These monsters are here too?! Huh… Well I suppose they're going to have to suffer the same fate as its brothers." Tipral snapped his finger and the Skellobit was destroyed by his Star Magic.

"Sheesh! Why are these monsters roaming around this place?" Sonic questioned.

"Is this the reason why there aren't any of…uh, Nimbis around here?" Blade asked, scratching the back of his head before getting hit in the head by a Skellobomber's head. "What the…"

"Ya can't catch me!" the Skellobomber taunted, who was flying over a cliff. "Try to stomp on me an' yer gonna fall! I dare ya to try, wimps!"

"Oh yeah?" Blade threw a couple of shurikens at the Skellobomber. Not only did he drain its HP to 0, but he also managed to cut off its wings, sending it straight to his doom…into The Underwhere.

"Well that was interesting… Hopefully we don't have to deal with more of those guys over a cliff." Chopper sighed in relief and jumped onto the cloud that flew down to them.

However, as soon as they reached the cloud above them, they were surprised by a Skellobit and Spiky Skellobit. Chopper threw a couple of fireballs at the first one and defeated the Spiky Skellobit with his hammer.

"It's a good thing that I have fireballs and this hammer! Thank you very much, Cudge! You're great!"

"Thanks, kid!" Cudge smiled.

They walked over to another cloud that came floating towards the left for them and waited for it to take them over to another Overthere building. The red door they saw was locked, but they also saw a sign near the door.

_Overthere Sector 1_

"So, instead of the sign saying 'Here Endeth Stair 1' or 'Stair 1', it just says something like, 'Overthere Sector 1'?" Sonic questioned. "Kind of weird, if you ask me."

Luvbi fluttered over to the door, but stopped when she saw that it was locked. "Nay! I cannot accept the fact that this door is locked! Whoever is responsible for locking this door, I will findeth them and endeth them!"

"Calm down Luvbi!" Chopper pulled his "girlfriend" away from the door. "There's no use in trying. All we need to do is find the key and maybe we'll be able to get through the door and find your father."

"Yea, that doth be true… Mayhap it is that monster who is attacking this place again… I heardeth that he was a weakling."

"Really? If that's the case, then we could bring him down easily!" Chopper smirked, waggling his finger. "I mean, he doesn't even stand a CHANCE against us if it's something we can easily beat!"

"Hold on, guys… I can see a yellow ? block below this cloud." Tipral stated, looking down at the edge of the cloud. "There's a door below this place, and it's not locked."

"Oh, well that's nice!" Chopper smiled as he jumped down onto the cloud. There were some small, thick Overthere pillars that were on this cloud as they landed. They jumped over one of them to get to the door.

"Well, let's head on in!" Chopper kicked the door open to walk into a smaller area. There was a sign right next to them, so he took a look at what it had to say.

_Overthere Sector 2_

"_**HEEEEEELP!**_" the first thing that they heard from coming into this area was a cry of an angel person. They saw two Skellobits torturing the person, but they couldn't see what the person looked like.

"Hwahwahwahwahwahwahwahwa!" the first Skellobit cackled. "Awww, what's da matter? Ya can't put up a fight?!"

"C'mon! Fight back, ya big wimp, ya!" the second Skellobit poked the angel with its spear. "We don't want to be torturin' people that can't even put up a fight! It makes it all too easy!"

"Hey! Leave that person be!" Chopper growled, getting in a fighting stance. The two Skellobits turned and noticed the five glaring at them (though, Tipral was ready to snap his finger).

"What in the world?! Who are YOU guys?! And what's your beef with us?!" the first Skellobit asked.

"What's our beef? You're attacking an innocent person! Lay your hands…er, spear off of him!" Sonic growled.

"Oh, I get it! Yer all a friend of the Nimbis, are ya?! Then ya must be an enemy to US!" the second Skellobit growled. "If yer here to fight us, then we're gonna give you one heck of a fight!"

"Thou will NEVER destroy The Overthere!" Luvbi shouted.

"Did somebody say something about 'destroying The Overthere'?"

"Pray, who was that? That doth sound like a voice I hath never heardeth of…" the Nimbi girl trailed.

The two Skellobits jumped up in fear as they noticed a being wearing black armor. His helmet had two horns on the upper side that pointed straight up to the sky and red glowing eyes that many Skellobits tend to fear. Even the Spiky Skellobits feared the red eyes! He also had black wings that would usually appear when he wanted to fly, and also carried a black and white sword that could help him defend himself and use his powerful undead magic.

"N-N-Necromancer?!" the two Skellobits shivered in fear at the sight of the Necromancer. "Wh-What on earth are you doin' here?!"

"I was just checking how the Nimbi was doing, that's all," the Necromancer continued to hover over the two Skellobits and the tortured Nimbi. Everyone instantly gaped at the sight of this armored being.

"Wait… I didst not see someone such as thee attack The Overthere! Where is Bonechill?!" Luvbi questioned.

"Bonechill? You mean that monster we saw in that prison I was trapped in? Oh, we brought him somewhere else. We're here for our revenge, that's all! …And for the Pure Heart!"

"Thou will NEVER findeth the Pure Heart! Thou WON'T!"

"Tsh! Like a little girl such as yourself is going to stop us… Do you realize who you're dealing with? ! I'm the Necromancer! I can raise the dead!" the Necromancer raised his arms up two lightning bolts struck the cloud. Two more Skellobits rose from the cloud.

"What in the… How'd you do that?!" Blade gaped.

"I already told you, I have the power to raise the dead," the Necromancer explained. "Surely these guys will distract you while I go find the Pure Hear myself! So long, maggots!"

As the Necromancer flew away, the four Skellobits aimed their spears at the five. "All right, guys! We better listen to what the Necromancer had to say! Let's get 'em!"

The four Skellobits charged at the group with their spears. Chopper started off the fight by stomping on the Skellobit in front of him and then slamming his foot on it with a slamming kick. With his hammer, he put an end to the monster.

"Thou art such a brave knight, my sweet prince!" Luvbi swooned as she held her two wings together. Hearts flew over her head while her eyes were closed.

"Bah ha ha ha ha! Just look at that girl! She likes the kid! This is so hilarious!" the three remaining Skellobits began to burst in laughter. While they were distracted, Kirby inhaled one Skellobit and spat it at another.

"Poyo! (They're easily distracted!)" noted Kirby.

"I don't know what you just said, but I'll just say I agree with ya," Sonic grinned as he struck the Skellobit in front of him with a Homing Attack. Since Kirby weakened it, it made it easier to destroy.

"Hi-ya!" Blade came down on the next Skellobit with his katana. Because he can do more damage than the other four, he was able to destroy the Skellobit with only one slash from his katana.

"Man, these guys are seriously too easy!" Blade scoffed.

"Did that Necromancer honestly think we would lose to these guys?!" Tipral asked as he jumped in the air and finished the last Skellobit with a Star Spear. "There. All of the Skellobits are gone."

With that out of the way, they walked over to the Nimbi. What was strange was that its head kind of resembled a Pac-Man head, except the lower part of the head and upper part can be separated and flap about when talking.

"Th-Thou hast my gratitude… I know not who thou art, but thou didst save me…" the Nimbi wheezed.

"Gosh... Why does this guy look so different to Luvbi in terms of looks?" Chopper asked. "I thought Nimbis didn't have faces like that?"

"They remind me of these guys I saw on a TV show..." Blade trailed. "...Nah, it must be some coincidence!"

While the two discussed about how the Nimbi looked, Luvbi spoke up. "Pray, speak! What hast happened hither?"

"A pox, verily… Yon fell beasts and Necromancer hath come to invade The Overthere. They seek the Pure Heart… They need it, for they hath some plan most foul!"

Everyone stood in shock, for the exception of Tipral. "Yon beasts and Necromancer seek the Pure Heart! Foulness! Only Father knoweth the Pure Heart's resting place… Father is in danger, my sweet prince!"

Chopper frowned as the Nimbi spoke. "I yearn to hide, verily…but if thou seekest Grambi, thou shalt need to goest to…_gulp_…the Nimbis of bad talking…"

"The Nimbis of bad talking? What the heck are you talking about?" Sonic gawked.

"They hath moveth hither after being kicked out of their home," the Nimbi explained. "They liveth over by that door ahead. Their speaking is…verily horrible. Thou must trust me!"

"Well, if we need to go to those weirdos, then we pretty much have no choice," Chopper stated.

Luvbi sighed sweetly. "Thou art so brave, my sweet prince!" she swooned. "I didst not know that you were this brave…my cute little knight in shining armor!"

"Luvbi… Is that boy thy prince?" the Nimbi asked.

"Yea, verily! When I foundeth him, I knew it was fate for the two of us to meet!" Luvbi blushed, grabbing a hold of Chopper. "We art planning on getting married when we findeth Father!"

"N-No thanks!" Chopper cried. "I wanna live a good life, not have it be over!"

The Nimbi snickered. "Well, if thou thinkest that thou canst get the key from those weirdo Nimbis, then maketh thy way over to that door ahead. Hopefully thou comest back alive."

"Come back alive? That's ridiculous!" Tipral spat. "How could such pathetic creatures such as yourself possibly KILL us?! Aren't you 'Nimbi' beings harmless? You ARE angels, right?"

"How darest thou mocketh our kind!" Luvbi scoffed. "We art people of peace and art verily intelligent! …And I tendeth to look cute! Why wouldst thou scoff at our own kind?!"

"Oh, shut up. You're not any better than these people anyway."

"Hmph! That's just what thou sayest!" she huffed, sticking her nose up in the air. "Mayhap thou art any better either, monstrous being! All thou dost is copy the looks of my sweet prince and acteth all angry!"

Tipral wanted to snap his finger, but he lowered his arm and simply clenched his fist. "Bah! I don't need to waste my time with you! I'll just go to that door myself!"

He jumped over the Nimbi and made his way over to the red door ahead with his air shoes. Everyone else gawked as he entered the door.

"I doth wish I canst helpeth thee, but I cannot help more, but prithee, protect Grambi! Um… Farewell." the Nimbi fluttered out of Overthere Sector 2 while the heroes looked confused.

"Well, what art thou waiting for? We must findeth the key through the door!" Luvbi chirped, grabbing Chopper's hand. "Let us away, my sweet prince! I don't want to loseth thee!"

"Ack! Someone help me!" Chopper cried as he was dragged through the door.

"Poyo? (Are we going to help him?)" Kirby asked, only to receive a shrug from both Sonic and Blade, who had no idea what Kirby even said. Nevertheless, they followed the "couple" through the door.

Upon entering through the door, they found a large area with a large cloud. There were a couple of Overthere buildings around, especially one, big building that almost looked like a city hall. There were even a couple of Nimbis fluttering around the clouds, speaking and minding their own business.

"Wait, why did that Nimbi say that this place is horrible?" Blade questioned, scratching his head in confusion.

"Honestly, I have no idea…" trailed Tippi. "They seem to be the same as the other Nimbis… I just don't get it…"

"Yeah! This is just weird!" Chopper gawked, while his hand was still in Luvbi's grasp. "Was is this, some sort of trick? Or was that Nimbi stupid? …Er, I don't think that's exactly a good word to say."

"Personally, that word works perfectly," Tipral stated with his arms folded.

"Well, thou must trust me. These Nimbis art verily strange. Try talking to one of them and thou will knowest." Luvbi still refused to let go of Chopper's hand, even when he told her to let go.

"Fine. I guess I'll have to move around myself, even with you holding my hand." Chopper frowned. He noticed two Nimbis speaking. One had a light blue body with a P on it, and the other had a red body with a T on it.

"Hey, Pherrance! I've got an excellent joke!" the Nimbi with the red body snickered, looking over at Luvbi. "I've got the perfect joke for that little girl!"

"Say, Tillip, don't you think that group of people is a bit…strange?" Pherrance asked.

"Hold on, Pherrance! I want to do my prank!" Tillip fluttered over to Luvbi and Chopper. "Say, little girl! Try pulling my finger!"

"But thou dost not have fingers," Luvbi pointed out. Tillip's eyes widened as he turned to his buddy, Pherrance.

"SHE'S ONTO US, TILLIP!"

"WHAT?!"

"I SAID SHE'S ONTO US!"

"DID YOU SAY YOU HAD TO FART, BUDDAY?!"

"NO I…" Tillip felt gas coming from his rear. He and Pherrance began to laugh hysterically as the others looked at them in confusion. Some were disgusted, while some thought it was funny.

"My prince! Why dost thou think farts are funny?!" Luvbi gawked.

Chopper snickered. "What? That sound sounds kind of funny. Am I not allowed to have a good laugh or two? I know farts are kind of gross…but sometimes when I hear the sound, I can't help but laugh."

"…Well, it doth not stop me from loving thee."

"Dang it..."

"Say, Pherrance… Am I seeing young love here?" Tillip asked.

"You are, Tillip! You are! Even I am seeing it too, budday!" Pherrance watched as Chopper tried to free his hand from Luvbi's grasps.

Tipral rudely pushed Chopper and Luvbi out of the way and walked up to the two Nimbis. "Listen here, you fools. We haven't come here to have you entertain us! We're looking for a key that can take us to the God's shrine!"

"You mean King Grambi? Oh… That's not gonna be easy." Pherrance shook his head. "Getting there can be difficult, budday."

"Don't ever call me 'budday'," Tipral clenched his fist in anger. "I'm not the kind of person you want to refer to that as…"

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't speak to him. He's too sour." Chopper stated. "Like a lemon..."

"Don't compare me to a fruit..."

"You mean he's a hick?" Tillip asked.

"What's this?! Outsiders?!"

"And speaking of the hick! Strott's coming here!" Pherrance warned. The group gawked as a Nimbi with a lemon-shaped head walked over to them with an angry look. He also took a look at the two Nimbis.

"Who do you think you people are, invading our little home like this? !" exclaimed Strott as he pointed at Chopper and Luvbi. "You think you can get away with this?! Well I don't think so! I'm going to report you guys to the president!"

"They have a president?" Tippi gawked.

"Yea, verily. They hath never gotten along with us…" Luvbi groaned. "It wouldeth be best for them to get along, but the president is verily cranky…"

"Well, all we want is the key so we can get to Grambi's shrine," Chopper explained.

"Grambi? You mean that pathetic little king? I remember seeing his servants! One time one of them tried to stop me from going to see him 'cause I wanted to complain to him about why I'm being called a hick!"

"It's because you ARE a hick!" Pherrance stated.

"Urrgh!" Strott growled at the two and turned to the six. "You haven't seen the last of me, you stupid outsiders! I'll be back, and I'll make sure that you all suffer for what you've done!"

After Strott left, Chopper looked confused. "Who the heck was THAT guy?"

"That guy? That's Strott! He's the biggest hick that you'll ever meet. No, really, guy! Everyone and their grandmother knows that he's the biggest hick in The Overthere! That's why no one likes being around him!" Tillip explained.

Blade began to ponder. "Hick? That sounds like they're saying he's a..."

"OK, yeah, I think we get ya, Blade," Sonic interrupted. "I think we have more important things to do, such as helping the Nimbis."

"I couldn't care less about helping those Nimbis," Tipral stated with his angry look. "All I really care about is trying to get to my castle and put and end to that pathetic excuse of a clown! I will make sure his death is gruesome…"

"We're not there yet, Tipral… It would be best to find the Pure Heart at this point… Worry about him later…" suggested Tippi.

"Just take the pathway up ahead and you'll be over at the city hall. …And be careful with the president, too. He can be…a bit of a hick too. But the one you probably want to worray the most aboot is Strott. He's even a bigger hick!" Pherrance explained.

"Well, we'll remember that," Luvbi said as she dragged Chopper over to the city hall. "This place may not be the greatest… But once we art where we shouldst be, romance shalt be in the air!"

Chopper's eyes widened in fear. "I don't like the sound of that..."

"Poyo, (I hope there's plenty of food," Kirby remarked, licking his lips. "Poyo! (I could sure use some food!)"

The heroes made their way toward the city hall, while Tipral crossed his arms and teleported there himself.

* * *

**City hall, front steps-**

"Wait… How'd you get here, Tipral?" Chopper gawked as he reached the front door.

"Don't you realize that I have the ability to teleport?" Tipral asked. Chopper pondered and nodded. "Good. So now we can finally go to that president and swipe the key from his wings, right?"

"I don't think it's going to be that easy. I mean, if you're going to be acting all grumpy towards him, I highly doubt that we're gonna get anywhere." Chopper paused when he saw Tipral's fist clenching at him. "Hey! I'm just speaking the truth! And when are you EVER going to smile!"

"Don't ask. It's none of your business."

Sonic managed to make his way up the stairs with the other two. "Well, you managed to get here quicker than us. I didn't know you were THAT fast..."

"I teleported here, blue hedgehog. That's much faster." Tipral proclaimed. "Probably nothing you're into."

"Shadow tends to do that, that's for sure..."

"Well, since we're already here, we might as well head on in," Blade stepped up to the door and opened it. All six of them hurried into the building and noticed that they were in a large room with a couple of Nimbis wearing suits listening to a Nimbi up on the stand. The Nimbi had brown hair and was wearing a black suit, if you wanted to know.

"My fellow Nimbis," the Nimbi began. "It is time that we went on strike! We've always been the butt of all of those…hicky Nimbis that live over by the other side of The Overthere! I think now's the time we brought that to an end!"

"So, what do you plan on doing? Are you going to find some Nimbis and warn them aboot this strike?" a Nimbi asked.

"Why of course I am!" stated the Nimbi on the stand. "One of you guys are going to have to go find some Nimbis and bring them over here! I don't care who they are! Just find them and bring 'em here!"

"We'll get onto that!" a couple of Nimbis stood up and fluttered out of the room.

"Pray, speakest to me now!" Luvbi barked, glaring at the Nimbi at the podium. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Oh, no… Not the bratty princess! Everyone hide!" All of the Nimbis got under their seats as they screamed.

"Sheesh! What's wrong with these guys?" Chopper asked. "They're suddenly afraid of this girl… I mean, _I_ have it worse with her!"

The six walked over to the Nimbi on the stand. "Who do you think you people are, barging into the city hall like this?! Are you spies of those hicky Nimbis? Explain to me NOW!"

They all shook their heads. "We never knew you guys were here anyways…" trailed Tippi. "All we were wondering is if we could get the key that you have to allow us to help the Nimbis in danger of the monsters."

"Oh. Those people? Well, how about…no! Why do they deserve to get help when we're the ones in desperate help?! We've tried to fit in, but we've been ignored every single time by those people!"

"Thou art ridiculous! Why wouldst we ignoreth thee? Yon people art only fearing our native tongue!" Luvbi frowned.

"And who are you anyway? I mean, why would you be this stubborn when people are in trouble?" Chopper clenched his fists as he glared at the Nimbi.

"I'm Gridge Dabootman! I'm the president of these Nimbis!"

"And who made you president?" Blade asked.

"Why, the people did! It was…uh… The vote was unanimous! They all voted for me and I became president! You think that it's funnay, but I think it's awesome! But we're still not giving you the key."

"Well this guy sure is stubborn..."

"Mr. Dabootman! Mr. Dabootman! We found a couple of Nimbis!" a couple of Nimbis in suits came back into the city hall with a couple of Old English Nimbis in handcuffs to prevent them from escaping.

"Pray, what art thou going to do with us?!" one Nimbi cried.

"Hey! What are you doing to those poor Nimbis?!" Chopper exclaimed, aiming a fireball straight at Dabootman. "Let them go, or else I'm going to have to burn this city hall down with fire!"

"Oh, yeah… I almost forgot." Dabootman remembered. "Apparently you guys are on their side if you're going to help them and not us… Guards! Get those handcuffs on them!"

The Nimbi guards quickly put handcuffs on them. However, the only ones who didn't appear to have handcuffs were Chopper and Tipral.

"Mr. Dabootman, we are one short," informed one guard.

"Well... Then they'll have to share!"

"What?!" Tipral exclaimed, seeing the Nimbi guard approach him. To prevent him from putting it on, he punched his face and knocked him to the floor unconscious. "I don't think so... I'd never share something with someone I hate."

Realizing it wasn't a good idea to get on Tipral's bad side, the other guard put the handcuffs on Chopper instead.

"Take these guys over to our meeting room," suggested Dabootman. "I say we take some time to interrogate them…er, I mean tell them what we want! Yeah… That's what we're really trying to do."

The remaining guards escorted the heroes and the Nimbis into the meeting room. Tipral decided to follow, knowing that it was the only thing he could do at the moment.

* * *

**Meeting room-**

"So, when thou sayests thou art on strike, what dost thou mean?" a female Nimbi asked as they were around the long rectangular table. Across from them was Dabootman and two Nimbis in suits. One was in a blue suit and the other was in a brown one. He even has a small, French, brown mustache!

"What do you think it means?! We're striking, budday! No more! That's it! Until we get what we want!" Dabootman declared.

"But… Who art thou to authorize this…strike?" a male Nimbi asked.

"The name's Gridge Dabootman! Leader of the WNA!"

"The WNA?"

"Yes!" Dabootman crossed his arms (or wings). "The World Nimbi Bureau!"

"World Nimbi Bureau? What's that supposed to mean?" Chopper wondered. "Sounds like a burrito to me..."

"Hey! Did I ever authorize you to speak?! NO! I didn't tell you you could interrupt me and what I want!"

"Sorry... I was just pointing something out..."

"Well, what exactly dost thou want?" a female Nimbi asked.

Dabootman placed his wings on the table and looked straight at the Nimbis. "We want… More monay!"

"Yeah, more monay!" one of Dabootman's Nimbis cheered.

"More money? Is this some sort of joke?!" Tipral growled, his hands glowing in a light purple aura. "You guys go on strike and all you ask for is MONEY?! What kind of strike wants MONEY to end a strike?!"

"More money from where?" a female Nimbi asked, ignoring what Tipral was saying, making him angrily frown.

"Just more monay! You know, we don't get enough monay!" Dabootman stated. "You guys and many other kinds of angels have some hard-earned monay! We want… We want some of that monay!"

"Oh, brother…" Luvbi rolled her eyes.

That's when it hit Dabootman. "How… How about…the Internet! Yes! I know that the internet is full of money people get online! The internet always makes a CRAP load of money anyway! So, how about you give us THAT kind of money?"

"Yeah! Give us internet monay!"

"These guys are stupider than I thought," Tipral murmured angrily.

"Well, there's not much we can do about it," Chopper murmured.

"If this Nimbi president is an idiot, then, well, he's an idiot," Sonic whispered. "Hopefully he understands what's going on and ends all of this."

"Uh… Mr. Dabootman… Thou dost not seemeth to understand how things worketh around hither." Another male Nimbi said. "Mayhap thou shouldst listen to us about this… I thi-"

"Don't give me that fat cat fancy lip wiggling!" Dabootman snapped, giving them all a glare. "So are ya going to give us more monay or not?!"

"Thou dost not understand, foul Nimbi," Luvbi said while glaring at the Nimbi president. "We dost not have ANY money, for we art only angels! Plus, asking for money is verily a stupid thing…"

"Well then… You leave us with no choice…" Dabootman gestured his other Nimbis to take the Old English Nimbis and Chopper, Luvbi, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Tipral out of the city hall, where they took the handcuffs off them.

"The strike shall continue!" was the last thing they heard before the door slammed shut from behind.

"Poyo? (So there's no way we're going to be getting that key?)" Kirby asked, crossing his arms. "Poyo! (This isn't right at all! Why would this…selfish Nimbi refuse to give us the stupid key?!)"

"Pray, art thou trying to helpest them?" a female Nimbi asked.

"We'd LIKE to give them a hand with their problem, but we also need to save your kind from those monsters," Chopper explained. "Do you know what's going on over there? That could give us an idea."

"Nay, we hast not seen what was going on thither," a male Nimbi shook his head. "We only escaped from those wretched monsters. Thou needest the key to saveth the rest of them."

"We doth intend to savest them. Well, my sweet prince and his servants will savest them!" Luvbi giggled, looking at Chopper with a cute smile.

"Bleaugh! I can't wait to go to Grambi's shrine so we can finally get rid of you." Chopper gagged as he made his way down the stairs, only to meet up with Pherrance and Tillip.

"Hey, buddays!" Pherrance greeted them. "So, have ya gotten the key from Dabootman?"

"No. That stupid president was a bit too stubborn to give us the key." Blade shook his head. "That guy is a freakin' prick!"

"Well, then… Maybe you'll be pleased with this!" Tillip pulled a Door Key out. "We managed to sneak into the city hall and grab this for you guys, since we knew that Dabootman wouldn't give you it."

He gave the key to Chopper. "Whoa… I didn't know that you guys had it in you to steal that key from him. Aren't you going to get in trouble for that, though?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, don't worry about that! We're good at making excuses!" Pherrance farted all of the sudden and they began to laugh hysterically. "But seriously. Get out of here before Dabootman comes back out."

"Good idea," Chopper nodded and zipped toward the red door, along with his friends. The Old English Nimbis left before Dabootman could come out with a couple of other Nimbis on his side with signs.

"All right, guys! I think now's the time we got started with our strike!" Dabootman looked over at Pherrance and Tillip. "You two! Come and help us with this strike by holding these signs up!"

Dabootman held up a sign that read, "It's Aboot Respect!", grabbed a megaphone and began to chant, "One! Two! Three! Four! We Nimbis deserve more monay!"

"Look, budday, we don't care about this," Pherrance shook his head. "We'd rather go home and watch TV! …Or maybe even play a little fart song with our asses!"

"Go home? Ya can't leave now, you two! Ya gotta help!"

"But there's no real point for this strike! I mean, all you want is monay? What for? Those Nimbis don't have any monay! Plus, they're under attack by evil monsters that came from The Underwhere!"

"The hell with those guys!" Dabootman shouted. "Look guy, you have to stay strong! If you don't stand with your fellow Nimbis, then you are a _RAT_!"

Pherrance glared at Dabootman. "Don't call me a rat, budday!"

"I'm not your budday, friend!" Dabootman shouted.

"He's not your friend, guy!" Tillip stepped in.

"I'm not your guy, budday!"

"He's not your budday, friend!" Pherrance defended.

"I'm not your friend, guy!" all three of them stopped. "Don't you two understand anything? You think this strike is a joke? You think it's something to ridicule?"

"Yeah, you think this is funnay?!" one Nimbi asked.

"Don't you see we have to stand together or else we have nothing? ...But, anyway… I need my key. For some reason, it's gone missing. Do you guys know where it could be, by any chance?"

"Well…" After Tillip farted and laughed hysterically with Pherrance, he gave him a happy look. "Oh, we gave it to that kid, his girlfriend and his other friends with them! They're going to go help the Nimbis in need of help!"

"_**WHAT?!**_"

* * *

**Overthere Sector 2-**

"Whew… We finally got out of that mess, that's for sure." Chopper said, sighing in relief as he put the key away. "Now we can rescue all of those Nimbis in danger! Hopefully we're not too late…"

"We will stay hither," a female Nimbi stated. "We believest that the monster won't come hither."

"Fine, go ahead and hide, cowards," Tipral grumbled as the Nimbis left the area. All that was left were the six.

"So, my prince… Shall we get started?" Luvbi asked sweetly.

Chopper looked over to the left. He noticed there was still some other more clouds to explore ahead. "I see a couple of those Skellobits ahead there… Maybe we ought to see what's going on over there?"

They jumped over the gap and landed on a thick, short Overthere pillar. A Skellobomber was dropping a Spiky Skellobait to the cloudy ground, but it didn't affect them due to being on the pillar.

"Oh, this is easy!" Chopper tossed a fireball straight at the Skellobit, burning it and then knocking it to the ground, finishing it with one stomp. He also tossed a fireball at the Spiky Skellobait.

They jumped over to the next cloud afterwards, where Tipral destroyed the other Skellobomber using his Star Magic attack. Blade finished off a Skellobit on the ground with his katana and blew up a green Cursya with Hommissile.

"These guys are starting to become a cakewalk!" Sonic chuckled, striking the Skellobomber by the cloud above them with a Spin Jump and then a Homing Attack.

"Crud… How do we get up there?" Blade asked.

"I can taketh my prince up!" Luvbi giggled, grabbing Chopper and carrying him up to the cloud above them. "Thou doth seemeth to feel so light!"

"Well, I pretty much am…" Chopper squeaked, getting out of Luvbi's grasps and coming across an enemy with a cape. "Oh! There we go! There's another one of these enemies that give me my Hi-Jump ability!"

Chopper inhaled the enemy and gained his Hi-Jump ability again. As soon as Tipral teleported Sonic and Blade up the cloud (Kirby floated up to it), Chipper used his Hi-Jump ability to jump up to the next cloud.

However, he hit two yellow ? blocks on his way up to the next cloud. One of them had a Super Shroom, but the other one, to their surprise, had a Ghoul Shroom pop out.

"What is THAT hideous thing?" Luvbi asked.

"It's a Ghoul Shroom…" Tippi trailed. "It's even more dangerous than a Zombie Shroom…"

"And I want it GONE!" Chopper slammed his hammer on the Ghoul Shroom to destroy it with one hit. He then grabbed the Super Shroom afterwards and split it into five pieces, giving it to the others as they made it up to the same cloud.

"Poyo… (This place is so weird… Why are there Ghoul Shrooms roaming around here?)" Kirby asked.

"I honestly don't have a clue," Chopper was interrupted by a Skellobit head that struck him in the head. He looked up and saw a Skellobomber dropping another head.

"So THAT'S how you wanna play, huh? Well I can play differently!" Chopper launched himself up with his Hi-Jump ability and sent the Skellobomber to his doom after landing on the cloud above.

"Wherever this leads us, it must be some sort of secret area," Tipral stated as he teleported up. They came across a cloud platform to their left with a Spiky Skellobit that Tipral took care of, and then jumped up two more clouds to find an Overthere building.

"What the… I see someone here!" Chopper gaped, pointing to someone who was being corrupted in darkness. It looked like this being had purple, glowing eyes and a freaky-looking purple mouth.

Luvbi gasped. "This… This doth not seem to be something Bonechil wouldst do… This must be someone else's work!"

"Huh… So there's someone who's been transformed into some sort of dark demon?" Tipral looked at the monster, noticing that it wasn't causing any harm. "Little do you guys know that I can reverse this curse."

"You can do that?" Tippi gawked.

"How's that even possible?" Blade asked.

"Just watch," Tipral's eyes flashed as he snapped his finger. Star lightning struck the strange, cursed being, lifting the curse off of the person. No longer was this person a dark demon, but a Nimbi with a yellow head, a black mustache and a blue robe.

"Oh, thank thee! It is as though thou hast brought me back to life!" the Nimbi thanked before looking at himself and his surroundings.

"Hold a moment… What am I doing hither?! _**WHO AM I?! WHERE AM I?!**_ Do I have…_AMNESIA_? Ah, what to do!"

"Poyo? (You don't know who you are?)" Kirby gawked.

"_**WHERE AM I?! WHEN IS IT?! **_Oh, it is futile… I have no idea who I am. None at all! What shall I do?!" the Nimbi cried.

"Forget it. It's best that we come back to him another time." Tipral stated. "For now, we should go back to that locked door. I don't like being in this sector, now that I've seen those Nimbis…"

* * *

**Overthere Sector 1, locked door-**

"Well, here we go!" Chopper pulled the key out and unlocked the door with it, allowing them to enter through the next area. They found another small pillar in front of them, but found a sign next to a locked door past it.

_Overthere Sector 3_

"Poyo! (I hope we're not too late!)" Kirby chirped as he floated over the small gap and over to another Overthere building. They followed him over to a small cloudy platform where a Skellobit was roaming around.

Kirby got on Carrie and finished the Skellobit by jumping on it. After crossing a large gap, they came across a female Nimbi named Fallbi who was looking sad by a cursed Nimbi named Novbi.

"Huh…? Another Nimbi girl?" Chopper gawked.

"Art thou falling for another girl?!" Luvbi frowned.

"What? ! I just said there's a Nimbi girl here! It's not a big deal!" Chopper removed his Hi-Jump ability, no longer needing it and spoke to Fallbi.

"_Sniff… _Oh, woe is meeee… My darling man hath been cursed by evil monsters!" Fallbi sniffled. "I need him so… I am Fallbi, a helpless kitten compared to them! Oh, what shall I do?"

"Maybe you should stop crying," Tipral growled.

"Thou! Art thou a kitten too, or art thou a grand lion? Prithee, lion, help mine man!"

"I'm actually a cat..." Blade trailed.

"She wasn't talking to you, Blade," Sonic noted.

"I think she meant all of us..."

"Poyo! (Guys!)"

"Me? Help someone you love? I consider that to be a waste of my own time! Do you realize that staying with that cursed angel will only get you cursed?" Tipral snapped his finger, lifting the curse off of Novbi. "There. I lifted the curse off of him. You happy now?"

"_Unnghh…_" Novbi moaned as he slowly got himself up. Fallbi gaped at his return.

"_**Darling dear!**_"

"_**Fair Fallbi!**_"

"...Huh?" Chopper gawked.

"They doth be in love," Luvbi remarked, giving Chopper a smile. "Just like we art."

"...But I'm not in love with you."

"_Sniff_… Thank heavens… Yon people helped thee." Fallbi said, pointing a wing at the five.

"Thou hast my thanks, yea," Novbi thanked. "Pray, allow me to do something in return."

Fallbi's eyes lit up. "Yea, verily, darling dear! Perhaps if thou wouldst move the thou-knowest-what?"

"Yea! The thou-knowest-what!" agreed Novbi. "Fair Fallbi, thou art so clever as thou art adorable!"

Fallbi blushed shyly. "Oh, darling dear… 'Tis true, but how thou goest on! Let us away!"

Novbi watched his girlfriend flutter on ahead back to the Overthere building. "Ah! Pray, wait, my lovely Fallbi fair!"

"The thou-knowest-what?" Luvbi gawked. All Blade could do was grumble to himself before following his friends back to the Overthere building.

They saw that Novbi was waiting for them at the Overthere building. "Sorry to makest thee wait. Behold the Overvator! It transporteth Nimbis upward. I owe thee for thine help. I operate yon lift. Prithee, let me giveth thee a ride. Goest thou up?

"Ummmmmmmmm… Yea?" Chopper sweat dropped, attempting to imitate their kind of accent.

"Goooooooing UP!" All six gawked as they noticed some small little computers. Suddenly, the Overvator was surrounded by some sort of rainbow light as it began to move up.

"That sound… It reminds me of the sound I hear when I strike a Star Block!" Chopper gaped.

"Poyo! (Yeah! It really does remind me of those!)" Kirby agreed.

"And yea, hither we are!" Novbi announced as they reached the upper cloud. Thank thee for using the Overvator!"

"Well I guess that helped," Tipral stated as he jumped off the Overvator. He lifted some curses off a couple of Nimbis that were cursed before entering the door up ahead.

They all came across a large, Overthere building, but they seem to notice a lot of Nimbis cursed by some evil, dark magic. "Holy crap! Whoever caused all of this must REALLY want the Pure Heart badly!" Blade gaped.

"Don't all villains want something and will do anything to get it?" Sonic questioned.

"Maybe… But, now's not the time. Tipral, lift the curses off of these people. It'll make them like you a bit." Chopper suggested.

"Tsh! Fine… I'll do it!" Tipral lifted the curses off of all of the Nimbis around. They all thanked him in their Nimbian accent, making him a bit more annoyed. However, the last Nimbi he lifted the curse off was a bit different.

"That's a weird Nimbi…" Blade trailed. They all saw that this Nimbi had a yellow, oval-shaped head, a small, white beard, glasses, a white robe, and a couple of heart-shaped wings like that other Nimbi they found.

"Whoa! Thank thee all for thine help!" the Nimbi thanked, sighing in relief. "My given name is **Whibbi**! I owe thee five for that one! Thou art all super!"

"You're welcome, sir," Chopper smiled. "You can simply thank Tipral for that…although he's a bit of a grump."

He was able to react just in time to block Tipral's punch. "Urgh… Very clever…" he growled.

"Whibbi! Speakest of my father!" Luvbi demanded. "How doth he fare?!"

Whibbi sighed and looked down at the ground in shame. "I am sorry, Luvbi… I could not stop yon beasts from entering Grambi's shrine. But, thou still hast a chance! Thou all needest to cross the rainbow bridge to get to Grambi's shrine!"

"That's it? That's pretty easy!" Chopper smiled. "Well, let's get going then!"

"I don't think so!" the Necromancer from before flew over the rainbow bridge up ahead. All five took notice of him and got in their fighting stances. They all even shouted "YOU!" at him!

"What hast thou done to my father?!" Luvbi exclaimed, giving the Necromancer a death glare.

"Oh, calm down already. We didn't do anything to him! …Yet." the Necromancer grinned under his black helmet. "I didn't expect you guys to lose to those guys, but whatever. You made it here, so congratulations."

"Then you'll let us go on through, right?" Sonic asked.

"Pbbbbbbbth! Of course not! The reason why I came out here was to see if you made it here or not! Well, apparently you did, so I'm probably going to need to change things up a bit…starting with this bridge!"

The Necromancer fired white lightning down at the rainbow bridge, destroying it. "Hope you enjoy being stranded around here, losers! This is the last time you're ever going to see your father!"

As he cackled, he flew over to the red door and headed through. All Luvbi could do was gasp in horror.

"No… The bridge is gone!" Luvbi sniffled. "Now how art we going to get to Father? This is horrible…"

Chopper walked over to the Nimbi girl. "There there, Luvbi. Don't cry like that. I know crying is not a bad thing, but I don't think now's the best time to do it."

Luvbi blushed at her prince as he patted her bun of hair. "Oh, thank thee, my sweet prince. Thou art so kind." she gave Chopper a hug.

"Oh, dear… Without the bridge, help cannot reach Grambi…" Whibbi sighed sadly as he looked down at the ground again. "Oh, I wish there was some way that we could savest him…"

"And you don't have an idea?" Blade asked.

"…! Wait! I doth remember something!" Whibbi said as a red ! flashed over his head. "To rebuild the bridge, thou must find **Rebbi**, **Blubi**, and **Yebbi**,and get their** three orbs**. Once thou hast them all, we can rebuild the bridge. Taketh this, and findeth the others… I beg of thee… Thou must help…"

Whibbi handed Chopper a Door Key, who put it away.

"All right, then!" Sonic smirked, snapping his finger. "You're telling us we need to find three Nimbis and get their orbs? That sounds like a piece of cake! Come on, guys! I think we ought to go find it!"

Sonic ran on back to Overthere Sector 3, with Chopper and the rest of his friends following him as well.

* * *

**Overthere Sector X (a.k.a. the sector with no Old English Nimbis)-**

It seemed a bit strange, but the Nimbis that were going on strike all looked as if they were all exhausted after about thirty minutes of the strike. They all felt cold and they were sitting around a fire.

"You know, I don't know how this is possible, but we somehow managed to turn to this after thirty minutes of striking?" a Nimbi asked.

"Oh, come on! We can't give up now!" Dabootman shouted. "We just need to wait for that antenna kid, his girlfriend, and the rest of his friends to come back here with a couple of Nimbis that are willing to give us some monay!"

"Look, Gridge, Pherrance and I were talking, and… Well it's… It's starting to look like maybe were not gonna win this thing, ya know?" Tillip stated. "Plus, why can't we all just entertain ourselves with a little farts?"

"We'll win! We just have to stay resilient!" Dabootman retorted.

"Well, yeah… But everyone is hungry, and it's getting a little cold. We were standing here for hours!"

"Uh, actually, we've been out here for thirty minutes…" Ugly Joe trailed.

"Nobody asked you, Ugly Joe!"

"But, yeah, why don't we just give this up, guy?" suggested Pherrance.

"Don't call me your guy!" Dabootman snapped. "I'm not your guy, friend!"

"I'm not your friend, budday!"

"I'm not your budday, guy!"

"Wait… There's gotta be a better way to settle this instead of some sort of strike…" Ugly Joe pondered. "Why don't we just go see Grambi ourselves?"

"Hmmmmm… You make an excellent point! We'll march straight over to King Grambi and tell him that we want our monay!" Dabootman declared. "Everyone grab your torches and pitchforks!"

"Wait… What?!" Pherrance gasped. "But why would you do something like that?"

"Hey! If we're going to have an angry mob, we need pitchforks and torches! According to all angry mobs, you need to have those things with ya! So… Go get your torches and pitchforks! I'm not waiting all day for you two!"

"But… But…" Tillip stammered as he let out a long fart. He and Pherrance began to laugh hysterically. "Oh, excuse me! Now that sure was a big one!"

Pherrance and Tillip fluttered back over to their house, hoping to find a way to end all of this…but they also looked up a couple of stuff about how much money they have on this strike.

"It's a good idea to see how we're doing because of this," Pherrance stated.

"It sure is!" Tillip agreed before farting once again.

* * *

**Overthere Sector 2, over by the Nimbi with amnesia-**

"_**WHERE AM I?! WHEN IS IT?!**_" the Nimbi known as Blubi exclaimed once again until he remembered something.

"Hmmmmm? Is he starting to remember?" Chopper asked.

"Pray, I doth hope he is…" Luvbi trailed.

"Hold a moment… I remember… I am… I am Blubi!" Blubi announced as everyone else gave him a blank look.

"Finally, thou snappest out of it, eh, Dumbi?" Luvbi asked. "We hasten to yonder shrine to help Grambi, so givest thy blue orb."

"What?! Oh, indeed, I see… Fell beasts and Necromancer hath been freed from The Underwhere by someone and hath attacked hither…"

"…Why do so many of these guys speak in such weird accents?" Blade whispered.

"Just don't worry about it…" Sonic whispered back.

"So… Could you give us the orb already?" Chopper asked. "I don't feel very comfortable being around this area. You know, with those other Nimbis around here and stuff…"

"Mayhap… Perhaps I shall. But Grambi is in danger? If thou art speaking the truth, then takest it, Star Warrior."

"Poyo… (Whoa… He knew you were a Star Warrior…)" Kirby trailed.

"I cannot linger hither!" Blubi said as Chopper took the Blue Orb and put it away. "I must go see what is happening. Farewell, Luvbi and her boyfriend!"

"But Luvbi isn't my girlfriend!" Chopper frowned as Blubbi flew away from the group.

* * *

**Overthere Sector 3, by the locked door-**

"All right! Since we have the key we need to go through here, we might as well unlock it." Chopper pulled the Door Key out and unlocked it, allowing them to go to the next sector.

"Hey! There's another Overvator! …Except this one has a red ! block instead!" Blade gawked.

"I suppose it works differently than the other," as soon as they all got on the Overvator, Tipral struck the block with his fist. Once again, another rainbow-colored light surrounded the Overvator as it moved to the right.

"Poyo… (Such a nice sound…)" Kirby sighed.

After crossing over to the next cloud, they saw another large Overthere building with a red door, but there were also a couple of Skellobits roaming around. Chopper noticed a door behind as well.

"Don't suppose we should check what's through that door?" he asked.

"I don't think it's a bad idea…" Tippi trailed.

"Then we're flipping!" Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D with the rest of the group. The scary thing was that there were more Skellobits in 3-D than in 2-D. But, nevertheless, they walked through the red door behind the building.

After jumping over a small pillar, they came across a sign and also a large gap that led over to another cloud with an Ovethere building. Apparently, there was a fight going on there.

_Overthere Sector 7_

"Whoa! We gotta go help that guy over there!" Chopper shouted, attempting to jump, but was grabbed by Luvbi instead.

"Thou art only going to fall, my sweet prince!" Luvbi said sweetly. "I will taketh thee over to the other side!"

She flew him over to the other side, while also sneaking in a kiss on his cheek. "Hey! I felt that!"

The others, on the other hand, were forced to make it over to the cloud themselves. But, when they got over to the cloud…

"_**TAKETH THAT!**_" a sharp voice could be heard from the Overthere building. A Skellobit was knocked away and killed before their very eyes.

"Whoa… Looks like someone's been eating their beans." Blade gaped.

"OK, that doesn't even make sense!" Chopper frowned.

A Nimbi with a yellow, oval-shaped head, lightning bolt-shaped brown hair, a brown mustache and a red robe fluttered over to the group, looking a bit exhausted from his battle so far.

"They come without pause… Hm… Against such an assault, I cannot hope to last…" he wheezed, but took notice of the four heroes and Tipral. "Huh? Reinforcements? At last! My strength hath reached its end… Please… Thou must finish them!"

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked.

"Yon beasts… They art attacking…" the Nimbi wheezed. "Over there… They're coming…"

"Oh, that sounds easy!" Sonic curled up in a ball and performed a Spin Dash against the charging Skellobits. Tipral finished them off with a Star Burst as soon as they got close to him.

"That was too easy!" Tipral scoffed.

"The foul beasts are no more…" the Nimbi smiled. "I am Rebbi! Thou hast saved me! I owe thee thanks."

However, before they could celebrate, Luvbi fluttered over to Rebbi. "Rebbi! Grambi is in trouble! Hast thou the red orb?"

"Luvbi… The three orbs are not things to be given away lightly! And yet…these are dire times, are they not?" Rebbi turned to the group of heroes. "And I owe thee a big debt. Here, I give it to thee!"

Rebbi gave the Red Orb to Chopper. "I will got thither and check on the others. If thou survivest, let us meet again!"

As Rebbi fluttered away, Chopper sweat dropped. "'If thou survivest'? What? He thinks we're actually going to die or something?"

"I don't think he means it like that…" Tippi trailed.

"It doth not matter! We must away as well!" Luvbi stated.

"Well, then I suppose we should… Wait, I see something below this cloud." Blade pointed to a large chest below them. "Maybe… Maybe it could be another Pixl! …Or an upgrade!"

"A large chest? I don't think there'll be anything useful in there!" Tipral spat.

"Well, it's probably best that we check," Chopper suggested, jumping down onto the cloud. Everyone else followed him down, including Luvbi and helped him open the large chest.

"Poyo! (I can't wait for another ability!)" Kirby said cheerfully.

"I hope it's a cool one!" Sonic grinned.

"_**TA-DAAAAAAAH!**_"

"Awesome! It's a… Wait, what the heck?" Chopper gawked upon hearing the voice. A Nimbi fluttered out of the chest, to their confusion.

"Another miraculous escape, mine esteemed Nimbis!" declared the Nimbi. "This treasure chest contains a treasure most valuable…me!"

"Treasure? There's TREASURE in the thing?!" Blade gaped.

"Pray… What art thou doing in there?" Luvbi asked. "Dost thou not know that The Overthere hath been overrun by a Necromancer and beasts most foul?"

"I was practicing my escape act and I got stuck… Wait… AN EVIL NECROMANCER AND BEASTS MOST FOUL?" the Nimbi almost suffered a heart attack.

"Oh, geez… Not this kind of stuff…" Chopper groaned, smacking his forehead. "How on CLARA did you manage to survive in that thing without breathing?!"

"Well… All I dost was holdest my breath! But, if thou speaketh the truth about yon monsters, then I must hasten to hiding! Here! Taketh it!"

The Nimbi tossed Chopper an Ultra Shroom Shake. "Aw, man! No cool power-ups or Pixls? That's lame!"

"Maketh sure to remember my generosity when they torture you to find out where I am! Fare thee well!" the Nimbi said as he fluttered back into his chest.

"Let's see what happens when I hit it!" Tipral kicked the chest with a Star Kick, but it didn't really move…that much.

"_Naught but an empty chest! Moveth along! Linger not!_"

"Chicken…"

* * *

**Overthere Sector 8-**

"So… This is what this area's like." Chopper stated as they walked into the door that they previously didn't go through before. He punched a yellow ? block that triggered a Slow Flower to pop out. Once he grabbed it, everything slowed down.

"Pooooooooyoooooo! (Ohhhhhh nooooooo! Whyyyyy doooooes thiiiiis haaaaaaave tooooo haaaaaappen?!)" Kirby exclaimed in his slow-motion voice.

"I haaaaaaave nooooooo ideeeaa!" Chopper noticed a Boomerang Bro. standing on an Overthere platform. He inhaled the boomerang and spat it out at the Boomerang Bro., knocking it off.

They took out another Boomerang Bro. on another Ovethere platform and then landed on a nice, fluffy cloud. They could see a Nimbi lying on the ground, so they went up to him and nudged him.

"Get up!" Blade shouted, the pace of the area going back to normal after landing on the cloud.

Unfortunately, the Nimbi didn't get up. "Well that was a waste of time. We don't need to be in this area, then." Tipral stated as he walked away.

"Great… Maybe this Nimbi's just trying to sleep so that those monsters think he's dead…" Chopper trailed. "Well it's his problem now."

* * *

**Overthere Sector 5-**

After taking that Overvator over to the other side, they noticed a cloudy platform to the left of the platform that the red door was on. The first thing that they noticed was that there was a Skellobomber that dropped a Skellobait.

"They really think they're going to beat us by doing the same thing over and over? !" Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at it. He also destroyed the Skellobomber with a Star Spear was well.

Chopper frowned as he looked up. "Well that's nice… I don't have my Hi-Jump ability with me, and there's no way I'm going to be able to go up THOSE clouds…"

"Then I will taketh thee up myself!" Luvbi giggled, grabbing Chopper and flying him past a couple of clouds above him and up to a cloudy platform with a red door.

"Wait, why did you do that? I don't think that was exactly necessary… And what about the others? I think it would be a good idea to wait for them."

"Well, we will wait for them… But I doth wish to do something!" Luvbi fluttered closer to Chopper. "My sweet prince… I want thee to givest me a kiss!"

"What? A kiss?" Chopper gawked, slowly steeping away from her.

"This again…" Tippi sighed.

"Don't be shy, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled, fluttering closer while Chopper inched away from her. "It is just only one kiss! Thou can givest me a kiss on the lips, if it makest thee feel better."

"I'd rather not do it at all... Do you know how contagious those are?" Chopper gagged.

"What's the matter, my prince?"

"Those cooties will slowly destroy me. Plus, I heard they're gross!"

"All thou needest to do is close thy eyes. It'll be all over!" Luvbi smiled while hearts flew over her head.

"But... But..."

"Oh, for crying out loud," Tipral growled, teleporting up to the cloud and hitting Chopper on the head, knocking him over. "There. That's better."

"Why art thou hitting my sweet prince?!" Luvbi shouted. "Thou art NOT authorized to do such a thing, hideous monster!"

"'Authorized'? I don't need to be authorized to do anything. I only did that to stop this stupid situation. Now to get this fool up..." Tipral kicked him one last time, which finally got Chopper up. His face had a red mark from the kick.

"Oh, Chopper! Thou hast a bruise on thy cheek! Let me heal it!" Luvbi fluttered up to Chopper to kiss him, but he managed to push her away.

"Gross! Don't even try that!" Chopper cried. "I want to get back to what's more important! We only have one more Nimbi to find anyway. We gotta find Yebbi, is that it?"

"Yeah, we need to find that guy," Sonic confirmed. "Hopefully he's through this door. Then we can kick some Necromancer tail!"

They all walked through the door to find a sign and a small, cloudy pathway with some small Overthere pillars and two yellow ? blocks that were a bit high from the ground. But they decided to see what the sign had to say at first.

_Overthere Sector 6_

"I don't see any exit around here…" Tippi trailed. "Maybe you could use your flipping ability to find something?"

"I wanna see if there's something that can heal me," Chopper stated, jumping over to the pillar that had two yellow ? blocks floating above it. "Tipral's kick did do some bad damage to me…"

He managed to toss a fireball at the yellow ? block and make a Mushroom come out. He immediately inhaled it to recover 10 HP – not that anyone else needed it, since they already had full HP.

"Poyo? (So are you going to flip now?)" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, I guess I might as well do it now," Chopper let his friends get close to him so he could flip. They happened to notice a couple of cloudy platforms leading up to another cloudy pathway.

Upon flipping into 2-D again, they noticed a lonely yellow ? block that was near them and a couple of brick blocks up ahead. They knew for a fact that there were TOO MANY enemies to fight.

"I'll admit, there are a lot of enemies here…" Tipral trailed. "But I'm not going to let that stop me from killing them all!"

"Hold on, what about that lonely block?" Chopper pointed to the yellow ? block. "Why don't we hit that first?"

"Hmmmmm… Fine." Tipral struck the block with his fist. To everyone's surprise, a Mega Star popped out and landed right in Tipral's hands.

"Watch out, guys! He's going to turn into a giant 8-bit version of himself!" Chopper screamed as he tried to get in a safe place.

"What in the…" Tipral noticed that he was now transformed into a large 8-bit version of himself. "I don't know what happened, but I believe now I can crush all of these enemies in my sight!"

Tipral stomped his way through the whole area, crushing nearly everything in his sight by simply walking on it. Every single Skellobit, Spiky Skellobit and Skellobomber were destroyed. Nothing was left behind…

"Wow… That's pretty intense." Chopper gawked as he followed his counterpart to the end of the pathway, where Tipral turned back to normal.

"It's a dead end. There's nowhere we can go." Tipral stated.

"Well there's flipping…" the Star Warrior trailed as he flipped into 3-D to find a couple of cloudy platforms. They also happened to notice an Overthere building with a door that looked like a bathroom door.

"Poyo? (There's seriously a bathroom in heaven?)" Kirby gaped upon looking at the bathroom door.

Tipral walked over to it and noticed that it had a red label. "It's occupied, meaning that someone must be hiding in here."

He simply punched the door a couple of times, triggering a loud screech to be heard from the bathroom…but it stopped as soon as Tipral stopped punching it.

"Tipral! Was that really necessary?" Chopper asked, only to be ignored.

"Are the fell beasts gone? So it is safe for me to come out thither?" a voice called out from the bathroom. "By the way, who art thou?"

"A monster…" Blade trailed sarcastically.

"A monster? Thou LIEST! No monster wouldst admit to being a monster! Huh? Hold on a moment… That meaneth… Thou art NOT a monster?!"

"Oh, come on… Monsters don't tell people that they are monsters when they're waiting to kill someone! They just DON'T!"

The bathroom door opened, and a Nimbi with a yellow, spherical head, a brown mustache, a couple of heart-shaped wings and a yellow robe fluttered out of the bathroom. Luckily, it didn't happen to smell.

"Hello to thee! I am Yebbi!" Yebbi greeted. "Thou came to rescue me?"

"Uhhhh… Duh! That's why we're even here!" Blade face palmed.

Luvbi immediately responded. "We must rebuild yon bridge to reach Grambi! Thou must givest us the yellow orb! If thou dost not, we shall tell all how long thou spent hiding in thither!"

"Yeah… We'd probably do that…" Sonic trailed.

"L-Luvbi? Oh prithee, thou must not tell! I shall do all thou askest!" Yebbi handed the Yellow Orb to Chopper.

"I should not hath hidden like a base coward. I goeth to help the others now… Be thou careful!"

"Yeah, we should be," Chopper replied as Yebbi fluttered away. "Well, we better get going then."

* * *

**Overthere Sector 4-**

"We did it!" Chopper said cheerfully as he held up the three orbs. "We finally got the three orbs that are needed to rebuild the bridge!"

However, they seemed to notice that Pherrance and Tillip were talking to Whibbi. "Huh? Pherrance and Tillip? What are those morons doing here?" Blade asked.

Upon hearing them, the two Nimbis turned around. "Oh, hi, buddays! We've been looking all over for ya!" Pherrance said.

"Pray, what art thou doing hither?" Luvbi asked.

"We were just warning Whibbi that those Nimbis were coming here with torches…and pitchforks!" Tillip explained.

"Torches and pitchforks? Crap... We're screwed." Blade sighed. "When an angry mob has torches and pitchforks, you know that things are about to get serious!"

"Poyo! (That's not good!)" Kirby gulped.

"An angry mob? Well, that doesn't sound like a huge problem for us heroes." Sonic assured, giving a grin.

"Now's not the time for thinking about that stuff!" Tillip cried. "They plan on marching down to Grambi and beating him senseless if they don't get what they want!"

"They planeth to beat yon Whibbi senseless?" Luvbi gasped.

"Yeah, exactly!" All six turned around to find Dabootman and an angry Nimbi mob behind them. "What are you two idiots doing with them?! Get over here and help us right now!"

"Whoa! Everyone's here! Even Ugly Joe!" Pherrance gaped.

"Wait, Ugly Joe? Let me see… Oh! Ah! I see him right there!" Tillip smiled, waving to Ugly Joe.

"But I'm not that ugly…" Ugly Joe trailed.

"Ugly Joe, your face looks like somebody tried to put out a forest fire with a screwdriver!" Both he and Pherrance began to laugh hysterically while Joe frowned.

"Both of you ENOUGH!" Dabootman snapped. "If you two are going to try to block us from getting what we want, then we might as well kill you guys too!"

"But what dost thou want?" Whibbi asked.

"We want more monay! That's what us Nimbis deserve! We're on strike 'cause we don't get enough attention! When you guys give us some monay, we'll end it? All right?! If we don't get it, we're going to beat that old Nimbi and Grambi senseless!"

"I scoff at thy barbaric ways!" Luvbi huffed. "If thou verily dost believe thou can lay a single wing on my father, thou art going to regret it..."

"Barbaric? This is the best solution we've come up with!" Dabootman proclaimed. "You Elizabethan English weirdos just haven't learned to evolve like us, hardworking Nimbis!"

"Hold on a second, why would you need money? Nimbis don't necessarily HAVE money!" Chopper realized. "And even then, they probably don't need it. It's not like people pay money to get something here. You guys are in the aftergame! It's much different here than from what it's like out there!"

"Yeah, Chopper's got a point…" Sonic trailed. "Why get money when you're not really alive?"

"But if you REALLY want to have some money, then fine. Take this. I've been holding this ever since the last story, and I think it would be a selfless act to give it to you. Also, I don't want this thing to be pointless like some other things I've found." Chopper pulled out a golden check and gave it to Dabootman. "This is 10,000,000 theoretical coins. Just what you wanted."

"Theoretical coins? What am I supposed to do with this? You little time waster!"

"Hey! I worked really hard to get that money! …Well, maybe not THAT hard. After all, I somehow won it in a stupid contest on the internet... So can you NOW end this strike, please?"

"_**NOOOOOOOO!**_" All of the Nimbis backed away from Dabootman. "I'm not gonna look like an idiot! If I screwed up and let everyone know about it, the last thing I'd have to do is admit it!"

"You know everyone can hear you..." Blade trailed.

"Well that's not the point! I don't want to have to..." Before he could yell once again, his phone began to go off. "Yes? This is the head of the WNA, the World Nimbi Bureau…"

_"Mr. Dabootman? Oh, yes! We wanted to hear about the strike!"_

"Y… You do…? You wanna negotiate?"

_"No, actually we were just wondering if when you're all dead we could make a fast-food restaurant called McDoodles for anyone who wants to visit The Overthere."_

Dabootman gaped as he dropped his cell phone. "I… I don't believe it… They said they were going to build a fast-food restaurant when we're all dead! This… This isn't right!" the World Nimbi Bureau began to burst in tears.

"My sweet prince… Mayhap thou canst negotiate…" Luvbi suggested.

"Ummm... OK..." Chopper picked up the cell phone. "Can you, ummm... Give him something? I mean, he just doesn't wanna look like an idiot, so he needs everyone to think this strike was for something. Anything, please?"

"Poyo! (Yeah!)" Kirby agreed, grabbing the phone from Chopper. "Poyo! (Anything!)"

"Hey! Don't take the phone from me!" Chopper took the phone back from Kirby, who could only reply with a frown.

_"Well… Maybe we can give him some sort of…constellation prize…"_

"If they give you something small, will you end the strike?" Chopper asked, turning his head to Dabootman.

"Will they…act like they're giving us a lot so everyone thinks I did a good job?" Dabootman sniffled.

"Could you act like you're giving him a lot?" Chopper asked. He listened once again and nodded. "Got it. Twinkle Mart coupons and free bubblegum? Ummmmm... OK!"

"Hey, we were there before!" Sonic recalled.

Chopper explained to Dabootman what they would give him. "Hmmmmmm… Well at least we'll be winners!"

"You know, this whole thing is pretty stupid," Blade admitted. "How did those other people know about the strike?"

"I don't care, honestly," Tipral said. "It's better for us to just get the Pure Heart rather than have to go through something this stupid."

Dabootman turned to the Nimbi mob (who were a bit far after Dabootman's yelling, so they couldn't necessarily hear him). "_**WE HAVE WON!**_"

"How much did we get?" one Nimbi asked.

"Well… Um… We didn't get everything that we wanted… But we negotiated hard, and we managed to get some coupons! They're for a shop called Twinkle Mart in Outer Space! And… Free bubblegum for all of us!"

One of Dabootman's men clapped for him. "These coupons entitle us to free items at Twinkle Mart! …With a purchase of an item of greater value of course…"

"We did it!" the same Nimbi who clapped shouted. The Nimbis all cheered, but in a confusingly way.

"Hmmmmmmmmm…" Pherrance and Tillip both looked at each other and started to take out a calculator. Judging by how many Nimbis there were with them and how many coupons they'll get, they knew that something was wrong. Especially when they researched this before when they went to their house.

"Now hold on just a minute, guys!" the two broke in. "We were just doing some calculating. By NOT working during the strike, we _LOST_ 20 coins!"

"Really? That doesn't seem that bad..." Blade trailed.

"Yeah! 20 coins is not much!" Chopper agreed.

"And judging by how many Nimbis there are… Our Twinkle Mart's coupons and bubblegum are probably worth roughly…5 coins!"

"Ooh... That's not enough.

Everyone gave Dabootman a glare. "Don't listen to them! C'mon, friends, let's dance!" he began to do a weird dance while everyone else still didn't listen to him.

"Shuttest thy trap!" Luvbi growled.

"Whoa, calm down, little girl! Why can't we all just be friends?"

"You had no idea what you were doing and you're trying to make it look like you won so we wouldn't send you adrift!" Tillip growled.

"Dang it, friends! Don't you see? We won for future Nimbis like us, guy! So the little guy doesn't get pushed around anymore! This was a victory…for Nimbi's respect!"

"But we hath always respected thee…" Whibbi trailed.

"Yeah, we thought that too… And I think I just have the perfect idea for you!" Blade grinned.

* * *

**Five minutes later-**

"Hey! What do ya think you're doing?!" Dabootman exclaimed as Blade cut a piece of a cloud off to send Dabootman and two of his men out.

"We're sending you adrift, idiot," answered Pherrance.

"Maybe you can go live with the Lakitus or Wingels!" Tillip snickered.

"You'll regret this day, friend!" Dabootman shouted.

"I'm not your friend, budday!

"I'm not your budday, guy!

"He's not your guy, friend!" Pherrance stepped in.

"I'M NOT YOUR FRIEND, BUDDAY!"

"WE'RE NOT YOUR BUDDAY, GUY!" Pherrance and Tillip shouted in unison.

"_**I'M NOT YOUR GUY, FRIEND!**_" Before they knew it, they could no longer see Dabootman and his two men.

"Well… He is now gone…" Whibbi trailed. "We dost not have to worry about that problem now…"

"I'll say!" Pherrance farted. "Come on, guys! I think we should take a little break and fix up any problems we've made."

As soon as the Nimbis left, Chopper realized something. "Wait… Did they say they lost money? I thought Nimbis don't have money!"

"Poyo, (Well, blame the author for that,)" Kirby stated.

"So… Now that that hast ended…" Whibbi turned to the heroes. "Didst thou bring all of the orbs?"

"We sure have!" Chopper pulled the three orbs out.

"Then let us hasten and rebuild the bridge! Climbest onto the pedestal hither and placest the three orbs! Dost it now!"

"Got it!" Chopper jumped onto the pedestal right next to the broken bridge and he pulled out all three orbs. Three rays of light began to emit from the pedestal as they were placed on it.

"Wow… That is… Whoa!" a white light began to emit from the pedestal and caused the ground to shake. The bridge itself began to rebuild itself like someone playing Tetris…which is a bit odd.

"Whoa. That's weird…" Sonic trailed.

As soon as it was finished, Whibbi spoke up. "Grambi is in danger grave… But we are all so weak…We must ask you… Savest him for us!"

"No worries, Whibbi! We'll make sure he's just fine!" Chopper nodded. "All right, guys… Let's go!"

As they began to cross the rainbow bridge, Kirby began to sing the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" song…if it even exists. But the song really did fit the scenario, well, at least that's what Chopper thought.

After crossing the rainbow, they came across a red door sitting on an Overthere building. They headed through to come across an area with a couple of pillars with blue flags. Luvbi felt somewhat excited.

"We must forge onward, my sweet prince! Father's shrine is up ahead!" she squealed, fluttering behind Chopper as they took the cloudy path to the beautiful shrine that was up ahead.

"Wow… That looks nice." Sonic stated.

"I agree," agreed Blade.

"Meh. It doesn't look too interesting…" Tipral grumbled.

"_**HOLD IT!**_" a loud voice put all of them to a halt. A Spiky Skellobit walked over to the heroes with a dark look. "How'd you guys get here?! I thought we destroyed the bridge!"

"Uhhhh… Ever heard of REBUILDING IT?!" Chopper asked, getting into his fighting stance.

"Oh, crud… I completely forgot about the orbs…" the Spiky Skellobit groaned as it turned around. "SIR! C'MERE FER A SECOND!"

The Necromancer who was about to enter Grambi's shrine groaned and turned around. "What is it, fool?" he asked as he flew over to the Skellobit.

"We've got a problem," it pointed at the heroes with its spear. "Apparently these nitwits managed to rebuild the bridge and get here…"

"What?! How could you rebuild the bridge?!" the Necromancer barked. "We scared off those Nimbis for sure! How in the world did you find them?!"

Luvbi fluttered over to the Necromancer and gave him an angry look. "Shuttest thy trap, foul one! Speakest! Doth my father fare well?! If thou hast hurt a whisker on his face, I shall END all that is you!"

The Necromancer started to snicker. "Oh, boo hoo! Look it here! A poor little Nimbi girl thinks that she can end my game! …Yeah, like you could do anything, you little brat!"

"What do you plan on doing, sir?" the Spiky Skellobit asked, only to receive a punch from his leader.

"Shut up, you! I'm GETTING to that!" the Necromancer turned and gave a signal. "All troops report to me NOW!"

A huge mob of Skellobombers and Skellobits fell from the sky and came over to the Necromancer. Nearly everyone was gaping at this. Well, the only one who wasn't afraid was Tipral, of course.

"So, you wanna see how scary we can be, little girly?! Well take a look here!" the Necromancer cackled.

"Oh dear, there seems to be a lot of them… I didn't know there were so many left…" Tippi trailed.

"CALM THY MIND!" the six turned around to meet a familiar face. One that is named Rebbi. "I shall handle them!"

"You…"

"Ummmmmm… I'm not exactly sure if you can handle that Necromancer…" Chopper trailed. "I mean, that sword of his…and what powers he has. He's probably a dangerous foe."

"Nay, thou dost not have to worry. My strength hath returned to me… And now, these fiends shall reap the grim harvest of my Nimbi fury!" Rebbi turned around. "The hour is nigh, Nimbi brigade! Art thou ready?"

"_**YEEEEEA!**_" a large army of Nimbis came fluttering into battle.

"What the…" the Necromancer gawked.

"Hast thou fear of these fiends from The Underwhere? !"

"_**NAAAAAY!**_"

Blade made a horse sound for no reason at all.

"What the hell was that…?" Tipral gawked.

"What? It reminds me of a horse!"

"Ugh… You Nimbis never seem to give up!" the Necromancer growled. "Very well. I might as well start a battle with you! You're going to wish you've never came to The Overthere, heroes!"

The Necromancer's wings began to spread as he flew up into the air. "Luckily I can summon more Skellobits if necessary… This fight will be a cakewalk!"

"THOU ART TOAST!" Rebbi shouted.

"Well you're more like soiled toast when I'm through with you!" the Necromancer snapped his finger and a barrier over by Grambi's shrine appeared. "You're not going to be going anywhere, heroes! Not when I'M here!"

"This should be an interesting battle…" Tippi trailed.

"Star Warrior! I must givest thee this!" Rebbi pulled a sword out. "This was a present given by the Nimbis to thee!"

"Oh! A sword!" Chopper inhaled the sword and swallowed it. He was now donning a green, floppy hat with a yellow pom-pom on the tip. He was also holding a silver sword with a blue handle. "Now I feel ready for battle!"

"And now, Nimbi brigade… Ahem… _**CHAAARGE!**_"

"_**LEAVE NONE ALIVE!**_" roared the Necromancer as both sides began to collide. The Necromancer, on the hand, decided to watch the battle himself instead of taking part in it.

"All right, Necromancer! It ends here!" Chopper declared, pointing his sword at the Necromancer. "Come on down here and fight!"

"Well well! I see you wish to fight against me!" the Necromancer grinned under his helmet as he folded his arms. "All right, then! But before we get started… Let's see how you deal against THESE?!"

Before taking action, he pulled out a boom box and played a song. "Can't have a badass fight without a badass song," he stated as he struck the ground with white lightning. Three Skellobits rose and charged at the heroes.

"Whoa! He's summoned more monsters!" Blade drew his katana and sliced one of the Skellobits in one hit. "Luckily, my attack is capable of taking them out in one hit!"

A Skellobit charged straight at Chopper, but he managed to block the spear with his word. He slashed at it once and then began to hack at it multiple times. With full HP, he can fire a Sword Beam automatically, but when he isn't, he has to charge it up.

"I don't think this fight is even a contest," stated Tipral as he snapped his finger. The last Skellobit was destroyed in two hits when he struck it with a sweeping Star Kick.

"Hmmmmmm… Not bad. Not bad at all!" the Necromancer summoned different kind of Skellobits. These kind were a darker color and had spikes on their heads. Well, some of them did… These guys are the Dark Skellobits.

"What the… What are those?" Chopper used Tippi's ability to investigate them.

"That's a Dark Skellobit. This monster is more dark and evil than other Skellobits… Max HP is 20, Attack is 6, Defense is 2. Like a normal Skellobit, don't jump on its head when its spear is pointed up… They're just like normal Skellobits, except these have more HP and can move faster…" Tippi informed.

"Well this shouldn't be too bad," Chopper slashed at the Dark Skellobit in front of him. It only took him two slashes to defeat it. He even used a Spinning Sword attack on the other one, striking it like he's a drill.

"Poyo! (I got the last one!)" Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of the Dark Skellobit a couple of times to defeat it.

"Grrrrrr! Unbelievable!" the Necromancer summoned two Dark Spiky Skellobits and two Dark Skellobombers. But, even those weren't a match for them! Tipral's Star Blast was capable of wiping them out.

"What?! How did you do that?!"

"It's simple. I used my Star Blast to wipe them away." Tipral stated, clenching his fist. "You're next, Necromancer!"

The Necromancer stared at the heroes angrily. "Fine. I'll fight you myself, if that's the way you want it to be."

He flew down to the cloud and gripped his sword. "I must warn you… I'm not someone to mess with! I DO have the ability to raise the dead, so you better be careful now, heroes…"

"We'll see about that!" Chopper smirked as he jumped towards the Necromancer. He managed to strike him with a simple Sword Beam, sending him over by the stairs.

"Oof! Urgh… Not bad… But a simply Sword Beam isn't going to guarantee victory!" the Necromancer got up and fired a flaming skeleton at Chopper, knocking him to the ground (or the cloud).

"Whoa… What in the world was that?" Chopper gawked, getting himself up.

"Didn't I say that I could use skeletons against you? You haven't been listening to me…" the Necromancer trailed as he tried to strike Chopper with his sword, but failed to strike him when he blocked the attack.

"Hold on, Chopper! I got your back!" Blade charged at the Necromancer and struck him in the back. Unfortunately, it only got the Necromancer angry by kicking him straight to the staircase and striking Chopper with his sword.

"Whoa… So he's putting up a fight, I see." Sonic curled up in a ball and struck the Necromancer in the stomach with a Spin Dash. Once he got out, he felt his feet being grabbed by a couple of dead hands.

"What the heck?! What's going on?!"

"Oh, god… That reminds me of horrible memories from the Shadow King and Queen…" Chopper shivered.

"Now I have you where I want you!" the Necromancer's eyes flashed as Sonic was struck by white lightning. The difference between this one was that it deals damage instead of raising the dead.

"Hold on… I want to gather some information on this guy." Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate the evil armored being.

"That's the Necromancer. He's an evil…necromancer that has the power to raise the dead… Max HP is 80, Attack is 6, Defense is 3. The Necromancer tends to attack you with his sword, or his magic abilities. He might fire a burning skeleton at you, or he could possibly summon dead hands to pull you into the ground… This allows him to strike you easily, so you'll want to jump as many times as you can… His sword is quite deadly, but can be blocked if you have a sword yourself… We're almost there, Chopper… Once he's defeated, we can finally get the Pure Heart…" Tippi informed.

"Interesting…" Chopper jumped back over to the Necromancer and struck him with a fire slash, thanks to his flaming hand ability. The Necromancer responded by summoning dead hands to grab a hold of his feet.

"Poyo! (Don't worry, I'll save you!)" Kirby jumped on Carrie and jumped on top of the Necromancer, distracting him for a bit.

"Why you little…!" the Necromancer fired a flaming skeleton towards Kirby, but he easily inhaled it and spat it out at him, knocking him back to the whole battle. The dead hands were also destroyed as well.

"Whew… Thanks, Kirby." Chopper was ready to strike the Necromancer with a Sword Beam, but Tipral knocked him to the ground and teleported over to the Necromancer instead.

"Hey! Would it kill him to let me KNOW he was going to attack first?!"

As the Necromancer got up, he was soon punched in the face by Tipral's Star Punch. He then kicked him in the shin with a Star Kick, and to finish things off, he fired a Star Spear at the Necromancer.

"Unggh!" the Necromancer brought his sword up in an effort to defend himself. "Who are you supposed to be? You don't look much like a hero…"

"That's because I'm not a hero, nor will I ever be," Tipral snapped his finger, but the Necromancer jumped as soon as the Star Magic appeared.

"I see…" he fired a flaming skeleton straight at Tipral without him noticing, knocking him back a little bit. He fought back by hurling a shadow ball back at the Necromancer. It didn't do much, but it definitely caused some damage.

"Your dark attacks aren't going to do much to me! I am filled with dark energy!" the Necromanced swung his sword at Tipral and even struck him with a Necro Sword Beam – his kind of Sword Beam.

"Whoa… He can use the Sword Beam too?!" Chopper gaped. "That's…deadly."

Nevertheless, he charged at the Necromancer and struck him with his sword a couple of times. He even performed a Final Cutter move on him, kind of like what he would do with his Cutter ability.

"Have some of this!" Blade tossed a couple of shurikens towards the Necromancer. Although they struck him, it didn't appear to do as much with that armor. But still, he got hurt.

"This feels like it's going to be a long fight…" the Necromancer trailed, firing a Necro Sword Beam at the five, sending them flying back to the barrier, which also dealt some damage to them as well.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi cried.

"Don't worry, I'm still not done yet," Chopper got up and tossed a fireball at the Necromancer. Unfortunately, the attack was merely blocked by him. "Oh… That did nothing."

"I saw that coming, you idiot… But you won't see THIS coming!" the Necromancer summoned more dead hands to grab all five of their feet. "Heh heh heh! Now you can't move!"

Chopper tried firing another fireball at him, but he simply blocked it again. Blade even threw shurikens at him, but he simply blocked them.

"You stupid heroes! Now you're going to witness some REAL power!" the Necromancer's hands were surrounded by a purple aura. "This attack will nearly DESTROY you!"

"I don't think so!" Tipral snapped his finger and struck the Necromancer with Star Magic. "You honestly believe that you're going to take me down easily when I can use my powers with dead hands grabbing onto my feet? !"

Tipral managed to break away from the dead hands and tackle the Necromancer, delivering a couple of Star Punches to his face. Unfortunately, he was pushed off by his armored boots and then struck by his sword.

"Hmph… So you do put up a fight! I'm not quite surprised, though the dark being REALLY wants to kill me."

"Hey, Necro, look over there!" Blade pointed over to the Nimbis and Skellobits who were still fighting.

"Why in the world would you need me to…" the Necromancer's eyes widened as he got struck by Chopper's sword. Blade also delivered a katana attack while he was cringing in pain.

"What a dick move you just pulled off!" the Necromancer jumped in the air and flew over the heroes, firing flaming skeletons down at them. Kirby was able to take the least amount of damage with his guarding ability.

"Poyo! (You're not taking me down so easily!)" Kirby inhaled one of the skeletons he fired at him and spat it out at the Necromancer as soon as he landed on the ground, sending him flying to the barrier.

"ACK!" the Necromancer bounced off the barrier and fell flat on the cloudy ground. "I forgot that the barrier can also do damage to me too… Why do I have to be THIS stupid with stuff?!"

"Because you can't take five people on," Chopper smirked, stomping on the Necromancer while he was on the ground and performing a stylish move.

"Grrrrr!" the Necromancer got up and attempted to swing at Chopper. He managed to strike him once, but his next attack was parried by Chopper's sword. Actually, they were trying to push each other back with their swords while they glared at each other.

"You're wasting my time," the armored necromancer stepped on Chopper's foot and struck him with his sword, knocking him towards Kirby and also stripping him of his sword ability.

"Hey! My Sword ability!" Chopper attempted to get it back, but it went into the big battle instead. "You… How could you do this?!"

"Oh, boo hoo! I got rid of your stupid sword." the Necromancer cackled. "Well it's certainly going to make things easier for me, that's for sure!"

"Oh no it's not!" Chopper clenched his fists in anger as a flaming aura surrounded them. He made a dash towards the Necromancer and punched him in the helmet with a flaming punch.

"Whoa, I thought your punches weren't that strong…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, when you're moving incredibly fast and have flames on your fists, then it's probably going to hurt. You know, kinetic energy and all?"

"Oh, yeah… You've got a point." Sonic curled up in a ball and struck the Necromancer twice with his Spin Dash. "How much until this guy's done for?"

"He's almost finished… You just need to deliver a couple of hits and he'll be finished. Tippi stated.

"Oh, I don't think so!" the Necromancer fired another flaming skeleton towards Chopper, but instead of hitting him, it was inhaled and spat back at him, knocking him to the ground.

"Ha HA!" Blade tossed Hommissile straight at the Necromancer, knocking him back towards Kirby, who stomped on him using Carrie. Afterwards, Tipral struck him with a Star Spear.

"Ugh… What's going on?!" the Necromancer wheezed. "Am I…losing this fight?!"

"That you are!" Chopper smirked as he threw a fireball straight at the Necromancer, setting him on fire. "It's time to end this fight!"

With flames on his feet, he jumped on top of the Necromancer and delivered a powerful stomp, one that was able to put an end to this fight once and for all.

"_**GRAAAAGGHH! **_This… This can't be!" the Necromancer screamed as his eyes widened in pain. He was also surrounded by dark smoke. "For… Forgive me, my master! I… I just couldn't succeed in beating him!"

The Necromancer flew up into the air, but not on purpose. The only thing that was strange was that there was no explosion. The five looked a bit confused. Was he destroyed?

"I don't get it… Is he dead?" Chopper asked.

"I'm not quite sure… But that's not the point. We need to get a move on." Tipral went up the stairs and over to the shrine door. Thankfully, with the Necromancer gone, the barrier in their way was finally gone.

"Let's hit this block first," Chopper struck the block with his fist and, to his surprise, an Ultra Shroom popped out. "Oh, boy! There's an Ultra Shroom in this thing!"

Chopper grabbed it and split it into five pieces. All five of them ate their piece and recovered 50 HP from it. Afterwards, Chopper struck the Save Block and saved their game.

"Now we must go!" Luvbi declared. "Father is waiting for us in thither!"

"Yeah, we're gonna have to get going," Sonic nodded.

"Then… We shall go in!" Chopper declared, kicking the door open and heading into the shrine.

* * *

**Grambi's Shrine-**

Inside the shrine, they didn't see nothing else but some stain-glassed windows in the background, and a Nimbi-colored marble floor. Also, there was a throne at the end of the room, but that's not what caught them off guard.

They saw a yellow Nimbi with a large, white beard, a couple of rainbow heart-shaped wings, and two large, white eyebrows limping on a part of his side. Luvbi gasped at the sight of her father.

"Oh…no!" she and Chopper and his friends immediately rushed over to her father's side. "Father! Father! Art thou all right? !"

"Luvbi… Thou should not…have come. Flee…from here…" Grambi moaned.

"Wow… This isn't good…" Chopper frowned.

"What's this? Visitors? How exciting..." a fourth voice interrupted the moment. The voice sounded childish…yet, it sounded a bit dark for everyone's taste.

Chopper and Co. noticed across the room, a small wizard that was about Chopper's size wearing a dark gray cloak and hood with a purple stripe on the inner part of the hood with black hands, black feet, a wand, and creepy purple, glowing eyes.

"So… YOU'RE the one behind all of this, aren't you?!" Chopper growled, getting into a fighting stance.

"I have to admit… I was expecting the main villain of this chapter to be a bit…more monstrous and threatening…" Blade trailed.

"Is this some kind of joke? HE'S the one who set all of those monsters free?!" Sonic gawked. "Not even I have run into villains so small..."

"Poyo! (This is just… So weird!)" Kirby gaped.

"This is just pathetic… These Nimbis feared THIS thing?!" Tipral grumbled.

"Explain to me who you people are now," the wizard declared. "I wasn't expecting five people to show up around this time! Even if you're here to save this precious world, you're too late!"

"We're never too late!" Chopper retorted. "It just so happens that your Necromancer was already defeated by us! …And if you wanna know who I am, then fine. I'm Chopper the Star Warrior of Planet Clara. We're here for the Pure Heart that we rightfully deserve to get!"

"Chopper… That name… That sounds like something I've heard of before…" the evil wizard pondered. "Oh! That's right! You're that kid who's been trying to collect the Crystal Stars! I've heard of you from my stupid brother…"

"Brother?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Tell us who thou art, NOW!" Luvbi shouted.

"Hee hee hee! So I finally get to meet THE Chopper! I've always thought you were one to get attention from many people! Allow me to introduce myself!"

The dark wizard removed his cloak, revealing his true self. He was actually a gray, spherical shaped creature like Chopper with a large, black crescent blade on his head with a glowing sun on it, black, evil eyes, skinny arms like Chopper, black gloves with a glowing sun on them, and black shoes.

"My name is **Shade Doom**!"

"Wait… You're Dark's brother?!" Chopper gawked, looking at him. "But… But… How the HECK are you even his brother when you don't even look like him?!"

"Oh, that's simple!" Shade grinned, showing off one of his fangs. "I was created by Black Doom to help build weapons. I started to HATE it, so I ended up leaving to show Dark that I could be better than him! Thankfully, after freeing those monsters, they swore their loyalty to ME! Hee hee hee! Now I'm searching for the Pure Heart to become stronger!"

"The Pure Heart…is not hither…" wheezed Grambi.

"Did I tell you to shut up?! Stay quiet, or else I'll kill you! You've already told me that before!"

"Wait… The Pure Heart isn't here? !" Blade's eyes widened.

"Of course not! I searched EVERYWHERE in this stupid room! Not even this sun on the large crescent on my head was able to detect its presence! Good for nothing… So, instead I decided to torture the old man!"

"Thou shalt NOT layest thy hands on him!" Luvbi growled. "The Pure Heart is not hither! And even if it was, my father wouldst never give you the Pure Heart! So givest up!"

"Grrrrr! You stupid little…" Shade was about to strike her with dark magic, but he paused when he saw the sun on his crescent glowing brightly. "Huh? What the… It's detecting something!"

He scanned the area with the large crescent on his head with its purple ray of light. Shade grinned, but his expression suddenly changed when the sun crescent began to flash as the ray of purple light shone…on Luvbi.

"What the… Is this sun seriously screwed up? …No. It doesn't appear to be." Shade looked up at Luvbi. "So, that old man honestly thought he could keep the Pure Heart hidden from the likes of me?!"

"Wh-What dost thou mean?" Luvbi stammered.

"Well, let's see here… From what this is telling me… The Pure Heart…" Shade glared at Luvbi. "_**IS YOU!**_"

Luvbi gasped. "What…sayest thou?!"

"Poyo?! (Evil Luvbi was a Pure Heart this whole time?!)"

"We came all this way just to find out Luvbi was a Pure Heart? "

"Why couldn't we just get her when we were down in The Underwhere?!"

"I'm not so surprised by this… Frankly, I don't care."

"All this time, I was being kissed by a Pure Heart?!" Chopper looked over at the shocked Luvbi, both with sadness and fear. "This… How… I just don't get this at all? Why? Just why?"

"I guess the old man was forced to change the Pure Heart into a Nimbi that he called his own daughter in order to keep it hidden from the likes of me! …But the sun here never lies. You're the Pure Heart!"

"Ha ha… Th-That is just silly… My mother and father…" Luvbi stammered.

"Oh, you really think they did all of that out of LOVE?!" Shade scoffed. "HA! I honestly think that they only made you a Pure Heart just so that they could keep it safe from harm's way! Well I'm no fool."

"I don't believe it…" Chopper trailed with his head hung low. "I know I didn't like her kissing me and all, but she doesn't deserve to be some sort of object…"

"Th-That's… No… Thou liest! That can't be!" Luvbi denied. "I was brought back as a Nimbi three months ago! It can't happen again! Father… Is he speaking the truth? Please answer me!"

"L-Luv…b…i… Unnghhh…" Grambi moaned.

"Being the ruler of ended games, he can certainly weigh the sins of others, but he can certainly NOT weigh his own! He never seems to tell the truth! Especially to his own daughter! Oh, wait! You're not his daughter! Hee hee hee hee!"

"It…cannot be…" Luvbi sniffled.

"I had enough of you!" Chopper growled, glaring at Shade. "Leave her alone!"

"You want me to leave her alone?" Shade laughed before smirking at Chopper. "Make me."

Meanwhile, Tippi fluttered over to Luvbi. "Luvbi, we can talk later… Right now, just take Grambi to safety… QUICKLY!"

"O-OK…" as Luvbi took Grambi out of the shrine, all five of them turned their attention to Shade.

"I thank you for bringing me the Pure Heart!" Shade grinned. "I really appreciate that! With you guys out of the way, I will be invincible with the Pure Heart's power! None shall stop me!"

"Well, not when we're here!" Sonic growled.

"Well then, allow me to end your games," Shade flew up onto the throne using his black wings. "I've always wanted to fight against you, Chopper! Now my chance of battling you will come to be! HA HA HA HA!"

Using his wand, he summoned five red crystals. They began to spin around vertically and land on the marble ground. Once they hit the ground, it knocked all five of them back.

"What do these things do?" Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate the Crystals.

"That's a Crystal. This thing was created by the dark wizard Shade Doom… Max HP is 10, Attack is 5, Defense is 2. All they really do is strike you down. However, you can inhale these things and spit them out at Shade Doom, who has only 50 HP in this fight… This doesn't look like a hard fight at all…" Tippi informed.

"Oh, this is probably going to be EASY!" Chopper smirked, inhaling one of the crystals and spitting it out at Shade.

"Oof! What the… Why are you doing that?!" he exclaimed.

"We're trying to stop you, so we might as well use these against you," Sonic grinned as he struck one of the red crystals with a Spin Dash, sending it back to Shade.

"You little…!" Shade used his wand to lift the remaining crystals off the ground and allow them to spin vertically.

"Watch out!" Blade warned as he jumped out of the way of the crystal. He managed to throw Hommissile at the crystal and send it back towards Shade.

"ACK! This whole thing is backfiring against me!" Shade shrieked as he was struck by another crystal. There was only two more crystals left. "How is this possible? You've already destroyed three of them? !"

"Poyo! (Not for long!)" Kirby inhaled a crystal and spat it out at Shade. Sonic struck the final crystal at Shade, severely weakening him.

"That's it? This was the whole battle? That's…weak." Chopper frowned. "This isn't a satisfying way to defeat someone who spat out something that would make a girl feel terrible."

"Why would you feel bad for that girl, after all she's done to us?!" Tipral asked.

"Still, even if she's been a brat to you guys, it just feels horrible to have someone who doesn't know what she truly is… It's just a bad thing…"

"Ugh…" Shade quickly shook himself. "The battle's not over yet, Chopper! This was only just the beginning…"

He hovered to the ground and raised his arms to create a blue shield. "Luckily, my training in dark magic has allowed me to use such devastating attacks with my wand! You won't be able to cause harm to me with this thing on!"

"Great… So he's not giving up yet." Chopper groaned. He tossed a fireball at the blue shield, but it simply healed Shade instead of hurting him. "What the heck? ! My fireball did nothing!"

"Oh, that's because you can't do a thing to my shield!" Shade cackled. "It looks like you're all doomed to lose this fight!"

"Hmmmmm… Hold on a minute…" Chopper used Tippi's abilities to investigate him. "Maybe you'll get something out of him, Tippi!"

"That's Shade Doom. He's now surrounded himself in some sort of shield… Max HP is 70, Attack is 6, Defense is 3. When he has a blue shield up, he'll fire dark magic projectiles at you… That's when you need to attack him with the Pixls' abilities. If you don't use them, you'll end up healing him instead… With the red shield, he'll fire a large amount of dark magic, but it's more of a close-ranged attack… Make sure you strike him with your own moves instead of the Pixls'. If you do, the same thing will happen… Try to remember these, all right?" Tippi informed.

"Interesting… So we have to use our Pixl's ability to take Shade down when his blue shield is up… That doesn't seem so hard." Chopper dodged the dark magical particles fired from Shade's wand and struck him with his hammer (which is Cudge's ability, if you still didn't know).

"What the… How are you…?!" Shade gaped.

"Poyo! (That's because your shield HAS to have some flaws!)" Kirby smirked as he got on Carrie and jumped on top of Shade's blue shield a couple of times, performing stylish moves.

"Grrrr! Take this!" Shade struck Kirby with one of his dark magic particles. It didn't knock him back, but it certainly made the pink puffball cringe in pain.

"Poyo! (That hurts!)" he yelped as dark smoke appeared around him.

"Hee hee hee hee! Oh, how nice!" Shade was about to strike Chopper with dark magic, but Sonic immediately came down on the little alien with Screwdy's corkscrew attack, interrupting him from his attack.

"What the… Get out of here you little…!" Shade fired a dark magical projectile at Sonic to send him flying to the wall.

"Now then…" Shade flew over to Chopper and struck him with another dark projectile. Chopper attempted to defend it with his hammer but it didn't do anything. Luckily, he managed to deliver a fatal blow on his blue shield with his hammer.

"You realize that your hammer isn't going to cause any harm to me, you understand that?" Shade grinned. "It makes things easier for me!"

He fired dark projectiles at him like he was firing a machine gun. Each projectile hit him, and they certainly did hurt.

"All three of those can deal the same amount of damage!" Chopper wheezed. "Those are pretty deadly…"

"Don't worry, Chopper! I got your back!" Blade threw Hommissile straight at Shade's blue shield while he was still trying to attack Chopper, dealing some intense damage to the shield.

"Bah! I'm not going to just sit here and be struck by your Pixls!" Shade used his wand to transform his shield into a red one. "That's better!"

"Oh, yeah? Take THIS!" Blade tossed Hommissile at Shade's red shield. Not only did it deflect back over to Blade, but it also healed Shade's shield as well. "This…could be a problem."

"Remember, Chopper… Strike him with your own abilities with that shield up…" Tippi reminded.

"You've got a point, Tippi," Chopper nodded as he struck Shade with a fireball. This time, it didn't heal the dark wizard. "Hey! It actually worked! Awesome!"

"Don't think you'll succeed!" Shade growled, firing a close-ranged magic attack that sent Chopper flying towards the wall. "Get close to me and you're going to get hurt!"

"All right, then I won't get close to you," Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear straight at Shade, striking his shield easily. He also hurled a shadow ball at the dark wizard as well.

"What the… Grrrr!" Shade attempted to get closer to Tipral, but another Star Spear was able to hold him back, preventing him from striking him again. He also got struck by Blade's katana and Sonic's Homing Attack.

"Stop with that already!" he barked.

"What's wrong? Ya can't take those hits?" Sonic grinned, but was soon struck by Shade's dark magic blast.

"So… How long have you been doing all of this evil ever since you left your bro?" Blade asked, attempting to strike Shade again.

"Oh, I've been doing this evil for five whole months!" Shade grinned as he struck Blade with his magic. "My training in dark magic was very successful when I found a dark, magic book in Ash Field!"

"Ash Field? You mean back on Viti? Holy…" Chopper didn't have time to speak. He struck Shade with a flaming sweeping kick that distracted him for a little bit. "Kirby! Catch!"

Chopper threw a fireball over to Kirby, who inhaled it and spat it out at Shade, weakening his red shield. Tipral also laid a Star Spear on Shade's red shield as well.

"So I see your power is formidable. All right. Then I guess I have to change shields!" Shade used his wand to change his shield back to a blue one. "Now it's back to causing havoc with this thing!"

As Shade cackled from firing dark projectiles, Chopper managed to strike him from behind with his hammer, causing him to turn around and strike him with a dark projectile.

"These things seriously HURT!" Chopper wheezed, drinking a Super Shroom shake to recover 20 HP. "This guy's a major pain in the butt!"

"Poyo… (I'd prefer to fight that Bonechill person instead of him…)" Kirby trailed.

"We're getting our ass kicked by a little kid!" Blade frowned, tossing Hommissile straight at Shade's shield.

"Little kid?! Then explain how Chopper managed to destroy an evil demon!" Shade barked, striking Blade with a dark projectile from his wand. "I'm sure I could beat that little twerp!"

Shade changed his shield back to a red one and struck Tipral with dark magic, since he was the one closest to him. However, this left him open for both Sonic and Blade to strike with a Spin Dash and a katana.

"What really sucks is that we're not actually hitting him…" Blade trailed.

"Which makes it even better for me!" Shade grinned, striking Blade with his dark magic.

"Pick on someone your own size!" Chopper barked, striking Shade with a sweeping kick. "Fight me instead!"

"All right, I'll do that!" Shade struck Chopper with dark magic, but was soon struck by another Star Spear. "Quit doing that!"

"I don't think so!" Tipral fired another Star Spear at Shade, but instead, he managed o put up a dark barrier to block the Star Spear and send it straight back at Tipral. However, Kirby inhaled the Star Spear and spat it at Shade.

"Poyo! (And that should do something!)" Kirby smiled.

"Oh, I'm going to…" Shade paused when his shield broke. "Oh, come on! My shield's gone?! GAH! It's always something like that!"

His wings began to spread as he hovered over the heroes. "If you guys are able to strike me on the ground, then I'm certain you don't have many abilities that are capable of attacking me from up here!"

"Oh, come on! This guy NEVER gives up!" Blade whined.

Just like before, Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate him.

"That's Shade Doom. This time, he's taking off into the air… Max HP is 60, Attack is 5. He'll constantly try to strike you by firing dark, magic particles down at you… Don't use any ground attacks, because they won't hit him… However, if you can strike him while he's in the air, then that would be a good idea…" Tippi informed.

"Well, he probably won't be hard for me to strike, that's for sure…" Chopper trailed as he jumped towards Shade and struck him with a flaming slamming kick. It didn't send him to the ground, but it definitely did leave a burn effect on him.

"You stupid little…!" Shade fired a larger dark particle to the ground. It exploded and turned into smaller particles that struck everyone who was standing on the ground.

Tipral managed to teleport above him and slam his two fists on his head. However, when he grabbed a hold on him, Shade managed to elbow him and strike him with a dark blast, sending him flying towards the wall.

"I always wondered how it would be like to fight someone like you, Tipral…" Shade trailed as he struck Chopper with more magic.

"Why can't you just give up already, Shade?" Chopper asked. "You've already caused enough emotional harm to someone! I don't think you'd want to cause even MORE harm to that person either!"

"You mean your girlfriend? I nearly forgot… I don't know how I'm going to get her out of that Nimbi form! But, maybe I'll find a way."

"We're gonna make sure that you DON'T!" Chopper tossed a fireball straight at Shade, scorching him once again. A fireball was thrown over to Kirby so he could spit it out at Shade himself.

"While I didn't like that girl, I don't think you should be causing any harm either," Blade agreed, jumping towards Shade and landing a few combos on his with his katana.

"I think he's almost done," Sonic smirked as he managed to land a Homing Attack on Shade. "Good thing I can attack him while I'm up in the air, or else I would've been screwed by now."

Shade knocked Sonic back over to the corner with his magic, but once Blade struck him with one last katana attack, it was all over for him.

"_**NOOOOOO!**_" Shade cried as he fell to the ground. "No… I just… I can't lose now! After all I've done… I've lost to these people?!"

"That's it? That wasn't much of a fight, honestly…" Chopper trailed. "The only part that was a bit hard was when he had that shield around him…"

"And that was one crappy way of declaring yourself defeated," Blade added.

"So, you going to promise that you'll never invade this world again?" Sonic asked, tapping his foot.

"Urgh… I… I…" as a shadow appeared over Shade, he looked up and screamed. "Oh…NOOOOOOO!"

Out of nowhere, a large chest fell on top of him, squishing him…and possibly killing the dark wizard.

"What the… Where did that chest come from?" Tipral asked.

"Poyo, (That thing just came out of nowhere,)" Kirby said out of surprise.

"Maybe there's a Pixl in there? Maybe the one that can actually help us save this place?" Blade predicted.

"Well… Let's find out." Chopper walked over to the chest and opened it. Unfortunately, there was no Pixl to shout something out or any item to come out of the chest. But the only thing they could ever…

_**"****Hee hee hee hee hee hee…"**_

"Huh?"

Oh, yes, I was just getting to that. As the room got dark, a large, spider-like monster popped out of the chest. There was a large, black crescent blade on its…or should I say HIS head, and a purple stripe went down its face. Two purple, glowing eyes could be seen and its large legs even had some green blood on them!

"Is that… Is that really Shade?!" Chopper squawked.

_**"****You honestly believe that I would give up THIS easily?! Think again, fools!" **_Shade roared as he struck the heroes with his big, spider leg.

"Whoa… That's one creepy thing!" Sonic frowned as he got up and struck Shade in the fast with a Spin Dash. "But I think you're still a bit too slow to take us on!"

The enraged spider demon alien thing crept its way over to Sonic and struck him with its spider leg, knocking him to the ground. However, it was interrupted when Kirby spat a fireball Chopper threw to him at him.

_**"****FIRE?! You realize that spiders HATE fire?!" **_exclaimed Shade as his eyes flashed and struck Kirby with a dark strike.

"Hmph! I guess Shade really DOES put up more a fight than I thought." Tipral folded his arms. "He's actually proving to be more of a nuisance now."

He teleported over to Shade and struck him with a couple of Star Punches and Kicks. It was mostly to his head, but he did the most damage when he fired a Star Spear directly at his face.

"Hold on… I wanna get some information on this guy…" Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate Shade.

"That's Shade Doom. This time, it looks like he's transformed himself into a disgusting spider… Max HP is 80, Attack is 6, Defense is 3. This time, in his fourth phase, he'll try to swipe at you with those dangerous-looking spider legs... He can only do that if he gets close to you, so as long as you stay far from him, you shouldn't have to worry about getting hurt… However, he can still attack you with magic if possible… But still, he refuses to give up…" Tippi informed.

"All right then," Chopper dodged Shade's spider leg and jumped up to his head to shoot a fireball at him. He followed up by striking him with a flaming spinning kick, since fire IS good to use against spiders.

_**"****Foolish boy! That will not stop me!" **_roared Shade as he struck Chopper with his dark magic without even touching him. However, it left him open when Blade slashed at him with his katana, leaving a scar on one of his spider legs.

Shade screamed as he swiped at Blade with his spider leg, but that only got him struck by Tipral's Star Spear. He even tried to attack him, but his teleportation skills were too quick for him.

"Your spider form doesn't scare me, Shade!" Tipral shouted as he threw a shadow ball straight at Shade, followed up by snapping his finger, striking the evil dark wizard spider with Star Magic.

_**"****No matter what you do, you'll NEVER stop me!" **_Shade boomed as he knocked Kirby back with one of his spider legs. He even fired a bolt of dark magic towards him.

"Poyo! (What a stupid move you're pulling!)" Kirby inhaled the bolt of dark magic and spat it back at him, making him cringe in pain.

_**"****WHAT?! You… You just threw my attack back at me!" **_

"Poyo! (Exactly!)"

"Take…THIS!" Sonic slid under Shade and then struck the evil spider with a Spin Jump. Shade attempted to strike him, but he was too fast. Sonic managed to jump off the wall and strike him with a Spin Dash.

Shade made his way over to Chopper in order to strike him again. He IS his main target, after all.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper jumped onto Shade's head and landed a flaming stomp on him, leading another burn. "Yup! Fire pretty much decimates you! Just watch what I do here!"

Chopper struck Shade with a flaming slamming kick, scorching the evil spider once again.

_**"****I'm surprised you don't seem…angry," **_mentioned Shade.

"Oh, I'm angry all right," Chopper said, giving him a cold glare. "This is actually a very serious situation. You pretty much came here and almost DESTROYED all of The Overthere, and now it's time for you to pay to the price!"

_**"****You'll never stop me! Don't you remember?!"**_

"You said that already!" Blade tossed Hommissile straight at Shade to leave a huge explosion. But not even that destroyed the evil Shade Doom! "Damn… This guy can seriously take some hits…"

_**"****Hee hee hee hee hee!" **_Shade made his way over to Blade and struck him with one of his spider legs. _**"What's the matter? You can't handle a big, ferocious spider?!"**_

"Kirby and I have, so this shouldn't be a problem!" Chopper smirked, although he was a bit disgusted with how this…thing looks. Green blood on its spider legs? Now THAT'S disgusting.

Tipral made the next move, using his air shoes to speed over to Shade. He delivered a Star Kick, followed by a Star Spear when he jumped away from him. He even managed to dodge Shade's spider leg!

"This is just laughable… He can't even hit me!" Tipral scoffed.

"Be careful, guys… He still may have low HP at this minute, but that doesn't mean you're guaranteed victory…" warned Tippi.

_**"****You better listen to your butterfly friend, Chopper! You're still not going to win the battle!" **_Shade crept over to Chopper and attempted to strike him with his spider leg. Chopper jumped out of the way and managed to do a cartwheel while spinning his hammer around vertically at him.

"Well, at least this hammer comes to good use," he smiled as he struck Shade with a flaming spinning hammer while in the air, doing even more intense damage to the evil spider.

"All right, time to move into action!" Blade rushed towards Shade and, using his ninja skills, he made a couple of clones of himself. All four of them attacked Shade with their katanas, leaving him severely wounded.

_**"****Unnngghhh… No… It…cannot be…" **_wheezed Shade, knocking the real Blade off of his spider leg, and then sending him flying to the wall with one of his spider legs.

"Sheesh! It's so dark around here!" Sonic mentioned. "Why does the room have to be so dark? All I can see are two glowing purple eyes coming my…way?"

Sonic immediately jumped out of Shade's way and struck him with a Homing Attack that left the spider off guard. He immediately used a Spin Dash to strike him afterwards when Shade couldn't find him.

_**"****Stupid speed… How am I supposed to catch you when you're going too fast?!"**_

"Well, you don't!" Sonic smirked as he struck Shade one last time with a Homing Attack before getting thrown to the wall with one of Shade's legs.

"Hey, Kirby! Catch!" Blade tossed Kirby a shuriken. The pink puffball inhaled the shuriken and spat it out at Shade, making him bring his attention to Kirby.

_**"****So, you're trying to distract me, huh?" **_Shade crept over to Kirby, but he got on Carrie and jumped on top of him to deal some extra damage.

"And now it's time to finish this," Tipral snapped his finger and struck Shade with Star Magic. Afterwards, he swung his arm and fired a Star Spear directly at his face.

"He's not finished yet…" Chopper trailed as he saw Shade's spider body was filled with scars, burn marks, and even bruises. "…But he's certainly close to being finished."

"All right, then why don't YOU do it?!" Tipral growled.

"Gladly," he smirked as he jumped towards Shade. With flames on his hammer, he spun his hammer vertically at Shade and finished him off with his flaming spinning hammer.

_**"****YAAAAAAAAAARGGHHHH!" **_the intense scream from Shade caused a light to emit from him. Not only that, but the darkness in the room disappeared, but also caused some intense damage in the room as well.

"Finally! We managed to…" Chopper paused once he saw Shade transform back into himself. He was now soaring in the air just like before. "Are you SERIOUS?! He's STILL not done?!"

"I told you! The battle won't be over until you're all DEAD!" Shade growled, grinning at the heroes. They noticed that his teeth had a bit of green blood on them. Talk about disgusting…

"Great… Well, looks like we still have to kick someone's ass." Blade groaned, jumping up to Shade and striking him with his katana. "We better make this quick."

"Yeah, and just flying around doesn't make you any better," Sonic stated. "It just makes you a coward…"

"Oh, really?" Shade began to fire dark magic particles from his wand at Sonic, knocking him to the wall. "So, who wants more?!"

"OK… Now you're starting to become crazy." Chopper jumped towards Shade and swung his hammer at him. He also fired a fireball straight at him to leave a nice burn on him.

"A fireball won't really help you here, Chopper!" Shade cackled.

"Oh? Well maybe THIS will!" Tipral slammed his fists down on Shade as soon as he teleported over to him. He successfully managed to send him to the ground and defeat him.

"Wow… That was easy." Sonic said with a blank look.

"Unnnnghhh… This is NOT over yet!" Shade roared as the whole ground began to shake. "I still have one last weapon saved up just for you all!"

Shade raised his right arm up as a flaming sword began to come towards him. He grabbed a hold of it and a large, red flaming beam surrounded him. When it was gone, Shade was ready for the last fight.

"You won't be getting out of this mess!"

"Oh, yeah?" Chopper hurled a fireball straight at Shade. With his sword, he blocked the attack and absorbed the fireball into his sword. "What the heck?! I can't do a thing to him with fire!"

"That's right! This time, you have no chance against me!" Shade swung his sword towards the ground and a large, beam of fire spread across the room, dealing heavy damage to the five.

"Urk! What the heck? How are we supposed to beat THAT?!" Chopper forced himself to gather information on Shade with Tippi.

"That's Shade Doom. It appears that he has one last thing up his sleeves before he's finished… Max HP is 100, Attack is 7, Defense is 4. Shade is no pushover this time… He'll begin to use everything he's got against you with that sword… He can shoot fireballs while in the air, do a cartwheel, or fire a large beam of fire… He also moves faster in this phase, so you might want to have someone fast to fight him… Just make sure you don't get caught in any of his attacks, because they can be devastating… If he's ever low on health, he could also heal himself of 25 HP if necessary, so watch out for that… This could possibly be the last fight this time… Don't give up, Chopper!" Tippi informed.

"This might be a difficult fight…" Chopper trailed, but he noticed a sword on the ground too. He inhaled it and gained the Sword ability. "Well… I guess this makes things a bit better!"

"But we better heal up. We've taken some serious damage from that other fight…" suggested Tipral pulling an Ultra Shroom Shake out. "We're going to have to use this to win."

They all shared the shake, with Chopper sipping the last bit. Since he still had the can, he threw it in Shade's face to deal at least some damage. Although… It didn't do a lot than what it usually does.

"You little…!" Shade swung at the five, but Chopper managed to defend himself against the sword with his own. He pushed Shade back and delivered a sword slash, knocking him back a little.

"Take this, you fools!" he flew up into the air and rose his flaming sword up. A bunch of fireballs began to come down from the top of the room and strike the heroes on the ground. Although, not all of them got hit.

"Those fireballs move fast… It would be best not to get caught in the raining fireballs…" informed Tippi.

"Poyo? (Maybe I could inhale one of those?)" Kirby pondered before noticing Shade fire a dark ball of magic energy from his hand towards Kirby.

"All right, Kirby, get it!" Chopper shouted.

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby inhaled the projectile and spat it towards Shade, knocking him back a tiny bit. Although, it only got him a bit angrier.

"Argh! Take THIS!" Shade came towards Chopper while spinning around vertically with his sword like he was doing a cartwheel. He knocked Chopper to the wall, but it didn't stop the Star Warrior from fighting back.

"Hi-YA!" Chopper swung his sword straight at Shade, knocking him across the room to the throne. He made a dash towards him and struck him with a Sword Beam afterwards, making the throne split in half.

"Whoa, Chopper! Are you trying to destroy this place?!" Blade exclaimed.

"It's not like I was doing it on purpose! I was trying to hit Shade!" Chopper raised his sword and defended against Shade's beam of flames.

"I'll try something," Blade jumped over Shade and struck him from behind with his katana, but Shade managed to fight back by kicking him to the split throne.

"You're gonna have to pay for all of the damage you caused," Sonic stated, hitting Shade in the face with a Spin Dash. "I mean, I think it'll cost a lot to fix this up."

"Nimbis don't have money, remember?" Chopper reminded.

"Then how did those Nimbis _lose_ money? That's something I wanna know about…"

"Enough already!" Shade summoned more fireballs from the sky to rain down. Tipral teleported and struck Shade with a Star Spear after the raining fireballs were gone. He followed up by striking him with Star Magic.

"I gotta be honest… Out of all the Chapter 7 bosses I've faced, you're probably the most annoying." Chopper stated as he struck Shade with his sword twice and hacked at him multiple times.

"Then I'm glad I'm the hardest!" Shade grinned, striking Chopper's face with his flaming sword.

"ACK! That really burns!" Chopper screeched, holding his right cheek in pain. There was a pretty bad burn mark. "Urgh… Honestly, THIS is how you play against us?! Talk about cheap!"

"Cheap? You wanna see something cheap? THIS is cheap!" Shade pulled his wand out and used it to heal himself of 25 HP. "Now THAT'S cheap!"

"Yeah… You're pretty cheap. Not even Tipral recovered THAT much HP!" Chopper swung his sword at Shade a couple of times and did a couple of multiple hacks as well, leaving a couple of wounds on him.

Shade clenched his teeth as he flew up in the air and began to summon more fireballs to rain down on the heroes. Although people like Tipral managed to avoid the attack, everyone else pretty much got beaten down by them.

"Ugh… This fight is getting tedious…" Blade wheezed, brushing himself and using Hommissile to strike Shade while he was in the air. The explosion caused him to fall to the ground and get pummeled when Kirby inhaled him and spat him out to the wall.

"Oof! Oh, you're going to pay for that…" Shade fired another beam of fire energy, but this time he directed it at Kirby. It pretty much left him completely stunned. "Luckily, I can make this fight easier for me if I stun you all!"

"Poyo! (Ack! I can't move!)" Kirby squawked.

"Hee hee hee hee! Excellent!" Shade walked over to Chopper and made fireballs rain down towards him. Chopper attempted to block them, but they didn't work and left a bunch of burn marks all over him.

"What's the matter, Chopper? Can't take the heat?!"

"Ugh… I HATE those kind of questions!" Chopper rushed towards Shade and swung his sword, but most of his attacks were blocked…until he decided to step on his foot, leaving his enemy open.

"Hi-YA!" Chopper swung at Shade and knocked him to the ground. Before he had a chance to stab him, Shade kicked him and struck his other cheek with his fire sword.

"_**AGGH!**_" the Star Warrior held his cheek in pain.

"That's MY job to kill him!" Tipral growled, grabbing Shade and throwing him over to the throne. Sonic followed up by striking him with a Spin Dash, but was soon stunned by Shade's attack.

"Ack! What the heck? !" Sonic attempted to move, but he ultimate failed. "What's going on? ! I can't even move!"

"Dang it! He stunned Sonic!" Chopper turned to Shade, who was sent flying towards him by Tipral. Too bad he ended up getting him when Shade ended up ramming into him.

"Man… This fight is starting to get intense!" Blade frowned. "Well, I'm certainly not going to let myself down so easily."

He charged straight at Shade, striking him with his katana a couple of times until he got knocked away by a couple of raining fireballs the dark wizard fired down upon the remaining trio.

"Augh! Stupid fireballs! Come up with something more original, you alien scum!" Blade hissed as he kicked Shade away from him as soon as he landed on the ground. They knew for a fact he was almost finished.

"You think I'm done yet?! Think again!" Shade raised his wand and recovered 25 more HP with his dark magic. "I'm not going down so easily, you know…"

"But we still have you finished…" Tippi trailed.

"Shut up, butterfly! I'll kill you once I kill them!" Shade fired another beam of flaming energy, but this time he aimed it at Blade instead, stunning him.

"Oh, god… This sucks!" Blade attempted to get himself free. "I'm stuck in this…stupid flaming stun thing! I'm paralyzed!"

"Whoa… This isn't good." Chopper gulped.

"It's just you and me now," Tipral stated, grabbing a hold on Shade's arm and throwing him over to the split thrown. "Luckily I still have enough energy for me to defeat this guy!"

"Careful, Tipral… I don't think it's a good idea to use brute force against him. You gotta think first!"

"I don't need your help! I'm better off on my own!" Tipral punched Shade in the face with a Star Punch and then stomped on his head with Star energy on his feet.

"Oh, yes! I forgot about this!" Shade used his wand to throw Tipral off of him and send him back to Chopper. "With this, I can destroy you all for sure!"

"I don't think so!" Chopper growled, firing a Sword Beam at Shade, only to have it blocked by him. "Crud… That didn't work…"

Shade grinned as he flew up into the air and summoned more fireballs to rain down upon the two. They were knocked to the ground with even more burn marks on them!

"Chopper… Don't give up…" Tippi trailed solemnly.

"I…won't…" Chopper slowly got himself up. "I don't want to make a girl feel bad… She's already sad now, but I'm certainly NOT going to let you kill me, Shade! I have a whole UNIVERSE to save!"

"And I have a whole universe to destroy!" Tipral growled.

"So… You want to destroy the universe, while you want to save it? Interesting… But how come you two are working together?" Shade asked.

"That's none of your business," Tipral swung his arm and struck Shade with a Star Spear. Unfortunately, the attack was sent back at Tipral instead. This allowed the dark wizard to stun him with his fire sword.

"Urk! What the… I can't move!" Tipral glared at Shade coldly. "You wretched alien… I swear I'll have your head when we're finished with this! For now… Finish him off, Chopper."

"Oh, please! This fight is mine!" Shade tackled Chopper to the ground and punched him in the face. "You're already bruised up! This fight will be easy for me to finish!"

"Well look at you!" Chopper kicked Shade off of him and slashed at him with his sword a couple of times. "You're already a bit wounded yourself! We're both pretty much even at this point!"

"That may be…but I'll still have the advantage!" Shade summoned more fireballs to come down, but Chopper used his speed to avoid them this time. However, he wasn't moving fast like he usually was.

"Ugh… How much until he's finished, Tipps?" Chopper asked.

"Not much further… You should still be able to finish it…"

"I'll try something…" he brought his sword down on Shade as soon as he landed on the ground, but Shade himself managed to knock him back to the throne with dark magic.

"Ugh… Man, this is tough! I know I said it before, but it IS tough!" Chopper wheezed as he got himself up, only to get struck in the face a couple of times by Shade's fire sword. "Stop that already!"

"Why should I? I'm trying to kill you!" Shade barked, leaving a couple of burn marks on his face. "Hmmmmm… That should do it. I just need to finish you off with one more hit and you'll be done for!"

Shade was about to finish him off with one last swing, but Chopper brought his sword up and blocked the attack.

"Oh, so you've still got some fight in you, huh? Very well!" Shade started to push Chopper back with all of his might to finish him off.

"Ugh… He's too strong!" Chopper was being pushed back, but an idea suddenly struck him. _"Wait… I think I know what to do!"_

Chopper stepped on Shade's foot, getting him off guard and kicking him in the face, knocking him away.

"All right… This is it, Shade!" Chopper raised his sword up, and with one last attack, he fired a Sword Beam directly at Shade. There was a price to pay for this, however. He ended up losing his Sword ability.

"_**AAAAACK!**_" Shade's eyes widened in pain as he dropped his fire sword. It ended up disintegrating. "No… NOO! This… How is this possible?! You… You managed to best me?!"

"Game over, Shade… Game over…"

Shade let out an intense scream that practically destroyed everything in the shrine. It even freed Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Tipral from the paralysis that they were in. Before they knew it, Shade Doom was lying on the ground.

"Whoa… We… We did it?" Blade gawked.

"Yeah… Too bad I lost my Sword ability…" wheezed Chopper, no longer donning the green, floppy hat.

What was surprising to them was that Shade managed to get himself up. "What the… You're still alive? !" Sonic gaped.

"Poyo! (That's impossible!)" Kirby gaped.

"Ughh… I… I… This isn't the last of me!" Shade stammered. "I'll make a comeback and I WILL kill you!"

Shade made a run for the door, and in no time at all, the alien child was gone.

"Well, I feel satisfied now that he's gone…" Blade said, sighing in relief.

"Well I don't…" Chopper trailed, giving a sad look.

"Why?"

Before Chopper could answer, Grambi and Luvbi – who, too, had a sad look on her face, came back into the shrine. Blade immediately understood what Chopper meant when he didn't feel satisfied.

"Thou…hast done a fine job, heroes…" Grambi coughed, feeling a bit better. "Thou hast saved our realm from that evil alien child… How can I repay thee?"

"By giving us the Pure Heart, of course," Tipral growled.

"Tipral… Stop with this. Now." Chopper demanded, giving him a serious look despite not looking happy.

"Father… The words of that evil wizard…were lies, yea? Hast thou verily lied to me about what I truly am?" Luvbi asked.

Grambi turned to her supposed daughter. "Well… Luvbi…"

"_**LUVBI!**_" To the five's surprise, Queen Jaydes came into the shrine.

"What the hell?! How did she get here so easily?!" Blade squawked.

"Mother!" Luvbi gasped.

"I have not received word of your safe arrival, so I came looking… Are you well?" the queen asked.

"Pray, speakest to me, Mother… I must know this from Father and thee… Hast thou lied to me about the Pure Heart still being hidden in me?"

Queen Jaydes nearly jumped. "Wait a minute, what gave you that assumption?!

Luvbi gave her a serious look. "Prithee, Mother. Speakest the truth to me. Thou cannot hide it anymore."

The queen turned away from Luvbi with a sad look. "…Luvbi… You… We're sorry…for lying to you. The Pure Heart still rests in you."

Luvbi nearly gasped. "No… So…that alien was speaking the truth? But… How is this possible?"

"The Pure Heart was always in danger of falling into the hands of evil darling. Once we discovered the Pure Heart still remained inside you, we had to conceal its power to make people believe you and the heart were separate beings. Though, it appears we didn't do a good job on that..."

Luvbi stared at the ground sadly. "And thou…did not tellest me this?"

"I feel really bad…" Chopper frowned. "Having your life be a big lie... Not even my life was like that..."

"Poyo… (Chopper, you don't need to feel bad…)" Kirby trailed, admittedly feeling the same way.

Before anything else could occur, there was a large, white flash that emitted from Luvbi.

"WAAAAAAH!"

Everyone gasped as they saw a white Pure Heart emitting from the Nimbi girl.

"What the heck was THAT supposed to be?" Sonic asked.

"So that's the Pure Heart..." Tipral trailed.

"The Pure Heart doth struggle against the Luvbi identity…" Grambi trailed. "It seeketh its true form. It doth sense someone nearby worthy of possessing it. It must be that boy and his friends over there..."

Luvbi turned to Chopper, but not with a happy look. "So, uh… Art thou saying I am verily meant to be with Chopper? All of this time… Chopper was verily the prince I hath been pining for? I can't believe thou hast been verily my prince the whole time… But now I can't spendeth time with thee anymore in my Nimbi form…"

Chopper was unsure how to respond to her, so she turned back to her parents, but with a serious look. "Fine, I shall return to my Pure Heart form…and I shall go with Chopper and his friends…"

Grambi gasped. "Art thou verily certain, my daughter? If thou turnest back into the Pure Heart, the Nimbi known as Luvbi…will cease to exist."

"Nay, perhaps I already have…" Luvbi trailed, turning away from her parents. "I remember sensing the Pure Heart's power, in truth. And the world would end if I did not do it, is this not so? So I should just…" Luvbi paused and changed her tone. "Wait, didst thou call my thy DAUGHTER?! Thou art NOT my parents, nor art thou trustworthy, so QUIET!"

"Wh-What?!" Grambi gasped.

Luvbi turned back to her parents with a glare. "To think of all the times thou hast been so kind and loving to me! Thou didst KNOW I was not long for this world! Why didst thou not let me have fun? Nay! Instead, I suffered two lying parents who hath no nerve to speakest the truth! My life was all so meaningless! How dost thou plan to make that up to me?!"

"Luvbi!" Queen Jaydes gasped, while Grambi's tone of voice got angry.

"Sayest thou what thou wilt to me, but talketh not to thy mother that way!" Grambi scolded. "Perhaps thy sass shall end hither! What dost thou wait for?"

"Mother?! Oh, giveth me a break!" Luvbi spat. "Thou and my so-called 'mother' art not verily mine parents! And besides, I have to transform whether I want to or not! It shall helpest me get away from yon liars!"

"Thou art an ungrateful brat! Dost thou not recall when nursed thee to health when thou were sick?!"

"I scoff at thy caring! Why dost thou not giveth me back the present I bought with my saved allowance!"

"What madness doth spew from thy lips?! Who GAVETH thee that allowance?! And thou didst lie to get that money, too! Thou didst pretend to buy something for thy uncle!"

"Both of you! please stop!"

Both Grambi and Luvbi stopped and turned to Chopper, who looked very uncertain, as if he wasn't sure what to say.

"Please, stop fighting... It's never good to fight like this! Even if you're not really, um, related, you were still family." Chopper turned his attention to Luvbi. "Luvbi, I can understand how you feel... I've been in a bad situation similar to this... But your 'parents' did seem like they really did care about you. Some thing may have not gone well, but I'm sure there was more good that came out of it..." Chopper turned his attention to Grambi next. "Grambi… I know that you did this to keep the Pure Heart safe from evil, but it's not good to lie... Sure, it's OK to tell at least one lie once in a while if it's to keep them happy, but keeping it in you for so long isn't good, especially when they find out that you were lying to them the whole time. And why are you two fighting in the end like this? Saying goodbye should be something nice... You should be at least lucky you get to say goodbye for a change..."

Remembering what had happened six years ago, Chopper slowly lowered his head in sadness. _"How did I do? I've never really spoken like that before..."_

"Chopper… I dost not know what to say…" Luvbi sniffled. "It's just… I thought Mother and Father… I thought… They wouldst…be happy…"

Grambi's angry expression had slowly turned to sadness.

"The pair of thee… Thou art liars… I… I… I hate thee…"

"…That is enough, Luvbi," Queen Jaydes spoke up as Luvbi turned to her. "It is true that we kept your secret hidden as a means of protecting the Pure Heart…but Grams and I were just happy to see you've returned after the other incident. We loved you very much, like a real daughter, and we didn't want to break your heart so early. We wanted to be with you for all time in peace. You became a part of us. Perhaps we were wrong to create you…and if we only caused pain, then we apologize."

"Oh, Mother… Thou needst not apologize… My dear mother… Thank thee."

Another flash appeared and the Pure Heart emerged from her again. "The Pure Heart doth wish to assume its original form…" she sniffled.

"Luvbi…" Grambi sniffled.

Luvbi turned to the group with a small smile, mostly to Chopper. "Chopper, Tippi… Takest good care of the real me. And…savest the universe, yea? Such is my final wish, so if thou dost not do it, thou art most unkind!"

"I understand…" Tippi stated. Chopper slowly gave her a nod while looking at the ground in sadness.

"And… Chopper…" Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper. She noticed tears were coming down his face. "Art… Art thou crying?"

Chopper looked up at Luvbi. "I just… I feel sorry that you have to do something like this. You don't deserve something like this."

"But I have to do it… Just remember… I'll never forget thee. I'll always…love…thee…" Luvbi gave Chopper one last kiss, though he didn't see to affected by it than usual. "Promise me thou will savest the world."

Chopper noticed that tears were beginning to come down her face. "Ummm… OK… I'm really sorry something like this has to happen..."

"Thou dost not have to be sorry, my sweet prince... " Luvbi smiled at him before turning back to her parents. "Father… Mother… Fare thee well…"

"Luvbi…" Grambi cried.

"Oh, my darling…" Queen Jaydes sniffled.

"I am sorry…for lying earlier. Because in truth… I… I love thee…both…" Luvbi smiled, trying to hold off more tears.

She closed her eyes as the Pure Heart was struggling to break free. Everyone could see the Nimbi form of Luvbi fading. She shed one last tear as she gave a smile before the Nimbi form of Luvbi ceased to exist.

_"Fare thee well, Mother and Father..."_

Chopper could only watch as any sign of Luvbi had slowly risen from the floor and looked down at her parents and him before slowly fading from existence, leaving only the Pure Heart behind. No words could describe how saddened he was.

"Wow… Poor girl." Sonic frowned. "Not even she deserved a fate like this..."

"And she did something so selfless..." Blade mentioned, nearly speechless over Luvbi's nonexistence.

"Luvbi…" Jaydes trailed.

"Now, ye prophesied ones… Destined heroes… Takest our dear daughter… Takest the Pure Heart." Grambi requested.

"O-OK… We'll do that…" Chopper slowly nodded.

"And sweareth this to me… Thou must prevail! Let no one else in the universe fell this sadness!"

"We… We will make sure…"

"Very well, then I am satisfied… Now, Luvbi, thou must go…"

"Oh, Grams…" Queen Jaydes sniffled, shedding one last tear.

Chopper walked over to the white Pure Heart and picked it up. All of the Pixls began to dance around him, but their dance was not as cheerful as usual.

In the end, Chopper held up the Pure Heart with one last tear down his face as his eyes closed. "Don't worry, Luvbi… We will definitely save the universe… I promise that. Not just for every world, but also for you…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Heroes… My daughter wanted thee to save all worlds. 'Twas her final wish." Grambi spoke slowly through his tears as the brave Nimbis cleaned up The Overthere. Draped in sadness, Queen Jaydes walked slowly to her palace in The Underwhere. Chopper, his friends, and the eighth Pure Heart were all that remained… This Pure Heart had come at a high price. Let us hope it was all worthwhile._

* * *

**I swear, this one was a heck of a chapter to write.  
**

**But, hey! This was a pretty long chapter, I'll admit. Probably one of the longer ones you'll ever see (although I'm pretty sure there are going to be even LONGER ones when I'm done editing this fic. I'm not kidding, there are probably ones that are going to be LONGER.**

**But, all I can say about this was that it was definitely one of my favorite chapters. It had a lot of humor to it...but the ending was definitely not happy ending. Are you surprised that this boss was actually a lot more threatening than Bonechill? I thought so (even though I personally like Bonechill).  
**

**Now the ending... I'll admit that I found Chapter 7's ending to be shocking and even sadder than the game's ending. While the ending is sad, I thought there was a bit of happiness in it with, well, those two being back together. I won't go into much detail about that, though. However, expect this story to have some of its depressing moments - much more than the previous two.  
**


	45. Chapter 7 Interlude

**OK, here you guys go! Another interlude! After that incredibly long Chapter 7-5, we're finally going to be moving on to Chapter 8, which is another cool chapter I like…but we have this to take care of first.**

* * *

"So, tell me now… Is everything going as planned? …asked Count Bleck." the count asked as all four minions were standing on their platforms. Nastasia was standing on a platform next to Count Bleck.

"Everything's going exactly fine," Dimentio smiled. "However… There is one little flaw to your plan. Apparently I discovered that the heroes themselves managed to get the eighth Pure Heart and get out of the aftergame! How…shocking!"

"WHAT? ! …Spat Count Bleck in utter disbelief. Surely these news cannot be true! The ones with my love still live?"

"Ah ha ha. Oh, I'm afraid so, my count. In fact, I believe that they will be here before long." Dimentio sang.

"Whuh? Izzat true, then?" O'Chunks gawked. "What're we doin' twiddlin' our biscuits, 'ere? Count Bleck! Lemme go throw 'em a nice welcome party fer what they did teh Tipral… I'll bring the punch!"

"Ooh, I wanna party with those party poopers, too! Wait up, O'Chunks! Mimimimimimi!" Mimi cackled. "Plus, after what they did to poor Tippy, I wanna make sure they pay for what they've done!"

O'Chunks jumped off the platform and Mimi teleported out of the room using her boxed outline teleportation.

"Hmmmmm… Fine. I suppose I'll help take care of those fools." Dark declared. "Tipral WAS, in fact, the one who helped us become stronger. Although I don't understand WHY you're here, I guess I have no other choice." in no time at all, Dark disappeared out of the room with his cape.

"Well, I'm not one to miss a party…" Dimentio trailed, almost forgetting something. He snapped his finger with a smirk on his face. "Oh, but wait one moment… Dear Count… I almost forgot something! I was wondering if you've heard of a boy named Chopper. He's spherical-shaped and has two antennas."

"Count Bleck does remember someone who looked like that hurting Timpani…" Count Bleck trailed.

"Well, he's not one to worry about. Once he makes it here, surely you can be satisfied by killing him. But don't try to worry about it. Ciao…my count!" with his teleportation, Dimentio was gone.

"Count Bleck! Ummmm… Do you really think this is necessary? What ever happened to not destroying the whole universe?" Nastasia asked. "I don't really believe that Dimentio's speaking the truth. I think you can put an end to this prophecy!"

"You know not what you are saying, Nastasia. The prophecy can no longer be stopped by Count Bleck. It has come back…and there's nothing I can do to stop it. All that can happen is for Count Bleck to do what the prophecy says…"

"Yeah, I'm on board with what you're saying…but there must be a way. There must… _**Lord Blumiere!**_" Nastasia cried.

Count Bleck grinned evilly. "_Bleh heh heh heh heh…_ The man known as Blumiere is not to be spoken about. My poor, sweet Timpani is being tortured by an evil Star Warrior named Chopper! Count Bleck cannot let that happen! Only the Dark Prognosticus can stop him now. Nothing more!"

"But…" Nastasia looked at the floor solemnly. _"This is not the same Blumiere that I've known…"_

"Come to Count Bleck, Star Warrior and heroes… If you hope to cause enough emotional harm to Timpani and I, then come… BLEH HEH HEH HEH! BLECK!"

* * *

"_So, Timpani, what do you want to do next? We haven't done much in this place except for talking. I would certainly like to play a little game."_

"_You mean a board game or something?"_

"_No no… Not a board game. Those games usually aren't the greatest. Maybe a little game that we can both enjoy! How about a game of hide and go seek?"_

"_That sounds like a fun game! What do you do?"_

"_Basically, you count to ten and you try to find the person hiding. The other person, well, has to hide. I'll count and you can hide."_

"_OK! I guess I'll hide!"_

"_All right… One… Two… Three…"_

"_TIPRAL! There's something out there!"_

"_Wait… What is it?"_

"_There's these weird, yellow monster things called Artificial Stardie in the lab, and they're going crazy! Can you do something about it?"_

"_OK… I'll try to stop them. Just… Just leave it to me."_

"_Now now! What do we have here? This Ultimate Life Form appears to have such great power… Perhaps I could use that power in the distant future! Ah ha ha ha ha!"_

* * *

**Flipside Towers-**

"No! Blumiere! You mustn't!" Tippi cried out, hearing the evil laughter of Count Bleck in her mind. "Darling… How could you… _Oh… Darling… You… Why…_"

"Tippi snap out of it, will ya? !" Blade snapped. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Poyo? (Did I just hear her say the word 'darling'?)" Kirby gawked.

"…What? !" Tippi was lying on the floor, remembering a tragic moment. Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Tipal were looking down at her with a confused look. Tipral seemed to be the most confused.

"Are you all right?" Sonic asked.

"Um… It's all right… I'm sorry for startling you all…" Tippi trailed.

"Excuse me, but did you just cry out for someone named 'Blumiere'?" Tipral asked.

"It's nothing really… I just… I thought I heard someone taking over the Dark Prognosticus. I could hear a horrible laugh. It went something like, 'Bleh heh heh heh! Bleck!' It felt horrible…"

"Count…Bleck?"

"Wait… How do you know this?"

"I once heard about a man named Count Bleck before…" Tipral trailed. "While I was stuck in that one world, I overheard someone speaking of someone named Count Bleck. I don't know who the person was, but I knew that I heard it from somewhere before."

"Well, that's weird… Are you saying that the person holding that book is someone called Count Bleck?" Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Strange… Well, anyways, maybe we should go back to Merlon's and tell him we've got the eighth Pure Heart!"

"Yes, I agree with Sonic. I think we should go back to Merlon's…" Tippi noticed Chopper wasn't here. "Wait… Where's Chopper? Wasn't here a minute ago?"

"Poyo, (He's over there,)" Kirby said, pointing over by the elevator. Chopper was sitting over by the edge of the tower, holding the white Pure Heart. "Poyo. (I think he's still sad about losing his girlfriend.)"

"Oh… He's still a bit sad? Poor little kid… Maybe we should talk to him…" Tippi suggested.

"I could honestly care less," Tipral stated, folding his arms. "I'm actually glad we're rid of that brat once and for all! She deserved to transform into a little heart after treating us like pathetic servants!"

"Tipral, this is not how you should be acting… Why do you need to be so insensitive? ! She may have flustered me, but it doesn't mean that she deserved to be sacrificed!"

"Tssh! Your words don't do a thing to me, you stupid little butterfly!" Tipral flicked Tippi away from him. "All I care about is getting that scepter back and getting back to destroying the universe!"

"Poyo? (Then why are you with us?)" Kirby asked.

"The Pure Heart is the only thing that can help me get back to my castle. But just leaving you guys in the castle won't do any good. There are some rooms that might not be easy for me to get through, so having you guys help me will work much better."

"We're not here to help you, though! We're trying to save the universe from The Void!" Sonic shouted. "…But I think we're really getting off-topic here. We should go over to Chopper and cheer him up."

"Poyo! (Of course! I'm the best when it comes to cheering people up!)" Kirby cheered.

Kirby, Sonic and Blade walked over to Chopper. They noticed that he was still holding the white Pure Heart in his arms, like he was cherishing it for the rest of his life. Like it was something close to him.

"Chopper… I understand why you're sad. …But, things like this tend to happen, right?" Sonic asked, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know that…" Chopper trailed, not even looking at Sonic. "I never knew Luvbi was a Pure Heart this whole time… And what happened after we beat Shade. What happened to her kind of reminds me of what happened to me. By that, I mean she never had any parents. I know I can relate to that and all… But she cared about me, and I find it sad for people that are close to me to sacrifice themselves…"

"Did your parents…sacrifice themselves?" Tippi asked.

"I was told by Meta Knight that there was only one ship left. I don't know why I was the one taken onto it, but I know for a fact that they couldn't do anything else about it. My parents depended on me to stop Maquano…at only four years old."

"Poyo… (Wow… That's a bit sad…)" Kirby trailed.

"And now it makes me feel even worse that Luvbi died. She doesn't really have any parents, just like me. Well, I HAD parents, but not anymore. Is this what the world's meant to be like? Filled with such sadness?"

Blade stepped up over to Chopper. "I understand that you lost you're girlfriend and all…"

"I never said she was my girlfriend, though!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know you were going to say that… But, I can relate to something with your girlfriend dying. You see… I once lost my girlfriend. It was tragic. Very tragic."

"You never told me you once had a girlfriend…"

"Well, now I'm telling ya. You see… She ended up dying too. Luvbi kind of reminds me of how my girlfriend died from being hit by a train. I swear… Why didn't she just turn her friggin' iPod off while walking on the train tracks? ! …But honestly, I don't think your girlfriend's dead. She said she was, in fact, the Pure Heart. So, you're technically holding Luvbi right now."

Chopper looked back at the Pure Heart. It almost looked like he could see the spirit of Luvbi appear before him.

"_Savest the world for me, my sweet prince!" _the spirit of Luvbi left a kiss on Chopper's forehead (that he couldn't feel) before disappearing.

"Wait! Come back!" Chopper cried, only to find her disappear. "She's gone…"

"What are you talking about? I didn't see anything…" Sonic trailed.

At this moment, Tipral knew he had to speak up. He walked over to Chopper.

"Listen, Chopper… I think this is all my fault." Tipral stated.

"What?"

"I said this is all MY fault! And no, don't go, 'It's not your fault that Luvbi's dead!' It IS. You wanna know why?"

Everyone looked a bit curious. "You see… The reason the Purity Heart split was because I found it and split it into twenty pieces. I'm sure that something happened to Luvbi that transformed her back into a Pure Heart. And… Well, I guess Grambi and Jaydes discovered this and kept it a secret."

"So… You're the one who caused this. Are you saying…?"

"Luvbi USED to be a real Nimbi. It doesn't appear to be like that now. But, I bet that bratty girl would want you to stop crying and help save the universe, right?"

Chopper got up. "Fine… We might as well make our way back to Merlon's house. Although… Don't expect me to be happy about it."

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"So… We have gathered eight Pure Hearts and four of the heroes, it seems…" Merlon trailed. "…Although, I'm not quite sure if Tipral would be qualified as a hero…"

"Don't call me a hero," Tipral warned. "I'm not truly here to help you guys."

"Well, hopefully we can stop The Void and keep all worlds safe! …Just like what most people want." Sonic said while giving a thumbs up.

"Poyo, (Though, I don't think we have much time,)" Kirby said with a worried look. "Poyo… (All of those poor worlds soon might be devoured by the evil void…)"

"Kirby's right. We don't have much time…" Chopper trailed. "Some worlds might be getting destroyed soon…"

Everyone paused when they heard mumbling. It was coming from Tippi.

"…What troubles you, Tippi?" Merlon asked.

"The prophecy… Do we really have to destroy the one who's now taking control of the Chaos Heart?" Tippi asked.

"Much of the dark prophecy has already come to pass…but stop it we must. Though it was Tipral who brought the Chaos Heart back, I do not think he is the one we can destroy now… If we destroy the one who has now taken control of it, the prophecy's power will wither, and all worlds can avoid their ends."

"_Good… So these people don't think I'm a huge threat…although that might change." _Tipral thought.

"Tippi, it sounds like something is bothering you. What's wrong?" Blade asked.

"My dear… Was there something between you and this new person?" Merlon asked.

"Umm… No, nothing… It was nothing… I'm fine! Let's go!"

"Very well, then," Merlon turned his attention back to the heroes. "Once again, your first task is to set this Pure Heart in a Heart Pillar. Once you've done that, head back to Flipside Towers. I'm sure the door will be there this time…"

"OK…" Chopper frowned, looking at the white Pure Heart in his hands.

"Chopper, something seems to be bothering you… Is there a connection between you and this Pure Heart?"

"Merlon… Is it possible for Pure Hearts to have…emotions?"

"Mmmmmmmm… That's not something I know of…" Merlon trailed. "Why do you ask a question like that?"

"Well… It's because this Pure Heart was once this Nimbi girl named Luvbi. And, well… I know for a fact that she has emotions. Sometimes, I can hear her voice within this thing…" Chopper frowned. "It still makes me a bit sad."

"Hmmmmmmmm… That's very interesting… A Pure Heart that's able to speak. What is she saying to you?"

"I can hear her telling me that she loves me and wants me to place her in the Heart Pillar. That's what she's telling me…"

"Well, if that's what she's telling you to do…then I suppose you must do that. I can feel her saying this as well…"

"All right, if that's what I need to do, then I might as well do it," Chopper turned to his friends. "Come on, guys. We need to place this Pure Heart in its rightful place."

* * *

**Flopside, 2****nd**** floor, Outskirts-**

"Poyo! (Chopper! I can see the Heart Pillar over to the right!)" Kirby pointed over to the right while floating up in the air.

"Hey… I remember that Heart Pillar! …Though, it wasn't there before." Chopper jumped over the stone platforms and made his way over to the Heart Pillar. It was a pure white color, unlike the other Heart Pillars.

"Wow… This is a beautiful Heart Pillar…" Tippi trailed. "Go on, Chopper… Place the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar…"

"All right…" Chopper pulled the white Pure Heart out. "Luvbi… This is what you want me to do, right? Well… I guess this is our final goodbye."

He tossed the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar, causing a white clock to appear before them. They knew something was going to happen over by Flipside Towers, that's for sure.

"So… What exactly happened?" Blade asked.

"There's something that happened at Flipside Towers," Tipral stated. "I suggest we go back there."

"All right…" Chopper jumped onto the stone pillar, but turned back to the pillar and gave one last goodbye to the Pure Heart before jumping past the other stone pillars.

"So, the time has come…" all five of them stopped when they saw Nolrem over by the pathway to go back to Flopside.

"This guy… He looks a lot similar to that Merlon person…" Tipral trailed.

"Heroes, the eighth door is at the top of Flipside Tower by the seventh door! I wish I could go there, but sadly, I don't I will be able to… Merlon will be waiting up there for you, however. Once you've prepared for the battle that waits beyond that door, head back to Flipside Towers."

"Then we'll take a shortcut," Chopper pulled the Return Pipe out. "This should take us to Flipside Tower easily."

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"So I see you've finally arrived…" the five noticed Meta Knight was waiting over by a light gray door next to the purple door. "So this is the door that leads to Castle Tipral, is that true?"

"Yes, it will lead to my castle," stated Tipral as he walked over by the door. Merlon was also waiting by the door.

"I can't believe that this time has already come…" trailed Merlon. "You guys have worked hard to gather eight of the Pure Hearts and open the door to Castle Tipral. I wish I could go through this door with you, but sadly, I am unable to."

"I know you guys can do it. I want to help you guys on your way, but without my sword, I am powerless." Meta Knight said.

"Thanks for all of the help, you two," Chopper thanked.

"Poyo! (We couldn't have done this without you guys!)" Kirby cheered.

"Have no fear! We'll make sure we take care of what's through here!" Sonic smirked, waggling his finger.

"Whoever's holding the Chaos Heart now, I'll make sure we stop him once and for all," Blade said with honor.

"I'm only doing this for my own reasons…" Tipral trailed.

"Tippi…" Merlon began. "I don't know what's in your mind, but… If this is too hard for you, please feel free to stay behind."

"No… I'm going…" Tippi refused. "I've decided. I must do this!"

"Tippi, you've changed much. You've grown so strong… So! Be sure to return safely to me!"

"I will, Merlon." She turned to the five. "Let's go! Let's stop the Chaos Heart! Let's save all these worlds from destruction!"

"All right, then let's do this!" Chopper declared, only to get interrupted by more violent shaking. "…At a time like this?"

"It doesn't seem like there is much time," Meta Knight looked up at the sky and saw the huge size of The Void.

"In that black span of nothing, you will find Castle Tipral," Merlon explained. "You may face battles harder than any you have endured thus far… If you feel ready to face this challenge, then please go forward."

"You guys ready?" Chopper asked. The rest of the four gave him a nod. "All right! Then let's go!"

All five made their way through the gray door. All they knew was that they didn't have as much time to stop The Void from devouring everything.

"Chopper... Kirby... Sonic... Blade... And even you, Tipral... Be strong." Meta Knight said.

"And you too, Tippi..." Merlon added.

* * *

**You're probably wondering, "But Mech! Wasn't the door that led to Castle Bleck in Flopside Towers? Why is it now on Flipside Towers?" Well... Things will be explained later. Not in Chapter 8, though. A bit later in the story...or a couple of chapters later. So, don't worry about asking me that question, all right?**

**Next up: All five finally go to Castle Tipral, but with all of the traps in there, how will they managed to get through the castle? Well... You'll find out.**


	46. The Impending Darkness

_After finding the eight Pure Heart, the band of heroes set off for Castle Tipral. The stakes were high as the ominous void grew larger and the end drew near. Could Chopper and friends stave off the inevitable and overturn the prophecy? What strange twist of fate awaited Tippi and Count Bleck - despite the heroes not knowing that Count Bleck was controlling the Chaos Heart? These thoughts plagued the minds of our heroes as the curtain rose on the final act…_

**CHAPTER 8-1**

**-The Impending Darkness-**

The five walked out of the light gray door in the next world and noticed they were surrounded by darkness in the sky. They saw that it was a dark purple sky with all of those small squares of purple and black. The very ground that they were standing on was a black color with a white outline. It looked strange to Chopper, but the rest knew what it looked like.

"Wow… This is one strange world we've stepped into…" Chopper trailed. "I've never seen a world filled with such…black."

"So here we are at last… Tipral's castle…" Tippi trailed as she looked up at the large castle. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade nearly gaped at the size of this thing. They didn't know that Castle Tipral would be THIS big. It made things cooler with the torches on the poles and also the large door leading inside.

"Holy crap. That castle's MASSIVE!" Blade gaped. "I didn't expect you to have a castle THIS size, Tipral. I just… I just didn't."

"Yes, I know that my castle is big," Tipral agreed, but still giving the group an angry look. "Somewhere in that castle, Dimentio is waiting for me. I think he knows that I'm still alive. But, I'm sure that this Count Bleck fellow told my minions to ambush us. They better not have betrayed me."

"I'm sure they haven't betrayed you…" Tippi trailed. She fluttered a little ahead and continued to look up at the castle. "So, you probably ARE here, Blumiere…"

"Huh? What was that?" Chopper asked, walking over to the rainbow butterfly. "I thought I heard you say something…"

"Er… Never mind. I think we better get going…"

"Good idea," Sonic immediately rushed through the pathway that led to Castle Tipral. However, he stopped when he saw no door at the front. "Hold on a second… I don't see a door here!"

"That's because the door is in 3-D," Chopper stated as he walked up to the front entrance. "You obviously don't have the ability to flip into 3-D, so I guess I gotta get us all through there."

"Poyo! (That doesn't sound bad at all!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he made it over to the group. Once everyone was together, Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D with his group. Now they could see the large door before them.

"All right… Here we go!" Blade said as they entered the castle.

* * *

**Inside Castle Tipral-**

Once they stepped foot in the castle, Kirby, Sonic and Blade started to remember the floor and the windows. Yeah, this was definitely Castle Tipral for them. The black floor, the black torches, everything just made it look like something they remembered seeing before.

"Poyo, (Well at least this isn't the Palace of Shadow, that's for sure,)" Kirby remarked.

"Ugh… Don't even bring up that place, Kirby…" Chopper trailed. "That place was just…pure horror. Everything about it was creepy, cold and extremely lonely – especially with Riddle Tower."

"Heads up, guys," Sonic warned, pointing to a silver armored Koopa called a Koopatrol. "There are some Koopatrols around here. I don't know what stats they have, though…"

"Well, then let's see what Tippi has to say about them then," Chopper, using Tippi's powers, managed to gather information on the armored Koopa.

"That's a Koopatrol, a merciless minion wrapped in spikes and armor... Max HP is 15, Attack is 6, and Defense is 4. You better not try to stomp on it... Koopatrols tend to rush in and tackle, so watch out... Only the toughest Koopas are selected to join the elite Koopatrol guard... They have to sharpen those spikes every day. That's what it takes to be the best..." Tippi informed.

"Whoa… They're a bit tougher than before… But these guys are just normal Koopatrols, so that's… Well, actually, that's not good." Chopper inhaled the Koopatrol and spat it out at the Koopatrol patrolling ahead.

"It didn't quite get them," Tipral stated. "Although… I'm not quite sure that it would be wise for me to attack my own minions…"

"HAIL BLECK!" the Koopatrols cried out.

"Well, it doesn't look like they're on your side now, Tipral…" Blade trailed. "I guess you ought to fight them yourself."

"Fine, I might as well make them pay for betraying me!" Tipral grabbed the first Koopatrol by the spike and threw it over to the other Koopatrol, knocking them into each other and killing them instantly.

"So, I guess we just have to make our way over to that door and we'll be fine," Chopper smiled, bringing his hammer down on a Koopatrol that was charging at him. Before he could collect a Shroom Shake it dropped, a dark enemy with light blue eyes and an antenna with a light blue diamond-shaped bulb appeared.

"What in the WORLD is that thing?!" Sonic gawked.

"These things remind me of the Darklings for some reason…" the Star Warrior trailed. "I'm gonna see what Tippi has to say about 'em." using Tippi's powers, Chopper gathered information on the enemy.

"That's a Blue Magiblot. These mad mages live in the space between dimensions... Max HP is 25 and Attack is 5. They only appear long enough to hurl spells at you... They use magic, so I assume they are quite intelligent, but nobody knows for sure... Blue Magiblots are known for their high HP..."

"25 HP?! That's just… Oh, come on!" Blade swung his katana at the Blue Magiblot. Even that didn't bring its HP to zero. "This thing has a CRAP load of HP! That's not funny!"

"Poyo, (Well, I might as well try something to fight back,)" once the Blue Magiblot reappeared, Kirby inhaled its spell and spat it back at it, defeating it. Unfortunately, there was still another one around.

"I got this one!" Chopper hurled a fireball straight at the Blue Magiblot, scorching it and then allowing him to slam his flaming foot on its head. After one stomp (and one stylish move), Chopper defeated the Blue Magiblot.

"All right, guys! We've taken down those enemies, so let's make our way through the door!" Chopper smiled as he made his way through the door with his friends. They were now in a room with a staircase leading up to a door at the top. They also noticed some Goombas coming down the stairs.

"Goombas?! Are you freaking kidding me? Come on, Tipral… THESE are the minions you have out to kill me! Talk about pathetic!" Chopper began to laugh hysterically before getting punched by Tipral.

"Ow! What was THAT for?!"

"You should know WHY I punched you in the face!" Tipral growled, giving him a cold glare. "Next time you try to mock me, I'm probably going to throw you out of this castle, where you'll be flying through nothing by darkness!"

"BUT, if you did that, you probably wouldn't be able to make your way through this castle easily. After all, I CAN flip."

"Chopper… You seem so… I don't know why, but you seem a bit happy ever since you claimed the white Pure Heart back in The Overthere…" Tippi trailed.

"Tippi… I'd rather NOT remember that, please." Chopper frowned. "That was an extremely sad scene I had to go through. I think it would be best just to move on. That's what Luvbi would've wanted anyways."

"Well… Yes… I guess so… I just hope that he doesn't try to cause havoc…"

"What do you mean by 'he'?" Sonic asked.

"Ummmmmmm… Nothing!" Tippi chirped. "Let's… Let's just move on, all right?"

"Well, all right…" Chopper started by knocking the Goombas out of the room by scorching them with some fireballs. It reminded him of how Mario would always take out enemies with a Fire Flower.

"Uh oh… I see some Boomerang Bros…" Sonic trailed, pointing to a Boomerang Bro. throwing a boomerang. Just because he felt like it, Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate this enemy.

"This is a Boomerang Bro. These Koopas love to throw their boomerangs... Max HP 12, Attack is 5, and Defense 1. A tough foe indeed... The boomerangs fly back, so watch the back of your head... However, those boomerangs can be inhaled and spat back at them if possible…" Tippi informed.

"Poyo! (That's pretty interesting!)" Kirby inhaled a boomerang and spat it back at the Boomerang Bro. Because of its low HP, the Boomerang Bro. was easily defeated, allowing them to proceed to the next Boomerang Bro.

"I got this one!" Sonic performed a Spin Jump on the next Boomerang Bro. and then finished it off with a Homing Attack.

Before they knew it, they made it to the top. A Koopa Troopa with a red shell and sunglasses was walking around this area, but it was easily defeated when Chopper stomped on it and kicked it down the stairs.

"So… Where do you think this door leads to anyway?" Chopper asked.

"Well, I know for a fact that we still have some more stairs to go up," Tipral pointed to the next staircase ahead. "I suppose that we should check and see what's through this door first."

They all agreed and moved through the door next to them. Upon coming out of it, they found themselves outside, but they noticed there was a cliff over by the edge of the pathway. For some reason, Kirby remember this.

"Poyo! (I remember now! I remember being in this area!)" Kirby gasped. "Poyo! (This is where Dark had me cornered! But, somehow… Some white box appeared around me and teleported me to Flipside…)"

"Wait… You didn't say anything about a white box teleporting you here!" Chopper's antennas perked. "All you said was that you were cornered and you somehow found yourself in Flipside…"

"Poyo… (Oh, well I apologize for not telling you that… I completely forgot that I was teleported back to Flipside. The only thing I don't know is…who exactly did that? That's what I wanna know…)"

Blade looked around the area. Unfortunately, he found nothing. "Well, I don't see the point in being here at this very moment… There's nothing around here. I think it's best that we go back in the castle."

"Yeah, I think we should," agreed Sonic. "There's no point in being here anyways… We should just explore deeper in the castle."

They left that are and returned back into the castle. The next pair of stairs had more Boomerang Bros., but they were soon trounced when Tipral teleported above them and stomped on them a couple of times, but not performing stylish moves.

"What? No stylish moves?" Chopper questioned.

"Stylish moves aren't my thing," Tipral bluntly stated as he opened the door. "This way, guys."

They walked through the door into another room that looked familiar to Kirby. "Poyo! (Hey! This is the room where one of those Hammer Bros. was brainwashed by Dark! Even that platform is up there too!)"

"What the heck are those things?" Chopper asked, pointing to the two floating eyes. One was a white one with a blue eye while the other was a light yellow with a red eye. "I swear that I've seen one of those in Merlee's Mansion…"

"Well, I say use Tippi to check 'em out," suggested Blade. Chopper listened and used Tippi's powers to gather information on both enemies.

"It's a Mr. I. These bizarre foes can't help but give you the evil eye... Max HP is ?. Attack is 3. It will shoot sharp glances at any enemy it spots... None of your attacks will work... Try flipping and spinning around and around it..."

"This is a Red I. They glare at anyone that walks by... Max HP is ?. Attack is 5. It will shoot sharp glances at any enemy it spots... None of your attacks will work... Try flipping and running around and around it..."

"Oh, yeah… I remember that Tattle of the Mr. I when we were in the mansion's basement…" Chopper trailed. "Hopefully I can take these guys out by running around 'em!"

Flipping into 3-D, Chopper ran around both Is. It didn't take long for him to defeat them, however. They simply disappeared out of thin air after running around them enough times!

"Well, now we can progress!" Blade walked over to the door ahead, but stopped. "Aw, crap. This thing's locked!"

Kirby looked up at the platform. "Poyo, (Maybe we need to go up there and see what's around there,)" he suggested. "Poyo! (I don't think I've searched everything around there!)"

"Well, I guess we should go up there…if we can get up there, that is," Chopper frowned.

Kirby simply floated up to the platform while Tipral teleported the rest of them up onto the platform. "Well, now you know how it feels to not be able to jump high without your Hi-Jump ability." Sonic smirked.

"Oh, shut up, Sonic."

They made their way outside into another area familiar to Kirby. "Poyo! (Yeah! This is where I was at the very beginning after being taken to that one world with the rest of you guys!)"

"Well, let's see what we can find here…" Chopper whirled over to Tipral. "This is your castle, right? Wouldn't you happen to know any secrets around here?"

"I wouldn't tell you if we weren't working together, but since we're both here, there's a ledge you can grab onto to your right. If you cross the gap up there, I'm sure you'll find a pipe."

"Oh, that sounds easy!" Sonic looked up at the ledge. "It doesn't seem too high up. I think we can help each other get across. Kirby, you should get up there and grab a hold on anyone who needs to make it up there."

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby floated up onto the ledge and began to wait for people to come up.

"We'll start with Chopper, since he's probably the lightest," Blade lifted Chopper from the ground and attempted to toss him up. Kirby was lucky enough to grab a hold of his hand and pull him up.

"Well that worked out pretty well. Now two people…er, three can help." Chopper noticed Tipral managed to get up.

"You two don't need to come up here," stated Tipral. "It's just a little key, so I think it's best that you stay here."

"What? You're going to leave us here?" Sonic gaped.

"That's a load of bull!" Blade growled.

"Both of you calm down!" Chopper snapped. "Tipral has a point. He said that it wouldn't take long anyway. Besides, if we tried helping you two up, it would only waste time. We don't want THAT, right?"

"Well… Yeah, you have a point…" Sonic trailed.

"We'll try to make sure that things are OK, here, all right?" Blade asked.

"You two do that… Hopefully we'll be back…" Tippi trailed, turning back to Chopper. "I suppose we should get going then…"

"Yeah, we should," Chopper allowed Kirby to inhale him and spit him out across the gap over by the pipe, while Tipral used his Star powers to teleport across the gap and over by the pipe.

"Poyo, (Well, it looks like it's just us round-shaped people,)" Kirby stated as he made his way down the pipe with the other two.

* * *

**Down the pipe-**

As they came out of the pipe, the three found themselves in a small, long hallway with a couple of silver Koopa Strikers with their Koopa shells. But the one thing that caught them off guard was a Blue Magiblot.

"Ack! What ARE these things meant to be?!" Chopper exclaimed, getting struck by its spell.

"I had these things spy around the castle to make sure no intruders would come in and attack," Tipral explained. "But, since these guys are not on my side anymore, I might as well take care of it."

As the Blue Magiblot appeared, Tipral struck it with Star Magic and then with a Star Spear, successfully taking it out. "Now then… Those Koopa Strikers are definitely getting in the way."

"I'm gonna check what those guys area… They look a lot different than the normal Koopa Strikers…" Chopper used Tippi's powers and investigated the new Koopa Striker enemies.

"This is a Soopa Striker. These superstars of the pitch have cleats of solid gold... Max HP is 16. Attack is 6. Defense is 1. The way this athlete puts the shell right in your neck is truly inspiring... I hear Soopa Strikers never miss their goal..."

"Poyo. (Oh… So these guys are a lot more dangerous than a normal Koopa Striker.)"

Tipral skated his way through the hallway with his air shoes, striking each Soopa Striker with a Star Spear. In no time at all, both Chopper and Kirby saw that there were no more Soopa Strikers.

"Wow… That was neat." Chopper gawked.

"Poyo? (I wonder… Is he faster than you?)" Kirby asked.

"Nah, I don't think so."

"I've got the key," Tipral returned to the two with a silver key. "I call these Castle Tipral Keys. I know for a fact that it will unlock the door that we previously couldn't unlock before…"

* * *

**Inside Castle Tipral-**

"So you found these enemies called Soopa Strikers and found a Castle Tipral Key? Interesting…" Chopper finished explaining to Sonic about what was through that pipe.

"Well, now we need to get moving," Tipral pulled the Castle Tipral Key out and inserted it into the lock. It broke off and allowed all five of them to move on through the next room.

"Another one of these hallways? This really isn't a good design…" Blade trailed.

"I wasn't the one who designed the castle, genius," Tipral grumbled, noticing a couple of dead enemies lying on the ground. "Hold on, guys, these enemies will rise if you get close to them."

"Then let's see what Tippi has to say about them," Chopper looked at the dead Koopa with the rainbow light ray coming from his eyes.

"This is a Dull Bones. It's a lifeless Koopa that enjoys throwing bones... Max HP is 15 and Attack is 5. No matter how many times you stomp it, it will keep getting back up... I have heard that they are not too fond of fire, though..." Tippi informed.

"Dull Bones? I heard that these guys were much weaker than Dry Bones…" Chopper trailed. "Oh, well. I guess some fire will do them in anyways."

He hurled a couple of fireballs at the first Dull Bones and turned it to ash. Tipral took care of the other Dull Bones with a snap of his finger. There were still a couple of more ahead, but they were devastated by Chopper and Tipral's attacks.

"Uh oh… There's a Heavy Cursya there…" Sonic gulped.

"I'll handle it!" Blade took the Heavy Cursya out with one single hit with his katana. "I'm surprised that these guys are quite easy to beat…"

After dealing with the Dull Bones, they noticed some Magikoopas on brooms flying towards them. Sonic knocked one off using his Homing Attack and Chopper knocked another off with a simple jump.

"Poyo! (I'll finish this!)" Kirby inhaled a Magikoopa and spat it out at the other, defeating them in mere seconds.

"I see more Dry Bones up ahead…" Tippi trailed. "And I see a new enemy up ahead too… Maybe I should help see what that is…"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Chopper defeated the Dull Bones with a couple of fireballs and used Tippi's power to identify the silver Jawbus-like enemy.

"This is a Gawbus, a beast that's even meaner than a Rawbus... Max HP is 20 and Attack is 5. Its only weakness is the glowing spot on its back... By now, you should know you can flip to 3-D and get behind it..."

"OR… Maybe using Flippay wouldn't be a bad idea!" Chopper used Flippay's power to turn the giant Gawbus around while it wasn't in its dog-like form. Blade immediately came into action by sending Hommissile at it and then tossing two shurikens at it.

"Man, these guys have a crap load of HP," he groaned.

"Well what about the Dark Magiblot? That thing had even more!"

"Poyo! (But we still have two more Gawbuses to kill!)" Kirby mentioned, pointing to both Gawbuses they had to deal with.

"Oh, yeah… We better take care of those guys." Chopper flipped into 3-D and used his hammer to destroy the Gawbus's tail in only two hits. He used Flippay on the other one to turn it around so its tail was open for them.

"This isn't such a bad strategy, I'll admit," Tipral stated as he stomped on the tail once and threw a Star Spear at it afterwards. They then came across a door at the end of the hallway.

"Is this what these rooms are usually like? Because it doesn't exactly seem original…" Sonic trailed.

"Like I said before, I wasn't the one who designed this place," Tipral reminded as he kicked the door open. They were led into another similar room with the stairs leading up to a door, but this time there were Fire Bros. on the stairs spitting fireballs.

"It's a Fire Bro. These lethal Koopas spit searing balls of flame... Max HP is 12. Attack is 4. Defense is 1. Learning to shoot fire from your mouth must have taken some practice... Those fireballs bounce on the ground, so watch it very carefully..." Tippi informed.

"Fire Bros., huh? Well, maybe they can give me an ability!" Chopper jumped up to the Fire Bro. on the stairs and inhaled him. He was able to gain the Fire ability back on Underwhere Road.

"Oh, yeah! Back to having the Fire ability!" Chopper smirked as he walked up a couple of more stairs to the next Fire Bro. The fireball it spat hit him, but it didn't do much damage to him, that's for sure.

"Taste fire!" he breathed fire at the Fire Bro. and knocked it out of the room with one hit. Very, very easy. Although, he ended up bumping into a Blue Magiblot, which was a bit of a problem for him.

"Uh oh… Not these guys!" Chopper spewed out flames upon the Blue Magiblot. It ended up disappearing and appearing behind Sonic.

"Oh, I got this!" Blade finished off the Blue Magiblot with a swing of his katana. Afterwards, they walked up to the stop of the staircase to find five torches. Well, only three of them were unlit.

"Hmmmm… For some reason, I feel like we're supposed to memorize this…" Tippi trailed.

"I guess this might be for something up ahead," Chopper took out a scrap piece of paper. "Anyone got a pencil with them? I could surely use one so we can memorize what the pattern is."

"Poyo, (I think I may have one,)" Kirby pulled a pencil out and gave it to Chopper. "Poyo… (Although, I don't think it's sharpened…)"

"Well, it's better than nothing," the Star Warrior began to write which ones were lit up. "OK, so the second, third and fifth one are the ones that are lit. OK… Two, three, five. Two, three, five. Better remember that."

They found another pair of stairs with two Fire Bros. spitting fire down. Kirby inhaled one of the fireballs and spat it straight at the Fire Bro., while Tipral grabbed it with Thoreau and tossed it at the other Fire Bro.

"Now it's open for an attack," Tipral snapped his finger and the Fire Bro. was killed off by his Star Magic ability.

At the top of the stairs, there was a yellow ? block floating over by the door. Chopper bashed it with his fist and an Ultra Shroom popped out. They all ended up splitting it into five so they could all recover 50 HP.

"Say… I wonder what would've happened if I actually used fire on it…" wondered Chopper.

"I'm pretty sure we'd be having a burnt Ultra Shroom then," Blade assured.

"What if we put jelly on it? Then we could have something nice! Like those Jelly Ultras! …Or what some people like to call 'em, Jelly Ultraz!"

"'Jelly Ultraz'? Where did that… I'm not going to ask." Tipral frowned while folding his arms.

"You wanna know where it came from? Fine. I guess I might as well tell you. Apparently I called them 'Jelly Ultraz' when I was traveling with Flyer in that Night Palace place. Man, that place was kind of intense…"

"Poyo? (So are we going to go through this door or what?)" Kirby asked, starting to get a little impatient.

"Geez, you're almost like Sonic, Kirby…" Chopper opened the door into a different room. There were five unlit torches in the small room and a Save Block to the left over by the wall. Chopper hit the block to save their game and walked over to the five unlit torches.

"I suppose now would be the time for you to light those torches up…" suggested Tippi.

"Yeah, just let me get that paper out," Chopper pulled the piece of paper out and read the numbers. "OK, so I need to light the second, third and fifth torch with my flames. OK, not bad at all."

Using his speed, he lit up the three torches that needed to be lit. This triggered some stairs to be created to lead up to a door up on the wall. Unlike the other ones, this one was in 3-D.

"Well there we go! We can probably get somewhere now!" Blade smirked, jumping up the big stairs. Chopper removed his Fire ability and made his way up the stairs as well, coming across the wall.

"Hey… There's nothing here!" Sonic frowned.

"Actually, we gotta flip into 3-D to find it!" Chopper flipped to find the door in 3-D. "See? We just have to go through it!"

* * *

**Next room-**

"Whew… I'm glad we're out of that mess…" Blade sighed in relief. "I thought we were going to run into more enemies. I'm glad this room doesn't have anything here at all, don't you agree?"

"_**HARBLE-DEH!**_"

"Oh, geez…" Chopper smacked his forehead. "Don't tell me who I think it is…"

Chopper was indeed correct. Waiting for them in the room was O'Chunks, who looked like he was prepared for a fight. The heroes groaned as they walked up to the burly Scottish man.

"Slap me down with a slab o' mutton, I never would o' thought yeh'd make it 'ere!" O'Chunks gawked. "I'll tell yeh this, though, yeh shouldn't 'ave been such a fork in me rumpus! Now I 'ave to hit yeh with the full force o' me chunks!"

"O'Chunks… Were YOU planning on ambushing us?" Tipral asked with a cold glare. O'Chunks nearly yelped.

"T-Tipral?! What… What're yeh doin' 'ere?! An' why are yeh with the heroes?!"

"Look, it's a long story. I was forced to escape The Underwhere with Chopper, but even then, there was no way I could get back to the castle, so I helped him get the last Pure Heart so I can get a hold of the Chaos Heart!"

"Err… That's where yeh've been all o' this time?"

"Yeah, and I need to get moving. I need to claim my spot back from that person who might be holding it right now."

"Ehhhhh…" O'Chunks began to rub the top of his head. "Errr… Listen 'ere, Tipral… I'm on yer side, but I don't want teh make the count feel bad if I just took yer side an' fought against 'im. 'Tis wrong fer me."

Tipral frowned (although he was frowning from the beginning). "Very well. So be it. I guess I'm going to have to settle getting the Chaos Heart myself. I'm a bit disappointed in you."

"I swear that I'll come back teh yeh when it's over!" O'Chunks promise. He turned his attention to the rest of the group. "All right, heroes! Now it's time yeh get CHUNKED!"

Everyone prepared themselves, but one person scoffed. "Pfffgghhht! That's what all villains say…kind of like you! I mean, this is coming from someone who gets stomped again…and AGAIN!"

O'Chunks gasped. "**_'_**_**OW DARE YEH!**_"

Blade made his way past Chopper and faced the bearded warrior himself. "Yeah! You heard me, chunky! You're goin' down!"

"WHAAAAA?!" O'Chunks began to stomp in anger as he glared at Blade. "'Ow about provin' it, then, yeh small little shrimp! Right 'ere, yeh an' me! Wrasslin' match o' the ages!"

"You realize that ninjas DON'T wrestle, right?" Blade questioned, drawing his katana. "But, whatever. I think it would be a good idea to take you down, beardo! Yeah! I think I'll take you on alone! My katana hasn't really got into some action yet!"

"Blade… Are you exactly sure about fighting him alone?" Chopper asked.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Chopper!" the ninja assured. "I mean, this guy is just complete garbage! Remember the last time we fought this guy? He was a total wimp! Just leave this to me, OK?"

"Well… All right. I know that I DID take this guy on myself before, so I think you should be fine too."

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Tipral walked back into the previous room. Tipral decided to leave Thoreau with Blade just in case he needed him for the fight. Although, he didn't care who would win the fight. Tippi also stayed with Blade too.

"I'm gonna 'urtle into yeh with the force of a massive, 'airy comet, yeh great crybaby!" O'Chunks growled.

"Oh, yeah? I wanna see you try!" Blade smirked.

"All right, yeh asked fer it! _**CHUNK UP!**_" clenching his fists, O'Chunks gained even more power, now being surrounded by a red aura that smelled kind of like meat.

"That's a nice, meaty smell."

"Bet yeh weren't 'specting THAT, were yeh?" O'Chunks cackled. "Where's yer flappin' mouth now, eh? It's time fer an old-fashioned no-'olds-barred…"

"_**RUMBLE!**_" they both shouted in unison before battling. Both of the fighters jumped back. O'Chunks was preparing to charge at him using his elbow, but Blade managed to use Tippi's powers himself to gather information on the bearded warrior.

"That's O'Chunks. He's even stronger and smellier now... How is that even possible? Max HP is 100 and Attack is 6. He can now perform aerial attacks... When you see him in the air, take evasive action... Just keep moving to avoid him. Well, Blade, now is your chance to settle it with O'Chunks..."

"You betcha it's my chance to settle things with him!" Blade smirked, tossing a couple of shurikens at the charging O'Chunks. However, they just bounced away instead, causing the ninja to get elbowed into the wall by the brute warrior.

"Gra ha ha ha! Oh, look at the poor cat!" O'Chunks grabbed him and attempted to squeeze him with his big, burly hands. "Yeh don't 'ave the chunks teh take me down!"

"Unnnngghhhh!" Blade struggled to break himself free, but he didn't something else. He coughed a hairball at O'Chunks's face.

"What in the… Why is this hairy ball on me face? !" exclaimed the warrior as he release Blade and tried to wipe off the wet ball of hair off of him. But what he saw after wiping it off was Hommissile coming straight towards him.

"Uh oh…" the explosion knocked O'Chunks across the room, over by the door they need to go through.

"Wow… I never thought that I would have a hairball coming out of me at that very moment." Blade wheezed. "I guess that's what happens when you're getting squeezed by some burly guy."

"Blade! He's coming back!" Tippi warned, noticing O'Chunks was jumping towards Blade.

"Oh! Whoops! Let me get myself ready!" Blade gripped his katana and swung it at O'Chunks when he got close to him. When the warrior tried to grab him, he jumped in the air and clung to the wall.

"'Ey! Come back 'ere, yeh big scardy-cat!" O'Chunks yelled, grabbing a chuck of the ground and throwing it straight at him.

"Holy…!" the chunk struck Blade and sent him flying to the ground. Luckily, he managed to land on his feet and attack O'Chunks with his katana a few times, leaving some scars on his arms.

"Yeh little…!" O'Chunks jumped over Blade and performed a ground pound on him, flattening him a tiny bit. When he got off, he grabbed Blade and threw him across the room.

"That Bowser guy was much heavier than yeh!" O'Chunks cackled. "Yeh really think ye'd beat me when yeh don't 'ave the strength that I 'ave? !"

"Who says that I need your kind of strength to defeat you?" Blade grinned, striking O'Chunks with a couple of shurikens. "You see, you rely more of brute force, right? Well, that's not going to help you in battle when you're up against a ninja."

"Oh yeah? 'Ow about provin' it teh me?!" O'Chunks charged at Blade with a powerful punch, but he ended up disappearing after making signs with his hands.

"Huh? Where'd 'e go?"

"Right behind you!" Blade struck him from behind with a kick, knocking O'Chunks over to the wall. Blade continued to strike him with his katana until O'Chunks regained conscience and punched him back.

"Try to get behind him…" Tippi informed.

"All right, I'll try something," Blade made a couple of clones of himself and they all attacked O'Chunks with kicks.

"Yeh better stop with all of those kicks, yeh stupid blue cat!" O'Chunks barked, attempting to grab him. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to grab a hold of Blade, which resulted in him getting struck by Blade's katana again.

"Whuh? Why can't yeh just stop movin'?!" the bearded warrior growled, only to be struck by another slash from Blade's katana.

"Why would I stop moving? You're only going to hit me, you know." Blade taunted, kicking O'Chunks in the butt.

"Why yeh little!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Blade's legs and swung him around until he released him. Blade began to fly all over the room crashing into the walls, the floor and the ceiling.

"Oof!" Blade hit the ground and took some serious damage. "Wow… Even when he smells like meat, his attacks do a bit more damage now…"

"Gra ha ha ha ha! Now how does it feel teh get chunked, cat?" O'Chunks cackled as he began to do a stupid dance like before (and also a stupid pose!).

"Well…" Blade began as he got himself up. "Maybe my good friend Hommissile would like to show you!"

He tossed Hommissile straight at O'Chunks, knocking him back to the wall. Some soot was on his face and arms, but that was pretty much it. But it didn't stop him from charging at him again.

"Nope! Ya can't do that!" Blade pulled Barry out and defended himself against O'Chunks's attack, stunning him for a couple of seconds.

"I wonder what it would be like to use Thoreau…" Blade used Thoreau to grab a hold on O'Chunks and throw him. It didn't do much except for leaving him stunned, allowing him to strike him with his katana.

"What in me mother's gravy… What was that?!" O'Chunks gaped before jumping up into the air and performing a ground pound on Blade.

"It's…OOF! A Pixl…" Blade managed to get himself back up, but the thing that stopped him from attack was O'Chunks's growling belly.

"Don't tell me you're hungry again…"

"Whaa? Well, lookie 'ere! I think I've got some gas comin'!" O'Chunks clenched his fists as he rocketed himself up into the air with his…farting?

"Oh, this again…" Tippi trailed.

"Oh, hell no," Blade jumped out of the way when O'Chunks hit the ground headfirst. Luckily, it allowed Blade to strike him a couple of times with his katana before the bearded warrior got up.

"Wow… I can't believe I'm facing someone with 100 HP. This is almost like fighting against Shade Doom ALL over again." Blade grumbled to himself as he jumped out of the way from O'Chunks's punch as he got up.

"Stop dodgin' me attacks, yeh stupid cat! Get back 'ere!" O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of Blade and throw him up to the ceiling, nearly breaking his skull, but it definitely didn't stop him.

"Ugh… I gotta step up on this…" Blade pulled a Shroom Shake out and drank it to recover 10 HP. He then crushed it. "Well, this is all I can really drink, since I don't wanna waste another Super or Ultra Shroom Shake…"

He threw the crushed can down at O'Chunks's head, stunning him for a couple of seconds before striking him with his katana once again.

"Izzat ALL yeh can do?! Try somethin' new fer once!" O'Chunks rocketed himself up into the air with his farting powers and came down towards Blade headfirst…but missed like before.

"Don't you have anything else to throw at him?" Tippi asked.

"Oh, yeah! I think I've got one last finisher!" Blade's katana began to glow in flames. "I think this should be a nice, satisfying victory!"

As O'Chunks pushed his head out of the ground, he was ready to make another move. "All right, Blade! Now it's time we finished this!"

"Uhhh… I don't think so!" Blade struck O'Chunks one last time with a flaming slash attack, making the bearded warrior cry for mercy.

"_**HURRRRRRGH!**_" O'Chunks kneeled to the floor as his meaty glow disappeared. "Oooog… 'Ow did I lose this?"

"Well, because you relied on brute force, maybe?"

"'Ow could yeh be chunkier than I? Yer naught but a ninja cat…and yer not even bigger than me! 'Ow could I go on livin' with the shame o' it all?" O'Chunks slowly got himself up, but was still exhausted.

"'Ey, Blade! Let me keep me dignity as me game ends! Finish me quick!"

"What?! Hey, there's no shame in being smacked down by a blue ninja cat! You just rely too much on brute force, that's all."

Before Blade could continue, the ground began to shake. "Uhhhhh… What's that shakin'?" asked the bearded warrior.

When Blade looked up, he noticed that the ceiling was falling. Even when Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Tipral walked into the room, they noticed that the ceiling was coming down.

"Uh oh… I think we came at a bad time…" Chopper gulped.

"_**GAAAACK!**_" Blade screamed as the ceiling crashed down on the heroes.

"We're seriously screwed!"

"Poyo? (Huh…? I thought that we'd be squished for a minute there…)" Kirby noticed that the ceiling didn't actually fall on them…yet. It was apparently being held up by something.

"Wait… You mean it didn't fall?" Chopper opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. "Whoa… We're still alive?"

"_**HUUUURRRK!**_"

"O'Chunks… You're… What are you doing?" Tipral nearly gaped as he saw O'Chunks holding the ceiling up.

"What are yeh waitin' fer! Get out o' this place!" O'Chunks barked.

"But… Why on earth did you try to save us?" Blade asked.

"Because yeh spanked me, 'ey! Yeh earned the right teh pass. Now I'm makin' sure yeh do just that! An' I… I don't want teh disappoint Tipral either. Yeh came 'ere teh get the Chaos Heart… Well, I don't want teh stop yeh."

"O'Chunks… I never knew you would be this…loyal." Tipral gawked.

"I made a promise that I would not turn against yeh! I…urk…don't want teh break that promise."

More shaking occurred and O'Chunks's arms began to tremble. "_**HURRRGGG! **_I… I don't know how long I can hold this up!"

"Man… You've got some serious guts to hold this thing up." seeing that O'Chunks wasn't going to hold the ceiling up much longer, Blade created a couple of clones to help hold the ceiling up.

"Blade?! What're yeh doin'?!" O'Chunks gasped.

"Chopper, Sonic, Kirby…and you too, Tipral," Blade began. "I want you guys to get out of here NOW!"

"B-But…" Chopper stammered.

"I said GO!"

"But we don't want to leave you behind, Blade. You've got to come with us!" Sonic cried.

"Look, I don't care what happens. Can't you see that I'm trying to risk my life for you guys? ! GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Fine, if you want us to, then we might as well," Tipral was the first one to walk on ahead. The rest of the group followed, although Chopper frowned when he looked back at him before leaving.

"Hey! O'Chunks!" Blade called out. "You better get outta here too! Don't worry about me! I can make as MANY clones as I want and hold this all day!"

"'Ey! Yeh stole me line! Yer hands are quiverin' like a ladle of me mum's lard gravy. Don't be the tough guy! Go!"

"I can be as tough as I WANT! YOU get out!"

"No, yeh get out!"

"No, YOU!"

"_**HURRRRRG!**_"

* * *

**Next room-**

As the four made their way into the next room, they heard a loud thud coming from the other room.

"Uh… Blade…?" Chopper walked over to the door and attempted to open it. He turned back to the group after failing to open it.

"The door… It's not opening!"

"Oh, no…" Tippi gasped.

"Poyo… (That's…horrible…)" Kirby sniffled.

"I feel bad for Blade…" Sonic trailed. "He risked his own LIFE to save us all…"

"I can't believe I'm losing a lot of friends. …Although, I won't classify Luvbi as a friend, she, too risked her life, just like Blade." Chopper frowned.

As a small amount of shaking occurred, Tipral spoke up. "Look, I feel bad that O'Chunks had to risk his own life to save us, but we don't have time to cry over spilt milk. We need to get going."

Chopper looked up at Tipral. "As much as I'd hate to leave a friend behind, I don't think we have much of a choice.

"Are you sure, Chopper?" Tippi asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm sure Blade as gone through worse. Even if he is somehow alive, he might be able to handle himself."

He sighed as he walked over to the Star Block ahead. With one punch, he smashed it.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_An endless labyrinth of mind-bogging turns and deadly enemies… This journey to the Chaos Heart was more dangerous and trying than our heroes had seen before. Chopper and friends kept on without Blade, who was lost in a duel. There was no time to stop and search for Blade, or even grieve… Our heroes knew they had to rush toward the final encounter with Count Bleck…who the heroes all believe is the holder of the Dark Prognosticus._

* * *

**Yeah, I know that when I first wrote this, this wasn't as long as it was now. Well, it's a good thing that I made it a bit longer, because when it's too short, it's usually not good (some people might say the same thing with a chapter being too long). **

**But, anyway... Let's see how things turn out to be without Blade on their side now.**

**I actually like this kind of place too, if you wanted to know. I think the Castle Bleck song's one of my favorite Mario tunes. :D**_  
_


	47. The Crash

**CHAPTER 8-2**

**-The Crash-**

Although Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Tipral thought that the trembling would soon be over, they were wrong. They felt a tremendous amount of trembling for a while as they looked around in the room they were in. Apparently, it was like the other hallways they were previously in before. However, there weren't any Dull Bones to stop them from moving on, or any Gawbuses. The only thing they saw were black torches, the black castle, white outlines, and the windows that showed the outside of this world.

As soon as the trembling stopped, the four of them still remained a bit silent. However, Sonic was the first one to speak up.

"Man, I don't know how many tremors we've had so far… I bet I lost count of them all!"

Sonic spoke up. "It really stinks that we have to move on without Blade, but I guess we had no other choice."

"Hold on a minute…" Tipral paused for a minute and pondered. "Why is there destruction ravaging in MY castle? ! This wasn't what I had planned in mind! …Is this Count Bleck fellow seriously trying to destroy himself and this castle? ! It makes no sense!"

Tippi paused and fluttered on ahead, pondering. "Blumiere… I can't believe that all this time you're causing this…" she turned around to see the four walk over to her.

"Uhh… Did you just say 'Blumiere' once again?" Chopper asked. "Ever since we've walked into this castle, you've been mentioning this Blumiere person all the time. I wonder why…"

"Ahem, uhhh… Let's just keep moving. We need to find that Count Bleck person and the Chaos Heart soon…" Tippi suggested. "But, I need to know something… Which part of the castle is this?"

"We're in Castle Tipral Foyer," Tipral explained. "We're not technically 'deeper' into the castle. I mean, we're pretty much over by the outside still. But, I'll say that we ARE higher up too. Hopefully I remember the way…"

The first thing they noticed in the hallway were silver Boing-Oings that Chopper, Kirby and Sonic previously saw back in Outer Space, or rather, that planet called Planet Blobule.

"Poyo! (Hey, Chopper! Those things look a bit familiar!)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo? (Why is it that we're seeing a lot of similar enemies through this castle?)"

"I don't know, but I guess Tipral sure loves recolors," Chopper said jokingly as he used Tippi's powers to identify the silver Boing-Oings.

"It's a Zoing-Oing... They're very rare creatures only a few adventurers have seen... Max HP is 12 and Attack is 4. If you hurt it, it will split into multiple Mini-Zoings... Zoing-Oings are very similar to other Oings... Except for their lovely pale hides..." Tippi informed.

"Lovely pale hides? Why would people want those?" Chopper frowned as he jumped on one Zoing-Oing. It ended up splitting into four Mini-Zoings, but he was able to take them out with one stomp.

"Well I see two more up ahead. Maybe we ought to take care of those guys, huh?" suggested Sonic as he attacked one of them with a Homing Attack. Once they split, he finished them with a Spin Jump.

"Poyo, (All I hope is that Blade's OK,)" Kirby said worryingly, inhaling the Zoing-Oing that was in front of him. He spat it out at a Cursya walking around in the hallway, since he couldn't touch it with Carrie.

"I guess that was a good thing to do, Kirby," Chopper said as he jumped on another Zoing-Oing up ahead. He finished off the Mini-Zoings with one last stomp before landing on the ground.

"So… Care to criticize this castle once again?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I can say that the halls are very unoriginal, and the whole place is just completely dull. Black with white outlines? …Sure, the outline thing is a bit unique, but who makes a castle with nothing but black?" Chopper criticized, only to be punched by Tipral (I still like this dungeon, mind you).

"Hey! Why'd you do that? !"

"Enough already! That's the last time I'll hear you criticizing my castle!" Tipral jumped and landed on the other Zoing-Oing with a stomp, turning the rest of them into Mini-Zoings. He finished those off with a stomp as well.

"I see two Red Is up ahead. I think I'll go take care of them." Chopper flipped into 3-D to take care of the first Red I by running around it, but apparently Tipral took care of the other using Flippay.

"Aw, man! I wanted to beat it!" Chopper frowned before getting struck by a sound wave coming from a silver Boomboxer. "Ouch! That was a bit painful! …I lost 7 HP from that attack? !"

"Hmmmmmm… I guess it's another recolor of a Boomboxer…" Tippi trailed. "Only this time, it's a silver color…"

"Poyo! (Well, what are you waiting for? Get some information from it already!)" Kirby shouted.

"OK, OK! Sheesh!" Chopper began to use Tippi's powers once again to investigate this silver Boomboxer.

"This Blastboxer blares sound at anyone it doesn't like... Max HP is 16 and Attack is 7. It gets startled by its own loud noises... I wonder if its neighbors ever complain about the noise..." Tippi informed.

Kirby started off by inhaling the first Blastboxer and spitting it at the other one. Although it didn't defeat them, it DID leave them severely weak, allowing both Chopper and Tipral to stomp on them to finish them off.

"Hey, how come I'm not getting into the fun?" Sonic asked, curling up into a ball and striking the next Blastboxer. He immediately performed a Homing Attack on it while avoiding its sound wave.

"I think that's the last of them…" Tippi trailed while spotting the door up ahead. "We don't have much time to waste! We should hurry on through that door!"

"Good idea," Chopper walked over to the door and kicked it open. Everyone followed him through into a smaller room with a locked door up ahead. But what caught them off guard was a familiar face.

"Oh ho ho! You've finally arrived!" the blue cloaked wizard himself, Merlon, was waiting for the four in the same room. He was standing over by a blue ! block, which seemed a bit weird.

"What are you doing here, Merlon?" Tippi asked.

"Weren't you back in Flipside? I couldn't really imagine _you_ being somewhere in this castle." Chopper gawked.

"I found a fascinating passage in the Light Prognosticus, so I rushed here to tell you! To get to the Chaos Heart, it seems you must hit this totally unsuspicious block! So why don't you give it a jolly old whack?"

"Hmmmmm… Should we actually trust you?" Sonic asked while pondering.

"Of course! I've been helping you all of this time anyways!"

"Well, I mean, really… I don't think we can trust him." Chopper said, giving Merlon a confused look.

"HIT THE STUPID BLOCK! HIT THE STUPID BLOCK! HIT THE STUPID BLOCK!" Merlon yelled out like a little girl.

"…That was weird."

"Poyo, (Well, I guess we might as well do it,)" Kirby struck the blue ! block himself, wondering where it could possibly take them.

"Tee hee! What a bunch of…"

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Tipral ended up falling through the floor. It was obvious who it was. What? The little trap revealed under the ground was the key to showing who it really was!

"SUCKERS!" Mimi snickered evilly as she turned back to her normal self.

* * *

**Below the room-**

"WHOOOOOA OOF!" Chopper was the first to land on the ground below them. It was definitely NOT a soft landing for someone like him, compared to the others. "Oooog… That was bad…"

"Poyo! (So Mimi decided to pull another trick on us!)" Kirby growled as he got up. He noticed that they were in a cell. "Poyo… (Well, we're in some deep yogurt… We're trapped…)"

"Wait a minute… I remember this from somewhere…" Chopper recalled.

* * *

_Once everyone made it up, they all walked into a small little area with a door up ahead and also a blue ! switch in the center of the room._

_They also saw someone else in the room that greeted them. But they were all surprised when they saw it was…the Mayor._

_"Mayor? ! What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!" Chopper was almost speechless after saying that._

_"Good evening, Chopper!" the Mayor greeted politely. "…Or, morning? I'm not so sure. It's hard to tell the difference of when it is day or night here. It's dark around here!"_

_"How are you still alive? Weren't you killed?" Vivian asked._

_"Oh, I'm not dead, my dear. I was just…er…teleported here! Listen, before you start asking questions, I would like to help you get to the core of this place."_

_"Ummmm… OK?" Chopper raised an eyebrow._

_"You see this blue ! switch here?" the Mayor pointed to the switch in front of Chopper. "This switch will take you there in a second! Have no fear, my friend! You'll be taken to where you need to go in a snap!"_

_"Hmmmmmm… I don't know about that." Chopper looked over at the door ahead. It was locked. "Oh, fine… I'll do it." He kicked the switch, but it only made a trapdoor open up and make everyone fall through it._

_"Mimimimimimi!" the Mayor transformed into Mimi. She was wearing a white dress with red polka dots on it. She also had red sunglasses shaped like hearts. "I can't believe you fell for it!"_

_"Mimi? ! Is that you? ! What are you doing here? !" Chopper shouted from the ground below._

_"That's none of your business, meanie-head! After what you've done to me on your stupid planet, I think it's best that you stay down there and weep all day!"_

_Mimi stuck her nose up in the air and she teleported out of the room. Heartsy seemed a bit peeved at her._

_"I can't believe she tricked us!" Heartsy clenched her fists in anger. Vivian seemed to be doing the same thing. "Ever since we went into that ancient temple in Snowy Mountain, she's always been following us! It's annoying me to death!"_

* * *

"Yeah… That seriously reminds me of when Mimi fooled us back in Dark Subspace World. That stuck-up…no-good…OK, I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself at this moment."

"Poyo! (Wait! There's a crack in that wall over there!)" Kirby pointed to the cracked wall. "Poyo? (Can't we just blow that up with Hommissile?)"

"Yeah, good idea, Kirby," Chopper grabbed Hommissile and threw him towards the cracked wall. It made a hole in the wall, like it was made of paper.

"So… How do we get through – oh, wait, we need to flip, right?" Sonic remembered, almost forgetting Chopper's flipping ability.

"Yup! We need to do that!" Chopper flipped into 3-D and walked through the hole, leading out of the prison. They found a pipe to their right that led to a door at the end of the room if they went around it, and a door to their left.

"Poyo… (I see something strange with that pipe…)" Kirby trailed, pointing up to the ceiling. The group looked up to see that there could possibly be three more pipes, but it looked a bit strange.

"Hmmmmmmm… Now that I think about it, I remember this room…" Tipral pondered. "I once fell through here on accident when first exploring the castle. Luckily, my teleportation powers were able to get me out of there."

"Didn't Mimi see that you were there, though?" Tippi asked.

"No, I don't think she could've seen me, or else she would've tackled me by then," Tipral walked over to the door to his left. "Follow me. We can do something with that pipe if we take the way through here."

"All right," Chopper opened the door that led into a room with a couple of Firebars spinning around vertically. "Whoa… More Firebars? I thought I wouldn't be seeing these guys…"

Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash before going through. Luckily, he dodged all of the Firebars in his way. It led him to a red ! block.

"Huh… I wonder what this does." Chopper decided to punch the block twice. It caused the room to tremor a bit, but it wasn't as bad as the other tremor in the room where Blade and O'Chunks fought.

"All right, I might as – OW!" Chopper was struck by a Magiblot's red spell. This one had red hands, a white bulb on its antenna and red eyes. "Ow! …Wait, now THAT reminds me of a Darkling."

Using Tippi's powers, he was able to identify what this monster was.

"That's a Red Magiblot. These mad mages live in the space between dimensions... Max HP is 15 and Attack is 7. They only appear long enough to hurl spells at you... They use magic, so I assume they are quite intelligent, but nobody knows for sure... Red Magiblots are known for their powerful attack spells..."

"Oof… So that attack did some pretty big damage to me…" Chopper trailed, waiting for the Red Magiblot to return. Once it did, he hurled two fireballs at it and let the burn destroy it, since burning it DOES cause 1 damage every three seconds.

Chopper returned to the group over by the door (who were fighting some Red Magiblots) via 3-D. They then returned to the other room to find the pipe right in front of them, or rather, much closer.

"Poyo? (Should we go through here?)" Kirby asked.

"Well… Obviously we should." Chopper went into the pipe first, followed by Tipral, Kirby and Sonic. It led them into a room with three chests.

"Looks like someone left some treasure for us here," Sonic smirked, kicking the first chest open to find a Courage Shell. "A Courage Shell? What the heck does this thing do for us?"

"It increases your defense if you use it…" Tippi informed.

"Poyo! (Then I'll open the next one!)" Kirby smiled as he opened the chest in the middle. He ended up pulling a Castle Tipral Key out. "Poyo! (Hey! This is the key we might need for that door!)"

"I found a Life Shroom in here," stated Tipral, who held up a Life Shroom from the other chest. "I suppose I'll hold onto this for right now."

"So… Where do we go to next?" Sonic asked.

"I'll see what we can find in 3-D," Chopper flipped into 3-D and found a little square hole they could go down. "Ah! There we go! Let's just go through that hole and we should be out of here!"

He got the rest of the group into 3-D and jumped down the hole. They were led back into the room they were previously in before falling into the pit. Only this time… Mimi was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, who really cares if she's here or not? It's best that we move on." Tipral suggested, swiping the key from Kirby and unlocking the door with it. Everyone followed him through the next room.

"Well… We're in another room with stairs. Only this time, I see some Gloombas coming down and some Hammer Bros. throwing their hammers." Chopper stated as he looked up the stairs.

"Poyo? (Well, why don't we go up those then?)" suggested Kirby.

"Good idea," Chopper was about to attack the Gloomba, but it soon tried to attack him with a headbonk. Luckily, he managed to slam it to the ground with his hammer before it could hit him.

"Apparently these Goombas are going back to headbonking…" Sonic trailed, taking the last two out that walked down the stairs with a Spin Dash.

"I guess I'll handle the Hammer Bro.," Tipral walked up the stairs and fired a Star Spear directly at the Hammer Bro. throwing hammers. Kirby managed to inhale one, but he held onto it for right now after Tipral defeated the Hammer Bro.

Kirby jumped a couple of stairs to spit the hammer out at the other Hammer Bro. Sonic immediately finished it off with a simple Homing Attack before reaching the top of the staircase.

"Well, I can see a door over here, that's for sure," Sonic stated, pointing to the door.

"Let's take a look," Chopper walked through the door to an outside area of Castle Tipral. "Well, I know for certain we're outside."

"Ugh… More Cursyas…" Tipral groaned.

"Oh, relax. Hommissile is probably capable of taking them out." Chopper threw Hommissile straight at some of the Cursyas before walking up to the end of the area. A large wall was standing before them.

"I think there might be something behind this wall…" Tippi informed.

"Hmmmmmm… Well, I guess I'm going to have to check and see for myself." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a path to the left of the wall. Upon walking through it, he found a chest with an Ultra Shroom Shake.

"Well, I guess this is something. Might as well go back in the castle."

* * *

**Inside Castle Tipral-**

"Heads up! Koopa Troopa at nine o'clock!" Sonic warned.

"What was that supposed to mean?"

"Errr… I'm not so sure… Just hit the Koopa, Chopper."

Chopper stomped on the Koopa Troopa, making it hide in its own shell. Tipral grabbed it using Thoreau and threw it straight at the Fire Bro. spitting fireballs on the stairs. Chopper took the other Fire Bro. out with some fireballs.

"Whew… So we finally made it up those stairs." Chopper said, sighing in relief as he stomped on a Koopa Troopa and kicked it at another, defeating them both in a matter of seconds.

"Poyo, (What I don't get is why there are Koopa Troopas here,)" Kirby pondered as he opened the door to the next room.

"Ah, Mimi… Sometimes I wonder why she thinks that these traps will work." Chopper walked around the room, looking up at the Mushrooms dangling close to the floor on a piece of white string.

"Poyo? (Doesn't she ever learn from this?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo! (Obviously she hasn't learned ever since we had to face her in Merlee's Mansion!)"

"Yeah, so let's just ignore those," Chopper ran straight towards the door, but suddenly braked when he saw it was locked. "Ugh… Something's not right."

"What is it, Chopper?" Sonic asked.

"The door's locked…" Tippi informed. "I guess we have to go through one of those traps to find the right one…"

"THEN… We'll start with the one closest to us." Chopper grabbed the closets Mushroom and managed to eat it. Unfortunately, it made him fall through the ground.

"Poyo? (Want us to come down there?)" Kirby asked.

"NAH! I'M FINE DOWN HERE!" Chopper replied, who landed on the ground underneath. "I… I don't see any enemies!"

He decided to flip into 3-D to see if there were any enemies. Apparently, there were three silver Growmebas down here. Since he had Tippi with him, he decided to use her powers to identify them.

"That's a Chromeba. It clones itself constantly to overwhelm its enemies... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. If you defeat the main one, the clones will die... The primary one has slightly different moves and looks, so watch closely... For fun, you can let it clone and then stomp on the main one to destroy them all..."

"All right, I'll try to beat 'em," Chopper managed to jump on top of one of the Chromeba's a couple of times and defeat it easily. Since it was the real one, all of the others were killed as well, making it drop a Castle Tipral Key.

"Ah! There we go!" once he picked it up, a pipe appeared for him. It brought him back to the room above him. So, he went back to the group and hit the Save Block before unlocking the door.

"Poyo… (Huh… So Mimi decided to trick us by putting the key through one of those traps… That's…a bit of an improvement…)" Kirby trailed.

"Well it doesn't matter now. We better get moving." Tipral suggested, opening the door. Everyone rushed through to find a small room with a door up ahead. That was really it, honestly.

"How magnificent, you have arrived! I saw in the stars you would survive." a familiar face was waiting for the group in the middle of the room. It was indeed Merlee.

"Merlee's here too? Ummmmm… I don't think we should be staying here…" Chopper said.

"Heroes, do not flee! For I am the lovely and mysterious Merlee! My beauty and the stars led you here. Right now, for you have nothing to fear!" she assured.

"Umm… Are you really Merlee?" Tippi asked.

"Poyo, (I have to agree with Tippi here,)" agreed Kirby. "Poyo. (Mimi did this to us before in Merlee's Mansion.)"

"Whatever is it that you imply?" Merlee asked while cackling. "How could anyone wonder if it is I? Look at this lovely aura glow, does it not tell you all you need to know?"

"Doesn't look like it…" Sonic trailed. "In fact, I hardly even know you."

She stopped cackling for a bit. "Ahhhh… I will now ask you questions three: the answers will hold your future's key. And you must answer each and every query honestly and fairly!"

"Sounds good… I guess."

"Here we go! Time to start the show! Which one of these beasts is hardest for you to make deceased? A Goomba, a Clubba, or an Ultra Shroom?"

Seeing through Merlee's identity, Chopper fake frowned. "Err… Oh, man. Those Ultra Shrooms scare me BIG time!"

"Hee hee… So that one there gives you the biggest scare? Next, which one of these fearsome three most rattles your knees? Fuzzies, Hammer Bros., or a Thunder Rage?"

"Heh heh! Those Thunder Rages are too fast for me!" Sonic faked. "Those are probably the only things that are faster than me!"

"You are most scared of those? Hee hee! That's very good to know. Now which of these do you despise like fleas? An Amazy Dayzee, Francis, or Cooking Mistakes?"

"Wait… FRANCIS? !" Chopper gawked. "What's he doing there? !"

"That is what makes you so very furious? Indeed, how very curious… Well, it's been marvelous fun, but I'm afraid our time together is quite done… But do not fear or fret! No! We shall meet again yet! Hee hee hee hee hee!" at that moment, Merlee left the room before anyone could answer.

"Who is Francis, exactly?" Tipral asked.

"Some geeky chameleon who's into butterflies…" Tippi shivered, remembering those horrible memories.

"I see. Well, there's not much we can do here." Tipral opened the door to the next room. "Wait… There's an Ultra Shroom in there!"

"Really?" Chopper rushed straight into the next room to find an Ultra Shroom. "Yeah, you're right. What's an Ultra Shroom doing… Unless Merlee – I mean Mimi's putting in what we fear the most!"

"Poyo? (Well, why not have this then?)" Kirby split the Ultra Shroom into four so they could all eat a piece, recovering 50 HP. They moved on towards the next room – which was exactly the same and found a Thunder Rage.

"And she honestly believed that I feared THESE!" Sonic chuckled, picking up the Thunder Rage. "Man… She's too gullible."

"Yup. Now let's see what we have in the next room." Chopper kicked the door open to the next room, but he didn't find anything. "Weird… I don't see anything around here…"

"Nerrrrrr… What's going on? Oooohhhh…it's my schweet, schweeeeeet Francine!" the sound of that voice caused Chopper, Tippi, Kirby and Sonic to nearly cringe in fear – especially Tippi.

"What the… Who was that?" Tipral's expression suddenly changed when he saw Francis appear before their very eyes. "What…the heck…?"

"Oh, boy… Not Francis." Chopper groaned.

"It's…YOU! What are you doing here? !" Tippi asked, shivering in fear.

"I don't know! I was in my comfy chair watching 'Starship X-Naut,' then I warped here! Maybe my Reclinotron 4500 extrapolated my dreams and couch-warped me to you!" Francis explained.

"What the heck are you even talking about? Get out of my castle!" Tipral barked.

"I would, but I don't know how!" Francis replied. "But, nothing is gonna take you away from me this time, Francine!"

"Oh, man… Not again." Chopper groaned, using Tippi's powers before Francis could disappear.

"That geeky chameleon is Francis. He's a little obsessive about his hobbies... Max HP is 40 and Attack is 4. He can also make himself invisible... You can't hit what you can't see, so wait for him to reappear... But he is still there. Look at the floor and find his shadow... Yech... Just looking at him brings back bad memories..." Tippi informed.

"So he has the same stats as before?" Sonic grinned. "Well then! This fight shouldn't be so hard then! I mean, we've gotten stronger while he's the same, nerdy chameleon that he's been!"

Everyone began to search the room carefully for Francis. He first appeared behind Tipral, but he managed to spot him and strike him with a Star Spear before he could grab him with his long, sticky tongue.

"Nerrr! Why do you have to be this harsh?" cried Francis as he disappeared. He tried to strike Tipral again with his long, sticky tongue, but he managed to grab a hold of it and make it slap the chameleon's face.

"Did anyone ever tell you that using your tongue isn't the best idea in the world?" Tipral asked.

Before Francis could disappear, Chopper came dashing towards him, landing a kick to the face with flames on his foot. Francis retreated by turning invisible and began to walk around the room again.

"Poyo, (Man, he couldn't really take that attack,)" Kirby stated as Francis appeared with his laptop.

"Let's see how you deal with more MeowBombs!" Francis summoned more MeowBombs to come down, allowing Kirby to gain the Bomb ability from one of them and throw a bomb at Francis before disappearing.

"Poyo! (Now I can use something else besides inhaling!)" Kirby said, sighing in relief, waiting for Francis to appear again.

Francis appeared again, pulling out his camera and causing the room to flash. No one was able to make a move, unfortunately, but it didn't mean that they were going to lose this fight.

"Oh, come on, Francis! You know that turning invisible makes you a bit of a coward!" Sonic shouted.

"Nerrrr! Well so what?" Francis appeared behind Sonic and was about to use his sticky tongue to grab him. However, Sonic pulled the Thunder Rage out and managed to strike him with a bolt of lightning.

"Ack! What was that? !"

"Something to weaken ya!" Sonic went in for the attack, striking Francis with a couple of Homing Attacks with a shining grin upon his face.

"Nerrrrrr!" Francis disappeared from the group and tried to find another way to get away from the group. Since he was still the same old Francis, he wasn't really that tough. His HP was already close to being depleted!

"Wow… This just might be one of the easiest fights we've encountered so far…" Chopper trailed, jumping on top of Francis as he tried to grab him with his tongue. He kicked him with a flaming slamming kick before he disappeared.

"It's a good thing that you've nearly got his HP depleted close to nothing…" Tippi said, sighing in relief.

Francis reappeared behind Tipral, but with one snap of his finger, Francis was struck with Star Magic and begging for mercy.

"_**NERRRR!**_" the nerdy chameleon got himself up, crying anime style. "That's impossible… My hi-technicaaaal battle moves failed me! That's IT! I'm going to run a simulation on my computer to figure out what went wrong!"

At that moment, he was gone.

"That was…odd. What was he doing here?" Tippi asked.

"Well, I'm not so sure… But at least he's out of the way." Chopper walked over to the door ahead. "Come on, guys. We've gotta get a move on."

* * *

**Next room-**

"_**EEEEEEK!**_" the first thing that they were greeted was a high-pitched scream coming from an angry Merlee. "What are you trying to pull? ! _**IMPOSSIBLE!**_"

A purple puff of smoke surrounded Merlee as she transformed back into Mimi. Her outfit reminded the group of what she looked like back in Dark Subspace World.

"I put everything you hate in there! How'd you get through all that icky stuff? ! Unless…you bad people were LYING!"

All four of them walked over to Mimi. "Mimi, we need to move on. Just let us through so I can get a hold of the Chaos Heart!" Tipral demanded.

Mimi's angry look turned into a surprised look. "T-Tippy? ! You're… You're alive? !"

"Yes, I'm still alive. Rest assured, my minion."

"I can't believe you're still alive!" Mimi squealed as she tackled Tipral, smothering him with kisses. "Oh, I've missed you SO much! I felt like I was going to be depressed for the rest of my life!"

"Get off of me, Mimi!" Tipral managed to get himself up and wipe Mimi's kisses off his face. Chopper began to snicker.

"_Heh heh! Now Tipral knows how it feels to be kissed all over the face!" _Chopper thought with a satisfied look upon his face.

"Mimi! We don't have time for this! We need to get through here, all right?"

"You need to move on through the castle?" Mimi giggled. "Why, of course you can go through! …But these meanie-heads here can't!"

"Poyo? ! (OK, what is WRONG with you? !)" Kirby barked. "(Poyo! (You nearly got us all killed by some of those traps! And impersonating Merlon and Merlee? You made it so obvious! You should be ashamed for what you've done to us!)"

"Ashamed…of myself? I like getting what I want, so I do whatever I need to do to get it. I mean, look at you! I don't even know why you speak in front of these people! Practically no one can understand a word you're saying!"

"Wait, I can understand him…" Chopper spoke up, only to be ignored.

"I bet it must STINK for you to be the black sheep of the group! Mimimi!"

At this moment, Kirby didn't know what to say. He was starting to get a bit angry. "Poyo… (You just HAD to say that… If you're asking for a fight, then I pretty much have no other choice but to take you on…)"

"Kirby… You aren't planning on taking her on yourself, are you?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (Yes, I'm planning on doing it myself,)" Kirby said as he turned to the other three. "Poyo. (You guys go back into the other room. I have a bone to pick with her at this moment. Got it?)"

"Ummmmm… All right, I guess we should let you do that." Chopper backed away into the other room, along with the other two.

"Awww… The widdle gumball wants to face me aww awone?" Mimi asked in baby talk. "Boy, it sure would be sad if your friends saw you fleeing out of the room! Because I'm sure you will!"

"Poyo! (Don't think I'm going to flee, Mimi! I've faced you before, and I'm pretty sure that I can defeat you again!)" Kirby barked.

_**"**__**MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI!**__**" **_Mimi began to snap her neck once again. Kirby could hear the horrible sound of her cracking neck, but he wasn't scared this time. After her neck finished spinning, it was upside down and six spider legs came out of her head and pushed her upwards.

_**"**__**MIIIIMIIII!**_ _**Try not to get scared, or you'll be ending up having a nightmare! Time to go bye-bye, pink gumball!**__**"**_

Since Kirby still had some of the Pixls with him (including Tippi and Thoreau), he knew he was going to have an advantage in this fight. So, starting the battle, he gathered information on Mimi.

"That's Mimi, of course. She seems really set on winning this time… Max HP is ? and Attack is 6. She has the same moves she had last time. She seems to be faster now. She can also rain down Rubees for a nasty attack… Better use your Defend ability for protection when that happens… Let's pay her back for all the times she tricked us…" Tippi informed.

"Poyo! (OK!)" Kirby jumped back when Mimi tossed a Rubee towards him. He inhaled it and spat it towards Mimi. However, it didn't necessarily keep her stunned forever.

"_**Urgh… You're gonna pay for that!" **_Mimi growled, making her way towards Kirby. This sort of reminded him of when they fought Shade Doom in his spider form. But HE looked much more threatening than Mimi, that's for sure!

"Poyo! (This battle's going to be easy for me! Just watch this!)" Kirby attempted to inhale her, but she already climbed onto the ceiling and began to drop Rubees to the ground.

"_**Hee hee hee! You can't catch me from up here, little pink gumball!" **_Mimi cackled. _**"I think now's the time for you to give up already!"**_

"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby grabbed a hold on one of Mimi's Rubees and threw them straight at her. The little spider girl ended up falling from the ceiling and landing on the ground.

"Maybe you can throw a Rubee at her and then use Carrie to stomp on her…" Tippi suggested.

"Poyo! (Wait… I still have my bombs!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and tossed it straight at Mimi, stunning her for a couple of seconds. He immediately threw another one to get a spider leg off of her.

"_**EEEEEEEEEK! MY LEG!" **_Mimi cried out, only having five legs at the moment (and that "my leg" thing just reminded me of something…). _**"How could you DO this to me, you little gumball? !"**_

"Poyo? (Why am I?)" Kirby pondered for about three seconds. "Poyo! (Oh! It's because you're evil! Plus, I'm getting tired of you for bullying me and my friends!)"

"_**Fine! Then I guess I better use my special attack!" **_Mimi's spider leg connected to the ceiling and floor as four Rubees appeared around her head. It began to spin around like it was ready to attack Kirby like she was a saw blade.

"Kirby! Use your Defend ability if you want to protect yourself!" Tippi shouted.

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby brought his arms up and was now defending himself at the very moment. Mimi began to move all over the room with the Rubees on her head. The attacks that were dealt to Kirby didn't do a thing.

"_**Huh? ! My attacks didn't do a thing? ! What the…" **_Kirby bashed her with one of his bombs, but she immediately escaped over to the wall to summon Rubees from the ground, striking Kirby.

"Once she's on the ceiling, try to strike her…" suggested Tippi.

"Poyo, (Yeah, yeah, I know,)" Kirby nodded as he ran over to where Mimi would be up on the ceiling. He tried to float up and exhale a puff of air at her like he usually does to enemies, but it didn't seem to do too much.

"_**You call that an attack? ! Pbbbbbbbbth! That's such a wimpy move!" **_Mimi knocked Kirby to the ground by dropping a Rubee on top of him.

Kirby jumped out of the way and threw another bomb at Mimi, knocking her to the ground. He immediately stunned her with Hommissile and struck her with another bomb, snapping off another spider leg.

"_**ACK! Not again!" **_Mimi tossed a Rubee straight at Kirby, knocking another ability off of him. He attempted to catch it, but Mimi successfully managed to destroy the yellow star with another Rubee.

"Poyo! (Hey! That was just rude!)" Kirby frowned.

"_**Mimimimimimi! Well you snapped off my spider leg, so things should be even!" **_Mimi huffed, attempting to swipe at Kirby with her own spider leg. She missed once, but managed to knock him to the ground.

"You still have Thoreau, Kirby… You can still hurt her…" Tippi reminded.

"Poyo, (Yeah, you don't need to tell me,)" Kirby assured, grabbing one of the Rubees Mimi tossed over to him. He managed to strike her, but she immediately attached her spider legs to the wall and ceiling.

"_**This time I'm going to get you!" **_Mimi hissed, spinning her head rapidly as she came down towards Kirby. He used his Defend ability to defend himself from the attack.

"Poyo! (I'm not letting you beat me, you bratty little girl!)" Kirby barked, inhaled a Rubee left on the ground and spitting it back at Mimi, stunning her for a bit. He allowed himself to jump on Carrie and strike her with a jump, snapping off another spider leg. At this moment, she only had three left.

"You've almost got her…" Tippi trailed. "If she keeps using the same moves over and over, then this fight shouldn't be too bad for you…"

"Poyo, (Yeah, she's pretty easy to beat, especially on my own,)" Kirby put up his defense as Mimi attached herself to the ceiling and floor. The funny thing was, Kirby didn't even get hurt by her at all.

"Poyo? (That's it? That was hardly anything!)"

"_**Grrrrr! I missed? !" **_Mimi crept her way back to Kirby, throwing two Rubees at him. One managed to hit him, but he grabbed the other Rubee and threw it at her head, stunning her. With one jumped while on Carrie, she was left with only two spider legs.

"_**NYAAH!"**_

The little green girl – er, spider, knocked Kirby back to the wall with one of her spider legs. _**"Why can't I beat you? ! Even after fighting you guys a couple of times, you manage to best me!"**_

"Poyo, (Well, you know that we also improve in our fighting as we progress in collecting the Pure Hearts,)" Kirby explained. "Poyo! (And luckily, I have what it takes to take you down easily!)"

Kirby successfully kicked Mimi away from him and managed to stun her with a jump using Carrie. However, when he tried to jump on her again, Mimi attacked him with another Rubee.

"_**I don't get it… Why aren't you bleeding? ! I don't see any cuts or scars on your face!" **_Mimi whined.

"Poyo? (You honestly expect me to have SCARS on my face? !)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo! (I don't think this story would want to have me getting cut up, you know! Plus, I don't know if that's even possible!"

"_**What? I don't know what your talking about. What matters, on the other hand, is that I kill you! I don't want to fail Tippy anyways!" **_Mimi knocked Kirby to the ground with her spider leg, but Kirby managed to grab onto it.

"_**NYAAAH! LET GO OF MY SPIDER LEG!"**_

"Poyo! (No way!)" Kirby felt the spider leg starting to snap off, which was a bit surprising to him. But it felt kind of freaky when he actually snapped it off.

"_**What… What did you just do…? !"**_

"Poyo…? (Did I just snap off your spider leg…?)" the pink hero gawked as he dropped it. Well, it wasn't something to bother with. He simply decided to finish off the little green girl with two more attacks.

"_**I can't face you like this! I need to do something!" **_Mimi attached her one leg to the floor and ceiling and began to spin around with her Rubees on her head. She managed to at least strike him once with one of the Rubees, but the rest of the attacks were defended.

"Poyo! (Ha! You're pretty much defenseless!)" Kirby smirked as he grabbed a Rubee that she tossed and threw it at her, stunning her. But, like before, she managed to get away and climb onto the ceiling.

But, since she uses the same kinds of moves as before, Kirby was able to bring her to the ground with one toss of a Rubee. Afterwards, he managed to stun her one more time before finishing her off.

"Poyo! (Now THIS should teach you not to make fun of the way I speak!)" Kirby shouted as he inhaled her and spat her towards the wall, snapping off her last spider leg and knocking her to the ground.

"Poyo… (Remember now, Mimi… If you discriminate me one last time, you're going to be beaten…)"

_**"**__**I don't…get it...**__**I got beat up by a…pink gumball? WAHHHHHH!**__**" **_Mimi transformed into her girl form. Just like when she was defeated in Merlee's Mansion, she was slouching while her eye twitched.

"You…" she knelt to the ground, coughing a couple of times.

"Poyo? (What's wrong? Did I give you a heck of a beating?)" Kirby smirked as Chopper, Sonic and Tipral came walking into the room.

"Good work, Kirby! You managed to beat her!" Chopper smiled.

"Poyo! (Thanks! I had to do something with her anyways!)"

Just like with the fight between Blade and O'Chunks, the ground began to tremor once again.

"The destruction is spreading… If we dawdle any longer, we're doomed!" Tippi cried out.

"Then we're going to have to go," Tipral simply walked past Mimi. _"As much as I don't want to leave her there, there's nothing I can do to give her a hand."_

Chopper and Sonic followed Tipral, along with Tippi and the Pixls. Kirby was about to leave, but he soon turned around to Mimi.

"Poyo… (You should really go… You can't stay here forever, you know.)" Kirby said.

"Yeah, right… Like you care!" Mimi spat before the shaking got even more intense.

"_**POYO! (**__**AHHHH!)**_"

* * *

**Next room-**

Luckily, Chopper, Sonic and Tipral managed to get out of that room, but as soon as they closed the door behind them, they could hear a loud thud.

"What was that loud noise?" Tippi asked.

"I don't know… What do you think it was, Kirby? …Kirby?" Chopper turned around, only to find Kirby not by the door. "Ummmmmm… I don't know if something's right here."

He walked over to the door and tried to open the door a couple of times. "N-No… This door… It's not opening!"

"What? Are you telling me that it's only us now? !" Sonic gawked.

"I'm… I'm afraid so." Chopper frowned.

"This is really bad. It's pretty much just you and me now, Chopper."

"You realize that I'm still here, right?" Tipral questioned.

"Yeah, we know you're here, but you just want the Chaos Heart! I understand you want revenge against the whole universe and all, but there's really no point in doing this anyways." Chopper explained.

"Your words aren't going to change what I plan on doing!"

"Yeah, I know," Chopper turned back to the door. "I just wish we could still save Kirby…"

* * *

**Previous room-**

"Poyo! (Unnnnnnnnnggghhhh!)" apparently, Kirby was still alive. He was holding onto the edge of the floor with all of his might. His other hand was grabbing onto one of Mimi's feet.

"You silly little pink gumball, what are you DOING? !" exclaimed Mimi.

"Poyo! (What does it look like, you little brat? I'm trying to save your life here! That's what I'm doing!)"

"Well I don't want your help! Why don't you just let me go and save your own life instead?"

"Poyo, (Because I'm not a bad person,)" Kirby began. "Poyo. (Look, you've been a huge annoyance to us in the past, but if you're going to die, then I'm not going to let that happen.)"

Mimi didn't know what to say.

"Poyo! (Hold on… I think I've got you!)" unfortunately, Kirby was wrong. He slipped off the edge of the floor after one tremor and began to plummet to his doom.

"_**POYO! (AAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!)**_"

* * *

**Next room-**

Chopper tried to open the door again after the last tremor, but the door still didn't open. He turned to the rest of the group with one sad, shake of his head.

"The whole castle shook! And now that door won't open?"

"It appears so, Tippi…"

"Oh, man… First Blade, and now Kirby? Things are starting to turn out very bad for us…" Sonic trailed as he kicked a pebble on the ground. "What do you suppose we do now?"

"We have to keep going…" the sound of Tippi's voice nearly got Chopper and Sonic to jump up from the ground.

"Wh-What? ! Are you sure, Tippi? We just lost two of our friends back there!" Chopper cried.

"Look, I have to agree with Tippi too," Tipral agreed. "As much as I don't like that one of my minions are gone… There's nothing we can do about it. All we can do is simply move on."

"I know it's horrible, but this is, well…the end of the world. Of all worlds, really." Tippi stated. "We must press on. Kirby would want it this way if he was here."

Chopper and Sonic: …

"I guess we have no other choice," Chopper frowned, looking up at Tippi. "I guess Kirby would've wanted us to move on."

"Then let's get moving," suggested Tipral.

Up ahead, they noticed another Star Block. Chopper officially put and end to this chapter with one strike of the Star Block.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_First Blade and then Kirby are now lost…or dead in the halls of Castle Tipral. Would they ever be seen again? These thoughts started to haunt Chopper's mind as they began to travel through the halls of Castle Tipral. "Will we ever see them again?" asked Sonic. The very halls that they began to travel through started to feel a bit darker than usual. What awaited the three?_

* * *

**Only three more remain in the castle now... What will await these last three? We've got two heroes and an evil Chopper look-a-like now.**

**All I can say is: Don't expect the next part to be the same as Chapter 8-3 in Super Paper Mario. That's all I have to say about that.**_  
_


	48. Monsters Down Below

**CHAPTER 8-3**

**-Monsters Down Below-**

The loss of Kirby was a big one for the group (well, probably not for Tipral. He thinks the loss of Mimi is worse), but they all knew that they couldn't just stay here and cry about it all day. The only thing that seemed a bit strange to them was that this room was the EXACT same as the beginning room of Chapter 8-2 in Castle Tipral. But, unlike that hallway, there were different enemies in the room. Ones that looked a bit similar to Chopper and Sonic in the Bitlands.

"Oh, man… I can't believe we've lost two of our friends in this castle…" Chopper trailed, looking out the window. "We've made it this far into the castle, but at the cost of losing our friends. Tipral, why did you make us have to suffer like this? Did you put a bunch of traps in here?"

"No, I didn't put any traps in my castle," Tipral retorted. "Why on earth would I do that in the first place? ! …Well, yeah, I would do that if you were coming, but I wasn't the one that put them there. They were all here before I could even come to this nice and dark world."

"'Nice'? I wouldn't exactly call this a nice world, Tipral…" Sonic trailed while frowning. "This world is filled with nothing but darkness. It doesn't make the place any better. It's just…gloomy."

"That's just your opinion, blue hedgehog. You prefer green hills, while I prefer dark areas like this."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that. I just don't understand why a gloomy place feels so good. Personally, I find it entirely bland and…dull. Why can't there be a bit more color to this place instead of this black and stuff?"

"Uhh… Guys? I don't think we should be thinking about what the castle is at the moment." Chopper interrupted, giving them all an impatient look. "We still have some ways to go, remember?"

"Yeah, that's true. I just hope those two are doing fine in The Overthere…" Sonic trailed.

"But what if they're sent to The Underwhere instead, or even Hell?" Tipral questioned.

"Then… Well, there's no way they'd go there!" Chopper shook his head, denying it. "They were good people. It would make no sense for them to go to someplace such as The Underwhere is Hell. Queen Jaydes wouldn't let that."

"I see," Tipral walked away from the group. "I suppose we should start moving on."

"Yes, I would love to do that…" Tippi trailed, still thinking about a special person. "Blumiere… Why? Why are you doing this? What ever happened to being a good person and living in peace?"

"Excuse me, but I keep hearing about this 'Blumiere' person. I think it's time for you to move on and actually HELP for once instead of thinking of someone you possibly love!" Tipral growled.

"Wait… You love this Blumiere?" Chopper gawked.

"Ummmmm… Just forget about it!" Tippi suggested. "I think Tipral's right when he means that we should move on. I just don't want to get into another conversation like this…"

The trio suddenly felt another tremor. A small one, though. "Yeah, no kidding. We need to MOVE!" suggested Sonic.

Through the hallway, there were, like I, the narrator, have said before, Dark Soldiers roaming around the hallway. The funny thing about them was that they were in silver armor instead of purple.

"See? Even the Dark Creatures are wearing silver armor!" Chopper snickered. "But, just for the heck of it, I'm going to use Tippi's powers to investigate them. Y'know, just to see their basic stats and HP."

Chopper started off by scanning the first Dark Soldier in sight. This one was carrying a jagged, purple sword that looked rather dangerous.

"That's an Ultra Dark Warrior. They have a thing for jagged, purple swords… Max HP is 20, Attack is 6, and Defense is 2. They will charge at you and try to strike you with their sword… The best option to defeat them is to use an attack that's far-ranged or to get behind them… Getting close to that sword is definitely not a good idea…" Tippi informed.

"Ah, I see. So we should use attacks that aren't close-ranged against them." Chopper slowly nodded. "Tipral, maybe you ought to use your Star Spear on that Ultra Dark Swordsman."

"Hmph! Fine." Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear directly at the Ultra Dark Swordsman. This got its attention and made it charge straight at the three.

"This guy's too slow!" Sonic jumped over the Dark Creature and bashed it with a couple of Homing Attacks before it was defeated for good. But that only got him shot by another Dark Creature.

"I guess this one has a blaster instead of a sword… I guess you'll want me to Tattle on it, right?" Tippi asked Chopper, who gave her a nod. He used her ability once again on the Dark Creature.

"That's an Ultra Dark Soldier. They are more advanced versions of Dark Soldiers… Max HP is 20, Attack is 6, and Defense is 2. These soldiers rely on using their blasters to shoot you from a far range. To make the fight easier for you, you might want to try to get close to them to get a better attack on them… Try not to keep yourself open when you're around these guys…" Tippi informed.

"Hmmmmm… I see. Maybe I can inhale one of their attacks?" Chopper opened his mouth and began to inhale one of the purple lasers an Ultra Dark Soldier fired from its blaster like a vacuum.

"I don't understand WHAT you just did…" Tipral trailed.

Chopper swallowed the laser and was now donning a high-tech visor that covers his eye (only if he wanted to, that is). The laser would apparently shoot out the rounder part of the visor, which is near Chopper's left eye.

He fired a green laser directly at the Ultra Dark Soldier twice, which ended up piercing through its tough armor, but not dealing full damage. However, once he charged up a powerful green laser the Ultra Dark Soldier was finished.

"Whew! Well that worked out pretty well." Chopper ran up ahead, but soon stopped when he found another Ultra Dark Swordsman. But, since it couldn't get him from a far range, he blasted it with his Laser ability.

"Aw, come on! Why can't I get in some of the fun?" Sonic asked, following Chopper up to an Ultra Dark Soldier.

"Well, maybe you can use your speed to strike that enemy," suggested Chopper, stunning the Ultra Dark Soldier with one shot. "Go on, Sonic. Make a move."

"Right on!" Sonic curled into a ball and struck the Ultra Dark Soldier with a powerful Spin Dash, knocking it straight to the ground. He finished it off with a simple Bounce Attack.

"It really feels silent without Blade and Kirby…" Tippi trailed.

"Yeah, sometimes one of them would usually bring something up and it wouldn't be silent," Chopper frowned, stomping on a Blastboxer in the room a couple of times and shooting an Ultra Dark Swordsman a couple of times.

"There's not much through this hallway, I'll admit," Tipral stated as he managed to take out an Ultra Dark Soldier with a snap of his finger and then a Star Kick. It went down pretty easily, to his surprise.

"Something tells me we're probably going to be meeting up with a certain Dark Creature king…" Sonic trailed as he bashed his way through a couple of more Dark Creatures. Unfortunately, the door that they were led to was locked.

"Uh oh… The door's locked!"

"Well, there IS a saying… Ummmmm… I don't remember what it was." Chopper forgot, making Sonic and Tipral sweat drop.

"So, you don't know what to do?" Tipral asked.

"Oh, I do remember what I need to do. I just don't remember what the saying was."

Tipral: -.-;

"Just let me do what I need to do, Tipral," Chopper assured, throwing his arms up. "I'm pretty sure there's something in 3-D for me to check. There might be some sort of hole or a secret room."

He was right about the secret room. Over by the wall, there was a secret passageway for him to walk through. It led him into a small room with a couple of Ultra Dark Soldiers and Ultra Dark Swordsmen.

"Careful, Chopper… It might not be easy to take them all alone…" warned Tippi.

"Maybe I can do something about that!" Chopper fired a couple of lasers at the Dark Creatures, and he even finished some off with a couple of fireballs hurled directly at their faces. "Yup! That's something that I can do!"

Once the last Dark Creature was defeated, it dropped a Castle Tipral Key for Chopper to take. He immediately went back to the other two and showed them the glorious, gray key that he found.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Put the damn thing in the lock!" Tipral growled.

"Whoa, Tipral… No need to get so angry." Sonic said, trying to calm down.

"And why should I listen to you? I would've been better off having Chopper left through that door where Kirby was in. But I'd rather not get into discussion about this. Just unlock the stupid door."

"Sheesh… You're seriously getting on my nerves with your anger." Chopper commented before unlocking the door with the key. They immediately walked through the door into another room.

"Huh… Well, what do ya know? They finally put some loops in this room!" Sonic grinned while stretching his legs. "Finally! I've been waiting to run through these things for a LONG time!"

"Well, then we better not just sit here and talk," Chopper began to charge up his Speed Dash, his feet now moving in a figure-8 pattern. Once it was fully charged, he took off through the loop and down the slope to a ramp.

"I can see a waterfall in this room…" Tippi trailed as Chopper jumped off the ramp and onto the floor. He was right next to a small pool of water.

"Did you just say…water? !" Sonic landed straight in the water instead of where Chopper was. Tipral landed behind Chopper instead of in the water, but he decided to see what was ahead.

"There's no door around here, I believe," he confirmed. "I remember that the waterway should lead us to a door, however. It'll lead us somewhere on the balcony of my castle…"

"Then we should follow Sonic," Chopper dove straight into the water, sinking to the bottom. He noticed a straight, small pathway that a couple of silver Choppers were swimming around in.

"What are those things supposed to be?" while Sonic grabbed an air bubble, Chopper used Tippi's powers to identify the silver Chopper.

"That's a Cutter. These fish are much more advanced than a regular Chopper… Max HP is 12 and Attack is 5. These robotic fish will only swim after you if you get close to it… Be careful, because it won't let go if it takes a bite of you…" Tippi informed.

"Well, then I better use a far-ranged attack on them," Chopper charged up another green laser and struck the Cutter with one shot. Tipral snapped his finger and finished off the other Cutter.

"Mmmmmmggggffffhhhh! (Get me out of this water!)" Sonic choked as he tried to make his way through the waterway. He ended up hitting a Cutter, but that's about it before the timer went off.

"I see your friend doesn't enjoy the water…" Tipral trailed as they got to a spring leading out of the water. With one jump, they were out of the waterway and over by another door that should lead them somewhere else.

"Whew! Finally! I'm out of there!" Sonic sighed in relief as they walked into another room. This time, they could see a large gap between the platform they were on and a platform where the next door was.

"Hmmmmm… I'm not quite sure about this…" the blue hedgehog pondered to himself, but he soon noticed a couple of bat-like creatures floating up on the gap. "Hey, what do you think those guys are?"

"Let me check," Chopper once again used Tippi's powers to investigate these mysterious creatures.

"That's a Dark Bat. These things are known for being transportation as they grow older… Max HP is 5 and Attack is 2. These bats don't really attack you except for spitting acid… That's pretty disgusting… But, they're probably better off used to get across gaps, like using a Homing Attack…" Tippi informed.

"These things can be used for a Homing Attack? Sweet! Now I finally get to do something interesting!" Sonic jumped into a ball and struck the Dark Bats with his Homing Attack to make his way over to the door.

After Tipral helped Chopper across via teleportation, they walked through the door to find themselves outside. They noticed another part of Castle Tipral across the large bridge they had to cross. Perhaps there would be the Chaos Heart.

"Wow… What a view! I can't believe we're actually in between the beginning and the halfway mark of Castle Tipral. That's pretty cool!" Chopper smirked, but he soon realized something. "Hey, Sonic."

"What?"

"Where was the place that you were in when you were in Castle Tipral? Did we already go through that area or something?"

"Well, I think we did. You know, back in Castle Tipral Foyer. Apparently Dark managed to find me there and some Goomba ended up betraying me and said that he was 'joining the winning side'. Man, I hope I can find that Goomba."

"I remember that that Goomba is somewhere on Castle Tipral Bridge…" Tipral trailed, looking at the bridge. "Yes, I think he's doing something around here with a couple of Waddle Dee and Motobugs.

"Ah, so I can finally get my revenge! All right, then!" Sonic curled up in a ball and began to strike all of the Motobugs and Waddle Dee in his pathway, making his way towards the Goomba.

"Man, things have been so cool lately," the Goomba smirked. "I'm finally on the winning side for once! Such an awesome thing."

However, he didn't see Sonic coming towards him. But instead he taking him out, he stopped right in front of him. The Goomba turned around and nearly gasped at the glaring blue hedgehog.

"H-Huh? ! It's…you? ! Wait, you're that blue hedgehog that somehow managed to get away from that dark dude."

"Yeah, it's me all right," Sonic growled, clenching his fists. "Now it's time for payback for bailing out on me!"

"Aw, crap!" the Goomba looked around, trying to find a way to escape. "I'm outta here!"

The Goomba ran away from Sonic, but before he could strike him, a laser pointer aimed at the Goomba and shot it instead, killing the Goomba traitor that is considered to be, well, a "traitor".

"What the… Aw, come on! I just wanted to knock him off the bridge! That's all!" Sonic pouted.

"Well, there's no use in trying to do that. All we can do is…" Chopper suddenly saw a shot strike the ground near his foot. "Holy…! Just… What the heck was that? Is there a sniper? !"

"I think there's someone trying to snipe us…" Tippi trailed, noticing the Dark Creature wearing silver armor holding a sniper rifle. "I could gather some information on it if you'd like, Chopper."

"Please do so," Chopper used Tippi's powers to scan the Dark Creature.

"That's an Ultra Dark Sharpshooter. These guys are very seething and very competitive in battle… Max HP is 15, Attack is 7, and Defense is 2. They will generally attack you from a far range… Make sure you avoid the laser pointer that can be seen… If this happens, it's best to flip into 3-D to avoid the attack… These sharpshooters are pretty accurate, so be careful…" Tippi informed.

"Oh, boy… So we've gotta avoid these guys by going into 3-D. How nice." Chopper flipped into 3-D, making sure the other two were with him so they would go into 3-D. This made it easier for them to avoid the shots.

"Heh heh heh! Now this is pretty good!" Sonic smirked as he made his way up to the large door ahead. But he first took care of the Ultra Dark Sharpshooter with a couple of Homing Attacks.

"Hmph. So that takes care of the sharpshooters." Tipral kicked a pebble off the bridge and into the dark abyss down below. "So this marks the halfway point of the castle, I suppose. But it won't be easy."

"Well, we'll see about that," Chopper kicked the door open and found himself in a smaller hallway. There were a couple of silver Pokeys roaming this area apparently, as well as silver Diam. He used Tippi's powers to identify them once again.

"That's a Iron Pokey. This thing has a tough, metallic hide that's designed to protect them from harm… Max HP is 16, Attack is 5, and Defense is 4. This thing is a strong creature, but it moves incredibly slow, allowing you to easily attack this thing… I wonder why there are Iron Pokeys in the first place…" Tippi informed.

"Iron Pokeys? That's a bit weird." Chopper identified the silver Diam.

"That's a Siliam. It's a much stronger version of the Diam… Max HP is 18, Attack is 5, and Defense is 1. It'll shoot a much deadlier particle than a normal Diam… Usually it spends most of its time hiding in that large diamond to protect themselves from harm. But, little do they know that their diamond shell is capable of being hit…" Tippi informed.

"Siliam? Oh, come on, that's an obvious name…" Sonic used Hommissile to attack the Iron Pokey, since it IS covered in all of those prickly metallic spikes. It only took two hits for it to be destroyed.

"I'll handle the Siliam," Tipral snapped his finger and struck the Siliam with Star Magic. Afterwards, Chopper struck a yellow ? block, making a Slow Flower pop out and land in Chopper's hand.

"Uhhhhh ooooooooooh… Everything's gooooooooing sooooooo sloooooooow!" Chopper exclaimed while striking a Siliam with a stomp. He even got more points due to the Slow Flower.

"Ugh… I doooon't liiiiiiiike thiiiiiiis thiiiiiiiing!" Tipral growled as he skated his way through a couple of Iron Pokeys in the room until he got to another door. That's when the speed returned to normal.

"Thank goodness that's over with," Sonic said, sighing in relief as he opened the door. Unlike the other times, they saw that these stairs were going down instead of going up, which was kind of strange.

"So… I guess we have to go down instead of up this time…" Chopper trailed. "That doesn't seem so bad, although there are a couple of Ultra Dark Swordsmen around here. That's not a good thing."

Nonetheless, he stomped on the first Swordsman that was on one of the steps. He performed a couple of stylish moves, but that was it. He took out the other one by firing a laser.

"I'll handle the other one," Sonic performed a Homing Attack on the last Ultra Dark Swordsman before landing on the bottom…although there was another staircase with Waddle Dee holding spears.

"Don't try to jump on them when their spears are pointed up," Tippi warned. "I'm sure you'll get hurt from that…"

"Well, then I won't bother to jump on it," Tipral finished off the Waddle Dee with Star Magic. He fired a Star Spear at the other Waddle Doo, which had a blue tint instead of a red.

"Does that make that Waddle Doo any different?" Chopper asked.

"No. Some Waddle Doo can be in many colors, so I wouldn't try to worry too much about it…" Tippi trailed (remember Kirby's Adventure/Nightmare in Dream Land? There were Waddle Doo recolors in there).

"Well that's weird…" Sonic trailed as he walked down the last step to the floor, where a door awaited them. They entered the door into a small room, but with nothing else around them.

"What the… Where is everyone or everything?" Chopper asked, looking around the room. The only thing that surprised him was a Red Magiblot that appeared and struck him with a spell.

"Ack! Stupid Magiblot!"

"I got it," Sonic managed to take out the Red Magiblot before it could retreat into the third dimension. "All right, then… So where do we go to next?"

"Well, I'm still not sure…" Tippi trailed. "It might be best if we flip into 3-D… I'm sure we'll find something around there…"

"Then I shall do that!" Chopper smiled as he flipped him, Sonic and Tipral into the third dimension. The only problem was that they were standing over a square-shaped hole.

"Oh, crud…" he gulped before falling through the hole.

* * *

**Down below-**

"Ouch… That wasn't exactly the greatest fall I've ever had…" Chopper moaned as he slowly got himself up. Sonic and Tipral managed to get themselves up as well and scan the room.

"There should be something in this room. I better not be wrong, though." Tipral grumbled, looking around the room. There wasn't anything else around them except for a door. "Oh, there's a door."

They entered the door into a smaller hallway, but there was a small, purple alien-like creature shooting a red laser from its eye. It would only shoot this laser if it detected any enemies.

"What the heck is that?" Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate this mysterious alien.

"This alien is called a Doom's Eye. I don't know much about this thing, honestly… It's just a very mysterious alien… You can't defeat it, but you can avoid its laser if you flip into 3-D. That laser is capable of dealing 6 damage to you if you're not careful…" Tippi informed.

"Oh… That sucks." Chopper flipped into 3-D with the others to simply walk through the hallway without having to deal with these guys. They made it to the door and walked in to find themselves in a long hallway, but there was a blue ! block right near them.

"Hmmmm? Another block? Man, when does Mimi learn?" Sonic grinned while looking at the block.

"I don't think that's something Mimi set up…" Tipral trailed as he hit it. "I'm sure it should do something, though."

Before they could do anything else, they heard a loud, monstrous roar from behind. Apparently, it summoned a large, fat bat-like monster being with only one purple eye, black and purple alien skin and two small wings.

"Ewwwww! That thing's ugly!" Chopper gagged.

"Why is it so fat?" Sonic asked.

"I'm going to see what this thing's supposed to be," Chopper, once again, used Tippi's powers to investigate the large, monstrous bat alien creature. Hopefully there was a way to defeat it…

"That hideous thing is called a Dark Bull. Apparently this thing is meant to be a Dark Bat's mother… I'm not entirely sure if there's a way to defeat this thing… The only thing I would do if I were you is to run… That's the only option. Even then, I'd rather not be around this disgusting creature…" Tippi informed.

"Well, then we're runnin'!" Chopper immediately charged up a Speed Dash and began to speed his way through the hallway, fleeing from the giant beast. Sonic and Tipral both did the same (but they can't do a Speed Dash).

"I'd try to attack this beast, but I don't think it's necessary for that…" Tipral trailed as he continued to skate through the room with his air shoes. He was doing pretty well with escaping this beast, too.

The Dark bull began to shoot a purple laser from its eye, forcing the three to move even faster to prevent themselves from being burnt. It was a bit strange how a fat creature with small wings is catching up.

"Hold on… Why is this Dark Bull trying to attack me? Even if it listens to Dark, it should be listening to me too!" Tipral growled as he fired a Star Spear at its eye, causing it to scream and hit one of the walls.

"Whoa… Did you just see that, Sonic?" Chopper gawked.

"Yeah, if we hit its eye, it'll slow this monster down!" Sonic smirked as he stopped and delivered a Homing Attack on the Dark Bull, making it scream once again. "Now's our chance to get away!"

The three sped away from the Dark Bull, racing over to the door up ahead. They ended up finding themselves in a small room with three Dark Creature statues.

"These statues… What are they supposed to be?" Tippi inspected them for a couple of seconds. "From the looks of it, it appears to be some sort of statue that can trigger something to happen…"

"So what do I do?" Chopper asked.

"You need to hit it with something… But you need to choose the right one…"

"Oh, all right," he walked over to the first one and whacked it with his hammer. The only thing that DID happen, though, was that the statue shot a small, red laser at Chopper, stripping him of his Laser ability.

"Ouch! That did A LOT! …I think I just lost 10 HP!"

"What? ! You can't be serious!" Sonic walked over to the statue, but Chopper immediately pulled him back. "Hey! I wasn't going to hit that thing! I was just looking at it."

"The obvious one is the darker one," Tipral walked over to the middle statue and gave it a good punch. It triggered a door to appear next to them.

Upon entering the room, they found a blue ! switch on the ground. Chopper struck it with a kick, causing the room to extend into a long hallway like the other hallway with the Dark Bull, and once again, no enemies.

"Oh… So this is what happens when you hit that switch?" Chopper suddenly paused from the sound of a familiar monstrous creature. Upon turning around, they all saw the Dark Bull roaring at them.

"Yipe! That thing's here! Run for it, guys!"

"Hold on a minute," Tipral swung his arm and fired another Star Spear directly at the Dark Bull's eye, blinding it. "I'm not going to let that thing spit its disgusting acid at me. Trust me, that acid id very deadly."

"Wait, is this where more Dark Creatures are made?" Chopper asked. "So… Is Dark Doom married to this hideous thing?"

"I highly doubt it. He told me that Dark Creatures don't get married." Tipral explained as they raced their way away from the Dark Bull, which was already coming back at the three people.

"Crap. I didn't know that this thing could keep up faster than I thought it could." Chopper began to hurl fireballs straight at the massive creature, but its large, fat body didn't seem to get harmed by it.

"Like I said, Chopper… Your attacks don't do a thing against it…" Tippi reminded.

"Oh. Then I'm going to blind it." Chopper hurled one single fireball at the monster's eye, causing it to crash into one of the walls and also let the three of them walk into the next room.

"Whew… We're finally… Wait, why are we in another room that looks strangely identical than the other?" Sonic asked, noticing that they're in a room with three more Dark Creature statues.

"I don't know… Maybe this is some sort of puzzle…" Tippi trailed.

"I know which one is the right one," Tipral kicked the first statue, making a door open up. They walked through to find themselves in an identical room like the other large hallway.

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Sonic groaned as he kicked the blue ! switch near him. Once again, the Dark Bull appeared and began to chase the trio, but Sonic stopped it by striking its eye with a Homing Attack.

"Man, is this thing seriously retarded or something? It lets itself get hit in the eye so many times!" Tipral barked as he skated away from the giant monster. Chopper gave him a frown.

"Hey, you don't need to USE the word, 'retarded' you know," he sulked. "I don't think it's a nice word to say to anyone OR anything."

"And I should be listening to the freakin' HIPPIE about that? !"

"Dude, I'm not even a hippie! Sure, I try to save my planet from evil, but there weren't really any people who were trying to destroy the environment! So, you can't really consider me to be a hippie…"

"Uhhh… How about we focus on running from this thing, huh?" Sonic shouted, looking back at the Dark Bull that was managing to catch up to the group.

"Hold on… I see some kind of switch at the end of the hallway!" Tippi perked up, looking straight at the blue ! switch at the end of the hallway.

"Oh! Then we better not waste our time with that thing!" Chopper rushed towards the switch and kicked it as soon as everyone got to him. It caused the ground to tremor…and also squish the Dark Bull with a large anvil.

"Uhhhhhh… Now where did that anvil come from?" Chopper looked over at Tipral. "Did you set that up?"

"No. I told you that I don't know a thing about the traps." Tipral reminded. "I haven't been in this place for a while."

Turning to their right, they noticed a pipe that came out of the wall. Wondering where that it would take them, they entered the pipe to leave the lower area of this part of Castle Tipral and reach an upper area.

* * *

**Upper room-**

"Well, looks like we actually DID find a staircase!" Chopper gaped, but he noticed that the staircase wasn't as big as the other ones. "But, there ARE a couple of enemies in there, so…yeah."

Chopper made his way up the stairs, taking out any Dark Creatures in his path with some fireballs until they got to the top stair. A door was right in front of him and, thankfully, it wasn't locked.

"Oh, thank goodness that we didn't have another locked door," Sonic said, sighing in relief. "I swear, if we had to go hunt for another key, then I would've been pretty ticked off about now."

"Well, then we should make our way through," Chopper opened the door to find two Dark Creature statues in the small hallway and two Siliams.

"Hold on… I feel like there's something here." Chopper flipped into the third dimension to find a gray circle around the statues. "Hmmmmm… I wanna check something for a minute."

He pulled out the piece of paper that he used for the torches back in Castle Tipral Entry and tossed it in the circle. A red laser fired at the piece of paper and completely melted it in a second.

"So… What did you find?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we can't walk close to this statue, that's for sure," he explained, getting the other two in 3-D. "All we can really do is try to stay out of the circle, and we should be just fine, all right?"

"That sounds reasonable," Tipral stated as he followed Chopper through the small hallway. Apparently, the two Siliams had the ability to flip into 3-D too, so it didn't change a thing.

"Remember, Chopper… Enemies can flip in 3-D too." Tippi reminded.

"Of course I know that!" Chopper nodded as he walked over to the door. He first struck the yellow ? block to get an Ultra Shroom for the three of them and then hit the Save Block with his fist.

"Man, whatever's through here must be something big, that's for sure," Sonic huffed as he kicked the door open to the next room.

* * *

**Next room-**

"So, you finally made it…" the three were greeted in a dark manner by a familiar face in a familiar room, kind of like the room where Blade fought O'Chunks and where Kirby fought Mimi. Apparently, Dark Doom was waiting for both Chopper and Sonic to make their way.

"So I overheard that you squished my pet, the Dark Bull…" Dark trailed, glaring coldly at Chopper and Sonic. "You destroyed something that was capable of creating more Dark Creatures!"

"Well, sorry about that," Sonic apologized. "But, knowing that you ARE the bad guy, we pretty much had to do it."

"Oh, don't give me that cocky attitude, Sonic!" he barked. "You ALWAYS think you're so cool, trying to be the 'cool' hedgehog. I'm always getting sick of it! Why don't you mind your own damn business for once!"

"Dude! Language!"

"I don't need you to speak up, Chopper!" Dark sighed and calmed himself. "Still… I was given orders to stop you, and that's what I must do."

"And who ordered you to do that?" Tipral spoke up.

"Count Bleck," Dark opened his eyes and noticed Tipral. "Tipral…? What on earth are you doing here? ! I thought you were dead!"

"Apparently what Dimentio said was a lie," he replied, slowly shaking his head. "You need to listen to me. We know what Dimentio's planning!"

"Hmmmmmm… Well, I can only let you pass if you want, but there's no way that I'm letting these two pass!"

"Really? I thought you'd say that!" Sonic smirked. "So, how about you and me fight to see whether we get to pass or not? I'll take you on alone, if that's something you would like me to do!"

Chopper gasped. "Sonic! Are you REALLY trying to…"

"Relax, Chopper. I'll follow you back into the room so you don't need to worry about me losing my game. Just wait back in the other room so I can finally kick this guy's butt once and for all!"

"…All right. I guess there's not much else I can do. Let's go wait back in the other room, Tipral." Chopper turned away and began to walk back into the other room.

"Hmph! Very well…" Tipral looked up at Dark. "You better not screw this one up, Dark. If you want to fight this hedgehog, then go right ahead."

He left the room, leaving only Sonic, Tippi, the Pixls and Dark Doom.

"So… This should get a little interesting!" Dark pulled a black emerald out of his hand. "I guess I might as well power myself up a little with this thing!"

A dark aura began to surround him, making his powers increase a little. "All right, Sonic! Now it's time for us to settle this!"

Dark made the first move, shouting, "En guarde! Swift Strike!"

"Whoa!" Sonic jumped out of the way of the red cutter blade that was being fired at him. Since he was open for an attack, he hurled himself straight at Dark, delivering a Homing Attack upon him.

"Ack! So, I see you've gotten a bit stronger…" Dark trailed kicking Sonic off of him and throwing him to the ground using his martial arts. "But even still, there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Well, I guess I can beat you easily if I was able to fight off your younger brother!" Sonic grinned, knocking Dark back using a Spin Dash. Dark was even shocked from hearing this from him.

"Wait… Did you just say my younger brother?" Dark gawked. "You're telling me you actually KNOW where he went? !"

"Well, last time we saw him, he was trying to cause a ruckus back in The Overthere," Sonic recalled. "Boy, he sure was ticked off! …And he was somewhat crazy as well, if I could remember."

"So… He's gone off on his own way then… Fine. I don't need that little boy anyways. I'm definitely capable of taking you out myself." Dark twirled his blaster before firing a purple shot at him.

"Perhaps you should see what abilities he has in his possession…" suggested Tippi, nudging Sonic a little bit.

"I suppose I might as well do that," Sonic used Tippi's Tattle ability to gather some information on Dark Doom.

"This is Dark Doom. Like before, he's the king of the Dark Creatures and a loyal servant to Tipral… Although, I don't know if he's THAT loyal… Max HP is 90. Attack is 7. Defense is 3. He'll usually use his normal attacks, but he might fire a barrage of dark energy if he manages to jump to the ceiling... Be careful, Sonic… This could be a very dangerous attack if you're not careful… Make sure you use all of your speed to take down this Dark Creature king…"

"Well, I guess this should be a bit interesting then!" Sonic grinned, striking Dark with a Spin Dash before he could even make another move. He also began to create a whirlwind around him before striking his head with a bounce attack.

"Urgh!" Dark held his head in pain. "Thank god that my third eye isn't trying to open, or else I would be in even more pain."

Sonic noticed on his forehead that there was a third eye, but this one was closed shut. "A third eye? I thought that was some sort of scar… Kind of weird, honestly."

"Well you're not going to be witnessing it open!" Dark barked as he summoned a couple of meteors. "Be gone!"

He fired the meteors straight at Sonic. The blue hedgehog managed to dodge a couple of them, but he ended up getting struck by one of them, leaving him a bit dizzy for Dark to kick him in the face.

"Oof!" Sonic was sent flying back to the wall to the left. Dark was ready to blast him with his blaster, but Sonic managed to get up and knock him back to the opposite wall with a Spin Dash.

"Better use my Light Speed Attack on him if I'm going to land some powerful attacks," Sonic began to curl up in a ball while charging up his Spin Dash. A bright blue light began to surround him as more light energy went into him.

"What the heck is going on here?" Dark gawked.

"Ready?" Sonic asked after finishing his Spin Dash. He shouted, "GO!" as he began to attack Dark a couple of times with his Light Speed Dash.

"Is this the Light Speed Dash I've been hearing about? ! Get… Get off of me, you stupid blue hedgehog!"

Dark managed to grab a hold of Sonic's leg and throw him all the way across the room, just like before. When he got to the blue hedgehog again, he kicked him right in the shin and punched him across the face.

"Man, you're one to use your fists instead of your weapons! I like that!" Sonic smirked as he landed a punch on Dark's face and then knocked him back with a kick. "But I can still land a few punches and kicks!"

"Try not to let him use one of his stronger attacks…" Tippi trailed.

Dark grinned as he suddenly teleported behind Sonic and punched his back, although it kind of hurt him when he has those quills on his back.

"Ack! Damn it! I forgot about those quills!" Dark screeched.

"Whoa, man! You gotta watch the language!" Sonic frowned, striking him with a Spin Dash. "I know your angry and all, but come on! Lay off the swearing and other stuff that's bad, will ya?"

"I'll do whatever I WANT, you stupid hedgehog!" the Dark Creature king growled, shooting Sonic in the chest with his blaster. It drove the blue hedgehog back, but he managed to get a hold of himself when he got up.

"Whew! Man, that's one serious weapon you've got there!" Sonic panted, noticing Dark bring the palms of his hands out.

"En guarde! Swift Strike!" Dark fired another flaming red cutter blade towards Sonic, but just like before, it was an easy one to dodge. It allowed him to use another Whirlwind attack on him in order to lift him from the air.

"What the heck? ! Don't tell me this is one of your secret moves…"

"Nope! It's just my Whirlwind!" once Dark fell to the ground from the large, blue tornado, Sonic delivered a Homing Attack on him and then struck him with a Bounce Attack afterwards.

"Ugh… Get off of me you little…!" Dark kicked Sonic off of him and teleported behind him. "Take this!"

He fired two vertical fire cutter blades towards Sonic, attempting to at least burn him. He managed to burn him ONCE, so he started to take some damage from it, but it didn't stop Sonic from hitting him with a Homing Attack.

"Give it up, Dark!" Sonic smirked after finishing a Super Shroom Shake. "You're pretty much beat!"

"You should just let us pass…" suggested Tippi.

"Oh, I don't think so! You think I'm finished yet? Nope!" Dark ran towards Sonic and attempted to trip him, but he managed to make him dizzy using Flippay's power.

"And now I'm being used, amore!" Flippay cheered, making the Dark Creature king dizzy as he struck him with a corkscrew attack with Screwdy.

"Argh! Be gone already!" Dark barked as he fired a couple of meteors at Sonic. This time, he used Slim's ability to simply avoid the attack. Afterwards, he hit Dark with Barry's counter.

"You're doing well, Sonic…" Tippi commented, taking a look at Dark's HP. "I don't think it should take too long to finish him off now… A couple of hits might do him in…"

"Oh no it won't!" Dark growled, kicking Sonic in the crotch area. The only thing was, well, it didn't cause pain to him. "What the… OK, you should be on the ground crying in pain right about now! This is… Argh!"

"Man, you're pretty arrogant, you know that?" Sonic grinned, grabbing Dark and hitting him while he was curled up in a ball. He then knocked him away with a simply, but rather tough kick.

As Dark got himself up, he pulled his blaster out and began to charge up a shot. "Well, then! I suppose I can deal some heavy damage to you with this thing! I highly doubt you'll live to see this, though!"

"What're you talking about? I'm pretty much GOING to live to see that!" Sonic brought his fists up, ready to guard the attack. Although, he didn't take it quite well, since it was strong enough to knock him back.

"Sonic! Are you all right? !" Tippi gasped.

"Ugh…" Sonic slowly got himself up and gave Tippi a thumbs up. "I'm just fine… It's just…ugh…that was a pretty heavy shot."

"Good, so I did what I wanted to do," Dark smirked, twirling his blaster before putting it away. "And now to finish this!"

He rushed straight at Sonic and punched him in the stomach, followed by multiple punched to his entire body and face.

"Whew! Who knew you could do such damage? !" Sonic managed to knock Dark back with a kick, sending him flying. With this chance, he began to curl up in another ball and prepare for another Light Speed Attack.

"What are you doing?" Tippi asked.

"What does it look like? I'm going to finish him!" Sonic smirked, finishing his Spin Dash. "Ready… GO!"

With his Light Speed Dash, Sonic managed to strike Dark a couple of times with incredible speed. He never even saw where he was coming from either!

"_**ARGH!**_" the dark power within Dark went away as he landed on the ground, panting. "I… I lost to you? ! That's just not possible…"

Once Chopper and Tipral came walking into the room, they noticed Dark kneeling down on the ground, panting heavily. Chopper seemed a bit pleased to see Sonic victorious. As for Tipral… Not as much.

"Ugh… I'm sorry, Tipral… Apparently he was a bit tough for me." Dark wheezed. "Is there any chance that you can forgive me for this loss?"

"Bleh. I can do that anyways." Tipral frowned. "I really didn't care whether you lost or not. What I think is important is that I go find that Chaos Heart and get rid of Dimentio once and for all!"

"Wha? Why would you want to get rid of him?"

"Because that clown's responsible for trying to 'kill' me," he explained. "Apparently, HE wants to use the Chaos Heart for himself and destroy all worlds himself. That is something I intend to finish!"

"I see… Well, then I guess I'm going to have to tag along with you and give you guys a hand." Dark glared at Sonic. "Don't think that we're friends, though! You're still considered to me an enemy!"

"So Dark is joining us… I guess I'm OK with that…" Tippi trailed.

But, before they could get going, they could feel another tremor. "Aghh! Why does there have to be ANOTHER friggin' tremor? ! …You guys get out of here right now before anything bad happens."

"Are you sure, Dark?" Tipral questioned.

"Yes, you need to go somewhere, so just get a move on already."

"Well… If you say so…" Chopper walked over to the door up ahead and walked into the next room, along with Tipral. Sonic was about to walk in until he heard something intense from the room.

"What the…"

He noticed that a purple portal appeared in the room, trying to suck Dark in. He was grabbing a hold of the ground as hard as he could to prevent himself from being sucked into the portal.

"What are you waiting for, hedgehog? ! You get out of here!" he bellowed.

Sonic looked back between the door and Dark. Apparently, it didn't look like he was able to hold on for long enough, considering that his hands were beginning to slip off.

"_What do I do?" _Sonic thought. _"If I try to save him, then I might get sucked in there as well, and I don't want to leave Chopper there… But if I save him, it will make me a better person… What to do?"_

"GET OUT OF…" Dark ended up losing his grip on the floor, but, to his surprise, Sonic managed to grab a hold of his arm. "Sonic… Why are you doing this?"

"Because… There's no way I wanna leave you here." Sonic stated. "If I have to sacrifice my life, then so be it!"

"Sonic… Wow. You're a bigger idiot than I thought."

"Why thank… Hey, wait a minute!" unfortunately, for Sonic, he wasn't able to hold onto the ground any longer. His hand ended up slipping off and both he and Dark began to get sucked into the portal.

"_**YAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHH!**_"

* * *

**Next room-**

As the two walked into the room, they heard a thud from behind. Chopper turned around and gasped when he noticed Sonic wasn't there.

"S-Sonic…?" Chopper walked over to the door nervously. _"Please open… PLEASE!"_

Unfortunately, he didn't get anything from opening it. "No… I can't believe it! Sonic's…gone!"

"So… Then that means it's just you and me." Tipral turned away, folding his arms. "I'm not too surprised. This place is already a dangerous place anyways. The best we can do is move on."

"Move on? We just lost three important people!" Tippi snapped. "All you can think of is moving on? !"

"Look, I know you're going to cry about losing your friends, but there's nothing else we can do about it. Staying here and being a crybaby WON'T help!"

"Yeah, I know… But these are my friends I just lost!" Chopper frowned. "I'd feel very, VERY bad if I had to leave them behind. I don't think it would make me a good person at all."

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Sonic would want you to move on, just like the others," Tipral explained. "Besides, I'm certain that we're getting closer to finding that pathetic clown Dimentio. I have a score to settle with him."

"Mmmmmmmmmmm… Fine. Although, it really doesn't make me feel good, considering that I've lost so much lately… But you can't cry over it all day, so I guess we have to move on."

Chopper walked over to the Star Block and he smashed it with one punch. "I guess we're almost there now…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the loss of Blade, Kirby and Sonic, all that remained so far were the two counterparts Chopper and Tipral. Without his allies, could our hero Chopper hope to stand against the Chaos Heart and Count Bleck? As the duo ventured through the castle, __the very air in it grew heavier and even more ominous with every step. All they could do was plod forward in silence…_

* * *

**Whew! That was one heck of a chapter, wasn't it? Yeah, I think it took a bit longer than the others, but oh well. Hopefully the others don't take as long for me to do, since I DO know what I'm doing for those chapters anyways.**

**You know, I can actually see this story as an anime. The paper style for the Paper Mario games COULD actually make an anime too. If they did that, I would watch it (as long as the dub isn't run by people who HAVE to censor pointless stuff).**

**Anyways, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. ^^ If you're reading through this without it being edited, I think you really should.**_  
_


	49. Countdown to Destruction

**CHAPTER 8-4**

**-Countdown to Destruction-**

The hallway of Castle Tipral Interior felt rather…dark and quiet for Chopper's tastes. Since they were somewhat deeper into the castle, this meant that they were going to go through some more intense obstacles…at least, that's what Chopper believed at this point. But, he still began to think about his three friends that he lost back in the other parts of Castle Tipral, such as the Entry, Foyer and Bridge. The only person he had on his side was Tippi and Tipral, who really wasn't considered to be a friend considering their goals for the Chaos Heart.

"I can't believe we've made it this far…" Chopper trailed, looking at the entire hallway. "I didn't expect to make it this far… I thought for sure that I would've been one of those people to sacrifice themselves…"

"Well, you're should be happy that you didn't…" Tippi trailed. "I'm still here for you, just remember that…"

"It would've been better for me if Sonic was the one that was here instead of you," Tipral grumbled. "Despite the fact that I hate both of you, I hate him a little less than you, to be perfectly honest."

"Why do you even hate him? In fact, how did you meet?"

"It was five months ago, back in Twilight Town," Tipral began. "That's when I managed to use my shape-shifting powers to my advantage AND also managed to steal his name and body…but that all failed. But how we MET was something."

"No, Tipral, we're not going to go into another flashback…" Chopper trailed. "I think I'm getting tired of it. Long story short, Tipral was turning people into pigs, so I tried to stop him, but I lost my name and body to him, but eventually defeated him after guessing his name correctly. That's basically what happened."

"Interesting… I never knew you had such a strange encounter with each other… I suppose Chopper won the battle, right?" Tippi asked.

"Yeah, I won the fight," he nodded. "I got help from a certain shadow friend who was kind enough to give me the help to find Tipral's name and take him down…although I had to fight my friends too, who I didn't want to kill…"

"I see…" Tippi fluttered ahead of Chopper, now feeling something very intense. "The power of The Void is getting stronger and bigger. I can feel it. The Chaos Heart is close, now… The end is almost here… We must hurry!"

"That's exactly what we need to do," Tipral said with a nod. "We can't stay here forever when The Void is going to swallow all existence. Well, it'll swallow all existence without MY power."

"Oh, stop it already, Tipral," Chopper walked on ahead through the hallway. The first thing he noticed were a couple of Skellobits walking in the hallway. "Hold on a second… There's Skellobits here? I thought these guys work for Shade? !"

"I guess some of them decided to stay in this castle…" Tippi trailed. "If I could remember, there were Skellobits in this place as well…"

"Yeah, and I think they have the ability to flip too," Chopper inhaled the head that the Skellobomber dropped and spat it out at it in order to take it out. Tipral snapped his finger and took out the other Skellobomber.

"I'm quite surprised that these guys are roaming this place…" Tipral trailed.

"Well, probably because you didn't see them around here," Chopper punched a yellow ? block that was high up in the hallway. He ended up grabbing a Fast Flower, but, since it reminded him of what happened to his friends, he didn't bare to talk.

Heck, not even Tipral spoke, because he didn't want to hear how stupid his voice would be. But, nonetheless, he hurled two shadow balls at one Skellobit, while Chopper hurled a couple of fireballs at the other one.

After Chopper defeated a Cursya with a fireball, the speed went back to normal. "Come on! What's with all of these stupid Cursyas around here? ! They're seriously bugging me to death…"

"I'm not even going to answer that question," Tipral bluntly stated as he killed off two Skellobombers that were holding Spiky Skellobait. Thank goodness they didn't throw them down, that's for sure.

"Wait… Shouldn't they be weak to fire if they use ice? I'm sure that should happen…" Chopper trailed as he inhaled a Skellobait and killed off the last Skellobomber in their path before hitting a yellow ? block.

"There's only a Mushroom in there…" Tippi trailed as Chopper split it into two for both him and Tipral.

Up ahead, there was another Skellobit, but it was immediately killed by a couple of stomps from Tipral.

"This place is filled with Skellobits," Chopper frowned. "I mean, these guys are not even that hard to beat anyways!"

Well, he soon noticed a couple of Dark Skellobits roaming around a yellow ? block. One even had a spike on its head, but they already took care of it when Chopper bashed it with his hammer.

"Man, I wish I could bash things with my hammer with my friends around…" Chopper frowned as he spun his hammer around at another Dark Skellobit. Even his hammer hit the yellow ? block, which made a Slow Flower pop out.

"Another Slow Flower? I… I guess I might as well take it." Chopper scooped up the Slow Flower with his hand and the flower ended up absorbing into him, causing the whole hallway to slow down.

Even then, Chopper didn't bother to speak as he hammered a Dark Skellobit to the ground with a Fire Smash from his hammer. Tipral finished it off with a Star Spear.

Chopper was about to hurry on until a Dark Skellobomber dropped its head on top of Chopper, making him jump on top of the empty block and slam it to the ground with a flaming slamming kick.

Tipral finally finished the enemy by slamming his fists down on it, killing it off. That's when the speed finally went back to normal.

"Well, there's still another Dark Skellobomber up there," Chopper used Thoreau to grab it and toss it at the Dark Spiky Skellobit nearby, knocking them both to the ground for Tipral to finish.

"Hmph… So if we work as a team, we get things done easily." Tipral pondered as he snapped his finger to strike two other Dark Skellobits nearby. The last enemy to be encountered was another Dark Spiky Skellobit.

"This is just pathetic," spat the Ultimate Life Form as he Star Kicked the Spiky Skellobit in the face and finished it off with a Star Punch. "Is THIS what they send to attack us? ! They're pathetic!"

"Well, thankfully we're done with this room…" Tippi fluttered over to the door ahead. "We should be going into some other room through this door…"

Through the door, they found themselves in a small room with white Pigarithm – an enemy Chopper once remember from the Whoa Zone. Even Tipral remembers encountering this thing!

"Oh, boy… Another one of these guys." Chopper gasped. "These guys give out a lot of coins if you beat 'em! …But they look a lot different from before. Weren't they a bit…yellow?"

"Let's check…" suggested Tippi as Chopper used her powers to investigate the pig monster.

"This bizarre beast is called a Hogarithm. They are strange on so many levels... Max HP is ?. Attack is 5. It takes three stomps to finish off this piggy... But each stomp makes it smaller and faster... It's very hard to stomp the last one... Hogarithms often drop many coins, so you may want to hunt them if you're broke." Tippi informed.

"A Hogarithm, huh? Well, might as well stomp on this piggy." Chopper stomped on top of the Hogarithm, causing it to shrink to a smaller size. Its white color suddenly changed into a gray.

"It changes color as you attack it," Tipral stated as he stomped on it. Now the Hogarithm turned to a black color, which was finally finished off by one last stomp made by Chopper.

"There's still two more here," Chopper reminded, hurling a fireball at the next Hogarithm. He immediately finished it off by stomping on it two more times, grabbing all of the coins that dropped.

"I suppose they're considered to be piggy banks…" Tippi stated as Tipral stomped on the next Hogarithm.

"It's pretty obvious," Tipral said as he snapped his finger to strike the Hogarithm with Star Magic. With one last stomp, it was defeated and it dropped a lot of coins like the other one.

"That was too easy!" Chopper smirked as he raced over to the door. "See? The door's right here!"

Both Chopper and Tipral walked through the door, but what seemed surprising was when they simply came out of the door that led them into this room.

"What the… We're back here? !" Chopper gaped. "But… What… What the heck's going on here? !"

"It's obvious that there's some sort of trick to this," Tipral looked up and saw a large platform. "There's the problem. I believe we need to go up there instead of taking this way. At least, that's what I remember."

Tipral teleported Chopper up to the ledge, where he saw a white version of a Barribad. "Hey… These guys remind me of those Barribads! …And they also remind me of those Yuxes that I've faced in the past."

"Then we might as well try to identify this creature," suggested Tipral. Chopper nodded and used Tippi's powers to investigate the creature.

"That's a Sobarribad. It shields itself with a strong barrier... Max HP is 8 and Attack is 5. It also shoots rings of energy from its mouth... You can't break its barrier, but you can flip to get places it might not want you to…" Tippi informed.

They noticed that the Sobarribad was firing a yellow ring of energy from its mouth and at the two. Tipral immediately put up Barry to deflect the projectile back at the Sobarribad, causing it to cringe in pain.

"You CAN deflect those things, you know," Tipral stated as he finished it off with a simple Star Magic attack. "Luckily, my Star Magic ability will simply go through the barrier instead of out of it."

"Well, I guess it should come in handy against the other guy…or better yet, I think I have a better idea!" Chopper flipped into 3-D and walked over to the next Sobarribad. When he flipped back, he was inside the monster's barrier.

"Now you're screwed!" with one smash from his hammer, he killed off the Sobarribad and grabbed a Super Shroom Shake that it dropped. He then jumped down from the platform and landed over by the door.

"Wait… Wasn't there supposed to be a door up here?"

"No, we had to take that way in order to move on. Just watch what happens when we go through this door." Tipral walked through the door first. Chopper followed him through into another room.

"Hey, you're right! This is…weird. Just look at all of these mirrors." from what Chopper said, there were definitely a lot of mirrors in the room. They came in many different shapes. They could be skinny, long rectangular shapes, wide, rectangular shapes, or even square-shaped.

"Yes… There are a lot of mirrors in this room…" Tippi trailed.

While Chopper was gazing in the room, some Dimentios appeared on the mirrors and began to fire magical projectiles at the two.

"What the…!" Tipral fired a Star Spear at one of the projectiles to blow it up. "So… I see Dimentio's trying to fool us here. NOW I finally know where this stupid little jester can be!"

"You know… I've never investigated him before…" Chopper pondered. "I'm actually a bit curious on what he's got on him."

When a Dimentio appeared on a mirror close to him, he immediately used Tippi's powers to investigate him…or it (since it's most likely a clone).

"That's Dimentio... A magician who works for Tipral... As far as I know, though. He's like an evil clown... He'll use many magic tricks, including making doubles of himself... It's hard to get a read on this suspicious character..." Tippi informed.

"And look what we've got across the bottomless pit," Tipral pointed to the red Longator. "Apparently it's one of those Longator things I've seen in space, but this one's a red color instead of white."

"Well, I'm gonna see what it is anyways," Chopper stated as he used Tippi's powers on the red Longator next.

"That thing is a Longadile. It can stretch beyond the limits of imagination... Max HP is 20 and Attack is 4. It likes to stretch its neck at enemies... They aren't fast, but they can attack a wide area. Be careful near narrow ledges..." Tippi informed.

"Yeah… This might be a bit dangerous, but maybe I can hit that thing without any problems." Chopper jumped and shot a fireball down at the Longadile. Afterwards, he stomped on it two times before destroying it.

"Hmmmmmm… When I get a look at these mirrors, I feel like I'm… Wait, this mirror right here isn't shining. Maybe there's something with that thing… I'm going to go see for myself."

Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. When he put his hand on the mirror, he realized that his hand simply went through. Interesting! So there WAS something behind this room!

Well, there wasn't much time to waste. Chopper walked to the other side of the room and went back into 2-D to find a chest to his right and left. In the right one, he found an Ice Storm.

"Am I going to need this thing?"

"I'm not so certain…" Tippi trailed.

"Oh, well in that case, I'll check the other chest," Chopper raced his way over to the chest with a Speed Dash and opened it to find a Castle Tipral Key. "Now THIS is what I was trying to look for!"

Once he returned to the other side of the room, he saw that Tipral took care of the other two Longadiles that were trying to attack him by stretching their heads. He was also trying to avoid the magic projectiles being fired by the Dimentios.

"How long have they been doing that?" Chopper asked.

"How long, exactly? Well, they were doing this all the time while you were on the other side." Tipral growled, giving Chopper a cold glare. "What did you find behind that room anyways? I noticed there was a locked door in here…"

"Well, maybe we can use this key I found to unlock that door!" Chopper jumped over the bottomless pit and avoided another magic particle being fired from Dimentio. He pulled the key out and unlocked the door.

Once they entered the next room, they saw another staircase leading up to a door. But Tipral was the only one who could see that the door up there was locked.

"I don't think we should go up those stairs," Tipral stated.

"Why do you say that?" Chopper asked.

"The door's locked. I think there's some other secret we need to find if we're going to go through that door." Tipral snapped his finger to defeat the Boomerang Bro., then he walked over to the staircase.

"I'm pretty sure there's something hidden here. Chopper, if you would, use your flipping ability and see if there's some sort of secret passage!"

"All right, let's see what there is," Chopper flipped him and Tipral into 3-D to find a secret pathway that was in the stairs. Well, it was actually between them, but you know what I'm saying…right?

Well, after going through the passageway, they saw some Soopa Strikers kick some shells towards them. Chopper jumped on the shell and kicked it back at the Soopa Striker, but it didn't do much damage.

"I know what's best," Tipral jumped on top of the Soopa Striker, making it retreat in its own shell. He then struck it with a Star Kick to send it straight at the other three Soopa Strikers, doing some massive damage.

"Whoa… Well, I guess I'll finish them!" Chopper hurled a couple of fireballs straight at the Soopa Strikers, killing them off instantly as soon as they were scorched, allowed them to go to the small door in the room.

"I don't know why, but some of this stuff feels like some sort of puzzle…"

"Then don't complain about it and let us go through," Tipral followed Chopper through the door into a small room with three glowing yellow ? blocks in the room. They weren't high (nor were they black with a white X, like in Super Paper Mario).

"What in the world is this?" Chopper asked.

"It's a light ? block," Tippi informed. "Only something made of darkness can get that thing to activate… If it were a dark ? block, then you would need light power to activate it…"

Before they could do anything else, two Blue Magiblots appeared and tried to attack the two. Chopper took care of the one to the left with a couple of fireballs and a whack of his hammer, while Tipral took care of the other with a Star Spear.

"Whew… Glad we took care of those guys!" Chopper sighed in relief. "Well, what do you suppose we do with those blocks?"

"Let me see…" Tipral eyed the blocks carefully, deciding which one to hit. "I'm going to hit the third one. I'm pretty sure there's something that might be revealed if I hit it. Unfortunately, I've never been in this part of the castle."

"Well that stinks," Chopper frowned as Tipral hurled a shadow ball straight at the block, causing a door to appear before them. It was a small one, just like the other door that they came out of.

"We might as well go through…" Tippi suggested as she followed Chopper and Tipral into the next room, which was a lot similar to the other room.

"I suppose we ought to… WHOA! Red Magiblot alert!" Chopper was struck in the face by a Red Magiblot's spell. "Seriously… These guys just do A LOT of damage when they hit me!"

"Then we might as well get rid of them," Tipral grabbed one of the Red Magiblots and slammed it to the ground. Using his Star energy, he managed to kill the ghostly enemy with a couple of punches.

"Geez! No need to be THAT violent…"

Chopper finished off the other Red Magiblot using a Fire Smash from his hammer. "Man, I can't believe I'm using this attack! It feels GREAT to just beat my enemies down with this attack!"

"Well, I guess I'll strike another block," Tipral hurled a shadow ball straight at the middle light ? block, making another door appear.

"That was easy…" Tippi trailed as she followed Chopper and Tipral into another similar room. But what surprised him was when he saw a door already there, although Magiblots with yellow eyes and hands appeared.

"OK, I know it's probably a Yellow Magiblot, but I'm going to Tattle it anyways," Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate the ghostly creature.

"That's a Yellow Magiblot. They are mad mages that live between dimensions... Max HP is 20 and Attack is 6. They only appear long enough to hurl spells at you... They use magic, so I assume they are quite intelligent, but nobody knows for sure... Yellow Magiblots are known for their average HP and Attack…" Tippi informed.

"Huh… So these guys aren't easy either…" Chopper hurled a fireball at one of the Yellow Magiblots and then stomped on it with fire energy on his foot, defeating it within seconds.

"There! That's finished!"

"There's still one more to take care of," all Tipral had to do was snap his finger and the Yellow Magiblot would be finished. Afterwards, he looked up at the blocks.

"So, what do you think we need to do here?" Tippi asked. "There's a door already there, so should we enter through it…?"

"I think I have an idea on what to do," Tipral threw a shadow ball straight at the light ? block above the door, which triggered the door to move below the second light ? block. Another door appeared before them.

"Oh, I see now! …But I wanna see what's through here first." Chopper opened the door that was moved to the left and headed through with Tipral. The bad news? Well, it was a trap.

"This was a trap…" Tippi trailed as the door behind them was enclosed by metal bars. A red Chain Chomp was stuck to a stump, barking and trying to charge at the two. Well, actually, there were THREE of these Chain Chomps!

"What the heck are these guys?" Chopper gawked as he used Tippi's powers to investigate them. "For some reason, I feel as if these guys are stronger than normal Chain Chomps – although it was the complete opposite in the Palace of Shadow."

"That's a Red Chomp. This angry Chomp is filled with uncontrollable rage... Max HP is 8, Attack is 6, Defense is 8. Even flames won't hurt this beast... Some say this Chomp's red color comes from its urge to devour pizza sauce... Maybe someone let it loose in a sauce warehouse..." Tippi informed.

"Well, then that means I can't jump on these guys… But I think I can do this!" Chopper whacked at the Red Chomp with his hammer, taking it out instantly. Heck, Tipral's Star Magic took the other out in one hit!

"We can just waste our time in this room. We NEED to find that key!" Tipral fired a Star Spear at the last Red Chomp, disintegrating it into white smoke (just like all of the other enemies around here).

The door that was sealed in bars was now open for them to go through, now that they defeated the enemies and hit the blue ! block, but they didn't get anything from it, unfortunately.

"Well, what a bummer," Chopper frowned as he left the room. He tried the other door to his right and, what do you know? They're in another room with light ? blocks floating above the ground.

"You know… I get a strange feeling that I need to flip here." Chopper immediately flipped into 3-D without any question and he noticed something on the blocks. The middle block had a one on it, the far right one had a two and the one closest to them had a three.

"It seems strange…but I think we need to hit those blocks in this order: middle, right, left. Yeah, it's strange, but I think you should do that."

"But first we need to take care of these Magiblots first," Tipral threw a Red Magiblot over to a Yellow Magiblot, disintegrating both with a Star Spear. Chopper inhaled a Blue Magiblots spell and spat it back at it, disintegrating it.

"All right… Now let me do this." Tipral hurled three shadow balls. The first one went to the middle, the second to the right and the third to the middle. It triggered a chest to appear in the middle of the room.

As soon as Chopper kicked the chest open and grabbed a Castle Tipral Key, Magiblots of all kind appeared and tried to attack the hero. But, luckily, he managed to jump out of the way and shoot fireballs down at them to defeat them.

"Now then… Let's go back to those stairs."

* * *

**Over by the staircase-**

Well, anyways, the two defeated the Boomerang Bros. that were in the way and made their way up the stairs to a yellow ? block and a Koopatrol that was immediately charging its way at them.

"I got this!" Chopper lifted his hammer up and slammed it on the Koopatrol with flaming energy on his hammer, burning it and even killing it off easily. He punched the yellow ? block afterwards, resulting in a Happy Flower to pop out.

"Ehhhhhh… I don't think we'll need that. I have enough coins, thank you very much." Chopper ignored the Happy Flower and bashed the other Koopatrol before making his way up the stairs.

"These things can flip into 3-D, so it's best to take them out right now," Tipral hurled a shadow ball straight at the Boomerang Bro., followed by a snap of his fingers, resulting in the Boomerang Bro. being dead.

"I'll kill the other one, then," Chopper was about to attack the next Boomerang Bro., but Tipral immediately knocked him down the stairs and took out the Boomerang Bro. himself.

"Hey! Why'd you do that? !"

"That's none of your business, you fool," Tipral said calmly as he made his way to the top of the stairs. Upon hitting a yellow ? block, a Ghoul Shroom popped out and began to go down the stairs.

"That pathetic little faker can handle him," he said.

While Chopper made his way up the stairs, he saw the Ghoul Shroom coming his way. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me! Ugh… I guess I have to get rid of this obnoxious thing… _Ungrateful little…_"

As soon as Chopper made it to the top of the stairs, he pulled the key out while panting. "Tipral… Was that REALLY necessary? ! You didn't HAVE to do that to me, you know!"

"I know, but I honestly don't care. Just put the key in its place."

"Fine," Chopper put the key in the lock and broke it off. They proceeded into another strange room with a couple of platforms and a couple of Dark Skellobits roaming around in the room.

"Oh, great… Now we have THESE guys!" Chopper rolled his eyes.

"I might as well rid of these foul creatures," Tipral skated to the center of the room and clenched his fists. He was surrounded by a light purple aura that began to glow. "Star…_**BLAST!**_"

With one intense attack, he destroyed all of the Skellobits around him, resulting in the room being clear. "OK, let's go."

They raced over to the door, but when they walked through, they ended up in the beginning of the room – the door they previously walked through, actually.

"What the… We were just in this room!" Chopper gawked.

"I believe there's some sort of trick to here…" Tippi trailed. "I don't see anything around here, but surely you might be able to get through here if you can simply use your flipping skills, Chopper…"

"Yeah, you have a point, Tippi," Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a white arrow leading up to the platform above him. "Huh… Well, might as well try and get up this platform…"

He managed to grab a hold of the edge and pull himself up while in 2-D, with Tipral following him.

"What kind of stupid act are you doing this time, Chopper?" Tipral asked.

"Tipral, drop the 'stupid act' stuff and just listen to me!" Chopper snapped, turning to Tipral. "If you just listen to me, then HOPEFULLY we'll be able to get somewhere. I noticed some arrows pointing to where we NEED to go! You got that!"

"Ugh… Fine. You can proceed if you want."

Chopper jumped down from the platform and flipped into 3-D again. He saw that the arrow was leading up to a platform above the upper platform. So, using his jumping skills, he attempted to jump up there, while Tipral simply teleported.

"I honestly find this to be stupid…" Tipral trailed. "All we're doing is jumping on platforms and that's it!"

"Well don't be a grouch about it, or you're probably going to pay the price!" Chopper flipped back into 3-D and noticed the arrow was pointing all the way down to the door. "Well that's a relief! Now we can finally get out of this room!"

They proceeded down to the door and entered through. Surprisingly, to Tipral, Chopper was actually right about this maze. But, Chopper's hopes went down low when they were in another room filled with mirrors.

"Wait… Is this some sort of illusion? !" Chopper gawked. "I thought we were already in this room? !"

"Hmmmm… I'm not so sure…" Tipral trailed as he took down a Longadile on one of the platforms with Star Magic. Once again, Chopper began to study the mirrors, trying to look for which one WASN'T shining.

"Which reminds me… I don't see any Dimentio illusions around here…" Chopper flipped into 3-D to jump through one of the mirrors. "WHOA! …So these were where they were? !"

"What did you find behind there? !"

"I… I found a bunch of Dimentios!" Chopper gaped, but was soon smirking when he pulled his hammer out. "Oh… I think things will get better from here! Heh heh heh! I'll just wipe 'em all out!"

He began to spin his hammer to the left, sending all of the Dimentios in his path flying. He managed to grab a hold of a Thunder Rage in a chest and a Super Shroom from another yellow ? block. Besides, Tipral didn't need that. He was already at full HP, unlike Chopper…

"I guess the key's over there…" Chopper spun his hammer around again, clearing the path of the Dimentios until he got to a chest, where he found a Castle Tipral Key and another yellow ? block.

"Works for me!" he punched the block and received another Super Shroom.

"I'm not sure why… But I… I feel as if we're getting close to someone…" Tippi trailed. "Although, I'm not sure who…"

"Well, we'll find out," Chopper jumped out of the mirror and back to the other side. However, this was when the Dimentios began to fire magic particles at the duo as they jumped over the gaps and got to a locked door.

After Chopper struck the Save Block, he inserted the key into the lock. "All right… Let's head on through."

* * *

**Next room-**

As soon as they entered the next room, they felt like it was silent, just like the other times they've entered a room, like the room where Blade fought O'Chunks, where Kirby fought Mimi and where Sonic fought Dark. Although… The ceiling in this room was definitely closer to the ground.

"I feel something dark and evil in here…" Tippi trailed.

"Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha. So… You've made it here at last. I'm not so surprised." Dimentio greeted the counterparts politely as he waited for them to walk into the room.

"Dimentio… I have a bone to pick with you!" Tipral growled.

Ignoring Tipral, Dimentio noticed that it was only Chopper and Tipral in the room. "Oh, but…what's this? You two seem to be missing that pink puffball that reminds me of a gumball, that cocky hedgehog and that grouchy ninja."

"Dimentio… We don't have time to trade barbs with you…" Tippi warned. "Move out of the way!"

"Oh, no… I came here to KILL this clown!" Tipral growled. "That's one of my purposes, besides claiming that Chaos Heart! So, are you ready to fight once and for all?"

Both Chopper and Tipral got in their fighting stances. "We're not afraid to take you down, Dimentio… After all you've done, I think we should put an end to you! …But honestly, I'd like it if you got OUT of the way first."

"Ahhh, I see. You two are in a hurry. Allow me to get out of your way, then…" Dimentio snapped his finger and he disappeared from the room.

"Wait, so he's just letting us move on?" Chopper gawked. "Weird…"

"…Just as soon as you defeat me!" the jester added as his voice echoed through the room. "Aha ha ha ha ha. You have been proved to be a worthy foe in the past, Chopper…and also a very tough and violent ally, Tipral… So I'm not going to make this easy for you two. You'll have to come get me first. It'll be like a game of tag…with magic!"

"Oh, geez… Not THIS again…" the Star Warrior groaned as a sparkling white light emitted from above.

"Wait… That light… Chopper! It's a Dimensional Rift! Use Flippay on it!" Tippi suggested.

"Oh, so I finally get to use Flippay again? Nice!" Chopper used Flippay's power to reveal a blue ! block. With one punch, he, Tippi, the Pixls and Tipral were immediately teleported out of Castle Tipral.

* * *

**CHAPTER 1-1**

"Where are we?" Tippi asked as she looked around.

"Whoa… We're back in Lineland Road?" Chopper gaped, looking at his surroundings. They were apparently in the second area of Chapter 1-1, in the very beginning of the area. This is the area after Chopper gained the Flip ability from Bestovius.

"This is where you started, huh?" Tipral looked up at the sky and saw The Void. It was much bigger than it was before. "This place is too light for my tastes. I'd rather not be in this dump."

"Oh, stop it already, Tipral!" Chopper frowned. "I haven't been here in a long time! I'm actually a bit happy!"

"Look! There!" Tippi spotted Dimentio hovering through the area, over all of the Goombas and Waddle Dee.

"Well, we can't just stay here and look at the view. We better go after him!" Chopper started off by jumping on the Koopa Troopa that was right by him. Since the enemies still had the same HP as before in Lineland Road, he knew this was going to be a piece of cake to go through.

"So, I'm guessing some of these enemies are fairly simple if this was the first world you went through…" Tipral took a look at the door behind him. Unfortunately, for him, it wouldn't open.

"Well, then I guess we're just going to have to move on," Chopper kicked the Koopa shell into a couple of Goombas and Koopa Troopas, knocking them out of the area. The shell came back towards Chopper, but he stopped it with his hammer.

One of the Goombas ended up dropping a Turtley Leaf, which was capable of reducing any damage dealt to him by half. Nevertheless, he had it anyways and now had his defense boosted.

"All right, so basically, we need to go around this tall pipe," Chopper flipped into 3-D with Tipral and simply walked past the tall pipe. Tipral stomped on a Goomba while Chopper jumped on a shorter pipe with a yellow ? block. He grabbed the Mushroom out of it and recovered 10 HP.

"I'm surprised that all of the enemies are here…" Tippi trailed, looking surprised.

"Well, they don't seem to go away, so there's no real point in just leaving them. Besides, they give points!"

Chopper flipped back into 2-D after going past the pipes and saw two brick blocks and a yellow ? block in the middle. He smashed the two Goombas by punching the blocks. One of them contained a Mushroom.

"That one's mine," Tipral knocked Chopper to the ground and grabbed the Mushroom. "I felt the need to grab a hold of one of those…"

Tipral crossed the bottomless pit and kicked two Squiglets in his way with his Star Kick. He hit the three ? blocks to grab some coins and then struck the other one to find a Happy Flower.

"I think that's just going to waste my time," Tipral stated as he knocked a Koopa Troopa down a bottomless pit. He noticed a hill that could be walked on if you flipped into 3-D, but Chopper already took care of that.

"Thanks for knocking me down…" Chopper groaned as he walked over the hills in 2-D. He proceeded up the small blocks that were making stairs and jumped over the bottomless pit and down the stairs to find a Squiglet and a Squig.

"These guys…" Tippi groaned, glancing at the Squig. "These things were annoying when you first explored this world…"

"Well, it won't be hard now!" Chopper only had to toss two fireballs to get rid of the Squig and Squiglet. It didn't take any more than that.

"All right, so we made it to the end of this area, so now what?" Tipral asked as he made his way back to Chopper.

"Well, let's see…" Chopper looked around him, only to find a Dimensional Rift near him. "Oh! There it is! THAT'S what I was looking for!"

Using Flippay's power, Chopper revealed another blue ! block. Without saying anything, he struck it with his fist, teleporting the two Dimentio style out of this world.

* * *

**CHAPTER 2-4**

Chopper and Tipral were teleported into another area. This time, it was an area that Chopper (and even myself) dread more than any level in this entire story (trust me, Chapter 2-4 in this fic IS my least favorite chapter of all time). Yes, that's right… It's Merlee's Mansion.

"Is this Merlee's Mansion?" Tippi asked.

"No duh. The narrator just explained that." Chopper noticed that Dimentio was flying up into the mansion. "Ugh… Is this some sort of game of tag? I mean, why in THIS world anyways? !"

"We don't have time. Let's chase that stupid clown so I can kill him!" Tipral jumped his way up the wooden platforms, starting with the yellow ? block and then up onto the platform with the doors. Chopper followed him too and noticed the doors.

"Say… Where is everyone anyways?" Chopper asked. "Shouldn't they be here somewhere?"

"Maybe they're in one of the rooms…" Tippi trailed, following Chopper through the hallway. Chopper tried to open the door where the VIP room was, but apparently it wouldn't open.

"The door's not opening… That's weird." Chopper walked over to the wall. "Well, there's not much to do except for going through here."

He flipped into 3-D and walked through the wall with no problem with Tipral. Upon flipping, they climbed the white ladder that was drawn to lead up to the upper floor with the electric fences – and also where the safe is.

"Ah, the safe… I remember when Kirby and I managed to find the combination to that thing and rob Mimi of 1,000,000 Rubees! That was such a classic moment to such a horrible mansion like this."

"What? You took her Rubees?" Tipral gawked. "Meh. I would've expected that from someone like you anyways."

"Yup!" Chopper used Slim's power to make him and Tipral go through the electrical fences and over to the safe, where they saw a Dimensional Rift floating right on the safe.

"There it is! Quickly! Take us out of here!" Tippi cried.

"I know! I don't wanna be back here!" Chopper used Flippay's power to reveal a blue ! block, in which he punched in order to be taken out of this dreadful world.

* * *

**CHAPTER 3-3**

Chopper was surprised to see where they appeared next. "Hey! This is the Bitlands! It's the world where I saw Dark and he tried to attack me! …Thank goodness we're not in that Dotwood Tree. _Ugh_…"

"This place does not feel so familiar… It's all light." Tipral looked up at The Void in the sky. "I'll make sure that I finish the job!"

They noticed that Dimentio was flying over a couple of Fire Bros. that were spitting fireballs at their direction.

"Well well! I remember these guys!" Chopper smirked and tossed a couple of fireballs straight at them. "Now that I've got fireballs, I can give these guys a piece of their own mind!"

The fireballs hit the Fire Bros., disintegrating them in smoke. "Well that was pretty easy. I didn't expect them to go down like that, though…"

Chopper raced his way through the area until he saw another Dimensional Rift. "That's it? I expected this place to be a bit, well, longer."

As soon as he used Flippay's powers, he punched the block and was teleported out of the Bitlands with Tipral. Hopefully they didn't have to go into another annoying area (although I might jinx it).

* * *

**CHAPTER 4-2**

As the two were teleported out of the Bitlands, they founded themselves in the fourth world. It was Planet Blobule! Well, that's what Chopper knew from looking at this world.

"Planet Blobule? I never thought we'd come back here!" Chopper looked around. "Squirps? ! You there, buddy?"

"Ah ha ha ha!" Tipral noticed Dimentio flying off through the planet.

"We don't have time to sit here and look at the stars!" Tipral grabbed Chopper and threw him over by the beautiful-looking tree a bit above him before teleporting over to him.

"Hey! That wasn't necessary, Tipral!" Chopper growled.

"Then stop whining about it, you idiot," Tipral said coldly. "Either you just keep moving or you simply shut up! I don't want to have to put up with you any longer. I can't wait to get back to killing you!"

"I wish I wasn't with you either!" Chopper frowned as he flipped into 3-D. "If you wanna get through here, then try to do it yourself!"

He made his way across the little bridge and through the little tunnel to land right by a red door. Tipral didn't really need to do any of that, because he simply teleported over to Chopper instead.

"Ugh… I wish I had the ability to teleport." Chopper groaned as he took care of the two Choppas in the room before finding a Dimensional Rift, which he opened by using Flippay's powers.

"Let's get out of this world," suggested Tipral as he struck the block with a Star Spear, teleporting them out of this world.

* * *

**CHAPTER 5-4**

Chopper and Tipral were teleported to another world. This time, they were inside of King Neptunian's Palace. The sad thing, though, was that the water wasn't back to normal, but it wasn't polluted outside.

"Whoa… We're back in this world?" Chopper noticed that he was right by the water. It was still the dark pink color that it was before. "Aw, man! You've gotta be kidding me! The water's STILL not back to normal? !"

"Well, it's not a big deal," Tipral grumbled.

They noticed that Dimentio was flying down into the polluted waters. "He's over there! He's heading straight into the water!" Tippi cried out.

"Well then we need to catch that guy!" Chopper jumped into the water and began to sink to the bottom. A couple of Chompers attempted to chomp at him, but his fireballs did them in easily.

"So, where do you think that Dimensional Rift is?" Chopper asked while swimming through the waters. He noticed that the small little crack from before was still there.

"Bah! I'm not going to bother with that!" Tipral retorted.

"Too bad. This is probably the only way." Chopper used Slim to turn sideways and to slip down the crack. Tipral sighed as he slipped down as well. To their surprise, the Dimensional Rift was around here.

"Well, I guess we'll be out of these waters…" Tippi trailed.

"Thank goodness!" Chopper used Flippay's power to reveal another blue ! block. With one punch, they were teleported out of the world.

* * *

**CHAPTER 6-1**

The two were teleported into a world that looked incredibly blank. There was nothing by white and some ruined sand castles on the ground. Heck, they could even see a shovel sticking out of the ground.

"I don't believe it… We're in the World of Nothing!" Chopper gaped.

"This is where we fought and where Dimentio sent me to The Underwhere," Tipral remarked in anger. "I can't believe I LOST against you! I swear, if I really used my power, you would've lost!"

"Oh, get over it already, Tipral! We beat you. Deal with it." Chopper paused when he heard cackling from up ahead. Apparently Dimentio was flying through this world as well.

"I don't understand…" Tippi trailed. "Why did Dimentio bring us here? There's nothing really here…"

"Maybe he has a reason… But let's not get to any of that. We need to find that Dimensional Rift!" Chopper began to use his Speed Dash as he raced his way through the World of Nothing.

"I should start following him," Tipral mumbled as he skated towards Chopper. He was actually catching up to him quite easily.

"What the… How did you already catch up to me? !"

"These air shoes can do many things, you know," Tipral said as he hit Chopper in the face with his elbow. "And I did that because I hate you."

"Well, I certainly don't like you," Chopper frowned, braking as soon as he heard the sound of a Dimensional Rift. "All right! I can hear where it is!"

He used Flippay's power to reveal a blue ! block. With one punch, they were teleported out of this dull dimension. I mean, what was the point of being here anyways? It's just…white and dull.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7-4**

Now that they've made it through six of the worlds they've been through so far, Dimentio teleported them to the last one before going back to Castle Tipral. And this time, he was going to throw in the hardest challenge for them yet: by sending both Chopper and Tipral to Overthere Stair, of course!

"Oh, no…" Tipral groaned as he looked at his surroundings. "Don't tell me… We're in this horrid world! The Overthere…"

"The Overthere…" Chopper frowned as he looked up at the clouds. "Oh, man… This reminds me of when we were taking Luvbi back to The Overthere… It just brings back those sad memories…"

Chopper began to sniffle before Tipral whacked him across the face. "What a crybaby! Are you still crying over that bratty girlfriend of yours? !"

"She's NOT my girlfriend, Tipral!" Chopper growled, glaring coldly at Tipral. "Why SHOULD I listen to you in the first place? ! What? Just to make me feel even worse? ! I bet my friends are here too!"

Tipral didn't seem to care what he had to say. "Like I have to listen to you either… You're probably the least manly kid I've ever met in my life."

Chopper frowned at Tipral. "…You're the least manly person _I've_ ever met."

"…What did you just say? !" Tipral growled, turning to Chopper with his fists clenched. Star energy began to surround them.

"You heard me. You're the least manly person I've ever met." Chopper stated. "Is being manly all about beating the snot out of things? Of course not! I'll admit, I don't think I'm manly either, but at least I'm more manlier than you. I learn to accept things, while you… You just don't."

"Now's not the time to get into this…" Tippi interrupted. "We need to follow Dimentio and get back to Castle Tipral!"

"Yes, listen to the butterfly, Chopper," Tipral stated. "There's no time to be telling me something. I'd rather go kill that clown than listen to you."

"Fine, you heartless being," Chopper noticed that they were at the beginning of Stair 2, which was…a bit strange. Nevertheless, he stomped on a Beepboxer twice before taking it out.

He then punched the three yellow ? blocks that the Beepboxer was walking on. One had a Speed Flower, while the other two had Zombie Shrooms. Chopper grabbed the Speed Flower and stomped on the two Zombie Shrooms.

Though, he didn't feel like speaking because of being around the heartless Tipral. He simply ignored the other three set of yellow ? blocks and stomped on the Beepboxer to jump up onto a cloud above him.

He jumped up a couple of clouds to reach a Save Block, but he didn't bother to hit it. After crossing some smaller cloudy platforms, the speed went back to normal. They were standing right by a Springy Cloud.

"Well, I guess this will bring back some moments from climbing Overthere Stair…" Chopper trailed as he jumped onto the Springy Cloud, along with Tipral. They were both launched up to great heights, jumping on a couple of more until they landed on a cloud with a couple of Ruff Puffs and Beepboxers.

"This should be easy," Tipral snapped his finger at the enemies and destroyed them instantly. They proceeded up some smaller clouds until they saw another Springy Cloud to jump on.

"Where do you think the Dimensional Rift is?" Chopper asked.

"I'm not quite sure… Hopefully we can find it…" Tippi trailed.

They took the Springy Cloud up to another cloud with a Beepboxer, but it was trounced by Chopper's feet. The moving platform over to the left definitely showed that they were close.

"I can hear something… I think it's a Dimensional Rift!"

"That's good, Tippi!" Chopper smiled as he jumped on the platform and landed over by the red door. A Dimensional Rift was there, waiting for them.

"Well, this might be it!" Chopper used Flippay's power one last time to summon another blue ! block. With one punch, the two were sent out of Overthere Stair.

* * *

**Castle Tipral-**

"Whew! We finally made it!" Chopper said, sighing in relief.

"Enjoying my game of tag?" chuckled Dimentio, who was waiting for the two in the room. Both Chopper and Tipral glared coldly at the jester as they walked over to him.

"Enough messing around," Tipral growled. "I've had it with you and your little tricks! You're starting to tick me off already, which you NEVER fail to do!"

"Messing with you? Oh, no. Magic is no laughing matter. I am always deadly serious."

"The expression on your face doesn't seem to show it," Chopper frowned.

"I have been watching you, Chopper. I knew you were the only one who would be able to defeat Tipral. I'm also sure you will able to defeat Count Bleck. So…I have a favor to ask you two. Will you help me…destroy the count?"

"Wait a second… Were you planning on doing this to me? !" Tipral clenched his fists. "ANSWER ME NOW!"

"Wait, you planned on betraying him AND this count guy?" Chopper gawked.

"Betray him? Ah ha ha ha. Oh, no. It is Count Bleck who has betrayed ME!" Dimentio explained. "You see, when he first appeared, he said that he would destroy all worlds and create a new, perfect world in his face. But he was lying!"

"Then… What does he want to do?"

"Now now, Chopper, I don't think I really need to reveal it," Dimentio shushed. "You see, I have always known about his nefarious goal. But I could never hope to stop him on my own. I feigned loyalty to you, Tipral, as I searched for someone who could defeat you with me! But, now that Count Bleck's here, I can have your help as well, Tipral!"

"You're kidding me…" Tipral grumbled.

Dimentio turned away from the two. "Yes, you see… That is why… I rescued a certain pink friend from brainwashing and a blue hedgehog. It's also why I let you through the Sand Castle, AND sent you to The Underwhere to fix the broken Pure Heart. And why I sent Tipral to get him and Chopper to work together in order to stop The Void… Now do you see?"

"I don't plan on stopping The Void. I want to USE it!"

"So you've…been helping us all this time?" Tippi gawked. "But…why?"

Dimentio faced the group with his happy look. "Ahhh, you've got me pegged. Now, how about you two return the favor? I'll give you the power you need to crush Count Bleck… Just fight by my side!"

"Look, Dimentio, I'm not buying it," Chopper shook his head. "This sounds like some sort of evil scheme. If that's what it is, then count me OUT!"

"So you refuse? But with the Chaos Heart in our hands, we can rule every world! After all I've done for you… Won't you repay me?"

"Forget it!"

"So you spit upon my offer? You have wasted my time. For that, your game ends." Dimentio's eyes shifted to Tipral. "I think I'll start with my good friend Tipral. Even after I sent him to The Underwhere… He still doesn't seem to give up. I have no need for him now."

"All right, then," Tipral cracked his knuckles as he gave Dimentio a cold look. "This is what I've been waiting to do! Chopper, you might as well leave and let me take care of this."

"Wait, but I need you to help me get to the Inner Sanctum!" Chopper frowned.

"Well, then go find it yourself. We're not on the same side, remember? And besides… I believe that you simply need to go through that door if you plan on going to the Inner Sanctum."

"But… I can't just leave you here! Sure, you're heartless, but it doesn't make me feel so good…"

"Look, I KNOW the others sacrificed themselves to save you. I guess I can do the same thing as well, if you're planning on trying to stop the Chaos Heart. Consider this…something nice from me. Everyone leave! That includes Tippi and the Pixls!"

Chopper didn't know what to say.

"I said GO!"

"…OK."

"Good. Don't waste your time helping me fight him. I want to settle this on my own!"

Chopper frowned as he slowly began to walk out of the room. Instead of leaving the room by going into the door to the left, he simply moved on ahead.

"Ah ha ha ha. How tender. I just squeezed out a tear." Dimentio said emotionlessly. "Yes… The little boy Chopper can run along. And if he somehow manages to defeat Count Bleck on his own…all the better! And so I strike, like an unseen dodge ball in an echoing gymnasium!"

"Finally! Now I can have my chance of getting revenge!" Tipral jumped towards Dimentio and attempted to punch him with a Star Punch, but the jester simply flipped into the third dimension.

"What the…"

"Ah ha ha ha! Oh, silly little Tipral! Even for someone as powerful as yourself, you don't have the ability to flip into the third dimension!" Dimentio cackled as he fired a spell down at Tipral.

"You little…! Come out here and show yourself!" Tipral growled, dodging the rest of Dimentio's spells. When the jester showed himself in 2-D, he immediately struck him with a Star Spear.

"If that's not enough, then this should be!" Tipral jumped towards Dimentio and kicked him across the face with a Star Kick. However, Dimentio managed to throw Tipral off of him and into the wall before getting attacked again.

"Now now, there's no need to use brute force on me!" Dimentio cackled, firing another magical spell down at Tipral. "Most people don't win when you use such a nasty tactic like that."

"I'm not using brute force. I'm just trying to kill you." Tipral snapped his finger and Dimentio was struck by Star Magic, forcing the jester to teleport behind Tipral.

"Hmmmmmm… Perhaps I need to try something else!" before Tipral could strike him, he snapped his finger and disappeared. When he reappeared again, there were three Dimentios in the room.

"Are these more illusions? !" Tipral exclaimed.

"Why of course they are! I guess I'm forced to bring some of my clones here… But they'll DEFINITELY help!" the Dimentios fired three magic spells down at Tipral, but he simply teleported across the room to avoid them.

"Sure, I may not have my Dark Star Scepter with me, but I still have the ability to teleport! …Just not at long distances!" Tipral hurled a shadow ball straight at the real Dimentio, causing him to teleport across the room.

"Ugh… So you're stronger than I thought you were… But that's not going to stop me with my diabolical plan!"

"Well, I'll be the one to stop your stupid little plan! …But NOT as a hero!" Tipral grabbed Dimentio's foot and threw him across the room.

"Ah, so this is how you want to play," the jester teleported before he could collide with the wall. He simply struck Tipral with another one of his magic attacks, knocking him back a little bit.

"You do realize that you're not invincible without the Chaos Heart, so this should be easy pickings!"

"Think again, clown," Tipral snapped his finger and struck Dimentio with his Star Magic attack. "NO ONE gets away from THAT attack!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Oh, you are indeed correct!" Dimentio raised his hands up and summoned a box. Luckily, for Tipral, he managed to avoid it.

"Oh, you're not going to use that on me this time!" Tipral teleported above Dimentio and stomped on him, followed by a Star slamming kick attack that sent Dimentio flying to the ground.

"So, are you ready to give up just yet?" Tipral asked while landing on the ground. Although Dimentio moaned, he simply kicked his face to send him crashing into the wall.

"I thought so… Still refusing to give up as always!"

"Urk… Well… Let's see how you like this!" Dimentio was able to trap Tipral in another one of his boxes. "Ah ha ha ha! Now this is where the fun begins!"

With a snap of his finger, an explosion occurred inside of the box. Although, the explosion wasn't intense like before. It just…hurt Tipral instead of killing him like it did before.

"What the… That…didn't kill me?" Tipral gawked while holding his arm in pain. He managed to get some flames off his shoulders before striking Dimentio with a shadow ball while he cackled.

"Hey, clown! Maybe next time you shouldn't cackle when I'm attacking you!"

"Ugh… I'm starting to get a little sick of you!" Dimentio growled as he raised a finger and fired another magic spell at Tipral. _"Remember… I can't kill him, or else my plan will be ruined!"_

Tipral swung his arm and destroyed the magic spell with a Star Spear. It also went straight at Dimentio as well, forcing him to teleport somewhere else in the room.

He attempted to attack Dimentio again, but he flipped straight into 3-D. Now that he couldn't be seen, he used this to his advantage by throwing a spell at Tipral from behind, causing him to cringe in pain.

"Urgh… Where is that psychotic clown? !" he growled.

"Ah ah ah! No need to get in a little fuss, my dark friend!" Dimentio scolded. "Things will be just fine here… All you need to do is hold still and be a good little Ultimate Life Form that you should be!"

At this moment, Tipral knew Dimentio was getting angry, but he was angry himself. He snapped his finger again and struck Dimentio with another Star Magic attack that teleported him in front of him.

"Now I've got the upper hand!" Tipral began to punch Dimentio multiple times with Star Punches, leaving a lot of bruises on his face…although, he was only just leaving Dimentio's masked bruised.

"Such violence you have in you! It's like the violence of an angry child who had his candy taken by a fat kid!"

"I had enough of your similes, thank you very much," Tipral grabbed Dimentio's foot and threw him up towards the ceiling while throwing a couple of shadow balls at him to deal some massive damage.

"Ugh… I don't understand why you're wasting your time on me while you want to get the Chaos Heart." Dimentio wheezed wiping some dirt off of his poncho.

"You're the only one that's in the way of me getting the Chaos Heart," the dark being dodged Dimentio's spell and struck him with a Star Spear. "If I don't get rid of you, there' a big chance YOU'LL take the Chaos Heart yourself!"

"Yes… That is true…" Dimentio smirked as he summoned another box to enclose Tipral in. However, he was too fast. Tipral used the boxes the jester made as platforms and jumped on top of him.

"My my, you are quite aggressive…" Dimentio trailed as he pushed Tipral to the ground with a simple tap. "I do feel that I'm going to need to heal myself quite soon."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Tipral asked, folding his arms.

"Oh, it's simple!" Dimentio raised a finger, which began to sparkle and soon healed Dimentio of 20 HP.

"What the… Since when could you do that? !"

"Well, I am the master of dimensions… A master magician such as myself definitely has the ability to heal themselves! …And they can also do this!"

Dimentio summoned a top hat and suddenly pulled Tipral out of it. "Ah ha ha ha!" he looked at him coldly while holding him by his feet. "Look at you. You honestly believe that you'll be getting a hold of the Chaos Heart! Your chance of getting it is slim, like a piece of cheese getting cut into small bits by a rhinoceros."

"…What the HELL did you just say? !" Tipral punched the jester in the face with a Star Punch, but at the cost of falling to the ground on his head. Nevertheless, he got up and drank a Super Shroom Shake to recover 20 HP.

"What's wrong, my leader…or should I say, Tipral? You can't handle me without healing yourself?" Dimentio taunted. "Perhaps you're being a bit…chicken."

Tipral's rage got even bigger as Dimentio began to make chicken sounds. He tackled the jester to the ground and began to violently punch him across the face a couple of times, finishing it off by shooting a Star Spear at him.

"Don't you EVER call me a chicken!" he yelled.

"Oh, such fury! Never in my life have I met someone who was as angry as you!" Dimentio smirked as he snapped his finger, disappearing and reappearing with two other Dimentios.

"Oh, great… Not THIS move again.

"Ah ha ha ha! Guess who's the real one?" the Dimentios cackled as they each fired three magic projectiles towards Tipral. He managed to teleport to avoid them, but he managed to catch the real one after stomping on the one to his right.

"Enough of this already, Dimentio. I KNOW that you're going to be using the same attacks. Come up with something different!" Tipral jumped towards Dimentio, but was struck by one of his spells.

"Ah, so you want me to mix it up a bit! That, I can do!" Dimentio summoned a box that surrounded Tipral and snapped his finger to set off a violent explosion that almost knocked him out.

"Once I'm done with you, I'll be able to go follow that little boy through the Inner Sanctum so I can watch him defeat Count Bleck! The Chaos Heart will soon be mine when he's done that!"

"I'm not going to let you do that," Tipral growled, kicking Dimentio and sending him flying towards the wall.

"Well, you seem to be getting more violent," the jester brushed all of the dirt off of his poncho. It was starting to look a little ripped. However, Tipral was also a bit battered up from the battle as well.

"Go ahead, clown. Make your move."

"Then I shall!" Dimentio raised his finger, which began to sparkle, but was soon struck after Tipral snapped his finger.

"Hmmmm… So I see you are very weary of what I'm going to do…" the jester's eyes shifted around the room. "However, I can just heal myself and let you waste all of your healing potions! Then I will be victorious!"

"That's where you're wrong."

"And what do you plan on doing?"

"Oh, I'll show you what I can do!" Tipral's eyes began to glow a red color. With one flash, everything was frozen in time. No one but Tipral could freely move around in the room.

"Good, now this is where I put an end to this battle!" Tipral began to bash Dimentio a couple of times with kicks and punches, then he snapped his finger to strike him with Star Magic before having his eyes flash again to make time go back to normal.

"Urk… What did you just do? !" Dimentio wheezed.

"Something you can't do!" Tipral clenched is fists as he was surrounded by purple energy. "Star Blast!"

With one intense pulse attack, the whole room was struck by an intense Star Blast attack that nearly damaged the room. It also left the jester to beg for mercy.

"_**NOOOOO!**_" with one cry, the jester teleported to the center of the room, stumbling around and crying.

"I… I cry uncle! Mercy! UNCLE, I SAY!"

"So, you finally beg for mercy?" Tipral questioned after walking over to the jester. "I don't think you had quite enough. If you don't want to die, I would suggest that you leave the universe. Forever."

"I-I see that now…" Dimentio quickly shook his head and was now paying attention. "Very well. I guess I might as well leave this place. Oh, poor me…"

He smirked for a minute. "However, your power is formidable…which is exactly why I can't let you fall into Count Bleck's velvet-lined gloves…"

Dimentio floated to the ground and summoned another box. But this time, it enclosed both him AND Tipral inside.

"What the… What are you doing? !" Tipral gawked as he tried to punch and kick his way out of the box.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha. I finally have you now! Tipral! We will both taste the agony of game-overing…by magic!"

"WHAAAAT? ! YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

"Ciao!" Dimentio snapped his finger and the box began to explode. Tipral's screams could be heard inside the box, while Dimentio's cackling could also be heard from inside.

* * *

**Next room-**

"Uwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Chopper began to stumble around on the ground as the violet tremors could be felt from the other room.

"What's going on in there? !" Tippi gawked.

"I… I don't know!" as soon as the shaking stopped, Chopper began to breath heavily. Wondering what was going on through that door, he walked over and attempted to open it.

No luck.

"Oh, no… The door's not opening!" Chopper turned around and looked down at the ground with a sad look. "I don't believe it… It's just me now…"

"Chopper… Are you all right?" Tippi asked, fluttering over to the small hero.

"No, Tippi… I'm not all right. I've just lost all of my friends so far. Kirby… Sonic… Blade… Heck, even Tipral's gone now…"

"Did you…care about him?"

Chopper looked up at her. "He's an insensitive, evil person, but I have pity for him. I don't know what caused him to be such a heartless being, but I wish there was a way to stop that."

"I wish there was a way, too…" Tippi trailed.

Chopper wiped a tear off his face and clenched his fist. "However, I can't just sit here and grieve. I don't want to be like all of those other brooding people. We need to keep going."

"But… Chopper…" Tippi sighed. "I guess you're right… We have to keep going…"

"Even if it hurts to leave my friends behind, they'd probably want me to stop this Count Bleck person. That's the only thing I can really do now."

Up ahead, he noticed a Star Block. However, he didn't feel the need to run straight over to it. He walked and performed a soft jump under the Star Block.

"I just hope things turn out for the better in the end…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_A frigid wind blew through the dim and drafty corridors of Castle Tipral. Blade, Kirby, Sonic…and even Tipral were gone. Chopper was the only hero left. It was up to Chopper to stop the dark prophecy. Every world hung in the balance. What thrilling evil awaited our hero? Chopper ran quickly to the inner sanctum, where Tipral had meetings, his antennas blowing through the breeze…_

* * *

**Hoo boy... This was an intense chapter...although going through those other seven worlds was a BIT annoying. I'm pretty sure some of you guys are asking me why I put different places. Well... I felt like it. It was to make things a bit interesting.**

**Next up: Chopper explores the Inner Sanctum of Castle Tipral with Tippi...and hopefully they find Count Bleck and stop him before it's too late.**_  
_


	50. Tippi and Count Bleck

**CHAPTER 8-5**

**-Tippi and Count Bleck-**

Chopper's antennas continued to blow through the windy room of the last are of Castle Tipral. They were now in Castle Tipral: Inner Sanctum. This is the place that Tipral told him that the Chaos Heart is around. This is also where the minion's rooms could possibly be around. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to find any help from any of the minions to get rid of the Pure Heart. All that was left now was just Chopper, Tippi, and the rest of the Pixls. Although, only Chopper would be the one to be doing most of the fighting throughout these rooms.

"So, it's just us left now, isn't it? It reminds me of the time we first met…" Tippi remarked, remembering when she first met Chopper back in Trinado's Castle. It wasn't exactly the greatest meeting they had, but she began to trust the young Star Warrior after rescuing her from the geeky Francis…wherever he may be now.

"Yeah, I remember when we first met each other… That was definitely a big moment…" Chopper trailed.

Tippi began to frown (despite being a butterfly). Chopper seemed to notice her sad look. "Tippi… Is something bothering you?"

"…I'm sorry, Chopper. I promised you that I would help you find your friends… And now…" Tippi sniffled, turning away from Chopper. "All of them are gone forever… You must be pretty mad at me…"

Chopper shook his head. "This isn't your fault, Tippi. You were never the cause of me losing my friends. In fact, you're probably one of the reasons why I'm even in this castle. So, you don't need to cry or anything. …You know, I bet that my friends might still be alive! I just have to believe that!"

Tippi fluttered onto Chopper's finger. "So… You're saying that I'm the sole reason why we've made it this far?" she gave Chopper a sweet smile. "Thanks, Chopper… I guess your right. As for your friends… Maybe you are right and they did somehow survive… They ARE heroes…"

"Uh-huh!" Chopper nodded, but soon remember something. "Although… I'm starting to get a little worried. Even though we've made it this far, I still haven't found Mario or Luigi! I hope those two are safe…"

"Mario and Luigi were involved in this as well?" Tippi perked up. "…Well, I suppose it's true, considering that they were probably one of the reasons why the Chaos Heart was summoned… Hopefully they're doing just fine."

"You just need to believe, Tippi," the young boy told her. "Believing is something you must…well, believe!"

"I guess you're right. I'm going to believe in them… _And… I'm going to believe in HIM…most of all…_"

Starting off in this hallway, he noticed that it was a lot similar to the other hallways he was walking in. Although, this time, he noticed some purple Choppa enemies flying around in the room, and even some Ultra Dark Creatures as well.

"Oh, man… Looks like things are going to get a little dangerous now." Chopper gulped, using Tippi's power to investigate the new Choppa enemy.

"That's a Copta, a curious organism that flies through the air...and dimensions... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. It's hard to track, as it occasionally flips... Just stay after it, and hit it repeatedly when you can..." Tippi informed.

"A Copta…? Weird name." Chopper stomped on the first Copta twice in order to take it out. It really didn't take much, since he was able to strike the other Copta after performing a stylish move.

An Ultra Dark Soldier tried to fire at Chopper afterward, but he managed to inhale the laser shot and spit it back at the Dark Creature, allowing him to stomp on it a couple of times before defeating it.

"It would've been nice if my friends were here. Taking these guys out would be much easier if that was possible." Chopper brought his hammer down on an Ultra Dark Swordsman in his way, then tossed a couple of fireballs at it to defeat it.

"I'm starting to wonder… Was Dimentio really speaking the truth back there?" Tippi questioned to herself as she fluttered behind Chopper.

"I'm not sure, Tippi…" Chopper replied, hearing her. "But, I'm pretty sure that he's no longer around after what happened back in the other room – despite the fact that I don't KNOW what happened."

He came across a yellow Cursya. Since he never got any information on this monster, he used Tippi's power to investigate it.

"It's a Reversya Cursya. It is a spiteful monster that curses everything it touches. Max HP is 1 and Attack is 1. It can make you move entirely in opposites... If you get cursed, it's best to relax. You will learn to adjust until the effect wears off..." Tippi informed.

"Well, I know how to get rid of this thing," a simple fireball was all Chopper needed to destroy the Reversya Cursya in one hit. "See? All better!"

He saw a couple of Siliams floating around by three yellow ? blocks. They were a bit high, but Chopper managed to strike the enemies by jumping and spinning his hammer vertically. It was pretty simple for him!

"Man… I can't WAIT to use this on that Count Bleck guy!" Chopper smirked as he struck the three blocks.

"Yeah… I hope so, too…" Tippi trailed. _"I don't understand… Why is Blumiere doing all of this?"_

Chopper inhaled both Mushrooms, resulting in him recovering 20 HP. He proceeded over to a couple of Coptas, spinning his hammer around to strike each of them in one hit.

"This is actually fun! I like spinning my hammer around!" Chopper smiled as he finished off the last Copta. He proceeded on to a Dark Spiky Skellobit, but it was finished off by his hammer twice.

"I'm honestly wondering why there are Skellobits in this area…" Tippi trailed. "I thought for sure that they would be with Shade…"

"Well, some of them must be different," after Chopper finished off the last Dark Spiky Skellobit, he walked over to the end of the hallway, where he found a door. He checked to make sure there weren't any traps.

"Hmmmmm… Well, I guess it's safe to move on." he opened the door and walked into a smaller room. He only ran for about a second before bumping into a wall.

"Hey, where's the door?" Chopper flipped into 3-D, but he couldn't even find the door around him either!

A Yellow Magiblot appeared in front of him and fired its spell, but he inhaled it and spat it back out at it, destroying it instantly. "I'm hoping that there's a way to get out of this room…"

"Have you tried my powers yet?" Tippi asked.

"Oh… Then I better do that!" Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate the room. Luckily, there was a hidden door in the room. "Yup! This definitely reminds me of Lineland Road!"

"There's a hidden door here… Let me make it visible for you…"

With a small, white flash, the door was now visible for Chopper, but he had to kick a Yellow Magiblot in the face first before moving on to the next room.

Walking into the next room, Chopper was a bit surprised. The Inner Sanctum actually had some PLATFORMING? ! Well, all he could see were these bobbing platforms that were moving up and down.

"This should be fairly simple," the Star Warrior smiled as he jumped on the first platform. As soon as the skinnier platform was close to him, he grabbed a hold of the ledge and pulled himself up.

"Well, looks like I found ya!" a Dark Skellobomber cackled as it tossed its head at Chopper, hitting him in the head. "There's no way you're going to get through here with these bottomless pits!"

"Ummmm… OK?" Chopper wiped the bruise on his head and shot a fireball straight at the Dark Skellobomber, sending it on fire. Two more fireballs did the trick, as it began to disintegrate into smoke.

"That was strange…" Tippi trailed as she followed Chopper onto the next platform. He made a jump to a skinnier platform when it came down for him and then jumped on a thicker platform to find a Dark Spiky Skellobomber flying over the gap.

"Crud… I can't even jump on that guy!" Chopper frowned.

"Actually, if you ride on me and stomp on a spiky enemy, you won't get hurt at all!" Carrie mentioned, nudging on Chopper's arm.

"Yeah, but you're probably going to get hurt as well."

"No I won't! I was made to be immune to spikes! It's really simple! Let me show you!" Carrie scooped Chopper from the floor and jumped straight on top of the Dark Spiky Skellomber, sending it to its doom.

"See? I can take down these spiky guys while in the air!" Carrie let Chopper get off of her as she landed on the next platform.

"Well… I suppose that's a bit helpful! Thank you." Chopper thanked as he jumped onto the next platform, but he noticed he was being blocked by a tall, bobbling platform that refused to move.

"Oh, come on! They're seriously blocking me or something? !"

"You can always flip and see what's around it…" Tippi reminded.

"Oh, yes. I can do that." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a platform next to him to his left. Upon jumping on that, he jumped onto another platform that was past the tall platform. With that, he went back into 2-D.

He crossed over two skinny platforms and landed on another thick platform with a tall platform blocking his way. But, getting past it was simple. He flipped into 3-D and simply went past it by jumping!

"Well this is pretty easy!" Chopper jumped onto another platform that came down for him and waited patiently for it to go up to a ledge where a door was. With that, he entered the door.

"Another room with platforms? Weird… But, at least the Inner Sanctum has a bit more originality than the other places. I'll give it that." Chopper saw that these platforms were shorter in height, but wide in width.

"Make sure you jump at the right time so you don't fall off…" Tippi informed.

"Right! I just need to… Wait, I already know that!" Chopper jumped on the descending platform in front of him and then jumped across a platform that was moving up like an elevator.

After jumping off the fourth platform, he landed on a ledge. But before he could move on, Tippi nudged him.

"I remember something…" Tippi trailed. "I believe there might be something around here in 3-D…"

"Really? Well, I'll check for myself." Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a small set of stairs to his left. A pipe was settling there as well, so Chopper took the pipe down.

* * *

**Through the pipe-**

"Huh… This is interesting…" Chopper walked out of the pipe and noticed he was in a small little hallway. He didn't find anything in 3-D except for a blocked little path that was tiny. There were three red ! blocks floating above the floor too.

"Oh, boy… Now we're getting to something annoying."

"Well, then see what's around in 3-D…" suggested Tippi. Chopper did so and noticed numbers on the other side of the blocks. So, he simply punched them in the following order: left, right, center.

By doing this, it created a door right in front of Chopper, causing him to jump up in surprise.

"Odd… I don't think I've seen this door before…"

"Well, time to see what's through here!" Chopper kicked the door open into a room with a caged net. There was a large bottomless pit over by the ledge, but the caged net appeared to go over it. However, instead of Koopa Troopas, there were Koopatrols climbing on it.

"Now this certainly reminds me of something…" Thoreau trailed.

"Yeah, it was back in that castle," Chopper hurled a fireball at a charging Koopatrol and finished it off with his hammer. He then grabbed the caged net and began to climb on it.

"Be careful, Chopper… You may have been able to knock Koopa Troopas off with your feet, but you can't do that with a Koopatrol…" Tippi warned. "Because of the spike, you'll take damage instead…"

"Yeah, I was thinking about that," Chopper punched the caged net as soon as a Koopatrol got in his way from behind, sending it flying off of the net. He then proceeded over the bottomless pit.

"Gotta be careful not to fall off…" he trailed as he knocked a Koopatrol off the other side with a punch. Before he knew it, he was over the bottomless pit and over by a chest with Magiblots of every color guarding it.

"Well, I guess we need to get rid of those first…" Tippi gawked as she looked at the three enemies.

"I'm taking out the Red Magiblot first," Chopper jumped off the caged net and stomped on the Red Magiblot twice, then stomped on the Yellow Magiblot three times while performing stylish moves.

Last but not least, he finished off the Blue Magiblot with one swing of his hammer and two fireballs, killing it off and allowing him to get the Castle Tipral Key from the chest.

"Well it's about time! I guess I'll need this for a door in that other room. Let's go!"

* * *

**Room with platforms-**

"Time for some more jumping!" Chopper clenched his fists and made a big jump over to the platform that was moving down, then jumped on a platform that was moving up afterwards.

"I'm not sure where these bottomless pits lead to…" Tippi trailed, looking down below. "Surely they lead you to The Underwhere… But I'm not going to count on that so far…"

"Yeah, it's best not to," Chopper jumped on Carrie and stomped on the Dark Spiky Skellobomber flying over the gap between the moving platforms. He jumped on top of it and landed on the last platform.

Because of that, he was able to get to the locked door as soon as the platform made it up to the ledge. With the key in his hand, he unlocked the door and headed through into the next room.

Walking through the next room, he noticed he was in another similar hallway, like the other hallway where he first started in the Inner Sanctum. But, what enemies he saw were nothing like before.

There were white Muths walking around the hallway. And there was definitely more than three of these Muths, that's for sure.

"What the heck? Those elephant guys remind me of those enemies we saw in Pristine Palisade!" Chopper pondered. "I'm going to find out what these guys are…"

He used Tippi's powers on the Muth and gathered some information on the large beast.

"That enormous white beast is a legendary Mega Muth... They are extremely rare creatures… Max HP is 200 and Attack is 8. They can trample nearly anything... It has a huge amount of HP, so it will be very hard to take down... They are gods among Muths..." Tippi informed.

"200 HP? ! Are you serious? !" Chopper took a couple of steps and noticed that a Mega Muth was charging towards him. He simply stopped it by hurling a fireball at the massive beast.

"The best way to defeat it is if you use Cudge or stomp on in a couple of times…"

"Well that sucks! I don't want to have to do all of that! …But I'm sure that these guys are worth a lot of experience points… So, I will try to take these guys down as much as I can without dying!"

He began to bash the Mega Muth as many times as he can before it charged at him. It took him about eighteen more hits to actually destroy this thing, but it ended up dropping a Bone-In Cut.

"Hmmmm? It just dropped some meat?" instead of grabbing it, Chopper inhaled the Bone-In Cut instead, doubling his Attack power. "Well, at least I can deal some heavy damage to these guys now."

Chopper went after the next Mega Muth, striking that monster many, many times with his hammer until it dropped dead and gave him more points.

"For some reason, I feel like this is going to take a LONG time to finish…" Tippi sighed, watching Chopper go after the rest of the Mega Muths.

* * *

**A couple of minutes later-**

"Whew! FINALLY!" Chopper sighed in relief, wiping the sweat off of his forehead as he walked over to the door. "I took some damage from those beasts, but I think I managed to take them all down – even the ones in 3-D."

"I'm glad you finally did that… Now let's move on…" suggested Tippi as Chopper walked through the door, only to be surprised at the room he was now in.

"What in the… This is a weird hallway." Chopper frowned, noticing the Koopatrols walking around here and all of the doorways. However, not all of them could be walked through.

After taking care of the enemies in this room, he flipped into 3-D to find an open doorway. In the middle of the room, to the right, he saw an open one to walk through, then walked through a couple of rooms until he was in a hallway with Goombas and Koopa Troopas.

"…Did I go the right way?" Chopper asked as he stomped on a Koopa Troopa and kicked it towards the Goombas and other Koopa Troopas, knocking them out of the room easily.

At the end of the room, he found a chest that contained a Shooting Star, then he went back through the open doorway, but ended up running into a green Cursya, slowing him down.

"Ugh… I hate that!" Chopper grumbled, but used Tippi's powers to investigate the enemy anyways.

"That's... a Cursya! This spiteful, evil monster curses everything it touches... Max HP is 1 and Attack is 1. This Cursya's curse slows you down temporarily... You should throw something at it or use an item... Jumping on it would be a bad idea..."

"Well, I'm getting rid of it," while he was still slow, he was still able to strike the Cursya with his hammer, disintegrating it into smoke and letting it drop a Poison Shroom, which he grabbed, but soon threw away since he knew it would hurt him.

"And now there are even some Coptas in this room…" he groaned as he managed to stomp on the first Copta, performing a stylish move and then took out the other Copta with two jumps.

"The door's just up ahead…" Tippi informed, fluttering over to the door ahead while Chopper defeated the rest of the enemies in the room.

"Well it's about time!" Chopper kicked the door open, but he was once again in another familiar room. "Are you kidding me? There's more than one of these rooms? !"

"Then we better continue to search this room…"

"Yeah, better do that," the effect from the Cursya wore off and allowed him to flip into 3-D and walk over to the upper left doorway into a hallway with a Red I. Using Flippay, he easily defeated the enemy.

"There's nothing in this room…" Tippi noticed as she fluttered to the end of the room. "We're at a dead end…"

"Bleh. Then we're going back into that other hallway." Chopper returned to the other hallway by flipping and took the lower right doorway into a hallway with some pink fuzzy enemies.

"Meork!" they shouted as they charged towards Chopper, who used Tippi's powers to investigate the enemy.

"This bouncing ball of fur is called a Pink Fuzzy. It lives to endlessly bounce around... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 3. I wonder if it thinks about the color pink all day... You better keep your distance and use ranged attacks to defeat it..." Tippi informed.

Chopper spun his hammer around to take care of the Pink Fuzzies, then he turned to his right and raced over to the chest to get a Super Shroom Shake.

"That was pretty easy, albeit a bit short. Anyways, back to searching for the door." he returned to the previous room and went into 2-D to find an Ice Cherbil, a Poison Cherbil, and a normal Cherbil.

"Ack! Not these butt things!" Chopper tossed three fireballs, which was strong enough to take out the three Cherbils. Afterwards, he went into 3-D and walked over to the top doorway to his left into a room with a Hogarithm and a Tech Cursya, which he destroyed with his hammer.

"Huh… So all of the enemies I've previously seen in this castle before are here. I don't think Tipral even told me about this maze either." Chopper stomped on the Hogarithm three times and then proceeded through a doorway with an Iron Pokey and an Ultra Dark Soldier.

"See? What'd I tell you? These guys are here!" Chopper fired a couple of fireballs at the Iron Pokey and finished it off by bashing it with his hammer. He walked over to the Ultra Dark Soldier and took it out with his hammer.

"Man, I'm seriously kicking butt!" Chopper flipped and walked through the open doorway to find a couple of Hooligons around the room. To the right, there was a door.

"Hopefully that door will lead us to that count…" Tippi trailed.

"But first, we need to handle these guys first," Chopper stomped on the Hooligons and then proceeded over to the door. But, once he entered the next room, he was disappointed…again.

"You're kidding me… We have ANOTHER hallway like this?!" Chopper smacked his forehead. "Man… This is probably the most annoying puzzle I've ever had to go through in my whole life…"

"Well, we shouldn't be too far now…" Tippi trailed. "I'm sure we'll be there soon…"

"We better be," Chopper flipped into 3-D and walked over to an open doorway closest to him to his right. Unfortunately, he had to flip back into 2-D because his Flip Gauge was running low.

"Why couldn't I get an infinite time limit on this flipping?" Chopper asked while kicking the ground. "I swear that Bestovius sort of ripped me off…"

A Red Magiblot appeared in front of Chopper and struck him with a spell. But, luckily, he was able to strike the ghostly creature with his hammer to defeat it. He only needed to take it out in one hit anyways!

"Well, I guess I could go back into the other room," Chopper flipped once again and walked out of the room and back into the other hallway. Luckily, he ended up going past a Gawbus.

"Well, that was lucky," Chopper whacked at the Gawbus's tail with his hammer twice to take it out. "I better NOT find any more Mega Muths, or else I'm going to be a bit peeved…"

He brought his hammer down on a Pink Fuzzy ahead and flipped into 3-D to find another open doorway to his right. He took that into another hallway, where he went up and took the open pathway to his right.

"Whoop! There's two Spanias here!" Chopper simply took those two enemies out with his hammer and then proceeded over to the open doorway to his right and flipped back into 2-D to find one of those rock worm enemies.

"Crud… These guys? Ugh… Better use Tippi." Chopper used Tippi's powers to investigate the creature.

"That peculiar creature is a Shlorp. It has a very tough skin and will eat anything... Max HP is ?, Attack is 4, and Defense is ?. No attack will work... It is weaker on the inside than the outside, but it will still take some effort..." Tippi informed.

Chopper shrugged and tossed Hommissile at the creatures and then proceeded into an open doorway down to the left into a room with a chest…and THAT contained a nice Ultra Shroom.

"We can still go down this hallway…" Tippi trailed, fluttering over to the left. Chopper followed her in 3-D and walked over to an open doorway to the right. There was a Spania in the small room, but he didn't care and smashed it.

"Man… There's just a lot through here!" Chopper groaned, walking out of the open doorway to the right into another long hallway. There were a couple of Dark Skellobits around here.

"Hmmmmm… Well, I might as well see what's through this hallway." he stomped on the first Dark Skellobit in front of him three times, but he also seemed to notice some other doors. They looked like rooms for the minions.

"Uhhhh… Tippi? What are these weird doors here?"

"From the looks of it, it looks like these are rooms for people like O'Chunks and Mimi…" Tippi noticed a door up ahead in the end of the hallway. "Chopper! I think we're at the end!"

"Really? Finally!" Chopper ran past the other doors and defeated all of the Dark Skellobits in his path. He was finally led up to a door.

"Here we go!" kicking the door open, he noticed a staircase leading up to a door. There was a yellow ? block near the door as well.

"Whew… I can't believe we've made it this far…" Chopper walked up the stairs and punched the yellow ? block. He ate the Ultra Shroom inside of it and walked over to the door.

"All right! I think it's time we kicked this Bleck guy's butt!" he began to crack his knuckles.

Chopper could hear Tippi mutter something to herself. "Tippi… Did you just say something?"

"Well, I… I was just wondering if you really have to kill this Count Bleck person, that's all…"

"Kill him? Well… Let me think." Chopper pondered for about a second. "I remember Merlon said that you need to end the person who has a hold of the Chaos Heart's game. Why do you ask this?"

"Well, it's because of…"

"Wait a minute… Do you actually KNOW this Count Bleck guy?" Chopper's antennas sprung up in surprise.

"Well… Yes…" Tippi turned away from him. "Count Bleck is actually a man named Blumiere… A man that I love and always would… We lived peacefully all of this time, but then Tipral came and attacked us, separating us…"

"So he's turned evil again because of losing you once again?"

"Yes… He once turned evil before when he thought I died because of his father. Merlon founded me and turned me into a Pixl… That's why I came back to him when I was weak from Tipral… He was the only one who could save me. So, at first, when I met you… I couldn't necessarily trust you because of how much you reminded me of Tipral…"

"Ah… So that's why." Chopper frowned. "But, it always seems as if when you look at Tipral, you almost see something in him."

"Kind of… I don't necessarily remember everything in my past, but all I know is about Blumiere's father and what he did to me… So, please Chopper… Just understand that I don't exactly want to hurt him."

Chopper slowly nodded. "All right… I'd rather not kill this person, but if he tries to hurt me, then I'm going to have to fight back."

He turned to the door and slowly opened it.

* * *

**Next room-**

When Chopper entered the room, he noticed that this room was quite large. It was possibly the largest room he's ever been in so far in this adventure. There were also some colors on the wall besides black and white. Some blue and yellow could be seen on the wall (although it's not bright or anything).

"Wow… So this is the Inner Sanctum, am I right?" Chopper questioned.

"I feel… I feel something very, very powerful…" Tippi trailed. "…Is it the Chaos Heart?"

"Bleh heh heh heh heh…"

"What was that horrible laugh?" Chopper asked.

"I see you have come at last!" Count Bleck was standing on his platform on the far upper right. Nastasia was standing on a platform next to him.

"So YOU'RE Count Bleck!"

"I am indeed Count Bleck!" the count bowed to Chopper. "So you're the new so-called 'hero' of the Light Prognosticus! Count Bleck is sickened for what you've done to my poor, poor Timpani!"

"And why are you doing this?! …And what do you mean by what I've done to Timpani?! She's just fine!" Chopper showed Tippi to Count Bleck.

"What is this?! …Spat Count Bleck. You've tortured her and turned her into a Pixl?! BLECK! Now soon, all worlds will soon end because of your actions, and you cannot stop it either! I suggest you make yourself comfortable and enjoy this one, final spectacle before you meet your end!"

"But… I'm just fine… I don't understand why you're doing this…" Tippi trailed.

"I didn't possess her with anything either!" Chopper retorted, shaking his head. "Is this what you become after losing someone you love?!"

Count Bleck opened a part of his cape. "Thanks to you, Count Bleck does not care about any world! They have all become meaningless to me. Better that the worlds go and stay out of existence forever!"

"But is there any point to destroying all worlds when you can't destroy the one you believe is responsible?!" Tippi exclaimed. "Answer me now, Blumiere!"

Count Bleck's eyes widened and closed his cape. "Sigh… Timpani… There's nothing I can do to stop this… You must understand. The hour has already grown too late for you and me…"

"Blumiere… My love, Blumiere… Or rather, Count Bleck… I can't believe this has happened to us… All I was doing was helping Chopper collect the Pure Hearts. I guess the only thing we can do to stop all this is to defeat you… And that is exactly why Chopper and I have come here… To stop this."

Count Bleck began to cackle. "BLEH HEH HEH HEH! BLECK! Very well! But I will also do what I must! Count Bleck is the deleter of worlds! MY fate is written on the Dark Prognosticus! NOT the Ultimate Life Form's! Do not think for a moment that I will hesitate to strike you down. _**ALL NOW ENDS!**_"

"Blumiere… My Blumiere…" Tippi moaned.

"I don't wish to fight you," Chopper stated, getting in a fighting stance. "But if I have to fight you, then I guess I have no other choice. If you're asking for it, then I suppose I shall..."

"Leave me, Nastasia," Count Bleck ordered, turning to the secretary. "I will deal with this little green boy ALONE."

Nastasia gasped. "B-But…"

"Count Bleck demands it! I will not say it again…"

The secretary let out a sigh and hung her head low. "…Yeah, right away, Count." At that moment, she disappeared in the same way Mimi did.

"Are you prepared, Chopper? Our duel will be worthy of the last clash the world will ever see!"

"All right, let's do this!" Chopper made a leap onto a platform near him and followed Count Bleck to a platform he hovered over to, but when he stomped on him, he noticed that a barrier was protecting him.

"Huh? What the…"

"Bleh heh heh heh! So my barrier is indeed helping me!" Count Bleck grinned, firing a dark glob of energy from his scepter at Chopper. It began to suck the little boy in like a void.

"Ack! What the…!" Chopper was thrown out of the small void and suffered some fatal damage. "What was that supposed to be? !"

"I don't know… But it must be one of Count Bleck's attacks…" Tippi trailed. "Listen, Chopper… Don't just let yourself get thrown around. I understand you don't want to hurt him… But like you said before: you'll only fight if you have to do it."

"Yeah, I know," Chopper followed Count Bleck to another platform, this time he tried to strike him with a fireball. But even THAT didn't help him at all! The count simply cackled and knocked him off the platform by speeding down to a platform near the ground.

"I don't understand! I can't hit this guy? !" Chopper attempted to strike Count Bleck with his hammer, but his attack bounce off and knocked Chopper to the ground.

"How laughable!" Count Bleck cackled. "Is that all the heroism you can muster, little boy? Let me show you true power!"

"Our attacks…aren't doing anything!" Tippi gasped.

"Well, of course they aren't! They just…" Chopper eyes widened in fear as Count Bleck summoned an enormous dark void that began to suck him in. "Holy guacamole! That's… That's HUGE!"

Chopper attempted to escape from the big dark void of death, but he wasn't fast enough to escape it. As soon as he was in the center, Count Bleck raised his scepter and struck him with a huge, dark blow that nearly left the young Star Warrior battered and bruised. It was probably the strongest thing he's ever gotten hit by so far.

"Ugh… That… That was horrible!" he wheezed.

"Chopper! Are you all right? !" Tippi asked worryingly.

"Urgh… I'm…URK…fine. …No, I'm kidding. I'm NOT fine!" Chopper slowly jumped up the platforms and attacked Count Bleck with a kick, but he simply bounced off like before.

"Bleh heh heh! You cannot match the power of Count Bleck's!" Count Bleck cackled as he sent Chopper flying to the wall with one dark flash, leaving him severely injured.

Seeing as he couldn't fight back, Count Bleck teleported high above him, shaking his head in shame at Chopper.

"You can't so much as tug on the cape of Count Bleck! You have failed!"

"Ugh…" Chopper groaned as he slowly got himself up and got in his fighting stance. "I can't believe that my attacks aren't working against this guy! What is there that I can even do? !"

"I'm… I'm not sure…" Tippi trailed.

"Bleck! I expected more potency from the hero of prophecy!" the count raised his gloved hands up as dark energy began to envelope in his scepter. "I will watch your game end, and then your precious worlds will end soon after!"

A large, dark void appeared around Count Bleck, as if it was going to be fired straight at them. All Tippi could do was gaze at Count Bleck in horror.

"Is this…the end? Was this how it was supposed to end for us, Blumiere? !" Tippi cried.

"I can't believe it…" Chopper looked up. "Listen… Grambi! If it is possible… Please… Somebody…help me…"

"What are you doing?" Tippi asked.

"I'm trying to pray for help," Chopper kept his hands together and closed his eyes. "Please… I need the help to defeat this evil count! Anyone! I need your help!"

Count Bleck paused his attack for a minute as he looked down at what Chopper was doing. "Bleh? What is he doing?"

Tippi gawked as soon as Chopper began to glow a white color. When Chopper's eyes opened, he noticed a flash coming from Count Bleck. "Huh…? What's going on right now?"

The eight Pure Hearts suddenly appeared over Chopper as they began to surround Count Bleck.

"The Pure Hearts…" Tippi gasped.

"And I'm suddenly feeling better now!" Chopper gasped.

After a couple of flashes, the barrier surrounding Count Bleck shattered and left him weakened.

"Bleh heh heh heh…huh?! My barrier…is gone?!"

"I don't understand what happened…" Tippi began. "But I think your pray has reached the ears of someone… Perhaps it was the Pure Hearts who listened to your plea for help…"

"But… I don't understand how…" Chopper looked up at the white Pure Heart before they all disappeared.

Count Bleck finally brought his hat down. "So be it…says Count Bleck! But don't you celebrate just yet, Chopper! Your precious worlds aren't safe until my last breath!"

"Well, now that I'm all better, I think you'll be getting your butt kicked!" Chopper smirked, getting in a fighting stance.

The count opened his cape and cackled. "Let us finally end this! Now the true battle begins…with Count Bleck!" with his teleportation, he teleported down to a lower platform.

"Now this is where things get interesting!" Chopper rushed towards Count Bleck and struck him by spinning his hammer around. This managed to hit the count and make him teleport over to another platform.

"Just because my barrier is gone does not mean victory will belong to you!" Count Bleck barked as he fired a dark glob of energy straight at Chopper. Meanwhile, he inhaled the attack and spat it back at the count.

"Oh, I don't think so! I still have the guts to fight back!" he used Tippi to investigate the count, and to also find out what his stats were.

"That's Count Bleck... This dark figure wants to destroy the universe. He was once Blumiere, a man that I loved... Max HP is 150, Attack is 8. He will use all the powers the Chaos Heart grants him. But you can beat him if you give it your all... And beat him you must... For the sake of all worlds... And to save the Blumiere I loved..." Tippi informed with a sigh.

"I want to do that, Tipps, I really do… If that's really your name." Chopper tossed a fireball straight at Count Bleck, leaving a nasty burn on him.

"Bleh! Why do you try to burn the cape…of Count Bleck?!" spat Count Bleck as he teleported behind Chopper and whacked him with his scepter, knocking him off of the platform. He then fired a glob of energy from his scepter at Chopper, successfully striking him and weakening him even more.

"Bleh heh heh heh! You are foolish if you think you can still defeat me!" the count cackled, allowing Chopper to jump onto the platform Count Bleck was on and strike him with a flaming slamming kick.

"Ooh… That seems a bit painful…" Tippi cringed as the count's cape was burnt a bit, angering him as he teleported above him and sped past him, knocking him onto another platform.

"So, I guess this is my fight…" Chopper coughed, wiping his face of any drool left from his mouth from getting hurt. "Hopefully I don't lose my life like the others…or maybe it might be for the better."

"Chopper, please don't think about those… Just focus on defending yourself…"

"Yeah, I need to do that…" Chopper managed to jump on top of Count Bleck, and he seemed to notice that Count Bleck's scepter was what was allowing him to use those dark attacks.

"Hey, I think I might have an idea! Hey, Bleck guy!" the count turned back to Chopper and raised his scepter.

"Count Bleck will not see it that you live!" Count Bleck spat as he waved his scepter a bit. This allowed Chopper to attempt to inhale his scepter to him. "Wh-What are you doing?! …Shouted Count Bleck."

Chopper couldn't talk, but apparently, the count wasn't letting go of the scepter. He had a pretty good grip on it, and it was causing him to get a bit tired. He really couldn't inhale it anymore.

"I guess Blumiere has too much of a grip on it…like it is bonded with him…" Tippi trailed as Chopper was struck by a dark glob of energy the count fired at him.

"Inhaling my scepter will do you no good!" Count Bleck cackled as he summoned another large dark void to suck Chopper in.

"Oh, no! There's NO way I'm getting sucked into that!" Chopper began to race away from the dark void while swinging his arms around. "This ISN'T what I want you doing, Count Bleck!"

Seeing that Count Bleck failed to get him, he began to ponder. "Count Bleck does not understand… How was it that this boy was able to summon the Pure Hearts without the four heroes?! This wasn't written in the Dark Prognosticus!"

"Well, you know, I think THIS should be written on your FACE!" Chopper managed to punch Count Bleck with flames on his fist, sending him flying towards the wall, but managing to teleport away.

"I still don't understand why Blumiere is doing all of this… I know he promised me that he would never do any of this again…" Tippi trailed.

"Wait, what do you mean? He told you that he'd never do that?"

"Yes… But, perhaps his old ways got into him again… Oh, this is horrible…"

"If that's true, then there MIGHT be something wrong with him. You think he's being controlled by someone?" Chopper pondered as he dodged Count Bleck's dark glob of energy.

"I don't believe that… I don't see any strings on him…"

"Well, have you checked UNDER the hat?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well… I'd rather not do that…" Tippi trailed.

"I don't think I'm actually going to do that," Chopper was struck by the count's dark energy attack, knocking him to the ground again.

"Bleh heh heh heh! Talking won't get you through this, Chopper!" Count Bleck bellowed as he used his magic to make things slow down for Chopper. He could speak normally, but he couldn't move at a normal pace.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?!"

"This makes things easier…for Count Bleck!" Count Bleck tried to fly right past Chopper with blinding speeds, but as soon as he got to him, he was scorched by one of Chopper's fireballs.

"Just because I'm going at this pace doesn't mean that you'll be able to win easily!" Chopper smirked as he jumped on a platform and watched Count Bleck appeared on another platform close to him.

"Oh, but I can do THIS!" Count Bleck unleashed his large dark void attack that began to suck Chopper in. Because he was going at a slow pace, he ended up getting sucked into the void.

"_**AACK!**_"

"Bleh heh heh heh! BLECK!" Count Bleck raised his scepter and brought it down to strike Chopper with his powerful attack (in this story, it can do about 16 damage, since his normal attacks do 8).

"Ack! That was horrible!" Chopper felt a bit battered up, but even still he refused to give up. Now that he was moving at a normal pace, he jumped off one of the platforms and used a flaming slamming kick on Count Bleck to scorch him once again.

"This doesn't exactly seem like a great sight to see…" Tippi cringed as Chopper managed to find Count Bleck again and strike him with his hammer, making him teleport somewhere else in the room.

"Well, he was asking for it, honestly…" Chopper trailed, looking around the room for the count. "I really DON'T want to hurt him, but it feels like I really have no other choice. You understand, right, Tippi?"

"Yes, I do, Chopper…"

"All right, then let me fight this guy," Chopper scanned the area once again for Count Bleck. Apparently he was charging straight towards him, so he got his hammer ready to strike him.

"You're no match for Count…" Count Bleck was struck in the face by Chopper's hammer, forcing him to teleport away from him like before.

"Look, count… I don't know WHY you're doing this, but if you're being brainwashed or something, then snap OUT OF IT!" Chopper rushed straight at Count Bleck again and struck him with a fire smash, scorching him again.

"I just don't want you to use many fire attacks…" Tippi said worryingly.

"Oh, I see… OK, I'll make sure." Chopper tried to search for Count Bleck once again, but he was suddenly struck by another dark glob of energy. "Man! It's hard to find him when this place is so big!"

"Count Bleck will not let you win, little boy!" Count Bleck roared as he swooped down towards him, only to receive a stomp from the little boy, making him teleport elsewhere in the room.

"If I stomp on him, then it won't be as bad…" Chopper trailed as he ran after Count Bleck again, but was knocked back when the count immediately charged at him.

"Hold on… I should try to inhale some of those attacks!" when a dark glob of energy was fired towards Chopper, he inhaled it and spat it back at Count Bleck.

"Oh, I don't think I can bother to look at this fight now…" Tippi cringed, looking away.

"It's all right, Tippi. You don't have to look." Chopper clenched his fists and attempted to punch Count Bleck, but the count simply blocked the attack by bringing his scepter up.

"You will _never_ defeat me," Count Bleck said in a very dark tone.

"There's obviously something wrong with you…" Chopper tried to grab a hold of Count Bleck's hat, but the count tried to swat him away. "You're definitely NOT going to stop me, Bleck!"

Chopper kicked him in the face and then kicked his hat off, revealing his hair (what his hair looks like is up to you, if you want). But, what he noticed on his head was what surprised him.

"He's got a Floro Sprout on his head? !" Chopper gawked.

"Bleh heh heh heh!" Count Bleck grabbed his top hat and put it back on. "Now is where it all ends, Chopper!"

"I don't understand… Why is there a Floro Sprout on his head? …So does this mean he wasn't doing this on his own?" Chopper managed to dodge one of Count Bleck's dark globs of energy.

"I guess the only way to stop him is to defeat him, apparently…" Chopper inhaled the dark glob of energy and spat it back at Count Bleck, making him teleport elsewhere in the room.

"Tippi, I know why he's doing this now…" Chopper trailed as he jumped over to Tippi. "There's a Floro Sprout on his head!"

"A Floro Sprout?! You're saying he's being _brainwashed?!_"

"Yeah, apparently so," Chopper inhaled another dark glob of energy and spat it back at Count Bleck. "I think the only way to get it off is if I defeat him. I think it's the only way…"

"Then I'll stay by your side…" Tippi fluttered next to Chopper as he made a jump towards Count Bleck, who continued to fire dark globs of energy. Chopper, however, dodged it and struck Count Bleck with his hammer.

"He's not far from being defeated… Two more hits should do it…"

"Got it!" Chopper chased after Count Bleck and tossed a fireball straight at him before he could summon his large dark void.

"You're starting to annoy Count Bleck!" spat the count as he managed to catch Chopper into another dark void and deal massive damage to him.

"Bleh heh heh heh! You're almost finished! …Cackled Count Bleck."

"Well, I'm still not giving up just yet!" Chopper managed to jump on top of the count, but he managed to raise his scepter to block his attack and knock him back onto one of the platforms.

Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs at the count, but he even blocked those. "You see? You're no match for me!"

"Well, I still have one last move up my sleeves!" Chopper jumped over to Count Bleck and managed to grab a hold of his scepter and make him bonk himself in the head with it.

"This should do it," with one last jump, Count Bleck started to lose control of the Chaos Heart. He began to float up into the air as the Floro Sprout on him fell off. It seemed as if the dark power was trying to escape from him.

"_**BLEHHHH!**_" Two white flashes came from Count Bleck as the Chaos Heart began to envelope him in darkness.

"What in the world's going on?" Chopper gawked as he walked over to the Chaos Heart that floated to the ground. Count Bleck appeared right next to it. But, this time he looked all battered up with a part of his cape burnt, his monocle cracked and his orange eyes and mouth now a blue color.

"Ex… Excellent…"

"Um… Count?" Nastasia gasped as she appeared right next to Count Bleck.

"What… What have I done?" Count Bleck looked at himself and at the Chaos Heart. "Did… Did I try to use the Chaos Heart's power again?"

"Apparently you did, but you were being brainwashed…" Chopper trailed.

Count Bleck looked over by the dead Floro Sprout. "I don't understand why I've done this… Chopper, you have won the battle, so you must do what you need to do. Finish Count Bleck… Dispatch me and the Chaos Heart will disappear. You can undo the prophecy…"

"Why does it have to end like this…" Tippi sniffled.

"Timpani… When you were gone, I searched long for you through the meadows and dimensions… I never gave up looking… I searched and searched every dimension…" the count shook his head. "But I never found you. Without you, the world held no meaning or joy… But as soon as I was taken back to the castle, I thought I would be able to find you… But I was wrong. I ended up using the forbidden prophecy of the Tribe of Ancients to end all worlds. I didn't want to do it… But I was being forced… I had no other choice."

"That's…sad," Chopper frowned. Despite disliking romance, he definitely felt bad for the count.

"But I am here now…" Tippi said as she fluttered over to her love. "And I'm just fine… No one can keep us apart anymore… Don't you see?"

"It is too late. Count Bleck has done so much evil and suffering… I can't handle it. Just knowing that you are still alive… And knowing that the world you still live in will continue… It gives me peace. I do not have long to live. Chopper, you must end my game before The Void destroys all…"

"But…we're finally together again…"

"So I've come a bit too late, did I?"

"Huh?" Chopper turned around and saw Tipral walking into the room. "Tipral? What are you doing here? ! I thought you were dead!"

"I thought the same thing too, but I founded myself right near this room when I woke up," Tipral looked down at Count Bleck. "And YOU'RE the one responsible for taking what I was planning on doing!"

"Tipral, don't! You're NOT going to kill him! He was being brainwashed this whole time!"

Tipral looked at the Floro Sprout. "Oh, yes… I almost forgot something. I ALSO came here to warn you about…"

"Count, look out!" Nastasia cried. Unfortunately, for her, she ended up taking a fatal blow from a magical projectile.

"What the… What was THAT?!" Chopper jumped up in surprise.

"THIS is what I came to warn you about!" Tipral growled as he saw Nastasia fall to the ground.

"Na-Nastasia!" Count Bleck cried.

"Silly assistant! Absorbing my attack to protect him? What an adorably hopeless gesture."

Dimentio came floating into the scene, hovering over the Chaos Heart. "So, you honestly thought that you would destroy the Chaos Heart? Think again!" he looked down at Count Bleck. "As for him… I was about to give him the everlasting peace he so desperately wants!"

"Wait, you're still alive too, Dimentio?!" Chopper gawked.

"I had a feeling that this clown would be alive…" Tipral growled. "Leave now. I'm here to claim this Chaos Heart for my OWN!"

Dimentio looked down at Chopper. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Of course. This is my moment. Even if the count…or Tipral dies, the Chaos Heart won't disappear if I continue to control it!"

"You couldn't even kill me, Dimentio…"

"But I needed the power of the Pure Hearts to defeat Count Bleck… I couldn't do that on my own. So I had you do all of the sweaty labor for me."

"So you were simply WAITING for me to defeat Count Bleck so you could step in? !" Chopper gasped.

"Exactly, Chopper! You sure are good at finding out evil plans!" Dimentio said sarcastically. "And luckily, for me, you even used your Pure Hearts to defeat Count Bleck! If they make greeting cards to thank people for helping with evil plans, I owe you one, Chopper."

"What are you saying? !" Tippi asked.

"Oh, it's very simple. It means that he has no value to me. So, Chopper, I plan on ending your game." Dimentio grinned as he raised his finger. "He's all yours, Tipral!"

"Wait, Tipral?"

With a snap of his finger, Tipral suddenly walked over to the Chaos Heart. "What the… What's happening to me?!"

"Yeah, what IS happening?!"

"Oh, you'll see, my friend!" Dimentio smirked as he snapped his finger. A Floro Sprout suddenly appeared on Tipral's head.

"I am here, at your service!" Tipral shouted in a strange way. "What is your bidding, Master Dimentio?"

"What the… When did this happen?!" Chopper gasped.

"When I sent Tipral here, I planted a seed in the fertile soil of his unconscious… And now that seed has sprouted spectacularly!" Dimentio held up the Chaos Heart and looked down at Tipral. "Tipral, run along and get ready for your big entrance."

Tipral slowly nodded and headed off, while Dimentio cleared his throat.

"Now is when I finally make my grand entrance! Now, ladies and gentlemen… Get ready to witness the greatest magic show you'll ever see!"

Dimentio cackled as he tossed the Chaos Heart and the Dark Star Scepter into the air. With one flash, it began to get sucked into a dark void, along with Tipral.

"STOP THIS MADNESS!" Tipral yelled, trying to fight the Floro Sprout, but wasn't doing a great job. The whole room began to tremor violently, making the room suddenly transform.

All of the platforms that Chopper fought Count Bleck on suddenly had Dimentio-like faces on them and they began to move. Also, Tipral seemed to appear, but he looked completely…different than before. His face was kind of like Dimentio's mask, the right side being black with a white eye and the other side being lavender with a black eye. He was also wearing the same jester hat that Dimentio had on him and his arms and hands were black with white outlines, just like his feet. The Dark Star Scepter was also in his hands.

"Urk… What… What IS this?!" Tipral exclaimed, looking at himself while trying to fight off the Floro Sprout. "I look… WHY am I like this? !"

"Yeah! I don't get it… WHY is he like this?!" Chopper gawked. "He's still the same size as before, but he looks just like you!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Exactly. You see, the Dark Prognosticus stated that the dark one has the powers needed to cause utter destruction to the universe. And with my power added to the mix, I'll be unstoppable! There's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"No… Stop!" Count Bleck cried. Dimentio simply teleported the count, Nastasia and Tippi away.

"Count Bleck! You looked so tattered and pathetic, I nearly forgot about you. I'll squeeze the life out of you later. Just wait over in that dimension, OK? Great." Dimentio looked back at Chopper. "Oh, yes! I nearly forgot one _other_ thing!"

Dimentio also sent Chopper's Pixls out of the castle. "What did you just do?"

"Oh, it was simple! I just sent all of your friends back to Dimension D! …I don't know what happened to your other friends, but I honestly don't really care about them."

He flew over to Tipral and suddenly went into him. Now the eyes of Tipral were like Dimentio's: happy.

"Now the Chaos Heart is mine! I will use this to destroy all worlds…and create perfect new ones! So, shall we get started, my lime-green friend? Now I have all I need…to become the king of all worlds! You may call me…Dimentral!"

"Dimentral? Oh, come on! That's one of the lamest names I've ever heard!" Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs straight at Dimentral, but not even those did anything to him.

"Huh? What gives? I can't do anything against you? !"

"Exactly! That is because no attacks can harm me!" Dimentral cackled. "Without those Pure Hearts, you're helpless! No one can save you now!"

"Man… This isn't good…" Chopper began to pray once again, but one of the platforms shot a black fireball at him, interrupting him.

"Oh, no, Chopper… Praying won't save you now. Your prayers only got the Pure Hearts to help you…especially the white one."

"Are you saying that LUVBI was the one that heard my prayer?"

"Perhaps… But you never know who could've done it. Anyway, hold still while I destroy you." Dimentral raised his finger and fired a magic particle at Chopper, knocking him off a platform.

"Luckily, with this kind of power, I'm not as vulnerable as I was as Super Dimentio… I obviously had a weak point on me then!"

"And I'm guessing Super Dimentio sucked," Chopper followed Dimentral up to a platform and tried to kick him with flames on his feet. But, just like before, it didn't do anything.

"Ah, silly Chopper! You can't do a thing, remember?" Dimentral twirled his scepter before firing a dark star at him.

"I thought only Tipral had the skills to use that thing!" Chopper frowned.

"That's exactly why I needed him – so I could have his powers as well! It makes it all better for me!" Dimentral fired a beam of dark energy from the scepter at Chopper leaving him severely wounded.

"So, Chopper… Do you mind if I end your game so you can see all of your friends?" Dimentral asked as he raised the Dark Star Scepter up.

"I'm not going to give up just yet," Chopper shook his head at the jester/dark being. "I can't give up just yet."

He rushed towards Dimentral and tried to stomp on him, punch him and even kick him. Dimentral began to tap his foot and yawn as Chopper kept attacking him with blinding speeds.

"Oh, come on! Nothing works? !" Chopper did notice the rainbow-color barrier around Dimentral, showing that he was indeed invincible.

"So… Nothing works on this guy. Just great."

"Ah ha ha ha. I am now invincible! There is nothing you can do! And now it is time for the destruction to begin… Let it begin with you, as you wallow in helplessness like upside-down turtles! _**ULTIMATE POWER!**_"

"Not on my watch!" Chopper tried to stop Dimentral, but he simply struck him in the face with his scepter.

"Ugh… I almost forgot that you'll try to stop me…" Dimentral grabbed Chopper and held him up with all of the dark power around his arms. "I suppose killing you first would be the smarter decision."

"No way!" Chopper managed to toss a fireball at Dimentral's face. Despite not harming him, it caused him to release Chopper.

"Oh, man… I wish I had some help to stop this guy… Is this the end for me?" Chopper gulped.

* * *

**Dimension D-**

"We have to do something! We have to save Chopper!" Tippi cried. She was trapped in Dimension D with Count Bleck and the unconscious Nastasia. The Pixls were also trapped in this room.

Count Bleck turned to Tippi. "I'm so sorry that this had to happen, Timpani… As much as I want to do something, there's nothing we can do. Without the Pure Hearts, there is no way to counter the Chaos Heart. All we can do is give up…"

"What are you SAYING?! You promised me ever since the day we were together that we would always try to find happiness around the world! Was that all just a lie?!"

Count Bleck slowly shook his head. "No, it was no lie… But without the Pure Hearts, all worlds are doomed. What can we do? They are the only things capable of countering the Chaos Heart…"

Tippi fluttered over to Count Bleck. "Blumiere! Snap out of it! How can you think it would end here, after all we have suffered without each other?! We found each other again because we stayed alive… How can you admit defeat now?! I will not! I will not give up! You promised we'd find happiness. You PROMISED!"

"That's right, count!"

"Hey, who just said that?" Thoreau asked. Mimi, O'Chunks and Dark teleported into the room and walked over to them.

"O'Chunks? Mimi? Dark? How did you find us here?" Tippi asked.

"Oh, it was very simple. O'Chunks, go ahead and explain." Dark suggested.

"Ah, she lies like a wee rug, this lass! Nastasia told us, Count! She said you'd come 'ere… Or… She said she FELT you'd be here…or somethin' along those lines." O'Chunks explained.

"Nastasia…" the count turned to the unconscious Nastasia.

"Look, we're not exactly 'good guys' right now, but we all made a promise to stick by Tipral's side. And what happened? Apparently Dimentio got a hold of him and is using him for himself." Dark shook his head. "I never trusted that clown anyway. Look what he's done!"

"Yeah! I know! My poor, sweet Tippy is being used by that no-good Dimentio!" Mimi said angrily. "There's no way he's getting away with this! Tippy has treated us well, and we wanna try to help him!"

"I… I don't know why to say… Thank you…" Count Bleck shed a small tear as he smiled as his minions. But that caused a white flash to appear, summoning the eight Pure Hearts.

"What're the Pure Hearts doin' 'ere?" O'Chunks gawked.

The Pure Hearts then regained their power, healing Count Bleck of all the damage that Chopper dealt to him.

"Hmm… What's this?" Count Bleck gawked. "Pure…Hearts? But why?"

"Isn't it obvious, Blumiere? Pure Hearts are the very feelings of our souls. As long as we feel love, they live on!" Tippi fluttered into the center of them all. "I will take these to Chopper!"

* * *

**Castle Tipral, Inner Sanctum-**

Chopper was still panting after all of the severe damage from Dimentral, while he himself was simply hovering off the ground, completely unharmed.

"Hmph… Let's stop wasting time and finish this, shall we? Ciao!" he was about to finish him off until he saw a white flash. "Huh? What's going on?"

The eight Pure Hearts appeared around Dimentral. "What? ! The Pure Hearts? ! I thought you wasted then all fighting Count Bleck!" with one flash…nothing happened.

"…Huh? Nothing happened?" Chopper gawked.

"My my! It looks like they have no effect on me!" Dimentral grinned. "Well, I guess I should end this now."

"Oh, man… I can't believe this! Is this the end for me?!"

"Hey! THAT'S not the way to talk, Chopper!"

"That voice… It can't be…" Chopper whirled around and saw Blade walking over to him.

"Dude, you just can't give up the fight now! I mean, we've made it THIS far and we can't just give up!"

Dimentral paused for a minute. "What's this? One of you live? Oh, well. Two's not enough to take me on."

"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby came walking into the room as well, looking up at Dimentral. "Poyo! (There's NO way we're going to let you win this battle, Dimentio!)"

"Kirby! You're even here!"

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Sonic came zipping into the room. "You can't start this party without me!"

"I don't believe it! You guys are all alive!" Chopper shed a small tear of happiness. "But…how?"

"Oh, what was pretty interesting was that I ended up falling through the floor before getting flattened by the ceiling." Blade explained.

"Poyo, (I fell right through the floor too and landed on Blade,)" Kirby stated. "Poyo… (Apparently it was a soft landing…)"

"I'm not sure what happened to me, but I think they founded me out cold after being sucked into the portal…" Sonic trailed.

Blade looked up at Dimentral and drew his katana. "All right, Dimentio! Now you've gotta deal with all of us!"

"Ah ha ha ha," Dimentral paused for a minute and pondered. "Wait… 'When the four heroes are united…' Wait a second…"

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade began to glow a white color as the invincibility on Dimentral suddenly wore off.

"What? What's…going on? I…I'm not invincible anymore…"

With one flash, all four of them recovered all of their HP. Not only that, but Chopper was armed with Galaxia in his hands, and was now donning a green floppy hat.

"Galaxia! This is the sword that Meta Knight's been looking for!" he gasped.

Now's our chance…" Tippi said as she fluttered into the scene. "The Pure Hearts have given us power! Let's get him!"

"Tippi! …Yeah, we need to do that now!" Chopper nodded.

"Poyo! (You're right, Tippi! We can't let him win!)" Kirby agreed.

"Yeah, there's no way we're going to lose to a freakin' clown!" Sonic stated.

"Tippi! You're right! Let's jump him!" Blade nodded.

Chopper turned to Dimentral. "All right, Dimentral! Now you've gotta face all of us! NOW you're going down!"

"You foolish heroes! I will make sure you NEVER see the light for all eternity!" Dimentral's anger sounded somewhat like Tipral's, due to being fused together. "Especially you, Chopper! YOU will die first!"

"Wow… Looks like someone's angry." Chopper rushed straight at Dimentral and struck him with his sword, dealing some damage to him.

"Wh-What?! That can actually hurt me?! How is this possible?!" Dimentral's eyes suddenly changed to Tipral's angry eyes.

_"What? I… I have some control over myself?" _Dimentral looked around the room and then at himself. _"Ugh… I'm still in this stupid look. But, since I have the Chaos Heart, I'll focus on getting rid of Chopper now."_

Dimentral twirled the Dark Star Scepter around and began to fire multiple dark stars at the four. Blade brought his katana up and tried to block some of the attacks, although he got hit in the knee by one of them. Kirby inhaled one of them and spat it at Dimentral, and Sonic simply used his speed to dodge them. Chopper too tried blocking, but he managed to slice through some of them.

Chopper decided to use Tippi's powers to gather information on one of the platforms first. They looked somewhat weird to him for some reason.

"When he signals, Dimentral will attack this platform. Watch for fireballs!" Tippi informed.

"All right, now let's see what Dimentral's stats are now," Chopper used Tippi's powers again, but this time, on Dimentral.

"That's Dimentral, a freakish blend of Dimentio, the Chaos Heart, and Tipral… That being has immense power, even though he's smaller than Count Bleck... Max HP is 200. Attack is 9. Defense is 4. He'll constantly fire his spells at you and also fire rapid dark energy at you with the Dark Star Scepter… He moves fast, so you want to try to catch up to him as much as you can… Those platforms are needed to catch him… If he's ever low on HP, he'll try to recover about 35 HP, so be careful… Chopper, you must win this battle, or else all worlds will possibly be destroyed…" Tippi informed.

"Whoa! 200 HP and an Attack of 9? ! That's just… Wow." Chopper had no idea what to say. "…Well, we're going to have to do a lot to take this guy down then."

"Well, then let's do this!" Sonic jumped on a couple of platforms and struck Dimentral with a Homing Attack twice before getting knocked off the ground by him. Kirby got on Carrie and struck him by jumping on him.

"Ugh! Get off of me, you pests!" Dimentral growled, firing a dark beam of energy around the room. All of them got struck by the attack, and boy, was it a deadly one.

"I've made it this far to get the Chaos Heart, and now I'll finally use its power to destroy you all!" Dimentral fired a couple of magic projectiles around the room. Kirby inhaled one and spat it back at him.

"Hey… Why does your voice sound like Tipral?" Chopper asked.

"That's because I AM Tipral!" he retorted. "Now that the Chaos Heart's in my hands, I can use it to do what I've always wanted to do: kill you."

"I had a feeling you were still there, Tipral," Chopper jumped up a couple of platforms and slashed at Dimentral with Galaxia. However, he got struck in the face by the scepter itself.

Before Tipral's part of Dimentral could say anything else, his eyes changed back to the happy kind. "Now now… There's no need to be like that! Now watch what I can do this time!"

Dimentral launched himself in the air, kind of like what Super Dimentio would do. He began to come down towards Chopper, but ultimately missed.

"Ha! You missed!" Chopper smirked.

"True, but I can always do this," Dimentral raised his arms and created a box that surrounded Chopper. He snapped his finger and struck him with an explosion within the box.

"Don't give up just yet, Chopper!" Blade shouted as he jumped towards Dimentral and slashed at his with his katana. Dimentral managed to hit him, but he got to hit him with a couple of shurikens.

"Poyo… (I don't know how much we've taken him down yet…)" Kirby trailed as he managed to kick Dimentral. "Poyo. (I mean, this guy has A LOT of HP.)"

"Well, Tippi DID say that he has about 200 HP, so yeah, that's a lot," Chopper jumped over Dimentral and tried to strike him with Galaxia. However, Dimentral tried to push the sword away with the Dark Star Scepter.

"I'll make sure that you fall like a fat kid crossing a pit of spaghetti," Dimentral smirked as he kicked Chopper and then fired a dark star at him.

"No way, Dimentio!" Chopper blocked the attack and fired a Sword Beam directly at Dimentral, knocking him back over by the wall.

"What the HELL are you even saying? !" Blade gawked as he jumped onto some of the moving platforms, avoiding some of the fireballs the platforms were firing. Tippi seemed to understand how it worked.

"Guys! When you see the platform's face change, that's when you need to beware of its fireballs!" Tippi informed.

"Thanks for the help, Tipps!" Sonic gave her a thumbs up before he used a Whirlwind to send Dimentral flying and then struck him twice with two Homing Attacks.

"Man! Even if you're small, you don't really seem to put up much of a defense!"

"Oh, really?" Dimentral raised a finger and fired a magic projectile down at Sonic. "Now here's my next magic trick! A hedgehog in a box!"

"Hey! What're you trying to do, perform a dumb magic trick? Why don't you just stop with it and be a good little clown and fight us."

"Well, the correct definition for me is actually a jester, but you'll understand what this magic trick is," Dimentral raised his arms up and created a box that surrounded Sonic. "And now…"

With a snap of his finger, Sonic was struck with a violent explosion. Add a fireball from the platforms and that made him take some heavier damage.

"Whoa… So he's using those too? Dang…" Chopper jumped over to one of the platforms and deflected Dimentral's magic spell back at him.

"Oh, so it's one of these, huh?" Dimentral swung the spell back at Chopper, who did the same thing.

"Poyo! (Hey! This kind of reminds me of the Legend of Zelda when Link is using his sword to deflect the spell back at Ganon or something!)" Kirby remarked. Nevertheless, he got into action and got on Carrie to jump on top of Dimentral.

"What the… OW!" Dimentral was struck by his own spell, making him teleport somewhere else in the room.

"Well, did I mention that I can do THIS too? !" Dimentral snapped his finger and teleported once again. This time, when he appeared, there were three Dimentrals flying around the room.

"Oh, boy… This isn't looking nice." Chopper gulped as he raised his sword. The three Dimentrals fired five spells each at the four, striking all four of them at once and knocking them to the floor.

Dimentral was about to attack with another spell, but his eyes changed back to the angry eyes of Tipral.

"I think I have a better idea to beat you guys," Dimentral snapped his finger and they were all struck by Star Magic.

"Oh, great… It's Tipral now." Chopper groaned. He immediately jumped out of the way of Dimentral's Star Spear and used a Spinning Sword attack to strike Dimentral, making him teleport over by Kirby.

"Poyo! (You're not going to strike me, you cruel person!)" Kirby attempted to inhale Dimentral, but he teleported behind him and simply whacked him across his back with Star energy.

"Don't try to use your inhaling on me, Kirby. I KNOW that you're going to constantly use it." Dimentral raised his arm and fired another magical spell directly at Kirby, but Blade jumped in and struck him with a fire slash.

"Hey! I need to do something too, so I'm fighting you!" Blade shouted, kicking Dimentral to the wall and then attacking him again with his katana.

Dimentral got himself up and managed to block Blade's katana. His eyes flashed as Blade was suddenly blinded.

"AUGH! MY EYES!"

"Now I have an advantage!" Dimentral hurled a shadow ball straight at Blade and then sent him flying across the room with a dark beam.

"Ugh… If only Samus's Light Beam were here… Surely THAT would have some sort of effect on him." Chopper sighed as he gripped Galaxia. "Well, at least I have this thing on me…"

"Chopper! There's no need to waste time speaking! You gotta do something!" Tippi shouted.

"I know, I was trying to do something right now," Chopper immediately rushed into action, slashing at Dimentral a couple of times with Galaxia and firing a Sword Beam to finish off his attack.

"Ugh… I need a new strategy…" Dimentral groaned, blinding Chopper with his flashing eyes and then rapidly firing dark stars at his direction like a machine gun.

Chopper was knocked to the ground, while Dimentral teleported right in front of him. He grabbed him by the antennas and began to constantly punch him across the face with his own fists.

"Tipral… Why are you trying to do this? ! What ever happened to Dimentio? !" Chopper cried.

"When I'm in control, I don't need to worry about that stupid clown! But when I'm through with you, I'm going to try to find a way to get him OUT of this body so I'm back to normal!"

"Poyo? (Why can't you just stop being angry and at least enjoy your life when you can?)" Kirby asked, kicking Dimentral, only to get knocked over by the Dark Star Scepter.

"I will only enjoy life when my enemies are DEAD!" Dimentral threw Chopper across the room and struck him with a dark beam.

"CHOPPER!" Tippi screamed as Chopper was left all battered up.

"Now then…" Dimentral turned to Sonic, but his eyes suddenly changed back to Dimentio's. "Why are you constantly trying to fight back, Tipral? I thought the Floro Sprout would keep you under my control? !"

"Maybe that's because the Pure Hearts have allowed me to regain control of myself!" Tipral's side spat back.

"I see… Well, this body is now mine anyways!" Dimentio's side gestured the platforms to fire at the four heroes. Kirby managed to inhale one of the fireballs and spit it back at Dimentral.

"Let's see how you handle this!" Dimentral snapped his finger and reappeared with two clones. The original version was the first one to fire five spell projectiles at the group.

"Whoa! That's fifteen all together!" Sonic gasped as he fled from the attacks. He jumped off the wall and jumped a couple of platforms to perform a Homing Attack on the real Dimentral.

"Man, I think I might need to use that Light Speed Attack on this guy," Sonic grunted as he landed on the ground. "I think it could do some real damage to this guy."

"So, you want us to cover you so you could charge up the attack?" Blade asked.

"That would be very appreciative, thank you."

"Then I'll distract Dimentio so he doesn't pay attention to you," Chopper announced, jumping towards Dimentral's direction.

"Poyo! (I think I should help him as well! It might be a good strategy!)" Kirby got on Carrie and made his way up the platforms, inhaling one of the fireballs one of the platforms fired.

"Ah ha ha ha! There's no way you can defeat me, you know…" Dimentral cackled. "Just watch this!"

Raising his arms, they began to sparkle as Dimentral recovered some HP. "You see? My magical powers allow me to heal myself!"

"Crap! That's bad…" Chopper gulped. "Well, that's not going to stop me from taking you down, though!"

"Just try."

"Then I shall!" Chopper fired a Sword Beam directly at Dimentral, but the Dark Star Scepter helped him block the attack easily. However, when he fired another spell at Chopper, he swung it back at him.

"Oh, so you're doing this again? Oh, why must I do this…" Dimentral swung the scepter back at the spell and back at Chopper. "This is almost like a bunch of lazy geese playing a game of hot potato!"

"And once again, your similes don't make any sense to me…"

"You know you can't keep this up forever…"

"Oh, yeah? Maybe it will!" Chopper swung the spell back at Dimentral, but what the jester didn't see coming was Kirby spitting out one of the fireballs at his direction, leaving him open to get struck by the spell.

"ACK! You little…!" Dimentral created a box around both Chopper and Kirby and made it explode, dealing some severe damage to them. "I don't see why you keep distracting me…"

"Oh, there's a reason…" Chopper smirked.

"Ready? GO!" Sonic came at Dimentral in blinding speeds, striking him in every second and leaving the jester completely open for an attack.

"WHAT?! What's this?!" Dimentral's eyes changed back to Tipral's. "Ugh… What was that attack? !"

"I believe Dimentio decided to let Tipral take over so he could endure some of the pain…" Tippi trailed.

"Well, it doesn't matter who it is. We need to take him down!" Blade tossed a couple of shurikens directly at Dimentral and then attacked with a flaming slash. "By the way… Where are our Pixls?"

"Dimentio teleported them out of here…" Chopper groaned. "They could've been some GREAT help, though."

"Well, we can still rely on our moves, though…" Sonic trailed, attacking Dimentral with a Whirlwind and then a Homing Attack as he came flying to the ground.

"Ugh, I had ENOUGH!" Dimentral snapped his finger and sent Sonic flying towards Chopper with Star Magic.

"I think I've got another thing in store for you!" Dimentral began to glow a bright purple color as he clenched his fists. "Surely this will be strong enough to kill you all!"

"Uh oh… He's going to use his Star Blast!" Chopper gulped. "We NEED to stop that!" Chopper fired a Sword Beam at Dimentral, but it didn't seem to do anything.

"Maybe if we stay as far away from him as possible, we won't be hit…" Tippi suggested.

"I think that's not a bad idea," Chopper ran over to the right corner with his friends and witness Dimentral unleashing his Star Blast.

"Wow… It didn't actually hit us." Sonic said with a blank look.

"That's good for me!" Blade tossed a couple of shurikens directly at Dimentral's hat while he was now Dimentio.

"Seeing as that you're soon to be dead, I might as well try to end this on a good note!" Dimentral raised his arms again and summoned a couple of boxes. Kirby, Sonic and Blade got trapped in them.

"Now is the time to set it off!" before he could snap his finger, Chopper stomped on him, interrupting his attack.

"Ack! Why you little…! You're going to pay for that!" Dimentral shot another one of his spells at Chopper, only to have him strike it back at him.

"Yeah, it looks like it's this again…" Chopper groaned as Dimentral fired the spell back at him. Chopper did the same thing, swinging his sword and firing it back at him. Luckily, the boxes he created ended up disappearing, making the other three able to attack.

"All right, I think I have a plan!" Sonic curled up in a ball, getting as much light energy that he needed. Blade, on the other hand, managed to jump over to Dimentral and strike him with a flaming slash.

"AGH! This will NOT stop me from getting hit!" Dimentral roared, swinging the spell back at Chopper.

"I could do this all day," Chopper smirked, swinging it back at Dimentral.

"Poyo! (Well how about THIS? !)" Kirby inhaled a fireball from one of the platforms, but first struck Dimentral with a jump while on Carrie. Then he spat it back at the psychotic jester.

"You're still not stopping me!"

"Ready? GO!" Sonic immediately went into action, striking Dimentral with blinding speeds again. This was enough to make Dimentral exhaust himself and also get struck by his own attack.

"No… This can't be the end!" he cried.

"Oh, I believe it is!" Chopper smirked as he jumped up and raised Galaxia. "_**Galaxia… SWORD BEAM!**_"

With one swing, a green beam of sword energy fired directly at Dimentral – at the cost of losing his ability, of course.

"Oh, no! It's gone!"

But, luckily, Dimentral was struck by the attack, and boy, was everyone satisfied. With a couple of white flashes, the jester screamed in agony.

"_**Urgh-GAH?!**_"

The four landed on the ground as Dimentral fell to the ground as well, looking down at the ground in pain.

"How did you do it… How could I have lost with the power of Tipral, the Dark Star Scepter, and the Chaos Heart…" Dimentral questioned himself. "Was this truly meant to happen to me?"

"Poyo! (Why, of course it is!)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo! (You've done ENOUGH damage for today! I think you deserve this!)"

"Yeah, Kirby's right. I think you mostly believed in what those tales had to say." Chopper agreed. "What did we focus on? Beating you up!"

"Nothing is decided entirely by fate, you know… All things determine their destinies. Perhaps you'll soon learn the next time you ever plan on returning…" Tippi explained.

Dimentral looked up at the group and grinned sinisterly. "Oh, I'll learn soon enough! How? When I kill you all!"

He got up and raised his finger. "I still have one last move to use against you! You WILL die from this!"

"Whoa!" Chopper got a fireball ready to shoot back at Dimentral, but he soon paused for a minute.

"No... That is not YOUR job!" Dimentral lowered his finger and raised the Dark Star Scepter up instead. Using its power, it was able to get Dimentio out of Tipral's body and return him back to normal.

"Finally… I'm back to my normal self." he said, sighing in relief.

"Wait… What the…" Chopper tilted his head. But, the Chaos Heart ended up flying up into the sky and disappearing. As for Dimentio… He was rendered unconscious by Tipral's scepter.

"Did you just knock out Dimentio?" Tippi gawked.

"Yes, I did do that," Tipral folded his arms. "But this is only the beginning, you fools! Chopper, this is where we return to being enemies."

"I thought you were always my enemy,"

"True, but this is where we both take parts! Since I have you right where I want you…" Tipral caught the Dark Prognosticus that fell from the sky, then aimed the scepter at him. "I think we can finally end this!"

But before he could attack, there was a violent tremor. Count Bleck, the Pixls, O'Chunks, Mimi and Dark appeared in the room.

"Tippy! You're OK!" Mimi tackled Tipral, embracing him in a tight hug.

"I thought the Chaos Heart would disappear if the person controlling it was beaten by the heroes…" Count Bleck pondered. "I think there's something wrong here… Is the Chaos Heart going on a rampage…? It may not last long, but I believe it could possibly end all worlds…"

"So… What is there to do now?" Sonic asked.

Count Bleck pulled his hat down. "There is…one thing that I can do. …Or rather, what we can do." his cape opened up as he summoned a large door. It was ENORMOUS. Although, not as big as the Thousand-Year Door.

"This way!" Count Bleck rushed into the door, followed by Chopper, Tippi, Kirby, Sonic Blade and the Pixls. Tipral, however, gestured his minions not to go in.

"Wait… Why do yeh want us not teh go in?" O'Chunks asked.

"Because, I have some better ideas," Tipral turned to Dimentio. "Although I HATE what he did, he IS needed to help stop the heroes."

"What do you plan on doing with him then?" Dark asked.

"I'm going to wipe out all of his memories of what he did," Tipral explained as he raised the Dark Star Scepter. "I will make sure he stays loyal to me at ALL times. If that doesn't work, then we have to get rid of him."

Using the scepter's power, he drained all of the memories from Dimentio of his psychotic nature of trying to claim the Chaos Heart for himself. He then teleported the jester elsewhere afterwards. But what was strange was the way he teleported him out was kind of like Dimentio's teleportation.

"What the… Did I just do that?!" he gawked.

"So… Dimentio has to stay with us?" Mimi frowned.

"He'll still have that stupid personality, but I made sure that he stayed loyal to me. I highly doubt that he'll ever get a chance to betray me again."

"Where are we goin' next, then?" O'Chunks asked.

"I've got a palace set up in case if something like this was ever going to happen. We can stay there, since this place has endured a lot of damage. Get all of your things ready too. I'll make sure your rooms are just the same."

"'Ey! What about wee Nastasia?"

"The secretary? Hmmmmm… Maybe she could be of some help too. I'll try to find her and get her here. Just go back to your rooms and pack your things. I'll go take care of Dimentio's room too."

At that moment, the minions headed out of the room, while Tipral teleported out of the room.

"…_Why do I have these strange powers now?"_

* * *

**Through the door-**

As soon as the four came walking into the next area, they noticed some stairs leading up to a wedding chapel. This place itself looked rather nice, with a white floor and a bright blue sky.

"Whoa… What is this world?" Blade gawked.

"Poyo… (It looks like some sort of wedding chapel…)" Kirby stated.

Count Bleck looked nervously over at Tippi. "Timpani… After all I've done… Do you still love me?"

"Yes…Blumiere. Of course I do." Tippi smiled. "I've always loved you. Ever since the day we've met, I've always seemed to like you. And please… Don't consider what you've done to be your fault…"

"Wait a second… What do you two plan on doing?" Sonic asked.

"We're going to use the Pure Hearts again, this time to banish the Chaos Heart," the count explained. "All we need is true love… And thankfully, that is something I possess."

"True love? But… Love's gross!" Chopper gagged with his tongue out in disgust.

"Oh, you'll probably get over that when you're a bit older," Tippi giggled. "Maybe when you're fifteen, you'll soon like some girls."

"I'm not so sure about that... Maybe."

"However…with the Chaos Hearts gone, the people linked to the Pure Hearts…" Count Bleck continued. "Chances are, they may cease to exist, but I'm not a hundred percent sure about that after what happened before..."

Chopper stopped for a minute. "Wait… Are you saying that you're…going to leave? But you can't just do that!"

"I understand that you don't want me to leave," Count Bleck shook his head. "I take full responsibility for this. And besides... I wish to live peacefully with Timpani once again. I think it's for the better anyway."

"So it's a bittersweet ending, I suppose…" Blade smirked. "That's not too bad."

"Timpani… I know this may be hard for you to do this… I'd hate for you to leave these people at a time like this… Still…there is no other way to end this."

"I know, Blumiere, I know…" Tippi sighed.

Chopper gasped. "Wait… You're…leaving too?"

Tipip turned to Chopper. "Oh, Chopper… I'm really sorry. I think this is where we must part. I honestly wish I didn't have to leave you… But… It's the only way…"

Chopper sniffled. "I… I understand. I'm really going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too… I'll always think about you guys…" Tippi gave Chopper a butterfly kiss on his forehead.

The ground began to shake once again. "Oh, boy! We're really in some deep yogurt here, guys!" Blade shouted.

"We must go, Timpani…" Count Bleck declared.

"Yes, Blumiere…" Tippi and Count Bleck made their way up the stairs and to the wedding chapel.

"I'm going to miss Tippi…" Chopper sniffled, making his way up the stairs. "Honestly… She almost felt like a mother to me…"

"Poyo...? (A…mother…?)" Kirby gawked.

"Yeah… She sort of reminded me of my mother. It's a shame she has to go so soon…"

Up at the wedding chapel, Count Bleck and Tippi were standing over by a pedestal. The count seemed a bit nervous, however.

"There were so many things I wanted to say to you…but I could not find the words."

"Oh, Blumiere… Only one thing matters to me now." Tippi assured. "I wish to return your question as well… Blumiere… Do you still love me as well?"

"Of course… I have thought about you every moment ever since I've lost you in the past and after what's happened before… But I feel because of our first meeting, I've caused a lot of bad things to happen to you."

"Perhaps…my life would have been more carefree without you, that is true."

"But I had to really be with you, Timpani. I would never apologize for that…"

"I know, Blumiere. And I love you"

"And I love you, Timpani… Hundreds and thousands of years from now, that fact will not have changed… And now, we will be able to spend time in peace."

"That's deep," Sonic commented. "I never knew someone would say something like that."

The eight Pure Hearts appeared, as well as the Chaos Heart. Chopper noticed the red Pure Heart suddenly appeared in his hands.

"What's this?" he gawked.

"Poyo… (I think you should toss it over to the chapel…)" Kirby suggested.

Chopper slowly nodded as he tossed the Pure Heart up to the chapel. Kirby was holding onto the next one: the orange Pure Heart. He tossed it up to the Chaos Heart as well. They could see them circling it around this time.

"This is interesting…" Sonic tossed the yellow Pure Heart that appeared in his hands. Blade also tossed the green Pure Heart that was in his hands and then tossed the light blue Pure Heart.

"Boy… I find it bad that we won't get to see Tippi ever again…" Blade trailed.

Sonic nodded in agreement as he tossed up the next heart: the indigo Pure Heart. Kirby saw the violet Pure Heart in his hands and tossed it up to the Chaos Heart.

"Poyo, (That's all seven colors of the rainbow,)" Kirby frowned, shedding a small tear.

"There is…one more," Count Bleck stated as the white Pure Heart appeared in Chopper's hands. He slowly began to look at it with a sad look on his face.

"Don't worry Luvbi… I promised you that all worlds will be saved… I just wish that you could be back with Queen Jaydes and Grambi and be a normal Nimbi, like you should have been. You deserve a nice, happy life."

With one last glance, Chopper tossed the white Pure Heart up to the Chaos Heart. With all of them together, they went straight into the Chaos Heart and made it emit a bright light.

"Tippi! No!" Chopper cried as he saw both her and Count Bleck brighten up from the light. Tears began to come down his face as he looked down at the ground. The wedding bells could be heard from this world.

"I'm going to miss Tippi…" Sonic frowned.

"She was definitely a great help…" Blade agreed.

"P-Poyo… (I… I don't know what to say…)" Kirby whimpered.

The four of them slowly began to turn away and walk back to the door, until the bright light got to them and blinded them.

"What the heck?!"

"I can't see a thing!"

* * *

**Ten minutes later-**

"Hey! Chopper! Get up!"

Chopper slowly opened his eyes. He noticed that they were all back in Flipside Towers. Merlon and Meta Knight were on the tower as well. Everyone was sipping a nice soft drink in their hands.

"Huh? What's going on?" Chopper slowly got up and stretched. He noticed that in the background, The Void was gone. "So that actually got rid of The Void…"

"Yeah, you missed it! The Void suddenly shrunk and disappeared out of thin air!" Sonic explained. "It was just awesome!"

"We all thank you for what you've done," Merlon began. "If it wasn't for you four, this world would've been enveloped in darkness. …By the way, where is Tippi?"

"Oh, Tippi…" Chopper began to explain to Merlon what happened to both Tippi and Count Bleck.

"I see… So she has left… Ah… This, too, must have been under the guidance of the Pure Hearts…"

"I wonder what happened to both of them…" Blade pondered.

"I shudder to think about it, but surely when the Chaos Heart was destroyed…"

"Well, I don't think they're necessarily dead…" Chopper interrupted. "The count did say they probably wouldn't lose their games and spend time together someplace peaceful."

"Hmmmm... I see…" Meta Knight trailed as he whirled over to the elevator.

"Wait! Meta Knight!" the warrior turned his head back. "I actually…found Galaxia…but I ended up losing it after fighting Dimentio…"

"You…found it?! …Oh. I see. Well, I'm not going to get angry at you for what you've done…"

"So… Does this mean we have to collect the eight Pure Hearts all over again after they've been used on the Chaos Heart?" Sonic asked.

"I don't believe so," Merlon shook his head. "The Pure Hearts have been left in their pedestals as usual. However, there are still twelve more Pure Hearts to find…and two more heroes to find."

"Oh, yeah… I don't know what happened to Tipral and the other minions… They weren't with us when we saw Tippi and Count Bleck – I mean, Lady Timpani and Lord Blumiere leave." Chopper pondered. "All I know is that Tipral is against us once again."

"So, that means the battle isn't over yet. However, you young ones must find the next Pure Heart."

Chopper felt something heavy in his inventory. When he pulled it out, he saw it was the Chaos Heart…but in stone.

"Huh? What's this doing here?" when it cracked a light gray Pure Heart appeared out of it. It was a normal size just like the others.

"I don't believe it…" Merlon gasped. "The Chaos Heart just produced a Pure Heart!"

"Poyo! (This is so strange!)" Kirby gasped.

"Well, then I guess I better do what I usually do with the Pure Heart," Chopper glanced at the Pixls, who began to perform a little dance around him. After his dance, he held the Pure Heart up.

"Finally! The ninth Pure Heart!"

**You got a Pure Heart**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Lady Timpani and Lord Blumiere's ultimate sacrifice was a great tragedy, but everyone knew that they would both live in peace. With The Void gone, Chopper and friends knew that they didn't have to worry too much on collecting the Pure Hearts. But, unfortunately, the war wasn't over yet. Tipral and his minions were able to escape from Castle Tipral and go elsewhere. Where could they have gone to? Chopper began to wonder as he, Kirby, Sonic and Blade made their way back to Merlon's house._

* * *

**Man... That was such a big chapter... But, what's strange is that I managed to get THIS chapter done faster than Chapter 7-5, which took nearly a WEEK to get done! This, on the other hand, took only three days. That's it.**

**Anyways, it's sad to see Tippi gone... And no, don't think the story's over yet. We've just gotten through the first part of Super Paper Chopper. There are pretty much three parts to this, which I'll probably get to later. **

**And you're probab- No, wait, I think I'll get to that in the interlude. Sorry, but I think I should then. Anyway, see you guys them!**


	51. Chapter 8 Interlude

**Now, you're probably wondering why I didn't show some scenes in Chapter 8-5, with some of the worlds being destroyed and also some scenes that brought back some worlds… Well, I have my reasons for that. But, there really isn't much of a reason to explain why. It makes things a little interesting when thing are a bit different in this fic. **

**Well, anyways, enough idle blather from me. Let's see what's going on with the minions (P.S. You Dimentio fans are lucky that I didn't kill him…).**

* * *

"Unnnggghhhh… What… What happened…?" Nastasia slowly opened her eyes and got herself up while picking up here glasses and putting them on. "Wait… Where am I? This isn't the castle…"

"Ah, I see you've waken up, Nastasia," Tipral was right on a different platform in this new place. "Welcome to my new palace. This place is somewhere in a different galaxy, which should probably interest you."

"What about the count?"

"Count Bleck? He and Tippi have left, apparently. However, the fight's not yet over. There are still a couple of Pure Hearts left to find throughout the universe. I'm going to need your help to help stop the heroes."

"What would you want me to do? All I'm usually good at doing is reminding people of what they need to do."

Tipral folded his arms. "Well, if you join me, I'll give you whatever you want. My scepter can give you something you've always wanted more than anything else in the world."

Nastasia pondered. "Well… I've always wanted to have a little desk in my room and a shelf with organized folders. If you could do that, I could probably help you, 'K?"

"…You should be surprised that for your room, I actually made that. It didn't take me very long, but I understood you were the secretary type of person, so I did that just for you."

"R-Really? Wow… I guess I should end up joining you. There really isn't much else to do, now that the count's gone…" Nastasia looked down at the dark purple platform in sadness. The center of the platform had a dark star in it, sort of symbolizing Tipral's dark side.

"We can go along with our plan without Count Bleck," Tipral pulled the Dark Prognosticus out. "I'm glad I finally got this back. It's been a while since I had my scepter and this book. Now we can finally move back to the dark prophecy!"

"You plan to use that book?"

"I've been using it ever since I've gotten my hands on it. I'm not quite finished yet, you know. Just because The Void is gone doesn't mean that I can destroy all worlds. I DO plan on returning back to it!"

Tipral pondered a bit and turned away from Nastasia. "But I realized something… I don't think I'll be able to stop Chopper with just you and the other three… I'm going to need more minions."

"Well what about the Pure Hearts? If I could recall, the tenth Pure Heart is somewhere…strange. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it's not as dark as this world is."

Nastasia looked at all of the stars inside of the large meeting room. The palace itself is sort of like Castle Tipral, but it doesn't have white outlines like that place. There was also a large chandelier on the ceiling with black and purple flames lit up. The platforms themselves were glowing a light purple on the other part of them, but the inner part was dark.

"Hmmmmm… Now that I look at this place, it sort of reminds me of Castle Bleck… But this feels a bit darker than usual."

"That is because I made it so that it would be dark," Tipral explained. "Ever since I was trapped in a dimension for five months, I began to devise up a palace. Thanks to this weapon, I was able to create it easily! …Now where are the rest of the minions?"

O'Chunks, Mimi, Dark and Dimentio teleported in the room. O'Chunks looked exhausted, Mimi was fanning herself and Dark didn't do anything at all.

"Man… Packin' me stuff was a great pain in me tooshie!" O'Chunks panted. "Yeh don't know 'ow much gravy I had teh carry, along with me pile of meat!"

"Ewww! You smell bad, O'Chunks!" Mimi said in disgust. "Tippy! Make O'Chunks wash himself! I don't want to be around a smelly, big guy!"

"'Ey! Bein' smelly is pride fer me kind! Ever since I was a general in a great war, we men were meant teh be smelly!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Oh, my! That smell is rather contagious, my friend!" Dimentio chuckled.

"Yeah, like you would honestly care, meanie-head!" Mimi frowned.

"Guys, settle down. Now's not the time for arguing!" Tipral roared, making the minions shut up. "I've worked hard to devise this palace, and you should be thankful that I'm letting you stay here!"

"So, what fantastic plan are you thinking of this time?" Dimentio asked.

"I'll get straight to that, Dimentio," although he wiped Dimentio's memory clean of any of his devious plans, he still had that same personality and intelligence in him. "Now, minions… You realize that there are only four heroes, right?"

"Yeah, I know that."

"Of course I do, Tippy!"

"It's pretty obvious…"

"Do we plan on stopping them from getting the Pure Heart once again?"

"All four of you settle down," Nastasia suggested. "Go on, Tipral."

"You see… I've heard that there are still two more heroes left to find. We could easily be outnumbered if possible. So, that's why I'm planning on bringing more minions into our group. Ones that are strong, tough, intelligent, and strategic. If we do that, I can confirm that we will be able to defeat the heroes."

"So, yeh want us teh go teh the next world an' stop the heroes?" O'Chunks asked.

"No. I've already taken care of that." Tipral explained. "I was able to find someone else that I believed would be someone good to add to our group. As for the Pure Heart… He's taking care of that."

"What? You mean we have to stay here and let him take care of that? ! No fair!" Mimi whined.

"Hush, Mimi. You probably want a break after that intense fight in my previous castle, do you not?"

"Well… Yeah…"

"Then you should go back to your room and relax."

"That's a good idea!" Mimi giggled as she teleported out of the room. She was probably going to write in her diary again.

"Hmmmmm… Perhaps I should get going!" Dimentio smirked as he teleported out of the room. But, what he really wanted to do was read Mimi's diary, like he usually does.

"So… When do we get to meet this new minion?" Dark asked.

"You'll get to meet him as soon as he finishes with Chopper and his group of friends," Tipral confirmed.

"I see… How…interesting."

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"Man… I can't believe we've found the ninth Pure Heart!" Chopper gasped as he, Kirby, Sonic and Blade walked into Merlon's house. "Who would've thought that it would've come from the Chaos Heart itself? !"

"I wasn't expecting that either…" Merlon trailed, getting off track. "…Anyways, now you four must bring the Pure Heart to its Heart Pillar."

"How can we do that? We've looked everywhere around this place and we haven't found any empty Heart Pillars!" Sonic explained. "How are we supposed to find a ninth Heart Pillar? !"

Merlon opened the Light Prognosticus and turned a couple of pages. "The Light Prognosticus clearly states that the ninth Heart Pillar is somewhere close to the very first Heart Pillar. If that's true, then you must go up to the third floor of Flipside. Chopper, you remember where that is, right?"

"Well, of course I do! The first Heart Pillar was over to the left! Maybe we'll be able to find it somewhere on the right this time."

"Perhaps that might be where it is," Merlon closed the book and put it back on his shelf. "Now, young ones… You must make haste! Go and find the next Pure Heart!"

Everyone nodded and they started to step out of the way. "…Oh! I almost forgot something!" all four of them fell over on the ground.

"Poyo? ! (Now what? !)" Kirby groaned.

"My apologies for interrupting you… I just wanted to tell you guys that you still have two more heroes to find. With those last two, you'll be able to fully counter the Chaos Heart's true power."

"All right, thanks, Merlon," since Chopper didn't want to ask about what the true power was, he immediately set off to the third floor.

* * *

**Flipside, third floor-**

"Poyo! (Hey! This is where you found me!)" Kirby remarked, remembering when he appeared in this world.

"Yeah, this definitely brings back memories," Chopper raced over to the first Heart Pillar. "This is the first Heart Pillar that I've found with Tippi. Man, it brings back some memories with her…"

"No, Chopper! We can't keep bringing up sad memories!" Blade shouted. "…I'm not trying to be insensitive or anything, but if we keep remembering those sad moments, it's only going to make us depressed."

"…Yeah, that's true. Now where's that Heart Pillar?" Chopper began to search the area thoroughly, hoping to find the Heart Pillar.

"Hey, Chopper! I think I might see one over by the right!" Sonic pointed over to the right. He could only see a part of the Heart Pillar though. "Ermmm… It's hard to see, though."

"Well, I guess I gotta flip," Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a little open gate. He walked through it and returned to 2-D. There were a couple of small white blocks on the ground that he had to jump over to reach the Heart Pillar. He could see some of the gray on it on the lower part.

"Poyo? (Well, are you gonna put it in?)" Kirby questioned, trying to watch Chopper over the gate.

"Yeah, I'm gonna get to it," Chopper pulled the gray Pure Heart out and looked at it. "Perhaps this was a gift from Tippi?"

While he pondered these thoughts, he rose the Pure Heart up as it began to go into its Heart Pillar. Like all Heart Pillars, this one had a gray clock that appeared. They could even hear something coming up from Flipside Towers.

"We better go check it out," Chopper pulled the Return Pipe out as soon as he got to the other three and they immediately headed up to Flipside Towers.

* * *

**Flipside Towers-**

"Well, what do ya know? A pink door appeared right over by the gray door!" Sonic smirked as he walked over to it. It didn't really take him that long to get to it, since it was close to the end.

"Eww! Why does it have to be pink? !" Chopper gagged. "Seeing that color just reminds me of all the girliness that I've seen in the past before! Yuck!"

"You still haven't grown out of that, huh?" Blade gawked.

"What do you mean I haven't… Oh, forget it." Chopper opened the pink door and made his way through into the next world. The rest of the group shrugged and followed him through.

What would be through that door? Well… Whatever it was going to be, it might be something magical.

* * *

**Yeah, you're probably wondering, "What about any other characters that are going to join the group? !" Well just hold your horse, OK? I'm not going to tell you anything about the next chapter, but I think you'll find it somewhat interesting.**

**...Yeah, that's all I have to say. :P**


	52. A Sweet Surprise

_Having to continue their quest without Tippi was a tough one for Chopper and Co., but they realized that they had to do the right thing and move on. "I'm starting to get over losing Tippi… But I don't know how much…" trailed Chopper as they made their way into the next world. "Poyo? (Am I seeing…sweets?)" Kirby asked in shock as he saw something he never expected to see in any world. He knew for sure that this could possibly be one of the sweetest worlds that they would ever encounter thus far…_

**CHAPTER 9-1**

**-A Sweet Surprise-**

As this world was beginning to get drawn, the first thing that could be seen were a couple of sweets in the background. Heck, the floor was actually made of delicious cake with pink icing on the top! When it all got colored, the sky itself was a nice, light pink color with a couple of chocolate in the background.

As the group walked out of the pink door, they were surprised with what they were seeing. They were in a world filled with sugary sweets! This almost felt like heaven for some people.

"Poyo? (Why couldn't THIS world be The Overthere?)" Kirby cried as he inhaled a piece of chocolate right near him and swallowed it.

"My god… It's almost like we've run into paradise here…" Blade looked down at the large cake ground they were standing on. "Holy crap! We're right on some cake! How delicious!"

He was about to take a bite of it, but Chopper immediately slapped his arm. "Hey! What was that for?!"

"Dude, you're STANDING on this stuff! You can't just EAT it! That's disgusting! Besides this world is just filled with such…delicious…sweet…sugary…chocolatey…" Chopper began to drool as he looked at a lollipop up ahead.

"No, Chopper! You promise yourself that you wouldn't eat any sugar!" Chopper smacked himself. "If you eat sugar, you're going to end up getting a terrible sugar rush!"

"Chopper… Are you talking to yourself?" Sonic asked.

"No, I was just trying to…resist…sweet…lollipop!" Chopper tried to pull himself away from the lollipop, but he couldn't resist. He grabbed the lollipop and began to lick the delicious thing.

"Poyo! (He's just enjoying the candy here!)" Kirby squealed as he ate one last piece of chocolate.

"It doesn't seem safe for him to eat that," Sonic looked down at some of the sprinkles. "Man, I don't know how long I can resist this stuff…" he grabbed a large sprinkle and ate the whole thing.

"Hey! I can't eat any of these things?!" Blade growled.

"Oh, shut up, Blade. I think we should get going." Sonic pulled Kirby away from the chocolate and Blade managed to get a hold of Chopper, who continued to taste the delicious lollipop.

"NO! Let me FINISH!" Chopper cried.

"Dude! Get some sense into you!" Blade slapped him across the face, trying to get his conscience back. "Whoa… I hope I didn't hit you too hard."

"Intruders!" a chocolate donut with sprinkles holding a club made of chocolate was charging at the heroes. "You do not deserve to be here, you eaters! Leave this place or die!"

"What the… Are these guys bad or something?" Blade drew his katana, but he soon realized that the club was made of chocolate. "Oh, wait… This guy's weapon is made of chocolate. It's not going to hurt."

The enemy known as a Choconut, tried to swing at Blade, but the ninja himself simply took a bite from the chocolate club. "Mmmmmmm! Tastes just like my great aunt's chocolate!"

"Argh! Take this!" the Choconut kicked Blade in the shin, causing him to stop and hold it in pain.

"Poyo, (I got this,)" Kirby inhaled the Choconut and swallowed it. The only downside to that was that he didn't get any abilities from it at all. However, he DID recover only about 1 HP from it.

"Whoa, did Kirby just recover 1 HP from that? Weird…" Sonic trailed as he noticed a slope going down ahead. He simply ran down, getting an increased speed as he curled up in a ball and knocked away a couple of Choconuts that were willing to attack the group.

"Well, we better follow him," Chopper quickly got out of his trance and ran down the slope, making sure Kirby would follow him. "No more sugar for me… It's just…bad for me."

"Poyo… (Awwww… No fair!)" Kirby pouted as he followed Chopper over to Sonic. Apparently he already got to some large jelly-filled donut…with sprinkles!

"Wow… That is one delicious donut there." Blade drooled. "Mind if I take a bite of this thing?"

"Don't! We need to run on this thing if we're going to go up that steep hill over there!" Sonic objected, pointing to a steep hill up ahead. "And there's no way I can actually climb up that thing…"

"Yeah, we need to use this donut to get up there," Chopper jumped on it and began to run on it. To his surprise, the donut began to spin around and move its way up to the red door on the steep slope.

"I never knew donuts could fly," Blade gawked as he tried running on it.

"Donuts don't fly. This one's just on some kind of…whatever they call them. I think it's attached to something."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean by that… You don't NEED to explain to me about that anyways." Blade jumped off the donut as soon as the donut reached the top of the upper part of the cake ground.

"Poyo! (I can't wait to find some more sweets!)" Kirby drooled, looking down at the ground. "Poyo! (I could just inhale this thing!)"

"Kirby! Don't!" Chopper said, pulling him away and over to the door. "We're not eating this entire place! As delicious as it is… We don't wanna cause any huge problems with this world."

"All we can do is simply move on through this door," Sonic stated, pointing to the door. "I'm sure we'll find something interesting through there."

He jumped off the large donut and walked into the door. Chopper and Kirby immediately followed, with Blade heading through last.

…But not before taking a bite from the jelly-filled donut!

"Mmmmm! There's jelly in this thing!" Blade said with a smile. "…I'd try to take bite of some of the other stuff here, but I feel that it would be sort of jerkish just to get fat here and let the others go through on their own."

He followed the trio through the door into another large area with two pathways to take. They WILL lead them to the same area, that's for sure. The way up is led up by some cake platforms that could fall, and the other leads down to a wall and down to a spring with a couple of Buzz Bombers around.

"Buzz Bombers? I didn't expect to see those guys here! …I guess I'll handle them." Sonic curled up in a ball and performed a Spin Dash down the curve leading down to the wall, where he hit the spring and took out the Buzz Bomber with a Spin Jump.

"Man, that was pretty cool," Chopper smirked as he looked down the curve. "However, I think I'm going to take the upper path. Why? I wanna see what's going on up there. Who's with me?"

"Poyo! (I'll go with you!)" Kirby shouted, taking Chopper's side.

"I guess I'll go find Sonic then," Blade slid down the curve and began to tumble around on the ground as soon as he hit the spring.

"Oh, man… That didn't go too well…" Blade got himself up and followed Sonic after drawing his katana. He came at some of the Koopatrols that were trying to block Sonic from moving on.

"Man, I didn't expect there to be these guys here!" Sonic panted, sending one Koopatrol flying with a Whirlwind. Blade jumped towards it and finished it off by bringing his katana down at it.

"Well, at least we're kicking butt though!" the ninja smirked.

"True, but we don't know what these guy's stats are," while he spoke, Sonic managed to curl in a ball again and strike down another Koopatrol in his path. "…Maybe you should fight some of these guys. You DO have higher attack power."

"Yeah, so I'll do more fighting!" Blade smirked as he slashed at a Choconut a couple of times near a small hill leading down to a little tunnel that looked like it required you to go into a ball.

"Oh, crap! I can't even curl up into a ball!"

"Oh… I just realized that. How do we get you through then?" Sonic looked carefully around the area, only to find a lollipop blocking a tunnel in the wall. He simply destroyed it with a Homing Attack to reveal it.

"Well, there ya go, Blade. Now you can get through."

"Damn! You just destroyed a lollipop!" Blade frowned as he used the stick part to get up to the tunnel (by standing on it with his ninja skills, of course). In no time, he was already there.

Blade walked through the small tunnel and came out of the wall, where he landed on the cake ground. Sonic ended up busting through the ground and coming up from the ground with a jump.

"Well that was pretty enjoyable! We gotta do more of that often!" Sonic grinned.

"I wonder where Chopper and Kirby are right now," Blade wondered.

* * *

**Upper pathway, with Chopper and Kirby-**

Chopper and Kirby made their jumps on the cake platforms and up onto the thicker cake platform, which could fall off. There was even a loop up ahead and a couple of Shy Guys.

"Oh, boy… There's Shy Guys around here…" Chopper noticed that they were carrying lollipops and pieces of small cake. Oh, and a green Shy Guy was holding a green jellybean up.

"Poyo! (This is just awesome!)" Kirby kicked the red Shy Guy first, making it drop its lollipop. He then got on Carrie and jumped on it a couple of times to defeat it. Then he ate the lollipop to recover some HP.

"Poyo? (This only recovers about 1 HP?)" Kirby gawked.

"Well, if they gave you a lot of HP, I think this world would've been a bit too easy…" Chopper brought his hammer down on the yellow Shy Guy and inhaled the small cake, getting a sugary feeling inside of his mouth.

"…I REALLY need to stop eating this stuff. My mom told me to NEVER eat sugar anyways…"

"Poyo? (Why did she say that?)"

"Because sugar's not really good for you," Chopper explained. "Well, I hear that it's not good for your teeth, but I don't have teeth. HOWEVER, I get some big sugar rushes when I eat sugar, so it makes me go _crazy_!"

Kirby looked confused, but he decided to forget about it and follow Chopper, who ran through the loop and jumped on a spring leading higher up in this world, over by another cake platform.

"Poyo, (I'll just simply float up there,)" Kirby took in some air and began to float up to the platform Chopper was waiting by. There were a couple of other platforms, but in between them were these candy cane mints that looked like they were bounceable.

Oh, and there were a couple of Fly Guys around here as well.

"Why are there so many Fly Guys here? I thought we'd be done with Bowser's minions? …Unless he's here?" Chopper's antennas sprung up.

"Poyo? (Bowser? You mean that Koopa guy we've encountered a couple of times five months ago?)" Kirby remarked.

"Yeah, it's him. Apparently I found him in a castle somewhere on Lineland Road. I believe it was in Lineland Highlands, if I could recall… What he was doing there, I don't know, but I DO know he's probably somewhere else now at least… Maybe Tipral did something with him again."

"Poyo, (Well, we'll never know,)" Kirby floated over to the next platform, while Chopper ended up jumping. He ended up hitting the little candy cane mint, but he ended up bouncing up a little onto the next platform.

"Whoa… That was weird! Did that thing just make me bounce onto here? Let me try it with this one!" Chopper jumped on the next small candy cane mint called a Bobbin (one of those things in the casino levels in the Sonic games), which bounced him to the next platform Kirby was on.

"Yeah, this is definitely weird…" Chopper jumped on another cake platform that was close to him, but a bit higher up than before. He saw a couple of cake platforms close together, as well as another Fly Guy that was around.

"Kirby, I want you to take care of the Fly Guy. I have a feeling those platforms are going to fall…"

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby got some air into him and floated over to the Fly Guy, letting out a puff of air at it a couple of times to defeat it. Chopper, on the other hand, used a Speed Dash to run through the platforms.

"Whoa! They're falling!" Chopper gaped as he looked back. Unfortunately, he didn't noticed a spring pointing at an upper right angle – which ended up launching him a bit over to the ground.

"Poyo! (Hold on, Chopper! I can come help!)" Kirby began to float down where Chopper fell. Apparently, he fell right on top of the blue ninja Blade, who didn't even see him coming.

"Whoa! You sure came from above!" Sonic said in surprise.

"GET OFF OF ME!" Blade barked, his face flat on the cake ground. But, while Chopper got off of him, he took a bite of the piece of the ground.

As soon as Kirby floated down, Blade got up and they certainly noticed the bite mark on the ground.

"Blade… What did we tell you about eating the floor?" Chopper asked with an irritated look on his face.

"Yeah yeah, I remember…" Blade groaned as he walked up to a ladder made of chocolate. "…You might NOT want to use your flames here. I think this thing could melt if you do so…"

"Well, I don't think he'll allow us to go to the top," Sonic pointed to a dark ghost-like demon thing with a separate head and body, with separate hands as well. It has red glowing eyes and an antenna with a red bulb on it.

"Oh, no… Don't tell me there are still some Darklings around here." Chopper smacked his forehead. "Great. Just great."

He decided to go up first, climbing up the ladder and pulling his hammer out to bash the Darkling. He was lucky to be successful. Chopper climbed the top and stood on a chocolate platform with a red door standing on it.

"Well, let's hurry through here before those whole chocolate ends up melting from any intense heat," Chopper suggested as he waited for his friends to show up and walk into the next area with him.

"Well, we certainly hit something nice!" Blade's jaw dropped as he saw a small town up ahead. The houses were made of gingerbread houses with a couple of lollipops. Heck, there was a chocolate bunny right next to him.

"Excuse me for a moment," he grabbed the chocolate bunny and took a bite from it. But it was soon inhaled and swallowed by Chopper.

"Blade, don't try eating any more of those things," Chopper scolded. "We're not going to eat the whole place up. Yeah, I know this is coming from someone who LOVES to eat, but eating an entire world? That's just not right…"

"Poyo, (Well, maybe we'll be able to find something interesting around this town,)" Kirby took a couple of steps and walked over to the sign right by him. He began to read what it said.

_Welcome to Sweet Town! This is the home to many delicious sweets! …Although we don't allow outsiders to eat us._

"Wait, so we're in a place called Sweet Town?" Chopper asked. "Well, that sounds a bit…"

They all fell over when they heard an explosion coming from the town. "Holy crap! What the heck was that? !" Blade gawked.

"We better check and see," Chopper rushed straight into town, where a couple of people that tasted just like candy were hiding in their houses. Heck, some were even gingerbread men and women!

They noticed a couple of large green robots with tough cannonballs for fists and a face that resembled Fawful. The only thing that they knew from looking at it was that it was one of Fawful's robots. A Mechawful, that is.

"Oh, dear Grambi no… Don't tell me FAWFUL'S here!" Chopper groaned.

"Fawful? You mean that guy that we've encountered in The Overthere?" Blade asked.

"Yeah, he's the one," Sonic confirmed. "I don't know how he found us, but apparently he's now attacking this place. …But for what reason?"

"I have no idea, but we can't let him cause harm to this place, that's for sure!" Chopper got in a fighting stance and tossed a fireball at the Mechawful that was firing lasers at some of the houses. It immediately turned around and flew up towards the group and came down over by them.

"Whoa, this thing's pretty big, but I doubt it's tough!" Blade sliced it up in one go with a flaming slash. "You see? That was easy! Good thing my katana is capable of cutting through tough material."

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Fawful wants to have the laughing at you candy people!" a familiar voice could be heard throughout the town. The green bean himself, Fawful was standing on a hovering platform that hovered down to the four.

"Fawful? How did you… How in the world did you get out of The Overthere?!" Chopper gaped.

"Fink-rats?! HERE?!" Fawful glared at the heroes (despite grinning). "Why must Fawful have to run into you fink-rats?! Does the sugars that run into your brain make you want to catch Fawful?"

"No, really. Why are you here?"

Fawful gave them a big grin. "Now that Fawful recalls… Fawful had the rescuing! The rescuing of a dark being! He even had the discussion of Fawful joining his team to destroy the fink-rats!"

"Wait… You joined Tipral's side?!" Sonic got in a fighting stance. "I guess he's here to stop us from getting the Pure Heart!"

"You have the correcting! Also, I have chortles when I see these candy people having the suffering!"

"Poyo? (You LIKE to see these tasty people suffer?)" Kirby gawked.

"I have no understanding."

"You know, nothing you say really makes sense. Let's just take you down right now and claim that Pure Heart!" Blade was about to strike Fawful with his katana, but a large, pink boar-like person with a yellow armadillo shell and black spikes knocked Blade back with his own belly.

"Huh? Who're you?"

"Fawful introduces you to…Midbus!" Fawful announced, opening his arms and looking down at Midbus. "Introduce yourself, Midbus!"

"So you are the famous heroes. You're too late. Lord Fawful's plan is successful." Midbus bluntly stated. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade gave him a blank look.

"Uhhh… How come you speak in such small sentences?" Chopper asked. "You can speak in a full sentence like me, you know."

"Speak in full sentences? Ha ha. I think not! I HAVE NO SPEAKING!"

"What the heck?! But that doesn't even make any sense!" he gawked. "How could you say something like that when it makes so little sense?!"

"Sense is for the weak. Now you leave." Midbus took out a remote and pressed a red button, making two Mechawfuls hover down to the ground in front of them. "Enjoy the beating!"

Fawful and Midbus took off, leaving only the four heroes to face the two Mechawfuls alone. Chopper started off by tossing a couple of fireballs at the first Mechawful, setting it on fire. Kirby got in Carrie and finished it off by jumping on top of it.

"We'll handle the other one," Sonic curled up in a ball and performed a Whirlwind around the last Mechawful, then performing a Homing Attack on it to weaken it. Blade simply used a flaming slash to slice the enemy in half.

"Whew! Well that took care of that!" Blade said, sighing in relief.

"Well, what about all of these townspeople? Should we at least talk to them?" Chopper asked.

"Why… H-Hello there… Are you going to eat us?" one person made of peppermint asked.

"Eat you? Well… I don't think eating people is right, so no." Chopper replied while shaking his head.

"Well, if you'd like us to let you leave this town, I think I'll do that for you," the man named Peppermint said as he opened the chocolate gate. "Usually when outsiders are around, we'd like them to leave immediately."

"All we're here for is the Pure Heart. I suppose you haven't heard of it, though…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, in actuality, I believe the king of the Sweet Kingdom had some sort of token that's shaped like a heart. He says he plans on giving it to the next heir of the throne. …Although it might not be easy to get to his castle with all of these beanish people here."

"Why do you fear him, though? He's just a harmless little bean." Blade snickered.

"The thing is… Us sweet people don't like those veggies. They're not that tasty, and they… They always try to attack us in some way! If you're here to stop them, then please go on ahead."

"Poyo? (What? We don't get to see the mayor? No talking to people here?)" Kirby said with a surprised look. "Poyo! (This is just…strangely unusual!)"

"Trust me, Kirby… Not every town is friendly. These guys just fear us, so they're simply letting us through. How simple is that?" Chopper walked past the gate and made his way over to the red door ahead. "Come on, guys! I don't think we have much further to go anyway!"

Kirby, Sonic and Blade followed him into the next area, which was apparently flat, but filled with those candy cane Bobbins. They were in some small pits that you can roll around in if you wanted to.

"Hey, those remind me of those pits where I can curl up in a ball!" Sonic grinned while jumping into the pit. "I'm gonna see how it's like in here!"

He did a Spin Dash that sent him up, but he let himself roll through the pit and up onto the Bobbin, where he bounced on it and hit a yellow ? block. A Super Shroom popped out and made its way away from the pit.

"We better go get that," Chopper jumped over the pit and caught the Super Shroom. He split it into four and gave each of them a piece. "Gee, it sure feels a bit weird without Tipral with us…"

"Poyo, (Maybe it's because we were used to having five people with us for a bit,)" Kirby said as he finished his Super Shroom. "Poyo. (Usually we get so used to having someone around that it feels so different.)"

"Yeah, that's true," Chopper turned around and brought his hammer down on a Shy Guy coming straight at him, then he attacked a Darkling afterwards, making it drop a Super Shroom Shake.

"Gee, we're sure hitting a jackpot of these Darklings, right?" Blade asked as he took another Darkling out. Up ahead they noticed a stair of platforms with a flipper at the end of each platform.

"Man, now things are starting to remind me of Mobius…" Sonic trailed as he jumped up the platforms and performed a Homing Attack on a green Waddle Doo that attempted to attack.

"Hey! I wanted to get its ability!" Chopper frowned as he made his way up the platforms and over to a large gap that looked as if only Kirby could get past.

"Poyo! (Don't worry, I got this!)" Kirby took in a bunch of air as he floated over the large gap and over to a blue ! switch. With one kick, he made a chocolate bridge appear for the three heroes to cross.

"Oh, man… Seeing all of this food just makes me want to… No, Chopper!" Chopper slapped himself in the face. "Don't. Eat. ANYTHING here!"

Unfortunately, he couldn't resist it. Up ahead over by the red door was a Choconut that was firing hot fudge from its chocolate gun. Chopper couldn't help but inhale it to recover 1 HP.

"…And you said that I couldn't eat any of this," Blade said with a blank look.

"Uhhh… I just couldn't help myself." Chopper smiled nervously as he followed the rest of the group through the door. Unfortunately, this area was a bit small, only having a door nearby, a sign in between and a couple of stumps up ahead.

"Hey, those stumps look like they could be hit!" Sonic looked at Screwdy. "All right, let's go show those stumps who's boss!"

He jumped onto the stumps and performed a corkscrew on them, but nothing happened, to no avail.

"What the… How come it didn't work?" Sonic tried a couple of times to bring the stump down, but it seemed a bit too tough for even a corkscrew to take down. "This doesn't make sense… Why can't I bring it down? !"

"Hey, Sonic! You might wanna check out this sign!" Blade grinned, pointing to the sign.

"Poyo! (It's got some interesting stuff here! Stuff you might like!)" Kirby smiled.

"All right, let me go take a look at it," Sonic walked over to the sign and took a look at it. He raised his eyebrows at what he saw, though.

_Tips for the hero holding the Pixl that's shaped like a screw:_

_You know, these delicious grounds are made of cake, right? Well… There's a secret! If you use a corkscrew on this cake ground, you'll be able to discover some nice secrets! Just use the corkscrew and you'll be __**drilling through the ground**__ in no time! This is something you MUST remember!_

"Heh-Hey! This is interesting!" Sonic grinned. "So I can actually drill through the ground with Screwdy? That's something I REALLY like! C'mon, Screwdy! Let's see what you can do here!"

"Well this is going to be truly something!" Screwdy said cheerfully as Sonic drilled through the ground. There wasn't much down below except for a chest that contained an Ultra Shroom Shake.

How he got out of there? Well, there was a spring that only a corkscrew can be used on, which let him drill up. When he landed on the ground, he showed the Ultra Shroom Shake he discovered.

"Nice!" Chopper gave him a thumbs up before walking over to the door. "Well the only thing we can really do at this moment is walk through this door. Hopefully we'll find something through here…"

Everyone agreed and they headed through. The area was simply flat, just like the other, and it was somewhat small. But, they could also hear someone's voice. Another voice that felt somewhat familiar.

"Gra ha ha ha ha! I can't believe it! I've finally done something I've always wanted to achieve! I, King Bowser, have finally captured Mario!"

"Hold on… Did I just hear Bowser's name?!" Chopper's antennas sprung up in shock. Up ahead was Bowser with a couple of his minions, such as Koopatrols, Hammer Bros., Boomerang Bros., and even the old Magikoopa herself, Kammy Koopa.

"Your Graciousness," Kammy began like he usually would. "Now that you've got a hold of Mario, what do you plan on doing now? Kidnap the princess again?"

"Oh, of course, Haggy! That's what I've been trying to do this whole time! I can probably get her to marry me easily when I tell her I have Mario captive! It's just pure genius!"

Mario: She's not here, though!

Apparently, Mario was tied up to a pole, where he couldn't do any harm. Bowser looked back at Mario and gave him an angry growl.

"Oh, yeah? Well, I'll… I'll go to another world to find her! I'll go find a portal and it'll take me the Mushroom Kingdom! Plain and simple!" this was when Mario knew Bowser was at a loss of words.

"Too bad there's no way to get back to the Mushroom Kingdom so far," Chopper interrupted, walking over to Bowser. "All right, Bowser… Tell me what you're doing here."

Mario noticed Chopper's arrival. He tried his best to wave, but since his arm was tied up to the pole, there was no way of doing that. However, Chopper was able to wave to him.

"Ack! Your Nastiness! It's that annoying little boy from before!" Kammy squawked.

"Hey, there's still us too!" Blade added, walking over with Chopper, as well as Kirby and Sonic.

"I don't care WHO you guys are! And I don't care how you got here! What REALLY does matter is that I get my revenge upon Chopper for what he's done! You! Me! FIGHT!"

"Wait, what do you…" Chopper was interrupted when Bowser stomped on the ground and created a barrier between him and Bowser, just like before. However, he still had some Pixls in his possession.

"Ugh, Bowser… You did this before. And guess what? I ended up beating you! Just let go of Mario, all right? We've been looking for him for QUITE a while…"

"Well, too bad for you! I've already got Mario tied up! And there's certainly nothing you can do about it! Wanna know why? 'Cause this is the last fight you'll ever have! Yup! I'll be the final boss this time!"

"Oh, come on… YOU as the final boss? Please! I highly doubt that this is the final chapter anyways! Why? Well, last adventure had about twenty places for me to explore, and there are twenty Pure Hearts for me to find. I honestly believe that this is certainly NOT the end."

While Chopper was talking, he ended up getting fried by Bowser's fire breath. "OK, next time, I can't talk when a battle starts."

"Woo-hoo!" "Go Bowser!" "Rah! Rah! Rah" "Show him who's boss!" "Burn that boy down!" "Your Fieriness! He will not succeed!" apparently Chopper could hear the minions cheering for Bowser behind the barrier.

"Yeah, yeah! Keep it coming, you guys!" Bowser said as he turned to his minions. "I know for a fact that Chopper's going to be…"

Chopper managed to bash Bowser's tail with his hammer, forcing him to whirl around towards him. However, he ended up getting whacked in the belly by Chopper's hammer as well.

"Oof! Why you little!" Bowser used his own claws to strike Chopper with his Poison Claw attack, poisoning Chopper horribly.

"Ack! He…cough…poisoned me!" Chopper began to let out a bunch of terrible coughs. His face started to look a bit pale, and not to mention he was starting to take some damage from the poison as well.

"Gwa ha ha ha! I knew this would be easy!" with one flaming punch, Bowser knocked Chopper back by the barrier, then he began to spit fireballs towards him, which struck him at each time.

Mario: Don't give up!

"Must…heal…" Chopper wheezed as he pulled out a Shroom Shake. With one gulp, he recovered 10 HP and also cured himself of the poison. "Wow… I can cure poison by healing myself? Strange…"

"WHAT? ! That didn't work? !" Bowser grit his teeth angrily as he got into his shell and began to roll towards Chopper. However, by flipping into 3-D, he was able to easily avoid this and toss a fireball at Bowser's tail as soon as he flipped back.

"_**YOUCH!**_" Bowser began to run all over the area, trampling Chopper (unintentionally) and crashing into the wall. Chopper managed to get back up and kick Bowser with a spinning kick as soon as he turned around.

_"I don't want to jump on him like I did before when I first fought him. I'd only be hurting myself then." _Chopper thought as he tossed another fireball at Bowser, dealing some more damage to him.

"Fireballs aren't going to save you in this fight, Chopper!" Bowser growled as he tried to use his flaming breath to attack Chopper. But, since Chopper was faster, he managed to jump out of the way.

"Grah! Why can't you just burn or something?!" Bowser came charging at Chopper as soon as he landed on the ground, knocking him back. He then got in his shell and tried to roll over him.

"I'm not going to let you do THAT to me," Chopper jumped off the barrier and used a flaming slamming kick on Bowser's nose as soon as his head appeared out of his shell, making him suffer a burn. He managed to give Chopper a punch, however.

"C'mon, kid! Just get up and give 'em some good whacking!" Blade shouted, trying to strike the barrier with his katana. Unfortunately, for him, things weren't working out too well for him.

"Poyo, (It's not going to work, Blade,)" Kirby informed, letting out a sigh. "Poyo. (Chopper's just going to have to take care of it himself.)"

"Yeah, thanks, Kirby," Chopper said as he whacked at Bowser again with his hammer. Bowser tried spitting a fireball at him, but he simply inhaled it and spat it back at the large Koopa.

"Grah! STOP IT!" Bowser got into his shell and slammed the ground as hard as possibly to send Chopper flying up in the air. As he fell to the ground, Bowser stomped over to him and jumped right on top of him.

"Don't think I'll be incredibly easy like three months ago! I'm going at you at full force!"

"Well, I wish you would just leave us alone," Chopper wheezed as he got up. "I mean, come on! TIPRAL is the real bad guy here! You're seriously going to let HIM get away with everything he's done? !"

"When I kidnap the princess, I'll soon be able to conquer this whole universe easily!" Bowser folded his arms. "And maybe I'll go back to taking that Star Rod! Maybe that weapon will take that villain down so I can take his place!"

"I highly doubt that," Chopper used Flippay to make Bowser dizzy for him to bash him with his hammer. Bowser, on the other hand, managed to grab a hold of Chopper and throw him to the wall.

"Quit it already, Bowser! That's just getting annoying!"

"Your FACE is annoying!" Bowser growled as he spat a couple of fireballs toward Chopper.

"Oh, man… That joke's so overused…" Chopper smacked his forehead and then inhaled the fireball to spit at Bowser, causing some more damage to him, but not defeating him just yet.

"Oh, wait… I remember something!" Chopper inhaled another fireball Bowser spat and swallowed it to become Fire Chopper. Bowser ended up bursting in laughter at the sight of him.

"Fire?! Are you kidding me?!" he laughed. "You honestly think that FIRE is going to take me down? ! Man… You never learn anything, kid."

"Then explain how fire hit you before," Chopper said as he rammed into Bowser as a fireball, knocking him back by the barrier.

"Well, this is certainly working," Chopper breathed some fire out at Bowser, but he countered it with his own fire, making both collide. But in the end, Chopper was knocked away by the fire.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Now let's see you try this!" Bowser spat a couple of fireballs at Chopper, but he managed to jump over them and get into a fireball to strike Bowser. He then spat more fire at him afterwards.

"Man, you even said that fire wouldn't do anything! Well, it certainly IS doing something right now!" the Star Warrior smirked before getting knocked away by a powerful punch from Bowser, sending him flying to the wall and stripping him of his Fire ability.

"Aw, what's the matter, kid?" Bowser grinned while folding his arms. "Ya can't take my punches? Don't you understand that I've fallen into LAVA before?! Well, it can't really do much to me now!"

Mario: You turned into bones before!

"So what? Your biscuits were burning before!" Bowser growled at Mario. "Why don't you just be quiet, or just stick your head in the cake mix?"

"We can do that for you, Your Furiousness," Kammy said.

"Hey! Don't bother me, Haggy!" Bowser was suddenly struck in the tail once again by Chopper's hammer, forcing him to whirl around – but soon got struck by Chopper's fire smash.

"Maybe you shouldn't get too distracted, Bowser!" Chopper suggested as he did an uppercut kick on Bowser's belly afterwards.

"Why you little…!" Bowser tried to attack Chopper with his Poison Claw, but he brought his hammer up to defend himself from the attack. By spinning his hammer, he managed to hit Bowser a couple of more times.

"This might finish it!" with one powerful smash attack from his hammer, Bowser was knocked to the ground. The barrier surrounding them was also destroyed.

"Grrrrgh! How did this happen again?!" Bowser whined. "Even from before, I still didn't defeat you! What is WRONG with me?!"

"Maybe because you rely too much on brute force, maybe?" Chopper pondered.

"Hey! That's something I've told O'Chunks!" Blade frowned, giving Chopper a glare. "Quit stealin' my lines!"

"Well I was just saying that he always relies on brute force…"

When Bowser got up, he seemed to be exhausted. "Ugh… I can't believe that this backfired on me… Chopper, I'm pretty sure you're here for something, so what do you want?"

"Well… Maybe you could free Mario?" Chopper smiled.

Bowser turned away and folded his arms. "No. I don't wanna. I'd probably consider doing that if you were Peach, but there's no way I'm going to just let him go like that! You're getting nothing from me from that beating!"

"You even said that you would do at least something for me! So, you better do it right now!"

"No. I don't wanna."

"Would you do it if I gave you this?" Chopper pulled out a blonde wig. "This is a Peach wig, you know. It even has a picture of Peach inside, if that makes you even more happy."

"A Peach wig?" Bowser whirled around and snatched it from Chopper's hands. "Just what I've been looking for! Now I can use this for…"

"Wait a minute, why DO you want it so badly?" Sonic asked.

"Well, er… That's none of your business!" Bowser looked at his minions. "All right, guys. Untie Mario."

"B-But… We have him right where we want him!" a Hammer Bro. stammered.

"I SAID DO IT!"

The minions listened to Bowser and untied Mario, who landed on the ground and adjusted his hat so it wouldn't fall off. Bowser, meanwhile, summoned his Koopa Klown and jumped on it.

"So, Your Graciousness, where to now?" Kammy asked.

"Well, there's not much else to do in this dump. Might as well get out of here. C'mon, minions…and Haggy! We've got some other place to be in!" and at that moment, Bowser took off, along with Kammy Koopa.

"…But we can't fly," a Koopa Troopa whimpered as the rest of them tried their best to go after Bowser.

Once that was over with, the four walked over to Mario, who was trying to stretch. "Man, we haven't seen you in a while, Mario! I thought that we'd never see you again! What happened?"

Mario explained to Chopper that he ended up falling into this world, but he really couldn't do much because there was nothing around for him to do. He then said something about Bowser finding him and capturing him.

"You didn't fight back against Bowser?" Chopper raised an eyebrow.

Mario: I was too weak.

"Oh… That's not good." Sonic frowned. "Well, have you found Luigi yet? We haven't seen him anywhere."

Mario shook his head. He told them that the last time he saw them was when they were both fighting against Bowser.

"Weird… I've never been to that place you guys were in…" Chopper trailed. "Well, anyways, we're trying to look for a Pure Heart in this world. You have any idea what they are?"

Mario: Oh, yes!

"So, you think you can help us find it? Apparently Fawful is attacking this world and is trying to stop us from getting the Pure Heart… Not to mention we have some stumps in the other area we can't hit."

Mario: Leave it to me!

"You have something that can help us? If so, you better join along!" Blade suggested. Mario nodded and did a little jump.

**Mario has joined your party! With him, he can perform a Triple Jump that can allow him to perform a higher jump than others! Also, his Ground Pound is capable of bringing down stumps that are too hard for him to handle! Whenever he's in a fight, his hammer is definitely something to be reckoned with!**

"Well that's a relief! Now we're back to five people again!" Chopper smiled. "Let's go back to that other area. Surely we'll be able to get rid of those stumps."

* * *

**Other area-**

"See? Those are the stumps we were talking about." Blade pointed to the two stumps. "Think you can do something about those, Mario?"

Mario gave a nod and walked over to the first stump. With a Ground Pound, he managed to bring the stump all the way down. He did the same thing for the other one, which triggered a door to appear.

"Poyo! (There we go! Now we can move on!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he waked over to the door and opened it.

They were, once again, in a small area with two Choconuts. Mario simply stomped on the first one a couple of times and defeated the other Choconut using his Ultra Hammer – something he's held onto for a while.

"Man, I wish I had my Master Hammer with me…" Chopper trailed. "But, at least I still have a hammer. Hopefully Scrub is doing just fine with that thing."

"That baby Yoshi of yours? …Was it a good idea to give him that hammer?" Blade gawked.

"That weapon IS pretty dangerous. Hopefully he doesn't get himself hurt with it…" Sonic trailed.

"Hopefully he's doing fine. I remember getting a letter from him about facing against the champ. He also said something about meeting someone named the Great Gonzales Jr."

Mario: I know him!

"Yeah, I thought you would," Chopper smiled. "But, hopefully they've gotten along, since I haven't heard anything else from him."

He walked over to the Star Block right by. "All right, time to move on." with one punch, he destroyed the block.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Mario on their side, the four heroes have now become five. While they still haven't found Luigi yet, Mario still felt a bit worried about his younger brother. "Say… The ground's starting to change from cakey to…sticky?" Chopper had a strange feeling in his gut. It felt like it was telling him to eat all of the food around him. But, he tried his best not to let it bother him as they moved on ahead. One thing for sure was that this was the strangest world he's ever encountered thus far…_

* * *

**Not much to say here except that some of you probably saw this coming. What? We needed Mario to come here eventually!**

**That's really all I'm going to say. I don't know if the next chapter's going to be longer or shorter though... We'll see when we get there.**_  
_


	53. Babies and Badges

**CHAPTER 9-2**

**-Babies and Badges-**

"…And that's all that happened while you were gone," Chopper finished explaining to Mario what happened while he was gone. He discussed with him about him meeting Tippi, Merlon and getting the first Pure Heart. He even explained to him about meeting Kirby, Sonic and Blade and when Tippi was kidnapped by that geeky chameleon Francis. Heck, Chopper explained to him about Luvbi going all over him when they met each other, to his disgust (Chopper's). And most importantly, he even explained to him about Dimentio's nefarious goals and Tippi and Count Bleck leaving.

Mario was speechless, but he always tends to be speechless. He really didn't know what to say at that moment, or what gesture to make. The only thing that made him feel sad was when he explained to him about both Tippi and Count Bleck. Too bad he never got to see Tippi…

"Yeah, I know it's all big. I wish you were there to see it." Chopper let out a huge sigh as he looked down at the ground. "Well, let's hope that everyone's OK now that The Void is gone. Hopefully people are happy."

"Poyo, (Yeah, I sure hope so,)" agreed Kirby with a nod. "Poyo… (I'm hoping that Tippi is all right…if she IS alive, that is…)"

"I still think she's alive," Blade stated. "I mean, come on! I don't think they're truly dead! The only one that I know for sure we'll never see again is that freakin' clown Dimentio. God, that guy was such an annoyance."

Mario: That's good!

"Yeah, it's a good thing," Sonic said, sighing in relief. "Too bad Tippi couldn't join us for the rest of the adventure. But, that doesn't mean we should stop here, right? That would be the WRONG thing."

"Exactly, and I see a couple of lollipop enemies up ahead," Chopper noticed a lollipop enemy called a Lolli with a taffy sword charging at them. He immediately inhaled it to regain a small amount of HP.

"Uhhhhh… Does anyone notice how sticky the ground is?" Blade had a tough time getting his feet off the ground. "I have no idea what the hell this is, but it's too sticky!"

Mario tried to get his boots off the ground. He was stuck as well, which wasn't exactly a good thing… However, he DID get his feet off with his jump, being a good jumper and all that.

"You're not used to the ground, outsiders!" a Lolli up ahead on a brick block mocked, laughing at them. "We sweets are used to this world, so we don't have much of a problem with you kind of people!"

Mario immediately performed a Triple Jump and managed to land straight on the Lolli, dealing double the damage that his normal jump would do. He performed a stylish move while at it.

"Well, that's Mario for you," Chopper stated as he ran over to the brick block and struck it with his fist as Mario jumped off. A Mushroom popped out. So, Blade immediately sliced it into five pieces so they could all recover 10 HP.

"Ahhhh! Now THAT felt great!" Sonic said, sighing in relief. "Now we can get a move on, right?"

"Yeah, we can hopefully," Chopper noticed another Lolli over by a bottomless pit. He tossed a fireball straight at it and made it burn. He immediately jumped over the pit and saw a larger bottomless pit.

Mario: There's nothing else here!

"Hold on, Mario. I can just flip." Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. There was a bridge that could be seen in 3-D, but a couple of Lollis were around, blocking the bridge. Across the bridge was another Mechawful.

"Oh, goody… More of those guys…" Chopper got the others across the bridge via 3-D and when they flipped back, Mario bashed the Mechawful with his hammer, then struck it with a Ground Pound.

"Man! I feels nice to have someone who can ground pound!" Sonic grinned. "It'll make things easier!"

"Too bad this area's a bit flat, though…" Blade trailed, jumping over the bottomless pit and charging straight at the Lolli that was throwing lollipops at him. "It's a bit more Mario-ish here."

He took out the Lolli with a couple of sword strikes and then hit a brick block next to a pink pipe that contained a coin. A light blue Piranha Planet with pink polka dots and pink lips popped out and bit him.

"Yow! What was that? !"

"I think it was a Candy Piranha, from the looks of it," Chopper stated as he tossed a fireball straight at it, and then used a spinning kick to finish it off. "They're…kind of strange."

"Have you seen any other strange enemies around here, Mario?" Sonic asked, only to get a shake from Mario's head.

"Well, we'll probably find something," Chopper checked to see if they could go down the pipe. Apparently, they couldn't do that, so they jumped on the ground and saw a spring leading up to a taller pipe.

They jumped on it and let it take them up to a taller pipe. There was a Paratroopa with a blue shell and sunglasses flying in between the gap and the big platform that led up to a door.

"Poyo, (These guys look like they move faster,)" Kirby stated as he looked at the Blue Paratroopa. "Poyo? (Got any idea if this guy belongs to Bowser or Tipral?)"

Mario didn't understand what Kirby was saying, but he decided to get rid of the Blue Paratroopa with a stomp, sending it down the bottomless pit. He landed right by the door, where he waited for the others to come and follow him through the door.

As soon as they reached the next area, they noticed that there was a pool of melted chocolate right next to them with a couple of graham crackers floating on them. Some of them went rocketing up into the air from some of the chocolate shooting up.

"What in the world is THIS kind of area?" Chopper asked, having a strange look upon his face.

"It looks like there's chocolate in that pool," Sonic frowned, looking down at it. "I don't think it would be a good idea to get stuck in that. I'm sure we'll get stuck and sink to the bottom."

Mario: What's chocolate doing with a sticky ground?

"I have no idea…" Chopper trailed as he jumped on the graham cracker. The hot chocolate sent the cracker rocketing up high over to one of those sweet platforms. To the left there was a pipe right next to him.

"Come on down here, guys!" he shouted from down below as he jumped on the platform with the pipe.

They all listened to him and followed him up to the pipe. They didn't bother to say anything as they went down the pipe.

* * *

**Underground-**

Underground, they noticed another little pool of hot chocolate, but this time three graham cracker platforms were all up at the same time. A Choconut was in the room as well, but Mario took care of it with his hammer.

"What a strange room… Don't suppose there's anything for us to do here…" Blade pondered as he tried to kick the platform he was standing on. Unfortunately, it didn't do much to help him.

"I think we're going to need to push this down a bit…" Chopper trailed, jumping on it. "Maybe you can try to use your Ground Pound on these graham crackers, Mario."

Mario nodded and began to use his Ground Pound ability on the crackers. When they were all stuck on the hot chocolate, paper flipped and a chest appeared in the center of the room.

"This is all there is around here? That's a bit…weak." Blade opened the chest and grabbed the Chocolate Key from inside. "Hoo boy… This thing better not melt in my own hands."

"Hopefully it doesn't, or else we're screwed," Sonic stated as they got out of the room.

* * *

**Outside-**

After getting out of the pipe, they jumped back on the graham crackers and stomped on a Blue Paratroopa flying around, bringing it to the ground. They were apparently much stronger than normal Koopa Troopas, if you couldn't tell.

"Well, time to finish one off," Chopper stomped on the Blue Koopa and then kicked its shell into the hot chocolate, making it sink to the bottom. They immediately pressed on to a high platform where a door led them to.

"Man, this place feels kind of boring, now that you mention it…" Sonic groaned, kicking the door open. "We haven't had any interesting experiences through this place. When will we see 'em?"

"Poyo, (Beats me,)" Kirby replied as they moved into the next area. Now they were seeing a steep hill up ahead leading up to a pathway. However, there were still some Hammer Bros. on two rows of brick blocks in the way.

Mario: I got it!

Mario punched the brick block that the first Hammer Bro. was stepping on, knocking it off of the block and also the world. He jumped onto the blocks, since he broke that block and struck the last Hammer Bro.

"Man, I don't know how we're going to get up THERE," Chopper said as he pointed to the steep slope. "I don't know if my speed alone could get me up there. Got any ideas, guys?"

Mario: I have an idea.

Mario performed a Triple Jump, which allowed him to up the steep slope and onto the ground. Kirby knew how he could get up there, so he simply took in some air and floated up to Mario.

"Poyo! (And you say that it's too hard to get up here!)" Kirby smirked.

As Kirby helped Chopper, Sonic and Blade up, Chopper began to look at the whole place. The pink sky certainly reminded him of when he was in a place called Music Kingdom five months ago.

"Boy, this place is starting to remind me of that Music Kingdom place I first explored when looking at this place. I think that's when I first met you, Sonic."

"Music Kingdom? Hmmmm…" Sonic began to ponder. "Well, I do remember some of that place. Oh, yeah! That place! I remember when I saved you from those Motobugs!

"And I remembered you called Vivian my girlfriend," Chopper frowned and kicked Sonic in the shin. "I swear, if you call LUVBI my girlfriend, then I might as well kick your knee!"

"Whoa, man! You don't need to be that harsh!" Sonic stepped away from Chopper before losing his balance over by the edge. There were some platforms moving back and forth over another pool of hot chocolate.

"Is that more like hot fudge or something?" Blade questioned. "Because it seems as if the readers believe that it's actually hot chocolate."

"Nah, it's only melted chocolate, which IS pretty dangerous," Chopper corrected.

"Poyo? ! (Dangerous? ! Are you being serious, Chopper? !)" Kirby gaped, looking at Chopper. "Poyo! (Melted chocolate is nowhere NEAR as dangerous! It's chocolate! It's tasty!)"

"Yeah, that's true. But, anyways… I think we should try to cross that pool of melted chocolate anyways." Chopper jumped on one of the platforms and waited for it to reach the other side.

"Dang, there's a Blue Paratroopa waiting on the other side of here," Chopper frowned, stomping on the Blue Paratroopa to land straight on the sticky, blue and pink ground next to the door.

Right by the door was another lollipop. But that lollipop was shaped more like a heart, which made Chopper guffaw.

"Why are there so many things that are like hearts? I mean, is this suppose to be some kind of romantic thing? I hate that stuff!"

"Poyo, (But what we're collecting are hearts,)" Kirby pointed out as he landed right by the door with Chopper.

"Yeah…" Chopper grabbed the lollipop and put it away. "I think I'll just hold onto this. It might be for the good, though."

"What? You're going to give it to someone?" Blade snickered.

"Heck no! I'm just going to hold it for safe-keepings! All right? Sheesh!" Chopper opened the door into a small area with a cake ground and a locked door right by the door. Sonic's ears immediately perked.

"Oh, man! NOW we're getting into something!" Sonic smirked as he used his corkscrew ability to drill through the cakey ground and into a small little tunnel with a couple of Motobugs and Buzz Bombers.

"Hoo boy… I never thought I'd see these guys here!" Sonic used his Homing Attack to strike the enemies. Afterwards, he kicked a chest open that appeared and grabbed a hold of a Door Key.

"And now to get out of here!" Sonic used a corkscrew on a spring right next to him and he was sent straight back up to the group. He pulled the key out and showed the group the key.

"Well, there's the key to where we need to go," Chopper smiled as they walked over to the door and unlocked it.

Upon entering the door, they were in a flat, sticky area like the first area, with only two Blue Koopa Troopas walking around. Mario jumped on one and kicked it straight at the other.

…But what was surprising was that the Blue Koopa simply kicked it back at the group instead.

"Whoa!" Blade drew his katana and took care of the Blue Koopa. Mario decided to finish off the other Blue Koopa by bashing it with his hammer, which easily took care of the thing.

"All right… So, we finally got through that." Chopper sighed in relief and grabbed a lollipop right by him. "So, who wants to go first?"

"Poyo? (For what?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't know. Just to lead the way." Chopper swallowed the whole lollipop, making him feel a little bit hyper. "I mean, I'm certainly not going to lead the way! Because all I'm probably going to see is more…"

"_**WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!**_" the sound of a crying baby almost knocked everyone over, except for Chopper, who still felt a bit hyper.

"What the heck was that?" he asked.

"That sounded like a crying baby," Sonic looked up ahead and saw giant cookie baby with a blue bow on her head and a chocolate diaper crying. The tears coming down her cheek were made of chocolate.

"_**CHOCOLATE!**_" Chopper rushed straight towards the baby and opened his mouth to eat one of the chocolate tears from the cookie baby.

"Poyo! (Whoa! I think he's had too much sugar!)" Kirby gasped, rushing over to Chopper and trying to pull him away from the cookie baby. "Poyo! (You need to stop right now!)"

"Man, he wasn't kidding when he said he gets terrible sugar rushes…" Blade trailed as he tried to help pull Chopper away. "I don't think this'll be enough, though."

Mario: He's got bad sugar rushes?

"Yeah, that's what he said," Sonic confirmed. "I don't know why he does, but it must've been something in the past. I guess that's why in the past he hasn't tried to eat any sugary substances. Now I see it…"

"Poyo! (I got an idea!)" Kirby grabbed a banana that he was carrying and dropped it in Chopper's mouth. "Poyo. (These things are his favorite food, so surely it should do something.)"

After getting the taste from the banana, Chopper blinked a couple of times. "Whaa…? What just happened?"

Mario: You had a bad sugar rush.

"What? ! Oh, man!" Chopper frowned and sighed. "I'm sorry if I caused any damage to any of you guys…"

"You hardly caused any damage," Sonic stated. "You just got a little bit crazy. That's all."

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought for a second…" a chocolate tear fell on top of him, covering him in chocolate. "Ack! Not more chocolate!"

"WAAAAAH! I want my lollipop!" the baby cookie girl continued to cry loudly. Pretty much all of them had to cover their ears because of the obnoxious crying.

"Stop crying! It's starting to hurt our ears!" Blade screeched.

"Not without my lollipop!" she cried. "I can't go anywhere without that thing! I want my lollipop back!"

"And where was the last time you saw it?" Chopper asked.

"I don't know, but I'm NOT moving from this very spot until I get my lollipop back! Do whatever you want, but you're NOT getting past me, you meanies! I bet you're all responsible for making me lose it!"

"What? We just got here!" Sonic frowned. "But fine, if you stop crying, we'll find your stupid lollipop, all right?"

"Fine, I'll stop!" she pouted as she stopped crying. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much around the area for them to find a lollipop.

"Poyo! (Hey, Chopper! Why don't you search for the lollipop in 3-D?)" suggested Kirby. "Poyo! (I think we'll be able to find something interesting if we do that! Do you think it'll work?)"

"Hmmmmm… I haven't thought of that yet… Well, I'll give it a try." Chopper flipped into 3-D and he seemed to notice a pathway to his right. He brought his friends into 3-D and they all took the pathway to the right into another area. They could see a large lollipop stuck in jello.

"Hey! That must be the lollipop!" Chopper gasped. "But it sure looks big…"

"That's what she said," Blade smirked.

"…Blade, we're not going to be using those jokes ever again. They're just… They're just overused and stupid."

"Can we just stop and just grab the lollipop?" Sonic tried to grab a hold of it, but it was too big. "Oh, man… I think it requires five people to carry this thing. I mean, it DOES say that five are required…"

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem. We'll just simple get it and…" before Chopper could make another step, two Mechawfuls hovered down and knocked Sonic away with a powerful punch.

"What in the world? ! What are these guys doing here? !" Sonic gawked.

The two Mechawfuls grabbed the lollipop and took off with it before the others could have a chance to get it. They brought up some large chocolate blocks to block the heroes from following them.

"Aw, come on! They just HAD to block us from getting that lollipop!" Sonic tried kicking the chocolate block, but it didn't do a thing. "Well we could try eating it, but I don't think it'll work out too well."

"Poyo, (I'd eat it, but I don't think I could inhale it,)" Kirby stated.

Mario realized something for a minute and said something about chocolate being able to be melted. This suddenly gave Chopper an idea.

"Wait! I think I know what to do now!" Chopper tossed a fireball straight at the chocolate block and melted it completely. "Try not to slip on the melted chocolate. Or better yet, just jump over it."

Chopper started by jumping over the chocolate, followed by Kirby, Mario, Sonic and then Blade. They immediately raced to the door up ahead and entered it to find the two Mechawfuls carrying the lollipop up a couple of jello blocks.

"POYO! (JELLO!)" Kirby was about to inhale it, but Chopper grabbed a cork out of nowhere and put it in Kirby's mouth to stop him.

"Where'd you get that giant cork?" Blade asked.

Chopper's eyes began to shift. "Shut up…"

He jumped on the jello, making him bounce off the jello a bit to get to a bridge up ahead. Kirby got the cork out of his mouth and followed Chopper and the group via floating.

They noticed on the bridge that below it was fruit punch. Something that was a lot better to fall in than melted chocolate. The Mechawfuls were already at the door, but they decided to destroy the door with a laser, hindering the heroes.

"Aw, no fair!" Sonic kicked the ground in disappointment. "They just HAD to destroy the bridge!"

"Well, talk about unlucky…" Chopper kicked a small chocolate ball into the fruit punch, causing it to sink down. "Wait… I thought chocolate would float in water?"

"Poyo, (Maybe it's because that kind of chocolate sinks into the water if it ever fell in,)" Kirby pondered as he looked down into the water. "Poyo… (Although, I don't think I'm correct on that…)"

"What in the name of…" a voice from down the fruit punch caused everyone to pause for a minute. "What is this chocolate ball? …Wait a minute! I recognize this! This is the Chocolate Ball of Truth? Last time I saw this, I was putting on my Baby Oil of Destiny!"

A bright light emitted from the water as a king with a white, square-shaped head, a red robe made of licorice, a crown made of gummy and a candy cane staff came flying out of the fruit punch water. Of course, his face is white chocolate, if you wanted to know that by now.

"What the… We've seen weird things in the past, but this is just plain weird." Chopper stated.

Mario: Who are you?

"Who am I, you ask? Well, my name is **King Badgecandy**! Good day to you people! I am the one who is the king of **badges**."

"Badges? Hey, I remember collecting those things back on my other adventures!" Chopper gasped.

"Ah, so you have heard of these badges! I congratulate you, little boy! Oh, yes indeed! For you see, if you are one that collects badges, we have some sort of connection! …Like soul mates!"

"Soul mates? But I don't have any interest in you! Relationships are for old people!"

"Naw, I don't mean by THAT kind of soul mates," Badgecandy shook his head. "I'm talking about, er… You know, I don't quite remember. Let's just say we have something in common, all right?"

"Ummmm… All right?" Chopper tilted his head in confusion.

"What the heck are badges anyways?" Blade asked.

"Ah, so there's someone who has never heard of badges before? Well, here's how I'll explain it. When you equip them, you'll be given a new move, or your abilities will have some sort of effect on you…depending on the person."

"Oh, now I see… So am I going to be able to slice people in half with my own hands?"

"Errr… Let me look." Badgecandy checked his inventory. He only had two badges with him so far. "Eeeeeeeeenope. I don't have any of those with me. However, I'll give you these two badges."

He tossed Chopper a badge called the I-C-U badge. "Now that's called the I-C-U badge. What does it do, exactly? Well, for one thing, you can see the amount of HP someone has without having to get them as a Card. It's a pretty nice thing, to be honest!"

Mario: What about the other one?

"The other? Oh, yeah. Lemme give you that." Badgecandy tossed Mario a badge called the Stylish Spin. "That's called the Stylish Spin badge. Basically, when you're performing a stylish move, you'll knock away any enemies that get close to you. It can be pretty useful, you know."

"That's all you gave us? I was hoping for something a bit more useful…" Chopper frowned.

"Don't worry, little boy. There are PLENTY of more badges to be found throughout the worlds. You just have to find them. They can be hidden anywhere in this world, or any other, for that matter. But, let me explain how you use them."

"Oh, boy… Not more tutorials." Blade groaned.

"To select your badge, press the (+) button, and select 'Badges'. It's not hard to find anyways."

"(+) button? What in the world?" Chopper gawked.

"What is the (+) button, you ask?" Badgecandy questioned. "Well, all I can think of is that the great being who watches us all from some sort of screen might be able to understand what I'm saying."

"You mean Grambi?" Sonic asked.

"Grambi? Who's that?"

"You know, God?"

"Ummmmmm… Sorry, but I don't really know about this Grambi person. Anyways, just select the badge you want to use and press (2) to equip it. Only certain badges can be equipped for someone. Luckily, these badges here can be equipped by anyone in the entire group!"

"Hmmmmm… I guess I'll hold onto the I-C-U badge for right now…" Chopper trailed as he equipped the badge. "You can hold onto the Stylish Spin badge if you want, Mario. Unless… If someone else wants it."

"Well, I seem to have the most style in the group, so maybe I'll take it," Sonic suggested. Mario shrugged as he gave the badge to Sonic. Upon equipping it, he could now be protected from enemies while doing a stylish move.

"Now, allow me to let you through… But first, I must warn you that each person can hold up to three badges! …Unless you find a little upgrade that increases the amount of badges you can hold."

"Dang… No Badge Points? What a shame…" Chopper waited for Badgecandy to transform into a bridge before entering the door up ahead, which lead into a small area with the two Mechawfuls putting another block of chocolate in the way.

"Poyo? (Do they honestly believe that they can stop us like this?)" Kirby questioned. "Poyo! (This is seriously a joke!)"

"Well, better do what I usually do," Chopper whirled up a fireball and tossed it straight at the chocolate block, melting it. Since the Mechawfuls didn't know where else to go, they put down the lollipop and got themselves ready.

"Oh, yeah? Well take this!" Sonic performed a Homing Attack on one of the Mechawfuls and performed a stylish move. One of the robots got knocked back from it and took some damage.

Mario: I got this!

Mario finished off the Mechawful with a stomp attack. From what Chopper could see, these guys had about 28 HP, so it wouldn't be too bad to take them down.

Kirby simply finished off the other Mechawful by inhaling one of the cannonball fists that it fired at him and spitting it back at it, destroying it.

"Whew! So we finally took care of those guys! Hopefully that stupid baby will finally get out of the way when we give her this stupid lollipop." Chopper tried to lift it up, but he couldn't. Even though he WAS trying his best.

"Chopper… What are you trying to do?" Blade asked.

"What does it look like? ! I'm trying to be a freakin' trooper here!"

"No no no, you can't do it by yourself. You're not strong enough." Blade grabbed a hold of the lollipop and tried to lift it. "Whoa… This thing's pretty heavy. I think we all need to work together on this."

* * *

**Ten minutes later-**

The five heroes panted as they brought the giant lollipop to the cookie baby, who gasped at the sight of her giant lollipop.

"Yay! My lollipop!" she got up and grabbed a hold of it. "Now I can finally go back home to mommy! …Oh, and you guys can go if you want as well."

She got up and made her way out of the area, allowing the five heroes to walk up to the door ahead.

"Wow, so she couldn't go home without a lollipop? Well, that sure is a baby…" Blade frowned.

Mario: Oh, yes!

As they entered the door, they noticed a lot of Lollis, Mechawfuls, Blue Koopa Troopas and a couple of pink pipes, as well as some blocks. However, a yellow ? block was right beside the door, to their surprise.

Mario was the first to strike the block. A Mega Star popped out and landed in the plumber's fist, transforming him into a giant 8-bit version of himself. It wasn't exactly big, but it looked like the same size of Chopper's 8-bit version.

"Wow… I thought 8-bit Mario would look bigger." Chopper said with a blank look. Nevertheless, they followed him from behind as he trampled everything in his sight.

"Poyo… (Too bad I didn't get that…)" Kirby trailed.

"Don't worry, Kirby. You might have your chance one day."

They followed Mario from behind until he went back to his normal, paper self. Luckily, everything in his path was completely demolished, and there was even a Star Block up ahead.

"Yay! We're finally finished!" Chopper smiled innocently as he punched the Star Block with his fist.

"Poyo. (But we still have more to go. That was the second part.)"

"Uh oh… I don't wanna get more sugar rushes!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After a rather boring trip through the road to the Sweet Kingdom, our heroes felt exhausted. "Poyo! (Hey, guys! Take a look at this!)" Kirby called out. "Poyo! (It's a giant gummy bear!)" Chopper, being one who didn't want to eat any sugary substances, couldn't help but look at the tasty sweet. "Man… My gut's seriously telling me to eat that thing… But I don't wanna!" Chopper and Co. simply turned away from the delicious gummy bear and strolled on. What they saw up ahead was starting to become stranger by the minute…_

* * *

**You REALLY don't want to get Chopper eating sugar. He DEFINITELY has some bad sugar rushes. Next to girls that like him, it's one of the worst things that ****he has to deal with. That's why he doesn't try to eat any sugary substance like candy.**

**And yes, I had to put a gummy bear in that ending there. Why? Because I love gummy bears! Really, I enjoy them more than any other sweet in the world. It's just...dang good.**

**Anyway, next up, our heroes explore the Sweet Kingdom and end up encountering another old foe they haven't seen in a while. Who, you may ask? Well, you'll find out (you won't find him in the unedited chapter! :D).**_  
_


	54. The Ride on the Lake

**CHAPTER 9-3**

**-The Ride on the Lake-**

"Oh, man… I can't believe we saw a huge gummy bear back over there!" Chopper said with complete surprise, even though they were already a couple of miles past that thing. "I don't know about you guys, but I still think that this is the weirdest place I've ever been to. Not even Music or Toy Kingdom can top this world! At all! Don't you all agree with me on that one?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, I think I can definitely agree,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (I like this world and all, but on a scale of one to ten on the weirdness level… I'd probably have to go to about eleven on that.)"

The group decided to look at what was around them for right now. The ground was still the way it was, but if you flipped into 3-D, you could see that there was green grass around the pathway, but the thing is… It's made of green licorice(if that even exists). The sky was still its pretty pink color and the area itself was a bit hilly, but not by a lot. In the background, however, they could see a castle off in the distance. It looked like a delicious one, that's for sure.

"What do you think that castle off at the distance could be?" Blade asked. "You think that that might be where the Pure Heart is?"

"I don't know, but I sure hope that that's where it is…" Sonic trailed. He noticed a sign made of chocolate nearby. "Hey, what do you think this sign says here? Maybe we should go check it out."

Mario walked over to the sign and he began to read what it said on it.

_I hereby welcome you to the Sweet Kingdom! This place is ruled by King Candanian, the king of the Sweet Kingdom, if you already knew that by now. As for outsiders… We do NOT want to see any veggies in this place! Nada! The worst of them all are…BEANS! Beans are not allowed in this place at all! If you're a bean, then please GET OUT THIS INSTANT!_

"Wait, so those guys hate beans?" Chopper gawked. Mario gave him a simple nod. "That's just…weird. I can understand them hating veggies and all, but beans aren't vegetables."

"Maybe it's because they make you pass gas?" Blade predicted. Everyone gave him a strange look. "I'm just saying, guys."

"Well, I can see why they don't want Fawful here. After all, he IS a bean." Chopper stated. "Speaking of Fawful… Where do you think that bean person is right now? We didn't see him back there."

"_**I HAVE DESTRUCTION!**_"

"Well, we know that he's around here now," Sonic confirmed. They noticed that off at the distance, well, in the background, they could see Fawful's shadow holding up a donut.

"Fawful is almost victorious!" he cried out in his childish, yet weird voice. "It's so great that Fawful… Fawful could GORGE on it!"

"No! Please, for the love of jelly-filled donuts no!" a jelly-filled donut cried. "Think about the people here! We're not exactly the nicest people, but I don't want to have to die from being eaten by…"

_CHOMP!_

"No! Not my upper right head! You… You ate it! And now jelly's coming out of me! Oh, woe is me!"

"Nyeah heh heh heh heh heh heh! Now I have jelly! The tasty chocolate goodness that sits in Fawful's mouth gives me the sugars! It gives me…IDEAS!" Fawful finished the rest of the donut before flying off.

"Whoa… Did you guys hear that?" Chopper asked in complete shock. "Fawful… He just ate a whole donut! Man, I think he seriously means business. You think that he's got more ideas as well?"

"Poyo, (I honestly have no idea,)" Kirby shrugged. "Poyo. (All that really matters is that we try to stop Fawful. We can't just let him terrorize this whole world and the people here anyways!)"

"Well, we'll just have to find him and stop him," Chopper walked past the sign and saw a Buzzy Beetle with a pink shell walking on the ground. He stomped on it and kicked it to another Buzzy Beetle.

…But that Buzzy Beetle managed to kick it back to Chopper, hitting him straight in the face.

"Dang it! These guys can throw shells back at us too!" Chopper grabbed the shell and dropped it on top of the pink Buzzy Beetle instead, making it flip over and allow him to finish it off by bashing it with his hammer.

"Well, that took care of that," Sonic ran up ahead and delivered a Homing Attack on a Blue Koopa that was walking around, causing it to hide in its shell. He then kicked it down a bottomless pit.

"Say, what do you think we might be seeing around this part of the Sweet Kingdom?" Blade asked.

"Ehhhh… I'm not so sure, Blade. Things do look interesting around here, but we haven't really found anything special here…yet." Chopper tossed a fireball at a Darkling up ahead. With one more, he disintegrated it.

Chopper simply moved on ahead, his feet moving like a wheel through the area as he began to speed up. Sonic shrugged and simply followed him too, striking any pink Buzz Bombers up in the air.

"Why are so many enemies here pink?" Chopper frowned. "That's a color I don't really seem to like!"

"Poyo! (Hey! I'm pink!)" Kirby retorted.

"Well, that's a different story," Chopper ran through a loop, but he ended up falling on the ground. The loop was meant to lead down someplace below, but apparently it was being blocked.

"What just happened…?"

"Hang on, Chopper. Maybe I can take care of this." Sonic waited for Chopper to move before curling up into a ball and using a Spin Dash to break through the ground below the loop, leading into a little secret passageway.

"I'll try to follow him," Chopper jumped down into the hole and landed in a small underground room. Two Darklings appeared and tried to hurl their red spells, but Chopper blocked one of them with his hammer.

"I got this one!" Sonic used a Whirlwind attack on both Darklings and sent them flying out of the hole, where Mario could bash both of them with his hammer.

"Hey, I see a chest over there!" Chopper kicked the chest open and got a badge called Elemental Charge. From what he saw, it was only a badge that he could equip, so he did just that.

"What does it do?" Sonic asked.

"Well, apparently it allows me to charge up one of my fireballs, from the looks of it. Let me see." Chopper noticed a big chocolate block blocking the way. He charged up a fireball and shot it straight at it, melting it entirely.

"Hey, this should be helpful! It kind of reminds me of when Samus would charge up her beam attack! I think this should be useful!" Chopper took the pipe that appeared, which led on top of the loop.

"Where've you been?" Blade asked.

"I found a new badge, but apparently only I can hold onto it," Chopper stated as he walked over to the door. "Sorry if any of you are disappointed. Hopefully we'll find some other cool badges."

They entered through the door into an area that looked more like a garden than the others. There were ice cream cone enemies named Sundaes with guns that shoot ice cream patrolling this area. They even noticed that a statue of Fawful was in the center of the room.

"Wow, Fawful looks uglier than I thought," Sonic stated.

"Yeah, he's just…freaky," Chopper frowned. "If… That's the correct term."

"Well, I'd certainly like to knock this thing down!" Blade slashed the statue's leg, causing it to fall over on two Mechawfuls that were trying to put the thing up, destroying them.

"Did you guys notice that some of these enemies have Fawful faces? Like those guys there." Chopper pointed to a Donawful (a donut enemy) and an Ice Creawful that were firing their weapons straight at them.

"Poyo! (Heads up!)" Kirby ate the hot fudge and the strawberry ice cream that was fired in Chopper's direction.

"One had strawberry? That's kind of disgusting." Chopper frowned.

"Wait a second… I thought you'd eat anything?" Blade gawked.

"Well, I can if I want, but I don't necessarily love EVERYTHING. I hate chili dogs and strawberry ice cream. Oh yeah, and I don't really like the smell of rotten eggs or, well, maybe I'll get to that later."

"Poyo? (How can you smell if you have no nose?)" Kirby asked.

Chopper's antennas sprung up a little. "You know… I don't really know. I don't think I've ever understood that yet."

"Bleh, whatever. Let's just move on and see if there are any other shortcuts." Blade gripped his katana and jumped over the Fawful statue and taking care of an Ice Creawful that was in his way.

"Wait… I see a door up ahead, but it looked like it's in some sort of cage." Sonic noticed a couple of pillars around the garden as well. "Maybe we're supposed to flip into 3-D to get to the door?"

"Well, I'll try," Chopper jumped on a short pillar and then on one of the tall ones. By flipping into 3-D, he noticed a little bridge on each of the pillars. However, they were a bit skinny…

"Aw, man! Now I have to be cautious here!" he got the others in 3-D and they began to make their way across the skinny bridges. They had to go south first, then to the left, and then up north to reach the pillar with the red door.

Mario: Let's-a go!

They made their way into the next area, where they saw a couple of red springs right in front of them. A large wall that had spikes at the top was above them. With one jump, they were launched up high above the spikes.

"Man… I kind of miss Tippi advising us on what to do and what NOT to do…" Chopper trailed as he got over the spikes and landed down over by more springs that launched him up high.

"This kind of reminds me of the good old days, honestly," Sonic smiled, following Chopper up to the top of the platform. They noticed that there were a couple of Blue Koopas on the top platform.

"This should be simply," Chopper charged up a fireball and tossed it straight at the Blue Koopa, taking it down with double the damage his normal fireball would do. He took care of the other by stomping on it and kicking it down by the springs.

"You think that Koopa'll be fine down there?" Blade asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure it'll take care of itself," Chopper turned around and walked up to the door ahead and entered it. They were led into an area with a raft right next to a slippery slope with a waterfall made of fruit punch.

"Poyo! (A drink!)" Kirby jumped over to the fruit punch waterfall and began to let it all go into his mouth. However, Chopper managed to pull Kirby away before he could drink any more.

"Are you trying to fatten yourself up? ! We can't keep getting sugar rushes here! I'm sure YOU might get one pretty soon!"

"Poyo, (Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me about that,)" he apologize as he stepped away from the water.

"Oh, man… Don't tell me we have to do something related to the water…" Sonic's eye began to twitch as he noticed that the slippery slope was leading down to a large, red lake made of fruit punch.

"Holy crap! I never knew they had something like THIS here!" Blade gaped.

Mario suggested that they should all use the raft to get down to the lake. Chopper agreed with him by nodding and began to start pushing the raft over by the slippery slope.

"Whoa, kid! Don't push the whole raft down without us on it!" Blade jumped on the raft, as well as Kirby, Sonic and Mario.

"Wh-What? ! You expect me to push you guys down? ! B-But… I can't do that! Look at my arms!" Chopper pointed to his small arms. "I can't do much with something like that! I'd be able to push this if Kirby was on here, but with three heavier people? I think NOT!"

"Well, why don't you kick it then?" suggested Sonic.

Chopper kicked it, but it didn't really move that much. "See? I can't move this stupid thing at all!"

"In truth, we're a bit close, so maybe you should get on," Blade suggested.

Chopper shrugged and jumped on the raft. They all attempted to move it at once, but the raft ended up sliding down the slippery slope and down the large fruit punch waterfall and into the lake.

After the huge splash, everyone was soaked from all of the water. Sonic was shivering before he shook all of the fruit punch off of him. Unfortunately, because it was fruit punch, he felt a bit sticky.

"Aw, come on! This made us all sticky!" Chopper frowned as he looked down at the lake. He could see his own reflection. "Hey, I don't look as bad as I thought I was. …Is that why some girls like me?"

He could also see the reflection of a hovering machine off at the distance. It kind of resembled Dr. Eggman's mech, however.

"Wait a second… Do I see something that's like Eggman's mech?" Chopper gasped.

"Eggman?" Sonic turned around and saw Eggman flying around the lake on his mech, pondering to himself on what he should do.

"Ugh… Ever since that blasted hedgehog managed to take me down in that 8-bit world, I haven't thought of any good plans! Think, Robotnik! Think!" Eggman looked up and noticed the five on the raft.

"What's this?" he pulled out his binoculars. The first thing he seemed to notice was his arch-enemy, Sonic. "Sonic? What's he doing here? ! …No matter. I suppose I could test out my Battle Mech on him and his friends!"

"Poyo! (Hang on! I think he's coming this way!)" Kirby cried as Eggman's mech made its way over to the raft.

"Well well well! If it isn't my blue friend, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Eggman greeted in a polite manner. "How are you doing this day? Do you wish to meet your maker by my hands?"

"Oh, I'm doing pretty well, thanks for asking," Sonic smirked as he began to stretch his legs. "And am I ready to meet my maker? Well, sure! I'd certainly love to meet the one who made me!"

"Then go find your mother," Blade snickered.

"Blade… I'm just joking."

"Yes, Sonic, why don't you go crying home to your mother!" Eggman cackled. "Because with my new Battle Mech, I'm sure that you will all fall down to your knees and beg for mercy!"

"Well, why don't you prove it then!" Chopper taunted.

"Very well," with a press of a red button, Eggman's mech suddenly transformed into a walker mech. It pretty much resembled Eggman's battle mech from Sonic Adventure 2, which wasn't too surprising.

"Really? THIS is what you plan on using against us? Weak…" Sonic taunted.

"Oh, you'll see the new upgrades I put on this thing!" Eggman grinned. "Now let's see how you handle THIS!"

"Oh, gee, he's going to say some more one-liners again," Chopper jumped out of the way when Eggman's mech fired a blast straight at the group. "You know this thing can't hold us all at once!"

"Well that sounds nice, because I could honestly make you all sink to the bottom of this lake! I'll be satisfied!" Eggman pressed another button and his mech began to fire missiles at them.

Mario: Mama mia!

"Don't worry, guys. I think we can maneuver 'em!" Sonic jumped and performed a Homing Attack on Eggman's mech, knocking it straight into the water. "Bulls-eye! Got 'em!"

"That's what you think!" cackled Eggman as the mech rose from the water and began to hover above it. "Luckily for me, I've put some jets on this thing to make sure that I don't end up drowning!"

"Well, can you dodge this?" Chopper charged up a fireball and threw it straight at the Battle Mech, causing it to overheat for a couple of seconds, allowing him to stomp on it when it was no longer overheated.

"So, Chopper, how much HP does this guy have?" Sonic asked.

"Well, it looks like he's got 95 HP, from what I can see. Hopefully we're not here for a long time…" Chopper brought his hammer down on the mech, causing some severe damage.

"Urgh… You little…!" Eggman made the mech fire missiles. But, unfortunately for him, Kirby simply inhaled them instead and got the Bomb ability. Chopper inhaled one as well to gain the ability too.

"Two bombs are better than one, that's for sure," Chopper stated as he and Kirby both threw a bomb straight at Eggman's battle mech.

"GAH! What is WRONG with this thing? ! I may have lost last time, but this thing was BOUND to destroy!"

Blade shrugged and tossed Hommissile straight at the Battle Mech, resulting in another explosion, followed up by Sonic's Homing Attack.

"Hey, why not give Mario a chance in this fight? He didn't do a thing!" Chopper stepped out of the way and let Mario step up. "C'mon, Mario! You should probably make an attack."

Mario: OK!

With a nod, Mario stomped on the Battle Mech and performed a Ground Pound on it afterwards. For them, they were doing pretty well…until the Battle Mech shot a laser beam that struck Blade and Chopper.

"Whoa! What the heck was that? !" Blade gasped.

"Oh ho ho ho! That would be my famous laser beam, of course!" Eggman cackled. "And surely this thing will take you all down easily!"

Eggman began to charge up another laser, but Mario gripped his hammer and slammed it down on his mech. Sadly, that wasn't enough, so he performed his Ultra Hammer attack on it to leave a couple of dents on the machine.

"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing? !" Eggman barked, stopping his attack to pull out his blaster in order to strike Mario. However, Sonic delivered a Spin Dash upon the mech and made him drop his blaster.

"Ack! You little…!" Eggman tried to get a hold of Sonic, but he ended up stomping on his head. But, at least he was able to strike Sonic with one of his missiles while he was up in the air.

"Oof! Man, you sure are a toughie to beat, sometimes." Sonic simply shook himself while Mario stomped on Eggman's mech before he could even blast Kirby.

"Poyo! (Let me get in to some of the fun!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and threw it straight at Eggman, causing another explosion and leaving the mech severely damaged. Eggman fired a laser beam again, but Kirby floated over it and threw another bomb at the machine once again.

"Curse you people! Why isn't this WORKING? !" Eggman slammed his fists on the panel, which unintentionally caused the mech to sizzle Chopper and Kirby with a flamethrower.

"Oh… I never knew about that."

"Save it for later, Eggman," Chopper whirled up another bomb and threw it at the mech's body, knocking it back only a little bit, but it didn't cause it to fall over, that's for sure. Eggman's Battle Mech hovered over the group and began to drop a couple of bombs down on the group. Blade blew one up by throwing a shuriken at one of them.

"Man, sometimes it feels good to blow stuff up," Blade gripped his katana and struck Eggman's Battle Mech with one slice, dealing some heavy damage. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly enough to take him down.

"Sheesh! Will this ever stop?" Chopper bashed the mech once again with a hammer. This time, Eggman pressed another button and four pink electric sparks appeared above them all and slowly began to descend upon them.

"Uh oh… Something tells me we gotta get away from those…" Blade gulped.

Mario: Go someplace safe!

"What're you going to do, Mario?" Chopper asked.

Mario: Just watch.

Mario jumped in between two sparks and stomped on Eggman's mech, followed by performing a Ground Pound on it afterwards.

"Whew… What's going on here? !" Eggman noticed a couple of explosions coming from his mech. "Urgh… Worthless piece of junk! How could it possibly be running low on power at this moment? !"

"Maybe because your machine sucks?" Blade scoffed.

"Or maybe it's because it's gotten a big beating," Chopper stated. "What? I'm speaking the truth! I'm not trying to mock you or anything!"

"I don't care what you're trying to do, just let me finish you up already!" Eggman growled as he fired a couple of missiles down at the group. Mario ended up getting hit by one, while Chopper jumped back from one and tossed a bomb at the mech, stunning it for a couple of seconds.

"I don't know which fight was easier, this one, or the one back in the Bitlands!" Sonic grinned. "'Cause I think the rest of this is going to be a cakewalk!"

"I'll shut that big mouth of yours…" the doctor muttered under his breath as he struck Sonic with his laser beam. "How's that, hedgehog? ! Do you like the taste of an all-powerful laser beam? !"

"Oof! …Not really." Sonic groaned as he slowly got up. Meanwhile, Chopper charged up a fireball and shot it directly at Eggman's mech, causing an explosion and allowing Blade to slice it up a little with his katana.

"Well, what do ya know? I managed to slice up the mech a bit!" Blade smirked. "So, Eggman, when do you want to give up?"

"I don't really remember who you are anyways!" Eggman roared, firing a couple of missiles straight at Blade. A couple hit him, but he was holding his fists up to protect himself a bit.

"Whoa… That kind of hurt…"

"Hmmmmmm… Things aren't looking good here…" Eggman pondered to himself as he looked at the machine. "I can still win this, however!"

Unfortunately, he was interrupted by Mario, who caused Eggman's Battle Mech to make sparks fly everywhere with his Ultra Hammer attack. And while he did that, Sonic was charging up a Light Speed Dash.

"Ready, Eggy?" Sonic grinned.

"Wait! Sonic!" Eggman begged. "Don't try to…"

"_**GO!**_" Sonic immediately struck Eggman with his Light Speed Dash, causing some immense explosions. Not only that, but his attack was strong enough to send Eggman and his mech flying out of this world.

"_**CURSE YOU, SONIC!**_" was the last thing they heard before Eggman disappeared from their sights.

"Well, at least he was finished off in style," Sonic stated while making a pose. "Man, he never learns!"

"Well, at least we can finally move on," Chopper noticed that they moved very little on the lake. "Aw, come on! We seriously didn't move that much? ! That's… That's just not fair!"

"Poyo, (At least there's a yellow ? block coming by,)" Kirby hit the block and five Super Shrooms popped out, to their surprise. Nevertheless, they ate them and recovered 20 HP from them.

"I wonder… Are these things even good for you?"

Mario: Of course they are!

"Ummmm… All right." Chopper looked on ahead, but he noticed something off at the distance. He could see another raft, but instead of there being five people, there was one, big pink boar rowing it.

"Uh oh… Don't tell me it's that pig guy again." he groaned while smacking his forehead in annoyance.

Mario: Pig guy?

"Yeah, some pig guy named Mis…er, Mider… Wait! It's Midbus! Yeah, Midbus… Anyways, he's working for Fawful, and I'm PRETTY sure he's coming here to stop us…"

"You have the correcting!" Fawful was apparently hovering above the group, cackling as he was chomping down on a donut. "I have tastiness!"

"Could you PLEASE make a bit more sense, Fawful? That would be very nice of you…" Blade groaned.

"These anti-bean people will have the paying for discriminating against Fawful!" Fawful spat. "They are fink-rats, just like you five. They deserve to willow in a pool of jello like boring geese."

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Chopper asked.

"Fawful knows your weaknesses! If you can slurp the sugary goodness of this lake, then having it you will! _**MIDBUS! COME!**_"

This time, Midbus rowed faster to Fawful, who was now feeling exhausted. "Rowing was hard. I'm here."

"Give the heroes the taste of your fury!"

"Of course, Lord Fawful," Midbus pulled a pin out and jabbed it straight into the raft that the five heroes were on.

"Oh, come on! Did you really have to do that? !" Sonic frowned, glaring at Midbus. However, the raft didn't seem to lose any air. "Wait… What's going on? Nothing happened…"

Fawful paused for a minute and turned to Midbus. "Midbus."

"What."

"Pull out pin."

Midbus shrugged and pulled the pin out. This time the raft began to shrink until it was the size of a pea. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario were still floating in mid-air, but their eyes widened as they looked down at the lake.

"Nyeah heh heh heh heh! Farewell, fink-rats!" Fawful cackled as he flew away. Midbus began to row away as well.

"Oh, crud…" Chopper gulped as he, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario immediately sank to the bottom of the lake.

"Why do heroes hate lake?" Midbus asked Fawful as he rowed away.

"The fink-rats will surely have the sugar rush, which is over Fawful's fury… But too much fury will drive them like nuts!"

Midbus didn't understand, but he seemed to get it a little. "I see. You're boss."

* * *

**Bottom of the lake-**

As the five sank to the bottom, Sonic began to put his hands to his mouth as he began to choke. Everyone else looked at him and pointed to the air bubble right by them for him to inhale. Blade did the same thing.

"Well this is great… Apparently we're now trapped in the bottom of this lake…" Chopper groaned, looking around the small area they were in. They noticed a tall stone in the way, but there was no way of getting through there. Chopper even flipped into 3-D to get past, but it didn't work.

"Great… It looks like there's no way of getting out of this place…" he kicked the ground in disappointment.

"Poyo, (I wish we had something that could help us get through here, that's for sure,)" Kirby hoped, sitting on the ground, trying his best NOT to drink any of the fruit punch. Y'know, to prevent sugar rush.

"Yeah, hopefully soon…" Chopper trailed as he watched both Sonic and Blade take in some air bubbles.

"That voice… It sounds like something I'm supposed to hear!" a Pixl shaped like a boot with a brown outline around it and red wings got up from the ground and noticed the five heroes. "Wait… Lemme give you a little check-up for a sec!"

"A check-up? But you don't look like a doctor…"

"I'm not supposed to be a doctor. I'm only here to see if you're really the ones that I think you are…" the Pixl began to check Chopper for a couple of seconds, looking at his face and antennas.

"Errrr… You DO seem to be the hero, but I don't think my powers will be safe in your hands." Chopper pouted as the Pixl floated over to Mario.

"Hmmmmm… A magnificent 'stace, blue overalls, red shirt, white gloves...and a cool, red hat! Let's see here…" the Pixl continued to look at Mario for a couple of seconds. "Ah-HA! You…of all people! You DO remind me of a stocking!"

Mario immediately fell over on the ground. "…But, anyways, by looking at you, I believe you are indeed the one capable of using me. As for the others… Nah, I don't think your feet have what it takes."

"Poyo? (Do they smell?)" Kirby asked.

"…What on earth did he just say?"

"I'm not going to translate it," Chopper said, shaking his head.

"Well, whatever. The heroes are here, so I might as well join you guys! Besides… You're probably going to need me anyways! You can call me Kickbrin, the kickster!" Kickbrin began to circle around Mario before the plumber held him up.

**The kicking Pixl, Kickbrin, has now joined your quest! Kickbrin's ability allows the heroes to knock many things down with a simple kick attack. This can also be quite useful when you're trying to make things fall over. With enemies, you can kick them straight into another enemy if possible!**

"With my powers, there's nothing that will stand in your way, mustachioed hero!" Kickbrin declared. "Now try to find a way through this lake if you want to catch that evil and psychotic bean!"

"All right, so go ahead and test that Pixl out!" Chopper suggested, swimming out of Mario's way for him to use Kickbrin. With a kick, Mario was able to send the tall block tumbling down, allowing them to move through the current.

"Poyo? (Huh? Is the current pulling us or something?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't know… It feels like it!" Chopper tried to grab a hold of something, but it didn't work that way. They were all pulled into another area in the lake, which was somewhere a bit closer to the water.

As soon as Sonic took in another bubble, he jumped on the platform sticking out of the slope nearby and let it take him up to the other side, where he jumped on a couple of platforms to get to a red door.

"We better follow him," Chopper swam up to the red door and headed through with the others, bringing them into an area with a couple of pink Cheep-Cheeps swimming around. Chopper took them out with fireballs.

"Well, I guess the rest of this is going to involve us swimming through here… That's a nice treat."

"Poyo, (No kidding,)" Kirby followed Chopper up the slope, while Sonic performed a Spin Dash to get up there. Blade took care of another Cheep-Cheep using his katana before taking in a bubble right next to him.

Two boxes were also on the bottom, so Sonic simply used a Homing Attack on one of them to get a Bubble Shield. Blade also did this and he too got himself a nice Bubble Shield, protecting them from the waters.

"Whew! Thank goodness I can finally breathe!" Sonic said, sighing in relief. "So, this is kind of like the Tile Pool, is that it?"

"Well, I guess it is, considering that I don't see much around here except for these stumps," Chopper stated. He flipped into 3-D to see if there was a specific order they had to be in. That wasn't the case.

BUT, he did find a hidden pipe behind a bulky area on the ground, so he swam down to it and entered it with his friends while they were in 3-D. It led them into another underwater tunnel with Bloopers all over the place.

"I got these!" Blade gripped his katana and began to slice up all of the Bloopers with a couple of clones that he created, making it easier for him to take care of them all. Afterwards, he put his katana away and walked over to the tall block all the way to the right.

Mario: I got this!

Mario kicked the block over and swam up to a sign right by him. He read it to see what it had to say.

_Remember those five stumps you saw in that other area? Well, if you hit the first, fourth and fifth, something good'll happen!_

Mario: Hmmmm?

"I think it means we need to go back to that area we were previously in, Mario," Chopper explained. Mario realized this and gave him a nod while saying, "Yes!"

* * *

**Other area-**

"All right, Mario. Go ahead and use your Ground Pound on the first, fourth and fifth stump!" Sonic suggested.

Mario nodded and got to work on that. Luckily, he could use his Ground Pound while in the water, so it made things easier for him to ground pound the three stumps.

As soon as he did that, a door appeared right in the middle of the stumps, allowing them to press on ahead into an area with a slope leading up to the surface of the lake. There were a couple of fish lines, though.

"Poyo! (There's chocolate on one of those hooks!)" Kirby squealed, swimming towards it. Chopper managed to pull him away from it before he could get his hands on the chocolate.

"Don't you see, Kirby? That chocolate's attached to a hook!" Chopper explained, grabbing the hook and letting it go for the hook to go up to the surface. "See? We can't just grab something hanging from the…"

When Chopper turned around, he saw a gummy bear attached to a hook. "Holy… GUMMY BEARS? !"

He tried to grab it, but he immediately pulled himself away. "No! I can't try to eat that thing… In fact, I feel as if I'm even inhaling some of this water!"

"Well, I think we should get out of it," suggested Blade.

"Yeah… I think that's a good idea…" Chopper panted, making his way up to the surface. Apparently, a couple of Ice Creawfuls were fishing for some Cheep-Cheeps. They weren't certainly pleased to see them, however.

"Don't worry, guys, we can handle them," Blade smirked, drawing his katana.

"Wait! I got a better idea!" Chopper whirled up a fireball and tossed it straight at one of the Ice Creawfuls, melting it instantly. "These guys are cold, so I think fire would work against them."

"Poyo? (What about bombs?)" Kirby questioned.

"Oh, yeah… Let's try it out." Chopper pulled a bomb out and threw it at one Ice Creawful. Even that killed it in one hit. With Kirby's bomb, it destroyed the other Ice Creawful.

"Gee, what's with all of the ice cream baddies?" Sonic asked.

Chopper shrugged while removing his Bomb ability. They noticed part of the ground had some small ice cream puddles. However, those weren't coming from the baddies they just defeated.

"Gee, I wonder what all of this stuff is…"

Mario: Beats me.

"Poyo, (It looks like melted ice cream to me,)" Kirby stated as he jumped over the puddle and walked over to the door. "Poyo! (Come on! I don't think we should be much further ahead!)"

As they entered the next area, they noticed that the Star Block was up ahead. But what they ALSO happened to notice was all of the ice cream in the background. There were even some floating up above the heroes!

"What…the f…?" Blade gawked.

"Blade, don't even try to finish that word…" Chopper warned as he took a couple of steps. "Wow… So after that long trip through the Sweet Kingdom, we end up running into an area with giant floating ice cream cones?"

"Poyo! (I wanna eat them!)" Kirby said cheerfully.

"I'd like to too, but I don't wanna get any sugar rushes from them…" Chopper paused for a minute. "Wait, I don't think I've gotten sugar rushes from ice cream. In fact, I LOVE ice cream!"

"So I suppose you're going to devour it all?" Sonic asked.

"Err… No! What really matters is that we end this chapter. I mean, we should be getting closer to the castle anyways!"

As soon as Chopper reached the Star Block, he smashed it with one punch, breaking it entirely.

"You better not stop us from getting any…" Blade warned.

"Don't worry, I won't try to stop you!"

"Good."

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Relieved to be away from the Fruit Punch Lake, the five heroes strolled on ahead through the kingdom. All of the ice cream floating in the sky started to get to them, making them want to devour it. But, unfortunately, it was a bit TOO high up. Nevertheless, they managed to keep their cool and explore what they would possibly find ahead. Hopefully they wouldn't encounter Fawful again…_

* * *

**Yeah, there's not much to say about this chapter...except for the lake. Sure, you probably might enjoy swimming in it...but what about when you're OUT of it? Something tells me that you'd be sticky from all of the fruit punch in there...**

**Do you guys love ice cream? 'Cause I know I do! We're DEFINITELY going to see a lot of ice cream in the next chapter, trust me.**

**...And one of my favorite Fawful moments as well. :D**_  
_


	55. Ice Cream Galore!

**CHAPTER 9-4**

**-Ice Cream Galore!-**

This almost felt like heaven for Chopper. It WOULD be considered heaven for him if there were bananas around as well. But, ice cream is definitely his second-favorite food. Usually it's frozen yogurt he'll have more, but seeing ice cream in the sky was a pleasant sight for our heroes. The pink sky, the grass made of green licorice on the ground, and the ground made of a sweet candy such as a jolly rancher or even a lollipop. It was like another garden all over again…but with ice cream statues in the background as well.

"Seriously… There's so much ice cream around here." Chopper said while drooling over the giant ice cream cones floating in the sky. "Why can't I honestly eat one right now? My stomach's actually growling a bit…"

"Poyo? (What about those Super Shrooms we had back on that lake?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, they didn't do too much," Chopper stated, pointing to his stomach, or the lower part of his head. "One thing isn't going to do much for me, you know that? Same goes with you too, Kirby."

"Poyo, (Oh, yeah, I know that, that's for sure,)" Kirby nodded.

"So… Are you guys seriously talking about food or something?" Blade gawked, looking at the two small heroes. "Is this what you tend to talk about almost every single day you see each other? Or is this normal?"

"Nah, it's perfectly normal, Blade. We both tend to inhale things like a vacuum, so we're both expected to be inhaling things like…like gourmets!" Chopper began to ponder a minute. "Yeah, I do love to eat food, apparently."

"And I like to eat chili dogs!" Sonic said, making a pose that caused Chopper and Kirby to face palm.

"…We know that already."

Sonic: *face palm*

Mario: Are we gonna do something yet?

"…Yeah, I don't think we should just be sitting here and talking about what kind of food we like to eat," Blade suggested, scanning the area for any enemies. All he could see were a couple of Ice Creawfuls and Donawfuls on the flat area. "See those guys there? We could surely give them a beating."

"More ice cream guys? Well, I guess I'll just melt them with my fireballs." Chopper charged up a fireball in order to deal heavier damage and he threw it straight at the Ice Creawful, melting in entirely. Kirby inhaled the Donawful and swallowed it to regain some small amount of HP.

Chopper suddenly began to shiver. "Oh, man… Guys, don't you think it's a bit cold around these parts?"

Kirby realized this too and began to shiver the most out of everyone. "Poyo… (No kidding, Chopper… It's starting to feel cold around here! …Could it possibly be because of the ice cream?)"

"Well it's better than being in Snowy Mountain! That place was freezing! Especially when Heartsy kissed me and her lips were stuck to my cheek! Th… That was just HORRIBLE beyond belief!"

"Heh heh… One of your girlfriend's lips were stuck to your cheek in the cold." Blade snickered.

"Shut up, Blade. You're not helping!"

"Oh, fine… Let's just move on, all right?" Blade struck a yellow ? block that was in between two brick blocks. A Happy Flower popped out for them. Since they spent a lot of their coins on items, Blade decided to grab the Happy Flower.

Mario: The Happy Flower?

"Yes, Mario, the Happy Flower," Blade said with a dull look. "Haven't you already heard of this thing before? You ARE probably the one who's heard of this item more than us anyway."

Mario sweat dropped as he began to grab some of the coins that were falling from the sky. Chopper jumped on one of the brick blocks and managed to get to another row of brick blocks above him by smashing one. This made it easier for him to grab any small or large coins raining down near him.

"You know, that's not really a bad idea," Sonic pondered as he joined Chopper up on the blocks to collect some coins. Kirby decided to collect some by floating around the area. Overall, they did get a lot of coins.

"Man, that's a lot of coins we got there," Chopper sighed in relief as he jumped to the ground and turned back to the right. "I'm glad we at least managed to get some coins, that's for sure."

There was a pink Buzzy Beetle up ahead that was coming towards them. Mario stomped on it and then kicked it with Kickbrin's ability to knock it far from him, including knocking it out of the area.

Mario: That was…strange.

"I didn't find that strange," Chopper stated with a confused look. "Err… Anyways, let's see what else we have around here."

A Blue Koopa Troopa was walking towards them up ahead, but Blade drew his katana and simply took it out with a couple of slashes. They then found another donut platform like from the beginning of this world. Apparently it would go up to a platform where a door was sitting.

"Whoa… Another donut! We're seriously finding a lot of donuts around here!" Sonic gaped.

"Then we ought to use this like we did before," Chopper jumped on it and waited for the others to get on. Mario asked what they were going to do.

"We're simply going to run on this thing," Blade explained. "That way, we can get this delicious thing moving!"

"…Did you bite off a piece of the donut we last encountered?" Sonic asked.

"Nooooooo…" Blade replied with shifty eyes. "What makes you think I would do something like that?"

"Because your eyes are shifting around like you were really the one who was behind a crime scene," Chopper explained.

Mario: No kidding!

"…Damn. You've found that out, didn't you." Blade frowned as he got on the donut, along with the other three (Chopper was still on the donut, mind you). At this moment, they began to move on the donut in order to make it go up to the platform for them to jump off and walk over to the door.

Walking into the next area, they noticed that there was a pathway going up to the wall in the background. In fact, the whole floor was made of a waffle cone, with speed bumpers on some of the walls to help someone steer their way through here.

"Hey, guys, did you ever notice that those clouds look kind of like cotton candy?" Chopper asked, pointing to the pink, fluffy clouds. "They sure remind me of cotton candy."

"Speaking of clouds… I think that door led us to someplace higher in this world. We're actually pretty close to some of those giant ice cream cones." Sonic grinned, striking a Mechawful blocking the slope leading up to the waffle cone wall in the background.

Mario said he'll finished it off, so he simply kicked the Mechawful using Kickbrin's ability. There was even a tall block blocking the way to the slope, so he knocked it over with a kick.

"Man, I think that Pixl is the most useful for you, Mario!" Chopper commented, giving him a smile.

Knowing that only two out of the five people could actually move on the wall without falling off, Chopper immediately grabbed a hold of Kirby's arm, while Sonic grabbed both Blade and Mario's.

Mario: What are you doing?

"Well, we're gonna try to help you get through this, don't worry," Sonic assured as he began to move up on the wall and then to the left thanks to a little speed bumper.

"Poyo? (How come you only grabbed my arm?)" Kirby asked.

"It's because you're probably easier for me to take you through this area. I can assure you that if I was grabbing a hold of Blade or Mario, I'd have a harder time. Just hold on tight and you'll be just fine."

Chopper stretched his feet for a couple of seconds and immediately took off, running up onto the wall and used the speed bumper to follow Sonic over by the left. There weren't any obstacles, so it felt kind of safe.

"Heads up, Chopper! Another speed bump leading up!" Sonic warned as he hit a speed bump, making him go up. Another one made him move to the left once again. Looking back, he could see Chopper was still following.

"Don't worry, Sonic! I'm still following you!" Chopper shouted.

He followed Sonic up and then to the left thanks to the bumpers. There happened to be a door just up ahead when Sonic managed to run off the wall and let go of Blade and Mario so he was no longer holding onto them.

"Whew… Well that sure was something!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"Well we still have to wait for Chopper and Kirby," Blade pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true."

As soon as Chopper made it to the three, he let go of Kirby and began to pant. "Man… I never knew that that would be so tough for me… I thought for a second that I was going to fall off!"

"Well, don't worry about it, Chopper," Sonic assured as he opened the door ahead. Everyone followed him into an area where they were pretty high up. They were standing on large ice cream sandwich platforms with large ice cream cones around the sky.

"Poyo! (It's a giant ice cream sandwich!)" Kirby said cheerfully as there was a Mechawful and an ice cream sandwich enemy called an Ice Creawful Sandwich, which could only rush at its enemies.

"That? Oh, this should be easy…" Chopper swung his arm and tossed a fireball directly at the Ice Creawful Sandwich, melting it entirely. "Yeah, these guys are too easy for me, which kind of stinks."

"But those Mechawfuls are annoying," Blade stated as he gripped his katana and sliced through it with one slash of his katana, making it disintegrate in smoke. "How come they turn into smoke when we kill enemies?"

"Probably because it was made that way," Sonic simply shrugged before running on ahead, striking two yellow ? blocks. One contained a Mushroom, while the other contained a Ghoul Shroom.

"Aw, come on! THESE mushrooms are still here?!" Chopper growled as he clenched his fist. But Mario stepped in and gave the Ghoul Shroom a good stomp. Two stomps managed to kill it off.

"Whew… Well, at least you took care of that thing, Mario. Those things are a bit dangerous…but not as much as these enemies."

"Poyo? (Yeah, why are these Ghoul Shrooms here anyways? It's just a big waste of time.)" Kirby hit a brick block, which triggered another Ghoul Shroom to pop out and move all over the place. But, it was soon destroyed when Kirby pulled out a bomb and blew it up with it.

"Poyo! (That should take care of that!)" he smirked.

Up ahead, they saw some smaller ice cream sandwich platforms that looked a bit lighter than the large one. Nevertheless, they jumped on it and ran as fast as they could to avoid falling to their dooms.

"I don't understand how a door would lead us up to here," Sonic stated with a confused look on his face.

"Well, I'd rather not let that bother me," Chopper stopped at a bigger ice cream sandwich platform that didn't appear to fall. They could all see a spring at a right diagonal pointing straight at a large ice cream cone.

"Oh, man! We're finally going to be going into one of those!" Blade said as he used the spring to be launched all the way to the big ice cream cone. Everyone else followed him and landed right on a cotton candy cloud that was next to the ice cream cone.

"Yeah, that thing's huge…" Chopper stated.

Blade noticed a little door on the ice cream cone. It seemed to blend in with the waffle cone itself, but it was pretty noticeable, so they simple walked inside, where they saw up above them the vanilla ice cream. Some of the liquid-y stuff from the ice cream dropped on Chopper's mouth.

"Vanilla… It's so…good…" Chopper said as if he fell in love with the ice cream.

"Oh, boy, he's getting into his ice creams trance now," Sonic warned, trying to see if he had an umbrella. "Aw, man! I don't have anything that'll keep him from getting splashed on!"

"Hmmmm… Well, I think we can climb up the inside of this cone. It looks climbable to me." Blade grabbed a hold of the cone and began to climb up. "See? This is working perfectly!"

"Poyo, (There's a sign in here,)" Kirby walked over to the sign and he began to read it.

_Be careful, heroes… The ice cream that drips from inside of the cone is more likely to push you down to the bottom of the ground. So, if you see a shadow above you, it would be wise to get away from there. Trust me, heroes, you're going to need to do that if you wanna reach the top._

"Well, that's pretty interesting, considering that we have to climb up there," Chopper stated as he began to climb up. Everyone else followed him, trying their best to avoid the drops coming down on them.

Mario: Mama mia!

One drop landed on Mario's cap, but Sonic managed to grab his arm before he could fall down. He pulled him up and they proceeded to climb up to the top, where they noticed a spring on a platform.

"What do you think this is here for?" Blade asked.

"Whatever it does, surely it should take us out of here," Chopper jumped on the spring and was launched through the ice cream, making a little hole which disappeared. He ended up landing on top of the large vanilla ice cream.

"How is it up there?!" Sonic shouted.

"It's…pretty nice, actually!" Chopper shouted back, his voice echoing through the inside. "I can see the whole place from here, honestly! Even that large castle that we've seen before! Maybe we should try to find a way over there!"

Everyone else jumped on the spring and were launched up to where Chopper was. Blade almost slipped, but Mario managed to grab a hold of his arm and pull him away from the edge.

"Whew… Thanks, Mario." he said, sighing in relief. He looked up at the sky and then on the ice cream. "Man… I feel like I could eat this stuff! It's not even melted from up here, so that's nice!"

"Hold on a second, why would you eat that?" Sonic asked, pointing to their feet. "We've stepped on this! Do you really think we should be eating ice cream that we've been stepping on?"

"Errr… I would." Chopper already swallowed a scoop of vanilla ice cream. "What? It's not going to kill me."

"Well, I guess that means I get to…" Blade was interrupted when Chopper threw an ice cream ball at his face. "What the hell, Chopper? Are you trying to be an immature kid or something? You're more mature than this!"

"You wanted ice cream, so I gave it to you," Chopper gave him a nod before scanning the large area. "Now… Where can we go from here?"

He noticed a cotton candy cloud moving towards his direction, so he simply jumped on it. Up ahead were two more clouds, but when he jumped on them, they began to launch him in the air, but not too high up.

"Whoa! You gotta be carefully on these!" he warned as he jumped to the other cloud and bounced on that. Another large ice cream was just up ahead, but it was strawberry instead of vanilla.

"Poyo! (That one has strawberry!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he floated over to the ice cream. Chopper, on the other hand, had his tongue out in disgust at the strawberry ice cream.

"Strawberry? But that stuff's disgusting!"

"Yeah, strawberry's not exactly the greatest flavor in the world," Blade agreed as he landed on the ice cream.

"Uh huh. That's why I don't choose to eat it. It just… I don't like the taste of it! It's just…" Chopper was soon hit in the face by a ball of strawberry ice cream. "EWWW! This stuff's horrible!"

Chopper wiped the strawberry ice cream off his face and began to shiver. "Sheesh… It's so cold around here. Before it wasn't as cold, but now… It's just cold as heck! How cold is it, exactly?"

Mario: I don't know…

Chopper sweat dropped before looking around. There was an ice cream sandwich platform just up ahead, so he simply jumped on another bouncy cotton candy cloud and landed on the ice cream sandwich.

"Man, this stuff looks delicious enough to eat," Sonic drooled over the large ice cream sandwich. "But, I know for a fact that I can't eat this. It's not good for my health anyways."

Blade looked at Sonic with a blank look. "You eat chili dogs, for Pete's sake! Those things are bad for you, too!"

Mario: He's right…

"Yeah, well… Er, yeah, that's true…" Sonic trailed as he ran over to the door while striking a Mechawful in his path twice in order to defeat it. He then opened the door for everyone to rush through.

When they reached the next area, they noticed that they were standing on another ice cream sandwich. But, right next to them was a giant fudgesicle. The stick appeared to be climbable for them too.

"Poyo! (It's a giant fudgesicle!)" Kirby gasped.

"No kidding. It looks good enough to eat! …But I think we need to use it to get through here." Chopper jumped over to the fudgesicle and grabbed a hold of the stick. The other fudgesicle next to it was upside down, so he could easily grab a hold of it and jump onto the top of the third fudgesicle, which was right side up.

"Man, I never would've imagined jumping on giant fudgesicles," Sonic said in surprise as he jumped down over by a fudgesicle pointing sideways towards a chocolate ice cream cone.

"They've even got chocolate-flavored ice cream here," Blade said, surprised.

"Well, chocolate is certainly better than, well, strawberry," Chopper stated as he walked across the fudgesicle and tossed a fireball at an Ice Creawful walking around on it, melting it entirely.

"So, who wants to take a stroll on these giant fudgesicles? 'Cause I certainly find it a bit fun!"

"Although… We ARE technically pretty high up in the air." Blade pointed out. "If you're afraid of heights, then it might be wise NOT to look down. Trust me, you're not going to like what you see."

Unfortunately, that didn't work out. Chopper already looked down and jumped up in surprise. "Holy… Yeah, we're definitely high up. Although, I'm not going to let heights get in my way. The Overthere was probably higher than this."

"Oh, don't even bring up that place…" Sonic groaned.

"Poyo, (That place seemed a bit annoying, although it seemed very peaceful,)" Kirby stated.

Mario: I remember that place!

"Seriously, guys… I think it's best to just move on from that world…" Chopper let out a deep sigh as his head hung low. "Bad things have happened back there. I think we need to just move on from all of that."

"I agree with you, Chopper, don't worry," Sonic assured. "Let us just move on, all right? We DO need to keep going anyways."

They walked straight to the red door right next to them and move on into an area where they were standing on a large ice cube with a low going down to a ramp that would eventually reach a strawberry ice cream cone. A sign was right by the slope, along with some Blue Koopa Troopas walking up it.

Mario pondered as he walked over to the sign and began to read it, curious to what he was going to find on it.

_Here's a little tip for the hero garbed in red._

_If you ever find yourself near a slope, you can slide down it if you wanted to. With this, you can knock away many enemy that are walking up, no matter how much HP they have. However, you gotta be carefully when you're doing this on enemies that have spikes on the sides of them, because you're surely going to get hurt from them, that's for sure._

Mario knew exactly what to do. He simply slid down the slope and took care of the Blue Koopa Troopas on it. Because of the ramp, it sent him right in the strawberry ice cream cone without slipping.

"Well that was a way for Mario to get across, now I need to get through," Chopper began to move his feet in a figure-8 position as he charged up a Speed Dash. As soon as he took off, he ran off the ramp and landed in the strawberry ice cream. He was even stuck in it, so he had to taste this stuff as well!

"No… NOOO! This… This is awful!" he cried, trying to wiggle his way out of the horrible strawberry ice cream.

Mario couldn't help but chuckle at Chopper as Kirby, Sonic and Blade made their way onto the ice cream. Unfortunately, Kirby lost his Bomb ability when he landed right on a metallic enemy covered in spikes called a Bristle – something Chopper remembered encountering in the Glitz Pit.

"Aw, come on! These guys are here too?!" Chopper pulled himself out of the ice cream and tossed a fireball at the Bristile. Sadly, it didn't do a thing to it because it's impervious to fire.

"Poyo? (Fire doesn't work against these things?)" Kirby gawked.

"Doesn't look like it… We're gonna need something that can actually take these guys down…" Chopper pondered for a couple of seconds before Mario walked over to the Bristle and used Kickbrin to take it out easily.

"Oh, yeah, that Pixl is capable of taking care of those guys," Sonic smirked, giving Mario a thumbs up. "At least we're safe from those guys for right now!"

They jumped off the strawberry ice cream (to Chopper's relief) and jumped onto another fudgesicle pointing sideways. Another Bristle was here, but thanks to Kickbrin, Mario managed to take it out without any problems. A chocolate cone was up ahead, so they jumped onto that.

"Hey, maybe I can drill through this ice cream! Maybe there might be something interesting!" Sonic snapped his finger, getting the idea, so he simply used Screwdy's corkscrew to drill through the chocolate ice cream.

"Well, there goes Sonic," Blade said.

* * *

**Inside-**

"Huh… This is interesting… Instead of vanilla, there's chocolate." Sonic landed at the bottom of the cone, where he noticed a couple of Ice Creawfuls inside. There were chocolate and vanilla kind.

"Well this'll be fun! Being able to take down ice cream guys!" Sonic grinned as he performed a Homing Attack on them a couple of times, followed by a Spin Dash that took both of them out.

"So… What's around this place?" Sonic searched the whole room carefully. In the end, he saw a chest sitting on a platform that was a bit high up in the room. So, he simply climbed up to the chest to open it.

"I hope it's a new badge," he hoped, opening the chest. "Maybe there'll be a badge that can let me do a super-cool attack!"

Well, that wasn't the case for him. A Door Key made of chocolate ended up coming out of the chest and floating above Sonic's head for him to hold up. He wasn't completely satisfied, but it's better than nothing.

"I guess I should take this back to the others, considering that the door there is probably locked or something."

* * *

**Outside-**

"So… You guys have a deck of cards for us to play a game of Go Fish while Sonic's down there?" Blade asked, looking at the other three. All he got was a shake from Mario and a shrug from Chopper. Kirby, on the other hand, scooped up some chocolate ice cream and ate it.

"Kirby… You… Oh, forget it." Chopper wasn't going to bother with him eating the ice cream. He knew that the pink puffball wasn't going to listen to him anyways.

Mario: So, you guys have any other ideas?

"…Since when could Mario talk in a longer sentence?" Blade questioned.

Mario: Since always.

A Bristle was creeping towards them, attempting to poke Kirby with one of its spears. But, when Kirby spotted it, he got on Carrie and jumped on it a couple of times to defeat it.

"Poyo, (Good thing I can take these guys out with Carrie,)" Kirby said while sighing in relief. "Poyo! (I would've been taking some serious damage if I didn't have her with me!)"

"It's strange that those things don't have as much HP as some enemies back in Castle Tipral…" Chopper trailed. "Meh, I guess it's because of its high defense and all of those spikes covering it."

Before anyone else could say anything, Sonic came jumping out of the ice cream and held up a chocolate key. "Here it is, guys! This is the key we're probably going to need to move on!"

"Oh… It's a chocolate key." Blade said with a blank look.

"…So? We've seen a key like this before."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Blade took a deep breath and turned away from Sonic. "Really… WHO'S the idiot that came up with all of this? He's probably the biggest idiot on the whole planet!"

"I don't think anyone can hear you say that…" Chopper trailed. "Besides, I don't think you want to tick that 'idiot' off, if you know what I mean. He could easily erase you from existence."

"He's not Grambi, so there's no way that he can do any of that to me."

"It's not Grambi, it's…" Chopper paused for a moment and was thinking of what in the world he was talking about. "You know, forget what I just said. Let's just get going, shall we?"

Chopper grabbed a hold of the fudgesicle stick up ahead and used it to jump onto a vanilla ice cream cone – something that he definitely loves more than chocolate and strawberry (of course, you already know that already).

"Man… I just love it when you land on the kind of ice cream that you love so much. It makes me feel good!"

"Poyo? (Are you going to eat this ice cream then?)" Kirby asked, only to get a reply with Chopper shaking his head. "…Poyo? (…Are you suuuuuuuuure?)"

"Yes, Kirby, I'm sure that I'm not going to eat this whole thing," Chopper assured while eating a scoop of the vanilla ice cream. He felt something cold in his forehead and immediately put his hands there. "Ack! Brain freeze!"

"Yeah, you usually get that when you eat too much ice cream," Blade stated as he jumped on the vanilla ice cream. "Don't worry, it'll wear off eventually. You just have to stay calm and you'll be fine."

"I know that I get it from that. I'm just going to take a break from eating ice cream so nothing like that ever will happen to me ever again."

Sonic wanted to check what was below them, but Chopper said that they should just move on instead by jumping on the next fudgesicle going sideways, where it led to a small ice cream sandwich platform with a door and a Mechawful guarding it.

"Oh, one of those guys? This should be easy pickings!" Blade jumped on the platform and sliced up the Mechawful with a couple of slashes. The enemy left an explosion as well.

"Awesome," Blade put his katana away as he walked over to the locked door up ahead. Sonic pulled out the chocolate key and broke the lock off so they could press on through the next area.

"Whoa… Look at that!" Chopper gasped at the large, red fruit by the foot. It seemed to extend far out past a vanilla ice cream cone and then twirled down like some sort of spiral slide, which looked like it led down to the ground below.

"Wow, so this is the way that we get led down to the ground," Chopper was smiling as he looked down. "Now this is what I've always wanted to see. It's really, really nice."

Mario began to remember the times that he was up on the clouds back on Flower Fields. The whole atmosphere sort of reminded him of it with the ice cream clouds in the background and all of the other nice things that he was seeing. Regardless, he made the first step on the fruit by the foot, where a Blue Paratroopa was hopping on.

Once they jumped on top of the vanilla ice cream, Sonic drilled inside of it to search for what was down below.

"Great… Now we gotta wait for Sonic again." Blade groaned.

"Well, then maybe we can try to do something while we wait for him," Chopper suggested, sitting down on the ice cream. He immediately got up when he realized that it could be sticky. "…Yeah, I don't think sitting on it is exactly the brightest idea in the whole world…"

"Poyo, (Then we'll just have to wait,)" Kirby began to wait patiently for Sonic to return to the group.

* * *

**Inside-**

Sonic landed on the bottom of the cone, noticing a couple of Ice Creawfuls in the room. He simply used his Homing Attack to take care of the enemies before grabbing a hold of the waffle cone.

"Man, I can't believe I'm the only one that can go through this place…" Sonic trailed as he climbed up to a chest. "It kind of stinks when you're the only one who's capable of doing these things himself."

Nevertheless, he climbed up onto one of the platforms where the chest was. By opening it, he managed to grab a hold of an Ultra Shroom Shake. "Oh… It's just one of these. Well, I guess it's better than nothing, I suppose."

He climbed up over to the spring and made his way out of the inside of the cone and to return to his friends.

* * *

**Outside-**

Sonic came flying out of the ice cream, but when he came plummeting down to it, his head ended up getting stuck in the ice cream. Both Chopper and Mario were forced to pull him out.

"Whoa… That sure was one heck of a ride…" Sonic said, feeling a bit dizzy after being launched up in the air like that. "Hopefully nothing like that ever happens to me ever again… I feel like I'm going to puke."

"You better not puke, or else we're going to have a problem," Blade stated. "…Maybe you could puke off the side, but I'm not sure if that's going to be…er…good. What? It could fall on anyone!"

Chopper frowned. "Let's just move on. I think we're getting close anyway." he jumped on the fruit by the foot past the vanilla ice cream cone and tossed a charged fireball at a Mechawful just up by the spiral slide ahead.

"I think that's the last of these enemies… Surely we'll find more below this place, though." Sonic stated, walking over to the slide.

Mario: Hopefully we're not too late!

Chopper took a deep breath and walked to the slide. "Well… The slide seems to go down pretty far. But, hopefully we'll be able to get through it and find that castle we need to find."

The young Star Warrior sat down, looking a bit puzzled. "I… I don't know if I could do this…"

"Yes you can," Blade objected.

"And how do you know that I can?"

"Just watch," Blade pushed Chopper down the slide with his foot. They could all hear him scream as he began to go down the spiral fruit by the foot slide faster than they thought it would be.

"Poyo, (That slide is a lot faster than I thought it would be,)" Kirby plopped down on the slide. "Poyo! (But I'm going down there next!)"

By pushing himself, Kirby managed to slide down, followed by Mario and then Sonic. Blade was the last one to push himself down the slide because he wanted to make sure they weren't being followed by anyone.

"Well… Here we go…" he gulped.

* * *

**Sweet Castle-**

"Nyeah heh heh heh heh! I have victory!" Fawful cackled loudly as he stood on the bridge that led up to the throne room. He walked over to the pole and replaced the candy flag with a flag with a dark star on it.

"Tipral will have the pleasing when he finds out that I have the capturing of the castle! He will reward me with great buttery pancakes raining down on a happy turtle!"

"You… You…" a chocolate person aimed his chocolate pistol at Fawful. "You can't win this, beanie! Just… Just leave!"

He fired hot fudge directly as Fawful's face, but it didn't do much when the bean child licked it all off his face. He trembled in fear as Fawful's grin showed all of the chocolate on his teeth.

"That's just disgusting!"

Fawful pulled out a toothbrush, put toothpaste on it and began to brush his teeth for some odd reason. Afterward, Fawful's teeth were a sparkling white color just as how they intended to be.

"Fawful can't have a disgusting smile," he said as he put his toothbrush away. "It makes me lose my fury! …But, now that I have controlling, I will have changes!"

"You won't change a thing!" the chocolate guard paused when Fawful aimed his blaster straight at him. "Don't even think about…"

_BLAST!_

* * *

**Near the Sweet Castle-**

As soon as Chopper made it to the bottom of the slide, he landed in a beautiful garden. This one looked more lovely than the other gardens he's seen so far, meaning that they were rather…close to their destination.

"Wow, this is one heck of a garden here," he said while wiping his forehead in relief. "I thought for a second that I was about to get hurt."

Unfortunately for him, he ended up jinxing it. Kirby came sliding down and ended up knocking him over.

"Poyo! (Oops! Sorry, Chopper!)" Kirby helped Chopper up and also helped him move out of the way when Mario, Sonic and Blade came down from the slide and landed right where Chopper fell over.

"Well, at least you guys didn't fall over," Chopper said with a blank look.

"Was that meant to be sarcasm?" Sonic asked.

"No, it wasn't supposed to be sarcasm. But I will say that I ended up falling over from Kirby."

"Poyo, (I didn't intend to do that,)" Kirby added.

"When Blade stood up, he looked around him. In the background, they could see the castle. It wasn't exactly too far from them, but it was definitely right nearby, meaning that their quest for the tenth Pure Heart is coming close to an end.

"Man… After this Pure Heart, we'll be more than halfway done with collecting them…" Chopper said in surprise. "I can't believe we've already made it this far… It's just…unbelievable."

Chopper whirled his hammer around at a Shy Guy that was in his way before going over to the Star Block up ahead. "Man, I can't believe that we've found this already. …And we also don't have to worry about falling to our dooms!"

"Poyo, (Yeah, that's true,)" Kirby agreed with a nod.

Mario: I hear you!

"It was cool up there, but yeah, it was pretty dangerous up there as well. I don't disagree with you on that one." Blade nodded.

"So, Chopper… Are ya gonna hit the block or something?" Sonic noticed that Chopper already punched the block and broke it. How? Well, with all of those twenty stars, it definitely did show.

"Oh… You already hit it."

"Yes, I definitely did," Chopper smiled while nodding.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After their courageous efforts through the highest points of the Sweet Kingdom, Chopper and Co. managed to find the castle they've been seeking this whole time. "Too bad we're not going to see any giant ice cream cones around here…" the Star Warrior trailed as they continued their walk through the beautiful gardens. Up ahead, they happened to notice what looked like a castle with a flag of a dark star resembling Tipral's symbol on the top._

* * *

**There's a reason why I liked this part of Chapter 9. Take a guess on what that is. Was it the fudgesicles? ...Nah, probably not that. I'm not gonna even tell you why I liked this anyway. Also, that was the Fawful moment I was talking about, with him brushing his teeth.**

**One more part until this chapter's over! And it sure is going to be hectic! :D**


	56. Battle of Fury and Chortles

**CHAPTER 9-5**

**-Battle of Fury and Chortles-**

"Well, would you look at that over there?" Sonic pointed up to the castle that they were facing far up ahead through the gardens. The pink, delicious-looking castle made of delicious cake had a lot of chocolate splats on the outside and some of the windows were even cracked. The garden itself had a couple of chocolate splats on the ground, which formed some chocolate gooey creatures with Fawful grins named Chocolawfuls. The flag that used to be a cake was now a dark star that Tipral always seems to have for his own symbol.

"Oh, no! We're too late!" Chopper frowned at the sight of the flag. "I guess Fawful managed to beat us to the punch. How are we supposed to stop him now when he's taken the castle over? !"

"Whoa, settle down there, Chopper," Blade said, trying to get his lime-green friend to calm down. "The fight's not over yet. Just because Fawful's taken over a castle doesn't mean he hasn't gotten his hands on the Pure Heart. …By the way, what do you think he might do with it?"

"Poyo? (Destroy it, maybe?)" Kirby predicted. The others weren't sure what the pink puffball said, but Chopper was able to translate what he said, making Sonic, Blade and Mario nod to him in understanding.

"Well, that does sound like something Tipral would want Fawful to do…" Chopper pondered. "After all, Tipral IS trying to stop us from getting all of the Pure Hearts right now. It's safe to say that he's trying to get Fawful to stop us by destroying the Pure Heart…"

Blade looked up and saw a Fawful statue right in front of them. "I guess Fawful sure knows how to get statues up quickly. I wonder how he managed to take over this place so fast, though…"

"Probably with some of Tipral's power, I suppose," Sonic predicted.

"That's a possible answer, although this statue really is getting in the way…" Chopper tried to kick it, but it wouldn't fall over. He couldn't even jump over it! "Mario, think you can kick it down?"

Mario: Oh, yes.

Mario nodded and walked over to the statue. Using Kickbrin, he was able to knock the statue of Fawful over easily, allowing them to jump on top of it and move on ahead in the garden. There were a couple of grasshopper enemies with Fawful faces called a Fawflopper. There's also a helicopter-like thing hovering around the garden called a Fawfulcopter.

"Poyo… (Seriously… These things are just so…wacky.)" Kirby said with a blank look on his face.

"Yeah, I can definitely agree with you on that, Kirby," Chopper nodded and pulled his hammer out. He managed to bash the Fawflopper easily, but he had a hard time catching the Fawfulcopter.

"I think we need some sort of ranged attack to take it out," Blade pondered as he looked at Hommissile. "My shurikens may not do as much damage to it, but maybe Hommissile will be able to wail out some heavy damage!"

Blade tossed Hommissile directly at the Fawfulcopter, destroying it within seconds and leaving it with nothing else left. This allowed the heroes to move on to a fountain with fruit punch.

"Ooh! It's like the fountain from The Underwhere!" Chopper jumped in it and recovered all of his HP. "Yeah, I think this is one of those refreshing fountains you find around places."

"Poyo! (And it's made of candy too!)" Kirby smiled as he jumped straight into the fountain to recover all of his HP.

"Well it's about time we got something that could help recover our HP!" Sonic sighed in relief as he jumped into the fountain, recovering all of his HP. "Now I feel MUCH better from those fights."

Mario: Did we even take damage?

"I'm not so sure…" Chopper shrugged. "But, I'm not going to let that distract us. We should just get moving." he jumped out of the fountain and continued his way through the garden. Two Mechawfuls were patrolling the garden and they happened to notice the five coming.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" one of the Mechawfuls had a alarm ringing on top of its head. "Intruders detected in the garden! All intruders must be eliminated by order from Lord Fawful! No intruders shall pass!"

"The five heroes must be eliminated!" one Mechawful flew up into the air and came down towards the group. One sent Chopper flying towards the fountain, while the other tried to strike Mario, but had its attack blocked by Mario's hammer.

Mario: You're not going to take us down!

Using his hammer again, he managed to bash the Mechawful a couple of times with his hammer. With one last stomp, the body of the Mechawful was destroyed, leaving only its small, hovering head.

Mario: What's that?

"It looks like it's just the Mechawful's head…" Blade drew his katana and gripped it. "I guess it's not finished just yet!" he jumped towards the head and slashed at it a couple of times, making it explode.

"That just leaves the other Mechawful," Sonic jumped into a ball and performed a Homing Attack on the other Mechawful a couple of times, leaving only its head after it exploded.

"Poyo! (I can finish this off!)" with Kirby's inhaling, he spat it out at the wall, causing it to explode.

"Whew… That was a bit intense…" Chopper moaned as he slowly got himself up. He noticed that there weren't any more Mechawfuls around. "Hey… Where are those Mechawful guys?"

"Well, apparently we took them out," Blade explained.

"What? ! You mean I missed all of that? ! Aw, hamburgers!" Chopper kicked the ground in disappointment.

"'Aw, hamburgers'?" Sonic gawked. "That's a new one…"

"Well… Uh… I just suddenly came up with that one, I guess." although he thinks he came up with it, he's absolutely wrong with that (if you know what I mean). "…And I didn't know what else to say."

"Errr… All right, I guess that's interesting." Blade looked up ahead and saw that they made a bush out of Fawful up ahead. It was apparently blocking the door. "Hmmmm… Maybe I can get rid of that for you guys."

Mario: Go right ahead, Blade.

"All right, here we go!" Blade began to slice the large Fawful licorice bush, leaving it with nothing else left. It pretty much led to a door up ahead, which was pretty nice for the whole group. They probably weren't too far from their destination at this point.

"In the door we go!" Chopper declared as he walked through the door and into an area with a large maze. The grass was up high at this point, preventing the group from jumping or even escaping this place. Heck, there was barely anything around in this maze in 3-D!

"Poyo… (Oh, man… Don't tell me we're required to flip here…)" Kirby groaned. "Poyo… (I kind of wish I was able to flip on my own…)"

"This seriously reminds me of that big maze back in Castle Tipral…" Chopper trailed as he flipped into 3-D with everyone else close to him. "Well, it's not LIKE it, but it certainly has that strange feeling that it's a lot similar."

There were two ways to go in this maze. He decided that it would be best to move to the left, so everyone else followed him through. There weren't any enemies to keep them company, which was a shame, but it was good, considering that it didn't distract Chopper from moving up in the maze.

"Uh oh… I think we hit a dead end." Sonic said as he noticed the dead end. He also heard a beeping noise as well. "Wait… What's that beeping sound?"

"Crud… My Flip Gauge is running low." Chopper frowned as he flipped back into 2-D. "I kind of hate it when my flipping isn't limited. That Bestovius just HAD to rip me off with limiting it!"

Mario jumped up in surprise as he pointed up at a yellow ? block right next to Chopper. He punched the block after Chopper's Flip Gauge filled up. A Speed Flower popped out of the block and landed right in Mario's hands, increasing the pace around them…and also their voices sounded squeakier.

"Whoa! It'sanotherSpeedFlower!" Sonic shouted.

"Calmdown,Sonic! Don'ttrytospeakwhenwe'refast!" Blade shouted as they went back into 3-D and took the way to the right instead of the left (after they got back to the start). It led them to two more ways to go: up or down. Chopper shrugged and went down. The speed immediately went back to normal afterwards.

"Poyo, (Well that's a relief,)" Kirby said, sighing in relief. "Poyo. (I personally don't like it when our voices are all squeaky and fast.)"

"Well, thank goodness that we're not having squeaky voices at this very moment," Chopper walked to the right after moving down and then moved up to the outer part of the maze. They knew that they were getting pretty close to finishing this maze, that's for sure.

"Let's go that way," Blade pointed to the left and they went that way. Chopper had to take some damage because of his Flip Gauge, but it didn't stop him from reaching the exit of this annoying maze. A Fawflopper and a Mechawful were standing guard at the door, to their surprise.

"Well, I guess I'll try to do something against these guys," Chopper whirled up a fireball and threw it directly at the Fawflopper, scorching it while he finished it off by bashing it with his hammer.

"Be careful with the Mechawful," Sonic warned. "Those guys are capable of doing some tough damage to you if you're not careful…"

"I'll take care of the body," Blade jumped towards the Mechawful and blew up the body with a couple of slices from his katana, leaving only the Mechawful's head. Chopper took his time to slam it to the ground with a slamming kick, causing it to explode right in front of their own eyes.

"Well… I guess that takes care of that guy." Chopper opened the door into the next area. It led them right to the front entrance of the Sweet Castle! From what they saw, the roofs had whipped cream with a cherry on top, which made both Chopper and Kirby drool over the castle.

"Remember, guys… We can't eat the castle." Sonic reminded. "Although it might be an easy way to get the Pure Heart, it IS somewhere inside of that place, so what if we end up eating the Pure Heart?"

"Then it makes it all better for us!" a Darkling cackled, patrolling around the green licorice grass. "We've been waiting for you heroes for a while! Looks like we finally have our chance of destroying you!"

"Bring it on!" Chopper jumped on the first Darkling while making a stylish move and finished it off by bashing it with his hammer. From what he could see, the Darklings have about 30 HP and an Attack of 8. That's a bit dangerous, from his eyes.

"Wow… These Darklings are actually pretty…tough." Chopper said with a blank look on his face. "They have higher HP and Attack than those Mechawfuls!"

"Oh… Well that sucks." Blade tossed Hommissile straight at one of the Darklings, defeating it easily with two explosions. Mario used Thoreau to grab the third and throw it at the last one to leave it stunned.

"Urgh… I don't feel so good…" one Darkling moaned.

Mario: Finish the job, Chopper!

"Oh, all right!" Chopper inhaled one of the Darklings and spat it out at the other Darkling, defeating both of them easily and allowing them to go to the front entrance of the castle.

"All right, guys… Let's head on through!" Sonic smirked as he opened the door to the inside of the castle. They saw that the inside was made up of delicious cake, with some icing up on the walls. There were even pictures of some cupcake people that looked like the size of Toads. Heck, there were even chocolate people around that size. But the Choconuts and Chocawfuls were roaming around in the small room. There was a candy door up ahead past those guys for them to go through.

"Hold on a minute," Chopper flipped into 3-D to see what the ground looked like. Fawful's face was apparently on it, to their dismay. "Yep. He's taken it over all right."

"Poyo, (I suggest taking out those enemies first,)" Kirby inhaled the Choconut and easily swallowed it, recovering some HP. Chopper painfully inhaled the other and swallowed it to recover HP.

"…That makes me want to have more."

"Heads up, guys, he might try to eat more sugar," Blade warned, grabbing a hold of one of Chopper's arms to hold him back. "If we keep you like this, then we won't have to worry about you going crazy."

Chopper was trying hard to resist the sugar rush. "Blade… This isn't necessary, you know… I can take care of myself."

"I think you're lying," Sonic stated, stuffing a banana in Chopper's mouth. "This banana should probably keep you under control. What? It worked before, so I think this will work too!"

After Chopper swallowed the banana, he felt somewhat better. "OK… I guess that whole sugar thing isn't as intense now. I feel a bit better, now that I think about it now…"

"So, maybe we can get going, huh?" Blade walked over to the door ahead and opened it up. Everyone else followed him through the door into a longer hallway with cupcake people and even lollipop people as well.

"Poyo… (What the…)" Kirby gawked over his loss of words.

"_**WELLCOOOOME!**_" the cupcake man greeted, walking over to the five and shaking their hands. "We are glad to see guests arrive in this castle!"

"What the… What's going on here?" Chopper asked.

"Welcome, dear guests!" the two both greeted in unison. "You're almost just in time for the Fawful Theater just up ahead! You don't want to miss a great show from someone great like Fawful!"

"Excuse me… Did you just say Fawful Theater?" Sonic gawked.

"Oh, yes! To see Fawful in the theater, you must have a ticket so we can put you at your seat! If you have any tickets with you, you can wait over by the door like the others! If not… Then you're not authorized to go in."

"We don't care about going into some crappy theater!" Blade hissed. "We just want to know where the Pure Heart is! That's what we're even here for anyways! So spit it out, you guys, or else I'll rub you on the wall!"

"Uhhh… Not exactly the nicest thing to do, Blade…" Chopper trailed. "We're heroes, not bullies."

"Oh, right…" Blade paused for a minute and looked back at the two sugary people. "Look… We don't have any tickets, but does this Fawful have any information on how to get to the Pure Heart?"

"Pure Heart? Why, Lord Fawful knows where it is for sure! …But we don't allow non-ticketed people to enter the Fawful Theater, so you cannot enter without a ticket! Those are the rules."

"Aw, man… I was hoping he'd actually let us go in." Chopper groaned and turned to the group. "Well, we might as well try to find a ticket…or another way into the theater. We can probably get to Fawful easily then."

Everyone agreed and they walked past the cupcake and lollipop person and walked over to a door with a Fawful face on it. There were some Choconuts and even some Ice Creawfuls standing in front of the door, waiting to go into the theater. They had some interesting things to say too.

"I've been camped out at the front of the line for ten days now—for Fawful's show!" a Choconut said. "I'm totally starving! Seriously. I mean, look at me! I feel like all of my jelly is going to drain out of my system!"

"Eeeeeugh… I don't wanna know about that." Sonic gagged, looking over at the Ice Creawful standing by the door.

"Oh boy, I wonder what performance Lord Fawful will give tonight," the Ice Creawful wondered. "Yaaah! Yaaaaaaaah! I wanna see it now! Right now! Right now!"

"Hmmmmmm… If we're going to go into that theater, we're definitely going to have to get a ticket." Chopper confirmed. "The only problem is… Where are we going to get it? I don't wanna rob someone of one?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, I don't want to steal a ticket from someone,)" Kirby agreed, nodding at Chopper. "Poyo? (But… Where ARE we going to find one? Does someone sell them around here?)"

"Well, we'll have to find out," Chopper walked up to a door ahead. Everyone followed him into another hallway, but with Firebars on the ground and even a ladder leading up to a locked door.

"Hey! There's a way up there!" Blade gasped while pointing up at the door that the chocolate ladder led up to. Unfortunately, Mario ended up confirming something to the group.

Mario: It's locked.

"Drats… Looks like we have to move past these Firebars." Chopper flipped into 3-D and avoided a couple of Firebars. A Bristle was also in 3-D, so there was no way that he could damage that thing, so he ignored it and went back into 2-D.

"There's a Bristle in 3-D! And there's no way I'm going to go fight that thing with nothing that can defeat that thing!"

"Then we might as well ignore that thing," Blade suggested as he took a couple of steps ahead. "I think there's a door off in the distance. Maybe THAT'LL take us straight to the throne room or something! …The Pure Heart's in the throne room, right?"

"Well, that's what I believe," Sonic began to avoid a couple of Firebars that were spinning around. He even made a couple of stylish moves in the air while avoiding them for some strange reason – because it can only be done when striking an enemy.

"I don't understand how Sonic's avoiding those Firebars like that, but oh well," Chopper jumped at the right moment and stomped on a Darkling in his way. He slammed his hammer on it afterwards to defeat it for good.

"I think the Darklings are just here to keep us company, if you know what I mean," Blade stated as he blew a Darkling up with Hommissile's ability. When they reached the door up ahead, they took a little break for a bit before entering.

"He-Hey! There's a couple of pictures in this room!" Chopper noticed that there was some writing just below the picture. It looked like a king with a cookie head, chocolate hands and a robe made up of waffle cones. What was surprising was that the golden scepter he was holding wasn't made of candy. But, when they looked closely at the pink flowing thing in the scepter, they all gasped.

"Poyo! (That king's the one with the Pure Heart!)" Kirby gaped.

"I don't believe it! So we just need to find this king and we can simply get out of here, right?" Blade asked.

"Hold on, what about this poor castle?" Chopper frowned. "I wanna get the Pure Heart too, but do we need to just _leave_ after that? I think it would be nice to at least help some of these hypnotized people."

Mario: They're hypnotized?

"Well, I'm not exactly sure. From the looks of it, they look like they are. I think we should help them out, considering that they might fear us if we don't do anything about it. They might even like us then!"

"Yeah, that's true," Sonic agreed, nodding his head. "I don't wanna look like I'm some feared person! We're GOOD guys! Fawful is meant to be the BAD guy. We do good things, while he does bad things, right?"

"…All right, we'll help them," Blade frowned. "I DO like to help people out, but it would be a lot better if we just got the Pure Heart and left. They might like us, but I don't know by how much…"

"Good, now let's see what's on this plaque," Chopper turned to the plaque and began to read what it said.

_This is our beloved King Candanian. He is our great ruler of the Sweet Kingdom. As a young boy, he went to meet the evils of the Beanbean Kingdom in order to make a truce between the two kingdoms. Unfortunately, thanks to an evil witch, it didn't plan out too well, making both sides mortal enemies to this very day. Our king has tried to keep peace by keeping us away from the Beanbean Kingdom, but it's not going too well for us, considering that some beans like to come here and ruin everything for all of us. This beanish child can't hold us here forever!_

"Huh… It looks like those last two sentences were just recently added…"

Mario: Is the witch Cackletta?

"Cackletta? Who's Cackletta?" Sonic asked.

"Oh. Her…" Chopper said with an irritated look on his face. "That witch was 'helping' me by getting rid of Maquano so SHE could take the Star Rod for herself. She was someone called Fairisp, but she turned into a ghost of herself and tried to kill me…but apparently her plan ended up failing!"

"What happened to her in the end?" Blade asked.

"She ended up hitting Staris instead and got killed off by him. Although, Staris was still technically filled with a lot of anger. We don't have to worry about her anymore… But Fawful, on the other hand… I think he's trying to kill me because he believes I killed her."

"Huh… Well maybe we ought to have a little talk with him in the theater!"

"RIGHT after we find some tickets," Chopper noticed up ahead there was more melted chocolate on the ground. There wasn't even a platform that was there to help them get across either!

"Aw, weak! How are we supposed to get through that now without a platform to help us over? !"

"Poyo! (I know what to do!)" Kirby jumped on top of Carrie and traveled over the melted chocolate. "Poyo! (With Carrie, we might be able to cross this melted chocolate with ease! …But we're not all getting on her at once!)"

"Of course we're not going to do that. That was a very awkward moment back in Fort Francis…"

After Kirby crossed the melted chocolate, he told Carrie to take the others over. Each of them went over it one at a time, with Blade going over the melted chocolate last for some strange reason.

"All right… Do we have everyone here?" Chopper asked, checking to make sure everyone was here. "All right, good. Now let's…"

Before he could act, he was struck by a Darkling's spell. "Why you little…!" he got his hammer out and slammed it straight on top of the Darkling, followed by a simple fireball that destroyed it in one hit.

"OK… So I think we should get moving." Sonic suggested, walking over to the door ahead and entering it. They were in a room with a couple of blocks blocking their way. They had white stars in the inside of the yellow blocks, which was a bit odd, considering that they've only seen yellow ? blocks.

Mario simply destroyed them by using Kickbrin's ability, but they simply appeared after three seconds, so he did it once again and rushed through with everyone else before they could be blocked.

"Poyo, (I can see a switch nearby,)" Kirby pointed out, jumping over a small gap. Below was a small red switch that could open a door up ahead for a little bit. They all made a plan by standing by the door while Chopper tossed a fireball at the switch. Then they immediately ran through the door and stopped over by a ladder leading up to the next door.

"Wow, that was pretty cool," Sonic smirked. "I've never seen switches like those before in my life."

"Poyo… (Trust me… I've seen them before, and they're not very enjoyable…)" Kirby groaned as they entered through the next room. They saw a spiral staircase leading up to an upper floor with a Save Block and a yellow ? block.

Mario: A spiral staircase?

"I think we can go up this thing," Chopper began to make his way up the stairs easily with his speed. Sonic followed him up as well, followed by Kirby, Mario and then Blade.

At the top, Chopper punched the yellow ? block to get a Super Shroom. They all split it into five so they could all recover 20 HP and then Chopper punched the Save Block to save his game, just in case something bad happens.

"All right… Let's see what's through this door…" Chopper slowly began to open the door, leading him into a room with a Mechawful. But what was strange was that the Mechawful's sirens weren't going off. It just stood there, like it was waiting for the group to come.

"Are you in the needing of tickets?" the Mechawful asked.

"Oh, great… Even Fawful's robots speak like Fawful." Chopper smacked his forehead. "This just isn't our day…"

They walked up to the Mechawful, with Mario nodding to the robot. "Well you have luck! I have the giving away of five tickets right now! …But you must be having the exchange of something…"

"And what do you want us to trade?" Chopper asked.

The Mechawful grinned. "Well… I will have the giving of these tickets…for 5,000 coins!" all five jumped up in shock.

"5,000 coins? !" Blade almost felt like he was going to have a heart attack. "You can't be serious! We don't have that kind of money! Why would you charge us for THAT amount of money? !"

"Because you lack the tickets to go into the Fawful Theater! It's either you're giving the coins or you're having the staying of the castle forever! Do you have the agreeing to this deal?"

Chopper shook his head. "I'm not going to pay THAT much for some stupid ticket," he retorted. "For a couple of reasons. One, we don't have that kind of money, and two, I don't trust you with payment."

"If you have refusing, then you must be destroyed!" the Mechawful knocked Chopper back to the wall with a powerful punch. "Those who refuse to pay will face the consequences!"

"Oh, there are consequences for attacking us," Chopper quickly got up and tossed a charged fireball at the Mechawful. "Now, Blade!"

"Got it!" Blade drew his katana and sliced the Mechawful in half, blowing it up. The only thing remaining was the Mechawful's head, which began to fly all over the room until Mario stomped on it.

Mario: It dropped the tickets!

Mario grabbed the tickets and gave each of them a ticket. With them in their hands, they knew for a fact that they had to backtrack all the way back into the lobby, which sounded a bit painful for them all (considering that they have that door with the switch to worry about, too).

"Oh, god… How are we supposed to get back now?" Blade groaned.

"Well… I think I see something over here." Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a blue ! switch on the ground. With a kick, a pink pipe appeared in the middle of the room. Everyone merely shrugged and jumped into the pipe.

* * *

**Sweet Castle, lobby-**

The pipe that they were going through ended up coming from the ceiling and bringing the five heroes right in front of the door to the Fawful Theater. They all seemed a bit relieved to be back and not have to backtrack all the way back from the other room.

"So… When do you think it's going to start?" Chopper asked.

As if right on cue, the doors to the Fawful Theater opened up. "Tonight's Fawful Show begins SOOOOOOOOON!"

"YES! FINALLY!" the Ice Creawful rushed into the theater.

"That seat up front is mine!" the Choconut rushed into the theater as well, putting his ticket into the booth like the other people that began to rush in, only leaving the five heroes at the door.

"Well… At least we made it here." Sonic assured, putting his ticket in the booth like everyone else.

When they entered the theater, they noticed that it was huge. Up at the front was a large stage made of cake and the seats themselves were made of gummies. Nearly every single seat was taken.

"We better find a seat," Chopper walked down the aisle, scanning the room for any seats. Unfortunately, they didn't have luck with that.

"Poyo? ! (There are NO seats left? !)" Kirby gawked.

"Not a single seat here! This blows…" Blade groaned.

"Ugh… I guess we're gonna have to talk to someone about this…" Chopper looked around the theater. He happened to notice two cupcake people over by the exit, so they walked over to them.

"The show starts soooooon! Please take your seats!" the first cupcake said.

"Seats!" the other cupcake said as it jumped.

"Both of you listen up!" Blade shouted, making the two cupcakes jump in surprise.

"Yesssss? What is it?"

"It!"

"Something tells me there's something wrong with these guys," Chopper whispered before looking back at the cupcakes. "Look, we don't have any seats. They're all filled up with those guys."

Unfortunately, the cupcakes didn't seem to understand him. "Yes, take an open seat, pleeeease."

"Pleeease!"

"Uhhh… We just told you that there are NO open seats." Sonic groaned, smacking his forehead. "You guys think you can do something about this? Y'know, find some chairs for us to sit in?"

"Oh, dear guest, I feel for you, but there's naught I can dooo."

"Ooooo!"

"Could you please stop talking like that, you guys? !" Blade exclaimed, getting a bit annoyed with these guys. "It's REALLY starting to get on my nerves, and it's not a great thing for any of us. It just… It just makes no sense!"

"Hmmmmm? Do I sense a problem?" a Darkling came flying over to the two cupcakes. Both of them seemed a bit relieved.

"Oh, Boss, phew! This guy…"

The second cupcake suddenly began to prattle on and on. "So these five galoots here, right? They're all like, we have no seeeats! No seeeats! And they just won't shut up about it! But they won't stop, and we're all, we just can't do it, buddy, OK? So we have no idea what to do. And they're getting surlier. They're not going away. And they have no seats! Nothing! Not a chance! So we do some solid thinking and totally fail. No seats! I mean, we got seats their size. This is kind of bugging me, 'cause I'm on my feet all day! I mean, I'd LOVE to sit in ANY seat! I work hard, Boss! Really hard! And these people sit through life? ! So spoiled! It makes me ill! All the suffering in the world, and these people's seating problem is urgent? Nooooooo!"

And he finished with an "Ooooo!"

Everyone who listened to the cupcake were at a loss of words. They had no idea what to say right now…

"Uh… Right. Gotcha." the Darkling said, pretending to understand him. _"Whoa."_

The Darkling looked back at the five. "So… The issue here is these guests lack seats?"

"Yeah, we do lack seats. My name's Chopper, he's Kirby, that's Sonic, the ninja is Blade and the one with the mustache is Mario.

"Chopper? Kirby? Sonic? Blade? Mario? Aha! You five! Of course! How stupid of me! I was just handed your name! Lord Fawful has arranged a VIP section for you five. It is the finest treatment! So, allow me to guide you five to your seats!"

"VIP treatment? Really?" Sonic gawked.

Mario: It might be a trap!

"Prepare VIP SEEEEEEAT!" the Darkling shouted. From down below, five seats rose from the ground. There was a lime-green seat with yellow stars, a pink seat, blue, dark blue with ninja stars and red seat with an M on it for all five of them.

"Funny that these seats are based off our colors and symbols," Chopper chuckled as he plopped down on his seat, like the others.

"Poyo? (Do you think that Fawful set this up for us to fall in some sort of trap?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't know, but if it turns out to be a trap, then we'll be ready to fight off the bean," Chopper confirmed.

"_**And now, without further ado, THE FAWFUL SHOOOOOOOW!**_"

"Ooooo!"

"Will you cut that out already? !" Blade hissed.

The whole theater began to get dark as they looked up at the stage, which was also dark as well.

"_**I HAVE FAWFUL!**_" spotlights began to flash as Fawful did a couple of poses, such as spinning around and waggling his finger at the group with his psychotic grin on his face. Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario all looked confused.

"What in the world is he doing?" Sonic asked.

"It looks weird…" Blade commented.

When the lights on the stage were on, they could all see a purple Fawful face up on the wall, some stereos and a couple of microphones as the beanish person himself, Fawful, landed on the stage with a cheerful look.

"Excited crowd! You feel it?" he bellowed as the whole audience began to whistle and cheer for Fawful.

"Fawful is also feeling it! I am now needing to feel it even more, though!" everyone began to whistle and cheer louder than before. The five heroes were forced to cover their ears (or whatever else they hear from) because of the loud noise.

"_**MORE!**_" the cheering got even more intense as Fawful put his hand over to the other side of his head. "_**MOOORE!**_"

"This is so loud!" Chopper shouted because of the loud cheering. "I can barely hear myself right now!"

"Oh, I am feeling the power! It high-fives Fawful's face!" Fawful began spinning around on the stage happily. "And now I will use that power to call upon our most special guests, who you will be cheering!"

"Poyo? (Special guests?)" Kirby gawked.

"Today's special guest… The famous… Green Antenna, Pink Gumball, Blue Spiky, Ninja-Face and Red Mustache! Give it up for… _**CHOPPER, KIRBY, SONIC, BLADE, AND MARIO!**_"

"What the…!" Chopper noticed that their seats were beginning to push them straight into the stage, sending them straight into the wall. "What did he just do? !"

"Poyo! (My face hurts!)" Kirby cried as he fell over on his back on the stage.

Mario: Mama mia…

"_**I HAVE CHORTLES!**_" Fawful grinned. It is an entrance of amazement! Like only a special guest does! Now a Midbus battle will unfold like an angry dip of many layers on the chips of wildest hopes!"

"All right, Fawful! Tell us everything right now!" Chopper growled, getting into a fighting stance.

"We want to know where the Pure Heart is!" demanded Sonic.

"Wait… Did he just say Midbus?" Blade paused.

"_**I HAVE CHORTLES!**_ COME! MIDBUS!"

Midbus came stomping onto the stage, glaring at the heroes. "You all have come. As I expected. Now it is time. Now we will fight! Then you will all lose! And you will cry!"

"Oh, man! Someone get this guy back to school PLEASE!" Blade groaned.

"I believe it's you who's going to cry," Chopper retorted.

A cage fell down on the whole group, trapping them with the big brute, Midbus, who began to pound his chest as he snorted.

"It is time! The Cage War of All Destruction!" Fawful announced. "Midbus, crush these heroes, and we will have more chortles!"

"Uhhhh… How much HP does this guy have anyways?" Sonic asked, sweat dropping.

"From what I see, Midbus has about 100 HP. …Oh, and an Attack of 8 and a Defense of 2, I guess… I guess that hide on his back gives him a bit more of a defense… But, come on! We have to fight HIM? !"

"Now we fight. You will fall. Then you will cry out in pain afterwards." Midbus said as he brought his fist back and attempted to punch the five, only to get struck by an explosion from Hommissile.

"Ha! Taste the explosion, mother…" Blade was interrupted when he saw Chopper whacking Midbus in the stomach with his hammer, followed by kicking him in the stomach with flaming energy on his feet.

Midbus held his stomach in pain, but was able to knock Chopper back with a simple punch. He ended up leaving a big bruise on his face because of how big his fist is.

"Oh, man… That was painful…" Chopper moaned as he rubbed his face. "I can't really see much."

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Do you have pain, Green Antenna?" Fawful scoffed while chomping down on a donut. "Fawful loves to see you feel pain for having the murdering of Cackletta!"

"I told you before, and I don't have to tell you again! I didn't KILL Cackletta!" he barked back.

"You are lying. And liars will be stomped by me!" Midbus said as he pounded his chest before getting hit in the stomach by Sonic's Spin Dash attack, then got struck in the nose by his Homing Attack while performing a stylish move.

Mario: This guy's weird…

Midbus managed to grab a hold of Sonic while in a ball and toss his straight at Mario like a bowling ball, knocking the plumber down. Luckily, Mario managed to get himself up and land a Triple Jump on the boar/armadillo.

"I have something to show you!" Midbus pulled out a ball on a chain and began to spin around like a drill. The ball on the chain began to spin around as well, trying to knock the five away.

"Poyo! (Whoa! That looks gnarly!)" Kirby frowned, floating up to the top of the cage to avoid Midbus's attack.

Mario: I have an idea!

As soon as Midbus moved to the right of the cage while spinning, he released the ball and allowed it to strike Blade and Mario. But, once Mario used Kickbrin on the ball, he kicked it back at Midbus's stomach.

"Oof! My stomach! It hurts!" Midbus cried, shedding a small tear as Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of Midbus a couple of times.

"Midbus! Give them the throwing!" Fawful pulled a statue of Fawful head and gave it to Midbus to throw.

"Hey! You can't just give him something! That's not fair when it comes to a fight!" Blade frowned.

"I have chortles! Do you not understand, Ninja Face? I did not have the giving of rules! Midbus has more fury than you all think!" Fawful turned to the crowd. "I am needing to hear the excitement, people! Slap it into Fawful's face!"

The audience began to cheer as they threw a donut into the cage for Midbus to eat. However, Chopper inhaled it instead to recover some HP…and feel a tiny bit hyper as well.

"Take this!" Midbus threw the Fawful head directly at the heroes, but Kirby managed to inhale it first and spit it out at Midbus's stomach once again, making him hold it in pain just like before.

"I don't think your stomach's going to look too good when this fight's over," Chopper pointed out.

"And why do you care?"

"Because I personally don't like hurting people. You're the one who's trying to hurt us, so I can't leave my guard down."

"Well, then I will squash you! You'll soon be a pancake!" Midbus did a belly flop on the stage and did another once after curling into a ball, which launched him up to the top of the cage to come down on Chopper.

"Oh, I think I might know what to do here," Chopper pulled his hammer out and struck Midbus in the air with a fire smash, scorching his tail.

"Ouch! It burns!" the boar cried as Mario pummeled him again with his hammer.

"Midbus has the overheat!" Fawful cried as he jumped up and down.

"Oh, be quiet already, Fawful!" Blade shouted as he rushed towards Midbus while he was running around, holding his burnt tail in pain. Using his katana, he managed to slash him a couple of times with it to deal some heavy damage.

"I'm surprised that some of these bad guys aren't as tough as Dimentral…" Chopper trailed as he stomped on Midbus and performed a stylish move. "He had about 200 HP, while Midbus only has 100!"

"Poyo, (Well Gemerl had about 100 when we fought him in Sunset Hill,)" Kirby pointed out.

"That is true."

Midbus curled up in a ball once again and rolled over both Chopper and Kirby, flattening them like pancakes. Both Midbus and Fawful began to cackle at the two small ones, continuously mocking them.

"Muh muh muh muh. Now you are flat. Defeating you will be easy." Midbus raised his two fists up to finish the two, but Blade managed to grab a hold of Midbus's back in order to make him go out of control.

"Get off me!" he growled, trying to shake Blade off. The cat, however, got his claws out and used them to stick to Midbus easily (it didn't really hurt Midbus with that back of his).

"Heh heh heh! There's no way I'm getting off of ya!" Blade snickered, only to crash into one of the bars. Midbus also hit the bars, making him a bit dazed.

"Poyo! (This makes it easier for us!)" Kirby got on Carrie again and struck Midbus while he was stunned. Blade also managed to strike the boar by slashing him with his katana a couple of times.

"You annoy me. I will pummel you. With my fists." Midbus said weirdly as he grabbed Blade from his back and slammed him to the ground. He then used a belly flop on Blade to deal some heavier damage.

"Muh muh muh muh. Now I will sit on you!" Midbus was about to sit on Blade, but Mario came in and stomped Midbus's head, making him cringe in pain as Mario also hit his stomach with his hammer.

"Urgh…" Midbus quickly shook himself and stomped his way over to the rest of the group, stretching a part of himself to make his stomach more vulnerable. He was also turning red as well.

"What the heck is he doing?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo, (I think he's preparing for a new attack,)" Kirby readied himself for Midbus's attack.

Mario: I got it!

Mario began to bash Midbus's stomach with his hammer, even using his Ultra Hammer against him to hit him rapidly. Because he kept doing it so much, Midbus was forced to stop charging his attack and hold his stomach in pain, allowing Mario to perform a Ground Pound on his head after stomping him.

"Hey, that works!" Sonic grinned, giving a thumbs up. "So, how far is he from being defeated anyways?"

"Hmmmmm… Not too sure." Chopper jumped towards Midbus and tossed a fireball at him once again, followed by a flaming uppercut kick that managed to scorch him for a couple of seconds.

"Who wants some roasted pig?"

"NOBODY!"

"…Sorry. I wasn't being serious…"

Mario sweat dropped before striking Midbus with one last Triple Jump before leaving him a bit stunned. The boar himself was able to punch both Chopper and Sonic, but it still wasn't enough when Blade got his katana ready.

"You're goin' down, piggy!" Blade smirked as he jumped towards Midbus and struck him with one last slash. Midbus couldn't take any more hits. With all of the bruises and scars on him, he fell over on the ground.

"And the winning is for… The heroes!" Fawful announced as the audience began to cheer for the heroes.

"Wow… Looks like we did it." Chopper smiled as the cage began to lift off the ground. He slowly gave a thumbs up as he held his arm in pain.

"Such a fight of fury!" as the group heard Fawful, they immediately turned to him, getting in their fighting stances once again.

"You're next, bean-face!" Blade growled, aiming his katana at Fawful. "We wanna know where the Pure Heart is. Now."

"Oh, Fawful is leaving! But first! You had the victory! Now to celebrate!" Fawful pulled out a remote and pressed the red button to get on his hovering platform.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sonic asked.

"Why, Fawful will be going to the throne room, of course! Follow Fawful if you have fury!" Fawful pulled a chocolate key from his cloak and dropped it on the stage before taking off.

"Oh, man… Looks like Fawful wants to take us on face-to-face!" Chopper smirked as he picked up the key. "I suppose this should take us to that locked door we previously saw. Let's head over there!"

* * *

**Room with the locked door-**

"Man… I can't believe we managed to take down Midbus!" Chopper said, still feeling a bit surprised. "I mean, we took down something that was bigger than us! …Oh, wait, Dracktail was bigger than that."

They climbed up the ladder and unlocked the door into a room with a staircase leading up to a door ahead. There were a couple of Mechawfuls guarding the door, but they didn't know why, exactly.

"Hmmmmm… Well, we might as well take care of those guys." Sonic raced his way up the stairs, destroying both Mechawful's with his Homing Attack. Chopper and Mario finished off the heads with some stomps.

"Aw, come on! I didn't get to do a thing!" Blade pouted.

"Blade, we're not here to whine. We need to find Fawful and get a hold of him!" Chopper kicked the door open and walked into a room with a small staircase and a large block with a yellow up arrow. There was a small little block in the staircase.

"Oh, goody… I think this is one of those puzzles where it requires you to toss something down at the switch while in 3-D. I guess I MIGHT have to borrow Hommissile for a couple of seconds, Blade."

"All right, go ahead and use him for a couple of seconds."

When they got on the big block, Chopper flipped into 3-D and threw Hommissile directly at the smaller block, triggering the large block to move up to another staircase leading to a door.

"Man, I don't see any enemies here…" Sonic trailed as they walked through the door and into a longer hallway. There were only a couple of Darklings roaming around here, but that's about it.

"I'll handle them," Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs at the Darklings and destroyed them easily. Upon walking out of the door, they noticed they were outside on some sort of bridge. They could see a spiral stairway across the bridge inside the castle leading up to another bridge up ahead.

"Whoa… Now this is impressive." Sonic gaped.

Mario: It reminds me of Hooktail Castle.

"_I can barely feel my legs…_" a voice moaned over by the end of the bridge. A cupcake guard with part of his cupcake head eaten was lying on the ground. It almost looked like he was dying.

"Huh? Are you brainwashed like the others?" Blade asked.

"Brainwashed? Ha ha… No… I'm not brainwashed… But the question is… Who are you people?"

"We're trying to look for the Pure Heart," Chopper explained. "But we know that Fawful came by here and is probably waiting over by the throne room… You think we could pass by and find the king?"

"If it means to save our kingdom… Then go right ahead." the cupcake guard crawled out of the way and let the heroes through the building with the spiral staircase. "Please… Save our king."

Chopper nodded and walked up the spiral staircase, along with the others. When they reached the top, they saw another bridge, but this one only led up to the large door instead of another staircase.

Mario: This is high!

"Tell me about it. We're definitely in a high point." Chopper raced across the bridge and went over to the Save Block and yellow ? block. With a punch, an Ultra Shroom popped out for the heroes.

"Poyo! (An Ultra Shroom!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he grabbed it. Blade, as usual, sliced it up into five pieces for them to recover 50 HP. The nice taste made Chopper feel much better.

"Wow… I feel as if the damage done by Midbus went away." Chopper smiled and stretched. "All right, guys. Let's go get Fawful."

When they set foot in the throne room, they noticed that the ground was pink – a sweet pink, that is. The walls were made of yellow sponge cake, which got the heroes drooling a little. At the end of the room was a golden throne. It wasn't even made out of any food, to their surprise. There were even some large ice cream cones and a pile of chocolate to keep them all company. But the first thing they saw was a certain bean.

It was Fawful, but he was holding some sort of Nintendo DS device.

"Fawfully-doo! Where are you?" the beanish child said in a singing voice. "Pure Heart, needing you! Pure heart destruction, yoo-hoo! WHERE TO FIND YOU…"

"End of the road, Fawful," Chopper declared as he got in a fighting stance. "Give up already. We have you surrounded."

"I have shock at you all! You have making it here so easily? Fawful hates you! I have thought you were making it here slowly? !"

"Who's there?" from behind the throne, the king, who looked exactly like Candanian, peeked his head from behind the throne. He noticed Fawful, but his eyes widened in surprise at the heroes.

"You five… Are you really…"

"Ah, so you are having the hiding," Fawful stated as he pulled his blaster out and aimed it at King Candania. "Fawful requests the Pure Heart! Give it to me so I can have destruction of it!"

"The Pure Heart is not for fiends such as yourself," Sonic stated, clenching his fists at the psychotic bean. "Leave the king alone, or fight us!"

"Now that I think about it, you fink-rats are also getting in the way of Fawful, when I think about it," Fawful turned around and glared at the heroes. "Tipral has the requesting that I lay the destruction on you fink-rats."

"So you're saying that you're going to take us out first?" Chopper questioned.

"I have chortles! Of course Fawful will lay the destruction on you all! That is my main goal, after all! And as soon as I lay the fury upon you all, I will have the taking of the Pure Heart and I will have the destroying!"

Fawful raised his blaster up at the five. "Now, fink-rats… Taste Fawful's fury!"

Fawful shot a blast directly at the heroes, but they all managed to jump out of the way before tasting Fawful's laser blast. When Chopper landed on the ground, he got a good eye on Fawful's stats.

"Whoa… So Fawful has about 120 HP? Yikes… It's a bit more than Gemerl when we fought him in Sunset Hill… And he's also got an Attack of 9 and a Defense of 4? Wow… Well, I don't think this should be as hard as fighting Dimentio and Tipral fused together, that's for sure."

Mario: That's not so bad.

Mario made the first move, performing a Triple Jump over another one of Fawful's lasers. He landed on top of Fawful's head and struck him with a powerful stomp attack.

"Say, Fawful… What ever happened to that Headgear you always had with you before?" Chopper asked, noticing that he no longer had it with him. "I mean, I bet you could fight a lot easily with it!"

"I do not require the Headgear to lay the destruction!" Fawful cackled as he shot Chopper with a blast. "Fawful's weapon has had the upgrading, thanks to Tipral, so I can destroy you easily!"

"Oh… All right." Chopper inhaled the next blast Fawful fired at him and spat it out directly at his face, sending him flying across the room. Kirby inhaled one of the chocolates afterwards and spat it at Fawful to deal some more damage…and also get chocolate all over his teeth.

"Poyo! (Yeah! I got him!)" Kirby fist pumped.

Fawful got up and pulled out his toothbrush once again, putting toothpaste on it and brushing his teeth. The five heroes looked confused, but Blade simply threw a shuriken at him afterwards.

"Nyeah! Fawful won't give up yet!" Fawful changed his blaster to his laser sword and he immediately rushed towards Blade, striking him once with his sword. Luckily, Blade managed to draw his katana and block a couple of Fawful's attacks with it. It ended up with Blade kicking Fawful in the shin and striking him with his katana afterwards before he was knocked back.

"Man… This fight is starting to get rather intense…" the king trailed, watching the battle from behind the throne. "I just hope those heroes succeed in defeating this bean. Beans are not welcome here after that horrible incident!"

Chopper immediately jumped towards Fawful and managed to stomp on top of his head twice while performing a stylish move. After jumping off, he gave a thumbs up to the people reading this (a.k.a. you).

"I'm surprised that Fawful isn't putting up much of a fight yet," Sonic immediately spun around Fawful with his Whirlwind and sent him flying up to the ceiling. When Fawful began to fall, the blue hedgehog jumped towards him and landed a couple of Homing Attacks on the bean.

"Fink-rats! Take this!" Fawful changed his laser sword to his blaster and fired an ice beam at Sonic, freezing him in place. "Nyeah heh heh heh! Now taste Fawful's cold fury dipped with chips!"

"Dipped with… What?" Chopper gawked as he tossed a couple of fireballs at Fawful. While Fawful fired an ice beam, it didn't do much to affect it. The ice melted, while the fireball was extinguished.

"What? That's it? Aw, come on!"

"Poyo, (Well I'll try something,)" Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of Fawful so he could get his attention. The bean aimed at Kirby and fired an ice beam, but Kirby ended up inhaling the ice and spitting it back at Fawful for some tough, cold damage. Unfortunately, it didn't freeze him, to Kirby's dismay.

"Don't think you'll be having the freezing of me," Fawful grumbled, freezing Kirby for a couple of seconds with an ice beam. But, Sonic ended up breaking out of his frozen prison and striking him with a Spin Dash.

"Next time, don't try to freeze me," Sonic growled.

Fawful was about to attack Sonic, but Mario delivered a Ground Pound on his head, then stuck him into the ground by bashing his head with his hammer. The plumber couldn't help but laugh at Fawful as he tried to wiggle his way onto the ground.

"My body has the stuckness!" Fawful shouted as he pushed himself out of the ground.

"Your body has the 'stuckness'?" Chopper gawked. "Is it me, or is this guy making less sense every second?"

"Poyo, (It's probably not you,)" Kirby replied as he managed to break out of his icy prison. He inhaled one of the chocolates and used them as a weapon once again, spitting one at Fawful.

The psychotic bean wiped the chocolate off his glasses and fired multiple ice blasts at the five. Mario managed to jump over a few and land on Fawful's head with another Triple Jump, while Chopper inhaled one of the ice beams.

"Hmmmmmmm… Perhaps that boy could use some help." King Candanian reached for a boxing glove from his pocketed and tossed it towards Chopper after he spat the projectile back at Fawful.

"Hero! Take this!"

"Huh?" Chopper saw a boxing glove coming his way. Instead of grabbing it, he inhaled it and took its ability. A red bandanna was now on his head after swallowing it. He also felt like he could fight well with his fists and feet.

"Ooh! I've got the Fighter ability!" Chopper smiled, punching the air. "I think this should be a bit helpful!"

When Fawful changed to his laser sword, he immediately charged at Chopper. However, the Star Warrior already had plans. He jumped behind Fawful and struck him with a slamming kick to the head. He then struck Fawful with an uppercut punch – in which he calls the Rising Break.

"Poyo? ! (You seriously got the Fighter ability? !)" Kirby gaped.

"Yeah, the king was nice enough to give this to me. I think it should help us out." Chopper nodded.

Unfortunately, he wasn't paying much attention to Fawful at this point. The psychotic bean changed to his blaster and fired an ice beam at Chopper, leaving him as a frozen popsicle.

"Oh, boy… He's frozen." Blade face palmed. "He'll probably get out of that soon, so let's just focus on taking care of Fawful."

"I have chortles!" Fawful cackled as he spun his blaster. "Oh, the ice beam, how it has the ability to popsiclize you fink-rats!"

"Popsiclize isn't even a word!" the ninja cat tossed a couple of shurikens at Fawful, but he managed to freeze them with ease. Blade face palmed and jumped towards Fawful, striking him a couple of times with his katana.

"As long as I'm close to you, you can't really do much against me, beanie!" Blade kicked Fawful back and tossed Hommissile directly at him to send him flying across the room. But that didn't do much when Fawful managed to jump off the wall and knock the ninja back with his laser sword.

"What the frick? ! Since when can he do that? !"

"Do you have the understanding that Tipral has given Fawful some powers?" Fawful questioned. "It just gives me fury!"

"Ugh… I'm getting a bit annoyed with your speech pattern." Sonic groaned, curling up into a ball and striking Fawful with a Spin Dash. Unfortunately, he ended up getting hit by Fawful's laser sword afterwards, knocking him over by Mario's feet.

"Whoa… So Fawful does seem to put up more of a fight, now that I think about it…" Sonic moaned.

Mario: Yeah, he certainly does.

Mario gripped his hammer and charged at Fawful. He knew that his hammer couldn't be sliced in half by Fawful's laser sword, so that was fine. With one bash, he managed to stun Fawful for a couple of seconds.

"Red Mustache! What are you…" Fawful was knocked to the wall by Kickbrin, knocking him out for a couple of seconds. Fawful was able to pull himself up and fire an ice beam at the plumber, but he only let his hammer get frozen.

Mario: So long, Fawful!

He jumped towards Fawful and prepared to use his Ground Pound on him. Unfortunately, Fawful managed to fire an ice beam directly at Mario's butt, making him rub his butt from the intense cold.

"Hmmmmm… Fawful feels like giving the heat!" Fawful changed his ice beam to his fire beam and aimed at the frozen Chopper. With one fire beam, he managed to melt off the ice around him and also leave a burn on the poor Star Warrior.

"Agh! I'm on fire!" he cried as he ran around the room. "Someone help me get these flames off me!"

"Poyo! (You need some water to help cool you off!)" Kirby shouted, searching the room for anything. He noticed a can of fruit punch on the table. "Poyo… (Well… I guess that's the only option…)"

Kirby grabbed the can of fruit punch and went over to the screaming Chopper. By pouring it down on him, he managed to extinguish the flames on him. Although, it's a bit…odd to use fruit punch for that.

"Whew… Thanks, Kirby." Chopper sighed in relief and turned to Fawful. "All right, now let's settle this!"

He jumped towards Fawful and used a Vulcan Jab to damage him a couple of times, leaving a couple of bruises on Fawful's face. Kirby also joined in by inhaling some chocolate and spitting it at Fawful's back, leaving some of his cloak with some chocolate on it.

"I have fury!" Fawful shouted as he looked at his own cloak. "You fink-rats will have the paying for this!"

"Pipe down, will ya?" Sonic asked as he sent Fawful flying in the air with his Whirlwind. He came falling to the ground afterwards, hitting his head on the ground first and allowing Mario to stomp on him.

"When are you going to give up? You're getting your butt handed to us!"

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Take this, fink-rats!" Fawful changed his blaster to his laser sword and began to spin around rapidly, hitting everyone in the face with his incredible attack. It even knocked them all back.

"Poyo! (Ouch! That was painful!)" Kirby chirped.

"But we can't give up yet," Chopper slowly got himself up and charged up a ball of energy. By tossing it at Fawful, he managed to stun him for a couple of seconds. Then he grabbed a hold of him and threw him across the room, thanks to his Fighter ability.

"I'm so glad I have this ability," he smiled, until Fawful struck him with a normal laser blast, knocking his Fighter ability out.

"What? ! Aw, come on! That's not fair at all!"

"Well now this makes the fighting easier for Fawful!" the psychotic bean cackled once again, firing a couple of blasts at the group. Kirby inhaled one of them and spat it back at Fawful, knocking him to the wall.

"I call making the next move!" Blade declared as he brought his katana down on Fawful…but, like before, his laser sword managed to block Blade's katana, forcing them to have a small sword duel.

"You're kidding me… This isn't how I wanted to fight."

Fawful grinned before striking Blade with his laser sword, knocking him back over by the throne. However, Blade DID manage to strike Fawful when he tossed Hommissile straight at him.

"Ouch! The explosiveness!" Fawful cried out as he managed to slowly get himself up after that attack. He was all battered up, with his cloak dirty and splattered with some chocolate Kirby spat out.

Sonic rushed at Fawful one last time and struck him with one last Homing Attack before he was left dazed.

"All right, Mario! Finish the job!" Sonic gave Mario the cue to make the finishing touch.

Mario: Buh bye, Fawful!

Mario performed a Triple Jump on Fawful and, for his last move, he struck Fawful with a Ground Pound, making the psychotic bean give in.

"Gcccccccck! Fawful gives! Fawful gives!" he cried out as Mario got off of him. One of his glasses was cracked and even his face was covered in some bruises. Despite all of this, he was still grinning.

"Fawful must have the exiting. I have bruises all over myself and having the injuries will not guarantee victory for Fawful. So…" Fawful summoned his hovering platform and jumped on it. "See you later, fink-rats!"

As soon as Fawful left, King Candanian peeked from behind the throne. "Is it… Is it all right to come out now?"

Mario: Yes it is.

"Oh, good…" Candanian showed himself and walked over to the heroes with his scepter in his hand. "I thank you for defeating that horrible psychotic bean. Hopefully my people can finally remain here in peace."

"What about those brainwashed people?" Sonic questioned.

"Hopefully they should be wearing off once he leaves," the king took a deep breath. "I'm sorry if I don't sound so king-like. I don't usually feel safe when outsiders come here. Ever since the Great Bean War, I've feared that outsiders that would show up here would be spies of the beans. …But seeing your actions, I can probably confirm that you aren't a spy. To me, you seem to be the heroes…"

"That's why we came here," Chopper confirmed.

"Allow me to introduce myself first," Candanian cleared his throat. "My name is King Candanian II. I've been ruling this place for approximately 483 years."

"483 years? ! How are you still alive? !" Blade gaped.

"Us candy people aren't like you live people. We don't have internal organs, and therefore cannot die from old age. In fact, there have been some people here that have been living in here for over a thousand years."

"A thousand… Whoa." Chopper's face looked entirely surprised.

"The prophecy has told me that you were supposed to arrive to claim the Pure Heart 1,500 years ago. What happened? Did you all forget?"

Mario shook his head and explained to him that they were not around for 1,500 years. He even said that they were only assigned this job a couple of weeks ago…

"I see… I guess that's how it is, then. _…If only my ancestors were able to see this in person._" Candanian placed his scepter on the ground and used his powers to summon the pink Pure Heart out of it.

"I wish I didn't have to give this thing up… It was something that I've always liked to look at. But, seeing as the worlds are needed to be safe from danger… It looks like I have no other choice. …So, brave heroes. Are you ready to claim the Pure Heart?"

Everyone gave him a nod. "Excellent! That is just what I wanted to see from you! …Sort of. But, anyways… Heroes, I give you...the Pure Heart!"

As the pink Pure Heart flew over Chopper's head, the Pixls began to perform their wonderful dance again. When they were finally finished, the young Star Warrior held up their prize.

"It's about time!"

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_I thank you for what you've done, heroes. With that bean out of my kingdom, all of my people will finally be able to live peacefully. I… I don't feel afraid of outsiders, now that I think about it now." the candy king seemed satisfied with the heroes. Although they were the only outsiders that he no longer feared, he ended up learning something in the end. With the Pure Heart in their hands, and Tipral's minion, Fawful, defeated, our heroes began to make their way back to Flipside. "I hope Tippi's pleased with us…wherever she may be." Chopper wondered as he looked up at the sky as they made their way back._

* * *

**Man... A chapter that was first incredibly short turned out to be a bit longer when edited. That's rather satisfying for me...even if this story is a bit long (I actually think it's longer than Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars when we're talking about how many words there are).**

**And, man... The interlude you'll be seeing next might be a bit surprising to some. What do you mean by that? Well... Maybe you'll find out!**

**...And I'm proud that Fawful's in this story. Especially in a Paper Mario fanfic (if you want to call the second part of this fic Super Paper Mario 2, then I'm fine, 'cause I guess that makes some sort of sense).**** Anyways, be prepared for the next interlude! ^^**_  
_


	57. Chapter 9 Interlude

**Here it is, people! The ninth interlude! What you might see here is a bit surprising. I'm not talking about the beginning of this chapter. I'm talking about when we get later into it! I'm not going to say anything else about it, but some people **_**might**_** be a bit pleased. Some others… Maybe not, but who cares? Not many people read this anyways! :D**

* * *

In a different world, where the whole place seemed to have a purple ground and an evil black sky, a dark wizard was sitting on his throne, playing something on his Nintendo DS. He looked a bit peeved from looking at his glowing purple eyes. It seems that he wasn't succeeding very well.

"Ugh… I'm not doing well with this game." Shade grumbled, trying to use the touch screen to control Samus around in Metroid Prime Hunters. "I'm suddenly lost, and I've died a couple of times. How nice."

He noticed that the floor right by his throne made a hole as it began to move down. He knew something was going on, so he put his Nintendo DS away.

When the floor came back up, he could see that the Necromancer ended up showing up, looking a bit better than he was after losing against Chopper and his group of friends. However, instead of greeting the dark wizard, his head hung low in shame.

"Please forgive me, Master Shadow Doom…" the Necromancer trailed (Shade is a nickname he's usually referred to as) as he looked up at his leader. "I have failed you… I couldn't beat the heroes."

"Oh, relax, already," Shade snapped. "I ended up losing to that scoundrel Chopper. Apparently I underestimated his power… He didn't seem too much to me when I heard about him, but I know that he isn't just one of those typical kids. Same goes with those friends of his."

"What about the Pure Heart? Did he get his hands on that too?"

Shade frowned under his hood. "I'm sure that he got his hands on it. You're not going to believe this… But apparently the Pure Heart was actually some Nimbi girl. I believe it was the princess."

The Necromancer stood up in surprise. "What?! How could a Pure Heart be some girl?!"

"I don't understand how either, but we don't need to worry about her anymore, as much of a brat she was."

"Oh, yeah, she was one hell of a brat," the Necromancer agreed. "…But, what if the heroes manage to find this place? We wouldn't be fully prepared to stop him! Our army doesn't appear to be tough enough to take down those heroes."

Shade began to chuckle. "Nonsense, Necromancer! You shouldn't have to worry! After all, the **Comet of Darkness **is very well hidden in another world! And the heroes are only led to the Pure Hearts, am I correct? We don't have any Pure Hearts with us, so there's no way they're coming here. …But when the times DOES come, we'll make a full-on invasion throughout the whole universe! One that'll be even more dangerous than what Tipral's capable of!"

Shade got off his throne and landed on the ground right next to the Necromancer. "So, Necromancer… How about we go find out where that boy and his friends are and give them a little surprise?"

"Hmmmmmm… I'm not too sure…"

"You should listen to me," Shade suggested, glaring at him with his purple eyes. "You did swear that you would stay by my side ever since I freed you from that prison in The Underwhere! So you must remain loyal to me!"

"Yes, I know that and all… But give them a little surprise after that whole beating we took before? There's no way I'm going to go back and fight those heroes until I'm fully recovered."

"…Who said we were actually going to fight them?" Shade asked with a creepy grin.

"Ah, so this is where you are residing in, my dear dark wizard!"

"Necromancer, did you say something?"

"No, I didn't."

Dimentio appeared right in front of the two, surprising both of them immediately. The Necromancer drew his sword, while Shade aimed his wand at the jester. But instead of a glare, they received a cackle from him.

"Ah ha ha ha! No need to raise your weapons on me." Dimentio assured, waving his arms around as he sweat dropped. "I haven't come here to cause any harm to you at all! I just came here for an offering!"

"And who might you be, if I may ask?" Shade asked.

"Ah, yes. How rude of me. I can't speak to someone without introducing myself!" Dimentio said politely. "I am Master of Dimensions… Pleaser of Crowds… I am…Dimentio!"

"Dimentio? And who said you pleased crowds? I'm not pleased to see you here…" the Necromancer growled. "Talk now! We don't have time to deal with such a stupid-looking person such as yourself!"

"Oh, my… You do seem to have a temper like a bull!"

"Look, we don't have time to be dealing with you. We have a little boy to find." Shade pushed the jester out of the way and walked to the center of the floor. But, Dimentio ended up teleporting in front of him.

"Will you cut that out?! Get out of the way before I kill you!"

"All I'm doing is giving you a little offering," Dimentio assured. "How would you like to…join Tipral? Seeing that you both hate Chopper so much, why can't you just work together to stop him?"

"Forget it, clown. We're not joining everyone."

"I swore that I would stay by Master Shadow Doom's side, so I must decline as well," the Necromancer said. "Now leave us. We have some business to take care of! …And you better make it quick!"

"Oh, what a shame… I guess I might as well leave you two to finish your business…" Dimentio sighed emotionlessly. "Ciao!"

With a snap of his finger, he was out of the comet.

"What a weird guy…" the Necromancer trailed. "Why would Tipral have someone like him here?"

"It doesn't matter. Even if Tipral manages to bring The Void back, we'll still have our army. We can simply invade his palace and kill him! When that's done, we'll get the minions he has to join our side so we'll become unstoppable! …But that'll be much later. For now, we need to get going."

* * *

**Tipral's Palace, Meeting Room-**

While Tipral was reading the Dark Prognosticus, O'Chunks came busting through the door. The strange thing about him was that he seemed to be a bit tired. What he was doing, I don't quite know.

"Tipral… I'm… I'm finally done…" he said as he panted. "Me room's all ready teh go! I think I'm ready teh get comfy 'ere."

"That's great, O'Chunks," Nastasia said as she rolled her eyes. "Now, would you get up here? We need all of the minions here, 'K?"

"Errrr… Yeah, I'll get up there." O'Chunks jumped up to his platform and began to wait patiently, pulling out a drumstick and chomping down on it.

"O'Chunks! How many times do I have to tell you NOT to eat in this meeting room?!"

"Whuh? Yeh never told me that I couldn't eat 'ere, wee Nastasia!"

"Do me a favor and get rid of it, 'K?"

"Awwwwwww…" O'Chunks frowned as he dropped the drumstick on the ground. When Mimi walked into the room, she noticed the greasy drumstick on the ground and looked disgusted.

"Ewwwwwww! O'Chunks! Why do you have to leave your greasy food all over the place?!" Mimi gagged.

"'Ey! Don't blame me! Nastasia made me get rid o' it!"

"Well don't drop it on the ground! No one wants to see your greasy food all over the ground! Tippy, can't you do something about him and his food dropping? It's really bugging me!"

Tipral lowered the Dark Prognosticus and looked down at Mimi. "Fine…"

Raising his scepter, he managed to zap the drumstick and make it disappear. "All right, are you happy now, Mimi?"

"Aw, thanks, Tippy!" she giggled as she teleported onto her platform. Dark landed on his platform from the ceiling.

"So, I got a call from Nastasia that I was needed here…" Dark trailed as he stood up. "What is it this time? I actually want to go back to killing some of those paladins that I've found."

"Did someone call me?" Dimentio appeared on his platform with his sinister grin. "I certainly don't want to be missing any party going around here. Tell me the news, Tipral!"

"Great… He's here again." Dark groaned.

"Relax, Dark… This won't take long. Nastasia will explain everything." Tipral assured.

"Yes," Nastasia nodded as she adjusted her glasses. "You see, we've been speaking about having a new minion, correct? We were lucky to find a new one, and we will be introducing him to you all."

"He said that… Well, I don't understand his speech that much, but he says that the 'Green Antenna' lacks fury and chortles… Oh, and he also has some boar with him as well."

"Green Antenna? Fury and chortles?" Mimi gawked.

"_**I HAVE FAWFUL!**_"

"What in me granny's cookin'?!" O'Chunks gawked.

"Golly, I don't think I've ever heard THAT before…" Mimi trailed.

Fawful appeared on an empty platform, spinning around rapidly before making a pose. "At long last, Fawful makes his entry of win!"

"This is Fawful," Nastasia introduced. "He has agreed to join us for, um…fury."

"Yes, Fawful HAS come for that!" Fawful turned to all of the other minions. "What's this? Am I seeing people who lack the chortles of Fawful? I have telling that they all smell of sweat socks!"

"'Ey! What's yer beef with us?!" O'Chunks growled.

"Beef? I am lacking in beef. Fawful is beefless."

"What are you even saying?" Mimi asked in anger. "I don't know who you are, but why do you have a problem with us?"

"Settle down, everyone. I don't want to start a fight here." Nastasia warned.

"He could be of some good use, I believe," Dark stated. "He HAS brought a pink boar with him, is that correct? Well, that clearly means that we've outnumbered the heroes. There's four of them, and eight of us. We're guaranteed to beat them easily."

"Speaking of that boar… Where is he anyways?" O'Chunks asked.

"Midbus? Midbus?! MIDBUS!" Fawful called out. He soon realized that Midbus was teleported right below Fawful, and he was sleeping. "It appears Midbus has the sleeping of a little toddler."

"Ah ha ha ha. I actually like this new minion." Dimentio chuckled. "He sort of reminds me of…myself."

"Anyway, now that we've got that taken care of… I've tried to use my dark powers to prevent the hero from moving on to the next world." Tipral explained. "However, I don't know if that power is unstoppable. So, just in case if they DO make their way to the eleventh Pure Heart, I'm going to need some people to stop them."

"I'll do it!" both O'Chunks and Mimi shouted. They both looked at each other and then glared. "No! I'm going to go!"

"Both of you stop," Nastasia snapped. "You can both go if you want. …I guess it's for the best."

"Ah, splendid! While they can go, I can get back to business!" Dimentio smirked as he was about to teleport.

"Don't even think about doing what I think you're going to do, Dimentio!" Mimi growled before she teleported away. O'Chunks jumped off the platform afterward, landing on Midbus before leaving.

"Huh? What happened?" Midbus asked, his nose bubble popping.

"Nothing important," Tipral replied before going back to the book. "Hopefully those two will be good enough to stop Chopper and his friends…"

"I recall that you said there were four heroes…" Dimentio looked over at Dark. "Well, I can gladly say that there are five of them now. After they found Mario, he joined their team. …But I don't think that will be enough."

"We have enough, trust me."

"Well, then I guess I might as well be off then! Ciao!" with a snap of his finger, Dimentio teleported out of the palace.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

As the five heroes walked out of the door, they noticed a pink crystal heart appear over the door. When Mario first saw this, he remembered the times when he first walked out of the red door three months ago.

"Yeah, I know. Pretty cool, isn't it?" Blade smirked.

"Poyo, (Well, now that we have the Pure Heart, we should go talk to Merlon,)" Kirby suggested.

"Ah, I see you have all returned!" the heroes turned around and saw Merlon waiting for them over by the light blue door. Meta Knight was also standing there as well. "So how was your trip through the ninth world?"

"Man, it was hectic!" Chopper explained. "You're not going to believe this… But that world was filled with nothing but…candy!"

"Candy? Are you sure about this?" Meta Knight questioned.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure! But that's not the important part. We managed to get THIS!" Chopper pulled the pink Pure Heart out and showed it to Merlon, who gazed at the beautiful heart.

"My… Such a beautiful heart! I could just gaze at it all day!" Merlon looked up at the heroes and noticed Mario. "…And it appears that we have another hero in the group! It's nice to see you here, Mario!"

Mario: Thank you!

"With that Pure Heart, you must go down to the first floor outskirts of Flipside and find the Heart Pillar! I'm sure it'll be there, now that you've collected the tenth Pure Heart. I can't believe you'll be more than halfway done with collecting the hearts!"

"And try to be careful down there," Meta Knight added.

"Well, we better go do that now, since we don't have anything else to do right now…" Sonic trailed.

* * *

**Flipside, First Floor Outskirts-**

"So, this is where the second Pure Heart was?" Sonic questioned, looking at the Heart Pillar up on one of the stone platforms.

"Yeah, that's right. You can thank Kirby for that one, though." Chopper said as he looked over at Kirby.

"Poyo, (I think the next Heart Pillar is to the left now,)" Kirby pointed to the tall stone block to the left that was in the way.

Mario: I got it!

Mario knocked the stone block down with Kickbrin's ability, allowing them to walk over to the Heart Pillar past it. They saw at the bottom of the pillar that there was a light shade of pink, which wasn't too surprising to them.

"I'll handle this, I suppose," Chopper pulled the pink Pure Heart out and allowed it to go into place, creating a pink clock as the Pure Heart went into its pillar. Of course, they knew what was going to happen next.

"Well… We better head back up to Flipside Tower." Blade suggested.

"Yeah, of course we know that," Chopper nodded. "We've been doing this a lot of times, so it's not surprising." he pulled the Return Pipe out and used it in order to leave the outskirts.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"I suppose that this is the last door of Flipside…" Sonic trailed as they jumped out of the pipe. But, instead of seeing a colored door next to them, they saw a colorless one with only the outlines shown.

"…What the heck?!" Chopper gawked at the sight of the door. He couldn't even go in! "There's something wrong with this door! I mean… WHY is it all colorless?!"

Mario: Is it meant to be colorless?

"No, I don't think so," Chopper poked the door, but his finger simply went through it. "There's no way we're going through here, unfortunately…"

"Poyo… (We should go see Merlon about this…)" Kirby trailed.

"Then to Merlon's we'll go!"

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

Merlon was busy reading the Light Prognosticus when he saw the five heroes walk into his house. "Hmmmmm? Are you heroes already done with collecting the eleventh Pure Heart? That didn't seem long at all…"

Mario shook his head and explained to him what was going on. The wizard jumped in shock.

"What? The tenth door on Flipside Towers cannot be accessed? ! How is this possible? !"

"We don't know, Merlon. We tried to open it, but it seemed impossible." Chopper groaned. "Was that supposed to happen, though?"

Merlon shook his head. "The doors that lead to other worlds don't do things like that… Young ones, please show me the door."

"Gladly," Sonic walked out of the house, along with everyone else and Merlon. Although the elevator was tight for them to fit in, they all managed to make their way back to Flipside Towers.

As soon as the door opened, Merlon rushed over to the last door and took a look at it, shaking his head.

"Hmmmmmm… This is definitely not something for a door like this to do…" the wizard trailed. "Never in my life have I seen something like this happen to one of the doors on Flipside Towers…"

"Poyo? (Is there anything we can do to change this?)" Kirby asked.

"Luckily, I do remember reading something interesting in the Light Prognosticus. 'The ruler of the aftergame has the ability to revitalize all.' It's an interesting quote, to say the least. But, if this is true, then that means you must find the ruler of the aftergame to fix the door. Hopefully it should allow you guys to move on."

"The ruler of the aftergame… Where have I heard that before?" Blade pondered.

"…I think I know what we need to do," Chopper frowned at the group. "I think we need to go back to The Overthere and see Grambi…"

"Are you SERIOUS?! We have to go back _THERE?!_"

"Well, that is the only way we can get to the Pure Heart…" Sonic trailed. "But, Chopper, why are you so worried about going to The Overthere? Is it because of your girlfriend or something?"

"Luvbi is NOT my girlfriend!" he snapped. "I just don't want to see Jaydes and Grambi crying like before. I'm sure that if we go there again, we're probably going to see them still depressed. It won't be a nice thing to see…"

"Poyo, (That and all of the damage dealt to The Overthere,)" Kirby added.

"Well there's not much else we can do about it," Sonic stated. "We're trying to save the world, right? Well… We can't just deny going to Grambi's shrine. I think we can go there and ask him nicely."

Chopper let out a sigh. "All right… We'll go there. But don't expect me to be the happiest person on the planet."

He walked over to the purple door and opened it. Luckily, since they already completed the seventh world, they can easily go into any section of the chapter that they want to. Since they need to see Grambi, they all selected to go into The Overthere and NOT The Underwhere.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7-5**

As the five heroes walked out of the door, they started to remember when they witnessed all of these fluffy clouds back in Overthere Stair. Bad memories started to plague Blade's mind as he looked at this world.

"Aw, crap! The bad memories are returning again!" he shouted.

"Well, duh! The narrator just said that!" Sonic frowned.

"Ugh… Let's just get this over with, guys…" Chopper groaned as he began to make his way through this place. When they got over to the door that led into Overthere Sector 3, they noticed that the Nimbis were all fine. In fact, everything didn't seem as bad as they thought it would be.

"Whoa, is it just me or is everyone not depressed?" Chopper gawked.

"Weird… Well, we should just move on from this, what do you say?" Blade began to stroll on ahead, with everyone else following. They made their way to the next sector and even took the Overvator to go to the sector with the rainbow bridge.

And boy, they were surprised to see a lot of Nimbis talking to each other. It felt very peaceful around this place.

"Buddays!" both Pherrance and Tillip fluttered over to the five heroes happily, letting out a fart before laughing hysterically.

Mario: Who are these guys?

"That's Pherrance and Tillip. Apparently these guys are comedians." Sonic explained.

"I can't believe you managed to drive that dark wizard away!" Pherrance said happily. "You should've seen his face when he fled! He was running away like a little girl! It was friggin' hilarious!"

"Not as hilarious as my farts!" Tillip said as he farted.

"Oh, you silly bastard!" the Nimbi's friend giggled as he nudged him a little.

"…Why do you need to be so offensive?" Chopper asked.

"Oh! I almost forgot! I think Grambi wants to see you guys for something! I don't know what it's for, but it must be something pretty important!"

"…What? He wanted to see us? Wow… I never knew that."

"So, go on ahead, friends! You need to go see him!" Tillip suggested. "I think it's pretty important anyways!"

"Ummmm… OK." Chopper walked over to the rainbow bridge with his friends. What was weird to Chopper was when he heard a Nimbi named Wenbi saying something about writing some more love letters. Although he didn't know WHO he was writing them too, it didn't seem like anything Chopper was interested in that much.

After crossing the rainbow bridge, they walked over to the door nearby. This would bring them to the sector where Grambi's shrine would be. With one deep breath, they entered through the door and into the area that led up to Grambi's shrine.

"Poyo? (Huh? Why did the music suddenly change?)" Kirby asked, noticing that The Overthere theme suddenly changed to a beautiful angelic song. Everyone else could hear it as well.

Mario: Weird…

"I agree, Mario. This is…strange. Yet, the music's beautiful." Chopper commented. "Whoever made this song, this is very peaceful. Thank you."

"Why are we wasting our time here? We need to go head up to Grambi's shrine now!" Blade suggested, scurrying on ahead up the stairs to the shrine.

"Oh, yeah! You're right!" Chopper raced his way over to the stairway and went up. He decided to grab the Ultra Shroom from the yellow ? block before walking in front of the shrine door.

"Let's head on through!" Sonic said with a grin.

* * *

**Grambi's Shrine-**

Upon entering into the shrine, they noticed that the whole room wasn't damaged like it was before. It seemed that everything was back to normal. Kind of strange, if you're thinking like Chopper.

"This place looks like it's back to normal," Chopper commented.

"How long were we away from this place?" Sonic gawked.

"My sweet prince!"

"Huh…?" Chopper stopped looking at the whole shrine and looked dead ahead. He saw Luvbi fluttering over to him and grabbing a hold of him in a hug. One that Chopper dreaded so much.

"L-Luvbi?!" Everyone was in utter shock, including Chopper, who couldn't even move from her hug.

"I can't believest thou hast returned hither!" she squealed, rubbing her cheeks on his. "It almost felt like it hast been a while…"

"B-But… What… How… The heck? How are you here?!"

Luvbi let go of Chopper. "Ha ha HA! Thou hast a very confused look on thy countenance! Thou art wondering how I returned to life? We-ell... That is a secret!"

"Oh, what a bummer…" Blade groaned.

"Ha ha HA! Just kidding! Truth be told, I know not! But who careth! I am back!"

Chopper was completely speechless. The girl that sacrificed her own life to stop The Void. She was back.

_"Wait a minute… I think I remember something." _Chopper remarked in his mind, thinking about what he said before Tippi and Count Bleck left.

_"Don't worry Luvbi… I promised you that all worlds will be saved… I just wish that you could be back with Queen Jaydes and Grambi and be a normal Nimbi, like you should have been. You deserve a nice, happy life."_

_With one last glance, Chopper tossed the white Pure Heart up to the Chaos Heart. With all of them together, they went straight into the Chaos Heart and made it emit a bright light._

"Chopper… Is something wrong with you?" Sonic asked while waving his hand in front of his face.

"Ah, heroes! Thou hast returned!" the heroes saw both Grambi and Queen Jaydes in the room with bright smiles. "Thou hast saved all worlds! Now all doth smile again… And Luvbi hath returned!"

"I heard the news and came running, and I saw Luvbi… I could not believe it!" Queen Jaydes said as she shed a tear of happiness. "It almost seemed like a miracle…"

"Mother and Father hath been all OVER me since my return," Luvbi explained to Chopper. "They are so clingy! I guess it is my fault for being soooooo cute!"

"I… I… I don't know what to say." Chopper stammered, still in shock.

"I also didst remember what thou hast said to be before. It made me feel so happy! Thou hast such a sweet and tender heart…" she fluttered up close to Chopper and left a sweet angelic kiss on his cheek. The young Star Warrior, unfortunately, lost his balance and fell over.

"GROSS!" Chopper yelped. _"Oh, man! I was REALLY hoping that she wouldn't kiss me again!"_

Grambi and Queen Jaydes smiled as their "daughter" grabbed a hold of Chopper and began to hug him. However, Luvbi noticed that two people were missing from the group.

"Pray, where hast Tippi and the hideous creature goneth?"

"Well apparently Tippi left us to stop The Void and Tipral apparently left us to go back to evil," Sonic explained. "I know, it's a shame Tippi left… Although, we expected Tipral to leave."

"I see…" Luvbi held Chopper tighter as she looked at him with hearts flying over her head. "Now, why hast thou come hither, my sweet prince? Hast thou come to propose to me?"

"Propose?! No way!" Chopper gagged. "What we're REALLY here for is to talk to your father. Merlon told us that he's the only one that can help us."

"What dost thou need?" Grambi asked.

"Apparently we're having problems with a door," Blade explained. "We can't find any way to enter through the next world! Merlon said that only the ruler of the aftergame can do such a thing."

"Ah, so thou needeth me to revitalize the final door in Flipside Tower? Then I shall dost that!" with his powers, Grambi managed to make the room flash for just a second. "When thou returneth to Flipside Tower, thou will findeth the door to be in color."

"Thank you…" Chopper chirped.

"Father! Father! I think I can helpeth my sweet prince and his servants find the Pure Heart in that world!" Luvbi spoke up. "I hath gone there before! And I also doth have a friend that is there as well! May I goest with my sweet prince?"

Mario: Servant?

"Let's not go there, Mario…" suggested Sonic.

"Wh-What?!" Chopper gawked.

"Oh, god no!" Blade frowned.

"Poyo! (Please, Grambi! Don't let her come!)" Kirby begged.

"Yea, Luvbi! I will let thee goest with thy suitor." Grambi replied, making Chopper shiver in fear and the rest of the group fall over. "Chopper, thou will maketh sure that my daughter is fine, all right?"

"Y-Yes, sir…"

"Very well. I will taketh thee back to Flipside Towers to make things easier for thee." with Grambi's powers, he managed to teleport Chopper, Luvbi, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario back to Flipside Towers.

"Do you think he'll take good care of her?" Queen Jaydes asked.

"I dost hope so…" Grambi trailed.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

Once all six of them were taken back to the tower, they were right in front of the tenth door. Surprisingly, it was only a white color.

"That's it? This door is only white?" Blade gaped. "That's…weak."

"Well, it's better than nothing," Sonic frowned.

"Hmph! So you managed to get the door revitalized…" Meta Knight was right beside the ninth door with his cape wrapped around him. Luvbi looked a bit confused.

"Pray, who is this ugly duckling?" Luvbi asked.

"That 'ugly duckling' happens to be Meta Knight…" Chopper trailed, getting out of her grasps. "And he's almost like a father to me."

Meta Knight looked at the princess with a blank look. "Who is this girl, Chopper?"

"Mine given name is Luvbi," Luvbi said with an irritated look. "I'm the Princess of The Underwhere and Overthere, so thou must maketh sure thou givest me the respect that I deserve!"

"If that's what you want, then I'll give you it," Meta Knight took a glance at Chopper. "Is this girl in love with you?"

"Yes, sadly…" Chopper nodded sadly as Luvbi hugged him. "Please, Luvbi… I don't want any of this, please."

"Well, anyways, I decided to go back to searching for Galaxia… And no, I'm not angry with you, Chopper. I know you couldn't bring it back in one piece. …But, I will be making my way through this door you just opened. I think it would be a good idea."

Meta Knight walked over to the white door and walked through it. Everyone else looked at each other with confused looks.

"Poyo? (Should we head through?)" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, we need to," Chopper nodded. Everyone else headed through the door, with Chopper walking through last, being in Luvbi's clutches and all.

"It's so good to be with thee again, my sweet prince!" Luvbi sighed sweetly.

"I'm not your prince!"

* * *

**Yup! That's right, people! Luvbi is back! I kind of remember seeing other Super Paper Mario fics where in the end they don't mention what happens to everyone else after Chapter 8. I thought it would be interesting if I actually showed what happened with some of the other people. ...And, knowing that there are a lot of people that I know who like the pairing, I thought maybe Luvbi could be in here.**

**And besides... It would be kind of fitting to have her in this next world! What is it, you ask? Well, you'll find out!**


	58. Suffering From a Terrible Cold

_While the five still had a Pure Heart to find, what really bothered them was how Luvbi returned, and most importantly, why they have to deal with this bratty princess. As they moved along, Luvbi continued to scoff at the group, while talk sweetly to Chopper, her "sweet prince". "Oh, it is so nice to finally be back together, my sweet prince!" Luvbi sighed sweetly as she continued to hold onto her boyfriend. "I hath been waiting a long time for us to have a romantic trip together!" Chopper, however, being the boy he is, was disgusted by the amount of romance she kept talking about. But what surprised him and the others was how cold it felt…_

**CHAPTER 10-1**

**-Suffering From a Terrible Cold-**

As the background began to get drawn and colored, you could see that this whole place was filled with snow. The ground itself was filled with snow, and even the ground below seemed to be a bit blue. There were a couple of trees that looked kind of like Christmas trees, except they've got snow on the leaves. The sky itself was a dark blue color, showing the nice beauty of a winter day. Even the snowflakes looked incredibly pretty.

When the white door appeared, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario walked out of it and looked at their surroundings.

"Whoa… This is certainly an interesting world we've come up to." Sonic began to shiver. "Aw, man… This place is also pretty cold! I know I got this fur on me, but it's still pretty dang cold out here!"

"Mario's lucky to be wearing those overalls," Blade stated as he looked at Mario, who sweat dropped.

Kirby raised his arm and let a couple of snowflakes fall on his hand. "Poyo! (This is really nice! These snowflakes look so nice and sparkly! They're… They're the nicest snowflakes I've ever seen!)"

"I have no idea what you just said… Chopper, think you can tell us what Kirby just said?" Blade looked around, but he didn't see Chopper around. "Uhh… Chopper? You there, buddy?"

"Bleh! Gross!" Chopper came out of the door, but they all noticed that Luvbi was busy kissing Chopper all over his face while he was crying in fear. "Stop it, Luvbi! It's so disgusting!"

"Hee hee!" the Nimbi princess giggled at him and continued to kiss him. She stopped for a moment to look at the new world. "My sweet prince! This world doth seem to be so pretty! Doth it seem romantic to thee?"

"Romantic? Romantic my antennas! That's only for old people!" Chopper spat in disgust. "And do I have to keep telling you that I have no feelings for you?! I'm too young to have a girlfriend!"

"What about our marriage?"

"That's even worse!"

"Man, I can't believe we have to put up with her again…" Blade groaned, face palming as Luvbi continued to hug Chopper like he was her husband or baby. "And also we have to listen to Chopper acting like this too!"

"Don't blame me, Blade!" Chopper frowned, getting out of Luvbi's grasps. "This is how she's being like, and there's really nothing I can do to stop it… Although I guess it's nice that she's a real Nimbi…"

"So… Do you think we should stroll on ahead?" Sonic asked.

"Yea, verily. We should." Luvbi fluttered up to Chopper with a cute smile. "So, my sweet prince. Art thou going to make sure I'm safe?"

"Well, apparently your father wants to make sure you're safe and back at home in one piece…" Chopper trailed. "Although, I don't want anyone to get hurt, I'm pretty much forced to do this."

Kirby looked over at the trees and listened to the music. "Poyo? (Chopper… Why am I suddenly hearing Christmas music around here?)" he asked with a confused look on his face.

"Christmas music? …Oh, yeah. I do hear it. But… I'm also a bit cold too."

"Then thou shouldst stay close to me," Luvbi inched closer to her knight in shining armor. "If we giveth each other a hug, we will most likely stay warm! Thou dost want to do that, right?"

"Ehhhh… No way!" Chopper stepped away from Luvbi with a nervous look. "We're not going to hug each other! Like I said before, I'm certainly NOT your prince! I just wanna get going, OK?"

He jumped past the others and hurried on ahead, with love-struck Luvbi following him.

Mario: So, she loves him?

"Yeah, apparently she's in love with Chopper," Sonic explained, groaning. "Although, Chopper doesn't seem to love her back. We've seen him crying after being kissed by her, like what we just saw when they came out of the door.

Mario tilted his head a little, but he was surprised that Luvbi would like Chopper. Although, it would probably make sense, considering that their faces look somewhat similar (hey, you saw what they look like, right?).

"Poyo, (We better get moving, then,)" Kirby hurried on ahead, trying to catch up to Chopper. Apparently the enemies around this world were snow-based, so fire would actually do a lot of damage to some enemies. They noticed that there were a couple of snowmen holding snowballs on the flat, snowy ground.

"What do ya know? We've got snowmen here!" Sonic smirked as he saw Chopper bump into one of the snowmen.

"If these guys are cold enemies, then I suppose that fire should do more damage to them," Blade jumped over to the Snowman that was holding a snowball in its stick hand and struck it from behind with a fire slash.

Mario: I see it now!

Mario jumped on top of one of the Snowmen and performed a stylish move as he jumped off. The Snowman was still alive, but when Sonic performed a Homing Attack on it, it was finished.

"Whew! Now that was pretty nice!" the blue hedgehog smirked as he made a pose.

"Thy poses art not going to maketh thee seemeth cool, Knave," Luvbi said with an irritated look.

"…Are you seriously still calling me Knave?" At this point, Sonic didn't seem happy with the Nimbi girl. "The name's Sonic, all right? Sonic with a S."

Luvbi merely rolled her eyes at him and hugged her prince. "Thou dost not have to worry, my sweet prince," she whispered in a soft, sweet voice. "Thy servants won't be interfering with our relationship."

"There isn't a relationship between us!" Chopper frowned, getting out of her grasps and tossing a fireball at a Snowman right up ahead, melting it entirely. He noticed up on the trees that some snow was falling off.

Mario: Watch out for falling snow!

"My prince doth already seemeth to know that, yon hairy creature. Thou dost not have to remind him."

At this point, Mario was getting a bit irritated. He simply walked away from the princess and looked at the slope going down to a door up ahead. A couple of Snowmen were walking up the slope, so he simply began to slide down in order to take care of all of the Snowmen in his path.

Mario: Let's-a go!

Everyone else slid down the slippery path and entered through the door, leading them into another area. This time, they saw a bunch of ice people in Eskimo jackets called Snowmos. Of course, they enjoy hiding behind small snow forts and throw snowballs at the people in their path.

"Poyo? (Who the heck are those guys?)" Kirby asked.

"I believe those are Snowmos," Chopper pondered as he took a look at the light blue hooded people who had ice swords. "Yup. They're certainly not good guys. Although, they enjoy throwing snowballs, apparently."

"Then why don't you melt their forts?" suggested Blade.

"I guess I should," Chopper tossed a fireball at one of the forts, melting it entirely, leaving one of the Snowmos open. With another fireball, he was able to knock the enemy out.

"Such bravery!" Luvbi swooned, irritating Chopper a bit as he went up to the taller fort. With a flaming kick, he managed to knock the fort over easily and send the two Snowmos to the snowy ground.

"May I?" Blade asked.

"Go for it," Chopper nodded, stepping out of Blade's way. The ninja drew his katana and attacked the two Snowmos with it, killing them off. He even knocked an ice pillar holding up another fort, sending it to the ground, along with the Snowmos.

"Ha! Take that, you stupid people!"

"Let's not get to any insults, Blade…" Chopper suggested as Kirby inhaled a Snowmo and spat it out at the other, disintegrating them into white smoke. They moved on ahead over by another tree.

"Say, Chopper or Mario… Have you tried hitting any of those trees?" Sonic asked.

"Ermmmm… I haven't tried yet, but I might as well try now." Chopper whacked at the tree with his hammer, making a badge fall from it. It looked like it resembled a dizzy person, to Kirby's surprise.

"Poyo? (What's this?)" he picked up the badge and looked at it. "Poyo. (I think it's a dizzy badge. Could I use this, Chopper?)"

"Why are you asking me if you could use it? You don't need to ask anyone to equip anything! …Although anyone can use that badge, I think you should hold on to it, since you DID pick it up."

"Poyo! (OK!)" Kirby equipped the Dizzy badge. With it, he could make an enemy dizzy for a couple of seconds after he attacks it, which is kind of nice, considering that some enemies will have some stronger Attack Power.

Once he was done with that, they noticed up ahead that there was a small pit of deep snow. Chopper was the first to jump into the deep snow, but he noticed that his speed was hindered as well.

"Huh? What's going on? Why am I slowing down from this snow?" he pondered for a couple of seconds until Luvbi fluttered over to him.

"Didst thou say that thou art stuck in the snow?" Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper with a love-struck look. "Then, thou dost not have any way of getting out of there?"

"Look, Luvbi. It's no big deal. I can simply get myself out of this…" before Chopper could finish, Luvbi grabbed a hold of Chopper and began to kiss him sweetly on his lips. She seemed to enjoy it, while Chopper… Not so much.

"Ewww! Gross!" Chopper began to wipe his mouth from the "cooties" he received from Luvbi. "You realize that you're giving me something?"

"Yea, verily! I giveth thee my love!" she sighed sweetly, hugging Chopper. "That is all I need to givest thee!"

"No! You… You gave me cooties!" Chopper spat in disgust as his tongue was out. He tried to move out of the deep snow, but he couldn't get himself out either. "Oh, great… I'm stuck in this snow! Can someone help me? !"

Mario: Just get out of it slowly!

"I tried to, but it's not working!" he tried to slowly get his feet out, but it didn't work. "This is almost like quicksand…but worse!"

"How the hell is it worse than quicksand?" Blade gawked. "I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't die from being stuck in the friggin' snow. …Unless you end up freezing, or else you'd be dead."

"Don't try to scareth my sweet prince!" Luvbi snapped, turning to him. "He dost not have to worry when I'm around! So, keepth thy words to thyself, smelly cat!"

"Smelly?" Blade smelled his armpit for a second and frowned. "I'm not exactly 'smelly', you brat. I wasn't even sweating either. How WOULD I when it's not even hot out? It's friggin' cold, for freak's sake!"

"Ehhhhh… I think it's best if we don't get in any arguments." Sonic groaned, face palming. "Look, I'll try to find a way to get Chopper out. You guys just try to stay a bit far from me."

Everyone moved back and Sonic began to perform his Whirlwind ability. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to pull Chopper out of the snow. "Dang… Looks like that's not gonna work! And here I thought I'd be able to do it."

"Well, there's gotta be something!" Chopper frowned, trying to get himself away from Luvbi. "Just do something before she gives me another kiss!"

"Didst thou want another kiss?" Luvbi giggled. "Oh, all right, I'll givest thee another, my sweet prince!"

"I didn't say…" Chopper paused as soon as Luvbi kissed him on the cheek again. His cheeks turned red and apparently looked like he was going to hurl. "This is so disgusting…"

A red ! appeared over Kirby's head and face palmed afterwards. "Poyo… (Chopper… This is SNOW we're talking about here… Maybe you should realize that fire can MELT the snow…)"

Chopper was speechless for a couple of seconds. "Oh… I completely forgot about that. Meh, all right."

His hands began to glow a flaming aura as he placed them on the snow. The deep snow began to melt away and turn into water. Chopper jumped out and made his way over to a yellow ? block, which contained a Mushroom.

"A Mushroom? Already?" Blade was a bit surprised as he cut it into five with his katana. After they finished the Mushroom, they noticed a slope going up to a door ahead. There was also a Snowman blocking the way, along with a hat that resembled Frosty the Snowman's hat.

"Hey, look! A hat!" Chopper picked up the hat and dumped all of the snow left in it. "Who would've thought a hat would be here?"

"I doth not wish to ask how it got hither…" Luvbi trailed.

"Poyo! (Hey! Maybe if we put it on that Snowman's head, he'll turn into Frosty the Snowman!)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo? (You guys all know who Frosty the Snowman is, right?)"

"Of course I know who he is," Chopper nodded. "I've read a book about him before. Although… I do believe that he's just a myth. You know, magic isn't real in the real world, right?"

"Poyo… (Chopper… You realize that some of us DO use magic…)" Kirby said with an irritated look. "Poyo! (Heck! Dimentio used magic! Your fireballs are considered to be magic too!)"

"Oh, you have a point there. I guess I'll give it a try." Chopper placed the hat on top of the Snowman's head. Surprisingly, a pipe appeared in his mouth and it also had the googly eyes of what Frosty had himself.

"Hey! I'm alive!" Frosty said in surprise as he looked at himself. "Happy birthday—WHOA!"

Blade's katana began to glow a flaming aura as he used it to melt Frosty. Everyone suddenly gaped in horror at the sight of the melted Frosty.

"Blade! Why did you do that? !" Sonic asked while looking a bit puzzled.

"Guys… It was a trap!" Blade announced. Everyone simply face palmed at him. "No, really! I mean, how the HELL could Frosty exist like that? ! Hell, where did that hat come from anyway? !"

"I honestly have no idea…" Chopper trailed, moving on ahead. Unfortunately, because the slope was on some snow, he ended up sliding down easily. "Dang it! I hate it when I can easily slip!"

Mario: I think I can get up there!

Mario performed his Triple Jump to get on top of the slope where the door was. A blue ! switch was right by him for him to kick, making a little platform appear for everyone else to get up.

"Poyo, (I could have simply floated up there,)" Kirby brought up as he floated up to the door without any problems.

With all six of them by the door, they headed through into an area that had a steep, icy slope going down. It seemed to lead down beneath this whole place, though. But, nevertheless, they were going to take this way.

"Man, this sure reminds me of Ice Cap for some reason…" Sonic trailed as he looked down the icy slope. "And for some reason… I like that! I really like places that remind me of home!"

"Let us just movest on…" Luvbi groaned as she rolled her eyes.

"You don't seem so happy…" Blade said with a blank look.

"It's because I hath to travel with yon servants…" everyone knew for sure that she was somewhat annoyed with everyone. "If thou art verily servants, then why art thou not doing all of the labor?"

Mario: Excuse me?

"Didst I tell thee to speaketh to me, hairy man?" Luvbi glared, but her expression change and she simply stuck her nose up in the air as she turned away from the group. "Hmph! It makest me sick that I have to travel with such annoying people!"

"Then why the heck are you traveling with us in the first place?" Sonic asked. "After all we've done to help you and your world, this is how you repay us?"

Mario: Yeah! Why are you so bratty?

"Besides, even if we need to make sure you're all right, I'm pretty sure that your mother and father would want you to be on your best behavior," Blade explained. "Usually, when someone causes trouble, we carry a little tape recorder just in case we're having some problems!"

"The only reason why I'm with thee is because I want to spendeth time with my sweet prince," as she turned to Chopper, her bratty, stuck-up attitude changed to her sweet side. "I doth apologize for how I was acting, my sweet prince! I didn't mean to maketh thee scared! Dost thou forgiveth me?"

"…Are you bi-polar?" Blade asked, only to get smacked by Mario.

Mario: Let's-a not go there, Blade.

"Poyo? (How come she always acts like a brat to us while with Chopper, she acts all sweet and innocent? Is that her side where she acts like she's in love, or is that her normal personality?)"

Chopper seemed to inch away from Luvbi in fear, but he ended up falling over and sliding down the icy slope on accident.

"Aw, come on! Why do bad things always happen to me? !" he exclaimed as he continued to slide down the icy slope.

"Wait for me, my sweet prince!" Luvbi followed her knight in shining armor down the slide. The four heroes noticed that pink hearts were flying over the girl's head as she made her way down.

"Poyo, (I think we should follow them,)" Kirby began to slide down after Chopper and Luvbi, which followed up with Sonic, Blade and then Mario. Because of the ice, they were going down faster than the slide in the Sweet Kingdom.

"Man, we're going FAST!" Sonic shouted. "Woo-hoo!"

As soon as they reached the bottom of the cave, they noticed that the ground wasn't as thick as it used to be. Below the ground was some icy cold water, and boy, is it cold. Probably so cold it might seem like lava…except colder.

Mario: This doesn't feel safe…

"You're right Mario, it's not so safe," Chopper said as he slowly got up. He noticed that there was a small little bridge with a couple of Snowmos throwing snowballs at them. Chopper decided to inhale one and spit it out at one of them, knocking them to the ground.

"Poyo! (Let me test out my new badge!)" Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on top of the Snowmo Chopper just hit. It caused the enemy to get a bit dizzy before getting trounced by Mario's feet.

Mario: Oh yeah!

They went down a small little slope on the icy bridge and simply jumped over a little gap with water down below to go to the next door. They didn't bother to say anything as they headed through.

"Poyo, (This looks dangerous,)" Kirby noticed a couple of icy platforms floating in the cold water up ahead. They appeared to be sinkable if you stood on them long enough.

"All right, I suppose I'll go first," Chopper jumped onto the first ice platform. "Don't worry, guys. I can swim in the water, so if I ever fall off, I'm probably not going to drown. …Although, I can't necessarily drown underwater."

"I always wondered why Chopper, Kirby and Mario can survive underwater while we can't…" Blade trailed.

Chopper took a couple of steps over by the edge of the platform, but because it was ice, he ended up slipping in falling into the ice cold water.

"_**AGGGHHHHH!**_" Chopper's skin turned to a light blue color as he began to struggle getting out of the water. "It's fr-freezing!"

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi gasped, looking a bit worried as he saw Chopper freezing in the water. "Art thou all right?!"

"N-No! I-I'm NOT all right!" his skin began to change to a grayish color, like he was suffering from frostbite. "S-S-Someone g-get me out of th-the w-water! J-Just d-don't g-go in h-here!"

He brought his hand out, begging to be pulled out of the water. Mario jumped onto the icy platform and pulled the Star Warrior out. They all noticed how horrible Chopper looked with his skin looking a bit grayish.

Mario: Are you suffering from frostbite?

"I… I don't know…" Chopper shivered. "I just… I can barely move…"

"Oh, no!" Luvbi fluttered straight over to Chopper and looked at him. "Thou… Thou art sick!"

"Whoa… He's not lookin' too good." Sonic frowned as he jumped on the platform. "We better get off of these platforms before we end up becoming just like Chopper! Really, guys… It's for the best."

They all crossed over the icy platforms, with Luvbi carrying Chopper over to the water. When she placed him on the icy ground, she looked at her sick boyfriend's dull face for the moment.

"Canst thou move?" she asked.

"I'll… I'll try." Chopper was slowly moving on the ice, but when he tried stopping, he was starting to slide over back to the icy water. Luvbi pulled him away before he could get in a worse condition.

"Poyo, (I think it's best for Chopper to stay back,)" Kirby suggested as he inhaled a Snowman and spat it out. "Poyo. (You're definitely NOT in a good condition to fight against these guys.)"

"No, Kirby… I… I can do just fine." Chopper slowly made his way over to one of the Snowmen and tried to punch it. But, since he felt incredibly weak from the icy water, it didn't do a thing.

"This is your attack? Something as dangerous as that?" the Snowman gawked as it threw a snowball at his face. "Look, if you're going to fight us, then you better fight in a better condition! …If not, then we'll just end your sufferin'!"

Blade immediately drew his katana and took care of the Snowman with a fire slash, melting it in one hit. However, Chopper still wasn't feeling good even after getting hit by a snowball. It didn't make him feel worse, but he started to rub his forehead.

"Why do these waters have to be so cold?" he moaned, almost falling over, only to have Luvbi catch him.

"My sweet prince! Thou must stay up! Thou can't die!" Luvbi cried as she tried to help him walk.

"It's… It's OK, Luvbi…" Chopper replied in pain. "I… I can keep going. Don't worry about me, please… I'll live."

"Well, you certainly can't walk on your own, Chopper…" Sonic trailed, looking at the young boy. "We seriously need to get you to a doctor or something. We don't want you to perish."

"Dude… There aren't any doctors here!" Blade frowned as he walked over to a pipe by the wall ahead. "Huh… I never would've expected there to be a pipe here. Strange, if you ask me."

They all took the pipe up out of the cave, where they could see the beautiful blue sky and the trees covered in some snow. This area was small, but there was a small hill going up to a door. A light blue Shy Guy was making a large snowball and rolling it down the hill with ease.

"Poyo? (A Shy Guy? Here?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo? (Now why would there be a Shy Guy in this place anyways? It's just so strange…)"

"I… I don't know…" Chopper wheezed, still being held by Luvbi. "B-But I think I can handle him."

"Nay! Thou hast to stay hither!" unfortunately, Luvbi was ignored by Chopper. He slowly staggered past the group and slowly tossed a fireball at the large snowball. Surprisingly, it melted before it could hit them.

"Uh oh…" the Shy Guy gulped as it tried to escape from the group. Unfortunately, it was finished when Sonic struck it with a Homing Attack. A yellow ? block was right by the door up the hill as well, which was surprising.

Kirby was the first to hit the block, making a Super Shroom pop out and land on the snowy ground. Blade immediately drew his katana and sliced it up into five pieces for all five of them.

"Art thou feeling much better now, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked as Chopper ate his piece of the Super Shroom.

"That barely did anything…" Chopper coughed. "I don't think Mushrooms cure me at all… They just heal my HP."

"Well, then we have to find something that'll work," Sonic stated. "Should we go back to Flipside and contact Merlon about this? Or maybe we should just try to find a doctor around here? It's kind of tough…"

Mario: All we can do is move on.

Since there was nothing else to do, they simply moved on through the door. This new area was flat and kind of small compared to the other areas. But it looked big enough to have a little fight…if that's even a good thing.

"I don't see anything interesting around here…" Blade trailed as he took a couple of steps. "I wonder why this whole area is so flat and quiet… Is it like a wasteland or something? …Or even…a ghost town?"

"Ghost town… That…reminds me of when I went…to a ghost town two years ago." Chopper coughed.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi looked over at Chopper and leaned close to him. "Please don't speaketh now… Thou art not feeling so well. Thou must needeth some rest, my prince…"

"Please… Stop calling me your prince!" Chopper's eyes widened in fear as Luvbi sweetly kissed his cheek. He wanted to cry in horror, but he didn't have the energy to do so.

"So Tipral was right! Yer all 'ere!"

"Oh, god no… Don't tell me who I think it is…" Blade groaned, smacking his forehead as O'Chunks came down on the snowy ground, getting rid of both doors that happened to be on the ground as well.

"O… O'Chunks!" Chopper moaned.

"Yeh all thought I'd be a goody-goody after Dimentio left, did yeh? Well guess again, yeh little pieces of paper!" O'Chunks began to cackle before looking at the heroes – who gave him irritated looks.

O'Chunks paused for a minute and looked at the group, noticing that there were only four. "'Ey… Wait a second… Where did Chopra go? I swear he'd be with all of yeh… Unless 'e…died? I swear by me chin hairs that I 'eard 'im."

"Chopper's over there, if you must know," Sonic pointed behind him, where Chopper was being wrapped in a blue blanket by Luvbi – who got the blanket from the red-capped hero Mario.

"Eh? Who's that girl with 'im? She reminds me of a marshmallow!"

Luvbi looked up at O'Chunks with a glare. "And who art thou to have the right to speaketh to me like that?! Thou shouldst realize that I'm the daughter of the king of The Underwhere and queen of The Underwhere! And if thou art saying thou art chunky, well thinkest again!"

"…Whuh? Wait, 'ow dare yeh call me 'unchunky'! I 'ave every right teh be chunky, yeh little brat!"

"See? Even O'Chunks agrees!" Blade pointed out.

"Poyo, (Although, O'Chunks never seems to give up when fighting us for some reason,)" Kirby said with an irritated look while he looked at the big, bearded warrior.

"Look, O'Chunks… We know you're not going to win this fight…" Sonic groaned, shaking his head while face palming. "Name one times that you actually BEAT us. Just… Just name one time."

"Errrr…" O'Chunks pondered before stomping the ground angrily. "I don't need yer yappin' yeh stupid heroes! Now yer all goin' teh witness the full power of me chunky butt! _**HARGH!**_"

O'Chunks started off by charging straight at Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario. However, he ended up missing them, but the bad news was that he was moving directly towards Chopper.

"Uh oh…" Blade gulped as Chopper was flown all the way to the left, taking some serious damage.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi cried as she fluttered over to him. She saw the young Star Warrior slowly getting up and getting into a fighting stance as if he's ready to fight against O'Chunks.

"D-Don't worry… I… I can do this…" Chopper moaned.

"But thou art sick! Thou can't fight in this condition!"

"Y-Yes I can…" Chopper tossed a fireball straight at O'Chunks. The fireball didn't seem to go as fast, so it was easy for the bearded warrior to simply jump and avoid it instead of taking the heat.

"Chopper, you really need to sit this one out," Blade suggested as he jumped over O'Chunks's fist and slashed him with his katana. "You're not in any good shape to fight him."

"I… I know I can still fight. Just trust me!"

"Poyo! (No, Chopper! Just stay back from this fight!)" Kirby retorted. "Poyo! (If you end up fighting, you're probably going to get in a worse condition! Just stay with Luvbi, all right?!)"

Chopper paused for a minute and looked at the ground. "I just don't want you guys to get any serious injuries…"

"You're the sick person here," Sonic pointed out. "I don't think we'd want you getting hurt either, so just let us get to work on O'Chunks. Seriously, I don't want to hear you acting like this again."

"Please, my sweet prince… Canst thou just please stay hither with me? I doth not wanteth thee to get hurt…" from what Chopper could see, tears were coming down Luvbi's face. And usually, when a girl gets upset and starts to cry, most to the time he feels sympathetic towards them.

"…All right, I'll just stay back and let them beat the snot out of O'Chunks," he sat on the snowy ground and wrapped the blanket around him. Luvbi smiled a bit and kissed him on the cheek.

"Poyo, (Now that he's sitting out of this, let's fight this guy,)" Kirby jumped onto Carrie and jumped on top of O'Chunks's head, making him dizzy thanks to the Dizzy Badge he has on him.

"Ack! What in me mum's desert was that?!" O'Chunks gawked as he was dazed, allowing Mario to bring his hammer down upon him, dealing some tough damage to him.

"Guys… Also… From what I'm seeing…" Chopper looked at O'Chunks health bar. "He's got 110 HP and an Attack of 9. That's…pretty much it, apparently."

"Thanks for the info, Chopper," Sonic gave him a thumbs up before attacking O'Chunks with a Homing Attack, knocking him back to the ground. When he was about to strike him again, the bearded warrior immediately got up and grabbed Sonic by the legs, swinging him around and releasing him to make him fly all over the place.

"Gra ha ha ha! Now there's a flyin' animal!" O'Chunks cackled as he began to do another foolish dance.

"Dude… That's technically animal abuse there." Blade pointed out as he tossed Hommissile straight at O'Chunks, sending him flying across the area. When the bearded warrior got up, Blade jumped towards him and slashed him with his katana. "You know you're going to lose. If one person can beat you, then so can four people."

"Well I've gotten much stronger, if yeh wanted teh know!" O'Chunks knocked Blade back with a powerful punch. "I _am_ the brawn o' the minions, after all!"

"Poyo, (You're more like the stupid one of the group,)" Kirby snickered as O'Chunks jumped into the air. He came down on the ground with massive force, knocking Kirby up into the air. When he landed, he inhaled one of the yellow stars that appeared after O'Chunks stomped and spat it back at the bearded warrior for some tough damage.

"Whoa… Why am I so dizzy?" he asked as his eyes began to spin around, allowing Mario to jump on him and perform a stylish move. Unfortunately, O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of Mario's legs and swing him around. Upon letting him go, the red plumber began to fly all over the place.

Mario: Mama mia!

"That's right, Maria! Yeh better cry like that!" O'Chunks turned to Kirby and picked up a large snowball. He chucked it directly at the pink puffball, getting him stuck in the snowball and heading straight towards Chopper and Luvbi.

"Poyo! (Chopper! Watch out!)" Kirby cried.

Chopper raised his hand in front of the snowball and tried to shoot a fireball at it. He managed to hit it, but it didn't do him any good when the snowball rolled over him. It was lucky not to get Luvbi.

"My prince! Art… Art thou all right?" Luvbi asked with a worried look as she fluttered over to the sick hero. "Please, Chopper… Get up…"

"I'm…_cough_…fine…" Chopper coughed slowly getting up and putting the blanket around him. "I feel so cold… It's like the inside of my head is freezing right now. It's so bad…"

"I'm here for thee, my prince," she replied, hugging her "prince" once again to keep him a bit warm.

O'Chunks took notice of the "couple" and slightly grinned. _"Man… Why haven't I confessed me love to that pretty lass yet? Seein' them kind of reminds me that I should do that…"_

"Uhhh… Are you there, O'Chunks?" Sonic asked, waving his arm in front of his face. "What are you doing?"

O'Chunks blinked a couple of times and looked down at Sonic with a growl. "Oh, yeah! I gotta take yeh down!"

O'Chunks kicked Sonic to the ground with a simple kick, followed by picking up a snowball and throwing it towards the blue hedgehog. Kirby, however, managed to inhaled the snowball and spit it back at O'Chunks, making him shiver from the attack.

"Time fer me teh yse me gas!" O'Chunks pulled out a can of beans and opened it. He dumped all of the beans in his mouth and tossed the can away before looking a bit constipated.

"What…is he doing…?" Blade gawked.

"Poyo… (I don't think it's going to be nice…)" Kirby mumbled.

"Time teh get even chunkier!" O'Chunks rocketed himself up in the air with his gas and came down towards the group. Oh, and did I mention that his fart shot fire, too? Yeah, I bet you weren't expecting that!

"Now's our chance to attack!" Blade shouted as he struck O'Chunks with a fire slash. Mario left the bearded warrior weakened when he performed a Ground Pound on his butt.

As soon as O'Chunks pulled himself out of the ground, he made Mario trip, using his leg, but was soon stunned when Kirby jumped on him with Carrie. This left him completely open for one last finishing attack.

"All right, Chunky! Looks like it's time to finish this!" Sonic grinned, getting into a Spin Dash.

"…Is that the best you can come up with?" Blade gawked.

Sonic paused for a minute and looked at Blade with an annoyed look. "Come on, Blade… Don't ruin it! I wanna make this a cool moment! Not one where someone has to make a comment!"

"Poyo, (That was a pun you just made,)" Kirby pointed out.

Despite not knowing what Kirby just said, Sonic simply ignored the pink puffball and curled up in a ball again. Once he struck the bearded warrior in the stomach, it was all over for O'Chunks…for now.

"_**URK! YEH GOT ME!**_" O'Chunks knelt down on the ground in pain and looked up at the four heroes that gave him one heck of a beating. He was covered in a bunch of bruises and cuts (from Blade's katana, mind you), that it wasn't even funny.

"So… I guess yeh all were right… I can't take yeh all on at once…"

"See? Now he gets it!" Blade shouted as Chopper slowly made his way over to O'Chunks, along with Luvbi.

"Well, O'Chunks…_cough_… At least you're not in as bad as a condition that I'm in…" Chopper's coughs seemed to be freezing for some odd reason. It could most likely be because of the terrible cold that he's suffering from.

"Errrr… Yeah, I guess yer right on that…" O'Chunks rubbed his head in confusion while looking at both Chopper and Luvbi. "Are yeh both a couple or somethin'?"

"Yea, verily, we art together," Luvbi confirmed.

"No…way…" Chopper coughed.

O'Chunks sweat dropped as he got up. "Listen, can yeh just cut me a little slack fer today? 'Tis cold out 'ere, an' I don't know 'ow long I can handle the heat."

"We don't want to hurt you anymore…" Blade trailed. "If you let us go, then we'll be just fine."

"Fine… But next time we meet, I'm not gonna go easy on yeh all! Especially yeh, Chopra! Yeh better watch out, next time! For now… _**CHUNKS AWAY!**_"

After waving goodbye, O'Chunks rocketed up into the air with his farting, leaving everyone completely disgusted. But, nevertheless, they moved on to the door up ahead that led into a small area with an icy pond and a couple of icy platforms to help them across to the Star Block.

"We art finally done hither!" Luvbi sighed in relief and looked at Chopper. "I doth hope we can findeth a doctor for thee… I doth not want thee to be in this kind of condition…"

"I'll… I'll live." Chopper wheezed as he slowly walked over to the edge. Luvbi was sweet enough to get him over the icy water without any problems. The others, on the other hand, had to jump on the platforms to get to the other side.

"How come you couldn't carry us over here?" Blade asked.

"Blade, Chopper's not in a good condition. I think you should cut her a little slack…" suggested Sonic.

"Oh, all right…"

Chopper slowly made his way over to the Star Block and managed to punch it with all of his might before falling to the ground.

"I just don't want you to kiss me…" Chopper said as he looked at Luvbi.

"If thou wanteth me to stay close to thee, then I will do that," Luvbi smiled.

"N-No… That's not what I meant!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After witnessing the icy cold water, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario were starting to be a bit cautious around the icy water. They didn't want to end up like what Chopper was right now. Is Chopper's sickness just some kind of cold? Or is it even just frostbite? Luvbi was unsure of this, but she kept close to Chopper to make sure she was safe. "I will maketh sure that thou art OK, my sweet prince," upon hearing these words, it sounded like Luvbi really cared about Chopper. But what was more important in his mind was to find the Pure Heart…wherever it may be._

* * *

**Oh, boy... Chopper's suffering from some terrible cold (although, we're not ENTIRELY sure what it is just yet). I wonder how he'll fair with everything else in this cold world. ****And as for the others... That Dizzy Badge is quite helpful for Kirby, since he can make enemies dizzy for a couple of seconds. Very, very helpful item indeed.**

**So... You're probably asking me if we'll ever find a doctor in this world. Well, I'm not going to answer that JUST yet. We'll see in the next chapter, though.  
**


	59. Doctor Who?

**CHAPTER 10-2**

**-Doctor Who?-**

"Chopper… I just hope that thou art going to be OK… I doth not wanteth thee to die…" Luvbi said with a worried look as she looked at her sweet prince in the eyes. A small tear slowly went down her face at Chopper's terrible condition. "If thou art dead, I won't findeth another prince! Thou art the only boy I have ever fallen in love with, if thou wanted to know…"

"OK, we heard you already," at this point, Blade was getting a bit tired of what Luvbi was saying. He felt like he could cover his ears at this moment, but he thought it would be a bit rude. "Chopper said that he's going to be fine. You're not the one being hurt by this, Luvbi… Chopper knows what the pain's like, so I bet he IS fine. …But we're going to find a doctor anyways, because I think that's the right thing to do."

"Thou dost not understand that I'm not in physical pain…" Luvbi said, glaring at Blade. "I'm in emotional pain. Wouldn't thou feel the same if thou hath a loved one that was sick? Wouldst thou?"

"Errrr… Yeah, I probably would. But, still…"

"OK, OK, let's settle down, guys…" Sonic suggested, stepping in the way of the argument that could've been started. "If we're going to start arguing, then we're not going to get anywhere, all right? I think Luvbi should still watch Chopper, since there's not much she can do against the enemies."

"I will do that," Luvbi looked over to Chopper and hugged him. "I think the only way to keepth you warmer is for me to stay close to thee. While it may be so romantic, I just wish thou wouldeth be all better. It would maketh this moment verily romantic. Dost thou understand?"

"But… Romance is for…_cough_…old people!" Chopper coughed. "…Wait, how the heck am I coughing when I'm incredibly cold? …This is such a weird cold I'm having."

"Don't you usually cough and sneeze when you do have a cold?" Blade pondered as he looked down at the sick Star Warrior. "Ehhh… This is kind of weird for me. But, I think we can find someone out here with medical experience."

"Poyo, (Yes, I hope we find some sort of doctor around here,)" Kirby hoped as he looked around the area. There really wasn't that much around except for a little slope going down up ahead and a couple of Snowmen and Snowmos holding icy clubs. There were even these Crystal Bits roaming around. They can't do much, but they can definitely hit you faster than any other enemy around here.

"I always…get the feeling of Christmas around here," Chopper said as he slowly walked on the snowy ground. "You guys can go on ahead and clear the enemies. I wish I could help, but it doesn't look like I can do much."

"You can actually do something, you know," Sonic pointed out. "Even if you're a bit weak, a fireball would be good enough to take out some of these enemies. Like that Shy Guy with an ice aura around him! …Wait what is that one called?"

Mario: An Ice Guy.

"Ice Guy? Weird name, but I kind of get it. Anyways, I think we should get going. Just try to relax and not think about this cold, Chopper."

"Yeah… All right." Chopper followed the group through the snowy area. Cudge also stayed by him, in case if he needed to use him for anything. Luvbi also stayed close to her prince, but stopped when a Snowman rose up in front of the Star Warrior.

"You're not going anywhere, kid!" the Snowman grinned, but was stabbed by Blade's flaming sword, causing it to melt. The ninja looked pretty satisfied as he put away his katana.

"Heh heh heh… Now that should take care of that guy." Blade whirled around and raced on ahead, despite not being faster than the other heroes.

Kirby simple inhaled one of the Crystal Bits that were coming his way and spat it out at an Ice Guy up ahead. The good thing about the Crystal Bits was that, despite being fast, they have low HP and have a low Attack power, stated a couple of paragraphs above.

While the Ice Guy was dizzy, Mario stepped into action and stomped on it a couple of times to defeat it. Sonic used a Homing Attack on a Snowman that was in Chopper's way in order to make sure it doesn't go after him.

"Thank you guys… But you don't really have to do this." Chopper wheezed as he tried to charge up a Speed Dash.

"Whoa! Don't try doing that, Chopper…" Sonic warned. "I think you're only going to make yourself worse if you use up a lot of energy. Just relax, all right? Just take a break…if you need one."

Chopper looked up at his antennas. He noticed that there were a couple of small icicles hanging from them. "Wait a second… Why the heck do I have icicles on my antennas? That makes no sense…"

"Maybe this will helpeth thee," Luvbi leaned over to Chopper's cheek and kissed him. The only problem… Well, her lips were stuck on his cheek.

"N-No! N-Not that!" he cried in horror as Luvbi decided to close her eyes and continue to give him a nice, long kiss despite her lips being stuck to her cheek (she already knew they were stuck, mind you). "Get off of my cheek! That's just…gross!"

Chopper started to move a bit faster in order to get the Nimbi girl off of him, but it didn't seem to be working. He ended up tumbling down the slope up ahead, knocking away a couple of Ice Guys and Snowmen on the slope.

"Oh… I didn't see those guys at all…" he slowly got himself up and kept the blue blanket around him. Luvbi immediately fluttered over to Chopper to see if he was all right, now that her lips were no longer stuck to his cheek.

"My sweet prince! Didst thou get hurt?" she asked in a worried voice.

"Luvbi… Don't get worried too much…" Chopper suggested. "I don't like it when people overreact to me being in bad shape…"

He walked over to the red door and slowly opened it. Everyone else went over to him and walked through the door into the next area, which had an icy platform high above to the left where an Ice Guy was tossing some large snowballs onto the ground.

"Uh oh… We better watch out for that Ice Guy up there…" Sonic warned, pointing up at the Ice Guy pushing a large snowball down.

"Poyo? (Is it actually possible for us to jump on it and use it?)" Kirby asked, looking up at the big snowball in curiosity.

"I don't know… Maybe it might be possible…" Chopper coughed, slowly walking up the small hill up ahead. When the Ice Guy pushed the large snowball off the platform, it began to roll towards the group.

"Heads, up guys! It's coming our way!" Sonic warned. But, it was too late for them. They all got stuck in the snowball and began to tumble around in it until it hit another large snowball coming towards them.

"Wait… We didn't take any damage?" Blade gawked.

Mario: It doesn't look like it.

"Poyo, (I guess these snowballs won't hurt us at all…but it seems to push us back a little bit,)" Kirby pointed out, looking over at Chopper. "Poyo. (I think Chopper's all right. Are you?)"

"Yeah, Kirby… I'm just fine…" Chopper panted, keeping the blanket around him. "…This blanket is wet now because of that large snowball."

"What? How could it be wet?" Blade questioned. "I don't think a large snowball would even make a blanket wet."

"Blade… Do you even realize that snow is actually water?"

"…Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I almost forgot." Blade put his hand behind his head and blushed. "I always seem to forget a lot of things… That's not really me, y'know. Anyways, let's move on."

They saw the next large snowball coming towards them, but to avoid it, Chopper slowly tossed a fireball at it in order for it to slowly melt. It allowed them to jump over the snowball while it was small…although Chopper had a hard time jumping over the snowball. Luvbi was nice enough to help him, though.

"Thou dost not have to worry, my sweet prince," Luvbi assured. "I will maketh sure that thou art not hurt by anything. Dost thou want me to carry thee up in the air so we can be alone?"

"I wouldn't let you do that," Chopper sneezed. "I don't want you spreading that disease… The one that are called…_gulp_…cooties. You know what I mean by that, Luvbi…"

Luvbi giggled at him. "Thou art always so cute when thou givest me that expression! I just wish thou weren't sick, then I wouldst smother thee with as many kisses!"

Chopper's antennas sprung up in fear. "Then… I'd…ach-OOO…rather be like this!" he turned away from Luvbi and used all of his strength to run up the small, snowy hill everyone else was going up. Because it was going up, he was slowing down a bit, a disadvantage he has for his speed.

"Whoa, Chopper… Don't move too fast. You're probably going to get yourself in a worse condition." Sonic suggested. "Why don't you keep the blanket with you? You'll probably need it."

"Don't you remember when I said that the blanket's wet?" Chopper reminded.

"Oh, yeah… Well, I think we'll find a way to dry it off."

"It's not going to be easy drying something off in a place that's cold like this," Chopper was shivering, despite the snowfall being rather calm. "I just wanna find a doctor and be cured of this horrible cold…"

"That's what I intendeth to do," Luvbi said as she fluttered over to him with a smile. "When thou art all better, I hope that we share a nice, romantic kiss together. Wouldst thou like it?"

"Ahem… How many times have you said something like that?" Blade asked. "Was that, y'know, the tenth time you said that? Come on! Give him a break! Not to mention I think SOME people are tired of hearing you say that."

Luvbi gave Blade an irritated look. "Maybe people art getting verily tired of thee talking, smelly creature. Mayhap thou needeth a bath to stop spreading thy horrible smell around hither."

"Hey! Quit being all bratty!" Blade hissed, clenching his fists in anger before getting pulled away by Sonic. "Hey, Sonic! What do you think you're doing? ! Let me at her, please!"

"No, Blade… I know we don't like her and all, but her father DID say that we need to make sure she's all right." Sonic reminded.

Mario: Yeah, that's true.

Blade sighed and moved up the small hill and over to the door ahead. Kirby was happy enough to inhale a blue Waddle Dee and spit it out of this area before entering through the door up ahead with everyone else.

When they walked into the next area, they saw some large frozen ponds and a couple of Snowmos ice skating. They seemed to be a bit happy around here, but when they noticed the heroes walking out of the door to the left on the snowy ground, they stopped and pulled out some snowballs.

"Hey! Who are those guys? !" the Snowmos were about to throw their snowballs, but a Crystal Bit flew over to the heroes and looked at them. When it got a glimpse of Chopper and Mario, its face looked alerted.

"Hold on… Why do I get a feeling that someone told me about some mustachioed guy and some kid a long time ago…" the Crystal Bit pondered for a couple seconds, with the others gawking at it.

"Art thou referring to my sweet prince and the hairy one?" Luvbi questioned, looking at Mario and then Chopper.

"Yeah, I'm referring to them! And I don't like 'em either! Tell me… Are you trying to reach the Pure Heart? If you are, then too bad! We're not going to let you do that at all!"

"Please… Just leave us be." Chopper begged. "I'm in a really bad condition at this moment, and we're trying to find a doctor. Could you just let us go for once? Next time you see us, you can attack."

"Heck no!" the Snowmo retorted. "We do what we want! And if we're planning on ending your game, then we do it! Right here!"

The Snowmos readied their snowballs and began to throw them. Kirby jumped in and inhaled one of the snowballs and spat it at one of the Snowmos, making it dizzy. Mario simply finished that one off with a jump and then a Ground Pound.

Blade gripped his katana and made a dash at the next Snowmo. Using a fire slash, he was able to deal some massive damage to it and leave it with a harsh burn before disintegrating. Sonic simply bashed the last Snowmo with a couple of Homing Attacks, leaving only the Crystal Bit.

"Game over for you," Chopper flicked the Crystal Bit away while he had fire energy on his finger, sending the Crystal Bit far away. Unfortunately, he ended up sliding on the ice rink, making Luvbi shocked.

"My sweet prince!" she cried out.

"Someone help me!" Chopper cried while sliding on the ice. Although he ended up tripping back, he continued to slide through the ice, knocking a couple of Ice Guys in his way unintentionally.

"Poyo! (Try to slow down, Chopper!)" Kirby shouted, ice skating on the ring to go after him.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Chopper fell off the ice and crashed into a blue ice spirit person who was shoveling the snow to make an open path for a couple of people to make their way through.

"Ow! What the heck? !" the ice spirit whirled around and turned to the sick Chopper. When the Star Warrior looked up, he saw the ice spirit. It looked like he was about fifteen years old.

"Oh, great… First my dad forces me to shovel the snow, now some lunatic thinks he can come in here an' crash into me! What the HELL do you want? ! I'm really busy, so it's best if you get out of my way."

"I'm really sorry…" Chopper coughed as he stood up. "I'm just…_cough_… I'm just not feeling well. I have some sort of cold or something…"

"A cold? Well, cool story, bro. I've got some shovelin' to do, so just leave me alone, all right?" the ice spirit turned away and continued to shovel the snow. But he stopped when he heard a girl's voice.

"Chopper, my sweet prince!" Luvbi came fluttering over to Chopper and began to see how he was doing right now.

"Oh, geez, what now? !" the ice spirit rolled his eyes and turned around. "Why do you have to distract me like this? ! All I wanna do is just shovel this damn thing already! Don't you understand? ! And who the hell are you anyways?"

"This boy happens to be my sweet prince," Luvbi explained, glaring at the ice spirit. "If thou dost anything bad to him, I will maketh sure that thou doth regret it!"

"What are you, playing princess? Grow up, girly!"

"Ahem… Thou shouldst understand that I am a princess! My mother rules The Underwhere and my father rules The Overthere. So, I would suggest that thou keepest thy mouth shut!"

"Yeah, sure ya are…" the ice spirit let out a sigh. "And I highly doubt that this kid has any interest in ya, considerin' that he's tryin' to get away from ya." he noticed that Chopper was inching away from Luvbi.

"I'm not really a…" Chopper's voice was interrupted by a bad cough and another voice. But this one sounded a bit deeper.

"Bran! Why aren't you shoveling the road?" another ice spirit came floating out of the door with a scarf and a hat, but has glasses and a long, brown mustache. To Chopper, it reminded him of Eggman, but this mustache was HUGE.

"Well, dad… I WAS shoveling the snow here…" Bran trailed as he looked over at Chopper and Luvbi. "But these two happened to interrupt me, so don't go blaming me for this, all right?"

"Now, now, Bran… You don't need to be blaming two small children for this." the taller ice spirit said as he adjusted his glasses. "Anyways, the reason why I came here was because your mother wanted to talk to you about something. You can take a break from shoveling for now."

"Really?" Bran smirked and ran past his father. "Well, time to stop with this stupid shoveling and get back into that warm, cozy house!"

As soon as he left the area, the ice spirit man floated over to Chopper and Luvbi. "And who might you adorable little children be?"

"Mine given name is Luvbi," Luvbi introduced, then looked over at Chopper. "This sweet prince of mine doth be Chopper. He is just so cuuuuuuuute!" she hugged him tightly as she squealed.

"I'm NOT your prince!" Chopper barked, only to cough a couple of times. "Stupid cold…or whatever it is! Even when I shout, it just makes me feel worse. And… I'm starting to feel worse by the minute."

"My, you look rather…bad," the ice spirit man said as he noticed Chopper let out a huge sneeze. "Well, it just so happens that I'm a doctor. So, if you came this whole way to find one, then you're in luck."

As he adjusted his glasses again, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario finally made it to Chopper, Luvbi and the doctor.

"Whew! So we finally managed to get to you guys!" Sonic said as he panted. "You OK, Chopper?"

"And who's this weirdo?" Blade asked, looking up at the doctor.

"I am Doctor Hymer!" Doctor Hymer introduced, not taking any offense to what Blade just said to him (which is somewhat weird).

"Doctor who?" everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Oh ho ho ho… No need to worry, friends. Many people have that same response." Doctor Hymer. "But, before you start asking me any questions, I think we should get you into medical care right away. Seeing that grayness on you doesn't look too good."

"Finally… I might be able to get cured." Chopper sighed in relief as he and the others followed Doctor Hymer through the door up ahead.

* * *

**Snow Town-**

"Whoa… Now this is one heck of a town here." Sonic said in surprise as he saw a bunch of blue houses around the area. There was even a yellow ? block right next to the door and a Save Block right next to a building with a red plus sign above the door.

"What is this place?" Chopper asked.

"This place is called **Snow Town**," Doctor Hymer introduced. "There's a restaurant right next to the medical center, if you guys ever want to go get something to eat. Some hot soup should really get you going through here."

"What about curing my sweet prince?" Luvbi reminded.

"Of course, we need to look at your, uh…friend first. Come along with me, everyone. I'll have a look at this boy."

Everyone followed Doctor Hymer over to the medical building and entered it to find a waiting room right near them. There were a couple of seats and a door that would lead them into a medical room.

"All right, while I get my equipment ready, I want you to stay here and wait for a little bit. I can assure you that I won't take long."

As the doctor left, everyone sat down in their seats and began to wait patiently. Luvbi sat right next to Chopper and placed her heart-shaped wing on his hand. He immediately pulled his hand away from her before she could try anything else.

"S-Stop that, Luvbi!" he stammered.

"Yeah, just leave him be," Blade said, grabbing one of the magazines. "I don't think he even wants to be right neat you anyways. Y'know, with you kissing him all the time and stuff."

Mario: That's a girl's magazine!

Blade looked at the magazine and immediately dropped it. "What the heck was I doing reading that? ! In fact, why are most of these magazines for chicks? Nothing for any of the manly men?"

Luvbi simply ignored Blade and looked back over at Chopper, giving him a kiss on the cheek before smiling at him.

"Thou dost not have to worry, my sweet prince!" she giggled. "We hath finally foundeth a doctor! Hopefully thou will be better!"

"Poyo, (Hopefully he gets better, because we don't want to have him being like this,)" Kirby nodded.

"All right, I'm back," Doctor Hymer peeked his head out of the door. He was wearing a doctor's jacket this time with all of the doctor's equipment with him. "Now, I can only bring in one other person with him, so who plans on coming?"

Sonic raised his hand. "Maybe I should…"

"I will go with him," Luvbi stood from her chair and fluttered over to Chopper. "If anyone needest to go with my sweet prince, it shouldst be me."

"Luvbi, we know him longer than you have," Sonic pointed out. "I think he would trust one of us to stay with him instead of you. After all, he does kind of fear you whenever you kiss him…"

"Nay! Thou art lying!" Luvbi turned around and stuck her nose up in the air. "Hmph! Like I needeth to listen to thee, Knave! I love Chopper more than anyone else hither! Of course he'll want me to be with him!"

Blade immediately face palmed as Luvbi followed Chopper and Doctor Hymer into the medical room. "Sometimes that girl just doesn't learn… Is she actually stupid, or is she just too stubborn?"

Mario: Probably too stubborn.

"Poyo, (Well, hopefully we don't have to wait for too long,)" Kirby hoped as he began to think of something. "Poyo! (I don't want to be here forever! Sometimes I just hate it when things take forever!)"

* * *

**Medical Room-**

Chopper sat down on a comfy little bench that Doctor Hymer could easily check on him. It wasn't low down to the ground, but it was certainly a little high for him to prevent himself from bending down.

"So, what art thou going to do?" Luvbi asked out of curiosity.

"Well, first things first," Doctor Hymer pulled his stethoscope out. "I'm going to need to use my stethoscope to check on his heartbeat. Don't worry, it's not going to hurt. I'll be able to tell how your heart is."

The doctor placed his stethoscope right below Chopper's mouth, but what was strange was that he didn't hear a single heartbeat. "Why, that's strange… How come I'm not hearing a heartbeat?"

Chopper coughed a couple of times before answering in a weak voice. "It's because my species are a bit different then most. …Well, many species are different when it comes to that, I believe."

"That's true. We ice spirits don't even have hearts… But, I don't want to go off on a tangent. Let's check your temperature." Doctor Hymer pulled his thermometer out and put it in Chopper's mouth. "Now, all you have to do is let this go under your tongue. It's fairly simple!"

"Ummmmm… All right." Chopper let the thermometer go under his tongue. "So… What do I do now?"

"You just have to wait," the doctor waited for a couple of seconds before taking the thermometer out of his mouth. He looked rather…surprised. "What's this? It says you're…thirteen degrees?"

"_**THIRTEEN DEGREES? !**_" Chopper's eyes widened in complete shock. "I… I should be dead, then!"

"…Wait, that's not it. It's about 89 degrees. That's not really what your body temperature's supposed to be."

"So, what dost my sweet prince have?" Luvbi asked.

"Well, it's not much of a disease. It's just a bad cold. However, I do believe there's a way to cure this cold. You just need to go to the restaurant next door and get a nice bowl of **Flare Soup **from **Crestero**. That stuff's a bit spicy, but it should be just enough to get you back into your usual shape."

"That's good… Then let's go." Chopper was about to get off the bench, but the doctor stopped him.

"Hold it up, boy. I don't suggest you going to get it. Let someone else get the soup for you. Besides, I don't think you'll have the strength to even move at this moment. Just relax for right now." Doctor Hymer suggested.

"I'll go get the soup," Luvbi volunteered. "I want to helpeth my sweet prince in any way possible. I'll go ask them to maketh him some Flare Soup. So, please be patient with me, doctor."

"Very well, while you go get some of that soup, I'll keep an eye out on my patient. But don't take too long, little girl! I don't know how long he can fight this cold…"

Luvbi nodded and fluttered out of the room. Chopper really couldn't tell what she was doing at this point. It almost felt like he was going to fall asleep…or rather, fall unconscious because of the low energy in him.

* * *

**Waiting Room-**

As Luvbi fluttered quickly out into the waiting room, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario immediately stood up and walked over to the Nimbi girl, despite her being angry with them for some strange reason.

"Get out of my way, yon servants!" she barked. "I must findeth some Flare Soup for my sweet prince!"

"Poyo? (What's going on with Chopper?)" Kirby asked.

"Is it all right if we go see him?" Sonic asked.

"We would REALLY like to know what's going on," Blade said. "And, seeing that you were the only one that actually went in there with him, can you tell us what the heck is going on in there?"

Mario: It won't be long.

"I hath to findeth Flare Soup for my love, so stay out of mine way," Luvbi retorted in a stuck-up way. "So, pink gumball, Knave, smelly cat and hairy old man… Thou shalt stay hither!"

"You can't make us," Blade said while shaking his head, only for Luvbi to give him a death glare.

"If thou dost not stay hither, then I will maketh sure that thou fallest into some cold water next time we ever see one! …Now, I must movest on."

She fluttered out of the medical care, leaving everyone else with confused looks.

"Wow… I think her brat percent just increased by now." Blade gawked as the door shut right in front of him.

* * *

**Crestero's Restaurant-**

"So, would you-a like sauce with that?" the ice spirit chef known as Crstero asked with a bottle of sauce. The ice spirit sitting at the table nodded and took the bottle of sauce from the chef.

"Ah, my restaurant… It's-a going so nicely here. I don't-a have to worry about going out of business!"

The front entrance opened and Luvbi came fluttering into the restaurant. Everyone paused and turned their heads to the little Nimbi girl with surprised looks. But, they sure had some things to say.

"Hey, that girl looks like one of those cute angels from The Overthere!"

"She looks so ADORABLE! No one can resist her cuteness!"

"A girl such as her looks like she's pure of heart. No wonder why she's an angel!"

"I could just go up to you and give you a nice, bit hug!"

"Hee hee! Thou art so flattering!" Luvbi giggled, blushing a bit. "But, I doth already have a boyfriend, so if thou planeth to ask me out, well thou art not in any luck… But, that's not what I hath come hither for. Where is Crestero?"

"Oi?" the chef tilted his head at the Nimbi girl, resulting in his hat falling off. "What do you-a need, cute little girl?"

"Doctor Hymer hath sent me hither," the Nimbi explained. "Pray, dost thou have any Flare Soup? I need it to cure my poor, cute boyfriend who doth have a horrible cold… He's too weak to even speaketh."

"Oi… That's-a not good! Don't-a worry, princess! I'll-a get to-a makin' it right away!" Crestero immediately zipped into the kitchen, getting a bowl ready and putting his ingredients into the pot.

"Crestero! No need to rush zee food." his assistant, Jacque, stated. "It'll make zis soup with a taste that's so…rushed. You're supposed to take zee time to make it in order to make it workable."

"Oh, fine, I'll-a take it easy," Crestero started to put all of the ingredients into the pot and began to stir it all up. "It's-a funny that we don't-a melt, even though we're-a ice spirits, don't you-a find that funny?"

"Yes, that does sound a bit…strange."

After five minutes, Crestero finished the soup and brought it out of the kitchen to Luvbi. From the look on her face, it looked like she was getting VERY patient…and somewhat worried about Chopper.

"Here you go, princess!" Crestero handed a bowl of Flare Soup to Luvbi. "Now take it out-a here and to the-a medical care before it-a gets cold!"

"I will dost that right away," Luvbi said as she took the bowl and fluttered out of the restaurant carefully.

* * *

**Medical Care-**

"How long until I'll…be better?" Chopper wheezed as he had his eyes closed. Doctor Hymer sweat dropped a little and took out a notebook to write in. "Doctor? Are you even listening to me?"

"Of course, Chopper! I'm listening to you!" he replied while writing a letter saying that he might have to quit his job because of someone who can't fight back a cold long enough.

However, when he heard the door open up, he saw Luvbi fluttering into the room with the bowl of Flare Soup. "Oh, thank goodness! I thought for a second I was going to have to… …Maybe it's best not to tell you that."

"Hurry! We must helpeth my sweet prince!" Luvbi cried as he saw Chopper was laying down on the bench with his eyes closed. "Is he…"

"No, no, he's not gone, Luvbi," Doctor Hymer assured. "He's just a bit weak, that's all. But, put it in quickly! I don't know how much time he's going to have anyways…"

Luvbi opened Chopper's mouth with her wing and poured the soup down into his mouth. The grayness on his face slowly started to disappear after gulping in down. His lime-green skin was back to the way it was as well, but he was still not conscious yet.

"…Were we too late?" the doctor gawked.

"Nay…" Luvbi looked down at Chopper and placed her hands on his cheek. "If he's still alive, then I think I might knowest what to do…"

She smiled and leaned forward to kiss Chopper on the lips. While she was kissing him, the Star Warrior's eyes slowly began to open, but they immediately widened in fear when he felt Luvbi's lips on his.

"GROSS!" he cried as he jumped off the bench while wiping his mouth from Luvbi's lips. "What were you trying to do, kill me? ! Ugh… As soon as I manage to get up, this is what I'm paid with."

While Chopper was rubbing his head, it started to feel a bit cold. "Eeeugh… Why does my head feel a bit cold?"

He looked down at his gloves to see an icy aura. "What the… Why do I have an ice aura around my hands? In fact, how on earth did I get them? …Wait, and I taste something delicious in my tongue too."

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi immediately glomped Chopper. "I'm glad to see thou art all better! And we even managed to shareth a romantic kiss!"

Chopper managed to squirm his way out of Luvbi's clutches and look at his hands. "Weird… I wonder what would happen if I did something like I was tossing a fireball…"

When he threw his arm forward, an ice ball came out of his hand and hit the wall. "Whoa… I don't know how I got this ability, but it certainly does remind me of the Ice Hand ability that I had before!"

"Hold on a minute…" Doctor Hymer pondered. "Perhaps the cold you were suffering from might have gone away…but it could have had another effect on you. The coldness must have went into your hands and gave you the ability to throw ice balls. Let's call it the Ice Hand, all right? …Wait, you already said that."

"That sounds a bit weird, considering that that's what some people watching this right now might think… But, I guess it's better than something clichéd, right? Anyways… Thanks for curing me, doc!"

"Oh, it wasn't me who cured you, you know… It happened to be your girlfriend."

"You mean Luvbi?" Chopper gawked as he turned to the love-struck girl. "Wait… YOU? YOU cured me?"

"Yea, verily! Art thou surprised?" Luvbi giggled.

"Well, gee… I don't really know." Chopper rubbed the back of his head while blushing nervously. "Errrr… How about we get going, considering that we need to go look for the Pure Heart…"

Luvbi giggled at him. "Aww, thou dost not have to be shy!"

"Well what else am I supposed to say?"

* * *

**Waiting Room-**

As soon as Chopper and Luvbi walked into the waiting room, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario immediately stood up in surprise.

"Poyo! (Chopper! You're alive!)" Kirby said cheerfully.

"What a relief! For a second there I thought you were actually going to die!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"And we can finally stop sitting in this stupid waiting room for the rest of the chapter!" Blade said happily. "No, seriously… I HATE waiting in waiting rooms."

Mario: Well, it IS a waiting room…

"Well, maybe it's best that we got going, all right?" Chopper suggested, opening the door outside. "And you'll never guess what happened."

"What?"

"I cured him of the cold!" Luvbi blurted out.

"...Yeah, that was one thing, but I also learned this," Chopper pointed to the well in the center of the town and threw an ice ball straight at it. "See? Now I can use the ice element for my hand!"

"Poyo? (But how is that going to help us, considering that this IS an ice environment?)" Kirby asked.

Chopper paused for a minute and then face palmed. "I honestly have no idea…"

Nevertheless, the group walked out of town via the gate and found themselves in a small area with some Ice Guys and Snowmos walking around. Chopper tested his ability out by tossing an ice ball at an Ice Guy, freezing it instantly.

"I think I can kick enemies while they're frozen," Chopper remarked, thinking about other adventures where he had the ice ability. By kicking the frozen Ice Guy, it got knocked into a Snowmo.

"Hey, that actually does work!" Sonic said in surprise. "But, we gotta have some fun too, like this!"

Sonic curled up in a ball and knocked a couple of Snowmos away easily. Mario also joined in the fun by bashing a couple of Snowmen in his way with his hammer. It was really satisfying to him.

"I think I see a pipe up ahead," Blade stated, seeing a pipe at the end of the pathway. "Does this mean we have to go in some sort of cavern to get to the Pure Heart?"

"Nay, I dost remember that my friend wouldeth be the one that is most likely holding it…" Luvbi trailed.

"…And where is your friend?" Sonic asked.

"Pray, wherefore wouldst I know? ! I dost not remember everything, thou knowest, Knave!"

"Sheesh! No need to get snappy…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, I think it's best just to go down this pipe anyways," Blade jumped on top of the white pipe and went down it. Everyone else shrugged and followed the ninja cat down the pipe.

* * *

**Ice Cavern-**

As they all came out of the pipe, they noticed that they were all standing in a cavern. The sky couldn't be seen, nor could any light. It wasn't completely dark, but it was definitely an uncomfortable cave.

"Ugh… I doth not like the way this cave is…" Luvbi trailed, holding onto Chopper.

"Let go of me!" Chopper cried, getting out of Luvbi's grasps, only to bump into a familiar face from before.

"Surprised to see me, meanie-heads?"

"Mimi…"

"Who?"

"A girl that can transform into a spider."

It was indeed Mimi. They all noticed she was wearing a pink snow jacket that was like a dress. She wasn't even wearing boots in this cave, nor was her hood up, which was surprising to them.

"Boy, you guys sure don't seem to give up, even after one of your friends is in danger!" Mimi cackled.

"Poyo, (That's enough from you, Mimi,)" Kirby retorted, getting into his fighting stance. "Poyo? (Now what do you want?)"

"What do I want? You stupid little gumball! It's obvious what I'm here for! I'm here to stop you dummies from getting the Pure Heart!"

"And thou really thinkest that thou can stop us?" Luvbi asked with an annoyed look.

"And who is this brat?"

"The 'brat' that thou art referring to is the princess of The Underwhere and Overthere!" Luvbi glared hatefully at the green girl. "And obviously I am MUCH cuter than what thou art like!"

"OK, Luvbi… I don't want you getting into a fight…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh, is this girl your girlfriend? Aw, how cute! …Too bad your girlfriend's going to witness your game ending!"

"She is NOT my girlfriend!"

"Poyo! (We're not afraid to take you on, Mimi! It's five against one, so there's no point in trying to fight us!)" Kirby shouted.

"Oh… I think I know something that'll get on your nerves! _**Mimimimimimi!**_" from the sound of her creepy voice, Chopper and Kirby both cringed in fear as Mimi snapped her own neck.

"What in the… What is she DOING? !" Blade gawked.

"That looks so…horrifying!" Sonic guffawed.

"Trust me… We've seen this before…" Chopper covered his eyes in fear of the girl. When he opened them, he saw Mimi transformed into a spider.

"_**Are you afraid yet, dummies? Well, we'll see how things turn out when I'm done playing with you!" **_Mimi crept her way towards the heroes, with Luvbi stepping away from her.

"I doth not like the look of her now…" Luvbi shivered. "Please, my prince… Get rid of her please…"

"Well, although she is rather disturbing… She's not really that hard to defeat in her spider form." Chopper pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Blade questioned.

"Well, all you gotta do is continue to attack her and her spider legs will come off. What? Kirby and I did just that and we managed to defeat her! Surely that'll work the same way for her."

"Then let's try it!" Sonic jumped towards Mimi, but when she tossed an Ice Rubee at him, he was frozen.

"Uh oh…" Chopper walked over to Sonic and melted the ice that froze him with a simple fireball. "I guess fire works out well against her here…unless I manage to freeze her with ice!"

"_**You're better off not trying!" **_Mimi cackled as she crept towards him. Chopper shrugged and tossed an ice ball at her, freezing her for a couple of seconds and allowing him to jump on him twice to make a spider leg come off.

"_**EEEEEEK! My spider leg!"**_

"Poyo, (Well, that was an easy attack,)" Kirby stated as he inhaled a Flaming Rubee Mimi tossed and spat it at her, stunning her and leaving a burn on her. Although, she did manage to get away before he could strike her.

"Well, she's up there now… Just watch out for those Rubees she drops. I think Thoreau would be best to use if she's up there." Chopper informed.

Mario: I got it!

When Mimi dropped a normal red Rubee from the ceiling, Mario grabbed it with Thoreau and threw it straight at Mimi, which sent her straight to the icy ground for him to stomp on her, leaving her stunned.

With one last stomp, Mario was able to get another spider leg off the psychotic girl, leaving her with only four legs left.

"Wow… I don't know about you guys, but I think Mimi is probably one of the easiest enemies we've ever faced so far…" Sonic commented. "By that, I'm talking about bosses."

"Yeah, that's true," Chopper tossed another ice ball at Mimi, but it didn't do too much because she managed to break out of her frozen prison and make a bunch of Flaming Rubees rise from the ground to strike them all.

"Poyo! (Ouch! These things are hot!)" Kirby screeched.

"Well, these Rubees are flaming, after all…" Chopper trailed as he held his arm in pain from the burnt mark. "We need to somehow make an attack on Mimi without us getting hurt…"

"Oh, that sounds easy!" Blade smirked as he drew his katana. "…Nah, I think my Pixl needs a chance to shine here."

"Glad you're letting me help, BA-BOOM!" Hommissile chirped.

"Yup! Now let's make an attack on Mimi!" Blade jumped towards the stunned Mimi and struck her with his katana, snapping off another spider leg and leaving her with only three more left.

"_**You're going to pay for that!" **_Mimi roared as she connected her spider legs to the icy floor and the ceiling with Rubees on her head. At this point, she was beginning to spin rapidly.

"What is she doing?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo… (This isn't good… She's using that attack now…)" Kirby groaned. "Poyo… (All I can do is defend myself…)"

Everyone stood over by the corner and let Mimi go all over the place. As soon as she stopped, that's when Sonic struck her with a Homing Attack, leaving her stunned. But, it didn't work out, since she managed to climb up onto the wall and drop a couple of Ice and Flaming Rubees.

"I don't think we can actually pick those up," Chopper said as he pointed to the Flaming and Ice Rubees. "But, I think Kirby and I can inhale those things."

"Poyo! (Yeah, I can inhale one of them!)" Kirby inhaled the Flaming Rubee and managed to spit it out on Mimi while she was up on the ceiling, knocking her to the ground easily.

"How long until that hideous thing is defeated?" Luvbi asked, looking away from Mimi.

"_**Hideous thing? ! You should know that I'm probably much cuter than you are, butterfly!" **_Mimi scowled before freezing from Chopper's ice ball. This allowed Sonic to attack her and snap off another spider leg, leaving her with only two more.

Mario: Only two more to go!

"_**I'll show you what else I can do!" **_Mimi tried to swipe at the group with her spider legs, but it didn't really work against them. She did manage to avoid one of Chopper's ice balls, though.

"Fighting Mimi as a spider kind of reminds me of fighting Shade's freaky spider form," Blade remarked, deflecting a Flaming Rubee back at Mimi with his katana. "Don't you guys agree with me?"

"Yeah, I certainly do," Chopper nodded as he threw a fireball towards the psychotic girl, only for her to avoid it easily like before. But Kirby managed to stun her while on Carrie and with one more jump, he managed to snap off a spider leg, leaving her with only one more.

"So, Mimi… How does it feel to have only one spider leg?" Sonic asked.

"_**This fight isn't finished yet, dummies!" **_Mimi barked, creeping her way towards the group. She managed to hit Chopper with at least one Ice Rubee, but he managed to get out of the frozen prison within five seconds, just like what Kirby did when she froze him.

"How much longer until she is defeated?" Luvbi asked out of curiosity.

"Don't worry, Luvbi. She should be finished soon." Chopper assured, turning back to Mimi with an ice ball in his hand. "So… Are you actually going to give up already or something, or do we need to get rid of one last spider leg?"

"Poyo, (I say we just finish her off,)" Kirby suggested.

"…But I'd rather not hurt her. But, if it's really NECESSARY to do something like that, then, well… I guess we have no other choice."

"_**Mimimimimimimi! Oh, you stupid little boys! You ALWAYS think you're so much better than me because I'm a girl, don't you? !" **_Mimi spat, making Chopper and Kirby gawk at her.

"We never said anything like that…" Chopper face palmed. "Oh, forget it."

He tossed an ice ball at Mimi and froze her. With one last jump, he managed to snap off her last spider leg and make her fall to the ground.

"_**Ack! You… You… Why did you have to do that? !" **_

"Look… You were asking for it, so don't complain about it." Blade said as he put his katana away.

Before Mimi could speak, an explosion surrounded the girl, turning her back into her normal form. But, just like before, she was slouching a bit…but not before teleporting out of the ice cavern.

"…Well, she's gone," Chopper stopped clenching his fist and sighed. "So… On a scale from one to ten… How easy was she?"

"Poyo, (About an eight,)" Kirby said.

"Uhhhhh… Most likely a nine." Sonic answered.

"Ten. Flat." Blade stated.

Mario: Probably around an eight.

"Yeah, exactly. That was probably the easiest fight we've ever had in a while." Chopper nodded.

Mario: Bonechill was easier.

"Is it all right to see now?" Luvbi asked, turning around with her eyes being covered by her wings. "I dost not want to see that horrible spider."

"It's all right, Luvbi, you can look now," Chopper pulled her wings away from her face gently and she opened her eyes to see her prince looking at him, although he wasn't looking at her in a romantic way.

"Hee hee!" she giggled at him and readied herself to kiss him. "Thou verily dost want a kiss, doth thou?"

"Huh…? No way!" Chopper stepped away from love-struck Luvbi, but not before slipping back over by a red door. He ended up bumping into Kirby on accident.

"Poyo. (Uhhh… Let's just go.)" Kirby said as he opened the door. Everyone else followed him into a small room with a Star Block up ahead.

"Just hit the block already," Blade suggested.

"Yeah, I know," Chopper walked up to the Star Block and smashed it with one punch.

"Mayhap thou can stayeth close to me in this place, my sweet prince," Luvbi said in a sweet voice.

"N-Nooooo! I don't want to!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With that cold out of Chopper's way, the whole group began to explore the ice cavern. Some of them looked a bit confused at this place, while some others thought this place felt a bit safe due to the fact that they weren't outside where it was most likely twice as cold as here. "Poyo, (I don't know why, but I feel like I'm seeing something up ahead,)" said Kirby as he noticed a couple of things up ahead. It was a little tunnel that acted like some sort of slide._

* * *

**This could've been updated earlier if SOMEONE didn't kick me off of the computer... I mean, come on! I could've had this up two days ago, but, nope! I... Nah, I'm not going to rant about it. Sorry, people.**

**And I know you're probably going to say I referenced a show, but I didn't intend to. In fact, I don't even watch Doctor Who?. But, anyways, what's up ahead? Well... You'll see when we get there. Sorry, but that's how it is. :P**_  
_


	60. Through the Mountain and Out

**CHAPTER 10-3**

**-Through the Mountain and Out-**

"Gee, this cave sure is a bit unsettling for some reason…but it's also kind of beautiful, if you ask me," Sonic said as he looked at the tunnel they were walking through. There was a little slide up ahead in the tunnel that would most likely lead to another area in the cavern. There were crystal-colored icicles up on the ceiling, although it didn't look like they were going to melt or even fall off, to their relief. Up ahead they could see an ice statue of some kind of ghost. They would probably be called Ice Ghosts (if that's even important to any readers here).

"I will admit that it doth feel very nice in hither," Luvbi smiled sweetly as she turned to Chopper. "I doth think this wouldeth be a nice place for us to kiss, dost thou agree with me, my sweet prince?"

Chopper immediately gagged and covered his mouth in disgust. "No… No way, Luvbi! There's no way I'd share a kiss with you anywhere! The only place where I probably would is…well, never. Unless I'm actually dead."

"Then that's a good thing for me!" she giggled. "Mayhap Mother will let thee goest to The Overthere where I can see thee as an angel! Thou wilt probably make the most adorable angel ever!"

Chopper looked over at Kirby in fear of Luvbi. "Seriously… I… I really need help. She won't stop…"

"Poyo, (Well, this isn't my problem, so I don't need to help you,)" Kirby said as he turned away from Chopper, leaving him to frown and step away from the Nimbi girl that apparently really wanted to kiss him.

"So… How about we make our way down this slide?" Sonic suggested, walking over to the icy slide up ahead. "I believe it should lead us to somewhere up ahead, if I'm correct…"

"Then let's go!" Blade was the first to go down the slide. Luckily, he didn't have to worry too much about sliding down because he was actually wearing a ninja outfit. Same goes with Mario, who went down next. Chopper followed the two down with Luvbi going after him and then Sonic went down, leaving only Kirby to go down the slide last.

Poyo… (I don't know… This doesn't seem safe…)" Kirby trailed as he watched them all slide down. But, nevertheless, he decided to bite the bullet and slide down the tunnel in order to catch up with everyone else.

* * *

**Through the tunnel-**

Kirby noticed as he slid down the icy tunnel slide, it stopped getting all cramped and he could actually see that it was a bit wider. Not to mention it was leading into a larger area in the ice cavern. And he wasn't the only one who was looking surprised at what he was seeing. Oh, man, Blade was sure surprised with what he was seeing as well.

"Holy crap… Is it just me or am I seeing a huge area up ahead in the cavern?" Blade gawked as he continued to move through the slide, out of the tunnel and into the larger area.

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't think this is very safe," Sonic pointed out, pointing to a large gap up ahead. "Maybe we need to flip into 3-D in order to avoid falling into a bottomless pit?"

"I'll try to do something," Chopper flipped him and everyone else into 3-D to find two paths to take on the slide. Both of them would eventually lead them to the exact tunnel, but Blade and Sonic decided to go left and Chopper, Kirby and Mario took the right. Luvbi continued to follow Chopper by going to the right.

Mario: This is a long slide.

"Poyo, (But it's pretty slippery,)" Kirby shivered from the fact that his butt was starting to get cold from the ice. Chopper's butt was getting a bit cold as well. Mario… Well, he had overalls on.

"I really wish I wasn't sliding like this…" Chopper tried to get himself up, but instead, he ended up sliding while standing, like he was snowboarding. "Hey! This is actually kind of cool! You guys gotta try this out!"

Sonic heard Chopper from the other side and did the same thing. He managed to keep his balance. The rest of them decided not to because it seemed a bit risky (Luvbi isn't even sliding down the icy slide anyway).

"Pray, my sweet prince, why art thou doing that?" Luvbi asked as she watched Chopper slide down like he was grinding on a rail. "Thou art probably going to fall off and get hurt! I will not let that happen! Nay!"

"Relax, Luvbi, I can just flip us back into 2-D if we ever find ourselves in any danger…" Chopper trailed.

Mario: Yeah, that's true.

"Hmmmmm… Well, then thou must be careful hither. I dost not want thee to fall into the water down below." Luvbi eyed the water down below, which surprisingly didn't look freezing cold at all.

"Poyo, (That water actually doesn't look cold at all,)" Kirby stated as he looked down in the water. "Poyo. (In fact, I think we've seen colder water than this. Remember at Snowy Mountain, Chopper?)"

"Oh, yeah, Snowy Mountain… I'm surprised the ice cold water there didn't give me any bad colds like the water here…" Chopper remarked, remembering that moment.

Mario: I didn't really go in that water.

"Yeah, you're lucky that you didn't, or else you probably would've been rocketing straight out of the water," Chopper continued to slide while looking to his left where Sonic and Blade were. Apparently they were talking about something else as well.

"So, Sonic… You've been to another snow place like this?" Blade questioned after Sonic explained to him about some of his adventures.

"Yeah, there were a lot of ice places I went through. Ice Cap is probably one of the big ones to me, although there were some other interesting places too, like Twinkle Snow. That place was pretty cool, as well as Ice Mountain and Ice Paradise. …Although, that's really all I can think of out of all the winter worlds I've been in." Sonic then remembered another. "Oh, yeah! There was also that snow world back on Chopper's home planet, Clara, I believe."

"Oh, yeah, I was there," Blade remarked. "Can't you believe that we were forced to travel with Chopper through his whole planet just to find some god to get to some star that reminded me of a jewel?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're ticked off about that, aren't you?"

"In all honesty… I'm not ticked off about it." Blade pondered for a bit as they continued to slide down. "I actually got a whole tour of what Chopper's planet is now, and that means I know what each continent is like now! Seriously, I should go back there one day and explore it all myself."

"Well you don't have to ask anybody to go on that planet, so I'm pretty sure you're free to go there when this whole quest is finished," Sonic noticed that the slide was starting to merge together. "Well, I think this thing is going to be merging now, so get ready, Blade!"

As soon as the two icy slides merged together, Chopper immediately flipped everyone into 2-D to avoid falling off the slide easily. That, and there wasn't much else up ahead in 3-D.

"So how was your conversation?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, we were talking about some of the other places we've been to," Sonic explained. "I know for a fact that Blade wants to explore your planet again on his own, since he probably wants to see everything there."

"Well that's pretty interesting, I'll admit," after a couple of minutes, the slide ended and they ended up crashing into a wall right next to a red door. Nevertheless, they made their way through and into another area in the cave.

After walking out of the door, they noticed that there was a skinny, icy bridge up ahead, but it was being blocked by an Ice Ghost that was spewing out an icy breath that didn't quite reach the six.

"What is that thing?" Luvbi asked.

"From what I can see, it's an Ice Ghost. I think some fire will take care of this thing, though." Chopper was about to throw a fireball at it, but Blade immediately drew his katana and struck the Ice Ghost with a fire slash. "…Or Blade can do it, I'm fine with that…"

"A fireball's probably not enough to beat these guys," Blade stated as he put away his katana. "We're probably going to need more than that to kill off these guys. I mean, they're made of ice!"

Mario: A fireball would probably melt it.

"Anyways… Let's just cross this bridge." Sonic was the first to jump on the bridge, but he noticed a couple of white Swoopers flying around. He knew for a fact that they were Ice Swoopers, but he wasn't sure how dangerous they were.

When one swooped down, Sonic struck it with a Spin Jump a couple of times and disintegrated it. Mario finished off the other one with a jump as well, damaging it a couple of times.

"These Swoopers must be like those Ice Ghosts…except they're kind of annoying," Sonic said as he made his way across the bridge. After everyone else followed him across, they saw a pipe up ahead, but nothing else.

"Hold on… Maybe I need to flip into 3-D." Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. He saw another ice bridge like the other, but there were gusts of icy wind that looked quite strong. If they were to walk over to it, they would be blown straight into the water down below.

"Yeesh, I don't think we can even go through that," the Star Warrior went back into 2-D. "I don't think the water's bad or anything, but I think it's best that we go down that pipe over there."

"Yea, verily. Although, I think it's best for me to stay hither. I dost not want to go down there…" Luvbi looked over at Chopper with a love-struck look. "But, I will waiteth for thee to return. Thou art always free to givest me a kiss, thou knowest."

Chopper turned around and gagged in disgust before following the rest of the group down the pipe. As for Luvbi, she noticed an icicle drop from the ceiling right by her.

"Mayhap I can dost something hither…" she grabbed the icicle and fluttered over to the crystal ice wall.

* * *

**Down the pipe-**

As soon as they got out of the pipe, they saw a couple of enemies frozen in ice. One of them was an Ice Bro., another one was an Ice Ghost (even though that one wasn't necessarily frozen) and another enemy frozen was a Mega Muth, which was a bit surprising to some of them.

"Poyo? (What the heck is that supposed to be?)" Kirby asked, pointing at the frozen Mega Muth.

"Oh… Those enemies." Chopper face palmed. "Although they give A LOT of points, those things are annoying to defeat. From what I've seen in Castle Tipral… They have about 200 HP!"

"200 HP? Are you serious? !" Blade gawked as he looked at the Mega Muth. "That's the same amount of HP that Dimentral had! This is really, really dumb…but, if the points are a lot, then we better take care of it."

Mario: Not right now!

"Mario's right. We can't take care of it now…" Sonic trailed, looking over at the Ice Ghost that was floating towards them. "I say we take care of those enemies first. They DO have stronger attack power than that thing anyways…"

"So, who wants to do the honors of taking care of the Ice Ghost, huh?" Blade looked at the rest of the group, who looked a bit confused. "Oh, whatever. I guess I'll take care of it from a distance."

He tossed Hommissile straight at the Ice Ghost, causing it to explode into many pieces. Afterwards, he melted the Ice Bro. out of its frozen prison, allowing it to move freely in the small cave.

"Huh…? I'm still alive? Oh, man… I thought I was done for in this place…" the Ice Bro. looked around the small cave area and noticed the five in here as well. "Wait a second… You're the heroes! Look, I better do what I have to do and destroy you because of Tipral's orders."

"Well, we know for sure that this is one of Tipral's minions," Sonic confirmed, curling up into a ball and striking the Ice Bro. easily. But once he knocked it to the wall, it got up and spat an ice ball straight at Sonic, freezing him for a couple of seconds.

"I'll take care of this," Chopper melted Sonic from his icy prison with a simple fireball, then he tossed an ice ball straight at the Ice Bro., freezing it and then kicking it into the wall, destroying it.

"All right… So that only leaves the Mega Muth." Chopper tossed a fireball at the frozen Mega Muth, freeing it from its icy prison. But the thing is, it was starting to charge at the group like that was what it was trying to do before it froze.

Mario immediately jumped towards the Mega Muth and dealt some heavy damage with his Ground Pound attack, followed by Kirby jumping on it with Carrie, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Heh heh! Now I can show this Mega Muth who's boss!" Blade drew his katana and began to continuously slash at the large creature. After about a couple of more hits, the Mega Muth was finally defeated, dropping a Bone-in-Cut that the ninja took.

"So… Is there anything else to do in this cavern?" Chopper asked.

Mario: I don't know.

Kirby scanned the room until he saw a stump that was frozen. "Poyo! (Hey! I see something over there!)"

"Really?" Chopper whirled around over to the stump that was frozen. "Oh, there we go! Maybe that'll help us get through that icy wind that's in our way!"

By tossing a fireball at the ice, he managed to melt the stump of all the ice. Mario immediately stepped in and performed a Ground Pound on the stump, causing the floor to tremor just a little bit.

"Well, I'm not sure what that tremor was, but it definitely sounded like there was something going on outside…" Blade trailed after the tremor stopped.

"Poyo, (Then let's check it out,)" suggested Kirby.

* * *

**Other room-**

As the five heroes came out of the pipe, they noticed that Luvbi was carving something up on the icy wall. She didn't seem to be finished yet, but they all looked confused with the Nimbi girl. What exactly was she even drawing?

"Uhhh… Luvbi? What are you doing?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, me! Thou returnest?" Luvbi immediately whirled to face Chopper. "I hath just finished something for thee and I!"

"…And what did you make, exactly?" Sonic asked, tilting his head.

Luvbi gave Sonic an annoyed look. "Well, if thou wantest to know, then thou can lookest at what I hath carved. But the only one who probably will hath more interest in this is my cute, adorable prince!" pink hearts flew over her as she said that last bit.

"…And what exactly is it that will interest me?" Chopper asked, raising an eyebrow out of confusion.

"Thou will see!" she giggled as she moved out of the way. Everyone's eyes widened (with Chopper's in fear) as they say a carving of Chopper and Luvbi kissing each other on the lips. Both of their eyes were closed, and they were on top of a cloud shaped like a heart. Of course, Chopper didn't like this one bit.

"Wh-What is that?!"

"That is thou and I kissing!" Luvbi let out a sweet sigh as she looked at it. "Dost thou think it's romantic?"

"Heck no!" Chopper had his tongue out in disgust. "There's no way that I would like something like that! …I mean, it's not a bad picture, but I'm not interested in any romance! It's just gross!"

"Hee hee! It's all right, my love! We can talk about our romantic relationship later." she fluttered up to her prince and kissed him on the cheek, leaving the Star Warrior to shake in fear. "But we must movest on."

Chopper wiped his cheek as fast as possible before flipping into 3-D. They could all see that the icy wind was now gone, allowing them to cross the bridge over to the other side where a door was.

When they flipped back into 2-D, they entered through the door and into an area that was like a hallway. There wasn't anything around except for a couple of Ice Swoopers hanging onto the ceiling and a snowman-like enemy with a blue pale cap called a Chilly. It was creating an ice aura that could freeze anyone if anyone got close to it.

"He-Hey! It's a Chilly!" Chopper smiled. "I remember seeing these guys back at Snowy Mountain! Good times… Good times…"

"Poyo? (So what are we gonna do with it?)" Kirby asked.

"Well I know what I'm gonna do!" Chopper raced towards the Chilly and immediately inhaled it. As soon as he swallowed it, Chopper's skin changed to a light blue tint with indigo-colored gloves and shoes. On his head is a crown with a circular visor that has a blue gem in it, and also ice crystals on top of the crown. There were small amounts of snowflakes around his gloves and his crown, making it look rather pretty.

"Thy appearance doth look pretty!" Luvbi commented. "But thy Angel ability makest thee even cuter!"

"I think he had enough of that lovey-dovey stuff," Sonic stated.

Luvbi turned to Sonic with a glare. "Nay, Knave! It is THEE who is tired of this! Hast I toldeth thee NEVER to interfere with mine romance? ! Thou must listen to me, since I AM a princess!"

"Poyo… (Uhhh… OK, whatever. We don't really care…)" Kirby trailed as he ran on ahead, inhaling an Ice Swooper and spitting it out on the wall. Chopper used his Ice Sprinkle attack to freeze the other Ice Swooper and kick it to the wall to destroy it.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a door with a Save Block and a yellow ? block. Mario struck the yellow ? block, making a Super Shroom pop out. Blade did the usual thing to help them all recover 20 HP before Chopper hit the Save Block.

"Huh… I wonder why these are here." Sonic wondered while rubbing the side of his head.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to check," Blade walked through the door first, followed by Sonic, Chopper, Luvbi, Kirby and then Mario. It led them into a tunnel that was bigger in height and even a couple of holes that acted like windows, making it not as dark in the place.

"Honestly, I like it here," Chopper commented, looking at the whole room they were in. But, what caught him off guard was someone who was lying on the ground up ahead.

And that person…was King Dedede.

"Poyo? (King Dedede?)" Kirby and Chopper were both surprised to see a familiar face in this place. "Poyo? (What on earth is King Dedede doing in a place like this? I thought he would be finished back in Gloam Valley?)"

"Well, there was Bowser too… I don't know what's going on here." Chopper pondered as Kirby poked King Dedede.

"Whuzzat? ! Who's there? !" King Dedede immediately got himself up to see what was going on. "Huh? What the heck am I doing here? This isn't the place where I planned to go!"

He looked on ahead to see Chopper and Kirby right in front of him. "What the… It's you two! How did you get here? !"

"We art probably going to ask thee the same thing," Luvbi said sarcastically.

"Well, it doesn't matter how you got here or not. But you're all in my way, so…" King Dedede pulled his hammer out and raised it above him. "I think it would be a good idea to clobber some of my enemies! Does that sound nice to you guys?"

"What? It doesn't sound nice at all!" Chopper frowned. "We don't even want to fight you! We're just trying to get through the place, sheesh!"

"Well I'm not gonna buy it! Ever since I lost to you guys, I've felt like I've been humiliated! Well, not anymore! This time… This time I'm going to be the clobberer…and you're guys are the ones that are going to be clobbered!"

"Is 'clobberer' even a word?" Blade whispered, only to get a shrug from both Mario and Sonic.

"Hey! You better not be making fun of me back there!" the king growled. "Do you guys wanna be targets too?"

"Well, now that you think about it…" Blade drew his katana. "I think we could sure enjoy a fight against you!"

"All right, then! Now I've got five people to squish! …Unless you wanna count that fairy girl over there."

"How darest thou speakest to me like that!" Luvbi retorted. "Thou will NOT do such harm to me!"

"Like I care what a fairy has to say to me! I'm KING! …But, I've got a couple of people to take care of… Prepare yourself, Chopper and Kirby! I saved some space for you both on my hammer!"

The king brought his hammer down in front of both Chopper and Kirby, knocking them back towards the others. From what Chopper could see, King Dedede has about 130 HP, an Attack of 9 and a Defense of 2. It's nothing too bad, but he was definitely a bit stronger than Fawful.

"Huh… Well, we better be quick when attacking him. He's kind of slow, if you wanted to know." Chopper informed as he jumped on King Dedede's head and landed right behind him to use his Ice Breath on him as well.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? !" King Dedede began to shiver from the intense cold. "That stuff really makes me cold!"

"Poyo! (Well that's a good thing!)" Kirby jumped out of the way when King Dedede tried to bring his hammer down on him. Since a yellow star appeared, he inhaled it and spat it at King Dedede, making him dizzy.

"Hey! Save some for me!" Sonic curled up in a ball and charged up his Light Speed Dash. When he got it fully charged, he immediately attacked King Dedede multiple times until he managed to spin his hammer around and knock the blue hedgehog away easily.

"Whoa… How'd he manage to hit me when I was going that fast?" he questioned.

"Who cares? I hit ya! Deal with it!" King Dedede jumped in the air and tried to squish Blade, but he managed to jump out of the way before getting stomped. With two yellow stars, Kirby managed to inhale both and spit them out at King Dedede, making him feel completely dizzy from the attack.

"You're going to pay for that, Kirby!"

"Ehhhh… I don't think you'll have a chance." Blade immediately attacked King Dedede with his katana, striking him a couple of times before kicking him in the stomach. "Now that's something I certainly like to do: kick people in the stomach."

Mario turned around and asked Luvbi if she was safe, but she only huffed and turned away from him.

"Thou dost not have the right to speaketh to me, hairy old man!" she huffed. "The only person I will only speaketh to is my sweet prince!"

Mario: Rude, much?

Of course, he was interrupted when he was knocked over by King Dedede, who purposely tripped over to hit him. But, he managed to get himself up and bash the king with his hammer.

"What the… Now you have a hammer too? !" King Dedede growled as he got up and attempted to swing at Mario, but missed. The Italian plumber simply jumped on King Dedede's head twice before landing and giving a thumbs up.

"You stupid little… You're gonna pay for that!" King Dedede made his way over to the group and opened his mouth to suck some of them in like a vacuum. He only managed to get a hold of Chopper and Kirby, but that's it.

He turned around and spat them over by the left wall. Luvbi fluttered out of the way to avoid being hit by them and immediately fluttered over to Chopper.

"My sweet prince! Art thou all right?" she asked in a worried voice. She checked for any bruises on his face. She was relieved that there weren't any…yet.

"Please stop touching my face!" Chopper shouted, stepping away from Luvbi. "Whenever I see you touching my face, it feels like you're going to try to kiss me on the lips! That's gross!"

Chopper immediately ice skated his way towards King Dedede. "Well, I do like the fact that I can ice skate with my Ice ability!" he smiled as he surrounded himself in an icy aura called an Ice Storm, striking King Dedede for some nifty damage, and not to mention making him cold.

"Ugh… I really hate it when you do that!" King Dedede growled as he lifted his hammer and struck Chopper with it. Kirby immediately inhaled the yellow star and spat it out at King Dedede to leave him dazed.

Mario: Oh, yeah!

Mario immediately performed a Triple Jump and landed right on King Dedede's nose, performing a stylish move afterwards. When he landed behind him, he used Kickbrin's ability to knock him over.

"Oh, come on! It's five against one? ! This isn't fair one bit!" King Dedede whined.

"Well… You ARE bigger than us, and you've also got more strength than us…" Sonic trailed. "So, I think it's a fair fight. At least, in my eyes, it is."

"Oh, yeah?" King Dedede took in a lot of air and began to float up in the air. His stomach looked all puffed up, as well as his cheeks as he tried to hit his enemies that were still on the ground.

"Poyo, (I think I know how to avoid this,)" Kirby took in some air and began to float up to get out of King Dedede's way. The king only managed to hit Mario and Blade, but that was all before exhaling a puff of air in his mouth and landing right on top of Sonic, squishing him.

"Get off of me!" Sonic managed to throw King Dedede off of him by bringing his quills up. It made King Dedede yelp and crash into a wall that made a bunch of icicles fall on his head.

"You little…! Now you're gonna get it!" King Dedede raised his hammer and brought it down on the ground to make a huge shockwave come towards the group. However, they all simply jumped over it, with Mario being able to jump on King Dedede's head afterwards.

Mario: You're not so hard for me to hit!

"I'm gonna shut that mouth of yours and rip that mustache off of ya!" King Dedede brought his hammer back and sent Mario flying across the room with a simple swing of his hammer, but he was surprised by an explosion that knocked him over.

"That should take care of him for a bit," Blade said as Hommissile came back to him.

King Dedede turned around and tried to hit Blade, but he immediately attacked him with his katana and then jumped in the air and dove down and kicked him in the face to knock him over.

However, King Dedede wasn't going to give up so easily. He immediately got up and grabbed Blade. He threw him towards Mario with a whack of his hammer that did some tough damage.

"Oh, you wanna see another attack I can do? This one will surely put you guys out of your misery!" King Dedede's hammer had a fire aura around it as it slammed to the ground, creating a huge wave of fire that spread across the floor.

"You idiot! You know this place is made of ice!" Chopper growled, using his Ice Storm to prevent the tunnel from melting.

"What? I was trying to kill you guys! Is that all to ask? !" King Dedede jumped in the air and tried to attack Chopper, but he jumped out of the way and used his Ice Sprinkle to strike King Dedede with his icy breath.

"Ack! Stop with that icy breath!" King Dedede whacked Chopper across the face with his hammer and knocked him over on his back, but then it was followed up by Sonic striking him from behind with a Homing Attack, leaving a bruise on the back of King Dedede's head.

"When I'm through with you all, I'm going to go find someone who'll buy you guys as slaves so I can become filthy rich!" he announced as he slammed his hammer down on Sonic, making a yellow star appear right by Kirby.

"Poyo… (I think I have a chance of winning this…)" Kirby inhaled the yellow star and spat it out at King Dedede, leaving him dizzy. Now that he was open for an attack, he jumped on Carrie and jumped on top of King Dedede's head to leave a nasty bump on his head.

"Ugh… Do you ALWAYS have to do that, Kirby? !" King Dedede asked while gritting his teeth in anger. He managed to strike Kirby at least once, but that was about it. When he tried jumping on him, he ultimately failed, allowing Kirby to inhale both yellow stars and spit them out at him for some stronger damage.

King Dedede jumped up and brought his hammer down after getting out of his little trance and managed to hit Kirby with his hammer. But, when Mario managed to use a Ground Pound on him, he was almost done for.

"Oh, man… I can't believe it has almost come down to this…" the king gulped. "There's no way I can let myself lose this easily! …Time for plan B!"

He pulled out one of his Waddle Dee and threw it straight at Mario while he was landing on the ground. Unfortunately, his plan didn't work out when Mario whacked the Waddle Dee straight back at him.

"You gotta be kidding me… That attack should've worked… Oh, forget it. I think this should do the job." he threw a spiked enemy called a Gordo straight at Mario, knocking him back. Not even Kirby could inhale an enemy like this!

"…I still gotta help," Chopper pushed himself up and immediately tossed an ice ball at King Dedede, freezing him for a couple of seconds.

"Hey, Kirby! Catch!" Chopper jumped and threw an ice ball over Kirby, allowing him to inhale it. When King Dedede broke out of his icy prison, the pink puffball spat a yellow star containing the ice ball straight at King Dedede. It made him fall over and admit defeat to Kirby.

"Ugh… I… I can't win." he moaned. "I thought for sure that I would have this in the bag, but apparently I didn't."

"Hey, now, you don't need to put yourself down," Chopper said as he nudged him with his foot. "You should've just listened to us by simply letting us through… I'm pretty sure you would've been fine then."

"But I NEED to clobber you guys! You know what'll happen if I don't? I'll be screwed big time!"

Luvbi fluttered over to King Dedede. "Pray, speakest now, flappy penguin! Where can we go to get out of hither? !"

King Dedede looked up at Luvbi. "You wanna know where you can get out of here? Well, if I remember, if you go past one room, you'll be at the top of the mountain. I don't remember what was there, but you'll have a long way to go if you're going to exit this place as well."

"Huh… So that's how it is." Sonic said. "Well, then we might as well move on ahead." he jumped over King Dedede and raced over to the red door ahead.

"Hold on, Sonic! What about King Dedede?" Chopper asked.

"There's not much we can do with him," Blade stated. "I don't think he wants to move anyways."

"I'll get out of here myself," King Dedede groaned. "But remember this, Chopper and Kirby! Next time we meet, I'm going to make sure I get you! You BETTER remember that, all right? !"

"Poyo… (Yeah, sure…)" Kirby rolled his eyes as he jumped over King Dedede, along with Chopper. Blade turned to Mario, who gave him a nod before jumping over the king and going up to the door.

"Dost thou have any bruises on thee?" Luvbi asked Chopper in a sweet tone.

"No, Luvbi… I don't have many." Chopper DID have bruises, but he didn't want her help. "I've gotten many bruises before. I REALLY don't think you need to be worried about me."

"But thou hast suffered a cold before! I dost not want thee to die!"

"Well, yeah, I know, but…" Chopper stopped when Luvbi immediately kissed him on the lips. He WANTED to cry out in fear, but he couldn't do much else except for wiping his mouth of the kiss.

_"This is REALLY getting annoying! …And it's also very disgusting!"_

They all headed through the door into a room with an ice pole that was floating in the middle of the room. It led up to a floating ice platform that seemed to be used as something to land on, but there was also a yellow ? block by it.

"Let's climb this!" Sonic immediately grabbed a hold of the pole and began to climb up. Everyone else followed him up to the icy platform that the pole led to and Mario hit the yellow ? block, making a Mushroom pop out. They all split it into five, as usual and climbed up the next pole near them.

"Gee, I wonder why these icy poles are even here…" Chopper trailed as he noticed the icy platform to the left had a Chilly creating an icy aura that surrounded it. He simply chucked a fireball at it when it stopped, melting it entirely.

"Why did you need to do that?" Blade asked.

"To prevent it from causing any harm to us."

"Errr… All right?"

After climbing a couple of more poles, they finally reached the red door on the larger icy platform. They immediately entered it into a small room with a light leading out of the mountain. There was also some kind of machine in this small cave room as well, confusing some of them.

"Why is there a machine right here?" Sonic gawked.

Mario: I have no idea.

"Poyo, (I think there's a sign over here,)" Kirby walked over to the sign and began to read what it was saying.

_Welcome to Ice Mountain! Sorry if you were disappointed with the whole place! To apologize, we're offering snowboards, skis, and even tubes for those who want to exit this mountain! Just insert a coin and you can get one of the things on there of your choice! Thank you and goodbye!_

"Whoa… That's pretty cool." Chopper smiled as he pulled a coin out and placed it in the machine. He decided to choose a snowboard and, before he knew it, a pale green snowboard was coughed up.

"Poyo! (Let's see what I can get!)" Kirby inserted a coin into the machine and chose to get a tube, because he knew that he couldn't snowboard, nor could he ski.

Sonic got himself a blue snowboard. Being the hedgehog that has snowboarded in the past, he knew that was going to be what he wanted to use.

Blade got himself some skis, because he didn't feel like getting a snowboard. "I would get a snowboard, but I'm not exactly sure if I'll be safe with it."

Mario: Ummmm… OK.

Mario placed a coin in the machine and chose to get some skis (I mean, he skis in Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic games! Is there anything else for me to choose?).

"My sweet prince… What about me?" Luvbi asked.

"Do you want to get any of those?" Chopper asked.

"Well, I can't ski or snowboard because I dost not have any legs. And I dost not know if I can even go in a tube because I can only flutter around!"

"And what do you want me to do about it?"

Luvbi blushed shyly. "Well… I was wondering…if thou can hold onto me whilst thou makest thy way down the mountain. I would verily love it if thou didst something so sweet for me."

Chopper's eyes widened as he blushed nervously. "Errrr… I really, really don't want you getting close to me."

"Please? For me?" her eyes softened as she got closer to him. She even batted her eyes at him too.

"All right! All right! Just please stop doing that to me!"

"Man… Girl trouble, much?" Blade whispered.

"Quiet, Blade…" Chopper warned.

"Hee hee! I thank thee!" Luvbi giggled as she hugged Chopper as he got on his snowboard. "Thou wilt taketh good care of cute little me, right?"

"Uhhh… I kind of have to."

"Aw, thou art so sweet!" she kissed Chopper's cheek again, making him shiver in fear of the girl.

"Poyo! (Now let's get going!)" Kirby cheered as he got himself on the tube and pushed himself out of the mountain and down the snowy slope. He noticed down at the bottom of the mountain that there was a frozen lake.

"Whoa… So there's some kind of lake at the bottom?" Chopper gawked as he made his way down, following Kirby. There were a couple of ramps that they could jump off, so he decided to perform a couple of tricks on one of the ramps.

"Chopper! Please don't do that when I'm holding on to thee! I'm afraid I might fall off!" Luvbi said closely.

"…You can fly though! I highly doubt you would even let yourself fall!"

"But thou must knowest that thou must keepeth me safe, dost though remember."

At this moment, Chopper was getting annoyed. He wanted to let go of Luvbi and get away from her as fast as possible, but he felt that it wouldn't be easy for him…due to the girl being overly obsessed with him for some reason.

"Well, that's why it sucks to have a girlfriend," Blade pointed out as he was right behind him. "They constantly nag you and such!"

"…I wouldn't say that, Blade," Chopper gave him an irritated look. "They don't really… Well, most of them don't. …But I can think of one that does."

"Amy sure doesn't act like that," Sonic said as he jumped over Chopper and performed a trick. "Although, I think she's overly obsessed with me…"

"Ummm… Yeah. Let's just stop talking about this, OK?" Chopper noticed that Luvbi was getting a bit irritated with some of the people around him.

"Dost thou know how to not interrupt our moments?" Luvbi exclaimed as she glared at the group.

"Ugh… This is going to be a LONG day, isn't it?"

* * *

**Frozen Lake-**

What might seem to be a long day really wasn't one. After a long way down the snowy slope, our heroes stopped right on the frozen lake. Little did they know that it was eventually going to break pretty soon.

"So, guys… What do you say that we just get out of this place and find our way out of here?" Blade suggested.

They paused when they heard a crack.

Mario: I wouldn't be too sure on that…

The ice on the lake broke, but they didn't fall into the water. They were simply on a large chunk of ice that was floating on the water. They happened to notice past the lake was a Star Block, to their relief.

"Finally! We can just jump onto these floating chunks of ice and get out of here!" Blade started to use his platforming skills and jump on the chunks of ice. Everyone else followed him.

"Hmmmm… I think there's something down below this water…" Chopper paused for a minute and pondered.

"Chopper! Art thou verily planning on going down there? !" Luvbi exclaimed. "Nay! I dost not want thee to suffer another cold!"

"Oh, relax! My Ice ability allows me to survive the cold! Sheesh!" Chopper jumped into the lake and swam down to the bottom. He happened to notice something sparkling down there, so he immediately grabbed it.

When he swam back up, he jumped out of the water and landed on the icy platform he was previously on. "See? I'm all fine!"

"Pray, what was down there?"

"Uhhhhh… Nothing really important. We should just get going…"

They both followed the rest of the group straight to the Star Block. With one smash of Chopper's fist, the Star Block was destroyed.

"Wow… We sure made our way out of that mountain!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"Well, there's still more to be found up ahead…" Blade trailed.

Mario: That's true!

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Chopper! Why won't thou tellest me what was down in the bottom of the lake?!" At this moment, Luvbi was getting a bit infuriated with Chopper refusing to tell her what was down the lake. Everyone else simply ignored her as usual and continued their way through the Christmas world. "I don't know about you guys, but for some reason, this area's starting to feel a bit more Christmas-y, don't you agree?" Blade discussed as he noticed that some of the poles were like candy canes, and some of the trees had some Christmas lights on them. One thing for sure was that they were not going to expect being in a place full of paradise._

* * *

**I bet you weren't expecting King Dedede to appear in this chapter. ;D**

**Anyways, I know that there was something about this place having a Christmas feeling to it. Well, maybe we'll be able to see that in the next chapter. Oh, and maybe there might be a little surprise in there too! ...With some humor, of course.**


	61. Winter Paradise

**CHAPTER 10-4**

**-Winter Paradise-**

"Oh, man… Is it Christmas already?" Blade asked as he looked at one of the Christmas trees close to him. There was no snow covering it, but there were some very nice decorations, such as Christmas lights and ornaments. "I find it weird that we have this kind of stuff here when it's not even Christmas… What month is this, exactly? May? I mean, come on now! We're not even CLOSE to December at this point!"

"Well, every world is different in the universe and in every dimension," Sonic stated as he walked over to the Christmas tree. An Ice Bro. was up ahead, spitting a couple of ice balls towards him. He decided to take care of that enemy first before going back to the Christmas tree. "I'll admit, whoever decorated these trees did a pretty good job at it. It looks so nice!"

Mario: I agree with that!

Kirby walked over to the tree and shook it a little. "Whoa, Kirby! Don't try to shake it!" Sonic warned. "You're going to make all of the ornaments fall off! We wouldn't want that to happen, right?"

"Poyo… (Awww… I was hoping there would be some food in here, that's all…)" Kirby whimpered as he stepped away from the tree.

Chopper walked up to the tree and pondered for a couple of seconds. "Hmmmmmm… I feel like this tree is missing something. I think it needs a little more light to it, wouldn't you say?"

"You mean a star?" Blade replied, pointing to the top of the tree. "Maybe it just needs a star in order for it to be complete."

"But where can we even findeth a star?" Luvbi asked.

"How about we use Kirby as a star?" Blade suggested. Kirby immediately gave him a death glare, making Blade back off. "Hey! I was only kidding! Sheesh! Can't you learn to even take a joke, Kirby?"

"Poyo, (Well I found that to be a bit rude,)" Kirby retorted while folding his arms. "Poyo! (I'm not meant to be used for decorations! I'm a Star Warrior, all right?)"

"I have no idea what the heck you just said…" while Blade couldn't understand Kirby, Chopper explained to him what he was saying. "Oh… Well sorry for being rude. I'm not trying to get in a fight with you, honestly."

Mario: We should just move on.

"Hold the phone…" Chopper was just finished with making a crystallized star with his Ice ability. "While you guys were arguing over nothing, I was making this, just to make this tree look nice."

He gave it to Kirby and let him bring it up to the top of the Christmas tree. Once the pink puffball placed it on the top, the tree looked complete. It was one work of nature, I'd have to say…or rather, the spirit of Christmas.

"No, really. Do we even NEED to celebrate Christmas when it's not even that time of the year?" Blade asked. "I mean, come on! It's. FREAKIN'. MAY! It makes NO sense to have Christmas time here!"

"Errrr… How about we simply move on?" Sonic suggested, seeing a small hill up ahead and a couple of Ice Bros. on two rows of brick blocks. Mario simply shrugged and moved on ahead to fight the two Ice Bros.

The way Mario fought these guys was just like any other Hammer Bro. enemies. He used his fist to hit one of the blocks that the Ice Bro. was on and knocked it to the ground. Chopper immediately ice skated towards one and used his Ice Storm to freeze it. While it was frozen, he kicked it towards a pipe up on a small hill to destroy it.

"Poyo, (I got the other Ice Bro.,)" Kirby said as he jumped on the row of brick blocks above him. The Ice Bro. was knocked to the ground, where Blade drew his katana and slashed at it a couple of times to finish it.

"Man, taking these guys down really makes me feel good!" Blade grinned as he hit one of the brick blocks, making a Mushroom pop out. He split it into five so they could all recover 10 HP. Afterwards, Sonic hit another brick block, making a Slow Flower pop out, to their surprise.

"Pray, what is that flower?" Luvbi asked. "Is it a gift thou hast given to me, my sweet prince?"

"What? Heck no!" Chopper retorted. "It's a Slow Flower. If we grab a hold of it, everything around us will slow down. Kirby, grab the flower and she'll see what it's like."

"Poyo! (Got it!)" Kirby jumped up to the Slow Flower and grabbed a hold of it. Everything started to slow down by a lot. Even their voices were slow, which was obvious.

"Pooooooooyooooooo! (My vooooooice soooooooounds soooooooo deeeeeeeep!)" Kirby said in slow motion. "Poooooooooyoooooo? (Why doooooooes iiiiiit haaaaaaave tooooo beeeeee liiiiike thiiiiis?)"

"I doooooon't knooooow!" Chopper replied as he slowly ice skated up the small hill and over to the pipe. A Frost Piranha popped its head out of the pipe and tried to freeze the group with its icy breath.

"Ohhhhhhhh noooooo yooooooou doooooon't!" Blade gripped his katana and "slowly" jumped towards the Frost Piranha to strike it with a fire slash, killing it instantly. But, they decided to check what was down the pipe…which, of course, made the speed go back to normal.

* * *

**Underground-**

The five heroes immediately landed right on an icy platform as they dropped down from the pipe (Luvbi decided to wait outside because she didn't feel like going down). Below the platform were two Ice Guys and two Frost Darklings on the side platforms that was a bit close from the icy ground below.

"Oh, great… We have Darklings here." Chopper groaned as he jumped on the Darkling to his right a couple of times, performing a stylish move. Mario took care of the Darkling to his left with a couple of stomps.

Mario: What are the difference between these and normal ones?

"These Darklings can use ice spells in order to freeze you," he explained. "I believe that's really it…except they're weak to fire, which is nice."

"And let's take a look at those Ice Guys down below," Sonic jumped down and struck one of the Ice Guys with a simple Homing Attack. After one Spin Jump, the Ice Guy was defeated. The only problem was that they could throw ice bombs. The one to the left ended up hitting Sonic and making him freeze.

"Poyo, (I'll take care of the last one,)" Kirby inhaled the next ice bomb the Ice Guy threw and spat it out at it, freezing it and allowing him to kick it to the wall, killing it off and allowing something to happen.

"I bet we're going to get a present from Santa!" Chopper smiled.

"You know Santa doesn't exist, right?" Blade mentioned.

"What? He so does exist!"

"Dude… No he doesn't." Blade began to shake his head at the lime-green Star Warrior. "I was even told that he doesn't exist. My parents told me that they were the ones putting all of my presents under the tree. So… Yeah, that basically means that he doesn't exist. At all."

"Well what about at my house? My parents are gone…but who would be the one to put those presents under my tree? Certainly not someone I know. I even keep my house locked just to be safe. So, that pretty much means that Santa Claus DOES exist!"

Before they could continue arguing, they noticed in the center of the room, paper flipped to reveal a chest. Mario shrugged and opened the chest to find some sort of ice key. But, like all of the keys, it's called a Door Key.

"All right, let's get out of here before things get a bit worse…" Sonic suggested as he made his way out of the pipe.

* * *

**Outside-**

As the five got out of the pipe, they noticed that Luvbi was making two snowmen. Or rather… She was making herself and Chopper out of snow. Like the carved pictures in the ice cavern, both Chopper and Luvbi were kissing each other on the lips, which disgusted Chopper again as he saw it.

"Hee hee! Dost thou like it, my sweet prince?" Luvbi giggled. "I wanted to maketh another surprise for thee!"

"Gcccccck! I'm choking!" Chopper faked choked as his eyes widened. "I… I can't breath! I'm… I'm going to die!"

"Oh, come on now… You're SERIOUSLY acting like that?" Blade face palmed as Chopper played dead on the ground. "Sheesh! It's like he fears pretty much anything he considers to be bad!"

"Nah, that's what he's usually like," Sonic stated, nudging him with his foot. Apparently, Chopper ended up getting up, but he immediately stepped away from Luvbi.

"Ahem… Let's get moving, all right?" he immediately ice skated over the two snow objects and landed right in front of the red door. Everyone else followed him over there and Mario pulled the key out.

Mario: Time to open the door!

With the key, he managed to unlock the door, allowing them to move to the next area. It was a bit open, but it was a bit small, like there could be some sort of fight. There were two Christmas trees as well with stars on the top. But, there were two mounds of snow that were a bit far from each other as well.

"Well, we know for a fact that we're getting somewhere," Blade stated.

"Or rather, you WON'T be!" the group paused as they looked up at the sky. They could see two people floating down to the ground. It almost looked like it was…Shade Doom and the Necromancer!

"I don't believe it…" Chopper said in a serious voice, clenching his fists. "It's you guys… I thought you were gone?!"

"Silly Chopper! Didn't I tell you that I would be back?" Shade grinned under his hood as he floated down to the ground with his wand out. "I DID say something about getting back at you!"

"Hold on a moment…" Chopper pondered for a minute and started to remember what Shade told him after he and his friends defeated him.

* * *

_Shade let out an intense scream that practically destroyed everything in the shrine. It even freed Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Tipral from the paralysis that they were in. Before they knew it, Shade Doom was lying on the ground._

_"Whoa… We… We did it?" Blade gawked._

_"Yeah… Too bad I lost my Sword ability…" wheezed Chopper, no longer donning the green, floppy hat._

_What was surprising to them was that Shade managed to get himself up. "What the… You're still alive?!" Sonic gaped._

_"Poyo! (That's impossible!)" Kirby gaped._

_"Ughh… I… I… This isn't the last of me!" Shade stammered. "I'll make a comeback and I WILL kill you!"_

_Shade made a run for the door, and in no time at all, the alien child was gone._

* * *

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…" Chopper was still pondering over this, but after a little flashback, he was finally able to answer. "Nope. I don't remember you telling me that you would come back."

"What the hell? ! That flashback just showed that we would be back!" the Necromancer growled. "You're just forgetting on purpose, aren't you?!"

"Uhhhhh… No, I'm not. I don't remember that at all." he replied, shaking his head. This angered both Shade and the Necromancer a bit. "What? You expect us all to remember ONE thing you said?"

"Poyo! (Yeah! We can't remember EVERYTHING!)" Kirby agreed.

"Ugh… You people are idiots." Shade face palmed, despite his face not being seen. "Anyways, I… Holy schizzle… What the heck is she doing here? ! Isn't she a Pure Heart? !" they all knew that he was referring to Luvbi.

"I dost not knoweth how I hast returned, but it dost not matter! Now leave us to movest on, monster! Thou art not welcome hither!" Luvbi said in her usual angry manner, ticking off both villains.

"This brat deserves to die… But I think we have a better idea." the Necromancer looked over at Shade. "Master… What about summoning that thing that we've seen throughout this world?"

"You mean 'that'? Why, of course! Go right ahead and do so!" Shade grinned as the Necromancer fired white lightning down to the ground. To their surprise, Frosty the Snowman appeared right in front of the heroes.

"Frosty the Snowman?" they all gawked.

"Happy birthday!" he said cheerfully as he smiled at the group.

"And just one little magic trick and he should be good enough to kill you guys!" Shade swung his wand forward and Frosty was struck by a dark spell. Instead of being the friendly Frosty that he usually is, he turned into a dark, monstrous snowman with purple eyes and a purple mouth, making him look completely menacing.

_**"****Happy birthday! Prepare to die!" **_Dark Frosty sneered.

"Have fun, heroes!" Shade grinned disturbingly as he and the Necromancer flew away from Dark Frosty.

"Oh, boy… We're facing the evil version of Frosty…" Blade trailed.

"And I suppose you think Frosty exists but not Santa?" Chopper questioned.

"Seriously… Let's not get to that… Can you just tell us what this guy's stats are based on your badge?"

"Ummmmmmmm… All right." Chopper looked back at Dark Frosty and saw the stats on him. "Apparently this guy has about 125 HP, an Attack of 8 and a Defense of 3. All right… Not too bad…"

"Well how about we start kicking this thing's butt?" Blade drew his katana and charged at Dark Frosty. He tried to slash at it, but the dark snowman managed to grab a hold of his katana and knock him back with a head butt, sending him flying towards the group, knocking them down as well.

"Ouch… How on earth did that snowman do that? !"

"Well we can't waste our time questioning on how he could do that… We just need to take care of him, that's all!" Sonic got himself up and performed a Spin Dash. This time, he ended up hitting the dark snowman in the belly, knocking him down.

_**"****How dare you hit me? ! You're going to pay for that!" **_Dark Frosty let out an intense amount of icy breath at Sonic, freezing him.

"Really? That's ALL you have to say to us?!" Chopper groaned and face palmed. "Come on! Pretty much EVERY bad guy we've faced before always says something like, 'You're going to pay for that!' It's so clichéd!"

"Poyo, (Now that I think about it, I do believe they've been saying stuff like that,)" Kirby remarked. "Poyo! (They need to say something else for once!)"

_**"****Then I'll make you suffer a freezing cold death!" **_

"OK, that's much better," Chopper nodded as he jumped right on top of Dark Frosty and tossed a fireball at him afterwards, dealing double damage on him due to him being made out of ice.

_**"****Argh! What on earth are you doing? ! Don't give me any of that, you pesky little boy! Unless you want to be put on Santa's naughty list, that is!" **_Dark Frosty let out an icy cold breath on Chopper, but it didn't seem to freeze him. _**"That's odd… You should've been frozen!"**_

"You do realize that if I have the Ice ability on, I'm not going to become a frozen popsicle, you know that?"

_**"****Errr… No…"**_

"Then let's see how this'll feel!" Blade, once again, jumped behind Frosty and used a fire slash to strike the snowman, dealing even more damage than what Chopper did due to Blade's extra Attack power. "That should've done a lot of damage to ya."

Dark Frosty grabbed a dark snowball it scooped from the ground and tried to throw it at Blade. Kirby, however, inhaled the snowball first and spat it out at Dark Frosty, leaving him dizzy for a bit.

"Poyo! (This is my chance to make another attack!)" Kirby got on Carrie and began to jump on top of Dark Frosty a couple of times. The snowman managed to shake himself and swat Kirby away with his stick hands. Mario began to ponder as Kirby fell face flat on the snow.

_"Maybe I need to get rid of Frosty's hat!" _Mario thought as he looked at Dark Frosty's hat. _"Yeah! That might be what I need to do! I remember in those stories that if you take his hat off, he won't be able to move!"_

Dark Frosty lunged at Mario, but the red plumber was able to react faster, jumping and stomping on Dark Frosty's head. Knowing what he had to do, he immediately grabbed Dark Frosty's hat and pulled it off, throwing it to the side. Luckily, it made Dark Frosty stop moving and turned back to a normal snowman that they usually like.

Mario: There! It's-a over!

Unfortunately, that was not the case. The hat immediately flew back onto Frosty's head and turned him back into his dark form. Unfortunately, Mario did not see a dark blast hit him from behind, causing him to fall over right on top of Sonic.

"Ugh… So, there's no way of getting that hat off of Frosty?" Sonic gawked.

Mario: Looks like it.

"Meh, guess that means we have to kill him then," Blade said as he gripped his katana. "It's kind of sad that we have to anyways. I always found Frosty to be a bit interesting… No, wait, that wasn't Frosty."

He made a dash towards Dark Frosty and struck him with a fire slash, dealing some intense damage to the snowman. Dark Frosty charged at him, but he immediately tossed Hommissile at him to deal even more damage. That being said, he was still hit by Dark Frosty's dark energy.

"Where is all of this dark energy coming from?!" Blade exclaimed.

"I think it's from Shade's magic. I mean, he IS a dark wizard, after all." Chopper answered before looking over at Luvbi. "Are you OK being around here? This fight might get a bit ugly…"

"Yea, verily, I am fine hither," Luvbi nodded. "I doth feel that thou art going to win this fight, so I won't feel worried about it. …But if thou dost want to make out with me, then I will be happy to dost it!"

"Bleh! You wish!" Chopper immediately turned away from her in disgust as she winked at him. He tossed a fireball straight at Dark Frosty to deal some damage, but it only got him hit by one of his dark attacks, knocking his Ice ability away.

"Oh, man! Not good!" luckily, he managed to get the yellow star back into his mouth, but he pondered for a minute. _"Now… Am I going to NEED this? I mean, think about it! Ice isn't going to do any good against HIM! …So, I guess I'll just spit this out at Dark Frosty instead of using it."_

He immediately spat the yellow star out at Dark Frosty, knocking him back towards Kirby, who managed to make him dizzy by jumping on him with Carrie's help. Mario proceeded to strike him with a Ground Pound afterwards, and then whacked his stomach with his hammer.

"Which reminds me… I haven't used my hammer in a while!" Chopper brought his hammer out with Cudge's ability and immediately bashed Dark Frosty with his hammer. Or rather, he managed to strike him with a fire smash to do even MORE damage to him than what his normal hammer attack is like.

"Huh… Well that was interesting!"

"Save some for me, you guys!" Sonic jumped in a ball and used his Spin Jump to hit Dark Frosty. The second time, thought, Dark Frosty managed to grab a hold of Sonic and throw him straight at Chopper, knocking him on the snowy ground on his backside. Dark Frosty even knocked Blade away with his own arms!

_**"****Taste my dark power!" **_he cried out as he spat out a dark ball of energy towards Kirby. The bad thing for the snowman was that Kirby immediately inhaled the attack and spat it right back at Dark Frosty, making him dizzy. Add a Triple Jump from Mario and Dark Frosty was almost finished.

Mario: Are you going to give up now?

_**"****I will never give up to the likes of you!" **_Dark Frosty spat. _**"My goal was to kill you all on your birthdays! And that's what I plan on finishing right now! I have NO regrets for doing all of this! No regrets! At all!"**_

"Yeah, yeah, you can tell us that later," Sonic said as he knocked Dark Frosty over with a Homing Attack. "Don't you realize that villains who do nothing but speak are just…plain idiots? That kind of fits you to the bill, Frosty!"

_**"****Enough! This is where it ends!" **_Dark Frosty charged straight at Sonic, only to have him jump out of the way from his attack. With another Homing Attack, the snowman was knocked away towards Mario, who whacked Dark Frosty across the head once again to leave him dizzy.

"Well… I think it's about time we finished this up!" Blade smirked as he gripped his katana. "You have any last requests before I finish you off, Frosty the Snowman? !"

Unfortunately, he didn't get an answer. "Ah, screw it! I'll just do it anyway!" With one fire slash, Dark Frosty let out a terrible scream. One that forced everyone to cover their ears because of how much it could make them bleed.

"That noise is horrible!" Luvbi shouted. "Someone make it stop!"

Before their ears could even bleed, the hat on Dark Frosty was removed, making the snowman melt away. The hat itself didn't disappear. But they were all surprised to see the one who removed the hat.

"I heard a fight going on over here. I decided to check and see what was going on." Meta Knight was holding up Frosty's hat. "I didn't know that you guys were fighting an evil version of Frosty the Snowman…"

"Meta Knight? What on earth are you doing here?" Chopper asked as he and the rest of the group walked up to him.

"Don't you remember? I'm looking for Galaxia in this world." Meta Knight's cape seemed to be blowing through the wind, making things look cooler (no pun intended) around him. "Unfortunately, I haven't been lucky in finding it yet. But I have a feeling that it's here…"

"Poyo? (Maybe we can help you find it?)" Kirby proposed.

"No, Kirby. You and the rest of the group need to look for the Pure Heart. You have much more important things to do than to help me find Galaxia." Meta Knight turned away from the group. "I apologize if I was interrupting you all."

"Thou were not interrupting us…but I doth have something to ask thee," Luvbi fluttered up to Meta Knight, who turned back around. "Since thou art considered to be Chopper's guardian…wilt thou alloweth me to marry Chopper?"

Meta Knight paused for a minute while he had his cape wrapped around him. He looked over at Chopper, who was shaking his head. "You do realize that Chopper is too young to get married, right? And besides… I highly doubt he even decided that he wanted to marry you."

_"THANK YOU!" _Chopper said in his own mind.

"Now… I must be going. Good luck finding the Pure Heart, heroes." Meta Knight brought his wings out and flew up into the blue sky. Everyone watched until he was no longer in their sight.

"All right, guys… I think we should get going." Blade suggested as he walked over to the door up ahead. He opened the door and they all made their way into another snowy area with small little hills and some icy platforms floating above the snowy ground.

The first thing they saw up ahead was an Ice Guy, who was throwing ice bombs towards them. Kirby inhaled one of the ice bombs and spat it out at the Ice Guy, defeating it instantly.

"Man, I don't know how much else we need to go, but it's certainly Christmas-y here," Sonic stated as he looked at some of the nice Christmas trees. "I wonder how long it took for them to make those."

"Meh, it's probably best not to ask about that," Chopper said as he went up to a Chilly up ahead and regained his Ice ability. "I'll just hold onto this ability for now. I might need it in the future."

"Poyo! (Hey! I want to get one too!)" Kirby jumped over Chopper and inhaled the next Chilly up ahead, gaining the Ice ability as well. His appearance looked similar to Chopper's, but he didn't have the gloves like him.

There were two Darklings over by the icy platforms, but Blade and Mario took care of them easily with a katana and a stomp, allowing them to move on. They noticed a couple of White Magikoopas flying over them, dropping ice spells as they flew.

"Poyo… (Why do we need to deal with Magikoopas here…)" Kirby groaned.

Chopper shrugged, but Sonic immediately took care of them by jumping on one of the icy platforms and striking them with a Spin Jump. Afterwards, they continued towards a small hill with two Chillies creating an ice aura around them.

Kirby, being, well, Kirby, inhaled one of the Chillies with his Ice Suction ability. When he spat it out, the Chilly was nothing but a frozen popsicle, running straight into the other one and killing off both of them.

"Errrr… I'd rather not do that…" Chopper said with a puzzled look as he ice skated down the hill.

"How art thou able to ice skate?" Luvbi asked out of curiosity, seeing Chopper ice skate on the snow.

"Uhhhh… It's kind of hard to explain to you, Luvbi. I think it would just waste our time." Chopper jumped over an Ice Bro spitting ice balls and stomped on top of its head, followed by his Ice Storm, freezing it. He kicked it toward an Ice Guy and killed it off.

Mario: Lots-a ice around here!

"Yeah, you're right on that, Mario," Blade nodded as they went down the small little hill and found a red door right near them. Without hesitation, they immediately entered it to walk into another area.

The only bad thing here was that there were a couple of Magikoopas flying towards the right…but a bit slowly. That, and they were forced to climb up a mountain with some ladders. Everyone immediately groaned.

"Why art thou all groaning? This isn't so bad…" Luvbi said while rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, for you it isn't. We have to CLIMB this thing." Sonic replied with a blank look. "You can simply fly!"

"Well, it mattereth not. I will waiteth for thee all up at the top." without hesitation, Luvbi immediately flew up to the top of the mountain. Thank goodness this mountain wasn't as big as Ice Mountain.

"Poyo! (Come on! We can't just sit here when those Magikoopas are coming here!)" Kirby shouted as he started to climb up the first ladder. Everyone stopped and followed him up the ladder as well.

At the second ladder, they happened to notice a small little cave with a yellow ? block inside. Kirby hit the block to make a Super Shroom pop out. Blade immediately cut it up into five pieces so they could all recover 20 HP. Afterwards, they continued to climb up the ladder to the next ladder.

"Oh, man… Those Magikoopas are getting here rather fast." Sonic gulped as he turned his head.

"Then don't bother looking at them!" Blade turned around and pulled a shuriken out. "Although… Maybe this will work!"

He tossed a shuriken at one of the Magikoopas, making it fall off its broomstick and onto the snowy ground. Blade grinned and threw a couple of more at some of the Magikoopas to make them fall as well. "You see, you just need some far-ranged weapons to take care of them!"

Surprisingly, they were already at the top of the mountain. Apparently Luvbi was waiting for them over by the door, and boy, did she look impatient.

"Why didst thou have to taketh thy time? !" she asked with an irritated look. "I dost not want thou all to waste my time! …Although, thou dost not have to worry about me yelling at thee, my sweet prince!"

"Come on already! Luvbi, I don't want to say this again… I'm not your prince!" Chopper barked.

"Hee hee! Of course thou art! We art a perfect match!" the Nimbi princess left another kiss on Chopper's cheek, making his eyes widen in fear once again.

"GROSS! Stop it already! I just want to find the Pure Heart and get out of here! _So I don't have to deal with you…_"

They opened the door into another area, but this one seemed to be going a bit down. The only problem was that there weren't any snowboards or anything else with them. Well, yeah, they could run down there, but it doesn't appear to be safe with all of the enemies and obstacles.

"Crap… Looks like we're screwed." Blade frowned.

Mario: I wouldn't say that.

Mario pointed at a little red sled that looked big enough to fit all of them. It looked pretty stable too, so it seemed like it wouldn't be a bad idea to hitch a little ride on that thing as well.

"So… Who wants to go up front?" Blade asked. "'Cause I'm not doing that!"

Kirby face palmed and jumped up at the front seat. Chopper followed, followed by Luvbi, with Blade being at the very back of the sled. Nobody knew WHY he wanted to be at the back, but it just seemed like that.

"OK, guys… Let's get a move on, all right?" Blade tried to push the sled, but he was having a hard time with all of the people on it. "Crap… It's not going to be easy sliding this down.

Everyone except for Luvbi worked together to get the sled moving. Once it started moving down, they all prepared for one heck of a ride they were going to go through. Although, everyone wasn't so happy with Luvbi being lazy.

"What? I can't be doing the work!" she huffed. "I am a princess! A princess cannot be doing any work, thou knowest!"

"That's just an excuse for you to not do any work…" Sonic face palmed. "If you're going to be traveling with us, you at least have to do SOMETHING…"

"Well, then I will dost something!" Luvbi hugged Chopper and kissed him on the lips, making the Star Warrior shiver in fear. "Hee hee! There! I didst something now! Art thou happy, Knave?"

"…That's NOT what I meant."

"_GROSS!_" Chopper began to wipe his mouth of Luvbi's kiss. "Stop giving me the cooties, Luvbi! It's just… It's just horrible beyond belief!"

Luvbi giggled and hugged Chopper. "Pray, my sweet prince, mayhap we can spendeth time on our little date after we're done hither."

"Date? ! No way! I have worlds to save!" Chopper frowned, only to turn around and see a pit coming up ahead. "Errr… JUMP!"

They all lifted the sled in the air and jumped over a bottomless pit. They even ran over a couple of Chillies that were in their way and jumped over a large mound of snow up ahead to go even further down.

"Poyo? (Did you guys notice all of the Christmas trees around here?)" Kirby asked, turning his head to the others. "Poyo? (They look cool, don't they?)"

"Yeah, I can see them," Chopper nodded. "They're sure some nice things."

Mario: Oh, yes!

"Yeah, too bad I… Oh, crap. There's a bigger mound of snow up ahead!" Blade gulped, pointing at the larger mound up ahead of them. "What are we supposed to do?!"

"Uhhhh…" Chopper tossed an ice ball on the snow, turning a small part of it into ice. But that only made the sled go faster. "Oh, man! Why the heck did I even do something like that?!"

"Blade! Try to stop the sled with your katana!" Sonic shouted.

Blade immediately drew his katana and stabbed the ground, trying to stop the sled from moving. But it didn't seem to work out for him because of how close they were from the mound of snow.

"Holdeth me, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cried as she hugged Chopper tight, making him gasp for air. It even got his Ice ability off of him, out of surprise.

But, it was too late. The sled hit the large mound of snow and sent all six flying over the mound and right in front of a red door.

When Chopper opened his eyes he saw that Luvbi was still holding on to him, but apparently her lips were touching his, making it look like they were kissing. Er, well, it seemed that Luvbi actually WAS.

"Get off of me!" he cried as he got out of Luvbi's grasps and spat in disgust. "You're NOT holding on to me next time!"

"Damn it! I can't believe we screwed that up!" Blade grumbled as he kicked the snow. Some of the snow ended up hitting Kirby (although it didn't have much effect with his Ice ability on him).

But, what was a bit surprising was that his communicator was going off. "Huh? Why would my communicator be going off now?"

Blade pulled his communicator out and pressed the little black button. Apparently, Bang seemed to be calling him at this time. "Uhhhh… What do you want, Bang?"

_"I haven't contacted you in a helluva while, you know…" _Bang trailed. _"But, do you think I could keep your ship now that you're on an adventure?"_

"Keep my ship? ! Heck no! That's not yours to hold on to!" Blade hissed. "I don't trust you with any of my stuff after what you've done to that cool hovercar that I bought that one day!"

_"Errrr… What did I do with it?"_

Blade face palmed. "You broke it! That's what you did!"

"Pray, who art thou talking to, smelly cat?" Luvbi asked out of curiosity.

"No one you really care, but I'll just say it's one of my idiotic friends," Blade stated.

_"Hey! I'm not dumb!" _Bang pouted. _"And who was the one who spoke? Was it a hot girl?"_

"Uhhhh… It wasn't. It's just some bratty girl who claims to be some sort of princess. Although, she just insults us every two seconds!"

"I dost not!" Luvbi retorted.

_"Well, how come her eyes sort of remind me of that pale green kid's? …Er, whatever the heck his name is?" _Bang asked as he noticed Luvbi's eyes.

"I'm Chopper…" Chopper groaned.

_"Oh. Yeah. Him. Why do her eyes look like his?"_

"Well, I dost not know, but it is a coincidence, since we art dating and…"

"OK, goodbye, Bang," Blade immediately cut off the transmission and turned off the communicator. "Let's just go, all right?"

* * *

**Christmas Village-**

As soon as they walked out of the door, they noticed a couple of small houses around the area. For some reason, it kind of reminded Chopper of a little village where Santa Claus would go around jumping into chimneys. Heck, the houses in different colors appeared to be close together. In the center of the village, they could all see a beautiful-looking Christmas tree with a golden star on the top.

"Wow… Look at that Christmas tree." Sonic grinned, walking up to the tree. "Not only is this the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen, it's also one of the prettiest!"

"Yeah, this is one nice tree here," Blade grinned while folding his arms. "Say… Where is everyone?"

Mario: Probably sleeping.

"And… What date is it supposed to be today?"

Mario: I don't remember...

They all stopped for a moment and heard the sound of jingle bells. Up above them, a sled with a fat man with a large, white beard was making nine Koopas with brown shells and antlers stapled to their heads to move.

"Wait… I thought there were eight reindeer?" Sonic gawked.

"And why are they Koopas?" Blade gawked. "Hold on… Who's the guy sitting on the sled anyway?"

"It's Santa Claus!" Chopper gasped, seeing the sled fly down on the snowy street. The Koopa up on the front appeared to have a red, glowing nose glued to his snout. The fat man on the sled jumped off and grabbed his sack.

"Ho ho ho! Why, what a beautiful night!" Santa chuckled, looking up at the moon. "Just like every single month… I, Santa Claus, shall deliver these presents to the people of Christmas Village!"

Santa immediately used his magic to jump into one of the chimneys. The Koopas, however, gaped at the sight of the six.

"Uh oh… I think we've been caught." the Koopa named Thrasher gulped. "Now they're going to tell the people here that we're not even reindeer! Oh, we're so screwed!"

"Poyo, (Well you're not very good at hiding,)" Kirby said.

"Why art thou not in a place where people can't findeth thee?" Luvbi asked.

"Well… Blame Rudolph the Red Nose Koopa!" Grasser spat, glaring at Rudolph. "If he didn't shoot lasers out of his red nose, then we wouldn't have separated Winter Island from Christmas World!"

"He separated a whole island from here?" Sonic gawked. "I don't think that's bad if you want to stay hidden…"

"Well obviously you don't live here, ratty! Now it can easily be seen around these parts! God, I wish you didn't have that nose!"

"Sorry…" Rudolph said sarcastically. "At least my nose DOES something! What does yours do? Just tell me… What does it do?"

"It makes noise?"

"What kind of answer is that, Mr. I-Know-Everything? It shoots SNOT! With a capital S!"

"Excuse me for a minute…" Chopper stepped in. "Can you tell us where Santa is? I think we could use his help."

"Oh, him? Well, maybe you can get his help to get out of this area, I guess." Glitzen shrugged. "Although, I don't think it's necessarily going to be easy…"

"Yeah, it's no easy task to get to him," Rudolph agreed.

"OK then. We should split up!" Blade suggested.

"My prince and I will stayeth together!" Luvbi announced as she grabbed a hold of Chopper's arm. "We art meant to stayeth together anyways!"

"Awww… How cute." Hasser said.

"Yeah, I think those two are meant to be," Cancer agreed.

"Let's just get out of here," Chopper groaned as he turned away from the reindeer and went over to the houses. All five heroes decided that they would split up to find Santa Claus (of course, Blade already said that).

* * *

**Sonic-**

Sonic started off by checking the yellow house, since there was really nothing else he could do anyways. Getting up on the roof wasn't a big problem for him, but the big problem was trying to get down the chimney.

It took a couple of tries, but Sonic managed to squeeze through the chimney and land in the fireplace. It was dark in the room, and it didn't look like there was anyone even around the house.

"Huh… I guess no one's around here." Sonic looked at his arm and noticed that he was covered in soot from the chimney. "Aw, man! This blows! This is going to take me a while to get off!"

Nevertheless, he looked around the room to see if Santa already came. He looked down at the Christmas tree and, to his disappointment, there were already some presents underneath the tree.

"Well that stinks… I guess Santa already came here." Sonic turned around and walked by the chimney, attempting to climb out. "Man, I think this is going to be a big pain in the neck for me!"

* * *

**Blade-**

While Blade was climbing up on the roof, he noticed that it was incredibly icy. It even made him slip off and fall on the snowy ground.

"Ow! _**DANG IT!**_" Blade fell face flat on the snow. "This is why I hate ice on a roof! It's nearly impossible to get yourself out! I wish I had more time to use my claws too. That would've been helpful."

Getting himself up, Blade used his claws to climb up onto the icy roof and jump into the chimney headfirst. …But it led to a hard landing when he landed in the fireplace.

"Ow… That was certainly painful…" he moaned as he looked around the room. The Christmas tree apparently had all of the presents, but he could also hear a familiar voice. One that sounded like Santa Claus.

"Hey, Santa! Are you here?" he called out.

"Ho ho ho!" Santa simply knocked Blade onto the ground on accident and made his way up the chimney.

"Hey! Wait! …Crap. He's gone." he groaned and looked at the Christmas tree. There were a couple of decorations with rings from Mobius, which was a bit surprising to him.

…Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to stay in the house, since he started to hear some footsteps.

"Err… I guess this is my way out!" he said as he climbed back up the chimney.

* * *

**Mario-**

Mario managed to keep himself steady on the icy roof, trying his best not to fall off. He used his hammer to prevent himself from falling off…but it didn't seem like it was helping him that much.

Mario: This is going to be a pain…

He grabbed a hold of the chimney and climbed up to the little opening. Nodding, he jumped straight into it. The only thing that was stopping him from getting in was the width of the chimney.

Apparently, Mario was too chubby to enter the chimney.

Mario: Mama mia…

He pulled out a plunger that he was holding onto for some reason and used it to get himself down the chimney. It took a while to get down, but in the end, he succeeded in getting down the annoying chimney.

Mario: That was a close one!

He wiped his forehead in relief and looked around him. Apparently Santa Claus already put the presents in this house. Too bad he wasn't here to see him here.

"Hey! Who are you?!" Mario paused and turned to a tank with a hermit crab in it. The shell on it had a couple of Christmas decorations on it.

Mario: Uh oh… Don't tell me it's him.

"What are you doing in thith houth?" the hermit crab looked at Mario for a minute. "Wait a thecond… You're in red! Doeth thith mean you're…"

Mario gaped and pointed to himself.

"_**…****THANTA CLAUTH?!**_"

As if on cue, Mario fell over anime style. But, he simply ignored the hermit crab and climbed out of the house before disturbing anyone else.

* * *

**Kirby-**

Unlike the others, Kirby didn't seem to have a problem with going down the chimney. It could be perhaps that he's smaller than the others… But let's not go off on a tangent. He managed to go into the fireplace, with soot all over him.

"Poyo? (What kind of house is this?)" Kirby asked himself as he looked at the whole place. Apparently Santa didn't come here just yet… But there were cookies left on a table right next to the Christmas tree.

"Poyo! (Oh boy! Cookies!)"

Kirby opened his mouth and inhaled all of the cookies. Although, he soon realized that there were no more left.

"Poyo… (Oh, no… I just ate all of the cookies…)" he gulped and looked over by the chimney. "Poyo…? (Now how is Santa supposed to eat his cookies when he doesn't have any…?)"

"Maybe you should just forget about him!" Kirby stopped and looked at the mirror. He saw a shadow version of himself, kind of like Shadow Kirby from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. "Screw them! Just leave this place!"

"Poyo? (Who are you?)" Kirby gawked.

"Isn't it obvious?! I'm your shadow! Your dark side!" Shadow Kirby grinned. "I only appear through mirrors! But that doesn't stop me from making you hear me! And don't try telling anyone else about me, 'cause only you can see me and hear me!"

Kirby frowned at his shadow self. "Poyo? (But why would I have my own shadow? This is weird…)"

"Hey, here's a little idea, Kirby! Maybe you should just take over as the main hero! You know, get Chopper out of the way! It's almost like with Luigi or Flyer! It's like you're the sidekick!"

"Poyo! (I am NOT a sidekick! Nobody's been treating me like a sidekick! Only sidekicks get kicked around and are used for stuff!)"

"Then what about Blade? He said something about using you as a star…"

"Poyo! (That was a joke! Just… Get out of my sight!)" Kirby grabbed one of the crystals on his crown and jabbed it in the mirror, breaking it and getting rid of Shadow Kirby. "Poyo… (OK… I think I should go…)"

With not much time before the family could come down, he immediately climbed out of the chimney.

* * *

**Chopper and Luvbi-**

Chopper managed to get himself on top of the icy roof with the help of his flaming hands to make the roof less icy. Luvbi simply fluttered up onto the roof and over to the chimney where Chopper was.

"Let us hope Santa is hither…" she said as she looked down the chimney. "And I doth wish to be in a warmer place. Mayhap we can findeth a house and cuddle up near the fireplace?"

"Yeah… Like I'm really going to do that." Chopper rolled his eyes, but when he took another look at Luvbi, she seemed to look a lot different in the snowy weather. Like… She was prettier than before. His cheeks turned a little red from looking at her.

"Pray, why art thou looking at me like that?" she asked.

"I don't know why… But you look a lot more pristine in this kind of winter weather…" Chopper said a bit shyly. "That's just what I'm seeing…"

"Awww! How sweet of thee!" she giggled. "Although, thou hast always looked cuter than thou usually art!"

"Hey! I was just pointing something out! That doesn't mean I love you!" Chopper looked back at the chimney and jumped in. The love-struck princess followed him down the chimney.

* * *

**Inside-**

While they were going down the chimney, two ice spirits were right near the fireplace. The tall one seemed to have this weird hair that resembled Goku a bit, while the son had the same hairstyle. The father, George, and the son, Jo-Jo, finished putting some presents under their tree. However, when Jo-Jo looked at an angel ornament on the tree, he was starting to wonder about something.

"Dad, could you kick an angel's ass?" he asked.

"You're damn right I could!" George replied with a nod. They were soon interrupted by the sound of someone going down the chimney.

"Is that Santa on the roof?"

"Well, if not, I got a present for him!" George smirked as he opened a pink present and pulled a pistol out, loading it up.

Chopper ended up landing on the ground, but on his head. "Ouch! My head! _…That was so painful…_"

"Art thou all right, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked as she fluttered down into the fireplace.

"Oh my gosh! Dad! It's an angel!" Jo-Jo cried. "Hurry! Kick its ass!"

"Thou art referring to a princess, thou knowest!" Luvbi spat. "And I'm a GIRL, for thy information!"

Chopper slowly got himself up and saw the gun George was holding. "HOLY GUACAMOLE! HE'S GOT A GUN!"

"Dad, what's that green thing that's in here?" Jo-Jo asked.

"He is my sweet…"

"Well… I think that's…something. But, I promised you I'd kick this angel's ass. So, I will!" George aimed the gun at Luvbi, making her scream. "You're goin' down, angel!"

"Hey! That's rude!" Chopper inhaled the gun and grabbed it before eating it. He immediately emptied the gun of any ammo and stepped on it, breaking it (though it did take a couple of tries). "Don't go shooting people that are young! That's not a nice thing to do!"

"Oh, Chopper! Thou art so chivalrous!" Luvbi swooned as she fell into Chopper's arms, making him gasp in fear.

"No, Luvbi! D-Don't do this!"

"Oh, don't worry about the gun… I always bring a spare!" George opened another present and pulled a machine gun out, aiming it at the two.

"Oh, come on! This makes no sense at all!" Chopper shouted. "Who the heck carries a MACHINE GUN in their house?!"

Another thud could be heard. "Hey! Is that Santa?" Jo-Jo asked.

"Well, if not, then I'm testing my machine gun on him or her!" George smirked as he aimed at the fireplace. Surprisingly, Santa landed in the fireplace.

"Santa!"

"Oh, my mother…"

"Uhh… I think you should just skip that…" Chopper suggested, interrupting Santa. "I mean, think about it! I think kids read this thing, you know?"

"Ugh… All right, I'll skip all of that stuff." Santa moaned as he got up. "Listen, Chopper… I know why you came here. You want my help, do you not?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Relax, I got your friends to meet in the center of the village. Just come with me and I'll help you."

* * *

**Large Christmas tree-**

"Ah, so you guys are looking for the Pure Heart, are you not?" Santa asked after some explanation from the group.

"Yeah, we need it in order to save the universe," Sonic nodded. "You happen to know where it is?"

"Why, ho ho! I do! The Pure Heart is somewhere in the **Confusing Palace**! Believe me, it is a large place, and I'm sure you might get stuck in that place because of how confusing it can be."

"So we need to go to a palace? That's it?" Blade gawked. "Believe me, you don't wanna know how many of those we had to go through…"

"So, how do we get there?" Chopper asked.

"To get to the Confusing Palace, you must need a little gift I will give you all," Santa pulled a large present from his brown sack and dropped it right in front of the group. "There's something on the door only this gift can allow you to get through."

"Hmmmm… Interesting…" as soon as Santa took off, Chopper opened up the large present box. "I wonder what it could be…"

Luvbi opened up her present and gasped at what she saw. "Santa gaveth me a doll of the boy I love!"

"…What?" Chopper turned around and saw a doll of him that Luvbi was hugging.

"This is such a great gift!" she squealed. "Now if I dost not have thee around hither, I can always huggeth this!"

"…Now I'm sacred," Chopper gulped before turning back to the chest. "All right, let's open this thing."

After opening the box, they noticed nothing came out. "Am I safe to come out now?"

A Pixl shaped like a snowflake fluttered out of the box. "Oh my! What is this? Could it really be?"

Mario: Who are you?

"Who? Me? Why, my name is Crystaline! I've been trapped in that box for nearly 1,500 years, waiting for the heroes to show up! But, if I'm out of this box… Does it mean that I've found the heroes?"

"Poyo! (Yeah! We're the heroes!)" Kirby nodded.

"From what I see… I believe you're right. But, now that I've found you guys, I should help you guys on your quest! That is what I was created to do…"

Crystaline circled around Chopper before he held her up.

**The crystallized snowflake Pixl, Crystaline, has become your friend! With her, you can freeze enemies by throwing her towards any enemies! You can also freeze water as well! Although, the water will only stay frozen for a limited amount of time, so use it wisely.**

"I'm sure you'll need me to help freeze anything in your way!" Crystaline said cheerfully. "I want to make sure I'm useful…"

"Well, now that we've got a Pixl… Who wants to hold on to her?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo! (I'll hold on to her!)" Kirby volunteered. "Poyo! (I could use another Pixl, you know!)"

"All right then! Let's get moving!" Blade announced, making his way over to the door that was covered in flames. Kirby, Sonic and Mario followed, but Chopper walked over to Luvbi shyly.

_"Ugh… I REALLY don't want to do this, but I think it would be a nice thing after what she did for me when I had that cold…" _Chopper thought as he held up a little present for Luvbi.

"Is that for me?" Luvbi gasped.

"Yeah, it is…" Chopper trailed. "You remember when you asked me about what was down in that lake? Well, it was something nice. Something…you might like."

Luvbi opened the box while blushing and she found a crystal necklace in there. "Chopper! This is… This is beautiful!"

"It's just a way of, you know… Thanking you for helping me get better when I had that cold."

Luvbi giggled. "Thou art so sweet! It even sparkles as well!" the happy Nimbi girl fluttered over to Chopper and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "This is almost like an engagement ring!"

"Wh-What?! Heck no! It's just a little thank you!" Chopper gasped. "L-Look… How about we get moving, all right?"

The princess giggled as she followed Chopper, hearts flying over her head. They noticed that Kirby used Crystaline's power to get rid of the flames on the door, which looked pretty cool to them.

"All right, we're out of here!" Sonic grinned as he walked through the door. Everyone else followed him into an area where they could see a large palace in the background.

"So that's where the Confusing Palace is?" Chopper questioned.

"Looks like it," Blade nodded, seeing a Star Block up ahead. "How about we hit that thing already, huh?"

"I'll do it!" Chopper raced over to the Star Block and smashed it with one single punch.

"Hey… Where did you get that necklace, Luvbi?" Sonic asked out of curiosity.

"Well, if thou wantest to know, Knave, Ch-"

"Uhhhh… Gee! Look at the time! I think the chapter needs to end already!" Chopper interrupted, tapping his foot impatiently. "Uhhh… Hello? Is the chapter going to end?

No response.

"Hey! Come on already!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_While the others were a bit curious on where Luvbi got that necklace, they didn't really seem to care after how she's been treating them most of the time. "Man… I don't know about you guys, but when we're getting closer to the palace, it makes me feel like I've been to this place before…" Chopper trailed as they continued through the snowy ground. Up ahead, they saw a path of stairs that would lead them up. But, why was this strange feeling coming to Chopper? Meanwhile, Kirby seemed a bit nervous after meeting his shadow. But will he tell the group about what we saw?_

* * *

**It always seemed to me that Kirby was kind of like the sidekick of Chopper in this story for some reason... And, usually, sidekicks might have a feeling that they want to be the leader or something (although, Chopper really isn't a leader). ****And yes, Chopper actually gave Luvbi a little gift for what she's done for him.**

**I also referenced Robot Chicken, which some of you might have thought of from one of the scenes in this chapter.**

**...Anyway, we're probably going to see some interesting stuff next chapter. We even might find a familiar face as well, if you know what I mean. ;)**_  
_


	62. Crystals of Confusion

**CHAPTER 10-5**

**-Crystals of Confusion-**

"Wow… I don't know about you guys, but this palace up those stairs looks a bit strange to me, don't you think?" Sonic commented as the whole group gazed upon the blue palace. For some reason, it looked like it was made of crystals, which isn't exactly too bad, but the ground itself was icy and not covered in snow, which made things a bit tough if they were going to move on the ice. However, that wasn't the worst part. The stairs themselves were made of ice as well, which could be a serious problem if they all planned on going up the stairs.

"I don't know why… I get this strange feeling when I look up at that place." Chopper said while looking up at the large, icy palace. "It just… It just reminds me of a place I've previously been to before. It's just…incredibly strange. OK, I already said that, but you know what I mean!"

Mario: I get a strange feeling from it too.

"If anything is bothering thee about this place, I will stayeth close to thee," Luvbi said as she fluttered closer to Chopper. However, he simply inched away from the girl, scared to get kissed by her again.

"No… You don't have to try that. I don't want you getting close to me…"

"So, anyways… Luvbi, you said something about some friend of yours holding the Pure Heart…" Blade trailed, trying to change the subject. "Do you think we'll find this friend in the Confusing Palace? In fact, you haven't even told us that much about this friend of yours…"

"Poyo, (Yeah, you should tell us about her,)" Kirby suggested.

"Thou wantest to hear who my friend is?" Luvbi gave everyone but Chopper an irritated look. "Fine! If thou wantest to waste precious time, then I hath no other choice! My friend is an ice spirit named **Crysta**. She's been holding onto the Pure Heart for many, many years. Thou may be asking me if she's old, but she doth be more like a child spirit. How didst I meet her, though? Well… When my parents and I came hither, we foundeth her trapped in the snow. When we freed her, she thanked us by showing us her shrine, which is meant to be around hither. However, I dost not know where it is now, since this whole palace hath appeared out of nowhere… I doth find it a bit strange on how it even got hither too…"

"Wait… You're saying that this whole palace just came out of nowhere?" Sonic gawked, looking up at the palace. He noticed there were a couple of reefs on the walls of the staircase, but when he looked up at it, it felt like it didn't fit in with everything else around here. "Yeah… I know what you mean now."

"Yea, verily! But I findeth no reason to complain about this place… It would be best if we just movest on. …Dost thou agree with me, my sweet prince?" Luvbi's voice sounded sweeter as she turned to Chopper with a smile.

"Uhhhhh… Yeah, we need to do that." Chopper replied with his cheeks turning red while shivering a bit. "Let's not waste any of our time, all right? I think we should…uh…movest on?"

Luvbi giggled at Chopper, but when the Star Warrior looked at a nervous Kirby, he stopped. "Kirby… Is there something wrong with you? You look a bit nervous for some reason…"

Kirby felt even more nervous when Chopper asked him if he was all right. He was still remembering what his shadow version of himself was telling him.

* * *

_"Hey, here's a little idea, Kirby! Maybe you should just take over as the main hero! You know, get Chopper out of the way! It's almost like with Luigi or Flyer! It's like you're the sidekick!"_

_"Poyo! (I am NOT a sidekick! Nobody's been treating me like a sidekick! Only sidekicks get kicked around and are used for stuff!)"_

_"Then what about Blade? He said something about using you as a star…"_

* * *

"Uhhh… Kirby?" Chopper waved his arm right in front of the nervous Kirby's face. Did he want to tell them about Shadow Kirby? Or should he just keep it to himself. That answer was a bit tough for him.

"P-Poyo… (Y-Yeah, I'm all right…)" he trailed while nodding to his friend. "Poyo. (I was just feeling a bit cold, that's all. There's nothing really you have to worry about at all, Chopper.)"

"OK then. Let's go!" Chopper started off by going up the stairs, but he immediately slipped and came tumbling down the stairs. "Ouch! What the heck? ! How'd I slip so easily? !"

"Maybe you just need to use something to climb up these stairs," Blade's fingers suddenly had claws come out and he used them to easily climb up the stairs. "See? I have claws that can help me get up here!"

"Yeah, you do…but we don't," Sonic said with an irritated look. "Look, can we just find another way up there?"

"I think I can help you guys up there," Carrie chirped, fluttering to the center. "Should I remind you all that I can pretty much hover over anything, including ice? It'll surely help you guys!"

"Hmmmmmm… Yeah, we'll try using Carrie." Blade nodded.

"And we're NOT all going to go on her at once. I don't want this to be Fort Francis all over again!" Chopper said while shaking his head. Mario immediately asked what happened there. "Uhhhh… It's nothing really, Mario. I think it's best that those memories were forgotten."

Kirby started off by going up the stairs by simply floating. Chopper jumped on Carrie first and went up the stairs without having to slip. When he looked up at the sky, he could see those beautiful northern lights. The last time he saw northern lights that pretty, it was back on the edge of the snow world in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Man, I don't know why, but those northern lights sure look pretty," he smiled as he reached the midpoint of the stairs. A Darkling throwing ice spells was easily defeated when Kirby froze it with his Ice Breath.

"Poyo, (There's still more stairs up ahead, but they don't look icy,")" Kirby stated as he saw a bit of snow on the stairs. Carrie hovered down that stairs and got everyone else up them.

"Whew! Now that's good!" Blade sighed in relief as he got off Carrie. Now that they were all together, they strolled up the non-slippery stairs to find a door in 3-D leading inside of the palace. There were also two statues in 3-D if you checked. They looked like sad faces, though.

"What's with those sad faces?" Chopper asked as he got a good look at the statues.

"They might be because of no more jokes…" Luvbi trailed as she looked at the statues as well.

Before they could even go up to the door, a blue fairy-like person showed her face from behind one of the statues. She was wearing this hat with a ruby in the center of it and was holding a snowman doll, like it was something she cherished for all of her life. Everyone seemed completely puzzled.

"...Hold it. All of you. You should realize that this is our playground, understand?" the fairy girl said as she glared at them. "I don't want to have to use violence to get you out of here! That's something I don't WANT to resort to!"

"Poyo, (Maybe she's the one that made this palace appear here,)" Kirby predicted as he noticed the girl hugging the snowman doll.

"Hey, hold on a second… I recognize you from somewhere!" Chopper gaped. "Yeah! I think it was back on my home planet two years ago! You were suddenly there…but now you're here!"

* * *

_"Hey! Stop right there!" a light blue fairy thing with a wand that looked like a spoon and a snowman doll floated down to the eight. She was wearing a light blue hat with a shining ruby in the center._

_"Huh? Who're ya? What're ya doin' in a place like this?" Yosho asked._

_"Who am I? My name's **Jojora**! I'm a buddy of the cousin of the descendant of the spirit who guarded some other ice palace." Jojora explained. "One's called Joke's End, and the other I don't really know. Why have you come here?"_

_"We came to get that airship that's over here," Bow answered._

_"Oh. OK, then I'll leave you alone." Jojora decided as she flew out of their way. "Don't mind me, OK?"_

_"Uh… That was weird. Let's just go already." Chopper shrugged as he began to slide down the hallway to the door. They found in the next room some ice blocks to push so they could go onto a switch._

* * *

"Yeah, yeah… Now I'm starting to remember." Chopper nodded while pondering. "You're that girl **Jojora**, aren't you! I didn't think I would see someone like you again…"

"Yeah, my name's Jojora. You're pretty cute, but I don't think you're as cute as me! Maybe you might wanna play with me!" Jojora giggled, making Luvbi a bit steamed.

"He is MINE!" Luvbi snapped, getting in Jojora's face. "If thou planest on dating my boyfriend, then thou art going to be sorry!"

Jojora frowned, but then smiled. "All right! I guess you all can play as well if you want. It won't hurt anyways."

"Poyo! (But we don't want to play!)" Kirby barked, shaking his head. "Poyo! (All we came here for is the Pure Heart! That's all!)"

"Yeah, we don't want to play with you at all," Chopper agreed, shaking his head like Kirby. "So, could you just leave us be so we can find our way to some sort of shrine? That's all you really need to do."

"Hold on a minute…" Jojora took a look at Chopper. "When I look at you, cute boy, you remind me of what my uncle says about some other lime-green boy. He sure hates that person, that's for sure! But, I don't think someone cute like you is the one he hates."

Luvbi was steaming once again. "Stay away from my sweet prince!" she immediately got in Jojoras's way and glared deathly at her. "If thou art planning on taking him, then thou art too late! I'm his princess, not yours!"

"Whoa, calm down, girl," Jojora's eyes shrunk at her. "I'm not really flirting with him. I'm just saying he's cute, that's all! If you plan on playing here, the least you can do is say hello to those of us who were here first."

"Uhhhh… I don't really understand who you are." Blade frowned. "That flashback wasn't something I saw, so you should actually tell us who you are."

"Oh, me? Well, I'm Jojora. I'm a buddy of the cousin of the descendant of the spirit who guarded this place. Nothing special."

"Hmmmmmmm… Well, I don't see you much as a threat, so I think we'll be just fine." Chopper said as he took a look at the fairy girl. However, Luvbi didn't seem quite satisfied with this.

"But Chopper! She dost not seemeth so trusting!" Luvbi objected. "I thought thou lovest me!"

"Wh-What? ! What does that have to do with trusting someone? ! I said nothing about liking her in any way! All I said was that we should just leave her be and move on! Is that all to ask? ! She could probably help find your friend!"

"Oh… Well, I guess so…"

"Anyways…" Sonic immediately spoke up. "Do you have any idea where we can find a Pure Heart in here?"

"Or that spirit child person Crysta?" Blade added.

"Crysta? Pure Heart?" Jojora looked a bit puzzled with the group. "Man, I have NO idea what you're talking about! …Whatever. Look, if you want to go inside, then go right ahead. Be my guest. Go nuts. I don't know what kind of adventure you all have been on to get here, but man… Getting through here won't be nearly as easy as what you're used to! No way!"

Before they could say anything else, Jojora immediately flew into the door. Everyone else shrugged and let Chopper flip into 3-D so they could enter the palace and follow Jojora.

* * *

**Inside Confusing Palace-**

As they stepped foot in the palace, they noticed that the icy ground had some snowflake pictures on them. The wall over to the left if in 3-D had this large mirror that seemed a bit weird. A couple of Christmas reefs were on the mirror wall as well, surprising some of the people in the group.

"Wow, now this is one cool place," Sonic smirked as he looked at the small room. "The mirrors do look pretty nice, and this icy ground is really fitting for this place. I don't get why some of you think this place is bad. I personally think it fits this place!"

"Poyo…? (Wait a minute… Did you say mirrors…?)" Kirby looked at the mirror in the background and noticed his shadow grinning at him. "Poyo…? (Can we go somewhere else…?)"

"What's wrong, Kirby? It seems like something's bothering you…" Chopper trailed, turning around. "You can tell me what's wrong. I can try to help you…if I can, that is."

"Yes, Kirby! Why don't you tell him what's the matter!" Shadow Kirby grinned. "Maybe you can kill him when you can or tell him about me when he can't even see me! Just try and do that, Kirby! Nobody but you can see me!"

Kirby looked a bit puzzled at Shadow Kirby, but he immediately turned to Chopper. "Poyo… (Chopper, you're not going to believe this… But there's a shadow of me trying to convince me to do horrible things!)"

"What? Where is it?" Chopper asked in shock. Kirby pointed at the mirror, but to him, he couldn't even see Shadow Kirby. "Uhhhhh… I don't see any shadow. Unless you mean the ones we all have."

"Poyo! (He actually talks, though!)"

"Ermmm… I think we should just get out of this room." Blade said with a puzzled look. "I think I see a frozen door up ahead, though. I can also see two torches, with the left one being unlit."

Mario: I see a Duplighost.

Mario pointed to an enemy with a gray sheet over its entire body and a little red hair on top of its head. The last time Chopper ever encountered a Duplighost, it was that one named Doopliss who replaced Vivian after she joined Chopper to fight against her sisters, Beldam and Marilyn.

"Oh, man… Not the Duplighosts…" Chopper smacked his forehead. "It just reminds me of Doopliss… Well, pretty much the whole 'slick' thing he always said to me every time he saw me."

"Yeah, that sure was annoying," Sonic agreed as he struck the Duplighost with a Homing Attack. It used its transformation powers to turn exactly like Sonic, but it was immediately frozen by Kirby's Ice Breath.

"Poyo, (I'll finish it,)" Kirby simply kicked the frozen fake version of Sonic and defeated it when it hit the wall, clearing the room of any enemies.

"All right… So I guess I have to light up this torch, if that's what I need to do," Chopper tossed a fireball towards the unlit torch, light it up and melting the ice on the door, allowing them to move on.

"You know I could've done that…" Blade trailed.

"Yeah, yeah… Let's just move on." Sonic opened the door and entered through it, along with everyone else. They were brought into a room with two Duplighosts, but strangely, the door they needed to go to was on the other side of the mirror.

"Wait a second… Why the heck is the door we need to go to on the other side of this mirror?" Chopper blinked a few times and looked at the mirror again. "This is kind of confusing me…"

"Poyo, (Well, there must be a reason why they call it Confusing Palace,)" Kirby stated, trying his best NOT to look at the mirror, due to most likely seeing Shadow Kirby in there. "Poyo? (Is there some sort of puzzle here?)"

"Hmmmmmm… Well, I guess I should flip into 3-D and see what we've got." Chopper threw his arms up in the air and flipped into 3-D. They all happened to see a little opening in the mirror, to their surprise.

"OK, now I'm getting some sort of feeling of the Crystal Palace here…" the Star Warrior walked through the mirror with his friends and went back into 2-D. It was strange that the door was still to the right.

Mario: Weird…

"You're telling me…" Sonic trailed as they noticed that the door seemed to be covered in flames. "Why is there a door that's on fire? And it's not even making this palace melt either!"

"Poyo, (I have no idea,)" Kirby tossed Crystaline at the door. She began to spin rapidly horizontally and get rid of the flames on the door. "Poyo? (How come she doesn't melt from the flames?)"

"If you're wondering how I don't melt, then I'll simply tell you. I'm not really a snowflake! I'm a Pixl, remember? That's how I'm immune to getting hurt from the flames!"

"Oh… I see now." Chopper nodded as he opened the door, ignoring the Duplighosts on the other side of the mirror. They were led into another hallway, but this one had five torches right next to an unlocked door. An Ice Ember seemed to be roaming around, but Chopper took care of his by bashing it with his hammer.

"So this is another simple room, huh?" Sonic grinned as he looked over by the door. "Well, this is certainly easy, I have to say! Let's go through!"

Unfortunately, when they walked through the door, they were simply brought back into the same room, over by the door to the left. Everyone seemed to look a bit puzzled from this, though.

"Pray, what hast happened?" Luvbi gawked.

"It looks like we can't go through there yet…" Blade trailed as he looked at all of the lit torches. "Should they all be lit? Or do we need to use some kind of puzzle to find out how to get through here…"

"I'll check in 3-D," Chopper flipped into 3-D and he saw, to his left, a small staircase leading to a doorway. He shrugged and went up the stairs and into a small room with a picture and a sign.

"Oh, well that's a coincidence," he walked over to the sign, but stopped when he felt someone kiss his cheek. Apparently Luvbi followed him in here.

"Ewwww! What was that for? !" he yelped. The Nimbi girl simply gigged at him and hugged him, making him shiver in fear once again.

"I just want to stay close to thee, my sweet prince!" Luvbi said sweetly. "I'd rather be around thee instead of those foul servants that thou hast! Not to mention thou art cute as well!"

"Ugh… Whatever. You can stay with me if you want. Just stop calling my friends horrible and servants." Chopper walked up to the sign and he began to read what it was saying out loud.

_To the hero that can flip into 3-D._

_With your Ice Hand ability, you are capable of getting rid of flames on a torch! If you want to light the torch, you must use your Flaming Hand ability. _

Chopper looked over at the picture beside the sign. He could see that the second, third and fifth torch was lit up. "All right, so we need to have only the second, third and fifth torch lit up. I see it…"

He returned to the group via 3-D and tossed an ice ball at the first and fourth torch. "Do you think that's going to do anything?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we'll find out," Chopper opened the door first and walked through. Everyone else shrugged and followed him into a larger room in length. There were two doors on this floor of the room. Apparently, one of them must lead up to a door up high on a platform. It didn't look like they could even reach it.

"Poyo, (All right, there's no way we're getting up there,)" Kirby stated. He also happened to notice Jojora right in front of them in the room. "Poyo! (Hey! Jojora's here too! But… I don't know why…)"

"Wow, you guys managed to get through those puzzles? Impressive." Jojora flew up to the platform on the upper floor and floated over to a locked icy door. "I wonder if you can even make it over here… But, I seriously doubt it. It's too high up!"

"Well, maybe we can climb up there!" Blade spat.

"Yeah right! Even if you tried to get up here, there's very little chance of you actually getting in! The door's locked! …But, whatever. If you manage to do it, then congratulations. You did."

Without hesitation, Jojora disappeared from the room, leaving the heroes left to go to either doors. They started by going into the door over by the far right, since that's what they thought they could find the key.

When entering the next room, they noticed that there was an ice block right in front of them. Up ahead there was also a little opening shaped like a square that a block could fit through. They all knew that they had to push it in through there.

"Man, this puzzle is so simple!" Sonic said as Chopper pushed the block into the opening. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do much when the block simply returned to its original place.

"Poyo? (What's going on? How come it didn't work?)" Kirby gawked.

"I don't know why…" Chopper rubbed the side of his head in confusion. "This is incredibly weird…"

"Yeah, this does look a bit weird… But, I'm pretty sure we need to push it in some kind of order." Blade predicted as he looked at the block. He kicked it and it began to slide into the hole again. This time, it fell right on top of Blade's foot. "OUCH! This thing is heavy as…"

Mario: Don't try to say it…

"…It's heavy as an anvil, all right?"

Mario: Try to flip into 3-D and see what you can find, Chopper.

"Ummmm… All right." Chopper flipped into 3-D and saw that there was a red line being drawn to show the path that he needed to push the block. He didn't bother to waste any time. He immediately pushed it along the red line – which was going in many directions and pushed it into the hole.

"Poyo? (What's that going to do?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, all we can do is check through the door up ahead," Chopper opened the door and entered through. Luckily, they weren't in the same room. This one apparently had a couple of ice stumps on the ground that reminded the group of those stumps back in the Sweet world.

"Is it just me, or are we seeing some of the same things again?" Blade questioned as he looked at the stumps. "Haven't we already seen this before?"

"Well, I might as well check and see if there's anything important in 3-D," Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed that some of the stumps had up arrows and some had down arrows. "Oh, this is like the time we were getting the fourth Heart Pillar revealed. No biggie."

Mario: Do I need to ground pound these stumps?

"Yeah, you do," Chopper nodded as he flipped back into 2-D. "You gotta make sure the first, third and fifth stumps are down. That way, we'll be able to move on ahead…wherever we may go."

Mairo nodded and used his Ground Pound ability on the first, third and fifth stump. It triggered another door to be drawn right in front of them, allowing them to move on ahead to the next room.

When they walked into the next room, they noticed that there were different colored blocks on the ground with some ! blocks above them. There were blue, red, green and purple ! blocks in the room. Strangely, some of the smaller blocks on the ground were the same color.

Mario: I think I see what to do here…

Mario grabbed the blue block with Thoreau and threw it up at the blue ! block, making both of them disappear. He even managed to get the red block thrown at its own ! block, leaving two left.

"Poyo! (Let me throw one!)" Kirby begged, taking Thoreau and using him to throw the green block at the green ! block, and the purple block with the purple ! block. It seemed to have allowed the group to go through the door.

"All right, guys… Whatever you do, don't go through a door until you actually solve a puzzle, all right?" Chopper said as he looked at the group. Everyone else nodded. "Hey… Where's Luvbi?"

"Chopper! There's a problem!" Chopper turned around and saw not only one Luvbi, but four others.

"Chopper! Thou must believest me!" Luvbi sad with a sad looked and softened eyes. "There art people who art trying to copy me!"

"Copy? Oh, heck no! Listen, Chopper, I'm the real Luvbi. So, maybe you should hit all of these other fakers." one of the Luvbis spoke with stars at the end of her sentence…and sounded a bit different.

"Oh, no, no! Chopper. You need to look carefully at me and you'll realize. I'm the real Luvbi. It can only be me. These others are all liars." this one was apparently speaking with hearts at the end of her sentence.

"No! ! ! I'm the one! ! ! Chopper! ! ! Don't listen to them or I'll… I'll make sure you're in for it! ! !" one Luvbi spokes with many exclamation points.

"I… I'm the real Luvbi… Puh… Please… Trust your eyes and look at me… I… I'm not lying…"

"Why art thou all pretending to be me?" Luvbi asked while frowning. "My sweet prince! Thou dost knoweth who the real one is, right?"

"Well, apparently it seems a bit obvious," Chopper gripped his hammer and bashed the other Luvbis with his hammer. It transformed them back into simple Duplighosts.

"What? How on earth did you figure out our disguises? !" one spat.

"Dude… The real Luvbi speaks in an Old English accent or whatever the hell they are." Blade explained. "Do you think we're THAT stupid to believe you others were the real one?"

"Not to mention the text was different for the other ones," Chopper added.

"Rats! And we thought our disguises worked perfectly! It sucks that our dialogue just didn't work out… We're out of here!" the Duplighosts ran off, leaving only the heroes and Luvbi.

"Oh, Chopper! Thou art my hero! Kiss me!" Luvbi said sweetly as she tackled Chopper and began to smother him with her girly kisses.

"Yuck! Get off of me, Luvbi!" Chopper cried. The giggling Nimbi got off of him and began to wipe his face of all of the kisses Luvbi left on him. It's almost if he could never get away from them…

But, there was no time for that. They immediately walked through the door into the next room. They could see that there were two poles. One had a purple orb in it, while the other was empty.

"Huh… I guess no one bothered to put an orb in one of those…" Sonic trailed as he eyed the poles.

"Poyo? (Maybe someone stole the other orb?)" Kirby questioned, tilting his head to the left a bit.

"Ah, so you're wondering where the orb is, do you?" a purple ghost-like creature with orange eyes and a pipe that had bubbles come out when it blew into it appeared. It looked kind of like a genie, to them.

"Well, this is your lucky day. I happen to have the orb right here." the genie pulled a purple orb out of its pocket. It seemed to be glowing a pretty purple color in the whole room. They could see some of it glow up on the ceiling too!

"Well… Could we have it…whoever you are?" Blade asked.

"My name is Ghastring…and no! You may not have this orb! It is rightfully mine, you see! However… I will let you have this if we do a little something… Like some kind of game you need to beat me in!"

Mario: What's the catch?

"What? There isn't any catch! …Well, maybe there is. You see, you must answer five questions correctly. …Well, actually, I'm going to explain it in a simple way. _**LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN!**_" Ghstring put some sun glasses on and suddenly transformed the whole room into some kind of game show.

"WEEEEEEEEEEELCOOOOOOOOME to the 84th Annual 'Ghost Be Gone' Show! I'm going to ask you six seven questions! Get five of seven right, and you win a purple orb! Get three wrong, and you'll have to pay a big punishment! And by big, I mean a gigantic one with a cherry on top!"

"Poyo! (I like cherries!)" Kirby said, licking his lips.

"All right, then! Let us get started… Now, can anyone tell me what the name of the person who is holding the eleventh Pure Heart is?" Ghastring had a large smiling, hoping to get an answer.

"It doth be obvious that it is my friend, Crysta," Luvbi answered with an irritated look.

"Errr… Are you suuuuuuuuure about that?"

"Yea, verily. It doth be my answer." she nodded. They all heard a chiming bell, as if it was the correct answer. Ghastring himself was a bit irritated from this.

"_They're smarter than I thought… This could be tough. _All right, that one was TOO easy. But, this one's much, MUCH harder… All right… Now, I'm gonna read this short story. Let's see if you can get this one!"

"Bring it on!" Blade smirked.

"There once was a boy named Joe and one day, he decided that he was going to walk down Lineland Road. He saw a house, but no one was there. Apparently, a flipping master lived there. Unfortunately, for him, he fell down a bottomless pit, and he found himself in a dark and gloomy world. Now… What do you want for Christmas?"

Blade's expression suddenly changed into a bad one. "What the heck is that? That had nothing to do with what you were talking about at first!"

"So is that your answer?"

"What?"

"Ehhhh! Wrong! You are WRONG! You better be careful now, two more incorrect answers will make you toast! Now let's go to question three… What is the name of the Koopa with the red nose?"

"Ummmmm… That's Rudolph." Chopper answered. The bells chimed once again and Ghastring began to have another episode.

"Aw, come on! You have to be right on that one? ! …Er, I mean, congratulations! You're correct! …But that was an easy one. I'll tell you this, though: It's going to get a lot harder from here!"

"Yeah, right," Sonic chuckled.

"You better be ready, punks! Now for question four… How did you go down that high mountain back in Chapter 10-3?"

"Poyo… (We went down with a snowboard, tube and some skis…)" Kirby answered with an annoyed look.

"Aw, come on! Once again you're correct? Come on! This is just… I don't know what to say…" Ghastring frowned at the group. "Fine. Whatever. That was an easy one anyways. I can assure you that this is going to be a hard one!"

"Throw one at me!" Sonic smirked.

"OK, then… You remember that alien boy Shade Doom, right?" Ghastring explained. "Who is the name of the snowman that he used against you? Say it right in my ear!"

"…OK, but it's Frosty the Snowman, if that's what you want,"

"You suuuuuuuuuure about that, hedgehog?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Sonic smirked as the bells chimed, making Ghastring have another one of his episodes.

"God damn it I'm pissed off like a mother… Ahem! Excuse me for that. …Crap, did you guys just get four answers correct? Well slap me with a pig! I'm going to make these straight-out impossible!"

"Heh heh heh! This reminds me of that Thwomp that asked many questions." Chopper chuckled.

"Trust me, this is a tough one!" Ghastring grinned. "Name all six of Tipral's minions! Just try, plumber!"

Mario: O'Chunks, Mimi, Nastasia, Fawful, Dark Doom and Dimentio.

"Oh… No… NO… _**NOOOOOOOOOOO!**_" Ghastring turned the whole room back to normal. "You… You beat me at my own game! Stupid little… Fine. Take this stupid orb."

He dropped the orb into Mario's hands, who smirked as he looked up at him. Ghastring only sulked before leaving the room and allowing Mario to place the orb in the left pole.

"I wonder what's going to happen now…" Blade pondered.

Between both poles was a chest that appeared. Kirby opened it up and found a Palace Key inside.

"Poyo! (Hey! It's a Palace Key! I guess we can take this and go back to that other room!)" Kirby smiled as he walked over to the door.

* * *

**Room with two doors-**

"All right, guys… We have the key, and we have the door." Blade opened the door like some gentlemen. "Now then… Let us make our way through here, shall we?"

Everyone walked through the door, although Luvbi seemed to scoff at him again for being smelly – even though he's holding the door like a true gentlemen. If Chopper held the door for her, she would probably tell him how much of a gentlemen he is and most likely kiss him.

But, he didn't open the door for everyone, so we don't have to talk about that now. The five heroes and Luvbi stepped into a room that was actually outside. There was a large staircase going up to the right and then up to the left. Some Duplighosts were roaming around on the stairs as well, making this a bit troubling.

"Poyo! (I'll handle the Duplighosts!" Kirby made his way up the stairs and froze a Duplighost with his Ice Breath. He killed it off by kicking the frozen Duplighost into the wall.

The others made their way up the stairs and took the stairs up to the left. Chopper tossed an ice ball at a white Clubba that was sleeping and kicked it to the wall while it was frozen to kill it off.

"Man, these ice balls seem a bit overpowered," Chopper said as he held an ice ball in his hand. "But, hey! At least they do something helpful, so I'm glad I have these! …And with fireballs, it makes it even better!"

"Uhhhh… Why don't we just head on through the door." Sonic suggested, opening the door for everyone to walk through. They all shrugged and entered the door into the same room, but at a higher level.

"Ah, so this is how we get up here," Blade realized as he saw a large gap. "But I don't see us getting across…unless we use those Ice Swoopers flying around to get to the door…"

Blade thought of something for a couple of seconds. He jumped right on top of the Ice Swooper without hurting it and kept his balance. "Hmmmmm… Yeah! This could work! I could just use my ninja jump to stand on anything small and get over to somewhere! I think it'll help me get across this gap!"

After crossing the gap, he landed right in front of the door. Sonic immediately crossed the gap by using his Homing Attack on the Ice Swoopers, destroying them and landing right at the door.

"Poyo, (I know how to make my way over here,)" Kirby took in some air and began to float across the gap. Once he was right next to the door, he let out the puff of air and landed on the platform.

"Well, we got three people across, but what about us?" Chopper said as he pointed to him and Mario.

Mario: I can't make that jump!

"I can helpeth thee across, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled as she fluttered close to him, making Chopper step away.

"Oh, really? I guess that helps…"

"But… Thou must dost something for me… Thou hast to givest me a kiss!" Luvbi puckered up, getting ready to receive a kiss on the lips.

"Ewwww! There's no way I'm going to kiss you!" Chopper gagged, covering his mouth as if he was going to throw up. "That's the only thing that I would refuse to do anyways!"

"But kissing is good for thee! Everyone needs love, thou knowest."

"Yeah, that's true, but you don't have to have love from kissing," Chopper stepped away a bit further, not knowing that he was right behind Mario. Luvbi, however, simply fluttered closer.

"I'm waaaaaaiting…"

Mario sighed and simply pushed Chopper right into Luvbi. Chopper's lips (unintentionally) landed right on Luvbi's, which made it feel great for her, but as for Chopper… It was certainly not nice.

"Ack! That was gross!" Chopper cried as he wiped his mouth. Luvbi, however, sighed sweetly and grabbed Chopper, carrying him over the gap and over by the door, leaving only Mario.

"That was such a sweet thing that thou didst for me!" Luvbi giggled, hugging Chopper tightly.

"I didn't do that at all! …But I'm not going to whine about it." Chopper finished wiping his mouth with his arm. "Now… How are we going to get Mario across? Think you can help, Kirby?"

"Poyo, (I'm not giving up my Ice ability, though,)" Kirby said, shaking his head.

"Ugh… Then I'll do it myself." Chopper used his inhaling ability to bring Mario over. Right when he got on the platform, he stopped using it so the plumber wouldn't go in his mouth.

Mario: Let's-a go!

They made their way into the next room, where they saw five doors. One was lime-green with a yellow star on it, another was pink with a Kirby face, another was blue with a Sonic face, the navy blue door had a ninja star on it and the red door had a Mario hat, which seemed to symbolize something.

"Weird… Why are there doors like these?" Sonic gawked. Unfortunately, Jojora happened to be in this room too.

"This is where the real challenge starts," Jojora warned. "Look, you probably should just give up and go home!"

"Give up? Why do that when we're getting close?" Blade questioned.

"All right, fine… But don't say I warned ya." and with that, Jojora disappeared out of their sights.

"That's one strange girl…" Sonic trailed while rubbing his head. "I mean, I'm sure she would try to stop us in a more aggressive way, but it doesn't seem like it…"

"Well what about these doors?" Blade asked, pointing at the five doors.

Mario: They seem to have our symbols…

"Poyo? (So are we supposed to split up or something?)" Kirby questioned.

"Uhhhh… I guess so." Chopper shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we might have to… But it doesn't seem so easy that we have to split up like this…"

"Hey, we did it before, and I bet we can do it again. So… How about we get going, huh?" Sonic suggested.

"I will goest with my sweet prince," Luvbi declared as she followed Chopper through the first door. The others simply headed through their door…alone. But, they knew they would all hopefully meet up.

* * *

**Chopper and Luvbi-**

As soon as Chopper walked into his room, he saw that there wasn't a door around for him. However, there were two Darklings in the room that wanted to freeze him with their spells.

"Yup. I have to find these guys in here." Chopper groaned and tossed a couple of ice balls at the first one. When it was frozen, he kicked it at the other one, defeating both and allowing a door to get drawn.

"Oh, Chopper! Thou will protectest me in this place, will thou?" Luvbi asked like she was a damsel in distress.

"Don't even think about talking like that," he warned. "I don't like having to save some kind of damsel in distress. It's incredibly clichéd and I'd rather do something like saving the universe."

Luvbi simply ignored Chopper as she followed him into the next room. The walls, once again, had a large mirror, but the door was on the other side of the mirror, which was a bit annoying…

"Ugh… Well, looks like I'm going to have to flip into 3-D in order to get through here…" he groaned as he finished off a Duplighost and flipped into 3-D. Going through the door, he found a small staircase leading up to another door.

"Wow… Kind of reminds me of Castle Tipral a bit." Chopper remarked as he walked up the stairs and to the door.

"Pray, my sweet prince… What shouldst we do after we art done hither? Can we goest somewhere romantic and have a date?" Luvbi asked sweetly.

"Wha…? I can't do that! For two reasons… I don't like dates and I have a universe to save! It's really important, you know."

"Hmph! Fine! Leave poor, cute me to be all along!" Luvbi huffed as she followed Chopper into the next room, which led outside of the palace. Well, they were out on a small balcony with a block right next to them that was changing to many different colors.

"Ooh! Now that's an interesting block!" Chopper commented.

* * *

**Kirby-**

When Kirby set foot in his room, he noticed that there was a mirror in the room, which began to make him freak out a bit.

"Poyo! (Oh, no! A mirror! That… That means…)"

"You can't escape me, you know…" Shadow Kirby appeared in the mirror. "You honestly believe that telling that boy will do anything for you? He can't even see you! Neither can the others!"

"Poyo… (Look, shadow… I DON'T want to kill Chopper or anyone else on my side… He's my friend. He's done some good things for me… So, if you honestly believe that I would kill him just to be a leader, then FORGET IT! He even said he's one of my best friends!)"

"Oh, but what about one of his other friends, Flyer? He said that he was his best friend…"

"Poyo, (Look, just stop with it already,)" Kirby used his Ice Breath on the mirror in order to make it completely frozen.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? ! You have something to finish, Kirby! Don't turn on me like that!"

"Poyo, (I don't care,)" Kirby spat as he froze a Duplighost in his way and kicked it towards the wall before entering through the next room, which only had a platform a bit high up leading up to a door.

From what Kirby knew, he had to float up there. So, taking in some air, he began to float up to the door and enter through to find himself outside on a small balcony with a block in many different colors.

"Poyo? (Where the heck am I?)" he asked.

"Kirby! Is that you? !" from what Kirby could hear, it sounded like Chopper's voice. But it seemed to be coming from up above him.

"Poyo? (Chopper? Are you there?)"

"Yeah! I'm here! Where's everyone else?"

"Poyo! (I don't know!)"

* * *

**Sonic-**

"Wow… Now this place is pretty cool." Sonic smiled as he walked into his room. He saw that there was a loop right in front of him, which kind of made his day. But he didn't bother to ask questions about it. He simply ran through the loop and used a spring to reach up to a door right next to him.

Upon entering the next room, he could see a couple of Ice Swoopers hanging from the ceiling and even a Duplighost roaming around the room. There was also a large screw in the room as well, hinting that a Pixl might be needed.

"Well what do ya know? I think you'll finally get a chance to do something, Screwdy!"

Screwdy seemed to be happy as Sonic performed a couple of Homing Attacks on the Duplighost and took care of the Ice Swoopers with a simple Spin Jump before turning his attention to the large screw.

"Well, I finally get to do something!" Screwdy said cheerfully as Sonic performed a corkscrew with his power on the screw, making a door get drawn for him.

"I wonder where this leads…" Sonic wondered as he opened the door out to a small balcony. "Huh… That's weird. I can see a block of many different colors… Is there anyone else here? I see another part of the palace up ahead!"

"I can hear ya, Sonic!" Chopper shouted.

"Oh, good! Someone's here!"

* * *

**Blade-**

"Ho ho ho! Now THIS is something I like to see!" Blade smirked as he saw some small ice poles with small points on the top of them. He knew he was going to be in for something, that's for sure.

"Now to use my ninja jump on these little poles," he began to perform some ninja jumps on the little poles until he reached up onto the icy platform where a door was. However, it was being guarded by a Duplighost.

But, it didn't really matter to him. He drew his katana and easily defeated it with a couple of slashes from his katana before entering the door to the next room.

All he could see in this room were a couple of more Duplighosts and Ice Guys. Nevertheless, he took them all out with a couple of shurikens and slashed them with his katana to defeat them.

Up over by the door, he could see that there were a couple of brick blocks blocking the way of the door. But, they did appear to look like they can be destroyed with an explosion…

"Ah! I think I see what I have to do here…" Blade tossed Hommissile straight at the brick blocks and made the door visible for him. He immediately headed through to find himself outside on a small balcony with a multi-colored block.

"What the… This is weird."

* * *

**Mario-**

When Mario first set foot in the room, he was welcomed by two Ice Bros. Luckily, there happened to be a yellow ? block in the room for him to hit, so he struck the block and grabbed the Mushroom from inside to recover 10 HP.

Mario: That was good!

"Hey, Mario! How about you get a taste of some ice balls!" an Ice Bro. spat a couple of ice balls directly at Mario, who managed to jump out of the way and stomp on top of the Ice Bro's. head a couple of times to take it out.

There was also a tall, stone block in the way right by an Ice Bro. He simply used Kickbrin on it and knocked it down, squishing the Ice Bro. The outcome of it wasn't exactly…well…great.

Mario: It's too bad for the Ice Bros…

He jumped over the flattened block and entered through the door ahead, where he saw two Duplighosts talking to each other. When they turned around, their eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait a sec… I recognize that guy from somewhere!" one Duplighost gawked.

"Hey! That's Mario! What's he doing in the Confusing Palace? I thought we'd never see him after encountering him in the Crystal Palace!" another Duplighost cried.

Ah, the Crystal Palace… That was the place where Mario got the last Star Spirit. But now wasn't the time for him to think about that place. He had to pummel these guys, so, with his hammer, he began to bash at them. The first one was easy to take out, but the other seemed to put up more of a fight.

"All right, that's it! Time to turn the heat up!" the Duplighost transformed into Mario and tried to use his own attacks on him, but it didn't work when Mario took him out with Kickbrin.

Mario: That was easy!

Upon entering through the door up ahead, he noticed that he was on a small balcony. He could even hear some other voices too.

Mario: Is that you guys?

"Mario? Oh, thank god it's you!" Blade sighed in relief. "Where the heck are you anyways?"

Mario: It sounds like I'm below you.

"Wait… Really? …I guess we're all at a different level. Chopper said he was up at the top balcony… But what is this block anyways?"

"Why don't we try hitting it?" Sonic suggested.

Everyone agreed and they punched the block with their fists. Surprisingly, Jojora appeared floating near the balconies, but not necessarily on top of it.

"Hrmm… Wow." Jojora seemed a bit impressed. "If you've come all the way here, you obviously don't give up easily. Cool."

"Yeah, we didn't give up," Chopper smirked. "I know you told us to go away and stuff… But we're not leaving."

Jojora pulled a wand that looked more like a spoon than a wand out and summoned a couple of electric balls that faced the group.

"So this is a present from me to you…" she announced. "Press the (2) button to jump under the block that comes to you. Press (A) to switch to someone else in order to hit that block in order to score more points. If you get **30 points **in **25 seconds** or less, I'll make a bridge for you to make it to the other side of this palace. Cool?"

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario: We're cool.

"All right, start!" with a strike of her wand, Jojora made a couple of blocks come towards the group before disappearing.

"All right, let's do this!" Sonic curled up in a ball and hit the blocks that were coming towards him, trying to avoid missing any of the blocks. He was doing quite well, actually.

"I don't know why, but these blocks aren't so hard to hit," Blade stated as he punched one of them with his fist. As for the others… They managed to hit a bunch of them, but Chopper ended up missing two.

"Drats! I can't believe I missed one!" he frowned.

"Poyo, (Well don't worry about it,)" Kirby assured. "Poyo. (Missing two blocks isn't the end of the world. You can still hit a couple of more.)"

And that's what he did. After thirty seconds passed, they managed to get over 30 blocks. That triggered a bridge right below Mario to be drawn. They knew what they had to do, so they jumped off the balcony and landed on the bridge.

"Ow… That hurt a bit." Chopper frowned as he held his foot in pain. "I wish I didn't have to be that high…"

"Oh, suck it up like a man, will ya?" Blade suggested, only to receive a glare from Luvbi. "What? He can take it!"

"Luvbi… Don't try to insult him." Chopper warned as he got up. "All right, let's move on ahead."

They raced over to the door and headed into the next room, where they could see a large hallway with a mirror in the background. The only problem was that there were a lot of enemies in the area, so it might be a bit dangerous for them to set foot here.

"Hey, look! A Knuckle Joe!" Chopper saw a childish, elf-like fighter with spiky yellow hair, blue clothing, and a bandana wrapped around its head. He immediately inhaled it and gained the Fighter ability. "Ah, yes! There's my Fighter ability I've wanted to get again!"

"Now, let's see what's in here," Sonic struck the yellow ? block with a Spin Jump, making a Mega Star pop out. Although people were trying to grab a hold of it, it ended up landing in Sonic's hand.

"Aw, man! I wanted to get that thing!" Blade pouted.

"Is that another one of those stars?" Luvbi asked.

"Yeah, it's another Mega Star… Too bad I didn't get it." Chopper groaned. "Although, I think I had it enough already."

Sonic transformed into a large, 8-bit version of himself and immediately curled up in a ball to perform a Spin Dash. "I think this'll help trounce everything in my way! Yeah, I believe it will!"

He trampled everything in his path, such as Peguinators, Ice Bros. and even Duplighosts. But it didn't last long for him, for Sonic turned back into his normal self when he reached the door up ahead.

"Poyo, (Let's get out of here, and fast,)" Kirby suggested as he was the first to go through the door.

"Yeesh. What's with him?" Chopper asked.

Mario: Beats me.

Nevertheless, they entered through the door into another large room with an ice platform moving up and down. A door that was up ahead was also locked, but Jojora was in the room, and she certainly wasn't happy.

"Oh! Man! Cut it out!" she complained. "You're the most stubborn people I know! No girls would ever like you!"

Everyone else looked confused as the fairy girl disappeared.

"Pray, why didst she sayeth that? I doth love Chopper, though…" Luvbi gawked.

"Well never mind that. It looks like we need a key if we're going to move on ahead…" Chopper trailed as he pointed at the locked door. "I guess we need to use these platforms…"

They jumped on the platform closest to them and then made their way up onto more platforms moving up until they got up to a platform with a Penguinator sitting on it, minding its own business.

"Huh? What's going on?" the Penguinator got up and put away the magazine it was reading about penguins and saw the heroes. "Oh, great… I bet you wanna get the key, do ya?"

"Ummmmm… That's pretty much it. So, why don't you give us the key already, Penguinator?" Sonic suggested.

"Never! This key belongs to me! If you try to take it from me, I will destroy you until you're nothing but dust! I, the Mighty Penguinator, will personally send you to The Underwhere!"

There was silence.

And then more silence.

But the silence suddenly broke into laughter, with all six of them laughing at the Penguinator.

"What? How DARE you laugh at my mighty powers!" the Penguinator spat. "You… You…"

"Ummmmm… Look, we can't really say that. That's already from some kind of flash." Sonic finished laughing and struck the Penguinator with a Spin Jump, making it drop a Palace Key.

"All right, let's head into the next room."

* * *

**Next room-**

All they really saw in this room was a yellow ? block and a door up ahead. Nevertheless, Chopper struck the block and got a Super Shroom that they all agreed to split in order to recover 20 HP.

"I wonder what is up ahead…" Luvbi wondered.

"Maybe the boss?" Chopper predicted.

"We better be close…" Blade trailed as they walked into the next room. Surprisingly, there was nobody around. All they saw was a little table that had some small stools like what little girls would do if they were having a little tea party with their dolls.

"We're in some kind of tea party room? Weird…" Sonic gawked.

"Uhhhh… I think this is where I make my leave!" Chopper gaped as he immediately made a run for the door, but ended up tripping. Luvbi was able to get him up.

"Maybe we can enjoy ourselves hither! Wouldst thou like to be on a little date with me now, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked sweetly.

"Eww! No!" but before he could go on, Jojora appeared in the room, startling nearly everyone.

"Welcome!" she greeted.

"Uhhhhhh… What is this place?" Blade asked.

You six are the first people ever to climb all the way up here! …Cool. You're pretty darn determined! Let me reward you with a little something, OK?"

"Thou better not be rewarding my sweet prince with a kiss!" Luvbi warned, glaring at Jojora.

"Whoa, settle down there! You really think I would take someone's boyfriend away from them! Come on!"

Everyone was still silent.

"Well don't just stand there! Have a seat and relax for a bit." Jojora got a couple of more stools with each hero's symbol, which surprised some of them a bit. But, nevertheless, they sat down on their stool.

"Ummmm… How do you know about these symbols anyways?" Sonic asked.

"It's REEEEALLY hard to explain. But, anyways, I'm inviting one of my pals over today. They're all good people, but I'm only inviting one today. Who would you like to invite? Chucklissa? Oholina? Hoohoolia? Or Teeheena?"

Chopper paused for a moment. "Wait, what? You want US to tell you who should come here? Ummmmm… Shouldn't you be the one to decide that? They ARE your friends…"

"Yeah, I know. But I want you to tell me who I should invite."

"Oh, fine. I guess…Chucklissa."

"Oh, man! You have really good tastes!" Jojora smirked as she flew out of the room. "CHUCKLISSA! Introduce yourself!"

"Well, I guess we can just relax for a bit and then go," Blade stated as he stretched. "I mean, this doesn't look bad, right?"

A large, rag doll-like person with a stone face that has a bit of brown and yellow on her came down on the ground, lifting everyone off their stools. She also happened to have two blonde pigtails as well.

"I'm Chucklissa! GAH HAH!" she introduced. "Are you all done working for the day? Then please sit back and relax! Gah hah HAHHH!"

"What the… This is your friend? !" Chopper looked more horrified than happy.

"Well done!" Jojora congratulated. "Now take good care of our honorable guests, Chucklissa!"

"Of course!" Chucklissa opened her arms and began to charge towards Chopper. "Give me a hug, cutie!"

"Oh, man! What do I do? !" Chopper wanted to get out of the way, but it didn't look like he could even get out of her grasps if she got a hold of him. …There was only one way to settle this.

"OK, I don't want to do this…but I have no choice," Chopper used his Smash Punch attack, which made him throw a powerful punch straight at Chucklissa, knocking her back towards the wall.

Unfortunately, this got Jojora infuriated. You NEVER touch a lady without her permission!" she raised her wand and began to create an intense snowstorm that somewhat had no effect on Kirby.

However, Chopper managed to throw a punch at Jojora with his Smash Punch and knock away her wand.

"Eeek! Uncool! You creep!" she cried as she flew out of the room.

"Hey! I'm NOT a creep!"

"Ummmmm… Got any idea on what her stats are?" Sonic asked.

"Ummmmmmmm… Yeah, let me look." Chopper looked at the stats on Chucklissa. "OK, apparently she has 135 HP, an Attack of 9 and a Defense of 2. I saw that Jojora has ? HP, 9 Attack and ? Defense. I guess that's why my attack on her barely did any damage to her…"

"Poyo, (Well let's take this…girl down,)" Kirby immediately stepped in and used his Ice Breath on Chucklissa to make her shiver. He immediately followed up with his Ice Storm to even freeze her for a couple of seconds.

When she got out of her frozen prison, she began to shiver. "Augh! I feel like I've got a cold!"

"Hold on… I think she's weak to fire!" Chopper gawked, tossing a fireball straight at the rag doll, which actually did more damage than what his Fighter ability does. "Yeah… That's not a bad idea."

"Well, in that case…" Blade drew his katana and charged at Chucklissa. With a fire slash, he managed to strike her with some immense damage. Even more than what Chopper was capable of with a fireball.

Chucklissa winked and got into a large snowball. She managed to roll over both Chopper and Blade and flatten them like pancakes. The others gulped and got in their fighting stances.

Mario: This doesn't look easy…

When both Chopper and Blade got up, they noticed they were flat like pancakes. Kirby got a bicycle pump from nowhere and got some air into both of them (although it's strange how he's using a bicycle pump on them when they're made of paper…).

Sonic immediately struck Chucklissa with a Homing Attack before she brought her arms out. Unfortunately, it looked like she was going right after Mario.

"Mario! Get out of the way!" Blade shouted.

Unfortunately, for Mario, Chucklissa managed to grab a hold of him. What was worse was that she started to kiss Mario, which actually hurt him more than healing him. What's worse was that he got poisoned.

"Oh, man… That's what would've happened if she grabbed a hold of me." Chopper gulped and turned towards Chucklissa. "I don't like to be kissed by girls…"

"But I know that thou lovest it when I giveth thee kisses!" Luvbi giggled.

"Heck no!" he frowned and tossed another fireball straight at Chucklissa. After Mario managed to deliver a smack at the rag doll with his hammer, Chucklissa looked straight at Kirby.

"Gah! That pink puffball… Does he like me?" Chucklissa immediately put on lipstick and her hair changed to a hot pink color. "NOW he will! Gah HAH!"

Chucklissa immediately charged towards Kirby, bringing her arms out. Blade tried to strike her with a fire slash, but instead of dealing more damage, it actually healed her, making him gape.

"What the hell? !" Chucklissa immediately turned around at the gaping Blade. She immediately grabbed him and squeezed him.

"I'm going to name you Steve!" she smiled as she hugged him even tighter.

"Cr-Crap! Someone h-help me!" he wheezed.

Chopper immediately used his Vulcan Jab attack on Chucklissa's back in order to make him let go of Blade. When she turned around, she was knocked back by his Smash Punch.

"Gah! That hurt…" she wheezed as Mario stomped on him and Kirby used his Ice Storm to make her shiver again.

And that wasn't the worst part. Jojora came back, and angrier than ever. "I'm going to make you pay for doing that to me and my friend, you jerks!" she growled as she raised her wand.

"Sonic… Wanna do the honors?" Chopper asked.

"Certainly," Sonic curled up in a ball and struck both Chucklissa and Jojora with a Spin Dash. The fairy girl didn't have much time to react to Chucklissa getting hit because her wand was knocked away.

"Eeek! That was just uncool, you jerk!" she cried as she went back to go after her spoon wand.

"Well that was easy," Sonic stated as he jumped backwards in a ball and struck Chucklissa with a Spin Dash. However, the rag doll managed to grab a hold of him and began hugging him.

"Gah HAH! You're so cute! You just might be my pet!" she began to squeeze Sonic tightly, but was soon saved when Mario struck her in the head with his stomp and Ground Pound, making her release Sonic.

"Whew… Thanks, Mario." Sonic sighed in relief as he got in a ball again. "Now I'm going to teach that rag doll a lesson!"

With another Spin Dash, Sonic was able to knock Chucklissa to the ground. Add Mario's Triple Jump to the mix and you've got one powerful attack. Even the makeup disappeared and her hair went back to normal, making her vulnerable to fire once again.

"It's about time!" Blade smirked as he gripped his katana and slashed at Chucklissa with a fire slash, dealing more damage than before and also leaving her with one nasty burn.

She winked and got into a large snowball afterwards. She ended up rolling over both Chopper and Kirby, but they didn't lose their abilities, to their relief. Even still, Chopper managed to strike her with a flaming Vulcan Jab.

"Whoa… Are you using flames for that attack?" Sonic gawked.

"Ummmm… Yeah. Why?" Chopper tilted his head in confusion.

"Oh… Well that's going to do some tough damage, so go ahead and continue attacking, all right?"

"Oh, all right," Chopper seemed a bit confused, but he used his flaming spinning attack on Chucklissa to make her fall over on the ground. "OK… I think she's almost finished. Who wants to finish this up?"

Mario: I guess I will.

With his hammer ready, Mario bashed Chucklissa easily with his hammer. Not only did this end the fight, but it ended up making Chucklissa explode somehow. When Jojora came back, she was shocked to see her friend gone.

"Oh… NOOOO!" she screamed. "EHH! Play time's over for the day! Over! Over! Over! Over! Over! Over! Over! Over! OVER!"

"Poyo, (That's a good thing,)" Kirby smiled.

"I can't believe you ruined my tea party! …That's it! I'm telling my uncle on you guys! When you see him, you're going to nearly freeze in fear at the sight of him! That's how intimidating he is!"

"Look, Jojora, we just want the Pure Heart, that's it," Chopper said. "Can we just settle things peacefully?"

"No way! UNCLE!" Jojora immediately headed through the door up ahead, resulting in the group following her into a small room with a yellow ? block and a Save Block.

"Huh… I wonder what this'll give us." Chopper punched the yellow ? block and got an Ultra Shroom from it. They all split it into five pieces so they could recover 50 HP. Afterwards, Kirby hit the Save Block.

"All right, let's go catch Jojora and hopefully find the Pure Heart."

"I'll stayeth behind thee, my sweet prince," Luvbi said sweetly as they opened the door that led outside of the palace. They could see a snowy pathway leading up to a large floating ice platform that looked kind of like a Final Destination stage.

"Poyo? (Why does this remind me of Final Destination?)" Kirby questioned.

"Final Destination?"

Mario: A place where we fought before.

"Oh… I see." Chopper looked on ahead and saw Jojora on the floating ice platform. "Come on, guys. She's over there."

"I wonder who this uncle is…" Sonic wondered as they walked up onto the ice platform. They noticed that the northern lights were brighter than before and the sky was certainly a nice color.

"All right, Jojora, can we just settle things in a peaceful manner?" Blade asked.

"Absolutely not! After what you did to my rag doll, you don't deserve it!" Jojora looked up at the northern lights. "_**UNCLE! UNCLE! COME DOWN HERE QUICK!**_ These jerks here ruined my tea party!"

"_And who are these people, you ask?_"

"Come take a look! You might recognize them!" Jojora smirked as she turned her head to the group. "Now you're in for it!"

"Very well," everyone looked up at the northern lights as a being in a blue robe came floating down onto the platform. He had no face, nor did he even have a body. All he had were yellow eyes and a crystal crown that was meant to make him look like a king.

"It's you…" Chopper clenched his fists and got in a fighting stance. "How are you still alive? !"

"Welcome to my palace. I am the Crystal King." the king introduced. "…However, I must punish you for what you've done to my niece. It's unacceptable."

"I reckon that SHE was the one that attacked us first," Blade retorted.

"It doesn't… Hold on a minute…" the Crystal King didn't have much time to look at the heroes, but when he first took a look at both Chopper and Mario, he felt immense cold-hearted hatred in him. "It's you two… The ones that were responsible for destroying me in the past! Chopper…and Mario!"

"Look, Crystal King… We don't have time to fight you." Chopper said as he swung his arm back. "We need to get the Pure Heart before all dimensions tremble!"

"All dimensions tremble? I don't see them trembling…"

"The one named Tipral is bound to make that happen. I think that's what he plans on doing."

"Tipral, you say? You mean the one who entered through the shrine and tried to murder a spirit? He told me you would be coming here, so I waited at this very spot for your arrival!"

Luvbi gasped. "Dost thou mean… Crysta will…die? !"

"Heh heh heh! Maybe she will… I don't know what kind of harm that boy did to her, but surely it should stop you fools from getting the Pure Heart you desire!" the Crystal King grinned sinisterly (despite not having a mouth), but he noticed the necklace on Luvbi.

"What is that you're wearing? !" the Crystal King flew over to Luvbi and held her up to get a closer look. "Where did you get that necklace? !"

"Ack! Let me go, you horrible monster!" Luvbi cried. "When thy game ends, I will maketh sure that thou art chained to the bottom of River Twygz!"

"What? You're the daughter of Queen Jaydes and King Grambi? I never would've thought of that! I remember that I sent Bonechill to attack that place! …But before that, I got him to attack a world full of Wingels."

"…You mean Chillbi IS Bonechill? !" Chopper gaped.

"Yes, he is. After you ended Chillbi's game, he was sent down to The Underwhere and stayed in a prison for all eternity. He happened to change into one of those monsters down there and ended up becoming the leader of them. That is…until he was defeated by Mario and his friends."

Mario: He was easy!

"As for that necklace… That used to belong to my wife. That is, until…she died from a horrible sickness. I've been looking for that necklace all my life! Hand it over, or else you'll pay the consequences!"

"Thou knowest about 'finders keepers', dost thou?"

"That is MINE! I deserve to take it back after losing it for so long! I don't care about finders keepers! What belongs to someone should stay with them!"

"Uncle, aren't you going to punish them?" Jojora interrupted.

The Crystal King released Luvbi. "Why… Of course I will. I merely forgot about that. Chopper… I'm going to make you pay dearly for what you've done to me in the past! When you're a frozen popsicle, I'll know just where to put you!"

"We'll see about that! We can take you!" Chopper smirked.

"Just don't be long, my sweet prince…" Luvbi trailed sadly.

"Oh, how sweet. You really care about your friend! Oh, whatever. I'll just end your games while I'm at it. That should make things better for me!"

"And for me! I'm helping out too, Uncle!" Jojora twirled her wand and aimed it at the heroes. "My uncle is a force of nature, so you better watch out!"

The Crystal King immediately fired an ice beam directly at Chopper, resulting in him becoming frozen. "That was easier than I thought it would be!"

"My prince!" Luvbi cried.

"Oh, shut up, you stupid fairy! Go find another boy!"

"I wouldn't count on that attack being it," Blade gripped his katana and used a fire slash to melt Chopper from his icy prison. The Crystal King nearly gaped, but immediately clenched his invisible fists.

"I see… So this is how it's going to be."

"Yup…and by looking at your stats, you have about 150 HP, an Attack of 10 and a Defense of 4. OK… This might be a bit of a challenge. But, I bet we can take you down with ease…just like before."

"The Crystal King was a lot tougher when we fought him in Bowser's Castle…" Sonic trailed.

"True, that's true…" Chopper jumped towards the Crystal King, but the king himself managed to knock Chopper back when he pulled an ice sword out. It left the Star Warrior to shiver.

"Heh heh heh! This is just too easy!" the Crystal King cackled until Kirby ice skated towards him and struck him with his Ice Storm attack. Although the Crystal King uses ice, he is vulnerable to it (just not weak to it).

"Poyo! (Leave my friend alone, you fiend!)" Kirby barked as he used his Ice Breath on him afterwards. The Crystal King shot an ice beam at Kirby, but it didn't seem to freeze him in any way.

"Ugh… So my ice beam has no effect on someone who has the Ice ability…"

While the Crystal King was left confused, Mario immediately jumped on his head, stunning him for a couple of seconds.

"Now's my chance to attack," Blade charged at the Crystal King and struck him with a fire slash. The only problem with that attack was that it didn't do double damage to him. It just did normal damage. "Huh…? It did normal damage?"

"That's right!" Jojora smirked as she tried to attack the group. However, Chopper knocked her wand out of the arena with a Smash Punch. "Eeek! Uncool! You creep!"

"Quit calling me a creep!" Chopper frowned as he dodged one of the Crystal King's ice beams. He ran up close to him and struck him with a Vulcan Jab, following up with a flaming sweeping kick.

"I'll make you pay for ruining my palace, Chopper!" the Crystal King growled as he summoned three Crystal Bits. One was diamond-shaped, another was shaped like a cube and the other one was shaped just like a sphere. He inhaled them and spat them out at Chopper, leaving some heavy bruises on his face.

"I won't give up the fight… There's no way I want to let someone die…" Chopper wheezed as he struck the Crystal King with a couple of fireballs. The Crystal King tried to block them with his ice sword, but it simply melted it.

The Crystal King immediately summoned more Crystal Bits to help him, but while he did that, Sonic managed to strike him with a Light Speed Attack, and not to mention he sent him flying in the air with a Whirlwind. When the Crystal King landed on the ground, he was dazed, allowing the blue hedgehog to strike him with a Homing Attack before getting struck by the Crystal King's ice beam, which froze his feet.

"Unnnghh! I can't get out!" Sonic tried to pull himself out of the ice, but he couldn't get enough speed in to do it.

"I'll try to get you out of there," Blade said as he sprinted towards Sonic. However, the Crystal King wasn't going to let this happen. He inhaled his Crystal Bits once again and spat them towards Blade. Although, it really wasn't successful, since Blade managed to block each Crystal Bit with his katana.

Afterwards, Blade melted the ice off of Sonic's legs with his katana, freeing him from the ice trap. Sonic thanked him and then charged at the Crystal King again, this time using another Homing Attack.

However, he got knocked away when the Crystal King blew a huge gust of icy wind towards Sonic. It didn't freeze him, but it definitely did make him feel cold because of the wind.

"Oh, man… That certainly wasn't good…" Sonic shivered.

"Hang in there, Sonic," Blade said as he struck the Crystal King with his katana and then tossed Hommissile straight at him. The Crystal King brought his arms up to defend against the attack, but it didn't do him any good.

"Hang on, Uncle! I'm back!" Jojora managed to return with her wand once again. "This time, we'll get those heroes!"

"Excellent. Now do me a favor and freeze some of them, will you?"

"Certainly," she smiled as she aimed her wand at the group. She fired a large beam of ice straight at the group, freezing all of them but Kirby, due to him having the Ice ability on. "Aw, man! It didn't freeze that ice person!"

"Poyo! (Well, I'm going to make sure you're away from this place!)" Kirby managed to knock Jojora back with a kick, knocking her wand straight into the snow pretty badly. She tried to pull it out, but was having a hard time.

"You gotta be kidding me! This isn't cool at all!"

While she was busy with that, the others broke out of their frozen prison and turned their attention back to the Crystal King. Chopper immediately sprinted towards him and struck him with a Smash Punch, knocking him over.

"Gah! …Fine, if this is the way you're going to fight, then I might as well play a little dirty!" the Crystal King raised his arms and used his powers to recover 35 HP. "There. Much better."

"Oh, come on! He can recover HP? !" Blade gaped. "Now THAT'S unfair!"

"Relax, Blade. We can still win this. We gotta be fast." Sonic assured as he curled up in a ball and struck the Crystal King with a Spin Dash. Part of his crown got a bit crushed, but that was about it.

"You realize that no matter how many times you defeat me, I will always come back!" the Crystal King cackled as he swung his arm, tearing a part of the background to make Sonic get struck by an ice slash attack. "You can't even escape my ice slash attack either!"

"Well you can't escape this!" Chopper's foot had a flaming aura around it as he did a slamming kick on the Crystal King, leaving a harsh burn on him. "That's should help. Now, Mario… I have a little plan."

Mario: What is it?

"I'll toss a couple of fireballs to you and you use your hammer to throw them at the Crystal King. That sounds like a pretty good strategy, doesn't it?"

Mario: It's not bad!

"Great! Now here come the fireballs!" Chopper tossed a fireball up to Mario, who pulled his hammer out and whacked at it with his hammer, sending it straight to the Crystal King to do even more damage.

"Ack! What are you doing? !"

"Oh, just something that'll take you down!" Chopper smirked as he tossed another fireball over to Mario, who whacked it straight at the Crystal King again. When the Crystal King tried to float over to them, Chopper immediately whipped up his hammer and whacked him with a fire smash, followed by his spinning hammer attack that left him battered.

"This should freeze up the battle!" the Crystal King grinned as he summoned a large wave of ice energy towards the group. Unfortunately, Chopper wasn't able to escape this. He ended up freezing from it.

When he broke out of his icy prison, he saw that his Fighter ability was gone. "All right, I'm tired of becoming frozen," he managed to easily inhaled an ice ball that he tossed into his mouth to get the Ice ability.

"Great… Now I have two people that I can't freeze…" the Crystal King groaned as he fired an ice beam at Chopper. But what he wasn't expecting was that Kirby managed to strike him with an Ice Sprinkle attack that left him dazed for a couple of seconds. Chopper immediately went in and did an ice sweeping kick to knock him over.

"Hey! I wanna make a move too!" Blade gripped his katana and jumped towards the Crystal King, striking him a couple of times with his katana. Everyone didn't realize Luvbi was swooning over Chopper when he made those moves against the Crystal King, though.

"Oh, Chopper… Thou art such a brave fighter!" she swooned, which irritated Chopper a bit.

"Please stop with that, Luvbi…" Chopper groaned as he swung his arms at the Crystal King, striking him with some ice energy on his hands. Mario immediately moved in and performed a Triple Jump on the king's head to deal some more damage.

"You're going to pay for that, Mario!"

"I got my wand, Uncle!" Jojora smiled as she held her wand up. She flew towards Mario and whacked him with his wand, but Chopper immediately jumped over to her and froze her with his Ice Breath.

"Sorry, Jojora, but it had to be done," Chopper apologized.

"Stupid little… I better do this again." once again, the Crystal King raised his arms and used his powers to recover 35 HP. But he was soon struck by Kirby, who kicked him in the face with a kick.

"Poyo, (Just because you healed yourself doesn't mean you're going to win this,)" Kirby said as he used his Ice Breath to freeze the Crystal King a couple of seconds before breaking out.

"I know just what to do with you!" the Crystal King summoned three more Crystal Bits and spat them out at Kirby after he inhaled them, knocking his Ice ability away. He did the same exact thing with Chopper, knocking his Ice ability away as well and destroying both yellow stars.

"Aw, come on! That's not fair!" Chopper pouted. "…And I'm a bit low on HP too! That's not a good sign…"

"Well we've got plenty of healing items… So why don't we use one of them?" Blade suggested.

Everyone agreed and took one Ultra Shroom Shake. They each shared a sip and recover 50 HP from it. They do have a lot of HP anyways, so it wasn't going to harm them in any way. But the Crystal King had more HP than that, and he looked like he wanted to kill them all.

"I guess I'm going to have to turn things around here…" he raised his arms once again, but this time he began to spin vertically around. To their surprise (well, mostly to Blade), they saw three Crystal Kings instead of one.

"Pray, what hast happened to him?" Luvbi asked.

"Apparently he's become three Crystal Kings…" Chopper made a jump for the first one, but he simply phased through it. They all cackled as they summoned a large blizzard that froze him.

"Oh, you'll be next!" the group stood in horror at the blizzard as the three Crystal Kings began to charge up another one. However, Blade managed to hit the right one with a shuriken and he even freed Chopper with a fire slash, melting him from his ice prison. The two clones also disappeared.

"Art thou cold, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked sweetly.

"I'm not your prince!" Chopper grumbled as he quickly shook himself before tossing an ice ball straight at the Crystal King. It wasn't much, but when Chopper charged up an ice ball and shot it straight at him, that's when he did some real damage.

"Your ice attacks aren't going to do much to me, you know…" the Crystal King stated as he fired an ice beam straight at Chopper. He ended up countering it with a fireball, causing an explosion.

"Whoa… I actually did that?"

"That's pretty weird…" Sonic gawked before striking the Crystal King with three Homing Attacks. He knocked him over with a kick afterwards, but it didn't stop the Crystal King from fighting back.

Using his magic again, he recovered 35 more HP. Also, he used his Crystal Bits to hit both Sonic and Blade for some intense damage, while Chopper and Mario stomped on his head at the same time to deal double damage to him. But, Chopper ended up getting thrown off from the Crystal King's ice slash, while Mario managed to stun him with a Ground Pound.

"Ugh! I can't take the damage from that butt stomp!" the Crystal King cried as he inhaled his Crystal Bits again and spat them at Mario. The Italian plumber pulled his hammer out and blocked the attacks with them. They didn't leave a dent on his hammer, so that was a nice thing for him. But what would've been nicer was if he hurt him again. So, guess what he did? With Kickbring, he managed to leave the Crystal King's crystal crown a bit cracked.

In fact, the Crystal King looked pretty battered, even when he healed himself.

"I won't lose to you people… That's something I will deny!" the Crystal King made two clones of himself in order to hide himself. However, Kirby managed to get the right one when he tossed Crystaline at them, since it was able to strike all enemies in his way. The clones disappeared and the Crystal King was frozen for a couple of seconds, allowing Mario to deal some heavy damage with a Ground Pound.

"Argh! This isn't over yet!" the Crystal King fired an ice beam directly at Sonic, who managed to dodge the attack and strike him with a Light Speed attack. Blade sprinted up to the king next and used his fire slash to deal some heavy damage as well…and he even added Hommissile to the mix as well.

"Man, from looking at this guy, it looks like he's toast," Chopper smirked, readying his hammer. The Crystal King was about to fire another ice beam, but he was interrupted when Chopper smacked him with his hammer.

"So, what's it gonna be, Crystal King? Do you want to give up already? We already have you beaten."

"I'll never lose to the likes of you, Chopper!" the Crystal King began to charged up an intense attack. It showed part of his robe sparkling with a couple of snowflakes. "This attack should be the end of you all!"

Mario: We've got to finish him, and fast!

"Mario… I think I know what to do…" Chopper tossed a fireball straight to Mario, who reacted by smacking it with his hammer. It struck the Crystal King, but it didn't seem to be enough.

"Hmmmmm… Let's try ice." With an ice ball thrown, Mario whacked it straight at the Crystal King. This time, the king began to glow a light blue color. "Wait… This seems to work!"

"Argh… This is…too…cold!" the Crystal King coughed.

"Hey! I think I see what to do here! Chopper, you gotta throw more ice balls over to Mario!" Sonic suggested.

Chopper nodded and began to throw a couple of more towards Mario. With each hit, the Crystal King felt even more cold air going into him. After about five more, the Crystal King was coughing like crazy.

And Mario knew just what to do… With a simple Ground Pound attack, the Crystal King was finished.

"No… This cannot be!" the Crystal King began to scream as he noticed the lower part of his body began to freeze up in ice. "What? How is this possible? The great Crystal King cannot have his life end like…this! Jojora! Help me!"

Unfortunately, Jojora was still frozen. The Crystal King continued to scream until he was nothing but a frozen popsicle. He wasn't in any ice cube, oh no. His entire body was completely frozen…and from the looks of it, he appeared to be dead.

"Whew… We finally did it…" Chopper sighed in relief. "I hope that's the last we ever see of him…"

"But there's only one thing I wanna know…" Sonic pondered. "How did he ever get in this dimension?"

"Poyo, (Sometimes, we'll never know,)" Kirby shrugged.

"I am so glad thou art safe, my sweet prince!" Luvbi fluttered up to Chopper and kissed him on the cheek. Just like before, Chopper began to have another one of his episodes before Jojora thawed out.

"All right, I'm finally ready to… Uncle?" Jojora blinked at the sight of the frozen Crystal King. "Ummmmm… What did you jerks do to my uncle? ! How dare you? You are so uncool!"

"Hey! He's the one who was picking a fight with us!" Blade retorted.

"I HATE YOU ALL!" Jojora cried as she flew out of the area, but not before shouting "_**JERKS**_" to them all.

"Whew… Well we finally took care of that." Sonic stretched his arms and sighed in relief. "So, who wants to go get a Pure Heart?"

"…Crysta!" Luvbi suddenly realized that Crysta was in danger, so she immediately fluttered up to the white door up ahead. Everyone sprinted over to the door and entered a white shrine with snowflake pictures on the walls.

"Crysta! Where art thou? !" Luvbi called out.

"_L-Luvbi…? Is that…really you…?" _everyone saw a light blue childish spirit that was coughing out dark energy, which seemed to show that she was sick from the dark power that was sent into her body.

"Yea… It is me. I bring yon heroes hither to thy shrine… Art thou…all right?" Luvbi fluttered up to her friend, who looked up at her.

"_Luvbi… This darkness in my heart… You realize that it's going to…cough…kill me soon, right?"_

Luvbi looked down with a sad look. "Yea… I dost understand this. Yon king toldeth us… He said that Tipral came hither and hurt thee… But how canst thou die when thou art a spirit?"

"_Not all spirits will be able to continue their life. Some will simply go away… I've known many that have…wheeze…died out. It appears my time will finally come at this moment…"_

"What did Tipral do to you?" Chopper asked, frowning.

"_He… He injured me with some of his dark powers, then impaled me with a powerful magical dark spear that would eventually kill me in an unknown matter of time… He said…cough…that he did it to stop you heroes from coming…"_

"Is there a way to helpth thee, though?" Luvbi asked, starting to cry. "I just don't want to loseth thee!"

Crysta smiled at Luvbi. _"Luvbi… My friend… Sometimes, being able to live for a long time isn't a good thing… If you became immortal, how would you feel about it? Would you want to be like that? I… I wouldn't."_

"You lose all of the people you love so much, and you never get to see what happens when you actually die…" Sonic explained. "People say it's a blessing, but it seems like a horrible fate…"

"…worse than death," Blade added.

"I've lost the people I loved because of someone…" Chopper remarked, thinking about what happened to his birth planet, Mondrao. "Listen, Crysta. If there's any way we can help you, we will do it."

"_Hero… The only thing that can help me is if you let me die…" _Crysta shed a small tear as she looked at the group. _"I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do to help me… I know it's a tough thing for you all, but you'll understand…"_

The five slowly nodded, but they didn't seem so happy. Luvbi probably took it the worst, due to losing her friend.

"_Luvbi, you must understand too. What would you prefer? Having my suffering end, or keep it?"_

Luvbi wiped a tear off her face. "…I understand, Crysta. It may be for the best."

"_Thanks…cough…you…" _Crysta pulled a snow white Pure Heart out. _"Heroes… Please take this as a thank you. You need this more than anyone else. Please… Help all of those that are in danger of Tipral."_

"It pains me to see you go, but I understand…" Chopper trailed.

"_And Chopper… Before I go… I think it would be best to reveal something to you… You see… Many years ago… I…managed to…s…a…ve…yo…ur…mo…th…" _her words were cut short as she slowly began to disappear.

"Wait! Don't go yet!" Chopper cried. Unfortunately, it was too late. Crysta was no longer in the room. All that she left was the Pure Heart and a blue flower. Chopper looked down at the blue flower and his eyes widened.

"This flower… I put this...in front of my mother's grave."

"Poyo? (The exact flower?)" Kirby gawked.

"Yes… It even has a little tag I put on it." Chopper opened the tag and saw his four-year old writing. It almost made him want to cry, but he didn't.

"Chopper… I think we shouldst leave…" Luvbi trailed. She noticed that Chopper picked up the flower and put it away.

"Yes… We should get out of here." Chopper turned to the group and noticed Luvbi picked up the Pure Heart. She fluttered over to him and handed it to him.

"This is for thee…" she said before Chopper took it from her hands. The Pure Heart began to float above him as the Pixls began to do their little dance. As soon as they were finished, Chopper held the Pure Heart up.

"How come he always gets to hold that up?" Blade asked.

"Don't ask me about it," Chopper frowned, his sad look changing into a confused one, as if Blade pretty much ruined the moment.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Mayhap I'll see Crysta one day…" Luvbi trailed as they all made their way out of the Confusing Palace. "Mayhap she will be in The Overthere, waiting for me to come thither." Although everyone didn't know what to say, they simply nodded and continued. Even then, Kirby was still bothered by his own shadow, and Chopper was somewhat disturbed to see that Crysta had his mother's flower. "What was she trying to tell me before she died? It looks like I'll never know…" It was unfortunate, but he thought that he might find out some other time._

* * *

**OK, that was a pretty long chapter, I have to say that... However, that means this fic is halfway finished. Yeah, it's surprising, right? There are only ten more chapters to go! ...Only those chapters are actually a bit longer than the last ten...and much, MUCH darker. Well, mostly towards the end it gets a bit freaky.**

**Anyways, prepare to see what comes up next! ...It might surprise you!**_  
_


	63. Chapter 10 Interlude

**All right people… Here's an interlude for you! For this one… You might be a bit shocked, you could possibly get mad at me for what I did, or your feeling about it might be neutral. …Meh, it's not like you get angry at any of the characters in this fic…well, except for maybe Tipral, but that's about it. Anyways, we're moving on to the interlude!**

* * *

Over by Christmas Village, Tipral teleported in the center of the village. He noticed that there were some Koopas wearing antlers on their head. One of them had a red nose, that's for sure. He could even hear some of the people being happy inside of the houses. Well, ones that were awake.

"Ugh… I can hear how happy those people are." Tipral grumbled, turning away from one of the houses with some kids laughing. "Now's not the time to worry about that, though. Dark should be here sooner or later."

"Hey, who's that guy over there?" Rudolph gaped at the sight of Tipral. "Whoa! He reminds me of that kid we saw earlier!"

"Excuse me?" Tipral turned around towards the Koopas, gripping his Dark Star Scepter. "Are you talking to ME? !"

"Uhhh… Yeah. Why are you so angry?"

Tipral aimed his scepter at him. "I would be careful if I were you… I hold the most powerful weapon in the whole universe and in every single dimension. So if you try to mess with me, you're most likely going to be dead."

"Hey! I was just…" Rudolph stopped when he saw Tipral raise his scepter. "Ummmmm… Never mind! You can move on!"

He lowered his scepter, but he didn't nod at him. He just gave him a disdainful look. "Good. If you try to say anything else to me, I swear that I'll kill you. I managed to harm someone else here that'll surely work in my favor. Now where is Dark Doom? I've been waiting for him for a while!"

Tipral looked up at the tree and its beauty. Although, he wasn't so happy with it. With a snap of his finger, he struck the tree with Star Magic, setting it on fire and burning it down to nothing.

"This tree doesn't belong here. In fact, I don't like this village all together."

"All right, I'm here, Tipral," Tipral stopped when he saw Dark appear right in front of him with his cape. "Sorry I took so long. I had to speak with Nastasia with a couple of important things."

"Such as…"

"Well, let's just say she needed me to fill out something for a meeting. She always wants to set up some little meetings for some things… I don't know, maybe it's just for some interview, but whatever."

"What about O'Chunks and Mimi?" Tipral raised an eyebrow.

"Nastasia is making him write a 1,000 page essay, while Mimi… Well, I don't know what she did. She told me to tell Nastasia that she messed up bad against the heroes. So, I'm going to bet that she lost to them."

"Fine, I'll let Nastasia take care of them. Now, I know that there's something around here…or rather, _someone_." Tipral looked at the glowing scepter.

"Are you sure about this, Tipral? Is it necessary for us to find these two people?"

"The Dark Prognosticus clearly states that we'll have the upper hand against the heroes if we find these two," Tipral explained. However, he happened to notice both Shade and the Necromancer fluttering to the ground with their wings. "Hmmmmmm? It's those two again…"

"Who?"

"Look over there," Tipral pointed to Shade, whose identity couldn't be seen with the hood on and the Necromancer, who looked pretty much the same ever since they fought him.

"You faced them before? In fact, who are they?"

Unfortunately, the two happened to spot both Tipral and Dark and they immediately went up to them.

"Well well well! If it isn't Tipral! I'm surprised that you decided to go off on your own instead of going with those stupid heroes…" Shade growled. "I thought that snowman would've killed them, but I guess not."

"And who are you two supposed to be?" Dark asked.

"Hmmmmmm… For some reason, I see a bit of a resemblance between you…" the Necromancer pondered as he looked at Shade and Dark. "Yes… I think there is a resemblance."

"Resemblance? What the hell are you talking about? ! There's no resemblance between him and I!"

"Yes… There is. Dark… You might remember me." Shade brought his hood down and revealed his face. "It's your 'brother', Shade."

Dark seemed a bit surprised. "What are YOU doing here? Didn't you leave? In fact, WHY the hell are you in that cloak and holding some sort of wand?"

"Oh, how he learned to become a master of dark magic is rather interesting! Share the details to him, master!" the Necromancer grinned.

"Dark… Remember when I said that I would go get my own army? Well, it turns out that I did! I freed some monsters down in The Underwhere and the swore their loyalty to me! Now, I have a gigantic army of the undead on my side! What do you have? An army of aliens. You see… You cannot kill the undead. That's a problem with your army. Also… You cannot get some advanced weaponry without MY help!"

"Hmmmmmm… He's right. Things have gone a bit downhill when you left. …But that doesn't mean I need you anymore."

"And how I got to master dark magic… You might be a bit surprised!" Shade began to explain how he got his dark magic.

* * *

_"Gah… There's nothing around here except for dead bodies… I'm not going to find anything here!" I was walking on Ash Field. Apparently, Dark was no longer here because he must've thawed out and left with his army._

_"I need to get started in getting an army, and fast. But, I need something… Something that will help me become even stronger than Dark!" I then tripped over something._

_"What the…!" I got up and I saw a book with a dark mist around it. I picked it up and it was labeled, "Book of Dark Magic."_

_"Well, looks like I just found what I needed to get my own army! Hee hee hee hee hee!" I had a huge, evil smile on his face. I finally founded what I needed to become stronger…_

"_Now let's see what we've got in this book…" I opened the book and began to read what was in it. "Hmmmmm… Now THESE are some interesting spells! I'm going to need to find a nice, dark place for me to learn this easily!"_

_I looked around, trying to see where I could go. I noticed the Shadow Palace out at the distance as I flew. I happened to notice Chopper and his stupid friends leaving, so I simply went in there to learn dark magic! The dark atmosphere really did help. You don't wanna know how much I love the darkness! Hee hee hee hee!_

_As I opened up the book again, I began to train myself in these arts. It took me a while to learn them all, but I managed to finish the book up in three months in the Shadow Palace. I felt like I was ready… But the last thing I happened to notice was that I could actually teleport to another dimension._

"_So… If I just used this teleporting spell, I could possibly go to another dimension! Excellent! I'll simply use this and find an army from another dimension! And as for others that'll get in my way… I'll snap their necks and cover my hands in their blood! They won't get in my way!"_

_And, with that spell, I was off._

* * *

"Hmph, I see that's a bit interesting… But I could care less how you learned your dark magic. I suggest you leave before…" Tipral heard a couple of voices. He noticed the heroes walking into the village. "Crud! Those stupid heroes are here! We can't stay here forever!"

"Grrrr! Fine, we'll be leaving then! Let's go, Necromancer!" Shade immediately flew off, with the Necromancer following him.

"So where are we going now, master?" the Necromancer asked.

"Back to our home. I'm getting sick of this place anyways…"

Tipral and Dark immediately jumped into two trash cans, trying their best to keep themselves hidden from the heroes. However, Tipral peeked a little bit from the trash can to see what was going on.

"Man… I can't believe we already got the Pure Heart!" Blade said in surprise. "Although, it wasn't really a great thing to witness…"

"Yes, we know that, Blade," Chopper sighed as he looked at the flower. "I still don't understand what she meant by saving my moth… What did she mean? Moth? Mother?"

"I doth feel sorry that she had to endeth her life… But I think it's time we movest on. She wouldst wanted us to do that anyways." Luvbi immediately hugged Chopper. "But at least thou art still hither!"

"Luvbi, please don't!" Chopper began to cry out again as Luvbi kissed him again. "Gross! Stop it, please!"

After they left the village, Tipral got out of the trash can and clenched his fist in anger. "Luvbi… I thought she was gone after she sacrificed her life to become a Pure Heart? ! How is she still alive? !"

"That girl? Uhhh… I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, forget it. That's not what we're here for anyways." Tipral listened carefully and heard another voice.

"_Guys… G-Guys… Don't l-leave me h-here…_"

Bingo. That was exactly what Tipral was looking for. Behind one of the houses, they could see a plumber shivering in the cold. He looked terrible, that's for sure. Who was it, you ask? Well, he is none other than…

"Ah, I've been looking for you…Luigi!"

"T-Tipral? ! What are YOU doing here? !" Luigi yelped, cowering in fear.

"I have my reasons for looking for you, you know…" Tipral said as he gripped his scepter. "You'll definitely be helpful on our side, you know. And don't even think that you can escape either!"

"I'll try!" Luigi jumped over Tipral, but he managed to keep his arms and legs still with the power of the Dark Star Scepter.

"See? There's no escape!"

"So, this is one of the people you've been looking for?" Dark asked as he walked up to the green plumber. "Why does he remind me of the red plumber that we saw earlier?"

"You mean m-my bro? Don't even try to hurt him, 'cause he's going to trounce you!" Luigi retorted.

"How about you do it instead, because THAT would be a bit more interesting," Tipral said as Dark walked up to the plumber. "Dark, you take care of him while I find the other."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Dark asked.

"You'll see," as Tipral walked off, Dark grinned at Luigi.

"Mario! Wherever you are… HEEEEEEEEEELP!" Luigi cried as Dark touched his moon crescent on his head with a green.

While he did that, Tipral pulled out a certain golden sword that he was holding on to this whole time. It looked just like…Meta Knight's sword? Even then, he needed to get him here as well.

"I know just what to do," Tipral waved his scepter and shot at the ground. Meta Knight was suddenly teleported right in front of Tipral and held by some dark hands that rose from the ground.

"Wh-What? ! What's going on? !" he barked. "What are you doing here? !"

"What am I doing here? Looking for you, of course!" Tipral growled. He pulled Galaxia out and showed it to him. "Were you looking for this?"

Meta Knight's eyes widened. "G-Galaxia? ! How on earth did you find THAT? !"

"I was holding onto it this whole time! …But I'm not going to give it to you just yet. Oh, I'll give it to you, but you'll have to wait."

"Tipral, I'm finished. What do you want me to do now?" Dark asked, walking over to Tipral.

"You finished with him? Well, we'll have him go out to find the heroes, that's what! …But now I want you to get him too."

"What do you plan on doing with me?" Meta Knight asked.

"You'll see!" Tipral nodded. He noticed his scepter was rumbling a bit, so he touched the dark star on it to find Fawful's big grin.

"_I have the readying now, Tipral! The heroes will finally taste Fawful's fury yet again!"_

"You want to go out now? Ugh… Fine. You can go after the heroes too if you wish. Just don't screw around, though. O'Chunks and Mimi failed before, so I don't want you to mess up either."

"_I have no failing! You can have the counting of Fawful!"_

"All right, then," Tipral closed communications with him while Dark walked up to the trapped Meta Knight.

"This won't hurt a bit!" Dark grinned as he placed his finger on his moon crescent thing on his head. "…Or maybe it MIGHT hurt a bit!"

What would happened to Meta Knight and Luigi was something the heroes would never find out.

…Or would they?

* * *

**Flipside Towers-**

As the heroes walked out of the white door, a white crystal heart appeared on top of the door, showing that they have finished this world.

"All right, eleven Pure Hearts down, nine more to go," Chopper smiled as he held the snow white Pure Heart in his hands. "Although… This one kind of reminds me of when you were a Pure Heart, Luvbi."

Luvbi blushed. "That was a nice compliment, my sweet prince!"

"Uhhhh… I was just pointing it out, that's all…"

"And we're finally out somewhere where it's not below 32 degrees!" Blade sighed in relief as he stretched. "It's about time we got to relax!"

"Uhhh… I wouldn't say that, Blade…" Sonic trailed. "We still have a Pure Heart to place in its Heart Pillar."

"And we need to take Luvbi back to her parents too…" Chopper said as he turned to Luvbi. "Sorry, but we kind of need to bring you back now."

"Nay! I dost not want to go back to Mother and Father!" Luvbi retorted. "I'd rather stayeth with thee instead of them! They art so overprotective over me, and I'd rather be with the boy I love!"

"Wh-What? ! But they'd be worried if you never came back! I don't want them to get worried!"

Before he could continued to speak, something fell on his head. A wand with a crystal ball on it appeared and landed right beside him. Out of curiosity, he picked it up and looked at it. It was glowing a rainbow color, to his surprise.

"This rainbow color… I don't know why, but it kind of reminds me of…Tippi."

"Poyo? (But why did it fall from the sky?)" Kirby asked.

"I'm not too sure… Maybe we should show this to Merlon. He might know what it is." Chopper carried the wand over to the elevator and headed over to Merlon's house, along with everyone else.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

Merlon was reading through the Light Prognosticus before the heroes came into his house. "Ah, young ones! You've returned! How was your trip through the tenth world?"

"Uhhhh… It was all right." Sonic explained. "We managed to find the Pure Heart from a spirit named Crysta."

"Crysta? You mean one of the Tribe of Ancients that lived as a spirit? !" Merlon gasped. "I would've never guessed that she'd be there! How was she doing?"

Chopper's face definitely showed that something bad happened. "Oh, I see… Well, not all spirits live forever… What a shame that she had to go."

"Yeah, it kind of stinks, if you think about it," Blade agreed.

"And who is this beautiful angelic girl here?"

Luvbi blushed. "Oh, thank thee for noticing my cuteness and beauty! Mine given name is Luvbi. I'm the daughter of Queen Jaydes and King Grambi."

"So your parents rule the aftergame?"

"Thou art correct!" Luvbi fluttered up to Chopper and trapped him in a hug. "And Chopper hither is my sweet prince! We art planning on getting married!"

From what Merlon saw, Chopper was shaking in fear at the Nimbi girl, which definitely told him that he didn't like her back, so he just decided to play along with it.

"Ummmmm… Yes, I see! Anyways… You'll find the eleventh Heart Pillar somewhere near the third Heart Pillar. I was recently told by Nolrem that the next door will be up at Flopside Towers."

"Flopside Towers? We gotta go over there now?" Blade frowned.

"I know it may be a long way over there, but it's not too bad. Trust me."

"Before we go… Do you have any idea what this is?" Chopper pulled the wand out that he found on the ground of Flipside Towers and showed it to Merlon. "We found this earlier and we have no idea what it is…"

"Hmmmmm…" Merlon took the wand from him and began to look at it carefully. "I'm not quite sure if I can get a good reading on this. I really don't know where it came from. It's something quite new to me…"

He returned it to Chopper. "However, I'm sure you'll be able to find out sooner or later. I believe this does hold a great power…"

"All right, I guess we'll bring the Pure Heart to its Heart Pillar…" Chopper trailed as he turned to his friends. "Let's go, guys. We have a Heart Pillar to find."

* * *

**Flipside Outskirts, B1-**

"Poyo, (This is where we needed to use Slim in order to get to the third Heart Pillar,)" Kirby explained as they all walked out of the pipe. They noticed a little doorway was being surrounded in fire.

"Ah, so that's where we need to go in order to find the Heart Pillar!" Blade pointed out as he pointed at the doorway. "Go on, Kirby! Let it rip!"

Kirby shrugged and used Crystaline's power to get rid of the flames on the doorway. How it worked, I have no freaking clue, but it opened the doorway in 3-D for Chopper to walk through.

"Here I go!" Chopper flipped into 3-D and walked through the doorway. The Heart Pillar was all the way to the left, which wasn't so surprising.

"So, Chopper… What didst thou do when thou cameth hither to a Heart Pillar?" Luvbi asked, startling Chopper a bit.

"Hey! Who said you could follow me here? !" he yelped.

"Well, I wanted to be with thee, that's all!" Luvbi giggled as she followed Chopper over to the Heart Pillar.

"Look… THIS is what you do." Chopper pulled the snow white Pure Heart out and tossed it into the Heart Pillar. A snow white clock appeared around the pillar as the heart went in. They knew something interesting was going to happen up at Flopside Towers.

A dark green door was drawn there.

"Hmmmmm… Well, we all should make our way up there. The next door should be up at Flopside Towers…"

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

They were all surprised when they saw a dark green door all the way to the left of the tower. That meant that they all had to take a longer walk over there instead of having the door right next to them after coming out of the elevator.

"All right… Are you SURE you want to come into this world with us, Luvbi?" Chopper asked.

"Yea, verily. It is nice to be with my sweet prince anyways! Especially when you can giveth them a kiss!" she giggled as she kissed Chopper on the cheek, making him disgusted once again.

"Bleh! All right, fine. You can come with us…"

At this point, everyone was groaning.

"Poyo? (Why does she have to come with us? She's horrible!)" Kirby whined.

"I don't want to hear her insulting us again…" Sonic groaned.

"Now we're in a deep pile of yogurt…" Blade face palmed.

Mario: Mama mia…

"Yea, I know thou verily wanteth me gone, but I loveth my prince! I wish thou were not hither, though…" Luvbi said with an irritated look.

"Can we just stop arguing and go already? I HATE it when people fight." Chopper groaned as he wiped the kiss off his cheek.

Everyone agreed and made their way into the eleventh door, or rather, the first door of Flopside.

* * *

**...They forgot Luigi. THIS could be a problem...  
**


	64. Attack of the Robots

_Our heroes were once again forced to take Luvbi with them through the first door of Flopside Towers. Everyone wasn't happy with it, especially Chopper, who was getting annoyed with Luvbi talking to him in a nice voice. They would usually hear stuff from, "Oh, Chopper! Mayhap we will findeth a romantic place to stayeth at!" and to others, she would be, "Why art thou slowing us down! Go faster yon servants of my sweet prince!" Hopefully things will change when they walk through the door up ahead. As for the wand… What is it really?_

**CHAPTER 11-1**

**-Attack of the Robots-**

As the whole place began to get drawn, it seemed like there were a couple of bushes. Hey, it sounds like it's one of those forests. However, when everything got colored, it looked like the whole forest was nothing but technology. There wasn't any real grass or trees in sight. The color of this ground was nothing but shiny silver with some steam coming up from the ground.

Once the dark green door appeared, the whole group walked out of the door, but to their dismay, they saw that this place was nothing but an industrialized forest. How…horrible. Well, to Chopper and Sonic at least.

"My god… It's like we just entered some kind of wasteland of horror…" Blade gaped as he looked up at the gray sky. "Everything's made out of technology… This just isn't right. At all."

"What happened to this world? Why is everything full of technology?!" Chopper cried. "Or… Is this world supposed to be all technology? Because it isn't quite nice, with the steam and all."

Mario: I definitely agree.

"The only thing that I wish we could do is restore this place to what it originally was," Sonic said as he stretched his arms and legs. "I wonder what the people are like here. Think they're friendly?"

"I dost not knoweth, nor dost I careth," Luvbi retorted in her usually annoyed manner as she fluttered up to Chopper and kissed him on the cheek. "It mayeth not be the most romantic place, but I think we can shareth a nice, romantic kiss hither, dost thou agree with me?"

"Poyo... (Oh, great… Now she's doing this again...)" Kirby sighed as Chopper wiped his cheek out of disgust.

"Yuck! How many times do you have to do that, Luvbi?!" Chopper gagged as he finished wiping his cheek. "You don't wanna know how disgusted I am at getting kissed by you!"

However, even though Chopper continued to reject her, Luvbi giggled. "But thou are so cute! Why wouldn't I giveth a cute boy that I loveth so much a kiss on his adorable little cheek? And thy lips are even so nice… Thou art such a good kisser!"

"Bleh! I don't even kiss people! YOU'RE the one doing that!" Chopper guffawed in disgust. "Look, can we talk about something else besides romance? That's something I dislike so much."

Luvbi sighed sweetly and hugged Chopper, looking straight at him in the eyes with her own beautiful, heavenly eyes. "Kiss me, my sweet prince!"

"Well, looks like Chopper's screwed," Blade snickered, only to get hit in the arm by Sonic. "Ow! OK! I'll stop! Sheesh!"

"Poyo, (Well at least I'm not the one who has an obsessed girlfriend like Luvbi,)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo. (In fact, I don't really have a girlfriend at all…although it would be kind of nice.)"

Chopper looked at Luvbi in fear as she prepared to kiss him on the lips. But, to his surprise, he was actually saved when someone else grabbed a hold of the Nimbi girl. But it didn't seem like a friendly person at all.

"_**EEEEEK!**_" Luvbi's ear-piercing scream nearly got everyone to cover their ears. She tried to break free, but she was being held rather high up. Not to mention she couldn't get out of the unknown person's grip.

"Hey! Who's the one who's holding Luvbi?!" Chopper growled as he clenched his fist.

"Long time no see, Chopper! It's been quite a while, hasn't it? !" the young boy gulped at the voice. He saw a robot that seemingly resembled him with a metallic light green color, blue eyes, blue pauldron-like armor, silver hands and green feet holding onto Luvbi thanks to him hovering on his large, blue jetpack.

"Hey! Who the heck is that guy supposed to be?" Blade gawked, drawing his katana. "He kind of looks like you, Chopper!"

"What, you've never heard of me?!" the robot cackled, but simply bowed while still holding onto Luvbi. "I am none other than the great and mighty…**Metal Chopper**! I am your worst nightmare, cat!"

"Oh, it's just you… I remember we took care of you back in Dark Subspace World." Sonic said like it wasn't a big deal. "You're really not one to be successful. What do you do your whole life? Kidnap girls?"

"Leteth go of me, foul tin can!" Luvbi yelped, trying to hit Metal Chopper with her wings. Although she hit him a bit, it didn't seem to do anything to him thanks to his metallic body.

"Try all you want, little girl, but you can't hit my metallic body with your flappy little wings!" Metal Chopper grinned. "Now, Chopper… You see that this whole place looks like a complete wasteland of nothing but machinery? Well, it's been like that this whole time! You're in my turf now! And I rule it!"

"What? You RULE this place?" Chopper felt like he was going to laugh and he couldn't quite help it. "That's just laughable! There's no way you could be the king of a world! You stink at accomplishing your goals!"

"Oh? Then let's see how you like it when I take your girlfriend to my new fortress! My robot minions will be there waiting for you!" Metal Chopper began to fly off with poor Luvbi, who began to cry and she looked back at Chopper.

"Chopper! Please! Savest me!" she blew a kiss that ended up landing on Chopper's cheek, to his disgust (he wiped it off afterwards). But after that last cry, she and Metal Chopper were gone.

"I don't believe it… Luvbi's gone." Chopper gaped as he finished wiping the kiss off of his cheek. "We… We don't have to deal with her anymore! This… This is… OK, honestly, let's not celebrate. I think that's a bit rude."

"I would celebrate," Blade smirked. "That girl was being such a jerk to us, so we should be able to celebrate. Besides… You don't have to deal with her kissing you right now! You should be happy too!"

"I know… But…" Chopper looked on ahead. "She DID help me get better when I had that cold. That was a pretty nice thing for her to do… And also, hasn't she done anything good for you all either?"

The rest of the group began to ponder, thinking about any good things she's done for them.

"Poyo, (Nope, nothing,)" Kirby said, shaking his head.

"I can't think of one good thing," Sonic shook his head too.

"Uhhhhh… Hell no." Blade replied with a head shake.

Mario: Nope. She didn't say anything good to us.

"Well… Yeah, you guys have a point." Chopper sweat dropped while rubbing his head. "Anyways… Maybe we should just move on ahead, what do you say? There's not much we can do…although I think saving Luvbi wouldn't be a bad idea."

Everyone sighed, but they knew they didn't have much of a choice. Perhaps Metal Chopper would be holding the twelfth Pure Heart they're seeking? No one knew, but as soon as they walked over to the steam…

_"Don't get close to that!"_

"What the… What was that voice?!" Sonic paused and noticed that there was something glowing in Chopper's bag. "Hey, Chopper… I see something glowing in your bag! You should check it out!"

"Really?" Chopper checked through his bag for anything glowing and pulled out the wand from before. It was glowing a rainbow color. "Whoa… This rainbow glow reminds me of Tippi…"

_"Chopper, it's me, Tippi!" _the voice cried out. _"Well, I'm no longer Tippi now… I'm Lady Timpani. But I'll answer your question on how we're still alive."_

They all seemed so surprised to hear Tippi's voice…and not to mention they were glad to see that Tippi was all right. _"I'm also with my love too, Lord Blumiere. He can say hi to you right now if he wants."_

_"Hello, heroes. I… I apologize for what I've done earlier…" _Blumiere apologized.

"What's done is done, Count," Chopper nodded. "You don't need to apologize for what you did. Besides, Dimentio ended up taking the Chaos Heart. But we don't have to worry about him. He's probably gone, right?"

_"Yes… I guess he's gone…" _Timpani trailed. _"The reason why I wanted to keep in contact with you was because I think you would need my help. There might be hidden things that require my help in order for you to get through. Also, I wanted to tell you that if you touched the steam, you would get hurt."_

"Ahhh… So we just need to jump this. Very well." Chopper jumped over the steam and scurried on ahead. All there really was up ahead was a silver door. Even the doors were mechanized!

"Holy crap… The doors are mechanized too! Weird…" Blade frowned as he opened the door and hurried on into the next area. Everyone else followed to find a couple of robots with searchlights flying around.

_"Chopper, aim the wand at that robot and I'll help you," _Timpani suggested, making Chopper aim the wand directly at the robot. A ray of rainbow light emitted from the wand and struck the robot. Apparently these guys cannot see the light, making it easy to use it on enemies.

_"That's a Securibot. It likes to patrol the area searching for intruders. You cannot defeat them, but you can stun them for a couple of seconds to avoid getting spotted. If the Securibot spots you in its searchlight, it will call for other robots to attack you, especially the Intruderbot, which is a deadly enemy to fight…" _Timpani informed.

"Securibots, huh… Well this isn't going to be easy." Chopper paused for a minute when he heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes. "Hey… What the heck is that sound coming from?"

Surprisingly, a couple of flying robots called Patrolbots were struck by a couple of shurikens, making them explode. Everyone immediately turned to Blade, who looked a bit confused.

"Don't look at me! I wasn't the one who threw that!" he denied.

"Well if you didn't throw it, then who did?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow. They happened to notice a shadow jump out of the bush and kill off the rest of the Patrolbots around. All they could really see were two glowing blue eyes.

"…Poyo? (…Should we get his attention? Is he a friend or foe?)" Kirby asked.

"Errr… I suppose we could try to get his attention." Chopper shrugged and looked over at the shadow. However, before we could even shout, the shadow jumped over to them. They saw a robotic black ninja with a blue mask and a katana with a blue stripe on it.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Sonic asked.

The ninja didn't respond, but he turned around and jumped over the Securibot. With a shuriken, he managed to stun the enemy. He gestured them all to follow him before it would come back.

_"Should we get some information on him?" _Timpani asked.

_"Maybe we should wait for him to introduce himself…" _Blumiere suggested.

"I think that's a good idea," Chopper agreed as they walked over to the next Securibot flying over the ground. The robot ninja gestured them to stop as he stunned it with a shuriken. Afterwards, he gestured them to follow him up ahead until they got to another door.

"Ummmm… Could you please tell us who you are?" Sonic asked. As they got to the door, the ninja stopped and looked at the heroes. He didn't look like he was a foe, but he didn't seem much of a friend either.

Ninja: …

"Poyo? (Uhhhh… Got anything to say?)" Kirby asked, tilting his head. All the ninja could do was open the door for the team and allow them to go into the next area, which had more steam on the ground and even some Patrolbots.

"He doesn't understand what you're saying…" Chopper trailed, glancing over at Kirby. He looked over at the robot, who gestured them all to hide in the bush right next to him. "Wait, why are you…"

"Don't speak. Just get in the bush." the robot ninja spoke at last, jumping into the bush. The others shrugged and jumped into the bush, however, it was a bit too late for Mario to get in the bush, since he got spotted by a large robot.

"Hey! Who're you?" the large robot was more like a truck with turrets on his shoulders (we'll refer to him as a he) and a T on his head. Of course, his arms and legs are simply wheels like every single truck out there. Although he's rather big… He's not definitely the smartest robot on the block.

Mario gulped and looked up at the robot. "Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, punk! What's a chubby mustache man that's not a robot such as yourself doin' around here? This place is a robot place only!"

Mario: I'm the pizza delivery boy!

"The pizza delivery boy? Oh, man! I'm starving! Listen, buddy, my boss, **Grim** is always making me do so much back-breakin' work. I mean, what's a guy such as I, **Trucker**, supposed to do? I'm not a tool!" hearing this made Mario sweat drop a little, as well as the rest of the group.

"All right… So, I'm kind of hungry right now. Where's my pizza?" Mario gulped once again, but the robot ninja face palmed and threw a stunning shuriken at Trucker, making him fall over. "Aw, crap! I can't get up like this! Man… Now I'm in some serious nuts and bolts here…"

Mario immediately jumped into the bush before Trucker could get up. He began to search the area for Mario, but he had no luck.

"Dang… The pizza boy's gone. Man! I was hopin' to get some pizza! Oh well… I guess I better head back to Grim…" Trucker began to mutter a couple of things under his breath before leaving, allowing the group to get out of the bush.

"All right… Can you tell us who you are and where we are?" Chopper asked.

The robot ninja sighed. "Fine… I don't usually like to speak often, but I have no choice…" he put his katana away and looked at the heroes. "My name is **Ninbot**. Fear not, people. I am not your enemy. You have stepped into a world where non-robots and non-machinery are hated beyond belief. I'm just about one of the only people in this world that actually have some respect for the 'meatbags'. I suppose you people are the heroes, are you not?"

_"Heroes? How do you know about the heroes?" _Timpani asked.

"I cannot explain much. I saw that robotic version of you take that girl and fly away." Ninbot looked over at Chopper. "If you want to save her and get the Pure Heart, then you must follow me."

_"We just met you… Why would we want to…" _Blumiere's words were interrupted by Sonic.

"Hold on, Blumiere. Remember Squirps? He did something like this before…" Sonic pondered.

"Who the heck is Squirps?" Blade gawked. Blumiere was unsure of who he was too.

"He was a little alien guy that helped us find the fifth Pure Heart in Outer Space. He didn't tell us much, but he wasn't our enemy. I believe that Ninbot's kind of like him…except he's not all 'weird' and squishy. He's…a ninja."

"Huh… I never knew about that guy…" Blade trailed as he walked up to Ninbot. "Heh. I think this is going to be interesting! We're both ninjas! I think we might get along just fine."

"Perhaps…" Ninbot turned away from him and jumped up into the trees. He didn't bother to say anything else as he jumped from tree to tree.

"Hey! Don't think you're the only one with those skills!" Blade performed some tricks as he jumped from tree to tree, leaving Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Mario to the steam on the ground, Securibots and Patrolbots.

"Well… Looks like we have some ways to do, don't you think?" Chopper slightly chuckled as he jumped over some steam. He tossed an ice ball at one of the Securibots, freezing it for a couple of seconds to allow them to pass by. When they got to a Patrolbot, Chopper aimed the wand at it.

_"That's a Patrolbot. They tend to patrol the area quite often, since that's what they're programmed to do. Max HP is 36. Attack is 9. Defense is 2. If they see you, they'll fire a green laser at you. You can easily avoid it by going into 3-D or simply getting far from it. It also can't hit you if you get behind it. Some say that these guys love to shoot anything they see, which is why they're called Patrolbots." _Timpani informed.

"All right, well we need to get rid of these guys while avoiding those guys over there," Chopper said as he pointed at the Securibots. He started off by tossing another ice ball to freeze it in order to get past it. The Patrolbot happened to spot them and tried to shoot at the four with its laser.

"Hold on, I got this!" Sonic jumped over the steam and struck the Patrolbot with a couple of Homing Attacks. Once he destroyed it and landed on the ground, he realized he landed on some steam, making him get hurt.

_"Be careful with those, Sonic…" _Timpani warned. _"You'll lose 6 HP if you ever step into those… It's very dangerous…"_

"Ugh… No worries, Tippi… I'm just fine." Sonic wheezed as he jumped over the steam and made his way over to a mechanical platform that was moving up and down. There was another one moving from left to right over a large amount of steam. Not only that, but a Securibot was around as well, which was troublesome.

"Oh, man… This isn't good." Chopper gulped.

"Poyo, (I think I might know what to do,)" Kirby took in a lot of air and began to float over the Securibot. He let out all the air and managed to stun the robot for a couple of seconds, making it fall into the steam, destroying it instantly.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea!" Sonic smirked.

With that out of the way, they took the platforms over the steam and over by a slope leading to another door. Apparently Blade and Ninbot already made it over to the door and were waiting.

"Poyo? (How long were you here?)" Kirby asked as they got over to both of them.

Blade and Ninbot looked at Kirby out of confusion, but Chopper was able to translate what Kirby was saying. Blade simply explained that they were waiting for them for about three minutes and that it wasn't a big problem.

_"I suggest you guys move on…" _suggested Blumiere through the glowing wand. Apparently, whenever someone from the wand spoke, it would glow a rainbow color. Nevertheless, they walked through the door to find a Save Block and a yellow ? block right over by a metallic pipe. A Piranha Plant that looked robotic rose from the pipe and tried to bite at Kirby. They noticed sparks coming out of its mouth as it tried to bite, which was quite surprising.

"Errmmmm… OK, that's a strange Piranha… Think you can scan that thing with Tippi's power, Chopper?" Blade asked.

"All right…" Chopper aimed the wand at the Piranha Plant when it showed itself again and began to scan the creature with it.

_"That's a Piranha Bot. It's a robotic version of a Piranha Plant… It looks quite strange to me… Max HP is 34. Attack is 9. Be careful when getting close to it. It might try to bite you with its metallic teeth. If you ever get bit by it, you're most likely going to be paralyzed for a bit. However, if you've got the Lightning Shield on you, you shouldn't have to worry about getting hurt." _Timpani informed.

"I've got a good idea," Chopper tossed an ice ball at the Piranha Bot, followed by Mario, who finished it off by performing a Ground Pound. There were a couple of other pipes around, but apparently this one would lead to a secret underground.

"So, Ninbot… Are you going to follow us down this pipe?" Blade asked as he looked up at Ninbot. The ninja didn't really say anything, but he simply jumped up onto one of the trees to make sure he was safe from harm.

Mario: I guess that's a no…

And with that, they all made their way down the pipe.

* * *

**Underground-**

The pipe ended up leading them to the bottom wall to the left, where they saw a box with a Lightning Shield in it. Sonic was the first to react to it, using a Spin Jump to break it and gain the Lightning Shield.

"Aw, yeah! THIS is something I've been waiting to get for a long time!" Sonic smirked as he waggled his finger. "Now I don't have to worry about getting hurt by any electric hazards! Nice!"

"Well we still need to search this room…" Chopper trailed as he flipped into 3-D. He noticed that there was a Patrolbot in the room that spotted him and began to open fire on him. "Yeah… There we go."

Using Thoreau, he grabbed a hold of the Patrolbot and brought him into 3-D. He threw it over to Kirby, who used Crystaline to freeze the Patrolbot and allow Blade to finish it off by throwing Hommissile at it. Afterwards, a robotic Squig appeared in the room via teleportation.

"Poyo…? (Uhhhhhhh… What…?)" Kirby looked speechless.

"Tippi?" Chopper aimed the wand at the robotic Squig.

_"That's a Squibot. These are robot versions of a Squig, and they're also quite defensive of their territory. Max HP is 24. Attack is 8. Defense is 2. They'll shoot little metallic pellets at you if you get at a close distance. But you can always use the pellet to throw back at it." _Timpani informed.

"Poyo! (I'll handle this!)" Kirby inhaled the metallic pellet that the Squibot spat and spat it out at the Squibot. Chopper finished it off by bashing it with his hammer, revealing a chest behind paper in the background that peeled off. Just like the chest, the Door Key appeared to be metallic.

Mario: We're running into a lot of metallic stuff lately.

"No kidding. I guess this is why this forest is all metallic…or rather, the world." Chopper stated as he and the rest of the group exited the underground room via the pipe.

* * *

**Outside-**

Once they exited the pipe, they saw that Ninbot was jumping from tree to tree in the background with his ninja abilities. Not only that, but there was a tall pipe right in front of them as well.

"Poyo, (Let's check what's up on the top,)" Kirby took in some air and began to float up to the top of the pipe. He saw that there was a badge sitting up on there with an X. He shrugged and tossed it down to the group, with Blade catching it.

"Hey, this is a Ninja Spin badge!" Blade gawked as he looked at it. "I think I'm the only one who can equip something like this. But who really cares? I think it should come in handy!"

After equipping the badge, he began to spin his katana around like it was a wheel. Everyone stood back as he performed this move. "Yeah! I think I'll be able to block attacks and deflect projectiles at enemies! …Although it's only for a short time…"

"Well that's a good thing," Chopper smiled while Kirby floated down.

"Yeah. Now we need to get out of here." Blade went back and hit the yellow ? block to get a Super Shroom. He brought it back and split it into five pieces so they could all recover 20 HP.

But before they could move on, Ninbot landed on the ground and gestured them to turn back. "Whoa, man! We're NOT turning back! We need to get through here in order to move on!"

Ninbot face palmed and moved to the left and past the door. To the left of the area, there was a blue ! switch sitting there. By throwing a shuriken, he managed to reveal a metallic door over by the right.

"Oh… So that's why you wanted us to turn back…" Chopper trailed as he and the rest of the group jumped over a couple of pipes and opened the door into the next area, which wasn't quite big, but a Star Block was up ahead, that's for sure.

"Whew! We're finally done with this place! …But that seemed a bit too short, to be honest. Oh well." Sonic took a couple of steps, along with his friends, but they stopped when they saw that steam was preventing them from getting to the Star Block and from going back in the previous room.

"I have you trapped!" an angry Midbus came crashing towards the ground, pounding his chest. "Now you will be crushed!"

"Oh, great… It's the great piece of pork again." Chopper face palmed. "All right, what do you want with us this time?"

"Pork? I have no pork!" he spat back, confusing the rest of the group.

"What…? I don't get what you just said…" Blade trailed while scratching the top of his head. "In English, please?"

"Lord Fawful sent me to destroy you. That's what I will do." Midbus brought his fist back as if he was ready to punch them. "Taste my punch! And then eat it!"

"…Weirdo," was all Sonic could say before using a Whirlwind attack to keep Midbus distracted for a bit. With that, he managed to strike him in the stomach with a Homing Attack, leaving a couple of scars from the quills on Sonic's head.

"Oof! My stomach urks me!" he cried as he began to hop around in pain, nearly trampling both Chopper and Kirby. Blade, however, knocked Midbus back over by the steam thanks to Hommissile, which caused the boar to yelp in pain from the hot steam and rocket up into the air.

"Well that wasn't so hard…" Chopper noticed that Midbus was coming down towards him. "Uh oh… Better get out of the way!"

Midbus landed on the ground by his stomach, sending a huge wave that knocked Chopper and Kirby off the ground. When he got up, he clenched his fists and picked up Chopper, throwing him at Blade.

"Aw, come on! Do I ALWAYS have to be thrown at people? !" Chopper cried as he got himself up.

Mario: Relax for now.

While Chopper panted, Mario stepped up and tried to attack Midbus with a stomp attack. The boar tried to grab a hold of him, but the plumber was too fast for him, being able to stomp on him again and then hitting him in the head with a Ground Pound until he got knocked away by Midbus's punch.

"Poyo, (Say, I don't think we've ever gotten any information on Midbus,)" Kirby remarked, remembering fighting Midbus back in Chapter 9-5 without Tippi by their side. "Poyo? (Think you can see what kind of stats Midbus has, Chopper?)"

"I think I'll try," Chopper nodded as he pulled the wand out and aimed it at Midbus, making the wand emit a large ray of rainbow light, which looked quite nice. But that wasn't the important part.

_"That large boar is Midbus. He seems to resemble both an armadillo and a boar. He's one of Fawful's henchmen… Max HP is 130. Attack is 9. He may not have any defense this time, but he does use a couple of new attacks, such as throwing broken machinery… Try to stay away from the steam in the battle, because he will throw you over to it and make you take more damage… However, you can turn the tides by throwing him at the steam with Thoreau's ability. For some strange reason, I don't quite understand why there's someone who looks like that…" _Timpani informed.

"Hmmmmmm… I guess we can try to fight back by throwing him into the steam. Kirby! Try to grab him with Thoreau!" suggested Chopper.

Kirby nodded and managed to grab a hold of Midbus with Thoreau before he could slam his fists into the ground to knock him back. The pink boar looked confused as he was turned upside down.

"What? What's going on?" he gawked as Kirby threw him at the steam, sending him rocketing up into the air until he landed on the ground and made a large shockwave hit everyone…except for Sonic.

"You can't shock me with this shield on!" Sonic smirked as he did a double jump thanks to the shield and performed a Homing Attack on Midbus. Because of the Lightning Shield, it also left him a bit paralyzed.

"Oof! I can't move… You paralyzed me…" wheezed Midbus.

"Yeah, we know that already," Chopper said as he stomped on Midbus and then kicked him in the stomach with an icy kick. He made a finishing attack by using his spinning kick, but with ice energy on his feet, just to make sure he did a little bit more damage to him.

_"So this is another one of Tipral's minions, I suppose?" _Blumiere asked as Chopper landed on the ground. The young boy pulled the wand out, which began to float in his hands. _"I thought he already had a brute with him… Unless this is someone else's minion…"_

"He works for Fawful, who apparently works for Tipral…" Chopper trailed as he jumped out of the way from Midbus's attack and froze him by firing an ice ball straight at him. "So, I guess that means Midbus is one of Tipral's minions."

While Midbus was frozen, Blade tossed Hommissile at him in order to break him out of his icy prison. Once that was done, he sprinted towards the boar and struck him with a couple of strikes from his katana.

"Urgh… This fight isn't over." Midbus grabbed pieces of scrap metal from the ground and growled at them. "Now you get chucked. Then you'll die!"

He chucked the pieces of scrap metal straight at them, with Blade using his new move to block the attacks with his katana. It went straight back to Midbus, who got stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Perfect! Now to make a move on him!" Blade smirked as he sprinted towards the boar again and slashed him with his katana. Sonic managed to paralyze him again when he struck him with a Spin Jump, allowing Mario to strike him with a Ground Pound. From what they were seeing, they were creaming this guy.

_"He seems to be taking a lot of hits…" _Timpani trailed.

"I'm not done yet," Midbus growled as he quickly shook himself. He began to rapidly spin around as he got a large ball and chain, which began to spin around as well. It hit Chopper in the face, leaving a large red mark on his cheek and it also struck Blade, which knocked him down. Mario was able to duck to avoid it, but Midbus managed to hit Mario when he threw the ball and chain at him.

Mario: Mama mia…

Apparently, Mario was incredible dazed after the attack. This allowed Midbus to stomp over to him and charge up a powerful attack. His stomach seemed to be open for an attack, so Sonic immediately struck him with a Homing Attack…but even that didn't work against him.

"Your attack doesn't do much," Midbus mocked as his entire body turned red. But once Chopper struck his stomach with an ice smash, he managed to leave his stomach cold, causing Midbus to rub it and hold it in pain. Kirby managed to inhale one of the pieces of scrap metal and spit it out at Midbus to weaken him.

However, he was able to recover quick and do a belly flop on Kirby, flattening him. After wards, he did another belly flop, but this one allowed him to launch himself up in the air after curling up in a ball. This time he was going to squash Sonic. He succeeded, but he also took damage when Sonic brought his quills out.

"Next time, don't try to attack me when I have those quills up," Sonic warned.

"Urk! These quills. They hurt!" Midbus screeched as he pulled them out. But after he did that, Chopper ran up to him and whacked him in the face with his hammer, then punched him with fire and ice energy.

"Hey! Using both fire and ice is pretty cool!" Chopper smiled while looking at his hands. His right hand had fire energy while the left had ice.

_"Where did you get the ice energy from?" _Timpani asked.

"I got it when Luvbi saved me from possibly dying," he replied as he tossed a fireball at Midbus after Kirby managed to freeze him with Crystaline's ability, melting him from his icy prison.

"Man, I don't know about you guys, but this guy's just a wimp!" Sonic chuckled, smirking at Midbus. "I thought you were tougher than this, you piece of sliced up ham!"

At this point, Midbus was getting angry. He immediately stomped over to the laughing Sonic and punched him, knocking him to the ground. But that's when Blade managed to jump behind his back and bash him in the head with the hilt of his katana, leaving a couple of bruises on him.

"Now you get off," Midbus managed to grab Blade and throw him to the ground. Before he was able to stomp on him, Mario stomped on his head first and performed a Ground Pound to make him dazed.

"Oof! What the…"

Mario: It's-a me, Mario!

With his hammer, he managed to bash Midbus in the head again, followed by Blade kicking him in the stomach and throwing Hommissile at him to deal some extra damage. Chopper noticed that Midbus's HP was rather low.

"Wow, we're actually creaming this guy," Chopper smiled before Midbus knocked both Blade and Mario away with his punches. He could see the boar was charging straight at him, so he got his hammer ready.

…But he wasn't able to bash him when he got rolled over by Midbus while curled up in a ball, to his dismay.

"Ouch… That wasn't necessarily nice…" Chopper wheezed as he got himself up. He ducked when Midbus tried to strike him again, this time making him trip over after getting himself up.

"Whoa!" the boar fell over on the ground and was soon kicked in the head by Blade's foot. He aimed his katana straight at his throat, although he didn't have it incredibly close to him, due to not wanting to kill him.

"All right, Midbus. Give up. You've lost." Blade stated.

"No. This isn't over." Midbus kicked Blade, causing him to be knocked over, allowing him to get up. However, things didn't turn out the way he wanted it to be when Chopper threw a charged ice ball at the boar, freezing him in place.

"Thanks, Chopper. Now I can finish this guy off!" Blade smirked as he jumped towards Midbus and finished him off with a fire slash, melting him from his icy prison and leaving him burnt for a couple of seconds before falling over on his back.

"Oooooog… Pain." Midbus moaned as he was knocked unconscious by Blade's katana (which is a bit strange, to be honest).

"Huh… Well I guess that solves that mystery." Chopper stated.

"What mystery?" Sonic gawked.

"The mystery of… Oh, forget it."

"Poyo? (So where do we go off to next?)" Kirby asked as he looked at he group out of confusion.

"Well, I think we need to go hit that Star Block…and then we have to rescue Luvbi and get the Pure Heart," Chopper explained, making everyone groan as soon as they heard him say Luvbi.

But before they could finish speaking, Ninbot came down from the trees and landed in the middle of the whole group, making them all step away.

"…Where were you this whole time?" Blade asked.

Ninbot didn't speak, but he hurried on ahead. Using his katana, he managed to destroy the steam that was in their way. Turning his head back to the group, he gestured them to follow him.

"It looks like Ninbot wants us to follow him…" Chopper trailed as he charged up a Speed Dash and took off towards the Star Block. With one punch, he was able to break the block and end the chapter.

"I hope this guy can be trusted…" Sonic hoped as he looked at Ninbot from behind.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Thanks to the evil Metal Chopper, our heroes not only have to look for the Pure Heart, but they were also forced to rescue the Nimbi princess, Luvbi. Not only that, but this strange robotic ninja named Ninbot was helping them. While he did look a bit suspicious, with being silent and all, they had no other choice but to listen to him and follow him. He could be the key to getting through here easily…_

* * *

**Wow. A lot of interesting things happened in this chapter... First Luvbi gets kidnapped by Metal Chopper (who apparently DOES have a thing for kidnapping girls for some reason), Tippi and Count Bleck turn out to be the ones who sent the wand to the group, and then we have a robotic ninja and a world filled with robots! Holy crap... Now that's a lot of stuff.**

**Will there be more next part? Well... Maybe you should wait and see for that. If you like robots, you're probably going to like this place, I suppose.**


	65. Shocking Madness

**CHAPTER 11-2**

**-Shocking Madness-**

"Oh, wow… Now THIS looks like a nice introduction to this area, doesn't it?" Chopper asked sarcastically as he saw a couple of saw blades stuck to the metallic ground moving. They all knew for a fact that they'd probably take some serious damage if they even touched those saw blades. Heck, it might even kill them (although, we never see saw blades cut people in half in Nintendo games…except for that one game made by Rare)! It was best that they should avoid them, which was what Mario suggested to the group and agreed to.

"Saw blades aren't really hard to get past anyways," Blade explained. "As long as you're above them, you should be just fine. …Just don't touch them or else you're probably going to be toast."

They noticed past the saw blades was a robotic zombie that had no eyes and rather sharp teeth. They also happened to be a bit…scrawny-looking, as if they're starving to death. These things freaked everyone out, especially Kirby. The only one who didn't seem a bit freaked out was Ninbot.

"What the HECK are those things? !" Chopper gaped as he saw it lying on the ground. "I'm going to ask Tippi this… Maybe we can get some information off of it. It's probably the best option."

Pulling out the wand, he aimed it straight at the robot zombie and got some very interesting information.

"_That's a Robbie. These are robotic zombies that tend to lie on the ground waiting… Max HP is 50. Attack is 12. Defense is 6. If you get close to them, they'll let off a howling scream that'll keep you frozen for a couple of seconds… If they ever get a hold of you, they can do some massive damage to you if you're not careful… It's best to attack these foes from a far range…" _Timpani informed.

"Robbies? Why are they called Robbies?" Sonic asked.

"Robbie is a combination of a robot and a zombie," Ninbot explained quickly before turning his head away from the heroes and jumping past the saw blades. Unfortunately, he did nothing about the Robbie.

"Aw, man! That's not fair!" Chopper frowned. "Well… I guess we better go follow him… Hopefully we won't get caught by that…_thing_!"

"_That Robbie does seem a bit creepy…" _Timpani trailed.

"_It's all right, my dear Timpani. You're safe with me." _Blumiere assured. From what Chopper knew, it felt like they were going to say a lot of romantic stuff to each other, which kind of grossed him out.

"Ummmmm… OK!" Chopper immediately put the wand away and started by hitting a brick block, which contained one coin. The other yellow ? block contained a Super Shroom, which they all took to recover 20 HP.

"Never thought we'd find a Super Shroom right in front of us…" Sonic trailed as he jumped over the first saw blade. He saw the Robbie was past the other saw blade and immediately stopped. "OK, someone's going to have to take care of that guy… I'm not getting close to it."

"I'll handle it," Blade jumped over to Sonic and began to toss a couple of shurikens at it. Since he has a higher attack power, he was able to take it out faster than how the others would've defeated it.

"There. It's finished. Now we can move on."

"Poyo, (Gee, that took quite a while,)" Kirby stated as he floated over the saw blades and over to another yellow ? block. When he struck it, a Beam ability popped out and landed right next to him. He shrugged and touched it, which ended up giving him the Beam ability, surprisingly.

"Poyo! (Hey! When I touched this, I got the Beam ability! Weird…)"

"Well, I'm sure there's more where that came from," Chopper stated as he saw another Robbie up ahead. Kirby charged up a couple of beam attacks and killed off the Robbie. They noticed that there was a slope leading down to two Patrolbots that were ready to open fire when Chopper and Sonic gained some speed from going down.

"Oh, boy! Heads up, guys!" Sonic curled up in a ball and struck the first Patrolbot with a Spin Jump. Chopper killed off the other Patrolbot by jumping on it a couple of times while performing stylish moves.

"Stylish moves are so much fun," Chopper smiled as he landed on the ground.

"Yeah, they are, but do you know what's even more fun?" Sonic jumped on the platform that took him up to an upper part of the area. There were those Flippers (that Blade called them) that apparently would help them get over the large amount of saw blades and get to the door ahead.

"Poyo! (Geez! They're going a bit overkill on the saw blades!)" Kirby gaped as he floated over the saw blades and landed right by the door. Chopper seemed a bit jealous as he used the Flippers to land right by the door.

"Man… If only I could have you're power…" Chopper soon realized something. "Oh, wait! If I swallow you, maybe I might get your ability to float! …Nah, but I wish I had that. I'd kill to get that."

Kirby simply snickered at him as Sonic, Blade and Mario landed right on the metallic ground. Mario walked over to the door and pondered for a minute. He decided to walk right through, but all there was was an explosion that dealt some damage to him.

"What the… Are you all right, Mario? !" Chopper gasped as he helped him up. Mario nodded and explained to him that there might be a trap. And guess what happened? Chopper decided to check himself…and he ended up getting hit by an explosion as well!

"The door's booby-trapped. We need a way to get through without having to get hit by an explosion." Blade stated.

Chopper felt the wand in his bag glowing, so he immediately pulled it out. Just like before, it began to float in his hand.

"_Heroes, I would advise that you use the wand's power to search for any clues," _suggested Blumiere. _"I can assure you you might be able to find something around here…"_

The young Star Warrior shrugged as he aimed the wand around the ground. When he aimed it at Kirby, the pink puffball ended up covering his eyes from the bright rainbow light.

"Poyo! (Chopper! Point that someplace else!)" Kirby cried.

"OK! Sheesh!" he aimed it over by the right, where he ended up finding a hidden blue ! switch. "Hey! There's something here!"

"_I'll try to help make it visible for you. I can do it with my powers through this wand." _Timpani said as she used her power to reveal the switch. _"There you go. You'll be able to move on now."_

"Say… How come we can't see you and your husband through that thing?" Sonic asked. "We never got to see what you both really look like!"

"_I wish we could actually let ourselves be seen through this, but we can't do that. We can see you through this, however. Sorry about that… This wand has its ups and downs…" _the girl trailed.

"Well, we can't just waste our time. I think we should get going through here." Chopper suggested, kicking the switch and then walking through the door. This time there was no explosions.

Mario: We better follow.

Mario immediately walked through next, with Kirby, Sonic and Blade following him afterwards.

* * *

**Robot Fortress-**

"Pray… Where am I?" Luvbi opened her eyes and noticed that she was trapped inside of a blue force field cage. There was no way of getting out, to her dismay. The walls and the ground were all a grayish color. If you flipped into 3-D, the ground would have a picture of Metal Chopper on it.

"Where hast that horrible tin can broughteth me?" she asked herself as she looked around the room. "I dost not deserve this kind of treatment!"

"_Did he capture you?" _Luvbi turned around and saw a computer with a face on it. The voice sounded like a female voice. _"Oh, look at you! You've got a couple of bruises on you! You poor, adorable thing!"_

Luvbi looked at her wings, which were a bit bruised. Her cheek even had a small scar as well. It only hurt her slightly. _"Did that horrible robot treat you horribly? You don't deserve that!"_

"I thanketh thee, computer… But who art thou?"

"_I'm the main computer of this fortress. I'm known as AI-5538. Don't worry, cute little girl. I'm not going to harm you. I actually feel bad for you more than feel happy to see you hurt."_

Luvbi gave a small smile to the computer. "Dost thou knoweth where I am, though? I dost not knoweth where I hath been taken to…"

"_You're in the Robot Fortress. This is where Metal Chopper's base is. He plans on making some weapons that'll destroy all mankind and turn them all into robots for his robotic army!"_

"What? ! Why wouldst he do that? !"

"_I don't know why… He's just a cold-hearted robot. I told him that it was a horrible thing, but he didn't listen to me and instead mocked me…" _she gave a sad frown. _"I like both robots and living people! I think it's just wrong to simply take that away from someone!"_

"Yea, verily, I dost agree that it is wrong to taketh something away from someone…" Luvbi had a sad look on her face as she looked down at the ground. "He hast taken me away from my true love… Chopper…"

"_Awwwwww! How cute! You have a boyfriend?" _AI-5538 giggled. _"I always find young love so cute!"_

Before they could continue their conversation, they heard the sound of an elevator door opening. Metal Chopper came walking out and walked right over to the trapped Luvbi. Of course, he looked angry as he usually does (probably from all of the hate on Chopper or something).

"So how do you like my fortress, little girl?" Metal Chopper grinned. "It's fascinating, isn't it? Well, I think you'll be able to enjoy yourself in this place! Especially when I get the chance of turning you into a robot!"

"Is that why thou hast kidnapped me? To turneth me into a tin can such as yourself? Nay! I will never do that! I dost not love thee! I love Chopper!" Luvbi replied in an angered manner.

"Oh be quiet! You're going to be a robot whether you like it or not! …And apparently I seem to kidnap a lot of girls for some reason. Oh well. I need to test my weapon against someone and you're the only one that seems like an easy test subject. Plus, when I use it on you, you'll forget that stupid organic Chopper forever! That's right! You'll never remember who he is!"

"What? But I dost not want to forget Chopper! He's mine one true love! Thou wilt be ruining my whole life!" she cried. "And how come I hast to be the one thou hast to test it on? !"

"Because… I hate Chopper! You don't even KNOW what kind of things he's done to me in the past!" Metal Chopper remarked, thinking about those horrible memories of blowing up. "I think this would be payback for those times! Instead of using it on him, I'd use it on someone he knows or cares about!"

Before he could continue, he heard the elevator door open again. "Oh, hold on a minute… They must be early."

He saw a robot that resembled Mario and one that resembled Sonic walk out of the elevator door. They happened to be carrying some instruments with them. Metal Sonic appeared to be carrying a bass while Metal Mario happened to be carrying some drums. They looked quite heavy.

"We're-a here, Metal Chopper," Metal Mario stated.

"And we've got the instruments," Metal Sonic said, holding up his blue bass.

"Ah, good! I've been waiting for you guys! Now we can finally have our little rehearsal! …But he can't screw up like last time." Metal Chopper grabbed his guitar and helped set up the amps at the corner of the room.

"Pray, what's going on hither?" Luvbi asked.

"Who's the meatbag in the cage?" Metal Sonic asked.

"That meatbag is none of your concern," Metal Chopper bluntly stated as he plugged his guitar into the amp. "I'll explain what's going on after we finish our rehearsal. You all got that?"

"Yes, I-a got it," Metal Mario nodded.

"Good… Are you guys ready? Metal Mario, get started with the count!"

Metal Mario grabbed his drumsticks and began to beat them together. "And-a one, and-a two, and-a one, two, three, four!"

* * *

**Metallic Forest-**

As the heroes walked out of the door, they noticed that up a small hill was some parts of the ground that had electricity on it. From what they knew, it was quite deadly. A couple of Securibots were around here as well and they were even some Robbies lying right by the electric ground.

"Oh, boy… Electricity? This is going to be a problem…" Blade trailed as he looked over by the Robbies. "But if he lure them into the electric ground, then maybe we'll be able to get rid of it easily."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Chopper smiled. However, Kirby was the one to go up to the electric ground. "Whoa, Kirby! Hold on a minute, you don't need to…"

The last thing they heard was the ear-piercing scream of the Robbie. It nearly frightened everyone. Kirby was even frightened, despite being near the electric ground. The Robbie itself began to go up to Kirby with its glowing red eyes. It stepped on the electric floor, causing it to be electrocuted, not to mention it exploded as well, which surprised all five of them.

"Hey, it blew up! That's nice!" Chopper smiled as he ran up the hill and jumped over the electric ground. There was a large pipe blocking the way up ahead and also a large hill as well that would eventually make a loop. Right near the slope going down were a couple of platforms that could be used so Kirby, Blade and Mario didn't have to go through the loop, luckily.

"Huh… Well this isn't so bad." Chopper stated as he flipped into 3-D. His friends also got into 3-D thanks to him and they went around the pipe. Of course, they had to jump since the pipe was standing on the electric ground.

"Man, this place is just strange…" Sonic trailed as he ran up the hill. Unfortunately, a Securibot happened to be there and it called a large, powerful robot with sirens called an Intruderbot.

"_Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" _it called out, firing directly at Sonic, who began to dodge each shot it fired at him.

"Chopper! Think you can use that wand to find out what this guy does?" he called out.

"Sure thing," Chopper nodded and aimed the wand straight at the Intruderbot to hear what Timpani had to say.

"_That's an Intruderbot. These robots are usually called when a Securibot spots an intruder roaming around the area. Max HP is 80. Attack is 11. Defense is 2. They usually try to scan for you and open fire on you, so if you get out of its scanning range, then you won't get hit by its attack. It's best to get behind this enemy and bash it so you don't have to worry abut getting hurt." _Timpani informed.

Sonic immediately curled up in a ball and tried to knock it over with a Homing Attack. Chopper immediately stunned the Securibot and then froze the Intruderbot using an ice smash in order to freeze it. In the end, Kirby managed to finish it off by firing a charged beam shot at it.

"Poyo, (Now we can get moving,)" Kirby said as he used the platform to get on top of the loop, as well as both Blade and Mario. Chopper, however, struck the yellow ? block on the hill, which made a Ghoul Shroom pop out and make its way down the hill.

"Uh oh… Ghoul Shroom." Chopper gulped.

"I'll handle it," Sonic curled up in a ball as he went down the hill and defeated the Ghoul Shroom by spinning over it. He even went through the loop and up a slope that led up to the next door.

…That was locked.

"Uh oh… This is bad news." he frowned.

He immediately went back to Chopper by Spin Dashing through the loop. Kirby, Blade and Mario noticed the door too and made their way back. Chopper was about to use his Speed Dash, but, of course, Sonic was coming towards him, causing him to jump up in surprise.

"Whoa! I didn't see you coming there!" Chopper gasped as he jumped out of the way.

Mario: The door's locked.

"What? The door's locked? !" his mouth dropped to the ground. "You've gotta be kidding me! All this time we find another locked door! This isn't right at all! It's…horrible!"

"Poyo, (Look, all we have to do is go back and check for any keys,)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo? (Maybe that pipe we were over by has something? Maybe I could be wrong on this…)"

"Let's go check," Chopper hurried back over to the door with his Speed Dash, but he was unfortunate to get electrocuted by the electric ground that the pipe was on, which really wasn't good…

"You should be a bit more careful where you move," Blade warned as he helped the electrocuted Chopper up. Afterwards, he looked around the area. "Say… Where has Ninbot gone?"

As if on cue, Ninbot showed his face right on top of the pipe. "There's a secret above this pipe… Perhaps you can find a way up here…"

"Oh, hey Ninbot!" Chopper greeted as he looked up. "What do you mean by secret? I saw nothing in 3-D."

Ninbot simply disappeared with his ability, leaving nothing but a log that fell on top of Chopper's head. "Ouch! …Hey! That was uncalled for!"

"So, what do you suppose is the secret around here? In fact, how do we even get to the secret?" Sonic asked, pondering.

Mario: Maybe use the wand?

"Poyo, (That could work,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (Chopper, maybe you should try using that wand to find out where the secret could be.)"

"All right, I guess I'll use it," Chopper pulled the wand out and he happened to discover a block nearby. "Oh! This is interesting!"

"_There's a hidden block here… Let me make it visible for you…" _Timpani said as she revealed the block. _"Hmmmmmm… It's just a plain old brick block. Maybe you can punch it."_

Mario: I'll take care of it.

Mario punched underneath the block to make a ladder appear. He decided to climb up it, passing the pipe and reaching a large metallic platform with a door right on it. There was a yellow ? block on the pipe that Chopper checked, and he happened to find a Wing ability power-up in there, so he took it and gained the Wing ability (although, it's not necessarily useful in Kirby games…).

"OK… So I got the Wing ability. Not bad…" instead of using the ladder, Chopper simply used his wings to fly up to the platform, since it would probably be a bit faster. But, nevertheless, once they were all together, they walked through the door and into an area where the whole ground had electricity. Nevertheless, there were still some platforms that could be walked on.

"What a strange area…" Blade trailed. "It's certainly not safe either…"

"I am having you trapped, heroes!" everyone noticed that Fawful was waiting for the heroes in this area. Although, he was standing on his hovering platform instead in order to avoid falling into the electric ground.

"Fawful…" everyone groaned as they jumped onto a larger platform after crossing a large gap thanks to one moving platform.

"You have the surprising, don't you? You have the surprising to see Fawful here? I am having vengeance against you all after last time!" Fawful pulled his blaster out and tried to fire a blast, but they all jumped before getting struck by it.

"Whoa! Come on, Fawful! Do we REALLY need to fight you again? We beat you before, so I bet we'll be able to do it again!" Blade shouted.

"I have chortles! You seem to underestimate Fawful. You see, I have the trapping of you in this room so you would have the harder time of fighting Fawful! Just because Fawful is lacking in beef doesn't mean Fawful is lacking in brains!"

"Wow… He's nuts." Chopper said.

"No hunger for nuts, just to destroy you heroes."

"Well, I guess he sure uses brains to make fighting us easier…" Sonic trailed. "Yeah, this might not be an easy fight for us with the electric ground. Although… I DO have my Lightning Shield still."

"Now we will have the battling like salad dressing pouring on a piece of salami! I will retain my fury!" the psychotic bean cackled as he jumped off his hovering platform and summoned his Headgear to help him fight the heroes.

"What the heck? He's flying around in some kind of headgear?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo, (Let's just take him on, since we've got nothing else better to do,)" Kirby stated as he charged up a beam attack. Fawful fired a pink blast towards him, but he fired the beam blast at Fawful and caused sparks to appear on his headgear.

"It is the shocking!" Fawful screamed as he fell on the electric ground and got electrocuted. "Now I have electrocution!"

"Hold on… What's his stats?" Chopper pondered as he used the wand to scan Fawful while he was being electrocuted.

"_That's Fawful. He's Tipral's brains of the group and also seems to talk in a strange manner… Max HP is 145. Attack is 9. Defense is 2. With that Headgear, he can strike you with blasts that have different colors… They must represent which person he's going to hit… Be careful when fighting him, because if he knocks you down on to the electric ground, you might have quite a shock… However, you can knock him into the electric ground too, so try to use that to your advantage! I know you have a chance at winning, so don't give up the fight!" _Timpani informed.

"_And try to stay on the platforms," _suggested Blumiere.

"Yeah, we understand," Sonic nodded as he performed a double jump with his Lightning Shield as Fawful began to fly back up. He managed to strike Fawful, but he didn't fall to the electric ground like before. Instead he was sent flying forwards by a door surrounded by a cage.

"Fink-rat!" he shouted as he fired a blue orb of energy, which apparently targeted Sonic. Unfortunately, he couldn't escape the attack and got struck by it, destroying his Lightning Shield in the process.

"Aw, man! That's not fair! I was just getting used to it!" the blue blur frowned as he curled up in a ball and used a Whirlwind attack on Fawful. The psychotic green bean flew out of the way and fired another blast that struck Mario and Blade, knocking them into the electric ground.

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Now you have the shocking!" Fawful cackled.

"And you need to shut up!" Blade hissed as he got back on the platform and tossed Hommissile straight at Fawful, sending him flying down to one of the platforms. Chopper flew over to him with his Wing ability and rammed into him headfirst, knocking him down to the electric ground and giving him quite a bad shock.

"Ouch! I have shocking!" Fawful cried as he got back up and grinned once again as he fired a red orb of energy towards Mario. Luckily, the plumber was ready for this and bashed the attack with his hammer, destroying it.

"How did you have the destroying?"

Mario: It's not easy to stop that.

"Well, let's do a couple of other things too!" Blade smirked as he tossed a couple of shurikens at Fawful. The bean managed to dodge the attacks and fire dark blue energy down at Blade. Luckily, since he got that ability from before, he was able to spin his katana around rapidly and deflect the attack back at Fawful, knocking him to the electric ground and electrocuting him.

"_I wonder if he can take more of that…" _Timpani trailed as she saw Fawful fly back up. His Headgear looked a bit damaged, but it looked like he was going to hold for right now.

"I have anger! How could you be throwing me into the shocking pit? !" Fawful spat, despite grinning still. "I have fury now!"

"You always said you had fury…" Chopper trailed as he tried to strike Fawful with his Feather Gun attack. Fawful simply shot the feathers with his blaster and fired a lime-green blast of energy at Chopper, knocking him back and into the electric ground, electrocuting him like Blade and Mario.

"Ack! Why did that have to happen? !" he squawked as he flew off the electric ground and fluttered with his feather wings. "That was bad. REALLY bad."

After getting back onto the platform, he flew towards Fawful once again, with the psychotic bean cackling crazily and firing another lime-green ball of energy straight at him.

"Not this time!" he smirked as he took his hammer out and bashed the blast of energy back at Fawful, knocking him to the ground. Kirby immediately stepped in and struck him with a charged up beam attack to deal some intense damage.

"Why do I have the pain?" Fawful wheezed as he got up. "Fawful is needing a new plan here…"

"I got a plan! I'll put right in your FACE!" Blade shouted as he kicked Fawful in the face, followed by striking him with a fire slash, causing Fawful to shout stuff about the "overheat" and all that jazz.

"…What's with him and saying stuff like that?" Sonic whispered.

"No idea… That's just the way he talks…" Chopper trailed.

When Fawful hovered down and prepared to fire a blast from his Headgear, Mario immediately stepped into action and struck the psychotic bean with a jump and then a Ground Pound, causing the bean to wheeze.

"I… I-I have…wheezing…" he wheezed.

"Does this mean you're finished fighting us?" Blade asked.

"Fawful says never! Fawful hates all your faces, don't you have the remembering?" Fawful flew back up with his Headgear and fired a blue blast directly at Sonic. The blue blur tried to get away from it, but he ended up getting blasted by it, which also caused him to fall into the electric pit.

"Ow! That hurts!" Sonic yelped as he got out of the pit and suffered some harsh damage. "Why do I have to take such damage? !"

"Relax, Sonic. We've all gotten hurt by the electric floor…" Chopper trailed as he flew up to Fawful and rammed him headfirst, knocking him back. Fawful tried to fire another blast at Chopper, but what he did was a bit different. He flew around him and when the blast came towards him, he moved out of the way and let the blast hit him instead. Kirby helped by striking him with his bean attack to disable his Headgear for a little bit.

"Poyo! (Your Headgear's disabled, so fight us for real!)" Kirby suggested.

Fawful grinned as he changed his blaster to his yellow laser sword. He immediately came towards Kirby, attempting to strike him, but the pink puffball jumped out of the way and hit him with a charged beam attack, knocking him towards the edge of the platform.

"Hey, Kirby! Save some for me!" Chopper shouted as he fired his Feather Gun at Fawful, followed by landing an icy stomp on him while performing a stylish move, which was indeed stylish.

Mario: Save some for me!

Fawful immediately got up and struck both Chopper and Kirby by spinning his laser sword around. But this didn't leave him invulnerable, as Mario managed to stun him with Kickbrin and then stomp on his head while performing a stylish move. He also managed to ground pound his head to leave his HP low.

"_He's not far from being defeated…" _Timpani trailed as she noticed Fawful's HP. _"Keep going, guys! He shouldn't have much HP now!"_

"Then this should be easy," Sonic grinned as he used Screwdy's ability to perform a corkscrew attack on Fawful's head, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds. Chopper tossed an ice ball to leave him frozen, with Mario using his Ground Pound to deal damage to him while he was frozen to break him out.

"Poyo… (Seriously… This guy's not so hard now…)" Kirby groaned.

At this moment, Fawful began to hover up, now that his Headgear is no longer disabled. He cackled as he fired blasts at all of the heroes. Blade managed to deflect a blast coming at him with his katana, making it hit Fawful instead and knocking him towards the electric ground.

"Well that showed him," Chopper smirked as he waggled his finger at Fawful before he flew off the electric ground and blasted him with a projectile from his Headgear, dealing some severe damage.

"Ow! That wasn't nice!"

"I have surprise. How are you still living from Fawful's attacks? You should be dead!" Fawful growled as he fired a couple of more blasts. However, Chopper managed to use his hammer to defend himself against the attacks.

While he blocked his attacks, Sonic immediately interrupted Fawful by striking him in the head with a Homing Attack. Blade was able to deal some more damage as well by striking him with his katana, which was then followed by Mario using his Ground Pound on his head.

"Ouch! I have pain!" he squawked.

He got up and knocked Mario back with a red blast and Blade with a dark blue blast. He flew up once again, but Kirby managed to finish off the fight by charging up a beam attack and knocking Fawful to the ground.

"Poyo! (And THAT'S what happens when you try to hurt my friends!)" Kirby shouted as Fawful landed headfirst on the ground. It ended up damaging his Headgear badly, but it wasn't anything bad.

"The mustard of doom…failed me," Fawful wheezed before getting up. They noticed his glasses were cracked and his face looked a bit bruised up with a couple of scratch marks from Chopper's wing attacks.

"All right, Fawful, are you finished with us now?" Chopper asked, readying to attack in case if Fawful would strike again.

"Fawful is done with you…but how about leaving with a bang covered in delicious soup?" Fawful gave them all a big grin before blasting them all with his Headgear once more before flying off.

"Ugh… That wasn't really the brightest thing to do…" Sonic wheezed as he got up from the blast.

Mario: Mama mia… Why did he do that?

"Maybe because he wanted to make sure we were dead," Blade wheezed. Luckily, the door up ahead was no longer caged up. This meant that they could actually move on and find the key.

"Whew… Good thing we took care of him, that's for sure. But, anyways, I think we should move on." Chopper flew over the platforms and walked up to the metallic door ahead and opened it. Everyone followed him through and they walked into the next area.

Of course, what they expected to see was just a small little area with a chest, but that's not how it turned out to be. They were standing on another metallic platform with the whole ground having electricity. On one of the platforms nearby was another Lightning Shield capsule that Sonic immediately grabbed using his Spin Jump.

"Finally! I got my Lightning Shield back!" Sonic said in relief.

"Yeah, but we don't have any Lightning Shields…" Blade groaned.

"So don't brag about it," Chopper grumbled.

"OK, fine. I won't brag about it." Sonic jumped onto the next platform that was moving up and down and landed on a platform with those Flippers. The rest followed him through the Flippers and landed right next to a Patrolbot.

"Poyo! (I got this one!)" Kirby charged up a beam attack and struck the Patrolbot with the projectile, destroying it instantly. They noticed a small staircase leading up to a small pedestal with a pillar in the background. The only problem was that they couldn't find anything around them that would help them, since they ARE at a dead end…

"Hold on, I'm going to search around this room," Chopper flipped into 3-D and he happened to notice on one of the pillars a little sign with some writing on it. "Ah! So this is where we'll find something interesting!"

_Press (1) and (-) at the same time to make something interesting happen on the pedestal! …If you want something interesting, that is._

He went back into 2-D and jumped on the pedestal. But there was one thing that bothered him… What was the (1) and (-) button?

"Ummmmm… Guys? Do you know what the (1) and (-) buttons are?" Chopper asked.

"Well, I did say that the great being that watches us would know something about that," Thoreau pointed out.

"Ummmm… OK… Why don't we try to convince this great being that we need his or her help?" Blade suggested.

As if on cue, the ground began to shake violently. It turns out it just made a tiny part of the background to peel off in order to make a chest appear. Kirby opened it and got the Door Key from inside.

"Poyo, (Let's go back to where that locked door was,)" Kirby suggested.

"Yeah, we better do that right now," Chopper nodded. "We DO want to get that Pure Heart and save Luvbi, that's for sure."

"Get the Pure Heart? Yes. Save Luvbi? Errr… I'm not so sure." Sonic said with a puzzled look at the end of his sentence.

"Yeah, I'm a bit puzzled about saving Luvbi too, but I don't really like to see innocent people being tortured or something…"

* * *

**Back at the locked door-**

"Poyo! (I got the door!)" Kirby called out.

"Yes, we know, Kirby… You do have the key." Chopper nodded as Kirby unlocked the door with the key, allowing them to walk through.

But the first thing they happened to notice was a yellow Cherbil coming their way. Everyone gulped at the sight of it, especially Chopper, who was disgusted to see that thing again.

"Really? Do we REALLY need to see that thing again? Ugh… Fine. I'll use the wand on it." Chopper aimed his wand at the yellow Cherbil to gather information on it.

"_That's an Electric Cherbil. It's a nasty gasbag that spews a plume of shocking gas... Max HP is 20. Attack is 8. That gas will paralyze you, so don't go sniffing it... Some say the gas come from their mouths. Some say it comes from elsewhere... ...Oh, dear..."_ Timpani informed.

"Oh dear indeed…" Blade trailed as he struck the Electric Cherbil in one hit with his katana, killing it instantly. The next thing he did was strike two yellow ? blocks. One contained a Super Shroom that they all split to recover 20 HP…and the other contained a Mega Star.

"Poyo! (Oh boy! A Mega Star!)" Kirby cheered.

Unfortunately, for Kirby, he wasn't going to get his hands on it. The Mega Star landed in Blade's hand instead, transforming him into a large 8-bit version of himself. And in actuality, he was quite pleased.

"Aw, yeah! I can trample anything in my way now!" since he was glad to be huge and 8-bit, he decided to trample everything in his path up ahead, such as Squibots, Securibots and Patrolbots.

While the group followed Blade, Ninbot watched the heroes as he jumped from tree to tree with his ninja skills. He wanted to make sure that the heroes wouldn't fall into any traps.

"_I must make sure they make it in one piece…" _Ninbot thought as he jumped towards another tree.

Unfortunately, for Blade, the power-up didn't last long and he was turned back into his normal self. Luckily, he happened to be right in front of the door that would lead into the next area, so he walked through with everyone else to find a couple of Patrolbots, some electric ground and a Star Block at the end of the area.

"Yes! We're finally done with this part of the level!" Chopper smiled as he stomped on one of the Patrolbots and struck him headfirst with his wing attack. Sonic destroyed the other two with a simple Homing Attack, clearing the way of all the enemies. The only thing they had to worry about was the electric floor.

"Great… Well, we still need to avoid that." Blade said as he jumped over the electric parts of the floor. They could see Ninbot waiting for them over by the Star Block.

Mario: Where've you been?

Ninbot didn't reply, but he gestured them all to hit the block. So, Chopper simply punched the block and broke it. Easily.

"Why don't you ever speak much?" Chopper asked, only to get no response. "Uhhh… Can you please respond to that? Please?"

"Poyo… (I don't think he'll give you a response…)" Kirby trailed.

"Dang…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Our heroes knew that they were not safe in the forest, with being ambushed by not only Midbus, but Fawful as well. Not only that, but Ninbot still refused to give specific information on why he's with them. "Hey! Ninbot! Why won't you respond to any of our questions?" was what Ninbot seemed to get a lot from the heroes, but he still didn't say anything back. Even Timpani and Blumiere began to wonder if he was actually luring them into some sort of trap. They began to wonder as they noticed the metallic forest began to have some large mushrooms appear._

* * *

**So, we finally got a battle with Fawful once again! Here's something a little interesting that you probably didn't know about: Fawful was originally going to be the enemy you fight more than any of the other bosses/mini-bosses in the story, but I decided to not do that, 'cause I didn't think it would be necessarily a good idea.**

**As for the next chapter... You might be a bit surprised to see who might make an appearance. I won't say who, but it'll be interesting. Trust me.**_  
_


	66. The Green Thunder

**CHAPTER 11-3**

**-The Green Thunder-**

The five heroes were quite surprised to see that this area of the Metallic Forest looked more forest-like with more trees in the background and even…mushrooms. These were made of gold, which, although is a metal, it rather soft. So, it looks as if they can be bounced on, from what they could see. The whole ground was a bit more greenish than silver and even the trees looked a metallic brown with green metallic leaves. Now the heroes knew that this place was definitely a lot better than they thought it would be like.

"You know, this reminds me of Illusion Forest for some reason… I mean, everything looks more forest-like, although it also kind of reminds me when Metal Chopper managed to transform the whole forest into machinery. Ugh… That was creepy…and so is this."

"Poyo, (Yeah, this place seems a bit unsettling,)" Kirby agreed as he looked at the atmosphere. "Poyo? (Is there anything besides us that isn't machinery? Minus Midbus and Fawful as well.)"

"No… I think it's just us here… Which stinks."

"I don't find this place creepy. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Mushroom Hill for some reason." Sonic said as he stretched his legs. "C'mon! What do you guys say? How about we go through this part and go find Metal Chopper?"

"Yeah, we're gonna do that," Blade nodded.

They saw a small hill up ahead with a robot mushrooms bouncing around. From what they could tell, these mushroom enemies had orange tops with the robot part being more of a purple color. Chopper used the wand's power to identify this enemy.

"_That's a Mushmeanie. This is supposedly one of Eggman's Badniks. Max HP is ?. Attack is 8. Mushmeanies tend to simply bounce around in the direction it's moving… It only take two hits to defeat this. One hit to destroy the cap and one to destroy the robot itself. It's not really a huge threat, since it's just hopping around. But it's not safe to be going at top speed…" _Timpani informed.

"Two hits? That's not tough…" Chopper simply used his Feather Gun to strike the Mushmeanie with two feathers, killing it instantly and allowing him to go up the hill. They could see that there was a tiny ramp that moved up, but it led towards a hill going down to a loop.

"Oh, yeah! Now THIS is what I'm talking about!" Sonic smirked.

"Yep. We get loops now! …Although I never got a chance to run through one of them." the Star Warrior frowned, but his expression immediately changed when he charged up a Speed Dash and ran down the hill at top speed.

"Whoa! He's going a bit too fast there!" Blade gawked.

"And I'll follow him, I suppose," Sonic was about to curl up in a ball, but he stopped for a moment. "Hold on a sec… How are you guys going to get through this loop? We can't move on if there's no way of getting you guys through!"

Lucky for them, Ninbot happened to land on the ground. "I have a solution for you guys… But, it's not exactly the safest thing…"

Mario: What is it?

Ninbot pointed to a moving platform that moving up and down. It was going to go above the loop and follow Chopper down the hill he was moving. But they happened to notice him get knocked back by a mushroom another robot threw.

"_Ack! Where did THAT come from? !"_

"Poyo, (We better help him,)" Kirby took in some air and floated over the loop and began to roll down the hill after letting out the air. Mario and Blade used the platforms and landed over by Kirby. They got out of the way as Sonic used a Spin Dash to roll through the loop and down the hill. But, he too got struck by the mushroom that the robot threw at him. Although, it didn't hurt him.

"Say… I remember these robots!" Sonic recalled.

"They're kind of annoying…" Chopper whirled up the wand and aimed it at the robot that showed its face from the grassy metallic ground and investigated it.

"_That's a Madmole. These things love to stay underground and wait for their enemies to show up. Max HP is 38. Attack is 9. Defense is 1. They will constantly throw orange mushrooms at you to knock you back. They won't do any harm to you, but the ones with spikes WILL hurt you. After they throw a mushroom, they'll leave themselves open for a bit to allow you to attack. Make sure you're quick…" _Timpani informed.

When Kirby got to the group, he immediately used Crystaline's ability to freeze the Madmole in order to prevent it from retreating back into its hole. Blade smirked as he finished it off with a fire slash.

"Is it just me or are these enemies a piece of cake?" Blade asked as he sprinted up ahead to clear the way of a Patrolbot that was blocking the way. "They're not really tough, honestly…"

"Well, except for the Intruderbot," Chopper added.

"Yes… Those guys are quite dangerous."

They jumped down a small step to find a yellow spring to the left and a ramp leading up on the wall to the right. It wasn't big, but one thing for sure was that there weren't any other pathways to take here.

"Well this is…I don't know what to say about this." Sonic frowned, looking up at the upper pathway up the wall. There also happened to be a mushroom that looked bounceable. "What about that mushroom?"

Mario: Maybe we can use it!

As Chopper went up the wall, he grabbed a hold of a pole that helped him boost his speed in order to reach up. Sonic did the same thing and they were right next to a door, to their surprise. The other three used the mushroom to bounce up to the door instead of taking the other way.

"That was kind of lazy of you to do that…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo? (Well what do you expect us to do?)" Kirby questioned. "Poyo! (All we can really do is jump and use those! We don't have the ability to run up walls like you and Sonic do!)"

"Yeah, you're right… I wasn't trying to make you feel bad. I was only joking. But, whatever. We should move on." Chopper opened the door and they immediately entered through the door.

* * *

**Robot Fortress-**

"Oh yeah! Now we're jammin'!" Metal Chopper began to bob his head as he began to play a song called "Crank the Heat Up", which is a song from Sonic Adventure (you know, in Final Egg?). Things were going quite well. They were pretty much playing the whole song flawlessly.

…Until Metal Mario suddenly lost beat of the song.

"What the… Stop! Stop! STOP!" Metal Chopper shouted. The whole group suddenly stopped playing and the whole song went to a complete halt. "Metal Mario! Why did you lose the beat?"

"Whaa? It was-a big accident!" Metal Mario protested.

"'Big accident'? Big accident my ass! You had it just fine! How could you suddenly lose the beat of the whole song? ! After all we've been playing, THIS is how you play when we're rehearsing at this moment? !"

"Why dost thy music soundeth so bad?" Luvbi asked, who was covering her…uh…"ears" despite not having any. The Metal trio stopped and looked straight at her with a shocking, yet angry look.

"Oh… Don't tell me you're one of THOSE girls, are you?" Metal Chopper growled. "The ones that listen to nothing but stuff like Lady Baba and Crustin Reaver, don't you? I hate hate hate hate HATE those kind of girls!"

"Pray, who art those artists? I meant that thou art terrible players! I believest that my sweet prince couldst do better than thee!" although, all she received from them were stupid laughter.

"That kid can't do squat!" Metal Sonic laughed. "Have you ever heard him sing a song?"

"Yeah! I managed to record him singing something many years ago, and his singing was _crap_! Believe me, it's probably the worst singing voice ever! …Although it's probably not as bad as Becky Lack. Her song was absolute crap!"

"But what about the-a rehearsal?" Metal Mario spoke up.

"I still think thou art terrible at making music," Luvbi bluntly stated with an annoyed look.

"Hey, don't think we're those people who love rap!" Metal Chopper growled, giving her a death glare. "We don't do rap, see? We're _**metal heads**_!"

"Wait, wasn't that something Scratch and Grounder said they were?" Metal Sonic recalled. "I'm pretty sure that they said that…"

"Well, if I giveth thee compliments, will thou letest me go?" Luvbi asked with an innocent look.

"Let you go? PBBBBBBBBBTH! Yeah right! Didn't I say that I was going to test you with an invention that still needs to be complete? Uhhh… Yeah! I did say that! Listen, while you're in that cell, I'll give you someone that you can talk to! Someone like…"

Metal Chopper flew straight over to AI-5538 and began to search for some people for Luvbi to be tortured by. _"What do you think you're doing? Why can't you just let the innocent girl go?"_

"Shut up, you stupid computer. Why isn't there ever a friggin' mute button? And besides, I need her because that annoying robot Grim wanted me to test out the weapon on a meatbag. And, since she's the only meatbag here, I'm going to use it on her! Now let's see…"

He began to search through, but he found one specific location: the Bitlands. He happened to notice a large castle in that world as well, and it just so happens that there was a certain geek drooling over a couple of posters while playing some video games in his room.

"_Nerrrrrrrr! These anime babes are just so hoooooot! And these video games are so hi-technical too!" _Francis said in his usual, geeky voice.

Metal Chopper was a bit scarred by this, but he also seemed a bit pleased. "Heh heh heh! I think he'll be the perfect playmate for that stupid girl! I don't think she'll be able to handle his geekiness!"

With one push of the button, he was able to teleport Francis out of his castle and into the same room that he, Metal Mario, Metal Sonic and Luvbi were in. No one else could see Francis but Metal Chopper.

"Neeerrrr? Where am I? This isn't my room!" Francis gawked as he looked around the room. "And what kind of place is this?"

Francis happened to notice the three robots in the room. "Are those actual robots? ! Schweeeeeeeeeet! I've never seen so hi-technicaaaaaaaaal robots like you guys! I HAVE to take a picture of you!"

"Errrrr… I thought he was-a supposed to-a torture the girl?" Metal Mario sweat dropped.

Francis smiled a nerdy smiled as he pulled out his camera. "I've just GOT to get some pictures of you guys! The people at digibutter. nerr will be SO jealous when they find out I not only have pictures of that butterfly, but of robots! Nerrrrrr! I'm going to be so popular on those forums!"

"Forums? Oh, don't tell me he's one of those freaks that spends all day on forums…" Metal Sonic face palmed while Francis began to laugh in his nerdy voice while getting his camera ready.

"Screw this. I'll show you something." Metal Chopper smacked Francis, making him spin around over by the trapped Nimbi princess. That's when Francis realized something when he saw Luvbi.

"Nerrrrrr… I can't believe it! You even got me a new Francine as well!" Francis drooled as he walked up to the scared Luvbi.

"Eeeeek! Don't come any closer, peasant!" Luvbi screeched. "And mine given name is Luvbi! Not Francine!"

"Oh, screw it. This guy's a big problem." Metal Chopper grabbed a hold of Francis and tossed him out the window, out to somewhere else that no one really cares about…or do they care about it?

"So where did-a you throw him to?" Metal Mario asked.

"Most likely somewhere where Chopper is," Metal Chopper answered while looking away from him. "I'm sure that this nerd will probably be a good distraction for those group of heroes."

_(__**Note: **__If anyone is offended by any of the stuff here… Lighten up. This was just humor. Don't take it seriously, OK?)_

* * *

**Metallic Forest-**

The heroes walked out of the door and noticed that they were in an area that was a bit flat compared to the other room. But they also happened to notice that there were two ways to go. They could also see a pathway out in the background, which they all believed is the right way to go.

"Hoo boy… This isn't good…" Chopper gulped as he looked both ways. There were some pipes over by the left with a couple of mushrooms right next to them. To the right, there was a small hill leading up to a Securibot and even a pole that looked as if it could give you a boost while running. Right next to the door they walked out of were two little openings. One was shaped like a triangle and the other was shaped like a square.

"_From what I can see, we need to find something that can fit into there," _Blumiere predicted as he looked at the two empty spaces through the wand.

"We'll find it, don't worry," Sonic assured as he turned to the left. "I think we should start by going this way. It might be a bit more annoying, y'know? I think the harder things should be taken care of first."

"Then to the left we shall go," Blade declared as he walked to the left, but he immediately stopped when the saw some spikes rise up in front of him. "Uh oh… This isn't good…"

"Poyo? (Why did spikes pop up out of nowhere?)" Kirby gawked.

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged.

Mario: Well, we can't-a do much, so let's-a go!

Mario jumped over the spikes and used the mushroom to launch him up to the metallic green pipe. A Securibot happened to be flying around the large gap between the pipe Mario was standing on and the pipe up ahead that they would need to use another mushroom to get to it.

"Errmmmm… I think I should get over these in some other way." Chopper, using his Wing ability, simply flew over the pipes. He even rammed into the Securibot in order to knock it down to the ground, where there were two spike traps that could be seen. Mairo simply jumped in between them and jumped on top of the Securibot to land on the next mushroom in order to send him up to the next one.

"Poyo! (I can just float over this easily!)" Kirby said before taking in some air and floating over the large gap. Sonic and Blade didn't have any problems getting across either.

Although, they were met with a Mushmeanie and an Electric Cherbil. But Mario managed to take care of both with his jumping and Kickbrin's kicking ability on the Electric Cherbil.

"Yes! No more Cherbils!" Chopper grinned.

"Seriously, why do you hate those things so much?" Blade asked.

"Uhhh… Have you even LOOKED at them? ! Did you see what those things resemble? They… They look like _butts_! And they… They fart out terrible gas! Doesn't that make perfect sense to any of you guys? !"

"…Yeah, but they're not easy to kill," stated Sonic as he walked up to the door. Chopper groaned and followed him through, along with the rest of the group into an area that had a wall up ahead, but there was a pole sticking from the wall that seemed to be able to help them reach the top of the upper part of the area.

"Man, I actually think this might be a bit cool," Chopper smiled, racing up to the wall. He decided not to fly and grabbed a hold of the pole, which he used to swing himself up until he was above the upper part of the area and over by a mushroom sticking on the edge of the cliff.

"Uh… Guys? I don't think that mushroom looks safe…" he shouted.

"Poyo! (Don't worry! I'll just float up there!)" Kirby took in some air and began to float up to the upper part of this area. Blade grabbed a hold of the pole and swung himself up to the mushroom. The only problem, however… The mushroom fell, resulting in him slipping and grabbing a hold of the edge.

"Ack! I'm screwed!" Blade gaped.

Kirby managed to grab a hold of Blade's hand and pulled him up with the help of Chopper. The only problem was that the mushroom that was hanging off the edge was no longer there…

"Oh, boy… It's not going to be easy getting up there." Sonic frowned as the mushroom landed on the ground and disappeared. Nevertheless, he used the pole and swung himself up to Chopper, Kirby and Blade. He was lucky to land right on the upper part of the area without the mushroom.

"Hey! I did it!"

Mario: But I still need to get up!

"Oh, yeah… Let's see if I can help him." Chopper flew down to Mario and grabbed a hold of his hand. The only problem, however, was that the plumber was a bit too heavy for him. That and he couldn't really pull him up either.

"Sheesh, Mario! You need to lose some weight!"

Mario: -_-;

"Hey! It's true! I'm having a hard time carrying up! Actually, I highly doubt I can even carry you." Chopper released Mario, who wasn't really far from the ground. "I wish there was another way… I feel exhausted. Maybe this is how Flyer feels when he carries me around while flying."

Mario: Can't I just use the pole?

"Ummmmmmmm… Well, you can try that out. I'm not sure if you're able to do something like that though…"

Mario shrugged and decided to give it a try. He grabbed a hold of the pole and managed to swing himself up surprisingly. Chopper was surprised as he flew back up to Kirby, Sonic and Blade. Mario managed to make it up to them easily, which seemed to please everyone in the group.

"Yeah! Now we've got everyone up here!" Sonic said as he did a little break-dance before noticing the ground up ahead being some kind of treadmill with it moving towards them. "Whoa… Look at the ground."

"Eh?" Blade turned around and saw the treadmill-like ground as well. "Oh, wow. Look at that. I guess that can help boost our speed if we get close to it, right?"

"Uhhhh… Blade, there's no way we can get a boost of speed from that… That ground is moving _toward_ us, so if we were to move on it, it's going to push us _back_ instead of giving us a good boost. So… Yeah. Although, I don't think it's a huge problem if you can simply jump on it."

"Poyo, (I'll go first,)" Kirby began to run on the treadmill ground, but he was having a bit of a problem with getting through. But, in the end, he decided to simply float over the ground and make his way up a small hill and over by a mechanical rock that was at the end of the treadmill ground.

"Well, I guess jumping works, but I suppose I'll just do this," Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and took off, running through the treadmill ground easily and jumping over the rock and landing right next to Kirby.

"See? That was pretty easy!"

Sonic went up next, curling up into a ball and performing a Spin Dash in order to help him get through. When he landed right next to the other two, he turned around and noticed something else.

"Hey, is that an alternate pathway?" Sonic questioned, looking up above the ground. He could see a small little tunnel with both sides having the treadmill wall. They seemed to be moving up.

"Maybe you should check it out?" Chopper suggested. "I think you might be the only one who can get up there."

"Yeah, I'll give it a shot," Sonic jumped up to the tunnel while curled up in a ball and it took him up to another part of the area. There really wasn't anything around, except for two Patrolbots that were roaming around and also a little red ! switch right next to him.

"I guess I should handle these guys," Sonic performed a Homing Attack on both Patrolbots to make a chest appear. There happened to be an Ultra Shroom Shake inside, which was a bit surprising.

Afterwards, he hit the switch to change the way the treadmill was moving, allowing him to go back to his friends, who were already off the treadmill ground. But they still had a large gap up ahead with spikes down below and a treadmill ground across.

"Oh, boy… That's going to be tough to cross." Blade frowned.

"Yeah, for you it is, but for me… Well, probably not." Chopper simply flew across with his Wing ability. Kirby floated over there as well, but they were able to hit a switch to make a Securibot appear.

"A Securibot? Why do we need that here?" Sonic asked.

"Wait a second… I think I have an idea!" Blade snapped his finger as he jumped on top of the Securibot and stayed on top of it. "See, guys? I think I could just ride on top of this thing to get across!"

Blade jumped off the Securibot and landed on the treadmill ground, which was now in the direction they were moving. It seemed to end over by another rock, just so that it wouldn't throw them off the cliff.

Mario decided to jump on top of the Securibot and landed right on the treadmill ground as well. They could see up ahead there were three stumps that were sticking right up, which was not too surprising.

"…Another one of these? Man, how many of these are we going to find?" Chopper face palmed as he walked up to the stumps. "Well, OK… I suppose we should just do what we did before."

Mario: I'll take care of it.

Mario struck all three stumps with his Ground Pound ability and it made something rise up from the ground. It looked like a large metallic Yoshi with two orbs. One looked a little red and the other looked a bit white.

"Hey, why do these orbs resemble something I've seen before?" Chopper pondered to himself as he looked at both orbs. "Meh, I think I know what to do here."

He tossed a fireball into the red one and an ice ball into the white one, triggering a green key shaped like a triangle to appear on the top. Chopper grabbed a hold of it and put it away.

"I think we need this for that little triangle opening we saw right on that pedestal. I suggest we go back there and put it there."

* * *

**Previous area-**

After making their way through all of that, they made their way back to the two pedestals right next to the door they came out of when we went back to them. Chopper pulled the green triangular key out and placed it in its pedestal, making it glow and also making it sink into the ground.

"Did anyone else find that to be a bit weird?" he asked.

"Nah, not really," Blade replied with a shake of his head.

"Poyo… (It's not really that weird, honestly…)" Kirby trailed as he walked towards the right. "Poyo. (Now we just need to find the next key. Hopefully that'll take us to our destination."

"Yeah, so let's get a move on, shall we?" Chopper turned to the right and shot a feather at the Securibot in the way so he could progress through easily. He used his Speed Dash in order to swing himself towards the right on the pipe and race up a wall on an upper part of the ground where the next door was.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Sonic curled up in a ball and performed a Spin Dash to get past the Securibot and swing himself towards Chopper on the pole. Mario managed to swing himself as well, but he couldn't get up to the upper ground due to not being able to run as fast.

"Wait, what about the mushroom?" Blade questioned, pointing to the mushroom.

Mario: Oh, yeah!

Mario jumped on the mushroom, which launched him up to both Chopper and Sonic. Blade used the mushroom as well, but Kirby simply floated up to them like a balloon before entering through the door.

This area looked a bit peaceful, if not an autumn-like feeling. The metallic leaves falling from the ground were in colors of yellow, orange and red and the metallic grass itself was more of a light green color. For some reason, Chopper seemed a bit satisfied with how this place is than the other.

"Man, I can't believe we've found a nice little area where we can relax! I think I like this area!" Chopper smiled, hitting two yellow ? blocks. One contained a Mushroom, but the other contained the Cutter ability.

"Ummmmm… So what do we do here?" Chopper asked Kirby.

"Poyo? (Do we decide via rock paper scissors?)" Kirby asked.

"OK! That sounds good to me!" Chopper and Kirby got started, with Chopper having scissors and Kirby… Well, since he doesn't have fingers, all he really had with him was…rock.

"Ummmmmm… So what do we go with? Is Kirby showing a rock?" Blade asked.

"I think Kirby won this. I mean, he's got rock, and Chopper's got scissors." Sonic pointed out.

"Drats. Well this stinks." Chopper sulked as Kirby removed his Beam ability to take the Cutter ability. "Hmmmmm… Well, it wouldn't really matter anyways. My Wing ability CAN technically cut through some grass or ropes."

"Poyo, (That's true,)" Kirby nodded as he saw some grass up ahead. Grabbing the cutter blade on his yellow cap, he tossed it straight at the grass like a boomerang, revealing a robotic Darkling enemy.

"What the heck is that?" Sonic gawked.

"I'll check for myself," Chopper pulled the wand out and used it to investigate this mysterious-looking Darkling.

"_That's a Robo Darkling. These are robotic versions of the dark beings Maquano created called Darklings. Max HP is 44. Attack is 10. Defense is 2. Their spells that they hurl don't really have any effect on you, but they certainly do more damage than other attacks some Darklings strike you with. They're not very tough to defeat, since you can just step on them or bash them easily." _Timpani informed.

Chopper decided to fire a feather at the Robo Darkling, but because it's made of metal, it didn't really do much. BUT, since it's made of metal, he decided to smash it with his fire smash ability from his hammer in order to kill it off. Up ahead, however, there was another enemy they've encountered before: a Bristle.

"Uh oh… Not those guys." Blade groaned. "How many times do we have to deal with Bristles anyways?"

Blade tossed a couple of shurikens at the Bristle, but they didn't do a lot of damage because of its defenses. Kirby managed to finish it with a simply throw of his cutter blade, killing it off.

"So where do you think the key is?" Sonic asked.

"Why don't we go up from here?" Chopper suggested, noticing a platform sticking out of the large tree. "Oh, man… I hope this isn't like the Dotwood Tree. You don't wanna know how much I HATE that area."

"Dotwood Tree?" Blade questioned, cocking his head.

"It's a large tree that we had to climb," Sonic explained. "We encountered Dimentio there, but we managed to defeat him without any problems. Although, afterwards we had to deal with something worse."

"Poyo, (Which we're NOT going to speak about,)" Kirby said as he began to float up to the top of the tree. On one of the platforms they jumped onto, they happened to notice a dark green metallic Tileoid moving around on the platform. Chopper decided to use his wand to investigate it.

"_That's a Tileoid FG. It is a mysterious creature that's made of many small parts... Max HP is 30 and Attack is 6. It can also crawl along walls and ceilings... Tileoids vary in color and ability. This forest green Tileoid is known for its paralysis..." _Timpani informed.

"FG? What does that mean?" Blade asked.

"_It stands for forest green," _Blumiere answered. _"You should be able to reach the top of this tree with no problem, so don't try to worry about falling."_

The tree wasn't as tall as they thought it would be. There WAS a platform they had to get moving by hitting a blue ! switch, but they managed to make it to the top, where they saw a Squibot patrolling the area, but it was easily defeated when Mario smashed it with his hammer, making a chest appear in the center.

"Man, that was a piece of cake," Sonic smirked as he opened the chest and grabbed the orange square key from inside. "C'mon, guys! Let's bring this back to that pedestal from earlier!"

* * *

**Back at the pedestal-**

"Man… How long do we have to go from here?" Blade panted as they made their way back to the main area.

"Well, all we have to do is place that key into its pedestal and we should be able to get going, I believe." Chopper confirmed as Sonic placed the key into its pedestal. This only caused the ground to shake violently.

"_What's going on?" _Timpani asked as Chopper and Kirby both lost balance and fell over. A dark green pipe appeared right next to them after the shaking stopped. They all looked at it in confusion, but they knew where they needed to go with this.

"OK, we should get going," Sonic suggested as he jumped into the pipe. Surprisingly, he was out in the background where more trees were.

"Poyo! (Hey! That looks cool!)" Kirby smiled as he jumped into the pipe as well. The rest of the group followed and walked through the background until they saw another pipe that seemed to bring them to another part of the area. Ninbot was waiting for them right by the door.

"Sheesh! How'd you get here so… Hey, wait!" Chopper groaned as Ninbot entered through the door. The rest of the group shrugged and followed him into a flat area with a door up ahead…although it didn't seem like it was going to open so easily.

"Hold on a minute, Ninbot! Can't you slow down for once?" Sonic asked as they made it up to the robot ninja.

Ninbot turned to the heroes, but he didn't exactly answer their question. "We're not too far from the palace. We just need to find the entrance to the underground area and we should be able to get to the Pure Heart with no problem."

"Wait a second, how do you know about the Pure Heart?" Chopper asked.

"_Are you working for Tipral?" _Timpani asked.

"I said this before… I'm not an enemy. But I cannot answer any questions. All will be revealed when we get to our destination." Ninbot explained.

"All will be revealed? Well, thanks for all of that, Ninbot! That'll make things easier for me!"

"Wait… Who just said that?" Chopper asked.

Before anyone else could answer, a mysterious shadow jumped on Ninbot and made him dizzy, knocking him to the ground.

"What the…!"

"Heh heh heh…" the shadow turned out to be a mysterious man wearing a black mask, a green hat with a green L backwards, a black overall-like suit, a green bandanna around his neck, gray gloves and black boots. Oh, and he also has a mustache that almost looks a bit similar to Mario's.

"Hey! Who do you think you are, doing that?" Blade growled, drawing his katana.

"Who? Me?" the masked man whirled around and smirked at the heroes. "I did that 'cause I could, cat! Why else would I try something like that? …And you, lime-green kid… You sort of remind me of someone that I work with. …I think his name's Tipral! Yeah, Tipral… He's a cool kid."

"Another one of Tipral's minions, are you?" Chopper immediately got in his fighting stance. "All right, who the heck are you?"

"Yeah, that's right. I'm a minion of Tipral. I'm one of his more promising minions, The Green Thunder…" the masked man spun around and made his arms into the shape of an L. "_**Mr. L!**_"

Mario: You're name's Mr. L?

"_That name sounds familiar…" _both Timpani and Blumiere said in unison as Mr. L knocked Ninbot out of the way as he walked towards the heroes.

"I don't need you to tell me it's a cool name," Mr. L said. "I know it. Don't bother memorizing it."

"Oh, really?" Chopper said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, really. Heh. You kind of remind me of myself for some reason. Being green and all… But I'll tell ya this, though: I have the better green." Mr. L glanced over at Mario. "And you… Just because you're in red doesn't mean you're the superior one!"

"Then let's have a little fight, shall we?" Blade suggested, readying his katana.

"All right, then a battle we'll have! Have at you!" Mr. L jumped back and rammed straight into Chopper, knocking him back. Both Sonic and Blade tried to strike him, but the green-capped man folded himself and then rocketed up into the air to make the two crash into each other.

"Whoa… That was one heck of a move!" Sonic gaped.

"Tell me about it… I can't jump that high!" Blade sulked.

Kirby threw his cutter blade towards Mr. L as he landed on the ground. It struck him, but then he managed to grab it and bang it right on top of Kirby's head, leaving him dazed in order to him to knock him back with a kick.

"Yeah, I know! I'm cool! You don't have to applaud!" Mr. L grinned as he "pretended" to hear people cheering. Mario tried to attack, but when he brought his hammer out, Mr. L grabbed a hold of it and punched him in the stomach so he could bash him with his own hammer instead.

Mario: Mama mia… That hurt…

"So, I guess we can finally tell who's the better one!" Mr. L smirked. Mario wheezed as he got up and used Kickbrin's ability to knock Mr. L back. Then, using his jumping skills, he performed a Triple Jump attack on Mr. L's head, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Man, this guy's kind of tough!" Chopper panted as he got up. He used Timpani's wand in order to investigate this mysterious man.

"_That's Mr. L. This new hire of Tipral's a real mystery man...and does seem to have a lot of charisma for some strange reason… Max HP is 150. Attack is 10. He uses his high jump as a weapon... And that powered-up super jump is quite...super... He does seem to be someone who knows how to defend himself, that's for sure. But for some reason, why does he remind me so much of Mario...?" _Timpani informed.

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing…" Chopper nodded as he tossed a couple of fireballs at Mr. L while running towards him. Mr. L yelped as the fireballs struck his butt and began to run all over the place.

"YOUCH! Why are my biscuits burning? !" he cried.

Mr. L turned to Chopper, who began to throw even more fireballs at him. He dodged the fireballs and came towards Chopper. However, the Star Warrior simply flew up into the air with his Wing ability.

"Oh, I'll show you something!" Mr. L folded himself once again and sprung up, striking Chopper in the air with his fist and knocking him to the ground. The attack did MASSIVE damage to Chopper. Double the damage than what his normal attack power is.

"Whoa! That…REALLY hurt!" Chopper wheezed as he got up. He saw Mr. L was trying to ram into him with his elbow, but he jumped out of the way and struck him with an ice slamming kick to freeze him for a couple of seconds.

Now that Mr. L was frozen, Blade was able to strike him with a fire slash, melting the ice off him and also leaving him a bit dazed from being frozen. This allowed Sonic to hit him with a Spin Jump and then use Screwdy's corkscrew attack to strike him again as well, which was nice.

"Whoa… You attack me while I was dazed. Well you're still not going to beat me anyways." Mr. L smirked as he managed to jump on top of Kirby's head. Although, with the cutter blade on his head, Mr. L ended up hurting himself, so he decided to strike Mario with a jump instead.

Mario: He's got one heck of a jump!

"True, but he's outnumbered! Five against one!" Sonic smirked, curling up in a ball and striking Mr. L with a Spin Dash. "You had a great start, but you really don't seem to be fighting too well now!"

"Oh, we'll see about that!" Mr. L knocked Kirby down with a simply kick and then used his incredible jump to avoid Kirby'c cutter blade. He landed right on top of Mario's head and bounced off to land on Blade's head while performing a stylish move in the air.

"Hey! That's not fair! You can't pull a stylish move!" Chopper frowned.

"I did it, so quit cryin'," Mr. L landed on Chopper's head and then kicked him to the ground. "You're so small! You're almost like a soccer ball!"

"Well don't underestimate my size," he warned as he rammed into Mr. L headfirst as he flew up. Mario managed to whack the mysterious man with his hammer afterwards to leave him dazed once again.

Mario: You won't be winning this fight!

"Think again, red man!" Mr. L did a back flip and landed right on top of Blade's head, knocking him to the ground. Kirby threw his cutter blade at him while from behind and managed to knock him…but right into Mario.

Mario: Hey! Get off of me!

When Mr. L got off Mario, he looked at him for a couple of seconds. "I swear… For some reason, you look kind of like me… I don't like that! Just like what Tipral said, there can only be one of us!"

"Oh, great… HE said that?" Chopper groaned while face palming. "That's so dumb."

"Well, that's what you might think, but he and I ARE the better ones than you guys!" Mr. L avoided another one of Chopper's feathers and pulled out a Super Shroom Shake. Of course, Mario managed to grab it with Thoreau and take it for himself to recover 20 HP. He smirked as he threw the empty can at Mr. L's head.

"Hey! Who do you think you are, doing that? !" with him distracted, it allowed Blade to strike him with his katana. Mr. L managed to elbow him in the stomach after getting struck, but it wasn't long until Chopper stomped on his head with fire energy on his feet.

"You can't really take us all on when you're busy with someone else," Chopper smirked.

"Like this!" Sonic jumped and struck Mr. L with a Homing Attack while he was trying to punch Chopper, knocking him over. However, he did manage to get back up and launch himself in the air with his incredible jump, hitting both Sonic and Blade for some immense damage.

"ACK! What was THAT? !" Sonic screeched as he fell over on the ground from the attack.

"That was PAINFUL!" Blade hissed.

"That's my almighty Super Jump!" Mr. L smirked as he landed on the ground. "And yes, it is quite painful, as it does deal a lot of damage to people! Not to mention it leaves them unconscious for a couple of seconds!"

"Poyo! (Well you're not going to stop us!)" Kirby rushed straight at Mr. L with his cutter blade in his hand. He did manage to strike him with his Final Cutter attack, but Mr. L managed to kick him and throw the cutter blade at Chopper, knocking his Wing ability out.

"Hey! That's my Wing ability!" Chopper managed to inhale it, but instead of swallowing it, he decided to spit it out at Mr. L instead to leave him stunned. Luckily, it happened to work, so he sprinted towards him and bashed him with his own hammer to leave him a little weaker.

"_He's not too far from being defeated…" _Timpani informed. _"Just a little more and you should be victorious!"_

"_He is a rather formidable opponent, I will say that," _Blumiere stated.

"Yeah, but we can still take him!" Chopper rushed towards Mr. L again and did a sweeping kick this time in order to make him trip. But it didn't seem to make him trip, but instead made Chopper get kicked in the face by Mr. L's boot.

"Try that again and you're toast!" Mr. L warned before getting bashed in the head by Mario's hammer. He tried to grab a hold of it, but Kirby managed to freeze him using Crystaline's ability.

Mario: Thanks, Kirby!

"Poyo! (You're welcome!)"

Sonic and Blade managed to recover some HP by drinking a Super Shroom Shake, allowing them to fight back again. Sonic made sure he would strike Mr. L without any problems by using his Light Speed Attack to strike the frozen mysterious man, while Blade tossed Hommissile straight at him to cause an explosion.

"Move outta the way!" Blade cried out as he charged at Mr. L with his katana. Everyone moved out of the way as Blade struck Mr. L with a fire slash, leaving a harsh burn on him. But, he ended up getting punched in the stomach afterwards.

"Oi! Why do his punches hurt so much? !"

"It's 'cause I'm so cool," Mr. L smirked as he jumped and came down on Kirby, kicking him in the face and knocking him back. He also managed to elbow Mario in the stomach and then uppercut him as he performed his Super Jump attack.

"HA! There's no way you can best me with a jump like this!"

As he came down, Chopper jumped towards Mr. L and used an ice slamming kick to knock him to the ground. It also left him frozen, allowing him to bash him with his hammer to break him out of his icy prison. Afterwards, he burned him by tossing a charged fireball at him.

"Come on! Is that the best you've got, kid? ! Tipral can do better than that!" Mr. L spat as he tried to punch him. Luckily, Chopper managed to duck like a pancake to avoid the attack and punch him in the stomach with ice energy – not to an extent of freezing him. He just made him feel cold.

"_Another attack should finish him off," _Blumiere confirmed as he saw that Mr. L's HP was incredible low at this point.

"Aw, crap. My HP's already this low?" Mr. L questioned, biting his lip. "Man… I never knew this was going to be over so soon… Hold on a minute… It shouldn't be over just yet!"

Mario: I think it'll end right now!

Mario immediately sprung into action, jumping on top of Mr. L's head and making him fall over on the around in defeat.

Although, despite being defeated, Mr. L got up as the heroes walked over to him.

"Oof! Impressive!" he said while panting.

"Impressive? Uhhh… You were all worried a second ago and now you're saying that was impressive?" Blade gawked.

"Well I honestly doubted your skills, heroes," Mr. L explained. "But I'm not done yet! I've still got a little surprise up my sleeve!" he threw his hands up into the air as he shouted, "COME TO ME, METAL BRO!"

The ground began to shake as a large robotic head that resembled Mr. L ripped through the background and landed right behind the mysterious man. Everyone else seemed a bit surprised…not in a scared way, though.

"…That's your surprise?" Chopper gawked.

"It's just a robotic head that looks like you…" Sonic said, trying to hold his laughter.

"Ha HA! Do you like him? That is my DEAR metal brother. He and I share a spiritual bond, you know. Yes, yes, and his name is… _**BROBOT!**_" Mr. L jumped into the hat of Brobot, where there was glass for him to see through and grabbed a hold of the controls.

Mario: So much for being a surprise…

"Enough playing, already… NOW FOR PAIN!"

Brobot flew up and immediately went through the ripped background. Everyone simply shrugged and followed him into another area of the metallic forest. Of course, they were all chasing after it.

"This place should be good for me to stop you heroes! I'll tire you out and destroy you with my metal bro!" Mr. L grinned! "Hey, Mr…er… I really can't think of a name. But who cares? I'm gonna take you down!"

"You might need this to fight back," Ninbot tossed two Spicy Curries that landed in Chopper and Kirby's hands. "You'll be able to spit fireballs at him and deal some damage."

"Uhhhh… You sure?" Chopper questioned.

Unfortunately, that was the last they heard of Ninbot. But, Chopper and Kirby simply ate both Spicy Curries, which began to make things REAL hot inside of their mouths. They began to spit fireballs out at Brobot too!

But first, Chopper wanted to see what the stats on Brobot were by using Timpani's wand to investigate.

"_That's the Brobot. This super robot is one of Mr. L's creations... Max HP is 345. Attack is 12. Defense is 6. Defense against fire is 8. It is loaded with different weapons that allow it to attack from any angle... Just try to avoid its attacks and use that Spicy Curry on it when you get a chance... And try to grab a few snacks around here that come by..." _Timpani informed.

"I guess all we can do is just sit by and watch both Chopper and Kirby go at Brobot with their fireballs," Blade said as he threw a shuriken at it. It did SOME damage, but he didn't think it would really help that much.

"Man, this stuff is so hot!" Chopper cried as he spat more fireballs at Brobot. "And how come these fireballs have an effect on him? !"

"_I'm not quite sure… I suppose you have to ask the person who made that Spicy Curry…" _Timpani suggested.

"Heh heh heh! Well, let's see how you like this!" Mr. L pressed a button and the nose of Brobot opened up and fired a missile straight at the group. Chopper simply jumped to avoid it, just like everyone else and continued to spit fireballs at Brobot, just like Kirby. They could even see some food up ahead, like a Max Tomato which seemed to boost up their attack and even a banana, which could most likely help Chopper with fighting. Even some cookies around the forest could make them go faster as well.

"Poyo! (You're gonna be toast!)" Kirby smirked as he floated and spat fireballs at Brobot's head. Mr. L pressed another button and made a green laser fire out of its eyes and at both Chopper and Kirby, hitting both of them and knocking them back a little…but not by a lot.

"Oof! Well, that sure is something I suppose…" Chopper panted as he got back to running and spitting more fireballs. "Sheesh! This thing can sure take a lot!"

They both ate a Max Tomato to power up their attacks and fired more fireballs. Brobot simply fired some small green lasers at them, forcing them to dodge the attacks with ease. Ninbot dropped a star (not a Mega Star) and it made them invincible for a couple of seconds.

"Aw, man… This isn't good. They're invincible!" Mr. L growled. "Well, I'll have the last laugh soon when they get sucked into this thing! Brobot! Let's suck them up!"

He pushed a button, making Brobot open its mouth and began to suck things up like a vacuum. Blade decided to throw Hommissile in there just for kicks and cause an explosion that did immense damage to Brobot.

"What the heck? ! How did you do that? !" he gaped.

"I just threw in my trusty missile! That's what!" Blade smirked.

"You've got missiles? Well I've got 'em too! Take this!" Mr. L pressed an orange button and made Brobot fire missiles at the group rapidly. Sonic was knocked back by a missile, but he managed to gain some speed and strike Brobot's nose with a Homing Attack, leaving a dent.

"I think that should've done something!" he smirked as he returned to the group.

Mario: Hopefully…

Chopper jumped and devoured a cookie to make him increase his speed, allowing him to shoot fireballs faster at Brobot. Mr. L simply growled and tried to hit him with more lasers like before, but it didn't seem to work.

"Come on you worthless machine! DO something!" he growled.

"Poyo, (The music kind of sounds catchy too,)" Kirby stated as he began to bob his head to the music being heard.

"Yeah, I like it too!" Chopper smirked as he spat more fireballs. "I swear… This stuff is INCREDIBLY hot! Ninbot, don't you have anything that allows me to NOT have my mouth burning?"

Ninbot tossed some Icy Curry that Chopper devoured, allowing him to spit chunks of ice from his mouth at Brobot. This seemed to be more effective against Brobot because of all the dents it was leaving.

"Hold on a minute, I wanna throw in a cool attack," Blade smirked as he saw a missile being fired towards them. He used his ninja skills to jump on top of it and slash at Brobot's nose a couple of times with his katana until the missile got a little far. Luckily, Mario managed to grab the missile with Thoreau while riding on Carrie and threw it back at Brobot.

"Wait, is it even legal to use two Pixls?" Chopper gawked.

Mario: Beats me!

Kirby managed to overheat Brobot after a couple of more fireballs and it caused Mr. L to yelp due to the extreme heat, but he managed to press a button to cool it down with some kind of water.

"Poyo, (Oh, yeah, I still have my Cutter ability too,)" Kirby threw his cutter blade straight at Brobot while still spitting fireballs and caused some immense damage to the robot.

"Have a little taste of THESE missiles!" Mr. L smirked as he fired smaller missiles straight at them. They exploded upon contact and knocked the heroes away, but it didn't stop Chopper from grabbing blue bananas (as gross as they seem), giving him a barrier that protects him from attacks.

"NOW it's personal!" Chopper sped up towards Brobot, his feet now in a figure-8 pattern. He chucked a couple of ice balls at Brobot and continued to spit more chunks of ice at it as well. With Kirby's fireballs, it made it a bit tough for Mr. L to even control this thing.

"Sheesh! This isn't how I wanted things to be!" Mr. L grumbled as he made Brobot open its mouth and suck them in. This time, he managed to. After it chewed on them and spat them out, they were all a bit bruised.

"What's wrong? You had enough from my metal bro?"

"We're not giving up just yet, you know…" Sonic warned as he struck the top part of Brobot with a Homing Attack, leaving the cockpit cracked a bit and making Mr. L looked a bit puzzled.

"Sheesh! …No! I'm not going to let a bunch of junior heroes beat me! I'M better than those other minions too!" Mr. L grumbled as he fired multiple lasers at the heroes. Blade spun his katana and deflected a couple of lasers back at Brobot, while Mario used Kickbrin to strike Brobot's nose. Sparks and smoke appeared all over the robot, showing that its HP is rather low.

"_There's not much left of him now," _Blumiere informed. _"Finish him off now!"_

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Chopper nodded as he fired a couple of more chunks of ice from his mouth directly at Brobot.

And, for the heck of it, Chopper and Kirby spat a fireball and ice chunk directly at each other to make it combine as it struck Brobot, causing it to explode violently and even make Mr. L tremble in fear.

"Hey… This makes no sense!" he cried as he saw explosions appear all over the place. There were even a couple inside of Brobot, making him yelp and get out.

They al returned to the area where they previously fought Mr. L by himself. Mr. L himself ended up falling face flat on the ground while moaning, "_That sucked…_"

"I don't believe it! You managed to best my greatest invention? !" Mr. L brushed off the dirt left on him and got up and glared at the heroes. "Ugh… I'll let you all off the hook for the rest of the day, I suppose… But remember this… When Fortune smiles next, she'll smile right HERE! On Mr. L!"

As Mr. L jumped away, everyone seemed to ponder a bit, especially Mario.

"You know, I can't shake the feeling that I saw someone like him…" Chopper pondered. "Don't you guys agree?"

Mario: Yeah, he does remind me of someone.

"Errr… I don't really remember. But, maybe he is someone we've seen before." Sonic thought to himself.

Ninbot landed right next to them and gestured them to follow him. Everyone was confused, but they followed him straight through the door up ahead and into an area where they saw that large robot guy, Trucker.

"Hey… It's that guy from before!" Blade realized.

"All right, I gotcha, Grim," Trucker nodded, who was speaking through the communicator. "I'll make sure to bring some more of those slaves. Maybe that pizza guy from earlier could make a good slave! …Er, I don't think I'd find him, though…"

"_Forget about the pizza guy or whoever the hell he is! Just come back to base so we can discuss plans about the slaves." _the voice they heard through the communicator was most likely Grim.

"Sure thing, Grim! I'mma comin' back to ya!" Trucker walked over to a part of the ground and stomped on it, making an elevator appear to allow him to go down underground.

"Holy… That's pretty…weird." Sonic gawked.

"_Nerrrrrrr! This is so hi-technicaaaaaaal!" _Francis appeared right by the elevator with his camera. "I've gotta go after that robot! That thing was so immense…and schweet! I've GOT to get its autograph!"

Francis disappeared and followed Trucker down the elevator, leaving everyone else to gawk.

"Was that…Francis? !" Chopper gawked in fear. "Wh-What's he doing here? !"

"Dude, relax… He's just a weird nerd that just goes after girls and robots. He could help distract people too." Sonic reminded.

"Well, yeah… That could be a good thing. Of course, I don't fear him as much as Luvbi…"

Ninbot walked over to the panel after the elevator closed and stomped on it to make the elevator appear. "Let's go, guys. We can take the underground passage to get to the Robot Fortress."

"All right…" they all followed Ninbot and stepped on the elevator floor so they would go down.

* * *

**Underground-**

As the elevator brought them to the bottom of the room, they could see that it wasn't so metallic down here. The ground was made of red rock and it even seemed to be a bit hot down here as well. At the end of the room, they saw a Star Block floating there.

"Sheesh! This is one strange place…" Sonic commented. "Just look at it. There's no metallic-ness anywhere!"

"Yeah, that's weird," Blade commented.

"But, we need to end this chapter first," Chopper pointed out as he punched the Star Block. "This is a strange place too… So, I wonder what we're going to find around this place…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and Co. nearly gaped at the whole underground area. They thought that it would be all metallic underground. They were wrong. Ninbot gestured them to follow him through the tunnel up ahead, and they simply listened and followed. "I did overhear that large truck talking about slaves…" spoke Timpani through the wand as they were reaching their destination. "I just hope this place isn't as terrible as I feel that it's going to be…" From hearing that, our heroes knew that this was most likely going to be a dangerous area._

* * *

**Sheesh! This was a pretty long chapter to write... But, whatever. It's a lot better than what it was before, so I'm fine with that. And it's also nice because we get to introduce another one of Tipral's minions. You know, Mr. L? I'm pretty sure a lot of you people like him for whatever reason. **

**So what's next for our heroes? Well... Perhaps it might be the new area they're going to explore. And hopefully we'll get more details on this Grim character as well.**_  
_


	67. Grim's Underground Headquarters

**Another note: Grim and Trucker don't belong to me, all right? They belong to my friend named Maniacal Toaster, who let me put these guys in this fic. That's basically all I needed to say here.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 11-4**

**-Grim's Underground Headquarters-**

The only thing our heroes could really see around them was the darkness in the cave. It wasn't like in Underwhere Road where it was too hard to see. They COULD see what was around them, but not much. The ground was made of rock instead of metal and it was a red color. Of course, that was hard to see with it being hard to see and all that. There were a couple of torches on the walls to bring in a little bit of light, but that didn't seem to be enough.

"So, Ninbot… How are things around here? In fact, what's going on around this area?" Chopper asked as they continued to walk through the tunnel. Everyone else was so silent that Chopper just had to speak up in order to see if the others would actually speak like they were back outside in Metallic Forest.

Ninbot stopped for a minute, causing everyone else to stop. He turned to the group and sighed. "What's through here… I don't think it's wise to tell you. It might be best to see for yourself… But I will warn you. It's not going to be something you like. It may just be one of the worst things you'll ever see in this world."

"But why is it so hot here?" Blade asked waving his arm like a fan. "I'm starting to sweat a bit. That's not a good thing."

"This place is underground. It's going to be hot here, obviously. But when we get out of this tunnel, expect to see some lava. Hopefully that dumb chameleon doesn't get his tail burnt or something…" Ninbot started to walk again, along with everyone else. Nobody bothered to ask him any more questions at that point.

"Poyo. (Wait… Lava? This…isn't going to turn out well.)" Kirby gulped as they passed by another torch.

"Relax, Kirby. Their might be something that'll help us be immune to it. Well, more like a Fire ability to say the least." Chopper hoped as he decided to pick his speed up. "OK, I think we need to go a BIT faster."

After walking for a bit more, they found a door at the end of the tunnel. It seemed that a password was needed to unlock it, but what Ninbot did was stab the machine with his katana, instantly opening the door.

"…I could've done that," Blade stated with a blank look.

"OK, let's not get into any competition here…" Sonic trailed as they walked through the door and into an area where they were at the edge of a cliff. They saw an elevator coming up for them in this larger area. Now THIS place was a bit hotter than what the tunnel was like, which began to bother Blade and Mario.

Mario: It's hot here!

"Poyo… (Ugh… Tell me about it…)" Kirby nodded while trying to fan himself with his hand. "Poyo…? (Couldn't this place have been, you know…a lot…cooler…?)"

Unfortunately, when they turned back to Ninbot's attention, they saw that he was no longer around. "Hey! Where did Ninbot go? ! He was here a second ago…" Chopper looked around. "Ninbot? ! Are you there? ! We're trying to…"

Before he could finish the elevator stopped. It appeared that they were down on the rocky ground. But what they heard was apparently crying and even the sound of…pickaxes? Now who would be mining for supplies in a place like this?

"Great… First we lose Ninbot, now we have all of these pickaxe noises…" Blade groaned as they stepped on the rocky ground. "So… What's the next thing we're going to hear now? Is it going to get any worse?"

Now they were hearing some people crying from doing their work. It didn't sound robotic either. To them, it sounded more like a real voice than anything else they've heard in this world. And no, it wasn't Francis.

"Blade… WHY did you have to say something like that? !" Chopper asked with an irritated look. "You should realize if you ever say…that sentence, things ARE going to get worse!"

"Wait? What did I say? Do you mean, 'Is it going to get any worse?"

They heard an explosion coming from a lava pit up ahead. A rock ended up landing on someone too. Although, it sounded a bit more funny than sad, to be honest (just how the person who got squished sounded).

"See? That's what happens when you say stuff like that! People get brutally killed! …Whatever, let's just search around here." Chopper suggested as he walked around the large room. It was just a straight pathway with a couple of prisoners that sort of resembled the ones back in Merlee's Mansion. Well, it turns out they ARE those kind of people!

"Hey… Haven't we seen people like them here before?"

"Uhhhh… I haven't seen people like them around here before…" Sonic trailed as he looked at the prisoners.

"Poyo, (That's because you weren't here when we saw these guys,)" Kirby pointed out as he looked at them. "Poyo! (These are those prisoners Mimi held, uh…prisoner back in Merlee's Mansion!)"

"Oh, yeah! Those guys! Back in Chapter 2!" Chopper recalled. "I can't believe these guys are here! How did they even get here anyways? Were they kidnapped from Merlee's Mansion and brought here?"

Mario: We should ask them.

Mario walked up to one of the prisoners and waved to him to greet him nicely. Although, he didn't necessarily get the nicest greeting in the world.

"Listen, chubby mustached man, I don't want you bothering me right now!" the prisoner snapped, making Mario back away a little. "This place blows. I hate that a guy with hair under his nose is here too…"

"_This reminds me of that other prisoner we saw back at Gloam Valley…" _Timpani groaned. _"I just hope that isn't the same prisoner from before."_

"Hey, wait a minute… I remember that voice! Is it…the hot girl? !" the prisoner jumped up and walked up to Mario. "Hey, chubby man! Do you know where that voice came from? ! I GOTTA know!"

"_And this guy thinks he could try to hit on my wife…" _Blumiere grumbled.

"_Relax, Blumiere. There's no way he can get to me. I'll still stay by your side. Always. But I think he could help us find our way out of here. You guys should ask him about this place."_

"I'll do anything to get that girl! Ask me anything!" begged the prisoner.

The other prisoners looked over at him and nearly groaned. "See, this is why I hate being next to him," one grumbled.

"What is this place?" Chopper asked.

"This is the Quartz Mine," the prisoner explained. "We prisoners are mining for some quartz so Grim can make lots of money! He said robots will get scratched up, so he's using us because no one really cares about us."

"Poyo… (That's not good…)" Kirby frowned.

Everyone else was a bit silent, but they had to ask another question. "Who's this Grim person that we've been hearing about?" Sonic asked. Some large truck guy was apparently talking to him and we're a bit curious about it."

"Grim? All right, now you might be thinking he's a grim reaper, but that's not true. He's actually some guy wearing a cloak and is actually green and yellow! I mean, that's pretty cool! …But, in all honesty, we don't like it here. We're forced to work in this place and there's no way of freezing us."

"I think I have a solution," Chopper said as a light bulb appeared over his head. "Kirby, I'm gonna need your help if we're going to pull this off. Blade, you can try to help as well since you have fire."

"Poyo? (We're going to cut their chains off with fire?)" Kirby gawked.

"Well, with your cutter blade having some fire on it, we can actually free some of these prisoners. I believe you can cut chains with something hot… I think that's something Flyer told me before."

"Oh, you mean like this?" Blade brought his sword down on the prisoner's chain with fire energy, cutting it off and freeing him.

"Wait… I don't believe it! I'm actually free! YEAH! Now to go get me some babes!" the prisoner smirked while putting on some shades. "Awwww yeah!"

"…Where did you get the shades?" Chopper gawked.

"Now's not the time for that. We need to free all of these prisoners!" Sonic suggested. Chopper immediately got to work and tossed a fireball at Kirby's cutter blade. The pink puffball immediately used it to cut through the other chains. Blade did the same thing as well.

"_**SWEET FREEDOM!**_" the prisoners cheered as they fled out of the Quartz Mines. Hearing those words made Thoreau smile.

"Ahhhhh… I always love to hear them cheer like that!" Thoreau sighed happily. "It's so nice…"

"Yeah, it's nice that they're happy," Blade nodded. "But do you know what else is nice? Beating the crap out of our enemies and kicking their asses! Let's get moving!"

They immediately rushed past the rest of the prisoners that were fleeing and headed through the red door up ahead into another area. This was small, kind of like a cavern room, and what was worse was that there was a Robbie lying over by the corner, making most of them bite their lips.

"…Robbie," Chopper gulped.

"Crap. We gotta attack it from a far range." Blade began to throw shurikens at the Robbie, but it immediately let out its ear-piercing scream, causing everyone to cover their ears (unless they didn't have ears). It began to creep its way towards the group, but Kirby managed to use his Final Cutter attack to finish it off since it doesn't always let out a freaky scream.

"Poyo, (These things are freaky,)" Kirby shivered as the Robbie was disintegrated into smoke. It also made a door appear right next to them. They all knew they should just walk through the next room, and that they did…to find some platforms floating on lava and even some floating robotic enemies that have smoke coming out.

"Weird enemies… But let's see what they are." Chopper pulled the wand out and aimed it at the strange robot to investigate it.

"_That's a Robobomb. These things are generally used as weapons. Max HP is 1. Attack is 10. If you end up touching it, it will explode and deal some massive damage to you. But, you won't get hurt if you pick it up with Thoreau. You might be able to throw them at any enemies and cracked walls!" _Timpani informed.

"Hmmmmm… Let's give it a go!" Chopper used Thoreau to grab the Robobomb so he was holding it up. He jumped on the lava platforms to avoid getting burnt and flipped into 3-D to find a crack. So, he simply threw the Robobomb at the wall, causing it to make a large hole.

"What do you see through there?" Blade asked.

"I see…a pipe? I think we can use this pipe to get down somewhere!" Chopper smiled as he jumped right into the pipe and let him go down it in the weird, pixel-like way where his body turns into pixels as it goes down the pipe.

"Poyo? (Does anyone know why our bodies become pixel-like as we go down a pipe?)" Kirby asked. Unfortunately, since Chopper already went down the pipe, no one else could understand what he was saying.

Mario: Errr… I don't understand…

"Dang it… We don't understand what Kirby's saying…" Sonic groaned. "But, whatever. We gotta get moving, either we like it or not. That's probably the important part in this entire quest…I think."

They all followed Chopper down the pipe before doing anything else.

* * *

**Another cave room-**

They jumped out of the pipe and saw that they were in another tunnel, except this one seemed to be going down a bit and not to mention there was a large gap up ahead that looked rather tough to cross. However, there did seem to be something that could help, such as the glowing arrows up on the walls over the gap. That could be a little something for some of them.

"Hey, it's another tunnel! Maybe we can see what we'll find up ahead!" Chopper smiled as he made his way down and began to run on the wall over by the gap. Sonic followed as well and managed to get over to the door ahead.

Mario: Now how do I get through?

"I think your Triple Jump could probably help you here," Blade pointed out.

Mario decided to try it out and, it turns out, that it ended up helping him get across the gap with no problem. Blade simply made a huge jump to get over using his ninja skills. Afterwards, they headed through the door, where they saw that they were standing right on a platform floating in the lava. A couple of blue Lava Bubbles rose from the lava and tried to spit small fire at them.

"Oh, boy… Those things. I remember seeing those back in The Underwhere… But they're now blue." Chopper groaned. "Although, I don't know what their stats are…" he pulled out Timpani's wand and investigated them.

"_It's an Ember. They are said to be phantoms of dead Lava Bubbles… Max HP is 20. Attack is 9. They usually rise up from the lava and try to spit small fireballs at you if possible. It's not too hard to get rid of them though. Just bash them with an attack that doesn't involve you touching them and they'll be gone. They also seem to hate cold temperatures and water…" _Timpani informed.

"Oh, really? Well let's see what this does!" Chopper was about to toss a fireball at the Ember, but he paused for a minute. "…Wait, I think I have a better idea."

"_Better idea? What do you mean?" _

"Just watch," Chopper inhaled the Ember and gained the Fire ability upon swallowing it. "I think I'll be able to handle the lava if I have the Fire ability on. Now we just need one for Kirby…"

Chopper jumped to the next platform and punched the yellow ? block. Luckily, there happened to be a Fire ability that came out. Kirby immediately removed his ability and took it so he could have it as well.

"Poyo! (Now THIS is much better for this area!)" Kirby smiled.

"Tell me about it!" Chopper saw a Patrolbot hovering over the lava, but Kirby was the one to get to it first by jumping and attacking it with his Fireball Spin attack, making him spin in a ball of fire as he destroyed the Patrolbot.

After two more jumps, they could see that the next platform was a bit too far to reach. Plus, there was a huge wall of fire blocking the way in order to prevent people like Kirby from getting across the large gap.

"Poyo? (Is it possible to go through there with this Fire ability?)" Kirby questioned.

"I'm not so sure… But I'll see what's in 3-D." Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. He saw that the whole wall of fire wasn't covering all of 3-D, to his relief. There were even a couple of other platforms, but they were more of a grayish color than a brownish. He decided to scan them with Timpani's wand.

"_Those platforms can sink if you stand on them for too long… They'll rise back up if you're off of them, though." _Timpani informed.

"_If you're a bit too close to the lava, I would suggest you jump so you can let the platform rise up," _suggested Blumiere.

"Well I guess that helps us…" Sonic shrugged as Chopper helped him and the rest of the group into 3-D. "I still wonder… How does Grim get his robots through this area? Aren't they vulnerable to the heat?"

Mario: Beats me. I don't know about these robots!

"Who really cares? It's best that we just get rid of the bad guys here!" Blade said as they got past the wall of fire and went back into 2-D on a gray platform. They could see another Ember pop out of the lava, but Chopper took care of it by tossing an ice ball at it.

"I find it rather strange that I'm using ice when I have the Fire ability on…" Chopper trailed as he got to a door being blocked by some large rock. There happened to be dynamite next to it, but it wasn't lit up.

…So, basically, he touched the fuse with fire energy on his fingers to make it go off and blow up the door, thus allowing them to press on ahead into the next area, which was a bit smaller, but there weren't any lava platforms. It was just the ground they were standing on and a couple of jars filled with water.

"Huh… What's with these large jars?" Blade asked, poking the jars. He noticed up ahead on the lava that there was a huge spring of lava shooting out to an upper pathway up ahead.

"_From what I see, those jars could probably cool down some parts of the lava and allow you to walk on it," _Timpani predicted. _"Maybe you can throw one of those jars into that lava spring. It might be able to help us."_

Mario grabbed a hold of the first jar using Thoreau and tossed it into the lava. A large rock appeared, floating on the lava as soon as the jar broke and all the water went all over the place. Kirby grabbed the next jar with Thoreau and threw it on the lava spring while it was resting for a bit and they all jumped on it to hitch a ride.

"Now this might be a bit fun," Sonic smirked.

"Why do you say that?" Chopper asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure riding up a lava spring could be pretty fun! Although, I think lava surfing is a bit more enjoyable than this…"

"Sonic, you ALWAYS think that snowboarding or surfing on anything is better than riding something like a rollercoaster or this thing!" Blade pointed out. "It's so obvious to what you always prefer."

They jumped off the rocky platform and landed on the upper ground where they saw another door. Mario struck the yellow ? block to gain a Mushroom (that they all split) and moved on into the next area.

Surprisingly, they saw that there was a bridge up ahead in a bigger area. However, there was someone blocking the way, and they were certainly not happy to see who it was. It was none other than…Trucker.

"What the… Who the heck are you people?" Trucker questioned, looking confused. "You don't look like robots at all! In fact, there's a pizza guy with you too! Oh, don't tell me… You're more pizza guys?"

"No, we're not pizza guys. We're here to find that Pure Heart!" Chopper declared. "But that requires you to get out of the way first…"

"Errr… Whuh? Listen here, meatbag…"

"Oh, great, he's acting like Metal Chopper…"

"Hey! Don't interrupt me like that…er…whatever it is…" Trucker snapped. "But, I'm still not movin'. Grim ordered me to keep watch here an' I ain't gonna move until he tells me to do so! An' if yer askin' fer a fight, then just try an' get past me! I'm too big fer ya all anyways!"

"So you're saying that the only way to get through is by force?" Blade asked, getting ready to draw his katana. "'Cause if that's what you mean, then we'll be happy to take you down!"

Blade charged straight at Trucker and tried to strike him with his katana. Unfortunately, it didn't really do anything and it only bent his katana instead of going right through his metallic body.

"HA! See? You can't strike me with my metallic body! But I can do THIS!" Trucker began to fire his machine guns straight at Blade. The ninja began to dodge using his ninja skills and made his way back to the group.

"Poyo! (Blade! No! Don't get him over here!)" Kirby shouted as Trucker began to fire towards them. But this time, he fired a missile at them. Chopper immediately got into 3-D with his friends and they saw some rocky steps to their right to avoid the missiles and get away from Trucker.

"Huh…? Where'd they go?" he gawked.

"It's a good thing we're safe from that fat robot," Chopper said, sighing in relief. "I didn't want to be stuck with that thing."

"But how are we going to get him out of the way?" Sonic asked. "In fact, have we even investigated this guy? Maybe if we did that, we'll be able to find out how we can get him out of the way!"

"I'll check," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate Trucker.

"_That's Trucker. He's one of Grim's minions. He's not really that smart of a robot, though… Max HP is ?. Attack is 10. Defense is ?. None of your weapons will work against this guy. Try all you want, but you're not going to hurt him… The only thing that might work against him is if you have something related to a jetpack… But I don't see any jetpacks around here…" _Timpani informed.

"Jetpacks, huh? We just have to ram into him with that? Well… Let's check around here." Chopper saw a lava platform making its way over to them. They jumped on it and allowed it to take them over to a lava platform that was standing still. There also happened to be a yellow ? block floating above the platform.

Punching the block, Mario noticed a jet plane helmet with wings and shades pop out.

Mario: It's a helmet!

"Hey, maybe that's what we need to hit Trucker!" Chopper threw his Fire ability away and inhaled the helmet. After swallowing it, it happened to appear on his head, but now there was a large jet engine on his back. He was also wearing the shades that were given with the ability as well.

"Nice! I think this should do nicely!" as soon as Chopper jumped, he noticed he was hovering over the ground thanks to the jetpack. "I think I can use this to fly over the lava! This is pretty nice!"

"Poyo, (Well, hopefully I can get one of those,)" Kirby hoped. "Poyo… (Although… I didn't find the Jet ability THAT useful…)"

"True, but we need it to stop Trucker," they made their way back up to Trucker, who was looking around for the heroes on the bridge. When they appeared right in front of him via flipping, he got his weapons ready and prepared to fire.

"All right, meatbags! Now you're going to…" Trucker was interrupted when Chopper rammed straight into him with his foot thanks to the powers of the Jet ability. Despite this, Trucker didn't seem to move.

"Ha! A jetpack?" Trucker began to wheeze before starting to laugh. "You stupid little…"

Chopper smiled as he saw Trucker was almost about to fall, saying _"See ya!" _in his mind before Trucker ended up falling straight into the lava.

"Oh, damn! I'm in the friggin' lava!" Trucker pouted. "Great… Now Grim's goin' to kill me for real! I better not tell him about this though…if I even make it out of here alive, that is…"

After Trucker sank into the lava, everyone smiled as they walked up to the door ahead, leading into an area that looked more like a base. They saw multiple Securibots patrolling the ground here. They even saw a sign right next to them. The sky seemed like a light orange color, but a bit foggy.

"Sheesh… What a foggy area." Sonic stated. "I can hardly see any of the Securibots around here! I can see their searchlights, though."

Surprisingly, Ninbot landed right in front of them, causing nearly most of them to yelp, but not in a loud way. "Whoa whoa whoa! Hang on a second here… How'd you get through all of that stuff we were in?" Blade asked.

"I took a different way," Ninbot bluntly explained as he looked at the sign.

_No entry beyond this point. This includes Ninbot and people that are not robots!_

_-Grim-_

"Sheesh! I guess these robots don't really like you that much…" Chopper trailed as he looked at the sign. "What have you done to them? …Or rather, have they done anything to YOU instead?"

"And it's OK to tell us why," Sonic assured. "We're not the bad guys."

"Fine… I suppose I can explain why." Ninbot sighed. "This place used to be inhabited by peaceful robots. I was one of the people who lived here a couple of years ago. But when Master Mind came here and invaded our world, we were defenseless. Because of how peaceful we robots were, there wasn't a way for us to fight back. I thought things would be fine…but I was wrong."

"So… How did you end up becoming a ninja?" Chopper asked.

"There were only two survivors. All that was left was me and a sensei that was a bit old for a robot. Of course, I was programmed to be a ninja, but I haven't really learned moves that can help me escape from danger. Only moves that help me fight back. After learning those abilities, he ended up shutting down, with only me remaining. I DID manage to thwart Master Mind's plans and put an end to him. But his right-hand man, Grim, still lived. He's trying to find a way to stop me."

"Poyo, (That's pretty interesting,)" Kirby stated, who was a bit surprised with all of this. "Poyo? (So where is Grim right now?)"

Chopper had to translate what Kirby said to Ninbot, since he doesn't know what he's saying. "Grim is somewhere around here. I can feel it… If we can just stop him, there's a chance that this world can be saved."

"…But what about Metal Chopper?" Chopper questioned.

"Oh… There's still him too." Ninbot didn't say anything else as he jumped on a couple of the Securibots to take them out. Everyone simply followed Ninbot through, with Chopper flying over the Securibots with his Jet ability.

"Hold on, I think I saw something," he flew up to a platform on a high platform and saw a chest. He kicked it open and found a Base Key, which was a bit strange for him to find high up.

But, who cares, right? He went back down and they all followed Ninbot through the headquarters and over to a large, gray door up ahead. The only problem, though, was that the door was locked.

"Damn… The door's locked." Ninbot tried to cut it with his katana, but it didn't seem to work. "We're going to need a key to get through here."

"You mean this?" Chopper pulled the Base Key out and inserted it into the lock, breaking it off and allowing them entry. "See? There's something that can be helpful for us! Now let's go through!"

* * *

**Inside-**

As they walked through the door, they noticed that they were in a room with a dark blue quartz ground and walls and also a large, glowing blue core in the middle of the room. It seemed to be some sort of holographic model of the planet, for some reason. There was also a chair facing the hologram, but it wasn't facing the heroes.

"What a strange room this is…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: It's kind of creepy…

"Poyo! (But at least it isn't hot!)" Kirby smiled.

"Hmmmmmm? Why do I hear voices in this place?" the chair turned and they saw a green robot with his head being half green and half yellow turn around. He was wearing a black cloak and was holding a scythe with jewels on the edge which seemed to make it a bit heavy. But, surprisingly, it didn't seem heavy to him.

"Are you Grim?" Blade asked.

"Yes, I am the one and only Grim," Grim got up from his chair and glared at the heroes with his red and black eyes. "And I see you're the intruders that were infiltrating my base and freed my slaves! Oh, you're going to pay for that… You're going to pay with your lives!"

"_Excuse me, but you had no right to take those prisoners and make them your slaves!" _Timpani retorted. _"That's a horrible thing for you to do!"_

"Tsh! I do it because I can! And besides, who's going to be the ones to get those quartz out of these mines? Certainly not me! At least I managed to use some of it to make this beautiful building for myself."

"So how come we didn't see any quartz around here? Did you get rid of it all?" Blade asked, drawing his katana, which was a bit bent. However, he managed to get it fixed thanks to Mario using his hammer to straighten it.

"You know, I could've done that too…" Chopper frowned.

"He asked first. I'm pretty sure his hammer is better anyways."

"Oh… Dang."

"Apparently those slaves have already mined all of the quartz in this area," Grim explained. "I'm afraid there's no more quartz left to be found around here. It's a shame, really. I could've used more of that to make this room even nicer or larger, but I guess not."

"But how could you now? You've got no slaves with you!" Chopper smirked. "We freed them, remember? It's over for you!"

"You may have taken my slaves, but the war isn't over just yet," Grim swung his scythe and aimed it at the heroes. "Since you happened to THROW Trucker off the bridge, I guess I'm going to have to do this crap myself. I'm not going to hold back against you though. Remember that!"

The chair disappeared and so did the hologram of the planet, leaving this room to look more like a fighting room. "As for you, Ninbot… I specifically told you NOT to come here! But I guess that I can simply avenge Master Mind by taking your life!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Sonic curled up in a ball and struck Grim with a Homing Attack, knocking him back. Grim tried to regain conscious and attack Sonic, but he managed to avoid his scythe and kick him in the face.

"Argh! Fine! I'll take care of you people first, since you HAPPEN to be in my way!" Grim growled, readying his scythe. "Good thing I can fire lasers from this thing, or else I would be screwed from far range."

While the group started their fight, Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and investigated on Grim.

"_That's Grim. He's said to be a minion of a robot named Master Mind that was once destroyed by Ninbot. Max HP is 160. Attack is 10. Defense is 2. That scythe can be quite deadly from a close range. If he charges up his special attack with that thing, it's probably best that you get out of his way so you don't take even more damage… Those blasts he fires at you can be frozen, however, so you might want to try to freeze them with any ice attacks… Other than that, this guy is quite…strange. He's a robot grim reaper, yet he doesn't look like one…?" _Timpani informed.

"Yeah, I think it's strange," Chopper immediately rushed towards Grim, but the robot managed to strike him with a blast from his scythe, knocking him back towards the wall. Kirby, however, managed to get into a fireball and ram into Grim to leave him a bit overheated.

"Agh! I'm starting to overheat a little!" Grim gaped.

Ninbot smirked and threw one of his shurikens at him while he was clinging to the wall, knocking Grim back a bit. Blade also helped by tossing a shuriken and then striking him with his katana.

"What? TWO ninjas? Great… Just great…"

"Take this!" Chopper cried as he flew towards him with his Jet ability. He stopped and brought his hands out and fired a green blast straight at him, sending him flying towards the opposite wall.

"Whoa… I can fired a blast of energy from my hands when I do that? Weird…" Chopper had a blank look on his face as he saw a bunch of blasts firing at him. He immediately flew up to avoid them, but he ended up losing his Jet ability from one of them. The yellow star that was flying around was even destroyed by one of the blasts.

"All right, that's it! No more Mr. Nice-guy!" Grim flew towards Sonic and struck him with his scythe, knocking him back. Mario ended up jumping on his head, but even then he got hit by Grim's scythe.

"Poyo, (Oh, yeah, I can make enemies dizzy with my attacks,)" Kirby immediately jumped on Carrie and jumped on top of Grim's head, leaving him dizzy for a couple of seconds. That's when Chopper rushed towards him and did an uppercut kick with ice energy on his feet to send Grim up to the ceiling.

"Sheesh! That attack sure had some power to it!" Chopper commented.

"Not really… It didn't kill him…" Blade face palmed.

"…Well that stinks."

Grim raised his scythe and slammed it on the ground, creating a large blue wave of energy that knocked Kirby, Blade and Mario off the ground and sent them towards the wall. Afterwards, Grim fired some homing mini-robots to go after them.

"I got one of them!" Chopper ended up inhaling three mini-robots and spat them out at Grim, doing more damage than what he would normally do when inhaling enemies. "Gee, that was interesting…"

Mario managed to grab a hold of the next mini-robot with Thoreau and threw it back at Grim, damaging him a bit. It sort of brought him back to his dream where he picked up enemies and other stuff and threw them at others.

Mario: Ahhh… Those memories never get old.

Mario avoided Grim's scythe again and managed to strike him with another jump, but this time he managed to ground pound his head and bash him in the head with his hammer afterwards.

"Incoming!" Chopper cried as he began to spin his hammer rapidly, striking Grim and knocking him to the ground. Sonic followed up by using Screwdy's corkscrew attack on him to pierce right through his chest. A couple of sparks were left flying, but Grim wasn't exactly finished yet.

"Don't think I'm going to give up so easily," Grim got up and swung his scythe at the group. Rings flew everywhere as Sonic got struck and Chopper was just left with a terrible mark on his cheek.

"Ow! That left a bad mark on my cheek." Chopper said, holding his cheek in pain. "What stinks is that it's always my face that suffers the injuries."

"Just take it like a man," Blade suggested as he kicked Grim in the face and slashed at him with his katana, leaving a scar right on Grim's body, causing him to get angry and swing his scythe at him. Luckily, Blade managed to bring his katana up and defend himself against the attack.

"Whoa! That was too close!"

"Heads up, Blade, I got your back!" Sonic curled up in a ball once again and struck Grim in the back. Although that was meant to help, it only got the robot to fall over to Blade. But he was able to get him off.

Kirby made another move on Grim, spitting a fireball from his mouth at the grim reaper and setting him on fire. Chopper helped cool him down by tossing an ice ball at him. However, it didn't necessarily freeze him…

"Well if that didn't freeze him, then this should help!" Chopper pulled his hammer out and bashed Grim with it. When Grim swung his scythe, Chopper tried to block it, but things didn't work out for him. At least Sonic managed to hit Grim with a Spin Jump after being knocked back.

"Sheesh… I might need something else to help me!"

"Then take this," Ninbot tossed a shuriken right by Chopper's foot. The young boy looked down at it and picked it up. After thinking for a bit, he inhaled it and swallowed it. His skin turned to a light purple tint and his gloves and shoes were a dark purple. Chopper was also wearing a red helmet with three stars on the front, with the middle one being bigger, and the other two being smaller. The helmet also had a purple tuft of hair sticking out as well.

"Poyo? (Is that the Ninja ability?)" Kirby gawked.

"I think so…" Chopper looked at his light purple self and then felt the top of his head. "Yeah, this is definitely my ninja ability. Although… I was hoping I would look a bit more ninja-like."

"Well don't just stand there like that! Help us fight!" Blade cried as he tried to push Grim's scythe away from him. Chopper nodded and made a dash towards Grim. With his small katana, he managed to leave a couple of scars on him. Grim even tried to shoot him, but he managed to use his new agility to avoid the attacks and grab a hold of him.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? !" Grim gawked.

"This," Chopper jumped up in the air with his and turned him around so his head would be aiming for the ground. He came straight down and struck Grim in the head, leaving him dazed so Kirby could ram into him as a fireball.

"Well that was…pretty interesting," Sonic commented.

Grim managed to get back up and knock both Chopper and Kirby back by shooting a couple of lasers at them with his scythe. He also managed to elbow Mario in the stomach to make him fall over.

Mario: Mama mia! My stomach!

"I think it's time for my new attack," Grim stored up a lot of power in his scythe, which began to glow a blue color. Ninbot tried to strike him, but it didn't seem to have any effect on him.

"Try THIS!" Grim began to spin rapidly around the room, trying to strike them all. Kirby was lucky enough to float over the ground and Chopper was lucky that he could cling onto the wall, just like Blade could. But as for Sonic and Mario… They ended up suffering from the attack.

"Ack! That attack is deadly!" Sonic wheezed. "Did I just lose 20 HP from that? !"

"_Maybe you need to heal yourselves now," _suggested Timpani.

"_Your HP IS rather low, I'll admit," _commented Blumiere.

"We better do that," Sonic pulled an Ultra Shroom Shake and took a sip from it. They all passed it around and drank it until it was all empty. Of course, Chopper decided to throw the empty can at Grim to deal some damage.

"Hey! What was that for? !" Grim gawked.

"We always tend to do that!" Chopper nodded as he threw a couple of ninja stars at Grim's chest. They stuck to him, but he managed to pull them off and throw them at Blade. Of course, that was a rather stupid move for him to do, since it was easy fro Blade to just deflect them back at him.

"That was a rather dumb move," Blade commented.

Grim didn't say another word as he struck Blade with his scythe, knocking him back, but was soon hit when Ninbot jumped down and swung his katana at him, leaving him dazed. This allowed Kirby to use his Fireball Spin attack and hit him a couple of times while in a fireball.

"Poyo! (And here's something else for you!)" Kirby threw Crystaline straight at the dazed Grim, leaving him frozen. Afterwards, he began to breathe fire at him to melt him and to deal some heavy damage, leaving his HP rather low.

"_This is good… You have him! You can finish the fight!" _cheered Blumiere.

"_**FORE!**_"

"_Wait, what are you doing, Chopper? !" _Timpani gaped.

"Settle down, Tippi! This should work." Chopper swung his hammer back and then struck Sonic while he was curled in a ball. The blue hedgehog's quills struck Grim and allowed Sonic to slam his foot right on top of his head as he got out of a ball, leaving him nearly weak.

"Urgh… What's wrong with me? ! How come they're kicking my asses? !" Grim gawked.

"Because," Sonic began while waggling his finger. "We're…"

"Don't even SAY that, Sonic…" Chopper warned.

"I was going to say that we're awesome…"

"Oh, I thought you were going to say…"

"All right, we get it already!" Blade groaned.

"Fine…" Sonic did one last Spin Jump on Grim to finish him off. Despite not finishing him off, it was enough to leave him defeated.

"How… How could I lose to you guys?" Grim cried. "How could squishies defeat robots? We were designed to outrank you people!"

"Hey, man, just because you're a robot doesn't mean you're superior to non-robots," Sonic explained. "I've taken down armies of robots in the past and I'm not a robot!"

Mario: We've all taken down robots in the past.

"I see…" little did they know that Grim was planning one last attack. He was storing up power in his scythe from behind! "Too bad you won't live to take down any other robots! Especially that other robot that lives in that fortress!"

"Poyo? (Wait, what's he planning?)" Kirby gawked.

Grim raised his scythe and tried to finish off the heroes, but Ninbot immediately jumped in and stabbed Grim in the chest with his katana.

"Ninbot… You… You… You're going to wish you've never done that…" Grim wheezed. "Someday, I'll make sure you and these people suffer a horrible, horrible death."

Ninbot looked at Grim in the eyes and said, "I highly doubt that," and pulled his katana out of his chest. The robot ended up exploded as Ninbot tried to clean off the oil on his katana.

"Wow… I can't believe you did that." Chopper gawked.

"But it's not over yet," Sonic reminded. "We still have Metal Chopper to stop! And to get that Pure Heart!"

"And we have to save Luvbi too."

They all saw a door mysteriously appear right near them. It's almost if that door was been hiding this whole time! Nevertheless, our heroes walked through the door into a small room where they saw a Star Block and a switch right by the end of the room.

"Oh, boy! This must be the way out!" Blade smiled.

"And now let's hit the Star Block first!" Chopper smiled as he punched the Star Block. "…Although, I have no idea where Francis went anyways."

"Poyo… (That is a mystery…)" Kirby pondered.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Grim out of the way, our heroes knew that his minions should be stopping just about now. But despite this, they weren't finished with this world just yet. Up the elevator, Chopper could almost hear the voice of a girl. A voice that reminded him of a certain Nimbi princess that has an obsession of him. From that point on, he knew that Luvbi was in grave danger. "I just hope we don't get there too late…" hoped Timpani as the light from the ceiling led them outside, right in front of the Robot Fortress._

* * *

**Well, that concludes this part. We only have one last part of this whole chapter! And surely things shouldn't turn out bad, right? You know, maybe Metal Chopper might actually SUCCEED in his plans, unlike the other times? Huh? OK, let's not get there just yet. I know I didn't say much about Grim in the past in Chapter 11, but I thought I had to here. So... Yeah.**

**And get ready for what we might see next in this fic. I'm pretty sure we're probably going to see something rather...big or interesting...or evil.**_  
_


	68. Infiltrating the Fortress

**CHAPTER 11-5**

**-Infiltrating the Fortress-**

"Poyo… (Gee, I don't like the looks of this place, honestly…)" Kirby trailed nervously as he looked up at the large fortress up ahead. They noticed that the door was being guarded by two large robot guards with some large weapons. Apparently these guys weren't Grim's minions. They must've been Metal Chopper's, since they didn't supposedly deactivate, unlike Grim's robots (although, that's sort of a mystery…). The forest itself was just like what it was in Chapter 11-3, but there weren't any mushrooms. But they all agreed that they didn't like the large fortress.

"I hear ya, Kirby. I don't like the looks of it either." Chopper nodded, clenching his fist as he looked up at the fortress. "All I know is that Metal Chopper's up there, and we have to stop him and get the Pure Heart! But what sucks is that the door's being heavily guarded…"

"OK, there's something I've been noticing lately…" Blade realized, looking up at the fortress. "Why is it that every time we have to get to a boss, the last part is somewhere in a castle, palace or even a fortress? Don't you think it gets a bit unoriginal for some people? I think it does…"

"Yeah! I've been noticing that too!" Chopper agreed. "This is just unoriginal! How come we don't fight any bosses in an outside area! …Actually, it feels like it's ALWAYS been like that. You know, with the castle in Lineland Road, Merlee's Mansion, Fort Francis, King Neptunian's Palace, Castle Tipral, Sweet Castle and Confusing Palace! That's just… I don't know what to say about that."

While they were beginning to discuss about how to get into the fortress and about how unoriginal the last parts of each chapter were beginning to be, they all heard music coming from the top of the fortress. One thing for sure was that it was catchy…and that there was some arguing coming from up there too.

"Hey, do you guys hear that music?" Sonic asked.

Mario: I can hear it!

"It's catchy as hell," Blade began to tap his foot to the beat. "Seriously! I think this is a pretty rockin' song! Sometimes it just makes me want to do some kind of air guitar! Although, I don't think I can play guitar that well."

"I can play the guitar, but I'm not really that great on it…" Chopper trailed, remembering the times he played guitar. "Although, you DON'T want to hear me sing! My singing is horrible beyond belief!"

"Why don't you sing for us then?" Sonic suggested.

"N-No! I don't want to make your ears bleed! Back in Nightclub Casino, I nearly killed some people with my horrible singing! Don't even MAKE me sing, or else I'm going to throw myself into a pit of Goombas!"

"Poyo, (Trust me, his singing is bad,)" Kirby said, despite them not understanding. "Poyo! (You DON'T want to hear him sing! And complimenting him isn't going to help either! You'll KNOW that it's bad!)"

"Yeah, listen to Kirby. Don't listen to my singing voice."

_"Guys! Can we just stop with this already? !" _Timpani snapped as her wand floated out of Chopper's bag and right between the group. _"We can't just be discussing about whether someone's singing voice is bad or not! We need to make a plan on how to get into that fortress!"_

Everyone was silent for a minute until Sonic spoke. "Er… Yeah. I think we need to do that. Those guards look pretty tough, though. Maybe we should investigate them to see if they have any weaknesses…"

"I'll check," Chopper grabbed Timpani's wand and aimed the ray of rainbow light at the guard. Since the guard didn't happen to see the light, they were safe. But they all began to listen to what Timpani had to say.

_"That's a Roboguard. They usually guard front entrances to large castles or fortresses. There's no way you can defeat this thing. The only thing you can do is avoid it. If you happen to be spotted by one of them, you need to get out IMMEDIATELY! Keeping a distance is not a bad idea. Although, I heard that you can blind them with some kind of flashing light…" _Timpani informed.

"Flashing light? Huh… That sounds interesting." Blade pondered. "But where could we find a flashing light?"

_"Nerrrrrrrrrrrrr!"_

_"Don't tell me who I think it is…" _groaned Timpani.

"That sounded like that nerdy voice we heard before going into Quartz Mine," Ninbot stated before Francis appeared right in front of them. The two Roboguards didn't happen to notice him.

"Wait a second… You're those people that beat the snot out of me back in Fort Francis! …Except now there's more of you!" Francis immediately got in his fighting stance. "No way you're going to… Nerrrrr? What's that you got with you?"

The geeky chameleon knocked everyone out of the way as he walked over to Ninbot. "Oh my gosh! You're an actual ninja robot! I've ALWAYS wanted to find such a schweet-looking one all my life! You look so hi-technicaaaaaaal!"

Ninbot only raised an eyebrow as Francis pulled his camera out. "Must. Get. Picture. Of. Robot!"

"Hold on a second…" Chopper was left nearly blinded when Francis clicked on his camera and made a large flash. In fact, everyone was a bit dazed. "Hey! What do you think you were…"

Mario: That camera flashed!

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Maybe Francis can help us get into the building with that camera! Surely that'll get those robots distracted for a while!" Chopper walked over to Francis and poked his arm. "Francis, we need to borrow your camera real quick."

"What? No way!" Francis pulled his camera away from him. "Why should I give the camera to a loser such as you and those others? You left me in the hospital for a couple of days! …Wait, no, that wasn't you. That happened when I was playing one of my schweet video games. Nerrr… But you beat me up twice, so I'm not going to give you my hi-technicaaal camera!"

"Poyo, (Well, maybe he can do it if there were any hot babes in there,)" Kirby smirked.

"Oh yeah!" Chopper looked back at Francis with a smug look.

"Why are you looking so smug?" Francis sweat dropped.

"Well, there might be something special in there for you! I know you like hot babes…_as freaky that I had to wear that wig and all_… And it JUST so happens that there are a couple of hot babes in there! And besides… They've got Francine too! They've got her and those hot babes too! You wouldn't want to leave them in there, would you? I mean, if you saved them, you would be getting all of the girls, while we would be walking away with such mellow-looking faces. You WANT to do this, right?"

"Yeah! Do it for the babes!" Blade smirked.

"Hot babes are captured inside that fortress?" Francis grinned widely. "Schweeeeeeeeeeeeeet… Maybe I can manage to use my new Swoon. exe on them! That'll be so hi-technicaaaaaaal! …So what do I need to do?"

_"Well if you want to get through the door, you need to use those cameras against those Roboguards. They'll be left blind for a couple of seconds and it'll allow you to enter through." _Blumiere explained.

"_Blumiere! Are you trying to join in the fun too? !" _Timpani gasped.

"_Relax, my love. I'm just explaining to him what he needs to do."_

"Then I'll do it, strange wand!" Francis walked up to the Roboguards, who immediately got their weapons ready and aimed at Francis. With a sudden click of Francis's camera, the Roboguards were left dazed for a couple of seconds.

_"Now's our chance! Chopper, we need to hurry!" _Timpani shouted as Chopper grabbed her wand and raced towards the door. Everyone else followed him into the door and entered through before Francis could walk in.

"Nerrrrrrrr! This is so hi-technicaaaaaal!" Francis grinned as he put his camera away. "Now to get inside of that fortress and rescue those hot babes!"

Unfortunately for him, the Roboguards manage to regain conscience and immediately aimed at Francis with their machine guns. None of them hit Francis, but it forced him to flee from the Roboguards. Of course, they were following him and not staying put.

"_**MERCY! I DON'T DESERVE THIS KIND OF TREATMENT!**_" Francis cried as he ran straight through the metallic forest with the robots following him.

* * *

**Top of Robot Fortress-**

Meanwhile, the Metal Band was busy playing the song "Crank the Heat Up" for the third time (they messed up the second time and got into a useless argument that was rather entertaining to Luvbi). This time, unlike the last two times, they weren't really messing up thanks to a metronome to help Metal Mario keep beat. Metal Chopper also had a force field around his guitar to prevent himself from smashing it out of anger (he can still play it though).

"Oh, yeah! This is such a catchy song! Hang on, I'm going to turn the volume up." Metal Chopper raised the volume of the music. All three of them were even bobbing their heads to the music.

"Heh! Catchy stuff!" Metal Sonic smirked. "And I don't care if people hate me for speaking. I'll speak if I want to!"

"What?" Metal Mario raised an eyebrow.

"Err… Nothing, really!"

"Daaaa da da da da… Da da daaaa daaaaaaaaa!" Metal Chopper was apparently humming to the song. "Kill Chopper with a laser, and then he'll be dead! Then, I can do my evil stuuuuuff!"

"Metal Chopper… You can't-a just sing-a something that doesn't belong to-a you…" Metal Mario warned. "That's-a copyright!"

"Yeah, I know it's from some kind of flash movie I once watched, but that was just in my head while playing. But if you want me to stop, then fine. I guess I have no other choice but to stop."

Before they could even end their song, the alarm ended up interrupting them. "Oh, what now?! Why is the alarm going off?!"

Metal Chopper walked over to AI-5538 and checked to see where it was coming from. He noticed that Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario were already in the fortress, making him gasp.

"What?! Chopper and his meatbag friends already made it here?! No! This isn't right! NOT RIGHT AT ALL!"

"My prince hast come hither to rescue me!" Luvbi sighed sweetly. "I knew he wouldeth come hither and stop thee from thy evil plans! He verily doth love me!"

"Oh shut up already! Why do I ALWAYS have to hear you talking about how much you love that stupid Chopper? I think turning you into a robot would just waste my time. If only I got one of those force field cages where you can keep them quiet!"

_"But then you would be doing something cruel! Can't you just stop with this already?" _AI-5538 asked, glaring at Metal Chopper with her eyes.

"Heck no! Chopper has always been ruining my life ever since I was created six years ago! You really think I would just give up on this and let him win? Absolutely NOT! I'd rather do things to cause harm to him rather than HELP him! You would KNOW how I feel after all these years!"

"And to think that Tipral person was verily a failure…despite him killing my friend…" Luvbi trailed.

"Tipral…? You mean that other counterpart of Chopper?" Metal Chopper whirled around and glared at Luvbi. "He is most certainly NOT better than me. Sure, he may hold such a powerful weapon, but my metallic body is a force of nature!"

"Oh, verily? Then why is he destroying many worlds?"

"…Whatever. I'll just ignore you for now." Metal Chopper noticed that Metal Mario and Metal Sonic were looking at the computer screen as well, glaring at both Mario and Sonic.

"That blue hedgehog's here too? ! And to think I would never have to see him again…" Metal Sonic grumbled.

"I think we are-a going to go pay them-a little visit…" Metal Mario grinned.

"Go ahead and do that," suggested Metal Chopper. "Make sure they DON'T get here! I don't want them succeeding in saving Chopper's girlfriend. I'd rather not get ruined for over the sixth time. _Stupid Chopper_…"

* * *

**Front entrance-**

"Uh oh… I think we set off the alarm…" Chopper gulped.

"No dip, Sherlock," Blade groaned.

"Hey! My name's not Sherlock!"

_"Let's not get into this…" _Blumiere suggested with an irritated look. _"If you continue to argue like this, we're not going to get anywhere. The best thing for us to do right now is find a way to get to the top of this fortress."_

"Yeah, we better get going," Ninbot nodded. "I'm sure you guys will know how to find your way through here. I'll meet you at the top of the fortress."

"Hey, what are you…" Sonic's words were cut short when Ninbot abandoned them. "OK, seriously… He just abandons us like that! That, and he's not really telling us some real information as well…"

_"I'm still not sure whether I should trust him or not…" _Timpani trailed. _"Although, I do feel the Pure Heart's presence in this building. Surely Ninbot must be leading us there… But I'm not sure whether he's leading us to an actual trap or not."_

"We can't just discuss whether we can trust Ninbot or not," Chopper said while shaking his head. "Look, Timpani said that Pure Heart's somewhere in this fortress. If she's correct, then we should go through this place. Maybe Metal Chopper might have it?"

"Poyo, (Well, I guess we better get going then)" Kirby suggested, who walked on ahead and used his fire breath to destroy a Patrolbot that was ready to open fire on them. Everyone else shrugged and followed him.

This room wasn't anything special. There were some Securibots flying up by the ceiling with their searchlights. This made it so it was hard to get past their flashing lights. But it turns out their searchlights weren't working all the time. Sometimes it would turn off because of a little malfunction.

"Yeesh, what's with those Securibots up there?" Blade asked.

_"I think it has to do something with Grim," _predicted Blumiere. _"When he was destroyed, it may have caused these Securibots to work only at a certain point in time. I think it's best to move on before you get spotted!"_

Mario: Yeah, let's get moving!

"You know, that sounds like something Shadow once said…" Sonic recalled as he followed the group through the room, avoiding some of the Securibots. But, when their searchlights turned on, they were all spotted by separate Securibots, making FIVE Intruderbots appear right near the end of the room.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Chopper grumbled as he pulled his small katana out and began to slash at the Intruderbot that was about to strike him. He was a bit fast for it, so he managed to finish it easily.

"I find it nice that my Ninja ability still allows me to pierce through defense," he smiled as he left the Intruderbot to explode.

Kirby had no problems taking care of the Intruderbot attacking him. All he had to do was freeze it with Crystaline and use his fire breath to melt it and deal a lot of damage to it as he continued to breathe out fire.

Mario: This isn't as bad as I thought!

Mario jumped on top of the Intruderbot that tried to shoot him and performed a Ground Pound on top of its head, leaving it dazed for a couple of seconds. Afterwards, the red plumber tipped his hat as he slammed his hammer on top of the robot, destroying it in a matter of seconds.

Mario: Whew! I didn't expect to pull that off…

"Well, apparently you did, Mario," Sonic stated as he used his Light Speed Attack to strike the Intruderbot multiple times. He managed to pierce right through its body easily with one last Spin Dash, destroying it.

The last Intruderbot wasn't really that hard to defeat for Blade. He was able to slash it multiple times with his katana and it was dead before he even knew it. Well, not really dead, but it ended up exploding.

"And THAT'S how you take care of an Intruderbot!" Blade smirked as he put his katana away.

"Uhh… You don't necessarily HAVE to put your katana away." Chopper stated, sweat dropping a bit. "There's going to be plenty of enemies around here. Keep it out just in case."

"…Fine, I guess I will," he drew his katana once again and followed the group through the door into a room where they saw that they were in between two pillars that seemed to lead up to a platform. The electric floor up ahead was activated just to make sure they wouldn't get through.

_"Chopper, maybe with that Ninja ability, you might be able to wall jump on those pillars!" _Timpani informed. _"I think you'll be able to get up to the platform in no time at all!"_

"Hey, I can do that do," Blade growled. "Well, I can actually climb some walls."

Chopper started to jump off each pillar with his wall jumping skills in order to reach the top. All Blade really did was climb up the pillar using his ninja skills. Of course, he can't necessarily climb ALL walls.

The biggest problem was getting both Mario and Sonic up. Sure, Sonic could try to run up the pillar, but it could possibly make it fall over. Chopper, Kirby and Blade tried pulling them up. They were able to do it, but it was pretty difficult for all of them.

Mario: That was pretty annoying.

"Yeah, it was… But we managed to get you up, which is good." Blade sighed as they used the platform coming towards them to go over the electric ground. It was also a bit strange that the room was pretty tall with a door high above them.

"Hey, how do you think we're supposed to get up there?" Chopper asked.

"Maybe we need to find a sec-" before Sonic could finish his sentence, he ended up falling over on the platform and landing straight onto the electric ground. But instead of it electrocuting him, it ended up launching him up high in the room.

_"Huh? What just happened? …questioned Count Bleck." _Blumiere gawked as he looked up at Sonic.

"Whoa… This ground actually launched me up!" Sonic gaped as he landed on the platform where the door was. Everyone else jumped off the platform and followed him up to the platform and headed through the door.

Apparently this room wasn't that big, but the door was blocked by a cage. They saw two Robbies lying on the ground as well, waiting for anyone to come up close. There was also a platform in the middle above them as well.

"Well, looks like we're not going back in there until this gate's gone…" Chopper groaned.

"Poyo, (And we also have Robbies to deal with,)" Kirby groaned, pointing at the Robbies up ahead. He decided to throw Crystaline at them in order to freeze them, then used his fire breath to burn them down to a crisp. What was strange was that it actually worked on them! Not only that, but on the platform above them, a large chest appeared.

Mario: Another Pixl?

"A new upgrade?" Chopper gasped as he jumped onto the platform. Sonic jumped up as well and opened the chest.

"So… Are we going to hear anything?" Sonic asked.

The only thing they could hear were fluttering wings. A round, light blue mirror Pixl floated out of the chest and looked down at them. The strangest thing about this Pixl was that it wasn't one to talk, unlike the others. In fact, it probably doesn't speak at all.

_"Hmmmmmm… He doesn't appear to speak at all." _Timpani said as she looked up at the Pixl. _"But what's his name? He looks kind of like a mirror, though…"_

The Pixl floated over to a laser and used his power to reflect it on the ground. He wrote the name "Reflecto" on the ground. Everyone looked down at the name and then looked back up at Reflecto.

"So you're name's Reflecto, huh? Kind of an interesting name, if you ask me!" Sonic grinned. "I guess you're one of those silent types. That's OK, little guy. Maybe you can come with us if yaw at!"

Reflecto simply circled around Sonic until the blue hedgehog was holding him up high in the air.

**The silent mirror Pixl Reflecto has now become your friend! With him, you can reflect things such as lasers and projectiles back at things! Just press (1) when you want to fire the projectile back at something! For a laser, just aim it wherever you want to deal damage!**

Sonic happened to notice a little switch that was too high to get. The laser over by the right, on the other hand, looked like it could be used to aim directly at the switch. So, using Reflecto's ability, he reflected the laser towards the blue ! block.

"Man, I can't believe we didn't get a Pixl like this before!" Sonic smirked as the cage surrounding the door broke off.

"Nice! Now we can move on!" Blade smirked as he walked out of the room, with everyone else following him.

* * *

**Other room-**

They took the platform once again over to a bridge up ahead to where a Squibot was spitting metallic coconuts from its mouth. Mario stomped on it a couple of times and performed some stylish moves in order to make it explode.

"What kind of stinks is that these robots can hurt us with explosions," Chopper groaned as he tossed a couple of ninja stars at the next Squibot on the bridge. Afterwards, they continued through the bridge until they got to the next door.

What awaited them through the next room? Well, what they saw was another silver bridge they were standing on, but there were a couple of drills coming down on the bridge. They would eventually get off the bridge and make it so that anyone could move on.

_"Oh, dear… This does look a bit dangerous…" _Timpani trailed. _"I think you're going to need to slow down a bit here…"_

"Awwwww… I wish we didn't have to." Chopper sulked as he walked up to the shadow where the drill was coming down on. After it retreated back up, he walked past the shadow and waited for the next one.

"Wait… Couldn't I just get through here in 3-D?" he checked in 3-D, and it just so happens that the bridge was in some sort of different pattern in 3-D. It sort of reminded him of in The Underwhere where he first met Luvbi in that area where he had to flip into 3-D to get through.

"Poyo, (Sometimes I wonder why Metal Chopper puts drills in his own fortress,)" Kirby wondered as he simply walked past the drills that were coming down. They all seemed to miss him for some reason.

Mario: They all missed him…

"Yeah, that's weird," Blade used his ninja skills in order to get past all of the drills and other dangerous stuff in his way. It was a lot harder for him to do this unlike Kirby, who only walked through.

"He had an easier time than me…"

They saw a platform leading down to the ground after those drills, but there happened to also be a couple of other strange robots. They were shaped like Chopper with pointy antennas. These seemed to have red eyes and two arm guns. Chopper seemed a bit shocked to see these guys.

"Is it just me or am I actually seeing the C Units that I've seen before?" Chopper gaped. "I thought I would never see these guys again!"

"Poyo? (You mean those robots we saw at the New X-Naut Fortress and when you ended up becoming dark and evil?)" Kirby recalled.

"Kirby… Please don't bring up that horrible moment. I feel really bad for becoming like that." Chopper sighed and used Timpani's wand to scan the C Unit since they don't know what its moves are.

_"That's a C-12 Shooter. They are the latest of the C Units. Max HP is 48. Attack is 10. Defense is 3. They will fire blasts at you with their dual arm guns. They're not incredibly fast, but you don't want to be shot by any of them. For some strange reason, these robots look kind of like you, Chopper…" _Timpani informed.

"Yeah… They were quite annoying." Chopper pulled his katana out and slashed at one of the C-12 Shooters. He managed to destroy one, but the other one ended up shooting him and knocking his ability away.

"Aw, that stinks!"

"What happened?" Sonic asked.

"My ability just got knocked away!"

"Oh... Yeah, that does stink..."

They walked up to the door ahead and walked through to find themselves in a room with a pole leading up. It kind of reminded them of when they had to climb up the mountain in the Christmas World and in that ship in Desert Oasis. But this looked a bit…longer. Plus, the poles are light blue this time.

"All right, who's going to climb these first?" Blade asked. Because I want someone else to test them first before going on there."

Chopper let out a sigh as he grabbed a hold of the pole and began to climb up. He seemed to notice another one of those electric guys from the flying pyramid. It was called a Sparky, after investigating it with Timpani's wand.

"Oh, great… We can't defeat these guys. I think we're just going to have to avoid these guys…as much as I don't really want to."

Chopper jumped over to the next pole to avoid the Sparky and then jumped on a small round platform right below the next pole in the middle just so he didn't have to get hit by a Sparky.

"Poyo! (I'm coming up!)" Kirby shouted as he began to float up to where Chopper was, who immediately face palmed.

"See, THIS is why I wish I had your floating ability…" Chopper sighed. "If I had that, I would have an easier time getting through all of this instead of, well, you know what I'm going to say."

Chopper grabbed a hold of the next pole, but he looked down to see if anyone else was climbing. Mario was already getting started, just like everyone else, although Mario was going up first before the other two… The only thing that he wasn't paying attention to was what was above him on the pole.

"OK, things seem to be going just…OW!" Chopper was electrocuted by a Sparky and was also thrown off the pole and down to the bottom of the room. "You gotta be kidding me… I have to go through that all OVER again? Oh, man… I bet Metal Chopper's laughing at me right now…"

What he didn't know was that Metal Chopper was actually trying to tune his guitar…and was actually having such a hard time that he ended up throwing his guitar out the window. Of course, that's not what Chopper knew.

"Man… It's almost like I can actually hear his voice. Argh… I don't really like to hear that robotic voice of his!" Chopper grabbed a hold of the pole and followed his friends back up.

* * *

**One climb later-**

"Poyo! (That was such an easy climb!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he reached the top, where they all saw a pipe that was pointing towards them on the wall. Mario came up next, followed by Sonic and Blade.

…With a steaming Chopper coming up last.

"Whoa… What's wrong with you?" Sonic asked.

"Go ask the Sparky's down below…" Chopper sighed, quickly shaking himself. He walked into the pipe after Kirby went in.

Mario: Good thing that wasn't me…

* * *

**Next area-**

When they walked into the next area, they saw that there was spikes right nearby. Apparently to move on ahead, they had to somehow get over the spikes leading over to two doors. The last door at the end seemed to be locked, so it looked like they needed to find a way to get through.

"Crud… This isn't good." Blade frowned. "We've got some spikes that are impossible to cross, and there's even a Patrolbot around here as well that could open fire on us! How can we get through all of this?"

"Poyo? (Why not just use Carrie to get past everything?)" Kirby suggested. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the Patrolbot fire at him and knock his Fire ability away. The yellow star was destroyed when it touched the spikes, making the pink puffball a little sad.

"Poyo… (I can't believe I lost my Fire ability… That stinks. A lot…)" Kirby sniffled.

"Now that you mention it, it does smell a bit around here," Chopper recalled. "It smells like horrible body odor around here."

Everyone smelled their armpits just to make sure that it wasn't coming from them. It just so happened that it wasn't coming from any of them (thank goodness). It seemed to be coming from the other room.

"Let's go look through that door," Sonic suggested while using Carrie to get across the spikes. Everyone took turns using her to get across the spikes and then carried on into the next room.

There were a couple of C-12 Shooters around this small room, but there was also a large screw with a pole. Everyone immediately took action and attacked the C Units, with Mario bashing one with his hammer and Sonic blowing one up with a simple little Homing Attack. Blade was able to slice one in half with his katana.

"Heck yes! I think it's awesome that I get to do things like this!" Blade grinned.

"You've done it plenty of times, so why is it so awesome when you already did it?" Sonic asked. "It sometimes gets a bit…boring."

Blade ignored Sonic as he got on the large screw. "Hey, this is like that donut back in the Sweet Kingdom! So, I'm guessing that if we run on this thing, this screw will move up! So, let's get to it, all right?"

Everyone rolled their eyes and got on the screw. The scent of the body odor smell seemed to be coming from somewhere in the next room. So after making their way up thanks to the screw, they headed through the door into a room with a blue ! switch that seemed to reek. Apparently there was a smelly sock on there.

"Ewww! What the heck is THAT thing?!" Chopper gagged.

"Poyo, (It's called a sock,)" Kirby explained as he picked it up. He sniffed it real quick and stepped away from it. "Poyo! (It smells horrible!)"

Mario: It reeks of feet!

"It certainly does reek of feet…" Sonic trailed while staring at the sock. "So… Are we going to hit the switch or something?"

"We gotta get rid of the sock first," Chopper froze the sock in order to stop the smell and kicked it into the wall to destroy it. Afterwards, he pulled his hammer out and slammed it on the switch.

"Just like old times… Like those other times I've been hitting switches with my hammer! It always brings me back to those…" a cage suddenly dropped over the heroes, trapping them. "…days?"

"Uh oh… We're trapped." Blade gulped.

"Heh heh heh! We got you good!" Metal Sonic dropped from the ceiling and glared at the heroes. "You heroes honestly thought you'd be getting to the top of this fortress, did you? Well guess again!"

"Metal Sonic? What are you doing here?!" Sonic gaped.

"I play in a little band with a certain someone," he explained. "We were rehearsing, but after hearing about you and the rest of the gang coming here, I thought, why not get you guys too?"

"Oh, and it's not just-a him, you know…" Metal Mario dropped from the ceiling as well and grinned. "I'm-a here with him too! You're not-a going anywhere now, people!"

Mario: A metal version of me?!

"That's-a right, Mario! There's-a metal version of-a yourself! And there's-a no way you're getting outta here! You're-a trapped!"

"Aw, man! Just when we were about to find a key! You people happen to come in and ruin it all for us! No fair!" Chopper pouted, despite not really TRYING to.

"Well, we'll just let you stay there and rot in this cage until your games end. We'll be heading back." Metal Sonic and Metal Mario exited the room via the door. Chopper's sulky look changed to a smirk.

"Why are you smirking?" Blade asked.

"Because…"

"'Cause why?"

"Poyo, (We have Slim with us, you know,)" Kirby smirked. "Poyo! (And to think we would be staying in this cage until our games were over! That's so hilarious! We can get out easily!)"

A laser happened to be right outside of the cage, as well as some kind of dark-looking button on the wall. For some reason, it almost felt like they needed to do something with that button.

Chopper started off by bringing everyone into 3-D, followed by them taking turns using Slim to go through the bars. They all took a bit of damage because of the Flip Gauge, but they managed to hang in there and get through it.

Mario: Those guys were stupid.

"Tell me about it. They didn't even pay attention to our Pixls!" Sonic chuckled, holding Reflecto. "All right, buddy. Let's see if we can use that laser to get to that button. I'm sure you'll be able to do it!"

He held Reflecto over the laser and aimed the laser at the button. It triggered it to be pressed and also caused a part of the room to peel off to reveal a chest. Blade opened it to gain a Fortress Key.

"There we go! There's the key we've been looking for!" Blade smirked.

"Poyo! (Let's head back to that other door that was locked!)" Kirby suggested.

* * *

**Back in the room before-**

"Man, I can't believe we got through all of that," Chopper said as he walked over to the door. "So, Blade… Can you open the door?"

"No problem," Blade pulled the Fortress Key out and broke the lock by unlocking the door, allowing them to move on. But when they reached the next area, they saw a yellow ? block in this small room. Chopper punched it and grabbed a hold of a Super Shroom. They all ate it and recovered 20 HP.

Mario: That was-a good!

"That didn't taste as good as the fish that I used to catch in smelly waters," Blade recalled.

"And when was the last time you caught one of those?" Chopper asked, tilting his head.

"Ehhhh… Maybe about a couple of months ago." Everyone suddenly stepped away from Blade. "What? The water doesn't make me smell or anything. You should be just fine."

Everyone sighed and got back over to Blade before entering through the next room. And man, was this next room a bit intense. They saw two moving platforms leading over to a tunnel up ahead. It was a rather big room, since there were some other platforms up above them. They just weren't reachable.

"Man… If only we could get to those platforms…" Chopper trailed.

"Simple. We'll just take the tunnel to get over there." Sonic said with a smug look while nodding.

"Oh, OK. That sounds simple." Chopper stomped on a Patrolbot over the gap between the two platforms and sent it falling down the bottomless pit. Everyone raced towards the tunnel and then went straight inside.

"Curses! They managed to break out of their prison!" Metal Sonic scowled, climbing onto the platform the heroes jumped on.

"Well, this was-a expected, you know," Metal Mario nodded as he got on the platform.

"So, what do you say, Metal Mario? How about we take care of them personally? I think they deserve a little something from us!"

"Exactly! It'll teach-a them not to mess-a with us!" Metal Mario and Metal Sonic fist bumped before taking off towards the tunnel.

* * *

**Tunnel-**

"Man, I never knew tunnels could actually be fun!" Chopper smiled as he began running through the tunnel in a figure-8 pattern. Apparently some speed bumpers were making everyone move fast through here.

"Well, it's got some nice music to it too," Sonic was jamming to the music while running up the tunnel, just like Blade. They came across a couple of springs that seemed to launch them up to a pathway going the opposite direction they were moving.

"Poyo? (Why are we moving the opposite direction?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we need to go up with this." Chopper saw a spring ahead launch them all on a platform out of the tunnel. It seemed to take them a bit high up in the room, which was a bit surprising.

"Hey, more Patrolbots in which we can use to get across the next platform!" Sonic smiled as he struck them with a Homing Attack and destroyed them. Unfortunately, everyone was left to glare at him.

"What? What did I do wrong?"

"Dude… You destroyed the robots…" Blade groaned.

"Oh… Sorry, guys!" Sonic grinned while rubbing the side of his head and sweat dropping. "I didn't mean to do that to you guys!"

"Poyo, (Hold on, I know what to do,)" Kirby took in some air and floated over to the platform Sonic was on. After letting the air out, he landed on the platform and used his inhaling to bring the rest of the group over to him and Sonic.

"OK, I guess that works," Blade confirmed.

They jumped onto another platform that led into a door, which led them into a small room with a long, silver pole extending to both walls. Chopper tested it out by grabbing it. Turns out, he ended up swinging around on it.

"Whoa! This is pretty interesting!" he commented.

"Poyo? (Did you do that yourself or did the pole do that for you?)" questioned Kirby.

"Nah, the pole was the one doing it for me."

"Poyo! (Then count me in!)" Kirby grabbed the pole and it began to swing him around. Chopper swung himself up to the next pole and then grabbed a hold of another pole that didn't appear to make him swing around. Nevertheless, he was right by the door, so he dropped down from the pole and landed on the bridge.

After everyone else landed right by him, he smiled and opened the door into another room. They could see from here that there were moving lasers. It almost reminded them of when Chopper and Kirby were trying to break into the vault.

"Poyo! (This reminds me of when we broke into the vault in Merlee's Mansion!)" Kirby recalled.

"Well of course it does! The narrator already said that!" Chopper told.

"Poyo? (Really? I never would've known!)"

"Ahem… We need to get going…" Sonic trailed, tapping his foot impatiently. "I don't think we're too far from the top anyways."

Mario: We have gone some ways through here…

"Well how do we get through here?" Blade asked.

"Poyo, (We need to use slim to get through,)" Kirby started off by using Slim's ability to turn sideways. He made his way past the lasers and walked over to the door. Chopper followed up next, then Mario, Sonic and last but not least, Blade.

"Why am I always the one going last?"

"Beats me," was what Sonic replied with before walking through the door. He followed the rest of the group into a room that looked rather…long. It was definitely one of those areas where you could have a race. The ground didn't have any treadmills, but there were a couple of hills around.

"This is a strange room…" Chopper trailed as he looked around. The music in the background was starting to rock out for some strange reason.

_"I can feel the Pure Heart's power near here…" _Timpani trailed, the wand glowing a bright color. _"I suppose if we take this pathway, we'll be led straight to the Pure Heart… We must act quick, Chopper!"_

"I don't think so," everyone turned around and saw Metal Sonic and Metal Mario walk out of the door. "We've been chasing you for quite a while. This is where it ends, you idiots."

"Idiots? How exactly are we idiots?" Sonic asked, raising and eyebrow.

"You… You just-a are!" Metal Mario stammered.

Mario: Well just leave us be!

"No-a way! I think it's-a time we settled this once and-a for all!"

"Well… Uh…" Chopper threw a fireball at their faces and blinded them for a couple of seconds. "Run for it, guys!"

Everyone began to flee as both Metal Mario and Metal Sonic chased after them. Metal Mario wasn't really having an easy time catching up to Metal Sonic, due to his jets being a lot faster than his. Since they were actually chasing the group, Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's arm to help them and Chopper grabbed a hold of Kirby's.

"Hey! They're-a getting away!" Metal Mario cried.

"Oh no they won't! Time to show them what WE can do!" Metal Sonic clashed hands with Metal Mario and then began to speed boost towards them. "See? Now we have an advantage!"

Blade gulped as he looked back and saw Metal Mario and Metal Sonic catching up to them. "Heads up, guys! They're coming towards us! We can't just move at this speed! We gotta go FASTER!"

"Then let's turn it up a notch!" Chopper's feet began to move in a figure-8 pattern up some of the hills. The rocking music got even more intense as Metal Mario and Metal Sonic got closer to them.

"This is-a good music!" Metal Mario commented.

"Poyo! (Move faster, Chopper!)" Kirby cried.

"I'm going as fast as I can! I can't move any faster than this!"

"Here it comes! Metal Rush!" Metal Sonic and Metal Mario were charging at them like a missile, being surrounded in flames. Sonic managed to jump with Blade and Mario still being held onto, but this gave them an opportunity to strike them.

Mario: Take this!

Mario used his foot to make Kickbrin attack both of them, making them tumble all over the place, thus allowing the three to pass them easily. But it wasn't long before the two robots got back on their feet and chased after them again.

"Aw, man! You guys never give up, do you?!" Sonic groaned.

"Why should we? We said that we would go take care of you guys, and that is something we plan on doing!" Metal Sonic roared, ramming straight into Sonic's back. But all that did was give him a boost of speed.

"Uh oh… That-a didn't help." Metal Mario gulped.

"Screw that! Now I'm resorting to something else! Metal Mario, give 'em a little fireball!"

Metal Mario fired a fireball from his hand and made it target the three. Luckily, Sonic managed to get Chopper's attention to toss an ice ball at the fireball to make them collide and explode.

"What was-a that?!"

"An ice ball," Chopper stated.

"Crap… That's not going to be good if we're going to use fireballs." Metal Sonic face palmed. They could see that there was a tunnel up ahead that they ran right through and it surprisingly lead them into a room with a large disco ball hanging from the ceiling. The whole room looked a bit purple and disco music was even playing.

Everyone stopped in the center of the room and listened to the music. With the disco ball spinning around, the whole room had a couple of bright lights rotating around the room.

"Hey, this is-a catchy music!" Metal Mario commented, tapping his foot to the rhythm.

"Ya gotta admit, this song is catchy," Sonic grinned.

"Catchy as hell," Blade grinned.

"Wait a minute…" Metal Sonic immediately glared at Sonic. "Just because we're listening to this music doesn't mean you're off the hook! Come here, you annoying hedgehog!"

"Uh oh…" Sonic ran off towards a tunnel with Metal Sonic chasing him. Metal Mario noticed a bridge with electricity below it and also one of those axes. Mario immediately jumped over to it to face off with his metal self.

"Oh, man… Now those two are going to fight?" Chopper questioned. A couple of robots bumped into him because of their dancing. "Hey! Quit it!"

Kirby happened to notice that there was a door up ahead, but he couldn't quite get to it because there were so many robots. "Poyo! (I think I see the door, but I don't see any way of getting in!)"

"Then we have to clear these robots!" Chopper suggested.

"OK!" Blade drew his katana and slashed at one of them. Unfortunately, it didn't do any damage.

_"We might need something a bit more powerful than that…" _Timpani informed.

"Well, what COULD we use?" Blade pondered a bit until an idea struck him. "Wait… I think I have an idea."

_"What's your idea?" _Blumiere asked.

"We can't hit them, but maybe something bad will make them leave. And I think we MIGHT have what we need to get rid of them."

"Wait… What do you… Oh, no. We're NOT doing that!" Chopper retorted.

* * *

**Sonic-**

"Whoa man, settle down there!" Sonic shouted as he began to flee from Metal Sonic, who was charging at him with full power. The tunnel was actually somewhat narrow, with him running up it. Metal Sonic was even flying up as well.

"Get back here, Sonic! Don't think I'm done with you after all of those years!" Metal Sonic growled.

"Whoa, you sure have a temper! Maybe you can just cool off somewhere so you can cool down a bit, huh?"

"SHUT UP!" Metal Sonic curled up in a ball and tried to strike Sonic while he was still running. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work out for him when he took another passageway through the tunnel.

"Ya can't catch me!"

"Oh, I will…" Metal Sonic was surrounded by fire as he charged at Sonic, but was still unable to catch up. "I was created to match you, Sonic! There's no way you can escape me!"

"Hey, you may be a copy of me, but there's no way you can outrun me!" Sonic smirked as he kept running, avoiding any Securibots in his way. Metal Sonic nearly plowed through them easily.

"I have you now!"

The funny thing that Sonic did was that he immediately took a right turn while Metal Sonic was going incredibly fast. It caused the robot to immediately stop as he came towards a dead end.

"Aw, no! This isn't…" before Metal Sonic could finish his sentence, he was sent crashing into the wall, leaving him severely damaged. Sonic walked up to his robot copy and poked his head.

"SONIC!" he roared. "This isn't over just yet! I still have the upper advantage! _**I WILL…**_"

"Oh, what's this?" Sonic gave him a little nudge with his foot and ended up turning off Metal Sonic. "A hero's work is never done.

And with that, he went running out of the tunnel.

* * *

**Mario-**

Mario and Metal Mario were immediately facing off, with Metal Mario charging at his counterpart with a punch. However, Mario managed to counter it by bringing his hammer up and then bashing him with it easily.

"Gah! You're such-an annoyance!" Metal Mario screeched.

What was funny was that the axe at the end of the bridge would probably get rid of the bridge, so Mario jumped on Metal Mario's head and reached for the axe.

Mario: This is too easy!

After grabbing the axe, he jumped off the bridge, which got destroyed and sent Metal Mario down onto the electric floor, leaving him severely damaged. Mario simply tipped his hat to Metal Mario and jumped away.

* * *

**Chopper, Kirby and Blade-**

"No! Really! I don't want to sing!" Chopper begged.

"Well, you DID say you had a horrible singing voice, right? Well, maybe you should try to use it to drive these robots out." Blade suggested.

"…You said 'had'. I think you meant to say 'have'… But still, I'm not going to sing. I stopped ever since that…incident."

"Poyo? (What incident?)" Kirby questioned.

"I told you that there was that incident in Nightclub Casino where I nearly KILLED people with my singing voice!"

"But these are robots! They have no feelings!"

"Except one."

"Oh… Well, we need the Pure Heart, and I'm sure Luvbi might be in danger too. If we can't physically take these robots on, then we need something to drive them out. Bad singing might work."

_"I don't think you have much of a choice, Chopper…" _Timpani trailed.

"Ugh… Fine. I guess I'll have to do it." Chopper ate a microphone right near him and after swallowing it, he was donning headphones and a little microphone that he held in his hand.

"OK… You might want to cover your ears, guys."

"What for?"

"You'll thank me later. Trust me."

Kirby and Blade ended up covering their ears (which is strange for Kirby, considering that he has no ears) as Chopper walked up to the stage. He got his microphone ready and tried to get everyone's attention with it.

"This is, uh… A song by my mother!" he blurted, almost making him face palm. _"Dang it, Chopper! What's wrong with you? WHY would you say something that's about your mother who's dead? !"_

Chopper started to sing with his horrible singing voice, which already started to get on the robot's nerves.

"Aaaagh! What kind of singing is that?!"

"That's one of the worst singing voices I've ever heard!"

"It's starting to make my ears bleed!"

"Someone help me! I feel like I'm going to explode!"

Apparently, a robot's head ended up exploding, which scared a couple of robots. Some other robots' heads exploded afterwards. Before they knew it, every single robot exploded or fled from the room. Some even trampled over each other and some even crashed into walls or made stuff fall from the ceiling.

Heck, one even crashed into the disco ball and made it fall!

Chopper finished singing after his Mike ability wore off. He noticed all of the destruction left around. But at least the whole place was clear of robots!

"I… I can't believe my singing did this…" he stammered.

_"You did the right thing, Chopper," _Timpani smiled.

"I don't know… I don't think my mom would ever say something like that…"

_"But I'm not your mother though."_

"I know… But I always thought of you as some sort of mother figure for some reason… You kind of remind me a lot of my mother. That's why I felt really sad to see you and Count Bleck leave before."

_"I… I never knew about that…"_

_"That's interesting…" _Blumiere commented.

Mario: What happened here?

Mario and Sonic showed up to see all of the destruction. "…I'm not even going to ask," was all Sonic said.

"Poyo, (At least the room's clear, so let's go,)" Kirby plopped over by the door ahead. Everyone followed him into a small room where they found a yellow ? block and a Save Block. Kirby hit the yellow ? block to make an Ultra Shroom pop out. They all split it to recover 50 HP.

"So what ever happened to Metal Mario and Metal Sonic?" Blade asked.

Mario: Metal Mario fell off a bridge.

"Metal Sonic crashed into a wall."

"Oh… That's interesting." Chopper punched the Save Block and saved their game. "All right, let's head into the elevator. I'm sure that Metal Chopper's waiting for us at the top…with the Pure Heart."

Everyone took one step into the elevator and before they knew it, they were hearing up to the top.

* * *

**Top of Robot Fortress-**

As the elevator door opened, all five heroes walked out of the elevator and it closed behind them. They weren't sure if the elevator was going back down to the other level, but they didn't really care at this moment. All they did was take some time to look at the whole room.

"Wow… This is pretty neat, I'll admit." Chopper commented.

_"Be careful, heroes… You could be falling right into a trap…" _Blumiere warned.

"So, you finally decided to show up, did you?" the heroes saw Metal Chopper right by a force field cage. It turns out that there were actually two of them at this moment. They could see Luvbi trapped in one.

When the Nimbi girl caught sight of Chopper, she gasped and hearts began to fly over her head.

"My sweet prince! Thou hast come hither to save me!" she squealed. "I knew thou lovest me!"

"L-Love you?! B-But I don't!" Chopper stammered.

"Of course thou dost! Thou hast given me that necklace anyway?"

"Ah, so THAT'S where the necklace came from," Sonic realized.

"I didn't know you gave that to her…" Blade trailed.

"Aw, man… Now I feel so humiliated!" Chopper smacked his forehead while blushing annoyingly.

_"That's so cute!" _AI-5538 giggled.

Mario: Who's in the other cage?

"What's that? You want to know who's in the other cage?" Metal Chopper grinned as he stepped aside. Everyone gasped when they saw Ninbot trapped inside of the cage. "I caught this guy sneaking in my base, so I caught him and put him here!"

"Whoa! He's got Ninbot!"

"I'm sorry, heroes… I tried to find a way to stop him, but he was too strong…" Ninbot wheezed. "Heroes… Please stop him…"

_"I think you should let him go. I don't think it's right to put him in such a bad prison." _AI-5538 scolded.

"Ugh… I'm tired of you, you stupid computer." Metal Chopper flew over to the computer and unplugged her.

_"You better NOT…" _it was too late. The computer screen turned off and AI-5538 was no longer around.

"Good… Now I don't need to worry about an annoying nagging computer at this moment."

"Thou art going to release me this instant!" Luvbi declared. "I am tired of being hither and I want to be with my prince!"

"Oh, don't worry. I'll release you…when I test my new weapon on you!" Metal Chopper pulled out a blaster and aimed it at her. "Now that this thing is fully functional, I can use it to turn you into a robot!"

"What? ! Don't even DO that!" Chopper growled.

"Poyo! (That's not right at all!)" Kirby got in his fighting stance.

Metal Chopper pulled the trigger on the weapon, but the only thing that it did was fall apart. "Dang… I guess it doesn't work. Stupid machine."

"Well that doth be a relief…" Luvbi sighed.

"Gah! Oh, fine… The only thing I can do now is kick your squishy butts." Metal Chopper turned to the group and changed his arm to his machine gun. "Are you ready to feel my wrath? This time _**I**_ will be the one who succeeds!"

"Don't count on it!" Sonic growled, clenching his fists and rushing toward him. Metal Chopper fired his machine gun at Sonic and sent him flying back. He was a bit hurt, but he wasn't suffering any injuries.

"Whoa… Those guns sure are something."

"Well it's not like he's going to…" Chopper was suddenly knocked back when Metal Chopper struck him with a swing of his blue laser sword that he changed to after shooting Sonic.

"I'm not going easy on you like last time!" Metal Chopper snarled.

"…And you didn't even go easy on me those times either," Chopper got up and kicked Metal Chopper, knocking him back. He followed up with a couple of fireballs that left him burnt for a bit.

The robot version of Chopper tried to swing at him again, but Chopper jumped out of the way, leaving a yellow star open. Kirby inhaled it and spat it towards Metal Chopper, knocking him over.

"We need to investigate this guy…" Blade suggested, jumped towards Metal Chopper, only for him to block his attack with his own blue laser sword and leaving them to try to push each other away with their swords.

"Got it," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate Metal Chopper.

_"That's Metal Chopper. He was a robot that was made to match Chopper, but it doesn't seem like he's very successful… Max HP is 180. Attack is 11. Defense is 4. Make sure you get out of the way when Metal Chopper starts firing at you with his machine guns. That's what usually happens when you get a bit too far. His missiles are homing and WILL follow you. If you can inhale them and spit them back at him, then things wouldn't be too bad. He's got this laser attack, but maybe with Reflecto, you could reflect the laser back at him… He's also got a large arsenal of close-range weapons, such as a flamethrower and an ice beam. His most notable weapon is his laser sword, though. Though he does look like Chopper… Why does he always seem to be in an angry mood? He doesn't seem much like Tipral, on the other hand…" _Timpani informed.

"I've got you now!" Metal Chopper unleashed his ice beam on Chopper, freezing him instantly.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi cried. "No… Please don't stayeth frozen! Thou art the only boy for me!"

"Oh, we can get him out of this," Blade knocked Metal Chopper back and struck him with his katana a couple of times and then used his fire slash to melt off the ice on Chopper, freeing him.

"Ah, good. I'm no longer frozen! Yay!" Chopper cheered.

"Don't get your hopes up yet," Sonic pointed out as he saw Metal Chopper fire a laser directly at him. But, since the blue hedgehog had Reflecto with him, he used its ability to reflect the laser back at him.

"UNGH! What was that? !" Metal Chopper gaped.

"That was Reflecto!" Sonic smirked.

"I'm going to make you pay for that," the robot changed to his flamethrower and began to unleash it upon Sonic. He jumped out of the way from the flamethrower and curled up in a ball to prepare a Spin Dash.

Meanwhile, while he did that, Mario jumped into action and struck Metal Chopper in the head with his hammer. Metal Chopper slammed him to the ground by grabbing his foot, but the plumber managed to get himself back up and use Kickbrin to knock him back.

Mario: That was close…

"Well you're not going to win so easily!" Metal Chopper fired a laser straight at him, but Mario managed to jump and dodge it and strike Metal Chopper in the head. Kirby also managed to jump on him with Carrie to leave him dizzy.

"Poyo! (OK! Go get him, Blade!)" Kirby shouted, giving Blade the signal.

"I don't know what you just said, but I guess I might as well attack," Blade gripped his katana and sprinted towards Metal Chopper, attacking him with his katana a couple of times.

"Get off of me, you little…" Metal Chopper elbowed Blade in the stomach and knocked him back. Kirby was able to freeze him with Crystaline, on the other hand. It allowed Chopper to bash him with a fire smash and then bash him with a regular hammer attack, leaving a mark on Metal Chopper's head.

"You're going to PAY for that!" he growled.

"Thou can dost it, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cheered. "Please dost it for me!"

"I'm not your prince!" Chopper cried as he avoided one of Metal Chopper's metal claws that were being swiped at him. He managed to toss an ice ball at him and freeze him again, with him striking him with an uppercut kick with ice energy on his feet. It felt a bit nice for him to make a move like this.

"Heh heh heh! I like the way you're thinkin'!" Sonic grinned as he charged at Metal Chopper while curled up in a ball, knocking him back. Metal Chopper managed to kick him off and use his laser sword to send him flying across the room.

"Holy… How can he do that?!" Blade gaped.

_"He's a robot. He can do many things…" _Blumiere gaped.

"That's right! You should listen to that wand and give up already!" Metal Chopper charged towards Blade, but the ninja was ready and brought his katana up to defend himself. He was able to defend most of his attacks, but took a bit of damage from some of his attacks.

At one point, they were both pushing each other back when both of their weapons clashed. But what Blade did was pretty unexpected. He stepped on Metal Chopper's foot to leave him distracted and then slashed him to bits with his katana (well he didn't cut him up, he just dealt damage). He finished off his combo by tossing Hommissile at him.

"And THAT'S how you make a move!" Blade grinned.

Mario: Watch out!

Mario immediately stepped in when Metal Chopper charged towards him. But instead, he got stomped on by Mario and then bashed by him with his hammer. It left another dent on the robot's head.

"Stupid plumber… I'm going to kill you for that!" Metal Chopper tried to swipe at him with his metallic claws, but Mario managed to dodge each of his claws. He even had to use his hammer to defend himself against one of his attacks. It left a scratch mark on his hammer, but it wasn't so bad.

Mario: Ehhh… It's not much of a problem.

Chopper immediately ran towards Metal Chopper and punched him in the face with ice energy. Unfortunately, it didn't freeze him, but it made Metal Chopper try to strike him with his metal claws. He managed to hit Chopper once, but he started dodging the rest of them easily until Metal Chopper stopped.

"Fine. I'll use THESE!" Metal Chopper fired missiles from his arms and made them go after Chopper. But, remembering Timpani's words, Chopper inhaled a couple of the missiles and spat them back at Metal Chopper, knocking him back in an explosion. Kirby helped make him dizzy by jumping on him with Carrie.

"Poyo, (Hope that helps,)" Kirby smiled.

"Why do I feel so dizzy?!"

"Poyo! (Because I made you dizzy!)" Kirby managed to knock Metal Chopper back with a hard kick, which knocked him straight towards one of the force field cages. It hit Luvbi's which didn't make her happy.

"What art thou doing, gumball? ! Try not to hit a princess trapped inside a prison cell!" Luvbi scoffed.

Kirby simply ignored her and used Crystaline to freeze Metal Chopper. Chopper followed up by tossing a fireball straight at him to melt him from his icy prison. But it wasn't long when Metal Chopper tackled him and began to punch him in the face, leaving red marks all over him.

"OW! Stop it!" Chopper cried.

"Why should I stop? I'm trying to kill you!" Metal Chopper tried to scratch his face with his metal claws, but Chopper rolled out of the way and stomped on his head and slammed his foot down on him afterwards to deal more damage to him. Metal Chopper tried to strike him with his laser sword, but he managed to fight back by bringing his hammer down on him.

"Hey, lemme help!" Blade brought his katana down on Metal Chopper as he jumped towards him. Metal Chopper tried to fight back, but since Blade was using Barry, he was able to deal damage to him instead.

"You can't hit me when I'm using this dude!"

"Oh, then I'll find a way!" Metal Chopper fired his machine gun directly at Blade. What was funny was that he decided to spin his katana around and deflect all the shots back at Metal Chopper, leaving dents on his body.

"Nope! You can't do that!" Blade smirked.

Before Metal Chopper could make another attack, Sonic sprung into action and struck him with his Light Speed Attack. Metal Chopper was continuously getting bashed by Sonic's incredible attack and was sent flying up the ceiling. But it wasn't technically over for him…yet.

"That's it. I need better music for this." Metal Chopper walked up to AI-5538 and put a rock song on. Sonic began to tap his foot to the song, but that left him off guard when he was blown away by a bunch of missiles.

"Excellent! This song should get me into fighting you guys easily!" Metal Chopper flew towards Chopper and grabbed his foot. He swung Chopper directly at Kirby, Blade and then Mario, dealing some intense damage to them. Afterwards, Chopper's metallic counterpart let go of him and began to strike him multiple times with his laser sword and blow him away with a missile.

"Ack! What was that?!" Chopper wheezed as he got up.

"That's what happens when you put on a catchy song!" Metal Chopper punched Chopper and then began firing multiple missiles at the group. The only one that managed to avoid them was Kirby, who inhaled a missile and spat it back at him, leaving him a bit dazed and allowing Chopper to strike him with a sweeping kick attack.

"Thou art doing so well, my sweet prince!" Luvbi squealed. All Ninbot could do was give a small thumbs up.

"Ugh… I hate it when she keeps calling me that." Chopper groaned as he punched Metal Chopper with an ice punch. Metal Chopper grabbed a hold of his enemy's hand and tried to crush it.

"There's no way you have the strength to break out of this!" Metal Chopper grinned. "I'm much stronger physically, you should know that!"

Mario: He's not the only one fighting you!

"Huh?" Metal Chopper ended up releasing Chopper's fist when Mario bashed him in the head with his hammer. But, it only seemed to anger him, forcing him to charge at Mario and bash him with his head.

Mario: Ouch…

"No worries, we still got this!" Sonic hit Metal Chopper with a Homing Attack and then he knocked Metal Chopper back by kicking him in the face. The robot tried to fire at him with his machine guns, but Sonic was able to use his Whirlwind to send him flying up in the air.

"What the… What are you doing?!" Metal Chopper gaped.

"Doing the right thing," Sonic curled up in a ball and made an attack straight at Metal Chopper, knocking him to the ground. He finished off his attack by striking Metal Chopper with his Bounce Attack, making him suffer some bad damage.

"Ugh… Don't think I'm going to give up just yet!" Metal Chopper fired his machine gun at Sonic and sent him flying back. He was going to fire more, but he ended up running out of bullets. "Great… I'm out of bullets."

"That's good for us!" Chopper whipped his hammer out and bashed it on Metal Chopper's head. His counterpart ended up firing a missile at him, but he managed to defend himself a bit by bringing his hammer up. But while Metal Chopper was firing missiles at him, Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on him to leave him dizzy for a bit.

_"Now's your chance, Chopper! Attack him!" _Timpani cried out.

"What? Oh! Sorry!" Chopper jumped right on top of Metal Chopper's head with ice energy on his feet and then kicked him from behind with a spinning kick. Metal Chopper was thrown all the way across the room, resulting in sparks flying everywhere upon collision.

"Thou hast done it, my sweet prince!" Luvbi squealed.

"You really think I would be done now?! _**THINK AGAIN!**_" Metal Chopper unleashed his powerful blue laser upon the five heroes, knocking them all to the other side of the room. They suffered some bad damage.

"Ow… What was that?" Blade gaped as he got up. "And how come he did more damage than what he usually does?!"

"Tippi, you didn't say anything about that attack!" Chopper scolded.

_"I… I didn't know he had an attack like that!" _Timpani gaped. _"I'm sorry if I didn't tell you…"_

_"Timpani, relax. Not all information is filled with everything. As long as it's good, then you're fine, which is what you did." _Blumiere complimented.

_"Oh, Blumiere! You're such a…"_

Before she could finish, Metal Chopper came rushing towards Chopper, firing multiple lasers at him. He managed to hit him with each shot, but Chopper managed to catch him off guard with a flaming kick.

"Man… I'm not feeling so good after that attack." Chopper wheezed. "Can we have an Ultra Shroom Shake?"

"Yeah, I'll take one," Sonic pulled an Ultra Shroom Shake out and took a sip to recover 50 HP. He passed it around to each of the heroes, with Kirby getting the last sip. In the end, they all managed to recover 50 HP.

"Poyo, (And now to dispose of this can,)" Kirby threw it straight at Metal Chopper, leaving him dizzy for a couple of seconds. Sonic also threw in a Homing Attack while he was dizzy to knock him over. But, even that didn't stop Metal Chopper – despite being badly damaged.

"Man, I don't know how much he can take…" Blade trailed as he gripped his katana and charged. He was able to strike him multiple times, but Metal Chopper managed to strike him at the last moment with his laser sword. Nevertheless, Blade managed to at least deal a lot of damage to him.

Mario: We're doing pretty well!

"Argh! Take this!" Metal Chopper grabbed Metal Mario's drums and began to throw them at the group. Mario, however, was able to whack them back at Metal Chopper with a swing of his hammer, leaving him stunned.

"Wow… That was simple." Chopper gawked as Mario stomped on Metal Chopper and finished his move with a Ground Pound…and then got blasted by Metal Chopper's missiles.

"Well, I think you're finished."

"I don't think so, Chopper!" Metal Chopper was about to fire his machine guns, but he realized he was out of bullets. "Crap! I'm out of bullets! …Fine, time for my laser attack then!"

He charged up another laser and fired right at the group. But after the laser, he realized that they were gone.

"Huh? Where'd they go?!"

"Over here!" Chopper flipped back into 2-D with his friends and waved to Metal Chopper before ramming straight into him. After one epic stomp attack with ice, Metal Chopper could feel a bit of a malfunction in him.

"_**ARGH!**_" he fell over on the ground in defeat as the heroes walked over to the defeated Metal Chopper. When he got up, his head hung low. "Why? Why couldn't I win this fight? I took over an entire world and even STILL I get my ass handed to me by a meatbag version of myself and some other stupid meatbag friends!"

"Poyo… (We're not meatbags…)" Kirby retorted with an irritated look.

"Listen here, Chopper!" Metal Chopper growled, glaring at him and his friends. "You may have won this time, but the next time, you're going to regret fighting me! I swear I'll tear out your eyes and make you eat them!"

Metal Chopper broke through the window and exited the fortress, leaving Chopper with a disgusted look on his face.

"That's just… I don't know what to say about that." Chopper gagged. "That's probably the most disgusting thing I've ever heard in my life…"

Mario: Why would he say something like that?!

"I really don't know... He's kinda bent on trying to kill me..."

But he didn't want to think of that right now. What was important was what was behind him. All five of them walked up to the cell Luvbi was in, where Chopper pressed the red button right in front of the cell to free the girl from her prison.

"My sweet prince! I can't believest that thou hast defeated that horrible tin can!" Luvbi said happily, immediately embracing Chopper in a hug. "Thou hast made me so happy… I thought thou wouldn't have come hither…"

"Aw, crap! She was spying on us!" Blade whispered.

"Ehhhh… Probably not." Sonic shrugged.

"It's just like in the fairytales…" Luvbi whispered to Chopper. "The brave, handsome prince savest the princess from evil."

While Luvbi let go of Chopper, Kirby pressed the red button right in front of the cell Ninbot was trapped in, allowing him to get out of the small cell and land on the very ground they were standing on. Mario also approached the computer and decided to turn it back on after being turned off by Metal Chopper.

"Thank you, heroes… You did a good job." Ninbot slowly nodded.

"Yeah, we needed to help. That's why we're here." Chopper nodded until he felt Luvbi grab him again, but this time she was kissing him on his cheek. "GROSS! Don't do that, Luvbi!"

_"Awwwww… How sweet!" _AI-5538 smiled at the "young couple". _"Young love is always so cute!"_

"Young lo… HEY!"

"Although, I doth think thou deserveth more than just a kiss on the cheek…" Luvbi pondered.

"Uhh… I'm good!"

_"Hold on a minute… Who are you?" _Timpani asked, alerted from seeing the computer.

_"My name's AI-5538. I think you're the heroes, are you not? My husband's been waiting for many years for your arrival. That is…until he ended up dying." _AI-5538 frowned. _"That robot you just defeated tore him apart when he refused to give him any information. It's a shame that he never got to see the heroes…"_

"How did you know that we were coming?" Sonic asked.

_"My computer screen allows one to see what's going on in any dimension, including Flipside. When I saw that the door that leads into this world had opened, I needed to help you guys find me so you can get the Pure Heart. Sadly, I'm only a computer, and I can't leave here… So, I decided to get someone else to help me get you guys over here."_

_"Hold on a second…" _Timpani gasped. _"Do you mean that…?"_

"Yes, I was sent to bring you guys here," Ninbot confirmed. "I didn't want to give out that information because I didn't want any enemies to overhear about what I might say. The forest is filled with many of those robots and they would catch me with that information. …Now you know why I kept silent for a bit."

"…Or is there ANOTHER reason?" Blade wondered.

"…I'm a silent ninja, all right? I like to be silent at times. But now's not the time for that. We know about the dangers of The Void and what it can do. I believe we need to give you the Pure Heart, is that correct?"

"Yea, verily! I want to get out of hither!" Luvbi said with an impatient look.

_"Yes, we need to give you it now!" _below AI-5538, a dark green Pure Heart was revealed and landed right in front of her. _"Please… Take it with you. You need it more than anyone else."_

Ninbot picked up the Pure Heart and held it to Chopper. "Of all the people I've met, you people just might be one of my greatest friends… I may have not had full trust in you before, but I started to gain your trust after stopping Grim and saving me from Metal Chopper. Thank you, guys."

"It's not a problem," Chopper said as the Pure Heart began to float above him. All the Pixls began to do their little dance before Chopper held up the dark green Pure Heart with a smile.

"It's nice to meet nice robots here," he smiled as he looked at Ninbot and AI-5538. "We won't forget you guys, OK?"

"Poyo! (We hope to see you again!)" Kirby smiled.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After the defeat of Metal Chopper and ridding the evil robot Grim, our heroes managed to get a hold of the twelfth Pure Heart and save Luvbi from Metal Chopper and his army of evil robots. "May we meet again some other time," was the last thing they heard from Ninbot before leaving the fortress. With only eight Pure Hearts left, our heroes ventured through the forest once again and made their way back to Flopside. Mario began to wonder about the strange masked man they met earlier in the forest. Who was this person really? And where exactly did Tipral get him from? These things plagued our heroes' minds as they left the forest._

* * *

**And that concludes Chapter 11 of Super Paper Chopper! It took a lot longer than I thought it would be... But, it's all done and gone, so if you didn't like Chapter 11, then be glad that it's done!**

**...But I'm not looking forward to Chapter 12. I'll probably discuss that one when we actually get to it, though...**_  
_


	69. Chapter 11 Interlude

**You know, I just realized that this fic as almost been around for about two years… Isn't that kind of interesting? Well, I guess to some people it is, but not to everyone. But you don't want to see this useless author's note, do you? Well… Then I suppose we can get to this chapter then. It should be a bit interesting for some of you… Hopefully. :P**

* * *

"So, Tipral, I got a little notice from Fawful," Nastasia began as Tipral was reading through the Dark Prognosticus…as usual. "He said that he 'had the failing' against the heroes. Should I give him a punishment?"

Tipral closed his book and turned to Nastasia. "If you want to, you can. I personally don't care what you really do."

"I see… Well, um, what about the meeting today? We're supposed to introduce our newest member of our army to the minions. Should I round them up right now? Or should we wait?"

"I can take care of that," With a simple wave of the Dark Star Scepter, Tipral was able to teleport O'Chunks, Mimi, Fawful, Dark Doom and Dimentio into the room on their platforms. There was an empty platform, but that spot was given to none other than…Mr. L."

"'Ey! I was makin' me mum's favorite gravy!" O'Chunks frowned. "Why did yeh 'ave teh interrupt me at this moment?!"

"And I was busy writing my feelings about you in…" Mimi stopped and covered her mouth with an embarrassed look on her face. "You didn't hear any of that, did you?"

"Ah ha ha ha. Did you say that you were going to write your feelings for Tipral in your diary?" Dimentio asked while chuckling. "I think you might have said something about him looking hot on the beach, is that true?"

"Quit reading my diary, you stupid meanie-head! You ALWAYS have to ruin everything for me!"

"Yawn… So what's next? Arguing about make-up?" Mr. L yawned.

Nastasia adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. "Um, yeah, guys... Huddle up, 'K? We're just going to have a little quick minion orientation here and then I'll let you go. You remember Mr. L, do you?"

"Mr. L? I've never heard of him…" Dark trailed.

"I have wondering!" Fawful pondered. "That…mustache gets on Fawful's nerves…"

Mr. L stepped back a bit. "Hey! Don't you dare mock the mustache! Next time you mock it, I'm going to knock all of your teeth out! …Oh, wait. I highly doubt you could even fight, since you and the rest of the minions got trounced by the heroes. What did I used to call you guys? Juniors?"

"Oh, great… Now yer gettin' me mad!" O'Chunks growled, clenching his fists. "Maybe you might want teh meet me friends, Mr. and Mrs. Fist!"

"And their children, Foot and Footsie!" Dimentio added.

"I didn't ask yeh teh get involved, Dimentio!"

"Gosh, Mr. L, didn't you get trounced by those meanie-heads too?" Mimi asked, getting a bit angry at Mr. L.

"You call us juniors, yet you also get your butt kicked by he heroes?" Dark face palmed. "Pathetic. That's just pathetic."

"Hey! I wasn't fully prepared that time! This time I've got something good that I'm going to give to those heroes!" Mr. L turned to Tipral. "So, Tipral… How about you send me out again and give those heroes what they deserve?"

"No, I'm not sending you out right now," Tipral responded, shaking his head. "I'm sending Dark out to stop them this time."

"Hmmmm? You need me to go out and do the job?" Dark's ears perked as he looked up at him. "All right, I'll get to the job."

But before he could teleport out, he felt some intense pain coming from his forehead. "ARGH! Oh, no… Why at this time?! Why do I have to feel this kind of pain right now?!"

"Pain? Ah, now I see it!" Dimentio happened to notice the third eye on Dark's forehead. It seemed to slightly open. "That's your third eye, is it not?"

"Yeah, it's my freakin' third eye! IT HURTS LIKE HELL! And why at this moment?! If I'm facing the heroes, I won't be feeling good with this!"

"What happens when it has the full opening?" Fawful asked.

"I'm supposed to spread chaos throughout the universe when it fully opens," Dark explained. "That's what's meant to happen with me…but it'll take years for it to fully open."

"Interesting…" Dimentio smirked.

"Look, I need to get going," Dark teleported out of the room with his cape. Everyone looked a bit surprised, but they continued on with their business.

"Ummmmm… Tipral? It says that there's someone else we need to introduce here…" Nastasia trailed, looking at her clipboard. "Should we introduce him right now? Or should we wait?"

Tipral shook his head as he turned to Nastasia. "I need you to tell him to go out and stop the heroes. I don't think Dark might be enough to take down Chopper and his annoying friends. He's a rather fast minion, so he should be able to attack him with some speed."

"You want me to go speak to him right now?"

"Yes, you can do that if you wish," Tipral nodded.

"Very well. I won't be long." Nastasia jumped off her platform and made her way out of the room, leaving only Tipral, O'Chunks, Mimi, Fawful, Mr. L and Dimentio.

"All right, then! So… You going to send me out too?" Mr. L asked.

"No, L. I told you already. You're NOT going out just yet."

"Can yeh send me out yet?" O'Chunks asked.

"O'Chunks… Please don't make it worse for me. I need to go out somewhere, but I think I might have to take one of…" Before he could finish, Mimi teleported right onto his platform.

"Take me with you!" she squealed.

"Sigh… Fine. You can come with me to the Mushroom Kingdom. I want to pay a little visit to eight kids, now that they're no longer with their father. Come, Mimi. We'll 'convince' them to fight the heroes. That should distract them for a while."

And with that, they both teleported out of the room, leaving the rest of the people in the meeting room left.

"Man… I can't believe he won't let me go out and take the heroes down again!" Mr. L sulked. "They deserve to get their butts trampled by me after what they did to my old Brobot!"

"Perhaps you can please Tipral by going out yourself and stopping them?" Dimentio suggested. "You'll probably be awarded with glamorous prizes, like a kid who won a game of hopscotch!"

"Hmmmmm… Maybe you're right! I think I should please him like that! Thanks for the advice, Dimentio!" Mr. L jumped off his platform and made his way out of the room.

"Wait… Are yeh sure that's a good idea?" O'Chunks asked.

"Nonsense! He just wants to please his master! He has the right to do that!" Dimentio chuckled. "But, I believe now is the time for me to leave. Ciao!"

And with a snap of his finger, he teleported out of the room.

* * *

**Deep in Tipral's Palace-**

In the hallways of Tipral's Palace, Nastasia walked up to a door with purple bat wings on it. She decided to knock on the door first to make sure the person inside was still there. After a couple of seconds, the door slowly opened. Compared to the other rooms, it was pretty dark. Not as dark as Tipral's room, but it was up there.

"Listen, new minion. Tipral wants you to go out and stop those heroes. Get your things and be ready to take off, 'K?" Nastasia called out.

"So, it's my turn to go out now?" All Nastasia could see were two glowing red eyes. The hissing voice sounded rather freaky, even to her. "Very well. I'll get the job done for him. But I don't want others getting in my way."

"Tipral already sent Dark out to find the heroes. If you want, you might want to stay out of his way."

"Hmph… I see. I suppose I'll surprise the heroes instead. They won't see me coming." And with that, the mysterious figure in the room teleported out of his room, leaving Nastasia to walk away from the room.

"Hmmmmm… I wonder if he'll put up a good fight against the heroes…" she pondered as she teleported out of the room.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Things seemed a bit peaceful in Toad Town after the whole void incident. All of the Toads seemed to be talking, and even the postman, Parakarry, who was a Paratroopa wearing a brown pilot's cap and carried a mailbag with him was just fine flying around delivering letters to people. Of course, he was getting ready to leave town right now to deliver a letter.

"I can't believe that Yosho's actually getting a letter from his ex-girlfriend!" Parakarry gaped as he saw that the envelope had the writing of someone named Yoshina. "I thought he'd never get anything from her again…"

"Do you require assistance?" Parakarry turned his head and saw a familiar face. It was a silver robot shaped just like Chopper with horizontal stripes on his body, antennas, a red visor and a black arm gun for his right hand. "I may help if you wish."

"Choppor? Whoa! Fancy running into you here! What are you doing here?"

"I don't have much to do around here," C-2 Choppor responded. "Ever since Chopper wished to bring me back, I've been mostly wandering around. I went to a planet, but I managed to leave and return here. Since I haven't found much to do, I decided to check out the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom. Merlon doesn't need my help right now, so I can probably continue to check out this world."

"Oh… You really haven't found anything else to do?" Parakarry frowned, but then slowly smiled. "OK, Choppor. I'll let you help me deliver these letters. It would be nice anyway, because I have someone to talk to!"

They made their way down south of Toad Town, but what surprised them was a girl that got off the train. Well, two girls, actually. One was reddish pink with a heart-shaped head, long and straight reddish hot pink hair, a red outlined mouth, a red, sleeveless sundress, white gloves with a gold ring on her wrists with a red ruby in them and red boots that were very comfy on her feet. She was also carrying a bag with her.

The other girl was actually a purple shadow demon with pink curly hair, a hat with red and white stripes, white gloves and a cute, yellow outlined smile. She was carrying a bag with her as well.

"It's nice to actually go on vacation with a friend such as yourself, Vivian," the reddish pink girl smiled, looking over at Vivian as they got off the train.

"Yeah, I never really went on vacation with you, Heartsy," Vivian smiled. "I like this idea. We can get to know each other better."

They crossed the train tracks, but they stopped when they heard a familiar voice. "Vivian? Heartsy? Is that really you?"

The two girls turned around and saw both Parakarry and C-2 Choppor. "I haven't seen you two in a while! In fact, I've never seen you two spending some time together, honestly…"

"Hey, Parakarry!" Heartsy greeted with a wave. "Yeah, I know you find it strange, but we're good friends! We've never been to the Mushroom Kingdom anyway, so we decided to both go together."

"And it's pretty nice here," Vivian commented. "We just have to find the inn and then we can see what's around here."

"What's in the bags anyway? The usual girl stuff?" Parakarry questioned, looking at Vivian's pink bag and Heartsy's red bag. "You mind if we help you carry those bags to your inn?"

"Well, what's in here really isn't anything special," Heartsy sweat dropped. "And I think we can take our bags to our inn ourselves."

"Scanning bags," C-2 Choppor scanned Vivian's bag first. "My scanners indicate that there is a hairbrush, some gloves, a picture of her and Chopper in the Toy Kingdom and…a Chopper plushie."

"Huh? Where on earth did you get a Chopper plushie?" Parakarry gawked.

"Ummmmmm… I got it from some store in that mall in Wingel City…" Vivian gulped. "Don't kill me for getting it!"

"Errmmm… I'm not going to kill you for having a plushie…"

"Scanning red bag," C-2 Choppor began to scan Heartsy's bag, making her gulp. "My scanners indicate that there is, once again, a hairbrush, gloves, a picture of Chopper, a plushie of him and even a Nintendo Wii."

"Considering your huge crush on Chopper, I'm not surprised to see stuff like that," Parakarry shrugged. "But the Nintendo Wii... I didn't expect that."

"Well, I do like to play some games, so why not?" Heartsy pulled the Chopper plushie out of her bag. "And why wouldn't I bring this plushie? You know that I really do like him! …But why does the robot remind me so much of Chopper?"

"Funny you should say that… It's because he…" Parakarry was interrupted when he heard a teleporting sound. He gaped when both Tipral and Mimi appeared. "What the heck? Those people came out of nowhere!"

"What do you mean?" Vivian looked over to where Parakarry was looking and gasped at what she saw. "N-No… It can't be! Tipral returned?!"

"Hold on, maybe he's not bad like your sisters!" Heartsy assured until she saw Mimi. "…Wait, why is Mimi with him?"

"Scanners indicate that those people are not friendly," C-2 Choppor raised his arm gun and aimed at the two. "We must be ready!"

When Tipral and Mimi turned around, they happened to notice the four behind them. But what Tipral did was look away from them and snap his finger, striking them with Star Magic.

…Except that it missed.

"Hey, Tippy! It's those annoying girls that I saw five months ago!" Mimi pointed out, pointing to both Heartsy and Vivian.

"Yes, I see them… I never knew that I would see those people again." Tipral growled as he teleported over to them. Mimi did the same thing and stuck her tongue out at the two girls.

"OK, who are you and why do you remind me of Chopper?" Parakarry asked, shaking a bit.

"You don't know who I am? I guess you've never seen me then. I suppose I'll introduce myself. I am Tipral, the wielder of the most powerful weapon in the universe: the Dark Star Scepter! I plan to rid all worlds with it…when I get back to reviving The Void!"

"You're going to bring back The Void?" Mimi gawked.

"Why of course. I DO want to rid the whole universe. So, why not just find a way to bring back The Void?"

"What's The Void?" Vivian asked.

"Searching for 'The Void'," C-2 Choppor began to analyze the results. "Results: one result found. The Void is a large, swirling vortex of darkness that swallows everything in sight. It starts off as a small vortex, but it grows bigger in time and when it gets at its biggest, it will destroy an entire world."

"Yes, that's a good explanation," Tipral nodded. "You people have no idea how my life changed ever since I was sent out of this dimension. It's all thanks to Chopper that my life got screwed up! You people are part of the blame too!"

"Wait… Where's Choppy?" Heartsy pulled her hammer out and glared at the two. "Don't tell me you got rid of him!"

"Oh, quit worrying about your boyfriend," Mimi sneered. "He's not dead. He's trying to collect these stupid Pure Hearts that are supposed to stop us from destroying all worlds."

"Oh… So he's fine?" Vivian sighed in relief.

"…That is, until we kill him," Tipral pointed out. "Now get out of our way. I have some Koopa Kids to see."

"No way! You're not stopping us!" Parakarry clenched his fists and tried to attack Tipral with his Shell Shot. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work on him due to the dark barrier around him.

"Hold on, let me try," Vivian aimed her finger at Tipral and tried to attack with a Fiery Jinx, but Tipral simply used the scepter to avoid the attack and hit everyone else with it instead.

"How… How did you do that?!"

"I did say before… This thing is the most powerful weapon in the universe! You can't stop me with this in my hands!" Tipral swung his scepter and a dark star came hurling towards them. C-2 Choppor tried to blast it, but it didn't seem to work, so he ended up taking a hit instead.

"Target the girl," C-2 Choppor fired a couple of blasts toward Mimi, knocking her back. This only got her angry, forcing her to fire a couple of Rubees. Of course, Heartsy managed to deflect them with her Hearty Hammer and bash her in the head with it.

"Ouchie! Why do you have to do that to me?!" Mimi whined.

"Because I bet you hurt my man!" Heartsy retorted, getting ready to make another attack on Mimi…until Tipral knocked her back with his Star Spear.

"You guys are stupid if you think you can defeat me," Tipral scoffed as he raised his scepter. But before he could fire, he was interrupted when a fan tried to smack him. It ended up making him drop his scepter instead. "What the… Who did that?"

"Oh, please. You really think we're going to let you stop us?" a green Boo with red bows appeared in front of Tipral, holding her pink fan. "I'm sure we've beaten you in the past, so it'll be easy for us to win this."

"Bow? What on earth are you doing here?" Parakarry asked.

"I was visiting this place when I just so happened to find you guys having a little battle with these two. I think I should give you a hand."

"Ugh… Why did it have to be Bow?" Heartsy groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Is there a problem?"

"Well, you DID kiss Chopper! But, I don't want to go into details. That's not the most important thing at this point."

"For once, I would have to agree with that last sentence."

"More people? Ugh… This is getting annoying!" Mimi whined, firing Rubees at the group.

"I think I have a better idea," Tipral raised his arms up and all of Chopper's partners were trapped in boxes. Tipral seemed a bit confused. "Strange… It happened again… That's not something I had before…"

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Heartsy gaped.

"What is this?" Vivian asked, trying to punch at the box with her flaming fist.

"Breaking through this box is futile," C-2 Choppor stated, trying to fire at the box. "This is an unbreakable magical box that cannot be broken out of. However, this doesn't appear to be this evil being's magic. My scanners indicate it comes from a jester named Dimentio."

"Dimentio? Hold on a minute… Now I'm seeing how I got this… Back when he used me and the Chaos Heart…" Tipral realized. "Oh, forget it. You people want to see Chopper? Well, I can take you to him if you want!"

"You mean I get to see the love of my life?!" Heartsy squealed, hearts flying over her head. "Please! Take me to where he is!"

"Wait, Heartsy! What about our stuff?!" Vivian exclaimed.

"Pbbbbbth! Who cares about your stuff!" Mimi scoffed, taking their bags. "I'll take them for you!"

"What? So there's no way we can get out?!" Bow gaped, smacking at the box with her fan. Of course, that didn't work.

"Great… Now my boss is going to fire me if I don't get those letters delivered on time. I can't escape!" Parakarry groaned.

"And this is where things get better," Tipral snapped his finger and the boxes began to explode from inside. Everyone screamed from inside, and before they knew it, they were no longer in Toad Town.

"Man, you're so good at what you do, Tippy!" Mimi sighed sweetly.

"Mimi, you realize that that wasn't something I previously had, did you?" Tipral asked.

"…Yeah, I think I just realized that! How could you have Dimentio's magic in your possession?!"

"I don't know…but if I have some of his magic, could that mean… No, I don't think so." Tipral looked down at the bags Mimi was holding. "What do you plan on doing with those?"

"I'll probably sell these bags and buy some new dresses. …What? I can buy some very pretty ones with them!"

"Fine. You can do that. But first, we need to go to Bowser's Castle." Tipral suggested as he teleported out of Toad Town, along with Mimi.

* * *

**Bowser's Castle-**

"Gee, I wonder where our dad went…" wondered a small Koopa with blue stylish hair and two fangs on each side of his mouth named Larry. "He hasn't been home for a while! I wanna know when we get to some evil plans!"

"And I wanna get to crushing those Stupid Mario Bros.!" a brown, bald Koopa named Morton growled.

"Daddy needs to help get me some money too!" a bratty Koopa with a large, pink bow with white polka dots on her head, pink, large lips, rings on her wrists and pink high-heeled shoes named Wendy snorted. "I'm starting to grow out of these shoes!"

"And I need new glasses!" the taller, nerdy Koopa with glasses and tall, green grass-like hair named Iggy frowned. "Roy broke my glasses!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that yer such a nerd!" scoffed Roy, the Koopa with the shades and the pink head. "I'm just the tough guy doin' his job! Ya got a problem with that?"

"Well there's nothing I need," the small Koopa with the rainbow-colored hair named Lemmy giggled while bouncing on a yellow ball. "I can just continue pulling pranks like I love to!"

"Vell, I suppose it's best that ve vait for him still," suggested the Koopa with the blue hair named Ludwig. "His arrival may be soon."

"Yeah! Maybe Papa will be here!" chuckled Bowser's youngest son, who looked like a younger version of himself, Bowser Jr. "And hopefully this time he's got a plan for us to take down Mario!"

Everyone looked at Bowser Jr. for a couple of seconds. "Wait a second… Since when were you considered a Koopaling?" Lemmy asked.

"And when are you ever going to get off that ball? I wanna go on that thing too! Papa knows that I'll probably get a chance to ride it!"

Roy simply used his claw to pierce the ball and make it pop, making Lemmy fall face flat on the ground. "Oops! That was more of an accident!"

Before Lemmy could use his wand, the front door exploded. Now, while you might believe that it's really "that" person who broke into the castle, but you would actually be wrong with that question.

"I know you're in here, Bowser! I know you have Chopper!" a yellow, spherical-shaped boy with black eyes like Chopper, gray wings, white gloves and short, gray legs walked into the castle with an arm blaster on his right hand. "I haven't heard from Chopper for weeks! I think you have him! Where is he!"

"Hey, who's ze idiot who busted through our castle?" Ludwig chuckled. "Zis is all we get? A puny yellow angel boy vith some kind of veapon? How pathetic!"

"I'm certainly not an idiot! I'm Flyer! And if there's one person who has brains, it has to be me! And, um… That wasn't exactly the greatest idea, but I NEED answers right now! Where's Bowser? I bet he has Chopper!"

"Ugh… I guess daddy ALWAYS has to make enemies with outsiders." Wendy groaned. "The person you're looking for isn't here. We were just waiting for our dad to arrive…but we could always use someone as a target for practice!"

"Wait… So he hasn't been here?" Flyer gaped.

"Of course not! Daddy doesn't even know who this person you're talking about lives! Him kidnapping your friend would be impossible!"

"So… If Bowser didn't take Chopper, then where did he go?"

"Oh, he's just fine…for now," Another voice caused Flyer to yelp and turn around to find Tipral and Mimi. "Oh, it's just the cowardly sidekick of Chopper, Flyer."

"Wait… Tipral?! What are you doing here?! People have been wondering where you've been!"

Tipral whacked Flyer in the face with his scepter, leaving a red mark on his cheek. "Oh, so people were WORRIED about me, were they? ! Yeah, right… I'm pretty sure that you and the rest of your friends were enjoying your lives these whole five months! What about me? Well, ever since my grandfather was killed by Chopper, that explosion caused me to teleport to another dimension! Not even my teleportation powers could take me home! I thought it was all over…until I got this scepter. The Dark Star Scepter."

"The Dark Star Scepter? I think I've heard that before…" Flyer recalled. "But could you tell me where Chopper is?"

"Oh, I don't have to tell you. I'll just take you to him instead!" Tipral raised his scepter and used its dark power to send a blast at Flyer, creating an explosion around him and teleporting him out of the castle.

"Well, now we don't have to worry about that wimp," Morton smirked.

"But vhy are you here? Do you know vhere our father is?" Ludwig asked.

"I might know where he is, but he might be in a dimension that I don't really care about," Tipral explained.

"Or maybe he might be dead," Mimi said with no emotion in her voice.

"Oh, he better still be alive, or else I'm going to use your pigtails as a wig!" Wendy snarled.

"Ha! And you honestly believe that you can do that!"

"Mimi, we're not going to fight right now," Tipral stopped Mimi before she could even get in a fight with Wendy. "Look, Koopalings. I'll help you find your father…if you agree to help me stop those heroes. One of them is actually Mario."

"Mario? Oh, yeah! I'm down for that!" Bowser Jr. blurted.

"And so when do we get to kick the snot out of them?" Roy asked, cracking his knuckles.

"I'll send you to different locations and then you wait for them to come. It's a very simple procedure. All right?" Tipral waved his scepter and teleported them all to different locations.

"You think this is going to work, Tippy?" Mimi asked sweetly.

"It should. They'll distract Chopper and his friends for a while, so it should all be good…" and with that, Tipral and Mimi teleported out of the Mushroom Kingdom.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

Chopper, Luvbi, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario walked out of the first door of Flopside Tower, now finished with that area. A dark green crystal heart appeared over the door, indicating that they've completed the area.

"Man, it's good to be back here," Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"Yea, verily. Now we can goest to the next area!" Luvbi said as she hugged Chopper.

"Wait, what?" Chopper immediately got out of Luvbi's grasps after getting kissed by her. "No way! I'm sorry Luvbi, but you can't come with us."

"Wh-What dost thou mean?"

"Listen, you're parents are probably worried sick about you. If you stayed with us the entire time, then they're probably going to go out and search for you in every dimension. I don't want that to happen. Plus, it probably wouldn't be safe for you to come with us after that whole incident with Metal Chopper."

"Poyo, (He does make a point,)" Kirby agreed.

Luvbi frowned and looked down at the ground in sadness. "I… I just wanted to stayeth with the boy I love… But, I doth understand. Thou only wantest me to stay safe from harm…"

"Look, if it makes you feel better, I'll walk you back to your parents," Chopper offered. The Nimbi girl looked up at him with a smile.

"Thank thee, my prince," she hugged him while shedding a small tear.

"Ummmmmmmmmm… I think we should go." Chopper stammered, blushing nervously.

"But we have to go back to Flipside Towers to get back to the seventh door," Sonic pointed out.

"Funny you should say that…" Nolrem came walking towards the group. "Merlon just noted me that there's a Heart Pillar over by the second floor outskirts of Flipside. He also saw a couple of other things back there too… I'm not sure what it was, but maybe you could search there."

"All right, thanks for noting us," Blade thanked. "I think we should be going now…"

"Yeah, we should be," Chopper said as he used the Return Pipe to bring them all back to Flipside Towers. Afterwards, he walked into the purple door with Luvbi, while the rest of the group smiled as Luvbi went through the door.

"Poyo! (Yes! We don't have to deal with her anymore!)" Kirby cheered.

"It's good to see her leave. I was getting tired of her!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"We should celebrate with a party!" Blade declared.

Mario: Hopefully we can.

* * *

**The Ovethere-**

_"Are you sure you wanted to take Luvbi alone?" _Timpani whispered as Chopper listened to the wand.

"Well, I think it would be a nice thing to do…" he whispered back as he got to the door leading to the area with the rainbow bridge. He happened to notice Pherrance and Tillip with bags, however.

"Pray, art they leaving hither?" Luvbi gawked.

"Hey, budday! It's been a while since we saw ya!" Pherrance greeted. "Yeah, we're leaving this place. We realized that there are too many of us in this place. Us non-Old English Nimbis are going to move somewhere that's peaceful and more open for us!"

"We don't know what the place is named, but maybe we'll pay you people a visit some other day," Tillip added.

"So… I guess this is goodbye then?" Chopper asked.

"Maybe… Maybe not. The world may never know…" Pherrance let out a little fart and both him and Tillip began laughing hysterically. "All right, I think we better get going! See ya, friend!"

The two Nimbis left while Chopper and Luvbi walked through the door into the area with the rainbow bridge. Everything seemed to be fine, just like before, but just as Chopper thought things would be OK…

"My dear Luvbi!" a Nimbi that looked a lot like the other Nimbis fluttered up to the two. "Oh, my sweet, sweet Luvbi! I hath been waiting for thee for such a long time!"

"Wait… Who are you?" Chopper asked.

"Mine given name is Wenbi. I hath been waiting this very moment to confess my love to thee, Luvbi!" Wenbi smiled, making Luvbi blush nervously. "Please, Luvbi… Wilt thou go out with me?"

"I doth be flattered by thy offer… But I already hath found a boy that I love." Luvbi winked at Chopper and hugged him. "My sweet prince, Chopper is so brave and adorable!"

Chopper's face turned red with embarrassment as he sighed. Wenbi, however, didn't seem so happy.

"Wh-What? Thou… Thou hast found someone else? But… But… I made love letters for thee…"

"Oh, you're that Nimbi who was talking about the love letters," Chopper gawked. "I never knew about that…"

"I am sorry, Wenbi. I am flattered by thy love letters, but I've gotten to know Chopper a little bit more. Mayhap we can stayeth as friends, yea? But we have to go now. My prince is taking me back home."

"Oh, man…" Chopper sighed and followed Luvbi past Wenbi, but he took one last look at the poor Nimbi before going up onto the bridge. He couldn't help but feel a little guilt.

"That Chopper… He hast taken mine one and only…" Wenbi muttered. "He will pay… I swear by mine wings that that boy will payeth for his life for taking mine one and only!"

* * *

**Grambi's Shrine-**

As soon as Chopper and Luvbi walked into the shrine, both Queen Jaydes and Grambi went over to their daughter to hug her.

"Luvbi! You're back!" Queen Jaydes cried.

"We've missed you!" Grambi cried.

"I hath missed thee both too," Luvbi smiled as her parents released her. "I verily enjoyed spending time with my prince!"

"Did anything bad happen while you were gone?" Queen Jaydes asked, looking at Chopper.

"Ummmmmmm… Nope! Everything was just fine!" Chopper nodded. "We had a blast! …I think."

"I'm glad that she came hither in one piece," Grambi smiled. "I think thou dost deserveth a little reward!"

"It's all right. I'd rather not take a reward. Although, I wouldn't mind going back to Flipside Towers…"

"Then I shalt maketh that happen!" he declared, conjuring up his magic.

"Thou should come play whenever, my sweet prince!" Luvbi smiled as she kissed Chopper one last time. "Mother, Father, and I are always hither!"

"Ewwww! That was disgusting!" Chopper gagged, wiping his cheek of Luvbi's kiss before being teleported back to Flipside Tower.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"So, how about a game of charades?"

"No, Blade. I don't like that game."

"Oh, come on, Sonic! It'll be interesting!"

"Poyo! (Wait, I see something up there! I think it's… No, it's definitely not a bird or a plane…)"

Chopper ended up landing on top of his head from the big fall. He didn't suffer any big injuries, but he was a bit dizzy as he got up.

Mario: Are you all right?

"Yeah, I'm fine… I got Luvbi back home, so we don't have to worry about her anymore…" Chopper sighed.

"Yeah! Now we don't have to deal with her anymore!" Blade smiled.

"Yeah, good riddance… I suppose." Chopper frowned. "Although, I kind of feel bad for that one Nimbi…"

"Another Nimbi? Who is this Nimbi?" Sonic asked.

"His name's Wenbi, and he sounded like he's been waiting for a long time to get Luvbi," he explained. "I don't really like when those things happen. It kind of makes me feel bad for that person."

"Well, not everyone gets what they want, so try not to worry about it…"

"Yeah, well, he didn't look happy with me when I looked back at him."

_"Now's not the time to worry about that," _Timpani noted. _"We need to bring the Pure Heart to its destination."_

"You're right, we better do that," Chopper nodded.

And with that, they made their way to the outskirts.

* * *

**Flipside, second floor outskirts-**

"What the… I don't believe it!" Chopper gasped.

"What is it?" Blade asked.

"L-Look!" Chopper pointed to the right of the outskirts.

"Yeah, I see the laser and the blue ! block," Sonic said. "We need to use Reflecto to get to the next Heart Pillar."

"No, Sonic! It's the people here!" Chopper pointed to the three people lying on the ground. "Flyer! Heartsy! Parakarry! They're… They're here!"

Mario: How'd they get here?!

"They don't look so good… I think we should take them to Merlon." Sonic suggested. "But first, we need to get the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar."

Chopper looked down at Flyer as Sonic used Reflecto to reflect the laser directly at the blue ! switch, which triggered a Heart Pillar to be drawn and colored white. There was a shade of dark green at the bottom of the pillar.

"All right, Chopper. Get the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar."

"What? Oh… All right…" Chopper looked down at Flyer. "Don't worry, buddy. I'm going to get you somewhere safe."

Chopper pulled the dark green Pure Heart out and threw it into the Heart Pillar. A dark green clock was created and caused something to happen back at Flopside Tower. Perhaps a dark orange door was being drawn?

Well, it didn't matter at this point. Chopper decided to pick up Heartsy, while Sonic got Flyer and Blade got Parakarry.

"So… Where should we take them?" Blade asked.

"We should bring them to Merlon. He'll try to find a way to make them feel better." Chopper suggested.

_"I never knew I would ever get to see some of your other friends…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well maybe you'll get a chance to meet them when they wake up. But, anyways, to Merlon's house we go!"

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

Merlon happened to be reading the Light Prognosticus while the heroes walked into his house with three unconscious friends.

"Ah, young ones! You return!" Merlon stopped when he noticed the three unconscious friends the heroes brought in. "Oh, my… There are more unconscious ones?"

"Poyo? (What? What do you mean 'more'?)" Kirby gawked.

"I happened to discover three more unconscious people right in front of my house an hour ago. They didn't look good. They were all battered up and in bad condition. I took them to medical care for them to recover with the help of Doctor Stew. They should be fine, of course."

Mario: What did they look like?

"Well, one was a green ghost with red bows, the other was a ghost as well, but she was purple with a red and white-striped hat and pink, curly hair. I think the last one was actually a robot that kind of resembled you a bit, Chopper."

"Oh my gosh! Bow, Vivian and Choppor are here?! I can't believe it! Who was responsible for this?!"

"My friends, I believe this could've been Tipral's doing…"

"We should tell Meta Knight about this so he can give us a hand!"

"…I haven't seen Meta Knight in a while, I'm afraid," Merlon sighed.

"Poyo? (What? You haven't seen him?)" Kirby gaped.

"I've had no contact with him whatsoever. I'm starting to feel worried about him. Listen, heroes. I'll take care of your friends for right now. Leave them here for now and hurry to the second door of Flopside Tower! It's important that you collect the Pure Hearts!"

"All right… I guess we have no other choice." Blade gently put Parakarry down, just like Sonic put Flyer down. Chopper also gently put Heartsy down and looked down at her messed up hair.

"Gee, I wonder how she'll feel when her hair's like that…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo? (You're worried about her?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, Heartsy technically IS a friend."

"…Or is she your…"

"Don't even SAY it, Sonic!"

"All right, who'd you choose? Heartsy? Bow? Vivian or Luvbi?" Blade snickered.

"Stop it, Blade!"

Mario: You should marry them all!

"Mario! Don't get in this too! Just leave me alone, please!" Chopper cried, his face being red as a tomato.

"Calm down, man. We're just teasing you…" Sonic assured.

"Well that's not funny! I just want to go back to Flopside Tower and get out of here! I just hope they're fine…" Chopper immediately headed out of Merlon's house, with the rest of the group following.

"I just hope these three will be safe too…" Merlon sighed as he pulled his cell phone out and began to call for some help to carry the three to medical care.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

"Well, look at this! It's a dark orange door!" Sonic commented, pointing to the door. "It doesn't look too bad!"

"Too Halloween-y for my tastes," Chopper stated.

"Poyo, (Hopefully it isn't too bad,)" Kirby hoped as he opened the door.

Mario: Only one way to find out!

And at that moment, the five heroes stepped into the door to their next destination.

* * *

**So a lot of interesting things happened this interlude, wouldn't you agree? I mean, I'm pretty sure that some people wanted to see partners from the other two stories. So... I decided to put some of them in here! ...But, while this may be one of my favorite interludes... The next chapter...really isn't my favorite chapter. Of course, I won't get into any detail with that UNTIL we get to Chapter 12.**

**So... You better bear with me, OK? Because... I'm probably not going to enjoy writing the next chapter. :P**


	70. A Sudden Crash

_Chopper and Co. started to feel a bit worried about the friends they saw at the outskirts of Flipside. Were they going to be OK? Or would they end up perishing because of Tipral's supposed "attack" on them? "Oh, man… I just hope that they're all fine." hoped Chopper, who was more worried than the others. "They should be just fine," assured Timpani, who tried to cheer him up. "Merlon was able to get your other three friends to safety, so maybe he'll be able to get those as well." At this point, the heroes hoped for a nice, bright world. But at that point, that's when they were going to jinx it._

**CHAPTER 12-1**

**-A Sudden Crash-**

The background began to get drawn as it usually does for the beginning of each new world, but when everything got colored, the world didn't necessarily look colorful or cheerful. The ground was just some dark blue dirt and even the night sky was blue-ish as well. In the background, the sky was apparently filled with a couple of ghosts and on the ground, there were a couple of gravestones. From the looks of it, the heroes weren't going to get their wish.

A dark orange door appeared in this graveyard and the heroes came walking out. All of their faces all soon turned into gloomy looks as they saw what the whole place was like. It was gloomy, dark, and just spooky.

Mario: This isn't what I was expecting!

"Yeah, I know!" Blade agreed. "I was hoping for a nice, bright world with a beautiful sun and some nice-looking grass! …But what do we get? A freakin' graveyard with a bunch of ghosts up in the sky. NOT NICE!"

"Poyo! (And here I thought we were going to be in a nice, calm world! This isn't what I like to see!)" Kirby wailed.

"Hey, guys! Just relax for a second!" Sonic stepped in. "Sure, this place is gloomy, but what would you prefer to be in? A mechanical forest with a bunch of dangerous robots? Or a whole graveyard that doesn't appear to have anything dangerous?"

"I'd choose the mechanical forest…" Chopper trailed. "What? I don't like being in this kind of world. Although, I will say that I disliked Merlee's Mansion greatly because of that freakin' labor."

_"Well, we haven't really explored this area anyway, so maybe we should take a good look at this new world," _Timpani suggested.

_"I'm used to these kind of areas, so I have nothing to fear," _Blumiere assured.

"Only one way to find out whether this place is bad or not," Sonic readied himself by stretching, then he started to take off. Some of the gravestones in his way were easily smashed by his Spin Jump.

"This graveyard is rather…old. I hope we don't run into any vampires." Chopper gulped as he followed Sonic through the gloomy road.

"Oh, come on! Vampires really aren't scary!" Blade scoffed. "They just have those fangs! Plus, they just look like ordinary people, but are a bit pale and always talk about blood. Not to mention they hate garlic and the sun."

"Poyo? (Well what about that one…)"

"NO, Kirby! We can NEVER speak of that!" Chopper interrupted, making Kirby stop. "We all know that is not meant to be spoken about!"

"Poyo… (Oh… Sorry… I don't like to speak about it, but I was just saying…)"

"It's all right, Kirby. I just didn't want to hear about…that vampire. Anyways, we should follow Sonic."

Everyone agreed and followed Sonic down a small hill. However, they stopped as soon as a gravestone in front of Sonic ended up shaking. A zombie resembling a Koopa rose crawled out of the ground and moaned as it got closer to the group.

"WHOA! A zombie!" Chopper screamed.

Mario: This isn't good…

"If only we had a shotgun!" Blade snapped his finger in disappointment. "That way, we could just blow its brains out with a simple shot in the head. You know, zombies get killed when you strike their head."

"But we've got no guns," Sonic pointed out. "And besides, what's the point of using guns when we've got our own attacks to throw at it?"

The first thing that Chopper did before Sonic made his move was use Timpani's wand to identify the zombie.

_"That's a Zombie Koopa. These are zombified Koopas, basically, they're Koopas that are dead. Max HP is 40. Attack is 9. There's not much to say about these zombies. They're slow and only attack by biting. The best option to defeat them is to attack them from the head." _Timpani informed.

"This should be easy," Blade drew his katana and made the first move on the Zombie Koopa before Sonic could attack. With a couple of slices, the Zombie Koopa disintegrated into smoke, dropping a Super Shroom Shake in the process.

"Ha! See? That was nothing!"

"Blade… I was going to take care of that enemy…" Sonic groaned.

Mario: There are some Boos up ahead.

The plumber pointed at a couple of Boos up ahead. They appeared to be some dark purple Boos with dark blue tongues. They looked a lot like the Dark Boos they've seen in The Underwhere.

"Don't those Boos remind me of the ones in The Underwhere?" Chopper questioned.

"What's The Underwhere?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, I don't think I told you about The Underwhere… You know, it's the opposite of The Overthere. If your sins or whatever the heck they are are bad, then you probably stay somewhere in The Underwhere. If you did a lot of good, then you would go to The Overthere." the Star Warrior explained. "Now… While I understand you and Kirby went to The Overthere… Why was Blade and I sent there?"

"Poyo… (The world may never know…)" Kirby said as he inhaled one of the Boos and spat it at another. It didn't kill them, but it allowed Chopper to use Timpani's wand to see what they're like.

_"That's a Phantom Boo. They look a bit similar to Dark Boos, but don't let their red eyes and dark purple color fool you… Max HP is 45. Attack is 10. Sometimes they'll turn invisible or flip into 3-D to avoid any attacks. The most notable thing about them is that they won't hide their faces and turn invisible like others. They'll go right for you… It's kind of strange, if you ask me…" _Timpani informed.

"_And to think that there wouldn't be any Boos that would directly attack you," _Blumiere chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah… We know about that." Chopper groaned as he tossed a fireball at one of the Phantom Boos. However, it simply turned invisible and evaded the attack. The other Phantom Boo was struck by the fireball instead.

Mario: I'll finish them off.

With Thoreau, Mario managed to grab a hold of one of the Phantom Boos and toss it at the other, defeating both of them in the process and allowing them to press on over to a small row of brick blocks, with one of them being a yellow ? block. Chopper punched the yellow ? block to find a new Zombie Shroom pop out. It was more of a greenish color and it didn't look too friendly.

_"It's a Poison Zombie Shroom!" _Timpani cried. _"They only have 20 HP and an Attack of 10, but they're able to poison you if you touch them! Be careful!"_

"Uh oh… That's not good…" Chopper gulped. "As if this place couldn't get any creepier…"

A Zombie Koopa rose from the ground and slowly made its way towards the group, but Kirby used Crystaline's ability to freeze it and deal some damage. With a simple kick and then a sliding kick, he was able to take down the Zombie Koopa and thus, allow the group to move on.

Of course, they ended up running into a dead end where they saw a large gravestone in the way. Knowing that there might be something in 3-D, Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D with his friends. They discovered that the gravestone was actually none other than one of those blocks they've seen in the past.

"This gravestone is good at tricking people…but not us!" Chopper smirked as he smashed the gravestone with his hammer. A small staircase seemed to lead down to a dark tunnel below.

"…Poyo? (…Am I the only one who doesn't feel good about going in there?)" Kirby asked, gulping at the darkness down the tunnel.

"Ugh… I'd rather not go down there, but we have no other choice." Chopper was the first to walk into the tunnel underneath the broken gravestone. The rest followed him down into a dark tunnel, where they could barely see a thing except for some bright, yellow eyes from the ceiling.

Mario: I think Swoopulas are in here…

"What are they again?" Blade asked.

Mario: See for yourself…

Chopper used Timpani's wand as a flashlight as he looked around the small, dark tunnel. There were these gray versions of Swoopers called Swoopulas hanging from the ceiling, but their eyes immediately closed when Timpani's wand shined on them. It gave them a chance to investigate it.

_"That's a Swoopula. It's a darker version of the Swooper and may be a close relative… Max HP is 34. Attack is 8. Unlike its relatives, Swoopulas will fly down towards you and try to suck at your HP. If this ever happens, you can shake them off of you to get them off… Try to be careful, because if they suck away your entire HP, you'll be done for…" _Timpani informed.

"Oh, great… They suck." Blade groaned.

"Poyo, (You know, many people tend to say that I suck,)" Kirby pointed out before a Swoopula flew down towards Kirby's head and tried to suck some HP out of him. Of course, he managed to shake it off easily and inhale it instead, swallowing it instantly.

"Sometimes I wonder why I don't swallow enemies…" Chopper trailed before inhaling a Swoopula and swallowing it. "I mean, if we just did that, then we'd be taking down enemies easily!"

_"You do realize that not all enemies can be inhaled…" _Blumiere informed. _"In fact, I believe those Robbies cannot be inhaled, as well as larger enemies you encountered before such as Intruderbots…"_

"He's right…" Sonic pointed out as he saw a small staircase up ahead. "Hey! Maybe we can get out of this tunnel through there!"

Mario: Let's take a look!

* * *

**Out of the tunnel-**

All five of them walked out of the tunnel and happened to notice another boring area, but there were a couple of dead bushes around, and not to mention dark blue Waddle Dees with red eyes. They definitely seemed to resemble zombies, just like the Zombie Koopas.

"I'm not going to even investigate that Waddle Dee. We ALL know that it's probably a Zombie Waddle Dee." Chopper groaned.

But, what caught them off guard was when they saw something coming down from the sky nearby. It looked like an escape pod of some sort.

"Poyo! (Whoa! Look at that!)" Kirby gaped, pointing at the escape pod crashing down towards this area.

"Everyone get out of the way!" Blade shouted, pushing everyone out of the way to escape the large explosion from the escape pod. It ended up killing off the Zombie Waddle Dees, which was nice…for them, at least.

"What…the heck was that?" Sonic gaped.

_"It appears that an escape pod has crashed here…" _Blumiere gawked. _"I don't know what's in there, but we should be cautious when walking towards it. No one knows what could be inside…"_

"So who wants to go up first?" Chopper asked. Everyone immediately stepped back for the exception of Mario, who let out a sigh and slowly walked towards the pod with everyone behind him.

"Move faster, Mario!" Blade shouted.

Mario: I'm being cautious.

"Oh, all right. I guess that's all right."

The group noticed that the escape pod ended up cooling off quite quickly, which was surprising to them. But, what stopped them from going any closer was when the hatch began to open.

"Poyo… (There better not be any ghosts or zombies in there…)" Kirby trailed, getting in a fighting stance.

"Whew! Squirps is relieved that that's over! Squirps was sure that he wasn't going to make it there for a second!"

At this point, Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Mario stopped gaping and sighed in relief.

"Oh, good… It's someone we know." Chopper sighed in relief as the young alien prince, Squirps walked out of the escape pod. Nothing really seemed to change with him. He looked exactly the same as how he looked back in the Whoa Zone.

"Hey… Squirps's seen your faces before! Are you… Are you the space grunts back from that trip to my mommy?" Squirps asked, surprised to see the group.

"Ummmmmm… Yeah, we're those space grunts you're talking about!" Sonic nodded, but also sweat dropping at the same time. "Man, who ever knew that we would be running into you!"

"Wait, who the heck is this little squid-like thing?" Blade asked.

"I see we haven't met, Squirp!" Squirps chuckled. "The name's Squirps! Squirps once helped your friends get the Pure Heart in the Whoa Zone in Outer Space! It wasn't easy, squinkles!"

"Oh, I remember that…" Chopper trailed, remembering that he simply left them to venture through the Whoa Zone on their own. "Yeah… That was one thing I can remember…"

"Poyo! (And we thought you actually died right beside the statue of your mother!)" Kirby gaped while Chopper translated for him. Unfortunately, Squirps ended up ignoring the pink puffball.

_"So… What on earth are you doing here?" _Timpani asked.

"Squirps was having some bad nightmares!" Squirps shivered, remembering the horrible nightmares. "Something told Squirps that the horrible nightmares were being caused by this haunted wasteland, squirple! So, Squirps decided to find this world and find out what's giving Squirps horrible nightmares! But, now that you space grunts are here, you can help Squirps out! And you know… You might get the Pure Heart here with my help!"

_"Wait, you know that the Pure Heart's here?" _Blumiere gaped.

"Of course, squirp! When Squirps was heading here, he saw that a Pure Heart was located somewhere in this world! A place called the **Mansion of Nightmares** is where the Pure Heart is! And that is where Squirps is heading!"

"So, are you cutting a deal here?" Chopper asked.

"You may say so, space grunt! It makes things easier for all of us! You rub Squirps's tentacles and Squirps rubs yours!"

"Poyo… (Uhh… The whole tentacles thing is kind of…creepy…)" Kirby guffawed.

"So… I suppose you guys met this guy before, haven't you?" Blade asked. "He's kind of a weirdo. I know the other guys we've seen in other dimensions are weirdos… But what the HECK is with his speech?!"

"Hey! This is how Squirps speaks! Don't get angry for that, space grunt!" Squirps snapped. "…But, anyways. Since we're no longer in space, Squirps can't call you space grunts anymore, squork! Squirps should call you…privates!"

"Privates? Aw, come on! Why that?" Chopper frowned.

"Because Squirps says so! Now you privates understand your place, right?" all Squirps got were a couple of nods from the heroes. "Squeh squeh squeh… This is going to be fun! I know it!"

Mario: And how are you going to fair against the zombies?

"Oh, Squirps knows just what to do!" Squirps jumped right into Chopper's hands and turned around, facing the way he was facing. "Do you remember using Squirps's Squirt Beam? All you have to do is squeeze Squirps and I'll fire a beam towards an enemy! If you don't want to use me, just let go of me and Squirps will follow you guys around! Did you understand that?"

"Well… Yeah, I suppose I did." Chopper nodded.

"Then off we go, squinkles!" Squirps slapped Chopper's face with one of his tentacles and he immediately started to move. A couple of Zombie Waddle Dees rose from the ground and slowly made their way towards the heroes.

_"Now's your chance to attack!" _Timpani cried, triggering Chopper to squeeze Squirps a couple of times to make him fire a couple of fireballs from his mouth at the Zombie Waddle Dees, killing them instantly.

"Well… I think shotguns would still work better on the zombies." Blade stated as they jumped over a gravestone and even walked past a dark blue tree. There didn't appear to be anything there, but Mario bashed at the tree with his hammer, making a badge shaped like a boot with spikes on the heel drop. Mario picked it up and saw that it was called a Piercing Jump. Apparently, this can give him a chance to pierce through defense. But, it's usually a fifty percent chance.

Mario: I think this should work nicely!

"Man… If only I had a badge like that. Wait… I think only Mario can use that." Chopper snapped his finger in disappointment. "Dang…"

They made their way to the door ahead and entered into an area with a loop leading down to a slope where they could see some water. Well, it looked more like green water, but it didn't look nice. At least there were a couple of platforms floating on the water.

"Ooh… Getting through that loop might be tough." Blade frowned. "Oh well. I think we can get through there, right?"

"Yeah, I think we can. We just need to get you guys through here." Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's arm and they immediately took off through the loop. Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm and charged up a Speed Dash before taking off at intense speeds down the slope and right into the water.

Of course, Sonic was the first one to jump out of the water. It wasn't necessarily harmful to him, but he didn't like how the water was. The greenness of the water made it feel like it was very disgusting and not nice to look at. But, nevertheless, our heroes got out of the water and got on the log. There happened to be some Fishbones in the water, which wasn't a good sight.

_"Those things can jump out of the water and attack you…" _Timpani warned as a Fishbone jumped out of the water and tried to bite at Chopper. Luckily, he managed to use Squirps to shoot a fireball at it to destroy it. Of course, the log they were on was rolling, so they couldn't stand on it forever.

"Poyo! (This log rolling is really annoying!)" Kirby whined, deciding to float over the log instead. "Poyo? (Why can't we have normal floating platforms over the water?)"

"No idea, Kirby…" Chopper trailed as he followed Sonic onto another floating platform. This time, it wouldn't roll like the log. It just stood there, floating in the water. It allowed them to jump towards the dark blue dirt ground ahead. But what they found at the end of the area was another gravestone.

Mario: I'll take care of this!

Mario whipped his hammer out and bashed at the gravestone. However, it didn't appear to break. It just remained there without any marks. Mario looked a bit confused at it and tried again. It didn't work.

"You can't destroy a gravestone like that with your hammer, squirple," Squirps pointed out. "If you want to destroy a gravestone, you need Squirps's help to do it!"

_"And here I thought that the door would be hidden…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well, here goes nothing," Chopper squeezed Squirps a couple of times to allow him to shoot fireballs at the gravestone. After a couple of shots, the gravestone was destroyed and revealed a door.

"Poyo! (Yay! Now we can finally move on!)" Kirby cheered.

"Yup! Let's go before anything bad happens…" Chopper shivered, looking back at the water.

* * *

**Next area-**

As the heroes stepped foot into the next area, they noticed that it wasn't as big as the other areas. There were a couple of gravestones in the way, but they appeared to be jumpable.

"Huh… Nothing here, I guess…" Blade trailed, putting his katana away. "Oh well. I guess we're allowed to move on!"

"Oh, not so fast, heroes! I'm not letting you through!" a Koopa with blue hair and two fangs on each side of his mouth landed on top of the larger gravestone in the middle. He made a pose (that kind of stunk) and pulled a wand out.

"Wait a second… Why do you remind me a bit of someone we've seen before?" Chopper asked, pondering over this. "Ah! I think I remember now! You kind of remind me of Bowser, the one I unintentionally picked a fight with!"

"Wait, you picked a fight with my dad?!" Larry gaped, making Chopper, Kirby, Sonic and Blade gape as well.

Mario: Oh… I never told you about Bowser's kids. ^^;

"Oh, great… So I guess we have to fight you then?" Sonic groaned.

"Well, I WAS teleported here to get rid of you guys! That dark weirdo even said that if we Koopalings defeated you, we would be able to get our father back! It's pretty simple!" Larry smirked, crossing his arms.

_"So they've been fooled by Tipral's deal? This isn't good…" _Blumiere sighed.

Mario: You're being tricked!

"Am not! He said that he promised! …I think." Larry pondered a bit to remember, but that's all he seemed to remember. "But I don't want to get into any conversations! We're gonna settle this! Now!"

"If you say so…" Chopper trailed as he (with Squirps in his hands), Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario jumped towards Larry to have a battle.

"Sheesh, he does remind Squirps of that ugly turtle!" Squirps remarked, remembering Bowser from three months ago.

"Let's see what information we can get from him first," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it on Larry to investigate him.

_"That's Larry Koopa. He is the second youngest of Bowser's eight children and the youngest of the Koopalings. Max HP is 145. Attack is 9. He doesn't appear to have many attacks besides going into his shell and firing magic at you… I don't think he's that tough of a Koopaling…" _Timpani informed.

"OK, he doesn't appear to look tough," Blade smirked as he drew his katana and jumped towards Larry. He managed to deal some intense damage to him thanks to his fire slash attack. "Since he's got no defense, my attack power is at an advantage!"

"Lucky…" mumbled Chopper as he fired a couple of fireballs from Squirps at Larry while he was conjuring up a spell from his wand. It stunned him for a couple of seconds and allowed Kirby to inhale the magic projectile after he fired it, spitting it back at him and knocking him over.

"Whoa… So you are tougher than I thought you guys were!" gaped Larry, who got into his shell and began to spin around rapidly. "But too bad you're going to regret it when I do this!"

_"Another thing," _Timpani mentioned, floating right in front of Chopper. _"Whenever he spins in his shell like that, don't attack him. He's completely invulnerable in that situation. It's best for you to wait for him to come out."_

"Poyo, (Sounds easy,)" Kirby commented, floating over the ground to avoid getting hit by Larry. He managed to knock into both Mario and Sonic, but the others easily jumped over Larry. Mario managed to stomp on his head as well, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds to allow Sonic to strike him with a Spin Dash.

"I'll be honest… You're not really as tough as I thought you'd be." Sonic commented.

"Hey! Don't you mock me!" Larry spat, firing magic from his wand at Sonic, knocking him back, but not before getting stomped on by Chopper, who performed a stylish move while in the air.

"You can charge up a shot from Squirps's Squirt Beam, you know!" Squirps reminded.

"Yeah, good point," Chopper began firing rapidly at Larry with Squirps. However, since the Koopa got into his shell, none of the fireballs had any effect on him. He ended up getting rolled over in the end.

"Ow… That kind of hurt…"

"Heh heh heh! That worked out better than I thought!" Larry waved his wand after getting out of his shell and fired another magic particle. The nice thing about this was that they were slower than the magic Shade would fire at them.

Mario: I think I can ground pound him if you want!

"Go for it!" Sonic nodded. Mario tipped his hat and leaped towards Larry. He stomped on him first and then performed a stylish move. Afterwards, he used his Ground Pound attack to deal some stronger damage to Larry.

"Hey! Why do the fat plumbers always have to sit on me with their weight? ! Stop it already!" growled Larry.

Mario: Well you're asking for a fight!

"Argh! All right, I've got another thing for you guys!" Larry waved his wand again, but this time he summoned a couple of Zombie Koopas to rise from the ground. But, since they're Koopas, they could be jumped on easily. Chopper did just that and kicked it towards Larry and then fired at him rapidly with Squirps now that he was dazed.

"What the…! It backfired?!"

"Poyo, (That's what happens when you try to attack someone with Koopas,)" Kirby stated as he inhaled the other Zombie Koopa and spat it out at Larry. It didn't more damage, unlike the Zombie Koopa shell.

"So how far is he?" Sonic asked, trying to get a look on his HP bar. "OK, that doesn't seem like a lot, but I think we still need to focus our attacks. If he gets in his shell, we just avoid him."

Mario: It's really a simple strategy on how to beat him.

Mario, once again, attacked Larry again, but this time he used his Triple Jump to stomp on him instead of a Ground Pound. This left Larry off guard and allowed Blade to throw a couple of shurikens at him and then throw Hommissile at his direction, knocking him into the large gravestone and leaving a large hole in it.

"Whoa… I did that?!" Blade gaped.

_"That's quite impressive…" _Blumiere gawked.

"Ugh… My head…" Larry moaned as he got up from the attack. "Since when did my head break through a gravestone? Well, whatever. I think I can stop you guys, even if you did that to me!"

Larry summoned a couple of Zombie Goombas to aid him, but, just like the Zombie Koopas, they were easily defeated when Chopper stomped on one. Mario used Thoreau to pick one up and throw it at Larry, making him cringe in pain.

"So, when are ya going to give up, Larry?" Sonic grinned while jumping in front of him.

"Me? Give up? No way!" Larry got in his shell and knocked everyone over as he moved around on the ground. After getting out, he fired a couple of faster magic attacks, hitting Chopper and Blade. Kirby, however, got a chance to inhale the attack instead and spit it out at Larry.

"Ouch! Why you little…!" Larry fired another magic attack at Kirby, but Chopper simply jumped in and inhaled it instead, spitting it at Larry, who was able to dodge it. But he wasn't able to dodge Squirps's fireballs.

"Taste Squirps's Squirt Beam!" Squirps cried as multiple fireballs hit Larry. The Koopaling hid in his shell and knocked Chopper over, making him release Squirps. The green alien was also knocked away by Larry's shell attack as well, but he managed to get himself back up and back to Chopper.

"Hold on, I know what can work," Chopper kicked Larry's shell right into the gravestone, breaking it completely and leaving Larry stunned while his head was sticking out of his shell.

"That should do it," Sonic said as he curled up in a ball and struck Larry in the head with a Homing Attack. This left Larry dazed again and allowing Blade to attack him with his katana for some extra damage.

"Oh, come on! This fight is barely even a challenge!" Blade pouted. "I was hoping for a fight that would be more interesting than someone who just has a predictable attack pattern!"

"Hey! Just because I'm the youngest Koopaling doesn't mean I'm the weakest!" Larry growled, firing magic straight at Blade and knocking him back, but was soon attacked by Sonic's Spin Jump and Mario's Triple Jump.

Mario: He is tougher than the previous times, though…

"Yeah, of course I'm tougher than before!" Larry smirked as rammed straight into Mario's stomach, knocking him over. Luckily, the plumber managed to use Kickbrin to kick Larry away and allow him to perform his Power Bounce attack (meaning he was jumping on him multiple times) and performing stylish moves.

"Get off of me!" Larry fired magic at Mario and knocked him off, but what caught him off guard was a charged beam from Squirps that Chopper fired. Larry attempted to fire magic at him, but Kirby jumped in the way and inhaled the magic attack and spat it back at him, knocking him over again.

"Yeesh, how many attacks can this kid take?" Sonic asked.

"No idea, but who cares?" Blade gripped his katana until he fell over due to Larry getting into his shell and ramming into him. But, since Sonic saw what Chopper did, he kick him towards a smaller gravestone and made him dizzy for a couple of seconds.

"Oof… My head hurts…" moaned Larry as Mario got his hammer out and bashed him, forcing him to get in his shell again and charge. This time, he managed to succeed in hitting them all (again) until he poked his head out of his shell and fired more magic projectiles at them.

"I got one!" Chopper inhaled one magic attack and Kirby got the other. At the same time, they spat them straight at Larry. It left him down to such low HP that any attack could take him down.

"Oh, man… This isn't good." Larry gulped.

Mario: Here we go!

With one last jump from Mario's boot, Larry toppled over on the ground, unconscious. He didn't seem to move, but he WAS knocked out, so it would make sense. Mario poked him a bit before realizing that Larry wasn't going to get up.

Mario: He just got knocked unconscious…

_"There's not much we can do with him at the moment…" _Timpani trailed, looking down at the unconscious Larry. _"Our best bet would probably to move on."_

"You should listen to the wand!" Squirps agreed. "Onward, privates! If we plan on getting to the Mansion of Nightmares, we must find the **Cemetery Ruins**! There, we'll be able to take the **Path of Fear** to the Mansion of Nightmares!"

"…Wow, that doesn't sound good," Chopper gulped. "How do you know about this?"

"Squirps heard about these places in his nightmares…"

"Oh, all right," Chopper jumped over a couple of small gravestones and entered the door up ahead into an area with a bridge going over a small pond. There was a locked door up ahead, making everyone groan.

"All right, I think we have to go into the water…" Chopper sighed.

"What? ! There's no way I'm going underwater!" Sonic gulped.

"Oh, calm down already, Sonic! You're not the one who needs to go in! I'll go down there myself and see what's up." Chopper flipped into 3-D and jumped into the water. A couple of Fishbones happened to be in the water, so he decided to freeze them with a couple of ice balls and then bash them with his hammer. One of them happened to drop a Door Key, which he grabbed.

"Poyo? (So how was the dive?)" Kirby asked as Chopper jumped out of the water. "Poyo… (I thought I heard some freezing going on down there…)"

"It was fine. I was able to get this." Chopper held up a Door Key.

"That's what we need, squinkles!" Squirps squealed. "Squirps will just take that from your hands and we'll be off!"

"Wait, what do you…" Squirps took the Door Key from Chopper's hand and immediately walked over to the door himself. With the Door Key, he unlocked the door for them and carried on.

"Seriously! Why did he have to take the key from me?"

"It's just a key, Chopper…" Blade trailed. "Who really cares if someone takes it from you? As long as it isn't a bad guy, then we shouldn't have to worry."

"_**SQUAAAAAAAAAACK!**_" Squirps came running out of the door and towards the heroes in fear. "Th-There are zombies out there!"

"Well, what did we tell you? It's not easy going out alone…" Chopper picked him up and walked over to the door.

"NO! Squirps isn't going back in there!" Squirps wiggled out of Chopper's grasps and stood right by the door. "You privates can go take care of those zombies! S-Squirps is going to stay here!"

_"Someone's being a chicken today…" _Timpani grunted.

_"No worries, Timpani. He just doesn't like zombies." _assured Blumiere.

"OK, I'm going to go through here and take some zombies down while you two are done making out," Chopper said as he left Timpani's wand to float. The couple were a bit confused with him, but they decided to speak again.

* * *

**Near the Cemetery Ruins-**

"Zombies, huh? Well, they're just Zombie Goombas, Waddle Dee and…hold the phone, is that a Zombie Waddle Doo up ahead?" Sonic tried to get a clear look at the Zombie Waddle Doo up ahead.

"Yup, it's a Waddle Doo," Chopper confirmed as he jumped on a couple of the zombies and inhaled the Zombie Waddle Doo to gain the Beam ability. "Strange… I never knew I would get this ability if I ate a zombie."

"Poyo, (It's weird that you're eating a zombie, when in actuality, zombies go after people and bite them,)" Kirby mentioned.

"Yeah, I know that."

Mario managed to deliver a couple of blows to some of the zombies around them with his hammer and disintegrated them into smoke. All that they could see up ahead was a small staircase leading to a Star Block and some ruins.

"Hey, is that the place Squirps was telling us about?" Blade.

"Yeah, this is the place, squirp!" Squirps confirmed as he and Timpani's wand came into this area. "If we stroll through there, we might be able to get to the Path of Fear! Come on, privates! Get moving!"

"And what are you, our general?" Sonic asked.

"Your squirping right I am! Now get going!"

"…OK," Chopper frowned as he walked up the stairs and to the Star Block. "This really isn't that great of a world…"

And with a simple punch at the Star Block, he put and end to this chapter.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Come on, privates! We need to make our way through here, squirp!" the young alien prince led the five heroes into the Cemetery Ruins. The first thing Chopper and Co. noticed as they entered the ruins that it was filled with darkness. They couldn't see a thing in there! "Hey! Why is it so dark in this place? !" "Poyo? (Why do we have to go through someplace that we can't see?)" "I need some night vision goggles!" Our heroes began to ask these questions as they ventured into the darkness of the Cemetery Ruins._

* * *

**Yeah, so this is what Chapter 12 is basically like. It's one of those places that resembles a Halloween area (although, I don't think anyone was scared by any of this. Maybe there might be some horror next chapter, though...). **

**Yeah, if you couldn't tell, I find Chapter 12 to be a bit...uninteresting at many points. In fact, I thought the battle with Larry wasn't interesting ('cause, you know, he's a Koopaling. He doesn't have many cool attacks for the first boss in Super Mario Bros. 3).**

**But, I'm not going to rant on on how much I don't like this chapter. I think you people wouldn't like it that much. So... What's coming up next chapter? Well, I'm not going to tell you! You'll find out next time this chapter's updated!**_  
_


	71. The Cemetery's Ruins

**CHAPTER 12-2**

**-The Cemetery's Ruins-**

"I can't see a thing in here!"

"I suddenly feel blind for a second…"

"Wait, how come we can only see our eyes, yet we can't see anything else? I just see some white eyes around here, that's it."

"Poyo? (How come we don't have a flashlight with us? I would REALLY like to have a flashlight!)"

"Stop yelling at each other, Squirple! We'll figure a way out of this!"

At that moment, Chopper felt his hand grabbing a hold of Timpani's wand. It began to glow a bright rainbow color, which emitted a ray of light that acted like a flashlight. It was kind of like how they used it back in that tunnel in the previous area. But, looking at the room they were in, the ground was made of some old material that felt like it could break in any minute, due to it being cracked. There were also a couple of broken pillars around them as well. It was definitely not a good thing to see, in some of their eyes.

What was in these rooms? Nobody knew. It almost felt like anything could suddenly come from in front of them and attack. But, it turns out that there weren't any enemies around at this moment…yet.

"_Now you guys can see what's around you…" _Timpani sighed as Chopper moved her wand around to scan the area. There didn't happen to be any enemies around, but there were some bones on the ground. They looked like dark blue Dry Bones. They actually looked kind of similar to those Dark Bones that Chopper discovered in the Palace of Shadow, surprisingly.

"For some reason, I could imagine us telling scary stories in this kind of area…" Blade pondered as he grabbed Timpani's wand and brought it up to his face. "How about I tell you guys a scary story?"

"Ummmmm… How about we pass?" Sonic suggested.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you're a chicken!" this got Sonic's attention, which forced him to listen to what Blade had to say. "See? I knew that would work! OK… So I'm not going to try to make this long, but it's probably the scariest thing you'll ever hear in your ENTIRE life."

"As long as it's not for old people, Squirps will be fine," Squirps confirmed. The yellow star bulb on his antenna seemed to be glowing, which gave off where Squirps would be around here.

"All right, then let's get started," everyone got a bit closer so they could listen in to Blade's story easily.

Mario: If Luigi were here, he would probably be scared…

"Many, many years ago, there was once this boy who came walking into this very room. He had no flashlight, no night vision goggles. Nothing. The only way for him to get through this place was to feel for anything. It was tough, due to the fact that the room was big. But he started to see a trail of blood after realizing that the floor felt a bit…strange. And the blood wasn't even dry either."

"Poyo… (Ummmmm… This isn't really scary…)" Kirby trailed.

"Yeah, this isn't really a scary story…" Chopper groaned. "Look, can we just go already? We're kind of wasting time here."

"Hey! I'm not finished yet!" Blade snapped, trying to shush the two Star Warriors: All right. Now… The boy decided to follow the blood through the hallways, but what was worse was that he began to hear voices like, 'I'm going to kiiiiiiill yoooooou…' and 'La la la la la… I've got a knife in my hand…"

"Oh, come on… That doesn't scare me one bit!" Sonic sighed.

"Hey! Stop interrupting me! Anyways… Back to what I was saying… The boy started to tremble in fear as he heard these disturbing noises. He also heard the sound of the ground cracking…and the sound of bones. He saw that there were a pile of bones right next to him."

Blade's eyes widened as he saw the dark blue Dry Bones rise from the ground and slowly make its way towards Chopper. "And…uh… It started to creep towards the boy with every step. _CREEEEEEEEEK! _He got closer…and closer…and closer…and closer…and…"

"Yeah, yeah, we know what you're going to say next," Chopper groaned. "This sounds like one of those clichéd scary stories."

"Who said it's a story? Do you even KNOW where I'm getting this from?"

"Ummmmm… I don't exactly know what you're… Wait a second…" Chopper slowly turned around as he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He jumped up in surprise as he saw the Dark Bones knock him over after throwing a bone at him.

"What the heck is this thing? !" Chopper shined Timpani's wand right at the Dark Bones, triggering Timpani to investigate it. Everyone was gaping at this very moment, especially Chopper and Mario, who were surprised to see this enemy.

"_This kind of enemy is known as a Dark Bones. They are stronger versions of Dry Bones and live in dark places. Max HP is 55. Attack is 11. Defense is 5. They will occasionally throw bones at you if they're up on their feet. Jumping on them won't do much except for making them collapse. After a couple of seconds, they'll come back up. However, they're still weak to fire, so I recommend using that… Other than that, it can build other Dark Bones to aid it." _Timpani informed.

"Oh, yeah… Fire! That works!" Blade said as he drew his katana and attacked the Dark Bones with a fire slash. But even then it wasn't killed off. It whacked Blade with a bone and created another friend to aid him in battle.

"_None…shall pass…" _the Dark Bones moaned as they began to throw bones at the group. Chopper charged up a beam from Squirps and fired straight at one of the Dark Bones. Surprisingly, it did damage.

"See? Squirps can hurt these guys with his Squirt Beam!" Squirps smiled as he destroyed the Dark Bones, clearing the way of any enemies in this room. All that there was up ahead was a door. How original.

"Poyo, (Well there's not much else around here, so we should head through the door,)" Kirby suggested, opening the door and entering through with everyone else. They saw a couple of Phantom Boos in this room and also a hole in the ground ahead. Apparently it seemed like the only way to go through this dungeon.

"Man! It's hard to see around here!" Sonic commented before Chopper flashed Sonic with Timpani's wand. "Whoa! I didn't say to flash it at me!"

Of course, he decided to investigate Sonic for no reason.

"_That's Sonic the Hedgehog. He's the third hero spoken in the Light Prognosticus. Sonic tends to rely on his speed to fight his foes. It's probably best not to fight against him. If he's moving at the speed of sound, you're most likely not going to win the fight." _Timpani informed.

"Well that's an interesting tattle for me," Sonic stated with a weird look.

"_Don't blame me, I'm just saying what it says on your profile…"_

"Never mind that crap. I wanna move on, all right?" Blade slashed at one of the Phantom Boos with his katana and countered one of their attacks using Barry before jumping straight down the hole. Everyone shrugged and jumped down the hole, going deeper into the ruins.

* * *

**Tunnel-**

The heroes landed on the ground in a lower room of the Cemetery Ruins. They could see that there was a small ray of the moonlight from some holes in the ceiling. There were also a couple of small coffins as well, making them all wonder what was inside of them.

"Ugh… Now I'm really not enjoying this place…" Chopper groaned.

Mario: Luigi would be scared if he was here.

"Wait, who is Luigi anyways?" Blade asked.

"He's Mario's brother. You know, at the 'party'?" Chopper explained. "He was the one who looked kind of like Mario, but is a bit taller than him and is in green. Speaking of Luigi… I haven't seen him in a while. I'm starting to get a little worried about him… That and my other friends…"

Mario: I think they'll be just fine. Luigi can take care of himself, despite being cowardly.

"Poyo! (Swoopula at eight o'clock!)" Kirby alerted as a Swoopula came down on top of Chopper's head and began to suck the HP out of him. Chopper whacked the Swoopula with his wand and knock it off, allowing Mario to take care of it with a couple of jumps.

"So… What do you think is in these coffins?" Sonic asked, looking down at the coffins. He looked rather shocked to see one open and see a Zombie Waddle Dee pop out and try to tackle him.

"Whoa!" Sonic performed a Spin Jump on the Zombie Waddle Dee to defeat it. Another coffin ended up opening as well, but this time Dark Bones popped out and tried to throw a bone at Sonic, which it succeeded in doing.

"Ugh… Getting hit in the face by a bone isn't nice…"

"Well, I don't think it'll like this!" Chopper charged up a beam attack and fired a shot directly at the Dark Bones. Of course, it didn't seem to destroy it. All it did was make the Dark Bones collapse onto the ground. So he simply chucked a couple of charged fireballs at it to destroy it.

"I wonder… Would ice do anything to them?"

"_Maybe you should try to find out in the future," _Blumiere suggested.

"Maybe," Chopper picked up Squirps and searched for anything else in the room with Timpani's wand. They didn't find anything else, but in another coffin, a Super Shroom happened to be in there.

"Poyo, (Well that's a coincidence,)" Kirby sighed in relief as he grabbed it and split it into five pieces. They each ate a piece and recovered 20 HP. They then pressed on to the next room through the door.

They noticed that this room they walked into was rather small, but there were a couple of Zombie Koopas up ahead getting ready to go into their shells and toss themselves at the heroes. Some Embers were patrolling these parts too, but what they noticed was that there was something that looked kind of strange on the ground in the room. Plus, the door itself is locked.

"Dang it! The door's locked!" Sonic frowned as Chopper flashed Timpani's wand over by the door. But that's not what they had to worry about right now. The Zombie Koopa was coming their way!

"Oh, this is nothing," Blade kicked the Zombie Koopa shell away from the group and sent it back to the Ember. It didn't do much damage, but it ended up getting destroyed after a couple of slashes from Blade's katana. "See? All better!"

"Ummmmmm… I wouldn't necessarily say that." Chopper frowned, pointing to the Ember that was still alive. Even when Squirps shot his beam at the Ember, it didn't do much against it.

Mario: So much for that…

"You just need to freeze it, squinkles!" Squirps suggested. "Ice can sometimes freeze things! Squirps has done it in the past!"

"Ummmmm… I guess we can give it a try then!" Chopper tossed an ice ball at the Ember, causing it to freeze. Mario finished it off with his hammer, destroying it instantly. Afterwards, they happened to notice that in the middle of the room, there were small blocks stuck together that could possibly be blocking a way down.

"_You might be able to break those small blocks if you have an attack that involves striking things down below you…" _Timpani informed.

"Stand aside, guys! I'll handle this!" Blade gripped his katana and brought it down on the blocks, destroying them. Of course, since they were now standing in mid-air, they were forced to scream before falling…into water.

"Mmmmmmmmgggffhhh! (No! NO! NOOO! Not the water!)" Sonic began to choke in the water, but soon took in an air bubble that was lucky enough to appear right by him. What a relief!

"Wow… I never knew we'd be in the water here…" Chopper trailed.

"It's dark and murky here, squirp," Squirps pointed out. "It's hard for Squirps to see around here! You might need to use that flashlight!"

"Yeah, better do that," Chopper gripped Timpani's wand and began to search the room. A couple of Fishbones were coming right towards them, but he managed to make his beam wand emit a beam as he swung it to knock the Fishbones back. Kirby squirted water at them a couple of times and finished them off.

"Poyo? (Who would've thought that dead fish could be defeated?)" Kirby questioned as he sank to the ground, where both Sonic and Blade were taking in many air bubbles. It was actually funny to everyone else, but for the two…not so much.

"OK, let's not joke around now. They're not so happy about it." Chopper pointed to both Sonic and Blade, who were glaring at them with their arms folded. "Sheesh! We were only joking!"

They happened to notice a door over towards the right, so they started to swim their way towards the door. Some spikes happened to rise up from the ground as they swam, making Sonic jump over them. Of course, the hedgehog HAS had experience through this before.

"_If only I could get my hands on a Bubble Shield…" _Sonic thought as he jumped over to the door. He grabbed an air bubble first before opening it. He wasn't satisfied to see that the water didn't allow him to run fast.

"Yeah, I don't like that I can't move fast here," Chopper groaned as he tried moving. Nevertheless, he and the rest of the group swam into an underwater room with large Thwomps coming down from the ceiling. Chopper checked in 3-D to see if they were there, but even then they were.

"Poyo? (So what did you find out?)" Kirby asked.

"We can't go in 3-D. The Thwomps are there too." Chopper confirmed as he decided to remove his Beam ability and take in some water to gain the Water ability. With it, he made two Bubble Shields. One for Sonic and one for Blade. They were finally relieved to breathe in air.

"_I always wondered… How can a bubble give you oxygen?" _Blumiere asked.

"_That's something I never got either…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well it's not a big deal. That's kind of like asking why there are non-human beings around here that can speak," Blade mentioned as he swam past one of the Thwomps coming down. However, Timpani spoke once again.

"_There's something that's a little interesting, you know," _everyone paused for the moment and looked at Timpani's wand. _"It's possible to stop the Thwomps from moving if you use ice against it… They're guaranteed to freeze while being in water."_

"Oh, then that gives me an idea!" Chopper tossed an ice ball straight at the first Thwomp, freezing it for a couple of seconds. Everyone moved past the Thwomp before it broke out of its cold prison.

"So, you basically have to do that for each Thwomp, squirp?" Squirps asked.

"Yeah, but I find it to be a bit repetitive…" Chopper started to freeze the rest of the Thwomps with some ice balls. After a while, they made it to the door and entered through into a smaller room.

"Hmmmmmm… I think there's something here." Sonic predicted.

"It's too dark to see though, squirple!" Squirps cried. "Even Squirps's antenna can't see what's going on here! Please flash that flashlight for Squirps! I feel as if I'm in a very unsafe situation right now!"

"OK, hold on a minute," Chopper aimed Timpani's wand around the room. There didn't appear to be any enemies around, but what he happened to notice was that there was a chest in the center of the room.

"_There appears to be a hidden chest here," _Timpani informed as she took notice of the hidden chest. _"Here, let me make it visible for you, OK?"_

And with a simply flash the chest was now visible. Chopper kicked the chest open and found a Door Key from inside. "All right, I suppose this is what we need in order to unlock that door."

"Yeah, let's get out of here now," Sonic suggested. "I'm getting tired of being in the water. Sure, I may have the Bubble Shield on me, but I still can't move fast. I wanna be out in the fresh air!"

"Poyo… (But there's no real fresh air here…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo. (We haven't found any TRUE fresh air. It's just all gloomy outside and not filled with fresh air.)"

Mario: Let's just head back.

* * *

**Back in that one room-**

With the key in their hands, they were able to unlock the door just up ahead in the room where they had to destroy those small yellow blocks. They were immediately led into a room with a slope going down and a ramp going across a large gap of spikes. There was also a pipe right in the background, but not necessarily on the ground where they area. There were only a couple of moving platforms in the background though.

"Poyo, (Hey, look at the background,)" Kirby said, taking notice of a couple of moving platforms in the background. "Poyo? (Is there any chance that we have to check over there to see what's around?)"

"Yeah, I can see what's in the background," Chopper flashed Timpani's wand at the background, giving them all a full view of the place. Mario punched the Save Block right next to the door first before doing anything else.

Mario: How do we get through here?

"I think I can get over this ramp if I curl up into a ball while going down," Sonic pondered. "However, I think you need to help me, Chopper. I can't necessarily see where I'm going without light."

"Then the private will give you light!" Squirps took Timpani's wand from Chopper's hands and flashed it directly at Sonic. "Now you must go, private!"

"Whoa, stop it! That light's getting in my eyes!"

"_Squirps, this isn't a toy, you know!" _Timpani shouted. _"I don't necessarily trust you with my wand!"_

"Quiet down, flashlight! You cannot heed the general!" now they all knew he was starting to become more military-like than space-like at the moment. "Squirps holds the flashlight! Squirps is using it to help the privates!"

"Whoa… That was…strange." Blade gawked. "Does he act like this usually?"

"Only when he gets mad…" answered Chopper.

"OK, I guess I'll start going then," Sonic curled up in a ball and began to go down the steep slope. The ramp allowed him to go over the gap filled with spikes and land right by a blue ! switch that he hit while he was in a ball.

With this, a couple of platforms appeared for the rest of the group over on the gap with the spikes. They used them to get over to Sonic and also to the pipe where they needed to go through to reach the background.

"Squirps will stay here for now," Squirps suggested, staying by the pipe. "Squirps is a bit tired from all of that exploration…squirple. Squirps feels like… No! I don't want to take a nap right now!"

"_You have a problem with sleeping?" _Blumiere asked.

"If I go to sleep, I'm going to have worse nightmares, squooog! Squirps knowsthat any ghosts could be watching us this very moment!" he began to shiver in fear at the thought of all the monsters.

"Well, then you should stay here for now and not move. That way, we'll know that you'll still be here." Chopper got a hold of the wand that he was holding and then jumping into the pipe with everyone else.

Using Timpani's wand, Chopper scanned the room for any enemies. Luckily, there didn't appear to be any enemies, so they simply used the moving platforms to get over to another blue ! switch.

"Poyo? (What do you think this will do?)" Kirby asked.

"Why don't we find out?" Chopper kicked the blue ! switch with his foot and it triggered a door to be drawn right by Squirps. Everyone returned to Squirps, where they saw him taking a nap.

Mario: Wake up, Squirps!

"Squoh?" Squirps yawned and quickly shook his head. "Squirps was just taking a… Oh, no! Squirps actually fell asleep! Now the ghosts will get even more powerful thanks to Squirps's nightmares!"

"Well, we managed to get the door to appear, if that's anything special," Chopper pointed out.

"Should we get going then?" Sonic asked.

"Ahem! Of course we should, privates! We must get movin', squoork!" Squirps made his way over to the door and opened it, heading into another room. Kirby hit the yellow ? block right near him with his head to make a Mushroom pop out. They all ate a piece of it to recover 10 HP.

"It sucks that it wasn't a Super Shroom," Blade grumbled.

Mario: Well it's better than nothing.

"Poyo, (Although, I was hoping that we could actually have a Max Tomato,)" Kirby sighed. "Poyo… (Those are one of the greatest foods in the world… I'd love to get a taste of those again…)"

"We can't think about food now… I don't want to have a growling stomach…" Chopper trailed as he opened the door into a room that actually had some light coming from the ceiling. They could see some of the full moon up in the sky. It started to remind Sonic of a certain time where he transformed into a monster at night.

"Ugh… That moon brings back horrible nightmares…" Sonic huffed, looking up at the sky. They happened to notice a pile of bones in the corner of the room and some broken pillars on both sides of the room.

"_At least there's light in here," _Blumiere sighed in relief.

"Hold it right there!" another Koopaling jumped down from the ceiling with his fists clenched. It was that brown Koopa with the white head with a brown star right on one of his eyes. Not to mention he was a bit buffed up.

"So YOU'RE the heroes that dark kid was talkin' about!" Morton grinned, glaring at Mario. "I can tell 'cause you have a certain plumber with you that has been trouncing us for a while!"

"Wait a second… Don't tell me you're one of THOSE guys again…" Blade face palmed.

Mario: I don't think I told you that Bowser has eight kids…

"Look, let me tell you this," Chopper advised, walking up to Morton. "We beat your other brother, Larry. I'm pretty sure we can take you down. It's five against one! So, I think you should just…"

Morton stomped on the ground, sending a shockwave that knocked everyone back. "I'm my dad's toughest Koopaling! You can call me Morton! And if there's anyone that's going to kick your butts, it's going to be me!"

"I think saying 'kick your asses' sounds a lot better," Blade stated.

"Ummmmmmm… Not really…" Chopper trailed.

"Enough already! I'm gonna turn you guys into pancakes and sit on you guys for the rest of your life!" Morton clenched his fists and got ready to jump, pulling his wand out. "Get ready for some PAIN!"

"Wait, wouldn't sitting on us technically make us pancakes? How can you do that when we end up becoming pancakes already?" unfortunately, for Sonic, he got ignored by the angry Koopa, who jumped up into the air and sent everyone flying back again as he stomped on the ground.

"Get ready to be clobbered!" he growled as he waved his wand. This gave Chopper the chance to investigate Morton with Timpani's wand.

"_That's Morton Koopa Jr. He's Bowser's sixth child and the third youngest of the whole group. Max HP is 150. Attack is 10. His attacks are mainly him stomping on the ground, retreating into his shell to protect himself and also firing ring-like projectiles from his wand. You can go right through the rings, because that will prevent you from taking damage. Although, I wonder… If he's a Jr., then who is the Sr.?" _Timpani informed.

Mario: You know, I was wondering about that too!

"Ehhhh… I'd rather not speak about that. I wanna kick this guy's ass!" Blade drew his katana and jumped right through the ring-like magic Morton fired from his wand, swinging his katana at him afterwards and then knocking him over by bringing his foot to Morton's face.

"HA! Take that!" he grinned before getting knocked away by Morton's claws. Of course, Blade managed to jump back before getting clawed in the chest. He decided to weaken him a bit with a couple of shurikens and throwing Hommissile at him, causing an intense explosion that knocked him back.

"I should help him cool off," Chopper said as he made a Tidal Wave attack hit Morton while he had a bit of fire on him from the explosion, sending him flying against the wall and getting soaking wet.

"Grrrrrrr! You're going to pay for that, kid!" Morton jumped towards Chopper and stomped right on top of him, knocking his Water ability towards the wall. Kirby inhaled the yellow star and spat it straight at Morton to knock him away from Chopper.

"Poyo… (Yeesh… Well, he's certainly not as easy compared to that Larry guy…)" Kirby panted.

"Nah, he's just slow. That's why we need to move fast when fighting this guy." Chopper said as he got himself up. He tossed a couple of fireballs towards Morton and set him on fire for a couple of seconds. But at least he left a nasty burn on him, that's for sure!

Mario: I wonder why burning didn't do anything when Bowser helped me…

While thinking about these things, Mario performed a Triple Jump and landed right on top of Morton's head. Morton was about to hit him with his wand, but he managed to give him a punch before jumping back and getting hit by Morton's magic.

"I'll make sure you're the first to go, punk!" Morton growled, glaring at Mario.

Mario: We'll see about that!

Morton got in his shell and prepared to ram into everyone. But, since he was in his shell, this allowed Sonic to kick him towards the wall, leaving him dizzy for a couple of seconds. He decided to zip up to him and taunt him for a couple of seconds to make him angry.

"Man, I never knew you were such a slowpoke!" Sonic mocked, easily avoiding Morton's claws and performing a Whirlwind attack to send him flying up. This allowed him to jump up to him and strike him a couple of times while he was curled up in a ball. He did this…rather fast.

"And this is why I wish I could have attacks like that…" Chopper trailed, turning his head over to Squirps. "Ummmmm… Squirps? Do you want to help fight this guy? Y'know, shoot him with your fireballs?"

"Nah, Squirps is good," Squirps responded, lying on the ground, relaxing. "You privates can take care of that thing."

"…OK," Chopper turned around and pulled his hammer out. He began to spin it around horizontally at Morton while ice energy was on it, leaving the Koopaling to shiver from the intense cold.

And of course, Kirby was able to leave him dizzy too as he jumped on him with the help of Carrie. Blade gripped his katana and struck the Koopaling with a fire slash, now burning him once again.

"Gah! Why do you always have to try to burn me to a crisp? !" Morton growled, waving his wand and firing more magic. This time, he fired an energy blast from his wand at Mario, knocking him back. Chopper managed to stomp on his head and then slam his foot right on his nose.

"HA! I bet you didn't like getting hit in the nose, did ya?" Chopper smirked.

"Grrrr!" Morton fired another magic blast at Chopper, sending him flying back only slightly. It didn't stop him from hurling a couple of fireballs at him. Plus, combined with Sonic's corkscrew attack, they were able to deal even more damage.

"Wow, even if his attack is higher than that other guy, he's pretty slow," Blade commented as he did a diving attack on Morton and struck him a couple of times with his katana to leave some scars on the Koopaling's arms. "Wait… Is this the right thing to do anyways? He's a child of that big Koopa… Is it wrong?"

Mario: I'm not so sure…

"Then maybe I shouldn't be using any sharp objects," Blade put his katana away and threw Hommissile at Morton instead, just to be a bit noble (because ninjas are kind of noble, aren't they?).

"That? Noble? HA! You're not going to beat me by goin' easy on me!" Morton smirked as he got in his shell and knocked Blade back. Mario managed to bash the Koopaling in the head with his hammer afterwards, leaving him a bit dazed.

"Ugh… I feel so dizzy…"

Mario smirked as he stomped on top of Morton's head a couple of times, performing some stylish moves. When he stopped, Morton managed to shake himself and fire a blast from his wand at Mario to knock him back.

Mario: That was painful…

"Hold on, let me help you, Mario," Blade managed to perform some stylish moves with his ninja abilities and use some kind of jutsu move that involved wind, blowing Morton off his feet and knocking him towards the wall.

"What the hell was that? !" he gawked.

"Whoa, man! That doesn't sound in character!" Chopper frowned as he jumped towards Morton and kicked him in the stomach. Upon colliding, a bunch of rocks began to fall from the ceiling.

"Aw, crud… I just didn't do that, did I?"

"Poyo? (Is it possible to eat the rocks?)" Kirby asked.

"Let's find out," Chopper inhaled one of the rocks and swallowed it. His skin changed to a light brown tint, with his gloves and shoes a darker brown color. His helmet was also just like the one he wore with his Ninja ability, except this one's a navy blue and not red. The tuft of hair on the top of the helmet was also red and not purple. "Oh… I guess I'm Stone Chopper now!"

"Poyo! (Let me get one!)" Kirby inhaled a rock too and got the Stone ability. He had the same helmet on him and the same colored skin as him with it on. The first thing Kirby did was float over Morton and come down on him as a statue of himself.

"Hey, that's pretty cool!" Chopper commented. "I've never seen someone else do that!"

"Poyo! (You should try it out!)" Kirby suggested as he turned back into himself. While Morton was dizzy, Chopper jumped on top of him first and then turned into a statue of Luvbi, which was surprisingly weird.

"And I thought we'd never see that girl again…" Sonic grumbled.

"Wait, what did I turn into?" Chopper asked as he turned back into himself.

"Luvbi."

"…OH GRAMBI!" Chopper didn't notice Morton quickly shaking himself and swatting Chopper away with his claws, making him fall right over by Squirps, who wasn't paying any attention to the fight.

"Ummmmm… You paying any attention?"

"Squoh? Squirps doesn't care about the fight! You privates need to put an end to it, though!" Squirps retorted.

"Well, we're getting that over with already," Blade made a couple of signs with his hands and used a jutsu move that involved a flaming snake to rush at Morton and knock him over.

"_Cough… _Don't think this is over yet!" Morton wheezed as he jumped up in the air and came down. Several more rocks began to fall from the ceiling and down on the heroes. Thankfully, the helmet Chopper and Kirby had protected them from getting hit in the head.

"Ugh… That wasn't great…" Sonic moaned as he fell over for a couple of seconds before getting up. He managed to knock Morton to the ground easily with a little Spin Jump. He also got a chance to kick him in the stomach while he was open.

"_Just a couple of more hits should do it…" _Timpani informed.

"What? I'm not going to lose easily!" Morton retorted.

"Well, your HP says that it's low. Take a look." Chopper pointed down at Morton's HP bar, which was rather low. Morton looked down at it and gaped. "See? What'd I tell you? It's pretty low!"

"ARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!" Morton began to stomp the ground in anger. "Now I'm going to give you something!"

He immediately rushed at the group, hoping to make an attack on them. Of course, being the slow Koopaling that he is, he wasn't able to make an attack on them. Sonic was able to hit him with a Spin Jump and Mario easily stomped on his head.

Mario: Just give up the fight already!

"No way! Are you kidding me? !" Morton fired an energy blast from his wand and tried to hit Kirby. He managed to use his Defend ability that no one else has to prevent himself from taking any damage from the attack.

"And I also wish I could do that too," Chopper said.

"Errrrr… Can we just end this fight already?" Blade asked.

"You can do that if you want," Sonic nodded.

Mario: Fine by me!

"All right!" Blade smiled as he turned to Morton, who jumped up and stomped on the ground once again to make rocks fall down on them. Blade managed to use his katana to slice some of the rocks in half.

"Get ready for the big one!" Morton waved his wand and fired another magic energy blast towards Blade. It was pretty slow, but when it got to him, he began to spin his katana around and deflect it back at Morton.

"Aw, crap!"

The blast hit Morton and made him fall over on the ground. "_No… I… I lost to these…losers…?_"

And with one gasp, Morton was unconscious. Everyone walked over and looked down at the Koopaling. Blade poked him with the hilt of his katana to see if he would get up. Turns out that he wasn't going to be getting up.

"Well… Looks like we took care of him!" Chopper smiled.

"Although, it's kind of strange that he just became unconscious from all of that," Sonic mentioned. "It's kind of like with that other guy, Larry."

"Well we can't let it bother us right now…" Blade trailed as he walked over to the door. "We need to go find a way out of these ruins! Now they're starting to give me the creeps…"

"Yeah, you're right. I wanna get out of here." Chopper nodded as he picked up Squirps and opened the door into a room with a tunnel filled with those small yellow blocks. The one on the bottom appeared to have some kind of bomb on it. It looked kind of weird to them for some reason.

"_That bomb block… Maybe if you hit it, it'll make the other blocks get destroyed…" _Timpani trailed.

"Only one way to find out, squirp!" Squirps jumped into Chopper, hands, who ducked and squeezed Squirps to make him shoot a fireball straight at the block. It made all of the other blocks explode in their faces.

"Ummmmmmm… I have no comment about that." Chopper said with his eyes shrunk.

"Poyo, (It kind of reminds me of those blocks I used to break before,)" Kirby remarked as he walked through the tunnel to find a large step that he floated up to find a wooden stump that looked a bit different compared to the other stumps they've encountered in the past before.

Mario: Hey, it's one of those stumps!

"Poyo, (Let me try hitting it,)" Kirby jumped on top of the stump and transformed into a statue of Mimi. The stump triggered a bunch of stone-like blocks to be destroyed and also allowed them to go to the door ahead.

"Squirps can smell the end coming!" Squirps announced. "In fact, Squirps can even taste it!"

"You're NOT going to taste the ground…" Sonic gagged.

Mario: It's not good for you…

…Well, I guess after what Squirps said, they headed into the next room, which had a spring and some light coming from a hole in the ceiling. It kind of reminded them of that one room they encountered in this place.

"Wow… I never thought we'd be in a similar place like this," Chopper commented.

"Poyo? (And do I see Dark Bones in here?)" Kirby gawked, noticing two Dark Bones rise from the ground and throw bones at both Chopper and Kirby. Luckily, they managed to turn into stone, thus becoming immune to any attacks. The bones just bounced back and landed on the ground.

The two turned back into themselves and then turned into stones to land on the two Dark Bones. It didn't kill them, but it made them collapse to the ground. Blade finished them off by making a hand signal for one of his jutsu moves. It set the Dark Bones on fire and destroyed them.

"Man, if only Vivian were here to help with these guys…" Chopper trailed as he turned back into himself.

"Who's Vivian again? Was she the shadow chick?" Blade questioned.

"Yeah, she's the 'shadow chick'. She would be very helpful against these guys."

"What? You wanna marry her?"

"Blade… Stop with that…"

"What are you privates talking about, squoork?" Squirps asked.

"Oh, I was just torturing Chopper on what girl he wants to marry," Blade said jokingly. "And, honestly, it really gets on his nerves!"

"Blade, you know that I don't like to hear things like that!" Chopper frowned. "It just gets me so scared! Remember the whole thing with Luvbi? She was going after me like never before! You don't understand how much torture it is to get kissed by girls!"

"Ummmmm… Didn't you feel sorry for her when she 'died'?" Sonic asked.

"…MOVING ON…" Chopper jumped on the spring and allowed himself to be launched up through the hole. Sonic shrugged and followed him up, with the rest of the group following.

* * *

**Near the exit-**

As the heroes jumping out of the hole, they noticed that there were windows in this room. There were also a couple of Phantom Ghosts roaming around the area, which wasn't exactly the nicest thing for them to see. But what they did see at the end of the room was a Star Block.

"Oh, thank goodness we're finally here!" Sonic sighed in relief. "This place is getting pretty dark, and I REALLY want to get outta here. So… Think we can hit the block already?"

"I'd love to do that," Chopper nodded as he squished a Phantom Boo was about to attack him. Kirby decided to join in and squish the other Phantom Boo with his Stone ability.

"Poyo! (Man, squishing enemies is fun!)" Kirby said cheerfully.

"True, but it doesn't seem really…painless."

"_Should we get to ending this chapter?" _Timpani asked.

"Oh… Yeah. We should get to that. Now where's that Star Block?" Chopper used Timpani's wand as a flashlight once again to spot the Star Block. "Got it! It's at the exit!"

"The exit? YES!" Blade fist pumped as they walked straight to the exit. They could see that the door had some light coming in, but not a lot.

"See? Squirps told you that the end was near!" Squirps smirked.

"Ummmmmmm… OK…" Chopper punched the Star Block and broke it to twenty stars. He decided to look up at them as they circled around and suddenly made the screen go white (as it does when you hit one in Super Paper Mario).

"Wait! What the heck? ! What just…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Oh, man! We're FINALLY out of the darkness!" Blade cheered as he made his first step out of the ruins. "I can almost kiss the ground! …Which I'm not going to do…" Everyone took a good look and noticed that they were no longer in the graveyard. In fact, there were a couple of hills here. "Oh… I don't think we're going to be safe here, aren't we?" asked Chopper as he shivered in fear at the whole place. "I didn't expect this whole place to be freaky…" After Squirps's explanation at the graveyard, everyone soon realized that they were in the Path of Fear._

* * *

**And there's Chapter 12-2 for ya. It's nothing really special, but to be honest, it's mostly 12-1 and this one that I'm not really a big fan of. But, at least there was another area where it was pretty dark and hard to see (the other being Chapter 7-2). Plus, there was some water as well!**

**And some of you may be asking, "Why was Morton in this chapter? We already had Larry!" Well, I was originally going to have Larry appear in Chapter 11 before, but I completely forgot to put that scene in the Chapter 10 Interlude before and decided to put it into Chapter 11's interlude. ****...So don't expect any more Koopalings in this chapter.**

**Next part: Our heroes explore the Path of Fear and meet someone they've met previously. :P**_  
_


	72. How to Face Your Fears

**CHAPTER 12-3**

**-How to Face Your Fears-**

"Those who cross the Path of Fear have been said never to return ever again…" Squirps explained as they set foot on the grassy ground. "Squirps's nightmares have told me many things! Especially this area! It knows your fears! Every. Single. One of them. The only way to venture through the Path of Fear is to face your fears… And that's one thing Squirps might have a difficult time with…squooog…"

"Uhhhhhhhh… Then that's not a good thing." Chopper gulped as he listened to Squirps's explanation and shivered in fear.

"Oh, what's wrong with you, Chopper?" Blade asked, giving him a strange look that Chopper has probably seen before. "Are you REALLY scared of this place? Man up and handle it! Besides, I bet your fears aren't going to really haunt you that much around here! As long as your brave, nothing can get in your way!"

"Well my fear is PRETTY bad! …Although, I don't fear just one thing…" Chopper soon realized something as he looked at Blade's smug look. "Wait, HOLD on just a minute! Why are you acting so smug to me? You know that this place is called the Path of Fear, right? So… What's YOUR fear?"

"My fear? Errrrr… I'm not afraid of anything! I have nothing to fear about in a place like this!" Blade crossed his arms and kept his smug look, even though it definitely looked like he was lying about it.

Mario: You're lying…

"OK, let's not get to this…" Sonic suggested, sensing some kind of fight going on later. "I think we should just take a deep breath and go through this place. As long as we don't think about our fears, then we should be just fine."

"…" at this point, Chopper couldn't say anything. He was still shivering over the fact that something he fears could come out of nowhere. And we all know that THAT'S not a good thing…

"Poyo, (Yeah, I don't like the sound of this place,)" Kirby shivered, but not as much as Chopper. "Poyo? (The Path of Fear? That's not really a nice place to be, especially when your fears are there…)"

"Wait, hold on a second," Chopper stopped shivering for a moment and pondered. "I remember some kind of place similar to this! Yeah… It was back two years ago… I think it was called Nightmare Road."

"_Nightmare Road? What kind of place is that?" _Blumiere asked.

"It's an area that's past Ghost Town back in the Mushroom Kingdom," he explained as everyone listened. "Basically, it can have all of your nightmares appear there. If you think about them, then your nightmares come to life. It's not exactly the greatest experience, to be honest."

"Wait, so what happened in Nightmare Road?" Sonic asked.

"Well, here's the funny story… There was a Yoshi in my party name Yosho, and apparently he's always considered himself a 'ladies man'…of course, he's always getting rejected and all that. Guess what he does? He decides to think of a pretty female ghost that he could have with him all his life! …And trust me, having ghosts of things isn't pretty."

Mario: Things would be fine if we had Luigi's Poltergust 3000.

"Interesting, squirp! …But now's not the time for that! Squirps suggests that we move on!" Squirps jumped into Chopper's hands and pointed forward. "Onward, private!"

"Oh, fine…" Chopper decided to remove his Stone ability, since it really wasn't going to give him much help and started by going down a little hill. Some Phantom Ghosts were appearing around here. Heck, the sky seemed to be filled with ghosts.

"So, are we actually going to see any zombies in this part?" Blade asked.

"Squirps doesn't think so…" Squirps trailed as Chopper squeezed him and made him shoot a couple of fireballs at a Phantom Boo that was coming towards him. "Zombies are only in the cemetery… So we should be fine when it comes to zombies. But as for ghosts… Squirps says no."

"Well I can see the door ahead," Chopper let go of Squirps and punched a yellow ? block that was at the top of a small hill to make a Mushroom pop out. Everyone took a piece and recovered 10 HP from it.

Mario: That's some good stuff!

"Yeah, but I kind of wished that we could have something like… Jelly Ultraz!" Chopper said with a silly look.

"…What the heck is 'Jelly Ultraz'?" Blade gawked.

"Oh, it's something that suddenly went into my head when I was thinking about Jelly Ultras. Although… I don't think I was the first one to come up with it anyways. But let's not let it bother us."

Sonic nodded and curled up in a ball to go through these hills without any problems. Everyone else followed him down the small hill and then up the hill to where they saw a red door with the rainbow frame. Without hesitation, they entered into a flatter area with some bottomless pits and those brown blocks that were making stairs. They were small, though.

They could also see a couple of Phantom Boos circling right next to the small staircase. When the five heroes walked up the small staircase, they could notice that a part of the circle had no Phantom Boo, so they simply jumped right in the center of the circle, where they saw a brick block there.

"Let's hit it," Sonic suggested as he hit the block a couple of times to get coins. A ladder also came out and led up to a platform up above them. Apparently there was a chest sitting up there.

Mario: I got it!

Mario decided to climb up the ladder and get past the Phantom Boos. When he reached the top, he opened the chest and found a new type of shake. It had a silver Mushroom on it and was known as an Ultimate Shroom Shake.

He came down to the rest of the group and showed the shake to them. "Hey… That looks a lot like an Ultimate Shroom! I'm guessing that this is called an Ultimate Shroom Shake!" Chopper sure knew that that was something he's seen in the past before.

"Poyo? (What do those do again?)" Kirby asked.

"They allow you to recover 100 HP. Yeah, it's definitely worth it." Chopper let Mario hold onto the shake as they got past the Phantom Boos. Of course, they had to run into other ghost enemies, like these purple ghosts that poison you with their tongue called Hauntings and red ghosts named Grabbers, which are supposed to try to grab you and deal damage to you.

"Hey, look! Those ghosts!" Chopper aimed Squirps at the Haunting and squeezed him to shoot a couple of fireballs at it. Those fireballs were quite deadly, especially when Squirps charged up one and destroyed the Grabber easily.

"Man, and they call this place the Path of Fear!" Blade scoffed. "All of these enemies are nothing to fear!"

"Yeah, this place doesn't seem so bad," Sonic agreed.

They happened to see a tree right up ahead, but when they walked up to it, red eyes and a mouth appeared on the tree and its root detached from the ground. It looked like it was one of those fake trees that try to pretend to be real trees (although that's a bit of an obvious one…).

"Oh, come on! Why do many things have to be fake around here? !" Chopper exclaimed while shaking his arms like crazy and THEN smacking his forehead. "Ugh… Fine. I'll investigate this thing."

"_That's a Ghastly Tree. They look like trees, but they're actually ghosts. Max HP is 48. Attack is 9. Defense is 2. Ghastly Trees tend to exhale its nasty breath that can cause you to fall asleep. Since it's just like a tree, you can easily defeat it with fire. But be careful, Ghastly Trees can be quite fast… In fact, why do they even hide like that? What is there out here?" _Timpani informed as Chopper flashed her wand at the Ghastly Tree.

"Poyo, (Well that doesn't seem too bad,)" Kirby commented as he floated above the Ghastly Tree and turned into a statue of Heartsy while coming down on the tree, making Chopper gulp.

"Hey, what's wrong, kid?" Blade asked.

"Ummmmm… Errrrrr… Uhhhhhhh… Nothing!" Chopper stammered, stepping away from the statue of Heartsy. Thankfully, the statue was gone when Kirby turned back into himself.

"Get it together, privates! There's nothing to fear!" Squirps assured until he heard a cackling sound in his "ears". "S-Squoh? Wh-What was that?"

"No idea…" Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs at the Ghastly Tree and finished it off with a charged fireball to kill it off. They simply pressed on and jumped over a bottomless pit to find a Haunting rushing towards them. Mario simply stomped on it a couple of times to defeat it.

Mario: That was too easy!

But soon, Mario stopped when he saw a ghost of Bowser holding a ghost of Peach's hand. It looked like there were rings on their fingers, which made Mario's face turn white.

"Wait a minute… Why's Mario's face all white?" Chopper asked.

Sonic waved his hand over Mario's face. "Whoa… I don't know, is he seeing something?" Mario pointed up at the sky at the ghosts of Bowser and Peach getting married. "Wait… What's that?"

Mario: Bowser and Peach getting married…

"What the… That's not right!" Chopper denied, shaking his head. He looked up at the sky too and saw them. "…Yeesh, I didn't want to see anything like that. Why would a Koopa marry a human?"

"Mario… It's not real. Just relax, all right?" Blade suggested before noticing something behind a bush. He noticed that it was the ghost of his sensei's hand. "WHOA! Good Grambi! What the heck? !"

"Wait, is that a floating hand?" Sonic asked.

"Your damn right it is! That's my sensei's hand! That… That was the hand that was cut off by my older brother, Knife. Seeing that hand got me a little traumatized when I was a bit younger…"

"Oh, man… That's not good…" Sonic ran past the small ruins in the background and used a Spin Jump on a Grabber a couple of times to take it out, then jumped over another bottomless pit.

"Hopefully we don't run into any Hammer Bros. here," Chopper hoped as he bashed a Haunting with his hammer. After jumping over the bottomless pit, he hurled some fireballs straight at a Ghastly Tree blocking the door ahead past a row of brick blocks.

Mario punched a brick block to find a Happy Flower, but he couldn't even bother to check it because of what he was seeing. Those ghosts were following him too, so it made it even worse!

"This place just isn't pretty…" Blade shivered as he used a fire slash on the Ghastly Tree to kill it off and walk into the next area. They happened to see two yellow ? blocks right near each other and a bunch of other brick blocks. A couple of ghosts happened to be roaming around here as well.

"Squirps doesn't like this place… The cackling makes Squirps scared!" Squirps shivered as he jumped under one of the yellow ? blocks and got a hold of a Mega Star. Everyone gawked as he transformed into an 8-bit version of himself.

"Squoh? Why does Squirps's head feel so…light?" Squirps noticed how big he was and looked down at all of the ghosts. "Squeh squeh squeh! Now you ghosts are going to get it now!"

"_I'm not sure whether this is good or bad…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well, we can just let him destroy everything in sight, that's for sure," Chopper smiled as they followed Squirps and jumped over some bottomless pits. Some of the pits were rather wide and some parts of the ground were a bit skinny as well, so it was a bit…weird.

"Be careful here, guys… Try your best not to fall…" Blade warned as he managed to jump over the bottomless pit and on the grassy ground. Sonic landed afterwards and then the rest of the group.

"Yeesh… This place is just…not right…" Sonic trailed as he looked at all of the ghosts in the sky. Another thing he happened to notice was a ghost of Eggman holding all of the Chaos Emeralds in his hands and using them to crush all of Sonic's friends.

"_Sonic!" _the crying voice sounded like the voice of his best friend, Tails. _"Sonic! Please help me!"_

"Tails! No!" Sonic cried as he saw Eggman summon a robot to crush him. "He's… He's gone!"

"Don't let it get to you, Sonic! That's not real!" Chopper said, trying to make him stop getting traumatized. "There's no reason to get scared over something that's not really happening!"

"I… I know… But seeing that is just… I don't WANT that to happen!" Sonic put his hands on the side of his head and began to shiver. "I just don't like to see it when my friends are crushed…"

"Poyo, (Well they don't call this the Path of Fear for nothing,)" Kirby commented, looking at the ghosts. Heck, even the ghosts of Bowser and Peach getting married and the floating hand of Blade's sensei were following them. "Poyo? (Are we the only ones that haven't seen our fears?)"

"…Yeah, we haven't seen them yet," Chopper gulped, realizing this by now. "…But they can come out of nowhere."

Kirby happened to notice that there was a ghost of a basket of fruit floating right beside him. He seemed pleasantly surprised…until all of the food was gone. He even saw a ghostly image of all of the food in Dream Land disappearing.

"P-Poyo… (N-No… Not all of the food in Dream Land…)" Kirby stepped away from the ghost, but it seemed to follow him still. At this point, the pink puffball was starting to flee from it.

Mario: This is ridiculous!

"No kidding! I can't stand being chased by this hand!" Blade continuously swung at the ghostly hand, but it didn't seem to do anything. It just kept following him like every hand does.

"Hold on… I'm going to investigate these things…" Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate all of the ghosts that are going after them, starting with Mario's.

"_This ghost appears to be one of Bowser and Peach getting married… I don't know why, but this is really something that scares me a bit… From what I'm seeing, it appears that this is what Mario fears…"_

"…_This is rather strange… Why is there a floating ghost hand following Blade like that? It looks like it's the hand of his sensei's. That's something he must have been traumatized by when he was a bit younger… I would feel the same way if I were him…"_

"_Is that a ghost of Sonic's best friend being crushed by a man using a robot who's holding seven gems? This is rather disturbing for me… I'm not quite sure what to say about this…"_

"_Apparently, this must be what Kirby fears… All of the food missing in Dream Land forever does sound like something Kirby would fear. He's one who has a big appetite…"_

"Ugh… I can't believe I haven't seen my fear just yet…" Chopper shivered as he stepped away from the other ghosts with his hands over his mouth. "This just doesn't feel right at all…"

He ended up falling over when he bumped into Squirps, who apparently has turned back to normal. A Save Block happened to be right by the door, to their relief. Chopper punched it and saved their game.

"_With all of these fears around here, this place is starting to become rather dangerous…" _Blumiere trailed.

"Squirps still can't stand those cackling voices…" Squirps shivered, now being back to his normal self. He noticed that there was a ghost of him being tortured by all of the ghosts around his ghost self. "SQUACK! Squirps can't take any more of this!"

He immediately rushed into the next area before doing anything else. His ghost ended up following him with all of the other ghosts torturing him. Everyone groaned and face palmed at this whole thing.

"Poyo… (I feel like this is going to be a long trip…)" Kirby sighed.

"Maybe, but I'm not going to like being around here with all of these fears…" Chopper frowned. "But, at least I haven't seen my fear yet. …But I feel as if I'm going to jinx it all now!"

"Don't let it get to you, Chopper. I'm trying my best to stop looking at what I'm seeing…but as you can tell, it's not going very well…" Sonic sighed as he tried to cover his eyes from the ghosts. If you didn't know, all of these ghosts that they were seeing were a white color.

Mario: I don't like my fear one bit…

"None of us like it, but we gotta get moving," Blade sighed as he opened the door and headed through the next area. Everyone else shrugged and tried to go through the door, with their fears following them.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Ugh… I'm not getting a nice feeling in my head from that sky…" Chopper moaned as he looked up at the sky that was filled with many ghosts. This area was actually rather small, but there wasn't a door around here. It was kind of freaky, for most of them…as if there was a trap.

"Squirps is all right for now…" Squirps panted as he looked down at the ground. He looked back up ahead and noticed someone. "Squoh? There's someone waiting for us in this area!"

"Wait, someone's waiting for us?" at this point, everyone looked up ahead and saw a ghost with long hair. For some reason, this hair reminded Chopper of a certain someone. It was covering their face at this moment, though.

"Maybe we should say hello, squinkles!" Squirps suggested as he walked over to the ghost. Unfortunately, he was stopped when Chopper grabbed a hold of his antenna and pulled him back.

"I don't like this, Squirps… I don't think it's a good idea…" he trailed.

"Poyo, (It looks just like a ghost,)" Kirby stated, covering his eyes to avoid seeing his fear.

"…I have a bad feeling about this," Chopper gulped as he was the first to walk up to the ghost. The way it was just standing there made it seem freaky. When he got a bit closer, he was shivering in fear as he was about to raise his arm.

"Ummmmmm… H-Hi there…" upon looking at the ghost, HER straight hair suddenly went back like most girls have their hair like and it was revealed to actually be a ghost…of someone Chopper was friends with…yet feared her at the same time.

It was a ghost of Heartsy.

Chopper's eyes widened in fear and his hands covered in mouth as he stepped away from the ghost. "Oh, no! Why now? !"

"…That's your fear? A girl?" Blade gave Chopper a blank look. "…You've gotta be kidding me. That's NOTHING compared to our fears! That's just… I feel like I wanna face palm right now, but I really can't!

"_Wasn't this girl one of the people that we found in Flipside Outskirts?" _Timpani asked.

Chopper couldn't really say a word. The Heartsy ghost giggled and grabbed a hold of Chopper's hands. She moved them so she could actually see his cute and adorable face – in which looked like he was scared.

"_Tee hee hee! You're so cute!" _she giggled as she flew up to him and began to kiss him all over the face. A bunch of blue kiss marks were left all over his face and were also covered in this weird, green slime.

"Bleh! Gross!" Chopper wiped the green slime off him and also the kiss and then ran back to the group. Unfortunately, the ghost was still following him and was even grabbing a hold of his hand.

"Squirps? Can you help me, please?"

"B-But… S-Squirps doesn't like what he's seeing!" Squirps shivered, backing away from the ghost that he was seeing. "Why do these ghosts have to torture Squirps like this? ! I really don't like it!"

Chopper notice that the Heartsy ghost was flying closer to him like before, but this time, he took action. "OK… I REALLY don't want to do this, but no hard feelings…" he whipped his hammer out and brought it down on the ghost. It happened to disappear right in front of him.

"…Poyo? (…Wait, you can do that?)" Kirby turned into a statue of a muscular man and came down on the ghost that had no food in Dream Land, making it disappear. The rest of the group attacked their ghosts and they disappeared.

"Wow, that was easier than I thought," Sonic sighed in relief, with the ghost finally gone. "I thought for a second that we couldn't get rid of those guys! Lucky that we found a way to get rid of them!"

"Phew! Well that's a relief!" Chopper sighed as he decided to turn back, but what ended up happening was that he ended up running into a kiss on the lips from the Heartsy ghost, who didn't appear to be gone.

"BLEH!" he backed away from the Heartsy ghost and began to wipe his mouth of the green slime on his mouth while the ghost giggled at him.

"_Don't be shy, Choppy! It's all right!" _she giggled as she flew closer to him and began kissing him all over his face. The traumatized Chopper wiped them off and began to run away from her.

Mario: Wait… If that ghost is still there… Does that mean…

"_**SQUAAGH!**_ No!" Squirps shivered at the ghost that he got traumatized at before. From what Squirps could see, the ghosts were bringing in the butcher knives. "NO! ANYTHING BUT THE KNIVES! SQUIRPS DOESN'T WANT TO BE COOKED SQUID!"

"CALM DOWN!" Blade shouted as he kept attacking the ghost hand. "What the heck's going on? I can't attack this thing!"

"_You're so silly!" _the Heartsy ghost giggled as Chopper tried punch at it. Like before, it wasn't working. _"You know that you can't really kill a ghost! You can't really escape them too!"_

"Stop giggling at me!" Chopper cried. "It's really freaking me out!"

"_I can help make you feel better, Choppy! I am your girlfriend, after all!" _the Heartsy ghost kissed him on the cheek again, making Chopper's face turn white. There was no way he could face this fear. At all.

"_Why can't you guys find a way to face your fears?" _Timpani asked.

"Well how DO you face them?" Sonic asked.

"_It's not very hard to face them," _Blumiere began. _"Sometimes, you can conquer it by getting it out of the way. What is it you fear the most about it? Maybe even words can help you against them…or certain thing."_

"Poyo, (Wait, hold on a second, I just noticed something,)" Kirby realized as Chopper was covering his face from the Heartsy ghost that was circling around him and kissing him. "Poyo? (If Chopper fears girls that like him, why is Heartsy the one here?)"

"Don't even ASK that, Kirby!" Chopper cried. "Heartsy's the one I fear out of all of them…but Luvbi IS pretty close!"

"_My sweet prince! How much I missed thee!" _Chopper gasped as he saw a Luvbi ghost appear right near him and kiss him on the cheek. _"Now we art finally together again, which is what it was meant to be!"_

"Nice going, Kirby… You HAD to do that. What would make this worse would be having a clown here. THOSE are… Crud!"

"Squirps might have an idea!" Squirps went up to his ghost and got a white glove out of nowhere and slapped the ghosts with it. "You ghosts are NOT going to be having any Squirps tonight!"

"_Oh, yeah? Who's stopping me?" _the ghosts gave Squirps a smug look until they were blasted by Squirps's fireballs. This ended up causing them to get away from Squirps and destroy the fear that Squirps was facing.

"Squeh squeh squeh… That's right! Run like the ghost's you are, squirple!"

"Poyo, (Yeah, you managed to face your fears, but we still haven't,)" Kirby groaned, trying to prevent himself from looking. But, when he looked, he saw himself looking starved. But, he knew that he could TRY something, so he pulled a Shroom Shake out and threw it at the ghost…and that suddenly made food appear in the ghost.

"Poyo… (And that was a weird way to conquer that…)"

"This is horrible… REALLY horrible…if that's something you can even say in English!" Chopper shivered as the two ghost girls circled around him. One of them grabbed his hand, but the other ended up pushing them away.

"_Why art thou touching his hand? Chopper doth belongeth to me!" _the Luvbi ghost shouted.

"_But I met Choppy first!" _the Heartsy ghost retorted, crossing her arms. _"He IS the same species as me anyways! Wouldn't it be better if it was Chopper and I that got married? It would be better for the world!"_

"_Nay! I dost not think my prince wouldeth be suitable for an ugly duckling such as thee! My prince needeth a girl who is beautiful and lovely, such as I!"_

"Hey, is there going to be a catfight?" Blade asked before Chopper walked up to the two ghosts and inhaled them. He simply spat them out far from him in order to get rid of them, and allowing him to finish the job.

"See? Done. I faced my fear." he nodded with a smug look.

"Ummmmm… That was weird. Now to get rid of mine…" Blade turned to the floating hand and glared at it. "Now go away, please. You're not real, and I don't need floating hands around here. See? There's a sign here."

Blade made up a sign that says, "No Floating Hands Allowed", which made the floating hand suddenly go away. "…Yeah… That was just…strange. That's ALL I had to do to make it go away?"

"Well that wasn't as stupid as what I had to do…" Sonic trailed as he threw a rock at the Eggman ghost, causing him to drop the Chaos Emeralds and disappear from his sights. He almost felt like face palming.

As for Mario, he managed to tell Bowser that Peach could marry him because that would only happen in his dreams. This was lucky enough to get rid of his fear…for now. Even that was strange.

"…So we finally got rid of our fears?" Chopper asked.

…And at that point, the Heartsy and Luvbi ghost appeared once again, making Chopper yelp and back away. "B-But… But… That was supposed to get rid of them!"

"I guess it's hard to get rid of ghosts that like ya…" Blade groaned.

"Shoo! Go away!" Chopper tried to shoo the ghosts girls off, but it didn't seem to work. The Heartsy ghost simply giggled and kissed him on the cheek again, as well as the Luvbi ghost, despite them still arguing.

Mario: I guess they won't go away…

"How do I get rid of them, though? !"

"…_What exactly do you fear about these girls?" _Timpani asked. _"You're allowed to ask me what you're afraid of. None of us will tell anyone about this. We promise. That goes to Blade too…"_

"Aw, man!" Blade frowned as the whole background suddenly changed to some kind of light blue color, as if they're in some new world. They could hear so many giggles in the background it wasn't funny.

"This… This isn't good!" Chopper gulped as he looked down at Timpani's wand. "…But, fine. I'll tell you what I fear. It's those kisses I get from them. They're so…contagious!"

"Wait… I thought you were joking about those…" Sonic gawked.

"Did it LOOK like I was joking about it? ! I was being dead serious from those! They're disgusting!" Chopper gagged as he got kissed by the Heartsy ghost, leaving green slime on his cheek like before. "See? This is disgusting!"

"_That might be the problem…" _Timpani realized._ "The only way to get rid of them…is to actually face it. Chopper… I think you have to do something you probably don't want to do… At all…"_

"Wh-WHAT? ! No way! I'm not doing it!" Chopper retorted.

"_It might be the only way…" _Blumiere trailed.

"Ugh… Fine. I guess I have no other choice." Chopper turned around and faced the two ghosts. He got himself ready as he puckered up. _"This is probably one of the things I DON'T want to do…"_

He kept his eyes closed so he didn't see what was going on. He felt some lips touch his. It turns out that this one was actually the Luvbi ghost. Luckily, she happened to disappear, leaving only the Heartsy ghost.

"_I can't believe you want to kiss me! This is a dream come true!" _the Heartsy ghost flew right into Chopper and kissed him straight on the lips. In no time at all, she disappeared and the background changed back to normal.

"…That was GROSS!" Chopper gagged as he wiped the slime off his mouth. "I'm NEVER doing that again!"

"Poyo, (Well at least you conquered your fear,)" Kirby smiled. "Poyo… (Although, there was still the thing about the clowns…)"

"No, Kirby! Don't say anything about the… Oh, never mind. There's a door up ahead." Chopper opened the door and walked into the next area, followed by everyone else. With their fears out of the way, they can go through here with ease.

* * *

**Next area-**

Mario: There's nothing really around here…

"Yeah, you're right on that one, Mario," Sonic nodded as they walked into another small area. "I was actually expecting a little more here… I guess we're not going to see much anymore…"

"But at least we faced our fears, squinkles!" Squirps cheered.

"Oh, you really think you'll be safe now? Think again!" everyone paused when they heard chuckling coming from the area. At the very moment, Mr. L came down from the sky and landed right in front of the group.

"Hey, it's you! That strange masked guy!" Chopper gasped, getting into a fighting stance.

"Missed me? Hold your applause for later, losers, 'cause I don't need any right now." Mr. L smirked, making everyone face palm.

"Poyo… (Typical minion of Tipral…)" Kirby groaned.

"Hey, what'd you just say, creampuff? !" the masked man clenched his fists and glared at Kirby. "Are you mocking the great Mr. L? !"

"_Look, we don't have time to be dealing with fiends such as yourself… Get out of the way…" _Timpani suggested.

"Yeah, we don't fear you OR your leader Tipral!" Chopper smirked.

"How about that Dark Prognosticus?" Mr. L stepped back a bit. "Anything Tipral doesn't like… POOF! It never existed! You really think you can take on an evil being with such power that can destroy a world? You wish…"

Mario: Maybe it's best to leave before we trounce you…

"Oh, you're looking for a fight, red? Well, that's EXACTLY what I've come here for! Yup!"

"Oh, really?" Blade drew his katana and smirked at Mr. L. "Then how about we have a little fight then? I think that's the only way you'll get out of our way…"

"Excellent! That's just what I need!" Mr. L pointed at the heroes, shouting, "HAVE AT YOU!" before making a big jump towards them. The heroes got out of the way as the masked man tried to stomp them.

"All right, this time we're not going to let you have an easy start like before!" Sonic warned as he curled up in a ball and struck Mr. L with a powerful Homing Attack, knocking the masked man back.

"Oof! Whew… Not bad!" Mr. L got himself up and spun around. He began to make his way towards the group while spinning and managed to hit everyone in the face with his fists, knocking them back a bit.

"Owww! What the heck was that? !" Chopper gaped, wiping his cheek in pain.

"That's my L Cyclone attack!" Mr. L smirked, trying to jump towards him, but ultimately failing to get him. "It's a tough attack, that's for sure! I can use it to spin off the ground and even strike any enemy that's close to me! They'll get dizzy thanks to it!"

Mario: That's impressive…

"Yeah, it is!" Mr. L jumped right on top of Mario's head and made him dazed for a couple of seconds so Mr. L could perform his L Cyclone attack. However, Kirby managed to land on top of him as a statue of Mario.

"Poyo! (HA! Now you can't get up!)" Kirby scoffed as a statue.

Mr. L smirked as he managed to get on his hands and push the Mario statue off of him. When Kirby turned back into himself, Mr. L used his L Cyclone and sent Kirby flying towards Chopper, knocking them both to the ground.

"Hold on, let's see what we've got on him," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate the mysterious man.

"_That's Mr. L. He's one of Tipral's minions, and a strange one as well… Max HP is 150. Attack is 10. There's not much that has changed with him… He has the same stats as before… However, this time he has a new ability with him called the L Cyclone. He can use this to get off the ground or even deal a couple of hits to you. It's definitely a force to be reckoned with… Even projectiles get deflected thanks to it! If you keep your distance when he does that, then this fight shouldn't be a problem." _Timpani informed.

"Well, just keep our distance and we'll be fine!" Blade smirked as Mr. L stopped spinning around. He immediately jumped in and began to strike the mystery man with his katana, which nearly left a scar on Mr. L.

"Hey! Watch where you point that thing!" Mr. L hissed.

"I'll point this wherever I want!" Blade tossed Hommissile directly at Mr. L and knocked him back. But he wasn't done yet. Mr. L jumped out of the smoke and tried to stomp on Blade, but his efforts were futile when the ninja cat used Barry to defend himself and cause Mr. L to hold his foot in pain.

"Ack! My foot!"

"Well this gives us a bit of an advantage!" Chopper hurled a couple of fireballs at Mr. L to leave a burn on him and then ran towards him. With a stomp and a stylish move, he left Mr. L dazed for a couple of seconds, allowing him to whip his hammer out and bash the baddie with it.

"_Chopper! Watch out!" _Timpani alerted as Mr. L got up and used his L Cyclone attack to strike Chopper a couple of times. He was even sent flying up so Mr. L could fold up and use his powerful Super Jump to deal double damage to the boy.

"Ack! You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper cried as he hit the ground.

"Aw, what's the matter? You getting your butt kicked by a grown-up, or rather, a cool guy such as myself?" Mr. L managed to bring his fist up when Mario was trying to attack from behind, which ended up hitting Mario in the nose and knocking him over.

"And as for you… Why do I always feel a strange connection between us? You kind of look like me a little! No matter… If you're a copy of me, then I'll surely take you down myself! Tipral would be proud!"

Mario: And so what? Wouldn't he tell you not to make a move again after last time?

"Oh, screw his orders! I wanted to take you losers down, so I decided to do it!" Mr. L performed his L Cyclone attack on Mario and sent him flying up, then he used his Super Jump to strike the plumber and make him plummet to the ground.

"Poyo, (Wow, he's pretty tough,)" Kirby commented.

"It's just a cyclone attack… What's the harm?" Chopper panted.

"Just leave this to me!" Sonic smirked as he performed a Whirlwind attack on Mr. L to send him flying up. While he was in the air, Sonic readied himself for a Light Speed Attack. When fully charged, he immediately came speeding up to Mr. L and struck him many times.

"Whoa… Yeah, that's pretty cool." Blade commented, using Barry as a barrier to protect himself from Mr. L's jump. It caused him to hold his foot in pain once again, and also allowing Blade to strike him with a hurricane slash, which is an attack that allows him to strike him with his katana and send him flying backwards.

"_Well, you guys are doing fairly well…" _Blumiere trailed.

"You wish!" Mr. L sneered, wiping the dirt near his mouth and jumping right on top of Blade to leave him dazed. He followed up with an L Cyclone attack that sent Blade flying up. "And now for the big one!"

"Oh, crap… Don't tell me you're going to…AAAAGH!" Blade felt the immense damage he took when Mr. L attacked him with a Super Jump. The baddie decided to kick him to the ground with his feet to deal some extra damage.

"Now THAT'S unfair…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo! (No kidding! He's being cheap!)" Kirby agreed.

"What? Me? Being unfair in battle? Of course not!" Mr. L denied, clenching his fists at the two. "I'm MORE than unfair! I'm a force of nature!"

Kirby, now tired of hearing Mr. L talk like that, tossed Crystaline at him and froze him. Afterwards, he took in some air and floated above Mr. L and transformed into a stone of a Thwomp to crush him. The ice that froze Mr. L shattered and he was instantly crushed by Kirby's stone attack.

"I'm gonna get you for this!" Mr. L managed to wiggle out and ended up kicking

Kirby when he turned back to normal. But it didn't stop Kirby from fighting back. He grabbed Mr. L's foot and managed to throw him to the ground and make him dizzy.

Mario: Nice going, Kirby!

Mario walked up to Mr. L while he was on the ground and when he got up, he gave him a bashing from his hammer. The masked man managed to strike him with his L Cyclone, but the plumber escaped the incredible Super Jump. When Mr. L landed on the ground, Mario jumped on his head and then performed his Ground Pound attack while he was stunned for a couple of seconds.

"You're going to pay for that, Red!" Mr. L growled, grabbing Mario's arm and throwing him to the ground, but soon being struck by Sonic's Spin Dash. At least, for Mr. L, he managed to stomp on Sonic when he was taunting him (something he tends to do all the time).

"Man… I REALLY have to stop with the taunting…" Sonic groaned.

"Maybe Squirps can give you assistance!" Squirps suggested. "Squirps remembers this guy hitting me before! I think it's time for some payback, squeeooorp!"

"Not a bad idea, Squirps," Chopper smirked as he picked up the little alien and aimed him straight at Mr. L. Chopper squeezed Squirps for a charged shot and when he loosened his grip, Squirps fired a charged beam attack at Mr. L, keeping him off guard for a couple of seconds.

"What? How DARE you hit the glorious Mr. L? !" Mr. L sneered, jumping towards Chopper and using his L Cyclone. Chopper jumped over him and fired at him. Of course, the cyclone attack simply deflected the attack back at him.

"Heads up, kid, I got your back!" Blade jumped right in front of Chopper and spun his katana around, deflecting the shot back at Mr. L when he stopped and knocking him to the ground once again.

"Not bad! I guess I underestimated you guys!" he huffed, readying himself for another Super Jump. Sonic immediately interrupted him by curling up in a ball and spinning around him for a Whirlwind attack.

"Take this!" while Mr. L was trapped in the tornado, Sonic curled up in a ball and did a Bounce Attack, followed by a kick that sent Mr. L flying across the area.

"Poyo… (I just realized something about our fears…)" Kirby noticed. "Poyo? (Chopper, if you feared Heartsy and Luvbi, how come you didn't really fear Bow and Vivian? They kiss you too, you know…)"

"Kirby… Please don't talk about this!" Chopper begged. "I REALLY don't want ghosts of them to appear! …Although, I don't get how they didn't. Maybe because they're already ghosts?"

"_It's probably best not to get to that…" _Timpani suggested as Mr. L jumped in between the two and used his L Cyclone attack to knock them backwards. However, Blade managed to jump in and toss Hommissile at him after he stopping spinning around, covering him in soot.

"Heh heh heh! You so deserved that!" Blade smirked, crossing his arms before getting stomped by Mr. L. When he tried to attack him again, Blade used Barry to counter his attack make him take damage instead.

"You stupid cat! Why do you have to use that spiky thing? !" Mr. L growled, trying to attack Blade by punching him. But, once again, Blade used Barry to counter his attack and make him get hurt instead.

"Dude, I'm trying to keep myself from getting my ass kicked! What do you expect me to do? Slap you?"

"Well, I can do that," Chopper walked up to Mr. L and slapped him with his glove after taking it off. He put it back on and smirked. "See? Now that's supposedly a 'gentlemen's' way of fighting.

"Well this isn't a gentlemen's fight, creampuff," Mr. L snorted, stomping on his head. Luckily, Chopper managed to shake off the attack and kick Mr. L in the stomach and then punch him with ice energy, leaving him to shiver.

Mario: Not a bad idea!

While Mr. L was shivering, Mario rushed towards him and performed a Triple Jump attack on his head to deal some intense damage. With one Ground Pound, he left him down to very low HP.

"Ugh… I'm not feeling so good…" Mr. L moaned.

"Well, it's about to get worse!" Sonic grinned.

"…I don't know whether to laugh at that or face palm…" Chopper trailed.

"Errrrr… Maybe you should just ignore that." Sonic frowned as he curled up in a ball and charged up a Light Speed Attack. He readied himself afterwards and began to attack Mr. L until he finally gave up and fell over on the ground.

"_Heh heh heh…_" the battered up Mr. L slowly got himself up and grinned at the heroes. "Not bad! Even with my L Cyclone, you were still able to best me…but now it's time I got serious!"

"What, and you weren't being serious before?" Chopper snickered.

"Oh, you'll be begging for mercy when you see this! _**BROBOT LAUNCH!**_" Mr. L threw his arms up in the air upon saying this.

…But he got nothing.

"Uhhhh… I said Brobot launch!" Mr. L looked around, sweat dropping. "You better get here, my metal bro…"

At this point, the ground began to shake and a robot resembling Mr. L tore through the background and landed right behind Mr. L. It looked exactly like Brobot, but this one seemed to have floating robotic hands and boots unlike the other Brobot.

"Just check this thing out! This bad boy is sporting the latest in brobotics." Mr. L explained, confusing the group. "Meet my new friend… _**BROBOT L-TYPE!**_"

Mr. L jumped into the cockpit and gained control of the controls. "The Green Thunder strikes like lightning! Hey, Mr. Limegreenantenna, Mr. Pink 'n' Squishy, Mr. Spike-head, Mr. Ninja-Cat, and Mr. Jumpsallthetime! Let's see how you deal with Brobot's new missiles! Have at you!"

"Are you going to say 'have at you' before each time you start to fight us?" Sonic asked as Brobot L-Type was playing a techno remix of Mr. L's theme. It was rather…catchy to the group.

"Not bad!" Chopper commented, tapping his foot to the catchy theme. He decided to investigate Brobot L-Type first with Timpani's wand before doing anything else.

"_That's Brobot L-Type. Mr. L pulled out all the stops to make this one... Max HP is 164. Attack is 12. Defense is 4. Defense against fire is 8. Most of its moves are the same, but it can now use its hands or tackle you... He seems to be weak to explosions, so try throwing Hommissile at it. Or, if it fires missiles at you, you can always inhale them and gain the Bomb ability. That should help you fight Brobot L-Type with explosives." _Timpani informed.

"Huh… So I can actually use explosives on this guy?" Blade smirked, tossing Hommissile at Brobot L-Type. Because of the explosion, Hommissile was able to pierce through Brobot's defense.

"What? ! …Crap! I should've made sure that Brobot would be immune to explosions!" Mr. L growled, gritting his teeth.

He pressed a button on Brobot L-Type and the nose opened up and fired a missile at the group. Chopper inhaled the missile and gained the Bomb ability. With a bomb, he was able to pierce through its defense.

"Well, I might not be able to pierce through its armor, but I think I can deal some damage," Sonic performed a Whirlwind attack, but it didn't seem to do anything because of Brobot L-Type's weight.

"Heh heh heh! You really think a tornado can do anything to this bad boy? !" Mr. L scoffed.

"So what? I can do this!" Sonic performed a Homing Attack on Brobot L-Type's face, knocking it back slightly. Mr. L made Brobot's eyes flash and fire a green laser straight at Blade. He tried defending himself with his katana, but it did no good.

"Hold on a minute… I know how to take care of that!" Sonic snapped his finger, figuring out what to do and used Reflecto to deflect the laser back at Brobot L-Type. The robot began to heat up a little and ended up taking some serious damage.

"What the heck? ! How'd you do that? !" Mr. L gaped.

Mario: Just with reflecting!

The red plumber jumped on Brobot's nose and then used Kickbrin to kick the robot again. He also managed to perform a stylish move while avoiding Brobot's robotic mustache that acted somewhat like a boomerang.

"Wait… You never said that that mustache could act like a boomerang!" Chopper gawked, looking down at Timpani's wand.

"_Like I said before… I don't get everything when investigating an enemy…" _Timpani reminded.

Kirby looked at his Stone ability and decided to float above Brobot L-Type and turn into a stone of a hundred tons. It was tough, but it didn't do a lot of damage compared to what a bomb could do.

"Poyo! (This ability isn't so useful for this!)" Kirby frowned and removed his Stone ability. When Brobot fired a missile from its nose, he jumped towards it and inhaled it to get the Bomb ability. He then tossed a bomb straight at Brobot L-Type to leave it stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Mr. L growled until he noticed a little button. "Ah-HA! I think this should give them a taste of their own medicine!"

Brobot flew up and then landed right on top of all of them with a ground pound attack. Everyone was as flat as a pancake when Brobot L-Type got off the ground again. It got ready to inhale them, but what Blade did was toss Hommissile right into its mouth, causing it to explode from the inside.

"Take THAT!" Blade smirked.

"Squeh squeh squeh… Now this is a show Squirps can enjoy!" Squirps took out some popcorn from out of nowhere and began munching on it.

"…And you're going to just sit there and watch us?" Chopper gawked.

"Well Squirps's fireballs are pretty much useless against this thing!"

"Oh… Well, all right." Chopper pulled another bomb out and threw it faster at Brobot, creating an explosion that caused a couple of sparks to fly everywhere around him. Kirby helped as well and tossed a bomb at Brobot as well.

"Grrrrr! See how you like this!" Mr. L made Brobot throw its mustache at the heroes like a boomerang. Chopper and Kirby were hit by the attack, but Sonic was able to jump over it and attack Brobot with a Spin Jump. He also managed to hit Mr. L's robot with a Homing Attack too.

"You know, Mr. L, I've taken on robots like this thing you've got," Sonic pointed out as he landed on the ground. "This shouldn't be any different than those other robots!"

"Well that's where you're wrong, Mr. Spike-head! This robot is going to take you DOWN!" Mr. L pushed a button and Brobot's fist came charging at Sonic, who got knocked over by the intense attack. "See? How do you like THAT? !"

"It's nothing special," Blade commented as he tossed Hommissile at Brobot's nose. He followed up with a fire slash, but he soon realized that fire didn't really do anything against Brobot L-Type.

Mr. L pushed another button, making a missile fire out of Brobot's nose. Chopper jumped and managed to somehow stomp on it to bring him up to Brobot's head. Mario grabbed the missile with Thoreau as it fell to the ground and threw it back at Brobot, causing it to cringe.

"Wait… Since when do robots cringe?" Blade asked, looking dumbfounded.

"Poyo… (Beats me…)" Kirby trailed as he hurled a bomb straight at Brobot, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds. Chopper was able to deliver a powerful stomp attack on Brobot's head and then threw a bomb as hard as he could on its head to leave an explosion on Brobot's metallic cap.

"Hey! Get off of my metal bro's head!" Mr. L snapped, making Brobot hit Chopper with its fists. He managed to jump out of the way and make Brobot's fists hit itself instead, but it decided to hover over Chopper and attack him with a ground pound.

"Ow… That was painful…" Chopper moaned as he unflattened himself after being nearly squashed by Brobot's weight. "Why do I ALWAYS have to become flat as a pancake when someone sits on me?"

"Oh, I'm not finished yet, losers!" Mr. L pushed a button and made Brobot open its mouth. It was going to inhale them like a vacuum!

"Poyo! (Oh, no! Run!)" Kirby began to run, just like everyone else, but they were unfortunate to get sucked right into Brobot L-Type and nearly chewed up. Once it spat them out, they were covered in bruises, and even Mario and Blade's clothing were a bit ripped.

"That son of a bitch just ruined my ninja suit!" Blade growled. "It's on like Donkey Kong now! …Bitch!"

"Whoa! Why do you need to say that?" Chopper asked.

"Well, I'm pissed off, that's why!" Blade made a dash towards Brobot and began to slash at Brobot L-Type rapidly. Of course, since it's his katana, it wasn't doing MUCH damage because of the high defense, but it was better than nothing.

"Blade! You're not going to do much damage to it with your katana!" Sonic shouted.

"I don't give a flippin' crap! I'm going to take this robot down!" Blade hissed.

Mario: Use Hommissile!

"_That does more damage than what you're doing," _Blumiere pointed out.

"What? Aw, crap!" Blade jumped back to the group, but they happened to get knocked back when Brobot fired a missile at them all. The only one who didn't take as much damage as the others was Kirby, who managed to use his Defend to keep himself from taking some immense damage.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and threw it as fast as he could at Brobot L-Type. More sparks began to fly everywhere, making Mr. L sweat drop.

"_Great… This isn't good…" _Mr. L thought as he groaned.

Blade tossed Hommissile at Brobot instead of slashing at it, causing it to recoil, but ultimately got struck by the missile attack. Add a bomb from Chopper and you've got double damage…except Blade's damage was slightly higher.

Mario: Are you ready to give up now?

"Me? Give up? Heck no! I still have more to show you idiots!" Mr. L sneered as he made Brobot fire a laser. Kirby immediately got in his defensive position, but Chopper, Blade and Mario got hurt by the laser for being too slow to react.

"Don't worry, I got this!" Sonic assured as he pulled Reflecto out and held him up towards the laser. Reflecto managed to reflect the laser directly back at Brobot's eyes, causing them to melt a little.

"What the heck? ! Why is there a system malfunction? !" Mr. L gaped as he noticed that Brobot L-Type's eyes were melted. "Ughh… Good thing those weren't MY eyes that melted… Better Brobot's than mine."

"Hey, are you done talking to yourself yet?" Chopper asked, looking up at Brobot L-Type.

"Were you listening to me that whole time?"

"Everyone could listen to you, but now that we're back to fighting…" Chopper pulled another bomb out and tossed it straight at Brobot L-Type. He could notice smoke was coming out of the robot, which could mean that this robot was about to go down soon. Very soon…

"You little…! Take this!" Brobot's fist recoiled and charged directly at Chopper. He got knocked back from the intense force of the attack and ended up losing his Bomb ability thanks to the attack.

"Great! You just HAD to do that!" Chopper inhaled the yellow star and decided to spit it back at Brobot L-Type out of boredom. It didn't do much, but it was better than nothing. Not to mention Brobot's HP was nearly depleted.

"Time for another special attack!" Mr. L made Brobot open its mouth and start to suck everyone in. They all tried their best to get away, but they were VERY close to being sucked in…

…Until Kirby whipped up a bomb.

"Poyo, (This should do the trick,)" Kirby threw it straight into Brobot's mouth and caused an explosion from the inside. That triggered the entire robot to be surrounded by explosions.

"Awwwww, WHAT? ! No way! My Brobot L-Type shoots missiles! MISSILES!" Mr. L cried as the entire robot exploded, causing him to fall from the sky and land right on his stomach in front of the heroes.

"So, how do you like the taste of defeat?" Blade smirked.

"But… But… This is preposterous! Why? ! Why can't I win? !"

"_Well… It might be because you're weak…" _Tippi responded.

Mr. L was stunned for a moment as he brought his head up. "WHAT? ! GRRRR! You laugh now…but…but… The Green Thunder doesn't forget! …Right when I manage to get myself up…"

He brought his head down and began to moan. Our heroes, not knowing what they should do, simply jumped over him and made their way to the door ahead. Mr. L, on the other hand, slowly got up and sighed.

"Man… How am I going to explain this to Tipral now? Not only did I just go here without listening to him, but I also LOSE to those idiots!"

"Just as I expected," Tipral appeared right in front of Mr. L, who suddenly got himself up and yelped.

"Uhhh… Tipral! Fancy running into you here!" Mr. L said nervously.

"I was recently told that you happened to run off without my orders…" Tipral trailed as he glared at Mr. L. "Listen here, fool! You NEVER leave to go after the heroes without my orders! Understood? !"

"Hey! All I wanted to do was stop the heroes! I bet that would make you happy!"

"I only order people to go out when I have a plan for them! Disobeying orders is one thing, but if you think you're going to make me satisfied, you're wrong! Ugh… Brainwashing you was probably a bad idea…"

Mr. L jumped up a little. "Brainwashing? What do you mean?"

Tipral pondered for a bit. "Hmph… I think I know what I have to do… It seems even being brainwashed, you seem to be a bit rebellious…"

"So what do you plan on doing with me?" Mr. L noticed Tipral bring his arm forward and fire a dark blast at him with the Dark Star Scepter. He screamed as his appearance started to change. Instead of black overalls, blue ones appeared. His mask was now gone and he started to look a bit more like…Luigi?

"Oooog… My head…" Luigi moaned as he rubbed his head. "What happened? Where am I?"

All of the dark energy Tipral apparently took from Luigi was now in his scepter. "I'll just create a new Mr. L with this energy and make him obey my orders! As for you, Luigi…"

"Wait, Tipral? ! Oh, man!" Luigi stepped away and tried to retreat, but Tipral caught him in dark energy and teleported him out of the area.

"He can go stay in that Mansion of Nightmares if he wants… Those heroes can go find him themselves." Tipral mumbled as he teleported away.

* * *

**Next area-**

Our heroes walked out of the door into an area with two Phantom Boos roaming around. With some stomps, the Phantom Boos were easily defeated. They also noticed in the background, there was a mansion.

"Squirple squirple squee! The mansion! We're here!" Squirps squealed as he walked up to the Star Block up ahead.

"And good riddance that we're through this place," Chopper sighed in relief, looking back. "Mr. L was one problem, but those fears! …I don't think I've really gotten over that just yet…"

"Poyo? (Well who cares? Can't we just end this chapter already?)" Kirby suggested.

"Sure!" Chopper ran up to the Star Block and punched it to make it break. Everyone waited as they could see the "END OF CHAPTER" segment.

Little did they know that the Heartsy ghost from before came out of the ground and looked at Chopper with a grin.

"_Even if you tried that, you cannot escape me… Not even as a ghost…" _she giggled as her eyes turned a bright red color…

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_That was a HORRIBLE place to be!" While everyone began to speak about how horrible the Path of Fear was, they were relieved to be out of that place. Up ahead, they happened to notice a large mansion. "This is the Mansion of Nightmares Squirps was telling you about," explained Squirps. "Squirps was told in his nightmares that this was the place that's been bothering me! Let's hope we find those nightmares and get rid of them!" Everyone clenched their fists and had determined looks as they made their way to the front of the Mansion of Nightmares._

* * *

**...So we finally discover who Mr. L is. I bet most of you already knew who he was anyways. *punched***

**And also, yeah, I thought the way they all faced their fears was kind of...uninteresting and bland. But, what else was I supposed to do? It's better than nothing, that's for sure. And I'm wondering if anyone will ever be disturbed by that last line before the "END OF CHAPTER"... Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.**

**Anyways, next chapter, we finally explore the Mansion of Nightmares and see what the place is like. So, be prepared...**_  
_


	73. Ghosts of the Mansion

**CHAPTER 12-4**

**-Ghosts of the Mansion-**

"_So, this is the Mansion of Nightmares…" _Timpani trailed as he and the heroes looked up at the large mansion. For some reason, it kind of resembled a bit of Luigi's mansion, except this was a dark blue color. There was a gate right next to them that was locked and it seemed like it reminded Chopper of when he had to get past the dark gate near the Dark Steeple past Twilight Trail. The grassy ground was just like what it was like in the Path of Fear: green grass and brown dirt. It was just that. _"I never expected this mansion to look like this… But this does appear to be rather big for a mansion…"_

"This reminds me of when I had to rescue Bow and get the Crystal Star from King Boo in that one mansion in Boo Woods," Chopper recalled, crossing his arms as he looked up at the mansion. "Man, I never would've thought that I would ever visit a mansion again! Sure, it's filled with nightmares… But it might not be the worst thing in the world…"

Mario: But there might be ghosts in there.

"So what if there are ghosts in there?" Sonic said with a smug look. "We've taken down countless ghosts in this world! I'm PRETTY sure we'll be able to take any ghosts in our way down! I mean, we ARE heroes…"

"Yeah, that's true," Blade walked up to the gate and tried to open it, but it turned out to be locked. "Well there's no way we're going through this gate unless we had some sort of key with us…"

The entrance to the mansion doesn't appear to be locked…" Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and began to scan the area for any hidden objects. There happened to be a hidden blue ! switch right near the gate.

"_There's a hidden switch here… Let me make it visible for you…" _with her powers, Timpani managed to make the switch visible to their eyes. _"I wonder why this switch was hidden in the first place…"_

"No idea, but let's see what it does!" Sonic kicked it, making the gate blocking their way peel off. But before they could walk past the gate, they heard screaming coming from the top of the mansion.

"Poyo? (What was that?)" Kirby asked.

"I have no idea… But why does that scream sound somewhat familiar…" Chopper trailed. He started to feel raindrops coming down from the sky. "Uh oh… It's starting to rain…"

"No dip… Oh, all right, I'm not going to say that." Blade sighed as the rain started to come down faster. At this point, everyone was soaking wet. Add lightning to the rain and you've got yourself a thunderstorm.

"Squaaagh! Squirps can't stay in the rain for long or else I'll get sick!" Squirps sweat dropped as he made his way up to the front porch, where it was nice and dry. Everyone followed him up onto the porch as well to dry off.

Mario: And it has to rain at this very moment…

* * *

**Inside the mansion-**

In a room on the upper floor of the mansion, two white ghosts were holding two pictures. Who the person was couldn't exactly be seen, but they both managed to get a picture of this person being scared by them. One of the ghosts was skinny and tall and had a red neckerchief around his "neck". The other ghost was short a chubby with a red bow tie on his chest.

"_I can't WAIT to show her this!" _the tall ghost snickered as he gave his picture to a lavender ghost girl with purple hair. She looked at both of them and was pondering over which one was better.

"What to choose… What to choose…" she trailed as she continued to look at them. After about thirty seconds, the ghost girl showed them the picture that the short, chubby ghost took a picture of.

"I think this one…"

"Heh heh heh!" the tubby ghost snickered as the tall one sighed and had his head hung low. But the ghost girl smirked and tossed the picture away and pointed to the one the tall ghost took a picture of.

"I like this one much better!" she declared.

"Wh-Whaaaaaaat?!" the short ghost gaped as the tall ghost smiled. "Whawha… What do you mean mine's bad?! I… I…"

The ghost girl giggled as she put the picture up on the wall, where there a couple of other pictures as well. The tall ghost bowed and smirked as she flew up to him and kissed him on the cheek, making him turn to a pink color.

"Awwww yeah!" he shouted as he began to fly all over the room. The chubby ghost nearly muttered under his breath as the tall ghost spun around and made a pose. A spotlight that came out of nowhere flashed on him.

"I bet you couldn't have done any better!"

"_**ARRRRGGGHHHH!**_" the chubby ghost began to pound the ground in anger…until he heard the door being knocked on. He turned his head and grinned. _"This could be my chance to redeem myself! I'll give her a picture that she'll enjoy more than anyone else in the world!"_

* * *

**Mansion entrance-**

Our heroes, Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade and Mario opened the door to the mansion and looked around at the entrance. There happened to be a staircase right in front of them, surprisingly. That, and it happened to lead up to a door in the mansion. But, it was also dark, so it wasn't easy to see what was around.

"Well, it beats the Cemetery Ruins," Sonic commented as he made the first step into the mansion. He left some wet footprints on the ground because of being soaking wet in the rain.

"I wonder if anyone will ever wipe their feet… It says to wipe your feet." Chopper pointed to a sign right by the door and wiped his feet off with the mat before walking inside.

"Crap… My ninja socks are wet, so they're not going to be so easy to dry off…" Blade groaned as he walked in. Kirby and Mario wiped their feet off first before entering. Squirps walked up the stairs and then turned to the heroes at the midway point.

"This way, squirple! We need to go up!" he declared as he walked to the top of the stairs. Chopper shrugged and made his way up the stairs by jumping (since they DO need to jump for stairs, apparently). At the top, there were two doors. One was apparently locked, but the closer one wasn't.

"Great… We have a locked door…" Sonic groaned.

Mario: Then we'll take the closer door.

Mario walked up to the door and tried to open it, but it turned out to be a fake door. When the door opened, it slammed right on Mario into the wall, which was something none of them actually expected to see. The plumber managed to get himself up afterwards and sigh.

"Did that door just…" Chopper stammered.

"_That must be a fake door…" _Blumiere pondered as he took a look at the door. _"They seem to be a bit of a darker color compared to the other doors, so maybe that should tell you that it's not real. I believe you CAN destroy these if you use explosives or something that involves smashing…"_

"Poyo! (Then I'll take care of it!)" Kirby pulled a bomb out and placed it right in front of the door. It ended up blowing up for them, but the bad news was that there was no other way to go.

Mario: What do we do now?

"Well, our only option is to go back, Squirps guesses…" Squirps trailed as he went down the stairs and sighed as he reached the bottom. "Squirps didn't know anything about this! I thought the door would be unlocked for us!"

"Yeah, I know… Wait a minute… Hold on!" a lit up light bulb appeared over his head as an idea struck him. "What about flipping into 3-D? Surely we can find something if we go straight into 3-D, don't you think?"

"Well, we haven't checked anything in 3-D yet…" Sonic agreed. "Go ahead, Chopper! We might find something!"

"Maybe we'll find one of your girlfriends," Blade snickered before getting smacked by Kirby. "Ow! What the heck was that for? !"

"Poyo, (Because I don't think it's necessarily good to be making fun of each other,)" Kirby responded. "Poyo. (That, and Chopper's my friend. It's not good to make fun of my friends.)"

"Ummmmm… In English?"

_"Never mind that for now. What's important is that we find what's through this door." _Timpani suggested as Chopper flipped into 3-D. What they saw was a door between two staircases. It sort of reminded Chopper of that one staircase in Castle Tipral that had the secret passage.

Chopper helped everyone else into 3-D and they entered the door into a hallway. It was rather dark, so Chopper had to flash Timpani's wand around the hallway. There were a couple of doors around. One door looked to be fake on the left, and on the far right, there was another door that happened to most likely be real. Although another problem was the Hauntings roaming around.

"I've got the Haunting!" Chopper rushed towards the Haunting, but it disappeared before he could catch it. It appeared behind him and when turning around, he got licked by the ghost and also poisoned.

Mario: This isn't good…

"I don't feel so good…" the Star Warrior wheezed, taking damage from the poison. Piccolo was happy to help by playing a nice song that cured Chopper of the status ailment left on him.

"Hope that makes you feel better, tweet!" Piccolo giggled.

"Yeah, I feel kind of better…" Chopper whipped his hammer out and bashed at the Haunting. Kirby decided to finish off the enemy by taking a bomb out and throwing it straight at it.

"Poyo, (Taking out ghosts can be fun,)" Kirby smiled as he walked over to the door ahead. A Grabber appeared right in front of him and tried to grab him, but Chopper managed to freeze it by tossing a charged ice ball at it. With Kirby's bomb, the Grabber was shattered.

"It would be cool to shatter a couple of those guys," Blade smirked as he opened the door into a dark room with stairs leading down. Everyone decided to head down and see what was there. They happened to notice Phantom Boos appearing around in the room, but when Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the room, there was a blue ! block that was a bit hard to reach.

"Wait, how are we supposed to get that?" Sonic asked.

"Squirps suggests throwing something up there," Squirps suggested.

Mario: I'll take care of it!

Using Thoreau, Mario grabbed a hold of one of the Phantom Boos and threw it up at the blue ! block. They all began to feel a little tremor as a door was drawn right beside them. It was a dark blue door, apparently (because the red doors are usually for areas that are outside this place).

"Well I guess that takes care of that," Chopper bashed a Phantom Boo with his hammer before opening the door into another room. They happened to find an upper part of the room above them, but they couldn't necessarily reach it. However, up at the end of the room there was one dimension block (the yellow arrowed blocks) floating up above the ground.

"Poyo, (We're going to need to flip to see what's in 3-D,)" Kirby suggested.

Chopper nodded and went into 3-D. He noticed three dimensional blocks, so he simply punched those with his fist to go into 2-D, but he left one in 3-D so he could punch the others above them into 2-D. Afterwards, he punched that last block and went back into 2-D.

"Whew… That was pretty annoying." Chopper sighed in relief as he jumped on the dimensional blocks and made it up to the upper part of the room. There were two Swoopulas hanging from the ceiling.

"No worries, I got them!" Blade drew his katana and slashed at the Swoopulas that tried to suck Chopper's HP out and succeeded in destroying them. A Darkling with dark blue eyes was also in this room, but with a couple of stomps, Chopper managed to take it out with ease.

"Why do some of the Darklings have different eye and bulb colors?" Sonic asked as the Darkling disintegrated into smoke. A door happened to be right in front of them, so they simply entered through into a room with wooden platforms and more stairs going down. They noticed at the bottom of the stairs a couple of Phantom Boos circling around. And, just like those Phantom Boos in the Path of Fear, there was a little opening.

Oh, and they happened to be singing some kind of song. It almost sounded like that song you'd hear in the ghost houses in Super Mario World. At least, that's what Mario was thinking as he listened.

Mario: It kind of sounds like they're singing something…

"Well there's not much we can do about it. Let's just get past those ghosts, squirp!" Squirps went down the stairs and made his way past the boos. Chopper decided to flip into 3-D and walk around the circling boos and to a larger Phantom Boo that had the power to flip between dimensions.

"Uh oh… This isn't good." Chopper gulped as he picked up Squirps after flipping into 2-D and firing his beam attacks at the Phantom Boo. "I didn't expect to find an Atomic Phantom Boo in here!"

"Keep firing, private!" Squirps cried as he continued to squeeze the little alien until the Atomic Phantom Boo was completely destroyed. It happened to drop an Ultra Shroom Shake as well.

Chopper scooped up the Ultra Shroom Shake and saw that it also dropped a yellow key. It didn't look like it would fit into the door that they saw was locked in the main room. But, nevertheless, he picked it up.

"Poyo, (Well, we finally got the key,)" Kirby smiled as he plopped over to Chopper to take a look at the key. "…Poyo? (…But, why is the key a bit different than what it usually is?)"

"_I don't think that key will fit through that lock…" _Timpani trailed. _"There might be another door that we have to find around this place. I hope that it's not a difficult thing to do…"_

"No problem! We'll just return to that hallway!" Sonic grinned, giving a thumbs up.

* * *

**Dark hallway-**

After exiting that room, Blade hit the Save Block that was right near the door that leads into the main entrance, saving their game. Chopper decided to get everyone into 3-D, and what do you know? There happened to be another pathway in the hallway! They decided to take the left hallway into 3-D into a new hallway when flipping back into 2-D. There were three doors around here.

"So, which one do you wanna take first?" Sonic asked.

Kirby decided to take the far left one, which led into a bathroom. "Poyo. (All this door leads into is a bathroom.)"

"Well, then I guess we should go check IN THE BATHROOM!" Chopper suddenly blurted out, making everyone blink.

"Wait, why did you say 'in the bathroom' loudly?" Blade asked.

"I don't know… Something just made me want to…"

"Poyo, (I'll check the bathroom, I suppose,)" Kirby plopped over to the bathroom door and opening it. Two Hauntings were in the bathroom and happened to notice Kirby's arrival. Nevertheless, the pink puffball pulled some bombs out and tossed them at the Hauntings to kill them instantly.

He flicked the light switch on afterwards and noticed that the ground was made of marble. There was a toilet, a shower with a shower curtain and a sink with a mirror for anyone to see themselves in.

But when he looked at the mirror, he didn't really see anything. …But then the mirror of Kirby suddenly grinned a disturbing grin and a ghost's head popped out of the mirror with a camera in his mouth.

"POYO! (HOLY GUACAMOLE!)" he cried as there was a sudden flash. The short, chubby ghost managed to get a picture of the horrified Kirby and disappear. All he could hear was some evil chuckling.

"Oh, what a laugh… What a laugh…" the mirror turned out to be Shadow Kirby after the ghost disappeared. He was grinning, as usual. "A chubby ghost managed to scare you! You're such a coward!"

"Poyo? (Me? A coward?)" Kirby glared at the gray puffball. "Poyo? (How am I such a coward if a ghost popped out of nowhere when I didn't see it coming? Plus, how am I a coward if I fought such scary enemies, such as Zero Two?)"

"Nonsense! You never seem too sure to do anything! What you should be doing is try to get rid of Chopper so YOU can be the leader! I know you want to be a leader… I can feel it in you!"

"Poyo, (I'm done for now,)" Kirby flicked the light switch and left the bathroom, returning to his friends. With that out of the way, they walked over to the door to the right, but noticed that it wouldn't open.

"_Oh, dear… This door won't open…" _Timpani frowned.

"Come on, stupid door!" Blade growled, trying to push it open. Of course, it didn't seem to work. "Damn! Why do doors always have to be like this? ! I swear I hate when things like this happen…"

"Don't worry about it, Blade. We'll just check the other door." Chopper walked up to the door they haven't checked yet and saw that it had a yellow lock. He decided to pull out the Yellow Key and insert it into the lock. Surprisingly, the lock broke off, allowing them to move on.

"Wait… So the key we found in that room happened to be the one we needed for this door?" Sonic gawked.

"I guess so… But, who cares? Let's go!" Chopper opened the door and walked out, with the rest following. One thing they noticed was that they were being led outside, like they were in a courtyard…

* * *

**Mysterious room-**

The ghost girl was looking at the picture that the chubby ghost took. It was that picture with Kirby freaked out. While the chubby ghost looked happy, the tall, skinny ghost was grumbling.

"I love this picture!" the ghost girl squealed as she flew over to the short ghost and kissed him on both cheeks. Now, what was weird was that he ended up melting in a way that he was in love.

"I am so good at scaring…" he sighed.

"Grrrrrrr! I'll show you!" the tall ghost growled as he flew out of the room. The chubby ghost followed him, but only by hopping, due to him being unable to fly at the moment. While they did that, the ghost girl put the freaked out Kirby picture on her wall. There happened to be a poster called "The Dark Being", which actually looked kind of like Tipral…

"Maybe some day I'll find that dark being," she smiled as she flew back to her stool.

* * *

**Courtyard-**

"Uh oh… I think we just ran into some rain…" Sonic gulped as they walked into the courtyard. There was some nice, green grass on the ground and even a fountain. A couple of Grabbers and Phantom Boos were roaming around in this part of the area. The rain didn't seem to affect them in any way.

"Sonic, it's only water… It's not going to kill you." Chopper groaned.

"Well I HATE the water! …I mean, I don't like SWIMMING in it, that's the thing. But, anyways, I think we should just move on." Sonic pointed to the left, where there was a door at the end of the courtyard. "There's the door over there."

Mario: I can see it just fine.

The red plumber was the first to go, jumping on top of a Grabber and performing some stylish moves while at it. He also jumped on top of the fountain and was a bit relieved that it wasn't deep.

"Ummmmmm… You just sighed there, Mario. Did you have any traumatizing experiences with fountains?" Blade asked.

Mario: Those annoying piranhas…

Mario began to remember all of those times whenever he would jump into the water back ten months ago. Every single place he jumped into water, a piranha would try to bite him and cause him to get out of the water! They were even in places such as fountains and pools! It was probably the most ridiculous thing he's ever been through in his entire paper life.

"Ummmmm… I've had bad experiences too, remember?" Chopper recalled, thinking about when he messed up with the Crystal Stars. "I collected twenty Crystal Stars and made things even WORSE!"

"Poyo, (Yeah, but at least you got rid of Maquano,)" Kirby added.

"Yeah, I got rid of him, but I can't help but feel he still might be around… I mean, he's always managed to find a way to come back. I even saw him in The Underwhere, but his power was stripped from him, so it should be all fine…"

"Well there's no point in discussing this right now. Let's go to that door up ahead and get inside." Blade suggested, being soaking wet. "I don't like being out in the rain. You can easily catch a cold."

"Poyo, (Good point,)" Kirby agreed, floating over the fountain and dropping some bombs on the Phantom Boos behind the fountain. Everyone else followed until they got to the door. They immediately headed in, finding themselves in a gym of some sort. There wasn't really anything interesting about it, to say the least.

"Oh… So we find ourselves in a fitness room…" Chopper trailed, looking at the treadmill and all of the weights. "But I also happen to see two doors. I wonder what could be here…"

Before doing anything else, they heard the sound of a toilet flushing. The door all the way to the right opened and a red cat that sort of resembled Blade walked out of the door, sighing in relief.

"Whew… It's good that I found this bathroom in the fitness room." he said as he stretched. When he opened his eyes, he immediately took notice of Blade and drew his katana.

"YOU!"

Blade immediately drew his katana as well and both cats charged at each other, both of their katanas clashing with each other. Blade immediately knew who this ninja was. It was his brother, Knife.

"So, Knife… We meet again!" Blade grinned, trying to push him back. "I never expected you to show up here! Weren't you already dead? !"

"I'm surprised to see you too, my brother!" Knife growled, trying to push him back as well. "I managed to strike a deal with that dark wizard and he allowed me back into the real world. Now I can finally get my revenge by killing you!"

"Wait… You're the guy who got that trash can robot to go after us!" Chopper gasped.

_"Oh, yes… Now I remember… It's that cat…" _Timpani realized, thinking about that moment when they met him.

"Poyo… (I don't think I met this guy before…)" Kirby trailed as everyone got in their fighting stances after realizing who this ninja is. "Poyo? (Can someone give me the details on who he is?)"

"Do we need to make a flashback about this?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo? (Flashback?)"

"Well, ummmm… Let's just forget about those details, all right?" Chopper turned his attention back to Knife. "All right, Blade clone! So I'm guessing you just want to get rid of us, don't ya?"

"'Blade clone'? That's probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" Knife scoffed. "I AM the older brother, after all… But you people aren't my real target. However, since you are on Blade's side, I might as well kill you too! But I will say that it's dishonorable for a ninja to fight with friends…"

"And does that really matter right now? These guys helped me in the past, so I think it's best that I give them a hand!" Blade and Knife were both knocked back because of how long they were pushing each other. "And it's kind of funny that our battle's going to be in a fitness room…"

"Very well then…" Knife gripped his katana and glared at the group. "Be ready, fools! I'm going to take you down!"

"Pbbbbbbbbth! I've taken on a ninja before, so this shouldn't be any different." Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and used it to investigate this mini-boss.

_"That's Knife the Cat. He's a ninja, just like Blade and also is the older brother of the two. Max HP is 170. Attack is 10. Defense is 1. Since he's a ninja, his attacks will be rather fast, so watch out when he tried to swing his katana at you… He also can perform some jutsu attacks and throw shurikens. It would be wise to avoid those as best as you can… Even if he wasn't the first we've met, he still has a resemblance to Blade… I would even consider Knife as the 'clone', just like you said, Chopper." _Timpani informed.

"All right, it's time to kick your ass!" Blade shouted as he rushed straight at Knife. Their katanas clashed again, but Blade was able to make the first strike on him, slashing him with his katana.

"Grrrr! You're going to pay for that, brother!" Knife hissed as he tossed a couple of shurikens at him. Blade smirked as he spun his katana around to deflect the shuirkens back at Knife. But, even with those skills, Knife himself was able to spin his katana and make the shurikens hit the walls.

"Whoa… That's impressive." Sonic gaped.

Mario: No kidding…

"_I would suggest trying to help…" _Blumiere suggested as the two brothers were swinging at each other and parrying their attacks. Chopper grabbed one of the shurikens from the wall and swallowed it to gain the Ninja ability.

"Hopefully this helps," Chopper pulled a kunai knife out and struck Knife from behind with it. Knife hissed and knocked Chopper to the wall with a simple back kick, but the red ninja was struck by Sonic's Bounce Attack.

"So this is how you choose to fight me? You're being so cowardly, trying to attack me from above and behind!" Knife scoffed, jumping and spinning his katana vertically to knock Sonic back.

"Whoa! He can do that too? !" Sonic gaped as he slowly got up. "Geez… I never would've expected Blade's brother to have similar moves as him…"

"Think again," Knife performed a couple of signals with his hands. "**Fuujin no Jutsu**!" he unleashed a powerful amount of wind that nearly sent everyone flying across the room, with the exception of Blade.

"You think you can use wind? Check THIS out!" Blade used his hurricane slash to strike Knife and send him flying across the room as well. While he crashed into the wall, Blade rushed straight towards him again and started to slash at him a couple of times, leaving two scars on his chest.

Knife growled and used his claws to scratch Blade across the face. He screeched, but managed to grab a hold of his older brother and throw him to the ground. He tried to stab at him, but Knife brought his katana up just in time to block his attack.

"You know that I'm stronger than you, my brother!" Knife hissed as he kicked Blade in the face and got up. He managed to strike his brother a couple of times with his katana.

"Oh, really? Then why did I manage to kill you before? Huh?" Blade asked as he tossed Hommissile at him to send him flying across the room. When Knife got himself back up, Mario managed to stomp on his head and knock him back with Kickbrin's kicking attack.

"What are these things you have with you?" Knife asked as he slowly got up and coughed a little blood.

"Whoa! What's with the blood!" Chopper gasped. "This is more of a kid's fic than a… Oh, wait, this is rated T…"

"Well, let's not try to get a little freaked out by the blood…" Sonic suggested. "What matters is that we gotta take this guy down! And I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be hard to do that."

"Poyo? (What do you mean 'not hard'?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo! (This guy's pretty fast! We need to make some fast moves too!)"

"Well, why don't you try attacking?" Chopper suggested. Kirby let out a sigh and pulled a bomb out. He threw it straight at Knife while his back was turned. He immediately turned to Kirby with an evil look and used a flaming jutsu attack to leave a burn on him.

"Wow… Well, I don't know if bombs are going to be that helpful…"

"Poyo? (Then how can I fight him?)"

"I don't know! Maybe get one of those shurikens and eat it, maybe?" Chopper shrugged. Kirby listened and dropped his Bomb ability. But, of course, he decided to inhale it spit it at Knife for some enjoyment. Afterwards, he inhaled one of the shurikens on the wall and gained the Ninja ability. He looked pretty similar to Chopper with it, but his feet were still the same color as before.

And now that he had the Ninja ability in his hands, he jumped towards Knife and began to attack him with his kunai knife. Knife tried to strike him with his own katana, but because he was smaller than him, he had a hard time hitting him.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby slashed at Knife's leg, keeping him off guard and getting hit in the face by Chopper's flaming foot. At this point, Knife was ticked off more than ever and struck the two with his katana, knocking them back.

"Yeesh… That katana sure is painful…" Chopper frowned, rubbing the mark on his cheek left by Knife. He pulled a couple of ninja stars and tossed them at Knife. He managed to block some of them, but one ninja star got him in the arm.

"Urgh… You're gonna pay for that, you stupid little boy!" Knife was about to attack with flames on his katana, but Blade beat him to the punch and struck him with a fire slash before he could even attack.

"Sorry, Knife, but I can't let you hurt my friends," Blade warned as he knocked Knife to the ground with a kick. However, before he could even attack, Knife managed to knock him back with a kick and get up.

"Ugh… Why does Squirps always have to see the same thing repeated in these fights? Squirps finds them a bit repetitive…" Squirps groaned.

"What? You want to help fight too?" Chopper asked, picking up the little alien. "Well, I guess I'll help make it interesting."

Chopper charged up a beam from Squirps and fired it at Knife while he was busy fighting Blade. It caught his attention and made him turn back to the group.

"You realize that you're being such a coward when attacking me behind my back!" Knife hissed.

"So what if it's cowardly? We can see that our friend's in danger!" Sonic retorted, curling up in a ball and then using his Light Speed Attack to hit Knife a couple of times. Mario helped join in by performing a Triple Jump on Knife's head and then use a Ground Pound to leave him a bit dazed.

"Poyo, (If you want us to fight, then we're going to give you a fight,)" Kirby retorted, throwing a couple of shurikens that hit Knife. What was strange was that the ninja managed to pull them off his arms and chest and fight with all of those wounds left on him.

"Careful, guys… Even with all of those attacks you've dealt to him, he's still going to fight back…" Blade warned.

Mario: We got this!

Unfortunately, for Mario, when he managed to bash Knife in the head with his hammer, it only made things a bit worse when Knife managed to use a fire slash on Mario, setting his butt on fire.

Mario: Ow! Fire! Hot hot hot!

Mario immediately headed outside so the rain could get rid of the flames on him and then returned to fight back. Since Knife was distracted by Chopper and Kirby, he was able to jump on his head twice while performing a stylish move and land on the ground, giving a thumbs up.

"Ugh… You people are starting to piss me off!" Knife hissed, spinning his katana around. Everyone ducked to avoid getting struck by his katana and when he was dizzy, Kirby jumped and did a diving kick attack that left him dizzy. This is where Chopper came in and grabbed a hold of Knife and threw him up into the air and then threw him to the ground while his head was facing the ground. It left him dizzy for a couple of seconds.

"I gotta admit, you guys are doing pretty well," Blade smiled as he walked over to the dazed Knife. "So, Knife… You going to give up yet?"

"Not until you're dead!" he hissed as he threw a shuriken into Blade's arm. He screamed as he held his arm in pain. But even then he wasn't going to give up and pulled it out.

"Just because you can still fight while being partially wounded doesn't mean I can't!" Blade hissed, jumped towards Knife and bringing his katana down on him. Knife raised his katana to block the attack, but it only made him drop it because of the force of Blade's katana, so it ended up hurting him instead.

"I'm going to kill you, you bastard!" Knife screeched, getting up and punching Blade in the face. He also made a couple of symbols with his hands to create a massive amount of wind that sent everyone flying.

"See how you like THIS!" Chopper shouted, performing a couple of symbols with his hands. "Fuujin no jutsu!"

"Wait, what the…" Knife was sent flying across the room from the wind Chopper summoned. The bathroom door opened and he ended up falling right into the toilet. The toilet paper ended up landing on him too.

"So, it appears he's a wet cat…" Sonic trailed.

"_I'll admit, toilet water is rather…disgusting," _Timpani commented.

"So maybe I'll try to do something," Chopper stated as Knife jumped out of the bathroom and began to toss a couple of shurikens at the group. Chopper and Kirby disappeared and left decoys of themselves and appeared right behind Knife.

"What did you just…?" Knife was interrupted when Kirby began to attack rapidly with his kunai knife and then kick him in the face. Chopper followed up next and managed to strike him while charging at him. He finished off his attacks by tossing a charged ice ball, freezing him.

"Well that was pretty simple," Blade smirked as he melted Knife from his icy prison with a fire slash. At this point, Knife was burnt to a crisp, but he still refused to give up the fight…until Blade kept him off guard by slashing his leg.

Knife managed to kick him in the shin and strike Blade as well, but when he tried to stab at his younger brother, he disappeared, leaving a log behind.

"What the…" before Knife had any time to ask a question, Blade kicked him in the back of the head and slashed his back, leaving a scar on him. "GAH!"

"Are you finished yet?" Blade asked, jumping back to his friends and facing his older brother. "You do realize that I've grown a bit stronger ever since I've killed you."

"Don't think this is the last you'll ever see of me, brother! For now, I must leave!" Knife hissed before leaving the fitness room through the door. Of course, since it was still raining, it was bad for him.

"_So… That cat decided to run from us…" _Blumiere trailed.

"Well, it's not such a big deal. It's better that he's gone." Chopper said as he walked over to the treadmill. "You know, I always wondered what would happen if I ran on this for a little bit…"

He began to run on the treadmill for a couple of seconds until a Mansion Key came out. It bounced right beside the treadmill. Chopper got off, but he ended up slipping because of how fast it was moving, making him fall on his back.

"Ow… Now I feel like that boy who would always miss that football…" he moaned.

"Squirple squee! It's the key we need!" Squirps squealed as he picked up the Mansion Key. "Now we can get out of here and find the key we're looking for! Let's go to that door, Squirp!"

"Wait… Does that mean we have to BACKTRACK? !" Blade gaped.

"Sorry, Blade, but we have to do it…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo, (And watch out for any mirrors along the way as well,)" Kirby added as they walked over to the other door. It happened to lead them into a small hallway with a door up ahead that was being blocked by a yellow block.

"_So this is what was blocking the way…" _Timpani trailed.

"But at least we can get this thing out of the way," Chopper smiled as he pulled his hammer out and bashed the block. They opened the door and they were back in the previous hallway.

"Oh… Well, at least we don't have to do too much backtracking…" Blade said, sighing in relief.

Mario: Let's-a go!

* * *

**Main corridor, second floor-**

Everyone made their way up the stairs and walked over to the locked door. Squirps pulled the key out and unlocked it without any problems. They were only led into a small, dark room with a couple of black Boos with red eyes. Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate them, and it turns out they were called Shadow Boos.

"Oh… These guys again…" Sonic groaned. "I think I remember them back at that mansion…"

Mario: No kidding…

"Well, they shouldn't be too tough to handle," Chopper tried to bash one of the Shadow Boos with his hammer, but it managed to spin around from behind and use its tongue to attack him. "Ow! What the heck? !"

"_They're kind of hard to hit compared to the other Boos…" _Timpani trailed. _"The only way to attack them is to hit them from behind."_

Luckily, since Kirby was already behind the Shadow Boo, he was able to defeat it easily with his kunai knife. He then walked up to the door ahead, with everyone else following him as well.

"Hmmmmmm… I don't know why, but I think we might end up running into something through here…" Chopper trailed.

"And why do you say that?" Blade asked.

"No idea… That's just what I think." Chopper opened the door and headed into the next room. It was dark like the other one, but it was a rather…small room. They could see some pictures on the walls and they saw the rug was a comfy, red color.

"Huh… It doesn't seem too bad here! …Although, a bit too dark…" Sonic trailed.

"So you people finally arrive…"

"Wait, who just said that?" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the room, but the room ended up lighting on its own when a couple of candles suddenly lit up. They saw at the other side of the room, Dark Doom.

"I've been waiting for your arrival, heroes!" Dark said with a serious look. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Mario: Who's he?

"Oh, yes, I believe we haven't met, plumber. My name is Dark Doom! I'm one of Tipral's…tougher minions. I was sent here to take care of you and prevent you from grabbing the Pure Heart."

"Squack! Why do we have to run into all of these people, squirp? !" Squirps exclaimed while steaming. "This is driving Squirps nuts!"

"Relax, Squirps. This guy's a lot easier than Knife." Blade smirked, drawing his katana. "All right, Dark. We know what's going to happen. You're going to try to fight us, and we're going to win in the end!"

"You're saying I'M easier than Knife? I'M EASIER THAN KNIFE? You're pathetic. How could I be easier than him when I was the one who managed to help him find you easily? You realize that I have greater power than him, do you not?"

"Look, Dark, can you just let us pass?" Sonic asked nicely. "We don't have time to be dealing with you!"

"Oh, let me think about that… No. Why WOULD I let you through anyways? Tipral ordered me to stop you, and that is what I plan on doing!" Dark pulled his blaster out and aimed it at Sonic's head. "So, what else do you have to say before we fight?"

"This hallway isn't really a nice place to fight…" Chopper trailed. "We've got a lot of nice pictures on the walls and if we hit the tables, we're probably going to make the candles fall and cause the whole mansion to burn down."

"Oh, Chopper is right indeed! But I can help fix this up!"

"Wait… That voice…" a red exclamation point appeared over Chopper's head. All five heroes gaped as Dimentio appeared hovering over Dark.

"Dimentio? !" they all gasped.

"It's been such a while, like two friends who haven't seen each other ever since a pancake contest," Dimentio said, using a weird simile like before. "This place is definitely not a nice place to fight. What would happen if you caused havoc? Everything would be ruined in this nice mansion!"

"Nice? We don't find it to be nice, thank you very much…" Blade frowned.

"_I don't understand… How are you still alive?" _Timpani gasped.

"_And what are you planning this time?" _Blumiere growled.

"Is it the couple that I think it is? Lord Blumiere and Lady Timpani? It's so good to meet you! Ah ha ha ha! But, you should realize that I was never killed! I've already swore my loyalty to Tipral!"

"Wait… I think I might remember something…" Chopper realized. "I think when Dimentio was going to give us 'one last surprise', Tipral ended up gaining control and separating Dimentral, thus turning them back to normal… But I don't understand why he would take YOU back… He hates you!"

"Why, Tipral would never hate me! He trust me a hundred percent!"

"_Something's weird… Very weird…" _Timpani trailed. _"It's almost as if he doesn't remember those past experiences…"_

"Well, look at the time. It was so nice chatting with you, but I've got to go! As for you, Dark… I've got a 'special' place where you can fight these heroes!" Dimentio twirled his finger and transported everyone into Dimension D.

"Wait a second… I think I remember a place like this…" Dark pondered.

"This place is called Dimension D! It's a dimension of my creation! You'll be 256 times more potent in a dimension like this!" Dimentio grinned. "Now, I hope you enjoy your fight, Dark! I'm counting on you! Ciao!"

And with a snap of his finger, the jester teleported out of Dimension D.

"Hmmmmmmm… So this dimension makes me 256 times stronger… Well then, this shouldn't be a problem for me!" Dark got in his fighting stance. "All right, heroes! Let's see how you do against the improved Dark Doom!"

"It's kind of like with O'Chunks… But now it's us against Dark this time." Chopper stated, pulling a kunai knife out. "I guess we should just fight then…"

Of course, Dark didn't even speak. He fired a blast from his blaster at the group. Everyone jumped back as the shot hit the ground near their feet. Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate him.

"_That's Dark Doom. He's the leader of an alien race called the Dark Creatures, and is also considered to be the mysterious one of Tipral's minions. Max HP is 180. Attack is 11. Defense is 2. Dark will mainly focus on attacking you with his martial arts and even some of his own magic attacks. If you're also a bit far from him, he'll try to shoot you with his blaster… Not much has changed, but I think he can make meteors rain down from the ceiling… Just be fast and you'll do just fine against him…" _Timpani informed.

"_I've never seen what powers he has… Wonder Count Bleck. …Wait, did I just go like that again? !" _Blumiere gaped, covering his mouth.

"Uhhhhhh… Beats me. Maybe it's an old habit?" Sonic shrugged before curling up in a ball and rushing towards Dark. But, he ended up getting hit when the Dark Creature king hurled a Swift Strike at him.

"Ow! What the heck? !"

"Well, I AM here to destroy you, so you should expect that," Dark said as he began to hurl another Swift Strike. Sonic jumped over the attacks and this time, managed to strike Dark with ease.

"You should realize that Sonic is WAY faster than you," Chopper smirked as he rushed towards Dark with a kunai knife in his hands.

"Oh, you think a knife can help you here?" Dark managed to grab a hold of Chopper's kunai knife and held it up. "You should think again."

"Hey! Give that back!" unfortunately, for Chopper, he was knocked back by Dark's kick and his Ninja ability was knocked away as well. He managed to get it back and strike Dark with his new kunai knife afterwards.

"Crap… I forgot he could get that back!"

"Ha ha ha! This feels so satisfying!" Chopper laughed as he dove down towards Dark and kicked him at the side of the head. "Just because we're in Dimension D doesn't mean it's just you who gets stronger!"

"What exactly do you mean?" Dark gawked.

"_Their power becomes greater as well, so everyone is basically even here," _Timpani explained.

"…Damn. And to think I would have an advantage. Oh well… If I took you down easily, it wouldn't feel so rewarding." he raised his arms. "Now, Meteor Shower! Come down and take care of these heroes!"

"Meteor Shower? Uh oh…" Blade gulped as meteors surrounded by purple flames began to rain down from the sky. Everyone began to run around crazily, trying to avoid them. Chopper ended up getting hit by one and also lost his Ninja ability.

"No! My Ninja ability!" he cried.

"I think I can get a good shot on Dark!" Blade shouted as he tossed a couple of shurikens at Dark. They hit him and stopped him from raining meteors. Now that he was distracted, Blade ran up to him and slashed him with his katana. "Ha! Now how do you like that, Dark?"

"Grrrrrr! I'm going to get you for that…" Dark aimed his blaster at Blade and shot him straight in the chest, causing the ninja to fall over on the ground and hold his chest in pain. The Dark Creature king grinned and put his weapon away, rushing towards Blade to deliver a kick.

…However, that wasn't going to happen because Kirby managed to grab a hold of him from behind and perform an Air Drop attack, jumping to the top of the room with Dark and slamming him to the ground headfirst.

"Poyo! (Don't think we're going to play easy on you, Dark!)" Kirby warned as he crossed his arms and smirked.

"I don't know what you just said, but I don't give a friggin' crap!" Dark quickly kicked Kirby back towards Sonic, knocking them both to the ground. Mario managed to avoid getting hit and decided to do three jumps, with the third jump landing right on top of Dark's head.

Mario: You're a strange fellow!

"And you're a fat plumber," Dark grabbed Mario's foot and threw him over to the wall. Of course, since he was busy with that, Chopper managed to strike him by kicking him with fire energy on his feet.

"You still have that obnoxious fire energy? Don't you have anything else better? !"

"Why, I do have something else, I believe," Chopper smiled as he punched Dark with an ice fist. While he was shivering, he tossed a charged ice ball at him to turn him frozen solid. That's when Kirby stepped in and used a fire jutsu attack to melt Dark from his flaming prison and leave him with a burn.

"Begone!" Dark hurled a couple of meteors at Chopper and Kirby. Chopper managed to inhale one of them, but Kirby got knocked back by one of them. At least his Ninja ability stayed on him.

Since Chopper couldn't speak, he spat the meteor back at Dark and knocked him to the ground. Even on the ground, he managed to summon some purple magic slash attacks that Kirby managed to defend himself again. Chopper couldn't defend against it, of course.

"Ugh… I hate those kind of attacks…" he groaned as he got back up and shook himself. "All right, Dark. I think you're asking for it…"

He tossed a couple of fireballs towards Dark, but he managed to put his cape up and let the fireballs disappear with it. Dark then brought his hand out and fired another Swift Strike at them. Chopper was able to dodge it easily and leave a burn on him with a simple fireball, but he got knocked when Dark fired a vertical Swift Strike at him.

"Squoh… This guy means business…" Squirps gulped.

Mario decided to pick up the green alien and shoot Dark with Squirps's Squirt Beam. Dark tried blocking them with his cape, but it didn't do any good when Sonic managed to hit him with a Spin Jump, thus making him get shot by Squirps's Squirt Beam.

"Look, buddy. You can give up whenever you want. Just tell us and we'll stop fighting you." Sonic suggested.

"And why exactly would I give up the fight? I'm not even feeling weak right now!" Dark retorted, firing at Sonic with his blaster. When Blade got back up, he charged at him and struck him a couple of times with his katana.

"You still refuse to stay down, cat? So be it. Then I'll KEEP you down this time!" he fired another shot at Blade, but this time, he was prepared to counter. Blade spun his katana and deflected the attack back at Dark, striking him in the chest and making him hold his chest in pain.

"You were saying?" Blade smirked, walking up to the Dark Creature king. "We're still gonna kick your ass, you know that."

"Man, I don't know why, but it always seems like we're children fighting each other out on the playground…" Chopper trailed.

"Well, it would make sense for you and Kirby… You two are technically children…"

"Poyo? (Yeah, but why would you think we would fight each other?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo. (There's no reason for us to fight.)"

"Maybe for Tipral and I, 'cause we're both technically 'children' and we both fight each other…" Chopper pondered.

"Why are we talking above children fight, squirp? ! Keep firing, privates!" Squirps shouted in a military voice. Mario sighed and let go of the alien and jumped on top of Dark's head. He slammed his hammer on him after landing on the ground, leaving him dizzy for a couple of seconds.

"All right! Good work!" Chopper smiled as he raised his hammer and bashed Dark with it as well…at the cost of being knocked back by his kick.

"That's it, I'm using that Meteor Shower!" Dark hissed, raising his arms and summoning a huge meteor shower than began to rain down upon the heroes. Kirby, once again, used his Defend ability to defend himself from the meteors, but as for the others… They weren't so lucky.

Mario: There's too many of them!

"I wanna do something, but these things HURT!" Chopper cried.

"_Attack him when he stops!" _Timpani suggested.

With the small amount of time Kirby had, he tossed a kunai knife at Dark. Because of the badge he had, Dark was left dizzy for a couple of seconds. Kirby immediately rushed up to him and slashed him with his kunai knife, leaving his cape ripped a little.

"Ugh… I don't know how much of this crap I can take." Dark moaned.

"Well then stop complaining," Sonic suggested as he struck Dark with a Spin Jump and then a Bounce Attack. "You really don't know what else to do, do you?"

"Well I still have THIS!" Dark wrapped himself with his cape and disappeared. Everyone tried to look for him, but Dark appeared right behind Sonic and kicked him at the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.

"Poyo! (Oh, come on! That's cheap!)" Kirby performed a fire jutsu attack on Dark while he was cackling and left a burn on him. The Dark Creature king clenched his fists as he turned to Kirby and fired a Swift Strike at him.

But, of course, Kirby simply floated over the obstacles and knocked Dark back with a kick attack from an angle. It knocked him over and allowed Chopper to rush straight towards him.

Dark raised his head and saw Chopper coming and fired a couple of meteors at him. The Star Warrior inhaled one of them and spat them out at him, making him cringe in pain from the flames.

"Face it, Dark. You're not going to win the fight." Chopper stated.

"And what makes you say that?" Dark hissed.

"Because… Well, our actions can show you." Sonic performed a Whirlwind on Dark, making him fly around in the air. Sonic followed up by striking him with a Homing Attack and a Bounce Attack.

Mario: This fight is going smoothly!

"Well, hopefully nothing bad happens…" Chopper trailed as he pulled his hammer out and bashed it on Dark's head. Mario helped as well by performing a Ground Pound.

Dark managed to perform a sweeping kick attack that made everyone trip and then kicked Mario in the stomach, making him fall over in pain. Of course, Blade managed to strike him by throwing Hommissile at him to cause an explosion.

"Aw, yeah! I got ya! …Oh, I think I have something to say." Blade walked up to Dark and shouted, "Suck it!" at him.

"…And WHY did you say that to me?" Dark gawked, punching Blade in the stomach. "How stupid to say the word 'suck'."

"_Chopper, Dark's HP is very low. One more attack should do it." _Timpani informed.

"Really? All right! I guess I'll finish the fight off!" Chopper smiled as he jumped and stomped right on top of Dark's head.

"Ack! What in the…" Dark bellowed as he fell over on the ground. Dimension D started to disappear from their sights as they were returned to the Mansion of Nightmares. Dark stood back up, looking all bruised and scarred at the moment.

"I lost…again…? !" he gawked. "Well, five against one isn't necessarily going to help me win… But whatever. Just because you managed to strike me in the head doesn't mean I'm done yet!"

"Oh, come on! Squirps is getting tired of these fights!" Squirps groaned.

"Shut up, green alien. I'm not finished yet!" Dark snapped. "Now then… I've got one last trick up my sleeves that will surely…"

Suddenly, Dark began to feel some immense pain coming from his forehead. "_**AAAGGGHHHHH! **_WHY? ! WHY AT THIS MOMENT? ! Why does my third eye need to open? !"

"_Third…eye…?"_ Blumiere gawked.

"Wait… I think I can see something on Dark's forehead!" Chopper pointed to the small little purple opening on Dark's forehead. "You know, I always wondered what that thing was… So he has another eyes?"

"Listen you…ARGH…heroes…" Dark wheezed, trying to prevent himself from screaming. "Apparently I'm having a little bit of a problem and cannot fight at the moment… I'm going to…URK…let you off the hook for now. But, next time… You better be ready to face me!"

"Yeah yeah… Go on and leave already. I think you already said something like that in the past before…" Chopper sighed.

"Whatever… It doesn't matter right now. I'm out of here…" Dark wrapped himself with his cape and disappeared from their sights.

"So… What now?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo? (Why did Blade tell Dark to 'suck it'?)" Kirby asked.

"Ummmmmm… I don't get what 'suck it' even means, Kirby…" Chopper trailed, making Blade's eyes widen.

"Errrr… How's about we get going guys, huh?" Blade hurried on over to the door and opened it. "I think I see a Star Block in there! Why don't you hit it, Chopper?"

"A Star Block? Well… I guess I better go get it!" Chopper rushed into the next small room and hit the Star Block, ending this fourth part once and for all.

"No, seriously, what does that mean?"

"You should probably wait until you're older…"

"What? Oh, come on!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After their close encounter with the older brother of Blade, Knife and the mysterious minion Dark, our heroes were relieved to be rid of those two for the time being. "Squirps knows that at the top of this mansion, the Pure Heart is there! Squirps trusts that you privates will be able to help get rid of those nightmares, will you not?" Our heroes nodded to the strange little alien as they made their way through the upper floors of the mansion. From what they saw from the outside, this would most likely be one big mansion…_

* * *

**OK, I'll admit. Even though I don't like Chapter 12 that much, I actually like this part and the last part. I don't know why...but things are a lot more interesting inside of the mansion. Now, I'm not going to give anything away to what other cool thing is going to happen, but when you see the next part, you'll know what I mean then.**

**Other than that... I don't know what else to say. I do like the boss of this place, if that's anything interesting to you guys. :P**


	74. The Mysterious Nightmare

**CHAPTER 12-5**

**-The Mysterious Nightmare-**

Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Squirps sighed in relief as they walked into a room with a red rug, red walls and some pictures on the wall. Sure, it was kind of like the room where they met Dark Doom in, but they didn't have to worry about being in Dimension D. Not to mention that this room was actually light compared to others. Although, some of them had a strange feeling that there was something in this room that…wasn't necessarily safe. There was just a bucket over by a hole in the wall with nothing really in it.

"Well, I don't understand why we're in a room similar to the previous room we've been in…" Chopper trailed, taking a few steps. "And for some reason, this red wall and red rug reminds me a bit of the Palace of Shadow…"

"Poyo? (The Palace of Shadow?)" Kirby gaped, remembering the horrible moments. "Poyo… (Ugh… I hated exploring that area… It was probably one of the freakiest areas we've explored… Of course, I think Dark Subspace World was worse.)"

"Uhhhhh… Can we NOT get into any detail with Dark Subspace World? I kind of want to forget that whole world and Maquano's return… That was probably not a great experience…"

"Oh, yeah… I didn't like that place." Sonic frowned. "But I don't get why we're speaking about that. That place is gone, and we're in a different dimension…"

"_Dark Subspace World? The Palace of Shadow? I guess you HAVE been on a lot of adventures before…" _Timpani trailed out of surprise.

Mario: Yeah, we've been through a lot.

"How come I never went through any of those places like you guys?" Blade asked out of curiosity. "Sure, I got to do something five months ago, but compared to you guys? All I did was help find some Mirror Shard and 'force' me to travel with you guys through Chopper's planet. …Oh, and also help you guys stop those Hellspawns down in Hell. That's all I can think of…"

"Well, Squirps doesn't understand what you privates are saying, neither does Squirps care. What matters is that…" Squirps paused for a minute and suddenly smelled something. Something…delicious.

"Squoh? Squirps… Squirps smells something yummy! Where is that yummy scent? !"

"Whoa, settle down, Squirps!" Chopper said as he followed Squirps over to the hole in the wall. The hole was kind of small, but it looked like someone small could fit through the hole. Someone like Squirps even.

"Squirple squirple squee! That's such a delicate-looking hole! Private! Squirps wants you to squeeze me into that! Squirps smells chocolate from there! Do it and you'll get some chocolate!"

"Wait… I don't even eat sugar because of the terrible sugar rushes I get…" Chopper trailed. Of course, Squirps didn't listen to him, so he groaned and picked up the alien boy and squeezed him through the hole.

"Squirps can smell it! And now Squirps is going to taste it!" Squirps immediately gobbled down on the chocolate left in the bucket. After he finished, his expression suddenly changed. "…Squoh? How come this chocolate doesn't have the nice taste that it usually does?"

"Well, maybe because it isn't…" Blade was interrupted when the bucket Squirps was in began to travel up in the wall. "Wait a second… Why is Squirps moving up?"

"SQUAAACK! Not again!"

Everyone watched as Squirps disappeared from their sights. Chopper tried to pull him out of the hole, but he was too late for that. In frustration, Chopper used Thoreau to pick up Blade and throw him.

"Hey! Why'd you throw me? !" Blade exclaimed.

"Because I wasn't happy that I couldn't get Squirps out…" Chopper grumbled. "So, I just threw someone to get it out of my system. And besides… You didn't even get hurt anyways."

"Yeah, that's true. Although… If you threw me into a bottomless pit, you'd be dead."

"Actually, I think you would be arrested for killing a child…" Sonic mentioned. "Sure, he's five years younger than you, but he's not thirteen yet. Now that I think about it, I wonder where we'll be in three years."

"Poyo, (Well, I'd rather not think about the future right now,)" Kirby suggested as he made his way over to the door ahead. "Poyo! (We need to get going! Let's hope we can find Squirps!)"

Everyone agreed and walked over to the door. Of course, a Shadow Boo was blocking their way, but Mario managed to defeat it by stomping on it a few times and performing some stylish moves.

"Well that took care of that… Let's go!" Blade opened the door and everyone walked into a dark room. They couldn't really see what was around, but they did hear the sound of bones rising.

"Crud… That better not be what I think it is…" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand somewhere near them and, not-so-surprisingly, Dark Bones happened to rise from the ground. "Yup… I was right."

"Poyo, (At least we have fire to defeat them,)" Kirby performed a fire jutsu attack that nearly burnt the Dark Bones to a crisp. Chopper ended up finishing it off with a charged fireball.

"_Be careful, guys… I can sense some bottomless pits around here. You might want to go into 3-D to find these pits…" _Timpani warned.

"Well, I don't think there's going to be a bit of a problem here," Sonic assured. "I'm pretty sure that things should be all right here! Just watch and see what I…"

Sonic paused when he saw spikes rise up in from of him. "Oh… Well this isn't good. Apparently there are spike traps here as well… Do you guys think we're going to have to avoid pits AND spikes?"

"OK, then we can simply do that," Chopper nodded, throwing his arms up and flipping everyone into 3-D. They all noticed that the spikes on the floor were visible and there were even some small trapdoors around. Now they knew where the traps were, so they began to move around carefully.

But, what also stunk was that two Grabbers were in 3-D, so they had to get rid of them too. As soon as they got to the door, they flipped back into 2-D and noticed a yellow ? block right near the door.

Mario: Well this is rather nice.

The plumber punched the block and a Mushroom popped out. Everyone took a piece and gorged on it like never before. With that, they pressed on to the next room. There wasn't that much in this room, but it seemed as if there was some kind of puzzle, with four red ! blocks floating in the room.

"Oh, great… Don't tell me this is one of those puzzles again…" Chopper groaned.

He flipped into 3-D, but he didn't see numbers on the sides of the blocks. "Oh… So there aren't any numbers here! So… If there aren't any there, how are we supposed to solve this puzzle?"

Chopper noticed that there was a secret passage to the right wall. It was a small little tunnel, but there didn't appear to be much through. So, he simply walked into the tunnel and found himself in a dark little room with one candle and Dark Bones lying on the ground.

"Oh… Well, I know how to handle these guys." Chopper tossed a charged fireball at the Dark Bones and burnt it to a crisp. However, when he thought something would appear, nothing actually did. "What? Nothing?"

"_Perhaps you might need to use this wand," _Blumiere suggested.

"Ehhhh… Doesn't hurt to try." Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the room. He happened to notice an invisible sign. "Hey… I think I see something here! …But what does it say?"

"_From what I see, it reads: 'Those who see this sign must take your pace to the last block, then walk past one to your left and strike the block below you. When you hit the next one to the left, pace yourself and hit the one that hasn't been it.' That's what I'm getting…" _Timpani informed.

"Wow… I don't know what to say about that… But, whatever. I think I know what to do." Chopper returned to the group and punched the fourth, second, first in third block in that order to make a door appear.

"Poyo? (So you found a secret entrance that told you which one to hit it?)" Kirby questioned.

"Yeah, I think that's right. Anyways… Let's go…" Chopper noticed that a camera was left on the ground. "Ooh! I think someone left a camera here!"

"Why is there a camera on the ground?" Sonic questioned.

"Beats me! Let's use it!" Blade picked up the camera and began to take some pictures of himself making weird looks. "…Oh, and I can't forget about you guys either! We sure want to get some of you too!"

"No duh," was what Sonic just responded to as he stuck his tongue out with the picture. Mario also took some pictures of himself, as did Kirby and Chopper. They had the silliest looks of all the looks they had on them.

"Errrr… OK, I think we're overdoing it…" Chopper trailed, putting the camera down and even the pictures. "I don't see the point in keeping them. I mean, are they going to help us in any way? I don't think so…"

Everyone agreed and headed through the next room. Little did they know that the camera they were playing around with belonged to one of those Casper wannabe ghosts…

"_Where's my camera? !" _the tall ghost phased into the room the heroes were previously in and looked around. "Ah! There it is!"

He flew over to his camera and put it around his neck, where it shouldn't been before. He also decided to hold onto the pictures that the five heroes took while he wasn't holding onto it. With that, he phased through the ceiling and headed up to the upper floor of the mansion.

* * *

**Top floor-**

"Ohhhhh man… I don't like being here…" our favorite plumber in green, Luigi, was cowering in fear in the hallway at the top of the mansion. These walls were more of a dark green color, making it look a bit freaky and darker than the red color. There were also a couple of paintings in the background as well. This area didn't seem so well-made like the other. It's almost like it was made of wood.

When Luigi brought his head up, he saw that one of the paintings looked a lot like Tipral. "Ack! What's a portrait of Tipral doing in here? ! That's something I DON'T want to see here!"

He backed away from the portrait until he felt someone tap his shoulder. When Luigi turned around, he didn't see anyone there. At this point, he was shivering in complete fear over what could happen.

"Oh man… I don't feel so good…" his legs started to shiver as he slowly began to head towards the right of the room…until the tall ghost suddenly popped his head from the ceiling and scared him, making him yelp and also getting a picture of the cowardly plumber.

Luigi tried turning back, but the chubby ghost appeared right in front of him and gave him a scare. At this point, both ghosts were getting some pretty good pictures of a frightened Luigi.

"Why won't it all stop? !" he cried as covered his eyes in fear. When he opened them, he saw a secret passage. "Hold of a second… I think I should head over there!"

He sprinted towards the door and locked it from the outside. There was light in this room, luckily and there also happened to be something sitting on the pedestal. It was a dark orange Pure Heart.

"Wait a second…" Luigi rubbed his eyes and gazed at the Pure Heart. "Aren't these the Pure Hearts my bro was collecting? What's this one doing here? In fact, why is it so different?"

He picked up the Pure Heart and put it away. "Well, I think I should give this to my bro when I find him… Hopefully He IS here, though."

"Drop the Pure Heart," a dark, threatening voice hissed. Luigi's face turned white as he turned to see the mysterious figure.

"Wait a second… Who are… Wait! Don't point that sword at me!" he backed away from the mysterious figure. "Mario! Wherever you are… _**HEEEEEEEEEEELP!**_"

* * *

**Two floors below-**

The heroes walked into the next room and noticed that they were in another hallway like the one in Chapter 12-4. However, there didn't appear to be any alternate hallways in 3-D. There were only three doors. One of them, apparently, happened to be locked.

"Crap… We've got three doors here." Blade groaned, noticing a couple of Shadow Boos roaming the room. "Plus, we've got those Shadow Boos to deal with. Doesn't this make things great?"

"Well, we better start by going through the first room," Chopper rushed over to the first door and opened it. They headed into the room to find a nice, black and white checkered tile and also a little game of pool. A large, blue ghost called a Blue Twirler was playing some pool.

Mario: Didn't Luigi face ghosts like those before?

"I think I saw ghosts like these in King Boo's Mansion… I don't remember, but maybe I can get its attention." Chopper tried to inhale the Blue Twirler, but it ended up noticing and disappearing.

"_Chopper, you cannot hurt ghosts like these…" _Timpani warned. _"The only way you'll be able to harm them is if you flash them with a light and attack them while their weak point is revealed. Try using my wand on them when they appear."_

"Poyo? (Wait… Then how come we had to use a vacuum to take these ghosts down before?)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo… (I don't get this…)"

The Blue Twirler appeared right behind Kirby, but Chopper managed to flash Timpani's wand at the ghost, stunning it for a couple of seconds and leaving it open. Kirby pulled his kunai knife out and slashed at the Blue Twirler a couple of times, destroying it within seconds.

"All right! We did it!" Sonic cheered. "…Now where do we go next?"

"Well, I see another door in this room, so let's go check over there," Blade walked over to the next door and opened it. It led them into a room with a large screen in the background and an old camera. It didn't appear to be on at the moment, but it looked like it could be used.

"Poyo… (Hmmmmm… Well, there doesn't seem to be anyone around here…)" Kirby trailed as he walked around in the room, searching for anything important. "Poyo? (What about that camera? It looks a little dusty…)"

"Well, let's find out," Chopper blew the dust off the camera and flicked the switch. They noticed that a little movie was playing… Actually, it looked like one of those old commercials that everyone watched back in the 90's.

Mario: This looks like Mario Kart!

"_Let's go racing! It's Super Mario Kart funny car MADNESS!" _from what they were hearing, the voice sounded rather…loud and exciting, yet kind of dumb.

"Wait… What the heck is this?" Sonic gawked.

"_Only on Super NES!" _while everyone listened, a ghost ended up appearing behind Sonic. They couldn't see what kind of ghost it was, due to it being invisible, but when it poked Sonic, he turned around and looked to see if there was an enemy.

"Did someone just poke me?" he asked.

"No, I didn't poke you," Chopper shook his head. Kirby and Mario shook their heads as well, but Blade happened to be poked as well. They could see that there WAS some kind of ghostly noise in the room, though.

"_Well we're not in a good situation…" _Blumiere trailed as Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the room. They happened to notice a red Grabber that they spotted. Since the ghost got flashed by the wand, it was stunned for a couple of seconds.

"_These are Invisible Grabbers… They're not so easy to find when they're invisible…" _Timpani informed.

Mario pulled his hammer out and bashed at the Invisible Grabber while it was stunned. It took a couple of hits to get rid of it, but he managed to successfully take care of the strange little ghost. While he did that, everyone else continued to watch the commercial.

"_Two speeds! Fast and way too fast! It's two player fun at the split screen! Only for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System! Now you're playing with power! SUPER POWER!"_

"Wait wait wait wait wait! Hang on second…" Chopper frowned and tilted his head. "Did that commercial just say 'Fast and way too fast'? That's…kind of weird when talking about speed…"

"Poyo, (Beats me,)" Kirby suddenly felt himself being grabbed by another Invisible Grabber. When Chopper saw this, he flashed Timpani's wand at the ghost and made it vulnerable, allowing Kirby to strike it with his kunai knife. Another one appeared, but Chopper managed to flash Timpani's wand on that as well.

The Invisible Grabber screamed and covered its eyes as its weak point was discovered. Chopper immediately stomped on the enemy while vulnerable and performed some stylish moves. He finished off the Invisible Grabber by striking it with a slamming kick attack.

With the ghosts gone, everyone pondered on where the key could be. Chopper decided to go up to the screen they were watching and inhale it. The whole sheet on the screen ripped off and went into Chopper's mouth and a Mansion Key dropped to the ground. They could also see a poster with red eyes that read, "Get out".

"Wait… They want US to get out?" Sonic gawked.

"Ehhhh… Don't listen to 'em, Sonic!" Blade suggested as he picked up the key. "Who cares what ghosts think? We can do what we want! So… How about we take this key back to that locked door?"

"_We should check that other room, just in case…" _suggested Blumiere.

"_You never know… There could be a secret in that other room…" _Timpani mentioned.

"All right, then we'll go check those," Chopper nodded as he left the room. Everyone else groaned and followed him back into the hallway.

* * *

**Hallway-**

Now that they were complete with that little room, they walked over to the door next to the one they were previously in. They weren't sure what would be inside, but they decided to check anyways. To their surprise, it led them into a room with a fireplace and a rocking chair. On the shelf, there were globes, and even a picture of a couple of Shadow Boos.

"Well, this sure is a nice-looking room! …But what purpose does it hold?" Sonic asked, scratching the back of his head.

"No idea…" Chopper decided to see what was behind the rocking chair in 3-D. Surprisingly, he found a Ultimate Shroom Shake. Upon going back into 2-D, he walked out of the chair…and ended up transforming into an 8-bit version of himself. Only this time, he wasn't huge.

"What the… What happened to me? I feel so…light and like my younger self…"

"Poyo? (Why do you look like an 8-bit version of yourself?)" Kirby decided to check behind the rocking chair and when he came back out, he transformed into an 8-bit version of himself as well. "Poyo! (Holy… I'm an 8-bit version of myself! This is so…strange!)"

"Yeah, it's a weird little vibe…" Chopper agreed. This made everyone else go behind the couch and, surprisingly (sarcasm), they turned into 8-bit versions of themselves as well. They couldn't attack, but they could walk around the room.

Mario: This is very strange!

"Well, what would happen if we walked out of the room?" Blade walked out of the room and returned into the room. He was back to his old self. "Oh… So it just turns me back to normal. Interesting…"

"I guess this is just a little secret that the ghosts were hiding…" Sonic stated as he walked over to the door. "I don't see any other point in being in this room now. How's about we get going?"

"Yeah, I think we can go now," Chopper nodded as he walked over to the door and exited. He and everyone else that was 8-bit turned back into their normal selves and unlocked the door up ahead. It led them into another hallway, but longer. This time, there were only two doors. One of them appeared to be somewhat of a fake one… Kirby even tested it out by tossing a shuriken at it.

"Poyo, (Yeah, it's a fake,)" Kirby confirmed.

"All right, then let's check the first door," they all walked into the room that was closest to them and ended up in a dining room. There were a couple of snacks on the ground and they could even hear some munching going on. They noticed some purple ghosts that were eating food like some kind of feeding frenzy. Chopper decided to use Timpani's wand to investigate it.

"_That's a Frenzy. These ghosts are known for ripping things to shreds with their sharp, ghost-like teeth. Max HP is 52. Attack is 11. They spend most of their time eating food, but they won't be afraid to bite you if you get too close. Since they're usually distracted, using a long ranged attack is the best option for getting rid of them…" _Timpani informed.

"Oh… Well then we can take these guys down!" Blade drew his katana and tried to strike the Frenzy. These were one of the few ghosts that don't need to be flashed by Timpani's wand. Blade simply did away with the creature with just a couple of slashes.

The other Frenzies took notice of the heroes and immediately sped up to them. Chopper chucked a couple of fireballs at one to burn it down and Kirby finished it off by throwing a couple of shurikens at it.

Mario: We still have one more left!

"Well, then let's do away with it!" Sonic declared as he performed a Whirlwind on the last Frenzy and struck it with a Homing Attack. Mario was able to finish off he Frenzy with a simple stomp.

"_I can see some unlit candles on the table…" _Blumiere mentioned. _"Maybe you could go over to them and light them up, Chopper."_

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Chopper nodded and lit up the candles with some fireballs. They could see that there was another door, so they decided to take a look at what was through there…

* * *

**Mysterious room-**

"These are such lovely pictures!" the ghost girl sighed happily as she flew around her wall and put up more pictures of Luigi and the one picture of Kirby. The other two ghosts watched as she took the pictures that they collected.

However, when she noticed a couple of others, her expression changed. "…Wait, what is this?"

She looked down at the table at the rest of the pictures in disappointment. The ghost girl looked up and slammed her arm on the table, making the ghosts confused. They looked down at the pictures to see some of the heroes making funny faces with the camera.

"What is the meaning of this? !" she shouted.

"Wait… What?" the chubby ghost picked up two photos and looked at them with a confused look. "We didn't make pictures of these! Did you make it?"

"What? No way!" the tall ghost retorted as he checked some of the photos. "Ehhhhh…"

Both ghosts looked up at the ghost girl, who gave them a "Hmmph!" look and turned her head away from them and flew away.

"What…? D'AAAAAAAAAAAAW!" both ghosts growled in disappointment and flew out of the room to find a way to solve this problem once and for all.

* * *

**Kitchen-**

"So… This is the kitchen, huh? Well, I bet there better be some great food here!" Chopper smiled as he walked up to the fridge. When he opened it, the refrigerator door slammed on him and a cackling sound could be heard.

"Poyo? (Is the door demented?)" Kirby grabbed some milk from the fridge and also a couple of snacks and set them on the table. There also happened to be some bananas on the counter, making Chopper walk up to them in shock.

"BANANAS!" he cried as he inhaled every single one of them. "Bananas are probably one of the greatest foods I've ever had! …With pizza coming very, VERY close!"

"Well that's pretty interesting," Blade pulled some pizza out of the fridge. It appeared to be in a bag, though. "It's probably cold, but if you put it in the microwave, you might be able to warn it up.

"Gimme that!" Chopper swiped the bag from him and put the pizza in the microwave. After a couple of seconds, he pulled it out and swallowed it with one gulp. "Man… It feels so good to eat pizza…"

"I wonder if they have any chili dogs in here…" Sonic wondered as he searched through the fridge. Unfortunately, he didn't find any of that, but he decided to drink a bottle of water. Mario simply ate a taco that was in the fridge, since there wasn't really anything else to chow down on.

"_So what was the point of this room?" _Timpani asked.

"It's kind of a refreshing room, if you ask me," Chopper punched the Save Block in the room to save their game. "See? That's what I think of with this room… Anyways, let's get going."

* * *

**Hallway-**

"Yeesh, why do these hallways always have to be so dark?" Sonic asked as Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the hallway. "Sometimes I always wonder how we get through places like this…"

"And those are some interesting portraits on the wall…" Chopper smiled as he looked up at he portraits while lightning struck in the background of the window. "Wait… That picture kind of…looks like Tipral?"

Mario: Why would there be a portrait of Tipral?

"Poyo? (Maybe he was once in this mansion?)" Kirby shrugged. "Poyo. (Sometimes I wonder about these kinds of things.)"

Before they could take another step in the long hallway, they heard a heavy footstep. They noticed an armored knight up ahead that seemed to be taking a couple of steps towards them. Green, glowing eyes could be seen under the helmet.

"My god… There are knights in this mansion too?" Blade gawked. Chopper investigated the mysterious being with Timpani's wand.

"_I can't get any information on this thing…" _Timpani trailed. _"It seems to be a ghost, but there's no information given here… I think this might be a mysterious foe that we might have to face…"_

Kirby heard another footstep and turned around. Another ghost knight was coming towards them from behind. This one looked a bit chubby and with red eyes.

"Poyo… (Uhh… Guys? I don't think that's the only ghost…)" Kirby gulped.

"Wait, what?" Chopper turned around and saw the chubby ghost knight making its way to them. However, what the heroes didn't know was that the wood on the ground wasn't completely stable and that when the knight stepped on a loose piece of wood on the ground, the wooden plank hit his face and caused him to turn back into himself, not to mention he also got a picture of himself being dizzy.

"Wait, what? It's a ghost?" Chopper turned around and saw the other knight got hit by a plank as well. The same results happened like with the chubby ghost. All five heroes walked up to the skinny ghost as he slowly got up and looked at the heroes.

…And, of course, he ended up flying away from the heroes in fear, grabbing the chubby ghost as well. They all looked at each other with confused looks with "what the heck?" faces. This was…strange.

"So they were just measly Casper-like ghosts?" Blade questioned.

"Looks like it, but let's not let it bother us right now," Sonic made his way through the hallway and opened the door ahead. Everyone else followed him through the door and into a dark room with a spike pit right near the door.

"Poyo! (This calls for Carrie!)" Kirby declared as he jumped on Carrie and began to take off, going over the spikes.

"Man… Why is it that there are always parts that are too hard for us to get through? Those spikes are unavoidable!" Chopper frowned as he watched Kirby cross. Well, it turns out Carrie went back and picked up the rest of the group (one at a time) and brought them over to the next door.

"Who ever thought that there would be a hallway with these spikes?" Blade asked.

Mario: Beats me!

Nevertheless, they continued on to the next room. There didn't appear to be much around this room except for one single door and a Blue Twirler that was roaming the hallway. When it caught the heroes in the room, it pounded its fists to the ground and made everyone get knocked over by a shockwave. What was worse was that it got rid of Kirby's Ninja ability as well.

"Poyo! (No! Not my copy ability!)" Kirby cried as he got up. He looked back at the Blue Twirler and tried to inhale it. But, since it wasn't stunned, there was no way they could even hurt it.

"Oh, hold on a minute, let me stun this ghost," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and flashed the rainbow light at the Blue Twirler. Kirby immediately inhaled the ghost and swallowed it whole, which was rather…strange.

"OK… I guess he decided to eat the ghost!" Blade sweat dropped as he made his way over to the door. They all followed him into a room where they were on a wooden platform and noticed that there was a railing up above them on the ceiling. Below them were a couple of Shadow Boos and across the railing was a pipe.

"Huh… I wonder where that pipe leads…" Sonic trailed as he grabbed a hold of the railing and began to monkey bar his way to the pipe. Mario was the next one to go, crossing over the large gap. This kind of reminded him of when he had his Spring Jump ability.

Mario: Too bad my Ultra Boots are gone…

"I know how you feel, Mario… I wish I could use a Spring Jump as well." Chopper sighed as he crossed over the gap. He decided to drop a couple of fireballs down on the Shadow Boos and even some ice balls to keep some of them frozen. "Apparently fire seems to work more…"

"Poyo, (That's because it burns them and is able to kill off enemies faster,)" Kirby pointed out as he simply floated over the gap and reached the pipe. Since Blade is a good climber, he was able to cross the gap with ease. With that, they headed down the pipe towards the next area.

* * *

**Down the pipe-**

Everyone landed on the ground, due to the pipe being up on the ceiling and noticed that they were in a little secret hallway. There were even a couple of torches on the walls and armored knights on the walls as well.

"Ugh… I don't like those knights… They don't look like they're…safe to be around." Chopper frowned.

"_It's all right, Chopper. These aren't ghosts like those others." _Timpani informed. _"In fact, there aren't really any enemies in this room either. So, we should be safe from harm here…"_

"OK… But let's see if we can look through these." Chopper bashed one of the knights with his hammer. It shook a little, but all that came out was a piece of bread with a bunch of mold on it.

"Eeugh… That's not really something I like to see…" Blade trailed as he swiped the bread from Chopper's hands and burnt it with a fire slash. They simply walked up to the blue ! switch at the end of the room. Mario lightly kicked it and caused the room to tremble a bit.

"What do you think happened?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo… (It doesn't sound like it came from this room…)" Kirby trailed.

"_The only way to find out is to go back into the other room," _Timpani suggested. Everyone nodded and made their way back to the pipe by jumping. Just by touching the pipe they turned into little pixels and got transported back to the other room.

* * *

**Previous room-**

"Huh… So apparently a block was created at the bottom of this room…" Chopper trailed as he looked at the pit with all of the Shadow Boos roaming around. "How are we supposed to get through those Shadow Boos when they're everywhere?"

"_You can always stun them by shining some light on them," _Blumiere informed, making Chopper suddenly realize that he should go down there. So, being stupid, he jumped down and stomped on a Shadow Boo on his way.

"What is he, stupid?" Blade gawked.

"Errr… Well the block's down there…" Sonic trailed as he jumped down while curled in a ball. He ended up defeating two Shadow Boos on his way. The rest shrugged and jumped down to help them.

With Timpani's wand shining on the Shadow Boos, they covered their eyes at the light. This allowed Blade and Mario to finish them off with slashing and stomping. With them cleared, Chopper was able to push the block through the room.

"Say… Where do you think the switch that is needed for this block is?" Chopper asked.

"No idea… Maybe we might have to check in 3-D?" Blade shrugged. Chopper checked in 3-D and saw a little tunnel to the right. There was also a red arrow pointing that way as well, so he pushed the block through the tunnel until he found a hole in the ground shaped like a square.

"_I suppose the switch is down there…" _Timpani trailed.

"Yeah, I think so… In you go, block!" Chopper managed to push the block right into the hole. It caused the whole ground to shake violently. Whatever was going on, it must be something big…

"_We should go see what that was," _suggested Blumiere.

* * *

**Hallway-**

"Poyo! (There's a staircase that just appeared!)" Kirby gasped. "Poyo…? (But… Why would there be a staircase in some other hallway? Isn't that a bit…tedious to go up another floor…?)"

"It doesn't really matter, Kirby. We found the stairs, so we should just get going." Chopper jumped up the stairs due to the fact that he wasn't tall enough to step on them. In fact, they all had to jump up the stairs, which was a bit tedious. But, when reaching the top, they found a door to the left and headed into a small little room with a nice rug and even some boxes on the floor.

Mario: This room looks a bit old…

"No kidding. You see all of these boxes on the floor? I think they might have some things inside." Sonic checked one of the boxes. Surprisingly, a white ghost that resembled a Blue Twirler appeared in the room with a water element inside of it.

"_The only way to defeat this kind of ghost is to use ice against it," _Timpani informed.

"Oh! Well that should help!" Chopper tossed a charged ice ball at the Blue Blaze (which is what they're called) and it immediately froze the ghost. Taking his hammer out, he bashed the frozen ghost and shattered it completely.

"Well that was pretty easy… So what are we going to expect next?" Blade asked as he looked around in the room. "I don't see a door around here… Is there some kind of secret switch?"

"Well… Let's see." Chopper shined Timpani's' wand around the room like a flashlight. Surprisingly, one of the boxes was actually a hidden blue ! switch. Chopper walked up to the box and bashed it with his hammer, triggering a door to be drawn in the room over to the left.

"Oh! Well, I guess this is how we're going to move on!" Sonic smirked as he opened the door, with everyone else following.

* * *

**Mysterious room-**

The ghost girl was bursting with laughter as she looked at the pictures of both ghosts with dizzy looks. They looked more scared than hurt in the photos, which seemed to be entertaining to her.

"Ugh… How embarrassing…" the chubby ghost groaned.

"No kidding, "the tall ghost agreed.

While the ghost girl was laughing her eyes out, she pounded on the table, causing a picture of Chopper to float down to the ground. Both ghosts looked down at the silly-looking picture and felt immense anger in them.

They both look at each other with hate in their eyes and grabbed each others' hand. Green flames started to appear around their hands as they looked at each other with immense anger.

They were going to work together this time.

* * *

**Third floor hallway-**

"Well, this is rather…interesting," Chopper commented as he walked into another hallway with Timpani's wand out. "It's another hallway, but there isn't a rug here… For some reason, this doesn't look well-made at this point."

"Poyo, (Well, maybe we'll find something in 3-D,)" Kirby hoped as he walked into the room.

"Good idea," he got close to everyone and flipped into 3-D. They could see two Blue Blazes roaming in the hallway in 3-D up north, so Chopper simply froze them with two charged ice balls. Mario finished one off with his hammer while Blade took out the other with a fire slash.

"I can see a door up ahead, but I don't know where it leads," Blade informed as he walked up to the door.

Mario: We'll find out!

Both he and Blade pushed the door open, leading them outside. It was no longer raining (thankfully) and they could see a full moon off in the distance. For some reason, when Sonic looked at it, he remembered something from it.

"…Nah, I don't think it's something very memorable," he said, shaking his head.

"Poyo! (Heads up! Shadow Boos at eight o'clock!)" Kirby used his inhaling ability to suck up one of the Shadow Boos and spit it at another, leaving them completely stunned. Sonic took care of those Boos with a simple Spin Dash. Although, it was a bit difficult to see them because it was so dark…

"Whew… Well that takes care of them." Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"No… There are still more." Blade added, drawing his katana as a couple of more Shadow Boos from the right were coming towards them. Blade jumped towards them and began attacking with shurikens and fire slashes, destroying each and every Boo on the balcony.

"Poyo, (Well now we can continue on,)" Kirby smiled as he ran over to the door ahead. Everyone else followed him to the door and entered another hallway. Of course, there was so little room when they walked out of the door, so they had to go into 3-D and walk down the hallway. The door to the left was locked, but there was a door open to the right. A Save Block happened to be there too.

"Huh… It's strange that we're finding a Save Block here." Chopper punched the Save Block to save their game and walked into the next room. They noticed that this room was a bit dark, but it was a bit big. There was a nice fireplace, a small dome on the ceiling where the moon was shining and even…an organ?

"What's an organ doing in this room?" Blade gawked. "This isn't a church…"

"Well I guess this might be the musical room of the mansion," Sonic commented as he took a couple of steps. They could see that some kind of green ghost was playing the organ…which was somewhat strange.

"Wait, what the heck is that thing playing the organ?" Chopper asked.

"_**Heh heh heh… So you've come at long last!" **_the ghost stopped playing the organ and turned around to face the group. It looked kind of like a bull with hooves, but no bull-like nose. It had lower fangs (well, it's more of a "he" than an "it") and a red neckerchief around his neck.

"Wait… Who the heck are you?" Blade asked.

"_**Remember those two ghosts that ran away from you? Yeah. We're those ghosts! It's time for a little payback!" **_the ghost charged at the heroes with its horns pointing towards the heroes. They all gulped as they jumped out of the way.

"This shouldn't be too hard!" Chopper chucked a couple of fireballs at the ghost, but it didn't seem to have much on an effect on him. It did one damage each, which was incredibly bad. "Hold on a second… Why can't fire do much against this ghost?"

"_**That's because we made sure that fire wouldn't affect us! Just try using as much fire as you want! It's not going to work!" **_the ghost punched Chopper and knocked him across the room, breaking the organ.

"I think you're going to have to pay for that organ…" Sonic informed.

"Well that's not fair… I was hoping that we would be fighting something…cooler than this."

"No problem, we can handle this!" Blade drew his katana and attempted to stab at the ghost. Unfortunately, it didn't have any effect on him when a part of his body became invisible, making the katana only phase through.

"Oh, you son of a…"

The ghost grinned as it knocked Blade away with a punch. From what everyone was seeing, there was no way they could deal any damage to this thing.

"Poyo! (I know what to do!)" Kirby began to inhale the ghost, but even then, the ghost stood still and grinned. This time, it charged and rammed into Kirby, throwing him straight into the wall.

"_**You realize that you can't hurt us, right? As ghosts, we can phase through anything!" **_the ghost got himself ready to charge, but this gave Chopper a chance to use Timpani's wand to gather information on him.

"_This ghost… I have no idea what it is… There's no name given to this…thing! Max HP is 180. Attack is 10. It seems that there is no way to attack this ghost…However, I think there is one thing that can hurt it… There's a saying that a ghost is able to hurt another ghost, no matter whether it's phased or not… But, how is there a chance of us getting a ghost power?" _Timpani informed.

"Ghost power… You know, that does give me an idea…" Chopper was about to inhale the ghost, but Kirby stopped him and told him that it wouldn't work. "What? Then I'm supposed to chuck fireballs at it until it's gone?"

"_**Take this!" **_the ghost spat some ghostly energy straight at the two. Chopper inhaled one of them and spat it back at the ghost. To their surprise, the ghost took some major damage from the attack.

Mario: That actually worked?

"Poyo? (What if we end up inhaling one of those projectiles? Will it do anything for us?)" Kirby asked.

"We'll have to find out for ourselves," Chopper readied himself as the ghost spat out another glob of ghostly energy. He inhaled it and swallowed it. Chopper's appearance looked just like himself…but he turned transparent instead. "Oh… I remember turning like this in the past."

"Poyo? (Nothing else special? What a bummer…)" Kirby inhaled some ghostly energy and turned transparent as well. However, this time, with the Ghost ability on them, they could use some ghostly energy to fight their opponents.

"_**What do you think you people are doing? ! Aren't you ready to fight us? !" **_the ghost exclaimed.

"Why, of course we are!" Chopper flew up to the ghost and punched him straight in the face, knocking him straight towards the wall. Kirby also flew up and flew up with the ghost and slammed him to the ground.

"_**What's going on? ! Aren't we supposed to be unstoppable in this form? !"**_

"Poyo! (Well think again!)" Kirby smirked as he kicked the ghost's chest. "Poyo. (I think I'm going to call you Bull Ghost from now on.)"

"Bull Ghost? Errr… OK, I guess that works." Chopper nodded as he flew up to the Bull Ghost and performed a spinning kick on his face, leaving the ghost's face bruised for a couple of seconds.

But, since they too were ghosts, that didn't mean that they were invulnerable to the Ghost Bull's attacks. The Ghost Bull smirked and grabbed both Chopper and Kirby and crashed them into each other, leaving them dizzy for a couple of seconds.

"So… How are we supposed to fight this thing?" Blade asked.

"I guess there's no way for us to fight it… However, I think I may have an idea." Sonic jumped over to the Ghost Bull and sued a Whirlwind attack to keep it off guard. This seemed to work, because even the wind was a distraction. This allowed Chopper to gain conscience and punch the Ghost Bull with a Ghost Punch.

When Kirby rammed straight into the Ghost Bull, he ended up dropping his camera to the ground.

"_**Urgh… Don't think this is the end!" **_the Bull Ghost turned invisible, preventing anyone from seeing him. This was a bit troublesome, as everyone started to get beaten down with ghost punches. Chopper and Kirby suffered more from the damage than anyone else.

"Augh… I don't like this…" Chopper moaned before getting punched from behind when the Ghost Bull appeared again. He got knocked back by Kirby, causing them both to hit the wall, but not before hearing a little click.

Mario: Hmmmmm?

While Chopper and Kirby were trying to defend themselves, Mario looked down at the photo that was taken. He could see that the Ghost Bull was visible via a camera.

Mario: Hey! I think I have an idea!

He walked up to Chopper and Kirby and gave them the camera. He explained to them that if they took a picture of the Ghost Bull while he was invisible, they might be able to see where he could be.

"Not a bad idea, Mario!" Chopper gave the thumbs up as he looked around the room and gave the camera a little click. When the photo came out, he had to wait for the picture to appear.

"Come on… Can't you go a little faster?"

"_**Heh heh heh…" **_the Ghost Bull appeared right in front of the two and struck them both with an uppercut, sending them flying up in the air.

Mario tried to bash at the Ghost Bull with his hammer, but it didn't seem to do anything. All he got was a hoof to his stomach…and then got sent flying to the wall. It really wasn't a good experience for him…at all.

"Damn… This ghost looks pretty tough." Blade tossed Hommissile at the Ghost Bull, but the missile ended up phasing through the ghost and ended up going towards Mario. "Watch out, Mario!"

Mario: Mama mia!

Mario jumped out of the way just in time before he could get hit by the explosion. Meanwhile, while Chopper and Kirby were plummeting back down to the wooden floor, Chopper took a couple of more pictures until they landed on the ground.

"Poyo? (What are the pictures?)" Kirby asked.

"I'm trying to get a clear look!" Chopper responded while blowing on the pictures. Unfortunately, this resulted in them both being hit by a roundhouse kick by the Ghost Bull. They hit the wall, and THAT'S when Chopper got a clear look at the photos. From what he saw, the Ghost Bull was reading a little magazine, laughing at them and even sticking his tongue out at them.

"…I feel insulted."

"Poyo? (By what?)"

"Take a look at these," Chopper showed Kirby the pictures that they took. Both of them didn't look too happy, which resulted in Chopper pulling Timpani's wand out and flashing it around the room. "We better use this now."

"_I think that is a good idea…" _Timpani agreed as a ray of rainbow light emitted from the wand. When Chopper flashed it at the Ghost Bull, it left him stunned and vulnerable for a couple of seconds.

"All right! Time for some ass-kicking!" Blade smirked as he rushed towards the Ghost Bull and began to slash at its heart with his katana. Sonic joined in by striking him with a Light Speed Dash. After Mario landed a Triple Jump on the Ghost Bull, he was no longer vulnerable to them and wheezing in pain.

"_**What the heck was that supposed to be? !" **_the Ghost Bull coughed.

"That was supposed to be the point where you were supposed to get beaten up, thank you very much," Chopper answered as he struck the Ghost Bull with a Ghost Kick. "Yeah… This is just what we need… A ghost with horns on his head…"

"Well, I guess we can say that this ghost is rather…"

"Don't even say it, Blade," Sonic warned. "We don't need bad puns here…"

"What was he going to say?" Chopper asked.

Mario: Nothing interesting.

"Oh, come on! Why do you always never tell me what some people are even talking about? !"

"_It's because you're too young to understand what they're talking about…" _Timpani trailed. _"I think it's better that you don't really hear them."_

"_You seem rather…protective with Chopper for some reason," _Blumiere realized.

Before Chopper could answer, he noticed that the Ghost Bull was spitting dark ghost energy towards him. Chopper decided to devour this energy and turn into a dark-looking ghost that sort of resembled Tipral for some reason. But it didn't stop him from getting rammed into the wall by the Ghost Bull.

"Poyo! (Chopper!)" Kirby was about to help, but the Ghost Bull managed to knock him back to the wall over by Chopper as well.

"_**Heh heh heh! That worked out rather well!" **_the Ghost Bull turned invisible and walked right up to the unconscious Chopper and Kirby. The camera that they were using was right by their feet.

However, when they picked it up, they began to fight over the camera, which was definitely not a good move. Not only that, but it turned them back into their regular selves as the tall and chubby ghost began to fight over the camera.

"Gimme that camera! It's mine!"

"Hey! I own this camera! Get your hands off my camera!"

"You're camera? ! Yeah right! My name's written on this thing!"

"Just gimme back my camera, you snob!"

"Fatso!"

"Skinny-head!"

Chopper and Kirby regained consciousness and blinked a couple of times when they saw the two ghosts fighting over the camera. Both ghosts paused and looked at the two after a few seconds.

"All right, that's it. You're going down!" Chopper knocked the two ghosts back with a simply kick, leaving them in the center of the room. Sonic struck them with a couple of Spin Dashes, Blade slashed them a couple of times with his katana, Mario stomped on the ghosts and performed a Ground Pound afterwards, and Kirby slammed them to the ground.

"Ugh… Is that all?" the tall ghost moaned.

"Not yet!" Chopper smirked as he sprinted towards the two ghosts and did a Ghost Uppercut kick attack that sent them flying in the air to the glass dome up on the ceiling. They screamed as they began to plummet down.

"And here's the finisher! Falcon…"

"We're NOT going to say that…" Blade groaned.

"Oh, fine!" Chopper readied himself as the tall ghost accidentally took a picture and then sent them flying out of the mansion with a punch. They could all hear them scream as they flew straight up into the sky and most likely to the moon.

"Poyo, (Well there goes those guys,)" Kirby commented.

"So… What about that Pure Heart? Were those guys the ones responsible for Squirps's nightmares?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, man… I completely forgot about Squirps!" Chopper face palmed. "I have a feeling that Squirps might be somewhere on the top floor…"

Mario: Then we better go look for them!

"_Hold on a minute…" _Timpani stopped for a moment as her wand floated over to a Mansion Key that dropped from the ground. _"Didn't this key just drop from the ground? Maybe we can use it to reach the top floor!"_

"We should take this then. I remember a door was right next to this room." Chopper remembered, picking up the key and flying over to the door. "Let's go!"

"Chopper… You kind of look like Tipral with that Ghost ability on." Blade commented."

"…Thank you very much," was all he said before leaving the room. Everyone else followed him out, hoping to reach the top floor.

However, another ghost appeared in the room. It was the ghost girl! She noticed the picture of Chopper (who looked a lot like Tipral). From what she saw, she took Chopper for Tipral.

"I don't believe it! He does exist!" the ghost girl sighed sweetly as she hugged the photo and phased through the ground.

"_I'll always remember you…"_

* * *

**Third floor hallway-**

"All right, so we have the key here… So let's get going, shall we?" Chopper unlocked the door and opened the door into a dark room with a spiral staircase leading up to the top floor. There were a couple of Shadow Boos around, but due to the dark energy Chopper ate with his Ghost ability, he was able to eat the Shadow Boos easily.

"Poyo, (That Ghost ability makes defeating ghosts easier,)" Kirby commented.

"That's true," Chopper began to fly around the spiral staircase until he reached the top. When everyone else got to the top, they entered the door into a small hallway with no enemies, but there was a red door with a lock on it. Also, they could see a Save Block and a yellow ? block in the room as well.

But, what was surprising was that Chopper and Kirby removed their Ghost abilities.

"_Why did you remove your Ghost abilities? You might need them for the next room…" _Timpani warned.

"I was getting tired of looking like Tipral. I don't like him anyways…" Chopper walked up to the yellow ? block and punched it to make an Ultra Shroom pop out. Blade sliced it into five pieces so they could each have a piece and recover 50 HP. Afterwards, Chopper hit the Save Block to save their game.

However, when they reached the door, they saw that it was locked.

"_Wait! That lock appears to be weak!" _Blumiere informed. _"If you bash it with anything, you might be able to break the lock!"_

"Hmmmmm… Let's find out!" Blade drew his katana and slashed at the lock. Surprisingly, it ended up coming off.

"Oh! Well, looks like it ended up working!" Sonic grinned. "I guess we should get going, huh?"

Mario: Yeah, let's do that.

With that, everyone made their way into the next room, hoping to find something important, like Squirps and the Pure Heart.

* * *

**Top room-**

As they entered the top room, they noticed that there were large windows. The ceiling itself had glass as well and the room was lit up, which was very nice. The ground had an orange carpet with a heart in the center and even a cage with a familiar face in it and someone…cowering over by the corner.

"Squoh? Is that really you, privates? !" Squirps gaped after rubbing his eyes with his tentacles. "Squirps can't explain how happy he is to see you!"

"Uggggghhh… I don't know who's there, but I'd rather not be around here… It's not safe here!" the man moaned.

"Hold on a second… Why does that guy remind me of someone?" Blade asked, ready to draw his katana. "That guy…kind of looks like that Mr. L person!"

Before Blade could attack, Mario jumped in the way.

Mario: That's not Mr. L! It's my brother, Luigi!

"B-Bro? Is that your voice?" Luigi got up and turned to the group. "Wait a second… It's you guys from that party!"

"It's been a while, Luigi! Who ever thought we'd find you here?" Chopper smiled.

"Well… Now that I think about it, I DID find something here." Luigi pulled out a dark orange Pure Heart, making everyone gasp.

"_The Pure Heart? Luigi had it this whole time?" _Timpani gasped.

"Oh, no. I found this in this room. I think I should give it to you, though." Luigi walked over to Chopper to give it…

"You heroes really think you would reach the Pure Heart so easily? Think again…"

"Oh no… Not him again." Luigi gulped, backing away. "He's the reason why I'm so scared of being here!"

"Wait… Who's 'he'?" Sonic asked.

"That would be me," a mysterious, dark blue masked person shaped just like Chopper and Kirby jumped down from the ceiling and landed right in front of Chopper with his silver sword with spikes on the edges. His mask was a dark blue as well, being not as dark as himself. Red glowing eyes could be seen through his helmet while his black cape floated through the small wind in the room. The mysterious masked person was also wearing dark gloves and had silver shoes on. From what they could all see, this was certainly no ghost.

"Whoa… This is new. So we end up NOT running into a ghost boss? Weird…" Chopper trailed before getting into a fighting stance. "But tell us who you are! Now!"

"I am one of Tipral's minions. A more…honorable one. I am known as Knightmare." Knightmare introduced honorable, yet coldly.

"Knightmare? That's…kinda dumb." Blade commented.

"And kind of unoriginal…" Sonic trailed.

"It doesn't matter what my name is," Knightmare retorted, aiming his sword at the heroes. "I was sent by Tipral to stop you heroes from collecting that Pure Heart that man holds! And I'm not going to let myself fail to you people…"

"Oh, really? Tipral has sent other minions to attack us, but they always failed to win! What makes you think you can take us down?" Chopper smirked.

Knightmare glared at Chopper, but he felt some strange connection between them. However, he simply forgot about that and inched closer to the heroes with his sword ready to strike.

"You obviously haven't seen what I can do…" he warned.

"Poyo, (No, we haven't, but we're pretty sure you're just like the others,)" Kirby responded.

"Hmph… Think whatever you want, but don't think I'm going to go easy on you." Knightmare's cape disappeared and was replaced with bat-like wings. "This is where it all ends, heroes!"

"Bat wings? For some reason, he reminds me of someone…" Chopper pondered before Knightmare tossed two swords right near both him and Kirby. "What's with the swords, Knightmare?"

"While you are my enemies, I will be fair and allow you two to carry a weapon," Knightmare lowered his sword as Chopper and Kirby inhaled their swords and gained the Sword ability.

"Poyo, (I haven't used this ability in a while,)" Kirby commented.

"Now then… Let us settle this!" Knightmare flew towards Chopper with his wings and attempted to slash at him. The Star Warrior brought his sword up in an attempt to block his attack, but it didn't work out when Knightmare managed to use his cape to disappear and strike him from behind.

Mario: What was that? !

"Ow… I have no idea!" Chopper aimed Timpani's wand at Knightmare right when he appeared in front of him to gather some information.

"_This strange masked person is called Knightmare. He's one of Tipral's minions and seems more mysterious than Dark… Max HP is 200. Attack is 11. Defense is 4. Knightmare is rather fast, so if you're going too slow, expect to be hit by his attacks. He'll also disappear at times to attack you from behind, which is incredibly dangerous. Sometimes he might even fly up in the air and strike you from above. The most dangerous of his attacks is something called the Nightmare Tornado. He'll store power in his sword and unleash a powerful tornado that's capable of sucking you in! Luckily, you happen to have a sword to fight him with, but don't expect to hit him all the time… But, for some reason, he kind of reminds me a bit of someone I remember…" _Timpani informed.

"Wow… That's a lot of moves he's got." Sonic gaped as Knightmare flew up into the air and aimed his sword to the ground. Sonic jumped out of the way and let the warrior's sword get stuck to the ground.

"All right, now's our chance to make a move!" Chopper nodded.

Kirby made the first move, running over to Knightmare and jabbing at him a couple of times with his sword. When Knightmare pulled his sword out of the ground, he blocked the rest of Kirby's attacks and knocked him away with a Sword Beam.

"Wait… HE can use a Sword Beam? !" Chopper gaped.

"Surprised?" Knightmare asked as he began to jab at Chopper multiple times. He brought his sword up to block most of the attacks, but he still got hurt. Chopper tried striking back, but Knightmare was still able to block some of his attacks. However, when it came down to Chopper's speed, he was able to run straight behind him and strike him with his sword with no problem.

"Wow… So this guy's pretty fast, huh?" Blade gaped as he jumped in and struck Knightmare with his katana. Even though his katana was pretty tough, it wasn't tough enough to push Knightmare's sword away when their weapons clashed.

"A weak katana like that isn't going to help you defeat me!" the warrior scoffed as he sent Blade flying with a powerful strike from his sword.

"_That silver sword is strange…" _Timpani commented. _"Why are there spikes on the side of it?"_

"Honestly, I have no idea," Chopper replied as Knightmare began to spin around in a small tornado. He was able to knock him back, as well as Sonic and Mario. What was strange was that Chopper wasn't losing his ability.

"You privates can win this, Squirp!" Squirps cheered.

Mario: Luigi! Help us!

"But… But… I can't! There's no way I stand a chance!" Luigi cried, cowering over by the corner still.

Mario sighed and stomped on Knightmare's head after Kirby stunned him with his sword. He also delivered a Ground Pound to his head that left him dazed as well, allowing Sonic to curl up in a ball and strike the dark warrior with a Spin Dash.

"Ugh… So you are more than you seem!" Knightmare commented as he rubbed his head. "But I just got started! THIS is something you won't ever see before!"

He brought his sword up and was prepared to stab the ground. Everyone watched as a dark aura surrounded his sword. And boy, they weren't happy to see him perform this type of move (according to Timpani).

"Uh oh… I think this is the move Tippi was warning us about…" Chopper gulped.

Knightmare unleashed his Nightmare Tornado attack that began to rip through the ground and suck everyone in. After the tornado disappeared, everyone fell to the ground and suffered an intense amount of damage.

"Yeesh! That was the most I've ever suffered!" Blade coughed as he slowly got up.

"No kidding…" Sonic agreed.

"Don't worry, heroes! I've got more where that came from!" Knightmare smirked as he prepared to stab at them. However, Kirby managed to block his attack and keep him off guard, striking him twice with his sword.

"Poyo! (All right! I hit him!)" Kirby cheered.

Since Kirby was distracted, Knightmare managed to make him trip and then sent him flying across the room by hitting him with the flat part of his sword. When Chopper saw this, he rushed towards Knightmare with his sword ready, but he ended up getting hit in the face by the flat part of Knightmare's sword, leaving red marks on his cheeks.

"Ow! Why does my face always have to suffer such terrible attacks? !" Chopper cried, rubbing his cheek.

"What a crybaby…" Knightmare mumbled as he swung his sword and tried to strike Mario with a Sword Beam. However, Mario jumped just in time and used Kickbrin to knock Knightmare back.

"That should leave him stunned for a bit. Now it's my turn!" Blade raced towards Knightmare and slashed him with his katana. When the warrior got up, he tried striking Blade, but he used his jutsu to disappear and leave a log behind.

"What the…"

"Over here, idiot!" Blade shouted as he kicked Knightmare from behind and even tossed Hommissile to leave a large explosion that sent Knightmare flying towards Sonic.

"Aw, yeah! It's about time!" Sonic curled up in a ball to charge up his Light Speed Attack. When fully charged, he went all out on Knightmare, striking him many times before he could even attack.

"You sure are getting your butt kicked!" Chopper smirked.

Mario: Luigi, you should really help us…

"It's OK, Bro! I don't wanna watch the fight!" Luigi cried, still cowering over by the corner. Mario sighed and bashed Knightmare with his hammer. Of course, he ended up getting struck in the stomach by his sword.

"Are you heroes ready to give up yet?" Knightmare asked as he sent Sonic and Blade flying with a Sword Beam. "You're all looking rather…weak. A couple of hits would do you in!"

"Poyo! (There's no way we're giving up this fight!)" Kirby retorted, pulling an Ultra Shroom Shake out.

"A drink from a can? How pathetic!"

"Poyo, (Oh, just watch this,)" Kirby opened the can and took a sip from it, instantly recovering 50 HP. Chopper took the next sip and recovered 50 HP and it was passed on to each hero afterwards. In the end, they all managed to recover 50 HP and heal from their wounds."

"Hmph… I see. This should be interesting." Knightmare began to spin around as he charged at the five heroes with his Spinning Sword. However, Kirby managed to swing his sword and stop him with a Sword Beam. While he was stunned, Kirby had a chance to jab at him a couple of times.

This was when Knightmare had enough. He took off in the air and began to fly around the room, slashing at Chopper or Mario with his blade when he swooped down. They even tried to catch him, but there was no way of reaching him.

Mario: Luigi! We need your Super Jump to hit him!

"My Super Jump? But… But…"

Mario: No buts!

"OK, OK, I'll help you fight him a little!" Luigi stopped cowering over by the wall and looked up to see Knightmare flying around the room. He took a deep breath and folded up to ready himself for a Super Jump.

"Squoh? Why does that remind Squirps of that weird mysterious man we saw before?" Squirps asked.

Luigi unleashed his Super Jump and knocked Knightmare to the ground. The green plumber began to cheer to himself, with things such as "Go Luigi! Go Luigi!" and even "I did it!"

"You fool! I thought I told you to stay by that corner!" Knightmare hissed as he turned to Luigi. "You're going to regret doing that!"

"Ack!" Luigi immediately ran straight to the wall, but that didn't stop Knightmare from grabbing the plumber and throwing him up into the air with his sword. While he was up in the air, Knightmare flew up and slammed him to the ground with his steel boots. Not only did this make Luigi moan in pain, but it angered Mario.

Mario: NO ONE ever does that to my bro!

Mario clenched his hammer in anger and jumped towards Knightmare. Before the dark warrior could even attack Luigi's older brother, Mario managed to bash him in the head before him and caused him to become dazed.

"Nice work, Mario! I wanna join in there too!" Chopper rushed towards Knightmare and slashed him with his sword. When Knightmare regained conscience, he began to block some of Chopper's jabs.

"Hmmmmmm… When I look at you… I can't help but feel that there's a strange connection between us…" Knightmare trailed as he looked straight into Chopper's black eyes.

"Really? I don't think so!" Chopper kicked Knightmare and struck him with a Sword Beam. "Whew! It feels good to use that attack!"

"Hmph… So you have that attack as well. I'm not too surprised." Knightmare mumbled as he flew up into the air once again. When he swooped down towards Kirby, the pink puffball was able to jump and spin his sword around vertically to get him down to the ground.

"Grrrrr! You annoying little…!" Knightmare knocked Kirby away while he was up in the air with a swoop attack. He began to glide towards Chopper and knock him back with his own foot.

"Hey, what ever happened to playing fair? !" Chopper exclaimed.

"I can use my foot to knock you back if I want to," Knightmare fluttered in the air with his wings and brought his sword down in front of Chopper. Even though he managed to dodge the attack, he got jabbed a couple of times by Knightmare's silver sword and even got left with some bad wounds.

"Whoa, man… You should stop trying your hardest to fight…" Sonic suggested.

"You're just hurting yourself," Blade added.

"_If you keep fighting like this, there's a chance that you might lose the fight…or you might possibly…"_

"No, Tippi! Don't think about that!" Chopper denied, shaking his head. "Look, I know what we can do." he pulled an Ultra Shroom Shake out and drank from it to recover 50 HP. He drank the WHOLE thing and threw the can at Knightmare's mask.

"…And, of course, that did absolutely nothing."

Knightmare was about to strike Chopper again, but Kirby floated up in the air and dropped down on Knightmare and brought his sword down on him to leave him dazed for a couple of seconds. This was when Blade slashed him with a fire slash. Chopper actually struck him with a fire slash as well, since he does have the ability to use fire.

"Fire? Hmph… Well that's something new. No matter…" Knightmare saw Chopper jump into the air and spin his sword vertically, but one jab from above was able to make the Star Warrior drop to the ground.

"Hey, don't think you're going off easy with us not fighting much!" Sonic curled up in a ball again and bashed Knightmare's mask with a Spin Dash. When the warrior got up, he was knocked away by an explosion from Hommissile and slashed a couple of times with Blade's katana.

"Unnnghh… What the…" Knightmare quickly shook his head and got up, only to get struck by Mario's hammer. Knightmare knocked Mario away and glided towards Sonic and Blade to strike both of them. Afterwards, he flew up and landed to the left of the room to store power in his sword.

"I think now's the perfect time to unleashed my powerful attack," he suggested as a dark aura surrounded Knightmare's sword. Everyone gulped, but Chopper got everyone into 3-D right before they could get stuck in the Nightmare Tornado.

"What? ! Where are they? !"

"Poyo! (Over here!)" when they flipped back into 2-D, Kirby slashed Knightmare with his sword and recoiled when he was about to get struck by Knightmare's sword. "Poyo… (He is pretty fast when it comes to attacking…)"

"Well just leave this part to me!" Chopper smirked as an icy aura surrounded his sword. "I have an idea that just might work!"

"_Chopper… You better not be doing what I think you're doing…" _Blumiere sighed.

"I think this is going to work, so settle down, Count Bleck," Chopper noticed that Knightmare was flying around the room like a bat. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get him while he was up in the air.

"Luigi! We need your help again!"

"What? ! No way! I don't want to get caught in any more traps!" Luigi cried.

"It's for the greater good!" Sonic shouted. "You wanna help us get rid of this guy, then you're going to have to get him out of the sky!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Knightmare swooped down to Luigi and grabbed a hold of him. "If you plan on trying to throw me down to the ground, you're going to have to get past your little friend!"

"H-Hey! Lemme go!" Luigi cried, struggling to break free. "Why do all the bad thing have to happen to me? ! I never did anything wrong!"

"Geez… You never acted like this before, Luigi…" Chopper groaned. "You didn't seem as cowardly as those other times I've met you."

Mario: That's because he wasn't running into any bad guys…

"Well, then Kirby… You might need to try to do something to get him down…"

"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby gawked.

"Well, since you're the only one in the group that can float around, you might be able to get Knightmare to let go of Luigi."

Mario: Wait, he might get hurt!

"You can always help him out, Mario," Chopper mentioned. "I mean, he IS your brother…"

"Or better yet, I can do this!" Sonic performed a Whirlwind attack that Knightmare ended up getting caught in. Because of the intense wind, he ended up letting go of Luigi and also came crashed into the ground.

"WAAAAH! HELP ME!" Luigi cried before getting caught by Mario. Unfortunately, they got separated when Knightmare got back up and struck both Mario and Chopper with his Nightmare Drill.

"Poyo… (Oh, you're going to get it now…)" Kirby grumbled as he ran towards Knightmare and slashed right at him. The warrior noticed Kirby and tried to block his attacks.

Chopper slowly got himself back up and noticed that his sword still had an ice aura around it. He made a dash towards Knightmare and struck him with an ice slash, making Knightmare instantly freeze right in front of Kirby.

"There ya go. He's frozen!"

Mario: I guess I can deal some damage now.

While Knightmare was frozen, Mario jumped on top of him and performed a Ground Pound that not only made Knightmare dazed, but it also allowed Kirby to jab at him a couple of times.

"An ice slash, huh? Not bad…" Knightmare turned to Chopper and tried to attack him once again. Chopper raised his sword up and tried to defend himself, but since Knightmare was attacking rather fast, he didn't know if he could hold himself for any longer.

"Man! Not even I am fast with this kind of sword skill!" Chopper cried.

"Poyo! (Same goes here!)" Kirby agreed.

"Hold on, guys! I'll try to help!" Sonic curled up in a ball to charge up a Light Speed Dash. When he was ready, he took off and struck Knightmare a couple of times until he looked all battered up.

"Guh… You fools haven't finished me just yet!" Knightmare created another tornado that he spun around in and sent everyone flying back. At this point, the heroes look pretty exhausted from fighting this guy too.

"Wow… I guess you were right when you said you weren't going to let us win…" Chopper wheezed.

"I suggest you give up then! You're most likely going to lose this fight…"

"Poyo! (Well I'm not giving up!)" Kirby ran towards Knightmare with his sword ready and clashed with the warrior.

"Hold on, Kirby! I'm coming!" Chopper was about to help, but Kirby kicked Chopper away with his foot. "Hey! Why'd you do that? !"

"Poyo, (I'm settling this with him,)" he responded as he tried to push Knightmare away.

"Hmmmmmmm… I feel as if I…know you from somewhere as well… But the question is… Where?" Knightmare questioned.

"Poyo! (It doesn't matter if you know me from somewhere or not! You're trying to stop us, and now I'm going to end it!)"

Kirby managed to successfully push Knightmare back and deliver one last blow with his sword. Knightmare was knocked to the ground with his mask broken in half. The rest of the heroes walked up to the warrior, whose face was now revealed.

"Ugh…" he slowly got up and gave one last glare at the group before teleporting out of the room with his cape.

"_Don't think this is the end, heroes… I will be back!" _Knightmare's voice echoed through the room for about three seconds and then it was gone.

"I can't believe it… It's finally over…" Sonic sighed in relief as Chopper and Kirby removed their Sword abilities. Kirby was able to free Squirps from his cage as Mario walked up to the dazed Luigi.

Mario: Luigi!

"Mario!" Luigi cried as both brothers gave each other a heartwarming hug. Tears began to rain from Luigi's eyes and create a rather large puddle right next to him.

"I really missed you guys! I've been looking for you forever!" Luigi wiped the tears off his face as he and Mario let go of each other. "I can't believe you left me back at the winter world… I thought I would never find you guys…"

Everyone gasped in horror. "You...were in the Christmas World this whole time before we even found you?" Blade gaped.

"Y-Yeah… And after you guys passed by me, I was caught by Tipral and one of his minions! And then… Oh, man, I can't remember what happened. But I then found myself in a world like this right in front of Tipral before coming here!"

"So does this mean that this whole time… Luigi was…Mr. L?" Sonic gaped.

"Mr. L? What are you talking about?"

"Ugh…" Chopper groaned as he smacked his forehead. "I can't believe we forgot about you, Luigi… We're really sorry for leaving you there. If we found you, we could've saved you!"

Mario: But he's all right!

As they all spoke, Squirps spoke up. "Ahem… Privates…or should I say lieutenants! You've done an excellent job, squirple! Squirps is so happy that those nightmares were finally rid of!"

"So, what were those nightmares, really?" Blade asked.

"Squirps found out that some strange, mysterious ghosts were causing mischief here, but when you lieutenants came here, those nightmares were gone! Squirps must thank you for this! …Maybe with a hug!"

"Uhh… How about the Pure Heart?" Chopper sweat dropped, having enough hugs for this adventure already.

"Squoh? Well that works too, I guess…"

When Luigi pulled the dark orange Pure Heart out, Timpani realized something. _"Wait… Merleee said something about there being six heroes to defeat the true power of the Chaos Heart… Does this mean that Luigi is our sixth hero?"_

Mario: I think so!

"I agree. But, what's more important is that we're finally back together!" Chopper smiled.

"Poyo! (Oh, yeah! Everyone from the party is back here! I just realized that!)" Kirby smiled.

"Wait, what about Bang and Night?" Blade recalled. "…Oh, yeah. They ran out the castle before getting sucked into that portal by Tipral."

"Well, Chopper… How about you take this Pure Heart?" Luigi suggested as he held up to Chopper. "You and my bro managed to save me from that dark warrior! Plus, I'll even tag along with you, if that's what you'd like."

"Yeah! Take the Pure Heart, squirp! You lieutenants deserve it, squinkles!" Squirps nodded.

"Well… I guess I should take it. Thanks, Luigi!" as Luigi tossed the Pure Heart to him, all of the Pixls began to perform their little dance. As soon as they finished, Chopper held the Pure Heart up.

"I can't believe we're finally back together!" he smiled.

"…But I still don't know where Bang and Night are…" Blade trailed.

"Well… Those two really aren't important to this story! And…uh… I'm not sure if anyone really wants to know where they are!"

"Yeah, you're right, I suppose."

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Now that Squirps's nightmares are finally gone, Squirps can finally return back to the Whoa Zone and stay with Mommy!" And with that, Squirps gave his good-byes to his six friends as he flew off into Outer Space with his space ship. With Luigi agreeing to help Chopper and Co., the five heroes have now become six! Everyone seemed to be in a happy mood as they were finally reunited. "We should tell Merlon the news about this," suggested Timpani as the group headed back to the black tower of Flopside. Although one thing that bugged Chopper… Who was this Knightmare, and what kind of connection did he have with him?_

* * *

**YES! Done with this chapter at long last! Honestly, writing some of this chapter out got a little...boring for some reason. Not to mention... The whole ghost stuff and scary worlds aren't usually...interesting (well, we'll get to more of that later in the fic). But, you're probably wondering why there was no ghost boss. Well, in SPM, every odd chapter, the boss would always be one of Count Bleck's minions. I kinda wanted to go with something like that (well, it couldn't work out in Chapter 10, so Fawful was fought in Chapter 9 instead). And besides... What would've been a better boss fight? The Bull Ghost or Knightmare (and yeah, I know some people find it dumb. I can kind of agree with you)?**

**Anyways... It looks like we're going to be going into an interlude next chapter! ...And maybe we'll get to see some of Luigi's new abilities now that he's joining and hopefully meet some friends back in a previous story!**_  
_


	75. Chapter 12 Interlude

**Well, you know that time again, folks. It's time for…an INTERLUDE! …Yeah, but this one isn't as long as the previous interlude? Why? Well, nothing's really going to happen in this chapter. Well, except for maybe introducing Luigi and maybe some other people… And stuff going on in Tipral's Palace as well. All right? Then let's get to this interlude!**

* * *

"Yeah, guys. We need to speak for a bit, 'K?" Nastasia suggested as the minions, O'Chunks, Mimi, Fawful, Mr. L (who Tipral recreated after taking the dark power from Luigi), Dark and Dimentio stood on their platform. They noticed that there was a new minion in the house. They all gawked as they looked at the small dark warrior, Knightmare.

"I would like for you guys to meet our newest minion, Knightmare," Tipral declared. "He will be joining us to help fight against Chopper and his pathetic little friends! So welcome him…and DON'T make a fuss about it!"

"Man, this is weird… Why do we always 'ave new minions joinin' us?" O'Chunks asked with a confused look.

"And how come we never see any more female minions? I don't like being the only girl here!" Mimi pouted.

"I have chortles! Why do you have the whining which is spewed right into Fawful's face? It's like hearing the crying of babies!" Fawful cackled.

"Wait, so I'm not the new minion around here? Ho ho! Now this should be interesting…" Mr. L smirked as he looked at Knightmare. However, Tipral gave him a little glare. "All right! I'll stop! It's not my fault that I went out on my own!"

"Yes, it is, actually," Tipral growled. "But, thankfully, you should do EXACTLY what I tell you now that you're not in someone else's body… You DO know that I created you, right?"

"Yeah… I know that…"

"This is a rather…strange minion that's here…" Dark trailed while holding his forehead in pain. "I wish I could give him a greeting WITHOUT the pain throbbing in my damn forehead!"

"My my, now I'm getting rather curious on what that pain is…" Dimentio pondered as he looked at Dark's forehead.

"It's none of your damn business, Dimentio," the Dark Creature king growled. "You can't do a damn thing about it, or else you're going to make my damn eye worse than it damn is!"

"You sure have a thing for excessive swearing," Dimentio chuckled as he flew over to Dark's platform. "You do know that I am a magician, right? And magicians do have the power to use magic!"

"And what the hell do you want me to do?"

"Just watch…and learn!" by waving his hand, Dimentio managed to relieve the pain from Dark's eye. "Now you see what I can do? Now your eye is feeling much better! No more pain for you!"

"Huh… Well, apparently it seems that there's no more pain in my eye…" Dark trailed as he stopped covering his eye. "Thank you, Dimentio… I didn't expect someone such as yourself to do this kind of thing."

While they were having that conversation, Knightmare knelt down to Tipral. "I apologize for my failure, Tipral… I tried to defeat those heroes, but they managed to best me. That green plumber was able to knock me while I was in the air!"

"'Green plumber'? Are you talking about that man who used to be Mr. L? What ever happened to him?" Nastasia asked.

"It seems that he's joined that boy Chopper… But fear not. I will try my best next time."

"Hmph… So it seems that Chopper has found all of his friends." Tipral folded his arms and closed his eyes. "Ugh… Now with all six heroes, they can stop the true power of the Chaos Heart! This could be a problem when I bring it back…"

"Oh yeah! You want to bring back The Void!" Mimi smiled as she teleported over to Tipral. "I remember you said something about that! Does it require any _love_ from me?"

"No, it doesn't require your love," Tipral said as he teleported Mimi away from him. "It's going to be a bit tricky, but I need to find the RIGHT moment to find this moment. The Dark Prognosticus stated that there is another way to bring the Chaos Heart back and unleash The Void."

"Hold on a second… If you plan on bringing The Void back… Wouldn't it take a while for it to grow?" Knightmare asked.

"Oh, not this time… I've got a little something planned, but we can't go there just yet. For now, we just need to keep the heroes busy for a while. Nastasia! Where are they heading next?"

"Hmmmm… Let me check, 'K?" Nastasia pulled her clipboard out and checked where the fourteenth Pure Heart was located. "I think I have the information right here, Tipral…"

"Can yeh send me out teh take the heroes down?" O'Chunks begged. "I REALLY want teh get teh some chuckin'! I want teh 'ave the honor 'o wailin' at the heroes!"

"Oh, so, O'Chunks, yeah, you think you're all ready to go now?" Nastasia asked as she adjusted her glasses. "I suppose you already finished up that little report on your own inadequacy that I needed?"

"Eeh… Yeh see… I…just got a wee bit left." O'Chunks sweat dropped. "'m workin' on me conclusion. Yeh gotta gimme a break! Me writin' takes time, lass! An' 1,000 pages be a lot! Me arms are almost as tired as a Squiglet!"

"O'Chunks, you need to take a break," Tipral suggested. "I plan to send someone else out to catch the heroes. Dimentio, you're going out now."

Dimentio's eyes sparked as he teleported right over to Tipral. "My, my! Is it my time to go out already? How charming!"

"I want you to go find the heroes and stop them. Hopefully this time you'll do as I tell you…"

"You can certainly count on me, my lord!" Dimentio bowed as he was about to leave with a snap of his finger. "…Oh! There was one thing I forgot to gave you! You might be interested in this!"

Dimentio pulled a pink book with a heart in the center out and gave it to Tipral. "I made sure that the lock was off, so you can read it! Ciao!"

And at that moment, Dimentio teleported out of the palace.

"Heh heh heh! This is going to be hilarious!" Mr. L snickered.

"And Fawful might have the chortles as well!" Fawful grinned.

"Wait! Don't read what's in there, Tippy!" Mimi cried as she teleported over to Tipral and swiped the book away from him. "Dimentio just stole my diary! I don't want anyone reading through this, especially you!"

"That was your diary?" Nastasia's eyes widened. "Ummmm… 'K… I suppose you can take it back."

"Yes, take it back," Tipral nodded, but ended up getting kissed on the cheek by Mimi. "WHY do you always have to do that?"

"Thank you so much, Tippy!" Mimi squeezed him while hearts flew over her head. Both Mr. L and Fawful began to snicker as Nastasia looked a bit…freaked out before Mimi teleported out of the room.

"Hey, Tipral! How's your girlfriend?" Mr. L burst in laughter.

Fawful was about to say something until Mr. L got struck by a dark star, knocking him off the platform. "…Actually, Fawful has the lacking of what to say."

"If you ever mock me again, you're going to have a fate WORSE than that!" Tipral growled as Mr. L got back on his platform. "You KNOW that you shouldn't mock your own leader!"

"…Well, it was just a joke! Sheesh…"

"You people should know better," Knightmare scolded as he wrapped his black cape around himself. "I thought I would be around a group of minions that were a bit more…mature."

"You're free to go back to your room, if you wish, Knightmare," Tipral declared.

"Thank you, my lord," Knightmare nodded as he flew down to the door with his bat-like wings. "Oh, and Tipral…"

"Yes?"

"This Chopper that you were speaking about earlier…" he began as he eyed Tipral. "For some reason… I feel this weird…connection with him. I don't know what it is, but…do I know him?"

"No, you don't know him," Tipral shook his head. "He is your enemy, and you should know that."

"…Very well," Knightmare exited the room, leaving only Tipral, Nastasia, O'Chunks, Fawful, Mr. L and Dark. Tipral, on the other hand, closed his eyes and began to think of something.

"Tipral, is there something bothering you?" Nastasia asked.

"I'm getting this strange vision in my head… I don't understand what's going on because of how blurry it is. I can't stop thinking about something that happened ever since I was born…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Like I'm remembering some things that I haven't remembered before. I don't have amnesia, but some things are starting to come back to me. I just remember…a space station…and a beautiful world."

"Oh…"

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room," he declared as he teleported out of the meeting room. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, as if what the heck just happened. Nastasia was the most confused out of them all.

"I have confusion," Fawful commented.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

As everyone stepped out of the dark orange door, they saw a dark orange crystal heart appear over the door. Everyone was smiling for two reasons. One, they were finally done with this world, which was a place that they DIDN'T enjoy and two, because they found a friend that has been missing for a long time.

"Wow, Flopside sure has changed…" Luigi gaped.

"Nah, not that much. It's always been like this." Chopper pointed out.

Mario: Not really…

"No? What do you mean, Mario?"

Mario: …Never mind.

"_So, now that we've got the thirteenth Pure Heart and Luigi, does this mean we have all of the heroes on our side?" _Blumiere asked.

"Yeah, I think we do," Sonic nodded. "So… Now that we're back together, does this mean we can stop Tipral?"

"_The only way we'll be able to reach his palace is if we find the right Pure Heart. I'm sure that after you collect sixteen Pure Hearts, you'll be led to his palace. However, we might need all twenty Pure Hearts to save the entire universe…"_

"Wow… That's going to be a lot." Luigi gulped before turning to the group. "Man, I really missed you guys. But now I feel that I could jump with glee! We're finally out of that dark place!"

"So, you DO want you come with us, right?" Blade asked.

"Why of course! I don't want to leave my bro lonely here now, do I? I think it's for the greater good anyways. Besides… You might need my help with some things you might encounter as well!"

"Well… Then welcome to the group, Luigi!" Chopper smiled.

**Luigi has joined your party! With him, he can perform his all-powerful Super Jump to reach great heights! This also allows him to strike any enemy from above as well! He can also attack with his Luigi Cyclone, which is capable of leaving enemies dizzy or sending them flying up in the air! His jump is also greater than everyone else's!**

"Man! So it feels good to be back together!" Luigi smiled.

"So… I guess all six heroes have been united at long last." everyone turned and saw the mysterious dark wizard, Shade, wearing his cloak and covering his face with his hood. "Congratulations. Congratulations indeed."

"Who's that guy? !"

"Shade? What're you doing here?" Chopper asked, getting in a fighting stance.

"I just wanted to pay a little visit to this place. Is there anything wrong with that?" Shade gave everyone a disturbing grin that they could see under his hood. This made Luigi hide behind Mario. "Aw, what's wrong? Is Luigi too scared of me?"

"J-Just go away!" Luigi cried.

"Oh, fine… There's no point in fighting here anyways. We'll probably meet some other time in the future. But for now, be ready, because you might see me when you least expect it! Hee hee hee!"

Shade flew straight into the sky, making Luigi sigh in relief and stand back up.

"_Who was that strange boy?" _Blumiere asked.

"Poyo, (Someone who's rather creepy,)" Kirby groaned.

"Ah! You've finally returned, heroes!" Nolrem appeared right behind Luigi, making him yelp for a bit before turning around. "It's all right, Luigi. It's only me, Nolrem! You remember me, don't you?"

"Now that I think about it, I think I do remember you…" Luigi recalled. "Yeah! You're that other Merlon guy!"

"Ho oh oh ho! You are correct! And I've come here with great news! The next Heart Pillar that you seek is actually down on the third floor! However, there's a block that's rather...impossible to hit. It's too high for anyone in town to hit it, but I'm sure you'll find the Heart Pillar there."

"Really? Well that's pretty neat!" Chopper smiled. "We finally get to reach a Heart Pillar that's close to us!"

"Indeed! And also… When you're done with the Pure Heart, you should head over to Flipside. Merlon has a little surprise for you guys."

"A surprise? Well, that should be nice!" Luigi smiled. "We should head over to the pillar right now!"

"Great idea!" Chopper immediately jumped off the tower to the left. "See you guys on the third floor!"

* * *

**Flopside, third floor-**

"See? I told you that jumping wouldn't be such a good idea…" Sonic trailed as they saw Chopper slowly get up. Even with the wounds left on him by Knightmare, he got hurt from the fall. Well, not by a lot.

"Well, at least I'm not people like Banjo or Conker… They get hurt when they literally fall like five feet or something!" Chopper said as he slowly got up.

Mario: Oh, yeah… They always did.

"Ahem! Anyways… I guess we have a block up there that we can't hit. …Or CAN we?" Chopper pondered.

"I think I can reach it," Luigi declared.

"Then you should give it a go!" Sonic suggested.

"All righty!" Luigi folded himself up under the blue ! block and launched himself up. Everyone gaped at how high he could jump. He was even able to punch the blue ! block as well! This caused a Heart Pillar to appear right before their very eyes.

"Wow! You weren't kidding when you said your jump was incredible!" Chopper gaped as his eyes widened in surprise.

"Well, are we going to place the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar?"

"Err… Yes! We must do that!" Chopper walked up to the Heart Pillar and pulled the dark orange Pure Heart out. He allowed it to go right into the Heart Pillar and create a dark orange clock that began to spin around. No one knew what was going on, but something was going on from the top of the tower.

A light blue door was drawn right next to the dark orange door.

"Hmmmmmm… So I suppose that did a little something, did it?" Blade asked.

"Poyo? (And did Merlon want to see us too?)" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, that's something he wanted us to do," Chopper nodded as he looked down at Timpani's wand. "You know, I think we should tell Merlon that you're still alive, Tippi. Don't you think it's a good idea?"

"_Chopper, this wand won't function when you're right by a descendant of the Tribe of Ancients. Blumiere helped me create this wand, which required some Tribe of Darkness material. Darkness won't work well around him. I'm sorry about that, but I don't think it will work…" _Timpani frowned.

"Oh… Well that's a shame. I guess we have no other choice but to go on without you helping us there."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sonic suggested as he made his way over to the elevator.

* * *

**Flipside, second floor-**

"Man… I can't believe we can't go into that door just yet…" Blade groaned as he jumped out of the pipe. "But, I suppose it would be nice to see Merlon again. I mean, after going through that atrocious world, we should be thankful!"

"Well I'm relieved to be out of that place too," Luigi agreed. "I can't wait to find out what Merlon's got for us!"

When Chopper jumped off the blue pipe, he turned to his friends and smiled. "Yeah, I think paying Merlon a little visit is a good idea. Plus, he said he would be taking care of our friends, so we can finally see how they're doing as well!"

Since he was looking the other way, he didn't see Heartsy walking out of Merlon's house. Why she was out of the house, I have no idea. She seemed to be playing with a yo-yo, though.

"I like how this town is!" she commented as she looked at the whole place. "And I'm also glad that Merlon saved us! I can't believe that there is more than one Merlon! …But there's only one thing that could make this place better…"

She looked to her right first to see a bunch of the Flipsidians roaming around and then to her left, where she saw the six heroes. One that immediately caught her eye was none other than…Chopper.

"C-Choppy's here!" hearts flew over her head as she rushed straight over to him.

"Hey, Chopper! There's some girl rushing over to you! Although… She seems to be coming here rather fast." Luigi mentioned.

"Huh?" Chopper could hear someone calling out for his name. Well, more like a dreadful nickname that he was given called "Choppy". He turned around and his eyes widened in fear as Heartsy was coming straight to him.

He was about to run, but he was too late. Heartsy instantly tackled him and had him on the ground. "I missed you so much, Choppy! You don't wanna know how much I've wanted to see you this whole time!"

"H-Heartsy! P-Please get off of me! Please!" Chopper cried as he was smothered by her kisses. "GROSS! She's giving me cooties!"

"What the… Wait, this is your girlfriend, isn't she?" Luigi gawked.

"Of course I'm his girlfriend!" Heartsy smiled as he got him up and hugged him. "He DID kiss me, after all!"

"Heartsy, I was just being nice, that's all!" Chopper tried wiping the kisses off of him, but it didn't seem to work because he could even move his arms. "And that was the LAST time I was ever going to do that…"

"Tee hee! Come on, cutie! I should tell Merlon that your back!" she giggled as she kissed him of the cheek, making Chopper's face turn bright red with humiliation.

"Poyo, (Maybe it would be best to let him go over on his own,)" Kirby suggested.

"Well I'm really happy to see the boy that I love here! And besides, maybe Merlon will see how cute of a couple we are! …It's too bad I lost some of my stuff, though. We could've played some fun games!"

"What about the yo-yo?" Blade questioned.

"Oh, Merlon gave it to me. It's something that he thought I could have, so I decided to take it. I wasn't going to keep it, though. …But, anyways. Let's go back to Merlon's house, Choppy!"

She kissed him one last time before dragging him over to the house. Chopper tried to get her to release her grip in his hand, but it was too strong for him. This seemed a bit funny to some of the people here.

"Well we better go to his house then," Luigi nodded as he headed straight to Merlon's house.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"Oh ho ho! You don't need to worry, my dear! If it weren't for those heroes, you wouldn't be here by now!" Merlon chuckled as he had Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Vivian and Flyer in his house. "Surely Heartsy should be back by now."

"It would be better if she didn't come back," Bow cackled as she fanned herself with her fan.

"What do you have against her?" Vivian asked.

"Well, it's not MY fault that I got to Chopper first. She should know better."

"Merlon! Guess who I found?" Heartsy walked in the room with Chopper. "You're not going to believe it, but I found the boy of my dreams, Choppy!"

"Hey, Merlon…" Chopper squeaked as he was still trapped in Heartsy's hug. "Heartsy… Let me go, please…"

"All right, I guess I should," she giggled as she let go of his hands. The five other heroes walked into the room as well. Merlon seemed quite surprised to see them here already, but he happened to notice Luigi's arrival.

"Well now! It looks like you've found the final hero! It's so good to see you again, Luigi!" Merlon smiled.

"It's good to see you again too, Merlon!" Luigi greeted. "I'm just relieved that I'm finally back with my friends!"

"Yeah, I'm happy too," Flyer nodded as he flew over to Chopper. "It's been a while since we've spoken."

"No worries, buddy. At least it wasn't two full years." Chopper assured as he saw the others. "Man! I can't believe that some of my friends are here! I haven't seen you all in a while!"

"I am glad to see you too," C-2 Choppor responded as he slowly nodded. "Commencing handshake." he reached out his hand for Chopper, who sweat dropped for a second.

"Errrr… That's OK, Choppor. You don't need to shake my hand." Chopper turned around, only to get surprised by Bow.

"So, Chopper… It has been a while since we've spoken, haven't we?" Bow giggled as she fanned herself while blushing. "I suppose now would be a good time to give you a little…welcome kiss."

"Wait, what?" Chopper ended up getting kissed on the cheek by the Boo princess, causing him to get grossed out (as usual). "Eww! Now I got ghost cooties!"

"Oh, I missed that so much," she giggled, only to receive a glare from Heartsy. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I bothering you?"

"Yes, you are, actually…" Heartsy frowned. "Could you please just stay away from my boyfriend?"

"Hey! There was no agreement that you're my girlfriend!" Chopper retorted. "There was no agreement between ANYONE! Look, if you people are going to stay in Flipside, you NEED to get along."

"Oh, that's fine with me," Parakarry nodded. "Merlon told us something like that. Of course, if you're talking about Heartsy and Bow… Then yeah, they should get along."

"Or maybe we should just get out of here and head to the next world," Sonic suggested. "That might work too."

Mario: Yeah, that too.

"So, what exactly is going on here?" Heartsy asked. "Where were you, Choppy? …And why do you seem somewhat scared of me?"

Chopper was just remembering some of the horrible moments in the Path of Fear when he ran into a ghost of her. "Errrrr… Nothing, really! I'm just cold, that's all! No, really. I am."

"Awww! I can help you!" she giggled as she wrapped him in a hug. He could feel her soft, hot pink hair stroking his cheek. When she kissed him, his face turned bright red again.

"No more, please!" he got out of her grip and went up to Merlon. "So… We've got all the heroes here, so what do we need to do now?"

"Poyo? (Do we get to kick Tipral's butt?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, you have all six heroes, but getting to Tipral is one of the things that is also important. One of the Pure Hearts is bound to lead to his palace, but the thing is, we're not sure which one WILL." Merlon explained.

"Ummmmm… Do you think we'll need your help?" Vivian asked shyly.

Chopper smacked his forehead and walked up to the shy Shadow Siren. "Why did I forget to say hi to you before? Now I feel like a total idiot…"

"It's OK, Chopper. You don't have to feel sorry. In all honesty, I think speaking to me last is, um, better." Vivian inched closer to Chopper and smiled. "I really missed seeing you, you know."

"Say... It kind of seems like you've lost some weight through the years!" Chopper noticed that Vivian's stomach wasn't as plump. In fact, she looked a lot prettier than before. "Err... Yeah. I think you did, judging by how you look."

"Yeah, I've lost some weight over the months," Vivian nodded as she looked at him shyly. "I worked out a bit and ended up losing a lot of weight." her hands began to go over to her hat, making Chopper jump up a little

"Please don't take your hat off," Chopper stepped away, covering his eyes. "I don't want to be…succumbed…"

"I wasn't going to take my hat off," she assured as she adjusted her hat, kissed him on the cheek and blushed. "I wouldn't do something like that. I'm just a little worried that you would be in danger from Tipral."

"Oh… So you guys met Tipral already?" Blade asked.

"He came to Toad Town and attacked," Bow informed.

"Yeah, and he happened to come right at the moment we all met each other," Parakarry informed.

"And he took our stuff too!" Heartsy frowned. "I swear that I miss that Chopper doll I got!"

"Well… I'm sorry to hear that." Chopper frowned until he nearly tripped and dropped three things. It was the Vivian and Heartsy plushie and the poster of Bow.

"Wait… What are those?" Flyer asked as he flew over to Chopper. "Are you OK, Chopper?"

"Yeah… I'm fine."

"You've got plushies and a poster?" Luigi picked up the items, but they were immediately taken by Heartsy, Bow and Vivian. Well, they took the item of themselves.

"Chopper! Who ever knew you'd have a poster of me!" Bow smiled as she flew over to Chopper. "That was thoughtful of you."

"And I knew you always liked me!" Heartsy was the first to kiss Chopper on the cheek, making him cover his face in agony.

"_I feel completely humiliated!" _

"Scanners indicate Chopper's humiliation level has increased to 89%," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Can I make it go higher?" Blade snickered. "Hey, Chopper! So, what girl are you planning on marrying!"

"You're making it worse you know!" Chopper retorted.

Vivian looked at her plushie and smiled. "This is actually very cute, you know. It does really make me feel that you care about me."

"OK, first I get attacked by some dark warrior and now I'm trapped here…" Chopper groaned. "I think I wanna get out of here now and go to that door on Flopside Towers."

"You're hurt? Then I think I should heal you!" Heartsy grabbed Chopper and kissed his cheek again, but this time she managed to heal Chopper of any damage.

"Is it all right if we come with you to find these Pure Hearts Merlon told us about?" Flyer asked. All six heroes suddenly backed away as the other six came a bit closer.

"It would be nice to join some old friends," Parakarry agreed.

"You probably want to have a girl to keep you company too," Bow smiled.

"Or you might want to be able to blast through anything with my help," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Maybe, um… My fire could give you a hand…" Vivian stammered. "You'd love for me to join you, right, Chopper?"

"Well, I'd obviously want to stay with someone I care about," Heartsy said as she looked at Chopper.

"Whoa! Settle down there, people!" Sonic said as his eyes were widened. "Don't you think that six more people is a little…too much?"

Mario: Luigi just joined us! I think you're asking for too much!

"And besides… I think Chopper's humiliation level would go WAY up if you all came with us!" Blade informed.

"Poyo, (It's too much for us,)" Kirby informed.

"Well… No offense to any of you, but the things we've encountered are MUCH more dangerous than what we've encountered in the past. I don't mean like Darksprine Troopers, but we've faced enemies that aren't from our own dimension!"

"So… You don't want us to come…" Vivian frowned. "I understand…"

"No, no! It's not that! If you want, we can still keep in touch! It's just… I think only the six heroes are capable of getting to the Pure Heart…"

"That's understandable, Chopper," Flyer nodded. "Luckily, I happened to invent a little something that can keep us all in contact!"

He pulled out a communicator device that was a lime green color. "I made one for each of us so we can all talk to each other if we want to! Although… I WOULDN'T recommend you two speaking to each other through this, Heartsy and Bow…"

"Really? Neat!" Chopper grabbed the device and looked at it. He saw it going off and pressed the button to find Flyer's face on it. "Hey, this IS pretty good! Good work on this thing, buddy!"

"I'll admit, this might come in handy!" Sonic smirked as he took his blue communicator. Kirby got a light pink, Blade got a navy blue, Mario got a red and Luigi got a green. Flyer held his yellow communicator.

"I'll also give one to you guys as well," Flyer handed C-2 Choppor a silver one, Parakarry a brown one, Bow a pale green, Heartsy a hot pink and Vivian a purple. "See? Now you can communicate with each other!"

Chopper saw his communicator going off and saw that Vivian was calling him. "You do realize we're in the same room, right?"

"Yeah, but I kind of wanted to speak to you through this. Or rather… This is what I wanted to do." Vivian appeared right in front of Chopper and kissed him on the lips. This left the Star Warrior a little dizzy while Vivian giggled.

"Good luck!" she said as she winked at him.

"And make sure you choose who you want to marry wisely," Bow suggested as she kissed him on the cheek one last time.

"Stop… Please…" Chopper wheezed as he received one last kiss from Heartsy. However, she took her time with her kiss (to his dismay)

"Just remember I'll always be there for you!" Heartsy winked.

"Oh ho ho! So this should be interesting!" Merlon chuckled. "I'm sure your friends will give you some helpful information along the way! But for now, good luck to you young heroes!"

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

"Ugh… I can't believe I was humiliated like that!" Chopper groaned as he wiped his face from the kisses. "And I just got kissed by those girls! Ugh… Is this how things are supposed to be like?"

"Well, maybe you'll grow out of that and eventually learn to like them," Luigi thought.

At that point, Luigi's communicator was going off. It turns out that Flyer was speaking to him. _"Luigi! Since this is probably your first time going out into a world, you might want to see how your friends do against enemies before getting into a fight!"_

"Yeah, I think I should do that," he agreed as they both closed their transmission with each other. "So… How about we get going?"

"Poyo! (I'd like to do that!)" Kirby agreed.

"Right! Well… Let's go!" Chopper opened the light blue door and they headed straight into the next world.

* * *

**So, now we finally get to see some friends from the previous two stories! ...And if you don't know who they are, then you should look back at the other stories (while I don't think the first fic is the best, it wouldn't be a bad idea to look back at that if you didn't). But if you already know these people, then that's completely fine by me. :P**

**And, thankfully, this next chapter is actually going to be pretty interesting! How? Well, I might explain to you when we actually get to the chapter.**


	76. Arcaine's SunMoonFlower

_With Luigi on their side, the five heroes were now six heroes. And with the help of Flyer's communication devices, they were sure to get some helpful information from their friends. The only question is… Will they receive some useless information or just some conversations on how much someone likes the other person? Though that bothered Chopper a bit, he was going to make sure he could handle those conversations. With the light blue door, our heroes began to wonder what kind of world they would be waltzing into this time._

**CHAPTER 13-1**

**-Arcaine's SunMoonFlower-**

Everything began to get drawn, due to this being the start of a new world. When everything was colored in, everything looked pretty nice. The ground was grassy and a pure grassy green color and the sky looked like it was daytime out. There were even some trees and the sun was brighter than ever. In fact, some of the flowers were just plain sunflowers.

As the six heroes walked out of the light blue door, they instantly gaped when they came across this brand new world.

"I don't believe it…" Luigi gaped. "This place is beautiful! I mean, it's A LOT better than that previous world…"

_"Hmmmmmm… I do agree! This is a nice, peaceful world. I do prefer it over the previous world, that's for sure." _Timpani looked down at all of the beautiful sunflowers that were on the ground. _"Blumiere, doesn't this world look pretty?"_

_"It does indeed, dear Timpani," _Blumiere agreed. _"However, this world isn't as pretty as you are, my love."_

_"You're so sweet, Blumiere!" _Timpani giggled. From what Chopper was hearing, he felt like he was going to get sick, so he instantly put the wand away and made sure he wouldn't hear any more lovey-dovey stuff.

"Poyo? (Why'd you put that away?)" Kirby asked.

"Because… I don't want to hear any of that." Chopper replied with a disgusted face. "But, anyways… I suppose we can move on, right? This place is pretty enough already, so exploring should be nice!"

When they took a couple of steps into this world, they noticed that some of the blocks were too high to reach. Two yellow ? blocks in particular were too far for anyone to jump up to. It seemed that the only way to reach them was to use a jump that could launch you to great heights.

"Leave those blocks to me!" Luigi declared as he used a Super Jump to launch himself up to the two blocks. A Happy Flower appeared from one of them, while a Poison Zombie Shroom popped out of the other.

"What's THAT supposed to be?!"

"It's a Poison Zombie Shroom!" Sonic declared. "I don't think you WANT to get hurt by that thing… I'm PRETTY sure that you're going to get poisoned from it! So… Watch out for it!"

When the Poison Zombie Shroom came their way, Luigi stomped on it a couple of times and allowed it to disintegrate into smoke. "Phew! That was a close one… I didn't want to get poisoned by that thing!"

"Hmmmmm… I wonder if we can find out what this world is." Chopper pulled his communicator out and got into contact with Flyer. "Hey, Flyer. We're at the new world. It's very nice compared to the other."

_"Ah, so you're finally in the next world!" _Flyer noticed._ "Excellent! From what I can see in the background, there's some grass and a nice view of the sun! Sounds like a nice place to go out on a date!"_

_"Scanners indicate that you are in a world called Sun and Moon World," _C-2 Choppor informed. _"There are two areas in this world. One world is always daytime while the other side is nighttime. The Sunny people are of this area and the Mooners are of the night area."_

_"Yes, Choppor is correct. What I would recommend doing is asking some people that you find around these parts if they've seen a Pure Heart…or rather, some mysterious object shaped like a heart. Maybe you can get some information from them!"_

"Well, we do see a castle out in the background," Blade mentioned as he pointed to the castle. "Don't suppose that we need to go over there and take a look? From what I'm seeing, there could be a king there."

_"If that's your only option, then… I guess you should do it…" _Vivian trailed.

"Right. We'll try to find those, er… Sunny people! _Yeesh! What a weird name for people around here…_" Chopper closed his communicator and put it away. Everyone agreed and continued up the small hill, where they saw these strange small sun enemies that were spitting fire out.

"Poyo… (Those are weird-looking enemies…)" Kirby trailed as he inhaled one of them to gain the Fire ability. "Poyo! (But at least they give me the Fire ability! I guess it's because they're suns!)"

"Hold on, let's see what information I can get from these guys," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and let it emit a ray of rainbow light. It flashed on the sun enemy and Timpani began to gather some info on it.

_"That's a Sunoid. They're like smaller versions of the sun, except they're not as dangerous as it. Max HP is 46. Attack is 10. They tend to spit out small fireballs if you're at a far range, or they might spit some fire breath at a close range. They're weak to water, so if you find any water, it's not a bad idea to use it against them. These things are said to come from the sun… That's rather strange…" _Timpani informed.

"Dang… If only we had some water to help us." Chopper attempted to stomp on the Sunoid, but he ended up burning his feet instead. "Ow! What the heck?! I can't stomp on this thing?!"

"I think it's because it's like the sun and is made out of fire…" Luigi guessed. "At least, that's what I think."

"Hmmmmm… Then let's see how this works." Blade drew his katana and struck the other Sunoid with a hurricane slash. It was able to blow it away and even defeat it without any problems. He tossed Hommissile at the Darkling up ahead with the green eyes and green bulb. Luigi was starting to get a bit curious at what Blade used.

"Say, Blade… What's that you got there? That thing that blew that enemy up?"

"Oh, this?" Blade pointed at Hommissile. "This is a Pixl! This one's called Hommissile, and he's capable of destroying things on sight and even blowing up some cracks in the wall! He's pretty badass, I'll admit."

"Ummmmm… OK. So, is there any Pixl I could use?" Luigi asked.

"Well, you can take this Pixl if you want," Chopper had Thoreau go over to Luigi. "He's one of the few Pixls that are pretty much available. You could use others if you want, if you'd like."

"I'm all right," Luigi assured as they found a large, grassy wall in their way. It was too high for any of them to jump, unfortunately. However, Luigi managed to launch himself up to the top of the hill with a Super Jump.

"Damn! That jump's impressive!" Blade commented.

"Well, how do we get up there?" Chopper asked as he groaned. _"Now that I think about it… I think bringing Flyer, Parakarry or Vivian here wouldn't have been a bad idea… Although, that WOULD'VE been a bit to much…"_

Mario: We'll find a way up there!

* * *

**One climb later-**

"Oh, gee… This sure was a way to get up here…" Chopper grumbled as they reached the top of the hill. They saw down the slope that there were a couple of Koopa Troopas with yellow shells walking up the hill.

"Oh… Well if you would excuse me…" he allowed himself to slide down the hill in order to knock away all of the Sun Koopas (that's what they're called here) and then jump over the bottomless pit near the hill to reach the door.

"Well, I guess you had to do that," Luigi stated as he slid down the hill and jumped over the bottomless pit. When everyone else got over to the door, they headed through into the next area, which was flat. They couldn't see the castle here, however.

"Hmmmmmm… Well, I suppose we can move on, right?" Sonic suggested as he took a couple of steps before hearing a robotic sound.

_"HALT!_ _YOU ARE UNAUTHORIZED TO BE WALKING THROUGH SUN TERRITORY!_" Out in the background, they could see a large sun statue. From what they could see, it wasn't big, but when it flew over to them, it was pretty big.

"What the heck's going on now?!" Luigi yelped.

_"It's apparently a sun stone…" _Timpani informed. _"I don't know why it's trying to attack us, but I guess it doesn't think we're on the friendly side… Although, as much as I don't want to fight this thing, I'm afraid we have no other choice."_

_"ALL INTRUDERS WILL BE TERMINATED!_" the Sun statue raised its fists and began to pound on the grassy ground. The pounding even lifted everyone off the air because of how heavy they were.

"Whoa! These are some heavy fists!" Sonic shrieked. "And they seem rather tough too! I think they're made of some kind of sun rock!"

"As if we've gone through some stones already," Chopper rolled his eyes, recalling the times that he's faced countless stone enemies before. "All right, I guess we'll have to fight this thing… As much as I won't like it, though."

They readied themselves, with Chopper using Timpani's wand to gather information on the new enemy.

_"That's the Sun Guardian. It's said that this thing will come to life if it ever spots intruders. Max HP is 170. Attack is 10. Defense is 2. Its main attack is using its fists, which can be a bit difficult to hit when the Sun Guardian raises them. You might want to have Luigi use his Super Jump when they're up like that. If you hit its fists, they might be stunned, but his weak point is up at the head. While it's a guardian, it's not exactly on anyone's side…" _Timpani informed.

"Whoa… So this thing's pretty tough to hit, I guess…" Luigi trailed as he saw the Sun Guardian's fists slam to the ground again. Everyone jumped to avoid getting stunned, but Luigi managed to hit the statue's head, causing it to cringe in pain.

_"ERROR 402 IN HEAD! DO NOT LET THE INTRUDERS HIT THE HEAD!_" from what they could all hear, the Sun Guardian was speaking kind of like a robot, which was awfully strange for a statue.

"Wow… Kind of weird if you ask me." Chopper jumped out of the way of one of the Sun Guardian's fists and stomped on it himself. "I'll admit, this kind of reminds me of the fight with Wham Bam Rock and Wham Bam Jewel."

"Poyo, (Oh, yeah, I remember that,)" Kirby recalled as he spat a fireball at one of the Sum Guardian's fists. However, when the Sun Guardian slammed its fists on the ground, Chopper and Kirby got hit by the shockwave and were stunned for a couple of seconds. This allowed the Sun Guardian to knock them back with a punch.

"Damn… I wish my katana could actually do something against stone." Blade grumbled as he slashed at the right fist (his right) repeatedly. It was dealing some damage, but it didn't seem to work that well.

Mario: Why not use Hommissile?

"Hold on, Blade, I'll stun him for you," Luigi said as he struck the Sun Guardian's head with a Super Jump. While it was stunned, Blade tossed Hommissile straight at the Sun Guardian's fist, destroying it.

"Hey! We destroyed one of its fists!" Sonic smiled until a new fist appeared right in front of them. "Wait… We can't destroy its fists? All they'll do is regenerate on their own?! That's ridiculous!"

_"I can definitely agree with you on that," _Timpani agreed. _"But, I think the only way you're actually going to defeat this thing easily is with attacks to the head. You CAN use the fists to reach its head, if you want."_

"Then I'm going to try!" Sonic curled up in a ball as he jumped and performed a Spin Jump on one of the Sun Guardian's fists while it slammed on the ground and stunned the heroes. Since Sonic was able to bounce on the fist, he was able to strike the Sun Guardian's head with a Homing Attack, making it cringe for a couple of seconds.

"I think I can hit it a couple of more times," he thought to himself as he continued to Spin Jump on the Sun Guardian's head. The statue managed to knock him away with a simple little whack and then bring its fist down on Mario.

Mario: Mama mia…

"Hold on, bro! I'll save you!" Luigi used his little Cyclone attack to strike at the Sun Guardian's fists and sun them for a couple of seconds. Mario brushed himself afterwards and stomped on the fists to reach the head. With a Ground Pound, he left the statue with a little crack.

"Ouch… Now that's gotta hurt." Chopper commented.

"Well not as much as THIS!" Blade tossed Hommissile straight up to the Sun Guardian's head, causing an immense explosion. Kirby also attacked the Sun Guardian's head by floating up to it and surrounding himself in a spinning fireball that nearly burnt the Sun Guardian. Of course, it couldn't be burnt because it was only made of stone.

_"HOW FOOLISH! YOU CAN'T BURN ME WITH FIRE! NOW TASTE THE TRUE POWER OF THE SUN!_" the Sun Guardian cackled as its eyes suddenly began to glow like the sun and create a flash that left everyone dazed.

"Wh-What just happened?!" Luigi cried as he got smacked by one of the Sun Guardian's fists. Chopper was squished by one of them when it came down on top of him and Blade was knocked over by a flick of the Sun Guardian's finger.

"Poyo… (It stinks that fire's not going to do much…)" Kirby sighed as he began to breath fire on the fists. It didn't do much, so he simply floated to the Sun Guardian's head and spun in a fireball again.

"If there's one thing I learned from fighting this guy, it's that not all stone giants are friendly…" Chopper trailed as he stomped on one of the Sun Guardian's fists and stomped on its head. He began to attack it a couple of times with a spinning kick as he landed on the ground.

"Do you think ice will do anything against it?" Luigi asked.

"I doubt it. It's a statue. The only thing that would possibly hurt it would be with some kind of drill."

This suddenly gave Sonic an idea. He used a Spin Jump to bounce off the fists and hit the Sun Guardian's head with a Spin Jump and then used Screwdy to perform a corkscrew. He came down on its head like a drill and made a hole through its head, causing immense pain to the statue.

_"NO! HOW DID YOU FIND SOMETHING THAT IS ABLE TO PIERCE THROUGH MY HEAD? !_" the Sun Guardian screamed as it held its head in pain. "_YOU HAVE ANGERED THE SUN GUARDIAN! FOR THAT, I WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOUR GAMES WILL END BY MY FISTS!_"

"Oh, boy… This isn't good." Luigi gulped as he saw the Sun Guardian's Fists clashing towards each other. However, he managed to avoid this attack by using a Super Jump to strike the Sun Guardian's head and continued to stomp on its head while performing stylish moves.

"I think this can work out for us! I've smashed rocks before, so this shouldn't be any different!" Luigi smirked as he landed on the ground while leaving the Sun Guardian stunned.

"Yeesh, does this thing need to speak in all caps? Yelling really isn't good for you…" Chopper trailed.

_"YOU PEOPLE ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. YOU'LL SOON BE CRUSHED BY THE POWER OF MY STONE FISTS!_" the Sun Guardian barked as its eyes flashed and caused everyone to go blind for a couple of seconds. This time, it fired a beam of solar energy to the ground that nearly burnt everyone to a crisp.

_"It appears that he can also burn you with solar energy…" _Timpani gaped. _"This might not end well if it continues to do that…"_

"Well, I'll try something," Luigi shook the soot off him an performed another Super Jump. Two yellow stars were also left on the ground from the solar energy beam for Chopper to inhale. When Luigi struck the Sun Guardian's head with a Super Jump, he jumped on its fist and spat out the two stars he inhaled at the Sun Guardian's head.

"_DAMAGE LEVEL RISING… THIS ISN'T GOOD…_" the Sun Guardian gulped as it shook Chopper off and squished him with its fist. Mario started bashing at its fist to stun them, but it didn't work when he got knocked back by its punch. Of course, this didn't make everyone happy.

"All right, time for another explosion," Blade said with a serious look as he tossed Hommissile straight at the Sun Guardian. A huge explosion emitted from Hommissile as he clashed with the Sun Guardian.

"Heh heh heh! That'll teach you!"

"Well, at least he's not far from being beaten," Luigi sighed in relief as he jumped on the Sun Guardian's fist and managed to pummel the enemy with a couple of stomps. When he landed on the grassy ground, he used a Super Jump to hit the Sun Guardian's head once again.

"How far until this statue's down?" Sonic asked.

_"It shouldn't be long until you defeat it…" _Timpani informed. _"However, you still need to be careful of its attacks. That solar beam could probably incinerate you next time it even hits you with it."_

"Oh… Well that's not good." Chopper gulped as he bashed one of the Sun Guardian's fists with his hammer. He jumped on top of it and spun his hammer around vertically at the Sun Guardian's head to leave it cracked. Sonic joined in by going up to its head and using Screwdy's corkscrew attack once again.

_"YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN, INTRUDERS! NOW YOU'RE GOING TO FACE MY WRATH ONCE AGAIN!_" the Sun Guardian unleashed its solar energy beam once again, but everyone was lucky enough to jump out of the way. While it was busy, Mario jumped on one of its fists and stomped on its head and then used a Ground Pound to leave it stunned. However, it was Kirby who got to leave it dazed for longer when he struck it while spinning in a fireball.

"Hey! That was pretty good, Kirby!" Chopper complimented.

"Poyo! (Thanks, Chopper!)" Kirby smiled and gave him a hi-five. While they did that, Blade threw a couple of shurikens at the Sun Guardian's head, but they didn't seem to work, just like his katana.

"Awww man! That's weak!" Blade frowned as he kicked a pebble on the ground. "How come my attacks won't do much against this thing? All I can do is try to blow it up with Hommissile!"

_"Then do it," _suggested Blumiere.

"Oh… All right then!" Blade tossed Hommissile straight at the Sun Guardian's head once again, making another explosion. Mario was able to get on to its fists and strike it with a Ground Pound to the head. Chopper even got a chance to stomp on the Sun Guardian's head a couple of times!

"This is really fun! You guys should do this!" he suggested as he kept bouncing off its head. Unfortunately, for him, he ended up getting squished by the Sun Guardian's fist. But, what made it better was that the Sun Guardian ended up hitting itself in the process.

"Oh ho ho ho! Now THAT was awesome!" Sonic chuckled as he struck the Sun Guardian with a Homing Attack while it was dazed. From what they could see, this thing was nearly defeated.

Mario: One more hit should do it!

"Luigi, you may do the honors," Chopper said as he stepped out of the way. "We're not taking no for an answer anyway."

"Well… All right, I guess I'll finish this off!" Luigi walked right under the Sun Guardian's head and folded himself. He launched himself up after folding enough times and struck the Sun Guardian with one last Super Jump.

_"DANGER! GUARDIAN'S HP HAS BEEN DEPLETED! YOU… YOU INTRUDERS ARE TOO GOOD FOR ME! PERHAPS YOU ARE…THE CHOSEN ONES…_" before it could continue, it disintegrated into ashes.

"_What a strange way for something to die off…" _Timpani trailed.

"Yeah… And did it say that we were 'the chosen ones'?" Luigi blinked a couple of times as he looked down at the ashes. "What exactly does that mean? Like… The six heroes or something?"

"Maybe…" Chopper pondered, but decided not to let it bother him. "Well, let's not let it bother us. I think it's time we wandered around here…aimlessly."

"…Why?" Blade gawked.

"Ehhhh… I don't know, honestly. I just wanted to see how you people would react." Chopper whirled around and ran over to the door ahead with his speed. Everyone else followed him into an area with a couple of small grass platforms leading up to a large hill above. There were even some sunflower-like enemies on some of the platforms and, according to Timpani, they're called…Sunflowers. Yeah, it's perhaps the most ORIGINAL name of all time!

"Sunflowers? That's what they're called?" Sonic gawked. "Well… I guess that's all we can say about them."

Luigi used his Super Jump to reach the platform ahead and stomp on the Sunflower a couple of times. It ended up dropping some kind of badge with a sun on it. Luigi picked it up and saw that it was called Sunny Day. Apparently, this prevents one from getting burnt, so he decided to take it.

"This is a weird badge… But I guess I won't get burnt with it on!" Luigi smiled as he jumped on the next platform that was right next to the hill. A Sun Koopa was walking around, but when he stomped in it, it retreated into its shell, thus allowing Luigi to kick it off the grassy platform.

"Huh… I never expected there to be Sun Koopas here…" Chopper trailed as he followed Luigi up to the top of the large hill. He happened to notice a loop down the hill and also a slope going up a hill to a door. "Ooh! Now I finally get to do some running at long last!"

Chopper charged up a Speed Dash, his feet turning into a figure-8 pattern. Luigi gaped and stepped away from Chopper while he was doing this. He didn't know what to say for a few seconds too.

"Whoa… What's with your feet?" Luigi asked.

"I'm about to run down that hill with full speed," he explained as he immediately took off, leaving dust behind and making Luigi cough. Sonic jumped over the green plumber and began to follow Chopper down the hill and through the loop. What everyone else did was that they jumped over the loop and managed to jump over to the large hill Chopper and Sonic made it to, since it wasn't really that high.

Mario: At least we managed to make it here!

"Yeah, that's a good thing," Chopper opened the door to the next area. They noticed that this part of the area was flat and rather comfortable. However, there were a lot of brick blocks and even some pipes around. What was worse was that some Sunoids were here and Sun Koopas were on the blocks. What was strange was that there was a yellow ? block right near them.

"I wonder what's in there," Luigi wondered as he punched the block with his fist. A Mega Star popped out and began to bounce on the ground. Luigi, thinking it was a star, grabbed it…but something began to happen to him.

"Poyo… (I think Luigi's transforming…)" Kirby trailed.

"No kidding…" Chopper nodded as Luigi transformed into an 8-bit version of himself. They all watched as Luigi trampled through everything in their sights. It sure was something that was interesting, since Luigi is considered to be more of a coward (from what Mario sees mostly).

"Whoa! I can't believe I'm going through all of this!" Luigi gaped as he trampled through all of the Sunoids, Sun Koopas and even some Sunflowers until he was turned back to normal.

"Awwww… Well, that stinks." Sonic commented as he got to the door Luigi was over by. Everyone simply shrugged and entered the next area, which had a lot of pipes. Some of them were even too high to jump over.

"Wow, I don't know why, but there are a lot of things in this world that require my jumping!" Luigi smiled. He walked over to the tall pipe and saw an orange Piranha Plant pop out. It seemed to spit flames from its mouth, to their surprise. But, Luigi was able to defeat it with a Super Jump.

"It's pretty cool that you can get under your foes and hit them with a Super Jump," Blade commented as he walked over to the tall pipe, while Luigi landed on the other side. "It makes fighting a lot easier."

"Now we just need to get through these pipes," Chopper pondered. "And I think I know what we need to do!"

He threw his arms up nears everyone and flipped into 3-D. They were able to go around the pipes with no problem and jump over bottomless pits, but when they got to the door, they saw a sign and a lock on the door. Kirby decided to read what the sign had to say first.

_To Sun Town  
_

"Poyo, (The problem is, though, that the door's locked,)" Kirby said as he poked the lock on the door. "Poyo? (How are we supposed to get in?)"

Mario: Maybe one of the pipes can let us through?

"Well there's no chance in getting up there," Blade groaned. "Only Luigi's Super Jump is able to reach such heights. …Unless HE can check one of the pipes and find a Door Key! That might work!"

When Luigi landed right next to the door, everyone walked over to him. "Whoa! What's going on here? Why are you all coming to me?"

"We need you to check one of the pipes," Chopper explained. "We're pretty sure that one of them leads into an underground room."

"Well… Er… I guess I have no other choice." Luigi sweat dropped as he Super Jumped to the closest pipe. He was able to find something down there, so he allowed himself to transport into an underground room.

* * *

**Underground-**

Luigi landed on the blue brick ground and noticed that there were two Sunflowers in the room. They both happened to be hanging from the ceiling, to his surprise. He simply used his Super Jump to punch both Sunflowers to stun them for a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to kill them.

"What? That's not enough?" Luigi groaned as both Sunflowers shot a pebble that created a small wave of fire. He got hit by it, but due to the badge he had on him, he was immune to being burned.

"Heh heh heh! Well now! You can't burn me!" the green plumber smirked as he used his Super Jump to strike both Sunflowers to destroy them. Unfortunately, it wasn't over yet. A Sunoid and a Sun Koopa appeared via teleportation and charged at him. Luigi stomped on the Sun Koopa and kicked it straight at the Sunoid.

"Well, this might take a while to defeat…"

It didn't take TOO long, but he managed to defeat them both and make a chest appear in front of him. When he opened it, he found a Door Key, which is what he needs to unlock that door. So, with that, he headed out of the underground room.

* * *

**Outside-**

Luigi jumped out of the pipe and landed back on the grassy ground with the key in his hands. Everyone else walked over to the green plumber to see if he DID have the key with him.

"Don't worry, guys! I've got the key here!" Luigi held the Door Key up, making everyone gaze at it.

"…Wait, why are we gazing at a _key_?" Chopper questioned after blinking. "Errr… I guess now's the time for us to get going, wouldn't you all agree?"

_"Yes, that's not a bad idea," _Timpani agreed. Luigi unlocked the door and everyone made their way through the door and to the town.

* * *

**Sun Town-**

"Man… I can't believe we haven't seen a town in a LONG time through these worlds!" Blade commented as they all gawked at the beautiful town. "The last time we've ever been in a town was that Christmas Village! It really does feel nice being in a place with good people."

"Yeah, I can agree," Chopper nodded as he noticed the light orange buildings, the sun statue in the center of town and even a bunch of sun-like people. Half of their face was yellow, while the other half was orange. Their limbs were simply stick-like, kind of like Mimi's limbs, which, while it wasn't nice to see, wasn't really bad.

"Wow… So there are more strange-looking people here." Luigi commented.

"Finally! Someone agrees that these people in these worlds are weirdos!" Blade smiled while fist pumping.

_"Since when did you say that the people here were weirdos?" _Blumiere asked. _"I don't recall you calling people in many worlds weirdos…"_

_"Well, he's been calling people weirdos before this," _Timpani explained while rolling her eyes. _"Honestly, hearing that kind of stuff is always great. However, I think he hasn't said it in QUITE a while. This is the first I've heard him in…a couple of chapters."_

"Well, I have the right to call them weirdos if I want to," Blade retorted as he took a couple of steps. "Now then… How about we ask some of these people about the Pure Heart? Or at least the castle?"

"Hold on, I'm going to contact Flyer real quick," Chopper said as he pulled his lime green communicator out and tried to get in contact with Flyer. "This is Chopper, calling from Sun Town! I'm already there!"

_"Well duh! You just said that you're there…" _Flyer responded as his face appeared on the screen. _"What I'd suggest you do is find the mayor. Surely he'll be able to help you gather information."_

_"Hey, Choppy! What's that world like anyway?" _Heartsy asked as her face appeared on the communicator, making Chopper's face look puzzled.

"Well… There's some green grass, a nice, blue sky up on the horizon… Some flowers over by some garden… Oh! I think there are some sun people called Sunnies here too! Is that enough?"

_"Can you bring some flowers back to give to me?" _Chopper's eyes widened in fear as he saw hearts floating above the girl's head. _"You know that girls love it when they get flowers, right?"_

"Uhhhhhh… Oh, look at the time! I gotta go! See you next time, Heartsy!" Chopper closed his communicator and put it away as quickly as possible.

"What was that all about?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I was talking about none of your business," he stated as he took a couple of steps into town. "But that doesn't matter right now. What DOES matter is that we go find the mayor, like Flyer said."

"Yeah, I can agree with that," Luigi nodded. "We DO want that…well, Pure Heart, don't we?"

"Poyo, (I just hope it's an easy one to get, although it would be a shame if going through this world was too short,)" Kirby stated as they all walked past the sun fountain. They decided to speak to a female Sunny first.

"You people must be new to this world," she said. "This is our lovely town, Sun Town. Did you know that this place is known for its beauty and some of the flowers around here? You should give a flower to someone you like if you find one!"

"Errrr… Sure. We'll keep that in mind." Chopper sweat dropped as he walked past the female Sunny. Everyone else followed him over to a small Sunny child to see what he had to say.

"Hey, if you're looking for the Mayor, his house is the yellow one," he informed. "My grandpa can probably answer your questions. He knows a lot about this world!"

"Well that's very helpful of you!" Luigi smiled. "Thanks for the information!"

"Poyo, (Now we just need to go over to the Mayor's house and ask him about that Pure Heart and whatnot,)" Kirby said.

_"One thing for sure is that the Pure Heart's not around here…" _Timpani informed. _"I don't feel its presence here."_

"Well then let's check that house over there," Sonic suggested as he ran over to the yellow house. He hit the Save Block first before going in, since that's something they probably will NEED to do. But, they decided not to let that bother them and headed into the house.

* * *

**Mayor's house-**

"Wow, what a nice-looking house here!" Blade commented as they stepped on the orange rug. The walls were a bright yellow color and there was even a desk right by the corner. An old Sunny with a mustache and a monocle, a top hat and a walking stick was standing in the room.

"Who're you, shonny?" yeah, they all knew that this old man was one of those old men who would always go "sh" when saying something with an "S" in it. "Are you people…robbersh?"

"No, we're not robbers," Luigi replied with a shake of his head. "We just wanna help you, that's all!"

"Well, what you can do to help me ish get out of my housh and get off of my lawn!" he barked in a grumpy manner. "You have ten shecondsh to get out of here before I call the copsh!"

"…You know, I find something interesting," Chopper realized as he looked at the mayor. "Almost every single mayor I've ran into throughout the years have had monocles and mustaches… Isn't that weird?"

_"Chopper! Ask him about the Pure Heart!" _Timpani shouted, trying to get him back to he main topic.

"Sorry!" he walked up to the mayor. "Listen, Mr. Mayor… We're not here to hurt you. We're just here to ask you a little something… We were wondering if there's anything shaped like a heart around here. It's supposed to be some kind of powerful object that's used to save the universe and whatnot."

"Whuh? The king of thish land wash shaying shome shtuff about shome kind of heart thing that shome heroes need to go to… I would shuggest you try to go to the cashtle to shpeak to King Shunday. He'sh the king of thish land. However, I wouldn't shuggest going over to Night Land. They're not our kind of people!"

"I think he means **King Sunday**…" Sonic whispered.

"Night Land? But why do you two sides hate each other?" Luigi asked.

"Well, it'sh a long and awful shtory," the mayor turned away from the heroes and walked over to a picture on the wall. "Back in the day when my voice wash incredible aweshome and shexy, King Shunday and **King Moonnight** ushed to be good friendsh. However, when they claimed land here, they argued on who got what and it shtarted to break into a shlap fight."

_"So they used to be friends but have no become sworn enemies?" _Timpani gasped. _"That's shocking…"_

"Yesh, it is indeed shocking… Both kingsh brought their own kind and divided a line to sheparate them. Ever shince then, they've never shpoken to each other again… And it ish indeed a shame."

"Well, is there any chance we can speak to King Sunday?" Chopper asked.

"Hmmmmmmm… Well, I shuppose there ish a chance that I could get you guysh to go shee him… However, only a shun person can go with you to shee him. But, if you plan on going to Night Land, then you should bring **Arcaine **to the cashtle. He'sh a combination of a Shunny and a Mooner, sho no one sheems to mind. Although, hish beliefsh have been getting ridiculoush by every minute."

"Beliefs? Are you discriminating against him?" Luigi asked.

"No, we jusht don't care! He doeshn't sheem to care that he'sh ignored becaush he'sh ALWAYSH trying to shove his 'creature' down our throatsh. Sho, I think it would be wishe to take him with you to the cashtle. Thish is also recommended to help as well."

The mayor took out a Sun Stone and gave it to the heroes. "With thish, you will be able to reach the cashtle. Now, out with you! I want to get back to shome rest!"

* * *

**Outside-**

"Well, that guy sure was weird…" Chopper trailed as they walked on the grass. "Why did he speak like 'Oh, I'm jusht shome mayor here that'sh sho aweshome and shtuff'? That's…kind of weird."

Mario: We can't do much about it.

"Yeah, we should just get going," Luigi walked over to the red door ahead and opened it. They all walked into the door into an area with a field of many flowers. For some reason, Chopper felt something strike him for a minute.

"F-Flowers…"

_"Are you OK, Chopper?" _Timpani asked as he walked into the field of flowers and picked up one of them. _"I suppose he wants to pick some up for one of the girls…"_

"What? No way! I just remember seeing a field of flowers before… Like in the Illusion Forest. I remember…seeing some kind of vision." Chopper recalled, looking over by the hill ahead. He blinked and noticed the spirits of his parents on the hill.

"Poyo? (Are you seeing things again?)" Kirby asked.

"Maybe… But I'm going to check." Chopper ran up the hill, eager to see if it was his parents. When he reached the top, he saw that it was nothing but a wheel. "Aw, come on! Why do I always get tricked like this? !"

"What? There's just a wheel up there?" Luigi gawked as he reached the top of the hill. "You think that you'll get something from that wheel?"

"Well, I'll try," he picked up the wheel and swallowed it whole. He ended up getting a red baseball cap on his head that was backwards. When he moved on ahead, he turned into a wheel and went down the hill.

"WHOA! I've got the Wheel ability!"

"Well, we're following!" Sonic announced as he ran down the hill. Chopper smashed through a couple of Wheel Blocks that could only be destroyed with the Wheel ability. He ended up turning back to normal when he saw a house that had one half of it being orange and the other side dark blue.

"Poyo? (So this is the place, I presume?)" Kirby asked as he looked up at the house.

"Guess so. How about we head on in?" Chopper suggested as he walked up to the door and opened it. "C'mon! This Arcaine person should be able to help us get into the castle!"

* * *

**Arcaine's house-**

"Uhhhh… Hello? Mr. Arcaine person?" Luigi called out as they stepped foot in the house. They could see the walls were blue and the carpet was an orange color. "Well this doesn't seem like it matches…"

"Well, it really doesn't," Chopper agreed.

"Who's there? !" a man with one side of his face being orange and the other side silver busted through one of the doors with a little stick. He was wearing normal clothing, like a T-shirt and some shorts. "Are you people robbers?!"

"We're not robbers. That mayor guy told us to go see you in order to get to King Sunday's Castle." Blade explained.

"Really?" Arcaine lowered the stick. "Then… You must be here to help me find the ferocious SunMoonFlower!"

"SunMoonWhat?" Chopper gawked.

"The SunMoonFlower! It's half sun, half moon and half flower! It's said that this dangerous beast lurks around Day and Night Land! I'm super sunious!"

"Sunious? Now where did that come from?" Sonic asked, cocking his head. "Do you mean 'serious'?"

Mario: This guy's strange…

"I hear you, bro!" Luigi agreed.

"OK… The weirdness level here has gotten a bit…up." Chopper declared.

"And what about your humiliation level?" Blade asked.

"Hey! Quit it already, Blade! It stopped being funny!"

"I don't believe it! So you people DO believe me! Hang on for a moment as I get myself ready! I can hopefully get King Sunday's help on catching the SunMoonFlower! This is such a wonderful day!" Arcaine left the room and was back in a jiffy wearing traveler's clothes. He also had a shotgun in his hands. "I'm carrying this shotgun just in case SunMoonFlower attacks."

"Poyo? (Wouldn't something that doesn't require you to be short-ranged work better?)" Kirby asked.

"No time for questions, people! We must head off to the castle and ask for King Sunday's assistance!" Arcaine headed out of the house and cocked his shotgun. "We're going huntin' tonight!"

"…And that's one of the reasons why I choose not to carry a gun," Sonic declared as the door shut behind them.

* * *

**Beginning of the first area-**

"Can you believe that we had to go ALL the way back here just to place the Sun Stone?" Chopper questioned as they finally made their way back to the beginning. "We haven't really done any backtracking, but this is just plain RIDICULOUS!"

"Well, at least we made it. Now, how's about you get that Sun Stone into the pedestal or something?" Blade suggested.

"Good idea," Chopper pulled the Sun Stone out and placed it in the pedestal. They could see that the pedestal spun around and move to the right to reveal and orange pipe. The glare from the sun came down on the pipe to show that this is the pipe that leads to the castle.

"I guess we should head on in!" Luigi suggested.

"Yes," Arcaine pulled his shotgun out. "We can't let this world fall in danger to the SunMoonFlower! I'm being super SUPER sunious here! Come on, my fellow partners! Let us go!"

Arcaine jumped into the pipe and headed straight to the castle in the background. Everyone else shrugged and followed him in the background until they reached the front entrance, which looked a lot bigger when they reached the castle.

"Whoa… Now that's a castle." Blade commented.

"And there's a Star Block up ahead!" Chopper got into a wheel and raced over to the Star Block by the entrance. When he turned back into himself, he punched the block and ended the chapter.

"I feel that this rivalry might be a bit sunious…D'OH! I accidentally said 'sunious'! Son of a pizza…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_This way, partners! The guards will know that with me by your side, they will let us through! Once I alert them about SunMoonFlower, everything should be all right!" Everyone groaned as they listened to Arcaine boast about the supposedly dangerous monster known as SunMoonFlower. They were also weirded out from hearing him say stuff such as "sunious". They tried their best to ignore this fellow as they followed him inside of the castle. One thing for sure is that King Sunday knew how to decorate._

* * *

**Oh, god... Writing the mayor's speech was kind of annoying, but not as annoying as those Swamints from Chapter 5. XP**

**So, yeah, there's Chapter 13's background in a nutshell (I guess). Two kings couldn't get along and couldn't share land and ended up splitting it. And they still don't get along. Plus, we have the weird Arcaine person who believes in something called the SunMoonFlower (I'm PRETTY sure you'd get the reference, unless you didn't, which I wouldn't really mind). And King Sunday's name... I didn't intend to make it sound like the first day of the week. :P**

**Anyway, there's not much else that needs to be said about this. Be ready for Chapter 13-2 that'll be coming up next!**_  
_


	77. Meeting King Sunday

**CHAPTER 13-2**

**-Meeting King Sunday-**

"Well, here we are… This is King Sunday's castle! Just look at this wonderful place! I'm sure even SunMoonFlower would even like it!" Arcaine explained as the heroes looked at the small room they were in after walking through the entrance. The inside of the castle was apparently a golden yellow color, which kind of matches the sun a little bit. There were even some portraits on the wall with a sun king and even the sun itself. For some reason, they all believed that King Sunday was obsessed with, well, the sun.

"Ugh… For some reason, I feel that this 'SunMoonFlower' thing is actually not real and you're just making up…" Chopper groaned as he smacked his forehead. Arcaine's eyes widened and he turned around to Chopper.

"How could you say something like that when I actually saw the monster with my very own eyes?" Arcaine gaped. "This thing was over ten feet tall and could literally fall on top of you! One thing for sure is that…it doesn't fear our kind. It's not afraid to attack us, which is why I must kill it and show everyone that I've slain the beast!"

"…We're not buying it," Blade stated. "The only reason why we brought you with us is because we're looking for an ancient item called the Pure Heart. We need that if we're going to save the universe."

"Well, YOU people care the ones coming with me…but enough about that," Arcaine walked up to two armored yellow guards holding swords and shields. "Fellow guards… I must speak to King Sunday! I've brought my partners here with me, and they sure remind me of a Squigley!"

"HEY!"

"Errmmmm… Look, are you here to speak to us about that whole 'SunMoonFlower' business?" one of the Sun Knights asked with an irritated look on his face. "What is this? The fifth time you came here about this?"

"Wait, does everyone know about this whole SunMoonFlower thing?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, he's been telling us for years," the other Sun Knight nodded. "He's been warning us about this whole 'SunMoonFlower' thing so much, that we stopped caring. Hey, don't get me wrong. We were a bit scared…at first. But when we realized it didn't come, we stopped caring."

"Oh… Well that's something I'm not too surprised about…" Sonic trailed. "Anyways, we brought this guy with us because the Mayor said it was the only way we could go speak to King Sunday. We just want to speak to him about the Pure heart."

"The Pure Heart? Could it be…?" both Sun Knights turned to each other and began to have a little discussion. "_Only the heroes of the prophecy know about the Pure Heart! And…these guys are it?_"

"_Yeah, my thoughts exactly,_" the second Sun Knight whispered back. "_How can these guys be the heroes? I thought they would be more…muscular and less hairy and not have stubby little feet… I'm not buying this…_"

"Poyo? (What on earth are they talking about?)" Kirby asked, only to receive a shrug from the rest of the group (well, everyone else shrugged when Chopper shrugged, since he can only understand Kirby).

"_Hmmmmmmm… I think I might have a little idea!_" a light bulb appeared right over the first Sun Knight's head. "_How about we give them a little test? You know, a way to prove that they're the heroes!_"

"Well, if you two are simply going to talk about random crap, then I might as well get going," Arcaine pushed the two Sun Knights out of his way, making them fall over on the ground anime style.

Mario: Aren't you going to stop him?

"Nah… It's not worth chasing Arcaine." the first Sun Knight responded with a shake of his head. "He doesn't really destroy anything. I'm pretty sure King Sunday will take perfect care of him…when he reaches his throne room, of course."

"Oh… Well, can you let us through?" Luigi asked as he walked up to the guards, only to make the guards aim their swords at him. "_**UWWAAAAAAH!**_ D-Don't p-point those th-things at m-m-me!"

"I'm sorry, but we cannot allow you into the hallway," the second Sun Knight stated. "HOWEVER… We'll cut you a little deal. In order to prove yourself as the heroes, you must do a little…deed."

"And what is this 'deed' that you speak of?" Chopper asked while tilting his head and crossing his arms. "Does it involve us going into the bathroom and unclogging a toilet? 'Cause that's not something for me. However, Mario and Luigi can do that."

"Errr… Well, it DOES involve going into the sewers." the first Sun Knight brought a red curtain down by the door and a pipe was revealed to be behind. "Tell you guys what: if you manage to find a sword sharpener that we accidentally dropped in the toilet and flushed, then we'll believe you're the heroes and let you through."

"Poyo? (So basically, Arcaine gets to move on without anyone's permission while we have to do something?)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo! (This is why inequality is horrible! We heroes don't really get much for what we do!)"

"_How come King Sunday didn't send you knights into the sewers to retrieve it?" _Timpani asked.

"Errmmm… This is just between you guys and us…" both Sun Knights inched closer and began to whisper. "But we don't want to get ourselves dirty in the sewers. They're NASTY, I tell you! And… Well, King Sunday thought that it was stolen. So… Yeah. There's your story."

"Ummmmmm… OK. Cool story, bro." Blade said with a blank look. "So, about going through that door, huh?"

"_I don't think we have another choice, Blade," _Blumiere pointed out as Blade sweat dropped. _"They're not going to let us through if we don't go into the sewers. And if we try to fight them, we're just going to cause more trouble!"_

Mario: I can handle going into the sewers!

Mario jumped on top of the pipe and made his way down into the sewers. Everyone else sighed as they jumped on the pipe and allowed themselves to go down the pipe one at a time with their bodies becoming pixilated as they went down.

* * *

**Castle sewers-**

"Ugh… I don't like the smell down here…" Chopper gagged as they were right near some disgusting green sewage. "I know I don't have a nose, but it's still pretty bad down here…"

"Well, I guess we should start going," Luigi took a couple of steps down the small slope and stepped in the sewage. He wasn't floating in it, but it was up to his feet, which wasn't really good. It was worse for Chopper and Kirby because they're a lot shorter than everyone else!

"Maybe I could try to go through here with my Wheel ability…" Chopper became a wheel and began to roll through the sewage. There wasn't much except for some large star blocks that he destroyed, but he ended up stopping when the water got deeper. What was worse was that he bumped into a Blooper, making him lose his Wheel ability.

"Well that stunk…"

"Poyo, (Well I guess that's what happens when you try to go into the water with your Wheel ability,)" Kirby said as he jumped into the water. They noticed a little pipe sticking out of the wall, but the current coming out of it seemed to push them away.

"I think there might be a switch around here," Luigi said as he got out of the sewage and looked around. He noticed up above on the ceiling that there was a red ! block. It was too high for the others to get to, but not for Luigi.

Mario: Go ahead and hit that, Luigi!

"All right, I'll see what it does," Luigi folded himself up and then sprung himself up in the air and struck the red ! block. This triggered the current coming out of the pipe to disappear…but they actually heard a timer as well.

"Uh oh… I don't think we have enough time…" Sonic gulped. "We need to go into that pipe fast! Errrr… Although, I HATE being in the water. Bah, I'll just go in anyways and follow you all."

Sonic jumped into the water and was dragged into the pipe by Blade as they had little time to reach it. They were led into an underwater tunnel that had these enemies called Sun Urchins roaming around in the water. The only way to beat them was, well, to freeze them.

"I guess this means I have to use some ice balls on these guys," Chopper said as he tossed an ice ball at a Sun Urchin, making it float to the ceiling and shattering it. Sonic grabbed an air bubble, which appeared disgusting-looking, but it appeared to be normal air coming from the bubbles.

"You doing OK there, Sonic?" Chopper turned his head to Sonic, who gave a nod as he tried to run underwater. Of course, since he IS underwater, he couldn't move fast. They noticed the next pipe up ahead was being guarded by another Sun Urchin, but Chopper managed to freeze it and destroy it with an ice ball.

"I guess that's the last of those guys, huh?" Luigi asked.

"I'm pretty sure that's the last of them… But, we'll find out through this pipe."

They made their way into the pipe and ended up coming out of the pipe…from the ceiling?

"Poyo? (Why did we suddenly come out from the ceiling?)" Kirby gawked as they landed on a metallic platform. They noticed that there was a waterfall of sewage in the background that led down to a small pool of sewage. Beside the platform they were standing on, there were two pipes to the left and right and two more below, but a lot closer to each other.

"_Hmmmmmm… Well, let's hope there aren't any Sun Piranhas coming out of those…" _Timpani trailed, only to find a Sun Piranha pop its head out of the pipe and attempt to spit a fireball from an upper angle.

"What the…" Chopper got struck by the Sun Piranha's fireball and got a nasty burn from it. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me! I've been left with a burn on me! Ugh… This is why things like them are annoying."

"Poyo! (I'll try getting rid of them!)" since Kirby still had his Fire ability on him, he jumped down to the Sun Piranha and spun in a fireball to destroy it. Once it was clear, everyone jumped down while Chopper used Piccolo's power to cure him of his burn status.

"Great… More water." Sonic groaned as he jumped down from the pipe and landed in the small pool. "Oh… Well, at least this place isn't filled with sewage. Now… Which way do we go?"

Mario: That way!

Mario pointed over to a pipe to the right sticking out of the wall. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged and headed into the pipe into another tunnel. However, this tunnel wasn't filled with water like the other. And one thing for sure was that there were some Sun Koopas walking around here.

"WHY are there Sun Koopas in the sewers? !" Blade exclaimed as they began to walk towards them. "And they don't NEED shades when they're down in a disgusting, hideous place!"

"Well, that's logic for you," Sonic stated as he struck the first Sun Koopa with a Spin Jump. It retreated back into its shell as Blade decided to blow it up by tossing Hommissile at it.

"Hold on, let me have a chance at attacking!" Luigi called out as he stomped on the Sun Koopa and kicked it into another Sun Koopa, stunning it. Of course, that's when Chopper rushed towards the Koopa and managed to punch it in the face with a flaming fist, then finished it off by stomping on it with fire energy on his feet.

"_Well that takes care of the enemies in here…" _declared Blumiere as everyone headed into the pipe ahead to find themselves in a larger room in the sewers. There happened to be a little slide right next to them with water flowing down. Sonic gulped as he looked at it. It sure was a long one…

"Oh, man… This reminds me back in the days when I was sliding down some water in the Labyrinth Zone…" Sonic frowned as he looked down the slide nervously. Blade wanted to find a blindfold, but alas, he didn't have one.

"Damn! Why don't I have any blindfolds with me? !" Blade cursed.

"Probably because we didn't need them…" Chopper trailed as he pulled his communicator out to get in contact with Flyer. "Hey, Flyer! We're in the castle at the moment!"

"_That's excellent news!" _Flyer smiled, but then noticed Chopper was covered in sewage. _"Errrrr… What's with you? You look all dirty or something. In fact, you kind of smell from the scent above you! What happened?"_

"Errrr… We went into some sewage…" Luigi explained as he spoke to Flyer through the communicator. "We need to find a sword sharpener for a Sun Knight because he's too lazy to find it himself."

"_Oh… Yeah… That's uh…strange…" _the young Wingel had a blank look on his face. _"I can see that you're all enjoying yourselves down here, aren't you? And… Yeah, I think that's it."_

"_Maybe you can find some of my mail, if that's anything important," _Parakarry suggested as his face appeared on the screen. _"Ever since Tipral's sudden attack, I've lost all of my letters. The shame…"_

"Oh… Well that's a shame." Blade said as if he didn't care. "So… Who's going to go down this slide first? Because it's definitely not going to be me!"

"Errrr… You go!" Chopper pushed Blade down the slide, causing him to scream as the water made him slide. What was strange was…that he came back to the slide they were right next to and continued to go down. He even returned again, as if there was some kind of portal from above.

"Poyo? (What the heck is going on here?)" Kirby gawked.

"Holy pizzas… I think Blade just discovered a portal that leads him back here!" Chopper gasped as they all heard Blade scream and curse out at Chopper for pushing him. "…Or this whole slide just repeats itself."

"_Well, maybe you should check and see what's around, Chopper," _Flyer suggested before Bow appeared.

"_Oh, and Chopper… I've got a new perfume that you might like. Maybe that will be good enough for you to kiss me." _she winked at him, causing Chopper's eyes to widen in fear until Vivian appeared on the screen instead.

"_Ummmm… How come you're covered in all of that sewage?" _Vivian asked, looking a bit disgusted by how Chopper looked (although, she wasn't showing it by her expression on her face).

"Why is there sewage on me?" Chopper pondered as they continued to hear Blade screaming and shouting the f word at Chopper. "Oh, yeah… It's because we were swimming in some disgusting sewage."

"_Oh… I see now."_

"_**I'M**_ _**GOING TO KEEEEEEEL YOOOOOOOU CHOOOOOPPER!**_" Blade screamed as he started throwing shurikens, making Chopper duck and jump out of the way. He simply said bye to Vivian and put his communicator away.

"Geez! No need to be so angry…" Chopper frowned as he went down the slide next. Soon everyone else began to slide down and noticed that they were just repeating the same slides over and over again.

"See? This is just going back and forth in this place!" Sonic pointed out. Mario, however, noticed a little entrance to a pipe past the one slide and jumped for it.

Mario: Jump!

"Ummmm… OK!" Luigi made the jump second and landed right over by Mario. The rest of the group began to jump over to the pipe as well and immediately headed down the pipe into a small room with a chest.

"I swear, Chopper… I'm going to kill you the next time you do something like that without asking." Blade grumbled as Chopper sweat dropped.

"Hey, I was just trying to help! I didn't intend to make you want to kill me!" Chopper retorted as Kirby walked over to the chest and opened it. There just so happened to be a sword sharpener in there.

"Poyo! (I got the sword sharpener!)" he announced as he held it up. "…Poyo? (…But why was it stuck in a chest?)"

"The world may never know…" the Star Warrior responded as a pipe appeared right by them. "Well, looks like that's our way out of here! Let's go!"

And with that, they took the pipe out of the sewers.

* * *

**Castle entrance-**

A pipe appeared from the ceiling and all six heroes dropped down and landed right beside the two Sun Knights. Both of them smelled the scent coming from the heroes and felt like they needed to gag.

"Good Grambi! You six STINK! I think we know how to get rid of this…" the first Sun Knight pulled a rope right by him and a bunch of water splashed on top of the heroes, washing the sewage off them.

"Well, now I feel much better!" Luigi smiled, despite being soaking wet. "This is a lot better than being covered in disgusting sewage!"

"Yeah, we have that just in case someone goes down into the sewers…" the second Sun Knight informed. "So… Have you brought us that sword sharpener? If so, I think you'll be giving us some proof…"

"Poyo! (I got it right here!)" Kirby took the sword sharpener out and gave it to the two Sun Knights.

"Oh, look… It's our… Wait a second…" the first Sun Knight blinked. "If you guys got this sword sharpener for us… Does this… Holy cow…"

There was a small moment of silence…until…

"_**THE HEROES OF THE PROPHECY ARE HERE! ! !**_"

"And that's why I should've brought some earmuffs," Chopper announced, despite not having any ears (although his antennas can be considered something for him to hear things…).

"You six… I guess it's true…" the second Sun Knight trailed, despite looking a bit nervous at the heroes. "Well, you people are the heroes of the prophecy, so we might as well let you through."

The two guards stepped out of the way and allowed the heroes to walk through the door. "…Oh! By the way…"

The six instantly tripped and fell over on the ground next to the door. When they got up, they turned to the guards. "If you manage to find Arcaine running around the castle, don't bother with him. However, if he ends up causing some big trouble, and I mean BIG trouble, then just try to knock him out, OK?"

"That's…just fine," Blade smiled as they all walked into the next room. They noticed that they were in a hallway with nothing around except for two Sunoids roaming around. Kirby tried breathing fire on it, but it didn't seem to do much damage and ended up healing them instead.

"Poyo… (Well that was a waste of an ability…)" Kirby groaned as he removed the Fire ability and inhaled the yellow star to spit it at one of the Sunoids to defeat it. Blade finished the other one with his hurricane slash, blowing it away and disintegrating it into smoke, leaving an Ultra Shroom Shake behind. Blade picked it up and put it away and walked to the end of the hallway.

"What the hell? ! There's no door here!" Blade frowned as he looked around, only to see the portraits of the sun and whatnot. "You've gotta be kidding me! This whole time we just ran into a room with nothing around at all? !"

"Hmmmmm… Well, maybe we need to use Tippi's power to investigate… Er, I mean Timpani." Chopper pondered as he pulled Timpani's wand out and scanned the area. It just so happened that an orange door was hidden.

"_There's a hidden door here… Let me make it visible for you…" _and with that, Timpani made the whole door visible for all of them. They immediately headed through to the next room, which had some stairs leading up and even a door right next to the staircase.

"Let's check the stairs first," Luigi suggested as he made his way up the stairs, striking some Sun Brontos – which are Bronto Burts but orange (more recolors for ya :P) with his Super Jump to knock them off the air. When he made it to the top, he saw a large, red button on the ground and a large gap ahead that leads to the ground. He noticed that there was a red ! block floating straight across from him.

"Hmmmmm… Now what are we supposed to do here?" the green plumber pondered as he looked down at the button.

"There's only one way to find out," Sonic jumped on the button and another red ! block appeared, but it was closer to them than the other block. From what they could see, there was no way of hitting them from that distance.

"Hold on, I'm gonna try something," Blade threw a shuriken at the closest red ! block, but it didn't do anything. "Crap… I guess there's no solving this little puzzle… Should we go back?"

"I guess that's our only choice," Chopper nodded as Sonic jumped off the button. The red ! block ended up disappearing, to their surprise.

"_I guess that block will only appear if you're stepping on that button…" _Timpani trailed.

"Poyo, (Then we should go to that other door,)" Kirby suggested as he plopped down the stairs. Everyone else followed him down to the door and entered to find themselves in some sort of armory. There were two Sun Koopatrols walking around in the room, but they didn't look too friendly…

Mario: I guess we need to be careful with them…

"I think I know what to do," Luigi performed his Cyclone attack on the first Sun Koopatrol while his back was turned and sent him flying in the air. The green plumber folded himself and sprung up to defeat the Sun Koopatrol and letting it drop an Ultimate Shroom Shake.

Mario whipped his hammer out and slammed it on top of the Sun Koopatrol's head. It shook itself from the attack and tried to charge at the plumber by piercing through his stomach with the spike on top of its helmet. However, that was not to be as Chopper froze it with a charged ice ball. To finish things off, Mario bashed it one last time with his hammer to shatter it. It also ended up dropping an Ultimate Shroom Shake as well, which was a nice touch.

"Well that took care of that," Sonic declared, only to find no key around the room. "What? No key or special item that can help us in here? You gotta be kidding me… That stinks."

"I guess we should go back then," Chopper suggested as he walked over to the door. Everyone agreed and headed over to the door…

"_**WAIT!**_"

Everyone stopped all of the sudden when they turned to see a purple boomerang with a green glow around it appear. It had a monocle, a French mustache and a red little small hat. Its eyes were also closed as well, which was kind of strange.

"Ah, bonjour! You have finally seen me? Zis is good!" the boomerang flew over to the heroes, but mostly looked at Luigi. "Honh honh! So you are zee only one zat lacks a

Pixl! Zis iz an outrage!"

"Errmmmm… Who are you supposed to be?" Luigi asked.

"Honh? Do you not know what a Pixl iz? Well, if zis iz necessary, zen I will tell you my name. They call me Bonjourang! I am zee Pixl of throwing things! You throw me, I will hit something! Eetz very simple!"

"…What? I don't understand what you mean."

"_He means that you can throw him. It's just like every other boomerang." _Blumiere informed. _"…Except this one seems to talk, which is rather…strange."_

"So now zat we have gotten to learn about each other, zis iz zee time zat we start going! I will try my best to help zee heroes!" Bonjourang circled around Luigi and held him up with a confused look.

**The French boomerang, Bonjourang, has become your friend! With him, you can throw him at a certain range! If you hold him longer, you'll throw him at a longer range. This can be helpful when you're trying to reach something that's too hard to hit from a long distance!**

"And now zat I joined you, now iz zee time to move on!" Bonjourang announced.

"I suppose this…Bonjourang person can help us with that switch," Chopper stated as he looked at the Pixl. "Maybe we should go back up those stairs and see if he'll be able to hit both of them?"

They all agreed and left the room to go back up the stairs. Luigi decided to throw Bonjourang first before stepping on the switch. After he did this, a bridge was drawn and it led up to a door ahead. Of course, there was a Sunoid, but Luigi was able to defeat it by throwing Bonjourang at it.

"Hey, this Pixl is actually pretty useful!" Luigi smiled as he caught the Pixl and allowed it to float beside him again. "I think I can get used to this!"

"I think I can agree with you on that, Luigi," Sonic nodded. "So… How's about we get going, huh? We've got to go find King Sunday and catch Arcaine! …If we can even find him, that is."

Everyone agreed and headed through the door into the next room. They noticed that they were in a room with more portraits, but with some grass on the ground and even some flowers. The sun was also shining from the ceiling so the Sunflowers can grow. Of course, they weren't friendly sunflowers.

"Crud… Well, I guess we need to do what we usually do against Sunflowers…" Chopper groaned as he readied himself to throw a fireball.

"Hold on, I wanna try something," Sonic grabbed Reflecto and used him to reflect the sunlight at the Sunflower. Since the rays were incredibly hot, the Sunflower ended up burning instead.

"_Now that was very interesting…" _Blumiere gaped as he noticed the sunflower burn down. _"I guess that if you reflect some sunlight at the Sunflowers, you can easily burn them down."_

"Is there any chance that I can throw Bonjourang while he's being surrounded by fire energy or something?" Luigi questioned as he grabbed Bonjourang. Chopper shrugged and tossed a fireball at Bonjourang, surrounding him in a flaming aura.

"Now watch zee mustache now, monsieur," Bonjourang warned as Luigi threw him at the other Sunflower. It burned down just like the other and Luigi caught the boomerang Pixl as its flames went away.

"Let's go!" Chopper charged up his Speed Dash and took off towards the door, knocking two Sun Koopas out of the way. Kirby decided to inhale one of them and swallow it whole. Mario finished the other Sun Koopa off by bashing it with his hammer. With that they walked into the next door.

"Can you honestly believe that this castle has grass on the ground?" Chopper asked as they stepped into another room. They noticed that there was a grassy platform ahead, but it didn't seem to lead anywhere. Over by the grassy wall, a little hole could be seen, but it didn't look like a normal jump could reach it.

"This looks like a job for Luigi!" Luigi announced as he Super Jumped to the hole in the wall and found a little pedestal with a sign that shows a tornado. He shrugged and used his Cyclone to spin around on it and create a tornado that went out of the hole.

"What did Luigi just do?" Blade asked.

Mario: I think that was his Luigi Cyclone…

Luigi used his Cyclone again, but this time he began to float over the ground and reach the tornado, increasing the speed of his cyclone. When he moved away from it to the left, he crashed into the grassy platform and caused it to crash into the wall, making a blue ! switch appear in the hole – which he hit to make a door appear right beside them.

"Well, that was pretty interesting," Chopper commented as he walked over to the door. "Let's get a move on, shall we?"

They entered the door and noticed that they were outside. They happened to notice that there was a bridge up ahead filled with some Sunoids and even Sun Paratroopas that are flying above. One of them knocked Chopper back when it swooped down.

"Ow! I didn't know those guys could do that! …Oh, wait. Parakarry could do that."

"Hold on, I'll get them," Luigi used his Super Jump to knock both Sun Paratroopas to the ground and also allowing Mario to stomp on one of them and kick them into the other Sun Koopa and the two Sunoids. Chopper finished the two Sunoids off by chucking some ice balls at them.

"Poyo, (Well that was pretty simple,)" Kirby commented as he walked over to the door. "Poyo. (I guess we should get going.)"

Everyone agreed and headed through the door into a small room. To their surprise, they happened to notice Arcaine in the room, but he was punching a hole in the wall. He looked pretty irritated.

"Those stupid people think they can block me with this wall?" he grumbled, aiming at the wall with his shotgun. "Don't they realize that they're in grave danger from the great and ferocious SunMoonFlower? !"

"Oh, so THIS is where you are!" Blade said, making Arcaine startle. "Whoops… Didn't mean to make you startle…"

"Well, it's nice of you to show up… You see, I've been trying to get through this wall, but it appears that there's no way for me to get through! I don't understand! Is there something on my face or something? I should be allowed through there! This stupid wall just don't want me to go in! How come I'm talking incredibly fast? Why is my shotgun in safe mode right now? When will we ever warn King Sunday? How come I'm still speaking like this? And WHY are we still standing around here like boring old people and not drinking something?"

"Errrrr… Yeah! We understood EXACTLY what you said" Chopper said as he suddenly awoke from his speaking. "…So, how do we get through? Wait, what's that hole in the wall?"

"Let me check," Luigi walked over to the hole and took a peek through. He happened to notice a blue ! block in the hole. "Oh! I think I know what to do here! This is a lot easier than you think!"

He immediately threw Bonjourang through the hole and made him hit the blue ! block. This triggered a door to be drawn right between Arcaine and the rest of the heroes. Arcaine nearly gasped.

"I don't believe it! You… You managed to hit that block!" Arcaine gaped. "You know, you might make some good partners after all! …Partners!"

"Can you stop calling us 'partners' and call us by our real names?" Sonic asked.

"Now's not the time, partners! We've got a sunious situation here! We're not too far from King Sunday's castle…"

He entered through the door, resulting in everyone else following. They noticed a staircase just up ahead, but there was a Sunflower in the room that managed to grab a hold of Arcaine and throw him back.

"It's the dangerous SunMoonFlower!" he squawked as he got up.

"No, you idiot! It's just a Sunflower…" Chopper face palmed as he tossed a fireball directly at the Sunflower, causing it to burn down. They noticed a Sun Koopatrol making its way down the stairs as well.

"I'll take care of this guy!" Blade smirked as he drew his katana and waited for the Sun Koopatrol to charge at him. He decided to stun him for a couple of seconds by using Barry to counter his attack. He finished the Sun Koopatrol off by slashing it a couple of times.

"I'm so badass!"

"Errrr… Yeah, you are…that." Chopper said with a blank look as he made his way up the stairs. When he reached the top, he saw that there was a Sun Koopatrol waiting up there. Kirby tossed Crystaline at it to leave it frozen while Chopper punched it with a flaming fist while it was frozen. He finished it off by bashing it with his hammer.

"I'm actually surprised that we haven't seen any more Sun Knights around here," Sonic realized.

"Well, maybe we'll find some in the next room," Luigi wondered as he opened the door into the next room. It looked rather small, to their surprise. But they noticed that there was a large door with two Sun Knights guarding. A yellow ? block also happened to be right by, so Chopper punched it to get a Super Shroom. Blade split it into six pieces and they all ate the piece to recover 20 HP.

"Poyo, (I don't get why that Super Shroom was there,)" Kirby said, confused.

"Maybe we're going to fight someone? Hopefully we don't have to fight the king…" Chopper gulped.

When all seven walked up to the door to the throne room, the Sun Knights blocked the door with their swords.

"Halt! Who gave you the authority to come here?" one of the Sun Knights asked.

"Sun Knights! We must speak to the king!" Arcaine said as he walked up to the front. "We must warn him about the ferocious SunMoonFlower! There could be a chance that it could come here and attack!"

"Really? Is that why you're here, Arcaine?" the second Sun Knight groaned and face palmed. "Seriously! That's the seventh time this week! Do you HONESTLY need to see the king about this?"

"Well, I've brought my partners with me as well! So it should be just fine!" he assured, pointing to the six heroes.

"How's it going?" Blade asked, waving.

"Errr… And who are they?" the first Sun Knight asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, they keep going on about being some heroes of some prophecy-whatchamacallits. It's kind of hard to explain, since I don't really give a crap about it. They're just here to help me catch SunMoonFlower!"

"Wait a second… Heroes of the prophecy? I think… I think King Sunday's been waiting to meet those people! You six… I think we should let you through. Yes, I believe it's for the best!" the two Sun Knights stepped out of the way and allowed the heroes through, but stopped when Arcaine tried to come in.

"You're not authorized to come in."

"What? But I gotta speak to the king!" Arcaine whined. "I'm super sunious!"

"Just… Just let him come in." Chopper groaned. The two Sun Knights listened and allowed Arcaine through.

* * *

**Throne room-**

When the seven walked into the throne room, they saw that it almost reminded them of the throne room in the Sweet Castle back in the Sweet Kingdom. However, the walls were a light orange and the ground had a picture of the sun on it. There were even statues of the sun and even a statue of a Sunny wearing armor. From what they could see, this was a pretty nice place.

"Wow, this doesn't look bad!" Luigi commented.

"What's this? Who are you people?" everyone looked over by the throne to see a Sunny with an orange sun-shaped face with a dark orange robe and a golden staff with the top being shaped like the sun. "Wait… Let me get a good look at you…"

"King Sunday!" Arcaine shouted as he walked up to the king. "This is an emergency! We must get you and the rest of the Sunnies to safety! The ferocious SunMoonFlower could attack at any moment!"

"Ugh… Arcaine, why are you always talking to me about the SunMoonFlower? This is the same crap over and over again…" King Sunday face palmed.

"Oh, and these are my partners, if that's anything important," he added.

"Yeah, it's always 'important' to you, Arcaine…" Chopper said while rolling his eyes. "It's 'important' that we're the chosen heroes of the Light Prognosticus and that I have level 10 antennas because of Dracktail and stuff…"

"Hold the phone… Did you say that you guys are the heroes of the prophecy?"

"Is that anything important to you?" Blade asked.

"Is that anything important? ! You know how long I've been waiting for the heroes to show up? ! It's been 1,500 years since my ancestors have been waiting! We've been waiting to give you the Pure Heart!"

"_Really? So do you have it with you?" _Timpani asked. King Sunday's smiled suddenly changed to the look that makes you want to go "this isn't good…"

"Weeeeeeeell… You see… I…sort of…had it with me…but I realized that I…left the Pure Heart back at King Moonnight's castle… And now that we're no longer friends, Sunnies aren't allowed on Night Land."

Mario: Can't we go over there?

"Hmmmm… Now that I think about it, I believe it's possible for the heroes of the prophecy to go over to Night Land. I believe King Moonnight knows about the heroes as well. However, it would be wise not to tell him I sent you, because he would think you're spies."

"That sounds…understandable," Sonic nodded. "But why can't you two just make up or something?"

"Make up? There's no way I can make up! It's HIS fault! He should be the one to apologize!"

"Poyo… (Right…)" Kirby rolled his eyes.

"OK, enough about that. To get to Night Land, you must cross the border. Don't worry, it's not bad. It's actually pretty interesting. You'll be able to see the sunset there as well!"

"And maybe SunMoonFlower is around there!" Arcaine added.

A light bulb appeared over King Sunday's head. "…And now an idea has now struck me! Perhaps if you took Arcaine with you, everyone would think you're harmless. Well, more like neutral or something so no one's hostile towards you."

"And what about SunMoonFlower?"

"Errr… Yes! SunMoonFlower is most likely around there! Arcaine! I want you to find that beast and put an end to it once and for all!"

"You can count on me, king!" Arcaine saluted.

"That sounds like a good plan!" Chopper smiled while giving a thumbs up. "So… How do we get there?"

"Well, I just have this lever here and you'll be set!" King Sunday smirked as he pulled the lever, making the floor spring up and launch the seven out of the castle. The king looked out the window and watched them scream their butts off.

* * *

**Outside-**

As soon as they hit the ground, they noticed at the end of the pathway, there was a Star Block. They also noticed that the sky was changing a bit thanks to leaving that castle.

"Well, we all know what to do, right?" Luigi said as everyone looked at him.

"Yup. It's pretty simple." Chopper walked up to the Star Block and smashed it with his fist, putting an end to this chapter once and for all.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_So King Sunday has entrusted us to put an end to the SunMoonFlower! Fear not, partners! We shall not disappoint him!" Arcaine looked rather heroic as he began to walk on the green grass to the border. The rest of the group, on the other hand, was getting a bit annoying. But, they decided to play along with Arcaine and follow him. "If King Sunday is correct, the Pure Heart must be in King Moonnight's hands… We must make sure we get to Night Land before anything bad happens." suggested Blumiere. One thing for sure was that getting past the border wasn't going to be easy._

* * *

**Ugh... This chapter felt a bit annoying to write. No, it's not a chapter I hate, but it's probably because of the bad hand injury I got the day before. Yeah, I know. It sucks. On the other hand, we met one of my favorite Pixls in this whole fic (yes, I do like French accents for some reason. They're cool).**

**Anyways, next part, we're going to head over to the border! This should be pretty interesting if you ask me...hopefully. :P**_  
_


	78. Sunsets and Moonrises

**CHAPTER 13-3**

**-Sunsets and Moonrises-**

"Wow… To be honest, the border between Day and Night Land is actually pretty…interesting!" Chopper commented as they looked up at the orange sky. From where they were, the sun looked like it was about to set, but they seemed to notice that the sun wasn't even moving. At all. I guess in this world it always stays daytime back in Day Land and night in Night Land (as if you couldn't tell by that in previous chapters already…). The grass was still the same, but it looked a bit darker because they were out in the sunset. But, they thought that it wouldn't be too hard to get through this border.

Well, they were going to be wrong.

"Since this is your first time being in this world, I suppose you should be able to get a tour of this place. That over there is some grass and over there is a rock." Arcaine pointed at a rock that looked a lot like someone punching someone else in the face. "And right here is my shotgun that we'll use to kill the SunMoonFlower! This is a pretty sunious weapon here…"

"Errmmm… Yeah. We gotcha on that." Blade slowly nodded as he took a couple of steps on the grassy ground. "So… When are we going to go over to Night Land and try to get a hold of that Pure Heart?"

"Well, Blade, we need to go over this border if we're going to get to Night Land," Sonic explained before hearing his communicator going off. He realized that Heartsy was calling him. "Heartsy? Why are you calling me?"

_"_…_Wait a second, did I call the wrong communicator? Dang it… Hold on a second, Sonic. I was trying to get a hold of Chopper." _Heartsy explained.

"Oh, geez… Not this kind of thing again…" Chopper face palmed as he picked up his communicator. "Is there something you need, Heartsy?"

_"Take a look what I decided to make with some papers Merlon didn't need," _Heartsy moved out of the way and showed a picture of both her and Chopper kissing each other on the lips. _"Doesn't it look so cute to you? You and me kissing, like it was meant to be!"_

Chopper's face almost looked like he was about to hurl. _"What's wrong, Choppy? You don't look so good…"_

"I…er…just ate something bad!" Chopper lied as he found a place to vomit. "Yeah, that's exactly what I vomited! No need to get upset because I don't wanna go out with you or anything! Everything is just fine!"

"_For a second there I heard that you didn't want to go out with me."_

"Really? I thought I said that I had a very bad itch."

_"_…_Well, all right… But I'll keep this just for you! We all know that we're bound to be together!" _Heartsy blew a kiss, which somehow came out of the communicator and hit Chopper on the cheek, knocking him over on the ground and also leaving a red heart of his cheek.

"Bleh…"

_"All right, so you guys are finally at the border, is that correct?" _Chopper was a bit surprised to hear Heartsy trying to inform them or something. But when he got up, he nodded. _"I'm not sure what's up ahead, but I guess you should all continue the path through here…"_

"Poyo! (That's exactly what we need to do right now!)" Kirby said as he put on a bold face. He saw up a small hill that a Sunflower was making its place there. A Sun Koopatrol happened to be coming towards them as well.

"I'll handle the Koopatrol," Sonic announced as he curled up in a ball and knocked the Sun Koopatrol in the stomach with a Spin Dash, knocking it over on its back to allow Mario to finish it off with some stomps. Usually when a Koopa is flipped over, their defense goes down to 0.

Mario: These guys are easy to beat!

"Well, they're easy when they're flipped over," Luigi added as he threw Bonjourang at the Sunflower and then attacked it with a Cyclone afterwards. He ended up finishing it off by attacking it from underneath with a Super Jump. With that, they went up the small hill and noticed a little bridge with Choppers jumping out of the water in an attempt to chomp anything.

"Oh, great… It's the enemies with the same name as me." Chopper groaned. "That's just what we need…"

"Well, this is no problem for me!" Sonic grinned as he jumped over to the bridge and destroyed the two Choppers with a simple jump. Up ahead, he could see a door, which was a bit surprising.

"I kind of find it weird that we always see the same kind of things over and over again…" Blade mentioned as they went down the hill and opened the door. "Doesn't it get a little repetitive?"

"Do you know what else is repetitive?" Chopper asked, forcing everyone to look over at him. "Saying stuff like that. We already get it. Sheesh! We don't need to say the same things over again!"

They all shrugged and entered the next area. They noticed that there was a little bit of water here, but there also happened to be a lily pad in the water that they could most likely use. The water itself was also pretty deep, but reaching the locked door up ahead wasn't easy, since it required a key. Plus, you need to have a good jump to reach it on the high platform made of those brown blocks.

"So… How do we move this lily pad?" Chopper asked as he laid down on the lily pad and began to rest for a little bit. "Does it require us to spray water or something like you once did, Mario?"

Mario: Very funny, Chopper… -_-

"What's pretty interesting is that you guys look more blackish because of the sunset," Luigi mentioned. "It's like the sun is making you look a bit darker or something like that…"

"I've got an idea," Blade drew his katana and used it to row the lily pad across. Arcaine, on the other hand, pulled some sunglasses out and began to relax right on the grass and being a lazy butt.

"Now this is life," he sighed as he looked up at the sun. He pretended that it was the ferocious SunMoonFlower and aimed his shotgun at the sun. "That SunMoonFlower… I know I'm going to getcha!"

"Are you done being lazy?" Chopper asked, looking over at Arcaine. "Maybe you could come over here and help us? I mean, we DO need you if we're going to get to the Pure Heart. You could be of some use, if you'd like that."

"Well, if it involves taking SunMoonFlower down, then I'll do it!" Arcaine said as he cocked his shotgun and accidentally fired it at the lily pad, creating a hold that caused it to sink into the water.

"Oh no no no no no no no no!" Sonic shrieked as the water began to go to his legs. "This is NOT good! We gotta get to land! QUICKLY! Someone find me a life jacket or else I'm doomed! Someone! PLEASE!"

"Settle down, Sonic! We don't need you to scream in terror!" Blade shouted. "We can live through this! …However, I won't deny this being Arcaine's fault…"

"Poyo, (I guess we'll just have to go swimming,)" Kirby said as goggles and snorkel appeared right out of nowhere on his face like all the other times he goes underwater. "Poyo! (This shouldn't be too bad!)"

"I don't know what you just said, but if it's about me, then you REALLY shouldn't be saying stuff about me. Because it's…" before Sonic could finish, his head ended up going in the water, leaving him to choke. Blade helped him reach the surface, but not for long…

"Well it's just swimming. We can handle it, right, bro?" Luigi said as he looked over to his brother, Mario, who smiled and nodded as they began to sink to the ground. They noticed some large hermit crab-like enemies waddling on the bottom of the pond. Chopper decided to investigate them with Timpani's wand.

_"That's a Herm. These things love to walk in the water with their shells. Max HP is ?. Attack is 9. Defense is ?. Because of the shell, it's not very easy to defeat them. However, three attacks to the shell might be enough to break its shell and defeat the Herm with one last attack. But be careful… When its shell's broken, they'll try to flee from you." _Timpani informed.

"Then I guess I'll take care of it," Chopper began to spin his hammer vertically at the Herm and managed to break its shell. He hurled a fireball at it and destroyed it instantly. Sonic, however, simply grabbed an air bubble, just like Blade.

_"I see a little passage up ahead," _Blumiere informed. _"Maybe if we go through there, we'll be able to find a key and hopefully another lily pad…if there's any chance of us finding one."_

"Poyo, (I hope we do, because I don't want any enemies getting in our way!)" Kirby agreed.

"Well, let's hope they don't get in the way. And can somebody get Sonic AWAY from those air bubbles for a couple of seconds?"

Blade attempted to pull Sonic away from the air bubbles, but he simply refused to move.

"Do you think they should just stay at the surface so they don't have to worry about holding their breath?" Luigi asked.

"Meh, I suppose they could do that," Chopper shrugged as Sonic immediately went up to the surface. Blade helped him reach it, leaving only Chopper, Kirby, Mario and Luigi to explore the waters.

"Poyo, (I still don't understand why I suddenly have goggles and a snorkel on whenever I go into the water,)" Kirby asked himself as he squirted water at a Cheep-Cheep coming their way.

"Seeing the Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers here kind of reminds me of when I traveled through that small water portion back in Lineland Road. Good times… Right, Tippi?" Chopper recalled as he pulled Timpani's wand out.

_"Yeah, I remember that…" _Timpani trailed as she began to remember those moments. _"I'm sorry if I didn't really feel too…excited when you were around. I just didn't have much trust in you. …Or maybe it was because you were acting a bit annoying to me."_

"What?"

_"Ummmmmm… Nothing! Let's just continue on!"_

"All right, whatever you say," they all swam over to a little passageway that appeared to be too tight to fit through. So, they simply used Slim's ability to turn sideways and slip through the little crack…but they stopped when they saw Sonic and Blade fall into the water again.

"Wait, what the… Why are you two back in the water?" Luigi gawked as they sank to the bottom right next to them.

"Mmmmmmmggggfffffh!" Because of Sonic's choking sounds, there was no way they could hear the blue hedgehog speak. "Mmmmmgggfffhhh! Armmmmgghhcammmgggine!"

"What's that? Did you say that you need to be kicked in the shin?" Chopper asked, not understanding what he was saying. Sonic was quickly shaking his head, but it was too late. Chopper ended up kicking him in the shin. It also made a timer appear above Sonic. He ran over to an air bubble and took in the air.

Mario: I don't think that's what he said…

Blade face palmed and pointed to Arcaine, who was already reloading his shotgun. "OH! You mean that Arcaine's the reason why you're down here? Wow… What a jerk! Why should he hit our friends? !" Chopper frowned while clenching his fists. However, Sonic ended up stepping on his foot for kicking him in the shin.

"OW! Sheesh! Sorry, Sonic! I didn't understand what you said before!"

Sonic: -_-;

"Anyways… There's a little crack right next to us." Luigi pointed down at the crack. "Are we going to get down there?"

"Yeah, we're going to do that now," Chopper instantly activated Slim's powers and turned sideways to slip through the crack. "I'm still reminded of that 'curse' I got five months ago… If only I had that with me…"

"Poyo, (Well, at least I can copy abilities unlike that last adventure,)" Kirby commented as he sank to the grassy ground. He happened to notice a Herm crawling around here, so he decided to take care of it by using Crystaline on it and then squirted water at it to defeat it.

"Huh… So have you gone through a couple of water areas in the past?" Luigi asked as he noticed a door right next to him to his right. Sonic nodded, but it was a nod that made him think of those awful moments in Pristine Palisade.

"Yeah… We've been in a water world before…" Chopper recalled. "It was before you and Mario showed up. I'm sure it was a place that Sonic disliked…a lot. Oh yeah, it was also a place where we first met Blade too!"

Blade smiled and gave a nod, but was still choking from the water, so he immediately took the door into the next area.

"Mmmmmmmmgggfffffhhh!" Sonic choked, when he really meant, "I wish I had a Bubble Shield on me right now!" as he followed everyone else into the next area. They came across a larger area, but they happened to notice that there was a slope going up. Even with Chopper's decreased speed, he would move much slower up the hill, just like Sonic would.

"Well, all we need to do is swim up this hill. It's not going to be too tough since we don't need to walk." Luigi said as he began to swim up the hill. Chopper tried to see if his Speed Dash would work. Sadly, it didn't seem like it helped him.

"Aw, come on! My Speed Dash is useless here!"

Instead of running, he was forced to swim, to his dismay. But, at least he didn't have to worry about holding his breath. Nah. Both Sonic and Blade had to worry and they were taking in air bubbles like never before.

After a bit, Sonic curled up in a ball and used a Spin Dash to go up the hill. Blade had no other choice but to swim through, but when they reached the top of the hill, they saw that there was a larger part of the area that was kind of shaped like a square. There were two ways to go, but the current going down seemed to push Chopper when he swam down there.

"Poyo? (So we can't go down that way?)" Kirby asked out of curiosity.

"Guess not," Chopper responded, shaking his head before getting hit by a Herm's claws. "Hold on a second…"

He bashed the Herm a couple of times with his hammer. It was lucky enough to drop a Bubble Shield, which Sonic immediately grabbed. Chopper also decided to inhale some of the water to gain the Water ability, due to it being able to help him through the water and increase his speed.

"I honestly don't know how water's going to help you defeat enemies…" Luigi trailed as he looked at Chopper's new look.

"Whew! I can finally breathe!" Sonic said, sighing in relief as Chopper made a bubble for Blade so he could breathe. "I REALLY wanted to have some air for once! I mean, WHY are we in a place filled with water?"

"Because Grambi told us so," Chopper answered.

"Well what about Luvbi?"

"What does Luvbi have to do with what we're talking about"

"Wait, you met Luvbi?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: I'm afraid so…

"And it certainly was horrible…" Chopper shivered, remembering the first time he met the Nimbi princess and how…horrible having to travel with her was. "Do you REALLY wanna know how much she swooned over me? ! It was probably the worst thing I've had to go through! …Although I don't think it was as bad as Heartsy…"

_"Wait, did someone say my name?" _at this point, everyone's eyes widened at the sound of that voice. Uh oh… Looks like someone forgot to turn their communicator off. Good work, Chopper.

_"Crud! I forgot my communicator's still on!" _Chopper gulped as he opened his communicator to see Heartsy's face. Hearts suddenly flew over her head as she saw the boy of his dreams.

"We were just talking about our…uh…previous adventures! You know, when we first met back in Desert Sands?"

"Man, this is just PERFECT!" Blade laughed. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I feel sorry for you…but at the same time, this is pretty funny!"

_"Our first meeting was pretty great, I'll admit. And fighting Gemerl was pretty cool as well! Good times, right, Chopper?"__  
_

"You know, I have to agree with on on that. Anyway, I gotta go now." Chopper turned his communicator off after saying bye and put it away. "OK… I think that time I turned it off. Now let's just get a move on."

_"You should take the path to the right, I suppose," _Timpani suggested as they all walked over to the current. It began to suck them in, which is something Luigi didn't really want to happen.

"Someone help me!" he cried.

Mario: Don't worry about it! Let it carry you!"

"Ummmmm… All right! I'll… I'll try!" Luigi stopped resisting and let himself get carried by the current. They ended up in a smaller portion of the area with a door right by them.

When they entered into the next area, they saw a Sun Chomper swimming in the waters, but it was much, MUCH bigger than its predecessor, the Chomper. Blade simply swam up to it and slashed it with his sword multiple times to trigger a blue ! switch to appear and a chest.

"Poyo… (I wonder what it is…)" Kirby opened the chest and found a Door Key from inside. He hit the blue ! switch next to cause the whole area to shake a bit.

_"It sounds like it was coming from the surface," _Blumiere informed. _"We should head back there."_

"Good idea," Chopper opened the door back into that smaller area, but this time they realized they couldn't take the same current back. Instead, they took a new current to their left to bring them back in the larger portion of the area.

"I guess we can go back from here," Luigi confirmed.

* * *

**Surface-**

"Thank goodness we're finally up at the surface!" Sonic said, sighing in relief as they saw a lily pad. Arcaine was still minding his own business, but when Chopper squirted water on him, it caused him to get up and growl.

"What do you think you were doing, partner?!" Arcaine barked. "Couldn't you see I was relaxing here?

"Yeah... But I was just trying to get your attention..." Chopper trailed.

"Well, whatever. You did what you had to do in the water, right? Well… Maybe we should get going then!" Arcaine jumped on the lily pad and waited for everyone else to go over. Blade simply used his katana to row the lily pad over to the upper ground. Of course, only Luigi was capable to making a high jump like that. On the other hand, Kirby was able to float up as well.

"Oh! Well you can float up here!" Luigi said out of surprise. Kirby, using his inhaling, managed to get everyone else up to the door without even eating them. Since he also had the key, he managed to unlock the door.

"Right! Now our journey to hunt the SunMoonFlower continues! Don't be making any jokes, because I'm super sunious here…"

"Sure you are…" Blade said sarcastically as he opened the door into the next area. They could see the sun was lower on the ground and the sky was a darker orange color than before. The whole view looked incredibly nice from here, especially in a small little area like this with grass.

"I gotta say… That's one awesome sunset!" Sonic grinned.

"I have to agree with that!" Luigi nodded. "I can't believe we haven't seen great sunsets like this!"

"Hey, who's trying to disturb my little tan over here?" everyone paused when they saw a female Koopa with a large, pink bow with polka dots on her head, golden rings on her wrists, large pink lips and pink hi-heels sitting on a beach chair. She took off her sunglasses and noticed it was the heroes.

"Well well well! Look who decided to show up! Although it would've been BETTER if you idiots didn't come at a time like this!" the Koopa girl snorted, sticking her tongue out at the heroes.

"Uhhhh… Who's this chick?" Blade asked. "She kind of reminds me of those other two Koopaling guys we've faced."

"Oh, no… Not Wendy…" Luigi groaned.

"Wendy? That's her name?" Chopper raised an eyebrow.

"Well of COURSE it's my name, you idiot!" Wendy sneered as she got up and threw her sunglasses to the side. "Now that I look at you, you kind of look like that dark guy that sent me here…"

"Oh, don't tell me Tipral sent ALL of the Koopalings to different places…" the young Star Warrior groaned and clenched his fists. "OK, look. We just wanna go find the Pure Heart. Is there a way we can talk through this?"

"Or better yet, you can let me through, right?" Arcaine asked as he slowly walked over to Wendy. However, she fired a golden ring from her wand and knocked him back. He was unconscious only for a couple of seconds.

"Who cares what you think! What matters is that I get my daddy back so I can get whatever I want!" Wendy growled. "And just because there are six of you doesn't mean I'm going to lose!"

"Poyo… (She definitely reminds me of Mimi…)" Kirby said as he rolled his eyes.

"You can say that again," agreed Chopper before getting hit in the face by a magic ring. "Dang it! She struck first…"

"You stupid heroes are going down!" she cried as she jumped towards the group. Luigi managed to jump out of the way and strike her in the head with a jump. This left her stunned for a couple of seconds, but she managed to fire another magical ring that began to bounce around on the grassy ground.

While she fired magic, Chopper got Timpani's wand out and decided to investigate the bratty Koopaling.

_"That's Wendy O. Koopa. She's the third youngest of the Koopalings and fourth youngest of Bowser's children. Max HP is 185. Attack is 10. Unlike the other Koopalings, she'll hurl magical rings at you, but they'll bounce around the room slowly for a little while before they disappear. You can inhale them if necessary and use them against her, if that's possible. Basically, from what I can see, she's a spoiled brat that gets everything she wants from Bowser." _Timpani informed.

"Spoiled? ! Who's the one that call me 'spoiled'? !" Wendy growled as she turned to Chopper, who was holding the glowing wand. "I swear if you're the one who did it, I'm going to make you regret it!"

"Oh yeah? Watch this!" Chopper ran towards Wendy and used a Tidal Wave attack that nearly buried her in a huge wave of water, knocking her over. When she fired a golden ring at him, Kirby inhaled it and spat it at her to make her retreat into her shell and roll around the whole grass.

"Hmmmm… Well, I never expected you people to be such tough fighters!" Arcaine commented. "I don't think defeating SunMoonFlower will be as bad as I thought it would be!"

"Could you stop thinking about the whole SunMoonFlower thing and think of what's MORE important?!" Blade howled as he jumped out of the way of Wendy's shell. When she poked her head out, he managed to get a good attack on her with his katana before getting knocked away by one of the golden rings that she fired.

"Ouch… Well, she's not one to let herself open…"

"Yeah, well let's not let it bother us," Sonic suggested as he used a Spin Jump on Wendy while she was distracted. He also added in his Bounce Attack to leave her completely dazed…and even angrier.

"What gives you the right to attack a lady like that?!" Wendy screamed. "Do you have any respect for women?!"

"Hey, I have respect for girls," Chopper retorted as he slammed his hammer on her head. "However, I don't like it when they try to kill me! That's when I cross the line there… You should understand that, Wendy!"

"Like I even care what you think!" she snorted as she fired a golden ring of magic at Chopper. However, he managed to squirt a large amount of water from his mouth and not only hit her with water, but also make the ring hit her in the face, leaving her dazed. That's when Mario came in and struck her with a Ground Pound.

"Stop ruining my makeup, you idiots!" Wendy got in her shell and began to roll around the grassy ground. The only one who ended up getting hurt was Arcaine, who was paying absolutely no attention to the fight.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" he barked.

"Dude… Just try to find a safe place!" Blade suggested.

"OK, OK! I should find someplace safe!" Arcaine agreed as he found a little place for him to hide and watched as Kirby used Crystaline to freeze Wendy and inhale an ice ball Chopper tossed to him to gain the Ice ability. Now he was ready to cool things up a bit, especially in weather like this.

"Is it really a good idea for him to use ice when it's warm out here?" Sonic asked as Kirby managed to kick Wendy across the area and damage her when she broke out of her icy prison.

"What the heck was that? ! Did I just get frozen? !" Wendy's face started to steam as she charged and knocked Kirby back with a kick. Chopper helped Kirby out by kicking Wendy in the stomach and even shooting water into her face.

"AUGH! I can't see! You got water in my eyes, you idiot!"

"Nice going!" Sonic commented as he used a Whirlwind to lift her up in the air. He struck her with two Homing Attacks afterwards and to finish things off, Luigi launched himself up in the air and struck the girl with a Super Jump.

"Wow… She's a lot tougher than I thought." Luigi gaped.

Mario: Same goes with the others…

"Well that's not a real problem!" Chopper said as he charged up a fireball and hurled it at Wendy's back. Her tail was suddenly on fire, causing her to scream until Chopper got it out with some water.

"WHY are you doing this to me? !" Wendy cried as she fired another golden ring at Chopper, knocking him to the ground. Kirby, on the other hand, ice skated towards her and used his Ice Storm attack to leave her off guard.

Fortunately, Wendy still had another trick up her sleeve. She fired pink energy from her wand and knocked Kirby back with it. She fired another ring afterwards and allowed it to slowly bounce around. Mario and Luigi got hit by it and Blade tried hitting it with his katana. But, of course, it didn't work.

"Really? I can't hit it with my katana?" Blade grumbled.

"Relax, Blade. It's not the end of the world." Luigi assured as he threw Bonjourang at Wendy and left her dazed. He followed up with his Cyclone attack and launched her up into the air, allowing him to strike her with his Super Jump. Unfortunately, she got pretty mad and ended up kicking Luigi in the stomach with her hi-heel shoe.

"Oww… That really hurts…"

_"A hi-heel shoe would definitely hurt if it was right on your stomach…" _Timpani agreed while Kirby ran toward Wendy again and kicked her from behind and even froze her feet to keep her from moving.

_"That should keep her busy for a while. Just don't use any fire on her while she's stuck." _Blumiere suggested.

"Ugh! Do all of these have to happen to me? I mean, I'm too cute to be stuck like this!" Wendy sneered as she tried moving her feet.

"'Cute'? You don't look too cute to me…" Chopper trailed as he bashed her with his hammer. "You're more a two on a scale from one to ten…"

Mario: She's not happy…

"You're REALLY calling me ugly?!" Wendy screamed, about to breathe fire at the Star Warrior. Even though she was getting angry, Chopper stayed calm down closed his eyes and folded his arms.

"Well, you ARE quite ugly from the inside…for being too bratty and stuff. Also, I think thick lips are not something…pretty. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have to run…"

Chopper turned away from Wendy and attempted to run away, only to trip on a rock and fall over. Wendy grinned as she got her feet out of the ice and fired pink magic that zap Chopper and left his body steaming.

Kirby, not being too happy with this, jumped on Carrie and jumped on her head to leave her dizzy for a couple of seconds. This allowed him to hurt her with his Ice Breath and even leave her frozen for a couple of seconds. With this, Mario jumped on top of the Koopa princess and used a Ground Pound to knock her over on her shell and leaving her completely vulnerable.

"I got dibs!" Sonic announced as he struck Wendy's stomach with a Homing Attack. She got up and held her stomach in pain.

"Is this really the treatment I deserve? First I get called ugly, then I get knocked over! This is not my day…" a small tear came down Wendy's face. Everyone actually noticed this, and, for the exception of Mario and Luigi, everyone felt a bit bad for her.

"Don't fall for her trick!" Luigi warned, clenching his fists and remaining in a fighting stance. "She's just trying to trick you!"

"Ehhhh… I don't know about that… I kind of feel sorry for hurting her, now that I think about it…" Sonic trailed.

"I don't think I should've called her ugly like that. I think that was a bit rude." Chopper frowned.

"So… You all forgive me?" Wendy asked.

"Sure… Well, do you forgive us?" Blade asked.

"Weeeeeeeell…" she grinned, raised her wand and fired a pink blast at everyone, knocking them to the ground. "Like I would ever forgive you idiots! You know that boys can be pretty dumb, you know that?"

"Ugh… See? I told you…" Luigi grumbled.

Mario: Don't fall for her tricks.

"Urgh… That was dumb…but you know that some girls can be spoiled, right?" Chopper questioned. "And what you just did to us… Well, that was a bit clichéd, if you ask me."

"Let's just get back to fighting! I don't wanna be talking all day!" Wendy groaned as she fired another golden ring. Mario simply knocked it back at her face by using his hammer. When Kirby used his Ice Sprinkle, she was stunned for a couple of seconds.

Since Luigi had a chance to make his move, he used his Cyclone to break Wendy out of her icy prison and send her flying up, allowing himself to strike her with a Super Jump. This left her with a small amount of HP left.

"I may have low HP, but it doesn't mean I'm going to give up now!" Wendy sneered, firing a barrage of golden rings at the heroes. Everyone tried their best to dodge, but one ended up knocking Chopper's Water ability away. Kirby, on the other hand, was able to freeze them.

"Poyo, (These rings don't do much,)" he commented as he floated above her and froze her with his Ice Breath. With one last kick, he knocked the Koopa princess back and broke her out of her prison when she hit the door.

"_**ACK!**_" was the last thing she screamed before falling over on the ground, unconscious. Kirby poked her to see if she would get up. Luckily, she didn't seem to respond, so it seemed a bit…safe.

"Poyo, (She's not moving,)" Kirby announced.

"Wait, is that a bad thing?" Chopper asked. Kirby simply shook his head at him.

"Poyo. (No. That means we can move on ahead.)"

"Oh… All right! That sounds good to me! I kind of want to get out of here anyways…" Chopper walked over to the door and entered through the next area. Everyone else followed him to find a hill moving down and a large gap near the edge of the hill. It looked like a tricky jump, that's for sure.

"First things first…" Blade jumped under the yellow ? block to expect a Mega Star to pop out. Unfortunately, it was just a measly Mushroom. Nevertheless, he split it and they all took it to recover 10 HP. They noticed that between the gap of the two hills, there was a platform in the background.

"Huh… Now how do we get through that?" Sonic asked.

"Well, maybe I can flip into 3-D?" Chopper threw his arms up in the air and flipped into 3-D with the rest of the group. Heck, even Arcaine went into 3-D and he was even shocked by these results.

"You… You're a strange little fellow… How did you manage to do that?" Arcaine asked.

"Yes. Yes I am. And you remind me of…oh, forget it." Chopper jumped onto the platform that could be seen in 3-D and jumped across the gap ahead. To his surprise, when he flipped everyone and himself back into 2-D, they noticed a pink, bounceable mushroom right by a dark blue mushroom where the next door rested.

"Poyo? (What's that bouncy mushroom doing here?)" Kirby asked.

_"It kind of reminds me of when we were on the highlands of Lineland, Chopper," _Timpani recalled.

"Yeah, I remember that too… Let's see if it works!" Chopper jumped on the mushroom first and bounced off and grabbed a hold of the large, dark blue mushroom. Looking up at the sky, it sure was getting darker.

"So we're now entering Night Land territory…" Arcaine informed as they all got to the door and walked into another area. There happened to be two red ! switches here, but they also happened to notice that there was another enemy. It looked just like a Sunflower, but it was a dark blue color with a bit of purple. Its step was a darker green color too.

"Whoa… That looks just like a Sunflower… Is that a Moonflower?" Chopper asked as he investigated it with Timpani's wand. "…Yeah, this is a Moonflower. What a strange enemy this is…"

"I guess this is where things start to change," Luigi stated as he stomped on the Moonflower and performed some stylish moves by flipping. Mario made the finishing move with a simple stomp. It ended up dropping an Ultra Shroom Shake, which he happily took.

"And I think you might need zee help of my power, honh honh honh!" Bonjourang informed as Luigi turned to the switches. He shrugged and threw him at them, triggering a couple of platforms to appear. One was moving up, another was moving to the left and right and the last one remained still with a door.

"And away we go!" Chopper said as he used the platforms to reach the door.

* * *

**Next area-**

"OK, I'll admit… This area was…a bit short, if you ask me." Sonic commented as they saw two Moonflowers and a Star Block at the end of the trail. "So… We're finally in Moon Land?"

"Well, I said it before, so yeah, we are," Arcaine confirmed as Chopper tossed an ice ball at the Moonflower, which surprisingly defeated it easily. Kirby used his Ice ability on the other to defeat it once and for all.

"Huh… So, where do you think we'll be going next in Moon Land?" Blade asked.

"Hopefully we find the castle," Luigi hoped. "That's where we need to go to find King Moonnight."

"And hopefully the dreadful SunMoonFlower is there! I can't wait to kill it! It's almost getting as annoying as shooing cats away!"

Blade ended up giving him a dirty look. "What? I don't like… Oh, wait a second… Don't tell me YOU'RE a cat, aren't you?"

"SHEEEEEEET! Now there's a cat hater here!" Blade grumbled as he sulked. "This is going to be nice…"

"Meh, you can handle it," Chopper assured as he destroyed the Star Block with one punch. "Luvbi didn't like most of you guys, yet you handled listening to her."

"Yeah, but he hates cats!"

"Well… I guess karma got you then!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After the intense fight with the spoiled brat, Wendy O. Koopa, our heroes were relieved from the battle and managed to cross the border between Sun and Moon Land. They watched as they looked up at the sky and at the full moon. Now they were on the other side of this world. Although Luigi didn't feel comfortable exploring the night area, he knew he had to go through with it. "Great… Now I'm reminded of that previous world we were in…" Chopper groaned, recalling the previous world. Luckily, it didn't seem that it would be as bad as they thought it would be._

* * *

**Ah, yes. This chapter... Well, this is what it turned out to be. ...No, I'm not saying it's bad or anything. I actually liked writing this chapter. Thankfully, it took me less time than Chapter 13-2. And, surprisingly, I actually like the next two chapters, for a couple of reasons.**

**However, I shouldn't speak about those just yet. You'll find out for yourself.**_  
_


	79. Heading to the Castle

**CHAPTER 13-4**

**-Heading to the Castle-**

"Huh… So this is what Night Land looks like now that we've crossed the border…" Chopper trailed, looking up at the nighttime sky.

"Uhhhh… Haven't we already walked on the border before? And didn't we already look at the sky?" Blade asked.

"Yeah, we did, but I still wanna look at this place," everyone gave confused looks, but they decided to look at this area too. The sky was a dark blue color, just like the nighttime sky would be and the grass looked to be a dark green color, just like when they got near the end of the border. The enemies looked somewhat familiar to the ones in Sun Land, but they were recolored as a darker color, like a dark blue, for something like the Moonflowers on the grass. Despite being dark out, it definitely felt pretty peaceful. It's like the real nighttime experience they'll ever witness.

"Even though I don't find it safe being around in the night… This place really isn't too bad at night." Luigi commented as he saw a Moonflower try to grab him. He jumped out of the way and tossed Bonjourang at it, leaving it stunned and allowed Kirby to defeat it with his Ice Storm attack.

"Poyo! (This place also looks very pretty!)" Kirby said as he looked up at the stars and even the full moon. "Poyo? (How come the previous world wasn't like this? It would've been so much better!)"

"Well, hopefully we'll be able to see some more things great in this world," Chopper hoped as he twirled his hammer around. "And since you guys are here, we can enjoy exploring this new world!"

"Yes, and we'll be able to get to my OTHER house so I can get to my SunMoonFlower Detection Monitor!" Arcaine announced, making everyone look at him confusingly. "With that, we can finally track and kill SunMoonFlower! This is our chance, partners! We can't lose now!"

"Wait… SunMoonFlower Detection Monitor?" Sonic gawked, tilting his head. "And where did you get something like that? In fact, how do you even have something to detect it?"

"Maybe SunMoonFlower could be over by Sun Land," Blade predicted.

"What? ! It's over at Sun Land? ! Curse you, cat! Why didn't you tell me this before? !" Arcaine walked up to Blade and gave him a dirty look. "We could've suniously had SunMoonFlower right where we wanted it!"

"Dude! Relax! I was just joking! I'm not entirely sure if this…thing even exists there…or even exists at all." he assured, stepping away from the half Sunny, half Mooner. "And really, you don't seem to like me for some reason. Is it because I'm a cat? 'Cause I can't do anything about it."

"Let's not get into this kind of discussion, guys…" Chopper groaned, pulling Blade away from Arcaine. "We'll just go to this guy's house and then head over to King Moonnight's Castle. That's all we have to do."

"Sounds good to me! Let's go!" Luigi said as he jumped.

Mario: It's about time!

The other Moonflower that they didn't bother to attack managed to grab a hold of Chopper and threw him towards Mario. Luckily, the red plumber managed to catch the Star Warrior before crashing into his face. He put him down and used Kickbrin to knock over the Moonflower.

"Heh heh heh! This should be fun!" Sonic chuckled as he struck the Moonflower with a Homing Attack, followed by a Bounce Attack. Luigi managed to finish it off by using his Cyclone attack, killing it off easily.

What was also nice was that there was a hill going down to a ramp moving up. A spring was right on the top of that ground, which was actually nice for some people like Chopper and Sonic.

"YES! More running!" Chopper fist pumped as he used a Speed Dash to go down the hill and up the slope to reach a red spring. It launched him up pretty high, but all he could see were two Paratroopas with dark blue shells, darker skin – a grayish one and sunglasses. Why they were wearing sunglasses, he didn't know. However, he managed to make the Moon Paratroopa's wings detach with a simple stomp. When he landed on the next grassy hill, he saw that there were some bottomless pits. One Moon Paratroopa was stupid enough to fall in.

Everyone else made their way up to Chopper and moved down the hill. Luigi simply decided to slide down to knock the Moon Koopa Troopa coming up the hill off and even knocked away a dark blue Goomba called a Moon Goomba as well.

"Hold on, aren't those things Gloombas?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo, (They remind me of those Goombas we encountered back in that underground area in The Bitlands,)" Kirby recalled, sliding down the hill and freezing a Moon Goomba before it could headbonk him. While it was frozen, he kicked it straight at the other Moon Goomba, defeating both of them.

"It's strange that when they have some high HP, they don't take as long to defeat," Luigi realized.

Mario: It's kind of strange, I have to admit.

"Well, it's not a big deal. I like it this way anyways. We should just head through the door." Chopper ran over to the door that wasn't too far away and entered through. They all reached another area, but this one seemed to have a couple of trees around with fruit shaped like the moon hanging from the tree. There were even some Cursyas around here and a couple of bee-like enemies called Bzzaps! around as well.

According to Timpani, these bee enemies don't have a lot of HP, but their stings can do a lot of damage and possibly shrink or poison you (since bees can sometimes poison you). Everyone decided to be careful with this new enemy and try their best to attack it from a far range.

Mario: Oh, great… Those annoying enemies.

"I don't think I've seen them here, but I guess we'll need to find a way to attack them without touching them," Sonic pondered as he looked down at a rock. Arcaine, on the other hand, simply shot the Bzzap! with his shotgun.

"…What?"

Everyone blinked as they turned to Arcaine, who reloaded his shotgun and put it away. They all had confused looks, but it didn't seem to bother Arcaine that much as he whistled as if nothing really happened.

"Ummmmm… OK! Well that was kind of strange! Let's see what's in these trees!" Chopper whipped his hammer out and bashed one of the trees. A Moon Fruit happened to come down and land on Choppers mouth. After swallowing, he ended up recovering about 30 HP.

"Hey! This stuff's good! You guys should try it!"

He bashed the tree again to make more Moon Fruits come down. Kirby was the next one to eat one of the Moon Fruits. He was actually incredibly delighted by the taste of it. The others followed up and took a taste of the Moon Fruits.

"Wow… This is pretty good!" Luigi commented.

Mario: Oh, yes!

"Hey, can I have one too?" Arcaine asked. Chopper groaned and bashed another tree. Instead, a Bzzap! ended up falling from the tree. Due to it being angry, it tried to stink the Star Warrior, but it couldn't pierce through his hammer.

"Hold on, I got this!" Sonic struck the Bzzap! with a simple Spin Jump, instantly disintegrating it into smoke. Arcaine picked up the Moon Fruit and gobbled it down. He rubbed his belly in delight after swallowing it.

"That was sooooo good!"

"Yeah, it was. I guess this should help us with our HP." Chopper ate one last Moon Fruit before moving on. He noticed that there was a Dayzee enemy with dark blue petals skipping around on the grass. When it noticed the group, it sang a little song and fled from the group.

"_That was a Nazee Dayzee you just encountered," _Timpani informed. _"They're kind of like Crazee Dayzees, but they can actually blend in with the surroundings and put you to sleep for much, much longer."_

"Maybe we just need to deflect that note," Blade smirked, spinning his katana around and deflecting the musical note back to the Nazee Dayzee. It ended up hitting it upon impact and made it fall asleep. Blade finished it off with a couple of slashes.

"See? That's how you kill a freakin' flower!"

"Man… I don't get why we're killing those innocent flowers…" Chopper trailed, dodging another Nazee Dayzee's song and stomping on its head. "Sometimes it's hard for me to compare an Amazy Dayzee to Kayzee for some reason… They both look quite familiar."

"Poyo, (Well, I guess that's how life goes,)" Kirby said as he decided to float above the enemies. The only thing wrong with that was that a Moon Paratroopa was flying around and ended up hitting him and knocked his ability away.

"Poyo! (No! Not my ability! Come on!)"

"Ugh… Well, looks like we're both abilitiless." Chopper announced as he noticed a moon-like enemy spitting shards of ice at them. He decided to use Timpani's wand to investigate these strange enemies.

"_That strange enemy is called a Moonin. They are the exact opposite as a Sunoid. Max HP is 48. Attack is 11. What's surprising is that these enemies will simply roll at you. They're not so hard to avoid and can even give you the Cutter ability if you want. However, just because they're easy to avoid doesn't mean you can easily hit them. You'll get hurt if you try stomping on them while they roll." _Timpani informed.

"Poyo! (Cutter ability? Well count me in!)" Kirby inhaled the Moonin and got a hold of the Cutter ability. The next Moonin he saw up ahead, he tossed his cutter blade at and let it damage it for a bit before grabbing it, followed by running up to it and finishing it off with one last strike from his blade.

"Heh… Well this should be fun." Sonic smirked as he ran up the small hill and went up to the door just ahead. A Moon Koopa was walking around there, minding its own business. But it was soon defeated when Sonic attacked it with a Spin Dash. With that, they entered the door and into the next area.

"Weird… I didn't know that we'd be seeing another bridge here." Chopper blinked as he stepped on the bridge. He checked to see if there was anything in 3-D. Surprisingly, there happened to be a secret off the bridge. However, he decided not to check down there just yet.

"Did you find something interesting down there?" Arcaine asked.

"I did, but I don't see much of a point in checking there," he answered. "I think we should just go this way. You know, see what else we can find around here? That's a smart thing."

Mario: I guess we might as well.

They crossed the bridge (which had a couple of Choppers jumping up from the bridge, which were taken care of by Sonic, thankfully) and that there was a climbable cliff up ahead. It was a bit too high to reach, but there was a blue ! switch that they couldn't reach…unless they did a little something.

"Poyo? (Are we supposed to flip here?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, I know _I_ have to flip, but I don't think you can," Chopper flipped into 2-D and he simply kicked the blue ! switch. This triggered a couple of other climbable cliffs that were a bit smaller. From the looks of it, it looked like this switch was completely optional…

"Well what was the point of that?" Luigi asked.

"I think it helps us get up," Blade answered as he did a couple of ninja jumps on the cliffs and reached the edge of the last cliff where a door was. After everyone made their way up, they followed him through an area with a small hill going up, but there were a couple of Spiny Tromps coming their way down.

"Whoa… What are those things?" Sonic asked, pointing to the Spiny Tromps coming down.

"Oh, great… Not those things…" Chopper groaned as he face palmed.

"Those things look like pansies! I know how to deal with them!" Arcaine smirked as he walked up the hill, only to get trampled by the Spiny Tromps. "Ouch… _Mommy…_"

"And you call them pansies… Yeah, very funny." Blade smirked.

"Hey, I don't need a freakin' cat to speak to me! I swear that I'm going to use you as bait when we find that SunMoonFlower! I'll make sure you regret acting like that to me you little…well, blue cat!"

"Dude, you can't get past those guys so easily," Chopper groaned as he moved Arcaine out of the way while he was flat on the ground. "They're too big for you to jump over!"

"Oh yeah? Then how do YOU get through those guys?"

"Well, I know how I can get through!" Luigi began to use his Super Jump in order to get past all of the Spiny Tromps. Chopper shrugged and followed him through 3-D until they both got to the top of the hill. Unfortunately for them, they ran into a locked door.

"Uh oh… The door's locked." Chopper frowned.

"So, do we go back?"

"I think we have no choice. I think that bridge we saw earlier could help us find the key somehow. Let's hope we're right, though… What also stinks is that we're two areas away from that door…"

* * *

**The area before-**

"Why did you bring us all the way back here? What about SunMoonFlower? !" Arcaine exclaimed as Chopper flipped everyone into 3-D. It turns out that they were all standing in midair in 3-D and ended up falling.

Mario: Mama mia!

"Poyo! (This isn't good!)"

They all ended up landing on some nice, dark green grass right next to a shallow pond right next to them. When Mario jumped into the water, he saw that it only went up to his feet, so it was no problem for them.

And, luckily, there happened to be a door next to them. They entered through into an area with a hill going down and two loops that ended up leading up a ramp on the edge of a cliff. Chopper was definitely happy to see that he had a chance to run. But, there were two Moonins in the way too.

"These guys just LOVE to be in the way!" Sonic curled up in a ball and used his Spin Dash to ram through the two Moonins and went through the two loops that led up to the ramp going up to the edge of a cliff.

"Now if you'll excuse me… I should follow him." Chopper used his Speed Dash and managed to go through both loops and grab a hold of the edge of the cliff. How everyone else got through… Well, they found their way.

"Poyo? (Why is it that we have these loops here?)" Kirby asked.

"How come I can't understand a word this kid's saying?" Arcaine asked as he noticed a gap between the next cliff they were near and the edge of another climbable cliff. Below was some strange kind of water. It looked a bit pinkish, but it certainly didn't look like something you'd wanna step in.

"Really? Do you HAVE to mock my friend?" Chopper frowned. "That wasn't really necessary for you…"

"Well, I think it was, my boy! Now if you'll excuse me, I shall jump this gap!" the idiotic Sunny/Mooner attempted to make a jump, but, since he wasn't a good jumper, he ended up between the two cliffs. He looked down for a moment and then up at the heroes and shook his arms like crazy.

"_**GAAAAAAAAAAH!**_ Don't just stand there! Do something!"

"Man… This guy suddenly reminds me a bit of Kolorado… Except he wasn't obsessed with killing some imaginative creature. I guess they both end up getting hurt for some strange reason. Hey! They did get rolled over by Spiny Tromps too!" Chopper recalled.

"Wait… Who the hell is Kolorado?" Blade asked.

Mario: A Koopa archaeologist.

"Oh… I guess this was back before I met you, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Chopper nodded.

"Aren't you guys going to help me? ! I'm going to fall!" Arcaine cried, leading Luigi to grab a hold of his hand before he could fall to his doom. He tried pulling him up, but he wasn't quite strong enough.

"I can't pull him up! He's too heavy!" Luigi cried.

"If you're calling me fat, then I disagree with your statement!"

"I'll help!" Chopper grabbed a hold of Luigi's overalls and tried pulling back. Of course, this didn't work either because he wasn't strong enough. "Oh, dang it! I realized that this was completely useless! We need support here pronto!"

"I'll use my muscles to get the job done," Blade grabbed a hold of Chopper and tried pulling him back. In the end, they ended up pulling Arcaine back up, but they all agreed that he should stay. Heck, even Arcaine himself agreed that he wanted to stay, which was a bit strange.

"OK, I'll see what happens here," Sonic declared as he jumped over to the edge of the cliff. Surprisingly, the edge broke off and went into the water and dissolved, making the cliff's edge smaller.

"Poyo… (Oh, great… Now we're in for some trouble…)" Kirby face palmed.

"I think I can get across," Luigi said as he used his Cyclone to float in midair and got to Sonic. The good news was that while the cliff was smaller, they could still jump. They continued down one last small hill and found two Moonflowers by a red door.

"Man, more of these guys!" Blade groaned as he gripped his katana and slashed at them. He even cut their stems off to make sure they wouldn't make an extra attack. With that, they walked into the next area, which was a bit close to the, well, death water. There were about two large gaps that had this water.

The first thing they ended up running into, however, was a Nazee Dayzee that put Chopper and Kirby to sleep with its song.

"Uh oh… They're asleep…" Sonic said with a blank look.

"So how do we get them out of their sleep?" Luigi asked.

"I'll try something," Blade used Piccolo's singing to make the Nazee Dayzee fall asleep. This way, it allowed the two to wake up. While the Nazee Dayzee was asleep, Luigi stomped on it a couple of times and made it disintegrate into smoke.

"Man… I just had one of the coolest dreams…" Chopper said as he rubbed his eyes. "I was dreaming about this world… And it had so much pizza for me to devour. It just felt so…good…"

"Poyo, (I guess I'm not the only one who dreams about food,)" Kirby said, looking a bit drowsy from falling asleep. Nevertheless, they were able to jump over the gap that led into the deadly water and ran up a small little hill where a Moonin was rolling down. Kirby got his cutter blade ready and threw it at the Moonin to stop it from moving. Chopper finished it off by bashing it with his hammer.

"Hey, look! Two yellow ? blocks!" Chopper hit the first one to find the Wheel ability, which he happily took so he could have it, while Mario struck the other yellow ? block to make a Super Shroom pop out.

"Hold on, I gotta cut this into six pieces," Blade, using his ninja skills, cut the Super Shroom into six pieces. They all took their piece and recovered 20 HP from it. Now that they were all recovered for a bit, they jumped over the next gap and found another door where a Nazee Dayzee was. This time, however, Chopper chucked a couple of fireballs at it to defeat it.

"Wow… I thought that was a bit…harsh." Sonic commented.

"Well that's what happens when I'm put to sleep. Although… I did like the fact that I was dreaming about pizza…" Chopper trailed, only to make Timpani's wand float out of his bag (or whatever he carries his stuff in).

"_Now's not the time to be speaking about food, Chopper! We need to find the key that leads to that door!" _Timpani suggested.

Chopper turned to the wand and blinked. "You know… I really do feel the whole 'mother' thing coming from you. You're always trying to get me to move on, kind of like a mother would nag someone. …Hey! I'm not saying that it's a bad thing!"

Mario: Didn't you always think of her as a mother figure?

"Errr… Yeah, I did. Well, I said that she kind of reminded me of my mother. …But let's not get into any details with that! I wanna get moving." Chopper walked up the small hill and jumped over the gap that led up to a door ahead. Everyone followed him through the door into an area that was more flat, to some people's relief. However, there were a couple of Moonflowers and Nazee Dayzees skipping on the grass.

"_I've never seen Dayzees skipping around," _Blumiere commented.

"I haven't either," Blade said as he rushed over to the Nazee Dayzee. However, Chopper was able to get to it first by transforming into a wheel and running over nearly everything. He made a sharp turn back so he could attack the Nazee Dayzee and Moonflower again. Mario finished off the Moonflower with his hammer and Luigi finished off the Nazee Dayzee with a stomp.

"I'll see what's up ahead!" Chopper shouted as he ran over nearly all the enemies until he crashed into a wall. There happened to be a sign right by him, so he decided to transform back into himself and read what it had to say.

_Beware of the third block._

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"_I suppose it has to do something with some kind of puzzle…" _Timpani trailed. Chopper checked in 3-D to see if there was anything. There happened to be three red ! blocks floating above him. He decided to hit the middle one and the upper one, since it was the closest to him.

…Unfortunately, this made a Moonflower drop from the sky and grab Chopper. It threw him against the wall and made him drop his Wheel ability – to his dismay.

"Poyo! (I'll save you!)" Kirby came running towards the Moonflower with his cutter blade ready. With one toss, he sliced the stem off of the Moonflower and destroyed it instantly.

"Where'd that Moonflower come from?" Blade asked.

"I don't know… It almost seemed as if it came from the sky…" Chopper moaned as he rubbed his head in pain. "I mean, really! Do we seriously need to have enemies like them coming up from the sky? !"

While Chopper complained, Sonic walked up to the sign and red it. "What the heck does 'Beware of the third block' mean?"

He stopped complaining and turned to Sonic. "Oh… In all honesty, I have no idea what it really means."

"_From what I see, it looks like it might be something for the puzzle," _Blumiere informed. _"I think that last block you hit triggered the Moonflower to come down. I suggest you hit the other one instead."_

"OK, I'll do it," Chopper went back into 3-D and hit the other block instead of the third one and then the second one. This transformed the third one into a Door Key and made the others disappear.

"I got the key!" Luigi announced as it landed right in front of his feet. "I guess we can finally go back to that other door!"

* * *

**Area with the Spiny Tromps-**

"So you're telling me you didn't see he ferocious SunMoonFlower around here? !" Arcaine gaped as they walked out of the door leading into the area with the Spiny Tromps rolling down.

"Dude! How many times do we have to tell you? ! There's no such thing as a SunMoonFlower! This is just all made up in your head!" Sonic snapped, getting INCREDIBLY tired of hearing that crap.

"Oh, yeah? Who are you to tell me this? You have any proof?"

"I'll get my proof right now," Sonic pulled his communicator out and contacted C-2 Choppor with it. "Hey, er, Choppor…if that's what your name is. You can search for things, right?"

"_Affirmative. Do you have anything that I can help you search for?" _ C-2 Choppor asked.

"Can you search for…SunMoonFlower?"

"Oh, please! Of course you're going to find results for that!" Arcaine retorted, crossing his arms. "I'm super sunious!"

"Ugh… Here we go again…" Chopper groaned, face palming.

"_Searching…" _C-2 Choppor began to wait for a couple of seconds until they all heard a "ding" sound come from him. _"Loading complete. Search results for 'SunMoonFlower': No results found. I'm afraid there is no SunMoonFlower."_

"What? That's bull! There IS a SunMoonFlower! I saw it with my own eyes!" Arcaine denied.

Chopper ended up pulling his communicator out after it went off and saw that Flyer was calling him. _"Man… I was just wondering where that noise came from, so I decided to call you to see if it was coming from your area. It seems that it is…"_

"Yeah, it's the weird Arcaine person denying that there is no SunMoonFlower," he explained. "And yeah, he keeps saying that he's still going to hunt it down, which I find…weird."

"_Oh… Well I guess there's something wrong with him. Anyways, I guess you should head over to the town that's supposedly here and see if you can reach the castle. Hopefully you're not too late."_

"_Hold on… Choppy looks a little…wounded!" _Heartsy unintentionally pushed Flyer out of the way and saw Chopper's wounds on the communicator. _"Are you all right, my sweet boyfriend?"_

"Ack! Why are you here? !" Chopper yelped.

"_Are you all right? You look a bit…frightened. I just wanted to know if you were all right or not."_

"Errmmm… I'm fine! Completely fine! I think I have to get going now!"

"_OK, that's fine with me," _Heartsy blew another kiss, which Chopper tried to avoid but ultimately failed. She ended up getting a bad response from Bow when she saw this, resulting in Chopper closing his communicator.

"Oh, come on… Are you still afraid of her from that whole Path of Fear?" Blade asked as he rolled his eyes.

"Just forget it. We're wasting our time here. I wanna get going." he flipped into 3-D and began to run past the Spiny Tromps coming down the hill. Luigi did the same procedure as before and used his Super Jump to get past the Spiny Tromps.

"Poyo? (Wait, how do we get past them?)" Kirby asked until he realized that he could float, so he simply floated over all the Spiny Tromps and made it over to the locked door. Chopper used his inhaling ability to get the other people to him but made sure not to swallow them.

"So this is what it's like to do something like that with my inhaling…" Chopper trailed as Luigi unlocked the door.

"Let's go!" Luigi suggested as they headed into an area with a couple of waterfalls and logs coming down. They looked down at the small pool of water and thought that it wasn't TOO bad.

"We better not fall into that water…" Sonic grumbled.

"Those logs look like they can help us get across the waterfalls, though," Blade mentioned as he ninja jumped onto one of the logs moving down. He had to jump onto a couple more to jump on a rocky platform in between two waterfalls.

"Let's see if I can make a jump up there!" Sonic made a jump onto the logs and reached the rock Blade was on. He noticed a couple of other skinny rocks off on the distance on the waterfall, but Blade was able to use his ninja jump to reach them.

"Man, I wish I could do that…" Luigi trailed as he followed them across the waterfall and reached the top rock that a door was standing on.

"I'm surprised that that area was small…" Chopper said with a blink.

"…Oh! Now I remember! Through this door is the area to my other house! Come on! We need to go!" Arcaine pushed everyone out of the way and headed through the door with the heroes following. They noticed past a dark blue house that there was another door, but Arcaine simply walked over to his house. He knew something could be heard from in there.

"What's that?" Luigi asked.

"Good Grambi! My device is going off!" Arcaine headed straight into his house with everyone following him in. They didn't even bother looking at the whole room when Arcaine jumped into his chair and got to his computer and keyboard.

"SunMoonFlower Screen active!"

On the computer monitor, they could see a red dot pointing directly at King Moonnight's Castle. "Ah-HA! See? I told you that SunMoonFlower's real!"

"Hold on a second! What the heck is this?" Chopper asked.

"This is my SunMoonFlower Detection Monitor. This is what I was telling you guys about. With this, we can finally capture SunMoonFlower!" Arcaine zoomed in onto the location and frowned. "Wait a second…"

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.

"It says here that SunMoonFlower is in the castle sewers! …Oh, man. This isn't good! But it's not too late! Partners, get your weapons ready!"

"But most of us don't even carry weapons," Luigi responded.

"Well… Take these then!" Arcaine handed Luigi a rusty nail, Mario and stapler, Kirby a stick and Chopper a rubber band. "I think these weapons will be good enough to take care of SunMoonFlower!"

"Dude… A rubber band? Really?" Chopper used it like a slingshot, but accidentally hit Arcaine in the eye. "Whoops! I didn't mean to do that!"

"Hey! That's not meant to be used against me!"

"I think we'll be fine, since most of us are technically supernatural beings," Sonic stated, crossing his arms.

"Then let's head out into Moon Town!" Arcaine left the house and headed over to the door up ahead. Everyone else simply shrugged and followed the…whatever the heck he is through the door.

* * *

**Moon Town-**

"Well, this sure is a treat," Chopper commented as they looked at all of the houses around the town. They were mostly a dark blue or yellow color, due to that being the color of night and the moon. In fact, the full moon was shining down from here the most, making this place seem rather beautiful. All of the Mooners had some heads that were full moons and some crescents.

Mario: These people are rather strange…

"Ehhhh… I don't think the word 'strange' would classify these people." Sonic disagreed as he looked at the Moonins. "I think they would find us rather strange, if you think about it."

"I don't care what anyone else says. These guys a WEIRDOS!" Blade shouted, getting the attention of a couple of Moonins. However, they simply ignored him and went back to what they were doing.

"Excuse me, madam," Arcaine began as he walked up to a Moonin lady. "Could you tell us where we can go to get to King Moonnight's Castle?"

"Is this because of the whole SunMoonFlower thing? You really need to stop speaking about it…" the lady rolled her eyes and walked away from him.

"See? You can't get things done this way…" Chopper groaned before a scent began to surround him. It smelled like…pie! "Ooh! Something smells nice! I've gotta get a look at it!"

"Poyo! (Wait! Don't go!)" Kirby begged as Chopper hopped away and jumped over to a windowsill. It appeared to be the house of the mayor's. His wife was leaving her delicious apple pie on the windowsill for some reason.

"Oh man… That looks so good! …Surely that person wouldn't mind an innocent child taking their pie!" Chopper grabbed the pie and before he was about to eat it, someone pushed it into his face, covering him with the pie.

"What the… What happened? !"

"Oh, you silly little boy… You're quite one to go after the delicious treats!" Chopper opened his eyes and saw Dimentio laughing at him.

"You…"

"What's the matter, hero? Your appetite is like a bear getting ready for hibernation!" Dimentio cackled as Chopper rubbed his eyes of the pie.

"What are you doing here? Come here to fight us this time?" Chopper's fists began to glow fire and ice energy as he clenched them. "Or are you going to be cowardly and flee like before?"

"My my, so you do wish to do battle with me! However, a fight here is rather…unnecessary. We cannot fight somewhere where there are townspeople! No… It's best for us to have our duel outside of town! I'll meet you there, Chopper… Ciao!"

With a snap of his finger, he disappeared. Unfortunately, the mayor's wife happened to returned and noticed Chopper covered with the pie.

"You… You ate my pie!" she cried, grabbing some apples and throwing them at him. "Shoo! Go away you little child!"

"Ow! Stop it!" one of the apples knocked him over and sent him tumbling down to the ground. Of course, he got a chance to eat them, so this didn't all seem so bad. The other heroes walked up to him as he got up.

"Poyo? (Was that Dimentio I think I saw?)" Kirby asked.

"Yeah… Dimentio's here, apparently. I guess he wants to fight us or something, which is what we should do outside."

"Dimentio? ! Wh-What's he doing here? !" Luigi shrieked.

Mario: You're still not over that, are you…?

"It's not my fault that he possessed me and turned me into something…" Luigi cowered on the ground and began to shiver. It took everyone to bring him over to the door ahead. Well, except for Arcaine, who was talking to some of the Moonins.

"Hey retard! You coming with us or not? !" Blade barked.

"…Oh! I was just trying to gather some information about SunMoonFlower, that's all!" Arcaine walked back to the group over by the door. "…What's wrong with the guy in green?"

"It's kind of a long story…" Chopper groaned.

* * *

**Some time later-**

After taking their time buying some goods at the shop, they reached the next area. They didn't see Dimentio anywhere, but they saw a pathway with two loops and two Nazee Dayzees skipping along. Chopper reached for his hammer and was about to bash the Nazee Dayzees until they saw he was still covered in pie.

"Hee hee hee! Looks like someone got pranked!" they giggled.

"…Is 'pranked' even a word?" Chopper gawked before killing them off with his hammer. Afterwards, he immediately raced through the loops and reached the door ahead. Everyone was surprised by his speed, but they followed him over to the door after some procedures.

"Poyo, (You seem like you really want to fight Dimentio,)" Kirby said as Chopper still had his fists clenched.

"I guess you still don't remember what he did…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo? (What EXACTLY did he do?)"

"Well, it turns out he betrayed Tipral and tried to take the Chaos Heart for himself…then he said that we were simply being used by him like tools. Plus, after trying to 'murder' us, I can finally say that I have no respect for the clown."

"I REALLY don't want to keep remembering that horrible incident in Castle Bleck…" Luigi shivered.

"What happened, exactly?" Sonic asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it… I just wanna get going now."

"All right, I suppose we should," Chopper kicked the door open to a flat area with two pedestals and a castle in the background. However, there was no pipe that could help them reach the castle.

Mario: Don't we need stones for this?

"I don't think so…" Arcaine trailed. "The Moon Stone was lost by the mayor a long time ago…"

"So you come at last, like a boy who's eager to buy a new video game!"

"Ugh… I still hate those similes…" Sonic groaned.

"All right, Dimentio. We're here, so what do you want?" Chopper grumbled.

"Oh, I don't want anything, really! All I've come for is to watch your defeat! And by watching your defeat, I mean taking care of you."

"_Haven't you come to your senses of what you did before?" _Blumiere asked.

"Hmmmmm… I don't recall anything like that happening…" Dimentio pondered. "But, it doesn't really matter now! I must do what Tipral tells me and end the games of the heroes! Let's get started, shall we?"

"Gladly!" Chopper smirked, chucking a fireball at him. The jester simply floated out of the way and twirled his finger around to bring everyone – except for Arcaine – to his own dimension: Dimension D.

"Ugh… Haven't you learned already?" Chopper sighed. "Using Dimension D isn't going to help you defeat us."

"That may be true, but I still have more of an upper advantage, since this is my own world," the jester smirked. "But enough chit-chat. Now we must battle, like two great warriors fighting for a tasty burger!"

"Meh, might as well used Timpani's wand to investigate him," Chopper aimed her wand straight at Dimentio, but no ray of rainbow light came out. "Huh…? Why won't this thing work?"

"Poyo… (I think her power can't reach this dimension…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo. (And that stinks, considering that we've never investigated Dimentio before.)"

"Well, I guess we're going to have to go without her help…" Sonic trailed as he tried to make a jump for Dimentio. The jester cackled as he quickly avoided the attack and fired a magic projectile down at him, knocking him against the wall.

"Whoa… He can dodge for sure."

"Well that's not stopping me!" Chopper jumped off the wall to the left and managed to punch Dimentio with fire energy, causing him to teleport elsewhere in the dimension.

"You know, since he's floating around, I think attacking him with my Super Jump wouldn't be too bad," Luigi got under Dimentio when he was casting another spell and managed to strike him from underneath with a Super Jump.

"Ouch! Well now… You people are quite the fighters… But this isn't over yet!" Dimentio snapped his finger and teleported. When he reappeared, there were four other Dimentios floating in the room.

"Take this!" all five Dimentios fired three magical particles each, which struck all six of them. The one that floated down to the bottom the closest turned out to be the real one when Kirby attacked him with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo, (You haven't really changed, Dimentio,)" Kirby smirked as he struck him with his last attack, knocking Dimentio to the ground. "Poyo! (You use the same attacks all the time! It's unoriginal!)"

"You want something new? Ah ha ha ha! All right, I'll offer something new!" Dimentio snapped his finger and Kirby was struck with some Star Magic. "I believe this is something new I've gotten!"

"Wait a minute… That looks like…Tipral's Star Magic!" Chopper gasped. "How does he have that kind of ability? ! …Unless something caused him to have some of Tipral's abilities…"

Dimentio snapped his finger again, but Chopper managed to jump out of the way before getting struck by Star Magic. It was really tough to see where his attacks were, considering that Star Magic suddenly appears when struck. While he was distracted with the jester, Blade grabbed a hold of the wall and began throwing shurikens like crazy at Dimentio, making him teleport to him.

"Man! I've always wanted to fight this guy as himself!" Blade smirked as he jumped off the wall and spun his katana vertically when Dimentio appeared. However, when he landed on the ground, Dimentio used his magic to trap him in a box and caused it to explode from inside.

"Ouch… I hate those kinds of attacks…"

"Don't worry, I'll try to attack," Chopper chucked a couple of ice balls at Dimentio, but he countered them by hurling his magic attacks at them, destroying them upon impact. Unfortunately, before the jester could hit Chopper again, Mario jumped off the wall and jumped on top of his head.

"You little…!"

Dimentio appeared behind Mario and blasted him with his magic. Luigi even tried to hit him with Bonjourang, but he used some kind of mirror ability that protected him from getting hurt.

"Wait… So he can guard our attacks now? Come on!" Chopper tried to freeze him once again, but he put up another barrier and protected himself…until Blade managed to jump up to him and distract him by swinging his katana at him.

"And I thought you fought with honor," Dimentio scoffed as he turned around and blasted Blade with one of his magic projectiles. This left him off guard, allowing Chopper to freeze him by chucking a charged ice ball at him. When the frozen jester hit the ground, Chopper bashed him with his hammer and forced him to teleport elsewhere in the room.

"Hmmmm… Perhaps I could change this up a bit…"

Dimentio created boxes around the heroes, but people like Sonic, Chopper and Luigi managed to avoid them. Chopper got a chance to stomp on his head while Luigi used his Super Jump to uppercut him and make him teleport elsewhere. It also got rid of the boxes as well.

"Ha! I think I can enjoy this!" Chopper smirked.

"Poyo, (I agree,)" Kirby said as he threw his cutter blade like a boomerang at Dimentio, making him teleport behind Kirby. The jester hurled another one of his spells down at Kirby and hit him directly.

"If you honestly believe that you're going to win this fight, think again," Dimentio snapped his finger and disappeared. When he reappeared, four more Dimentios appeared and hurled their spells at the heroes.

"Heads up, guys!" Sonic warned as he tried to strike one of the Dimentios with a Homing Attack. Unfortunately, he got the wrong one and got hit by one of Dimentios spells. Luigi managed to strike the real one with a Super Jump, making all of the other Dimentios disappear.

"So, are you ready to give up yet?" Chopper asked. "You're free to do that if you want."

"Ah ha ha ha. Now why would I do that right now?" Dimentio cackled as he hurled a spell down at Chopper. Unfortunately for the jester, Chopper managed to inhale the blast and spit it back at him to send him flying towards the wall, allowing Kirby to attack him with his Final Cutter.

"Oof! Now you're becoming annoying…"

Dimentio created a box that surrounded Chopper and triggered an explosion from inside with a snap of his finger. Chopper was left dazed from the attack, but it didn't stop him from hurling some fireballs at him, which hit him dead on.

Mario: Hold on, let me make a move!

"Let's see how you handle this!" Dimentio snapped his finger again and tried striking Mario with Star Magic. But he ended up using this attack right when Mario jumped, making him dodge the attack and letting him Triple Jump on his head, making him teleport over to Luigi.

"Uh oh… Don't tell me you're going to trap me in a box!" Luigi gulped.

"Hmmmmmm… Now that I think about it… It sounds like a perfect idea!" Dimentio was about to trap Luigi in a box until he gripped Bonjourang and threw him at the jester, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"I think I can make another move on him!"

Luigi used his Cyclone attack to strike Dimentio with his fists and send him flying up and allowing him to use his Super Jump to strike him afterwards. Dimentio cried out as he teleported elsewhere in the room in an attempt to kill them all.

"Oh, not this time," Blade said as he jumped towards the jester and spun his katana around vertically, making him teleport near the ground. This turned out to be good for Blade because he was able to strike him with his katana.

"Oof! Well, this sure is an unfair battle…but this is my very own dimension, so I shall be victorious!" Dimentio cackled as he teleported away from Blade. When he appeared again, he immediately flipped into 3-D and began to fire his magic spells at the group while he was hidden away.

"Yeesh! How's he able to hurt us when he's in 3-D? !" Sonic gaped as he rubbed his head from the attack.

"I don't know, honestly… He's always using some kind of trick against us. I'm going to go into 3-D!" Chopper threw his arms up and went into 3-D to find the jester. He was already throwing his magic attacks down at the other heroes, but Chopper managed to jump towards him and kick him with ice energy, sending him back to 2-D.

"There we go!" Chopper went back into 2-D and stomped on Dimentio to force him to teleport somewhere else in the room. He just so happened to teleport right by Luigi and trap him in another box.

"Oh, no! Not this!" Luigi shivered.

"Ciao, Luigi!" Dimentio snapped his finger and Luigi was caught in a small explosion. …Except that it didn't kill him. "Psyche! You're not dead, my green friend!"

"Hey, get away from him, freak!" Chopper jumped towards Dimentio again and spun his hammer vertically at him, knocking him to the ground. Luigi, still conscious from the attack, jumped on Dimentio's head.

"This isn't going too well…" the jester trailed as he teleported right in front of Kirby. The pink puffball threw his cutter blade at him, but he guarded the attack with a barrier. That is, until Blade stunned him by striking him with his fire slash.

"Go for it, Kirby!"

"Poyo! (OK!)" Kirby used his Final Cutter attack on Dimentio and made him teleport after the final blow.

"Hmph… You have gotten a bit stronger ever since the last time we've fought." Dimentio commented as he teleported to the center of the dimension. "Although… That was when I only fought Chopper, Kirby and Sonic…"

"What's wrong? Can't take any more?" Chopper mocked, charging up another fireball.

"Oh, your scoffing is like that of a cocky, muscle-bounded idiot! I've had enough of you!" Dimentio raised his finger again and struck Chopper with another magic attack. Luckily, for Chopper, he managed to hurl the fireball at Dimentio before he could raise a barrier.

"Hold on a second… Did he say something about us being stronger?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.

"As a matter of fact, I did."

"Wait a second… Then if you forgot the whole thing in Castle Tipral… Did Tipral just wipe away the memories of when he planned on betraying him? I'm sorry, but this is just plain weird…"

"Poyo! (Now's not the time to be asking those kind of questions!)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo! (We need to take this guy down!)"

"Yeah, you're right," Chopper watched as Sonic knocked Dimentio to the ground with a Homing Attack and Bounce Attack. This allowed the Star Warrior to run up to Dimentio and use a sweeping kick attack on him before he could teleport away from him.

"Quit teleporting and fight us for real, coward!" Blade shouted as he tossed shurikens at Dimentio when he appeared. The jester simply put up a barrier and allowed the shuirkens to hit the ground.

"Yawn… I grow tired of your yapping." Dimentio snapped his finger and Blade was knocked into the air by Star Magic. However, Dimentio was frozen solid when Chopper hurled a charged ice ball straight at him.

"Thanks, Chopper," Blade melted the jester from his icy prison with a fire slash. It even did some damage to him with the burn left on him as well. But when the jester teleported, Luigi was right underneath him. This allowed him to propel himself up to Dimentio with a Super Jump and send him flying to the ceiling.

"Whew! I got him!" Luigi said as he sighed in relief.

Mario: Let me have a chance at getting him!

"Oh, I don't think so!" Dimentio trapped both Mario and Luigi in a box, but was soon struck by a Homing Attack from Sonic before he could set off the explosion. It freed both Mario and Luigi and allowed the red plumber to strike Dimentio with a jump and then a Ground Pound.

"You can give up right now if ya want, Dimentio," Sonic suggested as he stretched his limbs. "We'll let you off easy if you do!"

"I don't think he's going to listen to us, Sonic," Chopper retorted, readying his hammer. "I think the only thing we can do at this moment is defeat him."

"Poyo! (That shouldn't be too hard!)" Kirby tossed his cutter blade at the jester while he was occupied and made him teleport to the ground. Blade immediately attacked him with his katana to leave him in a weak state. Of course, Luigi was able to bring him even lower down in HP with a simple jump.

"From the looks of it, Dimentio's getting weak," Luigi informed.

"Yeah, and it should be an easy finish!" Chopper smirked.

"Oh, I'm not going to let you finish me off so easily," Dimentio snapped his finger and sent Chopper flying with Star Magic. Mario was about to make a move until everyone got dazed by him trapping them in a box and setting off an explosion.

"And… Since you people are looking weak, I might as well be the victorious one!"

"Think again, Dimentio!" Chopper shook himself and ran straight towards him and gave him a punch of icy energy. Now that he was left stunned, he used one last stomp and knocked him to the ground, finishing him off once and for all.

"_**ACK! WHY NOW? !**_" Everyone walked over to the defeated Dimentio after recovering from the explosion and got in their fighting stances as they looked down at him.

"You people… Those attacks were like an army of gingerbread men who wanted to exact their revenge upon the people…" Dimentio wheezed.

"Quit with the similes already, Dimentio. Take us back to Night Land." Chopper warned, getting ready to charge another fireball just in case. The jester mumbled to himself before floating back up.

"Oh, why of course I will! Just hang on for one moment…" Dimentio used his magic once again and sent everyone back to Night Land. "Now does that make you heroes happy?"

"I'll be happy when you're dead," Blade hissed.

"Ah ha ha ha! Oh, typical Blade… You're so feisty, yet you're supposed to be an honorable ninja!"

"Shut up before I pry that mask off your face."

"All right, let's just end this, all right?" Chopper was ready to shoot another fireball, but Dimentio snapped his finger and got rid of the fireball easily. "What the heck? ! You can't do that!"

"I'm afraid I must be going now… Ciao for now, my foes!" Dimentio bowed one last time before teleporting out of their sights.

"That no-good clown…"

"Ah! There you guys are!" Arcaine walked up to the heroes after seeing them disappear. "You boys haven't been here for quite a while! I thought I lost you!"

"Well, I think it would've been better if we didn't have you here…" Blade mumbled.

"Blade, knock it off," Sonic scolded.

"…_uys? Guys?" _Chopper knew that voice was coming from Timpani, so he pulled her wand out. _"Oh! I can finally see you guys! I suddenly lost connection with you. I don't know what happened…"_

"Well, basically we ran into Dimentio and he fought us. But we ended up beating him." Luigi smirked.

"Well, now's not the time to be talking! Look up ahead! The pipe to the castle!" Arcaine pointed to the pipe up ahead, which got everyone's looks to be surprised. "Come on, partners! Let's go!"

Everyone followed Arcaine through the pipe and into the background, where they reached the entrance to King Moonnight's Castle. Just like King Sunday's Castle, there was a Star Block at the entrance.

"I don't know why it's a lot similar to Day Land…" Sonic trailed.

"I don't know why either, but maybe the castle's a bit different," Chopper thought as he smashed the Star Block with one punch, ending this chapter off.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After Dimentio's ambush, our heroes were relieved that they no longer had to see him for a while. Now that they've reached King Moonnight's Castle, they were bound to find the Pure Heart somewhere. "Yes, this is where we need to be," informed Timpani as the wand glowed. "I can feel the Pure Heart's presence in this very castle! But… It's hard to tell where…" Knowing what our heroes had to do, they set foot inside the castle and saw a room that looked very familiar._

* * *

**I kind of hated that this took me a while to finish... But, sometimes I get a little lazy, so chapters sometimes don't get finished until the fifth day of when I start it. I think the longest it took me to finish a chapter was a week (I believe it was Chapter 7-5). But, enough about that! This was an interesting chapter, wouldn't you agree?**

**What's embarrassing was that**** when I originally made this, I accidentally named it "Chapter 12-4", which was a bad typo on my part. :P**

**Next up: Chopper and Co. explore the second castle and we actually meet our final Pixl that'll be joining us here... But what is this Pixl, you ask? Well... Find out on the next exciting chapter of Super Paper Chopper *punched for referencing Dragon Ball Z***_  
_


	80. Tower of the Sun and Moon

**CHAPTER 13-5**

**-Tower of the Sun and Moon-**

"So… We've finally made it to the castle… Partners! The time has finally come…to put and end to the ferocious SunMoonFlower!" Arcaine declared as he pointed up at an angle. Everyone blinked and face palmed at the same time because of how many times he's said that. In fact, I bet the readers are face palming because they're tired of hearing this as well (admit it, you're getting tired of it. I know it :P)!

"OK, Arcaine! We get it already! You don't need to keep telling us about this SunMoonFlower thing! We already know about it!" Sonic snapped, trying to get Arcaine's attention. Unfortunately, for him, it didn't seem to work, since he was simply ignored by Arcaine.

"Ugh… Just don't even bother, Sonic. He's not going to respond." Chopper groaned as he looked down at the ground. "Why is it that this castle feels so much similar to the previous castle we've been in? It's kind of…weird."

At this point, everyone took their time to look at the whole castle's interior. Unlike King Sunday's Castle, this castle's floor and walls were more of a dark blue color, in a way that it matches the night sky. Even out the window, they could see the full moon shining through the window. However, the most notable thing in the castle was the portraits of King Moonnight, which were a bit difficult to see because the castle was a bit dark, but not dark like the Mansion of Nightmares was.

_"Chopper… I believe that if we go to King Moonnight, we might be able to find the fourteenth Pure Heart." _Timpani stated. _"Although, getting past those guards might be a little difficult…"_

Everyone took a glance at the dark blue armored Mooners carrying swords. I guess we can refer to these guys as Moon Knights, unlike the Sun Knights. Their swords were glowing a white color, to some of the people's surprise.

_"Hold on a second…" _Everyone paused when Timpani was about to say another thing. _"I can feel something else above this castle… I don't know what it is, but I can feel that the Pure Heart's…up there?"_

"I thought you said the Pure Heart was somewhere in the castle?" Luigi gaped.

_"That's what I got at first, but now I'm feeling another presence in this castle… For some reason, it doesn't seem like it's harmless."_

"Then it must be the ferocious SunMoonFlower!" Arcaine declared. Everyone turned to him with confused looks. "Hey! She said that something that isn't harmless isn't here! It's GOT to be SunMoonFlower!"

"But didn't your monitor thing tell you that it was in the sewers?" Blade asked, tilting his head.

"…Maybe it moved somewhere in the castle," he predicted. "Wait a second… What about that pipe? Maybe if you went down there, you would be able to find SunMoonFlower down there, my squadron!"

"Wait! What do you think you're…" before Sonic could finish, Arcaine started to push the heroes over to the dark blue pipe. "Hey! We're supposed to be going to King Moonnight! Not going down into more sewers! …As if we've already been through enough already."

Unfortunately for them, they were dragged into the sewers by being pushed. Just to make sure that things would be all right, Arcaine grabbed a boulder in the room and put it right on top of the pipe to prevent them from coming back up.

_"What the heck?! The pipe's blocked!" _Arcaine could hear Luigi's voice crying out from the sewers. _"Arcaine! What did you do with the pipe?! We can't even get out of here now! Is there something in the way?!"_

"I put a boulder on top of the pipe just to make sure SunMoonFlower can't get out! That way, you'll be able to find that monster with no problem!" Arcaine shouted back. "While you guys search for SunMoonFlower, I'm going to get some help! Just stay put there and I'll be back!"

"Hold on a second… Did Arcaine seriously trap six people in the sewers?!" one of the Moon Knights gasped as Arcaine came walking over to them. "Is that even legal?! Nobody's done something like that before!"

"Step aside, Moon Knights! I need to ask for King Moonnight's assistance!" the weird person declared.

"You're just going to leave the prophesied heroes down in the sewers?!" the second Moon Knight gawked. "You realize that you can't DO something like that! We can't let you pass because of some monster that's complete bogus!"

"Well I still need to ask for the king's assistance! He'll know what to do! Plus, after what I saw my squadron do before, I think they can handle the power of SunMoonFlower! Trust me on this!"

"Damn… Well, I guess we'll just let you through. HOWEVER… I don't wanna hear any more dumb stories from the king again. You BETTER have a good reason for wanting to talk to him anyways. Got that?"

"I'm super sunious, sir," Arcaine nodded as the two knights stepped out of the way and allowed Arcaine through. "Look out, SunMoonFlower… You're going to be history at the end of this!"

* * *

**Sewers-**

"_**DAMN IT!**_" Blade screeched as he continued to kick and punch the pipe. Unfortunately, none of that seemed to be working against the boulder blocking the way. "I can't believe that scoundrel! He left us to DIE down in these sewers! Why the HELL would he do such a damn thing like that? !"

"I really wanna go home now…" Luigi sniffled as he crouched down in the dark and gloomy sewers.

Mario: At least the water's not so bad here…

"Yeah… I can understand that… It kind of looks like those underground rooms we're usually in. But WHY did Arcaine throw us into the sewers like this? ! Isn't that technically child abuse?!" Chopper asked before his communicator went off. It turned out to be Bow.

"Bow? Why are you calling me?"

_"Well, it's been a while since we've spoken, right?" _Bow giggled as she adjusted her bows a bit and gave him a flirtatious look…until he saw him looking a bit…bad. _"Wait… What happened to you?"_

"We were thrown into the sewers… It's not pretty…" Sonic explained, overhearing Bow's voice from the communicator. "Although… I did find a letter lying around here for some reason."

_"A letter?! That must be one of the letters I lost!" _Parakarry spoke up as he communicated with Sonic through his communicator. _"Please… Bring that back to me in one piece. I'll repay you if you do!"_

"Relax, Parakarry! You don't need to give me anything in return!" the blue hedgehog assured as he put the letter away. "I'll make sure this letter comes back in one piece. You can trust me on that."

_"Well, hopefully you get out of the sewers in one piece," _Bow hoped. _"I don't want anything bad happening to my cute little Chopper…"_

"Please stop with the sweet talk, Bow… It's not good for me." after saying bye, Chopper put away his communicator.

"So… What do we do now?" Luigi asked as he stopped cowering for a second and looked at the whole sewers and its dark blue background that still reminded him of the underground areas.

"Well, the only thing we can do is find a way out of here," Blade said after giving up. "Look… I can't do this anymore. Breaking the boulder is nearly impossible when it's hard to see it."

"We're not planning on going that way," Sonic noted. "We're going to be exploring these sewers. As for that SunMoonFlower… I still think that it's kind of bogus, if you ask me. Choppor said there isn't a SunMoonFlower!"

"Good… There better not be…" Luigi huffed as he jumped into the shallow water. When they looked up, they saw water dripping from the ceiling. Nevertheless, they just jumped into the shallow water that was up to Chopper's feet and continued wading through the water. Two Moon Koopas were walking around here as well.

"Poyo, (And just as we thought we were done with these guys,)" Kirby rolled his eyes as he threw his cutter blade like a boomerang at the two Moon Koopas and defeated them instantly. One of them happened to drop a Dried Shroom too.

"Ewww… These things are nasty." Chopper gagged as he picked up the Dried Shroom. "It's kind of weird that the legendary treasure of the Thousand-Year Door turned out to be nothing more than a Dried Shroom."

Mario: Oh, yeah! I remember that!

"But, I guess we should just stop talking about that and get back to business," the young Star Warrior ran up ahead over to the pipe sticking out of the wall. He entered through with his friends into another sewer room. They were standing on a platform that was above a water current that appeared to be going rather fast.

"Gulp… This doesn't look too good…" Sonic gulped as he looked down at the water.

"Then let's just go in already," Blade suggested, pushing Sonic into the water and letting him get carried by the current. He jumped in next, followed by Chopper, Kirby, Mario and then Luigi.

_"This current is very strong… You might want to be careful when exploring this place…" _Timpani suggested as Chopper managed to grab a hold of a pole hanging from the ground. He tried his best to avoid the spiky bombs nearby, but he ended up getting hit by them and took some severe damage.

"Ouch! That's not fair! Why are there bombs down here?!" Chopper exclaimed while he cringed in pain.

"Poyo, (At least I didn't get hit by those,)" Kirby giggled as he avoided a couple of the bombs coming his way. He was so used to avoiding these kinds of things when he used to swim underwater in the past.

"Ugh… I still hate going in the water at some points. Especially here…" Luigi groaned as he tried avoiding the bombs. One of them hit him and he took some severe damage. Although, it wasn't as bad as what Chopper took.

Mario: I think we're almost through this current…

"One more pole to go," Chopper said as he grabbed a hold of the next pole. Since the current was still too strong for him to grip onto, he let go of the pole and got carried through a hole that fired out of a wall and made everyone go flying down.

"WHOA! Why am I reminded of Hydrocity, all of the sudden?!" Sonic yelped as he looked down and saw more water ahead. He groaned as he sank to the bottom of the water and landed right next to an Invincibility box. He hit it to gain invincibility for a couple of seconds.

Of course, he still had that timer he had to worry about.

"_**Mmmmmggggffffhhhh!**_" Sonic tried to run in the water, but since water is a lot different than air, there was no way he could move fast. Heck, Chopper had a hard time moving when he sank to the ground.

"Well, this is kind of interesting… I didn't expect the sewers to be this whole underwater place…" Luigi commented.

"Poyo! (Heads up! Some Koopatrols up ahead!)" Kirby pointed to the Koopas wearing scuba gear. After investigating it, Chopper discovered that these enemies were called Scupas, which was…kind of weird. Of course, the name was a combination of "scuba" and "koopa".

When the Scupa got its weapon ready, Blade swam up to it and slashed at it with his katana a couple of times to defeat it. It ended up dropping some kind of bubble item that he decided to test out. To his surprise, he was surrounded by a bubble that gave his fresh air.

"Whoa… I didn't know we'd find items like this!" Blade gaped. "I'm glad that I can finally breathe for once! Although… I still think we need to help Sonic over there… He doesn't look too good."

Mario: He's right by an air bubble.

Sonic took in an air bubble that popped up from the ground and then continued his way down the slope. Chopper shrugged and ran down as well, despite the water hindering his speed, kind of like with Sonic.

They found a red spring up ahead after going down the slope that was facing in front of them, but there was no purpose of using it because if they did, they would be sent back over to the wall.

So, instead, they swam over it (Sonic jumped over it) and up the step there were these strange propellers that were making bubbles fly up to the surface. Kirby was the first to try this out. He ended up getting carried by the current upward to a conveyer belt. When he grabbed onto it, he started to get carried by it.

"I'm going to give that a try," Chopper allowed himself to get carried up and followed Kirby on the conveyer belt. They had to be careful of some spikes above them on a platform above them, so they both let go and landed right next to some more air bubbles.

"I guess we can just ignore that then," Blade said as he swam past the conveyer belt and swam over to the air bubbles. Sonic acted fast and grabbed an air bubble before reaching a platform that appeared to be breakable. A Scupa was standing on top of it, but was soon finished when Sonic sued a Spin Jump on it. This triggered a part of the platform to break off, allowing him to reach a platform down below with another Scupa. When he took care of that one, the platform broke and brought him to the bottom of the area.

"Whoa! Slow down, Sonic!" Luigi suggested as everyone else got down to where Sonic was. He already took in another air bubble and jumped over more spikes. They happened to notice a tunnel with the current getting a bit stronger up ahead.

"Oh, boy… This doesn't look too good…" Chopper gulped.

"Poyo? (It's just a current. What kind of harm is there to it?)" Kirby asked as he was the first one to step up. The current simply carried him over to a pole up ahead, but since he couldn't hold onto it, his hands simply slipped off of it.

Mario: Poor Kirby…

"We should get going before Sonic drowns," Blade suggested as he went next. The rest shrugged and let the current carry them. Chopper managed to grab a hold of a pole and also grab a Super Shroom on the pole. He then released his grip on the pole and grabbed a hold of the next one.

"What's the point of all of these poles?" Chopper asked.

"Maybe it's to help you get some items, perhaps?" Luigi predicted as the current began to carry them up instead of to the right. They were suddenly shot out of the ground by water and were sent flying up. There didn't appear to be any pipes, however. But there was a door when they landed on the ground.

"FINALLY! We're out of the water!" Sonic panted as he took a couple of deep breaths right next to the door. "You don't wanna know how much I wanted to get out of the water… I'm talking big time here!"

"OK, Sonic, we already heard you for the eleventh time," Chopper groaned. "Let's just go through this door already."

They headed through the door and walked into an area with a road leading down like a hill. At the bottom, there happened to be a loop and another slope leading down to some more water.

"I think we can run on top of the water," Sonic pointed out as he looked down at the loops. "Yeah, this should be a piece of cake!"

"So you don't have a problem with running on water, yet you HATE being in the water?" Blade gawked. "What the hell?"

Sonic ignored Blade and ran down the road, going through the loops and running on top of the water. Chopper shrugged and followed Sonic down as well. After running over the water, they noticed that there was another loop, but at the top, there was a strange, blue slide that seemed to lead into the water.

"What's that supposed to be?" Luigi asked.

"Oh… That might be difficult to get through…" Chopper trailed. "No one else but Sonic and I can go through that loop. And, well, it might be a bit difficult getting you guys through. Of course, we can always try grabbing your hands and bringing you through…"

Mario: I think we did that before!

"I guess I'll do that then," Sonic grabbed a hold of Blade and Mario's arms and immediately took off through the loop and down the slide and into the water. Chopper did the same thing, but he grabbed Kirby and Luigi's arms and took off through the loop and down into some more water.

After rolling through a slide in a fast manner, they were sent flying up when the slide's slop moved up. They were right by the surface, but not for long when they saw a little tunnel through the bridge that they went up from the slide.

"I swear, this is getting confusing…" Chopper groaned.

Sonic was forced to hold his breath once again as he jumped down into the hole in the tunnel. Everyone followed him down into another tunnel down below, where they saw two Scupas swimming around.

"Mmmmmmggffhh!" Sonic struck one of the Scupas with a Spin Jump and managed to grab a Bubble Shield from one of them, protecting him from drowning. "Finally! It's about time I got one of these!"

"Hopefully it doesn't pop," Chopper snickered, aiming his finger at the bubble. However, Sonic slapped his hand away.

"Knock it off already!"

They continued their way through the tunnel and jumped over some spikes to find more propellers. When they turned on, everyone began to be carried by the current from the propellers and grabbed a hold of the conveyer belt above. They were a bit surprised to see that it was rather close to the surface.

"Man, we're so close to the surface!" Luigi gaped as they jumped off the conveyer belt and landed on a moving platform in the water. Sonic used his Bounce Attack and reached the next platform that was closer to the surface. However, they saw up ahead there was another tunnel going down.

"Wait… We're still not up at the surface? You've gotta be kidding me!" Sonic groaned as he jumped down the tunnel and right next to a door. The rest followed him down to the bottom and right beside a door.

"Poyo… (Man, I wonder what's going on above us…)" Kirby wondered as they headed into the next area.

* * *

**Above the sewers-**

Meanwhile, two Moon Knights were having a little discussion in a hallway about something that had to do with sandwiches. …Excuse me, they were actually saying 'sandviches' instead of 'sandwiches' for some reason.

"So, ze sandvich is an important thing, no?"

"Yes, it is something that ve must value."

"Guys! Guys!" another Moon Knight walked up the stairs and began panting as he made it up to the two other Moon Knights. "We have a little problem… You see, I was going to the bathroom and washing my hands, but I noticed that the toilet AND the faucet wouldn't work! Something odd's going on around here…"

"Vat? Ve have a problem with ze pipes now? Oh, no no no no no… Zis is unacceptable!" one of the Moon Knights objected. "If water doesn't flow through ze pipes, then ze pipes vill burst and cause a leak in ze sewers, flooding ze castle as well!"

"Exactly! That's why we need to go down there and see if anything's going on down there!"

"This flood is no accident, my friends," Everyone paused when Arcaine walked up the stairs and up to the three Moon Knights. "And it isn't going to stop unless we move fast! I am super duper sunious!"

"Dude… What are you doing here? And what do you mean that we have to move fast? The pipes are already being blocked!" the Moon Knight retorted.

"I'm afraid we have a much bigger problem than a flood."

"And what would that be?"

Arcaine gave the Moon Knights a serious look as he showed them a picture of a flower-like creature with a sun head, yellow petals around its head, moon crescent arms and leaf-like feet.

"What is that? A MoonSunFlower?"

"No, stupid. It's SunMoonFlower."

"Vat? Are you seriously thinking about that stuff again?" the other Moon Knight groaned. "Look, you've said that countless times and ve're getting tired of that stuff! Ve're going down into the sewers now to check what's going on."

"Why won't you people listen to me?!" Arcaine suddenly felt some shaking going on down there. "Huh? Now what's happening now?"

"Uh oh… Zis isn't good." A Moon Knight gulped. "I believe something's happening down there. I swear, if there's anybody down there, I'm pretty sure that they're no longer going to enjoy their games."

Arcaine had a big smile on his face as he heard these news. "I finally did it. I killed SunMoonFlower. I saved this world from certain destruction. Everyone is super stoked on me…even if they don't know it."

* * *

**Sewers-**

"Well… I'm not too surprised with this." Blade blinked as they walked out of the door. They were right beside a Save Block, which he hit to save their game. Afterwards, they looked at the tunnel they were in. They saw that up ahead there were two platforms that they could use to reach the edge of a cliff. That cliff had a spring right at the end of the wall that surprisingly led up to the surface.

"Man… I can't believe we've made it this far through the sewers…" Chopper trailed. "I would just like to get out of here, though…"

Unfortunately, they all began to feel a violent tremor coming from the left. They all yelped as they saw the wall to their left getting closer to them. From the looks of it, it was moving their way!

_"Don't stop to talk now! Move!" _Timpani cried as the wall got closer to them.

"_SHEEEEEEEEEEEET!_ We gotta get going!" Blade swam as fast as he could through the tunnel and up to the surface where they found another tunnel. Everyone followed him up to the surface as well, with Sonic using the platforms to reach it. The wall was still following them, though.

"Oh, man! It feels like it's the end of us here!" Luigi cried.

"Not if we keep moving!" Chopper shouted as they reached the surface and ran through another tunnel. They saw a yellow ? block near another hole going down into the water, so he hit it quickly to make a Super Shroom pop out. They all took a piece and recovered 20 HP before jumping into the water.

"Poyo! (Move fast!)" Kirby cried as they jumped in the water and continued fleeing from the moving wall by swimming through the tunnel. To make things easier, Blade helped Sonic swim through the tunnel and up to the surface where they saw a wall that looked breakable.

"I got an idea!" Blade tossed Hommissile at the cracked wall and made a hole through it. Unfortunately for them, the hole was only in 3-D, so Chopper had to flip them all into 3-D so they could run through the tunnel and into a strange room with spinning platforms. The background itself was a bluish purple color as well.

"Whew! We're finally out of there! And we're not in the water too!" Sonic smiled.

"Gee, that spinning platform looks kind of difficult to reach, though…" Chopper sweat dropped.

Mario: Leave it to Luigi!

"I guess I'll try to reach that platform," Luigi crouched down and folded himself as he clenched his fist. Once he launched himself into the air, he landed right on top of the spinning platform.

"Wait! I got a better idea!" a light bulb appeared over his head with an idea suddenly striking him.

* * *

**Moments later-**

"Wow… I never thought you would be able to do THAT, Luigi…" Chopper smiled as he gave him a thumbs up after climbing up the drums. "Whoever thought your Cyclone ability would be able to help us get up those things?"

"Well, you know me… Sometimes I have some good ideas." Luigi blushed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So… Should we get going?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, but now we've just run into a slide,)" Kirby pointed over to the slide to the left. It actually didn't look too much like a slide, but it seemed like something that some people could run through.

"Hey! That looks like something we can go through with no problem!" Sonic grinned, walking over to the light blue slide.

"You're right! I think we should go down it!" Chopper grabbed Kirby and Luigi's arms and started to ready his Speed Dash.

"H-Hey, C-Chopper! Why are y-you going at f-full sp-speed?!" Luigi stammered.

"Because I want to go fast! It makes things awesome!"

Of course, he simply took off just like that and began going down the slide at full speed. Unfortunately, it didn't last long when he went up a little slope and landed right by the edge of a cliff. He happened to notice some moving platforms going up. When Sonic, Blade and Mario reached their point, they all worked together going up the platforms and over to some spikes and even a Scupa out of the water that was walking around these parts.

"Oh, wow. We haven't seen any enemies here in a while." Blade simply tossed Hommissile at the Scupa and blew it up with no problem. They then proceeded through the loop ahead and went down the slide and through a loop that led them down another slide going underwater.

After going through the slide, they landed on a bridge right near the surface and saw a couple of spinning platforms after swimming through another tunnel. The only problem, this time… The water level was beginning to rise.

"Uh oh… This isn't good!" Sonic gulped.

"Quick! We need to get out of here!" Chopper cried, jumping on the spinning platforms. What was strange was that they happened to make him rotate around. "Ugh! Can't these things move any faster?!"

_"If they moved any faster, they would be pretty difficult to get onto," _Timpani pointed out.

"Oh… Yeah, that's a point and well made."

They hurried as they climbed up the spinning platforms while being chased by the water that slowly began making its way up to them. It even touched Sonic's feet, which made him scream like a little girl.

"Dude! It's water! Get over it!" Blade shouted. "You're not going to melt from it!"

"The only thing that makes me burn is when I get kissed by a girl," Chopper shivered as he finally reached the last spinning platform. At the top, they happened to notice a gray pipe and even a couple of other pipes leaking water.

"Poyo! (I think this pipe should take us out of here!)" Kirby said as he was the first to head through the pipe. They took no time at all to speak. They simply headed right into the pipe before the sewers got flooded. This time, there was no going back.

* * *

**Bathroom-**

A Moon Knight walked into the bathroom and got prepared to go to the bathroom. However, before he could even drop his pants (or anything else you want to think of…though I don't know WHY you would think of that), Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi got out of the toilet and landed on the bathroom ground.

"Where the heck are we?" Blade asked.

"I think we're…in the bathroom? !" Luigi gaped as he and the rest of the group all looked at the stunned Moon Knight. Instead of drawing his sword, he walked up to them with a "holy crap" face.

"Show me your ways…" he bent down and began worshipping them.

"Ummmmm… Yeah. I think we should go." Chopper suggested as he walked out of the bathroom. They noticed that they were in another hallway of the castle. There were a couple of Moon Koopatrols walking around in the castle as well.

"Hold on, I wanna see how far we've gone in the castle," Blade headed over to the door to the left, but when he headed through, he returned to the group in disappointment.

"_**YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! THAT ROOM WAS WHERE WE **__**STARTED**__** IN THIS CASTLE!**_"

"Wait, what?" Chopper jumped up in surprise. "You're saying that we BARELY moved through this castle?!"

"Well that's a shame," Sonic frowned while kicking a pebble on the ground. "At least it's better than being in the water. Plus, we actually get to explore the whole castle, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah… I guess that's something too." Luigi nodded.

_"Well this is a shame…" _Timpani trailed. _"I can't believe that not only did we just jump out of a toilet, but we also ended up at the beginning of the castle… This is kind of humiliating, in my opinion."_

"Then we should get going," Chopper suggested, walking away from the bathroom door and over to the Moon Koopatrol that attempted to charge at him. With his hammer, he knocked it out cold and defeated it with no problem. Up ahead was a Moonflower that looked ready to grab Chopper.

"Poyo! (Not this time!)" Kirby raced towards the Moonflower and threw his cutter blade at it like a boomerang, slicing the stem off of the Moonflower and leaving it to die. "Poyo? (Is it really a good idea to leave it like that?)"

"Uhhhhh… Beats me!"

Nevertheless, they left this hallway and headed through the door ahead, but Sonic hit the Save Block first before entering through the door into a courtyard-like room with the moon shining through the windows. Of course, there were a couple of Moonflowers in this room.

_"Interesting… I guess the Moonflowers get their energy from the moon." _Timpani commented.

"No duh," Blade responded.

_"Excuse me?"_

"Wait, did I just say something? Why, I don't think I did!"

"Guys… Enough." Sonic groaned as he used a Spin Dash to strike the Moonflower. When he clashed with it, it managed to grab him and throw him back, getting rid of his Bubble Shield.

"Well, I don't think I really need it anymore."

"I'll finish it off," Blade tossed a couple of shurikens that pierced through the Moonflower's stem. But it still had a chance to shoot a yellow seed at Blade that destroyed his Bubble Shield.

"There goes mine…"

"Who cares about a shield at this point? We can take these guys down!" Chopper said as he used an ice smash to defeat the second Moonflower in the room. After Luigi finished off the other, they ran up to a locked door. Luckily, behind a blue curtain, there happened to be a platform.

"I've got this!" Luigi said as he launched himself up to the platform above to their left to grab a hold of a Castle Key. With it, he managed to unlock the door up ahead into a room with a staircase.

"Now that I think about it… Where do you think Arcaine went?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo… (Probably to King Moonnight already…)" Kirby sighed.

"Maybe... And…OH MAN NOT THE BUTTFACE ENEMIES!" Chopper cried, pointing to the yellow Cherbil making its way over to the group. It spewed out some electric gas that slowly began making its way towards them. Unfortunately, Chopper got hit by it and was paralyzed.

"What does paralysis even do?" Luigi asked.

_"It prevents you from attacking for a while," _Timpani informed. _"However, you can still move around, but you can't jump too high…"_

"Or better yet, I should have Piccolo help," Luckily for him, someone was able to play a song from Piccolo to help him get cured of the attack. Mario simply jumped over to the Electric Cherbil and bashed it with his hammer, defeating it with no problem.

Mario: These guys aren't too tough!

"I agree, bro!" Luigi nodded as they went up the stairs and to the door at the top. There were two Moon Knights guarding the door, but they seemed a bit distracted…by looking down at the floor and ceiling.

"I vonder vhy ve're doing zis," one of the Moon Knights wondered.

"Vell, I don't want ze pipes flooding zis castle! Do you know vat vould happen if King Moonnight saw ze whole place flooded? It vould be horrible! HORRIBLE I SAY!" the other Moon Knight responded in a dramatic manner.

"Ummmmm… Excuse me? What are you guys talking about?" Chopper asked.

"Vat?" the knights stopped looking at the floor and ceiling and looked straight at the heroes. "HALT! Who are you and vat do you vant?!"

"Hey… Did you happen to see some guy named Arcaine walking around this castle? …Or can we see King Moonnight?" Sonic asked.

"We still need to give him a taste of his own medicine for what he did to us," Blade said while cracking his knuckles.

"Wait… We're not going to HURT him, you know…" Chopper retorted.

"Well I wanna!"

"Vait… Did you say that you're looking for Arcaine? Ze one who just ran off through zis door, if I could recall?" the first Moon Knight pondered. "And did you say that you vish to see ze king? For vat reason?"

_"We must speak to him about something called the Pure Heart,"_ Blumiere explained. _"It's what we need if we're going to prevent the destruction of the whole universe…"_

"Hmmmmmm… No person vould tell us that they're looking for something like ze Pure Heart… But how do ve know that you're…the ones?"

"Hey! I have a good idea!" the other Moon Knight spoke up. "Vat if ve vere to get ze 'heroes' to fight in ze arena? If they can prove that they are ze heroes, then surely they vould be able to vin a fight in ze arena!"

"Ah! I remember that! Maybe that's not a bad idea!" the first Moon Knight turned to the heroes. "All right, ve'll make a little deal."

"Oh brother..." Chopper groaned.

"If you compete in ze arena matches and vin the battles, then ve'll recognize you as ze heroes! That vill allow you to see King Moonnight!"

"All right! That sounds good to me!" Sonic grinned.

"Wh-What?! But that's a bad idea!" Luigi shrieked.

Mario: Settle down, Luigi… We'll be fine… -_-

"Now ve'll let you through. Just go through ze hallway and find ze big door in the center. You'll find ze arena entrance there." the two Moon Knights stepped out of the way, allowing the heroes to enter the next hallway.

"Well… This is going to be interesting, don't you guys agree?" Chopper asked, turning to his friends.

"Poyo, (An arena match shouldn't be a big problem for us,)" Kirby smirked.

"I'd rather not do it…" Luigi shivered.

"Oh, lighten up already!" Sonic frowned. "You can't just act like a coward the entire time! C'mon, Lou! Show some bravery for once!"

"You're calling me Lou?"

"Sure, why not? I can call Chopper Chop and Kirby Kirb. It kind of works, if you ask me."

"And when I hear the word, 'chop', I think of chopping something…" Chopper trailed as he saw two Moon Koopatrols walking through the hallway. Kirby took care of the first one by throwing his cutter blade, while Chopper finished the other by inhaling it and spitting it to the wall.

"Now I'm starting to wonder what happened if I ever swallowed that Koopatrol…"

Over by the door to the arena, they noticed two yellow ? blocks. Kirby hit the first one to find an Ultra Shroom, which they all split into six pieces to recover 50 HP. Why there was an Ultra Shroom here, I have no idea.

"Kind of weird seeing an Ultra Shroom this early…" Sonic trailed.

"Now let's check the other!" Chopper punched the other yellow ? block and a blue bandanna popped out. He decided to eat it, only to turn his skin to a darker tint than his lime green/pale green tint, as well as his green shoes. Chopper also had a blue bandanna around his head.

"Poyo? (Did you just get the Suplex ability?)" Kirby gaped.

"I think I did! Although… I don't remember this being ENTIRELY useful… But, I think it'll do!" (Suplex also has some abilities from Throw as well)

They headed through the door and found themselves in a large arena with a bunch of people cheering. The ground itself was actually filled with dark green grass and at the end of the coliseum, there was a throne with a king with a yellow moon crescent head, a blue robe, a dark blue crown with yellow moon jewels in it and a golden staff with the moon on top of it. He noticed the heroes' arrival into the coliseum.

"What's this? Who are you people?" demanded the king. "I am King Moonnight, ruler of Night Land! What business do you have with me?"

"You see, your highness…" Sonic began as they walked to the center of the arena. "We're here to speak about…"

"Wait a second… I sense something from you." King Moonnight squinted and waved his staff at the heroes. He got some sort of reading off them. "You guys were sent by King Sunday, weren't you?!"

"What? We have no idea who he is!" Chopper lied. "All we want to speak to you is about…"

"_**ENOUGH!**_ Guards! Lower the gates! It's time we showed Sun Land people what happens when you step into Night Land territory!"

"But… We came here with Arcaine! We're the heroes!" Luigi cried. "You've gotta believe us!"

"Heroes, huh? Well then! If you think you ARE heroes, then let's see how you do against my guards! Seize them!"

Moon Knights stepped out of the gate and charged at the heroes with their swords ready. One of them tried to slash at Sonic, but he jumped out of the way and struck it with a Homing Attack to knock the enemy to the ground.

"Remember guys… Don't kill them! I'd rather not cause any more trouble!" Chopper suggested as he grabbed one Moon Knight and made a leap to throw the enemy to the ground. He knocked it out by using a diving kick attack that aimed straight down instead of at an angle like the Ninja ability.

"More reinforcements!" King Moonnight roared as a couple of more Moon Knights walked out of the gate. Unfortunately, one of them ended up tripping and ruined the whole line.

"Bruce! Get back in line!" the captain growled. "_Idiot…_"

_"What's going on?" _Bruce thought as he got back into line. They did nothing else but charge at the group, only to have them get knocked back by Blade's hurricane slash, defeating nearly all of them.

"King, you should realize that we're the heroes already! I mean, we're taking down your knights with no problem!" Blade smirked.

"I see… Well, let's see how you deal against THIS!" King Moonnight pulled a lever and a Knuckle Joe, Moonflower, Moon Koopatrol, Biospark and a Moon Motobug came into the arena. "These may not be on my side, but surely they'll be able to toy with you for a bit."

"…NOW we can take some enemies down!" Chopper started off by grabbing a hold of the Biospark and threw it straight at the Moon Koopatrol. With the spike on its head, the Biospark took even more damage when it hit the Moon Koopatrol's spiky helmet and even destroyed it.

"Poyo, (You know, you could've gotten the Ninja ability from that Biospark,)" Kirby pointed out.

"True, but I wanna test out my Suplex ability a little bit more."

"Poyo. (OK, go do that then.)"

Chopper grabbed the Knuckle Joe next and slammed it to the ground. Of course, it didn't necessarily defeat it. It was easily defeated when Kirby threw his cutter blade at it. The Moon Koopatrol that began to charge got struck by Bonjourang afterwards and then bashed to the head by Mario's hammer.

Mario: I don't get how these enemies are so easy…

Unfortunately, Mario got grabbed by the Moonflower and was thrown towards Luigi, knocking them both to the ground. However, Blade managed to take down the Moonflower by slicing it up a bit with his katana.

"Whoa! That was impressive!"

"I want that katana!"

"Wow… Some people are actually cheering for us?" Blade gawked before getting ran over by the Moon Motobug. It began moving all over the place, which kind of made it tough for Chopper to grab.

"The only way I'm ever going to get that thing is if I catch up to it," Chopper said as he got knocked over by the Moon Motobug charging at him.

"Then I'll handle this!" Sonic curled up in a ball and used his Spin Dash to catch up to the Moon Motobug. With one attack, he was able to blow up the robot. There didn't appear to be any animal inside, though.

"Hmmmmmmm… This is interesting…" King Moonnight pondered to himself as the enemies were defeated.

"How about we send in the big guys? You know, some of the tougher ones?" suggested one of the Moon Knights.

"I think that isn't a bad idea," the king stood up and raised his staff. A blast came down from the ground and created a large, alarm clock enemy that was a dark blue color and had a black mustache.

"Meet Mr. Tick Tock! Try to beat him and I might believe you're the heroes!"

"No problem!" Chopper smirked as he used Timpani's wand to gather information on the foe.

_"This is Mr. Tick Tock. He's a giant alarm clock, from what I can see. Max HP is 80. Attack is 10. What he normally tries to do is to stun you with its ringing sound. At some point, a couple of music notes will pop out and try to attack you. You can always inhale them and spit them back at him if possible. Other than that… He's just a clock." _Timpani informed.

"Now you're going to get it!" Mr. Tick Tock growled as he charged at the group. They all jumped out of the way, but Luigi managed to deliver a stomp to his head before using his alarm to stun them for a couple of seconds.

Well, Kirby was the only one who didn't get affected due to his Defend. When Mr. Tick Tock stopped, Kirby immediately threw his cutter blade at him to leave him stunned, allowing Chopper to stomp on him and then use his Pinpoint Kick to hit Mr. Tick Tock.

"Ugh… This is becoming quite awful." Mr. Tick Tock set his alarm off again, but this time a bunch of music notes came out. Blade threw Hommissile at him while he was doing this and Chopper grabbed a hold of one of the music notes.

"Is it weird that I'm holding onto a music note?"

_"Don't worry too much about that, Chopper. You need to take care of this enemy." _Blumiere suggested as Chopper slammed the music note straight at Mr. Tick Tock. Of course, he managed to grab another and throw it at him as well.

"This shouldn't take long," Blade smirked while he rushed straight at Mr. Tick Tock and struck him with his katana.

In the end, he was finished off when Kirby threw his cutter blade at Mr. Tick Tock, defeating him and making him fall over on the ground. Although, what surprised them was that he didn't disintegrate.

"Poyo! (I'll take care of this!)" Kirby removed his Cutter ability and inhaled Mr. Tick Tock, gaining the Mike ability in the process.

"Wh-What?! He just ate Mr. Tick Tock!" a Moon Knight gaped. "What now?"

"Don't worry, I've got one last trick up my sleeve!" King Moonnight summoned an orange chef-like enemy called Chef Kawasaki into the arena. "This time, I want you to take care of him! If you succeed, I'll believe you're TRULY the heroes of the prophecy!"

But before Chopper could even investigate him (this wasn't THE Chef Kawasaki back in Cappy Town), Kirby used his Mike ability three times to leave Chef Kawasaki with incredibly low HP.

"Poyo! (All right! He's ready to be finished!)" Kirby giggled.

Luigi shrugged as he stomped on Chef Kawasaki and disintegrated him into smoke. The audience gasped as they saw them win.

…But their gasps went away and changed to cheers.

"Wow… I never thought they would take Kawasaki down THAT easily…" King Moonight said with a blank look. "All right… I'm starting to believe that you are indeed the legendary heroes."

"Thank you!" Chopper sighed in relief. "Now… Could we ask you a little something?"

"Well… I would answer your questions now…but I would rather you go to my throne room for the discussion. You must go to the top floor if you wish to see me!" King Moonnight was about to leave, but he froze for a minute and turned around.

"Oh, yes! I almost forgot! Since you heroes won the fight in the colosseum, I believe you deserve a prize! …Just watch out, all right?"

"What does he mean?" Chopper asked. "…And why has it suddenly got darker?"

"Chopper… Move out of the way!" Luigi yelped.

"What?" He looked up and saw that a large chest was coming down on him. "Whoa! I gotta get out of the way!"

He moved out of the way before the chest could land on top of him. He took this time to look at the chest for a couple of seconds.

"Apparently it's another one of these chests," Blade stated.

"Yeah… Well, I'm going to open it." Chopper slowly opened the chest, but he didn't see anything come out. "Oh… I think it's one of THESE again…"

"Wait… Am I finally free from this chest? Does this mean…" Everyone gaped when they saw a beautiful rainbow Pixl shaped like a star float out of the chest with its small little wings. "Wait… I think it is true! The heroes have arrived!"

Mario: That's a beautiful Pixl!

"I can't believe my time to help the heroes has finally come! …But first, I think I should introduce myself!" the female Pixl floated down to the heroes. "My name is Starbow. I don't exactly remember what happened 1,500 years ago, but I DO know that I need to aid the heroes!"

_"You're a strange Pixl…" _Timpani trailed as she looked at Starbow. _"I actually like the colors on you!"_

"Why thank you! Maybe with my help, I can summon stars to come down to aid you! It should really help you when something is too far or requires the stars to destroy something!"

"Stars, huh? Well that's interesting!" Chopper smiled.

"For some reason… I feel some strange connection between you and stars… It's like I'm meant to help you…"

"Whoa now! I'm not interested in any relationships!"

"I don't mean that. I'm saying that I think you might be able to use me the best out of the six heroes."

"Poyo? (Wait, so you're saying I won't know how to use you?)" Kirby asked while frowning. Chopper had to translate for her.

"Well… No offense, but yes. But relax. You've got your own Pixls to help you!" Starbow turned back to Chopper. "Now we must go! We have some worlds to save!"

Starbow circled around Chopper and then he held her up when she floated above him.

**The rainbow star Pixl, Starbow, has joined your party! With her, you'll be able to make stars rain from the sky! This can be very useful when you need to hit something that's too high to reach or to destroy any blocks with rainbow stars in them!**

"With the power of the stars in your hands, there should be nothing that can stop us now!" Starbow declared.

"Yep! This should be pretty interesting!" Chopper smiled. "So… Let's go back into that hallway, all right?"

* * *

**Hallway-**

"So King Moonnight is up on the third floor, is that correct?" Luigi asked, wanting to make sure the information they got was correct.

_"Yes, I believe that's correct," _Blumiere confirmed. _"You should be able to go through that door ahead."_

"Right! Then let's go!" Blade opened the door and headed through, followed by everyone else.

When they walked into the next room, they saw a huge gap between them and the ground up ahead. There happened to be a blue ! block floating up above them, but they were surrounded by a bunch of rainbow star blocks, which didn't look like it would be easy for them to get through.

"This is a perfect place for you to test out my ability!" declared Starbow.

"All right, then let's try it out!" Chopper held Starbow up and she began to spin around. Stars began to rain down on the blocks surrounding the blue ! block and even destroyed them and hit the blue ! block, triggering the bottomless pit to be drawn as an actual ground.

"Hey, that Pixl is really useful!" Luigi commented.

"Yeah, I think that using her against enemies isn't a bad idea!" Chopper looked over at the Moon Koopatrol charging towards them and used Starbow to make stars rain down on the enemy. Each star hit the Koopatrol and defeated it instantly.

"Poyo, (That is good,)" Kirby commented.

With that, they headed over to the door ahead and entered a room with another staircase. This one, however, had a couple of Moon Koopatrols walking down and even some Moon Paratroopas. Of course, when Chopper held Starbow up, they got rained down by the stars.

"Wow… That was rather pretty." Blade commented.

"Yeah, it's interesting, if you ask me," Chopper said as he walked up the stairs and headed through the door. They saw that this small room had a large door up ahead, which could symbolize the throne room.

"Wow… Arcaine's not even here?" Sonic gawked.

Mario: It's no big deal.

"I wonder how he's doing…" Luigi trailed.

"Wherever he is, it doesn't really matter. Looks like King Moonnight decided not to let his guards guard this place! So, this isn't too bad!" Chopper smiled as he headed into the throne room with everyone else.

* * *

**Throne room-**

"Ah! I've been waiting for you, heroes!" Just when they entered the throne room, they were greeted by King Moonnight, who was sitting on his dark blue throne. The walls were a dark blue color, while the floor was a lighter blue, but they could also see their reflection through, which was cool.

"Now that we're not in a big room and has only us in it, I can discuss things about the Pure Heart. I know King Sunday sent you here, so you don't have to keep it a secret right now."

"Wait… How do you know?" Sonic gaped.

King Moonnight sighed and got off his throne. "You see… Ever since King Sunday and I became enemies, I hid a little device under his throne. It was so that I can find out what he's planning on doing. I heard you heroes through the device. But, I wanted to make sure you WERE indeed the heroes. I apologize if I was rude to you earlier."

"Hey, I think I see something under the throne," Luigi checked under the throne and found a device as well. "Hey, isn't this the device you're talking about?"

"Why… Yeah! King Sunday had one as well?! ...I suppose it makes me feel less guilty. Although… I wish one day that we could both get along and make peace between our lands. That would be nice…"

_"So… You have the Pure Heart?" _Timpani asked.

"The Pure Heart? Oh, yes! That!" the king opened his eyes and looked up at the heroes. "Luckily for you… I happened to have it! …And I said 'happened' for a reason."

"Wait… So YOU don't have it either?" Blade grumbled.

"Hold on! Calm down! Let me explain to you…" King Moonnight cleared his throat. "You see… A couple of days ago some weird tower appeared right on top of the castle, so I decided to check it out on my own. What stunk…was that I was holding the Pure Heart with me…"

"So someone snatched it?" Chopper blinked.

"Yes… But you're not going to believe who did it. …Well, it's more of a what. It's…" Before he could continue, everyone began to feel a large tremor.

_"What's that tremor coming from?!" _exclaimed Blumiere.

"I don't know! Look, there's no time for me to explain who or what holds the Pure Heart! I recommend you go up to the top of the tower and put an end to this madness!

"How do we even get up to the tower?" Luigi asked.

"Take this door," the king revealed a secret door under some curtains. "When the tower appeared, I wanted to use these curtains to cover it and prevent myself from going out. But, now that you're here, I believe you can use this to get to the top!"

"I guess that should be helpful," Chopper smiled as he walked over to the door. "All right! Let's head outside!"

* * *

**Outside-**

"Wow, this is a cool view!" Sonic smirked as they stepped outside. They were right at the bottom of the strange tower. Right next to them was a Save Block, a yellow ? block and also a ladder. When Chopper hit the yellow ? block, a silver Mushroom popped out.

_"Well that's a new Mushroom…" _Timpani commented.

"Hey, it's an Ultimate Shroom!" Chopper picked it up and allowed Blade to slice it into six pieces. When they all ate their piece, they ended up recovering 100 HP. "See? This is a nice treat!"

"Mmmmm! This is good!" Luigi smiled after finishing his piece. "I think I've got enough energy in me!"

"Then let's head to the top," Blade suggested as he started to make his way up with the ladder. There was another floor on the tower that had a ladder, but there wasn't anything else interesting, so they climbed the next ladder.

_"That moon looks so beautiful out in the horizon," _Blumiere said as he smiled. _"We don't usually see moons around where we are. It does seem a bit romantic, don't you agree, dear Timpani?"_

_"Yes, Blumiere… I find it very romantic…"_

"Oh, no! Not this again!" Chopper immediately climbed up to the top of the tower, but they didn't seem to find anything around the tower. It was just flat and bland. However, they could see the moon up at the distance. It appeared as a yellow color and was a crescent moon.

"Poyo… (Well… I don't see any boss here…)" Kirby trailed.

"Didn't King Moonnight say that there would be someone with the Pure Heart here?" Sonic wondered while rubbing the back of his head.

"Obviously you haven't looked close enough!"

"Huh?" Chopper whirled around, but found no one around. "Hey! Who's there? ! Show yourself!"

The moon itself came down from the sky and landed on the ground. The sky suddenly changed to daytime, which was kind of…weird. They all saw that the moon had skinny, white arms and gloves and white feet. He wasn't exactly huge like what the moon WOULD be, but he was definitely bigger than everyone else.

"Looking for this?" the moon held up a pale blue Pure Heart, making everyone gasp at the sight of it.

"He's got the Pure Heart!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: This is weird…

"The name's **Mr. Shine**! I'm the moon of this place! I take what I get and keep it! So if you think you're going to take this from me, then you can think again!"

"Now now, no need to be like this," Blade said, folding his arms. "We can settle this in an easy manner… You give us the Pure Heart and we'll be set."

"Me? Give YOU the Pure Heart? HA! Why would I give it to someone like you?!"

"Poyo! (Because we'll most likely defeat you!)" Kirby smirked. "Poyo. (I've beaten you on my own before, so I believe I could beat you again.)"

"Just because Mr. Shine's by himself doesn't mean he'll be fighting on his own!" This time, Mr. Shine went back up into the sky, turning it to night. An orange sun surrounded in flames came floating down onto the tower. All he really had were yellow cheeks, white gloves and no legs.

_"Well I expected there to be a sun…" _Timpani trailed.

"My name's **Mr. Bright**! If you couldn't tell, I'm the sun of Day Land! What? You thought the sun would be pretty? Well, when you meet me, then your opinion's PROBABLY going to change!"

"So there's a sun and a moon… Nice." Chopper sighed. "Seriously, you're no different than any other enemy we've faced! We fought against a dark wizard, a prototype of the ultimate life form and even some kind of clown! You two aren't any different!"

"Haven't we basically said that to all of the other bosses we've faced before?" Blade asked.

"Well… As much as I don't want to do this… We've gotta beat them." Luigi gulped as he got in his fighting stance.

"Aw! The plumber wants to fight us!" Mr. Shine snickered as he came down from the sky. It was still nighttime here, apparently. "Well, if that's how you want to be, then we'll be happy to take you down! You can be the nerds, while we can be the bullies!"

"Or maybe we're just gonna kick your asses!" Blade declared, pointing at them.

"Oh, we'll see who'll get their butts kicked!" Mr. Bright smirked as he flew up into the sky, making it daytime.

"Who's ready to get their butt kicked?" Mr. Shine grinned, getting ready to ram straight into them by rolling.

"Poyo, (He's going to roll into us,)" Kirby warned, floating above the ground to prevent himself from getting hurt. Chopper tried chucking a few fireballs, but while Mr. Shine was rolling towards them, there was no way of hurting him.

"Try all you want, but you can't hurt me while I'm rolling towards you all!" Mr. Shine rolled over everyone but Kirby. But, this didn't stop Luigi from attacking him with his Cyclone attack. It didn't send him flying, but he was able to uppercut him with a Super Jump while being close.

"Gah! What the heck was that?!"

"Well, that was interesting!" Luigi commented as he landed on the ground. "I didn't expect to hit him!"

"And look at that! A yellow star!" Chopper noticed the yellow star that appeared when Mr. Shine jumped up and stomped on the ground. He grabbed a hold of it with his Suplex ability and slammed it straight on Mr. Shine's head, leaving him dazed.

"Wow… We're kicking his ass for sure!" Blade commented, striking him with his katana. Chopper used this time to use Timpani's wand to gather information on Mr. Shine for now.

_"That's Mr. Shine. Apparently he's the one who stole the Pure Heart… Max HP is 220. Attack is 12. Mr. Shine doesn't have many special abilities except for rolling and jumping. However, sometimes he'll increase his speed or even fire something called a Moon Beam at you, which is very dangerous. And be careful with Mr. Bright up in the sky! He'll use his Solar Beam to hurt you if you're not careful! Though… It's not too surprising that he's the moon of Night Land…" _informed Timpani.

"All right, no problem!" Sonic grinned as he used a Spin Dash and struck Mr. Shine dead on. "If either one ever fires a beam, I guess I could use Reflecto to reflect the beam back at one of them if possible."

"Hey, Mr. Bright! Think you can give me some help here? !" called Mr. Shine as he looked up at Mr. Bright, who looked like the sun with no face.

"Hang on a moment!" Mr. Bright fired his Solar Beam down to the ground. Two yellow stars appeared, which Kirby inhaled to grab a hold of the Fire ability. Chopper grabbed the other with his Suplex ability and decided to throw it at Mr. Shine instead of slam it, since he CAN throw things with this ability.

"Hold on, let me try something out!" Sonic grabbed a hold of Reflecto and used him to reflect the Solar Beam straight at Mr. Shine, causing him to be burned. That, and Kirby's Fire Breath made the burn effect occur faster.

"Ugh… Now this is getting annoying…" Mr. Shine grumbled.

He clasped his hands together and a light blue glow emitted from his hands. "All right! I suppose I should use my Moon Beam on you guys! Trust me, this is going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt me! …And I doubt it'll even hurt me!"

Mr. Shine unleashed his Moon Beam on the heroes and managed to do even more damage to them than his roll attack. When they got up, Mario jumped towards him and used Kickbrin to stun him for a couple of seconds. Afterwards, he bashed him with his hammer.

"Poyo! (See? This isn't so bad!)" Kirby said as he rammed straight into Mr. Shine as a fireball. When he turned back into himself, Mr. Bright used his Solar Beam again and made the ground shake a bit.

"Great! Thanks, Mr. Bright!" Chopper smiled as he grabbed one of the stars and slammed it on Mr. Shine's head. He took this time to use his Pinpoint Kick to deal a tiny bit more damage to Mr. Shine.

"Now you're toast!" Mr. Shine grumbled as he rolled over Chopper. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to get Kirby and Luigi. The green plumber landed right on top of Mr. Shine when he stopped by the edge of the tower and stomped on him a couple of times while flipping around for stylish points.

"Whoa! I didn't expect to do that!" Luigi gaped.

"Come back here you!" Mr. Shine tried to grab a hold of Luigi, but he used his Super Jump again and struck him with an uppercut attack, knocking him over and leaving him dazed.

"Ugh… I'm not fairing well…"

"Mr. Shine! Perhaps I could take over for you!" Mr. Bright suggested.

"Not yet! I still want to crush them!" Mr. Shine rolled over Luigi successfully, but was stopped when Blade threw Hommissile at him, knocking him off the tower.

"Yeah! We did it!" Blade grinned.

Unfortunately, Mr. Shine came flying back up and even sent a shockwave towards everyone as he stomped on the ground. Everyone almost fell off the tower from it! But, even still, Mr. Shine was exhausted.

"Ugh… I think I need a break…" he moaned.

"Then allow me to take your place," Mr. Bright suggested as he flew to the tower and stood in front of the heroes. "While you recover, I'll take it from here! It shouldn't be a problem for me anyways!"

"Yes… I'll head back up." Mr. Shine flew up to the sky and made the sky dark, changing it back to night. Now it was the heroes against Mr. Bright now.

"Come on, you nerds! Let's fight!"

Chopper sprang into action, pulling Timpani's wand out and investigating Mr. Bright.

_"That's Mr. Bright. He's one of the people that's got a hold of the Pure Heart. Max HP is 220. Attack is 12. Unlike Mr. Shine, Mr. Bright cannot be hurt by any of your physical attacks. You'll simply hurt yourself if you do that. He can also fly right into you like a fireball, which can burn you, or even unleash his Solar Beam, which is VERY dangerous. Watch out for small fireballs he spits out. Those are tough to see… I'm not really surprised that he's the sun of Day Land…" _Timpani informed.

"Easy then!" Sonic curled up in a ball and attempted to strike Mr. Bright with a Spin Dash. Unfortunately, he only recoiled when he got burnt by him by simply touching him.

"YOUCH! It burns!"

"Heh heh heh! That's right, nerd! Wail around like that!" Mr. Bright took a step back and charged at the group like a fireball. Kirby turned into a fireball as well and managed to knock Me. Bright back with ease.

"What the… How'd he do that?!"

"Poyo! (Now that was fun!)" Kirby was about to breath fire on Mr. Bright, but he soon realized that Mr. Bright is made of fire, and if he did that, he'd only heal him. So, instead, he threw Crystaline towards him and left him frozen.

"Hmmmmmmm… Maybe I can do something!" Chopper charged straight towards Mr. Bright and grabbed a hold of him for some strange reason. He slammed him to the ground and broke him out of his icy prison.

"Argh! Now you're becoming annoying!"

Mr. Bright spat a small fireball that left Chopper with a nasty burn. Kirby also got hit by this attack, but he didn't end up getting burned because he still had the Fire ability on him.

"Wow… I don't know how I'm going to be able to hurt him…" Luigi gulped as Mr. Bright began to slowly make his way towards him.

"What about me? I have zee ability to hit him, you know!" Bonjourang spoke up.

"Yeah… I guess so!" Luigi grabbed a hold of the boomerang Pixl and threw him straight at Mr. Bright, hitting him in the face a couple of times. Chopper followed up by using Starbow to make stars rain down on him.

"Ouch! What the heck?! Now you can hurt me even if I'm untouchable?!" Mr. Bright gaped.

"Well that looked like you were touchable," Blade pointed out as he jumped towards Mr. Bright and slashed him with a hurricane slash. He finished off his attack with a jab and jumped back to throw Hommissile at him.

"Oh, I know just what to do…" Mr. Bright stepped back and charged directly at Blade. However, the ninja cat had plans too. He brought Barry up and countered Mr. Bright's attack with a spiky barrier, causing him to get knocked back a bit.

"Mr. Shine! I require your assistance!"

"Very well!" Mr. Shine unleashed his Moon Beam from the sky. They were small little beams compared to Mr. Bright's Solar Beam, so they didn't do as much damage. But they were pretty fast.

Luckily, Chopper managed to grab a hold of one and throw it straight at Mr. Bright, since he didn't want to burn himself from slamming it on Mr. Bright, so throwing it was a much better idea.

Mario: Maybe I can strike him…

When Mr. Bright began to rest for a bit, Mario walked up to him and bashed him with his hammer, since he knew that he wouldn't take damage. And besides… He's hit fire enemies with his hammer before, so this isn't any different!

After Mr. Bright was left dazed, Mario used Kickbrin on him afterward to deal a little bit more damage. Unfortunately, for him, he got burnt when Mr. Bright spat a small fireball at him.

"Are you all right, big bro?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Don't worry… I'll be fine.

"Yeah! That's right! Go back to your friends, fatty!" Mr. Bright scoffed as he was about to charge at them. Luckily, Kirby got ready and rammed into him while he was a fireball and knocked him back, leaving him dazed.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby threw Crystaline directly at Mr. Bright, freezing him in place. Chopper, meanwhile, grabbed a hold of him and slammed him to the ground to break him out.

"It looks like I might need to help you," Mr. Shine said as he fired his Moon Beam down. Chopper was lucky to grab one and throw it at Mr. Bright, while Sonic used Reflecto to reflect one of them back at him.

"Wait… So I'm actually GRABBING a beam…?" Chopper questioned with a confused look. "That doesn't seem right…"

"Hey! We're not questioning logic here! Just fight!" Blade shouted as he spun his katana around when Mr. Bright spat a fireball at him. The fireball was deflected back at him, but instead of hurting him, it healed him of 12 HP.

"Aw, crap! That didn't work?!"

"See? That's what happens when you deflect fire back at me!" Mr. Bright cackled as he knocked Blade away with a simple whack to the face. He cackled once again until Luigi threw Bonjourang straight at him, leaving him bruised.

"Ow! What the…"

When Bonjourang came back, he was hit yet again. Luigi simply smirked as he grabbed a hold of the Pixl. "Well! That was pretty interesting! If I just stay at a certain distance, I'll be fine!"

"That, and we have Starbow here to help us," Chopper held Starbow up, making stars rain down from the starry sky. Mr. Bright was pelted by all of the shooting stars and even Mr. Shine got hit by some of them too, due to still being vulnerable up in the sky.

"Ack! This isn't good!" Mr. Shine cried.

"Yeah, I know! Why isn't things going our way here?!" Mr. Bright grumbled as he pounded his fists to the ground. "You people should be dead by now! The Pure Heart's power lets us crush you!"

_"I never knew they were using the Pure Heart's power…" _Timpani gawked.

"That's right!" Mr. Shine came down from the sky and pulled a white boomerang out. "I guess we're going to have to do this our way! …And that includes BOTH of us taking you down at the same time!"

"Oh, really? Well, then bring it on!" Sonic brought out Reflecto when Mr. Bright unleashed his Solar Beam at him. It went straight back at him and Mr. Shine and did some immense damage. Mr. Shine was even caught on fire from the attack as well!

"HELP! I'M ON FIRE!"

"Serves you right!" Chopper laughed as he held Starbow up again. When he finished with the shooting stars, he grabbed a hold of Mr. Shine's boomerang – that he threw, and he threw it at him and Mr. Bright, leaving them stunned.

"Hey, that reminds me of what I do with Bonjourang!" Luigi recalled, bringing his arm back and throwing Bonjourang at Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright, leaving them stunned. Afterwards, he used his Super Jump to strike Mr. Shine with an uppercut attack. And that's when it hit him.

"Wait… My badge prevents me from getting burned!"

With this, he used a Super Jump on Mr. Bright. Because of the badge, he was capable of doing some actual damage to him instead of getting hurt. When he began to fall, he stomped on Mr. Bright's head and followed up with his Cyclone attack.

"I'm screwed," Mr. Bright gulped.

Mario: Well now we have an upper advantage!

"Well, only Luigi does," Blade added as he managed to throw a couple of shurikens at Mr. Bright. He followed up by running towards Mr. Shine and slashed him with a fire slash, setting him on fire. He used his hurricane slash on Mr. Bright to send him flying off the tower.

"YEAH! Now that was awesome!"

"Dude… You don't need to shout…" Sonic sighed.

"Well I had to, 'cause I felt like it."

"Grrrrr! This is an outrage! Now there's someone who can hurt me just fine!" Mr. Bright said angrily as he got back on the tower and began to steam. He stepped back and nearly rammed into everyone. Heck, even Kirby couldn't handle his attack!

"I'm going to KILL you!"

"Settle down, Mr. Bright! We can't just murder them angrily!" Mr. Shine said as he pulled his boomerang out. "We need to do it…with style!"

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Chopper groaned while face palming. "That's even worse than any other joke I've heard! And that's saying something!"

"Poyo… (I don't see how that's 'saying' something…)" Kirby trailed.

"Never mind. Let's just focus on defeating these guys." Chopper grabbed a hold of the boomerang Mr. Shine threw and threw it back at him and Mr. Bright. Luigi followed up by throwing Bonjourang at them and then struck them both with his Cyclone. Mario stepped up next and delivered a whack from his hammer to both of them.

"Ugh… I can't believe a bunch of mortal beings are creaming us…" Mr. Bright grumbled.

"I know, right? We've gotta work together here…" agreed Mr. Shine.

"Good idea! How about our beams combined? Will that do something?"

"…You're a genius!"

_"Careful, guys… They're planning something big…" _warned Blumiere.

"Whatever! We'll be ready for whatever they throw at us!" Sonic assured.

"Ummmmm… It doesn't look like it!" Luigi gulped. "Look!"

It was too late. Both Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright fired their Moon Beam and Solar Beam at the heroes at the same time, causing them to take more damage than they've possibly suffered thus far…

"_**POYO! (IT'S PAINFUL!)**_" Kirby cried.

"Heh heh heh! How nice!" the two bosses grinned evilly as everyone moaned in pain.

"Quick! Ultimate Shroom Shake!" Chopper pulled out an Ultimate Shroom Shake and took a sip from it to recover 100 HP. He passed it over to the others so they could recover 100 HP as well. Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright were both left dumbstruck.

"What the f…"

"Sonic BOOM!" Sonic shouted as he rammed straight into Mr. Shine while curled in a ball, who got knocked right into Mr. Bright, which knocked them off the tower. However, it left Sonic hanging from the edge.

"Uh oh… I don't think that was a good idea…"

Mario: I've got you!

Mario walked over to the edge and pulled Sonic back onto the tower. "Whew! Thanks, Mario… I thought it was over for me…"

Mario: No problem!

"Now we're going to give it to you!" Mr. Bright growled as he and Mr. Shine got back onto the tower. Mr. Shine threw his boomerang, which knocked Chopper's Suplex ability away and even Kirby's Fire ability, leaving them both abilitiless.

"Poyo! (No fair! You can't do that!)" Kirby whined.

"This should be easy!" the sun stepped back and nearly fried both Chopper and Kirby by ramming into them. Blade barely escaped the attack, while Luigi used a Super Jump to escape.

"That's it! Time for more stars!" Chopper held Starbow up and stars began to rain from the sky and hit both Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright. From what they could see, their HP was very low.

"Ugh… This is not fairing too well for us…" Mr. Shine wheezed.

"I suggest we use that one attack…" Mr. Bright suggested.

"You mean the…"

"Yes, that one!"

"…Yes."

Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright flew above the heroes and raised their arms up to charge up their next move. "This should finish you heroes for good! This is what happens when you try to mess with us!"

"Not if Luigi can stop you!" Luigi said boldly as he folded himself up, readying himself for a Super Jump. "There's no way you're going to hurt this place!"

With one Super Jump, he was able to hit both Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright. The two's eyes widened in pain as their arms began to flail around.

"Wha…? We…lost?!" Mr. Shine wheezed.

"How could you guys defeat us with the power of the Pure Heart?!" Mr. Bright gaped.

"_**AAAAGGGHHHH!**_" They both screamed in horror as they began to shake and become cracked. They soon broke into small pieces and thus…they were no more.

"We did it…" Chopper said, giving a small thumbs up as the Pure Heart slowly floated to the ground. "Good job, Luigi… You did it…"

"I… I can't believe I managed to pull that off…" Luigi gawked.

"There you guys are! I've been looking for you this whole time!" Everyone saw Arcaine climbing up to the top of the tower and walked over to the heroes. "I saved you… I finally saved you from SunMoonFlower!"

"YOU!" Chopper's voice became very harsh as he pointed at Arcaine. "STAY AWAY FROM US, YOU MONSTER!"

"What? What's wrong?" Arcaine looked a bit shocked. "You've gotten so…angry!"

"I was actually trying to be nice to you because it didn't look like you had any friends! I actually felt sorry for you a bit when I saw everyone's reactions to you! Now I see WHY you don't have any friends! It's because of that STUPID SUNMOONFLOWER! You're just using that thing for ATTENTION! I can't believe we've been following someone who was being a complete loser!"

"And you've nearly got us KILLED from what you did to us!" Blade hissed. "What's more important? A stupid myth or shoving people into the sewers and leaving them to suffer?!"

"I bet your wife left you because of your whole SunMoonFlower beliefs! I bet she got so tired, that she left you with her kids! I'm PRETTY sure she made the right decision for that! You're just a big idiot! That's what!"

Arcaine's eyes began to water as he sat down. "The whole thing about my wife… That's all true…"

"…What?" Chopper's angry look changed to a shocked look. "Wait… Your wife actually left you for that?"

"Yes… She was probably the greatest woman I've ever met…" Arcaine wiped a tear off his face and pulled a picture out. "I met her when I was out in the garden between Day and Moon Land. She was a lot like me. We both fell in love and got married and had two children. When I discovered this SunMoonFlower, I tried warning everyone, especially my wife. After a year of nobody believing me, she decided to take the kids and leave, leaving me all alone. And… I really do miss her."

"What? How come you never told us this?" Sonic asked, feeling sympathetic for Arcaine now.

"Because I thought you all wouldn't care… You're right. I am a loser."

"Hey, now… Don't act like that. There's still a way to turn this around." Chopper assured as he walked over to Arcaine. "Look, I sorry for blowing up like that… I thought that was a bit mean… You know… I once lost my parents and my own kind to an evil demon. I've had to live alone for practically forever. And even today, I still live alone in my house."

"What? You're serious?"

"He's not kidding," Luigi responded with a shake of the head.

"Wow… That's very shocking… Although you're lucky you have friends. I nearly have none." Arcaine frowned as his head hung low.

Mario: We can be your friends if you want.

"Really?"

"Yeah! All you need to do is forget about SunMoonFlower." Blade assured. "Even if it somehow existed, it would probably be dead."

"Yeah, you're right… Screw SunMoonFlower! I need to start things over!" Arcaine stood up and smiled. "I really thank you for what you heroes did."

"Why, that was surprising!"

Everyone saw King Moonnight climb up the ladder, along with King Sunday. Everyone was surprised to see both of them actually not fighting, especially Arcaine.

"Wait… Are you two actually not fighting?" Arcaine gaped.

"Well, when I heard what King Moonnight said through my device, I felt somewhat guilty for what I did…" King Sunday explained. However, we both realized that we both had devices and were trying to listen in to each other through it. So… I decided to come here and finally make up."

"We both agreed, which was very nice for both of us and became friends! It turns out we both wanted peace, so it works out just fine!" King Moonnight smiled. "As for you, Arcaine… We'll gladly make sure that things turn out all right for you. In fact, we could tell your wife about the news and let you see her again! …If that's what you'd like."

"Really?!" Arcaine gasped. "You could actually do that?!"

"Of course! We are kings, after all! I think you could helps us with the celebration too!" King Sunday chuckled.

"This… This makes me so happy…"

King Sunday looked over at the heroes. "I'd also like to thank you heroes for helping us out. We both came to realize that heroes can sometimes bring people together!"

"Wow! I never felt so flattered!" Luigi blushed.

"We must reward you greatly for what you've done!" King Moonnight picked up the Pure Heart and held it above him. "Now, brave heroes… Will you kindly accept this Pure Heart, in which you shall use to save all worlds?"

"We will do so!"

"Thank you… Please take good care of it."

King Moonnight tossed the Pure Heart over to Chopper. It began to float above his head while all of the Pixls began to perform their little dance once again. With the finishing part, Chopper held the Pure Heart up high.

"We really made someone feel happy," Luigi smiled.

"I agree," Chopper said as he smiled at the Pure Heart and then at Arcaine.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Thank you kindly for what you've done, heroes. Now our kingdom has returned to peace once again! Hopefully you come back and visit us some time!" The two kings and Arcaine waved goodbye to the heroes as they began to make their exit out of this world. They all felt so much better for making someone who felt miserable feel so much better. "I feel bad for what I said to him back there…" Blade trailed. "It kind of made me look like a jerk a bit…" As Chopper carried the fourteenth Pure Heart, he soon realized that their quest was coming closer to an end. Only six more Pure Hearts remained out there…_

* * *

**Well, there you go! There's Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright for ya! If you don't know who those two characters are, I'll just say that they're from the Kirby series. ...I think they've only appeared in two or three games. Not too sure, but it doesn't really matter. But I guess some of you are surprised to see that they were the bosses here. :P**

**And also... Starbow is the final Pixl, if you didn't figure it out yet. And yeah, I think you probably saw it coming with Chopper being the one using her. Plus, since she's a female Pixl... I wonder how others might react to her. **

**Anyway... The interlude is coming up next! ...And I know it took me over a week to put this up.**_  
_


	81. Chapter 13 Interlude

**Well, we're finally going back to the interlude! The unlucky interlude, for that matter! …Although, I didn't find Chapter 13 that bad. It was a lot better than Chapter 12 and Chapter 2, if you know what I mean. But, nevertheless, it's time to move on to this! And trust me… I'm actually excited for the next chapter. :D**

* * *

"Ah ha ha ha. The heroes are a lot stronger than we thought they'd be." Dimentio explained in his usual happy mood. "Their abilities are definitely a force to be reckoned with. They might even be ready to take you on, Tipral!"

"Impossible! There's no way they have what it takes to beat me!" Tipral retorted.

"Why, haven't you declared that you were beaten by the heroes twice? In fact, you explained that you faced Chopper in the past and nearly lost to him! Even when you stole his name and body, he was able to defeat you!"

"What? I have surprise! The news to Fawful is not having the truth! Is it really true that you had defeat many times in the past?" Fawful asked in his usual crazy manner. "Does Tipral need fury?"

"No, I don't need more fury, Fawful. I've learned from my mistakes already… Besides, I need two more things if I'm going to bring back The Void. There's a very good chance I could succeed."

"Please tell me what it is, Tippy!" Mimi begged.

"We're going to have to go back to that mansion in that one world, though…" Tipral looked over at O'Chunks. "I want you to come with me to the mansion. There's a little something that I'd like your help with."

"Whaaa? Yeh need me help? ! YES!" O'Chunks fists pumped. "I can help like me great grandma told me to! Izzat all?"

"Well, once we get what we need, I'm sending you out to stop the heroes next. I believe your time has come at last."

"What's this? Did someone call for me?" Knightmare appeared in the room using his cape, as well as Dark Doom. "I thought I heard someone call out my name… Though, it didn't sound like Tipral."

"No, nobody called you," Nastasia confirmed. "I guess you should go back to your room and plan up, 'K?"

"What? But I believe I'm ready to go back out now."

"And WHY is my eye still growing? !" Dark screeched as he looked as his third eye in the mirror. "I mean… I'm not feeling any pain right now, but it's still growing. Urrgh… This is so annoying…"

"That is enough, Dark," Tipral stated. "I keep hearing you complain about that stupid eye all the time! When will you EVER stop with it? ! If you're going to keep complaining, then I might have to put your room in the coldest depths of my palace!"

"…Fine."

"So, what're we doing next? Can I finally kick some hero butt?" Mr. L asked, cracking his knuckles. "…Or are we going to sit around and be lazy like some fat idiots. 'Cause I'm getting tired of laying around here."

"YOU will stay here, Mr. L," Nastasia stated. "Tipral has not given any orders for you to go after the heroes. He's only done it for O'Chunks for now. So you better listen to what he says. You don't want to suffer a harsher punishment…"

"Oh, come on. Cleaning the bathroom isn't THAT bad…"

"Unless O'Chunks is the one in there," Dimentio cackled.

"'EY! Keep yer potty jokes out o' me whiskers!" O'Chunks snapped. "I'm fine with 'ow I am! Now I just wanna get outta 'ere an' beat those heroes up!"

"So… You don't require my assistance…" Knightmare said in a serious tone. "I see. I'll be ready when you call for me."

"I didn't say that you're not going…" Tipral trailed. "We'll just see what happens. For now, I must do something."

With that, he teleported out of the meeting room. O'Chunks simply grumbled as he jumped off his platform and left the room.

* * *

**Tipral's room-**

Tipral's room… Well, it's got something in common with a goth's room. It's dark. There aren't any lights anywhere. It looked a lot similar to his room in Castle Tipral, but the dark star on the floor was much bigger. His book shelf was bigger and even his bed was bigger. There was a dark star symbol on the blankets, which he seems to have very often.

Tipral looked around to make sure no one was around and slowly closed the door and locked it. He walked over to his desk and pulled a dark purple book out. He decided to place the Dark Prognosticus next to it and then he opened the dark purple book to find a couple of pictures.

"I haven't looked at these pictures in a long time… But I keep getting this strange feeling from that girl…" Tipral looked at a picture of a young human girl. He started to remember some of the things about her.

"_Let's play a game of tag!"_

"_What is tag?"_

"_You don't know what tag is? You're so silly! It's a game where you slightly slap someone and tag them. If you're it, then you have to chase someone around who isn't it. If you get them, then you have to run away from them. It's a simple game, really!"_

"_Interesting…"_

"_Well… Tag! You're it!"_

"And then that happened…" Tipral's face became even angrier at these thoughts. "Those people will PAY! My life has been practically ruined because of them! Especially Chopper… I will make sure he suffers a painful death by me!"

He aimed his scepter at the book and was prepared to destroy it. With one blast, the book was gone, and nothing was left from it. "Perfect… Now I have to go head out and get what I need. It'll help make The Void grow faster."

"_Hey, Tipral! Are yeh ready teh go already? !"_

Tipral stood back up and grabbed the Dark Prognosticus and put it away. He opened the door and saw O'Chunks standing in front of his room.

"So this is yer room…" he commented.

"Let's go already," With a raise of his scepter, both he and O'Chunks teleported out of the palace.

"I find it rather interesting that he was looking back at his past," Dimentio appeared in the hallway, chuckling. "We've never known much about what caused him to be like this! I guess all he wants to do is get revenge on Chopper and that's it!"

He simply cackled once more before teleporting out of the hallway. Knightmare came in to check for any noise.

"Hmph… No one's in here, I guess…" Knightmare returned to his room, where he planned on a couple of important things. However, he still couldn't get the image of Chopper out of his head…

* * *

**Mansion of Nightmares-**

"Hmph… THIS is a mansion? It doesn't look that sturdy for a mansion!" Tipral scoffed as they teleported into the upper floor of the mansion. They were currently on the second floor at this moment. There weren't any ghosts around at the moment, but O'Chunks didn't like how it was in here.

"Ergh… A butterfly appears to be in me stomach fer some reason…" O'Chunks said with a nervous look. "I don't like the looks o' this place…"

"There's nothing to fear, O'Chunks. This place is only a mansion. There aren't any ghosts here." Tipral took a couple of steps in the mansion, but he suddenly heard some cackling sounds echoing through the hallway.

"Errrrr… Me belly's tellin' me that we should leave…"

"_Heh heh heh!"_

"I know you're here, so you don't need to hide," Tipral raised his scepter and a dark aura surrounded the hallway. The two ghosts were in their sight, no longer being invisible to them. They noticed that they were invisible and looked up at Tipral.

"Uhhhh… Can you see us?" the tall ghost asked.

"Yes, I can see you. You know it's rather stupid to be going around here and scaring people that are scarier than you, right?"

"And who says you're scarier than us?" the fat ghost asked until Tipral was surrounded by a light purple aura.

"Oh, I'll show you how scary I can be!" Tipral aimed his scepter at the fat ghost and fired a dark blast at him, surrounding him in dark energy that prevented him from escaping. The tall ghost also got trapped in the dark energy as well.

"HEY! Let us out!"

"We've got a ghost girl to woo!"

"Does this ghost girl happen to have any dark matter with her?" Tipral asked, walking up to the two ghosts. "Tell me where she is. I require that kind of energy to destroy the entire universe!"

"Wait… Destroy the universe? Then why should we tell you?" the tall ghost asked.

Tipral gave the tall ghost a scary glare as he grabbed a hold of him. The dark energy thriving in him made him get surrounded in a dark aura instead of a purple one. "You're going to have to ask me whether you like it or not! Perhaps if you tell me, you'll be able to live longer!"

"You can't kill us if we're ghosts," the chubby ghost retorted.

"Oh, I have my ways of killing ghosts… Trust me."

"Yeh want me teh help yeh, Tipral?" O'Chunks asked as he walked up to his leader. "I can get 'em teh spit it out!"

"Aw, now the big guy's gonna torture us even more? ! OK! Fine! We'll just tell you where she is! …And if you plan on trying to woo her, then we're probably going to kill yo—I mean, there's no way we can do that!" the chubby ghost shook from those last words when Tipral glared evilly at him.

* * *

**Mysterious room after a moment later-**

In that strange room where the ghost girl resided, she was looking at the picture of the dark being that looked a lot like Tipral on the wall. She had all of the pictures of Luigi being freaked out and scared gone for some reason. Apparently she was paying more attention to the picture.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see you again…" she sighed.

That is…until Tipral and O'Chunks teleported into the room. She looked up, but didn't look happy when she saw them arrive.

"All right, who are you people and how did you get in…" the ghost girl paused when she saw that it was Tipral who teleported into this room. She looked back at the picture and then back at him. At this point, hearts formed over his head.

"Hand over any dark matter you have," Tipral demanded. "I might have to do the same thing as your love-struck 'friends' if you refuse…"

"So yeh better listen the Tipral, strange ghost girl," O'Chunks suggested while cracking his knuckles, but soon paused. "Wait… I remember me mother told me that it's not nice teh hit a lady…"

"I can't believe you've come here! You're the dark being on that picture over there!" the ghost girl sighed sweetly as she floated over to Tipral and tickled below his mouth. …Except he swatted her hand away.

"I don't have time for any flirting," Tipral growled. "Just tell me where the dark matter is. NOW! If you don't, then I might as well seal you in darkness just like those other two ghosts."

"Wait… What even happened to them?"

"Heh heh heh…" O'Chunks grinned as he held a little bag of something behind his pocket. "Let's just say… We 'ad them…turned into something…pretty."

"Hmmmmmm… I sense the dark matter somewhere…" Tipral pushed the ghost girl out of the way, who only gave him a face as he walked over to the wall.

"Hmph! And I thought you had respect for girls!" she huffed.

"Ah, here it is," he grabbed the dark heart that was on the table and put it away. "This is all I needed from you. I'll let you live if you don't get in my way."

"Now hold it right there!" the ghost girl frowned as she got up. "You're probably the person I've been wanting to see for such a long time, and this is how you act to me? ! You've got all of the evil in you, but you just move me out of the way and don't give me any respect? !"

Tipral simply ignored her and pushed her out of the way again. "Oh, so now you're ignoring me? I can't believe you!"

"Well, 'e is tryin' teh destroy the universe, so yeh should understand," O'Chunks explained.

"Oh, I see now… You're just someone who can't get over what happens, don't you?" the ghost girl asked while crossing her arms. Tipral stopped for a moment and listened. "I bet you were simply a loner who couldn't get any friends because you were being a complete jerk to them, right? I bet you got some girl you liked to hate you for how worthless you were being."

Tipral began to remember some horrible things related to that. …But it ended up angering him instead and surrounding him in a dark aura. He turned around and clenched his fists in pure hatred.

"NEVER speak to me about THOSE kinds of things!" Tipral roared. "THOSE damn things don't have to do with what I'm planning! Now, you will drop this subject before I blast your freakin' head off!"

"Tipral… Maybe it's best teh settle down an' ignore her…" O'Chunks suggested.

"O'Chunks, stay out of this!" Tipral walked up to the ghost girl and aimed his scepter at her.

"Are you some kind of heartless monster? That's what it seems like you're acting right now."

"Oh, you want me to be a heartless monster? ! THIS is heartless!" Tipral grabbed her by the neck and fired a dark blast from his scepter at her, trapping her in a dark aura and even making her disintegrate into dust. Tipral grabbed the small bag O'Chunks had and let the pink, glittering dust fall in and turn into darkness.

He also added the dark matter into it as well, since that would make it even stronger, now that the ghost dust was turned into darkness.

"I… I never saw yeh blow up like that…" O'Chunks gaped, despite being scared. "What caused yeh teh be like this…?"

"That's enough, O'Chunks," Tipral seemed a bit calm at this moment. "For now, I'm going to return to the palace. I'm counting on you to stop the heroes in the next world. If you fail… Well, Nastasia will take care of that."

Tipral teleported out of the room, leaving only O'Chunks. He simply sweat dropped as he thought about what punishment Nastasia would give to him.

"That lass… Why don't I 'ave the guts teh confess me love to her? Urgh… I'm worried about me punishment if I fail…" O'Chunks trailed as he teleported out of the mansion with his teleportation powers given to Tipral.

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

As everyone walked out of the light blue door, a light blue crystal heart appeared above the door, indicating that the world was complete.

"Whew! Fourteen down, six more to go!" Luigi said, sighing in relief.

"Yeah! It's about time!" Sonic grinned.

"Ho oh oh ho! I see you've returned!" Everyone noticed Nolrem walking over to the heroes. "I can definitely feel the Pure Heart's presence nearby. I suppose you managed to get the fourteenth Pure Heart, am I correct?"

"Yeah, we have it right here," Chopper confirmed as he held up the fourteenth Pure Heart.

"Excellent! With that, only six more remain! You young ones are doing very well!" Nolrem congratulated.

"Yeah, and I'm glad we were able to make someone feel happy," Blade said, rubbing the back of his head. "Although… I still feel kind of bad for yelling at him…"

"Poyo, (Well, it got him to understand everything, so I guess it was for the better,)" Kirby assured.

"Anyways, perhaps it would be wise to go see Merlon? I'm sure your friends would like to see you as well." assured Nolrem.

Chopper gulped, remembering the last time he went there. "Ugh… I don't feel so comfortable when I know that I'm going to be…_smothered_."

"Poyo… (Here we go again…)" Kirby groaned.

"Well, I'll leave you heroes to your work. I'm sure Merlon has something interesting in the Light Prognosticus. It would be rather important if you were to do that." Nolrem took the elevator down to the second floor and returned to his house.

"_Well, we should go to Merlon first and see how things are there," _Timpani suggested. _"I'm guessing the information is VERY important. Maybe your friends got some important information as well."_

Mario: Let's hope so…

"And I HOPE a fight doesn't happen there between two certain girls…" Sonic hoped. "I don't like those fights."

"What? Catfights are interesting to watch!" Blade gaped. "I mean, really!"

"…Let's just go."

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"Ah! You've come back, young ones!" Merlon greeted as the heroes entered the room. Hearts instantly formed over Heartsy's head when she saw Chopper come in, but she didn't rush straight to him, which was nice. "How was trip? Did you manage to get a hold of the next Pure Heart?"

"We sure did!" Chopper smiled as he held up the pale blue Pure Heart. "See? This is it!"

"Hey, that kind of reminds me of the Sky Star that we had to get," Flyer recalled as he walked over to it.

"What's the Sky Star?" Parakarry asked.

"It's a special kind of Crystal Star that allows you to heal yourself a bit," Chopper explained. "We got that from a mysterious cold-hearted angel… And man, was that angel weird…"

"Well it does look pretty," Vivian commented.

"So… Why did you want us to come down here anyways?" Blade asked as he stretched. "Did you find something interesting in the Light Prognosticus?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. These news are very frightening too…" Merlon trailed as he opened the Light Prognosticus. "It says, 'When the time comes, the dark one will bring back The Void. With the combination of dark matter, The Void could grow triple the speed that it previously grew.' I fear that we are in grave danger…"

"Oh, dear… What if The Void ends up going…" Parakarry bit his lips.

"The chances of that are highly improbable," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "There's no way that The Void could swallow our world."

"But… What if it does?" Luigi asked with a scared look on his face.

"Then… I don't know what we could do…" Bow frowned.

"You need to collect the rest of the Pure Hearts, Choppy," Heartsy said as she walked up to him. "I don't think you'll have as much time as much time as we previously had with the Crystal Stars… That dark vortex could even come…to your world."

"What? !" Chopper immediately clenched his fist in anger. "I think Tipral's REALLY trying to challenge us with The Void…and with one that's even more dangerous than the previous!"

"Poyo! (I don't want my home world to be destroyed!)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo! (That would be the worst thing to happen!)"

"Wait… If Kirby's world gets destroyed… That means… Oh, no!" Flyer's eyes widened in fear as he thought of something bad that would possibly happen in his eyes. "…There would be no more Fumu!"

"Whoa… I just realized that too. No more of Cappy and Hatty Town…" Chopper gasped. "In fact, there could be no more anything…"

"That's why you must be quick and head to the next world," Merlon suggested. "We never know when Tipral will ever bring The Void back. We might still even have some time to get to him and put a stop to him."

"What if he succeeds?" Heartsy asked.

"…I dare to say that things could be hectic, my dear."

"Then we should get going…" Chopper trailed. "This is really starting to get serious here."

"I'll still contact you guys via communicator," Flyer stated. "If you ever need us, just give us a call."

"And please come back in one piece, Chopper," Vivian said with a worried look on her face. "I don't want to lose someone."

"And before you go…" Heartsy walked up to Chopper and kissed him on the lips, leaving the Star Warrior in complete disgust. "Please don't forget about me, all right?"

"YUCK!" Chopper cried, wiping his mouth. "You know that we're going to be back here, you know that?"

"Yeah, but I don't want you to die, you know…"

"Wait a sec… We don't even know where the next Pure Heart is, though!" Luigi realized.

"I might have an idea where it could be," Sonic recalled. "I think we need to go to where we placed the sixth Pure Heart… That might give us an idea!"

"Then we shall head there!" Chopper confirmed. However, Sonic realized something first before going.

"Hold on a second! I remembered something!" Sonic pulled out a letter and gave it to Parakarry. "Here, Parakarry. I found this in the sewers of that one castle."

"The sewers? Those are usually nasty…" Bow commented.

"Whoa… You actually found one there?" Parakarry took the letter from him and put it in his bag. "Well, as long as it's all right, I might as well take it. Thank you very much, Sonic!"

* * *

**Flopside Outskirts, first floor-**

"Oh, yeah… Now I remember this place." Blade commented as they took their step out of the pipe. "This is the area where I first went when we were going to find the Pure Heart. Nothing much has changed…"

"And those Squogs still exist," Chopper said as he stomped on the Squog. It only took him one jump to kill it, to his surprise.

Mario: I guess that's what happens when we have higher attack.

"Poyo, (Yeah, these stone blocks bring back some memories,)" Kirby recalled as he floated over them and over the small bottomless pit. He inhaled the Squog and simply swallowed it before reaching a sign between two tall stone blocks.

"So this is where we have to find the next Heart Pillar?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, we just need to go into 3-D," Chopper confirmed as he flipped into 3-D. The only problem now…was that a large block was blocking the way. But, there happened to be a hole that could fit something like a boomerang to hit the blue ! block.

"Oh! Now I see what to do!" Luigi threw Bonjourang through the hole and hit the blue ! block to simply destroy the block, allowing them to progress further in the outskirts. When Chopper flipped back into 2-D, they saw the sixth Heart Pillar to their left, and to their right, there was a blue ! block floating in the sky surrounded by many small star blocks.

Mario: Is that it?

"Yeah, I think the Heart Pillar needs to be revealed by that blue ! block up there," Sonic confirmed, pointing up at the block.

"No problem!" Chopper smirked as he held Starbow up. Stars began to rain down on the blocks and destroy them. When they hit the block, the ground began to shake, triggering a Heart Pillar to be drawn.

"Poyo, (Well there's the Heart Pillar,)" Kirby stated.

"I better put the Pure Heart in its pillar then," the Star Warrior pulled the pale blue Pure Heart and let it float into the Heart Pillar. They all gazed at the pale blue clock that appeared around the Heart Pillar.

"So, what's going to happen now?" Luigi asked.

"We'll find out…" Sonic responded.

Back at Flopside Towers, a red orange door was drawn right next to the light blue door.

"Well, let's go check up at Flopside Towers."

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

After taking the elevator up to the black tower, they all saw the red orange door right beside the light blue door. Judging by the color of the door, the Pure Heart was probably going to be a red orange color.

"Hmmmmmm… Well, this is a strange door." Blade commented.

Mario: How is it strange?

"I've never seen a red orange door…"

"Uhhhhh… The first and second door of Flispdie Towers WAS a red and orange color." Chopper stated. "They're not really different compared to this door. So… I wouldn't necessarily call that strange."

"OK, whatever. It's not strange. I just wanna go through this door and into the next world." Blade suggested as he took one step over to the door. "I don't think we'll have as much time now…"

"You're right, we need to get going," Sonic confirmed. With that, they headed through the door into the next world.

* * *

**There's your interlude, people. And luckily, we happen to be delving into one of my favorite chapters in this fic! I'm not going to explain why until the next chapter. I mean... That's the purpose of that chapter (some of the time, actually).**

**And yes, if you thought Tipral was being a bit calm throughout this story recently, then this one might change your mind. What caused him to be like this? We'll see what happens. **


	82. Into Cyberspace

_With Tipral's new plans in his hands, Chopper and Co. knew that their time to collect all of the Pure Heart has become limited. "This world is starting to feel…rather strange," commented Timpani as they noticed that they were flowing through some digital circuit to the new world. One thing for sure was that this could be one of the strangest worlds they'll ever encounter. With only six Pure Hearts left to find, our heroes were ready to take on whatever was behind that door._

**CHAPTER 14-1**

**-Into Cyberspace-**

The sky was rather strange for this world. Some part of the sky was simply a navy blue color with red orange lights flowing through. The ground was blue, with some glass in the floor that's storing some kind of yellow, orange and red energy. But, it certainly was a beautiful glow. There were also some purple pedestals with spinning purple cubes with a light blue frame.

When the six heroes stepped out of the red orange door, they all looked at their surroundings, just like they usually do. They didn't know what to think. Was it cool? Weird? Amazing?

_"What a strange world… I've never seen anything like this…" _Timpani commented as her wand floated out of Chopper's hands. _"Yet, for some reason… I feel the Pure Heart's presence in this world…"_

"Good! 'Cause I didn't want to be lured into some kind of trap!" Blade hoped as he looked down at the glowing energy in the ground underneath the glass. "Cool! That stuff is pretty neat!"

"So… I don't get it. Where are we?" Luigi asked.

_"Well, judging by what everything looks like, we're apparently in cyberspace," _Blumiere confirmed. _"Some people would refer to it as the internet…but I suppose cyberspace itself is in its own dimension?"_

"Cyberspace, huh? Well this should be pretty cool!" Sonic chuckled while stretching his arm. "This should be fun…"

"Hey! I just realized something!" Chopper pulled out a shovel. "I remember that we had this with us! Last time I remember, we used this shovel back in Desert Oasis… How come we've forgotten about this?"

"Poyo, (Beats me,)" Kirby responded as he pulled his shovel out. "Poyo. (In fact, I don't get why we're still holding these. They don't seem to be of any use nowadays. There's no dirt here, so it wouldn't help.)"

"Yeah… That's true…" Chopper looked up ahead and saw a weird red spherical shaped enemy with orange eyes and a green spark circling around it. Its eyes began to sound off some kind of siren as it flew towards them.

"Warning! Warning! Viruses in Sector 11! Requesting assistance!" the enemy fired some kind of green spark at Chopper, electrocuting him. He used Timpani's wand to investigate the enemy.

_"That's a Computer Drone. It's some type of __**Computernoid**__ that patrols cyberspace looking for some kind of virus called a __**Vironoid**__. Max HP is 58. Attack is 11. Defense is 3. This thing will fired a spark at you that's very tough to dodge. Your best option is to use Reflecto to deflect the shot or simply defend with Kirby. However, if you inhale this thing, you might get something interesting…" _Timpani informed.

"Computernoids and Vironoids? This is kind of interesting…" Sonic trailed.

"Hey! Something special is in this thing too!" Chopper managed to inhale the Computer Drone and swallow it. When he looked at himself down on the glass, he saw that he was donning a spiked green crown made of gold with a greenish-blue gem in the center. Inside the crown are large plumes of green lightning. Everyone looked at him and saw the static coming from the lightning on top of him.

"Hey! This looks cool! I think I've gotten the Plasma ability!" Chopper surrounded himself with an electric shield, making a couple of sparks travel through the ground and shock some of the heroes.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Luigi cried.

"I guess you can say that was a shocking experience!" Chopper smiled, making everyone face palm.

"I was hoping you wouldn't make a bad pun on that…" Blade groaned.

"That's worse than this one pun I heard!" Sonic agreed.

"Hey! At least I made a pun about it!"

Mario: Let's just go already…

Chopper shrugged and charged up a Speed Dash and took off – only for a short amount of time, simply because he stopped when he saw a little spring that had a red light emitting from it. When they all jumped on it, they were launched up to a little tunnel in the wall. The ground in here had those yellow, orange and red glowing lines inside and there were a couple of small purple blocks in the room.

Of course… They were stopped by some kind of green light that blocked their way.

"Poyo? (What's this?)" Kirby asked.

"Hold on, let me check in 3-D," Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. The whole pathway was being blocked by this barrier. "What the heck IS this thing?! Is it meant to block the way?!"

_"This barrier is designed to prevent intruders from progressing," _Timpani informed. _"However, you should be able to break it easily with one of your attacks. Just three hits and you're good."_

Chopper shrugged and hit the barrier once with his hammer, making it change to a yellow color. Blade swung his katana at it next, causing it to change green. Chopper simply destroyed it by using his Plasma Needle on it.

"You better not use that spark shield with us around…" Luigi warned.

"Dude, relax. I'm not going to do that…" Chopper assured as they set foot into the tunnel. There were two Computer Drones flying around and firing sparks, but Kirby managed to inhale one and spit it at the other, destroying them both. They also ended up coming across a couple of lasers that were moving left and right.

"Poyo… (And this brings me back to Merlee's Mansion…)" Kirby recalled.

"So are we supposed to use that Slim guy that we have with us?" Blade asked.

"Yeah, we need him. It'll sure make us slim, right?" Chopper snickered.

"_**NO! NO MORE BAD PUNS!**_"

"Calm down, Blade! I'm just having some fun! Sheesh!" Chopper used Slim to turn himself sideways, as well as everyone else. They stood still until the lasers passed them in order to go through the end of the tunnel and over to more purple cubes with those light blue frames. Only this time, they were acting as moving platforms to reach the edge of the floor up ahead.

"Some of these look tough to reach. I should be able to reach some of them!" Luigi announced as he used his Super Jump to reach one that moved too high for some of the people to reach. When it lowered a bit, everyone managed to get on.

Mario: Kind of an interesting world, now that I think about it…

"Yeah, this place is pretty cool," Sonic agreed as he spin jumped over to the next platform. Chopper just BARELY made it to the next platform. He simply grumbled as he ended up getting (unintentionally) stomped by Mario.

"Man… I wish I could float around or jump to such incredible heights. DANG YOU, DIMENTIO!" Chopper grumbled.

"What? Why are you blaming Dimentio?" Luigi asked.

"He's the reason why my Master Gloves and Master Shoes are gone. I wish I was able to kick him again for all of the crap he's put us through. And it's HIS fault I even met that obsessive Nimbi girl in the first place!"

"Oh… Heh heh! Luvbi, right?" Blade snickered.

"Well, I don't think you'd like her to be around here…"

"Yeah, you make a good point."

After making their way to the last platform, they reached the edge of the upper ground up ahead. They noticed that there were two yellow diamond-like enemies firing some sparks towards them.

"What in the world is that?" Sonic asked. Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate the mysterious enemy.

_"This is a Security Drone. These are another type of enemy that are meant to ward off intruders, like the Computernoids. Max HP is ?. Attack is 10. Defense is ?. Every time you attack the Security Drone, it'll split up. When they split into a green color, that's when you're able to destroy it completely. They may not be as tough as you think, but jumping on it will only making you take damage instead." _Timpani informed.

_"So don't try jumping on it," _suggested Blumiere.

"Maybe this'll do something," Chopper fired a Plasma Needle at the yellow Security Drone, causing it to split into two green Security Drones. Luigi's Super Jump was able to destroy the first one, while Mario's hammer defeated the other.

Mario: Why are we fighting things that protect cyberspace?

"Well they're the ones attacking us," Sonic responded. "If they knew that we weren't bad guys, then they wouldn't hurt us. Now, about those Vironoids we've been hearing about… They're probably the bad guys."

They simply walked over to the door ahead and entered into an area where they were still standing on the weird ground, but there was a big step they had to jump to reach an upper part of the ground. There also happened to be some Computer Drones floating around here as well.

"Honestly, the Computer Drones remind me a bit of those weird enemies back in the Labyrinth Zone…" Sonic recalled. "Although, these guys aren't as hard to hit."

"Hold on, I'm gonna try something," Chopper began to run in place for a couple of seconds, causing the static on him to become even greater. When he was surrounded in some kind of spark shield, the Computer Drone got electrocuted when it flew closer to him.

"Well that's interesting… When you have that spark shield up, anything that gets close can't hurt you…" Luigi commented.

"Just watch this!" Chopper fired a fully charged plasma shot at the Computer Drone, wiping it out completely. This allowed them to progress over to the upper part of the ground and over to a bottomless pit up ahead. It didn't look like they could really do much.

"Poyo? (Hold on, what's that?)" Kirby pointed to a green beam of light that seemed to be going up and down. "Poyo? (Maybe we can use this beam of light to move up or down?)"

"Whatever this is, it might be able to help us," Blade grabbed a hold of the beam of light and began to slide down after Chopper flipped everyone into 3-D to get to it. They all followed Blade down the beam of light after going back into 2-D.

"I wonder what could be down here…" wondered Luigi.

"Oh, I see something," Blade jumped down to the platform and saw a chest. When he opened it, an Ultimate Shroom Shake was revealed to be inside. He took it and put it away for safe keepings.

"Man, I love that we're getting the good stuff."

"Yeah, we sure are," Luigi nodded, accidentally touching the plume of lightning on Chopper's head, causing him to get electrocuted.

"Whoa! Are you all right, Luigi?" Chopper asked.

"That REALLY hurt!"

"Well, I guess you can say that was a…"

"Don't even say it…" Sonic warned.

"Fine…" Chopper let out a groan as he began to climb up the green beam of light. It really wasn't as easy as sliding down it, that's for sure. Everyone followed him until they passed the ground that they stood on previously and continued upward.

"You know… Since this is kind of where the internet is… Do you think it's possibly to go to people's computers and access their profiles?" Blade questioned. "I'm just wondering because maybe Bang is on my computer…"

"Who's Bang?" Luigi asked.

"You know, that yellow Chihuahua that was at that so-called 'party' that Tipral invited us to? Yeah. That's him. He's kind of stupid and tends to get hurt once in a while. I'm starting to think he's gonna use my computer, 'cause he always breaks into my house to check what's on there."

"What does he check?" Chopper asked.

"Errrrr… Something that you probably should know when you're older."

"Oh, don't tell me it's THAT kind of discussion, right? The one where I'm not allowed to listen to any of it? Come on! Why can't you just tell me what he would be looking up! I'm actually kind of curious."

"It would probably be too disgusting for you."

"Really? Well… I suppose I shouldn't hear about it then."

"Poyo… (I have no idea what you people are talking about…)" Kirby commented as they made it to the top. There was another moving cube, but there also happened to be these weird green balls between the cube.

_"If you jump on that, you'll simply bounce off," _Timpani informed. _"It's more risky to use those, in my opinion."_

"I guess that's fine with me," Luigi used his Super Jump to reach the cube past one of the green balls and landed right on top of the cube. When it slowly came down, the rest jumped on it and then over to the next cyberspace platform where a door was and entered through.

When they walked out of the door, they saw another road, but this one only ended with some kind of red hexagon-shaped pad on the ground. There were a couple of weird orange armored troopers with jetpacks and blue visors flying around. They seemed to be carrying some strange weapons too.

"Whoa… Who are those guys?" Chopper gaped.

"I think those might be the Computernoids…" Luigi gulped.

When the Computernoids turned their heads, they saw the heroes. They immediately aimed at them and prepared to fire.

_"Hold your fire! These aren't Vironoids!" _a female voice ordered. All of the Computernoids lowered their weapons and hovered to the ground.

"Whew! At least someone understands that we're not Vironoids!" Sonic said, sighing in relief.

"Errrrmmm… Sorry 'bout that." the leader of the Computernoids apologized. "We've been finding a lot of Vironoids around here often. We kind of…mistook you for them, I suppose."

"Who are you?" Chopper asked.

"Why, I'm Colonel Disk! I lead some of these Computernoids out into battle! We were just trying to find some Vironoids that were out in our territory." the colonel explained. "But… There's only one question that remains… Who are you?"

"We're the heroes of the prophecy!" Blade announced.

"The heroes of the what?"

"Dang… I guess they don't know anything about the Pure Heart and the prophecy…" Sonic frowned.

_"Pure Heart? Prophecy? Of course we know that!" _a computer screen in Colonel Disk's hands opened up and showed a red Computernoid girl with orange hair and yellow eyes and orange armor.

"Whoa… That's a pretty digital lady…" Luigi commented.

_"My name's Luna. I'm one of the supervisors of the Computernoids. Basically, I watch their every movement and can tell if they're in danger or not. From what I see, you're definitely not Vironoids."_

_"What are these Vironoids you speak of?" _Timpani asked.

_"Vironoids are these viruses that try to infect cyberspace and are even planning on destroying it. It is our jobs as Computernoids to stop them from destroying cyberspace. And about the Pure Heart… They're the ones that hold it. Well, it's more like their leader that holds it."_

"A Vironoid leader? Well that's interesting." Sonic commented.

_"Yeah, but getting to the leader won't be easy. His tower is guarded by four other towers. Though… I think it's better that we discuss this in person at our base. It's much safer there than it is here."_

"You heard the lady! We better get these heroes of the whatever-the-heck-it-is to our headquarters!" Colonel Disk announced. "So let's get out there and kick some Vironoid ass! …And quit picking your holes, C-74!"

"Aw, come on!"

"Uhhhh… I have no idea what he just said…" Chopper trailed.

_"Now isn't the time to be thinking about those details. We need to follow them to the base!" _Timpani suggested until a digitalized red alien-like enemy with two glowing orange eyes, three arms on each side of its body and tough, orange armor that looked tough to pierce through.

"Heads up! If any of those shots get you, you'll be infected! It could even turn you into a Vironoid!" Colonel Disk warned.

"What?" Luigi ended up getting struck by one of the Vironoid's blasts of energy, causing it to cackle as Luigi began to slowly drift around.

Mario: I've got you, Luigi!

Mario played a song from Piccolo to cure Luigi of the infection. With that, he walked over to the Vironoid and threw Bonjourang at it, followed by his Cyclone attack, destroying it instantly.

"Wait… How did you manage to heal yourself of that infection?" Colonel Disk gaped.

"Honestly… I don't know. I think my bro did something about that…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: I used Piccolo.

"Hmmmmm… That weird musical note thing you've got with you?" Colonel Disk poked Piccolo, causing her to flutter away from him. "Well that's very interesting! So this thing can cure us of any infections! …You better bring her over to the base, 'cause we've got some infected soldiers there!"

"Well… I guess that's not a bad idea…" Chopper trailed.

"But first, you have to go through that light-speed circuit first."

"What's a light-speed circuit?" Blade asked.

_"A light-speed circuit allows your body to be transmitted as electron particles if you ever step onto a pad shaped like a hexagon. With them, you can travel quickly through this world. It makes you go faster than the speed of sound." _Luna explained.

"Whoa… Now that's pretty cool." Sonic gaped.

_"However, you might to be careful of a couple of things. You see, you're not going to find that much if your body is transmitted through the circuit in the second dimension. Usually it's quite difficult for us to get past them. If you manage to go into the third dimension, however… You might be able to see what else is around. Watch out for firewalls too. Those were things we designed to ward off intruders such as Vironoids. If you manage to make it to our headquarters, then we'll explain what the mission is."_

"You heard the lady! Get in that light-speed circuit!" Colonel Disk ordered.

"You're not our officer…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh… Then you should try getting to her if you want to get whatever the heck you're looking for…"

"All right, then I suppose we need to go into 3-D if we're going to go through that light-speed circuit, am I correct?" Blade asked, looking at the heroes, who instantly gave him a nod in approval.

"Well, then we better go into 3-D," Chopper grabbed Kirby's arm, who then grabbed Sonic's. The chain kind of started with Chopper and ended with Luigi. With that, they stepped on the pad and were suddenly transmitted through the light-speed circuit at intense speeds.

"Ack! I think I'm going to be sick!" Luigi cried.

Mario: Please don't vomit…

"WOO! This is pretty cool!" Chopper cheered as he flipped into 3-D. He clenched his fists as he moved to the left to avoid a firewall that was up ahead. "Man! This is almost like flying with my super form!"

"Super form?" Luigi gawked.

"Uhhhhh… Yeah, it's kind of hard to explain. I don't think I can even transform into that now. Last time I remember, I transformed into that when I fought Perfect Staris and Maquano… Those fights were intense."

"Poyo, (And I remember that big fight,)" Kirby recalled as they ended up running straight into a firewall. They took some massive damage, but they were lucky enough to survive the firewall.

"Dude! You're getting too distracted!" Blade hissed.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to be like that…" Chopper apologized, avoiding another firewall that was coming up. They took a way to the right until they traveled through a little loop and then up to a large purple cube platform where the light-speed circuit ended. They all fell to the ground right next to the door.

"Well that was one heck of an experience, wasn't it?" Sonic asked as he got up.

"Ughh… I don't feel so good…" Luigi moaned as he held his stomach in pain. "I think I'm gonna be sick again…"

"Poyo, (Well at least we have the door,)" Kirby said as he dragged Luigi over to the door. They all headed through and into an area where they were standing on another large purple cube, but reaching the next one… Well, it didn't look like it was easy.

"Wait… How are we supposed to get over to that door ahead?" Blade gaped angrily. "It's too high and too far!"

Mario took a couple of steps to the edge of the cube and noticed a couple of green glowing platforms appearing right in front of them. They weren't too small, but they looked like only one person could fit on it.

Mario: Well this works!

"Ooh! It glows!" Chopper gaped as he followed Mario up the glowing platforms. "Ummmmm… Not to break the mood or anything… But what happens if we fall off this platform?"

_"Well, if you end up falling, there IS a way that I can teleport you back up. But you'll still take some damage before bringing you back." _Timpani informed. _"Honestly, I don't recommend doing it at all."_

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Chopper nodded as he jumped to the next glowing platform until they all reached the next large cube platform. A door was there, so they simply entered through.

"Man… This place is definitely strange…" Sonic commented as they walked into the next area. They saw that the slope was moving down and over to a ramp, which seemed to lead up to…nothing really.

"Maybe we'll see those platforms appear?" Luigi wondered.

"Well, they better be…" Chopper trailed as he charged a Speed Dash and took off down the slope. When he jumped off the ramp, he surprisingly landed on a glowing green platform. Although… His impact on it was rather hard and made it turn into a yellow color.

"Wait a second… This works just like that barrier?!"

_"I believe it does… You might want to be careful…" _Blumiere warned.

"Crud… Well this isn't going to be great for me…" Chopper jumped over to the next platform, but he tried his best not to deal any damage to it in any way. Sonic was the one to come next, using a Spin Dash to land on the yellow platform. However, that made it turn red.

"What the… Why is the platform red?" Sonic asked.

"That means if someone hits it too hard, it's going to break…"

"Uh oh… That's not good!" the blue hedgehog jumped to the next platform while Chopper jumped to another. Luckily, there happened to be ground just up ahead, but there were a couple of Vironoids there.

Luckily, the rest of the group managed to get over the ramp and land on the platforms without destroying the red one. When they finally reached the ground, three Vironoids happened to notice their arrival.

"More Vironoids?" Luigi yelped, causing the Vironoids to take notice of them. They immediately fired missiles from their backside at them, sending them all flying near the edge of the floor.

"Whoa! What was that? !" Blade gaped as the Vironoids snickered.

"They sure have some impressive moves…" Sonic commented.

"Yeah, I know… Since when can viruses use MISSILES?!" Chopper held Starbow up and made stars rain down on the Vironoids. However, that wasn't enough to kill them. But, when Luigi threw Bonjourang at them that ended up defeating them.

"Whoa! I can't believe Bonjourang managed to defeat them!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: That's a good thing!

"Now let's press on, all right?" Chopper ran on ahead, only to find a wall right in front of them. He groaned as he flipped into 3-D to find some green glowing platforms heading down to a lower part of the area.

He went back into 2-D and helped his friends through this mess and went down to the lower level. But, this time they had to be careful with platforming because if they broke a platform, they would be screwed.

"Poyo! (I can just float over these platforms!)" Kirby said cheerfully as he took in some air and began to float over the platforms and over the bottomless pit. "Poyo. (Be careful, though.)"

"Well thanks for that…" Chopper responded with an annoyed look. "Too bad WE can't fly…"

"Well, what can we do about it?" Blade ninja jumped on the platforms to reach a beam of light that was heading down. Everyone followed him by sliding down the beam of light as well until they reached a green floating platform with a door.

"Yes! Let's go through here!" Luigi demanded as he jumped off the pole and entered into the next area ahead. Everyone followed him and they were led into an area where they were on that normal cyberspace ground described in the beginning, but with another light-speed circuit pad right in front of them.

"Gee, I wonder where those Computernoid guys are…" Sonic wondered.

"I wonder if any Vironoids…" Chopper's thoughts were interrupted when he saw two Vironoids use the light-speed circuit to travel through. "Oh… Well I guess that answers my question right there!"

Mario: I guess we have to follow them.

"Only if we're going to go the right way," They did the same thing as before and grab each other's arms, because grabbing someone's hand to them felt a bit…awkward. Nevertheless, they stepped on the pad and were transmitted through the circuit at incredible speeds.

"Woo hoo! Now this is something!" Chopper said cheerfully as he followed the two Virnoids through the circuit.

_"Try not to lose them. There might be a chance that they could lead us to the right direction." _Timpani informed. _"Although… If you end up losing them, you might have to find a way to come back here…"_

"And how is that possible?" Unfortunately for Chopper, he ended up taking a different way instead and ended up hitting a firewall and also ended the circuit on some solid ground. A cyberspace portal was right in front of them as they all fell to the ground.

"Ughhhh… That was it?" Sonic moaned as he got up.

"No, it shouldn't be…" Chopper got back up and looked at the portal. "So… Where do you think this goes?"

_"Just like my dear Timpani said, you'll end up going to the beginning of this place," _Blumiere reminded.

"Dang…" With that, they all headed into the portal.

* * *

**Near the light-speed circuit pad-**

"Whoa… We were brought back here?" Luigi gaped as they all landed on the ground – except for Chopper, who fell flat on his face for some reason.

"Ow… This isn't the kind of thing that I wanted to occur…" Chopper slowly got up and walked over to the light-speed circuit pad. Hopefully THIS time they would be able to catch those Vironoids. At least… They hope that they can find them.

"So… Where do you think they could be?" Blade asked.

"Well we're gonna find out," Chopper stepped on the pad and they were all instantly transmitted through it. Chopper flipped into 3-D just to make sure they can see what was around. Thankfully, the two Vironoids were back at the beginning, so it wasn't a big deal for them.

"And watch out for those firewalls as well," Sonic reminded as Chopper took the path to the left, which the Vironoids were going. "'Cause when you ran into one, we ended up getting lost and even got hurt."

Mario: We'll play it safe!

"Poyo… (I don't know what that means…)" Kirby trailed as they dodged another firewall and began to catch up to the two Vironoids a little bit. Both of them looked back and noticed them getting closer. This was when they tried to pick up some speed, but, of course, it didn't help them in any way.

"HA! You can't go any faster than us! Take that, Vironoids!" Chopper, despite being transmitted through the circuit, fired some Plasma Needles at the Vironoids. They got shocked a bit, but it wasn't enough to take them down.

"Poyo? (Do these guys even speak?)"

"Honestly, I have no clue… I guess they're just some sort of virus that can make some kind of parasite that infects you." Chopper shrugged as he tried firing more Plasma Needles. Unfortunately, since the Plasma Needle is such a short range, he couldn't even hit the Vironoids.

"Dude, let's just take care of them when we get off this circuit," Blade suggested as the circuit went around a cube platform. Up ahead, they happened to notice the circuit ending on a red platform. The Vironoids got there first, but when the heroes jumped out of the circuit, the Vironoids started to spit out their blasts of viral energy straight at them.

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic held Reflecto up and deflected the viral attack back at the Vironoids. They jumped out of the way, trying to avoid getting hurt, but when Chopper moved enough times, he was surrounded in some sort of electric aura shield.

"Just try and hit me!" he smirked as the Vironoids charged at him and got knocked back by the electrocution. In fact, they were both paralyzed, allowing Chopper to fire his most powerful plasma barrier: the Plasma Wave.

"Poyo, (Now that's one powerful attack,)" Kirby commented.

"Well, you HAVE used this before, haven't you?"

"Poyo! (Yeah, I definitely have. It's pretty nice!)"

"Ummmmm… Now to interrupt or anything, but how do we move on?" Luigi asked. "The only thing I can see around here is a red platform that we're standing on. Is there a way out?"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that too…" Sonic trailed.

_"I believe there might be something hidden here," _Timpani informed. Chopper shrugged and used her wand to investigate for what's around. Surprisingly, there happened to be a blue ! block off at the distance.

"Is this what you were talking about?" Chopper asked.

Mario: I think it is the one.

After Timpani revealed the block, Luigi immediately grabbed Bonjourang and threw him at the block, triggering two moving purple cubes to appeared. Of course, these cubes were moving around.

"Why is it that I've become useless now?" Thoreau asked himself. "Back then, I was used often… Now I've been ignored."

"Well… Maybe we'll find something that requires you to be used." Chopper assured, patting the hand Pixl.

"Yeah, I'm sure we will!" Blade agreed.

"Yes, zere might be a time where you are needed!" Bonjourang assured as well.

"All right, I think we don't need to say it anymore," Chopper jumped to the cube and then reached the next one when it was close. Luigi simply used a Super Jump to reach the cubes, while Blade simply used his ninja jumps to get across.

"Man, there sure is a lot of jumping here," Sonic realized as they reached a red platform that had a door. "How come we don't see much running?"

"Maybe because you guys ran enough for the time?" Luigi pondered as they entered the next area. They saw that there was another little tunnel up a couple of steps like they've seen before.

"Oh… This isn't exactly original." Chopper ran up to the wall where the tunnel was up above, but there didn't appear to be any switch. Even in 3-D there wasn't anything around, which was weird.

"Well… I guess Tippi's gotta help us." he pulled Timpani's wand out and began to search the area for anything hidden. The only thing he encountered was a nice green beam of light.

_"There's something here… Let me make it visible for you." _Timpani suggested as the beam of light was now visible.

"Ah! Now we can climb this!" Luigi smiled as he was the first to climb the beam of light. When he reached the top, he noticed that near the edge of the floor a green barrier appeared right in front of him, making him yelp.

Mario: Calm down, Luigi. It's just a barrier.

"Th-That's not what I'm scared of!" he stammered, pointing at a couple of Dark Soldiers wearing black and purple armor. They already destroyed two Vironoids that were attacking them.

Mario: What are they?

"Uh oh… Dark Creatures." Chopper gulped. "I didn't expect THESE guys to be around here…"

"So what's the plan then?" Sonic asked after Chopper identified the Dark Soldiers as Super Dark Soldiers (yeah, very original).

"Wow… These guys are strong. They've got about 65 HP, an Attack of 12 and a Defense of 4. I think we ought to be careful with those guys…" Chopper warned as he punched the green barrier with ice energy. "Luckily I have ice with me, so that can help!"

"Poyo? (What about plasma?)" Kirby questioned.

"Oh… I'll use that too!" Chopper began to run in place, creating an electric barrier around him. The Super Dark Swordsman happened to spot him and immediately charged at them. Since the barrier was yellow, there was no way that it could attack.

"The heroes are here! Get them!" it roared.

It swung its sword at the barrier, changing it to a red color. When Blade swung his katana at it, the barrier shattered, allowing the Dark Creatures to fire at them.

…But not without being blasted by Chopper's Plasma Wave attack. It knocked them back, but it didn't kill them. It left them with dangerously low HP, though.

"How do we beat these guys?" Luigi asked.

"Try something that'll work," suggested Chopper.

"All right…" the green plumber dodged the first Super Dark Soldier's blast and stomped on him. He finished it off with his Cyclone attack, making it disintegrate into smoke. Mario took care of the other Super Dark Soldier by bashing it with his hammer. Nothing more, nothing less.

"I've got the swordsman!" Blade grinned as he swung his katana at the Super Dark Swordsman. It blocked his attack, but he managed to use a hurricane slash to knock it back a bit and kick him down at a certain angle. While it was stunned, he finished it off by stabbing it in the chest.

"Wait… Is that even allowed?" Chopper gawked.

"Uhhhh… This story is rated T you know…"

"T for Tamber, I guess…"

"T for Tamber? Where'd that idea come from?" Luigi gawked.

"Blame a certain friend I know… That is, if he's still my friend." Chopper pondered, remembering Tamber for a bit.

"Poyo, (Or rated T for Tipral,)" Kirby added.

"Yeah, T for Tipral works too."

"Hold on… I don't understand… How did you meet Tipral at first?" Blade asked. "'Cause I don't think you've ever told us why Tipral hates mostly you for some reason. Something you did to him?"

"Well… It's kind of a long story." Chopper cleared his throat as he prepared to explain. "You see… I first met Tipral in a place called the Dark Steeple deep in the dark woods of Twilight Trail. He was actually turning people into pigs to get revenge on them for throwing him out of town. So, I decided to help the villagers and stop him. …And it was quite surprising that he looked just like ME. So… My party members and I defeated him, but he had some sort of power that made me switch bodies with him. It was very uncomfortable, and there was no way I could defeat him without guessing his name. Luckily I managed to get help from a shadow being named Shadower and managed to find his name and defeat him. It was a good victory, I'll say that. Plus, I got my name and body back too!"

"Huh… I never knew that." Luigi said as he blinked. "Is that all you did to him, though?"

"Oh, there's a lot more! I destroyed his parents, which were the Shadow King and Queen and also destroyed Maquano! …At the process of sending him to another dimension, that is…"

"You killed his parents?!" Blade gaped.

"Hey! They were trying to kill me! I did it for the world!"

"Poyo, (But he was always angry when we first saw him,)" Kirby mentioned.

"Uhhhhh… That's nice and all, but shouldn't we be going?" Sonic pointed to the red Security Drone floating towards them. "Plus, we have that to worry about."

Sonic decided to make his move by attacking the Security Drone with a Homing Attack. It ended up splitting into two yellow Security Drones. After hitting both of them, there were now four green Security Drones.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby used his incredibly inhaling abilities to inhale all four of them at once and swallow them. This ended up giving him the Needle ability somehow, which was a plus.

"Well that works," Chopper smiled as he ran over to the door ahead. It led into another flat area, but with a couple of bottomless pits and even some Vironoids. He, of course, fired a fully charged Plasma Wave at them when he had the chance. Kirby took care of some with his Needle ability by firing some needles at the enemies (yes, it's possibly to fire needles).

Mario: I guess they're silent…

"Yeah, I suppose so," Luigi nodded as he jumped over a couple of bottomless pits. When they reached the end of the road, they saw that the next beam of light they had to climb to reach the door was too high for them to reach.

"Dang… It's too high." Chopper frowned.

"Not for me!" the green plumber launched himself up to the beam of light and grabbed a hold of it. With this, Mario grabbed a hold of Luigi's legs, whose legs were soon grabbed by Sonic's, then Blade's, then Kirby's and then Chopper grabbed a hold of Kirby's.

"Wow… This is weird…" Sonic commented.

"Not as awkward as going on top of Carrie," Chopper reminded.

"Poyo… (Don't remind me…)" Kirby shuddered as Luigi climbed high enough for everyone to grab a hold of the beam of light. When they got to the door, they headed into the next area, where they saw one more light-speed circuit.

"More of these? Geez! When will we ever stop with these?!" Blade exclaimed.

"Hey! You guys made it!" Colonel Disk was waving to the heroes as he flew above the circuit. "Just take this circuit through here and you'll reach our headquarters! It's not too long!"

"Whew! We finally made it then!" Sonic smiled.

"All right, men! Let's go!" With that, the Computernoids took off, leaving the heroes to use the light-speed circuit pad.

"Shall we?" Chopper looked over to his friends, who gave him a nod. "Excellent!"

With that, they used the light-speed circuit pad to transfer themselves across the huge gap and over to the next red platform. And, luckily, there happened to be a Star Block waiting for them!

"I'll admit, this place was pretty cool!" Sonic commented as they walked over to the Star Block. "I could get used to this world…"

"Yeah, I like it too," Chopper smiled as he punched the Star Block and made the twenty stars pop out. "I just wonder what their base is going to look like…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the news of the Vironoids and their deadly viruses that they're spreading, our heroes knew that cyberspace wasn't all safe and sound. Not only that, but the Vironoid leader has the Pure Heart that they need! With the assistance of Luna, Colonel Disk and the Computernoids, Chopper and his friends hope that their help is worth the effort for the Pure Heart and the safety of cyberspace…_

* * *

**Yeah, this is a cool world, I'll admit. I've always liked seeing a cyberspace world. I guess those two levels in Shadow the Hedgehog and that one world in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts made me think about these kinds of worlds more (which is weird, considering that I don't really like those two games that much :o)**_._

**Next up: Our heroes get to see what the Computernoid base is like and what actually goes around in cyberspace as well.**_  
_


	83. Three Virtual Worlds

**CHAPTER 14-2**

**-Three Virtual Worlds-**

"Wow… That's one big base…" Chopper gaped as he looked at the large, red base up ahead.

"That's what she said…" Blade whispered to himself so no one could hear him.

Our heroes were just finished with exploring most of this digital world. Ever since they met the Computernoids, they've run into some trouble with a couple of Vironoids. Heck, even along the way here, they've ran into a couple of them as well! The whole background hasn't changed that much. The only thing that would be different is that the whole background was a bit red with a couple of bright blue, orange and yellow lights in the background. It's almost if they're at some sort of party with many lights. The only other thing was that there were still a couple of light purple pillars with those purple cubes. Of course, they weren't interfering with 2-D.

"Well, I guess we're finally at the base," Sonic announced, despite everyone already knowing that. "I can't believe we've traveled that whole way to make it over here! Let's hope that the stuff in the base is interesting! …Actually, I hope that the Computernoids are very friendly. That Luna girl was friendly, that's for sure."

"And I'll admit, she was actually kind of pretty as well," Luigi added.

Mario: What about Daisy?

"Well what about Peach?" Both brothers sweat dropped, realizing that they both had each other beat. "Errr… Let's forget about that, all right? I think we should just move on from here and forget what we just spoke about…"

"Poyo? (Should we just head in now?)" Unfortunately for Kirby, everyone already seemed to run on ahead. The pink…I mean yellow puffball (remember, he still has the Needle ability on him) followed his friends with his stubby orange feet.

"Poyo… (I always have to get left behind sometimes…)"

When they all reached the front entrance, they saw that there was a large C on the front door. It was glowing a yellow color, but it didn't really matter to them that much. A simple knock was all they needed before being scanned.

_"Hold still. Who are you people?" _a computerized voice asked. It sounded sort of…strange. _"You don't look like any kind of Computernoid. Is my system malfunctioning? Or have I been having too much sand cake?"_

"What's this computer talking about?" Chopper whispered.

_"Never mind. I have news that six people would arrive. So, please… Enter at your own will…INSERT NAME HERE." _With that, the door slowly opened and everyone walked inside. While it was red on the outside, the inside was more of a lighter red color. There happened to be some sort of yellow camera-like robot that was watching them enter the building.

"Why do I get a sudden vibe that that machine is something that's so…weird?" Blade asked.

Mario: I have no idea…

"I don't get what you just said…" Chopper trailed as they simply walked through the small hallway to the red door ahead. "That computer is weird? It kind of sounds like it was kind of…deadly."

"Well let's just stop questioning a computer and find Luna," Sonic suggested. "She wanted us to go see her."

They walked through the door ahead and entered a room with some small steps going down. There were also a couple of terminals where some Computernoids were working at. They didn't seem to notice them walk in, but they probably didn't care because of how busy they were.

"Hmmmmm… Well, I guess this place is kind of interesting." Luigi pondered as they took a couple of steps. However, the computer camera came down from the ceiling and got right in front of Luigi, making him yelp.

_"May I interest you in my cake recipe?" _it asked, despite having a female voice.

"_**WAH!**_ Y-You surprised me!"

"OK, computer thing… I think you've already seen us already…" Chopper said as he pushed the computer camera out of the way. He saw that this thing's name was actually NaDis. Kind of a weird name, considering the capital D in its name.

"What kind of name is NaDis?" Blade questioned.

_"NaDis? That is my name." _NaDis introduced. _"I am a super computer that is capable of knowing many things. My purpose is to find information from the Vironoids and give the information to the Computernoids. May I take you to the bridge, INSERT NAME HERE?"_

"Th-Thanks for the offer, but I think we're g-good…" Luigi stammered as he and the rest of the group walked away from NaDis. Its eye began to glow a red color as they headed through the door.

_"That's OK. Not all people need my help. Maybe next time someone comes here, I will offer for some help. Results of help NaDis has done: zero. This isn't good." _NaDis's monologue went on as it retreated back into the ceiling.

* * *

**Next room-**

"Wow… Now this is interesting!" Sonic gaped as he saw a staircase up ahead that acted like a light-speed circuit. "Man! These Computernoids know how to get from place to place with those!"

"Let's take a look, then!" Chopper smiled as he stepped on the pad and was transported all the way to the top of the stairs. Unfortunately… The door happened to be locked, which wasn't good.

"Oh, come on! …Well this stinks." he took the circuit back down the stairs and explained to his friends about the locked door.

"Then we should just have to take the other way," Sonic smirked as he pointed at the other pad. Chopper simply went into 3-D so they could all reach it and were soon transported through the light-speed circuit.

"Poyo? (How long will this be?)" Kirby asked.

No one could really answer his question because of how distracted they were. There weren't any other paths on the circuit, but it didn't matter much. When they went through the small tunnel in the circuit, they were launched up to a small little room where the door was.

"I guess we can go through here…" Blade trailed as he poked the door. "All right, I think it's safe for us to head through."

"WHY were you even poking the door in the first place?" Chopper asked.

"To make sure it's safe!"

"Ummmmm… OK. That's weird, but all right." Sonic opened the door into another room. This time, they saw a control room of some sort here. Luna happened to be having a little discussion with Colonel Disk. They didn't know what she was saying, but it was best not to get in their business.

"And make sure this time no troops are left behind," Luna warned.

"Yes, ma'am!" Colonel Disk saluted before bumping into the heroes when he tried leaving. "Whoops! Sorry 'bout that, hero people! Didn't see you there for a second! Sorry if I did anything to bother ya!"

"Poyo… (Ummmmm… Actually, you didn't…)" Kirby trailed, getting Luna's attention for a minute.

"Hold on a second… Are you guys here already?" Luna brought his head up and looked at the heroes. "Oh! It's nice to see that you're finally here! I was just waiting for you guys for a second!"

"Yeah, and we ended up speaking about that Pure Heart thingamajig," Colonel Disk added. "So you guys are collecting that item to save the universe? That's… Really interesting, but risky at the same time!"

"Yeah, we know it's risky, but we've got no choice," Chopper responded. "Say… Why is there some kind of computer machine thing by the entrance?"

"You mean NaDis? Oh, she's our computer. Sometimes she appeared right in your face for a second." Luna continued. "One time she scared someone so much that they had instantaneous sex change surgery."

"What?"

"From internally."

"…What is wrong with this world?!" Chopper gaped as he got down on his legs and looked up at the ceiling. "Who in their mind would make someone do something like that, despite me not knowing what it means? !"

"Wait… What?!" Luigi gaped as he jumped from surprise. "How is that even possible for something like that to happen?! I know I've seen people who can jump very high and all, but something like THAT?! Now I don't feel so good…"

Mario: Just don't think about it.

"Yeah, I thought some of you would react like that," Luna replied, trying not to laugh. "I'll admit, it was a funny scene. If you were there, you probably would've laughed or even cried."

"Poyo, (I wouldn't know how to respond,)" Kirby said with a blank look.

"Errrr… ANYWAY…" Chopper looked back at Luna, trying to change the topic. "About that Pure Heart… So how are we supposed to get to it? Did you make some sort of secret pathway that leads to Vironoid territory?"

"Actually, we DO have a secret passageway. However, if you're going to reach it, you'll need to travel through three virtual worlds. We can test to see if you're actually good enough to go against the Vironoid leader or not. If you want, NaDis can guide you through the virtual world if you want."

"I just don't want to get surprised by her again… If it's actually a her…" Luigi shivered. "I don't want my gender to change in an internal way!"

"Relax, Luigi… I highly doubt something like that would ever happen…" Chopper assured. "Although… I still don't understand what that means. But, I'd rather not know what it means…unless I ask Flyer."

_"I don't think he would know anything like that, since he's probably too young to know about that," _Timpani said.

"Then… What about Heartsy? She's about my age, and she's actually pretty smart."

_"You're going to ask a girl your age about something like that?" _Blumiere gawked. _"I don't think she would know anything like that… She's only a girl! It's better that you don't ask about that."_

"…Yeah, in that case, I think you guys should take this," Luna pulled a red key out and handed it to Chopper. "This is a Cyberspace Key. With it, you'll be able to access that locked door up those stairs."

"Ah! So that's what's behind that door!" Sonic said as his ears perked. "I suggested we get going then!"

* * *

**A moment later-**

"Yup, this is the door all right," Chopper confirmed as he pulled the key out. "With this, I think we'll be able to see what's through here! Hopefully we don't get any surprises or get surgery from internally!"

"OK! Enough with that already!" Blade snapped. "We've already heard you say something about that enough times! Just put the damn key in its door! All right?!"

"Sheesh… Someone's grumpy…" the young Star Warrior pulled out the Cyberspace Key and unlocked the door with it. They walked into a room with a light green floor and a white wall. It looked very strange to some of them, honestly…

"Say… I don't think I've seen a place like this!" Luigi gaped as he took one step…until NaDis came down from the ceiling and scared him. "WAH! Don't scare me like that! It's not good!"

_"My apologies. I was just taking a nap here until I heard some footsteps." _NaDis apologized. _"I was ordered by Luna to guide you through the three virtual worlds. I will not tell you what they are, but you should know that these worlds aren't real."_

"Yeah, we know that. No need to repeat those kinds of things over again…" Chopper sighed while folding his arms. "What's next? You're gonna teach us how to make cake?"

_"Maybe we can discuss cake after the tests. But now is not the time to be speaking about cake, INSERT NAME HERE. Please step into the glowing green floor. You'll be taken into a virtual world."_

A green glowing pad appeared in the center room. Everyone simply shrugged and stepped on it. Somehow, they were instantly teleported out of the room in a strange manner. Luigi was certainly the most scared of them all.

* * *

**Virtual world green-**

"Holy… What the heck is this?!" Chopper gaped as he looked down at the light green floor and the green background. "Why is this whole place so…weird? In fact, this floor looks kind of thin!"

"Poyo?! (What's that?!)" Kirby pointed at a square-shaped Chopper with square-shaped feet up ahead, along with a square-shaped Kirby. "Poyo! (It's…us! But… Without our abilities!)"

"What's going on here?!" Luigi cried.

Mario: Weird…

Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and began to investigate the two enemies that resembled both Chopper and Kirby. The results were rather…interesting to say the least.

_"That's a Chopper Virus. This is…a Vironoid version of Chopper? How strange… Max HP is 75. Attack is 11. For some reason, this Chopper Virus seems to have your kind of attacks… So be ready if you don't know how to fight your own self, Chopper. But even still… Why is there a Vironoid version of Chopper?"_

_"That's a Kirby Virus. This is…a Vironoid version of Kirby? This is rather strange… Max HP is 70. Attack is 10. Like Kirby himself, his attack is mainly by inhaling you and taking your ability… Be careful, though. If you're holding on to an ability and the Kirby Virus inhales you, you might just lose it… But even still… Why is there a Vironoid version of Kirby?"_

"Poyo… (I am incredibly disturbed by this…)" Kirby trailed as he fired a couple of needles from his helmet at the Kirby Virus. They all managed to hit it, but it didn't necessarily take it down.

The Kirby Virus prepared to inhale, but Chopper paralyzed it with a small Plasma Needle attack. The Chopper Virus, on the other hand, managed to bash him with his hammer somehow and then toss a fireball at him.

"Whoa!" Chopper defended himself with his hammer and then put up a spark shield to shock the Chopper Virus. It got shocked and was also knocked back. Kirby threw Crystaline at the Kirby Virus afterwards to freeze it and then finished it off by shooting more needles from his helmet at it.

"Poyo… (Well it's finally gone…)" Kirby said while sighing in relief.

"And this should finish this one," Chopper fired a Plasma Wave at the Chopper Virus, eliminating it with ease. With that, they all made their way down the slope and over to the green spring. They could see that there were also some Vironoid versions of Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi.

Mario: Sigh… There are Vironoids of us here?

_"This IS a virtual world, so they're not real," _Timpani reminded as Sonic got hit by the Sonic Virus's Homing Attack.

"Ow! Well, they don't seem so virtual to me…" Sonic grumbled as he got up and struck the Virus Sonic with a Spin Dash. "If this wasn't real, then its attack wouldn't have hurt me that much."

"Yeah, I kind of agree," Luigi said as he used his Cyclone attack to knock the Luigi Virus back. When it jumped up, he immediately knocked it out of the area with a Super Jump. Now all that was left was the Mario and Blade Virus.

Mario: This shouldn't be too hard!

The Mario Virus hit Mario in the head with a stomp attack and tried to hit him with his hammer. However, Mario jumped away and used Kickbrin to knock the Vironoid to the ground and bash it with his hammer. He quickly finished it off by using a Ground Pound.

"Well that's good! Now to finish this guy off!" Blade kicked the Blade Virus back and sliced at it a couple of times. It tried using shurikens to fight back but Blade spun his katana to deflect them and finish it off with a fire slash.

"Yup! That's how you do it!"

"Thank goodness that's over with…" Chopper sighed in relief as he walked up to the green door ahead and entered it, along with everyone else.

The next area they came across had two floating platforms that didn't seem to have a point except for having two yellow ? blocks. Kirby hit the one closest to him and a Super Shroom popped out. Blade sliced it into six pieces and they all ate their piece to recover 20 HP.

"Yummy! Man, do I love to eat these things!" Chopper smiled.

"Well, let's hope they're worth it," Luigi hoped as he finished his. He saw that there was a tunnel leading down in a curvy kind of way. It was almost as if Chopper or Sonic could simply run through it without falling off the ceiling or wall of the tunnel.

"Say, that looks kind of interesting," Sonic commented as he ran over to the tunnel. "Maybe we'll find something through here!"

Mario: Then… Let's go!

Chopper started off by running into the tunnel. It was rather big, so he didn't have to duck or anything. However, he found it a bit strange that he was running upside down in the tunnel at times.

Kirby decided to go next, but he ended up tumbling down the tunnel, so some of the others had to go help him. When they got out of the tunnel, they found some small steps leading to another door. Of course, there had to be a Chopper and Luigi Virus.

"Huh… Two green Vironoids…" Chopper commented, clenching his fist. He immediately shot a fireball towards the Chopper Virus, but it countered it with a simple ice ball.

"Dang… It sure knows how to fight."

Luigi simply threw Bonjourang at the Luigi Virus to leave it stunned and then hit it with his Cyclone. While it was up in the air, he finished it off with a Super Jump. Chopper, meanwhile, charged up some plasma and fired a Plasma Wave. He quickly finished it off by stomping on its head afterwards.

Mario: This is really weird…

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Sonic shrugged as they went up the small steps to the door. Upon entering, they were in an area with a small platform and a green button that was on the ground.

"Poyo? (What's this green button?)" Kirby questioned.

"Only one way to find out," Chopper stomped on the button, causing the whole virtual world to shake a bit. With that, they simply disappeared from the virtual world in a strange fashion…

* * *

**Green room-**

"HOLY MOLY PIZZAS ON A STICK!" was what everyone heard from Chopper's mouth as they were teleported back into the green room. "…What? We're fine? Nothing bad happened to us?"

"Well apparently not… But that surprised me a bit…" Luigi trailed.

_"How was the virtual world? Did you like it?" _NaDis asked as her camera came down from the ceiling. _"I created that world in order to test those who wish to go against the Vironoid leader. Congratulations. You've cleared the green room."_

"_There's more?" _Timpani gawked.

"_I did say that there are three worlds. You still have two more to venture through. Then we can finally allow you to go after the Vironoid leader and the Pure Heart."_

"…Wait a second, how do you know about the Pure Heart?" Blade asked, giving NaDis a suspicious look. "…I bet Luna already told you about it, huh? Well… There's not much we can do about it."

"_Please proceed," _NaDis made a green door appear right in front of them. They headed through into a room with a blue floor and a blue glowing pad on the ground. Sonic seemed a bit more interested now.

"Blue now! Well! This should be interesting!" he grinned.

"Then let's step on it!" Blade was the first to jumped onto the glowing floor, causing him to be teleported elsewhere in the place. Everyone else followed him through and were taken out into the next virtual world.

* * *

**Virtual world blue-**

When everyone was transported into this new world, they noticed that the background was a blue color and the platforms they were standing on were just like the ones from the other virtual world. Only this time, they were more of a light blue color instead of a light green color.

"Poyo? (This is a blue world?)" Kirby gawked as he looked around. "Poyo… (Well that explains the water…)"

"Oh, yeah… I didn't know there would be water here…" Chopper trailed as a Sonic Virus ran up the stairs and tried to attack Sonic with a Homing Attack. Sonic fought back by kicking his Vironoid self and then hitting it with a Homing Attack to knock it off the platforms.

_"Apparently you can only fight your own Vironoid self…" _Timpani informed after Chopper investigated the Sonic Virus. _"So if you ever see a Vironoid version of yourself, be prepared to fight it."_

"All right, that's fine with me," Blade said as he drew his katana and readied himself as he went down the steps. They noticed a small body of water up ahead. However, despite being shallow, there was no way they could jump across.

"Great… Just what I need… Water…" Sonic groaned as he tried to get across with a Homing Attack. Of course, since he couldn't get across, he sank into the water, but was easily able to get himself out of it.

"Poyo, (I have a better idea,)" Kirby smirked as he got on top of Carrie and began to float across the water with her. Sonic gave Kirby an irritated look as he jumped off of Carrie. Chopper, on the other hand, was able to run across the water with his Speed Dash.

"I don't know why I don't have that ability…"

"Well, you have the Spin Dash…" Chopper trailed as he managed to zap a Chopper Virus with his Spark Shield. While it was knocked back, he ran towards it and began to spin his hammer around horizontally.

Mario: Uh oh…

A Mario Virus jumped out of the water ahead and stomped on Mario's head. When he got up, he managed to hit the Mario Virus with his hammer and then give it a Ground Pound to defeat it with no problem.

"Wait… Did that thing just come out of the water?!" Sonic gaped as he saw more water up ahead.

"Yeah… More water. Nice." Blade frowned as he walked up ahead and looked down at it. "I can't believe we're in a virtual world where there's WATER. How does that even work here?!"

"Just stop complaining so we can go," Chopper groaned as he jumped into the water up ahead and landed in front of a Kirby Virus. It didn't seem to attack him for some odd reason. But it did go over to Kirby.

"Poyo? (Why is it going after me?)" Kirby asked.

"Maybe because it's your Vironoid?" Chopper watched as Kirby began to squirt water at the Kirby Virus. It was a long battle, but Kirby managed to remain victorious and swim out of the water when they saw a moving platform leading up.

Sonic was the first to take the platform and get out of the water, since he hates water the most. He hit a Sonic Virus with a Homing Attack on his way and also saw a loop just up ahead.

"Hey, I thought we'd never see a loop here!" he grinned.

"Then… How are we supposed to get through that when we don't have the kind of speed to pass those kinds of things?" Luigi asked before tumbling down the slope and hitting his head on the loop.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

Mario: *Face palm* Well this isn't good…

"Don't worry, I'll get him," Chopper assured as he ran down the loop, scooped up Luigi and went through the loop to a slope going up to a door. Everyone followed him and headed through the door ahead.

Now this area had a slope going down, but there was a pool ball that was a lot bigger than them right beside them. A couple of Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi Viruses were also coming up to them.

_"This isn't good… You might want to use that ball…" _suggested Timpani.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby grabbed a hold of the ball and pushed it down the slope, destroying all the Vironoids in the process. When it fell down into a round hole, they progressed on ahead to a little tunnel with a couple of virtual Thwomps coming down on the ground.

"They're a bit slow, so maybe we can get past them," Blade suggested.

"OR… We can do this!" Chopper flipped him and everyone else in 3-D and walked past the Thwomps. They jumped up onto the platform at the wall and took another tunnel above that previous tunnel and to the left. When they finally got out of the tunnel, they saw a floating platform that was too high to reach with a door.

"I got this!" Luigi crouched and then launched himself up into the air to reach the platform. Meanwhile, everyone else was forced to use the blue spring near them and enter through the next area.

And, believe it or not, they were actually in the last area of this place. All they saw was a large body of water up ahead, to Sonic's dismay.

"We actually have to go through that?!" he gaped.

"Oh, stop whining already, Sonic…" Blade groaned. "You KNOW that we have to go through water if we're going to save the universe. So… Please stop complaining and get this over with."

"Fine…" Sonic took a deep breath and jumped into the water. When he reached the bottom, he noticed that the floor was starting to fall, making him jump as much as he could. Not only that, but there were two Sonic Viruses he had to worry about.

"Heads up, Sonic! You might want to be careful here!" Chopper warned as he swam down and chucked some ice balls at two Chopper Viruses. He happened to see a blue button just up ahead too.

After Sonic cleared the two Vironoids, he made a dash for the button and jumped on top of it, making everyone teleport out of this virtual world for good.

* * *

**Blue room-**

_"So how was the trip? Did you find it enjoyable?" _NaDis asked as everyone was teleported back into the blue room. Sonic began breathing heavily due to being unable to breathe in the water in the blue virtual world.

"At last! AIR!" he cried.

_"I suppose you want me to open the door to the last test. Very well. But be warned, for this last test will probably be the toughest one yet." _a blue door was revealed and everyone walked into a room with a red floor instead of a blue. A glowing red pad was in the center of the room too.

"Ha HA! There we go! And it's even a red color!" Chopper commented.

Mario: Never knew there would be red.

"Well what are we gonna do about it, bro? This might actually be a bit easier than the other virtual worlds we've gone through!" Luigi assured…until he remembered what NaDis said. "Oh… I don't know about that now…"

"Well that's just her opinion. I think we'll be just fine." Sonic assured as he jumped into the next virtual world. Everyone shrugged and followed him through as well into the next virtual world.

* * *

**Virtual world red-**

"Wait a second… What's this?" Chopper noticed that they were all standing on a wide platform that was simply going up. "Is this it? This whole world is just us waiting on this platform here?"

When they all got a chance to look at the world, they saw that the background was a red color and the platforms were a lighter red color. Unfortunately, some Mario Viruses happened to land on the ground. Three of them, to be exact.

"Ohh… Well, good luck with this, Mario." Chopper gulped until he got bashed in the head by a Chopper Virus. "And what do you know? I have to deal with one of my own here! That's just great…"

"Poyo! (These clones are everywhere!)" Kirby cried as he protected himself with his needles. Two Kirby Viruses landed on top of him and took some intense damage, allowing Kirby to freeze them both with Crystaline. With one last needle attack, they were gone.

"Yeesh! This is annoying!" Luigi cried as he Super Jumped two Luigi Viruses that were about to stomp on him. He managed to knock them back towards the three Mario Viruses and allow Mario to bash the Vironoids with his hammer with ease. After four hits, they were gone.

"While you guys kick some ass, I'll just sit here minding my own business," Blade began to relax as Chopper managed to create a spark shield that damaged two Chopper Viruses around him. With two punches, he was able to knock them to the ground due to the electric energy in his fists.

"Too bad I can't use electric balls to fight these guys…" Chopper trailed as he finished them off by spinning his hammer around. That left only three Blade Viruses that kicked Blade in the crotch while he was sitting.

"HEY! Watch where you kick me!" Blade got up and somehow managed to slice the three Blade Viruses in half. No blood or guts even came out of them. They just simply disappeared. "Assholes."

"Errrr… Yeah. Great way to finish some enemies off there…" Chopper commented with an unimpressed look. "Especially with the language there."

"Well I don't give a flying f-"

"Anyway… We're getting close to the top, so we should be ready for anything."

When they reached the top, they found some rolling pool balls coming down the slope they had to move up. Chopper got hit by one of them and got his ability knocked away, much to his dismay.

"No! Not my Plasma ability!"

"Poyo… (Well, there's not much you can do about it now…)" Kirby sighed as he floated over the pool balls coming down. When Chopper got up, he flipped everyone into 3-D so that they could avoid the balls.

Now that they were out of that mess, they headed through the door into a room with some platforms that were moving up and down. The first row seemed to be going down, while the next row was going up.

"Oh! I remember seeing something like this back in Castle Tipral!" Chopper recalled. "All you have to do is just jump on these platforms and you'll be fine! …Just don't fall. That's a bad thing."

Mario: So this involves tricky platforming…

"Yeah, pretty much," the Star Warrior made the first jump onto the platform and then began to jump to the next one that was moving up. Mario went up next, jumping on the first platform going down and then the one going up.

_"Make sure you don't go too high," _Timpani warned. _"You're most likely going to get hurt if you're too high up."_

"Well keep that in mind," Sonic assured as he followed the rest of the group across the platforms. When they reached the platform with the red door, they headed through into an area with platforms that weren't moving.

"Oh, this is simple! Nothing too bad!" Chopper smiled.

_"Hold on… Those don't look like ordinary platforms…" _Blumiere realized as Chopper flashed Timpani's wand on the platforms. _"If you jump on those, they're most likely going to fall…"_

"Whoa… Well, now we're screwed, right?" Blade sweat dropped. "I guess we can end this chapter off here!"

**END OF—**

"NO! No no no no NO! Get rid of that!" Chopper shouted. "We're NOT ending it off right here! We just need to find some sort of strategy for us to use."

"Then why don't we get carried through these platforms? It's not like you can inhale all of us…" Sonic trailed.

"Oh… Well you do make a point, Sonic… Since I'm the only one with no ability on me, I might as well do it." Chopper opened his mouth and began to inhale everyone like a vacuum. When his mouth was full, that's when he knew everyone was in his mouth.

_"I don't like it in here!" _Luigi cried.

_"Poyo… (So THIS is what Chopper's inner part of his body looks like…)" _Kirby trailed.

Chopper didn't have much time to speak. He jumped on the platforms and moved along. He looked behind and saw that the platforms he jumped on fell. Unfortunately, there was no way for Chopper to move any faster with a full mouth.

After all of those crazy jumps, he spat everyone out right by the door. He began to stick his tongue out in disgust afterwards.

"Yuck! You guys taste horrible!" he cried.

"Poyo, (Now you know how it feels,)" Kirby snickered.

_"At least you made it to the door," _Timpani said, trying to prevent an argument. _"I'm sure NaDis will help us with no problem when we're done here. Although… I don't get why she scares you guys."_

_"Maybe we'll find an answer to that some other time…" _Blumiere hoped.

"All right, I might as well just open the door before any more romance occurs…" Chopper shuddered as he kicked the door open into an area with one small platform. There was a red button right next to them.

Mario: Oh, yeah!

With one stomp, Mario managed to teleport everyone out of this world.

* * *

**Red room-**

_"Congratulations. You've past the test." _NaDis said as everyone was teleported back into the red room. _"Now you may return to Luna and stop the Vironoids once and for all. As for me, I'll be enjoying a little song."_

"Ummmm… OK then. I guess we'll head back to that other room…" Luigi trailed as everyone exited the testing rooms.

* * *

**Main room-**

"Good works, guys. We saw you exploring the virtual worlds through our terminal. I think you six might be just the kind of people to stop those Vironoids and their leader…" Luna smirked as they entered the room.

"Well, you know us. We're heroes! It's our job." Sonic grinned.

"So… Where exactly do we go to get to Vironoid territory?" Blade asked.

"Well… You see… Our base is kind of…near Vironoid territory. We kept it here so we could easily spy on the Vironoids." Luna explained nervously. "So… You MIGHT want to be cautious when you walk out of the base. But, since you want to go out, we'll help you."

She pressed a button and a door appeared at the end of the room. "Take this secret door and you should be out of the base. The Vironoids don't know about this, so don't worry about them being there."

"OK, that sounds good to us!" Blade grinned. "…But first, there's something I want to do first."

"What do you…?" Blade walked up to the terminal and tried to gain access to his computer. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to see if anyone was accessing my computer while I was gone," he was able to gain access to his computer, but he noticed there were a couple of new folders labeled "Nothing Special".

"There's a 'Nothing Special' folder," Luigi pointed out.

"Yeah, I know that already, genius. …Chopper, Kirby, I think you might want to cover your eyes. This is something that's probably…not for anyone who's under eighteen."

"But you're only fifteen, and so is Sonic," Chopper pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, but SOME people like to look at this stuff. Go talk to someone while I check this."

"…Fine," Chopper and Kirby pulled their communicators out and decided to speak to some of the people back in Flipside. Chopper, of course, decided to speak to Flyer, being his best friend and all.

_"I was actually wondering when you'd call me," _Flyer smiled. _"So, what's going on? Have you found the Pure Heart yet?"_

"Uhhh… We haven't gotten THAT far, you know… We should be able to get to Vironoid territory though. So… I suppose it's not too far." Chopper's antennas sprung up, remembering something. "Say, Flyer… I have a question… Do you know what it means to have instantaneous sex change surgery from internally?"

Flyer's face changed all of the sudden. _"…What? Where did you hear something like that?"_

"From someone here. The only reason I'm calling you is because Blade doesn't want me to watch what's on the computer. He said something about it not being suitable for someone under eighteen."

"_Oh… Well that's…weird. I don't even know what you mean anyways. And what you also said… I don't get it. …Maybe Heartsy knows about it?"_

"DAMN YOU BANG!" Blade roared as he slammed his fist on the keyboard. "WHY the HELL did you even go onto my computer for that kind of stuff?! What is WRONG with you, man?!"

"Dude! Calm down! You don't need to get angry!" Sonic said, trying to calm him down.

"Well it's not my fault that he downloaded-"

"Now's not the time to be focusing on this stuff," Luna suggested. "Get to the secret door immediately. We'll have Colonel Disk lead his troops out to assist you guys with the war, OK?"

"Sounds good to me," Chopper nodded.

_"Choppy, who was that who was just speaking?" _Heartsy asked, hearing the woman's voice.

"…Do you honestly believe that any girl I speak to is instantly my girlfriend, Heartsy? No way! Don't get mad about it either!"

_"Oh, I'm not mad at you. I was just wondering who that was. Sometimes I get a little curious."_

Chopper simply shrugged and followed everyone to the door. They were only led into a small room with a long tunnel. Luckily, there happened to be an elevator that they could use that moved sideways.

So, when everyone got on, Kirby pressed the button and the elevator took off.

Mario: That was an interesting experience.

_"So you're in a digital world? That's pretty cool!" _Parakarry commented.

_"Although, if you're trying to access anything that I have on my computer, well you might not be lucky," _Bow stated.

_"Why not? Does it contain private information?" _Heartsy asked while crossing her arms.

"Ooh! I wanna see a catfight!" Blade grinned before getting smacked by Sonic. "Hey! Sometimes I wanna see catfights!"

"Come on, Blade! Do you really wanna see a catfight? Those don't end well."

"But they're hilarious!"

"What's a catfight?" Chopper wondered.

"Poyo, (I'm wondering the same thing,)" added Kirby.

"Oh, man... Catfights aren't a great thing to see or hear about..." Luigi shuddered. "They usually end badly!"

_"They won't be getting into any fights," _C-2 Choppor assured. _"As for any data… I have the ability to access any data on any profile. Bow, you seem to have many pictures of yourself making poses."_

"So Bow is a poser?" Blade gawked. "Basically, she is a bit of a wh-"

_"If you even plan on finishing that sentence, I'm gonna smack you so hard that you'll regret ever saying something like that," _Bow warned, giving Blade a grim look. She looked at Chopper with a sweet look. _"What he really means is that I keep pictures of myself making poses because they're used for some covers on Boo magazines."_

_"I guess that makes a little sense…" _Vivian trailed until she heard a big halt. _"What was that?" _

"I think we're here…" Chopper trailed as they got off the elevator panel and reached a door ahead. "Let's see where this leads."

* * *

**Outside-**

Upon walking out of the door, it disappeared from their sights, surprisingly. They could see the wonderful red background from before and also a Star Block just up ahead. Things were looking good for them.

_"So that's the block you need to hit?" _Parakarry asked.

_"It looks really pretty," _Vivian smiled.

"Huh? Someone's here?" Everyone paused when they saw a Koopaling with green, plant-like hair and glasses. "Wait a second… I recognize some of you! Two of you, to be exact."

"Wait… Is this another Koopaling?" Sonic asked, readying himself.

"Poyo! (I knew it!)" Kirby gaped.

_"Great… Another Koopaling…" _Bow groaned. _"Well, I'm not in that world, so I don't need to worry too much. But I don't like the bratty one, to be honest."_

Mario: What do you want, Iggy?

"What do I want? Well, all I want is to get my father back! That dark guy told me if I defeated you guys, then I would be able to get him back! What was his name again? I think it was Tipral."

_"Tipral…" _Vivian frowned. _"I guess he's behind all of this… But, I don't get why he's acting like this…"_

"Well, you ARE his sister, so there might be something you've seen," Chopper said.

_"That's true, but I haven't lived with him like my sisters. Perhaps it's because he never knew about us? Shadow Siren DNA does allow you to recognize who is who. Maybe Tipral never had that ability when he got the Shadow Queen's DNA?"_

"Wait… Did she say that Tipral is her brother?" Blade gawked. "Damn… Never knew that."

"Are you guys finished talking? Because I REALLY want to get back to my computer and speak to some of my friends there and think of some wacky ideas." Iggy groaned. "Although… I'll say that this place is cool too."

_"I guess he's one of those geeks…" _Timpani trailed.

"Hey! I'm no geek! Just because I've been bullied by my brothers doesn't mean I'm a geek or nerd!" Iggy waved his wand and fired green energy straight at the heroes. Chopper instantly inhaled the attack and spat it back at him, knocking him back.

"All right, I guess you're asking for a fight, you…er…nerd," Chopper said with a confused look on his face.

"Quit calling me a nerd!" Iggy growled as he tried to attack the heroes. Luigi jumped back and threw Bonjourang at him while he tried using his own claws. Of course, he got hit in the face, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Despite being big, he's not really that physically strong…" Luigi informed.

"Really?" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand on Iggy to see what his stats were and what his abilities were.

_"That's Iggy Koopa. He's what you would call the 'brains' of Bowser's Koopalings. I think those glasses prove it. Max HP is 200. Attack is 11. Defense is 2. For the most, he'll try hitting you with his green magic. It's not that hard to dodge, but it's a lot faster than the other magic projectiles the other Koopalings fired. Occasionally, he'll also try throwing a Chain Chomp at you, so be careful when that happens. Other than that, he's not that physically strong…" _Timpani informed.

"All right, let's see how you handle this!" Iggy waved his wand again and hit both Chopper and Kirby, knocking them both back. Blade, on the other hand, threw Hommissile straight at Iggy and sent him flying back.

"Let's show this nerd what we can do!" Blade grinned as he jumped towards Iggy and slashed at him with his katana. He finished him off by using a hurricane slash, which sent him flying towards Mario.

"W-Wait! Can't we settle this in a different way?!" Iggy cried.

"Dude! You asked for it in the first place!" Sonic reminded. "NOW you're trying to make us stop? !"

Mario sighed as he lowered his hammer and let Iggy fall to the ground. Just when they were about to move on, Iggy fired a blast from his wand at Mario's butt, making him rocket up into the air while screaming.

"…And people call ME a coward," Luigi gaped while looking back at Iggy.

"Heh heh heh!" Iggy grinned as he got back up. "No way am I going to let you guys beat me down!"

"Oh… Now you're gonna get it." Sonic curled up in a ball and shot himself towards Iggy with a Spin Dash. When he uncurled, he kicked him in the stomach and caused him to hold his stomach in pain.

While he was at this state, Kirby fired his needles from his helmet at Iggy, leaving a couple of cuts on his arms. But that didn't stop him from trying to attack the group with a Chain Chomp he had with him.

"ARF! ARF!" When Iggy threw the Chain Chomp, it began to chase after the heroes. One of them tried to take a bite out of Chopper, but he inhaled it instead and spat it back at Iggy.

"Wait… How can he eat the Chain Chomp on his own?!" Iggy gaped.

"It just takes some practice," Chopper smirked before he tossed a couple of ice balls. Iggy countered them with his own magic, but ultimately, he became frozen when he got hit by a charged ice ball.

Mario: Not bad!

The red plumber made a dash over to the frozen Iggy and used a Ground Pound to break him out and also deal some damage to him. While stunned, Luigi sent him flying with his Cyclone attack and knocked him out of the sky with a Super Jump.

_"He doesn't seem to put up much of a fight," _Blumiere commented.

"HEY! Don't mock my fighting style!" Iggy roared as he got in his shell and knocked Mario and Luigi to the ground. Blade, however, jumped over him and tried tossing a couple of shurikens at him. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work.

"Crap. My shurikens don't work." Blade frowned.

"Heh heh heh! Works better for me!" Iggy got himself up and threw a Chain Chomp at him. It didn't exactly try to bite him, but it certainly did ram into him. Its dog-like barks got Blade a little freaked out for a bit.

"Damn dog sounds!"

"Wait, isn't Bang a dog?" Chopper gawked.

"Yeah, but he's dumb. Threatening dogs are what I don't like!"

"Be quiet and die already!" Iggy snorted as he jumped in the air and tried to stomp on Blade. However, the cat jumped out of the way and managed to slash at his leg, leaving a small cut on him.

"Ack! You stupid little…!"

"Hey, you were the one being a coward!"

While Blade and Iggy argued, Luigi stomped on the Koopaling's head, leaving him stunned. Mario followed up by bashing him with his hammer. Ultimately, this led to a good distraction (by Blade, that is!).

Mario: Nice distraction, Blade!

"Why thank you!" Blade bowed before getting clawed by Iggy. Sonic took notice of this and immediately attacked Iggy with a Homing Attack.

_"For some reason, this guy reminds me a bit of myself a bit…" _Flyer trailed as he watched Chopper rush towards Iggy and make him trip by sliding under him. _"Not in the nerdy way, but by brains."_

_"I don't think nerds are exactly 'bad'," _Heartsy said. _"Even if Chopper was a nerd, I would still love him. He's still cute and sweet."_

"Errr… OK." Chopper sweat dropped before getting knocked back by a Chain Chomp Iggy threw at him. "Ow! Heartsy, you're kind of distracting me a bit! Just let me focus on beating this guy!"

Mario: Yeah, that's true.

"What are you doing? Talking to your girlfriend?" Iggy snickered, trying to be all tough, but was failing horribly. "Man, you're such a… Err… I don't know what to say there…"

"…OK!" Chopper rushed straight at Iggy and slammed his foot on his head with flaming energy, causing his hair to set on fire. While he screamed, Chopper froze it by chucking an ice ball at it.

"Hey! You froze my hair!"

"Well that works," Luigi commented while hitting Iggy with Bonjourang. While he was stunned, he stomped on his head a couple of times while performing a couple of stylish moves.

"Ouch! Quit it!" Iggy noticed that his hair completely shattered from Luigi's stomping. "N-No! Not my great plant hair! It took me weeks to get that fixed before when I got gum on it!"

"Oh… I remember when I got gum on my quills. Ugh… Not pretty." Sonic put Reflecto in front of him as soon as Iggy fired green magic straight him. Reflecto was able to reflect it back at him and leave him stunned, allowing Sonic to rush up to him and attack with a Spin Jump and a Bounce Attack.

"You know, I almost forget that I still have some of my moves WITHOUT any copied abilities…" Chopper trailed as he rushed towards Iggy and used a sweeping kick attack to make him trip.

"Poyo! (Thanks for that, Chopper!)" Kirby thanked as he fired needles from his helmet at Iggy and left a couple of more cuts on him. Iggy tired to fight back, but Kirby got on Carrie and jumped on him to leave him dizzy.

"All right, you want something else? Then I'll give you this!" Iggy fired green magic at Kirby again, but this time, he decided to remove his Needle ability and inhale the magic projectile to gain the Beam ability.

"I guess the Beam ability is a lot more helpful here," Sonic shrugged as Kirby charged a blast in his wand and fired it straight at Iggy, leaving him dizzy.

"Heh heh heh! Beating this guy up is pretty enjoyable!" Blade chuckled, throwing Hommissile at him as he got up. But this didn't stop Iggy from hitting him with another Chain Chomp.

"Wha… WILL YOU STOP WITH THE CHAIN CHOMPS ALREADY?!"

"No."

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF… Nah, there's no point in getting angry. I'll just kick the crap out of you instead!" Blade gripped his katana and slashed at Iggy. He ended up hitting his arms, but that was just it.

"Wow… I can't believe he's still up." Chopper said with a blank look. "I'm surprised that after all of that, he's still able to move. Do you think we should deal a little bit more to him?"

Mario: That's good with me.

"I'll go first, I suppose…" Luigi trailed as he jumped into the air and stomped on top of Iggy's head. The Koopaling tried to claw at him, but Luigi was quicker and managed to stomp on his head again.

"Oh, I know what'll work…" Iggy jumped into the air, but this left him open for Luigi to attack him with a Super Jump, resulting in him falling to the ground. However, this didn't stop him from getting in his shell and knocking Luigi over.

"WAH! He's in his shell now!"

"Yep, we see that," Chopper nodded as he gripped his hammer. When Iggy popped his head out, he jumped towards the Koopaling and gave him a bash to the head, followed by a couple of raining stars with the help of Starbow.

"Hey! What was that? !"

"Those were raining stars that fell on you."

_"Hmmmmm… He's somewhat low on HP now…" _Timpani trailed. _"Just two more hits should do it…"_

"Poyo! (I'll deliver a blow!)" Kirby fired another beam attack at Iggy, but he simply used his wand's magic to counter it and create a small explosion.

"What an interesting explosion… So if magic collides, it creates that…" While Iggy was astounded by this, Kirby fired a blast from his wand at him and left him severely weak.

"Well… I guess I'll finish this off!" Luigi announced as he stomped on Iggy's head. Stars circled around the Koopaling's head as the plumber jumped off him.

"Stars… I'm seeing stars…" Iggy wheezed. "Maybe there's something that makes stars appear around me…"

With those last words, Iggy fell over on the ground, unconscious. Kirby poked him to make sure if he was alive or not.

"Poyo, (He's not dead,)" Kirby announced.

"Well that's a relief," Chopper sighed. "I didn't WANT him to be dead anyways. I don't think it's necessarily right to let someone die like that."

"How about we get to that Star Block?" Blade suggested.

Mario: Let's hope we can find Mushrooms.

"Or better yet…" Chopper whipped up an Ultra Shroom Shake and took a sip from it. They all passed it around, with Sonic finishing it off. He crushed the can and threw it elsewhere.

But what was strange was that the can disappeared on its own, as if it left the dimension.

"What the…" Sonic gawked before following his friends to the Star Block. "Weird…"

With one punch, Chopper was able to break the Star Block.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_"Wow, so we're finally stepping into Vironoid territory… This is going to be interesting…" Sonic commented as they strolled through the rest of Computernoid territory. They happened to notice a strange border up ahead with a large, computerized sign that read "YOU ARE ENTERING VIRONOID TERRITORY. LEAVE NOW IF YOU DARE." However, the sign wasn't going to stop Chopper and Co. from turning back. Because one thing for sure was that they had a Pure Heart to find there._

* * *

**Well that marks the end of Computernoid territory right there, I suppose. Although it would've been nice if there was more exploring from the outside, but I still like this chapter. Chapter 14 IS one of my favorite worlds, after all.**

**And yes, you're probably going to expect us to be going into Vironoid territory next chapter. Yup. We're DEFINITELY doing that! And another thing... Yeah, NaDis is kind of like GLaDOS from Portal (although I've never played portal). **

**Other than that, that's really it. We'll actually be outside more in the next chapter, if any of you are happy about that. :P  
**


	84. Walking Through Vironoid Territory

**CHAPTER 14-3**

**-Walking Through Vironoid Territory-**

This was it. After passing by the large sign, our heroes knew that they were probably going to be running into some big problems along the way. There were definitely a few little changes to the background. In fact, the redness in the sky was a bit darker, but there were still a few orange glows. The ground itself still had the glass with the red, orange and yellow energy inside that made it glow. Other than that, there weren't any other big details about the place.

Mario: This place doesn't seem too safe…

"Of course it isn't safe. This is Vironoid territory!" Chopper said with an irritated look. "Look, let's just see what we can do around here first. We obviously need to go find out where we need to go if we're going to the Vironoid leader. …I think we just need to go to some towers and find the computer room."

"Poyo, (Yeah, let's hope we can make it there in time,)" Kirby hoped as they began to stroll. The ground was flat as usual, but there were a couple of floating cube platforms that weren't too big.

Two Vironoids, on the other hand, spotted the heroes and immediately crawled off the platforms and jumped down. Luigi yelped and ran right behind Mario in fear, leaving the red plumber to let out a sigh.

"Don't touch me!" Luigi cried.

"Hold on a second… You actually fight Iggy, yet you can't fight these things? !" Chopper gawked. "Seriously, there's something with you, Luigi… And I can't put my finger to it."

The first Vironoid spat out its viral energy straight at Chopper, but Sonic immediately jumped in front of him and used Reflecto to reflect the attack back at the Vironoid. However, instead of damaging it, it ended up healing it instead. This could heal ALL of the Vironoid's HP.

"Whoa… Did its viral energy just heal it fully? !" Sonic gaped. "How are we supposed to fight them then? !"

"We've gotta use different tactics," Blade said as he stabbed one of the Vironoids. The other one tackled him to the ground to stab him with its pointy legs. Mario gripped his hammer and knocked the one that was about to stab Blade away, while Sonic used a Whirlwind to send the other flying.

"Man, these guys are freakin' annoying," Chopper said as he froze one of the Vironoids that was closest to him. It only remained frozen for a couple of seconds before breaking free very easily. So, he was forced to hit it with his hammer a couple of times. The fact that its defense was pretty high didn't help either.

"Have we even scanned these things or something?" Luigi asked.

"Poyo, (That doesn't sound like a bad idea,)" added Kirby.

"Ummm… OK!" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand on the Vironoid and began to investigate the strange…critter thing.

"_That's a Vironoid. You can consider it to be some sort of spider-like virus. Max HP is 74. Attack is 12. Defense is 5. A Vironoid could charge at you, swipe you with its sharp legs or even try to infect you with its viral energy. If that stuff hits you, you'll be under Vironoid control. …But, it IS possibly to break out of this if you use Piccolo's singing to cure it."_ Timpani informed.

"Oh… Well that's interesting." Blade commented as he finished off one of the Vironoids by stabbing it. The other Vironoid tried to flee, but Luigi managed to pull it back with Bonjourang and finish it off with a stomp.

"Well that takes care of those Vironoids…" Chopper said as he sighed in relief. "I suppose we can move on from here, right?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Luigi nodded as they continued their way on the road. There wasn't anything else exciting except for short, glowing pillars that they simply walked past. There happened to be a door right in between two of them, which wasn't too surprising.

"I'm actually digging the music here," Sonic smirked as they entered the door. "It sounds a bit techno-y for some reason, but it fits very well here."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Luigi agreed as they noticed that their shadows on the floor were glowing orange. They noticed that in the background, there were a couple of small Vironoid hives that some jumped out of and landed right in front of the heroes. One was standing on a platform over a bottomless pit ahead.

Mario: Vironoid hives?

"Looks like it," Chopper nodded, clenching his fist. When the Vironoid on the platform jumped off, Chopper hurled a charged ice ball at it, freezing it completely. Mario followed up by using a Ground Pound, defeating it once and for all – even though its defense was pretty high.

"Poyo! (Hurry! Onto the platform!)" Kirby cried as he took in some air and began to float over to the platform. Everyone followed him over to the platform and jumped over to another that was coming up ahead.

"Jump for it!" Luigi cried, using his Super Jump to reach the ledge to another normal platform. There happened to be another Vironoid sitting around here, a pipe hanging from an invisible ceiling and a blue ! block floating up above them for some strange reason.

"I'll get that!" Luigi used his Super Jump to hit the block, but an invisible barrier seemed to be in his way. The barrier showed some sort of hand on there, though, hinting that they needed to do something.

"Is this finally my time to shine?" Thoreau gaped.

"Let's hope!" Chopper tossed Thoreau at the Vironoid and managed to bring it over to him. Chopper looked up at the Vironoid and saw how big this thing was. How was he even carrying this?

"No, seriously. How am I able to hold this thing?"

"Well, my powers DO allow you to have the strength to carry anything that's a bit heavier than you! Go right ahead, hero, and throw that enemy at the blue ! block! That way we can press on!"

Everyone shrugged at Chopper as he threw the Vironoid at the block, making a door get drawn and colored. The last thing they saw appear was the rainbow frame and star on the door.

"Let's go!" Sonic suggested as they headed through the door into an area with a beam of light in the center of this small area and an invisible barrier to prevent the heroes from going too far. There were even a couple of platforms that could help them go up as well.

"Poyo? (More climbing?)" Kirby gawked.

"Sounds easy," Blade smirked as he grabbed a hold of the beam of light. Little did he know a little Sparky happened to be moving on the beam as well and gave Blade a nasty shock.

"OW! What the hell? !"

"Uhhh… Are you OK?" Chopper asked.

"Does it LOOK like I'm OK? ! I got shocked by something on the beam of light!" the cat screeched as he landed on the ground. "GOD it hurts so much! It's almost as bad as being stabbed or scarred!"

"HA! Now you know how it feels to get hurt by a Sparky! …OK, I think that was a little rude, but whatever. Let's just get going, all right?" Chopper grabbed a hold of the beam of light and began to climb his way up.

"Poyo, (This shouldn't be too hard,)" Kirby muttered to himself as he grabbed the pole and began to follow Chopper up. When a Sparky appeared, that's when everyone jumped off and shrieked like little girls.

"…Did we seriously shriek like little girls?" Sonic gawked.

"I know I did!" Luigi responded, still shrieking like a little girl.

"_The more I think about it, I feel that you did get that internal surgery," _Blumiere chuckled.

"_Blumiere!" _Timpani scolded.

"Hey, he's just joining in the fun! Why don't you have a little fun too, Tippi?" Chopper questioned. "I mean, my mother sometimes would nag me or my father when we're having too much fun."

"How could one have fun when they're four or younger with a dad?" Blade asked.

"Uhh… We were kind of horsing around at some points. And… OK, I think we're getting off track here. Let's just climb up to the top and hope for something nice up there."

With that, they continued climbing up the beam of light. However, Luigi seemed to be lagging behind because of how scared he was of the Sparky that was actually coming up to him.

Mario: Move faster, Luigi!

"OK! OK!" the green plumber climbed faster, trying to outclimb the Sparky. At some point, it got pretty close, but he was able to get off the beam of light in time and reach the door that everyone was waiting at. A yellow ? block happened to be near the door, which contained an Ultra Shroom.

"Ooh! An Ultra Shroom!" Blade cut it up into six pieces. They each took their piece and regained 50 HP from it. With that, they took a deep breath and headed through the door that awaited them all.

* * *

**Next area-**

"_Well this is an odd area…" _Timpani trailed as they all walked out of the door. _"I can see a couple of destroyed hives in the background… Not to mention that this area is only flat and a bit small…"_

"Poyo… (I don't like being around here…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo… (I've got a bad feeling about this."

"_**ARGLE-BRARGLE!**_"

"And was that someone's stomach for that moment?" Chopper gawked as he looked over at Kirby. "I swear… If that was you who had a growling stomach, I would have no idea how to react to that…"

However, it wasn't Kirby's stomach that made that noise. A strong, bearded warrior came falling from the sky and landed right in front of the heroes. A barrier blocked the door that they walked out of and the door that leads up ahead.

"Well well well! So we finally meet again, heroes!" O'Chunks growled. "'Tis been a while since we've 'ad a little brawl!"

"O'Chunks!" Blade drew his katana and got into his fighting stance. "What are you doing here? Come to prevent us from getting the Pure Heart again? …Oh, wait! You won't, 'cause you never win against us!"

"'EY! 'Ow dare yeh mock me like that again! I suppose yeh want me teh get the chunks on yeh! 'Ow would yeh like that? !"

"Dude… Can you actually speak in a way that we could all understand?" Chopper asked with an irritated look.

"An' as fer yeh, Chopra… Don't think I fergot about our first battle!" O'Chunks stomped the ground in anger and gave them an angry look. "This time I prepared meself fer this fight! When I'm done with yeh all, I'm going teh hang yer butts on me wall!"

"Wait… Can he really do that?" Luigi gasped. "I don't want to lose my butt!"

"Poyo… (I don't think some of us even have butts…)" Kirby trailed.

"All right… Look. We JUST want you to get out of the way, all right?" Chopper said in a nice tone. "You should've learned from the past that you can't take us down. I mean, come on! How many beatings can you take? !"

"I can take as many beatin's as I want! An' I 'ave learned from the past! Instead, I learned what I should've done when I fought yeh annoyin' heroes!"

"Oh brother…" Blade groaned.

"When I put yer butts on me walls, I'm going to lock yeh in a prison cell and make yeh smell the trash!

"Sure…"

"_**PREPARED TEH GET CHUNKED!**_"

O'Chunks started to charge at the heroes, but ultimately missed and hit the barrier instead, leaving him a bit dazed. This was when Chopper used Thoreau to grab O'Chunks and throw him, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds. With two jumps and stylish moves, the bearded warrior cringed in pain.

"Yer gonna pay fer that!" the bearded warrior tried to grab a hold of Chopper, but he was too fast for him. Instead, he ended up getting hit in the leg by Blade's katana, leaving him off guard for a couple of seconds.

Unfortunately for Blade, he got grabbed by O'Chunks, who began to squeeze the life out of his with his large fists. Blade saw the anger in O'Chunks eyes as he started to growl at him for some reason.

"Stop growling! It reminds me of those annoying dogs!" Blade hissed.

"I'm gonna make sure yer the first one teh go," O'Chunks growled as he continued squeezing. That is…until Mario stomped on his head and bashed him with his hammer afterwards, causing him to release Blade.

Mario: Don't even try to do that!

"An' don't think I fergot about yeh, Maria! I'll show yeh 'ow yeh flatten someone!" Mario instantly face palmed after hearing the word 'Maria' spew from O'Chunks's mouth. But, nevertheless, he jumped out of the way when O'Chunks slammed his feet to the ground.

Chopper, meanwhile, pulled Timpani's wand out and began to investigate O'Chunks. You know, just to find out what his stats were.

"_That's O'Chunks. He's considered to be the brawn of Tipral's army. He's not really that intelligent, though… Max HP is 220. Attack is 12. O'Chunks's moves are really simple to avoid. However, make sure that he doesn't grab a hold of you, or else you'll be flying all over the place. He could also use beans to make himself go faster, or, rather, fly all over the place in a…strange manner. You can always turn the tides by using Thoreau to throw and stun him." _Timpani informed.

"Heads up, guys. He can use beans." Chopper warned.

"Speakin' o' beans…" O'Chunks pulled a can of beans out and smashed it open by squeezing it. After dumping them all into his mouth, his stomach began to gurgle a little, indicating that he was about to let something loose.

"What's he going to do?" Luigi asked.

"For some reason… It doesn't look like it's very safe…" Chopper gulped. O'Chunks clenched his fists as he began to rocket towards the heroes using his strange fart-propelling powers from the beans. Everyone ended up getting knocked over on the ground and O'Chunks continued to fly all over the place.

"Gwa har har har! Yeh can't stop the power o' me chunks!" cackled O'Chunks before his farting powers began to stop. He fell to the ground headfirst and was stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Poyo, (Well, I guess I know what to do now,)" Kirby charged up a beam attack and fired directly at O'Chunks. It didn't knock him back, but it made him hold his arm in pain for a little bit.

"And here comes Sonic!" Sonic grinned as he hit O'Chunks in the stomach with a Spin Dash. He followed up with a Whirlwind, leaving O'Chunks a bit dazed, since the whirlwind wasn't strong enough to lift the bearded warrior off his feet. He decided to finish off with a Bounce Attack.

"Wow, he's not exactly as hard as you people make…" Luigi paused for a minute when he began to smell the air. "I think O'Chunks left a smell from that…attack."

"Really?" Blade began to sniff the hair, causing his eyes to water. "Ack! What kind of horrible stench is THAT? Did O'Chunks seriously leave a horrible stench like that? ! It could kill TREES!"

"_It's better that you just focus on fighting O'Chunks than think about the gas…" _Timpani suggested. _"Although… I do find your reactions to the smell to be a little funny for some reason. Tee hee!"_

"Yer gonna get it now!" O'Chunks growled, spinning around and creating some sort of cyclone attack. Unfortunately, due to being a bit on the slow side, he didn't get anyone. Instead, Luigi was able to hit him in the face with Bonjourang and stomp on his head afterwards.

"Yeah! This isn't so hard!" Luigi chuckled as he landed on the ground. Unfortunately for him, O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of his feet and swing him around. When he released, Luigi went flying all over the place.

"ACK! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Mario: Luigi!

"Hold on, we need to get O'Chunks while he's distracted," Chopper said, halting Mario. When Luigi fell to the ground, Mario helped him up, while O'Chunks began to perform a little dance that looked way too silly. This gave Chopper the moment to charge up an ice ball and hurl it at him.

Luckily, it had an affect on him. It made him frozen solid.

"Nice! Now I'll make the next move!" Sonic jumped on top of O'Chunks and shattered the ice around him with a Bounce Attack. O'Chunks wasn't shattered by this, but he took some serious damage.

"Urghh… Yer gonna get it now!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Chopper's legs and swung him straight at Sonic, knocking him back. Kirby tried to zap him with his Beam ability, but even then, he got hurt when O'Chunks threw Chopper at Kirby like a dodge ball, knocking his Beam ability away.

"Poyo! (Hey! Why'd you do that? !)" Kirby growled.

"Let's not get to details, Kirby! Attack!" Chopper cried as O'Chunks threw him to the ground. The bearded warrior was about to step on him until Kirby kicked him in the back a couple of times, forcing him to turn around.

"Oh, so yeh want a piece o' me, do yeh, pinky? !" O'Chunks raised his fists until Chopper bashed him in the head with his hammer. "Am I seein' me momma's pie right in front o' me?"

"Poyo… (Uhhhh… I don't know how to respond to that…)" Kirby trailed. But because of this, Blade was able to jump over to O'Chunks and kick him at a certain angle, followed by slashing at his chest with his katana, leaving a small rip on O'Chunks's shirt. And that caused him to get angry.

"_**NOW YEH'VE DONE IT!**_" O'Chunks punched Blade in the chest and then knocked him straight into the barrier using his strong shoulders. He was about to punch him one more time until Luigi hit him with his Cyclone attack.

"Boy, I've never fought this guy before…" Luigi trailed as he avoided O'Chunks's punch. "I never thought he would go to these measures to defeat us… Is there something in him that wants to take us down?"

"_It might be because he lost every other time," _Timpani predicted. _"That could be the reason…"_

"Quit yer yappin' yeh floatin' wand!" O'Chunks snapped before getting stomped by Mario and also ground pounded. This left him completely off guard once again and allowed Sonic to hit him with a Homing Attack and Screwdy's corkscrew.

"You might as well give up right now, O'Chunks," Chopper suggested as O'Chunks quickly got out of his little trance. "You're seriously hurting yourself more than you're hurting us."

"Maybe this'll hurt yeh!" the bearded warrior jumped in the air and stomped right on top of Chopper. Two stars appeared from his attack and allowed Kirby to inhale them and spit them out at O'Chunks to leave him dizzy.

"Well… All right…" Chopper got up and drank an Ultra Shroom Shake to recover 50 HP. Everyone passed it around until there was no more left. Mario decided to throw the can at O'Chunks so Chopper had an easier chance to strike him with a spinning kick, leaving a couple of bruises on his face.

"In all honesty… I feel kind of sorry for hurting him like this."

"Then yeh ought teh give up now!" O'Chunks took out another can of beans and gulped it down with ease. Using his farting powers, he began to fly all over the place, hitting everyone for the exception of Kirby, who was able to defend himself from the oncoming O'Chunks.

The Scottish warrior soon landed on the ground, dazed, allowing Mario to run up to him and stomp on his head once before quickly shaking his head. He took the time to pick up a block from the ground and throw it at Sonic, knocking him back a bit.

"Ow! Man, those things hurt!" Sonic screeched.

O'Chunks grinned as he jumped into the air to prepare himself for another ground pound. Unfortunately, that was not to be when Luigi crouched down and launched himself in the air to hit him with a Super Jump, interrupting his attack. However, he got lucky when he fell right on top of Kirby.

"I think this calls for a little something," Chopper began to hurl a couple of fireballs at O'Chunks. He, however, managed to jump out of the way and dodge the fireballs. But what he didn't see coming was Kirby inhaling the fireballs and spitting them back him.

"'Ey! 'Ow'd yeh do that? !"

"Take this!" Chopper fired a charged fireball at O'Chunks and left a nasty burn on him. "Look, NOW can you give up? You're burning right now!"

"Not 'till yer goners!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Chopper's feet and began to swing him around. Upon releasing him, the Star Warrior began to fly all over the place until he fell to the ground and moaned in pain.

"Gwa har har har! Now yer gonna be finished! An' it don't matter in a pig's butt anymore now that yeh don't 'ave that cold" O'Chunks cackled as he began to pound his chest.

"If only I did have that cold at the moment…" Chopper grumbled.

Mario: I don't think so!

Because of O'Chunks's low HP, Mario was able to finish him off with one last hammer attack.

"_**ARRRRGH! NOT AGAIN!**_" O'Chunks cried as he gave up and knelt on the ground in pain. Those who were on the ground slowly got up and walked over to the injured O'Chunks while panting.

"Well… I guess he did put up a fight." Sonic wheezed.

"Urrrgh… I don't know why I always keep on losin' against yeh. I always feel that I'm ready teh take yeh all on, but what 'appens? I get my butt handed to a bunch of small shrimps!"

"So you finally admit again? Geez, do you forget things often?" Blade asked.

"I can't disappoint Tipral like this! End me game quick! I don't want teh have teh… Wait…" O'Chunks instantly got up and pondered for a second before stomping the ground.

"NO! Yeh can't just put yerself down like that, O'Chunks! There's NO way yer gonna just let them end yer game!"

"Ummmmm… We never even wanted to end your game in the first place…" Luigi trailed.

"All right, I think I 'ad enough o' yeh fer right now… But next time we face each other, be prepared teh get yer chunks goin'! But fer now… Chunks away!" O'Chunks waved goodbye and flew right into the sky with his strange farting powers. Not only that, but the barrier disappeared as well.

"Wow… I guess you can say that fight was pretty stinky!" Chopper snickered, causing everyone else around him to face palm.

"If you make another bad pun like that again, I swear I'm going to staple your effing head to the effing floor!" Blade hissed. "…And don't try to play anything that'll get you out of this, 'cause it WON'T!"

"I don't like the puns either, but that's a little too harsh," Sonic stated. "You should just dump something on his head instead – something that WON'T kill him."

"Oh, screw it. Let's just leave this area before another bad thing happens to us." Blade rushed over to the door and headed through. Everyone followed him into an area where they saw a light-speed pad leading up to a large, purple cube platform. It was weird, but when Kirby stepped on it, he was transported to the platform.

"Ooh! That looks pretty cool!" Chopper stepped on the pad and got transported over to the cube-like platform. The only problem with that, however, was that there were two Super Dark Soldiers up on the other platform ahead.

"Poyo, (Well this isn't good,)" Kirby gulped.

The two Super Dark Soldiers spotted the two and open fired at them. Kirby inhaled one of the lasers and swallowed it to gain the Laser ability. With it, he charged up a laser and fired at one of the Super Dark Soldiers. Unfortunately, that didn't seem enough to take it down.

"These guys aren't easy," Chopper said as he dodged some attacks. But he soon stopped when two Vironoids jumped on top of the two Super Dark Soldiers and caused them to be distracted with them.

"ARGH! Get off of me!" the first Super Dark Soldier cried as it fell off the platform and somehow disintegrated. The same thing applied with the second Super Dark Soldier. As for the Vironoids… They managed to get back onto the platform.

But since Chopper and Kirby were still around, they went after them instead. Kirby was lucky enough to knock away one of them. Chopper was forced to bash the other with his hammer a couple of times before defeating it.

"Did we miss anything?" Sonic asked as he, Blade, Mario and Luigi got to Chopper and Kirby. "I thought I heard something coming from here?"

Mario: There might have been something…

"Well, we ran into some Super Dark Soldiers, but they ended up falling off that platform up ahead by two Vironoids. Luckily, we took care of them, so we don't have to worry about their return." Chopper explained.

"Oh… Well I guess that's a good thing." Luigi said while sighing in relief. "I didn't want to see more of those things! They're freaky!"

"Errrr… Let's just go then." Sonic suggested as he jumped over to the cube platform up ahead. He noticed that there were two green balls that they would have to use to get across the platform with the door ahead.

"_I believe we've seen those before," _Timpani recalled. _"I think they're called Bumpers… Just be careful when jumping on them though."_

"Not a problem!" Chopper jumped on the Bumper first, but he ended up bumping right in between them. Kirby saved him by using his inhaling ability to bring him back over to the platform.

"OK… That's too risky!"

He looked around to see if there was anything he could use to copy an ability, but there wasn't, to his dismay. Chopper tried jumping again, but this time he was able to cross the Bumpers and reach the next cube platform moving up and down. Strangely, it was stretching…

When the rest of the group reached the platform, they waited until they could reach the next one. This one had another light-speed pad leading into another place in cyberspace. Nevertheless, they jumped in and began to transport themselves to somewhere else.

* * *

**Near a casino-**

As the group was transported through the circuit, they bumped right into a wall. It looked like they were in some kind of small room with navy blue walls with a glowing red light inside. A door was right beside them, so they took the time to get up and enter through the door.

"What's THAT? !" Luigi pointed to a large purple building up ahead. They could hear some kind of jazzish music coming from there. Two large Vironoids were also guarding the door as well. They were red and wore sunglasses for some reason. They even had claws compared to the other kind.

"Oh… These guys really mean business." Blade gulped. And dang right they did. They were wearing suits!

"Poyo? (So how are we supposed to get past them?)" Kirby asked.

"Hmmmmm… There might be a way…" Chopper pondered. He walked up to the two Vironoids, who gave him a confused look.

"Hold on, little boy. You're too young to enter this place without an adult." the first Vironoid warned. Chopper's eyes suddenly widened. A Vironoid actually spoke? We don't see that quite often…

"So either take a hike or go find an adult with you. Understand?" the second Vironoid spoke while crossing its arms. "We've been busy with some intruders coming here and we can't trust people like you."

Mario: It's-a me, Mario!

"What the…" the two Vironoids saw Mario and the rest of the group walk over to Chopper. "Hold on a second… I'm seeing something here. Are these the intruders that we've been hearing about?"

"Not at all!" Sonic assured. "We just wanted to come here and watch people lose to some games!"

"…I'm not buyin' it," the second Vironoid slowly walked toward the heroes with its claws up. "I'm gonna shred you to pieces with my trusty claws! This should teach you a lesson to never trespass on our territory!"

"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby charged up a laser from his visor and fired a pink laser directly at the second Vironoid, knocking it back. Unfortunately, this caused the first Vironoid to hiss and fire missiles at the heroes.

"Heads up!" Chopper pushed Kirby out of the way as the missiles were targeted towards him. A large explosion appeared from the missiles, but it wasn't going to stop the heroes from beating these guys.

"It's on!" Blade growled, drawing his katana and swinging it around to make a pose. The second Vironoid got up and immediately charged at him. The blue cat, on the other hand, jumped over it and managed to slash its back.

"Yeah! Right dab in the middle!"

"Blade… What the HECK were you just saying?" Luigi gawked.

"Errr… Nothing special."

Nevertheless, Luigi used his Cyclone attack on the second Vironoid when it got up, followed up with Sonic's Bounce Attack. It fired its energy at both Sonic and Luigi and infected them.

"Now! Attack the others!" ordered the second Vironoid as Sonic and Luigi charged at the rest. Chopper got knocked away by Sonic's Homing Attack while Mario got hit by Luigi's Cyclone.

"Guys? Oh, man… We gotta cure 'em!" Chopper cried.

Kirby decided to be the one to use Piccolo. With her, both Sonic and Luigi were surrounded in this light aura that cured them of the infection. Chopper smirked afterwards and burned the first Vironoid with a couple of fireballs.

Mario gripped his hammer now that both Sonic and Luigi were cured and smashed both Vironoids with his hammer, causing them to disintegrate into smoke. They surprisingly dropped two badges. One was shaped like a red V while the other seemed to look like some sort of cyclone.

"_It looks like that V-shaped badge is actually a Vironoid badge," _Timpani informed. _"It'll protect you from the Vironoid infection. However, only one of you will be able to wear that… As for the other badge, that's a Super Cyclone. I suppose it allows Luigi's Cyclone to last longer."_

"Really? Well I'll take that!" Luigi picked up the badge and equipped it. As for the rest… They all played a game of rock paper scissors to see who would get the badge.

"Chopper, there's no gun in 'rock paper scissors'…" Blade groaned.

Mario: That's cheating!

"What? But you said 'Rock paper scissors says shoot!' I should be able to use my hand as a gun!"

"Sorry, but you're out," Sonic confirmed, making Chopper sulk.

In the end, after playing rock paper scissors, Mario ended up getting the badge. However, he decided not to cheer too loudly because it could get some of the Vironoid's attention and it was just plain rude.

"All right, now that we've got that out of the way, let's check inside," Chopper, after sulking, opened the door and walked into the casino. They were in a hallway with some slot machines and a stairway that looked accessible through 3-D. Up ahead were some bathrooms. One was a men's bathroom, while the other was a women's.

"Welcome to our Cyberspace Casino!" They looked over by the front desk and saw a female Koopa that looked more like a hologram. "If you have any questions, please ask me right away!"

"Ummmmm… What are you supposed to be?" Sonic asked.

"You don't look like Vironoids…" Luigi trailed.

"That's because I'm actually a hologram," she explained. "We have technology that allows you to go right into the internet as a hologram and explore. I have a job here in the internet, so that's why I work here."

"Oh… Well that's interesting! Do you know where we can find the Vironoid base?" Chopper blurted, causing people around the room to pause and look at Chopper. What was worse was that there were three Vironoids in the room too.

"Wait a second… I remember that voice…" a holographic Waddle Dee walked out of a door and looked shocked when he saw Chopper. His hat had red and white stripes on it with a red pompom.

"Oh! There's Waldo!"

"Poyo? (Waldo? Wasn't he the one at that casino on Viti?)" Kirby questioned.

"Who ever thought I'd see YOU here? !" Waldo snarled, walking up to the heroes. "Listen here, kid! This is my NEW casino here, and you're not going to do a thing about this one with me around!"

"Ummmmm… When you tried to attack me, you were beaten. Very badly…" Chopper trailed.

"Well how about I allow my little friends to help you? Heh heh heh!" the three Vironoids crawled their way towards the group, firing missiles. Chopper jumped out of the way and walked behind a slot machine. The missiles appeared to be homing, but that slot machine didn't last long when it got hit by missiles.

"What the hell are you doing? ! You're destroying my slot machines! You know how expensive that stuff is? !"

The Vironoids gave him an irritated look as they tried to chase the Star Warrior down, only to get hurt by one of Kirby's charged lasers and one of Blade's shurikens, causing them to turn around.

"That's right! C'mere, Vironoids!" Blade taunted, drawing his sword and pulling a couple of more shurikens out. "I've got a couple of shurikens with your names on 'em!"

This definitely got two of the Vironoids angry as they got even closer to the two. However, Sonic jumped over Blade and attacked the first one straight in the head with a Homing Attack.

"This time, they're not going to infect me with their disease," Sonic mumbled as he landed on the ground and watched the Vironoid fall to the ground and disintegrate into smoke.

"One down, two to go," Luigi confirmed as he used his Cyclone ability on the Vironoid that was damaged by Kirby, hitting it a couple of times with his fists. Surprisingly, he sent it flying up and finished it off with a Super Jump.

"Well that takes care of two of 'em! So where's the last one?" Sonic asked as he rubbed his nose.

Mario: I think Chopper's fighting it.

"Really?" They thought that Chopper would be fighting it, but he was apparently trying to run from it.

"_OK, no more running. I gotta fight this thing." _Chopper thought as he stopped right in front of the women's bathroom and turned around. His fist began to glow a flaming aura as the Vironoid charged at him.

"All right! You want something? ! Well take this!" he brought his fist towards the Vironoid and punched it with flaming energy, leaving a nasty burn on it. He followed up by stomping on its head and using an ice slamming kick attack to finish it off with ice energy on his feet.

"And that takes care of it!"

"Wh-What? ! Are you serious? !" Waldo gaped. "That's it! You're going down!"

He brought his fists up and got ready to charge. Chopper took this time to investigate Waldo for no reason.

"_That's Waldo. He's just a simple Waddle Dee with a hat on his head. Max HP is 3. Attack is 1. He doesn't seem to have any special abilities… He's just the typical Waddle Dee…" _Timpani informed.

Before Waldo could attack Chopper, Kirby simply kicked him and made him fall over on the floor. "OK! OK! I give up already! You beat me!"

"Poyo, (That was too easy,)" Kirby sighed.

"Uhhh… Do you even have fighting experience?" Blade asked.

"Just shut up already…" Waldo growled. "I'll leave you alone if you tell me what you want…"

"All we want to do is find a way out of here to the…" Chopper looked around to see if any Vironoid was around. "…Vironoid base."

"Vironoid base? Well… If you want to get there, you'll have to take a little shortcut out of here by going to the top floor. There, you'll have to cross the **Vironoid Road** that should lead you somewhere near the base. Just be careful, because the closer you get to the base, the more dangerous it gets."

"Thank you for the information," Chopper smiled. "Now we know what to do!"

* * *

**Top floor-**

After walking up so many stairs (which is why I decided to skip all of the stair parts because of how repetitive it would be), our heroes finally reached the top floor. There wasn't much around here except for some slot machines and two Vironoids that were too distracted.

"So, Waldo said that the door would be an orange color…" Blade trailed. "But where can we find such a door?"

"Over there," Chopper announced, pointing to the right. "I think that'll get us out of here, don't you agree?"

"Poyo, (Well then we should get going,)" Kirby suggested as he ran over to the door. Everyone followed him into a room with a large green beam of light firing up to the ceiling and a green light-speed circuit pad right next to them.

"_Well I don't see any reason why you should just sit there," _Timpani said. _"You all might as well use that."_

"Yeah, we should be doing that just about now," Sonic agreed, stepping on the light-speed circuit pad and being transported out of the casino. Like everyone else, they followed the blue hedgehog out.

* * *

**Near Vironoid Road-**

"And here we are!" Chopper smiled as they jumped out of the pad. They were now outside and elsewhere in cyberspace. One thing for sure was that they were definitely going the right way. They even saw a sign right beside them that read 'Vironoid Road'.

"Yeah, we're here all right…" Blade confirmed.

"Although, I think we should be a little careful…" Luigi trailed, staying behind the group. "That guy said that there would be a lot of Vironoids around here! If that's true, we're in trouble!"

Mario: We should be just fine.

"Poyo, (As long as we're together, I think we should be all right,)" Kirby assured as he saw the Star Block up ahead. "Poyo! (Hey! There's the Star Block! We should hit that!)"

"That sounds good to me!" Chopper smiled as he ran over to the Star Block.

"And hopefully things turn out to be all right here," Sonic hoped.

"You BETTER not jinx that…" Chopper warned as he hit the Star Block and ended the chapter.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Be very very careful here, guys… We're now on Vironoid Road." Chopper warned, trying to stay as quiet as possible as they ventured through the road. Luckily they didn't seem to run into any Vironoids around, but they knew that they weren't going to be free of them. With eager looks on their faces (except for Luigi, who seemed to coward out a bit), they decided to see what would await them._

* * *

**Man, there were so many bad puns in Chapter 14 all together. Heck, I'm sure that a lot of people aren't happy to see those kinds of things here. :P**

**But, whatever. I don't have much else to say, unfortunately, but I'll say one thing: this chapter is getting weirder and weirder by the minute..  
**


	85. The Viral Road

**CHAPTER 14-4**

**-The Viral Road-**

"_So this must be the road that leads to the Vironoid base…" _Timpani trailed as they all stopped to relax for a bit. _"We must be getting closer to the base… I can feel the Pure Heart's presence just beyond this road. I suggest that we get going before it's too late to stop the Vironoids."_

"I agree with that," Luigi nodded, despite being a bit scared. Everyone took their time to look at this whole place. The sky was a bit of a darker red color than what they've previously seen, and the lights seemed to be a red color instead of an orange, indicating that they're getting closer to where they need to go. The road itself looked pretty slope-y, which gives a good sense of speed, especially to Chopper and Sonic.

"Aw, yeah! Now we're talkin'!" Sonic grinned. "There's finally a running portion of cyberspace! I can't wait to run through this portion! Don't you guys agree with me on this?"

Mario: This is something I don't like, personally… -_-;

"Well, I might as well get myself ready then!" Chopper began to run in place as he prepared his Speed Dash. Everyone watched as his feet moved in a figure-8 pattern. Yet… He didn't go just yet. Maybe it's because he wanted to wait for the others to get themselves ready?

"Uhhhh… Are you actually going to take off yet?" Blade asked while raising an eyebrow.

"No, I'm just going to wait until you guys are ready to take off, because I don't wanna feel like I'm the only one going." he explained. "So, I think it would be better if you guys took off now so I could catch up to you guys."

"Well this isn't going to be easy, from what I'm seeing…" Luigi trailed as he walked down the slope that soon began to go up. He noticed a speed booster near the slope going up, but he wasn't sure whether to try it out or now.

"Poyo, (Personally, I think using that is a bit risky,)" Kirby stated, receiving a strange look from Luigi. "Poyo… (Oh… Right… You can't understand a word I'm saying… So much for that!)"

"Well, I'm going to take off anyway," Chopper announced as he ran past Luigi and got an extra boost of speed with the speed booster. Luckily, there didn't happen to be any enemies around here, to their relief.

"Gee, I wonder how the Vironoids manage to travel through this…" Sonic wondered as he used the speed booster to follow Chopper through the road.

"I say we simple avoid the speed boosters," Blade announced as he jumped over one. "We're probably going to get our asses handed to us if we trip and start getting dragged along the ground from a freakin' SPEED BOOSTER…"

Mario: Then let's not touch the speed booster.

Kirby, Blade, Mario and Luigi jumped over the speed booster and followed the other two up the slope. It looked kind of like a bumpy road, from what they could see, but they tried their best to catch up.

Of course, Chopper and Sonic already made it over to the door and began to wait impatiently (well, more like Sonic). "Man… How long until those guys get over here?"

"Don't let it get to you, Sonic…" Chopper warned. "It's better that we wait. If that doesn't work, then we'll just go find them and carry them back here. Sound like a good idea to you?"

"I'd rather do that."

* * *

**One moment later-**

"It's a good thing we did that, right, Sonic?" Chopper smiled as they all got to the door. Sonic only mumbled to himself as they walked into the next area, where they saw a huge, bottomless pit, but a couple of green beams of light to jump over to.

"What? How the HELL does this road end here?!" Blade gaped.

"I don't think the road's over," Luigi predicted as he pointed to the path past the bottomless pit. "We just need to cross these beams of light if we're going to head on over there… _I think…_"

"Well, I'd rather not question these answers. Let's move!" Sonic jumped to the first beam of light and tried to jump to the next. Luigi, on the other hand, noticed a little something between the second and third beam. There was some kind of platform with a Vironoid standing on it.

"Hey… I see a Vironoid up there!"

"What? !" Blade climbed up to the top of the second beam and pulled a couple of shurikens out. He threw them straight at the Vironoid to knock it off the platform. While it fell, Mario whipped his hammer out and bashed the Vironoid, defeating it with ease.

Mario: I think it dropped something!

Indeed it did. An Ultimate Shroom Shake happened to appear right in Mario's hands when he caught it. He decided to put it somewhere safe so nobody could make him drop it and jumped to the next beam of light.

"Yeesh… I never knew we would have to do a lot of climbing here…" Chopper trailed as he jumped from beam to beam. After a little while, they reached the road and saw the flat pathway led to a door.

"Poyo… (I don't like it around here…)" Kirby trailed, eyeing the area for anything suspicious. "Poyo. (For some reason, I feel that there's a presence around here. I'm not sure what it is.)"

_"Kirby doesn't seem to have a good look on his face…" _Timpani mentioned. _"Perhaps you should check and see what's around here with my powers, Chopper? You might find something…"_

"If Kirby's right, then I'll do it," Chopper flashed Timpani's wand around the area, but he didn't find anything too suspicious. Even from looking up at the sky, there didn't appear to be squat.

"Well there doesn't appear to be anything here…"

"Poyo? (Have you checked a little further?)" Kirby asked.

Chopper gave a shrug and decided to walk on ahead, holding Timpani's wand in front of him. Surprisingly, he happened to spot two invisible Vironoids that were somehow trying to stay hidden to make a surprise attack.

_"There are two Vironoids here… But why were they invisible?" _Timpani questioned. _"Well, maybe those questions are better off not being answered. Let me make them visible for you guys…"_

Once they were visible, the two Vironoids immediately attacked, firing missiles from their backs at the heroes. Luigi jumped out of the way and stomped on the first Vironoid, while Kirby fired a charged laser at the second.

"I think I know what to do here!" Chopper smirked as he held Starbow up. "Perhaps some raining stars should be able to take them down! Ha HA!"

Starbow began to spin around vertically as she summoned a bunch of shooting stars to rain down on the two Vironoids. After a couple of hits from the stars, they were incinerated in a strange manner.

"Wait, so Starbow can incinerate enemies?" Sonic gaped. "But how?"

"I think it's because stars are incredibly hot," Luigi explained. "At least, that's what Flyer told me when I was speaking to him a little bit."

"When were you talking to him?" Chopper asked while tilting his head.

"A couple of minutes ago. Since we're both considered to be 'sidekicks', we decided to speak to each other. You know, I'm my bro's sidekick and he's your sidekick, Chopper."

"But I don't treat him like a sidekick… I never considered him to be one either…"

"Ummmmmm… Yeah, I think we should go now…" Blade trailed, walking over to the door ahead. "We still need to continue this road, and the only way to do that is to stop talking about this kind of stuff and go!"

"…All right, I guess we can do that," Sonic nodded as he ran over to the door ahead. Once they entered, they came across an area with another bottomless pit. But, there was something else different when they got to the edge.

A glowing green road appeared right in front of them and extended far out. Chopper gaped, but decided to take a little run on the road with a Speed Dash. But they had to be careful because this was actually like those other floors they've seen in the beginning of this world.

"Don't attack the road," Chopper warned as he looked back.

"Well, maybe we should worry about them too," Blade said, pointing at the three Super Dark Soldiers holding their blasters. "Who would've thought that we'd run into these guys? How long has it been?"

"Poyo… (Not too long, actually…)" Kirby sighed.

"Put your hands where I see 'em!" the first Super Dark Soldier roared, despite not really having a mouth.

"Listen, if you even TRY to fight us on this road, then you're probably going to get us screwed," Chopper warned, getting in a fighting stance. "Heck, if I threw a fire or ice ball, it could do something to the floor!"

"And what will happen, exactly? Huh? Oh, whatever. We're gonna kill you instead!" the second Super Dark Soldier fired, causing Chopper to duck like a pancake and avoid the attack with ease. The laser hit a part of the green road and turned that part yellow.

"See? You do that, we're doomed. All of us." Blade warned.

"Well that's fine. We don't have to hit the bridge. All we have to do is shoot you guys!" Both of them fired their weapons, but Blade managed to spin his katana around to deflect the shots back at them, leaving them stunned. Kirby threw Crystaline at them afterwards to freeze them.

"Poyo! (Quickly! Let's go before they thaw!)" Kirby cried as he jumped over the Super Dark Soldiers. Everyone followed him as the two Super Dark Soldiers were about to thaw out. When they reached the other side, they turned around to see if they thawed out.

They were already coming towards them.

"Yipe! They've thawed out already? ! But why so soon? !" Luigi gaped.

Mario: Maybe we should destroy this road?

"Wait… What are you…" Mario pulled his hammer out and began to bash the glowing green road (only one portion of it was yellow). It changed to a yellow color, then a red, and then it got shattered.

And it just so happened that the two Super Dark Soldiers were actually on that portion of the road.

"Oh, crap…"

"See ya!" Chopper wave goodbye to the two Super Dark Soldiers as they fell to their doom and incinerated. "Wait… So if you fall off, you get incinerated by something like THAT? ! That's kind of gruesome…"

"Well, we can't do much about it. We should just move on, in my opinion." Blade walked over to the little tunnel that was up ahead, but it was suddenly blocked by a green barrier.

"Oh, come on! This again?!"

"Dude, just relax. All you have to do is hit it a couple of times and it'll break." Sonic assured, hitting it with a Spin Jump. After jumping back, Blade decided to hit it with his sword, which turned it red.

Kirby instantly destroyed the barrier with one small laser, allowing them to head through the tunnel that was part of Vironoid Road. There happened to be two red Security Drones that were surrounded by a small little green spark.

"These guys again? I don't think we've seen them for a while." Luigi recalled.

_"Just remember that you can't jump on them, or else you'll take damage," _Unfortunately, it was too late for Timpani. Chopper already tried to jump on it and ended up taking damage because its top was pointy. However, instead of getting angry, she giggled a little bit.

"Hey! It's not that funny!" Chopper frowned, hearing Timpani's giggling.

_"It's not my fault you pulled off something like that without listening to me," _Of course, Chopper got burned by a wand.

"Yeah, the narrator's right. You got burned." Sonic stated.

Chopper nearly mumbled to himself as he tossed a fireball from behind and struck the first Security Drone, splitting it into two yellow ones. Blade threw a shuriken at the first yellow drone while Kirby shot a laser at the second one, splitting them into four green Security Drones.

"This looks simple!" Luigi grabbed a hold of Bonjourang and threw him at all four green Security Drones. They ended up getting destroyed, and not to mention that Bonjourang also hit the other red Security Drone, splitting it into two yellow Security Drones.

"I think I might have an idea!" Chopper announced, snapping his finger while a light bulb formed over his head. Grabbing Starbow, he held her up and made shooting stars rain down on the two yellow Security Drones. When they split into green ones, they were instantly incinerated.

"HA! Now that's what I wanted to see!"

"Keep dreaming about doing that to Tipral…" Blade snickered.

"I don't actually WANT to destroy him. I pretty much have no choice…" Chopper trailed as he hurried on ahead. They saw a yellow ? block and also a Vironoid patrolling the tunnel. He pulled his hammer out and bashed the Vironoid with ease, defeating it. Afterwards, he hit the yellow ? block and saw a Super Shroom come out.

"Poyo! (A Super Shroom! That's nice to see!)" Kirby squealed as Blade cut it into six pieces for all six of them. They all recovered 20 HP after eating it and hurried on to the door ahead to the next area.

"Whoa, look at that over there… Is that supposed to be a searchlight?" Sonic asked, pointing off at the distance. Over by another bottomless pit, there happened to be a large searchlight. "It's kind of strange, if you ask me…"

"Let's find out!" Chopper decided to walk over to the edge of the ground until he was stopped by some sort of worm-like creature that rose from the ground. Chopper decided to investigate it with Timpani's wand.

_"That's a Dark Worm. It's some kind of large monster-like alien that might come out of a Dark Bull's egg… Max HP is 68. Attack is 12. Defense is 3. These worms tend to spit out some sort of purplish flame that could burn you and deal much more damage than normal fire. Also, at some points, they tend to burrow underground to avoid taking damage, so you might want to be careful when fighting them…" _Timpani informed.

"Great… We've gotta deal with a giant worm… As if the Hellspawn Worms weren't enough…" Chopper groaned, freezing its mouth with a charged ice ball as soon as it opened its mouth.

"Nice! Now I'll make the next move!" Sonic curled into a ball and struck the Dark Worm's mouth with a Homing Attack. "I suppose its weak spot is meant to be its mouth… Kind of odd, if you ask me."

"Not to mention that the Dark Bull's weak spot was technically its eye."

"Dark Bull? Have we ever seen anything like that around here?" Luigi asked.

"No, we haven't," Sonic responded while shaking his head. "At least, you guys haven't. I believe only Chopper and I have witnessed that kind of enemy. But let's stop talking, 'cause this thing isn't done yet."

When the Dark Worm regained conscience, it fired a purple flame at Kirby and Blade, leaving a nasty burn on them. However, Luigi managed to get under its head and finish it off with a Super Jump before it could burrow underground.

"Wahoo! That showed it!" Luigi smiled.

Mario: Now we just need to figure out how we're going to move on from here…

"Yeah, Mario's right," Chopper agreed while nodding. "We need to see how we can cross this large pit… Hmmmmmmm… Maybe that searchlight can help us with what we need to do. Timpani, what do you have to say?"

_"Well, I don't think you'll be able to use my powers to reach that thing… You might need someone else's help. Someone who's intelligent…" _Timpani pondered.

"Flyer! …Or C-2 Choppor!"

Chopper pulled his communicator out and got in contact with Flyer. When he turned it on, he saw Flyer's face was a bit TOO close to the screen. "Holy… Why do I see large eyes on my screen? !"

_"Whaa…? Oh! Whoops! I think my face is a little too far from the communicator!" _Flyer chuckled sheepishly. _"Sorry about that, Chopper… Now, what is it that you need? Does it require my help?"_

"We need to know about some kind of searchlight up ahead," Luigi explained, looking down at Flyer through Chopper's communicator.

_"Searchlight? Hmmmmmmm…" _Flyer pondered for a second. _"Since you're in cyberspace, things work out differently… To be honest, I've never been through cyberspace before, so I don't think I'll be able to explain the details to you."_

_"I think it'll take you over to where the searchlight is," _Heartsy confirmed, her voice being overheard through the communicator.

_"What? That's ridiculous! There's no way that that would happen!" _Bow disagreed, putting her stubby hands on her "hips" (if she has any).

_"I think you're just saying that because you don't like me for liking Chopper, is that it?"_

_"You're calling me a liar now?" _Bow's eyes looked rather infuriating at this point, but then Parakarry stepped in and broke up the little fight.

_"Both of you stop! Heartsy, where did you even get this information? And Bow, let Heartsy explain." _Parakarry suggested.

"_Well, I remember a friend from Sand Town telling me about something she saw about searchlights being used as a transporter, if that's anything important," _Heartsy explained. _"Kind of odd, but one of my friends happened to know about something like that."_

"Hold on... Where did she get that information?" Chopper wondered.

_"I don't know. I was never told."_

"I don't know if I necessarily believe that..." Sonic trailed. "Your friend may have been lying..."

_"She is correct," _C-2 Choppor confirmed, causing everyone to suddenly gape.

_"You know she's right? But how?" _Vivian asked.

"Look, let's not get into too many questions about this," Chopper suggested. "I'd just like to use that…searchlight or whatever it is and move on ahead. I'll contact you guys later."

With that, he turned off his communicator and jumped right in the sight of the searchlight. He was somehow transported over to the searchlight where the red platform was and landed on the path ahead. When everyone else reached him, they walked over to the end of the path, where they saw another beam of light.

"So… Who's going down first?" Blade asked, looking at the silent group. "Anyone…? …Fine, I'll do it."

They all gave him a confused look and followed him down the beam of light, where they found a pathway below the road they were on and also a light-speed circuit pad. It happened to be a red color.

"Poyo… (So much for this place being called Vironoid Road…)" Kirby trailed.

"Meh, it's no big deal, you know…" Chopper trailed as he got himself ready to jump off the beam of light. "The good thing is that we were able to use a searchlight to get over to here, which is kind of strange considering that that's not something searchlights would normally do…"

"Well, let's get going then," Sonic suggested as Chopper jumped onto the light-speed circuit with everyone holding onto each other's arm (because holding each other's hand seems a bit more awkward).

"Here we…" Chopper was unfortunate to finish his sentence as they simply took off with ease. This circuit had a couple of firewalls, so they had to go into 3-D to avoid some of them.

"Great… More firewalls. This is going to be a long travel…"

"What? More firewalls? ! Then we need to avoid them! Quickly!" Luigi cried, forcing Chopper to move over to the right to avoid the firewall. Unfortunately, he had to move to the left when he saw another one ahead.

"OK, I think we should be just fine for now…" That was, until he ran right into a firewall, causing everyone to take some serious damage. But, luckily, the light-speed circuit was actually close to being finished.

Mario: We can't be too distracted!

_"Maybe it's best that we don't argue to talk to each other through these light-speed circuits…" _Timpani trailed. _"I think you guys are taking these thing WAY too far for some reason…"_

"Don't worry, we're almost there!" Chopper smiled as they reached a new area that wasn't necessarily that big. The blue road was kind of short, but there were three Vironoids guarding this area.

"Did Waldo say that this would be some sort of shortcut?" Blade asked, rubbing his head.

"Hmmmmmm…" Sonic looked up at a sign with a red glowing 'Vironoid Road' on it, indicating that they're still on the road. "Well, I guess we're still on Vironoid Road… Which is weird, because this isn't much of a road to me."

"Poyo! (Heads up! Vironoids at ten o'clock!)" Kirby warned, charging a laser and firing it straight at the Vironoid in the middle. It tried to charge at Kirby again, but he kept holding it back with smaller lasers. That is, until it fired missiles from its back and knocked Kirby away.

"Don't worry, I'll finish it off," Blade jumped behind the Vironoid and sliced its legs a couple of times, leaving it unable to move. With that, he finished it off with a fire slash, disintegrating it into smoke.

"Hold on… How come every enemy we beat disintegrates?" Chopper asked, only to receive shrugs. "No, really… I'm kind of curious about that."

His friends didn't answer, due to being too distracted with fighting the Vironoids. So… He whipped his hammer out and hit the first Vironoid with an ice smash, leaving it frozen for a tiny bit. That is, until Mario hit it with a Ground Pound.

While it was dazed from Mario's Ground Pound, Luigi finished the enemy off by using his Cyclone attack to send it flying away. Now only one more Vironoid remained, and Sonic was sure keeping it busy.

"Heh heh heh! Man, you can't even hit me!" Sonic grinned, dodging the Vironoid's claws with ease. "See? I'm too fast for you!"

"Sonic, let's not get to the taunting… How about we…" Chopper paused when Sonic got grabbed by the Vironoid and got hit by a couple of missiles it fired from its back. But before Sonic could get squeezed to death, Kirby fired a charged laser at its arm, cutting it off.

"Whoa… That was too close…" the blue hedgehog sighed in relief, thanking Kirby afterwards, who gave him a cute little smile and a nod.

"Yipe! Look at that!" Luigi yelped, pointing at the Vironoid, whose arm began to regenerate. "Its arm just grew back! H-How are we supposed to beat it now at this state? !"

Luigi cowered behind Mario, who sighed and hit the Vironoid with Kickbrin. Chopper finished off the enemy by simply stomping on it. It also happened to drop an Ultimate Shroom Shake as well.

"I'll take that," Chopper said as he grabbed the Ultimate Shroom Shake and put it away. Now all that was left was another light-speed circuit pad. They COULD go back the other way, but it wasn't necessary. When they all got together, Chopper stepped on the light-speed circuit pad and they were off.

Except that this wasn't a big one like the other. It was almost like a tunnel with a bunch of red lights surrounding it. Kind of interesting, but it didn't last too long when they reached the next area.

In the background, they could see many orange lasers being held within capsules, and they also saw a large doorway up ahead. The only thing they had to worry about here were two Super Dark Swordsmen and a Dark Worm that rose from the ground.

"This should be easy," Blade grinned, drawing his katana and getting ready to attack one of the Super Dark Swordsmen. He managed to hit one of them and defeat it with ease with a couple of slashes.

"OK… That was interesting." Chopper commented. He happened to notice a Computer Drone floating around here, so what he did was inhale it and grab a hold of the Plasma ability once again.

"Man! I haven't had this in quite a while!"

With the Plasma ability in his hands, he began to run in place so he could create a plasma barrier around him. With that, he fired a Plasma Wave directly at the Super Dark Swordsmen and the Dark Worm. They were all defeated – except for the Dark Worm.

"OK, I guess that takes care of two of the enemies here…" Blade trailed. "But that Dark Worm just burrowed back into the ground!"

"How can that thing burrow in the ground when this ground isn't even made of dirt?" Luigi asked.

"The world may never know…" Sonic trailed as they felt a slight shaking coming from the ground. The Dark Worm rose once again and spat some purple flames at the heroes. Sonic, on the other hand, brought Reflecto up and reflected the attack back at the Dark Worm, burning it down.

"Hold on… I thought that only works for lasers or rays?" Chopper gawked.

"I thought the same thing, Chopper, but I don't get it either…"

"Poyo, (I'd worry about that later,)" Kirby suggested as he walked over to the edge of the floor. He noticed a couple of glowing green platforms get created because of this. When everyone got to him, he said that they should be extra cautious here.

"Wait… I didn't understand what Kirby said." Blade spoke up.

"He said that we have to be cautious here," Chopper translated. "You know, those green platforms are pretty much why we need to be extra careful here…"

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Luigi agreed. "We DO need to be careful when it comes to this kind of stuff… Maybe I should be the first one to go so nothing bad happens to us…"

Mario: I think that's a good idea.

"I'll follow him next," Chopper announced as Luigi began to jump on the platforms. What was bad, though, was that there were some Super Dark Bats flying around, making this a bit…annoying.

"Hold on, I got those!" Sonic used his classic Homing Attack to hit each of the Super Dark Bats and destroy them with one hit. Afterward he landed on the platforms and followed the rest of the group across to the doorway – only to have it blocked by another green barrier.

"Hold on, I think I can do something about this," Chopper simply fired his Plasma Needle upon the barrier to break it. The only problem, however, was that he only destroyed a small little portion that he could only fit through.

"Poyo, (At least both of us can walk through it,)" Kirby said.

Mario simply sighed and used Kickbrin to hit the barrier to destroy it. That allowed everyone to head into the doorway, but they happened to find another red Security Drone as well.

"Great… Another one of these…" Sonic sighed as he hit it with a Homing Attack, splitting it into two yellow ones. When Blade tossed his shurikens at them, Kirby finished off the green ones with his charged laser.

"Well, there's the door up ahead," Chopper smiled as he walked up to the door and entered into another area. They were all standing on a purple cube platform and saw a green beam of light dead ahead.

Everyone shrugged and let themselves slide down the beam until they landed on the ground with the red lights inside the glass. Unfortunately, just as they thought they would reach the doorway, two lasers connecting from the floor and ceiling were blocking their way.

"Aw, crap. Now we gotta get past these lasers…" Blade groaned while smacking his forehead.

"This is easy! All we have to do is use Slim!" Chopper frowned. "If you really don't want to do it, then it just shows that you're being one lazy bum. Oh, I'm being serious here, Blade, because we're…"

"Yeah, yeah. We get it already. Let's just use Slim and get past these lasers."

With that, everyone turned sideways with Slim's power and let the lasers pass by them while standing still. It was very difficult for everyone to see each other while turned sideways, especially when you're standing completely still. But, they really had no other choice…

After getting past the lasers, they ran into another green barrier, blocking them from continuing through the smaller doorway. Chopper tried punching the door, but it didn't necessarily turn it yellow.

_"I think I see it now…" _Timpani realized. _"You need to hit it a couple of times if you're going to turn it to a different color. So, you might want to use stronger attacks against it…"_

Mario smashed it instantly with his hammer, allowing them to move on, but they were stopped by, once again, another barrier. Blade threw Hommissile at it and shattered the entire thing.

"See? This is why our Pixls need to be used more." Blade stated.

"Yeah, I guess I can agree with that… Although it's getting REALLY annoying with these walls appearing… Can't we have a break of them?" Chopper asked as he ran into another green wall blocking the way of a door.

"Ummmmmm… I don't feel safe here…" Luigi shivered, looking around in this little tunnel area. "I feel a presence here…"

_"I feel one too… Maybe there's a hidden Vironoid here." _Indeed Timpani was correct. Chopper discovered a hidden Vironoid in this place. Timpani made it visible so he could run up to it and kick it in the face with a flaming kick.

"Man, you really wanted to do that, didn't you?" Sonic asked.

"You bet I did!" the Star Warrior said proudly.

"I guess I should finish it…" Luigi trailed as he attacked the Vironoid with his Cyclone attack. While it was dazed in this state, he crouched down and used a Super Jump to uppercut the Vironoid and defeat it once and for all.

"Nice job, Luigi! You really showed that thing!" Sonic complimented.

"Gee… Thanks!"

Right after Luigi finished the Vironoid, Kirby was finished destroying the barrier, allowing them to walk into the door ahead. It ended up taking them to an area where they saw a circular platform past a small bottomless pit, but they had some lasers and a Security Drone to worry about first.

"To be honest, do you think it's bad that we're pretty much destroying the security around here?" Chopper asked.

"Nah, I think it's not too bad," Blade slashed at the Security Drone and defeated its doppelgangers as well. Afterwards, they used Slim's ability to get past the lasers and jump over the small gap to the next platform that seemed to be glowing red.

"What do we do now?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Look at that!

Mario pointed above them, where they saw that there was another beam of light. But this one seemed to be pointing horizontally and was moving upward. One would appear every five seconds and would disappear when it reached the top of the wall.

"Poyo? (Could we use that to go up?)" Kirby asked.

"Why don't we try it out for ourselves?" Chopper suggested as he grabbed the beam closest to him and allowed himself to get carried up. Everyone grabbed the next one and waited until they found a ledge of a large doorway to grab a hold of. After pulling themselves up, they were introduced to two new types of Vironoids. They had red armor instead of orange and fired this large red laser beam from its mouth at them.

"Holy…!" Sonic grabbed a hold of Reflecto and reflected the laser back at the Red Vironoid, which is what they got from Timpani. From what they heard from her, they're the strongest of the Vironoids.

"Wow… She's not kidding when she said they're the toughest." Chopper commented as he stomped on the other Red Vironoid a couple of times. "They can really take some serious damage from my stomps!"

"Poyo? (Why not use some plasma attacks?)" Kirby suggested.

"…Oh yeah," he formed a spark barrier around him and electrocuted the Red Vironoid enough so that it would be defeated. The other got defeated when Blade finished it off with a fire slash.

"Aw, yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' about, baby!" Blade fist pumped as the Red Vironoid disintegrated into smoke. They decided to carry on until a small barrier blocked their way. Luckily, they could simply jump over it and walk into the door ahead, leading to a larger area.

"Man, how many places do we need to go anyways?" Luigi asked. "In fact, why do they call this Vironoid Road?"

"Beats me. I bet they were just lazy with coming up with a name." Chopper predicted. "But never mind that. I thought I just saw a small staircase that was created by those green glowing platforms."

Indeed there was. They simply walked up them without having to attack anything and reached a red orange platform with orange lights in the glass. They DID notice a little something in 3-D, however, so Chopper flipped into 3-D and found a platform to their right to jump on.

After going back into 2-D, they saw another beam of light moving upward for them to grab, but were stopped when they saw a Dark Worm rise up.

"Geez… Don't these Vironoids know that there are Dark Creatures in here?" Sonic gawked. "It's almost if they don't care that much…"

"I think we saw some Vironoids knock two Dark Creatures off a platform before…" Chopper recalled as he paralyzed the Dark Worm with a Plasma Blast. This allowed Sonic to attack it multiple times with a Spin Jump before destroying it. A small amount of green blood appeared almost like vapor before disappearing.

"Poyo? (That seriously comes out of those things?)" Kirby gagged.

"I didn't like it either, but I guess we can't do much about it," Chopper said as he grabbed a hold of the beam and allowed it to carry him up. When they jumped off, they landed on a pathway that had a couple of small purple cubes on some pedestals and they also happened to notice a searchlight up ahead. From where they were standing, they could see its glare.

"Ooh! Another searchlight!" Blade gaped as he jumped and allowed the searchlight to take them over to it. When they landed on the ground past the searchlight, they saw another entrance to a light-speed circuit.

"Cool! Another one of these!" Chopper smiled as they all got ready to go through. He flipped into 3-D so they could all see what was around them. This time, he got himself ready to dodge the firewalls.

"I wonder how long we'll be through here…" Luigi wondered.

* * *

**One light-speed circuit later-**

"Poyo… (Whoa, that was intense…)" Kirby gaped as they landed on a blue platform. They noticed that there were glowing red springs at a certain angle. Of course, they needed to use those in order to move on.

"Oh, this should be easy," Sonic declared as he used the springs to launch himself up to the edge of a cliff. Everyone followed him up there to find a Red Vironoid and a green barrier blocking the way ahead.

However, instead of attacking the Red Vironoid, Mario used Thoreau to grab the enemy and throw it straight at the barrier, shattering the entire thing. He even threw it at two more Red Vironoids past that shattered barrier, taking them out instantly.

"Wow, I never knew we'd be able to get through that," Chopper gawked as they walked out of that tunnel area and into an area that was much, much bigger and filled with Vironoids and Red Vironoids. Past them was another searchlight.

_"I suppose that that Waldo person wasn't lying about this place having more security further through this place…" _Timpani blinked.

_"You might want to be extra cautious here, too…" _suggested Blumiere.

"Oh, I've got a perfect idea!" Chopper smiled as he began to run in place for a couple of seconds until he was surrounded by another electric barrier. Without saying anything else, he fired a Plasma Wave at all of the Vironoids blocking the way. Some of them were paralyzed, but they weren't finished.

"Poyo! (That didn't even finish them!)" Kirby shouted.

"Then… Then… OK, I've got a better idea." he held Starbow up and made stars rain down on all of the Vironoids. Since they were low on HP from that attack, they were all incinerated.

"Whew… That was close!"

"…That didn't even make sense!" Blade gaped. "You're able to kill an army with just ONE Pixl?!"

"Guess so…"

"…Well, I guess that's better than nothing. Let's just use that searchlight and get the hell out of here." But, before Blade could even get to the searchlight, there were still three Security Drones to worry about.

"More of these guys?!" Luigi gaped. "How many of these guys do we have to deal with?!"

"Well it doesn't really matter. Let's take these guys down." Chopper said as he bashed one of them with his hammer, making one split into two yellow ones. Of course, this was basically the same procedure over and over again, so Chopper just took them out with Starbow's ability.

"Good thing that her ability can take care of a lot of enemies around us," Sonic said, sighing in relief.

Mario: I can agree!

"Nice work, hero people!" the heroes looked over by the huge chasm, where they saw a large gunship with a couple of Computernoids holding on. Colonel Disk was one of the people holding on.

"Where've you been?" Blade asked.

"And how come you never let us join the gunship?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Well… Uh… Er… It's 'cause we didn't have enough room!" Colonel Disk stammered. "Sorry 'bout that, fellas."

"Uhhhh… We see plenty of space in there…" Luigi trailed.

"He's onto us, Colonel!"

"Quit yappin', H-85!" the colonel shouted before turning back to the heroes. …AHEM! Anyways… There's a little meeting point that we want you guys to meet us so we can head over to the towers."

"Oh, that'll be easy! We've taken care of these Vironoids around here, so I'm sure it won't be any different there!" Sonic assured.

"That's what you think, hero… But when you get there, you'll see that it's a huge war. A WAR! You'll see explosions everywhere, and you might even witness the devastation of the Vironoid race!"

"So we're exterminating an entire race?" Chopper gawked. "…Meh. I've done that before. Those Hellspawns are history."

"Or ARE they…?" Blade raised an eyebrow.

"Dude, you saw them. There were NONE left."

"You know, I can't help but feel that there may be some remaining…" Sonic trailed.

"OK, let's stop talking about this and get back to the main subject," Chopper suggested as he turned back to Colonel Disk. "So, where is this meeting point, exactly?"

"Oh, it's a little bit further ahead, but it's right by a huge chasm where you can't even see what's ahead," Colonel Disk explained. "It's almost like the entire ocean…of cyberspace. Anyways, we'll see you later, all right?"

"Wait! I need to ask one more thing!" It was too late. The gunship took off and left them behind. "Dang it… I can't believe they just left us here."

"So what do we do now?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Move on?

"Poyo, (That sounds reason,)" Kirby nodded as the searchlight took them all the way to a light-speed circuit. There were two Red Vironoids, but they easily took care of them and hit a yellow ? block to find an Ultra Shroom. After gorging on it, they took the light-speed circuit out of this area.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Guys! There it is!" Chopper cried, pointing to the Star Block ahead. "We've finally made it to the end of this chapter!"

"Yeah! It's about time!" Blade smirked.

"Oh, really? You honestly believe you're moving on?!"

"Hold on… I remember that voice… Oh, for eff's sake. Do we REALLY have to do this now?!"

Knife landed right in front of the heroes, blocking their way to the Star Block. Everyone but Luigi got in a fighting stance.

"Oh, great... Just what we needed. Another mini-boss before the end of the chapter!"

"Wait a minute… Who IS this guy?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"He's my brother, Knife… And he's definitely not friendly."

"But how did he get HERE?!" Chopper asked.

"Maybe I should explain how I got out of the sky and into that mansion…" Knife stated. "You see, I have a little medallion that can help me find where you are. It helps me teleport to that world to find you, Blade. So, instead of looking for you myself, I decided to wait for the moment to ambush you."

"So this is one of the first foes I've met that isn't actually after me."

"I don't even know you, kid."

"OK, Knife. I see what you want to do. You want to fight us, right?" Blade walked up to his brother and prepared to reach for his katana. Instead, he simply kicked him in the shin. "Well we don't have time to deal with you!"

Knife simply hissed before grabbing a hold of his brother and looking at him with his threatening eyes. "So, you want to chicken out on the fight? How pathetic. I thought you were more honorable than that."

"Who really cares about honor?" Chopper said as he shrugged. "You know what's more honorable than fighting your brother? Helping an army take down an entire race of viruses that want to infect the universe!"

"I don't care if you're out to help an army. I made a vow to defeat you, Blade, and I won't hesitate to kill you!"

"Well, I'm sure that's why you're here!" Blade frowned.

"All right, then… Let's see if you've got what it takes!" Knife let go of Blade and readied his katana, while Blade drew his, ready to fight against him. The fight started with Blade rushing at his brother.

"Take this!" Unfortunately, Knife managed to block his attack and slash him with his katana instead, hurting Blade. Luckily, the blue cat managed to toss a couple of shurikens that stabbed Knife's chest, making him screech.

"So… What do we do now?" Luigi asked, confused.

"We fight," Sonic stated, curling up into a ball and striking Knife with a Spin Dash, knocking him to the ground. But, even though he managed to get a hit on him, Knife managed to push him off and kick him in the chest, knocking him back.

"Don't think this battle will be like before!" Knife hissed, speeding towards Sonic and slashing him with his katana. But before he could use his finishing blow, he was suddenly electrocuted.

By Chopper, of course.

"Don't even think about it," Chopper growled, clenching his fists as Knife slowly got up and turned to him.

"You made a stupid choice for attacking me, you know, kid," Knife grinned, getting ready to charge at him. "Perhaps I should teach you a little lesson!"

"Nope!" he said innocently as he surrounded himself in a spark shield, shocking Knife. Chopper simply laughed at him before he was struck by Knife's katana, knocking his Plasma ability away.

"Hey!"

"That should get rid of that stupid ability…" Knife trailed as he was about to turn back to Blade. Unfortunately, he got bashed in the head by Mario, followed by Blade, who jumped in front of him and slashed him with his katana.

"Oomph! Not bad, brother! Although that was a bit of a cowardly move to join in with your friend…"

"How was that cowardly? I was HELPING him!" Blade growled, blocking Knife's attack and kicking him in the shin, allowing him to slash him another time. Knife screeched and tried to hit him with a shuriken, but the blue cat ducked and allowed Chopper to inhale it and gain the Ninja ability.

"Thanks, red guy! That was very appreciative!" Chopper smiled as he was about to attack with his kunai knife, but was interrupted when Knife got struck by a charged laser coming from Kirby's visor.

"Hey! I was going to attack!"

"Poyo, (I wanted to attack too, you know,)" Kirby said.

"You people are being a nuisance. I've only come here for Blade!" Knife hissed as he knocked Mario away with his katana. However, this only got Luigi a bit angered.

"Hey! Don't you hurt my big bro like that!" Luigi cried, used his Cyclone attack and send Knife flying up. He also added his Super Jump to the mix to uppercut him and send him flying to the ground. Luigi finished off with one more stomp before clenching his fists in anger.

"That's the last time you ever hurt my bro!"

"Oh, really?" Knife grabbed a hold of Luigi and banged his head into his head, knocking him to the ground. Blade gasped and slashed at his brother's back, making him turn his attention back to him.

"Cheap move, brother… But let's see how you deal with this!" Knife got ready to strike his brother with a fire slash, but even his younger brother used a fire slash to counter. Both katanas clashed each time as they swung.

"Hold on… This might be a chance for me to investigate this guy!" Chopper realized, pulling Timpani's wand out and investigating him.

_"That's Knife the Cat. He's the older brother of Blade the Cat, and he sure dislikes him a lot… Max HP is 230. Attack is 12. Defense is 4. He's got a lot of Blade's moves, so if you know what kinds of attacks Blade pulls off, you might know how to fight him. Just like before, he'll use a lot of fast attacks involving ninja moves, such as his katana and shurikens. However, there might be a way to counter his moves… But the question is… What could you use?" _Timpani informed.

"Well… I can always attack Knife from behind. I know that he'll call it 'cowardly', but dang it! I need to help my friend!" Chopper tossed his kunai knife straight at Knife, but he saw it coming and turned around, blocking the knife with his katana.

"You foolish little boy… Did you honestly think that a butter knife could defeat me?" Knife spat.

"I can still do this," Chopper, using his speed, managed to kick Knife in the face with an ice kick and then grabbed a hold of him. "Let's see how you enjoy a little ride! You might like it, in my eyes!"

_"Chopper, what are you…" _Chopper jumped up high while holding Knife and brought him down headfirst with his Air Drop attack, leaving the ninja dazed. This allowed Luigi to throw Bonjourang at him and for Sonic to hit him with a Homing Attack.

"Face it, Knife. You shouldn't fight us." Blade suggested. "It's six against one. You're going to lose."

"I may be outnumbered, but I sure do have a lot more HP than you guys!" Knife grinned, slashing Blade's legs to knock him over and attempting to attack Chopper, who pulled a small katana out and blocked his attack.

"You call that a katana?! HA! I'd even consider you an embarrassment of a ninja!"

"You may think that, but when I copy an ability, I inherit the skills of it! Watch this!" Chopper made a couple of signs with his fingers, but Knife took no time at all and brought his katana down on Chopper.

Except he simply disintegrated.

"Wait… What just happened?"

"Right behind you!" Knife felt someone tap his shoulder and turned around, only to get slashed in the chest by Chopper's katana.

"Wow… How come I've never done that before?" Blade gawked. "…Oh! That's right! I've completely forgotten about that!"

Chopper tried to throw a ninja star at Knife, but he simply threw a shuriken to counter it and knock both to the ground.

"Fuujin no Jutsu! Take this!" Knife unleashed his wind attack (a.k.a. the Technique of the God), making Chopper, Sonic and Blade get knocked back by the powerful wind. Kirby, however, took this time to attack and fired a charged laser from his visor at Knife, stunning him for a couple of seconds.

"You little…!" Knife turned around and threw a shuriken, but Mario gripped his hammer and bashed it away. Afterwards, he performed a Triple Jump and landed on top of Knife's head to deal some extra damage.

Mario: Come on, Luigi!

"Well, I guess I have no other choice," Luigi rushed over to Knife and dodged his katana while stomping on his head. While he was dazed, he used his Cyclone attack to send him flying up and use a Super Jump to knock him to the ground.

"Poyo! Poyo! (Yeah! Now we're showing him!)" Kirby cheered.

"And this is probably the first time I've heard you go 'Poyo' twice…" Blade trailed as he slowly got up from the wind attack. He noticed how beaten he was and scarred from Knife's attacks. "Ugh… I don't look too good."

"I hear ya," Chopper agreed, brushing himself. He had a couple of bruises, but that's about it. They were pretty bad, though…

"Wait, I think the others are taking care of him," Sonic noticed, seeing Kirby throw Crystaline at Knife, freezing him in place.

"I know just what to do!" Blade smirked as he got up. He rushed straight at Knife and attacked him with a fire slash, unfreezing him. However, this got him punched in the face by his older brother.

"Now, where were we, brother?" Knife brought his sword down on Blade, but he disintegrated into a log. "What the hell? ! Great… YOU do this too?!"

"Heh heh heh! Man, you suck, Knife!" Blade attacked from behind from an angle, making Knife cringe in pain. "Yeah, I got you good, didn't I?"

"Hmph… Not bad, brother! But let's see you handle this!" Knife made a couple of signs with his hands and a couple of clones of himself were created. "Now let's see which one's the real me!"

"Crap… Well this sucks."

"Or DOES it?" Chopper said with his eyebrows raised. He held Starbow up and summoned some shooting stars to rain down. Luckily, the stars got all of the clones and disintegrated them into smoke. The real Knife, on the other hand, got pelted by the stars and was left dazed.

"How did you get such an ability like that?" he asked.

"Nowhere special," Chopper slashed him with his small katana and did an uppercut kick with ice energy on his feet before jumping back. At this point, everyone took an Ultra Shroom Shake and recovered 50 HP.

"Man, I needed that!" Luigi said, sighing in relief.

"You won't be living for long now!" Knife hissed, striking Luigi with his katana, knocking him back towards Mario. Kirby, on the other hand, fired a laser at Knife and left him stunned. This allowed Blade to make an extra attack on his brother with his katana.

"Well well well! You're not looking too good, Knife!" Blade smirked while crossing his arms.

"Oh, I still have one more thing left," Knife smirked until Blade threw Hommissile at him, causing him to be struck by an explosion. However, he shook the soot off and threw two shurikens at Blade's chest successfully.

"ACK!" he screeched as he held his chest in pain. He coughed a small amount of blood, making his older brother pleased.

"That's right, brother! Suffer the way you were supposed to!" Knife was about to finish him off until Sonic struck him with a Bounce Attack, followed by two fast Spin Dashes that kept him off guard.

"Ugh! You annoying blue hedgehog! You're keeping me off guard!"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do!" Sonic grinned as he made a cocky pose. That is, until Knife jumped over to him and kicked him in the face, knocking him back. The red cat was about to stab him, but Mario and Luigi came in, with both of them spinning around and landing straight on top of Knife.

"You annoying plumbers! What was that just now?!"

"That was our Super Special Mario Bros. Attack!" Luigi said as both brothers made a pose.

"And that works just fine against you!" Chopper smirked as he jumped down and kicked Knife in the stomach where his wounds were, making him screech. He tried to attack Chopper, but he used his small katana to block his attack and step on his foot, allowing him to slash at his chest and leave a scar on him.

"How am I losing so easily?!" Knife questioned, knocking Chopper back with his katana. When Mario and Luigi ran towards him, he stuck his katana to the around and began to swing around, kicking both Mario and Luigi and knocking them away.

Mario: When did he learn that?

"I have no idea, bro… That's something new, I guess…"

"That's a move I use during an emergency," Knife explained as he knocked Kirby and his ability away. But because of this, Kirby was forced to try to inhale him. "That's not going to help you either!"

Knife stuck his katana to the ground and gripped onto it, preventing himself from going into Kirby's mouth. That's when Kirby gave up and threw Crystaline at him, leaving him as a frozen popsicle.

"Ah! That works just fine!" Blade smirked as he unfroze him by using a flame slash. While Knife was vulnerable, he managed to punch him in the face and use Hommissile to cause an explosion after jumping back.

"And this is how you fight against me? With a missile? ! You know that a real ninja fights with his own weaponry!" Knife scoffed.

"Yeah, I know. Hommissile IS my own weaponry!"

"I mean NINJA weapons!"

"Screw what you think! My sensei never said that I have to fight my foes with only my ninja weapons! He would want me to use whatever I need to defeat you anyways after you KILLED him!"

"…Very well," Knife gripped his katana and got himself ready to dash at Blade. However, Blade didn't seem to do anything for the moment, especially when Knife rushed at him.

And with one slash…Blade turned into a log.

"WHAT?!"

"Heh heh heh! Game over, Knife!" Blade appeared right behind Knife and used one finishing slash to send Knife to the ground, making him give up.

"Ugh… I lose to you yet again?! How could this be?!" Knife asked as he slowly got up and looked at the wounds left on him. He looked at his enemies and at their wounds. "Perhaps… It's best not to question why."

"Yeah, because, in your words, it's 'not honorable'," his brother stated.

"For now, I'll let you go, brother. I don't think in this condition, I'll be strong enough to kill you. But, remember this… Your death will be soon!" With those words, Knife threw a smoke bomb down and disappeared.

"Ack! Did he just throw a smoke bomb?!" Luigi coughed. After the smoke was gone, they didn't see him around.

"Well, there's not much else we can do except for continuing on," Chopper said as he walked over to the Star Block. "Besides, we have to head for the meeting point! That's how we can reach the Pure Heart!"

"Yeah, let's head there!" Blade agreed as Chopper hit the Star Block.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_I don't understand… How did Knife manage to get that medallion? This is getting way too confusing for me!" Blade blabbered as they made it to the end of Vironoid Road. Chopper and Co. had no idea either, but they decided not to speak about that for a while. What was more important was to make it to the meeting point and hopefully put an end to the Vironoids once and for all. For all they knew, they could be saving the universe from being infected by these viruses. "Come on, guys… We're almost there." Chopper announced boldly as they took off._

* * *

**I think I was so into this chapter, that it made me practically write ten pages of this on Microsoft Word each day. I think that's a good way to describe this, and I mean that in a good way. :D**

**And, I know some people might be saying that this story is feeling a bit too light-hearted at the moment after Chapter 8, but trust me. I think it'll mature a little with this next part coming up ahead (I don't mean like it's 18 plus material. I mean like a darker tone). And, honestly, that's probably one of the reasons I think the next part will be even better. :)**

**For now, let's hope this chapter was worth it for some of you.  
**


	86. The Computer Room

**CHAPTER 14-5**

**-The Computer Room-**

"Wow… I can't believe we're actually this far." Chopper gaped as they stopped walking for a minute and took the time to see the background. For now, it looked exactly the same as what it previously looked like in Chapter 14-2, but the lights were more of a red orange instead of a red and the background was actually more of a blackish color from here. It could possibly be because the walls in the distance are too far for them to see? Well, it didn't matter right now.

"I agree with Chopper on that one," Luigi nodded. "I can't believe we've made it this way! Let's hope that the fight against the Vironoid leader isn't too irritating like that fight against Blade's brother."

"Ugh… I can't believe he keeps boasting about the whole thing about being 'honorable' and that crap." Blade groaned after healing the wounds left on Knife. "That always gets so irritating, especially when we fight."

_"Blade, what happened between you and him that caused you both to fight each other?" _Timpani asked.

"You guys honestly want me to bore you with my story? Come on, man! …Oh, whatever, I guess I have no choice." Blade took a deep breath as everyone walked over to him. "Now, you all know about Knife killing my sensei, right?"

"Yeah, we heard about that while we fought your brother," Sonic nodded.

"Well, ever since he met that guy Dark Doom, he 'convinced' him to kill my sensei and turn against me. He told him he would promise him 'greater power' if he ever did so, and that he did. Not to mention he was actually getting tired of how I was acting, and it made it even better when Dark told him he would have to kill his family – which included me. However, I was able to stop him and kill him once and for all. …But now he's back, and wants his revenge. How he got that medallion? I have no idea. Perhaps he got it from someone who brought him back to life…"

"But why would someone like Queen Jaydes want to bring him back to life?" Chopper questioned. "She wouldn't even try to bring him back! …Unless it was done by someone else…"

"Well, I'm not going to let it bother me," Blade stated, giving everyone a bold look. "We need to stop those Vironoids and get a hold of the Pure Heart. I'm sure that's what we need to stop them."

"Then let's get moving," Sonic smirked as they followed the road ahead. Unfortunately, they were stopped by two Red Vironoids that fired a laser beam from their mouth at the group. Sonic pulled Reflecto out and used his ability to reflect the laser back at the Red Vironoid.

"I think with my Ninja ability, I can pierce through their defenses!" Chopper smirked as he gripped his katana and ran towards the first Red Vironoid, slashing it and defeating it with ease.

"See? This works perfectly!"

"Poyo! (I got the other Vironoid!)" Kirby announced as he tossed Crystaline at the enemy and froze it. While it was frozen, he was able to kick it all the way to the wall ahead and shatter it.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Blade grinned. "Although… How are we supposed to get through that wall?"

"Let me see for a minute…" Chopper flipped into 3-D, but he ended up finding the wall to have a crack in it. "You've gotta use Hommissile on it, Blade. That's the only way to get through here."

"Oh! Now that's what I wanted to do!" Blade's ears perked up as he threw Hommissile at the wall and made a hole appear for everyone to walk through – in 3-D, that is.

After walking through the hole, they found a door ahead and headed through into the next area. This one happened to have some purple cubed platforms that were spinning vertically. They seemed to lead up to a red orange platform with a Super Dark Swordsman waiting.

_"Be careful, Chopper… These platforms are spinning unlike the other platforms…" _Timpani warned.

"Don't worry, Timpani! I got this!" Chopper grabbed a hold of the platform, but was unfortunate to fall off. He tried again, but once again, he failed to get on. "…OK, I stand corrected. This is annoying."

"Poyo! (I have an idea!)" Kirby took in some air and began to float over the platforms with ease. This caused Chopper to fall over anime style.

Mario: That's not a bad idea.

"Yeah, but the thing is… How are WE supposed to get up there?" Chopper asked while his face was still on the ground. "I swear… There's gotta be a way for us to get up there easily…without falling."

"I think I can reach the platform easily," Luigi spoke up as he launched himself in the air with his Super Jump. He was able to land on the platform and jump at the right time when it turned to another angle.

"OK, let's try this again," Chopper walked back and then made a dash towards the platform. When he jumped, he crashed into it and fell to the ground. Sonic face palmed as he grabbed Chopper and simply threw him up to Luigi, who caught him and put him on the ground.

"What the… That worked?!"

"Errrr… Yeah! It worked!" Sonic lied. "You sure showed that platform who's boss!"

"Yeah! I definitely di—Wait a minute! You threw me up there, didn't you? I wasn't unconscious, you know!" Chopper frowned, despite being ignored when Sonic, Blade and Mario jumped onto the platform and continued their way up. Chopper shrugged and followed them up just for the heck of it.

When they reached the top, they were blocked by another green barrier. Luckily, since it wasn't a tunnel, they were able to jump over it and reach the Super Dark Swordsman. Chopper was about to attack it, but he got struck by its sword and lost his Ninja ability in the process.

"What? ! You've gotta be kidding me! That ability could've helped me!"

"Poyo? (Well, what can you do about it?)" Kirby asked after inhaling the Dark Creature's sword and spitting it back at it to leave it dazed. "Poyo. (It's not like you're going to keep that ability forever.)"

"Yeah, that's true," After finishing off the Dark Creature, they saw that there was another glowing green path that seemed to lead over to a door ahead. They shrugged and hurried over to the door and into the next area.

"Wait a second… What the heck is this?" Luigi asked as they found two unbreakable barriers between them after walking out of the door. What they didn't notice was a beam of light moving upward.

Mario: Look up!

When everyone looked up, they were a bit surprised to see the beam of light. However, they didn't bother to ask questions. They jumped and grabbed a hold of the beam until they saw a ledge to jump onto. There was another wall, so Chopper checked in 3-D to see what it would be.

"Uh oh… There's a crack in this wall." Chopper realized, getting everyone else in 3-D. Using Slim's ability, they were able to squeeze through. After getting through the wall, they noticed that there were some glowing green platforms leading over to another pathway, but they seemed to be too high for any of them to reach. Well, except for a certain man in green.

"Man… How come there are many things around here that I can't even reach?" Chopper asked as Luigi used a Super Jump to reach the platforms. When Kirby floated up to the platform, he used his inhaling to bring everyone up without eating them.

"Wait a minute… The narrator said that only one person could get up there! There must be something fishy going on here!"

Crap… They're onto me…

ANYWAY… They simply jumped from platform to platform until they reached the road. There happened to be two Vironoids that had a large bag of potato chips with them, but the bag did seem a bit full.

But, unfortunately for them, they couldn't finish their chips. Sonic came in and attacked one of them with a Homing Attack, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds. Blade joined Sonic and slashed at the Vironoid with his katana. It was soon finished when Mario hit it with a Ground Pound.

"Ooh! Chips!" Chopper gaped as he grabbed the bag. Kirby, too, walked over to the bag and tried to grab it. Unfortunately, this led to both of them pulling at the end of the bag and making it rip.

"…Poyo! (I call the chips!)" Kirby announced as he prepared to inhale them. Chopper also began inhaling them, but was unfortunately beaten by Kirby. He didn't even get a single chip!

"No fair! I wanted some chips!"

"There's some over here," Luigi said, pointing to another bag of chips. This time Chopper grabbed it and dumped them all into his mouth. He looked incredibly happy, giving a rather cute look.

"Chopper… Don't give that look… EVER…" Blade shivered.

"Hey! It's not my fault that I love food so much! …Plus that was the only time I ever got some good food in a while. Kirby just HAD to take all of the other chips! Wait… This is cheddar kind! Yummy!"

"Why can't you two help us against these guys?" Luigi asked, using a Super Jump on the Vironoid remaining. Kirby shrugged and inhaled the missile the Vironoid fired at him and spat it back at it. Chopper did the same exact thing to defeat it for good.

"And thus, the Vironoids were defeated," Sonic stated.

Mario: There are still more Vironoids left, you know…

"Yeah, I know that, Mario. I just wanted to be a little dramatic. But, unfortunately, I think I failed to do so." They decided to continue on ahead, running into a dead end. What they DID see, however, was something sparkling above them.

It was a Dimensional Rift.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper pondered as he looked up at the white rip. "I didn't think we'd encounter this again! What do we need to do for this again? I completely forgot what to do, unfortunately…"

_"If I could recall, you might need to use Flippay in order to get that Dimensional Rift opened," _Timpani informed.

"That's a Dimensional Rift?" Luigi gaped.

"Yup! We haven't seen these in a while!" Sonic grinned as Chopper used Flippay to reveal a blue ! block. "I think the last time I remember seeing something like this was back in Planet Blobule! Y'know, where that coincidental porta-potty was?"

Kirby nodded as he hit the blue ! block and made a door appear right in front of them. Without hesitation, they entered through the door into another area, but there was a tunnel up ahead, which, of course, blocked them with another green barrier.

"Geez! Why are there so many barriers these days?!" Chopper exclaimed as he bashed the barrier with his hammer and shattered it. When they entered the tunnel, there happened to be a Red Vironoid and three stumps. There wasn't a door around here, unfortunately.

Mario: So we're running into some puzzles now, are we?

_"I suggest you take care of the Red Vironoid first," _suggested Timpani.

"_After than, you can get back to solving this little puzzle," _Blumiere said.

"Good idea," Luigi nodded as he jumped over to the Red Vironoid and used his Cyclone attack to send it flying to the ceiling. With that, he used a Super Jump to knock it to the ground to leave it with some low HP.

"Who ever thought I could bring something's HP down like that?"

"Well that's a good start," Sonic stated as he bounced on the ground in a ball and came flying up to the ceiling. His Bounce Attack struck the Red Vironoid and left it with incredibly low HP. Luigi decided to finish it off with one last jump. It surprisingly dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake for him.

"Poyo! (Ooh! An Ultra Shroom Shake!)" Kirby gaped as he gazed at the shake Luigi put away. He tried to get it from him, but the green plumber stepped away from him to prevent him from getting it.

"Uhhh… Kirby? I know you like food like me, but it's probably best not to bother him." Chopper suggested. "He's feeling rather…uncomfortable."

Mario: Now let's get back to these stumps.

_"If you need my help, just use this wand's powers to see if there's anything hidden around here," _Timpani reminded. Chopper shrugged and used her wand to find something hidden. He saw three numbers. The order was the following: three, one, and two.

"Hit the third, first, and then the second," Chopper informed Mario, who nodded and used his Ground Pound to hit the third, first, and then the second stump. This triggered a door to appear right in front of them.

"Let's go, guys! I don't want to miss that meeting point!" Blade suggested as they walked into the next area. There happened to be some small beams of light that were far down, but they looked like they could be used to go up to the platform ahead. Only someone who had a good balance could do something like this…

"How do we get through this?" Sonic asked. "I don't think we have the ability to grab a hold of those beams of light unless we want to fall to our dooms…"

"That's where I come along," announced Blade as he used his ninja jump to jump on top of the first beam. He turned to his friends and grinned until he heard a howling sound coming from a Super Dark Bat flying their way.

"Blade, get rid of the bat!" Luigi shrieked.

"Don't worry, dude. I've got this." When the Super Dark Bat flew towards Blade, he gripped his katana and sliced at it. It wasn't necessarily dead, but after throwing a shuriken at it, he was able to defeat it.

"Hold on a second… How are WE supposed to get over there?" Chopper asked with a confused look on his face. "It would be nice if we would be able to get past these things…"

"Don't worry, I have an idea, but it involves you and Kirby being thrown…"

"Crud…" Blade grabbed Chopper first (since he was closer) and threw him over the beams and onto the platform leading up to the platform ahead. Next, he grabbed Kirby and threw him over to Chopper.

"Start inhaling, boys!"

"Poyo? (What?)" Kirby gawked.

"Just listen to him, Kirby," Chopper suggested as he prepared to inhale the group over to them. Kirby did the same thing and made sure NOT to get anyone in his mouth. After a bit, they succeeded and proceeded ahead. There was a searchlight across the chasm, but after jumping, they were brought across.

"Man, these searchlights are good transportation," Sonic stated.

"And we just happened to find another light-speed circuit!" Luigi smiled as they all grabbed each other's hands and went through the light-speed circuit.

* * *

**Next area-**

"I think I'm going to be sick…" our hero in green moaned as he got out of the light-speed circuit. Mario was the first to walk out, but they happened to notice that the area was flat and full of Vironoids and Dark Creatures. The sky was black with a bit of red, showing that they were actually near the vast sea of…well, nothing.

"Wow, now look at that background," Chopper smiled, looking at the background. "That gives me the feeling that we're close!"

_"I think beyond that door, we'll be able to get to the meeting point," _Timpani informed. _"However, with those enemies up ahead, how are we going to get through this? This does look rather…difficult."_

Mario looked up at the yellow ? block above him. With one punch, a Mega Star popped out and landed in his hand. As he clenched his fist, he felt a huge amount of power within him that transformed him into a giant 8-bit version of himself.

"Well… I guess that solves one thing." Sonic said.

Mario: Let's-a go!

With Mario's Mega Star ability, he began to trample through everything in his path. Even the Red Vironoids stood no chance against him! Mario just seemed rather relaxed while trampling his foes.

However, when he reached the door ahead, he turned back into his normal self. Mario groaned, but he knew it was best not to complain about it. The rest of the group managed to catch up to him and follow him through the door ahead.

"Wow… I gotta admit, that was… Well, I don't know how to describe it." Chopper said, unsure what to say at the moment.

"Heroes! You're here!" Everyone looked on ahead and saw a large, orange and blue ship. A door was open just for the heroes, where they could see Colonel Disk waving for them. "You guys made it just in time!"

"What do you mean 'just in time'?" Sonic asked as they walked over to the ship. They noticed that the ship was close to the edge of the floor. Luckily, it wasn't at a point where it would tip over.

"We've been waiting for quite a while, man! We were almost about to go 'screw it' and leave you guys! Just get in here already so we can actually discuss things!"

With a shrug, everyone walked into the ship. When the door closed, they could all feel the ship hovering over the ground and taking off. Luigi felt the most uncomfortable at this moment.

"All right, squad! Listen up!" Colonel Disk shouted, getting everyone's attention. "These six people from another world will be joining us today for the battle against the Vironoids! So, make sure you give 'em the respect that they deserve! …As heroes, or whatever the hell they are."

"So, ya ready to take on those Vironoids?" one Computernoid asked, elbowing Luigi, who rubbed his shoulder and looked at him nervously.

"Er… Yeah, I guess I am."

"Well that's the spirit, mate! We're gonna show those Vironoids who's boss!"

_"Now then…" _Colonel Disk opened up a screen with Luna on it. _"Your mission is to deactivate all four towers around the Vironoid Tower. When you do that, you'll have access to the computer room. There's something called a __**Viro Core **__that created the Vironoids – which was created by the Vironoid leader. Destroy that, and all of the Vironoids will be defeated. Heroes, I'm counting on you to deactivate the towers, since you seem to have the skills to do so. Head to the red orange tower when you're finally done, OK?"_

"Wow… That's a lot of information you just gave us with all of that text…" Chopper trailed. "Can you explain it in a…easier way?"

Luna merely face palmed at the child. _"Deactivate the four towers and find the computer room in the Vironoid Tower."_

"Wait… Did you just say 'find the computer room'?" These suddenly began to haunt Chopper's mind as he remembered hearing someone repeatedly go "Find the computer room!" when he was playing this one game. It sounded funny…yet it was so…annoying to listen.

_"Yes, I did say find the computer room… That's what you need to do."_

"NO! Not those accursed words! Anything but those!"

"Dude, calm down! They're just words! They're not going to kill you!" Blade assured, slapping some sense into Chopper.

"OK! OK! I think I'm done thinking about that now." Chopper panted, rubbing his face from the slaps. "Let's just get back to the mission and try to deactivate those four towers…"

_"Four towers… That may not be as hard as you think it might be…" _Timpani informed

"_Well… You may think that, but it's not an easy task." _All six heroes looked down at Timpani's wand, despite not being able to see what Timpani's expressions or face looked like. _"However, none of the Computernoids really have the skills to deactivate the towers like you guys. I believe you six will be able to pull off the job."_

"All right, that sounds fines to me," Sonic nodded. "So, where's this ship going to drop us off anyways?"

"Drop us off? Oh no, man! We're gone freefall from where the ship's going to stop!" Colonel Disk smirked under his helmet (if he's wearing one…). Luigi's face suddenly turned pale as a ghost.

"W-We're going to fr-freefall?!"

Mario: You're out of your mind!

"Oh, relax already! We've been doing this for YEARS when we battled the Vironoids!" Colonel Disk assured. "It reminds me of the old days where we had a war against them back in another area of cyberspace. I don't remember what it was…"

The ship came to a sudden halt and the hatch opened up. "Well, looks like this is our time to shine, ladies! Let's go kick some Vironoid ass!"

"Listen, heroes," began the Computernoid beside Luigi. "If there's anything you need, just call for me. I'm the guy with all the info here."

"What? That's a load of crap, G-53!" spat a Computernoid near Kirby. "You should quit yer lying! You know nothing about giving people information! Don't you remember when we were fighting at the Viro Wars? You didn't even give info to people on what to do!"

"But, I did save you guys from the big virus that almost killed us all!"

"But that's NOT giving information!"

"Quit arguing like five year olds, G-52 and G-53!" snapped Colonel Disk. "I understand you wanna be better than the other, but you better get your asses down there before I MAKE you do it instead!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Sorry, sir!"

Both troopers jumped out of the ship and began to freefall down to the battle. Colonel Disk looked over to the heroes and gave them the signal. "All right, heroes! I think it's time you got down there and deactivated the four towers."

"B-But I don't wanna freefall!" Luigi cried.

"Oh, boy… Looks like we have another baby here… Do you want me to give you a bottle? Heck, I'll go get you a bib and a rattle so you can cry! Not good enough for ya? Well, maybe I oughta get you a nice diaper with 'I'm a baby' on it! Oh, yeah! You're going to be crying yer ass off all day and night twenty-four seven!"

At this point, that's when Luigi lost it. "No one insults me like that! You wanna see me jump out of this ship?! Well I'll show you what I can do!"

Luigi took a couple of steps back and made a dash for it. He jumped out of the ship and was about to freefall down…until he paused and noticed that he was floating in midair.

"Wait! I changed my mind! I don't wanna…" Unfortunately for him, he ended up plummeting to his doom. Everyone could even hear his scream, which almost made Chopper want to laugh.

"Well that was a dumb move he pulled off there," Colonel Disk said as he turned to the heroes. "So, I reckon that you guys aren't going to be dumb like him and actually take some parachutes?"

"Wait, why didn't you tell him about the parachutes? !" Chopper asked, his laughing being put to a halt.

"I dunno… I guess because that was funny…"

"Ugh… Oh, whatever. Let's just get the parachutes and freefall down…" Chopper grabbed a parachute like everyone else and walked over to the outer part of the ship. With them, they all jumped out of the ship and began to freefall into the battlegrounds.

"_**GEROMINO!**_"

"Whoa… This is pretty intense." Sonic gaped as he saw many lasers firing towards Computernoids and Vironoids. Of all the fights they've seen, this was probably the biggest one yet.

"That battle between the Hellspawns and Dark Creatures just can't compare to THIS," Chopper stated.

"Poyo, (I have to agree with you on that,)" agreed Kirby.

Unfortunately, one of the lasers that were firing struck Chopper's hand, making him drop Timpani's wand in the process.

"NO! Tippi!" he cried.

_"Chopper!" _They could all hear Timpani's cry as the wand began to fall. But, surprisingly, it ended up falling right in front of the large tower.

"Ugh… There's no way we can even get that wand with that huge barrier in the way! …HOLD ON, TIPPI! I'LL GET YOU BACK! DON'T WORRY!"

When they put their parachutes on, they began to lightly fall until they landed on a red orange platform that was close to the largest red orange tower in the center. Right now, a couple of Computernoids on the same platform were finished shooting two Vironoids that were attacking.

"Where's Luigi?" Blade asked until they heard a moaning sound coming from near them. He looked behind him and saw Luigi, who happened to look dazed. "Wow… He was right. That was a dumb move to pull off."

While they helped Luigi up, Colonel Disk stretched his arms and sighed. "Can you feel that breeze, heroes? That's the breeze of WAR!"

"Well, I personally don't like that breeze…" Chopper trailed.

"You heroes have a job to do, so you better get to work!" Colonel Disk pointed to the Blue Tower in the background. "I would recommend going to that tower first… It's probably the closest one from here anyways. I would go for the Red Tower for last…"

"Right!" Chopper nodded as he turned to his friends. "Come on, guys! I say we use that blue light-speed circuit pad to our left! If we can deactivate those towers, we'll be able to get rid of that barrier, gain access to the tower, get Tippi's wand back, and find the computer room!"

"That sounds like a lot," Luigi moaned while still dazed.

"Well, I guess that IS a lot," Sonic realized as he walked over to the pad. "So… It looks like we might to go into 3-D if we're going to be heading towards the Blue Tower. However, how do we even get in?"

"We should be able to find a way," Blade hoped.

With that, they all stepped on the pad and were suddenly going at incredibly speeds through the light-speed circuit. They noticed that many Computernoids and Vironoids were falling down to the abyss to get disintegrated instantly. Another thing they had to be careful with were the firwalls.

"What? ! More firewalls? ! Come on!" Chopper frowned, dodging the firewall that was up ahead.

"Why do we have to go through all of this?" Luigi cried.

"Because your mom told you to," Blade responded.

Mario: Don't be like that, Blade…

"Yeah, just listen to Mario, Blade," Chopper suggested. "I don't want any of you guys fighting when we're trying to deactivate the towers. Anyways, we should just wait until we reach the Blue Tower."

* * *

**Blue Tower-**

After their little ride through the light-speed circuit, it took them all onto a blue platform, where they happened to see two Blue Vironoids guarding the area. They looked different with their blue armor and blue eyes, but they weren't as strong as the Red Vironoids.

"OK, these guys don't look too tough," Chopper said before getting frozen by one of the Blue Vironoid's lasers. Blade face palmed as he used his fire slash to unfreeze him. Of course, he didn't actually attack him.

"What just happened?"

"Poyo, (The Vironoid froze you,")" Kirby explained as he inhaled a laser from it and got the Ice ability. With it, he began to use his Ice Breath on the Blue Vironoid to freeze it. He kicked it towards the other one to leave it stunned.

"Hold on, I wanna finish it!" Chopper cried as he chucked a couple of fireballs at the Blue Vironoid, burning it to a crisp. "Yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about! Burnt to a crisp!"

"All right, now that we've got that out of the way…" Sonic noticed a little barrier on the platform ahead. He noticed a little something down there, but that looked more like an exit to them. Nevertheless, they walked over to the front entrance, which seemed to have a light-speed pad. A blue one, actually.

"Oh, man… Another one of these." Luigi gulped as everyone grabbed each other's hand and began to head into the pad. They started to go at incredibly speeds through the circuit. There were even blue lights that surrounded them in the circular-like tunnel.

When they got out of the circuit, they fell right on top of a purple cubed platform with a red spring right beside them that led up to a blue platform. As everyone got up, they looked at their surroundings. There was a lot of blue lights and the sky around them looked more of a blackish color. When they took the spring onto the platform, they were greeted by two Blue Vironoids.

"Uh oh… Well this is just what we needed…" Blade rolled his eyes as he gripped his katana. "Well, it's time to take ass and kick names! …Er, I mean kick ass and take names!"

He rushed towards the first Blue Vironoid, slashing its legs a couple of times with his katana to leave it off guard. It tried to fire its ice beam at him, but he used his katana to block the attack. Strange that a katana had such an ability…

"While it's off guard, attack it!" he cried as Mario gripped his hammer and bashed it in the face. Kirby finished it off by freezing it with his ice breath and kicking it straight at the other to stun it.

"Poyo! (My badge really does come in handy!)" Kirby smiled as he used his Ice Sprinkle attack to hurt the Blue Vironoid a little more. Chopper followed up by stomping on it and freezing it with an ice spinning kick. He decided to simply kick it to the large step leading up to another platform, shattering it.

"Hey, I think I see some kind of barrier ahead," Luigi noticed as they jumped up to the platform and then to another. They noticed three different colored panels on the ground. The left was green, the middle was blue and the right was yellow.

"Oh, boy… It's another one of these puzzles…" Chopper groaned as he pulled his communicator out. "The only way to get some information right now is through someone on the communicator. Too bad Tippi's not with us now…"

_"So, you need my help again, Chopper? Well, let's hope it's something I might know about." _hoped Flyer as his face appeared on the communicator. Chopper aimed his communicator down on the panels on the ground to show him what was going on.

_"Hmmmmm? Well, this is interesting! From what I can see, there are three different colored panels on the ground! Chopper, maybe you should try changing their color to the same as one of them? Perhaps a jump will do the trick!"_

Mario jumped on the green panel, turning it into a blue color. When he jumped on the yellow one, it turned green, but when he jumped on it again, it turned blue and relinquished the barrier.

_"Ah! See? I knew that it would work!"_

"Wait, you knew about this?" Luigi asked.

_"Well, I had a feeling that that's what you needed to do, so that's why I kind of suggested that little idea."_

"Ah. I see now. Well, let's continue on then." Chopper decided, going into the small little tunnel room until a green barrier blocked their way. Nevertheless, he kicked it a couple of times with some ice and fire kicks to shatter them.

"Uhhhh… OK, I guess that was a bit unnecessary for you to go all out on that barrier like that…" Blade trailed.

Walking to the end of the tunnel, they ran into two yellow Security Drones. It was quite simply, because Blade simply threw shurikens at them and made them split into four green drones, while Chopper used Starbow to make shooting stars rain down on them and destroy them.

"Poyo! (Look!)" Kirby pointed to a green platform that appeared right near the wall to give them an extra lift to the little cliff, where there was a beam of light moving upward. They simply grabbed a hold on the beam and landed on a pathway that only appeared in 3-D, so Chopper got everyone into 3-D and walked around the path that seemed to be shaped like a hexagon.

"Wow, this sure is intense," Sonic commented when they reached the opposite side, where a green barrier tried to stop them, but they easily passed it and used the spring to grab a hold of the next beam moving upwards until they landed on the next level, where they found a spring. With it, they reached the top of the platform and found across the gap, another unbreakable barrier. But there happened to be two panels off at the distance.

"I see a red and green one…" Blade pondered as he pulled two shurikens out. He threw them at the red panel and transformed it into a green, which matched with the other. Now that the barrier was gone, out heroes jumped over to the tunnel ahead and saw two lasers that led to some kind of terminal with a blue core inside of it. From what they knew, this must be what they had to deactivate.

"More lasers? Haven't we seen enough of these?" Luigi asked as they got past them using Slim's ability.

"Well, what are ya going to do about it?" Chopper asked as he walked over to the terminal and noticed a little plug connected to it. "Wait… This thing's powered by a PLUG?!"

"Poyo? (How can we get it out?)" Kirby tried to pull it out, but it wasn't strong enough for him. In fact, everyone tried, but they couldn't pull it out!

Mario: What about Thoreau?

"Let's try using him," Chopper tossed Thoreau at the plug, who tried pulling at it with all of his might. Surprisingly, he was able to pull it out and deactivate the core in the Blue Tower. They also noticed the current in the center platform rising up.

"Wait… I think I might remember that being an exit from earlier!" Sonic recalled. "Let's try using that!"

With that, they walked on the platform and allowed themselves to be carried out of the Blue Tower and back to the entrance. They could all see that the tower itself was a darker color than before, showing that the tower is no longer active.

"Well… I guess we should head for the Yellow Tower." Chopper suggested, looking at the Yellow Tower off at the distance. "That's probably the closest one to here, I believe…"

"I guess there's no harm in that," Luigi agreed until everyone joined hands and went into the circuit. "…Except for this!"

* * *

**The battle-**

"All right, squadron! We're starting to get surrounded here!" Colonel Disk shouted as he pulled his two pistols out and began to fire at the Vironoids like crazy.

"Don't worry, I've got the grenades!" announced G-43, who threw a grenade at one of the Vironoids. Luckily, it was a sticky grenade, which stuck to any enemy. There was no escape for the Vironoid as it exploded with a couple of others.

"All right! You really showed them who's boss, G-43!" Colonel Disk complimented. "Good work, soldier!"

"Sir! Sir! The Blue Tower! Look!" G-67 pointed to the Blue Tower, which was no longer a bright color. "I think the heroes did something with that tower! They must've deactivated it!"

"Excellent! That's one down, three to go!"

"Say, I have a little suggestion on what we can do after this war," another Computernoid suggested, making Colonel Disk look over to him.

"And what's that, H-69?" Colonel Disk asked.

"Maybe we should…" That's when H-69 suddenly got obliterated by a missile fired at him by a Vironoid. Everyone screamed in terror at H-69's death while the colonel himself face palmed.

"Dang it, H-69! See, this is what happens when you bring up such ideas!" Colonel Disk got his weapons ready and also began flying with his jetpack afterwards and began firing. "All right, soldiers! Let's show 'em who's boss!"

* * *

**Yellow Tower-**

"And… Woo!" Chopper cheered as they landed on a yellow platform. Up ahead, they happened to see another platform and a large gap between that and a platform that had different colored pads and an unbreakable barrier. Between the gap were two purple cube platforms.

"So this must be the entrance to the Yellow Tower…" Sonic trailed as he jumped onto one of the purple platforms. "Well this is going to be an interesting experience, if I have to say for myself!"

"We'll see how it turns out," Blade wondered as they crossed the platforms and found another colored panel puzzle. Due to it being a Yellow Tower, Kirby decided to turn them all yellow to allow them into the entrance. There was a yellow pipe standing there like it was an entrance.

"That's the first pipe I've seen in a while!" Luigi gaped.

"Let's check and see what's through here," Chopper suggested as he was the first to go down the pipe. Everyone followed him into a room with a yellow platform and a hallway up ahead across the gap. Unfortunately, at the edge of the hallway, there happened to be a laser.

"Poyo?! (How are we supposed to get past THIS?!)" Kirby exclaimed.

"We'll find a way…" the pale green (or lime-green) Star Warrior took a couple of steps until he saw a glowing platform appear for them. It connected to the platform they were standing on and the hallway.

Mario: This is our chance to use Slim!

With Slim's ability, they were able to get past the lasers and into the doorway leading into the hallway. Unfortunately, Chopper and Sonic got hurt when they ran into a Dark Worm that rose from the ground.

"Wait… Dark Creatures are in here?!" Blade gaped. He also noticed two Yellow Vironoids in the room that were firing an electric laser. He got hurt by one of them and got paralyzed as well.

Mario: This isn't good…

"I'll help you, Blade!" Luigi cried out as he used Piccolo to cure Blade from his status ailment. With that, the ninja rushed to the first Yellow Vironoid and slashed it as many times as possible until it was gone.

"That's what happens when you try to paralyze me, Vironoid!"

The Dark Worm, on the other hand, attempted to go back into the ground, but Kirby prevented that with his Ice Storm ability. It left the Dark Worm frozen for a bit and let Chopper shatter it with his hammer.

"Now we just have to worry about that last Vironoid…" Chopper trailed.

"Leave that to me!" Sonic smirked as he used a Whirlwind to keep the Yellow Vironoid occupied. Afterwards, he charged up a Light Speed Dash and went all out on the monstrous virus, defeating it within seconds.

"Well, I guess you ARE the fastest thing alive…" Luigi trailed.

"Yup! Now let's get moving." Sonic suggested as he ran on ahead…but soon had to brake when he saw a bottomless pit near the cliff. When he looked up, he saw a couple of floating colored panels fused together. It looked like someone with a good jump could reach that.

"Well, I guess this is my time to shine again," Luigi announced as he used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the platform. He matched them all to a yellow color, which made a glowing green platform appear for everyone to reach to him. When they got on it, the platform started to move up slowly.

But what was the problem? Two Yellow Vironoids happened to be crawling on the walls!

"Crap! We need to use projectiles against them now!" Blade groaned as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Yellow Vironoid to their right. With one toss of Hommissile, it began to plummet down the bottomless pit, never to be seen again. As for the other Yellow Vironoid, Sonic managed to paralyze it by using Reflecto's ability to reflect the laser attack back at it.

"I'll take care of this!" Chopper smirked as he chucked a couple of fireballs at it. He finished it off with a charged fireball that incinerated the Yellow Vironoid entirely.

When the platform floated up to the edge of the next pathway, everyone jumped off and landed on top of another Yellow Vironoid. Luigi's stomps was all they needed to defeat it.

They jumped on the platforms and landed on some colored pads that surrounded a large pillar. Chopper was forced to go into 3-D and match them all into a yellow color – even though he could've matched them as a different color.

Afterwards, the panels began to slowly float up until they reached the top of the pillar to find four more colored panels. Kirby changed them all yellow and created a glowing green road to lead to a light-speed circuit pad.

"Ooh! Another one of these in here!" Chopper gazed in awe.

"What?! Oh, no… Not again…" Luigi gulped as they took the circuit into another room, where they could see a yellow core in the center of a platform ahead. They happened to see another terminal, but compared to the one in the Blue Tower, this one was a yellow color.

"Time to pull the plug off this thing!" Chopper threw Thoreau at the plug, and he managed to pull it out of the terminal, deactivating the tower and creating a current flowing up on the platform.

"All right! Two down, two to go!" Blade grinned as they all took the current to the exit of the tower. They noticed that two Yellow Vironoids that were guarding the entrance disintegrated instantly.

"Poyo? (Did those Vironoids disintegrate out of nowhere?)" Kirby gawked.

"Yeah… I just noticed that." Chopper nodded as they used the light-speed circuit to leave the Yellow Tower area. However, on their way, they ended up stopping by a yellow platform with a normal Vironoid lurking around.

"Oh… It's a normal Vironoid. Well I guess it shouldn't be a…" Unfortunately for Chopper, he got knocked away by a couple of missiles, but the Vironoid was instantly blasted by a Computernoid carrying an assault rifle.

"Don't worry, heroes! I've got you covered! Just keep moving, all right?" the Computernoid suggested.

"Ummmmm… All right, I guess that's all right." Luigi said while shrugging. The light-speed circuit pad up ahead was what they needed in order to reach the Green Tower that was just up ahead.

* * *

**The battle-**

Back with Colonel Disk and his squad, they were actually holding themselves very well, despite losing H-69 to a couple of the Vironoids. Colonel Disk was using his incredible skills as a colonel to blast all of the Vironoids surrounding him and use melee tactics against them.

"There's too many of them! We're dead meat!" J-97 cried.

"Oh, stop with that already! We know we're gonna take 'em down like bosses!" After clearing a circle of Vironoids, around him, Colonel Disk took this time to pull out a medpac and heal himself from any damage he took. Afterwards, he began to open fire with his two pistols.

"Yeeep. This reminds me of the Hacking War at the Geek Palace back at 93, when I killed a King Geemeba with my bare hands." he recalled after shooting down two Vironoids.

"I heard the Geemeba swallowed you, sir," G-47 recalled. "I heard you were trapped inside until you, uh…turned up a week later floating in a toilet at our base."

"Shut yer trap, G-47! You weren't there, and you know NOTHIN' about it!"

"Uh, sir… I heard the same story." G-53 mentioned. "…Only, I heard it was more like two weeks!"

"Ahem…" Colonel Disk coughed as he fired. "All units maintain radio silence!"

* * *

**Green Tower-**

"Ah! The Green Tower!" Chopper smiled as they landed on one of the green platforms. "Man! This is definitely a tower that I like! Although… This kind of green fits for Luigi more than it does for me…"

"Well, this tower IS kind of cool, I suppose…" Luigi trailed until he got hit by a green laser from a Green Vironoid. Unlike the others, though, this one actually poisoned him.

…Until Mario played a song from Piccolo to cure him of the status ailment.

"Great… Now these guys can poison us." Blade grumbled as he threw Hommissile at the Green Vironoid, keeping it off guard. Kirby ice skated towards it afterwards and froze it with his Ice Storm attack.

"Poyo! (I love this ability!)" Kirby squealed as he kicked the frozen Vironoid into the other Green Vironoid, leaving it stunned for a couple of seconds and allowing Chopper to attack it with a sweeping kick.

"You know, a close range attack IS a bit risky against these guys…" Blade warned as Chopper stomped on the Green Vironoid's head to finish it off. "Well… I guess I'm too late for that!"

Anyways, they jumped a couple of platforms until they reached a gap with a green platform ahead that had a green spring. Luckily, there happened to be two purple platforms that could help them cross, so they used those to reach the platform and find another puzzle involving colored panels.

"Since this is the Green Tower…" Luigi pondered. "Why not make them all green?"

He jumped on the colored panels and turned them all green. There, they saw the entrance up ahead in a green pipe. They didn't bother asking questions. What was important was that they went into the pipe.

When they jumped out of the pipe, they landed on a large green platform and saw two floating colored panels in between the platform and the pathway ahead, which was being blocked by another unbreakable barrier.

"Poyo? (So are we underneath the Green Tower?)" Kirby asked.

"Looks like it," Chopper confirmed as he turned the two panels to a green tunnel and got rid of the barrier. There happened to be two Green Vironoids near the slope going up, however.

Using Starbow, Chopper managed to defeat both Green Vironoids and continue on through the narrow pathway up the slope. A Super Dark Bat happened to stop by and fired a wave of energy at him, knocking him back.

"I got this," Sonic announced as he hit the Super Dark Bat with a couple of Homing Attacks. After its defeat, they jumped out of the little tunnel room and landed on six colored panels. But, since they stepped on the panels, they changed to a different color.

"Crap… This isn't what we wanted…" Blade face palmed.

"How about we all stand on one panel so we can focus on changing one?" Luigi suggested, standing in one of the middle panels. They all worked together to change them to a green color. With that, the panels began to glow and they all began to slowly move upward to a green platform.

"I've gotta admit, this place is actually pretty cool," Chopper commented. "Although… I HAVE said that in the past before."

They jumped on the green platform and jumped to the next one close to them, where they saw another Green Vironoid patrolling the area. Kirby started off by using his Ice Storm attack to keep it off guard, while Chopper used an ice spinning kick on it to freeze it. Kirby then kicked it against the purple platform ahead and shattered it.

"Damn… And I wanted to be the one to kill it." Blade frowned.

"Blade, didn't I say that you shouldn't really be cursing in front of us?" Chopper reminded.

_"Damn it! I can't believe he still remembers that!" _he thought as he snapped his finger out of disappointment.

Nevertheless, they continued up onto the platform and saw another tunnel shaped like a hexagon. Only this one was a lot bigger. Chopper landed on two yellow panels and changed them to a green color, making the platforms glow and slowly move to the end of the tunnel.

"Hold on… I'm seeing something ahead!" Luigi gulped as he saw an unbreakable barrier past two panels facing up instead of being down on the ground. "How are we supposed to get through this?!"

"I'll try something," Blade threw two shurikens at the blue panel, since the other one was yellow. It changed that blue panel to a yellow one and got rid of the unbreakable barrier. "See? All better!"

Mario: That was close…

"Poyo? (How was that close?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo… (We weren't really that far from the barrier…"

They stepped off the platform after it reached the end to be greeted by a Green Vironoid. Blade was able to fight it this time, slicing it a couple of times with his katana and damaging it with a fire slash. Luigi followed up by finishing it with his Cyclone attack.

"There's ANOTHER?!" Luigi gaped as there was another tunnel with panels that they needed to change green. They were able to do it easily and allow the platform to slowly cruise over to the end.

Of course, they had the panels to worry about too.

"Let's see if I can do something about those," Chopper hoped as he chucked two fireballs at the green panel, changing it to a red. The other panel was red, so the barrier simply went away.

Mario: There's one more…

"Oh… Then I'll just throw one." Chopper threw an ice ball at the yellow panel ahead, due to the others being green. It changed green and got rid of the barrier ahead and allowing the platform to leave the tunnel.

Unfortunately, for them, they were about to run into a wall ahead.

"It's a dead end!" Sonic warned as he jumped off of the paneled platform and landed on a large, purple cubed platform. Everyone else jumped off as well and landed near two more colored panels.

"I'm feeling so nervous…" Luigi said as he breathed heavily. "My heart is pounding like crazy!"

Mario: Just relax, Luigi.

"Well, we still need to continue on," Chopper noted, pointing to the panels. "We need to deactivate the next terminal, so we're better off doing this right now."

They all got on the paneled floor when Chopper changed it to green and slowly began to ascend with the platform until they reached two glowing green platforms leading over to a doorway ahead.

"Jump, guys!" Sonic shouted as he jumped over to the platforms and reached the doorway. It only changed the platforms to a yellow color, but that didn't stop everyone else from crossing.

Luigi gulped as he jumped on the last platform, which turned into a red color. However, he was already near the end, so it didn't really matter. With one jump, he landed on the edge of the doorway and followed the rest of the group.

They looked at all of the green lights around this room, but there was still one Green Vironoid left. However, since they were near the terminal, Chopper tossed Thoreau at the plug and pulled it off successfully, making the platform's current move up. Not to mention that the Green Vironoid was destroyed in the process as well.

"Yeah! No more poison Vironoids!" Blade fist pumped as he jumped to the current and allowed himself to be carried to the exit.

"Woo! Three towers down! Only one more left!" Chopper smiled as he and the rest of the group got carried out of the tower and up to the entrance. They noticed that the amount of Vironoids in battle were actually depleting, to their surprise.

"Well, this IS what happens when you eradicate three different kinds of Vironoids…" Sonic said.

"Well it's working out for the Computernoids too! See?" Luigi pointed to the Computernoids, who looked like were winning the battle. "I think our chances of winning are greater!"

"Yeah, well we still have one more tower…" Chopper noted, pointing to the Red Tower dead ahead. "Good thing it's kind of close to the Vironoid Tower. Otherwise we'd be in some trouble!"

Mario: Let's head there now!

As they headed through the light-speed circuit, something began to bother Chopper for some reason. It's almost as if the Vironoids in the tower KNEW that they'd be there…

_"Is it possible that there was a spy giving information to the Vironoids?" _he thought.

* * *

**The battle-**

"Oh, heck yeah! We're winnin' the fight!" Colonel Disk announced as he finished blasting two normal Vironoids. "The heroes are doing a real nice job out there! They already deactivated three towers!"

Before the colonel could say anything else, he got a call from Luna. _"Colonel! We just recently received news that three towers have been deactivated. Was it those heroes that took care of them?"_

"You betcha! They're already heading over to the Red Tower! I'm pretty sure we're going to win this war once and for all! The Vironoid race will finally be rid of forever!"

"Uhhhh… Sir? We still have the red ones to worry about!" noted H-47. "They're the most dangerous of them all!"

"Well quit crying about it and fight!" Colonel Disk readied his blasters and aimed. "It's time to take ass and kick names! …D'oh! I mean KICK ass and TAKE names!"

The colonel rushed towards the rest of the Vironoids and began to fire at them.

…Like a boss.

* * *

**Red Tower-**

"Poyo, (Well this is one interesting tower,)" Kirby commented as they got off the light-speed circuit and landed on a red platform. What was bad, though, was that there were three Red Vironoids ready and firing at them with fire lasers.

"_**HOLY SHHHHHHHHH-**_" Blade ducked as a fire beam went over him. "Did you just see that? ! That could probably incinerate ANYTHING!"

"Tell me about it!" Chopper agreed, pointing to a Computernoid that got incinerated by the blast. "Who ever thought that these guys would be like THIS? !"

"Well let's just fight 'em!" Sonic suggested as he distracted one Red Vironoid with his Whirlwind attack. Mario began to bash it with his hammer afterward and used a Ground Pound to finish it off.

The second Vironoid fired a fire blast, but Chopper managed to counter it with a charged ice ball. Kirby helped by using his Ice Breath to freeze the Red Vironoid. With one kick, it was sent over to the last Red Vironoid, which caused it to become dazed.

"This looks like a job for Luigi!" Luigi announced as he used a Cyclone to send it flying in the air. He finished it off with one last Super Jump. "Yeah! We finally got rid of those enemies!"

"Now we just need to get across here," Chopper made a huge leap over the gap and landed on the red platform ahead. They saw the entrance across another huge gap ahead, but they had to deal with another colored panel puzzle.

It only took one jump from Mario to step on the blue panel and change them all to red. It also created a red bridge for them to cross as well. They found another color-coded puzzle, but they all jumped on the blue panels so they would all change red and allow the unbreakable barrier to disappear.

Mario: There's a door up ahead!

"Let's head in!" Chopper ran down the slope and entered through the door leading inside of the tower. Everyone could see that there were two Red Vironoids near the slope going up, so they got in their fighting stances.

"W-Wait! More of these guys?!" Luigi stammered.

"No time for that! We gotta kick some butt!" Blade tossed Hommissile at the first Red Vironoid, followed up with a couple of slices from his sword. He finished it off with a hurricane slash, which sent it flying towards the other Red Vironoid. Sonic finished that one off with his Light Speed Dash.

However, before they could make a couple of steps up the slope, a red Security Drone appeared out of nowhere. Chopper simply grabbed Starbow and made shooting stars rain down on it and destroy it within seconds.

"It's a good thing Starbow can help us with something like this," Chopper smiled.

They made their way up the slope and reached the end of the path. They ended up reaching more colored-coded panels. Sighing, the heroes turned them all to a red color and waited for the platform to slowly ascend to a large gap leading over to a light-speed circuit. There was also a large wall in the background with a couple of footsteps and a sign showing someone charging up some speed.

"Hey! I think I know what to do here!" Chopper readied himself as he charged up a Speed Dash. "I just need to use this in order to go across this gap!"

"Wait… Really?" Sonic gawked.

"Of course! That's probably the most obvious thing!" Everyone grabbed a hold of Chopper's hand and formed some sort of chain. When he took off, he ran on the wall and got off when he touched the light-speed circuit pad, which began to transport them through the circuit.

"I'm getting really tired of this!" Luigi cried.

"Well deal with it, Luigi," Blade said. "We've all been doing this!"

"Well… Let's just relax for now and… Holy…" Chopper's eyes widened as he gazed in awe at the large spinning pink globe as they were thrown out of the circuit. Unfortunately for them, there was no ground around them.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" They all cried as they began to plummet to their doom…

…Until they suddenly began to float.

"What the heck? What just happened?" Chopper questioned. "We were just falling a minute ago!"

"Poyo… (This is just too weird…)" Kirby trailed.

"Well, let's not ask any questions! Let's try to get on solid ground first!" Sonic suggested as they noticed a platform with a stronger current moving upward. They floated over to it and allowed themselves to be carried up to a couple of purple cubed platforms that were spinning around.

However, it seemed that the only way to get on them was for Chopper to flip into 3-D. When they were in 3-D, their mouths were agape at the size of this whole area. It looked like this was one of the Vironoid's bases…

And there were also a crap load of Red Vironoids at the top, near the terminal.

"Damn it! There's too many of them!" Blade grumbled. "How are we supposed to take them all down?"

"We'll just have to rush straight for the terminal then…" Chopper trailed as they jumped from platform to platform until they reached the solid red ground on top of the large globe. The Red Vironoids happened to spot them and open fired.

"WAAAAH! I don't know how much I can take of these guys!" Luigi cried.

Chopper kept them occupied with Starbow's ability, while Kirby threw Crystaline at a couple of them to keep them frozen. That's when Chopper rushed towards the terminal and threw Thoreau at the plug.

"C'mon, Thoreau! You can do it!"

With one pull, Thoreau managed to pull the plug off the final terminal, causing all of the Red Vironoids to be eradicated.

"We… We did it…" Sonic sighed in relief as he gave a thumbs up. "Good work, guys!"

"Now all that's left is the Vironoid leader…" Luigi wheezed.

"Wait… How do we…" Blade noticed a red pipe right near them. "Oh… Never mind."

They also noticed two badges that appeared as well. One had some sort of shield on it, another had something with a figure-8 pattern on it, while another one happened to have someone inhaling something.

"Hmmmmm… The figure-8 pattern one appears to be something only I can use…" Chopper trailed as he equipped it. "So, apparently I'm able to charge up Speed Dash a lot faster! Nice!"

He picked up the other badge, which had to do with inhaling. Apparently it doubles the attack power of Chopper or Kirby's inhaling ability. And, since Chopper's inhaling attack does less damage, he decided to equip it, making both of their inhaling equal.

"Poyo! (No fair! You got two badges!)" Kirby sulked.

"Uhhhh… What about this?" Chopper picked up a badge that had a balloon. "This is something only you can use. It allows you to float faster than before. That might be an advantage for you."

"Poyo! (Oh! Then I'll take it!)" Kirby smiled as he equipped it.

Mario: Are we going to go now?

"Yup! Let's go!" Sonic nodded as they all headed through the pipe and left the Red Tower for good.

* * *

**Later-**

Our heroes returned to the remaining Computernoids with exhausted looks. They actually seemed to congratulate them and give them more credit than they actually deserved, unlike a certain person…

"Good work, heroes! You deactivated the four towers!" Colonel Disk congratulated. "Now the Vironoid Tower's shield is finally gone! You can gain access to it now!"

_"The Pure Heart you're looking for is through there," _Luna informed. _"The Vironoid leader is most likely the one holding it. Defeat it and the Viral Core should be destroyed, eradicating the Vironoid race for good."_

"Man… It's going to be so satisfying beating the crap out of the leader!" Blade smirked. "So, why don't we go pay it a little visit?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a perfect idea," Sonic nodded.

"Wait… Now? !" Luigi gaped.

Mario: Of course!

"We need to get Tippi's wand anyway," Chopper noted. "I don't want to leave her wand standing around. It's a bad idea."

They noticed a couple of Computernoid gun ships flying around the huge area. They didn't seem to have much of a purpose, but they decided to take the light-speed circuit over to the front entrance of the Vironoid Tower.

And, luckily, Timpani's wand was right in front of the door.

"Don't worry, Tippi! I'm here!" Chopper shouted as he picked up her wand.

_"Chopper? You came for my wand?" _Timpani immediately responded as she heard Chopper's voice.

"Yeah! It looks like you almost thought we'd never come back."

_"I never thought that. I was just a little worried if you and your friends would be able to come back here without losing your lives."_

"We're not going to let that happen!" Blade assured. "Now that we've taken care of the four towers, it's time for the big one!"

_"I suppose you're right. We should get going now if we want the Pure Heart." _Timpani agreed. _"Luckily, I can feel its presence coming through this door… We shouldn't be too late!"_

Chopper hit the yellow ? block to make an Ultimate Shroom pop out. They all took their piece and recovered 100 HP. After that, Chopper hit the Save Block to save their game. With that, they progressed through the large door and into the tower.

"Good luck, heroes… You're going to need it." Colonel Disk mumbled as he watched them head into the tower.

But before the colonel could speak again, they heard an explosion coming from the sky.

"What the… What was that?!" Colonel Disk exclaimed.

"Sir… I think one of our ships were destroyed…" G-53 gulped, pointing to the pieces of the ship that began to fall.

"What? No way… That can't be right… We already defeated all of the Vironoids here! Something's not right…"

_"Sir! I saw one of the ships blow up out of nowhere!" G-Pilot informed through Colonel Disk's communicator._

"G-Pilot! Tell me in a calm manner… What happened?"

_"Well, I was just flying around this place for a little bit until something hit G-Pilot 2's ship! So, I was just wondering if it was a Vironoid attack, but it looked NOTHING like one! Vironoid's don't really attack our ships! In fact, it looked more like some sort of DARK attack!"_

"What? Are you sure about this?"

_"I'm bloody sure! For some reason, it looked like it was—**AAAAAAAAGH!**"_

Everyone heard an explosion coming from above. "G-Pilot? G-Pilot? ! …Oh, no… This isn't right! Something's wrong here!"

"What happened?" G-53 asked.

"I… I lost his signal. He's gone."

_"Colonel Disk! We're having a big problem at the base!" _Luna cried, getting Colonel Disk's attention. Great… Just what he needed. Another problem.

_"I think there's some kind of sudden attack going on here! We felt a huge tremor coming from inside of this place. From what I can tell, this is no Vironoid attack…"_

"Find a safe place, Luna! We can't let you die!" Colonel Disk ordered.

_"Hold on… Colonel, I'm seeing something out the window. It looks like some sort of dark star that's- **AAAGGGGGHHHH!**"_

"Luna?! LUNA?!" Colonel Disk noticed that the screen on his communicator went blank. "LUNA! NO! Please answer me, Luna!"

"I've lost her signal too," G-96 informed. "I can't get her signal either… I'm sorry to say this, Colonel… But I think we just might be the only Computernoids left around here."

"What?! You're telling us that the whole base is gone?!" G-53 gaped.

"I can't get into any contact with anyone in base. I'm sure that none survived the sudden attack."

"Then be ready for anything, soldiers," Colonel Disk said as he readied his blasters. "Something could come right out of nowhere if we're not careful…"

He suddenly heard another explosion. This time, it came from a couple of the Computernoids themselves. His last five men were now reduced to one.

"Wait… What was that?! G-10! Did you see something?!"

"Sir… They got destroyed…" G-10 whimpered. "It's just you and me now…"

"No… This can't be right… My whole army that I worked so hard to train… They're…gone…"

Colonel Disk's head hung low, but he didn't seem to notice a dark star heading straight towards him. However, G-10 seemed to notice it.

"Colonel! Watch out!" G-10 pushed out of the way, but this led to him being the one getting hurt. His lower half of his body was completely destroyed. He wasn't screaming, but he was definitely moaning.

"G…G-10! Wha… What did you just do?" Colonel Disk kneeled down and brought G-10's head up. "Did you… Did you just sacrifice yourself to protect me…?"

"_Cough_…_cough_… Colonel… I'm sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't learn to be a better trooper for you…" G-10 wheezed throughout his sentences. "I tried really hard to make you proud… But I… I just couldn't do it… I'm just a wuss."

"Don't say that, G-10… You're going to be all right! We need to get you all better!"

"Look at me… My lower half is gone… How are you going to fix me if I'm like this? Just leave me like this… I don't have much time to live anyways. Just remember something, Colonel…"

"What is it?"

"…Don't feel disappointed, please…"

With those last words, G-10's eyes slowly closed and exploded right in front of Colonel Disk. He slowly got up and looked down at G-10's remains in sadness.

"Rest in peace, G-10… Rest in peace…"

"So, it looks like you're the only one of your kind left. It must feel depressing for you, doesn't it?" the colonel paused for a minute and looked behind him. He saw Tipral crossing his arms while holding the Dark Star Scepter.

"You… You're the one who's responsible for destroying my army and the base!" Colonel Disk raised his pistols and open fired. "You're going to PAY for what you've done!"

Unfortunately, the shots didn't do anything. Tipral simply deflected them away easily and struck him with a dark star. However, this didn't destroy him, but left him in a severe condition.

While Colonel Disk was breathing heavily, Tipral walked up to him and looked down at him.

"You foolish cyberspace being… You and your army were so stupid to lure the heroes right into our trap! You should be ashamed for yourself!" he scoffed.

"Wha… What are you talking about?" Colonel Disk wheezed.

"There is no Vironoid leader! All of this was just a hoax to lure the heroes right into a trap! There is no Viro Core either! However, the Vironoids were not fake. Nobody leads them. So… I decided to entrust one of my minions to brainwash them in order to make them stronger and more intelligent!"

"You… You… You're not going to get away with this…"

"I already have," Tipral brought his fist down on his head with Star energy on them. "Sure, the Vironoids may be no more, but it doesn't mean that my plan is finished just yet! The heroes are JUST where I wanted them!"

"Then I'm not going to let them fall into your trap!" Colonel Disk tried to move, but because of his injuries, he was unable to reach the light-speed circuit pad.

"Try all you want in that condition, but you're not going to get anywhere. I might as well let you join with your own kind at this moment. You wouldn't want to be the only one of your kind left, do you?"

Colonel Disk was silent for a moment, unable to speak to Tipral. However, after a while, he spoke.

"…You're right. If I'm the only one remaining, where else am I going to go? My army's finished, my commander is also gone. It's better that I join with them instead… I'm sorry, heroes, but I've failed you… I wish I could do something else, but it's not going to help…"

"Hmph… Very well. Then it's time to take your final bow, Colonel Disk!" Tipral waves his wand and aimed it at Colonel Disk. He began to charge up a dark blast that was about to hit him.

_"Heroes… Just don't give up just yet… The Computernoids may be gone, but you still have your mission to complete…" _the colonel thought to himself as he watched a dark blast go towards him.

In no time at all, his vision went blank.

* * *

**Computer room-**

"So did we find the computer room NOW?" Chopper asked as they set foot into the hallway. The walls were a red orange color, while the floor itself was glowing a yellow color. Something they've probably seen before.

"Well this place isn't any different…" Blade trailed as they continued through the long hallway. They happened to see a red orange beam just at the end of the hallway.

When they reached the end of the hallway, they noticed a broken robot right near them. It sort of reminded them of a certain computer-like being that they've seen before.

"Wait a second… Isn't this NaDis?" Sonic gawked as he knelt down to take a look at the robot. "What's she doing here?"

_"Hmmmmmmm… Those questions are very tough to answer…" _Timpani trailed as Sonic got up.

"So, you people finally managed to show up…" Up ahead, they saw a large computer terminal with someone sitting down on the chair. Unfortunately, they couldn't see who it was because it was facing away from them.

"That voice… It sounds like it's somewhat familiar…" Chopper trailed. "Are you the Vironoid leader?"

"Vironoid leader? HA! There is no such thing!" Everyone gasped. "All of that was just a little sham just to get those Computernoids to lure you right into our trap! We've been waiting for you, Chopper, Star Warrior of Planet Clara… Oh, yes indeed!"

The chair turned around and it was revealed to be Dark Doom sitting on the chair while grinning maliciously at the group. Everyone jumped up and shock and got in their fighting stances.

"What's the matter? Surprised to see me again?"

"Dark?! What on earth are YOU doing here?!" Sonic gaped.

"Wait a second… He said 'we' in that other sentence…" Chopper pondered. All of the sudden, another person appeared, but right beside Dark.

It was Knightmare.

"We meet again, heroes…" Knightmare said coldly. "I haven't forgotten our last battle…"

"Oh, no… It's him!" Luigi gulped.

"Knightmare?!" Chopper clenched his fists and took one step forward. "So you decided to team up with Dark to take us down, didn't you?"

"You could say that," Knightmare said. "All of this was Tipral's plan. He got us to lure you into this area. Luckily, we had a little computer to thank us. Unfortunately, she had to pay the price…"

Everyone looked down at NaDis. "So… All this time, NaDis was spying on us… But why is she like this?" Blade asked.

"We had to get rid of her after she tried to rebel against us. She said that she only does things for herself. So… With that, I simply destroyed her! This was all a great plan for us!" Dark explained.

"I see that you've got the heroes right where I want them…" To make things worse, Tipral appeared in the computer room, flying above Dark and Knightmare. "So, how does it feel to be lured into a trap, Chopper?"

"Tipral? What are you doing here? And what trap are you talking about?" Chopper asked.

"The one that was already explained," stated Knightmare.

_"We should get back to the Computernoids and warn them about this!" _Timpani suggested.

"You're too late for that," Tipral stated. "The entire Computernoid race is no more…thanks to me!"

_"But… Why would you do something like that? In fact, WHY are you trying to bring The Void back? Don't you understand what it's done before?"_

"Those Computernoids were interfering with our plan. We had to get rid of them immediately. However, all that remains are you guys… As for The Void, you haven't seen what its true power when I finally revive it. This time, it'll be ten times the power!"

"So, Tipral… Permission to attack the heroes?" Dark asked, pulling for his blaster, while Knightmare pointed his sword at the heroes.

"Permission granted. The heroes are the only ones that we must get rid of anyway."

"But… Where's the Pure…" Chopper paused when he saw a red orange Pure Heart stored in a capsule over by the computer terminal. "Oh… It's in there… So it IS in the computer room!"

_"Chopper, now's not the time to be making jokes! We need to stop these two from ending our games!" _Blumiere reminded.

"Oh, yeah. I know that! So it's going to be another battle against two people… It kinds of reminds me of that battle on that tower!"

"Let's make this fight a little more interesting," Tipral twirled his scepter and fired a blast down at the ground. The ground suddenly turned to a dark color and detached from the ground, making it some sort of lift that ascended upwards in the tower. "If you ever fall, you'll be history! Remember that, Chopper!"

As Tipral disappeared, Knightmare looked at Chopper. "He must really hate you more than anyone else… I will have the honors of taking you down!"

"This is where it all ends, heroes! Sonic, you better be ready!" Dark growled as he dove towards the blue hedgehog and pinned him to the ground.

"Yo! Don't be like that!" Blade rushed straight at Dark and knocked him away from Sonic using his head.

"Ack! You little…!" Dark aimed his blaster at Blade, but was soon hit by Mario's Ground Pound, keeping him off guard. He was already dazed at this moment, but Knightmare appeared right in front of the three with his cape and knocked them away with his Nightmare Slash.

"Knightmare, stay out of this fight. I'll handle these three for now." the Dark Creature king suggested as he got up. "You can take care of the other three for now."

"As you wish," Knightmare whirled around to Chopper, Kirby, and Luigi and slowly walked towards them. "I've been waiting a long time to get back at you… Especially you, green one."

"Wh-Wha…? Why me?!" Luigi gulped.

"I don't mean you, plumber. I'm talking about the boy." Knightmare pulled a sword from his pocket and threw it over to him. "Take this sword and we shall battle at long last! While Dark is occupied with the hedgehog, ninja, and plumber, I'll handle you three personally!"

Chopper gained the Sword ability after inhaling the sword and aimed it towards Knightmare. "I can't believe you. You do ALL of this just to lure us into a trap? I thought trying to spy on people was dishonorable!"

"I wasn't the one spying. That was Dark Doom, I believe… But enough talk! Now it's time for us to battle!" Knightmare sprang towards Chopper with his wings and tried to slash him with his silver sword. Chopper, on the other hand, brought his guard up and punched him with fire energy.

"Hey! There aren't any rules about using swords only!"

"Poyo! (And that's a good thing!)" Kirby added, hitting Knightmare with his Ice Storm attack. However, this didn't stop Knightmare from fighting back. He grabbed a hold of Kirby and kicked him towards Chopper, knocking them both to the ground.

"Oh, and if you fall off this platform, you're most likely going to die," informed Knightmare was Chopper and Kirby got up.

"Luigi! You gotta help us!" Chopper called out.

"B-But… He's that guy…!" Luigi stammered.

"Just DO something for crying out loud!"

"Ummmmm… Then I shall!" Luigi dodged one of Knightmare's slashes and stomped on top of his head. Afterward, he hit him with his Cyclone attack to send him flying in the air and knocked him to the ground with his Super Jump.

"Poyo! (There we go!)" Kirby smiled.

"Ugh… Not bad, plumber…" Knightmare coughed as he grabbed Luigi's leg. "But this fight is FAR from over!"

He got himself up and pulled Luigi towards him. Knightmare threw him to the ground and began to attack him with his metallic feet before leaving him on the ground.

"Oh! I need to investigate Knightmare!" Chopper realized, pulling Timpani's wand out and investigating the mysterious knight.

"_That's Knightmare. He's that mysterious dark knight that we've encountered back at the Mansion of Nightmares, and he looks like he's out for revenge… Max HP is 240. Attack is 13. Defense is 6. Knightmare focuses on some fast attacks, such as his Nightmare Tornado or his Nightmare Slash, which he uses when he disappears with his cape and appears behind someone. Watch out when he stores enough energy into his sword. That's when you need to find somewhere safe IMMEDIATELY! I guess this time Knightmare's not going to let his guard down like last time… He's really after us this time. But, why would he be teaming up with Dark Doom to fight us?" _Timpani informed.

"Those questions remain unknown…" Chopper readied himself as Knightmare disappeared with his cape. "Crud… Now he disappeared. How are we supposed to…"

"Right behind you," Knightmare said as he appeared behind Chopper and struck him with his Nightmare Slash, keeping Chopper off guard.

While the three were focusing on Knightmare, Sonic, Blade and Mario were trying to keep themselves busy against Dark. They didn't want to interfere with the battle against Knightmare.

"I wonder why we let them handle Knightmare…" Blade wondered as he got hit in the face by Dark's arm. "Hey! Quit it already!"

After Sonic struck Dark with a Spin Dash, they overheard Timpani's voice on investigating Dark when Chopper (accidentally) aimed it towards Dark while having it out.

"_That's Dark Doom. He's the leader of the Dark Creatures, and he looks like he's really out for blood this time… Max HP is 250. Attack is 13. Defense is 5. Compared to Knightmare, he isn't as fast, but he can surely use stronger attacks than him. His martial arts have greatly improved since the last encounter, so be careful when he tries to grab a hold of you… He can also paralyze, burn, poison, freeze, or even put you to sleep with his blaster's capabilities! So, it's best to be careful around him… However, I still don't understand why he and Knightmare are teaming up here…" _Timpani informed.

"Swift Strike!" Dark called out, firing a red boomerang towards Mario, who jumped over it and slammed his hammer right to his head. Blade also managed to attack him by throwing Hommissile at his direction.

"You know you heroes can't keep this up, do you understand?" Dark reminded, grabbed Blade's arm and throwing him to the ground. "Better yet, I could just get you all off this platform and we'd be victorious!"

"Dark… Why? Why would you do something like this?" Sonic asked. "You know the whole internet NEEDS those Computernoids!"

"Who uses the internet nowadays?"

Mario: Plenty of people do!

"Pbbbbbbbbth! Well it's their loss then. Those Computernoids were interfering, so we had to get rid of them. It works for the better anyway. We wipe those Computernoids out, we have an advantage against you now that you can't get the help you need from the Computernoids!"

"Well we'll still stop you no matter what!" Sonic growled, using a Whirlwind attack to sent Dark flying in the air. However, he was able to simply float down slowly with his cape's capabilities.

"Hold on… Is he Batman now?" Blade gawked. "I mean, Batman is able to do something like that… How is HE able to do that?!"

Mario: Let's not ask questions right now…

Mario gripped his hammer once again and rushed towards Dark. He managed to bash him in the head, but Dark managed to grab his hammer and bash him in the head with it instead. However, he dropped it when Sonic struck him with a Homing Attack, allowing Mario to grab his hammer.

"Yeesh… This guy's really asking for it." Blade coughed as he knocked Dark away with a hurricane slash. However, Dark was able to keep himself from being blown away and fired a couple of meteors down at Blade, knocking him near the edge of the platform.

"Hang on, I gotcha!" Sonic said as he grabbed Blade's hand and pulled him up.

"Whew! Thanks for that, Sonic…"

"Anytime!" Sonic turned back to Dark and struck him in the head with a Homing Attack. "So, are you in any more pain from that previous fight? You were in some terrible pain after we beat you."

"That pain happened to go away, thank you very much," Dark said as he made Sonic trip over on the ground and fall face flat. He grinned at this until Mario stomped on him, keeping him off guard.

"I'll get you for that, plumber!" Dark aimed his blaster at Mario and shot him with a sleep ray, causing him to fall asleep. Unfortunately, this left him as a big target for Dark, who was about to fire another Swift Strike.

"Uh oh… This isn't good." Blade made some signals with his fingers and made a couple of clones of himself. They all jumped towards Dark and attacked him at one, but the Dark Creature king managed to use a sweeping kick attack that hit Blade and made the clones disintegrate.

"He's pretty good…" Sonic coughed.

"Bro! I don't know how much I can take of this!" Luigi cried as Sonic and Blade saw him being thrown around by Knightmare. Chopper, on the other hand, kicked Knightmare and slashed him with his sword afterwards.

"Leave him BE!" Chopper growled.

"Very well. I'll do what you say." Knightmare said calmly, letting Luigi plummet to the ground. Kirby was also ready to fight back, but soon stopped when Knightmare used a Sword Beam to make him float in the air.

He was able to get behind him and interrupt his third Sword Beam with his Ice Breath to keep Knightmare off guard. However, Knightmare disappeared with his cape and used his Nightmare Slash to strike Kirby from behind, sending him flying in the air.

"Poyo?! (How can he do this?!)" Kirby cried.

"I have no idea," Chopper said as he brought his sword down, firing a Sword Beam at Knightmare while he was preoccupied. This brought his attention back to Chopper, making him store some power in his sword and firing three Sword Beams at his direction. Chopper, on the other hand, countered them with his Sword Beams. He then set Knightmare's wing on fire with a fireball.

"Urk!" Knightmare used his cape to extinguish the small flame before knocking Chopper away with a simple slash. Chopper immediately got up and ran towards Knightmare. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to hit him due to Knightmare being able to block his sword slashes.

"I still feel some strange connection between us…" Knightmare trailed, trying to push Chopper away. "I don't understand what it is. …But I won't let that get in the way of our fight!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, but fine," Chopper kicked Knightmare's arm that held his sword and slashed him with his own sword while he was occupied. He followed up with an ice slash (he can combine ice energy and his sword whenever he wanted), but it didn't exactly freeze him.

"Hey, guys! How are you hanging back there?!"

"Not too good…" Sonic wheezed as he got thrown to the ground by Dark. "He's gotten a lot stronger than we thought…"

Dark was actually busy beating the crap out of Sonic while Blade was shaking Mario in order to wake him up. However, when he resorted to slapping Mario across the face, that's when he woke up.

Mario: What happened?

"You fell asleep from Dark's blaster," Blade said, trying to cut it short. "Let's just not waste any time right now kick his ass, all right?"

Mario gripped his hammer while Blade gripped his katana. They rushed towards Dark and gave him a good bashing and slashing. With the duo's attacks, this left Dark panting for a little.

"Ugh… I nearly forgot about you." Dark said before getting knocked over by Knightmare. "What the…! Knightmare? ! What're you doing here? !"

Luigi came jumping towards Knightmare, laying a powerful stomp attack on his face. He also managed to elbow Dark in the stomach in the meantime, making him cringe while holding his stomach in pain.

"Ugh… So I underestimated you, plumber…" Knightmare wheezed as he slowly got up. "But I still have a few tricks up my sleeves!"

Knightmare began to spin around, surrounding himself in a purple tornado. Luigi was sucked into the tornado and sent flying over by the edge. Luckily, Kirby managed to grab a hold of him before he fell.

"Whoa… Thanks, Kirby…" Luigi sighed in relief as Kirby pulled him up. With this, the pink (or blue puffball, since he has the Ice ability on) ice skated towards Knightmare while he was still in his tornado and spat am ice beam at him, making him a frozen tornado.

"Thanks, Kirby!" Chopper smiled as he used a fire slash to unfreeze Knightmare and jab at him a couple of times. Unfortunately, since he wasn't at full health, he couldn't fire a beam from his sword.

"Poyo… (I'm not feeling too good…)" Kirby coughed as he and Luigi walked over to Chopper. "Poyo. (He's really throwing everything at us.)"

_"But there's no reason to give up the fight," _Blumiere stated. _"You need you win the fight against Knightmare. If you beat him early, then you'll be able to help the other three later on."_

"Hmph… Well, I suppose I should unleash my strongest attack." Knightmare raised his sword, which began to glow a dark color. Chopper took this time to Speed Dash towards Knightmare and slash at him, but one attack wasn't enough to keep him off guard. He was going to unleash it.

"Take _THIS_!"

Knightmare unleashed all of the dark energy in his sword and his Nightmare Tornado came flying towards Chopper, Kirby and Luigi. Unfortunately, all three of them got caught in the tornado and got slammed to the ground, leaving the three heroes in a bad condition.

Of course, now that Mario and Blade were back into action, Dark was having a harder time fighting the group. Sonic managed to strike him from behind with a Homing Attack, while Blade managed to kick him in the shin and throw Hommissile at him afterwards, leaving Dark covered in soot.

"You damn heroes aren't going to be getting that Pure Heart," Dark hissed.

"And people thought I cursed often," Blade said as he jumped right on top of Dark and began to hit his face with his feet a couple of times until he got thrown to the ground by Dark.

"I think we're going to need to heal up…" Sonic suggested, pulling an Ultimate Shroom Shake out. "I think it's our key to beating him easily."

They all took a sip from the Ultimate Shroom Shake and recovered 100 HP with ease. This gave Sonic the energy he needed, allowing him to ram straight into Dark with a Spin Dash.

"Urk! How are you able to do that? !" Dark hissed, attempting to punch Sonic. However, he blocked his attack and gave him a punch in the face either. He followed up with a Homing Attack to knock him to the ground.

"Knightmare… How are you holding back there?"

"It's hard to say…" Knightmare grunted as he began to swing his sword around himself, which managed to strike Chopper and leave him a bit wounded. "But I think I'm winning this fight…"

"Well then we need to heal," Luigi announced, pulling an Ultimate Shroom Shake out. The trio took a sip from the can and recovered 100 HP. This allowed Luigi to throw Bonjourang at Knightmare's mask and leave him dazed for a couple of seconds. It also helped him stomp on him as well.

"Hmmmm… Well that's just great. Both sides healed." Dark grumbled as he disappeared with his cape and appeared above the heroes. With this, he fired meteors down on the heroes. One even went towards Knightmare…

…But he was able to slice the meteor in half.

"Whoa… He just sliced the meteor in half!" Chopper gaped.

"Poyo, (You don't see things like that,)" Kirby gaped as well.

Unfortunately, one of the meteors happened to hit Sonic and sent him flying over to the edge of the platform. Luckily, he managed to grab a hold of it, but it didn't look like he was going to hang on for a bit longer.

"Heh heh heh! Well it looks like we've got a hedgehog hanging from the platform!" Dark grinned as he slowly walked over to Sonic. "So, Sonic… How about I help you get down there? It won't be painful!"

He stepped on one of Sonic's hands, making him release his grip on his left hand. Sonic looked down at the pit down below and gulped. If he fell down there, he would be history…

"Let me get up, Dark," Sonic growled.

"Why should I do that? You're my enemy, and I've been waiting a long time for this!" Dark stepped on Sonic's right hand, but all it did was make him lose grip with one of his fingers.

"Hmmmmm… You still won't let go…"

Luckily, Chopper happened to notice Sonic holding onto the edge of the platform, so he simply knocked Knightmare away with one single slash and ran towards Dark.

"Say your prayers, Sonic! Because it'll be your…"

Unfortunately for Dark, Chopper rammed straight into him and sent him flying toward the wall and fell to his doom. Afterward, he grabbed a hold of Sonic's hand and pulled him up.

"Whoa… What was that?" Sonic asked.

"Honestly… I don't know…" Chopper trailed as he ran back to Knightmare. "But, that's one down!"

"Really? Well this is nice!" Blade grinned, eyeing Knightmare, who was frozen from Kirby's Ice Breath.

However, before he could act, Dark appeared in front of Blade and blasted him with poison energy, leaving him poisoned.

"Crap! I'm poisoned!" Blade used Piccolo's ability to heal him of his status ailment, and then he slashed at Dark, who already got bashed by Mario's jump attack. This left him a bit dazed when Sonic used his Bounce Attack to knock him to the ground.

"How are you guys holding up there?" Sonic asked, seeing Chopper knock Knightmare back with a couple of jabs. However, he did get knocked away when Knightmare did a swooping attack while he was on the ground.

"Man, this fight has been going for a while, hasn't it?" Chopper panted.

Knightmare stared at Chopper for a couple of seconds. "The name Chopper… I feel like I've heard of that name before from somewhere… But I can't put my finger to it…"

"Wait… What?" Dark's eyes widened in shock. "Are you saying that you might KNOW this boy?"

"I'm not quite sure… But it doesn't matter now. This all ends here!" Knightmare flew towards Chopper and swung at him. However, Chopper raised his sword up and blocked his attack. He kicked him afterwards and used a powerful slash attack to knock him away.

"Spinning Sword!" Chopper cried as he began to charge at Knightmare like a drill. However, the mysterious warrior did the same exact thing, making a huge clash occur between them.

_"This isn't good… Knightmare might begin to find out who he really is…" _Dark thought before getting punched by Sonic.

"Hey! Don't think we're done fighting here!" Sonic grinned. "We still have to finish you guys off!"

"Oh, yes… Of course." Dark kicked Sonic in the shin, but that wasn't going to stop him from fight back. With his Whirlwind attack, Dark was sent flying in the air, leaving him vulnerable for a couple of seconds. Sonic took this time to curl in a ball and charge up his Light Speed Attack.

Mario: Oh, yes!

The red plumber jumped towards Dark and brought his hammer down on him, slamming him to the ground. Blade rushed towards him afterwards and slashed him a couple of times with his katana.

"Face it, Dark. You're beat!" Blade stated.

Of course, Knightmare was starting to get beat too. Luigi's Cyclone attack was keeping him very occupied, and when Luigi used his Super Jump on him afterwards, he was barely able to move.

"Poyo! (I don't think I need this anymore!)" Kirby took his Ice ability off, but instead of letting it go away, he inhaled it and spat it towards Knightmare, leaving his HP dangerously low.

"_Cough… Hack… _What is wrong with me?" Knightmare wheezed before Chopper walked toward him. "You…"

Chopper began to store up some energy in his sword. This time, he combined both fire and ice energy to make his attack stronger than ever. As for Sonic, he was able to fully charge him Light Speed Attack.

"All right, Dark! Here it comes!" Sonic unleashed his attack on Dark, striking him many times. Chopper unleashed his sword attack as well. It was so strong, that it sent Knightmare flying towards Dark. Everyone cringed as they both crashed into each other and fell to the ground in pain.

"Urgh… No… We…lost?" Dark wheezed.

Knightmare slowly rubbed his eyes and blinked for a couple of seconds. "Wait a second… I… I think I'm starting to realize what happened to me…"

"Wait… What?!"

Knightmare slowly got up and pointed at Dark. "You… You brainwashed me, didn't you? Back in that winter world…"

"Wait a second… Who are you?" Chopper asked, dropping his sword and his ability. Knightmare turned his head to him.

"Chopper! Listen! This is—ACK!" Everyone gaped as Dark zapped him with purple energy from his moon crescent on his head. It seemed as if he couldn't say anything else at this moment.

"Dark! Who is he?!"

"Sorry, Chopper, but I'm afraid he won't be answering your question," Dark stated. "I was told by Tipral that if Knightmare remembered who he really was, we would dispose of him right away. We can't let him spy on us anymore. So, Knightmare… Let's get you out of here!"

With one more zap, Knightmare was teleported to a different dimension. A dimension where no one would ever go to…

"You win this time, heroes… But don't think the war is over!" Dark hissed before he teleported out of the room with his cape. The platform, luckily, happened to descend to the floor, making it safe for them to walk.

"So… The war is finally over…" Blade sighed.

"Yeah… But the Computernoids are all gone…" Luigi frowned.

Mario: It's a shame that they had to go.

"I wish there was a way we could honor them," Chopper wondered until Kirby walked up to the computer. There seemed to be nothing on the screen, which was a bit strange for some of them.

"The computer screen in blank…" Sonic trailed.

However, Kirby was able to type some words on the keyboard. The words "Thank you" were written up on the screen. It started to remind Chopper of when he saw a delivered cake in front of his house.

"Let me put something else up there," Chopper said as he typed the words "rest in peace" up as well. "They deserve some thanks for helping us. I just wish we could say that to them in person."

_"I'm sure they're watching us right now," _Timpani assured. _"I bet they're all happy for your acts."_

"Well, it would be nice to see them… But, thanks to Tipral…" Blade trailed.

"Tipral is going to pay for these actions. What he did was just WRONG on so many levels." Chopper said, feeling some anger within him, but he soon stopped and calmed himself. "Look, right now, I think they would want us to leave with the Pure Heart before we're in any more trouble."

Mario: I might have to agree.

"Yeah, I think it's for the best," Sonic nodded.

"Well… OK…" Chopper walked up to the capsule and opened it with the red button on the keyboard. The red orange Pure Heart simply floated right above him, followed by the Pixls that began to dance around him.

"At least this world can be at peace with all of the Vironoids gone," Chopper said as he held the Pure Heart up.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the fifteenth Pure Heart in Chopper's hands, that meant only five more remained. But with the extinction of the Computernoids, cyberspace didn't feel the same for our heroes. However, even with that, our heroes began to wonder about who Knightmare truly was and where he went after defeating the two. "To be honest, I feel like Knightmare reminds me of someone I know… But I'm not really sure if that person was really Knightmare…" Chopper pondered as they left the tower and took the exit out of this world from the Red Tower._

* * *

**There ya go! There's Chapter 14-5 in a nutshell! ...But with a computer room.**

**To be honest, I thought some scenes that were meant to be kind of sad seemed a bit more laughable (such as the scene with Colonel Disk and G-10). But, maybe because it was kind of dramatic or something along those lines. But who really cares? This WAS indeed a little darker than what we've probably seen in this fic so far (maybe except for Shade Doom, who I find a bit disturbing at times).**

**As for the boss fight... I felt I focused a little too much on Knightmare than Dark, but what am I gonna do about it? Anyway, that's really all I have to say for now. Let's hope you enjoyed this chapter, 'cause it took me a while to make. *shot***


	87. Chapter 14 Interlude

**So this is one of those interludes that might interest you a bit. There is probably someone you might've remembered from a couple of interludes ago that might make an appearance here. Who, exactly? Well I'm certainly not going to tell you! This chapter will show you, so enjoy!**

* * *

"Ugh… I can't believe those damn heroes! I lost to them AGAIN!" Dark growled as he injected himself with a medicine that allows him to heal himself. His room was a bit of a grayish color and on the walls, there were heads of many paladins he killed. He even had a closet full of their weapons as well, which was something he collects often. However, Dark wasn't in a good mood at this moment, due to the loss against the heroes.

"And as for Knightmare… Well now that he's out of the way, I think it makes this palace a bit…safer. Tipral didn't even trust him either! That's how much unsafe we felt with him around! But… It was to help outnumber the heroes…"

_"I have annoyance! Why is Fawful hearing the singing of loudness?! It makes Fawful's ears bleed like howling monkeys!" _From what Dark could hear, Fawful was getting irritated by some singing.

_"Who's singing?! It's really annoying me!" _Now that voice sounded just like Mimi. That girlish voice was pretty obvious for Dark.

_"Hey! Can't someone stop with the singing already?" _Mr. L growled._ "I'm trying to fix up a new Brobot here! …And why does that singing sound just like O'Chunks anyways? Did you sign up for an opera?"_

"Ugh… Now they're making it WORSE!" Dark growled as he slammed his door open. "Will you people SHUT UP?! You're not making it any better with all the whining and crap!"

"It's obvious that O'Chunks is singing a little song," Dimentio chuckled as he appeared in the room. He seemed to be holding something with him, though. It looked like…a pink diary.

"Dimentio! What's that you're holding? !" Mimi exclaimed. She was wearing a pink dress and a crown to resemble a princess. "Is that my diary you were just reading earlier?!"

"Ah ha ha. What exactly are you talking about, Mimikins?" the jester put the book behind him and with a snap of his finger, it disappeared. He even showed that he had nothing with him. "See? I don't have anything in my hands!"

"Heh! So the girl's all dressed up to be a spoiled princess, is that how it is?" Mr. L snickered, looking at Mimi's outfit.

"Say that again and my fist is going to be in your face, meanie-head!" Mimi retorted, bringing her stick hand over to Mr. L's face.

"Pbbbbbbbbth! You honestly think you're going to punch me with THAT kind of hand? Man, you're so pathetic, Mimi!"

"I have chortles! Pigtails lacks the fury to hurt the mustache," Fawful cackled annoyingly. "However, the mustache lacks the fury of the hitting of Fawful! Nyeah heh heh heh!"

"Hey! How dare you mock my mustache?!" Mr. L growled.

As they all continued to argue, Tipral came out of his room with a dark aura around him. Everyone froze for a second and looked at the evil being. He certainly looked like he was irritated.

"ENOUGH with the arguing already!" he boomed. "I'm busy looking through the Dark Prognosticus, and it doesn't help that YOU people are arguing over NOTHING! SHUT UP!"

However, Mimi simply zipped over to Tipral and gave him a hug. "Oh, Tippy! These dummies were being SO annoying! I was trying to get them to stop, but they wouldn't listen to me!"

"Mimi, that trick won't work on me. Now tell me WHY you people are arguing in the first place."

"I have hearing," Fawful explained. "Fawful was busy with his chortles until the singing had the coming! Midbus is having annoyance, just like Fawful! It just won't have leaving!"

"Yeah, he explained it all," Dark said with a confused look. "And I had to get rid of Knightmare because he was finding out who he really was."

"Is that so? I see…" Tipral said while folding his arms. "Well, sometimes some minions have to go… He won't be a problem for us anymore. Those Computernoids won't be any problem either."

"Tell me, Tipral… Without the Computernoids, wouldn't the internet be a dangerous place to explore?" Dimentio asked. "They were the only security through the internet. Even villains would need them."

"We barely use the internet, so it's not a big deal for us," However, Tipral paused when he heard some singing. "Where is that singing coming from?"

* * *

**Meeting room-**

"Raise yer chunks in the air, as the most debonair man o' men strides into the room! Springin' forth from 'is lair as 'is foes all despair, for Tipral be the name o' their doom! Whoa-OH! That's our Tipral! Tipity, Tipity DOOOO! Yeh, uh…something Tipral… That's the guy who says…"

O'Chunks collapsed onto the ground, finishing his song with "Woo?"

"So THIS is where the singing was coming from!" Mimi teleported into the room with an angry look on her face. "Will you QUIT it, O'Chunks? ! It's like you're breaking windows! Why are you yelling?!"

"Oh, that? Yeah, I just had O'Chunks come up with a nice motivational tune. Since he lost to those heroes AGAIN, I had to give him another punishment, such as making him sing that song 1,000 times."

"1,000… 1,000 times?! Gosh, you're more evil than I thought you were! And that's saying something!"

Everyone else appeared in the room and looked at the exhausted O'Chunks. They decided to NOT even ask any questions about what O'Chunks was doing. Plus, he was too tired to answer.

"Knightmare hasn't returned lately," Nastasia informed. "Was it because he was starting to find out who he really was?"

"Yes, we had to dispose of him," Dark nodded while wrapping himself with his cape. "He shouldn't be a problem for us anymore. Unfortunately… Those heroes managed to grab the Pure Heart."

"Then… Can you send me out to take care of them, Tippy? Please?" Mimi asked as she softened her eyes to Tipral.

"That's not necessary," Tipral said. "I don't need to send anyone out for now. There's only one more thing that I need in order to bring back The Void… It's something that I could've used instead of those people's dreams, but since those people are with Chopper, I fear that it won't be easy to get them this time."

"Wh-What?! I can't go out and stomp those heroes?!" Mr. L gaped. "That's so l-ame!"

"But how will you have the creating of The Void? What is the needing?" Fawful asked. "I lack the patience like a puppy wanting horse radish!"

"Fine… I might as well tell you what I need. But I can't say it out loud." All of the minions walked close to him as Tipral mumbled what he needed to resurrect The Void. Everyone seemed a bit surprised.

"Golly, well that seems difficult to get," Mimi gawked.

"Man, I can't believe it's going to take that to bring back The Void," Mr. L gaped. "I don't think I would be able to get something like THAT."

"Yes, judging from what I've seen, this won't be an easy task for me…" Tipral trailed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go."

Tipral teleported out of the room, leaving only his minions in the meeting room. "Ah, that is something that I'm not sure I would be able to do," Dimentio said as he grinned.

"You're a magician. You would probably know how to." Dark noted.

"True, but even with some magic, it doesn't completely work on them. But, if Tipral manages to succeed…all the better!" the last thing they heard was Dimentio's cackling as he teleported out of the room.

"What's 'is beef?" O'Chunks asked, still tired.

"I don't know… But let's hope he doesn't pull another betrayal on us like last time…" Nastasia trailed. "Now let's get back to our rooms, 'K?"

With that, they left the meeting room and returned to their own rooms. Where did Dimentio go? Well, nobody knew at the moment.

* * *

**Overthere Stair-**

"Oh, my sweet, sweet Luvbi… Why didst thou have to fall in love with such a pale green boy such as that puffball?" the depressed Nimbi, Wenbi, sniffled as he settled over by one of the trees. He was sitting by the tree that had the Golden Apple (the place where Kirby was asleep).

"I wish there was a way to changeth all of this, but alas, I dost not have the ability to dost that," Wenbi picked up the Golden Apple and brought it close to his mouth. "The only thing I can dost…is to falleth into a deep sleep. No one will knoweth my existence then…"

"Did you say something about a boy getting in the way of your love?" Wenbi paused for a minute and looked over by the cloud up ahead. The dark wizard, Shade Doom jumped over to Wenbi's cloud and walked over to him, followed by his Necromancer.

"Thou… Thou art the dark wizard that hath invaded mine home! What art thou doing hither?!"

"Relax, Nimbi. I'm not here to hurt you." Shade grinned while looking at the Nimbi with his glowing eyes under his hood. "I just heard that you had a little problem with a certain pale green boy, is that correct?"

"Yea, verily! He hast taken away mine one true love, the princess! I even made love letters for her, but she fell in love with HIM!"

"Master Shade, what do we suggest we do?" the Necromancer asked.

"Pipe down, Necromancer. I know what I'm doing." Shade shushed as he brought his attention back to Wenbi. "I believe I can help you with your little problem. However, I ask for something in return."

"What dost thou want from me? I'll do anything to get back my true love!"

"Well, I'll let you have your princess…but you must join me and become my apprentice!" Shade brought his hood down to reveal his face to Wenbi. "If you become my apprentice, I can give you ANYTHING you desire! I have the dark magic that lets me do such a thing. I could even make you into a dark wizard like myself! With that, you'll be able to KILL Chopper!"

"Pray, why shouldst I kill Chopper? I dost not want to kill anybody…"

"Well, then I might as well just leave you here alone…" Shade turned away from Wenbi and brought his hood back up. "Come, Necromancer! Let's just leave this pathetic whelp to sleep for hundreds of years."

"Wait! Don't leave me hither! I'll… I'll help thee!" Wenbi begged. "I doth want my princess, but I doth remember that I wanted to maketh Chopper pay…"

"Ah! So you wish to join me for real? Excellent!" Shade grinned while turning back to him. "I'll make you the greatest apprentice that I'd ever have! …Or rather, probably the only one. I'll make sure you're the best of my entire army too!"

"Wait… So this means you're going to ignore me?" the Necromancer asked, giving Shade puppy-like eyes.

"Oh, shut up, Necromancer."

With that, the three left The Overthere in hopes to get their revenge on Chopper and the heroes. Shade had a disturbing grin on his face, with his plan nearly completed.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

"Man… That was one of the most intense fights I think I've ever gone through…" Chopper realized as they walked out of the red orange door. They noticed the red orange crystal heart that appeared over the door.

_"Those Computernoids were very helpful to us," _Timpani said. _"I can't believe they did all of that just to help us get the Pure Heart. It's so sad that they were all exterminated by Tipral…"_

"Yeah, I think he did take it way too far," Sonic agreed. "However, they would probably want us to bring this to the next Heart Pillar, so I think it would be best if we did that."

When they took the elevator down to the second floor, they happened to see Vivian speaking to Nolrem. Chopper's antennas instantly sprung up when Vivian's head turned to Chopper.

"Chopper! There you are!" she flew over to Chopper and gave him a hug, leaving his cheeks to turn bright red. "I was hoping you would get here back in time! I kind of felt a little lonely with everyone else…"

"Really? How come you didn't speak to anyone?" Blade asked.

"Well, it's because I didn't know what to say to them," Vivian responded with a shy look. "It would've been a lot better if I went and saw you for a bit. Nolrem was just talking about the Dark and Light Prognosticus."

"Interesting… Well, we got this!" Chopper showed the red orange Pure Heart to Vivian. She gazed at it and smiled.

"It's really pretty," she replied.

"Yeah, it sure is. Although, that white one we got from The Overthere was pretty…" Sonic paused for a minute. "Hold on a second… That was Luvbi that was once a Pure Heart! And we all know how she is…"

"Who's Luvbi?"

"Ugh… You probably wouldn't wanna know…" Chopper groaned. "So, Nolrem… Should we place the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar at the moment and then go back to Merlon's house?"

"I would suggest that," Nolrem nodded. "After all, it's better to get the Pure Heart over with first."

"Excellent," Chopper was about to go, but Vivian grabbed his hand. "Vivian? What are you doing?"

"Would it be all right if I…came to see the Heart Pillar?"

"Poyo? (Is it all right if she came with us?)" Kirby asked, getting in front of Chopper. "Poyo. (I mean, Vivian's a really nice girl, and I know that you're good friends with her. So, why not say yes?)"

"Uhhhh… Sure! I guess you can come, Vivian!" Chopper nodded.

"Really? Th-Thanks!" Vivian smiled. "I was just a little curious, that's all."

"Just make sure you can keep up with us," Blade noted.

* * *

**Flopside B1 Outskirts-**

"What the… I don't think I've seen this area before." Sonic gawked as they walked out of the pipe. Vivian was the last one to come out, and she looked around the whole area and gaped.

"This place is really interesting," she commented.

"Poyo? (Have we been here before?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't think you guys have, but I sure have," Chopper confirmed. "It's after Tipral and I agreed to work together to get back to his castle. However, he's not with us anymore, so it doesn't really matter at this moment."

"Wait a minute… I think one of those stain-glassed windows look a little…different." Luigi realized, pointing to the closest one. "I think you should flip into 3-D and see what's there."

_"I think it's a good idea," _Blumiere agreed.

Chopper decided to flip into 3-D and, to his surprise, he DID see something strange. He was able to go right through that door and find a pathway moving up. Apparently there was a little secret behind the wall where they came out of the pipe.

After going back into 2-D, he noticed there was a Heart Pillar in front of him. "There we go! That's what I was looking for! Now we just need to get this Pure Heart in and then we can…"

However, he stopped when Vivian rose up from the ground in front of him, making him throw the Pure Heart up. Luckily, she managed to catch it and bring it back down to Chopper.

"Vivian! Don't freak me out like that!"

"Sorry about that, Chopper," Vivian apologized. "I didn't intend to surprise you like that… But I got the Pure Heart for you!"

"…Thank you," Chopper said as he gently took the Pure Heart back. To be honest, the Pure Heart seemed to fit with her hat for some strange reason, but nevertheless, he brought the Pure Heart up and allowed it to fly into the Heart Pillar.

"What's going on now?"

"You'll see."

A red orange clock appeared around the pillar and triggered something to happen up at Flopside Towers. A silver door was drawn right beside the red orange door.

After the clock disappeared, Vivian opened her eyes. "What was that clock that just appeared?"

"Uhhhhh… Honestly, I don't even know. It was just there. Ever since I placed the Pure Heart in the first Heart Pillar, this weird clock appeared. I don't even know if it even fits a Heart Pillar. Although… Maybe it actually represents time itself? I honestly wonder why…"

"Well, maybe we should go back to Merlon's house," Vivian suggested, grabbing a hold of Chopper's hand and sinking into the shadows to the rest of the group.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"So, where do you think Vivian ran off to?" Parakarry asked, checking the letters that he still had with him. "Wait a minute… I think I have one that's for Mario and Chopper! Weird…"

"We'll still have to find out when she comes back," C-2 Choppor said, answering Parakarry's question. "And who are those letters from?"

"One is from Princess Peach and the one for Chopper is from…"

"We're here," Blade announced as they all walked into Merlon's house. Heartsy smiled when she saw Chopper enter the house, but she paused when Vivian came in too.

"So Vivian was traveling with Chopper?" Flyer asked, tilting his head. "Well how was that new world you saw, Vivian? Was it nice?"

"Actually, I only found him and the group at Flopside," Vivian informed. "I was just exploring the place a little bit."

"Oh… Well that's interesting." Heartsy commented, although Bow gave Vivian a suspicious look for a minute. "Why are you giving her that look, Bow? Because it looks like you're acting jealous."

"Jealous? I'm not jealous!" Bow retorted, turning away from her. "I just, uh… Oh, forget it. Wouldn't you be jealous that she got to travel with him a bit and not you?"

"It's fine, it's not like they're dating or anything," Her words caused Chopper to smack his forehead.

_"Ugh... Why must something like this be brought up?" _Chopper thought.

"So I see you managed to come back all right…" Merlon trailed as he walked to the heroes. "Only five more Pure Hearts remain! We are getting closer to Tipral's Palace by the minute… If you manage to collect one more, you should be led to his palace."

"Poyo? (Really? We're finally going to head there soon?)" Kirby gaped.

"Indeed you will, Kirby. If you manage to stop Tipral from bringing The Void back, then all worlds will be saved once and for all, and you won't even need to get the final four Pure Hearts either! However… If he does… Only the Purity Heart would be able to counter the true power of the Chaos Heart…"

"What's the Chaos Heart's true power like?" Chopper asked.

"Sadly, I don't know about this… The Tribe of Ancients have never witnessed the true power of the Chaos Heart… If Tipral manages to bring it back, then it will be the first time ever that its true power will be unleashed throughout the universe…when it makes contact with The Void. In the Light Prognosticus, it even states 'When the Chaos Heart makes contact with the dark swirling vortex, its true power is unleashed.'"

"Then we should come with you," Flyer suggested. "We don't want you to run in any trouble. I mean, look at you guys! You look beaten! I don't think you're able to take on any more obstacles yourselves!"

"Flyer… We know we can do this…" Chopper assured. "We just got in a fight with Dark Doom and some mysterious masked warrior named Knightmare. I don't know why, but he reminds me of Meta Knight for some reason."

"Speaking of Meta Knight… Where is he?" Merlon asked.

"Poyo… (I don't think he ever came back from that Christmas world…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo… (I just hope he's all right…)"

"I don't know about you guys, but maybe Knightmare WAS Meta Knight…" Sonic suggested.

"In all honesty, I was just thinking about that," Chopper agreed. "But where could we find him now? Dark sent him to some other world! It's going to take a WHILE to find him!"

"…Oh! I just remembered to give you these letters!" Parakarry pulled a pink letter out and gave it to Mario, and then he gave an angelic letter to Chopper. Mario was the first to read his letter.

_Dear Mario,_

_I'm not sure where you are at the moment, but I was hoping to spend a vacation with you for once. Bowser hasn't been here for a long time, which made me think about spending some time with you. Hopefully you didn't disappear, because I was starting to get worried when you never returned from Clara…_

_-Princess Peach-_

Mario: I wish I could see her right now…

"What's that letter you have with you, Chopper?" C-2 Choppor asked, walking over to Chopper as he opened the envelope and began to read the letter.

_Dear Sweet Prince Chopper,_

_How art thou doing, my prince? Ever since thou hast left me with mine parents, I hath began to miss thee. I can just imagine the two of us going on a romantic date during a romantic night, kissing thither while out by the ocean. Pray! I dost want to live those days again and not with mine overprotective parents! Mayhap thou will findeth me again so we canst go back to the old times…_

_Love, _

_Your sweet princess, Luvbi_

"Luvbi seriously wrote me a letter?!" Chopper whispered while shivering in fear. "How did she find a way to get a hold of me?!"

"Who's Luvbi?" Heartsy asked. "Don't tell me she's another girl that fell in love with you, didn't she?"

"Uhhhhhhh… No, she's not." he sweat dropped. "She's…my cousin! Yeah!"

"But how could you have a cousin when our own kind is already gone? That doesn't make much sense…"

"Well, she's like a cousin to me, I suppose. And don't think I'm with any girl, because I DON'T want a girlfriend, all right?"

"Well, I guess if she's like a cousin to you, that's fine," she said before she kissed him on the cheek and giggled.

"Chopper: Highly vulnerable to kisses," Blade snickered.

"OK, I think we get it already, Blade," Sonic said. "That's gotten a little old..."

"Well it still annoys him," the blue cat looked back at the annoyed Chopper. "See?"

"What about your addiction to catnip one time?"

"What the... How'd you know about that?!"

"Sometimes your friends know things about you," Sonic smirked.

"Ummmmm… Should we really be wasting our time like this?" Luigi asked. "I think it would be best if we headed back up to Flopside Tower and headed through the next world already…"

"Strange… Usually you wouldn't want to do that." Chopper gawked after wiping Heartsy's kiss. "How come you want to go now?"

"Well, it's because I don't want all worlds to end… I may be cowardly, but it doesn't mean I want to see everything I love lost!"

"That's true," Heartsy agreed while holding onto Chopper's hand. He was about to get her hand off, but he knew that it was true for her. "We never want to lose everything we love, especially someone you love."

"Kind of reminds me of Tippi and Count Bleck for some reason…" Chopper trailed.

"I remember Merlon said something about those two," Vivian recalled.

"What ever happened to them?" Bow asked.

"I can actually contact them through this wand," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and showed it. Merlon immediately recognized the wand from before.

"Isn't that the wand you showed me before?" Merlon asked. "You believe that Tipp—I mean Lady Timpani can contact you through this? Mmmmmmmm… I can sense a strange power coming from here, but it doesn't appear to be active at the moment. Could it be because when it feels the presence of a wizard, the power drains away?"

"I wish there was some way for her to speak through there around Merlon," Sonic frowned.

"I wish the same thing, Sonic… However, you heroes can't spend most of your time here. You must head off to the next world immediately! Your friends will be just fine…"

"Oh, and one more thing…" Heartsy walked close to Chopper, making him feel uncomfortable. "Thanks for rescuing me. Merlon told me everything about you finding me. That was very sweet."

"Uhhh… Sure thing." Chopper said with a scared look as he got hugged by her. Bow gave the pink girl an annoyed look, but Mario suggested she just settle down, so she decided to do that. But that didn't stop her from talking to Chopper.

"And remember, Chopper," Bow started. "You can still call us through those communicators if you need any help or want to talk. I wouldn't mind talking to you, you know."

"I'll...keep that in mind."

"Then I guess we should get going then," suggested Blade, approaching the door to leave the house.

"Good luck to you six heroes!" Merlon called out as they left. "You will need it!"

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

"Poyo… (So this silver door will lead us to the next world…)" Kirby trailed as he plopped over to the door. "Poyo! (It's rather nice! It kind of reminds me of that door to the Christmas world!)"

"Yeah, I thought that place was pretty cool," Chopper recalled.

_"Hopefully we manage to find one of your friends…" _Timpani hoped. _"That Meta Knight person might be able to help us if he has his sword with him. Chopper, you said that he is a strong warrior, right?"_

"He's the one that tried to teach me how to fight in the first place! Of course he's a strong warrior!"

"If that's true, then he could help us…" Luigi trailed. "But I don't think we'll even find him around the next world!"

Mario: We'll see…

With that, they entered the door, into the next world.

* * *

**And so ends this interlude. I don't really have much to say about it, though, so I'm not going to bother making a long author's note.**


	88. Star Warriors at Peace

_With fifteen Pure Hearts out of the way, our heroes were only one Pure Heart away until they could reach Tipral's Palace. They were all confused at the door at first, but they decided to see what would await them. "I just hope my friends will be all right in Flipside," said Chopper, looking back at the door. "I don't want them getting lost…" He stopped trying to think about these thoughts as he began to see a shining light that was leading to the next world. For some reason, they could hear some peaceful chirping sounds._

**CHAPTER 15-1**

**-Star Warriors at Peace-**

For some reason, this world felt unusually peaceful as it was drawn. There was beautiful green grass, a couple of hills for someone to run through, a couple of bushes on the ground, a large tree and even a vast ocean off at the distance. It was almost the perfect place to go for a vacation. Also, the rainbow in the sky made things even better for this world.

When the heroes walked out of the door, they were right near a tree. They began to gaze at this beautiful world while hearing the chirps of the birds on the trees and up at the sky. It felt like true paradise.

"Poyo… (Oh my gosh… This place is undeniably beautiful!)" Kirby gaped as he looked up at the sky. There didn't appear to be any enemies in sight either, making it even better. "Poyo (Did we just enter the new heaven?)"

"Honestly, I have no idea, Kirby…" Chopper trailed. "But, I will fully admit that this is probably one of the nicest worlds that I've ever seen so far. WAY better-looking than cyberspace, in my opinion!"

_"I think I have to agree on this one," _agreed Blumiere. _"It reminds me of when we decided to go out for a little picnic, my dear, Timpani."_

_"I remember that, Blumiere," _recalled Timpani. _"That was probably the most romantic date we've ever had. It makes me wonder why you always treat me with all of these nice dates."_

However, before they could say anything else, they heard moaning. This moaning actually sounded somewhat familiar to Chopper because he remembered hearing it after collecting the second Pure Heart.

"Wait a minute… I remember that moaning sound!" Chopper turned to his left over to the tree. His eyes widened in complete shock as he saw a familiar face lying on the tree unconscious.

"Meta Knight!"

"Wait… Meta Knight?" Luigi followed Chopper and Kirby over to Meta Knight. They all worked together to wake him up, but it turned out that he ended up waking up on his own.

"Ugh… What happened?" Meta Knight slowly got up and quickly shook his head. "All I remember is being trapped by some strange evil being with the power to mind control someone and… That was all it."

He noticed that he also had Galaxia with him. "Strange… I have Galaxia with me now? From what I could recall, I couldn't find it anywhere."

"Hey! Meta Knight! Don't you see us here?!"

"What? That voice…" Meta Knight saw Chopper waving his arms right in front of him, with Kirby's help. "Chopper and Kirby? What are you doing here? Aren't you looking for the Pure Hearts?"

Mario: I think we were led here…

"What? You say you guys were led here? I see… Since I'm trapped in this world, I believe I should help you guys find the Pure Heart. Now that I have Galaxia with me (somehow), I can finally fight."

"You know, there could be a chance that Tipral managed to get a hold of your sword…" Blade pondered. "I'm PRETTY sure that's how you managed to get it back when he… Oh, forget it."

"Hold on… Do you guys know what happened?"

Everyone exchanged a look that kind of meant "should we tell him?" and eventually looked back at Meta Knight.

_"Errrrr… Nothing really happened, honestly." _Timpani assured. _"You were just knocked out and most likely sent here. However, I find it strange that you suddenly remembered who you were back in the computer room and not right now…"_

"Hmmmmm… I see." Meta Knight wrapped his cape around him and took a couple of steps over to the hill. "So… Are you guys coming? We need to search for a Pure Heart. You might need my help for this."

"Sounds good to us!" Sonic grinned, giving him a thumbs up. "I think you'll make a great hero to our group!"

_"But Merlee said that there were only six heroes…" _Timpani trailed. _"Although… It doesn't really matter right now. We've been looking for Meta Knight for a while, and now we know where he is."_

**Meta Knight has joined your party! His abilities allow him to fly up with his wings in a certain way Kirby floats! On top of that, his sword, Galaxia, is capable of striking enemies with quick slashes. Beware of his Mach Tornado, as it is his most deadly attack! He can also block some attacks by ducking and using his cape to protect himself!**

"Let us go now, Chopper," Meta Knight suggested as he took off in the air. "We need to move through this peaceful world."

"Good call!" Chopper charged up his Speed Dash and immediately took off, since a badge allows him to charge it up faster. He simply ran down the hill with any question and plowed through the grass.

"Wow… This is one big hill." Luigi gaped. "I don't know how I'm supposed to get down there…"

Mario: Just slide!

"Oh… I never thought of that!" the green plumber face palmed as he and Mario began to slide down the hill after Sonic began to run down. That only left Kirby and Blade to look down at the hill.

"Poyo? (How do we get down there?)" Kirby asked.

"Uhhhh… I have no idea what the hell you just said, but whatever. Let's just try to follow those guys," Blade suggested as he walked over to the hill. Unfortunately, he tripped on a rock and began to tumble down faster than Mario and Luigi could slide.

"OW! DAMN IT! OOF! MY NOSE! MY LASAGNA! …Wait, lasagna isn't even a body part! Errrr… MY LEG!"

Kirby face palmed as he began to slide down the hill. After reaching the bottom, however, they saw that there wasn't much else besides more grasslands. Chopper and Meta Knight wee already at the bottom, but they ended up running into two monsters from…The Underwhere.

"Wait… Dark Skellobits?" Chopper gaped. "What are they doing here?!"

"Hey, look! Aren't those the heroes that Master Shadow Doom wanted to kill?" the first Dark Skellobit asked. "I remember that there's about… Wait, I thought there were only… Wait, I think he DID say somethin' about six, but I see seven?"

"I suppose you're one of the enemies that are after the heroes," Meta Knight said as he landed on the ground and drew Galaxia. "I suggest you step out of the way, or else I might be forced to use this on you."

"Pbbbbbth! Look at this! This small masked dude thinks he can take us on! How laughable!" the second Dark Skellobit cackled. "Oh, look, I've got a sword and I'm goin' to…"

Meta Knight stepped into action, jabbing at the second Dark Skellobit rapidly. He even struck him with a swoop attack and used his Galaxia Drill to disintegrate it into smoke. The last Dark Skellobit gaped.

"Well… You're not gonna fool me with that stupid Halloween costume! HWAAAAAAAAH!" the Dark Skellobit charged at Meta Knight, but he stored power in his sword and fired a Sword Beam at it, slicing it in half and destroying the monster within seconds.

_"Wow, that was impressive," _Timpani commented. _"Chopper was right when he said you were a strong warrior."_

"Hmmmmmm? Chopper, if I may ask… Who's speaking?" Meta Knight asked. "I hear a female voice around here. It actually sounds nice to me."

Although they couldn't see, Timpani began to blush a little. _"My name's Timpani, but I'm usually referred to as Tippi by people like Chopper. If you wanted to know, I used to be that rainbow Pixl butterfly you saw before."_

"I see. You're that girl… Well it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm the one who rescued Chopper from the destruction of his birth planet. …It was not a pretty sight to see…"

"Well, I don't think we should bring up anything bad like that," Blade suggested. "We've already been through many bad things to get a Pure Heart. An entire ARMY died trying to help us get a Pure Heart!"

"Poyo! (It was so tragic!)" Kirby added.

"I see…" Meta Knight turned around and noticed a couple of large bushes blocking the door ahead. "I know what to do here."

Using Galaxia, he managed to slice the bushes up and help gain them access to the door ahead. "We should be just fine going through this door. If anything pops up in front of us, we'll be ready."

However, walking over to the other bush next to the door, it somehow gained two evil black eyes and a monstrous mouth. It tried to bite a hold of Meta Knight, but he jumped and brought his sword down, slicing it in half.

_"I believe that was called a Fakebush," _Timpani informed. _"Some of these bushes can be fake, so be careful…"_

After that, they walked through the red door right next to them. But little did they know that they weren't the only people from another world in this world. Oh, no… There was someone else.

* * *

**At a picnic-**

If you thought it would be just them lurking around this place, then think again. A queen and a king of The Underwhere and Overthere were sitting at a picnic table with a large, purple picnic basket owned by the queen herself. They had sandwiches, chips, juice pouches, and even wine!

"I thought it was a great idea to have a picnic here, Grams," the queen, Jaydes, smiled as she sipped her wine. "But tell me… Was it really necessary for us to bring some wine? It's not much of a picnic thing…"

"Thou dost not have to worry, my dear Jaydes," the king, Grambi, assured. "Thou dost love wine, and I doth love the wine some of the Nimbis maketh! I want to maketh sure that this picnic is terrific!"

Queen Jaydes looked around to see if their daughter was around. "Grams… Where did Luvbi go? I swear that she was here a second ago…"

They looked over by the cliff and saw Luvbi looking at the vast sea and also the sun and rainbow. She closed her eyes with a sad look on her face, as if she was being a little dramatic in those movies.

"I wonder if I will ever findeth thee again, my prince," she wondered as she opened her eyes and watched the sky. She imagined two clouds in the shape of the two kissing each other. "I can just imagine seeing thee again… Thy soft, cute face, thy antennas that art not like the hairy twins, and thy sweetness…"

She pulled out a doll that resembled Chopper that she got from the Christmas world and hugged it. "If only this was the real Chopper… It would maketh me feel so much better right now…"

"Pray, Luvbi, art thou all right?" Grambi asked as he fluttered over to his daughter. "How come thou art not joining us back at the picnic?"

"Father…" Luvbi turned around to Grambi with a sad look. "Dost thou knoweth if I will ever see mine one and only? I am beginning to miss him verily… Thou art God, so mayhap thou can answer my question."

"Errrrr… Luvbi, I may be God, but I dost not know if I can answer thy question on thy love… As a king, I know many things, but not a way to answer about one's love. Thou must understand this, Luvbi."

"And besides, Chopper is out trying to save the universe," Queen Jaydes informed. "However, if you ever see him again… Well, I'm not sure how I can answer that question… Time will tell if you see him or not."

"Thank thee, Mother… But it hast been so long…"

"Look, mayhap thou will feel a bit better if thou joinest us at the picnic," Grambi suggested. "Sometimes, if thou art ever feeling sad, food will verily help thee feel better. Unless… Thou art trying to get away from us again."

"Why wouldst I try to get away from thee?" Luvbi asked, her tone of voice changing all of the sudden.

"Well, you always seem to get away from us and try to find your 'prince'," Queen Jaydes said. "You know we care about you very much, even if we were forced to keep a secret about the Pure Heart. Understand that, OK?"

"Fine, then I shall returnest to the picnic," Poor Luvbi fluttered back over to the picnic table, but not before looking at the ocean once more. She sighed once more and followed her parents.

* * *

**Back to the heroes-**

"Seriously, I don't get why this place feels so peaceful!" Luigi questioned as they walked into a large field of grass. It wasn't really easy to see what was around, so Meta Knight had to cut the grass with his sword. "Although… Should we be careful around here?"

A Piranha Plant happened to pop up right in front of Meta Knight and bite him. Despite taking damage, he managed to cut the stem off and defeat it with ease. There also happened to be those rock-like enemies with spikes on their heads. However, these were a light blue color compared to others such as the Hyper Cleft.

Meta Knight tried slashing it with his sword, but it didn't seem to do too much. "Hmph… I don't think this enemy will be easy to take out…"

"Then we just need an explosion!" Blade smirked as he throw Hommissile at the Sky Cleft (which was a strange name for NOT bring up in the sky) and blew it up instantly. Meta Knight looked over at the missile Pixl with a strange look.

"If I may ask, what is that, exactly?" Meta Knight asked.

"Oh, this?" Sonic said as he grabbed a hold of Screwdy. "This is a Pixl. It's something that helps us with any obstacles in our way. We can let you use one if you'd like. Maybe something like Flippay, Thoreau or Slim?"

"Those seem like good choices," Chopper said.

"I suppose I could hold on to the one shaped like a hand for now, but perhaps I might use the others if I ever need to," Meta Knight allowed Thoreau to float over to him, but he sense a little something.

"Wait… I don't sense him as a hero of the prophecy…" Thoreau realized as he looked at him. "Only a hero of the Light Prognosticus can be able to use me!"

"Come on, Thoreau. He's here and he needs to help us and we need to help him." Chopper convinced.

"Well… I guess there's no real harm in that. I suppose I should help you then, strange masked warrior!"

Up ahead, they saw a couple of more Sky Clefts pretending to act like rocks after cutting more grass. When they got close, they tried charging at the group, but Mario used Kickbrin to simply kick one Sky Cleft into another, making them screech in pain (I mean, they have spikes on their head, right?).

Mario: I guess that works!

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Maybe I can do something!" Chopper inhaled a Sky Cleft and spat it at the other. It seemed to work, hitting both of them and defeating them both. However, after Meta Knight cut more tall grass, a green Waddle Dee holding a spear seemed to be hiding.

"A Waddle Dee… I'm not sure if I should attack it. It is His Majesty's minion…" Meta Knight said as he lowered Galaxia. "It's not honorable for me to do just a rash thing."

_"Those Waddle Dee are most likely on Tipral's side," _Blumiere informed. _"His scepter can grant him many wishes, such as making his own minions. I suppose he decided to take some from people such as this king you speak of…"_

However, Kirby simply inhaled one and swallowed it whole, not gaining any ability from it. Chopper inhaled the other and spat it towards a Sky Cleft near a small little hill. That's where most of the grass wasn't tall.

Meta Knight decided to check up the hill by flying up, but all he found was two Dark Skellobombers dropping their heads down on him. Of course, he fought back by jabbing them from above.

However, when Sonic reached the top of the hill, he jumped and managed to finish off the other Dark Skellobit with a couple of Homing Attacks. After landing on the hill, he saw that there was a path just up ahead leading to a door.

They decided to hurry on ahead to the door and walk into an area with a small little pond. Although, they noticed that it was more like a bottomless pit if they went down too far. But some small little logs were there to give them a hand.

That, and they had to watch out for some Dark Skellobombers flying around. They also saw a Dark Spiky Skellobomber as well, which could possibly cause some problems for some people.

"I got one of them!" Luigi announced as he used a Super Jump to strike one of the Dark Skellobombers, sending them flying to the ground, only to be finished off by Blade's katana. Meta Knight struck another one by flying up to it and bringing his sword down on it rapidly.

"Geez… He can slash pretty fast." Blade gawked as Meta Knight used his Galaxia Drill on the Dark Spiky Skellobomber to defeat it with ease. "Not even I can do something that fast!"

"Well, I DID say that he was a strong warrior…" Chopper reminded. "Although… It makes me wonder how I managed to beat him before. It's like he was going WAY too easy on me…"

"That's because I was at first," Meta Knight informed, landing on a log. "I wanted to see how strong you were, but later when we battled in the Halberd, I decided to put my power to full use and see if you could stand up to me. It seemed that you did… But now… That could change."

"Poyo, (Let's not get into another battle, Meta Knight,)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo! (We're here to work together! Not to get into a fight!)"

"Of course I know that, Kirby. I'm on your side for right now… But, Chopper… Just because I'm helping you, doesn't mean that we're best friends or any of that."

"Ummmmmmm… OK. That's…all right." Chopper said with a blank look. _"Geez… Who ever knew Meta Knight would be like this? …Well, I guess he really is an anti-hero after all."_

When they all jumped on the log, they saw a Sword Knight on the next log ahead. Kirby inhaled it to gain the Sword ability, while Chopper inhaled a Waddle Dee holding a red and white-striped parasol to gain the Parasol ability. Basically, he has no hat, but he's holding a parasol.

"Wait… You're just holding a parasol…" Luigi trailed. "How is that really much of an ability?"

"Basically, it allows me to softly float to the ground," Chopper informed, striking a Skellobit with his parasol. "I think Princess Peach used to use a parasol before, but I think this one acts a little different than hers."

_"As long as it's useful, then we shouldn't have a problem," _Timpani said as they saw a little updraft between a large gap of water between the two logs.

Chopper simply jumped and left the updraft take him up with his parasol. He was surprised when he began to get carried up thanks to the parasol. Chopper was even flying up to a couple of clouds that were near the ground.

"Hey, guys! Look at this! I can see clouds!" he announced.

"Wait… How far are the clouds?" Sonic shouted.

"They're not so far from the ground… Although, I don't think you'll be able to reach because you don't have anything that could help you with an updraft! …Just stay here, all right?"

Kirby decided to follow Chopper up the updraft, as well as Meta Knight, since they, well, have the ability to fly. When they landed on the cloud, they saw a Lakitu with white skin and blue hair flying around on a gray cloud. It pulled out one Spiny with a gray shell and threw it to the ground.

However, Kirby was able to jab at it a couple of times with his sword in order to defeat it. But, the Sky Lakitu wasn't done just yet. It pulled out another Sky Spiny and threw it down towards Chopper. He, on the other hand, struck it with his parasol a couple of times and defeated it.

"I'll handle this guy," Meta Knight announced, flying up to the Sky Lakitu and performing some combos with Galaxia. It only took him about seven seconds to defeat it!

"That should take care of the enemies around here for now…"

"Hey, look! A chest!" Chopper ran over to the chest ahead and pulled out a shake that had a Mushroom with a black cape and yellow stars on it. "Wait a minute… Isn't this a Star Shroom Shake?"

_"What's a Star Shroom?" _Timpani asked.

"It must be some kind of Mushroom from the stars…" Meta Knight said. "If that's not the case, then maybe Chopper might have an explanation to what it really is."

"It recovers 150, luckily," Chopper informed. "So, basically, it can heal all of our HP if we ever run low on it. That's pretty nice, considering that some of the enemies we've been facing do A LOT of damage to us."

"Then we should hold onto it," the masked warrior suggested.

They jumped off the cloud and landed on the log across the huge gap. They happened to see that everyone else managed to get on there, luckily. A Buzz Bomber was also flying around here, but got destroyed by Sonic's Spin Jump.

"Man, a lot of old enemies are appearing, lately," Sonic realized as he landed on the log. "I mean, we're seeing a bunch of enemies from the Mushroom Kingdom, Mobius, and even Pop Star! It's ridiculous!"

"I'm seeing it too, Sonic!" Luigi agreed, stomping on a Dark Skellobit that was about to charge at him. "We're seeing so many enemies from before! In fact, I remember seeing these guys…except they were blue and pinkish!"

Mario: You mean the Skellobits?

"Yeah, bro! Those!"

"You know, I kind of remember a little something…" Chopper recalled as they jumped across the pond and onto the grass. "I can't put my thumb to it, but I think I remember something about two people saying that they and the rest of the group were going somewhere peaceful…"

"Who are these people, if I may ask?" Meta Knight asked.

"Poyo, (I don't think we've heard about that, Chopper,)" Kirby frowned.

"…Wait a second! I think I'm starting to remember!" Chopper's antennas sprung up in surprise. It just happened that he remembered this when he went back to The Overthere to bring Luvbi back to her parents. "Hold on… Could it be possible that this is the world that Pherrance and Tillip went to when they said that they were leaving? I mean… This place is very, VERY peaceful, and that's EXACTLY what they wanted."

"Wait… Pherrance and Tillip?" Luigi gawked. "Who are they?"

"I was going to ask the same thing," Meta Knight said.

"Pherrance and Tillip are two comedic Nimbis that seem to have a sense of humor for…farts," Chopper informed. "When we went to The Overthere, there happened to be a strike about…I don't know what the heck it was about. That president guy was kind of stupid… But, anyways, those two were on our side and even warned us about them coming to Grambi's Shrine with torches and pitchforks! Luckily, thanks to them, that Gridge Dabootman guy was sent adrift on a cloud and was never seen again. Imagine seeing those two again. It could be a fart fest…"

"A 'fart fest'?" Blade gawked. "Eeeugh… That doesn't sound too nice."

"Well never mind that. We gotta get going!" Sonic suggested as he ran through the grassy path ahead. There was a loop ahead too, that seemed to lead over to a hill with another pond, but much smaller with no logs.

Chopper followed Sonic through the loop and down the hill. When he ran across the water, it looked like a rainbow was left behind. Meta Knight's eyes widened as he flew down near the pond.

"That rainbow… Is it possible that if you cross the water, you leave a rainbow behind?" Meta Knight decided to fly over the pond, but stood close to the water. He noticed that he too was leaving a rainbow behind. As for the others… Well, they had to simply swim or fly over the pond.

When they got to Chopper and Sonic, they ran into two yellow ? blocks. One contained a weird skeleton shroom similar to a Poison Zombie Shroom and a Ghoul Shroom, but, after investigating it, it happened to be a Skull Shroom. And man, it sure did have a lot of HP compared to the Poison Zombie Shroom.

"Th-That thing freaks me out!" Luigi cried, cowering behind Mario, who groaned as he bashed the thing with his hammer. Chopper struck it with his parasol next, but Meta Knight was the one to slice it in half.

"Don't worry about the Skull Shroom," Meta Knight assured. "It's gone, so we can continue up ahead and…"

Unfortunately, Meta Knight was struck by a sound wave from one of those weird Boomboxer guys. However, these were a red color, unlike the yellow and pink ones, and were capable of firing ones that can paralyze you.

"Urk! I'm paralyzed!"

"Wait… Then how do we get rid of your paralysis?" Chopper asked.

"Don't worry about me! Focus on taking care of that enemy!"

Chopper brought his parasol in front of him to protect himself from the Shockboxer's sound waves, and then he punched the block under him to knock it off. However, there was still another Shockboxer up ahead, but the yellow ? block he happened to hit contained a Slow Flower.

"…We're gonna take that," Blade announced.

"Hold on, Blade! We should really stooooooop fooooooor a miiiiinuiiiite…" Chopper's voice suddenly got deeper and slower as Blade grabbed a hold of the Slow Flower, causing time itself to slow down. At least, in this area.

"Why diiiiiid yooooooou maaaaaaaake iiiiiiiit sooooooooo sloooooooow? !" Luigi exclaimed in a slow voice as he tried to avoid a Shockboxer's sound waves. Meta Knight also got out of his paralysis and tried to fly, but he noticed that everything was slowed down.

"Whaaaaaaaat's goooooooing oooooooon?" he asked.

"Blaaaaaaaame Blaaaaaaaaaade foooooooor thiiiiiiiis!" Chopper shouted as he blocked a Shockboxer's sound waves. Luigi landed on top of it with a simple stomp, killing it instantly. What was nice was that they got more experience points than they usually do.

After Mario landed on a gray Squig called a Squag, the speed went back to normal, to their relief. But when they hit two more yellow ? blocks, one happened to have another Skull Shroom, while the other had a Mushroom that looked a bit darker.

_"Don't eat the Mushroom!" _Timpani warned. _"That's actually a Fake Shroom! If you touch that, you'll take some serious damage! It's kind of like a Poison Shroom, but much, much worse."_

"So… What are we supposed to do about it?" Chopper asked as he struck the Skull Shroom with his parasol. It only took them one jump to avoid the Fake Shroom and head over to the door ahead.

"Let's see what's through here," Meta Knight suggested as they entered the door into an area with another pond, but a large rock in the center. But what caught them off guard was a certain Koopaling with a pink head and sunglasses.

"Hey! You seven! Who do you guys think you are, comin' here without my permission?" Tough guy he was. He was even bigger than pretty much all of the heroes! Luigi yelped and hid behind Mario as usual.

"Excuse me, but could you please move out of the way?" Sonic asked before the Koopaling stomped on the ground, creating a sound wave that nearly knocked everyone back.

"I don't know who you are, but I suggest you let us through," Metal Knight warned, swinging his sword back. "Even if you may be bigger than us, it's seven against one. You don't stand a chance."

"Oh, look at the small masked thing! You look like a perfect soccer ball, just like the pale green pint-sized thing behind you!"

Mario: Enough already, Roy…

"Poyo! (Just let us through or we'll make sure that you'll be sorry for all of this!)" Kirby warned, pointing his sword at Roy Koopa.

"You know, seeing this guy makes me think of O'Chunks for some reason," Blade realized as he drew his katana. "Although, I highly doubt you'll stand a chance against us. It's freakin' seven against one!"

"Oh, really? Then let's prove it!" Roy started the fight by charging at the group. Meta Knight simply disappeared with his cape's capabilities and slashed him from behind with Galaxia.

"Ack! What was that?!"

Meta Knight ignored him and began to spin around in a tornado, striking Roy with every time he got caught in the tornado and making him fall to the ground. Kirby followed up by jumping and bringing his sword down on him. However, Kirby was knocked away into the pond when Roy got up and swung his arm at the pink puffball.

"Hold on, let's see what this guy has," Chopper said as he pulled Timpani's wand out and began to investigate him.

_"That's Roy Koopa. He's the third oldest of the Koopalings, but he's the fourth oldest of all of Bowser's eight children. Max HP is 220. Attack is 12. Defense is 3. When he jumps in the air, that's the time for you to jump, or else you'll most likely get stunned by his powerful stomp. He'll also try using his wand to fire magic at you, but it's not exactly a fast projectile, so you'll have time to dodge. However, I wonder why he's the only Koopaling to have a pink head…" _Timpani informed.

"Uhhhhh… Pink head? OK…" Luigi trailed as he jumped when Roy used his stomp attack, stunning Chopper, Sonic, and Meta Knight for a couple of seconds. When he got ready to fire a magic attack at them, Luigi stomped on his head twice, performing two stylish moves.

"Ow! Quit it, plumber!" Roy whirled his wand around and fired a pink bolt of magic at Luigi, knocking him straight into the pond. But, he and Kirby were able to both get out, to their relief.

Mario went up next, jumped right on top of Roy like Luigi, but this time he landed in front of the Koopaling and bashed him with his hammer. Roy didn't take this too lightly and knocked Mario away with a punch in the stomach.

Mario: Mama mia!

"Don't let his big size intimidate you," Sonic suggested, jumping on Roy with a Spin Jump, followed by his Homing Attack. When he jumped back, he charged up a Light Speed Dash and went all out of Roy. Of course, when he was done, he struck a pose. …Unfortunately, it led to him getting knocked towards the pond.

"Oh, no! Not the water!"

"I gotcha!" Luigi said as he grabbed Sonic and pulled him out of the water. He began to gasp for air when his head reached the surface. Afterwards, he climbed back onto the log and watched as Blade jumped over Roy and slashed at his tail with his katana, followed by tossing Hommissile at his back.

Roy growled as he got into his shell and began spinning around on the log, trying to roll over everyone. Chopper, Blade, and Meta Knight were hit, but the rest jumped and avoided his attack.

When the Koopaling's head, arms, and legs popped out of his shell, he fired another magic attack. This time, it was aimed towards Chopper. However, with his parasol, he was able to put it in front of him and block Roy's magic attack.

"What?! How could a PARASOL block a magic attack?!" Roy gaped.

"Because this parasol is different," Chopper said as he spun his parasol around and attacked Roy with stars surrounding it. Roy almost fell in the pond, but he simply stomped again to stun everyone.

Except for Meta Knight.

"Wait… I only see six here… Where's the other?" Roy questioned while scratching his head.

"Right behind you," Meta Knight slashed Roy as he appeared behind him with his cape's ability. However, when Roy turned around, he was able to bash Meta Knight with his own fists, knocking him over to the grass ahead and sending him straight into the wall.

"He does put up a fight, as annoying as he is…" the masked warrior pushed himself off the wall and flew towards Roy. He dove down to him and attacked him with a Galaxia Drill next. Chopper, on the other hand, was bringing his parasol up to block the Koopaling's magic.

"You annoying pest! Stop flyin' around!" Roy growled. "And you, kid… Stop puttin' that parasol up!"

Although Chopper could block projectiles, there was no way he could block Roy's fists. He was sent flying over to the door they previously walked in, but he slowly got up and jumped back on the log while floating down. He chucked a couple of fireballs down at Roy as well.

"Argh! Friggin' fireballs…"

"Poyo Poyo!" Despite being cheerful, Kirby managed to unleash a Sword Beam upon Roy. It knocked him back and allowed Blade to dive down and kick him from a certain angle in the stomach. Roy wheezed as he got up, but had a scar on his belly when Blade slashed him with his katana.

"Ha! Now you're a little wounded!" Blade grinned.

"It's just a scratch!" Roy grinned as he punched Blade and sent him flying up into the sky. When he came back down, he landed on his head, being left dizzy for a couple of seconds.

_"That's an attack we should be careful with…" _Blumiere warned.

"Exactly," Chopper agreed as he blocked another magic projectile and chucked a charged ice ball at him to leave him frozen. Meta Knight followed up by attacking him with a Galaxia Sword Beam, slicing the ice in half, but not Roy. However, he still got hurt by the attack.

"You… You're a strange one." Roy gaped. "Who are you?"

"My name? I'm Meta Knight." the masked warrior said coldly as he landed right behind Roy and knocked him away from him with his sword. "If you wish to know what I am, I am a Star Warrior."

"A Star Warrior? That doesn't sound like anythin' special!" he spat as he tried striking Meta Knight with more magic. Sadly, he wasn't able to get him when he was flying around like a bat. But it was perfect for Mario to attack him with a Ground Pound, followed by Luigi's Cyclone.

"Man, your distraction is helping us, Meta Knight!" Luigi commented.

Mario: Luigi! Watch out!

Roy jumped in the air again and stunned the two plumbers. He managed to knock them onto the grass, but Kirby was one to act quick and attack Roy next with his sword. He did a Final Cutter-like move that was similar to the Cutter ability.

Sonic followed up with his attack. He curled up in a ball and struck Roy two times with a Spin Dash, right near his chin. His sunglasses fell off, but he managed to catch them and put them back on before they could even see his eyes.

"Don't EVER make me drop my sunglasses!" Roy growled. "Only nerds don't wear sunglasses, and those nerds are YOU guys!"

"Errrr…" Chopper pulled out some sunglasses and put them on. "Oh, really? Well I guess I don't qualify as that!"

"Where'd you get the sunglasses?" Blade asked.

"From my previous adventure."

"Poyo?! (How could you still have that with you?!)" Kirby gaped as he got knocked away by Roy's punch, which knocked Chopper down as well and made him drop his sunglasses. In fact, he fell into the water as well.

However, he was quick to get out of the water and float back onto the log. With his parasol, he whacked Roy a couple of times with it to leave red marks on his face. He also made him trip with a sweeping kick.

"That should take care of you for now,"

"Ugh… Now yer gonna get it!" Roy got into his shell and began to spin around. Both Kirby and Meta Knight took to the air, while Luigi used his Super Jump to avoid him. The rest, on the other hand, got hurt by Roy's attack. He even laughed at them as he got back up.

"Well I know what to do now," Sonic used a Whirlwind to send Roy flying into the air. Luigi helped him by using a Super Jump to knock him to the ground, allowing Sonic to charge up a Light Speed Dash and go all out of Roy with that attack.

"See? I'm too fast for you!"

"Don't get too cocky, Sonic…" Blade warned as he jumped towards Roy and slashed at his legs a couple of times, leaving a couple of scars there. They weren't too big, but they did hurt him.

"Curses… Now you're really gettin' me mad!" Roy growled.

"Uhhhh… When I hear 'curses' from someone, it sounds like it's coming from Kojo Pete… Although he was actually Miracle Matter."

"Poyo! (Oh, yeah, I remember him!)" Kirby recalled.

"Chopper, this is no time to be thinking about other things," Meta Knight interrupted. "We're in the middle of a fight here!"

"Oh, yeah…" Chopper jumped after blocking Roy's magic attack and stomped on his head lightly. Meta Knight jabbed at the Koopaling afterwards and attacked with a Galaxia Drill afterward.

"Spinning Sword!" Kirby shouted, something that nobody would expect them all to hear from him as he sent Roy straight into the pond. But, little did they know that he could actually SWIM out!

"Wait… I thought these guys couldn't swim?" Sonic gawked.

Mario: If Bowser could swim, then so could they.

"Great…" Chopper face palmed as he was stunned by Roy when he stomped on the log. He growled viciously as he stomped his way over to the group. He managed to knock Meta Knight and Kirby away, but just as soon as he got to Chopper, he stomped on him and turned him flat as a pancake.

However, Mario got out of his trance and stomped on Roy's head. Like a boss. It was then he was going after the plumber, but he also used Kickbrin to slow him down for a little.

"You know my dad probably wants you dead more than anyone else!" Roy snarled. "I'm goin' to make him proud!"

"I don't think so!" Sonic jumped once again and attacked Roy with another Homing Attack. "I think it's best that we become victorious, because we're the good guys!"

Meanwhile, while they kept Roy occupied, Meta Knight began to store power in his sword. It looked like he was going to unleash his most powerful attack: the Mach Tornado.

"Stan out of the way, everyone! I have a powerful attack coming up!" Meta Knight announced.

"All righty!" Chopper jumped right behind Meta Knight, followed by everyone else. Roy simply snickered as he whirled his wand around.

"What are you going to do, show off your glowin' golden sword?" Roy snorted. "Yeah, it sure is nice…"

"Oh, it's not that… It's THIS!" Meta Knight swung his sword, summoning a large tornado that slowly began to come towards Roy. He gaped as he tried to escape, but it was too late. In no seconds flat he got sucked in by the tornado.

"_**MOMMY!**_"

* * *

**Over by the picnic-**

"Hmmmmmm? I feel like I'm hearing something…" Queen Jaydes said as she took a sip from her red wine. "It almost sounds like a tornado… But I don't see any tornadoes anywhere…"

"Well, let's not let it bother our picnic." Grambi suggested. "Whoever hath unleashed that tornado must hath had a reason… However, if he hast done it to end the games of innocent people, then thou art to taketh care of it, Jaydes. …Or mayhap it is only nature itself."

"I don't understand how a tornado could be in a peaceful place like this…"

"Well, nature dost tendeth to do many different things…"

"Pray, Father," Luvbi spoke up. "Dost thou think that I will ever see my sweet prince ever again? How I miss him so…"

"Well, Chopper is out trying to saveth the world with the rest of his friends," Grambi informed. "Thou dost have to understand that he can't stayeth with thee forever, my dear Luvbi."

"But… He was everything I hath ever loved in a boy…" Oh, boy, here comes the annoying babbling from someone who fell in love with someone. However, we're going to cut that short to prevent you from getting bored.

"Well… That's really sweet of you, Luvbi, but Chopper can't magically come to you just because you're a princess." Queen Jaydes informed. "He is trying to help the universe. You would want that, wouldn't you?"

"Yea, Mother… That doth sound verily nice." Luvbi nodded. "Mayhap I will see him again one day."

"I assure you that thou might have a chance to see him," Grambi said.

"Methinks too, Father."

* * *

**Back at the battle-**

"So, he's just lying there unconscious, isn't he?" Chopper asked as he looked down at the unconscious Roy Koopa on the log. He was hardly breathing, but that usually happens when you're knocked out.

"It appears so," Meta Knight confirmed. As he jumped over Roy and landed on the grass ahead. "Let's not waste any time now. We have to find the Pure Heart somewhere around here."

_"For some reason, I can feel the Pure Heart's presence anywhere around here…" _Timpani realized. _"Could it be that we were ran into some sort of trap?"_

"Nah, we shouldn't have ran into a trap. I mean, why WOULD we?" Chopper noticed a couple of Dark Spiky Skellobits on the grass just up ahead by the door. "Well, I don't know why THESE guys are even here."

"Let's kick their asses!" Blade said as he jumped onto the grass and drew his katana. "C'mon, monsters! Let's dance!"

"Dance? You're actually going to dance with them?"

"It's a figure of speech, Chopper," Blade managed to disarm the first Dark Spiky Skellobit with his ninja moves and slice it up a bit until he realized something. "Wait… Why are these guys suddenly stronger? They were easy when the Necromancer brought them up from the dead."

"Let's see," Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate the Dark Spiky Skellobit.

_"That's a Dark Spiky Skellobit. It's a stronger version of the Spiky Skellobit, and much more menacing. Max HP is 75. Attack is 13. Defense is 4. Like a Spiky Skellobit, it will simply charge at you. However, its spear is capable of being thrown as well, so watch out for that. Since it has a spike on its head, it means that this one is one of the elite Dark Skellobits." _Timpani informed.

"Oh… Well that's new." Sonic said as he struck the next Dark Spiky Skellobit with a Spin Dash. He also ran straight into the other one, dealing more damage. Meta Knight simply finished the first one by slashing it with Galaxia, while Kirby flew above the last one and brought his sword down on it.

"Poyo, (Well that takes care of that,)" Kirby said as he hit a yellow ? block, making a Super Shroom pop out. "Poyo. (We probably need that.)"

Kirby sliced up the Super Shroom into seven pieces for all of them to recover 20 HP. Meta Knight simply put the piece he had under his mask in order to prevent him from taking it off.

"Dude, don't you ever take your mask off?" Blade asked.

"It's probably best that I _don't_ take it off," Meta Knight replied with a glare.

"Why? Do you have some sort of secret under that mask?" Luigi asked until Meta Knight gave him a glare, causing him to yelp and look away from him.

"Meta Knight, don't be like this," Chopper suggested. "We're working together, so YOU need to learn to get along with some of us here. Now come on. We need to walk into the next area."

They entered the door just up ahead to find a wooden bridge and a ladder leading down to a deeper pond. There happened to also be some small yellow star blocks that are formed as platforms with a Poppy Bro. Jr. hopping around. Kirby simply jumped onto the blocks and jabbed at the Poppy Bro. Jr. Of course, he also destroyed some of the blocks as well.

"Poyo… (I didn't mean to do that…)" Kirby trailed.

"I can see up ahead that there's a locked door," Meta Knight stated as he jabbed at a Dark Skellobit. "I suppose we have no other choice but to search through the waters."

"The w-water? !" Sonic gaped. "No way! There's NO way I'm going to go down into the water!"

* * *

**One moment later-**

"I can't believe you're making me do this…"

"Well, sorry, Sonic, but you gotta do it," Blade said as he climbed the ladder down to the water. "I don't want to do this either, but we don't have much of a choice, you know?"

When they reached the bottom of the wet, grassy ground, they noticed that there was nothing around them. Chopper flipped into 3-D to see if there was anything cool around. All he found was a pipe behind a bush. So, with that, they headed over to the green pipe.

"A pipe? Here? Why would there be one here in the first place?" Luigi asked.

"Beats me. Let's see what's here!" Chopper said as he dove down into the pipe, followed by everyone else.

* * *

**Underground-**

When they got out of the pipe that was coming out of the wall, they were no longer underwater, but they did see that this was another familiar underground room. Not only that, but there was a red Growmeba around the room. When Chopper investigated it with Timpani's wand, he discovered that it was a Romeba.

"A Romeba? What does this thing do?" Meta Knight asked, until the Romeba split into two. "Ah. So it multiplies itself. I suppose we should take care of the real one if we are to get rid of the rest."

"Then… We need something that can take them out at once." Blade looked over at Starbow, who simply floated right beside Chopper. "Chopper… You know what you have to do."

"What do I have to do?" Chopper asked, making Blade face palm.

"Take them out with Starbow!"

"Oh! Why didn't you say so?" Once again, everyone face palmed this time as Chopper held Starbow up and made many shooting stars rain down on all of the Romebas. But, just because they got rid of them didn't mean that they were done.

Instead, a door simply appeared, but when they entered, they ended up in a room that was longer with Thwomps coming down. There were two things that they could do. One was to speed past them, and another was to go into 3-D and walk past them.

"I don't think I'll be able to get past them," Meta Knight said. "Unless… I turn invisible with my cape."

Meta Knight wrapped his cape around himself and tried to get past a Thwomp. Unfortunately, just because he was invisible doesn't mean that he couldn't be hurt. He just BARELY got away from a Thwomp that nearly came down on his foot. As for Chopper, he got a Speed Dash ready.

"Hold this, Luigi," Chopper said while he gave Luigi his parasol.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want it to get ruined!" With that, he took off past all of the Thwomps and over to the chest. Upon opening it, he found a Door Key. He flipped into 3-D and returned to the group with the key in his hands.

"So you managed to get the key?" Luigi asked.

"Yup! I have it right here!" Chopper held the key up high like Link would when he acquired an item.

"…You don't really need to do that, you know," Meta Knight said.

"Oh… Sorry! Let's just get out of here."

* * *

**Outside-**

"Whew… Well we managed to get out of the water and that underground room." Sonic said as he sighed in relief. "Now we just need to get over to that door that's just up ahead."

They noticed that there was a steep hill just across the bridge that didn't look like they could jump up. Meta Knight and Kirby were able to fly up, and Luigi was able to use a Super Jump to reach up there, but for the other four, it was a big problem.

"I think I can get one of you guys up here," Meta Knight grabbed Chopper's arm and threw him up. With his parasol (that he got back from Luigi), he began to float down to the steep hill.

Meta Knight managed to help everyone else up, and then they walked over to the door nearby and entered into the next area. There appeared to be some kind of ramp that would go across a huge gap with a pond down below. But, since Sonic didn't want to fall in, he curled up in a ball.

"I know how to handle this," Sonic said as he Spin Dashed down the slope and took off on the ramp to reach the grassy ground just up ahead. He was right by a tree with rainbow leaves.

_"That's a very pretty tree up ahead," _Timpani commented.

_"Well, this whole place is very peaceful, so it would make sense," _Blumiere added.

"Well, I guess I better go too," Chopper said as he used a Speed Dash to go down the ramp and take off to land right by the tree. As for everyone else… They simply jumped into the pond and swam over to the tree, since the ground wasn't too steep for them.

Mario: That IS a nice tree!

"I wonder if there's anything in there that could help us…" Luigi pondered as Chopper hit the tree with his hammer. A rainbow-colored apple happened to drop and, judging how it looked, it could recover about 125 HP.

"That's a lot of HP…" Meta Knight realized as he picked a Rainbow Apple up. "Although, I find it strange that we're finding these kinds of trees."

"It kind of reminds me of those taboo fruits from The Overthere," Chopper recalled. "Good times…"

"Poyo? (Taboo fruits? I don't remember that.)" Kirby gawked.

"Uhhhhhh… Hey, look at the time! I think we should be going now!" Chopper punched a Dark Skellobit just up ahead with ice energy and bashed it with his parasol to defeat it. Kirby simply slashed at the Dark Spiky Skellobit, despite being confused with Chopper at the moment.

"Poyo? (Why did you just say something like that when I asked about a taboo fruit?)" Kirby asked as he got right in front of Chopper.

"I don't think you were there for it," Chopper recalled. "So, that answers your question!"

Kirby pondered again, but this time he had another question. "Poyo? (Do you believe me about that Shadow Kirby I once saw too? He's been trying to make me get rid of you so I would be the main character!)"

"Huh? Your own shadow is doing something like that? …Nah. Probably not."

He jumped over a small little pond and walked across the small log to find a waterfall just up ahead. It seemed to lead down to another pond, but the grassy ground lead over to a single stump.

"What the… That's a steep jump!" Luigi gulped. "I don't know if I can make a jump like that!"

"Oh stop being a chicken, Luigi," Blade suggested, giving him an irritated look. "You jumped hundreds of feet from a ship, so you could make a jump like this."

"Well…" Luigi took a couple of steps back, but Mario was faster and managed to grab a hold of his overalls.

"NO! PLEASE! I CAN'T DO THIS! DON'T MAKE ME DO IT, BRO!"

_"Sometimes I wonder why I even bring Luigi with me…" _Mario thought as he sighed and got help from everyone else to stop him from getting away. However, this led to him falling off the waterfall.

"Uh oh… I don't think that was meant to happen…" Sonic winced as they heard a splash. They saw Luigi climb out of the pond and glare at the whole group from above.

"You could've KILLED me, you know!" he shouted.

"Yeah, well it's your fault for being chicken!" Chopper bellowed.

"OK, OK, I think we get it already," Blade said, trying to get everyone to stop. "Let's just head on down and see if we can find anything important."

Mario: Like that stump?

"Yes. Like that stump."

Chopper was the first to jump down. With his parasol in his hand, he slowly began to float across the pond down below and land right on the grass. Meta Knight slowly glided down instead of make his wings flap around. They were all practically used to falling down from high places anyways.

"Nice of you to come down here," Luigi grumbled.

"There doesn't appear to be a door here," Meta Knight informed. "But I happen to see a stump here. Is there anyone who can do something with that stump?"

Mario: I can!

With a Ground Pound, Mario managed to make a door get drawn right in front of them. It was kind of a relief, considering that they didn't know where else to go. But while that happened, Kirby was looking down at the water.

And then Shadow Kirby appeared in the reflection.

"Remember me?" Shadow Kirby grinned. "So, are you going to do it or not? This is your last chance, Kirby!"

"Poyo! (For the last time! NO!)" Kirby retorted. "Poyo! (I'm NOT going to do it! And why do you even care? ! He's done NOTHING to you!)"

"Hmmmmmm… I see. So this is how it ends for me. Very well then! This will be the last you'll ever see of me, Kirby!" his shadow announced. "However, you're going to get it in the end. I WILL find a way out of here, and I WILL not only kill Chopper, but I will kill YOU as well!"

"Poyo… (He hasn't done anything to you…)"

"Oh, it's not just him… It's more like his power! Everyone's power, for that matter! But enough of that… So long for now, puffball. When I finally get the chance to see you out of this dimension, you're going to regret it. I'll take you and your power!"

Shadow Kirby disappeared, leaving Kirby's reflection to turn back to himself. The pink puffball smiled as he followed the heroes through the door ahead. Now he didn't have to worry about Shadow Kirby anymore!

Hopefully.

* * *

**Picnic-**

Luvbi continued to stare at her Whacka's Bump ever since Queen Jaydes pulled it out and gave it to her. She looked uninterested in it and simply poked at it with her unimpressed look.

"Luvbi, thou hast not eaten thy Whacka's Bump for five minutes!" Grambi realized. "Thou shouldst understand that Chopper cannot be with thee right now."

"I doth understand, Father… But without him, I am rather bored. Ever since he dropped me off at the shrine, I hath found nothing in interest to do."

"Dear, there is plenty of things you could have done while back home," Queen Jaydes noted.

"That kiss was probably the last I hath ever given to him…" Luvbi trailed, ignoring her mother while she picked up her Whacka's Bump and dropped it on her plate. "Pray, can't we ever goest back in time to see him again?"

"I'm sorry, Luvbi, but time machines have never been invented yet. And even if we were to have one, it's best to not tamper with time. You never know what could happen."

"Mayhap thou just needest to taketh a little walk!" Grambi suggested. "…Or rather, a little flutter! Mayhap that that will calmeth thee a bit."

"Mayhap that's what I needest," Luvbi agreed. "OK, Father. We can taketh a little flutter! But, is it a good idea to leaveth our food hither?"

"We haven't seen anything around here, so it should be all right," Queen Jaydes assured. "We're not even going to go that far anyway."

With that, the three of them left for a little while to take a little stroll. Little did they know that they _weren't_ the only ones in this world.

* * *

**Back with the heroes-**

When they walked out of the door, they noticed that there were a couple of bushes that were able to be cut, but they also happened to notice larger star blocks that were on the grassy ground. This path seemed to lead up to a steep hill that could be run up to reach the door.

"Grass… Grass… And even more grass." Chopper stated.

"Yes, we know that there's grass around here," Meta Knight said as he cut some grass. "You should help find some enemies that could be a big threat, such as those Dark Skellobits."

"Heads up, Meta Knight!" Sonic got into a ball and struck a Dark Skellobomber with a Homing Attack. Unfortunately, Meta Knight was still hit by the Skellobomber's head, but it wasn't too bad for him.

"I should've seen that coming…"

Chopper simply hit another Waddle Dee holding a spear with his parasol, sending it flying towards another Waddle Dee, but this one was orange and was carrying a parasol. They also noticed a tree just up ahead that had coconuts hanging. They almost looked like they were about to come down too…

_"If those fall on you, they will explode, so be careful…" _informed Timpani.

_"What if you were to use that parasol to protect yourself against the coconuts?" _Blumiere asked.

"I think that should work!" Chopper nodded as he let Meta Knight slice a couple of bushes in his way and take down two Dark Skellobits with a couple of jabs from Galaxia.

"Go ahead, Chopper. Let the coconuts fall." Meta Knight said.

Chopper walked underneath the tree and allowed the coconuts to come down. Surprisingly, they didn't seem to do a thing to him. With them gone, everyone went past the tree and took care of the other Dark Skellobits up ahead until they reached the steep hill.

"Well… At least we can go up this…" Sonic trailed as he used a Spin Dash to reach up to the door. Chopper shrugged and used a Speed Dash to go up. Kirby and Meta Knight simply flew up, and Luigi used a Super Jump to reach up there.

And then it came down to only Blade and Mario.

Mario: Well this is nice… -_-

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Blade agreed. "How come we can't get up there? This is a load of…"

Meta Knight grabbed Blade and threw him up, as well as Mario. This allowed them to hit the Save Block and head to the next area. There weren't a huge amount of obstacles here, but they did notice that there were ruins in the background on the grass.

_"These ruins… What are they?" _Timpani questioned.

"Hmmmmm… It appears that there may have been some people who've settled here in the past…" Meta Knight trailed, looking at the remains of a skeleton just near a broken pillar. "There may have been some people who used to live here…"

"That skeleton doesn't make me feel safe in this world…" Luigi trailed.

"Well, whatever happened here must've happened a long time ago," Chopper said. "I don't think we really need to worry about anything big going on here. Although, those Skellobits make me suspect something…"

"Do you think Shade is here?" Sonic questioned.

"If he is, then that might be a bit of a problem…" Chopper walked on ahead over to the door. "Anyways, let's just hurry on ahead. I kind of wanna get moving."

Everyone agreed and headed through the door just up ahead. They could see a couple of other ruins, but they weren't as big. However, they could see a huge cliff off at the distance in 3-D, a picnic table, and a Star Block just up ahead.

"Wait a second… There's a picnic here?" Blade gawked.

"Surely some people are here for a picnic," Meta Knight said as he wrapped his blue cape around himself, now that they weren't in any combat at the moment. But they did examine the picnic table and the picnic basket.

"Hey, Kirby! Let's see what we got in this picnic basket!" Chopper said as he was about to grab the basket. That is, until Meta Knight swatted his hand away from it.

"That's not your food. It's best that you don't steal someone else's food."

"What? Oh, come on! You know me! I love to devour things!"

"Yes, I know that, but it's best that you AVOID getting in trouble, such as stealing someone's food."

"Poyo! (That's not fair!)" Kirby pouted.

Soon enough, they began to hear voices coming closer to the picnic table. Chopper instantly gulped and stepped away from the picnic table, as well as Kirby. Meta Knight, unfortunately, had his cape stuck on the table, but with Mario's help he got his cape out of there.

Mario: Why do you wear a cape when you know that will happen?

"I don't wish to get into this kind of conversation," Meta Knight warned.

"So you see, Luvbi…" Queen Jaydes lectured as they returned to the picnic table. "You will have many responsibilities when you soon become the Queen of The Underwhere and Overthere. However, that means you must marry someone else to rule the other world."

"I understand, Mother," Luvbi nodded, who looked rather irritated from being lectured by her parents.

"However, we dost not knoweth how many years that will be!" Grambi chuckled. "Thou art too young to even become a queen. But, let us returnest to our picnic, yea?"

However, when they got to the picnic table, they paused when they saw all seven heroes (although, Meta Knight isn't technically a hero of the prophecy) staring at them in surprise.

"It's you guys!" Luigi gaped.

"Hmmmm? Now what are you guys doing here?" Queen Jaydes gaped. "This is a strange coincidence…"

"Well, we were about to say the same thing," Chopper responded. Unfortunately for him, Luvbi actually heard his voice and, before you knew it, her eyes suddenly turned into pink hearts.

_"Oh, no… No… NOOOOO…"_

"_**CHOPPER! MY SWEET PRINCE!**_" she squealed as she flew straight to him like a bullet and tackled him to the ground.

"SOMEONE GET HER OFF ME!"

"OK, OK, I think you had enough for now, little girl," Meta Knight said as he tried to shoo her away from Chopper. However, Luvbi simply glared at him while she held onto him.

"Pray, who art thou to tell me to leavest my sweet prince alone?" Luvbi asked in an angry tone. "Begone, peasant!"

"If there's anyone that would be responsible for him, it would be me. So, please… Let him go."

Luvbi sulked as she released Chopper, who sighed in relief and got as FAR away from the girl as possible.

"Mother! Now I dost feel a lot better now that my love hast come hither!" she said in a giggly manner.

"What are you guys even doing here?" Sonic asked.

"Well, we simply came here for a little picnic," Queen Jaydes explained. "But we never knew that you guys would show up. …Could it be possible that a Pure Heart has led you here?"

"Poyo! (Could be!)" Kirby smiled.

"Well, since thou art hither, mayhap thou can joinest us for a little picnic!" Grambi suggested.

"Yea! I doth want to spendeth time with my prince!" Luvbi smiled cutely at Chopper. "It'll be like a date!"

"No date, please…" Chopper gagged. "If there's one thing I don't want to do right now, it would be to be with you."

"Pooooyoooo! (But I'm huuuuuungry!)" Kirby begged, trying to give Chopper a puppy dog face. "Poyo? (Can't we please have some food?)"

"Wha… WHY are you giving me that look?!"

"Poyo… (Forget it… But can we just have some food?)"

"OK, OK. We do need to heal up anyway."

"See? I knewest that thou wouldst accept the date!" Luvbi giggled.

* * *

**Much later-**

"So… How is life so far?" Blade asked as he poked his sandwich that seemed to have an Ultimate Shroom inside. "Because personally, I think it's kinda cool meeting many…er…weirdos from different worlds."

"I thought you were annoyed with how people were like?"

"Shut it, Sonic. I'm trying to speak here."

Blade was apparently right next to Sonic, and he was facing Grambi. Chopper was (un)fortunately facing Luvbi, but he was right next to Kirby and Meta Knight. Luigi and Mario were next to each other, while the green plumber was facing Queen Jaydes.

When Meta Knight pulled a rice ball out of the basket, he looked at it. "Is there something that I could eat that requires me to NOT take off my mask?"

"Why wouldst thou want to take thy mask off?" Luvbi asked in a confused manner.

"Because… It's best not to know."

"Hold on, I remember something about that thing," Chopper recalled. "I remember that when I watched this Pokémon show, and I heard them call that riceball a 'jelly-filled donut'. Yeah, kind of strange."

"That's because the people who dubbed the show probably hates Japan," Sonic sighed. "Which is kind of lame, considering that they probably don't know squat about the show in the first place."

"What is Japan?" Luigi asked.

"You know... I don't know. I have no idea what I just said..."

"Meh, whatever," Chopper grabbed a sandwich and ate the thing whole. Luvbi watched and smiled as he ate it.

"Hee hee! Thou art so cute when thou eatest something!" she giggled cutely.

"…Now I feel like I lost my appetite."

"So… I guess Luvbi fell in love with Chopper, didn't he?" Luigi asked Mario.

Mario: I guess so.

"Well I guess it makes sense. They _are_ technically children."

"Pray, what art thou saying to us, yon hairy twins?!" Luvbi exclaimed, glaring at the Mario Bros. "Don't disturb mine relationship with my sweet prince!"

"Luvbi! That's not a way to treat a guest!" Queen Jaydes scolded. "I thought you knew better after seeing them before! Don't you ever mind your manners?"

_"Sigh… Well I suppose Luvbi hasn't changed ever since." _Timpani sighed as her wand began to float out of Chopper's hands.

"Pray, what is that?" Grambi asked.

"This? This is Tippi! …Well, more like her wand, actually." Chopper explained.

"Ah, yea… Tippi." Luvbi said with an annoyed look. "I dost remember that thou hast had a crush on my sweet prince, didst thou not? And also I believest that thou didst have a crush on the hairy twins."

_"I never said that!" _Timpani retorted while blushing furiously at Luvbi. _"Why would you ever think that?"_

"Ah, Tippi. It is so simple for thee to get angry! It is so fun!" Luvbi smiled.

"Hmmmmmm… I dost recallest something." Grambi remembered. "Dost thou remembereth the strange Nimbis from The Overthere? I doth believest that they art hither…but I dost not know where."

"Well, as long as I am with my prince, everything is better…" Luvbi sighed sweetly as pink hearts formed over her head while looking at Chopper.

"Come on! Why do I ALWAYS have to have these kinds of problems?!" Chopper sweat dropped.

"Because it's funny," Blade answered.

"...Shut up."

Things seemed to be all right, until Queen Jayde's cell phone went off.

"What's that?" Sonic asked.

"It sounds like a phone!" Luigi gawked.

Mario: I remember that sound…

"Same here," Chopper nodded.

"Oh, I apologize, but I think I have to take this call. I'll be right back." Queen Jaydes stepped away from the picnic table and took out her purple phone.

"What is it now, D-Man Joe? I'm trying to spend some time with my family! This better be important…"

_"Sorry to disturb you in any way, my queen… But we have a little problem here." _D-Man Joe explained. _"Remember that alien boy that came down into The Underwhere before?"_

"You mean the one that invaded The Overthere?"

_"Yeah, that one. For some reason, someone else came down here! You're not going to believe this… But it was actually a Nimbi! I don't know why he was there, but he ended up freeing many of the monsters that we sealed in their prison and attacked the palace! Even the Shaydes were beginning to revolt and attack as well! I think they're planning to attack The Overthere too!"_

"A NIMBI is doing all of this?!" Queen Jaydes gaped. "Who is the Nimbi? Do you know?"

_"Unfortunately, I don't. But I'm starting to get worried that they'll try coming to you guys soon. I overheard the Nimbi trying to find the 'girl that he loves, but was taken away by a pale green boy'. From what I understand, this seems like he's trying to find Luvbi and kill who took her from him. ...And most likely those who are with him too."_

Queen Jaydes looked over at Chopper, his friends and her daughter, Luvbi and frowned. "If you can get in contact with the Nimbis in the world I'm in, tell them that I'm sending the heroes and Luvbi to them. That's the only place I know that they'll be safe from harm. I'll try to get back to you guys, and I'll also try to get Grams back to The Overthere to stop this madness!"

_"All right, sounds good! You better be quick, though, because they're already making their way to the end of Underwhere Road! And… I apologize for ruining your vacation…"_

"It's all right, D-Man Joe. It's understandable." Queen Jaydes hung up and made her way back to the group. "Grams… We need to get back home now."

"What's going on?" Grambi asked.

"A Nimbi from The Overthere freed many monsters from their prison and are invading The Underwhere and Overthere! Only we can try to put an end to this!"

"Wait… We art leaving already?" Luvbi frowned. "But, why now when I hath finally foundeth my prince?"

"Luvbi, you're staying with the heroes, but listen to me," Queen Jaydes walked over to Luvbi and knelt down to her. "You and the heroes are in grave danger. If Grams and I don't stop the monsters and Shaydes, then they might be heading to this world…"

"You know, if I could recall, we found some Skellobits back through this place," Chopper recalled.

"Then that means they know you're here. Heroes, I want you to take Luvbi up to the Nimbi world called **The Peaceness**. Only there you'll be safe from harm from all of the monsters. The **Nimbi Elder** should be able to help you both from there."

"Where could we find The Peaceness?" Meta Knight asked.

"To get to The Peaceness, you need to travel across the sea, climb to the top of the highlands, and climb the clouds until you see the stars themselves. Only then you'll find The Peaceness."

"Wow… That sounds like a lot." Blade gaped.

"We've gotta go across the sea, climb the mountains AND climb the clouds?! This is too hectic for us!" Luigi gaped.

"Yeah, tell me about it…" Chopper frowned.

"But we doth get to spendeth time together!" Luvbi winked as she fluttered closer to Chopper. "So our date will never endeth from hither!"

"I trust that you guys will be able to take care of our daughter," Queen Jaydes said. "You all brought her back safely before, so I assure you that you might be able to do it again. As for you, Luvbi… I want you to treat them with respect. Blade did tell me that you were being very snobby to them before." Blade began snickering in the background. "Other than that… Please be safe."

When Queen Jaydes and Grambi left this dimension, the expected came from Blade.

"CRAP!" Blade groaned. "This sucks balls!"

"Tell me about it! We've gotta be with Luvbi AGAIN!" Sonic groaned.

"I know! This stinks!" Chopper pouted.

"So…" Luvbi smiled as she looked at Chopper. "We art finally going to be traveling together again! Didst thou miss cute little me, my prince?"

"Uhhhh… Well, I can say that I found a computer room earlier, so I'm not afraid to annoy you to death with that!"

"Hee hee! It's OK, my prince. We art together at long last!" Luvbi kissed Chopper on the cheek, making his eyes widen in complete fear.

"GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!" he cried as he ran all over the place. "Why are you torturing me like this?!"

"I take it you don't like being around her…" Meta Knight trailed as Luvbi giggled.

"Uhhhh… DUH!"

"I think Bang would be jealous that you're a pimp and he isn't," Blade said.

"I'm NOT a pimp!"

"…I'm only kidding, you know."

Chopper paused for a moment. "Wait a minute... What's a pimp?"

"So… Shouldst we get going, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked sweetly as she fluttered back over to him. "We can endeth this chapter once and for all, but it wouldst be romantic to endeth it with a kiss!"

"I'll pass," Chopper said while he ran over to the Star Block. The Nimbi princess sighed sweetly, ignoring his words as she fluttered to him as he struck the Star Block.

"What is this block?" Meta Knight asked.

"It ends a section of each chapter. We're going to see something that'll even show it's the end."

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Our heroes, now with Meta Knight in their group, finished traveling through the grassy lands of this world. However, with Luvbi with them, their hopes for this world being great slowly began to go down the drain. They would always hear her babbling about how much she loved Chopper to how much she said that the others were peasants. "We art to hurry on ahead if we art to headest to The Peaceness, so don't be too slow!" said Luvbi, while to Chopper, she went like, "This will be the greatest date we will ever be having!" Meta Knight began to realize the horror of having Luvbi here, but he seemed to notice something just up ahead._

* * *

**Hey, I WARNED you guys that this would be a long chapter. Yeah, you're pretty much running into the point where these chapters are almost around 9,000 or even over 10,000 words long. This one was over 13,000 words, if you wanted to know. **

**But at least this chapter brought Meta Knight into the group! Not only that but we have Luvbi to deal with too (and to be honest, I don't really like how she acts, even if she acts all sweet and innocent to Chopper)! Yeah, you know that things should get better when you have a Nimbi girl on your side!**

**But I'm still going to troop through this, even if these parts are going to be long (and don't even get me started on Chapter 15-5's length. We're going to get to that MUCH later). **

**Now the next part is going to be a little interesting, and also a little different. You'll see what I mean when we get there.  
**


	89. Heroes on the Ocean

**CHAPTER 15-2**

**-Heroes on the Ocean-**

"Guys, look at that up ahead," Meta Knight said as he pointed towards the sea off at the distance. "I think I can see something over there, but I'm not sure what it is… It looks like it's some sort of…shop?"

From what everyone could see around them, this place was still pretty much the same. They could still see some ruins in the background, but they slowly began to go away when they saw some sand just up ahead. The sounds of the chirping birds were slowly starting to fade away at this point, and instead, they began to hear what sounded like a couple of seagulls, as well was the sounds of the waves from the ocean. It felt peaceful, but nobody felt like they were at peace at the moment.

Especially with Luvbi around.

"Chopper, look at the sky!" she said as she fluttered over to Chopper and placed her wing on his shoulder. "The sun doth be shining down on us! It feels so romantic, wouldst thou agree?"

"I don't like romance, though!" Chopper retorted, stepping away from Luvbi. "How come you never seem to respond to the things I say, such as… I'm not your prince, nor will I ever be! …Something like that."

"Chopper, I believe you've said that countless times to her," Sonic recalled, thinking about the times he's said that to her. "Do you honestly believe that she's going to listen THIS time?"

"Well, I highly doubt that she'll listen to ANY of us," Blade mentioned as Luvbi simply glared at the group, with the exception of Chopper (as usual). "Hey! Remember what your mother said… You can't be all high and mighty!"

"Poyo! (Or else we can tell on you!)" Kirby smirked.

"I highly doubt thou art able to do that," Luvbi said as she turned away from them with a huff. "Thou dost not even have a cell phone with thee! There's no chance of thee calling my parents!"

"Oh, really?" Blade grinned as he pulled a communicator out. "Luckily, Chopper's buddy managed to hand this over to us. With it, we can get in contact with anyone. And it just so happens that I could call your mother right now and tell her that you're being pretty bratty towards us!"

"Thou wouldn't dost that!"

"Uhhhh… We would, of course!" Luigi spoke up. "So could you NOT treat us with disrespect like you usually would and be kind to us for once? You don't like us and we don't like you, so let's TRY to get along for once!"

"Hmmmmmmmmph! Fine! If we art to get along, then I doth have no other choice, but that dost not mean that thou must treateth me with disrespect! Treateth me how a princess shouldst be treated!"

"That's technically 'all mighty'," Meta Knight informed.

"OK, while you guys argue over this useless crap, I'm going to check what's up ahead," With his parasol ready, Chopper began to rush over to the sand up ahead. He took out one Dark Skellobit, but stopped when he saw the heaven-like shop that was over by the ocean, on the beach.

"Boy, this reminds me of when I had to travel through those islands, like Pudgy Island, and also traveling on the beach of Yoshi's Island. Ahhhh… The good times… Back when it was all easy."

"So, this is the beach," Meta Knight said as he walked over to Chopper. His cape began to blow in the wind, making the whole scene look badass for him.

"Man, it's sunny out here!" Sonic said as he blocked the sun from coming into contact with his eyes after the argument ended. "I never knew that the sun would get THIS bright…"

"It's a good thing I have this," Chopper kept his parasol under him, protecting him from the sun's rays. However, when he opened his eyes, they widened as he saw Luvbi right under the parasol with him.

"Wh-Wh… What are you doing?!"

"I dost not want to be harmed by the sun's rays," Luvbi explained, giving him a flirtatious look that made him scared. "Thou art a gentlemen, so thou wouldst let a fine, cute princess such as myself stayeth safe, wouldst thou?"

"OK, first off, I'm NOT a gentlemen, second… The sun's rays aren't even that bad! I thought girls loved to get tans…"

"Yeah, all of them…except for Luvbi," Blade said.

"Didst thou sayeth that thou art not to treateth me with disrespect?" Luvbi asked, glaring at Blade once again. However, he was soon poked by a Dark Skellobit, which rocketed him towards the sky.

"I actually wonder if we can get up to The Peacness that way," Luigi pondered.

Mario: I wish…

_"Well, we could always use one of those boats to go across the ocean," _Timpani informed as her wand floated out of Chopper's list of "Important Things" and flew over by the dock. _"Chopper, maybe you should ask for a boat!"_

"But those boats stink!" Chopper frowned as Luvbi kissed him on the cheek. "And I'm not having any fun!"

"My sweet prince! I doth suggest we stayeth over by the dock and holdeth hands!" Luvbi sighed sweetly as she held onto Chopper, but not as tight as she usually does. "It will almost be a dream come true!"

"More like a _nightmare_ come true…"

However, Meta Knight grabbed a hold of Chopper and pulled him away from Luvbi, making her a bit infuriated as she followed them over to the dock. They took a look at the boats, one of them being pink.

"OK, we're not taking that one," Blade stated.

"Poyo? (Why not?)" Kirby asked.

"Because it's _pink_!" Chopper exclaimed, gagging at the boat. "Who would want to see a pink boat sailing by? …Wait, this boat doesn't even HAVE a sail, but still! It's pink, and it doesn't fit for us!"

"Is that the way all Clarians act?" Luigi asked.

"Well, I'm not really a Clarian. That's not my species' name. However, since I live on planet Clara, I guess I would be considered a Clarian. And I believe there are some that dislike pink."

"Go be Clarian somewhere else already," Blade suggested.

"Well, even if we were to use this boat, it doesn't look like it works," Meta Knight stated as he looked at how badly damaged it was. "I believe this boat is here for repairs, so we don't need to take this."

"YES!" Chopper fist pumped.

"Poyo? (Then where are we going to get a boat?)" Kirby asked.

"We should check in the shop," suggested Meta Knight as he pointed over to the shop. "Maybe they'll be able to help us. If not… Then the only choice we have is to swim across the ocean."

"Which I WON'T do…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, I suppose we should do that then," Luigi walked off of the dock and headed over to the shop. The rest of the group followed him and headed inside to find a couple of magazines on the shelves, some fishing poles, bait, a large boat hanging from the ceiling, a TV, and a Nimbi with a brown French mustache.

"Ah! Good day to you, sirs and madam!" the Nimbi greeted, tipping his hat to them. They knew for sure that this wasn't one of the Nimbis that speak in Old English like the ones in The Overthere.

"I've got a question," Chopper began as he jumped to the front desk and slammed his hands on it. "Are you…from The Peaceness?"

"The Peaceness? Why of course, budday! I just opened a shop here just for anyone to come here and spend their monay on some nice things for the ocean! We even sell boats here as well!"

"BOATS!" Blade pushed Chopper out of the way and gave the Nimbi the look of a psychopath. "We. Need. A boat."

"Thou art so immature…" Luvbi scoffed, only to receive a glare from him.

_"Let's not start another fight…" _Timpani sighed, rolling her eyes. _"And here I was hoping that this would be rather __enjoyable__ instead of annoying."_

"Are… Are all of you people like this?" the Nimbi asked as he backed away from Blade.

"No, we don't usually act like this," Chopper assured. "Sometimes I have the feeling that I need to do something like that whenever I'm bored. However, I'm not enjoying myself with _someone_ here…"

He looked over at Luvbi, who swooned over him. He then looked at Meta Knight, who didn't seem to do anything. "Yeah… As you can see, we're here for a good reason, and to get you some money."

"Ah! I always enjoy getting some monay! So! What kind of boat do you need to buy? I've got many kinds of boats! They're mostly aboot sailing around the seas and fishing for…fish!"

"Do you have anything that allows fast transportation?" Meta Knight asked. "As you can see… We're trying to reach a place called The Peaceness, and that requires us to go across the ocean as fast as possible before any monsters find us."

"Wha? You guys are going to The Peaceness? ! And here I thought you were all going to simply fish!" the Nimbi gaped. "Well, I have something that should be very helpful! It's something that came from The Overthere! …But hold a moment. My favorite part of 'Pherrance and Tillip: Not Without My Pants' is on!"

"Wait… What?" Chopper gaped. "They made a show after those two?"

They looked over at the TV screen to see Pherrance and Tillip fluttering right next to a cloud with a face on it.

_"Say, Tillip! I just bought this new hybrid cloud!" _Pherrance said.

_"Does it run on electricity?"_

_"No! It uses natural gas!" _Pherrance farted in Tillip's face, and soon they began to laugh hysterically, as if they were having the biggest laugh fest of their lives. Of course, they were acting this out, but they still enjoyed it.

"Who even names a show 'Pherrance and Tillip: Not Without My Pants'?" Blade asked.

Mario: Sounds strange…

"Poyo, (Maybe it's just one of those comedies that those Nimbis enjoy up at The Peaceness,)" Kirby pondered. "Poyo… (Or maybe they just enjoy farting for some reason… What? We saw them! They've been farting their heads off ever since we saw them!)"

"Well, there's my favorite part!" the Nimbi said while laughing. "Now, let me show you buddays the **Overboat 2400**! Believe me, it's one of the best boats you'll ever see in this world! Follow me, guy!"

They followed the Nimbi outside and onto the dock. He simply took out a remote for a garage door and opened a door near the water of the shop. A large, white boat cruised out of the garage and went over to the dock.

"See? There's the Overboat 2400! She's a beaut, ain't she?" Everyone simply gaped at the sheer size of the boat. It wasn't a cruise ship, but it was something that was big enough for all eight of them.

"That's a big boat," Luvbi commented.

"We can actually USE that?" Luigi gaped.

"Yup! I'll even give it to you free of charge, since you're my first customers, and also that you need to go in a hurry!" the Nimbi chuckled as he handed Chopper the keys. "But don't mess it up. This is a brand new boat, and I DON'T want to see it all scratched up. Do you understand?"

"Of course I do!" Chopper nodded. "However… I'm too young to even drive a boat, and I also don't know how to drive one, so this should go to someone who has had experience with boats in the past."

"Poyo? (What about Meta Knight?)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo. (He's piloted the Halberd before, so I'm sure that he could drive a boat.)"

"Kirby, I've never driven a boat before," Meta Knight informed. "There's a huge difference between piloting the Halberd and driving a boat. The keys have to go to someone else."

"I'll drive," Blade announced as everyone looked at him. "I've driven boats before when I was on Mobius. Bang, Night and I would sometimes drive boats all night long! Trust me, I have experience with boats."

"Well, at least we hath someone who can drivest a boat," Luvbi sighed in relief, looking over at Chopper afterward. "But, at least we can spendeth time speaking the words of love, my sweet prince."

"In your dreams," Chopper gagged as he got on the boat. "I'd rather not spend time speaking about love! It's gross!"

Now that everyone was on the boat, they all found a nice place to sit as Blade took the drivers seat that was up on a ladder. He happened to notice that he had a full view of the exterior part of the boat and the ocean.

"Ah, so I have a full view of what I can see around me," Blade smirked as he started the boat with the key. "Excellent! That's exactly what I wanted! Plus, I'm also safe from rain with this cap on!"

"What about the interior?" Sonic asked.

Mario: The interior's interesting!

"Yeah, we found a nice, comfy sofa, a Nintendo Wii, a TV, a portrait of a Nimbi, and even a bowl of chips!" Luigi informed. "Oh, yeah! There's a vending machine that lets you get more chips or anything else you'd like from there!"

"Poyo! (This is heaven!)" Kirby said as his eyes glittered while knocking Luigi over to go inside of the boat. "Poyo! (I'm coming for you, chips!)"

"Ch-Chips?! YES!" Chopper fist pumped while Luvbi stayed under his parasol. "And could you please keep away from me? You don't need to be under any shade! It's not even that bad out!"

"But I doth wish to stay close to thee!" Luvbi giggled as she planted a kiss on his cheek, making him gag.

Blade got the boat ready and took off out of the dock. The Nimbi watched as they left, wishing them the best of luck. That is… If they manage to get through the ocean without any huge problems.

* * *

**Out on the sea-**

"Ah! So my glorious Egg Boat finally sails the seas!" Eggman cackled as he looked off at the distance of the ocean. "With my glorious water-traveling invention, going out on the seas should be a SNAP!"

"Yeah, that sounds good and all… But do we get to crush those heroes?" Bowser asked, slamming one his fists into the palm of his hand while grinning. "That's why we're here, right? We found out that they're in this world!"

"If it weren't for my sla—I mean soldiers, we wouldn't have made this machine," King Dedede said as he had his hammer resting on his shoulder. "Chopper and Kirby are in this dimension, so I'm gonna give 'em a clobberin'!"

"Hush now, you two!" Eggman snapped. "Now's not the time to be thinking about that at the moment! We should be focusing on where we NEED to go! You've got a map with you, right, King Dedede?"

"Well… I kind of forgot it…"

"So you came all the way here without a map?! What's wrong with you?!"

"Well it's not my fault that I was sent into another dimension by that dark Chopper person! Not only that, but I got separated from my assistant, Escargon! This really, REALLY sucks for me! I'm supposed to be a king!"

"Gwa ha ha ha! And you call yourself a king?!" Bowser cackled. "How could you be a king if you're too fat?"

"I should say the same thing to you, fatty," King Dedede scoffed.

"HEY! I'm not fat! I just have a big shell!"

"I told you two to STOP already!" Eggman shouted. "If you two keep arguing about each other's weight, then I'm going to turn this boat around, or, for the heck of it, dump you both into the ocean!"

"Errrrr… Fine." King Dedede sulked as he turned away from Bowser. A Waddle Dee happened to walk up to him with a glass of lemonade. Since he was angry, he decided to take it, but he noticed something.

"Where the HELL is the ice?!"

"Your Majesty… There's no ice on this ship…" the Waddle Dee winced as it shivered in fear. "If there was ice here, I would've put it in your drink! Please forgive me, Your Majesty! I'll let you deal any punishment on me!"

"Very well!" King Dedede raised his hammer and slammed it on top of the Waddle Dee, leaving it dazed for a couple of seconds. "There! That should teach you a lesson to never forget about the ice in my drink!"

After that was over, King Dedede drank his lemonade without ice and threw the glass into the ocean. They hoped that they wouldn't have any more disturbances, but two people climbed out of the trapdoor on the ship.

"Ah! Lord Bowser! I've been looking for you!" the old Magikoopa, Kammy Koopa, slowly made her way toward Bowser, but soon got exhausted as she finally made it over to him.

"_Why do my poor feet have to keep me from traveling long distances?_" she muttered before looking up at Bowser. "Ah! Now, let me explain to you what must be stated."

"This better be important," Bowser grumbled as he crossed his arms. "I'm a little busy looking out at the ocean in search for that accursed Mario and that kid Chopper. Do you know how much I was humiliated by them before? A LOT!"

"Well, we just discovered news that they're out at sea! We don't know their exact location, but our radar picked up a boat with other people on it! It's obvious that it must be them!"

"Yeah! And I helped her, Dr. Robotnik!" the small, red monkey robot, Coconuts grinned. "So, can I finally get that promotion that I've been waiting to get my whole entire life?"

"Prrrrrromotion?! You haven't even done anything around here!" Eggman growled. "And now you're asking me to give you a prrrromotion?! You can think again on that part!"

"Wh-What?! Aw, come on, Dr. Robotnik! I work so hard for you, unlike those other two idiots… But please!" Coconuts begged as he kissed his feet. "I'll do anything for you!"

"Here!" Eggman pulled out a mop and a bucket filled with water and handed it to him. "I'm demoting you to Scrub Monkey Fifth Class this time! We can talk about a prrrromotion after you mop up the whole boat!"

Coconuts sulked as he began to mop up the boat while muttering a few things to himself. Luckily, Eggman didn't seem to hear it, but he happened to notice four eyes peeking through the trapdoor.

"Well… I guess a clean boat is better than a dirty one!" King Dedede declared as he accidentally stepped on the closed trap door. He heard two screaming voices and opened the door. It was revealed to be Scratch and Grounder, who were both holding their eyes in pain.

"Ba HA ha HAAAAAGH! My eyes!" Scratch cried.

"My eyelashes!" Grounder cried.

"You don't even have eyelashes, drill nose!"

"SnooPING AS usual, I see!" Eggman noticed, putting more emphasis on "ping" in "snooping" and "as". "You honestly think you can peek through that door when you're not supposed to?!"

"I didn't hear anything! Honest!" Scratch cried. "This was all…"

"Just get back down there! I already have a monkey doing the work on the boat! …Unless you want to join him." Eggman grinned, forcing Scratch and Grounder to slam the trapdoor shut.

"Hey, monkey! You missed a spot!" Bowser shouted.

"Where?" Coconuts asked before getting burnt by Bowser's flames.

"Everywhere!"

* * *

**Overboat 2400-**

"Aw, yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about! It's just like the old days with Bang and Night!" Blade whistled as he drove the boat while wearing sunglasses. He was crashing into many fish that jumped out of the water.

"Blade… You might want to be careful of where you drive…" Meta Knight suggested, his eyes widening as the boat went too fast. A fish even hit him in the mask, catching him off guard.

"Relax, Meta. I've got this in the bag!" the cat assured as he lifted his sunglasses and suddenly gaped. "Wait a second… What the hell is with all of the fish here? …Oh! I guess they'll make a good meal for me then!"

"What do you… Oh. Right. Cats love to eat fish. I almost forgot about that." the masked warrior looked down at the fish that hit his face. He decided to give it to Blade, who surprisingly chomped on it to kill it, and then he proceeded to eat it.

Being disgusted by this, he left Blade alone and checked the other places on the boat. Sonic was wearing sunglasses as well, but he was sitting on a lawn chair while crossing his legs. Mario was also on a lawn chair, but he was reading a magazine about Mushrooms and Fire Flowers.

"Man, this is the life, isn't it?" Sonic sighed as he sat up. "So, Mario… What's that magazine you got with ya?"

Mario: It's…a strange one, honestly. It's about Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, etc.

"So this is where you guys are," the two turned their heads to see Meta Knight walking over to them while his cape was wrapped around him. "I was wondering where Chopper was at the moment. I think I need to have a little discussion with him."

"Are you going to give him a little more advice on stuff?" Sonic asked, bringing his head up to the masked warrior. "Personally, I think he's good with all that stuff. You're not his father anyway."

"Yes, I'm not his father, but as the one who rescued him from certain death, I placed myself in responsibility for making sure he doesn't get himself hurt. Remember the Crystal Stars? I fought him all of those times because I wanted to prevent him from hurting himself and the world."

Mario: That's what I thought…

"But still, you're not exactly the most trusting person in the world… Although you're probably more trusting than Tipral is" Sonic trailed. "Sure, you've known Chopper longer, but there have been times where you tried to, well, pull off some moves that weren't on the good side."

"Yes… I will admit some mistakes I've made in the past. I felt so interested in trying to conquer Dream Land, but I ended up swearing my loyalty to King Dedede in the end. I also understood that I've hurt many people as well."

Mario: I guess so… I don't know much about you!

"Yes, I thought that you wouldn't understand me. But do you know where Chopper is at the moment?"

Mario: He's inside the rec room, with my bro and Kirby.

"Oh, and Meta Knight… If you could, do you think you could bring me a can of soda on your way there?" Sonic asked, only to get ignored by the masked warrior as he turned away from him. "Hey! C'mon, man! Be a pal for once and get me a can of soda! I'm thirsty!"

"Get it yourself then," Meta Knight suggested coldly. "You are technically faster than the speed of sound."

"…Yeah, I guess he's right there. What am I doing, standing around like this and asking someone to get me a can of soda? I might as well get it myself!"

While Sonic ran over to grab a soda, Meta Knight walked into the rec room. He noticed that Chopper, Kirby, and Luigi were playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl while Luvbi watched and swooned over Chopper.

"Wh-What? ! How can you do that?" Luigi gaped. "Did you suddenly KO me when I had about zero percent of damage? How can you do that?"

"With the Home Run Bat, of course," Chopper said, trying to inch away from the love-struck Luvbi. "And could you please stop getting closer and closer to me each second? I feel VERY uncomfortable…"

"But dost thou have any time for me?" Luvbi asked, batting her eyes at him. "Thou dost not want to leave a cute girl be, dost thou not?"

"I don't care how cute you are. I'm not interested in a relationship." he frowned, putting his parasol right in front of Luvbi to prevent him from distracting him. Unfortunately, this plan didn't work out when she simply pushed his parasol out of the way and let it drop to the ground before holding onto him and rubbing her cheek onto his while blushing and closing her eyes.

"L-Luvbi! P… Please! I'm… I'm getting my butt kicked!" he was playing as a green Kirby, while Kirby was playing as a pink Kirby, and Luigi was playing as, well, Luigi (yeah, real original to have them play as themselves…except for Chopper). He saw he was getting beaten around by Kirby, who began to chuckle.

"Poyo! (Man! Keep that up, Luvbi! I'm winning this!)" Kirby smirked.

"Oh, yeah! I can't believe that you're already in last place already!" Luigi grinned as he knocked Chopper's character out of the stage, bringing him down to one life. Chopper still couldn't get a hold of the controller because Luvbi was distracting him with her kisses and words that annoyed Chopper.

"OK, I have one thing to say and you might want to cover your ears…" Everyone remained silent as they covered their ears (although, that's not easy for Kirby and Luvbi). "DANG YOU, GAME!"

"Chopper, are you in here?" Meta Knight apparently heard the screaming from inside and found Chopper trapped in Luvbi's clutches. Everyone paused the game for a minute and looked at Meta Knight, curious with what he has to say.

"Wait, how come it's me?" Chopper asked. "Why can't you just talk to someone else? I think it would be interesting to bring this over to someone like Luigi or Kirby, and not me. I'm only ten, sheesh!"

"The only reason why I am speaking to you is because you seem to hold more information on the Pure Hearts and this Chaos Heart than anyone else. That's why I came to you."

"Oh, that? No, I don't think you'd want to speak to me about that. I think the one who has the best information on that is most likely Tippi or Count Bleck…I mean Lady Timpani and Lord Blumiere!"

"You mean the people that are in that glowing rainbow-colored wand?" Meta Knight gawked as Chopper pulled the wand out. "Oh, yes… Now I remember. There was a voice coming from there."

"Yeah! I think you can ask either one of them. If anyone knows about the Pure Hearts and Chaos Heart more, it would be them!" Chopper allowed the wand to float. It suddenly began to glow brighter, indicating that it's being used.

_"So, you wish to know about the Pure Hearts and the Chaos Heart?" _Blumiere asked as Meta Knight nodded.

"I wish to know what the purpose of the Chaos Heart and the Pure Hearts are," Meta Knight responded boldly. "I was never truly told about what they really are by that strange wizard in the blue hood. I've been mostly spending my time searching for my sword, Galaxia."

_"Well, all I can say is that the Pure Hearts were once one big heart called the Purity Heart," _Timpani explained. _"The Tribe of the Ancients created it to counter the Chaos Heart's power. The power within the Pure Hearts carries love, which my tribe considered a salvation for the universe. They were created as the embodiment of love. They hoped that their combined powers would negate the power of the Chaos Heart. However, with Tipral splitting the Purity Heart into twenty pieces instead of eight, the Pure Hearts can't counter the true power of the Chaos Heart without all twenty of them. I suppose he did this because he wanted to prevent the Purity Heart from getting in the way… But, if all twenty Pure Hearts are collected, there's a chance it could create the Purity Heart's true power. However, let's hope that the Chaos Heart's true power doesn't return."_

"I see… So that was the purpose of the Pure Heart? To stop the Chaos Heart with love?"

"Love doth be important in everyone's lives," Luvbi said as she kissed Chopper on the cheek again. "To me, it doth be a feeling for not only thy lover, but also for thy parents, friends, and the rest of thy family."

"Even though I don't like romantic love…" Chopper began as he got out of Luvbi's grasps and managed to get the controller, although he found out he was gone. "Aw, what?! I'm dead already?!"

"Well, you were down to one life…" Luigi trailed.

"Dang… Well, anyway… Even though I don't like romantic love, I do think love is kind of important to me. I mean, what would life be like without the love of my friends or even my family (may they rest in peace)?"

"That is true…" Meta Knight agreed. "Now… What about the Chaos Heart? I wish to know the purpose of the Chaos Heart."

_"The Chaos Heart's true purpose was to create The Void, which would swallow possibly the entire universe," _This time, Blumiere explained the details. _"They were created by my people, the Tribe of Darkness. Apparently our kind were filled with deep hatred for the Tribe of Ancients, which might be one of the reasons why my father didn't want me to be with my dear Timpani…"_

"Wait a second… Your father was responsible for that?" Chopper gaped.

_"Unfortunately, yes, responded Count Bleck. I almost thought she was dead because of him, so I took the Dark Prognosticus to try to see if it could help me. But alas, I had no help from it. That's what worries me about Tipral with the Dark Prognosticus. It will lead him to the terrible secrets and possibly deal a lot of harm to him."_

"Wait… Did you say 'worry'?" Luigi gawked. "Do you…know anything about Tipral before we met him?"

_"I feel that I've heard his name from somewhere before… But I just can't remember it." _Timpani noted.

"Uh oh… Clichéd moment, anyone?" Chopper questioned.

"Poyo! (Amnesia is so clichéd these days, which makes it annoying!)" Kirby frowned.

"So, thou art as forgetful as I thought," Luvbi said with an irritated look. "So, dost thou remember what two plus two equals?"

_"You… That wasn't necessary…" _Timpani trailed, glaring at Luvbi through the wand.

_"Another thing about the Chaos Heart is that it is filled with hate. That sounds like someone like Tipral…" _Blumiere realized. _"Combining the Chaos Heart with hatred can lead to possibly an apocalypse… That's why we must stop Tipral from bringing the Chaos Heart back!"_

"And this Tipral person is the one that looks just like Chopper, correct?" Meta Knight asked, only to receive a nod from Chopper. "Hmmmm… For some reason, I see some strange symbolism between the two of you."

"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby asked.

"It goes from the whole yin and yang. Yin represents evil and darkness, while yang represents the light. They're both opposing forces, and are much similar to each other. If you put those two together, it feels like it represents yin and yang."

"Huh… Well, I never would've thought of that." Luigi realized. "Though, kind of scary, if you think about it."

Before they could say anything else, the boat suddenly stopped.

"Pray? Why hast the boat stopped?" Luvbi asked.

_"There must be something going on outside," _Timpani predicted. _"You guys should go out and check."_

"Got it!" Chopper grabbed Timpani's wand, his parasol, and then he headed out of the rec room. Luigi turned off the TV and followed him, with Kirby grabbing his sword and following out as well.

"You stay here, Luvbi," Meta Knight ordered. "If there's anything dangerous, then it's best that you stay out of it."

"Why shouldst I? I scoff at thy orders! Thou art not my mother!" Luvbi scoffed while giving him a look. "Thou dost not have to tellest me what to dost, Dumbo Knight! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!"

"Dumbo Knight? Ugh… Chopper was right when he said you were bratty…"

Meta Knight ran outside to find another ship that bumped into theirs. It wasn't damaged, but they noticed that it was a gray ship with a couple of Dark Skellobits on it, with two of them being Dark Spiky Skellobits.

"They found us?" Blade gaped as he changed gears on the boat so it would stop moving (if there is one, that is. Hey, I don't know much on boats, only on cars!). He climbed down the small ladder to find a couple of Dark Skellobits climbing onto the boat.

"Hey! Get off of my boat!"

"But this isn't your boat, Blade," Sonic mentioned.

Mario: This is all of ours…

"Well… I don't care! Let's just kick their asses!" Blade grinned as he gripped his sword and aimed it towards the Dark Skellobits. "We're going to dump you guys in the sea after this!"

"Hwahwahwa! Oh, I'd like to see you try, maggot!" the Dark Spiky Skellobit cackled as it aimed its spear at Blade. However, he managed to disappear out of smoke and strike the Skellobit from behind with a single slash.

Meta Knight thought of a good idea. He didn't HAVE to fight these guys with his sword. He simply grabbed a Dark Skellobit with Thoreau and threw them off the boat and into the sea, allowing it to drown.

"I'm not sure if that's not honorable or not…" he trailed as he watched the Dark Skellobit sink into the sea.

"Well, we DO have a bunch of enemies that are trying to kill us…" Chopper noted. "I think it's best that we try everything we have to get rid of them."

Chopper blocked a spear that was being thrown at him with his parasol, followed by striking it with a couple of star particles that he fired from the parasol. It even left the Dark Spiky Skellobit distracted.

"Hwa?! What the heck's this?!" it gaped.

"Something that should leave you distracted!" Chopper smirked as he chucked a charged fireball at it, leaving a nasty burn on it. He finished the monster off by striking it with his parasol one last time before it disintegrated.

"Yer goin' down, pinky!" a Dark Skellobit growled as it charged at Kirby. However, he was ready to counter its attack and simply jabbed at the Dark Skellobit a couple of times. With one last power slash, he was able to defeat it.

"Poyo! Poyo! (Yeah! Now you're dead!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uhhhhh… OK, that was very interesting." Chopper gawked as he stepped away from Kirby, but soon he was poked by a Dark Spiky Skellobit's spear. Meta Knight stepped in and used his sword to jab at the undead monster and disarm it by knocking its spear into the water.

"Oh, cool! You can disarm enemies!" Luigi gaped.

While it was disarmed, Mario jumped over to it and bashed its head with his hammer. He would've stomped on it, but he knew that it had a spike on its head. Luigi, on the other hand…

"I'm going to stomp on this thing!" Unfortunately for him, he took damage when trying to jump on it, resulting in him holding his foot in pain. Meta Knight, however, finished off the Dark Skellobit with ease.

"We've just got one more left!" Sonic smirked as he simply finished the Dark Skellobit off with a Spin Dash. It fell off the boat, to their relief. But they thought that it was all over for them.

Until two Dark Spiky Skellobombers came diving down from the sky and tried crashing into them. Luckily, they jumped out of the way in time. The boat didn't suffer any injuries either.

"Whoa… That was unexpected!" Sonic gaped.

"Don't think we're done with you yet!" one Dark Spiky Skellobomber said coldly. "We'll finish you off fer sure! Try comin' up here! I DARE you!"

"Gladly," Luigi said as he used a Super Jump to uppercut the Dark Spiky Skellobomber from underneath. The other tried to throw its head down, but the only thing that happened was Chopper's parasol blocking the head and making it disappear.

"That's an attack? Really?" Chopper mocked. "You can't really do much when I have this thing above me!"

Meta Knight sighed and used his tornado attack to spin around rapidly and strike the last Dark Spiky Skellobomber. When it was defeated, Blade simply threw Hommissile at the ship in their way and let it sink.

"We could've used that ship, you know…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, I think making it sink is cooler to me," Blade said.

"Oh, Chopper! You were so braveth out thither!" Luvbi came fluttering outside and immediately flew straight to Chopper. "Thou art my hero!"

"Wh-WHAT?! B-But I didn't do much!" Chopper stammered. "THEY did more than what I did! Give THEM the credit instead?"

"Givest credit to thy peasants? PAH! Thou art the only one I doth care for!" Luvbi looked away from the others, who began to steam a little bit.

"Is there an island we can just throw you on?" Sonic asked.

"Is there an island where thou can shuttest thy trap, Knave?"

"It's Sonic! SONIC!"

"Actually, I can see an island up ahead," Meta Knight noted, walking up to the hue of the boat. "It doesn't appear to be big, but I think I can see something there. Why don't we take a look at it?"

"Good idea!" Blade nodded as he got back to driving the boat by turning it on and taking off. "This should be interesting!"

* * *

**At the island-**

When the boat stopped at the island, everyone jumped off the boat. Unfortunately, there was no dock in sight. It looked like a small, deserted island with a couple of small trees that could be cut and a couple of small rocks. But, they could see a spiral path leading up to the top of the island.

"What an interesting island…" Chopper commented as he brought his parasol up to keep the sun out of his eyes. Luvbi joined him under his parasol, forcing him to step away from her.

"Personal space, please?"

"Pray, my prince, what hast happened to the time when thou hath rescued me from Metal Chopper? Why art thou being so scared?" Luvbi asked.

"Poyo… (Because he doesn't like you…)" Kirby trailed.

"Pray, what didst thou say to me, pink gumball?" Luvbi instantly glared at the pink puffball, who gave her an irritated look. "Art thou scoffing at our love?!"

"That's it, I'm done," Chopper walked over to the edge of the island.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Sonic asked.

"What does it look like? I'm gonna jump off and sink into the water so I can actually get away from Luvbi!"

Mario: You can't do that!

"It's too late," Chopper raised his parasol. "I'm gonna do it."

"No, you can't do it because there's a Big Blooper facing you!" Luigi shrieked.

"What?!" he turned around, only to get crushed by one of the Big Blooper's tentacles. Not only that, but he lost his Parasol ability at well.

"Bloobloobloop! (Ha! Take that, land freak!)" the Big Blooper cackled until Meta Knight sliced at its tentacle. "BUH-BLOOP! (ACK! MY TENTACLE!)"

As the Big Blooper sank back into the water, Chopper slowly got up with a large red mark on his face.

"OK, I changed my mind. There's no point in jumping in the water."

"You know, I bet some people would've wanted to see you do that," Blade realized.

"Well good for them."

"…I was just joking."

_"Never mind that for now. Let's explore the island a bit." _Blumiere suggested. The only problem, however, was that there were some rocks blocking the way of the spiral pathway.

"The only problem is that we have these rocks in the way," Chopper said as he tried kicking at it. Sadly, it didn't work. "Man… I hate when things like this happen!"

"Uhhh… We have Hommissile here, you know." Blade informed. "I'll just use him to blow up the rock. That's all."

Blade simply tossed Hommissile at the rock and it exploded, allowing them to move on. But they soon stopped when they saw some skinny, short trees blocking their way. They looked as if they were able to be cut down by a sword, something that two people in the group have…

"I suppose I'll just cut these down," Meta Knight said as he sliced the trees to the ground. "There. Now we can reach the top with ease."

Well, not exactly. There were still a couple of other rocks and trees in their way as they continued to climb, but upon reaching the top, they found nothing but a large, cracked rock in the center.

Mario: There could be something down there…

"Then we should check it out," Luigi suggested. "Or… Maybe you guys can, because I feel safer up here."

"Stop being such a baby," Blade said as he blew the rock up with Hommissile. It revealed a hole and a carved plaque next to the hole. Chopper looked surprised, having a red ! over his head as he saw the plaque.

Mario: ?

"I wonder what this reads…" Chopper wondered as he looked over at the writing. "You've gotta be kidding me… It's written in Old English!"

"Old English? Pray, why dost thou sayeth that it is old?" Luvbi asked.

"Because we don't speak like that nowadays…" Meta Knight trailed. "These aren't the Renaissance days…"

"Yeah, these are the… I don't know what days these are…" Sonic realized.

"Are they the new days?" Luigi guessed.

Mario: Probably not.

"Hmmmmmm… This is interesting!" Chopper noted as he read the plaque. "Although… This also seems rather disturbing to me."

_"What does it read?" _Timpani asked.

"It reads 'Those that hath done the bad hath been thrown into the gates of The Underwhere through this hole. The wandering spirits that hath been left by them art drained by the evils lurking within. They art nothing but ash.' It disturbs me a bit, considering that this place is so peaceful."

"That doth seem rather…unsettling," Luvbi realized. "I never thought that there wouldeth be such disturbing stuff hither."

"Maybe those ruins had to do with this too?" Luigi pondered.

"Poyo, (That could be a mystery,)" Kirby pondered.

"Well, not much we can do except for jumping down here," Sonic said as he jumped down into the hole. Everyone else followed him down, including Luvbi.

* * *

**Under the island-**

They were all surprised to see that they slowly began to descend into a strange room with light shining from above. Up ahead, they noticed an old, gray door. This place didn't seem as haunting as they thought it would be! It just looked like an old, empty dungeon!

"You know, this reminds me of when I found that one island out in the ocean at the Mushroom Kingdom," Chopper recalled. "I remember fighting a statue of a Dayzee there."

"I've never seen Dayzee Statues in the Mushroom Kingdom," Luigi said. "Are they in a different kind of area?"

"Well, I know for a fact that I saw two of them. One in some sort of cavern near the City of Flowersville, and one out underneath a strange, empty island, kind of like this. So, how about we search this place?"

They hit the Save Block right near the door and carried on ahead into a room with a couple of pillars in 3-D, and two doors that they could enter in the room. There was only one that was in 3-D.

_"Those pillars look very old," _Timpani informed. _"I think you'll be able to smash them with your hammer."_

"Let's find out," Chopper pulled his hammer out and smashed at the pillar. It fell over, and it just so happened that an Ultra Shroom appeared. He seemed surprised, but it didn't look rotten.

"I always wonder… Is it bad for us to be eating Mushrooms?" Meta Knight asked. "I hear in many other places that they can cause many different effects on you."

Mario: These kind are different!

"If you say so…" the masked warrior grabbed the Ultra Shroom and sliced it into seven pieces. He simply looked away from everyone to eat his piece, while everyone else had an easier time recovering 50 HP.

"Hold on, you never said what was behind your mask," Blade realized.

"That's best to be kept a secret," Meta Knight responded coldly.

_"No need to get so grumpy from a question…" _Timpani trailed. _"If you think you're ugly underneath that mask, then it's OK to show us. None of us will make fun of you in any way."_

"Well I would prefereth not to look at thy ugliness, Dumbo Knight," Luvbi scoffed.

"Really Luvbi? Do you HAVE to insult the one who was practically my MENTOR ever since I was rescued?" Chopper frowned, but he soon got rather ticked and walked up to the Nimbi girl. "See, this is why I don't like your personality. You always, ALWAYS insult my friends! I thought you would've learned after you found out you were yet again turned into a Pure Heart, but no. All you care about is trying to marry me and staying away from your family! That, and you're always being so insensitive when it comes to my friends! You never, EVER listen to anybody else around here! So, please, leave my friends alone, and leave ME alone!"

Everyone was stunned, including Blade. Not even he could tell Luvbi off like that. But what was surprising to Chopper was that Luvbi's eyes started to water up.

Wait, her eyes were watering up now?

She turned away from Chopper, trying to fight off the tears. "I am leaving hither. Don't talketh to me anymore."

A tear rolled down her face as she left the underground room and went back to the surface.

"…I feel kind of bad for doing that," Chopper frowned. "I didn't want to make her cry…"

"Poyo, (I think she deserved it,)" Kirby said.

"After all she's done to us, I believe that she should've seen that coming to her," Sonic stated.

"I think you did the right thing," Blade confirmed.

Mario: Well, she was rude to us…

"I don't know what to say at the moment," Luigi gaped.

"She'll learn in time," stated Meta Knight.

_"She'll be fine, Chopper. Let's just check this place." _Timpani suggested.

"Oh, all right… I don't want her to hate us completely, though. But, she does kind of have to understand…" Chopper trailed. "I didn't want to have to talk to her like that, but I had no other choice."

"Well what we should do first is check these doors," Meta Knight walked up to the first door and opened it. Upon entering the room, they found the walls and ceiling to be surrounded by many ghosts. They couldn't attack, since they were only stuck on the wall.

"This place doesn't seem very nice now that I look at it," Luigi shivered as he stepped back over to the door. However, Mario grabbed him by the overalls and pulled him back.

"B-Bro! I don't want to look in here! Th-There are gh-ghosts!"

Mario: This is a small room, you know…

"Well, at least there aren't any big threats here…" Chopper hoped, until he saw a dark phantom standing in the middle of the room with its glowing red eyes looking up at the heroes. For some reason, it looks a little like Count Bleck, but its hat is more like a witch's.

_**"****Leave now, or else you shall soon suffer the way these spirits have," **_warned the phantom as it brought its wand up to the heroes. _**"I am a Soul Collector. I guard the caves of lost souls and dark souls and collect any souls of people who come here. Those who refuse to leave shall also become dark souls."**_

"But we're not filled with dark souls," Sonic smirked. "We're heroes!"

_**"****Heroes, you say? Well, if you're heroes, then you should be able to defeat me!"**_

It (since we don't know if it's male or female) fired a dark pulse from its wand that did massive damage to everyone in the room. Not even Meta Knight was able to handle its powerful dark abilities.

"Urgh…" Meta Knight grunted as he turned invisible with his cape and got behind the Phantom Guardian. He slashed at it, but it didn't seem to do any harm to it, which surprised him.

"Poyo? (Nothing works?)" Kirby gaped.

"Hmmmmm…" Chopper chucked a couple of fireballs at the Soul Collector, but they had no effect either. He tried freezing it. Well, that worked, but it soon broke out of its icy prison and began hurling dark globs of energy from its wand at them.

"Look out!"

Everyone jumped out of the way in an attempt to avoid its attack. Sonic tried to use a Spin Dash to attack it, but it didn't do any good. It just cackled at them and tried hitting them with another dark spell.

_**"****You honestly believe you can defeat a phantom with those attacks? HA! I might as well take your souls!" **_the Soul Collector got ready to drain their souls, but Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and flashed it on it.

_**"****Argh! My eyes! I can't see a thing! Is that rainbow energy? While it can't kill me, it can certainly make me blind for a couple of seconds!"**_

"Then let us go," Chopper suggested.

_**"****Bah. I shouldn't waste my time with you people. I'm off to collect souls in other places." **_And just like that, it disappeared. It didn't drop anything of interest, but it did have a Star Shroom Shake.

"Poyo! (Let's take it!)" Kirby suggested as he grabbed the Star Shroom Shake and put it away.

"We'll check the other rooms next," Chopper stated as they left the room.

* * *

**Outside-**

"I can't believest that Chopper wouldeth sayest something like that to me…" Luvbi sniffled as she fluttered over to the boat. "Dost he not love me? Shouldst I leave him and his peasants and headest to The Peaceness on mine own?"

She looked back at the island, but her sad face turned angry. "I dost not needeth them or Chopper! I am capable of flying on my own!"

"Well, if it isn't the little Fluffy! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Pray, who hast…" Luvbi gulped as she saw another ship on land. She saw Bowser, Eggman (who was in his Egg Walker at the moment), and King Dedede, who grinned as he let his hammer rest on his shoulder.

"So, you're the one who was on that boat, weren't you?" Eggman asked. "I want answers. Now. If you refuse to listen, we won't be afraid to hurt you, even if you are a little girl."

"I remember she mocked me of my love for Princess Peach!" Bowser growled. "How about I burn her?!"

"Well we don't even know who she is in the first place," King Dedede said. "But she has some kind of scent on her… A scent that reminds me of…Chopper."

"I am done with him now, if thou wants to knowest. Now leaveth me so I can leave hither!" Luvbi said in an angry manner.

"Aw, the wittle girl's angwy that the boy she woves doesn't wike her back?" Bowser cackled in baby talk. "Well tough luck, Fluffy! Surely if you're kidnapped, he's bound to come out here!"

"Uhhhh… I don't think we're even here for him in the first place." Eggman realized. "In fact, I don't hate him as much as Sonic. I don't really know much about him. But nevertheless, he HAS helped Sonic, so we should get rid of him too…"

"I'll take care of ya!" King Dedede grabbed a hold of Luvbi, who began to squirm around.

"Let me go, bird-brain! Leavest me alone!" Luvbi screamed.

"Keep her screaming! That's bound to get their attention!" Eggman encouraged.

"I can't believest I am saying this… But… PLEASE HELPETH ME, CHOPPER!"

* * *

**Under the island-**

"Man, this place just creeps me out…" Luigi shivered as they walked into the other door that was in 2-D. They didn't see anything special here except a purple fog in the room with a couple of cackling voices heard throughout the room. They even saw some sort of Dark Wizard in the room.

"What the… Is that Shade?" Chopper gaped as he looked at the gray cloaked wizard. However, this one was taller than Shade; maybe about Mario's height. It was carrying a skinny wand with a bulb on the end and they could all see two glowing purple eyes from the hood.

"So, you're the heroes that we've been hearing about," the Dark Wizard said as it crept over to the group. "We're not exactly that big around these worlds…yet."

"OK, then why are you here?" Sonic asked.

"Have you come here to try to kick our asses?" Blade asked as he drew his katana.

"Heh heh heh! Oh, maybe… I expected you people to be here, so I might as well finish the job now!" the Dark Wizard tried to zap everyone with dark energy from its wand, but they jumped out of the way and managed to attack the Dark Wizard, starting with Meta Knight slashing at it first.

"This is a strange enemy… Chopper, you should investigate it." Meta Knight suggested as Chopper used Timpani's wand to investigate it.

_"This mysterious being is called a Dark Wizard. I don't know who it works for, but surely it must be from someone we know… Max HP is 110. Attack is 19. Defense is 9. It mostly relies on using ranged attacks, so if you manage to get close to it, then there might be a chance that you might have the upper advantage. To make things a little worse, though, is that a Dark Wizard can recover its or someone else's HP if it's ever running low, so make sure you take it out as fast as possible." _Timpani informed, causing everyone to gape.

"WHAT?! 110 HP?!"

"Then we have to act fast…" Sonic trailed as he used a Whirlwind to send the Dark Wizard flying in the air. He followed up by charging up his Light Speed Dash and unleashing it upon the Dark Wizard.

"Hmmmm… So you think you can take me down with those attacks…" the Dark Wizard floated to the ground and fired a dark pulse of energy. Everyone ended up getting hurt and took some massive damage.

Mario: That's painful!

"Then we better make our attacks painful!" Chopper smirked while pounding his fist into his hand. "Let's fight!"

He chucked a couple of fireballs at the Dark Wizard, leaving a burn on it. Thankfully this fight was a lot better than the Soul Collector they encountered before. When Mario bashed the Dark Wizard's head with his hammer, Kirby jabbed at it next with his sword to leave it stunned.

"Poyo! (Good thing I have that badge that lets me stun enemies for a couple of seconds!)" Kirby cheered.

When Blade sliced at the Dark Wizard, it got out of its trance and struck Blade with a dark attack from its wand. It sent him flying, but it didn't stop Luigi from attacking the Dark Wizard with his Cyclone.

"Urk! Not bad…" the Dark Wizard commented as he got knocked out of the air by Luigi's Super Jump. When it fell to the ground, it met Chopper's ice smash, causing it to freeze.

"It's not too far from being defeated," Meta Knight said as he walked up to the frozen Dark Wizard. However, when he got closer, it unfroze and attacked Meta Knight with a dark spell. He brought his cape up to block the attack and then stab the Dark Wizard with Galaxia.

"Urk! You…" the Dark Wizard coughed. "Don't think I'm the only one of my kind… More shall come, and soon they shall exterminate you!"

As it disintegrated into smoke, it dropped a Star Shroom Shake. Meta Knight picked it up, but he threw it over to Chopper instead.

"Why are you giving me this?" Chopper asked.

"I might not need it," was all Meta Knight said as he left the room.

"Well, it's better than nothing," Luigi noted as they followed him back in the main room. They ended up encountering a gray Waddle Dee holding a spear, a gray Koopatrol, and a gray Motobug, to their surprise.

"What? ! How'd they get in here? !" Sonic gaped.

"I don't know… But let's not ask those questions right now. We should handle these guys first." Meta Knight suggested as he ignored the Waddle Dee and attacked the Koopatrol first.

"Wait, what about the Waddle Dee?" Chopper noted.

"I don't wish to fight that. It would be dishonorable if I fought His Majesty's servants."

"Ugh… This again." Nevertheless, Chopper stomped on the Waddle Dee while avoiding its spear. It poked him, but he was able to hold his own for a while, until Kirby finished it off with his sword.

Sonic and Blade had an easy time with the Motobug. All if did was move around the room, but it was no match for Sonic's speed when he struck it with a Spin Dash. Sparks flew everywhere as Blade stabbed it. With one last Homing Attack, Sonic blew the enemy up with ease.

"How come no small animals come out of this?" Blade asked.

"I guess they aren't Eggy's minions?" Sonic shrugged.

With the Koopatrol, though, Mario and Luigi didn't get a chance to fight it when Meta Knight finished it off with one last slash attack.

Mario: We could've done that…

"How come you didn't let us fight it?" Luigi asked.

"I decided to make the battle quick," Meta Knight bluntly stated. "We DO need to get back to the boat, after all…"

"Although I highly doubt Luvbi will even talk to me…" Chopper trailed.

"I think you did the right thing," Sonic said. "She's been at our throats forever!"

"Poyo! (It's true! She deserved that!)" Kirby agreed.

"Well, I suppose she kind of did… Well, anyways, let's see what's in this final door." Chopper flipped him and everyone else into 3-D to find a door just up ahead. They found a small room with a chest in front of them.

_"Was this whole island completely optional?" _Timpani gawked.

_"If so, it's really wasting our time…" _Blumiere face palmed.

Mario opened the chest to find a badge called the Great Jump. Apparently it can damage enemies while Mario's in the middle of his third jump in his Triple Jump. He's protected by glitters of light – so it says.

Mario: This works perfectly!

He equipped the badge onto himself and now has two badges on him. With all of that out of the way, they decided to leave the island.

* * *

**Outside-**

_"Well that was an interesting, if not, creepy experience," _Timpani said as they all jumped out of the hole from the island. _"I wonder if we'll find any more island like this…"_

"We'll see about that," Meta Knight wondered as he noticed another ship. "Wait… Why is there another ship here?"

"Well well well! There you guys are! We've been looking for you, you know!" Everyone saw Eggman on his Egg Walker over by a large ship. He was holding a blaster in his hand that looked quite deadly.

"Eggman?! What are you doing here?!" Sonic asked as he clenched his fists.

"Gwa ha ha ha! I've found you, Mario!" Bowser stepped right beside Eggman's machine with his arms crossed. "Now that I'm here, I can cut this story short by defeating you!"

"Actually, I think you'd do that if you defeated me…" Chopper trailed.

"HEY! I plan on doing that too! I just want Mario out of the picture first!"

"Hold on a minute… Where's Luvbi?"

"I'm glad you asked!" King Dedede stepped beside Eggman to his left. He was apparently holding Luvbi.

"Helpeth me please!" Luvbi cried.

"Oh, come on… You're using the damsel in distress thing again? That's so clichéd…" Blade face palmed.

"Well, at least it got your attention!" King Dedede cackled.

"Your Majesty?! Why are you here?" Meta Knight asked.

"Meta Knight? What are you doing with these people? You're on MY side, you know! You should be helping ME with these people! So get back over here and help me crush these heroes!"

"Well, they dost not care about me, so why wouldst they rescue me?" Luvbi asked in a serious tone.

"Luvbi, look. I didn't mean to…"

"Don't talketh to me, Chopper." This resulted in Chopper frowning, followed by a sigh.

"OK, now she's being stubborn…" Sonic groaned. "I don't think YOU even understand, Luvbi."

"Sonic, never mind that for now. We have to take care of these guys first."

"Now we're talking!" Bowser grinned. "Let's take these guys down!"

"Uhhhh… Your Happiness… There's a problem." Kammy said as she flew over to Bowser. "I think the ship's running low on gas. If we stay here any longer, we could be stranded here."

"Wait, you didn't turn the boat off?!" Eggman gaped. "SCRATCH! GROUNDER!"

Little did he know that Scratch and Grounder were playing a game of cards while arguing with each other, paying no attention to the amount of gas.

"Urgh… Fine. We have no choice but to retreat. King Dedede, just let the girl go so we can get out of here. It's not worth kidnapping her."

"What?! Are you kidding me?! I came this whole way to kick their butts! That's what I PLAN on doing! So, how about you guys just go while I give them a clobberin'! King Dedede style!"

"Poyo… (This again…)" Kirby groaned.

"First off…" King Dedede grabbed some duct tape and taped Luvbi onto the island.

"Pray, what art thou doing?!" Luvbi asked.

"Preventing you from leaving, of course," As the boat took off, only the heroes, Luvbi, and King Dedede remained on the island. "All right, you heroes! Let's see how you handle against me!"

"Oh, we'll find out," Chopper said as he jumped out of the way of King Dedede's hammer. "We just want you to get out of the way so we can get back on the boat and reach The Peaceness."

King Dedede raised his hammer in order to attack, but Kirby managed to slash him with his sword, keeping him off guard. So, the king tried to smash Kirby, but he simply floated in the air to avoid him.

"Oh, so you're gonna be chicken, Kirby?!" King Dedede took in some air and began to float around. Luckily, this allowed Luigi to strike him from above with his Super Jump attack, hitting him with full force and sending him plummeting to the ground.

The only one who didn't seem to fight was Meta Knight, who stayed back from the fight and wrapped his cape around himself.

"Meta Knight? How come you're not helping us?" Chopper asked.

"I could never attack my own king," he informed. "If I did that, you wouldn't want to know what would happen to me. That would be treason for me. I would be thrown out of my own home as well."

_"Hmmmmm… Well, I suppose that's understandable." _Blumiere said. _"You wouldn't want that to happen to you…"_

"Well… I understand, Tamber." Chopper nodded as he turned back to King Dedede. Mario was just finishing stomping on his head, while Sonic struck him with a Spin Dash. He took this time to investigate King Dedede.

_"That's King Dedede. He's the king of Dream Land…or that's just what he says. Max HP is 240. Attack is 12. Defense is 4. He'll mostly rely on trying to bash you with his hammer, but he has some other attacks such as throwing his own minions at you or even try to jump on top of you. His moves are pretty much the same, but his range of inhaling has somewhat increased… If he starts spinning his hammer around, then you might want to stay away from him…" _Timpani informed.

"Spin attack? I don't remember if he used it back in that snow cavern or not…" Chopper pondered before getting squashed by King Dedede's heavy body.

"Well at least I got someone!" the king grinned as he got off Chopper and picked him up. "Time to take you down!"

He was about to attack, but he felt an explosion from his back. He turned around to find Hommissile returning to Blade after exploding. "Hey! Who do you think you are, distracting me like that? !"

"Well, I HAVE to save my friends, you know…" Blade said as he kicked King Dedede in the stomach. "It's for the greater good that I do that!"

"Greater good? Uhhhh… That's a new one." Sonic said with a blank look before Blade got crushed by King Dedede's hammer.

"If you think you're going to get in my way, then you can think again, you annoying blue cat!" King Dedede growled as he looked over at Sonic. This time, he tried to inhale him, but the blue hedgehog was too fast for the king. This gave Chopper some time to stomp on his head and bash him with his hammer.

"Thanks for that, Sonic!" Chopper smiled.

"No problem!" Sonic jumped and struck King Dedede with a Homing Attack after he was stunned. Kirby helped out by spinning his sword vertically at King Dedede to leave him cringing in pain.

"You're kidding me! Six against one?! That's not a fair fight! Come here, Meta Knight! Help me!" demanded King Dedede.

"…" Meta Knight stayed silent as he watched the battle, only to disappear with his cape.

"Meta Knight?" both Chopper and King Dedede gawked. But even then, it didn't matter at this point. When Luigi stomped on King Dedede's head, the battle simply went back to normal. Kirby slashed at King Dedede, while Chopper made him trip with a sweeping kick.

"Grrrrr! Fine! Let's see how you deal with this!" King Dedede raised his hammer above him and tried to attack with his charged hammer attack. However, that didn't come to be when he was frozen by Crystaline.

"Poyo! (Now he's a frozen king!)" Kirby giggled as he unfroze him by jabbing at him a couple of times.

"You're gonna get it, puffball!" King Dedede bashed Kirby in the head until his Sword ability came off. To make things worse for Kirby, he made sure that he wouldn't get to the yellow star.

"Poyo! (Oh, come on! That's not fair!)"

"Man, you're such a jerk, King Dedede," Chopper scoffed as he used a fire smash on King Dedede's head to leave a burn. The king tried attacking him again, but he jumped out of the way and inhaled the yellow star that appeared and spat it straight at the king's face.

While they fought, Meta Knight appeared, but this time he walked over to Luvbi.

"Art thou going to get me out of hither?" Luvbi asked.

"I would… But I feel that you really haven't learned anything from how you've been treating everyone here." Meta Knight said.

"So thou art simply siding with Chopper? I expected much from thee, Dumbo Knight."

"Trust me, I saw him feel bad after what he said to you. But most of the things he said to you are true. You can't just think that you're all high and mighty around everyone. That's what will make you unlikable."

"But everyone doth think I'm cute," Luvbi huffed.

"Well, people may think that, but when they know you a little more, they'll find that your soul is dark. Dark enough to make them not like you. I've gone through something like this before, and I'm not going to let this happen to someone else."

"Well don't speaketh to me, Dumbo Knight. I prefereth to be left alone."

"Fine."

Meta Knight looked back at the battle, but he noticed that the fight was actually pretty even by now. King Dedede had already thrown a couple of Gordos at the heroes and left them wounded. Mario managed to use his Triple Jump to land on King Dedede's head and Ground Pound him after that. But this only led him to be inhaled and spat towards Luigi.

"Man! You guys are screwed now!" King Dedede chuckled as he threw a Waddle Dee towards Kirby. He inhaled it and spat it back at the king, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds. Sonic jumped in and attacked King Dedede with a Spin Jump, but this only put him out of his trance.

"Man, if Escargon was here, then this would be a victory for sure!" Nevertheless, King Dedede spun his hammer around rapidly. Chopper and Kirby were knocked back by the attack, but Luigi managed to use his Super Jump and stomp on King Dedede's head. Because of how fast he spun, it left him open for an attack.

"That was kind of a dumb move to leave himself open like that," Luigi realized after landing on the grass. Blade jumped in for an attack and threw a couple of shurikens at King Dedede's stomach.

"You may be able to stab me with those weapons of yours…" King Dedede began as he pulled them out. "But my blubber's too thick to actually pierce through completely! That barely hurt!"

"Huh… So that's how he took all of those slashes from Kirby…" Blade gaped as he was whacked in the face by King Dedede's hammer.

"Heh heh heh! Now for you!" King Dedede turned to Chopper and prepared to inhale him. To copy him, Chopper began to inhale as well, but this only got King Dedede ticked off instead.

"HEY! Don't copy me!"

Chopper smiled as he chucked a couple of ice balls at King Dedede, causing him to shiver (even though his fat doesn't make him as cold as most people). Kirby took this opportunity to kick King Dedede from behind and make him fall over on the ground. But this only gave him an idea.

"Ah! I know what to do!" King Dedede turned to Kirby and jumped to fall over on him. This was unfortunate to work, but he managed to successfully inhale him and spit him out to the wall. This left Kirby a little wounded, but he took out an Ultimate Shroom Shake.

"Poyo! (Now we can win this!)" Kirby announced as he took a sip and passed it around. When Sonic got the last sip, he threw the crushed can at King Dedede's head to leave him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Works every time," Sonic smirked as he attacked the king with a Light Speed Dash. King Dedede only got angrier and forced himself to inhale Sonic and spit him at Blade. But this didn't keep him from getting pounded by Mario's Ultra Hammer.

Mario: You're actually pretty slow.

"HEY! If you insult me on my weight, I'm going to CLOBBER ya! …Oh, wait! I'm already trying to clobber ya!" King Dedede began to spin around like crazy in an attempt to attack. Luigi tried throwing Bonjourang at him, but the Pixl was simply knocked away by his attack.

"Hero, I don't have zee power to attack him while he iz spinning like zat," Bonjourang explained as he returned to Luigi.

"Hmmmmmm… Well I might know something!" Luigi grabbed Bonjourang again, but this time, he waited until King Dedede was dazed. He threw him immediately when that happened in order for King Dedede to receive some deadly attacks to the face.

"Well now! You're going down pretty fast!" Chopper smiled. "If you lose, you know that you're not going to be able to get off of this island. And no, we shouldn't really help you get off if you're only going to hurt us. …Unless you won't."

"I'll stay up until you're finished!" King Dedede growled as he jumped in the air and stomped on the ground violently. Two stars appeared for both Chopper and Kirby to inhale. They both spat them out at once and hurt King Dedede at the same time. It was double the damage!

"Well, you sure are taking it…" Luigi trailed.

_"Surely he can't take any more hits. Just look at him." _Timpani said as Chopper saw how bruised and battered King Dedede was. But, that was how fighting was. Someone's bound to get hurt. Or, in this case, a king is bound to get hurt.

_"If he can take as many hits like this, then he really is one to not give up a fight," _Blumiere commented.

"Well, too bad he probably won't be able to," Blade denied as he slashed at King Dedede with his katana. "I kind of realized that he takes it like it's not painful at all. But I'm sure that it's certainly doing damage to him."

"You wish," King Dedede snorted as he threw a Waddle Dee in Blade's face. This left him preoccupied, but it didn't stop Luigi from making his move. When King Dedede took in some air and began floating around the island, he knocked him straight to the ground with a Super Jump.

"Grrrrrr! Man, you're becoming annoying, green guy!"

"Uh oh…" Luigi jumped out of the way when King Dedede swung his hammer near his feet. He barely escaped the attack, but he took this time to throw Bonjourang at him. Afterwards, Chopper threw a charged fireball at him afterwards to leave a burn ailment on him.

"Hmmmmmm… Not bad! You guys do put up a fight, but I'm not done just yet!" King Dedede began to jump all over the island rapidly, as if he was trying to stun everyone around him. This turned out to work and allowed him to hit everyone with his hammer. Meta Knight did nothing but watch.

"Hey! You still gonna help me fight them?"

"It looks like…that you are doing fine on your own," Meta Knight said as his eyes turned green. "You wouldn't want me to _ruin_ your victory, wouldn't you?"

"Hmmmmmm… Yeah, you have a point, Meta Knight." King Dedede raised his hammer as he was ready to finish them off, but since he stomped on the ground, he left yellow stars all over the place.

Just the kind of thing Kirby just inhaled.

"Wait a minute… Oh, you've gotta be…" King Dedede saw it coming. When Kirby spat those stars at him, he toppled over the ground in pain. He couldn't take it anymore. "Dang it! I was SO close to winning this fight!"

"See? Them leaving you here wasn't such a bright idea," Chopper smiled. "So… Do you want US to help you off?"

"Forget you! I'm finding my way off of here on my own!" he growled as he looked up at them. After that, he stopped moving and was now unconscious.

"Poyo… (Well he saw it coming…)" Kirby trailed.

"Yeah, that's true. Now…" Chopper walked over to Luvbi and got the duct tape off her, but she simply turned away from him in a huff and fluttered over to the boat, making him frown once more.

"Ugh… She still won't talk to me."

"I tried to reason with her, but she refused to listen to me," Meta Knight informed. "But, we can't do much about it. Let's just go back to the boat and leave this island. We've already seen enough haunting stuff here."

"Yeah, tell me…" Luigi shivered. "They say that this world is peaceful, but that place was NOT!"

"Good idea, let's just go," Blade said as he jumped back on the boat. Everyone followed him to the boat, where they immediately took off and left this dreaded island. This time, for good.

But they didn't seem to know where Luvbi was. She was nowhere to be seen around the boat. Chopper was spending his time trying to find her.

"She's in the rec room," Meta Knight informed, pointing to the door. She seemed to be in a gloomy mood, judging by how she looked. "Are you actually going to speak to her?"

"I have no other choice," Chopper sighed. "I don't want this whole world to be just her ignoring us the whole time."

"I see… I wish you luck, Chopper." Meta Knight stepped out of the way and let Chopper walk into the rec room. When Luvbi saw him, she immediately turned her head away from him and closed her eyes.

"Look, Luvbi. I wasn't TRYING to make you upset. I was…kind of harsh, but I was only defending my friends. If someone that liked you insulted your friends, would you do the same thing as me?"

No response.

"…OK, I'll just say that I'm sorry. I don't want this whole world to be you ignoring us. That makes the whole quest less fun! …That said, getting kissed by you was disgusting, but at least you're helpful, unlike a certain archaeologist that I've seen twice before..."

Still no response.

"Are you seriously going to ignore me the whole time? I'm finding that very selfish that you're not listening to me reason with you. It's really rude. All I wanted to do is make you feel better. If this isn't, then I'm sorry."

Nope. She still isn't responding.

"Come on, Luvbi! Just stop ignoring me already! …Well maybe I'm just horrible at talking to girls in general. I haven't interacted with many girls before…"

He turned away and frowned, but he began to think of something. There was only one idea that could probably work, but it would probably be one of the vilest things in his eyes. Probably the worst thing he would ever have to do for a girl.

_"Oh, man… I can't believe I have to resort to THIS! I'm seriously going to regret this!" _Chopper gulped as he looked back at Luvbi. He slowly walked over to her while shaking nervously. _"I find receiving these gross, but GIVING them?! I've done it before, but even then I didn't enjoy it!"_

When he got to Luvbi, he tapped her by the wing. Out of curiosity, she turned around, but her eyes suddenly widened when Chopper hugged her and began to kiss her on the lips. She was shocked at this, but she sighed sweetly and closed her eyes, blushing in the process.

When he let go of her, he began to cough and wipe his mouth in disgust. "BLAH! I'm NEVER doing anything like that again!"

"Oh, Chopper! That was so sweet!" Luvbi squealed as she kissed him on the cheek, making Chopper's tongue stick out in disgust. "I verily can't ignoreth thee. Thou art too cute to mine own eyes!"

"Ugh… Well, now there's only one question… Will you stop being mean to my friends? I don't really appreciate that."

"Well, mayhap I will stoppeth. Thou art right, my sweet prince. I doth realize that I am a bit…selfish. I always act high and mighty toward everyone, and they dost not liketh me because of that. I am a Nimbi, and Nimbis art verily nice. I wish to fit more as a Nimbi than a Shayde."

"Thank you… I appreciate that." Chopper sat down and stretched. "Well, you can do whatever. I'm going to take a rest here."

With a plop, he instantly fell asleep. However, Luvbi too felt tired, so she fluttered over to the couch and cuddled with Chopper. Meta Knight watched this, but he didn't know how to react.

"Hmmmmm… That must have been tough for Chopper to perform such an act like that…" he trailed. "Considering that he dislikes that and all… That must've took a lot out of him."

He walked away from the rec room and decided to take a look at what the rest of the group was doing. Sonic and Mario were actually doing the same thing as they were doing previously, while Kirby was looking out at the ocean, trying to be a navigator for some reason.

"You can't be a navigator when barely anyone here can understand you," Luigi noted.

"Poyo, (Well my voice at least lets me tell you guys that we're going to see land,)" Kirby retorted.

"I can understand what he says, so no worries," Meta Knight assured.

"So how did Chopper fair with Luvbi anyway?" Sonic asked.

"He managed to make her feel better… But let's just say that how he did it shouldn't be said."

"…OH! I think I know what you mean." Luigi realized. "I think that that took a lot to do that."

"Well, at least that's taken care of," Sonic sighed as he looked up at the sky. "So… How long do you think it'll take until we reach our destination? …Wherever that may be at the moment."

"Actually, I'm seeing an island just up ahead," Blade informed. "I think I should increase the speed of this baby!"

"Poyo… (Then I guess I should play some games in the rec room…)" Kirby trailed.

"You know that Chopper's sleeping at the moment?" Meta Knight informed.

"Poyo, (I'll be quiet then,)" the pink puffball ran over to the rec room, but he noticed something in there. He noticed that Timpani's wand was glowing and floating over by the couch.

_"Doesn't that look a little like us sleeping together, Blumiere?" _Timpani asked.

_"Yes, dear Timpani. It does remind us of them for some reason. The way they're sleeping together makes it look rather…cute. Although, with Tipral trying to bring The Void back, all love could possibly be vanished because of him."_

_"In all honesty, I don't know why Tipral is doing all of this. Is it because of revenge?"_

_"From what I see, there could possibly be more to that…" _Blumiere trailed. _"Not every person tries to destroy the universe out of revenge. Like me, I wanted to destroy all worlds because I lost you."_

_"Yeah… I remember that. Do you think Tipral may have lost someone in order to make him want to do something like this?"_

_"I think Chopper said that he somehow transported Tipral into another dimension, which made him want to get his revenge after losing his parents to him. That may be another reason. …But, why did you think that he may have lost someone?"_

_"To be honest… I feel as if I remember seeing someone who was almost like him. But he wasn't always angry. I don't remember all of the details ever since I was turned into a Pixl. It's a shame that all of my memory hasn't returned to me just yet."_

_"Timpani, is it possible that you may have known him before?" _Blumiere gawked.

_"Blumiere, I don't necessarily remember! I don't have all the details! These things happened a couple of centuries ago!"_

_"I find it strange that you still haven't changed by appearance ever since then. You're just as beautiful as ever."_

_"You still haven't changed either, Blumiere," _Timpani smiled. _"Maybe I haven't changed because I was transformed into a Pixl. That could have stopped me from aging. As for you… How did you still stay the same?"_

_"The Dark Prognosticus can affect you in many ways… Which is why I worry about Tipral. Will he suffer the same fate as I have?"_

At this point, Kirby walked into the room after hearing the whole conversation. The couple happened to notice his arrival.

"Poyo? (Wait… Did you say something about knowing about Tipral before?)" Kirby asked.

_"I'm sorry, Kirby… But I can't understand you." _Timpani apologized.

_"But I can," _Blumiere said. _"The Dark Prognosticus was lucky enough for me to allow me to understand different languages, including the 'poyo' kind. As for you, Kirby… That's something she doesn't remember completely. …Come to think of it, I sort of remember a dark being like Tipral too."_

"Poyo? (Really? I never knew that…)" Kirby trailed.

"Uhhhh… What's going on here?" Chopper was able to wake up after his short nap, but he noticed Luvbi was cuddling with him. "EEEK! Why's she like this? Just because I had to kiss her doesn't mean I like her!"

"Poyo! (Calm down, Chopper! It's all right!)"

"Well… All right." Chopper got off the couch and looked at Timpani's floating wand. "So… Any reason why Tippi's wand is floating?"

_"Well… We were just talking about…"_

"Guys, we're here," Meta Knight announced as he walked into the rec room. "We should get going now."

When Luvbi woke up, she noticed that everyone was walking out the door, so she followed them outside. They were right at the other side of the ocean. It was a large continent with mountains just off the distance.

"Wow, now that's pretty cool," Sonic commented as he looked at the mountain. "Though… Do we really need to climb that?"

"Well, I guess it beats traveling across the ocean," Blade said as he stopped the boat. "I'm getting a little tired of driving this thing anyways. I wanna kick some ass, you know?"

_"Well, Queen Jaydes said that we need to reach the top of these mountains, so that seems like it'll be a bit of a chore for us…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well, in that case… Let's go!" Chopper jumped off the boat and landed on the grassy ground. He just so happened to find a Star Block up ahead. With one punch, he managed to smash it.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Pray, I am sorry for treating thou all like thou were only servants," apologized Luvbi as they all walked on the large continent. "Mayhap that is why some people who hath known me more dost not like me compared to others." With her apology, everyone was a bit unsure if they should forgive her or not. But even with that, she still had her obsession for Chopper, which started to bother him. Timpani and Blumiere, on the other hand, were starting to wonder more about what happened in the past. With that, our heroes trailed on towards the path that would eventually lead up to the highlands._

* * *

**Yeah, there really wasn't as much action in this part unlike the others. It felt like that there was more dialogue and story rather than action. However, I guess story IS necessary for a fanfic, especially with one like this. Yeah, this world has a bit of back story to it and, while others did have some back story, I feel that this one shows a lot more. **

**This took me pretty much eight days to write. Eight. Freakin'. DAYS. But, I guess I'm proud of it. It has character development, story, and it at least has a fight in it. Luckily, there will be plenty of action in the next chapter, just for you people. ;)**

**...And watch out for clowns, all right?**


	90. On the Highlands

**CHAPTER 15-3**

**-On the Highlands-**

"Well I suppose it's a relief to be off of that boat for once. I was starting to get tired of traveling on there. Not to mention it feels like it's longer than actually traveling on foot…" Meta Knight sighed as they stopped over by a tree.

"I'm sorry if that's how you feel, Meta Knight," Chopper apologized. "I can agree with that, though, but I'm sorry that you feel like that anyways. …Wait, I didn't have to repeat that, right?"

"No, you didn't."

With that, they decided to look at what was around them. They were, of course, standing over by a tree, but the pathway just up ahead had dark green grass instead of light green back in that one area of this world. If Chopper flipped into 3-D, they would most likely see a dirt road that happened to lead up to a sign ahead. The sky itself was still the same, but they could see more clouds instead of the big blue sky. It could be possibly because the highlands are surrounded by clouds. Even the top of the highlands couldn't be seen because of the clouds! But, even still, it was a nice-looking place, and it even seemed a little peaceful here too.

"Hmmmmm… I wanna get a better look at this place." Blade jumped on top of Sonic and stood on top of his head to check what was around him. "Aw, yeah! This is like a ninja area to me!"

"Blade, get off my head," Sonic said with an irritated look. "You have no right to stand on my head whatsoever."

The ninja shrugged and jumped off his head, making Sonic rub his head while giving him a look. Blade simply smiled sheepishly and tried to make him look away by telling him there was a ring. But, it didn't work out for him.

"Pray, smelly cat, why art thou not wearing any shoes around hither?" Luvbi asked, out of curiosity, only to receive a look from Blade.

"I thought you were done with being jerkish to us?"

"Old habits doth seem to be hard to let go of, thou knowest. However, I doth understand that I can't be bratty towards everyone, including those who art inferior to me, such as thee. But now I can be with my sweet prince again!"

Luvbi kissed Chopper on the cheek, only to make him gag and cry about being kissed again. "Thou shouldst seen the moment! He gaveth me a kiss on the lips! It was the most romantic thing I hath ever seen!"

Mario: We kind of knew that…

"Hmmmmm… It looks like they've already found us." Meta Knight warned as he swung his sword. Two light blue Skellobits were marching towards them. They seemed rather confused that they weren't Dark Skellobits, considering that they've mostly encountered them throughout the areas.

"_That's actually called a Skell," _Timpani informed. _"Why such a strange name like that, I don't know. Apparently, they're capable of throwing their own heads at you like a boomerang if you're not careful."_

"Poyo, (Then I know just what to do,)" Kirby started to inhale as a Skell threw its head directly at them. He spat it back at the Skell and left it stunned for a couple of seconds. Meta Knight finished it off with a couple of jabs.

"We must act quick if we are to get to the top of the highlands," Meta Knight suggested. "They're starting to find us now."

"Well at least we don't have to worry about Eggman or Bowser lurking around these parts," Sonic smirked. "This should be pretty simple! We get to run, which is easier than sailing!"

"…Except for us," Luigi sighed.

"Yeah, OK, I think we get it already," Blade ran over to the other Skell and slashed at it with his katana. It tried to poke him with its spear, but he similar transformed into a simple log and attacked from behind, disintegrating the Skell into smoke.

"Eat your heart out, you damn Skellobit!"

"Ummmmmm… OK, then!" Sonic sweat dropped as he used a Spin Dash to attack the next Skell nearby. It barely had a chance to attack, which was a shame, since they didn't seem as bad as a Dark Skellobit.

"_You might not think they're hard to beat, but you haven't seen all of its moves yet…" _warned Timpani. _"If it charged a spear attack, you're most likely going to suffer some fatal damage."_

"Wait… Is that a Hyper Cleft up ahead?" Luigi gaped as he pointed to a Hyper Cleft right past a light dark pink Spiky Skell. It was apparently charging up an attack that it was going to deliver to them.

"Damn… Well, I guess we can… Wait, hold on a minute!" Blade grabbed a hold of Hommissile and threw him straight at the Hyper Cleft, flipping it over. Mario jumped over the Spiky Skell and stomped on it while it was highly vulnerable, defeating it once and for all.

"Well that was easy!" Chopper smiled until he got hit by the Spiky Skell's head it threw at him. "OW! Oh, come on! I had to be hit right then? You've gotta be kidding me…"

"Pray, thou shouldst be OK, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled as she fluttered over to him to give him a kiss, but Chopper stepped away and simply kicked the Spiky Skell's head back at its body, knocking it over.

Sonic made the final blow on the Spiky Skell as he used his Whirlwind to send the monster flying in the air and delivered a Homing Attack that killed it off once and for all. This allowed them to proceed on over to the sign up ahead.

"What does it say?" Luigi asked as they stomped. Chopper took a close look at the sign and began to read it out loud.

"'Those who wish to go to the highlands must see the great Fubi if thou art to crush the boulder in thy way.' Wait… Fubi? Who the heck is Fubi?"

"I doth believe that Fubi was once a Nimbi that lived in The Overthere," Luvbi explained. "He used to train the Nimbis in the ways of kung fu. However, when a competitor arrived, a rivalry was born. Mayhap his rival is around hither as well."

"Fubi… That's a strange name." Luigi commented. "But, if he knows how to fight, then maybe he'll be of some sort of help! I think it would be appreciative if he helped us find the Pure Heart!"

"_Let's hope he knows where it is…" _Blumiere hoped.

"That's our biggest priority at the moment," Chopper said. "Now let's get going. I think I see a red door just up ahead."

Everyone followed Chopper over to the red door ahead after defeating another Hyper Cleft. Little did they know that there were two people hiding behind a bush. They were both wearing cloaked hoods and both had glowing purples eyes.

"So… They've made it this far…" the one to the right trailed as it watched them head through the door. "Not bad… I didn't expect them to make it across the ocean like that…"

"But when will we destroy them?" the one to the left asked.

"Oh, trust me… We'll give them a surprise. Heh heh heh…"

* * *

**Next area-**

"Meta Knight, you seem a bit silent today," Chopper realized as they walked out of the door, where they found another pathway up ahead. There were some holes in the grass with spikes, but they didn't seem to be too much of a big deal. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"I feel that we're not alone on this continent…" Meta Knight trailed.

"_Well it would make sense that we're not alone," _Timpani said. _"The sign even said that Fubi would be in this place, and we also have a lot of enemies that we have to deal with as well."_

"_Watch out for the spike pits as well," _warned Blumiere.

"Poyo! (Then I know what I should be doing!)" Kirby ran up to a Spiky Skell that was just up ahead and inhaled it whole. He simply swallowed it, but he didn't get the Needle ability from it.

"Poyo? (No ability?)"

"I guess not," Chopper jumped over a spike pit nearby and inhaled a Skell that was across from it. He swallowed it too, but it didn't do much for him. Chopper didn't even recover a single piece of HP!

Meta Knight simply flew over the spike pit and landed right in front of Chopper. The whole area was kind of bland and uninteresting, from what he could see. It was most flat at this moment, but it didn't stop him from jabbing at a Hyper Cleft that was in his way. Too bad he did little damage…

Mario: I have a suggestion!

Mario got a hold of Kickbrin and used his ability to knock the Hyper Cleft into a Skell up ahead. Surprisingly, it did a lot of damage, considering that it got knocked into an enemy that was holding a spear.

"_Another thing I should mention…" _Timpani began. _"When its spear is up, that means you can't jump on top of it because you'll get hurt by the spear. When its spear is aimed towards you, then that's the opportunity for you to make a jump."_

"Interesting…" Sonic slowly nodded. "So we're supposed to attack it where it's vulnerable?"

"She already explained it to thee, Knave…" Luvbi groaned.

"And yet you still call me that…"

"Like I said before, it doth be hard for me to changeth thy name of what I call my takest a while for me to callest thee by thy real name, but I doth prefer the name Knave, just like the names I hath given thee all."

"So could you not call me your 'sweet prince'?" Chopper asked.

"Nay, because thou art too adorable to not be called that!" she giggled as she kissed him on the cheek, making Chopper sick to the stomach again. But, he still pressed on and jumped over another spike pit right next to a yellow ? block in between two brick blocks.

Meta Knight struck the block with his fist to make a Super Shroom pop out. They took no time at all and used it to recover 20 HP. With that, they rushed up a small hill and to the door just up ahead.

"I wonder when we'll actually get to the mountains…" Blade wondered as they found another trail just up ahead. However, this one seemed to have a lot of dead trees in the background, which surprised them a bit.

"Wait… The trees we just saw weren't like this." Luigi gaped. "What happened with all of these trees?"

"Mayhap a fire was started?" Luvbi predicted. "We never knowest… Things doth seemeth to change when we arrive hither…"

"_Luvbi, have you ever been to this part of this world before?" _Timpani asked.

"Yea, I dost remember that I was here before with mine parents a couple of years ago before the Nimbis moved hither," she recalled. "However, many things hath changed, so I dost not remember everything hither."

"Oh… Well that would've been a little helpful if you remembered." Chopper frowned. "Nevertheless, let's just see what we've got ahead."

They noticed that on a floating rock platform, a Koopa was pushing a boulder down the hill up ahead. Chopper flipped him and everyone into 3-D and dodged the boulder coming their way.

"Whoa… Who ever thought Koopas would be pushing boulders down?" Luigi gasped as they went back into 2-D. "Hold on… Is Bowser and that guy with the large mustache here as well?"

Mario: I hope not…

"Poyo! (Well it doesn't matter to me!)" Kirby smiled as he skipped up the hill and inhaled the Koopa before it could get another boulder. By spitting it out, it was flown far away from here.

Everyone followed Kirby up the hill until the ground was flat again. They saw some red, yellow, and blue Shy Guys using stilts while crossing some spiked pits. From investigating them, they were Stilt Guys.

"Oh, man… These guys…" Luigi groaned. "I remember fighting them before, and it was very, very annoying…"

Mario: Not really…

"Well, I think a stomp can knock them off," Chopper pondered as he ran forward and jumped on a Stilt Guy, causing it to fall onto the ground and lose its stilts, becoming nothing more but a Shy Guy now.

Mario, tipping his hat, made a leap towards the red Shy Guy. It cringed from Mario's stomp, but just one more was able to defeat it with ease. Sonic took care of the blue Stilt Guy, while Meta Knight finished off the yellow one.

Just up ahead, they noticed that the door was being blocked by a yellow block. Luckily, since Chopper had Cudge with him, he smashed it with his hammer that magically appeared in his hands, allowing them to head into the door ahead.

"Say… I wonder when we'll find this Fubi person…" Chopper wondered as they noticed that the ground began to change from dark green grass to gray rock. The sky didn't seem to change, though, so that was a bit of a relief. But overall, things got a little interesting here.

"Pray, art we at the end of this place?" Luvbi asked as she fluttered over to the wall just up ahead. "I doth sworn that there was more than this…"

"Hold on a second…" Chopper flipped into 3-D to find a path between the mountains. It seemed to lead over to a tunnel. However, there were a couple of rocks that were in their way, preventing them from going through.

So, Chopper pulled his hammer out and tried smashing it. It didn't do any good.

"Dang it… My hammer doesn't work!"

"Hmmmmmmm… So what are we to do then?" Meta Knight asked as Chopper went back into 2-D. "We can't just turn back now…"

"_Well… I think I might have a suggestion…" _Timpani trailed. _"The only option I see at this point is investigating the area. Maybe we might find something around here?"_

Chopper twirled Timpani's wand and began to investigate the area. He didn't see too much around him, but he noticed a little house nearby. In fact, everyone could see it when Timpani's wand flashed on it.

"Pray, is that Fubi's house?" Luvbi gaped.

"_I think this might be the house…" _Timpani trailed. _"I'll reveal it so we can go inside."_

When the house appeared, it looked like it was very small, but even still, they didn't have much to worry and entered the house, hoping that this Fubi person (or whatever his name was) would be able to help them on their journey.

* * *

**Lower level-**

"Hmmmmmm… So this is the sacred **Ormani Highlands **that I've been hearing about in this world…" Eggman pondered as his Egg Walker stomped on the grass. "Bowser! Those heroes have got to be somewhere around here!"

"Yeah, you're not kidding," Bowser said while over by a bush.

"Wait… What are you doing? !"

"What does it look like, Nosehairs? I'm trying to take a leak here! No peeking!" Eggman looked away with a disgusted look on his face (even after being called nosehairs as well) and listened to the beautiful sounds of the sound he was hearing.

No, wait. That wasn't a pleasant sound.

"Right…" Bowser stomped his way over to Eggman, but he realized something. "Whoa… I just realized that your mustache is so big! …And hairy! How… How do you manage to get a mustache like that?"

"What the… Now's not the time to be speaking about my glorious mustache, Bowser! We must find the heroes and eliminate them immediately! Unfortunately, King Dedede just so happened to FAIL against them…"

"Wait, how do you know that he lost to them? Are you psychic? 'Cause I'd love to be able to tell where that plumber is, or even that guy who looks like Chopper that sent me OUT of my own world!"

"My Badniks informed me that King Dedede was knocked out several minutes ago. I assure you that the heroes are most likely going to be here. Now we just have to wait for Scratch and Grounder…"

"Dr. Robotnik! We're here!" As if on cue, Scratch and Grounder came running towards Eggman. It almost seemed as if they were racing each other to him, but the two ended up tumbling over each other in front of Eggman's walker.

"BWA HA HA HA! That's just classic!" Bowser cackled.

"Good news, Dr. Robotnik! We discovered where they are!" Scratch said in an excited tone.

"Really? Where are they?" Eggman asked before the two robots began to sweat. "…You didn't find them, didn't you?"

"Weeeeeeeell… Uhhhhhh… Errrrrr… Hmmmmmmmm… Hrrmmmmm… Well, you see, Dr. Robtonik… We…didn't find them. At all." Grounder trailed after that "long" sentence.

"You idiots… I wonder why I haven't even replaced you in the first place! Bah! Fine… I guess I'll go find them myself!"

"Wait, hold on a minute!" Bowser stopped. "I wanna get a chance to defeat that red plumber! What makes you think that YOU'RE going to be the one to defeat them? I personally disagree!"

"What? ! Oh, you don't understand, Bowser… I have a bone to pick with them. I will make sure that I take care of them personally! Especially that pesky blue hedgehog that bested me before…"

"Gwargh! We'll see about that, Nosehairs! I'll get to them before YOU can!" Bowser stomped away from Eggman and got his Koopa Klown. Just like that, he left Eggman and headed for the highlands.

"Very well then… I suppose I'll have to handle this myself!" Eggman walked in the opposite direction of Bowser's Koopa Klown and headed back to the boat that they stopped.

* * *

**Fubi's house-**

Upon entering the house, they noticed that a yellow Nimbi with an oval-shaped head and had a long, white beard that resembled something a sensei would have. His body was a white color, showing his great, white robe to the group. However, he was facing away from the group and was meditating.

"_Something's weird about this guy…" _Chopper thought as he slowly took one step.

"I knew thou wouldst arrive," Fubi spoke as everyone paused. The old Nimbi turned around and faced the group. "While my eyes may not be open, I can feel your presence when you walked in."

"Is it because we opened the door?" Blade asked.

"Well… Somewhat."

"See? He doesn't know crap! Maybe we ought to…" Unfortunately, a vase happened to fall on top of Blade and cause him to become dazed. Everyone looked at him in confusion, but they saw that he was just fine.

However, it was Luvbi that went up to speak to him.

"Fubi, we require thy assistance!" demanded. "We art trying to maketh our way up to The Peaceness in order to get away from the monsters that art coming for my sweet prince and I!"

"Just change the 'sweet prince' to 'Chopper', OK?" Chopper said in the background.

"Hmmmm… So thou art the daughter of Queen Jaydes and King Grambi, art thou not?" Fubi asked while looking at the Nimbi princess. "Hmmmm… Thou dost seemeth a bit different than most Nimbis…"

"I think it's because they look similar to some people on a TV show…" Sonic trailed.

"Mayhap it is that… But, anyway, I doth know why thou art hither. Thou dost want my help to findeth the Pure Heart that couldst possibly be up at The Peacness?"

"Yea, verily, but there art unbreakable rocks blocking the way up the highlands," Luvbi informed with an annoyed look. "Surely thou dost have the ability to helpeth us smash those rocks…"

"Hmmmm… Mayhap I doth, but I shouldst teach thee these moves. Only one that doth have the skills of a martial artist can master this skill."

"Poyo! (I'll learn it!)" Kirby announced, inhaling a belt on the shelf and gaining the Fighter ability. "Poyo! (I think I should be able to help us get through there with the Fighter ability!)"

"Hold on, Kirby… I can copy abilities too, so maybe I want to get to use it too!" Chopper stepped in, inhaling a bandanna on the shelf and gaining the Fighter ability as well. "Let's take some butt and kick some names!"

"Uhhhh… I think it's 'kick ass and take names'." Blade corrected as he got up.

"Well, if this is what you wish to do, then so be it," Meta Knight said. "It's probably our only option if we are to get to the top of the highlands."

"Thou hast made a wise choice, young warriors," Fubi bowed before getting in a kung fu stance. "Now, let us test thy skills! Come at me, warriors!"

"Wait, WHAT? !" Chopper gaped. "I'm not going to hit an old man that's wise and good!"

"Thou dost not have to worry about mine own safety. I will be just fine. Come at me, please!" Chopper and Kirby shrugged and rushed towards him. They tried to punch and kick him, but the old Nimbi managed to grab a hold of each other and throw them over on the ground.

"Please don't leaveth my prince injured," Luvbi cried.

"I will promise thee that they won't be hurt," Fubi assured. "Mine attacks art not to injure at this point. I assure thee that they will be fine."

"Oww…" Chopper moaned as he got up. "I'm not TOO hurt, but that was one heck of an attack. Not even am I capable of doing moves like that! …Got any more on ya? Or maybe you can train us?"

"_Although we do have limited time…" _Timpani added.

"If thou art worthy of learning these moves, then thou shouldst start off by smashing these blocks," Fubi stepped out of the way as a large block with a fist on it appeared. "They art verily strong. Only a true fighter could breaketh these."

"Poyo? (A true fighter, huh?)" Kirby got in a kung fu stance and made a cute kung fu sound. "Hwaaaaaaaaaah!"

Kirby charged straight at the block and tried smashing it, but it simply knocked him away. When Chopper noticed this, he made a cute kung fu sound (that caused Luvbi to giggle cutely) and attack the block with a punch. Even then, he got knocked away towards the wall.

"Ah. I doth see the problem." Fubi noticed as the two got up. "Thou art simply charging at the block like thou art in war. Thou shouldst realize that kung fu is not all about using thy brute force."

"Brute force? That makes sense…" Luigi trailed.

"Well, then what are we supposed to do then?" Chopper asked while rubbing his fist.

"If thou art to smash a block, then thou must focus. Findeth a point where it's weak by closing thy eyes and smashing thither when thou hast foundeth it. But it must be very, very precise."

"Poyo… (Uh oh…)" Nevertheless, Kirby closed his eyes and looked directly at the block. As he began to focus, he realized that there was indeed a weak point. With a Vulcan Jab, he managed to smash the block instantly.

"I almost feel if I could crap my pants at this point," Blade gaped.

"That was…impressive!" Chopper gaped. "Now I just have to do it!"

Chopper began to focus as well and after doing the same thing as Kirby, he smashed the block, but it didn't look as cool as how Kirby destroyed it. Nevertheless, Fubi was pleased with these results.

"Ah… Very interesting…" Fubi pondered as he closed his eyes. "I see the two of you have learned to focus on such an act. Mayhap thou dost have the eye of the tiger… Or dost thou verily?"

"Eye of the tiger? That sounds like something Grubba said to be before…" Chopper recalled, thinking about those moments.

"Nevertheless, I doth believe that thou will only needeth that to maketh thy way up the highlands," the kung fu Nimbi informed. "Mine other moves that I couldst teach thee could be dangerous…"

"What? We can't learn any other moves? That's bull!" Chopper frowned. "I mean, I would love to be able to get to the Pure Heart easily with some better moves! …But, fine. I guess we have no other choice then."

"Poyo.. (It would've been cool to learn some other moves, honestly…)" Kirby frowned as well.

"Pray, is that all thou hast to offer us?" Luvbi asked. "That dost not seem to be a lot…"

"I may not offer thee much, but mayhap this will helpeth thee with thy kung fu attacks," Fubi gave Kirby a badge that resembled a training scroll. "Thou wilt learneth another move when thou equipest this."

Kirby decided to equip the badge, which suddenly allowed him to charge up a Vulcan Jab attack. When he unleashed it, a huge wave of Kirby's punch nearly sliced the table in half. Even Meta Knight was shocked.

"Impressive…"

"Poyo! (Whoa! Did you guys see that?)" Kirby cried while his arms flailed around. "Poyo! (My charge Vulcan Jab DESTROYED all of that!)"

"Now, thou must be careful with that, young warrior," Fubi informed. "Only use it at the right time that thou needest it. If thou dost use it when it is not necessary, then thou couldst cause a lot of damage."

"Hey, what about me?" Chopper asked. "Don't I get one too?"

"I don't think he has another," Sonic informed.

"_Two of them would've been rather helpful," _Timpani said.

"I am verily sorry, but I hath one carried one with me," Fubi said in a serious tone. "But even with the move I taught you, you should be able to break some of the rocks that are in your way ahead."

"No, really. Do you have any more moves to teach us?" Chopper asked.

"Uhhhh… OK, let's just go." Meta Knight grabbed a hold of Chopper's antennas and dragged him out of the house, but the young boy gave Fubi a bow before leaving, receiving a bow back, of course.

"Good luck on thy adventure, heroes. And maketh sure to watch out for Ninbi…" Fubi informed. "He doth be quite an annoyance."

"Ninbi? Who the heck is that?" Sonic asked before leaving.

"Ninbi is a Nimbi who trainest in the art of ninjas. Ever since he came to The Overthere, we hath had many problems with each other and faced many conflicts. Many years later, we left, hoping to never see each other again, but nay. We hath discovered that we were living hither."

"You know, I should be fair and at least see Ninbi," Chopper said. "I mean, come on! Maybe this is all a misunderstanding! Maybe it's time to get along for once and grow up or something!"

"Well, I dost not know if he still hates me or not. But if thou dost see him, tell him that I'm sorry for the plate."

"The plate? What happened with a plate?" Luigi asked.

"Thou…dost not want to know." Everyone knew that this was either, bad, funny, or even gross. But nevertheless, they waved goodbye to Master Fubi and returned outside, where they started to stretch.

"Well, I guess we're done with that place for now," Blade said as he finished stretching. "So, we need to get past those rocks up ahead and head to wherever may that lead to, right?"

"Yea, verily," Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper with a cute smile. "So, now that we art able to continuest onward, I doth wish to speaketh the words of love to thee. Wouldn't thou agree with me?"

"Ewww! I don't like romantic love though!" Chopper gagged as he ran over to the rocks and broke them by focusing and finding its weak point. "I'd rather crash into a rock than go out with a girl!"

"Oh, Chopper! The way you look is so adorable!" she giggled as she followed him. Everyone else watched her fly over to Chopper with an irritated look on their faces.

"Poyo… (I really think that's getting a bit annoying now…)" Kirby groaned.

"Well, we can't do much about it, so we're just going to have to get going," Sonic ran over to the narrow part of the pathway to find a door up ahead that would most likely lead inside. Chopper just came out of the door and explained that the inside of the mountain is just through there.

"At least we can make some progress," Meta Knight said as they walked through the door into another area. It was kind of dark in here, but they didn't find it as dark as the Mansion of Nightmares. They could still see each other…a little.

"Oh, man! Not the dark!" Luigi shivered. "I wish I had a flashlight with me!"

"I've got Timpani's wand," Chopper pulled Timpani's wand out and flashed it around the room. "OK, so we're in some kind of dark cave in the mountains, so we need to be a little cautious here."

Mario: I might as well sit.

"Wait, Mario! Don't sit on the…" Mario yelped as he sat on top of a Hyper Cleft's spike poked him. He rocketed up to the ceiling and was left dizzy, but he quickly shook his head and bashed it with his hammer.

Mario: I didn't expect that!

"Well, you know, many things do come out of nowhere around here," Sonic informed as they walked ahead to find a small body of water. It wasn't deep. In fact, it only went up to their legs!

"Oh… Well this water isn't so bad." Luigi gaped as he looked down. "Maybe we can just jump on up ahead and see if we can grab a hold of the ledge?"

"Good call," Chopper jumped out of the water, but he couldn't reach it because of the water. "Dang it! I don't think this is going to work! If only we could do something to this water…"

"Pray, my prince, why not use thy ice ability to freeze the water?" Luvbi suggested. "Though thou art not verily cold at the slightest! I wouldst say that thou are more cute than cold!"

Chopper face palmed as he tossed a charged ice ball at the water, making it freeze entirely. Meta Knight tested it out by walking on it, but all it took him was to fly up to the ledge with his wings. He happened to be greeted by two Squags, which he took care of with Galaxia.

"The way is clear. We should be able to continue through here." Meta Knight informed as everyone grabbed the ledge and pulled themselves up. Pink hearts formed over Luvbi's head as she followed her prince, while Chopper looked irritated.

However, they saw another rock blocking the way up ahead. This gave Kirby the idea to use his new move. With his charged Vulcan Jab attack, he was able to slice the rock in half with one punch and lead them down a slope leading over to a ladder.

"Poyo! (That was awesome!)" Kirby cheered.

"Well, at least we can reach a ladder," Chopper said as he ran down the slope and grabbed a hold of the ladder. When he reached the top, he punched a Skell in the head with a Vulcan Jab, turning its head upside down. He then finished off by charging an energy blast and firing it at it.

"This is why the Fighter ability is so awesome."

"But ninjas are better," Blade retorted as they climbed to the top of the ladder to find two Spiky Skells guarding a door. Sonic wiped the floor with them by using his Spin Dash, but Luigi finished them off by throwing Bonjourang at them.

"Wow! I managed to take them down easily!" Luigi gaped as he caught Bonjourang as he came back to him. "That was awesome!"

"Yup… That's basically how beating our enemies is like." Chopper said. "Now let's get out of this area. I wanna see if we're actually getting higher up in the mountains."

Unfortunately, it only brought them into another cavern room. This time, it wasn't dark. They could see some bats flying in the room, which caused Luvbi to shriek, but Chopper instantly covered her mouth.

"Good, we can't let her shrieking get anyone's attention," Meta Knight nodded.

"…Though keeping someone quiet is kind of cruel to me."

While Chopper kept Luvbi quiet, Timpani's wand floated out of Chopper's inventory and noticed a couple of small, rock platforms moving up. There was no floor down below, which was rather dangerous.

"_The only way is to go up…" _Timpani trailed.

"_You might want to be careful here, heroes. If you fall, you're going to end up going in a bottomless pit. Chopper, I would suggest you keep Luvbi close just in case any more bats appear." _Blumiere suggested.

"Wh-What? ! No way! I can't stay close to a girl that likes me!" Chopper pouted. "It's…horrifying!"

"But it is so romantic!" Luvbi giggled as she fell in Chopper's arms and kissed him on the cheek.

Chopper: T^T

"Oh, would you quit your complaining already," Blade groaned. "It's not going to be that long anyways."

"Ugh… Fine." Chopper held Luvbi bridal style and began to jump up the platforms, following the rest of the group up. Luigi probably had the easiest time, since he was able to jump the highest. Kirby and Meta Knight had no problem either, since they could simply fly to the top.

"Man, those guys are lucky they can do that," Sonic grumbled as he jumped from platform to platform. When they finally reached the top, he began to pant and nearly fall over.

"That's so much jumping!"

"King of reminds me of Underwhere Road…" Blade groaned. "Man, I hated doing all of those jumps."

"No kidding…" Chopper let go of Luvbi now that they were at the door. A Save Block happened to be right in front of them as well, which seemed to help them a lot. When Chopper punched the block, their game was saved. With that, they entered the door just up ahead.

* * *

**Outside-**

"WAH! Look at that! We're…high!" Luigi shrieked as he walked out of the door and looked down. They were actually right in front of a large gap. There happened to be a blue ! switch across it, though.

Mario: Mama mia! We're high!

"Yeah, Luigi already said that," Chopper said.

"If thou art in any danger of falling, I will helpeth thee, my sweet prince," Luvbi said sweetly as she sighed sweetly at him.

"I'll be fine, thank you very much…"

Mario: Just don't look down, Luigi.

"Oh… But it's too hard!" Luigi cried.

"Then that means we need to get a blindfold!" Blade announced as he raised his finger. "Only then will we be able to get across!"

"Uhhhhh… Really, Blade?" Sonic gawked. "You honestly believe that we'll need a blindfold for this?"

"Well, how else are we going to get him through all of this? Or better yet…" Blade started to push Luigi through the narrow pathway, despite the fact that he was screaming and crying about it. Everyone shrugged and followed him (it did work, after all) until they got to the large step just ahead.

"So we can see how far up we are from here…" Meta Knight trailed as he looked up. "Well, we're not exactly at the peak of this place, but I do believe that we need to simply climb more."

"How come you can't help us fly up there?" Chopper asked. "Wouldn't that be a lot EASIER?"

"Errrrr… I don't think I'm capable of doing that… My wings could get tired from carrying many people across. And, no offense to you, Mario, but I probably wouldn't be able to carry you because of your weight."

Mario: They always say that… -_-;

"OK, I think we're getting a little off the road here," Sonic said. "Let's just get up this large rock and see what we have ahead of us."

They climbed onto the rock to find a slope going down. They noticed a couple of Skells patrolling around here, but a boulder happened to be right in front of them. Chopper smirked as he kicked it down the slope.

"That'll take care of 'em!"

The Skells tried to run from the boulder, but they were rolled over and destroyed once and for all. But it didn't stop a couple of others with wings to fly out of the way. Luigi instantly gulped and tried to step back.

"Relax, you can still hurt them, Luigi," Sonic assured. "You can even hit them with a Super Jump."

Luigi sighed and used a Super Jump to hit one of the Bomber Skells, knocking it to the ground. Meta Knight flew up to it and finished it off with a powerful slash attack. With that, they began to slide down the slope and enter the door just up ahead.

They noticed that the next area they stepped in wasn't actually that big. They saw a large rock that they could jump on to grab a hold of the ledge, and they also saw that a door was up ahead as well.

"Poyo… (Hey, there's something I remember…)" Kirby recalled. "Poyo? (How come we've never gotten in contact with our friends back in Flipside? Have they tried calling us?)"

"Who are your 'friends'?" Meta Knight asked.

"I was thinking the same thing," Luvbi added.

"They're friends that we've met on previous adventures," Chopper explained. "If it weren't for them, then I wouldn't have saved the Mushroom Kingdom from a corrupted Star God AND save the universe from an evil demon! And yeah, I actually wonder why they didn't even contact us."

He pulled his communicator out, but he didn't get a signal from it. Another thing he noticed was that it was also broken. "What the… How did this communicator become broken? !"

Everyone else pulled their communicators out and gaped when they saw that theirs were broken as well.

"Pray, what is wrong?" Luvbi asked.

"Poyo? (How did this even happen?)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo… (Unless… It was that fight against Dark and…)"

"Dark and who else?" Meta Knight asked.

"Uhhhh… Let's just forget about that, all right?" Chopper sweat dropped. "I just wish we can get these fixed. I feel that our friends are probably going to get worried over us because of this."

"Does anyone know someone who can fix these?" Blade asked.

"I know Tails could, he he's not here…" Sonic trailed.

"_Well, even if they're broken, I'm sure your friends would want you guys to find the Pure Heart no matter what. That's the most important part right now." _Timpani said.

"Yeah, that's true… All right, let's just move on ahead." Chopper grabbed a hold of the ledge of the rock ahead and pulled himself up. As soon as everyone got up, they saw a light purple barrier block their way from going back or even head towards the door.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Now I've got you now!" Everyone looked up to find Bowser flying down to the heroes in his Koopa Klown. "I didn't expect to find you guys up in the mountains, but it looks like I did!"

"Bowser…"

"Nyeah heh heh har! So it IS you!" Kammy Koopa cackled as she flew down beside Bowser. "Ah, Mario, Chopper! We've finally found you!"

Mario: Bowser? You found us?

"You're dang right I did, plumber! And now I can finally crush you all! When I'm finished here, this is going to be called 'Super Paper Bowser'! Believe me, you're not going to last long here!" Bowser grinned.

"Why of course, Your Nastiness! You are the greatest, after all!" Kammy complimented. "I'll make sure they don't win this fight!"

"No, Haggy. I've got this. You stay back and let me take them on!"

"Wh-What? ! B-But I've always stayed by your side!"

"Well not anymore! Leave me to fight these heroes alone!" a punch was all Bowser had to use to send Kammy flying away from him. "Now, then… With her out of the way, you're about to get crushed!"

"Are you going to crush us in the dumb, Bowser style?" Chopper asked. "Or by using a poster of Princess Peach?"

"Why would I use a poster of her? ! It's not like I like her or anything!"

Mario: You actually do…

"GWARGH! Now you're gonna get it!" Bowser started to breathe fire at the group. Unfortunately, Chopper was the one who got hit instead and even got covered in soot. He blinked a couple of times before realizing something.

"He did this the last time I fought him!"

"Pray, my prince! Shouldst I stay back from this fight?" Luvbi asked.

"Yes, go find somewhere safe. Or rather, somewhere high above us so you don't get caught in anything."

Luvbi nodded and fluttered above the battle, which she decided to watch. She noticed that Mario stomped on Bowser's nose, causing him to hold it in pain and cry like a baby.

"Why did you stomp on my nose? !"

Mario: Well you wanted to fight…

"Grrrrr! Take this!" Bowser punched Mario in the stomach while his fist was surrounded in flaming energy, leaving a burn on him (Chopper also got a burn status from Bowser's fire breath, if you wanted to know). Mario tried to make another move, but the fire on him prevented him.

Mario: I don't think I can do much…

"I'll try something," Meta Knight ran towards Bowser with his sword ready. The Koopa tried to burn him with his fire breath, but he simply flew out of the way and hit him with a Sword Beam.

"Argh! You annoying weirdo! Who the heck are you anyways? !" Bowser growled.

"Me? Why, I'm Meta Knight, of course. As you can see, you're in our way, so we have no choice but to fight." Meta Knight dove straight for Bowser and slashed at him with his sword.

"Well, at least I get to fight someone after a while…"

"Poyo! (Well, let's see how you deal with this!)" Kirby jumped over to Bowser and used his Vulcan Jab to strike him in the stomach a couple of times. He even got to hit Bowser in the nose with his Rising Break as well.

"Urgh… Well, seven against one shouldn't be too bad." Bowser used his claw to knock Kirby away. He then curled in his double-sided shell (you know, from Super Mario Galaxy and Bowser's Inside Story?) and began to roll over a couple of people such as Sonic, Blade, and Luigi.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Man, I'm feeling it today!" Bowser cackled as he stood up. "I've always wanted to do something like this to you guys for a LONG time!"

"Ouch…" Sonic slowly got up and held his arm in pain for a couple of seconds before striking Bowser with a Spin Dash. What was strange was that Bowser didn't even fall over from the attack.

"You'll have to try better than that to knock me over!"

"Dang it…"

Luigi, on the other hand, got right under Bowser's nose and used a Spin Jump to strike him there. Bowser cried once again, allowing Chopper to charge up an energy ball and fire a blast straight at him to leave him off guard.

"I never had any of those moves when we previously fought," Chopper smirked.

"Well you'll regret that pretty soon!" Bowser jumped in the air and tried to attack Chopper with a ground pound, but Meta Knight pulled him out of the way and attacked Bowser from behind. Bowser yelped in pain as he punched Meta Knight, sending him flying towards the magic barrier.

"Ooog… What kind of punch was that?" Meta Knight grunted.

"Well it doesn't matter right now. We need to focus on kicking Bowser's ass!" Blade drew his katana and jumped towards Bowser. He tried to kick him from an angle, but the spikes on his head made him take damage.

"What the hell? !"

"You can't jump on Bowser's head. You'll just get hurt." Chopper informed as he began to investigate Bowser with Timpani's wand. "I don't think I've ever investigated him before, honestly…"

"_That's Bowser, the king of the Koopas and archenemy of Mario... Max HP is 260. Attack is 13. Defense is 4. He has spikes, so you can't stomp him. As you'd imagine, his fiery breath and stomp attack do a lot of damage. When he rolls into his shell, you need to get as far away from him as possible. His punch also has the ability to burn you with his powerful punch attack, and even his claw can poison you as well, so watch out. Pixls wouldn't be a bad choice against Bowser, but even still, you might want to be careful with him…" _Timpani informed.

"Got it!" Chopper ran towards Bowser and attacked him with a Rising Break, followed by a couple of kicks to the belly. Bowser, on the other hand, got his chance to poison him by clawing at him.

"Ugh… Poisoned…"

"Chopper!" Luvbi gasped before Meta Knight gestured her to remain calm.

"Relax, Luvbi. We can still kick his ass. Chopper just needs to use Piccolo to heal himself and he'll be just fine." Blade assured as Chopper began to use Piccolo's power to heal himself of the status ailment. Unfortunately, when he did this, Bowser grabbed him and threw him straight at Blade, making them fall over.

"Gwa ha ha ha! See? I knew I could take you guys on!" Bowser cackled as he spat a couple of fireballs at the group. Meta Knight used his cape to protect himself from the attack and turn invisible, while Mario used his jumping skills to jump over the fireballs and hit Bowser with Kickbrin's kick.

"Grrrr! BURN!" Bowser used his flaming breath in order to burn Mario, but he was too fast and managed to deliver a blow to Bowser's head with his hammer, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Awesome! Time for a Light Speed Attack!" Sonic gave Mario a thumbs up before charging up a Spin Dash for his Light Speed Attack. After storing energy in him, he unleashed his full attack on Bowser and left him covered in bruises and cuts.

"What's the matter? Can't take anymore?"

"Oh, I'll show you…" Bowser poisoned Sonic by simply clawing at him, forcing him to use Piccolo's ability to cure himself. Luigi, meanwhile, hit Bowser in the nose with Bonjourang, then he used his Cyclone attack on him afterward.

"OW! QUIT IT!"

"Well, I'm simply trying to fight you…" Luigi trailed as he got burned by Bowser's fire breath. He yelped in pain as he took damage from his burn. However, before Bowser could punch him, Meta Knight appeared right in front of him and attacked him by leaping into the air with his sword pointed upwards and going into one loop.

"Whoa… What kind of move is that?" Chopper gaped.

"I call that the Shuttle Loop," Meta Knight informed. "It's fast, but I have to hit my target at the right moment, because it will…"

Bowser knocked Meta Knight back with a fire punch, leaving a burn on him. It also left one of his wings on fire. With his cape, he managed to take out the flames and get back into battle.

"Did someone order more fire breath?" Bowser grinned as he unleashed his fire breath upon the group. Chopper frowned and tossed a charge ice ball straight at his mouth, but with the fire, it simply melted away.

"Dang! I can't use ice against him at this point!" Chopper grumbled.

Bowser coughed up a little spoke after breathing fire, allowing Chopper to toss a charged ice ball into his mouth. Bowser coughed, as if something was blocking his flame pipe.

"What the heck just happened? !" Bowser tried breathing fire, but it was no good. "WHY WON'T YOU WORK, FLAME PIPE? !"

"He's got a flame pipe?" Blade gawked.

Mario: Yeah, he does…

"Then this looks like a perfect opportunity to attack!" Blade pointed his finger straight at Bowser as he sent Hommissile flying towards him. With a single explosion, Bowser was sent flying to the magic barrier.

"GRRRRR! Oh, you'll pay for that! Just watch THIS!" Bowser jumped and began to dive down towards Blade. Everyone stepped out of the way, but the ninja cat was squished by Bowser's two feet as he created a huge shockwave that stunned everyone.

"Poyo! (I can't move!)" Kirby cried.

"I don't know what he's done… But I can't fight back!" Meta Knight grunted.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Now this is what I'm talking about!" Bowser cackled until his tail got bashed by Mario's hammer, who already got out of the paralysis. Bowser growled as he turned around and tried to claw at his arch nemesis. But, with Mario too far from him, he began to charge at his with his arms flailing around.

"GET BACK HERE!"

Mario: Well, then give up!

"NO!"

This time, Bowser managed to burn Mario with his fire breath. While he was wheezing, Chopper jumped right in front of Bowser and attacked his belly with his Vulcan Jab, followed by a kick to the face.

"Wait… I thought you were paralyzed!" Bowser gaped.

"_That paralysis didn't really last that long…" _Timpani informed.

"Can it, you stupid wand!" Bowser tried to punch Chopper, but Kirby jumped in the way and charged up a Vulcan Jab attack to hit Bowser with full power. They all saw this attack slice a rock in half, but against someone…

Bowser was flung straight to the barrier wall as if he wasn't even heavy. The Koopa King moaned as he slowly got up and looked down at the pink puffball. This was the time for Kirby to take in some air and float above Bowser so he wouldn't grab him.

"Quit being a chicken and come down here! You're going to pay for that, you know!"

"Calm down, Bowser," Chopper used his Rising Break attack to knock Bowser to the ground after hitting him in the jaw. Mario helped by bashing him with his hammer, but it didn't help when Bowser got up and burned the two of them with his fire breath.

"_**GWAAAAAAAARGH!**_" the sound of the roar was able to knock everyone back, especially when his fire breath filled up the whole area. But Bowser soon realized that his flame breath was back.

"Wait… Did I just breath fire? That means… Oh, yeah, baby! My flame pipe's back to normal! I RULE!"

"Don't get your hopes too high," Blade grumbled as he quickly shook himself. He pulled an Ultra Shroom Shake out and took a sip from it to recover 50 HP. He also passed it around to everyone else so they could have a sip. Meta Knight took the last sip and did what everyone wanted him to do: throw the crushed can at Bowser.

"ARGH! You annoying…!" Bowser tried to grab Meta Knight, but he flew up in the air wing his wings and spun around in a tornado. He wasn't able to lift Bowser off the ground, but he still managed to hurt him.

"Hmph… Well, it doesn't look like I can send him flying in the air with that…" Meta Knight trailed as he dodged Bowser's claw and slashed at him with Galaxia. Mario helped Meta Knight by kicking Bowser in the nose.

"Why the nose?"

Mario: Well, it seems to be a weak spot!

"I'll help you with that, bro!" Luigi smiled as he attacked Bowser from under the jaw with a Super Jump. Bowser grunted as he tried to prevent himself from falling. He was lucky to burn the Mario Bros. with his fire breath, however.

"_I'll admit, this fight is getting rather intense…" _Timpani noted. _"But Bowser's HP is getting rather low too."_

"_A couple of attacks should finish him off," _Blumiere stated.

"Really? Wow. So we're getting close!" Chopper charged up an energy blast, but his attack was interrupted when Bowser got into his double-sided shell and rolled over Chopper and Kirby. He stood back up and was about to stomp on the two until Meta Knight attacked with a Galaxia Drill.

"You will not harm them anymore," Meta Knight warned as he left a bad wound on Bowser's stomach.

"Hey! They started it!" Bowser whined as he tried to claw at Meta Knight. Nonetheless, he got what was coming when Luigi attacked him with a Super Jump. Mario jumped towards Bowser while he was dazed and gave the final blow to his head with his hammer, sending him falling over on the ground, making the magic barrier surrounding the group disappear.

"Grrrrrrrgh! Why? ! WHY? ! Why can't I beat Mario? !" Bowser complained. "I manage to get a hold of the Star Rod, but he managed to kick my butt then! When I attack him in the Glitz Pit and the Palace of Shadow, I ALSO lose to him easily! Something's wrong with me here!"

"_Maybe you don't make any plans on how to fight Mario?" _Timpani predicted.

"Sh-Shut up!" the Koopa King slowly got up and held his arm in pain. "You're lucky that it was seven against one…"

"Well you asked for it," Chopper said.

"I don't need to hear you talk, Chopper! The next time I ever see you guys again, I'm going to CRUSH you!" Bowser got back into his Koopa Klown and spat one last fireball at the group, knocking them over.

"Gwa ha ha ha! See you later, suckers!" With that, he flew off at the distance.

"_Well that was uncalled for…" _Timpani trailed.

"Indeed…" Blade agreed as he got up. "Hey, Luvbi! It's safe to come down here!"

After hearing this, Luvbi fluttered down to the group, but she seemed to pay more attention to Chopper than everyone else (since she likes him, after all). She noticed that he was covered in bruises.

"Oh, my sweet prince! Look at thee! Thou art in such horrible condition! I will helpeth thee feel better!" she fluttered over to him and gave him a hug while kissing him on the cheek, making Chopper disgusted.

"GROSS! Stop it!" he cried.

"Hee hee! Thou art just so adorable to kiss!"

"And here we go again with this…" Sonic trailed.

"I suggest we move on ahead," Meta Knight suggested as he got Chopper out of Luvbi's grasps and dragged him to the door ahead while being followed by the love-struck Nimbi princess.

"I guess you can say Luvbi luvs Chopper," Blade snickered before receiving a punch to the face by Chopper.

"Never. Do that. AGAIN."

"I'll admit, that was pretty bad," Sonic added as they entered the next area. This time, it felt like a normal Mario level, but on the mountains. There was a bottomless pit just up ahead and also a row of brick blocks with a couple of Koopas walking around with black shells.

Mario: Those Koopas look vaguely familiar…

"Aren't those Bombshell Koopas?" Luigi gaped.

Mario: Oh! They are!

"_Be careful after you stomp on them," _Timpani warned. _"Unlike other Koopa Troopas, they will only stay there and explode. If you're caught in that explosion, expect to take damage."_

"Oh… Well this should be interesting." Chopper stomped on the first Bombshell Koopa wearing sunglasses and watched as it exploded. Luckily, he stood away when it exploded.

"Poyo, (Yeah, those look pretty dangerous,)" Kirby said as he hit one of the brick blocks. Only a Mushroom popped out, but Meta Knight did slice it into seven pieces for all seven of them in order to recover 10 HP.

"Well it's better than nothing," Meta Knight said as he slashed at a Skell's head that was thrown at him. He then flew over the bottomless pit that was in their way to reach another Bombshell Koopa.

"More Bombshell Koopas?" Sonic called out.

"Looks like it."

"Well, I guess I'll handle some of 'em," Sonic used a Homing Attack to get across the bottomless pit, and he attacked the Bombshell Koopa with a Homing Attack. When everyone got over to the other side, they felt an explosion hit them from the Bombshell Koopa.

"You should've waited for us to get across…" Chopper grumbled.

"And the explosion could hath ruined my cuteness!" Luvbi frowned. "That doth be an important thing for me!"

"Uhhhh… OK…" Chopper simply scooted away from her and followed the rest of the group until they reached a door. They simply entered it into another area with more blocks in the way and even a large army of Skells and Spiky Skells were coming their way.

"_Oh, dear… This is a rather large army…" _Timpani trailed.

"That isn't stopping me from fighting," Meta Knight said as he swung his sword, firing a Sword Beam straight at a Skell, destroying it instantly. He hit a yellow ? block afterward, only to find a Mega Star pop out.

"What's this?"

"It's a Mega Star!" Chopper explained. "You use it, and you'll be able to crush anything in your way for a limited amount of time!"

"Hmmmmm… Let's see how it works." Meta Knight grabbed the Mega Star, and he suddenly felt a large amount of power inside of him…as if there were 8-bit versions of him marching.

"Unnngghh… Wha… I feel… I feel like I'm…transforming!" Everyone gaped as he began to glow and grow to great sizes. They all stared at him after the white glow disappeared. He was now an 8-bit version of himself.

"Poyo? (How come I never got that description when I first turned into that?)" Kirby asked.

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged.

"What is this? I feel this strange power that I've never felt before… I think it should help." Meta Knight simply plowed through all of the enemies in his path with ease. However, it didn't take long for him to return to normal size, but only when he reached the door.

Mario: That was incredible.

"Hmph… That was an odd ability I just absorbed… However, I don't feel that power in me anymore. Nevertheless, I think we should move on."

Everyone followed Meta Knight into the next area, which, unfortunately, involved some climbing. They noticed more rock platforms leading up to another red door, but there were also some Bomber Skells roaming around here as well, making this situation even worse.

"There is more climbing hither?" Luvbi frowned. "Well, this is the highlands, so it doth make perfect sense…"

"Man, if Flyer was here, he could fly me straight up to the top no problem," Chopper sighed. "But, I guess we have to do this. So… Let's start climbing."

Chopper jumped up to one of the rock platforms and used a Vulcan Jab on a Bomber Skell that was rather close to the rock platform. After throwing a charged energy ball at it, it was destroyed.

"Well that takes care of that enemy…"

"Poyo, (I'll just float up there instead of climbing up these,)" Kirby announced as he took in some air and began to float up, making Chopper frown at him.

"That's like trolling on the internet…"

"OK, I think we get it already," Sonic sighed as they continued up while attacking a couple of Skells. When they reached the halfway mark, they noticed a Bombshell Koopa walking towards them. Chopper decided to attack it with a fireball, but he received an explosion.

"_Careful, Chopper… Using fire against a Bombshell Koopa can hurt you if you're close to the Bombshell Koopa…" _Timpani warned.

"Thanks for telling me that…" Chopper trailed as he continued his way up the platforms. Luvbi simply watched him while fluttering up and smiling at him. To her, she liked seeing Chopper jump, but to Chopper, he didn't like her staring at him.

When they reached the top, they entered the door up ahead to find a small area with nothing around except for a wall up ahead. It didn't look like they could get anywhere from here, especially when Luigi tried Super Jumping up the wall.

"It's no use… I can't get up there." Luigi groaned.

"Well that sucks," Blade frowned. "So, how about we go back?"

"What? We can't givest up now!" Luvbi retorted. "We hath just gotten this far!"

"I have a good idea!" Chopper stepped back and ran at full speed toward the wall. He tried to run up it, but he simply crashed into it instead. "Ow… OK, that's not a good idea at all…"

"Hmmmmm… You think this is another one of these areas where we need to find something hidden around here?" Meta Knight pondered. "It was kind of like that for Fubi's house…"

"I think he said something about another Nimbi being here," Sonic recalled. "Was it one that didn't get along with him? I would think that it would…"

"Then I suppose we should check out ourselves," Chopper began to scan the area with Timpani's wand. It wasn't so surprising, but they managed to find a house that resembled Fubi's house. But, it looked a little strange too…

"_Another house? What are these hidden houses doing here?" _Timpani gaped as she made it visible. _"I suppose we should look and see what's through here."_

Mario: Of course!

Blade decided to bust in the house with his katana ready, but the only thing they saw was a Nimbi wearing a black ninja outfit and a mask. He didn't seem to pay much attention to them, but when he turned around, he drew his katana and knocked Blade's katana out of his hands as if it were nothing.

"Whoa! This guy is a beast!" Blade gaped.

"Settle down, sir! We're not the bad guys!" Chopper shouted.

"Hmmmm? So thou art not enemies…" the Nimbi sheathed his katana and bowed to them in apology. "My apologies. When I saw that cat come in, he had his katana out, so I stepped in and tried to fight back."

Chopper was about to speak, but Luvbi fluttered up to the Nimbi and spoke instead.

"We art in dire need of help hither," Luvbi informed. "We art in grave danger and doth require to reacheth The Peaceness. However, we art being prevented from moving by a wall…"

"Luvbi? I doth remember seeing thee back when thou were so young… But thou art in grave danger?"

"Yea, verily. Yon monsters want me and my prince, Chopper." Of course, Chopper made a gesture to tell the Nimbi that he is not interest in her.

"Hmmmmm… So thou doth need my assistance. Mine given name is Ninbi. I used to teach people the arts of the ninja in The Overthere. If thou wantest to maketh thy way to the top of these mountains, then thou must learn something new. Thou must know how to climbeth walls."

"Ooh! I need to learn this!" Chopper removed his Fighter ability and inhaled a ninja star in the room to gain the Ninja ability. "I don't think I have something like that, so I think I wanna learn it!"

"Well, thanks for the offer, but I can climb things with my claws," Blade informed as he grabbed his katana and sheathed it. "I'm a ninja too, so I already know this stuff!"

"Oh, verily? Canst thou climbest a wall made of rock?" Ninbi asked while raising an eyebrow. "I doth want to see thee try."

"Gladly," Blade got himself ready as they all walked outside. Ninbi gestured Blade to try to climb the wall leading to the door ahead, so he tried. Unfortunately, his claws couldn't even grab a hold of the rock wall.

"Damn wall! Let me go up!"

"Art thou having problems?" Ninbi chuckled.

"No."

"Yeah you are," Chopper said, stepping up and attempting to climb it. He was having problems like Blade. "Wow… How the heck am I supposed to climb this thing?"

"Well, if thou dost want to climb that, thou must useth thy ninja weapons to climb up," Ninbi informed.

"Wait…" Blade stabbed the rock with a shuriken, which seemed to actually pierce through it. He started to use them to climb up the rock, which actually surprised everyone for a second.

"Hey! I'm doing it! I'm climbing it!"

"Can I try?" Chopper asked.

"Yea, sure. Thou shouldst." Ninbi nodded as Chopper used his shurikens to climb up the wall. He did it a little faster, however, due to the fact that he has a lot more speed than Blade does.

"Well, looks like they did it," Sonic said. "But… The question is… How do WE get up there?"

"I think we should just bring you guys up," Meta Knight informed, but he soon realized something. "Wait… Hold on a second."

"I also remembered too," Luvbi recalled. "It doth be about Fubi…"

"Fubi? Thou meanest the Nimbi I hath never gotten along with? Yea… I dost…" Ninbi recalled. "To be honest, I doth feel this whole rivalry hast gotten a little old now. Dost thou think he thinkest the same?"

"To be honest, I think he does," Luigi nodded. "We met him earlier, and he told us that he was wondering if you and him would ever get along."

Mario: He also wanted to apologize for the plate!

"The plate? …Oh, now I dost remember. Mayhap I will forgiveth him for that. For now, thou must movest on if thou art to get the Pure Heart!"

"How do you know we're looking for the Pure Heart?" Meta Knight asked.

"Trust me, I doth know when the heroes hath arrived. Thou all dost look like the heroes from the description in the Light Prognosticus. Although… The masked one was not in thither."

"I can understand. Nevertheless, let's go." Meta Knight started off by carrying one of the heroes up to the door. After a couple of minutes, he managed to get everyone to the top so they could progress.

"Good luck, heroes. We will try to holdeth them back if possible…" Ninbi trailed.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Wait… Motobugs? What are they doing here?" Sonic gaped as he saw a Motobug coming his way. He was able to strike it with a single Spin Jump, to his relief. "Wait… Don't tell me Eggman's around here too…"

"Well, he was with Bowser and King Dedede," Chopper said as he used his katana to attack a Motobug coming his way. "Nevertheless, we can't just stop here. If he stops us, we're fighting him!"

"I guess that is for the best," Meta Knight agreed as they made their way through the flat area. They seemed to hear some crumbling rocks off at the distance, though. Some boulders were simply rolling toward the heroes, even if it wasn't at a slope.

"Poyo! (Into 3-D!)" Kirby cried as Chopper flipped everyone into 3-D to avoid the boulder. They went back into 2-D and jumped over a bottomless pit in their way. Meta Knight jabbed at a Skell blocking their way and flew over another boulder coming their way.

But this time, Kirby used his special Fighter attack to break the rock with his charged Vulcan Jab.

"OK, that works too," Blade gawked.

"Poyo. (I guess we don't need to go into 3-D anymore.)"

"Dang…" Chopper frowned as he followed the rest of the group up ahead. There was another big wall in their way, but with the Ninja Climb, both Chopper and Blade were able to climb up.

"I can't believe I have to carry you guys back up…" Meta Knight groaned.

"I'm sorry…" Luigi apologized.

"Don't be. This stuff happens often."

"Well… All right…" Luigi allowed himself to be carried up to the top by Meta Knight. Of course, he had to go through the whole procedure of carrying everyone up once again. Nevertheless, he managed to do it and continued on to find a row of yellow ? blocks and two Crabmeats.

"Crabmeats, huh? Haven't seen these guys in a while, but who cares?" Sonic jumped and attacked the two Crabmeats with a Homing Attack. With them destroyed, he hit the two yellow ? blocks, making an Ultra Shroom pop out and a Skull Shroom.

"Another Skull Shroom…" Meta Knight gripped his sword and jabbed at the Skull Shroom a couple of times to defeat it. He then sliced up the Ultra Shroom into seven pieces, and they all ate a piece to recover 50 HP.

"OK, I think I'm good to go," Luigi confirmed.

"Then we shall movest on," Luvbi announced as they went into the next area. This was flat, but a lot smaller than the previous one. However, they saw a tunnel just up ahead with a door.

Mario: We've gone rather high…

"Tell me about it! I think we're pretty close to the clouds at this point!" Chopper gaped.

"Oh, you may be… But this is where it ends for you! Oh ho ho ho!"

Everyone: !

Eggman hovered down on the ground with the help of his hovering device on his Egg Walker. "You think that I wasn't going to come here and give you a little surprise? Well think again!"

"Eggman! Why did you have to stop us now when we're so close?" Blade growled.

"Because, I wish to see you fail on your quest! Perhaps I can steal everything you have and use them to conquer the world myself! Or rather, a couple of worlds! I don't need those two idiots to help me! I already have what I need to conquer the world!"

"Your fat?" Sonic snickered.

"Ggggggh…! Hmmmmmm… Well, I suppose my fat could help me. But nevertheless, I'll simply crush you! After many years of failures, this shall be my time to shine!" Eggman grinned as glass surrounded the cockpit.

"Wait, so you're using your old robot against us again? You know that that didn't work before." Chopper frowned.

"Pray, my prince. Shouldst I findeth a safe place?" Luvbi asked.

"Yeah, you should do that… This fight COULD get a little rough…" With that, Luvbi fluttered near the clouds so she was safe.

"All right, Eggman! Let's see how you fight this time!" Sonic grinned as he got in a fighting stance. "I've always wanted to get a chance to fight you ever since the fight in the Sweet World!"

"Well we'll see about that! Get a load of this!" Eggman fired a missile from his Egg Walker directly at Sonic. He jumped out of the way and landed right by the door.

"First move, huh? Well I guess I don't have to worry about that!" Sonic curled up in a ball and spun straight at the Egg Walker. With one hit, he managed to send Eggman's mech flying back.

"Well, let's start off by investigating him," Chopper said as he used Timpani's wand to investigate Eggman's mech.

"_That's Dr. Eggman, or by his full name, Dr. Ivo Robotnik. He is the one controlling the Egg Walker, and apparently he has an IQ of 300. Max HP is 260. Attack is 13. Defense is 5. He'll try firing missiles at you if you're at a distance, or he could possibly fire his machine guns at you as well, which are very difficult to avoid. Explosions seem to work well against his mech, so Hommissile isn't a bad choice against the Egg Walker. But, just because explosions work doesn't mean he's got a secret weapon himself. He could charge his Power Laser, which can nearly leave you wounded! I suggest going into 3-D when that happens. Although I wonder… Where did the name "Eggman" come from? Is it from his shape?" _Timpani informed.

"Well, even if he has a high defense, he's not match for this!" Blade threw Hommissile straight at the Egg Walker while it tried to get up. The explosion left Eggman's mech stunned for a couple of seconds.

"What? ! You little…!" Eggman fired his machine gun from his Egg Walker at the group. They all managed to avoid the bullets, but when he fired a missile, Meta Knight was knocked back.

"Urgh… No worries, I'm fine." Meta Knight got back up and used his cape to protect himself from one of the Egg Walker's smaller laser attacks. Eggman gaped at this, but when Meta Knight disappeared and appeared right in front of him, his gape got even bigger.

"What the heck? ! How did you…?"

"I have my ways," Meta Knight said coldly as he attacked the Egg Walker with a strong slash attack.

"Woo! This should be cool!" Chopper smirked as he ran up to the Egg Walker and slashed it with his katana. He then threw a couple of ninja stars at it while Eggman was getting angry.

"Settle down, Eggy! Getting mad over it isn't going to help you!" Sonic said as Eggman banged his fists on his machine. He decided to throw himself at the Egg Walker with a Homing Attack.

"Oh, that does it!" Eggman fired a laser straight at Sonic, hitting him straight on and knocking him to the ground. Kirby gasped and ran toward the Egg Walker to attack it with a Rising Break.

Mario: Didn't he use these attacks before?

"I don't know… I haven't fought this guy before…" Luigi trailed as he jumped to avoid a missile. He threw Bonjourang at the Egg Walker, but it didn't seem to do too much to Eggman's mech.

"You'll have to try better than that, green cap!" Eggman cackled as he fired a laser that struck Luigi. Afterward, the Egg Walker jumped and began to hover while dropping bombs.

"Oh, great… He's dropping bombs. Plus, he's too high up to catch." Blade groaned.

"I'll try to hit him," Luigi announced as he folded himself up for a Super Jump. Upon launching himself up, he hit the Egg Walker head on with his attack and managed to send it straight for the ground with its hover device damaged.

"GAH! Work already, hovering device!" Eggman growled as he pressed a couple of buttons. Surprisingly, his Power Laser ended up firing and hit all of the heroes, sending them flying to the wall.

"Oh… That works too."

"Ow… What the heck was that?" Chopper moaned as he got up.

"_That was the Power Laser I warned you about," _Timpani explained. _"You could've flipped into 3-D to avoid the attack, but it ended up coming out of nowhere. Nevertheless, you should be able to throw in a couple of more attacks."_

"All right!" Chopper threw a couple of ninja stars at the Egg Walker, making them pierce through the robot. Eggman gaped, but he simply fired a couple of missiles straight at Chopper instead.

"Say your prayers, green marshmallow!"

The missiles exploded upon contact, but Chopper disintegrated into smoke when they hit him. Eggman cackled until Chopper appeared on top of the Egg Walker and dove down from an angle to kick the cockpit and leave a crack.

"HA! I liked that!" Blade grinned as he tossed Hommissile at the Egg Walker to leave it stunned again. Kirby smirked as he ran up to the mech and attacked it with a charged Vulcan Jab, dealing immense damage – despite the defenses on it.

"Poyo, (You know, this Vulcan Jab attack really helps me against enemies with strong defenses,)" Kirby said as he floated above the Egg Walker in order to avoid being hurt. Unfortunately, he got blasted in air by Eggman's laser.

"And stay down!" Eggman said as he prepared to fire more lasers. Mario avoided one of them and jumped on the Egg Walker's weak point (a.k.a. the cockpit). He added a Ground Pound to deal some extra damage.

Mario: This isn't so bad!

"Oh, you'll be wrong soon enough…" Eggman took into the air with his Egg Walker's now fixed hovering device and began hovering around. The Egg Walker dropped a couple of bombs that hit everyone, but Kirby took the least amount of damage thanks to his Defend ability.

"Poyo! (No way you're hurting me!)" Kirby smirked.

Luigi threw Bonjourang at the Egg Walker while it was still in the air, but, of course, the Pixl simply bounced back over to Luigi. Chopper, on the other hand, used Starbow's ability to make stars rain down on the Egg Walker. It was enough to make the Egg Walker stop moving around and allow Luigi to attack with a Super Jump.

"OOF! How in the world did you do that? !" Eggman gaped as the Egg Walker landed on the ground.

"Well, with a Pixl, of course!" Luigi informed as he stomped on the Egg Walker when it first landed. Eggman pressed another button and a missile fired at Luigi to send him flying back. Luckily, Meta Knight managed to grab a hold of his hand and pull him back before he could hit the wall.

"I'll try to make an attack on him that should leave him off guard," Meta Knight announced as he disappeared with his cape. He appeared right in front of the Egg Walker and attacked its legs.

"Hey! Get off these legs!" the Egg Walker kicked Meta Knight away, but he still managed to attack the cockpit with a Sword Beam. Not even the Egg Walker could handle the force of the attack! It ended up flying to the wall and leaving sparks and smoke flying!

"You're toast, Eggman!" Sonic grinned. "So, are ya ready to give up yet? We could give you a little more if you'd like…"

"Not in a million years!" Eggman growled as he fired another Power Laser. Everyone gasped as the huge laser beam fired their way. Chopper, on the other hand, flipped everyone into 3-D to avoid the laser.

"Oh ho ho ho ho! I've finally got you…what?" Eggman paused when he saw everyone teleport back into the second dimension. He gaped as Sonic attacked the Egg Walker with a Light Speed Attack, keeping Eggman off guard.

"Why you little! Take this!" Eggman pressed a button on his mech that made him fire a laser at Sonic after he stopped, sending him flying back. Despite this, Sonic managed to get back up and use a Whirlwind to lift the Egg Walker off the ground.

"Would ya look at that? I'm able to send the Egg Walker flying!" Sonic grinned.

"Works for me!" Luigi smiled as he attacked the Egg Walker with a Super Jump, knocking it back to the ground to allow Meta Knight to attack the cockpit with a Galaxia Drill attack.

"Your mech isn't very strong if it can't do much against us," Meta Knight scoffed as he blocked one of Eggman's lasers with his cape. "I believe this is where you should give up the fight."

"Oh, I've just got started!" Eggman began to fire missiles surrounded by fire energy straight at the heroes. Sonic got hit by one of them and ended up with a burn left on him.

"That's not cool!" Sonic frowned.

"Get a load of this!" Eggman fired ice missiles at the heroes instead. Meta Knight used his dodging skills to avoid some of them, but one ended up freezing him head on. Luckily, Chopper managed to unfreeze him with his fire energy.

"All right, I guess we gotta step up a notch here," Chopper announced as he chucked a charged fireball at Eggman's Egg Walker. Unfortunately, it barely did a thing, with its ability to absorb heat.

"Try all you want, but fire doesn't do a thing to this bad boy!"

"Well this will work," Chopper sliced at the Egg Walker's legs with his katana, which, luckily, allows him to pierce through enemy's defenses. When Eggman tried to get him off, he jumped and attacked the Egg Walker's cockpit with a spinning kick.

"I've had enough of you!" Eggman growled as he fired a fire missile at Chopper, knocking his Ninja ability away.

"Hey! I liked that ability! How dare you get rid of it? !"

"Well this just gets better and better!"

"We'll see about that," Blade said as he threw Hommissile at Eggman's Egg Walker, leaving it off guard for a couple of seconds. At this point, the ninja pulled an Ultra Shroom Shake out and took a sip of it. Of course, they passed it around so they could heal their HP, with Chopper having the last sip. He threw the crushed can at Eggman's mech and left the glass on the cockpit cracked.

"You pest! Take this!" Eggman fired another Power Laser at the heroes, getting them successfully. "Excellent! That's the progress I wanted to see in this fight! Prepare to die, heroes!"

"Whoa! We don't say 'die' around here!" Chopper shouted. "This is a kid's story, for Pete's sake!"

"Uhhh… This is rated T…" Blade trailed.

"Oh, really? Well then…" Chopper frowned as he bashed Eggman's mech with his hammer, followed by jumping on the glass protecting Eggman. Sonic joined in and attacked him with a Spin Jump.

"Reminds you of the old days, doesn't it?" Sonic grinned.

"Back when you were a bit chubby yourself? Yes… I remember those times… But I'll still crush you nevertheless!" Eggman fired an ice missile at Sonic, but he simply curled in a ball and hit the Egg Walker head on with a Spin Dash.

"So how did you like that, Eggy?"

"OK, OK, I think we get it already…" Blade trailed as he threw Hommissile at the Egg Walker. With its HP running low, Eggman began to sweat nervously.

"_Great… I'm running out of ideas here… How am I supposed to win this?" _Eggman thought as he looked down at the buttons. What he didn't see coming was Luigi's foot that was slamming onto the glass.

"ACK! Your manners are as bad as ever!" Eggman growled as he fired a missile at Luigi, but Meta Knight managed to destroy it with a Sword Beam and attack Eggman's mech with a couple of more slashes, leaving large cuts in the Egg Walker.

"Well, here it goes!" Sonic ran up to the Egg Walker and, with one Homing Attack, he managed to leave the Egg Walker in an explosion. It also seemed to send Eggman flying.

"_**I'LL GET YOOOOOOOOOOU!**_ _**! !**_"

"Well, there goes Eggman," Chopper said. "OK, Luvbi! It's safe to come down now!"

When Luvbi came down, she seemed more energetic than before. "Chopper! We art verily close now! If we movest on, we shouldst reach the top very soon!"

"Really? YES!" Blade fist pumped as he ran to the door ahead. "No more mountain climbing after this!"

"Although… We still have the clouds to climbeth…"

"DAMN…"

"Well it's the only way to go," Meta Knight stated as he went to the door. "There's no time to be monkeying around now. We need to go ASAP."

Everyone agreed and followed Meta Knight inside the mountain yet again. All they saw was a small spring shooting out water. Up above they saw a ladder leading up to the top of the room where a bright light could be seen.

"How do we get up there?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Do we freeze the water?

"Freeze the water? I can do that!" Chopper smiled as he chucked a charged ice ball at the spring. With it frozen, they were able to get on and grab a hold of the ladder. Luvbi simply had to flutter up to the top.

"I don't know where we'll be when we reach the top, but we better be close," Meta Knight hoped.

When they climbed up the top of the ladder, they noticed that they were at the very top of the highlands. They couldn't even see the ground below them, now that they were covered by the clouds. Luigi's heart began to pound as he looked at the clouds.

"Are… Are we really this high up?" he stammered.

"Well, you can't see the ground, so you shouldn't have to worry…" Chopper trailed.

"My prince! The Star Block!" Luvbi announced, taking a glance over by the Star Block right beside them. "Striketh this so we can endeth this chapter once and for all!"

"Well, I guess I have no other choice…" Chopper walked up to the block and punched it, smashing it instantly.

"_I feel that this is going to be a long climb…" _Timpani trailed.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Everyone sighed in relief now that they couldn't see the ground, especially Luigi, despite being a little nervous about the situation still. Now that the heroes were at the top of the Ormani Highlands, they had to climb another obstacle that was above them. "This doth remind me of The Overthere, dost thou agree, my prince? It doth be a romantic site!" giggled Luvbi as she stayed close to Chopper. Even with the clouds above them, Chopper and Co. didn't necessarily feel safe around these parts… Could the monsters already be around these parts?_

* * *

**Wow. I sure was lazy with this chapter for some reason. It literally took me eleven days just to get this one part done? Sheesh... But, nevertheless, I guess it was all worth it. If you're complaining about the lengths on these chapters still, I DID say that they would be long, so I warned you before. **

**Personally, I'm looking forward to the next part, even though some people might think it's just another cloud level like Overthere Stair. But, when we get there, you'll see what I mean. ;)  
**


	91. Rainbows and Clouds

**CHAPTER 15-4**

**-Rainbows and Clouds-**

"So, it's just you, me, everyone else, and these damn clouds that we're standing on…" Blade trailed as he sat down on one of the big, fluffy clouds. He, for one, was not looking forward to this part of the adventure. Ever since Overthere Stair, he has grown to dislike climbing the clouds because of how annoying it can be to sometimes fall, especially when you could fall from over a thousand feet in the air. This was definitely not his day…

"You know, I don't know WHY we have to climb all of these clouds! Why can't the people of The Peaceness actually bring something that can HELP us get there! I don't want to climb more clouds! It's just like the other time when we had to climb Overthere Stair! That place was MURDER!"

"Yeah, I'll admit, climbing those clouds was very, very annoying…" Sonic agreed while sitting down and stretching. "I actually wish we could find another way to reach the top of this world."

"Oh, man… Overthere Stair was kind of murder for me too…" Chopper groaned. "If you ever fell off one of those clouds, you were basically screwed. Also, we had to wake Kirby up with those taboo fruit. Remember when we were searching for the right fruit? Ugh… I hated that part the most…"

"Well, seeing the side effects of the taboo fruit on Kirby was funny, I'll admit," Blade grinned, remembering that moment.

"Poyo? (What are you guys talking about? What side effects?)" Kirby asked, looking the most confused of the group.

"Uhhh… Never mind…" Chopper frowned. Even though everyone was complaining about climbing the clouds, Luvbi sighed sweetly and looked up at the sky and the beautiful sun.

"Ahh me… This doth remind me of being back home!" Luvbi smiled as she looked at the rainbow. "I will admit, these skies doth seem more beautiful than the skies of The Overthere. We dost not have a rainbow thither!"

"Yeah, I suppose the rainbow is nice in this world," Luigi agreed as he looked up at the rainbow. "I think I can see it a lot bigger than it was before! Was this the rainbow we saw at the very beginning?"

"Hmmmmm… Well, I guess this might be the same rainbow as we saw before." Meta Knight said as he wrapped his cape around him while the wind was blowing. "Now, I wonder what it would look like if we actually got close to it…"

"_I'm not sure if it's possible to even touch a rainbow…" _Timpani trailed.

"_But you were once a rainbow Pixl, my dear Timpani," _Blumiere reminded. _"You're always a rainbow to me."_

"_That's very sweet of you, Blumiere," _she giggled until she felt like she remembered something from the sky. _"Wait… I'm starting to remember a little something… I remember…seeing someone here in the clouds…"_

"Someone here in the clouds? What are you talking about?" Chopper asked. "Have you met someone a long time ago or something?"

"_Ummmmm… I'm honestly unsure of all the details, Chopper. But this person… Why does he remind me of Tipral? I feel…as if there's some strange connection between the two of us…"_

"_I kind of remember something like that too, but I don't remember all the details," _Blumiere agreed.

"Pray, why art we talking about that horrible dark monster? Dost thou know what he is trying to dost? He wants to destroy the universe!" Luvbi interrupted, making everyone bring their attention back to her.

"Uhhhh… I don't really know much of the details, but I still believe we still need to stop Tipral." Chopper said. "So… How do we get to The Peaceness? Do we need to go up or something?"

"Yea, verily, my prince," Luvbi looked around and noticed an angelic enemy with a bow flying on the clouds. "Pray, my prince! Canst thou maketh thyself look cute for me by getting the Angel ability?"

"Wait, I can get the Angel ability?" Chopper ran up to the angel and inhaled it to gain the Angel ability. "All right! Now I can go up these clouds with no problem! Although… The Hi-Jump ability would've worked better."

"Damn clouds…" Blade groaned as he jumped on a small cloud platform and reached the larger cloud platform, where Chopper, Kirby, and Meta Knight flew up to. Luigi only had to use his Super Jump to reach the cloud. Sonic, Blade, and Mario, on the other hand…

Mario: Yeah, this is The Overthere experience…

They happened to notice a Sky Lakitu roaming around on this cloud – an enemy they haven't seen in a long time. Meta Knight simply jabbed it from above when it tried throwing a Spiny to leave it stunned. Chopper finished it off by firing a charged arrow at the enemy.

"Thou dost remind me of Cupid when I look at thee," Luvbi smiled as she gazed at her prince and the halo on his head. "Thou dost make an adorable little angel! Mayhap thou canst marry me like that!"

"Or rather… I don't marry you at all." Chopper gagged as he flew up to a smaller cloud above them. Luigi simply used his Super Jump to launch himself to the small cloud. They only saw an Ice Cherbil floating around here.

"Why are there weak enemies here?" Luigi asked.

"Who cares? It's better than tough enemies!" Chopper stomped on the Ice Cherbil and killed it with one jump. "But still… I HATE those enemies! They look like they're farting gas!"

"I think I can agree with that," Sonic nodded as he managed to get onto the same cloud. Since it was too small, they had to jump up to another small cloud with a lift moving up to a cloud that was way too high for them to reach. Luvbi didn't seem to have a problem going up, but she didn't bother to help.

"Wait, how come you're not doing anything to help us?" Blade asked, now feeling tired from climbing a couple of clouds.

"Pray, how can I helpest thee? I dost not have any hands!" Luvbi retorted. "The only one I wouldst be willing to holdeth with be my sweet, adorable prince, though he canst fly on his own now."

"Ugh… I REALLY wish you can stop calling me that…" Chopper groaned.

"You're not the only one who's finding that old," Sonic said as he tried to make earplugs out of the fluffy clouds. Unfortunately, the wind simply blew away the cloud. "Dang… Well, so much for that."

_"The only option is to go up," _Blumiere informed. _"I don't think there's any other way you can go…"_

"Then we should stop wasting our time and go," Meta Knight jumped on the lift and waited for it to take him up to a cloud high above them. Chopper and Kirby simply flew up, while the rest had to take the lift up to the cloud. All there was was a yellow ? block and a Skell.

"Ah HA! I found ya!" the Skell grinned as it threw its head at Kirby, knocking him over on the cloud. Meta Knight simply flew over the head and sliced at the main body to destroy it. The head itself also disintegrated as well.

"Hmph… So the head also gets destroyed when the body is destroyed," Meta Knight pondered. "Very interesting…"

"But just what are they doing hither?" Luvbi asked. "They verily must want to findeth us so bad if there art Skellobits around hither. Something seemest verily suspicious…"

"Poyo, (Well, maybe we'll find out soon enough if we continue our way up,)" Kirby hoped as he hit the yellow ? block. A Mushroom came out, to their disappointment, but they took it anyway to recover 10 HP.

"Dear Grambi, I wish we had something else other than dumb Mushrooms," Blade groaned as he finished his piece.

"Pray, why art thou using my father's name in vain?" Luvbi asked, glaring that the blue ninja.

"…Oh, sorry 'bout that. I wasn't trying to offend you in any way."

"Well, best that we looked around. We can't go up from this point because there isn't a cloud." Chopper took a couple of steps to the left, but he noticed a couple of flowers growing from the clouds.

"Poyo? (Why are flowers growing from these clouds?)" Kirby asked.

"Pray, my prince. Dost those flowers look pretty?" Luvbi asked sweetly. "Dost thou want to giveth me one as a gift?"

"Uhhhh… OK…" Chopper picked up one of the flowers from the cloud and gave it to her. "Here. I guess you can have it…"

"Oh, Chopper! That is so sweet!" the excited Nimbi girl took the flower from him and kissed him on the cheek. Chopper, of course, was left disgusted as he wiped the kiss off him.

Mario: A kiss doesn't actually kill you…

"But I could get sick from her from touching me with her lips!" Chopper cried. "It's not safe for me!"

Mario: OK, now you're overreacting…

"_Sometimes, I find it pretty funny that Chopper keeps overreacting to getting kissed by a girl," _Timpani giggled, getting Chopper pretty irritated. He simply pulled an arrow out and fired it at a Sky Lakitu up ahead right by another cloud above them to their left.

"Well, it's not finished yet, that's for sure," Meta Knight said as he finished the Sky Lakitu off with a Galaxia Drill. It barely had time to pull out a Spiny and throw it at him. It was no contest.

"So, is there anything else above us?" Sonic asked as he ran over to Meta Knight in a split second. Meta Knight looked up and saw a cloud above them, so he simply flew up there, while Luigi used a Super Jump to reach up there.

"See, this is why I hate these kinds of areas," Blade pouted. "I can't even make the friggin' jump to the next cloud! This place looks nice, but climbing clouds sucks!"

Mario: Complaining about it isn't going to help either.

Chopper frowned as he flew back down and grabbed a hold of Blade's arms. Using as much of his strength as possible, he tried carrying him up to the cloud. Mario and Sonic grabbed a hold of Blade's feet and got carried up.

"Can't you go any faster than this?" Blade asked.

"I can't when I'm carrying other people up as well…" Chopper sweat dropped as he got up to the cloud and dropped everyone on it. Everyone sighed in relief, but they noticed a cloud across from them with a green bubble with a face. Two Sky Lakitus were flying around as well.

"I'll take care of the Lakitus," Luigi announced as he jumped over to a Sky Lakitu and used an uppercut to attack it from underneath with a Super Jump. He ended up landing on top of the other Sky Lakitu, but he got hurt when it pulled a Spiny out.

Mario gasped and jumped in to help, taking care of the Spiny that the Lakitu threw. With three jumps, he defeated the Lakitu, but he ended up getting stuck inside the green bubble.

"Oh, no! Big bro!" Luigi yelped as he looked up at Mario, who tried to punch his way out of the bubble.

Mario: I can't get out!

"Hold on, I'll pop it!" Chopper announced as he aimed an arrow at the green bubble. However, Luigi got in the way and stopped him.

"Wait! Don't do that, Chopper! I think you're only going to cause some damage to him!" Luigi cried. "If you fire that arrow, it'll simply hit him too and leave him injured. I think that's a BAD idea!"

"…Yeah, you've got a point. But how do we get Mario out?"

"Mayhap the mustachioed fatty should be left thither for now?" Luvbi suggested.

"_We're not leaving Mario here…" _Timpani objected.

"Oh, verily? Could it be because thou hast a crush on the hairy men and even my sweet prince?" Now this is where Timpani started to get a little irritated at the moment and began glaring at the Nimbi girl.

_"For your information, I'm married!"_

"It doesn't look like this bubble can be popped," Meta Knight informed, interrupting the conversation and poking the bubble with Galaxia. "It must be one of those kind of bubbles where they can't be popped."

Mario kept pounding at the bubbles, but its face simply looked up and fired Mario out. Everyone gaped as he was sent flying to the cloud high above them. It's as if this allows them to go to high places.

_"That was interesting…" _Blumiere pondered. _"So, if you jumped inside that green bubble, it can launch you to great heights. Heights that are even greater than Luigi's Super Jump."_

"I heard that!"

"Well, then I suppose I should go in one of those," Luvbi suggested as she grabbed Chopper's arm. "But… I doth wish to go up with my sweet prince! Just so we art together in there."

"What? ! No way!" Chopper retorted, getting her wing off his arm. "I don't want to be close to you in any way! That's pretty…scary."

Luvbi gave him a huff, but she still managed to grab him and throw him in the bubble. She fluttered inside the bubble as well and got close to Chopper, making him freak out a little bit with his eyes widening.

"Someone help me!" he cried.

"There's nothing we can do, Chopper," Meta Knight said. "The bubble's unbreakable with anything pointy."

Chopper sighed as he folded his arms, but his eyes widened in fear as Luvbi kissed him on the lips. He tried to get himself away from her, but the bubble did the job and fired them upward, while Luvbi was still kissing Chopper.

"I feel kind of bad for Chopper…" Luigi trailed.

"Yeah, I kinda agree with ya," Sonic nodded.

They both jumped in the bubble and let themselves get fired up. Blade was the last to jump in the bubble and make his way up to the cloud. Upon landing, he noticed that Luvbi still had Chopper in a kiss.

"OK, I think that's enough," Sonic said as he pulled Chopper away from the love-struck princess. He began to cough in disgust as he began wiping his mouth of Luvbi's kiss.

"She left cooties on my mouth! Disgusting!" Chopper gagged. "Why did she have to get me in that bubble and kiss me on the lips? I'm telling you, guys! It's absolute torture! You hear me?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, we hear you,)" Kirby nodded with an irritated look. "Poyo… (Loud and clear…)"

"Hey, look! A door!" Blade said as he pointed at the door. "Maybe that's where we need to go! I mean, there isn't really anything else around here, so it's GOT to be where we need to go!"

"You said 'where we need to go' twice," Luigi informed. "Do you really need to say that twice?"

"Guess not."

"We might as well check," Meta Knight suggested as he opened the red door. Everyone, including the love-struck Luvbi, followed them into a small area with two clouds. The cloud to their right happened to have a nice, white tree with a new, rainbow enemy called a Rainbow Puff.

_"It's a Rainbow Puff. They're like most Tuff Puffs, but they can shoot rainbow energy, which can have many different effects on you. It's best to avoid these attacks as fast as possible…" _Timpani informed.

"Rainbow enemies? Well that's a first." Sonic jumped in a ball and attacked the Rainbow Puff with a Homing Attack. Even then, it wasn't completely finished. Chopper even fired a charged arrow, and it STILL wasn't defeated!

"Yeesh! These guys have a lot of HP!" Chopper commented.

"Poyo! (But not for long!)" Kirby smirked as he attacked the Rainbow Puff with a Rising Break, finishing it off once and for all. With that, they looked up at the tall tree that stood before them.

"This is a rather tall tree for a place with clouds…" Meta Knight trailed.

Mario: Looks like one of those trees from The Overthere. It even has a rainbow on it!

Meta Knight looked up at the banana hanging from the tree. He cut it down with a flash and caught it in his hand. Instead of devouring it, he decided to examine it for a couple of seconds.

"This fruit… I don't know what it is…" he trailed.

"Hold on, let me look at that," Chopper swiped the rainbow banana from Meta Knight and looked closely at it. "You know, when I look at this… I feel as if this fruit was from that one tree on my home planet up in the sky and the skies over the Mushroom Kingdom…"

"Wait, you mean that fruit we saw before we ran into Flyer when he joined the dark side?" Sonic questioned. "But, what would a fruit like this be doing in this world?"

"I doth remember that these fruit were originally grown hither," Luvbi recalled. "However, many people soon discovered these fruits and foundeth seeds to grow them elsewhere. So that may be why thou dost see fruits such as these."

"Well, bottoms up!" Chopper devoured the banana in one bite and swallowed it whole. Everyone nearly screamed when they saw Chopper turned to a rainbow color.

"My prince! Why hast thou changed to a rainbowish color? !" Luvbi gaped.

"Poyo! (I think it looks cool!)" Kirby commented.

"Wait, what?" Chopper looked at his arms and feet and noticed the rainbow colors on him. "Cool! I'm Hyper Chopper!" Unfortunately, this was only temporary. After a couple of seconds, he went back to his pale green color.

"Well, there's not much we can do here at the moment. I say we leave." Meta Knight suggested.

"Hold on, those actually healed me. I think it's a wise choice to eat one of these to recover some of our HP. You know, just so we don't run into any huge danger around the neighborhood?"

Kirby instantly agreed and ate a rainbow banana. He turned to a rainbow color for a couple of seconds, but went back to normal. Everyone else did the same thing and ate a rainbow banana, recovering their HP.

"Well, that sure did hit the spot! …Sorta." Sonic said as he rubbed his belly. "So, are we going to find more of these fruit?"

"At least we finally know about their origin," Chopper said as he sighed in relief, even though mostly everyone saw this before once. "I wonder… Would these happen to be related to the taboo fruit?"

"Yea, there doth be a resemblance between the fruit," Luvbi confirmed. "I dost not know everything about them, but they doth share a huge resemblance. Mayhap they art taboo fruit as well."

_"It would make sense, considering that it has some sort of effect on you," _Timpani pointed out. _"I think we should take some more of these fruit just in case."_

Meta Knight nodded and cut a couple of more bananas down. Chopper caught most of them, considering that he loves bananas, but then Timpani told him to be even and give it to other people, which annoyed him.

With that, they left the area and returned to the previous. They noticed that they had to make another large jump up to the next cloud. Luigi, while tipping his hat, performed a Super Jump and launched himself up.

Mario: This is why I wish I had a jump like that.

"Well, we can't get everything we want, can we?" Sonic shrugged as he tried to jump up to the cloud, but his jump wasn't high enough. That is, until Meta Knight grabbed his arms and flew him up to the next cloud.

"Might as well fly up there too," Chopper said as his angelic wings helped him fly up to the next cloud. Of course, he had to help Mario and Blade up, which wasn't as bad since he didn't have Sonic holding on.

"Man, I would enjoy this more if I had wings," Blade sighed as he landed on the cloud.

"Thy complaining isn't going to help thee, thou knowest…" Luvbi informed while giving him an irritated look.

"Well I don't see you complaining."

"Poyo, (Because she can fly,)" Kirby responded before jumping into a green bubble that was above him. It fired up at a right, upward angle, getting caught in another green bubble.

"Another one of these bubbles? It appears that there are a couple of more here as well." Meta Knight said as he jumped into the green bubbles and followed Kirby up to the next one.

"Pray, my sweet prince, shall we goest in the bubble together?" Luvbi asked sweetly.

"Eww! No! Not after last time!" Chopper hurried in the bubble and fired himself up to the next one before Luvbi could even join him. She huffed as she fluttered after her prince, who actually seemed to be having a fun time being fired up.

"Well, who wants to go up next?" Sonic asked, looking at Blade, Mario, and Luigi. "Luigi? Do you want to go?"

"Wh-What? ! No way! That looks way too fast!" Luigi cried, cowering right behind his brother, Mario.

Mario sighed as he stepped forward so his brother could be seen. Even when he didn't want to go, Blade threw him up himself and watched as they heard him scream while being sent flying up.

"Uhhhh… Are you guys mad at me for that?" Blade questioned.

Mario: No, not really.

"I think that was the only way to get him up," Sonic responded as Luigi reached the small cloud just up above them. They took turns firing themselves up to the cloud with the bubbles and met with everyone else.

"What's that sign say?" Luigi asked. Chopper decided to read for himself to see what it had to say.

_Here Ends Cloud 1_

"That's it? That's what it says?" Chopper gawked. "It seriously sounds like those signs from The Overthere! Are they trying to rip off them by putting signs like these in this place?"

"Mayhap it is just a way to helpeth people like us to knoweth where we art," Luvbi informed as she grabbed a hold of Chopper's hand. "Come on, my sweet prince! Let us movest on…together!"

"Oh crud!" Chopper gulped as she dragged him over to the door and entered the door. Everyone shrugged and followed them to an area where they didn't see any clouds close above them, but they did see ones that were too high to reach from where they were standing.

"Well, looks like we're not going up from here," Luigi said as he looked up. "I can't make that jump!"

"Well, then we'll need to find another way up those clouds," Meta Knight said. He noticed that there was a sign right next to him. He decided to read what it had to say.

_Cloud 2_

"Cloud 2, huh? Well… How many clouds are there going to be? I remember Overthere Stair had about seven stairs." Chopper recalled. "Hopefully there aren't more than seven clouds."

"Please stop bringing up how many areas there are," Blade begged as he put his hand on his face. "I'm getting so tired of hearing about how long we'll have to climb. It just makes it worse!"

Mario: I don't think we can climb right now…

"I mean, it's so… Wait, did you say we don't need to climb up too far? Hallelujah! We actually get to STOP climbing for once and…"

Blade was unfortunate enough to become frozen when a Rainbow Puff fired its rainbow energy from its mouth at him. Chopper used his fire hand magic to melt him out of his icy prison.

"All right, I guess I'll take care of the Rainbow Puff," Chopper fired three arrows at once and hit the Rainbow Puff. He then froze it with a charged ice ball and finished it off with a charged fireball.

"Well that takes care of that. Let's move on." Meta Knight moved on ahead to the right on the large cloud, but he ended up running into a Dark Skellobit and a Spiky Skell. Nevertheless, he stabbed at them with his sword and killed them off easily.

"Damn. I wish I can do that." Blade gaped. "Well, I guess it makes sense since he's top tier in Brawl."

"Blade… Those tier lists are complete bull, you know." Chopper informed. "I played as Snake before in that game and I stunk as him. It's how you PLAY as them, not by how they are in tier lists."

"Uhhhh… OK, whatever you say, dude…" Blade jumped over Meta Knight and landed right in front of another Spiky Skell. He landed a few combos on the enemy with his katana. Since he can do more damage than any of the others, he was able to defeat it easily.

"Yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

He was cheering until he got hit by a Dark Skellobit's spear. Kirby decided to take this time to attack it with a Vulcan Jab and finish it off with a charged energy ball. The Bomber Skell on another cloud was waiting for them, but it seemed to be carrying some kind of pale green thing called a Bait Skell.

"Wait… What? A Bait Skell? That's the dumbest name ever…" Chopper face palmed. "And it's not even that original! Isn't anyone aware of how unoriginal some of the enemy names are? !"

"Well, who careth what names they art, what verily matters is taking care of them," Luvbi stated as the Bait Skell instantly froze Chopper after the Bomber Skell dropped it near him.

Mario announced that he would take care of this as he unfroze Chopper by simply smashing the ice with his hammer. It was all shattered, with Chopper being just fine except for being cold.

"Ugh… Does anyone have a blanket?" he asked.

"Nay, but I can givest thee a hug!" Luvbi giggled as she hugged Chopper, causing him to shake in fear once again from the Nimbi girl.

"…I think I have a better idea!" Chopper got out of Luvbi's grasps and used his fire hand powers to warm himself up. "Come to think of it… Why didn't I use this when I had that nasty cold?"

"Poyo? (Maybe because the cold affected you internally?)" Kirby pondered. "Poyo? (Or it could be because you probably forgot?)"

"Meh, whatever," Chopper flew over the gap between the cloud platforms and aimed an arrow down on a Rainbow Puff that was near a small cloud above it. Meta Knight finished it off with a couple of slashes.

"You think we'll run into that weird cloud with the eye covered in spikes?" Blade asked.

"You mean Kracko? Nah. I don't think we'll run into him ever again. We haven't seen him in a long time. Although it's kind of weird that he went from Dark Kracko in Dream Land, to just plain Kracko…"

"Well, anyway, I think we should get going," Luigi suggested as he jumped onto the cloud above them. Everyone followed him up to a small cloud that reminded them of the 'Springy Cloud' that they say in The Overthere. Only this time, it didn't make them bounce straight up. It simply moved up like an elevator.

_"Since this cloud's too small, you guys should take turns using that," _Blumiere suggested.

"Well, I think Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi can use it, but I don't think the rest of us need to," Meta Knight said as he began to float off the clouds with his wings. "We can simply fly if we need to."

"Poyo! (Thank goodness I can float!)" Kirby smiled as he took in some air and began to fly up. Chopper fluttered up with the help of his wings, while being followed by the lovesick Nimbi girl.

"Hmmmmm… Think you can do this?" Chopper began to spin around as he flew up while following the cloud Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi were on.

"Art thou giving me a challenge?"

"Uhhh… Sure."

"I dost accept!" Luvbi smirked as she began to spin around like crazy, even going past Chopper, forcing him to spin around like crazy. Luckily, Meta Knight managed to grab a hold of him before he could even vomit.

"Whew! Thanks for that, Meta Knight!" Chopper thanked while sighing in relief.

"Be careful with what you do, Chopper," Meta Knight informed. "Doing stuff like that can cause you to become dizzy, and it can make you an easy target for your enemies, such as Tipral."

"You sound like a father giving his son advice."

Meta Knight did not respond to him at this time and simply got on the cloud. What was surprising was that the others managed to beat the ones who could fly to the cloud above them.

"Heh! What a surprise! We managed to beat you to this cloud!" Sonic grinned. "How do you like that?"

"Poyo, (Don't get too cocky, Sonic,)" Kirby informed, giving him a glare. "Poyo… (It's going to hurt you later on…)"

"Uhhhhh… Translation, anyone?"

"_He said not to get too cocky," _Blumiere translated, causing everyone to gape for a second.

"Hold on a minute… YOU can understand what Kirby's saying? !" Chopper asked out of amazement.

"_The Dark Prognosticus can do many things to you besides making you unable to age with it in your hands. Even though I was able to become myself, I still held it just to make sure no one would get their hands on it. It was tough trying not to even take a peek through it."_

"Wait, so does this mean you're immortal?" Meta Knight asked.

"_Well, technically no. After we banished the Pure Heart, the Dark Prognosticus's power to immortalize a being was drained away. However, it doesn't mean all of its powers are drained out as well. It still has the ability to corrupt one's mind…"_

"Wow. This is really confusing…" Blade trailed.

"Long story short, the power to immortalize someone is gone from the Dark Prognosticus, meaning Count Bleck has went back to normal, I suppose," Chopper concluded, rubbing his head in confusion. He couldn't help but flick at his halo. That is, until he saw a Koopa wearing a cape.

"Ooh! Ooh! I want that ability!" Chopper tossed his Angel ability away and inhaled the Koopa with a cape to gain the Hi-Jump ability. "Yeah! Now my jump has gotten a lot better!"

"You do realize that you can't fly, right?" Meta Knight informed, causing Chopper to fall over. "I thought so."

"Poyo, (Although that was a good chuckle to laugh at,)" Kirby giggled as he helped Chopper up. The Star Warrior made a face as he saw a small cloud right over to the left. He decided to jump on it, but instead of acting like an elevator, it made him bounce up a little.

"It's a bouncy cloud!" Chopper announced. "It's safe to jump on this!"

He used this cloud to bounce up to another bounceable cloud which brought him to a cloud that was above them. Everyone followed and landed right next to him, only to meet two Dark Skellobits.

Mario: I've got this!

Mario simply brought his foot toward the two Dark Skellobits to make Kickbrin attack the one at the front. Both Dark Skellobits were knocked over and left dazed. He finished them off by bashing them with his hammer.

"Well, you sure showed them, Mario," Luigi smiled, giving him a thumbs up. Mario tipped his hat as he put his hammer away.

"Yea, verily… I doth suppose it was good…for one that hast hair upon thy cheeks." Luvbi said, as if she were unimpressed.

"Are you still making fun of us?" Sonic asked.

"Nay, I personally dost not careth about making fun of thee anymore. I doth find it a bit boring. I wouldeth prefer to spendeth time with Chopper, my cute prince." Luvbi giggled as she fluttered over to Chopper.

"Wait… Is that cloud moving?" Chopper asked while pointing up to a cloud above them. He was indeed right! It was moving from left to right! "OK… Let's see if I can get up there."

He made a huge leap up there with his Hi-Jump and then used his cape as a parachute to lightly float down onto the cloud. Luigi jumped up to the cloud with his Super Jump and jumped to the cloud to their right so he wasn't hogging up the cloud.

"I think I can see the door just above us," Luigi informed.

"Good! That's what I want to see!" Chopper smiled.

After the others reached up to the cloud, they looked up to find another cloud with a sign and a red door. The ones who could reach up to there helped everyone else get up to the cloud. Afterward, they decided to stretch for a couple of minute.

"Well, I suppose I should read this sign for the heck of it," Sonic suggested as he walked over to the sign.

_Here Ends Cloud 2_

"Yeah… That's the end of this cloud." Chopper said as he opened the door into an area where they were standing on a long, thick cloud. There happened to be a couple of Shockboxers walking on the clouds and firing their sound waves at the heroes.

"Oh no ya don't!" Sonic brought Reflecto in front of him and reflected the waves back at the two Shockboxers, leaving them stunned. Kirby ran up to them and attacked them with a charged Vulcan Jab.

"Poyo! (Teamwork always works!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uhhhhhh… No comment on that one." Chopper said with shrunken eyes. "I don't see what we can do, honestly…"

However, he stopped when he noticed a top enemy spinning around in a tornado. He immediately removed his Hi-Jump ability and inhaled the enemy to gain a crown with a red emerald in the center and a large tornado on top of his head.

"So, it appears you've gained the Tornado ability…" Meta Knight informed.

"Yeah, looks like it," Chopper confirmed.

While he decided to spin around in a tornado, Meta Knight read the sign that was right beside them.

_Cloud 3_

"Well, we hast madeth our way through two clouds so far… I dost not know how many more there art…" Luvbi trailed as she followed the rest of the group over to a row of yellow ? blocks. The first one Mario hit contained a Speed Flower. He accidentally grabbed it, causing everything to move fast.

"Whatjusthappened?" Meta Knight asked as he hit another yellow ? block. A Skull Shroom happened to pop out.

"AAAH! It'saSkullShroom!" Luigi yelped, throwing Bonjourang at the Skull Shroom to slow it down. Chopper spun around in a tornado and finished off the Skull Shroom easily.

"WhyarethereSkullShroomshere? !" Chopper exclaimed as he stopped spinning around and landed on the ground and hit another yellow ? block to find another Skull Shroom pop out.

"Poyo! (Butwegetmorepointsfromthis!)" Kirby exclaimed as he took down the Skull Shroom with two Rising Breaks.

"IthinkIcanmoveprettyfast!" Sonic said as he got himself ready for a Spin Dash. Unfortunately, the speed went back to normal, and he simply moved at the speed his Spin Dash normally would. But, he still managed to take down a couple of Dark Skellobits in his way.

"Aww, man! The speed's back to normal!" Sonic said while kicking the cloud in disappointment.

"_I think it's better that the speed's at a normal pace," _Timpani said. _"I don't like having it too fast or too slow. It can be pretty dangerous, especially when we're trying to reach the top."_

"Pray, my sweet prince," Luvbi began as Chopper punched a yellow ? block to make a Super Shroom pop out. "Dost thou think that this place is romantic, especially for people such as us?"

"I have no idea…" Chopper trailed as he ate his piece of the Super Shroom. "In fact, I don't like romance – which you should know by now. I just want to get to a safe place and stay away from the monsters."

"But the monsters make this place a little entertaining!" Blade frowned. "This place is nothing with no monsters!"

"Yeah, I guess that's true…" Chopper nodded as he walked over to the edge of the cloud. He noticed that there was a tornado right over the ground. There also happened to be a couple of others above.

"Hey, it's those cyclones! …But I don't think I can move up with them…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Have you ever tried?

"Uhhhhh… No."

Mario: Then try!

"But what if I end up flying horizontally? That would make me fall to my death!" the green plumber gulped.

Mario: We'll be here for you!

"OK… Fine, I'll try." Luigi began to perform his Cyclone move and go off the edge. He was caught in the cyclone and, surprisingly, he was sent flying up to the next one. It's almost like moving up while spinning underwater.

"Hey! It worked!"

"Now try getting up those cyclones and to the closest cloud that you can find!" Chopper suggested. "I mean, that's where we would WANT to go, right? If you stayed up there all day, you'd get nowhere!"

"You didn't need to go into detail with that," Sonic pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true…"

Chopper spun around in a tornado and got sucked in to the other tornado. This allowed him to move higher up while having a stronger tornado surrounding him. But, to test things out, he went over to everyone else and sucked them in so he can bring them up to the cloud above the tornadoes.

"Wait… What the heck just happened?" Blade asked as he slowly got up after Chopper stopped spinning.

"I tried something out, and it involved sucking you guys into the tornado and bringing you all here," Chopper explained.

"Poyo, (I guess that was an interesting experience,)" Kirby said.

"See? Thou art a hero, my sweet prince!" Luvbi squealed as she kissed Chopper on the cheek, making him smack his face and step away from Luvbi while his face was a deep shade of red.

"Stop with those already! You're just only saying that because you like me, that's all!"

"That's pretty obvious," Sonic agreed.

"Well, I suppose thou art right, but my prince is my shining knight in armor. Why shouldst I be completely against him?" Luvbi asked as she gazed at Chopper as if he was wearing golden armor.

"Oh, look at that! More tornadoes!" Chopper sucked everyone into a tornado and began to head up to the tornado above that was moving. It led them up to a small cloud, but they simply jumped over to another large cloud to find a straight path of clouds.

"I can see a door just up ahead," Luigi announced. "Does that mean that this is the end?"

Mario: We'll see about that.

Mario was the first to walk on the cloudy pathway. He happened to run into a couple of Spiky Skells, but his hammer and Kickbrin were all he needed to take them down. Some Shockboxers also happened to be in his way, but a simply jump and Ground Pound took care of them.

"OK, I think that works," Meta Knight said as he flew above Mario. He decided to dive down and attack the last Spiky Skell right beside the door. Not even Mario was expecting him to do that.

Mario: What was that for?

"Sometimes a hero needs help. That's why I came in and helped you."

Mario: …OK, I guess that's fine.

They opened the door into another familiar area. This time, there happened to be about two small, bouncy clouds leading over to a tree with a sleeping Nimbi. Everyone bounced on the clouds and walked over to the Nimbi.

"_He's sleeping… But why is there a Nimbi here?" _Timpani questioned.

"Mayhap he decided to come hither to findeth some fruit," Luvbi was suddenly hit in the head by a rainbow coconut. It left her dazed for a couple of seconds, but she managed to get out of her trance.

"Why art these coconuts so loose on these trees? !"

"You know, I started to realize something…" Chopper pondered. "We don't have any heroines in the group. I don't know why we don't have a female in our group that actually helps us fight."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Sonic agreed.

"Is the prophecy sexist?" Blade asked.

"Well, I guess it would've been nice to have a female partner in our group," Luigi said. "Because sometimes it feels…"

"It feels like we're all gay," Blade concluded.

Everyone: ?

"I wasn't going to say that!"

"Oh… Sorry."

"Well, I actually heard that Samus would've been in this adventure if you weren't in this, Blade," Chopper recalled. "But, I think replacing you would've caused too much throughout this adventure, so she didn't appear."

"Well, thou dost have me, still," Luvbi giggled, kissing Chopper on the cheek and making him gag.

"Chopper… What if Heartsy was the heroine of the group?" Sonic asked, making Chopper fall over in fear.

"Pray, who is this 'Heartsy', Knave?" she asked with a suspicious look.

"She's…an evil villain that haunted Chopper's dreams. And if she were good… Then… It would be worse!"

"Hmmmmmm… I dost not know how to respond to that…" she turned away from Sonic and fluttered over to the sleeping Nimbi. "Art thou sleeping, or art thou faking?"

"Wh-Wha…?" the Nimbi slowly got himself up and yawned. "Hello, friend! How're ya doin'?"

"Dost thou realize that there art monsters around hither? Dost The Peaceness know about the monsters?"

"Monsters? Monsters are coming?!" the Nimbi gaped. "Why didn't anyone tell me this?! Wait… Was I sleeping this whole time? For a second, I totally forgot what I was doing here in the first place."

A rainbow coconut fell over on his head, causing him to become dazed. "Wait… I can hardly remember what just happened…"

"Crud… All right, I know what to do." Chopper brought his hammer out and bashed it on the Nimbi's head.

_"Was that really necessary?" _Timpani asked.

"Yeah, it was. How else could I get him to remember something? Certainly not in any other way…"

"_Well… I don't know what to say right now…"_

"Hold on… I think I'm starting to remember something!" a red ! appeared over the Nimbi's head. "Yes! I was down here because I was collecting fruit! But I got knocked out by one of the coconuts!"

"Oh, well that's nothing special…" Blade trailed.

"Poyo? (Could we have any coconuts?)" Kirby asked, licking his lips.

"Uhhhh… Say, guy, what did you just say?" Chopper was forced to translate what Kirby just said to the Nimbi. "…Oh! Sure, you can have some coconuts, but it might have some strange effect on ya."

The Nimbi tossed it over to Kirby, who ate it whole, but he suddenly fell asleep, making everyone gasp.

"Oh, no! Kirby's in another deep sleep!" Chopper cried. "Quickly! Back to The Overthere so we can get that Black Apple!"

"But that would force us to make our way ALL the way back here!" Sonic retorted. "No way we're doing that!"

"_This is very disturbing…" _Timpani trailed.

"Oh, relax, friends! That's only temporary!" the Nimbi assured. "He should wake up pretty soon. It only lasts for ten seconds!"

"Really?" Meta Knight heard a loud yawn coming from Kirby as he slowly got up and rubbed his eyes.

"Poyo! (Hi, guys!)" Kirby greeted with a cheerful look. "Poyo! (I just had a great nap! I was dreaming about delicious food!)"

"Yeah, that's Kirby all right," Chopper confirmed.

"Now, I think I need to get going," the Nimbi suggested as he fluttered over to the door. "I believe there are monsters here, so… BYE, FRIENDS!"

The Nimbi instantly bolted out of the area. Everyone shrugged and grabbed a hold of some rainbow coconuts. Perhaps they would come in handy later on. With that, they left the small area and returned to Cloud 3. The only problem here was that there was nothing to help them go up.

"_Chopper, maybe you should see if there's anything in 3-D," _Timpani suggested.

"Good call, Tippi!" Chopper smiled as he flipped him and everyone else into 3-D. They were surprised to see a yellow platform moving up and down like a lift nearby. They decided to jump on it and let it take them up to the cloud with a red door. At this point, Mario read the sign near him.

_Here Ends Cloud 3_

"Well, I guess this is the end of the third cloud," Meta Knight said. "Now, let's make our way to the next cloud."

"Wait… That Nimbi didn't tell us how many clouds there are!" Chopper frowned. "Now THAT'S not fair…"

"The only way to findeth out is on our own," Luvbi said as she followed the group into another area. They noticed that the sky was starting to get a little darker, indicating that they're moving higher up the clouds.

"Hey, look! There's a door just up ahead!" Luigi announced as he jumped on a Dark Skellobit in his way and reached the door. Mario read the sign just for the heck of it.

_Cloud 4_

Everyone shrugged and followed Luigi to the door ahead into an area with some small clouds right in front of them, but they seemed to be leading up to a large cloud above them. The only problem? Some Dark Spiky Skellobombers were flying around here.

"They're just Dark Skellobits. They're not too threatening." Blade assured before getting hit in the head by the Dark Spiky Skellobomber's head.

"This calls for something special!" Chopper spun around in a tornado and sucked the Skellobit in. It was disintegrated as soon as he finished, but he had to focus on landing on the cloud…which he wasn't on.

"Oh, no! Why is it so hard to control a tornado? !"

"I'll saveth thee, my prince!" Luvbi called out as she caught Chopper before he could plummet.

"OK, I think I'd rather fall…"

"_She just saved your life, you know…" _Blumiere noted.

"Well, that's the second time she saved me. The first time was back in that Christmas World where I got a nasty cold."

"_Wait, you repay her with this after being saved by her?"_

"It's not my fault I don't want to be in a relationship!" Chopper cried as Luvbi put him down up by another tree above the door. There happened to be rainbow lemons hanging from the tree this time.

"More fruit? Can't say I'm surprised…" Meta Knight trailed as he cut a lemon down and ate it to see how it was. This time, his eyes turned a rainbow color, as if Tippi was using her power on him.

"What the… I feel as if my eyes are different."

"That's because your eyes are rainbow colored," Sonic informed.

"Guh… It's a little bright for me too." Luckily, this happened to wear off, allowing Meta Knight's sight to go back to normal. "Ugh… Remind me to never eat that fruit again. It's sour, yet it makes things too bright…"

"Hmmmmm… Well, we should take these just in case." Blade suggested as he cut a rainbow lemon off the tree and caught it. He kept it safe in his inventory and followed the group back down to the door.

* * *

**Cloud 4, main area-**

"All right, so we've got a fruit… So we need to keep going up, right?" Chopper asked as he looked up at the bouncy cloud right near them.

"Well, there is no other answer…" Meta Knight trailed. "I suppose I'll just use my wings to fly up instead. There's no point in using those clouds to help me make my way up. I'll still be able to attack anything in sight."

"Huh… Well, I guess it's time for some more jumping!" Luigi jumped onto the first cloud and bounced up to one to the right. He could've bounced on the one to the left, but he didn't feel like it. Chopper, on the other hand, jumped over to the left to find a tornado above him. He used that to reach up to a small cloud with a chest. There happened to be a Star Shroom Shake.

"Yeah! These are so much fun to get!" Chopper smiled as he put it away.

"Pray, my sweet prince, is that a new drink?" Luvbi asked, following Chopper for the usual reasons.

"Yeah, it's a Star Shroom Shake. It lets me recover 150 HP."

"May I have a sip of that?"

"Whoa! You're not injured or anything! This is something we need to hold on just in case something bad happens to us. That's a good point for us to use it and heal ourselves. Otherwise… No. We can't just drink it because we can. Now… I think we should jump back down."

"But there doth be another way we can goest! Look!" Luvbi pointed above them, where they saw a green bubble. "Let us away!"

"…And I'm NOT joining you in that…" Chopper was too late. Luvbi grabbed him and dragged him into the bubble. What made things worse was that she was able to kiss him on the lips again.

"_Oh no not this again!" _he thought as they got fired up.

"Whoa, did they find another way up?" Sonic gawked as he looked up.

"Looks like someone's not having a fun time…" Blade trailed as he slashed at a Skell in their way. Kirby decided to follow the two up to where they were heading up, while Meta Knight followed him. Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi took the long way and jumped up to the cloud above them to a lift right next to them.

"OK, I'm going to make this a little easier for me," Luigi folded himself up first, then he launched himself straight up to the large cloud above them. He was lucky enough to hurt a Spiky Bomber Skell along the way as well.

Mario: I guess it just leaves the three of us…

"Not really. We just need to wait to get off this lift, then we can simply get to Luigi and all that jazz." Sonic assured. "Although… I wonder how the others are trying to get up here…"

"Well, Chopper's using that green bubble to get sent flying, while Kirby and Meta Knight are flying up," Blade said as he threw a shuriken at a Spiky Skell on the same cloud. It didn't do much, but Luigi's Cyclone was able to get the job done.

"Hey, look! A green bubble!" Sonic announced, pointing to the bubble above them.

Mario: Let's use it!

"Wait! I noticed something!" Luigi ran over to the elevator right over to the left and jumped on it to be carried up to a small cloud with a Spiky Skell. He simply knocked it off the cloud with a Cyclone and opened the chest it was guarding. Luigi earned a Star Shroom Shake for his victory.

"Yeah! Luigi's number one!" he cheered as he jumped back to the others. Unfortunately, they simply moved on without him. "Aw, mama mia! Why do I always have to be left behind in these adventures?"

He let out a sigh as he jumped into the bubble and fired himself up. What was worse was that he ended up hitting Mario's butt, who got sent flying straight up when Luigi got stuck in the cloud.

Mario: Mama mia!

"What the hell? What just happened?" Blade asked.

"I think Luigi was under Mario, and when he fired himself up, he hit Mario and sent him flying straight up," Sonic explained as best as he could. "And right now… Mario's coming back down."

"Aw, come on! Why do I have to be stuck in this cloud? !" Luigi exclaimed as he tried pulling himself out. Blade shrugged and pulled the green plumber out before Mario could land face flat on the cloud. When he got up, steam appeared over his head as he glared at Luigi.

Mario: Luigi! Watch where you fire yourself!

Before they could get into an argument, Blade felt something sharp poke him from behind. He yelped as he turned around to find a Spiky Skell cackling and aiming its spear at the four.

"Oh, tough guy now, are we? Well, then have some of THIS!" Blade attacked the Spiky Skell with a hurricane slash, sending it flying across the cloud. However, it didn't stop it from getting back up and throwing its head at the group.

"Uh oh… It's got some friends as well!" Luigi gulped, pointing at two Spiky Bomber Skells flying from above. They also happened to be dropping a couple of Bait Skells as well.

"_**CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP…**_" Blade groaned as he got his katana ready. "Why do WE have to deal with these many guys? That's just a big pain in the ass, don't you guys agree?"

Before they could attack, they noticed a charged Vuclan Jab hit one of the Spiky Skells, a Sword Beam attack the Spiky Bomber Skell, and a tornado strike any remaining Skells around the cloud.

"What the… What was that?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo! (Have no fear! Kirby's here!)" Kirby cheered as he landed on the same cloud as them.

"Uhhhhh… Translation, anyone?" Blade looked around, as if he was searching for someone that could understand him.

"He didn't say much that you need to know," Chopper informed as he landed on the cloud, while Luvbi was swooning over him (as usual…). Meta Knight flew down and gave one last finishing blow to the Spiky Skell that was trying to flee.

"Well, you guys sure made an entrance…" Luigi trailed.

"_I believe we're not too far from the next door," _Timpani informed, floating in Chopper's hands at the moment. _"Ugh… I still keep feeling the memories of something like this…"_

"_Maybe you aren't feeling good," _Blumiere predicted, trying to make her feel good. _"Is there anything I could do to help you?"_

"Could we do anything to help too?" Chopper asked.

"…" Timpani was silent for a moment as everyone walked closed to her wand. _"Not really… Let's… Let's just move on, all right? I'd rather not talk about anything that happened a long time ago right now. It's just I thought I heard a familiar voice in my head…"_

"OK, I guess we shouldn't bother her then," Sonic suggested before looking up at the cloud above. Luigi was able to Super Jump his way up, while Chopper jumped and got into a tornado to try to get up there with those who couldn't fly. Kirby and Meta Knight simply flew up with their ability to fly.

"OK, just a couple of more clouds and we should be up there," Chopper announced as he jumped onto a bouncy cloud to bounce up to the cloud above. Everyone followed up to the next cloud, but they had to go to a small cloud to their left that had a Dark Skellobit patrolling.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby was about to attack, but the Dark Skellobit got him first with its spear, knocking Kirby's ability off the cloud and down to the bottom of Cloud 4. He was, of course, devastated.

"Well, there goes the Fighter ability…" Meta Knight trailed as he flew over Kirby and took care of the Dark Skellobit for him. All Kirby could do at the moment was sulk and jump up to the large cloud above him.

"He doth seem rather sad for losing an ability…" Luvbi trailed.

"That happens all the time," Sonic assured. "He and Chopper have always lost their abilities – even if they were good or bad."

"Well, let's just go. I'm getting a little tired waiting around here!" Luigi said as he Super Jumped up to the cloud with the red door. Everyone took the long way by jumping on the cloud that Kirby jumped on and jumped to the one above to find Luigi reading the sign by the door.

_Here Ends Cloud 4_

"Whew… Four clouds down… I don't know how many are left…" Chopper trailed.

"There's only one way to find out," Meta Knight said as he opened the door. Everyone shrugged and followed him to the next area. They couldn't see any clouds above them, but they saw a Save Block right next to them. Meta Knight hit it to save their game, then they explored this area.

Mario: I see no clouds…

"I agree on that one, bro!" Luigi agreed.

Of course, someone went over to read what the sign had on there.

_Cloud 5_

Yeah… Just the fifth cloud.

"Hold on…" Meta Knight stopped and gestured the group to stop. "I feel that there's another presence around here…"

"Another presence? You think one of Tipral's minions came here to attack?" Chopper asked.

"If Tipral was hither, I would maketh him pay for what he didst to Crysta," Luvbi growled, remembering that horrible moment. "Why dost he have to do horrible things like that?"

"Hmmmmm… Hold on a second." Meta Knight drew his sword and swung his back. "We're definitely not alone… I can feel some kind of voice around here…"

A large, muscular blue Skellobit landed right in front of the group. Compared to other Skellobits, it was a lot bigger, and it also wore dark blue armor, with the helmet having horns on the sides. The Skellobit also was carrying a large sword that didn't look like anyone could even carry.

"Yer not goin' anywhere, heroes!" the Skellobit said. "As a Skelloknight, it is my duty to stop any heroes from reaching The Peacness!"

"Oh, no… They made it already?" Luvbi frowned.

"We didn't exactly 'make it' to The Peaceness… Ya see, we're makin' our way here, but I was ordered by my leader to watch for the heroes! Now that yer here, I can accomplish my duties!"

"_This is a rather strange Skellobit… However, it might be a lot stronger than any other Skellobit we've faced before…" _Timpani warned.

"Relax, Tippi. We've faced guys bigger than this!" Chopper assured before looking back at the Skelloknight "…And more hideous as well."

"Now, then…" the Skelloknight cracked its knuckles and grinned under its helmet. "When I'm done with you, my master shall be pleased with me! En guarde!"

The Skelloknight charged at the group, but Meta Knight managed to counter its gigantic sword with his own sword, Galaxia. It was sort of shocking to see him counter the monster's attack, but he had some impressive skills as a Star Warrior. He managed to slice at the Skelloknight, but there was one problem.

It didn't do a thing.

"Wh-What…?" Meta Knight was knocked away by the Skelloknight's massive uppercut punch attack, sending him flying toward the heroes. Chopper managed to catch him by surprise and bring him gently on the ground.

"Hold on, I'm going to try something," Chopper, with his Tornado ability, clasped his hands together and fired a tornado at the Skelloknight. It seemed to keep it off guard, but that wasn't enough. "Ugh… I gotta find out its weakness…"

He pulled Timpani's wand out and began investigating the enemy.

"_That's a Skelloknight. It's definitely one of the stronger enemies we've seen so far through this place… Max HP is 240. Attack is 13. Defense on armor is ?. The Skelloknight may be slow, but that sword packs a punch! Get too close to this monster, and you're sure to be knocked back by its powerful sword attack. Another thing you should know is that the Skelloknight is invulnerable to any attacks with that armor on. However, if you have enough wind on your hands, you could possibly take that armor off and hurt it. But it's pretty dangerous…" _Timpani informed.

"So we need some kind of strong wind to get is armor off?" Chopper pondered.

"Poyo! (I know what to do!)" Kirby walked up to the Skelloknight and tried to inhale its armor. Unfortunately, not even that was helpful. Kirby ended up getting sent flying when the Skelloknight spun its sword around.

"Try everythin' ya want against me! You'll know that you can't beat me!" the Skelloknight cackled as it began to slowly make its way toward the heroes. Chopper, however, tried using his Tornado's wind powers to blow a gust of air at the Skelloknight.

Mario: That reminds me of Flurrie's Gale Force.

"Who's Flurrie?" Chopper asked.

Mario: Never mind…

Nevertheless, Chopper used his wind powers to try to blow the Skelloknight back. But alas, it didn't do a thing.

"All right, I'm fighting this guy," Blade announced as he rushed at the Skelloknight. He tried using many ninja moves to attack, but even still, it didn't do a thing! The Skelloknight just stood there, as if it didn't suffer from anything!

"Oh, come on! This is so gay!"

"Hwahwahwahwa!" the Skelloknight grabbed a hold of Blade, who couldn't even breathe at this point, and it threw him over to the heroes. Sonic jumped out of the way and used a Whirlwind to keep the monster off guard. It did, but it didn't take its armor off.

"Sonic, I'm going to try something out," Chopper announced as Sonic jumped out of the way. He began to spin in a tornado and spin right into the Skelloknight. Because of how strong the tornado was, it was able to remove the Skelloknight's body armor and its helmet.

"What the…! My armor! Why you little…!" the Skelloknight knocked Chopper away with its sword, removing his Tornado ability. "That should take care of him… But now I'm vulnerable! Great."

"_Now, there's something else I didn't tell you about…" _Timpani noted. _"When its armor's off, it's able to move a lot faster, so watch out for it when it tries to charge at you."_

"Well that's nice…" Luigi trailed. "Moving faster always helps."

"Watch this!" the Skelloknight ran up to Luigi and made him trip with a sweeping kick. This allowed the monster to strike him with a powerful slash attack afterward, sending the green plumber flying across the cloud. Luckily, Mario managed to catch him and keep him from falling.

"Since thou art able to hit this Skelloknight, I suggest thou movest fast," Luvbi suggested, stepping away from the fight (even though she doesn't have feet).

"Yeah yeah, we know that already," Chopper chucked a couple of fireballs at the Skelloknight, but it managed to avoid them by jumping back. "Geez! This guy has good agility without its armor!"

"Well let's see how it handles this," Meta Knight disappeared with his cape and attacked the Skelloknight from behind with a powerful slash attack. It cringed in pain, allowing Meta Knight to attack while spinning around in a tornado. The monster even had some scars on its body too!

"At least Meta Knight managed to hurt it," Blade said as he tossed a couple of shurikens at the Skelloknight. Even though they pierced through its body, it still managed to hold its own and rush straight for Blade.

"Well let's not let him do that," Chopper suggested as he pointed down at an angle and shot some fire energy at the Skelloknight's feet, causing it to yelp in pain. This allowed him to attack the monster with a fire smash. Blade joined in as well and used a fire slash to make the burn on the Skelloknight bigger.

"Poyo! (I want to fight too!)" Kirby cried as he inhaled a fireball Chopper tossed to him and spat it straight at the Skelloknight's head, leaving it stunned.

"Ugh… Why am I lettin' a bunch of heroes attack me like this? !" the Skelloknight gripped its sword and swung it around like crazy. Everyone but Meta Knight managed to avoid its powerful sword attack.

"_At least I'm not involved in this fight…" _Timpani gaped.

"Yeah, you're pretty lucky…" Luigi trailed as he slowly got up and shook himself from the damage he took. He decided to attack the Skelloknight with his jump attack, followed by performing some stylish moves. The Skelloknight tried attacking him, but its efforts were futile when Luigi kicked it in the face.

"OOF! My face!" the Skelloknight grunted.

"Well, that was interesting," Sonic said as he quickly got up. He tried attacking the Skelloknight with a Homing Attack. However, it managed to catch a hold of Sonic, but it didn't stop him from attacking him while curled in a ball.

"Take this!" the blue hedgehog attacked the Skelloknight with his Whirlwind to keep it off guard, then he proceeded to bash it with a couple of Homing Attacks while, of course, performing stylish moves. He finished off his attack by using Screwdy's corkscrew attack.

Unfortunately, this caused Sonic to get knocked back by the Skelloknight's sword. How someone could move quick with a large sword, I have no idea, but it seemed to be doing it just fine.

"If only we had the muscle to fight back…" Chopper grumbled, chucking an ice ball at the Skelloknight. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to freeze it, but it did do some damage to it. "Fire and ice doesn't seem to do much to this guy…"

Mario: Then it looks like we need to work together, Luigi!

"Wait, what? Are you being serious?" Luigi sighed as Mario jumped toward him, making him swing his older brother around. When he let go of him, Mario was sent flying straight for the Skelloknight. He brought his fists in front of him as he delivered a powerful attack to its face.

"Hmph! Yer pretty tough, I'll admit." the Skelloknight commented. But how about you try handlin' THIS!"

The Skelloknight grabbed a hold of Mario and threw him like a bowling ball. Afterward, the monster was able to regain its armor with some kind of strange magic it held within it. Now this was where things were getting dangerous…

"Crap… This is just what we needed…" Blade grunted.

"Then I guess it's time for my Mach Tornado," Meta Knight said as he raised his sword up. "Stand out of the way, everyone! This could get a little dangerous…"

"Hwahwahwa! What're ya gonna do? Stab the cloud with that yellow knife?" the Skelloknight sneered.

"Not quite, but you're right on one thing," Meta Knight brought his sword on the ground with power stored in it and unleashed his Mach Tornado upon the Skelloknight. It nearly wet its pants as it got sucked into the powerful attack. When it fell on the cloud, its armor was shattered.

"Man, that was awesome!" Chopper smiled.

"Crap… My armor's gone!" the Skelloknight gulped. "But I'm not done killin' ya! Prepare to die!"

The Skelloknight gripped its sword and charged at the group. Meta Knight managed to parry its sword with his own sword and slash at its arm. Blade joined in and slashed at its leg.

"Hold on… Why isn't it bleeding?" Blade asked.

"This thing is nothing but a skeleton," Meta Knight explained. "There's no way you can make it bleed when it's already dead."

"Well who cares if it bleeds or not? We're just going to kick its butt!" Chopper said as he threw Kirby straight at the Skelloknight. His kick was able to knock the monster over and allow Chopper to stomp on its head while performing a stylish move.

"Grrrrr! What's wrong with me?" the Skelloknight asked as it got up, only to get hit by Chopper's ice slamming kick. It didn't freeze the monster, but it was enough for Kirby to stun it by getting on Carrie and jumping on its head.

Mario ran up to it next and stomped on its head, giving it a Ground Pound afterward. But it didn't stop the Skelloknight from hurting Mario with his sword. Luigi gasped and ran up to the Skelloknight next, attacking it with his Super Jump when it tried jumping in the air.

"His HP doth look a little low…" Luvbi noticed.

"Well, it's just all in a day's work for us," Chopper said as he held Starbow up and summoned stars down on the Skelloknight. He then ran up to it and kicked it in the belly with a flaming kick.

When the Skelloknight knocked Chopper back with a sword attack, Kirby tried to inhale its sword. Despite being big, he managed to take it from the Skelloknight and spit it back at the monster, leaving a large scar on its body.

"You'll PAY for that!" roared the Skelloknight.

"Not for any longer," Meta Knight said, raising his sword up. Upon swinging it, a green beam of sword energy headed straight toward the Skelloknight and even pierced right through its entire body.

"_Unnghh… No… I… I lost…_" the Skelloknight gasped as it was sliced in half and soon disintegrated into smoke. Everyone looked somewhat surprised. They didn't see any guts for blood flying!

"What a strange death…" Blade trailed. "That was kind of unexpected…"

With the Skelloknight gone, a green bubble appeared right above them. Apparently it seemed to lead up to a cloud high above the group. They decided to jump in and let it fire them up to the cloud.

"Pray, dost thou see the sky? It is getting darker." Luvbi noted as everyone looked at the sky in the background after landing on the cloud.

"Too bad I don't have anything to help me jump up on these clouds," Chopper frowned as he looked over to the bouncy cloud to his left and another green bubble to their right. "It would've been really helpful."

"Well it looks like these both lead up to the next door," Luigi confirmed after taking the bubble up and coming back down, as much as he didn't want to. "So… Should we take the bubble?"

"The bubble wouldeth be a lot faster," Luvbi noted.

"Then we'll take the bubble," Chopper announced as he jumped into the bubble and fired himself up. Everyone followed him as well and reached the cloud above them. It was surprisingly not that long of a way up…

But, they did have a sign to look forward to!

_Here Ends Cloud 5_

"I suppose we can make our way to Cloud 6 then," Meta Knight said as they entered the door into the next area. They saw a cloud just above, but they also saw a Shockboxer walking around on the cloud. Of course, someone read the sign.

_Cloud 6_

"I call fighting this thing!" Chopper announced, chucking a couple of fireballs at the Shockboxer. "OK, I'll be perfectly honest… I think my fireballs work a lot better than my ice balls."

He ended up finishing the Shockboxer off with one simple stomp attack. It ended up dropping an Ultimate Shroom Shake, but Kirby managed to get it first and hold onto it for safe keepings.

"Hey! You stole that from me!"

"Poyo, (Well, I got it first, so you snooze you lose,)" Kirby responded, sticking his tongue out at him.

"Dang you…" Chopper grumbled before getting held back by Meta Knight.

"I will meet thee all at the end of this cloud," Luvbi said as she flew up and looked back down at the seven. "But maketh sure thou dost not goeth too slow! We dost have limited time, thou knowest!"

"Well, there she goes…" Sonic trailed as she flew upward. "I guess that just leaves us to do all of the work."

"Yup," Chopper nodded as he jumped up to a cloud above him. He noticed that there wasn't anything to the right, so he ran over to the left, but soon stopped when he saw black Skellobits in their way.

"Are those Dark Skellobits?" Luigi gulped.

"_No, they're Dark Skells," _Timpani informed. _"I suppose they're the strongest kind of normal Skellobits besides the Skelloknights… Their Max HP is 84. Attack is 14. Defense is 4."_

"Ouch… That's a lot." Blade gawked. Nevertheless, he got his katana ready and threw a couple of shurikens at the Dark Skell. He then rushed straight toward the monster and finished it off with a fire slash.

They continued their way to the right of the cloud until they saw a small cloud with a ladder leading up to a cloud that's next to a platform moving from left to right. It didn't take them too long to climb up the ladder, but waiting on the platform took them a bit longer.

"C'mon, platform… You can go faster than this." Sonic groaned as he tapped his foot out of impatience.

"Yeah, I kind of want to get through this place already," Blade grumbled while crossing his arms. "I'm getting tired of climbing these damn clouds."

"Your complaining isn't going to help you, you know…" Meta Knight said as they landed on the cloud that was closest to them as they jumped off the platform. They were greeted by a red door, but Luvbi was definitely not there.

"_It must be another one of these fruit trees," _Timpani predicted.

"_It's best to check what's there anyway," _suggested Blumiere.

"Then in we shall go!" Chopper smiled as he kicked the door open. What was surprising was that the tree was right next to them when they walked in. They noticed that there were rainbow cherries up on the tree this time. Meta Knight cut one down, but Chopper ate it first.

"Hmmmmm… Nothing happened."

"That's odd. I'm sure something would've happened to you by now…" Meta Knight trailed.

"Well, so much for that," Chopper turned around, but he felt a little floaty. When he jumped, he felt as light as a feather. In fact, it was almost if he was levitating, making everyone gawk.

"He's…I don't know who…" Blade pondered.

After a bit, Chopper landed on the ground, looking just as confused as ever. "What in the world…? That was the weirdest fruit I've ever tasted…"

Meta Knight grabbed another one, but he held onto it for safe keepings. They left the area afterward and went back to the main area in Cloud 6. They decided to take a bouncy cloud up to a large cloud with two Rainbow Puffs and two Dark Skells. Meta Knight finished them off easily with his Mach Tornado.

"You don't use that often, do you?" Luigi asked.

"No, not really," Meta Knight replied as he flew up to a cloud above them. Everyone was able to jump up there, so they did that to find a green bubble. They each took turns to get sent flying up to another green bubble. What made things worse was that there were two others at a right and left upper angle.

However, half decided to take the left, and the other half took the right. The left side simply had some bouncy clouds to lead up to the top cloud, while the right side had a Star Shroom Shake and some cloud platforms to reach the top.

"Pray, what hast taken thee so long?" Luvbi asked, getting a little impatient. "I hath been waiting hither for a while!"

"The majority of us can't fly, you know…" Chopper trailed.

"Well, thou dost have a point. It is verily hard to get mad at someone cute as thee!"

"Ugh… I don't understand WHY you fell in love with me in the first place…"

"Poyo? (How did you even meet her?)" Kirby asked.

"Well… If you REALLY want to know, it's a long story. …OK, it's not actually long, but it's something that scarred me for life. And I'm being dead serious here."

"'Scarred' you... Yeah." Blade blinked. "I don't understand how that could be considered scarring..."

He gave his whole explanation about first meeting Luvbi in The Underwhere by first saying what he saw at first and when he heard her sing. Luvbi sighed sweetly, remembering the song and hearing the voice that she considered 'love' to her ears (if she has any). Chopper finished off where he barely avoided getting kissed by her before she discovered that she had to go back to her mother.

"...And that's how it happened," Chopper concluded.

"Oh... Well, I suppose that was an interesting scene." Meta Knight remarked. "But did you tell her to take me instead?"

"Oh... Yeah... Hope you didn't mind!" he sweat dropped as Meta Knight rolled his eyes, unsure of how to react.

"I guess that must've been a tough scene for you," Luigi said.

"And it was verily a cute scene as well!" Luvbi giggled as she closed her eyes and held her wings together. "Ah... Romance doth be something special around hither, dost thou agree, my sweet prince?"

"Bleh! No way!" Chopper gagged as he walked over to the sign and began to read it.

_Here Ends Cloud 6_

"I don't know how long I can take this place," Blade growled.

"Well, we should be done pretty soon, I hope…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, the sky doth be getting a little darker," Luvbi informed. "Mayhap The Peacness is up in the stars?"

Mario: Could we even survive?

"Poyo… (I hope…)" Kirby trailed.

With these questions, they all walked into the next area. They noticed that the sky this time was starting to become a little blackish. But even then, Meta Knight read the sign. Why? To make sure that they were at the right cloud.

_Cloud 7_

"I don't understand why I'm even reading these…" Meta Knight trailed.

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged. "Now, let's see what we've got here…"

They only noticed the wind rising up from the ground and a Waddle Doo holding a parasol. Two of them to be exact. Chopper and Kirby inhaled both to gain the parasol ability. To make things worse for Chopper, Luvbi fluttered under the parasol with him to keep herself in the shade (even when it was getting dark in the sky, the sun was still shining).

"My sweet prince! Thou hast got a parasol just to helpeth me!" Luvbi giggled.

"NO! Not at all!

"_It's meant to help them with the updraft just below us," _Timpani said as Chopper and Kirby began to float upward from the draft. As for the rest of the group… They slowly began to float up with a jump, but not as much as the two.

Mario: Too bad we can't be as floaty as them.

"Well, at least the updraft is helping us move up a bit," Sonic said as he reached the cloud above them. Two Rainbow Puffs were floating around on the cloud, but his Spin Jump was able to finish them off.

"Yeesh, this updraft really is getting in the way…" Luigi trailed as he tried to get onto the cloud after jumping. He did a horrendous job at it, and it even got a couple of people to chuckle at him.

Mario: You really are a slouch!

"Isn't that a little rude to insult your own brother like that?" Chopper asked, frowning at Mario. "Personally, I find that a little mean… I thought you respected him?"

Mario: Oh… Sorry about that! ^^;

"Yeah, please respect me…" Luigi trailed as he landed on the cloud. The updraft wasn't around over by the right, but there happened to be one to the left. There was one moving up, and another moving down.

"Let's check over there," Blade suggested as he let the updraft take him up. Chopper and Kirby held their parasols up and went even higher than him. They ended up near a Dark Spiky Skell that Chopper got hurt by when he landed on top of it.

"OW! That spike's pointy!" Chopper cried.

"Poyo, (I'll handle this,)" Kirby attacked the Dark Skell with his parasol to defeat it. What surprised them was that it dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake. Nevertheless, they took it anyway and left the draft going down take them back.

Unfortunately for Blade, he went up there for nothing.

"Damn it! All that for nothing!" he grumbled as he came back down. He noticed everyone jump over to the cloud with no updraft, so he followed them up onto the cloud to find a Dark Bomber Skell dropping Dark Bait Skells.

"I suppose these are stronger versions of the Bait Skells…" Sonic trailed as he got himself ready to attack. The Dark Bait Skell, however, let its ice breath out and froze Sonic solid.

"Hoo boy…" Chopper used his fire powers to melt Sonic out of his icy prison, then tossed a fireball at the Dark Bait Skell. Meanwhile, Luigi sent the Dark Bomber Skell flying out with his Super Jump.

"Woo! Man, I managed to take that enemy down easily!" Luigi cheered, punching the air while smiling.

"Yea, we sure art proud…" Luvbi said sarcastically while rolling her. "What doth be most important is reaching The Peaceness!"

"_We've already said that a million times…" _Timpani trailed.

"True, very true," Chopper nodded as he jumped up to a platform above them. They all joined him and waited for it to bring them up to a cloud with a couple of Sky Lakitus flying around.

Mario, tipping his hat, got into battle. He stomped on the first Sky Lakitu and used a Ground Pound to finish it off. Sonic ran in and used a couple of Homing Attacks on the second Sky Lakitu to destroy it, and then Meta Knight finished off the final Sky Lakitu that pulled a Sky Spiny out.

"That should take care of the Lakitus around here…" Meta Knight trailed as his cape blew through the wind.

"Well, which way to go? Let me guess… Up?" Blade joked until he noticed that there were yellow white pillars floating nearby. "What the… Do you guys notice those pillars floating?"

"Yeah, I can see 'em…" Sonic trailed. "Just like Overthere Stair…"

"So we art much closer!" Luvbi squealed as she hugged Chopper. "I can't believest that we art almost thither! When we maketh our way thither, we should goest on a little date, just like we shouldeth done!"

"What? No way!" Chopper retorted, getting out of her grasps. "I bet there are some Nimbis that are in trouble up there! We're not going to spend time on a date (that I don't want to go to, nonetheless!)! See, this is what I was telling you about earlier. You only seem to care about one thing and nothing else!"

"…Yea, I believest thou art correct," she responded with her head looking down at the clouds. "Please forgivest me, my sweet prince."

"I'll forgive you. But for now, we're going up." Chopper jumped on the pillars and jumped onto the cloud that was just beside the pillars. What he did see was an updraft leading up to a cloud with an Overthere-like building.

"Yup. They're ripping off The Overthere now."

"Poyo, (Not exactly,)" Kirby noted as he floated up to the cloud. "Poyo. (There's a rainbow on top of the roof, so that makes it look a little interesting, in my opinion…)"

They simply went past the building and took a cloud up to a red door where a sign was. Chopper wanted to make sure that they were at the end of this cloud.

_Here Ends Cloud 7_

"Yeah, this is it all right," Chopper confirmed as he pushed the door open into the next area. Unfortunately, for Chopper and Kirby, they got hit by two rainbow blasts from two Rainbow Puffs that were right in front of them, making them lose their Parasol ability.

"Poyo… (Dang it… That always happens…)" Kirby groaned.

"It's not the end of the world if you don't have an ability on you," Meta Knight informed, swinging his sword and firing a Sword Beam at the two Rainbow Puffs. "You can go on without your Copy Abilities."

"Quite true," Blade agreed.

"Hmmmmm… So how far do you think until we reach the top of this cloud?" Luigi asked.

"_What cloud is this?" _Blumiere asked.

_Cloud 8_

"There. I read the sign for you." Sonic said as he looked away from the sign and hit a yellow ? block. An Ultra Shroom popped out for Meta Knight to slice into seven pieces. They each took a piece and recovered 50 HP.

"I wonder what this is for…" Chopper pondered. "Another mini-boss?"

"Well, I dost not see anything blocking our way…" Luvbi trailed. "Mayhap we shouldst just continue on."

Everyone agreed and waited for a cloud to come down for them. They jumped on it and waited for it to bring them up to a cloud above them. A smaller pillar seemed to be in their way when they reached the cloud. Neverthless they jumped over it and reached another building with a red ! block under it.

"This doth remind me of the Overvator, if I recallest," Luvbi noted.

"Overvator Rovervator," Blade said while crossing his arms. "Let's just see how this thing is."

Blade hit the red ! block, causing the building to be surrounded by a strange, glittering rainbow light that allowed it to slowly ascend through a couple of clouds, as if they were ascending into heaven.

"Heavenly!" Luigi commented.

Mario: Yeah, it sure is!

When the building reached the cloud it stopped at, everyone got off and found a couple of Dark Skells charging at the heroes. Meta Knight, using his skills, summoned a Mach Tornado to finish them off.

"I'll be honest… That Mach Tornado is overpowered." Chopper commented.

"But it does help us through this world, doesn't it?" Meta Knight questioned.

"True…" Sonic agreed.

They found another pillar floating near a small cloud they jumped on. But the only huge problem was a Dark Spiky Bomber Skell flying above it. Nevertheless, Luigi managed to hit it with a Super Jump and knock it out of the air. He also landed on a cloud just above them.

Everyone followed up to Luigi to a green bubble. Each of them took turns going up it, but they happened to notice a little something from the rainbow, actually.

It was getting bigger.

"Geez… Who would've thought we would see a large rainbow like that?" Sonic gaped as he landed on the cloud. Everyone looked up above at the large cloud above them. They didn't see anything else, meaning that this could be the top.

"So we've finally reached the end of these clouds…" Meta Knight trailed.

"Not yet," Luvbi noted, looking up at a couple of moving clouds leading up. "Thou still hast to jump on these clouds."

"Thanks for reminding…" Sonic groaned as he jumped from cloud to cloud. Everyone followed him until they reached the top. They saw a sign, but they didn't see a door around.

"No door? Then what does this sign read?" Chopper asked as he walked over to the sign and read it aloud.

_Here Ends Cloud 8_

"I don't see a door here… But I see four sprouts here…" Luigi informed, pointing to the sprouts on the ground.

"Mayhap the fruits art something that we needed?" Luvbi pondered.

"The fruits? Hmmmmm…" Meta Knight pulled out the fruits he had, while Chopper pulled out some that he had. Both of them placed them down on the sprouts and, to their amazement, four trees were instantly grown.

"Holy…! Did you just see that? !" Blade gaped. "They created trees in a blink of an eye!"

"That's pretty cool," Chopper smiled before a door appeared right next to the sign. "Well… I guess we better get a move on then!"

They entered through the door to find a large gap between the cloud they were standing on and the cloud just up ahead. Apparently there happened to be a conveniently placed spring there.

Mario: That's a big jump…

"Poyo? (How do we get across this?)" Kirby asked.

"_From what I'm seeing there might be something hidden here…" _Blumiere predicted. _"Chopper, flash my wife's wand onto that gap and see if there's anything of any importance hidden."_

"Sure thing!" Chopper flashed Timpani's wand on the gap. What they saw was the rainbow itself…but hidden?

"_This rainbow… It's almost as if it's making a bridge…" _Timpani trailed as she made it visible.

"Well, it sure does look cool close up," Chopper smiled as he walked over to it.

"Pray, my prince! Don't goest too close! The light might hurt thy eyes!" Luvbi cried.

"Relax! It's not going to take too long!" Chopper placed his hand on the rainbow in order to climb onto it. However, what happened instead was that he was surrounded by a rainbow aura.

"Poyo? (What the heck?)" Kirby gaped.

Not only did he recover all of his HP, but he also felt a strange new power within him. He noticed that his Flip Gauge has even doubled to what it usually was before. His hands were also surrounded by a rainbow aura as he stepped back from the rainbow.

"What in the world…? Why are my hands surrounded by a rainbow aura?" he gaped as he saw a rainbow ball of energy fire from his hands at the rainbow. "Wait a second… Is this a new elemental hand power? But… I was expecting electric or something!"

"Oh, yeah… That electric ball power-up." Sonic recalled.

"But… What does this even do? What's the point of rainbow energy in the first place? I see no purpose to it…" Chopper frowned while looking at his glowing hands.

"Poyo! (Ooh! I wanna touch that!)" Kirby cheered as he knocked Chopper over and touched the rainbow. Just like Chopper, he recovered all of his HP, but he also gained a few new moves from it.

He reached out for something that looked like a sword. To his surprise, he found his Final Cutter weapon that he mostly used from the Smash Bros. games with him. When he jumped, he was able to spin in a cartwheel, almost like his one move in the Smash Bros. game as well.

"Poyo! (Yes! I finally have more useful attacks now!)" he fist pumped as he landed on the cloud. "Poyo! (Two great abilities in my hand! Wonderful!)"

"I'll go next," Sonic announced, touching the rainbow. After recovering his HP, he had the need to clench his fist. "Sonic Wind!"

A blue gust of wind appeared around Blade and sent him flying up. He screamed as he fell face flat on the cloud.

"Whoops! Sorry, Blade… Didn't mean to do that." Sonic chuckled sheepishly. "I guess I got the Sonic Wind in my hands…"

"All right, then let's find out what _I_ have!" Blade grinned as he knocked Sonic out of the way and touched the rainbow. He regained all of his strength, but he also gained the ability to unleash a powerful Dragon Beam, which summons a Chinese dragon and rams right into anything in its path.

"WHOA! That's… That's friggin' sweet! I can use the Dragon Beam now? ! That's something only a true ninja could learn! No… No way!"

Mario: Let's see what I'll get from this…

The red plumber stepped up to touch the rainbow. What he got? Well… He received the Super Ground Pound, which is a stronger version of his normal Ground Pound. It's capable of flipping any enemy over, such as a Koopa or a Cleft.

Mario: Well, I'll take it!

"Now it's just me and Meta Knight!" Luigi jumped over Mario and touched the rainbow. After recovering his HP, he gained the ability to flutter in the air while jumping, which can make his jump stronger against any enemy. His Cyclone was also able to fling tornados from his left and right as well. It does some damage, but it mostly knocks them back.

"So thou hast gained upgrades?" Luvbi asked while raising an eyebrow.

"It looks like it… Now let's see what I can get." Meta Knight touched the rainbow, but nothing seemed to affect him in any way except for healing his own HP. "Hmmmm? I felt…nothing."

"_Perhaps it is only the heroes that get upgrades from this rainbow?" _Timpani pondered.

"If that's the case, then it could be…"

"I'm sorry, Meta Knight," Chopper apologized.

"You don't need to apologize, young warrior. I've already got an arsenal of abilities on me. What really matters is that we get across this rainbow and reach the end of this cloudy climb.

"And hopefully we can get away from these monsters soon!" Blade hoped as he heard a couple of monstrous voices coming from behind the door. "They've caught up pretty quick!"

"Then let's move!" Chopper crossed the rainbow and walked over to the spring. Unfortunately, it didn't appear to be functioning at the moment. "Crud! This spring isn't working!"

"I doth believest that rainbow energy hast the ability to activate things or color things…" Luvbi recalled.

"Really? Well let's see what happens here!" Chopper tossed a rainbow ball at the spring. They all witnessed a rainbow aura surround it and activate it. "I wonder where this even leads…"

"_It's possible that it could even lead you to the stars themselves…" _Timpani trailed.

"Wait… We have to go high up to the STARS? !" Luigi gaped. "That's…TOO FAR!"

Mario sighed, grabbed Luigi, and jumped on the spring to send them flying straight up. Everyone else nodded and followed them up to possibly The Peacness. Just in time to escape from the monsters.

"Wh-What? ! Where did they go? !" a Shayde asked as it got across the rainbow. "Did… Did they escape from us? !"

"Oh, this is not good fer us…" a Dark Skellobit shook its head. "And we almost HAD 'EM!"

"Oh, thou dost not have to lose hope just yet…" a dark voice hissed. The same dark wizard from the bush flew over to the monsters. "They may hath madeth thine way to The Peacness, but we can still get a hold of them!"

"And how do we plan on doing that?" a Shayde asked.

"Oh, thou wilt see…"

* * *

**Near The Peaceness-**

As the heroes landed on the highest point on the clouds, they noticed that the sky was already a black color. They could even see the stars from up here as well, indicating that they were close to space itself.

Mario: At least there's still air here…

"If we were straight in outer space, I don't know what would happen…" Luigi shivered. "Not only that, but it's cold here!"

"Deal with it, hairy green one," Luvbi said as she fluttered over to the Star Block. "The Peacness is just up ahead!"

"Good!" Chopper ran straight to the Star Block and gave it a good punch. "It's great to be out of THAT mess…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With their final climb, our heroes were relieved to be at the top of the world. Not only that, but they earned some nice abilities as well. "Well, now that we've got a hold of these new abilities, I think we should be able to conquer anything in our way!" said Chopper heroically as everyone face palmed at him. Everything around this place looked exciting. Meta Knight was even fascinated by this place too. "I will admit, I do think this is a beautiful world… But where has everyone gone?" Everyone began to wonder this as they began to explore the clouds of The Peacness._

* * *

**HOLY CRAP... That was one big chapter to write, but it was weird that this didn't take as long as Chapter 15-3 to write, which was shorter than this. On the bright side, everyone (except Meta Knight) got some new moves! So, it should prove to be pretty useful through these later chapters of Super Paper Chopper.**

**Now, I did say that Chapter 15-5 would be long... And yes, it probably will be. So, if you can't take long chapters... Well, I can't help you there. But enough about that. I think this should be a little Christmas present to you all, since I probably won't have the next chapter finished by Christmas.**

**So Merry Early Christmas, people!**


	92. Darkness in The Peaceness

**CHAPTER 15-5**

**-Darkness in The Peaceness-**

_"__So… This is The Peacness… It's a very pretty world…" _Timpani commented as they took the time to look around this new place. They were all relieved to be at the top of the world, especially Blade, who was exhausted from the huge climb here. Instead of inatantly making their way to the Nimbis, they decided to stretch and relax. And besides… Don't heroes NEED to have some relaxation before going on a little adventure to the Pure Heart?

"Well, with our new abilities, we should be just fine," Chopper assured, looking at his rainbow aura hands. "Although… I'm a little disappointed with my new ability… Seriously, rainbow energy? I don't see how it's much of a use against enemies compared to fire and ice… Electric would've helped me paralyze enemies, that's for sure…"

"Sucks for you," Blade snickered before receiving confused looks from everyone else. "Hey, sometimes mocking someone is healthy for you! You know how it is for Night and I mocking Bang for being stupid!"

"Uhhhhh… We were just confused on why you just went like that. It was almost a way of, uhh… I don't know what word to say." Sonic pondered.

"Poyo! (Well I don't think it matters right now! I've got two new moves!)" Kirby smiled, feeling more cheerful than ever. "Poyo! (Now I don't have to rely on using my Pixls or inhaling things all the time when I have no ability!)"

"Yeah, that's pretty nice," Chopper agreed. "At least my Flip Gauge is bigger, so exploring in 3-D should be a lot easier now."

"How long art thou able to stayeth in 3-D?" Luvbi asked, out of curiosity.

"Let's see," the young Star Warrior flipped into 3-D and waited for about thirty seconds before taking damage. He returned to 2-D afterward.

"Only about thirty seconds. Not too bad."

"I guess that's not too bad of an ability you got," Meta Knight commented. "And remember, Chopper… It's not wise to put yourself down when you believe that a new power you possess seems too weak."

Mario: Well… Rainbow doesn't really help too much…

Before they could even continue their conversation, Luvbi fluttered ahead and looked back at the group with a smile.

"So hither we art! Welcome to The Peaceness! Pray, it hast been verily a long time since I've been hither with mine parents." Luvbi said as she pondered. "Not much hast verily changed, though…"

"_Well, is there anyone here that you know?" _Timpani asked.

"Yea, I doth remember someone who lived hither, but I'm not sure if he still dost live hither. His given name is **Elbi**. He is verily old, just like my father, but even if he dost have a shrine, he is verily not a king. What doth bother me about him is that his son, Wenbi, hast a huge crush on me!"

"Wenbi? You mean that Nimbi we saw when I was taking you back to your parents?" Chopper gawked. "Gee, I felt kind of sorry for him after what I saw from him. He must have a hard time…"

"Well the thing is, I am in love with thee!" she giggled before kissing Chopper's cheek, making him gag. "He is not verily in mine interest. I doth feel that he tries to stalk me at times. And besides… I doth have a choice on who I love. He hast to understand."

_"Yeah, that's all up to you, I can agree with that," _agreed Timpani.

"So… How about we check this place out?" Sonic suggested after stretching his legs. "I'm all ready to go. How about you guys?"

Everyone else: Yeah, I'm fine.

They walked over to the sign that was right beside them. It seemed to say something that they knew already.

_Welcome to The Peaceness!_

"Well I guess that helps anyone who's trying to invade this place…" Blade trailed while sheathing his katana. "But, now that we're up here, I think we don't have to worry about fighting any monsters."

"Yeah, I suppose we don't have to worry," Luigi agreed while he stopped clenching his fists. "We should be able to relax around this place, wouldn't you agree?"

"Well there's the first door," Chopper announced, walking over to the door. "However, I don't think we're permanently safe here. I mean, wouldn't those monsters try to find a way up here?"

"Oh, stop worrying, Chopper," Blade suggested. "All it is with you is 'worry worry worry'. You should seriously chill for a while, all right?"

"Uhhhh… You REALLY believe that I worry all the time? All I was saying is that we should try to be careful. There could be some monsters that are here at this exact moment!"

"Poyo, (That's worrying,)" Kirby confirmed.

"…Dang it. Meh, let's just go already." They hurried through the door and came out of one on one of those Overthere buildings. They were shocked to see a Spiky Bomber Skell floating right near the building.

"Wow… So there ARE monsters here…" Meta Knight readied his sword and flew up to the Spiky Bomber Skell with a slash attack, sending it flying down. Mario finished it off by using a Super Ground Pound to damage it with his shockwave.

Mario: I like this new Ground Pound!

"Yeah, it does look like it's helpful," Luigi agreed as he saw a cloud moving down. He noticed that there was a cloud just across the gap, but it didn't look like he was capable of jumping over.

"I'll check and see what's there," Meta Knight said as he flew over to the cloud to find a chest. He opened it to find a Door Key. With it, he returned to the six heroes and showed it to them.

"A key? Why would the Nimbis hither have a key around this place?" Luvbi questioned.

_"I have no idea… Could it be because they're trying to keep themselves safe from harm?" _Blumiere pondered.

_"No… That couldn't be the answer…" _Timpani disagreed, receiving a strange look from her husband. _"They expected us to come here, right? They wouldn't just leave us to find a locked door here…"_

"Well, we'll find out when we have the chance," Chopper assured as they jumped on the cloud moving down and landed on an Overthere-like platform that was standing on top of the cloud.

"What's the point of this platform?" Sonic asked.

"In all honesty, I have no idea…" Blade trailed as he jumped off the platform and landed on the cloud just up ahead. They saw a short pillar blocking a red door with a lock on it, but they noticed that there was a cloud above them with another door.

"I'll check and see what's up there," Luigi announced as he performed a Super Jump. When he reached the cloud, he noticed that the red door was in a Peaceness building, which has a pointy roof.

"Guys! We should check and see what's here first!"

"Yea, verily. Mayhap Elbi has the Pure Heart with him." Luvbi agreed, flying up to the door where Luigi was standing in front of. Meta Knight groaned as he was forced to bring everyone up to the cloud. But, even with that, they managed to head into the next area, which had a pathway leading up to a door ahead, but also a spring left on the ground with two dull orbs next to it.

"Orbs? I wonder what these could be for…" Chopper pondered.

"You might want to fling some rainbow energy at them," Meta Knight suggested.

"Meh. Why not?" he hurled two rainbow balls at the orbs, making them light up as a glowing rainbow color. Not only that, but it also made the spring active. Sonic tested it out for himself, and he was launched up to a cloud above them.

"Yeah, this is working all right!" Sonic confirmed.

"What about that door over there?" Blade pointed over to the door at the end of the path on the clouds. "Do you think we should check over there first to see if there are any Nimbis there?"

"It won't maketh a difference," Luvbi assured, fluttering up to the door above. "Come now! We hast to goest to Elbi right away!"

_"Well, hopefully, we'll be able to find any Nimbis roaming around here," _Timpani hoped. _"Perhaps they'll be able to tell us what's going around here. It's strange to find none of them around…"_

They jumped on the spring and brought themselves up to the door. They entered into an area with a long, Peacness building just up ahead with pillars holding the roof up and a bridge made of stars leading over to the door.

"None art hither too? This doth be strange…" Luvbi trailed. There was a door right next to them, but they decided to go over to the bridge made of stars. Nobody seemed to be around; not even a unique Nimbi like Whibbi was here.

_"I have a bad feeling about this…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well, let's just see if we'll find anything here," Chopper crossed the bridge and reached the door sitting on the cloud with two small pillars. Everyone shrugged and followed him through the door into an area that looked somewhat similar.

"Wait… Why does this look a lot like the path to Grambi's Shrine?" Sonic gawked. "It's almost like an exact replica of Grambi's Shrine! Aren't you a little mad that this place is copying your home world?"

"Nay, for the Nimbis hath made this place as well," Luvbi explained. "They wanted to maketh this place look similar to The Overthere to maketh sure that it verily felt like home. At least, that's what Father toldest me…"

"There's no use in explaining this stuff when the Pure Heart is just up ahead. Let's go." Meta Knight suggested as he flew onward. Everyone shrugged and followed him up the stairs to a Save Block and a yellow ? block.

"Our HP is full, so there's no point in hitting that block," Chopper said, but he did hit the Save Block to save their game. "All right, let's see what we've got in here."

* * *

**Inside the shrine-**

When they walked in the shrine, they noticed that it was partially empty. All they could see was a throne at the other side of the room and a Nimbi with a brown beard, white wings, and white skin, unlike Grambi, who was yellow.

"Hey, it's Grambi, but recolored!" Luigi gaped.

"I beg thy pardon?" Elbi gawked. "Pray… Let me looketh at thee for a minute…"

The old Nimbi inched his way over to Luigi and took at a look at him. "Pray, art thou verily the hero Luigi that I hath heard for such a long time?"

"Yeah…" Luigi nodded.

"Thou art verily famous around here ever since thou destroyeth the monster named Bonechill in The Overthere!" These words made Luigi gape even bigger. "Thou art most likely the most famous one hither!"

"R-Really?! Oh my gosh! This is… I never… This is simply amazing!" Everyone took a glance over Luigi, who was magically floating in the air while his eyes sparkled. "This is the best day ever!"

"Luigi… I don't think you were always ignored." Chopper informed. "In fact, there are a lot of people I'm sure that are a big fan of you!"

"Wait, really? So does that make me underrated?"

"Guess not," Sonic shrugged. Luigi actually seemed relieved about this for some reason.

"Elbi… We hath come hither for something verily important!" Luvbi said as she fluttered over to the old Nimbi. "We need the Pure Heart right away!"

Elbi's eyebrows drooped, as well as his head. "I am sorry, Luvbi… But I dost not have the Pure Heart with me. I hath never had it with me ever. I doth apologize if thou hast come hither for nothing."

"Wait… We came here for nothing?!" Chopper gaped while steam appeared over his head. "REALLY?!"

_"But that's strange… I can feel the Pure Heart's presence somewhere in The Peaceness… But it doesn't appear to be around here… But… Where would it be instead of this place?"_

"Luvbi… Who art these people anyway? Art they the heroes of the prophecy?" Elbi asked. "For some reason, I doth see a resemblance between them and the heroes…"

"Well, if thou dost want to know, this is Chopper. He is the boy that I love and will marry in the future." Luvbi had pink hearts form over her head as she kissed her "prince" on the cheek, making Chopper, once again, gag.

"I am Meta Knight, at your service," Meta Knight bowed honorably. "And I do apologize for any trouble that anyone could cause if they were to right now."

"Thou art forgiven," Elbi nodded before looking back at the sickened Chopper and the love-sick Luvbi. "Pray, Luvbi… What about Wenbi? He doth be a fair Nimbi for thee! He is everything thou doth want in a man!"

"What? Why wouldst I want to date someone who spendest most of his time trying to stalketh me and sendeth me love letters nonstop?" Luvbi asked with an angry look. "Nay! I dost not want that! At least Chopper dost not bother me nonstop like him! Plus, he doth be a little immature."

"Wait… I tend to act childish A LOT!" Chopper interrupted, only to get ignored.

"Poyo, (That's true,)" Kirby agreed.

"But… Luvbi! Thou can't just abandon the one who hast fallen in love with thee! Thou dost understand how he will feel!" Elbi scolded. "Thou shouldst be ashamed of thyself for not choosing him!"

"Oh, givest me a break! I dost not verily like him anyway!" Luvbi retorted.

"_**AHEM…**_" the two Nimbis stopped arguing and looked over at Meta Knight, who was looking at both of them coldly.

"Enough with the arguing already. Not only am I getting a headache, but it's also not why we've come here." Meta Knight walked up to Elbi. It looked like he was going to grab him, but he didn't. "We want to know where we can find the Pure Heart. It's important that we find it."

"Yea, verily, I dost want to stop arguing," Luvbi huffed as she fluttered back to Chopper, while Elbi slowly rose his head and wiped his eyebrow with his wing.

"Very well. If thou wantest to findeth information on where the Pure Heart couldeth be, then thou should goest to the area where some Nimbis hath recently moved in. Mayhap someone thither hast a hold of it."

_"Yes, I believe that's a good idea," _Timpani agreed. _"Wait… Where are the other Nimbis? Weren't they supposed to expect our arrival?"_

Mario: Yeah! What gives?

"If I recallest, I doth remember receiving a call from Queen Jaydes, thy mother, Luvbi…" Elbi trailed, turning away from the heroes while pondering. "But those Nimbis were supposed to get a call as well… Mayhap they didn't hear her response?"

_"Weird… There could be something going on there…" _Timpani trailed. _"I'm starting to get worried if they don't know about any monsters coming…"_

"Well, if thou canst, then thou should takest this key," Elbi handed Meta Knight a Peaceness Key. "With this, thou art capable of unlocking the door that will leadeth thee into their town."

"So they have their own town… Interesting…" Meta Knight trailed.

"I suggest we go look over back over by that locked door," Sonic suggested. "We didn't take a look at what was through there anyway. So… I think we should see what's going on back there."

"Good plan," Chopper agreed.

"Then let us away, my prince!" Luvbi giggled as she grabbed Chopper's hand and dragged him out of the shrine.

"This is NOT what I wanted…"

* * *

**Peaceness Area 2-**

"All right, so this is where the locked door is…" Blade trailed. "Through this door, there must be something of importance. Maybe some cool-looking buildings that are cooler than The Overthere, or a better town!"

Mario: Uhhh… OK…

"Ugh… I'll just unlock the door already." Meta Knight groaned as he broke the lock off the door with the Door Key and walked out of a door on a cloud with a roof above them and pillars holding it. There was no ground, however.

"Oh… There's a roof? What's the point of that?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo? (Maybe it's to prevent rain from falling down?)" Kirby shrugged. "Poyo…? (Wait… Can it even rain in The Peacness…?)"

"Well, this roof may…" Luvbi's words were stopped when Meta Knight gestured her to stay quiet for a minute. He pointed over to a Nimbi with an orange body and a bag on his head for some reason. He seemed to be getting tortured by two Spiky Skells. The Necromancer was also helping with interrogation.

"Ugh… I don't know how much I could take…" From hearing that voice, it sounded like Ugly Joe.

"Aw, what's da matter, ugly? Can't take any more torture?" one Spiky Skell sneered as it poked Ugly Joe in the butt, making him shriek in pain. The other Spiky Skell hit him in the head with the bottom part of its spear.

"All right, Nimbi! Tell me now! Where can we find the Pure Heart? !" the Necromancer growled, removing Ugly Joe's bag. "And don't think your ugliness is going to stop me. I've seen uglier things in the past…"

"I… I don't know anything called a Pure Heart, guy…" Ugly Joe coughed. "Come on… Can't we just be friends?"

The Necromancer kicked him in the face with his black boot, leaving a huge bruise on Ugly Joe's face. "NO. We didn't come here to make friends! The only reason why we came here in the first place was so we could find the Pure Heart and take over the world!"

_"Clichéd…" _Chopper thought.

"And listen here, Nimbi… Don't even call me your friend, guy, or 'budday'! We're here to burn your ass and your entire Nimbi group to the ground when we acquire the Pure Heart! We'll do worse than what we did with the Nimbis back in The Overthere! Things worse than death!"

"Like…what?" Ugly Joe asked before the Necromancer pulled out two pickle slices and started squeezing them together. The squeaking sounds of the pickles got on his nerves. "Please, guy! Stop that!"

"Heh heh heh! So, are you going to tell me where the Pure Heart is?"

"But I DON'T know! In fact, I don't know what a Pure Heart is!" Of course, Ugly Joe received a backhand from the Necromancer's sword handle. It left a bigger bruise on his face this time.

"Can ya put the bag back on him?" one Spiky Skell asked.

"Fine…" the Necromancer put the bag back on his head, but not before punching him in the face. "I'm going to make this clear. I'm not going to stop until I get answers from you! You got that? I won't stop to KILL you either!"

"But I know nothing aboot it!"

"…Screw it. You're dead." the Necromancer was about to cut off Ugly Joe's head, but Meta Knight fired a Sword Beam and knocked his sword away before he could do such a harsh act.

"I don't think you'll be doing that," Meta Knight informed as he held his sword up. "Leave the Nimbi be and nobody gets hurt."

"What's this? The heroes of the prophecy? …Hold on a moment, I see seven here…" the evil necromancer realized. "But, it's so nice to see you maggots! I was just about to kill this guy until you showed up!"

"Thou wilt NOT kill anyone hither!" Luvbi growled.

"What? You're still here, you brat? Gah! I was hoping to get AWAY from you…" the Necromancer growled as he noticed Luvbi. "But, I suppose you're here because of the Pure Heart, isn't it?"

"How dost thou knoweth about the Pure Hearts presence hither?"

"We didn't know it was here… But thank you for telling me that it's confirmed!" Everyone immediately glared at the Nimbi princess, who sweat dropped while the Spiky Skells cackled.

"I think we better thank ya fer tellin' us that!" the first Spiky Skell cackled. "However, we should start with the heroes instead, 'cause they're the bigger threats around here! Permission to kill, Necromancer?"

"Yes, I would love that," the Necromancer grinned as he summoned white lightning from the sky to strike the ground. Seven Shaydes rose from the ground with spears. "You remember these guys, right?"

"They doth be Shaydes…" Luvbi trailed.

"They were able to revolt against the queen in The Underwhere thanks to someone… But despite him trying to take my spot for the master, I will still try to destroy you myself…when the time is necessary."

"All right, let's see these guys take us on!" Sonic smirked as he got in a fighting stance. "We just so happened to learn some new moves, so taking these guys on should be a snap!"

"We'll, we'd like to see ya try!" the two Spiky Skells stepped back and allowed the Shaydes to step into battle. Since there were only seven of them, they all decided that they would each take on one.

"_KILL THEM!_" ordered the Necromancer as he flew away from the area. "And don't come back if you fail your duties!"

"Yeah, so listen to him!" the two Spiky Skells scurried away as the heroes got themselves ready for battle. "An' make sure ya don't leave any part of their body!"

The Spiky Skells stayed back from the fight, leaving the Shaydes to charge. Chopper and the first Shayde decided to duke it out, with him firing rainbow balls of energy straight at the undead. Since it was slow, it couldn't avoid one of Chopper's rainbow balls. It actually covered it in rainbow energy, making it scream.

"_**AAAAAGGHHHH! **_What kind of energy is this?!" the first Shayde screamed.

"Wait… What the heck? Does this rainbow energy work well against the undead? Or is it because these enemies are so dull? Hmmmmmmmm…" Chopper began to ponder before getting tackled by the Shayde.

"You're not going to stop me, though!" the Shayde growled before Chopper kicked the monster off and attacked it by spinning his fists with rainbow energy. It kind of reminded him of the Rainbow Spin Attack he had five months ago.

"Huh… Now that was pretty cool." Chopper, unfortunately, got hurt by the Shayde's spear it threw at him, but he was able to run up to it and use a rainbow sweeping kick to knock it over. With a charged rainbow ball, he disintegrated the Shayde.

"One down! Six more to go…"

However, he wasn't helping the others with their fight, since they seemed just fine. Like with Kirby. He was able to inhale the Shayde's spear and spit it back at it to leave the undead creature weaponless.

"Poyo! (See! Now you're weaponless!)" Kirby smirked.

The Shayde grinned as he spat out a spear. Kirby was somewhat disgusted by this, but he pulled his Final Cutter out and tried to slash the Shayde with it. It tried countering it, but its spear was simply cut in half.

"Poyo! (Now THIS is something!)" Kirby performed his Final Cutter attack on the Shayde to leave it weakened. While it was at this state, he attacked it with his Cartwheel, finishing it off.

"Necromancer! Forgive me!" it screamed as it disintegrated.

"Poyo, (Score one for Kirby,)" he smiled as he did a little dance to celebrate his victory.

With two Shaydes down, only five remained. Sonic and the third Shayde were battling it out like everyone else, but Sonic seemed to have the upper advantage, since he was able to move at the speed of sound. All he did was strike the Shayde with a couple of Spin Dashes to leave it off guard.

"This is a lot easier than I thought!" Sonic said before getting rammed by the Shayde's head, knocking him back. "Whoa… That's one mighty head ya got there!"

"How about I stab you with this spear instead?" sneered the Shayde as it tried to jab at Sonic. He dodged its attacks and kicked the Shayde, leaving it stunned.

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fists and summoned swirling blue wind that struck the Shayde. It sent it flying, allowing him to strike it in mid-air with a Homing Attack. He finished it off with a Bounce Attack.

"All right! Now that was awesome!"

"Well you're lucky, Sonic!" Blade shouted, dodging the Shayde's spear. He tried countering it with his katana, but he seemed to be too close to the Shayde. It hit him in the head with its own head, but he managed to knock it back with a kick.

"I will not fail my leader!" the Shayde denied, trying to attack Blade, but the ninja cat was able to throw a shuriken at it, making it pierce right through the undead's body. But… It didn't seem to have much of an effect on it.

"Wait, what the heck? That should've worked!" Blade gaped.

"We're dead, you know! You can't hurt us with those sharp objects!" the Shayde cackled before Blade slashed it with his katana. "…Ow."

"Oh, I'm not done yet!" Blade grinned. He began to store power in his katana and unleashed his Dragon Beam upon the Shayde. A large, orange dragon made of fire fired out and engulfed the Shayde, burning it to a crisp.

"And that's why you don't mess with me."

With him finished with his fight, Mario clenched his fists at the Shayde he was facing. He jumped over it, but the Shayde managed to poke him in the butt with his spear, sending Mario rocketing up while screaming.

_"He might want to be careful with that…" _Timpani trailed.

Mario came flying down to the ground, but he prepared to attack with his Super Ground Pound. Upon impact, the Shayde was sent flying back, allowing Mario to jump to the Shayde and bash it with his hammer.

"Ow! Man, that's one powerful butt you've got there!" the Shayde grunted. "But that's not going to save you here!"

Mario: Maybe it will!

Mario stomped on the Shayde's head and finished it off once and for all with his Super Ground Pound. Now all that remained were two more Shaydes. And believe me, Luigi was actually having a hard time.

"C'mon, ya big wimp ya! Why don't you try fighting back!" the Shayde taunted while Luigi cowered away from it. "Man, you're such a baby! What's the matter? You're afraid of the undead?"

It cackled as it poked Luigi from behind with its spear. He screamed like a girl as he flew in the air and landed on his butt. The Shayde was about to attack, but Luigi suddenly spun his arms around and used his Cyclone, summoning a tornado to knock the Shayde back.

"I may be cowardly… But at least the Nimbis here know me as a hero!" Luigi growled as he flutter jumped to the Shayde and stomped on its head. The Shayde tried getting up, but a received a shoe to the face afterward.

"Ouch… Who knew a coward would have it in him to do this?" With one last kick, Luigi finished off the Shayde, leaving only one more left.

Meta Knight seemed to have the least problems with his enemy. All it had was a spear, while he carried a sword that was ten times more powerful than a sword that Chopper would gain from the Sword ability.

"All right, masked dude! Take this!" the Shayde charged at Meta Knight with its spear, but all Meta Knight did was cut it in half with his sword, leaving the Shayde, just like the one that faced Kirby, weaponless.

"When you want to face someone, you want to learn their moves first before trying to attack," Meta Knight suggested, striking the Shayde and sending it flying and defeating it very easily. The two Spiky Skells gaped as they saw that the Shaydes were gone.

"Whoa… They creamed 'em!" the first Spiky Skell realized.

"Yer tellin' me! How did they manage to pull of moves like that?" the second Spiky Skell asked as Meta Knight began to make his way toward the two Skells. "Aw, crap… We're screwed…"

"Are you ready to surrender?" Meta Knight asked, bringing his sword in front of him. "Because we will gladly let you live if you decide to surrender."

"Not in a million years, maggot!" the first Spiky Skell growled, aiming its spear at the warrior. "Come an' get this!"

It charged straight at Meta Knight, but he was able to disarm it very easily and finish it off with one single slash. The other Spiky Skell tried to attack, but it too suffered the same fate as the first Spiky Skell.

"YEAH! We sure showed 'em who's boss!" Blade fist pumped, hi-fiving his friends while at it. "See? They're no match for us when we have these awesome new abilities in our possession!"

"Thou hast done it!" Luvbi thanked, fluttering over to the group with a cute smile. "Thou hast defeated yon horrible monsters! Thank thee…"

"Thanks, Luv…" Sonic began.

"…my sweet prince!" Everyone, including Chopper, fell over on the cloud anime style. Even though Chopper saw it coming, he was pretty irritated by this as well.

"Luvbi… You do know that I wasn't the only one who fought those guys…" Chopper trailed as he got up and shook his head. "If there's anyone you should be thanking, it's these guys!"

"Poyo, (What he said,)" Kirby agreed. Even though the rest (excluding Chopper and Meta Knight) couldn't understand him, they simply gave a no in response. But still, Luvbi didn't seem to care.

"Well, it dost not matter right now," she said, turning away from the heroes. "We hast to helpeth this poor Nimbi up! Didst thou see what that horrible Necromancer hath done to his face?"

"…Oh, yeah. We need to help him up!" Sonic smacked his forehead. "Aw, man! WHY did I forget about that? ! Stupid me…"

They walked over to the injured Nimbi and helped him up. "Pray, fellow Nimbi… Art thou all right?"

"Huh? Why does that voice sound like a Nimbi from The Overthere?" Ugly Joe moaned as he slowly got up and rubbed his face…er…bag on his head. "Wait… Did I have this bag on my head this whole time?"

"What happened here? In fact, where is everyone?" Chopper asked. "We looked everywhere around The Peaceness, and we only saw Elbi at his shrine! Were the rest taken away or something?"

"What? Of course not, guy! Somebody's making a speech at city hall right now, and I suppose everyone went over there to listen. But, the question is… Who are you people?" Ugly Joe asked out of curiosity.

"We're the heroes!" Sonic grinned before his expression changed. "Wait… Did anyone even get a call about us coming here to stay safe from the monsters that were coming to kill us?"

"I don't know… The one who would get that call would be our new bureau that simply elected himself into office, but I don't think he even said anything about people coming up here."

_"That's strange… Why would this bureau simply ignore a message?" _Timpani asked.

_"Who is this bureau anyway? Is there a chance that we could speak to him?" _Blumiere asked.

"Well, it might be hard, but I'll try to get you guys in!" Ugly Joe nodded. "Just follow me and we'll get you to the Peacevator!"

"Peacevator?" Luvbi questioned with a confused look.

"Yeah! It's an elevator that can bring us up into town! Boy, I can't WAIT to show my new friends to the guys!" Ugly Joe cheered as he fluttered over to the next cloud and flew up to a couple of clouds above.

_"Something tells me there's something bad going on at the town…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well, only one way to find out," Chopper jumped over to the cloud and began to follow Ugly Joe up a couple of clouds. The rest of the group shrugged and followed him up to the door, which led into an area with the Peacevator.

"What're those four arrow blocks floating in the Peacevator?" Blade asked.

"That helps you find which way you want to go, budday," Ugly Joe explained. "Depending on which way you want to go, you simply hit that block! The red ! block turns it on or off, so if you want to stop it, you just hit it, or vice versa."

"Oh… So where do we need to go anyway?" Chopper asked.

"Just follow the arrows, budday!"

"Poyo? (Arrows?)" Kirby gawked as he looked at the arrows. "Poyo… (Gee… That's a little strange…)"

Chopper shrugged and punched the right arrow block. The Peacevator was surrounded by a rainbow aura that carried it to the right. When they saw an arrow pointing up, Meta Knight hit the up arrow block to make the Peacevator go up. They happened to notice that the door leading to town was actually high above the cloud they were on previously.

"Wait… It's just above the door we just walked out of?!" Blade gaped. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Using those arrows was such a waste of time…" Luvbi groaned as they stoped the Peacevator and got off. With the red door in front of them, they immediately headed to town.

* * *

**Peaceness Town-**

Upon entering town, they noticed that there were a couple of yellow, blue, and purple houses around the area. Up ahead, they could see a city hall that somewhat resembled the one from The Overthere. From what they could see, all of the Nimbis were listening to someone there.

"Wait… What's going on here?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (It looks like there's something going on there,)" Kirby pondered. "Poyo? (But what's it about?)"

"Hey! Who are you people? !" the group paused when they saw a Nimbi with a lemon-shaped head fluttering over to them. "Joe! There's a rule about not allowing outsiders in this place!"

"Wait, The Peaceness is racist?" Chopper gawked.

"The Peaceness wouldn't be like this…" Luvbi trailed. "Why art thou speaking to us like that? My mother madeth a call to tell thy group about the monsters coming hither!"

"Monsters? This place is perfectly safe! With I, Strott here, nothing can go wrong!" Strott said firmly. "So get your asses off of this town and beat it before I call the cops on you!"

"Get away from them, Strott!" a gunfire was heard, making Strott pause in fear. A Nimbi with a goatee carrying a shotgun fluttered out. "Who do you think you are, being a hick to these people? !"

"But these people are from the outside world! We can't allow them to invade! Don't you remember what happened to The Overthere?! That place was attacked by monsters!"

"Actually, you've got it all wrong," Ugly Joe said. "These people are actually heroes! They actually said that they were supposed to come here and get some protection from us Nimbis."

"But we don't even know how to fight! We're defenseless! Get them out of here, Ugly Joe!" demanded Strott.

"Quit being a hick already, Strott!" a Nimbi shouted. "Leave them be for now! You're not wanted around here!"

"Grrrrrrr! Fine! You win this round, outsiders!" Strott growled as he fluttered away, but not before giving one last glare to the heroes. "But I _will_ be back!"

"Sorry 'bout that, folks," the Nimbi with the goatee apologized. "Strott just doesn't like any outsiders 'round here. You know him, he's a hick!

"What's a hick?" Chopper asked with a confused look.

"Chopper! Thou shouldst know that that doth be a bad thing to say!" Luvbi snapped. "Thou art not someone to sayeth such bad things!"

"But I don't even know what that means? Is that a bad thing?"

"I think it's the 'Nimbi' way of calling someone a dick," Blade stated. Everyone gave him a "what the heck" look. "Hey, I'm just sayin' that that might be it…"

"Well, I guess this is a friendly group compared to that one Nimbi…" Meta Knight trailed, walking up to the Nimbis to greet him. "My name is Meta Knight. I'm here with these six heroes. Queen Jaydes made a call to The Peaceness, saying that we would be coming here."

"Which took a LONG time," Luigi added.

"Oh… Yeah… Well, there was an easier way to get here." the Nimbi with the goatee pointed over to the cloud that had an elevator button on it. "That leads down to the grassy ground."

Everyone's mouths were agape at this point. "Wait a minute… You're saying that this whole time, we could've used that cloud as an ELEVATOR? ! You…have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"

Everyone gawked as Chopper pulled at his antennas. "I can't believe that we've been spending Grambi knows _**HOW LONG TRYING TO MAKE OUR WAY TO THIS PLACE WHILE THIS WHOLE TIME WE COULD'VE USED THAT CLOUD TO GET HERE! WHAAAAAAAAAT?!**_"

"Whoa… Someone must have a problem…" one Nimbi chirped.

"This is serious BS right here," Blade growled. "How the EFF were we supposed to know about a cloud that could help us get here?! I'm so pissed off right now, that I could stab myself!"

"Blade, don't stab yourself," Meta Knight ordered. "We're not stabbing anyone now."

"Yea, verily… If we didn't climbeth those clouds, thou wouldeth not have thine abilities." Luvbi informed.

_"I am a little ashamed that we could've taken a little shortcut…" _Timpani trailed.

"I suppose you two are a couple, aren't you?" a Nimbi asked, interrupting the heroes and looking at Chopper and Luvbi.

"What? Luvbi and I as a couple? Definitely not!" Chopper retorted, denying the statement. "We will never, EVER be a couple!"

"Yea, verily! We doth be a couple! A cute couple, that is!" Luvbi giggled, kissing Chopper on the cheek, making him gag.

_"What exactly is going on here anyway?" _Timpani asked.

"Well, our new bureau is going to be making a speech pretty soon," one Nimbi informed. "If you want, you can go over to city hall and listen to his speech. I heard he was going to talk aboot something important!"

"I suppose we can go over there," Meta Knight shrugged. "Maybe the bureau can help us find the Pure Heart."

"Poyo, (Yeah, I agree,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo! (So let's go already!)"

With one last nod, they made their way over to city hall, but they did hear the voice of the Nimbi from behind.

"And watch out for Strott! He's a hick!"

* * *

**City hall-**

"But Pherrance! I didn't want to come here!" Tillip said, carrying a bowl of cereal. "I just wanted to stay home and eat my cereal! And maybe later I could've eaten some beans to keep my gas levels just fine!"

"Like this?" Pherrance farted in Tillip's face, causing them both to laugh hysterically.

"Oh, you're such a wiseass, Pherrance!" Both Nimbis gave each other a happy look as they farted once again. A couple of other Nimbis laughed with them due to their love of fart humor.

"Oh, you guys crack me up!" one Nimbi laughed.

"So… This is where city hall is?" Meta Knight questioned before stopping when he saw a bunch of Nimbis crowded together. "What the…! What are all of these Nimbis crowding around for?"

"It's because the bureau is going to be making a speech!" Pherrance announced, turning to the group. "He's going to say something aboot… Wait a minute… It's you guys! You know, the ones that saved The Overthere?"

"It's good to see you, buddays!" Tillip smiled as he farted.

"Ugh… Thou still hast _that_ humor…" Luvbi groaned.

"We sure do! It's something that we enjoy!" Pherrance smiled. "But wait… I have no freakin' clue on why you guys are even here. Did… Did one of those heart things lead you here?"

"Yeah, it did," Chopper nodded, smiling. "Do you happen to know where we could find one?"

"Uhhhhh… I don't think so."

Mario: Well that was a nice answer…

"Well, talk about a waste of time…" Sonic face palmed. "We sensed the Pure Heart in this place, but no one seems to know… Although, I don't think we asked the Nimbi bureau yet."

"Oh, he's coming out right now!" Tillip announced.

"Really?" Blade gawked before he was silenced. They saw, to their shock, Strott coming onto the stand and to the microphone. He was testing it for a couple of seconds to check if it was working.

"Uh… Testing." Strott said through the microphone. "Uhhhh… OK. May I have your attention please?"

All of the Nimbis stopped talking and listened. "As you can, uh, see… The bureau is just getting himself ready for his speech. So, you just have to give him a little bit of time and you will be…"

The entrance to city hall opened up, revealing a Nimbi with brown hair, a mustache, and a black suit. He walked out with one with a brown suit and one with a blue one. When Sonic looked at him, something seemed strangely familiar about him.

"Am I the only one who thinks that guy reminds me of someone?" Sonic asked.

"I don't even know who this guy is…" Luigi trailed.

"Why hello, my fellow Nimbis!" the Nimbi introduced. "I am your new World Nimbi Bureau, Dridge Gadootman! I am here to help you all! And with the help I give you, you can help us…make The Peaceness a better place!"

"Dridge Gadootman? I swear, I think he's just using a new name…" Chopper groaned.

"You know this guy?" Meta Knight asked.

"Yeah. He used to be called Gridge Dabootman, but he got sent adrift on a cloud. How he got here, I have no clue. But he's really doing a bad job at hiding his true self. And he's even with Strott!"

"That hick!" Blade hissed.

"Poyo! (Yeah! What a hick!)" Kirby agreed.

"I don't know if that's a good thing to say, Kirby…" Meta Knight trailed as they all continued to listen to Gadootman's speech.

"Now, if you don't agree with my plan to gain control of more worlds and get more monay, then you do not deserve to live!" Gadootman shouted while slamming his wing on the stand. "…Well, forget that last part, but we might as well throw you out of here, 'cause we don't believe in people who disagree!"

"But Mr. Gadootman," a Nimbi spoke up. "We do believe in the rights of freedom. We're more like peaceful creatures than bloodthirsty."

"Don't you see? That's the problem with us! All we do is just stand around and let our enemies take advantage of us! I do NOT approve of this! Ridding of our freedoms would only make us stronger!"

"Is this guy stupid?" Chopper chirped.

"I doth agree," Luvbi nodded.

"Getting rid of our freedoms is a terrible idea! Wouldn't you say, Pherrance?" Tillip asked.

"Indeed, Tillip! It makes me want to let out a horrific fart!" Speak of the devil. Pherrance let out a fart and both began to laugh hysterically.

"I don't know why, but he looks strangely familiar to me…" Ugly Joe trailed as he looked at Gadootman. "But, I still disagree with his ideas. Who on earth would listen to him?"

"Ugly Joe? Is that you?" Pherrance gawked upon seeing Joe. "My goodness, you're looking hideously ugly today, Ugly Joe!"

"How can you guys say stuff like that?" Ugly Joe asked

"Because you are so god damn ugly, Joe!"

"But I'm not that ugly..."

"As you can see, Mr. Gadootman does have some brilliant ideas," Strott informed. "This plan could help us fend off great evil, and it could even keep outsiders out of The Peaceness!"

"Hey, look! It's Strott the Hick!" Tillip announced, which got Strott's attention. He flew over the crowd and landed right in front of the two Nimbis.

"Oh, god! Not you two idiots! And I'm not a hick, for your information! Stop trying to call me that, because it's not funnay!"

"You know what else is funny? Tillip's farts!" Pherrance laughed as Tillip farted once again.

"Augh! Your farts disgust me! Don't you know that farts are the lowest form of comeday from a poll made last year? Why does a little sound get you to laugh stupidly?" Strott growled.

"Because that's what they think," Sonic answered.

"And you, outsiders… When this new idea is passed, you'll be leaving this place for good! And you wanna know why it will get passed?"

"Because you're hick?" Tillip answered.

"NO! Because I hate you, Pherrance and Tillip! And I also hate you, outsiders! Your kind sicken me! You always have to come to our place and get everyone's attention when you're just here to sabotage our plans and destroy us all! Trust in this: you're not going to get away with this! I'll make sure you die like the rest of them all!"

"Wow, you sure are a hick," Chopper said.

"OK, that doth be fine to callest him that," Luvbi said.

"_**YO! STROTT! GET BACK HERE! I NEED YOU!**_" Gadootman called out.

"I'm coming back, sir!" Strott gave them one last glare before flying back to his boss.

"I bet he's working with someone who's against us," Luigi pondered. "Who else would hate outsiders like that?"

Mario: I'm not fully sure…

"And on another note… Outsiders will not be welcome in our town!" Gadootman announced, making everyone give him a confused look. "Hey, believe me, guys! This is going to help us!"

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…" Chopper face palmed. "I bet he got this from Strott, didn't he?"

"I think so," Meta Knight agreed.

When Gadootman looked at the audience, they seemed silent. All that could be heard was the sound of a chirping cricket. "Uhhhhhh… Well, how about I throw a partay in our ancestors' temple? There will be free food, including an all-you-can-eat table!"

"D-Did he say an 'all-you-can-eat'?" Chopper gaped while drooling. Kirby, too, was drooling, and it was even starting to get a little gross for some people.

"Surely we're not going to that party…" Luigi trailed. "I bet no one would even agree on…"

All of the Nimbis began to cheer and scream. Gadootman, looking satisfied, gestured everyone to stay silent and continued.

"Thank you! Thank you, my fellow Nimbians! With this partay, you will agree to pass this bill and enjoy our lovely food at stake! However, if you're caught coming in here and not agreeing with our law, then you, sir, are a RAT!"

"Well, I am still not convinced that I want to goest to this party…" Luvbi trailed with an annoyed look.

"Did I mention that there will be dancing and a wonderful balcony for any romantic moments too?" Gadootman added.

"Chopper! We must goest to this party! We can spendeth some time together in romance!"

"But I thought you said you didn't want to go!" Chopper frowned. "Now I don't want to go to this party…"

"But he doth say that there will be dancing and a balcony for romantic moments," Luvbi said, her voice becoming sweet and calm. "This couldeth be our romantic moment! One I hath been waiting for this entire time…"

"Uhhh… I don't think we're even going to go to this party." Sonic disagreed. "Parties are for people who are easily convinced about stupid bills."

_"You know, maybe we should go to this party," _Timpani suggested.

"Tippi? Why would we want to go?" Chopper asked. "I'd rather NOT!"

"Poyo! (We're not going to let some stupid bill like this get passed!)" Kirby retorted.

_"Here's the thing, guys…" _Blumiere began. _"You see, you think that this Gadootman person is suspicious, right? Well, if you go to this party, then you could probably try to spy on him. Surely he'll be in a private area for you to get your information from."_

"Well, I hath been waiting for this very moment to spendeth some romantic time with my prince," Luvbi said as she kissed Chopper on the cheek, making him cry about how gross it was again.

"Gee… That sure is helpful…" Blade trailed while rolling his eyes. "I think he'd rather help us spy on him."

"What's more important? Saving this world, or dating someone?" Meta Knight asked, giving Luvbi a glare. "You're smart enough to make the right decision. Everyone here knows that."

"But… My prince…" Luvbi frowned. "Well, fine. I'll let him helpeth thee, but I am at least going to spendeth some time with him like a prince and princess would!"

"Fine, you can do that, but just for a little."

"Wait, what?! I get no say in this?!" Chopper cried.

"Apparently not," Sonic sweat dropped.

"CRUD!" he turned away and looked back up at Pherrance and Tillip. "Wait… Are you guys coming too?"

"What? Us? Heck no!" Pherrance replied. "Why would we want to go to a stupid partay anyway? We're not that stupid!"

"We're just going to go home right now," Tillip said as they headed to their house.

"Wait… They live in the same house?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: Wow… I don't know what to say right now.

"I bet they're gay," Blade said before getting smacked by Sonic. "OK, OK! I'm joking! Come on, don't you guys have a sense of humor?"

"Can you at least tell us where this temple is?" Meta Knight asked. The two Nimbis stopped and flew back over to them.

"If you want to know where the temple is, it is in Peaceness Area 5. It's past the spring in Peaceness Area 4, if you want to know." Pherrance informed. "But watch out… I heard there are some dangerous things there…"

"Like what?" Chopper asked, titling his head.

"Monsters," Tillip said before flying away.

"Monsters? Is that all they really had to say to us?" Sonic gawked. "I was thinking that there would be a little more than just that… Well, it really doesn't matter at this point. I think it's best that we go check that temple out."

* * *

**Peaceness Area 4-**

Upon entering area four, they noticed past the spring, a Skelloknight was guarding the door. Everyone groaned as they got in their fighting stances. Meta Knight started off by summoning his Mach Tornado and destroying its armor.

"Ah! So yer all here! Excellent!" the Skelloknight got its sword ready and prepared to fight back. Since they had some experience with this guy, they knew that far range attacks work best.

"Take this!" Chopper cried, tossing a charged rainbow ball at the Skelloknight. This appeared to work well against it, since it did more damage than what his normal attacks would do.

"So it appears that rainbow energy works well on Skelloknights too…" Meta Knight trailed, flying towards the Skelloknight and slashing at its chest before flying back to avoid its next attack.

"All right, so we just need to attack it from a far range, huh? Well… Let's see how THIS works!" Blade unleashed his Dragon Beam on the Skelloknight. Not only did it send it flying back, but it also sent it falling off the clouds.

"Oh, wow… We beat it that easily? That's weak…"

"Never mind that for now. Let's get moving." Chopper said as he opened the door into Area 5. There appeared to be clouds moving up and down in this area, but it didn't stop them from trying to jump across.

Mario: These are tough to jump when they're moving at a fast pace…

"I can agree with you on that one, Mario!" Luigi nodded.

"Poyo! (Good thing I can fly across!)" Kirby smiled as he took in some air and began to float over the clouds. Meta Knight followed him while taking down some Dark Bomber Skells in their way.

"It looks like the monsters are here too," Meta Knight informed as he landed right by the door. A Nimbi seemed to be floating around, apparently he already beat them to the door first.

"Well, it looks like I beat you!" the Nimbi chuckled. "Oh, it's OK, friend! You don't have to worry about a thing!"

"Poyo? (Well why are you going to this party in the first place?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo? (Don't you know that you're being tricked by this person?)"

"I'm sorry, budday, but I don't know what you're even saying… Do you know how to speak like us? I think I would be able to give you a reasonable answer if you did just that…"

"Why art thou going to the party when thou art only agreeing to pass something to maketh thee a dictatorship?" Luvbi asked as the rest of the group got to the door. "Thou shouldst be ashamed!"

"Well it's not my fault I want to have food! And… Wait, hold on a second… You guys ARE outsiders! Oh, man… Now I'm gonna have to get the bureau over here so he could…"

Chopper instantly knocked him out with his hammer.

_"Why did you do that, Chopper?!" _Timpani gaped. _"It's not like you to do something like that!"_

"Hey! If he called Mr. Gadootman, then it would've been ALL of us that would be in trouble. If someone's going to get in trouble right now, though, it might be me for doing this…"

"Poyo… (Although, I don't think that was necessary…)" Kirby trailed.

"Wait! I have an idea!" Chopper pulled a marker he conveniently had and drew eyes over the Nimbi's eyelids. "There! Now they'll think he's still conscious! Problem solved!"

"You realize that those usually don't work?" Sonic informed.

"Oh, forget it… I just want to find out what Gadootman's doing."

"But we art having a little time together first," Luvbi squealed before Chopper began to cry like a baby again.

* * *

**Entrance to temple-**

_"Well, this is the temple all right… But it doesn't look too much like one…" _Timpani trailed as they entered the next area through the door. They saw two security guards with suits and sunglasses guarding the door. A couple of other Nimbis apparently beat them too, and they were being let in.

"Surely they would let us in…" Luvbi trailed.

"I hope so, 'cause I don't want to just stand out here," Sonic said as he walked up to the security guard. "Hi there! We're Nimbis that have evolved way beyond you guys! We want this bill to be passed!"

"Really? You're evolved beyond us?" one security guard gaped. "Holy crap! I can't believe it! Man, wait until we tell the guys about this! They're going to flip out when they hear this! Come on in, guys!"

Everyone gawked as they walked into the party. "Wow… Are they this stupid? I guess that comes to show when they elected this Gadootman persons…" Luigi trailed.

"We already established that this guy was Gridge Dabootman, remember?" Chopper informed as they walked through the long, narrow hallway with the red rug on the floor. "I could imagine monsters being in here and all…"

Out of surprise, two Dark Spiky Skells crashed through the ceiling and landed right in front of them. Everyone got in their fighting stances and used all of their new moves to finish them off without them even making a move.

Mario: Whew… Didn't expect that!

"I suppose some Skells noticed us coming here, so they wanted to make a surprise attack on us," Meta Knight deduced. "So, we better have our weapons out and ready, because they could come out at any time…"

"This should be fun…" Blade trailed as he kept his katana close. "I just hope they don't think we're people who are going to attack…"

"Hey, relax! We're the good guys!" Chopper assured. "Justice will probably prevail and all that stuff…right, Meta Knight?"

"Poyo (Something tells me you were just quoting someone…)" Kirby trailed as they made their way to the door. He opened it to find a large room with a dancing floor, a DJ, a couple of tables, and even a wide table with tons of food.

"Poyo! (This is heaven!)"

"Yeah, you're telling me!" Chopper smiled until he saw the dance floor. "Oh, no… I don't want to be forced to dance… That's one of the things that I'm HORRIBLE at! Luvbi, DON'T make me dance, please!"

"But dancing doth be romantic!" Luvbi squealed.

"Can we just cut this chat out and focus for a moment?" Meta Knight asked. "We can't sit here and talk about this kind of stuff. We know what we're here for, so we need to try to find this Gadootman guy and see what he's planning."

They scanned the room for Gadootman. "Nope. I don't see him anywhere… Don't suppose he could be in the bathroom or something?" Blade pondered.

"Blade… We're not going to go search for him in the bathroom…" Sonic trailed. "That's invasion of privacy. What we SHOULD be doing is seein' if he's planning anything 'special' for this party."

Mario: Good idea. ;)

They decided to go over to one of the other doors to see if they could find Gadootman. Sadly, he didn't appear to be anywhere. All they saw in the hallway was an elevator and…a Dark Spiky Skell jumping in through a window?

Mario: Another Dark Skell!

"We'll be ready!" Luigi said as he threw Bonjourang at the Dark Spiky Skell. It got hit in the face, but it threw its own head at the heroes. Chopper bashed it with his hammer and Sonic finished it with his Sonic Wind.

"Yeah, they can't take the heat of my Sonic Wind!" Sonic grinned while giving a cocky pose.

"Yea, thou verily hast to giveth us a cocky pose?" Luvbi asked with an irritated look.

"Aw, come on! It's stylish for me!"

_"Should we see what's up this elevator?" _Timpani asked. Everyone else looked at each other and nodded. They simply walked into the elevator and saw three buttons. One was to the second floor, and the other was to the third floor. They shrugged and went up to the second floor.

When they walked out, they saw another hallway. There was a door to their left, but they saw a keyhole through the wall.

"There's something through this keyhole," Meta Knight said as he took a peek through it. "Huh… I don't see anything through here… Perhaps there really isn't a secret hiding place here?"

"Nah, there has to be," Chopper said as he took a peek through the keyhole. Unfortunately, he saw nothing too. "Oh… Well, you're right, Metty. There isn't anything here."

"'Metty'?"

"Yeah, it's just a little nickname. Kind of like being called Chop or something…"

"Poyo, (Or Choppy,)" Kirby snickered.

"Kirby… Shut up."

"Well, since we hast not foundeth this Nimbi… We should goest to the dance floor, my sweet prince!" Luvbi squealed as she grabbed Chopper's hand and began to drag him over to the door ahead. He tried to fight his way out of it, but alas, there was no way he could get out.

"Someone help me!" Chopper cried.

"Uhhhhh… Should we help him?" Blade asked. Meta Knight wrapped his cape around him and slowly shook his head while closing his eyes.

"I told her she could spend some time with him. I always keep my promise." Meta Knight explained. "It's an…honorable thing for me to do."

"So you're just going to let him suffer? I don't think that's the best idea out there…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: You can't do a thing about it?

"Sadly, no. A true warrior always keeps his or her promise to someone, even if they don't like the person they lost to. If I lost to a battle and was forced to die, then I would have no other choice but to do that."

"Poyo?! (What?! Are you out of your mind?!)" Kirby gaped.

"OK, let's not bother him with this," Blade suggested. "Yeah, I know he's being honorable. But you know what? I've got honor too! I would do the same exact thing!"

"Really?" Sonic gawked.

"Damn right I would! Now let's stop bitching and go back down. I bet Gadootman's somewhere down there."

Everyone agreed and headed back down. Of course, when they got to the big room, they saw a couple of male and female Nimbis dancing with each other. Chopper was actually trying to get away from the dance floor, which he was actually doing quite a good job with, but Luvbi kept pulling him.

"Come on, my prince! Our date is not complete without a dance!" Luvbi said, trying her best to pull him.

"No way! I can't dance at all!" Chopper retorted.

"Well, they sure look like they're having a fun time," Sonic said with a confused look as he noticed Chopper's feet moving in a figure-8 pattern. "Although… I wonder how Luvbi's able to pull him when he can run incredible fast…"

"The world may never know," Blade pondered. "Now I wonder where that guy can be…"

"May have your attention, please?" Everyone stopped talking and looked over to the stage. There, they saw Gadootman by the stand and Strott the Hick next to him. "I thank you all for attending this party! Because of this, you have agreed to pass this wonderful bill I have in my hands!"

Gadootman held up a piece of paper with "This Bill" labeled on it. "This bill requires the majority of the people to pass! And, since mostly everyone has come to this party, then we have passed it!"

"Wait… What?!" Chopper gaped.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go…somewhere. You people, on the other hand, can enjoy dancing as much as you want! Now, c'mon, friends, let's dance!"

He began to do a weird dance as he began to leave. Everyone blinked, but continued to dance. The heroes looked at each other and gave a nod, indicating that they probably have to go back to that keyhole.

"All right, let's go!" Chopper announced before getting grabbed by Luvbi. "Luvbi! Stop this! This is more important!"

"But I was promised a date with thee!" she retorted.

"Uhhhhh… Instead of dancing, why not go up to the balcony? Maybe that will be a nice, quiet place to stay in!"

"Poyo, (And while you do that, I'm going to enjoy some food here,)" Kirby smiled as he ran off towards the food. Sonic and Mario decided that they would go watch him to make sure he would be just fine. As for the rest… They headed back to the elevator, with Chopper and Luvbi going to the third floor.

* * *

**Second floor-**

The three remaining, Blade, Luigi, and Meta Knight walked out of the elevator and looked around in the hallway. They wanted to make sure that they would find something.

"Hmmmmm… Well, nothing here…" Luigi trailed.

"No. There is something here. I can feel it…" Meta Knight said as his eyes turned green. He happened to hear voices coming through the keyhole. He checked through to find Gadootman and Strott speaking.

"What is it, Metty? Ya found something?" Blade asked.

"Stay quiet, Blade, or else they'll hear us!" Everyone stayed quiet and began to listen through the keyhole.

"All right, Strott. So, it looks like everything went as planned!" Gadootman grinned. "So, you know what the next part of the plan is, right?"

"Uhhhh… Yeah, of course I do." Strott nodded. "Now that we've got this bill here, we just need to get those outsiders out of the way! Those annoyin' little bastards aren't gonna be leaving here! They keep talking aboot this Pure Heart thing…"

"If I could recall, the one who got me to this place knows something about a Pure Heart… But luckily, these heroes don't know a thing! But, enough about that. I want you to drug the heroes and bring 'em to our secret headquarters! That way, no one will notice their disappearance!"

"But why do I have to be the one to do it? Why can't you get someone else to do it?"

"You better do it, guy, or else you'll be 'Hick of the Year' around The Peaceness!" ordered Gadootman.

"Fine… But I'm gonna have to disguise myself. If they see me offering them some food, then they're not going to take it!"

"Fine, get the disguise, hickwad. Just remember the plan, all right?"

"Yeah, I got it. And when they're out, we'll be able to rule this place with an iron fist, am I right?"

"Yeah, just get the hell out of here."

"_They're going to drug them and take them to their secret hideout…" _Meta Knight thought as his eyes turned red with anger. _"These two people are such savages! I will make them pay dearly for their actions!"_

"Yo, Metty! They're going to drug our friends! We gotta get down there and warn 'em!" Blade shouted, getting Meta Knight's attention.

"Aw, man! If my bro is drugged… I don't know what'll happen!" Luigi cried. "I'm going back down!"

"We gotta get Chopper too! He should be up at the balcony!" Blade suggested.

"Very well… We gotta get up there as fast as we can." Meta Knight said as they hurried over to the elevator.

* * *

**Balcony-**

"Huh… Well, I'll admit, this is a nice view of the sky from here." Chopper gaped as he looked up at the beautiful sky. He could see many different stars, such as a yellow, blue, and red one. He even noticed a star that reminded him of something he knew.

"Chopper, art thou all right?" Luvbi asked, noticing Chopper's eyes water a little from looking at the star.

"Y-Yeah… I'm fine." he responded while wiping the water out of his eyes. "I just noticed something that I remembered from a long time."

"Oh… I see…" Luvbi looked back up at the sky and noticed a star shaped like a heart. "Pray, Chopper… Look at the heart up in the sky. Dost thou think that it's romantic?"

"Luvbi… You know I'm not interested in romance… But, I guess you can say that. Thank goodness it's nice and quiet up here, unlike in the room we were in before. I just like to relax sometimes, y'know?"

"Yea, I doth agree…" Luvbi smiled while blushing at Chopper. "Pray, how didst thy game end in the first place?"

"A clown named Dimentio 'ended' my game by trapping me in a box and making it explode from inside. That's how I got here. But… I didn't actually die, which was weird, just like everyone else. And I'll tell you, things were freaky. Although, you probably were the least scary. _Although your kisses were scary…_"

"Hee hee! Thou art making me blush!" she flew closer over to Chopper, who began to shake nervously. His face even turned a deep shade of red. "Thou art not shy, art thou?"

"I'm just hoping that you don't try kissing me, that's what."

"Thou just hast to relax. Just close thy eyes, and thou wilt be all better." Chopper was a little confused at first, but he decided to close his eyes. For some reason, he felt rather relaxed.

"OK, why did you make me close my eyes in the first place?"

"Because I want to show thee how much I love thee."

Chopper: ?

He suddenly felt Luvbi's lips touching his. His eyes opened wide in fear as he tried to get himself out. Because he felt so relaxed at first, this was very difficult for him to do.

What shocked him even more was a white flash that appeared out of nowhere. Nobody appeared, but it must've been too fast for him to see someone. Unfortunately, Luvbi didn't see because she was busy kissing Chopper.

Chopper: !

When she released Chopper, she noticed that he was shaking in fear. "Pray, my sweet prince, what is wrong?"

"BLEH! OK, that was the worst kiss I've ever had!" Chopper gagged. "Not only that, but I saw this white flash that appeared out of nowhere. I don't know who made it, but it just happened so suddenly."

"A flash? Why wouldst a flash appear hither?"

"I don't know…" Chopper trailed while wiping his mouth. "It could've been from…"

"Chopper! Chopper!" the two noticed Blade, Luigi, and Meta Knight walking to them. "Chopper! You gotta get down to the big room quick!"

"What is it, Luigi?"

"We overheard the two talking about their plan! They plan on drugging us and bringing us to their secret hideout! We gotta get down and warn the other three fast before they get drugged!" Luigi explained.

"Wait… WHAT?! Then we gotta get down there immediately!"

"And we better not waste any time either," Meta Knight added.

_"Oh, dear… This is bad news…" _Timpani trailed.

"So… What happened up here anyway?" Blade asked.

"Don't even ask," Chopper grumbled as they headed into the elevator and down to the first floor.

* * *

**First floor-**

Mario and Sonic watched as Kirby began shoving food into his mouth like never before. They tried to get something, but the pink puffball was too fast and got all of the food that was left on the plate.

Mario: Well so much for that…

"Yeah, I was hoping to get something out of this, but Kirby's just eating everything on the table! Talk about greedy! Yo! Kirby! Why not let us have some food for once! Can't you learn to share?"

"Poyo? (Wait… You wanted some?)" Kirby gawked as he swallowed his food. "Poyo… (Oh… I'm sorry about that… I wasn't trying to get on your nerves…)"

Mario: Well, I guess we'll have to starve…

"Or get something from the other table," Sonic said as he pointed to the other table. "Let's try getting food there."

"Hey you!" the three heroes paused and looked at a Nimbi wearing a chef's hat, a French mustache, and carried three plates. "Did you say you were hungray? Because I have three things here you can have!"

Mario: Well… What is it?

"What is it? It's my all-time greatest dish ever!" the Nimbi chef revealed pasta, a chili dog, and a Max Tomato underneath the potholders. "See? I had these with me, but no one wanted them!"

"Is… Is that a chili dog?" Sonic gaped.

"I guess you can say that. You can have it, guy!" the chef handed Sonic the chili dog, while Kirby got the Max Tomato, and Mario the pasta. "Enjoy it while you can! It's so good, you're tongue will cry out for more!"

"Poyo! (Thanks!)" Kirby smiled as he ate his tomato whole. Mario chomped down on his pasta, and Sonic took a big bite out of the chili dog. They all seemed to enjoy it, until they felt a little relaxed.

"Gee… Don't you guys feel calm at the moment?" Sonic asked.

Mario: Yeah… It was good…

"Poyo… (I feel as if I could…)" Kirby let out a yawn as he fell over. Both Mario and Sonic fell over as well and began to snooze.

"It worked! It worked!" the chef took off his hat and mustache and called in Gadootman. "They're fast asleep! Now we can take 'em to our hideout, right?"

"Shhhhhh! Don't say it out loud!" Gadootman shushed as he came fluttering from the curtains. "Come on! Let's get them out of here quick before someone notices us!"

Right when they left the temple, Chopper, Blade, Luigi, Meta Knight, and Luvbi came running into the large room. Unfortunately, they saw no sign of any of them.

_"I think we're too late…" _Timpani trailed.

"Great… I thought this would happen…" Chopper frowned. "Say… Did any of you guys see some kind of white flash?"

"No, I didn't see a flash anywhere," Luigi shrugged.

"Me neither," Blade added.

"Well, never mind that then. Let's go find where those two went and get a hold of them. When these people see their plans, I bet they'll be gone for good!" Chopper smirked as he walked over to the door.

"But the problem doth be that we dost not know where they art," Luvbi said. "Surely thou hast a plan, dost thou not?"

"Well, we might not know where the hideout is, but I bet there are two certain people that might have a little idea. C'mon! I think I saw a phone booth right outside! We'll try getting a hold of them!"

"Who are you calling?" Meta Knight asked.

"I'll just say it now. They're…"

* * *

**Pherrance and Tillip's house-**

In a room with red walls and a light blue floor, Pherrance was watching TV in his light blue couch while eating some food in his bowl. Tillip was sitting right next to him in his red couch and had the TV remote in his hand…er…wing.

"My goodness, Tillip! This is some good craft dinner!" Pherrance commented.

"I'm glad you like it, Pherrance! I thought you were aboot to say that later, but thanks anyway!" Tillip smiled.

Just as they continued to watch TV and eat craft dinner, they heard the phone ring. This caused them to laugh hysterically for some reason.

"That fart sounded like a ringing phone, Pherrance!"

"It sure did, Tillip!"

After their laugh, they heard the phone ring again. "Oh, wait… That is the phone." Pherrance fluttered over to the phone and picked it up. "Hello? Who is this?"

_"It's me, Chopper! Look, we need your help. We discovered that Gadootman has some sort of plan, and we need your help! Do you know where his secret hideout is, by any chance?"_

"Tillip! He's asking if we know about a secret hideout!" Pherrance whispered.

"Yeah! We know where it is!"

"Thanks," Pherrance went back to the phone. "Yeah! We know where the secret hideout is! Just meet us right in Peaceness Area 4 and we'll show you the way! …And don't bring anyone else with you either!"

_"Got it!"_

"And… Hold on, I got something!" Pherrance let out a fart, causing the two to laugh hysterically. "All right! We'll see ya!"

* * *

**Peaceness Area 4-**

"All right, so where do we go from here?" Chopper asked.

"Well, remember Peaceness Area 5?" Pherrance asked. The five started to ponder for a moment. "Well, if you head over there, there's a little secret. If you go to the left from the door you walk out of, there's a hidden cloud that can take you to a secret door that's hidden pretty well."

_"You might need my powers to find that cloud, Chopper," _Timpani informed.

"Right! Let's…go up that spring!" Chopper suggested, giving a thumbs up.

They followed him to the spring that launched them up to the cloud above them. They went into area 5 and looked over to the left. With Timpani's wand out, Chopper noticed a hidden cloud.

_"Just as I expected. Well, let me make it visible for you."_

With her powers, she managed to make the cloud visible. "That was pretty nice! Let's go up to that door and find that hideout!" Blade suggested as he started to perform a couple of ninja jumps to a large cloud above.

"Wait… I see nothing!"

"That's because the door's hidden," Tillip explained as he farted and laughed hysterically with Pherrance. "And it's pretty gassy too!"

"This doth be a serious moment, thou knowest…" Luvbi informed, giving the two a glare. "It doth be important that we rescue my prince's friends in order to findeth the Pure Heart."

_"Speaking of the Pure Heart…" _Timpani started. _"I suddenly feel its presence elsewhere in this place. I… I don't know what just happened, but someone must be holding onto it… But who would be?"_

"If that Necromancer's got it, then we're screwed…" Blade trailed as they got to the cloud he was on. "Now, can you guys help me find the secret around here?"

They noticed the sound of a Dimensional Rift around the area. When they looked up, they saw it. Chopper, knowing what he had to do, used Flippay's power to reveal a rainbow ! block.

"What the… What kind of block is this?" Chopper asked.

_"That's a rainbow ! block, Chopper. Only rainbow energy can hit that."_

"Oh… Well, here goes nothing!" he flung a rainbow ball directly at the block and made a door appear. "Well, come on, guys! We gotta get going!"

They entered the door into a small area, where they saw a building up ahead. It wasn't too big, but the door was sealed shut. The only thing they could see was a window.

"Let's see what's going on through the window," Meta Knight suggested as he ran towards the building. The rest followed him and stopped by the window. They began to see what was going on from inside.

* * *

**Inside-**

"Unnnnghhh… Wha… What just happened?" Sonic moaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He noticed that he was sitting in a chair and was tied up. "Huh? What the heck? ! Why am I tied up? !"

"Poyo?! (What the heck?! How did we get here?!)" Kirby gaped as he tried to break out. Sadly, the rope was too strong for him to do so. "Poyo! (I can't believe this! I'm stuck!)"

Mario: Same here! I can't break free!

"Heh heh heh heh… Well, this turned out to be perfect for us!" a voice cackled through the dark room.

"Poyo? (Who's there?)" Kirby asked, struggling to break free still.

"Uhhh… I have no idea what you just said… But who the hell cares?" Gadootman revealed himself through the darkness and slowly came over to the three. "Surprised to see me?"

"Surprised? Not at all, Dridge…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: Is that mustache fake?

"My mustache? Why… Yes! Yes it is!" Dridge pulled off his mustache, which turned out to be a lot more painful than he thought. "AGGGHHHH! God damn it that hurts! I didn't think it would hurt THAT much!"

"Well, you had that taped on for a long time…" Strott trailed.

"Poyo! (Hey! You're really Gridge Dabootman!)" Kirby gasped sarcastically. "Poyo! (What a surprise!)"

"HA! You people look shocked to see that it is really I, Gridge Dabootman, that trapped you and became the bureau…again!" Dabootman grinned. "Now that you're out of the way, I no longer have to worry about getting the people to listen to me!"

"Wait… Weren't there four more of you guys?" Strott gawked. "I could've sworn that there were more…"

"Wait, what? There are more?!" Dabootman gaped. "You hick! Why didn't you get them?!"

"Hey! Not my fault I didn't see 'em! I only saw those three! Cut me some slack, budday!"

"Great! Just great! My plan just backfired! Things just couldn't get worse!" As if on cue, Chopper broke through the window with a rainbow punch. The two Nimbis gaped as they saw Chopper, Blade, Luigi, and Meta Knight jump in the room.

"We found ya, Gridge!" Chopper smirked.

"We knew it was you all along!" Blade said in a serious tone as he grabbed a hold of him and held him up. "Now… What are you doing here and why did you try to brainwash the Nimbis to help you?"

"Listen, friend! You got this all wrong! This… This was all Strott's idea! He's the hick!" Dabootman cried.

"What?! Oh, hell… REALLY, Dabootman?! This was really YOUR idea!" Strott growled. "Ever since you made a deal with that wizard, you were able to get back here and try to get the heroes to be distracted here while his army could attack The Peaceness."

"What?!" Luvbi gaped, hearing from outside. "Didst… Didst thou let a MONSTER attack?! Dost… Dost that mean he is attacking Elbi's Shrine?!"

"Beats me," Dabootman shrugged. "He just wanted to find a Pure Heart."

_"The Pure Heart… I can actually feel its presence near Elbi's Shrine!" _Timpani gaped. _"We can't spend our time around here! We have to go now before things could get worse there!"_

"HA! We'll be able to get away with this!" Dabootman smirked. "You don't have any proof to show the Nimbis that we're planning this!"

"And that's where you're wrong!" announced Pherrance and Tillip as they walked in the hideout, holding a recorder. "We got that all in record! We're gonna spill the beans and get you guys in trouble!"

"Pherrance and Tillip!" spat Strott. "I knew you had something to do with this! You little nitwits! How could you try to ruin our plan?!"

"Because we believe in our right to fart!" Pherrance smiled as he farted.

"GRRRR! That does it!" Strott fluttered over to the two Nimbis and brought his two wings in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm wishing cancer upon you!"

"_CANCER?!_" Pherrance gasped as he got behind Tillip.

"What the… Hey! Don't wish it upon me!" Tillip gaped.

"We'll let these two take care of you for now," Meta Knight stated. "We better move now, or else Elbi could possibly get hurt!"

"Roger that, Metty!" Chopper nodded as they began to head off. All that remained were Pherrance, Tillip, Strott, and Dabootman.

"You… You really aren't going to show that to them, are you?" Dabootman asked while sweating.

"Well, after what you've done to us in the past, it feels right," stated Pherrance. "You don't deserve to be with us! You're… You're more like a monster than a Nimbi!"

"More like a Skellobit!" spat Tillip.

"No! Please! You gotta let me off the hook here! I promise I'll be a good Nimbi! I swear!" Dabootman begged. "I'll do anything!"

"Anything?" Pherrance and Tillip looked at each other and grinned. "Well… We were thinking about two things… One would be to confess to the Nimbis that you were going to brainwash them, or you could just leave this place forever and never return. Same goes to you, Strott!"

"What? And you say I'm the hick! You're being more of a hick now, Pherrance and Tillip!"

"It's either one," Tillip said.

"…Fine. I guess I have no other choice. Strott, I don't want to look bad in front of everyone. It's best that we leave and never return." Dabootman announced.

"What? Where would we go then?" Strott asked.

"I don't know. Somewhere away from here, that's for sure."

"Ugh… Fine. But one last thing… You'll regret this, Pherrance and Tillip. When we meet again, you better be prepared."

As the two Nimbis fluttered, Pherrance and Tillip looked off at the stars and noticed one star that they found hilarious.

"Say, Pherrance, do you see that?"

"Yeah! It looks like a farting Nimbi!" Pherrance let out a fart and began to laugh hysterically with Tillip. "…But, I think I've learned something today."

"Really? What is that?"

"Politics suck."

* * *

**Path to Elbi's Shrine-**

"Hurry! Elbi's Shrine doth be ahead!" Luvbi cried as they raced their way to the shrine. Unfortunately, they noticed a large army of Skells already beat them to the shrine.

"Oh, no… They already made it!" Chopper frowned. How are we supposed to get to the shrine now when there are all of these Skells blocking the way! I bet they knew we were coming…"

"Well we can still take 'em!" Sonic curled up in a ball and threw himself at the Skells like a bowling ball. However, he was stopped when an undead was thrown at him and sent him flying back to the heroes.

"You stupid disgrace of a hero!" the Necromancer scoffed as he pushed himself through the army of Skells. "There's no way you can get past these Skells! There are too many of them for you to defeat!"

"Urgh… All right, so you're just going to let us sit here and watch as you invade Elbi's Shrine?"

"Nay! We shall not let this happen!" Luvbi retorted. "Leavest now before we have to use full force against thee!"

"And believe me, we've got some new moves in our hands," Chopper warned, showing off his rainbow energy. "So, I suggest you back off now and leave this place before we make you."

"Is that so? Well then…" the Necromancer snapped his finger and all the Skells charged at the heroes. They didn't even have time to fight back. Because of how many there were, they managed to tie their arms to their back.

"We got 'em!" a Spiky Skell announced.

"Heh heh heh! See? You're no match for all of these Skells! They're too skilled compared to the Skellobits!"

"That may be, but they might have a hard time against an army too!"

"What? Who said that?"

The heroes looked behind and saw Fubi flutter into the area with Ninbi. "Hello, heroes. I suppose we hath just made it… We art not going to let this foul Necromancer get the Pure Heart!"

"Well, so it looks like two old geezers have showed up!" the Necromancer smirked under his helmet. "Well you're too late! I've already got the heroes here!"

"Don't underestimate us," Ninbi warned before snapping his wing. An army of Nimbis came fluttering out of the door and flew above them. It looked like the Nimbis from that party!

"Wait… How did you get a hold of them?" Meta Knight gaped.

"As an old Nimbi, we doth have our ways…" Fubi coughed. "Thou see… We doth know some of them. After hearing about the monsters, they wanted to come hither to help."

"Aw, crud… Well this sucks." a Spiky Skell growled. "Well, we're not goin' to let a bunch of angels beat us, right? Let's go get 'em!"

"Fine, go ahead and fight them," the Necromancer sighed as he summoned a bunch of Bomber Skells to come out of the sky and fight. "But don't leave the heroes out of your sight, or else they…"

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fist behind his back and summoned a blue swarm of wind to knock the Skells away from them. Meta Knight freed himself by cutting off the rope and took the time to slice the rope off the others.

"Prepare to meet your match, Necromancer," Meta Knight said as he flew towards the Necromancer.

"Hold on, Metty! I got your back!" Chopper said as he ran to him.

"Be careful out there, my sweet prince!" Luvbi said, noticing the huge battle between the Nimbis and Bomber Skells. Some Nimbis were falling, and some Skells were falling. It looked like a pretty even match.

When the seven reached the Necromancer, he immediately struck the ground with white lightning. Three Dark Skells were summoned from the ground and began to charge at the heroes with all their might.

"Don't hold back, guys! We're gonna kick this guy's ass!" Blade said as he sliced at one of the Dark Skells with his katana. Meta Knight was probably having the easiest time with the fight. He was able to land a combo on a Dark Skell with his sword and finish it off.

"Geez… That's pretty impressive…" Luigi gaped. That is, until he got hurt by a Dark Skell's spear. The Necromancer cackled, but stopped when the Dark Skell got knocked away by Luigi's Cyclone.

"What?! What the heck was that?!" the Necromancer gaped.

"It's my Cyclone move!" Luigi smirked as he kicked the Dark Skell and defeated it.

Mario: That's my bro!

"Heads up, Mario!" Chopper cried, hurling a charged rainbow ball at the Dark Skell that was about to attack him. Luckily, the red plumber jumped out of the way and let the rainbow ball hurt the Dark Skell. Kirby finished it off with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo! (Game over for you, Necromancer!)" Kirby smirked.

"That was just the beginning," the Necromancer zapped the ground once again and summoned Dark Spiky Bomber Skells to fly in the air. The only problem with this was that Luigi could attack them from underneath.

"Wahoo!" Luigi cheered as he struck a Dark Spiky Bomber Skell with a Super Jump. Kirby joined in and attacked the same Skell with his Cartwheel, followed by his Final Cutter.

"Poyo, (Now this is really helpful,)" Kirby smiled as he jumped out of the way of the Dark Spiky Bomber Skell's head that it dropped. Chopper, on the other hand, attacked the other monster with a rainbow upper kick attack that left it off guard from the rainbow energy.

"Argh! Annoying rainbow energy!" the monster cried.

"Meta Knight instantly finished them off by spinning around in a tornado and attacking them at once, leaving only the Necromancer left. But this didn't mean he was going to give up just yet.

"I've got one last trick up my sleeve," the Necromancer announced as he zapped the ground and summoned two Skelloknights. "All right! You're the toughest of the group, so kill them all!"

_"This could be a problem…" _Timpani gawked.

"Well… I know what I could do! Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fist and summoned a blue gust of wind to knock the Skelloknight's armor off. Chopper followed up by attacking one of them with his rainbow smash. Meta Knight began to attack the first one multiple times to finish it off instantly.

"That takes care of one of them," Meta Knight sighed. "We should all work together to take these guys down."

Mario: Good idea!

Mario rushed to the next Skelloknight and attacked it with his Super Ground Pound. Luigi followed up with his flutter stomp attack, making the Skelloknight stunned. Blade was able to finish it off when he stabbed its chest.

"Ha! Score one for the heroes, and zero for the Necromancer!" Blade grinned.

"Fine! I'll handle you myself!" the Necromancer flew down to the cloud and drew his sword. "Perhaps I will teach you a lesson to never mess with the freakin' Necromancer!"

"All right, let's see what new moves this guy's got," Chopper said as he used Timpani's wand to investigate the enemy.

_"That's the Necromancer. He's one of Shade Doom's strongest minions, and he doesn't mess around either. Max HP is 280. Attack is 14. Defense is 6. His basic moves are usually attacking you with his sword or bringing back the dead. Using the undead to keep you from moving can get you a little frustrated, especially when he will attack you with his powerful magic attacks. The best thing to do against him is to be fast, and you should also attack him from close range. His sword isn't as strong as his magic attacks. As far as I'm concerned… What does he look like behind that helmet?" _Timpani informed.

"All right, let's get this started," Chopper said as he jumped to the Necromancer and kicked him in the face with rainbow energy. "There! I think that should do something!"

"Think again!" the Necromancer hit Chopper in the face with the flat side of his sword and made him fall over. Luvbi was about to fly to him, but the Necromancer rose his sword and allowed lightning to strike it.

"Wait… You said nothing about this, Tippi!"

_"I didn't get anything from this attack…" _Timpani trailed.

"Heads up!" Meta Knight grabbed Chopper's hand and pulled him back. He fired a Sword Beam straight at the Necromancer to keep him off guard, and to also interrupt his attack. He then flew to him and slashed him with his sword.

"Ugh… Impressive! But that's not good enough!" the Necromancer scoffed as he fired an undead straight at the group. However, Kirby managed to inhale it and spit it back at the Necromancer.

"Poyo! (Well you can't handle your own attacks!)" Kirby cheered as he jumped out of the way of the Necromancer's Sword Beam. Meta Knight destroyed it with his own Sword Beam, but his got destroyed in the process.

"Ugh… If only that didn't get destroyed." Meta Knight grunted as he saw the Necromancer fly up and come down towards him with his sword. He flew out of the way and then flew to him to try to attack.

"Oh no you don't!" Blade said as he kicked the Necromancer and made him crash into the stairs. But that didn't stop the undead being from hurling a skeleton at Blade and knocking him back.

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fist and attacked the Necromancer with a blue gust of wind. He got caught in it, but he managed to fly back up and fling purple magic blasts from his hands down at Sonic.

"Whoa! What the heck?!" he gaped as he jumped out of the way.

"Don't underestimate me, heroes! I can use my own magic too!"

"Uhhh… We know you can use undead magic." Chopper said as he hurled a rainbow ball at the Necromancer's face. He quickly shook himself from the attack and knocked Chopper back with an undead. "Ugh… Stop throwing the undead at us!"

"Then I'll try something else," the Necromancer summoned dead hands to grab a hold of their feet and prevent them from jumping.

Mario: What is this?!

"Ack! Dead hands!" Luigi cried. "This is getting creepier by the minute!"

"Luigi! Calm down! You might need to get us out of this!" Chopper snapped. "Since the Necromancer's flying… You're gonna have to hit him. Something tells me he's going to use a powerful attack."

"See how you like my all-powerful Undead Ray!" the Necromancer cackled as they all saw him holding up a ball of purple energy in his hands. "Now that you're stuck, this should be a snap!"

"You really should try to hit him, Luigi," Blade suggested, looking back at Luigi. "You can pretty much deal some serious damage if you try Super Jumping this guy."

"OK… I'll give it a go." Luigi folded himself up, and when the Necromancer was right above him, he broke himself free from the dead hands and launched an uppercut punch with his Super Jump, interrupting his attack.

"Ack! What the…! Oh, I'm gonna get you for that!" the Necromancer threw his sword like a boomerang as Luigi cringed from the attack. Mario attacked him from behind by punching the back of his head and landing a Triple Jump on him afterwards. Needless to say, it was a heavy attack.

Even so, the Necromancer managed to elbow Mario in the stomach to knock him back and slash at Blade with his sword when he was coming his way. He even managed to send Meta Knight flying by summoning a dead fist to punch him from underneath.

"Urk! What was that? !" Meta Knight grunted as he got in control of himself with his wings. "Did he just summon a dead fist?"

_"Hmmmmmmm… So he's not holding back right now…" _Timpani trailed.

"Your damn right I'm not holding back! You're gonna get skewered!" the Necromancer growled as he threw his sword at Meta Knight. He blocked it, but the Necromancer managed to fly to his sword and attempt to slash at Meta Knight. Luckily, the masked warrior blocked his attack and tried to fight back. But their swords simply clashed.

"Uhhhhh… OK, screw it." Blade stopped the Necromancer by throwing Hommissile at him. He cringed as he slowly got up, now being covered in soot. Chopper threw a charged rainbow ball afterwards to leave him in rainbow steam. But, even so, he managed to knock them away with his undead magic.

"Poyo! (I got this!)" Kirby announced as he pulled his blade out and attacked the Necromancer. He tried countering it with his sword, but because of the size of Kirby's weapon, he couldn't hold on anymore and got hurt by the massive blade.

"How can such a puny person carry such a blade like that?" the Necromancer grunted. "This makes no sense…"

"Barely anything makes sense around here," Sonic said as he hit the Necromancer in the face with a Homing Attack. However, he managed to grab a hold of Sonic and throw him back at Chopper, who got sent flying and landed on a Skell's head.

"Hmmmmm… I have an idea!" Chopper smirked as he grabbed the Skell's head and rand towards the Necromancer again. "Let's see how you like getting hurt by your undead minions, Necromancer!"

He threw the Skell's head at the Necromancer and left him stunned. Kirby took this time to toss Crystaline at him and leave him frozen solid. Blade melted him by attacking him with his fire slash, but they were soon hit by a skeleton the Necromancer hurled at them.

"Guh… Too many skeletons…" Blade grunted as he blocked the next skeleton being hurled at him. He jumped and kicked the Necromancer from an angle, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds.

"OK! Go for it, Luigi!"

Luigi nodded and threw Bonjourang at the Necromancer to leave him stunned for a couple of seconds. Afterwards, he ran up to him and attacked him with a flutter jump, which was a lot stronger than his normal jump (if you couldn't tell already).

"OK, so how long until this guy's ass is down?" Blade asked as he tried to attack him with his katana, but got knocked back when the Necromancer kicked him in a shin and slashed his arm with his sword.

"GAH! That hurts!"

Mario: You all right?

"Yeah, I just got a little cut in my arm… Nothing huge…"

The Necromancer was about to attack again, but Meta Knight stopped him by slashing him from behind and attacking him with his Galaxia Drill afterwards. The Necromancer turned around and hurled a skeleton at him, but Meta Knight brought his cape up and blocked the attack.

"What the-"

Meta Knight disappeared and appeared behind Necromancer while attacking him with his sword. Chopper pitched in by using Starbow's power to make stars rain down and hit the Necromancer.

"Ugh… Stars? How did you make them come down? !" the Necromancer gawked.

"Oh, with this Pixl, of course," Chopper said before stomping on his head with ice energy. Unfortunately, he got hit by a skeleton the Necromancer hurled at him while he was performing a stylish move.

_"Be careful, Chopper… You might not want to do that while fighting a boss…" _Timpani informed.

_"It leaves you open for an attack," _Blumiere added.

"Yeah, I know that," Chopper nodded before getting hit by a purple energy ball that the Necromancer hurled at him. Afterwards, he summoned a dead fist to send Chopper flying in the air.

Since the Necromancer was distracted, Kirby went in and attacked him with his Final Cutter. The Necromancer tried countering it with a skeleton, but Kirby inhaled it and spat it back at him.

"Poyo, (Try using your magic on me and that'll happen,)" Kirby smirked.

"Hmmmmmm… Well, let's see if you can inhale THIS!" With a snap of his finger, the Necromancer summoned dead hands to grab everyone and keep them from escaping. This allowed him to dash past the group while slashing at them with his sword.

"I'm trapped!" Luigi cried. "How do we get out of this?!"

_"Try to shake your feet out," _Timpani suggested.

"You mean like this?" Meta Knight kept shaking his feet to get the dead hands off him. Unfortunately, they were too late when the Necromancer fired his Undead Ray upon them, dealing massive damage to them.

"GAH… I can't say how painful that was…" Sonic grunted. "But this fight is far from over…"

"Yeah, this is quite an intense battle," Chopper said as he hurled a rainbow ball. The Necromancer easily dodged it, but it wasn't able to dodge Meta Knight's tornado attack, which sent him crashing into the stairs.

"Would Elbi be mad if his stairs were damaged?" Luigi asked.

"I dost not know…" Luvbi trailed, staying back from the fight.

_"You're more than halfway finished with him," _Timpani informed. _"You've got his HP down by more than half, if you wanted to know."_

"That's great to hear," Chopper smiled as he bashed the Necromancer with his hammer surrounded in rainbow energy, allowing Blade and Luigi to attack with a Cyclone and a Dragon Beam.

"The Dragon Beam? But that ability hasn't been around for ages!" the Necromancer gaped.

"Well, only a true ninja can learn a move like that," Blade smirked as he attacked him with another Dragon Beam. This time, the Necromancer brought his guard up and defended himself. Even though he got hurt from the attack, it wasn't as bad as before.

"Crap. If he keeps defending himself like that, then there's no way I'm gonna be able to hit him."

Mario: I'll take care of that!

Mario started off by stomping on the Necromancer's head and using a Super Ground Pound afterwards to keep the Necromancer off guard, allowing Sonic to attack him with his Sonic Wind and then his Spin Dash. When the Necromancer hit the ground, Luigi stomped on his stomach before getting slashed by the Necromancer's sword.

"Maybe this should teach you a lesson to never mess with me," the Necromancer sneered as he hurled a skeleton directly at Luigi. The green plumber jumped and used his Cyclone to keep the Necromancer off guard with a small tornado.

While the Necromancer was getting up, Meta Knight flew to him and tried to attack him. However, the Necromancer got his sword ready and blocked the attack. Both warriors kept parrying each others attacks just like before.

"So, it looks like we're evenly matched here…" Meta Knight trailed.

"Looks like it," the Necromancer agreed.

"But it's seven against one!" Chopper smirked as he used a rainbow sweeping kick to hit the Necromancer and make him fall over. He proceeded to attack him multiple times with his spinning kick until the Necromancer summoned dead hands to grab Chopper and allow him to slash at him with his sword.

Kirby, on the other hands, attacked the Necromancer while he was attacking Chopper with his Final Cutter, followed by his Cartwheel attack. This let Chopper get out of the dead hands easily and land a rainbow kick on the Necromancer's stomach.

"Too bad this is all I have with me…" Chopper trailed as he gripped his hammer and bashed the Necromancer's helmet with rainbow energy. Even with that, the Necromancer was able to whack Chopper with the flat side of his sword and knock him back. But this only got Meta Knight to store up some power within his sword.

"Stand back, everyone! I think it's time for me to use my special attack on him!" Meta Knight warned as everyone stepped back.

"Oh no you don't!" the Necromancer came flying towards Meta Knight until Blade used his Dragon Beam to stop him. Chopper also pitched in by using Starbow to make stars rain down on the Necromancer.

"Try all you want, but you're not going to stop me!"

"Oh, yeah? Sonic Wind!" Sonic grinned as he caught the Necromancer in a blue gust of wind. He tried to fight it, but the wind was too strong for him and even left him dazed.

"Thank you, heroes," Meta Knight thanked as he brought his sword down on the ground and summoned his Mach Tornado. All of the Nimbis and Bomber Skells stopped fighting for a minute as they saw the Necromancer get caught in the Mach Tornado.

"What… What kind of attack is that?" Fubi gaped.

"It doth be amazing…" Ninbi trailed.

"Aw, crap… That's pretty big…" a Spiky Skell gulped.

As soon as the Mach Tornado disappeared, they all noticed that the Necromancer was lying on the ground. He didn't seem to move.

"Let me check," Chopper said as he walked over to the Necromancer. He nudged him with his foot a couple of times, but then he decided to get a little closer…

"I'm not done with you, hero!" the Necromancer snarled as he summoned dead hands to trap Chopper. "I'm going to send you into oblivion!"

"Wh-What?! You're still alive?!"

"If you thought an attack like that would kill me, then think again!" the Necromancer raised his arm and summoned a dark ball of energy. "Now that you're weak, this attack should finish you off!"

Chopper tried hurling rainbow balls at him, but they didn't seem to have much of an effect. So, he tried charging one up instead. Unfortunately, that didn't do a thing to him either.

"See you in The Underwhere, hero!" the Necromancer cackled as he hurled the dark ball of energy straight at him.

_"Oh, man! I've gotta think of something!" _Chopper thought. _"Wait… I think I might have an idea… But I'm not going to like it…"_

Chopper began to inhale the dark ball coming his way. He knew it was dangerous, but he had to try. Besides, hasn't he inhaled other things? This wouldn't be any different.

Once he had it in his mouth, he spat it back at the Necromancer, who gaped as he saw it coming back at him.

"Wh-Wha…?" As soon as it hit him, the Necromancer's eyes widened, and he was surrounded by a dark aura. The dead hands trapping Chopper were now gone as well. The rest of the group went over to him and watched as the Necromancer began to slowly ascend in the air.

"M… Master… They're too strong…" the Necromancer screamed as he disappeared after ascending far up into the stars.

"The Necromancer… Is he verily…" Luvbi began.

"I don't think so," Chopper replied while shaking his head. "This happened before. I'm sure he'll be back."

"Well, we better hurry to Elbi's Shrine, and fast," Meta Knight suggested.

_"The Pure Heart… I feel its presence coming from inside the shrine!" _Timpani gasped. _"We better move fast!"_

"Right!" Sonic nodded as he ran up the stairs. They started off by hitting the yellow ? block right near them. An Ultimate Shroom happened to be in there, so they all took a piece and consumed it to recover 100 HP.

Mario: I needed that!

With their games saved, they immediately headed into the shrine to see what would await them.

* * *

**Elbi's Shrine-**

Upon entering Elbi's Shrine, they noticed that they didn't see Elbi around. "Wait… Where is Elbi? Shouldn't he be in here? Something's not right here…" Meta Knight pondered as he looked around in the room…until they noticed someone trapped in a dark orb.

"Heroes! Thou hast come hither! …But I think thou art too late." Elbi called out from inside the orb.

"Elbi? What happened?" Luvbi asked, flying over to the trapped Nimbi. "Who trapped you hither?"

"That would be me, of course!" Everyone looked over at the throne and saw a familiar face sitting on it. "Surprised to see me, heroes?"

"Well, not really…" Chopper trailed. "When we saw the Necromancer, we knew you would be here as well…"

"Why hast thou come back?!" Luvbi growled. "Thou shouldst realize that my prince and his friends can kicketh thy butt just like before!"

"Oh, silly little brat!" Shade grinned as he brought his hood down. "You know, I couldn't have done all of this without the help of someone. I'm sure you would know about him, Luvbi…"

"Didst thou kidnap my parents?!"

"No, thy parents were not kidnapped," another dark wizard appeared from behind the throne and fluttered right beside Shade. He looked down at Chopper and gave him a glare. "Chopper… I hath been waiting for thee as well!"

"Wait wait wait wait!" Chopper began. "So, we first find Shade here, and now we see another wizard? WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"This must be some sort of trick…" Meta Knight trailed. "Tell us who you are. Now."

"Very well," the dark wizard brought his hood down and revealed himself to be a Nimbi. But this one looked much paler and his eyes were glowing purple. He was also wearing a necklace with a silver heart in it. "Dost thou remember me from The Overthere, Chopper?!"

"Wait… You're that Nimbi Wenbi, aren't you?" Chopper gawked.

"S-Son?!" Elbi gaped.

"Poyo?! (Wait, this Nimbi here is Elbi's son?!)" Kirby gaped.

"So this is THE Wenbi Luvbi was talking about…" Luigi trailed.

"W-Wenbi? But… Why didst thou turn evil? Thou art not verily bad, thou knowest…" Luvbi frowned.

"I loved thee, Luvbi… But then that Star Warrior came in the way and ruined mine chances of becoming thy one and only!" Wenbi sneered.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me… I don't love Luvbi!" Chopper said with an irritated look. "She's the one that's all over ME! I'm NOT!"

"Oh, verily? Then why didst I see thee kissing her at the temple?"

"She was kissing ME! And… Wait, did you say temple? Hold on… You were watching us the whole time?"

"Yea, I saw thee up on the balcony, and it madeth me angry!"

"So YOU'RE the one who was in that flash?"

"Flash? What art thou saying? I was not in any flash!"

"So… Then who was it?"

"I think you two had enough chit-chat for now," Shade interrupted. "Wenbi, my new apprentice, destroy these heroes, and I will reward you with anything you want, even being able to marry Luvbi!"

"What? I dost not want to marry thee!" Luvbi spat. "Thou art on the side of evil now! Joining the monsters would maketh me hate thee more than love thee!"

"What? So thou will not marry me like this?"

"Nay! I hath had no interest in thee ever! Thou wouldeth made a good friend, but thou would maketh a terrible boyfriend!"

"Oh, trust me… We'll have ways into 'making' you become his girlfriend and even wife." Shade cackled. "Now then… Go ahead and rid the heroes, Wenbi!"

"No! Don't do this, Wenbi!" Elbi cried. "Thou art not on the side of evil! Thou knowest that!"

"Shuttest thy trap, old man! Stay out of this!" Wenbi snapped as he fired a dark bolt of magic at Chopper. Meta Knight was able to grab him and pull him out of the way before he could get hurt.

"Chopper, we have no choice but to fight," Meta Knight informed.

"But… I don't wish to hurt him…" Chopper trailed.

"I don't want to hurt him either, but we have to defend ourselves," Blade said as he drew his katana and got in a fighting stance. "Dragon Beam!"

Blade fired a Dragon Beam that struck Wenbi. However, he was able to send it straight back at Blade and send him flying to the wall.

"What the…" Blade got himself up, but he felt severely wounded. "Did that just backfire against me?"

"Try everything thou wantest, but thou art not going to taketh me down!" Wenbi grinned as he fired a dark bolt of energy that struck Blade and sent him to the ground.

"Blade!" Sonic cried.

"I taught my apprentice everything I knew! That, and he's surrounded in a shield that helps him protect himself from others!" Shade cackled.

"Well, that's not stopping us! Let's go!" Sonic clenched his fist and unleashed his Sonic Wind on Wenbi. The Nimbi yawned as he stood still. "Wait… Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…"

He decided to run towards Wenbi and attack with a Spin Jump. Bad move.

Wenbi fired a dark beam of energy at Sonic that left him severely wounded, like Blade.

Mario: Oh, man! This is bad!

"We should work together then!" Luigi suggested

Mario and Luigi tried attacking Wenbi together, but because of the shield, they couldn't do a thing. Wenbi fired a dark pulse attack that left the two nearly unconscious as they hit the ground.

"Poyo… (This isn't looking good…)" Kirby trailed while holding his blade. He decided to swing it at Wenbi, but it did no good when Kirby got struck by dark lightning. All that remained were Chopper and Meta Knight.

"This… This isn't good…" Chopper gulped.

"Well, we have to try to keep him off guard. That could help us beat him." Meta Knight informed.

"But… He's not really a villain. I don't want to cause harm to a simple Nimbi!"

"I am not a simple Nimbi!" Wenbi growled as he fired his dark magic down at the two. They jumped out of the way, with Chopper running on the wall to get behind Wenbi.

"Wenbi! Behind you!" Shade warned.

Chopper tried to jump on top of Wenbi, but the Nimbi got him first and fired a dark magic bolt at him, knocking him down and leaving him lying on the ground.

"Chopper!" Luvbi cried.

"No!" Meta Knight ran over to him and tried helping him up, but Wenbi blasted him with his dark magic and knocked him to the ground. "Ugh… No… This can't be happening…"

"Excellent! It looks like you've won, Wenbi! Congratulations!" Shade commented. "Now finish them off, starting with the masked one!"

Wenbi nodded and prepared to hit Meta Knight with one last attack. However, Chopper still had some energy in him to get to Meta Knight and pushed him out of the way, making him take the attack instead.

"Chopper… Why… Why did you do that?" Meta Knight wheezed.

"To…help you…"

"Chopper… Please don't die…" Luvbi whimpered.

"Fine. You can finish off Chopper first then." Shade suggested as he rolled his eyes. "Besides, you want him gone first, so go for it."

"Thank thee, Master," Wenbi looked over to Chopper and prepared to finish him off with one last magic attack. "Finally… I will rid thee forever, and nothing will be in my way in marrying Luvbi!"

"Please, Wenbi! Don't do it!" Luvbi cried. "What ever happened to the Wenbi everyone used to knoweth? One that was verily peaceful, and somewhat funny? Wouldst thou want to make all of thy friends unhappy?"

"Son… I beg of thee! Don't do any of this!" Elbi begged. "There doth be a chance to turn back now when thou hast the chance!"

"You really think that he's going to listen to you people now? HA! Wenbi, finish them off and we'll be on our way!" Shade suggested.

Wenbi looked back over at the two, and then back down at Chopper and the heroes, who were severely wounded at this point.

"I didn't want it all to end like this…" Chopper coughed. "Please, Wenbi… Don't do this… Don't you remember when we saved you and your people from those Skellobits?"

"Please, Wenbi… We dost know that thou dost have good in thee…" Luvbi trailed, now crying at this moment.

"…"

"Well, are you going to kill them?" Shade asked, now becoming impatient. "This is your chance! So do it!"

"If… If you end our games… Then the whole universe would be destroyed…" Chopper wheezed. "If you stay with Shade, you'll probably never see the universe again, nor will you see your friends…"

"I would be gone if thou didst what Shade is telling the…" Luvbi trailed.

Thinking about all of this, Wenbi did remember the good times he had with his father, and even his friends. His purple eyes turned to his normal colored eyes and he stopped charging the magic attack.

"Oh, I can't dost it… I can't kill someone…" Wenbi trailed. "Heroes, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused to thee…"

He fired another magic attack, but this one healed the heroes instead of hurting them. He also broke Elbi out of the dark orb. "Look, we can do this together."

"Son! Thank thee…" Elbi cried as he gave his son a hug. "I'm glad thou didst the right thing…"

"Thank thee too," Luvbi smiled. "I'm glad for what thou didst."

While everyone celebrated, Shade was filled with anger. "You worthless Nimbi! I trusted you, and this is what you repay me with?! Fine! If you won't kill them, then I'll do it myself!"

Shade pulled his wand out and fired an intense bolt of dark magic straight at Chopper. However, Wenbi noticed this and pushed Chopper out of the way, taking the hit instead.

"Wenbi!" Chopper cried as the Nimbi collapsed, now severely wounded. "Why… Why did you do that?"

"To saveth thee…" Wenbi coughed.

"Nay… This… This doth be horrible!" Elbi gasped.

"Your son refused to listen to me, and now he deserves to die! But, I think I'll start with you heroes first!" Shade snarled. "This is what happens when you try to mess with the almighty Shadow Doom!"

_"Luvbi, get Elbi and Wenbi out of here immediately!" _Timpani suggested. _"We'll take it from here!"_

"OK…" Luvbi flew out of the shrine with Elbi, who carried the wounded Wenbi out of the shrine.

"This is it for you, heroes! Your games are finally going to end here!" Shade shouted as he summoned five blue crystals. "I'll soften you up a bit with these crystals! Surely they'll be enough to keep you company…"

"Oh, geez… They each have 50 HP…" Chopper trailed. "Come on, guys… Let's beat this guy…for Wenbi."

"Yes, we shall," Meta Knight nodded as he readied his sword and charged at Shade. However, he managed to knock the masked warrior back with a blue crystal that hit the ground.

"Hit it while it's stuck to the ground!" Blade shouted as he slashed at one of the crystals. With Kirby's help, they were able to destroy the first one.

"Hmmmm… Not bad… But let's see how you handle this!" Shade brought the crystals up again, but he made them move horizontally at the heroes. They tried jumping over them, but they got knocked down by two of them. Thankfully, Luigi's Cyclone attack was able to hurt two of them at once.

Mario: I got one of 'em!

Mario gripped his hammer and continuously bashed at one of the weakened crystals until it was destroyed, leaving only three more left. But even still, Kirby destroyed the other weakened one with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo… (Only two more left…)" Kirby trailed.

"Only two remain? No surprise here…" Shade trailed, making the two crystals fall down on the seven. They were able to jump out of the way, but the crystals got up fast enough to avoid getting pounded.

"Hold on, I know what to do," Chopper gripped his hammer and spun it around vertically to hit one of them. Sonic destroyed it with a Homing Attack, leaving only one more left.

"And this should do it," Blade smirked as he landed a combo on the last blue crystal and kicked it straight at Shade, knocking him back on the throne.

"GAH! Fine! It looks like I have to take you down without those…" Shade removed his cloak and gently floated to the ground while surrounding himself in a blue shield. "This should help me for a while."

"Oh, great… He's using the same strategy as before…" Sonic face palmed. "OK, this isn't going to take a while."

Mario: What is this?

"He's protecting himself with a shield?" Luigi pondered.

"You see, when his shield is blue, you need to use Pixls against it. When he has a red shield, you have to use your own moves against it." Chopper explained. "But, he uses ranged attacks with a blue shield and close ranged attacks with the red shield."

Mario: This should be no problem then!

Mario started off by attacking Shade with Kickbrin. Shade didn't seem to cringe from the attack, but the blue shield blinked a yellow color, indicating that it actually got damaged from the attack.

"We just need to keep using our Pixls at this point and we should be all good," Blade said as he hurled Hommissile at Shade's shield. This only got Shade angry as he fired a blot of dark magic from his wand at Blade.

"Hee hee hee! Go ahead and suffer like that!" Shade cackled as he did a flip in the air and landed in front of Chopper, striking him with dark magic. Despite that, the Star Warrior was able to use Starbow to send stars flying down on Shade's shield.

"Geez… I don't know why, but I get this 'crazy' vibe from him…" Chopper trailed. Shade tried firing more dark magic blots, but he simply jumped over them and let Luigi throw Bonjourang at his shield.

Shade fired blots of dark magic from his wand at Luigi, but he was able to jump out of the way and stomp on Shade's shield. The only problem with that was that it healed the shield.

"Wait… Did I do something wrong?" Luigi asked.

_"You're supposed to use a Pixl against him when his shield is blue," _Blumiere informed.

"Oh… Whoops!"

"Have some of this, Luigi!" Shade grinned as he waved his wand and fired a charged blot of dark magic straight at him. Luigi yelped as he jumped out of the way, but Kirby managed to keep him off guard by throwing Crystaline at his shield.

"Don't worry, Kirby! I've got ya covered!" Sonic grinned as he attacked Shade's shield with a corkscrew. At this point, Shade changed his shield to a red color, preventing the Pixls from attacking.

"You're not going to get any luck from those Pixls now!" Shade spat as he knocked Sonic back with a wave of dark magic. But what he didn't see coming was Blade's Dragon Beam.

"Heh! Since you've got a red shield, I can use this move on ya!" Blade grinned as he threw a couple of shurikens at Shade's shield. They bounced off, but they did deal some damage to it.

"Remind me to kill you first," Shade reminded as he tried attacking Blade with his dark wave of magic. But, since his attacks are close range at this point, he wasn't able to get a hold of Blade.

"What's wrong? Can't attack us at a far range?" Chopper smirked as he struck Shade's shield with a charged rainbow ball. "We can just do this and we'll be all set for this fight!"

Sonic jumped behind Shade while he was making another wave of dark magic and attacked him with a Homing Attack. Since this got his attention, he turned to him and struck him with his dark magic.

"Ouch… OK, that was a bad idea…" Sonic grunted as he slowly got up. "But, at least we're not weakened from Wenbi."

"Poyo… (But Wenbi is severely injured because of him…)" Kirby gave Shade a glare as he pulled his Final Cutter out and slashed at Shade's shield. This gave the dark wizard an opportunity to hit him with a wave of dark magic.

Shade turned to Kirby and tried firing a wave of magic at him, but the pink puffball managed to jump out of the way and hit Shade's shield with a Cartwheel attack, leaving him off guard.

"All right, I think we can do a little bit more on this red shield, but I don't know how long he'll have it up…" Meta Knight trailed as he attacked Shade's shield with a Galaxia Drill. He was able to fly out of the way from Shade's magic wave, which ended up getting Chopper instead.

"Ow… OK, that kinda hurt…" Chopper grunted as he got up and kicked Shade's shield. The dark wizard tried attacking him again, but Blade slashed at his shield with his katana and taunted him, bringing his attention over to him.

"Oh, so you wish to die first, don't you? That can be arranged…" Shade grinned as he swung his wand forward and fired a wave of dark magic in Blade's direction. He tried to deflect it, but he didn't have any luck with that. It wasn't something that he could protect himself from.

Mario: We need some more firepower here!

"Yeah, I can try something," Luigi attacked Shade's shield while he was behind him with his Cyclone, and when Shade turned to attack, he jumped out of the way and flutter jumped on his red shield.

"Urgh… This isn't going too well for me…" Shade groaned.

"What're you going to do about it? Change back to your other shield?" Sonic taunted. "You know what the outcome will be!"

"Oh, we'll see about that!" Shade raised his wand and surrounded himself in a light red shield. "Go right ahead! I dare you to attack me!"

"All right!" Chopper ran over to Shade's shield and stomped on it. The only problem? It ended up healing Shade's shield instead. "Wait, what? ! I thought that it would do something? !"

"Too bad for you! Looks like I win!"

"Hmmmmmm… All right, time to see what Tippi has to say about him." Chopper said as he pulled Timpani's wand out and began to investigate him.

_"That's Shade Doom. This is his second phase, which consists of his shields. Max HP is 270. Attack is 14. Defense is 5. Just like before, his shields will change from blue to red. Blue means that you need to attack with Pixls, and red means you need to use your own attacks. However, there's a little twist to this fight too. He can change his shield to a light blue or light red color. When this happens, use the opposite of what that shield can do as its normal color. Also, watch out for the spikes he'll protect himself with in the shield or some of his magic attacks. They can be dangerous." _Timpani informed.

"Ah! So that's what it is…" Blade nodded as he threw Hommissile at Shade's shield, making the dark wizard cringe as his shield flashed a yellow color. "Surprised that we figured out your strategy?"

"B-But… How on earth did you…?"

"Simple. Tippi!" Chopper smirked as he ran up to Shade and attacked his shield with a powerful upward thrust with his hammer. Since his hammer is from Cudge, it was able to hit the shield.

"Away with you, Chopper! I don't need you in my face!" Shade growled as he knocked Chopper back with a wave of dark magic. "I suppose I should change my strategy as well!"

Shade raised his wand and made dark droplets of magic come down from the ceiling. Meta Knight looked up and immediately used his cape to protect himself from the droplets.

"Oh, geez!" Blade used Barry to protect himself from the attacks. Kirby used his Defend ability to keep himself from getting hurt, and Sonic used Reflecto to stop the magic droplets from hurting him.

"Wait… What about the rest of us?" Luigi sweat dropped.

Mario: Well, we're gonna get hurt…

"Basically, we're screwed," Blade announced as the droplets hit Chopper, Blade, Mario, and Luigi. As Shade cackled, Kirby threw Crystaline at Shade's shield to keep him off guard. That's when Shade turned to him and fired blots of dark magic at him.

"I should start using ranged attacks when they're far," Shade muttered to himself as he hit Kirby with a small blot of magic.

At this point, he changed his shield to a light blue color, but just as soon as Mario was about to jump on his shield, he grinned and surrounded the shield with spikes, making the red plumber cry out as he held his foot in pain.

Mario: Ow! Ow! Ow!

"Spikes… Well, I think I might have an idea what to do here…" Meta Knight slashed at Shade's shield, which seemed to work, considering that Shade has a light blue shield up. When Shade tried to attack him with his wave of magic, he used his cape to get behind and slash him.

"What on earth was that?!" Shade sneered as he saw his shield flash yellow.

"This is usually helpful when I have a hard time attacking my enemies. I tend to get behind them when I have the chance. You may think it's stupid of me to tell you this, but I change things up a bit."

"Grrr! Then take this!" the dark wizard fired a dark beam of magic from his wand that sent Meta Knight, Kirby, Sonic, and Luigi crashing into the throne. It also did quite a lot of damage to it too.

Blade, who wasn't caught in the dark beam, unleashed his Dragon Beam on Shade to bring his attention back to him. And indeed it worked. The dark wizard moved faster over to Blade and knocked him to the ground with a wave of dark magic.

"Well, I guess that'll help the others…" Blade grunted as his head hit the ground. He was still able to get up, but he didn't attack when Chopper was attacking Shade's light blue shield with a rainbow sweeping kick.

"Hey, Shade! I don't think that shield's going to be lasting any longer!" Chopper smirked as he punched his shield with rainbow energy. "I think you might wanna give up now while you can!"

"Me? Give up to the likes of you? NEVER!" Shade fired a dark wave of magic that sent Chopper flying to the ceiling and crashing down to the ground. Shade was about to attacking him again, but Sonic managed to strike his shield with a Spin Dash, and Kirby was able to hit him with his Final Cutter.

"Crap… I forgot about you guys." the dark wizard whirled around to fired a dark blot of magic at them. However, Meta Knight was able to strike his shield with his sword easily. From the looks of it, Shade's shield was starting to crack.

"HA!" he knocked Meta Knight away with his dark wave of magic and proceeded to get closer to Kirby and Sonic…at a faster pace. But, right when Mario got up, he stomped on Shade's shield and shattered it.

Mario: Now you're vulnerable!

"Great… I guess my shield doesn't last forever… But it's not over just yet!" Shade fired magic blots rapidly like a machine gun at Mario and hit Kirby and Sonic with a wave of dark magic. "I'm going to speed this up a bit!"

"So… Is this technically his third phase?" Chopper gawked. He decided to investigate him with Timpani's wand.

_"That's Shade Doom. With his shield gone, he's now vulnerable to attacks, making this the third phase of the fight. Max HP is 270. Attack is 14. Defense is 4. Just because he's now vulnerable to being hit doesn't mean he's going to be a lot easier. His magic attacks are a lot faster than before, and he can even fire dark beams at you if necessary. Your best option is to stay far from him or protect yourself when necessary. From what I can see, he's not going to be easy to hit…" _Timpani informed.

"Well, we have to try," Chopper pulled his hammer out and attacked Shade with an upward thrust with rainbow energy. "This sure does remind me of my Master Hammer attack!"

Shade was about to fire a magic attack at Chopper, but Meta Knight jumped in and slashed him with his sword, making him cringe in pain. A scar was left on his arm that looked greenish.

"What's with the green-looking scar?" Meta Knight gawked.

"Oh, nothing special," Shade grinned as he summoned a dark hand with his magic to flick Meta Knight straight at Kirby. However, he inhaled him and spat him back at Shade while he had his sword aimed at him.

"Poyo! (Well that was nice!)" Kirby cheered as Meta Knight struck him with his Galaxia Drill attack.

"Gah! Why didn't I see that coming? !" Shade growled as he jumped and used his wings to fly for a little while firing dark magic down upon the group. Kirby immediately used his Defend to keep himself from taking massive damaged, while Luigi knocked him out of the air with his Super Jump.

Mario: There you go, Luigi!

"Well, at least that did something…" Luigi sighed.

"Watch out, Luigi!" Sonic shouted as Shade fired a bolt of lightning from his wand at Luigi, causing him to be paralyzed. Everyone gaped as Shade tried to fire more lightning bolts at the heroes. Meta Knight flew above him and brought his sword down on him to stop him.

"Now! Attack!" Meta Knight cried.

Sonic clenched his fist and summoned a blue gust of wind to hit Shade while he was dazed, sending him flying up to the ceiling and allowing Kirby to run up to him and attack with his Cartwheel, followed by his Final Cutter.

"If we keep doing this, then we should be done in no time with this guy," Blade said as he made a dash towards Shade and slashed him with his katana with some speed before Shade could get back and fire blots of dark magic from his wand at them.

"Oh… I think I have a perfect idea!" Shade grinned as he fired dark ice chunks from his wand at Blade, freezing him at point. "See? Now your friend's frozen solid! I told you I wouldn't make this easy for you!"

"Ugh… Well, we're not letting you harm this place!" Luigi growled as he shook himself and gave Shade a kick in the back, knocking him over. He proceeded to use his Cyclone attack afterwards and send him flying across the room, over to the throne.

"Thanks Luigi," Sonic thanked as he proceeded to attack the dark wizard with his Homing Attack. Unfortunately, it didn't last long when Shade fired a dark blast from his wand and sent Sonic flying back.

"Ouch… That didn't look too good." Chopper cringed as Shade began cackling. He clenched his fist and fired a charged rainbow ball at Shade, making him cringe in pain while rainbow steam floated above him.

"What was that? Rainbow energy? Ugh… I hate that kind of bright energy!" Shade growled as he fired blots of dark magic at Chopper, who jumped out of the way and gave Shade a rainbow slamming kick,

"So you hate rainbow energy, huh? So I bet that it'll work well against you, won't it?"

"Back off, Star Warrior, or else I'm going to use full force to kill you."

"I thought you were using full force on us anyway?" That is, until Shade unleashed a dark flamethrower on Chopper, leaving him with the burn ailment. "Oh, man… Now this isn't good…"

Meta Knight sprang into action and attacked Shade head on with his sword. He was actually going to attack him with his Mach Tornado, but Shade interrupted him and used his dark magic to stop him.

"Guh… I guess I'll just have to use my smaller version of the Mach Tornado…" Meta Knight grunted as he spun himself in a tornado and attacked Shade. Afterwards, he spun his sword and struck Shade in both arms, leaving two more scars.

"Cut me all you want, but I'm one of those 'special' Dark Creatures!" Shade grinned as the cuts slowly healed off and let him fire a dark blast at Meta Knight. His cape helped him a bit, but not by much.

"My cape doesn't seem to do much against some of these close range attacks…"

"Well, then that works in my favor!" Shade fired a small beam of dark energy from his wand at Meta Knight, but Sonic jumped in and used Reflecto to deflect the attack back at Shade, knocking him over.

"Take care of Shade while I unfreeze Blade," Chopper suggested as he ran over to Blade and used his fire hand to melt him out of his icy prison.

"Oh, man… I don't know what just happened…" Blade moaned. "Am I in The Overthere?"

"Uhhhh… No, you're not."

"Oh, then let's kick Shade's ass!" Blade grinned as he unleashed his Dragon Beam on Shade to send him flying back to Luigi, who attacked him with his flutter jump. Mario helped out by using his Super Ground Pound to hit him while he was dazed.

Mario: You're not too threatening now!

"Until you see THIS!" Shade flew over the heroes and made a giant chunk of dark ice come down on them. Chopper gulped and flipped everyone into 3-D to avoid the attack. They just barely made the attack.

"Hee hee hee! Finally! I killed the heroes once and for all!" That is, until the heroes flipped into 2-D and gave Shade an attack of their lives. Well, more like Chopper bashing him with a rainbow smash.

"Wh-What?! You survived?!"

"Well, I do have the ability to flip into 3-D…" Chopper trailed as he inhaled Shade's dark blot of magic and spat it back at him. Unfortunately, he was able to jump out of the way of the attack.

"D'oh! I missed!"

"You missed indeed!" Shade grinned as he fired a dark wave of magic at Chopper and Kirby, sending them flying up. However, Shade was interrupted when Sonic attacked him with a Spin Dash.

_"You almost have him," _Timpani announced. _"Just a little more and you should be victorious against him."_

"Yeah! And then he can suck it when we're done with him!" Blade grinned, making everyone look at him in a confused manner.

"Blade… What the heck was that?" Sonic asked.

"What? It's just a saying! Don't you guys have a sense of humor?"

"Well… I don't get it one bit…" Chopper trailed.

"Let's just get back to fighting him," Meta Knight suggested as he stored some power in his sword and spun his sword as Shade tried to attack him from a close range. It didn't seem to work too well for him, but it didn't stop Shade from attacking from behind.

"Poyo! (Meta Knight! Watch out!)" Kirby cried as Shade attacked Meta Knight with a wave of dark magic. Even though he was too late, Kirby was able to attack him with his Final Cutter to leave him dazed thanks to his badge.

"Poyo. (Thankfully, this badge lets me keep my enemies dazed.)"

Shade slowly got out of his trance and tried to make another move. But, of course, Chopper was able to attack with a charged rainbow ball, keeping him occupied for a little while and allowing Meta Knight to strike him with his Mach Tornado.

"NOW I got it," Meta Knight said as Shade crashed to the floor from Meta Knight's ultimate attack. "Hmph… It looks like he's still alive… No surprise there."

Shade instantly got up and charged some dark energy in his wand and fired a dark beam at the group. Sonic pulled Reflecto out and reflected the attack back at Shade, who flew out of the way as soon as it came back.

"Dang… I thought we would get 'em that time…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: Well we can still attack him right now.

"Yeah, that's true!" Luigi nodded as he threw Bonjourang at Shade, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds. Mario ran up to him and used his Triple Jump to attack Shade on his head. At least the blade on his head doesn't make him take damage instead.

"Ugh… Take this!" Shade fired blots of dark magic rapidly at the group, hitting both Mario and Luigi in the process. Sonic managed to deliver a Homing Attack while airborne, knocking him over. Kirby attacked him with a Final Cutter afterwards, leaving his HP dangerously low.

"Well, it looks like you're about to lose. Ready to give up now?" Meta Knight asked as he aimed his sword towards the dark wizard.

"Not a chance!" Shade spat as he fired more dark blots of magic at Meta Knight. He instantly brought his cape up and disappeared in a flash. "Gah! Now where'd that guy go?!"

Before he could turn around, he was instantly struck by Meta Knight's blade, knocking him over. But, instead of actually giving up right now, he spread his wings out and took off in the air.

"Wait… What? Oh, this is BS!" Blade groaned. "You were flying around like this BEFORE! You expect the same thing will work again?!"

"This guy is more annoying than Bonechill!" Luigi frowned as Shade began to drop small blots of dark magic to the ground that split into two. He ended up getting hit by one, unfortunately.

"Well, we kind of met this guy back in The Overthere…" Chopper trailed, jumping for Shade and hurling a rainbow ball at him. But, not even that stopped him from coming down. "Say… What would Tippi say about him?"

With Timpani's wand out, Chopper began to investigate the evil alien.

_"That's Shade Doom. Now, it appears he's taking off into the air again, making this his fourth phase. Max HP is 250. Attack is 13. He'll drop these dark blots to the ground, which will split into two. The best way to avoid those is to simply jump. Personally, I think Luigi's Super Jump would be your best option to beat him at this point. He's not really threatening as much as before…" _Timpani informed.

"Have some of these!" Shade cackled, firing dark blots of magic down at the heroes from an angle. Chopper managed to inhale one of them and spit it back at Shade, making him cringe in pain from the attack.

"Well, since he's at this phase, he's probably not going to last long," Blade said as he threw a couple of shurikens at Shade while he was flying. One of them got caught in his wing, while another hit him in the arm, making him screech.

"Oh, I'm sorry… Did that hurt you?"

Shade grinned as he pulled the shurikens out and healed off his wounds easily. "Thought you'd be able to kill me with those, did you? Well think again!"

"Oh, geez… That's not good…" Sonic gulped. "But, we're not letting some weird…alien thing take us down!"

He clenched his fist and unleashed his Sonic Wind on Shade, keeping him occupied while Kirby attacked him with his Final Cutter. It wasn't that much, but it was able to stop him for a little while.

"Poyo! (We just need to use a little more and we'll be victorious!)" Kirby announced, kicking Shade. Luigi attacked him with his Super Jump afterwards and even managed to stomp on him a couple of times.

"Oh, man… My HP is this low already? Well… I guess that's what happens when I have no defense…" Shade growled, knocking Luigi away with a magic attack. "No matter. You people are still pretty wounded too!"

"Well, we do have something that can help us heal," Chopper said as he held an Ultimate Shroom Shake in his hand. "So, if you think you're gonna win this fight, then you might as well think again!"

Chopper ducked like a pancake as Shade tried firing a dark blot of magic down at him. Since it missed, it allowed Meta Knight to fly up to him with his own wings and slash at his back.

"One more attack should do it!" Meta Knight announced.

"Poyo! (Leave it to me!)" Kirby smiled as he readied his blade and struck Shade with his Final Cutter. He didn't even have a chance to scream or anything. He instantly fell to the ground, motionless.

"Poyo? (So did we win?)"

"Well, it looks like he's finished," Chopper replied as he sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, though. We don't have to worry about anything else!"

"We should go tell Elbi and Luvbi that they can come in," Meta Knight suggested.

_"I'm not so sure about that…" _Timpani trailed as she looked over at Shade, who was surrounded by a dark aura at this point. _"There's something…strange about that dark aura."_

"What do you…? What the…" Chopper turned around and noticed that darkness covered Shade completely. It started to form into something much bigger than Shade. From what they saw, it had bat-like wings.

"Poyo? (What's going on?)" Kirby gawked.

"Is Shade…transforming?"

"Yeah, he probably is, Captain Obvious," Blade replied.

_**"****Oh, I'm not finished with you yet, heroes!" **_Shade bellowed as the darkness disappeared and revealed himself as a large, gray bat with green blood dripping from his glowing purple eyes and a scar on the upper part of his face. His wings were also a black color and were a lot bigger than what his wings were previously.

"So… He transformed into a spider the first time, and now he transformed into a bat?" Chopper gaped. "I feel that he's more monstrous than I thought!"

_**"****And now… I'm going to destroy you once and for all!" **_he cackled as he revealed his bloody fangs. _**"Are you scared yet?"**_

"I am!" Luigi shrieked as he cowered behind Mario. "I don't want to fight this guy now!"

Mario: Well we have to!

"All right, let's settle this!" Chopper announced as he jumped up to Shade and kicked him in the face with rainbow energy, followed by his hammer, which he delivered to his face as well.

However, he was soon knocked away when Shade whacked him with his wing. Meta Knight soon tried attacking, but the dark wizard…er…bat spat dark poison as him.

"Ungh… I don't feel so good…" Meta Knight wheezed as he turned a bit purplish. "What did he just do?"

_**"****Hee hee hee! Now you're poisoned! That's what happens when you try to stop the great Shadow Doom!" **_Shade cackled.

"Poyo, (Here, use Piccolo,)" Kirby said as he used Piccolo's powers to cure Meta Knight's poison ailment. "Poyo? (Feel better?)"

"Yes, thank you, Kirby…" Meta Knight coughed as he gripped his sword and lunged toward Shade. He tried spitting more dark poison at him, but he was able to charge up an attack and spin his sword while in the air.

_**"****Perhaps I can use one of you as a projectile," **_Shade pondered as he began to inhale Chopper right into him. He tried to get away, but he was too close to him and got caught in his mouth. The bat immediately spat him towards Kirby, knocking them both down.

"Augh… That was disgusting." Chopper gagged as he got up. "You don't wanna know what it's like in there!"

_"You guys don't really have the strength to fight him at this point," _Timpani warned. _"Your HP is way too low."_

Mario: Then we need to heal…

Mario was the first to pull an Ultimate Shroom Shake out and drink some of it to recover 100 HP. He passed it over to Luigi, and so on until everyone recovered 100 HP. Kirby received the can last and threw it at Shade while he was about to inhale them, making him choke.

_**"****Gcccccccccck!" **_he choked as he stopped moving for a moment, allowing Kirby to get his Final Cutter ready and attack him with the powerful blade. While Sonic attacked with his Sonic Wind, Chopper investigated him with Timpani's wand.

_"That's Shade Doom. Apparently even after taking him down in his previous phase, he still has the energy in him to fight…especially in a bat form. Max HP is 280. Attack is 14. Defense is 6. As a bat, he'll tend to fly around the room and spit dark poison at you that can bring your HP down faster than normal poison. He also can inhale you and spit you out if he ever wanted to. Perhaps an explosion would work while he does this? Also, be careful when he unleashed his dark beam on you. Even as a bat, he's capable of using magic…" _Timpani informed.

"Crud… Well, honestly I don't think that's TOO bad…" Chopper trailed as he felt himself get struck by a dark beam. It sent him flying across the room and to the left wall. "Wow… What a cheap move…"

When Shade tried to attack him again, he jumped out of the way this time and used Starbow to make shooting stars rain on Shade. It left him distracted while Sonic could jump from behind and attack with a Homing Attack.

"All right! Since he's big, he's easier to hit!" Sonic smirked while giving a thumbs up. "This shouldn't take too long!"

"Don't jinx it, Sonic…" Blade warned as he hurled Hommissile at Shade while he was inhaling (he managed to get that can out of his mouth), causing an explosion from internally.

_**"****What… What did I just inhale? !" **_Shade coughed as smoke came out of his mouth. _**"Was that a bomb?!"**_

"You're damn right it was, Shade!" Blade was about to make another attack, but Shade fired a dark beam at him, knocking him back. But this didn't stop Luigi from attacking the bat with a Super Jump.

Mario: Yeesh… Now he's tougher…

"That would make sense, Mario," Chopper agreed as he grabbed a hold of Shade's wing and began bashing at Shade's head with fire energy. "Man… He can even handle fire! I don't think this would be easy even with Vivian here…"

"Well, would this be any easy with your girlfriends?" Blade asked, making Chopper give him a glare. "…and your other friends too?"

"I think we're getting a little bit off track here," Meta Knight said as he flew up and struck Shade, who was about to inhale them. He also added a Sword Beam to deal a little more damage to the bat.

_**"****Take this!" **_Shade swooped down and rammed into Chopper and Mario while they were still a little preoccupied, knocking them over. However, Luigi was able to hit him with a Super Jump afterwards, making him cringe in pain.

"Poyo, (At least he's not in a shield, or else that would be pretty bad,)" Kirby said as he threw Crystaline at Shade. He wanted her to freeze him, but unfortunately, it didn't seem to freeze him. That said, it did do some damage.

"I don't think burning him will do anything…or will it?" Chopper decided to attack Shade with a charged fireball. To his surprise, it actually left a burn on him. But, Shade was able to spit dark balls of fire at them too.

"Watch out!" Meta Knight warned as he flew out of the way of the fireballs and slashed at Shade, who was about to whack him with his wing, but failed to get him due to him being faster.

_**"****Stop moving, you annoying little masked warrior!" **_Shade growled as he tried spitting poison at him. Meta Knight was able to escape that and allow Mario to jump up to the side of him and kick him, leaving him off guard.

Mario: That should work for now!

"Poyo! (All right! I'll go next!)" Kirby took in some air and began to float up to Shade. The bat tried to swat him, but he was able to let a puff of air out at Shade's eyes to stop him and attack with a Cartwheel afterwards. Shade growled, but Kirby hit him again with his Final Cutter.

_**"****Come here, pink puffball! I'm not done with you yet!" **_Shade called out before Blade jumped up to him and slashed his backside with his katana. Some green blood dripped from the ground, but it didn't stop Shade from inhaling Blade and spitting him at Luigi, knocking them both over.

"Ugh… Chopper was right. It's awful in there." Blade frowned as he got up and threw a couple of shurikens at Shade. Despite doing damage, it didn't stop the bat from spitting poison.

"Well, at least he won't poop on us, unlike other flying creatures…" Chopper trailed, tossing an ice ball at Shade. Everyone looked a bit confused at him, but continued to fight with him.

"OK, I didn't get that, but oh well," Sonic commented as he hit Shade with a Spin Jump. It hit him straight in the face, leaving him a bit wounded, but it also helped Luigi hit the bat with a Super Jump.

Mario: If we can keep this up, we might win…

"That is…if he doesn't have another phase," Luigi added.

"Well, he had six phases last time…and this is his fifth…so I don't think this should last long," Chopper smiled as he charged a rainbow ball and hurled it at Shade, making him cringe in pain. However, it didn't stop him from poisoning Chopper with dark poison.

"Ugh… OK, I think I need to use Piccolo now." he coughed as he used Piccolo's ability to cure himself. Afterwards, he jumped up to Shade, but he was knocked back by his bat wing.

"Hold on, I'll handle this," Meta Knight announced as he gripped his sword and lunged forward, attacking Shade with his Galaxia Drill. Everyone gave him a thumbs up before Shade roared and fired a dark beam toward the heroes.

"Oh… Well this sucks." Blade gulped as he prepared to defend himself. Everyone gaped as they got struck by the all-powerful attack, but they were able to stand up and attack Shade with their attacks.

_**"****When will you heroes ever learn and give up?" **_Shade grinned as he knocked Kirby away with his wing. _**"Better to give up now and not die!"**_

"Oh, really? Then how come we're not begging for you to spare us?" Sonic grinned as he balance Screwdy on his finger. "You know, you look like your HP's over halfway depleted, if you couldn't tell."

"Poyo! (So we're not giving up the fight!)" Kirby shouted.

_**"****Very well, then this shrine will be your grave!" **_the bat swooped down to attack Sonic, but he Spin Dashed out of the way and used his Whirlwind to keep him off guard, since he couldn't send him flying instead.

"Dang… Well, I guess that's better than nothing." Sonic made another attack, striking Shade with a simple Spin Jump, while Meta Knight fired a Sword Beam at him to keep him occupied.

Chopper decided to try something different and run over to the wall and jump off of it to land right on Shade's head. It seemed to work very well, but this left him an easy target for Shade to inhale.

_**"****Hee hee hee! Now I've got you, Chopper!" **_Shade began to inhale Chopper like a vacuum, but he began to hang from the side of his mouth and throw a charged rainbow ball instead. It made him cough a little, but it wasn't enough.

"OK, we need more than just that…" Chopper frowned. "Blade! A little help here? !"

"Sure thing, Chop!" Blade nodded as he threw Hommissile in Shade's mouth. An explosion was heard from inside Shade as he stopped inhaling, allowing Chopper to jump down and bash him with his hammer.

Mario: That gives me an idea!

"What is it?" Luigi asked before Mario began to whisper something to him. "…Oh! I think that's a nice idea!"

Luigi spread his arms out while Mario jumped on his head and pulled his hammer out. They both began to spin around rapidly, with Mario's hammer spinning fast. They headed towards Shade and gave him a combination of a Cyclone and a spinning hammer attack.

"Poyo! (Yeah!)" Kirby cheered.

_**"****GRAGH! You annoying…!" **_Shade turned around and fired a smaller dark beam toward the two brothers. Mario ended up getting hurt, but Luigi was able to avoid it easily and throw Bonjourang at the bat's face.

"That's what happens when you hit my bro!" Luigi growled as he helped Mario up. Meta Knight took this time to swing his sword and fire a Sword Beam at Shade. But, this turned out to be a bad idea when he was going to store up some power to unleash a Mach Tornado.

He ended up getting swat by Shade's wing instead.

"Really, Meta Knight? I thought you were better than this!" Chopper said in disappointment. "That has possibly got to be the dumbest thing you've ever pulled off…"

"Ugh… I thought my idea would work, but turns out it didn't." Meta Knight grunted.

"Well, then why didn't you use it when he was distracted?"

_"Chopper… Shade's right behind you…" _Blumiere warned.

"Wait… What?" Chopper turned around, but got struck by Shade's dark beam. It knocked him back, but he was able to get back up and toss a couple of rainbow balls at him afterwards.

_**"****This is all too easy for me!" **_Shade cackled as he began to swoop down to attack Chopper. _**"You don't have much of an arsenal in your hands besides energy balls, while I have attacks that are more capable of killing you!"**_

"Don't get your hopes too high," Luigi warned as he attacked Shade with his Cyclone attack. Sonic struck him afterwards in the face with a Homing Attack, making the bat cover his face with his wings.

"What's the matter, Shade? Can't handle a Homing Attack?" Sonic grinned as he waggled his finger.

"Don't get too cocky, Sonic," Chopper warned. "Cockiness usually leads to something bad…"

"…Yeah, that's true."

Shade growled as he swooped down and attacked Sonic by ramming into him. Kirby responded to this by pulling his Final Cutter blade out and slashing Shade with it, leaving a scar on one of his wings. While this occurred, Meta Knight raised his sword and prepared to charge up his Mach Tornado.

_"Hopefully this one will be successful…" _Meta Knight thought as he watched Mario fend off Shade with his hammer. He was able to bash him at least twice, but he got poisoned by Shade's dark poison.

Mario: Ack! I'm poisoned!

"Hold on, Mario…" Blade muttered as the plumber used Piccolo's powers to heal himself of any damage. In the meantime, Blade threw a couple of shurikens at Shade, but they didn't seem to have too much of an effect.

_"Damn it, Blade! The shurikens aren't going to do much to him! Just use your damn Dragon Beam for Christ's sake!" _Blade thought to himself as his sword began to glow orange. When he swung it, his Dragon Beam struck Shade with full power and left him off guard.

"There we go! THAT'S what I wanted to see!"

At this point, Meta Knight's Mach Tornado was fully charged and ready to be unleashed. He stabbed the ground with it and let the huge attack strike Shade. Unfortunately, some of the heroes got sucked in, making them get hurt in the process.

"Forgive me for that, heroes," Meta Knight apologized as they fell to the ground. "I didn't intend on getting you guys too."

"Don't worry about it, Meta Knight," Chopper assured as he got up. "However, I still think we need to finish this guy off!"

He began to charge up a stronger rainbow ball as Shade got himself up and began to fly back to the heroes, charging up a beam himself. This one seemed to be deadlier than the previous one, from looking at it.

"Poyo! (You better do something now with that, Chopper!)" Kirby cried.

"Hang on, Kirby! Just relax!" With the fully charged rainbow ball, Chopper hurled it straight at Shade. The bat's eyes widened in pain as it let out a terrible scream, now being surrounded by a light aura.

_**"****GRAAAAAAAAAAGH! YOU… YOU…!" **_His bat form began to shrink, but he ended up transforming back to himself. "Wh… Why…? My bat form didn't beat you? !"

"Well, you're done now!" Chopper smirked.

"No… Not yet!" Shade opened his wings and began to take off to the air again, dropping more blots of dark magic to the ground. "This fight is FAR from over, heroes!"

"Are you SERIOUS?!" Blade gaped. "After all of that, we STILL need to fight this guy? ! Dude…! He seriously won't give up!"

"I'm not going to even bother investigating him again," Chopper groaned. "We all know this is his sixth phase, and he's surely going to use the same moves as before. Except… He's going faster now."

"Geez… Does this guy ever learn?" Luigi gawked.

"Apparently not," Blade said as he jumped and attacked Shade with his katana, followed by throwing Hommissile at him afterwards. At this point, everyone was getting tired of fighting this guy.

"Well, if we just stop here, then we might fail our mission and not find the Pure Heart," Chopper said as he spun his hammer vertically at Shade while in the air. It made him cringe, but that was just about it.

"OK, if we do what we did before against him, then I think we should be fine against him," Sonic said while curling into a ball and attacking Shade with a Homing Attack. It knocked the alien back, but it didn't stop him from firing dark magic at him.

"Whoa! Careful, Sonic!" Blade warned as he pulled Sonic away from the blot of dark magic that was fired from his wand. Luigi decided to keep Shade off guard by attacking him with his Super Jump…again.

"Well, since this is basically the same thing, I think I should just use my Super Jump to take him down," Luigi said as he flutter jumped on Shade's head to keep him off guard. With Mario's stomp, it left Shade nearly low on HP.

"Ugh… What has happened to me?" Shade grunted as he began to spin around and knock Mario and Luigi away. But just as he was going to attack again, Kirby grabbed his Final Cutter blade and attacked Shade.

"Poyo! (He doesn't have that much HP now!)" Kirby smirked. "Poyo! (Just a little more and he's finished!)"

Shade fired another dark blot of magic down, but Meta Knight instantly flew up and slashed at Shade. With his HP nearly down to 1, Luigi gave him a Super Jump, finishing him off once and for all.

…Or not.

Shade fell to the ground, but darkness surrounded him once again and transformed him into…a small dark ghost-like thing with glowing purple eyes. Everyone looked at it confusingly.

"What the heck? Did he just transform again?" Blade gawked.

"I'm checking this," Chopper said as he used Timpani's wand to investigate him.

_"That's…Shade Doom? What happened to him? He transformed into this…? Max HP is ?. Apparently he can't attack you in this phase… But, I believe he's able to jump right on you and leave you off guard. I just don't get this…" _Timpani informed while gawking.

"Well… Let's see how this is." Chopper walked up to Shade, but the…whatever he turned into simply jumped on Chopper's face and left him blind for a couple of seconds.

"ACCK! I can't see! Get it off!"

Sonic ran over to Chopper and pulled Shade off of him, but that meant he was going to go after Sonic this time. He simply kicked it, knocking it away.

"All right, let's just attack this…thing," Sonic suggested as he curled into a ball and attacked Shade with a Spin Dash. It sent him flying to the wall and, surprisingly, it actually defeated him.

"That was…disappointing for a last phase," Blade commented. "I mean, two hits? I mean, come on! That's stupid!"

However, darkness surrounded Shade yet again, and it ended up transforming him back to himself with a couple of wounds all over him.

"You think it's all over, don't you?" Shade growled as he looked up at the heroes. "Well, I saved my best for last, heroes!"

The whole room began to shake as Shade reached out for his flaming sword that was making its way over to him. Upon grabbing it, a red beam surrounded him and left a huge hole in the shrine. After disappearing, Shade stood up and readied his sword.

"This is where your game ends!"

"Oh, man… He's got his sword now. I think this is his last phase." Chopper nodded. "So, let's go kick his butt!"

"Chopper, you might want something to help you fight him," Meta Knight pulled out a spare sword he was carrying. "Take this sword, Chopper. I'm sure you'll need it against him."

"OK… Thanks!" Chopper inhaled the sword and gained his own sword with the Sword ability. "All right, Shade! Now it's on!"

Shade growled as he swung his sword, firing a flaming sword beam straight at the heroes, knocking them to the throne and leaving them with a burn. Nevertheless, they were able to get back up and get back to fighting.

"Well, I don't think anything has changed with him," Blade said as he tried attacking Shade with his katana. Unfortunately, he was simply slashed at by the dark wizard's flaming sword. "…Or not."

"Don't underestimate my sword skills just because I'm a dark wizard," Shade spat. "Some wizards tend to use swords."

"If you're evil…wouldn't you be considered a warlock?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, shut up already. We're here to end this, not to talk about what I am!" Shade flew in the air and made fireballs rain down from the ground. Everyone gaped as they tried to avoid the attacks.

"Yeesh… All right, back to action!" Chopper jumped and slashed Shade with his sword while he was still in the air. The dark wizard tried to knock him back, but he kicked him and fired a Sword Beam at Shade.

"OK, that's kind of a good start, now let's try to improve," suggested Sonic as he rolled into a ball and threw himself at Shade. He was able to get him, but the dark wizard began to do a cartwheel with his sword, attacking everyone in his sight such as Mario, Luigi, and Kirby.

"Ow… His sword can even burn us!" Luigi screeched as he got up and held his arm in pain from the burn. "Man, I don't know if we're gonna ever heal these wounds off, even with a Shroom Shake!"

Mario: Let's just focus on fighting this guy…

Mario gripped his hammer and readied himself for Shade's sword swing. He was able to block the attack with his hammer, but he did suffer from the flames of Shade's sword. Nevertheless, he was able to bash him.

"You all right, Mario?" Chopper asked.

Mario: I've had better days.

What they didn't notice, however, was Shade spinning his sword and flying directly towards Chopper. Kirby called out for him to turn around, and he acted quickly and blocked Shade's attack.

"Well, someone looks as if they're starting to become exhausted," Shade cackled.

"You don't look too good yourself," Chopper retorted as he slashed at Shade and spun his sword at him like a drill. Shade cringed in pain, but managed to wipe off the wound easily and burn Chopper with a flaming Sword Beam.

"Since you have a sword, this should be more of a fair fight," Meta Knight stated as he flew in front of Shade and slashed at him before he could make another move. The alien child growled and tried slashing at him, but Meta Knight blocked his attack and caught him in a tornado.

"Your putrid moves aren't going to save you and your friends, warrior!" Shade spat as he managed to grab Meta Knight and throw him to the ground. "I'm not like those other warrior's you've faced… I'm someone from a whole different dimension!"

"You mean our world," Sonic corrected.

"Apparently you don't know much about my background…" Shade stayed off the ground, but he raised his sword and summoned fireballs to rain upon the group. "Now stay as you all burn to a glorious crisp so I can eat you later!"

"Wa-Wait… Did he say e-eat? !" Luigi gaped, his face turning white as he got harmed by a fireball.

"Wait… Why would you try to eat us? You're nothing but…a weird thing!" Blade gawked as he slowly got up, his ninja clothing now ruined.

"Like I said, you don't know more about my background. And as an alien, we do love to feast upon the energy of others! I think yours would be perfect!" Shade flew towards Blade, readying his sword while hissing, but Blade managed to bring his katana up and slash him, sending him flying back.

"Well sorry! I don't taste good!"

"Yeah! None of us taste good!" Luigi agreed while cowering over by the corner. Mario groaned as he grabbed Luigi and dragged him back into the fight. "No! Please! I don't want to!"

Mario: Well you were fine before! Just try your best!

Luigi slowly nodded and ran over to Shade. He threw Bonjourang at him to bring his attention over to him, but it almost made him want to run away. However, he tried his best NOT to and attacked Shade with his Cyclone.

_"Remember, Luigi… Don't run!" _he thought to himself as his fist hit Shade in the face.

"Oh, now you're gonna pay for that, plumber," Shade hissed as he tried to grab a hold of him, but Mario managed to bash him with his hammer. With him being dazed, Chopper stomped on him and spun his sword vertically to hit Shade.

"You think you're the only one who's capable of that? Well, I'll show you the same thing!" Shade began to perform a cartwheel while spinning his sword. The flames on it were enough to burn Chopper and Sonic, who got caught in the attack.

"Man, this guy's sword is annoying," Sonic coughed as he tried to wipe any soot that was left on him. He clenched his fist and used his Sonic Wind to not only hit Shade, but to blow away any fire in the room.

"Poyo, (Well that works,)" Kirby smiled as he threw Crystaline at Shade, freezing him at point. But, before they could even attack him, Shade broke out on his own and fired a flaming Sword Beam at Kirby.

"I can't wait to see you all burnt to a crisp!" Shade cackled as he flew towards Meta Knight and attempted to slash at him. The only thing he got on Meta Knight was his cape, which got set on fire.

"Gah!" Meta Knight shook his cape in an attempt to get rid of the flames, but they began to grow. Luckily, Chopper was there to help by stepping on the flames on his cape, which ended up working.

"Whew… That was a close one!" Chopper sighed.

"Be careful next time, Chopper," Meta Knight informed as he flew back into battle. Chopper took this time to investigate Shade, now that they're at his possible final form. That is, if Timpani says that.

_"That's Shade Doom. From what he said, this is probably his final phase, but it's also his strongest. Max HP is 300. Attack is 15. Defense is 8. Just like before, he'll rely on using attacks from his sword, such as making fireballs rain down in the shrine. Your best option is to simply run and not stop. There's a big chance that if you stop, you're probably going to get yourself burned… Just like before, he's capable of healing himself of 60 HP, so you want to be careful when he does this. Just remember, Chopper… Don't let this boy scare you. You've faced many things bigger, so this battle shouldn't be any different from the previous ones." _Timpani informed.

"Oh, crud! I completely forgot about his ability to heal himself!" Chopper face palmed as he noticed Shade pull his wand out and heal himself of 60 HP.

"Wait… Did he just heal himself?!" Meta Knight gaped.

"Yeah, he did this before…" Blade trailed. "But, don't let that stop you from fighting. He'll probably do that often, so watch out…"

When Shade was about to charge up a Sword Beam, Blade instantly attacked him by hurling Hommissile at him, making him cough from all the smoke. It also left his body a little burnt too.

"YEAH!"

"Blade… Don't get cocky…" Meta Knight warned.

Shade hissed as he tackled Blade and attempted to stab him with his sword. But, Luigi was able to use his Cyclone to make a cyclone pull him away and also get him hit by the plumber's fists.

"Wow, I never knew I could do that!" Luigi gaped before Shade got up and attempted to strangle Luigi.

"Heads up, Luigi! I got your back!" Chopper shouted as he kicked Shade to the wall with rainbow energy. "No one's going to strangle anyone today."

"All right, so you want to duke it out, huh? Well, then let's duke it out!" Shade roared as he fired a Sword Beam at Chopper. The Star Warrior countered it by firing an ice Sword Beam at him, making both Sword Beams explode upon impact.

Shade slowly got back up, but this time he tackled Chopper and struck him on one of his cheeks with his sword, leaving a burnt wound. He cringed in pain as he put his hand to his cheek, while Shade managed to kick him in his burnt area to make it worse for him.

"Aw, what's the matter? You got a little burnt on your cheek? Why don't you go cry to your mommy?" Shade taunted, angering Chopper. He charged up a rainbow ball and fired it at Shade, knocking him over.

"NEVER say anything about my mother. EVER." Chopper growled as he attempted to bring his sword down on him. Shade, however, brought his sword up and blocked the attack and struck him with a dark blot of magic from his wand.

"Poyo, (Well, now we know you're being cheap,)" Kirby said as he attacked Shade with his Cartwheel attack to keep him off guard. It also left him dazed, allowing Kirby to follow up with a Final Cutter.

"So, how much HP is he left with now?" Sonic asked as he struck Shade with a Homing Attack. "I'm just a little curious."

"In all honesty… I don't know." Chopper shrugged. "You really expect me to know everything?"

"No…"

"Then let's get back to beating this guy!"

Sonic agreed and clenched his fist to summon a blue gust of wind to attack Shade. The only problem with that? Others got stuck in the attack, making them get hurt in the process as well.

"Whoops! Didn't mean to do that…" Sonic laughed sheepishly.

"If we weren't fighting, then I'd forgive you," Blade informed as he attacked Shade with his Dragon Beam. It sent him flying back, but he was caught in his flaming Sword Beam that he fired.

"Take this!" Shade flew up once again and made fireballs come down from the ceiling to attack the heroes. Kirby used his Defend ability to prevent himself from taking any damage, but for everyone else, they couldn't defend themselves. Not even Meta Knight's cape helped him!

"Great… I guess my cape is useless against him." Meta Knight sighed as he disappeared and slashed Shade from behind as he reappeared. Shade tried to attack him with a slash, but Meta Knight brought his sword up and blocked his attack. At this point, the two were trying to push each other back in an attempt to attack them with their weapons.

_"Usually when something like this happens, it usually goes for a while," _Blumiere explained as Meta Knight and Shade glared at each other. They were both trying their best to defend themselves from each other.

But, Shade pulled off a move by pulling out his sun necklace and blinding Meta Knight for a second and slashed him with his sword. Chopper growled as he attacked Shade with his own flaming Sword Beam.

"Well! So you can use a flaming Sword Beam too?" Shade hissed as he tried to shake off some of the fire on him. "Now you're asking for it, Star Warrior!"

"You pulled off a cheap move there," Chopper said as he jumped over him and slashed him in his arm. Some green blood dripped from Shade's arm, but he was able to heal it off easily. But what he didn't see was Mario attacking him with his Super Ground Pound.

"Argh! What the…!"

Mario: You didn't see that coming!

"That may be, but you're quite wounded, while I can do this!" Shade raised his wand and ended up healing himself of 60 HP. "Ahhhhh… Now I feel much better! I think killing you all should be easier!"

"Well that's not gonna happen!" Luigi retorted as he left Shade dazed when he threw Bonjourang at him. With that, he used his flutter jump to stomp on him and perform a stylish move.

Shade growled as he began to fly around the room while performing a cartwheel, hitting the ceiling and the floor and striking all seven that were in his path. He cackled as they fell to the ground as he landed.

"Well, it looks like this fight is going in my favor!" Shade grinned as he quickly made his way over to the group. That is, until Meta Knight got up and disappeared.

"Damn it! Why does he always have to do this?!"

"Wait… You're around my age and you SWEAR?" Chopper guffawed while readying his sword. "Aren't you a little too young for that?"

"I think many people around your age swear," Meta Knight pointed out.

"Oh..."

Mario pulled out another Ultimate Shroom Shake and took a sip from it. He passed it over to everyone else and allowed them to take a sip, with Meta Knight clearly having the last one as he slashed Shade from behind.

"Should I _really_ do what you guys usually do?"Meta Knight asked as he blocked Shade's sword.

"Go for it," Chopper nodded. Meta Knight sighed as he threw the crushed can in Shade's face, leaving him stunned. Despite this being dishonorable to him, he knew it was the only way he was going to even hurt Shade easily.

"Poyo! (Yay! Now let's beat him down!)" Kirby cheered as he pulled his Final Cutter out and slashed him with it. Shade cringed in pain as he was dazed once again, but when Mario bashed him with his hammer, he had enough.

"All right, that's it! I think it's time to change things up a bit!" Shade growled as he fired a flaming Sword Beam at Mario that caused him to stay paralyzed.

Mario: Ack! I… I can't…move!

"Bro!" Luigi turned to Shade and clenched his fists. With Bonjourang, he left the alien dazed. After stomping on him, that's when Shade used the same thing against him, leaving him paralyzed too.

"Oh, man… I can barely move now!"

"Oh, don't tell me you're going to be doing this now…" Blade groaned as he dodged Shade's Sword Beam. "What a cheap move for an ungrateful little alien…"

"Oh, you want to see ungrateful? Then I'll give you ungrateful!" Shade smirked as he tackled Blade and paralyzed him easily. Sonic tried to attack him from behind, but he managed to catch him easily.

"Wait… How'd you know I was attacking from behind?" Sonic grunted.

"Because I could hear the sound of your Spin Dash."

"That stinks…"

This only left Chopper, Kirby and Meta Knight to fight against Shade. They used their agility in an attempt to avoid his attacks, but when Kirby tried freezing him with Crystaline, it didn't end up working too well.

"Take this!" Shade fired a Sword Beam at Kirby, paralyzing him instantly. He cackled as he saw Kirby suffer, but stopped when Meta Knight got behind him and slashed him with his sword.

"I won't make this easy for you," Meta Knight said as he avoided Shade Sword Beam attack. Shade grew angry as he flew up and made fireballs rain down from the ceiling. One hit Meta Knight, but Chopper was able to avoid them in 3-D.

"This should do something," Chopper ran up to Shade and attacked him with an ice slash, leaving him to shiver from the intense cold. But, with his flaming sword, Shade was able to get over it and attack Chopper with a single slash.

"Argh! Those burns are so bad on me!"

"Well that's good to hear, because that's how you'll be like forever!" Shade cackled as he saw the burn marks all over his face and all the bruises as well. "And look at me! I'm not as bruised as you are!"

"Well you look pretty bad yourself," Meta Knight said as he slashed Shade again, this time leaving a scar on his cheek. Shade hissed as he tried to fly towards Meta Knight, but instead did a cartwheel to attack him instead.

Meta Knight was sent flying to the wall, but he still had some energy in him to fight. But, once Shade used a flaming Sword Beam on him, he was paralyzed.

"Unngh! I… I can't move!" Meta Knight grunted.

"Oh, great… Don't tell me I have to do this…" Chopper groaned as he readied his sword. "Fine. Let's just finish this up, Shade!"

"With pleasure!" Shade grinned as he flew in the air and made fireballs rain down. Chopper tried his best to outrun them, but because of the size of the room, he ended up falling to the ground from the fireballs.

He immediately got up, only to get slashed by Shade once again. But it didn't mean that he was going to give up the fight so easily. He kicked Shade when he was about to attack and attacked him with a rainbow slash.

"Yeah! I don't think you like rainbow energy, don't ya?" Chopper smirked.

_"Chopper, he's almost down!" _Timpani informed. _"Now's your chance to finish him off once and for all!"_

"Think again!" Shade pulled his wand out to recover some HP, but Meta Knight, who was stunned, used up the last of his strength while paralyzed and fired a Sword Beam at him to leave him dazed.

"What the…! How the hell did you…?"

"I'm not going to let myself lose to a fight when I'm paralyzed," Meta Knight muttered as he breathed heavily. "Now, Chopper… Finish the fight…"

"All right," Chopper raised his sword, while began to surround itself in a rainbow aura. When Shade slowly got himself up, he noticed this and readied his sword and charged forth.

"I'll kill you before you do that!" he hissed.

"Rainbow Sword Beam!" Chopper cried as he swung his sword and fired a rainbow Sword Beam directly at Shade. Upon impact, Shade cringed and his eyes widened in pain. Everyone who was paralyzed was able to move again and walk over to Chopper.

"Wha…? No… This can't be!" Shade dropped his sword and let out a terrible scream, causing the whole room to shake and even destroy the throne in the room and all the pictures on the wall. One thing for sure was that it knocked everyone to the wall and got rid of Chopper's Sword ability.

"TOO LOUD!" Blade cried.

After the loud scream, they all saw Shade breathing heavily on the ground. They slowly walked over to him just to see if he was going to attack.

"You… You… You horrid heroes…" Shade spat before flying out of the room while taking his sword with him. With that, the heroes all let out a sigh of relief and began to relax.

"I can't believe it… We beat him…" Sonic wheezed.

"Too bad my Sword ability was destroyed in the process…" Chopper trailed.

However, when they thought things would get better, Luvbi and Elbi, who was still carrying Wenbi, entered the shrine.

"Thank thee, heroes… Thou hast done a fine job." Elbi thanked. "I wish I could've done something to help thee."

"You don't need to thank us," Meta Knight responded. "We were just doing our job."

"Thou dost look terrible though," Luvbi commented.

"Yeah, we don't look good at all," Chopper replied while shaking his head. "Elbi, how is Wenbi doing? He is fine?"

From the look on Elbi's face, things were not going well at all. But before he could respond, they heard the door open once again, but the voices were much familiar to everyone.

"Oh, there you are, Luvbi!" Queen Jaydes and Grambi came into the shrine and gave their daughter a hug. "We were so worried about you ever since we heard that Shade's troops were at The Peaceness!"

"We hath saw him leave hither too," Grambi added. "Art thou all right?"

"Yea, I dost be… But..." Luvbi began, but her face turned sad. "Not everything's all right hither."

"My son… He is not well." Elbi said in a sad tone. "I wish there was something I could do to help him…"

"Thy…son? Dost thou mean…?" Grambi gawked.

"Wenbi…?" Queen Jaydes gaped. "Did… Did Shade do something to him?"

"Wenbi saved our lives…" Chopper coughed. "But…for a price, he was left severely wounded."

"Will he…live?" Meta Knight asked. Elbi stayed silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. At this point, everyone knew the answer.

"But… No! He can't… He can't die! At such a young age? That's… That's horrid! Why would Shade do such a thing?!"

"Unggh… Chopper… Luvbi…" Wenbi moaned. A small tear came down his face and landed right on his necklace. Everyone gaped as they saw something emit from it.

It was a silver heart.

_"The Pure Heart! But… How?" _Timpani gasped.

"This necklace was given to him by my wife after her death," Elbi slowly explained. "She wanted it passed down to our son, so he would soon hath protection. But, I accidentally abandoned him many years ago in a storm. Grambi was nice enough to help, but he could never findeth who he belonged to."

"But why would the Pure Heart lead us here?" Sonic asked.

"Perhaps it was to lead his son back to his father…" Queen Jaydes trailed.

"But now my son is dying! After all these years of looking for him, I am already going to lose him…but this time for good." Elbi's tears began to roll down his face and land on Wenbi's necklace.

"Father… Couldst thou put me down? I want… I want to speaketh to the heroes…" Wenbi wheezed. Elbi slowly put his son down and allowed him to lie on the ground. Chopper and Co. walked over to Wenbi and knelt down, with Chopper holding him in his arms.

"I am sorry for causing so much trouble to thee… I should hath realized what I was doing wrong…"

"Wenbi, thou art not usually like this… Why wouldst thou do such a thing?" Luvbi asked, her eyes starting to water up a bit. "To causeth so much trouble for simply love? It may be hard to forgive thee, especially for almost killing Chopper…"

"Luvbi… If thou dost not forgive me, then that is fine." Wenbi coughed. "But… I realized how selfish I was being back there… I liked thee a lot, but I took it a bit too far… So, please don't feel bad if I die…"

"Wenbi, despite being verily immature at times, I didn't hate thee. Many times, thou were so happy-go-lucky. If thou didn't act so obsessive over me, I would hath considered thee as a friend."

"A…friend?"

"Yea, a friend. One that helpest someone in need. It's like my prince and his friends. They always look out for each other." Luvbi looked over at the group. "Is that true?"

"Yeah… That kind of is true…" Luigi nodded. "Is there…anything we can do to help him? I mean, wouldn't he just return to The Overthere when he dies?"

"Unfortunately… When thou dies as a Nimbi… Thou never returnest…" Grambi trailed sadly. "Not even mine powers are able to heal him."

"And, Chopper…" Wenbi began as his coughs got even worse. "Forgivest me for what I did to thee and thy friends… I was so full of anger when I saw thee dating the girl I loved. It made me want thee to be gone. But now I feel that I was being verily selfish... And I apologize for hurting thou all."

"…I forgive you," Chopper smiled as a tear slowly came down his face and landed on Wenbi's necklace. The Pure Heart emitted from it once again.

"Poyo, (I also forgive you,)" Kirby added. Sonic, Blade, Mario, Luigi, and Meta Knight gave a nod to him as well.

"Thank thee… Fare thee well…friends. _And fare thee well too, Father…_"

With these last words, Wenbi slowly closed his eyes and let out his final breath as he remained motionless. Chopper slowly put the Nimbi down as he began to disappear.

Wenbi was gone.

"Heroes… Thank thee." Elbi said. "I thank thee for forgiving him. Now he can rest in peace with his mother..."

"I don't understand what you mean…" Chopper trailed.

"Wenbi no longer has to suffer from not being forgiven," Meta Knight explained.

"Yea, verily," Elbi made his way over to the necklace, which began to emit the silver Pure Heart out. It stood sternly on the ground, right in front of Chopper. "Please, heroes… Taketh the Pure Heart. Taketh it and savest the world."

"Yes, I believe we have to do that…" Sonic trailed. "Poor Wenbi… He's been through a lot and this is what has to happen to him in the end…"

"Yes, we'll take it," Chopper nodded. "Wenbi would want us to do this…"

"Thank thee…" Elbi trailed sadly. "Keep it safe with thee…"

"This doth be a terrible fate…" Luvbi trailed. "It doth be worse than mine…"

Chopper walked over to the Pure Heart and let all of the Pixls around him dance. With their final pose, he held the Pure Heart above him.

But acquiring this one wasn't as satisfying as the previous.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_I thank thee verily much, heroes. I bet my son and my wife are verily proud of thee for accepting this. And please… Don't let this sadness trouble thee throughout thy adventure…" Elbi spoke sadly as the monsters fled from The Peaceness, leaving all of the Nimbis at peace. Even with Dabootman and Strott gone, everything felt much better. Luvbi and her parents even decided to head back home. However, the little Nimbi girl kissed Chopper once last time, hoping that they would meet again soon. With the sixteenth Pure Heart in their hands from Wenbi's sacrifice, our heroes started to head back to Flopside._


	93. Chapter 15 Interlude

**Well, wasn't that last chapter a big one? Thankfully, this one isn't too big, nor will the later chapters be as big (although, I will say that the chapters near the end of the fic are gonna be pretty long, just a little warning. But after this interlude, we only have five more chapters left. Yes, we're getting closer to the end…**

* * *

"Dear Diary… Today was such a great day! I was able to get Tippy's… No, that's not a good way to start off. Hmmmmmm… Ooh! I know now! Dear Diary… I had such a fantastic day today! Tippy let me go out for a little break to wherever I wanted to go! …Ugh! I'm soooo bad at writing this!"

Mimi was getting too frustrated with her diary at the moment in her pink and girly room. She held a Tipral doll right beside her as her diary was becoming a big mess. There were pencil marks smeared all over her diary, and her eraser was almost about used up.

"Oh, golly… I guess I'm gonna have to get a new eraser. Hopefully Nassy has one. I'll go ask her." she got herself up, closed her diary and put a lock on it so no one could open it. Just to make things more secure for her diary, she put it in the far back of her bookshelf.

"There! There's no way Dimentio will get it now!"

She took her key and locked the door to her room behind her to make things easier for her as well. Mimi looked over to the door to the far left to make sure a certain jester wouldn't be coming out.

"OK, it looks safe…" she headed over to Nastasia's house, but little did she know that in her room, Dimentio simply teleported in silently without her even noticing.

"Ah ha ha ha. Doesn't Mimi ever learn that locking her door won't keep me from getting in here?" Dimentio chuckled as he found Mimi's diary in the back of the shelf. "Oh, silly Mimikins. Finding your diary is easy, like a weak spot that is obvious."

He snapped his finger and made the lock on the diary come off. He opened to the latest page and began reading. The jester looked a bit surprised with what he saw, but he decided to close it.

"Perhaps this is best…for another time. It is quite surprising…" Dimentio put the lock back on and put it back in the back of the shelf, as if it was never touched. He quickly teleported out of the room afterwards.

And he did all of that before Mimi could even get to Nastasia's room, which was quite surprising.

"Hey, Nassy!" Mimi shouted as he knocked on the door to her room. "Can you open your door for a second?"

"What is it, Mimi? I'm a little busy here…" Nastasia groaned as she opened the door to her room. She had a bunch of paperwork that she was busy with, from what Mimi could see from behind her.

"Nassy… What are you…"

"It's nothing special," she bluntly stated.

"Well… Do you have an eraser that I could borrow? I used up my other eraser…" Mimi trailed sadly, giving Nastasia an innocent look. Despite looking confused, she grabbed an eraser from her pencil cup and gave it to her.

"Don't use it up too much, 'K? That's the eleventh eraser you used up this week." she closed the door as Mimi began to head back to her room until she realized something.

"Golly! I use up so many erasers!"

"You're tellin' me!" Mr. L grumbled as he opened the door to his room. "You know how much money we have to pay 'cause of you? Heck, we use more money for you than my new Brobot!"

"Why the hell do you need to buy more dresses? !" Dark growled as he walked out of his room. "You only wear something ONCE and buy something new! You know what? How about you stop buying stuff, you spoiled brat!"

At this point, everyone got in an argument. But it made things worse when Tipral opened the door to his room with a grumpy look. Everyone stopped and looked over at the pissed off Tipral.

"Will you guys SHUT UP? ! Why won't you guys ever learn to get along? !" Tipral exclaimed. "You know what'd holding us back? ! You're ARGUING! I'm trying to get some sleep here and you people won't learn to shut up! If you REALLY want to argue, then take it outside the palace, where I CAN'T hear it! If not, then you're spending your time outside in space!"

"Wait… We're in space?" Mr. L gaped. "How come no one told me that? !"

"I told you that when you first came here," Tipral reminded before remembering something. "Hold on a minute… I do remember something. If I could recall, the heroes managed to get a hold of the sixteenth Pure Heart."

"Wait… Then that means they're coming here!" Mimi gaped. "Aw, golly! Now they're gonna ruin our plan!"

"No, they won't be able to… You see, I was able to get just what I needed to revive the Chaos Heart. However, it's going to take some time, so I need you guys to keep the heroes busy when they show up."

"Did someone say somethin' about the heroes?" O'Chunks came busting through his room with a chicken leg in his hands. "…Oh, I fergot about the chicken leg. Sorry 'bout that."

"Let's discuss this in a…bigger place."

* * *

**Meeting room-**

"So, what yer sayin' is that yeh got everythin' yeh need teh bring back the Chaos Heart an' The Void, but it'll take time teh get it back?" O'Chunks asked.

"You are correct, O'Chunks," Tipral nodded.

"I have chortles! Fawful has had the waiting of this moment!" Fawful grinned. "When all worlds are gorged on, I will be receiving the fury Fawful has wanted all these years! Even more fury than the mustaches!"

"Why, that sounds very interesting!" Dimentio slowly nodded. "Distracting the heroes is a glorious idea! Well done, Tipral!"

"Yeah, yeah, that's good and all…" Dark trailed while looking at his eye through a mirror he had with him. "But why the HELL is my eye growing faster than it normally does? It doesn't hurt now, but something's weird… Dimentio, did you have something to do with this?"

"That eye? My magic just helped you relieve the pain. Although, it could've caused something like that on accident… But, I don't believe that I did anything to make it grow!"

"Well I can see the purple in it now… If you're lying, I swear that I'm going to rip your mask off."

"So, we get to kick some hero butt?" Mr. L smirked as he pounded his fist. "I like that! I like that a lot! I've heard a lot about this Luigi fellow that looks like me. Maybe I'll finally have my chance to see who that guy is and fight him!"

"And I can also get revenge against that pink puffball! Mimimimimimi!" Mimi cackled. "Remember what he did to me back in your previous castle, Tippy? Well this time, I'll be prepared to win the battle!"

"With what? Your pointless Rubees?"

"Hey! My Rubees are capable of winning fights!"

"Ah ha ha ha! How amusing! You two fight like two whiny kids who are fighting over candy!" Dimentio cackled.

"Tipral, are you sure about this?" Nastasia asked. "Do you really think this plan will work out? I mean, none of your other plans seemed to work against the heroes. They've defeated all of your minions countless times and…"

"That's enough, Nastasia," Tipral stopped. "Trust me, I know this will work for us. Besides… Even if Chopper and his friends make it over here, I believe I still might have enough time to bring The Void back."

"But what purpose is there to bring it back? Why do you want to destroy all worlds in the first place?"

"To get revenge against those pathetic people that took everything away from me. Chopper… Ever since he defeated my grandfather, I was sent to another dimension and stayed there for five months. And don't get me started on that Shadow Brother Mysterious… And besides… When I destroy all worlds, I'll make a new world for everyone. It can be whatever they desire."

"'K…" Nastasia began to scribble on her clipboard, but her pencil broke. "Ummm… Tipral? Could you excuse me for a moment? I think I need to…"

Tipral waved his scepter at the pencil and it was fully sharpened. Nastasia looked a little surprised by this, but she gave him a nod and continued to write something on her clipboard.

It was then Dimentio realized something and snapped his finger.

"Oh, Tipral! I just remembered something!" he recalled. "Does the name 'Timpani' ring a bell to you?"

"Timpani…" Tipral's eyes widened. "Dimentio… Where did you ever hear that name before?"

"Oh, nowhere special… Although, if I could recall, I once heard the name Timpani when you were sleeping. Is she someone you know?"

"I'm not exactly sure what that name is. It's something I've been hearing for a long time."

"Are yeh havin' amenisa, Tipral?" O'Chunks asked.

"I don't have amnesia. All I know is that that name does ring a bell for some reason. But do I have to explain about this? I don't think so. For now, you guys should get to your posts."

"Ugh… I don't know if I can." Dark grunted. "Kind of dangerous to go fight when I have an eye that's almost about to open. It's going to keep me off guard."

"Then let's let the poor alien thing sit out," Dimentio chuckled.

"Shut it, clown."

"Enough already," Tipral said, silencing the two. "I want you all to get to your positions now. I've already discussed the plan, so all you need to do is go out and keep the heroes busy for a while."

"Oh, that's an easy one for me," Dimentio cackled. "Now, if you'll excuse me… I believe I should go to my position! Ciao!"

The rest followed him afterward, leaving only Tipral and Nastasia in the room. While Dark may have left, he was actually returning to his room.

"So, Chopper… It appears you've collected the sixteenth Pure Heart!" Tipral said as he looked at the black star on the Dark Star Scepter, which began to show something through there. "Well, let's see how you do when I finally destroy the universe with The Void!"

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

"_Tipral… Why does that name haunt me so?"_

"Tippi, is something all right?"

"Tipral's name haunts you? Well, it's not too surprising…"

All seven were in front of the fifth door of Flopside Towers, where a silver crystal heart appeared above it. Chopper was holding onto the glowing wand, where they could hear Timpani mumbling.

"Is something the matter, Tippi? Is there something bothering you?" Chopper asked.

"_Well… I'm not exactly sure…" _Timpani trailed. _"I keep hearing the word 'Tipral' in my head, as if it's trying to haunt me. Look, how about we return to Merlon's house with the Pure Heart?"_

"That sounds like a good idea," Meta Knight nodded. "Wenbi DID want us to take good care of it, and do that we shall."

"Poyo, (Yeah, we should go back,)" Kirby agreed. "Poyo… (And we should also tell Flyer about our broken communicators…)"

"Yeah, we need to do that too," Chopper agreed. "Hopefully they're not mad at us for not communicating with them…"

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"I swear, they haven't communicated with us through our communicators for a while…" Parakarry trailed as he held his communicator. "You think something bad happened to 'em or something?"

"If something bad happened to them…" Vivian gasped and covered her mouth. "That would be a horrible thing… I don't want to lose more friends, especially one who's treated me well like Chopper and Mario…"

"Choppor, you know how to find out if people are alive or not, right?" Bow asked, flying over to the robot. "If you do… Maybe you can, let's just say… Check and see if they're alive."

"I don't have any programs that allow me to do that," C-2 Choppor informed. "Am I just a mere toy to all of you, just to be used for certain things and make you not do things yourself?"

"I'll admit, sometimes we are kind of lazy and rely on robots a lot," Heartsy confessed. "Is this what we're going to be like in the future?"

"I sure hope not," Flyer hoped. "I mean, I usually BUILD my stuff with tools and stuff, but creating stuff to do all the work for me? I'm not really getting anything from something I like doing."

"Relax, young ones," Merlon assured, turning his head to the group as he scanned his bookshelf for something. "I'm sure in the far distant future, our world will be much better. Some worlds might be cleaner, while some might change their ways for the better."

"Let's hope that happens," Bow nodded. "Especially the Mushroom Kingdom. It would be SO much better without Bowser around."

"I hear ya!" Parakarry agreed.

"Well, I just hope my sweet Choppy is still alive," Heartsy hoped, looking worried. "Ever since I met him, I knew we would be meant for each other."

"…Was this something involving love at first sight, Heartsy?" Flyer asked.

"Well… Kind of. I could tell that he was my kind. Plus, he was really cute!"

"Oh, boy… That kind of cliché… I wonder how others watching us are thinking about this…"

"Uhhh… What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing!"

"Hmmmmm… Scanners are picking something up." C-2 Choppor informed, getting everyone's attention.

"Could it be a surprise attack?" Vivian asked, getting her fire powers ready.

The door opened and, to their surprise, all seven came walking into the house. But, they looked a bit shocked to see that they were covered in burns from Shade's assault back in The Peaceness.

"You're alive!" Flyer gaped.

"Who would've thought that you'd make it back OK?" Bow smiled.

"And you didn't get killed!" Parakarry cheered.

"I'm relieved to see you back," Vivian said with a smile.

"I guess my scanners were picking up you guys…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Oh, Choppy! I'm glad to see you're back!" Heartsy was the first to go over to the heroes, mainly Chopper. She hugged him and began to smother his cheek with kisses. "It's been such a while, hasn't it?"

"Aw, gross!" Chopper gagged, still trapped in Heartsy's arms. "We went through a lot of crap in The Peaceness and I come back to get kissed again? Man, it really is pretty painful…"

"Hold on… I recognize some of the people here…" Meta Knight trailed, noticing mostly Heartsy, Vivian, and Flyer the most. "But for the other three…"

"Oh! Do I hear Meta Knight's voice in the room?" Merlon paused and turned around with a book in his hands. "I welcome you here, Meta Knight! It has been quite a while, hasn't it?"

"Last time we saw you, you helped us fight the Hellspawns in Hell," Vivian recalled.

"Yeah, that was something, wasn't it?" Flyer smirked.

"I think it was," Blade nodded. "Well, anyway… We brought the sixteenth Pure Heart with us. We need that one to lead us to Tipral's Palace, is that correct?"

"Yes, you are correct, Blade," Merlon confirmed. "With the sixteenth Pure Heart in your hands, you should be able to find Tipral's Palace and stop him before it's too late!"

"_Yes, that is a good idea…" _Timpani agreed. At first, everyone was confused, but soon Merlon recognized that voice.

"T-Tippi? ! Are… Are you here? !"

"_Yes, I'm here, with Blumiere as well. For some reason, your magic isn't preventing me from speaking through here. But, I'm disappointed that we finally managed to get a hold of you now."_

"Wait, that voice is coming from that wand Choppy's holding," Heartsy realized as she let go of Chopper and looked down at the glowing wand that was now floating out of Chopper's inventory.

"Well it's about time!" Sonic grinned.

"_Merlon, I have a little question… Was there anything written in a journal from the Tribe of Ancients about something involving Tipral? For some reason… That name haunts my mind…"_

"Hmmmmmm… Unfortunately, I don't have such a thing with me. I used to have something like that, but now it's gone… However, I was just reading this interesting spell book."

"Spell book? What's it about?" Luigi asked.

"I was just trying to find a way to help your friends get back home. I believe I found just the spell to take them back."

"Wait… So does this mean that…we're going now?" Heartsy gasped.

"But we haven't gotten much of a chance to speak with Chopper and his friends…" Bow trailed.

"And at a time like this?" Flyer frowned.

"You know, as much as I don't like to say goodbyes, I think this might be the best chance at the moment," Chopper sighed. "I mean, when are we ever going to say goodbye to each other? This might be your only chance to return back to your own world!"

"As much as I would hate to admit it, I think he's right," Meta Knight nodded. "We'll try our best to take care of everything, especially all worlds."

"Meta Knight… I want you to go as well."

"What? But only through one world? Why would you need me to go, Chopper?"

"I have nothing against you, Meta Knight… But, after what happened with you and losing Galaxia, I believe you'll be safe back at your own world. I really hate to let you go too, but we're heroes. We've gotta take care of this ourselves."

"_Are you sure about this, Chopper?" _Timpani asked. _"Meta Knight has proven to be very helpful in the past…"_

"If he continued to travel with us, I think he'd be at a high risk of danger. Now that he has his sword, I think he'll be able to protect himself, which someone people might disagree with me on him coming with us is dangerous. But… What would happen to Dream Land without a protector? Someone's gotta do it!"

"Poyo! (And I can't do it when I'm saving the universe!)" Kirby added.

"…All right, Chopper… I suppose I'll let you heroes take it all from here." Meta Knight sighed as he shut his eyes. "Where should we go to leave Flipside?"

"I believe Flipside Towers would be the best option," Merlon said as he walked over to the door. "Come, young ones! Meet me up at the tower!"

"Well, we better follow…" Vivian trailed sadly.

* * *

**Flipside Towers-**

"So, I guess this is it then? This is where we say goodbye…" Flyer trailed as Chopper's friends looked over at the heroes and Merlon across from them. "It's a real shame we didn't get to spend much time with you…"

The blue portal was already set after Merlon used the spell. "There we go. The spell is all ready. Are you guys ready to go now?"

"Well, we're not leaving without saying goodbye," Bow denied as she flew over to the heroes. "Because… Well, it makes it feel worse without one."

"Yeah, I'll agree with that," Blade nodded. "I hate not saying goodbye."

Mario: What are you going to do?

"Oh, I don't know, really… Hopefully Bootler isn't too worried about me right now. He tends to get over the top when I'm missing for over a day. But, I'll tell Bootler you said hi, Mario."

"Poyo! (And tell him too!)" Kirby smiled. Chopper simply translated what he just said.

"I guess I will tell him too," she giggled. "Despite not lasting long, I did enjoy seeing you all here. Hopefully I see you again sometime, Chopper."

She kissed him on the cheek and gave him a wink before entering through the portal. Chopper began to wipe off the kiss left by her.

"I still don't like that kiss…" Chopper gagged.

"Oh, relax, Chopper! You should be happy that someone likes you." Parakarry. "I mean… Err… Yeah. It was really nice seein' you guys around. I almost feel like I'm gonna cry here!"

"Do you need a handkerchief?" Heartsy asked, pulling a pink handkerchief out.

"Thanks, missy," he took the handkerchief and blew his nose with it. He gave it back to her, but she simply looked at it in disgust after what he left on it. "Hopefully I'm able to get my letters back in time… My boss is probably goin' to kill me now!"

"Oh, boy… That's not good." Luigi gulped. "Do you plan on making an excuse?"

"Honestly… I don't think I should. Lying doesn't get you anywhere in this world. …Well, I'll see you guys later. If you have the time, why don't you come to the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"We should do that!" Sonic nodded as he gave a thumbs up. Parakarry smiled as he flew into the portal, waving goodbye.

"To be honest, I don't like saying goodbyes…" Vivian said shyly as she trailed over to the heroes. "And… Chopper, I'm really sorry if I caused any problems around here. With Tipral out now, I feel somewhat responsible…"

"What? ! No you're not! I don't even think you've got a part in why he's trying to destroy all worlds!" Chopper denied. "It's probably because of me! Why? Because I somehow sent him to another world…"

"I suppose that may be true… But, I don't know…"

"Don't put yourself down! Negativity won't get you anywhere here!" Sonic said.

"Mmmmmm… Well, I guess I feel a little better, Sonic. Thanks for talking to me for a bit, guys. I kind of appreciate that."

She sized down to Chopper and kissed him on the cheek, looking shyly at him afterwards as he blinked and blushed. Vivian waved goodbye and floated through the portal, leaving only four left.

"I apologize if I don't have much to say to you, but I wish you luck on your quest," C-2 Choppor said as he walked over to the group. "And remember… We'll be there to cheer you on. All of us."

"What do you mean 'all of us'?" Luigi questioned.

"All of the friends you guys encountered in the past. We will cheer you on and make sure you save the world."

"Well… I guess we appreciate that. Thanks, Choppor!" Chopper smiled.

"I will see you guys later. Your mission isn't complete just yet." C-2 Choppor followed Vivian through the portal.

"So, that means only three of you are left, right?" Blade asked.

Mario: Looks like it…

"Yeah, apparently…" Heartsy trailed as she walked up to the group. "Well, I guess I have to take part now. Just remember that even in your state right now, you still have your hearts. As long as you help others, your heart will be as big and healthy as ever."

"Uhhh… Are you talking about the organ?" Chopper asked.

"Tee hee! Of course not, silly! I'd rather not go into too much detail about that, because we'd be here for hours!"

Mario: Yeah, that's kind of true.

"Yeah…" she got a little closer to Chopper. "Choppy… I just want to let you know that you will always be in my heart, and I will always think about you when I return back to my home world."

"And… I guess you will be in my heart too…" Chopper trailed with his face a shade of red.

"You're always being so sweet! I should really share some of my sweetness with you!"

"What do you…?" Chopper's eyes widened as he felt Heartsy kiss him on the lips. When she stepped back, she giggled at him cutely.

"Like that!" she swooned as she kissed him on the cheek one last time before going over to the portal. "I'll miss you, Choppy…"

With her lovesick and gone, Flyer walked over to the group. "Gee, she sure has a thing for you, doesn't she?"

"Eeeugh… Yes, she does…" Chopper gagged, wiping the kiss mark on his cheek. "So… What're you gonna do?"

"Well, I'm probably going to go back to Wingel Town and get back to my workshop. My mother must be worried sick about me at this moment. I promised that I would be back for supper! …And I'm freakin' late!"

"Yeah, like a couple of days late…" Blade trailed.

"You better go quickly then!" Luigi suggested.

"Yeah, I should… Good luck, guys! And stay safe!" Flyer waved goodbye to them one more time as he flew into the portal. All the remained was Meta Knight.

"So… It finally comes down to us now…" he trailed. "Heroes, I just want to thank you for rescuing me back at that previous world. We may have gone through a lot there, but remember this: my spirit will always be with you. Keep my spirit with you, and you shall be safe."

"You can keep my spirit with you too," Chopper added. "You might stay safer."

"I see what you did there…" Sonic trailed.

"Hey! He's safe with his sword! My spirit can make him stay saf_er_!"

Meta Knight chuckled as he patted Chopper on the head. "You never change… Hopefully you stay the same as you usually are."

"Heh heh… Same goes to you."

Meta Knight slowly nodded as he walked over to the portal. "Farewell, heroes. I hope your adventure lasts well."

And with that, the portal closed, leaving only the heroes and Merlon.

"Poyo… (They're gone now… All of them…)" Kirby trailed sadly.

"Look, I think it's just best that we go bring the Pure Heart to its Heart Pillar," Chopper suggested. "I don't want to spend our whole time grieving."

Mario: I hate to admit it, but I have to agree…

"Yes, I believe that is for the best," Merlon nodded. "You heroes have a palace to go to and someone to stop. I will not stop you this time, for you don't have much time."

"If my calculations are correct… I believe we have to go to Flopside Outskirts on the second floor." Sonic concluded.

"Then let's go there," Blade suggested.

* * *

**Flopside, Second Floor Outskirts-**

"Man… It feels kind of different without Meta Knight around…" Luigi trailed as they walked to the left of the outskirts. "Don't you guys feel the same way about that too?"

"Yeah… We're not going to see our friends again…" Chopper frowned. "…No! I can't grieve! It's not going to get us anywhere!"

"Poyo, (Face it, Chopper, we can't hold it in,)" Kirby stated.

"Well, we can get the Pure Heart in its pillar," Chopper walked over to the Heart Pillar to the end of the path on the left. What was shocking was that nothing was in their way. It was almost like the eighth Heart Pillar.

"_Well, you know what to do, Chopper…" _Timpani trailed.

"Yeah… Wenbi's Pure Heart will stay here, in a safe place…" he allowed the silver Pure Heart to go into its pillar and create a silver clock. The same thing as usual happened here as they waited patiently.

But, while they did that, a dark gray door appeared right next to the silver door on Flopside Towers.

"So… You think we should go up there now?" Sonic asked.

Mario: I guess so.

"All right, there's no point in staying here…" Chopper trailed as they headed to the tower.

* * *

**Flopside Towers-**

"So, you heroes have finally opened the door to Tipral's Palace…" Over by the dark gray door, Nolrem stood there. "Did you heroes know that you just filled up all of the Heart Pillars in Flopside?"

"Poyo? (Aren't there twenty Heart Pillars, though?)" Kirby gawked.

"Yes, there are indeed twenty of them, but as for the four remaining ones… Their locations are unknown to both Merlon and I so far. But, word has it that there's a town high above both Flipside and Flopside that carries many mysterious things… Maybe you'll find that new town someday…"

"That's kind of interesting…" Luigi trailed.

"Now, I won't waste your time anymore. You heroes have to stop Tipral before he brings back the Chaos Heart and summons forth The Void!"

"Yeah… We better go…" Chopper nodded. "Are you guys ready?"

"Poyo! (Yeah! I'm all good!)" Kirby nodded.

"You betcha!" Sonic nodded.

"All set," Blade nodded.

Mario: Oh, yes!

"I suppose I am…" Luigi trailed.

"_Let's go…" _Timpani said as the heroes entered through the sixth door of Flopside Towers.

"Good luck, Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi…" Nolrem trailed.

"…and to you too, Count Blumiere and Lady Timpani."

* * *

**'Tis a shame that they had to go now, including Meta Knight (he, like Tipral, was only a temporary party member, unfortunately)****. However, the next chapter... Well, I'll probably talk about that when we get to it.**

**At least you didn't have to wait a long time for this chapter. :P**


	94. Five Separate Ways

_Six heroes. Six powerful minions, and two Prognosticuses. With our heroes ready to go, they set off through the door to Tipral's Palace. To them, this meant no turning back now. To some, they felt like this was almost going to be something like Castle Tipral, a dungeon that was rather challenging. They continued to listen to Timpani mumble, "Why do I feel as if I know this Tipral? It almost feels like something back from my childhood…" Would these questions be answered? Our heroes began to wonder if Tipral would hold these answers._

**CHAPTER 16-1**

**-Five Separate Ways-**

A dark gray door was drawn and colored as the heroes walked out and noticed their surroundings. They were standing on a black floor with no white outline, unlike Castle Tipral. They noticed the lanterns on the ground with black flames with a purple center, and they also noticed that the floor itself had a symbol of a black star. It almost resembled a dark Warp Star…

"_So we're finally here… Tipral's Palace…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well, it does look pretty…dark, not to mention big," Luigi commented.

They looked at the pathway leading up to the large palace up ahead. The large door leading into Tipral's Palace had a black star on it with a purple frame. The windows were even hard to see because of how dark the palace looked. One thing for sure was that this place was huge. It was bigger than Castle Tipral.

"Man, look at those lanterns. They're all so dark. Kind of fits Tipral, I suppose…" Sonic trailed while rubbing the side of his head. "So… Where do you think he may be in this large palace?"

Mario: I'm not sure.

"Poyo, (Well, from what I believe, I bet he's somewhere far in the palace,)" Kirby believed as he took a couple of steps.

"So… How about we get going? I mean, we should be able to…" Blade stopped when Mario and Luigi began to flail around in panic. "Wait… What the hell is up with them? Why are they flailing around like idiots?"

"Uhhhh… Blade? Doesn't it look like they're flailing around because we're actually in space at the moment?" Chopper asked, raising an eyebrow. Unfortunately for the two brothers, they couldn't stay out in space without a helmet.

"_Oh, dear… So Tipral's Palace is somewhere in space? Well… I think we better go inside as fast as possible…" _Timpani suggested while looking a little shocked at Mario and Luigi.

"Poyo? (How were they able to talk before?)" Kirby asked.

"Uhhh… I think it was because they didn't know they were in space." Chopper pondered as he looked up at the black sky with a little bit of a dark pink in the background. They could even see a couple of stars as well. One of them kind of reminded Kirby of his home planet, Pop Star.

"OK, no time to talk! We gotta get going!" Sonic grabbed Mario's arm and began to run over to the palace up ahead. Chopper shrugged and grabbed Luigi's arm to bring him over to the front of the palace.

"Come to think of it… How come we're not suffocating out here?" Blade questioned. "Is it because Mobians can survive out in space, yet not in water?"

Kirby shrugged as he followed Blade over to the front entrance of the palace. There really wasn't anything special about the front entrance, but the door was significantly big. Chopper flipped into 3-D and entered through the door with everyone else.

* * *

**Inside Tipral's Palace-**

"Whew! I can finally breathe!" Luigi gasped before sighing in relief. "Man! You don't wanna know how awful it was without any air! I thought that I was going to pass out before we even got inside!"

Mario: No kidding!

"Well, now that we're in the interior portion, how about we see what's happening here?" Sonic suggested as he took a couple of steps in the room. The floor and walls themselves were black, but not as dark as the color in Castle Tipral. They could definitely see the floor and walls and chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

"_A palace… Why does this ring a bell to me when I think about Tipral too?" _Timpani pondered before Chopper turned to her. _"Ummmmm… Nothing, really! I was just having some thoughts…"_

"_Timpani, do you know more about this Tipral character than any of us?" _Blumiere asked.

"Let's not put her under a lot of pressure," Chopper suggested. "Maybe our answers to that will be revealed later. For now, we have to… OW!"

Chopper cried as a Koopatrol with dark blue armor poked his butt with the spiky point on its helmet. It cackled as it looked at the heroes through its glowing, soul piercing eyes. From investigating it, it was a Dark Koopatrol.

"Hey, Koopinator! How's it going?"

"Wait… Koopinator? Who the heck is that?" Blade gawked as he drew his katana. "Eh, who the hell cares? Let's just take care of this guy!"

Blade jumped toward the Dark Koopatrol and attempted to slash at it. It simply jumped back and avoided Blade's attack with ease and got into its shell. It threw itself at him, but he managed to put Barry up to block the Dark Koopatrol easily. He then followed up with his Dragon Beam. But even then, that didn't finish it off.

"Poyo, (They're not as easy as the ones from Castle Tipral,)" Kirby said as he attacked the Dark Koopatrol with his Final Cutter, finishing it off for real. They noticed that the hallway was flat and full of a couple of enemies. It was kind of like Castle Tipral too.

"_I will admit, this does have the 'castle' feeling from my previous castle," _Blumiere remarked as they explored the room.

Mario: Yeah, it does feel like that…

"Don't remind me of Castle Bleck…" Luigi shivered as they found some Koopas with black shells up ahead. They were wearing sunglasses unlike the usual Koopa Troopas. They were called Dark Koopa Troopas, according to Timpani.

Chopper simply jumped on the Dark Koopa before it could attack and knocked it over. Unlike the other Koopa Troopas, this one didn't hide in its shell. It was simply lying on the ground, struggling to get up.

"Ah! Just like when we fought Koopas before this adventure!" Chopper remarked. "Kind of interesting…"

Mario: Those Koopas were kind of annoying.

"I think you're talking about that Crystal Star quest right?" Luigi recalled. "I remember you speaking to me about those, bro. I wish I went on your quest… But, at least I went on my own!"

Mario: I'm unsure if you're speaking the truth or not.

"How about we finish this Dark Koopa off, huh?" Sonic suggested as he noticed the Dark Koopa get up. He clenched his fist and attacked it with his Sonic Wind, leaving it stunned from the blue gust of wind and allowing Chopper to finish it off by tossing a charged rainbow ball.

"I can't believe we were distracted with a discussion when we had an enemy to take care of…" Chopper trailed as he looked up ahead to find two black Goombas up ahead. With a shrug, he went over to attack, but one of them ended up giving him a nasty headbonk.

"Wait… That Goomba just bonked you with its head…" Blade trailed.

"Ow… Yeah, I know that, Blade. No need to remind me of that. Geez… That headbonk was pretty painful, I'll admit."

The Dark Goombas laughed as they were prepared to attack again, but Mario stomped on the first one and used a Super Ground Pound to defeat it. Luigi decided to attack the other Dark Goomba with a flutter jump attack. Blade finished it off by slashing it.

"Well, there's not much else around here, so I guess we could continue on," Luigi suggested as they walked over to the door ahead. When they entered the next room, they saw a Darkling firing a red spell at the group. Chopper reacted in time and hurled a rainbow ball at the spell to counter it.

"I bet Tipral's in control of these guys since Maquano's gone…" Chopper trailed as he stomped on the Darkling. Surprisingly, this one was a lot stronger than the normal kind, despite having red eyes and a red bulb on its antenna. He quickly finished it off by smashing it with his hammer.

"Poyo? (Any more around here?)" Kirby asked, eyeing the room. There didn't appear to be anything around, but they did see some windows and a couple of pillars in the background.

"This palace sure does look nice, even if it's dark," Luigi commented as they walked over to a door just up ahead. "It's nice and clean… But it still has that evil aura around it…"

Mario: Wait, I see more than one door!

"Yeah, I see that too!" Chopper nodded. "Wait… I see…three more doors? What the heck is going on here? Did Tipral know that we were coming here and set us up in some sort of trap?"

"_There must've been a reason why the minions were ready…" _Blumiere trailed.

"Well, are we supposed to just go through one door and explore it?" Sonic asked with a confused look. "But, to me, that sounds like it's going to be a lot slower…"

"Poyo, (We gotta do something, though,)" Kirby said as he flailed his arms around. "Poyo! (If we don't do anything, we'll probably be too late to stop Tipral from reviving The Void!)"

Mario: Well, I say we start with the third door…

While they began to ponder, Timpani and Blumiere began to speak to each other in private so the others wouldn't be able to hear them. The good thing was that the heroes couldn't hear them mumble.

"I say we…"

"_Timpani and I came up with a solution to your problem," _Blumiere interrupted.

"Problem? We never had a problem in the first place…" Chopper trailed. "We were just trying to think of where we were going to go first. You know, that traditional thing that people think about?"

"_Well what we were thinking about was having you guys split up. You guys can each take a door so you don't have to focus on one door at a time. That said, two people will have to stay with each other through one of the doors." _Timpani explained.

"Split up? But… I don't want to be left behind!" Luigi gulped.

"Remember what happened last time we ended up being split up?" Chopper remarked. "We were separated for a very long time, and things actually turned out for the worse! Remember The Underwhere and Castle Tipral?"

"Didn't we split up before in that Christmas world?" Blade asked.

"Yeah, we did that there too," Sonic nodded. "To be honest, I think I'll agree with Tippi and Count Bleck on this! Being separated from each other isn't a nice thing, but we got new moves! I think we can take on anything on our own!"

Mario: Well, I don't think we have much of a choice…

"Poyo? (I mean, wouldn't splitting up make things a little easier?)" Kirby asked.

"OK… Fine." Chopper sighed. "I guess we have no other choice. We'll split up. Now, the only question is… Who are the two people that will go together?"

"I'll go with Sonic," Blade announced.

"Really? Why?" Sonic asked.

"Don't you remember? You're pretty much my idol ever since the Green Hill Zone days! Plus, we barely ever had some time to talk to each other throughout this quest. What? You don't like the idea?"

"I have nothing against the idea… But, OK. I guess a fan of me can come with me. It's not like it's going to hurt me."

"Wait… Why don't I go with Mario?" Luigi suggested. "My bro and I should stick together! I mean, we're pretty close!"

Mario: You need to learn to fight on your own.

"Wh-What? ! B-But… Bro…!"

Mario: If you could go through a mansion on your own, then you can stay on your own for a little while.

"_You should listen to Mario…" _Timpani trailed.

"Well… I still hate the idea anyway!" Luigi cried. "And I only did that once! There's no way I can do it again, especially with monsters more threatening than GHOSTS!"

"But, I thought you were the great Luigi?" Chopper gaped. "I heard people say that you were a brave man who could take on any challenges! Surely you're something like that, aren't you?"

"…Wait, really?"

"Oh, yes!" Sonic nodded, understanding what Chopper meant. "We've heard so many tales of you going out and defeating such tough enemies. In fact, you did defeat the evil Chestnut King, did you not?"

"Actually, the Chestnut King was actually the princess's fiancé, which was a shame, but I did travel bravely!" Luigi jumped out of cheerfulness. "All right! I'll try to go through one of the doors on my own!"

"_You guys sure you can handle this?" _Blumiere asked.

"Poyo! (I've been on countless adventures on my own before!)" Kirby assured. "Poyo! (There's no way that this one's going to stop me!)"

"Same here," Chopper said as he pointed to himself. "I mean, I probably wouldn't be here if I saved my home planet Clara! But, yeah… Now that I think about it, I think we are fine splitting up for a bit."

"Now, only two questions remain…" Blade trailed. "Which Pixls do we take with us?"

"Well, since we should each take some Pixls with us… I guess I'll hold onto Starbow, Cudge, and Slim, if that's OK with you guys."

"Poyo, (I'll take Carrie, Thoreau, and Flippay, I suppose,)" Kirby said.

"Well, then that leaves me with Screwdy and Reflecto," Sonic announced.

"I'm fine with Hommissile and Barry," Blade assured.

Mario: I'll hold onto Kickbrin and Piccolo.

"Well… I guess that leaves me with Bonjourang and Crystaline…" Luigi trailed as Crystaline flew over to him. "Wait, doesn't Kirby use her mostly? Wouldn't you need her?"

"Poyo, (I'm good,)" Kirby assured.

"_So it's settled. All of you have your Pixls with you." _Blumiered nodded in approval. _"I believe this plan might work!"_

"All right, now let's choose a door…" Chopper trailed. He noticed Sonic and Blade walk over to the first door. Instead of going over to the second one, he decided to walk over to the fourth door instead.

"I'm gonna mix it up a bit!"

"Poyo! (Then I'll go with the third door!)" Kirby stated as he skipped over to the third door. Mario decided he would take the second door, leaving Luigi with the last door next to Chopper.

"Why is it always me that gets the last pick?" Luigi asked.

"Well, you didn't say it first…" Sonic trailed. "Now, are we COMPLETELY sure that we should all be traveling alone? I mean, how the heck are we going to communicate with each other? Our communicators are broken!"

"Dang… I should've asked Flyer about that." Chopper face palmed.

"Thankfully, I happen to have a couple of spare communicators with me," Blade pulled out five communicators and tossed one to each. "So, there's a little button that you can press to turn it on. As long as you have that one, you'll be able to contact with each other. It's a good thing I got these linked to each other, or else I don't know HOW the hell we would be able to contact each other…"

Mario: These don't look too compatible…

"They're not better than Flyer's but I think they'll work. They'll show one of us on the screen and allow us to speak to each other."

"_So… Are you guys all ready to go?" _Timpani asked.

"Yup, I'm all set!" Chopper said as he grabbed Timpani's wand and put it away. "Let's go, guys! …And good luck."

With a nod, all six heroes entered their door to their own room.

* * *

**Sonic and Blade-**

"So, I guess it's just you and me for now through this castle…" Blade trailed as they walked into the next room through the first door. "I can't believe that we're working together!"

"Are you going to ask me for my autograph or something, Blade?" Sonic asked. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I'll sign something for any fan. I was just curious, that's all."

"Well… Nah. We're trying to find Tipral, which is most important. What say you and me go check out what's around here. I think we're wasting some time by sitting around and doing nothing."

They noticed that there was Motobug with a black back and a gray head charging straight for the two. Sonic took action by curling up in a ball and hitting the Dark Motobug head-on with a Spin Dash.

"Oh, yeah!" Sonic gave stylish pose after using one last Spin Jump to destroy the Dark Motobug. Blade gave him a strange look as he walked past him. This hallway didn't have much except for a yellow ? block just up ahead and a couple of Dark Buzz Bombers flying around as well.

"Isn't it weird that this part has Badniks that were most likely brainwashed or created by Tipral?" Blade asked as he threw a shuriken at one Dark Buzz Bomber to send it crashing to the ground. He finished it off by slicing its head off and making it explode.

"Now THAT'S how you finish off a Buzz Bomber!"

"Ehhh… Not as cool as how I finish 'em off."

"Oh, come on, Sonic! You KNOW that that was cool!" Blade grinned as he bragged about it. "You're not able to slice robot's heads off, but with this katana, I can do something like that ea-"

He stopped when he got shot by a projectile fired by another Dark Buzz Bomber. Sonic sighed as he attacked it with a Spin Jump a couple of times and destroyed it. Blade sweat dropped and followed Sonic up ahead.

"Slow down, hedgehog! You're going too fast!"

"Well, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive! What are you going to expect?" Sonic grinned as he stopped and attacked a Dark Motobug in front of him. "I thought ninjas were patient?"

"Uhhhhhh… Sort of. I don't remember EVERYTHING about ninjas, honestly. Ever since my sensei died, some of the things I learned about for ninja history kind of drained away, which sucks."

He noticed another Dark Motobug coming their way, so Blade got himself ready and gripped his katana. With a single slice, he was able to slice the Dark Motobug in half and blow it up.

"Weren't there these animals in these?" Blade asked, looking confused.

"I know Eggman would trap animals on them," Sonic recalled. "But, since these are on Tipral's side… I don't think they work with the help of animals. Perhaps with some dark power?"

"Well, maybe those answers will be revealed when we find Tipral."

"IF we find Tipral."

"Yeah, that's a true statement," Blade walked over to the door just up ahead, which was being guarded by two Dark Buzz Bombers. "All right, here's the plan! You take one of 'em and I'll get the other!"

"Good plan," Sonic prepared himself and attacked the Dark Buzz Bomber closest to him. It only took three Spin Jumps to destroy it, while Blade had to slice it up a bit to kill it, with him slicing the stinger off first.

"Damn, this thing's a pain in the ass!"

"Dude, no need to curse out on the Buzz Bomber. You gotta relax and fight it. I think an explosion would be able to kill it off."

"And you just gave me a brilliant idea," Blade grinned as he tossed Hommissile at the Dark Buzz Bomber. Destroying that left all of the enemies in the room destroyed, allowing them to enter a small room ahead with a couple of small poles leading up to a door on a platform. They noticed past the poles was a staircase with a door down below.

"What do you think could be in that door below?"

"Well, from seeing the door up above, I don't think we can go through there," Sonic pondered. "So, what we should do is just take the door down that staircase. Maybe there might be some fast-paced areas there!"

"If there are, then I'm screwed," Blade said as they walked down the stairs and landed right next to the door. They noticed that there was a Dark Crabmeat sitting right in front of the door with a bored look.

However, once it took notice of the two, it fired dark projectiles from its claws and hit the two. It laughed maniacally until Sonic killed it off with a simple Homing Attack. At that point, they both heard their communicators going off.

"_Hey, Sonic! Blade! How's it going?" _From what they could hear, it was Chopper's voice coming from the communicator.

"You're already calling us already?" Sonic gawked. "We're…kind of in the middle of exploring this palace."

"_I know. I just want to know what you guys saw."_

"_Well, I just ran into some kind of hallway…" _Luigi trailed. _"In fact, I don't see anything special about this area."_

"_I'm just continuing my way through a hallway too. So far, nothing interesting except some Darklings. I don't think this should even be a tough place to go through anyway!"_

"Well, it's nice to hear that," Blade said, as if he didn't care. "Look, we'll alert you if we find anything important. For now, we're just going to continue on through here, if that's all right with you."

Everyone through the communicator agreed and let Sonic and Blade enter through the door in front of them. It ultimately led them into a room with a path below them, but they noticed that they couldn't go down from there. What they DID see was water flowing down a slope.

"Oh, no… Don't tell me we REALLY have to…"

"Looks like it, Sonic," Blade said, walking over to the slope. "It looks really slippery. I don't think we can resist sliding down…"

"Well I am, because I'm not going down there!" Sonic crossed his arms and turned away from Blade. However, the cat had an idea of his own. He stood right in front of Sonic and pushed him down the wet slope.

"BLADE! What are you DOING? !" Sonic began to slide down the slope, making him scream like a little girl. "You know that you're putting me in danger here! Help me, Blade!"

"No way! You're going to slide down whether you like it or not!" Blade followed him down the slope and fell in the water. They noticed that through the pipes they were in, there was a current to the left that could carry them back, a current below them going up, and one over to the right that could carry them that direction.

However, it was impossible for both of them to speak, since they couldn't breathe underwater. All they could do for the moment was use gestures to interact with each other for the moment.

The current carried them all the way over to a door that they entered to find themselves in a room with a couple of platforms floating on top of the water. One of them happened to have a chest.

Seeing this, Blade carried Sonic up to the surface and threw him up on the platform. Both gasped for air as they sat on the platform and shook the water off them.

"Blade… Don't try anything like that again…" Sonic wheezed. "While I'm a person to forgive quickly, something that can get me nearly killed isn't something easy for me to forgive…"

"Well, then how the hell was I supposed to get you into the water? You probably wouldn't say yes anyway… Now, let's go and…"

Blade stopped when a Dark Chopper leaped out of the water and nearly bit his foot off. "Geez! What are there, Choppers in here now? …Well, I guess I better go tell Chopper there are Choppers here."

"I'll handle the Choppers while you go get the Palace Key," Sonic suggested. "I've dealt with these guys ever since the Green Hill days. I know their strategies. Just be fast before it comes back up."

"Gotcha," Blade leaped over the water while avoiding the Dark Chopper. Sonic clenched his fist and allowed his Sonic Wind to attack the Dark Chopper. While it was stunned, he used a Homing Attack to destroy it.

"Uh oh…" he grabbed the edge of the platform and struggled to pull himself up. Half of his body was in the water at the moment. "Blade! You better hurry up! I don't know how much I can hold onto this!"

"Hold on, I'm coming!" Blade grabbed the Palace Key that was in the chest and helped Sonic up.

"Blade… You didn't have to do that…"

"Oh… Well so much for that. Let's just get the hell out of here."

* * *

**Previous room-**

After being carried through the currents, they jumped out of the water through that exit that they couldn't go down before. Relieved to be out of the water, they headed back to the other room.

"Hopefully getting this key wet doesn't affect it in any way," Blade hoped as he tried drying the key with his breath. "And apparently breathing on it doesn't do much of a thing to it…"

"Dude, why are you even BREATHING on it?" Sonic asked, looking confused at Blade. "No one's gonna touch it when you have your breath on it!"

"It's not like I'm going to have it forever…" Blade walked up the stairs and looked over by the poles. "OK, so apparently I'm the only one to get up here… Maybe if I gave you a piggyback ride, I could get you up there?"

"That doesn't sound too comfy…"

"Well too bad. We need to get up here." Sonic rolled his eyes and got on Blade. He began to use his ninja jumps to land on top of the poles and make his way up to the door on the platform.

"All right, now I can get off," Sonic jumped off of Blade and landed on the platform right in front of the door. "Wherever this leads, it must lead to somewhere important."

They opened the door and entered an area that was outside of the palace. There were a couple of Dark Crabmeats walking on the black floor and shooting projectiles out of their claws. When they looked at the sky, they couldn't help but gaze at some of the stars.

"I can't believe Tipral has his own palace in SPACE!" Sonic gaped. "Is that something easy to do?"

"I have no clue," Blade answered as he sliced a Dark Crabmeat in half. "All that matters is that we find him and stop his plans. I mean, summon The Void back? That's VERY dangerous!"

"Yeah, we better get to that," Sonic curled up in a ball and used his Spin Dash to clear the way of all the enemies. When he got to the end of the path, he realized that there was a wall in their way. He tried to find a way up it, but there was no curve by the wall to help him go up to the ledge.

"Well that's nice. I can't get up here."

"You may not be able to, but I certainly can!" Blade pulled two kunais out and began to climb up the wall. "You can thank Ninbi for teaching me this! Too bad my senseai never did…"

"OK, but when you get up there, try to see if there's a way for me to get up there. You know I can't stay here forever."

"Got it," When Blade climbed to the top and grabbed the ledge, he noticed there was a white crack on the floor. Wondering what this was, he decided to jump and throw Hommissile down to it. To his surprise, the whole wall he climbed up blew up.

"HOLY… I just blew up a whole wall!" he gaped as he landed on the ground. Smoke rose from the air around him, but it just so happened that he revealed a door up ahead.

"There we go! There's the door!" Sonic ran past Blade, who nearly fell over, but managed to follow the blue hedgehog to the door. There was a yellow ? block that contained an Ultra Shroom, so they split it into two and ate it to recover 50 HP.

"It's nice that we don't get small pieces at this point," Blade smiled.

"You mean when we have to cut it into six or seven pieces for each of us so we can recover HP? Yeah, that is kind of nice."

Blade kicked the door open into a room with a staircase that reminded them of the stairs back in Castle Tipral. But it was not safe going up. They noticed two Dark Fire Bros. spitting dark fireballs down.

"So they're simply Fire Bros. with a darker color and black helmets…" Sonic trailed as he dodged some of the fireballs. "Well, I guess it's…interesting. But, yeah. This place isn't too different from Castle Tipral."

Sonic decided to attack the Dark Fire Bro. that was blocking the way with a Homing Attack. Blade helped out by hurling Hommissile at it as well and using Barry to deflect any fireballs coming close to him.

"These guys really don't underestimate us," Blade snickered.

"True," Sonic nodded as they climbed up the stairs and took down another Dark Fire Bro. They noticed that at the halfway point, there was a door right next to them. They decided to enter it to find themselves outside again.

"Hmmmmmm… Nothing interesting around here except for a Dark Motobug and a shining light coming from one of the stars…" Blade trailed. "Wait, shining light? Do you think something would happen if we used Reflecto on that?"

"You know, I think we should give it a little try," Sonic defeated the Dark Motobug with a simple Spin Jump and ran over to the light. He took Reflecto out and began to reflect the light on the gray spot on the wall. This ended up making a chest appear right in front of him.

"What's in that chest?" Blade asked.

"We'll find out," the blue hedgehog kicked the chest open to find a Star Shroom Shake. "Well… I guess this is better than nothing."

"Screw it. We're going back inside."

* * *

**Inside-**

"Well, we're back inside."

"Well duh. It said that we're inside…" Blade said, giving Sonic an irritated look. "Let's try to get our asses up here. We've got to take care of a few Dark Fire Bros. that are on these stairs too."

And so, they began to continue their way up the stairs, clearing the way of the Dark Fire Bros. blocking their way. After killing the last Dark Fire Bro. off with his katana, Blade reached the top of the staircase with Sonic.

"Man, I hope that's the last staircase we have to climb," Sonic sighed.

"If there are more, then I might have to strangle a pig…" Blade mumbled as he opened the door. To their surprise, they only saw another hallway, but they noticed that there was a large amount of dirt in the center of the floor. A Dark Crabmeat, a Dark Motobug, and a Dark Buzz Bomber were in this room.

"Man, this is just too easy! They really expect to think that we can't get past these guys?" Sonic grinned as he ran up to the Dark Crabmeat and attacked it with a Spin Jump. Blade ran past Sonic and sliced the Dark Motobug.

"Easy pickings," Blade smirked.

That is, until he got shot by the Dark Buzz Bomber's projectile.

"Damn… Well, it managed to hit me."

"Relax, I can handle this," Sonic ran past Blade and attacked the Dark Buzz Bomber with a Spin Jump. "Well, unfortunately I don't see a door up ahead. But this dirt might hint something…"

"Like what?"

"Remember back in that Sweet Kingdom? I was able to use Screwdy on some of the cake around…"

"The world where nearly everything was edible? Oh, yeah! That one! So, what are you planning on doing right now? Is this going to result in you disappearing like before?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'll be back." Sonic used Screwdy's corkscrew to drill through the dirt and land in a room below him. It wasn't big, but it had a large screw right next to him.

"Huh… Not too surprising."

He used Screwdy's corkscrew yet again to make the room shake. From what he heard, Blade could feel it when he yelled at him about the shaking. With that, he used another corkscrew, but on the spring this time to send him flying back up to the room where Blade was waiting impatiently.

"You heard that shaking, right?"

"Of course I did. I made it shake." Sonic said.

"Well that sure was a heck of a thing you pulled off. Anyway… A door just appeared in this room, so we should be able to move on now." Blade hurried over to the door and prepared to open it, but Sonic ran over to him first so they can walk into a hallway with strange meat hanging from the ceiling.

"Meat? What is this, a butcher shop?" Blade gawked as he noticed a couple of Biosparks charging straight for them. "Oh, boy! Looks like we've got company here!"

The ninja readied his katana and unleashed his Dragon Beam upon the Biosparks, sending them flying back. He then proceeded to slice the meat hanging from the ceiling in half. One of them had a Mushroom inside.

"We're…seriously going to eat that?" Sonic gaped.

"Well, it does heal our HP…" Blade trailed. "Or better yet, we can eat some of this meat here."

"Raw meat? Nah, I'm good."

"Well, suit yourself," Blade decided to bite into the meat to recover 10 HP, while Sonic simply ate the Mushroom to recover 10 HP. Surprisingly, it didn't taste bad. In fact, it had a good taste!

"All right, so what else is here?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing special. Just a door over there." Blade walked over to the door just up ahead and opened it. It led them outside once again, but they saw a fence in the background. To their left, they could see a red spring, and to their right, they saw a red ! block and a yellow spring on the wall.

"OK… I'll stay here while you hit that, Sonic!"

"I wonder if there's going to be some running here…" Sonic trailed as he ran over to the red ! block. He hit it with a Spin Jump, making the floor near blade move down like a slope to a new path. He used the yellow spring to get back over to him.

"Did you just see the floor shift down?" Blade asked.

"Uhhhh… Not really."

"Well, it happened. It looks like we can only go down by running down. But, since you're fast, I think you'll be the only one capable of getting through all of this crap."

"Well, I have an idea," Sonic grabbed Blade's arm and went over to the spring. He let it push him down the path going down and allowing him to gain some speed. The path soon turned to a loop which led over to a slope going up. They stopped right by a wall, but there was a platform moving up right next to them that they took to go up to a door sitting on a platform.

"I have no idea where this is going to lead us," Blade gawked.

Well, it ended up leading them inside the palace again, but this time they saw another staircase. This one only had two Biosparks on the first part of the staircase and two Dark Buzz Bombers over by the other.

"Well, we might as well go up," Blade readied his katana and finished off the two Biosparks with ease. "I wonder why enemies Kirby has faced in the past are in this sector of the palace."

"Beats me," Sonic shrugged as he used his speed to run up to the midpoint of the staircase. He used his Homing Attack to attack the two Dark Buzz Bombers that were firing projectiles.

"Hold on… Don't you see something up on the wall? It's kind of hard to see because of how dark this palace is, but I noticed that there were six screws…" Blade noticed. "I think I saw the first, fourth, and fifth one down. So, I suppose in some other room, you have to screw down on those. Hopefully you don't screw up!

"And here I thought I wouldn't have to hear any more bad puns…" Sonic face palmed.

"Oh, you know that they're awesome. Just watch out for Bang, though. He's always making such immature jokes, such as when I found a name called Hawk, he asked if his first name was Mike."

"…I think that's worse."

"Exactly! I had to keep duct tape over his mouth because of that! But, you know… Silence IS golden…but duct tape is silver."

"OK, let's just move on. Try to remember those screws, all right?" Sonic suggested.

"Got it!" Blade took out an empty scroll and began writing this down. With that, they went up to the door above them and entered a small room with, not too surprisingly, five screws.

"Well, better do what I have to do. You wrote the stuff down, right?"

"Yeah, I did," Blade showed him the scroll. It showed the first, fourth, and fifth screw down. Sonic gave him a nod and used Screwdy to bring the first, fourth, and fifth screw down.

This triggered a door to appear right next to them. They decided to head on through into a room with a wall in the way and some kind of barrel that appeared as if you could jump on it to move it down.

"Wait a second… I remember something like this…" Sonic pondered as he destroyed a Dark Crabmeat and ran over to the door. "This… This is that barrel back in Carnival Night! I remember it!"

"What's so bad about a barrel?"

"Oh, nothing really. I remember I spent a LONG time trying to figure this out. Apparently, you have to press up or down to move it. Kind of funny, isn't it? 'Cause you don't really use those buttons often!"

"I'm sorry, I don't get what you mean…"

"Forget it…" Sonic hit the yellow ? block right next to them, which contained an Ultimate Shroom. Blade sliced it in half to split it and allow them to recover 100 HP. Afterward, Blade hit the Save Block near them.

"All right, let's go," Blade followed Sonic onto the barrel and somehow made the barrel move up to the high ledge above them. A door happened to be there, so after jumping off the barrel, they entered the door.

* * *

**Next room-**

"Man… That sure was a lot to go through…" Sonic sighed as they walked out of the door. This was surprisingly a small room, but they noticed that there wasn't anything around here. "Great… I think we hit a dead end."

"Are you saying that Tipral's not around here?" Blade gawked.

"Yeah, I think there's nothing here. We might as well get out of…"

"_**GRARBLE!**_" the sound of that voice caused them to freeze and turn around. What they didn't notice in the room was a burly man who happened to be waiting for them to show up. When they looked back at the door, they noticed that it was barred.

"It's a trap!"

"Looks like yeh finally made it!" O'Chunks cackled. "But, look at this! Yer at a dead end 'ere!"

"Damn it!" Blade shouted. "We went through here for nothing, and we're trapped!"

"_What's going on?" _Chopper asked through his communicator. Sonic pulled it out to get in contact with him.

"We're at a dead end…but we ran into O'Chunks," Sonic sighed. "So apparently Tipral is nowhere to be seen around here."

"_Poyo… (Oh, boy… That's not good…)" _Kirby trailed.

Mario: _Try to persuade him to let you go._

"Uhhhhh… Did you leave that meat in the hallways of Tipral's Palace?" Blade asked.

"Meat? Great dancin' balloons! Why did I leave me meat there? !" O'Chunks gasped, but soon stomped the floor. "Well, I don't care anymore! I promised Tipral that I would stop yeh heroes, but I suppose takin' down two is better than nothin'!"

"Man, you never seem to learn, O'Chunks…" Sonic smirked. "You always think you're going to win, but you don't in the end!"

"Not to mention we've got some brand new moves to show ya!" Blade added, drawing his katana. "So, if you wanna come at us, you're more than welcome to!"

"All right, if it's a fight yeh want, then it's a fight you'll get!" O'Chunks shouted as he raised his arms. "_**LET'S CHUNK IT OUT!**_"

O'Chunks instantly charged straight at both Sonic and Blade, knocking them straight into the wall. He cackled as they fell on the ground and landed on their butts. He was about to attack again, but Sonic got up and hit him in the belly with a Spin Dash, knocking him back a little bit.

"You may have brawn, but we've got speed and agility!" Sonic smirked. "And, ya know… That's better than brawn."

"Well, we'll see about that!" O'Chunks growled as he started to rocket himself by using his strange farting to fly up. They looked up to see where the bearded man would be and jumped out of the way. When he landed headfirst, he tried pulling himself out.

"This gives me a chance!" Blade threw Hommissile at O'Chunks, leaving him covered in soot. Luckily, O'Chunks managed to get himself back up and back into action, but he couldn't help but notice a few things on them.

"Where'd yeh get those burn wounds from? Lemme guess, yeh heroes were fightin' someone?" O'Chunks asked.

"We were fighting a dark wizard, who was much stronger than you were," Blade explained. "So, chances are… We're going to be winning this fight."

However, from looking at his HP bar, he had about 300 HP, which was exactly how much Shade had in his final form. But this wasn't even Shade. It was O'Chunks; someone who never won against them!

"OK, I think we've got this," Blade smirked as he ran over to O'Chunks and used his agility to avoid his punch and slash at his arm with his katana, leaving a cut on his arm. But, it didn't do too much to stop him.

"'Tis only a scratch! I can still fight yeh!" O'Chunks grabbed a hold of Blade's legs and began to swing him around. Upno releasing him, Blade began to fly all over the place, hitting the ceiling and the floor until he fell flat on the ground.

And while that happened, O'Chunks did another stupid dance.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" Blade wheezed as he looked up at Sonic.

"I know what to do… Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fist and summoned a blue gust of wind to stop O'Chunks and damage him with the intense wind's power. This allowed Sonic to use a Light Speed Attack on him to attack him multiple times. What was nice was that the bearded warrior couldn't get him!

"Stop yer movin', quillhead! I ain't done with yeh just yet!" O'Chunks growled as he began to swing his arms around.

"Well, you're too slow, that's what!"

"Sonic… Don't say that ever again." Blade grumbled as he got back up, but soon got trampled when O'Chunks stepped on him and knocked Sonic to the wall with a powerful punch. Blade wheezed as he got up, but readied Barry once O'Chunks came for him.

"I dare you to hit me!"

O'Chunks shrugged and jumped in the air to attack him with his stomp attack. Blade put Barry up and defended himself from the attack, making the bearded warrior yelp. This allowed Blade to slash at him a couple of times with his katana.

"So, you had enough yet?"

"We just got started!" O'Chunks growled as he dodged Blade's shurikens. So, he decided to throw some kunais at him. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to do a thing when O'Chunks knocked one back with a punch.

"What the hell? ! How can you block a kunai with a PUNCH? !"

"Sometimes yeh never know what yeh can do!" O'Chunks grinned as he charged straight at Blade with his elbow in front. The ninja jumped over him and threw Hommissile at his back upon crashing into the wall.

"Well, looks like you did a good job with keeping him off guard," Sonic commented as he ran up to O'Chunks and struck him in the head with a Homing Attack. He performed a stylish move and even hurt O'Chunks when he tried to grab him.

"Nope! You can't do that! This badge here allows me to hurt anyone who tries to attack me while performing a stylish move!"

"Grrrrrr! Well let's see yeh counter this!" O'Chunks pulled out a can of beans and dumped them all in his mouth after opening it. He felt his stomach gurgle a bit as he swallowed them.

Knowing what was coming, Sonic and Blade brought their guard up to prepare themselves…for the worst.

"Time teh chunk yeh!" O'Chunks began to rocket his way to Sonic and Blade while farting out smelly gas that began to fog up the entire room. The two heroes coughed as O'Chunks rammed them into the wall.

"DUDE! This smells like…_beans_!" Blade wheezed.

"That's because he ate beans, Blade…" Sonic said.

O'Chunks finished his farting and felt a little exhausted. Even with the foggy clouds in the room, he couldn't see the heroes. However, for the duo, it was easy to track O'Chunks down because of the size of him and the sounds of his stomping.

"Ah-ha!" Sonic curled up in a ball and attacked O'Chunks with a Spin Dash to the stomach. Blade followed up by giving him a kick to the head and a slash to the back while landing stylishly.

"We're kicking his ass, that's for sure," Blade said as he whirled around to O'Chunks. Unfortunately, he ended up getting punched in the face by O'Chunks large fist, leaving a bruise on his cheek.

"Why are you even hurting an animal? That's animal abuse!"

"Well, yer me enemies! An' it be Tipral's orders anyway! If I don't listen teh 'im, then I won't get what 'e promised me!" O'Chunks explained as he picked up Blade and threw him at Sonic, knocking them both to the ground.

"Time it's time teh crush yeh both!" O'Chunks picked up a piece of the ground and threw it at the duo. Luckily, since they had time to get up, they got out of the way and attacked him at the same time.

"Heh heh heh! Now that's something!" Blade smirked.

O'Chunks turned around with an angry look as he jumped and stomped on Blade. Sonic was able to avoid the attack easily, but it help Blade, he used his Whirlwind attack to try to send O'Chunks flying.

Sadly, it didn't work.

"What? Aw, weak!" Sonic frowned.

However, it did keep O'Chunks off guard for a little while, allowing the blue hedgehog to curl up into a ball and hit him in the stomach with a Spin Dash. He was also able to save Blade as well.

"Whew… Thanks for the help, Sonic…" Blade wheezed as he quickly got up. "Now let's finish this guy. I don't know how much HP he has left, but we should be able to kick his ass easily when he's using brute force."

"…Can you lower the amount of swearing for a bit?" Sonic asked.

"Is there a problem with me swearing?"

"Actually, there kind of is… It's getting very tiring, in my eyes." While they began to argue, O'Chunks rocketed himself in the air with his gas and came down on the two headfirst.

"Gra ha ha ha! Now yer chunked!" O'Chunks grinned as he crossed his arms at the two dazed heroes. "Now teh finish yeh!"

"Oh, I don't think so…" Blade pulled out an Ultimate Shroom Shake and took a sip from it. Sonic took the next sip and crushed the can. He threw the can at O'Chunks's head and left him dazed.

"Now's our chance!" Sonic cried as he attacked O'Chunks with a Spin Jump and a Bounce Attack. Blade followed up by unleashing his Dragon Beam attack on the bearded warrior and sending him flying back.

"What in me mum's gravy? ! What kind o' attack was that? !" O'Chunks gaped as he got up. "Did yeh unleash a dragon upon me? !"

"More or less," Blade smiled.

"And now we're gonna wind it up a bit!" Sonic clenched his fist and used his Sonic Wind on O'Chunks once again. A blue gust of wind was enough to knock him over and allow Sonic to run up to him and use a Homing Attack.

"Urgh… So yeh healed yerselves an' now yer just gonna do all o' this teh me? !" O'Chunks wheezed as he grabbed Sonic by the legs and began to swing him around.

"Hey! You're the one that wanted to fight us, you hypocrite!"

"All right, I better do something," Blade tossed Hommissile at O'Chunks in order to get a good shot, but the bearded warrior was actually smart and put Sonic up, making him get hit by the explosion instead.

"Blade! You got me instead of him!" Sonic cried.

"Aw, crap! Sorry 'bout that, Sonic! That was an accident!"

"Heh heh heh!" O'Chunks grinned as he threw Sonic at Blade. Luckily, the ninja managed to jump out of the way and throw some shurikens at O'Chunks. Two of them got caught in his arms, but it didn't matter to him.

"What is he, invincible?"

"He shouldn't be…" Sonic trailed.

O'Chunks pulled the shurikens out and threw them against the wall. He charged at the two again, but they were smart and jumped out of the way. Blade tossed a couple of more shurikens at him, but they didn't do too much.

"Yeh know, from all o' that trainin', I was trained teh handle things like that!" O'Chunks informed as he grabbed Sonic by the legs and began to swing him around. Upon releasing him, the blue hedgehog began to fly all over the place. He began to dance afterward, allowing Blade to strike him with Hommissile.

"OW! What a cowardly move, yeh dirty cat! I thought ninjas were honorable?"

"I am honorable, but if I have to protect my own friends, then I have to do that," Blade hissed, leaving a cut on O'Chunks chest as he slashed at him. O'Chucks grinned as he grabbed a hold of him and tried to crush him.

But Blade ended up turning into a log instead.

"Wha…? 'Tis a fake? !"

"Ha HA!" Blade attacked O'Chunks from behind with a diving kick attack, leaving him off guard and allowing Sonic to attack him with a Homing Attack, followed by his Spin Dash. O'Chunks tried to catch the blue hedgehog, but his efforts were fruitless when Blade slashed his arm with his katana.

"Well, he's not lookin' too good. I suppose a couple of more attacks should finish him off, don't you agree?" Sonic asked.

"I definitely agree," Blade nodded.

However, O'Chunks pulled out the can of beans, opened it, and dumped it all in his mouth. He began to let out a large amount of gas that made him fly towards the two Mobians. They gaped and jumped out of the way before they could get in harm's way of O'Chunks's…gas.

"_Cough…hack…wheeze… _Why does his farts smell so bad? !" Blade grimaced.

"Don't ask me! Ask the one who did it!" Sonic coughed.

What made it worse was that they couldn't see what was around them. Well, they could see a little bit, but the whole room felt translucent from here. But, like before, they were able to hear O'Chunks's movement through the room.

"Now I 'ave the battle now!" O'Chunks cackled as he charged at the duo. Hearing him, they jumped out of the way and attacked him from behind. Sonic used his Sonic Wind to clear away the fart clouds and make it easier for them to see.

"Wha…? 'Ow'd yeh do that? !" O'Chunks gaped.

"Why don't you thank the rainbow near The Peaceness?" Sonic smirked. "All right, O'Chunks! You're goin' down now!"

"I like teh see yeh try!" O'Chunks knocked Sonic away with a powerful punch, making Blade fight back by readying his Dragon Beam.

"I can give you another Dragon Beam if you want," Blade warned as he got in a fighting stance. "And trust me. This is probably going to blow you away!"

"Then I'll take yeh down, Blade!" O'Chunks began to charge at Blade, but he wasn't fast enough. Blade was able to strike him straight in the chest with his Dragon Beam and make him cry out in pain.

"_**AAAAAAARGH! YEH GOT ME!**_"

O'Chunks was kneeling on the ground as usual as he was defeated. Sonic and Blade noticed all of the bruises and cuts left on him from the fight. They, too, were covered in bruises from O'Chunks's attacks, but not as much as him.

"I can't believe I lost again! An' this time it was against two people! Tipral gave me the power teh chunk yeh, but I failed?" O'Chunks coughed.

"We DID say that we got some abilities ourselves…" Blade informed as he put his katana away.

"Uh-huh," Sonic nodded. "Maybe joining Tipral was not such a good idea in the first place?"

"'EY! I respect 'im, yeh know! If it weren't fer 'im, I wouldn't 'ave been able teh get me chunks up a bit! Plus, 'e even promised me a new world when 'e'd summon The Void."

"That doesn't mean you should just join him!" Sonic frowned. "…But, I don't think we're going to knock some sense into ya. We're just going to head back."

When they turned around, they noticed that the barred door was no longer there. "Wait… Where's the door? !"

"What? The door's gone? !" O'Chunks gaped as he immediately got up. "Then… 'Ow are we going to get out o' 'ere? !"

"Wait, YOU didn't plan this? !" Blade gaped.

"Why would I do that? !" Before the Mobians could answer, they felt an earthquake from down below. They noticed part of the ground was cracking as well.

"_Hey, I hear something from one of your communicators…" _Luigi trailed. _"But I don't feel it!"_

"What? No one else is feeling anything?" Sonic gaped. "Then… What's going on here? !"

Before an answer could be given, the floor ripped apart and all three began to scream as they fell. At that point, everything went blank for them.

* * *

**Kirby-**

"Poyo? Poyo? ! (Uhhhh… Guys? Guys? !)" Kirby shouted through his communicator as he heard the earthquake coming from a communicator. "Poyo? (What's going on through there?)"

"_Kirby? Is that you?"_

"Poyo! (Yeah! It's me! For some reason, I just lost contact with both Sonic and Blade!)"

"_Really? Oh, boy… I guess you're not the only one…" _Chopper trailed.

Mario: _I can't get in contact with them either!_

"_What's going on? !" _Luigi cried. Everything suddenly grew silent for the moment. Nobody even dared to speak for a moment.

"Poyo… (I think they're gone…)" Kirby frowned.

"_No… They can't be gone!" _Chopper cried. _"Come on! Don't let this be like Castle Tipral all over again!"_

Kirby began to ponder for a minute. He wasn't too far in the area he went through after going through the third door. But, after about thirty seconds, he knew what he had to do.

"Poyo, (I'm going to keep going,)" he declared. "Poyo. (Sonic and Blade would want us to do that.)"

"_I think Kirby's right," _Blumiere agreed, hearing him through Chopper's communicator. _"If we were to stop right now, the whole universe would be put in grave danger. We can't just stop here."_

"_Ugh… I suppose we should do that." _Chopper groaned. _"I don't like leaving others behind, but we're in a dire situation here. I guess we should just move on forward from here."_

Kirby gave a nod and put his communicator away. He noticed at the end of the hallway, there was a Star Block waiting for him.

"Poyo? (What's a Star Block doing here?)" he asked himself. "Poyo? (Is this the end of my area already? I don't think that's entirely possible…)"

Despite this, he ran over to the Star Block and gave it a small punch. Now he felt how hitting a Star Block felt like.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Through the dangerous rooms of Tipral's Palace, Chopper and Co. were forced to move onward on their own through their own rooms of the palace. With Sonic and Blade gone, they knew things were going to get a little serious. Unfortunately, for Chopper, he ended up running into a dead end through his hallway. Mario and Luigi didn't find anything special. However, Kirby still moved onward the most, despite Sonic and Blade going missing. "Poyo… (There's no point in just standing around…)" the pink puffball trailed. "Poyo. (If we need to find Tipral immediately, then we better do it now.)" What lied ahead for Kirby?_

* * *

**Definitely one of the more interesting chapters in this story, in my opinion. At first, I wasn't sure what to do for this world, since I didn't want it to be completely like Chapter 8. But, then I came up with this idea, which, in my opinion, works a lot better than the other idea.**

**Stay tuned for more (unless you didn't like it)!  
**


	95. Showdown in the Basement

**CHAPTER 16-2**

**-Showdown in the Basement-**

With Sonic and Blade gone, or possible still alive, but missing, Kirby took a deep breath and continued his way through the hallway. There wasn't too much of importance around this hallway. He did see a couple of pictures on the walls with Tipral and other minions such as Mimi on them. He noticed through the hallway, there were also a couple of black Waddle Dee called Dark Waddle Dee, from Kirby's perspective, that is. Some light from the stars came through the window, making it a little easier to see.

"Poyo… (Well, looks like it's just me from here…)" Kirby trailed as he decided to stop. "Poyo. (At least Chopper, Mario, and Luigi are all fine, but both Sonic and Blade are no longer around.)"

He looked over at the Pixls with him. "Poyo? (And what about the Pixls that Sonic and Blade had with them? What will happen to those? They can't just be left in the palace or be destroyed!)"

The Pixls, looking confused, gave him a nod, since they couldn't understand what Kirby could say to him.

"_Hey, Kirby!" _Kirby stopped from hearing Chopper's voice through the communicator. He pulled it out to find Chopper was indeed contacting him. _"How is it going on over there for you?"_

"Poyo, (Well, nothing special,)" Kirby shrugged. "Poyo? (What about you? Have you found anything?)"

"_Nope. Nothing but a dead end where I am. I suppose I should just go back and help you, then?"_

Kirby gave him a nod, but his smiled soon faded when he heard something negative coming from him.

"_Huh? ! The door… It disappeared! Am I actually STUCK here? !" _the Star Warrior gaped, making Kirby gape as well.

"_Wait… Did you say that you're stuck in a room?" _Luigi gaped, now getting in contact with both Chopper and Kirby. _"Does that mean you're going to disappear just like Sonic and Blade? !"_

"_I don't know… It doesn't seem like anything bad is happening to me right now… I guess I went the wrong way, unfortunately. But, you guys still have some hope!" _Chopper assured. _"Now stop talking to me and keep going!"_

"Poyo, (Understood,)" Kirby gave him a nod and put his communicator away. He looked over at one of the mirrors in the hallway and looked at his reflection through it. Luckily, there wasn't any sign of Shadow Kirby.

Sighing in relief, he ran on ahead. The Dark Waddle Dee that were putting some pictures up noticed Kirby running in their direction and immediately got their spears out to attack. Kirby inhaled the first one and spat it at the second. Unfortunately, this didn't kill them off. What the pink puffball did, however, was duck and do a sliding kick that defeated both Dark Waddle Dee.

"Whoa… It's the hero that can eat stuff!" one Dark Waddle Dee gaped as it's arms began to tremble with the spear in its hands. Kirby pulled his Final Cutter out and defeated it with a couple of slashes.

He wished that there was an ability he could copy, but he was lucky when he found a red, limbless dragon enemy breathing fire out of its mouth called a Galbos sitting on the ground. He inhaled it and gained the Fire ability.

"Poyo! (This should do nicely!)" Kirby smiled as he turned into a fireball and began to plow through whatever was in his path. However, he stopped when he looked at one of the pictures of Mimi and Tipral.

"Poyo? (Is Tipral Mimi's girlfriend or something?)"

However, he remembered back in Merlee's Mansion that Mimi did have a crush on him, so he just simply moved on. Up ahead he noticed a Wheelie charging for him. He didn't seem to care about getting its ability, so he burnt it with his Fire Breath.

"Poyo, (Geez, being alone means that there's no one to talk to,)" Kirby realized as he stopped for a moment. "Poyo? (Is this really a good idea for me?)"

His thoughts were interrupted when he got hit by a Dark Waddle Doo's beam attack that it fired from its large eye. He responded by charging at it as a fireball and defeating it easily.

"_Oh, and Kirby…" _Chopper began as Kirby heard him through his communicator. _"If you find anything important, such as, say… Tipral, you should let us know. We could probably help you if we had a chance."_

"Poyo! (Got it!)"

He plowed through two more Dark Waddle Doo in his way until he reached the door with the dark purple trim and the dark star in the center. He opened it and found a room with a platform up above him and a Dark Sword Knight.

Even though the Dark Sword Knight had a nice ability, Kirby decided not to take the ability and instead burned it with his Fire Breath. He then made his way over to a door that was being blocked by a row of small star blocks.

"Poyo, (I know how to handle these,)" Kirby simply destroyed them with his Fire Breath and walked over to the door. To his surprise, however, he saw that there was a lock on the door.

He tried burning it with his Fire Breath, but that didn't help him at all. He even tried to use the flames on his head to burn it away too! Sadly, nothing seemed to work.

"Poyo…" Kirby frowned in disappointment and turned away from the door. However, he did see that the door resting on the platform was actually not locked. So, taking in some air, he floated up to the door and entered it to lead him outside.

Two platforms were right beside the door he walked out of, which happened to have two Dark Sir Kibbles standing on them and throwing their cutter blades. Kirby ignored them and walked on ahead to find a Dark Hammer Bro. throwing hammers straight at him.

The pink puffball rolled his eyes and used his Fire Breath to burn the Dark Hammer Bro. to ashes. However, he did notice a platform that seemed to be moving up just up ahead. He took it up to another platform that had a Dimensional Rift above him.

"Poyo? (What's this?)" Kirby used Flippay's ability on the Dimensional Rift to make a blue ! block appear. Upon hitting it, a door appeared right in front of him. So, he simply entered it into a small hallway.

What shocked him was that there were statues in this room. One seemed to be a statue of Tipral…made out of Rubees.

"Poyo… (I'm guessing Mimi made this…)" Kirby trailed as he walked past it. He also saw a statue of Mimi as well, proving that this was probably a room where Mimi put a lot of her stuff.

Kirby wanted to say another thing, but he noticed a black Boomboxer skipping around in the hallway. He wanted to go up to it, but he wasn't going to. He decided that it would be called a Dark Boomboxer, just be original.

Since floating over it wouldn't be a good idea, he decided to charge right at the Dark Boomboxer as a fireball. He wasn't able to defeat it, but he was able to get past it.

However, it started to fire sound waves from its headphones at Kirby. He removed his Fire ability and inhaled the Dark Boomboxer to gain the Mike ability. Perhaps this would be useful for later on?

Nevertheless, he walked over to the door up ahead and entered a small room with a couple of Dark Waddle Dee and Doo. They seemed ready to make their attack on Kirby, but he instantly pulled out a megaphone.

"POYO! (GET OUT OF HERE!)" Kirby yelled through the megaphone as they were all destroyed. Luckily, a chest was drawn at the end of the room for him to get a Palace Key.

"Poyo, (Now to go back to that door,)" he sighed as he backtracked all the way back to that one room.

* * *

**Room with locked door-**

With the key in his hands, Kirby unlocked the door into a small room with a row of spikes. Since he had Carrie to help him, he jumped on her and allowed the Pixl to carry him across the spikes and to the door.

"Poyo! (This is so easy!)" Kirby cheered until a Dark Waddle Doo hit him with a Beam attack, knocking his Mike ability away. When it hit the spikes, it was gone.

Filled with anger, Kirby grabbed the Dark Waddle Doo and threw it over to the spikes, defeating it instantly. However, this made him feel a little sorry for the Dark Waddle Doo due to his cheerful nature.

"Poyo… (Gee, now I feel a little guilty for doing that…)"

He then remembered that he defeated countless other enemies in ways worse than spikes, making him feel not as bad. Kirby moved on to the next room, which, surprisingly, only had a path moving down. Some small star blocks were in his way, so his Cartwheel was able to help him go down.

After slipping under some platforms, he noticed that there was a blue ! block that was too high to reach and a black pipe on the ceiling dropping black Squigs called Dark Squigs. They seemed to spit out dark projectiles at him.

But, it was no match for Kirby's inhaling. He simply swallowed it, but another Dark Squig came out of the pipe and landed in front of him, making him frustrated.

"Excuse me, hero… But maybe you could use my help to get that blue ! block that's up there." Thoreau informed, poking Kirby. "Believe me… I think you'll get to where you want!"

"Poyo… (Well, might as well give up a try…)" Kirby threw Thoreau at the Dark Squig and was now holding it up after he brought it over to him. He threw it at the blue ! block, making a door get drawn.

"See? Sometimes you just need someone to be a little handy!"

"Poyo… (Oh, no… More bad puns!)"

Despite this, he opened the door into another room. What surprised him at this point was a green Sword Knight standing in the small room. He was standing over by a blue ! block that happened to be in the room. Past him was a dead end.

"Hey, Kirby! It's me, Sword Knight! You know, one of Meta Knight's servants?" he spoke up, getting Kirby's attention. The pink puffball walked over to him immediately.

"Poyo? (Sword Knight? What are you doing here? …Or are you even Sword Knight?)" Kirby pondered as he looked at Meta Knight's servant. There didn't seem to be anything that showed that it was a disguise. Nothing at all.

"What? Are you implying that I'm not the real Sword Knight? Look, let me explain. Tipral came to Dream Land one day and abducted Meta Knight. I tried to find him, but sadly, I couldn't. He came back another day and abducted me into this palace! I've been trying to get out of here ever since…"

"Poyo, (Well, I can't really help you at the moment,)" Kirby said. "Poyo. (I'm trying to help stop Tipral from summoning the Chaos Heart and summoning The Void. I could probably help you after finding him, though.)"

"No, Kirby… You can't just leave me here…" Sword Knight gasped.

"Poyo! (I'm not going to leave you here!)"

"Really? Well, that's a relief… Luckily, I was able to find out where we can find Tipral. I discovered that this blue ! block can help us get to his exact location. I'll let you do the honors of hitting it, since you are the hero."

Kirby looked up at the blue ! block for a minute. Something seemed fishy here.

"Poyo? (Are you sure that you're really Sword Knight?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo… (This looks like some sort of trick…)"

"Trust me, Kirby. I'm not trying to trick you!" Sword assured. "All I want to do is help you stop Tipral. I mean, if you're not quick enough, then you'll probably end up failing your quest!"

"I don't trust this guy one bit!" Carrie spoke up.

"Why would he make us hit such a block, amore?" Flippay sang.

"My gut says not to listen to this guy," Thoreau informed.

Kirby pondered for a moment. There was no door past Sword Knight, so there was no way of continuing on. If he hit the blue ! block, chances are that he would end up falling into some sort of trap. He was definitely in a pickle here.

"Poyo, (Well, might as well do it,)" Kirby hit the blue ! block and was suddenly falling through the floor. As Sword Knight heard a loud thud, he began to laugh.

"Hee hee! I sure got you, Kirby! For the second time!" Sword Knight was surrounded by purple smoke as he turned into Mimi. She was wearing a hot pink dress with a light pink trim and a red heart in the center of her dress.

"So, how does it feel to be fooled a second time, meanie-head? That's what you get for trying to mess with Tippy!" she spat as she teleported out of the room.

* * *

**Basement-**

"Poyo… (Well, that didn't lead me anywhere except for a basement…)" Kirby moaned as he slowly rubbed his head. He got up and looked around him. He was in a small room with a cobweb at the corner of the ceiling to his left. He noticed a Shadow Boo was right behind him.

Luckily, he was able to turn around and take it down with his Final Cutter. Luckily, Shadow Boos didn't turn invisible when you faced them like normal Boos. They usually just attack you!

When he finished it off, he noticed that there was also a Rubee statue of Mimi and Tipral together. For some reason, it seemed as if Mimi made that without Tipral's permission. Despite being disgusted with it, he opened the door into a room with a small staircase going down to a door ahead.

"Poyo? (Why am I suddenly reminded of Merlee's Mansion?)" Kirby pondered as he walked down the stairs. A Dark Cherbil was waiting for him down there, but he inhaled it and spat it at the wall, destroying it.

"_Hey, Kirby! Are you there?" _Kirby took his communicator out and found Chopper contacting him.

"Poyo! (Hey, Chopper!)" he greeted. "Poyo! (Turns out Mimi disguised herself as Sword Knight to send me down in the basement…or that's what I think!)"

"_Mimi sent you down to the basement? Oh, boy… Is there any way you can get out of there? You think you could get to Tipral through the basement?"_

"Poyo, (From what I'm thinking, I don't think so,)" Kirby replied while shaking his head. "Poyo. (I guess the only thing I can do right now is explore the basement and find Mimi. Hopefully there's some leftover food for me here, though.)"

Kirby closed his communicator and entered the door just up ahead. He found himself in a hallway with a locked door up ahead and two other doors. Another Dark Boomboxer was in the room, along with a Dark Wheelie. He inhaled the Wheelie to gain the Wheel ability and ram the Dark Boomboxer in his wheel form.

"Poyo, (I don't need the Mike ability. Singing always bothers me.)" he said as he walked into the first door closest to him. He noticed a couple of platforms up above him leading up to a chest on the top platform. There were green Swoopers called Swampires flying around in the room that looked like they wanted to suck the HP out of him.

When one tried to fly down to Kirby, he rammed right into it as a wheel and used his Cartwheel to attack it afterward. He then grabbed it with Thoreau and threw the Swampire at another one that flew down. Needless to say, he was able to take down both easily.

"Poyo! (That's what happens when you try to suck away my HP!)" Kirby said boldly as he began to float up to the top platform. He found a Palace Key inside, which was just what he needed.

Knowing that he had to go, he left the room and decided to check the other room beside him. This room was much smaller and felt more like a closet with a couple of chests on the ground.

"Poyo? (Is this their pantry or something?)" he pondered as he found a couple of healing items inside, such as meat and vegetables. Though they looked bad, they only looked like they could heal 1 HP.

He simply shrugged and returned to the hallway to unlock the door that would lead him into the next room.

But, what caught him off guard was that he found himself in a maze. There were literally three other doors in the small room, with two of them sitting on a platform. Kirby sweat dropped as he stepped in the middle of the room.

"Poyo… (Oh, boy… This reminds me of Merlee's Mansion…)" Kirby groaned.

He looked around to see if there were any enemies. The only thing he caught sight of was a tear drop enemy called a Sparky bouncing around. Knowing of what abilities this thing was capable of, Kirby got rid of his Wheel ability and took the Plasma ability instead. His skin turned to a green tint and his feet were now an orange color, almost resembling Chopper a bit, except with the feet.

"Poyo! (This should be useful later on!)" the pink puffball smiled as he floated up to the platform over to the left to enter another similar room. However, there was a Darkling floating around here.

Using his Plasma ability, he simply used his spark attack to surround himself in a shield of electricity and electrocute the Darkling until it was finished. He wanted to see if there was anything here, but all he saw was a door to his left.

He entered that room to find a generator that didn't seem to be working. For some reason, it didn't have any electricity flowing through it.

"Poyo! (I got it!)" Kirby began to charge up some power in his ability and fired an intense plasma shot at the generator. Not only did it power it up, but it also made the rooms a bit easier to see.

That's when he took his communicator out to see how everyone else was doing.

"Poyo? (Guys, did you see anything different in your area of the castle?)"

"_Anything different? Not here…" _Chopper trailed. _"I'm trapped in this room, remember? I didn't see anything change."_

"_What did Kirby say?" _Luigi asked. Chopper simply translated for him to make things easier. _"Oh… Well, I didn't see any changes. Sorry, Kirby. Maybe it only affects your area?"_

Mario: _Nothing here…_

"Poyo… (Oh… Well, I guess it only affects my area then…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo. (I'll contact you guys when I find some more information. Maybe I might discover some interesting things down in the basement.)"

With that, he decided to go back to the door he took that brought him into this room and back at the beginning of this maze. This time, however, he took the top right door to see what lurked there.

"Poyo? (Another room that looks the same? Geez…)" Kirby noticed in the center of the room, there was another Rubee statue of Mimi, as if this was practically her own area of the palace.

When he jumped down to the floor, the Rubee statues began to move and fire Rubee shards at the puffball. He gaped as he surrounded himself in a spark shield to protect himself.

"Poyo? ! (The statue can move? !)"

When the Rubee statue of Mimi charged at Kirby, his spark barrier ended up shocking it and paralyzing it. With this, Kirby fired a couple of Plasma Needles at the Mimi statue and destroyed it.

"Poyo… (All right, let's see where I should go next…)" the pink puffball pondered as he looked over at the door to his right. He wasn't sure if he should walk to the one above him, so he took the lower right one.

This one apparently led him into a small hallway with Firebars hanging from the ceiling and ground. Unfortunately, since Chopper wasn't here, there was no way he could get past them in 3-D. He decided to wait for them to get at a certain angle so he could run past them.

"Poyo… (I can't be too slow here…)" he panted as he stopped and looked back at the Firebard. "Poyo… (Those things could burn me if I don't act fast enough…)"

He hit a yellow ? block that was close to him to find a Super Shroom pop out. Kirby simply ate the Mushroom to regain 20 HP. Since he had no one else with him, he was able to eat the entire thing.

"Poyo! (Eating the whole thing tasted pretty good!)" he squealed as he created another electric barrier around him with his fully charged plasma attack ready. Kirby didn't unleash it, but when he walked over to the next set of Firebars, he wasn't harmed.

He smiled as he reached the end of the hallway and found a Dark Waddle Doo holding a spear guarding it. He unleashed his Plasma Wave straight at it and destroyed it, allowing him to enter the next room.

"Poyo? (So, what's in this room anyway?)" Kirby asked as he entered the next room.

What he found was another Rubee statue, but this one resembled Tipral unlike the other one. It jumped off its pedestal and charged for the pink puffball. He was able to jump out of the way and strike it with a Plasma Needle, but it wasn't enough to kill off the Rubee Tipral.

At this point, Kirby knew that he probably wasn't going to find Tipral around here. All he could think of at the moment was a way to get out of the basement. The Rubee Tipral wasn't helping either.

He protected himself once again when the Rubee Tipral started to fire a Rubee shards at him. Luckily, he didn't get harmed by any of them.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby fired a Plasma Wave at the Rubee Tipral and managed to destroy it. "Poyo… (If this is a different version of Tipral, I wonder what fighting him for real would be like…)"

He pondered until he realized something. "…Poyo! (…Nah! We fought him before! I think taking him on should be just fine!)"

He walked over to the chest up ahead and opened it to find a Palace Key inside. Taking the key with him, he returned to the maze room with the other doors and decided to see which one he would take.

In the end, he floated up to the upper right door and entered it to find himself in the upper left door. In the center of the room was a Swampire flying around. It noticed Kirby and attempted to fly down.

However, when Kirby used a spark shield to guard himself, the Swampire was electrocuted and nearly paralyzed, allowing Kirby to finish it off with his Final Cutter ability.

He then jumped off the platform and landed on the ground. He checked the other three doors and pondered whether he should go into one to his right or one to his left.

"Poyo… (Should I take the bottom left door or the bottom right door…or should I take the upper right door…)" Kirby pondered as he looked over at the doors. In the end, he went through the bottom left door.

"Poyo? (Wait, what? I'm back in another room I was already in?)" the pink puffball groaned as he noticed he came out of a lower right door.

Unfortunately, he had to turn back because he was already in this room before. Instead, he went up to upper left door. There, he found another similar room, but this one had a Dark Longator, which was capable of stretching its head to the left or right (if you didn't remember).

He jumped down to the ground and waited for the Dark Longator to extend its head over to him. With his Plasma attack fully charged, Kirby fired a Plasma Wave at the enemy and drained the majority of its HP away.

"Poyo? ! (It's still alive? !)"

The Dark Longator smiled as it knocked Kirby back with its own head. It still made that weird noise that Kirby remembered from these guys from Planet Blobule. Instead, he surrounded himself in a spark shield and allowed the Dark Longator to extend its head at it and defeat it.

Since he came out of the upper right door, he decided that it would be interesting to go through the lower right door. To his surprise, it ended up taking him to a room with a staircase leading up.

"_What's wrong Kirby? You sound like you're excited…" _Chopper trailed as Kirby began to cheer at the sight of the stairs.

"Poyo! (I finally found the right way out of that annoying maze!)" Kirby cheered. "Poyo! (Now I can finally get through more important things in this area, such as getting out of here!)"

He climbed up the staircase, but noticed that there were Dark Waddle Doos with spears trying to jab him with them. The pink puffball avoided them and gave them a couple of Plasma Needles to help them out.

When he reached the midpoint of the staircase, he noticed another door. He decided to enter it into an area that seemed to have a fountain of Tipral holding up the Dark Star Scepter. His mouth had water flowing down into the fountain, which was a black color.

"Poyo? (Why's the water a black color?)" Kirby gawked.

He decided to see if there was anything important. He did notice a blue ! switch up on the scepter, but he couldn't necessarily reach it. The only option to getting that was to grab an enemy with Thoreau.

He checked the area for any enemies. He happened to spot a Dark Squig walking around near him. Kirby grabbed it with Thoreau and threw it up at the blue ! switch. A chest appeared for him, but when he opened it, there was only a Star Shroom Shake.

"Poyo… (Well, this is better than nothing…)" Kirby trailed as he put the shake away. "Poyo. (Might as well go back into the palace.)"

* * *

**Inside-**

When he went back in the castle, he began to make his way up the stairs while avoiding spears the Dark Waddle Dee were throwing and reached the top of the staircase. A lock happened to be on there, possibly to prevent Kirby from continuing on.

"Poyo? (Do they really think they can hold me back?)" Kirby smirked as he broke the lock off with the Palace Key he got in that one room in the basement.

When he entered the next room, he noticed that there was a ladder going down, but a couple of gray enemies with eyeballs called Flamers seemed to be making their way up the walls.

But, just as usual, Kirby put up a plasma shield to protect himself and began to climb down the ladder, shocking any of the Flamers near him. He simply smirked as he landed on the ground and encountered another Rubee Tipral.

"Poyo, (Well, I think I know what to do here,)" Kirby readied himself and fired a Plasma Wave at the Rubee Tipral. However, even though it took damage, it was able to fire some shards at him and strip him of his Plasma ability.

"Poyo! (No! My Plasma ability!)"

He tried to get a hold of it, but the Rubee Tipral destroyed it by firing shards at it. This nearly forced Kirby to eat one of the shards and gain a hold of the Needle ability, now with yellow skin and orange feet!

"Poyo… (OK… The Needle ability isn't so great, but I think I'm gonna have to use it…)" Kirby trailed as he fired needles from his helmet at the Rubee Tipral. Fortunately, there was no way that it could counter it, so it ended up getting defeated.

With that, he simply pressed on ahead through the hallway. Some spikes seemed to appear right in front of him at points, so he got on Carrie to make sure he could get through this place safely.

He got rid of his Needle ability and replaced it with the Sword ability when he found a Dark Blade Knight patrolling the area. To him, it would work just fine.

"Poyo, (I see the door just up ahead,)" Kirby smiled as he entered the door. He found a couple of platforms attached to a rope when he walked into the next room. He noticed that there was also a bottomless pit down below.

"_Hey, Kirby! Do you know where you are at the moment? I know you're in the basement, but can you give a little description?" _Chopper asked as Kirby heard him through the communicator.

"Poyo, (I can see a platform attached to a rope,)" Kirby informed, pulling his communicator out. "Poyo. (I think if I cut it, that platform's going to go, so I'm going to be wary about that.)"

When he saw a Flamer moving around the platform, Kirby simply fired a Sword Beam at the rope to cut it and send it plummeting into the bottomless pit. He then floated ov4er to the platform past that one to find a pink bird-like enemy called a Birdon flying around.

Even though he could use the Wing ability, he wanted to hold on to his sword, so he simply spun it and took care of the Birdon easily, allowing him to reach an upper platform that brought him to the end of this room.

"Poyo… (Wait… Is there anywhere else to go?)" Kirby gawked as he looked around. He looked up and noticed that there were more platforms. "Poyo! (Oh! There's some right there!)"

By taking in some air, the pink puffball began to float up to the platform above him. Two Dark Waddle Doo holding spears happened to be sitting on the platform, watching for anyone coming.

"Hey, I see someone coming up here!" the first Dark Waddle Doo warned. "Get your spears ready!"

"Got it!" the other Dark Waddle Doo prepared itself, but Kirby was able to knock the other back by letting out the puff of air he had left in him. This allowed Kirby to get on the platform and jab at the two enemies.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby cried as he repeatedly slashed at the two enemies and destroyed them in a flash.

He decided to move on ahead by floating up to the platform above him where a door was. There weren't any enemies, but upon entering the door, he found three paths to go above him. One had a couple of coins, another had enemies that were like an orange, round ball but with pointy ears called a Scarfy, and the other had a row of small star blocks in the way.

"Poyo? (How am I going to get through here?)" he pondered before getting his ability knocked away by a star-shaped enemy wearing a blue cape called a Starman. Knowing what he had to do, Kirby inhaled the Starman and gained the Hi-Jump ability.

He decided to take the path that the coins were, so he leaped up to the path to his left with his Hi-Jump ability and landed on a platform with a yellow ? block. A Mushroom happened to be in there, so no surprise on that.

Since he couldn't inhale with an ability on, he just grabbed the Mushroom and ate it whole to recover 10 HP.

"Poyo, (Better than nothing,)" Kirby said as he jumped up to a platform above him. He noticed that there was a Scarfy floating around the gap between the platform he was standing on and the one up ahead.

He simply flew over the Scarfy, but when his back was turned, the Scarfy's face changed to more of a Cyclops with large fangs that are sharp enough to bite through anything. It began to go after him without him knowing.

"Poyo… (Wait…)" Kirby turned around and noticed the Scarfy move on the platform. Its face looked exactly the same as what it had been before when he saw it.

"Poyo? (How'd that move?)"

He decided to take it out by leaping at it with his Hi-Jump attack and blowing it up. With that taken care of, he went over to the door just up ahead to find a small room. There was a Birdon in the room and two Rubee statues. One of Mimi and one of Tipral.

"Poyo! (I'm getting rid of this!)" Kirby dropped his Hi-Jump ability and inhaled the Birdon to gain the Wing ability. "Poyo. (I think this should help for now.)"

When the Rubee Mimi fired shards, Kirby flew over them and swooped down at it and rammed into it headfirst. He knocked it straight at the Rubee Tipral, making them shatter into small Rubee pieces.

"Poyo… (Now that was interesting…)" Kirby fluttered over to the door just up ahead and entered a room where he saw some familiar people doing some work that he remembered seeing before.

"Keep jumping, little fleas!" an Ackpow was flinging his whip at a couple of prisoners that Kirby remembered seeing back in Merlee's Mansion. In fact, they looked as if they were the same exact ones!"

"What's da matter? Getting all worn out?" he cackled as he hit one of the prisoners in the leg, making him screech in pain. They were apparently hitting blocks that had electricity stored inside. "Boss Mimi doesn't want this place to be dark! You all know that she hates the dark!"

At this point, Kirby pulled out his communicator.

"Poyo… (Chopper, bad news… I think Mimi brought in some of the prisoners from Merlee's Mansion here…)"

"_Wait… Really? ! Oh, geez… Why does she need to imprison people in the first place anyway?" _Chopper asked.

Mario: _Maybe because she's too lazy?_

"_That makes sense," _Luigi agreed.

"Poyo, (Well, I'm going to try to set these prisoners free,)" Kirby announced. "Poyo! (I'm tired of seeing these people get tortured! It's horrible!)"

He put his communicator away and flew over the prisoners and to the Ackpow whipping at the prisoners. When he looked up at the pink puffball, he nearly gaped.

"What the…! I remember someone like you before!" the Ackpow recalled. "You're that flea that worked in Merlee's Mansion a long time ago! What? You come here to work for Mimi again?"

"Poyo! (I don't think so!)" Kirby dove down and hit the Ackpow in the head, knocking him over. "Poyo! (I'm setting these guys free!)"

"Whoa… Did you just see that?" one prisoner gaped. "He just rammed into that person who was whipping us! What a trooper!"

"I'd sure like to get his autograph!" another prisoner said.

"Ugh… Wait until I tell Boss Mimi about this!" the Ackpow groaned as he slowly got up. "She sure will be mad when she finds out one of her old workers attacked me! That's pretty low for a prisoner like you!"

"Poyo, (I'm not a prisoner,)" Kirby retorted as he kicked the Ackpow in the stomach and fired a couple of feathers. The Ackpow screamed as he ran from the feathers and ran past the prisoners to escape.

"Wow… Well, I guess we're…free?" a prisoner gawked.

"Poyo, (Yes, you're free,)" Kirby nodded with a smile.

"Oh, boy! Now we don't have to worry about doing any more work!" a third prisoner cheered. "I gotta hand it to you, gerbil. I never knew you would be able to attack that person like that!"

"Maybe you can be our personal bodyguard!"

"Poyo… (Uhhh… I can't do that right now…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo… (I have to find someone named Tipral and stop him before it's too late…)"

"Uhhhh… What's he saying?" a prisoner whispered to another.

"I have no idea. I don't understand that language." he whispered back.

"Poyo… (Ugh… Well, I'm going I suppose…)" Kirby groaned as he began to walk away from the prisoners. They all looked at him with confused looks, but they decided to leave the room right away.

Upon entering the next room, Kirby noticed some stairs going down. Another thing he saw was dark grass on the floor. Why would there be something like that? There wasn't a door leading outside at all. There wasn't even a door!

Nevertheless, he walked down the stairs while avoiding a couple of Dark Waddle Dee in the process. He was able to dive down at a couple, but that was it. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed that there was a Save Block and yellow ? block. He decided to hit the yellow ? block first. An Ultimate Shroom happened to come out of there.

"Poyo! (Oh, boy!)" the pink puffball squealed as he ate the Ultimate Shroom to recover 100 HP. After hitting the Save Block, he moved on to the next room.

* * *

**Next room-**

Upon entering the next room, he noticed that it was rather small. There were a couple of windows in the room as well, but there wasn't anything else around.

"I've finally got you!"

"Poyo? (Wait… What?)" Kirby noticed Mimi standing in the center of the room, giving him a cocky look. He walked up to the green girl and gave her a glare. "Poyo? (Why are you smirking? I got out of your trap!)"

"Oh, you're so silly! I actually LET you come here on purpose! Wanna know why? You're at a dead end!" Mimi cackled. "That's right, dummy! There's no way you're going back!"

Kirby looked past her and noticed that there was no door. He gulped and attempted to turn back, but when Mimi snapped her finger (if she even has one), bars came down on the door and the windows, preventing him from escaping.

"Poyo? ! (I can't get out of here? !)" Kirby gaped.

"_What's wrong, Kirby?" _Chopper asked through the communicator.

"Poyo! (I found Mimi, but she trapped me in this room! I have nowhere else to go now!)"

"_It's almost like with O'Chunks… Kirby, I guess the only thing I can tell you to do is to just fight Mimi. She's trying to stop you, and you don't want that to happen. I think that's the only option."_

"Poyo? (Really?)"

"_Yeah, really."_

"Mimimimimimi! Looks like you have to deal with me then!" Mimi smirked. "And what makes it better is that none of your dumb friends are here to help you! Not even that pale green one!"

"Poyo, (Shut up,)" Kirby snapped. "Poyo. (We've managed to beat you even before you joined Tipral. Don't get too cocky with me. Heck, I BEAT you in your spider form in Castle Tipral!)"

"That may be true, but this time I've got better strategies to fight you! Remember when I surrounded myself in Rubees?"

"Poyo… (Yeah, and…?)"

"Well, how about I make it a little interesting!" Mimi surrounded herself in a couple of red Rubees. "You didn't fight me like this when we battled one-on-one! Now you're going to get it now!"

"Poyo! (Oh, I don't think so!)" Kirby flew up to Mimi and attempted to ram into her headfirst. However, the Rubees surrounding her ended up harming him instead and knocked him back.

"Poyo… (Dang… I just remembered that those Rubees protect her from getting hurt…)"

"Golly! Looks like someone realized something!" Mimi giggled as she fired a couple of Rubees down at Kirby. "Oh, and that hat you're wearing makes you look soooo dumb!"

Kirby growled and knocked the Rubees back by firing a couple of feathers at them. He tried flying at her again, but he couldn't even get close to her. His only option was to attack the Rubees surrounding her.

He fired a couple of feathers at her Rubees, which were able to knock her Rubees away. Some of the feathers even hurt her too, making her scream in pain.

"Ouchy! Why do you have to be so mean like that?" she cried, her eyes starting to water.

"Poyo, (You're not fooling me,)" Kirby retorted, flying straight for her. Mimi grinned and fired a Rubee upward, knocking Kirby to the ground and also knocking his Wing ability away.

"Let me help you with that!" she fired a Rubee at the yellow star bouncing around the room and shattered the star. "Now this should be a breeze for me!"

She flung a couple of Rubees at Kirby, but she forgot about his ability to inhale things. That's what Kirby did exactly. With them in his mouth, he spat them out at Mimi, sending her flying to the wall. She hissed in anger as she raised her stick arms to surround herself in a circle of Rubees.

"Well, you won't get me in the air now!"

From what Kirby noticed, Mimi had 275 HP overall, which is a lot compared to what she had before. He decided to try to fight back with his new abilities, like his Final Cutter. He pulled the blade out and slashed at her with it.

"Poyo? (Weren't expecting that, were you?)" Kirby smirked.

"How did you get something like that? !" Mimi gaped as she held her arm in pain. "Last time I remember, you didn't have a dumb ability like that!"

Kirby simply gave her a glare and attacked her when he had the chance with his Cartwheel attack. It left the psychotic girl off guard and even kept her from summoning more Rubees.

However, she ended up summoning fire Rubees at Kirby. However, he inhaled one of them and gained the Fire ability. At this point, he used his Fire Breath to deal some damage to the green girl.

"_I can't believe it! Already am I getting my butt kicked by him!" _Mimi thought as she fell to the ground. _"I gotta find a way to make this a little easier for me! Something that'll help me win this fight!"_

When she got up, a cloud of purple smoke surrounded her and transformed into Parakarry. "Luckily, I was able to copy your friend's identities and be able to transform into them!"

"Poyo? (All of them?)" Kirby gawked.

"All of them," Mimi swooped down while in a shell to send Kirby flying back to the wall. From what Kirby could see, Mimi's form of Parakarry was a darker color with red eyes instead of the normal black.

"Oh, and if that's not enough, then maybe this will be!" Mimi flew up to the ceiling and surrounded herself with fire Rubees while getting in her shell. At this point, the only thing Kirby could do was defend, so he brought his guard up and tried not to take the worst from her.

Luckily, when he defended himself, he didn't take too much damage. In fact, he took very little, which began to infuriate her a bit.

"I think I should change up a bit," she transformed herself into Bow instead and pulled her fan out. She used it to smack Kirby with it and make him spin around in a humorous fashion.

"Poyo… (Ow… That actually hurts…)" Kirby moaned.

"Mimimi! I never knew how much a smack would be so satisfying!" Mimi cackled as she turned invisible to prevent Kirby from ramming into her as a fireball. When she became visible, she tried to attack him with a Power Smack, but he managed to get into a fireball and hit her instead.

"Ouch! I thought ghosts couldn't get hurt by attacks!"

"Poyo, (Well, then you thought wrong,)" Kirby smirked.

"Ugh… Well, take this!" Mimi attempted to scare Kirby with Spook, but it didn't do much to him. "Wait… How come your not frozen in fear? That should've done SOMETHING!"

"Poyo! (I've seen scarier things than that! So, it would make sense for me to not be scared!" Kirby jumped up to Mimi and attacked with a flaming Cartwheel, knocking her to the wall. Out of anger, she transformed into C-2 Choppor instead.

"Let's see how this one works…" she aimed her arm gun at Kirby and fired a blast straight at him. The pink puffball ended up jumping out of the way and used a flaming Cartwheel to crash into her.

She growled and began to fly in the air with the jetpack on her back…er, head, if that's what it's on for C-2 Choppor. Nevertheless, she was able to fire a couple of missiles down at him to send him flying.

Unfortunately, for Kirby, this also got rid of his Fire ability.

"Mimimimimi! That's what happens when you try to hurt me!" Mimi cackled. "Now, let's see what this does…"

She ended up firing a paralyzed shot straight at Kirby, but he inhaled it instead and spat it at her, paralyzing her instead. Kirby instantly pulled his Final Cutter out and struck her with one swing.

"Poyo! (Not even transforming into Chopper's friends is going to stop me!)" Kirby declared before getting knocked back by a powerful laser attack.

"Oh, I'm sorry… Did you say that transforming into others won't stop you? Well, looks like that did, dummy-head!" Mimi smirked as she transformed back into herself. "I don't like being a robot anymore. I've got some better options!"

She surrounded herself with green Rubees with a poison scent coming from them and began to fly down towards Kirby. He gasped as he jumped out of the way. However, it didn't stop the psychotic girl from firing a poison Rubee at him, causing him to become poisoned.

"Poyo! (Ack! I'm poisoned!)" Kirby coughed.

"NYEAH!" Mimi began to fire a couple of poison Rubees down at Kirby while he was poisoned, but even then he had some strength to get out of harm's way. He even inhaled one and spat it at the Rubee shield surrounding her.

"I've got an idea!" she instantly flipped into 3-D so she couldn't get hurt by any of Kirby's attacks. "Mimimimimi! Now you can't hurt me!"

While she taunted the pink puffball, he pulled an Ultimate Shroom Shake out and recovered 100 HP and also cured himself of the poison on him. He started off by inhaling any poison Rubees left on her and waited for her to go into 2-D again.

Once she appeared, he instantly spat the Rubees at her, leaving her off guard for a couple of seconds. However, it didn't stop her from transforming into one of Chopper's friends. Someone such as Vivian.

"Poyo… (Uh oh… She turned into Vivian…)" Kirby gulped. "(Poyo… (Those fire powers can be deadly…)"

"I'm glad you realized that," Mimi sunk into the shadows and rose up in front of Kirby. With a single flaming punch, Kirby was left with a deadly burn. She giggled and prepared to use a Fiery Jinx.

Seeing this, Kirby gulped and put his guard up. The Fiery Jinx itself struck him, but since he was able to use his Defend ability, he took little damage and didn't get a longer burn effect on him.

"What? How come that didn't work? ! Ugh…" Mimi started to get a little frustrated and hurled a couple of fireballs at him instead. Kirby inhaled one to gain his Fire ability back, and he also rammed into her as a fireball.

This time, she tried something different. She stored up some fire power in her hands and unleashed a Fire Wall attack upon Kirby. But, as a fireball, he was able to go through the big wall of fire and hit Mimi instead.

"NYEAH!" she transformed into Heartsy and swung her hammer straight at Kirby's face, knocking him back.

"Poyo… (Great… Now you transformed into the girl that likes Chopper…)" Kirby groaned. "Poyo… (Wait… That's not bad at all. She's not as threatening as Vivian, that's for sure!)"

"Oh, yeah?" she charged at Kirby and gave him a punch to the face that nearly sent him flying to the wall, getting rid of his Fire ability in the process too.

"Poyo? (What the heck?)"

"Hee hee! Well, that turned out to be useful!" Mimi giggled as she gripped her hammer and slammed the ground, sending a pink wave straight at Kirby. He gulped and began to float over the wave, but it didn't stop Mimi from spinning her hammer and summoning a pink tornado at him.

Kirby, unfortunately, got stuck in the pink tornado and lost his Fire ability as well when he fell to the ground. Mimi simply slammed the ground with her hammer to make red hearts fall from the ceiling.

"Poyo? (Is she for real?)" Kirby gaped.

He simply used his Defend ability to keep himself from getting hurt by any of the hearts. However, he was able to inhale a heart and spit it at Mimi, knocking her to the wall and allowing Kirby to strike her with his Final Cutter.

"Ugh… Well, I'm not using this form. She's definitely not as cute as me, that's for sure!" she transformed into the last form, Flyer. This time, she was able to use Flyer's wind powers to blow Kirby back while firing a blast from the arm cannon he has with him straight at him.

"Poyo! (Whoa!)" Kirby inhaled the blast and spat it back at Mimi, knocking her back. She tried to fly over him, but he was easily able to strike her with his Final Cutter attack, leaving her completely off guard.

"Why is it so hard to use this form?" Mimi growled. "This is so stupid!"

"Poyo? (Maybe because you don't know how to use the abilities Flyer has?)" Kirby shrugged.

"…NYEAH!" Mimi transformed back into herself and surrounded herself with ice Rubees instead. She threw a couple down at Kirby, but he inhaled one of them to gain the Ice ability to prevent himself from freezing from the ice attacks.

"Poyo, (I have an idea,)" Kirby threw Thoreau over at one of the ice Rubees to pick it up and threw it straight at Mimi and her shield of ice Rubees. He managed to take down a couple and even hurt her in the process.

"Those transformations were completely useless," she whined. "How do you know about them?"

"Poyo, (I don't know much about Parakarry, Bow, and C-2 Choppor's abilities, but I sure do know about Vivian, Heartsy, and Flyer's abilities,)" Kirby informed, striking her with his Final Cutter and using his Ice Storm to leave her frozen.

"Poyo! (There! She's done!)"

Unfortunately, she wasn't. A fire Rubee was all Mimi needed to unfreeze herself and deal massive damage to Kirby with his Ice ability on. It didn't take away his ability, but it did leave him with another nasty burn.

"Thought I would be finished, right?" Mimi smirked as she fired fire Rubees at Kirby. He simply used his Ice Storm to freeze the Rubees and kick them at Mimi, leaving a couple of bruises on her face.

"Poyo! (Well, look at you! You are pretty bruised up, aren't you?)" Kirby smirked.

"Well I can say the same thing to you, meanie-face!" Mimi whined as she raised her arms and summoned poison Rubees to come down on him. He used his Defend to protect himself and froze the Rubees afterward. With a kick, he sent them flying at Mimi, leaving her off guard.

Despite being low on HP, Mimi wasn't going to stop here. She transformed into Flyer again and summoned a hurricane to blow him back and blast him with her arm cannon. It got rid of Kirby's ability, which she destroyed by blasting it.

"I'm getting a little used to this!"

When Kirby got up, she transformed into Heartsy and charged at him with her hammer. He jumped out of the way of her hammer and managed to kick her in the face, changing her back to Mimi.

"All right, that's it!" Mimi fired multiple types of Rubees at Kirby, but that wasn't going to stop him. He inhaled a bunch of them at once, making Mimi gulp as he spat a large star straight for her.

"Poyo! (That should do it!)" With a crash, he heard a scream coming from Mimi as she tried to fly up in the air to avoid it.

"_**OUCHIE!**_"

She kneeled down on the ground in pain as Kirby walked over to her. "How could you do this to such an innocent girl like myself? ! I never did anything to you!"

"Poyo? ! (Are you kidding me? !)" Kirby gaped in disgust. "Poyo! (You did a ton of stuff to us!)"

Mimi merely gave him a face as she got up, limping towards him. "But, it didn't really matter whether I beat you or not. All is going according to plan! Mimimimimi!"

"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby noticed Mimi's eyes widen as if she was going to turn into a spider. "Poyo… (No…)"

"However, I think it's time for phase two of this fight!" Mimi was about to crack her own neck, but when Kirby turned back, he noticed that the door was gone.

"Poyo? (What happened to the door?)"

"Wait, what?" Mimi stopped for a moment and looked at the door as well. "Huh? I… I never planned this out at all!"

"Poyo? (You didn't? Then who did?)"

"I have NO clue! Does this mean we're trapped in here forever? !"

"Poyo… (I… I don't know…)"

The two began to feel a violent tremor in the room, shocking them both. Mimi tried to escape by teleporting out, but it was too late. The whole wall began to rip off and space itself began to suck them out.

"Poyo! (I don't know why this is happening!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (But… I can't hold on any longer!)"

Both screamed as they were sucked into space. Everything suddenly went blank for them, as if they were gone.

* * *

**Mario-**

Mario gasped as he heard something coming from his communicator. He heard a violent tremor coming from it, but he couldn't feel it from the room he was in. From what he knew, it was coming from somewhere below.

However, after a certain amount of time, the tremor stopped, and it was silent.

Mario: Did you guys hear that?

"_Yeah… I heard a loud tremor coming from the communicator…" _Luigi said. _"Did any of you feel it?"_

Mario: Not me!

"_If it wasn't any of us, then it must've… Oh, no… Kirby!" _Chopper gasped as he tried to get his signal. _"Oh, it's no use… I can't get a hold of Kirby! I think something bad happened to him…"_

"_Wh-What? !" _Luigi gaped. _"S-So… It's just us three now? !"_

Mario: I think so…

"_Oh, man… Well, this isn't good. I can't do anything because I'm trapped in this room, and I don't know where you guys are at the moment. I guess… I guess one of you will be able to find Tipral." _Chopper sighed.

"_What's wrong, Chopper?" _Timpani asked through Chopper's communicator.

"_I was just hoping that being separated wouldn't end up like this. And now look what we've come to. There's just me, Mario, and Luigi. And now look at what happened to Kirby, Sonic, and Blade…"_

Mario: Hey! They might not be dead yet!

"_Maybe that's true… I mean, back in Castle Tipral, they weren't dead when they were lost within the castle. Maybe there's some hope! …But maybe there isn't."_

Mario: Look, I'll continue on and see if I can find Tipral.

"_I think you should do that, bro," _Luigi agreed. _"I mean, you're my bro! You can practically conquer anything!"_

Mario gave a nod and decided to move on ahead. He noticed at the end of the hallway that a Star Block was floating above. Knowing what he had to do, he struck the block with his fist.

Mario: Hopefully Tipral's through here…

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Not only were Sonic and Blade missing, but Kirby too disappeared without question. Chopper, feeling uncomfortable in the small room he was sitting in, decided to sleep for a bit. Mario, on the other hand, had the courage in him to continue on through the palace and find Tipral. "All right, this shouldn't be too tough to go through…" thought Mario as he slowly opened the door to his own area of the palace. Perhaps Tipral would be found through the second door of the five? Mario decided to check while stroking his mustache._

* * *

**My thoughts on the mini-boss? I thought it was very interesting. I mean, you never see Mimi use her shapeshifting powers to fight you in Super Paper Mario. I didn't want it to be a lot like the Mimi battle in the desert, so I added a little twist, and voila! And yes, I used the partners that were in Flipside.**

**Anyway... The next part is going to involve Mario! ...It might be another tough one because he doesn't really speak in the Paper Mario games (he just explains something through gestures or by moving his mouth without words coming out from the text). So... Be ready for some Mario next time.  
**


	96. The Hall of Smiles

**CHAPTER 16-3**

**-The Hall of Smiles-**

Mario took a deep breath as he stood in the long hallway that awaited him up ahead. From his perspective, it reminded him a bit of Castle Bleck (Tipral) three months back. But, now that he was making his way through the palace, he hoped to get a better look at what this place would be like. One thing for sure was that there was a lot of black and darkness. Some of the lanterns that were lit up had purple flames, but a black core in the flame.

All he could think was that this place was dark. Very dark.

"_Well, Tipral sure loves to decorate this place with a bunch of darkness… But, I suppose that kind of fits him, considering his is a dark being." _Mario thought as he took a couple of steps over to a small row of brick blocks. He could see a lot of enemies in this hallway, especially some Dark Goombas and Dark Koopa Troopas.

Mario: OK, so there are enemies I've seen before…

"_Hey, bro! How're you faring in your own area of the palace?" _From what Mario heard, that was Luigi speaking through the communicator. He pulled it out and saw Luigi's nose, making Mario gasp.

Mario: Why's your nose so close? !

"_Wait, what? It is?" _Luigi moved his head back, which let Mario see his own face. He sighed in relief. _"OK, I think I got it now. I tried contacting Chopper, but apparently I just heard snoring."_

Mario: If he's asleep, it's best to leave him be…

"_Yeah, I know that, bro. But, I was starting to wonder something… What if…neither of us end up finding Tipral through the doors we went in? Would that mean that none of these doors actually lead to him? That's something that's starting to worry me, and I know I can usually depend on you for some answers."_

Mario wasn't too surprised with him depending on him for answers. Usually in the Mushroom Kingdom, when Luigi couldn't do something, he would always go to him for help, which made him feel kind of bad, considering that his brother gets less attention from people in the Mushroom Kingdom than in The Peaceness.

"_Bro… I just hope the same thing doesn't happen to you just like with the other three… You wouldn't wanna know how devastated I would be if I lost my own brother!"_

Mario: I'd feel the same way if it happened to you, Luigi…

"_Well, if both of us end up in the same way as Kirby, Sonic, and Blade… Wouldn't that mean that we've failed? Chopper can't do anything now that he's stuck in a small room, and he's also sleeping too!" _Luigi began to sweat. _"Wait… No… I can't be scared. That's not right for me."_

Mario: Look, I'm going to move on ahead. You should look around in your area and see what you can find.

"_All right… You got it, bro!" _With that, Mario put his communicator away, took a deep breath, and began to look around in this hallway.

What was most important for him was that he should try not to go outside of this palace. Remembering the last time he did, he didn't want to have to suffocate again. What he did first thing was check the windows and made sure that they weren't open. Chances are that it would suck him in.

A Dark Goomba seemed to notice him doing this and instantly charged at Mario and gave him a headbonk. The red plumber rubbed his head and knocked the Dark Goomba away with a simple kick.

Mario: Headbonks are usually annoying…

However, another Dark Goomba joined in and attempted to attack Mario. He brought his hammer up to defend himself against the headbonk and bashed both Dark Goombas by spinning his hammer, sending them flying back. To be traditional, he finished them off with a jump attack.

He smirked as they dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake for him to take. He put it away and continued on through the hallway. A Dark Koopa noticed Mario coming closer and got in its shell to attack him.

Mario: Whoa!

Mario jumped in order to avoid the Koopa shell flying at him. But then he realized something that he had: his Super Ground Pound.

He jumped and performed his Super Ground Pound when the Dark Koopa came flying back at him after hitting the wall. It got caught in the shockwave Mario created and caused it to flip over.

"Help me, mommy!" it cried.

He gave it another Super Ground Pound attack, but this time, he struck him right on its belly, dealing even more damage than usual. Still, it was able to defeat the Dark Koopa and allow him to hurry on ahead.

"_Gee, I wonder if there are going to be more enemies related to the Mushroom Kingdom around here…" _Mario thought as he saw a Dark Paratroopa flying around in the hallway. He prepared himself as he dodged its attack and stomped on it to make it a normal Dark Koopa Troopa.

"Aw, you gotta be kidding me!" it cried. "Don't tell me you just destroyed my wings? ! Well, I guess I'm gonna have to teach ya a little lesson on not to get rid of my wings! YOU HEAR ME? !"

Mario face palmed as he used his hammer to fend off the Dark Koopa's shell. He also used Kickbrin to send it flying across the room. Two Dark Koopatrols noticed this and began to charge at the plumber.

"_Well this is nice…" _Mario sweat dropped as he began to use Piccolo's ability to make the two Dark Koopatrols fall asleep. This gave him the chance to strike one of the Koopatrols. However, it ended up waking it up upon hitting it, which wasn't necessarily the brightest idea.

"Oh, I'm gonna get you for waking me up like hat, punk!" the Dark Koopatrol began to charge at Mario with its spiky helmet, but he simply knocked the minion back with Kickbrin's kicking ability.

While it was knocked over, Mario jumped over the sleeping Dark Koopatrol and stomped on the Koopatrol on its back. With his Triple Jump attack, he was able to defeat it once and for all.

Mario: Not too hard, I suppose…

Unfortunately, he didn't see the Dark Koopa's shell flying back at him. It sent him flying back at the other Dark Koopatrol and made him get hurt from the spikes on the back of its shell.

Mario: _**YEOW!**_

The Dark Koopatrol woke up and noticed Mario right behind him. It punched him in the face and prepared to skewer him with the spike on its helmet. However, Mario managed to whip his hammer out and block the attack. He bashed it with his hammer and finished it off.

He simply gave a thumbs up as soon as he finished all of the enemies in the hallway, but he stopped when he heard some snoring coming from his communicator. Chopper, of course, was sleeping, and it was getting a little annoying.

Mario: Is there a mute button on here?

He checked for a mute button, which he ended up finding and used it to prevent himself from hearing Chopper's snoring. Sighing in relief, he walked on ahead while avoiding the Dark Koopa shell.

He sweat dropped and simply used his hammer to defeat the Dark Koopa so he wouldn't have to worry about nonstop. With that, he entered the door ahead into a room with a slope moving down and a couple of Dark Goombas walking up.

Mario: Well this should be easy!

He simply slid down the slope and knocked all the Dark Goombas walking up it off. When he reached the bottom, he noticed that there was a tall block in the way. A Dark Koopatrol was apparently guarding it from the other side.

"Sigh… I don't know why I always have to watch this thing…" the Dark Koopatrol sighed. "Sure, it could fall, but how am I supposed to prevent it from falling? It's so much bigger than me! There should've been a couple of other people with me to guard this!"

As much as Mario didn't want to do this, he had no other choice. He used Kickbrin to knock the block over and make it fall over the Dark Koopatrol. Mario jumped over it and sighed as he looked down at it.

But it also seemed to have an Ultimate Shroom Shake that it dropped.

Mario: How did the shake stay unharmed?

Well, aside from this, he grabbed the shake and put it away. He noticed that there were a couple of pictures on the walls of Tipral holding the Dark Star Scepter up. One even had one of him holding a Chaos Heart.

Mario: …Are we too late?

He seemed a bit surprised, but he clenched his fist and shook his head. That didn't look like the real Chaos Heart, that's for sure.

Mario readied his hammer, just in case if any enemy would ambush him. He DID happen to spot a couple of black Shy Guys called Dark Shy Guys scurrying around the room. He tried his best to sneak past them, but they spotted him and began to charge.

Mario: I don't think these are General Guy's Shy Guys…

Nevertheless, he used his Super Ground Pound to keep the Dark Shy Guys off guard. While stunned, he stomped on every one of them and left them to disintegrate into smoke. The door awaited him up ahead, so he simply entered it.

In the next room, he noticed a platform just above him and a ladder leading up to another platform. The door was apparently locked, but he saw a stump just up ahead that looked as if he could use his butt to hit it.

"_All right, I think I see what I have to do," _Mario thought as he walked over to the stump. With his Ground Pound, he was able to bring the stump into the ground and make a door get drawn.

Mario: Interesting…

He opened the door into a room with a couple of floating platforms that were over a large gap underneath. There didn't appear to be a bottomless pit down there, but there were Phantom Embers down there, that's for sure.

Mario: Oh, the joy of seeing familiar faces…

He tried his best not to fall off the platforms. When he landed on the first one, his eyes widened as he saw it descend slowly to the ground. He instantly jumped for the next one, but got hit by a Dark Paratroopa flying around. He brought his hammer out and defended the next attack.

Mario: If only I could get an easy hit on this…

Mario decided to jump when the Dark Paratroopa came swooping down. He ended up stomping on it and making it fall to the ground while flipped over. This gave Mario a chance to use his Super Ground Pound to finish it off.

With that, he jumped for the ledge up ahead and grabbed a hold of it. Using his strength, he was able to pull himself up. He noticed that there was a door up ahead, so he entered it into a room where he could see the outside part thanks to large windows.

"_What a strange room…" _Mario thought as he scratched the back of his head. He noticed that there was a picture of a large smile, which looked somewhat creepy. _"That smile looks familiar…"_

He tried his best to ignore it, but when he continued his way through the hallway, he saw a weird Dark Shy Guy with a mask that had a freaky grin. A grin that reminded him of…Fawful.

Mario: Fawful… I bet he's somewhere around here…

The Dark Fawful Guy noticed him making his way to the door up ahead and tried to stop him by charging at him. Mario simply stomped on its head a couple of times to defeat it while being stylish.

When he got to the door, he opened it, but it ended up bringing him outside, causing Mario's arms to flail around. That is, until he remembered something he had with him ever since he got taken out of Trinado's Castle.

The fish bowl.

He decided to put it on, allowing him to breathe in space somehow. What was also strange was that the gravity was the same as what it was like inside the palace. Nevertheless, he decided to jump on the moving platform leading over to a platform with a chest.

Mario: There's the chest! It must have the key!

He made one big leap over to the platform and then jumped over to the next one to open the chest. A Palace Key happened to be stored inside, much to his delight. He put it away and headed back inside while removing the fish bowl helmet.

However, he stopped when he saw a blue Mechawful called a Dark Mechawful roaming around in the room. When it spotted the red plumber, it instantly fired a purple ray straight at him.

Mario: Mama mia!

He ducked and allowed the ray to pass over him. The Dark Mechawful, frustrated, brought its metallic ball fist back and prepared to punch Mario. He tried to put it to sleep with Piccolo, but that didn't seem to do a thing.

So, he resorted to knocking it back with Kickbrin as soon as it charged at him. He sent it flying back across the room and almost caused one of the pictures to fall off. Mario sighed and readied his hammer as the Dark Mechawful got back up and began to wheel towards him.

Mario: I've only got one shot at this…

When the Dark Mechawful was close, Mario prepared for his attack and destroyed the Dark Mechawful's body with a powerful hammer attack. However, its head was able to detach itself from the exploding body and attempt to attack the plumber.

Luckily, Mario was able to avoid the lasers it fired and stomped on its head twice to destroy it.

Mario: Now to return to that one room.

* * *

**Room with locked door-**

With the Palace Key in his hands, Mario made his way over to the ladder and climbed up it onto the platform with the locked door. He inserted the Palace Key into the lock and unlocked the door.

When he entered the next room, he saw that there were red and blue platforms in the room. When he jumped, the platforms apparently flipped over and turned red while the blue ones disappeared.

Mario: What the…

He jumped again, and this time they changed to blue ones. He seemed rather confused about this, but he started to realize what was going on. If he jumped, the platforms would flip to another color. Nothing special.

"_I'll try and see if I can get through this…" _Mario thought as he jumped onto a red platform and then a blue one after the next jump. He simply did the same thing until he got off those platforms and reached a large block with something glowing on it. A Dark Fawful Guy was apparently guarding it.

Remembering something like this, Mario decided to play a tune from Piccolo and see what would happen. Not only did it make the Dark Fawful Guy fall asleep, but it also destroyed the block and revealed a door.

He decided to head through the door and see what lied ahead. Apparently he found a room with platforms going down to a path below him. Some Dark Fly Guys happened to be around this part, which could make things difficult for him.

Nevertheless, he jumped down the platforms and stomped on any Dark Fly Guy that was in his way. They dropped to the ground and were open for Mario to attack with a Super Ground Pound.

With that, he jumped to ground level and noticed that there was another Dark Mechawful in this room. Well that's just great, because these guys can be a huge pain for Mario to beat in a fight.

Mario: I wish I could put these guys to sleep…

Not only did he have that to deal with, but a Dark Fawful Guy was charging at him. He decided to knock it back with Kickbrin's ability and send it flying towards the Dark Mechawful to deal some damage.

However, the Dark Mechawful was able to charge at Mario and send him flying to the wall. The Dark Mechawful cackled in a robotic, Fawful-like voice as Mario slowly got up and gripped his hammer.

With his hammer ready, he ran straight at the Dark Mechawful and bashed it with his hammer. It took a couple of hits to destroy its body, but the head still remained. But, that one was pretty easy to take care of. With a couple of stomps, the Dark Mechawful's head was completely destroyed.

Mario: Well that takes care of that enemy.

He made his way over to the door ahead, but there was a Dark Koopatrol guarding the door. Readying his hammer, he bashed the Dark Koopatrol as soon as it began to charge straight for him.

"_This would be a lot easier if I had something that could protect me from getting hurt by spikes," _Mario thought as he used his special Ultra Hammer attack to send the Dark Koopatrol flying to the wall.

Mario tipped his hat as he walked over to the door and entered it. However, what shocked him was that the small hallway he was now in had a Metal Block in the way. A couple of Dark Bob-ombs with red eyes were also roaming around in the room.

Mario: Better not light those guys on fire…

He decided to stomp on them instead, which actually made their fuse light up. Using Kickbrin, he knocked one Dark Bob-omb into another, causing both of them to explode, to his delight.

Mario walked over to the Metal Block just up ahead and smashed it with his hammer, causing it to break into small pieces. What shocked, him, however, was that there was a large, purple Bob-omb called a Bob-ulk. When it noticed Mario, it instantly raised its defense by 3.

Mario: These guys were from Rogueport's Pit of 100 Trials!

Even though it was slow, it began to charge at the red plumber. He decided to jump on it a couple of times to take it out, but he noticed that its fuse was lit up, which could be deadly. What made it worse was that it raised its Attack by 9.

Mario gaped as he ran straight for the door. He instantly opened it and entered the next room, but he could hear a loud explosion from the other room. Breathing heavily, he stepped away from the door.

However, he was soon hit in the face by a hammer when he saw a staircase in front of him. He noticed that some of the pictures on the walls still had Fawful's freaky smile on them. The hammer he got hit by was thrown by a Dark Hammer Bro.

Mario: Well, looks like I have to climb some stairs now…

Mario began to climb up the stairs, but he also tried his best to avoid the hammers thrown by the Dark Hammer Bros. When one stopped throwing hammers for a minute, Mario took this time to strike the Dark Hammer Bro. and even use a Super Ground Pound to keep it off guard.

"Annoying plumber! You should learn to never mess with the Hammer Bros.!" the Dark Hammer Bro. snapped as it tried to hit Mario with another hammer. However, Mario's Ultra Hammer did the trick and defeated it.

Now that left another Dark Hammer Bro. left on the steps.

"_I gotta be a little quick here, or else I'm not going to get much of a chance to attack this guy," _Mario thought as he walked a couple of more steps up to the next Dark Hammer Bro. It continued to throw hammers, but then Mario realized something. He allowed his Pixl, Piccolo, to play a soothing melody that put the Dark Hammer Bro. to sleep.

Mario: Score!

He simply stomped on the Dark Hammer Bro., causing it to wake up. However, it didn't even have a chance to attack Mario when he bashed it a couple of times with his hammer. Afterward, he walked up to the midpoint of the staircase to find another Bob-ulk.

Mario: Uh oh…

What made it worse was that there was a Dark Fire Bro. spitting dark fireballs down the stairs. If one hit that Bob-ulk, then it would explode and deal some massive damage to Mario. So, he simply stomped on it, but that caused its fuse to light.

He decided to use Piccolo to play a soothing song again, which caused the Bob-ulk and Dark Fire Bro. to fall asleep. This allowed the plumber to climb up a couple of stairs and defeat the Fire Bro. before it could blow up the Bob-ulk. However, even then, the fuse on the Bob-ulk was still running.

Mario: This isn't good…

Mario moved as fast as he could up the stairs in order to avoid the upcoming explosion of the Bob-ulk. Luckily, he was able to escape the explosion and reach the top of the staircase, where a Dark Boomboxer awaited.

However, since these guys aren't too tough to hit, he simply stomped on the Dark Boomboxer a couple of times, considering that it has a lot of HP. But, after those stomps, the enemy was defeated and it allowed Mario to enter a small hallway with some weird Fawful statues and smiles on a couple of pictures.

Mario: This place gets weirder and weirder by the minute!

"Mario! Oh, Mario! Help me!" Mario instantly gaped as he heard that voice. One thing for sure was that it sounded familiar to him. But surprisingly, there was nobody else in this room.

Mario: Luigi, you there?

"_Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear," _Luigi responded. He suddenly heard the same voice that Mario heard. _"Hey… Isn't that Princess Peach calling for you? That voice sounds familiar!"_

Mario: Yeah! That does sound like Princess Peach!

"_You better go find her right now! She might be in trouble!"_

Mario gave him a determined nod and continued his way through the hallway. He didn't see any enemies, but when he reached the end of the hallway, he noticed a familiar face over by the door.

Princess Peach.

"Mario! You've finally come here to rescue me!" Peach swooned. However, Mario looked more confused than happy. "What's wrong, Mario? It looks like there's something bothering you."

Mario: How'd you get here?

"How did I get here? Well, Tipral teleported into the Mushroom Kingdom and brought me here as a hostage. I tried to get out, but I was somehow saved by some strange…magic."

Mario: Magic?

"Well, I'd rather not get into too much detail. I think we should go back home, where we belong. I hope there's some kind of portal in this palace that can help us get back home, don't you agree?"

However, Mario shook his head and explained to her that the whole universe is in danger if he doesn't keep moving now.

"Mario, I'm shocked! Usually you would come to my aid when I'm in danger! We need to go back immediately!"

"_Bro, what's going on?" _Luigi asked.

Mario: Peach wants me to take her back home!

"_Really? Why would she make you do that? Wouldn't she know that the whole universe is in danger if you don't move immediately? I don't know… Do you remember something like this before?"_

Mario: Two years ago…

"Well, Mario? Are we going to get going?" Peach asked, putting her hands on her hips. "You know I'm starting to get a little impatient now. I DEMAND that you lead me out of this palace right now!"

Mario: You're not the princess, aren't you?

"You… How dare you say that to me!" At this point, Peach's face started to turn red. "I can't believe you would do this to me! I swear when we get back, I'm going to make sure that you…"

She was interrupted when Mario bashed her in the head with his hammer.

"MARIO? ! Why… Why would you hurt me like that?" Peach gaped. Mario cringed once again as he brought his hammer down on her again. But this time, a cloud of smoke surrounded the princess and turned her into a gray Duplighost.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me! I swear that you would probably stop here and turn back!" the Dark Duplighost growled. "No matter… I suppose I can try to take you down myself!"

The Dark Duplighost flew up in the air and attempted to hit Mario by diving down at him headfirst. The plumber simply jumped out of the way and bashed the Duplighost with his hammer as soon as it fell to the ground.

"Ow… Stupid plumber…" the Dark Duplighost grumbled as it got up and tried to transform into Mario. He took action by stomping on the Dark Duplighost and leaving it off guard with a Super Ground Pound.

Mario: This should help me too.

Mario began to play a song with Piccolo's ability, causing the Dark Duplighost to fall asleep. He took this time to knock the Duplighost back with Kickbrin's kicking attack to finish it off. A key was dropped from its inventory, which Mario took.

He smiled as he entered into a room where he saw a wide platform above him that he couldn't jump over. However, there was a ladder just up ahead that could help him get up to the platform.

But, he soon noticed a barrel coming his way from down the ladder. Mario instantly jumped over the barrel and climbed up the ladder to get to the next platform. He heard someone stomping from above.

"I hear jumping," Midbus held up a barrel at the top of the room and prepared to throw it. On a small platform near him was a blue ! block. "Now you'll be squashed! Taste barrel!"

Mario: Uh oh…

He did a Triple Jump over the next barrel that was coming at him from the left and tried to run over to the ladder as fast as he could. When he climbed up to the second-to-last platform, he saw two barrels coming his way.

"_Wait, didn't I use my hammer to destroy these before?" _Mario thought as he dodged one of the barrels. He pulled his hammer out and destroyed one of the barrels with it. With a smirk, he got to the ladder while smashing the others and climbed up to the next level, where he saw Midbus over to the left.

"What? ! You made it? ! Now I strike!" Midbus attempted to strike Mario, but he jumped out of the way and got onto the platform with the blue ! switch. With a simple bash, the platforms below were destroyed and sent Midbus plummeting to the ground.

"Ow…"

Mario: Well that takes care of that!

He opened the door into a room where he saw a couple of tables with some enemies playing a game of cards. Notably, there were two Dark Koopatrols playing a game of not just cards…but Go Fish.

"So, ya have any twos on ya?" the first Dark Koopatrol asked.

"Go fish…_jerk_."

"Ummmmm… OK." the first Dark Koopatrol picked up a card from the deck before looking back at his opponent. "Wait, did you just call me a jerk before? I thought I heard you say something…"

"What? I didn't say anything! Honest!"

"OK then…" the first Koopatrol looked at his five cards and looked over back at the second Koopatrol. "So… May I ask you for a seven?"

"Nah."

"Oh, really?" the first Dark Koopatrol glared at his opponent before give him a punch to the face.

"What the heck was that for? !" the second Dark Koopatrol screamed.

"Dude, you already cheated in a game of War. There's no way you're going to be cheating in this game. Do you REALLY want to have a reputation of cheating throughout the palace? Tipral wouldn't be pleased!"

"When's that guy ever pleased? He never smiles! Ever!" the second Dark Koopatrol retorted. "I mean, all I hear from this guy is him wanting to kill Chopper and destroy the universe! Plus, I once heard him saying some person's name. I can't put my finger to it…"

"Yeah, I know that already. However, we're not really trying to talk about Tipral. We're playing a game of Go Fish, idiot. So, stop being such an ass and give me the seven that you lied to not having!"

"Whoa, strong language you're usin' there!" the first Dark Koopatrol got his seven from the other Koopatrol, but it still gave the second Dark Koopatrol a glare. "Whoa! No need to get like that!"

Mario looked rather confused at the two Dark Koopatrols, but he decided to look over at the windows. Apparently they too had creepy smiles. The floor had Tipral's head on it, but the eyes were replaced by Fawful's spiral glasses and his creepy grin.

Mario: I don't think Tipral would like something like that…

Nevertheless, he tried to get past the two Dark Koopatrols, but it ended up failing when they spotted Mario and attempted to skewer him with the spikes on their helmet. Luckily, Piccolo was able to play a song and put them to sleep.

"_Phew, that was too close," _he sighed as he bashed the first one with his hammer and knocked it straight at the other with Kickbrin. That only left the second Dark Koopatrol remaining.

"Dang it! …Well, at least I didn't lose the game!" the second Koopatrol charged at Mario, but soon met its demise when Mario bashed it with his hammer, leaving an Ultimate Shroom Shake as well.

Jumping over the table, he decided to check out what the two Dark Mechawfuls were doing at another table. They seemed to be carrying a large metal ball that they were throwing to one another.

Mario: Two Dark Mechawfuls… Not good.

The two Dark Mechawfuls noticed Mario's presence and fired a dark ray from their mouths at him. The red plumber ducked and noticed one of the Mechawfuls attempted to punch him.

He countered it by using Kickbrin to send it flying back to the other Dark Mechawful. Mario also pulled a Shooting Star out, since it would come in handy. He let some stars rain down on the two Dark Mechawfuls and destroy their bodies.

Mario: That reminds me of Starbow for some reason!

With their heads remaining, they attempted to charge at Mario. He simply jumped and stomped on their heads to destroy them. With that, he walked over to the door and made his way into a room with a ladder going down to a platform below.

Despite being confused, he climbed the ladder down to the platform to find a pink spinning enemy with spikes called a Spunia making its way straight for Mario. Even though he fought these things before, he wasn't expecting it to hit him that fast.

Mario: Mama mia!

With his hammer ready, Mario bashed the Spunia that was preparing to hit him once again. It wasn't fully finished, but when Mario struck it one last time, it disintegrated into smoke.

"_Hey, bro! How's it going with the palace so far?" _Luigi asked as Mario pulled his communicator out.

Mario: It's going well, I suppose.

"_Chopper's been sleeping for a long time. I think it's driving me nuts!"_

Mario: There's a little mute button you can use so you won't be able to hear him.

"_Oh, yeah," _Luigi put Chopper on mute and was now sighing in relief. _"Whew… Well, I guess that's better. Say… Do you ever wonder why Chopper and Tipral look so alike?"_

Mario: I wish I knew, but I don't.

"_Oh, well that's a little disappointing… Well, I didn't really expect you to know that anyway!" _This caused Mario to face palm, making Luigi sweat drop. _"Well, if you find anything important, go ahead and let me know, OK?"_

Mario gave him a nod and put his communicator away. He walked over to another ladder leading down to the ground this time. He noticed another Spunia that looked as if it was ready to attack Mario.

With his hammer ready, he bashed the Spunia that made a dash for him. While it was stunned, Mario allowed Piccolo to play a soothing song that put the Spunia to sleep, allowing him to defeat the enemy.

Up ahead he saw a door, so he used that to enter the next room. Once again, he saw a staircase, but there was a door at the midpoint, unlike the other room.

Even if this was a similar room, Mario started to climb up, even if there were Dark Fawful Guys on the steps.

Unfortunately, one of the Dark Fawful Guys took notice of Mario and attempted to attack him. The red plumber tried to dodge, but the Dark Fawful Guy was able to knock him down the stairs and back to the door.

Mario: Great… This might get annoying…

He got back on the steps and used Piccolo to put the Dark Fawful Guys to sleep before they could even attack. Mario then stomped on them and used a Super Ground Pound to finish them off.

He made his way up to the midpoint of the staircase, where he put on the fish bowl and entered a door that led him outside. He saw that there were a couple of Spunias, but what caught him off guard was three Dark Mechawfuls.

Mario: That's a lot of Dark Mechawfuls!

One of the Spunias noticed Mario and immediately charged at him. The plumber brought his hammer up and bashed the Spunia with ease. One of the Dark Mechawfuls tried to attack him, but he was able to knock it back to the other Dark Mechawfuls.

Mario: I wonder if I just did that.

He decided to continuously attack the Dark Mechawful with Kickbrin until it and the other two Dark Mechawfuls lost their bodies and had only a head remaining. Mario defeated the Spunia near him and finished off the heads with a stomp.

With them gone, he noticed that a door appeared right in front of him. However, this door was like the red door that he's seen before, but it was a darker version of it. Opening the door, he noticed that there was a bridge of brick blocks leading over to a platform made of stars ahead.

Mario: This is strange…

He stepped on the brick blocks and began to make his way over to the platform made of stars. Although he wondered why there was even a platform made of them, he jumped over to it and found a chest next to him.

"_Bro! Why am I suddenly getting a weird connection from you?" _Luigi asked as Mario pulled his communicator out. _"Did you go somewhere that's somewhat far out in the palace?"_

Mario: I don't think so…

"_Well, where are you then?"_

Mario: Near a chest with a key.

When Mario opened the chest, a Palace Key was revealed to be inside. He scooped it up and put it away for now. _"Well, I guess this should solve any problems with locked doors around here!"_

"_All right, I guess that's fine. Just try and be safe, OK, bro?"_

Mario: Same goes to you!

With the key in his hands, Mario took the time to return to the palace.

* * *

**Inside-**

Mario sighed in relief as he walked back inside the palace. He grabbed his fish bowl helmet and took it off and put it away for now. He looked up the stairs and saw a Dark Koopatrol up by the door.

Mario: Well, that's not too bad…

He decided to drink a Super Shroom Shake to recover some HP and made his way over to the Dark Koopatrol guarding the door. When it noticed Mario, it charged at him, but he used his hammer to counter it and finish it with a simple bash.

With it defeated, Mario unlocked the door right beside him and entered a hallway with two Dark Boomboxers and a Mechawful guarding the door up ahead. Mario simply stomped on one of the Dark Boomboxers to deal damage, but it ended up paralyzing him with a sound wave.

Mario: Ack! Not good!

Luckily, Piccolo was able to play a little song that got rid of the paralysis on him, allowing him to finish off the Dark Boomboxer with Kickbrin. The other Dark Boomboxer, however, wasn't finished yet.

The red plumber made a dash for the next one as it tried to hit him with its sound waves. Mario, on the other hand, did a heroic jump and stomped on the Dark Boomboxer. He quickly finished it off with a Ground Pound afterward.

Mario: That only leaves the Dark Mechawful…

He noticed that this one was a little different. Its dark blue body had a silver plating instead, showing that this is a superior version of the Dark Mechawful. From what he saw, it was a Dark Mechawful.5.

It wasn't any different to the normal Dark Mechawful. However, this one seemed to fire lasers like missiles down at our red plumber. He took action by skidding and bashing its body with his hammer.

Mario: It doesn't do too much…

The Dark Mechawful.5 cackled as it knocked Mario back with its powerful cannon-shaped fist. A timer appeared on its body, starting from the number three. It fired a dark ray straight for him, but he was able to duck under it.

"_Come here, robot!" _Mario thought as he had his hammer ready to strike. When the Dark Mechawful.5 got close enough, he bashed it with his hammer, jumped on it, and finished it with a Super Ground Pound.

With that out of the way, he hit the Save Block next to him and entered the door into a room with a bridge with a blue ! switch at the end. However, he noticed someone else standing on the bridge.

"You. Leave. Now." Midbus was blocking Mario's way, ready to throw something at him. "So, you made it this far. Now this is where it ends!"

Mario: I don't think so!

"Then take this!" Midbus picked up a large amount of trash and threw it at Mario. He countered it by using Kickbrin to send it back at him and leave him off guard for a couple of seconds.

Mario attempted to run past Midbus, but he managed to get out of dizziness and punch him. But, due to him being smaller than the boar, he was able to jump and stomp on his head.

"Stop!" Midbus growled before noticing that Mario just hit the blue ! switch. "This…isn't good."

The bridge got demolished and Midbus was sent plummeting to his doom. Mario smirked and entered the door into a small room with a Fawful statue and a yellow ? block right beside the door.

Mario: How convenient!

He punched the yellow ? block and attained an Ultimate Shroom. With his HP recovered by 100, he immediately entered the room through the door.

* * *

**Next room-**

When Mario entered the next room, he noticed that there was no door at the end. In fact, it seemed if this was a dead end!

Mario: Uh oh… Is this a dead end?

"_**I HAVE FURY!**_" boomed a loud, yet childish voice that Mario seemed to hear in the middle of the room. Fawful was standing there, giving him his same creepy grin, despite sounding angry.

Mario instantly got in a fighting stance, while Fawful continued to boast.

"How did Midbus have the failing? The crushing of the red mustache was supposed to occur! Fawful hates you so much that my fury has had doubled!"

Mario turned around, but the door he just came out of was barred.

"You are not having the leaving!" Fawful cackled as Mario's eyes widened. "So you have shock, do you not? You have been lured into Fawful's trap like a horse who wants its cheese!"

Mario: What?

"Grrrrgh! Fawful had thought you would be thrown out of here like a monkey who can't stand tacos! However, Fawful is not unhappy for luring you into my trap!"

Mario was still confused with the bean.

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Fawful is telling you that Tipral's plans are having the smoothness! And soon, with you out of the way, mustache… We shall have succeeding! The Void will swallow all dimensions like a person drinking from a straw!"

Mario: I'm not going to let that happen!

"_Bro, who's that I'm hearing through the communicator?" _Luigi asked.

Mario: Fawful…

"_Oh, boy…"_

"Come at me, mustache! I will show you the fury of Fawful!" Fawful grinned as he took his blaster out and aimed it at him. "My fury has doubled since the last time we had the meeting!"

Fawful fired a laser straight at Mario, but he was able to jump out of the way and look back at the laser that hit the wall. There was smoke coming straight out of the wall, which wasn't too surprising.

When Mario turned around, he saw Fawful put on his Headgear and fired a blast from the mouth part at him. Mario, however, was able to throw it back at him by whacking at it with his hammer.

Fawful attempted to attack the plumber again, but when he got hit in the face by Mario's hammer, he changed his blaster to his laser sword and attempted to strike Mario. But, his Ultra Hammer attack was able to keep him off guard.

Mario: Take this!

With his boot in Fawful's face, the psychotic bean was thrown to the wall and left dazed. Mario rushed at him once again and stomped on his head to deal a little more damage. However, even then, Fawful was able to grab a hold of his foot and pull him to the ground, allowing him to strike Mario with his laser sword.

"You may have the better jump, but I have more fury!" Fawful spat as he flew in the air with his Headgear and attempted to suck Mario in with its ability to inhale like a vacuum (like Chopper and Kirby). However, Mario stood his ground and managed to get away from the Headgear's ability.

"You are not having the getting away, fink-rat!"

Fawful fired a red blast from his Headgear straight at Mario. It hit him, but it didn't stop the plumber from getting back up and used Kickbrin to send Fawful flying back to the wall.

However, the beanish child got himself up (yet again) and flew up in the air again. This time, he began to fire rapid shots down at Mario with his blaster and even fired a red beam down at him too.

"I HAVE FURY!" Fawful cackled as Mario ran over to the corner of the room. Luckily, the beam was unable to hit him from there, which got on Fawful's nerves a bit. When he retreated to the ground, Mario ran up to him and attacked him with his Triple Jump.

Mario: Well this seems to be working!

Fawful managed to make Mario trip as soon as he landed on the ground and struck him with a red beam from his Headgear, leaving Mario's clothes battered up. However, that didn't stop him from striking Fawful with his hammer.

"_I wonder… Would Piccolo work against Fawful?" _Mario thought as he tried to play a song with Piccolo. However, Fawful got to him first and struck him with a green blast from his Headgear.

"Time to relinquish your fury!" Fawful shouted as he prepared to charge up a laser. But, since this left him open, Mario jumped over to him and attacked him with a Super Ground Pound.

As Fawful fell to the ground, Mario smirked and walked over to him, knowing that he was defeated already. But, Fawful gave him a freaky grin and managed to ram into him headfirst and knock him to the ground.

Mario: I expected that…

He quickly got up and tried to use Piccolo again on Fawful. Piccolo's soothing song got to Fawful's ears (if he even has any), but the song didn't seem to have an effect on him. It just left Mario open to get hit.

"I have chortles! The soothing song of napping will not have the working on Fawful!" Fawful cackled as he struck Mario with a blast from his Headgear. Mario quickly got up and brought his hammer in front of him to defend against another blast coming from Fawful.

Mario: This isn't working…

"Have some of this, fink-rat!" Fawful's Headgear fired multiple pellets at Mario, who proceeded to block the projectiles with his hammer. After they were gone, he gripped his hammer and bashed Fawful in the head yet again.

"Ouch! I have pain!"

Fawful shot more lasers from his blaster at Mario, who ended up getting hit by at least two of them. Despite this, he tried to fight back by using one of his own items, like a Thunder Rage that he had in his inventory.

"A Thunder Rage? Something like that is as worthless as your mustache!" Fawful scoffed before getting struck by lightning from above. It still did enough damage, but it wasn't enough to defeat him.

Mario: It's going to take a lot, I see…

From what Mario noticed, Fawful had about 280 HP from the start of this fight and an Attack of 15. Luckily, he doesn't have that much HP anymore, but what Fawful did that baffled him was that the mouth of the device connected to the chandelier on the ceiling and allowed him to swing straight at Mario.

In retaliation, however, Mario managed to counter Fawful by swing his hammer at him, sending him flying back. Fawful simply swung back at him again, with Mario doing the same thing.

Giggling like a psycho, Fawful swung right behind Mario and knocked him to the ground. His Headgear detached from the chandelier and proceeded to charge up an attack to hit Mario.

Mario: Oh no you don't!

Mario got himself up and punched Fawful in the stomach, preventing him from even making another move on him. He also stomped on his head to keep Fawful dazed for a little bit.

Mario: I guess this is my chance.

However, Fawful giggled and flew above Mario while dropping his own bombs down on him. They had Fawful's face on them, and when one hit Mario, he was instantly put to sleep.

"I have chortles!" Fawful laughed as his Headgear aimed at Mario. "Fawful's bombs are succeeding!

Fawful, in the meantime, attacked Mario by letting his Headgear attach to the chandelier and swung at Mario, waking him up and also making him fall over. The plumber quickly got up and readied his hammer.

Mario: I gotta be careful next time!

When Fawful swung himself at Mario again, he got hit by his hammer, sending him flying to the wall. Mario proceeded to run over to him and land a Triple Jump on his head.

"Guh… Not bad! However, Fawful still has the bombing!" Fawful flew up again and dropped a couple of bombs. Mario grabbed one of the Fawful Bombs and threw it back at Fawful before it could explode. It put the bean to sleep and also made him crash to the floor.

Mario: Well that was pretty easy!

He ran over to him and attacked with a Super Ground Pound, waking up the psychotic bean child. But, it didn't stop Mario from striking him with his hammer afterward, giving him more of an advantage.

"How are you having the advantage? !" Fawful gawked as he tried to strike him with his laser sword, but failed because of Mario's stomp attack. "Fawful wanted to have victory, not defeat!"

Mario: Well I'm not letting myself down!

Mario attempted to stomp on Fawful again, but Fawful was faster and managed to strike him with his laser sword. This left Mario's HP rather low, so he used his hammer to knock him back.

He pulled an Ultimate Shroom Shake out and drank it to recover 100 HP. He also threw it at Fawful to leave him dazed. With a Super Ground Pound, Mario was able to deal some massive damage.

"You will not have victory, fink-rat!" Fawful spat as his Headgear charged up a beam that engulfed Mario and left him flying to the wall. Fawful also flew over to him and managed to kick him in the face too.

"Ever since you had part of the murdering of Cackletta, Fawful has had rage! Now I will have vengeance!"

Mario: Then why do you attack the others if you want me?

"You all have had the thwarting of Fawful's plans. Cackletta's soul was diminished like a feast in five seconds by the antenna! Now Fawful will have the paybacking now!"

Mario: You still don't make sense…

Even still, Fawful flew up in the air and threw Fawful Bombs down at Mario. He noticed when they exploded, ice seemed to come out. He barely escaped one of them, but he managed to throw one back at Fawful.

"I have intelligence!" Fawful shouted as he whacked the bomb away from him, making it explode in between the two.

Mario: Well, nothing happened there…

"Fawful suggests that we duke it out without the bombing," Fawful took off his Headgear and gave a large grin as he fired lasers from his blaster. "Now the battle for the mustard of your doom begins!"

Mario tried to get a hold of Fawful, but without the Headgear, he was able to move a lot faster than before, which got Mario annoyed a bit, but he was able to get one attack on him with his Ultra Hammer attack.

He also was able to use his Super Ground Pound to send Fawful flying up with the massive shockwave when he landed on the ground. This gave him the opportunity to stomp on Fawful and perform some stylish moves.

"Don't think Fawful has had giving up yet!" Fawful said as he changed his blaster to his laser sword and proceeded to charge at the plumber, who ducked from one of the swings, but got hurt by the next.

"_I gotta use some more items in this fight…" _Mario thought as he looked at what items he had. He did have a Thwomp item that he and the others got while traveling, so he decided to use that.

The Thwomp instantly appeared over Fawful and fell on top of him, squishing him. When it disappeared, Mario looked down at Fawful's battered up cloaked and cracked glasses.

"This fight…is far from over, mustache," Fawful wheezed as he got up and fired a charge laser at Mario, making him cringe in pain. "Nyeah heh heh heh! So, how does it feel, Mario? ! The fury within you must be diminishing and transforming into death!"

Mario: Never…

Mario gripped his hammer and used it to block one of Fawful's lasers. He ran up to him and bashed him in the head yet again, but he began to spin his hammer around this time to leave a couple of bruises on his face.

He was about to swing again, but Fawful managed to jump out of the way and appear on top of Mario. He proceeded to punch his head repeatedly until Mario tried to whack him with his hammer. The beanish child jumped up and allowed Mario to hit himself with his hammer instead.

"Nyeah heh heh heh!" Fawful taunted as he struck him with his laser sword. "You seem to underestimate Fawful!"

Mario: That may be true…

But even then, Mario still had the upper hand in this fight. Not only did he have higher HP than Fawful right now, but his attacks were capable of leaving him off guard for a couple of seconds.

When he used his Super Ground Pound, the shockwave sent Fawful flying up, allowing Mario to attack him with Kickbrin. When Fawful hit the wall, he pushed himself away and tackled Mario as soon as he got close.

"I HAVE INSANITY!" Fawful aimed his blaster at Mario and prepared to fire a charged attack on him. Mario tried punching him, but it wasn't stopping him from attempting to kill him.

"Have the trying, but you'll have the failing in the end!"

Mario: I don't think so!

Mario grabbed Fawful's shoulders and threw him over to his right, getting up in the process. He only had one shot at finishing him off with this move, so he charged at him and prepared to jump.

But Fawful fired a charged laser in the process…

However, even then, Mario was able to jump over it and land one final stomp on Fawful's head, knocking him to the ground.

"_**NYAAAARGH!**_"

Mario: And that's a rap!

When he walked over to Fawful, he noticed that he was raising his head up to Mario, yet he was still grinning. "You may…have had the defeating of…Fawful… But, whether you had victory or not…didn't matter."

Mario: And why is that?

Before Fawful could answer, the whole room began to shake violently.

Mario: Wait, didn't this happen to Sonic, Blade, and Kirby? !

"What is happening? !" Fawful gaped as he noticed the bars on the door broke off and opened. However, instead of the previous room, they saw space itself trying to suck them in.

Mario: Mama mia! This isn't good!

"Since when did the room before have the looking of this?"

Both Fawful and Mario were being sucked out of the palace, with Mario trying to hold on for his lift to the floor. But, with Fawful coming close, he lost his grip and was now being sucked out of the palace.

Just then, everything went blank.

* * *

**Luigi-**

"Bro? BRO? ! Can you hear me, bro? !" Luigi cried as he heard a tremor from the communicator. "Come on, bro… Don't go off like the others!"

Luigi continued to try to get a hold of him, but it was no use. He ended up losing his signal. He sighed and left his head to hang low in sadness.

"Oh, man… I can't believe it… I lost my bro. The one who's always been out there to help me…"

"_Luigi, are you still there?" _Luigi's head rose and noticed that Chopper was talking to him on the communicator.

"Wait… How are you communicating with me when I had you on mute?"

"_You had me on mute?"_

"Uhh… Never mind that!"

"_Ummmmm… OK…" _Chopper frowned while pondering. _"When I just woke up, I somehow lost my signal to Mario. Did you lose it too?"_

Luigi slowly nodded.

"_So I wake up to find out that another one of our friends are gone? ! This… This has to be some kind of joke! That means it's only us two!"_

"I know…" Luigi agreed. "Look, as much as I don't want to do this, I'm going to continue my way through here. That's what my bro would want me to do…"

"_Yeah, I don't think there's much of a choice now… Since I'm trapped here, I think it's all up to you to find Tipral. I bet you found the right door that should lead to the room where he's at."_

"All right… I guess I better do this." Luigi ran over to the Star Block at the end hallway and gave it a good whack.

"I won't fail you, bro! I promise!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With only two heroes remaining, Luigi took action by making his way through the palace himself, hoping to find Tipral and stop him from bringing back the Chaos Heart and The Void. Chopper, on the other hand, felt worried about his other friends that were no longer around. However, even still, he denied the fact that they were dead and tried his best to stay positive…barely. "Don't worry, Chopper, I'll try to end this once and for all," assured Luigi as he entered the darker halls of Tipral's Palace. He knew that he was going to be in some tough territory._

* * *

**Dear me, it looks like we're losing more heroes each chapter! That leaves...two (if you didn't read the paragraph above, that is).**

**Now that we're more than halfway done with Chapter 16, I believe we're actually going to be getting to some of the harder stuff of the palace. If you thought this and the other two parts weren't enough, then these next two should.**

**And why Mario and not Luigi here? It's not really done, and I wanted to make it a little interesting. ;)  
**


	97. Fate in Two Hands

**CHAPTER 16-4**

**-Fate in Two Hands-**

"I can't believe it… Kirby, Sonic, Blade, AND my bro Mario and all gone…" Luigi trailed as he looked around in the dark hallway of Tipral's Palace. "Well, I don't know why, but I feel like I'm risking my life to go through these hallways alone! And without a flashlight, too!"

"_Luigi, you can't always have a flashlight with you when you're exploring dark places," _Chopper explained, giving him somewhat of an irritated look. _"Sometimes you just need to go on and try to get through it. Heck, I remember going into Dark Subspace World! Not only was it creepy, but it was also dark too!"_

"Really? How dark?"

"_Really, really dark?"_

"Oh… Well I guess that's something too…" Luigi slowly nodded. The hallway he was in was a lot similar to the other hallways the others have been in before, but there were two yellow ? blocks that were a little higher than others beforehand. Fortunately, since Luigi has an amazing jump, he would be able to hit those blocks with ease. The windows showed the stars outside, which kind of reminded him of when he was traveling through space once.

"Man… I don't know how the others are doing right now, but I sure hope they're still alive." the green plumber sighed. "And… If the same thing happens to me, then does that mean we…"

"_Luigi, please don't say it…" _Chopper trailed, interrupting Luigi. _"There's nothing in the room I'm in right now, so obviously the door you took will most likely lead you to Tipral's room."_

"Well… If that's what you think, then I might as well get going." Luigi noticed a couple of Phantom Embers, Dark Skells, and Dark Bandits lurking around in the room, causing him to scream.

"No! I can't do this! There are too many enemies!"

"_Luigi, those enemies are not like ghosts," _Chopper assured. _"You're able to attack them with just a simple jump or with one of your Pixls! It's as simple as that! Don't you realize that your jump is better than ours too?"_

"I know that and all, but I'm still a little scared…"

"_Are you kidding me? Didn't I say before that you were able to go through a mansion that never existed all on your own? ! You know, that mansion you said you won in a contest you never entered? Heck, you managed to capture more than twenty ghost portraits in there and turn them back into paintings! Not to mention I also heard you were able to save your brother from possibly dying when he ate a strange mushroom. So, long story short… If you're able to go through dark places or deserts alone, then that means you can go through this place too!"_

Luigi was silent for a moment, but soon his face turned from a scared to a determined look.

"You know, you're right! I have done many things on my own that involved rescuing Mario from certain danger!" Luigi realized. "You know, I think you kind of brought my self-esteem up a bit, Chopper! Thanks!"

"_Uhhhh… You're…welcome?" _Chopper gawked. _"Strange… I thought you would've known this stuff by now…"_

"All right, I guess I better get myself ready then," Luigi said, not hearing what Chopper just said earlier. "This is my part to stop Tipral now… And hopefully I can succeed as well!"

With his fists clenched, Luigi ran on ahead and struck one of the yellow ? blocks in the room. A Slow Flower came out and landed in his hands. This caused the whole hallway to go at a slower pace.

"Whoooooooa… Why diiiiiiid I maaaaaaake everythiiiiiing sooooo slooooooow?" Luigi asked as he stomped on a Dark Skell that attempted to jab at him with its spear. He used a flutter jump afterwards to deal a little bit more damage.

He threw Crystaline at the Dark Skell to finish it off, which gave him more experience than usual due to the fact that the whole room was moving slower than usual. The Dark Spiky Bomber Skell up ahead tried to fight back by throwing its head down at him, but failing to hit him.

Luigi simply folded himself up and rocketed up to the Dark Spiky Bomber Skell above him. However, when he hit the ceiling, he slowly began to float down, getting hit by the undead's spiky head in the process.

"OW! Thaaaaat huuuuuurts!" Luigi screeched as he froze the Dark Spiky Bomber Skell with Crystaline, making it fall to the ground. When he threw Bonjourang at it, it was defeated.

What made things better was when the flow of speed went back to normal. "Whew… What a relief! I was kind of getting tired of moving slowly!"

He punched the yellow ? block right above him to make a Skull Shroom pop out. Luigi shrieked, but he saw that it was moving away from him instead, so he sighed in relief and followed it. Of course, he knew that it would be coming back for him too.

"All right, this hallway seems rather long… But that doesn't mean I'm just going to sit here and do nothing!" Luigi announced as he threw Bonjourang at a Dark Bandit that was walking around. It soon turned to him and charged at him, taking an Ultra Shroom Shake from him and attempting to flee.

"Hey! That's mine!"

Luigi threw Crystaline at the Dark Bandit and managed to freeze it. He waited for it to unfreeze before he could attack it with his Cyclone attack, finishing it off and dropping the Ultra Shroom Shake at the process.

"Ho ho! No one's a match for the great Luigi!" he smirked as he put the shake away and noticed the Skull Shroom coming back his way. He gasped, but he readied himself and prepared for a Cyclone.

With his Cyclone, he was able to stop the Skull Shroom and also freeze it with Crystaline. He instantly finished it off by throwing Bonjourang at it, making him feel safe.

But, that wasn't enough. There were still two Dark Spiky Skells in the room coming toward him. They seemed to be fully aware of him and started to charge at him with their spears.

"Oh, crud!" Luigi threw Bonjourang at them, making their heads fall over. The amusingly seemed to crash into each other, trying to find their head. This gave Luigi the opportunity to finish them off with his Cyclone attack.

"Wow, I can't believe I'm actually fighting these guys all on my own!" Luigi gaped as he struck a yellow ? block to find a Super Shroom. "To think I wouldn't be able to take down all of these enemies here… I think I put myself down too much before."

He grabbed the Super Shroom and ate it to recover 20 HP. He then moved forward to the yellow ? block up ahead and hit it to find a Speed Flower. When he grabbed it, everything began to move at a faster rate.

"Uhohit'sfastnow!" Luigi shrieked as he ran straight toward a Shadow Boo in his way. The Shadow Boo immediately charged for him, but he attacked it with a flutter jump and a stomp and defeated it. He also managed to pull off a stylish move before encountering a Dark Longator that somehow managed to hit him with its head.

"Whoa! I'veseentheseguysbefore!" he jumped in the air and did a flip before stomping on the Dark Longator's head. While it cringed it pain, he was able to deliver three more stomps to finish it off.

When he reached a Dark Cursya that was blocking his way, he threw Bonjourang at it and defeated it with ease. The speed went back to normal as the green plumber walked over to the door.

"Wait… This door's locked!" Luigi gaped.

He looked above the door and noticed the ceiling looked a little different. There appeared to be some sort of platform above the door! That might be it!

Luigi decided to check it out by using his Super Jump to reach the platform and find a chest. Thankfully, there happened to be a Palace Key inside, so he took it and put it away for now.

"This must be the key to that locked door," Luigi muttered as he jumped down to the door below and used the key to enter the next room.

He saw two doors in this small room. One was up on a platform and the other was on the floor dead ahead. Both looked pretty much the same, with the black trim around the door, the purple and the black star in the center. Nothing seemed to be too different about both of them.

"I guess I'll try the one up ahead," Luigi opened the door on the floor and walked through, but when he came out, he ended up falling through the ceiling in the previous hallway.

"Unnnnghh… What just happened…?" he slowly got up and noticed that he was in the previous room. "Wait… What? ! But I was just in this room! How did I get back here? !"

"_Luigi, is something wrong?" _Chopper asked through the communicator. Luigi took his out and began to talk while his arms trembled.

"Y-Yeah! There's something up with the doors!" Luigi stammered. "Apparently, I walked through one of the doors, but it just sent me back to the room I was just going through before!"

"_Really? Why would something like that happen?" _the young pale green Star Warrior began to ponder for a moment. _"Oh! Maybe it's like some kind of puzzle! You know, when you get something right, you move on and when you get something wrong you start over?"_

"Something like that?"

"_Yeah, I would say so. Maybe you should look at the differences between both doors. Sometimes when you look at what the original door looks like, you know that it's the real one. Maybe you should see if one of them looks a lot different than the other? I'm guessing you might find something from that."_

"I suppose I should check then," Luigi went back into the small room he was in and looked at the bottom door. The black trim looked like it was a lighter color than its usual appearance.

"Oh! I see it now! This door's trim looks a lot different than normal! It's a lighter color!" he realized. He used his Super Jump to reach the door above to find it a lot similar to what the other doors in the palace were like. He simply opened it and entered another similar room.

"OK, I think I'm starting to get it now… I gotta make sure that I enter the correct door." Luigi nodded as he noticed the bottom door, once again, looked much different. He used his Super Jump to go to the door above to enter another similar room. This time, however, there was a Dark Koopatrol lurking around.

"Uh oh… I can't jump on an enemy that has a spike on its head!"

The Dark Koopatrol noticed Luigi and tried to skewer him with its spike. He jumped out of the way and threw Bonjourang at it to leave it dazed, then proceeded to attack it with his Cyclone attack.

Before he knew it, he finished the enemy off by freezing it with Crystaline.

"Whew… Well, that takes care of that enemy." Luigi sighed as he noticed the door on the bottom looked a lot like the original door. So, he took that and, before he knew it, he was in another room similar.

"How many of these rooms are there?"

A Dark Longator was inching around the room, stretching its head in order to get Luigi. He recoiled and jumped on its head afterwards, leaving it to cringe. He froze it with Crystaline so it wouldn't bother him.

"All right, let's see which door is the correct one…" Luigi pondered as he looked at both doors. The bottom door was a lot different, so he ignored that and began to charge up a Super Jump.

Unfortunately, the Dark Longator unfroze and hit Luigi by stretching its head.

"Ow! Ugh… I should've taken care of you first…" Luigi groaned, stomping on its head one last time and defeating it. With it out of the way, he used his Super Jump to reach the door above and enter another similar room.

"Geez! These rooms are really bothering me!" he sweat dropped as he jumped over a Dark Skell that tried to skewer him. "Why can't I ever get a break for once around here? I bet the others had it easy…"

He used his Cyclone to defeat the Dark Skell and walked over to the bottom door. Since it was the right one, he entered it into another similar room, hopefully it was the last one for sure.

And, if Luigi checked the doors correctly, the bottom door seemed to be the correct one. When he entered it, he ended up in a different room, to his relief. But, he noticed that there was a mysterious figure over by the door up ahead.

"Wait, who are you?" Luigi asked, trying to run after the figure. All he could see were two white eyes. "Tipral? Is that you? If that's the case… I'm here to put an end to your plans once and for all!"

The mysterious figure simply chuckled and left the room through the door. Luigi jumped over the Dark Spiky Skell that tried to hurt him and raced to the door, but a lock appeared before he could touch it.

"Aw, no… Mama mia! He got away…"

"_Who got away?" _Chopper asked.

"I saw a mysterious figure over by the door I was just trying to get through," Luigi explained. "Those white eyes made me believe that that was Tipral who was in this room, so I tried to go after him. Unfortunately, he got away and locked the door behind. I suppose I have to go find a key…"

"_Well, of course you do! We always have to find keys around this place! You thought we weren't going to be finding any here?"_

"Well, maybe that's what you believe. Anyway… I'm going to try to see if I can find the key." Luigi soon cringed when he got skewered by the Dark Skell's spear. "Ack! I completely forgot about that guy!"

He whirled around and threw Bonjourang at the Dark Skell's head, leaving it dazed for a couple of seconds and allowing the green plumber to stomp on its head with a flutter jump and a normal jump, finishing it off. It also happened to drop an Ultimate Shroom Shake.

"I guess this should come in handy!"

He used his Super Jump to rocket himself up to the platform above, which happened to have a door coincidently. He entered it into a room with a couple of high platforms leading over to a door.

"Oh, this doesn't look too bad…"

Luigi didn't need to use his Super Jump to get onto the platforms. They seemed low enough for him to jump onto. However, he had to be aware of the Dark Bomber Skells flying around in the room.

"Well, surely I can just use my Super Jump to send them flying out of here!" Luigi assured as he struck one of the Dark Bomber Skells with his Super Jump. It knocked it down into the bottomless pit below. The other Dark Bomber Skell was able to hit Luigi by throwing its head at him.

Even still, Luigi was able to knock it onto one of the platforms by throwing Bonjourang at it. He then stomped on it a couple of times and finished it off once and for all, allowing him to continue onward.

"OK, Luigi… Just stay calm and you'll be able to get through this…" Luigi mumbled as he jumped onto one of the platforms and ducked when he saw a Dark Sword Knight attempt to slash at him. He used his Cyclone to knock it off the platform and send it down the bottomless pit.

"Weren't those enemies Kirby faced back in his home world?"

Nevertheless, he reached the end of the room and found a door leading him into a small room, where he saw something lying on the ground by the corner. There was only one, so it didn't look too bad.

"Wait… What's that supposed to be?" Luigi stepped closer to the robotic…thing, but when its red eyes appeared and let out an ear-piercing scream, Luigi instantly froze in fear. This robot was more of a black color with sharp teeth, like a zombie.

"Wh-What is that thing? !"

When it stopped moving, he threw Crystaline at it to keep it frozen, then took his communicator out to speak with Chopper. "Chopper! There's something…weird and creepy in the same room as me!"

"_What is it?" _Chopper asked. Luigi put his communicator in front of the robot to show him. _"Wait a minute… That's a Dark Robbie, isn't it? Man… I HATE Robbies! They're annoying!"_

"How do I beat it, though?"

"_Just attack it, simply put. I think you can get behind it too. Chances are it won't be able to see you."_

"All right, I guess I'll attack from behind," Luigi jumped over the Dark Robbie and used his Cyclone to unfreeze it and also deal some damage. However, that didn't finish it off just yet. Luigi had to take it down with one flutter jump, which was pretty simple from someone like him.

Once the Dark Robbie was defeated, a chest appeared at the end of the room to the right. Luigi popped it open with a simple kick and found a Palace Key inside.

"There we go! Now to go back to that other room! Hopefully I can finally catch Tipral and stop him!"

* * *

**Room with locked door-**

"All right, Tipral… I'm coming for you!" Luigi pulled the Palace Key out and inserted it into the lock. It broke off, allowing him to walk into the next room. However, he was disappointed when he found another hallway.

"Where's Tipral? He should be around here!"

All he could see were two Dark Patrolbots flying around, ready to fire any missiles at anyone who got close. But, once one noticed Luigi, it unleashed its missiles upon him, making the plumber run.

However, when Luigi ran over to the wall, he jumped off and let the missiles explode from the wall. He ran under the Dark Patrolbot and delivered a Super Jump, followed by a flutter jump, destroying the dark robot.

"Whew… I can't believe I managed to take that thing out!" Luigi gawked.

However, it wasn't over yet. There was another Dark Patrolbot that needed to be taken care of up ahead. When it noticed Luigi, it tried to zap him with some kind of electric blast, but ended up missing.

Luigi jumped on top of the Dark Patrolbot and stomped on it as hard as he could to send it crashing to the ground. With a flutter jump, the robot exploded, clearing all of the Dark Patrolbots in the room.

"Well that's a relief," Luigi sighed as he ran past a Dark Securibot. Because he got caught in its searchlight, a Dark Intruderbot was summoned to go after him. And, surprisingly, it appeared right in front of him.

He shrieked as he got sent flying back from the missiles it fired. Howeve,r Luigi managed to get back up and freeze the large robot with Crystaline. With a Cyclone, he was able to leave it severely damaged.

"I think one more hit should do it," Luigi assured as he stomped on the Dark Intruderbot and destroyed it. This cleared the way of all the enemies in the room, allowing him to enter the door ahead.

But what shocked him was that there were giant cogs that looked like platforms that were spinning on some kind of pole when he came out of the door. Luigi walked over to the cog closest to the ground and waited for it to come down.

"This is a very strange room," he commented as he jumped on the cog. He waited until he was at a good range to jump to the next cog over by his left. He didn't even need to use a Super Jump!

A Dark Paratroopa was also flying around in the room, which made things a little more dangerous for Luigi when he jumped to the third cog. It tried to ram into him, but he managed to get its wings off with a stomp.

When the Dark Paratroopa tried to attack him, Luigi was able to flip it over with a stomp and deal some damage to it on its belly. This caused it to scream in horror as it disintegrated into smoke.

"Gee… I'm not really sure if this is such a good thing to do now…" Luigi wondered.

Even still, he used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the next cog, and as soon as he reached the platform above him with a Super Jump, he entered the door into a room with a staircase.

"Hey, I remember a staircase like this in Castle Bleck before!" he recalled. "…Well, there were a lot more than just one, actually."

With that in mind, he decided to climb up the stairs while having to deal with a Dark Vironoid that was lurking around on one of the steps. He shrieked in fear and ducked from the beam it fired. It looked like it was some sort of dark beam, actually.

"What the heck? ! I thought these guys were only in cyberspace? !" Luigi gaped. "Wait… On the other hand, these guys don't really exist? …Or are they just on Tipral's side like they usually were…"

He began to wonder as he used a Super Jump to get on top of the Dark Vironoid and stomp on it a couple of times until it was defeated. Compared to a Red Vironoid, this was four times as difficult to beat.

"Man, that thing was a lot tougher than I thought! Especially when I'm fighting that thing on my own!"

He continued to climb the stairs until he got to the midpoint. He saw that there was a Dark Waddle Doo ready to fire a blast from its eye at him. Luigi defeated it by stomping on it three times.

"Wahoo! That was too easy!"

Luigi continued to move up the stairs, while avoiding a dark beam from a Dark Vironoid in the process. Luckily for him, he was able to uppercut the enemy with his Super Jump and attack with a flutter jump afterward. With Bonjourang, it was defeated.

He finally made it to the top of the staircase, but he had to face off against a Dark Spiky Skell that looked ready to skewer him with its spear. Luigi threw Bonjourang and attacked it with his Cyclone to send it flying to the wall. After freezing it with Crystaline, it was gone.

"Honestly, why am I did always put myself down before? That's not something I should've been doing!" Luigi frowned as he opened the door into a small room with a red ! block near him. He noticed the same figure standing right in front of one of the three doors in the room.

"Heh heh heh…"

"Hey! Don't get away from me this time, Tipral!" Luigi growled, clenching his teeth and fists. "You better stop running from me or else I'll… I'll… I'll stomp you!"

The figure shrugged and headed through the third door. Luigi bolted towards him, but when he entered the door, he came out of the first door instead. "Wait, what? What just happened?"

He decided to walk through the first door, but it ended up bringing him over to the third door. "This is strange… But I think I'm starting to understand what's going on here. I gotta go into the right door, which would be the middle. …But how did Tipral manage to disappear through that door anyway?"

While wondering this, he walked through the middle door, leading him into another similar room with three doors. There was a Dark Vironoid crawling around, and it even tried to attack Luigi when it spotted him.

However, he recoiled and jump off the wall behind him, bringing his two feet down on the Dark Vironoid's head to deal some damage. He also managed to kick it in the fact while it was stunned and froze it with Crystaline. After a Cyclone, he wiped the floor clean with the monster.

"Well, that settles that with that monster," Luigi sighed as he walked over to the doors. He tried to see if one of them looked like the door all the way to the left. To his surprise, the middle door looked somewhat similar.

"I wonder if this is going to be like those other rooms where I have to go through them a couple of times…"

He walked through the middle door and found himself in another similar room, but with the third door looking like the original door. When he walked through that, he ended up in a room with a black arrow block near the wall. He decided to hit it, making him land on the ceiling.

"Wh-What…?"

He just realized by now that he was upside down. Not only that, but there were some strange, small enemies in armored plating, but they looked rather small. That said, he could see that through the plating were two white eyes. This was an Armored Sheller, something that he's never seen.

"This must be new…" Luigi stomped on it, making it hide in its own shell. When he kicked it, it went over to a Dark Koopatrol coming up ahead, but it ended up getting hit and was defeated. Luigi finished off the Armored Sheller with a Cyclone.

"Geez… Walking upside down can be pretty annoying…"

He reached the end of the path on the ceiling and found another black arrow block. This time, when he hit it, he ended up falling to the ground, where he met a Dark Shy Guy that looked ready to attack.

"The door's just up ahead, but this Shy Guy's in the way!" Luigi clenched his fists as he jumped on the Dark Shy Guy. He stomped it with a flutter jump afterward to defeat it with ease.

With that, he opened the door into a room where he saw a door on the ceiling and a door right up ahead. He noticed that there was another enemy he remembered. One was a Dark Tileoid that was climbing the walls, ceiling, and even crawling on the ground. Another thing he noticed was a Hogarithm. Yes, it was just like the one in Castle Tipral. Nothing else different.

"Oh… Well this could be a little difficult." Luigi stomped on the Hogarithm to make it change to a gray, smaller version, and when he stomped on it again, it was a small, black Hogarithm that began to move fast. But, with Bonjourang, Luigi was able to destroy it with ease.

With that enemy taken care of, he walked into the door up ahead and found himself on the ceiling. Although not too worried, he noticed a Dark Tileoid on the ceiling coming his way.

"Uh oh… I don't like this…" Luigi gulped, grabbing Bonjourang and readying him. When the Dark Tileoid got closer, he threw him at it and left it dazed. After two stomps, it was disintegrated into smoke.

Luigi immediately headed through the door ahead into a room where he was standing on the wall! What shocked him was that he had to move down the wall instead of up. A Dark Tileoid also seemed to hit him while he was distracted.

"Ow! What the heck?" Luigi jumped on top of the Dark Tileoid a couple of times to defeat it. After that, he walked over to the door down the wall and came into a room where he was upside down.

"This is really giving me a headache…" he groaned as he hit a black arrow block to bring him to the ground. The pipe in the center of the room brought him down to a tunnel where a couple of Koopa Strikers wearing black gear called Doopa Strikers with Doopa Striker shells ready.

"Uh oh…"

"That's right, scrawny! Who's up for a game of soccer?" the first Doopa Striker smirked as he pulled a shell out and kicked towards him. Luigi kicked it back at the Doopa Striker, but it was able to kick it back.

"I don't know what'll work…" Luigi trailed, kicking the shell back at the Doopa Striker. "Wait, I think I can still try something! Something…like one of my Pixls!"

He threw Crystaline at the Doopa Striker, freezing it at point. When the shell crashed into it, the Koopa got knocked into the others, keeping them off guard. This allowed Luigi to take them all down by throwing Bonjourang.

Sighing in relief, he made his way over to the end of the narrow hallway to find a chest. He opened it to find a Palace Key inside, making him smile with delight.

* * *

**Previous room-**

"All right, I guess I have to go to that other door on the ceiling," Luigi deduced as he hit the black arrow block and landed on the ceiling. He entered the door he didn't go in before and found himself in a room where he was standing on the right wall.

"How can this get more confusing?"

He noticed that he had to go up this time, but he noticed that there was a high ledge on the wall he would have to get up to. Not only that, but a Dark Tileoid was crawling on the walls too, making this a little frustrating for him.

"Ugh… I'm not going to enjoy this part…" Luigi groaned as he took care of the Dark Tileoid. When he walked over to the high ledge, he used his Super Jump to reach the door up on the ledge. Afterward, he entered the door into a room with no gravity switches or gravity whatsoever.

"Well what a relief!" he sighed in relief as he noticed that he was in a small room with a platform above him and a door dead ahead. Another Hogarithm was in the room, but three stomps defeated it.

"All right, now to get out of this room!" Luigi made his way over to the door, but when he walked through, it ended up bringing him back into the door that led him into this room. "Wah! What the heck just happened? ! I'm in the same room? !"

"_What's wrong, Luigi?" _Chopper asked.

"Well, I was simply walking through a door and all…" Luigi began. "But, when I come out of it, I'm still in the same room! Do you think you know anything about this? …Or, unless I have to use the platform to go through the door instead…"

"_If you wanna do that, go for it."_

Luigi shrugged and used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the platform. When he jumped off the platform afterward, he landed right in front of the door and entered it. This time, he was in a hallway with saw blades hanging from the ceiling with some Dark Skells patrolling the room.

"Saw blades? ! Why here? !"

When a saw blade swooped down near Luigi, he instantly ducked before he could get his head sliced in half. One of the Dark Skells even got hit by one of the saw blades and cringed in pain. When the saw blade moved back up, Luigi finished it off by using his Cyclone attack.

"Those saw blades get dangerously close…" he shivered as he ducked from another saw blade coming down. No other Dark Skell got caught in one of them, but it didn't really matter at this point when a saw blade was near his cap.

"Unnngh… This is definitely not a safe room…"

He decided to move through the room by ducking, but when a Dark Skell got close, he instantly jumped up and stomped on its head, finishing it off with his flutter jump. With that, he was safe from the saw blades for now.

"Well that's good. No more saw blades for me!" Luigi smiled as he saw a Dark Diam floating above the groan ahead. When its eye was revealed, a green spark fired straight for the green plumber.

He got electrocuted, but he was able to hold his own and use a Super Jump to leave it dangerously low on HP and finish it with a jump attack, destroying it. He seemed relieved, but a Dark Patrolbot was nearby too, ready to shoot at Luigi as soon as it caught him.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" its sirens went off, calling in a couple of other Dark Patrolbots to join in the fight. Luigi gulped and readied himself before getting blasted by one Dark Patrolbot.

"Four against one? ! This is insane!" Luigi gaped as he dodged one of the Dark Patrolbot's lasers. He tried to fight back by using a Super Jump to get under one of them and deal serious damage. He destroyed it once and for all with Bonjourang.

However, he still had three others to worry about at the moment. But this time, he thought of something else to get rid of all three. He threw Bonjourang at them, of course, and then froze one with Crystaline. His jump shattered one of them, and after stomping on the others with his flutter jump, they were done for.

"Whew! I can't believe I took them all on!"

Sighing in relief, Luigi ran over to the door that was just up ahead and entered into a room where he saw a platform up above him that looked too high to reach. However, he did see a ladder sticking out.

"_Maybe I can use that ladder to get up to that platform… I think it'll work…" _Luigi thought as he used a Super Jump to grab a hold of the ladder and make his way up to the platform.

Even if a Dark Robbie was on it.

"Uh oh…" he gulped as the Dark Robbie let out a scream that nearly froze him. It even managed to grab a hold of him. He expected it to bite him, but it tried to strangle him instead. Luigi tried breaking free, but his arms weren't strong enough to push through.

"_I can hardly breathe!" _Luigi thought as his face started to turn blue. But, even when he was in some trouble, he was able to grab Bonjourang and throw it straight at the Dark Robbie's face, making it release him.

"GAH! Finally! I can breathe again!"

However, the Dark Robbie was even defeated yet. It tried to grab him again, but he jumped over it and used Crystaline to freeze it. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to work against it. All he could do was use his Cyclone until it was defeated.

"All right! It's defeated!" Luigi smiled as he looked up and saw a platform that looked like he could reach it with his Super Jump. He launched himself up and found a yellow spring leading up to a platform above with a door. A Dark Cherbil was apparently guarding it.

"Wait… What the heck is this thing supposed to be? You have any clue, Chopper?" Luigi asked as he showed the Dark Cherbil to Chopper.

"…_Did you really need to show me that thing?" _Chopper grimaced. _"What is it with me seeing Cherbils? They're like butts…and it's like they're farting something bad!"_

"Oh…"

The Dark Cherbil spat out some poison gas at Luigi, poisoning him instantly. His face turned to a slight green color, making him feel sick. But, even then, he fought the Dark Cherbil and got a Dried Shroom from it.

"A Dried…_cough_…Shroom?" Luigi glanced at it for a minute before eating it. Despite tasting bad, it was able to cure him from the poison. "Ugh… It was nasty, but I guess it healed me…for only 1 HP.

"_They're pretty nasty, even for me," _Chopper agreed.

"I don't blame you," agreed Luigi.

Now that he was cured from the poison, he opened the door into a room with electric on the ground and a couple of moving, metallic platforms going left and right. At the end of the hallway, there was one metallic platform going up.

When Luigi jumped on one of the platforms, he noticed the mysterious figure over by the metallic platform moving up. "Hey, you! Don't get away from me this time, Tipral! I know you're trying to hide from me!"

The figure simply smirked at him and jumped on the platform. Luigi grumbled and waited to jump to the next platform until he got to the one moving up and down. But, when he saw it come back down, two Dark Bob-ombs with their fuses lit up began to chase him.

"Wah! Bob-ombs? !"

He immediately fled, but the explosion happened too fast and sent him flying onto the electric floor, electrocuting him. When he got back onto one of the platforms, there was some static appearing on his cap.

"That's the last time anyone fools Luigi," he grumbled as he clenched his fist and jumped back over to the platform moving up and down. He used a Super Jump to reach the platform and look up at the platform above him that had a door. A Dark Spiky Skell was standing in front of the door.

When he used his Super Jump to reach up to the platform, he threw Crystaline at the enemy, freezing it. He then used his Cyclone attack to unfreeze the Dark Skell and leave it with dangerously low HP.

But it was simple when he defeated it with Bonjourang.

"All right, I bet Tipral has to be through this door!" Luigi deduced as he opened the door into a larger room with platforms up above him. He could go multiple ways, with multiple enemies in the room.

"This room's huge!"

When he turned around, he noticed a Dark Longator stretching its head toward him. He jumped out of the way and stomped on its head to stun it. He stomped on it three more times to defeat it.

"All right, now I have to choose which way to go…" Luigi pondered, looking at the multiple ways to go up. "Tough choice here…"

He noticed a Shadow Boo slowly making its way down to Luigi in order to attack. When he decided which way to go, he used a Super Jump to jump to the platform to the left, which also knocked the Shadow Boo away.

"Did I just hit something?" he pondered before stopping to see a Dark Sword Knight ready to attack him. He yelped and stomped on its head. After freezing it, it was defeated for good.

There was another platform near him, so he jumped over to that platform. In the center was a small platform with a chest. Luigi attempted to jump over to it, but he was too far and ended up landing on the ground.

"Awww… Why did I have to fall?" Luigi frowned as he got up.

He looked around to see if there were any more enemies around him. On the ground, there didn't appear to be any that looked to pick a fight. This time, he decided to use a Super Jump to launch himself to the left platform, but he gaped when he saw a Dark Tileoid crawling around on it.

"I thought I was done with these guys? !"

He jumped when the Dark Tileoid was close to hurting him and stomped on its head to stun it for a couple of seconds. With three more stomps, it was finally defeated, dropping a Spicy Curry too.

"Spicy Curry? Doesn't this make you let out a large amount of fire?" Luigi pondered. "Well, I think I'll save this…"

He put the Spicy Curry away (how can one put away food?) and used a Super Jump to uppercut a Dark Bomber Skell near another platform. It was fully defeated, but when Luigi landed on the platform, he decided to take a risk and stomp on the Dark Bomber Skell until it was defeated. Afterward, he landed on the previous platform and jumped back up to the one near the Dark Bomber Skell.

"I guess it was worth it," he concluded as he jumped over to a platform beside him which had the chest he was trying to reach previously. Inside was a Star Shroom Shake, to his delight.

"I'll take it!" Luigi smiled as he put it away and used another Super Jump to reach the platform above. A Dark Cherbil on the platform spat some horrendous gas that he avoided. He decided to freeze it and jump up to the next platform, saying that fighting it was a waste of time.

When Luigi looked up, he groaned when he saw that he still wasn't up to the door yet. What got worse was that a couple of Biosparks were clinging to the walls, throwing kunais straight at Luigi.

"Wah!" Luigi ducked just in time before he could get hit by one of the kunais. "Geez! They REALLY want to get rid of me!"

He Super Jumped up to the next platform in order to get away from the Biosparks. To his surprise, they seemed to disappear all on their own, making the plumber sigh in relief. However, there happened to be one that appeared on the platform.

"Halt, plumber! You're not welcome in these parts!" the Biospark spoke, pulling a katana out and attempting to strike him. Luigi, however, managed to freeze it by simply throwing Crystaline at it.

"Relax, hero! With me by your side, not even ninjas will be able to harm you!" Crystaline assured.

"Yes, I do agree with the miss," agreed Bonjourang. "Now, izzit time for them monsieur to get going?"

"Yeah, I need to do that," Luigi nodded, finding a door up above the platform. With a smile, he used a Super Jump to get to the top platform. There, he discovered a yellow ? block with an Ultimate Shroom inside.

"Oh, lucky me! An Ultimate Shroom!"

He grabbed a hold of it before it could go off the edge and chomped it down to recover 100 HP. "Oh, man… I never had a whole Ultimate Shroom before! This is probably the first time in my life!"

He noticed that the Biospark frozen was now gone. Despite being confused, he decided that it would be best just to leave the room and head into the next. Luigi noticed through this hallway, there were a couple of lanterns in the hallway with dark flames, which felt like it would lead to Tipral's lair.

"OK, I think I'm close…" Luigi noticed the same figure from before walking over to an elevator and waving while grinning. "H-Hey! Stop right there, Tipral! I'm not letting you get away!"

"If you want to fight, follow me," the figure said as he disappeared out of Luigi's sight up the elevator.

"_What's going on, Luigi?" _Chopper asked.

"Tipral… He wants me to meet him in his lair, I suppose." Luigi explained. "This could be my chance for redemption… If I stop him, the whole universe could be saved!"

"_Yeah, that's a good thing. Just make sure you try your best against him. That's the most important part."_

However, Luigi couldn't get to the elevator soon. There were two Dark Vironoids blocking the way, firing a dark beam at his direction. The plumber ducked and stomped on the first one's face to stop it for a bit. With his Cyclone, he sent it flying into the second Dark Vironoid.

"Even if you may be creations of Tipral, you're not any different than the rest of the Vironoids!" Luigi said boldly as he finished both Dark Vironoids off with a flutter jump, clearing the way of the enemies.

"All right… Now that leaves the elevator here."

He pushed a button right near the elevator to bring it down. Once he got on, Luigi waited patiently as the elevator brought him up to a small room with a Save Block and a door. He decided to hit the Save Block first before doing anything.

"Strange… I was expecting the door Tipral would be through to be a little…bigger than this."

"_I don't think it really matters," _Chopper assured. _"As long as you can stop Tipral, I'm fine with that."_

"Chopper… Didn't Merlon say that there were twenty Pure Hearts? If we fail… Where would we find the seventeenth Pure Heart?"

Chopper's face suddenly changed. _"Now that I think about that… I really don't know. We would need to get another Pure Heart to lead us to another door, but we don't have any other Pure Heart!"_

"That's what I was thinking! …Well, let's worry about that later. I have someone to take care of." Luigi, taking a deep breath, slowly opened the door into the next room.

* * *

**Next room-**

As Luigi entered the next room, he noticed that there was something strange with this room compared to the others. The windows were rather big compared to most others. It wasn't even that big, something Luigi was expecting the room to be like.

"Well this is kind of disappointing…" Luigi trailed. "I thought Tipral's room would be bigger than this?"

"That's because it's not his room," the mysterious figure standing in the shadow of the room grinned. "Congratulations, Luigi! You fell right into my trap!"

"Trap?" Luigi turned around and saw the doors were barred shut. "W-Wait… If you're not Tipral… Then who are you?"

"I'm glad you asked," the figure walked out of the shadow, revealing his true self. "I'm your doppelganger, Mr. L! …Or rather, you're MY doppelganger!"

"Mr. L…? Why do I feel as if I heard that name before?"

"You used to be me before, back in that snowy world. However, since you disobeyed him, he took me out of you and re-created me. This time, he made sure I would listen to me!"

Luigi noticed that there was a bit of darkness from a half of him when he took a glance at him, but it soon disappeared. "Wait… So are you even…_human_?"

"Human? Of course not! Sure, I may look like you, but I'm made of nothing but darkness and a part of your dark side! I've got no stomach or esophagus, so I'm incapable of eating stuff, but usually I try to do it anyway."

"This…is really confusing me. So, you're created from the dark energy and my dark side…?"

"Yeah, that's right. It's pretty cool, huh?"

"Well, I don't think so! Who goes around trying to copy ME? Sure, my bro has fans who like to copy him, but never have I seen people copy _me_!"

"Man, you're really boring me," Mr. L yawned as if he didn't care. "Anyway, if you thought you were going to find Tipral, then you ought to think again. You're not even CLOSE to him!"

"So… None of those doors lead to Tipral's lair?"

"Actually, Tipral's lair is very well hidden. There's this one door where we kept the door completely hidden. NO ONE can even find it, including me! Only Tipral knows where that door is."

"And which of the five doors has that door?"

"You really think I'm going to tell you that? …Oh, wait. I don't really care!"

"_Luigi, what's going on?" _Chopper asked.

"Bad news, Chopper… Apparently I didn't take the right door…" Luigi trailed. "The door that leads to Tipral's lair is actually very well hidden. Nobody even knows where it is!"

"_Wait… So… That means NONE of the doors lead to his lair? ! That means we did all of this for nothing? !"_

"All for nothing? Nah, you didn't, puffball." Mr. L spat. "In fact, I bet some of the minions are laughing at you right now for trying to find that door!"

"_I've actually never found it… I'm trapped in this one room. I haven't done anything ever since."_

"Pbbbbbbbbbth! HA! Serves you right for messin' with the man! Anyway… How's about we leave Mr. Star Warrior to cry in his corner and let us fight! I'm gettin' a little tired of talkin'."

"Fine! I'll show you that I can win a fight on my own!"

"Please! You couldn't do a thing! Have at you!" Mr. L stepped back and clasped his hands together. Luigi noticed that he had green electricity flowing through his hands.

"Time to show you why I'm called the Green Thunder!" Mr. L fired a green bolt of electricity at Luigi, zapping him instantly. "Thankfully, Tipral gave me this kind of power to help me fight a little better!"

"He can use lightning now? That doesn't seem like a fair fight…"

"Life isn't fair, Luigi. Sometimes, you just lose some, like you're going to right now! Heh heh heh…"

Luigi yelped as Mr. L tried to strike him with another thunder attack. He jumped out of the way and stomped on his doppelganger's head, making him cringe in pain. Mr. L tried grabbing him, but Luigi was faster and sent him flying back with a kick.

He noticed that there was a box marked "DANGER" on it.

"What's that box?" Luigi asked.

"It's none of you're business, that's what," Mr. L spat as he attempted to jump on Luigi. "You know, we both have similar jumps and abilities. I can even use your famous Super Jump and Cyclone!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Just watch!" Mr. L began to spin around like a cyclone. When he got into contact with Luigi, he was left with a couple of bruises on his face. Mr. L chuckled and zapped him with lightning. The plumber cringed as steam appeared all over him.

But that wasn't stopping him from fighting back. He threw Crystaline at Mr. L, freezing him in place. Luigi smirked and used his Cyclone to unfreeze him to send him flying up. With this, he struck him with a Super Jump to send him flying back down.

"Man… I can't believe I'm doing all I can to take this guy down…" Luigi panted as Mr. L got up and charged at him. The green plumber jumped out of the way and stomped on his head. Mr. L, getting a bit angry, tried to lash at Luigi by punching him with an electric fist.

"Whoa!" Luigi tried to dodge the attack, but he was hit straight in the stomach, making him moan in pain. Mr. L then gave Luigi a quick kick to the stomach, knocking him to the ground. He attempted to elbow him in the stomach, but Luigi managed to kick him in the stomach and get back up.

"Hmm… You're not as easy to take down as I predicted." Mr. L frowned. "Shame… Here I thought I would have an easy time here."

"Don't judge me based on how I act."

"Well, it should be," the doppelganger tried to strike Luigi with a Super Jump as soon as he tried to stomp on him, but Luigi was faster and struck his head before he could even get his hands on him.

"Quit it, plumber! Let me hit you for once!"

"Why should I do that?

"Because I'm going to win this fight!" Mr. L mocked, attempting to use another thunder fist on him. Luigi grabbed his arm and hit him in the head using his own head. Even thought he hurt himself a bit, it did more damage to Mr. L than him.

Mr. L decided to try a different strategy and trip Luigi while he was charging at him. He also pulled out a Bob-omb and threw it straight at him when he had the chance. The explosion sent Luigi flying back to the barred door.

Mr. L smirked as he ran over to the plumber, but he got up and threw Bonjourang, hitting him straight in the nose. He growled as he rubbed his nose and fired another green lightning bolt at him. Luigi gaped and tried to jump, but the lightning bolt was faster and zapped him. This gave Mr. L the opportunity to run up to him and stomp on him.

Luigi recoiled and when Mr. L landed on the ground, he was able to punch him in the face. But that stop Mr. L from grabbing Luigi and throwing him across the room over to the right.

"Wait… How can you even do that? !" Luigi gaped.

"Trust me… I have my ways." Mr. L smirked as he used his Cyclone to get Luigi closer. He tried to fight it, but he ended up getting hurt by Mr. L instead and got sent flying up. When Mr. L used his Super Jump, Luigi took serious damage.

"OW! Man, I didn't know that my Super Jump was THAT powerful…"

"Well, so now you know how it feels to get hit by your own attack! This should be easy…"

He tried to grab Luigi again, but he ended up getting hit in the nose by Luigi's elbow. He even tried to zap him with a lightning bolt, but that didn't work when Luigi used a flutter jump to attack him.

"Well, maybe you'd be interested that I actually got new abilities from a rainbow!" Luigi smirked.

"Is that so? Well, rainbows aren't really that cool, so frankly, I don't care." Mr. L attempted another Super Jump, but was stopped by Luigi when he froze him with Crystaline.

"Phew… Well, that takes care of him for now."

However, Mr. L was able to break out and dive straight for Luigi, tackling him to the ground. He was prepared to zap him straight in the face with his lightning, but, luckily, Luigi managed to control his legs just fine and kicked him away.

"Argh! You annoying…!" Mr. L charged up a lightning ball and threw it straight at Luigi, who ducked and threw Bonjourang at him. Mr. L, however, grabbed the Pixl and threw it at him instead, leaving a bruise on his nose.

"What's the matter, Luigi? Can't take the pain from your own companion?"

Luigi growled as he rubbed his nose. He grabbed Bonjourang this time and threw him over Mr. L.

"You missed!" Mr. L smirked.

"I wasn't trying to aim for you there," Luigi said as he crossed his arms. Mr. L looked confused, but he soon felt himself getting pulled over to the plumber. Once he was close, Luigi gave him a punch to the face.

"Huh… Not bad, I suppose… I'm a little impressed. Only a _little_."

"What? You think you can do better than that?"

"Of course I can. I'm the Green Thunder." Mr. L jumped up to the ceiling and began to hold onto it. When he got above Luigi, he let go and began to plummet down. Luigi looked up and jumped out of the way. A huge shockwave sent him flying back as Mr. L crashed to the ground.

Luigi quickly got up and attacked Mr. L when he had the chance. With one stomp, Mr. L surrounded himself in electric energy, protecting himself from taking damage. This gave him an advantage when Luigi tried punching him.

"Wah! I can't hurt you? !"

"Guess not, wuss," Mr. L smirked, grabbing Luigi and throwing him to the ground. At this point, the electricity surrounding him was gone for a moment, allowing Luigi to get back up and punch him.

"What the… What happened to all that cool electricity I had? !"

"I guess you don't have it anymore," Luigi said as he froze him with Crystaline and attacked him with a Cyclone to unfreeze him. At this point, Mr. L was dazed, but he had another idea.

"_Hmmmm… Maybe that will work!" _Mr. L thought, zapping the ground with electricity. Part of the ground was now electrified, preventing Luigi from even going over there. Mr. L jumped away so he wouldn't get shocked and grabbed Luigi's arms.

"You know you want to be thrown into the electricity," Mr. L grinned.

"I would never do that!" spat Luigi, pushing him away and kicking him in the stomach. Mr. L cringed and held his stomach in pain while Luigi knocked him back to the electric floor, electrocuting the doppelganger.

"Urgh… Very clever, doppelganger."

"You're technically MY doppelganger if you came from me," Luigi informed.

"Doesn't matter. I consider the weaker one to be the doppelganger. It's like with that kid and Tipral. The kid's just a doppelganger of Tipral!"

"That doesn't seem very logical to me…"

Mr. L stayed silent for a moment before lunging at Luigi. He managed to grab him and strike him with an electric ball of energy, shocking the plumber and leaving him paralyzed, unable to attack.

"Heh heh heh… You can't do a thing to hurt me now! Your jump is useless too!" Mr. L smirked.

"Ugh… He's right." Luigi frowned, trying to jump. Because of the paralysis, his jump was abysmal at most. All he could do was move, but at a slower pace. But it didn't stop him from drinking an Ultimate Shroom Shake.

"Ahhh! That takes care of that!" With Luigi healed from paralysis, he threw the crushed can at his evil counterpart, leaving him dazed. Luigi then ran over to him and used a flutter jump to leave him more than halfway down on HP.

"I didn't expect you to have healing items…" Mr. L grunted. "However, maybe I should do that too!"

He pulled an Ultra Shroom Shake out and began to drink it. This left him open for an attack, so Luigi decided to throw Bonjourang at him to not only hurt him, but to grab the Ultra Shroom Shake.

"HEY! I wasn't done with that, you know!"

"Heh! That was nice!" Luigi drank the Ultra Shroom Shake to recover to max HP. "OK, he had 290 HP to begin with, and has an Attack of 15… Well, he's no longer at 290 HP, that's for sure."

Mr. L grit his teeth as he fired a green lightning bolt at Luigi. With the ground no longer electrified, the plumber was able to dodge and land on that part of the ground in style. Mr. L growled and fired more lightning bolts, but Luigi dodged them again and stomped on Mr. L's head.

"So, you had enough yet, Mr. L?" Luigi smirked.

"I'm not gonna give up until the end!" Mr. L snarled, ramming Luigi with his head. This sent him flying back, leaving him open for another attack. At this point, Mr. L charged up an electric ball of energy.

Once fully charged, he hurled it at Luigi, leaving an explosion that left Luigi battered up. Sure, he wasn't dangerously low on HP, but this attack did enough to leave his clothes dirty. A couple of sparks appeared around him too.

"That was quite the shocking experience, wasn't it?"

"_Hey! He stole my pun!" _Chopper growled. _"Luigi, kick his butt for me now!"_

"Yeah! You shouldn't be making bad puns!" Luigi shouted while sweat dropping. "I think I'm going to end this fight now! Prepare yourself, Mr. L, because you're pretty low on HP!"

"That may be, but that won't guarantee victory," Mr. L smirked, hurling an electric ball in his direction. Luigi smirked and froze the attack with Crystaline, making it nothing but a chunk of ice that dropped to the floor and broke.

"Hmph… Impressive!"

"Yeah, well I've got more than that you know," Luigi smirked, readying another attack. Mr. L grabbed him by the neck and tried to strangle him. But, it ended up failing when Luigi kicked him in the stomach and froze him with Crystaline.

Using his Cyclone, he unfroze Mr. L and left him off in a daze. He was able to gain consciousness when Luigi got closer, but he got hit by another Cyclone that sent him flying in the air.

"Argh! This wasn't how the fight was supposed to go!" Mr. L raged.

Luigi attempted to Super Jump his doppelganger, but Mr. L was able to aim his hand down at Luigi and fire a bolt of green lightning down at him, shocking him instantly. Mr. L grinned and landed a powerful stomp on his head.

"Looks like the tides have turned!"

"Ugh… Well, I'm not going to let that stay that way!" Luigi retorted, attempting to punch Mr. L. However, he was able to grab his fist and tighten his grip on it, making Luigi cringe in pain.

"Heh heh heh…"

He managed to get Luigi in a choke hold and fill his entire body with electricity, shocking Luigi.

"So, ready to give up?" Mr. L grinned.

"I will not let you do that!"

"What?" Mr. L was hit in the back of the head by Bonjourang, who was apparently thrown out of secret by Luigi. This released his grip on Luigi and allowed him to deliver the final blow.

"Here it comes!" Luigi used his Cyclone to send Mr. L flying in the air and quickly struck him with a Super Jump. His doppelganger crashed into the ground, exhausted from battle.

"_Ungh…_ What went wrong?" Mr. L moaned.

"Well, I suppose you have to let me out of here," Luigi smirked, looking down at Mr. L. "Oh, and you said that the weaker one was considered the doppelganger. Guess who just lost the fight?"

"Oh, I'm not finished with you just yet!" Mr. L got up and attempted to strike Luigi with an electric ball. However, the attack missed and bounced off the wall. Both Luigi and Mr. L ducked and avoided the attack. They sighed in relief…

…Until they noticed that the electric ball hit the box in the corner.

"Oh, no… No no no no NO!"

"What is it?" Luigi asked.

"That electric attack just hit the box full of Bob-ombs!" Mr. L shrieked. "With so many of them inside, that could literally…"

The Bob-ombs instantly sprung out of the box with lit fuses. Both Luigi and Mr. L gaped in horror as the fuse slowly began to shorten.

"_**WAH!**_"

With a large explosion, they instantly blacked out.

* * *

**Chopper-**

"What the heck is going on? !" Chopper yelped as he heard a large explosion through the communicator. "Luigi? ! Are you still there? ! Luigi? ! LUIGI!"

The explosions stopped and all went silent. Chopper noticed that his connection with not just Luigi, but with everyone was lost.

"No… This isn't right… I can't be the only one left!"

"_Oh, dear… This isn't good…" _Timpani gasped.

"_I never knew that this would be their fates from going through those doors…" _Blumiere gaped. _"And all that's left is just you, Chopper…"_

"Not only that, but there's no way I can find the door to Tipral's lair!" Chopper whimpered. "I guess that means that we've failed. I'm going to be stuck in here forever and Tipral's going to destroy everything. We lost."

"_Chopper, I'm sorry for putting your friends through all of this," _Timpani apologized.

"_No, Timpani, I should be the one who's sorry," _Blumiere cut in. _"I was the one who thought of the idea to split up. Unfortunately, that ended up bringing us just down to only Chopper…"_

"I don't think they've died," Chopper denied. "They were able to survive through Castle Tipral. If something similar happened to them, then there's a chance that they're still alive."

"_Chopper…" _Timpani trailed. _"Well, maybe you might be right."_

"…But the bad news is that I'm trapped here. I can't do a thing now!"

He heard the sound of magic, making him jump up in surprise. He noticed that the wall in front of him pushed back, revealing a door that was apparently hidden.

"Could it be…?"

"_Chopper! I think this might be the door to Tipral's lair!" _Blumiere gasped. _"We must move quickly!"_

"What I don't understand is how this wall suddenly moved forward…" Chopper pondered. "I heard some magic that caused that… But, why at this moment and not before?"

"_Let's not try to get into too much of a discussion about this," _Timpani suggested. _"Like you said before, your friends would probably want you to go stop Tipral."_

"Yeah… Well, I better get going then!" Chopper opened the door into a room with a Star Block. All he did was give it a good punch and that was it.

"Hopefully we're not too late…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_The darkness began to grow bigger through the hallways of Tipral's Palace. With Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi gone, all that remained was Chopper. After being trapped in a single room, he was finally revealed the door to lead him to Tipral's lair. Thinking about his friends, Chopper raced through the hallways, giving a determined look of confidence. "I can do this… I can't fail my friends and the universe!" He hoped that he wouldn't be too late._

* * *

**Oh, poor Luigi... Why did he have to be stuck in an explosion with his counterpart? Poor others as well. Personally, I don't think they deserved that (but, that's how the story has to go...). :(**

**I know some of you are wondering why most of the enemies are just the same as some that were already faced, such as the Dark Koopatrol. Since this is Tipral's Palace, he would surely have some of these guys in his palace (although the Skells are another question). And no, they're not like the enemies from Flopside Pit of 100 Trials.**

**Fun Fact: The name "Doopa" in Doopa Striker is derived from the word "duper".**

**...And I think that's just about everything. Expect something interesting to happen next chapter. :P  
**


	98. Tipral and the Heart

**CHAPTER 16-5**

**-Tipral and the Heart-**

Chopper clenched his fists as his antennas blew through the wind in the hallways of Tipral's Palace. This was just another typical hallway in Tipral's Palace, just like the one Kirby, Blade, Sonic, Mario, and Luigi went through before. However, this felt like it was a little…darker than before. Through the windows, a large, dark star could be seen, and even a comet could be seen as well. It looked as if it was covered in dark energy.

"Gee, space sure looks beautiful from out there…" Chopper trailed as he looked out the window. "What's funny is that my species were considered to be born from the stars – hence why we're considered to be from the stars. Our background is kind of interesting…if I remember it, that is."

_"Huh… I wish you knew about your species' background. I think it would've been nice to learn about your kinds' past." _Timpani said as her wand began to float in midair while glowing a rainbow color.

"Yeah, I wish I knew about that too. But, sometimes, you never get to learn about it…"

_"So, Timpani… Do you know more about Tipral?" _Blumiere asked. _"I know you might know more about him… I feel as if you're simply hiding your answers for some reason."_

"_Would I ever lie to you, Blumiere?" _Timpani asked.

_"Of course not! I just don't remember everything about him, that's all… In fact, I don't even remember what happened. That happened a long time ago, Blumiere. You really can't expect me to remember everything!"_

"Uhhhhh… Are you two going to keep arguing?" Chopper asked as he grabbed the wand. "Look, if you're going to argue, PLEASE don't argue here. I don't like to hear a married couple arguing. It's kind of like with my parents at times. So, long story short… Don't argue. It's annoying."

_"…To be fair, I guess that's something we shouldn't do," _Blumiere agreed. _"Sometimes, when we argued in the past, it almost caused us to break up. You remember that, my dear Timpani?"_

_"Yes, Blumiere. I remember after our argument that I would almost break into tears… But, the next day, things would be all better. We would usually spend the rest of the day close to each other. It was so romantic."_

_"I loved every second of it."_

"OK, now you're making it worse!" Chopper gagged. Since he couldn't take much of it anymore, he put Timpani's wand away so they could speak to each other without him having to hear.

"All right… Now that I've got that settled… I think it's time to find Tipral and stop his plans." Chopper gave a determined look as he looked at the hallway up ahead.

There were a couple of dangerous enemies around, such as Dark Elite Soldiers, and even a new type of trooper wearing silver armor, had black eyes under its helmet, a blaster rifle, and a jetpack. For some reason, these guys looked somewhat like Maquano's strongest minions, the Darksprine Troopers.

"What the… Is that a new enemy I see dead ahead? Now what could that be?" Chopper decided to investigate it with Timpani's wand and it turned out that it was called a Maginan Trooper. They were much more dangerous than the Dark Elite Soldiers.

"So these are Tipral's personal troopers? So, he finally realized what kind of army Maquano had and tried to copy the Darksprine? How original…"

He ran straight toward the Dark Elite Creature dead ahead and managed to spin his hammer around to strike it. However, that still made the Dark Elite Soldier fire a laser from its rifle. Chopper simply inhaled the blast and spat it back at the alien. With an upward thrust of his hammer, it was finished.

"Since I'm getting deep within Tipral's Palace, the enemies must be stronger…" Chopper trailed, readying his hammer at any moment for the Maginan up ahead. When it noticed him, it readied his blaster.

"Heads up, troops! Chopper's here!" the Maginan warned.

"Whoa… So they already know about me. Not that I'm surprised about that."

The Maginan began to fire dark blasts from his blaster straight at Chopper, who inhaled one of them and spat it back at the Maginan. With that armor, its defenses were rather high, having a Defense of 6. But, when Chopper hurled a charged rainbow ball at it, it was covered in rainbow steam and even some rainbow colors.

"Argh! My armor! How could you ruin my armor, brat?!" the Maginan growled as he shot Chopper, sending him flying back. He was able to get back up and charge at the trooper with a Speed Dash, but he was forced to jump on top of the enemy and use a rainbow slamming kick instead.

"Man, you guys don't go down so easily," Chopper sighed, holding Starbow up. Shootings stars came down on the Maginan Trooper and defeated it in an instant it got hurt by the stars.

"I'm glad I was some assistance!" Starbow squealed, spinning around. "Perhaps you might need me for many things here!"

"Probably," Chopper nodded as he ran ahead to find a Dark Vironoid blocking the way. Even though Luigi fought this thing before, Chopper used Timpani's wand to find out what it was and what its stats were.

"Wow… This is a lot stronger than the Red Vironoid, according to its stats."

The Dark Vironoid fired a dark beam from its mouth from underneath and tried to hit Chopper. However, he used his flipping and got behind it through 3-D. As soon as he was behind, he used an upward thrust attack with his hammer to send it flying to the ceiling. It came back down and tried to swipe at him with its claws.

"OK you spider…crab thing! Time to end this!" he finished off the Dark Vironoid with a simple rainbow smash. With that out of the way, he used a Speed Dash to move on ahead through the hallway.

_"This is a rather dark hallway, I must admit," _Blumiere commented. _"Much darker than my castle…"_

"I can agree," Chopper nodded as he rushed straight at the Dark Elite Soldier with his feet moving in a figure-8 pattern. He went to a suddenly halt when the soldier tried to fire purple lasers at him. He had the help of Slim to avoid the attack with ease.

"What the… Where did he go?!" the soldier gawked, looking around for Chopper. He simply stopped using Slim's ability and stomped on the Dark Creature's head. He raised his hammer up next and brought it down on the enemy.

The Dark Elite Soldier growled and tried to grab the Star Warrior. However, he was able to jump out of the way first and deliver an ice kick that left the enemy frozen. With a charged fireball, it thawed and got defeated.

"Hmmmmm… Well, I suppose that takes care of some of the enemies here for now. I guess…" Chopper paused when he saw two Maginans using their jetpacks and firing down at Chopper.

"Oh, come on!"

_"I wonder if the others ran into these guys…" _Timpani wondered as Chopper kept dodging the blasts being fired down on him. He tried to destroy their jetpacks with fire, but they seemed to be too fast.

"I know that if I used fire on their jetpacks, they would probably burn and fly around like crazy," Chopper deduced. "It worked on Darksprine Troopers before, so I don't see why this wouldn't."

He was able to stomp on one of the Maginans and toss a fireball at its jetpack. This caused it to burn and make the trooper fly around like crazy. It even crashed into the other Maginan, making them crash to the floor and explode.

_"That was interesting…" _Timpani trailed.

"Uh-huh!" Chopper nodded as he landed on the dark ground. "I guess it worked out just fine! That worked on the Darksprine, so I don't see why it wouldn't work on them!"

He noticed the door just up ahead, but when he stopped by it, he noticed that not only was the door locked, but a Darkling was guarding it. He simply tossed a couple of rainbow balls to defeat it.

"HA! …Wait, the door's locked." Chopper face palmed.

_"Why don't you check around the hallway to see if you can find anything," _suggested Blumiere.

"All right, might as well do that," Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a little crack by the wall. It almost looked as if he could slide through. With Slim's ability, he turned sideways and slipped through the crack into a room where a Darkling with whites eyes and a white bulb appeared to be guarding a chest.

"Wah! It's you!" the Darkling hurled an ice spell at Chopper, who inhaled it and gained the Ice ability in the process. He walked over to the Darkling and inhaled it. When he spat it out, it was like a frozen popsicle.

_"What kind of move is that you just pulled off?" _Timpani asked.

"I think that's called Ice Suction," Chopper explained. "With it, I can inhale an enemy and freeze it in my mouth. Once I spit 'em out, they're nothing but a frozen popsicle! It's something I like about the Ice ability."

Anyway, he decided to open the chest to get a hold of a Palace Key. After slipping through the crack in 3-D, he flipped back into 2-D and unlocked the door in front of him to enter a small room with spikes on the floor and a railing on the ceiling.

Another thing he noticed was the Dark Chilly right in front of him surrounding itself in an icy aura.

"I'll just freeze it and it should be done!" Chopper used his Ice Breath to freeze the Dark Chilly, but it didn't necessarily freeze it just yet. Being an enemy that uses ice powers, there was no way it was going to freeze easily.

He decided to try again, but it still didn't freeze. However, the third time he used an ice attack, the Dark Chilly froze, allowing Chopper to kick it over to the spikes, shattering the frozen Chilly.

"All right, now I just need to get over these spikes…" Chopper grabbed a hold of the railing and began to make his way over the spikes. He was worried if he was going to fall off or not.

"Ugh… I don't like being near spikes, honestly…"

He made his way across the railing and let go, landing on the floor right next to the end of the room. However, he didn't happen to see a door anywhere. Confused, he used Timpani's wand to look around.

_"There's a door here," _Timpani noted. _"Here. Let me make it visible for you."_

With that, the door was now visible, allowing Chopper to walk into another room. This one seemed to have the floor moving up an angle, which actually didn't make it good for Chopper, considering that going up a slope means he'll be slow.

However, there was a yellow spring sticking out of the wall over to his left. With it, he managed to make his way up the slope and over to a platform moving upward like the floor to his left. However, he couldn't get onto it by running. He had to jump over to it.

"Geez… This might be annoying for me…" Chopper trailed as he used a Speed Dash to go up the slope. Unfortunately, the spring on the wall made him go back down to the slope on the floor.

_"Oh, dear… Those springs actually get in your way more than help you…" _Timpani gasped.

"Yeah, I know. They're annoying." Chopper used his Speed Dash to go up the slope and reach the upward path to his left. This time, he tried to be careful and jumped for the upward path on his right. He was already close to the door anyway, so just one more platform to go…

When he made his way up to the door, he noticed that an armored enemy holding a spiked ball called a Meta Knight was guarding the door. It tried to throw the spiked ball at him, but Chopper used his Ice Storm to freeze it and kick it to the wall, shattering it.

"Yeah! That took care of that!"

_"I guess it would be best to go through the door before any more enemies return," _Blumiere suggested.

"And that is what I plan to do," Chopper smiled as he entered the door into the next room. For some reason, these rooms seemed to be going up, but maybe it's because it's leading up to an upper floor.

Especially this room. Apparently, there were some small platforms leading up to a railing connecting to both walls. Chopper shrugged and jumped up them to grab a hold of the railing. What was bad, however, was that he saw some spikes below him on another ledge. There were even some cannons he had to worry about too!

"Oh… Well this is nice…" One of the cannons happened to fire a cannonball at Chopper, removing his Ice ability, which ended up hitting the spikes. He frowned as the yellow star popped, leaving him with no ability.

He noticed that there was another railing up above him over by the upper right, so he tried jumping for it. Another thing that also seemed to be coming his way were purple spells. Chopper noticed that they looked familiar.

"Great… This is just what I needed."

He managed to grab a hold of the next rail and then got on the platform above it. A spring happened to be sitting there, so he decided to use it to launch himself up to the door above him, where another door was.

_"Be careful, Chopper… I sense great power through that door…" _Blumiere warned.

"Great power? You mean we're getting close to Tipral?" Chopper gaped.

_"No… It doesn't feel like Tipral. It feels more like something…magical."_

When Chopper walked into the next room, he noticed that there were a couple of platforms up ahead over by the right. Jumping down would result in him falling down in a bottomless pit. Not only that, but a couple of Phantom Embers were roaming around between the moving platforms.

He noticed that on the walls, there were some mirrors. They reminded Chopper of the mirrors back in Castle Tipral.

"Uh oh… Don't tell me _he's_ here…" Chopper groaned as he jumped onto the first platform. The row of platforms moving down seemed to be going fast, to his surprise. Luckily, he was able to jump to the next set of platforms moving up while hurling an ice ball at a Phantom Ember in his way.

"Annoying Phantom Embers… Stay back in the Palace of Shadow please!"

He noticed that the mirrors suddenly had Dimentio in front of them. He noticed the Dimentios raise a finger and fire a spell down at him. He shrieked and jumped over to the platform nearby, avoiding the full power of the spell.

"You know, pard, you can always use me to avoid those spells," Slim informed. "You know, yer just gonna be slim when ya use me!"

"Oh, ha ha… Very funny. You're lucky that you're not involved in the fighting."

Chopper looked around to see if he needed to go somewhere. There was a large gap between the platform he's on and the ledge where the door was sitting.

"Hold on… Where are the platforms?"

_"Remember, Chopper… 'When in doubt, try flipping'. We've seen that a couple of times when we were traveling through Lineland Road." _Timpani reminded. _"You're sure to find something."_

"Yeah, that's true," Chopper nodded as he flipped into 3-D. To his surprise, he saw a couple of moving platforms going up and down. However, that didn't stop the Dimentios in the mirror to fire their spells at him in 3-D.

Chopper was able to avoid a couple while inhaling one of them to spit it over to the wall. After crossing the 3-D platforms, he went back into 2-D near the platform that was in 2-D and decided to wait for his Flip Gauge to fill up.

"Thankfully, my Flip Gauge has doubled, so I bet it might come useful around here," he pondered.

Once it was full, he opened the door into a hallway with a slope going down and also a loop. A Maginan Trooper was close by, reading to attack, so running through the loop wouldn't be as simple as Chopper thought.

_"I guess it would be best to defeat the Maginan first…" _suggested Timpani.

"Of course," Chopper nodded.

The Maginan began to fire at Chopper as soon as it spotted him, who proceeded to jump over the blasts and stomp on its head. It didn't do too much damage because of its defense, but he was able to bring his hammer down on it afterward with rainbow energy. Unfortunately, the trooper was able to whack Chopper with its blaster rifle, leaving a red mark on his face.

"Now I've got you!" the Maginan smirked as it fired a dark laser straight for Chopper. He tried to dodge it, but he was unfortunate to get hit by the laser and sent flying back. Chopper threw a simple fireball that did a little bit of damage to the Maginan, but it didn't burn it.

"Try all you want, but you can't burn or freeze me! My armor protects me from those effects!"

"Great… Then I have to resort to something else…" Chopper groaned as he gripped his hammer and bashed the Maginan. Even if fire and ice wouldn't have a huge effect on the trooper, it would still _hurt_ it, right?

_"Chances are that it could, but it's not going to do much," _Blumiere noted as Chopper used a flaming sweeping kick to make the Maginan fall over, allowing Chopper to attack it with a rainbow stomp.

"Oh! I remember one attack I've been able to use once! I think I can technically use it!" When the Maginan got up, Chopper spun his fists that were full of rainbow energy and finished off the Maginan with a Rainbow Spin Attack. "See? Got 'em!"

With that, he charged up a Speed Dash and went down the slope nearby. Because he was moving down, his speed increased as he went through the loop. He went through another loop and began to run on a flat surface after making his way down to the end of the slope. What caught him off guard was when he saw a slope going up and then down, as if it were some kind of lump on the ground.

"What the heck? Why is that there?"

_"Well, I suppose you can still run on it," _Timpani said. _"It might bring you somewhere important anyway."_

"All right, I'll just run over it," Chopper made his way up the little lump and ran down it. At this point, stopping wouldn't be easy, but he did happen to notice another slope reaching up to a ledge ahead.

"I wonder if there are any Speed Shoes around here… Sonic uses those, and I think it would be nice having some!"

When he ran up the ledge, he landed right in front of the door that was being guarded by a Dark Spiky Skell. He tried to fight it by using a rainbow smash, but he got hit by its spear at least once.

"Annoying Skellobit…" Chopper grumbled as he bashed its head with a rainbow smash, this time succeeding. The Dark Spiky Skell was blown back by the attack, and was finished off when Chopper tossed a charged rainbow ball at it.

"Heh heh… That'll teach it to mess with me!"

After hitting the Save Block, he entered the next room, which happened to be small with a block right in front of him. He noticed a little square-shaped hole nearby. Knowing what he had to do, Chopper pushed the box into the hole.

Only to have it reappear.

_"What's this? Why did the block come back here?" _Blumiere gawked.

"Oh, I see it now… This is just like that one puzzle in the Confusing Palace." Chopper recalled. "You two weren't there to see it, but in a palace, we had to figure out a little puzzle that involved pushing a block in a certain direction. I'm going to check and see right now."

Using his ability, Chopper flipped into 3-D to discover a glowing path to the hole. He used this to his advantage when he pushed the box on the glowing path and let it fall into the whole afterward. A door appeared in front of him as soon as he went back into 2-D.

"Well, time to head on through!"

* * *

**Next room-**

When Chopper walked into the next room, he noticed that the room was kind of small, but big enough to have a battle occur. He noticed that there were a couple of yellow balls bouncing around in the room too.

"What the… What are with these balls?" Chopper asked as one of them hit him in the face.

"Ow! What the…" Chopper noticed a certain Koopaling making a couple of yellow balls with his wand. "Is it me, or am I seeing a Koopaling here? Dang it, without Mario here, I don't know who this is!"

"Hey! Someone's here!" the Koopaling said stupidly as he jumped off his ball and landed in front of Chopper. "Hi there! My name's Lemmy Koopa! Put it there!"

"Uhhhh…" Chopper was about to shake his hand until he received a shock from Lemmy's hand. "Ack! What the heck?! Did you have a hand buzzer on your hand?!"

"Heh heh! So, I was told that some lunatic was coming here, thanks to some guy that looks like you. He told me if I could beat you, then my dad'll come back to us!"

"You mean Bowser? Yeah… I highly doubt he's telling you the truth. He's probably just telling you that so it would MAKE you want to go after us."

"Well I don't really care," Lemmy said stupidly as a flower squirt water in Chopper's face. "You are technically Mario's friend, who's my enemy! Fighting you is going to be a blast!"

"NO! I don't want to fight anyone right now!" Chopper cried. "I NEED to move on before I'm too late!"

"Well, looks like that's not going to happen! Let's battle!" Lemmy jumped on one of his balls and began firing smaller yellow balls at Chopper, who proceeded to jump over one of them. However, when he got close to Lemmy, he fired a ball that instantly pushed him back.

"These balls are such a pain! I wish I had something to get rid of 'em!" Chopper grumbled as he tried whacking one away. All it did was bounce all over the room. To his surprise, it ended up hitting Lemmy and knocked him off his ball.

"Hey… I think I see an idea here!" he used a Speed Dash to run up to him and gave him a good stomp, but Lemmy was faster and pulled a pie out. Throwing it at his face, he was knocked back and kicked in the face by the Koopaling.

"I can wash that off for you!" Lemmy spat a fireball straight at Chopper, who wiped the pie off his face and inhaled the fireball, gaining the Fire ability. The Koopaling gulped as Chopper transformed into a fireball and rammed into him.

"Yuck! That pie tasted horrible! And I'm not one to find things horrible!"

Chopper decided to find out what his stats were by using Timpani's wand.

_"This is Lemmy Koopa. He's the second oldest of the Koopalings and second oldest of all of Bowser's eight children. He's kind of crazy, considering that he's one of the older ones. Max HP is 300. Attack is 15. Defense is 5. Lemmy, unlike the other Koopalings, tends to attack you with his own pranks. Sure, he can occasionally spit out a fireball, but he usually tries to knock you back with balls he created or just with things like pie or a whoopee cushion. Other than that, I really can't get much of a reading on him…" _Timpani informed.

"Geez… This is the only Koopaling I have to fight on my own." Chopper sweat dropped. He spat a fireball himself at Lemmy, who ended up extinguishing it with his squirting flower. "Wait, that got rid of the fire?"

"Wanna put it there again?" Lemmy asked with his tongue out. He grabbed Chopper's hand and electrocuted him this time instead of giving him a shock. Despite this, Chopper didn't lose his Fire ability, but he managed to use a flaming sweeping kick, that's for sure.

"How am I going to beat this guy when he's got all these pranks?"

_"If I may have a suggestion…" _Blumiere began. _"Since he's mostly using all of his pranks against you, why don't you try to fight him with pranks? It's like fighting fire with fire."_

"I could try that, but I don't have anything to use…" Chopper trailed as he burned one of Lemmy's yellow balls. Lemmy used his squirt flower to hit Chopper again, but he tossed an ice ball to freeze the water and shatter it.

"Uh oh…"

Chopper charged straight for Lemmy and sent him flying back as a fireball. Knowing that he probably didn't have to use any pranks against him, he rolled up in a fireball instead and left Lemmy with a burn.

"Ha! Looks like I have the upper hand!" Chopper was about to attack Lemmy with a flaming fist, but he managed to bash him with his head and rid his Fire ability with his squirt flower.

"You've gotta be kidding me…"

"Come on! You want to enjoy some fun! This is as much fun as you get!" Lemmy stuck a tongue out as he began to throw pies like a maniac. Chopper got pelted by most of them, but managed to catch at least one.

"Eeuugh… These pies taste awful…" Chopper wiped some of the cream off his face and aimed the pie at Lemmy. While he was readying his wand, Chopper threw the pie at Lemmy's face.

But it didn't seem to do much.

"Heh heh heh heh! Nice joke ya played on me there!" Lemmy laughed. "C'mon! Why don'tcha throw another pie at me! Right in the face again!"

Chopper grabbed one of the pies left on his face and threw it at Lemmy. However, this time, Lemmy transformed the pie into a killer pie that tried to attack Chopper. Big mistake he made there. He simply inhaled the pie (as bad as it was) and spat it at Lemmy, knocking him back.

"Bleh! Next time, why don't you make better pies?" Chopper scoffed, sticking his tongue out in disgust. "These are almost as worse as Luvbi's kisses!"

"Awww… Fine. I've got something else special!" Lemmy opened his mouth and a bunch of scarves came out. After getting them all out, he used them like a lasso and managed to catch Chopper. He hurled him to the wall, leaving him with almost a concussion.

"Ow… I don't get this…"

"You don't have to! I'm playin' a little prank on ya!"

"This feels more like pain than a prank," Chopper moaned as he burnt the scarves with fire energy. He proceeded to jump over to Lemmy and use a sweeping kick to hit his stomach. Afterward, he hurled a rainbow ball at him to cover him in rainbow steam.

Lemmy, despite hurt, didn't seem to cringe in pain. He just laughed hysterically as he spat a couple of fireballs in Chopper's way. He brought his hammer up and tried to block some of them, but the fireballs just blew Chopper's hammer out of his hands.

"_**YOUCH!**_" Chopper cried as he began to shake his hands from the fire left on him. However, using his Elemental Hand abilities, he was able to surround his hands in an icy aura to cool down the flames.

_"Apparently you can't just let him get to you like that," _Blumiere noted.

"I know, I know," Chopper stopped shaking his hands and hurled an ice ball at Lemmy, freezing him. This allowed him to run up to him and bash him with a fire smash, unfreezing Lemmy.

"Heh heh! So you do have nails to beat me!" Lemmy said stupidly as he stepped on a whoopee cushion he dropped and grabbed Chopper's hand to leave him with a nasty shock. He then got back on his yellow ball and rolled over Chopper, flattening him like a pancake.

"I'm getting creamed by a Koopaling… Seriously?"

Lemmy fired a light blue-colored spell straight at Chopper while he was preoccupied. When he inhaled it, he ended up gaining the Ice ability. From what he could tell, Lemmy apparently uses ice magic.

_"He must use ice magic because he's usually been in a snow world," _Timpani noted. _"Many villains that live in the snowy wastelands usually have ice magic."_

"Well, let's see how I fare against him. Now that I have ice to help me, this should get interesting." Chopper ice skated his way over to Lemmy, who was busy doing a stupid trick, and he jumped up to the Koopaling and used his Ice Sprinkle to make him shiver and turn a little blue.

"H-Hey! I was trying to do a little trick!" Lemmy spat, spitting a fireball straight at him. Chopper spat a chunk of ice out to counter it, but, because it was just ice, fire was able to melt it easily.

"Dang it… I gotta think up another way to get to him."

He noticed Lemmy summon another yellow ball that began to hurl down at him. He froze it with his Ice Breath and kicked it over to Lemmy's ball. Because of the ice shards left from the shattering ball, the ball popped and Lemmy fell face flat on the floor.

"YEAH! Take that!"

Chopper was about to charge at him, but he accidentally stepped on a whoopee cushion and fell over. The whoopee cushion seemed to emit some kind of sleeping powder that put Chopper to sleep.

"Well that actually worked," Lemmy smirked as he got up. "Who ever knew that the sound of a fart could emit gas that puts someone to sleep? Heh heh heh! Well, turns out I did!"

Lemmy fired another ice projectile from his wand to make it strike Chopper. However, because he had the Ice ability on, it didn't seem to remove his ability, making the Koopaling look confused.

"Hey! That should've done something!"

Not only that, but it woke Chopper up. Now that he was up and ready to fight, he ice skated over to Lemmy and used his Ice Storm to leave Lemmy frozen solid – but not for long. The Koopaling was able to break out and throw a ball in Chopper's face, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Ugh… This is so annoying…" moaned Chopper.

Needless to say, he was getting his butt kicked once again. He tried to surround himself in another icy shield, which prevented Lemmy from using his claws on his when he got close to him.

"Hold on… I know what I CAN do!" Chopper whipped out an Ultimate Shroom Shake and drank the whole thing, recovering 100 HP. "Yeah! Now I feel much better! Thankfully, I have the upper hand this time!"

Lemmy grabbed another whoopee cushion and sat on it, making fire spit out. He began to fly straight for Chopper, who brought up another icy shield with his Ice Storm. But, instead, he was able to get Lemmy inside his mouth. You know, to try something different.

Once he spat the Koopaling out, he was just a mere frozen popsicle. But, once he crashed into the wall, the ice shattered and Lemmy was free. He created another yellow ball and jumped on it. With his magic ready, he fired a chunk of ice down at Chopper. It didn't freeze him, but it knocked his Ice ability away.

"Meh. It's all right. I can fight without ice." Chopper shrugged as he charged a rainbow ball and hurled it at him, knocking him off his ball. While he was dazed, Chopper ran up to him and stomped on his head.

"Look, I know you believe that defeating me will get your dad back, but I highly doubt Tipral would even help you."

"Well, then why'd he tell me that earlier?" Lemmy asked, kicking Chopper away before taking out a paint bucket. "He said that if I stayed here and guarded this place and beat you, I'd get my dad back."

He drank the paint in the bucket after opening it with his claw and began to squirt blue paint of Chopper. He jumped out of the way and held Starbow up, making shooting stars rain down on Lemmy and knock him over.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

Lemmy merely gave him a stupid look before squirting him with water with his squirt flower. Chopper rubbed his eyes as the water got caught in there, allowing Lemmy to get in his shell and send him flying back.

"What a cheap move…" Chopper grumbled.

"Heh heh heh! How'd you like that?" Lemmy snickered.

"Well, how would you like THIS?!" Chopper whipped his hammer out and brought it down on Lemmy's head. After thrusting his hammer upward, Lemmy got sent flying up to the ceiling and then began to plummet down.

_"Chopper, Lemmy's HP is rather low at this point," _Timpani informed. _"If you deal a couple of more hits, you should be able to defeat him."_

"Hey, I like that!" Chopper smiled. "All right! Time to end this, Lemmy!"

Before he could attack, Lemmy used another whoopee cushion to put him to sleep. At this point, the Koopaling was able to make a move while he was asleep, so he created a yellow ball and hurled it at Chopper, knocking him to the wall.

"Ow…"

Lemmy conjured another ice spell and prepared to hurl it at him. Chopper, on the other hand, inhaled the spell and spat it back at Lemmy, leaving him stunned and allowing Chopper to hurl a charged rainbow ball at him.

"Oh, man… I don't know what to do now…" Lemmy moaned. "I'm not feeling good at the moment."

"Then could you let me through?" Chopper asked. "I'd rather just get a move on instead of knocking you out."

"No way! I'm not giving up just yet!"

"Ugh… If you say so…" As Lemmy prepared another spell, Chopper simply stomped on him, and Lemmy fell over on the ground, unconscious.

Chopper brushed off any dirt left on him from the fight and gave a smirk as he looked away from him. Even though he didn't want to knock out the Koopaling, he really had no other choice.

_"That was…an interesting Koopaling," _Blumiere commented.

"Yeah, I can't disagree on that," Chopper agreed as he walked over to the door. "Wait until I tell everyone else abo-"

He paused for a moment, his smirk changing to a sad look. He pulled his communicator out and tried to get a hold of them.

Sadly, he had no luck.

"Man… Being alone isn't fun at all. I've had to be alone for a long time ever since my own kind was wiped out. And some of the closest friends I've ever had… Gone."

_"But Chopper… Didn't you say yourself that you believed that they're still alive?" _Timpani recalled.

"Yeah… I did say that. Now that I think about it, I'm not so sure. I mean, if they were sucked into space, I don't see how they'll die easily. Maybe they could be still alive! If Tipral has to do something related to this, I swear I'll make him pay."

He opened the door in front of him and entered a room with a spring over to his left that seemed to go up to the ceiling. He noticed a little curve connecting from the wall to the ceiling, as if he could run up it.

"Hmmmmm… Well, since there's nothing over to my right, I might as well use this spring…" Chopper trailed.

He jumped on the spring and launched himself up to the ceiling. He tried to get his feet moving, so when he got on the curve, he was starting to run on the ceiling instead. Luckily, there were no enemies in his way, so he was able to go up the curve on another wall connected to the ceiling and jump off the wall thanks to a yellow spring pointed upward to the right, sending him onto the higher ledge of the room.

"Geez… That was interesting."

He was right beside the door, which was apparently being guarded by a robotic enemy with a tinted lens for an eye and exhaust pipes rising from its back. Chopper also noticed the enemy wearing a blue cap with a yellow brim and had red, metal feet. It had one retractable arm with a white glove on the end, which also seemed to be holding a red yo-yo. After investigating it, Chopper found out that it was called a Gim.

"Hmmmm… I better see what this thing has." Chopper opened his mouth and sucked the Gim in like a vacuum. Upon swallowing the robotic enemy, he gained a backwards light blue cap (that reminded him of the hat from his Wheel ability) and was carrying a red and white yo-yo.

"Huh… So, looks like I have a yo-yo!"

_"But what would you need a yo-yo for, anyway?" _Blumiere asked.

"Oh, maybe I'll need it for something…"

He opened the door into the next room, which seemed to go up. However, there was a high ledge just above him, but because of his jump, Chopper was unable to reach the high ledge.

However, there happened to be a switch hanging from the short ceiling above him. Something like a yo-yo could probably get it down…

"Hey! This gives me an idea!" Chopper threw his yo-yo at the red ! switch on the ceiling and made a platform appear right by the ledge. However, just because the platform appeared didn't mean that he was good to go. It actually had a time limit.

_"You might want to move fast, Chopper," _Timpani warned. _"That platform won't be there for long…"_

"Oh… Then I better act quickly!" he declared as he leapt up to the platform and jumped onto the ledge afterward. The platform disappeared, but he had a Darkling to worry about at the moment.

The Darkling hurled a yellow spell directly at him, causing him to jump over the spell and use his yo-yo to knock it to the wall. He pulled it over to him with his yo-yo and slammed it to the ground, finishing it off.

_"I never knew someone could do something like that with a yo-yo…" _gaped Timpani.

"I never knew either…until I used it the first time," Chopper said as he threw his yo-yo up at the next red ! switch above him. He used the platform to reach the next ledge, that happened to have an Elite Dark Swordsman ready to attack.

"Great…"

He used his yo-yo to grab the Dark Elite Soldier and throw it to the wall. Afterward, he simply smacked it with his yo-yo to deal a little bit of damage. Because of its defense, it was kind of tough to hurt it. Luckily, he was able to dodge the purple jagged sword's swings and throw the Dark Creature off the ledge.

"Phew! That was too close!"

He hit the next red ! switch and reached the final ledge, where a door happened to be. A Maginan Trooper, unfortunately, was blocking the way, and even when Chopper threw it off the ledge, it was able to use its jetpack to fly back up.

"Don't think that's going to work, kid," spat the Maginan. "You're not going to be getting anywhere with me here!"

"Crud…" Nevertheless, Chopper flung a fireball at the Maginan's jetpack, sending it crashing to the floor. With his tongue sticking out, he kicked the door into a room with a ledge just before him, but he noticed that there wasn't much of a floor here. In fact, there was not much of a floor. There were even a couple of mirrors as well!

"Uhhhhh… Wait, this isn't good."

Before Chopper could react, he ducked when a spell was hurled down at him. Dimentio, who happened to be in the mirror, was flinging his spells down at him.

_"Dimentio… I'm surprised that Tipral even let him live…" _Blumiere said as he glared at Dimentio through the wand.

Chopper jumped on one of the bobbing platforms that reminded him of Castle Tipral. On a platform past a tall one, there happened to be a Dark Sir Kibble standing around, doing nothing special.

When Chopper flipped into 3-D, he noticed that there was a platform over to his right, so he jumped onto it to get around the taller platform. After going back into 2-D, he whacked the Dark Sir Kibbles with his yo-yo and sent it falling down the bottomless pit.

"I'll admit, making a lot of bottomless pits in a palace isn't exactly 'safe'," Chopper noted as he jumped to the next platform. "In fact, bottomless pits themselves are starting to become a little clichéd."

Nevertheless, he jumped over the gap and landed on another bobbing platform. The platform next to him happened to have a Dark Koopatrol roaming around, so he got his yo-yo ready for action.

Chopper simply whipped his yo-yo at the Dark Koopatrol to send it flying back. To his surprise, it landed on the bobbing platform across the gap. Needless to say, he was a bit shocked.

"Sheesh… Who ever knew that would happen?"

The Dark Koopatrol got back up and attempted to charge at Chopper, but once he brought Starbow up, shooting stars began to rain down on the Dark Koopatrol and defeat it after four stars hit it.

"Yeah! That did it! Now let's get a move on!" Chopper crossed the rest of the bobbing platforms until he reached the door. Upon entering, he was in another similar hallway, but with large, purple and black tanks in the room. Three, to be exact.

"Whoa… What're those?"

_"They look like heavily armored tanks…" _Timpani trailed. _"A Dark Tank, to be exact. Be careful, Chopper… This thing has 300 HP, an Attack of 16 and a Defense of 8. They can be pretty dangerous…"_

"Wh-What?! Are you serious?! That's ridiculous!" Chopper gaped.

One of the Dark Tanks noticed Chopper's arrival and prepared to fire at him. He gasped and jumped over the large, purple laser that was fired in his direction and hurled his yo-yo at the tank.

It barely did anything.

_"Try all ya want, kid!" _scoffed the Dark Creature in the tank. _"But a mere yo-yo like that's not going to harm this bad boy!"_

"Yeah… I thought so…" Chopper removed his Yo-yo ability as soon as a missile fired straight for him. He inhaled it and gained the Bomb ability. While using Starbow to damage it a tad, he threw a couple of bombs at it, which seemed to actually deal some damage to it.

_"It looks like explosives seem to work against it," _Timpani informed as Chopper threw a couple of more bombs at it.

"I feel that this could take a while…"

* * *

**Some time later-**

"MAN… I can't believe it nearly took me THAT long to finish off those tanks!" Chopper sighed as he fell over by the door, exhausted. He noticed that he could see the comet still through the window.

"You know, I wonder why a comet is out there… In fact, where did it come from?"

_"Hmmmm… Perhaps we'll be able to see this in the future?" _Blumiere predicted.

"Well, let's not worry about a comet for the moment. We need to find Tipral immediately, before we're too late."

Chopper opened the door into a room where he saw a cracked wall near him. Since he didn't have Hommissile around, he was forced to pull out a bomb and drop it by the crack. Upon exploding, a hole in the wall appeared, allowing Chopper to go through in 3-D. He nearly fainted when he saw a long hallway with pillars around the room.

"Oh, man… I've gotta do some sort of puzzle, don't I?"

Not only that, but he had a Skelloknight to worry about. It charged straight for him, but he managed to drop a bomb right in front of it to blow its armor off. With that, he chucked a couple of bombs at it and took care of it. Upon going into 3-D again, he noticed a Dark Tank.

"_I suppose it's best to stay out of 3-D," _suggested Timpani.

"Yeah, I better do that…" Chopper looked around the hallway, searching for anything that he could find. There happened to be a Maginan in the room, to his dismay, but a couple of bombs were able to do it in.

"OK… So I guess I have to see where to go…" Unfortunately, Chopper had no luck in finding anything around to help him.

"Dang it… I don't see anything around here. No cracks, no nothing." However, it didn't stop him from using Timpani's wand to search around the room. Groaning, he went into 3-D and chucked some bombs at the Dark Tank.

After it was destroyed, he noticed by one of the pillars, there was apparently a hidden crack. Out of curiosity, Chopper placed a bomb in front of the pillar and let it explode. The pillar fell over on the left and made a hole for him to go through.

"Now I'm starting to get that maze feeling from Castle Tipral…" Chopper groaned. "This sure is 'not-so-a-mazing'…"

_"I can't tell whether that was a pun or not…" _Blumiere trailed.

"I'm not too sure," Chopper said as he walked through the hole and found another hole to the upper right, so he simply made his way through there. In the next hallway, he noticed that there were actually two more holes. One just up ahead, and another to the upper right. He decided to take the one closest to him, leading him into a hallway with two Dark Goombas and two Dark Koopa Troopas.

He readied a bomb and began to chuck them at the four enemies. One of the Dark Goombas managed to headbonk him, while a Dark Koopa was able to send him flying back by ramming him with it shell.

"Ugh… Annoying Koopas…" Chopper grumbled as he stomped on the Koopa and kicked it at the rest of the enemies. He finished off the Dark Koopa by chucking one last bomb at it.

With that, he went back into 3-D to see if there was anything around. He saw another hole to the upper right and went through to find a door just up ahead. He went back into 2-D, defeated the Dark Boomboxer with some stomps, and entered the door into a room with a caged fence shaped like a rectangle floating in the air. There weren't any enemies, but there were surely some sparks on it.

_"Careful, Chopper…" _Timpani warned. _"If you're on that fence for too long, you're bound to get electrocuted."_

"All right, I'll try…" Chopper grabbed a hold of the fence and started to climb his way across. However, he didn't notice a spark appearing all the way to the left and making its way for Chopper.

_"Watch out for the spark," _Blumiere warned.

"Oh, geez!" Chopper was about to jump off, but he ended up getting electrocuted by the spark, losing his Bomb ability in the process. Despite this, he was able to land right by the door and head into another hallway with two patrolling Maginans. He decided to go into 3-D, where he saw a doorway over to the upper left. However, the Maginans had the ability to go into 3-D.

"Dang it!"

Despite this, he chucked a couple of rainbow balls at the Maginans to destroy them, allowing him to proceed on to the doorway to the upper left. At this point, all of the enemies had the ability to go into 3-D.

The Biospark that was charging for Chopper pulled out a kunai knife and tried to stab Chopper with it. Instead, it got inhaled, allowing Chopper to get the Ninja ability.

"Well, since ninja attacks pierce through defense, this should be just fine," he smiled as he pulled a small katana out. "Plus, I get this cool katana!"

He rushed at one of the Dark Pokeys in the hallway and used his Dash Attack to swing his katana at the enemy while dashing. He disappeared for a second after going past the Dark Pokey. When he reappeared, he was right behind the Dark Pokey, but it was already defeated.

With a smirk, he put his katana away and ran over to the upper left doorway in 3-D. At this point, he noticed two doorways down to the lower left and right. Upon going down the left one, he noticed a small, simple hallway with a Darkling and a Dark Buzz Bomber.

"Ugh… This'll be swell." Chopper threw a couple of kunais at the Darkling and Dark Buzz Bomber. After a couple, they were gone, allowing Chopper to open the chest to reveal at Star Shroom Shake.

"OK, I guess there's nothing else here. Might as well take the other way." Chopper went back into 3-D and took the other doorway into a hallway with a door up a slope. Two Dark Spiky Bomber Skells happened to be around here.

He tried to attack them, but due to them flying above him, he couldn't attack them with his ninja abilities. Instead, he used Starbow to take them out with a couple of shooting stars, allowing him to proceed to the door ahead, leading him to a room with two walls close together.

_"I believe you can wall jump up those with your Ninja ability," _Timpani noted. _"In case if you ever lost your ability, the Biospark here could help."_

"Not likely," Chopper said as he finished off the Biospark with his katana. "It's already defeated!"

With that, he began to go up the room with his wall jump. It didn't take him too long, but once he reached the top, he got on the ledge to the right and walked over to a green ! switch right near him. Upon hitting it with his katana, a path revealed itself in 3-D, but the switch also took away his Ninja ability.

"What?! How come I can't use that?!"

_"From what I can tell, that switch has the ability to take away any Copy Abilities that you have if you touch it," _Timpani informed.

"Great… Well, might as well continue on." Chopper flipped into 3-D and went through the path in 3-D. After going through the wall, he noticed a bigger door right in front of him with two, large, dark lanterns. He could also see a large pillar as well.

_"This must be the door to lead us to Tipral's lair…" _Blumiere informed.

_"Yes, I can feel a dark power coming from this door…" _Timpani agreed.

"Yeah, but the only problem is that it's locked," Chopper frowned. "How am I supposed to get through now?"

He decided to throw his arms up and go into 3-D. What he didn't notice was a secret door behind the pillar. When he opened it, it led him outside, on a…cloud?

"Huh…? What's a cloud doing here?" Chopper noticed another cloud just up ahead. "Weird… I'm outside in space, yet there are clouds here too?"

While pondering, he noticed something fly around. It looked like some sort of white, baby UFO with eyes. He wanted to eat it and take its ability, but it already flew past him, making him frown.

"Well, since that door was locked, I should go and see if I can find a key here," Chopper jumped over to the cloud ahead and noticed a couple of smaller clouds forming as stairs leading up to a chest.

After making his way up them, he opened the chest and found a Palace Key inside. With that, he went back inside.

* * *

**Inside-**

"All right, this is it…" Chopper trailed, pulling the Palace Key out and holding it in his hands. "Well, let's go."

Putting the key in the lock, it broke off, allowing Chopper to go in. However, it wasn't what he expected it to be. In fact, there was no one in this room at all. It actually looked kind of like the rooms the others fought someone in…but with a door ahead.

"Oh, so this isn't it yet…"

"Ah ha ha ha. I see you've finally made your way here." Over in the middle of the room, Dimentio was standing there, as if he was waiting for him.

_"Dimentio…" _Blumiere said coldly.

"What's this? Are you holding some sort of wand that allows you to communicate with someone?" Dimentio asked while smirking. "Very interesting…"

"All right, where's Tipral?" Chopper asked, getting in a fighting stance. "I think it would be a wise decision to tell me where he is before I stomp on you."

"I dare you to try," Chopper shrugged and hurled a rainbow ball at the jester. He simply put his hand in the way and let the attack bounce of with a small, magic barrier.

"What the… But how?"

"I am a magician, you know… I can do many things. In fact, I could simply use my magic to end your game right now."

_"We're not going to let that happen," _Timpani growled. _"You've lost in the past, even when Chopper and his friends beat you when you took the Chaos Heart."_

"Me taking the Chaos Heart? I don't have the slightest memory on that…"

"Remember, Tippi… Tipral apparently wiped his memory of all that…" Chopper reminded. "Anyway… Are you just here to fight or what?"

"Oh, no no no. I didn't come here to fight at all. In fact, I waited here for you to congratulate you! There's no harm in complimenting someone!"

"Yeah, I know that…"

_"Sometimes I don't get this guy…" _Timpani groaned.

"The only reason how I even got here was because somehow the wall blocking me magically disappeared and revealed a door," Chopper explained. "I'd be gone if that happened."

"Magically disappeared, you say?"

"Yeah… I know. It… Wait a second… Was that YOU who did that?"

"You might as well say that," Dimentio slowly nodded as he turned away from him. "I noticed how much you were suffering from being trapped in that room. In fact, it was I who even trapped you in the room in the first place!"

"You dirty little…"

"Oh, no need for insults, little Chopper!" Dimentio assured as he turned to him. "I did save your life in the first place too."

"Or maybe you just wanted me to wait until I was alone, is that it?"

"Oh, yes! I just realized that you haven't even got in touch with your friends!"

"Look, I don't want to talk about it. Just get out of my way." Chopper suggested, giving him a glare.

"Very well… If I must. If you wish to stop Tipral, then I'm not stopping you." With a simple snap of his finger, he disappeared.

_"That was strange…" _Timpani trailed. _"Why would he just let out through like that? It's not like him to do that…"_

"Well, he did that for us, so we might as well go on," Chopper rushed over to the door and opened it to a hallway with a couple of doors. He noticed that there were about eight doors in the hallway and one door at the end.

_"I believe these doors lead to one of Tipral's minions' rooms," _Blumiere confirmed. _"I can tell that brown door is O'Chunks's."_

"Well, let's take a look, shall we?" Chopper opened the door, but he stopped when he noticed that there was a punching bag by the corner, and even a piece of meat hanging from the ceiling.

"I take it he enjoys meat…"

_"Yes, O'Chunks has taken a liking to meat," _Blumiere nodded. _"Perhaps it's because he wants to be stronger than before?"_

"Most likely… Well, nothing too special in this room." Chopper poked at the chunk of meat before exiting the room. He went up to the pink door up next and opened it to find a pink room filled with a couple of dolls and a red heart on the rug.

"…I don't really like this room that much."

_"From what I can tell, this must be Mimi's room…" _

"Yeah… I can tell by the Rubees, the Tipral plushie, the picture of her and Tipral kissing and… Wait, what's that?" Chopper noticed a diary sitting on the table. "Is this her diary?"

_"_…_Are you really going to read her diary?" _Timpani gawked.

"Uhhhh… I'm not sure whether or not if I should."

_"Sometimes, I get a little curious of what's in another girl's diary. Hee hee! Sometimes finding a secret can be interesting!"_

"Hmmmmmm… Well, since Mimi isn't around and all… Maybe I might consider it."

_"Are you suuuuure you want to do that, though? Sometimes I even feel I'm invading someone's privacy."_

"Sigh… All right, I guess I'll take a look." Chopper slowly grabbed the book and opened it. With a sigh, he began to read the following.

_Dear Diary,_

_Man, I can't believe those heroes! They managed to beat me and get a hold of a Pure Heart even when the world was destroyed! …Too bad that the Pure Heart is nothing but a stone! Tee hee! I highly doubt that they'll be able to get that thing back anyway! However, I'm still a little ticked off about getting beaten up by those heroes! Ugh! Do boys ever treat girls with respect anymore? They can be soooo dumb! I really hate Chopper and that pink friend of his! They're probably the most annoying of them all! Hopefully they get what they deserve later on!_

_Mimikins~_

_P.S.: Even if I hate them, I can't deny that they look cute. However, I think Tippy's cuter. _

"Bleh… I don't like this girly writing." Chopper gagged. "And she even called me cute! Oh, that makes it even better!"

_"Do you want to read more?" _Blumiere asked.

"Oh, fine… I'll read another page and that's it." he turned to the next page and began to read again.

_Dear Diary,_

_Is it just me or do I easily have a crush on boys so easily? I mean, when I first met Count Bleck, I ended up having a bit of a crush on him! And then Tippy comes along and I end up liking him too! You know, I wonder when his birthday is, too! I think it would be a good idea to get him a little gift. It'll show how much I care about him!_

_Mimikins~_

"That's it. I'm done." Chopper dropped the book and ran out of the room. "OK… Let's check this room."

When he opened the next door, he noticed that there were pictures of grins, one picture of Fawful and Cackletta, and also a sculpture of Fawful wearing the Headgear on his head. From what he could tell, this was Fawful's room.

"Hmmmmm… Nothing too special here. Just a couple of grins, a picture of Cackletta, and some kind of… Wait, what's that dark blue spherical-shaped thing? That looks like some sort of dark star inside of it…"

_"Well, I can't really tell what that is… Maybe we'll find out some other time." _Timpani said as Chopper left the room and went over to the next one. The room seemed to be a purple color, with a crossword puzzle on the table, and also a clipboard of a schedule. It was also very tidy, with no paper or pencils left on the floor. Timpani seemed to like this room the most so far.

"Hmmmmmm… This is a strange room… Whose room is this?" Chopper asked.

_"From what I can tell, it's Nastasia's room," _Blumiere confirmed as Chopper walked over to a picture of her and Count Bleck. _"Oh, yes… I remember that picture. It's when I first saved her life."_

"You saved her life?"

_"Yes. It was back many years ago. A bat was trapped one day, which I happened to notice. I freed it, and when night came, a woman appeared in my room when I was sleeping. She pledged her loyalty to me and thanked me for rescuing her. I found out that she was, indeed, the bat that was trapped. However, the only question I wanted to know…was who trapped Nastasia."_

"Wow… That's a really interesting story. So, I suppose this Nastasia person is working for Tipral?"

_"I believe so… But, she'll probably come to my side if she ever heard me. She did swear her loyalty to me before… But, I always felt that she didn't have to do that… I'd rather let her stay free."_

"Huh… Yeah, I know how you feel." Chopper left Nastasia's room and checked Mr. L's room. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be anything special, except for some blueprints on his table. He noticed that they were for a new Brobot. He planned on naming it "Brobot Mk. II".

"A new Brobot? Yeah, not likely."

He turned away with a smirk as he left the room and walked over to the third-to-last door. When he opened it, he realized that it felt a little dark. However, what he noticed was a picture of Dark with his father, Black Doom, and his brother, Shade Doom, holding a head of a paladin.

"Who's the big alien freak with those two anyway? I never knew who that was…" Chopper trailed.

He decided that it would be best to leave the room and go to the next door. He opened it to find a room filled with a couple of magic books, a purple bed, and even a couple of ponchos in the closet. For some reason, this room felt…

Magical.

"I suppose this must be Dimentio's room," Chopper confirmed as he looked around in the purple and yellow room. "Yeesh… Whoever knew Dimentio's room would be something like this? But it still smells fishy."

_"Why fishy?" _Blumiere gawked.

"No. Literally. I can smell fish in here." Both Timpani and Blumiere face palmed as Chopper picked up a can of fish nearby. He looked at the can for a bit before putting it down. "There's not much else I can say about this room… I guess we might as well leave."

Chopper left Dimentio's room, but he noticed one last door before the door at the end of the hallway. Out of curiosity, he pushed the door opened and found this room to be a bit dark. From what he could tell, this was Tipral's room.

_"This must be Tipral's room…" _Timpani trailed.

_"No wonder it feels so dark in here…" _Blumiere trailed.

"Yeah, it does have the dark feeling…" Chopper walked over to Tipral's table, but he didn't see anything around. He did have a drawer that he opened, only to find a couple of pictures of old plans.

"These don't look like Tipral's handwriting. They look more like Nastasia's. I guess she writes up the plans, while he holds onto them. But, I guess he puts it here with all of his other garb—Wait, what's that?"

_"What is it, Chopper?"_

"Look at this…" he noticed a picture in the drawer, which he grabbed and put on the table. But, it looked a little too dark to see, so he flashed Timpani's wand on the picture, only to reveal something surprising to him.

"Is this actually Tipral?" Chopper gawked. "This is odd… Is he actually…smiling?"

_"Never have I seen that boy smile…" _Blumiere trailed.

"Yeah, tell me about it. He never smiled once… Wait, look at who's next to him!"

Chopper noticed that there was a human girl with light brown hair wearing a white dress right next to Tipral. "Hey… There's a human girl with him too! But it looks so old… That rainbow bow thing on her head, though… It kind of reminds me of your butterfly form, Tippi."

_"What? Hold on…" _Timpani got a closer look at the picture as Chopper held it closer to the wand. _"Oh my gosh… I think that IS me!"_

_"Timpani… So you knew about Tipral for a long time?" _Blumiere asked.

_"You know… I think it's all starting to come back to me. Yes… Back when I first met him in a space station…"_

"Space station?"

_"Yes, my kind were able to go to a space station for a little tour, but I ended up getting lost and was left all alone after everyone left. I tried to find someone to help me, but that's when I met Tipral…"_

_"What did he do?" _Blumiere asked.

_"He…saved me."_

"Saved you? That's a little odd, considering how evil Tipral is right now. Do you know what caused him to be evil?"

_"No… Not at all."_

"The only thing that comes in the top of my head is that he was thrown out of Twilight Town, which got him angered and forced him to take his revenge upon the villagers. Kind of sad, I'll admit. Plus, he did all of this just to get his revenge on me and everyone else, too…"

_"So far, that's all I really remember at the moment. But, now things should come along just fine with remembering."_

"Let's just put this picture away for now. I don't want to spend all this time looking at things like this. We need to find Tipral immediately before he brings The Void back…"

With that, Chopper left Tipral's room and hurried to the door ahead. It ended up leading him into a room with a staircase going up to a door where a Save Block and yellow ? block appeared.

He made his way up the stairs and hit the yellow ? block. After eating the Ultimate Shroom Shake, Chopper punched the Save Block to save his game.

"OK… I have a feeling that Tipral is just beyond this door…" Chopper trailed. "We still have time…"

_"Yes, we do… Let us go, Chopper." _Blumiere nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Chopper slowly opened the door.

* * *

**Sanctum-**

_"Chopper… I can feel the dark power coming from within this room." _Timpani informed. _"I believe we're here…"_

"This room's huge!" Chopper gaped as he looked at it. He noticed that there were a couple of platforms that reminded him a bit of Castle Tipral when he battled against Count Bleck.

"So, you finally made it here. I expected your arrival."

Chopper looked up and saw Tipral looking down at him while crossing his arms. Nastasia was on a platform next to his, while Dark was still holding his forehead in pain. That's when Chopper clenched his fists and got in a fighting stance.

"All right, Tipral, it ends here!" Chopper declared. "I think it's best for you to surrender before things get a little too intense!"

"You honestly think I'm going to surrender to YOU? Not likely." Tipral spat. "In fact, I believe you're too late to stop me anyway."

He held up the Chaos Heart in his hand, making Chopper gasp.

_"He's already got the Chaos Heart?!" _Blumiere gaped. _"But how?!"_

"First off, I'll explain how I even got to bringing back the Chaos Heart," Tipral began. "The previous time, I had to use the dreams of a pink puffball, a blue hedgehog, a blue cat, and two plumbers in order to resurrect the Chaos Heart. But, while looking through the Dark Prognosticus, I noticed something that would work a lot better. But, it wasn't easy to get."

"And that is…" Chopper trailed.

"You see, there was the other hero. The pale green one, to be exact. The Dark Prognosticus stated that if the pale green hero ever kissed someone, then the love from the two could give you the last thing needed to create the Chaos Heart. Luckily, I was able to find the best moment for me to take the love into the heart to form it."

"Wait a second… That white flash was YOU?!"

"Yes, that was me, Chopper! I managed to find Luvbi kissing you for a moment and took action by taking the love energy with the Dark Star Scepter and using it to help create the Chaos Heart. I also got some dark matter from a mansion to make The Void grow faster. So, do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"Thanks to you, The Void will finally be back! I actually thought that this plan would never work, but it turns out that it did!"

"No… That…can't be right…" Chopper trailed as he looked down in sadness.

_"Tipral… Listen to me." _Timpani began. _"You can't be doing this!"_

"Listen, Tipral. We know about the whole thing with you and Tippi… I mean Timpani. She can talk to you about this. You don't have to summon The Void!"

_"Please…"_

"The girl named Timpani died a long time ago," Tipral retorted. "I don't care about her or the events involving her anymore. Life has been giving me hell ever since I was born, and now I'm going to end life itself! It's too late to stop me now!"

"You sure about this, Tipral?" Nastasia asked.

"Yes, I intend to continue the plan," Tipral held the Chaos Heart up and allowed it to fly up. "Now go, Chaos Heart! Fill the entire universe with your dark vortex and destroy everything that gets near! Let them all stay in ruin forever!"

The Chaos Heart disappeared, and everything began to shake violently.

"No! We're too late!" Chopper gasped.

"Whoa… I never knew this would be how The Void would get summoned…" Dark trailed.

After thirty seconds, the shaking stopped, leaving the room silent for a couple of seconds.

"Face it, Chopper. You lost now." Tipral stated. "Surely enough, The Void will appear and get bigger. Perhaps it will probably consume everything in three weeks…or less."

"WHAT?! You're serious?!" Chopper gaped.

_"Tipral…" _Timpani trailed. _"I can no longer think of you as a friend. You're more of a monster now."_

_"Do you care about other people's lives?" _Blumiere asked.

"Lives are worth less than the Chaos Heart's power. So no, I don't care about other people's lives. However, I'm not going to break my promise to my minions. I will give them what they want."

"Well… There's only one option now…" Chopper trailed. "I guess I have no other choice but to stop you."

"I was just about to get to that," Tipral said. "I'm getting tired of this conversation. I think it's best to dispose of you right away. Nastasia, I want you to go if you don't want to get hurt."

"…Are you sure?" Nastasia asked.

"Yes. This fight is between me and Chopper. Go."

"Very well…"

_"Nastasia! Wait!" _Unfortunately, it was too late. Nastasia already teleported away. _"No… Nastasia…"_

"As for you, Dark… I want you to stay back from this fight. I don't want you getting involved." Tipral said as he turned to Dark.

"Fine. But if you EVER want to call me, I'll give you a hand." Dark nodded.

"Good… Now…" Tipral raised his scepter and looked down at Chopper. "It's time for us to end this once and for all! You will witness the true power of Tipral!"

"Fine. Let's settle this once and for all." Chopper declared as Tipral appeared on the floor, ready for battle. Chopper started off by running up to him and attempting to bash at him with his hammer. Unfortunately, a barrier was preventing him from harming him.

"What?! What the heck?!"

"With the Chaos Heart's power soon being put to full use, I'm invulnerable to all of your attacks," Tipral stated. "No matter what you do, you can't hurt me. Face it, Chopper. It's all over for you!"

"I don't think so!" Chopper hurled a couple of rainbow balls at Tipral, but not even those seemed to harm him.

"Now it's my turn," Tipral waved his scepter and fired a dark star at Chopper's direction. He inhaled it and spat it at Tipral, but it still did nothing. This gave Tipral another chance to strike Chopper, and this time he succeeded.

"All right, I'm investigating him…" Chopper got Timpani's wand out and began to investigate him.

_"That's Tipral. He's said to be a prototype of the Ultimate Life Form… He also wishes to destroy the universe with the Chaos Heart for revenge. Max HP is 350. Attack is 16. Defense is 7. With the Dark Star Scepter, he can use many different dark attacks on you, such as his dark star attack or dark beam. Those attacks can be dangerous if you don't dodge quickly. Not only is he armed with the Dark Star Scepter, but he also armed with his Star magic as well. Those can be fast if you're not careful. If he ever freezes time, you're not escaping from that. However, if he unleashed a Star Blast on you, try to get as far away from him as possible. Please, Chopper… You must stop him before it's too late. There's still a chance…" _Timpani informed.

"Wow… He really does have a huge arsenal of attacks." Chopper gawked before getting sent flying back by a Star Spear. Tipral began to skate his way straight at Chopper, but he quickly got up and jumped over him.

"Doesn't matter. I can still get to you." Tipral declared as he teleported in front of Chopper and fired a dark beam from his scepter at Chopper, dealing a ton of damage while he was stuck in the beam.

When he stopped, Chopper was left battered up on the ground. He tried using Starbow to hit Tipral with a couple of shooting stars, but it didn't seem to work too well.

"How pathetic! The hero of the prophecy can't do a thing to me! You might as well burn with the rest of the people who care about you! You and those accursed friends of yours…" Tipral growled while hurling a shadow ball at him. Chopper was able to counter it with a rainbow ball, but it didn't seem to be the one winning.

"Great… Not even a rainbow ball can beat a shadow ball!"

He slowly got himself up, but he got pelted by a dark star, knocking him over. Tipral finished off by delivering a Star Punch to Chopper's face, sending him flying to the wall. Timpani's wand also happened to drop from his inventory too.

"What's this? A wand?" Tipral picked it up and looked at the glowing rainbow aura coming from it. "I suppose with this, you can contact other people that can't even get close to you, is that it?"

"H-Hey! Give that back, Tipral!" demanded Chopper.

_"You have no right to use this wand!" _Timpani snapped. _"Tipral! Please! I don't want to have Chopper hurt you. I know more about you than anyone else!"_

"_It would be better if you did that," _Blumiere agreed.

"Hmph… I never knew wands like these existed. Too bad it's probably going to be the last that there'll ever be."

"Wait… Do you… Tipral… Don't you DARE…"

Chopper was too late. Tipral already used all the Star power he needed to crush it. All of the pieces of the wand began to drop to the ground, leaving Chopper in complete utter shock.

"You… You took away the last thing for me to speak to those two!" Chopper gasped.

"You don't need that wand anymore," Tipral spat. "It's better that we keep this fight between you and me! Besides… Those two only got in the way. What? You're going to cry about it?"

From what Tipral could see, Chopper was looking down at the ground in sadness. "Yeah, like we need to see you cry or anything. Very well. I'll just end this now."

"I can't believe you just did that…" Chopper trailed as his arms started to change to a dark aura. "I'm… I'm going to _**GET YOU FOR THIS!**_"

His voice changed from a normal, childish voice to a darker tone as he was enveloped in dark power. The only thing that could be seen from his dark body was two glowing white eyes, which were bigger than Tipral's.

"What's going on here?" Tipral gawked.

"Oh… I remember seeing something like this before…" Dark recalled. "I think this transformation was called **Dark Super Chopper**. Basically, he doesn't have much control of himself and simply attacks those who get in his way."

"So he simply transformed. Nothing special. However, his chances of even hurting me are very slim."

Tipral simply fired a dark star from his scepter straight at Dark Super Chopper, who simply whacked the attack to the wall, causing an explosion. Even when Tipral used his Star Magic with a snap of his finger, Dark Super Chopper teleported out of the way.

"Urgh… Annoying pest!" Tipral growled.

_**"****You call yourself a true monster?! THIS is what a real monster is like!" **_Dark Super Chopper teleported behind Tipral and punched him from behind. Even with the barrier surrounding Tipral, it was able to knock him back.

After Tipral got back up, he saw Dark Super Chopper fire dark projectiles his way. He allowed the barrier to defend the attacks, but it made it worse when he fired a dark beam of energy straight at him barrier.

"Don't just stand there, Dark! Do something!" Tipral grunted.

Dark rushed straight for Dark Super Chopper, but ended up getting knocked back by a dark blast, leaving him unconscious. After finishing off his dark beam, Dark Super Chopper slowly began to walk over to his enemy.

_**"****I will KILL you!" **_he hissed as he began to charge up another dark beam.

_"Chopper… Please…"_

The sound of that voice stopped him for a second. He remembered hearing that voice from before.

_"Don't do this, Chopper… This is no way for you to fight."_

It was his mother's voice speaking to him through his mind. Tonberria.

The dark energy flowing through him started to disappear, transforming him back to his own self. Despite this, he didn't feel happy.

"What have I done…?"

"Hmph… So it's over…" Tipral trailed as he stood up. "Fine. I suppose I should finish the fight now! Do you have any last words, Chopper?"

"No…" Chopper trailed with a shake of his head. He looked up and noticed the barrier on Tipral began to crack. "Well, I don't think I need to give up now!"

"What do you mean?"

Before Chopper could answer, Tipral's barrier instantly shattered. "What?! My barrier is gone?! But… How could this be?!"

"I guess when I transformed, I ended up destroying your barrier," Chopper said. "But… Even then, that transformation hurt me a little bit too."

"So, then that makes us even…" Tipral trailed as he crossed his arms. "Fine. Now the fight's even between us. But, even then, I still have the Chaos Heart's power! Prepare to die!"

With a simple teleportation ability, he appeared right in front of Chopper. Before he could even punch him, Chopper jumped up and slammed his foot down on Tipral, dealing some damage this time, now that his barrier was shattered.

"Urgh… So you have gotten a couple of new abilities since our last battle."

"That's right!" Chopper smirked as he hurled a charged ice ball at him. Tipral simply deflected the ice ball with his scepter and absorbed them into the Dark Star Scepter after transforming them into dark energy.

"What in the world? What was that?"

"The scepter just absorbed all of the energy from that ice ball," stated Tipral as he waved his scepter and fired a dark star at Chopper. He tried to defend himself, but he ended up getting knocked back.

"Gah… I'm still going to make you pay for shattering that wand, though! That was the last option to getting in contact with Tippi and Count Bleck…I mean Lady Timpani and Lord Blumiere!"

"Well, then too bad for you, Chopper. Searching for those Pure Hearts won't be easy for you anymore! That is… If you manage to find the last four!"

Chopper ignored his words and used Starbow to make shooting stars fall upon him. He was able to hit him successfully, but Tipral teleported out of the shooting stars and got behind Chopper.

Luckily, he noticed him from behind and jumped out of the way of Tipral's Star Spear. He merely grumbled as he teleported in front of Chopper gave him a good kick to send him flying back.

When he crashed into the wall, Tipral teleported to the ground and began to skate his way to Chopper, readying a Star Punch. Chopper, on the other hand, was able to grab his arm and bash him with a rainbow smash.

"Like I'm going to let you do that!" Chopper spat.

Tipral grumbled as he teleported and floated in the air. Chopper followed him up to the platforms, but ended up getting knocked down when Tipral rammed into him by dicing down at him.

"From here on, I'm going to use my full potential to destroy you!" Tipral shouted. "And trust in this: even if you are alone, you don't stand a chance against me!"

"Don't think to highly of yourself, Tipral. It's only going to hurt you." Chopper said as he got up and readied his hammer. When Tipral dove down again, he blocked his attack and froze him with an ice smash.

He expected either Timpani or Blumiere to speak, but he just remembered that Tipral shattered her wand, making him frown. But, he could hear as if they're telling him to continue fighting.

When Tipral broke out of his icy prison, he tried to grab Chopper, but ended up missing when Chopper jumped out of the way and stomped on him, leaving him dazed for Chopper to chuck a fireball at him, leaving a burn on him.

"All right! Looks like things are turning to my favor now!" Chopper smiled.

"This is only the beginning, Chopper," growled Tipral as he flew to the center of the room and fired a dark beam into the air. It began to move around the room counterclockwise, forcing Chopper to use some of the platforms to avoid them. Unfortunately, he got caught in the beam and took serious damage.

Chopper grumbled as he got up, but was able to dodge Tipral's Star Spear that was coming his way. Frustrated, Tipral teleported above Chopper and charged up a Star Spear and flung it down. Upon impact, the Star Spear exploded, causing Chopper to jump back.

_"I've gotta stop standing around and actually get close to him for once!" _Chopper thought as he ran straight for Tipral as he jumped up to the platforms. He managed to knock him to the ground with a spinning kick, followed by stomping on him as he landed on the ground.

"And you said that you could actually beat me in a fight," scoffed Chopper.

"Fine, I'll make this a little more interesting," Tipral teleported over to Chopper and attempted to whack him with his scepter. Chopper brought his fists up and defended against the attack and kicked him in the face.

Even still, Tipral was able to grab Chopper's foot and swing him around. This got Chopper thinking about the times he fought against O'Chunks in the past. When he was released, he went crashing to the wall.

"This should do it," With his scepter ready, Tipral fired dark stars at Chopper like a machine gun. After getting up, Chopper inhaled the stars and spat them at Tipral, pushing him back as he tried to defend himself.

"I'd say we're more of an even match," Chopper said. "We're both getting some attacks in, that's for sure."

"True… But you haven't seen my _stronger_ attacks!"

Chopper gulped as he noticed Tipral swing his scepter down at Chopper to make dark shooting stars come down towards him. He quickly jumped up and pelted Tipral with a couple of fireballs.

When Tipral managed to shake the fire off him, he hurled a shadow ball at hit Chopper in the head, but didn't send him flying. Tipral decided to throw more shadow balls, while Chopper threw a couple of rainbow balls.

"Try all you want, but my shadow balls are much stronger than yours," Tipral stated as the shadow balls destroyed the rainbow balls coming his way. Chopper sweat dropped and flipped into 3-D. Once he was behind Tipral, he managed to attack him with a rainbow sweeping kick in 2-D.

"Hey, you know I can teleport into 3-D, if you didn't realize!" Chopper smirked.

"Ungh… All right, I think it's time to make this battle a little interesting." Tipral declared. "Fighting around here in this room doesn't feel like it's enough."

"What are you talking about? This place is huge!"

Tipral blew a hole through the wand with a dark beam and teleported over to the hole, revealing a long road outside in space. Chopper noticed all of the stars and how beautiful they were.

"Follow me if you want to stop me!" he declared as he began to skate outside. Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and followed his counterpart outside. He noticed that they were nearly running out in an asteroid belt at the moment.

"All right, Tipral! Let's see what you've got!" Chopper smirked as he tried to knock him off the road by elbowing him. Tipral, on the other hand, managed to block his attack and whack Chopper in the face with Star energy.

Chopper decided to try something a little different. He grabbed Starbow and held her up to let all of the shootings stars fall down on Tipral. But instead of making them come down from above, he made them hit him from the front, stopping Tipral and forcing him to bring his arms up.

He instantly braked before he could get too far and made a big leap to him. With a powerful stomp attack, Tipral was knocked to the ground. He even managed to block his Star Punch with his hand surrounded in rainbow energy.

"Wow… I managed to block his punch… But I don't know how long I can hold this…" Chopper frowned.

Tipral gripped his Dark Star Scepter and sent Chopper flying back by firing a dark beam at him. Using his teleportation powers, he teleported to Chopper and knocked him to the ground, almost making him go through the road.

_"I'm not doing so well against him…" _Chopper thought as he slowly got up and wheezed. _"He's not even halfway done and he's kicking my butt already!"_

"Take this!" Tipral spat as he swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at Chopper. He gripped his hammer and tried to swing it, but the blast was too powerful for him to even knock back at Tipral.

"Pathetic! I thought you were stronger than this, Chopper? The last few times you fought, you were able to win! Oh, actually… You had some people helping you there! There's no way you can beat me on your own! Just surrender now and I'll make your death as painless as possible."

"Never…" Chopper moaned as he drank a Star Shroom Shake to recover 150 HP. He readied his hammer and used an upward thrust to send Tipral flying up into space with rainbow energy.

Tipral was able to stop himself from flying any further and teleported back onto the road. Unfortunately, he didn't see Chopper running up to him and making him fall over. He also managed to kick one of the asteroids into Tipral, leaving him stunned.

"What…? How is this possible?!"

"Many things are possible, Tipral," Chopper said as he jumped down in front of him and attempted to punch him with rainbow energy. However, Tipral grabbed his arm and threw him over on the ground. Afterward, he used his ability to stop time, allowing him to land a combo on Chopper with punches and kicks.

"And this will soften you up," Tipral announced as he snapped his finger to make time flow back and hit Chopper with Star Magic, sending him flying in the air. This gave Tipral the chance to use his scepter.

He fired multiple dark stars straight at Chopper while he was in the air, forcing the Star Warrior to open his mouth and inhale them instead. He spat them at Tipral, but he simply spun his scepter around to block the yellow star.

Getting tired of being on the road, Tipral teleported him and Chopper on the room of the sanctum. The road seemed to get a little tiring for him, so he decided that going back to the sanctum was a better idea.

"All right, what do you have planned this time?" Chopper asked.

"Nothing really, except watching you die," Tipral said as he swung his scepter and flew straight at Chopper. The Star Warrior tried to counter him, but Tipral was faster and sent Chopper flying back.

Tipral made it even worse for him when he twirled his scepter and summoned a dark void to appear and suck Chopper in. Using all the strength he had in him, he ran away from the large portal.

It was a success.

"Hmph! No matter… You're still losing the fight!" scoffed Tipral.

Chopper decided to drink an Ultra Shroom Shake to regain some of his strength. Now that Tipral was ready to make another move, Chopper jumped in and kicked him to the ground with a slamming kick. Afterward, he froze him by throwing a charged ice ball.

"Yeah! He's frozen!"

With his hammer ready, Chopper struck Tipral with a fire smash, unfreezing him and leaving him burnt. Tipral growled as he tried to strike Chopper with a Star Spear, but he got knocked over when Chopper rammed him with his head.

"Well, it looks like I'm actually having a bit of an advantage here!" Chopper smirked as he clenched his fists, which were now surrounded in a rainbow aura.

Tipral muttered to himself as he teleported in front of Chopper and attempted to kick him. He, on the other hand, jumped out of the way and used Starbow's power to summon shooting stars down on him.

"That's it! It's time to put my power to real use!" Tipral declared as he was surrounded by a light purple glow. Chopper gaped and tried to stand back, but he felt as if it was too late.

"_**STAR BLAST!**_"

Chopper covered his face as Tipral unleashed his Star Blast. He was able to stand against this attack before, but at this point, there would be no surviving this.

But when he opened his eyes, he noticed he was unharmed.

"Wait… What just happened?" Chopper gawked as he brought his fists down and noticed Tipral glaring at him in anger.

"How did that not work?!" Tipral growled before calming down. "No matter… Using that attack would've made this fight too easy."

He skated over to Chopper and tackled him, making them crash through the ceiling and back inside the sanctum. Chopper noticed that Dark was still unconscious after what he did to him when he transformed.

Tipral tried to punch Chopper while he was still lying on the floor, but he grabbed his fist and kicked Tipral off him. Afterward, he tossed a charged ice ball at him, freezing him for only about three seconds until he broke out on his own.

"Please… Freezing me isn't going to save you, you know!" Tipral mocked.

"Well, it did give me at least three seconds," noted Chopper, who ducked and attacked Tipral with a flaming sweeping kick as soon as he was close. Tipral retaliated by hitting him with a Star Kick instead.

Tipral teleported above Chopper this time and swung his arm to fire a Star Spear at him. Chopper recoiled and hurled a charged rainbow ball at Tipral, knocking him out of the air and sending him to the wall.

"Is that the best you've got?!" Chopper shouted.

"I can show you THIS!" Tipral spat as he stored some dark power in his scepter and fired a dark vertical beam that slowly began to make its way to Chopper. He gulped and flipped into 3-D to avoid it.

"Ha! I don't think you realized that I can avoid attacks in 3-D!"

"You can't avoid this," Tipral snapped his finger, striking Chopper with Star Magic and sending him flying up while in 3-D. He went back into 2-D and fell to the ground in pain, while Tipral fired a couple of dark stars to leave a couple of bruises on him.

Chopper tried to attack him with Starbow, but he teleported out of the way and appeared above Chopper. He tried attacking Tipral with his hammer, but he instantly teleported to the center of the room.

"Stop teleporting already!"

Tipral ignored Chopper and raised his scepter. Another dark beam fired out and began to circle around in the large room. Chopper brought his guard up, but was still harmed by the dark energy.

_"Man… I'm starting to feel that I DON'T stand a chance against him!" _he realized in his thoughts. _"…No, Chopper! You can't give up now! Like Merlon said… The only way to dispatch the Pure Heart is to dispatch the one who holds it!"_

Chopper whacked one of the dark stars out of his way and let it strike Tipral in the face. This allowed him to jump up the platforms and land a stomp on him, causing him to teleport away from him.

"Let's see how you like THIS!" Tipral snapped his finger and disappeared in a way Dimentio would, making Chopper confused.

"What in the world…?"

When Tipral reappeared, he raised his scepter again and summoned another dark void to suck Chopper in. This time, however, he managed to get him sucked in and struck him down with powerful energy to deal double the damage he normally does!

"ACK!"

"Pathetic weakling…"

"No way," Chopper retorted as he used an Ultimate Shroom Shake to heal himself of 100 HP. "I'm not going down so easily!"

"Very well. I won't hesitate to use something myself." Tipral raised his scepter again and was enveloped in a dark spell that healed him of 70 HP. "There we go. That's much better."

"Ugh… This is getting too tough…"

"I'll admit, you are putting up a bit of a fight for a weak little ten year old…" Tipral muttered as he flew towards Chopper with Star energy in his fists. When he tried to punch him, Chopper ducked like a pancake and made Tipral trip with a simple sweeping kick.

While he was down, Chopper jumped in the air and used a rainbow slamming kick to hit Tipral's head. But, as soon as he tried to make another attack, Tipral teleported above him and began firing Star Spears down at him like crazy.

He ended up using Slim's ability to avoid the attacks and strike Tipral with his hammer as soon as he landed on the ground. Tipral teleported in front of him afterward and whacked him across the face with his scepter, leaving a red mark on his face.

Tipral swung his scepter at Chopper from a distance to fire a dark star his way. Chopper simply inhaled it, but Tipral was able to teleport out of the way as soon as he spat it out. But that didn't stop him from letting himself get hit. He jumped out of the way as soon as he heard Tipral teleport behind him.

"Really, Tipral? Attacking me from behind? That's a little cowardly…" Chopper trailed, hurling a fireball at him.

"Oh, really?" Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear, destroying the fireball and sending Chopper flying back. He teleported over to him and kicked him straight into the wall. "Was that cowardly for you?"

"Uhhh… No?"

Tipral simply gave him a nod as he teleported in front of him. Chopper ducked from Tipral's punch and managed to slam his hammer on Tipral's foot, making him cringe as Chopper punched him with rainbow energy.

"Time to put this to an end!" Tipral declared as he swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at Chopper, making him cringe in pain as he fell over. This allowed Tipral to grab his foot and throw him across the room.

_"How does he have this kind of strength? !" _Chopper thought as he crashed into the wall. He quickly pushed himself off and did a flip as Tipral tried to attack. He ended up landing on his head and using a slamming kick on him.

"I can tell Tipral's becoming weak!" Starbow informed. "You're getting close, hero!"

"Good…"

Chopper clenched his fist and tossed three rainbow balls at Tipral. He managed to deflect two of them away, but ended up getting hit by the third, leaving him stunned for a bit. When Chopper spun his hammer and hit Tipral, he was starting to feel exhausted.

"Well… You're not as easy to kill as I predicted." Tipral wheezed. "Consider that a compliment."

"Very well. I will." Chopper nodded as he attempted to bash Tipral with his hammer. He simply jumped out of the way and fired a dark star at Chopper, who proceeded to knock it back with his hammer.

Tipral teleported out of its way and began to surround himself in a light purple glow, indicating that he was going to use another Star Blast.

"Uh oh… This isn't good."

"_**Star Blast!**_" Tipral's ultimate attack managed to send Chopper flying to the corner of the wall near the ceiling and sent him plummeting to the ground. As Tipral landed on the ground, he skated his way toward him.

"Meet your end, Chopper!"

"I don't think so!"

Chopper held Starbow up and sent shooting stars down on Tipral, keeping his off guard. While he tried to get the shooting stars away, Chopper surrounded himself in a rainbow glow.

"Take this!" he shouted as he charged at Chopper and rammed straight into him with his fist in front. Not only did that deal intense damage, but the Chaos Heart flashed from Tipral's grasps and flew above him.

"Guh… Wha… What just happened?" Tipral moaned as he fell on the ground. "You… You managed to best me?"

"Yup. I guess you lost. And you said you could defeat me…" Chopper noticed that Tipral's eyes were more of a dull white instead of a glowing white, indicating that he was weak. "And seeing the state your in right now, I don't think you could fight back. You lost."

"Ungh… Perhaps I underestimated you… No matter. Just because you were able to get the Chaos Heart out of my grasps doesn't mean that it's over. The Void is already back, and you can't stop it."

"There's only one option, though…" Chopper trailed as he looked down at Tipral. "They say that the holder of the Chaos Heart must be destroyed to stop The Void. It pains me to even do this, but I feel I have no other choice."

Before Chopper could do anything else, a spell was hurled down in between them.

"What the… What was that?" Tipral asked.

"The more important thing is where he is…" Chopper said suspiciously, knowing that spell from somewhere.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to interrupt your little battle. But, sometimes things just need to be done!"

"Dimentio…"

The jester appeared over the Chaos Heart, giving the two a malicious grin.

"You thought I was done with my own goals, did you, Tipral?"

"Wait… I thought I…"

"That's your problem, Tipral," Dimentio explained. "You see, when you're trying to wipe the memories of a magician, you know you're doing something wrong. The reason why I seemed like I didn't remember a thing was because I was just only pretending! It would keep everyone from suspecting me, and it worked!"

"A traitor until the end…" Tipral coughed as he slowly got up. "Fine. If that's how it has to be, then I shall put an end to you once and for all!"

"At the state your in? Oh, no! It's better that you recover your strength before even laying a finger on me! Firstly, I must really thank you for resurrecting the Chaos Heart, Tipral! Without it, I could never achieve my goals!"

"What goals do you have in mind again? You're planning on using Tipral again?" Chopper spat.

"Of course not, my green friend! You see, after my failed attempts to defeat you with Tipral and the Chaos Heart, I needed to find someone else with such immense power. One that has something that could help me become the king of all worlds!"

"Ungh… What happened?" Dark moaned as he slowly got up.

"And I believe he just woke up."

"What are you talking about? …Argh! My eye's starting to hurt again! Why is it growing so fast now? !"

"Ah ha ha ha ha! So, it's almost time…"

"Almost time for what, you annoying jester? What? You're betraying Tipral again?"

"Dimentio only faked his memory loss," Tipral noted. "He was a traitor until the end."

"I should've known… So, jester… Any reason why my eye is actually opening? 'Cause it's not supposed to open at this moment. Go on, tell us all what you did."

"Oh, that's very simple," Dimentio smirked. "I decided to help you by getting rid of the pain from your eye. But also, I wanted to make sure it grew faster after overhearing that your eye could do something not even I was capable of!"

"So that thing is meant to be a third eye?" Chopper gawked.

"Of course! And thanks to my brilliant plan, using Dark's third eye to conquer the universe will be a snap! Of course, I had to get the others out of the way by keeping them trapped in a room and sending them to their doom!"

"You did _WHAT?!_"

"Yes, Chopper! It was I who was responsible for that act! My guess is that they're all dead in space. Floating in space for quite a while can be bad for you, you know. But, while I could've done that to you, I can actually spare you…"

"And that is…"

"If you agree to join by my side, I can let you live and allow you to be my assistant! You'll be my greatest warrior of my entire army!"

"No thank you," Chopper retorted. "I'm not here to join the side of evil if it means losing everyone I care about! And guess what? You happened to do such an act like that."

"So, you refuse my offer? Very well. Then I'm afraid I must end your game the hard way. Oh, Dark~!"

With a snap of his finger, Dark suddenly snapped and walked over to Dimentio with his eyes widened.

"Wait… I didn't do that on my own!" he gasped until Dimentio snapped his finger, revealing a Floro Sprout from underneath and even opening his third eye entirely, making it glow.

"Wait… When did you do this?" Tipral gaped.

"You see, while I checked Dark's eye, not only did I cast a spell on it to make it grow faster without hurting him, but I also planted a Floro Sprout on his head so I could gain control over him! And now, it looks like his eye is ready!"

He grabbed a hold of the Chaos Heart and grinned evilly. "This is your last warning, Chopper!"

"I told you I'm not joining!" Chopper retorted. "Just stop right now before I have to kick your butt!"

"Oh, I'm afraid it's YOU who's going to get his butt kicked like a flying pig!" Dimentio cackled as he threw the Chaos Heart behind Chopper. Dark was sucked into the dark void that appeared, forcing the whole room to shake.

"What's happening?!"

"It's just what I wanted!" the jester grinned as the dark vortex disappeared and revealed a large, black monster with purple stripes on its arms. The monster had two, purple eyes and one large eye on its forehead. Its claws were deadly, especially with powerful arms that it had too. Surprisingly, it didn't have any legs, but a ghost's tail instead A black moon crescent on its head also showed that this was indeed Dark Doom…but transformed.

"Uh oh… This isn't good."

"And now for its delicate outfit!" Dimentio snapped his finger as he watched the monster don a poncho and hat just like Dimentio's.

"Grrr! I'm going to kill you, you stupid clown!" Tipral growled as he tried to attack Dimentio, only to get knocked out by a spell and teleported out of the room.

"Relax, Tipral. I don't have any need for you anymore. Go ahead and rest in my dimension! I'll come back later to finish the job! As for you, Chopper…"

He flew over to the monster and fused himself in with it. The two purple eyes changed to a black and purple color, with them looking happy, just like how Dimentio's eyes usually looked.

_**"****Ah ha ha ha! Now my plan is finally complete! It's just like the alien's sayings were true! Now, if you'll excuse me… I have a universe to conquer!"**_

"And what ever happened to getting rid of me?" Chopper asked.

_**"****Oh, I'll take care of you later! Fighting you will simply distract me when I should be doing what I, Dimentio Doom, was planning on doing in the first place! So long for now, Chopper! Prepare yourself when I get back…"**_

Dimentio Doom flew out of the palace through the hole with his demonic wings, but due to the hole's small size, the monster merely blasted a bigger hole and made his way out. Chopper was left awestruck. Dimentio just took the Chaos Heart and transformed himself into a monster.

"Come back here!" he yelled as he ran outside through the smaller hole, using his Speed Dash to chase after Dimentio Doom. Unfortunately, he seemed to be flying away from the road, irritating him.

"Great… Now I can't stop him! I with I had something to help me…"

"Maybe I can be of some assistance!" Starbow suggested, scooping Chopper off the ground and growing to a bigger size.

"Wait! What're you doing, Starbow?!" Chopper cried until he noticed that she was actually using herself like a Warp Star. "Wait… You can change your size?"

"Of course! Some Pixls do have that ability! Since we can't catch him on this road, we might as well fly after them! Thankfully, I'm capable of such a thing."

"Well, let's hope you can still fight," he sat down and took off with Starbow. This time, he was hoping to catch Dimentio Doom for sure.

* * *

**Later-**

"Hmmmmm… This looks like a good place to stop." Chopper noticed a small road made of stars nearby, which seemed to lead to an asteroid up ahead. Apparently Dimentio Doom was going over there.

"Yeah, I suppose we should stop her, pard," Slim agreed. "You're better on your feet than in the air, anyway."

"Yeah, and seeing how this road looks, I think I might have a bit of an advantage here!" Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and took off, making his way through the road at nearly the speed of sound.

But the speed of sound was merely nothing in space.

"Man… I feel that I'm not even getting close even with this running!"

Not only that, but there were a couple of asteroids in his way, forcing him to jump over a couple and slid under some. As far as the road went, there was only a couple of slopes going down and up, which helped and harmed his speed.

"This might take a while…"

* * *

**Later again-**

After finishing his run through the road, he noticed a couple of asteroids he could jump on. He decided to use these to make his way to the large asteroid dead ahead. The bad thing was that these asteroids were moving.

"All right, I guess I need to do some jumping now…" Chopper trailed as he jumped to the closest asteroid. He waited for the next one to come and jumped on it. It only took him two minutes before he got to the largest asteroid, where Dimentio Doom happened to be.

_**"****This will be a nice place to start things out!" **_Dimentio Doom declared as he flew down to the asteroid. _**"I will start by creating my new empire here and destroy all of those who oppose me!"**_

"I don't think so!"

_**"****Ah, so you managed to come here… I'm not too surprised." **_Dimentio Doom grinned as he looked down at Chopper, who was like a mouse to him. _**"I was hoping you'd come here!"**_

"Yeah, I thought so," Chopper said with a serious look. "I'm not letting you take over the universe! It's going to end here, right now!"

**"**_**I'm glad you think that! I guess I might as well burn you to ashes and let you join with the rest of your friends!"**_

"All right, then!" Chopper jumped on Starbow and used her to fly up to Dimentio Doom's head. Starbow fired a shooting star straight at Dimentio Doom, but it simply bounced off.

"What the…!"

_**"****You see, you can't hurt me! With the Chaos Heart's power and the power of Dark Doom's third eye, I am invincible!"**_

"Urgh… All right, then take this!" Chopper tossed a couple of rainbow balls at Dimentio Doom's head, but they didn't seem to do anything. Dimentio Doom cackled as he spat a magic projectile that resembled his own spell at Chopper, sending him flying down to the ground.

Chopper knew that this guy was serious. With a Max HP of 400, an Attack of 17 and a Defense of 8, this fight wasn't going to be easy. Not even Tipral had that much HP!

_**"****Now die!" **_Dimentio Doom shouted as he tried to crush him with his own fists. He even tried to claw at him when Chopper recoiled, but that didn't seem to work. _**"Gah… Even if you're small, you're a bit fast!"**_

"Yeah! Let's just stop right now and talk about… No, wait. That's not going to work. Sorry, Dimentio, but I think you've done enough to not just us, but Tipral and his goons. You may not be worse than Maquano, but you are definitely one of the worst."

_**"****I'm glad you think that!" **_Dimentio Doom managed to slam his hand right on Chopper, flattening him like a pancake. He grabbed him afterward and held him up while grinning. _**"Now then… Are you prepared to have your game end now?"**_

Chopper was about to raise his arm to fling a rainbow ball, but the monster gestured him not to and said that it was a waste of time. While at that, he began to charge up a deadly attack in his mouth.

_"Is this…the end?" _Chopper thought.

* * *

**Dimension D-**

"Mmmmmm… Where… Where am I…?" Tipral slowly began to open his eyes, only to find himself in Dimension D. "Unnngh… Wait… What is this world? I've never seen anything like it."

He slowly got up and began to ponder for a minute. "Oh… Now I remember what happened. Chopper managed to best me in a fight and Dimentio took the Chaos Heart… Dimentio! When I get my hands on him, I'm going to strangle him until he's dead for good! And then I'm going to get that Chaos Heart back…"

He paused for a moment and looked at himself. He was still too exhausted to fight. Not even the Dark Star Scepter would help him at the moment.

"…But it's all hopeless. That traitor nearly killed all of my minions and Chopper's pathetic friends. I wish I could do something to help."

He let out a sigh before noticing something drop out of his inventory. He saw, lying on the ground, an old picture of him with a little girl. It was very old, and not in color. Tipral let out a sigh and he threw the picture away.

"I'm sorry, Timpani… I wish I could've done something to help you… But I was too late. And those minions… They were probably the only people I've known in centuries that actually cared about me."

"Please don't get upset, Tippy!"

Tipral opened his eyes and looked up as he saw Mimi coming over to him with a smile. "I don't want to see you get upset!"

"Mimi… You're still alive?"

"Aye! The lass isn't the only one!" O'Chunks appeared, along with Fawful and Mr. L, who walked over to their leader. "Yeh really thought that we'd die so easily? Yeh know we're better than that!"

"I have surprise! How is it that you have the giving up?" Fawful asked. "Clown mask has just had the taking like an angry baby! It is in the prophecy that we have the ruling of all worlds!"

"Yes, I wish to take the Chaos Heart back, Fawful," Tipral agreed. "But I can't do anything at the moment. Chopper already beat me down to this state, and I'm not as strong as I used to be without the Chaos Heart!"

"Whoa, whoa! This isn't like you, Tipral!" Mr. L gaped. "What ever happened to the ruthless villain that wouldn't take anything from anyone who tried to oppose you? Aren't you hardcore? Or are you just going to brood on about this?"

"Hold on… Who told you I was here?"

"I did," Nastasia teleported in Dimension D and walked over to the ground. She noticed that Mimi was hugging him at the moment.

"You see, Nassy was able to find us and bring us back here," Mimi explained. "She was actually watching you and Chopper battle, and she also discovered Dimentio planning out his attack too! This time, she didn't get spotted."

"After hearing Dimentio's plan, I had to find you immediately," Nastasia continued. "I also wanted to try to help Dark, but if Dimentio noticed me trying to help him, he would most likely try to stop me, which is why I didn't do a thing to help. I apologize if this hurt you in any way, Tipral. You can do anything to punish me, 'K?"

"No… I won't punish you." Tipral said while shaking his head. "In fact, I thank you for doing that. I actually feel a little better, now that I think about it."

"I have happiness!" Fawful cheered as everyone in the group smiled, including Nastasia. Tipral was close to smiling, but it felt as if he couldn't.

"Listen, I believe I know a way we can defeat Dimentio as his former state," Tipral explained. "The only way we can do that is if we had the Pure Hearts. If we can just get them, then we should be able to leave Dimentio vulnerable to be defeated."

"Are we actually going to fight?" Mr. L asked.

"No. We'll leave that up to Chopper to finish. I'd rather not let you guys risk your lives. It's better that our enemies get hurt instead, especially Chopper. _Next time, I'm going to be ready to destroy him…_"

"We think similarly," Mimi smiled as she gave him a kiss on the cheek for comfort. To their surprise, sixteen Pure Hearts appeared in all their color. It even gave Tipral some strength as well.

"Ho ho! The Pure Hearts!" Mr. L gaped.

"I guess with our love and feelings, we were able to bring them here," Mimi smiled. "So, you think you can get these to Dimentio?"

"I can do that," Tipral nodded as he used the Dark Star Scepter to teleport them out of Dimension D. But he couldn't help but look back at the picture he threw.

He decided to turn away from it, never looking at it again.

* * *

**Battle with Dimentio Doom-**

_**"****So, Chopper… It looks like you don't stand a chance against me!" **_Dimentio Doom cackled as he continued to charge up his attack. _**"I suppose I should say my goodbyes in my usual way… Ciao!"**_

However, he felt a flash and noticed sixteen Pure Hearts circling around him. _**"Wait, what?! What're the Pure Hearts doing here?!"**_

His barrier was instantly shattered, making him vulnerable. "Yes! He's vulnerable to attacks now! …But how am I going to get out of this?"

A golden sword dropped right in front of Chopper as he fully recovered from the flash. Yes, it was the sword that he used to fight off against Dimentral. Chopper ate the sword and gained a green floppy hat and the golden sword Galaxia.

"Excellent! This is just what I need!"

_**"****Gah! How could the Pure Hearts stop me?! Ugh… I should've remembered about those! No matter… I'll still crush you!"**_

"Think again!" Chopper stabbed Dimentio Doom's hand, causing his to screech in pain as he jumped out of his grasps. Dimentio Doom tried to attack him again by spitting a spell at him, but Chopper noticed a blade strike down on him. That blade… He remembered it from somewhere!

"Poyo! (Don't start the fight without me!)" Kirby cheered as he landed right in front of Chopper.

"Kirby?! You're alive?!"

"Poyo! (Of course! Everyone else is here too!)" Chopper looked up and saw Dimentio Doom get struck with many other attacks. The first thing he noticed was a blue ball coming down near them after striking Dimentio Doom's third eye.

"Did someone here order a beating?" Sonic asked as he made a pose. "Come on, now! You're not doing this alone, right?"

"Not at all!" Chopper smiled.

"Alley-oop!" Blade shouted as he plummeted down to the group, along with Mario and Luigi, who were wearing fish bowels to help them breathe in space.

"Hey, Chopper! We were wondering where you were!" Luigi said cheerfully. "We checked the palace and didn't see you there!"

"How did you guys manage to survive?"

Mario: We were rescued!

"By who?"

"We don't know…" Blade groaned. "Some alien found us floating in space and managed to save us. We told this weirdo that we needed to go back to the palace and help stop Tipral. …But it looks like Dimentio fused with Dark Doom's power to use the Chaos Heart. Not too surprised."

"Dimentio feigned his amnesia," Chopper explained.

_**"****You annoying pests! I'll make sure you never see the light again!" **_Dimentio Doom howled as he lifted asteroids off the ground, making platforms for them to use to reach the monster.

"Man, that's one ugly monster!" Sonic scoffed as he pounded his fists. "You look like you need a little makeover! We'll do that for you!"

Dimentio Doom prepared to fire a dark beam from his hands, but Sonic was able to use his Light Speed Attack to go up the platforms and attack Dimentio Doom head on. He was even able to strike his eye as well.

"Go for the eye, guys! That's the weak point!"

"All right, the eye…" Luigi shrieked as he saw Dimentio Doom spit a couple of spells at him. One of them hit him head on, but the rest he managed to dodge by jumping on the asteroids. He threw Bonjourang at Dimentio Doom's face, leaving him stunned. Blade, meanwhile, used some ninja jumps to get to Dimentio Doom's chest. There, he tossed a couple of shurikens to keep the monster off guard.

"Seriously, you have to be one of the ugliest things I've ever seen," Blade scoffed.

_**"****Burn!" **_Dimentio Doom howled as he spat a dark fireball down at Blade. He spun his katana to deflect the attack and used his Dragon Beam to strike Dimentio Doom's eye. Although it didn't finish him off, it seemed to be the most painful part.

"Poyo, (If we keep hitting that eye, we might be able to win easily,)" Kirby said as he readied his Final Cutter and Crystaline. Luckily, the Pixls happened to follow them here, so they had them. Dimentio Doom tried to swipe at Kirby, which he succeeded because Kirby wasn't moving as fast.

"Kirby, you need to move faster!" Chopper shouted as he fired a Sword Beam at Dimentio Doom's hand, causing him to pull it away. This allowed Kirby to get back up and attack Dimentio Doom's third eye with his Final Cutter, followed by his Cartwheel.

_**"****It's time I turned this up a bit!" **_Dimentio Doom flew into the background and raised his arms. He fired spears of darkness from the sky and made them come down on the heroes. Blade was able to knock one of them away with his katana, but Mario ended up getting poked by one of them.

Mario: Ouch! That hurts!

Mario, clenching his fists, did a back flip to avoid some of the dark spears. Dimentio Doom growled and flew up in the air again. This time, he began to dive down at the heroes. This reminded him of when Dimentio became Super Dimentio and tried to crush them.

"I don't think so!" Chopper said as he jumped out of the way and managed to slash at Dimentio Doom's eye with Galaxia. The monster tried to swat him away, but he used his agility to dodge and run up to Dimentio Doom's face, slashing at his third eye and using a Sword Beam afterward.

Mario: Let me in the action!

The red plumber jumped up a couple of asteroids while avoiding some dark tentacles fired out of Dimentio Doom's body and managed to kick him in the chest and bash him with his hammer. The monster held his stomach in pain as Mario jumped on the top platform and used Kickbrin to hit Dimentio Doom's eye. His monstrous scream was enough to knock Mario over.

"I've got you, bro!" Luigi shouted as he managed to catch Mario. He thanked him and watched as Luigi used his Super Jump to reach Dimentio Doom's third eye and hit it head on while it was open.

_**"****Time to change this up a bit," **_the monster teleported out of their sights and appeared above them. He used his power to send the asteroids flying in the air and let them rain down upon the heroes.

"Whoa! Get outta the way!" Sonic shouted as he fell on the ground and tried to avoid the asteroids that were coming down fast. Unfortunately, one ended up hitting him in the head, leaving him dazed. Everyone else also got hurt by some asteroids as well.

_**"****Ah ha ha ha! Look at you heroes! You're getting injured like toddlers who got a cut from a turnip! Oh, how funny things can be!"**_

Dimentio Doom grinned as two blasters appeared in both hands. After spitting a spell down at the ground, he attempted to blast them by firing a couple of purple lasers at the group.

Mario: Mama mia! This is nuts!

"How many moves does he have, anyway?!" Luigi exclaimed, jumping out of a laser's way. Dimentio Doom charged up a shot afterward and fired down at the group. Chopper tried defending himself with Galaxia, but it didn't seem to work too well.

"Ugh… I can't really defend against these lasers!" Chopper grunted.

Dimentio Doom merely roared as he flew down to the heroes again. He hurled another spell from his mouth down at the group, but Chopper was able to deflect it by swinging Galaxia at it, making it hit his third eye.

_**"****Gah! Such insolence!" **_Dimentio Doom screeched as steam came out of his eye. His happy eyes changed from angry as a hammer was created by his magic. There appeared to be an icy glow around it as he slammed it to the ground, sending a wave of ice at the group.

"Poyo! (Heads up!)" Kirby shrieked as he jumped out of the way. Dimentio Doom also tossed two Sword Knights at the group, with Kirby inhaling one of them to gain the Sword ability. Once Dimentio Doom teleported to them, Kirby instantly jumped and spun his sword at him, leaving a couple of scars on his monstrous, alien-like body. Some small green blood happened to shoot out, leaving some disgusted.

_**"****Ugh, you… We'll see how long you stay up when I use your own weapon against you!" **_Dimentio Doom created two, large dark swords that resembled Galaxia. He brought them down at a horizontal angle to slice at the group, but ended up missing. Luigi was able to land a Super Jump on him and reach his third eye as well.

"Yeah! I managed to get him!" Not only that, but it interrupted Dimentio Doom's sword attack as well. Out of anger, he teleported in front of Luigi and fired a dark beam from his mouth at him and his brother.

"Whoa! How'd he do that?!" Sonic gaped.

"I guess he has that power…" Blade trailed, throwing a shuriken at Dimentio Doom as he jumped on a floating asteroid. After Dimentio Doom finished his attack, he teleported to Blade and clawed at him, destroying the asteroid and knocking him to the ground.

"Ugh… If only Tippi were here to help…" Chopper wheezed.

"Poyo? (Well, why don't you get that wand out?)" Kirby suggested.

"Kirby… I don't have her wand anymore."

"You lost it?" Luigi gaped.

"No… Tipral shattered it. So, there's no more of contacting Tippi and Count Bleck anymore."

Mario: That's horrible!

_**"****Oh, you poor heroes! You lost one of your helpers! What a shame! Your cries are like those of a wolf howling for soup!" **_bellowed Dimentio Doom as he teleported in front of the group and attempted to claw at them.

"That doesn't mean we're going to give up now," retorted Sonic, who used a Whirlwind to keep Dimentio Doom off guard and attacked his third eye. "Besides, we already know how to beat you!"

"Poyo! (Yeah!)" Kirby shouted as he slashed at Dimentio Doom's body and managed to deliver an upper slash to Dimentio Doom's eye, causing him to cover it in pain. This didn't make the monster happy, as he let out a scream of rage and fired a ball of magic down at the group.

"I don't think so!" Chopper smirked, firing a rainbow ball at the magic projectile, causing a small explosion between them. He helped Kirby get up to the jester monster and went all out with his sword.

Dimentio Doom screeched and grabbed Kirby. He sent him flying down to Chopper, leaving them dazed while on the ground. Sonic merely clenched a fist and used his Sonic Wind to attack Dimentio Doom and his third eye while giving the monster a glare.

"I guess you have become what you are," Sonic said as he frowned. "A monster."

_**"****I'm glad you think that, you pesky hedgehog!" **_Dimentio Doom cackled, swing his arm to attack Sonic. He dodged with a Spin Jump and ran up his arm and attacked his eye with a Homing Attack.

"By monster, I mean by what you've done. You know what I mean…"

_**"****Your words don't affect me."**_

"Sonic, let's not worry about that now. He chose to turn into this, and we're going to stop him." Chopper declared, holding Galaxia up and storing power in it. With a mighty swing, the green Sword Beam struck Dimentio Doom in the eye, causing him to scream in pain again.

_**"****Enough!" **_Dimentio Doom clapped his hands together and a huge shockwave hit everyone and dispelled Kirby's Sword ability and Chopper's sword, which began to bounce all over the ground.

"Whoa! Since when could he do that?!"

"I never expected him to be able to do that," Blade gawked. "Well, go get that sword back if we need it!"

Chopper agreed and inhaled the sword before it could get away. After swallowing it, he donned his usual appearance with the Sword and struck Dimentio Doom with a slash attack.

_**"****With the power of Dark Doom's eye, I can do many things! That's why I wanted to use him to rule the universe!" **_Dimentio Doom explained as he summoned a black hole that tried to suck the group in. Everyone tried as best as they could to get away from the black hole and succeeded. Dimentio Doom, frustrated, teleported above the group and began to spew out purple flames.

"Is it just me or does that purple flame remind me of Maquano?" Chopper pondered as he got out of the way from the fire. While the monster was doing this, Mario gripped his hammer, jumped on an asteroid and slammed it down on Dimentio Doom's eye. It made him cringe, but it didn't stop him from knocking Mario away by spitting a spell at him to knock him off the asteroid.

Dimentio Doom cackled as he created a giant, dark hand that he threw down at the group in order to grab them, somewhat in a way Thoreau could grab things.

"What's this? Does this monster have abilities from the Pixls?!" Thoreau gaped.

"Oh, geez… That's not good." Chopper gulped as Dimentio Doom fired two missiles down at the group. Blade gulped and threw Hommissile at one of them to blow it up, while Mario grabbed one with Thoreau and waited for Dimentio Doom to come down, allowing him to blow it up in his face.

Mario: I wonder what other moves he's got…

Dimentio Doom teleported in front of the group and used his magic to heal himself of 80 HP, making everyone gape. Chopper attempted to strike him with his sword, but he teleported right behind the group and summoned two Sparkys to attack. Kirby inhaled one to gain the Plasma ability, while Blade took care of the other Sparky with his katana.

"Well this sucks. This bastard can heal himself…" Blade grumbled.

Dimentio Doom grinned as he began to charge up another beam attack. Instead of firing it straight at them, he fired it into the sky. Afterward, he teleported above them and began to fire shootings stars down while a beam fired down from the ground.

"Poyo! (This is nuts!)" Kirby cried as he began to store some power in his Plasma ability. So far, he was doing a good job while avoiding the attacks. Due to his electric barrier, he wasn't harmed by most of the shooting stars.

As for everyone else, they were in a pickle.

After getting hurt from a couple of shooting stars, Sonic suggested that they should use a Star Shroom Shake. They all agreed and drank from a can to recover 150 HP. As soon as Dimentio Doom teleported back to the ground, he used magic to create some boxes to trap them.

**"**_**Don't think I forgot my own magic, you filthy little heroes!"**_ Dimentio Doom cackled as he attempted to trap a few of them. They all took action and moved as fast as they could, with Blade striking his third eye with his katana. Dimentio Doom growled and swatted the ninja away with his own claw.

Blade got up before Dimentio Doom could create another ice hammer and allowed Chopper to strike him with his sword before he could even try to attack. But, even a slash to the third eye wasn't enough to keep him from slamming the hammer onto the ground. Ice shards began to fall from the sky and land on the group. Blade simply used Barry to keep himself from getting hurt.

_**"****So, heroes… How does it feel to see my true power?" **_Dimentio Doom asked with a grin.

"Is that all you got?" Sonic scoffed, hitting Dimentio Doom's eye with a Homing Attack followed by Luigi's Super Jump, leaving the monster off guard. Chopper helped out by jumping on a couple of asteroids while avoiding Dimentio Doom's attack and hacked at his eye.

"Poyo! (Heads up!)" Kirby noted as he jumped on top of Chopper and fired a Plasma Wave at Dimentio Doom's eye, causing him to scream and force himself to knock the two off the asteroid with a spell.

Mario: How much HP does he have left?

"Kinda hard to say… He's more than halfway down, that's for sure." Luigi noticed upon looking at Dimentio Doom's HP bar.

When Chopper and Kirby fell to the ground, Dimentio Doom created a portal and flew through it. Everyone gulped and looked around to find the crazy jester monster.

He couldn't be seen anywhere.

"Oh, man… I don't feel safe now!" Luigi gulped.

"I've got an idea," Chopper held his sword up and began to store some power. "If he's going to charge at us, I'll be ready."

Blade turned around and noticed a dark portal appearing right behind them. "Heads up, guys! He's coming right for us!"

_**"****Ah ha ha ha! Here I come!" **_cackled Dimentio Doom as he came flying out of the portal, ready to ram into his enemies. However, Chopper swung Galaxia and a green Sword Beam fired straight at Dimentio Doom, leaving him cringing in pain.

"Go for it, guys!" Chopper shouted as he allowed Mario to thrust his hammer upward at Sonic while he was curled in a ball to strike Dimentio Doom. Afterward, he jumped on Luigi's head and managed to bash the monster's third eye with ease.

Luigi helped Mario and used his Super Jump to attack next, hitting Dimentio Doom right in the eye and causing him to cringe again.

_**"****My my, you six heroes are putting up a bit of a fight, despite me having all of this power," **_Dimentio Doom realized. _**"Not bad. In fact, I commemorate you for that! However, I'm going to make it a little more interesting!"**_

"Oh, really? How do you plan on doing that?" scoffed Sonic.

_**"****Oh, I'll show you, you pesky hedgehog," **_the monster grinned as he healed himself of 80 HP and ended up flipping into 3-D. Everyone's eyes widened in fear as they tried to scan the area.

Mario: Where'd he go?!

_**"****Right behind you," **_Dimentio Doom flipped back into 2-D and hurled a spell at Mario, knocking him over. He attempted to hurl one at Kirby, but Chopper hurled a rainbow ball at his third eye, stopping him for a moment. It didn't stop him from attacking, but it ended up hitting Chopper instead.

"Ouch… That looked like it hurt." Blade commented.

"It did…" Chopper cringed.

"No matter. I still have to do something." Blade rushed in and attempted to stab Dimentio's eye, but he flipped into 3-D and hurled a spell at Blade from behind, knocking him over on the ground.

"Hey! Why don't you actually come out and show yourself?" Sonic suggested. "You're just bein' a coward, that's all!"

_**"****Very well!" **_Dimentio Doom flipped back into 2-D, but instantly teleported in front of Sonic to claw at him. He fell over, but managed to get up and dodge him charging at him.

Meanwhile, Kirby charged up another Plasma Wave attack and fired it straight at Dimentio Doom while he was busy with Sonic, causing him to turn his attention to the pink puffball. It didn't take too long for Kirby to charge up another Plasma Wave, and even when Dimentio Doom used his claws to attack him, he simply used his Defend ability to prevent himself from taking too much damage.

_**"****Your defense is as annoying as a laughing turtle who's getting tickled!"**_

"Poyo… (That makes no sense…)" Kirby trailed with an irritated look as he fired his Plasma Wave at Dimentio Doom and left him paralyzed for a couple of seconds, allowing Luigi to jump in the air and land on Dimentio Doom's eye. He tried to swipe at the green plumber, but since he was smaller and quicker, he was able to get out of the way.

"Geez… I can't believe we're fighting a monster with such immense power…" Luigi panted as he landed on the ground while running from the globs of dark energy Dimentio Doom was firing from his mouth.

He slapped Mario's hand as a way for him to stop him. The red plumber waited as Chopper did an upper kick attack on him to send him flying up. With his attack ready, he landed on Dimentio Doom's eye with a Super Ground Pound. Since this brought the monster to the ground, it allowed Chopper to jump up to it and slash at Dimentio Doom with Galaxia.

_**"****Maybe this should teach you a lesson, Star Warrior!" **_Dimentio Doom grinned as he spat a dark glob of energy from his mouth at Chopper. He retaliated by swinging his sword at it, sending it flying back to Dimentio Doom.

"Wait, isn't this like something you did before?" Blade recalled.

"Yeah, back when we fought him as Dimentral," Chopper nodded.

Mario: What's Dimentral?

"A combination of Tipral, Dimentio and the Chaos Heart. One thing for sure is that this form looks uglier."

"Yeah, that's why I wanted to give it a little makeover!" Sonic grinned before receiving face palms.

"Sonic… This is a serious situation here." Blade warned. "We're being attacked by a monster. A _monster!_"

"Sorry…"

_**"****Oh, rest assured! You'll be sorry when I'm done with you heroes!" **_Dimentio Doom swatted at the glob of energy coming back at him and sent it flying at Sonic and Blade. Chopper jumped in the way and slashed at the energy, sending it back to Dimentio Doom.

Before the monster could even do anything else, Kirby fired another Plasma Wave at Dimentio Doom's eye to leave him off guard. The dark glob of energy struck Dimentio Doom and stunned him for sure.

"Awesome!" Sonic grinned as he curled up in a ball and prepared for his Light Speed Attack. After fully charged, he went all out on Dimentio Doom, striking his third eye a couple of times. He gave one last grin as he finished his attack with a Homing Attack.

Blade followed up next, throwing a couple of shurikens at Dimentio Doom and using Hommissile to keep him from seeing Blade with all of the smoke. When he could see the ninja, however, he ended up getting hit by his katana in the eye. He tried swatting him away, but he merely turned into a log and kicked his eye from an angle.

Dimentio Doom teleported down to Mario and tried to fire a dark beam, but he was able to jump out of the way and kick at Dimentio Doom's eye. After striking him with Kickbrin, he bashed his eye with his hammer.

_**"****Ugh… What is going on?" **_Dimentio Doom wheezed before Luigi was able to strike him with a Super Jump. _**"This is not how it was supposed to go!"**_

"That's good for us!" Luigi smirked as he struck Dimentio Doom with his flutter and threw Bonjourang down at his eye. The monster managed to get one good shot, but he ended up missing Luigi and hit Kirby with a dark glob of energy.

He got rid of his Plasma ability, but it didn't make him pleased.

Kirby pulled his Final Cutter out and jumped straight for the jester monster. He slashed at his eye a couple of times and nearly left him weakened. At this rate, there was no way he was going to win the battle.

_**"****Fools!" **_Dimentio Doom cried as he attempted to charge another dark beam. Chopper, on the other hand, raised his sword. When a green glow surrounded it, he jumped in the air and slashed at Dimentio Doom with a Galaxia Sword Beam, causing the monster to be left completely stunned.

"Yeah! We did it!" Luigi cheered.

Mario: Luigi… He's not done yet.

"Wait, what?"

"Not _yet_," Chopper corrected.

"Poyo? (What're you doing?)" Kirby asked.

"I'm going to finish this," Chopper rushed straight at him, gripping his sword. "Dimentio… This is for everyone that you harmed!"

He jumped in the air and raised his sword so that it was aiming right for Dimentio Doom. The monster tried to swat at him, but his immense speed was too much for him that he ended up getting stabbed.

"Whoa… Did he seriously…" Blade stammered.

"Chopper stabbed him right in the eye," Sonic nodded.

As Chopper jumped away from Dimentio Doom, Galaxia shattered and his floppy hat disintegrated. Dimentio Doom's third eye began to flash a white color and his eyes widened in pain.

_**"Wh-What?! Could this be…?!"**_

The monster sank to the ground and fell over on his back. All of the asteroids seemed to disappear as the six heroes walked over to the defeated Dimentio Doom.

_**"****How did you manage to do it?" **_he wheezed. _**"I thought with the power of Dark Doom and the Chaos Heart, I would be unstoppable!"**_

"Well, looks like you were led the wrong way," Chopper smirked.

"Poyo, (Yeah, you really should get your facts straight,)" Kirby nodded.

"Look, if you didn't want to get yourself hurt like this, you shouldn't have tried to pick a fight with us in the first place," Sonic informed.

"Although, I thought most of your actions were pretty cowardly," Blade mentioned. "I mean, you attack someone from behind? That's cowardly in my book."

Mario: Maybe you should've stayed in The Underwhere.

"I… I don't really know what to add to this." Luigi stammered. "I guess I can say that your plans were backfired. Yeah! That's something you should've realized! The hero wins in an adventure, you know!"

_**"****Ungh… Don't think that this is the end…" **_grunted Dimentio Doom.

"It is the end, for you that is," Chopper corrected. "Face it. You lost."

_**"****You may think that, but when time comes, I will be back to murder you all, even in your dreams! Ah…ha...ha…ha."**_

"Like that'll ever happen."

_**"****I think it's time I finished this off with one last surprise up my sleeves! Ah ha ha ha ha… CIAO!"**_

Dimentio Doom enveloped in purple flames as part of the monstrous body began to sink into the ground. Dark Doom was thrown out of the monster but left unharmed somehow. When he got up, his third eye was fully shut.

"My eye… It feels much better." Dark sighed. "But… What the hell am I doing here?"

The Chaos Heart was also released from the monster and was now floating in between the heroes and Dark Doom. Before anyone could answer to Dark, Tipral, O'Chunks, Mimi, Fawful, Nastasia, and Mr. L teleported right beside him, with Tipral taking the Chaos Heart.

"Bravo, heroes. Thank you so much for your hard work." Tipral thanked as he slowly clapped. "I believe you all deserve the title of 'hero of the prophecy' for your hard work."

"We let yeh fight 'im so we could take back what's ours!" O'Chunks grinned evilly.

"So everyone else IS alive…" Chopper trailed. "All right, enough already. After what Dimentio done, you should know that this heart is dangerous. It needs to go."

"Just because Dimentio took it doesn't mean I'm not going to give up on my goals," Tipral retorted. "We don't need to worry about him getting in the way anymore."

"Well we're certainly not going to let you try that," Sonic said as he clenched his fist. "We defeated a monster with ultimate power, and we bet we can take you guys on!"

"Bah, I don't need to waste my time with you guys for right now. Face it, Chopper. You lost, and it's all your fault."

"How is it Chopper's fault?" Blade asked.

"You'll fight out," Tipral said as he aimed his scepter at the heroes and teleported them out of the dimension.

"Wait… So how is it Chopper's fault anyway?" Mimi asked.

"I'll tell you later," Tipral assured.

* * *

**Flipside Tower-**

"Unnnghh…" Chopper moaned as he slowly got up. He noticed that he was back at Flipside Towers. When he looked around, he saw that everyone else was lying on the ground. "Guys! Wake up!"

"P-Poyo…? (W-What…? What just happened?)" Kirby slowly got up, followed by the other four. They looked around and noticed that they were also back in Flipside Towers.

"We're back here?" Sonic gawked.

"I think Tipral teleported us back here…" Blade trailed.

Mario: But why?

"Guys! The sky!" Luigi gaped as he looked up at the sky. Everyone noticed that there was a dark swirling vortex above them. From what they could see, it was at a big size, but not big enough to fill up the whole sky.

"Oh, no… The Void's back!" Chopper gasped.

"But how did it grow so quickly?" Sonic asked. "Usually it would slowly grow!"

"I fear that our enemy has gotten his hands on dark matter," Merlon sighed as he arrived in the scene. "It is said that if fused with something, it will make something grow at a faster rate. For example, using it on a plant would lead to it growing faster. This can potentially harm the plant as well."

"I can't believe it… So, Tipral won?" Blade gaped. "I thought the good guys usually win?"

"Sadly, not all the time… You see, with the dark matter, The Void will grow ten times as fast as what it normally did. I fear that we don't have much time anymore…"

"How much time do we have?" Luigi asked.

"If my predictions are true, then The Void could possibly destroy the entire universe within **three weeks**," Merlon's words nearly shocked everyone. Plus, with a tremor, they saw The Void grow a little bigger.

"Oh, god… Was Tipral planning to use the Chaos Heart's power to its full advantage?" Blade gaped.

"Mmmmmmm… That is not easy for me to say. Perhaps Lady Timpani knows something about that."

"Merlon… Tippi and Count Bleck aren't with us." Chopper frowned.

"Do you mean…"

"They're not dead. Tipral shattered the wand to prevent us from getting in contact. I think we're on our own here…"

"This is definitely not good," Merlon slowly shook his head as his head hung low. "Well, there's only one option left. Young ones, you must find the remaining Pure Hearts left throughout each dimension and form the Purity Heart. That is the only thing that can counter the Chaos Heart's true power."

"But we didn't find a Pure Heart in Tipral's Palace. Wouldn't a door end up leading us to a Pure Heart?"

"Poyo… (You know… If that door led us to his palace, surely there should've been a Pure Heart in there…)" Kirby trailed.

"Yeah, I know, Kirby! I think we should go back and…" Chopper paused for a moment and felt something in his inventory. "Wait… Hold on… I feel like I have something that I never had with me before."

He pulled out a small dark chest with a little note attached to it. He took it off the chest and began to read it.

_Dear Chopper,_

_As much as I loathe you with a fiery passion, I will admit that you did help us get rid of Dimentio and helped get the Chaos Heart back into my possession. I decided to give you something back in return. I happened to find this in my room, and I thought that if I just gave this to you, you wouldn't have to come back to my palace again when it's been damaged._

_From,_

_Tipral_

_P.S.: Don't expect me to ever do this for you. Next time we meet, you're dead to me._

"Tipral gave us something?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: That's very strange of him…

When Chopper opened the chest, a dark gray heart popped out and landed right in front of the Star Warrior.

"It's… It's the Pure Heart!" Merlon gasped. "But… How could Tipral have had this with him?!"

"Maybe he found it while he was out somewhere?" Sonic pondered. "Although he probably wouldn't do that, he probably took it because he wanted to make it harder for us to get the Pure Hearts? That's just what I think…"

"Hmmmm… Well, you never know. But, I highly doubt that he would even do something like this again." Chopper shrugged.

"I suggest you heroes take the Pure Heart and come back to my house. We need to discuss a few things, and maybe we can talk about your venture through the palace?" Merlon suggested.

"All right, Merlon," Chopper gave him a nod and picked up the Pure Heart. All of the Pixls began to dance as Chopper held the Pure Heart upward.

"Whew! I'm glad we got this thing!"

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Giving up a Pure Heart to the heroes was a strange thing for Tipral to do, but they believed that it was for the better. However, at a price, they had to deal with The Void, which was growing at a faster rate. "I can't believe we failed to stop Tipral from resurrecting the Chaos Heart and void…" trailed Luigi. "How on earth was he able to achieve his goals?" At this point, Chopper had a guilty feeling in his head as he frowned. Nevertheless, they put the Pure Heart away and made their way back to Merlon's house._

* * *

**Sometimes the good guys don't always win at the end of a chapter. This is an example.**

**And even if this part took me two weeks to finish, it was all worth it.  
**

**As for the fight with Dimentio Doom, it was a bit of a throwback to the Super Dimentio fight and the final boss of Kirby's Return to Dream Land (which I will NOT spoil). It was to make the fight a little interesting, in my opinion.**

**Anyway, with Dimentio finally gone, things actually be a little easier for the heroes and even Tipral and his minions.**

**...Or will it?**


	99. Chapter 16 Interlude

"Geez… I can't believe we 'ad all o' this trouble with those heroes!" O'Chunks gaped as he began to sweep the inside of his room. "Who would've thought that we'd be invaded by them and 'ad our palace heavily damaged?"

He grabbed a chicken leg from his cabinet and began to chomp on it. He didn't care whether or not he got grease all over himself. He was hungry ever since he was left out in space. He was lucky that an asteroid was able to bring him back to the palace, along with everyone else.

"Hmmmmm… So, now that The Void is back, I wonder what Tipral is plannin' on doin'? Since the heroes are probably gonna find those Pure Hearts, I think I oughta 'elp 'im out! Yeah! I need to get me chunks in action!"

O'Chunks walked over to the weights and began to lift a couple. But, since he still had grease on his hands, his hand slipped on the weights, leading one to fall on his foot, causing him to scream in pain.

"_**YEOW!**_"

"_O'Chunks, is everything all right in there?" _the bearded man stopped when he heard Nastasia knocking on the door.

"Errr… Yeah! I'm fine!" O'Chunks responded as he began to sweat. _"C'mon, Chunky! Why do yeh always 'ave teh be so nervous when yer around wee Nastasia? ! Yeh gotta man up once in yer life around a woman!"_

"_All right, sure. And when you have the time, come to the sanctum, 'K? Tipral wants everyone to come there at a certain moment."_

O'Chunks heard the footsteps getting softer every second. He noticed that his hands were greasy, so he simply opened the door and decided to go to the bathroom to wash his hands. It was just a bathroom for one person, because Tipral didn't feel like getting two bathrooms.

"_I am in needing of the room of baths!" _requested Fawful as he knocked on the door while O'Chunks was washing his hands.

"Calm down, yeh mouthy bean!" O'Chunks barked. "Yeh gotta be patient with me! I need teh take me time when it comes teh washin' me hands!"

When O'Chunks finished washing his hands, he left the bathroom, but he also noticed that Fawful was holding a toothbrush and toothpaste in his hands.

"Wha…? Yeh said yeh 'ad teh go teh the bathroom!"

"I am needing of it," Fawful nodded. "Fawful wants to brush his teeth, that's all. Midbus is sleeping badly awful."

"Don't yeh mean 'awfully bad'?"

"I say no! Now let Fawful go into the room of baths!"

O'Chunks moved out of the way and Fawful went charging into the bathroom, closing the door behind him and locking it. He decided that now would be the best time to go back to his room and rest for a little bit…

"_**EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!**_" the sound of the high pitch shriek nearly left everyone in the palace deaf when Mimi walked out of her room holding her diary, which the lock on it happened to be off.

"WHO read my diary? !" she screamed. "I know someone here was responsible for reading my diary!"

"Mimi, why the HELL are you screaming? !" Dark hissed as he slammed his door open. "I'm getting a f-ing headache here! My third eye is finally sealed for once and now I have to listen to you cry about a diary. Grow up."

"But a diary is important to a girl! It's where I keep my…secrets."

"We all know that you like Tipral. It's not a secret." Mr. L pointed out as he opened his door. "Just stop whining, geez!"

"Well it's not good when someone else discovers my secrets," Mimi shrieked. "And it's not all just about Tippy, you know! There are…other stuff in there."

"Well none of us read your diary," Dark confirmed. "We don't even give a crap on what's in a girl's diary anyway."

"So… You didn't read about the part where I wanted to marry Tippy one day? Out on the beach?"

"No...?"

"Uh oh… I just said that out loud."

"Said what out loud?" Mimi turned around and saw Nastasia walking out of her room with a cup of coffee. "What were you screaming about, anyway?"

"Someone read her diary," Mr. L snickered.

"'K… I see now. Mimi, do you think that it could've been one of the heroes that read your diary? As far as I'm concerned, the only one of the heroes who even came into the sanctum was the pale green one with the antennas.

"_**CHOPPER!**_" Mimi's eyes began to burn as she seethed with rage. "I can't believe that that dummy read my diary! When I find him next time, I'm going to strangle him with my own spider limbs and make sure he pays for what he's done!"

"Or better yet, just transform into a girl that likes him and he'll run away," Dark suggested.

"How'd you find something like that out?" Mr. L asked.

"'Cause I fought him in the past before I met you guys."

"Ugh… Well I'm going to make him suffer when I get a chance to face him again!"

"It depends on when we get teh chunk the heroes," O'Chunks pondered. "An' I wanna get back to wastin' 'em! I only fought two o' them before! I think I should get another chance!"

"Well, Tipral wanted us to meet him in the sanctum," Nastasia mentioned. "We should head there. …You guys did fix up your rooms from any damage, right?"

"Yeah," responded everyone.

"'K… Well, what we can do now is go to the sanctum. Is everyone here?"

The bathroom door opened and Fawful came out, sighing in relief.

"_**I HAVE RELIEF!**_" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "It's so nice for Fawful to go to the room of baths! It gives Fawful the giggles!"

"All right… So that's everyone." Nastasia slowly nodded. "I guess we can go to the sanctum. I'm sure Tipral will be waiting for us there."

Everyone agreed and began to make their way to the door leading into the sanctum.

* * *

**Tipral's room-**

Tipral just finished fixing his room after discovering that his room was actually damaged by Dimentio, just like the other rooms. From the look on his face, he felt incredibly frustrated with doing this.

"Ugh… Dimentio just had to wreck our rooms…" Tipral growled as he finished fixing his room. "There. That takes care of that."

With that, he sat down in his chair by his desk. He was wondering if it was a good idea for him to give Chopper the seventeenth Pure Heart. Sure, he helped him get rid of Dimentio, but he knew that giving it to him would mean that they would have an easier chance of getting the remaining three.

He looked over at some of the stuff in his shelf. He noticed that there were a couple of old plans in there which he didn't get rid of, but he also saw an old picture of him and the little girl.

"I thought I got rid of this?" Tipral was about to smash it, but he decided not to and put it back in the drawer. "I'll…just hold onto this for now, just for some memories, even if I'm through with that now."

With that, he teleported out of his room in a flash.

* * *

**Sanctum-**

"So, now that Dimentio is gone, how are we going to go after those heroes now?" Mr. L asked as everyone got onto their platform.

"We don't need that clown anymore," stated Tipral. "I only needed his help in resurrecting The Void. Now that the job's done, we can go on without him. Too bad he tried to backstab us again."

"Would you have disposed of him even if he didn't feign his memory loss?" Mimi asked.

"Only if he became useless to me. However, he actually proved to be a bit useful. Anyway, what we need to focus on are those heroes. They're going to be searching for the Pure Hearts again, and if they manage to collect the rest of them, there's a chance that they could form the Purity Heart, which has the power to counter even the Chaos Heart's true power. However, for the Chaos Heart to get this power, it must make contact with The Void. Some say its power might be too dangerous."

"Ummmm… Are you going to be doing that?" Nastasia asked.

"I will, but sadly, I can't teleport into The Void. It'll require us to open a portal to the inside of The Void, which may take a while or a second to open. So, in the meantime, we'll focus on keeping the heroes from grabbing the Pure Hearts."

"Tipral, why don't yeh send me out teh get 'em?" O'Chunks suggested, waving his arms around. "I'll give 'em a chunkin' that's never been like before!"

"You? Take down the heroes? Oh, ho ho! Sometimes I feel like I have to laugh at you!" Mr. L scoffed. "What makes YOU think that you can beat those heroes? You lost to two of the heroes in this palace!"

"But you had the defeating as well, mustache!" scoffed Fawful. "I have suspicion of hypocrisy!"

"Hey, don't go mocking the 'stache! Anyway, all right, we were all bested. It doesn't mean that we'll do any better when there are six of them!"

"Very well, O'Chunks. I'll send you out." Tipral stated. "I'm sending you out as well, Fawful. I want to make sure that Chopper and his friends don't get their hands on that Pure Heart. There may be some consequences to failing…"

"I will be taking care of the punishments, as stated by Tipral, 'K?" Nastasia confirmed.

"YEAH! I've been waitin' fer this moment!" O'Chunks cheered as he raised his arms. "Trust me, Tipral! I won't fail yeh!"

O'Chunks jumped off his platform while Fawful began to cackle. "Very well! I will have the bidding from Tipral! This will be the requiring of Midbus for his helping!"

Fawful waved goodbye as he jumped off his platform and left the sanctum. Mimi just gave a confused look as she put her stick hands on her hips.

"Can any of you still understand that guy?" she asked.

"Not at all," Dark said with a shake of his head.

"So… You think they're going to stop them?" Mr. L asked. "My guess is no."

"Same here."

"Definitely."

"Well, even if they lose, it'll push the heroes back just a bit," Tipral informed. "The portal that leads into The Void could appear in any moment. Giving us more time would be better than letting the heroes get those Pure Hearts."

"Good point," Dark nodded. "So… Doesn't it feel a little different without Dimentio around?"

"Personally, I think it's all the better that he isn't around!" Mimi huffed. "That annoying clown would always read my diary!"

"Let's just hope it stays that way," Mr. L stated.

"From what I saw, Dimentio burst into flames and began to sink into the ground," Tipral confirmed. "Why he killed himself, I don't know. But, let's keep it like that."

* * *

**Asteroid-**

Back on the asteroid where the heroes fought Dimentio Doom, there were still some remains of the monster on the ground. Mostly the monster's head and its right arm seemed to be remaining above the ground. It seemed that it was all over for Dimentio.

…Or was it?

The last of the remains began to disintegrate as a dark mist came out of the monster. All that could be seen were two evil eyes. The right eye was black while the left one was yellow.

"_**Ah…ha…ha…ha…" **_the mist cackled slowly as it noticed that the remains of Dimentio Doom was now gone. It looked around in space before flying off to the palace. The only thing it happened to notice was O'Chunks and Fawful leaving.

The mist started to remember about losing to the heroes. The biggest part it remembered, though, was when it got stabbed in the eye by Chopper. Despite this, it grinned, despite not having a mouth.

"_**The deed…isn't…finished…yet… They…will…all…die…like…a psycho…chopping…a cucumber…" **_After a cackle, the dark mist disappeared.

* * *

"_Hey, Tipral… Have you ever wondered about your perfect world?"_

"…_Yes, Timpani. I believe I can think of a perfect one. A world full of peace and happiness. I can imagine such a thing. …What do you think it's like down there?"_

"_It's beautiful down there. I wish we could go down there and see the world again."_

"_Is there more people like you down there?"_

"_Of course! There are many people down there, and they're very nice too!"_

"_Would you…like to go down there? I have the ability to teleport wherever and whenever. I could bring you back home, and we can leave this space station."_

"_I would love to do that, Tipral. I'd like to see my family again. You could even stay with us too! We can be happy…"_

"_Timpani, grab onto my hand. We'll go there."_

"_Right now?"_

"_Yes. Right now."_

* * *

**Flipside, Merlon's house-**

"…And that's what happened," Chopper finished as he and the rest of the group explained to Merlon about their journey through Tipral's Palace. They even explained what happened to Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi when they were thrown out of the palace, and up to the part where Tipral brought back The Void.

"Very intriguing…" Merlon trailed. "Unfortunately, it seems that you didn't manage to succeed in your goal to stop Tipral…"

"Yeah, pretty much," Sonic frowned. Chopper took it worse as his head hung low. "Whoa, bud, what's wrong?"

"You really wanna know how Tipral was able to get the Chaos Heart?" Chopper asked.

"Didn't you say that the dark matter had to do with resurrecting the Chaos Heart?" Luigi asked.

"It goes a little deeper than that. You see, Tipral needed to gather dreams to resurrect the Chaos Heart, right? Well, it turns out that there was something else that he could do to resurrect the Chaos Heart and void. Using that would make it much stronger…"

"Poyo? (Who told you this anyway?)" Kirby asked.

"Tipral did," Chopper explained. "You see, the other thing he had to do was find love from a pale green puffball, which happened to be me."

"Love from you? But how could that even be possible?" Luigi gawked. "You don't like romance!"

"Hmmmm… So all six of you had a part in bringing back The Void…" Merlon trailed. "These news are quite disturbing."

"Hold on…" Blade pondered. "Did you kiss Luvbi?"

"No, I didn't kiss her. She kissed ME! It was up at the balcony, if you wanted to know. Before I knew it, there was a white flash that appeared for a second. Now, I feel terrible because I feel as if this is all my fault."

Mario: We caused the Pure Heart to come back, too!

"Yeah, you really shouldn't say that because part of it was our fault too," Sonic agreed. "While I'm not exactly the happiest because of these news, it's not going to stop me from saving the universe."

"I'd strangle you for that, but you have no neck," stated Blade.

"Thanks…"

"So, with the Pure Heart, where do we take it?" Luigi asked. "We've put at least eight hearts in Flipside and Flopside. Where would the last Heart Pillars be?"

"Unfortunately, I don't have any clues…" Merlon sighed. "The last four Pure Hearts were kept hidden from the Light Prognosticus to prevent those seeking the prophecy to find them."

That's when Mario remembered something. He recalled Nolrem saying something about a town above both Flipside and Flopside. He decided to mention it to Merlon.

"What? A town above Flipside and Flopside? …Wait, hold on a moment… If I could recall, my ancestors once said something about a secret town above the other two towns. Sadly, getting there is no easy feat."

"How do we get up there?" Chopper asked. "Do we have to climb some clouds?"

"Hell no! I don't wanna climb clouds!" Blade retorted.

"No, you don't need to climb clouds, Blade," assured Merlon. "As for getting there, my ancestors said that the path to the town above would only be revealed to the six legendary heroes. There, they will be able to reach the town and find the remaining four Heart Pillars, as far as I know."

"Where should we search?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo? (Should we get more information from Nolrem?)" Kirby asked.

"I would start by going to the shrine in between Flipside and Flopside," advised Merlon. "You managed to get to Flopside through there, and that's the only place that I know only the heroes could enter. If you go there, I'm sure you might find something."

"Shrine? Wait, didn't we go through that before, bro?" Luigi recalled.

Mario: Yeah, we needed to use it to get to Flopside.

"But then we just made a pipe to help us get to both places easily…"

"Well, then we ought to go to that shrine place or whatever the hell it is," Blade agreed. "So… You guys know where it is?"

"Poyo, (We've only went through there once,)" Kirby recalled.

"Well at least I remember where it is," Chopper smiled. "For some reason, I never forgot about that place. We just need to go to the first floor and go into 3-D to head to a bridge leading to the shrine."

"Then let's go!" suggested Sonic.

* * *

**Mirror Hall-**

Upon entering Mirror Hall, they looked at the glass windows with portraits of the Ancients. One of them looked somewhat like Merlon, but his robe was a lighter blue color than Merlon's.

"Wow. This place is pretty interesting." gawked Blade.

"Hey, look at that!" Sonic spotted four blocks in the room. The block all the way to the left was a brown color, the second one was pale green, the third was a dark purple and the final block was a black color.

"From what I can see, those must be what the colors of the last few Pure Hearts are. But, why are there four blocks when we have three Pure Hearts left to find?" Chopper questioned.

"Well, who cares? Let's just hit these blocks!" Blade hit the brown one, while Luigi struck the pale green one, and Kirby hit the purple block. The black block was struck by Mario.

"So… What's going to happen?"

"We should be able to find out now, Chopper," Sonic said as he saw the glass on the room shattered and sparkled as it rained to the ground. They noticed that the glass disappeared as it landed on the floor.

"Whoa… I don't know what just happened." Luigi gaped.

Mario: Look at that!

A beam of rainbow light came down from the sky and made a pedestal appear in the center of the room. After the light disappeared, they noticed a gem inside of the pedestal that had a rainbow glow.

"Hmmmmm… So if Merlon says is true, there's a town above this place." Chopper confirmed. "All right, let's take a look."

When they jumped on the pedestal, a bright beam of rainbow light came down on them and began to take them out of Mirror Hall and high above Flipside and Flopside.

* * *

**Unknown area, first floor-**

As the beam disappeared, everyone noticed that they were standing on a pink floor. There was a bridge extending to a town up ahead. To them, it actually looked familiar to Flipside and Flopside, but with houses and people in different colors.

"The colors here remind me of the rainbow for some reason," Chopper noticed as he looked far off. "So, this is the secret town that the Pure Hearts are?"

"Well, why don't we go take a look?" Sonic suggested as he ran on ahead with a Spin Dash. Everyone shrugged and followed him up ahead to town. They noticed that there was a rainbow above the tower up above. There happened to be clouds of a shade of pink around as well.

"Poyo! (So much pink!)" Kirby squealed as he flailed his arms around.

"Yeah, the ground's only pink," Chopper noted as he looked around the beautiful sky. "Geez! This place is nice! No wonder why this place is a secret!"

"Let's see what's up on level two," suggested Blade as he ran over to the elevator with a rainbow-colored arrow. The people walking around took notice of them as they all stopped by the elevator.

"Look at those people," a male civilian whispered.

"Yeah, they look nothing like anyone else here," a female civilian nodded. "How do you think that's possible?"

"Perhaps that darkness in the sky brought them here?"

"Maybe…"

* * *

**Unknown area, second floor-**

This area of the town felt more like Flopside's second floor than Flipside's. Perhaps that one floor resembles a bit of Flopside and another Flipside? That's what it looked like when they were on the first floor.

"This is strange…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: It's interesting, in my opinion.

"Oh ho oh! Welcome, young ones! I expected your arrival."

"Poyo? (Who said that?)" Kirby gawked.

"Over here!" the six looked over to their left and noticed a wizard resembling Merlon and Nolrem. However, instead of a blue or black cloak, his was a red color with a blue trim, and had a yellow mustache and green eyes. His shirt underneath his cloak was an orange color, and he wore indigo pants. While his shoes couldn't be fully seen, they could tell that he was wearing violet kind.

"Whoa… This Merlon has all the colors of the rainbow!" Chopper gaped. "Who would've thought we'd see this?"

"Poyo! (Yeah! I'm shocked!)" Kirby agreed.

"So, I suppose you are the heroes of the prophecy?" the wizard predicted, receiving nods from everyone. "I had a feeling that you would arrive ever since The Void was brought back."

"What about when it was in the sky before these events?" Blade questioned.

"In the prophecy, it went something like this: 'Six heroes of light will arrive in this town when The Void is resurrected once again.' So… How are you people faring in this town? Lovely, isn't it? My ancestors were responsible for creating it!"

"Does it have a name?" Sonic asked.

"Of course, Sonic the Hedgehog! We like to call this place **Rainbowside**."

"Rainbowside? Really? …Well, I guess it's a little fitting."

"And what is my name, you ask? Why, I'm called **Olnerm**! Nobody, including Merlon and Nolrem, know about this place. Most people from the Tribe of Ancients have never heard of this place either. It was meant to be such a secret that those who discovered it were forced to live here to prevent them from telling others about it. Yes, it is indeed quite depressing for some people…"

"Never knew this place had such history," Sonic gawked.

"Now, I'm sure you heroes are looking for the Heart Pillar. You'll find that up on the third floor, if you don't remember where you put the Pure Heart in the first time you arrived in Flipside or Flopside."

"Really? Well, that's pretty easy." Chopper smiled.

"Here, allow me to give you something," Olnerm handed Chopper a rainbow pipe, which resembled the Return Pipe a bit. "This pipe will allow you to come back here so you don't have to go through the Mirror Hall each time. I've been saving this for the heroes anyway."

Mario: That's nice!

They stopped as they felt the tremor from The Void shake the whole town. When they looked up at the sky, they saw that The Void grew.

"Damn! That thing grew pretty fast!" Blade gaped. "How are we to expect to stop it at this rate?"

"I apologize for wasting some of your time, young ones," apologized Olnerm. "I will let you place the Pure Heart in its Heart Pillar. Please, go on ahead."

"All right… Well, it was great seeing you!" Luigi waved goodbye as they made their way to the elevator all the way to the left. They passed the rainbow-colored tower and made their way to the other elevator.

* * *

**Rainbowside, third floor-**

"Geez, isn't this place a little confusing?" Chopper asked as they came out of the elevator door. They noticed all the way to the left, there was an empty Heart Pillar.

"Ah! So that's like the first Heart Pillar?" Sonic questioned as Chopper nodded. "All right, since you have the heart, why don't you place it in the Heart Pillar?"

"I guess I should," Chopper made his way to the Heart Pillar, but ended up bumping into it. When the rest of the group made it over to him, they noticed that he was a little dazed.

"Poyo? (What happened to you?)" Kirby asked.

"I bumped into the Heart Pillar, that's all. Sometimes stopping can be a pain when I'm going too fast."

"You'll eventually get used to it," assured Sonic. "It didn't take me too long to control it."

"For me, it's been nearly ever since I was able to run fast… Well, anyway, back to the Pure Heart." Chopper held the dark gray Pure Heart up and allowed it to go into the pillar. They all gawked as a dark gray clock appeared around the pillar.

Over at Flopside Tower, a brown door was drawn right beside the dark gray door.

"So, I reckon we go back to Flopside Tower," suggested Blade. "There are still some empty doors there, right?"

"Yeah, let's head there," agreed Luigi as Chopper got the Return Pipe out and selected to go to Flopside Tower.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

As they came out of the pipe, they noticed that there was a brown door. For some reason, the color brown reminded Chopper of Tamber.

"A brown door? I guess a brown Pure Heart is through there?" Sonic questioned.

"It reminds me of crap," Blade said.

Mario: Why?

"Because it's brown? …Er, I think I'm getting a little on the gross side here. Let's just head through before we run out of time."

After exchanging nods, they all made their way through the seventh door of Flopside Tower.

Without Timpani and Blumiere's help.

* * *

**So apparently all six heroes had a part in resurrecting The Void (the first and second time in this story). So much for being heroes when they're probably the sole reason the universe will be destroyed. Poor them. :P**

**And, according to the end of this interlude, we are now two-thirds through this story! Yes, there was the first part, which was Chapter 1 to 8, the second part, which was Chapter 9 to 16, and now the final part, which includes Chapters 17 to 20.**

**But, now that we're getting into the darker part of this fic, it might be a little more serious than it usually was (but, I'll still have humor thrown in too), since, you know, they're in a very, very serious situation here. **

**Anyway, that's all for now.** **Oh, and if you listen to songs while reading this, you should listen to Stickerbrush Symphony for Chapter 17-1. Just a little thought. :P**


	100. A Size Changing Experience

_With the resurrection of The Void, Chopper and Co. had very little time to interact with the people that remained in the Flipside world. Of all the heroes, Luigi felt the most worried of The Void. "Man… I can't believe The Void's back to cause massive destruction around the universe!" he shuddered. "Here I was hoping for an adventure that didn't involve the universe getting destroyed!" However, not all of them seemed too upset. Chopper, feeling a little better, was relieved that Dimentio was finally gone and would no longer cause trouble for them. Unfortunately, they weren't paying attention to the small atmosphere that would soon arrive._

**CHAPTER 17-1**

**-A Size Changing Experience-**

What was surprising when the new world was getting drawn was that there didn't appear to be too much around. In fact, all there was was a small, grassy ground with some flowers and a bright, blue sky. Too bad the sky was covered by The Void, or else it would be bright and beautiful out here. There were a couple of clouds around as well, but there weren't any enemies in sight. It felt like something like the peaceful world in the fifteenth world, actually.

Once the brown door was drawn and colored, the six heroes walked out and looked at their surroundings. They were actually pretty surprised to see that there wasn't much around them.

"What the hell? Why is this place so small?" Blade gawked. "OK, yeah, we're on the plains, but there's nothing around here! What gives?"

"Hmmmmm…" Chopper looked down at the grass and the flowers. For some reason, the flowers seemed to remind him a bit of the Crazee Dayzees and even Kayzee, one of his partners from an adventure two years ago.

"Poyo… (This place is too small for a Pure Heart to be around…)" Kirby trailed with an unimpressed look.

"You know, I have a hunch that there might be a little secret around these parts," Sonic pondered as he looked down at the grass. "Hmmmmm… Well, there's nothing here, sadly. Anyone have any ideas?"

Mario: Not me.

"I don't have any, sadly," Luigi sweat dropped as he sighed. "So, all this did was lead us to nowhere? Well that's just great…"

Before anyone could respond, they felt the ground shake. The Void was already growing bigger in the sky. It was slightly smaller than what it was in Flipside, meaning that chances are that it could literally _be_ the sky when they're done searching for the Pure Heart.

_If_ they even find it.

"Hold on a minute, there's one thing we haven't tried yet," Chopper realized as he threw his arms in the air. He wasn't too surprised when he saw a secret yellow block in 3-D. With his hammer, he smashed it and revealed a purple pipe.

"A pipe? Interesting…" Blade trailed as Chopper quickly went back into 2-D.

Mario: Let's check it out!

They all agreed and jumped into the pipe. Upon coming out, they noticed that they couldn't see much of the sky anymore because of the tall blades of grass. They were standing on the dirt ground as they jumped out of the pipe. So far, they were a little confused.

"Wait, what just happened?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know why, but it feels like we're still in the same place…" Luigi pondered as he looked at the tall blades of grass. "Wait a second… Did that pipe suddenly _shrink_ us? ! I really do feel smaller!"

Mario: Hey! I can feel that too!

"Hold on…" Chopper jumped back into the pipe, only to become big when he jumped out. The rest of the group noticed that he was much bigger. When he went back down into the pipe, he returned to his friends.

"Anything happen?"

"Poyo… (Well, when you went into the pipe, we noticed that you were huge…)" informed Kirby. "Poyo? (What kind of world is this?)"

"Obviously a strange one if we can change size…" Luigi trailed as he noticed some robotic ladybugs off at the distance. Unlike Motobugs, they didn't have a large wheel, and their back was more of a green color with black polka dots. Luigi could see that it had razor sharp feet.

"Motobugs? Here?" Sonic gawked. "How did they get here?"

"Those don't look like Motobugs to be…" Blade noticed. "They're just robotic ladybugs, that's it."

"You think they're friendly?" Chopper wondered as he walked over to the Robobug. It took notice of him and attempted to swipe at him with its sharp blade-like legs. Chopper instantly recoiled and hurled a rainbow ball at it to blow it up.

"I guess not," Luigi confirmed while shaking his head. He noticed a couple of prickly vines covering a bottomless pit up ahead on the flat ground. "You think we need to do something with those vines?"

Mario shrugged and walked over to the prickly vines. He attempted to jump over them, but he ended up touching them instead, making him yelp as he rocketed in the air and fell right beside Luigi.

"I don't think your jump will help us…" Sonic trailed. "But I think with a Homing Attack, I could make it across!"

Sonic attempted to get across with a Homing Attack, but it didn't seem to work out for him, because he too touched the prickly vines and went flying up just like Mario.

"OK… Forget that plan."

Kirby walked over to the prickly vines, but all he did was float over them to avoid getting hurt. He hit a blue ! switch past the vines to reveal a wooden platform above the prickly vines.

"That works too," Chopper said as he jumped on the platform and landed right beside Kirby. Everyone followed afterward and encountered a dark green Spinia with spikes coming its way toward them. However, this was actually a Swirlia instead of a Spinia.

Mario started off by attacking it with his hammer, followed by his Super Ground Pound that sent a shockwave at the Swirlia, defeating it instantly. With that, they ran over to the door that was ahead.

When they reached the next area, they noticed that there were more prickly vines on the floor. There was a floating wooden platform nearby that had a green Birdon flying around.

Since it didn't look like Chopper could even travel through this area with his abilities, he inhaled the Birdon and took the Wing ability for himself.

"Wait… How are WE going to get through this hellhole?" Blade asked as he noticed there weren't any platforms to help. "We're basically screwed here!"

"Look over there!" Luigi pointed up at a vine hanging from a prickly vine above them that seemed to form a ceiling. A wasp was guarding the vine, flying around and making sure no one would get close.

"Poyo? (Should we do something about it?)" Kirby asked.

"Yeah, why don't we?" Chopper began to flap his wings as he began to fly up to the Robowasp. When it noticed him coming up, it began to throw a couple of bombs down at him. Kirby was able to let out a puff of air to blow them up as he followed up.

"Take this!" Chopper fired a couple of feathers at the Robowasp, knocking it down near the wooden platform so Blade could slice it in half.

"Heh heh! It's always satisfying when you slice them in half!" Blade smirked as he put his katana away.

"You're putting your katana away already?" Sonic questioned. "Why?"

"There aren't any other enemies around here. I see no point in—Whoa, it's a Roboweed!" Blade noticed over by the path ahead, there was a Roboweed sticking out of the prickly vines, shooting sharp blades at them.

"Wait, why are there robots of stuff here anyway?" Luigi asked.

Mario: I'm not too sure about that…

"Well, I'll handle that Roboweed," Blade assured as he deflected the blades with his katana and used his Dragon Beam to instantly kill the Roboweed. "All right, so how are the others doing?"

They looked up and saw that the Robowasp was just finished. Chopper already grabbed a hold of the vine, making a horizontal vine hang from the path with the close prickly vines above them.

"Hey, that looks like something we can use!" Sonic grinned. "Good work, Chopper!"

Chopper decided that he would simply fly through the narrow path instead of using the vine, but he soon stopped when he realized that it would be too hard for him to flap his wings through the area.

"OK, the vines are probably safer," he said as he grabbed the vine and began to slowly make his way through the area until they got to a wooden platform with a door. He jumped off the vine and landed in front of the door like everyone else.

"Well, that was pretty cool, wasn't it?" Blade smirked until he saw everyone else's looks. "…Uh, nah. From the looks of your faces, I don't think so."

"Poyo, (Let's just go,) suggested Kirby as he got Blade out of his way and went through the door. The rest followed him into another area with prickly vines, but with one green vine hanging from the thorns above them.

Mario: Oh! That could help us!

"I just hope my hands don't slip when swinging…" shivered Luigi, who grabbed a hold of the vine first and swung himself back and forth. "The thorns on those vines look pretty sharp…"

"You found anything yet?" Blade called out.

"No, I didn't find too much! All I see are a couple of weird bush-like people with spears on a wooden platform ahead.

"Bush-like people? What the heck?" Chopper flew past the vine and landed on the platform where one of the bush-like people were. Its body was covered in leaves, and there was a little black area where he could see its eyes. It was small, but not as small as Chopper. Its arms and legs were a gray color, and it was also carrying a spear. From identifying it, it was a Busher.

What was the Busher's first response? It clenched its spear and attempted to jab Chopper with it. He simply chucked a fireball at it to leave it on fire and finished it off after shooting three feathers.

"You know, I kind of feel bad for what we're doing…" Sonic trailed as he and Luigi got on the wooden platform. "We don't even know if these guys are good guys or bad guys…"

They all noticed on another platform, there were two Bushers trying to fight each other with their spears. From what they could see, they didn't look like they were friendly. In fact, it probably made them bad guys!

"Oh… So they are bad guys." Chopper said with no expression. "OK… So I guess it wasn't cruel for me to do that."

"Well, burning someone feels a little cruel…" Luigi trailed.

"Yeah, that's true…"

They jumped over to the next platform and took care of the Bushers that tried to attack them. With them out of the way, they grabbed onto a vine ahead and used it to swing over to one of the two wooden platforms. One was below with a chest, and the other led to a bounceable mushroom.

"Cool! It's like the metallic forest!" Sonic grinned as he jumped off the vine and jumped on the long, wooden platform above the mushroom. Everyone followed him and found another bounceable mushroom, but with blue polka-dots.

Mario: That looks a little different…

When Luigi got close to the mushroom, it pulled itself off the ground and attempted to charge at him. The mushroom, known as a Musham, attempted to charge at Luigi, but it simply bounced him back instead of hurting him.

Mario: I don't think we can hurt its cap.

"The only thing we can do is hit him from below," stated Sonic was he attacked the Musham with a Spin Dash, but ended up getting bounced back because of the cap that was still pointed towards him.

"Dang it… It's not going to be easy beating this thing…"

"I've got an idea," Blade smirked as he fired Hommissile over the Musham and allowed it to blow up the lower part of the Musham's body, sending it flying over and leaving it open for an attack.

"Poyo! (Now to finish this off!)" Kirby smirked as he pulled his Final Cutter out and sliced the Musham in half, disintegrating it. He made a cute pose before following everyone over to a ladder leading down to a wooden platform.

"Uh oh… More of these thorns..." Blade gulped as he noticed that there were a couple of wooden platforms ahead, but because of the thorns of the vines above them, they couldn't jump too high or else they'd get hurt.

Mario: Uh oh… This looks dangerous.

"I'll go first," Chopper announced as he attempted to fly through but he ended up touching one of the thorns, making him shriek in pain as he flew back to the group, getting the thorns off him.

"YEOW! That hurt!"

"Man… This is going to be annoying." Blade groaned. "I thought this place would be pretty cool, but with this, I'm not liking it."

"Well, this is something that's challenging," noted Sonic. "Maybe this'll be good?"

"But at this rate, wouldn't it be better if things weren't so difficult?" Luigi asked. "I'd think that that's what you'd all agree on…"

"Never mind that. We're going." Chopper carefully flew over to the platform, trying his best not to touch the thorns. Luckily, he was able to do that. Kirby probably had the easiest time with his floating, while Luigi had the most difficult with his jumping.

"My jump is hurting me here!"

Mario: Just try your best!

Luigi managed to land on the platform and follow everyone else at an upper angle to the right through the platforms. After going down a couple of them, they were greeted by a red door.

"Hopefully we don't have to deal with any more vines," Blade hoped as they entered the area ahead and found a giant dandelion and even a purple pipe nearby. There was a locked door just up ahead.

"Great… Even when we got through those thorns, we have a locked door." Chopper groaned. "So, why don't we…"

"_**I HAVE SEEING!**_" a voice boomed as they looked up and saw Fawful looking down at the ground with his magnify glass. "You don't have the escaping from Fawful! Not when I have fury!"

"Whoa… Fawful's here? But how?" Luigi gaped.

"Poyo, (I bet Tipral sent him,)" predicted Kirby as he ran over to the pipe. "Poyo! (We should get in here! Quickly!)"

Everyone ran as a ray of light came down from Fawful's magnify glass. They jumped into the pipe and turned big. They noticed that they were in a larger area in the fields, but there was still nothing around.

"Wow. This place is pretty barren." Chopper commented.

"Chopper, if a place was barren, then there wouldn't be grass," noted Sonic.

"Well, then this place is pretty vast," Chopper looked around and noticed Fawful was still using his magnify glass. He smirked as he pulled his hammer out and attempted to bash the bean in the head.

That is, if Midbus didn't come and knock him back with his elbow.

"You won't hurt Lord Fawful," Midbus said emotionlessly. "Now you'll be crushed!"

"Oh, great. It's the piggy again." Blade rolled his eyes. "I was hoping that we'd never run into this guy again. I guess Fawful wanted us to feed him bacon! That's what you wanted, didn't you, Fawful?"

"I think that's a little too far…" winced Sonic.

"Oh… Sorry."

"I have chortles!" Fawful cackled. "You honestly had the thinking that you would get to the heart of pure without being bothered? Well, with Fawful's intellect, Fawful will have the last laugh!"

"And what you're saying is…" Chopper trailed.

"_**MIDBUS! ATTACK AT ONCE!**_" he commanded as he jumped on his flying platform and took off. Midbus cracked his knuckles and looked over at the heroes with steam coming out of his nostrils.

"Uh oh… Here it comes!" Sonic gasped as he saw Midbus curl up into a ball and throw himself straight at the group, sending them flying in the air. As Midbus uncurled himself, he jumped above the group and attempted to belly flop them.

However, Mario was able to get his Pixl Kickbrin ready, and he threw his foot up to let him strike Midbus's belly. While it hurt him, he still fell on top of them. When the boar got back up, he readied a punch, but Mario was able to stomp on his head and use a Super Ground Pound.

"All right, I guess that kept him off guard," Luigi said as he attacked Midbus with a jump attack as well. When looking at his HP, they saw that he had about 360 HP, an Attack of 15 and a Defense of 2. From this, they had a feeling that he wouldn't be too difficult.

"HA! You have such sucky HP, Attack and Defense compared to Dimentio Doom!" Blade scoffed before he got grabbed by Midbus and was thrown straight at Kirby, who attempted to defend himself but failed horribly.

"I won't deal with insults!" Midbus growled. "Now. I squish you!"

Midbus flexed his chest as his belly was left wide open for an attack. Sonic smirked and curled up in a ball to throw himself at the boar. Unfortunately, one Spin Dash wasn't enough to do the boar in.

"I've gotten smarter!" the boar smirked as he caught Sonic in a ball the next time he tried to attack and threw him into the ground. Chopper, shocked, hurled a rainbow ball at Midbus's stomach and used his Condor Head attack to dash forward and headbutt Midbus in the stomach.

Midbus grunted as he tried to grab Chopper, who simply flew out of the way and used a Shuttle Loop to ram into him and knock him over. Unfortunately, when Midbus jumped, he was able to grab him and slam him into Mario.

"Ow… Whoever knew that he would do something like that?" moaned Chopper.

"Well, it looks like he DID get smarter…" Blade realized as he was about to attack. That is, until Kirby inhaled a star that appeared once Midbus tried to ground pound him. He spat it at the boar and left him off guard, allowing him to use his Cartwheel.

"Poyo! (There's no way you're going to stop us!)" scoffed Kirby, who was able to use a Final Cutter on him afterward. Midbus tried to grab a hold of him, but the pink puffball was able to get out of the way easily. Midbus growled as he curled in a ball and attempted to roll him over.

However, Blade stood in front and used Barry to knock Midbus back, leaving him immobilized. He took the time to dash up to him and land a combo with his katana, finishing it off with his Dragon Beam.

As Midbus slowly got up, he saw Blade charging at him again. It took only a punch to completely disintegrate him.

Wait… Disintegrate him?

"Wait… What?" Midbus noticed that Blade was almost completely vaporized. Little did he know that Blade actually appeared behind him and kicked him in the face. "How did you do that?"

"I'm a ninja. I can do many things." Blade smirked as he tried to slash his back. Unfortunately, his katana wasn't able to do much to his back because of how thick it was. "Damn! I guess the back won't work…"

"Now to smash you!" Midbus jumped in the air and slammed right on Blade. Since a yellow star appeared, Kirby inhaled one and spat it at Midbus to keep him off guard. Sonic followed up with his Sonic Wind, leaving Midbus to get thrown around.

"Yeah! I can't believe that it's actually working against him!" Sonic smirked.

More steam came out of Midbus's nostrils as he moved his arm back and prepared for a stronger punch attack. Mario, however, was able to stop him when he bashed him with his hammer. So, Midbus had a better option. He got his ball and chain ready and began to spin around with it, sending Mario flying back.

"Well I'm not letting you continue to use that!" Chopper declared as he fired a couple of feathers directly at Midbus. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to do much and just bounced away. When Midbus flung his ball and chain, Chopper whacked it away with his hammer and sent it flying to Midbus's stomach.

"Urk! My stomach…" winced Midbus.

"Luigi was about to make another hit, but Midbus was able to belly flop three times, with the third one bringing him high above the group. He tried to land on Mario, but he got out of the way and let the boar hit the ground and make a shockwave that left the group stunned for a couple of seconds.

"This guy's actually putting up more of a fight…" wheezed Blade.

"Oh, come on! We didn't get hurt THAT much…" Chopper sighed as he quickly shook his head and flung a charged rainbow ball at Midbus. He simply jumped to dodge it and tried to roll over Chopper. Luckily, Luigi was able to use his Cyclone to stop Midbus and use a flutter jump on him.

"Ho ho! I can't believe I got two good hits on him!" Luigi smiled before he got grabbed by Midbus. He tried to speak, but he couldn't breathe because of how strong Midbus's fists were.

Mario: Hold on, bro! I'll be there!

The red plumber ran up to Midbus and kicked him in the stomach. It didn't seem to do much, but when he used Kickbrin, it actually hurt Midbus and forced him to release Luigi.

"Take this!" Midbus shot fire out of his nostrils, to the surprise of the six. Kirby was able to inhale the fire and gain the Fire ability, using his Fire Breath against Midbus to leave him covered in soot.

"Hey, Kirby! We oughta fry him up into bacon!" Blade suggested.

"Poyo! (I'm not going to go that far!)" retorted Kirby as he struck Midbus with his Final Cutter afterward. Midbus cringed in pain and attempted to punch Kirby, but Luigi smacked him in the face with Bonjourang.

"Unnngh…"

Kirby smiled as he threw Crystaline at Midbus, leaving him frozen solid. Chopper used another Condor Head attack to break the ice block around Midbus and leave him shivering. Blade decided to help him by using a fire slash.

"Well, now I guess I made him hot instead," Blade said.

"What do you mean by that?" Chopper asked.

"I mean that he's burning. _Idiot…_"

Chopper made a face at him as he flew in the air in order to dodge Midbus's punch. The boar, instead, curled up in a ball and began to roll towards the group while surrounded in fire.

Mario: Mama mia! He's going all out!

The rest of the group got out of the way and watched Midbus uncurl. This gave Mario the chance to grab one of the yellow stars left on the ground with Thoreau and throw it at Midbus to leave him dazed.

"You go, bro!" Luigi cheered as Mario pummeled Midbus with his hammer. He decided to join in by stomping on his head before Midbus attempted to punch him. Luckily, he was faster and jumped out of harm's reach.

"Taste my bomb!" Midbus jumped in the air and attempted to belly flop Luigi, but his Super Jump was able to counter his attack and knock him to the ground. Chopper was able to shoot a couple of feathers at him before slamming his foot on his nose.

"Argh! My nose!" Midbus grabbed a hold of his nose while Sonic jumped and struck him with a Homing Attack. It didn't knock him over, but it definitely did keep him off guard for a couple of seconds.

"You ready to give up yet?" Sonic taunted. "'Cause we _can_ end this now, if you want. I don't want to give you any serious injuries, honestly…"

"I have to agree with Sonic," Chopper nodded. "We're not here to give you any injuries. We might have to if you're actually attempting to give US serious injuries."

Steam came out of Midbus's nose as he brought his head back and prepared for another new attack. Everyone gawked as the boar shot fire straight out of his nose. Thankfully, they were able to avoid it, but they almost got themselves burnt.

Mario: That was new…

"Poyo. (Not really. He did this before and I inhaled it.)" explained Kirby.

"Now you will burn!" roared Midbus as he blew a stronger flame from his nostrils. This time, it was able to get everyone. But that didn't stop Luigi from blowing the flames back with his Cyclone.

"I think I can get the flames to go his way…" Luigi trailed as he continued his cyclone. The tornados eventually drove the flames all the way to Midbus and even left him with a burn.

"Poyo! (Yes! We got him!)" Kirby fist pumped as he transformed into a fireball and rammed into Midbus, setting him on fire until the boar stopped, dropped, and rolled around on the grass.

"You know, I think there might be some thorns you might want to be careful of," Chopper warned until he heard Midbus yelping. He watched as the boar rocketed up into the air and land.

Right on Chopper.

"Ooh… That's gotta hurt." Blade cringed as Midbus got off and noticed Chopper flattened like a pancake. "Although, I'm surprised that he still has his Wing ability on him."

"Shut up, Blade," Chopper grumbled as Kirby got a bicycle pump and helped unflatten Chopper with it. Mario was reminded of when he used a bicycle pump on Luigi that one time.

"A bicycle pump? Really?" Sonic sighed.

Nevertheless, Midbus was able to get up and punch Sonic across the field. He was going to attack Chopper next, but he was able to attack him with a Shuttle Loop, followed by diving down at him with speed.

But, unfortunately, Midbus was able to grab him. Chopper ended up firing a feather straight at his eye.

"AGH! MY EYE!" Midbus screeched as he let go of Chopper and held his eye in pain. Chopper was able to land a few combos with some rainbow punches, kicks, and even a rainbow spin attack.

"Heh heh! I love this move!" Chopper gloated until Midbus squashed him with a belly flop. Mario face palmed as he readied his hammer and bashed Midbus in the head while he was occupied with Chopper. This got him to stop attacking Chopper and attack Mario instead.

"This guy is going to get his ass kicked," Blade smirked.

"You won't do that," Midbus scoffed as he tried to punch Mario.

"Why not?"

"I have no ass!"

"W-Wait a minute… What?" Chopper gawked, rubbing his eyes out of confusion. "How the HECK can you not have an ass? …Excuse me, a BUTT."

"Poyo, (Never mind that, we should just beat him,)" suggested Kirby, burning Midbus with his Fire Breath. Mario followed up by spinning his hammer at Midbus's stomach. This was good, considering that the boar was pretty low on HP.

"How much HP do we have anyway?" Sonic asked.

"I think we have enough," Luigi assured, looking at his HP bar. With that, he noticed Midbus perform three belly flops and jump up in the air to attempt another belly flop. He cringed as he landed right on Mario.

"Hold on, bro! I'm-a coming!" he rushed straight for Midbus, who was about to attack with another belly flop. While he was in the air, Luigi folded himself up and launched up to Midbus, landing an uppercut punch with his Super Jump.

"Not bad," Midbus panted as he slowly got up after falling. "But I've got this!"

He flexed his muscles and left his belly wide open. He began to turn to a red color while preparing for a powerful punch. Sonic simply took this time to bash him a couple of times in the stomach with a Spin Dash. But, that didn't work too well for him. With a punch, he was sent flying back.

"Gee, who ever knew that a punch like that would be strong?"

Mario sighed and simply used a Thunder Rage to leave Midbus paralyzed. He didn't really know what else to do anyway. Since this left Midbus dangerously low on HP, he thought it was best to finish this now.

Midbus began to wheeze, now that he was covered in many bruises and even some cuts. Blade attempted to throw a shuriken at him, but his fire was able to melt it entirely. Blade groaned, but attempted to throw Hommissile. Even then, the Pixl exploded and returned to him.

"Come on! Why can't I do anything against him? !" he grumbled. "He's pretty low on HP, and I wanna get a chance to beat him!"

He was ready to take Midbus down with a Dragon Beam. That is, until Mario stomped on him, making Midbus fall over on the ground.

"Oh, screw you!"

"Unnghhh…" Midbus grunted as he slowly lifted his head up to the group. "Though I…fall here… None beat Lord Fawful… He will DESTROY YOU!"

Mario: We beat him the last couple of times.

"I'm not sure if he will destroy us anyway," Luigi shrugged. "After fighting them the last few times? I wouldn't believe that."

Midbus was about to say another thing, but stopped when he became exhausted and stopped moving. They noticed that he was still alive, to their relief. If they ended up killing him, they wouldn't feel too good.

Mario: So, where to now?

"Well, the only answer to that is back in the pipe…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo, (But the door was locked,)" Kirby remarked. "Poyo? (How on earth are we going to be able to get past that door?)"

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that…"

"Hey, I think I see something," Sonic noticed a Door Key that Midbus apparently had in his inventory. "I think he was holding onto this key for some reason. I think we should take it!"

"Yeah, we need that key anyway," Blade agreed. As Sonic took the key, they jumped back into the pipe.

* * *

**Small-**

"Wow, so we're back to being small…" Chopper trailed. "You think we'll be mostly spending our time like this?"

"Poyo, (I hope not,)" Kirby frowned.

Sonic used the key to unlock the door and they moved forward into the next area, which contained a couple of thorns on the vines on the ground, but no vines above them. There was even a large dandelion that looked like it could be pulled on.

"Hmmmmm… Hold on a minute. I might have a clue here." Blade grabbed a hold of the head of the dandelion with a jump. Since it was big, the head didn't really move that much.

"Oh, I think it's one of those things…" Sonic sighed. "We gotta hold onto Blade and let go so he can get flung off."

"Well that's exciting," Chopper said sarcastically. "Just what we need. Something that we all have to do one at a time."

"Well, you and Kirby probably don't have to do this," Luigi informed.

"Yeah, but it's time consuming. We've got something that can destroy this whole place!"

"So what plan do you have then?" Sonic asked.

"…Nothing really."

"Then we're using this strategy," declared Blade as a couple grabbed onto his feet. This caused the head of the dandelion to move down. When they let go, Blade was sent flying off the dandelion and up to a high ledge made of rock.

"All right! Now we just have to repeat this process three more times!" Chopper smiled. "This is going to be so enjoyable!"

* * *

**Three more times later-**

"Yup! Wasn't that fun?"

"Uhhhh… Chopper, you know a lot of people disagree with you on that." Sonic noted.

"I was being sarcastic…"

"I know that. I just wanted to make sure."

"Anyway… Moving on." Blade said as they walked on ahead on the rocky ground to find a crack on the ground by a Musham. Blade decided to make his move and attack it with a Dragon Beam. Surprisingly, that ended up leaving it with very low HP.

"Wow. That worked?"

"That's good to know," Chopper smiled as Mario flipped the Musham over with a Super Ground Pound. He decided to fly up to the mushroom enemy and dive down at it to destroy it.

"Poyo… (I could sure use something to heal myself with…)" Kirby trailed, feeling his stomach growl a bit. "Poyo? (Is there anything we can have yet? Could we eat something that Saffron made?)"

"Not yet, Kirby."

Mario: Hold on a moment, look at that crack!

Mario pointed at the crack just below them. Chopper tried to break through with his hammer, but it didn't seem to work. Sonic tried a Bounce Attack, but that didn't work either.

"Huh… Well, we're gonna have to blow it up." Sonic sighed. "I was hoping I would have the power to smash through that, honestly…"

"Well, it's obvious that we'd have to do that," Blade said as he threw Hommissile to the ground and blew up a part of the floor. Unfortunately, they didn't spot anything around. In 2-D, at least.

"Do we need to find something in 3-D?" Luigi questioned.

"Poyo, (If not, then we're in trouble,)" Kirby answered, despite Luigi not understanding him.

"All right, all right…" Chopper sighed as he threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. They found a hole in the floor below. Actually, they were standing right over the hole!

Mario: Uh oh…

Their arms began to flail as they began to plummet down in the hole. What made it worse was that there were spikes that were right below them.

"Oh, come on! That's not fair!" Chopper frowned. "Whose idea was it to put spikes THERE? !"

"Ack! We're going to die!" Luigi yelped as Chopper went back into 2-D and began to flap his wings. Sonic managed to grab his foot, while Mario grabbed Sonic's, Luigi grabbed Mario's, and Blade grabbed Luigi's.

Kirby, on the other hand, was simply floating nearby with a punch of air in his mouth. He pointed over to a cannon with a red arrow that was right beside the spikes. Chopper, using as much strength as he could, tried to fly over.

"Ugh… There's too many people holding on!" he grunted.

"Well I'm not letting go!" Blade retorted. "You want me to get stabbed? !"

"Poyo? (Wait… How come we haven't been using Carrie for this place?)" Kirby realized. "Poyo! (She should be a huge help here!)"

"What the heck did the puffball say?"

"He suggested that we use Carrie," Chopper translated. "However, I don't know where this cannon will lead us."

"Carrie? Oh yeah! Why didn't I think of that before?" Blade let go of Luigi and Carrie was able to save him before he could get stabbed by the spikes. The rest were able to get in the cannon and get sent flying through the tunnel. Kirby and Blade jumped in and let it take them to the end of the tunnel.

"Hey! Would ya look at that? A couple of yellow ? blocks here!" Sonic smirked as he got up and brushed himself. "There are five of 'em! What do ya think we should do?"

"Uhhhh… What about that guy?" Chopper gulped, pointing to a Busher that looked like it wanted to kill them by the door. "Should we worry about that guy too?"

"Nah! It's just one anyway!"

The Busher steamed as it tried to rush for the group. Kirby reacted by using his Fire Breath to burn the Busher instantly. Afterward, they all hit the five yellow ? blocks. Two of them contained a Super Shroom, one contained a single coin, one contained a Skull Shroom, and the last contained another type of Zombie Shroom, but a black color with purple eyes.

"A Death Shroom…" Chopper trailed. "I think we oughta be careful here… I think this thing can literally take half of your HP."

"WHAT? !" Luigi gaped.

Mario: That's insane!

"Poyo! (Then we have to kill it, and fast!)" Kirby used his Fire Breath to leave a burn on it, while Chopper fired a couple of feathers at it, due to being afraid of getting close to it. While it had a high amount of HP, it didn't stand a chance against Blade's Dragon Beam.

"Yeah! See? I can do some pretty slick moves!" Blade grinned.

"Haven't we seen you do that before?" Luigi questioned, making Blade let out a groan.

"You got a point…"

"Anyway, now that we've healed, why don't we check through this door?" Chopper suggested as he opened the door. Everyone followed him out of the rock and out in an area with rocky floor, but not outside in a tunnel unlike last time.

"Well, I can see that there's a flat path here," Luigi noticed. "I guess that's a relief."

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_"

"Wait… What was that?"

"Oh, geez…" Chopper face palmed. "Really? They're here?"

"'In the smallest world in the known universe! A Flint Cragley Adventure!' Hmmm… Yeah! I think I like that! We should use that…"

"I can agree, brah," Monzo nodded.

"It could probably work well," Hornfels added.

"'After making my way through the dangerous thorns, I drastically managed to cut them with my handy cutlass! They didn't stand a chance against the Great Flint Cragley, the greatest adventurer of all time!"

"I see people," Monzo noticed.

"Behind you," Hornfels alarmed.

"You idiots! Don't interfere with the filming!" Flint groaned as he noticed his partners pointing right behind him. He turned around and gave a surprised look as he noticed the six.

"Yo," Chopper greeted by waving.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_ 'Suddenly…from right behind me, the mysterious and intelligent creature from before… Did it want to dine on fillet of Cragley? Would our hero meet their mandibles? Tune in after this brief commercial break to witness the torrid conclusion!'"

"Uhhhh… What is he talking about?" Luigi asked, scratching the back of his head.

"I honestly have no idea…" Chopper sighed, giving an irritated look.

Mario: You met this guy before?

"Yeah, back in King Neptunian's Palace," Blade remarked. "That was where the sixth Pure Heart was. It was the world where Chopper, Kirby and Sonic found me. You guys weren't there for it."

"…Great, cut, print, wrap it," Flint concluded. "Hey, it's you guys. I haven't seen you in quite a long time…"

"Well, I have a question…" Sonic began. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Yeah, we wonder too," Hornfels spoke out of curiosity.

"I should be asking the same thing to you," Flint retorted. "But, anyway, we're here because we're filming a new exciting show, right here in the smallest world in the universe!"

"Smallest world? But we…"

"Well, when you turn huge, the world looks small, hence why it's considered to be the smallest world. However, if you dig a little deeper at a smaller size, you'll actually discover some nice things! Besides, the Cragnons haven't seen anything exciting in a while."

"I thought you put some exciting things in your show earlier on?" Blade remarked.

"Oh, that was just re-runs. We were thinking and decided that we would go to another world and see what exciting things we can find. But, on the other hands, there's something about you guys…" Flint went completely off topic. "What are you strange creatures anyway?"

"Oh… _This_ _again…_" Chopper groaned as he face palmed. Flint walked up to him first and looked at his Native American headdress. "Whoa! Watch the hat! I need this thing to fly, you know!"

"'A discovery indeed! Discovering this strange beast is such a phenomenon!'"

"I'm not a beast!"

"See? The guy's a weirdo." Blade confirmed. "He calls us beasts!"

"Seriously, I'm going to shoot a feather at you if you don't shut up about this whole beast thing," Chopper growled.

"'So this strange person isn't a beast after all…'" Flint stated as he stepped back. "'Could these people possibly be friends or foes? Tune in next time for 'Flint's Adventure'! …OK, in all seriousness, why are you guys here?"

"Well, do you guys know that we're heroes?" Blade asked.

"Uhhhhhh… Come to think of it, I'm not so sure…"

"Don't remember, brah," Hornfels replied.

"Same here," Monzo added.

"Did they forget?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Most likely.

"We're looking for a Pure Heart," Chopper explained. "We were led into this world with the seventeenth Pure Heart. We gotta collect the last three in order to stop The Void from swallowing all worlds."

"To be honest, I don't know much about The Void," Flint shrugged.

Mario: It's that dark swirling vortex in the sky.

"Oh… THAT. I'm sorry for forgetting such a thing. You see, when I go on huge adventures, I tend to forget a lot of things. Is it by any means treasure?"

"Uhhhhhh… You can say that it is." Chopper shrugged.

"Spectacular. Just fabulous! All-time coincidence, that's what this is!" Flint fist pumped. "This is just what we needed!"

"It is?" gawked Monzo.

"It's just great to see that you're adventurers! …Well, actually, I already know you're adventurers."

"How did you know?" Chopper asked.

"Shhhhh! I want them to think that I know you guys are adventurers!"

"Ummmmm… No comment." Luigi said.

"Anyway, I'm really ecstatic about this," Flint smiled. "If you don't remember my name, just call me Flint! I'm a heck of a guy to know! Best cragtrotter of all time!"

"What are you guys, anyway?"

"Us? Well… We're Cragnons. I suppose you can say that we're like cavemen. But, we actually have TV and stuff."

"He's right, brah!" Hornfels agreed.

"Crag straight!" Monzo said.

"OK, so you guys are looking for treasure…" Sonic trailed. "But how did you get past all of those monsters?"

"Monsters? You cragging me? There are monsters? !"

Mario: Over there!

They noticed just up ahead, there were four Bushers screaming and charging at the group.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" screamed Flint. "'Whoever would've thought we would see monsters in a place like this? ! What a sight! Will these brave heroes defeat these Bushers that look like they want to stab us?'"

"Well count me out!" Luigi declared as he began to flee until being grabbed in the collar by Mario. "Come on, bro! You know I don't want to fight!"

"Dude… You were able to take care of yourself on your own in Tipral's Palace…" Chopper face palmed. "You just WANT to be scared to excuse yourself from fighting, is that it?"

"…I guess so."

Luckily, Sonic was able to attack all four Bushers with a Spin Dash, while Kirby rammed into all four of them as a fireball, taking care of all four of them. It wasn't much of a fight to begin with!

"Poyo! (That was so easy!)" scoffed Kirby.

"Crag… That was cragging awesome."

"Crag yeah!"

"That was a crag of time," Chopper sighed. "I didn't get a cragging hit!"

"Careful of what you say…" warned Blade.

"Well, there's no point in talking here. I think it's best that we just move on, all right?" suggested Chopper as he began to flap his wings and stay above the ground. The bad news was that there were some bushes, which looked as if they could be used for camouflage for Bushers.

"'What a strange statue!'" Flint gasped as he saw a statue of a mysterious robot-like person. "'It looks as if I discovered a statue of a legendary hero long ago! It could've been a robot that blew its circuits back then…"

"You know, I'm actually starting to wonder about some of the robots here…" Blade trailed. "Where'd they come from?"

"Heads up, Blade!" Chopper shouted as a Busher jumped out of the bush and tried to attack Blade. He, on the other hand, was faster and sliced the Busher.

"OK, I think I see the door up ahead," Blade said as he ran over to the door, which happened to be covered by a bush. He was able to slice it so it could be revealed. A Musham was hidden behind the bushes and knocked Blade back with its cap.

"Damn Mushams…"

"Maybe I might have an idea," Chopper flew above the Musham and hurled an ice ball from behind, freezing it. After diving down and hitting it, he was able to shatter it entirely.

"YEAH!"

"Well at least we have the door," Sonic sighed as he walked over to the door, with the rest following him. "So, what do ya thinks' through here?"

"Let's find out," Luigi suggested as they opened the door into an area with a large statue of a dragon. It made Luigi yelp until he realized that it was just a statue. Apparently, there was something blocking the way. A large rock that had a crack in it.

"'And before we knew it, we found a statue of a dragon!'" Flint gasped as he walked over to the statue. "'It is something not many people see! Oh, look how realistic these bones are!'"

"Wait… Bones?" Chopper looked up at the massive statue and realized that it wasn't a statue at all. "Hold on a second… This isn't a statue! This is an actual dead dragon! And it looks so familiar to me…"

Mario: Really?

"Yeah… As if it was…Dracktail? ! What's Dracktail's remains doing here? I thought all of the remains were scattered around Lineland Road? !"

"You fought something like this before?" Luigi questioned.

"Yeah, but it wasn't that hard… It looks like we need to get past this thing though. Blade, you think you can blow up that rock?"

"Of course," Blade smirked as he threw Hommissile at the rock, blowing it up. Dracktail's mouth remained open, but it happened to lead to a cave. They awkwardly went into the mouth, traveling through its skeletal remains, and reached the cave.

"Poyo? (What's a cave doing here?)" Kirby questioned.

"Well, maybe we ought to find out," Chopper suggested as they walked into the cave. They noticed that there were a couple of red, blue, and green jewels in the cavern, which reminded Mario, Flint, Monzo, and Hornfels of the Floro Sapien Cavern.

Mario: This cavern looks nice!

"At least it's not too dark…" Luigi trailed as he saw a big step below them. "All right, I guess we better jump down here."

They all jumped down (with the Cragnons having the bigger problem) and noticed a Star Block at the end of the room. Chopper simply walked over to it and gave it a punch.

"Well, this looks interesting," Sonic muttered as he looked at the jewels. "Last time I saw a cave with jewels, it was probably Mystic Cave!"

"Really?" Blade gawked.

"Honestly, I don't remember…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_You want REAL danger? How about my duel with the foul Rainbowzilla?" As the heroes walked through the caverns, Flint Cragley entertained them all…kind of… "Boss. BOSS! Cragnons heard that story 256 times, brah… You making my crag hurt." "Brah, if you count time we weren't asleep, then it 257 times." Chopper and Co. glanced over at the weary faces of Flint's crew as they delved deeper in the caves. "…What the heck is a Rainbowzilla?" asked Chopper with a confused look. The heroes seemed to notice a light coming through the caverns. Was it the Pure Heart? Or was it an evil illusion of some sort?_

* * *

**Whoa,** **we're at the 100th chapter now? I can't believe I actually went this whole way to get to a hundredth chapter! ...Not like it's an achievement or anything.**

**Anyway, even though I said that the final chapters of this story would be pretty cool with something unique, this is definitely not one of my favorite chapters. Thankfully, it's not my least favorite, but probably low in my top 20 chapters** **in here (trust me, my favorite will be coming up soon). **

**But at least we got the cragging Flint by our side! ;D**


	101. Sparkles in the Cavern

**CHAPTER 17-2**

**-Sparkles in the Cavern-**

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Everyone jumped in surprise as they turned to Flint, who was just starting his little "story" again. "'We plodded on, traipsing over all manner of beasts that gnashed fangs at us! But then…NOOO! A sight too horrible to believe appeared before our eyes!'"

"Like Chopper?"

"_**HEY!**_"

The cave itself, while not much has been described of it, was a pretty, gray color with a couple of different colored jewels in the rocks. What was also interesting was that there were a couple of drops of water coming down from the ceiling. Some people even made fun of Sonic when he freaked out over water dripping on his head, especially Blade, who attempted to wet willy him.

"Boss… Nothing happened yet, brah…" Hornfels noted.

"I know that, you cretin!" Flint snapped as he turned to Hornfels. "The 'sight too horrible to believe' is still up ahead!"

"Wait a sec… What 'sight too horrible to believe' are you talking about?" Chopper asked. "I don't see anything evil about this place."

"Well that's because they're trying to make you THINK that this place isn't all evil. I mean, there could be someone who could use a pipe to become huge who might end up stepping on this cave and nearly killing us all!"

"Wait, this cave is protected by all of the rocks around the cave," Luigi noticed. "I don't think it would be possible for someone to crush us…"

"Well, I am an expert here," Flint assured. "I know how to handle things around here. So, if something happens, I will gladly handle things!"

"Hey, maybe the 'sight too horrible to believe' is actually he water coming down from the ceiling!" Blade snickered.

"Blade, really. It's not funny…" Sonic grumbled.

"Dude, you overreact when it comes to water! It's almost as hilarious as when Chopper overreacts to being kissed by a girl! …Actually, I think that the water thing is funnier."

"Blade… You're REALLY making me want to kick you in the shin right now…" Chopper growled. "Or better yet, I'll shoot a feather in your knee so you can't walk forever!"

"Poyo? (Shouldn't we be checking this place out right now?)" Kirby questioned. "Poyo… (I think that's what we should honestly be doing…)"

"Well, first off… Why don't you get rid of that headdress?" Flint suggested. "To be honest, the Cragnons don't want to see some kind of Indian person roaming around these parts…"

"Wait… What? But I like this headdress!" Chopper whined.

"Actually, I'm cragging it," Hornfels commented. "It's cragging cool."

"What? Ugh… Fine. You can keep the stupid thing. Why don't we start by exploring this place?" Flint and his camera crew ran on ahead, while the rest of the group decided to follow them.

The first thing they noticed was that a Swirlia was coming straight for them. Chopper attacked it with a Shuttle Loop, while Luigi used his Cyclone to finish it off for good. With that, they jumped on the pipe and then the taller pipe to grab a hold of the ledge. There, they found a gap with a rock-like enemy with a fuse called an Exploding Rock. From what they noticed, it could blow itself up to hurt the group badly.

"Uhhhhhh… I think we want to stay back from that thing…" Luigi trailed, backing away from the gap. Even though the Exploding Rock was across the gap, the range of the explosion could be bad.

Mario: Would fire blow it up?

"Let's find out," Chopper suggested as he hurled a fireball at the Exploding Rock. Its fuse lit up and ended up exploding. However, the range of the explosion was shorter than what it could've done.

"Hey, would you look at that!" Sonic grinned. "Apparently the radius was a lot shorter than what it could've done!"

"Radius? What's a radius?"

"Uhhhh… It's the range of the circle from the center to the perimeter?" Luigi pondered. "Like, for instance, if you cut a line in the circle in half, the line becomes a half. That's a radius."

"How could you not know that?" Sonic asked.

"I'm only ten, you know…" Chopper trailed. "You expect me to know everything?"

"Poyo… (Probably not…)" Kirby trailed.

They soon agreed to simply move on and jumped over the gap. They jumped off another big step like when they first got in the cave and found a door up ahead. There were two Swirlias blocking the door, however.

Mario: Two Swirlias? OK, this isn't too much.

When the first Swirlia charged at the group, Mario gripped his hammer and spun it around it send it flying back. Luigi finished both of them off with his Cyclone attack, which allowed them to walk into the door.

Upon entering the next room, they heard a scream coming from up ahead. They also heard a couple of rocks falling from the ceiling.

"Wait… Was that Flint who was just screaming?" Chopper questioned, his antennas twitching. "I'm sensing something…"

"Yeah, I'm sensing something too," Sonic agreed with a twitching ear. "I swear that it's pretty close…"

They decided to check and see where the screaming came from. They noticed that there was a slope going down, but with a couple of rocks piled up. At the bottom of the slope, they saw Monzo and Hornfels looking down at someone.

"You guys didn't go too far…" Blade trailed.

"Flint hurt, brah!" Monzo informed. "Too hurt."

Mario: Too hurt?

"Are you guys hurt, though?" Sonic asked.

"Nah, we fine," Hornfels assured. "Flint got his crag injured."

"What's his crag anyway?" Luigi asked.

"Unnnghh…" When the six heroes walked to the bottom of the slope, they could see that Flint could barely move. In fact, his legs felt like they were broken! "You guys… You made it!"

"OK, what just happened?" Chopper asked.

"Well, my camera crew and I decided to run on ahead, but we ended up falling down that rocky slide. A couple of rocks came down as well. My camera crew was just fine, but I got hurt by a couple of them." Flint explained.

"Poyo, (You should've watched your step,)" Kirby said.

"_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'While I ventured deep in the caverns, I ended up falling and got myself injured! Would this truly be the end of my adventuring days? Or would I get help in the end?'"

Mario: Uhhhh… I don't know what to say.

"'But my fellow adventurers here! Perhaps they could find a cure! Yes! The sacred Pianta plant that grows in caves! It's said that if one ate the plant, they would be recovered in a flash! But if I, Flint, the greatest adventurer of all time got it, then we could continue our adventure!'"

"Is there such a plant, bro?" Luigi asked, only to receive a shrug from his brother.

"Then it's settled!" declared Flint. "You guys can go out and get me a Pianta. I can't keep going if I'm like this anyway. You would do a Cragnon a favor, wouldn't you?"

"Go get it yourself!" Chopper retorted. "What have you ever done for US anyway?"

"Listen, strange one… Our show is popular with all the Cragnons in our world. If you left me here to die, then there would be no more 'Adventures of Flint Cragley'! Our fellow Cragnons would have nothing to watch! It would be all your fault without television!"

"Now that I think about it, I don't think the Cragnons would even advance if they didn't have any more TV," Blade realized. "As much as I don't want to do this, I think it's better that we do."

"Ughhh… Fine." Chopper sighed as he face palmed. "We'll go get you a Pianta. However, you need to help us along the way – if we even find one, that is. Last time, you didn't do too much to help."

"Poyo, (I guess we should get going,)" Kirby suggested as he walked past the group and saw a door across a gap and a green pipe below. They decided to use the pipe instead to see what they'd find.

Upon coming out of the pipe, they noticed that they were beginning to fall through the pit below. However, what caught Sonic off guard was the water that was there. Chopper simply used his wings to keep himself from falling.

"No way am I falling in there!" Sonic cried as he grabbed Chopper's foot, pulling him down along with him.

"Let go, Sonic! I can't hold your weight!" Chopper cried.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not fat… OK, I was a little chubby back then, but blame those chili dogs! They're so good!"

Despite trying as hard as he could to flap his wings, he failed and ended up falling in the water. They ended up sinking to the bottom, but soon they noticed that there was an air bubble on the rocky floor.

Both Sonic and Blade began to fight for it, pushing each other out of the way and even punching each other. In the end, Sonic managed to get it, forcing Blade to wait for one to come.

Mario: That was interesting…

"You guys tend to fight over air bubbles, don't you?" Luigi asked until he realized that they couldn't speak underwater. "Oh… Never mind that. I completely forgot that you can't speak underwater."

"Anyway, I guess we should just keep going," Chopper suggested, swimming around the room. There were a couple of floating rocks on the surface, as well as some Exploding Rocks on the ceiling, which wasn't in the water.

When Chopper swam near the Exploding Rock, it began to light is fuse and explode. Pieces of rock flew out and hit Chopper, knocking him to the ground. He quickly got up and checked to see if there was any door.

"Poyo? (Do you see anything, Chopper?)" Kirby asked.

"Nope. Not really… Although, this place is a little far…"

Mario: I see something!

Up on the floating rocks, there was a door. Mario swam for the floating rocks, while Blade helped Sonic swim up to the surface to get some air. Once they grabbed onto the ledge, they shook themselves to get the water off them.

"Good thing that there wasn't much swimming…" Sonic sighed while he breathed heavily. "I think I had it worst in the fifth world…"

"You mean the Pristine Palisade place?" Blade remarked.

"Yeah, that place."

"Oh… That place was admittedly annoying. You don't wanna know how much I wanted to leave that place. That said, I kind of felt bad that we had to beat up King Neptunian, since he wasn't actually evil…"

"Yeah, we can all agree on that," Chopper said as he jumped out of the water. He shook himself too, getting some water droplets all over the place. Sonic even screamed and covered his face.

"Poyo… (He gets too scared of water…)" Kirby sighed.

"So, where do you think this door leads anyway?" Luigi asked as he and Mario jumped out of the water. They all decided to find out of their own and entered the next room to find a flat room with an Exploding Rock on the ceiling and one on the floor, making them gape.

Mario: Wait… What? !

"Bro… Am I seeing what you're seeing?"

"This doesn't look too good…" Chopper gulped. "Wait… Maybe I could try to toss a fireball at one of them. But at a range like this, it looks like it'll still hurt us… I don't know what to do."

"Poyo? (What if we used ice?)" Kirby suggested.

"You think ice would stop them from exploding? Well, let's test it out." Chopper hurled an ice ball at the bottom Exploding Rock while Kirby threw Crystaline at the Exploding Rock on the ceiling. They didn't seem to move, nor did their fuses light up.

"Hey! That worked!" Luigi smiled.

"Do you guys honestly believe that we'll even find a Pianta in here?" Blade asked as they ran past the frozen Exploding Rocks. "We don't even know if Flint was even telling the truth. Yeah, I know that I said we should do this for him, but I'm wondering if the stupid plant is actually real."

"Well, maybe we'll find out sometime—WHOA!" the green plumber stopped when he noticed a large boulder coming down from above between a large gap. "How could I not see that coming? !"

"Poyo, (At least we didn't get hit by that boulder,)" Kirby said as he crossed his arms.

Mario: You think there's more of those?

Across the gap, a Swirlia was waiting for them to come across. Chopper frowned and fired a couple of feathers at it to knock it back. Afterward, he flew across the gap when it was safe and finished off the Swirlia with a Shuttle Loop.

"How long are you going to even have that ability on anyway?" Luigi asked. "I'm just being curious."

"You know, I'm not so sure…" Chopper trailed. "But, I think it's a little useful here. And besides, why would I want to abandon an ability that lets me fly around? I think it's pretty cool in my eyes!"

The rest of the group jumped over the gap just when another boulder was falling and jumped onto a platform that was over by another large gap. Luckily, there was no bottomless pit down below. Instead, there happened to be a small pool with a Stone Blooper swimming around.

"I definitely don't want to fall in there," Sonic said as he jumped onto the ledge. After running past a couple of broken pillars, he found a door. Everyone else followed him through the door into a room with a mine cart going down.

Into the water.

"So, we're going into some more water areas, aren't we?" Blade sighed as he looked at the mine cart. "I can't believe we need to go underwater again…"

"Poyo! (Oh boy! A mine cart!)" cheered Kirby. "Poyo! (I always enjoyed using these!)"

Mario: Can we all even fit in it?

"I remember we used to use these things back in Hell," Chopper remarked, jumping in the mine cart. "I think there's enough room for all of us to fit in. We'll just sit back and enjoy the ride!"

"But not when we're underwater," Sonic sulked. "I'm not going on."

Kirby was prepared to burn him with his Fire Breath attack, but he sensed it and jumped in the mine cart. Blade rolled his eyes and jumped on, followed by Mario, Kirby, and then Luigi.

"You might want to be careful with those flames…" Luigi warned, being close to Kirby's head. "I don't want to get burnt…"

The mine cart took off, going down the tracks that led into the water. Sonic and Blade held their breaths as the mine cart began to move at a slower pace now that they were underwater.

"Wow, I never knew that we'd see a lot of water in this cavern…" Chopper trailed. "Although, I think the way back is going to be a little frustrating."

"Poyo… (Uh oh… We have to backtrack through this place, don't we…?)" Kirby asked before Chopper gave him a nod. They all groaned as the mine cart began to move at a straight angle.

Mario: Is there anything in 3-D?

"Let's see," Chopper checked for anything in 3-D. He actually saw a secret path over to the left. However, he thought it was best to check the normal path first, so he brought the mine cart back to 2-D.

"Poyo? (Why did you flip back into 2-D?)" questioned Kirby. "Poyo… (You know that we're going to have to do a lot to get back to that secret path…)"

Chopper ignored Kirby as they all ended up falling out of the mine cart once it was at a sudden halt. It turns out that they were already at the door. It also helped that there was an air bubble for Sonic and Blade to take in.

"I wonder what's through here…" Luigi wondered as they opened the door.

They came across a room where they saw a straight path with a couple of floating rocks blocking the way. There was no current, to their relief, but it was still underwater. All they could do was look around the waterway.

Mario: Well, there aren't many enemies here…

Unfortunately, there were actually some Exploding Rocks on some of the rocks. One of them exploded and hit all six of them, knocking Chopper and Kirby's ability away at the process.

"Poyo! (Hey! My ability was knocked out!)" Kirby gasped.

"Yeah! I know!" Chopper pouted. "How come we lose our abilities in the water where we can't get them? !"

Mario: Well, what can we do about it?

"I say we should search this underwater room," suggested Luigi as he swam around, searching for anything important. Now that the Exploding Rocks were out of the way, they could swim around safely.

Well, Sonic and Blade were not having an easy time. They spent most of their time grabbing an air bubble.

"Wait… Hold on a second…" Chopper swam up to the upper rock in the middle of the room and noticed a Dimensional Rift. "Hey, guys… Are you seeing what I'm seeing here?"

"Poyo? (Is that a Dimensional Rift?)" Kirby gawked.

"You mean those things that represent a white sparkling lightning bolt?" Luigi asked. "Are we supposed to use a Pixl on it?"

"Why of course, amore!" sang Flippay as Kirby used him to reveal a blue ! block. Once he hit it, a pipe appeared on the ceiling. Blade noticed this and helped Sonic reach the pipe, while everyone followed him into a small room with a small pool of water leading to a mound of sand.

"Sand? What's sand doing in a place like this?" Luigi questioned.

"And there's actually some sunlight coming through here too," Chopper added, noticing a hole with a ray of light coming down on a plant. "Wait… Is that what I really think it is?"

Mario: Is that a Pianta?

They all noticed that the plant didn't look like it was healthy. But, from all the sunlight coming down on it, it should look like it's healthy. Chopper took a small piece off and tasted it.

"It's… It's actually not too bad!"

"Poyo? (Can I eat it?)" Kirby asked.

"No, we need to give this to Flint. And guess what? We need to backtrack too!"

Mario: What about that one secret path in 3-D?

Everyone groaned, realizing that they would have to take that mine cart all the way back and use it again to go into 3-D and go to that secret door. They all had a feeling that there'd be something there.

* * *

**Two mine cart rides later-**

After going into 3-D and taking the secret path, they were hauled off the mine cart after it went to a sudden halt. Sonic instantly got up and took in an air bubble to prevent himself from drowning.

"All right, let's check and see what's through here," Chopper said as he opened the door into a large room with a large Blooper called an Atomic Blooper. Sure, it wasn't huge like the Blooper they fought in the Tile Pool, but it was faster.

When the Atomic Blooper noticed the six, it swam down and spat some ink at them. It didn't do too much except for preventing them from seeing for a couple of seconds. This allowed the Atomic Blooper to swat at them with its tentacles.

Mario: Those tentacles are a pain!

"I'll see what I can do," Luigi said as he threw Bonjourang at the Atomic Blooper, leaving it off guard for a couple of seconds. Chopper and Kirby proceeded to squirt water at it, despite not doing too much.

"Poyo… (Squirting water isn't going to defeat this thing…)" Kirby face palmed as he stopped and used his Final Cutter to attack it instead. "Poyo! (Now that does a lot more than water!)"

Chopper whipped up his hammer and began to spin it vertically at the Atomic Blooper. He even spiced it up a bit with a spinning fire hammer attack, surrounding his hammer in fire energy.

Mario: Now that's hot!

"Tell me about it," Chopper agreed.

Mario swam up to the Atomic Blooper and used Kickbrin to strike it, knocking it to the wall. Blade followed up by throwing a couple of shurikens at it and slashing it with his katana.

"Not much further until it's done for…" Luigi trailed.

Sonic, being the only one who didn't get a hit, tried to run in the water and reach the Atomic Blooper. While he was slow, he was able to get a Spin Jump in and finish off the Atomic Blooper. It dropped a Door Key as it disintegrated, which he took.

"I guess we needed to come here after all," Chopper realized.

"Poyo… (Well, time to go back to flint…)" Kirby sighed.

* * *

**Back by Flint-**

"Ugh… How long are those people going to take?" Flint wheezed, still unable to get up. "I can barely move, and they're not even here to give me a hand! Monzo! Hornfels! You two might as well go find the Pianta on your own…"

"Wha…? Monzo wanna stay here!" Monzo retorted. "No cragging cave for me!"

"Are you serious? You don't want to go out in the cavern? Preposterous! There's nothing scary about this place at all!"

"With rock coming down, Hornfels not safe," Hornfels said. "Maybe we go home now…"

"Nonsense! We can't just go home at this point! These people know where we can find treasure! That's the whole point of this broadcast anyway! Don't you want our Cragnon people to be pleased?"

"What about cooking?"

"Pbbbbbth! Who would ever watch a cooking show?" scoffed Flint. "We Cragnons don't care much about cooking shows! What we care about are huge, exciting adventures like the one I'm supposed to be on right now!"

"But you're injured, brah," Monzo informed.

"Well, then why don't you two be useful for once and…" Before he could ramble on, he heard the sound of people coming out of a pipe. He noticed Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi walking their way.

"Finally! I've been waiting a while for you guys…"

"You're not going to believe this, but we actually found a Pianta in these caverns," Chopper sighed as he took out the Pianta. "It looks a little disgusting, though… But it does look like it's healthy."

"That's what Piantas are supposed to be like. Now, give it here so I can finally recover!" Flint swiped the Pianta from Chopper and gobbled it down. In five seconds, all the injuries left on him were healed up, and he was able to get back up.

"_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'As if by a miracle, I found a strange plant called a Pianta to heal myself. Now I stand tall with my trusty crew, ready for any adventure that stands in our way…'"

"Hey! We're the ones that brought you the plant in the first place!" Chopper's words were ignored when Flint knocked him over and walked on ahead.

"'Now, let us move on, adventurers, for we have treasure to find!'" declared Flint as he and his camera crew ran off ahead, taking the door past the pipe instead of going in the pipe.

"So, what do you think the key's for anyway?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Maybe we'll find out!

"Let's just follow them and make sure they don't get hurt," suggested Chopper as he put the key away and jumped over the gap with the pipe to reach the door. When they walked in, they saw another track, but no mine cart. Flint and his crew were standing there, confused.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_"

"He just said that a minute ago!"

"Hold on, Blade…"

"'We were about to travel on, but we soon found ourselves in front of a track with no mine cart,'" Flint continued. "'But, a mere track is no match for the great Flint Cragley! Wouldn't you agree, fellow adventurers?'"

"Uhhhh… Sure?" Luigi shrugged.

"'With my skills as an adventurer, I will use my trash can bin to allow me to go down these tracks with no problem!'" Flint turned to his crew, who gave him confused looks. "That means give me the trash can bin!"

"W-What do you mean by that?" Monzo asked. "Me don't have bin, brah! Left it at home…"

"You're kidding, right? …Well, just great! I need that if we're going to be able to go down this track! Ugh… You two are always unprepared for this stuff! It makes me sick sometimes!"

"Forgot something, didn't you?" Sonic smirked.

"Yes, I forgot something. Anyway… I guess that means it's all up to you six to go through this track. Maybe it you had enough speed, you would be able to run through that track. I did see a couple of loops anyway."

"Wait… You mean… All right! I've been waiting to do something that involved running for a while!"

Mario: But we can't go through a loop.

"Poyo? (Does this mean that you guys are going to have to take us through the loop like you usually do?)" Kirby asked as Chopper grabbed his arm. "Poyo… (Well, I guess this could be fun…)"

Chopper also grabbed Luigi's arm, who began to freak out a bit as Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and made his way down the slope. Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's arm and ran down the slope as well.

"They fast, brah," Hornfels informed.

"Yeah, I know, genius," Flint replied while rolling his eyes. "You don't have to tell me that."

With that, they watched the group go through the loop. Chopper was actually enjoying himself as he finished his way through the loop and ran up the slope. It was at this point that there would be another loop, which he went through, and a slope going up as if he was running up a wall.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Luigi gagged.

Mario: Just relax.

The slope seemed to go back down, almost like it was just a tall lump. Once the track was on a flat surface, they saw a door ahead and went at a sudden halt to prevent themselves from crashing into the wall.

"Well that was fun, wasn't it?" Sonic grinned.

"Yeah, I can agree," Chopper nodded. He noticed that there was a locked door in front of them. He looked over at Sonic, who had the key with him. "So… It looks like we need that key to unlock the door."

"The key? Oh yeah! Let me just unlock this door and… There!" the blue hedgehog broke the lock off the door thanks to the key, which vanished out of thin air. "Kind of weird how these things vanish…"

"Well, there's no point in standing here. Let's head through the door!" declared Blade as he entered the next room.

"Poyo? (What about Flint and his camera crew?)" Kirby mentioned.

"Personally, I think they might find their way around…" Chopper trailed. "How could they get across gaps? Well, I think they'll simply find a way through this mess. We'll leave 'em be."

"Poyo… (I'm not so sure that that's a good idea…)" Nevertheless, they entered the next room, which didn't have any tracks, but there was a long path up ahead with a red ! switch over by the wall.

They decided to race over to the wall and hit the red ! switch. Two rock platforms shot out of the wall, allowing them to jump up. However, they heard a timer as well, indicating that this wouldn't last forever.

"Uh oh… We better move!" Blade suggested as he jumped on the platforms and got to the ledge above to the right. Everyone did the same thing, barely making it just in time. They noticed at the end of the path ahead, there was another red ! switch. Out of curiosity, Sonic used a Spin Dash and hit it.

"Well, what did that do?" Sonic wondered as he tapped his foot. That is, until he fell under the floor.

"Whoa, what was that?" Chopper raced over to where Sonic fell and noticed that a hole in the floor was revealed. "Oh! Well, why don't we go down here and check out what's here?"

Everyone else jumped down the hole and found Sonic over by a bottomless pit ahead. There was a rock platform moving sideways near the edge of the floor. It didn't look like it could support all six of them.

Mario: How are we going to figure this one out?

"Poyo? (Well, how about we go one at a time?)" Kirby suggested.

"Three at a time, maybe?" Chopper pondered. "You know, that might actually work out…"

"Let's get started, shall we?" Blade suggested as he, Luigi, and Mario jumped on the platform first. They waited for a platform going up to get close so they could get on. Chopper, Kirby, and Sonic jumped on the platform the others were on before and followed them up to the rocky ledge.

"All right… How much platforming do you think we're going to do?" Luigi asked as they found a yellow ? block nearby. When he struck it, an Ultimate Shroom popped out and landed by their feet.

"Poyo! (An Ultimate Shroom!)" Kirby cheered as he took a piece and recovered 100 HP. Everyone else took a piece from it as well and recovered 100 HP as well.

"I wonder why we found an Ultimate Shroom right now…" wondered Sonic. "Usually they appear when we're close to a Pure Heart."

"Well, we'll find out what's ahead," Chopper stated as he opened the door into another room with a track. There wasn't any mine cart, to their dismay, but there was water that the track was leading down to.

"More water?" Blade sweat dropped. "That might slow us down…"

"Come on! How many times do we need to go in water anyway? !" exclaimed Sonic.

"This may be the last time," Chopper shrugged. "Or… It might be the, well, I don't know how many times we went underwater in this chapter."

Mario: I forgot…

"Well, no point in standing here…" Luigi trailed. "I suppose we should just go down these tracks and find a way out of these caverns…"

"We better do what we did before," suggested Blade, grabbing Sonic's arm. "Sonic, you know what to do, right?"

"Ummmmm… Yeah! While I won't enjoy this, I suppose we have no other choice…" Sonic trailed. "So… Let's go!"

They all made their way down the tracks and prepared to run underwater. For Chopper, he was not used to running underwater unlike Sonic, so he had a harder time keeping up. This also made it bad for Kirby and Luigi as well.

"Crud! Running underwater is a real pain!" Chopper cried.

"Poyo, (Just don't trip,)" Kirby suggested as Chopper ran up the slope on the track. After going down again, they found a door in front of them. They entered it to find a small room with a light brown floor and some light coming from the ceiling. They even saw a slope leading up to the surface.

"Whew! So this is just a little pool here…" Sonic sighed as he stepped out of the water. "Well that's a relief."

"I think I see a bridge up ahead," Luigi noticed, pointing to the bridge.

"Poyo, (And look at the waterfall and jewels here,)" Kirby said as he gazed at the waterfall that was behind them.

"I'll admit, this is a pretty cool place," Chopper smiled.

Mario: The water's also nice.

"I think I could live in a place like this if I could," Blade commented, looking at the ceiling.

"_**YARGLE-BARGLE!**_"

"Oh… And I was hoping I wouldn't heat that again…"

They saw O'Chunks fall from the ceiling and land in front of them. "So, yeh thought yeh'd get that Pure Heart so easily, huh? Well, don't think yer quest will get easier from 'ere!"

"Oh, great… O'Chunks…" Chopper sighed. "Nice."

"What do you want anyway?" Sonic asked.

Mario: Isn't it obvious?

"Yeh all know why I'm 'ere! I don't need teh tell yeh! Tipral sent me 'ere to take care of yeh all! An' this time, I'm not gonna let yeh beat me this time, fer I 'ave a trick up me sleeve!"

"And that trick is…" Blade began.

"Errr… Actually, I fergot…" O'Chunks sweat dropped, rubbing the back of his head. "I swear I 'ad somethin' teh 'elp me think. I probably didn't write up a plan…"

"Well, so are we going to kick your ass or what?"

"Well I think I'll be the one teh deliver the chunkin' instead o' yeh!" the bearded warrior began to pound his chest violently as he let out a roar.

Little did he know that the shadowy mist from before appeared above the group and looked down at them.

"_**It's…those…heroes…" **_it seethed as it watched them get ready for battle. _**"Don't think that…you'll never see me…anymore, Chopper… I have a…plan that no one…has ever known…about! It just…requires me to…take control of this…idiot."**_

O'Chunks grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "So, what's it gonna be, heroes? Are yeh gonna make a run fer it or are yeh gonna fight like men?"

"Fight like men? How does one fight like a man?" Chopper asked. "Why not just fight like we usually do?"

"Well, I really was hoping Tipral's minions would change their ways after what they've seen before…" Sonic trailed. "It would've been nice… But, it looks like we have no choice but to take him on."

O'Chunks showed off his muscles. "See? I've been workin' out lately! Now we'll…"

O'Chunks's eyes widened as if he felt something enter his body. Unfortunately, no one was able to see the shadowy mist enter O'Chunks's body.

"_**HUUUUUUURGH!**_"

"Poyo? (What's going on with O'Chunks?)" Kirby gawked.

The pain stopped, but his changed to a different color. One pupil was black, while the other one was yellow. He grinned as he cracked his knuckles and charged at the heroes with full speed, sending them flying.

"WHOA! He just moved like a bullet!" Blade gaped. "How did he do that? !"

Mario: I have no idea!

After they landed on the ground, they looked at O'Chunks's stats. He had about 380 HP and an Attack of 16. It wasn't anything special, considering that O'Chunks doesn't usually have Defense.

"Well, I guess we have to do the usual with O'Chunks?" Luigi questioned as he got himself ready when O'Chunks charged at him. "Well, I only fought him once… But this shouldn't be any different."

"Poyo, (He's just fast, that's all,)" Kirby said as he struck O'Chunks with his Final Cutter, followed by Chopper stomping on him and hurling a rainbow ball at O'Chunks's stomach.

"All right! That's just what I wanted to see!" Chopper smiled as he landed on the ground. Unfortunately, for him, O'Chunks was able to punch him in the face and leave a bruise on him.

"Ow…"

"Dude, don't whine about a bruise on your cheek," Blade scoffed. "Just shut up and fight."

"But I wasn't…"

"Didn't you pay attention to a word I said?"

Chopper groaned as he readied his hammer, prepared to hit O'Chunks. When the bearded warrior jumped over to him, he struck him with an upward thrust and knocked him back, allowing Sonic to hit him with a Homing Attack.

Now that Blade had his chance to make his move, he jumped up to O'Chunks and threw Hommissile at him, sending him flying into the water. Little did they know that O'Chunks wasn't actually a bad swimmer.

"_Once I absorb some of O'Chunks's abilities, I will leave this body and look for the next," _the shadow misty declared as O'Chunks got out of the water and grabbed Blade by the foot and threw him straight at Mario.

Mario: Mama mia!

Mario managed to jump out of the way in time and noticed O'Chunks was charging at him. It was almost like when O'Chunks had the Floro Sprout on him, except this time he was much faster.

The red plumber clenched his fists and threw his foot forward, activating Kickbrin's power in the process. Kickbrin managed to knock O'Chunks back and leave him open for Luigi to attack with a Cyclone.

"Ha HA!" Luigi shouted as his fists his O'Chunks's face. The shadowy mist didn't seem to care whether O'Chunks got hurt or not. All that mattered was that it got some of his power.

"Poyo? (Are we even close to finishing him?)" Kirby asked.

"Kirby… We pretty much started this fight…" Chopper face palmed. "Now, let's try to hit him with his own attack."

O'Chunks grinned as he pulled out a can of beans. After dumping them all in his mouth, he began to propel around the room with his fart. Not only that, but it fogged up the entire room, leaving the heroes unable to see him.

"Ugh! What's that horrible smell? !" Luigi coughed as he wafted the air.

"The smell of Tamber's B.O…" Chopper trailed.

"Tamber has B.O.?" Sonic gawked.

"Yeah… He does tend to smell a bit."

"_Ugh… The stench of O'Chunks's farts is like a fat man skydiving into a pool of gravy." _the shadowy mist gagged as O'Chunks jumped and attacked with a ground pound. He was only able to get Luigi, but his attack backfired when two stars appeared on his sides.

"Poyo! (I think I know what to do here!)" Kirby smirked as he inhaled the star to the right and spat it at O'Chunks. Chopper inhaled the other and did the same thing as Kirby. But it didn't stop the bearded warrior from grabbing both of them and slamming them both into each other.

"OK… I don't know if that was a good idea…" Chopper moaned.

"Poyo… (I'll admit, that did kind of hurt…)"

"Hold on, I've got you guys!" Blade shouted as he ran up to O'Chunks and slashed him on the back.

"URRK!" O'Chunks let out a loud grunt as he turned to Blade. He attempted to grab him, but upon touching him, Blade disintegrated into smoke, leaving him confused. Blade ended up kicking his head from behind and knocking him over.

"Yeah! That'll teach you to mess with my friends."

O'Chunks got up and growled as he began to spin around with his fists out. It was kind of like Luigi's Cyclone attack, but without the tornadoes. Luigi simply stomped on his head to step him and used his Cyclone of him afterward.

"I don't know about you, but I feel that O'Chunks isn't himself today…" Sonic trailed as he struck O'Chunks with a Spin Dash and jumped back. "I mean, his pupils look a little…weird."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Luigi agreed as O'Chunks quickly shook his head and tried to ram Sonic with his shoulder while charging at him. The blue hedgehog barely had any time to react and got knocked to the ground.

"I wonder if Flint and his crew will even see this," wondered Blade as he used his Dragon Beam to knock O'Chunks over. When the bearded warrior got up, he used his farting powers to launch himself up and fall on Blade headfirst. However, this left him open for an attack, due to him attempting to pull his head out of the ground.

Mario: This is too easy…

Mario used his Super Ground Pound to strike O'Chunks and leave him cringing in pain. But it didn't stop him from grabbing Mario and throwing him all over the room. He began to do a little dance afterward.

"Stupid move, O'Chunks… Stupid move…" Chopper sighed as he stomped on O'Chunks while performing a stylish move. Afterward, he struck him with a rainbow spinning kick while in the air.

"Yeah!" he shouted as he did another stylish move with his attack before getting knocked back by O'Chunks's punch.

"Ooh… That's gotta hurt." Sonic cringed as he clenched his fist and used his Sonic Wind against O'Chunks. This sent the burly man flying in the air, allowing the blue hedgehog to strike him afterward with a Homing Attack.

Mario: Not much has changed from him so far…

"Are you kidding? He's able to fog up the place with his gas!" Luigi disagreed. "Plus, he's even faster than before!"

"Yeah, I agree with Luigi," Chopper agreed.

O'Chunks grumbled as he jumped in the air and attempted to ground pound them. Mario decided to grab O'Chunks and throw him to leave him stunned then proceeded to stomp him twice.

Mario: How come we didn't do this before?

"I did it the first time I fought him," Chopper recalled. "But I don't think I've continued to use that strategy…"

"Poyo? (Then why not use it now?)" Kirby suggested.

"Ehhh… Then that would make the fight a little boring. We need to mix it up a bit, in my opinion."

"Like this?" Sonic performed a Whirlwind on O'Chunks to leave him off guard, then he used his Bounce Attack to strike him and go up in the air. "And here's something I haven't used it a while!"

He used Screwdy's corkscrew attack to strike O'Chunks's head and left him stunned for Blade to send him flying back with Hommissile.

"Urrgh…" O'Chunks growled as he slowly got up and rushed at Blade. He put Barry up and left O'Chunks to yelp as he got hurt by the spiky shield. But, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep Blade from getting stomped on.

"Damn it… This guy just won't stop." Blade wheezed.

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Luigi shrugged as he helped Blade up while Mario bashed O'Chunks in the head with his hammer. Chopper helped by using an ice smash, instantly freezing the burly warrior.

"Yes! I got him!" Chopper fist pumped. "Looks like he's done for!"

That is, until they noticed some cracks in the ice.

"Poyo… (You spoke too soon…)" Kirby trailed.

"Dang it."

O'Chunks broke out of his icy prison and grabbed Chopper. He used him like a dodge ball and threw him at Mario, Luigi, and even Kirby, knocking them over, dazed.

"See, THIS is why I hate being round! I'm like a ball to some baddies!" Chopper frowned as he managed to get himself back together. He tossed a couple of fireballs at O'Chunks, but he was able to avoid them and jump out of the way.

"_I'll make sure you go first," _the shadowy mist thought as O'Chunks charged at Chopper. However, when Blade used his hurricane slash, O'Chunks was blown away and fell in the water. Because of the splash, some water got on Sonic.

"Ack! Get this water off me!" Sonic shrieked.

"Dude! Calm down!" Blade snapped, smacking him. "Get yourself together, man!"

"OK! OK! I'll calm down… Sheesh."

After Sonic's "moment", he curled up in a ball and charged up a Light Speed Attack. After finishing, he went all out on O'Chunks, attacking him a couple of times and throwing him over on the ground.

However, that didn't mean O'Chunks was giving up just yet. He got another can of beans and dumped them in his mouth.

Mario: More beans? !

"He must have a lot…" Luigi sighed.

Once O'Chunks finished his beans, he let out a huge amount of gas while flying around the room. Everyone dodged O'Chunks as he dove to the ground and fogged up the whole room with his stench.

"How can we even get rid of this stench anyway?" Sonic coughed.

"Maybe my Cyclone can get rid of it," declared Luigi as he spun himself around. All the fogs of cloudy gas disappeared and left O'Chunks open for an attack. He took this time to stomp on him.

"See? That did something!"

Mario gave a thumbs up as he ran to O'Chunks and stomped on his head. However, when O'Chunks got out of his trance, he grabbed Mario's arm and threw him to the ground with ease.

Mario: Thankfully he's not too far from being defeated!

"Yeah, but we're a bit low on HP…" Chopper coughed. "I think we should heal up a little."

He pulled an Ultimate Shroom Shake out and took a sip of it, recovering 100 HP. He passed it on to everyone else until Kirby finished the last sip. He crushed the can and threw it at O'Chunks to leave him dazed.

"_Not much longer until I can leave this beaten body," _thought the shadowy mist as it noticed O'Chunks almost had a black eye.

O'Chunks slowly got up and cracked his knuckles. When Sonic sped up to him, he jumped out of the way and landed on Sonic instead. Since two stars appeared, Kirby was able to inhale both and spit them at O'Chunks.

"Poyo! (Save some for me! I didn't have a chance to do much anyway!)" Kirby shouted as he pulled his Final Cutter out and brought it down on the burly warrior. Everyone admitted that he didn't get to do much and let him fight for a bit.

O'Chunks merely growled and attempted to grab Kirby. He simply floated above him and let out the puff of air so he could attack O'Chunks with his Cartwheel attack. Now they knew that O'Chunks was low on HP.

"So, how many hits do we need to deliver if we're going to win?" Blade asked.

Mario: I have no idea…

"Uhhhhh… It really depends, honestly…" Luigi trailed, watching Kirby strike him with one last Final Cutter before getting thrown back.

Their eyes widened as O'Chunks began to charge at them like a ram with his shoulder. Thankfully, with Chopper, they were able to avoid the attack and go into 3-D. When they were behind, Blade slashed O'Chunks's back with his katana, while Kirby kicked him in the head.

"Poyo! (It feels good to be doing this!)" Kirby cheered.

"Yeah, I know how you feel, Kirby," Chopper nodded. With a fireball, O'Chunks looked like he was almost defeated.

"Do you think the burn on him will finish him off?" Sonic questioned.

"It really depends… It won't last long, though."

"So, who wants to finish this guy off?" Blade asked. "I'll do it if you guys are fine with it."

"Well, I think I have an idea," Chopper charged up a rainbow ball and hurled it at O'Chunks. At this point, he was left with only 1 HP. "What? Only 1 HP left? …Well, I guess I should finish the job."

"Poyo, (Go ahead,)" Kirby said.

Chopper ran up to O'Chunks and delivered one last stomp before making him kneel on the ground, battered and bruised.

"_And this is where I make my exit," _declared the shadowy mist as it left O'Chunks's body. _**"One…down… Only six…more to find… Ah…ha…ha…ha…!"**_

Without anyone noticing, the shadowy mist made its exit. O'Chunks's pupils went back to normal, and he was no longer possessed.

"Urgh… Wha… What just happened?" O'Chunks looked at himself and noticed the bruises on himself. "Wait… 'Ow in mummy's gravy did I get all o' these bruises? ! Was I fightin' in me sleep? !"

"Wait… You don't remember anything with the fight?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo… (That doesn't make sense…)" Kirby trailed.

"Well… I feel like I'm too weak teh fight yeh…" O'Chunks coughed as he got up. "An' I 'ad a special move I wanted teh use on yeh! 'Ow come it 'ad teh be ruined like this? !"

"So… What does this mean?" Luigi asked.

"Ergh… Fine. I'll let yeh off the hook fer now. 'Owever, I'll be comin' back fer yeh soon, so yeh better be ready! Fer now… Chunks away!"

Everyone stepped back as O'Chunks rocketed out of the room with his farting abilities. What was surprising was that he was able to crash through the ceiling without getting hurt.

"Just look at him," Sonic noticed as he left. "I can't believe he tries so hard to fight us, yet fails to win. He really doesn't deserve this."

"Actually, I sometimes wish that we didn't always have to resort to being violent," Blade said as he swung his katana before putting it away. "It's like he's always the one to take the beatings. I wish we could do something to help."

"Yeah… Honestly, he reminds me of a Koopa named Joe." Chopper recalled. "He received some beatings from his master…er, mistress, but stayed loyal. Although, it's us that's giving O'Chunks the beating. Is this the right thing to do?"

"Poyo, (It doesn't feel right to me,)" Kirby frowned.

Mario: If he tries to hurt us, we might end up having to defend ourselves again.

"While he was asking for it, I don't want to be too hard on him," Luigi mentioned.

They were about to continue their discussion until they heard a certain call coming from the caves. Behind them, Flint Cragley and his crew were soaking wet.

"Oh… You guys are here?"

"'I found my fellow adventurers exhausted in the strange caverns of the small and big world,'" stated Flint, speaking in his acting voice. "'I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn't let me speak! Oh, it was horrible! It was as if they were driven insane!'"

"They not insane," Monzo noticed.

"Yes, I know that already, chum. Just move on with it."

"I suppose we should get going, right?" Sonic sighed.

"'To the bridge we go! For many secrets could be revealed!'" Flint said in such clarity as he and his crew went up the bridge and over to a sealed door. There also happened to be a Star Block across the bridge as well.

"Yeah! A Star Block!" Chopper fist pumped. "It's about time!"

After crossing the bridge, Chopper gave the Star Block a good punch. "And let's hope we don't have to deal with this cavern ever again!"

"Tell me about it…" agreed everyone.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Despite the jewels in the cavern, our heroes were not having a fun time through these caverns. The only person who seemed to be enjoying himself was Flint Cragley. "Come now, adventurers! We cannot slack at a time like this! Help me with this door so we can discover treasure!" Out of annoyance, our heroes agreed to help him with the stone door. After some hard work, Chopper and Co. discovered something through the door that they'd never expect to see. Could the Pure Heart possibly be through here?_

* * *

**And what could possibly be through that door? Well, you'll find out next chapter. ;)**

**...And I really should've put this chapter up tomorrow, considering that it's my birthday. But, I didn't. :P  
**


	102. Into the Underground Forest

**CHAPTER 17-3**

**-Into the Underground Forest-**

"It can't be… Are my eyes deceiving me or am I actually seeing an underground forest in these caverns?" Flint gasped as he rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming. "No… I'm not dreaming at all! How… How is this even possible? How are we to find a huge forest in an underground cavern? ! Especially one that's in a world where you can change your size from big to small!"

"I don't believe my own eyes… Am I REALLY seeing this? !" Blade gaped as he saw what this whole place was like. "I mean, who would've thought that we'd even witness an underground forest in these parts? ! You think… You think there are even thing living down here?"

"You never know, Blade… You never know…"Chopper trailed as he looked down at the stone staircase leading down to the forest. Right now, they were at the top of a staircase near a giant statue of the same robotic being they've seen before. They came out of its mouth so far, and up ahead, all the way across the forest, there was another similar staircase and statue.

Even though they could see that above them was the rocky ceiling, it wasn't easy to see. The green fog around the forest made it so that this place actually felt like it was an outside area.

"Poyo? (Didn't we see a place like this in Dream Land?)" Kirby recalled.

"Come to think of it, I think we did!" Chopper realized. "Geez… I think we're going to be seeing some familiar things around here. Although, unlike before, I don't see any temple in the center of this place. I guess it's nothing but forest from here."

"Well, it's better than water, that's for sure," Sonic sighed.

Mario: Let's hope Flint doesn't go and make another…

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Mario was a bit too late, as flint shouted out the words he was hoping he wouldn't hear again. "'We've discovered something…magical in these caverns! It's almost if a forest was brought in here! It's like discovering some kind of lost city that you'd never expect to believe! It's like…'"

"I think we get it already…" Luigi trailed.

"Yeah, Hornfels already know now," agreed Hornfels.

"Didn't I tell you not to get in the way?" Flint sneered. "Just butt out for once and let me finish with my script! …Er, if I even have a script." he looked at the two camera crew with a confused look. "Do I use a script?"

"No…" Monzo trailed. "You act, me film."

"Hey, guys…" Blade began as he took a couple of steps down the stairs and turned to look at the large head. "Doesn't that head look a little familiar? It's like something we've seen near that cavern."

"Wait, let me see," Flint pushed Blade out of the way, making him tumble down the stairs. "_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'This head… It's almost if I've seen something like this before… Wait, it couldn't be! It's the same head that we saw of the strange mechanical being outside! But… How could there be something like this? This remains a mystery in the eyes of Flint Cragley…'"

"Poyo? (Is this going to be like the Great Cave Offensive?)" Kirby asked, looking at the crew. "Poyo. (Because I don't want to spend most of my time opening sixty treasure chests.)"

"Well, we'll find out on our way," Chopper declared, pointing above him. "But I think we should go help Blade out. He's probably in some trouble now."

Mario: Oh, yeah!

Everyone walked down the old stairs and landed on the grassy floor, where they found Blade slowly getting up while rubbing his head. They noticed he had a small bump on his head.

"Blade… You've got a bump on your head." Sonic noted.

"Wait, I do?" Blade felt the top of his head and felt the bump. "Crap… WHY did I have to get a bump at a time like this? Sigh… I guess some things just happen."

"Well, that was Flint who made you tumble down those stairs," Chopper informed.

"Really? Well, I'm going to give him a taste of his own…" Blade paused for a second and lowered his arms. "No… If I just punched Flint, I don't think it's going to make things any better…"

"Yeah, it's better not to hit someone who's harmless rather than someone who has a lot to hit you with," Luigi agreed.

"Anyway, we should check and see what's around this forest," Sonic suggested as he looked down at the straight, yet bumpy path. Since there were trees around, it was hard to see what was above them.

"Wait, I see Bushers up ahead!" Luigi gasped as he saw some Bushers readying their spears and charging at the group. Kirby opened his mouth and inhaled two of them. When he swallowed them, he got no ability.

"Poyo? (What? Nothing?)" Kirby blinked. "Poyo! (That's not fair!)"

"Well, not much we can do about it," Chopper shrugged. He noticed that behind a bush there was a spinning top. "But I can see something over there."

When the spinning top spun around, it made a tornado. Kirby happily inhaled the enemy to gain the Tornado ability. With that, they moved down the small slope and found a small row of yellow blocks with a Sir Kibbles standing on them. Chopper inhaled it to gain the Cutter ability.

"This is my…third ability in this adventure so far?" Chopper pondered.

"Well, at least you two are a little more useful with your own abilities now," Sonic said. "I'm not trying to offend you or anything."

"Poyo, (None taken,)" assured Kirby.

Chopper threw his cutter blade like a boomerang and allowed it to destroy the small yellow blocks. One thing for sure was that there was going to be a lot of stuff to cut around here.

"Hopefully we don't have to deal with bottomless pits," hoped Luigi.

Mario: We'll see what happens.

They ran up a small hill up ahead and found a door in front of them. With nothing else to do, they entered it and were now in an area with trees blocking their way. Up ahead was a ledge that appeared to be too high for any of them to reach.

"Let's see what we've got here," Chopper threw his cutter blade at the tree, knocking it down. "Gee… Now that I think about it, I'm kinda destroying some wildlife here. That's not what I've been trying to do ever since I was four."

"Well, at least we can get through now," Luigi said as he walked over to the high ledge in their way. "I think I can make a jump here."

Mario: See what's up there, Luigi!

"I will, bro!" Luigi used his Super Jump and launched himself up to the ledge. When he landed, he saw a robotic version of a Knuckle Joe in front of him. He yelped, but eventually drove it off the edge with his Cyclone.

"Hey! A Knuckle Joe!" Chopper gasped, removing his ability and inhaling the Knuckle Joe Bot. Sadly, when he swallowed it, he didn't gain anything.

"Wait… What? How come I didn't get anything from that?"

Mario: That looked like a robot.

"What are robots doing down in a cavern like this anyway?" Blade questioned. "In fact, WHY would they be here anyway? This is something that just doesn't make any sense to me at all."

"Well, since living beings can't live underground, then maybe they replaced them with robots?" Sonic pondered. "That sounds like a reasonable answer…"

"Poyo, (Well, I guess that means robots that looks similar to enemies that we know can't be copied,)" Kirby sighed.

"Well, hopefully we get our answers sooner or later," Chopper hoped as he looked back up at Luigi. "So… I think we should move on now. We haven't done much anyway."

"Poyo! (I'll help you guys up!)" Kirby began to spin around and turned into a tornado. This brought everyone up to the high ledge, but also knocked them over because of the powerful winds.

"Kirby… Sometimes I wonder how you're able to use such powerful moves like that…" Blade moaned as he got up. "And how can I get rid of this bump on my head?"

"If we got ice, we could stop the sw—Hey! A REAL Knuckle Joe!" Chopper made a dash for the Knuckle Joe up ahead, but just as he was about to get to it, he stopped when he found some spikes in his way.

"OK… Gotta be careful here." he jumped over the spike pit and inhaled the Knuckle Joe to gain the Fighter ability. "OK, now this is better than Cutter."

After everyone else got up, they jumped over the spike pit and ran past Chopper, making him spin around and almost fall into the spike pit. Thankfully, Mario was able to spot this and pull him away.

Mario: Watch where you stand!

"All right, settle down, Mario," Chopper sighed.

They followed the group ahead, where they found a slope moving down over to more flat ground and a loop. This made Sonic happy due to the fact that he could move fast for once.

"So, are we gonna do the same thing as before?" Sonic asked.

"Actually, I see some platforms that we can use," Blade noticed as he pointed to the platforms going above the loop and leading down to where the loop ends. "See? You don't have to worry about us right now!"

"Yeah, it does look like that," Chopper nodded, getting ready to run down the hill. "We need more of these areas."

"Poyo, (I'll meet you by the end of the loop,)" Kirby said as he took in some air and flew over to the platforms. Chopper began to make his way down the hill, where he began to gain some speed.

"Yeah! We're getting somewhere now!"

"I wonder how Flint and his crew will get through here," Luigi wondered.

Mario: They'll probably use the platforms.

"Oh… Well, all right." Luigi used the platforms to help him get over the loop, with Mario and Blade followed. Chopper and Sonic simply ran down the hill and went down the loop. But what shocked them was that Kirby actually made it first.

"Hiiiii!" Kirby shouted as he waved.

"What the… How did you get here first? !" Chopper gaped. "I swear that I was moving faster than you were…"

"Poyo! (Well you thought wrong!)"

After Sonic went through the loop by curling in a ball, he ended up rolling over Chopper on accident, causing him to fall over. What made it worse was that when everyone else got off the platforms, they accidentally fell on him.

"Get off!" Chopper cried.

Mario: Whoops! Sorry! ^^;

"It's all right… Just get off of me so I don't end up getting ticked off. 'Cause right now, I'm starting to feel a little ticked…"

Once everyone was off, he was able to get back up. There was a slope leading up to a high ledge above them, which only can be reached if you ran up the wall. Sonic charged up a Spin Dash and moved up to the ledge above them to find a path leading to a door.

"Come on, guys! There's a door just up ahead!" Sonic called out.

"Yeah, that's a great idea, Sonic…" Blade agreed, giving him an irritated look. "However, WE CAN'T GET UP THERE!"

"You have those shurikens that you can use to climb up walls, right?" Luigi mentioned as Blade turned to him to yell at him.

"…Wait, I can do that?" the ninja cat gawked for a minute and pulled two kunais out. "Oh… Well, I guess I can do that then! It's kinda funny, because here I was yelling that we would be able to get up there and all that."

Mario: I can't get up there…

"Think we can give him a boost?" Chopper asked as he attempted to grab Mario. "Wait… I can't even pick him up when I don't have much muscle in me. I could if I had Thoreau with me, though…"

"I will come to your aid, hero!" Thoreau cheered as Chopper threw him to Mario and brought him to Chopper to hold him up. Even still, the Star Warrior struggled to hold up the plumber.

Mario: Are you sure you've got this?

"Y-Yeah… I've got massive guns, right, guys?" Chopper smiled sheepishly as he ended up falling over, with Mario sitting on him. "Well… I guess this isn't going to work out for me. I swear, I did better with O'Chunks, even if he was heavy for me too."

"Poyo, (I'll just use my Tornado ability to bring him up,)" declared Kirby as he spun around and made a tornado, sucking Mario in and bringing him up to the ledge. Chopper got himself up and used his Speed Dash to run up the wall and land on higher ground.

"I think a Super Jump can help me here," Luigi stated as he launched himself up to the high ledge with his Super Jump. Last but not least, Blade used his kunais to climb up the wall and reach his friends.

"Yeah! I'm totally awesome, aren't I?" Blade grinned.

"Uhhhhh… Sure! You're awesome!" Chopper nodded.

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No."

With that, they hurried on ahead to the door, which was being blocked by a Dark Patrolbot. Luigi groaned, knowing that he saw this robot from before. All it took was Sonic's Spin Jump and it was down.

"We've seen these things back in that Metallic Forest, didn't we?" Sonic recalled.

"I saw those in Tipral's Palace," Luigi mentioned. "I don't know why they're here anyway. It feels kind of weird. That, and it feels a little unoriginal to see recolored enemies here too."

"Well I met some interesting foes in Tipral's Palace, but let's not get to that discussion," Chopper suggested as he ran to the door. "We need to get to that other large statue by the staircase."

"Poyo, (But that's a long way there,)" Kirby gulped. "Poyo? (With these trees, how can we even make it there?)"

"Well, it's not going to be easy trying to find out where we are, but in the end, we might be able to find it if we search carefully… Just make sure you're careful with where to go, then we'll be fine."

"What about those shovels that we still have?" Sonic mentioned. "We've had them since Chapter 6, and we haven't even used them since…forever!"

"Maybe we should use them and look for treasure!" Blade smirked as he pulled out a shovel and began to use it to dig for anything. Sadly, he didn't find anything special around the area.

"No… Nothing around here, unfortunately."

Mario: Where did you get the shovels from anyway?

"Chapter 6," answered Sonic.

"What's Chapter 6?" Luigi gawked.

"Ummmmm… Forget about that." Chopper sweat dropped as they opened the door into the next area. They saw that there was a large gap between them and the ledge up ahead. Thankfully, there were a couple of platforms that could help them jump over.

"What happens if we end up jumping off?" Blade asked.

Sonic looked down and noticed something surprising. "Well, I don't see any bottomless pit here, which is pretty nice! I think there might be a different path if we go down here as well."

"Well, I'm taking my chances with the platforming," Luigi stated as he jumped on the platform coming close by and waited. Everyone agreed that they would take the upper path.

"All right, this might be a little tricky…" Sonic trailed as he jumped on the platform Luigi was on, as well as Blade. As for Kirby, he simply floated over the huge gap in order to avoid platforming.

"Man, that's so cheap," Chopper frowned as he jumped on the platform after it came over to him. Mario joined him and reached the next platform that led to the ledge across the huge gap. There happened to be a large hill leading down to ground level up ahead, with a couple of Bushers in a lavender color instead. From what they could tell, these were Putrid Bushers.

"Oh… Well, I don't want to get near those things…" Luigi gulped as they looked down the hill. "If they hurt us, we might get poisoned!"

Mario: That's why ranged attacks will work.

"I think I can at least hurt them with a Vulcan Jab without even touching them," Chopper said as he ran down the hill and reached ground level. When he turned to his left, he noticed another path. From what he could tell, that must've been the other path if you fell off the platforms.

"All right, let's go take some ass and kick some names," Blade declared as he threw a couple of shurikens at the Putrid Bushers up ahead. He managed to defeat one of them, leaving two left.

"I don't get what you just said…" Luigi trailed.

"I don't know what I said either!"

Sonic sighed and went down the hill while curled up in a ball. He was able to hit all of the Putrid Bushers with a Spin Dash before they could hurt him, as well as going down a small hill ahead leading to a loop.

"Ooh! More of this stuff!" Chopper smiled. "This might be a little interesting!"

He began to go down the hill and ran through the loop to find a door up ahead down a larger hill. Everyone followed him through the loop (since they couldn't run through it, they went over it thanks to Kirby) and went down the hill to the door.

"This forest sure has a lot of stuff," Sonic said as he finished off a Dark Patrolbot with a Spin Jump. "Come on! We still have some ways to go!"

They followed Sonic through the door into a flat area with a Dark Intruderbot and a yellow ? block past it. Chopper used his Vulcan Jab and Rising Break to knock it over, while Kirby spun in a tornado and finished it off.

"Hey! A yellow ? block! Let's see what's in here!" Luigi wondered as he struck the block. A Mega Star came out and landed in Luigi's hands. Everyone else looked jealous as he transformed into a giant 8-bit version of himself.

"Wait… Did I transform?"

Mario: Yes you did, Luigi…

"While I was hoping to get my hands on one, I guess he's already got it," Chopper sighed as Luigi trampled over everything such as Patrolbots and Bushers. He even destroyed a jungle green pipe that would've been in their way. Also, many brick blocks were smashed in the process.

"Poyo, (That sure is a lot,)" Kirby gawked as smoke surrounded Luigi and turned him back to his former self. "Poyo… (Oh… It's over.)"

They all followed Luigi, who looked around and noticed everything was destroyed in his path. Well, the only thing that was in their way was a locked door. Blade even tried to smash the lock, but it didn't work.

"Damn lock… Why is it that we have to find locked doors?" Blade grumbled. "In fact, who the heck put them on anyway?"

"Let's see if I can find anything," Chopper wondered as he flipped into 3-D. He noticed that there were two yellow dimensional blocks in 3-D. He decided to give them a good punch and bring them into 2-D.

"I think I might know what we need to do. We're probably going to have to find something above us with the help of these blocks."

"Poyo, (But I don't see anything,)" Kirby noted. "Poyo… (Unless… I go up there and check myself!)"

Kirby took in some air and began to float above the rest of the heroes. He was surprised to find some brown blocks making a platform with a chest. The bad news? A Darkling was guarding it.

...Which happened to be defeated easily when Kirby used his tornado attack. He claimed the Door Key in the chest and jumped back down to the group to unlock the door with the key.

"Could I have made a Super Jump to reach it?" Luigi asked.

"Poyo… (I don't think so…)" Kirby trailed. Despite not understanding him, the look on his face showed that Luigi wouldn't be able to make the jump. Nevertheless, they moved on through the door.

But what awaited them in the next area was some wooden steps leading over to a dock, where a hooded man wearing a gray cloak happened to be. There was also a silver turret right by the stand as well.

"Wait… Who the heck is that guy over there?" Chopper asked, pointing over to the hooded person.

"What's someone like him doing here anyway?" Luigi gawked.

"I have no idea…" Blade trailed. "But, why don't we go talk to him? He's got a turret over there, so maybe we'll have a chance to use it! …Er, I'm not saying that we should kill people with it."

"Ehhhh… The turret's a little off for this place…" Sonic trailed as they walked up the steps to the person at the stand. They noticed that there was a lake right behind the dock. There didn't appear to be too much there, unfortunately.

"So you have the arriving?" the cloaked person gawked. "Well, I have welcoming! Welcome to Tigit's Shooting Gallery! Tigit will have the offering of using the turret of shooting!"

"Ummmmm… Not to sound rude or anything, but why are you speaking in a strange way?" Chopper asked. "It kind of sounds like something an enemy named Fawful would say…"

Mario: Why is there a turret here?

"A question is good, red mustache! A spotting there is above the trees! Ships have the appearing for spying!" Tigit explained. "I will offer you the using of this to blow up the ships like tiny crumbs that fall!"

"Wait… Did you just say ships?" Blade gawked. "There are ships flying around this place? What for?"

"In the searching for invaders, of course! I will not cost you the turret, for it is free of using! Shoot the ships, and an award you'll get!"

"Like what kind of an award?" Sonic asked while raising an eyebrow. "Now I'm getting a little curious here…"

"I will only tell if you shoot!" Tigit explained. "Now, who will have the luck of the shooting? Green Antenna? Pinky? Blue Quills? Catface? Red Mustache? Green Mustache? Any?"

"I'll volunteer," Blade announced as he stepped up and manned the turret. "Don't worry, guys. I've once used a turret back in the days when I was in a battle alongside Bang and Night. I should be just fine."

"Let's hope…" Luigi trailed.

"All right, so let's see if you can actually shoot something," Chopper hoped as Blade ninja jumped to the turret and took control of it. When they all looked up, they didn't see any trees in their way, making it easier for them to see a couple of silver starships flying around.

"Whoa… That guy was right." Sonic gaped. "I didn't know there were ships flying around here!"

"Poyo? (But how come we didn't see them before?)" Kirby questioned, rubbing the top of his head out of confusion. "Poyo… (I swore that they weren't here before… Something's not right here…)"

"Guys, just lemme focus here," Blade suggested as he aimed at one of the ships. However, they ended up hearing a little conversation between two ships that were nearby. It was something that caught their interest.

"_So, AV-32… Ever since our leader found that brown heart thing, he's been able to make us do a lot lately." _GF-28 said through its communicator. _"Plus, now he's making us patrol these caverns to watch for anyone coming to get it!"_

"_Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more on that, GF-28," _AV-32 agreed. _"Don't suppose __**Master Mind **__will let us have a break for once? Nothing bad has ever happened ever since he got the heart!"_

"_Well, what I heard from him was that there would be some people that would come for the heart in order to stop his plans. Yeah, it's kinda getting annoying doing this, but orders are orders…"_

"Hmmmmm… So someone named Master Mind is holding onto the Pure Heart?" Chopper pondered. "Well, at least we know who's holding the Pure Heart at the moment!"

"Well, too bad they won't be here for long…" Blade trailed as he fired at the two ships, blowing them up instantly. "Wow… All of that and they're destroyed? Kind of lame if you ask me…"

"_**A WINNER IS YOU!**_" Tigit congratulated as he pushed Blade out of the way and manned the turret. "Now receive the prize of the priziest! You are deserving of a reward, heroes!"

"Uhhhhh… Yeah, about that." Sonic began. "Your speech pattern isn't so hard to discover, Fawful. We know it's you already…"

Fawful cackled as he removed his gray cloak and revealed his bright red cloak. His Headgear vaporized on his head and it fired a blue orb of energy straight at Sonic, who managed to jump out of the way.

"You may have defeated the horns of Midbus, but as you gorge on your next victory, you will realize that you are missing the mayonnaise on your mustard!" Fawful scoffed as he hovered above the ground with his Headgear.

"Uhhhhh… I don't know what to say right now." Luigi gulped.

Mario: This is the same typical Fawful…

"But I never fought this guy before…"

"I have chortles! So you figured out Fawful's disguise already?" Fawful questioned. "Fawful is displeased, just as he is annoyed with your mouths! For that, you shall have paying!"

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Sonic challenged.

"By fearing Fawful's fury!" Fawful shouted as he fired a laser from his blaster at the group. It ended up knocking the heroes back, but they weren't left injured from the attack, to their relief.

"So he has 390 HP, an Attack of 15 and a Defense of 4. Nothing special there." Blade stated as he pulled a couple of shurikens out. "Look at that! He has less Attack power than O'Chunks! That's so pathetic!"

"Yeah, I think we can beat him," Chopper assured as he attacked Fawful with his Double Kick attack, which hit him while in the air and also fired an energy wave that left Fawful cringing in pain for Luigi to hit him with a Super Jump.

"Since he's in the air, this gives me a little advantage with my Super Jump," Luigi realized as he stomped on Fawful and landed on the dock.

"Fink-rat!" Fawful shouted as he fired a green blast that targeted Luigi. He tried to react fast, but the blast ended up knocking him down the stairs and leaving him in pain for a couple of seconds.

Mario: First it was blue, now it's green?

"Poyo? (Maybe this has to do with who he's trying to attack?)" Kirby predicted as Fawful shot a pink blast of energy, which targeted Kirby. He spun in a tornado and attacked Fawful, knocking him over to the lake.

"OK, I think we all know the strategy to beating him now," Chopper concluded as he noticed a pale green blast hit him and send him flying onto the ground. He quickly got up and charged up an energy ball. "Hopefully this'll get him!"

However, Fawful pulled out an energy shield that protected him from all attacks. It was a fire shield, and it looked like no one could break through it. That is, unless, the attack is the same element as the shield.

"I have protection!" Fawful shouted as he hurled a fireball from his shield down at Chopper and Kirby, leaving them burned for a bit.

"Poyo! (That's not fair!)" Kirby frowned as he tried to get the flames off him. Sadly, he had no luck in doing this. Chopper tried the same thing, but he didn't have luck either. Thankfully, their abilities didn't come off.

Mario: What if you spun in a tornado while on fire, Kirby?

"Poyo! (I should try that!)" Kirby whirled up in a tornado again and was now more like a fire tornado. When he struck Fawful, his shield broke and was left vulnerable. This gave Mario the chance to bash the bean with his hammer.

"Well, I think we just discovered a little something," Blade smirked as he threw Hommissile at Fawful and left him in an explosion. They could all see him covered in a little bit of soot, but not enough to make him give up.

"Well, what were you expecting?" Sonic shrugged. "It's not like he's going to give up right now. He IS one of Tipral's minions after all…"

Fawful grinned (when does he not?) as he fired a dark blue blast from his Headgear straight at Blade, who happened to spin his katana to deflect it back at him. Fawful was able to fly out of harm's way and land on the ground, where he changed his blaster to his laser sword.

"Oh, so you wanna duke it out with swords!" Blade smirked. "Now you're thinking what I'm thinking!"

Blade drew his katana and he and Fawful clashed as they tried to strike each other with their weapons. Blade attempted to push Fawful back, but the beanish child managed to kick him in the shin and hit him with his laser sword.

"Are you kidding me? ! That's what I wanted to do!"

"It's obvious that you wanted to do that," Sonic said as he curled up in a ball and knocked Fawful over with a Spin Dash. This gave Blade the opportunity to strike him with a combo with his katana.

"Ah-HA! There we go! That's the combo I wanted to get in this whole time!"

"Well, I guess that's good. Now let's get another energy ball going!" Chopper began to charge up another energy ball as Luigi struck Fawful with a Cyclone. Once he was vulnerable, he hurled the charged energy ball at Fawful.

"I have combo!" Fawful cried as he knocked Luigi with a slash of his laser sword and used a combo attack on Chopper. He tried to fight it off with a Vulcan Jab, but it didn't work. Sonic was forced to help him by using his Sonic Wind to leave Fawful off guard, allowing him to use a Homing Attack.

"So, Fawful… Have you got anything new to throw at us this time?" Sonic asked as he taunted him. "Because if you think you're going to win this fight, you surely have to have something to help you."

"And I have the ability that is the newing!"

"…What did he just say?" Chopper gawked.

"Beats me," Luigi shrugged.

Fawful cackled psychotically as he used his Headgear in order to suck one of the heroes in like a vacuum. However, instead, he ended up taking one of the Pixls, such as Hommissile.

"Hey! Let go of my awesome Pixl!" Blade gaped.

"I am using it now!" Fawful declared as he grabbed Hommissile and threw him straight at Blade, sending him flying back from the explosion. Mario was lucky enough to get Hommissile back by hitting Fawful with Kickbrin.

"Yeah! I got my Pixl back!"

Now that Blade had his Pixl back with him, he began to ponder on what to do. Kirby, meanwhile, was able to get the burn off him and give Fawful a good kick in the face, then followed up with a Final Cutter.

"Poyo, (I wonder if I could crack his glasses,)" wondered Kirby as Fawful was able to jump in the air and fire a beam of energy from his laser sword at him. He shrieked and defended himself to take minimum damage.

"That's like the Sword Beam!" Chopper gaped as he knocked Fawful away with a Smash Punch. At this point, Fawful went into the air again and dropped a couple of energy bombs. One was red, while another was pink.

Mario: That red bomb's targeting me…

Mario dove out of the way of the red bomb as he did a somersault. The bomb exploded, but it didn't seem to affect anyone else who was close to the bomb. It was strange, from what they witnessed.

"That bomb had no effect on us…" Sonic trailed. "Maybe it only affects the one the bomb's color matches?"

"That makes sense," Blade agreed.

"Now the explosions will come out of your faces, fink-rats!" Fawful cackled, dropping a green bomb down by Luigi, who yelped and dove away from the bomb as it exploded. Afterward, he sighed in relief and struck Fawful with a Super Jump, sending him flying to the ground.

"Good work, Luigi!" Chopper complimented with a thumbs up.

"Fawful will not give up just yet," Fawful began as he jumped back up and raised his arms. "Now is the time my true might shines, like the rages of nerds playing in the sunshine! I need no long speech before my great dome! Now you will bow before my invulnerableness!"

A metallic dome resembling Fawful's head fell on top of him, protecting him from harm. Mario tried bashing it with his hammer, but it didn't work. In fact, everyone tried to kick, punch, or even use anything else on it.

Nothing worked.

"You lack the fury to break Fawful's dome!" scoffed Fawful, cackling underneath the dome. "And now you will snack on Fawful's sandwiches of pain!"

A laser came out of the dome's eyes and knocked Chopper and Kirby away. Sonic continued to dodge them, while Blade spun his katana to block the lasers. He attempted to slash at it with a fire slash, but it didn't do too much.

"Hold on… Doesn't fire affect heat?" Blade realized. "You know… If we had fire, I think we would be able to heat this thing up!"

"I've got an idea! Mario, you'll need your hammer!" Chopper said as a fireball was created in Chopper's hand as he threw it up to Mario. He remembered this strategy when they fought the Crystal King, so he whacked the fireball and sent it flying toward Fawful's dome.

Mario: So we're getting back to this idea…

"Yup! Just a couple of more and we should take this guy down!"

After Chopper threw a couple of more fireballs, Fawful's dome turned to a bright red. It opened up and Fawful was flapping his arms around, shrieking out, "Ouch! HOTNESS! It is the overheat!"

"Now! Get him while he's vulnerable!" Sonic cried as he knocked Fawful to the ground with a Homing Attack. Luigi followed up by throwing Bonjourang at him and stomping on his head, which still had the Headgear on.

After Fawful stopped flapping his arms, he fired a green blast at Luigi, knocking him back. He then fired a blast that turned out to be a rainbow color. Everyone realized that anyone could be targeted here.

"Can't we redirect the attack or something?" Blade wondered.

"I hope we can…" Luigi trailed.

It turns out that the attack was being targeted at Luigi. Thankfully, Mario was able to jump in front of him and use his hammer to block the attack. Despite this, he still got a little hurt.

"Th-Thanks, bro…"

Mario: Anytime, Luigi…

"So you have defending? Then defend this!" Fawful charged at Mario and delivered a headbutt, leaving Mario dazed for a couple of seconds. Fawful followed up by shooting a red blast from his Headgear to send him flying back.

"Poyo, (I'm surprised he didn't throw us into the lake yet,)" Kirby realized.

"Kirby… Don't give him the idea…" warned Chopper as he tried to defend himself against the pale green blast coming from Fawful. Sadly, he ended up getting hit by it, resulting in him getting knocked over.

"Geez… With enemies dealing more damage, our HP tends to get lowered easily!" Chopper gulped down an Ultra Shroom Shake and gave it to Kirby. They passed it to each other so they could heal themselves of 50 HP. Thankfully, that's all they needed to fight this bean.

"So, you gonna throw anything else at us?" Sonic scoffed as he dodged a blue blast.

"The dome again!" Fawful shouted as he began to take cover in the dome. Chopper and Kirby instantly rushed straight into the dome, and before they knew it, they were trapped inside with Fawful.

"Did they just jump into the dome?" Luigi gaped.

Mario: That was unexpected…

"What troopers…" Blade fake sniffed. "I bet they're kicking his ass."

One thing they could hear from inside was the sound of punching, kicking, shooting, and even the sound of a tornado. The dome was even moving around as the beating went on, like in a cartoon.

However, everyone's faces changed as Chopper and Kirby were thrown out of the dome with Fawful holding his laser sword in his hand. From what they could tell, Fawful was able to beat them.

"Wait… What? He beat you guys? !" Sonic gaped.

"How? !" Luigi gasped.

"Let's just say that he had some moves of his own…" Chopper coughed as he got up. "But there's no way I'm letting him make an embarrassment of me! Take this!"

With the help of Chopper's Fighter ability, he struck the dome with a Fire Punch. He even added fire to Kirby's tornado to leave the dome overheated. Fawful came flying out while screaming about how it's the overheat and all that crap.

"Perfect," Chopper smirked as he hit Fawful with a Rising Break. Kirby helped him by slashing at him with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo! (That was satisfying!)" Kirby smirked.

"Since he's in the air, this gives me a chance to use a Super Jump!" Luigi realized as he went under Fawful and attacked him with a Super Jump. He sent the bean flying to the ground and stomped on him afterward.

"Wow, we're creaming him now," Blade chuckled.

"Let's not jinx it, Blade," warned Sonic.

Fawful jumped in the air and brought his laser sword to the ground. Since no one got hit by the attack, his weapon got stuck in the ground and was forced to pull it out on his own. Sucks for him!

Well, at least that's what Blade would say if he wasn't busy attacking the bean child with his katana. He couldn't help but notice how shiny Fawful's teeth were.

"You know, Fawful always seems to have shiny teeth whenever we see him…" Blade trailed. "Does he brush his teeth all the time?"

"I have teeth brushing!" Fawful cried as he kicked Blade in the face while he was preoccupied.

"All right, then… This calls for my Dragon Beam!" Blade swung his sword a couple of times before firing an orange beam straight at Fawful. The dragon-like beam knocked Fawful over and left him incredibly vulnerable.

In fact, he was almost defeated as of now.

Mario: I think a couple of hits should do him in!

"Wow… I never expected this fight to end so soon." Luigi gaped as he walked over to the bean. He got up, but soon cringed in defeat as Luigi finished him off with a jump attack.

"_**Agh-agh-agh!**_"

"And there he goes," Chopper said as he snapped his finger. Everyone walked over to Luigi and looked down at the defeated Fawful as he wheezed on the ground.

"This must be the end for Fawful… Urrrgh… I am supposing I should accept defeating…" Fawful panted.

"So, that means you're giving up, is that it?" Luigi asked.

"Fawful says NO, for I have fury!" Fawful shouted as he got up and flew up with his Headgear. "The defeating isn't truly over for Fawful, but for now, the recovering begins back at Tipral's Palace."

"Just face it. You're not going to beat us…" Chopper sighed. "If you didn't attack us, we wouldn't be forced to fight you."

"For now, Fawful says adieu! It is timing that I have leaving!"

And with that, Fawful flew out of the cave, attempting to make his escape from the group. They didn't seem to care, nonetheless.

"Well! What an exciting fight that was!" Chopper clapped. "So… I supposed we should cross this lake before we end up in another heap of trouble!"

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_"

"…I spoke too soon."

And, not too surprisingly, Flint and his camera crew came up onto the dock and looked at the remains of the destroyed Fawful dome.

"'My eyes couldn't believe this discovery! It may not be treasure, but it sure feels like there must be living life forms down here!'" Flint acted out. "'Adventurers! Have you found anything here?'"

"Well, someone attacked us, and we ended up kicking his ass," Blade explained. "Other than that, there's a lake ahead."

"A lake? Are there stuff there?" Monzo asked.

"You know… We never checked it out." Chopper realized. "So… We're supposed to jump in and cross it, right?"

"There's no way I'm going on there!" Sonic denied. "Besides, we don't actually HAVE to go in there."

"Yeah, he's right," Blade pointed out, showing the shore just up ahead. The lake wasn't even that big anyway.

"Poyo, (I'll go and see what's down there,)" Kirby said as he jumped in. Chopper shrugged and followed him down to the bottom of the lake. Thankfully, they could talk to each other down there.

"Hmmmmm… This lake's a little foggy underwater." Chopper commented.

He tried to clear the fog out of the way, but he noticed something at the bottom of the lake. It happened to be a robot that didn't seem to function properly. It looked like it was off, actually!

"Wait a second… That robot looks familiar!"

"Poyo? (Isn't that…_Ninbot_?)" Kirby gaped.

"Yeah… It is. Kirby, help me get him out. I don't think I'll be able to get him out of here myself."

Both heroes worked together and attempted to pull Ninbot out of the lake. He was stuck in some of the dirt, making it a little tough to pull him out. However, they were successful in their task and got him up to the dock.

Mario: Isn't that Ninbot?

"Hey! It's that ninja robot thing we saw before!" Blade gaped. "How the hell did he get here?"

"He doesn't appear to be working, though…" Luigi trailed.

"Hold on… Let me take a look at this thing…" Flint suggested as he walked over to Ninbot and turned him over. He had a bunch of mud all over him, so he wiped it off and noticed that mud was actually clogging his systems.

"Wait a second… How do you know about this kind of technology?" Chopper asked.

"I happen to have gone in the Floro Sapien Caverns once. They have some technology in there that I messed with once. I think mud is just clogging the insides of this robot. If we can get it out, then he might work."

"Wow… That's kind of surprising, considering that you know something like this." Sonic gawked.

After Flint got the mud off, Ninbot's eyes began to light up. He quickly got himself up and looked around. He was still in the same place he was before, but now he wasn't in the water.

"What just happened…?" he moaned.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint gasped as he stepped away from Ninbot. "'From out of thin air, a robot appear in front of us! Did it want to destroy the great Flint Cragley, or could it possibly be a friend?"

Ninbot looked away from Flint and turned to the heroes, who he didn't see before. He began to remember back in the Metallic Forest where they managed to help stop Grim and save him from Metal Chopper.

"You remember us, right?" Blade asked.

"Hmmmmmm…" Ninbot took a close look at the group. He gave them a nod for his response rather than speaking.

Mario: Still a bit on the silent side, huh?

"So… How on earth did you get here anyway?" Luigi asked.

"Well, I might as well explain," Ninbot sat down on the dock while everyone did the same. "While Grim was defeated, the battle wasn't over yet. There's a bigger threat than Grim. Someone named Master Mind is somewhere in this dimension, and he's using his power to mind control people. His power became greater when he got a hold of a brown heart."

"The Pure Heart…" Chopper trailed.

"I managed to find him and battle with him, but I ended up losing the fight. He told his robot minions to throw me in these caverns in the lake so I would never get out. That's when everything went blank for me."

"So, this guy is a force to be reckoned with?" Blade pondered. "What if you helped us find this Master Mind?"

"You'd be putting yourself in danger. He is WAY too strong for you guys to battle."

"Oh yeah? We fought a clown who transformed into a monster with teleportation, the ability to open portals, and even summon darkness! How about that?" Chopper smirked. "If we could beat that, then I bet we could win against this Master Mind guy!"

"He has the ability to mind control you. Fighting him is suicide when his mind control tower is still up."

"Mind control tower? Now that's new…" Luigi trailed.

"Perhaps great treasure lies before there!" Flint announced.

"Hmmmm… So you still want to go fight him, do you not?" Ninbot sighed.

"We need to," Chopper nodded. "Did you see the sky lately? The Void is back, and it's going to destroy everything if we don't do anything."

"Very well… It looks like you're not going to be convinced. I can discuss plans with you right now, but it's better that we get out of these caverns first. When we're in his territory, we can discuss our attack."

"All right!" Sonic grinned. "So, it looks like you're coming with us! That's nice!"

"Are you going to ditch us like the other times, though?" Blade asked before Ninbot shook his head. "Oh… Well, that's good to hear. Anyway, let's just get going."

With that, they crossed the lake ahead and headed through the door. There were a couple of Putrid Bushers walking around by a hill ahead, but they were instantly beaten when Kirby used his tornado attack.

"Poyo! (Take that!)" Kirby scoffed.

With the Bushers out of the way, Chopper and Sonic ran down the hill with their speed increasing. Kirby decided to slide down the hill, as well as Mario and Luigi. Blade, unfortunately, tumbled down the hill like the staircase.

"Wait a second… Flint, you knocked me down those stairs!" Blade recalled, hissing at the treasure hunter.

"Now now… No need to get angry!" Flint sweat dropped. "It was a complete accident!"

"…You're lucky that I'm forgiving you, because as a ninja, I need to have some honor in me, y'know?"

"Ah! Good! Good little kitty!"

"Don't ever call me a kitty ever again…"

Anyway, they followed the rest of the group over to a tree that required Blade's katana to cut down. A door happened to be right in front of them, so they took it into an area with a Dark Intruderbot blocking the staircase ahead.

"Hey, would you look at that?" Chopper gasped. "We actually made it through the entire cavern!"

"It didn't feel like it was THAT big…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Well, the fight with Fawful made it feel long.

"But this stupid robot's in our way," Sonic grumbled as he jumped away from the stomp attack that it had. "Plus, these guys are usually burly. It might take a lot to take this guy down."

The Dark Intruderbot was about to attack again, but Ninbot jumped into action and sliced the robot in half with his own katana. With that, he walked over to the staircase and gestured them to follow.

Mario: Typical Ninbot…

They made their way up the staircase, where they found a Star Block over by another door. They decided to look the other way and saw how vast the forest was. They could see the staircase they started at from where they stood.

"Man, I can't believe we can see where we started here," Blade said in awe.

"Yeah, I know," Chopper agreed as he hit the Star Block. "But, I guess that ends this part for now. Hopefully it should be pretty through this door."

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Ninbot looked at the group worriedly as he noticed that they had a lot of confidence in defeating the one called Master Mind. While he was glad that he would have help along the way, even with this group, it probably wouldn't be enough to take him down. Nevertheless, he and the group decided that it was best to get a move on. "'As we venture through this door, we will most likely find the legendary treasure that we've been seeking this whole time!'" announced Flint as they slowly opened the door. Chopper hoped that it would look pretty, but his hopes could be possibly shattered as they saw what was through._

* * *

**...I actually liked this Fawful fight, to be honest. :P**

**And yes, we see the return of Ninbot from Chapter 11 (although if you didn't read through those other chapters, I feel sorry for you)! You honestly believed that I was going to abandon some of the characters like Flint and Ninbot? Well, not anymore!**

**I believe that is all for now... Next time, we explore what's through the door.  
**


	103. The Eerie Temple

**CHAPTER 17-4**

**-The Eerie Temple-**

While Chopper's expression looked excited, he looked very disappointed to see what was through the door. There was nothing but darkness in this place. No one even dared to say anything. For some reason, it reminded the heroes of when they ventured into the ruins in that one world with the ghosts. However, the only difference between this place and the ruins was that there weren't ghosts here. However, there were some bones on the ground that resembled Dry Bones. It was definitely not a pretty sight.

"Oh… So it looks like this place isn't so nice after all…"Chopper trailed, looking at they dark room they entered. "What a shame, considering that I was hoping for a garden of some sort here."

"Well, you can't always expect the greatest things in the world," Sonic informed. "That's why we can't just say that the next place will probably be paradise. This happens."

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint cried. "'And as a result of an adventurer's words, we were brought into the darkest places of the temple itself! However, this will not stop a great treasure hunter such as myself, for I am brave enough to take on any challenges that are before me!'"

"Yeah right," scoffed Blade.

"Yeah, I agree, brah," agreed Monzo.

"He scared of many things," Hornfels chuckled.

"Ahem… Is that what you say to your boss?" Flint asked as he raised an eyebrow at his crew. "You know, I can fire you right now and leave you in this temple alone. However, I feel that I cannot leave you guys be and let you die like my last crew, may they rest in peace. But, let's just hope you don't get too distracted."

"So, Ninbot…" Luigi began, turning his head to the silent ninja robot. "Since you were taken through this place, would you know anything about this place? Any certain path?"

"I don't recall being here," Ninbot replied, shaking his head. "I saw a small glimpse of this place as I was being taken to the caverns, but because I was nearly unconscious, I didn't see too much."

"Hey, look over here, guys!" Sonic took note of a small ray of light coming through the ceiling. "Apparently there's some light here! I bet we can use this to find anything around this hallway."

"Yeah… But, I think there's something I don't like here…" Luigi gulped, seeing something ahead.

Mario: What's that?

"Right there!" he shrieked as he pointed to a black Robbie over by the ray of light. It didn't appear to be moving, but from what Luigi knew, that thing could let out a howling shriek and freeze them.

"Poyo? (Are those Robbies?)" Kirby gawked.

"'Another discovery has been…discovered!'" announced Flint as he ran over to the Dark Robbie. However, Luigi was able to grab a hold of his collar and pull him away. "What are you doing? !"

"D-Don't get cl-close to that thing!" stammered Luigi. "It'll l-let out a t-terrible scream!"

"Terrible scream? HA! Nothing can scare the great Flint Cragley! I'll even prove it to you!" the adventurer managed to get out of Luigi's grasps and ran straight at the Dark Robbie.

Only to have it let out a terrible shriek as its purple eyes began to glow.

"Wh-What was th-that? !"

"I-I-I t-told y-you!" Luigi shuddered as the Dark Robbie slowly began to make its way straight for Flint. It managed to grab him and began to strangle him. All Flint could do was cry out for help with the remaining air in his lungs.

"…Are we seriously going to leave him like this?" Chopper gawked.

"Well, I think I have an idea…" Sonic grabbed Reflecto and stood in the light. He held him in front of him and let the shining light hit the Dark Robbie. It was enveloped by the light, resulting in it being stunned and releasing Flint. With this, Sonic finished it off with a couple of Homing Attacks.

"Whew… That was too close." Flint sighed, taking some deep breaths. "All right, I should be careful next time…"

Mario: I don't think that's the last time we'll see another of those guys…

They ran over to the door and entered a room with a couple of coffins lying on the ground. There didn't appear to be open, but they looked worried as they saw a Skull Bat hanging from the ceiling.

At least, it was Luigi who felt worried.

"Oh, man… This place is really making me feel uneasy…" Luigi shuddered as he noticed the Skull Bat make its way down to the group. Mario got his hammer out and whacked it away to keep it from attacking.

Mario: Everything should be all right, Luigi!

"Unnnnnhhhhh… I don't know about that. Maybe bec—AAAUGH!" the green plumber shrieked as he noticed a shadow on the wall, he ran to the back of the group and cowered in fear. "Now I wanna go back…"

"Suck it up and stay with us," Blade suggested. "Didn't you go through Tipral's Palace yourself? That place was pretty dark, and you even said that you weren't afraid!"

"I was only like that because I was trying my best to hide the fear in me… It's not so easy to keep myself from actually screaming! I've actually been waiting to let that all out after getting out of there."

"…You were keeping all of that fear in you?" Chopper gawked. "I thought you turned out to be incredibly brave in the end?"

"No… That was all a lie. I'm sorry if you're disappointed."

One of the coffins opened up and Dark Bones jumped out, hitting Luigi in the head with a bone it threw. He fell over on the ground, dazed, while Chopper attacked it with a Vulcan Jab. One attack seemed to make it collapse.

"I guess this place is crawling with the dead," Ninbot muttered as he jumped from coffin to coffin, making a couple of more open up to reveal more Dark Bones. Needless to say, they were not safe here.

"Thanks for that, Ninbot…" Blade groaned, readying his katana. "I think if I use a Dragon Beam, I might be able to kill them off."

"Go for it," Sonic suggested.

Everyone stood out of the way as Blade swung his katana forward and fired a Dragon Beam at the Dark Bones coming their way. They were incinerated by the attack, leaving nothing but smoke on the ground. Even Ninbot couldn't perform such a move.

"Hmph… Not bad, I guess." Ninbot briefly commented.

"You _guess_?" Blade gawked. "Come on now… You really can't deny this being awesome. Everyone else here thinks it's an awesome upgrade to my katana. What do you have that I don't?"

"Blade… Let's not go mocking others…" Sonic warned.

"It's not going to get us anywhere…" Chopper trailed.

Blade sighed as they jumped over the coffins. They found Ninbot standing by a cracked wall, trying to blow it up. Sadly, not of his shuriken bombs seemed to do the trick.

"This wall's too strong for my shurikens," stated Ninbot.

"Let's see if Hommissile can do the trick… Hommissile! Use Explosion!" Blade shouted as he threw the Pixl at the wall. It left an explosion, but it didn't make a hole through the wall.

"It's not very effective…" Chopper trailed.

"You've gotta be kidding me… This wall won't get destroyed with Hommissile? This is downright shocking to me!"

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint cried out. "'Such a shocking moment! One of our allies had a weapon that was capable of blowing through walls! But all went in vain as it failed to destroy this wall. Now we sit here, wondering where we should go next…'"

"There's probably a secret here," Ninbot pondered.

"Then that means we need to go into 3-D!" Chopper announced as he threw his arms in the air and went into 3-D. The only people that didn't go into 3-D were Flint, his camera crew, and Ninbot.

"Wait… Where did you guys go?" Flint asked.

"Obviously not here, brah," Monzo informed.

"Yes I know that already. You don't need to tell me a second time."

While in 3-D, the six noticed that there was a little tunnel over to their right. They headed through to find a secret door. Knowing there was something through there, he opened it into a hallway with steps leading down to a wall.

"Poyo… (I really don't see much down these steps…)" Kirby trailed as he began to jumped down the large steps. The only thing he DID see, however, was a pipe hanging from the ceiling with Skull Squigs coming down.

"Dead Squigs? This isn't nice…" Chopper frowned.

"You think we can use anything else to defeat these guys?" Blade asked. "Because personally, I don't want to be forced to use fire all the time. To me, that just ruins the adventure in here."

"Let's find out," Chopper attacked the Skull Squig with his Vulcan Jab. Surprisingly, it ended up disintegrating into smoke after enough hits. It looks like it didn't really matter whether or not fire was needed.

"Well, I guess that solves that little mystery," Sonic smirked.

Mario: But there's nothing else around here!

Mario looked up and saw a Skull Squig drop from the pipe and land in front of Luigi, who helped and cowered by the steps. Mario, sighing, smashed the Skull Squig and dragged Luigi to the group.

"B-Bro! Don't do this to me!" Luigi cried.

Mario: You shouldn't be staying behind us!

"O-OK! Fine! I'll just try what I did back in Tipral's Palace and attempt to keep my screams from inside… But don't expect me to be able to hold it in a hundred percent. It's not easy for me…"

"Hmmmmmm…" As Luigi sighed, Chopper pondered as he looked at the wall.

"Poyo? (What is it, Chopper?)" Kirby asked.

"I have a feeling that there's something behind this wall…" Chopper trailed. He tried to punch it, but it resulted in him hurting his hand. "Ow… That was actually painful, I'll admit."

"Do you think we need to bandage it up a bit?" Sonic asked. "Is it as bad as when Tipral attempted to punch but failed?"

"I'm not completely sure… But, I'm definitely sure that I'm not going to be using my right fist for a while, which is bad, considering that I'm a righty… Anyway, let's look at this wall."

Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a little crack that looked as if he could slip through. He brought his friends into 3-D and used Slim's ability to go through the wall to find a hallway with a couple of lit torches on the wall.

"Well, at least this place has light," Luigi sighed until he noticed a Dark Robbie standing by the door. Since they were far enough, it didn't let out a scream.

"Hmmmmm… What would happen if I threw an ice ball?" Chopper hurled an ice ball at the Dark Robbie like a bowling ball and froze the robot zombie. They all watched as it stood still, not moving for a split second.

Eventually, the ice thawed out, but it didn't even do any damage to it, which was surprising. Maybe ice doesn't have an effect on Dark Robbies?

"Crap… Well, then there's only one option." Blade groaned as he rushed over to it. It let out a shriek that caused everyone to freeze. It slowly began to make its way to Blade, but when he unfroze, he was able to land a combo with his katana and defeat it, clearing the room of enemies.

"All right, it's clear."

"Good," Chopper sighed as he ran over to the door. "OK, maybe I might want to get something to wrap my fist."

"Poyo, (It looks swollen,)" Kirby noticed.

"Thank goodness I have this glove on me, or else it would've probably been worse."

"Maybe we can find something that'll treat it. Maybe Flint or Ninbot has something that could help treat it?" Luigi pondered. "Although, asking a robot something like that is a little strange."

"Not really," Sonic shrugged.

They headed into the door ahead to find a small room with a dark mist around. They noticed a statue of the robot from before. Just why was this robot statue all over the place anyway?

"I don't like it here…" Luigi shivered.

"_**So visitors have arrived? Hmmmmmm… Now what's this I see?" **_Everyone noticed above them, a dark phantom appeared out of thin air, looking down at the heroes. _**"It's you people again…"**_

"Huh? What in the world?" Blade gawked.

"Poyo! (It's that Soul Collector from the world before!)" Kirby gasped. "Poyo? (But why is it here?)"

"_**I see you all looked surprised to see me," **_the Soul Collector cackled. _**"So you haven't given up on your little quest, didn't you? You're trying to collect the Pure Hearts, aren't you?"**_

"How do you know about the Pure Heart?" Chopper questioned.

"_**Because my kind were the ones that discovered the Chaos Heart in the first place! You see, I'm from an old tribe called the Tribe of Darkness, and as you can see, we don't take kindly to heroes."**_

"Tribe of Darkness? Then… You wouldn't happen to know about Count Bleck, right?" Luigi pondered.

"You mean Blumiere," Sonic corrected.

"_**Blumiere? You mean the one who murdered his own father? Yes… He was once in love with a human girl that we didn't take too fondly of. When she was cursed, Blumiere murdered his father and most of the Tribe of Darkness to steal the Dark Prognosticus. I was the only one who managed to get away. That is, until I encountered someone that looked like you."**_

"Tipral…" Chopper trailed. "This is interesting… So he took part in killing some of the people in the Tribe of Darkness?"

"Look, do you know anything that can help us get past a cracked wall?" Blade asked, butting into the conversation.

"_**Help YOU guys? Dream on. I'm a Soul Collector, just like the other phantoms. It is my duty to collect the souls of those who are lost in this temple. Now that I've encountered some people here… It looks like I'll be having some fun!"**_

"Evil until the end…" Chopper trailed. "Fine. You can be that way."

The Soul Collector cackled as it made its wand vaporize out of thin air and fire a dark spell down at the group. Kirby jumped out of the way and attacked the Soul Collector with a tornado.

"_**How laughable! Even still, you're incapable of defeating me! Try everything you can, but you won't win!" **_the Soul Collector boasted.

"Boasting? How clichéd," Blade scoffed as he attacked the Soul Collector with his Dragon Beam. What shocked him was that it didn't seem to have any effect on it. "What? No way! It didn't work? !"

"I guess none of our attacks are going to hurt this thing…" Luigi trailed.

Sonic frowned and tried to punch the Soul Collector. He only got whacked by its wand, unfortunately, and was sent flying back. The Soul Collector was about to attack again, but stopped when it found Mario attacking it with Kickbrin.

"_**Oh, please. This is the best you can do? For a bunch of heroes, you are pretty sucky." **_the Soul Collector scoffed as it fired a dark pulse that sent everyone flying back. It cackled and began to conjure up another spell.

"Hold on… I think I just remembered something…" Chopper realized as he conjured up a rainbow ball and hurled it at the Soul Collector. It left it blind, making the pale green Star Warrior smirk.

"Gotcha!"

"_**Gah! I HATE rainbow energy! I didn't expect you to be holding that…" **_the Soul Collector grumbled as it rubbed its eyes. _**"Bleh. But even still, you can't defeat me with something like that."**_

"Then what's your weakness?" Sonic asked.

"_**I'm not stupid enough to tell you, hedgehog. Now, I suggest you leave before I'm actually forced to take your souls." **_the Soul Collector slowly faded away as a box on TNT appeared in front of them.

"TNT? Why would we need that?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: To blow up the wall?

"You know what? This is almost like in the cartoons." Blade remarked. "A lot of times, they always use TNT to blow crap up. I think if we used this, we might have a stronger explosion."

"You mean I'm useless, KA-BOOM?" Hommissile sniffled.

"Of course not! It's just… This wall is a little too strong for your explosions. The other walls and cracks, on the other hand, couldn't take your explosions. So, I'm sure you'll have no problem with others. Besides, we only have one TNT anyway."

"Poyo? (Is it heavy?)" Kirby asked.

"Well… For me, it's not easy picking this up with one hand…" Chopper grumbled as he tried to pick it up. He could lift it up a little with his left hand, but he would need both hands to pick it up.

"Stupid hand! Why did I have to punch that wall in the first place?"

"Because you pulled off a dumb move?" Blade shrugged.

"Ugh… Let's… Let's just go back to that coffin room."

* * *

**Coffin room-**

"And what took you guys so long?" Flint asked as the six heroes flipped back into 2-D. He happened to notice Chopper's hand. "And what happened to your hand?"

"I punched a wall and this is what happened…"

"You know, I believe I still might have some of that Pianta left," the archaeologist checked his pockets and pulled out the plant. "Remember when I got injured in that cavern? Well, I DID say this could heal any injuries. Take it, please. You need both hands to go around anyway."

Chopper sighed and took a small piece of the Pianta off, just in case anyone else gets injured. After eating it, his hand began to heal up, making it feel much better for him. In fact, he could do stuff with it now!

"Thank you, Flint!" Chopper smiled. "I don't have to deal with an injured fist anymore! …I wonder how long Tipral had to wait until his hand was healed up."

"Well, who really cares?" Blade scoffed as he placed the TNT by the wall. "We've got some crap to blow up! I suggest you guys get back so I can activate the TNT and make it go boom."

Blade pushed down on the switch and there was an explosion that sent everyone flying back. When they got up, they found a hole leading through a hallway. What was the bad news? A Dark Robbie happened to be behind it.

"Uggh… Not another one of those…" Luigi shivered.

"We can take it," Sonic assured, getting ready to use a Spin Dash. "Wait… If I tried doing that, wouldn't I put myself in risk in getting attacked by that zombie thing?"

"We need something that can stun it," Ninbot suggested as he took a couple of steps through the hole. He threw a shuriken straight at the Dark Robbie, hitting it, but not doing much.

"You gotta get closer to it to do more damage, I believe…" Chopper sighed as he took a couple of steps forward. Everyone followed and heard the ear-piercing screech of the Dark Robbie.

"Poyo? ! (Why don't we have earmuffs to cover the sounds of this? !)" Kirby cried, frozen in fear.

"You know… That's something that we sh-should've done…" Chopper agreed, no longer frozen like everyone else. He ran up to the Dark Robbie when he had the chance and attacked it with a Rising Break.

"Dang… It's still not finished yet.

"Get rid of it before it scream!" Hornfels cried.

Unfortunately, he couldn't make another move when the Dark Robbie screeched and grabbed Chopper. Instead of strangle him, it decided that it would try to squeeze him instead. Mario reacted by smashing the Dark Robbie with his hammer.

Mario: That should take care of it!

"Whew… Thanks, buddy!" Chopper sighed as he quickly shook himself. There was a door just up ahead. Knowing what they should do, they moved on to a room with a staircase in 3-D and a large statue that resembled the robot from before.

"More of these…" Sonic trailed.

"I don't think I can put my eye on who that is…" Ninbot trailed. "It looks a little too old for me to see…"

"Well, I think there might be something that can help us break this," Luigi looked over to the shining light up on the ledge above them. "But… I don't know if we can even get up there! Not even my jump is capable of that level!"

"What about the stairs in 3-D?" Chopper brought up. "Maybe if we go there, we can manage to do something with that light!"

"Well, why don't you do it?" Sonic suggested. "We'll just try to find something around here to help us."

"Fine…" Chopper went into 3-D and reached higher ground thanks to the steps. When he went into 2-D, he was above the group on the climbable cliff, right by where the light was shining.

"This look cool," Monzo gawked.

"Wait a minute…" Luigi looked over at two Dark Bones at rose from the ground and charged at them. "Oh, man! Not these guys! Why do they always have to come here and make things bad for us?"

"Oh, this is easy," assured Blade as he threw Hommissile at the Dark Bones, blowing them up and disintegrating them. However, with that in mind, two more Dark Bones appeared, but with cutlasses.

"Oh, crap… They've got pirate weapons now."

"Pirate weapons?" Ninbot gawked. "A ninja…and a pirate… I'm seeing something here."

"Well, it doesn't matter. I've got the fire power here. …Get it, fire power, as in fire?" Blade snickered as everyone face palmed. Even Chopper face palmed, and he was the one who made more puns!

"See? I'm not the only one here who makes bad puns…" Chopper sighed.

"Well, so how's it going up there, Chopper?" Sonic called out.

"Uhhhhh… Well, all I can see is the light shining down here, that's about it. You think there might be a way to get that statue out of the way." Chopper looked up ahead at the statue.

"Hmmmmm… Well, what if you used Reflecto on the light?" Luigi suggested. "He was able to reflect light onto that one Dark Robbie we faced before. If that worked, why not use the light?"

Chopper shrugged and decided to use Reflecto. When the light reflected on the statue, it emitted a light before fading away. The only problem? The Dark Bones were still stranding in front of them.

"Poyo, (We need some fire here,)" Kirby muttered, making them collapse with his Tornado ability.

"Well, now that that statue's out of the way…" Flint made his way past the pile of Dark Bones, but not before getting grabbed by the foot by one of them. He screamed as he tried to tug at them.

"You! Hero people! Do something about this!"

"All right, calm down," Chopper sighed as he jumped down and attacked with a flaming kick, defeating the Dark Bones. With that, they continued on through the hallway and found a small staircase leading down to some small platforms that looked as if only one person could jump over.

Mario: This doesn't look safe…

"And that's why we need to be steady here," Ninbot alarmed as he jumped on the platforms first and reached the door. Everyone else used their skills in platforming to jump across and enter the room ahead to find a bunch of dark smog down some small steps.

"What in the world? What's that?" Blade asked.

"Poyo, (It looks a little dark,)" Kirby noticed, looking at the purple smog down the steps. He felt a little worried if he even touched it. So, Chopper decided to do it instead and walked down the stairs.

"Hmmmmmm… Nothing special here." Chopper said as he touched the smog. The only problem? He began to glow a purple color every second. In fact, he didn't have the power to jump or attack as of right now!

"Huh? What happened to my abilities? ! Nothing's working? !"

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint shouted, startling everyone. "'The smog! Oh, how deadly it was to see such stuff like this! A poor adventurer had to be caught in it and cursed! Now he no longer has the ability to fight back! Oh, woe is him…'"

"You don't sound sympathetic, brah," Hornfels informed.

"Shush! Don't let the people know!"

"Oh, man… I hate this!" Chopper sulked before he felt himself getting grabbed by a shadowy hand that rose from the ground. He shrieked in horror as he tried to get himself out of its grasps.

"AUGH! NOT PHANTOM HANDS!"

"Phantom Hands?" Sonic gawked. "How do you know about them?"

"B-Because I've witnessed them on my p-planet before… They're disembodied hands that grab you!"

"Then we gotta get him out of there!" Blade declared, running straight for the smog until Ninbot grabbed him.

"No. If you go in there, you'll be defenseless." warned Ninbot.

"But our friend's stuck in there!" Sonic defended. "How are we supposed to get him out of there?"

"Crag it away, brah!" Hornfels suggested.

"Only gas," Monzo informed.

"Uhhhhhh… Does anyone have a clue on what they're saying?" Luigi asked, looking around the group for answers. "Honestly, I don't understand a word they're saying so far…"

Mario: Same here!

A light bulb appeared over Kirby's head. He spun around in a tornado and began to go into the mist. Apparently, with his tornado, he was able to blow the mist away with ease. Now they could see Chopper being pulled by the Phantom Hand.

"Someone help me, please!" Chopper cried.

"Poyo! (I got it all covered!)" Kirby announced as he attacked the Phantom Hand with a simple kick. It shrieked and released Chopper. Kirby finished it off by going into another tornado and destroying it.

"Whew… Thanks for that, Kirby… I just hate those things. They're probably the creepiest things that I've ever run into…"

"Nothing else was as creepy as that?" Luigi asked as everyone walked over to him now that the mist was out of the way.

"There are some creepy things… But these things scare me the most."

"Well, now that you're free from that thing, I say we look around here for more…" Flint paused when he saw another Phantom Hand rise from the group ahead, right by a crackled pillar.

"I can also see a locked door up ahead," Sonic noticed, looking over by another staircase going down. "But… We don't even have a key with us! Is there anything we can do to find one?"

"We might have to…_gulp_…go to that pillar," Chopper shuddered, shaking as he pointed to the pillar with the Phantom Hand. Sonic shrugged and attempted to attack it, but was grabbed by the Phantom Hand.

"See? I told you!"

He was forced to run over to the Phantom Hand and attack it with a Smash Punch. Instead, the Phantom Hand swung Sonic straight at Chopper, knocking his Fighter ability away.

"OW! Watch it, hand!" Sonic snapped.

"They can even use people as weapons! Not only that…" Chopper grabbed his hammer and bashed the Phantom Hand, making it release Sonic. But that didn't stop it from grabbing Chopper instead.

"AUGH! NO!"

"Dude, chill out. It's just a hand…" Blade trailed.

"Well, it can do more than that! It can…" they all gaped as the Phantom Hand dragged Chopper below the floor. His scream made everyone shudder until he was thrown out of the ground. He fell over beside the group.

"What did that thing do?" Flint asked.

"Hurt me… It was like I was being tortured…"

"Then we need some ranged attacks," Blade declared, throwing a couple of shurikens at the Phantom Hand. Before they knew it, it was destroyed as it slowly faded away in the darkness.

"Wow… And to think I would be scared of something that much." Luigi realized.

"Oh, shut up," Chopper frowned.

Blade looked over at the cracked pillar and decided to toss Hommissile at it. The pillar fell over and revealed a Temple Key. With a grin, he grabbed it and opened the door up ahead.

"Let's move on and see what we have," Blade suggested as he headed into the next room with everyone else. Here, they discovered that there were two sets of stairs. One was going up, while the other was going down.

"We should go up," Ninbot suggested.

"Going up means we can get out of this place," Chopper agreed.

"Oh, I would love that…" Luigi trailed.

They decided to go up the stairs, but they stopped when they saw that the door was locked. They all made a face and headed back down. They noticed by the stairs below, there was more purple shadowy mist.

"Ugh… If we touch that, we can't do anything." Chopper groaned.

"But it won't hurt us," Sonic informed.

Mario: It's still not good if there are enemies there.

"Poyo! (Then allow me!)" Kirby smiled as he used his Tornado ability to clear the shadowy mist out of the way. With that, a door was revealed. Thankfully, it wasn't locked like the other.

"Then we'll go down there!" Flint announced as he turned to his camera crew. "You getting all of this?"

"Uhhhh… Yeah, brah! I'm cragging it!" Monzo nodded. "But you're not cragging…"

"OK, fine… _**CRAGLEY HO!**_ 'Oh, what a surprise! We were able to encounter this door, but sadly, it wouldn't open for us. Not only that, but we ran into something shocking back in another room! It was scary, let me tell you…' Like that?"

"Sure…" Hornfels trailed.

"Poyo, (You guys should stay here to avoid any more danger,)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo. (It might be dangerous down here.)"

"What on earth is that…thing saying?" Flint asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He told you guys to stay here," Chopper translated. "He sense danger down there, so it might be for the better."

"Poyo! (And hopefully we find food down there too!)" Kirby cheered.

"Yeah… I wish…"

"Ninbot, why don't you stay here with them?" Blade suggested, receiving a strange look from Ninbot. "They're pretty much defenseless. If you stayed here, there's a chance they could survive."

"Very well," Ninbot gave a nod as he remained put while the heroes headed through the room downstairs.

"Uh oh… I'm seeing something." Luigi gulped as they found two Dark Robbies and a large amount of shadowy mist below. Overall, they knew that they were in danger no matter what.

"I hope there aren't any Phantom Hands in that mist…" Chopper shivered.

Mario: And now we have the Dark Robbies too…

"Wait! Is that a shining light coming from the ceiling?" Sonic gaped, looking at the light shining down near them. "Hey… If that was used on the two Dark Robbies, then this wouldn't be a huge problem for us!"

Mario: Let's try it out!

Sonic walked into the light and used Reflecto to reflect the light onto the Dark Robbies. They were stunned by the light, allowing Mario and Kirby to attack them with a hammer and tornado.

"Poyo! (These things are easy when they're stunned!)" scoffed Kirby.

"Well, I'm not going to attack them," Luigi retorted, turning away from the rest of the group. "I don't think that I'll even have enough time to defeat one anyway. They don't sit there for a while!"

"Not unless I continued to use Reflecto on them," Sonic added. "And besides, they're already gone."

"Yeah, I know…"

They walked over to where the shadowy mist was, but since they got a little too close, they were glowing a purple color. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do at the moment.

"This is like those Cursyas!" Chopper grumbled.

"Speaking of those… Where have they gone?" Blade asked.

"Poyo, (I guess we won't be seeing them anymore,)" Kirby shrugged.

They stepped away from the shadowy mist, but they seemed to notice that there were two Phantom Hands roaming around, making Chopper gulp. Luckily, their purple glow went away as they stepped back.

"All right, we're gonna have to blow that stuff away," Sonic stated, holding Reflecto under the light. He noticed that the light seemed to get rid of the shadowy mist. "Wait… This can work too!"

"Yeah, maybe you can do that, Sonic," Blade suggested.

"What about the Phantom Hands?" Luigi mentioned.

Mario: Hopefully we can handle them.

"But we need to distract it with something…" Chopper trailed. "And we're not going to throw someone at it. That's NOT a safe thing to do!"

When Sonic reflected the light onto the Phantom Hands, they were stunned for a couple of minutes. Knowing that they had a chance to attack, Chopper hurled a couple of rainbow balls at one of them to destroy it.

"That takes care of one," Luigi said as he took care of the other with a Phantom Hand with his Cyclone. With that, it was all clear for them to go, but they stopped when they saw a small orb on a pedestal in front of them by the wall.

"What do you think this is for?" Sonic questioned.

"It's an orb," Blade informed. "It appears to be empty, though… What do you think we need to do here?"

"I've got an idea," Chopper flung a rainbow ball into the orb, which ended up revealing a secret area you could go down if you went into 3-D. Chopper flipped with everyone else, and they jumped down the hole into a room with a couple of stone platforms floating on some shallow purple water.

"Uh oh… Don't tell me we have to swim here." Sonic gulped. "I don't like swimming…"

"Well, let's see," When Chopper jumped in the water, he noticed that it was pretty shallow. It was only going up to his feet. However, now he was glowing a purple color.

"This isn't good water."

They pulled Chopper out of the water and decided that he should stay there. With that, the rest of the group crossed the water with the stone platforms, but noticed that at the last platform, there was a chest being guarded by two Phantom Hands.

"Crap… This isn't good." Blade groaned.

Mario: If they grab us, we're in trouble!

"Poyo? (Maybe this will do something?)" Kirby attacked the Phantom Hands in a tornado. They tried to attack him, but they ended up getting defeated instead. Kirby opened the chest and found a Temple Key.

"There's the key!" Luigi gasped.

"Now let's get out of here," Sonic suggested.

* * *

**Room with two staircases-**

"What the crag you doing?" Hornfels asked as Flint was trying to kick at the locked door up the stairs.

"What does it look like? Those people are taking too long! I'm trying to get us out of this place!" Flint explained as he tried to pull at the lock. "Unfortunately, I'm not doing such a good job…"

"They said to stay over here," Ninbot ordered as he grabbed Flint and pulled him back. They all noticed that the heroes were coming back up the stairs, with Chopper's glow finally gone.

"So what was it like down there? Was it like an adventure?" Flint asked.

"If you ask me, it was creepy," Chopper stated.

"Well, that's good to… Wait a minute… _**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Everyone stepped back as Flint shouted. "'Our fellow adventurers! They have managed to return from the depts. Of the underworld itself! I am in glee as I see that one of them is holding a key in his hand! Surely enough that we will be able to find some treasure. Of course, they couldn't have done this without _my_ intellect.'"

"YOUR intellect?" Blade gaped. "No way!"

"Anyway… Shouldn't get unlock the door upstairs?" Sonic questioned. "We can't just sit here…"

"Especially with The Void," Chopper added.

Everyone agreed and made their way up the stairs. Kirby unlocked the door and entered a hallway with a door nearby. They decided to see what was up ahead, but according to Sonic, this was the end of the hallway.

"Really? Nothing else?" Luigi gawked.

"Nope. Although, I actually heard something from behind the wall…" Sonic trailed. "Maybe there's a secret behind there."

"Well, all we can do right now is go through here," Chopper said as he kicked the door open into a room that looked big enough for a fight. They also saw a staircase leading up to a pedestal.

There happened to be a golden Cragnon statue sitting there.

"Could it be…?" Flint gasped. "_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'My eyes… My eyes cannot believe what they see! Up on that pedestal… There's a sacred treasure sitting there! Now, I'll need to be careful if I'm going to get a hold of that…'"

"You fell right into my trap!"

"'So I should…' Wait, who on crag just said that?"

A Koopa with a blue hairdo dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of the group. Mario and Luigi gasped and got in their fighting stances, knowing who this person was.

"Whoa… Another one of these Koopa guys?" Chopper gawked. "How many are there?"

Mario: Seven Koopalings.

"Oh, so this is the last one, huh?"

"I see that you finally made it all the way here," the Koopaling spat. "Vat's my name? Vell, I'll tell you! The name's Ludwig von Koopa! I'm ze oldest of ze Koopalings."

"Hmmmm? OK, so he has an accent. That's interesting."

"Don't you think it's just better to save yourself?" Sonic asked. "There's a dark swirling vortex in the sky! I think it's better that you try to keep yourself from dying rather than picking a fight with us."

"Don't you know how hard it is to stay here for a long time?" Ludwig asked, seething with anger. "I haven't seen ze sunlight in so long! I've been trapped here ever since that dark person that looks like that kid there brought me here! You really think I had FUN here? !"

"Oh… You were stuck here this whole time…" Luigi gaped. "That's a little sad."

"So, you know how I feel now, right? Well, now that you know, I can finally have my chance to take you down! My dad's missing and I vant to get him back. Only he knows how to handle my siblings."

"Look, we can't let you do that because WE need to save everyone from dying from The Void," Chopper explained. "We're technically saving YOU from this, too. When all of this is over, you can attack us all you want."

"I think I'm going to do it now," Ludwig grabbed a hold of his wand and began to wave it around. "My siblings are NOTHING compared to me. I've got everything that they don't!"

"Fine… If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get." Blade declared, drawing his katana.

"What about the treasure?" Flint gasped.

"Wait until we take care of this guy," Chopper suggested.

"Ugh… Fine."

"Now let's settle this," Ludwig declared, firing a blue magical projectile straight at the group. Kirby jumped out of the way with a Cartwheel, then attacked Ludwig with a Tornado attack.

"So he has 400 HP, an Attack of 16, and a Defense of 6. Huh… Well, he has the same HP as Dimentio Doom, but he doesn't seem as threatening." Chopper pondered before getting hit by Ludwig's magic.

"He uses blue magic? Kinda matches my fur!" Sonic smirked, curling up and knocking Ludwig back with a Spin Dash. It sent the Koopaling flying onto the stairs. Thankfully, his spiky shell prevented his back from getting injured.

"Let's see how you handle this!" Ludwig got in his shell and tossed himself at Sonic. He countered the attack by tossing himself in a ball at him. Despite this, both were sent flying back.

"Whoa… What a fight." Flint gaped.

"We should film this, brah!" Monzo suggested, aiming the camera at the fight.

"You idiot! It's supposed to be for me, not them!" Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for Monzo to listen. He continued to watch the fight.

"You going to do something to help, robot ninja thing?" Flint asked as he looked over at Ninbot, who shook his head, knowing that this is their fight. They all watched as Luigi got sent flying back by Ludwig's shell toss.

"Ooh! Right in the crag!" Hornfels winced.

"Hmmmmm… Fine. We'll watch this little fight. We never really see much action anyway." Flint sighed. "Besides… I think some Cragnons would like to see some action in this adventure."

Anyway, Ludwig stood back up and readied his wand again. However, Blade was able to kick him in the stomach and attack him a couple of times with his katana. Ludwig was almost worried that his hair would be cut off.

"Take that blade away from me," Ludwig growled as he spat a fireball at Blade, setting him on fire.

"Whoa! I'm on fire!" Blade cried.

"Thankfully I can set people on fire too! Makes it easier for me!"

Mario: Oh, yeah… He did this before.

Ludwig was about to spit another fireball, but Mario managed to stomp on his head and bash him with his hammer afterward. The Koopaling turned around and tried to ram at Mario's stomach.

The only problem? It didn't do too much.

"Argh! Vat's wrong with me? ! Vhy did I think that I had horns on my head like my father?" This only led to him getting kicked in the stomach by Mario, followed by a Bounce Attack from Sonic.

"Well there's something for ya," Sonic smirked.

Ludwig grumbled as he quickly got up. He tried to attack Sonic with his claws, but he missed and ended up leaving himself vulnerable. Kirby pulled his Final Cutter out and slashed him with it.

"Poyo! (It feels good to use this on a Koopaling!)" Kirby smirked.

"Hold on, guys! Lemme have a chance!" Chopper called out as he tossed a couple of fireballs at Ludwig, leaving a burn on him. When the Koopaling turned around, he tried to burn him with fireballs, but they were countered with his ice balls, leaving an explosion.

"Vat's this? You can use fire and ice?" Ludwig gawked. "Vat kind of madness is zis?"

"I can do this too," Chopper hurled a charged rainbow ball at Ludwig, sending him flying back to Luigi. This allowed the green plumber to strike him with a flutter jump and a Cyclone.

"Man, I can't wait to be finished with him," Luigi hoped. "Since he's the last Koopaling, we won't have to deal with any more!"

Mario: Oh, yeah! I just remembered that!

Ludwig managed to get back up and punch Luigi in the stomach. Afterward, he jumped and began to flutter – something he was able to do unlike his siblings. He stomped on the ground with great force and left everyone stunned.

"Yeah, my brothers Morton and Roy could do that, but thankfully I was able to learn what strong abilities they could do!" Ludwig smirked.

"Well thanks for bragging at us," Chopper thanked as he jumped on Ludwig and bashed him with his hammer. The Koopaling tried to hit him with magic, but he inhaled it and spat it back at him, leaving him off guard.

"All right! This should be easy!" Luigi was about to make another attack, but Ludwig got back on guard and fired magic at him. The green plumber was sent flying down to the floor. Mario reacted by using his Super Ground Pound on Ludwig.

"Oof! Not bad, plumber… Have you gotten fatter?" Ludwig scoffed.

Mario: I'm only chubby. -_-

Ludwig grinned as he got in his shell and tossed himself at Mario's stomach, knocking him over. The plumber held his stomach in pain, but was saved when Kirby sucked Ludwig in a tornado and tossed him to the wall.

"Ugh… Vat was that tornado I just saw?" gawked Ludwig. "Fine… I guess I'll have to get rid of that ze hard way."

When Kirby stopped with his tornado, Ludwig managed to keep him off guard by hurling a spell at him. Now that he was vulnerable, he got in his shell again and tossed himself at the puffball, knocking his Tornado ability away.

"Poyo! (No! Not my Tornado ability!)" Kirby cried.

"Heh heh heh! Vell that takes care of that!" Ludwig whirled around to Sonic and managed to hit him with a spell. Afterward, he jumped in the air and landed a ground pound that shook the ground.

"This is getting a little hectic," Flint gasped. "Let's hope nothing gets too extreme here…"

"Fight good for show, brah," Hornfels nodded. "We need it."

"Cragnons like violence anyway," Monzo informed.

Ninbot watched as Ludwig managed to hit Sonic while in a shell now that he was stunned from a stomp. However, Chopper was able to stomp on his head and slam his foot on his nose with rainbow energy.

"OW! My precious nose!" Ludwig cried.

"Well, you did hurt my friend…" Chopper trailed.

Ludwig growled as he grabbed a hold of Chopper and used his as a shield as Mario tried to bash him with his hammer. He ended up hurting Chopper instead.

Mario: Oops! Sorry!

"Ugh… Whatever."

While Ludwig cackled, Blade threw Hommissile at his back while he was distracted, knocking him over on the ground. This left him vulnerable for another attack, especially for Blade.

"Time for a Dragon Beam!" Blade announced as he fired an orange beam at Ludwig before he even had the chance to make another move. It sent him flying to the wall and nearly left a big mark.

"Is that all you got? !" Ludwig scoffed.

Mario: We surely have more than that.

"Vell, how about I do this?" Ludwig waved his wand and summoned a Waddle Doo. Thankfully, this was inhaled by Chopper to gain the Beam ability. He used this to his advantage when he charged up a beam attack and fired a ball of energy straight at Ludwig.

"Vat was that you just did? !"

"Kirby and I can copy abilities, you know," Chopper informed as Kirby hit Ludwig from behind with a Cartwheel. "You probably don't know about this because we're from different worlds."

"Hmmmm… So that explains how different some of you are…"

"Wait… If you're Bowser's son, then who's the mother?" Sonic asked. "Now that's something I don't get."

"Vell, you see… My mother is actually…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Luigi threw Bonjourang at his nose, leaving it swollen. The Kooplaing screeched and scorched Luigi with a fireball.

"Ack! Fire! Someone get it off!" Luigi cried.

"Ha HA! I vant to see you burn, plumber!" Ludwig cackled as he spat another fireball. Kirby inhaled it to gain the Fire ability, which he used against Ludwig by spitting a fireball at him.

"Poyo? (How do you like that?)" Kirby cheered, hitting him while in a fireball.

"Fire isn't any different against me," the Koopaling retorted as he fluttered in the air and stomped Blade. Sonic reacted by hitting him with a Homing Attack.

"You know, I wonder what the fight against Lemmy was like…" Luigi wondered. "We haven't fought him."

"All he did was throw pies, squirt water and throw balls," Chopper explained as he jumped in the air and fired a beam particle down at Ludwig. To his surprise, the Koopaling was able to dodge it and hit him with a magic projectile while in the air.

"Ow… How did he do that?"

"I told you, I have skills that my younger siblings don't have," Ludwig reminded as he fired another blue magic projectile. This time, it was aimed at Sonic, who was able to dodge it and use his Sonic Wind to surround Ludwig in a gust of wind.

"Heh heh! You know, I don't always have to attack at a close range!" Sonic grinned.

"Urgh… You little…!"

"I wonder if you get angry easily, like your father," Blade wondered as he stepped on Ludwig's tail and jumped over him, kicking his head, followed by slashing at him with his katana at a fast pace.

Ludwig managed to kick Blade away and fire a magic attack straight at him. But, due to being a little off guard, Blade got hit by the attack instead and was knocked to the ground. He quickly got up and tossed a couple of shurikens that Ludwig was easily able to dodge.

"You'll have to try a little better than that, pussy cat!" scoffed Ludwig.

"Pussy cat? Whoa whoa whoa… I'm not a pussy cat!" Blade retorted as he knocked Ludwig back with his Dragon Beam. It sent the Koopaling flying to the wall and leaving a bigger mark on the wall in the process.

"It's like action movie!" Hornfels grinned.

"How long it last?" Monzo asked.

"I don't know how long it's going to last, you dope," Flint retorted. "All they're doing is beating each other up. Why don't we show something better for once, like me getting a hold of the treasure?"

Like before, he was ignored.

Ludwig jumped in the air and did another stomp attack. This time, however, the heroes jumped before they could get stunned, which helped Sonic strike the Koopaling with a Homing Attack.

"Woo hoo! That was cool!" Sonic smirked before getting hit by Ludwig's magic attack.

"Poyo? (Do you think we should try to heal ourselves?)" Kirby asked as he pulled an Ultimate Shroom Shake out.

"Yeah, we should," Chopper agreed as he took a sip from the shake, recovering 100 HP. They each passed it around until Blade had the last sip. He crushed the can and, in tradition, threw the can at Ludwig.

"Oof! Vat was that? Did you just throw a can at me?" Ludwig gawked, rubbing his head in pain.

"Of course! That's what we usually do!" Blade explained as he kicked Ludwig in the stomach and slashed him. The Koopaling attempted to stomp on him, but with the help of Barry, he was able to counter his attack and make him get hurt instead.

"And that's why Barry is helpful in this fight."

"All right, looks like he's softened up a bit," Chopper stated as he grabbed his hammer and slammed it on Ludwig's head with ice energy, freezing him. However, a simple fireball was all it took to unfreeze Ludwig and knock Chopper's ability away.

Kirby tried to help him, but Ludwig got in his shell and threw himself at Kirby, knocking his Fire ability away, leaving both without an ability. Thankfully for Kirby, he was able to hit him with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo, (That's for getting rid of my ability,)" Kirby growled as he stepped back and inhaled Ludwig's magic attack, which he spat back at him to sent him tumbling over to Mario.

Mario: You should just give up now.

"Vat? No way! I vill not give up so easily!" Ludwig spat as he quickly got up. "I'm not weak like the others! I'm ze oldest of the group!"

"Stop boasting so we can actually have a fight," Chopper grumbled, tossing a couple of rainbow balls his way. Ludwig dodged two of them, but the third one hit him and left him cringing in pain.

"Argh!"

While he tried to get himself together, Mario did a flip and landed on him with a Triple Jump. Ludwig quickly retreated back into his shell and tossed himself at Mario, but only ended up getting sent flying to the wall when Mario used Kickbrin on him.

Mario: Thankfully Kickbrin can hurt him while he's in his shell!

"Hold on, bro! Lemme get a shot on him!" Luigi called out as Ludwig stood up and fired another magic projectile. Luigi was able to jump over the attack and land a powerful blow to his head with his feet.

"Ugh… How long can I handle zis?" Ludwig coughed.

Blade walked up to him and checked to see if he was in a little trance now that he was exhausted. However, Ludwig was still able to attack by clawing at Blade. It hurt him, but not as much as what his katana did to Ludwig.

"All right, he looks like he's about done here," Blade announced. "Why don't we just finish the job now?"

"I might as well…" Sonic trailed as he curled up in a ball and attacked Ludwig with a Homing Attack. With that, the Koopaling fell over on the ground, coughing in extreme pain.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint squawked, walking over to the group. "'Oh, what an extreme battle that was! You should've seen it in person, people! Magic projectiles flying EVERYWHERE! It was intense! …However, they couldn't have done this without my help.'"

"Your help? You just sat in the background…" Luigi sighed.

"We did more than you!" Blade retorted.

"'However, what is most important is that we've discovered the great golden Cragnon statue in this temple! This is a sign of a great achievement for the great Flint Cragley. Never would we expect there to be treasure here.'"

"Urgh…" Everyone stopped and looked over at Ludwig, who slowly got up. "You vill NEVER make it out of here alive!"

"Ack!" Flint fled from Ludwig and ran up the stairs to the pedestal where the golden Cragnon stood. He checked around for any signs of traps.

There weren't any.

"Good," With that, he picked up the statue and held it like it was a baby. "Oh, sweet treasure! How much I care for you!"

His words were interrupted when they felt the ground tremor.

"What the…! Is that The Void again? !" Sonic gasped.

"No… That doesn't sound like it." Luigi gulped as a large boulder dropped from where Flint was standing near and began to roll down their direction.

"Eep! Time to go!" Flint squeaked as he began to run for his life. Everyone else gasped and tried to get away from the boulder. The only one who didn't seem to outrun it was Ludwig, who was already too exhausted.

"We gotta help Ludwig!" Chopper suggested. "There's no way I'm leaving him to get squished!"

"I think it's too late…" Ninbot trailed as Ludwig got caught in the boulder and began to roll with it. Knowing they didn't have much time, they got out of the room and returned to the hallway. Unfortunately, the boulder was able to break through the door and follow them.

"Is that… Is that LIGHT I see? !" Flint gaped as they saw across the hallway, a shining light at the end.

"Hey! Maybe that's what I felt before!" Sonic recalled. "But never mind that! We need to RUN!"

Everyone began to run again, with Chopper grabbing Kirby and Luigi's arms and with Sonic grabbing Blade and Mario's. They were instantly outrunning the boulder at this moment.

"Keep running, brah!" Monzo cried.

"Don't want to get squished!" Hornfels cried.

"Uhhh… Relax, guys! I assure you that this will all be worth it in the end!" Flint assured. "Sure, the turtle got caught in the boulder, but we're faster!"

"We're getting closer to the light!"

As the group ran outside, the boulder went flying off the staircase and crumbled as it hit the grassy ground. Ludwig was sent flying to the ground, but this time, he was unconscious.

As the group stopped, they whirled around and noticed that there was a gray temple in front of them. They must have gotten out of the temple…

"Wait… Do I smell fresh air?" Blade gaped as he looked up. He could see the sky. "Oh, yes! We're no longer in some cave!"

"The only problem is that The Void's blocking the sky…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh… That's a problem."

Up ahead, they saw a Star Block. They all knew that they wanted to get this over with, so Chopper ran up to the block and gave it a punch.

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Now that was one exciting adventure, wasn't it?" gloated Flint as he held up his treasured item. "Now that we've gotten a hold of real treasure, I believe that things are coming to an end about now." With a sigh of relief, our heroes made sure that they stood as far from the temple as possible. They were getting a little tired of being in a dark temple or cave about now. However, our heroes knew that the battle has just begun, because, according to Ninbot, they still had a Pure Heart to get, and from a dangerous person at that._

* * *

**Well, that was something, wasn't it? And yes, I gave Ludwig an accent because of the "von" in his name. I personally think it works for him,** **but that's just me. Some people think differently, right?**

**We're almost done with Chapter 17. Just one more part and then we get to something that I find rather exciting. :)  
**


	104. The Evils of Master Mind

**CHAPTER 17-5**

**-The Evils of Master Mind-**

"Hey, would you look at that? This is like some kind of jungle!" Chopper cheered as he took a couple of steps over to a couple of vines blocking his way. Sadly, there was no way he could get rid of them without burning the entire jungle with a fireball. In fact, this place started to bring him back to his home planet, where he had a large jungle unlike this smaller version.

"Well, isn't this a treat? I don't think we've been through a jungle…" Sonic trailed as Blade and Ninbot began to cut through the vines in their way. Flint was also cutting through some vines with a rusty cutlass he had.

"Wait… Why does Flint have that anyway?" Luigi asked.

"He brought it for cutting, brah," Monzo explained as he filmed Flint cutting through some of the vines, even if he was doing a rather horrible job at it compared to the other two. "Good cragging weapon."

"Uhhhh… Sure." Sonic shrugged as they followed the group ahead into the jungle. The only thing that they seemed to notice up ahead were two Putrid Bushers that were charging at them.

"Heads up! I got this!" Blade announced as he took them down with a fire slash, burning them to a crisp. "There we go! All taken care of!"

"Yeah… What a relief." Luigi sighed as they found a pit of spikes down a small hill. After Chopper ran down it, he stopped at the pit of spikes. The only thing that looked like would be helpful was a vine hanging from a tree.

"Hmmmmm… You know, I think we should use this vine." Chopper suggested.

Mario: From what I can see, it might help us cross over the spiky pit.

Chopper went first and made a big jump onto the vine. He began to swing himself across the spike pit and land on the ledge up ahead. He noticed that there was a hill leading up to a wall with a spring.

After Mario crossed the spike pit, he ran up the hill, despite having a hard time and jumped on the spring to bring him up to the high ledge. Everyone else followed him up and found some wooden platforms floating over another spike pit, but smaller.

"Poyo, (Looks like some platforming is required here,)" Kirby noticed as he decided to float over the platforms as if he was breaking the story. As for the rest, they had to jump on the platforms and cross the spike pit.

"I think I remember this area," Ninbot recalled. "It was when I was being carried out to that cavern…"

"Hmmmm… Well, hopefully you know a little about this place." Blade hoped as they found a door just up ahead. A Dark Patrolbot was guarding it, but got destroyed by Luigi's Super Jump.

"All right, I think we can get going," Luigi declared as he opened the door. Everyone followed him into the next area, which had a couple of climbable vines from the large gaps. Past the vine was a wooden platform, and down below them was a bottomless pit.

"Ugh… More climbing… And it makes it worse when we've got a couple of Bushers on the vines too." Sonic sighed, pointing up at the Bushers throwing spears down at the group.

"Poyo! (I've got this!)" Kirby inhaled the spear and spat it at the Busher, knocking it off the vine and making it fall to its doom. Sure, they didn't get any experience from it, but it was better than getting hurt.

"All right, it's safe to climb on this thing," Sonic said as he grabbed a hold of the vine and jumped over to the platform. For some reason, the vine wouldn't swing around like the other one.

"Let's hope we don't find those spark things from before," Chopper mumbled, recalling those moments before as he grabbed the vine and jumped over to the wooden platform. "OK… Let's not use fire here. It might burn the platform."

"Uhhhh… We'll, you know, try to find a way through all of this…" Flint sweat dropped. "Yeah! We've got a plan made to get ourselves through here!"

"You sure?" Ninbot gawked.

"Of course! In fact, why don't you stay here with us so we have at least some protection! We don't want this treasure to fall in the wrong hands, is that right?"

"I guess so…" Monzo trailed.

"My crag's hurting, brah," Hornfels mumbled.

"OK… Good luck with that I suppose." Blade shrugged. "Although, if you're planning on just leaving, then go right ahead."

"Blade, I don't think they should go," Chopper said. "I mean, we don't really talk to many people as heroes, and with Tippi and Count Bleck gone, it would be nice to have SOME company…"

"Well look at you! I thought you were annoyed with these guys?"

"Well… Technically, kind of… But, it's better to help them than leave them in a dangerous jungle. They'll probably need my help if they plan on getting out of this place alive."

"Who crowned you the king of the jungle?" Sonic asked. "I don't recall anyone saying that…"

"I'm not. That said, I do live in a jungle, and a large one at that." Chopper explained. "But never mind that. I don't wanna waste our time with this pointless conversation anyway. Let's just keep crossing."

They jumped over to the next vine, which thankfully didn't have any enemies on it and jumped to a shorter vine that didn't look like everyone could grab a hold of it at once. Mario decided to grab it first and land on a platform higher up than the platform they were previously on.

Mario: Everything's all right her—AH HA HA HA!

Mario yelped as he felt a Busher poke his butt with a spear, forcing him to rocket upward as he shouted. Kirby floated over to the platform and inhaled the Busher, swallowing it to gain no ability.

"Poyo… (Aw… I wanted an ability…)" Kirby sulked.

"Well, looks like they don't carry any, which kind of stinks," Chopper said as he jumped over to the group and found a grassy ledge up ahead.

"There we go! No more of these bottomless pits!" Sonic smirked as he jumped over to the ledge and found another vine going up to a shorter vine above him. "Oh… Well, I guess the climbing isn't finished yet."

"And I can see some insects on there too," Blade informed as he followed Sonic up to the third vine to the left. A large, red insect was apparently chewing on the vine, but upon seeing the two, it got enraged and attacked.

"Heads up!" Chopper warned as Blade stabbed the bug with his katana. "Whew… That was too close! …Wait, why was it big?"

Mario: We're small, remember?

"Oh, yeah…"

Luigi was able to get to the vine Sonic and Blade were climbing up with a Super Jump and follow them up to a high ledge with a door to their left. Chopper, Kirby, and Mario followed as well.

After walking out of the door, they noticed that there was a vine leading down to the grassy ground, where they found a hill going down to a ramp that would go over a small pond. From what they could all see, there was a waterfall too.

"Oh, boy… Let's hope we don't have to go swimming." Sonic gulped.

"And I'm not surprised to hear that from you," Chopper sighed as he grabbed the vine and began to slide down to the grassy ground. Thankfully, there weren't any vines blocking the way at the moment.

"All right, I think everything looks fine here," Blade stated as he climbed down to the ground and looked down at the grass. From what he could see, it was a dark green color, which was fitting for a jungle like this. "All right… I think we ought to be on the lookout for anything at this point."

"What do you mean?" Luigi questioned.

"I know Ninbot said that there would be something big where this Master Mind could be. Surely he wouldn't be somewhere deep in the jungle…"

Mario: That's true…

"He would have to be out of the jungle, if possible," Chopper pondered. "Yeah, I think I'm starting to get it now… Although, let's hope that we're not too far from Master Mind…"

They decided to go down the hill and jump off the ramp at the end of the hill to cross the small body of water near another body of water ahead. Unfortunately, due to the pond, it didn't look like they would be able to reach the ledge at the end of the pond.

"Poyo, (I think I could get over this,)" Kirby announced as he took in some air and began to float over the water. As for everyone else, they tried to see how they could get up there.

"Hmmmmmmm…" Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and began to run over the water. That is, until he crashed into the wall in his way, causing him to fall in the water. Because the pond led down to a bottomless pit, he swam out and tried to get back to everyone else…until Kirby pulled him over by inhaling.

"What the… Did you have to do that?"

"Poyo, (Yes, I think I had to,)" Kirby nodded. "Poyo. (I probably would need you anyway if we're going to get everyone else over here."

"Oh… I see what you mean." Chopper opened his mouth wide and began to inhale, just like Kirby. Sure, one inhale was big, but with TWO? That's probably strong enough to get four people over.

"Holy… They're BOTH doing that? !" Blade gaped as they were lifted off the ground and headed straight for Chopper and Kirby. When they stopped, they fell over right by a bush.

"Oh, my aching…" Luigi slowly got up and noticed that there was nothing around. The only thing he saw was a path leading to nowhere. The bush, however, felt like there was something there.

"Did any of you guys check this bush?"

"Hmmmmm… Sonic got up and tried to look through the bush. "Sorry, Luigi… It doesn't look like I can search through here. I think it's because everything is 2-D around here…"

"Almost EVERYTHING is 2-D," Chopper informed as he pointed a finger up and flipped into 3-D in a strange pose. He noticed that there was a blue ! switch behind the bush, so he gave it a good kick to reveal a door just up ahead.

Mario: A door!

"Yup, and now we can get a move on," Sonic nodded as he ran over to the door and opened it, leading into an area with a loop and also a small bridge with a waterfall in the background.

"Hmmmmmm… A loop. Nothing special here." Blade noticed. "It's just the same old stuff here."

"Yeah, I'll agree with you on that," Chopper nodded. "But, at least it's nice for me!"

Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and ran through the loop and crossed the bridge. Everyone else sighed (for the exception of Sonic) and followed him through the loop and across the bridge. There, they found a wall standing in their way.

Mario: Is another puzzle needed here?

"I don't know… I think we might have to solve something here…" Chopper trailed.

Before any of them could speak, they noticed a sparkling light above them. They noticed that it was a Dimensional Rift.

"Poyo! (A Dimensional Rift!)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo! (Maybe there's a little secret here if we use Flippay!)"

Mario raised Flippay up and used his power to reveal a blue ! block. He gave it a good whack before a pipe rose right in front of them. It was a lovely jungle green color, which fit the area.

"Huh… So we found a pipe. Not too bad, I suppose…" Blade trailed. "Anyway, let's just head down."

* * *

**Underground-**

"Great… Now we're back underground…" Chopper sighed as they came out of the pipe. Thankfully, the underground room was not another cavern and actually had the blue floor and walls. "Well… At least it's this kind of underground room and not the ones we've been in before."

"Yeah, I agree," Luigi nodded.

They scanned the room and saw two brick blocks nearby. When Mario punched the first one, a black Mushroom with purple eyes called a Dark Shroom came out. Unlike a Zombie Shroom, this one seemed to fly around the room instead.

"Uhhhh… What in the world is that?" Sonic gawked.

"It looks like it's some kind of Mushroom that's dark…" Blade trailed. "I don't get it, but I think it's like a Zombie Shroom. Maybe we should take care of that thing first…"

Mario grabbed his hammer and bashed the Dark Shroom as it came close. What scared them was that it had a demonic mouth that reminded Chopper of Maquano's true form. A scary appearance indeed.

"I wish we could take it out in an easy way," Chopper frowned. "That hammer didn't seem to do too much…"

"Well, I guess these Mushrooms must have more defense than a Death Shroom…" Sonic trailed. He noticed that Kirby was about to inhale it, but he soon stopped him and attacked the Dark Shroom with a couple of Spin Jumps.

"OK, one last attack should do it," Chopper charged up a rainbow ball and tossed it at the Dark Shroom, destroying it.

Mario: Well at least that's taken care of!

"We still have to move underground," Luigi informed, pointing to a couple of stacked brick blocks that were across a gap. Apparently there were even some Bob-ombs walking on the blocks.

"Wait… Bob-ombs…and brick blocks…" Chopper began to put everything together and gaped. "Uh oh… If they explode, then those blocks are probably going to get destroyed…"

Mario reacted by jumping on the brick platform and throwing the Bob-omb down the bottomless pit. Everyone followed and started to knock a couple of Bob-ombs down the bottomless pit as well.

"Oh, and no hammers either," Blade informed. "I think that'll break some of 'em."

They all agreed and reached the ledge up ahead. Thankfully, there weren't any more enemies around so far, but when they saw a yellow ? block, they hit it to find an Ultimate Shroom pop out.

"Poyo! (That's something I like!)" Kirby cheered as Blade sliced it into six pieces for them all to eat, recovering 100 HP.

And with that, they entered the door ahead that led them into a room with Thwomps coming down from the ceiling. Chopper was instantly reminded of when he found them when looking for Thoreau.

"Oh, this is easy," Chopper assured as he flipped into 3-D. Unfortunately, there were some Thwomps in 3-D as well. "Dang it… Well, looks like this is going to be a little more challenging."

After getting past the Thwomps that were in 2-D, he flipped back into 2-D with everyone else to find no Thwomps around. Up ahead, however, he noticed some, so after going back in 3-D, they got past them and found a pipe.

"Well, there we go!" Blade said as they headed through the pipe to get out of this underground area.

* * *

**Outside-**

As they jumped out of the pipe, they noticed that they were right by the jungle's exit. The only thing stopping them right now was a large stone door with an empty space spaced like a key. A big one at that.

"Uhhhhh… Was this door here before?" Chopper gawked.

Mario: I honestly have no idea…

"Ugh… Well, looks like that journey sure was something." the group turned around and saw Flint, Monzo, Hornfels, and Ninbot jumping out of the pipe as well. Flint looked a little battered up, perhaps from some enemies that got in their way.

"You guys made it here already?" Blade gaped. "You guys must be fast."

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint shouted. "'In a miraculous turn of events, my faithful camera Cragnons, the six so-called heroes, and the robot ninja were able to make it out of the dark and eerie temple and make our way near the end of the jungle.'"

"Oh, boy… More of this…" Chopper face palmed. "This is going to be great…"

"I wonder how this is going to turn out…" Luigi wondered. "Most of the time it…"

"Shhh! Keep quiet, brah! Boss talk now!" Hornfels shushed.

"'But there was no time for celebration! We had to head to the exact destination where Master Mind lurks!'" Flint continued. "'With danger nibbling our heels, we ventured deeper into the jungle... To do so, we used the key to the stone door!'"

"Key? What key?" Sonic asked while confused.

"Actually, there is a key that leads out of this jungle," Ninbot informed. "From what I can remember, Master Mind's lair is in a large city that's somewhere out of the jungle. You can't miss it."

"City? Now that's something I've never been in much…" Chopper trailed.

"Yes, that robot guy is correct," Flint stated as he turned to his camera crew. "So, um… You do have they key, right? Lemme grab that."

"Whuzzat? !" Hornfels jumped, noticing that Flint was looking at him. "You cragging me? You never gave key…"

"Oh. Hmmm… Really?" Flint raised an eyebrow as he looked at Monzo. "Maybe it was you who I gave the key to…"

"Whuh? What? Key?" Monzo jumped, who was apparently not paying attention.

"Yes, genius, a key," he face palmed. "Wait… Don't tell me you don't have it either!"

"No, seriously… What key are you guys talking about?" Chopper asked.

"Uh, yah, brah, had key, but…" Monzo trailed.

"Ah, yes, so you DO have it!" Flint grinned. "Good show, good show, yes. Give it here. Quickly, now."

However, Monzo shook his head. "No, brah… HAD key but not HAVE key…"

"You… You LOST it? 'A tragic crew blunder ruins Cragley! Had the gods of adventure forsaken us? !'"

"Wait, so let me get this straight…" Sonic stepped in. "You had a key with you that would open this door, but you ended up losing it? …How on earth did you even find a key like that in the first place?"

Unfortunately, he was ignored by the Cragnons.

"Nah, brah! See… Cragley say, 'You lose this, so Cragley hold on to it.' Cragley got key, brah…"

"Ah, I see it now. I guess Mr. Adventurer has the key." Chopper said with a smug look. "So, why don't you take it out and see for yourself?"

Flint gave Chopper a glare before looking back at Monzo. "Preposterous! If such a claim were true, there would be evidence in my pocket, which there ISN'T."

"Then check your pockets, you buffoon," Blade scoffed.

"Poyo, (We're not going to get anywhere with this argument,)" Kirby added.

"Very well. I suppose I have no other choice…" Flint sighed as he began to check his pockets. When he reached deeper in, he felt something that caught his attention. He pulled out a red diamond key and held it up as if it were floating.

"See? Toldja." Chopper said.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_'A miracle struck! As if by magic, the long-lost key that we found lying around this world had returned to my pocket! The jungle defied Cragnon comprehension! It was a place of purest miracles!'"

Chopper noticed that the key continued to float over Flint's head. "Uhhhh… Kirby? Why is that key floating? Do you have any idea?"

"Poyo, (No,)" Kirby shrugged as he glanced over at Chopper, who sighed.

"Cragley spaced key, huh?" Hornfels whispered to Monzo.

"Figures, brah. What a crag."

"Yah, serious. Big surprise."

"Now onward!" Flint announced. "We must use this key to unlock the big stone door in front of us to where that evil Master Mind could reside… If my research is correct, and it always is, then this key should open that door. Of course, through the door may lie a trap that will destroy us all… Ho ho HO!"

"Huh?" Luigi looked confused as Flint walked over to him. "Wait… What are you doing coming over to me?"

"What's that? You say you want to open the door no matter what may lie in wait? !"

"Wait… WHAT? !"

"Tremendous! Such bravery!"

"What? No no! I'll PASS!" Luigi cried as he stepped away from Flint.

"Maybe I should hold onto the key…" Chopper sighed.

"But you don't have any pockets," Flint informed. "How would you hold onto the key?"

"Just give it to me, all right?"

"Well, I was planning on opening it myself, of course, but since you seem so passionate… Not that I'm afraid or anything. Don't be ridiculous. I mean, that's laughable."

"_I highly doubt it…_"

"Huh? Did you just say something insulting?" Flint asked, eyeing him with suspicion.

"Erm… _HACPTTH!_ Sorry, just got a little cough there. Don't worry, I'm sure I can handle things. I mean, it's just a cough…"

"Oh, all right. If you say so. As a fellow cragtrotter, I know the heady thrill of the hunt! I'll yield to your lead!"

When Flint handed Chopper the key, he seemed to have a hard time holding it because of how big it was. Eventually, Mario had to take the key from him and use it to unlock the big stone door.

"I could've done that," Chopper grumbled.

Mario: It didn't seem like you were faring too well with it…

When the stone door opened, they all walked through the gate and noticed that they were no longer in the jungle. In fact, they could see a dark green open field before them with a beautiful, starry sky that reminded them of The Peaceness – that is if they went in 3-D, where The Void wasn't blocking most of the way.

"Whoa… Now this is something interesting." Sonic gaped.

"I find it a little strange that we went from a jungle to this," Blade remarked, looking back over at the gate. The first thing that happened was Ninbot walking up to the front of the group.

He looked back at the group, giving a gesture to be careful. From what he knew, they were getting close to Master Mind's territory. He decided to go down the hill, but was soon outrun by Chopper and Sonic.

"I forgot about their speed…" Ninbot sighed as he began to tumble down the hill. Kirby helped him get back up as they reached the bottom of the hill. What was nice was that there weren't any enemies here.

…Yet.

"I still love the sky here," Chopper stated as he noticed another hill going up. He used his Speed Dash to run up the hill and find a strange robot with a gun for a hand. It was heavily armored with green eyes and even had a blade on its left arm. From identifying it, it was a Warbot.

"A Warbot? Well this is interesting…" Sonic pondered as he attacked it with a Homing Attack, expecting to defeat it. Sadly, that didn't end up working. It took some damage, but not enough to destroy it.

"Wow… So this thing is pretty tough."

"It'll take a couple of hits to destroy that," Ninbot informed as he reached the top of the hill. "Don't leave yourself open though."

"Got it," Chopper nodded as he charged a rainbow ball and hurled it at the Warbot. It cringed in pain, but it managed to swipe at Chopper with its blade, knocking him back. Luigi, on the other hand, managed to throw Bonjourang at it and destroy it with a jump.

"…Huh? I actually destroyed it?" Luigi gasped as he looked down at the remains of the robot. "That's…shocking!"

Mario: Well, you did a good thing, Luigi!

"Yeah, I can agree on that," Blade nodded. "Anyway… I don't see much around here. Kinda sucks that there isn't too much to see here except for some plants here and there. I do see a door up ahead, though."

After reaching the door, they walked into an area with another hill going up, but not a steep one. There were also some platforms that were floating above the hill for some reason.

From what they saw ahead, they knew why there were these platforms.

"Watch out for the Robowheelie," Ninbot warned as a silver robot with a blade on its head, round arms and a wheel for its legs came charging down with a fiery glow. Even if Sonic tried to attack it in a Spin Dash, it probably wouldn't do too much.

"Well that's great… So how do we take this thing down?" Chopper asked.

Mario reached for his hammer and readied himself to swing it. When the Robowheelie came their way, he was able to give it a whack. Sadly, that didn't stop the robot from rolling over Mario and his friends.

"Mario… I honestly doubt that would even work in the first place…" Blade moaned.

Mario: Well, I wanted to see…

"Poyo? (Why not just inhale it?)" Kirby suggested as he inhaled the Robowheelie that was coming back their way. He decided to spit it out and leave it stunned so that everyone could destroy it.

"Oh, and I don't think stepping on its head is a good idea," Flint warned. "I think that blade would hurt you if you touched it."

"I think that's a little obvious to us…" Blade groaned as they all proceeded up the hill. They found a bush nearby that revealed a banana, which Chopper seemed to be happy to see. Unfortunately, he couldn't have it all. Each hero got one banana and ate it to recover 35 HP.

"Dang… I wanted to eat the whole thing…" Chopper grumbled.

"Well, when there are six of us fighting, we are eventually going to have to split up the food, you know," Sonic informed as they found a boulder coming down their way. They wanted to avoid it, but Mario was able to smash it with his hammer.

Mario: Problem solved!

Oh… Well that's good to see that we can smash the boulders with something." Chopper blinked. "Anyway… Let's see who's even pushing those boulders down. Hopefully it's nothing too threatening."

When they reached another platform, there was a Warbot firing down at them. It seemed to be firing missiles that homed in on them. Chopper inhaled one of them and spat it back at it. Kirby did the same exact thing to blow it up.

"Poyo, (OK, now we have to be careful,)" Kirby suggested.

Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and began to make his way up the hill. Sonic followed up by using a Spin Dash, eventually flipping Chopper over and sending him tumbling down the hill without him knowing.

"Someone help me!" Chopper cried.

Luigi gasped and managed to grab a hold of him before he could go any further. He realized that Chopper felt surprisingly light. Almost like a soccer ball…

"I never knew you were this light…" Luigi gaped.

"Well, it's kind of obvious, considering that I'm just a round figure…" Chopper trailed, crossing his arms while Luigi held him upside down. "Now… Could you put me down please?"

"Oh, sorry!" Luigi grinned sheepishly as he put Chopper down. With that, they continued up the hill until they saw that a small robot with a construction worker's cap and small, gray eyes called a Roboworker was pushing another boulder down.

"I've got this!" Sonic assured as he used another Spin Dash to make a hole through the boulder and hit the Robotwork head on, knocking it over and blowing it up with a Homing Attack.

"That boulder's still coming down…" Flint gulped, covering his face.

However, Ninbot unsheathed his katana and jumped up to the boulder. With a single slice, he was able to cut the boulder in half and let it disintegrate. With that, he sheathed his katana and gestured everyone to follow.

When they reached the top of the hill, they found a large gap between them and a door up ahead. Apparently there was a couple of new silver robots with heavy armor flying around. Sonic decided to attack one with a Homing Attack, but it didn't seem to do squat.

"What? My Homing Attack's useless!" Sonic frowned.

"Well, it's because they're heavily armored," Blade pointed out, throwing a shuriken at one that simply bounced off. "You really think that we're going to be hurting these guys?"

Mario: Why not just bounce off them?

"Bro? What do you mean by that?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: We can just cross the gap by jumping on these robots.

"You know what? I'm going to give that a try!" Chopper declared as he bounced off the first robot. He jumped over to the next and continued to bounce on every one until he reached the door.

"Seriously? I can't believe that that was so easy…"

Kirby took in some air and began to float over the robots with ease. After that, Blade tried to make his way over by landing right on top of the robots with his ninja jump. It didn't take much for him to get over.

"You know, this isn't so bad…" Blade realized.

After everyone else got past the robots, all that remained were Flint and his camera crew, who looked ahead at the robots.

"How do you expect me to do this?!" Flint grimaced.

"We gotta figure something out," Monzo suggested while looking confused.

Kirby instantly opened his mouth and began to inhale the three. Unfortunately, they all ended up in Kirby's mouth, but he instantly spit them out, gagging in disgust over their taste.

"Poyo! (Cragnons don't taste good!)" Kirby spat. "Poyo! (Don't try that, Chopper!)"

"I'll remember that," Chopper nodded as he tried to remember that, even though he didn't have anything to write that down on. Nevertheless, they continued on to the next area, where they found a yellow spring to their left and a hill going down. From what they knew, the spring would increase someone's speed.

"Why are there obstacles that we can't take on on our own?" Luigi asked.

"We haven't seen many loops in other worlds," Sonic informed as he got himself ready to take off. "Sometimes people that can run fast need a little something to make the ride more enjoyable."

As Sonic curled in a ball, he took off down the hill and through the loop. Chopper followed, but not in a ball, due to the fact that he couldn't even go into a ball like Sonic can.

Everyone sighed and followed them. Luckily, there were platforms that helped them get over the loop and began to skid down the steep hill.

"I think they stopped," Blade noticed as they reached the bottom of the hill, where a small ledge prevented the two from running on. When they caught up, they jumped onto the ledge and found another ledge ahead, but higher this time. A block was also on the grassy ground and appeared to be pushable.

"Poyo! (I'll handle this!)" Kirby announced as he pushed the block over by the bottom of the ledge. With that, they were able to grab a hold of the ledge and pull themselves up to a door before them.

"Wow… That wasn't a lot…" Chopper trailed. "No enemies in this area? I'm fine by that!"

When they opened the door, they all gawked as they saw a glass dome in the background with a large city.

"That's where Master Mind resides," informed Ninbot. "I remember it…"

"Well, did you remember that?" Luigi asked as he saw a door leading inside a glass tunnel. There was also a lift in there that looked as if they could head somewhere else in this place.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint shouted. "'A strange, glass tunnel was now before us… It suddenly makes me wonder if this would lead us to our destination. I began to think of this as I decide to let the suckers go in there first so…'"

"We get it already," Chopper sighed. "Let's just go."

They got on the lift and placed their hand on the red button. It flashed green and began to take them through the tunnel. At first, everything in the tunnel didn't look interesting, but when they saw a couple of plants growing on the walls, they knew something wasn't right here.

Mario: Do you usually see plants in a glass tube?

"No, not really…" Sonic trailed.

After the lift stopped, they all noticed a large door open on its own. They shrugged and headed through to find a tunnel where they could see a bit of the sky. The ground was also a bit of an orange color with a couple of bushes. Thankfully, none of the nature was mechanical.

"Wow, and here I thought we wouldn't see something like this," Blade gaped.

"Yeah, it looks so…out of place," Luigi blinked.

"Well, at least there aren't any enemies to stop us from moving on," Chopper smiled as he ran on ahead until he found a short ledge up ahead that he jumped onto to find a Warbot. "Oh… Well so much for that."

The Warbot open fired on Chopper, who did a flip as he stomped on the Warbot. He slammed his foot on it with rainbow energy with a rainbow slamming kick to make sparks fly everywhere until he destroyed it by bashing it with his hammer.

"So, didn't you have a plan for this place?" Sonic asked as they got onto the ledge and turned to Ninbot. "If I could recall, you said something about a plan."

"Oh, yes," Ninbot nodded. "Thank you for reminding me. You see, there is a large tower in the city that has the power to brainwash those who are there. It doesn't seem to affect robots, which is why I didn't get affected by it. But, you guys can easily get brainwashed."

"Really? Then how do we get through there?" Chopper asked.

"The only way to get in would be by getting an anti-mind control gadget. I don't know where we could find those, but I did see some people were wearing them around this place."

"Then we should try to grab some…" Luigi suggested.

They noticed a Warbot up ahead holding a little gadget on its waist. With the block in front of them, Chopper ran up to it and gave it a powerful kick to blow up the robot. He was able to grab the gadget just in time.

"Huh… So, this is one of the gadgets?" Chopper questioned as he looked at the small device. "It doesn't seem to be too much. At least it's not an entire suit, or else it would be annoying to be in that."

"Didn't you have to do something like that before?" Blade asked.

"Well, some friends of mine had to when we were looking for a Power Star at the depths of the ocean. Thankfully, I didn't have to do it."

"Why?" Luigi asked.

"My kind can stay underwater without choking to death."

Mario: Yeah, I remember that.

They decided to scurry on ahead and find a small slope leading down to another tunnel, but darker. Unlike the caverns they were in before, there was some light in here. Red, blue, and green light, that is.

"These are nice lights, crag," Monzo commented.

"Crag straight!" agreed Hornfels.

"Hmmmmm… Well, there's something here but three blocks stacked together…" Sonic trailed as he jumped over the blocks and found another Warbot. He simply attacked it with a Homing Attack to destroy it.

"Dang it! No gadget!"

"Well, I guess not every robot carries them…" Luigi trailed. "I guess the best thing we can do is search a little more."

After the rest of the group jumped over the blocks, they moved down a small slope and entered the door ahead to find a room with a couple of moving platforms and even a glowing pink saw blade moving around the large room. The platforms were moving left and right as they seemed to lead higher up.

"This kind of reminds me of that one room in Tipral's Palace," Luigi recalled. "I think I can make these jumps."

Luigi was the first to jump on the closest platform. He watched carefully as the glowing saw blade came close to him. He ducked, with it barely touching his cap. Afterward, he continued to climb up to the top platform, where the door was.

After everyone climbed up to the top, they entered the door into a room where they found a slope going up to another large block. However, there was a Warbot in the way, and it noticed their arrival.

"More hills to slow us down," Chopper groaned. "Just what we need…"

Luigi, taking a deep breath, ran up the hill and used his Cyclone to attack the Warbot, destroying it. To his susprise, he was able to snatch a gadget from it as well.

"Hey! I got one of those gadget things!" Luigi gasped. "We need this, right?"

Mario: Of course!

Luigi put it away and made their way over to the large block. For some reason, its size looked kind of like the size of a normal yellow block. Chopper even checked it out and noticed it was actually one of those smashable blocks.

"Well, here I go," Chopper whipped up his hammer and smashed the block, revealing under gadget from underneath. Kirby managed to grab a hold of it and hold it up proudly.

"Poyo! (Only three more left to find!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uh… More like six, actually." corrected Chopper.

"Yeah, we still need some too," Flint informed, giving an irritated look. "I'm not leaving this place until I get what I need to survive this place."

They decided to hurry on ahead past the broken block and found a conveyer belt floating above the ground just up ahead. There were a couple of red blocks that were stuck on the conveyer belt coming toward them when they got on. Surprisingly, they were still stuck when it went upside down on the bottom part of the conveyer belt.

"Weird… Well, we still need to get through here anyway." Sonic said as he began to jump over a couple of blocks in his way and got to the next conveyer belt ahead until they reached a ledge where a door was.

"All right, so we better… Wait a minute." Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a chest was visible. When he opened it, another gadget popped out. "Here we go! Another one of these!"

"I'm takin' it," Blade declared as he swiped it out of Chopper's hands when he flipped back into 2-D. "No way am I getting mind controlled!"

Mario: That was a little unnecessary…

"Well, as long as we find two more, we should be all right," Sonic assured as he opened the door into the next room. He noticed that there was a ledge far across the pit below. Thankfully, there weren't any spikes around. There were balloons, however.

"Balloons? What are they doing here?" Chopper gawked.

"And how are we even going to get through this mess?" Flint questioned.

"I think I have an idea," Blade used Thoreau to pick up Flint and threw him at the balloons. He ended up bouncing on the balloons as they popped, helping him reach the ledge ahead.

"And that's for making me tumble down those stairs before!"

"Well, you actually helped him get across those balloons," Luigi informed. "But how are we going to get over to that ledge when we don't have any balloons to help us?"

"Oh… Whoopsies…"

"Yeah, whoopsies…" Chopper face palmed. That is, until a couple of more balloons showed up. "Wait, huh? More balloons?"

"Weird… That's not something we see often." Sonic commented as he used his Homing Attack to attack a couple of the balloons. He got sent flying up until he landed right on the ledge.

"I think it's all good here!"

"Oh… So all we need to do is wait for more balloons to pop up, and we can just bounce off of them? Not a bad idea." Blade smirked as he waited for more balloons to appear. He then jumped onto the ledge after bouncing on a couple.

"All right, let's just finish this up," Chopper declared as he and the rest of the group made their way across the balloons and onto the ledge. With that, they began to run on ahead until they noticed that there was another high ledge in their way.

"Great… This is all we need." Blade groaned.

"Well, this ground feels a little different from before," Sonic pondered. It feels a little grayish. You think there might be something underneath?"

Mario: Oh, I can handle that!

Everyone stepped out of the way as Mario smashed through the floor with a Super Ground Pound. He also ended up smashing through a Warbot as well, which happened to have a gadget.

Mario: Ah! Here's a gadget!

"Then you only need one more," Ninbot informed.

"What about us?" Flint mentioned.

"Do you REALLY want to go in there?"

"Well, we'd like to…"

"The only way to prevent yourself from being mind controlled besides the gadgets is to destroy the mind control tower. Of course, only someone who's big enough could pull a job like that."

"Maybe there is a secret pipe in the city that'll make us grow big," Chopper shrugged. "That could help us…"

"Although, I might feel bad for attacking a city," Luigi mumbled. "Usually, we fight the monsters, but this might make us the monsters."

"Well, we'll try to make sure we don't hurt anyone around," Blade assured. "That is, unless they're bad guys. However, if I'm hearing about a mind control tower, then that means people's minds are being controlled."

"Anyway… Back to business." Sonic said as he hit a spring nearby with a Homing Attack and got launched up to the ledge above them. Everyone else followed up and reached another large gap with a couple of red platforms.

"Those might fall if you stay on them for too long," Ninbot informed.

"Oh… Well, then this might be a little dangerous for us." Chopper gulped.

"Poyo! (Not for me!)" Kirby took in some air and began to float over the gap to the door up ahead. Everyone else made a little face.

Mario: That's so cheap!

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Luigi sighed as he began to jump from platform to platform. Everyone followed before the platforms could fall and headed through the door in front of them to lead them into a room with a couple of fireworks flying above them.

"Are those rockets?" Chopper asked.

"No, they're fireworks," Sonic replied.

"Those are some pretty big fireworks."

"I think we can grab onto those," Luigi informed, pointing to a handle on the fireworks. He decided to grab onto a green one and get sent flying upward.

"Poyo! (That looks like fun!)" Kirby squealed as he grabbed a yellow one and went upward. As for the rest of the group, they began to move upward thanks to the fireworks.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint shouted, holding onto the firework with one arm. "'To my surprise, I was able to find this firework to help my fly upward through this room. Thankfully, we're safe from harm for now, but we still need to find the true treasure of this place: a lovely heart!'"

"Yeah, we better be fast before…" Chopper noticed that his firework blew up and sent him flying upward still. However, as two seconds passed, he began to move downward instead.

"Uh oh… I need help!"

Mario: don't worry, I gotcha!

Mario managed to grab Chopper's hand before he could fall past him. So, right now, two people were holding onto an orange firework. However, when they reached a bridge that was above them, they were able to jump off and land on it, finding a Warbot carrying four gadgets.

"Look, brah! Gadget!" Monzo informed.

"We need them!" Hornfels nodded.

"I got this," Blade declared, pointing his katana at the Warbot and unleashing a Dragon Beam on them, destroying it instantly. Sonic managed to grab the four gadgets and toss three of them to Flint, Monzo, and Hornfels.

"Now that we've got all the gadgets we need, that means we can go into the city!" Sonic smirked. "Now that mind control tower won't harm us!"

"What about Ninbot?" Chopper mentioned. "Couldn't he get mind controlled?"

"I did say that the tower won't have any effect on me," Ninbot informed. "Robots don't really get mind controlled anyway. So, I should be fine."

"Then why do the robots carry them?" Luigi asked.

"They can also help them boost their defense. It helps them when someone who's rebelling tries to attack."

"Well, we might as well equip them," Blade suggested as he put his on. An invisible green barrier surrounded him. "Ooh! I can see a little bit of green around this invisible barrier!"

"Will it protect us from getting hurt?" Chopper asked.

"No, it only works against mind control. Sadly, the extra defense only works on robots, which is something the device can identify."

"Dang… Well, anyway… Let's go!"

They walked over to the door before them and opened it. When they walked out, they noticed that they were now in the city. They noticed a large, glass dome surrounded the whole city. There were even people that had faces with one side being lighter than the other side. They were even wearing Native American headdresses and had a glass helmet on their heads. For some reason, they reminded them of the Cragnons. In fact, their heads, noses, and bodies looked similar.

"What the crag? They look like us!" Hornfels gawked.

"What a crag…" Monzo trailed.

"This is unlike anything I've seen before…" Flint gaped. "_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'S-Such a discovery this is! Right now, I'm standing in front of a huge crowd of people that look like us Cragnons! But… They look as if their culture isn't like ours. For some reason, they resemble…Indians.'"

"Weird… I never would've expected to see people like them here." Chopper gaped. "This is strange…"

Mario: They do seem a lot different than the Cragnons…

"Why don't we take a look around here?" Blade suggested as he walked over to one of the people. "Excuse me, but do you know anything about this city?"

"THIS IS THE CITY OF MASTER MIND," informed the person.

"Uhhhhh… No need to talk like that…"

"WE PEOPLE BE CRADIANS. WE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN CITY. MASTER MIND IS A VERY GOOD PERSON TOO. BUY HIS CANDY AND CHOCOLATE."

"This is messed up…" Luigi trailed.

"I know! Everyone here is shouting like that, as if they were robots!" Chopper gaped. "Seriously, if this is what this Master Mind person is doing to all these…Cradian people, then we're getting rid of that tower!"

"Yeah, we better investigate right now," Sonic agreed. They all decided to explore the city a bit, passing by a couple of buildings. They noticed that a robot cop with a blue visor, a V-shaped hue on its head and a black and white body. Sirens happened to go off on its head.

"Halt! You are unauthorized to litter! Pick it up or else we're sending you to the slammer!" ordered the Robocop.

"What are you talking about? I'm on YOUR side!" Everyone but Luigi, Flint, Monzo and Hornfels were alarmed when they saw a familiar faced whining to the Robocop. "You know me, Trucker?"

"Oh… My sincerest apologies, Trucker."

"Who's that guy?" Luigi asked.

"No one special," Chopper informed as they sneaked past Trucker and got to the center of the city. They saw the same statue from before, but they also noticed that the Cradians were worshiping it.

"Whoa… It's that same statue from before!" Blade gaped. "The one we've been seeing all this time! What the hell's it doing here?"

"Don't you see it?" Ninbot asked. "That's the statue of Master Mind! His goons must've put them outside of this place…"

"Wait… So he's Master Mind? ! I thought this was some kind of legendary hero!" Chopper gaped.

"WORSHIP MASTER MIND, FRIENDS," a Cradian demanded, pushing the group to the ground to worship the statue, just like the others.

"What? No way!" Blade retorted. "I'm not worshipping someone I don't know!"

Unfortunately, they stopped when a Robocop appeared in front of them.

"_**HALT!**_ You are under violation of 'Worshipping the Great Master Mind'!" the Robocop informed. "If you refuse to worship him, I'm afraid I might have to arrest you…"

Everyone turned around and noticed Ninbot turned into a log. Blade simply picked it up and began to explain that they were lumberjacks from a different world called in here by Master Mind.

"Lumberjacks, huh? I'll just have to prove it…" the Robocop began to scan the group with its visor. It turned red, as if something bad occurred. "Lumberjacks? I think not! What I received from your information was that you're collecting heart items! You're obviously here to invade Cradian City, are you not?"

"What? No way!" Chopper retorted. "We're…retired!"

Everyone face palmed until the Robocop looked down at the log Blade had. He smacked it to the ground and a puff of smoke appeared around it, transforming back into Ninbot. The Robocop aimed his weapon at the group.

"You're all under arrest!"

"I'm sorry, but we can't go to jail," Sonic retorted. "We're on a very important quest here. Tell that Master Mind guy that if he doesn't give us the Pure Heart, then this world will be destroyed!"

"I had enough of your nonsense," the Robocop fired at Sonic, knocking him over.

"Hey! You can't do that!" Chopper shouted before getting blasted. Mario was able to grab his hammer and bash the Robocop in the head, while Luigi destroyed it with a jump attack.

"Oh, we're in some serious trouble now…" Ninbot trailed as he slowly shook his head. More sirens began to go off after a couple of Robocops spotted one of their cohorts were destroyed.

"_Attention all soldiers! We have intruders in the vicinity!_" a loudspeaker shouted out. "_We request that you come into Cradian City and eliminate the intruders! Use everything you've got!_"

They heard a couple of pirate voices up ahead. Through a door, a couple of robot pirates with bandannas, cutlasses and robotic pirate voices came charging at them. One of them even carried a gun!

"Arrgh! Ye think that ye'll be gettin' out o' 'ere so easily? Well, think again, matey!" scoffed a Robirate, who charged at the group in order to attack. However, Chopper managed to stop one by tossing a rainbow ball at it and inhale it.

When he swallowed it, he donned a black captain's hat with crossbones that resembled Chopper's head, an eye patch, and a cutlass. But what he also did was open his mouth and reveal a cannon to be inside.

"What the hell…?" Blade gawked. "You have a CANNON in your mouth?!"

"Of course, matey!" Chopper replied in a pirate voice (a bad one at that). "Now, watch as I take their booty and make 'em walk the plank!"

"Poyo… (Your pirate voice is atrocious…)" Kirby sighed.

Kirby readied his Final Cutter as he attacked a Robirate with a gun. It didn't even have the chance to attack him! As for the other Robirates, they got hit by a cannonball out of Chopper's mouth.

"Is that it?" Luigi asked.

"Well… It depends… Are there any pirate ships?" Chopper questioned, the cannon disappearing. "We'd have to find out if there are even pirate ships here…"

"Poyo, (And also, I want to get the Ninja ability so we can have a ninja and a pirate,)" Kirby added.

"What? No way! I wanna be the ninja! I like them more anyway!"

Mario: What about a ninja-pirate?

"I was once that, too."

"Ummmmmm… Guys? Not to interrupt the conversation, but…" Luigi gulped as he pointed to a couple of angry Cradians coming their way. "We have a couple of angry people after us…"

"Whoa, really?" Chopper gasped. "Then forget the pirate ships! It's best that we stay safe!"

"Why don't we give them a little taste of their medicine?" Flint suggested, raising up his fists.

"No, we're not fighting them," Blade objected. "They're not really bad guys. They're just being brainwashed."

"Poyo, (Yeah, by that,)" Kirby added, pointing to the blue tower up ahead. "Poyo? (But where should we go?)"

"Ummmmm… What about that building there?" Chopper pointed at the blue building up ahead. "If we could, we could escape in there! Hopefully there might be some helpful stuff in there, too!"

"Well, we be fast!" Hornfels suggested. "They get closer!"

"WORSHIP MASTER MIND!" the Cradians chanted as they got closer. The group began to flee from them and made their way to the blue building. Thankfully, the Cradians weren't smart enough to know that they were there.

* * *

**Inside the building-**

"Phew… That was a close one." Flint sighed in relief as he watched the Cradians pass by the building. "Ha! That's right! You guys don't even know that he hid in this building! How stupid of…"

Mario: Don't get their attention!

"Oh… Right. Ahem…" the Cragnon cleared his throat. "_**CRAGLEY HO! **_'We were able to escape from the angry mob of Cradian people that were apparently brainwashed by the evil Master Mind, who happened to have his statue all over this world! Will I need to find another key lying around on the ground again? Chances are that I would need to be cautious here…'"

Mario decided that it would be best to lock the door, so he locked the door shut. Everyone sighed in relief as they looked at the interior of the building. It was blue, with a couple of staircases going up to a hallway. Apparently there were only two floors to his building, despite how big it looks.

"Hold on… If this door's locked, then maybe the Cradian people would know that we're hiding here…" Chopper realized. "So, we probably wouldn't be safe here…"

"Ehhhh… What's the worse that could happen?" Sonic shrugged. "There aren't many windows here… I'm sure we will be just fine."

"'And then an idea struck the great Flint Cragley,'" Flint said as an idea struck him. "'I decided that I would be brave enough to watch over this door for any Cradians coming in. I knew this would be risky, but I knew it was a wise decision by my part.'"

"Really? You want to guard the door?" Luigi gaped. "Not even I could do that…"

"Yes, I think I should pay my debt to you and give you a little hand here. I want to at least do something that doesn't involve me being a little selfish when I traveled with you guys. It's necessary on my part."

"We'll stay with boss, too," Monzo informed.

"Yeah," Hornfels agreed.

"In that case, I'll stay with you guys then," Ninbot stated.

"No, you'll guard another area in this room," Flint declared. "I can handle my guard here. Trust me."

"…Fine. But if you get in trouble, don't come crying to me."

Ninbot looked away from them and went over to the back door to guard. He made sure it was locked so no one else would go in. As for the heroes, they decided to head upstairs to see what was around.

"We should find another room to keep ourselves locked in," Chopper suggested. "That way, if Flint or Ninbot are in trouble, they could hide upstairs."

"Poyo, (Yeah, good point,)" Kirby agreed as he noticed a blue door nearby. "Poyo? (Why don't we go in this door?)"

"I suppose we can," Chopper first hit a yellow ? block near them to find an Ultimate Shroom. After eating it, they hit the Save Block and went in the room afterward. Chopper locked the door just to be safe.

"All right, so we're locked in now…" Luigi trailed. "So, what now?"

"Gra ha ha ha! So yeh finally made it 'ere!"

The group turned around and saw O'Chunks was standing in the room. They noticed that he had a black eye and a couple of rips on his shirt. But, for some reason, the big guy was looking just fine.

"O'Chunks… What happened to you?" Chopper gaped.

"Yeh remember the fight we 'ad last time?" O'Chunks growled. "Well, looks like yeh gave me quite a beatin' then! An' yeh know what? I think I'm gonna get back at yeh fer all o' those beatins'!"

"O'Chunks, please… We're not in a safe condition right now." Blade pleaded. "We've got a bunch of people here that are after us, and we're trying to hide from them! …Come to think of it, how are you here when you're not brainwashed?"

Kirby noticed something on his waist. "Poyo… (He's got one of those gadgets like us… He must've taken one from a robot…)"

"Whoa… So he knew we were coming here…" Sonic trailed.

"An' now that yeh finally made it, I'm gonna put an end teh this once an' fer all! This time I came prepared!" O'Chunks grinned as he pulled a red potion out. "This'll increase my attack an' defense once I'm done with this! Yer gonna be in fer it now!"

Once he took off the cap, he chugged the whole thing down. They all noticed that he had an orange glow around him, as if he got an incredible boost from it. However, his black eye and rips on his shirt still remained.

"Huh… So he powered up…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh, I'll show yeh what I can really do, especially when yer in that stupid pirate costume!" O'Chunks grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "_**IT'S CHUNKIN' TIME!**_"

Everyone jumped out of the way as O'Chunks came charging their way with his arm. Luigi was able to land right on top of O'Chunks's head, making him cringe before knocking the plumber off.

"No way am I lettin' yeh get me head this time!"

"Oof!" Luigi fell to the ground and heard O'Chunks getting closer. He attempted to grab him, but Mario managed to hit him in the face with his hammer. What made it worse for O'Chunks was that it hit his eye.

"Argh! Me eye!" O'Chunks yelled as his arms flailed around, knocking Mario away. Afterward, he jumped in the air and landed a powerful stomp that sent a shockwave straight for the group.

"Well… He can send a shockwave now…" Chopper blinked as he jumped out of the way.

"Poyo, (Yeah, that's not good,)" Kirby frowned as he gestured Blade to throw a shuriken to him. The ninja nodded and tossed a shuriken to Kirby, which he inhaled and became Ninja Kirby.

"Dang it! I wanted to get the Ninja ability!"

While Chopper grumbled, Kirby ran up to O'Chunks and slashed at his with his small katana. Even O'Chunks tried to defend himself, but he couldn't bear to defend against a small little blade.

"Grrr! Have a chunky punch!" O'Chunks growled as he sent Kirby flying to the wall with a punch. Chopper managed to attack his back by shooting a cannonball out of his mouth. The bearded warrior turned to Chopper and gaped at the cannon sticking out of his mouth.

"What? You've never seen someone with a cannon sticking out of his mouth?" Chopper shrugged, despite it being difficult for everyone to know what he was even saying in the first place.

O'Chunks merely ignored Chopper and charged at him. The cannon went back in Chopper as he jumped out of the way, but ended up getting hit by an uppercut punch by O'Chunks.

Mario: Now he's being a little smart…

"Smart? Not in me mum's salami's chance!" O'Chunks scoffed. "I'm all brawn, not brain!"

"Well, then it's easier to make a strategy against you," declared Sonic as he hit O'Chunks with a Homing Attack. Sadly, O'Chunks was able to grab Sonic and throw him at Blade, knocking them over.

"How did he do that?!" Blade gaped.

"Honestly, I have no idea…"

"That potion really is helpin' me out!" O'Chunks grinned. "I'm at a great advantage 'ere!"

"Poyo, (Yeah, that potion really has helped him,)" Kirby agreed, jumped onto the wall and tossing a couple of kunai knives at O'Chunks. Some of them hit him, while others bounced off of him.

"How are some of the knives bouncing off him?" Chopper gawked. "Does this have something to do with the potion?"

Mario: Could be…

Kirby grumbled as he floated in the air and kicked O'Chunks from an angle. He attempted to grab the purple puffball (because the Ninja ability turns him purple), but ultimately failed.

"Ergh… Come back 'ere!" O'Chunks growled, swiping above him to grab Kirby. Luigi used his Cyclone while he was distracted to bring his attention to Luigi, until Mario hit him a Super Ground Pound.

Mario: Look at you! You really should stop fighting us!

"Not a chance, Maria!" O'Chunks scoffed, grabbed Mario by the feet and swinging him around. Upon releasing him, Mario began to fly all over the room, hitting the ceiling and floor. Sadly, Sonic and Luigi got hit when Mario came hurling down at them.

While this occurred, O'Chunks began to do another dance before Chopper would grab his cutlass and attack him. O'Chunks was able to turn around and give him a good punch to the face. He tried again, but this time Chopper was able to recoil and fire a cannonball at his stomach.

"Urgh… Me tummy…"

"A cannonball to the stomach… Ouch." Blade cringed as he was able to jump over to O'Chunks and attempt to attack him with his katana. However, O'Chunks managed to grab and squeeze his arm tightly.

"Ack! Get your large hand off my arm!"

"I don't think so, scrawny li'l cat!"

"Hey! I'm NOT scrawny!"

O'Chunks hurled him to the wall with a single throw. He began to cackled as he turned to Chopper and charged at him at a faster pace than what he was like when they fought him in the cavern.

"Whoa!" Chopper gasped as he flipped into 3-D to avoid the attack. A yellow star appeared behind O'Chunks as he hit the wall. This allowed Kirby to grab it and throw it down on O'Chunks.

"Poyo, (Thankfully this attack is helpful when a yellow star appears,)" Kirby said as he backed away from O'Chunks.

Just like before, O'Chunks pulled out a can of beans and dumped them in his mouth. This time, however, when he rocketed, he began to fly all over the room rather than moving horizontally.

"Heads up!" Chopper warned as he tried to attack O'Chunks with his cutlass. Unfortunately, his weapon didn't seem to work as he got pummeled to the ground by the bearded warrior.

"Gra ha ha ha! Yer no match fer me chunks!" O'Chunks cackled as he stopped and landed on top of Blade. The ninja wheezed as he felt O'Chunks's weight on his back. But, with Hommissile, he was able to throw him off and knock him over.

"Whew! Finally!" Blade sighed in relief as he slashed at O'Chunks with his katana. While it would make O'Chunks look worse, he had to do something to fight back!

"OK… So we managed to deal a bit of damage to him…" Luigi trailed. "But he's still got a lot of HP left! How much did he even start with anyway?"

"Well, what I saw was that he had 420 HP, an Attack of 17 and a Defense of 6," Chopper confirmed. "Yeah… Something tells me that he's gotten a lot stronger from that potion. Thankfully, he doesn't have 420 HP anymore."

Mario: That's good to know!

O'Chunks decided that he would fog up the room with his farting abilities, but Mario interrupted him when he stomped on his head. O'Chunks was too slow for him when he got hit in the back of the head by Mario's hammer.

"'EY! Stop it now!" O'Chunks growled. "Yer gonna get me really mad if yeh keep doin' that, yeh know…"

"Well, we're not trying to get you mad…" Sonic trailed. "We're just trying to defend ourselves, considering that you want to hurt us."

"I'll give yeh' a little somethin'!" O'Chunks growled while he tried to rush at Sonic, only to get hit by a Homing Attack, but it didn't stop him from grabbing him by the legs and hurling him around.

"Oh, man! I think I'm going to be sick!"

Once Sonic fell to the ground, O'Chunks did a little dance as he managed to punch Chopper from behind. He even did a stupid pose like before, with his pupils moving around.

This gave Kirby the perfect opportunity to attack, and with his small katana, he was able to strike him easily without taking any damage. Even when O'Chunks punched him, he disappeared in an explosion and jumped back as he reappeared.

"See? That's why I wanted the Ninja ability…" Chopper grumbled as he crossed his arms and looked away. "All I have is this eye patch and captain's hat!"

"And your bad pirate accent too," Luigi added.

"Thanks for that…"

O'Chunks gave a snort as he jumped in the air and came down on Luigi while he was distracted. To make matters worse, he ate more beans and rocketed up into the air with a powerful fart attack.

…With Luigi still below him.

"Ack! He left all of his…gas on me!" Luigi cried as he began to waft the air. "And it's really hard for me to see around here! Guys? Where are you? !"

"Settle down, Luigi. We're trying to find everyone else too." Blade assured as he wafted the air. "Geez! Why did this guy have to eat beans? Now the room smells like Bang's room when he makes a mess!"

"Really?" Sonic gawked.

"Well, not as bad as this…"

Blade was about to explain more, but he heard the sound of a large thump. O'Chunks apparently landed on the ground, no longer able to use more gas. What they didn't know was that the gas was also poisonous.

Mario: This gas doesn't make me feel good!

"Yeh see, me gas can now poison yeh thanks teh a little…ingredients teh these beans," O'Chunks grinned, holding an empty can. He crushed it and threw it at Chopper, leaving him dazed.

"Copycat!"

"Yeah! That's what we do!" Sonic frowned as he clenched his fist. "That's it! Sonic Wind!"

"Wha…?" O'Chunks felt a blue gust of wind fling him around and make him hit the ceiling. Sonic followed up by attacking him with a Whirlwind, sending him flying a second time and allowing him to strike him with at least two Spin Dashes.

O'Chunks got himself up and used his arms to spin himself around at a fast pace. Two cyclones appeared and sucked both Chopper and Luigi over to O'Chunks. That is, until Kirby was able to stop him by throwing a kunai at the bearded warrior.

"Are you serious? He has an ability like that?" Luigi gaped as he managed to land on the ground. "This is nuts!"

"An' 'ere comes the stomp!" O'Chunks announced as he jumped, did a flip, and then stomped on the ground to create a shockwave. Chopper jumped over it and shot a cannonball at O'Chunks to leave him dazed. He then got up close and slashed him with his cutlass.

"Poyo? (How about we do a ninja-pirate attack?)" Kirby suggested.

"You know… That doesn't sound like a bad idea…" Chopper pondered. "OK! We'll try that then!"

Chopper and Kirby both readied their blades and rushed at O'Chunks while Blade had him occupied with his katana. They started off by shooting a cannonball and throwing a kunai at him. Two of them, to be exact. Once O'Chunks turned to them, they struck him with their blades without him seeing it coming.

"What in me… 'Ow'd yeh do that? !" O'Chunks gaped as he cringed in pain.

"YEAH!" Chopper fist pumped as he and Kirby exchanged hi-fives. "There we go! That turned out great!"

"Yeah, but now you guys made him angry…" Luigi gulped, pointing to the steaming O'Chunks.

"That's IT! Time I turned up the heat!" O'Chunks stomped the ground violently as he began to swing his arms like crazy as he charged at the six. Blade tried tossing Hommissile at him, but it didn't seem to have an effect.

"Crap! That doesn't work!" Blade gulped.

"Just avoid him for now," Sonic suggested as he jumped out of O'Chunks's way. Once he stopped, he began to pant. This gave Blade the opportunity to attack him with Hommissile.

"Yeah! Now he's vulnerable to a couple of more hits!"

"Hold on, I think it's best that we heal up first," Chopper suggested as he took out an Ultra Shroom Shake and took a sip from it, recovering 50 HP. He passed it on to everyone else until Mario had the last sip. He crushed the can, as usual, and he threw it at O'Chunks.

"Don't think yer gonna do that again!" O'Chunks grinned as he grabbed the can and threw it back at Mario's head, leaving him dazed. Luigi gasped and clenched his fists as he attacked O'Chunks with a Cyclone.

"No one hits my big bro like that!" Luigi growled.

"An' why did yeh act like a big coward like before? Now yer gonna fight fer real?"

"I may act cowardly… But I won't let someone hurt my bro! Especially someone like you…"

"Since you fail at beating us a lot," Sonic added.

"Yeh want some more o' this?!" O'Chunks exclaimed as he took out another can of beans. After dumping it all in his mouth, he let out more gas that filled the entire room and made everyone wheeze.

"So…_nasty…_" Chopper gagged. "We need…Piccolo…"

Mario coughed as he had Piccolo play a song. With that, they were able to recover from the poison and attack O'Chunks now that the gas was all gone. Once Chopper attacked him with a rainbow ball, he looked like he was in a worse condition than before.

"Poyo? (How much do you think he can take?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't know… Not that much…" Chopper trailed.

"I'm still not givin' up just yet!" O'Chunks hollered as he picked up a chunk of the ground and hurled it at the group. Blade gaped and used his Dragon Beam to destroy the chunk thrown and hit O'Chunks as well.

"Phew! That was a close one!" Blade sighed.

Mario: No kidding!

O'Chunks grumbled as he pushed himself up and charged at the group at a fast pace like before. Chopper jumped and stomped on his head instead, while Blade slashed him with his katana.

"OK… He looks just about done so far…" Blade inspected.

"How do you know?" Chopper questioned.

"By the amount of HP he has left…"

"Oh… Well, you have a point there."

O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of Chopper and used him as a weapon before, swinging him at Kirby and Blade. Chopper merely grumbled as he tried to pry himself out of his grasps. Not even fireballs or ice balls would stop him!

"Can someone get this guy to let go of me or something? !"

"I got it!" Sonic smirked as he curled up in a ball and readied a Light Speed Attack. After charging, he went all out on O'Chunks and hit him a couple of times. Sadly, that was not enough to make him let go.

"Nice try, hedgehog, but I'm not lettin' go!" O'Chunks barked as he swung Chopper at Sonic.

"Ouch! Those quills hurt!" Chopper cried.

O'Chunks was able to attack Mario with Chopper, but Kirby was able to get himself back up and rush at O'Chunks with his katana ready. He only had one shot to make this finishing blow.

With one katana slash, O'Chunks let go of Chopper and let out a yelp as he kneeled on the ground in pain.

"Phew… Thanks for that, Kirby." Chopper sighed.

"Poyo, (No problem,)" Kirby smiled.

"Guh… What went wrong 'ere?" O'Chunks moaned as the red glow around him faded away. "I did everythin' Tipral told me teh do, but I kept failin' 'im! …Maybe it was 'cause I was too distracted by her…"

The group looked at him with a confused look.

"Listen, heroes… Finish me off now while I'm weak." he pleaded. "I won't 'ave teh be a huge pain in yer hiney any longer!"

"No way!" Chopper retorted. "That's too far!"

"Poyo! (We don't resort to stuff like that!)" Kirby replied.

"You have more to live for, O'Chunks. Don't let yourself just die like this!" Sonic pleaded. "Seriously, you still have a chance to do something good in your life."

"But look at me! I ain't worth it now…" O'Chunks mumbled. "Yeh gotta do it! Yeh'd not only do a favor fer Tipral, but fer yerselves too!"

"We won't do it," Blade denied.

Mario: I don't like to do that to people like you…

"I can't even end a single person's game…" Luigi trailed.

"Fine," O'Chunks slowly got himself up and growled at the group as he stomped the ground. "If yer not gonna do it, then I'm going teh 'ave teh go back teh Tipral! Yer not worth me time anyway!"

"Wait… That's something that we'd LIKE you to do instead of letting us hurt you." Blade informed.

"Then we're even then! …Wait a minute…" the bearded warrior looked confused, as if he suddenly forgot something he said earlier. "Yeh know what? I'm goin' teh call it quits fer now! I'll be back fer yeh another time, heroes, an' next time, I'm goin' teh put everythin' I've got against yeh!"

"Really? That sounds like something you would typically say…" Chopper sighed as he rolled his eyes.

"Anyway… I think I need teh go hit the fridge. Chunks away!" As O'Chunks gave one last wave, he used his farting powers to fly out of the room, crashing through the ceiling. The gadget he had with him protected him from being mind controlled.

"Weird… First he says that he's useless, then he suddenly says that he's going to come back for us. It's like something hit his brain." Sonic gawked.

"Well never mind that. Maybe we should get out of this room first…" Blade suggested.

"Guys, look over here," Luigi informed, pointing at a purple pipe in the room. "Doesn't that look like the pipe we used to shrink ourselves at the beginning?"

Mario: Oh, yeah! I remember that!

"Hmmmmm… What if we used that to grow big and destroy that mind control tower?" Sonic suggested, snapping a finger. "Wherever we are, we're surely going to be able to get to that tower as giants!"

"Yeah! Let's do it!" Chopper cheered as he dove into the pipe. Everyone else gawked before diving in as well.

* * *

**Flint and his camera crew-**

"Hmmmmm… It doesn't look like those Cradians are coming anytime soon…" Flint trailed, taking a small peek through the window, which was boarded shut. Thankfully, there was a small little hole he could look through.

"Can I see, boss?" Monzo asked.

"No! I don't want you to blow our cover! It's not good!"

"Boss!"

"Oh, what is it, Hornfels?"

"I… I hear growling!" Hornfels gasped, trembling in fear. "Someone in here!"

"More like something in here," Monzo corrected as he saw something that was making its way toward them.

"Now what is i—Wait, what in the world?!" Flint's hat nearly flew off as he gaped at the monster in front of them. "What IS this?!"

"Get ninja thing!" Monzo cried.

"He not around here!" Hornfels gulped.

"Then… We have to take care of this ourselves…" Flint stated as he gave a brave look. He cracked his knuckles and charged at the beast with all his might.

* * *

**Giant size-**

When the heroes jumped out of the pipe, they noticed that they were pretty close to Cradian City. Just down the hill, they saw the glass dome surrounding the place. The only thing they needed to do was smash it.

"Wow… This glass dome is bigger than us!" Blade gaped.

"At least we're not TOO big…" Chopper sighed as he walked down the hill and got to the glass dome. From inside, some Cradians began to scream in fear while some Robocops fled to call in some air support.

"They know we're big…" Sonic gulped.

"Meh, this shouldn't be too bad anyway," Blade hit the glass with his katana's hilt and shattered it entirely. Small specks began to fall from the ground as the dome shattered, leaving the city vulnerable to any attack.

"_**CALLING IN AIR SUPPORT!**_" screamed a Robocop, its voice being difficult to hear.

"What was it saying?" Luigi asked.

"Who cares? We gotta find that tower!" Chopper suggested as he managed to destroy a ship with his cutlass. Blade, on the other hand, walked over to a building in the city that apparently sells coins.

"A Mushroom for 50 coins? What is this place, nuts?" Blade gawked. "I'll show you what happens when you sell things at a high price like that!"

He shouted as he began to smash the building until it was flattened to the ground. He then looked over at a DMV that was apparently empty.

"And then the friggin' DMV… Oh, man… Taking my test there was a HUGE pain in the ass! You know how long it took me to get that thing?! Six hours! Time for some payback for making me wait that long!" Blade shouted as he began to stomp on the building and destroy it with a Dragon Beam.

"BLADE!"

"Uhh… I can explain…"

"Oh, I'm fine with you destroying that place," Chopper assured. "But we're not trying to destroy random buildings. We're trying to take down the tower!"

"Poyo! (I can see it up ahead!)" Kirby called out as he swatted a ship away. He ran up to the large tower and grabbed his katana. Even with a slash, it didn't seem to destroy it yet.

"Oh… It's going to take a lot more to take it down." Sonic said as he kept punching and kicking it. "C'mon, people! We need to demolish this thing, and fast!"

"Hold on… I think I have an idea." Blade said as he snapped his finger. He simply kicking it and made it topple down. Thankfully, nobody was hurt by the skyscraper, but the green energy from it managed to zap the heroes and shrink them down to the size of everyone else.

"Whoa… So that tower can also shrink giants." Luigi gaped.

"Yeah, I guess so," Chopper nodded as he noticed the energy in the tower slowly fade away. The gadgets they had on seemed to shatter as well, being connected with the mind control tower for some reason.

Mario: There goes our gadgets…

"Err… What happened?" moaned a Cradian that looked confused. "My head's cradianing me…"

"I think everyone's back to normal!" Chopper smiled. "That's great, since the robots won't be able to control them!"

"HALT!"

"You jinxed it, Chopper…" Blade sighed as they turned around and saw a couple of Robocops aiming their weapons at them.

"You are all under arrest for breaking Master Mind's property!" the Robocop at front declared. "You can be fined or even be sentenced to death for destroying Master Mind's prized possessions!"

"No way!" Sonic retorted. "You're not arresting us!"

"Resisting arrest, I see? Very well! I suppose we'll have to arrest you by force!" the Robocop charged a blast and prepared to fire.

Until something tackled them to the ground.

"What in the world? !" Blade gaped as they saw some kind of plant-like creature send the Robocops flying back.

They looked up at the beast and saw that its head was orange, like the sun, but with a couple of sunflower petals around its head. It body was a green color, like a stem, except this body was a little stronger than a stem. Its claws were merely two moon crescents and its eyes looked like beady eyes. Its legs were also leaves as well.

"What kind of creature is THAT?!" Chopper gawked.

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" shouted Flint as he, Hornfels, Monzo, and Ninbot were riding on it. "'Such a discovery! A species that I would've never expected to see trapped in the same building as me! At first I thought it was a hostile beast, but in truth, it was actually harmless! It was like it was half sun, half moon and half flower!'"

"Wait a second… The SunMoonFlower? That's something Arcaine imagined, didn't he?"

"Yeah! Who would've thought that it was real?" Luigi gasped.

Mario: This is surprising!

"Poyo? (But I thought the SunMoonFlower was meant to be deadly?)" Kirby realized.

"Looks like Arcaine was wrong on his discoveries," Chopper pondered.

"I'm surprised that you managed to take down the tower so easily," Ninbot commended. "I don't know how you managed to become big, but I commend you for your efforts. All that remains is Master Mind… But even then, he's too strong for you guys."

"Well, that's not stopping us from getting the Pure Heart," Blade replied. "We need that thing, whether the enemy holding it is strong or not."

"Hmph… Very well. Don't say I didn't warn you. You might need this key to go to his palace. It's the white building just up ahead." Ninbot took out a key and tossed it to Blade. "Keep it safe."

"What about you? Are you coming?" Chopper asked.

"I had my chance to fight Master Mind. I lost. However, if you're ever in trouble, I will come in and try to help you as much as I can. I'm going to stay here with this creature. It kind of likes me, admittedly."

"Yes! Go on, adventurers!" Flint ordered. "That treasure you've been seeking is all yours!"

"All right, I guess we might as well," Chopper shrugged as he and his friends began to head out toward the white palace up ahead. While it looked big, it wasn't anything special when they reached the front entrance.

"A Save Block and a yellow ? block…" Luigi trailed. "I think this shows that Master Mind's in this room."

"We better prepare ourselves!" Chopper suggested as he hit the yellow ? block first. The Mushroom's cap that popped out of the block looked more like space, but with a couple of stars on it.

"What's that?"

Mario: A Star Shroom!

"Yeah! This should help us!" Sonic grinned as Blade split it into six and allowed each of them to eat a piece, recovering 150 HP. Chopper hit the Save Block afterward before looking back at the city.

"This palace is nearly at the city's edge," Blade realized. "That's interesting…"

"Well, when we finish off Master Mind, things should be better for the Cradians here," Chopper declared. "Come on, guys, let's go!"

Luigi gulped as he followed his friends through the door. For some reason, he listened to Ninbot's words on how strong this Master Mind is.

* * *

**Master Mind's Palace-**

When they walked into the large room, they noticed that the floors and walls were made out of marble. There were even a couple of pillars inside the room as well, with some pedestals holding a couple of vases.

"Wow, this is a pretty place," Chopper said as he gazed at the red rug.

"Those Cradians just don't realize it by now! They're idiots!" a robot cackled as the group noticed a blue cloak facing away from them. "They refused to listen to my idea, so it's their fault that I had to install that mind control tower."

"Excuse me, but what gives you the right to do that?" Blade called out.

"What's this?" the robot whirled around and revealed to have a symbol of a widow spider on his forehead. His body was dark gray, yet for some reason, he didn't have any legs. It's like he was like some sort of ghost with a little tail, but something seemed to be installed on his waist to let him float around.

"Whoa… You're Master Mind? You're not exactly what I predicted you were like…" Sonic trailed.

"Who are you people? Can't you see I'm in the middle of my next scheme?" barked Master Mind. "I've been trying to find a way to set up a factory in my precious city, and you guys aren't helping. Get out of here before I get the cops to take you out."

"You know… Thanks to us, that tower you created is gone." Chopper stated. "Now give up before we 'ave to make ye walk the plank!"

Because of his horrible pirate accent, Master Mind took his blaster out and fired a green blast at Chopper, sending him flying across the room. Kirby gasped and went over to help him up.

"You destroyed my TOWER?!" Master Mind hissed as he aimed his weapon at Luigi, who yelped. "I spent YEARS trying to come up with the design! And now it's all ruined thanks to you people! …Come to think of it, who the hell are you people? Are you associated with that ninja robot that tried to fight me before?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

"Oh, I can tell that you are. Did I ever tell you that Ninbot and I were sworn enemies?" Everyone looked a little confused.

"I thought Grim was Ninbot's sworn enemy…" Sonic trailed.

"Oh, no. I'm the real leader of the robot army. And yes, I've heard a couple of people attacked him and destroyed him. I suppose it was your doing, wasn't it? I wouldn't be too surprised for a couple of people with flesh."

"Uhhhh… Technically, it was Ninbot who defeated him…" Chopper trailed as he got back to the group.

"Oh, really? Did he cut off Grim's legs just like he did to me before? I used to have glorious legs back then, but thanks to him, I'm resorted to this! Thankfully, I discovered something that appeared at my front door a couple of weeks ago! Allow me to show you!"

Master Mind took out a brown Pure Heart and allowed it to levitate from his pointy fingers. "You see this? Thanks to this thing, I was able to get to where I am now! That is, until you people showed up…"

Mario: That's the Pure Heart!

Everyone got in fighting stances as they took a step toward Master Mind, who merely cackled at them.

"What's this? You seek this item? Oh, I can see it your eyes… Too bad I'm not giving this thing up so easily!"

"If you don't give it to us, chances are this world's going to be destroyed," Blade informed. "You need a world if you choose to rule it. If it's gone, there's nothing involving ruling."

"Oh, just shut up already. I'll use this thing as I please!" Master Mind scoffed.

"Fine… Then we have no other choice but to use force…" Sonic sighed. "Seriously, you really should reconsider."

"A fight? This is just silly! But, if that's how you want your fate to end, then that's how I'll end yours." Master Mind glared at them with his green eyes as he put the Pure Heart away and reached for his second blaster. "Heh heh heh! So, heroes… Let's get started, shall we?"

Master Mind's cape opened up to reveal his gray body. He began to fire two shots at once as Blade spun his katana to deflect the shots back at him. Master Mind got sent flying a couple of inches back as steam appeared on his body.

"So this guy has 440 HP, an Attack of 18, and a Defense of 8. Yeesh… That's pretty nasty…" Chopper gulped.

"Hmph… So you want to play it the hard way, do you? All right!" Master Mind charged up a shot and fired at Blade, who jumped in the air and spun his katana vertically. Unfortunately, Master Mind was able to grab his katana and keep him dangling over the ground.

"What the hell? ! How'd you do that? !" Blade gaped.

"Trust me, I have my ways," Master Mind grinned as he shot Blade, who cringed in pain as he slid on the slippery floor.

"Ow… That blaster sure seems painful." Luigi winced as Blade slowly got up and clenched his teeth. Nevertheless, he knew he had to fight, so he grabbed Bonjourang and threw him at Master Mind.

Unfortunately, this wasn't good for Luigi when Master Mind brought his attention to him. He fired at him, but he was lucky enough to jump over the green lasers and stomp on him in the process. Master Mind tried to grab Luigi, but he dodged and hit him with a Cyclone.

"For a plumber, you seem to put up a bit of a fight," Master Mind commented. "But, it's going to take a little more than that!"

"…Which is something many bad guys tend to say," Chopper finished, trying to imitate Master Mind. He gulped as he ducked under the laser that was being fired his way. This ended up hitting Kirby instead.

"Poyo! (That's not fair!)" Kirby whined as he pushed himself off the wall and ran toward Master Mind with his katana ready. Master Mind tried to attack him, but he created a couple of clones that got hit by the shots instead.

"What? Where's the real one?!"

The real Kirby appeared in front of Master Mind, who tried to bash him with his blasters, but ended up getting hit when Kirby slashed at him with his katana. Even when Master Mind shot at him again, Kirby disintegrated into smoke, indicating that he disappeared.

"And thus is why I wanted the Ninja ability," Chopper stated.

"Save the complaints for later, Chopper," Sonic suggested. "We have a bad guy to take down here!"

Master Mind managed to grab a hold of Kirby after he kicked him and threw him over by the door. Chopper ran over to grab his foot to prevent him from hitting the wall while Sonic hit the robot with his Sonic Wind.

Master Mind was sent upward, but he was able to hurl a dark blast of energy from his hand down at Sonic, who got knocked over on the ground while a couple of rings were scattered all over the room.

"Aw, man! My rings!" Sonic frowned. "That's not fair!"

"I think I'll take some of these myself," Master Mind declared as he picked up one. "They can be of good use to me. Maybe I'll use one of them to create something to make me more robots."

"Not gonna happen! Not on my watch!"

Sonic made a dash for Master Mind while dodging the blasts the robot hurled at him. As he curled up in a ball, he was able to hit him in the chest before using a Homing Attack. Master Mind managed to push Sonic away and fire a green explosion that knocked him over.

"If you have magic, what's the point of the blasters?" Chopper asked.

"My guns can stun you if I put it on stun, but I feel that my magic helps me much more, especially when I can use that power to mind control someone!" Master Mind cackled. "Oh, don't think just because the tower's gone doesn't mean my powers are!"

"Oh, yeah?" Chopper revealed a cannon in his mouth and fired a cannonball at Master Mind, who teleported away from the cannonball and reappeared behind Chopper. He fired a green spear of energy at Chopper's head, causing him to lose control of his mind.

"I SERVE THE ONE AND ONLY MASTER MIND!" he shouted as if he were a robot.

Mario: What in the world?!

"Oh, I'm sorry, does mind controlling your friend bother you?" Master Mind scoffed. "Now that I have control over him, I can make him attack you guys! Surely you wouldn't fight your own friend, would you?"

"Well…" Luigi trailed until Mario rushed at Master Mind and bashed him in the head with his hammer, causing him to lose control of Chopper for a second before getting him back into control.

"Poyo, (Hey, I just noticed something,)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo. (Apparently he'll lose control if we attack him.)"

"You honestly thought I'd leave him out of my control?" Master Mind scoffed as he hurled a green blast at Mario. He held his fists up to defend the attack, but he was pushed back by the blast.

Mario: That was strong…

Master Mind grinned as he made Chopper swing his cutlass at Blade, who brought his katana up to defend himself. He didn't want to use his katana on him, but maybe if he hurt him a tiny bit it would be all right.

"I'm sorry to do this," Blade apologized as he performed a roundhouse kick on Chopper, knocking him over. He then rushed to Master Mind and slashed at him repeatedly with his katana, forcing him to lose control over the Star Warrior.

"Whoa… What just happened?" Chopper moaned.

"Poyo, (You were mind controlled,)" Kirby explained.

"What? ! Are you kidding me? !" Chopper turned to Master Mind, who was stunned for the moment thanks to Blade's fire slash. He clenched his fists and shot a cannonball out of his mouth at Master Mind.

"A cannonball coming out of your mouth? That must be pretty stupid…" Master Mind grumbled as he got hit by Chopper's cutlass. He decided to teleport away from him and teleport to the corner of the room. He grabbed his two blasters and fired rapidly, knocking Chopper's Pirate ability away. Kirby, on the other hand, used his Defend to prevent himself from losing his ability.

Mario got his hammer again and rushed at Master Mind. While he managed to bash him in the head, Master Mind teleported away from him, resulting in Mario hitting Luigi on accident when he tried to attack again.

"Ow…" Luigi moaned.

Mario: Sorry…

Master Mind cackled as he hurled a couple of green blasts from his hands at the rest of the group. Chopper inhaled one and spat it at Master Mind, but he created a mirror to deflect the attack back.

"What the… OOF!" Chopper skid across the room as he was knocked over. Kirby was able to jump over the blasts and toss a couple of kunais at Master Mind, along with shurikens tossed by Blade.

"Is that all you got?" scoffed Master Mind.

"No, not even close," Sonic smirked as he used Reflecto to deflect a blast back at Master Mind and hit him. He grumbled as he created some mirror shards to throw at the group. One hit Sonic, making him cringe in pain from the sharp shard.

"Ow… These aren't good at all!" Blade winced, a screech coming from his katana as he tried blocking them.

"I've got an idea of my own," Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled the mirror shards coming his way. As he swallowed it, his skin became a white tint, he wore a red and teal double-toned hat, and his gloves and shoes changed to a dark gray color. He was also holding a small, golden scepter.

"Ooh! The Mirror ability! This is one of the last few abilities, if I could recall…"

"Poyo? (You mean no more new abilities to copy?)" Kirby gasped.

"Well… I don't know about that."

"So you changed from wearing a stupid pirate costume to wearing something like _that_?" Master Mind gawked. "I don't know if you're a complete idiot or not. Nevertheless, you're all going to die."

"Think again!" Chopper put up a mirror with his scepter that reflected the green blast back at Master Mind, hitting his chest. He let out a scream as he held his chest in pain.

"Whoa… That ability's pretty useful." Blade gaped.

"Yeah, it has helped me in the past before…"

Master Mind grumbled as he tried to shoot at Blade instead, who cringed as he got shot by the green laser fired at him. The next time, however, Blade managed to deflect the shot back at Master Mind by spinning his katana.

"We're not going to lose this fight," Blade declared.

"Then I'll use a little something to help me," Master Mind raised his arms and healed himself of 80 HP. "Ahhhh! Now that's much better! With some of my health replenished, fighting you guys should be easier!"

"Cripes! He can heal!" Luigi gasped. "This isn't good…"

"Oh, relax! Dimentio Doom could heal himself, but we managed to beat him!" Sonic assured. "I think this shouldn't be any problem for us!"

"Yeah, that's true…"

Mario: While he does show some strength, we can still outmaneuver him.

Master Mind gave them a threatening look as he tossed a ball of green energy at Mario, who gave it a whack with his hammer to send it flying back at him, leaving him off guard and allowing Mario to hit him with a Super Ground Pound.

"Annoying pest!" Master Mind grabbed Mario's foot and threw him to the ground. His pointy finger fired a small bolt of electricity that zapped him and left him paralyzed for a couple of seconds.

"Now he can use paralysis? That's not fair!" Luigi frowned.

"I should've told you not to underestimate me, but I guess it would've been better if I didn't," the robot mastermind smirked as he zapped Mario with a green spear, putting him under his control.

"Go ahead, my puppet. Kill these people for me. Maybe you should start with the green plumber!"

"What? ! I'm not fighting my brother!" Luigi stepped back as Mario, who now had green eyes, gripped his hammer and came charging at him. Luigi brought his guard up as the hammer came down on him.

"Heads up, I gotcha!" Sonic rushed in and pushed Mario out of the way, knocking him to the ground. Afterward, He used a Spin Dash to hit Master Mind and let him lose control of Mario, who was now dazed.

"Phew… Thank you, Sonic…"

Master Mind grumbled as he decided to attack Kirby instead. The purple puffball tried to avoid the green spheres, but ended up getting hit and got knocked to the ground. His ability didn't get knocked away, to his relief.

"Poyo, (We gotta be fast against this guy,)" Kirby informed.

Master Mind created another green sphere of energy that he hurled at Kirby, but with his katana, he was able to throw it back at him, hitting him in the face. Kirby was able to grab him afterward and slam him to the ground after launching up.

"Well, at least I have this ability," Chopper smiled, creating a small mirror before firing a mirror shard at Master Mind, who cringed as a small cut appeared on his robotic body. Even a couple of sparks appeared from the screeching sound of the mirror shard.

"That wasn't good…" Blade cringed.

Master Mind glared at Chopper as he fired two shots from his blaster at him. Chopper brought up a mirror to reflect the shots, but Master Mind teleported in front of the mirror and smashed it.

"Seven years of bad luck…" Chopper trailed as he got punched in the face before getting thrown back. "Honestly, man… This Pure Heart is driving you nuts! Something like that happened to a king once!"

"Driving me nuts? I've always been like this." Master Mind scoffed. "It's thanks to this brown thing that I can do what it takes to kill a couple of people like you guys."

"Then maybe if you didn't have it, we'd stand a chance against you," Blade said as he rushed at Master Mind. When he spotted him, he made a couple of clones that began to attack at once. Master Mind created a stick made of green energy and spun it around to get rid of the clones and hit Blade.

"Gah! That was a smart move…"

"Thank you," Master Mind picked him up and watched him struggle to break free. "You seem like you're being pretty persistent to stop me. Any reason why?"

"Because… You've brainwashed all of those people! We can end your reign of terror right now, and that is what we plan on doing."

"Oh, how nice of you to think of that… It's such a shame you won't live to see that." Master Mind aimed his blaster at Blade and fired, knocking him to the ground as he screeched in pain. Luigi helped him up and decided to use Reflecto to deflect the next laser back at him.

Mario walked up to Luigi and decided that they would use a team attack. Mario got on Luigi's shoulders and as they began to spin, Mario spun his hammer as they crashed into Master Mind like a cyclone.

"What's this? A team attack, I see? I should've seen this one coming…" muttered Master Mind as he tried to get up, resulting in him getting hit by another attack from Luigi's fists and Mario's hammer.

"I think I getting dizzy!" Luigi cried.

Mario: We just need to do this for a little longer!

After they hit him one last time, Master Mind teleported out of their range and recovered 80 more HP. Afterward, he made the room flash and sent a couple of lightning bolts to the ground. There were a couple of them that struck Chopper, Kirby, and Sonic, which they didn't see coming.

"What the… He can use lightning too? !" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo… (It looks like it…)" Kirby trailed.

Master Mind grinned as his victims got paralyzed for a brief moment. He was about to attack, but Blade managed to stop him by firing a Dragon Beam his way, making him turn back to him.

"Did you just fire a dragon out of your sword?"

"Yeah, I just did," Blade sneered. "And it's called a _katana_, thank you very much."

"OK, fine, you annoying little furball. I guess I better lay off the blasters for now and use something else." Master Mind put his two blasters away and took out a golden scepter and struck the ground with it, creating a green pulse that spread out through the whole room.

Mario: Jump!

Everyone managed to dodge the pulse attack and get back to Master Mind. Sonic decided to use Screwdy and attacked him with a Bounce Attack before using a corkscrew on him. It looked like it didn't do too much, but it was actually helpful in keeping him off guard.

Master Mind twirled his scepter before firing a blast of magic at Sonic. He curled up in a ball and managed to get away from the blast with a Spin Dash. Chopper helped create a mirror to deflect the attack back at Master Mind, who had to suffer the consequences of the damage he took.

"Hmmmmmm… Hold on, I think I might have another kind of attack to help me fight this guy." Chopper realized as Master Mind got struck by Blade's katana.

Once he saw that he had a chance to attack, he ran toward Master Mind and slammed his scepter on his body. That didn't do too much, but he split into two and struck him with a powerful mirror slash that made Master Mind screech.

"He's finally getting a taste of his own medicine. And by 'medicine', I mean mirrors."

Master Mind tried to swipe at Chopper with his scepter, but he managed to recoil and get back to the group. They all agreed to heal themselves, considering that their HP was a bit low at this point.

"So… Star Shroom Shake at this point?" Sonic asked.

"I could use one…" Luigi trailed. "I don't know what they even taste like anyway."

"Well, then prepare to be delighted with the taste," Chopper tossed Luigi the unopened Star Shroom Shake. He opened it and took a sip of it, recovering 150 HP. His expression was indeed delighted.

"That is really good!"

"Toldja," Chopper smirked as he took a sip, with Blade finishing the last one. He crushed the can and threw it at Master Mind.

…Who proceeded to burn it.

"Dumb move, 'heroes'," mocked Master Mind.

"Damn it. He saw that coming." Blade grumbled as he readied his katana and threw a couple of shurikens at Master Mind. He managed to block a couple, but four of them hit his chest.

"Hmmmmmm…" the robot teleported around the room, dropping a couple of green orbs of energy. When they noticed this, they jumped to avoid the explosions that they emitted. Not even a mirror was able to block it.

Master Mind flew back and charged at them with green fire surrounding him. All six of them were blown away by the attack as Master Mind teleported before he could crash into the wall.

"Recovery mode activate!" he shouted as he recovered 80 more HP. Everyone growled as they saw some of the wounds heal off Master Mind. Nevertheless, they were able to get a good shot at him by kicking Sonic straight at him while he was curled in a ball.

Master Mind's eyes widened in pain as he got struck by Sonic's Spin Dash. He tried to hit him, but Sonic went back over to Luigi, who kicked him back at Sonic while throwing Bonjourang at Master Mind.

"This isn't a bad idea!" Luigi smiled.

Mario: We really do work well as a team, Luigi!

When Sonic was kicked back at Master Mind, he used his mind controlling powers to brainwash Sonic and make him hit both Mario and Luigi, knocking them over. Chopper tried to make a mirror to protect them, but not even that helped when it broke and caused Chopper to get hurt.

Kirby created a couple of clones to help distract Sonic while Chopper fired a couple of mirror shards at Master Mind. Some of them hit him, but they weren't enough to stop him.

_"I gotta use a stronger attack than this," _Chopper thought as he gripped his hammer. When he managed to bash Master Mind, he stopped mind controlling Sonic, but a magic blast from his scepter was all it took to knock Chopper's Mirror ability away.

"Hey! That was a brand new ability!"

"And now for you…" Master Mind turned to Kirby and fired a blast from his scepter at him, knocking his ability away as well.

"Poyo! (Hey!)" Kirby frowned.

However, Blade managed to appear on top of Master Mind and struck him with a diving kick. With this, it appeared that they were all even.

"Well, you people aren't as easy for me to kill than I hoped," Master Mind said. "Too bad for you, though. My ultimate attack is just about ready!"

"And what's that?" Blade asked.

"An attack that'll wipe this entire city! Everyone but me will die from this explosion!"

"You're not going to kill a bunch of innocent people!"

"Oh, really? And what can you do about it?"

Blade instantly swung his katana at Master Mind, who brought his scepter up to block the attack. He was suddenly reminded of his battle with King Neptunian, where he brought his scepter up to block his attack.

_"No… This isn't similar." _Blade thought. _"The difference between him and Neptunian is that this guy is evil. Neptunian wasn't truly evil."_

"You can't hold this up forever, you know," Master Mind grinned.

"Yes I CAN!" Blade shouted with pride as he was able to push Master Mind back. While he was stunned, Blade attempted to slash at him again, but Master Mind brought his scepter up again.

He sliced through it.

"My scepter!" Master Mind gaped as he looked up at Blade. "Are you really going to…?"

Blade said nothing as he fired a Dragon Beam from his katana at Master Mind, impaling him right through the chest. His eyes widened in pain as the entire orange, flaming dragon went through his entire body.

"Holy…!" Chopper gaped.

Blade turned away as he sheathed his katana. Master Mind began to explode until he was gone. The brown Pure Heart was the only thing left from him.

"I can't believe it… We actually won the battle." Sonic gaped. "Not to mention we got the Pure Heart!"

"He got what he deserved…" Blade sighed as he walked over to his friends. "I apologize if I sounded a bit…harsh."

Mario: Sometimes we can't always act too kind.

"I know, but I think my sensei would've been disappointed with me if he were alive…"

"You were trying to defend a city from this guy! I think he would be proud of you!" Sonic denied. "That's not what you should be saying!"

"_**M-MASTER MIND!**_"

Everyone's eyes widened as a bunch of Cradians burst through the door and searched for Master Mind. Apparently they heard an explosion coming from this room.

"Wh-What you do with Master Mind?" a Cradian asked.

"We saved you from his tyranny," Chopper explained. "You should thank us!"

"B-But… We love Master Mind…"

All six heroes gasped. The Cradians? Liking this guy?

"Did you just say that you…like Master Mind? Even after what he's done to you?" Sonic gawked as a couple of Cradians mourned over Master Mind.

"He help us advance to this! We were people of the wild and died from Bushers! They very deadly! We be very endangered…until he came along."

"But don't you realize that he was acting like a complete DICTATOR?!" Blade exclaimed. "You guys should've realized it! He was going to destroy this entire city!"

"To protect us!"

At this point, they all realized something. Even without the mind control tower, these Cradians were brainwashed.

"But now… He gone because of you. You people monsters!"

"But… But…"

"It's no use, Chopper…" Blade trailed. "They've been brainwashed by Master Mind's dictatorship. Sometimes, there are rulers that are seen as gods to people. It looks like these people are one of them…"

"_**CRAGLEY HO!**_" Flint walked into the palace with his camera crew, Ninbot, and the SunMoonFlower. "'We've finally made our way to the palace at long last! …But, what I'm seeing here are people…mourning?'"

"What's going on here?" Ninbot asked.

"They kill our leader! After all he do for us, we go back to wild and die!" one Cradian cried. "This all your fault now!"

"Oh, no… They've been brainwashed by Master Mind's tyranny this whole time…"

"Yeah, I guess so," Sonic nodded. "But now this makes us look like the bad guys…"

"This bad news, brah," gulped Monzo.

"Not good. Not good at all." added Hornfels.

"I suppose you want brown heart thing, do you not?" a Cradian holding a spear asked, picking up the Pure Heart. "Then take it with you!"

Chopper was about to go over to get it, but the Cradian threw it at his face instead, knocking him to the ground.

"We don't want to see you monsters again!"

"But, look! We were just trying to help you guys and…" Luigi trailed until he got cut off again.

"Go! Now! You 'heroes' aren't welcome around here anymore!"

"We don't have much of a choice…" Chopper sighed as his head hung low. "Here I was hoping we'd do something good for this place, like different other worlds… But it looks like we're hated here…"

Mario: We might as well leave them be…

"And you don't want any help?" Blade asked.

"No! Go now!" the Cradian shouted.

Knowing that they didn't care about the world being destroyed right now, Chopper sighed and picked up the Pure Heart. All of the Pixls began to dance around him, but as he held the Pure Heart up, he didn't feel satisfied.

"All of this to get hated by brainwashed people… I'm disappointed."

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

"_Now we have no leader thanks to you people! At this point, we die now, and it be all your fault!" the Cradians shouted as they threw stuff at the heroes as they left the palace and made their way out of the city. "Rest assured, guys," Flint spoke, trying to cheer the group up. "You managed to stop a city from being destroyed, and you even got your Pure Heart! It's better than getting nothing!" With that, Ninbot decided that he would go for now, now that Master Mind was gone. He seemed pleased that his tyranny was finally over. Chopper and Co. waved goodbye to Flint Cragley and his camera crew, who decided that it was best to head home. Now with only two Pure Hearts left, they hurried back to Flipside. Would all be better soon?_

* * *

**So, a lot of interesting things happened here. From the discovery of SunMoonFlower being real, to the Cradians actually liking Master Mind. But, you know, that's something some people are like when a dictator dies or ends up getting seriously injured. **

**Yeah, a lot of shocking moments in here, and now the heroes don't see themselves as heroes in this world compared to others. I wonder what they'll think about this when they make it back to Flipside... Well, you'll find out in the interlude!**


	105. Chapter 17 Interlude

"So… It appears that Chopper and his friends managed to get the eighteenth Pure Heart…" Tipral trailed as he used his scepter to see a vision of them leaving the huge (or small) world. "And it appears that the people in that city hate them for destroying their leader. Typical stuff from a dictator…"

Little did he notice a shadowy mist appearing in the sanctum. It looked like the mist was going to go after him.

"_**My next…victim…" **_the mist grinned as it made its way over to Tipral. Unfortunately, Tipral jumped off the platform and walked over to the door. It seemed he was too fast for it.

"_**Hmph… No matter! Like a lion stalking its prey, I'll be able to get to him soon…"**_

Tipral walked down the staircase and to the door at the bottom to go into the hallway where everyone's rooms were. But for some reason, he could hear a voice coming from Nastasia's room. It didn't sound like her, though.

"What's going on in there?" Tipral asked, knocking on Nastasia's room.

"_Who is it that has the knocking?"_

"Oh… It's only you, Fawful. What are you doing in Nastasia's room?"

"…_H-Having the working of pa-paper,"_ Fawful wheezed. _"I had the failing of the hero beating, and Nastasia gave me the working of pa-papers. Has F-Fawful truly lost fury?"_

"Try to speak in a way that makes more sense," suggested Tipral. "I can barely understand what you're saying. You're just doing paperwork? Very well… You can carry on with that."

As Tipral shut the door, Fawful began to breath heavily as he carried the paperwork over to the shelf. Midbus was in the room with him, with a black eye and even some bandages on him. He watched as Fawful carried them, not doing a thing.

"_Huh-Heavy…_ Muh-Midbus! Help!"

Midbus paused his game on his Nintendo DS and looked over to Fawful, who was making his way to him with the paperwork.

"Midbus! Come!" However, instead of helping Fawful, he walked out of the room, leaving Fawful to carry the paperwork on his own. As he closed the door, he could hear Fawful shouting, "_**MIDBUS!**_"

As Tipral began to walk away from Nastasia's room, he heard Midbus walking over to him, so he turned to face the boar.

"I need a break. Lord Fawful must work." Midbus explained. "I'm exhausted."

"If you're exhausted, then go ahead and take a break," Tipral suggested. "Besides… I won't need you for now. You can go rest if you want."

Midbus was about to leave, but then something struck him for a minute. "When all worlds are destroyed. What can Midbus get?"

"Whatever you want. As long as those heroes are kept busy for now, our plans should be able to succeed. For now, I believe I have to make some plans to stop the heroes from getting the next heart."

Tipral walked over to his room, while Midbus decided to leave the hallway. As for Fawful… He struggled to carry the books over to the shelf. The shadowy mist saw this as an opportunity to get him.

"_**If I…can't get…Tipral… Then I suppose he…will be just…fine!" **_the mist went into Fawful's head and caused him to suddenly lose control over him. Because of his size, it didn't take too long for the shadowy mist to get everything he needed from him.

After ten seconds, it left Fawful's head and left him confused as all the paperwork fell over him.

"I have helplessness!" Fawful cried as he was buried in papers.

"_**Let's go…pay a little visit…to our little shape-shifting…friend!" **_the shadowy mist slowly faded away, as if it was teleporting somewhere else. When it reappeared, it noticed Mimi was writing something in her diary.

"Man, it's sooo annoying that those heroes managed to get another Pure Heart!" Mimi huffed. "And why am I one of the only girls that Tippy has for his minions? Sure, Nassy's a girl and all, but she doesn't really go out to fight the heroes!"

She continued to write in her diary, but then she felt like she suddenly lost control of herself when the mist entered her head. With her being possessed, she wrote something down in her diary before the mist left.

"_**With her ability to…use Rubees, I might be at an…advantage when I…come back to…end everyone's game! Now… I must seek…three more… Forget Tipral…for now…"**_

As the mist disappeared, Mimi rubbed her eyes and noticed something written in her diary. "Hold on a second… When did I ever write about thinking Dimentio was better than me? I hate him!"

* * *

**Meeting room-**

"Please, wee Nastasia! Yeh gotta fergive me!" O'Chunks begged, kneeling on his platform while looking up at Nastasia at another platform. "I tried me very best, but they managed teh give me the chunking o' a lifetime!"

"Yeah… I can tell." Nastasia said as he looked at the battered up O'Chunks. "But, you're still getting punished. You were sent to take down the heroes, but you failed."

"Urgh… Well, can yeh fergive me fer me terrible efforts?"

"Well…"

Nastasia was about to speak until she felt something go into her head. O'Chunks tried to say something to her, but she didn't respond.

"Nastasia? Are yeh OK? Yeh don't look so good…"

Nastasia slowly fainted as the shadowy mist left her body. O'Chunks gasped and jumped onto the ground to catch her, preventing her from hitting the ground.

"Phew… That was close!"

"Ungh… What just happened…?" Nastasia moaned as she slowly opened her eyes and noticed O'Chunks holding her. "Do me a favor and put me down, 'K?"

"Sure…" O'Chunks sighed as he put her down. "So… What are we gonna do now?"

"And here I am!" Mr. L shouted as he barged through the door with a smirk. "So, Tipral… Do you have another assignment for me today and only for me unlike these junior minions?"

"'EY! Yeh better shut up about me bein' a junior!"

"Face it, beardo. You can't beat the heroes. Ever. You always rely on brute force than using your brain, like me, the great Mr. L!"

"An' yer sayin' this when yeh got beaten by the green capped 'ero? Yer actin' like a complete hypocrite!"

"Oh! Being a tough guy, aren't you? Well! That's pretty shocking! Too bad you still lack the brain power to win against those heroes."

"Both of you stop right now! 'K?" Nastasia snapped, getting both of their attention. They stopped and looked over to her. "Thank you… Now, Tipral requested a little meeting soon, so you two better be ready, 'K?"

"A meeting?" Mr. L grinned. "Finally! Now I can get my act together and use my brand new Brobot to defeat those blasted heroes! This time, I'm not going to fail Tipral!"

"Are you sure?" Mr. L turned and saw Tipral standing in front of him. He yelped, but Tipral didn't take it as a big deal. "If your new Brobot is all ready, then maybe I might be able to send you out."

"Of course!"

As they all got on their platforms, Mimi, Fawful, and Dark Doom came in the meeting room and got on their platforms.

"Now, I've finally…"

"'Ey, Tipral…" O'Chunks interrupted.

"What is it?" Tipral grumbled, face palming.

"What're yeh goin' teh do with Knightmare's room? Since 'e's not comin' back 'ere, what should we do with it?"

"No worries, I've got my own ideas on that. Anyway… I've discovered where the next Pure Heart is. And I remember… I was once there at the beginning. However, I believe the next world can lead them to it."

"Really? Where is the heart of pure?" Fawful asked, giving him a curious look. "Fawful must have the knowing!"

"Yeah! Tell us!" Mr. L pleaded.

"Hmph… Well, I'm going to have to tell you anyway… The next Pure Heart is at…"

* * *

**One explanation later-**

"Golly! Are you sure about that?" Mimi gasped. "The nineteenth Pure Heart is located _**there**_? !"

"Errr… I've never been there before…" O'Chunks sweat dropped. "How do yeh expect us teh get there?"

"So we have to go back to that world, I presume?" Dark grinned. "Excellent. I'll be thankful when that world gets destroyed."

"That world is close to getting swallowed," Tipral informed. "I made sure that they would be one of the few worlds that would go first. It's always better to hit them at the hardest area, and I believe that is, in fact, the hardest."

"Heh heh heh! So, it looks like we're going to hold them off so they can die along with The Void, right?" Mr. L grinned. "Perfect. Just perfect."

While Mr. L began to chuckle, the shadowy mist reappeared. _**"Hmmmm… I know…a great way…to humiliate…him!"**_

The mist entered Mr. L's head, causing him to lose conscious of himself. He began to slap himself in the face a couple of times, leaving a couple of red marks. Everyone else looked confused.

"And what the hell is Mr. L doing?" Dark asked.

"Well, I think he deserves it," Mimi declared, sticking her tongue out at Mr. L. "He's always been mocking us and calling us juniors!"

"Yeah! 'E's gettin' 'is just desserts!" O'Chunks hollered.

After the mist left Mr. L's body, it began to cackle and target Dark.

"I suppose I should get going," Dark stated. "I think I know where I'm going to go. Since this next world seems interesting, I'll pick an area where I never went."

He used his cape to teleport out of the room, making the shadowy mist infuriated.

"_**Great… I missed…my chance…" **_it sighed. _**"Well… Maybe I can…follow him…"**_

The shadowy mist faded away as Tipral's minions began to teleport out of the room, with Mr. L shouting "L-ater!" before leaving. This left only Tipral and Nastasia.

"Ummmmm… So, Tipral," Nastasia began. "You said you wanted to bring The Void back for revenge? Don't you think there's a better way than just destroying every dimension?"

"After what I had to go through? I don't think so." Tipral said coldly. "My parents are dead because of Chopper and his friends, and I even lost a lot thanks to many others. If that's what they have to do to me, then I'll make them pay by destroying them!"

"But…"

"You don't need to give me any more questions, Nastasia. For now, I'll be off." Tipral teleported out of the palace, leaving Nastasia to sigh.

"Now that I think about it… I feel as if I know him from somewhere long ago…" Nastasia pondered. "Almost like something he just said that just made me realize it…"

* * *

"_Hey, Timpani! Remember when I brought you back to your home? I remember recalling that it seemed very nice."_

"_Oh, hi Tipral! I don't think I've introduced you to a man that I fell in love with. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you this before…"_

"_Wait… So you found a new friend?"_

"_Well, he's more like someone I love. His name is Blumiere, and he's a very nice man. I actually found him injured one day, so I nursed him to health."_

"_Wait… So the reason why you didn't want to play is because you were spending time with someone else?"_

"_Yes, that's why. Maybe you should go find another friend to play with right now. After all, ever since I was a child, we've been playing for a while. Sometimes you just need to find new friends."_

"_But…"_

"_I'm sorry, Tipral. Maybe some other time."_

"_But… No one else wants to be my friend…"_

* * *

**Flipside-**

"Woo hoo! We finally got the eighteenth Pure Heart!" Chopper cheered, holding up the brown Pure Heart as his friends began to follow him.

"That was pretty hectic back there," Luigi said as they followed Chopper over to the elevator.

"Yeah, here's to hoping that we have an easier time when we reach the next Pure Heart," Chopper hoped. "All right, guys! Time to go back to Rainbowside to get to the next door!"

However, he was at a halt when he saw the sky turn a dark color. Lightning struck in the background as all the Flipsidians had jester hats resembling Dimentio. Chopper's eyes widened in fear as one looked at him.

"Uhhhhh… What's going on here…?" At this moment, lightning struck again and masks resembling Dimentio appeared on their faces, as if they were…jesterfied.

"Guys? Do you know what's going on?" When he turned around, he saw all his friends were wearing jester hats, masks, and ponchos resembling Dimentio. Their smiled seemed to creep him out.

"Ah ha ha ha! Come and join us!" Sonic cackled.

"Yes! It'll be your dream come true!" Blade grinned.

"What happened to you guys?" Chopper stammered.

"Hail King Dimentio!" Luigi hollered.

"But Dimentio's dead! I… I think I have to find Merlon…" he fled from his friends and headed to Merlon's house. He closed the door shut, trying to prevent the jesterfied people from coming in.

"Chopper? Is that you?"

"Merlon? Oh, thank goodness… I noticed that everyone here looked just like…" Chopper stopped when he saw when Merlon turned around, he too had the same appearance as everyone else.

"Chopper! The Dark Prognosticus clearly states that the time of Dimentio's ruling will come to be!" Merlon spoke, holding the Dark Prognosticus in his hands. "Please… You must obey the king!"

"NO!" Chopper busted out of Merlon's house and ran for the elevator to Flipside Tower. "I have to get to Flipside Tower! That's the safest place I can think of…"

When he reached the tower, he saw nobody else was around. However, when he looked up at The Void in the sky, he saw two happy eyes and a mouth appear. Something else appeared from The Void as well. It seemed as if Dimentio was coming out of The Void. The only difference? He was bigger than Chopper. Much bigger. His poncho was even ripped up, as if he got a beating.

"Ah ha ha ha. You have finally lost!" Dimentio cackled. "All worlds belong to me! Not even a mere child such as yourself can stop me now! Without the Light Prognosticus, you're doomed!"

Dimentio sized down to his normal height as he fluttered over to Chopper, who gaped and got in a fighting stance.

"But… But… You're dead!"

"It's impossible to kill me, Chopper! No matter how many times you try to destroy me, I will always come back! And now, you will join by my side as my most powerful minion! I will not take no for an answer!"

"Well I say NO!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Then we'll have to change that…"

Dimentio snapped his finger, and Chopper was zapped by red energy. It sort of resembled Nastasia's brainwashing a bit.

"Now, say that you will serve me forever."

"I… I… I…" Chopper cringed as he tried his best to resist. "…I will serve you forever."

"AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Excellent choice, Chopper! You are wiser than you look. Now, let me give you a taste of my scrumptious power, just as I promised."

With a snap of his finger, Chopper donned the appearance of Dimentio, having a mask and jester hat just like him. His arms and feet were a black color with a white outline surrounding them.

"That dark power in you now is your free will being plunged from the toilet of your mind! Now, you are my slave, and you will do my bidding. You will be…fearless! Go and gather up everyone! We shall create a new world! A world ruled by me, Dimentio!"

"_What have I done?" _Chopper thought as he shed a small tear.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Again, for dramatic effect! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Dimentio cackled. "Now, you must wake up! …Wake up! I said wake up, Chopper!"

"…What?"

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

"WAKE UP, CHOPPER!" Chopper opened his eyes as he felt someone slap him in the face. He quickly got up and rubbed his cheek in pain.

"Ow! Blade, why did you have to do that? That seriously hurt!"

"Well, I had to get you up somehow," Blade replied. "Why'd you suddenly fall asleep? We were making our way back here, and suddenly you got so tired that you fell asleep on the way."

"Sorry about that… Maybe it was because of the battle against Master Mind? That mind control ray he used on me made me feel a little…strange after you broke me free of his power."

"Weird… How come I didn't fall asleep then?" Sonic asked.

Mario: Maybe because he's a child?

"Well, it doesn't matter… I'm glad that that was all just a dream… If that were real… It would possibly be the end." Chopper shuddered.

"Poyo? (What did you dream about?)" Kirby asked.

"Something about Dimentio…jesterfying everyone here. It was really bad, but I'm glad it was all a dream. But… That makes me wonder if Dimentio is truly gone."

"Did you see what happened to him?" Blade asked. "He pretty much killed himself there! There's no way he would remain alive!"

Before anyone could say anything else, the ground began to tremor. When they looked at the sky, they saw The Void grow bigger.

"Poyo… (Uh oh… This isn't good…)" Kirby gulped. "Poyo! (The Void grew bigger!)"

"Well that's nice…" Sonic sighed. "Look, for now, Dimentio's old news. The Void is the bigger problem now."

"Well… I guess you're right." Chopper sighed. "Let's go back to Rainbowside and take the Pure Heart back to its Heart Pillar."

"Yeah, we should do that," Luigi agreed. "It's a shame those people had to be on Master Mind's side."

"We couldn't do anything about it," Blade sighed. "I was sickened by them, but it doesn't look like they'll be changing their thoughts. Let's just go."

With the Return Pipe, everyone was able to leave Flopside Tower and head back to Flipside Tower.

* * *

**Flipside, second floor-**

As the heroes left the elevator to the tower, they saw Merlon was standing over by his house, awaiting the heroes.

"Oh ho! You've all returned, I see…"

"Yeah, we're back," Sonic nodded.

"Have you seen The Void lately?" Merlon asked. "It has continued to grow every hour, thanks to the power that Tipral used to help it become stronger. I have a feeling that there are some worlds that are close to meeting their ends or already have met theirs by now. I'm a little worried that Flipside might soon meet its end too. Sadly, I don't think we have much time left."

"Yeah, we can't just stop to have a chat," Blade agreed. "Every world is about to die off soon, and we can't just sit around and watch them go!"

"Ummmmm… Merlon? Can I ask you a question?" Chopper asked.

"Of course, my child. What is it you'd like you ask?" Merlon asked.

"Have you ever wondered…if Dimentio is still alive? As if he left something behind…?"

"He's dead, Chopper. Those remains look like he's gone for good." Blade noted. "Haven't we told you this before?"

"Yeah, but I'm still a little unsure…"

"Sadly, I am unsure about this…" Merlon sighed. "While there could be a chance his spirit could be lurking around, I would say he is gone for now. The Light Prognosticus never states anything about someone coming back. The only thing that worries me the most is Tipral attacking this place."

"Well, Tipral is a threat, that's for sure," Luigi agreed. "Should we go look for the Pure Heart now?"

"I think that's an excellent idea. I was recently told by someone that a Heart Pillar was discovered in the town above Flipside and Flopside. I would recommend going there, since you managed to reveal the seventeenth door."

"Yeah, we better go," Chopper nodded. "To… Well, the place!"

* * *

**Rainbowside, second floor-**

"Ah! You're finally here, heroes!" Olnerm cheered as the heroes walked over to his house. "I was just waiting for your arrival. I recently discovered a Heart Pillar in the outskirts of Rainbowside."

"Ah! Well that's nice!" Blade grinned.

Mario: Is it on the first floor?

"Why, I believe you're correct, Mario. Just remember… The first Heart Pillar here was located similarly to Flipside's first Heart Pillar. Just think of where Flopside's second Heart Pillar would be."

"…I think I know where it is," Chopper said as he flipped into 3-D with his group. Olnerm wished them luck as they went to the outskirts of Rainbowside. When he flipped back into 2-D, he noticed a couple of gaps around them. Apparently there were a couple of bottomless pits here.

"Uhhhhh… What's with the bottomless pits?" Luigi gulped.

Mario: It's no big deal. We can jump them!

"I see two red ! switches to the left," Blade alarmed, jumping over a couple of stone blocks in their way. Blade swung his katana at the first and second, but nothing happened.

"…What? Nothing?"

"Maybe they have to be hit at the same time?" Sonic pondered. "Or at a fast pace?"

"Maybe Bonjourang can do something about these!" Luigi declared, throwing Bonjourang as hard as he could at the switches. This caused the ground to tremble and make a rainbow pipe appear.

"Rainbow pipe? Uhhhh… OK. Kind of unfitting for a pink floor." Chopper sweat dropped.

They shrugged as they went into the pipe.

* * *

**Rainbowside, first floor outskirts-**

As they got out of the pipe, they noticed a couple of Squigs in different colors. One was red, and another was orange. They seemed to change colors every two seconds, indicating that they were Rainbow Squigs.

"Really? Rainbow Squigs? This is stupid…" Blade grumbled as he swung his katana at both of them. Chopper finished one off by inhaling it and spitting it at the other, defeating both.

"All right… So, you think there's an area that might show us to go into 3-D?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo? (What about those two tall blocks over there?)" Kirby pointed to two tall stone blocks ahead. "Poyo? (Could we go there?)"

"Let's check," Chopper flipped into 3-D with everyone else and discovered a path leading to the outer outskirts. A large, yellow block was apparently blocking the way. Chopper bashed it with his hammer and went back into 2-D with his friends.

They looked over to the left and discovered a blue ! block above them being surrounded by a couple of small glowing star blocks.

"Hmmmmm… We need Starbow for this." Chopper realized. "And also… How come I never used her back in that other world? She would've been helpful against Master Mind, that's for sure! I'm really sorry…"

"It's all right, hero. Sometimes people tend to forget some things…" Starbow assured as Chopper held her up. She began to spin around as shooting stars rained down on the blocks, destroying them. When they hit the blue ! block, a Heart Pillar appeared before them, having a shade of brown at the bottom.

"Well, that's the one, I suppose," Luigi confirmed.

Chopper walked up to the Heart Pillar and took out the brown Pure Heart. It began to ascend in the air and go into the Heart Pillar, making a brown clock appear before them.

"That clock's weird, to be honest…" Blade commented.

Back at Flopside Tower, a pale green door appeared right beside the brown door.

As the clock faded away, they all nodded and made their way back to Flopside Tower without saying a word.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

When they reached Flopside Tower, they saw Nolrem awaited them by the eighth door.

"So, heroes… You've finally made it this far." Nolrem began. "Only two Pure Hearts remain. There's still a chance to save every dimension!"

"Yeah, we still have a chance," Chopper nodded. His antennas sprang up when he looked at the door. "Wait… That door seems to represent my color for some reason!"

"Really? A pale green door? That's not something you see often…" Luigi trailed.

"Well, I can't do much to help you heroes along except for wishing you all good luck through this door." Nolrem said. "If all else fails… I don't know what to think."

"We won't fail," Sonic assured. "We made it this far. We're not going to let ourselves lose so easily."

"Mmmmmmm… Yes, I suppose. Make sure you come back in one piece. Now, let me step out of your way so you young ones can go."

Nolrem stepped out of the way, allowing the heroes to continue on. After exchanging nods, they hurried in through the pale green door.

Little did they know this door would lead them to somewhere unexpected…

* * *

**Yeesh... That was a little...disturbing at that little part. Imagine if you dreamed of something like that (and replace Dimentio with something you fear)? That wouldn't be nice to see...**

**But, aside from that, I'm actually very excited to do this next chapter. It's one of my favorites for a good reason. Plus, if you thought Chapter 17 wasn't that dark, then maybe you might find this one to be dark. You'll see what I mean.**

**And if you want a song that would fit the next chapter, you should listen to a song called "Cosmic Transformation", which is an OCremix of a Kirby song. You'll probably see it. :P**


	106. Sammer's Kingdom Awaits

_With only two Pure Hearts remaining, Chopper and Co. hurried through the eighth door of Flopside Tower. Sadly, the looming darkness of The Void was slowly drifting many other worlds to their demise. Not much time was left for those worlds, which began to worry the heroes. However, their worries slowly began to drift away when they discovered the flower petals looming in the sky._

**CHAPTER 18-1**

**-Sammer's Kingdom Awaits-**

After the world was drawn, it got colored in. The world was filled with many pink flower petals that were looming around in the sky. The sky itself was a bright purple color, with a bit of pink in it. Many different portals were in the background as well. The floor was a nice, light purple color, which blends in very well with the background. It looked very pretty.

As the heroes walked out of the pale green door, they all gazed at the amazing sight of this new world. The flower petals seemed to pass them without them even feeling it. It was strange, yet it was pretty.

"Oh, my… Look at this world." Chopper gasped. "This has to be one of the prettiest worlds I've ever seen. It's better than the fifteenth world…"

Mario: How come we never seen a world as nice as this?

When they took a couple of steps on the ground, they noticed that their footprints were glowing a pinkish color, but slowly faded away after five seconds. All of the portals in the background were slowly moving around, but they couldn't get a good glimpse of what those worlds led to.

However, when Luigi looked up at the sky, all of the happiness drained out of him.

"Guys… Look at the sky…" Luigi trailed, pointing at The Void that loomed in the sky.

Everyone looked up at the sky and gasped at the sight of The Void.

"Oh, no… The Void's just as big as what it's like in Flipside!" Chopper cried, giving a sad look. "Why does The Void have to swallow up a world as nice as this? This just isn't right at all!"

"We can't let The Void stop us from getting the Pure Heart," Blade said boldly as he clenched his fist. "I think Tipral decided to target this place first because it was the nicest of them all."

"Poyo, (Well, we can't waste any time now,)" Kirby said, taking a couple of steps forward. "Poyo! (We need to go out and find that Pure Heart lurking around here! And let's not be too slow!)"

Despite not understanding Kirby, everyone nodded and decided to move on. The area they were walking around didn't have any enemies, and it was rather flat. There wasn't even anything in 3-D, according to Chopper.

"Geez… There's not a thing around here…" Luigi sighed. "I don't even see a door here either. How are we going to move on from here?"

"Hold on, I think I see a sign just up ahead," Chopper noticed, running to the end of the path. "Hmmmmmm… Well, I guess it does show something on here. Come over here and take a look at this!"

"Poyo? (Does it say anything about food?)" Kirby asked, giving a hopeful look.

"Errrr… Well, not necessarily… Just come over here anyway."

Kirby sighed as he walked over to Chopper. The rest of the group walked over to him and took notice of what the sign had to say.

_This place is called **Dimensional X**. It is the center of all dimensions. The creator of Dimensional X, **Ortorain**, is the one who created not only Dimensional X, but all of the other dimensions in the universe. In fact, he is still around to this day!_

"Hey! So this place is called Dimensional X, huh?" Blade pondered, looking carefully at the sign. "Well, that sounds like an…interesting name, I suppose. And wait, did it say that this is the CENTER of all dimensions? !"

"We've never seen the center of all dimensions!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: This is rather shocking…

"Hold on, guys!" Sonic shouted, interrupting the group. "There's still more to this sign! There's a lot more writing. Let's just continue on with the reading!"

_He has been waiting for the hero of prophecy to show up in order to give them the Pure Heart. If you are indeed the heroes, you should be able to travel through dimensions. You must find the **white lightning bolt **in order to travel through dimensions._

"White lightning bolt… Is this sign telling us there's a Dimensional Rift around here?" Chopper scanned the area, looking for a Dimensional Rift. He also tried to listen to the glittering sound it makes.

"We gotta stay quiet and listen," Luigi suggested.

"Poyo, (Although, I don't know if that's easy,)" Kirby frowned as they all remained silent. They heard a glittering sound nearby, and they began to look for the Dimensional Rift. Thankfully, it was nearby.

Kirby smiled and used Flippay to reveal a blue ! block, which Mario was able to strike with a punch to reveal a door in front of them.

When they opened the door, they walked into the next area. Sadly, they weren't taken into another dimension, but they noticed a speed bumper up ahead leading over to a slope leading up.

"Wow… I still can't get over the pretty sight of this place…" Chopper trailed as he let a flower petal land on his hand. Some even landed on his antennas and slowly floated to the ground, disappearing.

When one petal landed on Mario's nose, it began to tickle him a bit and force him to sneeze. At the same time, there was a tremor that caused The Void to grow slightly bigger in the sky.

"Oh… I can barely see the sky now…" Luigi frowned. "I hate that Tipral had to make this world go first…"

Mario: I sneezed at the same time The Void grew…

"Huh… Well that was a strange coincidence…" Sonic trailed. "Anyway, we oughta get moving. Hopefully we can find a new world through this place. …Maybe we can meet this Ortorain person?"

"Poyo, (I'm actually interested,)" Kirby smiled.

They decided to move on ahead, using the speed bumper to go up the hill easily. Surprisingly, there weren't any enemies around, which was strange, but it wasn't too big of a deal when they reached the top of the slope and found a ladder leading up to a platform above them where a door was.

They climbed up the ladder and entered the door, leading them into an area with three colored panels – something they've seen in the cyberspace world.

"Colored panels? I never expected to see them before… But not there's a purple color here…" Luigi trailed.

"And now there's a color in the background that tells us what color the panels need to be to continue on," Blade noted. "Yeah… That's pretty jerkish."

Nevertheless, they were able to make the panels a purple color and get rid of the barrier blocking their way. However, they were stopped by a purple Security Drone enemy. But, instead, these were called Dimensional Drones.

"Dimensional Drones? They look like Security Drones…" Chopper trailed. "It's like they're recolored."

"We've seen plenty of enemies that are recolored," Sonic assured. "Besides, these things aren't too hard to beat anyway."

All it took was Sonic to attack the Dimensional Drone with a couple of Homing Attacks. After it split into blue drones, he finished them off with two more Homing Attacks, allowing them to reach a bottomless pit with a blue platform that seemed to stretch out to become longer. However, it eventually became shorter.

Mario: This doesn't look too nice…

Nevertheless, they were able to cross the two platforms and reach a door up ahead. When they entered it, they reached an area with two pink glowing platforms leading up to a ledge ahead.

"Hey, I think I see something up ahead!" Chopper announced, noticing a portal up on the ledge. "Maybe we can reach a new world!"

"Poyo! (Oh boy!)" Kirby cheered as he jumped on the platforms first and reached the ledge. Chopper followed and noticed that when he landed on the ledge, he could see an image of where the portal would lead them too.

"Huh? What kind of place is this? It looks like a kingdom…but with some kind of dojo-like place that reminds me of The Master's Dojo…"

Mario: The Master? You know him?

"Yeah! I was able to fight him three times! You should've seen him when he went super! Too bad I didn't get to go super then…"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go explore this brand new world!" Blade suggested as he dove straight into the portal, only to crash and fall over on the ground. "Unnnghh… What in the world…?"

"Hmmmmm… Maybe it needs some power?" Chopper pondered, tossing a rainbow ball. To their surprise, it actually worked. "Oh! I guess my rainbow energy has a bit of a use than I thought!"

"Hey, bro, doesn't this world look familiar?" Luigi asked, taking a glimpse of the world through the portal. Mario took a good look as well, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Mario: Oh, yeah! This world DOES look familiar!

"All right, now let's go for REAL this time," Blade declared, diving into the portal. Instead of diving in, the rest of the heroes simply jumped through the portal, hoping to see what would await them.

* * *

**?-**

After everything began to get drawn, lime green grass was revealed to be on the ground with a black, rocky ground. In the background, a kingdom could be seen with a couple of dark blue buildings with some shades of yellow in the background. This whole world seemed to have a Chinese feel to it.

The portal revealed itself and all six heroes landed on the ground, with Blade falling over from diving into the portal. Blade moaned as he got up, while everyone else gazed at the new world.

"I can't believe we just went into two worlds…" Chopper gaped, looking at the atmosphere, including the pale green sky. "Hmmmmmm… Maybe the Pure Heart's in this world?"

Mario: I can't believe we're back here!

"Wait… Do you even know what this world is?" Sonic asked.

Mario: We're in **Sammer's Kingdom**.

"I remember Mario and I came back here one time to duel with a couple of knights," Luigi recalled. "We were able to beat them and… Well, I can't recall everything. Sorry."

"Wait a minute... Haven't we been here before?" Sonic gawked.

"Poyo! (Yeah! We were here after getting kidnapped by Tipral!)" Kirby realized.

"What do you mean?" Chopper gawked.

"When Tipral kidnapped us, we were thrown into this world," Blade explained. "I guess you were the only one who doesn't know about this place."

"Well, then I guess we'll get to see a little more of this world," Sonic smiled. "Plus, you can see this place as well, Chopper! Everything should fine!"

But when Kirby looked up at the sky, he noticed that The Void was there, nearly filling up the entire sky. In fact, they couldn't see too much of the sky!

"Poyo… (Oh, no… This world is probably close to its demise than Dimensional X…)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo… (We're going to have to be quick if we don't want to lose the Pure Heart here…)"

"Wait, The Void?" Chopper looked up at the sky and gaped. "Whoa, you weren't kidding, Kirby! The Void's about to destroy this world. This isn't good…"

"Then let's no waste any time," Sonic suggested. "We gotta be quick!"

"Hmmmmmm? Who are you people?"

"Blade, you know who we are," Chopper pointed out.

"That wasn't me, Chopper," Blade noted.

They saw a ninja with a square-shaped head, a navy blue mask, a dark red cloak with red and violet polka dots and navy blue round feet jumped out of a bush. It was called a Ninjoe – a fast opponent that are usually in groups.

"What the heck? A ninja?" Chopper got his fighting stance. "What do you want?"

"Hold your attacks," the Ninjoe demanded, raising his arm. "While we are rather hostile, I'm not going to hurt you. If you want to know where we are, we are in Sammer's Kingdom, home to the Sammer Guys. We used to be friends with them, but then a situation occurred and made us dislike each other."

"Sammer Guys? Who are they?" Sonic asked.

"They're King Sammer's knights. They challenge anyone who comes up to them. There are about a hundred overall." the Ninjoe looked over at Blade. "And, I also noticed someone walk through here that looks kind of like you…"

"Someone who looks like me…?" Blade gawked before realizing who it was. "Knife…"

"Knife? You mean that red cat that we fought before?" Luigi asked before receiving a nod from Blade. "Why would he be here?"

"To look for us… Of course he wants to kill me."

"Well, I'm not going to get in your way. You people look like you're in a hurry." the Ninjoe did a flip and went back in the bush. "However, if you see any more Ninjoes out there, be ready to fight, because they'll go after you."

They nodded to the Ninjoe and carried on, worried about The Void growing bigger. There didn't appear to be too much around here except for two logs by a pond. Blade jumped on the first one, keeping his balance on it.

"OK, this seems to be all right," he confirmed. "Try not to fall in the water, because you won't be able to grab a hold of the ledge ahead."

Everyone made their way across the logs and grabbed a hold of the ledge. When they pulled themselves up, they found two Ninjoes charging at them, throwing ninja stars at them.

"Heads up!" Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled the ninja star, gaining the Ninja ability. "Ye-ah! I've finally got the Ninja ability! Took me long enough to get this ability again…"

The Ninjoe remaining turned into a bomb that detonated, driving the heroes back to the edge of the ledge. Chopper held Starbow up and made shooting stars rain down. The Ninjoe was spotted and got pelted by a couple of shooting stars while Sonic finished it with a Sonic Wind.

"That takes care of that! Now let's hurry on ahead." Sonic suggested, running over to the door ahead. Everyone agreed and hurried on through the door ahead to an area with another pond, but with a couple of bamboo plants sticking out of the water.

"Poyo? (Are there any Ninjoes under the water?)" Kirby asked with a suspicious look.

Chopper looked at the bamboo, but he didn't find anything down there. "Nope. I don't see anything. Maybe they're hiding somewhere else…"

"Well who cares about that right now? We gotta be on the lookout for my brother, Knife." Blade warned, jumping on one of the bamboo plants with a ninja jump. Unfortunately, it looked like only a ninja would be able to jump these.

Mario: Lucky…

"You know, I've never see the outside of Sammer's Kingdom," Luigi recalled. "So this should be a little interesting."

Kirby simply floated over the bamboo plants and reached the rocky ledge up ahead. He used his inhaling to bring everyone else over to him, making it easier for them to continue on to a slope going down up ahead.

"Yeah, there's that oriental feeling to this place…" Sonic trailed. "I can feel it."

"Yeah, it definitely does," Chopper nodded. "It's interesting, considering that we've never seen a world like this before."

They made their way down the slope and found a spring at an upper right angle that helped them get across the pond. Three small bamboo plants seemed to be sticking out of the water.

"Hold on a second… Those bamboo plants look kinda weird…" Luigi trailed, looking over at the bamboo plants to their left as they landed on the ground. When he got a little close, Mario pulled him back.

Mario: Those might be Ninjoes…

The bamboo plants disappeared and three Ninjoes jumped out of the water, throwing ninja stars. Chopper threw three kunais to counter their attacks, followed by throwing some knives at them as well.

"They're pretty nimble," Sonic commented.

"But not enough to beat us!" Chopper smirked as he pulled his katana out and finished off one of the Ninjoes. They had some low HP, but that made it up for their speed and agility, which made it difficult to catch them.

"We need something that'll help us catch them easily," Blade groaned, trying to attack the Ninjoes, but was unfortunately getting hurt. He even threw a couple of shurikens, but they didn't work.

"Stop running and fight us!"

The three Ninjoes appeared and tossed a couple of ninja stars at the group. Chopper knocked them away with his own ninja star. Sonic was able to strike them with a Sonic Wind to leave them off guard, allowing Mario to finish them off by spinning his hammer around.

Mario: Great work!

With that, they walked over to a couple of bamboo plants blocking their way to the door. Blade cut them down with his katana and entered the door into an area with a large waterfall with logs coming down it.

"Didn't we see something like this before?" Luigi recalled.

"Poyo… (Maybe…)" Kirby trailed as smoke appeared by the water and two Ninjoes and a ninja in green blue landed in front of the heroes, throwing ninja stars at them. They discovered that the new ninja enemy was a Ninjohn.

"Ninjohns? Oh, come on! First we have a Nin_joe_ and now a Nin_john_?" Chopper face palmed, striking both Ninjoes with his katana, leaving only the Ninjohn left. This one was apparently faster than a Ninjoe.

"They appear to be faster," Blade grumbled, turning into a log and appearing behind the Ninjohn with a puff of smoke, defeating it. Afterward, he jumped on one of the logs heading down the waterfall.

Mario: Those logs are going down rather fast.

"I guess that means we have to be cautious while on those…" Luigi trailed. "Although, the pond doesn't seem too deep."

"If it's not, then I'm relieved," Sonic spoke. "And also… Why is the water green? That doesn't look nice, but I guess it fits for this place."

"All right, off we go!" Chopper declared, jumping on the logs and following Blade up them so they could reach the door at the edge of a cliff at the end of the area.

After everyone else reached the cliff, they walked into the next area, where they found a bottomless pit over by the edge of the cliff to their left. There was also another one to their right. Unfortunately, there was no door.

But they did see a red cat balancing on a tall bamboo plant.

"I've been waiting for you, Blade, Knife hissed as he opened his eyes and glared at Blade, who unsheathed his katana. "Pulling out your weapon so soon? Sounds to me that you're not showing honor…"

"You never show honor when fighting," Blade sneered. "So, what makes you think I should be honorable against a scumbag like you? You killed our sensei, after all."

"Oh, that was a couple of years ago. People can change in a couple of years, you know…"

"But you're still acting the same as you usually do! That's NOT an excuse!"

"Oh, fine," Knife grumbled. "I suppose you want to stop talking now and fight me, is that correct?"

"Actually, we don't want to fight you," Chopper explained. "Did you even SEE the sky? That giant swirling vortex of darkness could grow bigger any minute and destroy this entire world!"

"I don't care whether some darkness is going to destroy this place or not. As long as I get my revenge, I'll be happy on my own! I'll be thankful if that darkness kills you, Blade, 'cause that's what I am to do now!"

Knife unsheathed his katana and threw a couple of shurikens toward the group. Blade pulled his own shurikens out and tossed them at his, knocking them to the ground. However, Knife was able to use a hurricane slash to make the shurikens come off the ground and into the air.

"Did I ever tell you that I've got some new attacks too?"

"Glad to know that," Blade said sarcastically and he swung his katana back and made a ninja pose. "I learned some moves myself."

"A pose? THAT'S your new move? Pathetic!"

"Uhhh… No, you idiot. I didn't use my attack yet."

Knife face palmed as he twirled his katana and fired a dark beam of katana energy directly at him. It was like a Sword Beam, but not as big. Thankfully, Blade was able to get out of its way and hit Knife with a couple of shurikens, making him screech.

"That's nothing compared to my new attack," Blade scoffed, readying himself for another attack. "'Cause I know for sure that this will annihilate you! It's so strong, that it makes a dragon attack!"

"And do I really care?" Knife yawned.

"Blade… We're trying to fight here, not argue over whose attack is better." Sonic informed as he curled up in a ball and attacked Knife with a Spin Dash. It didn't take Knife too long to attack him with his katana, though.

Sonic moaned as he quickly got up and clenched his fist. When a Sonic Wind hit Knife, his mouth was agape, as if he didn't expect to see that coming. Blade groaned, wishing he could attack him and decided to try to strike him with a fire slash.

Of course, his brother was able to bring his katana up just in time to block the attack. Blade tried to push him back, but Knife was surprisingly stronger and managed to push him back, slashing him with his own katana.

"What the… How'd you do that? !" Blade gaped.

"Simple. I decided to find out where I went wrong and improve myself a bit." Knife explained, hitting Blade in the arm with one shuriken. "I'm sure you would've been delighted to have a challenge anyway."

"Yeah, one where I get to win."

"Ha ha ha ha… Yeah, I don't think so."

Knife jumped in the air and raised his katana. When he brought it down, a dark glow surrounded his katana and struck the ground, creating a dark shockwave that stunned Blade and Sonic.

Knife grinned as he stood up until he felt something hit his back. He turned around and saw that Chopper hurled another rainbow ball, which he used his katana to block. Mario jumped in and smashed Knife's face with his hammer.

"Great… I forgot about you people!" Knife screeched as Kirby attacked him with his Final Cutter. "And how the hell did you get new attacks?"

"Poyo… (We've found a little something…)" Kirby smirked, kicking Knife in the shin and allowing Luigi to jump on his head, making him cringe in pain. He tried to grab Luigi, but he jumped out of his reach, frustrating him.

"So, brother… Wanna give up now?" Blade asked, crossing his arms. "It's six against one. Even if you have some new attacks, we have some of our own!"

Blade aimed his katana at Knife and fired his Dragon Beam at him. A large, orange dragon fired out and struck Knife, leaving his eyes widened in pain as he was impaled by the attack.

However, that didn't necessarily mean that he was dead. The only reason why it killed Master Mind was because he was weak at the moment. Knife, however, was not weak, with a max HP of 410, an Attack of 17 and a Defense of 6.

"Damn… That didn't kill him." Blade frowned.

"Hmph… So that was your new attack you were telling me about…" Knife trailed. "I will commend you on that, but even still, that wasn't enough to take me down. Try again next time, brother!"

"Try again? OK!" Blade fired another Dragon Beam, but Knife was prepared this time. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving something behind after Blade finished off his Dragon Beam.

Mario: There's a note on the log!

"I'm not going over there," Luigi shuddered, stepping back. Blade sighed and took a step over to the log, checking his surroundings to make sure he doesn't get attacked by Knife, who could be anywhere.

When he looked at the note on the log, he noticed something on it. It was Knife's hand, but only one finger was up.

The middle finger.

"Oh, screw you Kni-" Blade was knocked to the ground as Knife appeared from behind and kicked him in the back. Blade hissed as he turned around and tried to punch Knife, who grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground.

"Sometimes ninjas need to use some martial arts," Knife grinned.

"Martial arts? Weird…" Chopper trailed, attempting to kick Knife, who grabbed his foot and threw him to the ground. He noticed the red ninja jump in the air and readying his katana, but this left him open for Luigi's Super Jump.

After striking him, Knife got sent to the ground, allowing Chopper to jump on him twice while performing a stylish move.

"Yeah! I like doing these!"

Knife jumped in the air and did a flip as he tossed a couple of shurikens. One of them exploded by Chopper's feet, sending him flying back, while Mario held onto his hat as he jumped out of another shuriken's way.

Knife landed on the ground and spun his katana around and continued to spin as if he was in a tornado. Everyone knew this was dangerous, so they jumped out of harm's way while Kirby tossed Crystaline at Knife, freezing him.

"Phew… Well that was close." Blade sighed. "I didn't want him spinning that katana around like crazy. Good job, Kirby."

However, Knife was able to break out of his icy prison and managed to swing his katana at an incredible speed at Kirby, sending him flying back afterward. Chopper managed to attack him with his katana, but he got the same thing from him. Not even he could swing a katana that fast.

"Geez! That was a fast attack!" Chopper gaped.

"What's wrong? Are you surprised by my attack?" Knife scoffed. "I'd like to see you try something like that."

Blade hissed and began to spin his katana around as he charged at his brother. Knife managed to counter his attacks and headbutt him right in the head. While Blade was dazed, Knife grabbed him and threw him back.

"Whoa! He really does mean business!" Luigi gaped.

"Of course. And now you're next!" Knife disappeared in a puff of smoke and grabbed Luigi from behind. He threw him up in the air and kicked him down to Mario, knocking both of them over.

Mario: Mama mia…

Blade quickly got himself up and helped Kirby up. When Knife threw a couple of shurikens their way, Blade ordered Kirby to inhale them, which he did and spat them back at Knife.

"What the heck? You should've gotten a hold of the Ninja ability!" Blade gawked. "Why did you spit it out?"

"Poyo, (I'm kind of tired of using ninja,)" Kirby replied, sighing as he kicked Knife in the stomach and used his Final Cutter to leave the red ninja cringing in pain. This gave Blade an opportunity to slash rapidly at his brother.

"And take some of this too, Knife!" Blade shouted as he kicked him in the stomach and knocked him to the ground.

"Well, that didn't work out too bad," Sonic smiled. "Nice going!"

Knife hissed as he swung his katana and fired a dark beam of sword energy straight at Sonic. He gasped and dodged the attack, striking Knife with his Whirlwind, which sent the ninja flying in the air.

Afterward, Luigi clenched his fist and attacked him with a Super Jump, followed by kicking him straight to the ground. Knife groaned as he quickly got up, but when he saw the group charging at him, he jumped, making everyone crash into each other.

Mario: Almost had him!

"Where'd he go?" Luigi asked.

"Over here," taunted Knife, who made a big jump onto the bamboo plant. "I dare you to come up here. See if you've got what it takes."

"That sounds like you're trying to challenge us," Chopper smirked, using his katana to cut up the bamboo plant, making it shorter until he got close to the top of the plant. Knife's smirk didn't come off him.

"Poyo… (I smell something suspicious…)" Kirby trailed.

"You don't have a nose, Kirby."

Knife jumped in the air and fired a dark beam of sword energy down at Chopper. Unfortunately, he didn't see it coming and got sent flying back because of it. Blade tried to throw some shurikens at him, but he blocked them all with his katana.

"I KNEW he had some kind of plan!" Blade grumbled as Knife came flying down, slashing at Blade rapidly. Luckily, he was able to at least block a couple of his attacks before headbutting his head.

"So, you're using attacks I use," Knife noticed. "How original."

"You're not the one who invented the headbutt."

"Yeah, so who's being original now?" Chopper taunted before getting slashed rapidly by Knife's katana. Despite that, Chopper didn't lose his Ninja ability. He quickly got up and swung his katana forward at Knife, disappearing for a second and appearing behind Knife as he cringed in pain.

"I forgot now… You're a fast one." Knife moaned.

"Well, I'm technically the fast one," Sonic boasted, attacking Knife with a Light Speed Attack, followed by his Bounce Attack. Knife growled and kicked Sonic in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.

"I was always annoyed with your personality, Sonic. Let's hope I'll have the opportunity to _kill_ you!"

"Ha! I'd like to see you try!"

"Sonic… Don't encourage him…" Chopper warned.

"Yeah, you better listen to your pale green friend, 'cause being cocky isn't going to get anywhere," Knife scoffed as he tried to swipe at Sonic's feet with his katana. However, the blue hedgehog was able to jump over his katana in a stylish way and strike him with a Homing Attack.

"And you were saying?" Sonic smirked, making Chopper give him an irritated look.

Knife grumbled to himself as he made a couple of symbols with his hands. "Fuujin no Justsu!"

"Oh, great… This." Blade rolled his eyes as Knife summoned a strong current of wind to blow them back. Unfortunately, since Chopper and Kirby were light, they were easily blown back by the cliff.

"Poyo! (We can't fall! Not like this!)" Kirby cried.

Sonic kicked Knife before running over to Chopper and Kirby and grabbing them before they could fly any further.

"Whew! Thanks, Sonic…" Chopper sighed.

"No problem! Now let's go finish this!" Sonic suggested, whirling over to Knife and hitting him with a Spin Dash. The red ninja fell over as Chopper jumped and attacked him with a rainbow diving kick.

"What kind of attack is that?" Knife gawked.

"Something that I got. I can even use fire!" Chopper tossed a charged fireball at Knife, leaving a nasty burn on him. Knife growled as he kicked Chopper before getting hit by Luigi's Cyclone and Hommissile, who Blade threw at to send him flying in the air.

"When you're getting attack multiple times, this makes it easy," Blade declared. "OK, Luigi! Hit him with a Super Jump!"

"Ummmmm… Are you trying to order me around or something?"

"No, I think this is a good opportunity to attack."

Luigi shrugged and attacked Knife with a Super Jump to send him flying to the ground, allowing Mario to jump in front of the red ninja and bash him with his hammer. However, Knife grabbed Mario's foot and attempted to use his katana to cut it off, but when Chopper used Starbow, he released Mario's foot.

Mario: That's a relief…

Knife quickly got up and slashed at Mario before a shuriken hit him in the back, making him screech in pain as Blade managed to slice at his arm, leaving a small rip on his ninja sleeve.

"So, you want to play it the hard way, don't you?" Knife hissed as he attempted to stab Blade, who used his katana to block the attack and kick his brother in the stomach. He was stunned, allowing Blade to slash his chest, leaving a scar.

"Hmmmmmm… Yeah, that's a bit of a bad scar there." Blade confirmed.

Knife moved his finger on the scar and looked at it to find some blood. In anger, he threw a couple of shurikens that hit Blade's shoulders. He cringed, but he tried his best to not give up yet.

"You know, brother, you still have much to learn compared to me."

"Oh, really? Well, I have certainly learned some things that you haven't."

"And that is…"

"I've learned to actually help people than harm them. What have you done your whole life? Most likely you decided to be a heartless prick and act like an ass to everyone you see before killing them. Yeah, that suits you very well."

"So, we're getting to the insults now," Knife frowned as he fired a beam of dark energy straight at Blade. He cringed as he pulled the shurikens out of his arms and also got hit by the attack.

"Well, maybe we already know who the stronger one is!"

Before Knife could attack again, Sonic bashed him with a Homing Attack to leave him off guard. Now that he was weak, Blade readied his katana and fired a Dragon Beam straight at him.

The attack impaled him and sent him flying by the bottomless pit.

"_**BLAAAAADE!**_"

Knife's head wasn't even touching the ground when he landed on his back. The group walked up to him, with Blade pointing his katana right at Knife's neck. The red ninja tried to grab his katana, but he was too weak to do so.

"So, are you going to kill me or what?" Knife hissed, glaring at Blade with the hate in his eyes. "Are you going to avenge our sensei by killing me?"

Blade glared at Knife, but then looked down at the scar on his chest. After thinking for a bit, he sheathed his katana and turned to his friends.

"Come on, guys. Let's just let him be." he suggested as he walked over to the door that revealed itself up ahead.

Everyone followed him, with the exception of Kirby, who looked over at the weak Knife. He decided to walk closer to him to get a better look of him.

"Are you going to follow them, pink puffball, or are you just going to stay here and watch me lie here?" Knife sneered.

Kirby said nothing as he followed the group to the door.

* * *

**Next area-**

When they walked out of the door, they noticed there were a couple of bamboo plants right by the cliff they were standing on. Two Ninjohns were standing on them, making it difficult to ninja jump across.

"Allow me," Chopper smiled as he tossed two kunais, knocking the Ninjohns off the bamboo plants. However, they appeared on the cliff and tossed a couple of ninja stars their way.

Kirby inhaled them and spat them back at the Ninjohns, defeating them. With that, they climbed down the bamboo plant and found a shallow pond that only went up to their feet, to their relief.

"Phew! That's a relief!" Sonic sighed. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to go underwater!"

"Yeah, let's hope we don't have to," Luigi sighed. "I'm a little tired of the water for a bit…"

When they jumped onto a small ledge onto dry land, they noticed a new ninja enemy that was in orange called a Ninjerry. There were about three of them, and they were charging at the group with ninja stars.

Mario: I got this!

Before the Ninjerries could disappear, Mario used Flippay to keep them stunned and stomp on them, defeating them. With that, they walked over to the door ahead by a small bush.

"Is that even a real bush?" Chopper gawked.

"I'll check," Blade said as he walked up to the bush with his katana. The bush changed into a Ninjerry, which tried to attack him, but failed horrible when Blade managed to slash at it.

"I guess that's it for them, right?" Luigi asked.

When Blade opened the door ahead, they were in an area where they saw a hill going up to a ledge where another door was. They expected to see some Spiny Tromps coming their way, but instead they saw three Ninjoes running down the hill and charging at them.

"So, they wanna challenge us, huh? Well, let's make this a little interesting!" Sonic smirked as he curled in a ball and went up the hill and defeated the Ninjoes. There were Ninjohns coming his way, but he bowled over them and the Ninjerries by the ledge.

"Huh… Well, that was nice." Chopper blinked.

"Poyo, (We better hurry before The Void grows again,)" Kirby suggested as they ran up the hill and reached the ledge. Sonic opened the door and everyone headed through, with him going in last.

They all sighed in relief when they didn't see any enemies around. The only thing they could see were the oriental buildings in the background, but much closer. They saw a bridge up ahead crossing over a small river and sign by the bridge.

"So, no more ninjas?" Luigi asked.

"Doesn't look like it… We're around the inner part of the kingdom, I guess…" Chopper trailed as he walked over to the sign and read it.

_To King Sammer's Palace_

"King Sammer? So THIS is Sammer's Kingdom…"

They crossed the bridge and found a yellow ? block, a Save Block, and a building before them. They found an Ultimate Shroom in the yellow ? block, and they saved their game afterward. With a simple shrug, they headed through the door.

* * *

**Gate 1-**

"_**I YIELD!**_"

"Huh?" Everyone noticed they weren't inside a building after walking through the door, but they saw a dark blue bearded man in a red cloak walking over to the black door they walked out of. He seemed to be a little bruised up.

"Huh? What's wrong with him?" Sonic asked.

"_**I AM SHAMED!**_" he shouted as he left through the door.

"Who was that anyway?" Chopper asked.

"Ahhhh…so you run, coward." a gray knight in with a green helmet shaped like a half circle, a brown mustache and a sword scoffed. "You disgrace your family's honor and yourself. You come back here again and lose to me, you unworthy opponent… When will this new 'hero' of legend appear?"

"Who's that guy?" Blade whispered.

"Time is running out, and still he refuses to show his face!"

Chopper decided to walk up the small staircase and walk onto the black battle stage. The knight, known as a Sammer Guy, noticed him and got in a fighting stance.

"You stop now! You have the looks of a crazy! You must be, if you mean to challenge me!"

"Wait, what? I never said anything about challenging you!" Chopper gawked. "There must be some kind of mistake here… And my name is Chopper, if you wanna know."

However, he was merely ignored by the Sammer Guy.

"Aha. So it begins, challenger. I am known as Jade Blooper, guardian of the 1st gate… Prepare for a game over!"

"Game over! Not in a life time!"

"_**HAAACHAWW!**_"

**Round 1 **

**Fight!**

"What the… Round 1?" Before Chopper could attack, his Ninja ability was knocked away by a single slash from Jade Blooper's sword. "Oh, come on! Not my ability! That's not fair!"

"What's the matter? Are you chicken?" Jade Blooper scoffed.

"I'll show you a chicken," Chopper muttered as he inhaled his sword and gained the Sword ability. "Ha! How's that?"

"I always bring a spare just in case," the Sammer Guy pulled out another sword and charged at Chopper.

"Can't we come and help?" Blade asked.

"Only one person may battle," Jade Blooper stated. "We prefer to have even fights."

Jade Blooper swung his sword at Chopper again, but his attack got countered when Chopper managed to slash at Jade Blooper rapidly with his sword. He didn't even have a chance to make another move when Chopper finished him with a Sword Beam.

"That attack… What kind of attack is that? !" Jade Blooper gaped as he fell over on the ground in defeat. "No more, I beg you! Your power is great, challenger."

"Well, looks like victory is mine," Chopper smiled as he put his sword away for now.

When Jade Blooper got back up, everyone else got on the stage and watched the Sammer Guy bow to them.

"Your skills are impressive…for a little boy."

"Little boy? I can tell you that I'm not little…"

Mario: You are kind of small…

"Poyo, (Like me,)" Kirby added.

"So, it appears the heroes of legend have finally arrived after a while…" Jade Blooper trailed. "You may go to the next gate."

"Next gate? What on earth are you talking about?" Blade asked. "There's MORE? !"

"_**OH, SPLENDID!**_"

Across the stage, a king with a yellow crown-shaped head, a black mustache and goatee, a blue shirt and a red cape cheered happily.

"Oh ho! What a performance that was! And what exotic looks you have, challengers!" the king cheered as he walked onto the stage and over to the heroes. "What a rousing spectacle of martial artistry!"

"Martial artistry? What's that?" Chopper asked.

"You don't know about martial arts, Chopper?" Sonic gawked.

"Oh, that I know…"

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Blade asked rudely.

"Blade… That crown and robe doesn't give it away?"

"_**INSOLENCE!**_" Jade Blooper snapped. "Show some respect, dog!"

"Poyo! (We're not dogs!)" Kirby retorted.

"You stand before King Sammer, ruler of the Sammer Guys!"

"Your unusual fighting style brings me no end! Since you're the heroes of the prophecy, I should reward you with a glimpse of my treasure… Behold!"

King Sammer held up a card that resembled Sammer's Kingdom. "This is a legendary treasure that has been passed down from my ancestors for generations. This is called the **Sammer's Kingdom Card**."

"Sammer's Kingdom Card? What's that supposed to be anyway?" Luigi asked.

"Not even I know what it does… It's a mystery indeed… It may hold a purpose… But, I was told by my ancestors to give this to the one who defeats all of my vassals."

Mario: But we defeated your knights!

"Heh heh…" King Sammer sweat dropped. "Maybe I just forgot… So sorry for that!"

"So, why do we even need that in the first place?" Chopper asked. "We need to find a Pure Heart, not some stupid card!"

"…Actually, I do recall something. This card might actually hold a purpose for another dimension. I don't know what dimension, but it is indeed an important item."

"Poyo… (So much for being a mystery then…)" Kirby trailed.

"Then we should probably get that thing," Blade suggested. "So… Could you give it to us?"

"Oh ho! Such a typical thing from a hero!" King Sammer chuckled. "If you desire it, prove your worth by defeating my vassals in a tournament!"

"Are you serious?" Chopper gawked. "That's it?"

"In our kingdom, there is a legend that had been passed down through generations," Jade Blooper informed. "'When a great hole appears in the sky, the world will soon be devoured.' The tempest in the sky grows larger by the day. It must be stopped!"

"But the legend goes on… And so I shall continue a very dramatic reading…ahem." King Sammer cleared his throat. "'Only one thing can stop The Void: the great hero must be given the Pure Heart.' …Which, I sadly do not have anymore…"

"Then what's the point of fighting?" Chopper asked.

"For the card, maybe?" Blade shrugged. "Look, there must be a reason why we were led here. That card could be what we need to get to the Pure Heart in another world."

"So, would you all like to meet my vassals?" King Sammer asked.

"Uhhhh… No thanks." Luigi replied. "We're kind of in a…"

"_**Vassals, to me!**_"

The whole gate was flooded by 99 other Sammer Guys. Some were small, smaller than Chopper, some were about Jade Blooper's size, and there were even ones that were much bigger than them.

"_**HACHAW!**_"

"_**HAIL SAMMER!**_"

"_**100 STRONG!**_"

"These are my vassals. Should you beat them all, you will prove you are the true heroes. Yes, I shall reward you with the Sammer's Kingdom Card if you best my other 99 Sammer Guys!"

"Oh… Well this is nice." Chopper frowned.

"Begone, Sammer Guys, and move to your tournament positions!" Jade Blooper ordered as all of the Sammer Guys scurried out of Gate 1.

"I'm sure I'll be on the edge of my throne throughout this thrilling tournament!" King Sammer cheered. "I will await your arrival at the last gate. The tournament has begun… Let skill decide!"

King Sammer scurried away as the last Sammer Guy looked back at the heroes before leaving Gate 1.

"Great… We're in a big mess now." Sonic sighed. "We probably don't even have the time to reach the 100th Sammer Guy!"

"Then we better go quickly," Chopper suggested as he raced over to the gate ahead. Everyone shrugged and followed him to the gate.

* * *

**Gate 2-**

As they reached the next gate, they noticed it looked exactly the same as Gate 1. The only difference? There was a Sammer Guy that looked just like Jade Blooper, except he didn't have facial hair.

"Since only one of us can fight a Sammer Guy at a time, why don't we take turns and go from a certain order," Blade suggested.

Mario: I think that works!

"Poyo? (Could I fight this one?)" Kirby asked.

"I guess so," Chopper nodded. "This is how we'll do the order: Me, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and then Luigi. Is that all right?"

"Well, at least I'm last," Luigi sighed.

Kirby walked up to the stage to face the Sammer Guy before them.

"_**I SEE YOU!**_ Look upon Hill with Eyes, keeper of the 2nd gate!" Hill with Eyes exclaimed. "You run along the earth, attacking immobile blocks…AND I SEE YOU! You leap above deep pits, dodging wandering beasts…AND I WATCH YOU! Soon you will fall in battle by my merciless hand…AND I LAUGH AT YOU!"

"Poyo? (Hill with Eyes? That's a strange name…)"

**Round 2**

**Fight!**

Hill with Eyes started by charging at Kirby with his sword, which Kirby managed to slash away with his Final Cutter before attacking him with a Cartwheel. This seemed easy to Kirby after he inhaled him and spat him out.

After Hill with Eyes got back up, he charged at Kirby again, but got hit with a simple kick to the stomach, making the Sammer Guy fall over in defeat.

"Ow…Right in the eye!"

"Poyo… (Not much of a challenge…)" Kirby trailed.

Hill with Eyes got back up and bowed to Kirby. "You did not wither beneath my cold, unflinching stare…And so I am defeated…but defeat and victory are meaningless to one such as I. I will remain in the distance, waiting without remorse and… ALWAYS WATCHING!"

"That wasn't too bad," Blade gawked. "They're not that strong, honestly…"

Mario: This is the second guy. Of course he's not that hard!

"Yeah, you've got a point…"

* * *

**Gate 3-**

When they walked out of the door, Sonic walked up to the stage. He grinned when he saw this Sammer Guy was wearing blue like him. He also had a black mustache and a goatee. Although, his mustache looked different than King Sammer's.

"An opponent blows in…my name floats like an ill wind, for I am Puffing Fist, guardian of the third gate! I can send the mightiest opponent to his doom with a single strike! Pwwaaang!"

**Round 3**

**Fight!**

Puffing Fist jumped in the air and swung his sword while Sonic jumped in the air in a ball. The sword struck him, but it didn't stop him from using his Whirlwind to send Puffing Fist flying in the air.

"You said you could beat me with a single strike," Sonic recalled as he struck him with only one Homing Attack to defeat the Sammer Guy.

"Noo…it was you who has dealt the pwaanging…" Puffing Fist moaned as he fell to the ground.

"I guess that was a piece of cake…"

Puffing Fist got himself up and bowed to Sonic. "I have failed the ancient Pwaaanging traditions! Mt strike lacks puff. I must go and train at the cloud temple. I will use my remaining vacation days."

"Yeah, you could use a vacation if you want," Sonic shrugged. "Anyway… Let's move on."

* * *

**Gate 4-**

When Blade stepped up to the stage, he met with a Sammer Guy in green holding a spiky club instead of a sword.

"No sword? I was hoping we'd be able to have a sword fight…" Blade sighed. "Although, I carry a katana and not a sword."

"Soon, challenger, you will scream in terror at the name of the FLIGHTLESS BIRD! For I am Squatting Birdo, ever-hunkering guardian of the 4th gate! Now you will know the fury of the most deadly fighting style. Birdo…SQUAT!"

**Round 4**

**Fight!**

Squatting Birdo brought his club down before Blade, who used his ninja skills to turn into a log and kick the Sammer Guy from behind with a simple kick.

"Come to me, Ninjoe!" Squatting Birdo called as a Ninjoe joined in and threw a ninja star at Blade, who blocked it with his katana. He easily took care of the Ninjoe with his katana before nearly destroying Squatting Birdo with his Dragon Beam.

"Uhhhhh… You don't need to use that against someone who's not an enemy…" Chopper trailed.

"SQUAWWWK! The egg of my defeat burns hot on my face…" Squatting Birdo moaned as he fell to the ground in defeat.

"OK, I'll admit that attack was over the top…" Blade trailed.

Squatting Birdo quickly got up and bowed to Blade. "I bow to your skill. Birdo be with you, challenger!"

"'Birdo be with you'? I don't get that one bit…"

* * *

**Gate 5-**

When they reached the next gate, Mario walked onto the battle stage and saw a Sammer Guy in green, but with a mustache, a goatee, a sword, and a spike on his head. Mario sweat dropped, knowing that he wouldn't be able to jump on him.

"Tell me, challenger, have you ever tried to catch a jumping fish with your bare hands? You will know the frustration soon, for I am Leeping Cheep, keeper of the 5th gate! The Cheep Cheep soars in the air and strikes its prey like a fishy tsunami!"

Mario: Uhhh… I don't know what to say…

**Round 5**

**Fight!**

Leeping Cheep managed to strike Mario at least once with his sword before Mario brought his hammer out to defend against the sword strikes. One simple kick was able to drive the Sammer Guy back.

Mario: All right, now I just need to use my hammer to win the battle!

He ran for Leeping Cheep, who managed to get himself back up and charge at Mario, but he was no match for a single bash from the hammer.

"But…that's so cheeeeeeep!" whined Leeping Cheep as he slowly got back up and bowed. "Your skill is strong. If only my flying, fishy friends had leapt to my aid when I called out for them…"

Mario: OK…

* * *

**Gate 6-**

"Oh… That's just a normal Sammer Guy." Luigi sighed in relief as he stepped up onto the stage to find a Sammer Guy in green holding a sword.

"Before we fight, consider this haiku… 'A challenger comes…Under the darkening sky…Wiggity wiggle…' Master Wiggler wiggles in defense of the 6th gate…_WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE!_"

"What's that supposed to mean?" gawked the green plumber.

**Round 6**

**Fight!**

Master Wiggler charged at Luigi with his sword, but he ended up missing when Luigi jumped out of the way and stomped on his head, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds. He even threw Bonjourang at him to deal a little more damage.

"I don't know if I should get closer…" Luigi gulped.

Mario: We know you can do it!

Master Wiggler tried to attack him one more time, but Luigi was able to give him a stomp, knocking him to the ground in defeat.

"Wiggoooort!" the Sammer Guy cried in defeat before getting back up and bowing to Luigi. "Before you leave…contemplate this haiku… 'The Challenger came…now my face wiggles in pain…Wiggle wiggle wig…' Wiggle on, Warrior, wiggle on…"

"Oh… Well that wasn't too hard!"

* * *

**Gate 7-**

"Well, since we all went, I guess I'm going back up," Chopper smiled as he readied his sword and stepped up onto the stage to find a Sammer Guy in green with a spiked club and a white mustache.

"_**STOMPOW! **_I am Shoe of Kuribo! I protect the 7th gate! _STOMPOW!_ Some try to tiptoe past me like little fancy slippers! I stomp them! _STOMPOW!_ Shoe stomps all! _STOMPOW!_ Shoe of Kuribo will tread on you! _STOMPOW!_"

**Round 7**

**Fight!**

Shoe of Kuribo swung his club at Chopper, who managed to easily block it with his sword. He slashed him once and attacked him with an uppercut slice afterward. With that, he began to slash rapidly at the Sammer Guy afterward.

"Well, that didn't defeat him," Chopper frowned as he got hit in the face by Shoe of Kuribo's club, leaving a red mark on his cheek.

However, Chopper was able to use rainbow energy to help attack Shoe of Kuribo with a rainbow slash and a jump, which finished him off.

"STOMPOWED!"

"What is with these guys anyway? They have strange lines…"

Shoe of Kuribo got himself up and bowed to Chopper. "Stompow… I am stomped… You crushow my stompow... You boot shoe! STOMPOW!"

"Poyo… (We should probably go…)" Kirby trailed.

* * *

**Gate 8-**

Since it was Kirby's turn to step up, he went onto the stage and met a Sammer Guy in blue rather than green and a sword.

"_**YOU FRY NOW!**_ I am Guy Who Fry, master of Dripping Magma Punch, guard of the 8th gate. I see your eyes burn with purpose. Will I torch you today? Or will your burning desire to win extinguish me? I say… YOU FRY NOW!"

**Round 8**

**Fight!**

Kirby readied his Final Cutter as he easily used it to throw Guy Who Fry in the air and bring him to the ground, leaving him stunned. Guy Who Fry was able to swing his sword at Kirby, but it wasn't much when he used his Defend on it.

Another Ninjoe made its appearance, but it only took Kirby to use Crystaline to defeat it, leaving only the Sammer Guy left.

"Poyo! (You're not even that hard!)" Kirby scoffed as he inhaled Guy Who Fry and spat him to the ground. The Sammer Guy went for another attack, but Kirby defeated him by using Barry as a spiked shield to win the fight.

"It is I who fry today…" Guy Who Fry moaned as he fell over on the ground in defeat.

"Poyo, (Well, that wraps that up,)" Kirby announced.

Guy Who Fry got himself back up and gave Kirby a bow. "I am like a sad pail of discarded grease… Go now and fry some Sammer Guys in memory of Guy Who Fry!"

"Poyo! (Sure will!)" Kirby cheered.

"We're not going to fry them…" Chopper trailed. "It's more of a duel where no one dies."

* * *

**Gate 9-**

"Well, looks like it's me again!" Sonic smirked as he stepped up onto the stage and found a green Sammer Guy with a spiked club.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZK! The shrill shriek of the SCREEEAAAAMING MANTISSSS paralyzes you at gate 9! You are motionless with fear! Now I prey on your face! YEZZZZZZZZZK!"

"Your shrieks nearly made me deaf…"

**Round 9**

**Fight!**

Screaming Mantis charged at Sonic with full force, but since he was much faster than the Sammer Guy, he jumped over him and managed to kick him from behind. Screaming Mantis shrieked as he turned around and swung his club.

"Missed me!" Sonic taunted as he hit him with a Homing Attack. After a Bounce Attack, Screaming Mantis was done for.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHZZZZZZ!" Screaming Mantis shrieked before getting up and bowing to Sonic. "Screaming Mantis' throat grows hoarse… Screaming Mantis requires a lozenge…"

"Well, I don't think I have the time to help you… Sorry…"

* * *

**Gate 10-**

"'Sup?" Blade asked as he walked up to the next Sammer Guy. "…WHOA!"

"What is it, Blade?" Luigi asked.

"I have to fight THAT? !" Blade pointed at a large, blue sumo-like Sammer Guy tapping his large sword in his large hand. "Are you serious?"

"O'Chunks was probably tougher than what he is," Chopper informed.

"OK, fine," the blue ninja turned to the large Sammer Guy and walked up to him. He seemed ready for a fight.

"And so you come at last…like a young bloom poking through an early spring snow. I am called Koopa in Winter. I wait, immobile, by the 10th gate. The plant that blooms early freezes and perishes…and so, too, shall you!"

**Round 10**

**Fight!**

Blade jumped out of the way as Koopa in Winter brought his large sword down, making a yellow star appear in front of him. If Kirby was fighting once of these guys, he could easily use that to his advantage.

"Wait, what am I worried about? I fought bigger guys than this!" Blade smirked as he jumped in the air and spun his katana around, striking Koopa in Winter a couple of times. He threw a couple of shurikens at him, but they simply bounced off his armor.

"That won't be enough to hurt me," Koopa in Winter mocked as he jumped in the air and landed on Blade.

"All right, that's it," Blade kicked Koopa in Winter back and used a Dragon Beam to finish him off easily. "And that time, I needed to use it."

"N-N-N-Nooooo!" Koopa in Winter cried as he fell to the ground.

"Yeah! I did it!" Blade fist pumped.

Koopa in Winter pulled himself back up and bowed to Blade. "The cold sun of winter has set upon my soul… It made you bloom this day, but beware… The ice and snow know no allegiance. They will consume you too!"

"Let's just go already,"

* * *

**Gate 11-**

Knowing that they had a little bit of confidence in them now, Mario stepped onto the stage and met up with a Sammer Guy in blue with a sword, a dark brown mustache, and a spike on his head – just like the other Sammer Guy he faced before.

"The 11th gate… A place of power. And here you find Footsteps of Coins! Tell me, warrior, do you walk with you eyes open? Do you see many coins? Coins in blocks, coins in clouds… Everywhere there are coins glittering."

Mario: I have a couple of coins!

"It is I who leaves them. It is I who wanders the wide world, coins falling from my heels. Does this mean others should pick up my coins? OF COURSE NOT! The coins are mine alone! And now, I will make change of YOU! _**CHA-CHING!**_"

**Round 11**

**Fight!**

Footsteps of Coins called in a Ninjoe to help him. It threw a couple of shurikens toward Mario, which he managed to dodge and stomp on the Ninjoe's head. However, it transformed into a bomb and exploded. Thankfully, Mario wasn't even close to the Ninjoe when it blew up. When it reappeared, Mario finished it off with a stomp.

Mario: Now for you.

Mario used Kickbrin to leave Footsteps of Coins stunned and finished him off with a single hammer attack.

"I'm broke!" Footsteps of coins cried as he fell over.

Mario: Well that's a relief!

He slowly got back up and bowed to Mario. "My wealth was in my battle skills, and you have robbed me of them. My poverty of spirit is now matched by my empty pockets. And now I am faced with… NO! A loan from Mother! She will frown upon me! I would rather sell my weapons!"

Mario felt a little sorry for Footsteps of Coins, being the heroes that he is. Unfortunately, the only thing he could do was move on to the next gate with his friends.

* * *

**Gate 12-**

When Luigi stepped onto the stage, he saw the Sammer Guy he was facing had a dark brown mustache, green armor and a sword.

"Hey! His mustache looks a little like mine!" Luigi noticed.

"So you challenge your skill in the Duel of 100? I am the guardian on the 12th gate… Urchin Lung. Hah hah. So… You must be wondering, 'How many more of these guys must we fight?' _**FOOL!**_ There are 88 more of us! Does your resolve falter? Do you have what it takes? It is a relentless marathon of martial artistry! Now, come at me!"

"Uhhh…"

**Round 12**

**Fight!**

Urchin Lung charged at Luigi and managed to hit him with his sword. The green plunger managed to recoil afterward and use Bonjourang to hit the Sammer Guy, leaving him stunned. Afterward, he used his Cyclone and sent Urchin Lung flying.

"Whoa! What's going on? !" Urchin Lung gaped.

"This should do it!" Luigi smiled as he attacked Urchin Lung in the air with a Super Jump.

"Augh! Uh…a cramp! I yield!" cried Urchin Lung as he fell to the ground.

"Not too hard, honestly…"

Urchin Lung moaned as he got up and bowed to Luigi. "Ha ha. So you are not a slacker after all, fresh challenger… You may have the stamina to defeat us all. If perhaps you will get a side ache!"

"Well, we better get going then!"

* * *

**Gate 13-**

"OK! Looks like I'm back up again!" Chopper cheered as he jumped onto the stage without using the two steps. He faced a red Sammer Guy with a silver helmet, a curved, pointy brown mustache, and a blue sword.

"Ooh! A new Sammer Guy for me to fight!"

"KAKAAAAWWWW! KAKAAWWW! I will feast on the delicious flavor of your defeat! I am Crow Who Eats, guardian of the 13th Gate! I will make many meals from your shame! KAAAKAAAAWW!"

"Uhhhhhh… Kakaw?" Chopper gawked.

**Round 13**

**Fight!**

"Oh, boy… Well, he certainly looks a lot stronger than the previous Sammer Guys…"

Crow Who Eats swung his sword and a sonic wave came Chopper's way. He tried to defend himself with his sword, but that wasn't enough to stop him from hitting him with his sword.

"Geez… This guy actually can put up a fight!" Chopper gaped as he managed to slash at Crow Who Eats rapidly with his sword. This ultimately led him to get hurt by one of his sonic waves, but he was able to finish him off with his hammer.

"Kawwwwww…kawwww…kaww…" Crow Who Eats moaned as he fell over on the ground in defeat.

"Poyo, (That didn't look too hard,)" Kirby noted as Crow Who Eats got back up and bowed to Chopper.

"Cruel irony…now it is I who must eat crow…"

"You don't need to eat crow," Chopper informed. "Anyway, moving on."

* * *

**Gate 14-**

When Kirby stepped onto the stage, he met up with a Sammer Guy in green with a spike on his head, a spiked club, and a white mustache and goatee.

"Hewwo, pwaything! I am Swollen Tongue, master of the 14th gate… Flear me! You shall not gas! Wait, I mean gwass! I mean…PASS! Oh, who cares! Lettuce fight! Gahh!"

"Poyo! (You sound funny!)" Kirby giggled.

**Round 14**

**Fight!**

Swollen Tongue walked over to Kirby and tried to hit him with his club, but Kirby managed to jump out of the way and use Carrie to jump on his head, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Poyo, (I could just do another attack like that and it'll be all over,)" Kirby said as he got off Carrie and tried to inhale him. Swollen Tongue stuck his club to the ground to prevent himself from getting sucked in.

Kirby decided to stop and used his Cartwheel to knock Swollen Tongue back, then he finished him off with his Final Cutter.

"Glaagb… I have been fit! I mean…HIT! I wish I was more fit…" Swollen Tongue cried as he fell to the ground.

"Poyo! (I win again!)" Kirby cheered.

Swollen Tongue got back up and bowed to Kirby. "So… Had enough, have you? Buy now! I mean, BYE!"

* * *

**Gate 15-**

"Time for me to shine! …Again." Sonic declared as he jumped onto the stage to encounter a Sammer Guy in blue with a sword and a white, curvy mustache.

"The foe you face next is Slipping Grip, fearless guardian of the 15th gate. I am a new student of the Sweaty Palm Martial Arts Academy… But I recently passed my Slapotology exam with the highest marks! Now it is you who reap the benefits of my industrious note taking!"

**Round 15**

**Fight!**

"You know, I can just make this an easy victory for me," Sonic stated as he charged up a Light Speed Attack. When fully charged, he went all out on Slipping Grip, attacking him multiple times and leaving him with only 1 HP left.

With a single Homing Attack, Slipping Grip fell to the ground in defeat.

"Grip…slipping…" Slipping Grip moaned before getting back up and bowing to Sonic. "I bring shame upon the Sweaty Palm Martial Arts Academy! But you will be no match for my brothers! Their palms wield the fury of the winds!"

"Brothers, huh? Well, this might be a little interesting…"

* * *

**Gate 16-**

When Blade walked up onto the battle stage, he noticed that the Sammer Guy he was going up against looked just like the one Sonic fought against. His mustache, armor, and sword looked the same.

"A guy that looks so much similar to another Sammer Guy? Really?" Blade face palmed. "Then again, some of these battles are basically the same thing over again…"

"So you have defeated my brother… I am the second most famous student of the Sweaty Palm Martial Arts Academy… You have no doubt seen me in the academy newsletter. I am Clammy Hand. Guarding the 16th gate is my senior project. I WILL NOT FAIL!"

**Round 16**

**Fight!**

"All right, maybe I should try a different tactic," Blade tossed Hommissile directly at Clammy Hand, sending him flying back to the edge of the stage. He quickly got himself back up and charged at Blade, hitting him with his sword at least once.

"I will not fail!" Clammy Hand shouted as he tried to attack Blade again, who blocked his attack with his katana.

"Sorry, but I don't think that will work," Blade stated as he finished him off with a single slash.

"The world…grows clammy… So…clammy…" Clammy Hand moaned.

"Easy pickings!"

Clammy Hand got back up and bowed to Blade. "Do not think this is done. You must face my other brother next! He got expelled for studying the Wicked Palm of a Thousand Sweats!"

"Expelled? Weird… Well, I won't be fighting him anyway!"

* * *

**Gate 17-**

Mario: He looks the same as the other…

"Well, he's another brother, isn't he?" Luigi pondered as Mario stepped up to face against the next Sammer Guy.

"I am Forbidden Slap, former top student of the Sweaty Palms Martial Arts Academy…but I was expelled for learning forbidden slapping techniques from dark tomes. Now I wield history's most feared and reviled sword slaps!"

**Round 17**

**Fight!**

Forbidden Slap started off the battle by jumping in the air and swinging his sword down at Mario, who stepped out of the way and bashed him in the head with his hammer. Afterward, he used Thoreau to throw him to the ground and left him stunned.

Mario: I think one last attack should do it!

With one stomp, Mario finished off Forbidden Slap, knocking him to the ground.

"The Forbidden Slap yields…" he moaned as he slowly got up and bowed to Mario. "You have defeated the three star pupils of the Sweaty Palm Martial Arts Academy…"

"Brother!" Slipping Grip cried as he jumped over to his brother from out of nowhere.

"Brother, are you hurt? !" Clammy Hand asked as he jumped in the scene as well, out of nowhere like Slipping Grip.

"Slipping Grip! Clammy Hand!" Forbidden Slap cried, turning to his brothers. "Why are you here? Why have you left your gates?"

"We were worried about you…"

"Brother… Return to the Academy… They will take you back…"

"Yes, let us return to the academy and earn an advanced Sweaty Palm belt… Perhaps they will forgive my selfish quest for dark slapping power…" Forbidden Slap took one quick glance at Mario. "As for you… You may pass!"

"You have beaten us!" Slipping Grip declared. "Now go on and shame the rest like you have shammed us…"

"May the martial arts spirits grant you luck! Onward to glory!" Clammy Hand added before he and his older brother went back to their own gate.

* * *

**Gate 18-**

"Huh? What the heck?" Luigi gawked as he noticed the Sammer Guy he was going up against was much smaller than him. He was even smaller than Chopper and Kirby! From what he could see, he was in red and carried a small sword.

"Come closer! I am just a harmless leaf on the trimmed lawn of the 18th gate… _**HAAAACHHH!**_ NO! I am Hairy Arantula in the Grass! I leap on you head and bite on you ear lobe! _**HAAACHHH!**_"

**Round 18**

**Fight!**

Hairy Arantula in the Grass moved swiftly, swinging his sword at Luigi rapidly as he cringed in pain from each attack. He even tried to put up a defense, but because the Sammer Guy was too small, it was too hard to defend.

"Man… Why do I have to be stuck with the annoying ones?" Luigi groaned, jumping in the air. Little did he noticed he ended up stomping on Hairy Arantula in the Grass and defeated him.

"Tchchchch-Tchch-Tch…" Hairy Arantula in the Grass moaned as he fell to the ground.

"Oh… I won already?" Luigi gaped as the Sammer Guy got back up and bowed to him.

"Your earlobe, it is like IRON! I skitter away…"

* * *

**Gate 19-**

"Man! How long is this going to go?" Chopper groaned as he walked up to a Sammer Guy in blue with a black mustache and goatee and a spiked club. "This is starting to become VERY repetitive! And for what? A card? !"

"Stoic and impenetrable, Another Castle stands vigil over the 19th gate… Many challengers attempt to lay siege to me. All leave in tears. Tire yourself all you like pummeling my stony abdomen…I WILL NOT FALL!"

"Another Castle? Now that's a name I don't get at all…"

**Round 19**

**Fight!**

Chopper readied his hammer as he managed to block Another Castle's club and bashed him in the head with it. Afterward, he used his sword to attack him with a Rainbow Slash, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

However, Another Castle was able to recover and swing his club at Chopper, leaving another red mark on his face. However, he soon fell when Chopper rapidly swung his sword at him.

"Walls…falling…" Another Castle moaned.

"Easy!" Chopper smiled as he gave a thumbs up, while Another Castle got up and bowed to him.

Well done…but your prize is in another castle… Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

"Hey, Mario! I think he was talking to you…"

Mario: Yeah, very funny…

* * *

**Gate 20-**

"OK… The 20th gate…" Sonic sighed as he looked on ahead at the next opponent. "Oh, boy… Another large Sammer Guy. Well, good luck, Kirby!"

"Poyo! (Yeah! That's not fair!)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo? (Why do I have to fight the big guy this time?)"

As he stepped onto the stage, he noticed that the Sammer Guy's voice sounded very…loud.

"_**SMOOSH!**_ TO ROLLING THWOMP, THERE IS ONE THING BEST IN LIFE… ROLLING. _**SQUISH!**_ I ROLL OVER YOU AND MAKE YOU FLAT LIKE A SHEET OF PAPER!"

**Round 20**

**Fight!**

Kirby frowned once again as he saw a Ninjoe make an appearance and throw a couple of ninja stars at him. He decided that he had enough and inhaled it to gain the Ninja ability, which would probably help him against Rolling Thwomp.

When the large Sammer Guy brought his sword down, Kirby used this opportunity to dash toward Rolling Thwomp and slash him with his small katana without getting hurt by his weight.

"Poyo, (This could be annoying, considering that he probably has a lot of HP,)" Kirby groaned as he jumped and kicked Rolling Thwomp's head at an angle before getting smacked by his large sword.

"NOW TO SQUISH!" Rolling Thwomp curled up like a ball and began to roll Kirby's way.

"No fair! Only I can do that!" Sonic sulked.

However, after grabbing a yellow star that appeared from Rolling Thwomp, Kirby jumped in the air and brought it down on Rolling Thwomp, leaving him to fall on the ground in defeat.

"_**BYORGG!**_"

"Hey, you did it, Kirby!" Chopper cheered.

Rolling Thwomp slowly got back up and bowed to Kirby. WHY DO YOU NOT SQUISH FOR ROLLING THWOMP? ROLLING AND SQUISH IS NOT THE SAME AS IT WAS… YOU GO NOW… I HAVE LOST PASSION FOR SQUISH…"

"Poyo! (Hey! No need to put yourself down for that!)" Kirby assured. "Poyo! (There's still something to squish now and then!)"

However, he was interrupted by the sound of a large tremor that nearly knocked him over. Everyone looked up at the sky and noticed how big The Void was. It began to nearly fill up the sky now.

"We can barely see the sky now!" Luigi gaped.

"Poyo! (We can't just stand here! We need to go!)" Kirby cried.

"Oh, I believe you'll be a little too late for that, pink puffball…"

"Uhhhh… Who said that?" Blade asked.

Mario: Not me!

When everyone walked onto the stage, Tipral teleported above them, making everyone get in a fighting stance.

"Tipral!" Chopper shouted. "What are you doing here? !"

"To see how you pathetic waste of a heroes were doing," Tipral explained. "Try all you want, but you'll never make it to the end of this kingdom. The Void is surely going to destroy you and this world… _Very _soon."

"But… Why? All of this for revenge?" Blade spat. "Honestly, destroying the universe is never the answer to revenge."

"If you knew a little bit more about me, then you would truly know WHY I'm doing this. But explaining to you now would simply take up my time to escaping this garbage world."

Rolling Thwomp was highly offended by this and tried to attack him with his sword. Unfortunately, his attack was blocked when Tipral raised the Dark Star Scepter and surrounded his fist in darkness.

"Well I had enough of you, heroes; especially you, Chopper. I'll gladly watch the end of you and your friends soon."

"And we're not going to let that happen," Chopper declared before Tipral teleported out of the world. "Great… He got away."

"Wait… Is he doing all of this for more than just revenge?" Sonic gawked before getting interrupted by Rolling Thwomp.

"WORLD GOES SQUISH SOON!" Rolling Thwomp cried. "MUST TELL KING SAMMER! MUST NOT ACCIDENTALLY SQUISH KING AGAIN…"

"Uhhhhhh… So what do we do now?" Blade asked.

"Find a way out of here, maybe? !" Luigi shrieked as he put his cap over his face.

However, Rolling Thwomp gave a look of determination. "I WILL TAKE YOU TO KING SAMMER!" he cried as he grabbed the heroes and threw them far into Sammer's Kingdom.

* * *

**Gate 100-**

Once they landed on the ground, they noticed that they were at the 100th gate… Wait, the hundredth gate!

"Guys… We're almost there! We can make it to King Sammer right now!" Chopper cried. "Hurry!"

"Not so fast, heroes…"

They stopped when they saw a Sammer Guy with a black helmet covering his face, red shoulder pads, red glowing eyes, three gray spikes sticking out of his helmet and a red sword facing the entire group.

Mario: You're not the last Sammer Guy!

"Oh, yes I am…" the Sammer Guy growled. "You see, the old champion ended up retiring, so King Sammer requested another Sammer Guy to come in. I was that one, but I decided to prove to him that I was stronger by defeating the rest of the Sammer Guys. All 99 of them!"

"So… Who are you, then?"

"I am Final Quano, the new champion of Sammer's Kingdom."

"Final Quano? You look like an enemy of mine called Maquano…" Chopper trailed. "Anyway, we need to go see King Sammer immediately! The world is about to end soon!"

As he spoke, another tremor occurred in the sky.

"You are my opponents, whether the world is about to end or not. I made a promise that I would soon defeat you when you reached me." Final Quano declared. "Now we must fight! Only the true winner will reach King Sammer! Come! Let me face ALL of you!"

**Round 100**

**Fight!**

Final Quano swung his sword and fired a dark Sword Beam straight at Chopper and Kirby, knocking their abilities away. They also noticed how much damage that did to them. About 25. Yikes.

"Geez! How much HP does this guy have? !" Chopper winced.

"…About 500," Sonic stated.

"Are you serious? !"

Chopper tried to deliver a rainbow punch to Final Quano, but he was able to slash rapidly at him with his sword. Overall, they weren't doing too well with this guy.

"What's the matter? You don't have the energy to take me on? !" Final Quano scoffed as he ran toward the heroes and attacked them with a dark Sword Beam. "I was trained by the very best! Of course you won't beat me!"

Before he could deliver a finishing blow, the ground began to tremor once again. This time, however, it was more violent than the other.

"What's going on now?" the Sammer Guy looked up and gaped at the size of The Void. There was no longer a sky now. The Void was covering it ALL!

"No… The prophecy can't be right! Is this…the end…?"

"But… At a time like this? !" Blade cried. "We're so close, yet we're going to be so far now…"

"I don't wanna die!" Luigi cried.

"We can at least try to go!" Chopper declared, trying to run past Final Quano.

"All right! You guys can go see King Sammer!" Final Quano decided. "Please, send him my regards too…"

However, it was too late. The world began to flash white a couple of times and everything began to feel wavy around them. As everyone screamed, everything began to fade away from this world as it was slowly devoured by the horrors of The Void.

Sammer's Kingdom was gone.

* * *

**Dimensional X-**

"Unnnnnnghhhh… Am I…dead?" Chopper moaned as he slowly got up. He noticed he was no longer in Sammer's Kingdom, but in Dimensional X. He could tell by the flower petals floating down from the sky. That, and The Void in the background was also rather big as well.

He turned around and noticed everyone else slowly getting up.

"So… Are we in The Underwhere again?" Blade moaned.

"I don't think so… We're back in Dimensional X. But…how?"

"That was me, heroes!"

Everyone looked above them and saw a small person with purple skin, a brown cloak and hood, and blue goggles. He was also holding a golden scepter in his hands. Surprisingly, he was much smaller than Chopper.

"Who on earth are you?" Luigi asked.

"Greetings, heroes! My name is Ortorain. I expected your arrival… But, for some reason, I noticed you were dwelling in another world. Sammer's Kingdom, perhaps?"

Mario: How do you know this?

"Because I watch all worlds!" Ortorain chuckled. "You see, it is I who is the creator of all dimensions! I've also been watching you this entire time, ever since you were before! I can even recall some events, such as Staris getting all seven Star Spirits and turning into Perfect Staris, or when Maquano was sealed in the Light Orb and came back by using the Crystal Star's power!"

"Yikes… Those were things that DID happen!" Chopper gaped, his antennas sprung up. "But what do we do now? We tried to get some stupid card, only to have the world get destroyed…"

"Poor Sammer's Kingdom…" Blade trailed. "And also poor Knife… He ended up getting swallowed along with that place as well."

"So does that mean your brother's gone?" Luigi gawked.

"I guess so."

"Yes, I do feel sorry for the loss of a world…" Ortorain trailed. "But, the only good news I can give to you is that I have this."

The dimension creator pulled out a card similar to King Sammer's. "This was one of the few things I managed to save besides you guys."

"So it WAS you who saved us…" Chopper trailed. "But how come you couldn't save Sammer's Kingdom either?"

"I may be a creator, but I don't have the power to save an entire world. All I can do is save a couple of people… But, with this card, this will help you get closer to the Pure Heart."

"You know the purpose of these cards?" Blade asked as he took the card from Ortorain, who handed it to him.

"These cards were made to gain access through barriers that block the way to another world. It's not too complicated, but sometimes explaining it can get a little confusing. Heh heh…"

"Well, since all we can do is find the Pure Heart, can you lead us to the next portal?" Chopper asked.

"Of course, Chopper. That's why I saved you. Come along now!"

The six heroes followed Ortorain through the flat area until they reached a Star Block up ahead. Chopper gave it a whack and watched as all the twenty glittering stars circled around.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_After witnessing the end of Sammer's Kingdom, Chopper and Co. were saved by a strange little alien named Ortorain, the creator of all dimensions. To them, he looked like a young child, but to Ortorain, he was thousands of years old. As they followed him, they began to hear an explanation from him about the dangers of The Void and what it could do to this world if it was destroyed. Our heroes knew the loss of this dimension would be dangerous, and so they hurried on ahead as the petals bloomed in the dimensional world._

* * *

**I really wanted to go into Sammer's Kingdom somewhere in this story, so I decided that I would do it here, since it would fit before some other worlds we go into (and trust me, we'll get to those some other time in Chapter 18). Yeah, even though I like Sammer's Kingdom, I'll admit it's a little repetitive, especially this part with the gates. But, thankfully I put in some of the outside area as well!**

**Anyway, next time, we get to know a little more about Ortorain and we even go to another world! The question is... Which one?**

**...And I also noticed this fic has over 900,000 words. ...Yeah.  
**


	107. Into the Green Hills

**CHAPTER 18-2**

**-Into the Green Hills-**

"…And another important thing is that you don't want to end up small as I am," Ortorain rambled as he began to talk about what happened to him as a dimension creator. "Trust me, I've had my disadvantages throughout the years and I was almost like a bowling pin to those who've seen me! It's horrible! Horrible, I say!"

"Ummmmmm… Interesting story, Ortorain." Sonic sweat dropped as they stopped for a bit and looked at the area they were in. It was a flat ground, as usual, but there were a couple of small trees around this place that had pink leaves, as if spring just started. There were even a couple of fruit on the trees as well.

"Hey, what are those fruit over there?" Chopper asked, pointing to the fruit on the tree. He noticed an apple was on there, but a banana suddenly appeared on there, forcing him to shake the tree to get it down.

"Chopper! Don't shake the tree!" Blade shouted as he pulled Chopper away. "Seriously! That's unnecessary!"

"It's all right, Blade," assured Ortorain. "You can have some of the fruit from there if you wish. Besides, you guys look like you've been in a rough situation with someone…or more than just one person."

Mario: I could use some recovery!

Chopper went back to the tree and bashed it to make a couple of fruit fall to the ground. Of course, he took the bananas because of his love of that fruit (though, probably not as much as pizza). Kirby ate some fruit himself, barely leaving anything for everyone else.

"Kirby! You left only one fruit left!" Luigi gaped. "And it's a fruit I don't like! A durian!"

"A dur-ain?" Chopper gaped.

"It's dur-ian, not dur-ain," Blade corrected. "Get you words straight, Chopper!"

"I think 'durain' sounds better than durian, so I'm gonna call it a durain," Chopper declared as everyone face palmed. He even took the time to eat the 'durain' as well, making Kirby sulk.

"Right, now let me show you something," Ortorain summoned a couple of glowing yellow portals that led over to a door up ahead. "You might be interested in what you see through this door."

Everyone shrugged and jumped up the platforms to follow the small alien into an area where a large mirror appeared in the center of the room. Ortorain was floating beside it while his scepter leaned on the mirror.

"What's this large mirror?" Sonic asked. "It looks like it could give you more than seven years of bad luck…"

"This is my Time Mirror. With it, I can look back in the past and see what happened back then. I can even show you guys your past."

"I bet your bluffing," Blade stated. "How is that even possible?"

"As the creator of dimensions, many things are possible for me," Ortorain smirked. "I can show you your past if you want."

He used his scepter's power to show a vision of Blade's past, especially the scene where he was training with his sensei…with how to do his laundry. Blade gaped at Ortorain, as if he was an alien.

"Are you some kind of stalker? !"

"Heh heh heh… No, I'm not a stalker. If you'd like, I'll go to someone else." Ortorain shrugged, but stopped. "Hmmmmmm… Maybe showing the scene wouldn't be the best idea…"

"Yeah, I don't want to see mine," Chopper spoke, remembering the traumatizing moment of his birth planet's doom. "I don't want to recall those…events."

"Well, the best I can say is that you lived on a planet called Clara for six years and have been trying to stop Maquano from destroying the planet. Ever since he lost to you the first time, he became your sworn enemy… But, five months ago, you were able to destroy him once again."

"And he's no longer around for now, too!"

"And Sonic… I know for sure you didn't do anything to get that speed. You were born with it, isn't that correct?"

"He-Hey! He knew it!" Sonic grinned. "A lot of people ask me if something happened to me to get this speed or not!"

"Mario, Luigi… You were being taken to your parents with the help of a stork, but you, Mario… You were lost in the woods, while Baby Bowser managed to capture Luigi and the stork. With the help of the Yoshis, you were able to stop Baby Bowser once and for all and get back to your parents."

Mario: Yeah, that's correct!

"Uh huh! I know that for sure!" Luigi nodded.

"Kirby… How did you get to Dream Land, if I may ask? No need to tell me, because you crashed on Pop Star in a spaceship! Unfortunately, King Dedede wanted you to get out, but his plans didn't work out too well. You were also responsible for ridding Nightmare once and for all."

"Poyo! (Yay! He knows!)" Kirby cheered. "Poyo! (I think he does know a lot about us!"

"Indeed…"

"Can you also predict the future too?" Chopper asked.

"Well… Not exactly…" Ortorain sweat dropped. "However, from something I've seen from the past, I fear that you might discover something that you'll find very…shocking, Chopper…"

"Shocking? Why not tell me it right now?"

"No, I cannot tell you a thing like that. That's something you'll have to discover on your own. However, the only thing I can say is that this discovery might be the biggest twist on your adventure and your life."

"Twists? But we've gone through plenty of twists before! Remember when Luvbi turned out to be a Pure Heart? Or when Wenbi betrayed his people and sacrificed his life? I handled those easily!"

"No you didn't, Chopper…" Sonic recalled. "In fact, I think you were actually crying over Luvbi, and I even saw some tears come down your face when Wenbi died."

"But this probably isn't so bad!" Chopper assured. "I can handle it, Ortorain."

"Those shocking moments were about Luvbi and Wenbi…" Ortorain trailed. "But, I believe this would be more surprising than you'd think."

"Really? Well… I'd actually like to know! It might actually save us later!"

"It's better that I don't tell you, but the only thing I can say about it is that you'll find out much, much later."

"Oh… Well, I suppose we should wait. I'll be patient." Chopper frowned. At this point, he wasn't so sure how he would feel. Could this discovery nearly break him for eternity?

"Well, now that we've got that covered, I think now's the time for us to use that Sammer's Kingdom Card and take you to the next world to find another card."

"There's more than just one?" Luigi gaped.

"Yes, and they will be needed for you to reach the Pure Heart. Come now, heroes! I'll take you to the portal!"

"Where will the portal lead us anyway?" Sonic asked.

"You'll find out. Now come along!" Ortorain made a door appear with the power of his scepter and revealed a door with a pink portal inside. Everyone followed the little alien through the portal into an area with a steep hill up ahead that led to a couple of glowing yellow platforms.

"A steep hill? Well, this shouldn't be much of a problem." Sonic assured as he ran up the hill, but soon tumbled down when he felt the violent tremor of The Void growing bigger in the background.

"Oh, dear… The Void has grown once again… We must make haste, heroes, before The Void grows big enough to destroy my precious world!"

Everyone managed to make their way up the hill and reached the platforms. There, they saw a large purple platform up ahead with a globe. They could also see a couple of portals in the background as well.

"Wow, looks at this place!" Sonic gaped. "It's like we reached an area full of portals! This is insane!"

"Indeed it is," Ortorain chuckled as he placed his scepter on the pedestal on the platform after the heroes jumped over the platforms. They all gaped as they saw a blue laser fire out of the scepter and strike the globe.

"Poyo? (What are you doing?)" Kirby asked.

"You'll see…"

"Poyo! (Hey! He understands me!)" the pink puffball gaped. "Poyo! (He's one of the very few people I know that can understand a word I'm saying!)"

"Mmmm hmmmm hmmm hmmm!" chuckled Ortorain. "As the creator of dimensions, I can understand many different languages! Anyway, you might be surprised to see where your next destination is…"

Mario: Is it the Cragnon world?

"Oh, no, not that place. I know you people already seen some Cragnons, so I highly doubt you'll be seeing that. Anyway, to reach the Pure Heart, you must get one of the cards in this world."

When a portal revealed itself, they noticed what the world looked like. It had a lot of green with a couple of light brown and dark brown checkered rocks below the green grass. There were even a couple of loops around as well.

"It's Mobius!" Sonic gaped. "I'm going back home!"

"Uhhhh… You mean 'WE'?" Blade corrected.

"You know, I've never been to your world, Sonic," Chopper pondered. "The only worlds that I know I've been to for sure are Mario and Kirby's. I'm actually curious to see what yours is like. In fact, I wonder what your friends are like too!"

"Well, we'll probably get a chance to see 'em!" Sonic assured. "I think you'll like some of my friends, especially Tails! He's like a brother to me!"

"I bet Bang and Night are back there," Blade pondered. "And let's hope Bang didn't do anything stupid. I find it a little funny that he hasn't even called me in a LONG time too!"

"And by the way, there is a chance that you will all be exploring your own worlds to find those coupons," Ortorain explained, making everyone gape in surprise. "But, you must be quick…"

"Well, we're gonna go now, I guess," Chopper declared as he and his friends jumped into the portal after tossing a rainbow ball.

* * *

**Mobius-**

After everything got drawn and colored, our heroes fell out of the portal and landed on the green, grassy ground. After getting up, they looked around at the world they were in. It had the hills, the loops, the trees, and even the ocean in the back. What was most important about this world was the blue sky.

That was being blocked by The Void.

"Oh, no…" Sonic's eyes widened in fear as he noticed the size of The Void in Mobius. "This… This can't be right! The Void's already enormous here! Why on earth would my home world be one of the first to go? !"

"You're serious? !" Blade looked up at the sky, making his eyes widen in fear. "N-No… This world is close to being destroyed, almost like Dimensional X. But the only difference is that this place might go first!"

Kirby gulped and looked around him. "Poyo? (Was Tipral planning to make our worlds go first? Was this some kind of way to hurt us?)"

"I'm not so sure…" Chopper trailed. Everyone stopped when they felt another tremor and noticed The Void grew bigger in the sky. "Oh, man… The sky's already starting to disappear!"

"Ortorain, where is the next card?" Luigi asked as he turned around and noticed Ortorain was no longer around. "…Huh? Where did he go? Did that guy even come with us? Because I don't see him…"

Mario turned around and noticed Ortorain wasn't with them. He pondered before deducing that he probably wanted them to find the card themselves. They ARE heroes, after all…

"Well, the only thing we can do right now is simply move on," Sonic looked ahead and saw a climbable ledge up ahead past a couple of trees. This was just like the beginning of Green Hill Zone, except the Motobug and Buzz Bomber were corrupted with dark power.

"Are those Corrupted Badniks?" Blade questioned.

"Maybe The Void's power was able to corrupt some of these Badniks…" Sonic trailed as he ran over to the Motobug, which tried to use its sharp blade-like arms to slice at Sonic, who jumped back and hit it with a Homing Attack.

"They're certainly deadlier than before," Chopper pointed out as he charged up a rainbow ball and tossed it at the Corrupted Buzz Bomber above them, while Kirby inhaled it and spat it at the Corrupted Motobug, destroying them.

With that, they found a bridge up ahead. They noticed a Chopper jumping onto the bridge and actually making its way toward the ground…on land.

"The enemy with my name can move on land too?" Chopper gawked as he bashed it with his hammer. Sadly, the Corrupted Chopper managed to bite his foot, making him yelp as Mario jumped on it to destroy it.

Mario: Was it that bad?

"Bad? They have sharp, metallic teeth! Of course it hurts!"

After crossing the bridge, they found a hill going down up ahead. Sonic thought this place would feel the same, but this area felt a little different than he usually imagined it before.

"OK… Why don't we see what we can find around here?" Sonic suggested as he ran down the hill. Chopper followed him down and found a small curve going upward to a high ledge.

Chopper helped Mario up, while the rest managed to find their way up the ledge. Afterward, they found a large gap between them with a waterfall. Down below, there was a spinning log with a couple of spikes rolling with it. However, they could also take the platforms that looked as if they would fall if you stepped on them.

"Ummmmmm… What path should we take?" Luigi pondered.

Mario decided to jump on the platform, but barely had any time to jump to the next, leading the platform he was on to plummet. Everyone sighed as they jumped down to Mario, knowing they couldn't take the upper path.

"OK, be careful with these spikes," Sonic warned. "Chances are we'd get skewered by 'em if we're not careful."

"Uhh… Ya think?" Blade stated the obvious as he tried to get past the rotating spike log. Thankfully, he made his way across and defeated the Corrupted Motobug in front of him to find a door down a small hill.

They hurried down the hill and entered the door into an area where they saw a rock over by a high ledge ahead. There appeared to be something behind the rock, however. On the other hand, the ledge could lead them up somewhere else.

"Well, we can always take the upper path," Luigi shrugged. "I think I have a good enough jump to reach there."

Luigi used his Super Jump and managed to grab a hold of the ledge above. Sonic shrugged and used his Bounce Attack in order to reach up, but sadly, that didn't seem to work too well for him.

"Dang… Well, I'm not taking this part." Sonic sighed.

"Hold on… Is there something behind this rock?" When Chopper jumped on it, it broke into a couple of small pieces. He gaped as he noticed that there was a tunnel that appeared to be his size through the wall.

"Hey! Maybe I could fit through here!"

"Let me go first," declared Sonic as he rolled in a ball and went through the hole. Chopper decided to follow him through, as well as Mario, who tried to crawl through the hole but ended up tumbling down.

Mario: This is great…

After a little while, they eventually met with each other. The path below led to a small hill going down to a palm tree with a yellow spring, and the upper path led to some platforms that brought them down by the palm tree.

"So, how was the upper path?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (Nothing special,)" Kirby replied.

"Anyway, moving on," Sonic declared as he found two loops ahead. He and Chopper helped the rest of the group through the loop and reached a slope on the high ledge ahead to bring them up to the higher ledge.

"Any sign of a door?" Luigi asked.

Mario: I can see one off at the distance!

"Let's hope my friends are all right…" Sonic trailed as he Spin Dashed his way through a couple of Corrupted Motobugs and Corrupted Crabmeats. Luigi took care of the Corrupted Buzz Bombers with his Super Jump.

"I'll admit, this world actually looks nice!" Luigi smiled as he found a box on a small climbable ledge nearby. When Sonic hit it, fifty rings popped out and helped them recover 50 HP.

"Wait… What was that? Did I just see rings pop out?"

"Yeah, in my world, rings represent HP," Sonic explained. "During my adventures, I would always have to collect rings in order to survive. If I had at least one ring with me the whole time, I wouldn't die!"

"You know, I don't think you told us that before," Chopper recalled. "But, if we collect rings, we might be able to recover our HP! We better start finding rings, then!"

Up ahead by a palm tree, there was a yellow spring with a row of rings above it. Luigi jumped on the spring and let it launch him up to the rings, recovering some HP as well.

"This isn't too bad!" Luigi smiled.

"Too bad The Void is probably going to destroy this world soon…" Blade trailed.

"Blade… Don't bring that up, please…" Sonic suggested, looking at the large size of The Void. He had a glum look as he imagined what he would be without his home world.

Nevertheless, they carried on to the door ahead on the path. They knew for a fact that they needed to find that Mobius Card soon, or else they wouldn't be able to find the nineteenth Pure Heart.

* * *

**Somewhere else in Green Hill Zone-**

"Man… I've searched for literally MONTHS and I've found so sign of Sonic…" an orange fox with two tails groaned as he searched the area while flying with his two tails. "Not only that, but there's a giant swirling vortex in the sky that's nearly covered up the entire sky!"

He flew to the ground to allow himself to rest. He pulled out a large gadget that had a small screen. "I've been trying to get a location of Sonic with this, but it couldn't find anything…"

But that's when the fox, known as Tails, noticed the radar blinking.

"Wh-What? It's actually working!" Tails gasped. "What happened to this thing? Was it broken or something?"

"Hey, Tails! Over here!"

"Huh?" Tails looked off at the distance and saw a blue hedgehog waving to him over by a bush. Tails rubbed his eyes to make sure that that was him. When he noticed he wasn't dreaming, he hurried over to Sonic.

"Sonic! I… I don't believe it! You're safe!"

"Of course I am! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" Sonic declared, grinning. "So, how's it been so far? Did you see the sky lately? The Void sure is growing bigger every ten minutes, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that thing has grown quite big lately…" Tails trailed. "I was trying to investigate this thing, but I didn't… Wait, did you say that it's called The Void?"

"Golly, did I just say that? I mean… Yeah! I've been traveling around the world and discovered from an old man that it's called The Void!"

"That's funny… Since when do you ever say 'golly'? I don't think I've EVER heard you say something like that. Not only that… But your voice sounds a little funny? Are you having a cold?"

"Uhhhhh… Yeah! I…achoo!...have one heck of a cold! It's been bugging me for weeks!"

"Weeks? I'd suspect you to have a running nose, but it doesn't really seem like you have one, as far as I can see." Tails noticed. He looked at the radar on his gadget and noticed it wasn't blinking at a fast pace. "Hold on a minute! Sonic's DNA was meant to help track him down! This thing would be blinking faster by now!"

"Uhhhhhh… Look over there!" Sonic shouted. Tails looked around with a confused look before getting knocked out by a single fist.

* * *

**Back to the heroes-**

When they walked out of the door, they noticed a corkscrew up ahead. That's one of the few things that Green Hill Zone lacked before. But now, it appears that one has appeared here.

Not only that, but there were some robot monkeys corrupted with dark power called Corrupted Coconuts throwing, well, coconuts down at the group. Kirby managed to take care of one of them with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo! (Well that takes care of them!)" Kirby declared as he hurried ahead over to the corkscrew. Unfortunately, he was forced to stop there because he couldn't run through it. "Poyo? (How do we get through this?)"

"Kirby… You can float over it if you want." Chopper informed as Kirby noticed a bridge down below and a ledge just up ahead that the corkscrew was leading to. With a smug look, Kirby took in some air and floated over to the ledge.

Mario: How are we going to get across?

"There's a bridge down below," Luigi noticed as he looked down. There were only two Corrupted Crabmeats down there shooting small dark particles out of its metallic claws. Two Corrupted Choppers were down there as well.

"Oh, we've got this," Blade assured as he jumped down onto the bridge and began to slice at the Badniks with his katana. Mario joined him and attacked a Crabmeat on its head while avoiding the claws.

Meanwhile, Chopper and Sonic ran across the corkscrew and reached the ledge where Kirby was. A hill led down to the lower level where the rest of the group was, allowing them to follow them down another hill leading to a loop.

"There's so much running around here!" Luigi gaped. "How do you manage to do this stuff, Sonic?"

"Well, how are you able to jump to incredible heights?" Sonic asked.

"Oh… Well, you've got a point."

With that, they managed to make their way through both loops and reach a high ledge that had a platform moving up and down. Sonic tried to brake, but the yellow spring facing him pushed him back over to the loop.

"Ack! Not these kinds of springs! I hate them!"

After Sonic got back to the group, he noticed they all took the platform up to the ledge, where there were two palm trees with yellow springs. Three rings were nearby as well, and so were two Corrupted Motobugs.

"I've got them!" Chopper declared as he bashed one with his hammer and attacked one with an upward thrust of his hammer with rainbow energy to send it flying in the air. Luigi finished off the other with his jumping.

"OK, that wraps that up! Now let's move on!" Blade declared as he grabbed the three rings to recover 3 HP. After going down a small hill, they encountered a yellow spring leading up to another ledge where a door was.

They used the spring to launch themselves up to the ledge and looked at the two palm trees that had two Corrupted Coconuts. They continued to throw explosive coconuts to the ground, which reminded Kirby of the coconuts back at his world.

So, Kirby inhaled one and spat it at the Corrupted Coconuts. Sonic finished off both with his Homing Attack before landing by the door and entering it. When they all walked out of the door, they saw a flat area with a couple of climbable ledges, Corrupted Motobugs, Buzz Bombers, Crabmeats, and Choppers around. One thing for sure was that there was a lot.

However, they noticed a box right beside them. It had a couple of stars on it, so Blade simply broke it with his katana before feeling power surge into him, as if he got a Mega Star.

"Uhhh… What's happening to me?" Blade gawked.

"I think you're becoming bigger!" Chopper gaped. "Maybe that box did something to you like the Mega Star did!"

"Really?" the blue ninja looked at himself and realized he was 8-bit. "Hey… You're right! I've transformed into a giant 8-bit version of myself! Yeah! Now to trample all these guys!"

Blade went off on his merry way as he trampled the enemies in his path and destroying some of the climbable ledges around as well, which didn't make it look too nice when it was destroyed.

"You know… Sometimes I wonder if that's even a good thing for your world…" Luigi trailed as he looked at Sonic.

"Well, Eggman tends to destroy Green Hill a lot, so this isn't any different," Sonic shrugged as he ran after Blade, who ended up turning to normal size when he reached the door up ahead.

"Aw, man! It's already finished? !" Blade pouted.

Mario: I guess so…

"Poyo? (Why not check through this door?)" Kirby suggested as they walked through the door into another flat area.

"Huh… Nobody's here…" Sonic trailed. "What happened to the hills in this area? All I see are the palm trees."

"Sonic!" the blue hedgehog's ears sprang up as he saw a familiar two-tailed fox coming his way. "I've been looking for you for quite a while! Where've you been!"

"Yo, Tails! Long time no see!" he greeted back.

"Did you look at the sky lately? ! That thing's grown so big now!"

"Yeah…" Sonic trailed as he looked back at the sky sadly. "I can't believe this world is going to get destroyed soon… Where are we going to stay from here? It's so hard to make me think with that thing in the sky…"

"Well, I did some research and discovered something that'll help you stop this thing," Tails assured.

"You know about this thing?" Chopper gawked.

"Of course! I did my research on it anyway! I placed the thing you need in a chest over there! You can't miss it!"

"I see it over there!" Blade spotted a chest just up ahead.

Mario: Let's go get it!

Without even thinking, they all rushed to the chest and opened it. Unfortunately, they did not see a single thing inside.

"What's this?" Chopper gawked.

The chest transformed into a bomb and blew up in front of them. "Oh, come on! We've fallen for the same trick as before! That's seriously low for us!"

But what surprised them was that they weren't even injured from the bomb.

"Hey, wait a minute… You should be black with soot right now!" Tails whined, his voice changing a bit. "What kind of idea was that to place a bomb that wouldn't even harm your enemies in the first place? !"

Tails teleported over to the group with a black outlined box. "So, you thought you could waltz in through this world and find the Pure Heart? Well, when I'm around, there's not going to be a chance! Mimimimimimi!"

"Poyo… (Oh, great…)" Kirby groaned as Mimi transformed into herself. She was wearing a white kimono, which didn't really seem to fit this world too much.

"Surprise! I'm back again, dummy-heads!" Mimi greeted in a snobby tone. "We're having some wonderful weather today, aren't we? Too bad this world is going to go bye bye soon!"

"What have you done with Tails? !" Sonic asked in a serious tone. "Did you hurt him by any chance? !"

"…Maybe! But, it wasn't too serious. That fox is probably sleeping while making cute li'l noises as he doesn't get to witness the end of his life and this world!"

"Mimi, we don't want to fight you," Chopper warned. "We have NO time to get through this place! That means you have to get out of the way!"

"Well why should I listen to someone who went through my diary?" Mimi growled, putting her hands on her hips. "Oh, yeah! I know it was you, meanie-head! Those are where I keep my secrets in!"

"It's not like I was telling everyone about it… In fact, I was pretty much cringing through the whole thing."

"Well, it doesn't matter right now! …And besides, it's not like I'm here to actually defeat you. All I'm here for is to stop you. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Then maybe you might want a haircut," Blade suggested as he unsheathed his katana. "We could actually fix those pigtails of yours."

"EEEEEEK! Not my precious pigtails!" the psychotic girl shrieked as she covered her pigtails. "That's it! If you're asking for a fight, then you're getting one! _**NYAAAAAH!**_"

"Good going, Blade…" Sonic groaned.

Mimi started off by charging straight at Blade, knocking him back. She tried to get a hold of his katana to stab him with it, but Blade managed to kick the green girl away and get himself back up.

"Geez… What are you, a psycho?" Blade gawked as he clenched his katana tightly and got in a defensive position. "You just charged at me and attempted to take my katana! That was unnecessary…"

"Well how about this? !" Mimi cried as she fired a flaming Rubee at Blade, who gulped and jumped out of its way. Kirby inhaled the Rubee and spat it at her, making her cry in pain.

"You big meanie! Why would you hurt me like that? !"

"Poyo! (You're the one who's trying to attack us!)" Kirby replied as he readied his Final Cutter and attempted to bring it down on her. Sadly, his attack missed when Mimi teleported behind him and threw some Rubees down at him.

Chopper noticed that she had 400 HP, an Attack of 16, and a Defense of 5, which was surprising, considering that she never had defense before. He noticed she was flinging some Rubees at him too.

"Whoa!" Chopper inhaled one of the Rubees and spat it back at her. Because of that, she put up a shield of flaming Rubees to protect herself. Afterward, she dove down to the rest of the group to burn them with her Rubees.

"Uh oh… Those Rubees are on fire!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: You know what Rubees are?

"Well… I've heard her speak about them before. I guess it's an obvious thing for me." Luigi threw Bonjourang at the flaming Rubees to knock them away. Bonjourang also hit Mimi, making her stop as she tried to toss a flaming Rubee down at Luigi.

Luckily, he managed to jump out of the way and strike Mimi with a Super Jump before she surrounded herself in another shield of flaming Rubees. That's when Mario grabbed a flaming Rubee and threw it at her. Thankfully, the heat of the Rubee didn't seem to harm him as he touched it.

Mario: That was surprising…

Mimi grumbled to herself as she flipped into 3-D and made a couple of flaming Rubees fall from the sky. Chopper and Sonic got hurt by some and had a nasty burn left on them. Since they couldn't reach her in 3-D (with the exception of Chopper), they avoided her Rubee attacks.

"You know, this is just like the previous fight we had with her in the desert place," Sonic recalled.

"Well, don't think that that'll help you!" Mimi shouted as she flipped back into 2-D and tried to attack. All she could really do was try to use her Rubee shield to at least cut one of them.

Blade used Barry to create a spiky barrier around himself and stop Mimi's Rubee shield, leaving her vulnerable for an attack. He grinned as he threw Hommissile at her, sending her flying back.

"For a little girl, you're pretty easy to hit," Blade pointed out.

Mimi sneered as she summoned ice Rubees to fall from the sky and home in on him. What made it worse was that Blade was frozen solid. After Chopper managed to hit her with a rainbow ball, he ran over to Blade and unfroze him with a fireball.

"Whew… Thanks for that, Chopper."

"Anytime," Chopper gave a thumbs up while Mimi began to whine about the group having new abilities. Sonic even used his Sonic Wind to send her flying in the air, with Luigi attacking her with a Super Jump afterward.

Once Mimi plummeted to the ground, Mario shrugged and attacked her with a Super Ground Pound. She screeched in anger as she pulled out a bat made of Rubees and bashed it on Mario's head.

Mario: What the heck? !

"I've brought some weapons with me just to be on the safe side, dummies!" Mimi shouted as she tried to hit Mario with it again until it got sliced by Blade's katana. "No fair! You can't use swords!"

"It's a katana! Not a sword!" Blade growled as he did a cartwheel while spinning his katana and striking her with style. Mimi whined again as she surrounded herself in a shield of ice Rubees.

"Poyo! (Those will freeze you if you touch them!)" Kirby alarmed. "Poyo! (Don't get frozen, please!)"

"Then I have an idea!" Chopper conjured up a fireball and tossed it at Mimi. The ice Rubees heated up and even left the psychotic girl with a nasty burn. She squealed in horror as she tried to get the flames off her.

Afterward, she tackled Chopper to the ground and transformed into Bow. Since she had all of her moves, she was able to smack Chopper around with her fan, leaving a couple of marks on his face.

"H-Hey! Don't you dare copy one of my partners!" Chopper growled as he tried defending himself. Mimi cackled as she turned invisible when Chopper was about to kick her. "Dang it! I've never fought against my own friends…"

When Mimi made herself visible, Sonic instantly struck her with a Homing Attack, leaving her dazed. This allowed Kirby to use his Final Cutter and strike the psychotic girl.

"Though I kinda hate hitting girls, I really had no other choice…" Sonic trailed.

Mimi grumbled as she tried to smack Sonic with her fan, but Blade was able to land a combo on her with his katana by slashing her a couple of time and doing a flip over her to land one last slash.

"About time you were using stylish attacks with that katana!" Chopper noticed.

Mimi disappeared and appeared behind Blade, smacking him a couple of times with her fan before transforming into C-2 Choppor and firing a couple of blasts from her arm gun at Mario.

Mario: Uh oh…

Mario jumped over the blasts Mimi fired at him and managed to bash her with his hammer. Unfortunately, that didn't stop her from firing a couple of missiles to send him flying.

Mimi turned to Chopper and fired missiles at him. He tried to dodge them, but one missile hit him and knocked him to the ground while in the air. However, that didn't stop him from using Starbow to make shooting stars fall on Mimi.

"What's with all of these stars? !" Mimi whined. "Quit it already!"

That's when Kirby attacked her with a Cartwheel while she was vulnerable. She tried to paralyze him with a Stun Shot, which left the pink puffball paralyzed. That didn't stop Luigi from hitting her with a Cyclone, however.

"All right, this robot body's not helping me," Mimi frowned as she turned into Parakarry and sent Luigi flying with a Shell Shot. But, since she was a Paratroopa, this left her vulnerable to Chopper's jump, which made her wings detach and fall to the ground.

"Well, looks like you can't do much in that body!" Chopper laughed.

Mimi growled as she got in her shell and tossed herself at Chopper, knocking him to the ground. Afterward, she transformed into Vivian and hid in the shadows. Everyone's eyes widened and tried to search the area.

"Cripes! She turned into that shadow girl!" Blade gaped. "I think we might be screwed… I mean, she has fire!"

When Mimi rose up from the shadows, she rose her finger as it sparkled and everyone was scorched by a Fiery Jinx. Chopper jumped over to Mimi and tried to bash her with his hammer, but he ended up stopping.

"What's the matter? Can't hurt one of your girlfriends?" Mimi grinned.

"I don't HAVE a girlfriend!" Chopper retorted as he threw a rainbow ball at Mimi. He tried to remember that this wasn't the real Vivian and tried to think of her as the actual Mimi instead.

However, Mimi had another tactic up her sleeve. She managed to conjure up a fireball and hurl it straight at Chopper, who tried to counter it with another fireball, creating an explosion between them. He was able to freeze her afterward with a charged ice ball.

"There we go! Frozen solid now!"

Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out too well when Mimi was able to unfreeze herself with her fire. Kirby grumbled and attacked her with a Final Cutter, followed by kicking her in the face.

"Poyo, (I managed to beat you with those transformations, so I bet I'll beat you again,)" Kirby declared as he prepared to attack her again.

"Then watch me transform again!" Mimi changed into Heartsy and bashed Kirby in the head with her Hearty Hammer.

"Oh… She transformed into Chopper's girlfriend!" Blade noticed.

"Heartsy isn't my girlfriend, Blade," Chopper informed as he tried to hit Mimi with his hammer. However, Mimi got to him first and managed to strike him with her hammer first and then kick him in the face.

"You got kissed by your girlfriend, but let's see how you feel when you get beaten by her!" Mimi smirked before getting hit by a Spin Dash.

"Sorry, Mimi, but we're not going to let that happen," declared Sonic as he attacked her with a Homing Attack afterward. Mimi growled and used her hammer to bash Sonic in the head before using a Hammer Tornado to summon a pink tornado toward him and Luigi.

"I didn't know she could summon a tornado…" Luigi gulped.

The tornado sucked in the two and sent them flying. Mimi giggled as she managed to swing her hammer straight at Chopper's face, leaving a red mark on his face along with a heart.

"Oh, come on! Now there's a heart mark on my face!" Chopper grumbled.

"Actually, I think I might know what could weaken you," the shape-shifting girl smirked as she blew a kiss with her Refreshing Love attack. Knowing what this ability does, let himself get hit by the attack.

"Wait… Why did you let yourself get hit by that? !"

"Because it can slowly recover my HP! What else?"

Mimi gaped as she got slashed by Blade's katana. After he spun it vertically at her, she transformed into Flyer and paralyzed him with his arm gun device. Chopper tried to get a hold of her, but she flew in the air and dove at him, knocking him back.

"Poyo, (I know how to handle this,)" Kirby smiled as he struck Mimi with his Final Cutter and a Cartwheel afterward. Mimi screamed as she fell to the ground, using a tornado to blow Kirby back.

"I think I'm going to end your game first!" she screeched as she tried to punch Kirby. To her surprise, the punch didn't seem to do too much.

"Wait… Why didn't I deal much damage? !"

"Maybe because Flyer's not physically strong," Sonic shrugged as Mimi growled and transformed back into herself. She teleported up into the air and made poison Rubees fall down before them.

"Poyo! (Aaah! Poison Rubees!)" Kirby cried.

"Poison Rubees?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo! (They'll poison you!)"

After Chopper explained to everyone what would happen, their eyes widened, and they began to avoid the Rubees. Kirby, on the other hand, inhaled one of them and spat it at the poison Rubee shield Mimi had around her, harming her and getting rid of her shield as well.

Mimi created another Rubee shield and dove down at Luigi with it. He got poisoned, but with the help of Piccolo, he was able to cure himself.

"Stupid-head… Why do you have to have those stupid floating things with you?" Mimi grumbled.

"Stupid? We're certainly not stupid." Starbow replied with a glare.

Kirby threw Crystaline at the Rubee shield to freeze all the Rubees and even froze Mimi while in the air. This gave Luigi the opportunity to attack by using his Super Jump to break her out of her frozen prison and knock her to the ground.

Mario: Looks like I'm up now!

The red plumber jumped in the air and stomped on Mimi's head while performing a stylish move. He then proceeded to attack her with a Super Ground Pound, making her flip into 3-D afterward.

"If I can avoid getting hurt, then I'm definitely going to stay in 3-D!" Mimi cackled. "Let's see you hit me now! Mimimimimimimi!"

"Ugh… I hate that cackle…" Sonic groaned.

"Well, what do we do now?" Blade asked.

Chopper instantly flipped into 3-D and threw a normal Rubee Mimi sent flying down at him at her. While the shield was gone, he used Starbow to make shooting stars rain on her, forcing her back into 2-D.

"Ooh! So you got her back into 2-D!" Sonic smiled. "Good work!"

Mario readied his hammer and bashed the girl in the head with his hammer. However, she was able to make another Rubee bat and hit Mario in the face with it. She even managed to hit Blade with it before he sliced it in half.

"All in a day's work," Blade stated as he put his katana away.

"Blade, she's not defeated yet," Sonic pointed out.

"Wait, really?" Blade gawked before getting hit by a poison Rubee. He let out a cough as he got hurt by the poison before using Piccolo's singing to cure him of the status ailment. Overall, they seemed to be winning the battle against her, with her HP rather low right now.

"Give up, Mimi!" Chopper called out. "It's six against one and you're already beat!"

Mimi stuck her tongue out as she froze Chopper with an ice Rubee. Sonic jumped over the frozen Star Warrior and dodged her poison Rubee before hitting her with a Homing Attack.

"When I'm through with you, I'm going to turn you into Rubee statues!" Mimi declared as she fired a fire Rubee at Luigi before getting stomped on by the plumber. "I think Tippy would be pleased with that!"

"Poyo? (You still call her 'Tippy'?)" Kirby gawked.

"Of course I do! It's such a good nickname for him!"

"Ugh… Typical girl stuff." Chopper face palmed as Blade unfroze him. "Let's just end this once and for all, all right?"

"I hear ya!" Sonic agreed.

When Mimi hurled a poison Rubee at Chopper, he tossed a charged rainbow ball at it instead, making it bounce away and hit the green girl instead. Kirby inhaled the Rubee and finished her off by spitting it at her.

"_**OUCHIE!**_"

When she floated to the ground, she brushed herself. "What kind of respect do you stupid boys have, hitting a cute little girl such as myself? I thought boys would never normally hit girls! Looks like I'm wrong…"

"Hey, I don't like hurting ANYONE," Chopper corrected. "I only went on this quest so people wouldn't get hurt. We practically had no other choice!"

"Poyo, (We don't like it, but we know we have to,)" Kirby added.

"Well, it doesn't really matter anyway! Just look up at the sky!" Mimi giggled as everyone noticed The Void grew bigger as they had their battle. Sonic and Blade's eyes were widened in complete fear.

"Oh, no…" Sonic gulped.

"This is BAD…" Blade trailed.

"Yeah! I sure got you guys! I was originally going to wait at some other world for you guys, but since this one was closer to destruction, I thought it would be the better idea!"

"And you did a good job with distracting us…" Luigi trailed.

"I sure did! It didn't matter whether I lost or not! Later, meanies! I hope you enjoy the rest of your life dead!"

After teleporting away, they heard a moan from the bush. Sonic ran over to it and saw an unconscious Tails slowly regaining his conscience.

"Tails! Buddy! Are you all right? !" Sonic gaped.

"Ungh… Wh… What happened…?" Tails moaned as he slowly opened his eyes. "S-Sonic…? Is that you? For real?"

"Of course it's me, buddy! We found some girl that turned into you and tried to fight us. She's gone now."

"Oh… Well, that's good." the two-tailed fox sighed in relief as Sonic helped him up. "Where have you been all the time? !"

"Saving the world. What else? Although, this time, this is a serious issue, unlike the other times…"

"Yeah, I can tell. Say… Who are those people behind you?"

"Guys, why don't you introduce yourselves?" Sonic suggested as he turned to his friends.

"I'm Chopper!" Chopper introduced, raising his arm.

"Poyo! (I'm Kirby!)" Kirby cheered.

"I'm Blade the Cat," Blade greeted. "I'm from this world, but I don't think you've ever seen me."

"No, I sure haven't…" Tails trailed.

Mario: It's-a me, Mario!

"I'm his brother Luigi!" Luigi said as he jumped.

"Hold on, I think Sonic told me about some of you guys five months ago," Tails recalled. "I think it had to do something with a treasure hunt. Were you looking for something called Crystal Stars?"

"Uh huh!" Chopper nodded. "I thought we were screwed when I figured out what they did at first, but then we managed to beat who was responsible for that. …But now his grandson is trying to destroy all worlds."

"Oh, man… That's bad. Knuckles and Amy were also wondering where you were and what that thing in the sky is. I think they should be around here, so let's try to find them, all right?"

"Yeah, we better find them, and fast!" Sonic suggested as they hurried on to the door ahead into an area with a loop up ahead and a small hill leading to a yellow spring.

Knowing what they had to do, they went through the loop and used the spring to go over the spiky pit and reach a ledge just up ahead. They ran on the path ahead to find a bridge with two Corrupted Choppers leaping up.

"Tails, you have any idea what happened to those Choppers?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know… But if I'm correct, then that darkness in the sky might have to do something with it…" Tails trailed. "I'm not so sure, because I haven't seen these things become like this."

"I think it might," Chopper pondered as he destroyed one with a rainbow ball. "Let's just not waste our time and get a move on."

When they went down the hill up ahead, they found a small ledge with a box with fifty rings in it. Sonic managed to hit it with a Spin Jump and recover 50 HP for everyone before reaching a door with two Corrupted Coconuts.

Blade unsheathed his katana and sliced both Corrupted Coconuts with his katana before venturing into the next area, which had a flat ground with a spiky pit up ahead. Thankfully, there were bobbing platforms to help them jump.

"I can't believe you're able to fly through all of this," Luigi gaped as he watched Tails fly over the spike pit.

"Don't think I can fly forever," Tails informed. "My tails will eventually get tired, and I'll be forced to come back down!"

"Oh… Well I guess that's a drawback."

When they crossed the spiky pit, they noticed a pink hedgehog wearing a red dress and red go-go boots smashing a couple of corrupted Badniks with her Piko Piko Hammer. She didn't seem to be having much of a problem, but she was getting frustrated.

"What has gotten in to these Badniks?" the girl groaned as she smashed a Corrupted Crabmeat. "Ever since that dark thing appeared in the sky, these guys have been getting corrupted!"

"There's Amy!" Tails alerted as he flew in the air. After Amy smashed the last Badnik, she sighed and wiped her forehead.

"If only Sonic were here… He was always helpful." Amy sighed until she turned around and saw Sonic. Her sad face changed to a cheerful one as she began to run toward the hedgehog of her dreams.

"All right, so we just need to search for a Mobius Card that should be somewhere around here…" Chopper trailed as he looked at the ground. However, when he looked up, he saw Amy coming his way.

And that led him to be knocked out of the way by her.

"Hey! That wasn't very nice!"

"Sonic! I missed you so much!" Amy cried as she caught Sonic in a hug, who looked like he couldn't breathe. "You have no idea how long I was looking for you. It's been, I don't know, almost a MONTH? !"

"Gcccccccccccck!" Sonic choked.

"Amy, you might want to let go of Sonic," Tails informed. "He can't breathe!"

"Oh… Whoops!" Amy let go of Sonic, who began to breathe heavily. "So, where have you been this whole time?"

"I was saving the world…" wheezed Sonic. "You know, the stuff a hero usually does."

"Or maybe it was an excuse to miss our date?"

"Wait, what? You never said anything about a date! And besides, I never said yes to it anyway!"

"And here comes the argument," Blade said as he counted from three to one.

"And that's what you say all those other times," Amy frowned. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I even consider you my boyfriend in the first place."

"That thing in the sky is why I was out for about a month," Sonic explained. "It's going to destroy all worlds if we don't do anything about it."

"Wait… That thing in the sky is going to destroy all worlds? ! Then we shouldn't be arguing about this! Sonic, we need to do something about that right now, and fast!"

"Yeah, we were actually looking for you and Knuckles," Tails nodded. "Do you know where he is?"

"I think he's somewhere close by…" Amy trailed. "Sorry, but I don't think I remember where he went."

"Well, we'll try to look," Sonic assured. "…Oh, and I should introduce some friends I met from other worlds!"

"Poyo! (I'm Kirby!)" Kirby jumped cheerfully.

"Blade's my name," Blade said.

Mario: I'm Mario!

"I'm his bro, Luigi!" Luigi waved.

"And I'm Chopper…" moaned Chopper as he got up. "Wait… If she's Sonic's girlfriend… Then that means… YES!"

"What?" Sonic asked, tilting his head.

"This is the first time where someone else has to deal with a girl that likes him! It's finally not me! YEAH!"

"Poyo, (Well, at least you get a break for once,)" Kirby admitted.

"Well, it's nice to meet you guys," Amy smiled. "My name is Amy Rose. I'm Sonic's girlfriend, if you want to know."

"Actually, don't listen to that last part," Sonic suggested.

The Mario brothers exchanged glances and shrugged.

"Well, anyway, we better go find Knuckles real fast!" Tails suggested. "He can probably help us find that card quickly!"

"Right!" Everyone agreed as they hurried to the door ahead into an area with a large hill that looped like a lump on the ground. Thankfully, Chopper was able to run over it with his Speed Dash.

"Wait, he can do that?" Amy gawked.

"I don't remember how he could do that, but I guess it's helpful," Sonic shrugged as he managed to get over the hill by helping Mario through. The rest of the group found their way over it and found a spring over by the wall ahead that was being guarded by a Corrupted Motobug.

"Allow me," Chopper said as he stomped on the Motobug and destroyed it with a rainbow smash. Afterward, he used the yellow spring to move to his left where a curve leading up to a ledge was. Sonic followed up, while Tails grabbed Mario and helped him up.

"Geez, you're a heavy one!" Tails winced as he tried to fly.

Mario: Thanks…

"I have a better solution," Amy stated as she brought her hammer down on the ground, which launched the rest of the group up to the ledge. She simply went into a ball and used a Spin Dash to go up.

"Phew! That didn't turn out to be too bad!" Luigi sighed.

"It was better than carrying you. …No offense." Tails said as he looked at Mario.

Mario: None taken.

They noticed up ahead, a red echidna was pulling a large, green emerald called the Master Emerald away from two Corrupted Crabmeats, who were trying to pull it away from him.

"You're not taking away the Master Emerald!" he grunted. "I'm not going to make the same mistake as last time."

"Well, Knucklehead… You sure are having a nice day, aren't you?"

"Sonic, how many times do I have to tell you to NOT bother me when I'm trying to save the emerald! …Wait, Sonic?" Knuckles managed to pry the emerald away from the two Badniks and turned to Sonic and his group.

"Sonic! Man, whoever thought I'd see you… And who are those new people anyway?"

Everyone let out a sigh as they introduced themselves. "Chopper, Kirby, Blade, Mario, and Luigi? Huh… Well, I'm kinda busy at the moment. These guys are giving me a little…"

When he whirled around, the two Corrupted Crabmeats were gone. Instead, a black robot with light blue eyes, gray arms and hands, a yellow hue and black feet appeared instead holding up a Corrupted Crabmeat's claw.

"It's all right, they're gone," he assured.

"Hmmmm… It's you again…" Knuckles trailed. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I did say before that I should've returned back to Mobius after my failed attempts to get the Crystal Stars. That's all in the past now. While I may not be exactly 'evil', I'm still not on friendly terms…"

"Yeah, I know that."

"Hold on… Crystal Stars?" Chopper gawked.

"Wait a minute… Did I just hear a voice I know?" the robot flew over knuckles and landed right in front of Chopper. "Well, I never expected you to be here, Chopper…"

"Same with you, Gemerl!"

"You know him?" Tails gaped.

"Of course I do," Gemerl said as he stepped back. "Five months ago, we were bitter enemies. We've even had a couple of battles. Four of them, to be exact. Unfortunately, I ended up losing those fights."

"But didn't you say you got over evil?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, I did. But I'm not technically 'good' either. Personally, I don't really care what anyone else does. But, seeing you here reminds me of those awful times where you destroyed my entire Phi army!"

"Hey, they were trying to kill me! I had to defend myself!"

"Guys! Stop arguing!" Amy snapped, getting in between. "We've got bigger problems now!"

"Oh, yes… That thing in the sky." Gemerl sighed. "I don't know what that is, but it doesn't look too good in the sky."

"Then you're going to help us find that Mobius Card," Sonic declared.

"Help you? Why should I? You know you were involved in the Crystal Star quest with Chopper. I wouldn't want to go with anyone like Chopper anyway. He still disgusts me."

"Well, do you want the world to be destroyed?" Chopper asked.

"Well, not exactly…"

"Then help us, or this world is probably doomed."

"…Fine. Looks like I have no other choice. But that doesn't mean we're allies, Chopper."

"Fine!" Chopper shouted as he and Gemerl exchanged glares.

They looked up ahead and saw a hill leading down to a loop. However, a Corrupted Motobug appeared to be in the way. That didn't stop Gemerl from firing a couple of missiles at it.

Afterward, they went down the hill and through the loop to find two small ledges to jump onto. Of course, that's where they found a pit of spikes up ahead. Chopper even checked in 3-D for any hidden platforms, but sadly, there weren't any.

"Poyo? (Maybe Carrie can help us?)" Kirby suggested.

Kirby jumped on Carrie and allowed her to carry him across the spike pit. Gemerl gawked at the Pixls around the group.

"What are those supposed to be?" Gemerl asked.

Mario: They're Pixls.

"And what do Pixls do?"

Mario: Help us get to the Pure Heart.

"Hmmmm… All right, and what is this Pure Heart that you speak of? Is it needed in order to stop that thing in the sky?"

"Yeah, that's what it is," Luigi nodded.

While they had their discussion, they made their way across the spike pit and carried on to the hill up ahead. Two Corrupted Crabmeats were firing dark particles from their claws at them.

"Oh, boy… This should be easy for me!" Knuckles grinned as he cracked his knuckles. With two punches, he was able to wipe out one of the Badniks. Amy smashed the other with her hammer.

They used a rock by the ledge to jump on the ledge and take a small hill down to another loop. When they ran through it, they were launched up to a ledge with the help of a spring to a door.

"All right, we still haven't found any sign of a Mobius Card…" Sonic sighed. "I REALLY hope we can find one…"

"Say, Chopper…" Gemerl began as he looked over at Chopper. "Don't those Crystal Stars, well, protect the universe from destruction? Because from what I'm seeing, that thing in the sky might cause harm to this place."

"Yeah, that's something I remember," Chopper recalled. "Did Tipral find a way through this?"

"Who's Tipral, if I may ask?"

"Someone who apparently looks like me, just like a certain robot. Anyway, I don't want to discuss this right now when we're in a hurry." Chopper opened the door and found a flat area with a box that resembled the invincibility box like the other one they saw before.

"This time, I'm getting it," Sonic declared as he Spin Jumped on the box and felt a strange power flow through him. Everyone but the heroes gaped as they saw the large 8-bit Sonic towering over them.

"Sonic… What happened to you? !" Amy exclaimed.

"Yahoo! Now it's time for me to smash my way through these guys!" Sonic smirked as he trampled all of the Badniks in his way. Knuckles grumbled to himself as he followed, while Chopper and Gemerl glared.

"Poyo? (Why are you glaring at him?)" Kirby asked.

"I don't know why, but I'm suspecting that he'll try to attack…" Chopper trailed. "Sure, I know Flyer said you 'got over' evil, but you don't seem to be acting good anyway."

"And is that such a big deal? Maybe I should have the right to blast you after leaving me in that dark world."

"Better than being a head like Grodus, that's for sure."

After Sonic turned back into his normal self, he saw a door up ahead being blocked by a stronger version of a Buzz Bomber called a Corrupted Buzzer. Luigi was able to take care of it for sure.

When they entered through the door, they came up to a flat area with a large rock with a crack blocking their way. Amy tried to smash it with her hammer, but it didn't seem to work and only knocked her over.

"Smashing it isn't going to work…" she moaned.

"Oh, really?" Knuckles cracked his knuckles and gave the rock a punch. Sadly, not even that worked. "Really? My punches don't work? !"

"I think I might know what to do," Blade declared before his communicator went off. "…Damn. Well, there goes my communicator."

"I think I have an idea," Gemerl declared as he grabbed Chopper and threw him at the rock. "Oh… Well looks like that didn't work. Oh well."

"You did that on purpose!" Chopper growled.

"Maybe…"

While they got in an argument, Blade took out his communicator. "All right, who's calling me?"

"_Hey, Blade! I haven't spoken to you in a while!"_

"Bang… Why do I hear your voice somewhere in this area?"

"_Really? I can hear your voice somewhere in this area too!" _Bang realized. Blade suddenly realized something and tossed Hommissile at the rock, blowing it up. He noticed Bang and Night were behind the wall.

"_And now I just heard an explosion… Did you hear it too?"_

"Bang, I'm right in front of you," Blade face palmed as Bang looked up at his friend, while Night gestured him to look the right way. He was holding a Corrupted Motobug's head.

"Wha…? How'd you get here? !" Bang gawked.

"We went into a portal, idiot."

"A portal makes sense," Night agreed as he noticed Bang continued to speak through the communicator. "Blade's right in front of us, you know."

"And… Who are you guys?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm Night. If you could tell, I'm an undead. However, this Chihuahua… He's a bit of an idiot."

"I'm Bang. You know, when you fire a gun?" Bang grinned, imitating the sound of a gun firing, while Blade face palmed.

"You don't look like you're from around this area," Amy noticed. "Are you guys new?"

"We came here to find Blade," Night explained. "Ever since that one event where that weird dark dude that looked like that kid over there appeared, Bang ran out of the castle like a coward."

"I, uh… I was just gettin' some help from some chicks!" Bang declared as he bit his lip.

"Really? Got any proof?" Blade asked, crossing his arms.

"Ummmmm… Guys? I don't think this is a good idea to discuss this…" Tails trailed as he looked at the sky. "When that thing's in the sky, we don't have time to discuss this stuff!"

Mario: Yeah, we should go.

"Poyo? (How much time do we have?)" Kirby asked.

Unfortunately, Kirby's question led to the ground to tremor violently as The Void began to grow bigger.

"We… We don't have much time…" Sonic trailed.

"Of course you don't."

"Another new voice?" Amy gawked. "Are we running into more people all the time?"

"Well, I think I know who that voice belongs to…" Luigi trailed.

Above the group, Tipral appeared. Gemerl looked at him and then down at Chopper. "Wait… So there are TWO Choppers?"

"I told you there was a faker," Chopper boasted. "Now you owe me a soda!"

"No I don't," Gemerl retorted as he smacked Chopper across the face.

"Enough already. There is no faker anymore." Tipral said coldly. "It's obvious that there are many others that resemble us now, so I see no point in those petty insults."

"Insults? I didn't think you were created a thousand years ago!" Chopper shouted before getting back on topic. "Look, Tipral. There HAS to be a better way to settle this without destroying every world. Why can't we be mature and talk this out?"

"Things will be better when you're out of my sight. And besides… I highly doubt you'll even manage to escape this world in time. According to the sky, The Void is surely going to destroy it soon. And you're not going to stop me, no matter WHAT you do!"

"Oh, so he just ticked you off and now you're trying to destroy our world? !" Knuckles gaped. "What'd we ever do to you? !"

"Shut it, echidna," Tipral snapped. "I'm not changing my plans. I already made my decision, and that's how I'm going to stick with it!"

"Not if I stop you!" he growled as he jumped in the air and attempted to punch him, who proceeded to teleport to dodge his attack and teleport behind Bang and Night.

"And you two… If I could recall, you were at the 'party' Blade took you to, isn't that right?"

"Uhhhhhh… No. I was in the bathroom." Bang sweat dropped. "Errr… Actually, I had to go to the bathroom, hence why I left the castle in a hurry."

"I left to make sure Bang wouldn't get himself in any trouble," Night sighed while crossing his arms. "What a pain in the ass he can be."

"Well, it doesn't matter. While you weren't considered a hero of the prophecy, I won't mind killing you, as well as everyone else here." Tipral scoffed.

"Well… Hit us with your best shot!" Tails growled, despite trembling.

"Who said I was going to do it right now? I'm already going to kill you with The Void, which should surely destroy this place any minute! Have a nice afterlife, heroes, because this is it for you!"

"Hold on, wait a…" Chopper was too late. Tipral teleported out of Mobius, leaving everyone in silence.

Until…

"He's going to let us die from this thing?" Bang whined. "That's gay!"

"_**YOU'RE GAY!**_" Blade roared.

"Well… Your mom!"

"_**GUYS!**_" Chopper shouted, forcing everyone's attention to him. "Thank you… Look, I know that The Void is close to destroying this place, but I have a feeling we're getting close to the card."

"How do you know?" Luigi asked.

"My antennas are sensing…something," Everyone look at Chopper's antennas and noticed that were twitching. "When they twitch, there's obviously something I'm sensing up ahead."

"Could it be… The Mobius Card!" Sonic gasped. "We're not too far from it! Now's our chance to move!"

Everyone agreed and hurried on ahead, tearing through a couple of Corrupted Motobugs and Buzzers on their way. Bang simply fired at a couple with his assault rifle, while Night smashed and cut with his axe hammer.

Afterward, they hurried over to the door ahead to find a hill leading over to the end of the path. Up ahead was the ocean, which made Sonic gulp.

"Water… Not good." Sonic gulped.

"Well, we're going to have to get you through this water somehow," Amy declared. "Of course, I'll stay by you, because I don't want my _darling_ Sonic to drown."

"On second thought, drowning would be a better idea…"

"Well, if the item you're seeking is somewhere on land, then it's definitely not in the water," Tails said as he searched the ground carefully. "But, I'm not having any luck with this hunt…"

"We never tried digging underground," Knuckles informed as he began to dig. "I'll be right back! This shouldn't take a while!"

It only took about ten seconds for Knuckles to come back up. "…Nope. I didn't find anything."

"Well, that's great. So what do we do now?" Luigi groaned.

Mario: Did we even look in that bush?

"Let me see," Gemerl said as he flew over to the bush. After searching thoroughly, he found a Mobius Card. "Ah! Here it is! This is what you need, correct?"

"Yeah, we need it," Chopper nodded. "Can you give it to us?"

"Hmmmmmm… You know, that is a tough decision for me to make… After all, you were a pain on my side big time five months ago… And, this could be my last opportunity to get revenge on you."

"Gemerl… Don't do this. This is serious." Sonic warned as a small, violent tremor shook the ground a bit.

"Just give it to us please," Chopper suggested. "It's important that we get that."

"If you want it so much, then why don't you fight me for it, Chopper?" Gemerl suggested, changing his right arm to an arm gun. "I've been waiting a long time for this moment…"

"You traitor!" Knuckles growled.

"You better stay out of this, Knuckles, because I only want to exact my revenge against him. Now then…" Gemerl began to fire bullets straight at Chopper, who gasped and jumped out of the bullets' way.

"Seriously, Gemerl! There's no time for a fight!" Chopper cried.

"That may be, but this is my only opportunity to settle this once and for all," Gemerl flew toward Chopper after he finished firing and tackled him to the ground. The Star Warrior managed to kick him with a rainbow kick and jump back up.

"Poyo, (Here, Chopper, let me give you a hand,)" Kirby suggested as he readied his Final Cutter.

"No, Kirby… Let me handle this. He wants to settle this with me…" Chopper stated.

Gemerl flew up in the air and began to curl up in a ball as he threw himself down at Chopper, sending him flying back. He also fired a couple of missiles that came his way, but he was able to inhale some and spit them back at the Gizoid.

"Is this really necessary?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, just give us the damn card already!" Bang barked.

Gemerl ignored Amy and Bang while he charged at Chopper with full speed using his jetpack, ramming straight into him and knocking him back. At this point, Chopper needed to use some Pixls and used Starbow to make shooting stars rain down on him.

"_I think the best thing to do is to get that card out of his hands," _Chopper thought as he tried to throw a rainbow ball at Gemerl's hand, who moved it away and scanned Chopper for an ability.

"You forgot that I could copy abilities?" Gemerl smirked as he tossed a rainbow ball at Chopper. It knocked him over and allowed Gemerl to fly back up and dash in the air, firing a couple of missiles down as well.

Mario: He sure was a tough guy to fight five months ago…

Chopper recoiled and bashed Gemerl in the head while he was left open. Unfortunately, it didn't do too much when Gemerl pushed him away and kicked him, sending him in the air.

"Hold on a minute," Gemerl scanned Luigi and used his Super Jump to strike Chopper while he was in the air. "Now this fight is in the bag for me!"

"You know I'm not trying to destroy you," Chopper informed as he dove for the ground and landed on the grass. "Even if you tried to kill us before, you're not necessarily evil right now. You're just bent on getting revenge against me."

Gemerl knelt down and touched the small blue button on his yellow hue. His arm turned into a laser cannon and aimed it at Chopper. He wanted to have time to avoid the attack, but Gemerl already blasted him with the attack.

"Well this is pathetic," Gemerl scoffed as he lowered his weapon. "I thought you would be much stronger than this. Oh well, I guess I've already won this fight."

He held the Mobius card in between his two fingers. "Too bad, honestly. You could've had this card with you to get what you need. Looks like all of that adventuring went down the drain."

"Gemerl… This fight is completely pointless. I'm going to say this one more time… Give us the card or else I'm going to HAVE to fight for real!" Chopper growled with a bit of seriousness in his voice.

"Just end it," Sonic suggested.

"You might force us to fight you," Blade informed, unsheathing his katana.

"Really? You're not convincing me, people. In fact, I don't really care whether this world gets destroyed or not. I'll be perfectly fine either way." Gemerl stated as he turned back to Chopper. "Now then…"

However, before he could fire his machine gun, he received a quick kick to the face, making him release the Mobius Card. Chopper landed on the ground proudly while Sonic grabbed the card.

"Finally! The Mobius Card!" Sonic grinned.

"Grrrrr! You're going to pay for that!" Gemerl readied his deadlier weapons, such as a giant missile that not even Eggman had in one of his robots. "Wanna know why they call me the 'Gizoid'? Well, this missile just might prove it!"

However, before Gemerl could fire all of his weaponry, they all felt the ground tremor violently again.

"Oh, no… It's happening again!" Amy cried.

When they looked up at the sky, The Void blocked all of the sky. In fact, it was as if The Void was NOW the sky!

White flashes appeared as the ground continued to tremor.

"N-No… Not right now…!" Sonic trembled. "Mobius… Please don't go! Not right now!"

"M-Mobius… H-Home…" Blade trailed as everything began to fade away from a couple of flashes.

"Everything's f-fading away!" Tails cried.

"Sonic! I don't feel safe!" Amy cried.

"The world can't end like this!" Knuckles gaped.

"This is so gay!" Bang cried.

"I can't believe we've failed…" Night trailed.

"So… I guess this world is about to go…" Gemerl trailed as he slowly got back up. "Hear me now, Chopper. While we may die from this, it is your job to finish your quest and stop that Tipral person. Once all worlds are saved, we can finish our fight."

Chopper blinked as everything began to go blank for him and his friends.

"_**MOBIUS!**_"

* * *

**Dimensional X-**

The six heroes slowly got back up after being unconscious for about a minute. They noticed they were the only ones around. Everyone else was gone. Everyone seemed to be relieved that they were all fine.

Except for Sonic and Blade.

"No!" Sonic cried, slamming his fist to the ground. "Tails… Amy… Knuckles… Mobius… Gone. All gone. I can't believe it…"

"Where are we going to go from here now?" Blade asked, shedding a tear. "I've already lost the home world I cared for deeply. Bang and Night are gone… Nearly everyone I love is gone too!"

Chopper, Kirby, Mario, and Luigi couldn't find a word to say to them.

Sonic was trying to hold back the tears, but they eventually came out. "Why? Why did Tipral have to do this? Just to harm us emotionally? !"

"Sonic… Blade…" Chopper trailed.

"I fear they've lost a place they cared about greatly…" Ortorain trailed as he appeared in the area and picked up the Mobius Card Sonic dropped. "I am in great sorrow to see you two like this…"

"This was Tipral's doing," Blade growled as he got up and clenched a fist. "We've managed to stop his plans each time, but it looks like he decided to take it even further by destroying our home."

"That's it. I'm done not taking this quest seriously." Sonic declared as he got up and clenched his fists. "I've been acting too cocky lately. Because of what Tipral did, it's time I got a little more serious."

"Serious? But… Your cockiness is what we like!" Luigi gaped.

"You may like it, but Tipral got us at our weak spot. It's time we paid him a little visit and get that nineteenth Pure Heart."

"If you wish to do so, go ahead and hit the Star Block up ahead," Ortorain suggested, pointing to the block up ahead.

"I'll get it," Chopper declared, running over to the block and punching it. As it broke, he looked back at Sonic and Blade, who both gave serious looks.

"_I might not look at them the same at this moment…"_

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the destruction of Mobius, Sonic and Blade were determined to put an end to Tipral's plans and destroy The Void for all eternity. The rest of the group were rather shocked at their seriousness. This wasn't something they normally saw from these two. While Ortorain was shocked by this, he was busy guiding the heroes to the next portal. "This way, heroes," he announced, his scepter glowing in the beautiful world. "The way to the next world isn't as easy as you think." What exactly did Ortorain mean by this? Chopper and Co. wondered as they followed._

* * *

**Yeah, now Sonic and Blade are getting serious. I guess now you see what Chapter 18's going to be like, so I don't need to tell you.**

**Originally, only Bang and Night were going to appear in this place, but I decided to bring Sonic's friends here as well, as well as Gemerl, who was definitely not fond of Chopper (if you don't know why they were enemies, you obviously haven't read Paper Chopper 2).**

**Anyway, where the heroes go next is something you'll have to find out on your own. ;)**


	108. Mushrooms Meet their End

**CHAPTER 18-3**

**-Mushrooms Meet their End-**

Chopper, Kirby, Mario and Luigi looked over at Sonic and Blade, who seemed to be walking ahead of them while following Ortorain. While they didn't feel the same as those two, they felt sympathy for them after seeing their home world get destroyed. Not only that, but their friends were gone too! Talk about intense!

"Ortorain, where could we find the next world?" Sonic asked with some seriousness in his voice. "We need to find the next world immediately before something bad happens like our world."

"And if we find Tipral, we're going to get back at him," Blade declared as he clenched his fists.

"Guys… Don't you think it's better if we try to be a little more…relaxed?" Chopper asked.

"No, Chopper. I enjoyed being cocky before, but when you try to kill someone's home world and friends, then that's the time to stop being too cocky." Sonic stated. "Wouldn't you feel the same if that was your world?"

The four heroes' eyes widened in fear, remembering their worlds as well. What was happening to their world? Were their already destroyed by The Void? Was it even close to being destroyed? This left them a little puzzled as they noticed an enemy up ahead. It looked like a purple ghost with glowing pink hands that resembled portals and no legs. Its eyes were a bright pink as well.

"Wh-What's that?!" Luigi gaped, his thoughts being interrupted.

"That is called a Dimensional Ghost," Ortorain explained. "Unfortunately, because they're ghosts that tend to fade away often, your attacks aren't going to do much. While they can deal some serious damage, colorful attacks should actually hurt it."

Mario: Colorful attacks?

"Poyo? (Maybe something like Chopper's rainbow balls?)" Kirby pondered as Chopper tossed a rainbow ball at the Dimensional Ghost, forcing itself to be fully vulnerable to all attacks.

Kirby took his Final Cutter out and struck the Dimensional Ghost. Once Blade finished it off with his katana, they carried on ahead to a couple of platforms that rose up from the ground and made stairs.

Everyone nodded as they made their way up the platforms and over to a painting by the door. It showed an umbrella, but they were all confused as to why an umbrella was painted there.

"Why would there be an umbrella here?" Sonic pondered. "Is this supposed to be some sort of puzzle?"

"Go through the door, and you'll find out yourself," Ortorain assured as everyone shrugged and headed through the door. There, they found a couple of blocks in the background and five red ! blocks floating before them.

"What do we do here?" Chopper asked.

"That is something you'll have to find out yourself, young one."

Chopper shrugged and punched the nearest block underneath and noticed a block in the background changed. Some of them were apparently blocks on an umbrella, but right now, the block he hit seemed to show a piece of a star instead.

Mario: I think this puzzle has something to do with the painting!

The only red ! blocks that seemed to have the umbrella picture were the second and fourth. Everyone took the time to hit the blocks and form an umbrella in the background, creating a door up ahead.

"Well, I guess that worked," Luigi smiled.

"Ah, so you managed to complete the puzzle," Ortorain smiled as he floated over to the heroes as he applauded. "Excellent work! Sometimes it takes some time to do that. But, what do I know? You're the only people to do it so far!"

"Poyo, (I guess that's nice that we're the first,)" Kirby shrugged as they headed into the area ahead. They saw a couple of platforms that appeared to be too high for some of them to reach leading up to a door.

Mario: I think you can take care of this, Luigi!

"Well, I guess my jump will be useful here," Luigi declared as he launched himself to the first platform with a Super Jump. Kirby helped everyone else up by inhaling them. It was all clear for them to jump on a couple of more platforms afterward.

"We've only run into one enemy so far…" Chopper trailed. "You think we might run into more?"

"It really depends," Sonic shrugged. "What's more important is to find the next portal and find a card there before Tipral ends up destroying that world."

After ninja jumped over to the door, he held it open for everyone else. They followed through the door and eventually found themselves in a large area. They were standing on a platform, with an abyss below them.

"Where in the world are we right now?" Chopper gawked. "This looks a little high…"

"Of course we're high up," Ortorain chuckled. "We're getting closer to the top of Dimensional X. What you're seeing around you are many portals that can take you to different worlds. There might be some you recognize as well!"

"Let's see…" Luigi trailed as he took a look at a couple of portals. "Well, I can see one world with a castle off at the distance in the highlands…"

"That must be Lineland Road!" Chopper gasped as he took notice of the portal. "Man, who ever knew I'd see that world again…"

"What is Lineland Road again?" Sonic asked.

"That's where the adventure began. It was before I found you guys."

"Poyo, (I see Gloam Valley and Merlee's Mansion in the next portal,)" Kirby noticed. "Poyo… (I wonder how the prisoners are doing… They were in Tipral's Palace, but I wonder if some are still there…)"

"I personally didn't like the part where we had to make a million Rubees," Chopper groaned. "That was awful…"

"I think I see the Bitlands coming up next," Sonic noted, looking at the pixilated world through the portal. "It reminds me of the time when we had to save Tippi from Francis… That sure was an experience, wasn't it?"

"Ugh… Don't get me started with that part with Francis…"

Mario: Is that Outer Space?

Everyone noticed Mario pointing to the next dimension, Outer Space. They could see the Whoa Zone, and they even recalled meeting Squirps there.

"Squirps… You know, we haven't seen him in a while…" Chopper trailed.

"I wonder how he's doing…" Sonic wondered.

"Poyo, (Hopefully he's fine after last time,)" Kirby hoped as he noticed another portal. It was a portal leading into Pristine Palisade.

"There's the portal to Pristine Palisade, apparently," Blade noticed as he noticed the water. "Yeah… That was practically water hell in that world. It probably had the most water of any world."

"Don't even bring that place up, Blade," Sonic groaned.

"Say… Where's Desert Oasis anyway?" Chopper asked, noticing the portal wasn't there.

"Oh… Desert Oasis?" Ortorain pondered. "Oh… That place got destroyed a while ago. Yes, it's sad to see a world like that go. I actually kind of liked that world, despite it being a desert."

"Wh-What? !" Everyone gaped.

"Yes, I'm sorry to tell you that. It was probably the closest to The Void when it was resurrected. Even I feel terrible."

"Oh… That's bad." Chopper frowned before noticing an underworld-like place and a heavenly area. "I think The Underwhere and Overthere are over there."

"Were you purposely saying 'over there'?" Sonic asked.

"That was unintentional, but I know we've seen a lot there."

"Luvbi was there, that's for sure," Blade recalled. "She sure had a crush on you, didn't she?"

"Ugh… Please don't bring that up."

They saw many other worlds after that. The next one they found was Castle Tipral, which appeared to look vacant ever since they fought against a fused Dimentio and Tipral called Dimentral. The only people who were confused about that were Mario and Luigi.

Mario: That sounds weird… But, I think I see the sweet world ahead! That's where I met you guys!

"Yeah, that place was sweet, I guess," Sonic sweat dropped, saying something that felt like a pun. "I think I just made a horrible pun…"

"Is that that winter world where you guys left me behind?" Luigi asked as he noticed the winter world.

Mario: Sorry for leaving you like that…

"Well, I guess I got over that, so I think you can rest assured, bro!"

The next world they encountered was the metallic forest, where they remembered fighting against Grim and Metal Chopper with the help of Ninbot. Chopper seemed rather annoyed with that world, considering he had to rescue Luvbi.

Another one of their least favorite worlds was next. It was the world where they found some zombies, ghosts, and the mansion where they fought against the mysterious Knightmare, who they knew who it was now.

The thirteenth world they actually liked. It was the day and night world, where they met King Sunday and King Moonnight. There was also that guy called Arcaine, who was once obsessed with trying to catch the SunMoonFlower.

"Should we tell him that the SunMoonFlower actually exists?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (It's probably better that we don't,)" Kirby replied. "Poyo… (It might get him back to his…habit…)"

Everyone agreed as they took notice of the cyberspace world, the world where they helped the Computernoids take out the Vironoids…and where the soldiers met their doom while Chopper and Co. fought against Dark Doom and Knightmare. They all felt sorrow from that event.

The next world they saw was The Peaceness. Meta Knight was found there, and they even managed to defeat Shade Doom a second time. However, despite that, a Nimbi who wanted to kill them actually befriended them before dying in Chopper's arms.

"I see Tipral's Palace next," Chopper noticed as he only saw Nastasia writing on her clipboard, sighing. "I wonder what's going on with her? Is she the only one in the palace or something?"

"I have no idea…" Sonic trailed. "But she looks so lonely."

They encountered the last world where they found the eighteenth Pure Heart, the tiny and huge world. However, instead of feeling joy at the city, they seemed to be displeased with some of the Cradians.

"I can't believe they worshipped Master Mind this whole time!" Luigi gaped as he noticed some of the Cradians having a funeral over Master Mind. "It made us look horrible…"

"Well, I guess they liked him, so we couldn't do anything about it," Blade shrugged.

"So, where do we go from here anyway?" Sonic asked, turning to Ortorain. "You didn't speak for a bit…"

"Well, I thought it would be nice to see you look at previous worlds," Ortorain smiled. "But for now, if you wish to get to the next world, you'll have to jump off the platform."

Everyone gaped. "Wait… Jump off the platform?! But don't you see how high up we are, sir?!"

"Rest assured, Luigi. I created this world. I'd know everything about it."

Everyone sighed as they leaped off the platform. However, instead of plummeting to their doom, they were launched high in the air onto a platform high above them. They all seemed confused as they jumped off and found a loop ahead.

"Geez… That was… I don't know what to say!" Sonic stammered.

They made their way through the loop and found two Dimensional Ghosts up ahead. Chopper hurled two rainbow balls at them to leave them vulnerable, while Mario finished off the first one by jumping on it. Luigi also jumped on the last one, defeating it.

Up ahead on the path, they found a lever hanging from above. Kirby decided to grab it, which revealed a door on the wall to open. They hurried through before it could close to lead them to a door.

When they walked out of the door, they found a yellow ? block that contained an Ultra Shroom inside. After splitting it into six pieces, they all recovered HP and found a ladder taking them to a platform above them. They found it strange that these purple platforms fit the purple and pink background, which was being covered up a bit by The Void.

"Well, at least we get to explore this world a bit," Chopper smiled as he climbed the ladder to find a Dimensional Ghost on the platform. After hurling a rainbow ball, Sonic finished it off with a Bounce Attack.

They jumped on a platform to their upper right and headed through the door to an area where they found another globe on the top of a tower. Ortorain chuckled as he flew over the large gap.

"Uhhhh… Is there any safety precautions here?" Chopper sweat dropped.

Mario: There aren't any platforms to help us!

"Trust in your instincts, young ones," Ortorain assured.

"Our instincts? We barely have any…" Blade trailed.

"I wasn't finished yet… While you may think you're stuck, there is a way over here. It could be easy to solve, or it could be very difficult."

"The latter, maybe?" Luigi pondered before receiving a glare from Mario. "Sorry, bro… I'm not sure what to say."

"Poyo, (I think he means to find something,)" Kirby deduced as he moved toward the tower. When he put his foot off the platform, he felt an invisible path. "Poyo! (Chopper! Use Starbow! I think there might be something here!)"

"OK!" Chopper nodded as he held Starbow up and allowed her to summon shooting stars. When they fell on the gap, they seemed to bounce off and reveal a glowing bridge leading to the top of the tower.

They all gasped as they crossed the platform. Ortorain, while chuckling, fired a beam of energy from his scepter at the globe. A portal was revealed after completion, and it revealed green grass, and even a castle.

Mario: Is that…the Mushroom Kingdom?!

"Bro! We're actually going back home!" Luigi gasped. "Can you actually believe it?!"

"The Mushroom Kingdom? I haven't been there in a while!" Chopper gaped.

"You know, I don't think we ever saw this place," Sonic recalled.

"Why, yes. It is indeed the Mushroom Kingdom!" Ortorain smiled. "You must find the next card through here. It is very important that you do if you want to reach the Pure Heart. After collecting that card, you only need one more."

"Well, we better get going," Chopper suggested as he hurled a rainbow ball at the portal, opening the way in. "Come on, guys! Maybe some of my friends might be there too!"

Everyone exchanged nods as they all jumped through the portal. Ortorain let out a sigh as he sat down on the ground.

"I just hope they're not too late…" he trailed as the ground shook violently as The Void grew bigger in the sky.

* * *

**Mushroom Kingdom-**

Once everything was drawn and colored, everyone fell out of the portal and landed on the grassy ground. When they looked around them, they noticed a dirt path leading to a gate, and there was a large, brown house nearby as well. There was another brown house to the left that resembled a tree stump. It had a billboard of a Toad's head hanging from a branch.

Mario: Hold on… Isn't this Goomba Village?

"Goomba Village? What's that?" Sonic asked.

"Mario told me that this is where he landed when he fell from the sky in Peach's Castle," Luigi explained. "He even met a couple of friends of his own on the way too! It would've been cool if I were there…"

"Hold on a second… Is that you, Mario? !" the red plumber turned around and saw a Goomba wearing a blue cap gaping at the plumber. "No way… You came back here after those months!"

Mario: Hi, Goombario!

When Chopper heard that name, something hit him. He remembered two years ago, he didn't like him for some reason. He even pranked him after he saved the Mushroom Kingdom from certain doom!

"A lot of people were worried about you when you went missing," Goombario explained. "Ever since then, this purple swirling vortex appeared in the sky! It's gotten quite big, too!"

"Wait, what?" Luigi looked up at the sky and gaped. "M-Mario…! Th-The Void's nearly the size of what it w-was in M-Mobius!"

Mario: Oh, no…

"You know what that is?" Goombario asked while Mario began to explain everything. The Goomba's eyes widened in fear as he stepped back. "D-Destroy all worlds? ! That's what this thing's going to do? !"

"And it looks like there isn't much time left…" Sonic sighed.

"I knew Tipral would probably do this to this world too," Blade said as he clenched a fist. "We should try to find him soon."

"Well, from what I've seen outside of the village, a couple of Goombas on Bowser's side somehow got possessed by some evil power. I'm not even kidding! That's why Goompapa sealed the gate shut."

"We need to go through there!" Chopper gaped. "…Unless a card is somewhere around here."

"Nope. We didn't find a card here. …Say, aren't you that kid that gave me a present with the boot that hit my face? That left me with a black eye for about a week! What the heck was that for?"

"Poyo? (You gave him a boot to the face?)" Kirby asked.

"Admittedly… Yes." Chopper sighed. "But, I feel that I kind of regret that. I was a little…immature back then."

"You still kind of are," Blade added.

"Shut up, I'm not done yet. I kind of feel a little sorry for doing that, and I apologize for any rudeness I've given you. Can we shake hands?"

Mario: He doesn't have hands…

"Well… All right. I guess I can forgive you." Goombario held his foot out, as if to shake his hand with it. Chopper smiled and shook his foot. That is, until he received a shock from it.

"YEOW! What was that?!" Chopper screeched.

"Heh heh heh! Now we're even!" the Goomba smirked as he revealed a hand buzzer wrapped around his foot.

"Well, now that that's over with… Can we go through the gate?" Sonic asked.

"I'd have to ask Goompapa that," he said as he turned away from the heroes. "_**DAD!**_"

"Don't be so loud, Goombario! That hurt my ears!" a pink Goomba with an orange bow growled. "Daddy said we can't leave Goomba Village because of how dangerous it is outside!"

"I know, Goombaria, but Mario's back!"

"M-Mario?! Really?!" the excited Goomba girl hurried to his brother and gasped at Mario. "Is that really you, Mario?! We haven't seen you in a long time!"

Mario: I'm fine! ^^

"Well, then we should go ask Daddy about the door! You and your other weird friends can get through and stop those Goombas, right?"

"Who are you calling weird?" Blade grumbled as he glared at the Goomba girl. "Honestly, I find you a little weird myself."

"Let it go, Blade," Sonic suggested. "We don't want to get in a fight with another girl…"

"What is it, Goombario?" Everyone stopped for a moment when a Goomba with a black mustache and black eyebrows named Goompapa walked out of the house and made his way to the group. "Sorry if I was a little late with your call. I was a little busy with Goompa."

"These six want to go through the gate," Goombario explained.

"Hmmmmm… Well, I did lock it up tight. It might take a little bit to get the locks off, but if you need to leave, then I'll go ahead and do it."

While he walked over to get the locks off, Goombario looked back at Mario. "So… Can you tell me how your adventure went? I wanna know what you've done!"

Mario: Well… I don't know the full story. Chopper probably has the answers.

"Why is that?" Goombaria asked.

"Because it started off with me at first," Chopper declared, pointing at himself.

"To be fair… I don't see you as the hero type."

"…Are you serious?"

"Mario looks more like a hero, in my eyes," Goombario agreed. "You're too small and too…weird."

"Son of a…"

"I've finished getting the locks off the gate!" Goompapa called out. "You might want to go before anything comes through here!"

"Okey dokey!" Luigi nodded. "Well, I guess we better go then!"

"Good luck out there, Mario!" the Goombas called out as the heroes left the village and onto Goomba Road. That's when Luigi pouted.

_"I can't believe they only recognized Mario and didn't notice me!" _he thought. _"I guess I'm simply his shadow after all…"_

"Ah… This road. This is where it all began for me in the Mushroom Kingdom." Chopper sighed as he noticed Professor Toadsmeth's lab up ahead. "Hey, I wonder if the professor is even here!"

He ran over to the door and knocked on it. "Hey, Professor! It's me, Chopper! You know, the one from two years ago?"

Unfortunately, he didn't hear anything from inside. It was dead silent.

Mario: Is he there?

"I don't know… Maybe… Oh, wait a second." Chopper noticed a posted note on the door and took a look at it. "It says he's not here…but on vacation. I guess we're not going to be seeing him anytime soon…"

However, they were stopped when they noticed two Goombas corrupted with dark power, just like the Badniks from Mobius. Mario and Luigi gulped as they saw the Corrupted Goombas charging at them.

"Now these guys are corrupted?!" Luigi sweat dropped as he dodged one of its headbonk attacks. "This is nuts!"

Mario sighed and stomped on both Corrupted Goombas to defeat them. With that, they carried on ahead through the path, passing by the sign with a Goomba picture they saw at the beginning of the area. They also noticed a sign with a Mushroom up ahead.

"You can easily peel this off," Chopper said as he peeled off the Mushroom. Blade split it into six pieces, and they all recovered 10 HP.

"What a strange world this is…" Sonic trailed.

"Well, it would make sense for us to say that," added Blade.

They noticed a Corrupted Paragoomba up ahead trying to swoop down at them. It only took one Homing Attack to detach its wings and a simple katana slash to defeat it, along with a Corrupted Spiky Goomba.

When they reached the door ahead, they headed through into an area with a yellow spring near a ledge. Two large Goombas appeared to be sleeping there. One was red, while the other was blue.

Mario: If we could sneak past them, I think we should be fine!

They used the spring to get onto the ledge and snuck past the two Goombas, who appeared to have snot bubbles coming out of their noses. They must be heavy sleepers, from the looks of it.

They shrugged and headed into the red door ahead to an area with three Corrupted Goombas walking along the path. Sonic simply curled in a ball and attacked them with a Spin Dash.

"Poyo, (These Goombas really aren't that hard,)" Kirby noticed as he read a sign with a Mushroom. That is, until a Goomba peeled off the sign instead and attacked him. He simply inhaled it and swallowed it to get rid of it.

They headed through another door ahead and found a bridge past a small fortress. Mario recalled fighting the Goomba King here and managing to get that bridge to help him and Goombario reach Toad Town.

Mario: We're not far from Toad Town!

"Really? That's great news!" Chopper sighed. "…Yeah, this is where I had to fight against that shadow thief Popple."

"Popple? Who's he?" Luigi asked (this Paper Mario, not Mario & Luigi, just so you know).

"Some guy that stole stuff. I think that stuff was returned back to their owners, that's for sure."

They all decided to hurry on ahead across the bridge and to the door ahead, bringing them into an area with small ledges going down to a pathway ahead, which had a pink floor instead of green grass.

Mario: I think we're here!

"Toad Town's up ahead? Whew… Well, I wonder how everyone will react when they see us here." Chopper wondered as they hurried on ahead.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

As they walked into Toad Town, they noticed that not much has changed from a few years back. However, the only difference was that there weren't many Toads walking outside. For some reason, some of them were cowering in their houses, noticing the size of The Void.

"This place feels so deserted…" Luigi trailed. "It's like this place is full of fear…"

"This isn't a good welcome for us…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: We should probably go to our house.

Everyone shrugged and followed the two brothers into the pipe nearby. When they came out, they were now in a small area with a house over to their left. The name "Mario" appeared to be on the house as well.

"So… This is your house?" Sonic asked.

"Poyo, (It's a little small,)" Kirby noticed.

"I think there might be something we'll need in here," Luigi said as he walked up the small staircase into the house. Mario followed him as well, but they froze when they saw a big mess in their house. Nearly everything was knocked over.

"We've been robbed!"

Mario: This is terrible!

"Wait… Robbed?!" Chopper gaped.

"Poyo?! (Who would rob you guys?!)" Kirby gasped.

"Well, whoever it was, we better find him or her," Blade suggested as he walked into the house. The red and green mug were broken, and some of the pictures with Mario's partners were cracked.

Mario: This is terrible! And at a time like this!

"I just hope they didn't take my diary," Luigi said worriedly before everyone gawked at him. "Uhhhh… Nothing! I was just worried that someone took my book of an adventure I once went on!"

"Uhhhhh… OK, we gotcha." Sonic slowly nodded. "Anyway, don't suppose we should just leave here? I don't think we're going to find anything here…"

"Yeah, we should get going," Chopper agreed. "We might find some important information back in Toad Town…if we can find anything."

Everyone agreed and headed back, with the exception of Luigi, who went into his bedroom and checked the floor. A secret little area appeared to be under there, so he climbed down and looked to see if anything was touched.

Everything looked the same as it was before.

"Oh, good… What a relief! Nobody touched my diary!" Luigi sighed. "It's good to see there was something here that was left unchanged."

After checking his diary, he closed it and went back outside, following his friends down the pipe.

* * *

**Toad Town…again-**

When they got out of the pipe, they noticed over by a staircase, a blue Duplighost with small, blonde hair and a Buzzy Beetle with a green shell and a black braid were beside a Toad with a white beard in a red cap and red robe.

"Ah, I welcome you back, Mario and Chopper…" The Master greeted as he began to cough. "Please excuse my coughing… You see, I've gotten a little older, and my health has, well… Gotten a little worse for me."

"Poyo? (Who are they?)" Kirby asked.

"That's The Master, Chan and Lee," Chopper explained. "I challenged them to a little battle and won. I think Mario did the same thing, considering he knows Mario as well…"

Mario: Yup!

"It appears the sky is being blocked by that darkness in the sky," The Master informed. "I'm sure you've noticed it when you came here, but it's gotten bigger than before… I worry about what this could do."

"Someone told us it could destroy a world," Lee informed. "Some yellow kid with gray wings told me that."

"Flyer? Is he still here?" Chopper gasped.

"Yeah, he is," Chan nodded. "He actually brought a couple of people here as well to discuss about this. However, I don't know where, that's the question."

"Well, maybe we should simply search," Sonic suggested. "We can't just wait for them to come here."

Everyone agreed and went to the next area, where Merlon's house and the post office were. They noticed a couple of people in the center of the area. Chopper was actually surprised to see them.

He first noticed a Koopa with blonde hair, a blue hoodie, light blue shorts, blue boots and a pink shell crossing her arms as she listened to Chopper's friend, Flyer, speak.

The next one was a dark blue Bob-omb wearing a gray hat, Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, a green Yoshi with a black toupee, black jacket and sunglasses and a golden yellow Dayzee with light yellow petals, blushes on her cheeks, and light blue arms and feet in the first row.

The second row had a light yellow cloud boy wearing light blue and white-striped clothing and hot pink boots, a light blue ghost with hot pink eyes and two antennas, and a brown doll wearing a blue cloak and a blue hat listening in.

"So, this thing in the sky's called The Void?" the Koopa girl named Koopla asked. "Where the hell did you get this information from?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked," Flyer smiled. "Five other friends and I went to a strange dimension where we met our friends, such as Chopper and Mario. A wizard named Merlon explained to us that someone is trying to bring back something called The Void, which he succeeded in, sadly…"

"That's bad news," the Bob-omb named Bruce frowned. "I like this world!"

"Can't blame you," Parakarry agreed.

"And I don't even get my chance to see Chopper again…" Bow sighed. "What a shame…"

"Scanners tell me we don't have long until the world ends," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Cripes… If this is true, then we're gonna be dealin' with somethin' like death!" the Yoshi named Yosho gaped.

"This is awful!" the Dayzee known as Kayzee cried. "How else are we going to enjoy ourselves when our games will all end?!"

"Let's not get to that…" the cloud person named Mallow gulped. "I'm too scared to have my game end so soon…"

"Well I'm already dead…" the ghost named Ghoster trailed.

"Then we're going to have to think of a plan," the doll named Geno suggested. "We're not going to let ourselves cower away like everyone else, are we?"

"Yes, I agree," Vivian spoke up. She was with five other people as well.

"C'mon! What would Contradre do at a time like this?" a white Yoshi with hot pink boots, a yellow curl of hair on top of his head named Scrub asked. "Maybe we need to depend on ourselves more?"

"Well, I think we have," a black shadow being with yellow eyes, a black and white striped-hat and white glove named Shadower stated. "We've gotten a lot stronger ever since then."

"But we don't even know how to stop this thing!" a pink Bob-omb with a red bandanna with white polka-dots, small wings, a blonde braid and orange feet named Bombette exclaimed. "No one knows what to do!"

"Well, I'm sure Choppy and his friends know a solution," Heartsy stated. "They ARE on a quest to stop that thing, right?"

"They're trying to get Pure Hearts," Flyer informed.

"Pure Hearts? What are they meant to be anyway?" a brown furry person with spiky fur on his head, white gloves with spikes on the fists and blue shoes with a red stripe named Tamber asked. "They sound weird…"

"Geez… Those are a lot of people!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: There are…seventeen here!

"All of my friends from previous adventures are here…" Chopper trailed. "I never would've believed this…"

"Poyo? (Should we go greet them?)" Kirby asked.

"Now, then… We should…" Flyer stopped when he turned his head and noticed Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi watching them. "No way… You guys are here? !"

"Wait, who?" Koopla turned her head and saw the six. "Oh, cool! I didn't expect to see you guys! Don't worry, we were already told about you guys beforehand, so no need to introduce yourselves."

"You guys even know me?" Luigi gasped.

"Of course!" Bombette said cheerfully. "Who doesn't know Mario's brother! You went on an adventure yourself, right?"

"Well… Yeah, I did, actually!"

Heartsty smiled as hearts formed over head as she gazed at Chopper, who she seem to only pay attention to so far instead of the important conversation. But then she remembered something she got in Toad Town.

"Man, it's been a while since I saw ya, Chopper!" Yosho grinned as he gave Chopper a noogie. "So, how's it been out there? Find any cute chicks on yer little adventure? Did ya mention me to them?"

"Sigh… Same old Yosho…" Chopper trailed. "You haven't changed a bit…"

"Well actually, remember back when I said that Yoshina wouldn't let me back in the house? …Well, she finally fergived me! Yup! Now everything's all better! Meetin' her up in Star Haven might've been the best thing in my life."

"Wow… I can't believe that!" Luigi gaped.

"Oh, and we managed to become great friends," Bruce informed, looking over at Bombette. "I actually met her again and we had a great conversation!"

"Surprisingly, he was not so obsessive over me," Bombette mentioned. "While I wasn't interested in going out with him again, I was glad that he was actually nice and normal for a change. I thought I would have to explode for a change!"

"I also apologized to her for what I did to make her leave Koopa Village too," Koopla informed. "I felt that I was a little too…harsh on her then, especially when she was always blowing her fuse on some of the Bob-ombs."

"Don't worry, Koopla. I think I shouldn't have overreacted that much."

"I actually missed seeing you, Chopper!" Kayzee smiled as she flew over to him. "And you even have new friends with you as well! It's so good to meet you!"

"What the hell…? Is she…flying?" Blade gawked as he noticed Kayzee hovering over the ground. "That's not something I'd expect."

"I'm a Dayzeeflower Girl!"

"Dayzeeflower Girl? I remember Night was watching that show when we ended up in Chopper's house."

"They made a show of me and my sisters? Oh boy!"

"Hey, guys!" Mallow stepped up next as he waved to the group while holding his Diamond Hammer. "This hammer's turned out to be very useful! Thanks for giving this to me, Chopper!"

"Yeah, he's told me he's done a lot of good things with that," Parakarry recalled. "He can even smash Rainbow Blocks with that thing!"

"Poyo? (But didn't he already have a Diamond Hammer?)" Kirby pondered.

"I had one before, but I have it to Mallow," Chopper informed.

"And how has it been for you back here, Bow?" Sonic asked, turning to the green Boo, who seemed delighted to see her friend back.

"Well, our friends managed to pitch in and help me fix up a new mansion back in Forever Forest," Bow explained. "Merlon also used his magic to make sure it wouldn't fall apart. The mansion definitely looks pretty."

"Yup, we managed to fix it, even if it took a while," Ghoster smiled. "So, Chopper… I haven't seen you in two years! How goes the life?"

"Honestly… Right now, things aren't looking so good…" Chopper trailed. "Sonic's home world got destroyed by that…thing in the sky, and now this world's going to be destroyed soon!"

"This thing destroyed many worlds? Oh, dear… Then we can't just sit around." Geno stated. "I think it's best that we try to do something for once."

"The only thing we can do is get the Pure Heart," Blade explained. "But to do that, we need to find a card here. Any of you have a Mushroom Kingdom Card?"

"I don't think we found a card…" Vivian trailed shyly as she floated over to Chopper. "But, it's good to see you and everyone else here."

Mario: How have things been for you?

"The usual. Beldam is still giving me proper treatment ever since Maquano's death, which makes me happy. We even went to Keehaul Key together with my other sister, Marilyn. I think she finally accepted me as her sister!"

Mario: That's great to hear!

"Of course, I didn't forget about you and Chopper," Vivian smiled as she looked over at Chopper, who was talking to Scrub.

"Contadre! I can't believe you're back after five months!" Scrub smiled as he gave Chopper a high five. "You know, I do have my own name in the Glitz Pit! Did Flyer tell ya I'm the Great Contadre Jr.?"

"Yeah, he told me that. …Holy moley! You sure have grown! You're nearly taller than me, that's for sure!"

"Really? Well, then it looks like I've surpassed the Great Contadre himself! Oh yeah!"

"Ya know, ya really do act like me fer some reason…" Yosho smirked as he looked down at the baby Yoshi.

"Really? Is it my hair? …Oh, you said _act_."

"Yeah, you do kind of act similar," Shadower remarked.

"OK… Anyway, how about you? What's going on with you?"

"What's been going on with me? Well, I live in the Creepy Steeple…or Dark Steeple with my two brothers. I know they were wondering if Tipral wanted to come too, but we never found any sight of him."

"We know where he is," Chopper frowned.

"Really? You know?"

"You know The Void in the sky? Well… He's the reason why it's here."

"Are you serious? So that means he hasn't given up evil like everyone else…" Shadower trailed. "But, where did he go to anyway? Last time we saw him, it was when we were fighting Maquano."

"You fought Maquano?" Geno gawked. "I thought we got rid of him back in Star Haven?"

"Apparently he had other plans while sealed in that orb," Vivian explained. "I don't remember all the details, but he said that he was still able to unleash his power, hence why he summoned darkness to destroy all."

"Anyway… Back on topic, we need to get going now…" Sonic trailed. "Finding that card isn't going to be easy, it looks like it."

"Well, then how about we start looking?" Chopper suggested. "We can go to different places to find it! There's Shiver Mountain, Koopa Bros. Park, Forever Forest, Ghost Town, Star Haven, many places!"

"So you're saying we get to go on another adventure together?" Mallow gaped. "Oh, boy! I can't wait to go back to Nimbus Land!"

"Well, we just have to go where the card is," Luigi explained. "Should we split up?"

"If we're going to split up, I want to go with Choppy," Heartsy smiled, grabbing Chopper's hand. The Star Warrior's eyes widened in fear as he tried to get out of her grasps.

"Uhhhhh… I object to this!" Chopper declared as Heartsy giggled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Tee hee! That's so cute!" Kayzee giggled.

"Well I think it's horrible…"

"OK, so I guess I'm going to go take this way," Tamber declared. "You guys are only talking to each other and not making progress. I, on the other hand, am going to…"

However, he soon stopped when he saw a giant airship coming toward them. "Hey… What the heck's that?"

"What is it?" Chopper asked.

"You should look up," Heartsy suggested as Chopper looked up. "Not THAT high. Just look at an upper angle and you'll see!"

"Surrender now, Mushroom Kingdom! Your nothing without your precious heroes!" a childish voice cried out from a megaphone. "My dad may not be here, but my siblings and I can take you down!"

"Siblings? Wait a second…" Blade groaned. "Don't tell me it's _them_ again!"

Mario: I know that voice…

"I second that, bro!" Luigi agreed.

"That airship has Bowser's face sticking out," Sonic noticed. "I…don't know what to say about it."

"And he wants us to surrender?" Koopla scoffed. "Please… He should tell that when there are twenty-three people here! He wouldn't stand a chance against us!"

When the airship began to fly down, a younger version of Bowser was standing at the front of the ship. Bowser Jr. even had some of the Koopaling by his side as well. All seven of them.

"Well, look what we've got here!" Larry noticed. "It's those guys that trounced us from before!"

"Perfect for a clobberin'!" Morton grinned.

"They're going to pay for ruining my bow!" Wendy snorted.

"I had to buy new glasses!" Iggy growled.

"You guys humiliated me last time!" Roy snarled.

"I got pranked!" Lemmy shouted.

"You made me look like a big fool back there," Ludwig grumbled. "Now ve vill strike back!"

"So, what's it going to be? You going to surrender? Or do we have to deal with this the hard way?" Bowser Jr. smirked as he ordered a cannon to fire a cannonball near the ground.

"Well this is what I think of your airship!" Tamber growled, firing a Master Star Fist at the ship. It left a giant hole inside, making a couple of Magikoopas and Hammer Bros. fall out and land on the ground.

"Hmmmm… You know, we can save this for later." Heartsy said as she let go of Chopper's hand and readied her hammer. "I think we'll need to take care of these guys first. Besides, I haven't used my hammer in a while!"

"Whew… Finally!" Chopper sighed, now he was free from her grasps. "Well, I guess we should pay them a little visit! …Again."

When the Magikoopas fired their magic, Kayzee melted their wants with her Heat Vision, leaving them defenseless. This gave Mallow the opportunity to summon a cloud to fall on them.

"Errrr… Take this!" a Hammer Bro. shouted as it began to throw hammers. Scrub managed to grab one with his long tongue and spit it at the enemy, while Heartsy summoned a pink tornado to send the rest of the minions flying.

"They REALLY think they're going to take us on?" Ghoster scoffed as his eyes began to glow while making the rest of the minions levitate off the ground. He sent them flying toward the airship, sending them back in.

"See? I told you the minions vouldn't vork." Ludwig grumbled, glaring at Bowser Junior. "This is vhy I should be ze leader here."

"Well… Then how about you prove it then?" Bowser Jr. scoffed, crossing his arms. "If you think you're so much better than me, then go out and take them on yourselves!"

"You know, I think I'll do that," the oldest Koopaling jumped off the airship and began to fire blue magic. Heartsy was knocked back by the magic, while Kayzee tried to melt his wand with her Heat Vision. Sadly, it didn't seem to work.

"What? My heat vision's not working!" Kayzee gasped.

"That's vhy my vand is heat-proof!"

"Well, then we'll need to try something else," Yosho clenched his fists and laid an egg, as well as Scrub. They both smirked as they threw them straight at Ludwig, leaving him dazed.

"You know, we should probably go down and help," suggested Iggy, who jumped off the airship like the rest of the Koopalings. Bowser Jr. was the only one who stayed on the airship.

"All right! Fine! All of you can get off!" he whined.

"Geez… Well, this is going to be exciting." Chopper groaned. "Right when we're going to go out to find the card, we have this."

"Should we get on the airship?" Sonic asked.

Mario: I think we should!

"You guys can go on the airship," Flyer suggested. "We'll take care of these guys and the minions!"

"Gotcha!" Chopper nodded as he and his friends jumped onto the airship and faced Bowser Jr., who yelped when he saw the six.

"Whoa! Aren't you guys supposed to be fighting down there?!" he gaped.

"Well, how about you get out of the way first?" Blade suggested. "We're on a tight schedule, and we can't have you and your minions getting in our way."

"Oh, so that's what you want, huh? Well, then maybe I should make this interesting!" Bowser Jr. smirked as he made the airship fly above Toad Town and up in the sky, where their friends couldn't help.

"You… You brought us up THIS high?!" Luigi gasped.

"Well, if we're going to battle, then your friends can't interfere! That's how it works here, you know."

"Poyo, (I'm sure you're going to be a cakewalk,)" Kirby declared.

"It's six against one, and you're definitely smaller than most of us here," Chopper pointed out. "You're not likely going to win…"

"Heh heh heh! Oh, really? Well, then how about I fight differently than the others?" Bowser Jr. walked over to his small Koopa Clown Car and jumped into it. Everyone watched as he flew above them.

"So, have you seen anything like this with the others?"

"Well… Not really…" Sonic shrugged.

"All right, then get ready! I'm going to make Papa proud by getting rid of you! Especially you, Mario Bros.!"

Mario: Let's see you try!

Bowser Jr. cackled as he began to fly above the heroes and spat a couple of fireballs down at them. Unfortunately, they couldn't tell how much HP he even had, but they knew his Attack was 16. That's all they could get from that.

"How do we hit him anyway?" Luigi asked. "I know my Super Jump could probably reach him, but there's nothing else…"

"Then hit him with a Super Jump," Blade suggested.

Luigi nodded and used a Super Jump to launch himself up to Bowser Jr. However, he had plans himself. He took out a steel cap and used it to cover himself when Luigi landed on him.

"You'll have to try better than that, 'cause trying to hit me yourself isn't going to help you here!" Bow Jr. cackled as he threw a robotic Bowser-like enemy called a Mecha-Koopa down at them.

When Chopper jumped on it, it didn't appear to be defeated. It simply collapsed, just like what the Dry Bones would do if someone jumped on it. However, this gave Mario a little idea.

Mario: I think I have an idea!

"Really? What is it?" Sonic asked, curious about the plan. Mario began to whisper to everyone about the plan, while Bowser Jr. crossed his arms and let out a groan.

"Are you idiots done yet?" he scoffed.

"Yeah… Just give us about… Say, twenty seconds, OK?" Chopper demanded.

"Why should I? I'm trying to make Papa proud here!"

"Well, you'd want us to give you a challenge if you want to win, right? If it's too easy, it doesn't feel as rewarding!"

"Hmmmmm… Well, yeah, I guess that's true. I should… OW!" Bowser Jr. let out a yelp as he got hit by a Mecha-Koopa. Apparently Mario was able to grab one and throw it at him while he was preoccupied.

Mario: Good distraction!

Bowser Jr. growled as he spat a fireball down at Mario, who yelped, now left with a burn status on him. Chopper tried to use Starbow to hit him, but it didn't seem to work when Bowser Jr. put the metal cap over him again.

"Argh… This is getting annoying…" Chopper groaned.

"Ha ha! You can't hit me!" Bowser Jr. taunted as he stuck his tongue out. His Koopa Clown Car dove down at them and attempted to attack. Thankfully, Sonic managed to hit him with a Homing Attack from behind.

"I guess when he doesn't see you coming, you gotta attack," Sonic said as he landed on the ground, while Bowser Jr. was left dazed.

"Ow! Stupid blue thing! I'm going to burn you!" Bowser Jr. howled as he spat a fireball down at him. Sonic managed to jump out of the way, but that didn't stop Bowser Jr. from throwing a Mecha-Koopa down at him.

"Oof! That hurts…" Sonic moaned.

"Ha ha! Take that!"

Kirby, knowing what he had to do, tried to inhale the Koopa Clown. Sadly, it didn't seem to work out too well for him, but this gave Luigi the opportunity to grab the Mecha-Koopa with Thoreau and throw it at Bowser Jr., leaving him dazed.

"Hey! I got him!" Luigi gaped.

"Ow! That hurt!" Bowser Jr. cried as he retreated. "I can't win at this rate!"

"So… Does that mean we win?" Blade gawked. "I didn't even get to attack him at all…"

"Well, I guess we can't get a chance to attack all the time…" Sonic trailed.

However, they stopped when they saw some fireballs drop from the sky. They all gulped as they avoided the falling fireballs. Another row appeared after the previous disappeared, with two getting Kirby and Blade.

Afterward, Bowser Jr. returned, but with stronger propellers on the Koopa Clown Car. He grinned as he flew down toward the group while spinning his vehicle around like a tornado, sending a couple of them flying.

"I just had to get a little something," Bowser Jr. explained as he spat another fireball at the group. "This should help me fight!"

Mario: A propeller?

"More than that! A propeller that makes this baby spin ridiculously fast!"

Kirby inhaled the fireball to become Fire Kirby, while Chopper tossed a couple of rainbow balls at the Koopa Clown Car. They seemed to do some damage, but it didn't do any harm to Bowser Jr.

"I think we should actually attack Bowser Jr. and NOT the weird clown thing he's in," Blade suggested.

Bowser Jr. chuckled as he tried to ram into Kirby, who tried to scorch him with his Fire Breath. Blade, on the other hand, managed to jump on top of the Koopa Clown Car and slash Bowser Jr.

"Hey! Get out of my car!" Bowser Jr. growled, clawing at Blade and knocking him off with a fireball. "Papa gave this thing for me and only me! So back off!"

"Ugh… I hate spoiled brats…"

However, when Chopper threw an ice ball at the propeller, it froze and caused the Koopa Clown Car to stop moving and crash onto the ship. This gave Kirby the opportunity to scorch him with a fireball.

"Poyo! (You're not the only one who can use fire!)" Kirby smiled as he cheered.

"Work you stupid car!" Bowser Jr. whined as he looked down at the frozen propeller. He tried smashing it with his fists, but it didn't seem to work. He finally spat a fireball at it to make it function, but it only led to him getting hit by a rainbow ball.

"Ow! …I'll be right back!" the young Koopa flew off in his Koopa Clown Car, making fireballs rain down from the sky afterward. Everyone dodged them and noticed Bowser Jr. came back, but with a cannon sticking out of the mouth of the Koopa Clown Car.

"Sorry for the wait… But now this new cannon's installed! Now you're going to get it now!"

"Oh… It's just a cannon…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: That's nothing new!

"Well… Well… It shoots fireballs! I'll show you!" Bowser Jr. fired a flaming cannonball to the ground, filling a part of the ship with fire. "Oh, and don't worry. These ships are fire-proof."

"Poyo, (Well that's convenient,)" Kirby sighed as he tried to attack Bowser Jr. with his Final Cutter. Unfortunately, when he brought the metal cap up, it didn't do a thing.

"Have some of this!" Bowser Jr. cackled as he threw two Mecha-Koopas down. Chopper managed to quickly grab one with Thoreau and throw it at him, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Maybe you shouldn't throw things at us," Chopper suggested as he threw an ice ball at the cannon, freezing it.

"Hey! I need that!"

Mario grabbed the last Mecha-Koopa and gave it a good throw at Bowser Jr. while he was preoccupied with the Koopa Clown Car. Once it hit him, his Koopa Clown Car crashed to the ground.

"Well, looks like you lost," Sonic stated.

"Ugh… Stupid machine! You're useless!" Bowser Jr. growled, kicking his Koopa Clown Car, resulting in him holding his foot in pain as he jumped around. "OW! Why do you have to be made out of hard material? !"

"I think you should bring us back down," Luigi suggested. "We need to go help our friends!"

"Ha ha ha! You think so? Well, I've always got something else up my sleeve! Behold!" Bowser Jr. stepped on a switch and a larger version of the Koopa Clown rolled out of a door. Its grin looked more disturbing than the innocent look of Bowser Jr.'s Koopa Clown Car. "I'm going to use Papa's Koopa Clown against you! I know for a fact his is a lot stronger!"

Mario: Oh, brother… Bowser's Koopa Clown Car…

"What's wrong with that?" Blade asked.

Mario: I don't like its look.

"Well, I don't care if you think my papa's Koopa Clown Car is creepy! It's going to knock your socks out!" Bowser Jr. scoffed as he spat a fireball down at the group. "And this time, no more Mecha-Koopas!"

"Oh, goody…" Chopper groaned.

While everyone dodged the fireball, the Koopa Clown Car dove down toward them, with Kirby managed to hit Bowser Jr. with a fireball before he could get the metal cap to protect himself.

Bowser Jr. grinned as the Koopa Clown Car fired a large cannonball out of its mouth. It even had a timer on it, making everyone gulp. There was no way to send it flying back up to him!

"How are we going to get this up to him?!" Luigi gaped.

An idea struck Mario, and he used his Super Ground Pound. Because of the big attack, it sent the cannonball flying up to the Koopa Clown Car, leaving Bowser Jr. stunned. This also helped when Luigi used a Super Jump to stomp on him.

"Hey! No fair! You can't use my own attack against me!" Bowser Jr. whined.

"Well, they already did," Blade stated as he threw Hommissile and made him hit Bowser Jr. as he whined. This caused him to retreat for a bit and summon large fireballs to rain down from the sky.

"What's with the fire anyway?" Chopper gawked as he avoided the fireballs. When Bowser Jr. returned, they noticed the cannon had a new upgrade. It actually began to fire rapid cannonballs to the ground, surrounding the group in a wall of fire.

"Poyo… (This isn't good…)" Kirby gulped.

"Heh heh heh! Now you're trapped!" Bowser Jr. cackled as Chopper began tossing ice balls. Sadly, that didn't seem to work.

"Ugh… Nothing's working!" Chopper groaned.

"Bowser Jr.! Bowser Jr.!"

"What the…" Bowser Jr. noticed a Magikoopa flew over to him. "Oh, what now? Can't you see I'm busy here? !"

"I have urgent news! You know the battle down in Toad Town?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"Well… We lost."

"WHAT?! That's not right! They must've cheated!"

While they were preoccupied, Chopper managed to inhale the Magikoopa's wand and gain a green, pointy hat. He smirked as he raised his arm and summoned lightning to strike Bowser Jr.

"What the heck?! How'd you do that?!"

"I've got my Magic ability on!" Chopper smiled. "…Er, Sorcerer? I don't know…"

He summoned a magic attack to extinguish the flames, allowing Sonic to strike Bowser Jr. with his Sonic Wind. Once Kirby hit Bowser Jr. with a Cartwheel, the son of Bowser retreated again.

"Since it took nine hits to beat him in his first phase, I'm sure it'll take nine again," Sonic concluded. "That means… Three more hits."

"Argh… This is all I have left…" Bowser Jr. grumbled as the Koopa Clown Car began to crash down on the ship, damaging it slightly. The car itself looked pretty angry too. "I'm going to CRUSH you with this thing!"

Blade managed to stun the Koopa Clown Car with Hommissile, while Sonic delivered a Homing Attack to Bowser Jr. Luigi even threw Bonjourang to leave Bowser Jr. stunned, leaving only one last hit to win the fight.

"Oh no ya don't!" Bowser Jr. clawed at Luigi and knocked him back, bringing his metal cap up. However, Chopper summoned lightning to strike the cap, leaving a shock on Bowser Jr. to force him to let go.

"HEY! That's not fair!"

Mario: Here we go!

With one jump from Mario, Bowser Jr. fell out of the Koopa Clown Car and lay unconscious.

"Yes! We finally did it!" Luigi cheered.

"Unnghh… How did I lose like that?" Bowser Jr. groaned, slowly lifting his head. "I did everything Papa told me! …Well, I guess maybe it's because he always loses to you Stupid Mario Bros…"

Mario: How are we stupid if we win?

"You guys want a fun ride? Well, how about I give you one myself!" the son of Bowser grinned as he pulled a lever near him, revealing a trapdoor underneath. Everyone gasped as they began to plummet to their doom.

"And don't come back here!"

"Ack! This is horrible!" Luigi cried as everyone began to fall toward Toad Town. "There's no way we could survive a fall like this!"

"I knew we shouldn't have stood still like that!" Chopper cried.

Their cries eventually stopped when they noticed they were all surrounded by a light.

"P-Poyo…? (We're…not falling…?)" Kirby blinked.

They noticed a yellow, watery creature with the back of his head being shaped like a star, green eyes, stretchy arms and legs, and claws slowly floating down with them. Chopper rubbed his eyes before taking a look at him.

"I can't believe it! It's Staris!" Chopper gasped. "How did he know we were in trouble? !"

"Doesn't he say anything?" Blade asked.

"No. He's one of those silent gods. But, he actually saved us!"

"Isn't he that guy you said you fought against?" Luigi recalled. "Then how come he's not hurting us?"

"It's because I got rid of the dark power that was corrupting him when the Star Rod was stolen. I think all of that was am myth to begin with, but then Maquano came in and made the myth come true by making the dark power spread into him if the Star Rod was ever stolen."

"Oh… Well that's interesting!" Blade said. "So… Could you bring us down to Toad Town?"

Staris nodded and began to descend down to Toad Town.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

"Man! We sure showed them!" Tamber grinned as he finished off Roy with a punch. All the Koopalings were unconscious, as well as the rest of the minions. "Did they really think they could beat us?"

"Well, to be fair, there were definitely more of us in that fight…" Vivian trailed. "I feel somewhat sorry for them, though…"

"I don't think they're truly evil," Heartsy said while rubbing her head. "Sometimes I feel they're doing this because their father is threatening them or something?"

"I don't think they're being threatened," Flyer pondered. "Sometimes it could be because they fear someone who's bigger in size."

"Well, needless to say, we managed to come victorious," Geno stated. "I know those heroes said they would get on the airship. …But I don't see them."

"Scanners are picking up something," C-2 Choppor warned, raising his arm gun.

Everyone looked up and saw the six heroes slowly descending while being surrounded by light, thanks to the Star God, Staris. Everyone gasped and stepped back from the glowing Staris.

"Well, looks like they're back!" Parakarry smiled. "About time!"

When they landed on the ground, everyone walked over to them to greet them once again.

"So, what happened on that airship?" Shadower asked. "In fact… Where did it even go?"

"Well, apparently it went up in the sky," Sonic explained. "Bowser Jr. grabbed a lever and made us fall to our doom. That is, until Staris showed up and rescued us at the right moment."

"Is he evil?" Mallow asked.

"Don't you remember what happened when we went into Star Haven?" Geno asked. "Chopper was able to drive the dark power corrupting Staris out with his super form, turning him back to normal."

Staris gave a nod as he used his power to heal the wounds off of everyone, making them all relieved. Afterward, Mario took notice of the unconscious Koopalings on the ground.

Mario: I suppose they're taken care of?

"Yeah, we took care of 'em," Koopla smirked. "They weren't that hard, to be fair. But that might be because there were more of us."

"It's weird, because usually it's always the villains outnumbering us," Bombette mentioned.

"Although, I will admit that this fight wasn't as cool as the battle on your home planet," Bruce remarked.

"But we decided that we would try to start searching for that card," Scrub declared.

"A card, huh? So, what is this 'card' that you're hoping to get?"

"Well, we were… Hold on, did any of you just say that?" Chopper gawked before receiving head shakes.

"I'm right over here, Chopper," he turned to the way to Pleasant Path, where he found a bouncing black head with blue glass on his cranium. "You remember me, do you not? The almighty Sir Grodus?"

"Grodus? What are you doing here?" Vivian asked.

"I decided that I would go out for once and see this world Mario lives in. Don't think that I'm evil like before. I'm practically powerless as a head. If it weren't for that demon, I'm sure I'd be destroying you all!"

"But you're not. You're just a head!" Yosho laughed.

"I assure you that just because I'm a head doesn't mean my intellect has gone down. In fact, I can safely say that I might know of a certain card being somewhere…"

"Whoa! Are you serious?!" Bombette gaped. "You KNOW where it is?!"

"Yeah, we know all right!" a slightly chubby alien with a black suit and black boots with a white X, a red cape, purple mask and pants and goggles walked beside Grodus. "And trust us, we're not trying to blackmail ya."

"Really, we kinda gave up on evil. There are barely any of us left anyway…" Another person came beside Grodus. However, instead he was in a red suit with a white mask and goggles.

"Lord Crump!" Chopper gawked. "Oh, yeah… Flyer told me you were still alive after those events."

"Yeah! Nothing can stop me! Buh huh huh!" Lord Crump cackled stupidly.

"You're still the same idiot as before," Scrub scoffed.

"Oh, burned!" Tamber laughed. "…But I really shouldn't be saying that. That's rather…rude of me."

"Well, then why can't we know where the card is?" Heartsy asked. "If you're guys aren't evil, then you'd tell us."

"Then I think we'll listen," Bow added.

"All right, but you must promise us to bring us with you," Grodus suggested.

"OK… If you insist…" Blade trailed.

"Good. Johnson! Tell them!"

"Of course," Johnson nodded. "You see, as aliens, we have some ships remaining. While we were flying over that…Star Haven place, we encountered some kind of card. It was glowing, that's for sure. I believe it was at some kind of shrine."

Staris's eyes widened as he had a vision of where the card was. It was right where he lived…

"Hold on… Did you say shrine?" Chopper gaped. "Staris's Shrine! Of all the places…"

"How're we going to get up there?" Koopla gawked.

"That'll take a lot of people!" Kayzee frowned. "And with all the obstacles we had to go through to get there too!"

However, before anyone could say another word, the ground began to tremor violently, causing The Void to grow bigger.

"Uh oh… That thing's growing huge!" Mallow gaped.

"We've gotta go now!" Geno shouted.

"And you believe you'll have that kind of time? I think not!"

"Oh, no…" Luigi gulped as Tipral floated above the whole group. "Why do you have to be here? !"

The ones who probably gave the most serious looks were Sonic and Blade, who clenched their fists and glared at Tipral without a word.

"I'm surprised you managed to escape The Void twice," Tipral commented as he looked down at the group. "And I can see there are a bunch of familiar faces here…"

"Tipral? ! …I guess you haven't changed a bit…" Shadower trailed.

"Oh, yes… I think I'll be satisfied when I see this place go all right, especially that brother of yours, Shadower."

"You mean Mysterious?"

"Of course! You know how much horrible treatment I got from that shadow being? And no, it wasn't the name-calling either. While I hated the term 'shadow-freak', he gave me beatings when I didn't see it coming when I failed to beat Chopper."

"Whoa… Are you serious? That's like the punishments I got from him!"

"He also kept me in a tanning bed for eight hours while I was being bit by Chain Chomps too. I was so enraged by him that I wanted to strangle him to death. Unfortunately, I couldn't because Maquano told me he was needed and that I had to stick with him. That almost makes me hate him as well!"

"Some people made fun of my name back in Sand Town," Heartsy recalled. "But after a while, I got over it. However, WHY did you let yourself get tortured by that shadow being?"

"You should've stayed away from him for the most," Flyer suggested. "And what did it lead you to do? Destroy all worlds?"

"That's not all why I'm doing this… Ever since _that_ happened, I've been nothing but lonely and filled with _**hatred**_. You probably wouldn't understand, so I suppose I'll leave you all to die. If I can't get the heroes this time, then I'll make sure I'll get you next time."

Staris noticed the Dark Star Scepter in Tipral's hand, so he tried to grab it. Unfortunately, Tipral saw this coming and teleported out of the way. When he reappeared, Staris jumped in the air and tried to use his light power to fire a beam from his mouth.

"You think you can take this scepter from me?" Tipral scoffed, firing a dark beam from the scepter to counter it. "You may be a Star God, but this weapon is the most powerful thing in the universe! A god such as yourself can't defeat me!"

Staris landed on the ground and brought his hand into the ground. His hand appeared in front of Tipral and attempted to swat at him. Unfortunately, this led the Star God to be blasted by a dark beam.

"Poyo… (For some reason, Staris seemed to react in a strange way to that scepter…)" Kirby trailed.

"I think this Star God knows a secret that he shouldn't know about this thing!" Tipral growled, hitting the Star God with a Star Spirit. "Never mind that for now. I don't have time to be here. I'll let The Void take care of you all for now. Rest assured, Chopper. You and your friends are eventually going to die! It'll be nice to see people who attacked me swallowed up by The Void!"

"I shouldn't be the reason why…" Unfortunately, Tipral disappeared, leaving the heroes to gulp. "Someone should really talk some sense into him."

"I really don't like the way he acts…" Kayzee trailed. "And he even looks like you, Chopper!"

"All right, I think we need to get going now," Chopper suggested.

"I cannot tell how much time is left," C-2 Choppor informed. "Don't waste any time, Chopper. We're going now."

"Uhh… What the robot said!" Ghoster agreed.

"Yeah! So take us up there, Staris!" Luigi suggested as Staris slowly got up. He used his power to surround only the heroes, Grodus, Lord Crump, and Johnson. He tried to get the others, but for some reason, he couldn't.

"What's going on? It doesn't look like Staris can get all of us to his shrine." Bow noticed.

"I believe because of that dark power Tipral had with him, it left him weakened," Geno deduced. "It appears he can only take the nine up."

"Yeah, and we said that they'd have to take us to the card if they wanna know where to find it," Lord Crump grinned. "Stinks for you guys!"

"Hey! That's not fair!" Heartsy growled.

"Well… To be honest… It is fair…" Flyer trailed. "We agreed that they'd come, and since Staris can't take anyone else up, it's fair that they go…"

"All right… Then I guess this means goodbye…" Vivian frowned. "It's sad, because we didn't have much time to speak…"

"Yeah, I feel bad too," Chopper frowned. "Maybe next time, I'll get to see you guys…"

"Yeah, don't forget us either," Bruce added. "Of course, you couldn't have gone through your adventures without us!"

"Of course!" Bombette agreed.

"And don't let anyone get in your way either," Tamber suggested. "I know you guys are tougher than me. I won't deny it. That's… That's really all I can say."

As the ground trembled again, everyone frowned. "I guess we should get going…"

With that, Staris began to ascend into the sky with the heroes, Grodus, Lord Crump, and Johnson.

"I wish I could've given Choppy my little gift before he left…" Heartsy slowly pulled out a slice of cake with red icing shaped like a heart. "Peach actually helped me with this, and I wanted to know what he thought of it."

"Is Chopper all you think about?" Bow groaned.

"Well you like him too! I know you were flirting with him a couple of times! You think of him a lot! Don't be so hypocritical!"

"Says the girl who gives him the name 'Choppy' and is as obsessed with him as me…"

"Girls, this arguing REALLY has to stop," Flyer groaned, stepping in between the two. "Chopper's told me how both of you act toward each other. Just realize that you have different views. You may both like him, but fighting over someone is wrong. It gets you nowhere."

"But I personally don't like the way she treats Chopper," Heartsy stated. "She believes she could just sit back and relax while he does everything for her. That's almost like slavery!"

"I never treated him like a slave," Bow growled. "You usually can't think of anything besides Chopper for the most!"

"Well, you two have different perspectives of things," Flyer said. "I'm sure both of you are not really like that. You're just judging each other. I think it's safe to say that it won't help you two at all."

"Especially at a time like this," Geno added. "I think it's time you two put all of that aside and make up."

"…I guess you're right," Bow sighed. "I'm sorry if I ever hurt you in any way, Heartsy. I did feel before that this got us nowhere."

"Yeah, that's something I felt too… I apologize for calling you a bitch five months ago. That didn't feel right." Heartsy held her hand out. "Truce?"

"…Truce."

As they both shook hands, everyone felt relieved.

"And I can't believe we finally got that over with!" Scrub smiled. "It's about time!"

"So… What should we do now?" Bow asked.

"All we can do right now is hope that they get the card and stop The Void," Heartsy stated.

"Well, at least the most important thing is that we'll die together…" Parakarry trailed as he shed a tear. "Let's all wish them luck."

"Please… Don't fail us now, heroes…" Geno trailed.

* * *

**Staris's Shrine-**

"Man… I can't believe it's been this long since I've been here…" Chopper sighed as he landed on the light blue ground. He looked over at the staircase in the background and saw the Star Rod sticking out of the pedestal. "Nothing much has changed, but I like it this way."

"Poyo! (It looks really beautiful!)" Kirby smiled as he noticed the Star Kids playing in the fountain around the shrine.

"Now that you brought us here, we can safely tell you where the card is," Grodus stated. "And believe us, we don't want this world to get swallowed up either, so it's safe to say we're on the same side."

"And I believe I can show you the way," Johnson concluded as he hurried on ahead.

That is, until someone stomped on him. It was none other than Mr. L.

"Oh, no… Not you again!" Luigi groaned.

"Mushroom Kingdom Card? You mean this?" Mr. L chuckled as he turned around and held up the glowing card. "I believe you'll be needing this to continue on, is that correct?"

Mario: Give that to us!

"That card is needed for them to stop that thing in the sky!" Lord Crump growled. "Give it to them or I'm gonna give you the ol' Crump-a-bomb!"

"Ho ho! Am I sensing a fat man who wants to challenge me?" Mr. L scoffed.

"Buh huh? I'm not fat! I'll show you!" Lord Crump charged at Mr. L with full force, but he ended up getting electrocuted by a single zap of green electricity from Mr. L's hand.

"He has electricity now?!" Chopper gaped.

"Of course I do! Tipral thought that I could've used it!" Mr. L smirked. "But anyway… I guess we might as well get started."

"Started with what?" Blade asked.

"What do you think? A fight! That's why I came here!"

"Oh, really? I thought you came here for a cheeseburger?"

"Sure, I'd come here for a cheeseburger, but I'll save that for later when I beat you guys!" Mr. L raised his arms and shouted, "_**BROBOT LAUNCH!**_"

Staris was about to bring his arm back, but Chopper gestured him to stay back as the ground began to tremble. A new Brobot ended up ripping through the background and flew in front of the heroes. The only difference here was that Brobot's hands were black with spiky knuckles, and it had a black mask.

"You see this magnificent design? This is the newer version of Brobot! I call him… _**BROBOT L II**_!"

"Not Brobot Mk. II?" Chopper gawked.

Mr. L jumped into his new Brobot and grabbed a hold of the controls. "Now, then… Let's see what you jumpers can do to me, especially you, Mr. Greencappedloser! Have at you!"

"Oh, now you're crossing the line…" Luigi growled, clenching his fists. "Calling me a loser? That's the LAST straw!"

"All right, let's see if you can beat this new Brobot! It's so much stronger than my other Brobot, that's for sure! Wanna know why? It has MACHINE GUNS! Just look!" Mr. L pressed a button and Brobot L II began to fire its machine guns from its knuckles. Everyone gasped and avoided them, while Chopper hurled a fireball at Brobot L II. Sadly, it didn't seem to work.

"Fire doesn't appear to work at all…" Chopper trailed.

They discovered Brobot L II had a Max HP of 440, an Attack of 17 and a Defense of 8. It was immune to fire, according to the fire. Needless to say, there was no messing around with this thing, that's for sure.

However, it was when Luigi managed to strike Brobot L II's nose with a Super Jump was when the robot actually got hit by something. It retaliated by punching Luigi and Mario, but it didn't take them too long to get up.

Chopper frowned and raised his arm to summon lightning down and hit Brobot L II, leaving it paralyzed for a couple of seconds. Kirby removed his Fire ability, knowing it was useless and attacked the robot with his Final Cutter.

"Blasphemy! …Wait, did I just say 'blasphemy'?" Mr. L gawked. "Well it doesn't matter! How's about I give you some missiles?"

The Green Thunder slammed on a button and Brobot L II's nose opened up and fired a black missile at the group. Kirby inhaled it and became Bomb Kirby before tossing a bomb at the robot.

"You know, explosives were very effective against the previous one," Blade recalled. "So I bet they'll do just fine against this as well!"

Blade threw Hommissile at Brobot L II, but to his surprise, the attack only did normal damage, unlike the previous times where Hommissile pierced through Brobot's defenses. Not the case here.

"I took some lessons from our previous encounters," Mr. L smirked. "I toldja this was my best yet!"

Mario: He really has learned from the past…

"Yup!" Brobot L II opened its mouth and began to suck in everyone like a vacuum. Everyone tried to escape, but they weren't able to get away and ended up inside of the robot. After chewing them up a bit, Brobot L II spat them out and left them with a couple of bruises.

"Geez… That was painful…" Sonic moaned.

"See? My machine is quite lovely!"

"Then maybe you should shut up with your boasting and actually fight us instead," Chopper grumbled, firing some ice chucks to be thrown at Brobot L II. Its hand tried to block it, but it ended up being frozen.

Mario grinned as he jumped on the frozen hand and delivered a Super Ground Pound to Brobot L II's head, leaving it to cringe in pain. Mr. L gasped as Mario jumped off stylishly and landed on the ground.

"Hey, Red! See how you like THIS!" Brobot L II raised its fists and brought them down on him. Unfortunately, Mr. L missed the attack, despite the fact that the ice on one of Brobot L II's hands shattered.

Mario: You're a little too slow!

"Is Mario suddenly becoming me?" Sonic gawked as he dodged one of Brobot L II's fists and struck the robot in the face with a powerful Homing Attack. Brobot L II was sent flying back and ended up skidding along the floor.

"Ugh… My head…" Johnson moaned as he slowly got up. He noticed the giant robot of Mr. L in front of him, forcing him to let out a cry as he ran over to Grodus and Lord Crump.

"Man, this thing is totally a rip-off of my awesome robot creation," Lord Crump scoffed.

"Your robots never defeated Chopper and his friends before," Grodus remarked. "So they're not any better than this."

"Well, this isn't any better."

"I guess it's safe to say both aren't any better," Johnson declared as he watched Luigi throw Bonjourang at Brobot L II. It tried to slam him to the ground, but the plumber dodged it and attacked Brobot L II with a Cyclone.

"Hey! Quit moving!" Mr. L growled. "I'm trying to smash you, and your dodging isn't helping me!"

"Well, I don't want to get smashed by that thing's fists!" Luigi retorted as he hit Brobot L II in the nose with a Super Jump. Mr. L growled and pressed a button that allowed Brobot L II to fire a large, dark green laser from its eyes.

"I know how to avoid this," Chopper declared as he flipped into 3-D and got behind Brobot L II. Once he was in 2-D again, he bashed the robot with a rainbow smash, followed by summoning lightning to strike down on Brobot L II.

Mr. L growled as he made Brobot L II fly in the air and land on top of Chopper, flattening him. When Blade charged toward the robot, it opened its mouth in order to inhale him.

"If you couldn't escape it before, then surely you won't this time!" Mr. L grinned as Brobot L II began to suck Blade in.

"Well, I still have something," Blade smirked as he threw Hommissile into Brobot L II's mouth, causing an explosion from inside. Mr. L gaped as he noticed a little malfunction, but was able to fix it up quickly.

"That was barely anything! This thing is highly sturdy!"

Kirby frowned and chucked a couple of bombs at Brobot L II, causing some steam to come out of the robot. Mr. L gasped, but it didn't stop him from making Brobot L II grab Kirby and throw him at Chopper.

"Poyo… (Well, he certainly has learned a lot, I'll say that…)" Kirby groaned.

Brobot L II lifted one of its feet up and slammed on the ground, causing a shockwave that left the heroes stunned. This gave Mr. L the opportunity to strike them with a flamethrower from its nose.

"What a bunch of l-osers you are!" Mr. L scoffed as the heroes got hit by Brobot L II's, mustache, which it threw at them like a boomerang and caught afterward. Mario was able to quickly get back up and slam his hammer on Brobot L II's nose.

"Hey! Watch the nose on this baby! I don't want a dent left on it!"

Mario: You're fighting us with it…

"You're probably going to expect to see dents on it anyway," Sonic added as he clenched his fist and attacked Brobot L II with his Sonic Wind. It didn't seem to send the robot flying, but it ended up harming it, which allowed Blade to slice at it with his katana.

"…OK, I'll admit that my katana probably won't do much to defeat this thing," Blade declared as he threw Hommissile at Brobot L II. "Now that's a little more effective, in my eyes."

"This is going to be more effective!" Mr. L spat as he made Brobot L II fire a missile at Blade, covering him in soot. Even when Chopper got up, he got blasted by another missile the robot fired.

"Oh, come on! Will I ever make an attack? !" Chopper groaned.

Mr. L grinned evilly as Brobot L II brought his foot down on Chopper, flattening him like a pancake again. Sonic retaliated by charging up a Light Speed Attack and attacking Brobot L II multiple times, forcing it back.

"Are you OK?" Sonic asked, pulling Chopper back up. "Oh, yeah… We gotten unflatten you."

"Poyo! (I'm on it!)" Kirby declared as he got a bicycle pump and began to pump air into Chopper, getting him back up and also unflattening him (even though they're technically PAPER).

"Geez… This robot is a major pain in the butt!" Chopper grumbled, hurling a rainbow ball at Brobot L II, followed by freezing one of its hands with an ice spell. This gave Mario the opportunity to dent Brobot L II's nose with Kickbrin.

"Oh, so you wanna play it that way, huh? Well then! Time to bring out the machine guns!" Mr. L pressed a button, and the knuckles of Brobot L II began to fire its machine guns at the group.

"Heads up!" Blade shouted as they avoided the bullets coming their way. He managed to fire a Dragon Beam at Brobot L II, which left it off guard and even kept it stunned, allowing Kirby to hurl a bomb into its mouth.

"Poyo, (I don't know how much time we have until this world's done for,)" Kirby said worriedly.

"Let's try not to worry about that, Kirby," Chopper suggested. "That's something that should be discussed for later."

Mario: And it's really bad to bring up too…

Mario looked up at the sky worriedly as he saw The Void grow bigger. Mr. L simply chuckled as he made Brobot L II ram its non-frozen fist straight at Mario, who jumped out of the way and bashed Brobot L II's face with his hammer.

"Oh, boy… You might have much time, l-osers!" Mr. L scoffed.

"He's making horrible puns now…" Luigi groaned as he grabbed Hommissile from Blade and threw it at Brobot L II. With that, Mr. L made the robot fly in the air and shoot bombs to the ground.

"You like bombs? Then you'll love these!"

Mario grabbed one of the bombs with Thoreau, but unfortunately, it ended up blowing up while he held it, leading him to take damage instead. The red plumber coughed from the smoke while Brobot L II flew to the ground and fired a missile.

Luigi reacted by grabbing the missile with Thoreau and throwing it back at Brobot L II. This left Mr. L off guard, but then he noticed Staris had an idea flowing through his head, considering he noticed him creating a Mega Star.

"Oh, so he thinks he can help those pitiful heroes by trying to trample me, huh? Well, two can play at one game!"

"Hey, guys… I think Staris is helping us!" Luigi gasped as Staris threw a Mega Star toward them.

"I don't think so!" Mr. L smirked as he got Brobot L II to grab a hold of the Mega Star. Everyone gaped as Brobot L II transformed into a giant 8-bit version of itself. Mr. L was even 8-bit as well!

"I've seen a Koopa Troopa get a Mega Star… But I've never seen one of Tipral's minions get one!" Chopper gulped. "I'm actually scared…"

"Wow… I think they're totally going to get crumped…" Lord Crump gaped.

"Lord Crump… Have I ever told you your puns were bad?" Grodus asked.

"Well, it doesn't matter, considering you'll never be a head of me! Buh huh huh!"

"If I had my body, my scepter would be slamming right on your head... In fact, why don't you do the honors, Johnson?"

"Of course, Sir Grodus," Johnson nodded as he slammed his fist on Lord Crump's head. "And if you believe you can hurt me, think again. That was Sir Grodus's orders, which I'm meant to follow."

Staris managed to create another Mega Star, but at a faster pace than before. He tossed it over to the heroes, with Mario grabbing the Mega Star and transforming into a giant 8-bit version of himself.

Unfortunately, he wasn't as big as Brobot L II.

"Well, looks like you got one yourself!" Mr. L frowned. "No matter! We'll make this a big giant battle, Mr. Jumpsallthetime!"

Mario: All right, then!

When Brobot L II tried to punch Mario, he was able to grab Brobot L II's fist and push it back at the robot, knocking it back. A couple of Star Kids screamed as they flew away from the water where the two giants fought and flew over to Staris, who huddled them all together.

"This is like one of those giant monster fights," Lord Crump said as he held a bag of popcorn in his hands.

Mario clenched his hammer and brought it down on Brobot L II. Considering that they were both large, they could easily hurt each other. In fact, Brobot L II's mustache flew off and hit Mario, nearly sawing his mustache off.

Mario: Yikes!

"All right, then! Let's see how you like this!" Before Mr. L could activate his machine guns again, a puff of smoke surrounded them and turned them back to normal. "Aw, what? We're back to normal now?! Weak!"

"Well, I guess this helps us!" Luigi smiled as he finished drinking a Star Shroom Shake that he passed over to everyone else. After doing a flip, he managed to hit Brobot L II's nose with his Cyclone.

"Great… Those idiots just healed themselves up." Mr. L growled as he made Brobot L II fire its machine guns at the six. They were able to avoid the bullets, but they couldn't escape from the robot's lasers.

"And now taste some of Brobot's missiles!" he cackled as he fired a missile straight at Kirby, who used his Defend to take minimum damage. Afterward, he pulled a bomb out and chucked it at Brobot L II.

"Poyo! (I can see some smoke coming out of that thing!)" Kirby noticed.

"Really? Well that's neat!" Chopper smiled as he summoned a tidal wave to fall on Brobot L II thanks to his Magic ability. Sparks were flying everywhere due to the water, and it even left the robot a little rusted.

"So, you have the nerve to leave my robot a little rusted? Ho ho! Well, then you're going to love this!"

Mr. L pushed a button and Brobot L II's mouth opened up. Instead of inhaling everyone, it began to charge up a powerful laser. This almost reminded Sonic of when Eggman used that giant robot back in the Death Egg that could shoot a large laser.

"Great… Just what we need…" Sonic sighed.

"We can still attack him while it's charging," Blade informed. Sonic gave a nod and simply threw himself at the robot in a ball. Blade threw Hommissile in Brobot L II's mouth, hoping for some success.

But, unfortunately, that didn't stop Brobot L II from firing the large laser at them. It did double the damage its normal attacks did and left them panting. It didn't stop Mario from hitting it with Kickbrin, however.

Mario: You're almost beat!

"Well, as long as I get one of the heroes, I'm fine. I'm thinking of taking out the one that looks like me! I don't like that 'stache of his or those overalls!" Mr. L growled, pressing a button to make Brobot L II raise its fist over Luigi.

"Wah! This isn't good!" Luigi gaped as he jumped out of the fist's way. He decided to jump on it and land on Brobot L II's head, even if it didn't do too much damage. But surely enough, it didn't have much to fight them.

"Well… How about another large laser? This baby still has some juice for that!" Mr. L shouted as Brobot L II opened its mouth and prepared to charge another laser attack.

"Hey, Luigi, why don't you use Hommissile to take him out?" Blade suggested. "I think it's right that you do the honors."

"Thanks, Blade," Luigi thanked as he grabbed Hommissile and threw him directly into Brobot L II's mouth. Before it could fire a laser, the robot began to detonate, making Mr. L gasped.

"Awwwww what?! No way! My Brobot L II has machine guns. MACHINE GUNS!"

"Well, I guess that's not much for you," Luigi smirked as he caught the Mushroom Kingdom Card that dropped out of Brobot L II once it exploded. Mr. L fell to the ground in exhaustion.

"Ugh… Well that turned out to be great…" he grumbled. "My newest robot. Gone! …But, it doesn't matter from here. I believe The Void's just about to destroy this place for sure!"

Mario: WHAT?!

"That's right! I guess I should get going now! L-ater!" Mr. L cackled as he jumped in the air and suddenly teleported out of their sights.

"Wait… Is he being serious?!" Lord Crump gawked.

Everyone stopped when they felt a violent tremor. When they looked at the sky, they didn't see the sky anymore. The Void had BECOME the sky now!

* * *

**Toad Town-**

"Oh, geez! The tremors are getting worse!" Ghoster cried. "I hope those guys know what they're doing!"

"They know what they're doing!" Bow cried. "They're heroes! They're supposed to know what they're doing!"

Everyone began to shake as the whole place began to flash white a couple of times. Some of the tremors were so violent, that it even sent Flyer, Heartsy, C-2 Choppor, Ghoster, and Tamber rolling back into the teleporter building.

"Ack! Where are you guys going?!" Scrub gasped.

"It's not us! The Void's shaking is too much for us!" Flyer cried.

"Help us!" Heartsy cried.

Bow immediately came to Heartsy's aid and grabbed her hand. Unfortunately, The Void's trembling was too strong for her to hold her, and she ended up crashing into the teleporter building, along with the rest of the people being thrown back by The Void's immense power.

Flyer was the last to fall into the room, and he accidentally pressed the teleporter button. Since the five were already sitting on the teleporter beam, they were instantly teleported out of this world.

"Guys! No!" Koopla cried.

"Did The Void throw them into that room and send them out of here?!" Bombette gaped.

"Oh, no…" Kayzee gulped.

However, the one who seemed to feel the saddest was Vivian, who looked up at the sky and imagined Tipral's look of hatred.

"Please… Don't let this world end now…" Vivian cried, tears rolling down her face. "Tipral… Why? Why would you do this? There's so much more to life than you think…"

* * *

**Staris's Shrine-**

"This can't be… The end of the world is upon us!" Grodus gaped.

"Bro… Our home world…" Luigi sniffled as they saw a couple of white flashes.

"And our friends too…" Chopper gasped.

They all knew there was nothing they could do and closed their eyes as everything slowly began to fade away.

The Mushroom Kingdom was no more.

* * *

**Dimensional X-**

Ortorain discovered the heroes lying on the ground five minutes later. After giving them a nudge, they slowly got up, but most of them looked depressed, especially from the fact that their friends were gone.

Mario: Peach… Toad… They're all gone…

"Even Princess Daisy," Luigi frowned as a tear came down his face. "All of our friends are gone…"

"I couldn't have gone through those previous quests without them either," Chopper sniffled. "Is this what Tipral wants us to feel?"

"Poyo, (It really is harmful, especially to us,)" Kirby sighed.

"Tipral should actually stop being a coward and fight us for real," Blade growled, feeling more hatred. "I mean, destroying three…no, FOUR worlds we know about? We all know he's crossed the line."

"Ortorain, don't you have the power to stop Tipral?" Chopper asked. "Can't you recreate those worlds?"

"I wish I could… But with The Void in the way, it'll simply get destroyed again." Ortorain sighed. "The only option we have is to get the final two Pure Hearts. That's the only thing that can stop The Void and save all the destroyed worlds."

"Oh… I guess that makes sense…" Sonic trailed. "Look, if we stay here and grieve about our worlds, it's going to hold us back."

"That's true," Luigi nodded, wiping a tear off his face. "Although… What are we going to do now? We practically lost everyone we know and love so far!"

Mario: That's exactly how Tipral wants us to feel! While I feel terrible about our world's destruction, thinking about it too much might make us weaker against our enemies. We need to stay strong!

"Yes, I will have to agree with Mario," Ortorain nodded. "Try to overcome your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. If possible, that might help you find the final card needed to reach the Pure Heart."

"But, I swear, Tipral will pay for this," Blade stated as they walked over to the Star Block ahead. With that, Chopper struck the block with his fist and ended the chapter.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Sammer's Kingdom, Mobius, and now the Mushroom Kingdom destroyed, our heroes were starting to take this quest a little more seriously. Tipral already destroyed four worlds, and now the heroes mean business. "Just a fair warning… The final card might not be easy to get a hold of." warned Ortorain. "It's very difficult to search, needless to say." Even with those words, Chopper and Co. were not going to stand down. They had to overcome this weakness and prove that the destruction of their home worlds won't bring them down. But the question is… Will that work?_

* * *

**Four worlds (including Desert Oasis) are destroyed so far. That's not a good thing for the heroes, especially since their HOME WORLDS are being destroyed!**

**While I liked writing this chapter, I will admit that it wasn't easy when it came to putting all of those characters in there. There were A LOT, that's for sure. However, I'm glad I won't be writing about the Koopalings anymore (I'm kind of getting sick of them now :P).  
**

**But with the loss of their friends, how will they fare in the later part of Chapter 18? Well, you'll see. ;)  
**


	109. Corrupted Dreams

**CHAPTER 18-4**

**-Corrupted Dreams-**

"Heroes, as you leave the previous world you went into, you go higher into this world," Ortorain explained as everyone looked at how much The Void grew in the sky. Needless to say, it wasn't looking great for this world. "I made sure when you would leave, you'd be transferred higher up in this world. Of course, to get to the Pure Heart, you must go to the portal that's on the top of this world!"

"You never told us what this world is anyway," Chopper recalled. "Could you tell us where?"

"Honestly, if I did that, it wouldn't be so surprising to you guys. However, I will tell you something. When we DO reach that portal, I'll explain to you where the Pure Heart is so it makes it easier for you all."

"Poyo, (I guess that's fair,)" Kirby shrugged, but there was something that he couldn't help thinking about. His own world. He knew that Mario and Sonic's world was destroyed, but how was his world faring so far?

"Kirby? What's wrong?" Ortorain asked, giving him a suspicious look. "It looks like something's bothering you…"

"Poyo… (Well… I'm starting to get a little worried about my own world… Yes, I know we can't let it hit us, but I always enjoyed the color of my world. Seeing it go would truly break me…)"

"I'll admit, I think your world is the nicest of them all," Chopper commented. "I love the grass, and some of the people there are likeable! …With some exceptions, that is."

"Yeah, I do think Dream Land has some of the nicest landscapes I've seen from another world," Sonic agreed. "I like Green Hill, but there's so much beauty to Dream Land that I can't overlook."

"I don't think I've been to Kirby's world yet…" Blade trailed.

"Same here…" Luigi added.

"Funny you should say that… The next card you need to find is actually in Kirby's world." Ortorain revealed. Everyone looked a little surprised, but not as much as they thought they would be.

"Well, I guess it's fair that you told us right now…" Chopper trailed.

Mario: It'll be nice to see some people there too.

"Well, then allow me to show you the way!" Ortorain declared as he flew on. When the heroes follow him up a small hill, they noticed a glowing pink barrier block their way. It was almost like the ones in cyberspace.

"Oh, I apologize for those. Those are meant to keep specific people out. You can go ahead and destroy them. I'll simply replace them later on!"

"Ummmm… All right." Chopper sweat dropped as he summoned lightning to strike the barrier, while Kirby threw a couple of bombs to shatter it, allowing them to go up the hill ahead, where a Dimensional Ghost waited.

"Well, you know what to do, Chopper," Luigi said as Chopper hurled a rainbow ball at the Dimensional Ghost. Once it was left open, Blade attacked it with his katana a couple of times, destroying it.

"How many of these guys are there, Ortorain?" Blade asked. "In fact, do you even do anything about them?"

"I could…if they were actually living beings," Ortorain informed. "I don't have control over the dead. Only Queen Jaydes and King Grambi are capable of that power. I'm only capable of dimension powers."

When they reached the door, they found themselves in an area with a high ledge up ahead. However, there was one thing that was bugging him for a while when they first met Ortorain.

"Uhhhh… Ortorain? Could I ask you a question?" Chopper asked.

"Go right ahead, young one."

"Don't suppose you know someone named Dimentio? He's some kind of jester that made a dimension of his own."

"Dimentio…? Hmmmmmmm… I believe I heard that name before…" the dimension creator trailed as he began to ponder. "Oh, yes! I DO know him! In fact, he was actually a close friend of mine when I was in dimension school."

Mario: You were friends with Dimentio? !

"Uh huh. We were roommates a very long time ago in college. That was when my father held the rank as dimension creator. …Yes, you see, I wasn't the only dimension creator. It's been passed on from generations. Each of us have created many worlds, like me, who made worlds like this and your own."

"Well that's interesting…" Sonic trailed. "Did you even know that we were fighting him when he tried to take the Chaos Heart?"

"Yes, I saw the whole thing," Ortorain nodded. "You see… We used to be great friends, but when he discovered my father was the dimension creator, he pleaded for his power. He refused, which forced that jester to…kill him. He even stole some of his power in order to create a dimension of his own: Dimension D."

"That's where he fought us those last two times…" Chopper recalled.

"However, despite my father dying, I was able to step up and take his place. But with that kind of power Dimentio had, I knew I was no match for him, even if he was busy writing a book… So, I watched every dimension to find the people I believed could stand against him. Sadly, I had no luck… But then I found you guys."

"Pardon me, but do you know what book Dimentio was writing?" Blade asked.

"No, I never saw the book he wrote out. However, I had a feeling he had some plans with that."

"Poyo… (Interesting…)" Kirby trailed.

"Anyway, I had a feeling you heroes would be able to stand up to him, which is why I saved you from certain death in Castle Tipral. Blade, remember when the ceiling was about to crash on you? I was able to destroy a part of the ground while staying hidden so you would fall through the floor. Kirby, when you fell through the floor, I made sure you landed on Blade instead in order to save you. And Sonic… I made sure that that void brought you to Blade and Kirby so you were safe and able to go after Dimentio. I also helped Tipral's minions because I didn't want to simply leave them out…"

"Wait… So those events that saved them were all thanks to you?" Chopper gaped. "What about Tipral's Palace?"

"I got an alien to go out and help you guys get back to the palace. Believe me, I did a lot for him to agree to help you guys."

"So, how come you did that?" Luigi asked.

"I didn't want Dimentio to succeed with his goals. Considering you're heroes of the Light Prognosticus, I needed to make sure you wouldn't have a game over and go back to The Underwhere."

"So does this mean that the whole time, you've been guiding us in the right direction?" Chopper asked, looking disappointed.

"No, those were the only moments where I helped you. And I thank you for getting rid of that horrible clown. I'm sure my father will be proud to see the man who killed him gone for good."

"I guess we really owe you, don't we?" Sonic asked.

"Rest assured, Sonic. You all already gave me something in return: the end of Dimentio. With that, my father can rest in peace. Although, it does make me feel ashamed that such a great friend of mine had to do such a thing like that just because he wanted to get a hold of dimensional powers."

Everyone followed him up the high ledge after he created a platform to help them jump up. A Dimensional Ghost appeared on the ledge as well and managed to possess Chopper, making him remove his Magic ability.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Chopper cried as the ghost got out of his body and was left vulnerable to a rainbow ball. Kirby finished it off with his Final Cutter. With that, they were led to a pink portal ahead.

"Hey, what kind of portal is this supposed to be?" Blade asked.

"It's a short-distance portal," Ortorain explained. "It'll take you to a portal somewhere else in the area. Jump in, and you'll see for yourself! There's a chance you might be a little amazed!"

Blade shrugged and jumped into the portal. When he walked out, he was on a glowing platform high above the rest of the group. Kirby jumped in next and landed on Blade, who fell over.

"Poyo! (This portal is amazing!)" Kirby cheered.

The rest of the group followed through and jumped out of the portal above the ground. They smiled as they jumped up a couple of platforms around them, with a Dimensional Ghost floating on one platform.

Chopper tossed a rainbow ball to leave it vulnerable, and Sonic finished it off with a Bounce Attack. He smiled as he jumped to a platform above him to find another portal. They jumped through over to a high ledge leading over to a screw sticking out of the ground, as well as a stump.

"A stump and a screw… Well, this requires two things." Chopper stated.

Mario: I guess I'll go over to the stump.

"I'll handle the screw," Sonic declared as he used Screwdy to perform a corkscrew on the screw, making it go into the ground. Mario's Super Ground Pound slammed the stump all the way into the ground as well, creating a pink portal in between.

Everyone exchanged a nod as they jumped into the portal and landed on a large platform above the previous portal. There was a small little block that looked like it could be picked up, and a blue ! block appeared to be above them.

"Poyo, (I guess this means we can use Thoreau for this,)" Kirby said as he used Thoreau to grab the block and throw it at the blue ! block. This created a door before them and let them enter an area with a large gap between them with a glowing spike pit. Needless to say, they were most likely going to get hurt by those.

"Well, I think we all know what to do here," Blade said as he looked over at Carrie. They each took turns crossing the spike pit with Carrie, and when they finally got through, Ortorain created a glowing pathway for them to travel on.

"Go right ahead, heroes," Ortorain said. "This path will take you where you need to go."

"All right," Chopper nodded as he readied his Speed Dash and took off. There was even a dash panel that helped him move faster too. There were no hills, but the road was slightly going at an upward slope, which helped the group when they went on the dash panel.

"These dash panels sure do a lot, even if we're not as fast," Luigi gaped.

Mario: They help Chopper and Sonic a lot more, though.

When they reached a high ledge, which Chopper and Sonic ran up due to a curve on the ground leading up. Kirby got onto the ledge and helped Mario up by inhaling him, while Blade used his kunais to climb up the ledge, and Luigi used a Super Jump.

"Geez… That was one heck of a run." Sonic sighed.

"I'll say! At least we GOT to do some running." Chopper nodded.

"So, I guess we've got another puzzle up ahead?" Luigi noticed a button on the ground and two red ! blocks up ahead over a bottomless pit. When Mario stepped on it, the first red ! block disappeared.

Mario: Haven't we seen this before?

"Yeah, we have," Blade nodded. "Back in King Sunday's castle, if I could recall. But, I think we've seen many of these puzzles before, so let's just get this over with, all right?"

"Gotcha!" Luigi nodded as he threw Bonjourang and let it hit the red ! block ahead. He quickly jumped off the button and the other red ! block appeared. Once that block was hit, a platform appeared with four different colored panels.

"Argh… Not this again." Chopper groaned as he pressed on the panels that weren't purple. Once they all matched up, the platform began to glow and slowly ascend while carrying everyone up.

"It's like puzzles from different worlds are being thrown at us here…" Sonic trailed. "I guess it makes sense."

"I was the one to create them, you know," Ortorain informed.

"Could you tell us how to do them?" Chopper asked.

"Of course not! You're supposed to figure them out of your own…"

"Dang… Well, I guess I tried."

When the platform reached a platform with a door, they all headed through into an area with a crack in the background on a stone wall. Chopper flipped into 3-D and blew up the crack to reveal a chest from behind. There was apparently a Dimension Key inside.

"Keys? We haven't seen keys in this world before…" Luigi trailed.

"Well, it's one of the only few you'll see," Ortorain informed. "Needless to say, it's not going to bother you that much in this world."

When they reached another stone wall ahead, they didn't see anything. When Chopper flipped into 3-D, there was a small crack that looked like he could slip through if he turned sideways. He helped everyone into 3-D as well and used Slim's power to turn sideways and slip through the crack.

"Hey, are those Starmen I see over there?" Chopper gaped as he saw the two Starmen in their blue capes. Kirby instantly removed his Bomb ability and inhaled one to gain the Hi-Jump ability.

"Poyo, (We might need it for those platforms above,)" Kirby informed as Chopper shrugged and inhaled the Starman to gain the Hi-Jump ability.

"Well, I can tell you'll need to use that ability," Sonic noticed as he looked up. There were small yellow star blocks in the way of a platform. When Kirby launched himself up, he managed to break through the blocks and land on the platform.

Sonic simply used his Whirlwind to send the rest of the group flying up to the platform. That's where they found two ways to go. The left side had some spikes sticking out of the wall, while the other had electric fences that went on and off every couple of seconds.

"Ooh… Both look pretty hard." Blade sweat dropped.

"Well, I guess I'll try this side," Chopper declared as he launched to the right side. Unfortunately, he got zapped and landed beside the group. "OK… Bad idea, I suppose."

Kirby took the left side, but he unfortunately got hit by one of the spikes, forcing him to come back down. They tried again by taking the right side, and eventually, they made their way to the ladder they grabbed a hold of before falling.

"No platform to help us climb this ladder? This is intense!" Sonic gaped.

"That's why we're getting a bigger challenge here…" Blade trailed as they climbed to the top and found a door up on a glowing pink platform. But, with Chopper and Kirby's Hi-Jump ability, they were able to leap up to the door by using their ability twice.

"Hold on, I need to make that jump!" Luigi called out, attempting to use his Super Jump. Sadly, it didn't seem to work. Sonic simply used his Whirlwind and the rest of the group was sent flying up to the door.

Mario: Well that worked!

"It's nice to see that my Whirlwind comes in handy…" Sonic trailed as he followed the group through the door. There, they found two poles over a gap leading to a platform where a globe was.

"There's where you guys need to go next," Ortorain informed. "I'll create the portal while you all cross this gap."

Everyone sweat dropped as they watched him fly across the gap. They noticed in the background, a couple of portals were starting to show destroyed worlds. It appeared The Void had gotten a couple of other worlds as well.

"Oh, no… The Void is consuming more worlds by the second!" Luigi gulped.

"Let's not let it bother us," Chopper suggested, clenching his fist. "We're NOT going to let Tipral harm us emotionally! Let's go, before…"

Unfortunately, the ground began to shake and The Void grew bigger in the sky. Everyone glared at him while Chopper sweat dropped.

"I just had to open my mouth…"

Nevertheless, they used the poles to cross over the gap and meet up with Ortorain, who finished up with the portal. They saw the beautiful landscape that was through the portal, which made Kirby very happy.

"Poyo! (It's Dream Land!)" he squealed. "Poyo! (Home sweet home!)"

"Yeah… Home sweet home…" Luigi sighed, thinking about his own world and its destruction. "Let's just go…"

With a sigh, Luigi jumped into the portal, following Kirby. The rest of the group jumped through as well, leaving Orotrain to slowly float to the ground and sit by the edge of the platform. He decided to look over at The Void.

"I hope you're doing fine up there, Father…" Ortorain trailed. "Your murderer is finally gone thanks to the heroes. I just hope I didn't disappoint you with my job."

Little did he know a shadowy mist was floating around.

"_**Oh, Ortorain… Do you…really think that…I would let…myself die so easily? Ah…ha…ha…ha… Don't think this…is the end of me…just yet! You and…the heroes…will see!"**_

Without Ortorain noticing, the shadowy mist made its way into the portal, following the heroes into Dream Land.

"For some reason… I thought I heard Dimentio's voice in my head…"

* * *

**Dream Land-**

A portal appeared somewhere in the woods of Dream Land and all six heroes jumped out and landed on their feet. From what they knew, it was still daytime, but they couldn't see much of the sky because of the trees blocking their way. Needless to say, this was probably the one area they didn't want to be.

"Of all the places… We're in the woods?" Chopper groaned. "Honestly, I didn't want to be in here…"

"Poyo, (Well, the only option is to simply get going,)" Kirby shrugged.

"Well, what do we have here? I had a feeling you'd show up sooner or later…"

"Hold on a second…" Sonic trailed as his ears perked up. "That voice… I know it from somewhere! Oh, don't tell me…"

Dark jumped off the branch of a tree and landed in front of the heroes, giving them a dark glare. "So, how does it feel to have two of your precious worlds destroyed so far? I bet that really got to you, didn't it?"

Mario: Don't even go there, Dark…

"Oh, you think YOU had it bad? ! Wanna know what happened to my Dark Creature army? The majority of them left me and went to my brother's side after they heard he has his own base on a comet! It's almost like Shade is trying to ruin my life!"

"Poyo? (But why did you come here to fight us and not Mobius?)" Kirby asked.

"Can someone tell me what that pink creampuff is saying? I don't understand what the hell it's telling me." After Chopper told him, Dark nodded. "I already know enough about Mobius. I wanted to see what this world was like, so I decided to come here and see for myself."

"Well, the best thing you can do is get out of our way," Blade suggested, unsheathing his katana. "You know it's for the best."

"Sorry, but I'm not going to let that happen. Even if the majority of my army left me, it doesn't stop me from defeating you!" Dark drew his blaster and aimed it at them. "So… Wanna get out of these woods? Then defeat me first. Simple enough."

"Fine… We'll fight you." Chopper groaned, clenching his fists. "And if you think you're going to stop us from getting that card and Pure Heart, you're wrong."

"Well, then I'll make this fight interesting!" Dark took out the black emerald from before and used its power to surround himself in a dark glow. "There we go! I used this before against Sonic in Castle Tipral, and I decided to use its power again! Now let's settle this once and for all!"

Dark began to fire shots from his blaster at the group, with Sonic deflecting one back at him with Reflecto. Dark managed to bring his cape up and defend himself against the attack, making everyone gawk.

"I didn't know he could do that…" Luigi gaped.

Mario: You never really fought him though.

"Good point…"

From looking at his stats, there was nothing to laugh at. He had 450 HP, an Attack of 18, and a Defense of 8. That's pretty threatening, and even stronger than Master Mind!

"En guarde! Swift Strike!" the power of the red boomerang was strong enough to knock Chopper's Hi-Jump ability away and even nearly shave off Mario's mustache had he not jumped over it.

Mario: Watch the mustache!

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic shouted as he clenched his fist and summoned a blue gust of wind that struck him. "Yeah… I know you may have that black emerald in your hands, but I've got the Sonic Wind!"

"Not bad… I'll give you that." Dark sneered as he summoned dark meteors to fall toward them. Kirby used his Defend ability to take minimal damage, while Chopper inhaled a meteor and spat it at Dark, leaving him off guard.

"Oh, I don't think so," Before Blade could hit Dark with his katana, he disappeared using his cape and appeared behind Blade. He grabbed him and gave him a German suplex, leaving the cat dazed.

"Ugh… What the heck was that?" moaned Blade.

"Does he have martial art skills or something?" Luigi asked.

"Why, yes I do," Dark grinned as he made Luigi fall over with a sweeping kick. Mairo tried to bash him with his hammer, but Dark managed to punch his nose instead, leaving a red mark on Mario's nose.

Mario: Ouch! My nose!

"Well, now I know where you're weak point is!"

"You're not going to hurt my bro's nose like that again!" Luigi growled, stepping in front of Dark and hitting him with his Cyclone. While he was in the air, he attacked him with his Super Jump.

"You're lucky I didn't see that coming, plumber!"

Dark jumped in the air and landed on a tree branch. Once he got a good view on Kirby, he jumped and aimed his foot at him and sent him flying to a tree. Dark grinned before getting hit by a rainbow ball from behind.

"Ugh… Attacking someone from behind. What a cowardly move!" Dark scoffed as he whirled around to Chopper and fired a shot from his blaster, knocking Chopper back. He charged at him afterward, until Chopper opened his mouth.

"Oh, crap…"

The Star Warrior inhaled him and spat him at the tree ahead, leaving him dazed. This gave Mario the opportunity to bash him with his hammer, and Blade to land a combo with his katana.

"At least we're not fighting another giant robot," Blade sighed. "My katana probably wouldn't work against it."

Dark held his arm in pain and grit his teeth as he looked up at Blade, who threw a couple of shurikens at him. Dark managed to block them with his cape and punch Blade in the face a couple of times.

While his face was bruised, Dark floated up in the air and fired meteors down. However, this left him open when Kirby attacked him with a Hi-Jump attack, followed by Luigi's Super Jump.

"Poyo, (Try not to let yourself open when you're in the air,)" Kirby advised.

"I'm going to wipe that mouth of yours away, pink puffball!" Dark snarled, bringing his foot to the ground and creating a dark pulse that knocked everyone back. He was about to shoot Kirby, but he ended up getting hit by a Homing Attack.

"Leave him alone, all right?" Sonic suggested. "You really want to go after me, right?"

"Of course. However, Tipral told me that I need to get rid of all the heroes, which includes the rest of you."

Luigi jumped out of the way when Dark fired a Swift Strike his way. Luckily, he was able to use Bonjourang and hit Dark with the Pixl, but that only got him shot by a dark laser.

"And you know… You probably wouldn't want to use fire here, Chopper." Dark warned as he noticed him readying a fireball. "Would you really want to set these woods on fire? I don't think so."

"Oh… He has a point there." Chopper frowned. "That means I have another option."

Dark was about to kick Chopper, but he ended up becoming frozen when Chopper threw a charged ice ball at him. This gave Blade the opportunity to attack him with a fire slash, which unfroze Dark, but it didn't stop him from kicking Blade in the stomach.

Sonic tried to attack him with his Homing Attack, but he simply disappeared using his cape. He reappeared in front of Luigi and gave him a headbutt, leaving the green plumber dazed.

"Ugh… That was awful…" Luigi moaned.

Dark jumped in the air before Chopper and Kirby could dive straight for him and ended up bumping into each other, leaving both of them dazed. Dark decided to have a little fun by grabbing them and smashing their faces into each other.

"So, how does that feel? Both of you are hitting each other!" Dark grinned before getting struck by Kickbrin. Mario leapt in the air and brought his hammer down on him, but failed when Dark rolled out of the way.

"Take this!" the Dark Creature king fired two red energy blades straight at Sonic and Luigi. Sonic managed to avoid one and hit Dark with a Homing Attack, while Luigi leapt over one and stomped on Dark's head.

"So, how is your eye anyway?" Sonic asked. "I remember last time, your eye helped Dimentio."

"My eye is fine, and you don't have to bring that up again," Dark snapped, grabbing Sonic and performing a suplex to slam him to the ground. When he noticed Chopper and Kirby get up, he fired a laser at them, until Chopper inhaled it and spat it back at him.

Kirby helped Chopper by taking his Final Cutter out and striking Dark with it. The pink puffball was even able to avoid Dark's kick and kick him in the face.

Dark did a back flip when Sonic tried to kick him and jumped in the air and kicked Sonic from an angle. The blue hedgehog was able to get up, but unfortunately, Dark was able to grab him and throw him at Blade.

"So, am I weaker than the previous time you fought me?" Dark asked, making Chopper scream as he began to shoot by his feet. "Yeah, you can keep doing that. I think that's a little…enjoyable to me!"

"Dude… You ENJOY violence? !" Chopper gaped. "Are you mad?"

"Of course I'm mad! Blame my damn brother for nearly taking away my army! What makes it worse is that you look a little like him!" the Dark Creature grabbed Chopper by his feet and let him dangle. He began to charge up a dark blast from the power of the black emerald, but Chopper was able to use Starbow to make shooting stars fall on Dark, leaving him vulnerable.

Sonic jumped in the air and prepared to hit Dark with a Spin Jump, but he ended up getting knocked away when Dark fired a blast of dark energy from his hand at him, making him grab a hold of a tree branch.

"Whew! At least I'm safe!" Sonic sighed. That is…until Dark teleported onto the tree branch. "Hey! Can't you at least let me get down on my own?"

"Sonic, why don't we play a little game called 'Make the Hedgehog Fall from a Tree'?" Dark grinned as he began to step on Sonic's fingers until he released his grip. Kirby got Carrie to catch him before he could get himself hurt.

"Whoa… That was too close!"

"Poyo, (You're welcome,)" Kirby sighed as he used his Hi-Jump attack to knock Dark off the branch and allow Mario to hit him with a Super Ground Pound while he was left vulnerable.

Dark managed to kick Kirby away and get himself back up. While at it, he fired a couple of meteors that hit Blade and Mario. This ended up ticking Blade off and making him attack Dark with his katana. Even if he hit him once, Dark made two dark blades out of dark power and began blocking some of his slashes.

"What the hell?" Blade gaped. "You never said that you could create blades!"

"Well now I can!" the Dark Creature king declared as he slashed Blade with them and even kicked his stomach. Sonic tried to attack him with a whirlwind, but he teleported out and struck the blue hedgehog with one blade.

"Uhhhhh… Could we sit down and talk about this?" Chopper sweat dropped as he noticed Sonic get knocked to the ground.

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"Pretty please with…" Before Chopper could continued, Dark threw his blade at Chopper and knocked him to the ground. He quickly got up, and Dark threw his blade at him again, which he inhaled and spat back at him.

"Damn that ability of yours…"

Chopper gave a silly look as he hurled a rainbow ball at him and then bashed him with his hammer. He quickly stepped back when Dark was struck by a Sonic Wind that he didn't see coming.

"You coward…" Dark growled, throwing Sonic over using his martial arts. Sonic moaned as he quickly got up and managed to make Dark trip thanks to his sweeping kick. Chopper even attacked with a sweeping kick, but it only sent him flying when Dark kicked him.

Dark attempted to swing his blades at Sonic, but when Kirby stepped in front of Dark, he swung his Final Cutter at him. Dark managed to knock his Hi-Jump ability away with a single slash, but it didn't stop the puffball from inhaling him and spitting him back at a tree.

"Poyo, (At least I can inhale him,)" Kirby smiled.

"Grrrgh…" Dark slowly got up and noticed Luigi running toward him. He teleported out of harm's way and got on another tree branch. He looked down at the heroes with a serious look.

"Not bad… You guys sure have improved, I'll give you that!"

"Yeah, yeah, no need to boast," Chopper scoffed as he crossed his arms. "That's only going to waste our time. If you wanna fight, then fight!"

"All right… I'll save the boasting for some other time." Dark jumped in the air and stomped the ground with full force, creating a dark shockwave that sent everyone flying back toward a tree.

"Hmmmmm… Maybe I have an idea!" Blade smiled as he prepared to chop off a tree branch.

"Poyo! (Don't hurt the trees!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (Think about nature!)"

"Uhhhhh… Translation, please?"

"Kirby doesn't want you hurting the trees," Chopper translated as he took a sip of a Star Shroom Shake. He passed it over to Kirby, who took a sip, and then to Blade. "Personally, I agree with him."

"Hippie…"

"I heard that!"

"Oh, so you're going to heal yourselves, huh?" Dark questioned as he raised an eyebrow. "Whatever… It doesn't really matter in the end."

Before Dark could continue, Mario jumped in the air and landed on Dark with a Triple Jump. He was also able to pull off a stylish move as well, making the plumber cheer while Luigi hit him with his Cyclone, which sent him flying in the air.

"All right, Luigi! I choose you!" Chopper cried. "Hit him with a Super Jump!"

"Chopper… Was that necessary?" Luigi sweat dropped. "Especially at a time like this?"

"Sorry! I just couldn't help it! This was the best moment!" he smiled sheepishly as Luigi hit Dark with a Super Jump. Dark growled as he grabbed Luigi and threw him to the ground with full force.

When Dark landed on the ground, Mario managed to bash his head with his hammer once again. Dark growled as he tried punching him, but he ended up failing when Mario bashed him with his own head.

Mario: Well, I never knew that was helpful…

Dark let out a howl as he whipped out bigger blades. When he swung them, a dark cutter blade was thrown toward Mario, forcing him to jump over the attack. Even a couple of dark meteors were sent flying down as well!

"I think he's lost it," Blade gulped.

"Poyo! (Don't cause too much damage to the woods!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (You're only going to make it worse!)"

"I don't give a crap on what you're saying, nor do I care about these woods!" Dark howled as he fired a couple of more dark meteors down. "You finally drew the line, and now I'm going to kick the living crap out of you!"

"Don't you mean the living sh-" Blade was eventually kicked in the face by Dark before he could finish his sentence, and he even managed to fire a dark blast from his hands at him as well.

Kirby frowned as he heard Dark cackle, and he attacked him with his Cartwheel in order to get him to stop. While it didn't work, it did stop him from attacking Blade and paying more attention to him.

"Take this!" Dark fired two dark blades straight at Kirby. He dodged one of them, but the last one hit him and sent him flying. Chopper tried to stop him by charging at him and tackling to the ground, but Dark saw it coming and gave him a suplex.

"Hey… What happens if I copy his ability?" Chopper wondered as he inhaled Dark. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to work when Dark simply broke out of Chopper's mouth and kicked his face.

"Take my ability, and I'm going to rip you apart," Dark sneered before getting struck by a Dragon Beam by Blade. He nearly gaped at the attack, but he ended up clenching his fists and firing a laser from his blaster at the cat, who managed to put Barry up to defend himself.

"Well, Dark… You're rather low on HP!" Sonic noticed. "Are ya gonna give up?"

"And why should I?"

"Because we don't want to leave you seriously injured…"

"Bite me."

"That's a little rude…" Chopper trailed, hurling a rainbow ball at Dark. When Sonic jumped in the air and attacked Dark with a Bounce Attack, the Dark Creature king jumped out of harm's way and blasted Sonic with his blaster.

When he created two blades, he threw both of them, but unfortunately, they were inhaled by both Chopper and Kirby and spat back at him, knocking him to the ground. Mario and Luigi jumped over to him, but they ended up getting kicked away when Dark got himself back up.

Mario: Geez… I guess he's moving fast now.

Dark jumped onto a tree branch and began to fire down at the group with his blaster. Luigi jumped out of the lasers' way and knocked Dark out of the tree with a Super Jump, leaving him rather weak.

After Sonic struck him with a Light Speed Attack, Dark fell to the ground in defeat. Even the power of the black emerald faded away.

"Unnghh… I lost." he moaned as he slowly got up. "But that doesn't matter. I'm sure The Void will take care of you anyway."

"The Void? You mean…" Chopper gulped.

"Yes, just like Mobius and the Mushroom Kingdom! I'm sure you guys aren't too surprised."

"Poyo! (Not Pop Star!)" Kirby cried.

"So long for now, heroes! Maybe we'll meet again – if you somehow survive, that is." With that, Dark fled from the group, jumping from tree branch to tree branch.

"Well, we can't just stay here!" Luigi cried. "We don't want The Void to swallow up that Pop Star Card, right?"

"Poyo… (No…)"

"Then we need to go. Now." Chopper declared as he ran off through the woods. Kirby sighed as he followed the rest of the room.

* * *

**Meanwhile-**

"I may have lost the fight, but at least I finished my job," Dark stated as he swung off a tree branch and landed on the grass. "Now the only problem is… How the hell am I going to get out of this place?"

While Dark looked around, he felt that he wasn't alone in the woods. "Hmmmmmm… Something doesn't feel right here… I sense that I'm not the only one around here…"

He accidentally stepped on a twig, forcing him to turn around. Although he felt a little nervous, he knew he could put up a fight against whatever was around him. He had all of that power!

Or rather, he thought that.

"_**Ah…ha…ha…"**_

"What was that?" Dark clenched his fists and looked around him. Sadly, he didn't see anything, but when he turned around, he saw a shadowy mist. It was charging straight for him.

"What the…? !" Before he could strike at it, the mist went into his head and turned his eyes a black and yellow color. He grinned evilly as he walked over to one of the trees and set it on fire.

"Perfect! Now I got the power from all of Tipral's minions!" Dark grinned as he stepped back from the burning tree, which began to set a couple of others on fire. "The steps to getting unlimited power are almost complete! Only two things remain… And as for the trees, that should keep those heroes busy!"

The shadowy mist left Dark's body and slowly faded away, leaving Dark to cough and rub his eyes.

"What the hell? ! What just happened? !" Dark looked up and noticed the forest fire. "And how did this forest get set on fire? ! Well, I don't care what happens to this world. I'm getting out of here."

Dark used his cape and teleported out of the woods and out of the world, wondering what the heck happened in the first place.

* * *

**Back with the heroes-**

"Poyo, (We should be able to get out of the woods this way,)" Kirby informed as they ran past a couple of trees. They noticed there weren't any forest creatures around, to their surprise.

"Hey… Where are all the birds?" Chopper asked. "Shouldn't they be here?"

However, when a bunch of woodland creatures passed them, they knew there was something wrong. One of Kirby's forest friends, Rick the Hamster, ran past them, but not before looking at them.

"Run for it, guys!" he cried. "There's a fire that's been set off!"

"Poyo? ! (What? ! Are you serious? !)" Kirby gaped.

They turned around and noticed the trees were ablaze. With gasps, they fled from the fires and followed the forest creatures out of the forest. They noticed how the sky got red as the flames emitted into the sky.

"Holy crap! We gotta move faster!" Blade cried as Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's arm, while Chopper grabbed Kirby and Luigi's, allowing them to escape from the fires at a faster pace.

Once they were out of the woods, they stopped near a hill and turned around. All of the forest animals managed to escape, but the woods itself? Nearly everything was getting burnt down.

"Poyo… (The woods… No…)" Kirby trailed.

"Aw, man… Our home!" Rick gaped. "How did this fire get set off in the first place? !"

"I have no idea…" Chopper trailed.

"Do you think Dark had to do something with it?" Sonic asked.

"Who's Dark?" Rick asked.

"He was some weirdo that we fought in the forest," Blade explained. "After we beat him, he ran off somewhere. Unfortunately, we don't know where he went. Probably back to the palace."

"Well, we haven't seen you in a while, Kirby! Where were you?"

"Poyo, (I was out saving the world,)" Kirby smiled until he looked at The Void. "Poyo… (But now this place is in danger… The size of The Void looks as if it's going to tear this place apart…)"

"Well, then what are we going to do?" Rick asked until they saw an explosion over by Cappy Town and Hatty Town (a town near Cappy Town, if you don't know). "Whoa! What the heck was that? !"

* * *

**Castle Dedede-**

"Hey, Escargon! Take a look out at both town!" King Dedede informed as his lavender snail assistant with a goatee carried himself into the room.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Escargon groaned.

"It looks like Chopper and Kirby and throwing some kind of parade! You see those explosions in both towns?"

"Wait… Those two from five months ago? Didn't you run into them before, from what I recall?"

"Yeah, I found 'em three times, but I was left on an island for a while until a portal suddenly showed up and took me back to this world. The voice that told me to come back here was kinda weird…"

"Like how weird?"

"I mean really, really weird. But anyway… Seeing them here finally gives me a chance to get revenge on those two for humiliating me those other times! Don't you agree with me, Escargon?"

"Well, Your Majesty… I was thinking of a better idea, such as luring them into a trap…?"

Escargon gaped as a hammer came down on his head. "Don't you EVER give me dumb ideas like that! I only care about crushing them, not capturing them! And… You know, maybe this might be the perfect chance for me to retry that _one_ thing I used before…"

"You mean that plan that failed before?" Escargon recalled.

"Plan that failed before? I don't recall a plan ever failing!"

"_Man, I knew you were stupid, but not THIS stupid…_"

"What was that? !"

"Uhhh… Nothing, Your Majesty! Nothing at all!"

"Good, because I'm getting a little hungry," King Dedede clapped twice and two Waddle Dee came walking in. However, there seemed to be something different about them. They had a dark glow surrounding them.

"Escargon…"

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Were my men always dark and evil-looking?"

"No…"

"Then care to explain WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED? !"

"I don't know!"

The Corrupted Waddle Dee pulled its spear out and charged at King Dedede, who managed to swipe it away with his hammer, sending it back into the hallway. That's when they locked the throne room shut.

"Aren't those Crystal Thingamajigs meant to protect the universe?" King Dedede squawked. "Then how come my minions are brainwashed? !"

"I have no idea! Let's just focus on staying alive!"

"No way! If there's one thing I need to do, it's to get my ultimate weapon and take those two down! And you're helping me!"

"No, Your Majesty! I don't want to!" Escargon cried as King Dedede began to drag him out of the throne room. "I'd rather hug my King Dedede doll than get myself killed!"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing!"

Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well for Escargon when King Dedede dragged him out of the throne room and began whacking the Corrupted Waddle Dee away from him. The important thing was that he wanted revenge.

* * *

**Near Cappy Town-**

"Did you just see that? !" Rick gaped. "There was an explosion by those two towns! Something must not be right!"

"We should go check the two towns," Chopper suggested

"We're going to two towns, right?" Blade pondered. "Then maybe we should split up."

"Oh, no!" Luigi gasped. "Remember what happened before? We were thrown into space until we got rescued! Splitting up is a bad idea!"

"Poyo, (Well, I'm going to Cappy Town,)" Kirby declared.

"And I guess I'll go to Hatty Town," Chopper added. "Kirby, you can lead the way to Cappy Town, and I'll lead Hatty Town, since I probably know about that place more. Of course, you know more about Cappy Town."

"Poyo. (Yeah.)"

"Well, I'm not leaving Mario again, that's for sure!" Luigi declared.

"I should probably go to Cappy Town with Kirby," Sonic decided. "Two fast people in one group wouldn't be the best idea."

Mario: I guess I'll go with Chopper.

"That means I'm going with him too," Luigi added.

"Well, then I guess this means it's me, Kirby, and Sonic going to Cappy Town," Blade shrugged. "Hopefully we find the card somewhere. I think using a communicator wouldn't be a bad idea. Here."

Blade tossed Chopper a communicator, but Mario ended up catching it instead. After making a face, the pale green Star Warrior shrugged and ran off to Hatty Town, but he soon stopped when a Corrupted Waddle Dee was charging toward him.

"Uh oh… The Waddle Dee are corrupted too!" Chopper gulped, whacking it with his hammer to defeat it. "Let's go! Now!"

Mario and Luigi exchanged nods and followed Chopper, while Kirby, Sonic and Blade headed to Cappy Town.

* * *

**Cappy Town-**

"My… My restaurant!" a orange oval-shaped person named Chef Kawasaki gaped as he saw his restaurant in ruins. "Why? Why would he do this to my precious place? I thought he loved the food here? !"

"This is preposterous!" a light yellow oval-shaped Cappy fortune teller named Maberu shouted. "What he did to our town is unacceptable! I predict a horrible future that awaits him…"

"But it makes no sense for him to do this," Knuckle Joe, who wears blue fighting gear, has blonde hair and a white bandanna growled as he clenched his fists. "And here I thought I had respect for that Star Warrior!"

"Poyo! (Hi, guys!)" Kirby greeted as he, Sonic and Blade walked into town. Kirby tried to stay as positive as he could, while Sonic and Blade's eyes widened at the destroyed buildings.

"Blade… Look at this place!" Sonic gasped.

"Yeah! Who the hell would do this? !" Blade gawked.

"Well, I bet it had something to do with Tipral…"

"_**KIRBY!**_"

All of the Cappies came over to Kirby, who looked delighted to see them. However, when he opened his eyes, he noticed they were actually angry with him than happy. In fact, they were practically surrounded.

"Kirby! Why did you do this to our town? !"

"I thought you were a hero!"

"I've seriously lost some respect for you!"

"Yeah! I mean, you love this place!" a yellow bird named Tokkori spat as he flew down in front of Kirby. "I knew all this time you were a selfish little monster that could think of nothing but trying to eat us! Get out of here!"

"P-Poyo? (Wh-What are you talking about?)" Kirby gaped.

"Now, hold on a moment, there's gotta be an explanation here," Sonic said, stepping in. "Can you guys explain what's going on?"

"We saw Kirby destroying the town!" a Cappy in a brown jacket and brown hat named Mayor Len explained. "If you think you're hiding yourself, you can think again, Kirby! That pink blob looked EXACTLY like you!"

"What? He wasn't doing that!" Blade defended. "He was with us while trying to escape a forest fire!"

"Forest fire? So, you caused TWO things, is that right? !" Chef Kawasaki growled. "I'm so disappointed in you, Kirby! After all you've done to help us…"

"And we were thinking about repaying you too!" Mayor Len added.

"Poyo! (But I swear I didn't do it!)" Kirby cried, shedding a small tear. "Poyo? (Why would I do such a thing?)"

"Enough already!" Knuckle Joe shouted, charging at Kirby. "I'm going to make you pay for what you did!"

He kicked Kirby, sending him flying back. Sonic and Blade gaped and got ready to defend themselves, even though he didn't seem to be paying any attention to them, however.

"Hey! Lay off him!" Blade shouted as he grabbed Knuckle Joe's bandanna before he could punch Kirby. "You should seriously believe us, you know!"

"Get off of me, you smelly cat!" he managed to elbow Blade in the stomach and chase after Kirby, who began to flee. "Stop running and hold still! I'm giving your just desserts!"

"Poyo! (But I don't deserve this!)" Kirby cried.

When Knuckle Joe struck Kirby with a Vulcan Jab, that's when Sonic had enough of this. With his Whirlwind, he decided to leave Knuckle Joe stunned rather than hurting him and grabbed Kirby.

"We're not letting you get harmed by him," Sonic stated. "Come on, it looks like we're not going to be getting anywhere here. It looks like everyone's just accusing you of something dumb."

"Hey, guys…" Blade trailed looking back at an angry Knuckle Joe's eyes. Did you look at their eyes? I mean, for some reason, they feel a little purplish to me… You think that has something to do with The Void?"

"Poyo… (I hope so, because then that means they're not being themselves…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo! (But I don't want them left like that either!)"

"I don't know what you said, but I think you don't want them being like that…" Sonic pondered. "Let's hope they'll realize soon…"

"Poyo… (Yeah… Let's go to King Dedede's Castle, I guess…)"

"Where?" Blade gawked until Kirby pointed to the castle. "All right, we should go there. The card COULD be there anyway."

"Poyo. (Chances are not everyone's like this.)"

* * *

**Hatty Town-**

"Wow… These people are strange…" Luigi trailed as he noticed some Cappies gaping at some of the destroyed buildings. "I can't believe something like this happened to these buildings! I mean, it's messed up!"

Mario: Yeah, it was unexpected.

"Man, it's been a while since I've been to Hatty Town," Chopper smiled as he looked at the Cappies. He also looked over at the Mayor's house. His wife still lives there, and he sure hoped that she wasn't in any depression from his death still.

"YOU!" a Cappy wearing a monocle and a top hat walked over to Chopper with his cane and glared at him. "What in the world did you do to our village? ! Explain to us right now!"

"Wait… WHAT? ! I did NOTHING to your village, Mr…"

"I'm Mayor Grandid, for your information! We are NOT pleased with this! You help us one time, and then you decide it would be fun to simply cause damage to our place! _**UNACCEPTABLE!**_"

"I lost my home because of you!" a Cappy wearing a pink hat growled. "Now my husband and daughter are left homeless! Is this how you go around with your life? Making others miserable? !"

Mario: Chopper was out in the forest!

"Yeah! We were escaping a forest fire!" Luigi added.

"A forest fire, huh? Did you cause that too?" Mayor Grandid growled.

"Hey… You know, I noticed something."

Mario: What is it, Luigi?

"Look at their eyes," Luigi pointed to the Cappies eyes, which looked a little more purplish than black. "Do you guys see that? I think there's something wrong with them!"

"Yeah! There does appear to be!" Chopper gaped. "How come I didn't notice it before?"

"So, are you proud of yourself?" a white alien girl with long, white hair and a green bandanna jumped down from a building wearing an orange jumpsuit and a large, brown collar. She was holding a strange-looking weapon that could change to a sword, flamethrower, machine gun, missile launcher, and grappling hook.

"Silica? ! Don't you realize what's going on? ! Your eyes look all purple and stuff!"

"Do you even realize what you did to this town? !" Silica sneered aiming her weapon at Chopper. "I thought you were a hero that people could look up to sometimes, not a heartless kid who goes around causing destruction!"

"I swear to you that I didn't do anything," Chopper replied. "Just lower your weapon so no one gets hurt."

Unfortunately, that didn't stop Silica from firing. Chopper gasped and rolled out of the way of the bullets, while Luigi ducked in order to avoid some of them. Mario gaped when Silica used her flamethrower, which barely touched his mustache.

Mario: Luigi! We need to help Chopper!

"Well, he seems to be doing just fine!" Luigi pointed out as Chopper sped up to one building. A bunch of Cappies began to throw stuff like buckets and tomatoes at him, which ended up knocking him to the ground.

Mario and Luigi ran over to the messy Chopper, attempting to save him. However, someone else managed to grab him before they could reach him. The figure seemed to gesture them to follow.

"Whoa… Is he on our side?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: We better follow! He's going to the castle!

* * *

**Entrance to Castle Dedede-**

"Whew! I can't believe we made it!" Sonic grinned as he put Kirby down. They were in front of the gate to King Dedede's castle. "So… Is this the castle that that penguin guy we fought before is at?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, he is,)" Kirby nodded.

"Well, then we should try to wait for the others before those Cappies come here," Blade suggested before seeing four people off at the distance. "Hey… I think I see them coming…but who's the other guy?"

With Mario and Luigi, they were having a hard time trying to catch up to the person who had Chopper, since he was using his wings to fly.

"Meta Knight!" Chopper gaped as he looked at the purple metallic feet and the wings. "Are you like the others?"

"No," Meta Knight answered as he let go of Chopper and turned around. "You should be safe here. Apparently The Void's power has gotten so strong here, that some of the Cappies were corrupted by some of its power. They won't listen to a word any of you say."

"Then how come it doesn't affect you?" Luigi asked.

"I guess I'm one of those 'special' ones."

Mario: How do you know we weren't responsible for the destruction of those towns?

"I saw you escaping the fire when I was in the castle," Meta Knight explained. "I also noticed someone that resembled Chopper and Kirby causing destruction in the towns as well. Apparently this was Tipral's doing. He managed to create a clone that turned into Kirby to destroy Cappy Town, while he went for Hatty Town."

"I KNEW Tipral was behind this!" Chopper frowned. "But… Do you know where we could find some kind of card?"

"Yes, in fact, someone you know is holding it. You remember Fumu, do you not?"

"My friend's…uh…girlfriend? I guess so…"

"She's holding it," Meta Knight stopped at the gate, where the other three gasped. "Surprised to see me, I suppose?"

"Not really…" Blade trailed. "You DO live here…"

"Poyo? (How have you been doing with Dream Land so far?)" Kirby asked.

"Things were going fine…until The Void showed up and began to corrupt people's minds. And don't worry, I know everything that happened."

After a short explanation, Kirby, Sonic and Blade nodded.

"So Flyer's girlfriend has the Pop Star Card, right?" Sonic asked.

"Correct. She's in the castle, so you'll need to go in there. However, beware of the Waddle Dee in there. Because of the corruption in their mind, they're a lot stronger than before."

"Believe me, we've dealt with something like that…" Luigi sighed, thinking about his home world and the Corrupted Goombas there.

"Well, we might as well go in the castle, right?" Sonic suggested as Meta Knight opened the gate, leading them into the courtyard. Three Corrupted Waddle Dee spotted them and began to charge at them.

"Heads up!" Chopper alarmed, swinging one away with his hammer, while Kirby inhaled one and spat it at another.

They noticed there was a fountain in the center of the courtyard with a golden statue of King Dedede sitting at the top. Some water was coming out of its mouth, and some was coming out of…its armpits?

"Sometimes I wonder why His Majesty had water coming out of the armpits," Meta Knight sighed as he noticed two Corrupted Waddle Dee holding paintbrushes.

"Allow me," Chopper declared as he inhaled one and swallowed it, gaining a backwards blue cap and a paintbrush. Knowing he got the Paint ability, he tested it out by painting the Corrupted Waddle Dee red, scorching it.

"Whoa… Paint can do that? !" Blade gawked.

"Apparently so…" Sonic trailed. "I've seen it before, so I would know."

Since the fountain was in their way, Chopper flipped into 3-D and helped everyone get past it. When they reached the door ahead, they noticed it had a lock. However, there happened to be a balcony above them with a Corrupted Waddle Dee throwing spears.

"Uh oh…" Luigi gulped as he dodged the spear.

Kirby took in some air and floated up to the balcony. After kicking the Corrupted Waddle Dee, it dropped a Castle Key, which he took in order to open the door into the castle.

* * *

**Inside Castle Dedede-**

Once they were inside, they looked at the dark blue walls and the green floor. There didn't appear to be anything special so far, but they noticed a couple of Corrupted Waddle Doo holding spears marching down the hallway.

"Uh oh… This isn't good." Blade gulped, unsheathing his katana. "And there's no place to hide from them either!"

"Unless we go into 3-D," Chopper smirked as he flipped into 3-D. However, he noticed the Corrupted Waddle Doo could flip because of the outlined box around them. "Oh… Well that's nice…"

"Then we fight," Sonic declared as he threw himself at the Corrupted Waddle Doo with a Spin Dash. He managed to hit one, but one of them shot a beam out of its eye and knocked Sonic back.

"Look, I'll take care of these Waddle Doo," Meta Knight stated, getting Galaxia ready. "Though I will not try to hurt them, I will fend them off. You guys need to focus on finding the Cabinet Master's room. There, you'll find Fumu."

"How can we do that?" Luigi asked.

"Sadly, that is not where I can help you…"

"OK… I guess we'll have to find out all on our own." Chopper sighed as they avoided the Corrupted Waddle Doo while Meta Knight held them off. When they reached the end of the hallway, they noticed in 3-D, there was another hallway up north, so they took that way and went back into 2-D to make the hallway move to the right.

"All right… So we need to find a door in this entire hallway, right?" Blade asked.

Mario: Well, that makes sense.

"Poyo, (I think I know the way,)" Kirby informed as he took the lead and let everyone follow him through the hallway. There were two Corrupted Waddle Dee in their way, but with some white paint, one was frozen, while Kirby kicked the frozen Waddle Dee at the other, disintegrating both. One dropped an Ultimate Shroom Shake, to their surprise.

"Hey! This could turn out to be useful!" Chopper smiled as he took the shake and continued on. He painted one Corrupted Waddle Dee green to poison it, while Blade finished it off with his katana.

"Hey, I think I see a door up ahead!" Luigi noticed, which was being guarded by a Corrupted Waddle Doo holding a spear. The green plumber decided to throw Bonjourang at the enemy, but all it did was tick it off.

However, it was easily defeated when it got pelted by a couple of shooting stars thanks to Starbow. With that, they were able to carry on ahead into the next room, where they found a staircase that could only be accessed through 3-D.

"More 3-D stuff, huh?" Chopper said as he flipped everyone in 3-D and got them up the stairs into a small room with a door up ahead, which led into another similar hallway. The only difference was that there was a lollipop sitting on the floor and a bunch of enemies up ahead.

"Wait… Doesn't that make you invincible?" Sonic gawked.

"Poyo! (Yeah! Just watch!)" Kirby ate the lollipop, with its power enveloping around him and transforming him into a giant 8-bit version of himself. "…Poyo? (…Huh? How come I became 8-bit?)"

"I guess it's the Mega Star of this world," Chopper shrugged. "Why don't you go ahead and trample the enemies in our way!"

"Poyo! (With pleasure!)"

Kirby began to trample over all of the Corrupted Waddle Dee and Waddle Doo in his path. However, it didn't last long when he reached the end of the hallway, where he only found a Save Block.

"OK… I guess we need to save?" Luigi questioned as he hit the Save Block. Chopper flipped into 3-D again to find another hallway up north, but no door.

So after making their way to the end of the hallway, they went into 3-D and took the next hallway, where they found a hallway. There were a couple of Corrupted Bronto Burts there as well, so it wasn't safe. But with Luigi's Super Jump, they were able to take them down with ease.

"Don't suppose Fumu is up on the third floor, right?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (Yeah, she is,)" Kirby nodded as they headed through the door and found a spring leading up to the next floor. After launching themselves up to it, they found a door and headed into a smaller hallway with a large, golden door up ahead. There was a yellow ? block there as well, which contained an Ultimate Shroom.

Mario: That should help us!

Blade sliced the Ultimate Shroom into six pieces and everyone took a piece, recovering 100 HP. With that, they decided to head through the large door.

* * *

**Dark room-**

"Hey! What's going on? ! I can't see a thing!" Luigi cried. "Where are you, bro!"

"Hey! You're touching me, Luigi!" Sonic cried.

"Oh, sorry…"

"This is weird… Hold on, let me get some light." Chopper conjured up a rainbow ball and held it in his hand. They noticed a small staircase up ahead. Kirby led the way up to an arena, where they noticed a large, electric fence surrounding everywhere but the entrance they were standing by.

"Heh heh heh! I knew you'd come in here!"

"What? Who said that?" Blade asked, looking around the room until he heard a loud thud that sent Sonic, him, Mario, and Luigi flying out of the arena. The entrance into the arena was sealed off by an electric fence.

"Poyo? (What's going on? )" Kirby gawked.

"And who just said that?" Chopper asked before looking behind him. "And why are the rest of our friends not here?"

"I've been waiting a long time for this…" the voice trailed. "You see, ever since you left me on that island, I could barely do a thing! But, now that I'm back here, we can finally settle this! This is only between you two and me!"

"Poyo… (Hold on… I recognize that voice…)" Kirby realized until the lights turned on. Outside of the arena, Escargon was right beside the light switch, while King Dedede jumped in front of them with a black mask with small spikes pointing out, shoulder pads, and a mechanized hammer with a couple of sparks appearing on it.

"Remember this, you guys?" King Dedede grinned as he lifted his mask and cackled. "Remember when you trounced me at Mt. Dedede when I had this too? Well, I learned from my mistakes then and tweaked up this hammer a bit! Now, as Masked Dedede, I'm unstoppable!"

"Aw, come on!" Chopper cried. "We were so close, but now you show up and try to attack us! Listen, we don't have time for any of your games!"

"Try to leave and you'll get electrocuted," Masked Dedede declared. "So if you wanna get out of here, you either win or get trounced by me!"

"Poyo… (Then we have no choice…)" Kirby trailed as he got in a fighting stance, while Chopper got his paintbrush ready.

"Let us settle this!"

Things didn't look good, especially when Masked Dedede had 460 HP, an Attack of 18 and a Defense of 8. This looked a lot tougher than the battle with him before in Mt. Dedede, that's for sure.

"Ugh… All right, I guess my paintbrush could use some…well, painting." Chopper sweat dropped as his paintbrush drooped as Masked Dedede jumped toward them and stomped on Chopper. Thankfully, two yellow stars appeared, which allowed Kirby to inhale them and spit them at Masked Dedede.

"Oof! Why you little…!" the king tried to grab Kirby, who simply floated above him to avoid his attacks. Afterward, when he landed behind him, he attacked him with his Final Cutter to leave him off guard.

"Poyo! (You're not THAT tough!)" Kirby mocked.

"Well, compared to last time, I'm not messing around now!" Masked Dedede gripped his hammer and slammed it on the ground, creating a massive shockwave that struck both Chopper and Kirby, leaving them paralyzed.

"Unngh…! I…can't move…!" Chopper cringed.

"Are you serious? He can paralyze both of them at once? !" Blade gaped. "I'm sorry, but that's bull crap!"

While Masked Dedede grinned, he fired missiles out of his hammer, which sent Chopper and Kirby flying into the electric fence, electrocuting them as well. This also got them out of their paralysis state and allowed Chopper to even paint Masked Dedede red to burn him.

"What the…? ! Since when is paint hot? !" Masked Dedede gawked.

"Well, this is a strange ability I have," Chopper shrugged as he jumped on Masked Dedede's head. "I'd rather not question something like this anyway, because you probably want to fight, right?"

"Oh… Yeah! Of course I do!"

Masked Dedede charged toward Chopper and tried to tackle him, but he simply jumped over him and stomped on his head, while Kirby kicked him in the butt. It wasn't much, but it did get Masked Dedede upset.

"Your Majesty! Use your spinning attack!" Escargon cried.

"Hey! You're not the one who gives me commands!" Masked Dedede snapped. "I'm king around here! KING!"

"Poyo, (We already know that,)" Kirby sighed as he ran up to Masked Dedede and struck him with his Final Cutter. The king growled as he tried to inhale Kirby. However, he was too far from range to get him, which allowed Chopper to paint him white and leave him frozen.

"Maybe I should become an artist!" Chopper smiled as Kirby struck Masked Dedede with his Final Cutter, unfreezing him instantly.

Mario: That's not a good idea…

"Poyo? (After what happened last time?)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo… (Although my art's bad too…)"

Masked Dedede stood his hammer up and let the face open up to reveal a couple of missiles. Some of them were ice, while some others were fire. Kirby inhaled an ice missile and spat it at him.

"Urghh… It's s-so c-cold…" Masked Dedede shivered.

"Poyo, (Well, you should've realized I could inhale things,)" Kirby informed.

"Grrrrr! Next time you say 'Poyo' to me, I'm going to smash you with this hammer!" he growled as he attempted to smash Kirby with his hammer anyway. Chopper managed to bash his head with his own hammer. When Masked Dedede turned around, Chopper hurled a rainbow ball to his face.

However, due to his mask, it didn't do that much.

"Oh, that's just cute! You threw something at my face when I have this mask on!" Masked Dedede cackled as he grabbed Chopper by the feet and let him dangle over. "Here! I've got something you might like!"

"Pizza?" Chopper asked with a smile and glittering eyes before getting thrown toward the fence, which electrocuted him.

"Yeah! Go His Majesty!" Escargon cheered, holding pompoms. "If he can't do it, nobody can!"

"Should we take care of him?" Sonic asked.

"Nah…" Blade shook his head. "Seeing him act like that is a little more entertaining than watching him get scared."

Mario: Really?

"What? To be fair, scaring people isn't a good thing in my opinion… Did you see the fear in everyone's eyes in the previous worlds? !"

"Yeah, they were definitely scared…" Luigi trailed. "Especially Toad Town…"

Masked Dedede tried to whack at Kirby from above him, since the pink puffball was floating around. At this point, he had enough and took in some air and began to float up to him. Though he couldn't hit him with his hammer, he could still ram into him.

Knowing Kirby was in danger, Chopper threw a rainbow ball at Masked Dedede's stomach, forcing him to exhale and fall to the ground. The masked helped prevent his face from getting hurt and let him get back up and bash Chopper with his mechanized hammer.

"Youch! That is painful!" Chopper cried.

"Heh heh heh! I knew this was a good idea!" Masked Dedede grinned.

The Star Warrior quickly got up and punched his stomach using rainbow energy. While his punches don't do much damage, punching with rainbow energy was much more effective. He also used some yellow paint to electrocute him.

"Well, looks like you got a taste of your own medicine," Chopper said as he jumped out of the way of Masked Dedede's hammer.

"You know, Chopper… You wanna know how I felt after I lost to you back in Mt. Dedede five months ago? !" Masked Dedede cried as he tried to swipe at him with his hammer.

"Well… I'd rather not know…"

"I was left _**MISERABLE!**_ I was left to walk in depression in the sunset as I slowly walked home! Not only that, but those Hellspawns just HAD to take my castle away! I was ANGRY!"

"You should be happy that we saved your castle!" Chopper shouted. "And how do you thank us? By trying to kill us with that? ! That's SUCH a good way to return the favor!"

"Just shut up and die!" Masked Dedede growled as he stood his hammer up and allowed the face to open. Instead of missiles, it unleashed a flamethrower that Kirby managed to save Chopper from when he grabbed Kirby's feet to fly over it.

"Whew… Thanks!"

"Poyo, (Well I had to do something,)" Kirby said.

Masked Dedede took in some air and began to fly in the air as well in an attempt to follow them. What Kirby did was simply lure him to the electric fence and let him bump into it as Kirby dropped to the ground, electrocuting the king.

"Ack! Stupid puffball! I knew I should've gotten rid of you before!" Masked Dedede cried as he slammed his hammer to the ground and created a shockwave. Knowing what to do, Chopper and Kirby jumped over it to avoid another paralysis.

"Well, at least we're not paralyzed," Chopper sighed.

Masked Dedede stomped the ground in anger as he charged for Chopper and Kirby. What he didn't notice was Chopper painted a part of the ground white to cover it in ice, making Masked Dedede slip and crash into the electric fence, electrocuting him.

"Your Majesty! Don't let them fool you like that!" Escargon cried. "Don't you realize brute force won't work? !"

"I don't need your help, Escargon!" Masked Dedede snapped. "I'm trying to defeat my foes on my own and not depend on anyone else!"

"But you're doing so poorly! You should listen to my advice!"

"Actually, it's better that you don't listen," Sonic suggested.

"You're dang right I'm not going to listen!" Masked Dedede growled as he managed to inhale Chopper and spit him at Kirby. "See? I'm already doing just fine! Inhaling usually works for me!"

Masked Dedede tried to inhale again, but this time Chopper threw a fireball in his mouth. Unfortunately, his plan didn't work when the king spat the fireball back at him, knocking him into the electric fence and electrocuting him.

"That was a dumb move on your part, Chopper," Blade commented.

"I know… You don't have to tell me."

Masked Dedede grinned as he walked over to Chopper, but not before getting hit by Kirby's Final Cutter. He turned around and attempted to bash at his nemesis with his hammer, but ended up resulting in spinning his hammer around.

"Poyo! (Hold on, I've got you!)" Kirby cried as he floated above Chopper. The pale green Star Warrior managed to grab Kirby's feet and float above Masked Dedede, who was starting to get tired.

Once he dazed, Chopper let go of Kirby's feet and jumped on him twice, performing a stylish move. Kirby followed up with his Cartwheel, and then Chopper painted him green, leaving him poisoned.

"You think poisoning me is funny? !" Masked Dedede barked as he took out a potion and drank it to cure the poison. "Well I have a couple of these bad boys to help me if you try poisoning me again!"

"Well, then that didn't work," Chopper sighed as he got whacked by Masked Dedede's hammer. Kirby managed to get on Masked Dedede afterward, which forced him to try to hit Kirby.

And that ended up failing when he hit his head instead.

"OW! What the heck? !"

"Your Majesty, you shouldn't hit your opponent when he's on you!" Escargon cried.

"I don't need your yappin'! I'm fine!" Masked Dedede cried as he dove after Kirby. The pink puffball tried to get away, but Masked Dedede managed to catch him and send him flying back upon impact as well.

Chopper and Kirby stood back, while Masked Dedede jumped in the air and began to stomp the ground. Yellow stars appeared around him for every stomp he performed. This helped Kirby hit him by inhaling the stars and spitting them out.

"Poyo? (You know those help me, right?)" Kirby wondered.

"Quit goin' 'Poyo'! That's annoying!" Masked Dedede growled as he tried to inhale him like a vacuum. When he stopped, Chopper painted him yellow and left him electrocuted. However, his Paint ability didn't last long when Masked Dedede bashed him, knocking his ability away.

"Ack! Not my ability!" Chopper cried as he chased it to the fence. When the star hit the fence, it was destroyed. "Great… Now I have no ability to use!"

"Heh heh! Well now! I guess I have the upper hand here!" the king grinned as he clenched his hammer and raised it up. Chopper got his hammer and bashed his foot, causing him to hop around the arena.

"Well that did something!"

"Well it's better than nothing," Luigi shrugged as Masked Dedede yelped. When he got to Kirby, he ended up stepping on him on complete accident, and afterward, he bumped into the electric fence, electrocuting him.

"Your Majesty… Are you sure the electric fence was necessary?" Escargon asked as Masked Dedede fell to the ground.

"Ugh… Turn off the electricity!" ordered the king. "It's being used against me, and that's something I don't want!"

"About time you listen to me…" the snail grumbled as he flipped the switch to turn off the electric fence. "Now it's just you and those two for now. Don't try to get hurt, Your Majesty!"

"Quiet now, Escargon! I need to focus here!"

Chopper readied his hammer and spun it around while Masked Dedede was preoccupied. Because of this, he got angry and spun his hammer around as well. Kirby tried throwing Crystaline at him, but it didn't seem to work.

"Poyo, (I guess we can only avoid that attack,)" Kirby frowned as Chopper grabbed his feet and held on as Kirby floated up.

After Masked Dedede stopped, he was left dizzy. At this point, Kirby threw Crystaline at him and froze him. Chopper threw a charged fireball at Masked Dedede afterward, unfreezing him and leaving him with a burn.

"You know what I don't get?"

"What?"

"How the heck do you have that rainbow stuff?" Masked Dedede wondered.

"I got it from a rainbow," Chopper replied.

"A rainbow? PBBBBBBBBBBTH! That's gold!" he jumped in the air and attempted to stomp on Chopper, who simply jumped out of the way and jumped off the cage to stomp on Masked Dedede's head.

"Poyo? (How far until he's defeated?)" Kirby wondered.

"I have no idea…" groaned Chopper. "However, I think we should heal up."

Kirby agreed and they drank a Star Shroom Shake, recovering 150 HP. Masked Dedede fumed and let his hammer fire missiles. Chopper inhaled one, while Kirby inhaled two, and they both spat them back at Masked Dedede.

"Crud! Fighting two people that can copy abilities sure is an annoyance!" Masked Dedede whined as he slammed his hammer to the ground to create a shockwave that hit Chopper, but not Kirby.

"Ack! I'm paralyzed!"

Thankfully, with Piccolo's power, he was able to cure himself of paralysis. Kirby, on the other hand, was unfortunate to get hit by Masked Dedede's hammer. Escargon continued to cheer with his pompoms.

"Gimme a K! An I! N! G! D! E! D! E! D! E! What does that spell?"

"The cheerleader squad is at the game," Chopper said as he struck Masked Dedede with a rainbow smash. "Go join them."

"Yeah! You're REALLY annoying us…" Sonic grumbled.

"I'll do whatever I please, thank you very much… And as for you, Chopper…" Escargon began, glaring at the Star Warrior. "One more word out of that mouth and you're going to get smashed by His Majesty!"

"…Word?" Chopper shrugged before getting bashed by Masked Dedede, who began to cackle before Kirby grabbed Cudge for a second and bashed Masked Dedede in the head with a hammer.

"Oh, so you're playing the cowardly role, are ya, Kirby?" Masked Dedede growled as he turned around and tried to swing at Kirby, who used Carrie to jump on his head and leave him stunned.

"Poyo, (Well, it doesn't look like there's much of him left,)" Kirby noticed as he hit Masked Dedede with his Final Cutter. The king managed to bash Kirby, but he was soon bashed by Chopper's hammer.

"Look, Dedede… We're practically winning the fight right now." Chopper informed.

"Just barely," Masked Dedede added.

"Yeah, whatever… I'm not going to tell you the same thing we've told everyone else. They've never listened."

"Poyo, (Yeah, I know,)" Kirby agreed.

While they began to talk, Masked Dedede inhaled both of them and spat them toward the cage. Since the power wasn't on, it didn't shock them, which frustrated Masked Dedede. This also made it easier for Chopper and Kirby to jump off the fence and hit Masked Dedede in the face, with Chopper kicking him with rainbow energy and Kirby kicking him normally.

"Ugh… You guys are just a nuisance!" Masked Dedede scoffed.

"Nuisance? You seem like the nuisance to us!" Chopper barked. "Don't you realize that this world is in DANGER? ! Not only did we get framed for destroying a town, but you just happen to come in and try to fight us instead of letting us save the world!"

"Bah! Who cares when there isn't much time left? The only thing I can even do with limited time left is clobber my enemies!"

"You tell them, Your Majesty!" Escargon cheered.

Chopper and Kirby sighed as Masked Dedede jumped toward them. Chopper managed to jump out of the way and hit the king with a sweeping kick, making Masked Dedede trip. Kirby followed up with his Final Cutter, which left him battered and bruised.

"Ugh… Well, look what you did to me…" Masked Dedede grunted. "My robe is entirely ruined because of you two… Here I was hoping this grudge would finally be settled, but when you ruin my ROBE?"

"Don't you have more of those?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo, (He does,)" Kirby replied.

"That's it!" Masked Dedede began to hop around the room in order to trounce the two. Unfortunately, since he relies on brute force more, this didn't work out too well when the two heroes inhaled some of the stars left over and spat them at Masked Dedede.

"Your Majesty! Don't jump around! It's not good when they can inhale those stars!" Escargon cried.

"Don't make me come out there and bash you with my hammer!"

"You can't when the cage is locked."

"Then I'll bash it open with my hammer!" Masked Dedede growled before getting knocked back by a rainbow ball. He was immediately brought back into the fight, and he even opened the face of his hammer to unleash his flamethrower.

Chopper got behind Kirby as he used his Defend to prevent himself from taking serious damage (considering his Attack is 18). After the flames were gone, Kirby inhaled the star left over and spat it at Masked Dedede.

The king managed to endure the hit by bringing his hammer up, but with the little strength he had left, he couldn't put up much of a fight anymore.

"_Ugh… I might as well give up…" _Masked Dedede thought. _"…NO! I can't do that! I have a fight to win here!"_

Masked Dedede began to spin his hammer rapidly, knocking the two back toward the cage. Once he finished spinning around, Kirby inhaled the star while Chopper spun his hammer to hit Masked Dedede a couple of times.

Even then, those two were getting a little exhausted as well.

"Poyo? (How long can this battle go?)" Kirby coughed.

"Not long…" Chopper huffed. "I can tell his HP is dangerously low. A couple of more attacks and that should do it."

Kirby spat the star back at Masked Dedede, only to have him knock it back. Chopper knocked it back with his hammer, but the king only knocked it back to the cage, destroying the star.

"Take this!" Masked Dedede growled, storing power in his hammer and readying it to strike down upon his opponents. "Now THIS should be strong enough to take the two of you down!"

"I don't think so!" Chopper jumped in the air and stomped on Masked Dedede's head while performing a flip. It also made him let go of his hammer, which dropped to the ground.

When Kirby looked at it, he attempted to lift it up. However, since he could inhale it, he did that and gained the Masked Kirby ability, which gives him a mask and a mechanized hammer like Masked Dedede.

"What the…! My hammer!" Masked Dedede gaped. "Come on, Kirby! Don't do this to me!"

"Poyo, (I'm sorry, but it's too late,)" Kirby frowned as he swung his new hammer at Masked Dedede. This caused him to let out a low-pitched scream as his mask got shattered in half. He was also sent flying out of the arena, crashing through the fence and even his own castle.

"Your… Your Majesty!" Escargon gaped before looking at the group. Kirby was able to smash the cage with his hammer and free both him and Chopper. Their friends also came to their aid as they walked over to Escargon.

"So…" Sonic began.

"OK! You win!" the snail made Kirby hit him with his hammer, which sent him flying out of the castle. Apparently he was trying to follow to where King Dedede may have landed. "Your Majesty! Wait for meeeeeeeeeeee!"

And after that, they heard no more from him.

"Poyo…? (Did he throw himself out of the castle…?)" Kirby gawked.

"Well… I guess he did." Chopper shrugged. "I know he wanted me to throw him out when we were in Mt. Dedede five months ago. It's strange, you know? It's like he really cares about him."

"Too much, maybe?" Blade pondered.

"Ehhhh… I don't think that's important." Sonic shrugged. "But what's important is that we…"

Before anyone could say anything, they felt a tremor coming from outside that shook the castle. They gulped, knowing that this place was most likely going to get destroyed very soon.

"Oh, man… We gotta go now!" Chopper cried.

They found the exit up ahead and entered another hallway. There, they found a door that looked different compared to the others. From what they could tell, this was probably the room.

"Poyo, (Here it is,)" Kirby announced as he knocked on the door. A yellow girl with an ornate ponytail held by a purple clasp, a one-piece outfit that's pink on the top and green on the bottom separated by zigzags, and orange feet opened the door. The first thing she noticed was Kirby smiling at her.

"Kirby? Is that really you?" the girl known as Fumu gasped. "Everyone's been looking for you for a long time!"

"Poyo! (Hi, Fumu!)"

"And Chopper's here too! Although… I'm a little surprised that Flyer's not with you. Wouldn't he have come here to see me if he knew you were coming?"

At this point, everyone's smiles turned to worried looks. Would they really tell her what happened?

"Fumu…" Chopper trailed nervously. "Flyer…"

"…What happened to Flyer?"

"He's…no longer around."

Everyone stood in silence as Fumu said absolutely nothing. She blinked a couple of times until her eyes began to get watery.

"N-No! Th-That's impossible! H-How did this h-happen? !"

"Did you look outside?" Chopper sighed.

"I haven't looked out lately…"

"Come on, follow me," he led her and his friends into the room and over to the balcony. There, she saw the burnt forest and The Void, which began to tower over the whole world.

"The forest! It's all gone!" Fumu cried.

"We don't know what happened there, but we barely made it out of there," Blade explained. "And that darkness in the sky… It looks like it's about to destroy this place soon."

"So… Was that responsible for Flyer being…gone?"

"Yes…" Chopper sighed as his head hung low. "Everyone we've known and love… They're all starting to die because of The Void, thanks to someone who's had a grudge against me for a long time."

"And the only way to get rid of that is to collect the Pure Hearts," Sonic explained. "There are only two left, and to get the one we're looking for now, we need a card called a Pop Star Card."

"Actually, I found a card somewhere on the grass and took it," Fumu recalled, taking it out of her pocket. It began to levitate off her hand and over to Kirby, who managed to grab it. "Wait… That's no ordinary card, isn't it?"

"Poyo, (It's not,)" Kirby confirmed. "Poyo? (Is it OK if we take it?)"

Chopper explained to Fumu what he said. "Well… If you need it to save the world, then I suppose you can take it."

"Listen, Fumu. Just because Flyer is gone doesn't mean you should lose hope." Chopper explained. "You see, if the Pure Hearts are used to destroy The Void, everyone trapped inside that place will be free and the worlds itself will be back. Trust me, we won't let this happen!"

"…I guess I have no other choice. Just make sure you and your friends don't get hurt, all right?"

"We'll make sure, because we're going to…"

Before anything else could be said, a missile came flying their way. The explosion sent them flying out of the castle and far toward the hills.

"GUYS!" Fumu cried as she saw Silica walk onto the balcony and watch them fall. She noticed the smirk of her face. "Silica? ! Why did you do that? !"

"They're the ones responsible for the destruction of those two towns!" Silica shouted. "Did you even see? !"

"Silica… What happened to your eyes? They don't look so good…"

"There's nothing wrong with my eyes. …Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find where they landed."

Before Fumu could stop her, Silica already jumped off the balcony and used her grappling hook to go down.

* * *

**Fields of Dream Land-**

After a long fall, the heroes were lying on the ground on the fields outside of town. They were near the burnt down forest that only had ashes remaining. However, there was another person standing in front of them.

"Look at you pathetic heroes," Tipral scoffed, looking down at Chopper. "You try your best to save your worlds, but your efforts end up becoming fruitless. If you don't want to die, then I suppose I could make a deal with you and have you become slaves for me."

"Unnngh… I… I will never…join you…" Chopper moaned as he looked up at Tipral. "Especially when you…destroyed our…worlds…!"

"What's the matter? A little weak from fighting against King Dedede?" However, before he could continue, the ground began to tremor again. "…Oh, it looks like it's time for me to leave already. Have fun, heroes!"

Before anyone could say anything, Tipral disappeared, leaving them all speechless. That is, until Silica and Knuckle Joe tried to attack.

"Give up right now!" Knuckle Joe cried as he tried to hit Kirby, who used his hammer to defend himself.

"Poyo! (Snap out of it, Knuckle Joe!)" Kirby cried while Chopper ducked under Silica's flamethrower.

"You've destroyed a town, and now you have to pay the price!" Silica sneered. "You know you don't stand a chance!"

As the ground shook, they were all knocked over. When they looked up at the sky, they saw that there was no sky anymore. It was all The Void.

"Wait… What IS that? !"

"The Void," Chopper muttered.

* * *

**Road of Shame-**

King Dedede sighed as he slowly began to walk away from his castle on the road that he called the "Road of Shame", because it was where the losers would leave the town for good.

"There's no way I'm ever going to win against those two…" King Dedede sighed as the place flashed white. "Not even the destruction of this entire world is going to change that… Did my dictatorship really bring me down like this?"

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" the king whirled around and saw Escargon coming his way. "Please, Your Majesty! I don't want to have you go alone!"

"Escargon? Why did you follow me here?"

"Because…" Escargon panted. "I… I… I consider you to be my best friend…"

"Wait… Really? ! But… I've been trouncing you with my hammer so many times! Why would you ever think that still? !"

"When I first left my mom's farmhouse, I was hoping I'd get to see a lot. When I ended up working for you instead, I thought I would be sitting in the castle the entire time doing your job. …However, I turned out to be wrong when we got to explore Dream Land often. Remember when we gave a tour to those people? We got to see so much! It actually helped me get used to this area easily."

"Really? Wow… I never knew you liked exploration. …But what about me hurting you all the time?"

"Well… That's a whole different story. That's your angry side."

"Yeah… I get angry a lot…" King Dedede trailed. "Look, I'm sorry if I've caused any problems for you in the past. I think I should've given you better treatment than just a secretary. You… You should be my sidekick!"

"Sidekick? ! Your Majesty… You've made me feel so happy…"

"Yes, and as my sidekick, we shall get swallowed together by The Void. It's important that both of us stay together."

"Of course," Escargon nodded as he and King Dedede walked off, watching The Void slowly swallow the world up.

Their world may be getting destroyed, but putting the horrible past behind the king made him feel better.

* * *

**Fields of Dream Land-**

"I can't believe it…" Knuckle Joe trailed, his senses getting to him. "Our own world is slowly getting destroyed? !"

"That's horrible!" Silica gasped, her purple eyes slowly turning back to normal. "I'm… I'm really sorry if we caused any trouble…"

"It's OK…" Chopper trailed. "It's quick to forgive when the world is going to die, right?"

"Yeah… I guess…"

The world once again flashed white a couple of times. "Poyo! (Dream Land! No!)"

"We can't let its power overwhelm us!" Chopper cried, the forces of The Void pushing him back. Luigi managed to grab his hand and pull him back.

However, that didn't stop The Void from swallowing up the world. Everyone gasped as the beautiful world slowly began to fade away. There was absolutely nothing they could do about it.

The last thing they heard was Kirby's sniffling.

* * *

**Dimensional X-**

"Unnnnghhhhh…" Luigi groaned as he slowly pulled himself up. "Man… My head hurts for some reason."

Everyone else got up and sighed in relief to see they were back in Dimensional X. The only person who didn't get up was Kirby, who was bursting in tears.

"Poyo! (Dream Land… No…)" Kirby sniffled. "Poyo… (Such a great world… Now gone…)"

"Oh, dear…" Ortorain trailed as he flew down to Kirby, who dropped the card. "It appears your own world was destroyed by The Void, right?"

"Poyo… (Yes…)"

"I loved Pop Star very much. I especially loved the shape of it as well. That star shape…" he picked up the card and let it glow. "Listen, Kirby… There's still a chance for you to save your home world. With the card you have, we can finally open the final portal to where the Pure Heart is."

"The Pure Heart… We definitely need that…" Chopper nodded.

"Sadly, while you were gone, The Void has gotten bigger. In fact, I fear that this place will soon go…"

Mario: What? ! That's horrible!

"That's why there's no time to waste. Come, heroes! We have to get going now!"

"Poyo, (You're right,)" Kirby said as he stood up. "Poyo! (I'm going to save the grieving for later! Right now, we need to get that Pure Heart!)"

"Agreed," Chopper nodded. "Now let us go!"

Chopper ran up to the Star Block up ahead and gave it a punch, shattering the whole block.

"Let's just hope we're not too late…" Ortorain trailed.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Chopper and Co. were under a lot of pressure because of the destruction of the four worlds. Kirby felt completely shattered by the loss of his friends and his planet, but he knew he couldn't cry forever. What was important was that they had the last card needed to get the Pure Heart. But despite this, they knew the end of this world was at hand. Would Ortorain succeed in helping the heroes get to the last portal? Watching the flower petals fall from the sky, Chopper made his way to the last way._

* * *

**I can't say much other than the fact that the title of this chapter sounds a little...sinister. **

**But now that our heroes got the last card, they have full access to the final world where the Pure Heart is. Where will it be? You'll have to find out later.  
**


	110. A Tragic Destruction

**CHAPTER 18-5**

**-A Tragic Destruction-**

Chopper's stomach felt uneasy as he saw The Void slowly grow bigger in the sky. Now that it was practically at its full size, he knew that they had very little time to reach the top. Even Ortorain looked worried about his world, according to his expression that they all noticed.

"How much time do we even have left?" Chopper asked. "The Void's HUGE!"

"I can't really say how long. Honestly, I don't know." Ortorain sighed. "I'm not the Creator of Time, you know. That's what my cousin's sister's father's brothers' mother's son does. And even then, I'm sure we wouldn't have the time to find him…"

"OK… I don't know what to say there…" Luigi trailed before they felt a slight tremor from The Void. "Oh, boy… If there's a tremor, then we know this world doesn't have much time until its destruction…"

"Indeed. This way, heroes." Ortorain ordered as he flew off. Everyone instantly followed the small alien to where he created a platform with his scepter. The glowing pink platform lifted off the ground and carried the heroes up.

What was nice was the view.

Mario: What a nice view!

"I think this is the only view where we'll get to see everything in this world…" Sonic trailed as he noticed how much to this world there was. "We didn't really go through much of this world and already we're seeing everything about it."

"Yes, it is indeed a very nice view," Ortrorain agreed. "When I created this dimension, I wanted to make the elevator that leads to the top of this place have a nice view. Luckily, no Dimensional Ghosts know about this place, so it should be safe."

However, that's when a Dimensional Ghost appeared.

"…I guess I was wrong."

Chopper immediately threw a rainbow ball to leave it stunned. Kirby got his mechanized hammer ready and prepared to swing it at the ghost.

"Uh oh… That's not safe!" the dimension creator cried as he used his scepter to zap Kirby and get rid of his Masked ability.

"Poyo?! (Why did you do that?!)" Kirby exclaimed.

"That ability is too dangerous, especially for this elevator! If you even struck this platform with your hammer, it would be powerful enough to shatter the whole thing! I'd recommend you use it when you absolutely need it. Save it for something important."

Ortorain created a smaller mask of King Dedede's mask and gave it to Kirby. He was about to inhale it, but Chopper closed his mouth, telling him that he shouldn't use the ability right now.

"Poyo… (OK… I'll use it when it's absolutely necessary…)" Kirby sighed.

"Ummmm… there any possibility that someone could fall off this thing?" Luigi asked as he looked down and gulped. "Because I don't feel very safe…"

"Well… If you trip or something, it's a possibility that you could fall…" Ortorain shrugged. "It's the most unsafe elevator in the whole universe."

"What? ! Oh, no! Why am I on here, then? I'm going to end up dying because of this elevator!"

"Oh, you are quite the gullible one, Luigi! I was just kidding, there! Even if you fell, I could use my scepter's power to bring you back here! Don't you worry about a thing! However, I can't say the same thing with this world…"

"Oh, good…" Luigi sighed in relief. "But, really, don't make a joke like that. I can get quite scared of something like that. It makes me feel worried."

"Luigi, just relax. Everything will be fine." Chopper assured. That is, until they felt another small tremor. "…Or not."

The beautiful purple sky was no longer seen. In fact, The Void had become the sky now. While it wasn't about to destroy Dimensional X right about now, everyone began to feel worried over it.

"My god… Look at The Void!" Blade gaped as The Void nearly towered over the world. "Dear Grambi, I hope we make it safe and sound…"

"Since when do you use the word 'Grambi'?" Chopper asked.

"Ehhh… I don't know. Sometimes it's something that comes out of my mouth for some reason. I'm not going to complain about it though."

Mario: Can we make this thing go any faster?

"I believe I should do that. I apologize if I didn't do this any sooner." Ortorain apologized as he made the elevator travel faster. They easily made it to their destination. They found a large door up ahead with four openings. The frame was a glowing pink, which looked beautiful to everyone.

Mario: What's with those openings on the door?

"It doesn't look like an ordinary door…" Luigi trailed.

"You see, this door requires something special in order to unlock it," Ortorain informed as he pulled the four cards out. "The reason why I had you guys seek the cards in your worlds and Sammer's Kingdom was so you could open this door. Although, there was unfortunately a price that had to be paid…"

"Our worlds…" Sonic trailed.

"Indeed," he nodded as he placed the cards in their correct space. The cards slowly began to combine into a symbol, which opened the door. "There you go, heroes. With this door open, we have opened the way to the top of this world."

"Then we should go through before we're too late," Chopper declared, walking into the door. Everyone exchanged nods and followed him through the door. There, they found a long road with a couple of hills and one large hill that resembled a lump.

"Well, just because we got through the door doesn't mean we're at the portal yet, I suppose…" Sonic trailed.

"We better move quickly then," Chopper readied a Speed Dash as he grabbed Kirby and Luigi's hands. He took off and went through a couple of hills, especially the large one in front of him.

Sonic followed them while holding onto Blade and Mario. The path didn't feel too long for them, but they got worried when they felt some small tremors as The Void slowly began to grow.

"I can barely stand to look at The Void," Blade shuddered.

"I know," Sonic agreed. "It's really bad…"

Once they made their way to the end of the pathway, they found a ladder leading up to a tower ahead. It wasn't a large tower, but it sure was at the top of the world, that's for sure.

As everyone climbed, the tremors began to get worse. Luigi's heart began to beat faster every time he heard a tremor, and his hands began to tremble in fear at The Void's size. Even Ortorain looked worried.

_"My world…" _Ortorain thought as he looked at The Void.

They got onto the platform at the top of the ladder and jumped on the top of the tower. There, they found a small staircase leading up to the final globe. Ortorain quickly flew over and fired a laser from his scepter at it, which began to reveal a portal.

"The final portal… At long last." Ortorain sighed as the portal revealed itself. However, where it would lead to was not revealed yet. "Heroes… This world will lead you to the Pure Heart. Please remember that…"

Before he could continue, the violent tremors were at its worst. Nothing could be seen from the sky except for The Void. There were even a couple of white flashes before more shaking.

Mario: We're too late!

"Dimensional X is meeting its end…" Ortorain trailed. "Go now, heroes! Don't waste any time!"

"Wait, what about you? !" Chopper asked.

"...I will stay here. I promised my father I wouldn't abandon my job as dimension creator, and that requires me to protect this precious world. If this world is to go, then I shall go as well."

"What? But… You can't be serious…" Luigi gasped. "You're…going to sacrifice yourself to help us?"

"It's...the least I can do as a creator. All of you must go. Now." Ortorain used his scepter's power to fire a rainbow blast at the portal, opening the way into the world. It began to suck everyone in, to their surprise. "Remember this, heroes. The Pure Heart you seek is exactly **where you guys started**."

Because of the force of the portal, both Sonic and Blade were sucked in, due to being closer to the portal. A couple of more white flashes appeared before Mario and Luigi were sucked in, leaving Chopper and Kirby, who were trying to reach Ortorain and fight back the force of the portal.

"Ortorain! Don't sacrifice yourself!" Chopper cried as he grabbed Kirby's hand. Unfortunately, the force even pulled Kirby in. He decided to reach for Ortorain's hand. "Look, Ortorain, there's still a chance for you to save yourself! Grab my hand! Please!"

"I'm sorry, Chopper," Ortorain said as his head hung low. "I cannot leave my world. I made a vow to protect this world, even from danger like this. If it means I have to sacrifice myself, then I will do it."

"But… But…"

Ortorain used his scepter's power to make the force of the portal stronger, sucking Chopper in before he could plead for him to come with them again. The portal closed, leaving only Ortorain left.

"_I'm sorry…_" he sighed as he closed his eyes and shed a tear. "_I guess I can finally see my father again…_"

As he said these last words, Dimensional X slowly began to fade away.

* * *

**?-**

"Ughhh… I don't feel so good…" Chopper moaned as he slowly got up. After rubbing his eyes, he realized he was in a jungle, with the trees and mushrooms being a bigger size than usual. Everyone else got up and noticed the same thing too. They noticed they were right by a lake in an open field.

"Poyo…? (Where are we…?)" Kirby asked as he rubbed his eyes. "Poyo… (This place looks familiar…)"

"Hold on a minute… This is my home planet, Clara!" Chopper gasped. "I don't believe it! The nineteenth Pure Heart is located here on my home planet? ! That's…very shocking!"

"Well, this is the only world we haven't been to so far…" Blade trailed. "This reminds me of when we accidentally came here and thought we were back home. Boy, were we wrong."

When Chopper got a clear view of the sky, he gaped when he saw The Void was ready to destroy this world as well. Thankfully, the size of it wasn't big like Dimensional X.

"Great… Tipral just HAD to try to destroy my world as well." Chopper growled clenching his fists. "I swear, we're going to make him _pay_…"

"Yeah, we need to stop him," Sonic agreed. "He pretty much KILLED everything we loved!"

"Hold on, what happened to Ortorain?" Luigi asked, looking around the jungle. "Did he come with us?"

"He… He…" Chopper stammered. "He saved us from The Void's wrath by sacrificing himself…"

"Poyo, (I think I recall that,)" Kirby remembered. "Poyo… (I can't believe he just gave himself up like that to help us… I don't know what to say…)"

"Well, where should we go from here anyway?" Blade asked. "Apparently the Pure Heart is located in your world, Chopper. Did Ortorain tell us where we could even find the Pure Heart?"

"Hold on… I'm starting to recall something." Chopper pondered, thinking about what Ortorain said that was important. He said something about it being 'where they started'. But, what could that mean?

"Well well well! If it isn't Chopper! How nice of you to show up!" the heroes whirled around by the path deeper into the jungle and saw a leaf with purple eyes wearing a crown made of vines, as well as his arms. His legs, on the other hand, were made out of tree bark.

"Trinado… What are you doing here?"

"I live in the jungle, idiot. Besides, I really can't go into the castle anymore after some kind of barrier blocked my way. Someone must've set it up to prevent me from getting in."

"Hold on a second…" Chopper began to think once again until something struck him. "Ortorain said that the Pure Heart was where we started."

"What do you mean by that?" Luigi asked.

"Don't you get it? Where did our adventure start?"

"Poyo? (In Flipside?)" Kirby shrugged.

"No! In Trinado's Castle! Don't you remember when we had that party that Tipral set up? Well, I think I'm starting to remember a pale green heart I saw on the wall. That MAY have been the Pure Heart!"

Trinado's Castle? Of course!" Sonic realized. "That's where we started before Tipral came in and took us to Sammer's Kingdom! We better go there!"

"What are you talking about?" Trinado barked as he pulled his two poison swords out. "Look, if you think you're going to go invade my castle, you better think again. That's MY place, not yours!"

"Trinado… We're not going to take any of your stuff." Chopper groaned. "We need to find something called a Pure Heart there to get rid of The Void that's going to destroy our home world."

"Wait… Are you kidding me? Sure, I'm not exactly a good guy, but I'd rather not have my world go. Then again, seeing you go first would be a lot better!"

"Why don't you take us to your castle then?" Blade suggested, reaching for his katana just in case.

"Didn't I tell you? It's being blocked by a dark barrier! I can't shatter that thing!"

"Poyo? (Then how do we get through?)" Kirby asked.

"Anyway, how about we have a little fight, just for old time's sake, Chopper?" the leaf king smirked as he readied his two poison swords. "I'll tell ya: I'm going to have some fun poisoning you!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Chopper warned, conjuring up a fireball that he held toward Trinado. "I have fire, which could easily burn you. Not only that, but I could just use Piccolo to cure my poison ailment!"

"Oh yeah?" Trinado punched him in the face and attempted to strike him with his poison swords. Chopper jumped out of the way and threw a rainbow ball instead, leaving Trinado off guard.

"Well, you may have rainbow energy, but I have something better!" Trinado conjured up a large poison sword that he held with two hands. It was certainly bigger than any other sword, even a Skelloknight's sword. "So… What's it going to be, Chopper? You wanna live? Then bow down to me!"

"Heck no!" Chopper retorted.

"We can kick your ass!" Blade taunted.

"With this thing in my hands? I think not! Obviously with this thing, not only will it slice you in half, but it'll poison you." Trinado explained. "So, how does that feel?"

"That doesn't feel good at all!" Chopper frowned. "How can you just kill us now when we're getting close to the end of the story? …I mean, we really don't have time for this crud."

"Well, once I finish you off, I'm going to find a way outta here. Anyway, let's stop the talking and settle this, because I am…"

Before Trinado could finish, he was paralyzed by something that hit him from behind. He soon fell over, and it was revealed that Flyer shot him from behind.

"Don't even try to hurt my friend," Flyer warned as Trinado's sword disintegrated. The heroes, on the other hand, were gaping at their winged friend.

"F-Flyer?!" Chopper stammered. "B-But I thought…"

"You thought I was swallowed up by The Void?" Flyer said. "Well, I thought I was, but I accidentally pressed a button on the teleporter when I was thrown in. I guess I was teleported here, which is in danger as well."

"Whoa… That's pretty surprising." Sonic gawked. "Well, at least someone from Toad Town survived."

"Actually, I wasn't the only one," Flyer said as four others were behind him. They were C-2 Choppor, Ghoster, Heartsy, and Tamber. They were all glad to see them, especially Heartsy, who had hearts over her head as she saw Chopper.

"It is a pleasure to see you all again," C-2 Choppor stated. "We thought death was upon us, but we unintentionally ended up here."

"Yeah, what a relief…" Ghoster trailed. "Too bad the rest of our friends are gone along with the Mushroom Kingdom…"

Mario: I know…

"Choppy, you don't look too good…" Heartsy trailed as he noticed some bruises from his fight against Masked Dedede in Dream Land. "How'd you get those?"

"Kirby and I fought King Dedede…with a mask."

"Oh, yeah. I remember. Maybe this should help!" Heartsy kissed Chopper on the cheek, making him, of course, cry in fear.

"Gross! Don't kiss me!"

"I see you're still crying over a kiss from a ten year old," Tamber muttered.

"I'm actually eleven now," Heartsy corrected.

They noticed that Chopper's bruises were starting to fade away. Heartsy explained that she could heal people with the help of her wrist rings. She even said that she could just place her hands on someone and the power from her rings will help heal them.

"Then how come you always kiss me to help me heal some HP?" Chopper asked as he wiped his cheek.

"Because I think it's sweeter for me to do that."

"Well I'd rather that you don't do that. But anyway… Enough about that. We need to get to my house. I think I might have left something there that I don't want to forget. I think it's a little important."

"What's the important item you need?" Sonic asked.

"It's something that'll help us heal our HP, that's for sure. It's good. VERY good."

However, when Kirby saw a chest on a tree branch, he floated up to it and opened it to find a can with a rainbow Mushroom on it. When he brought it down, Chopper's antennas sprung up.

"It's something like that!" Chopper gasped. "I think I still had some Master Shrooms that we could somehow make as shakes. I don't know HOW we're going to do that, but we'll find a way."

"I'll see if I can help you," Flyer announced as Chopper headed off to the left, leaving Trinado unconscious. Everyone shrugged and followed him to the door into a flat area with a couple of Darklings roaming around.

"Darklings? Here?" Luigi gasped.

"Yeah, apparently. But it's no big deal." Chopper assured as he finished one off with a simple jump. After jumping over a small pit, he found a yellow ? block near the door. Upon hitting it, an Ultimate Shroom popped out.

"Well, so much for this…"

"I guess I didn't really need to heal you?" Heartsy wondered.

"Doesn't matter, we can still use this anyway," Blade declared as he sliced it into six pieces. The six heroes ate them and recovered 100 HP and carried on over the pit and to the door.

"It's weird that we're moving left…" Sonic trailed. "Usually we go to the right…"

In the next area, they found a couple of small star blocks stacked up to block their way. Chopper was able to smash them easily with his hammer and smash a large yellow block up ahead.

"Scanners detecting some invisible enemies," C-2 Choppor warned. "Be on the lookout."

However, what made things worse was when a Phantom Hand rose from the ground and attempted to grab Chopper's foot. He shrieked in fear as he grabbed a hold of Heartsy, who smiled at him.

"It's all right, I'm here," she replied as she hugged.

"Wait…" Chopper blinked before realizing he was holding onto Heartsy. He gasped and stepped away from her while Blade slashed at the Phantom Hand with his katana, getting rid of it.

"Aw, come on… Oh well." Heartsy sighed. "Although, to be fair, I really shouldn't be thinking about Chopper all the time when the world is near its end…"

Before Blade could do anything else, another Phantom Hand appeared and grabbed Blade's legs. Tamber immediately glided over to the hand and pounded it with his fists, making it shriek.

"Ugh… That shriek is irritating." Tamber cringed.

After Tamber gave it one last punch, it was defeated. Up ahead, they noticed a bridge crossing over a river. Two small leaf enemies with dark clouds around them named Leafions noticed them and charged.

"So the Leafions are corrupted by The Void too?" Chopper gawked as he hurled some fireballs at them. He attacked one of them with a flaming kick just to show a little bit of style. Heartsy bashed the other with her hammer.

They noticed on the bridge, there was a Corrupted Leafion holding a horn and using it to call in other Leafions. Ghoster used his psychic abilities to lift the horn out of its hands and let it hit it.

"Well that should take care of that," Ghoster smiled. "I gotta say… I've never been to this area of your planet before, Chopper. It's pretty cool!"

"Oh, yeah… We found you at the mountain area." Chopper recalled. "How was Ghost Town doing for you anyway?"

"Ehhh… The usual. There's been a lot of parties there too ever since the world got saved and all that. Plus, we even got to…"

"I suggest we get moving before we end up having another long conversation," C-2 Choppor suggested, interrupting Ghoster. Everyone shrugged and found a small hill going down across the bridge. Chopper used this to his advantage and ran down, while Flyer flew over the hill and over a spiked pit.

"I always wonder why there are spikes," Flyer wondered. "Don't you think it was Maquano who put them?"

"But Maquano's gone," Heartsy recalled. "Choppy got rid of him, right?"

"Uhhhh… Technically we all did." Chopper shrugged. "We all had a part in fighting him. Anyway, that's not the point. We need to cross these spikes."

"That's easy," Tamber assured as he glided over the spikes. "See? Nothing to worry about! The only ones who can't really fly across are you, Heartsy, Sonic, Blade, Mario, and Luigi."

"Poyo, (We can always use Carrie,)" Kirby suggested.

"Who's Carrie, if I may ask?" Heartsy asked.

"This is Carrie," Luigi answered, pointing to the cross Pixl, who waved at Heartsy. Mario decided to go over the pit first with Carrie, followed by Luigi, Sonic, and then Blade.

"Want me to carry you across, Chopper?" Flyer asked.

"No, I don't think so," Chopper assured as he got on Carrie. However, Heartsy jumped into his hands and was now holding her bridal style. "Wait, what? !"

"It'll make things easier," Heartsy assured. "There's no enough room, so the only option there was was for you to hold me. Plus, I'm perfectly fine with that."

With a wink from her, Chopper sweat dropped as Carrie carried them across. "I guess Carrie sure knows how to carry, huh?"

"Poyo… (Ugh… That was horrible…)" Kirby groaned.

"I thought we escaped those puns," Blade face palmed.

"I don't really care if your puns are bad or not," Heartsy smiled as she rubbed her cheek on Chopper's making him nervous. "I'll admit they're horrible, but I still think of you as that cute and caring hero."

"…What?" Chopper gawked as he put her down after crossing the spike pit. "I didn't get that…"

"Forget it. Let's just go."

They moved on ahead to a loop. Chopper and Sonic easily went through, but for everyone else, they had to get help from people like Heartsy, who used her hammer to send them flying, or Flyer, who carried them over the loop. Afterward, they found a row of brick blocks with two Corrupted Leafions standing on them.

Mario instantly knew what to do. He simply punched underneath the blocks and knocked them off. Sonic followed up by attacking them with his Spin Dash, and Luigi finished them with his Cyclone.

"Huh… Chopper, how strong are these guys?" Luigi asked.

"Not too strong," Chopper informed. "They don't take too long to beat anyway."

They smashed a couple of brick blocks, but one of them revealed to have a black Mushroom with red eyes. From C-2 Choppor's scanners, they could tell it was called a Dark Shroom.

"Dark Shrooms are pretty dangerous," Flyer informed. "They not only deal a lot of damage, but they curse you with darkness that slowly drains your health…"

"Ouch… That's not good." Chopper hurled a rainbow ball at the Dark Shroom, but not even that finished it off. When it got closer to the group, Tamber tried to punch it, but its eyes made him shriek.

"Heh heh… I thought you were the tough one?" Heartsy scoffed.

"Oh, shut up… Don't get me there…" Tamber pouted as Heartsy smashed the Dark Shroom with her Hearty Hammer.

"Sometimes I don't get women," Blade shrugged. "They always tease ya!"

Heartsy decided to hit another brick block, but this one contained a Death Shroom. This time, she was trembling at it and went behind Chopper.

"I'm not attacking that!"

"And I'm not attacking it either," Flyer declared, going behind Chopper.

"Will you guys quit going behind me?!" Chopper groaned. "Seriously, why me? Why not go behind Mario or Luigi?"

Mario: Don't bring me up!

When the Death Shroom made its way to Mario, he was able to bash it with his hammer. Blade managed to kill it instantly with his Dragon Beam, leaving nothing left of the enemy.

"Well that takes care of that," Blade declared as he hurried to the door ahead. Everyone followed him into the next area, which had a bottomless pit near the edge of the ground and two Darklings hurling their spells. Luigi managed to stomp on one, while Mario finished off the other.

"I'm getting some nostalgia here," Chopper smiled as he jumped over the gap and found a door being blocked by star blocks. With Starbow, he was able to destroy the blocks and clear the door.

Of course, a Darkling was in the way, but with a simple bash from his hammer, he was able to get rid of it and enter the door.

When they all walked out of the door, they noticed a large mushroom house that awaited them. There was a mailbox with a sign labeled "Chopper" on it, and there were two gravestones next to the house.

"What is this place?" Luigi asked.

"This is my house," Chopper informed. "I haven't been here for such a long time… It feels great to be back home."

"What are those two gravestones doing over there?" Ghoster asked, pointing to the two gravestones. Chopper's smile slowly turned to a frown.

"Those are my parents' graves…"

"Your parents'…graves?" Luigi gaped.

"Yeah. When I defeated Maquano the first time, I decided to make a grave for both of my parents. Usually every day, I would go outside and visit them. I've been doing this for about six years…"

"I know how you feel," Heartsy said. "I feel terrible for being one of the only one of my species to be rescued. Since my parents were famous stars, they were able to convince a Galaxy Soldier to get me out, which she agreed to do. Now that I think about it, I'm a little _disgusted_ with my parents for this!"

"Your parents were stars?" C-2 Choppor gawked.

"Yeah. They told me I was going to be one when I get older. But, now that I've grown up a little, I feel that becoming famous wouldn't be great. Think about it! People will be chasing you around, and you'll be stalked too! What's even worse is that you can't go to a place without being in disguise. It's really, REALLY annoying, in my opinion."

"Then what do you want to do?" Blade asked.

"I haven't decided yet. But, I'm actually glad I found another person of my kind. Especially a boy." Heartsy smiled as she grabbed Chopper's hand, who gasped and snatched his hand away.

"But I don't want to be in a relationship!" Chopper retorted. "I mean… I'd rather go on an adventure than marry a girl!"

"Well, I'm sure you'll change your mind when you get older. You're still not going to escape me anyway!"

"Ugh… Anyway, now that I'm here, there's something I want to do." he pulled out a blue flower he was holding onto. "While you guys never saw it, I was taking very good care of this flower. You remember it, right?"

"Poyo? (Isn't that the flower that Crysta dropped before she died?)" Kirby recalled.

"Yeah, the one I placed at my mother's grave. Now it's time for me to put it back where it belongs." Chopper walked over to his grave and place the flower where the name "Tonberria" was. He took one last look at the graves before going to the front door.

"OK, guys… Let me show you my house, if you didn't remember."

Everyone followed him inside to where the living room was. Blade happily jumped on the red sofa and sat down, stretching his legs out and purring a little bit. Heartsy sat on the sofa as well and took her boots off. Her feet were oval-shaped like Chopper's but a lot smaller. Tamber sat on a green bean bag chair and walked over to the Nintendo Wii.

"Nice to be back here," Tamber smiled as he picked up the Wii remote. "So… Anyone want to play the Wii?"

"Tamber, we're not going to be here for that long," Flyer informed. "In fact, we only came here because Chopper has some items that could be useful."

"Yeah, it's in the kitchen," Chopper said as he walked over to the kitchen. "Although… I'm not sure HOW I'm going to make them into shakes. I need to find some sort of idea, honestly…"

"Perhaps I could be of assistance," C-2 Choppor stated as he followed Chopper in the kitchen. "As a robot, I am programmed to do many things."

"Well I'm going too," Flyer declared as he followed into the kitchen. Since Kirby loved the kitchen, he walked in as well, leaving the rest to relax.

"Well, what can we do here while they get what they need?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Play a game?

"How about truth or dare?" Tamber suggested. "That might be entertaining. How about I start! Ghoster, truth or dare!"

"Dare me," Ghoster suggested.

"I dare you to skip your turn!"

"…Wait, what? How can one skip their turn?"

"I don't know… I just know something like that."

"Well… I guess I have to skip my turn." Tamber pouted as he crossed his arms.

"All right… Mario, truth or dare?" Sonic asked.

Mario: Truth.

"Why do people say your fat when you're usually moving around often?"

Mario: That's not a nice thing to tell your friend…

"Yeah, I kind of agree," Heartsy nodded.

"OK, I guess it was a little too harsh. Anyway… Heartsy, truth or dare?"

"You can dare me."

"Hmmmmmm…" Sonic pondered, thinking of a dare. "Well, making you kiss Chopper seems a little too obvious."

"I'd definitely do that!"

"Well if you want to, go for it, but I'll dare you to put your boots on his head while he's not noticing just for laughs."

"Wouldn't he notice?" Luigi gawked.

"I don't think so," Tamber assured. "Although, you might have to be careful. Having something that belongs to a girl on his head might freak him out. I mean, he does freak over kisses! Sheesh…"

"Well, I'm going to do my dare. Besides, I'm sure my boots smell nice anyway!" Heartsy smiled as she rushed into the kitchen with the boots. She noticed Chopper was opening the fridge, only to find a note.

"What the heck? What's this doing here?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo, (Some kind of note,)" Kirby noticed.

"Let's take a look," he pulled the note off the refrigerator and began to read it.

_Dear Fink-rats,_

_Do you honestly have the fury to reach the heart that is pure? Fawful says no to your faces! It is impossible of the impossibility to reach it when the barrier of darkness is having the blocking! I have suggesting… You should have the leaving before Green Antenna's precious world and the heart that is pure gets destroyed!_

_The being of enemy,_

_Fawful_

_P.S.: I have fury!_

_P.S.S.: I have chortles!_

_P.S.S.S.: I scoffed the pizzas of slicing that had the leaving in the refrigerator!_

"You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper barked. "Curse you Fawful and your appetite to eat the last slice of pizza in the fridge! And I was saving that for a special moment too!"

"How old was it?" Flyer asked.

"Uhhh… About a month old."

"_That's gross!_" Heartsy gagged, thankfully not heard by the others as she put her two boots over Chopper's antennas.

"Well, at least the Master Shrooms are fine," Chopper smiled as he pulled a couple out. "Now… How the heck are we going to make them?"

"I'll handle that," C-2 Choppor assured as he took the Mushrooms and put them inside of him. After a couple of screws, they came out, but in cans. C-2 Choppor handed them to Chopper, who gasped.

"But how did you…?"

"I'm a robot. I can do many things."

"OK… I guess you made your point there." Chopper sighed as he turned around and saw Heartsy giggling. "Heartsy… What are you doing here? Did you want to come to help us too? I think you're a little late…"

"Well that's fine," Heartsy assured as she kissed him above his mouth. "By the way… You look kind of funny!"

"I bet I do now that you kissed me!"

"Poyo? (What's on your head?)" Kirby asked, pointing to the red boots on Chopper's head.

"I don't see any… Wait a second." Chopper felt a pair of boots on his head. "Heartsy… Why did you put your boots on my head? Ughh! That's disgusting! …Wait, they don't smell bad."

"Well, we got what we needed, so let's leave your house," Flyer suggested. "We can't waste our time."

"All right, now let me get my boots back," Heartsy took the boots off Chopper's head and put them back on her feet. Afterward, they went back in the living room, where they saw Tamber bashing his head against the wall.

"Tamber, what the heck are you…"

"It's a dare," Tamber responded with a dazed expression. "Don't ask about it, though."

"Hold on a minute…" Luigi trailed. "If we're leaving, does that mean we have to go all the way back to where we came into this world?"

Mario: That's going to be annoying…

"Eh… It wasn't THAT much…" Chopper trailed. "Sometimes you just have to live with it. Besides, the worst backtracking for me was the Twilight Trail. I hated that."

"Poyo, (I don't think I had to go through there as much compared to you,)" Kirby recalled.

"Well then we better get going if we want to get there faster," Sonic suggested. "Tamber, stop hitting the wall with your head."

"Finally!"

* * *

**Near the pond-**

"Well, it's cool to be back at the pond," Ghoster commented as he floated over to the pond. "So… How on earth are we supposed to get to the castle anyway? Where is it?"

"It's in the upper part of the jungle," Chopper explained. "If I could recall, there's something that can help us get up there. Now where could it… Oh! There it is! The beanstalk!"

"Beanstalk?" Flyer gawked. "Since when did a beanstalk appear here?"

"After Maquano's defeat, I went back home and found a magic bean left by my door. It didn't say who it was addressed to, but I didn't care at the time, considering I was relieved and all. I planted it around here, and it turned out to be a beanstalk that led to the upper jungle! How cool is that?"

Mario: Is that how you got to the castle?

"Uh huh! We'll use it to reach the upper jungle, and then we'll be close to the castle!"

Everyone agreed, but Luigi noticed something. "Hey… What happened to that leaf king? He's not here…"

"Poyo? (Maybe he left?)" Kirby shrugged, unsure.

"Well, wherever he went, it's not too important to us. Let's just take this beanstalk." Chopper jumped on a large leaf hanging from the beanstalk and allowed it to slowly ascend around the beanstalk. Everyone else jumped on it and let it take them up.

"At least we don't have to go through the swamp," Heartsy sighed. "I personally didn't like it there."

"I remember when Bang went down a vine to the swamp. He ended up sliding down there with the vine in between his legs!" Blade recalled.

"Oh, I think I remember that," Flyer remembered. "But at the time, I was a little grouchy to even care."

* * *

**Upper jungle-**

After about two minutes, the leaf brought them up to the top of a tree, where it was flat like the ground below. What most of them knew was that the trees were very tall in this world. Their tops usually have a flat surface, just like the one they got on. There were even some loops leading to other trees as well.

"Ugh… I can't bother to look up at The Void…" Chopper trailed as he glanced at The Void. "It's not going to be easy to see this world go like this…"

"Then we better go. Now." Flyer suggested as he saw a loop up ahead making a corkscrew. "I suppose I'll fly over there. Anyone need help getting over there?"

Mario: I know I do!

"Yeah, same here," Luigi added.

"OK, then we're going to have to do something here…" Ghoster pondered. "Yeesh… When you have this many people, sometimes it takes time."

Flyer flew those who couldn't go through the corkscrew over to the next tree, while those who ran through the corkscrew did that and met them. They found two Corrupted Leafions by a ledge up ahead that could be reached by a round, grassy platform.

Mario jumped on the platform and reached the ledge to bash one of the Corrupted Leafions with his hammer. Luigi also stomped the same one with a jump, and then Blade attacked the other Corrupted Leafion with a fire slash, disintegrating it quickly.

"Thankfully these guys are weak to fire," Blade sighed in relief as he found a large vine with a couple of large fruit leading up to a platform where a large vine-like path was going down.

"I think we can use the fruit to go up," Heartsy realized when she jumped on it and bounced her up to the next fruit. It was almost like a spring.

"Poyo! (That fruit looks delicious!)" Kirby cheered as he opened his mouth. That is, until Chopper stopped him.

"We can't eat that! …I wish we could, but we need to use them!"

Kirby sighed as he floated up to the vine-like path above, while everyone else with the exception of Flyer, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster used the fruit. Upon reaching the slide, C-2 Choppor scanned it.

"Scanners indicate that we could use this vine to slide," C-2 Choppor informed. "Since it's large, grinding on it isn't possible."

"Well, then we're sliding, I guess," Sonic said as he went down first, followed by Blade, who accidentally hit Sonic's quills with his feet.

"Damn it! Why do your quills have to be so pointy? !" Blade screeched.

"At least they didn't stick to you…"

"Yeah, I suppose that's true."

When they got off the vine path, they landed on a platform where three Corrupted Leafions were. Chopper simply used Starbow to take them out, and he used a bouncy mushroom to bounce up to a high ledge above them. There, they found some tall grass.

"Leave this to me," Blade assured as he cut the grass. A chest was revealed, which he opened to find a Master Shroom Shake. "Well! Looks like we're finding more of these babies!"

They jumped off the ledge and landed by the mushroom. Chopper decided to check what was in 3-D and, to his surprise, he saw a secret platform to the right. Since he got everyone else in 3-D, they jumped over to the platform and found a flower with propellers instead of petals.

"What the heck? A flower with propellers instead of petals?" Flyer gawked. "Since when does this world have something like that?"

"Well, it looks like it could use some wind," Sonic noticed. "Care to make this thing go?"

"I'll try to get it to work," Luigi declared as he used his Cyclone to make the flower spin rapidly, detaching itself from the stem and floating around. There was a handle that looked like it could be grabbed, so Chopper grabbed a hold of it.

"I don't remember this being here…" Chopper trailed as the rest of the group formed a chain as the flower flew off the platform. Nearly everyone was holding on for dear life, especially Chopper, since if he let go, they would all be falling.

"Don't make us fall, Chopper!" Tamber barked, hanging at the bottom. "That means no messing around with your girlfriend!"

"Why would I ever mess with… She's not my…"

"OK, we get it already," Ghoster mumbled as he decided to fly. Besides, since he's a ghost, there's no chance of him hanging on. "So where is this thing going to anyway?"

"It's heading to the top of a large tree," C-2 Choppor informed, noticing the large tree up ahead. "I believe it's the Elder Tree."

"It's the oldest tree on the planet," Chopper smiled. "Brings back the time when I spat tree sap on a couple of bad guys."

"Tree sap?" Sonic gawked. "You seriously drank tree sap?"

"Yeah… It was kind of gross, but since I got that inhaling ability, I could literally eat anything I wanted without caring. That said, there are some type of food I don't like…like chili dogs…"

"What's wrong with chili dogs?" Tamber asked.

"I just don't like them…"

When the flower landed on top of the Elder Tree, they all saw a vine path going down to a loop. Because of the slope, it looked like it would be a fast run through this entire pathway for Chopper and Sonic.

"Poyo, (This looks dangerous,)" Kirby gulped.

"Well you can float," Chopper pointed out. "Everyone else probably has a bigger challenge than you!"

Kirby realized that and decided to float over the large pathway going down. Chopper and Sonic instantly took off, going down the pathway and through the loop. Because of their speed, the vine path was going upward, which helped them with that downward slope from before.

As for the rest of the group… Those who could fly were able to take them across. Apparently they landed on a large flower hanging from a tree and used a bounceable mushroom to jump up to a small tree branch.

"At the top of the tree, we should be able to get to the castle," Chopper pondered as he grabbed the branch and pulled himself up. He was able to knock a Corrupted Leafion that attempted to step on the others' hands to get them to let go. When the rest got onto the branch, they couldn't find anything but a Dimensional Rift.

Mario: There's the Dimensional Rift!

"What's a Dimensional Rift?" Heartsy asked.

"Only one I can get through, amore!" Flippay sang as Luigi used his ability to reveal a blue ! block. He gave it a good punch, which revealed a vine path that led inside of the tree only by going into 3-D.

"Great… We can't get through there." Tamber groaned.

"Doesn't Chopper have that flipping thing?" Flyer recalled.

"Yeah, I do, as a matter of fact," Chopper declared as he flipped him and everyone else into 3-D. There, they took the vine path into the tree and found a mushroom when they flipped into 2-D. It brought them out of the tree and onto a vine path leading over to the castle, where a dark barrier appeared to be blocking the way.

"That's a big castle!" Luigi gaped. "How many floors are there?!"

"About 431," Chopper confirmed.

Mario: It is a lot, that's for sure.

"Although, keep in mind that the floors are rather short in height, so the castle isn't exactly up to the clouds, thankfully. There are elevators too, so we should be just fine!"

"Excuse me, Chopper… But aren't you forgetting something?" Tamber asked.

"What am I forgetting?"

"The barrier? We can't get through with that thing in our way!"

"Oh… Dang it! Why do I have to forget such details like that?!"

"Poyo? (So how are we going to get through here?)" Kirby asked.

"Well, I have no idea… We don't even have anything that can counter darkness anyway! Not even rainbow energy can take THAT kind of power on! Oh… If only we had some kind of light power to counter this barrier…"

"Maybe if I could think for a minute…" Flyer pondered. "I could probably think of an idea. I know there IS some kind of way to get rid of this barrier…"

"Hmmmmmm… Well, what if we went up to the sky?" Heartsy suggested. "Isn't some god person there or something?"

"Drambi? Oh yeah! He was the one I almost killed…and I'm kind of ashamed of that too."

"That was all in the past, Flyer. You realized that and helped." Chopper assured. "However, I have no idea how we're going to go to the sky… I'd rather NOT travel around the whole world. We probably wouldn't have enough time!"

"But I took you to Dimentio Doom!" Starbow spoke up. "Remember, hero? You could use me to get up to the sky easily!"

"…Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Unfortunately, I'm only able to carry six people…"

"Six people?" Ghoster gawked. "Does that mean not everyone can go up there?"

"I guess not," Tamber frowned. "Well, it looks like you guys are probably going to go up there, right?"

"I guess so…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Can't you bring those who can't fly up?

"Look, I may be able to fly, but it doesn't mean I can fly forever," Flyer explained grumpily. "My wings are eventually going to get tired. Listen, we'll stay here and wait for you guys to get rid of the barrier. We promise we won't move."

"That'll be lame," Tamber sighed.

"But it's better than getting hurt," Heartsy informed.

"Well, I do enjoy kicking butt than waiting…"

"All right, then it's settled," C-2 Choppor declared. "Just make sure you're careful up there…"

"Of course we'll be careful!" Sonic assured. "We usually try to be careful anyway!"

When Starbow grew to a bigger size, the six heroes got on her.

"Wait! I need to say goodbye!" Heartsy shouted as she jumped onto Chopper and kissed him on the lips, leaving the Star Warrior's eyes widening in fear. When she let go, she gave him one last wink.

"That's my goodbye to you."

"You could've just gave me a hi-five or something…" Chopper trailed, wiping his mouth as Starbow ascended into the heavens.

"Hoo boy… This is going to be The Overthere all over again…" Blade sighed. "Just great."

While the heroes went up into the sky, the rest of the group sat and sighed. Tamber began to draw something on the ground with a stick.

"So… You guys wanna play a game of truth or…"

"NO!"

"OK, fine."

* * *

**Rainbow Sky-**

Upon landing on a cloud, they noticed the blue sky was very difficult to see because of The Void's presence. Even then, the sky was pretty close to space, which is why they saw a couple of stars.

"Wow, I can even see the stars here," Luigi gaped before realizing it was cold. "B-But it's so c-cold here for some reason…"

"Well, we are high up in the sky," Sonic shrugged. "That would be a little expected, honestly…"

"And it's not THAT cold…" Chopper trailed. "I see no reason to shiver."

"It's all in your head," Blade explained.

"It is?" Luigi gawked as he stopped shivering. "Huh…"

"Just think 'I'm not cold' and you should be just fine," Chopper assured as he turned around, only to hear shivering. He turned around and noticed Luigi stopped. "Uhhhh… What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"I don't think you get it. You're not cold. Remember that."

When he turned away again, Luigi began to shiver. What gave it away was when everyone heard his teeth chatter.

Mario: I don't think you get it, Luigi…

"You shouldn't feel as cold as people like Kirby or Chopper," Blade pointed out. "You have overalls, gloves, a hat, and even hair to keep your warm! What do they have? Not much."

"Hold on… I don't think I feel cold anymore!"

"I guess I talked some sense into ya, huh?"

"Well… Maybe…" Luigi trailed. "By the way, who is this Drambi guy that was mentioned before?"

"He's apparently Grambi's brother," Chopper explained. "I don't know much about him, but he's apparently a god that lives here. Kind of strange how you think of it, but I live with it anyway. I believe he can get rid of that barrier."

"Didn't he say something about a niece of his looking for a prince and saying you fit her?" Sonic recalled.

"…You know, I think I realized that that was Luvbi… Any who, back to business."

They noticed there weren't any clouds to jump up, to their surprise. However, they did see a door just up ahead. All they did was run over to it and go into the next area. Little did they know they were being watched.

_**"****Excellent… That fool finally came back, along with some of his disgusting friends as well! This should be fun…"**_

* * *

**Next area-**

When they opened the door, they saw a cloudy platform across a gap, where they found a cloud enemy called a Cloudrin flying around and flying above the group in an attempt to hit them with lightning. The only thing interesting about it was the darkness in it.

"It's a Corrupted Cloudrin…" Chopper sighed, hurling an ice ball to freeze it, while Blade finished it with a fire slash when it came down to the ground. With that, they jumped over to the next cloud and found a green enemy with wings called an Annie flying around. When Chopper inhaled it, he gained the Angel ability.

"Woo hoo! I got the Angel ability! Which means I can fly around wherever I want!"

"You know, I think I saw a cloud pathway above this area," Blade noticed as he looked up. "Though it's kinda high up…"

"Poyo! (I'll go up!)" Kirby cheered as he floated up to the cloud, while Chopper followed him thanks to his wings. Thank goodness Luvbi wasn't here, or else she would be all over him with that ability on.

When they got to the upper clouds, they noticed between the gap of two clouds, there were two Gordos slowly ascending and descending, which made it look difficult to get to the next cloud.

"Great… This isn't what I like to see…" Chopper groaned as he fluttered in the air with his wings in an attempt to go in between the Gordos. He managed to succeed, as well as Kirby, and they found another cloud platform with spikes.

"Poyo! (Don't worry! We can get through this!)" Kirby assured as he used Carrie to go over the spikes. Chopper simply flew across and found another Annie flying around. This time, it was a Corrupted Annie firing dark arrows.

"I've got this!" Chopper cried as he fired a couple of arrows at the Corrupted Annie. Once it was defeated, they reached the last cloud, where they found a Star Shroom Shake sitting there.

They noticed a large drop down below, so they decided to slowly float down, where they realized they passed a couple of platforms with some small blocks sitting on top of some spikes on the clouds.

"Well thank goodness you came back down here," Luigi sighed. "Where'd you guys go anyway?"

"We went to find a Star Shroom Shake!"

"A Star Shroom Shake?" Sonic gawked.

Mario: That might be helpful!

They decided to continue on ahead to a cloud platform up ahead, where they entered an area with a small little green bridge that looked thin. They couldn't help but feel there was something below.

Past the bridge was another cloud with a ladder leading up to a green platform. They noticed the clouds had a shade of pink to them, just to make the clouds look a little fluffier and more like strawberry ice cream.

"Poyo! (I could eat those clouds if I wanted to!)" Kirby cheered.

"Although that wouldn't work out for you," Chopper joked.

He flipped into 3-D and went under the bridge. He ended up finding an alternate path, so he decided to see where it went. It actually led to a bounceable cloud that could go up to a large cloud to the right. However, he decided not to go that way and returned to his friends with the help of the bounceable cloud near him.

"So, what was down there?" Luigi asked.

"Just an alternate way to go. I guess it makes this area less linear, am I right?"

"I guess so," Blade shrugged as they jumped up to the cloud above them. Thankfully, they didn't have to try to use any high jump to reach up there. Afterward, they climbed up the ladder and got to the green platform. This time, there were more Corrupted Cloudins moving fast around them, trying to zap them with lightning.

"Now's best for a Super Jump!" Sonic called out.

Luigi nodded and attacked the Corrupted Cloudins with his Super Jump, knocking them to the ground, allowing Chopper to fire arrows at them while smiling. Afterward, they jumped onto a cloud to their upper right to find a yellow ? block that contained a Super Shroom.

"I'll get that," Blade declared as he sliced it into six. All six of them ate their piece to recover 20 HP.

"A Super Shroom really isn't much now that we have more HP…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: Ultra Shrooms are more worth it now.

"Yup," Chopper declared as he flew over to a long cloud to their left, where they found two Corrupted Annies and a Darkling hurling a spell at him. He fired an arrow at the Darkling, while Blade threw Hommissile at the Corrupted Annies.

They noticed up on another cloud above them, they found a door. They simply entered it into an area where they didn't have to go up. In fact, they saw a bottomless pit just up ahead with purple and pink clouds growing bigger and shrinking every couple of seconds.

"Poyo, (Those are weird clouds,)" Kirby commented.

"But they remind me of marshmallows…" Chopper trailed, gazing at them. "…Dang it! I need to stop thinking about food at a time like this!"

When the first cloud got bigger, they jumped on it, and went to the next one. After jumping on the cloudy path ahead, they noticed there were some more small bottomless pits. There were some Corrupted Cloudrins floating above the area, waiting for something to show up.

Chopper decided to take a step near the Corrupted Cloudrin's boundary and let it come down to zap him. What he did was charge up some power for his bow and fired three arrows at the Corrupted Cloudrin, defeating it.

They soon found another bottomless pit, but they noticed there was a current moving upward, so when they jumped over the pit, the current took them up. This worked well for Kirby, considering that he could float higher up. However, when they found another Corrupted Cloudrin, Sonic was able to hit it with a Spin Dash before getting over the bottomless pit.

They noticed a pathway going up after reaching the last cloud. Apparently it was leading up to a door above them, so by flying and jumping, they reached the door and headed into the next area, where they were standing on a large cloud.

"Yeah… This is Overthere Stair all over again." Blade groaned as he looked up at the clouds above him. "This is going to be fun…"

"Relax, Blade. This is nothing compared to Overthere Stair." Chopper assured. "At least we can actually jump up these clouds rather than use higher jumps."

"But what about the bad guys here? I see a Darkling over there, you know!"

"You said 'over there', as if I was saying The Overthere."

"Ugh… Stop bringing up The Overthere…" Blade jumped onto a cloud above him and finished off the Darkling with a couple of slashes from his katana. The rest of the group followed him to a yellow ? block, where they found a Dark Shroom that tried to kill them. Thankfully, Mario took care of it with his hammer.

Mario: This is seriously getting a little intense…

"I agree," Luigi nodded as he found a bounceable cloud up the next cloud. They used it to launch themselves to great heights. It also made Chopper lose his Angel ability when he got hit by a Corrupted Cloudrin, which Kirby took care of afterward by inhaling it.

"OK… So we shouldn't be too far from Drambi's Shrine." Chopper sighed. "Let's go check that sign up ahead."

They jumped on a cloud next to them and found a sign.

_Fruit Tree is hidden somewhere around here._

"Poyo? (What do you think that means?)" Kirby asked.

"A fruit tree is hidden around here," Chopper confirmed as he flipped himself and everyone else into 3-D and found a secret path leading to a door. They found themselves right next to a tree with a little rainbow and a couple of fruit hanging on. When Chopper bashed it with his hammer, the fruit came down, as well as a key, which hit his head.

Mario: A key!

Mario picked up the key and put it away, while Kirby ate one of the fruit. Strangely, it didn't seem to have any effect on him.

"Weird… How come that fruit had no effect?" Sonic gawked.

"Must be normal kind," Chopper shrugged as he ate a fruit himself, recovering some of his HP. Everyone else thought, "Why not?" and ate some fruit to recover some HP as well, making them relieved.

"At least we managed to heal our HP," Luigi sighed.

"Let's get out of here," Blade suggested as they headed back to the door.

* * *

**Previous area-**

When they got back to the previous area, they simply went to a cloud to their left and found two Corrupted Cloudrins. Chopper fought them by stomping on them while performing stylish moves and used the bounceable cloud to go up to a small cloud, where he found a door.

"I think I found the door, guys!" Chopper yelled until everyone else got up to him. "See?"

"Yes, we can see it," Blade assured as he kicked the door open to a flat area. There, they saw two brick blocks and a yellow ? block in a row, and a couple of Darklings and Corrupted Cloudrins up ahead.

"Wait… You think a Mega Star's in there?" Sonic wondered.

"If so, then I'm getting it," Chopper declared as he hit the yellow ? block. Sonic was indeed correct. A Mega Star popped out and landed in Chopper's hands, transforming him into a giant 8-bit version of himself.

"YEAH! I'm 8-bit again!"

He began to cheer happily as he began to trample everything in his path. Not a single thing was left when he reached the end of the cloudy path. Unfortunately, his ability didn't last very long when dark power struck him and turned him back to himself.

"…Wait, what just happened? That didn't wear off on its own!"

_**"****That's because I did that," **_a ghastly voice boomed through the area. When everyone else reached Chopper, they looked around for the voice.

"Wh-What was that? !" Luigi stammered.

Mario: I feel as if I heard that voice from somewhere…

"Same here," Chopper agreed. "It DOES feel familiar!"

_**"****Of course my voice sounds a little familiar to some of you! After all, you guys did ruin my plans to destroy the universe five months ago!"**_

A black phantom resembling Maquano vaporized out of nowhere and floated down to the group.

"Wait… Maquano?! But… Aren't you supposed to be dead?!"

_**"Oh, I am dead. What you see right now is my phantom, which I was able to leave behind after my death in Dark Subspace World." **_

"So… You're still in The Underwhere?"

_**"****Technically, I still am, but since this phantom is mine, I have full control over it, and because of that, I decided to use it to put an end to you and your friends! That way, I don't have to worry about you when I come back to life!"**_

"You can't break out of The Underwhere," Blade explained. "It's impossible!"

_**"****Then how do you think I was able to come back after all those times?"**_

"Wait… How on earth do you manage to get yourself out of there?!" Chopper gaped. "That's insane!"

_**"****Believe me, it's not so easy, but I usually tend to leave a shadow of my power behind to go down to The Underwhere and take control of one of the D-Men to get to where my powers are being held and give them back to me. While I don't have as much power right now, I'm sure I can finish you off!"**_

"Oh, really? What makes you think that?"

_**"****Because it's nearly impossible for you to kill a phantom with what you have! Rainbow power? Please, that doesn't hurt phantoms!"**_

"…What?"

_**"****Hold on, you weren't paying attention to me, is that correct?"**_

"I wasn't paying attention to that last bit."

_**"****All right, then! I guess I should stop with the chatter and kill you already!" **_Phantom Maquano threw his arm back and conjured up a dark orb of energy and threw it down at the group. Luigi shrieked as he jumped out of its reach.

"What do we do?!" Luigi gasped.

"Let's not worry about him! We need to go!" Chopper cried as he went through the door. There, they saw a cloud path with a couple of bottomless pits around. Phantom Maquano cackled as he teleported into the area and attempted to attack by swinging his sword at them.

Mario: Heads up!

They managed to jump out of the way of the phantom's sword and ran off, jumping over some of the bottomless pits. Phantom Maquano growled as he fired a dark sword beam at their direction.

"Eep!" Chopper cried, using his Speed Dash to dash through the clouds and reach the door ahead. It wasn't a long area, that's for sure.

When they entered the next area, however, they found a shrine just up ahead past a staircase. They quickly went up before Phantom Maquano could appear, but he was much faster and managed to hurl some more dark balls of energy.

_**"****Cowards! All of you!" **_he barked as he saw Chopper hit a yellow ? block for an Ultimate Shroom and a Save Block to save their game. They instantly entered the shrine afterward.

_**"****Hmmmmm… Well, there won't be anywhere to run for them now!"**_

* * *

**Drambi's Shrine-**

"Finally! We made it!" Chopper sighed as they got into the shrine. The interior was a golden color, and it resembled Grambi's Shrine a bit, which wasn't too surprising for the group. There, they saw a white angel with a long, gray beard, long eyebrows, and three rainbow heart-shaped wings.

"Chopper… Is that really you?" Drambi gasped as Chopper and his friends rushed over to him.

"Whoa… This guy looks like Grambi!" Blade gaped. "I mean, come on! How come we never knew this guy was his brother the whole time!"

"Ahh… So you finally met my brother Grambi?" the Nimbi chuckled. "I suppose you met his daughter, right?"

"Yes…" Chopper grumbled.

"Remember when I told you my brother's daughter was looking for a prince? Well, what did you think of her?"

"But she ended up falling in love with me when she first saw me! Seriously! Love at first sight is so dumb!"

"Well, we came here for a bigger reason," Sonic explained as he stepped in. "You see, we're trying to get the Pure Heart located here."

"The Pure Heart? Ahhh… I do remember that this world is in grave danger. If I could recall, the Pure Heart is in Trinado's Castle, correct?"

"Yeah, but it's being blocked by a dark barrier," Luigi mentioned.

"Uh huh… Well, I will definitely help you. This shouldn't take too long…"

_**"****Oh no you don't!" **_Phantom Maquano growled as he teleported into the shrine and kicked Drambi to the wall before turning to the heroes. _**"Now then… Since you have nowhere else to go, now's the perfect opportunity to kill you guys once and for all!"**_

"Great… Wait, what about the door?" Chopper realized as he looked over at the door, which was apparently blocked by a dark barrier. "Wait a minute… So YOU were the one who blocked the entrance to Trinado's Castle? !"

"_**What? I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about… Bah, it doesn't matter. Time to die, heroes!"**_

"Weird…" Sonic trailed. "So he didn't do that…"

"Well, we can't just sit here and let ourselves get kicked around!" Blade said as he unsheathed his katana. "We might as well try to fight."

"_**You've got some guts, I'll give you that – even if I said that there wasn't anything you could do to beat me,"**_ Phantom Maquano commented as he hurled another dark ball of energy down at the group. Chopper inhaled it and spat it back at Phantom Maquano, which didn't do a thing.

"Ugh… It did nothing." Chopper groaned.

"Chopper! Remember the weapon you first used when you battled against Maquano the first time?" Drambi asked as he slowly got up.

"The Spectral Sword? Yeah… I loved that weapon!"

"Well… I believe that might be something you could use to fight back against him. In fact, I have that weapon right here!"

Drambi made a beam sword with a silver hilt and rainbow-colored beam energy shaped like a sword appear and let it come toward Chopper, which he inhaled. After swallowing it, he was now holding the beam sword.

"Wait, what is that supposed to be?" Sonic gawked.

"It's a beam sword...or rather, the Spectral Sword," Chopper smiled as he swung it. When Phantom Maquano noticed it, he seethed with anger.

_**"****That sword… That's the weapon that you first used against me, Chopper." **_he clenched his sword and fired a blast of dark energy from his hand down at Chopper, who managed to swing it back at Phantom Maquano, who got knocked back from the attack, but was able to push it back.

"Poyo? (Is this a game of tennis?)" Kirby gawked.

Chopper gasped as he saw the attack being hurled back at him, but with another swing of his beam sword, he was able to throw it back at Phantom Maquano. Blade was able to distract the dark phantom, leading him to get hit by his own attack.

"Well, I put myself to good use that time," Blade grinned.

**"**_**Ungh… Stupid cat." **_Phantom Maquano growled as Chopper rushed toward his nemesis and slashed him with his beam sword. To his surprise, it actually seemed to deal damage to him.

"Hey! I can actually hurt him!" Chopper gaped. "Take some of this, Maquano!"

When Phantom Maquano got back up, he knocked Chopper back with his sword. Blade tried to hurt him with his Dragon Beam, but the phantom was able to fly out of harm's way and hit Blade with a dark sword beam.

"Well, now that Phantom Maquano is vulnerable, we should see his stats," Chopper took a look at the phantom's stats and gawked. "His Max HP is ? and he has an Attack of 18? OK… That's weird."

_**"****Even if I'm vulnerable to some of your attacks, you still don't have enough to destroy me," **_Phantom Maquano scoffed as he slammed the ground, creating a dark pulse that forced everyone to jump.

Mario: Mama mia!

"Well, haven't we seen worse?" Luigi wondered.

Phantom Maquano charged at Luigi in order to slash him, but Chopper was able to step in and slash at the phantom with his beam sword. Sonic also managed to hit him with a Homing Attack.

"It doesn't look like he's screaming in pain…" Sonic trailed. "You think it's hurting him?"

"Well, we need to do something, that's for sure," Chopper said as he fired a sword beam straight at Phantom Maquano. However, that didn't stop him from attacking Chopper with his sword, which left the Star Warrior off guard.

Before Phantom Maquano could attack, he sensed Mario coming with his hammer, so he flew straight up and made Mario accidentally hit Chopper with the hammer instead, leaving him dazed.

Mario: Sorry about that…

"Don't worry about it…" Chopper groaned as he jumped toward Phantom Maquano. Sadly, he was too high for them all to reach. "You know, I think he's only vulnerable when he's actually hit by a powerful attack. I know my beam sword is strong enough to at least hurt him…"

Phantom Maquano grinned as he swung his sword, firing a beam of dark energy down. Thankfully, they were able to jump out of harm's way and have Luigi hit him with Bonjourang to leave him off guard.

_**"****What?!" **_Phantom Maquano gasped as Chopper fired a Spectral Sword Beam, sending him flying to the wall and allowing the Star Warrior to hack him. But it didn't take long for Phantom Maquano to get up and send a dark shockwave toward Chopper by pushing his arm forward.

"Look, Maquano… The world's about to end soon, so maybe it's better that you left?" Blade suggested.

_**"****So THAT'S what the purple void in the sky was… Well, no matter, I'll still be able to make my escape before the world gets destroy, so I'll just take the time to kill you anyway!"**_

Phantom Maquano flew toward Sonic and knocked him back with his sword while kicking Blade in the face, knocking him over on his back. Chopper even tried to hack him with his beam sword, but the phantom was able to block his attacks and hurl a dark spell at him.

"What's funny is that you're not as powerful as our previous fight," Chopper realized.

_**"****I told you before… It's because I'm just a phantom! Must you always forget what I tell you?"**_

"If it's not important, then I tend to forget…"

Phantom Maquano clenched his fists as he slammed the ground, making another dark shockwave appear and strike everyone. While he did this, there was a tremor coming from outside.

"Oh, man… I don't know if we have much time now!" Luigi gulped.

Mario: We can't just fight this guy forever!

_**"****Imbeciles! You're not going anywhere!" **_Phantom Maquano sneered as he swung his sword toward them, making them step back from him. _**"We fight to the death here!"**_

"Well, then let's just finish this," Chopper groaned as he jumped toward Phantom Maquano and clashed with him. They tried to push each other back with their swords, but Phantom Maquano was able to step on his foot and hack him with his phantom sword.

"Dang it!"

_**"****Ahhh… Now this is what I like to see!"**_

However, before Phantom Maquano could make another shot, he was zapped by white energy coming from Drambi, who was keeping him still with his magic.

_**"****Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"**_

"Listen, these heroes don't have the time to fight you," Drambi groaned. "Now, Chopper! Finish him off!"

Chopper nodded and ran toward Phantom Maquano. With his beam sword up, he struck down on his nemesis, knocking him to the ground, but not before slowly getting back up and groaning.

_**"****Still… Even if you landed the blow on me, you will not defeat me." **_Phantom Maquano growled. _**"But, I suppose I'll be fair just this once and let you go. However, if you guys somehow manage to escape death, be prepared to face me again!"**_

Before he teleported out, he threw once more dark blast at Chopper, destroying his Spectral Sword ability and leaving him with no ability.

"Hey! He got rid of my awesome ability!" Chopper frowned. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"Poyo, (Well, at least that's over with,)" Kirby sighed.

"Thanks for helping us," Sonic thanked. "But why didn't you do that from the beginning?"

"Well, it's because when Maquano harmed me, I didn't have the strength to actually use my powers," Drambi explained. "Thankfully, I was able to get the strength I needed and help you win the fight. Of course, now that he's out of the way, I will gladly get rid of the barrier for you guys."

* * *

**Near Trinado's Castle-**

"All right… Anyone got a five?" Tamber asked, holding cards made of dirt.

"We're not playing 'Go Fish'…" Heartsy trailed before looking up at the sky. "You know, I wonder how they're doing up there. Let's hope Choppy isn't in some serious danger right now…"

"Must you always refer to only Chopper?" Ghoster asked. "Sure, we know you like him, but it's not always about him in your world…"

"That's something that has been bugging me… I always refer to Chopper most of the time. His other friends are good people too! But, anyway, let's hope they come back safe."

"Scanners are sensing something coming down!" C-2 Choppor alerted. "Everyone get out of the way!"

They jumped out of the way as white lightning struck the barrier and shattered it, revealing the way into the castle.

"No way… They actually did it!" Flyer gaped. "Man, I can't believe it!"

"Hooray!" Heartsy cheered.

However, little did they know there were a couple of shadows behind them.

"Hey, guys… When did it suddenly get dark?" Flyer wondered.

"Nyeah heh heh heh!"

"That laugh doesn't seem like it came from any of us…" Ghoster trailed.

"I suggest you turn around," another voice called out. When the five turned, their sights went black as a couple of sacks covered them.

* * *

**Later-**

"OK, guys! We're back!" Chopper called out as they landed back by the castle with the help of Starbow. However, they seemed to notice something wasn't right.

"Hold on… What's this?" Thoreau gawked.

"Somethin' ain't right here," Slim noticed. "Hey, pards… Weren't yer friends here?"

"Poyo? (Where did they go?)" Kirby wondered before they felt a small tremor from The Void.

"Well we don't have time to look," Chopper stated. "We don't have much time!"

"Chopper… You just want us to leave our friends behind?" Sonic gawked. "That's…not like you."

"Look… As much as I don't want to do that, we really have no other choice… Even I feel bad for something like that."

"Meh… Well I'm not going to like that… Let's just go." Blade sighed as they went to the front entrance of Trinado's Castle. When Sonic kicked the door open, they went inside into the room where everything began for them.

"Everything looks the same as it was…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: I guess nobody bothered to come here…

They noticed everything didn't seem to change, such as the balloons and the "Thank you!" hung up by the ceiling. The chips and dip were still there, as well as the punch.

"Hmmmmm…" Chopper grabbed the bowl of chips and dumped them all in his mouth. After swallowing them, he didn't feel so satisfied. "…These chips are stale. I guess that's what happens when you're out on an adventure."

"Poyo? (They're stale?)" Kirby gaped. "…Poyo. (…Well, I guess it's better than nothing.)"

While Kirby dumped another bowl of chips in his mouth, Chopper noticed there was something missing in the room. Something very important.

The Pure Heart.

"Hey… Didn't you say the Pure Heart was here?" Luigi asked as he scratched his head.

"Yeah… I saw it when I first came in here to meet you guys… Maybe it's somewhere else in the castle…"

While Chopper began to search around the room, Sonic noticed something. There was an arrow painted red leading over to an elevator up ahead.

"Uhhhh… Chopper? Was that red arrow here before?" Sonic asked, pointing to the red arrow.

"Red arrow?" Chopper gawked as the group looked at it. "You know… I don't think I have! That's…strange."

"Do you think it might lead us to the Pure Heart?" Luigi asked.

Mario: Only one way to find out!

They followed the red arrow over to the elevator. They first hit the yellow ? block by the elevator to get a Star Shroom, which Blade sliced into six. Afterward, Chopper hit the same block and went to the elevator, where they noticed a new button on it. It was labeled "roof".

"The roof? Well… Maybe we should go there!" Luigi suggested.

Chopper pressed the button to go to the roof and the elevator began to ascend quickly. All they could do was wait patiently to reach the top.

* * *

**Roof-**

"Well! Looks like yeh finally showed up!" Right when the heroes walked out of the elevator, they were greeted with a familiar voice. "So, 'ow'd it feel teh lose yer worlds like that?"

"O'Chunks…" Blade growled, clenching his fist in anger. "And don't you DARE talk to us about our home worlds!"

"I guess it hit yeh big time, didn't it?"

"Mimimi! I bet you were completely shattered!" Mimi cackled.

"Poyo! (Your homes might get shattered too, you know!)" Kirby retorted.

"That's all right, because Tippy will make us greater worlds for us!"

"And such fury Fawful will get too!" Fawful cackled.

Mario: Where are our friends?!

"The friends that had sacking, you mean?" Fawful opened some of the sacks to reveal the friend's tied up.

"Guys?!" Luigi gaped.

"That's right! We managed to find them and capture them!" Mr. L grinned. "It was pretty easy, I'll tell ya that."

"Guys… Did you even try to fight back?" Chopper gaped.

"They came out of nowhere…" Flyer wheezed. "And they even damaged Choppor!"

They noticed C-2 Choppor was badly damaged. "I guess they did that because they considered him the biggest threat…"

"And we have that ghost friend of yours in here," Dark grinned as he held a vacuum cleaner in his hand.

"Are you serious?!" Sonic gaped. "You put Ghoster in that?!"

"It's the least we can do."

"Guys, don't waste your time trying to save us! Get the Pure Heart!" Heartsy cried as Chopper noticed the pale green Pure Heart was in between them and the minions.

"The Pure Heart! But… Why here?" Chopper wondered.

"It was to lure you into a trap," Dark explained as The Void nearly became the sky now. "…Well, I guess it's time for us to get going! Sorry, but we're not going to waste our time playing a game."

"A game?" Luigi gawked.

"It's a long story…" Blade groaned.

"'Ave fun in the aftergame! Chunks away!" O'Chunks waved goodbye as he farted his way out of the world.

"Later, dummy heads! Let's hope The Void gets you this time without any help from that stupid dimension creator!" Mimi scoffed as she teleported.

"May the fury drain out of the heads in your brain!" Fawful cackled as he took his hovering platform out.

"L-ater, losers!" Mr. L grinned as he grabbed onto Dark's cape.

"Even if you somehow manage to live, it's all over for you," Dark noted as he teleported him and Mr. L out with his cape.

"Poyo! (We still have a chance!)" Kirby cried. "Poyo! (We need to get the Pure Heart quickly!)"

However, because of the white flashes and the strong tremor, they were forced back because of The Void's intense power.

"This world… It's coming to an end…" Tamber trailed.

"I wish we could do something, but we're tied up here…" Flyer frowned. "I guess this is…the end."

"And to think everything would be back to normal after Maquano's defeat… Violence never seems to go away, as well as the destruction of many worlds. But, I don't think all is lost… At least, for me." Heartsy said as she shed a tear. "I'll finally be reunited with my parents…"

Chopper attempted to use a Speed Dash to reach for the Pure Heart, but the force of The Void was too strong for even him to get close.

"…I can't do it. I've... I've failed to save my planet…"

His head hung low as he shut his eyes while everything began to fade away, unable to bear the destruction of his home world. His friends, his home world, the Pure Heart. Everything.

The worlds he and his friends cared about. Gone.

* * *

**?-**

"_Tipral… Why? Why did you have to resort to this?_"

When Chopper slowly opened his eyes, he noticed he was back in Flopside Tower, right beside the pale green door they were in before. He and his friends slowly got back up and noticed where they were.

"Poyo…? (We're back in Flopside…?)" Kirby gawked.

"But… Ortorain's power wasn't there to help us…" Sonic trailed.

"Something's fishy here…" Blade trailed.

Mario: But our other friends aren't here…

"Yeah… Our friends…" Chopper trailed as he started to see some flashbacks of his friends from previous adventures. A small tear came down his face, but he soon wiped it off. "They've…met with a terrible fate."

"Oh man…" Luigi shuddered. "Everyone's starting to die off…"

"But there's something strange… The door's still here."

"Should we honestly…" Sonic trailed before getting cut off.

"Yes, I think we should," Blade nodded. "Remember Desert Oasis? We managed to find the Pure Heart there and got it back to normal…somehow. If we did it last time, then we can do it again."

"Unngh… But seeing all of the remains of our worlds…" Luigi cringed. "It just feels so…"

Mario: I know… But we have to go through with it.

"I guess we have no other choice…" Chopper trailed. "Thankfully, that Star Shroom was able to fully heal us, so we should have no worries going through here."

"Poyo, (Let's hope the Pure Heart is fine,)" Kirby hoped as he slowly opened the door. Knowing what they were about to witness, they gulped and reentered the eighth door of Flopside Tower.

Unfortunately, they didn't notice a shadowy mist watching them.

_**"****Such fools… They…never seem…to give up!" **_it cackled. _**"They should…be lucky that…they were able…to escape The Void's…wrath! Little do they…know how…they got out!"**_

The shadowy mist followed them through the door, eager to see what would be going on through there.

* * *

**CHAPTER 18-1**

When the door revealed itself, all six heroes walked out of the door, only to find nothing else in this world. Everything was white, and all they could see was a long pathway with a couple of remains from other worlds. Overall, it was absolutely devastating.

"So… This is what it looks like when a world is swallowed up?" Luigi gaped. "This… This is awful!"

"You've…never seen what The Void could do…?" Sonic asked.

"No… Sadly, I haven't been able to."

"Well… I guess we better go…" Chopper trailed as he started off by walking on ahead. They happened to notice all of the dead, lifeless and white petals on the ground, which seemed to be what was left of Dimensional X.

"This is so unbearable to watch…" Blade cringed as they passed by a broken sign, which seemed to feel like it was the first sign they saw in the world, and then the remains of a black tower, which was knocked over and broken.

However, what they saw worse than that was Ortorain himself, who was completely lifeless.

"N-No… Ortorain… Speak to us!" Chopper cried as he shook Ortorain's black, lifeless body. His staff ended up disintegrating, making him step away from the body, afraid to see his own body disintegrate.

"Poyo… (Look at him… He looks so…peaceful like that…)" Kirby trailed as they noticed his eyes were shut and a small tear made of dust was on the ground. All they could do was take one last glance at him before continuing on.

They eventually ran into remains from Sammer's Kingdom. They could see a couple of broken planks on the ground and even a broken throne.

"Man… Look at Sammer's Kingdom…" Chopper gaped. "Everything's so…dull and lifeless!"

Mario: Just like Ortorain…

"I can see some of the Sammer Guys as well…" Luigi trailed, noticing some of the Sammer Guys running in fear of The Void. That is, if they were still alive, that is…

King Sammer and Final Quano didn't look like they were screaming or fleeing. They looked like their heads were hung low as if they were waiting for their lives to be over soon because of The Void.

"Come on, guys… Let's just go…" Chopper trailed as they went past the remains of Sammer's Kingdom.

This time, they began to notice some remains of some palm trees and loops. Seeing this made Sonic feel shocked, especially when he saw that his friends were black and lifeless like Ortorain.

"Tails… Knuckles… Amy…" Sonic trailed as he noticed their expressions looked as if they were screaming. Blade even noticed his friends, Bang and Night were lifeless as well. Bang looked like he was whining, while Night was slapping him.

"As much as I found Bang to be annoying, I don't like to see him like this…" Blade trailed, wiping a tear off his face. "I've seen cruel things before, but this is just… This is too far!"

"Gemerl's here too…" Chopper noticed as he saw Gemerl's lifeless body clenching his fists while looking up, as if he was looking up at the sky. "I don't want to see his lifeless body… I just don't like it."

They decided to pass by the remains of Mobius, but Sonic stopped by his friends and took one last look at them.

"Don't worry, guys… You'll be just fine when we save all worlds…" he trailed before catching up to his friends.

As they traveled on, things started to get worse when they reached the remains of the Mushroom Kingdom. The remains of Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, Yosho, Kayzee, Mallow, Geno, Vivian, Scrub, Shadower, and Bombette could be seen, which began to make Chopper cringe.

Unfortunately, he couldn't say a thing about it.

Mario: We… We never even got a chance to see the princess…

"I know…" Luigi trailed. "Now, I don't think we'll have our chance to even see them anymore."

"Don't think about that!" Blade cried. "Thinking negatively isn't going to help us…"

"You're… You're right… But, sometimes I can't help it."

After taking one last glance at their friends, they noticed the remains of Staris, Grodus's head, Lord Crump, and the X-Naut Johnson.

"I don't like this one bit…" Carrie trailed.

"It's definitely unbearable…" Crystaline agreed.

When they reached the remains of Pop Star, Kirby was saddened to see the remains of most of the Cappies, including friends like Fumu and Rick the Hamster. Some of the forest creatures were looking up, like they were looking at the forest fire. Meta Knight had his cape wrapped around himself and was looking up.

"Poyo… (Poor Pop Star…)" Kirby sniffled. "Poyo… (It was such a great place…)"

"I know… And what makes me feel worse was that I never told Flyer about Fumu's fate…" Chopper trailed.

"I think that was…for the better," Sonic pointed out. "It would've been better if he didn't know."

"Probably…" he sighed as they walked past some Waddle Dee remains and King Dedede and Escargon, who looked like they made up and put some of their differences aside. It looked happy, yet it was depressing because they were lifeless.

"Poyo, (I don't know how much I could put up with this,)" Kirby frowned as his head hung low.

At last, they reached the last of the remains. Clara's remains.

"All of the trees and plants are so…lifeless here," Luigi gaped as he noticed a flower laying on the ground. Chopper also happened to notice the remains of his house, which was toppled over.

"I guess The Void's power was strong enough to knock over my house…" Chopper trailed as he took a good look at it. The grave, to his surprise, was still there, and the flower's black and white color fit very well.

_"I won't let you down, Mom and Dad…" _Chopper thought as he took one last glance at the gravestone before walking over to the remains of Trinado, and then the remains of C-2 Choppor, Ghoster, Heartsy, Flyer, and Tamber, who were still tied up. Heartsy looked like she was shedding a small tear.

"I feel so bad for them…" Blade trailed. "First they're forced to stay down by the castle, then they get kidnapped, and then they finally get swallowed up by The Void. It's so tragic…"

Mario: Blame it all on Tipral.

"We…should probably move faster," Chopper suggested as he charged up a Speed Dash before taking off. However, once he was past the remains of his home world, he went to a sudden halt when he noticed something up ahead.

"Guys… I think I see something…"

"What is it, Chopper?" Luigi asked.

"Look," he pointed over to a heart-shaped rock up ahead. "It's the Pure Heart…"

"No surprise seeing it survive…" Sonic trailed. "If one could survive the end of the world, then I'm sure another could."

"Let's just grab it and get out of here," Blade suggested. "I don't want to look at the remains of our precious worlds… It's terrifying!"

"So you still live, huh?"

The voice echoed throughout the area as everyone looked around, trying to find the voice, but then they stopped when they saw Tipral appear right behind the Pure Heart.

"Tipral…" Everyone got in their fighting stances and clenched their fists.

"You heroes seem devastated from your looks," Tipral noticed. "It might be because I was able to succeed in my plans in destroying your home worlds! You ended up killing nearly my family, so I decided I would return the favor by obliterating your worlds! How does that feel?"

"You know what? You just crossed the line with us!" Sonic shouted. "WE actually try to help people, while you? You're doing nothing but thinking about yourself most of the time."

"You're nothing but a selfish dark being," Chopper stated. "Do you think we ENJOY destroying villains? You may think it looks fun to us, but it's not."

"Hmph… So you call me nothing but a selfish dark being? I could honestly care less with what you guys think." Tipral declared as he took the Pure Heart and put it away. "Face it. Without the Pure Heart's power, you're finished."

"Oh, really? All we need to do is bring it back to Queen Jaydes and she'll revive it. Simple as that."

"That is, if you live to see the Pure Heart get revitalized," Tipral growled while drawing the Dark Star Scepter. "Since my attempts to kill you all failed, I'm going to resort to doing it myself! Tell me, heroes… Doesn't this make you think of that one desert world?"

"Yes…" Blade grumbled.

"Too bad you didn't see that world get obliterated as well. It was actually one of the first anyway. When I'm through with you, you're going to be spending the rest of your life in Underwhere Prison!"

"That is, if you beat us!" Chopper growled as he clenched his fists. Tipral's stats were nothing to laugh at. With a Max HP of 480, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 10, this was pretty serious.

"Allow me to demonstrate one of my greater moves," Tipral announced as he threw his scepter in the air and let it spin rapidly. Many dark stars began to rain down from the sky and drop on the heroes, leaving them in pain.

"Well, two can play at that game," Chopper grabbed Starbow and used her power to make shooting stars fall on Tipral. However, with his teleportation, he was able to escape the shooting stars and throw a Star Spear at Chopper, who managed to jump out of the way.

"Whoa… That was too close." When Tipral appeared in front of him via teleportation, Chopper was able to bash him with his hammer and kick him with rainbow energy, sending him flying back before he teleported back.

"Poyo! (You'll never guess what we've got that you never knew about!)" Kirby shouted as he attempted to hit Tipral with his Final Cutter. Although Tipral tried to defend himself, he ended up getting hurt anyway.

"Well, I see you people have gotten a few new moves," Tipral noticed as he avoided Blade's Dragon Beam, which shot out from a long distance. "Even then, it's not possible for you to beat me."

Sonic clenched his fist and unleashed his Sonic Wind on Tipral. While it managed to hit him, he teleported out of the gust of wind easily and fired a small dark beam at Sonic, knocking him down. Luckily, the blue hedgehog got himself up and was able to avoid a dark star being hurled down by the Dark Star Scepter.

Blade gripped his katana and charged at Tipral, spinning his weapon vertically as he jumped toward Tipral, who managed to spin his scepter to block some of the slashes. However, he wasn't able to avoid Blade's Dragon Beam.

"You deserved that," Blade growled as he landed on the ground and threw Hommissile toward Tipral. When he quickly got up, he snapped his finger and made Hommissile explode before reaching him with Star Magic.

Tipral teleported to the right of the heroes and surrounded himself with a couple of shadow balls that spun around him. When he fired them down, he was able to hit at least Chopper and Mario. Kirby inhaled one and spat one toward Tipral, who teleported to dodge the attack.

"Poyo… (He's not messing around…)" Kirby trailed.

Mario: This is probably the first time Luigi and I have even fought him…

"Ah, yes… I just realized that." Tipral remembered as he teleported in front of Mario and whacked his nose with his scepter. Mario held his nose in pain before using Kickbrin to knock him over and jump on him afterward.

Before Luigi could attack, Tipral sent a Star Pulse out as he got up, sending everyone flying. He growled as he skated his way over to Chopper and fired a dark beam toward him. However, Chopper was able to outrun the beam and do a flip before jumping on Tipral, leaving him dazed for a couple of seconds.

"OK! Attack him now, Luigi!" Chopper cried.

"Got it!" Luigi nodded as he attacked Tipral with his Cyclone, which sent him flying upward. With that, he finished off his attack by hitting Tipral with a Super Jump. Sonic attacked him while he was in the air with a Bounce Attack.

"Unghh…" Tipral grunted as he hit the ground. Thankfully, for him, he was able to teleport out of harm's way and fly above the group. He snapped his finger a couple of times to strike a couple of them with Star Magic. Sonic and Blade, who didn't get hurt by the attack, got struck by a couple of dark stars Tipral fired at them rapidly, as if he was firing a machine gun.

"He's firing those stars like a machine gun!" Sonic gaped.

After Tipral teleported again, he raised his scepter and another dark beam fired out. This time, he made it circle around the area vertically. However, with Chopper's flipping, he and his friends were able to escape Tipral's power.

"Where'd they go?" Tipral gawked as he noticed their presence was no longer around. "I bet they're hiding in 3-D like cowards…"

When they reappeared, Tipral immediately took action and snapped his finger. However, with Slim, they were able to turn sideways and avoid getting hurt, which angered Tipral a bit, but it didn't stop him from using the attack again when they stopped using Slim's power.

Chopper hurled a rainbow ball straight at Tipral, but when he threw a shadow ball, it easily destroyed the rainbow ball and hit Chopper, despite him bringing his arms up in an attempt to defend himself.

"My rainbow energy doesn't seem to work that well against those shadow balls…" Chopper sighed.

"Well then don't use them when he's throwing a shadow ball," Blade suggested as he tried to jump toward Tipral, who simply flew out of the way and hit Blade in the head with his scepter.

"Take this!" Tipral cried as he swung his arm and fired a Star Spear down toward Chopper, who appeared to be his main target. However, Kirby inhaled the Star Spear and spat it back at Tipral, sending him flying back.

"Gee, Tipral… I'm sure you would've used the Chaos Heart's power to make yourself invincible or something." Chopper sighed. "And why are you targeting me anyway? !"

"I COULD do that, but what's the point in defeating you when I'm invincible? Destroying you all while not being invincible feels more achieving. But, no matter. It's a shame you won't live to see what the Chaos Heart's true power can perform."

"What could it do?" Luigi asked worriedly.

"While it's dangerous, it can do what the user wants, and when I use its power, _**nothing**_ will be left when I'm through with everything!"

Mario: That's just horrible!

"I know it's horrible, but that's what I intend to do as soon as I end your games!" Tipral swung his scepter and made three, large dark beams strike the ground. Unfortunately, everyone got caught in one of the beams and left them cringing in pain.

"Ugh… That was painful." Luigi winced.

"Look, Tipral… Just because you've got that weapon in your hands doesn't mean you're going to win." Chopper growled. "I managed to beat you without my friends, and I can do it again with my friends!"

"We'll see about that," Tipral dove toward the ground and sent a dark shockwave that stunned everyone. Afterward, he teleported over to the left and created a small dark portal that he fired dark stars into.

"Poyo? (What the heck?)" Kirby gawked.

"Trust me, they're not gone."

"Let's not worry about them," Chopper suggested as he jumped toward Tipral and slammed him to the ground with a flaming slamming kick, leaving Tipral with a burn. However, what made things cheap was when Tipral used the Dark Star Scepter's power to heal off the burn status.

Mario: Uh oh…

"Great… He can heal himself." Luigi groaned. "This isn't going to make the fight any easier now!"

Tipral clenched his fists as he stopped time with Star Control, leaving everyone frozen. He took this time to fire multiple dark stars at his enemies before reverting time back to normal, which left everyone in pain.

"He's able to stop time and hurt us while at it?" Sonic winced. "This is something I don't appreciate…"

"Let's see how you handle this!" Tipral declared as he summoned a large dark void to suck everyone in. They all cried out as they tried to run away from the center of the void where Tipral was floating. It reminded them of when they (except for Chopper) were sucked into a portal to Sammer's Kingdom.

"Please don't suck me in!" Luigi cried.

Seeing that the heroes were doing well with their escape, Tipral stopped and decided to fight on his own. He landed on the ground and swung his scepter toward Mario, which fired a dark star at him.

Mario: Uh oh…

The red plumber readied his hammer and whacked the dark star back at Tipral, who simply avoided it by teleporting and letting it go toward Chopper.

Mario: Look out, Chopper!

"Huh?" When Chopper turned around, he ended up getting knocked back by the dark star. "What the heck? !"

Mario: You were a little too late…

"Oh… Well that's a bummer." Chopper grumbled, drinking some of a Star Shroom Shake to recover 150 HP. He passed it over to the rest until Kirby had the last sip. He decided to throw it at Tipral, but with a snap of his finger, the can disintegrated.

"Poyo? (What the heck?)" Kirby gaped.

Before they could do anything else, another dark portal appeared, and this time, dark stars fired out at their direction. Chopper gulped and flipped everyone into 3-D to avoid the attack, while Tipral growled in frustration.

"Hmph… Smart move, Chopper… But you're still not going to escape from my wrath!" Tipral declared as he waved his scepter as he created a couple of smaller dark stars. When they went back into 2-D, they homed in on the heroes and pelted them.

"All right, that's it!" Blade growled, throwing a shuriken at Tipral, which hit him, but soon disintegrated. Thankfully, he was able to hit the dark being with his Dragon Beam, leaving him off guard.

"Good work, Blade!" Chopper congratulated as he hurled an ice ball at Tipral, freezing him for about one second before he broke out and teleported between his foes with his Star Burst, creating a light purple aura blast that knocked Chopper and Kirby away.

However, since he was busy with his attack, Sonic was able to send him flying with his Whirlwind, allowing Luigi to hit him with his Super Jump afterward. With that, Mario bashed him with his hammer when he landed on the ground.

"It appears I've taken some serious damage thanks to you…" Tipral noticed with some of the wounds on him. "I suppose I'll give you a little treat first!"

He swung his scepter and made dark stars rain down on them like shooting stars. Thankfully, they were able to get out of the way before they were struck, but this gave Tipral the moment to heal himself of 100 HP, making everyone gape.

"What the… Are you serious?!" Blade gasped. "100 HP?!"

"That's around the same as Gemerl could heal when we fought him for the Dark Star!" Chopper gaped.

"Thankfully, with the Chaos Heart's power on my side, my healing powers are much stronger, which makes it easy for me to slaughter you all," Tipral scoffed as he teleported in front of Luigi and smashed his stomach with a Star Punch, leaving him to hold his stomach in pain.

"Unnnghh…" Luigi grunted as he fell over.

Mario: Luigi!

The red plumber grit his teeth as he turned his head to Tipral, who already fired a dark star his way. Mario clenched his hammer and whacked it at the dark star to send it flying back. However, instead of dodging the attack, Tipral opened a dark portal that it went in and opened another one that struck Mario with the dark star.

However, despite this, Tipral ended up getting hit by a rainbow ball Chopper hurled at him. Sonic pitched in and used his Sonic Wind to knock Tipral back with a blue gust of win. However, it didn't stop him from hurling a Star Spear at Sonic, which made rings fly all over the place.

"Gah! This isn't good!" Sonic sweat dropped as he tried to recollect his rings, while Blade used his hurricane slash to make Tipral get blown back. It only took him to teleport in order to attack Blade and Chopper and the same time with his Star Fists.

"I could heal at this moment, but I don't think I need to…" Tipral pondered. "How about I make things interesting?"

He twirled his scepter and made it flash before making time slow down in the area. Everyone was moving at a slow pace, with the exception of Tipral, who watched as they tried to make an attack.

"Pooooooyooooo? (My vooooooice feeeeeels soooooo weeeiird! Whaaaaaat's goooooing oooooooon?)" Kirby asked in a low-pitched voice.

"Tiiiiiipraaaaaal caaaaaaaused thiiiiiis!" Chopper cried.

Now that they were slowed down, Tipral snapped his finger and struck Blade and Kirby with Star Magic, making them slowly get sent flying up. Afterward, he dove straight for Luigi and knocked him back by ramming into him.

"Aaaaaack!" Luigi cried as the speed went back to normal, as well as everyone's voices.

"Whew… That's a relief." Sonic sighed.

Mario: Let's not let that happen again.

However, they were stopped when Tipral appeared above them and raised his scepter, which fired a dark beam upward. He began to spin it counterclockwise, which made the beam move toward them.

"Uh oh… This isn't good!" Chopper gulped as he ran from the beam. Thankfully, it didn't circle around them completely, so they were able to escape the beam just fine. However, even then, Tipral slammed the ground with his Star Slam, which everyone managed to jump over.

"That was pretty close…" Sonic sighed.

Using the Dark Star Scepter's power, Tipral managed to create two more copies, making three Tiprals appear. This all reminded them of when Dimentio cloned himself, and one thing for sure was that three Tiprals was more dangerous.

"Great… How do we guess the real one?" Blade asked.

"With Starbow, of course," Chopper declared, holding the star Pixl up and letting shooting stars fall down. The real Tipral got hit and the other two clones disappeared. However, this didn't stop him from healing himself of 100 more HP.

"Poyo! (That's not fair!)" Kirby cried.

Tipral ignored Kirby and landed on the ground, firing dark stars from his scepter rapidly at the group. Kirby defended himself to take minimal damage, while Chopper attempted to jump over and jump on his head, interrupted Tipral's attack.

However, after Chopper struck him with a rainbow punch, Tipral was surrounded by a light purple glow. One thing for sure was that he was definitely not happy.

"Now you're going to die!" Tipral roared as he clenched his fists and levitated off the ground. "_**STAR BLAST!**_"

"Aaah! Run for it, guys!" Chopper cried as a large blast sent everyone flying back. When the attack stopped, Tipral landed on the ground and tossed a shadow ball toward Kirby, who inhaled it and spat it back at him.

Tipral snapped his finger after grunting, but Kirby quickly got on Carrie to avoid his Star Magic and used his Final Cutter to strike his opponent. One thing for sure was that the heroes were not going easy on him either.

"I can tell the hatred for me in your eyes," Tipral noticed as the heroes were glaring at him. "You people want revenge against me, is that correct?"

Everyone didn't know what to say.

"Well I'll tell you this: revenge isn't very heroic for a bunch of heroes such as yourselves. But, this is something I've wanted to do for a while."

"I've learned about revenge ever since I was alone on my planet," Chopper recalled. "I remember when…"

"Chopper, now's not the time for this!" Sonic snapped. "Tipral's summoning another large void!"

"Thank you for distracting your friends, Chopper!" Tipral thanked as everyone got closer to the dark void. "Now I can watch you all suffer now that you're close to this void!"

Unfortunately, everyone couldn't escape from the portal's wrath. They were tossed into a dark dimension where they were struck by multiple dark beams. When they were sent flying out, they were low on HP.

"OK… Now might be the time for a Master Shroom Shake, right?" Luigi panted.

"Yeah…" Chopper grunted as he took out the item and recovered 200 HP with it. He passed it over to everyone until Sonic had the last sip. They disposed of it and got ready for Tipral's next attack.

"No worries! I have much more in store for you pathetic heroes!" Tipral scoffed as he raised his scepter and let it get surrounded by darkness. It created a large, dark sword that he used to swing down toward his opponents.

"Poyo! (That's intense!)" Kirby cried as a dark sword beam fired out as well, forcing everyone to jump out of harm's way. However, this didn't stop Tipral from using another one of his attacks. He raised his arms and everyone was trapped in a transparent box.

"Huh?" Luigi gawked. "Wait… Isn't this like Dimentio's…"

"Yes, it is, actually," Tipral nodded. "Apparently, ever since you stopped 'Dimentral', I somehow got some of Dimentio's powers…mainly this one, to be precise. Now that I can use its power against you, there's no way you can escape THIS!"

With a snap of his finger, the boxes exploded from inside, heavily damaging his enemies. Despite this, the heroes managed to stand up on their own.

"Hmph… I expected you to survive that. I would've preferred to use something I had instead of someone else's power to kill you, though…"

Tipral raised his scepter again and fired three homing dark stars that went after Chopper. However, when he inhaled them, he spat them back at Tipral, who was knocked back before disappearing.

"Where'd he go now?" Chopper wondered.

Mario: We better be cautious…

When Tipral reappeared, he fired a dark beam from his scepter at the group. Chopper was about to flip into 3-D, but he was a little late and got knocked to the ground.

"What's wrong, Chopper? You can't handle a dark beam?!" Tipral roared as he managed to kick Chopper in the face with a Star Kick. "You know, you could look a lot better when you're rotting in Underwhere Prison!"

When Chopper got up, he saw Tipral was about to kick him again and jumped out of harms way. He attempted to punch Tipral with rainbow energy while Tipral was able to use Star energy to punch. Both fists clashed and forced both of them back.

Now that Tipral was vulnerable for an attack, Blade used his Dragon Beam to send him flying back over by the remains of Clara. Once he got back up, he noticed another Dragon Beam coming his way.

"Not this time," he mumbled as he spun his scepter rapidly when the beam hit his scepter. He was able to deflect it back at Blade, who gaped when he saw it coming toward him.

"What the heck?! How's that even possible?!" Blade gasped as he closed his eyes tightly. Thankfully, Sonic used Reflecto to reflect the Dragon Beam back toward Tipral, who simply avoided it by teleporting.

After Tipral healed 100 more HP, he raised his scepter again and created a large, dark hammer that he managed to slam on the ground to send a dark shockwave toward the heroes, which struck them before they could make another move.

"This is just like when we fought Dimentio Doom," Luigi grunted. "How is he able to do stuff like that?"

"Considering that that thing's powerful, I'm sure it can do a lot," Chopper wheezed.

"Time to end this!" Tipral roared as a light purple glow surrounded him. "Now you people are simply wasting my time!"

"You have all the time you want!" Sonic barked. "We, on the other hand, don't!"

Tipral let out a scream as he unleashed his Star Blast on his opponents. Chopper instantly rushed out of its range with a Speed Dash, while everyone else was unfortunate to get hit by the Star Blast.

The dark being groaned as he noticed Chopper come back unharmed by the Star Blast. He clenched his fists in anger and threw two shadow balls at him, which he managed to jump over and attack Tipral with a sweeping kick.

"Get outta the way, Chopper!" Sonic alarmed as he curled up in a ball and attacked Tipral with a Spin Dash. Tipral cringed as Sonic jumped away from him, but he was able to strike Sonic with Star Magic with a snap of his finger.

Tipral disappeared once again, making everyone confused and cautious. Kirby noticed some darkness rising from the ground, and there he saw a large dark star split into smaller ones. Kirby was able to inhale one of them, but the rest of the group got hit by the stars.

"What's Tipral doing now?!" Luigi exclaimed.

Mario: I have no idea…

"Poyo, (We better be careful,)" Kirby suggested.

More darkness rose from the ground, with Tipral flying upward and throwing Star Spears down from above. Everyone managed to dive out of harm's way as Tipral stomped the ground to create another dark shockwave that struck Luigi.

"Let's see what happens when I charge this scepter's power," Tipral wondered as he began to charge up dark power in the scepter. Everyone gulped as they noticed a large, dark beam coming their way.

"This can't be good…" Blade gulped.

"I know what to do," Chopper declared as he flipped him and his friends into 3-D, avoiding the dark beam.

"Chopper's flipping is REALLY starting to annoy me!" Tipral hissed as the heroes went back into 2-D. Tipral dove for Chopper and punched him with Star power, leaving a bruise on his face.

"Geez! At times you seem a bit calm, but there are times you're freaking violent!" Chopper cried as he ducked to avoid Tipral swinging his scepter at him.

"I'm usually calm when I'm not fighting, but when I see people I loathe, then that's when I'm going to get violent!"

Tipral managed to punch Chopper upward with Star energy and jump up to grab him and throw him back to the ground headfirst. However, before he could fire a dark beam down at him, Luigi managed to strike him with a Super Jump.

"Don't even try that!" Luigi warned as he slammed Tipral to the ground with his own feet.

"And here I thought you were a _coward_," Tipral scoffed.

"Well I don't like it when you hurt my friends!" the plumber retorted as he helped Chopper up. Tipral crossed his arms before charging his scepter once again. Mario bashed him with his hammer, but that didn't stop him from charging.

"Get out of my way, fat mustached plumber!" Tipral hissed as he kicked Mario's stomach and sent him flying back to the heroes. When he swung his scepter, two large dark stars slowly began to move around the area.

Tipral disappeared to avoid getting hurt himself while the heroes avoided the stars. Thankfully, they were slow, so they didn't have to worry about getting hurt. When Tipral showed up again, he charged into Blade and knocked him down, while firing a dark beam to hit Kirby.

After Kirby got himself up, he readied his Final Cutter and struck Tipral with it, followed by using Crystaline to freeze him. Chopper happily threw a charged fireball before Tipral could break out to burn him.

"Your fire attacks aren't going to do much to me," Tipral scoffed, using the scepter's power to wear off the burn. He noticed how low his HP was, and healing wasn't certainly going to work again. After all, he couldn't heal forever.

So he resorted to using his ability to freeze time in order to freeze his foes in time. He was able to hit them with a Star Blast afterward, sending them flying back. Once time reverted back to normal, he summoned another large void.

"Geez… He's kicking our asses!" Blade gaped. "I think we kinda underestimated him…"

"Of course you did! Now die!" Tipral roared as everyone tried to escape from the darkness. Chopper was unfortunate enough to be the closest, but that didn't mean that he couldn't attack.

_"Maybe I could finish this fight…" _Chopper thought as he had his hammer ready. When he was close another to Tipral, he threw his hammer at him, stopping the dark void and leaving him standing in a dazed manor.

Chopper ran toward him and kicked him with a rainbow kick, which sent Tipral flying back and dropping the dead Pure Heart in the process.

When Tipral got up, his bright white eyes were dull, and he was even panting at the moment. Needless to say, he had enough.

"What… What went wrong…?" he wheezed.

"I think you were a little overconfident in yourself," Sonic deduced. "And besides, you mess with our home worlds, this is what happens to you!"

"Well we'll see what happens when the Chaos Heart gets its true power!" Tipral hissed. "You'll be in for it then… For now, take that stupid heart of yours. Just remember that we're not through yet. Especially you, Chopper!"

"I know we're not!" Chopper retorted. "And I bet the next time we fight, we'll be much stronger to fight against you, especially with all twenty Pure Hearts!"

"That is, if you can get them all. But for now, goodbye heroes."

Tipral skated off, leaving the heroes to sigh in relief. Sure, they may have had a couple of bruises left on them, but they were able to defeat Tipral once again.

"Man… That battle was intense!" Luigi coughed. "That… That was the first time I even got to fight him. He's definitely no pushover…"

"He's the leader, what are you going to expect?" Blade asked.

"Well, let's not worry about that," Chopper suggested as he turned around to the Pure Heart. "Let's go show this to Merlon. Afterward, I might know what we can do with this…"

Chopper picked up the heart and held it up. Even if they managed to get a hold of the Pure Heart, they had to pay a big price for it.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

* * *

"I can't believe I've lost to those welps _again_!" Tipral growled as he began to walk away. "However, little do they know what they know about the Dark Prognosticus's statements! Even with the Purity Heart, I believe the Chaos Heart's true power will trump it!"

He stopped for a moment when he felt as if there was another presence here.

"I… I sense something here…"

_**"****So… It looks…like you lost…to those…heroes…again! What…a loss…"**_

"And who is speaking to me right now? Show yourself!"

He noticed a shadowy mist float down near him. "What is this? You're nothing but a cloud of darkness! In fact, who the heck are you anyway?"

_**"****I'm someone…that you know!"**_

"Hold on… Dimentio?" Tipral gawked. "But you were killed by those heroes! There's no way you could be alive!"

_**"****But I'm…not alive! You see… I…left a shadow…of my power…behind…which is…why my…speech is so…weak. In fact…little did…you…know that I…possessed…your minions to…take some of…their powers! With them…I shall become invincible…when I return from…the dead!"**_

"The only way you returned from the dead was because of me. And do you honestly think I'll just do that for you? I don't think so, which makes your plans ruined!"

_**"****I…do know…someone else…who has that…power! In fact… I might know…where he is!"**_

"Listen, Dimentio… Even if you DO manage to somehow come back to life, you're not getting in my way to kill Chopper and his friends. That's my business. Not yours."

_**"****Well… Now that you…know about my…presence… I think it's time…I disposed of you!"**_

A box appeared around Tipral, making him gawk. "Hold on… Since when could you do THIS when you're dead? !"

_**"****Just because…my shadow is…left, doesn't…mean that I…lack power! Besides… This is all…according to…plan!"**_

"And why don't you tell me your 'plan' then?" Tipral suggested as he reached for his scepter. However, he noticed it was gone. "Where'd my scepter go? And where did the Dark Prognosticus go too?!"

_**"****Looking for…these?" **_the shadow mist was holding the scepter and book in its invisible hands. _**"And should I…tell you…my plan? I think…that would…make it all…too clichéd! Better to…dispose of you first. The others…won't notice you…gone!"**_

"Yeah yeah… Just go ahead and send me to The Underwhere. I'll go tell Queen Jaydes that you're out again so I could find a way to kill you."

_**"****And after what…you've done? You'd be put…in Underwhere Prison for…your actions! Actually, I…have someplace better…for you!"**_

"I swear, you're going to die. You and Chopper will BOTH die!"

_**"No need…to get angry…my dark friend! …But, I might…as well make this…interesting! I'll…give you one wish!"**_

"I don't care about your wishes!" Tipral hissed, slamming his fists on the invisible box. "I'm going to break out of here!"

_**"****…****Oh, really?"**_

With a snap, the box began to explode from the inside. Not only that, but the Chaos Heart was released out of the box and disappeared.

_**"****Perfect! Now…the Chaos Heart…is loose! Now I…just need to…be brought back…to life!"**_

With a twisted cackle, the shadowy mist faded away.

_Our heroes sighed in sadness as they took one last look at their destroyed worlds. All of their friends and the things they loved about their world. Completely demolished. The good news? Chopper and his allies managed to survive the terrible destruction of their worlds and claim the Pure Heart. Unfortunately, just like the seventh Pure Heart, it was transformed into a rock. Knowing what Chopper had to do, they hurried back to Flipside._

* * *

**Yeah, I think it wasn't a big shocker to see who that shadowy mist was. I mean, it was pretty obvious... This DID feel a little like Chapter 6, but I felt it was done much better, especially with the fight against Tipral, which I actually liked.  
**

**With that aside, only two chapters remain and only one Pure Heart is left. They had to go through the destruction of their worlds, but what will they have to deal with next? Well, you'll have to find out. ;P**


	111. Chapter 18 Interlude

Fawful was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth with his favorite toothpaste, "Fury". He seemed to be rather cheerful, despite the fact that a couple of worlds were destroyed. But why did he care? He's Fawful!

"I have satisfaction!" Fawful squealed as he spat the water into the sink after gurgling it. "With the heroes losing the planets that they had loving, we had the hitting of their weak spot, which makes Fawful squeal in delight!"

However, he heard knocking on the bathroom door. It was loud banging, which could only come from one person.

_"Will yeh hurry up in there? Me bladder's not goin' teh hold on ferever!"_

"Midbus, why do you have the knocking?"

_"Midbus? ! I ain't the pink boar! I'm O'Chunks! Yeh know, the chunkiest!"_

Once Fawful opened the door, O'Chunks charged into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. Before Fawful could do anything else, he heard Nastasia calling out for his name.

"What is it, pink-haired blue face?" Fawful asked.

"…Yeah, I might suggest that you don't call me that, 'K?" Nastasia stated. "But anyway, have you seen Tipral? He was expected to return at this moment, but he's twenty minutes late!"

"…?"

"You didn't see him, didn't you?"

"I have no answering…"

"'K…" Nastasia sighed. "I'm actually starting to get a little worried about him. After all, he's actually treated us very well. I actually expected him to be cruel at first…"

"…Wait, Tippy's missing? !" Mimi gaped as she busted out of her room. "What did those dummies do this time? !"

"I'm not so sure… In fact, we don't even know whether something bad happened to him or not."

"BUT I CAN'T HAVE HIM LEAVE US AGAIN, NASSY!" Mimi cried as she began to shake Nastasia.

"Will you shut up already, Mimi?" Mr. L snapped as he opened the door to his room, looking a bit tired. "I'm trying to take a nap here! It doesn't help when you're being loud!"

"But Tippy's gone!"

"…Wait, what? How do you know this?"

"Because… Because I do!"

"Tipral was supposed to show up twenty minutes ago," Nastasia explained. "He's usually not one to be late. Seeing as he is late now, I'm actually starting to get a little worried about him now…"

"Huh… Well this is bad. I wanted to get a chance to trounce the heroes again!"

"You still lost to the heroes, so you need to go rethink what went wrong, 'K?"

"What? ! And who put you in charge, lady? !"

"Tipral told me if he was ever out, I would be in charge. That means you must listen to me at all costs."

"Dang… I guess he does trust you. But fine." Mr. L pouted as he returned to his room before opening the door again. "…Right after I get some rest!"

Once the door shut, O'Chunks came out of the bathroom, relieved. "Ahhhhh… Me bladder's empty now! Just the way I want it!"

"Ummmmm… That's great to hear, O'Chunks." Nastasia said with no concern. "Anyway, I want everyone to search for Tipral around the whole palace. We can't make any plans without him."

"Whaa…? But… I don't want to search the entire palace!" Mimi whined.

"Yeah, wee Mimi's correct," O'Chunks agreed. "Searchin' the whole palace is back-breakin' work!"

"Well, would you want anything in return if you did that?" Nastasia asked.

"Well… Maybe we can hang out sometimes? I never get the chance teh talk teh yeh that much."

"…All right. I guess I'll hang out with you sometime."

"And what do I get?" Mimi asked, making a fit.

"I'll take you wherever you want, 'K? Anywhere you want."

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad! I guess I'll do it!"

* * *

**Dark's room-**

"I can't believe my brother!" Dark hissed as he watched a couple of Dark Creatures leave the palace through the window. "I've lost nearly all my minions, and all because Shade is 'better' in their eyes! Shouldn't they realize that I'VE been in their command for years? ! They trusted me, yet they leave me!"

He slammed his fists on his desk as he looked at a picture of him and Shade. Both of them didn't look exactly happy, but he noticed Shade was grinning, but not in a happy manner.

In a crazy manner.

"You know, I actually start to question Shade whether he's actually insane or not. Five months ago, he killed one of my own men and wrote on the walls with their blood! Dark Creatures don't go around doing that! Unless…"

Dark pondered until his eyes widened. "No way… That couldn't be possible. Was my father lying to me for my whole life when he was born? I've gotta find out about this. Sadly, I don't know where that…_thing_ lives!"

He grumbled as he left his room, only to receive some bad news.

"Great to see you, Dark," Nastasia said as she adjusted her glasses. "We have a little problem, and it requires your help…"

"Now? ! I was a little busy thinking about my damn brother. What could possibly be more important than that? !"

"Apparently Tipral's gone missing…"

"Tipral's missing? Great… This makes things worse. Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

"I need your help in searching for him all over the palace. If you do that, I'll give you anything in return."

"Hmmmmmm… How about you get my army back? You know, the Dark Creatures?"

"What happened to them?"

"They're leaving me for my brother! Apparently, they think that he's stronger than me, even though I've been commanding them for YEARS! I swear, if those heroes manage to bring him down, I'll be PLEASED."

"I suppose I could do something like that…"

"Thank you. Perhaps I could give you something else in return as well."

"No, that's not necessary."

"Suit yourself," Dark shrugged as he went off to search the palace. However, before Mimi could search, she went back into her room and began to write something down on a piece of paper.

Nastasia already told Fawful and Midbus to go search the palace, even though they didn't ask for anything in return. Needless to say, she knew taking over would be pretty difficult.

"Please, Tipral… Come back safely…"

* * *

"_Timpani! What are you doing? !"_

"_I'm sorry, Tipral… But we can't stay together anymore…"_

"_Why? What happened? !"_

"_My love's father discovered that his son wasn't listening to him, so now he placed a curse on me that banishes me from this world and forces me to wander the dimensions forever."_

"_But… You can't leave me! You're the only friend I've ever had…"_

"_I don't want to leave you, Tipral… But, Blumiere's father won't allow me to go see his son. If I don't leave this world now, then I'm going to die."_

"_I don't want you to go!"_

"_I'm sorry, Tipral, but I have no other choice… But could you please promise me something? Could you take care of Blumiere for me? You're one of the only people I can trust…"_

"…_Timpani…"_

"_Farewell, Tipral. I hope I get to see you another time."_

"_Timpani! Don't go! Timpani! TIMPANI!"_

_That was the last time I ever saw her again. But I never fulfilled her promise and let my rage take control of me. Ever since then, I became…a monster._

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"…Oh? You heroes have returned?" Merlon gasped as the six heroes made their entry into his house. However, he noticed their looks. "What happened to you, heroes? You don't look so good…"

"Tipral… He…" Chopper stammered.

"Poyo… (He destroyed our worlds…)" Kirby finished.

"Wh-What? ! Your worlds were destroyed? !" Merlon gaped. "But… How…?"

The heroes began to explain everything to him. They explained about meeting Ortorain, Sammer's Kingdom, Mobius, the Mushroom Kingdom, Pop Star, Clara, and their friends.

"You met the creator Ortorain? That is someone who I always wanted to meet… But, it appears that he gave up his life to help save you guys?"

Everyone gave him a nod.

"This is not good. Six worlds were already destroyed! I fear that our dear Flipside could be next…"

"The Void's rather big here," Blade recalled. "But, the good news is that we got the Pure Heart! …Sorta."

"Yeah, right here," Chopper announced as he held the Pure Heart in his hand. "Although, it's already dead…"

"Mmmmmmm… I don't feel its power in here. I'm not sure how you manage to bring back the seventh Pure Heart before, but I believe there's a chance if you did that, you could be led to the world where the last Pure Heart awaits. After that, we can finally put an end to Tipral and The Void!"

"Yeah, we'll just go to Queen Jaydes and ask her to revive it! Simple as that!"

_**"****Oh… But it won't…be as easy…as you think!"**_

"Huh? Who just said that?"

_**"****If I introduced…myself, I would be…wasting your precious…time, like…a switch…that needs changing!"**_

"I don't like the sound of that scary voice…" Luigi shuddered.

Mario: You should really tell us who you are!

"Hold on… I feel as if I remember that voice…" Chopper pondered. "But the way it sounds kind of makes me feel confused."

_**"****Sadly, it seems…you won't be able…to get help…from the Queen of…The Underwhere!" **_the shadow mist cackled. _**"You see… She…has gone…missing!"**_

"Missing?!" Sonic gawked. "Then how do we…"

"I demand you leave my house!" Merlon demanded.

_**"****I will…right after…THIS!" **_the shadowy mist created six boxes that surrounded the heroes. They all tried to break their way out, but they had no luck.

"Let us go!" Luigi cried. "We know who you are, Dimentio! It's obvious that these boxes belong to you!"

"Wait… Dimentio?!" Chopper gaped. "But… Weren't you…killed?!"

_**"****Ah…ha…ha…ha… Yes, I was! But…I don't wish to…bore you the…details! Allow me…to give you a gift…from Shadow Dimentio!"**_

With a snap, the boxes began to explode, leaving the six heroes to scream in horror. After a large flash, they were gone, leaving only Merlon and Shadow Dimentio.

"You… You just murdered the heroes!" Merlon cried.

_**"****Not…necessarily!" **_Shadow Dimentio grinned. _**"You see… I…brought them to…where they need…to go! Ciao…for now, Merlon!"**_

After Shadow Dimentio faded away, Merlon was left to shudder in horror.

"The heroes are gone!" Thoreau gaped.

"Zis isn't good at all!" Bonjourang cried. "Zee heroes are important for our quest!"

"Chopper… Kirby… Sonic… Blade… Mario… Luigi…" Merlon trailed as his head hung low. "_Ohhhhh…_"

* * *

**Yeah, this is a short interlude compared to Chapter 18-5, which was pretty long. :P**

**I know some people are probably going to tell me that I'm just repeating the interlude of Chapter 6 and are expected to go to The Underwhere. Trust me, it's a lot different here. Next chapter also happens to be one of my favorites!**

**...And I also noticed this is Chapter 111. Interesting, huh?**


	112. The Wonders of Sagein Galaxy

A light green spaceship was flying through space, past a couple of stars in a new galaxy it entered. This strange galaxy had a lot. First, there was the black sky with a bit of dark pink with a couple of large stars and planets far away. Inside the spaceship, a green little alien seemed delighted that he was finally in the new galaxy. It was almost as if this was a place he wanted to go all these years.

"Squirple squee! Squirps has finally made it to this galaxy!" the alien, known as Squirps squealed. "After getting the right components for the spaceship, Squirps can finally travel to a galaxy across the universe! I bet mommy is very proud of me right now!"

However, Squirps stopped his ship when he noticed something in the distance. There was an asteroid that resembled a small island with a palm tree. There happened to be someone leaning on it and fast asleep.

"What's this? Is Squirps detecting alien life forms here?" the young alien prince wondered. "Squirps knows there is a sacred place here, squirple, but never did Squirps know about strange aliens like that there!"

Squirps stopped his spaceship by the asteroid and got out. He was about to say something, but he gasped when he saw that it was Chopper sleeping on the palm tree. No one else appeared to be around.

"Squoh? Squirps remembers that face… Isn't that the face of the space grunt that Squirps met in Outer Space and that freaky world? Squooog… Squirps still gets nightmare from that place…"

With that, he made his way over to the sleeping Chopper and waved his tentacle in front of him.

"Space grunt! Space grunt!" Squirps also noticed his Pixls weren't around either, so basically, he was all alone.

He continued to wave his arm in front of him and call out 'space grunt', but it didn't seem to work. However, an idea suddenly struck him, and he went back to his ship to get a megaphone.

"Squirps recalls mommy using this to get people to shut up! It also helps wake up people who are sleeping too!"

He held the megaphone close to his mouth and yelled, "_**Wake up! SQUAAAAAAAG!**_"

The sound of the ear-piercing scream causing Chopper to suddenly jump up in fear.

"I didn't mean to eat the last cookie, Queen Jaydes! I swear!" Chopper cried before he blinked and noticed where he was. "…Wait a second… This isn't The Underwhere! In fact, where am I?"

"There's a place for dirty laundry, squirp?" Squirps gawked.

"It's not a place for dirty laundry. It's… Wait a second." Chopper blinked a couple of times before noticing who was in front of him. "Squirps is that really you? ! How've you been doing? !"

"Squirps is doing fine! In fact, Squirps just noticed you sleeping on this asteroid! Why were you? Squirps hasn't a clue! But, maybe Squirps should tell you where you are. You're in **Sagein Galaxy**, squirp! It's said to be 'World 21'!"

"Sagein Galaxy? …And World 21?! That's a little TOO far for me! Is this supposed to be a secret world?"

"Most likely, squirp!"

"Man… I should be in the nineteenth world! Well, since I don't know what else to do, I might as well ask this… What's Sagein Galaxy?"

"It's a galaxy where three sages are said to be in! However, it was said that nobody knew who they were or what they looked like. They're pretty much secrets to everyone in the world!"

"I never knew about any sages…"

"There are three sages all together. They are said to help stop the dangers of The Void and help form the weapon that was once used to counter another weapon known as the Dark Star Scepter, squinkles! It was meant to be given to the hero as their sacred weapon!"

"Dark Star Scepter… Wait a second…" Chopper gasped as he got up. "There's actually something that could help counter that weapon? If I got a hold of that, then I could be able to take on Tipral with that Dark Star Scepter thing!"

"…Oh, yeah, Squirps remembered that you're the hero of the prophecy," Squirps realized. "Thankfully, Squirps has installed a map to the ship so we can reach where the sages and the weapon are! Hop into my ship, squinkles!"

"All right! I get to go on a space travel!" Chopper cheered as he jumped into the ship with Squirps. Sadly, the hatch didn't seem to close because Chopper was a little too big.

"Rats…"

"Squh oh… You're too big, space grunt…"

"Great…" Chopper sighed. "Now what? I can't just fly around here… Plus, I don't have my friends and my Pixls! Doing something like this on my own isn't going to be easy…"

"Then, you have no other choice but to space swim!" Squirps declared. "Do not worry, space grunt, for I, Prince Squirp Koroglaine Squirpina, shall help you find the three sages!"

"Great! …But I have one question. Can these three sages restore anything that died out like a Pure Heart? Because I have a problem here…" Chopper trailed as he took the Pure Heart out.

"Squoh? The Pure Heart is nothing but stone, squack! Even if you tried to find the three sages, Squirps doesn't know if they could, but we could try… Squirps once heard that the three sages disappeared after the Tribe of Ancients got attacked by the Tribe of Darkness… That's why nobody knows anything about them anymore…"

"So they could be somewhere around here?" Chopper asked.

"Maybe… But what does interest Squirps is that there's a descendant of the Tribe of Ancients whose ancestor once knew about the sages. Squirps believes he's somewhere around this place! If we find him, we might have a clue on the sages!"

"Well, thanks Squirps… But also, what about my friends? I need to find them too!"

"Worry about that later," Squirps suggested. "Right now, Squirps has to lend you his help! Do you remember how to use Squirps's Squirt Beam?"

"Of course I do," Chopper nodded. "I've used it in two worlds. I'm sure I remember how to use it in space again!"

"All right, squinkles!" the green alien announced as he went into Chopper's grasps. "Let's space-swim!"

"How do I, again?"

"Just jump off this rock, and you'll be floating, squirp! It's easy!"

"All right… If you say so…" Chopper trailed as he jumped off the asteroid. To his surprise, his was flying in space. He tried to remember how to move around in space, so he started by moving his feet as if he was swimming.

"See? That's how you space-swim, space grunt!"

Chopper smiled as he space-swam on ahead, looking around the area to see if there were any dangers of getting hurt. He ended up encountering a small, light blue flying saucer with a yellow dish like antenna on top and three prongs at its base. It fired a small laser that Chopper managed to dodge.

"A UFO? I thought those didn't exist!" Chopper gawked.

"Well don't worry about that, squirple!" Squirps assured. "It's trying to attack us! Use Squirps's Squirt Beam to take them out!"

Chopper squeezed Squirps, and he shot a fireball at the UFO. One more shot defeated it, to his relief. Afterward, he happened to notice a piece of chocolate in an orange wrapper floating around.

"Chocolate? What's chocolate doing here?"

"Chocolate? ! Squirps wants some chocolate!" the green alien cried. "Squirps demands that you give him chocolate, space grunt!"

"OK! OK! Geez!" Chopper sweat dropped as he used his inhaling to lure the chocolate over. Once it was close to Squirps, he grabbed the chocolate bar and chomped it down. Chopper gaped when he noticed he had a yellow glow around him.

"Squirple squee! Squirps feels like his speed increased!"

Squirps instantly bolted forward, making Chopper cry out as the little alien crashed through a couple of small asteroids and made holes through them. Some of the UFOs were sent flying away as well.

"Slow down, Squirps! I can't hold on forever!" Chopper cried.

Unfortunately, the speed boost stopped when Squirps crashed into a large asteroid. Past it was a yellow wormhole, which reminded Chopper of when he went into one of those wormholes in Outer Space.

"So… How'd you end up here, space grunt?" Squirps wondered.

"Well… It's kind of hard to explain. I believe that Dimentio sent me… Wait a second…" Chopper blinked for a moment, realizing whose name he just mentioned. "Was that dream true? The dream about him still being around? …Well, he's dead, so he can't really do THAT much!"

"Who's Dimentio, squirp?"

"He's a psychopathic clown person that's bent on destroying all worlds. He always tries to act clever and cheerful most of the time to simply manipulate others. Well, I'm not one to fall for his tricks! However, right now, the biggest threat is Tipral. After all, he does have the Dark Star Scepter and Chaos Heart!"

"Squoh… That's intense…"

"Yeah, it's really…" Before Chopper could continue, he noticed Squirps bumped into something. It was a brown asteroid blocking their way. Regardless of that, Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a yellow wormhole behind the asteroid.

"Ooh! A secret wormhole!"

Chopper space-swam to the wormhole and was sucked into another area. There, he saw a small path made of stardust ahead that had slopes up and down. When they landed on the pathway, Chopper put Squirps down.

"Squack! Don't put Squirps down!" Squirps cried. "Squirps might be lonely without anyone to save him! …Then again, Squirps did save five people that were trapped in space…"

"Hmmmmm? You saved people?" Chopper gawked before he picked up the alien.

"Yup! Squirps was actually informed by some small person that I needed to go out and help people that were in danger! He told Squirps to bring them back to a palace…or an asteroid, whichever makes sense."

"Hold on… Does that mean you saved my friends? You know, the other 'space grunts'?"

"Squeh? …Oh! Squirps DOES remember them now! Squirps forgot for a second, sorry! Squirps saved them!"

"And here I thought you weren't that useful… I guess I was completely wrong about you."

"You thought Squirps was useless? !" Squirps growled. "Squirps should have you demoted for thinking about my uselessness! I swear I will…"

Before he could respond, Chopper took off while holding onto Squirps with his Speed Dash. The good news was that the gravity around space didn't seem to affect Chopper when he was on the stardust path.

When he reached the end of the path, he entered the door ahead and found an area with a stardust hill going down to a star spring. There were also stardust platforms he could use to reach the ledge as well.

"Ah! This should be interesting!" Chopper smiled as he jumped on the platforms to reach the ledge instead of using the spring. There, he found a red block that appeared that it could be blown up.

"Use Squirp's Squirt Beam on that!" Squirps chirped as Chopper squeezed him a bit and let him shoot a fireball at the block, blowing it up. A chest was revealed to be there, and when he opened it, he found a Max Shroom Shake.

"Huh… These shakes can recover all of my HP if I wish… I better hold onto it…"

"So… Anything else here, squirple?" Squirps wondered.

"No, it doesn't look like it. Let's go back to where we were before."

* * *

**Large space area-**

Once they got out of the wormhole, Chopper space-swam over to the yellow wormhole that was just up ahead. He took it into another space area, but this time, there were a couple of lasers firing vertically that would stop for a moment before firing.

"Lasers… We always need them in space areas…" Chopper sighed.

When the first laser stopped firing, Chopper space-swam past it to find two UFOs firing lasers. Chopper let Squirps shoot fireballs at them to defeat them with easy. For some reason, Chopper couldn't help but look at space itself.

"This galaxy's atmosphere reminds me of my own galaxy… It's a real sight, that's for sure."

"What's your galaxy anyway, squirp?" Squirps asked.

"It's Starland Galaxy. All I can say is that there's a lot to that galaxy. I… I don't know what else to say about it."

He was interrupted when he got hit by a laser a UFO fired. Chopper retaliated by tossing a rainbow ball at it to destroy it. He was also lucky to find a dull orb just up ahead by a larger asteroid. When he threw a light ball at it, the asteroid exploded and cleared the way.

"It feels so peaceful here for some reason…"

After Chopper blasted two red blocks, he noticed one UFO came out of a block, while the other didn't have anything else. It took him two shots from Squirps to defeat it before he found two wormholes up ahead.

"Squoh? Which one do we choose?" Squirps gawked.

"Don't you know about the stuff that's around here?" Chopper asked.

"Well, not all of it! Squirps doesn't know too much about the black holes!"

"Great…" Chopper sighed as he took the first one. When he came out of another wormhole, he noticed there were shooting star-like enemies that were purple that were moving at rapid speeds toward Chopper. He used Squirps to fire his Squirt Beam to annihilate them.

"What were those? !"

"Rapid Stars!" Squirps informed. "They move at a fast speed toward you, and you gotta be prepared to defeat it, squinkles!"

"OK… Well at least I got it, that's for sure." Chopper sighed as he noticed a small little island up ahead. There was apparently a UFO hanging around there, so he went over to the island and defeated the UFO before landing on it. It looked more like a frozen area, unlike the island he was on.

"Geez… It's suddenly cold here!"

"Is there anything here, squirp?"

"Not really… All there is around here is this frozen island…" Chopper trailed as he almost slipped on the ice. "This kind of reminds me of when I went to that ice world. Seeing Luvbi carve that ice picture of her and I kissing… Ugh."

"You have a girlfriend, squirp?"

"…It's not that important, honestly. What really matters is that we find those sages!" Chopper noticed a frozen chest. Out of curiosity, he hurled a fireball at it and melted it. When he opened the chest, a coupon happened to be revealed inside.

"A coupon? Now what would something like that be doing in here, hmmmm? …Wait, this is a coupon to 'Sagein Donalds'?! …FOOD! …Wait, is it a fast food restaurant?"

"Food? You mean there's chocolate?" Squirps gaped. "Squirps could use some chocolate, squinkles!"

"I actually wonder how there's even a restaurant in space…" Chopper trailed. "Well anyway, let's not waste any time. It looks like there isn't anything else around here, so we should try the other wormhole."

* * *

**Previous area-**

After coming out of the wormhole, Chopper made his way over to the next wormhole ahead. When he reached another area, he noticed a couple of crystals floating around. Some were small, and some were large. A Rapid Star came toward him and knocked him back before he could do anything.

"Annoying Rapid Stars!" Chopper grumbled.

After space-swimming past a blue crystal, he noticed a couple of Maginans in dark gray and black armor patrolling the area, making him gulp. Instead of black eyes like the Maginans, they had white eyes with a black visor. Knowing these guys from Tipral's Palace, he knew he wasn't safe.

"Squoh? What're those guys?" Squirps asked.

"Some soldiers I encountered before…" Chopper trailed. "But this time, they look a lot stronger, which isn't good…"

"We haven't found any sight of Tipral," the Dark Maginan Private stated. "We've looked everywhere around this place, but we haven't found him anywhere!"

"Well he's here somewhere," the Dark Maginan Captain said in a serious tone. "We've been picking up some dark power somewhere around this galaxy. If there's one thing we know about Tipral, he's made of darkness."

"Huh? Tipral's lost somewhere?" Chopper whispered as he gawked. "That's strangely unusual…"

"Hey! Tipral's over there!" a dumb Dark Maginan noticed as it pointed to Chopper. "What'd I tell you? I knew we could find him!"

"You idiot! That's not Tipral! That's his arch nemesis Chopper!" the captain growled.

"Uhhhh… My name's not Chopper!" Chopper declared. "It's Flyer!"

"How about I be the one to prove that?" offered the Dark Maginan Scout as it took out a scanner and scanned Chopper with that. Squirps got caught in the scan as well, forcing him to shut his eyes because of the brightness.

"Too bright, squirp!" Squirps cried.

"Well, looks like the scanner came back positive! This is the kid that Tipral wants dead! So, how about we have a little fun and blast him and that alien?"

Chopper noticed a chocolate bar flying toward them, so he tried to inhale it to bring it close and let Squirps chomp down on it. This made him feel like he could shoot something massive out.

"Squirps feels like he has a huge blast coming out!" Squirps realized as his cheeks puffed out.

"Let me handle them first," Chopper suggested as he hurled a couple of rainbow balls at the Dark Maginans. To his surprise, they didn't seem to harm them as much as the normal Maginans. Considering that they have 92 HP, an Attack of 18 and a Defense of 9 meant something to him.

When the Dark Maginan Private fired a blast from its futuristic assault rifle, Chopper flew down and let the blast destroy one of the crystals. Surprisingly, there were some chocolate bars inside them.

But, since Squirps had his cheeks puffed up, he squeezed the green alien, who let out a large fireball that left the Dark Maginans low on HP. Chopper finished them off by shooting at them with Squirps twice.

"Yeah! We showed them!" Chopper smirked. "Not even Dark Maginans stand a chance against us!"

"It was all so easy!" Squirps smiled until he noticed a crystal coming their way. "Space grunt! Heads up!"

Chopper noticed a crystal coming their way and blasted it, clearing the way. Unfortunately, they were two other Dark Maginans up ahead that noticed them, so they open fired at him. Chopper tossed a couple of rainbow balls at them while Squirps shot them with his Squirt Beam to destroy them.

"I'm so glad I have these elemental hand abilities on me," Chopper sighed. "If I didn't have them on me, I'd probably be weak, considering that I have no Pixls with me."

After blowing up a box, they noticed up ahead was a glob of darkness blocking their way. Chopper simply flipped into 3-D and found an opening he could go through and continued his way through when he went back into 2-D.

However, when he noticed a couple of dark blocks floating around, he noticed some Darklings came out and began to hurl spells at him. Chopper tossed a couple of ice balls and froze them. Freezing the dark blocks also prevented more Darklings from appearing, to his relief.

"OK, no more Darklings for now… That's good." Chopper sighed.

"What are Darklings, squirple?" Squirps asked.

"They're minions of my nemesis Maquano. For some reason, some of the Darklings are still around even when Maquano's gone. Kind of weird, if you ask me…"

After passing the frozen cubes, he noticed a wormhole just up ahead. Unfortunately, a Dark Maginan holding a pistol was by the wormhole and was firing at Chopper. He managed to inhale one of the dark blasts and spit it back at the soldier, knocking it back, but not into the wormhole.

"Squirps is wondering if there's another wormhole we need to squarp to…" Squirps wondered as Chopper finished off the Dark Maginan Scout with a rainbow ball. He sighed in relief as he entered the wormhole into another space area. This time, there was a stardust path that he decided to land on.

"Ahhhh… Traveling on foot is MUCH better." Chopper smiled as he noticed a Dark Maginan Shielder, who held a shield up to protect itself. "Oh… This might be a little difficult."

Chopper tried to attack it with ice balls, but the energy shield prevented the Dark Maginan Shielder from getting frozen. However, just because the shield was up didn't mean it was invulnerable.

"Space grunt! Check the back!" Squirps whispered.

"Oh… The back." Chopper flipped into 3-D and went behind the Dark Maginan Shielder. He began to jump on it and attack with a rainbow slamming kick to defeat it and let it drop a Star Shroom Shake, which he took and put away.

Afterward, he used a Speed Dash and took off while holding up Squirps. He went through a stardust loop ahead and found a slope going down to another loop. Needless to say, he was speeding through the path until he stopped by stardust platforms going up to another wormhole.

"Into the wormhole, space grunt!" Squirps cried out as Chopper jumped onto the platforms and jumped into the wormhole with Squirps. This led them into an empty area with a Rapid Star coming their way. Thankfully, Chopper managed to destroy it with an ice ball.

"That should take care of that," Chopper sighed.

"Squoh? What's that?" Squirps noticed a floating restaurant up ahead labeled "Sagein Donalds". "Hey! How about we go in there, squirp!"

"Oh no! I'm not going into a fast food restaurant! I don't like those places!"

"It doesn't say that it's a fast food place…"

"OK fine… Besides, I'm hungry anyway. Once we're done in there, we're going back to searching for the sages and get the Pure Heart back to normal." Chopper smiled as he space-swam to the front door and opened it.

It looked rather nice inside the restaurant. The walls were yellow, and the floor was a shiny white. However, Chopper froze when he saw some Dark Maginans and Maginans sitting at the tables without their helmets on. The Maginans' heads were white with black eyes, and the Dark Maginans had black heads with white eyes. They also had fangs when they opened their mouths.

"Oh, man! This burger is pretty good!" a Maginan grinned after finishing up the burger.

"Don't get too comfortable, Private. We still need to search for Tipral." a Dark Maginan spoke up. "And besides, I've heard from other Maginans that Chopper's around this place. We better be on our toes…"

"Squoh… This isn't good…" Squirps gulped. "But they don't seem to notice us…"

"We can't be in here if we're highly noticeable! We need a disguise…" Chopper pondered as he saw two Dark Wizards wearing gray cloaks to hide their faces, black pants, and purple eyes that could only be seen with the hood on them.

"So… You think that meal was worth it, my dark and evil friend?" the first Dark Wizard asked.

"Of course! Those fries were pretty tasty…" the second Dark Wizard grinned. "Such a shame Master Shadow Doom couldn't come here. He would've loved this place."

"He's a little busy with those Skellobit guys, if I could recall…"

"You mean those pathetic dead people? Please! We're the strongest of his minions! It's a good idea he made us to be superior over the Skellobits and Skelloknights. We really do deserve it!"

_"Wait… These guys are SHADE'S minions?!" _Chopper thought as he gaped. _"First Tipral's minions are here, and now these guys? !"_

"Say… Did Shade ever ask you about what we should've done with those guys that we found in the comet?"

"You know… I don't think he told us that much about that. I suppose he said to leave those six be. Not like it matters. What're they gonna do? They don't know how to get out of the comet! Chances are they'll die!"

"Meh. Let's not worry about that. Master Shadow Doom probably wants us back by now!"

When they walked over to the door, they noticed Chopper was standing in front of them. They stood silent for a moment before drawing their wands and aiming them at Chopper.

"This is a pleasant surprise! So we finally meet THE Chopper Master Shadow Doom has been talking about all this time…" the first Dark Wizard grinned.

"It'll be nice to see your strength!" the second Dark Wizard added.

"S-Squirps doesn't like this…" Squirps trailed.

"Hey, I think I have a better idea," Chopper declared, diving toward the Dark Wizards and beating them up without them seeing it coming. Squirps joined in and used his Squirt Beam to disintegrate them. Thankfully, Chopper managed to grab their cloaks before they disintegrated. Sadly, he couldn't get a glimpse of their faces, but who really cared about that?

"OK… I think this should be fine," Chopper put on the cloak and looked at himself. "Kinda big for me, but I guess it's better than nothing…"

They went up to the shop owner, who reminded Chopper of the shop owner from Twinkle Mart. The only exception was that he wasn't silver, but more of a hold color.

"Well hello there, customers!" the shop owner, Carl greeted. "Say… Didn't you two already purchase something? I don't know, like a twinkie?"

_"A twinkie? What the heck?"_

"Uhhhhh… I don't know." Chopper fake pondered as he scratched the top of his head. "We may have… But I liked the food so much, that I wanted to get more!"

"Really? Well… I guess that's good for business here! So what could I get you two?"

"I'll have the…chocolate chip muffin and my friend here wants a chocolate bar with or without nuts."

"With nuts!" Squirps corrected.

"Really? Nuts isn't my thing… But, whatever. It can have nuts in it."

"All right, I'm on it," Carl declared as he went to the shelf and got some chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin. "That'll be 30 coins!"

"Actually, I have a coupon for this place. What does it do?"

"That means you don't have to pay money for it. Here. I'll take it."

Chopper gave Carl the coupon and took the food. He and Squirps went over to a table that was not in the Maginans' range so they could eat at peace. It only took Chopper to inhale and swallow the muffin, while Squirps chomped down on his chocolate bar loudly.

"Squirps! Don't chew loudly!" Chopper whispered. "Some people are looking at us!"

"Squoh? Sorry… But… This chocolate… It's…_**TOO GOOOOOD!**_"

The Maginans stopped for a moment and looked over at the two. They put their helmets on and walked over to the two "wizards". They seemed to notice that they looked a little different, but they didn't care.

"Pardon me, but are you Shade's wizard minions?" a Dark Maginan asked.

"Uhhhh… Yeah! What's it to ya?" Chopper asked, trying to sound cool. Unfortunately, what he got were blasters aimed at him.

"We're Tipral's minions, and he told us that any minions of Shade are our enemies. So… I suppose it's time for you two to die!"

"Wait! We're NOT Dark Wizards!" Squirps pleaded.

"Really? Then why are you in that cloak?" a Maginan asked.

"Well that's none of your business," Chopper replied as his hood came down, revealing his face. The Maginan Troopers grinned as they brought their weapons closer to his head.

"Oh, so you're Chopper! That makes things better!" a Dark Maginan snickered. "Looks like your time has come!"

"I don't think so!" Chopper jumped over the Maginans in a fast manner and managed to spin around them while using ice energy. In no time at all, they were frozen solid. Carl himself ended up dropping his coffee.

"…What the heck are you?!"

"Uhhhh… I'm from your imagination!" Chopper responded until he noticed a Dark Maginan attempt to blast him.

"Don't think you're leaving just yet, kid!" the Dark Maginan growled as Chopper hurled a fireball toward it. The soldier ducked while the fireball hit some ice, melting it. "Whoa… Where'd that come from?! Tipral never told me you had that!"

"Well, that works just fine!" Chopper smiled as he froze the Dark Maginan with an ice ball. "All right, Squirps… We should probably get out of here quickly. I don't want to be fighting in here…"

Unfortunately, the Dark Maginans unfroze and began to fire at Chopper, making him gulp and duck under the attacks. Carl shrieked and got under the desk to avoid getting injured.

"Why must there be a fight here?" Carl cried.

"Hold still while I blast you!" a Maginan shouted as it used its pistols to shoot Chopper, who managed to jump over to it and kick it with rainbow energy. Although he got blasted by a Dark Maginan, he was able to speed around it until it was dizzy, allowing him to kick the soldier out of the restaurant.

"Squoh… That was intense." Squirps gaped, not even involved in the fight.

"Come on, Squirps… We should get out of here." Chopper suggested.

As the two left, Carl slowly got up and let out a groan. "I hate my job…"

* * *

**Outside-**

"You know, why is this place World 21 anyway?" Chopper wondered as he space-swam away from the restaurant.

"Squirps doesn't know why," Squirps shrugged. "Squirps doesn't hold all knowledge to this place!"

"Well, why did I have to pass the other two worlds? I mean, I pretty much missed that LAST Pure Heart! …Although, there's the Pure Heart that's turned into a stone. There's a problem for me."

While he continued on and blasted a couple of UFOs with Squirps's Squirt Beam, they took a wormhole into an area where they saw a large asteroid off at the distance. Squirps began to ponder for a minute, remembering an asteroid like that.

"What's wrong, Squirps?"

"Squirps isn't sure, but maybe there's something important on that asteroid! Squirps suggests that you head there, space grunt!"

"Will it lead us to the sages?"

"Maybe… But Squirps isn't entirely sure."

"OK, then we'll go there," Chopper nodded as he space-swam toward the asteroid off in the distance. Little did he know he was being watched by someone else who was surprised to see him in this world.

It was the Necromancer, who happened to fly out of the wormhole.

"So, that boy came here at long last…" the Necromancer trailed as he glared at him from behind. "Apparently his friends didn't show up here either, so I guess him being lonely here is rather interesting!"

He began to recall the last time he met with Chopper and his friends at The Peaceness. He even began to recall the Nimbi Wenbi joining Shade's side and giving him more attention than the Necromancer.

"I'm glad that that Nimbi is dead! Ever since he came into the group, Master Shadow Doom was ignoring me most of the time! I mean, I'm second-in-command of the army! Thank goodness everything's back to normal, though."

"Necromancer! We have news!" a Dark Wizard called out as it space-swam down to the Necromancer.

"What is it, wizard?" the Necromancer asked.

"We've just discovered Chopper is in this place!" Of course, the only thing the Dark Wizard got was a smack to the face.

"You idiot! I already know about that! Next time, tell me something that's more important than that!"

"All right then… How about the information about six people that were found at the comet?"

"Really? Hmmmm… Now that's interesting! However, I want to see what this Star Warrior's doing first! You wizards can join me if you want!"

"Of course. We'd love to."

* * *

**Asteroid of the Sages-**

When Chopper landed on the asteroid, he noticed the gravity felt normal when he walked around, which made him sigh in relief. The last thing he wanted in space was his speed to be hindered.

"Well, looks like we're not going to be space-swimming for now!" Chopper smiled. "So tell me, Squirps… Was there really any point in coming here?"

"Not really, squirple…" Squirps began.

"Wa- Hold on, then what was the point in coming here in the first place? !"

"Don't give Squirps an angry look! Squirps wasn't done yet! There's something that Squirps did recall when looking at a map. It said there wasn't much except for a sacred shrine that none had ever entered!"

"…Really? Well, I hope you're telling the truth, because last time I believed someone, I was thrown into a pit. Believe me, it's not good."

"That must've been hard for you, space grunt."

"Errmmm… Could you call me Chopper instead of 'space grunt'?" Chopper asked. "I'd rather be called by my own name than as a 'space grunt'…"

"OK, Chopper… Squirps supposes that we shall…" Squirps paused for a moment when he felt something in him make him feel constipated. "_**HNNNNGH!**_"

"Are you all right, Squirps? You don't look so good…" Chopper noticed as he saw Squirps cross his tentacles.

"I… I have to REALLY go potty! I don't know what was in that chocolate, but… I REALLY need to go, squirk!"

"Oh, brother… Not this again… You're going to have to hold it in."

"But… But… Squirps _can't_! Squirps can barely move!"

"Ugh… I guess I'm going to have to carry you…" Chopper groaned as he picked up Squirps. "Now don't you think of going to the bathroom on my head! I don't like it when people do stuff like that to me!"

"Don't worry, I'll try not to."

"You better not…" Chopper made his way down a hill, his feet moving like a wheel as he found a door before him. Unfortunately, it was barred up, preventing him from going in. However, he did notice two switches on the ground.

"Hmmmmmmm… Squirps, I'm going to put you down by the switch, if that's fine by you."

"G-Go ahead," Squirps nodded as Chopper put him down and jumped on the other switch, causing the bars on the door to vanish. He smiled as he picked up Squirps and headed through the door.

When walking out of the door, the first thing they noticed was a porta potty. It almost reminded Chopper of when they found a porta potty back on Planet Blobule. Oh, the good old times…

"A b-bathroom!" Squirps cried out. "Let me go in, squackle!"

"OK OK!" Chopper nodded as he put Squirps down by the door and watched as he hurried in. Squirps seemed relieved once he got inside. "So… How long are you going to take?"

"_That chocolate bar might make me take a while, Squirp!_" hollered Squirps. "_Maybe you should go out and explore the place yourself, Chopper! Maybe you might find something here!_"

"OK, I guess I'll do that," Chopper nodded. "At least I won't be carrying anyone around for now, that's for sure."

Chopper decided to jump over to the short ledge up ahead, where he saw a slope going down to a seesaw with a small block that was on the lower side of the seesaw. When he jumped on the upper side, the block was sent flying upward before coming down.

"Uh oh…" Chopper jumped on the other side as he saw it falling down over him. When it landed on the seesaw, Chopper was sent flying up to the ledge above him, where he found some blue Boomboxers called Blareboxers firing their shockwaves his way. One knocked Chopper by the edge of the floor, but he managed to freeze one with an ice ball and scorch another with a fireball.

That only left one Blareboxer left.

"So there are blue ones here, huh?" Chopper frowned. "Well I guess this is going to be rather enjoyable…"

After the frozen Blareboxer unfroze, it fired its shockwaves at Chopper again, who jumped in the air and stomped on the Blareboxer, performing a stylish move in the process. After using a rainbow kick, it was defeated, leaving two more left. The Blareboxer he burned tried to attack him, but with a charged fireball, he managed to defeat it.

"Now that only leaves one…" Chopper trailed as he inhaled the last Blareboxer and spat it away from him. Thankfully, taking them out by inhaling them makes things easier, but he doesn't get points because of it.

With that, he hurried on ahead, running past a platform that had a yellow ? block floating above. When he hit it, the Ice ability popped out. He decided to take it and ice skate on ahead to a large gap. Thankfully there was ground below, but when he flipped into 3-D, he noticed a bridge he could cross.

He smiled as he crossed the bridge and headed through the door. When he walked out, he was standing on a high ledge and noticed a path down below. A Dark Maginan and Blareboxer was wander around by another yellow ? block.

"I think I know what to do here," Chopper nodded as he jumped down and used his Ice Storm to freeze the Blareboxer and damage the Dark Maginan, who fired at Chopper, knocking his Ice ability away.

"Dang… So much for that."

He hurled a charged rainbow ball at the Dark Maginan, followed by attacking with his hammer – until he realized that he didn't have Cudge with him. He frowned and jumped on the Dark Maginan instead before moving on to a large rock blocking the way. He flipped into 3-D and went around it easily.

He noticed there was another secret path to go down as he noticed a hole in the middle of the ground. Chopper jumped down and found a yellow ? block that contained a blue bandanna. When he took it, he became Suplex Chopper.

Up ahead, there were some small gaps he could jump over and a couple of small yellow blocks as well. When he reached the large pile, he grabbed one of them and threw it forward, destroying all the blocks in his path.

"I don't think I needed to come down here…" Chopper trailed. "I think this might be an alternate path…"

He reached a ledge that had a door on it, so he entered the door into a tunnel-like area in the asteroid where he saw some golden Blade Knights carrying their swords. Chopper grabbed one and slammed it to the ground while he kicked the other to reach some small platforms going down at the end of the path.

"I wonder where this leads…"

He climbed down the platforms and found a small slope to the left going down to another set of platforms leading down to another slope. Chopper climbed down the platforms and ran down the slope until he reached a door on an asteroid platform. Below him was a bottomless pit.

"I better be careful…" Chopper trailed as he entered the next area, where he found a couple of platforms with ice on them. Some Dark Maginans were flying around, as well as some UFOs.

When a UFO got close, Chopper inhaled it in order to grab it and threw it at a Dark Maginan. Afterward, he threw a fireball at its jetpack, causing it to go out of control.

"Awwaaaah! My jetpack!" the Dark Maginan cried as it crashed into a platform and exploded.

After Chopper took down the UFO, he began to slip on the icy platforms. Thankfully, he jumped down to some platforms below him and made his way over to the door ahead. When he reached the next area, he found a pole leading up to a door above him.

"OK, it's just a pole…" Chopper sighed as he began to climb the pole, but just like before, some Sparks appeared on the pole and began to chase him up. Chopper had to use the platforms in order to keep himself from getting hurt. Once he reached the top, he entered an area where he saw a ledge behind him. Apparently there was a door up there that he could've came out of.

"Ahh. Interesting. So I can go up there if I wanted…" Chopper smirked as he found a door up ahead and a yellow ? block and Save Block. When he hit the yellow ? block, he found a Star Shroom, so he ate it to recover 150 HP. Afterward, he hit the Save Block.

"All right! Let's see what's through this door!"

* * *

**Next area-**

When he walked out of the door, he noticed how massive this area was. It was literally big enough to fit an entire monster on here, that's for sure!

"Yeesh… This area's huge!" Chopper gaped.

_"**WHO ARE YOU?!**"_

"Huh? Who said that? That sounded kind of like…"

Before Chopper could finish, the ground began to shake as a large, purple robot dragon with a yellow underside appeared via teleportation and let out a huge roar that made Chopper cover his antennas.

"Oh, no… Not another one of these guys!"

_"HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO GET HERE?! THIS AREA IS FORBIDDEN BY THE SAGES!" _the dragon bellowed.

"Excuse me, but did you say 'sages'?" Chopper gaped. "Then… I must be where I'm supposed to be! I guess Squirps did a good thing by coming here!"

_"I AM ARCTAIL. I AM THE ONE WHO GUARDS THIS ANCIENT SHRINE FROM INTRUDERS. THOSE WHO WISH TO CHALLENGE ME WILL BE TERMINATED."_

"OK, Arctail… I guess I'll take you on. Besides, I need to find the sages in order to restore the Pure Heart!"

_"SO, YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE ME? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED."_

"Yeah! I'll do what I did to Dracktail!"

_"MY SENSORS SENSE THAT YOU SAID YOU DESTROYED DRACKTAIL, MY MECHANICAL BROTHER. IF THAT'S WHAT YOU DID, THEN I SHALL AVENGE DRACKTAIL'S DEATH BY TAKING YOUR LIFE! IT IS TIME FOR YOUR ENDS TO BE MET, SMALL CHILD!"_

"Whoa… That's a shocker." Chopper gaped. "Wait, I don't want you to take my life!"

Arctail let out a roar as it sank into the ground. Chopper blinked for a moment before the large dragon rose out of the ground, soaring into space. What was interesting was that gravity was not affecting this robotic dragon at all.

"OK… So I manage to take down Dracktail… If I have to do the same thing here, then this should be a cakewalk!"

He noticed Arctail fly into the background and make a U-turn. He gasped as he saw it coming straight at him. With his Speed Dash, he was able to avoid getting rammed by the massive robotic dragon.

Once Arctail flew above Chopper, bombs began to drop to the ground, forcing the Star Warrior to run until Arctail stopped dropping bombs and flew past him. When it turned, it began to come Chopper's way.

"All right… I know what has to be done." Chopper flipped into 3-D and stepped out of the way as he watched Arctail chomp the ground. Knowing that he had his chance, he jumped on Arctail's back and was now flying above the asteroid.

"Phew! Looks like I finally did it!"

He noticed some round, purple robots with beaks called Arcles shooting small, green projectiles directly at Chopper as he raced over to Arctail's antenna, which was spinning rapidly.

"…Oh, no! I just realized I don't have Thoreau to help me here!" Chopper frowned. "How am I supposed to hurt this guy now?"

He ended up getting hit by one of the Arcle's small projectile, which did 17 damage, which could've been Arctail's Attack. One thing for sure was that this dragon probably had an unknown amount of HP.

However, that's when he realized he still had his Suplex ability on. Sure, he couldn't use Thoreau to throw the Arcle's at Arctail, but maybe he could use them to throw them at Arctail's antenna! That's when he walked over to the antenna and managed to grab an Arcle. Using his ability, he jumped up and slammed the Arcle on Arctail's antenna, causing Arctail to let out a scream in pain.

"All right, that means I need two more hits," Chopper declared as he inhaled an Arcle and grabbed it before it went into his mouth. He threw it at Arctail's antenna, and then he threw another Arcle at the antenna.

However, Arctail did not do anything.

"Hmmmmm… Something should've happened by now…"

Chopper attacked it two more times with some Arcles, but what ended up happening was Arctail ended up spinning around in an attempt to get Chopper off. Thankfully, he jumped before he could end up falling and threw five more Arcles at Arctail's head. This was where the dragon began to fly forward at a faster pace to do a loop, causing Chopper to slip off.

"Oh no you don't! You're not going to make me fall off!" Chopper cried as he jumped off when he was sliding down the tail. When he saw Arctail's head up ahead, he managed to jump and land on its antenna, causing it to screech again.

"OK… I'm back on its head… Now I gotta repeat the process, right?"

However, he ended up getting hit by an Arcle's projectile, making him lose his Suplex ability. He tried to get it, but it fell off Arctail, forcing him to destroy the Arcles in his way with fireballs.

With that out of the way, he looked up at Arctail's antenna. Of course, there was no way for him to throw the Arcles at its antenna. But that didn't stop him from throwing rainbow balls at the antenna, which made Arctail let out screams.

After ten rainbow balls, Arctail began to do another loop, but this time when Chopper tried to get on its head, Arctail fired a large, green projectile out of its mouth that knocked Chopper off and back onto the asteroid where he was before.

"Dang it!" Chopper frowned as he kicked the ground in disappointment. "I almost had it!"

When Arctail flew above Chopper, it began to fire large projectiles that let off an explosion, sending Chopper flying forward. This wasn't something he saw from a robotic dragon, that's for sure.

Of course, Arctail had to fly into the background and turn around and charge at Chopper from the side like before. Of course, with Chopper's Speed Dash, he was able to get away from the dragon before he could get rammed by it. Once it flew above him, bombs were dropped, which he managed to avoid before he saw Arctail turn around and come his way.

"Yeah, now I know what I need to do here," Chopper nodded as he threw his arms up and went into 3-D. He stepped out of harm's way as the dragon came chomping its way. He jumped on the dragon and got carried upward once again.

_"INTRUSION DETECTED ON MY BACK," _Arctail alarmed as it did a barrel roll, causing Chopper to hold on for dear life. He almost lost his grasps on it, but thankfully Arctail didn't stay upside down long enough for Chopper to slide off.

"You can do this, Chopper…" the Star Warrior huffed. "I mean, there was one guy who killed sixteen giants with a little sword! If he could do that, then I can take this huge thing down!"

He inhaled an Arcle coming his way and spat it at another Arcle up ahead on Arctail's head. He tried not to move too fast, because he was worried about going past the antenna and falling off near Arctail's nose. One he got to the antenna, he began to chuck some rainbow balls at the antenna.

However, before he could throw two more, an Arcle managed to jump on him from behind and knock him over. It tried to shoot another particle at him, but he managed to kick it off and send it upward with an upper kick that made Arcle screech in pain.

"Oh… I could do that too." Chopper blinked as he kicked the Arcle upward again, causing Arctail to perform another loop. Chopper tried to hold on again, but it was surely not going to work, so he slid down Arctail's back until he reached the tail, where he jumped off and landed on Arctail's antenna while performing a stylish move and landed on the head.

An Arcle appeared on Arctail's nose and fired a charged particle at Chopper this time, who turned around and ended up getting hit by the attack. He inhaled the Arcle and spat it at one that was also coming near.

"If these guys didn't have those projectiles, this would be a lot easier…"

_"WHY HAVEN'T YOU BEEN THROWN OFF YET?!" _exclaimed Arctail as it tried to do another barrel roll. Chopper managed to jump before he could fall off and landed back on the dragon's back.

"Phew… That was a close one!" Chopper sighed as he clenched his fist and fired a couple of rainbow balls at Arctail, making him let out a couple of screams and do a loop and making Chopper fall off and land on the asteroid.

Of course, he was expecting the same process to occur, but then he noticed Arctail was diving down from above.

"What the heck is he doing? !"

He jumped out of the way when Arctail went inside of the asteroid. The ground began to tremor as Chopper noticed Arctail fly out of the ground. He just barely escaped the dragon's sharp teeth.

_"TARGET MISSED! YETI BOMBS ARE REQUESTED!"_

"Yeti bombs? What?"

Arctail flew over Chopper and began to drop a couple of bombs down at him, which he managed to outrun. The dragon followed up by firing a large beam from its mouth that Chopper barely avoided, leaving Arctail to fly on ahead of him and turn around to charge toward him.

"Yup, same thing as usual," Chopper rolled his eyes as he flipped into 3-D and jumped on Arctail's back when the time came. Once the dragon was flying, he made his way to Arctail's antenna and hurled an ice ball at it, causing Arctail to scream.

_"HOW IS SOMEONE PUNY LIKE YOURSELF ABLE TO TAKE ME ON?!" _exclaimed Arctail as Chopper kicked an Arcle with an upper fire kick at its antenna. _"NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN A MATCH FOR THE GUARDIAN! UNLESS YOU ARE THE…"_

"Uh huh! I'm the hero of the prophecy!" Chopper smirked as he threw seven rainbow balls at Arctail's antenna. With one last screech, the dragon had a feeling it was going to be finished soon.

Chopper sighed as he tossed a charged rainbow ball at the antenna. Sparks began to fly everywhere on Arctail as it let out another screech.

_"**AAAARGGHHH! I'M…DONE!**__" _Arctail screamed. _"YOU… I BELIEVE YOU ARE INDEED THE HERO OF THE LIGHT PROGNOSTICUS; THE ONE THE SAGES HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR ALL THIS TIME. QUICKLY, MAKE YOUR WAY INTO THE SHRINE AND MEET THE SAGES. __**ARRRGHHHHH!**__"_

Arctail screamed one last time as its back began to explode, revealing its organic spine that fell into pieces and dropped down. Chopper ended up falling off too, but he landed on the ground safely as he saw an Arcle fall.

"Well… I guess that's it…" Chopper trailed until he noticed something reveal itself up ahead. It was a dark gray shrine with stairs leading up to the door. "So that must be the Shrine of the Sages, right? I'm just guessing…"

He made his way up the staircase and reached the door. After opening it, the Star Warrior headed inside.

* * *

**Inside the Shrine of Sages-**

When Chopper walked inside, he noticed the interior looked absolutely beautiful. Stars were everywhere on the wall, and up a couple of small steps was a pedestal. Other than that, there wasn't much else he could see.

"This place is gorgeous!" Chopper gaped. "I would love to live in a shrine like this!"

However, when he looked around, he didn't see anyone. "_**HELLOOO?! SAGES?! THE HERO'S HERE!**_"

_"I'm afraid there are no sages here…"_

"No sages? You mean they no longer exist? …Hey, who was that right now?"

A wizard appeared above the pedestal and slowly descended down. He seemed to look a little similar to Merlon a bit, except his robe and hood were yellow with green eyes. However, he did not have a long mustache.

"Who are you?"

_"My name is __**Merlo**__. I am one of the descendants of the Tribe of Ancients. I do have a brother named Merlon, though I haven't seen him in many years…"_

"Wait, your Merlon's brother?!"

_"Yes, I'm his younger brother, to be exact. And rest assured, I'm not actually dead. I'm somewhere far from this asteroid and I'm using my power in order to contact you. One thing I knew about was your arrival."_

"Hold on… So are you the one who knows about the sages?"

_"I kind of know about it… You see, the thing is… The sages have died a long time ago. The truth is, they were eventually discovered by the Tribe of Darkness and killed…with the exception of one, that is. However, it was blatantly impossibly to kill this sage because it wasn't truly a person, but an object."_

"So, I just need to find this sage so I can stop The Void, save the Pure Heart and defeat Tipral?"

_"Even with one sage, that won't be enough for all of those," _Merlo sighed. _"You need all three sages in order to restore your Pure Heart and be able to use the power of the weapon that can counter the Dark Star Scepter."_

Chopper noticed a small rod with a star on the top sitting on the pedestal. _"You see, only the Star Rod is capable of fighting back the Dark Star Scepter. It isn't made of pure light, just like the Dark Star Scepter isn't made of pure darkness. They are technically even in battle, which could make a fight between two that carry them have no winner… But sadly, its power has been slowly draining here and had gotten weaker throughout the centuries."_

"So its power is dead?"

_"No, it is not…yet. If the hero of the Light Prognosticus grabs a hold of it, it might just work. However, it won't be as powerful as it was back in the day."_

"Wow… But, what about the sages? How am I supposed to restore the Pure Heart without their help?"

_"There could be a possibility that the sages' powers were passed on to others of their kind. Some of them foretold who the sages would be when their games would end. They made three stain-glassed windows that they foretold about who would be the sages. Sadly, because of how dark it is in here, nobody has discovered yet."_

"Well I guess that's a relief," Chopper sighed. "Well, I suppose I should grab the Star Rod…"

_"Be careful, boy… It may not accept you and force you to release it…" _warned Merlo.

Chopper ignored him and walked up to the pedestal. He noticed the Star Rod was stuck to the pedestal, but when he grabbed a hold of it, he noticed the star on the Star Rod begin to brighten up. To his surprise, he pulled it out and held it up high.

Not only that, but the whole shrine began to lighten up. Two stain-glassed windows were revealed to be around the pedestal, and Chopper certainly looked surprised at who was on there.

_"It appears the Star Rod accepted you…" _Merlo trailed. _"You might truly be the hero after all."_

However, Chopper was not listening to Merlo. He was too busy gasping at the two images on the stain-glassed windows

"No way… Are you telling me Squirps and Ninbot are two of the sages?!"

_"They must be the new sages… But, if you know them, then you should seek them and tell them you need their help. It is very important that you get the Pure Heart restored, or else the Purity Heart will never be formed again."_

"Squirps was just with me a couple of minutes ago, but I don't know where Ninbot is…" Chopper trailed, noticing that there were backgrounds on the windows. The stain-glassed window with Squirps's image had a space background, while Ninbot's had a forest.

_"If I'm not mistaken, Squirps is the Sage of Space, while Ninbot is the Sage of the Forest. The third sage, unfortunately, I cannot see. I suppose the darkness didn't leave the third window…"_

"Well, I guess I should go tell Squirps the news right now…"

_"Before you go, I advise you to come to __**Star Observatory**__," _Merlo suggested. _"You can find that place on a long pathway called __**Rainbow Trail**__. It will lead you there, and I might just be able to help you and your sage friend. I could also help track down the other sages if you wish."_

"What about the Star Rod?"

"_I have a place where that can go to keep its power from draining. There's a pedestal there that it can be placed on. When all three sages reunite their powers, it will be restored to its full power. However, it's only advised that you use its full power against the Dark Star Scepter, or dangerous things could happen…"_

"OK, thanks for the info. I guess I'll try to find Rainbow Trail out in space and meet with you. I'll bring Squirps as well."

_"Thank you, Chopper… I'm looking forward to meeting you in person." _Merlo said as his spirit slowly faded away. _"Also, since the Star Rod doesn't have its full power yet, using it against enemies wouldn't be a bad idea."_

With his voice slowly getting softer, Chopper walked down the stairs and headed to the door. He took a look back at the two windows and the third window that was being blocked by the dark power.

"I hope to find you guys soon…" Chopper trailed. "And I hope I can find the third sage as well…"

Once he left the shrine with the Star Rod, the darkness on the third window faded away, revealing a white angelic girl at peace in the sky.

* * *

**Near the porta potty-**

"Squirps! Are you done in there yet?!" Chopper hollered as he knocked on the door of the porta potty. "How long have you been in there?"

"_I'm sorry, squirp! I had to go REAL bad! I'm almost done!_" Squirps responded.

"Well hurry up, please… I found out about the sages and where we need to go!"

After hearing the toilet flush (yeah, for a porta potty, how unrealistic), Squirps came out, relieved.

"Ahhhhhh… Squirps is feeling much better!" Squirps sighed.

"Did you wash your hands—er, tentacles?" Chopper asked.

"Squirps didn't find a faucet to wash his tentacles…"

"Ewwww! I'm not picking you up! …Oh, I have gloves on. Like it'll matter anyway."

"Well, since Squirps is back, maybe we should… Squoh?" Squirps noticed the Star Rod in Chopper's hand. "Is that the weapon that can counter the Dark Star Scepter?!"

"Yeah, it is, actually!" Chopper nodded. "I actually met a guy named Merlo, which I swore I heard that name before… He wants us to go to the Star Observatory, where he's apparently at right now."

"OK! Squirps is on it!"

"Oh, and Squirps… I have something to tell you that you might find shocking…"

Squirps was silent.

"You're one of the three sages."

"Squoh? You're saying Squirps is a sage?!" Squirps gaped. "…What makes you think that Squirps will believe you?"

"Because I saw you on a stain-glassed window in the shrine," Chopper explained. "The powers of the Sage of Space must have been given to you, so you have the power to help restore the Pure Heart!"

"But you don't have proof for Squirps!" Squirps turned away and crossed his tentacles. However, the Star Rod revealed a stain-glassed window with Squirps on it. When the green alien looked at it, he gaped.

"Sq-Squoh?! That's… That's me!"

"Yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Then… Squirps shall help you with the Pure Heart." Squirps declared. "If this is what Squirps was meant to do all this time, then Squirps will fulfill his destiny and help the heroes!"

"You would really do that?" Chopper gawked.

"Mommy would want me to do it. Squirps wants to make her proud ever since Squirps was put in a hibernation capsule…" Squirps began to think about his mother and the events back then. "Sometimes, Squirps feels like he misses mommy…"

"Squirps, you're just fine," Chopper assured as he patted his head. "I mean, I bet your mother is already proud of you! You helped us reach the Pure Heart in the Whoa Zone, you managed to get us through the Mansion of Nightmares, and you even saved my friends when they were in danger! I personally think you deserve the title of a sage!"

"You really mean that? Thank you…Chopper." Squirps smiled as Chopper picked him up. "Come on! We need to go find this Merlo person, squirp!"

Chopper flipped into 3-D and discovered to the right, a secret pathway. He ignored the bridge ahead and took the pathway into a small area with a door being blocked by dark star energy.

"Well, maybe my Star Rod will come to good use here!" Chopper smiled as he swung the Star Rod and fired a yellow star at the darkness, destroying it completely and making the way through the door clear for them.

"Nice work! Let's go!" Squirps smiled as they headed through the door. Unfortunately, they didn't notice the Necromancer watching them.

"Yes, go right ahead, Star Warrior! You can take yourself and your sage friend to the Star Observatory! Little does he know that I'll be planning a little attack on that place to stop him from restoring that Pure Heart!"

The Necromancer grinned as he flew away from the area.

* * *

**Next area-**

When they walked out of the door, they noticed there was a cliff up ahead and a place where Chopper could jump off and space-swim. He decided to do just that and held Squirps in front of him.

"So, space gru—I mean Chopper… Are you ready to make our way out of here, squirple?" Squirps asked.

"Of course," Chopper nodded.

"Just beware of asteroids that are coming our way! Just use Squirps's Squirt Beam and we should be just fine!"

After Chopper had Squirps destroy a couple of asteroids, they carried on ahead.

"Well, I'm sure we should be fine through here," Chopper assured.

"Oh really? You might want to rethink that, Chopper!"

"Squoh? That's odd…" Squirps trailed. "Who said that, squirp?"

The Necromancer flew down in front of them with two Dark Wizards that had blood-stained wings, which disturbed Chopper a bit. Wondering about the wings, he was wondering if their faces were worse.

"So… What ever happened to the Skellobits anyway?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, they're still around," the first Dark Wizard began. "However, after Master Shadow Doom realized the Skellobits weren't enough, he was able to create us! As you can see, we are obviously his strongest minions."

"Squirps and I took two of you guys down easily! And besides, it's not like you're even threatening. You probably have no face under that hood."

"That's where you're wrong," the second Dark Wizard snickered as it pulled its hood down, revealing its disturbing face. Chopper could see that half of its face was black and burnt the other side showed a bit of a skull. Green blood was around the burnt part of its face as it cackled. It didn't even have eyes either!

"COVER YOUR FACE!" Chopper cried, covering his eyes. "I can't tell whether that's disgusting or just plain hideous!"

"See? We proved you wrong!" the first Dark Wizard grinned as the other put its hood back up. They both drew their purple wands that also seemed to resemble a sword a bit.

"Well, we can't waste our time here, squirp!" Squirps cried, opening his eyes after seeing the Dark Wizard's face. "We must get going!"

"Oh, I don't think so," the Necromancer interrupted. "I heard about this green alien being the Sage of Space. I was thinking if I should hinder your progress, so I decided to help you by taking him!"

"No way!" Chopper retorted, squeezing Squirps and making him shoot fireballs at the Necromancer, who deflected them with his sword. He held his hand in front of him as a purple glow surrounded it.

Chopper was struck by a purple blast, forcing him to release Squirps, which is where the Necromancer managed to swipe the green alien away.

"_**SQUAAAAACK!**_ Chopper, my fellow comrade! Help me!" Squirps cried as he struggled to break free.

"Now to go find this 'Merlo' you've been talking to… You wizards can finish him!" the Necromancer declared as he flew off, leaving the Dark Wizards to fire dark projectiles from their wands at Chopper, who continued to dodge them.

"Hold on… I can use the Star Rod!" Chopper pulled his Star Rod out and swung it, firing stars at the Dark Wizards and causing them to scream.

"_**AGGGGH! IT BUUUUURNS!**_" one cried as Chopper space-swam closer to them and swung the Star Rod at them, making them take more damage. With 96 HP, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 9, they were something that shouldn't be messed with.

Chopper charged up some power in the Star Rod and fired a small light beam at the Dark Wizards, destroying them completely. One thing for sure was that it dealt a lot of damage to them.

"Wow… That was almost like the Dark Star Scepter's dark beam, although that was a little weaker…"

He decided to follow the Necromancer ahead, despite him not being in his sights. There were a couple of wormholes that appeared with Dark UFOs popping out and shooting lasers at Chopper as he struck one of them with the Star Rod, making him bounce back a bit.

"Whoa! That was a little close…" Chopper fired a star at a Dark UFO from a distance and defeated it. He took down the other afterward and made his way over to a large asteroid with a glowing star inside.

"I wonder what this'll do to it…" he fired a star at the asteroid, which shattered it into pieces and leaving him to gape. "Wow… That was impressive!"

Knowing that he had nothing else to do, he space-swam up to the wormhole ahead to reach an area with moving asteroids that were moving in a strange pattern, such as moving up and down or diagonal. Nevertheless, he made his way past them and found a wormhole in the lower part of the area.

"Hmmmmm… Let's look through here." Chopper declared as he went through the wormhole and entered an area where he found a large asteroid with two Dark UFOs flying around. Chopper simply destroyed them with his Star Rod, which made a chest get drawn on the asteroid.

He opened it, only to find a Master Shroom Shake inside. Since nothing else was around, he left the area and space-swam to a wormhole that was being guarded by a Dark Wizard.

"Don't think you're going to be moving on, Chopper!" the Dark Wizard growled as it fired its dark magic at Chopper. He managed to block it with the Star Rod and shoot a star at the Dark Wizard, who cringed in pain as it tried to rush at Chopper.

Chopper managed to jump out of harm's way and bash the Dark Wizard with the Star Rod. Once it was dazed, he swung it a couple of times like it was a sword and finished it off by slamming it on the Dark Wizard's head, defeating it.

"OK… Now to go through the wormhole…" Chopper sighed as he entered the wormhole and found a low, rainbow path in the background. He also happened to notice a dark figure flying through there as well.

"There it is… Now it's time for me to go!" Chopper found a yellow wormhole up ahead being blocked by dark star energy, so he destroyed it by using the Star Rod. With that, the wormhole was clear, allowing him to go through.

* * *

**Rainbow Trail-**

When Chopper got near Rainbow Trail, the gravity began to pull him in. Thankfully, he was able to land on the long road, which consisted of some loops, corkscrews and even speed boosters.

"Wow… This looks like a perfect place for me to run!" Chopper smiled as he charged up a Speed Dash. "Yeah, I know what to do here."

He took off and went up a hill ahead and went down afterward, which helped him run through the loop and use the speed booster to increase his speed. There were some small pits below that he ended up bumping into, which made him stop when a Dark UFO appeared and fired a laser down at him.

However, with the Star Rod, he was able to destroy it with ease before going up a hill and finding the path being blocked by dark star energy.

"Yeah, I know what to do," Chopper nodded as he got rid of the darkness. With that, he was about to carry on…

…Until a missile sent him flying back.

"What the…!" When Chopper opened his eyes, he saw Metal Chopper fly down toward him. "Metal Chopper?!"

"Surprised to see me?" Metal Chopper grinned as he landed in front of Chopper. "I found this place while I was out exploring that metallic forest place. So, wondering what would be through here, I ended up here! And luckily, I managed to find you too! What's even better is that your friends are not here to save you!"

"I don't have time for this, Metal Chopper. I need to go somewhere right now, and having you here isn't going to help!"

"Remember what I said before about tearing out your eyes and making you eat them?"

"Augh! That's disgusting!"

"Believe me, that's how you'll regret defeating me!" Metal Chopper's right hand changed to his blue laser sword and he swung at Chopper, who managed to jump out of the way.

_"I'm not going to fight him…" _Chopper thought as he took off with his Speed Dash. Metal Chopper growled and flew after him, firing a couple of missiles his way.

"Don't think you're escaping me, Chopper!"

Metal Chopper used his boost to catch up to Chopper as he began to run through a corkscrew and then a speed booster, which increased his speed. Metal Chopper fired his machine gun, but all of his shots missed.

So, instead of flying above, he flew down on the road and began to catch up with Chopper. He was surrounded by a blue glow as he charged at Chopper head on, who turned around and gasped as he tried to increase his speed.

"I don't think I can flee forever…" Chopper trailed as he noticed Metal Chopper clasp his hands together and charge at him like a drill. However, instead of letting himself get hit, he jumped over him so he could go on ahead.

"Ha HA!"

"Wait, what?" Metal Chopper turned around and noticed Chopper was behind him. Unfortunately, he didn't see the loop that he bumped into. Chopper stuck his tongue out at him before he ran through the loop.

"Ugh… Stupid kid. I should've paid more attention…" the robot groaned as he got up and flew through the loop to chase after Chopper.

However, once they got to a wider area on Rainbow Trail, that's when Metal Chopper fired a paralyzing shot that struck Chopper and kept him still, allowing him to make his way to him.

"Now then…" Metal Chopper changed between his laser sword and machine gun. "Which way do you wanna die? Machine gun or laser sword?"

"Is that a way that you could let me live?" Chopper asked. "I mean, come on. Nowadays, you're merely a joke! You mostly kidnap girls who like me in order to lure me into a fight!"

"Lure you into a fight? Well, if that's the case, then it usually seems to work! Now hold still while I try to kill you!"

Before he could swing his laser sword, a dark blast knocked him back. "What the… Who threw that at me? !"

_**"****If anyone's going to be killing Chopper, it's going to be me," **_Phantom Maquano remarked as he slowly landed on the ground. Chopper was left to gape, despite being unable to move.

"Great… Not only do I have Metal Chopper here, but Maquano's here as well!" Chopper sighed. "This is going to be a great day."

"Maquano… I never expected to see…" Metal Chopper paused as he noticed Maquano was merely a dark ghost. "…Oh! Well well well! It looks like _someone_ got themselves killed! Heh heh heh! Now this is something I appreciate!"

_**"****Says the robot who got blown up many times…" **_Phantom Maquano trailed.

"Well at least I get repaired easily! Now get out of my way! I was just in the middle of destroying Chopper!"

_**"****Actually, I haven't finished my job yet. I believe it is I who is going to get rid of Chopper…"**_

"HA! You can't do much now that you're dead!" Metal Chopper scoffed as he fired his machine gun at Phantom Maquano. However, since he was a ghost, the bullets didn't do a thing. "Oh, crap… That's not good."

_**"****Let me show you what I can do for you!" **_Phantom Maquano grinned as he fired a dark blast toward Metal Chopper, who jumped out of the way.

"Beat it, Maquano! This is MY fight! Not yours!"

_**"****I can change that if you want," **_he fired another dark blast at Metal Chopper, but this time, it made Metal Chopper get transported somewhere else. _**"You'll see how it's like in that large dark world that's out there!"**_

Thankfully, when Metal Chopper was sent out, Chopper was able to break free from his paralysis. He tried to sneak away, but…

_**"****Oh, don't think you'll be leaving so soon, Chopper! We're not finished yet! I told you I'd be back since that last fight!"**_

"Ugh… Look, can't you see I'm a little busy right now?" Chopper groaned. "I need to find my friend! It's important because the Pure Heart turned into a rock and I need the help of the three sages!"

_**"****Ah, I heard of the sages before… I remember seeing them before. I wanted to kill them, but the Tribe of Darkness beat me to it! However, it's not a huge issue. Since you're here, I'll just kill you right now!"**_

Phantom Maquano created another dark ball of energy and threw it down at Chopper, who jumped out of the way and drew the Star Rod. He shot a star straight at Phantom Maquano, making him cringe.

"Ha! This thing has light in it!" Chopper smirked. "Looks like you're done for!"

_**"****Argh… You may think that… But you see, the Star Rod's power isn't enough to destroy my phantom… Only pure light has that power! And what's this? You seem to be lacking it since our battle in Dark Subspace World!"**_

"Dang… Well, the only thing I can do is hold you back." Chopper noticed he still had an unknown amount of HP, but now he had an Attack of 19, making him a little stronger this time. Nevertheless, he shot another star toward Phantom Maquano, who dodged the attack.

Phantom Maquano struck the ground and sent a dark shockwave toward Chopper, who managed to jump over it and reach his nemesis and strike him with the Star Rod. He imagined it as a sword as he brought it down on Phantom Maquano's helmet, although some of the attacks he was able to block.

Phantom Maquano raised his sword and a small dark laser fired down toward Chopper, knocking him back. He tried to counter it with a star, but Phantom Maquano was able to teleport to avoid it and get behind Chopper.

_**"****Since you're alone, this makes the fight better for me!" **_Phantom Maquano smirked as he swung his sword and sent Chopper flying back.

"Hey! That's child abuse!" Chopper cried.

**"**_**I don't care about child abuse. I kill whoever I want to kill."**_

Chopper frowned as he tossed a rainbow ball at Phantom Maquano, who simply whacked away with his sword, but unfortunately, he didn't see a star coming at him, which made him fall to the ground.

"All right, now let me see what I can do here," Chopper fired a small light beam from the Star Rod at Phantom Maquano, who cringed in pain as he got up.

_**"****DIE!" **_Phantom Maquano created a large ball of darkness over his head which he managed to throw down at Chopper, who was able to throw it back at him by swinging the Star Rod.

"Wait… How was that possible? !"

_**"****Hmph… A little game, huh? OK, I'll play your little 'game'!" **_Phantom Maquano kicked the dark ball back at Chopper, who was able to throw it back at him. It was like they were playing a game of tennis – except that the ball was a dark ball of energy.

Once Chopper hurled the ball back at Phantom Maquano, he tried to think of a distraction. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to the dark ball anymore, which hit him when Phantom Maquano sent it flying back at him, knocking him to the ground.

"Dang it… I shouldn't have left myself too distracted."

Phantom Maquano grinned as he hurled more dark balls of energy, which Chopper rolled out of the way to avoid. At this point, he was starting to believe that this was all Phantom Maquano would throw at him.

_**"Hmmmmm… You know, this isn't getting us anywhere. Maybe we should actually fight like real warriors and not stay far from each other." **_Phantom Maquano suggested.

"You know, I think we can finally agree with something," Chopper nodded as Phantom Maquano floated down and both of them ended up clashing as they charged. This time, Chopper won the clash and managed to bash Phantom Maquano with the Star Rod before swinging at him while he was stunned.

"Take this!" Chopper charged some power in the Star Rod before he gave one final swing, knocking Phantom Maquano back and making him grunt.

_**"****Not bad… But even with that Star Rod, you're not guaranteed to defeat me!" **_Phantom Maquano swung his sword at Chopper and left him stunned. He brought it down on him afterward to knock him to the ground. Before he could strike again, Chopper kicked him as he got up and shot a star at him.

Phantom Maquano swung back at the star, which knocked Chopper back. With that, he began to teleport around the area and make some dark balls appear and come toward Chopper, who avoided them by going into 3-D.

"What ever happened to fighting like a true warrior?" Chopper asked.

_**"****I decided to forget that, because the fight didn't feel as intense," **_Phantom Maquano answered as he hurled a large dark ball of energy down at Chopper, who swung it back at him like it was a tennis ball. However, he managed to hit him with a yellow star to stun him and then get hit by his own attack, leaving him to land on the ground, stunned.

"Well, looks like you're done for!" Chopper smirked as he began to strike Phantom Maquano with a combo, finishing it off with a small light beam. While it did massive damage to Phantom Maquano, he was able to get back up and kick Chopper away.

_**"****You've done that before, and it hasn't done a thing to me…"**_

"Maquano… I thought destroying me would be satisfying if I actually was evenly matched with you. By that, I mean you not being invulnerable to all of my attacks. We should fight some other time."

_**"****You're not convincing me to let you go," **_Phantom Maquano growled as he swung his sword at Chopper, who managed to block it. _**"After what you did to me, I don't give a crap whether I kill you whether I'm invulnerable or not! You'll just never die against me!"**_

"Well, there must be a reason then," Chopper tried to strike him, but Phantom Maquano kicked Chopper and knocked him back. He rose his sword and swung it afterward, firing a dark sword beam his way.

Chopper ducked and fired a star a Phantom Maquano, who blocked it with his sword. The phantom flew above Chopper and raised his arms, creating a large dark ball of energy that he began to conjure up.

_**"****This should be enough," **_Phantom Maquano threw it down at Chopper, who charged power in the Star Rod and fired a small light beam that shot toward the dark ball and managed to hit Phantom Maquano. The light beam even impaled him, making his eyes widen.

_**"****GAH!"**_

"Yeah! I did it!" Chopper fist pumped as Phantom Maquano fell to the ground – that is until he got up. "Wait… What? Are you serious?!"

_**"****Didn't I tell you, Chopper? The Star Rod doesn't have the power to kill my phantom! Maybe it has a chance when it has its full power restore, but without the sages, it'll never happen!"**_

"I already found one sage. I can go find the others!"

_**"****Heh heh heh… Well, we'll see… Make sure you stay alive, Chopper. 'Cause I'll be the one to finish you off!"**_

After a grin, Phantom Maquano teleported out of Rainbow Trail, leaving Chopper to sigh and rub the bruises and wounds left on him.

"Here, take this."

"Oh, thanks," Chopper sighed as he took a Star Shroom and ate it to recover 150 HP. However, he paused when he saw Ninbot offered it to him. "…Wait, how on earth did you get here?!"

"I had a dream one day telling me that I was something called a sage…" Ninbot trailed. "A robot was calling for me about someone needing my help with a Pure Heart. And then… He was gone. I decided to ask the main computer in the fortress about the sages, and she told me there used to be three sages. That made me believe that that was foreshadowing something. She also mentioned that the sages were in a place called Sagein Galaxy, which she gladly transported me to so I could find some answers. However, I ended up here, but then I ran into you."

"Wow… That's interesting." Chopper blinked.

"Where are your friends anyway?"

"They're not here, unfortunately… A shadowy spirit came in and sent us somewhere else. Surprisingly, I didn't end up in The Underwhere…"

"The Underwhere? You mean the Land of Ended Games? I heard about that place…"

"Yeah… Anyway, about the whole sage thing…" Chopper trailed. "I found out in the Shrine of Sages that you're the Sage of the Forest."

"Sage of the Forest? Hmmmm… Well, that makes sense, considering that I live in the forest. But, how could I be a sage when I saw the sage in my dream?"

"The sage's powers must've been passed down to you… You can actually save the universe if you help me!"

"That is what I plan to do," Ninbot nodded.

"Then… Could you help me find one of the sages that got kidnapped? The Necromancer came in out of nowhere and kidnapped Squirps!"

"Relax, I'm going to help you with that. We need all three sages anyway, right? If so, we should get going now."

Chopper grabbed Ninbot's arm and took off, going through a couple of loops that were up ahead. Other than it being a little long, there wasn't much else to this place.

"Well, this might take a while," Chopper noted.

* * *

**Star Observatory-**

After five minutes passed, they finally made it to the end of Rainbow Trail and found a silver observatory. It looked absolutely gorgeous with a couple of stars on the glassy ground, but they noticed a couple of Dark Wizards and The Necromancer there.

"Oh, no… We're too late."

"So this is the Star Observatory…" Ninbot trailed as he looked around the area and saw the Necromancer with Squirps trapped inside a force field cage. "That looks like the cage I was trapped in before… And is that person inside one of the sages?"

"Yeah, that's Squirps," Chopper nodded. "And the Necromancer's got him… And Merlo is nowhere to be seen either!"

Once they made their way over to the cage Squirps was trapped in, the Necromancer turned his head and noticed the two coming.

"So, you made it here at long last, huh?" the Necromancer noticed as Chopper drew the Star Rod and aimed it at him. "Hmmmm… I don't know what that weapon's supposed to be, but I don't really care."

"Release Squirps this instant!" demanded Chopper. "We need him if we're going to restore the Pure Heart!"

"I'd rather not. I mean, why would I let the good guys get what they want? And besides, I promised Master Shadow Doom I would do anything for him ever since he freed me from Underwhere Prison. Curse those four knights for destroying me…"

"Four knights? What are you talking about?"

"You see, I'm not exactly a monster similar to the Shaydes and Skellobits…" the Necromancer trailed as he turned around. "I used to work for another wizard and helped him steal a crystal and attempt to defeat four brave knights who went out to rescue the king's four daughters. Sadly, I failed him and was sent to Underwhere Prison by Queen Jaydes."

"So, why did you join Shade? Didn't you realize that he's a little on the…crazy side?" Chopper remarked, remembering when Shade had his crazy moments.

"For your information, he is called Shadow, not Shade."

"Well Shade sounds like a better nickname for him. Shadow sounds so…dull."

"Anyway, I joined him because he reminded me a little of my old master, with that magic that he possessed and the power he had to actually free us! When I was able to leave the aftergame, I remember a goal I once had. I wanted to change the world into a better place."

"You wanted to make the world a better place? How?"

"By making it full of dead people, of course!" the Necromancer cackled. "Master Shadow Doom promised me that if I helped him, I would be able to create the World of the Undead that would be powerful enough to wipe out all of the living!"

"So you want a universe filled with undead that will obey your every command?"

"Of course! First I'll have the living killed, then I'll use my power to raise the dead and have them worship me!"

"Well, there's one problem," Chopper said as he swung his Star Rod. "I'm not going to let you do that!"

"Ah, yes… Of course, there's still you and your friends to worry about." the Necromancer chuckled as he raised his sword while two Dark Wizards readied their wands. "I suppose we should settle this right now as fighters."

"I'll take care of the wizards," Ninbot informed. "You focus on this Necromancer."

"Got it," Chopper nodded as Ninbot walked over to the Dark Wizards and began to duke it out. "All right, Necromancer! Let's settle this once and for all!"

"Very well! Let's see how much you've improved since our last fight!" the Necromancer smirked.

The Necromancer raised his arms and dead arms rose out of the ground, attempting to grab Chopper. However, he was able to flip backwards and avoid the dead hands while swinging the Star Rod at the Necromancer, who flew out of harm's way as he fired purple magic down at Chopper.

"Whoa!" Chopper used the Star Rod to block the attack and deflect it back at the Necromancer, which knocked him back. "So, you're not going to do the same thing as before?"

"No, that would make it a little too redundant. I'd rather mix it up a bit!" the Necromancer smirked as he hurled a skeleton toward Chopper, which knocked him to the ground as the Necromancer landed on the ground. He made a dash toward Chopper and tried to strike him with his sword, but it was blocked by the Star Rod.

"So you're using that as a sword, huh? Can't say I'm too surprised…"

Chopper kicked the Necromancer back and hurled a rainbow ball at him, which hit him in the face. The Necromancer hurled a purple energy ball toward Chopper, which hit him and knocked him back.

"Watch this!" Chopper raised the Star Rod and swung it afterward to shoot a star at Necromancer, which made his eyes widen in pain as it struck his chest. Nevertheless, he was able to get over the pain and hack at Chopper with his sword.

Thankfully, Chopper managed to knock the Necromancer away and strike him with his Star Rod, leaving the Necromancer dazed as he jumped on his head and froze him with a charged ice ball.

"Woo hoo! The fight's over!" Chopper smiled.

"Squirps wouldn't say that if Squirps were you…" Squirps trailed as the ice shattered and the Necromancer made lightning strike Chopper, which knocked him down. The Necromancer also made some dead hands grab Chopper's feet when he got up.

"Ack! Let go of me!"

"Squirm all you want, but it's not going to help you," the Necromancer grinned as he fired a skeleton his way, hitting Chopper, but not knocking him back because of the dead hands. "You know, you don't really have anything to kill the dead."

"Maybe not, but… Wait, maybe this might!" Chopper swung the Star Rod down at the dead hands, forcing them to release Chopper and allowing him to jump toward the Necromancer and hit him with a flaming kick.

"OK, so he has 450 HP, an Attack of 18 and a Defense of 8. Yeesh… This might not be so easy. And then Ninbot's handling the wizards…"

"Don't worry, I've got it all under control," Ninbot assured as he slashed at one of the Dark Wizards, making it screech.

"OK, got it," Chopper nodded as he gave a thumbs up. Unfortunately, he didn't see the Necromancer strike him with his sword. He then noticed the Necromancer raise his sword, which began to charge up some power.

When he swung it, a Sword Beam came his way. Chopper tried to defend against it, but the Star Rod wasn't enough to destroy it. Sure, the Star Rod wasn't destroyed, but Chopper still got knocked back from the hit.

"Well, I guess we're a little even here," Chopper noticed.

"Indeed we are…" the Necromancer trailed. "For some reason, you remind me of one of the four knights I loathe, which makes me loathe you even more!"

"Sorry if you can't like me. I'm just trying to do what's best."

"Oh, really? Has there ever been a time where you felt like you enjoyed fighting?"

"Well… Yeah. However, that was when I was a little younger. I matured a little and have learned a few things I did wrong in the past…"

"Well I certainly enjoy fighting!" the Necromancer smirked as he made some dead hands rise in front of Chopper in order to grab him. However, Chopper swatted them away with his Star Rod easily.

With the dead hands gone, he rushed toward the Necromancer and chucked a charged fireball at him to leave him with burning damage. Though, it certainly didn't stop the Necromancer from firing a skeleton at him.

Chopper rolled out of the way while the Necromancer flew up and dove down toward Chopper, swinging his sword twice to make two small Sword Beams strike him. Despite this, he was able to push himself back up and hit the Necromancer in the head with the Star Rod.

"You are rather weak without your Pixls with you," the Necromancer scoffed. "Plus, with only you here, fighting you shall be a breeze!"

"Just because I don't have anyone to help me fight you doesn't mean you're instantly going to win," Chopper informed as he kicked the Necromancer, leaving him dazed. With that, he grabbed him and attempted to throw him onto the ground. It took a lot of strength, but he was barely able to throw him.

"Man… Throwing people is really annoying…"

The Necromancer attempted to get up, but Chopper stomped on him to prevent him from getting up, and then he brought the Star Rod down on him afterward. The Necromancer, however, managed to grab Chopper and pull him down in order to kick him in the face.

"Let's see how you deal with something like this? !" the Necromancer raised his arms and summoned a large dead hand to come own on Chopper and leave him dazed. He charged at the Star Warrior and slashed him afterward.

"Yeesh… You really are throwing a lot at me!" Chopper sweat dropped as he got out of his dizziness.

"That's because like you, I've gotten a little stronger as well," the evil Necromancer hissed as he charged at Chopper with his sword like a drill. He gulped and jumped out of the way and struck him with a star.

_"I gotta make sure I stay safe from those kinds of attacks…" _Chopper thought.

When the Necromancer turned around, he flew back to Chopper and tried to strike him with his sword. Chopper dodged the attacks by ducking and quickly moving himself back while the Necromancer grew frustrated with every time he missed.

"Damn kid… Then again, you are a fast one."

"Yeah, I can agree with that," Chopper nodded as he hurled a rainbow ball at the Necromancer, followed by a Star Rod to the face. For some reason, hitting his face with it felt a little satisfying.

The Necromancer flew up and summoned some small undead hands that attempted to grab a hold of Chopper's face. He managed to get them off by swinging the Star Rod at them.

"Awwww… I wanted them to tear your face off!" the Necromancer whined. "Fine, I think that isn't as good as what Master Shadow Doom would do when it comes to killing people."

Chopper frowned as he swung his Star Rod, making a star come toward the Necromancer. He tried to counter it by firing a Sword Beam, but the star had enough strength to go through and hit the Necromancer.

"Gah! What the heck?! How come that didn't work?!"

"Maybe it's because my Star Rod's stronger than your sword?" Chopper wondered as the Necromancer growled and flew toward Chopper. He attempted to swing at him, but Chopper swung at him, making their weapons clash.

"Too bad you don't have the strength as I do to win a clash!" the Necromancer smirked as he managed to push Chopper back and strike him with his sword, making the Star Warrior jump back and throw a fireball to leave him burned.

The Necromancer simply brushed it off and fired a purple ball of energy toward Chopper, which he managed to roll out of harm's way. With that, he began to charge up the Star Rod and shoot a small light beam at the Necromancer, which he tried to defend against with his sword.

"Rrrrghhh! What kind of move is this?" the Necromancer grunted as he jumped and used his wings to fly up a bit. He dove down toward Chopper and tried to use the spikes on his helmet to ram into him. Chopper, however, jumped out of the way and jumped on his head instead.

When Chopper performed a stylish move, the Necromancer summoned a large dead hand to grab Chopper and throw him to the ground, despite the fact that he was able to get it off with the help of the Star Rod. However, he didn't care. The Necromancer simply wanted to get rid of Chopper.

"Chopper! Squirps suggests that you attack when he's left open!" Squirps advised.

"Oh, that's some good advice you gave him," the Necromancer scoffed. "Such an obvious thing to say…"

"Well, Squirps thinks it's a good idea!"

"When I'm finished with Chopper, you're next! Now then…" the Necromancer turned around and grabbed a hold of Chopper. He decided to throw him at one of the small buildings and kick him afterward. Before Chopper could get up, the Necromancer began to jump up and down on him to flatten him like a pancake.

"Come on! This is definitely not fun!" Chopper frowned.

"But this is working just fine for me!"

Thankfully, Chopper managed to throw him off by managing to use his feet to strike him with a rainbow kick, knocking the Necromancer back and allowing Chopper to get up and unflatten himself.

"Sometimes I wonder how much I could take of this…" Chopper trailed as he stomped on the Necromancer and performed a stylish move. He looked over at Ninbot, who appeared to be struggling a bit with the Dark Wizards.

"You should've realized who you were messing with!" the first Dark Wizard scoffed.

"We are Master Shadow Doom's strongest minions, after all!" the second Dark Wizard added.

"True, but I'm a sage…" Ninbot stood up and clenched his fists. A white glow surrounded him as he bashed the two Dark Wizards with his head, knocking them toward the edge of the observatory.

"Right on, Ninbot!" Chopper approved before the Necromancer managed to strike him with his sword.

"Just because your friend is fighting back doesn't mean that we're done with our fight!" the Necromancer scoffed as he snapped his finger, making dead hands grab Chopper by the feet.

"Oh, come on! You know this won't…" Chopper paused when the Necromancer created a large ball of purple magic that he hurled at him. Since he didn't have time to free himself, he ended up taking the hit. Afterward, he got rid of the dead hands and pulled out a Star Shroom Shake.

"Great… I forgot about the healing items…" the Necromancer sweat dropped.

"It's great that I have these," Chopper sighed as he drank from the Star Shroom Shake to recover 150 HP. Afterward, he swung the Star Rod and hit the Necromancer before he struck him with a flaming punch. "At least I can hurt him with an elemental punch, too!"

"Two can play at that game!" the Necromancer surrounded his fist in purple magic and punched Chopper's face, leaving a red mark on his cheek. Of course, Chopper didn't take this lightly and smashed the Necromancer with the Star Rod.

"All right, that's it. It's time I showed you some of my new abilities! I don't believe I've showed you them the last time I fought you and your friends…"

"Then bring it on!"

Chopper gripped the Star Rod tightly as the Necromancer threw a ball of purple magic toward him. He held the Star Rod like a baseball bat and swung at the purple magic, sending it flying back toward the Necromancer.

"C'mon… Home run, please…" Chopper hoped as the purple magic hit the Necromancer and knocked him down. Sadly, he didn't get a home run. "Dang it! I was hoping I would get a home run!"

The Necromancer clenched his fists and hurled a skeleton at Chopper, who was able to knock it away by swinging the Star Rod. Now that he was a little busy, he hacked him with his sword and spun his sword like a drill to knock him down.

When Chopper got up, he noticed the Necromancer perform another drill attack, but this time he seemed to be aiming at a diagonal. Why he was doing this, Chopper had no idea, but trying to hit him was difficult because of his speed.

"Heh heh heh…" the Necromancer flew down toward Chopper from behind and attempted to strike him with another drill attack.

"Chopper! Watch out, squirp!" Squirps cried.

"Huh?" Chopper turned around and saw the Necromancer coming toward him again. He decided not to take the chances of blocking and jumped over the Necromancer, kicking him with an ice kick afterward.

"This should certainly cool you off!"

"Puns… Stupid, stupid puns…" the Necromancer face palmed before Chopper froze him with a charged ice ball.

"Squirps has to admit that that was bad…" Squirps trailed.

It wasn't long until the Necromancer broke out of his icy prison and flew up in the air and hurled some skeletons down at Chopper. He brought his guard up, but he didn't succeed when the Necromancer fired a skeleton from behind.

"You should try to be a little more cautious of where I throw my skeletons, Chopper!" the Necromancer smirked as he spun his sword vertically as he slammed the ground, sending a Sword Beam in Chopper's direction.

"Don't think you're getting away!" Chopper howled as he rushed toward the Necromancer, who used his wings to fly up once again. Chopper tried to fire a star at him, but the Necromancer simply threw purple magic at him to knock him back and leave him exhausted.

"What's the matter? Getting worn out, Star Warrior?"

"Well what about you? You're getting a little worn out yourself!"

"That's true, but you are looking a little more exhausted than me."

"Oh, really?" Chopper pulled an Ultimate Shroom Shake out and drank it to recover 100 HP. He threw the can away and tossed a rainbow ball at the Necromancer quickly, sending him flying back.

"Argh! You little…!" the Necromancer grunted as he held his chest in pain. However, he wasn't through just yet. He clenched his fists and summoned two large dead hands that attempted to smash Chopper with their fists.

"Holy… What the heck?!"

"This is one of the new moves I was telling you about! Enjoy!"

When one of the fists smashed Chopper, he used the Star Rod to destroy them and fire a star at the Necromancer while he was cackling. This left him off guard and forcing him to summon small sword beams to fire down from the sky at Chopper. He went into 3-D and avoided these.

After Chopper went back into 2-D, he was able to knock the Necromancer down with the Star Rod, and once he was down, he was able to kick his helmet with a fire kick, scorching the Necromancer as well.

"Let's see how you like my spikes through you!" the Necromancer hissed as he charged at Chopper with the two spikes on his helmet aiming toward him. He gulped and froze him with an ice ball.

"Phew… Well that's a relief." Chopper sighed as he got behind him and unfroze him by shooting a star at him.

"Yeah! You can do it, squinkles!" Squirps cheered.

"Ungh… Stupid little boy! I'm going to rip you to pieces!" the Necromancer roared as he hacked Chopper with his sword and knocked him back with a kick. This left the Star Warrior dazed while the Necromancer grinned.

"Perfect! Now this is what I wanted to see! You, being covered in wounds by me! However, I'll be more satisfied when you're dead!"

"Why do you want me dead?" Chopper asked.

"Because it's what my master wants," the Necromancer explained. "If I want to make my own world of the undead, then I have to take you down. You and your friends are in our way, after all…"

"Well, it doesn't look like that's going to work," Ninbot declared as he got up and sheathed his katana. "Your two wizards are done for!"

"Hmmmmm… I guess the power from the sages does help… However, I believe I'll just finish this off." the Necromancer stabbed the ground and ripped through a hole to make a dark, monstrous hand rise out. Chopper noticed that the face of this monster seemed to show its mouth above its two purple eyes, which began to creep him out a bit when he saw that green, forked tongue.

"This should finish you!"

However, Ninbot used his power to fire white energy at Chopper, which made him cringe until he noticed some of the wounds on him were slowly fading away. Squirps did the same thing, which gave Chopper the energy to wipe the dark monster away, making the Necromancer gape.

"What in the world? ! No! This thing was about to finish you off!"

"Not this time, Necromancer," Chopper charged up energy in the Star Rod and fired a light beam toward the Necromancer. An explosion ended up hitting him below his left eye, which left a bad crack on his helmet below his eye. Even his armor had a couple of cracks as well

"_**CHOOOOPPERRRR!**_" the Necromancer roared in hatred as he was sent flying out of the Star Observatory. When Chopper stopped, the Necromancer was out of range and, Chopper noticed he used up a lot of power in the Star Rod.

"Finally… He's out of the way." Chopper sighed as he walked over to the cage Squirps was in and disabled the force field, freeing the green alien.

"Squirple squee! Squirps is finally free!" Squirps squealed. "Thank you so much, Chopper!"

"Ahem… What about me?" Ninbot mentioned.

"Squoh? Who are you anyway?"

"Let's just say I'm…an acquaintance of Chopper."

"Yeah, I suppose," Chopper shrugged.

"So, the fight is finally over I see… You did a nice job, Chopper." Chopper turned around and noticed a wizard that looked just like the spirit he saw in the Shrine of Sages walk over to him. "Welcome Chopper! I am the one you spoke to at the Shrine of Sages, Merlo!"

"Hi, Merlo!" Chopper waved. "You're…a little shorter than Merlon."

"Yeah yeah… I know that… No need to tell me that…" Merlo trailed as he turned to Squirps and Ninbot. "So, you managed to find the ones who hold the sages' powers! Great work, Chopper!"

"Is it just us, squirp?" Squirps wondered.

"Hold on, I still didn't find the third…" Chopper trailed. "I don't know if the third sage is anywhere around here…"

"Do you know who the third sage is?" Ninbot asked.

"Not at all…" he looked down at the Star Rod and noticed its power getting dull. "Geez… I used up a lot of the Star Rod's power, didn't I?"

"Ah, yes… I did say that I could help you keep the Star Rod's power from draining. Please come with me, Chopper." Merlo suggested as Chopper followed Merlo into a small purple dome-like building. He noticed there was a pedestal that resembled the pedestal in the Shrine of Sages.

"Whoa… You have one here?"

"Yes, I was able to find one of these in this world and bring it here. This pedestal is made out of pure light, and if the Star Rod is placed here, its power can slowly regenerate. However, it won't be at full power…"

"Might as well do it," Chopper shrugged as he placed the Star Rod on the light pedestal. However, since his hands touched the pedestal, he felt some power surge into his hands, making him cringe.

"What the heck?! Something's going into my hands!"

"Hold on a moment…" Merlo trailed as he stepped back. When Chopper moved his arms away from the pedestal, he noticed that his hands had a yellow glow. From what he could recall, it was something that reminded him of the Diamond Gloves from the Bean 'n' Badge shopkeeper and the Master Gloves that he got from defeating Rawk Hawk a second time.

"No way… Did I seriously get light energy from that pedestal?" Chopper gaped.

He looked outside and ended up throwing a light ball, which began to fly out of the observatory's orbit and elsewhere.

"Wow! I actually got my light hand ability back! I've been waiting to get such an awesome power for a while, especially at a time like this!"

"The light power was bestowed to you?" Merlo gawked. "Never have I known that the pedestal would give light power to the hero… Anyway, we must go to the other sages. We need to help restore the Pure Heart."

"Got it!" Chopper nodded as Merlo walked outside and over to Squirps and Ninbot.

"You two… I need you to use the power of the sages to help restore the broken Pure Heart. It's important that Chopper gets it revitalized."

"Squirps can do it!" Squirps cheered as he fired a white light at the broken Pure Heart. Ninbot nodded and did the same thing. Chopper felt an invisible barrier get shattered as he held the Pure Heart in front of him.

"Hmmmm? It's still not broken…" Chopper trailed.

"That's because we need the power from the third sage," Merlo explained. "If you can find him or her, then you can restore the Pure Heart. Sadly, I don't think you'll find the third sage around here…"

"Well, maybe if I find my friends, I should tell them about finding the third sage and…"

"No! If you tell anyone else about this, then the power of the sages will be lost forever! You see, if only one hero found out about this, the sages' powers won't be lost unless he or she told another person."

"Awwww… I really wanted to tell my friends about it… Oh well." Chopper sighed as he noticed a comet off at the distance. "Say, Merlo… What's that comet?"

"That comet? That is known as the **Comet of Darkness**." Merlo explained. "It's said that an evil dark wizard lives there with his entire army. Basically, it's their headquarters."

"I heard that Necromancer say something about six people there…" Chopper pondered. "If that's the case, then I need to go there and help them! Although, he said six… I wonder who the sixth person is…"

"Are you crazy? That place is heavily guarded! Even with your new light powers, it won't be enough to travel there, especially on your own!"

"I don't care, Merlo. If there's a place where my friends are being held in, I would go there, no matter how dangerous it would be."

"Hmmmmmm… I suppose there's no stopping you. However, I wouldn't worry about that place until you restore the Pure Heart."

"All right… Now, you said that the third sage may not be here, correct? Well, how am I supposed to leave this place?"

"Thankfully, as a descendent of the Tribe of Ancients, I hold a power to teleport anyone!"

"Squoh? That means you can take us home?!" Squirps gasped.

"I would love to return home…" Ninbot trailed.

"You two are allowed to go back, but when you're called out to perform your job, you must be there at all costs. No exceptions."

"OK, squirp!"

"That's fine by me…"

"And as for you, Chopper…" Merlo trailed, turning to Chopper. "I will gladly return you to Flipside. If you see Merlon, tell him that his little brother said hi, all right? I wanna know how he's doing."

"OK," Chopper nodded. "Man, I really want to get back to Flipside for some reason…"

"Of course! I will do the job right now! So, _ahem…_" Merlo cleared his throat and raised his arms, focusing his magic. "_**YOU…RETURN…TO…FLIPSIDE!**_"

With that, Chopper was teleported out of Sagein Galaxy. Once Merlo teleported Squirps and Ninbot out, he let out a sigh as he looked up at the sky.

"Good luck, Chopper of Planet Clara… And you too, sages…"

* * *

**You were expecting this to be the same thing, right? ;P**

**So a lot of interesting stuff happened here, with the whole sages stuff to a dragon fight, to the battle against Phantom Maquano, the creepy Dark Wizards, the Necromancer fight and finally the new light power Chopper got a hold of.**

**Yeah, this was definitely one of my favorite chapters. Probably one of my favorites in the whole story, perhaps?**

**Anyway, this took a while to write, but thankfully, I believe the next part shouldn't be as long. I'll get into detail with that part when we get to it.**

**Also... Over 1,000,000 words. Really, I'm not kidding.**


	113. Three Orbs and a Sage

Chopper cried as he began to plummet from the sky of Flipside. Unfortunately, for him, he ended up landing on Flipside Tower headfirst, just like when he returned to Flipside from The Underwhere. And just like before, it was a little painful, which bothered him when he slowly got up.

"Ugh… I didn't enjoy that…" Chopper moaned as he rubbed his head in pain. He blinked for a second and noticed where he was. "Hey… I'm back at Flipside Tower! All right!"

He looked around to see if anyone was around the tower. Sadly, he couldn't find a single person. "OK… I guess I'm going to have to leave the tower then."

When Chopper walked over to the elevator, he noticed that The Void looked a little bigger in the sky than the previous time. He tried his best not to worry about it as he went down to the second floor and heard Merlon's voice. It sounded like he was concerned.

_"These poor Pixls… They look so dull and weak now…" _Merlon trailed. _"I don't know what's going on, but maybe it could be because the Pure Heart hasn't been restored to its normal form. If that Pure Heart isn't fixed, then they might die…"_

"Oh, boy… It doesn't sound like things are becoming any better…" Chopper trailed as he peeked through the door and noticed how dull the Pixls look. "Well I can't just stay out here. I need to go inside to at least cheer Merlon up…"

Instead of kicking the door open, Chopper pushed it open to see Merlon looking down at the weak and dull Pixls. When he heard footsteps, he turned around, only to gasp when he saw it was Chopper.

"C-C-Chopper?!" Merlon gaped. "But I saw you explode in the box and disappear! What happened to you?!"

"Believe it or not, I discovered the…" Chopper paused for a moment, remembering that Merlo told him not to talk about the sages.

"Do you mean the sages?"

"Oh, no… That's not good!"

"Relax, Chopper. I already know about the sages." Merlon assured. "Nothing's going to happen. But, if you found them, I assume you have the Pure Heart restored, do you not?"

"Well… You see… I didn't." Chopper sweat dropped as he held the stone Pure Heart. "Two sages managed to help shatter a barrier that Tipral probably put on this thing, but I never found the third sage…"

"Mmmmmmm… This is troubling news then… Not only that, but the Pixls are starting to grow weaker without the Pure Heart in the Heart Pillar. If it doesn't go in, chances are they might die…"

"How are they connected with the Pure Heart, though?" Chopper wondered.

"Hmmmmm… From what I believe, the Pixls helped with the creation of the Purity Heart by the Tribe of Ancients by lending some of their power. However, the major drawback was if a Pure Heart was to be dead, over time the Pixls would start to lose their power and eventually die."

"Wh-What?! D-Die?!"

"H-Hero…" moaned Thoreau as he floated over to him. "Pl-Please… Go find the third sage immediately."

"I know that, but I don't know where! Do you have any idea where I could find the sage?"

"N-No… Sadly, we don't know where, pard…" Slim coughed. "If it weren't fer that Pixl Queen, we probably wouldn't be like this…"

"Pixl Queen? What's a Pixl Queen?"

Unfortunately, he got no answer when they slowly began to fall to the ground like paper, making Chopper and Merlon gasp.

"I don't think they have much time left," Merlon gasped. "Chopper, no matter what, you need to find out who this third sage is! Maybe… Maybe it could be someone you know. You should try seeking them!"

"O-OK…" Chopper trailed as he left Merlon's house. However, instead of walking around, he sighed and sat down and held the stone heart. "I can't believe that it's all led to this… Now my Pixls are going to die if this thing isn't restored!"

He sighed as his head hung low. "I've been sent on a quest, but things aren't working out too well. I mean, my uncle, Chilbo, did a much better job! He was such a great hero! I need to be a little more like him!"

_"Chopper…"_

Chopper blinked when he looked up and saw a spirit of an old wizard with a long, white mustache and a purple hood and robe. His eyes were red, and for some reason, he almost looked a little similar to Merlon.

"What the… Who the heck are you?"

_"Please… Follow me, young one."_

Chopper noticed the spirit fly over to the elevator going down, so he took it down to the first floor. When he noticed him going into 3-D, Chopper did the same thing and followed the spirit into Mirror Hall.

"Mirror Hall? Why would I need to be here?" Chopper wondered.

_"Come to Rainbowside with me, please. I'll answer all your questions."_

Chopper shrugged and took the beam up to Rainbowside and followed the spirit down to the floor below the first floor, which was revealed to have a house to the right that was covered in darkness. To the left, there was an underwater passageway.

"Whoa… Is there some kind of dark barrier surrounding this place, or is it just dark mist or something?" Chopper wondered as his hand was surrounded by a yellow glow. "No matter. With my light powers, I'm sure I'll be able to destroy this!"

After charging up a light ball, he flung it at the house, ridding all of the dark power left on it. It was an old house, and when Chopper followed the spirit inside, it was surprisingly…a shrine.

"Hold on a second… The exterior looks like a poor person's house, while the interior looks like a shrine?! What the heck's going on here?!"

When he walked over to the end of the room, the spirit appeared, nearly making him yelp and fall back.

_"Rest assured, Chopper… I am not here to harm you." _the spirit assured.

"Oh, good… I'm glad that I… Wait, hold on a minute! How do you know my name?" Chopper gawked, looking suspicious.

_"You know Merlon, do you not? Well, you see… That is my son, as well as Merlo. I am their father, **Merli**. Ever since you first came to Flipside, I've been watching you come back with a Pure Heart and a couple of Pixls each time. Do you know how the Pixls came to be?"_

"No, not at all…" Chopper trailed. "They speak a lot at first, but once they join me, they don't tend to say much that often. Though, Thoreau has said more than the other Pixls, that's for sure…"

_"Ah, so you never knew… You see, they used to be spirits of the game-overed 3,000 years ago. Twelve on them were made, to be exact. The creator of these Pixls was unknown, but it was said that he had many apprentices that learned to create Pixls after his successors. For the Ancients, they were considered to be 'thinking tools'. Without them, the Ancients probably wouldn't have advanced further in life. In fact, we wouldn't have dear Flipside here either."_

"Really? The Pixls were the reason why the people of Flipside are here today… That's interesting… It must've been pretty awesome for those Ancients."

_"Well, it was…until the Pixl Queen appeared. She was able to mind control the Pixls to rebel against their masters. Unlike them, she was a demonic spirit and had an ability to control the spiritual Pixls. Because the Ancients depended on them so much, it prevented them from building and ended up becoming enslaved by the Pixl Queen and her mind-controlled Pixls. Some say that a shadow being assisted her."_

"Shadow being? That sounds kind of like Tipral…"

_"This shadow being had the ability to duplicate into its enemies. It said that it was trying to find the heroes. Sadly, it failed to do so and hid itself for a millennium. No one knows where it went. Some say that it found the heroes, but tried to find a way to manipulate them instead. However, only one of the heroes would be able to see it."_

"One hero…" Chopper pondered until his eyes widened. "No way…"

* * *

_Kirby looked a bit puzzled at Shadow Kirby, but he immediately turned to Chopper. "Poyo… (Chopper, you're not going to believe this… But there's a shadow of me trying to convince me to do horrible things!)"_

_"What? Where is it?" Chopper asked in shock. Kirby pointed at the mirror, but to him, he couldn't even see Shadow Kirby. "Uhhhhh… I don't see any shadow. Unless you mean the ones we all have."_

_"Poyo! (He actually talks, though!)"_

* * *

_"What's wrong, Chopper?" _Merli asked, noticing Chopper doze off for a moment, who quickly shook his head to pay attention.

"Well, you said it was a 'shadow', right? I think I remember one of my friends talking about a shadow..."

_"Usually this shadow being would take the form of the hero and speak to them through a reflection, from what I could recall. If one of your friends saw it, then you better be on the lookout."_

"Well, he hadn't spoken about the 'shadow' for a while… I guess he stopped seeing it?" Chopper shrugged. "I don't know… It's probably best not to get worried about it right now. Please continue your story."

_"All right, then," _Merli nodded. _"However, despite this travesty going on, the inheritors of the original twelve Pixls appeared and defeated the wave of Pixls in their way and freed the enslaved Ancients. With a card known as a Catch Card, they were able to trap the mind-controlled Pixls and heal them. However, despite this, only one survived and made his way to the Pixl Queen, who used her powers of illusion to stop this last fighter."_

"Wow… The Pixl Queen must've been angry…"

_"She was angry, especially when a Pixl immune to her effects came to assist the survivor. The queen tried to throw many attacks, but with the Pixl's ability, the survivor managed to throw them back at her and end her game. It turns out, the Pixl Queen was the first Pixl ever created, and the master who created her was studying the dark book known as the Dark Prognosticus. The survivor, on the other hand, disappeared with the book to avoid another disaster like that. Ever since then, the Ancients feared the Pixls and limited their power and even outlaw their creation. Eventually their power declined until they were no more."_

"Interesting… Hold on a second, you said the Pixl immune to the mind control helped the survivor _throw_ stuff?" Chopper gaped. "Hold on a second… I think I might know something about this…"

_"The reason why I told you this story was because I wanted you to know a little more about the Pixls, and the fact that they're not just 'in the background' in your adventure. You couldn't have collected nineteen Pure Hearts without their help, you know…"_

"Eighteen, excluding the dead Pure Heart here."

_"Yes… Because the Pixls power was connected to the creation of a Pure Heart, they get weak when its power drains. And that is why I am going to help you find the third sage. Without this sage, the Pure Heart will never be restored to its power, and the Pixls will be dead."_

"But I couldn't find him or her in Sagein Galaxy! How can I find this person?"

"_To get your answers, you must acquire three important orbs. There's the Dark Orb, which resides down in The Underwhere, the Light Orb, which resides in The Overthere, and the Rainbow Orb, which resides in The Peaceness."_

"How do I find them there? You expect me to check every area?"

_"With that light power you just got, you should be able to discover some dark blocks that could be struck with a light ball. If you hit them, you're surely going to discover one of them. Personally, I would recommend going to The Peaceness first."_

"All right, I guess I'll do that…" Chopper trailed as he made his way over to the door. "Oh… And Merli?"

_"Yes?"_

"I'll remember to not ignore the Pixls as much. To be fair, I felt like I've been giving my friends more attention than them. I mean, they're helpful too!"

_"Thank you, Chopper…"_

Chopper gave him a nod before he left the house.

* * *

**CHAPTER 15-5**

"There's something strange… Merli said something about that Pixl helping the survivor throw stuff at the Pixl Queen…" Chopper trailed as he walked through the clouds of The Peaceness. "Is it possible that Thoreau was the one who helped defeat the Pixl Queen? That sounds interesting… And this shadow person… Can I not see him? And also, why am I monologue? No one really likes that in stories anyway!"

He took a stroll around The Peaceness, trying to search for the dark block. The first thing he did was going to Peaceness Town. He noticed that the Nimbis were just fine and farting and…laughing hysterically.

"Yeesh… I'm sure this town smells because of those farts…"

He noticed a red house with a light blue roof nearby, so he decided to Speed Dash past a couple of Nimbis and knock on the door. When the door opened, Pherrance and Tillip opened it.

"Say, Pherrance… We didn't order any dinner yet!" Tillip realized.

"Yeah… It's strange that a delivery boy came here!" Pherrance noticed.

"Wait, what? I'm not a delivery boy!" Chopper retorted. "I'm Chopper! Chopper of Planet Clara!"

"Wait… You mean the kid that helped us get rid of Dabootman and Strott?" Tillip gasped. "Why, I can't believe it's you again! How are ya, budday?"

"Where are your other buddays?" Pherrance asked.

"Well… Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure where they are." Chopper frowned. "My friends and I have been through a lot ever since we left The Peaceness. Do you guys see that darkness in the sky?"

"Yeah, we can see it…" Tillip nodded.

"Once that gets bigger, it'll consume this world. Sadly, it already has consumed mine and my friends' worlds…"

"What? You lost your worlds because of that thing?! Then… Where do you guys live now?!"

"I guess we don't have a home," Chopper shrugged. "The only thing I can do at the moment is search for an important item called a Rainbow Orb. You guys know of something like that?"

"I don't know… But I know what _is_ important!" Pherrance farted in Tillip's face, making them both laugh hysterically. "Today is National Fart Day!"

"National what…?"

"National Fart Day! It's when Nimbis fart all day long!" Tillip explained as he farted. "Why don't you join us?"

"Uhhh… I'm a little busy, you know… I mean, I'm trying to save the universe! I honestly don't have time for a farting festival… I just want to know where I can find a Rainbow Orb."

"Well, I guess you can ask Elbi," Pherrance shrugged. "I bet he'd know something aboot that…"

"Then I shall go there," Chopper nodded. "I don't know when I'll be back…or if I'll ever be back. However, I'll tell my friends (if I find them) that you guys said hi."

With that, Chopper took off and left Peaceness Town to head over to Elbi's Shrine. Of course, when he got to the cloudy pathway, he noticed some of the damage from the battle before was still left around. Even the stairs he walked up had a couple of marks on it.

"I guess the Nimbis couldn't fix everything around here…" Chopper trailed as he made his way up the stairs and grabbed an Ultimate Shroom on his way to heal himself a bit. When he went inside, he saw Elbi was facing away from him, looking at a picture of him, his wife and Wenbi as a small baby.

"Oh, Labi and Wenbi… How much I miss thee…" Elbi trailed as he shed a tear, holding the necklace in his wings. "I finally got the chance to reunite with thee again, Wenbi, but then thou hath to die…"

When Chopper took a couple of steps in, Elbi turned around and noticed him. "Oh… I didn't mean to disturb you, Elbi…"

"It doth be OK, Chopper… What brings thee here anyway? I haven't seen thee in a while."

"As of right now, things are going terrible."

"How so?"

"I think… I think it would take a little too much time for me to explain it." Chopper sighed. "However, I did come here for something called a Rainbow Orb. Do you happen to know where it could be?"

"Hmmmmm… Well, I doth remember a dark block being behind mine throne." Elbi moved his throne, and behind it was a dark block. "I dost not know what this is, but mayhap that alien child put it hither."

"That's something I needed to find," Chopper hurled a light ball at the dark block, making it get enveloped in light and explode, revealing a rainbow orb that slowly landed on the ground.

"Wh-What? That's the Rainbow Orb!" Elbi gasped.

"I need to take this in order to… Well, let's just say it's something important." Chopper said as he picked it up and walked over to the Star Block.

"Wait, thou art leaving already?!"

"Sadly, I don't have much time… If I don't restore the Pure Heart, then the Pixls will die! I'm really sorry about this, Elbi…"

"…I doth understand. Thou must go now, Chopper."

Chopper gave him a nod as he hit the Star Block, which took him out of The Peaceness. Now he just needed to go find the Dark Orb and Light Orb from Chapter 7. That doesn't sound too hard.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7-1**

Once Chopper entered The Underwhere, he was greeted by the Shayde that first spoke to him when he came here before.

"So tell me, new face! First time down here in The Underwhere?" the Shayde asked. "…HA! I'm just kidding! People don't arrive HERE twice! Hahahahahahaha!"

"Actually, this is my third time being here…" Chopper trailed.

"Wait, what? But how is that even possible?! People only arrive here once!"

"Well, I guess I'm one of the few exceptions…"

"Hmmmmm… Well, I suppose I can't hold you back. If you're planning on going ahead, be my guest. Just watch out for the Underhands in the River Twygz. If they get you, you're in big trouble!"

"Oh… River Twygz…" Chopper sweat dropped. However, he soon realized who could be around here, and that's when he knew that he'd rather be swimming in the River Twygz. "Errr… I don't know if I'd choose River Twygz, now that I think about it."

He simply walked away from the Shayde and headed into the next area. Chopper sighed in relief when he saw Luvbi wasn't around. However, he realized that he had to get through this area in 3-D, so he went through all that trouble to reach the River Twygz, where Charold was waiting.

"What'sss thisss? Didn't I sssee you before?" Charold noticed. "You came here twice, if I could recall…"

"Yeah… I'm coming back here often, aren't I?" Chopper shrugged. "I'm just trying to look for something important here called a Dark Orb. I was told that it's somewhere around here."

"The Dark Orb? I… I believe I know of sssomething like that. I'll take you acrossssss the River Twygz, but you must give me four coinsss, of course."

"Ummmm… I think I'm better off swimming, thank you." Chopper shrugged as he used his Speed Dash to run across the river and head over to the door, while Charold looked a bit disappointed.

When Chopper reached the palace, there were a couple of D-Men that were blocking the way into Queen Jayde's palace. He decided to walk over to them, but they ended up stopping him.

"Sorry, but the queen's unfortunately out today," one D-Man informed.

"Really? Where'd she go?"

"We have no idea," the second D-Man shrugged. "She never even told us she was going out. To me, something's smelling a little fishy…"

"Maybe it's the fish you have?" the third D-Man mentioned.

The second D-Man paused and looked down at the can of fish he held. "Oh… I guess that makes perfect sense."

"Wait… The queen's missing?" Chopper gawked until he realized something. _"Hold on… Didn't 'Dimentio' (if that was even him) say that Jaydes was missing?"_

"Whatcha pondering' about, kid?"

"Well… I think I remember hearing about the queen being missing before. You see, maybe I could actually go find her. However, it requires me to get a hold of an item called a Dark Orb. You'd let me through, right? I mean, I helped her daughter to The Overthere!"

"Really? Well, that's interesting… Well, if there's something you're trying to find here, then we won't stop you. If you're the hero, we wouldn't want to get in your way anyway!"

"OK, thanks!" Chopper jumped over the D-Men (which he could've clearly done before) and made his way over to the palace door. When he entered it, he discovered a dark block was in the area, so by hurling a light ball at it, he found the Dark Orb.

"All right! The Dark Orb!" Chopper smiled as he picked it up. "Now that means I need to go find the last orb…in The Overthere…"

He sighed, realizing that Luvbi could be there to gush all over him and cover him in her angelic cooties that he loathed. But, he had no other choice, so he took a deep breath and hit the Star Block ahead.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7-5**

Since he had the Return Pipe in his hands, all he did was use it to return to Flipside Tower and go to The Overthere instead so he didn't have to worry about climbing Underwhere Road, going through Overthere Way and climbing up Overthere Stair. That would've been a little too much.

"All right… So I'm in The Overthere right now…" Chopper trailed as he took a couple of steps on the fluffy clouds. He couldn't help but smile at the atmosphere, despite The Void being in the sky. The place was simply gorgeous.

When he reached the area where the Overvator was, he noticed Novbi and Fallbi speaking to each other while they blushed. They were probably speaking "the words of love", according to them.

"Oh, fair Fallbi… I wish we can goest out somewhere and watch the beautiful sunset…" Novbi sighed as Fallbi giggled.

"Hee hee! Thou art making me blush, Novbi!" Fallbi smiled. "Thou art always good with the words of love!"

"Uhhhhhh… OK…" Chopper sweat dropped as the couple turned to him.

"Fallbi, doth this be the boy Luvbi's in love with?" Novbi asked.

"Yea, verily! Hast he come hither to propose to her?" Fallbi wondered.

"What?! No way! Why would I ever propose to her?!"

"I knew thou would dost it! Thou will becometh a great prince for sure! Although… Grambi and Luvbi hath been missing for a while…"

"Wait, what? Both of them are missing?" Chopper gasped, pausing for a moment. "For how long?"

"We dost not know," Novbi shrugged.

"Well, I'm looking for an important item, and it may require me to use the Overvator. You think you can do it?"

"Of course! GOOOOOOOING UP!" When Chopper jumped on the Overvator, it slowly began to ascend up to the cloud above them. "And hither we are! Thank thee for using the Overvator!"

"All right, now to get going," Chopper thanked Novbi and headed to Overthere Sector 4, where he noticed Whibbi was floating over by the rainbow bridge and looking up at the sky worriedly.

"Why dost this black hole have to come hither right now?" Whibbi asked. "At a time like this, too!"

When he turned around, he noticed Chopper. "Holdest on… Let me take a look at thee… Thou art one of the heroes that savest our world, yea?"

"Yeah, that's me," Chopper nodded.

"Thou hast come hither at a perfect time! Thou see, Grambi and Luvbi art missing!"

"Yeah, I heard… I'm going to the shrine to see if I can find any clues."

"Thou art? Then I won't stop thee. If clues art important to thee, then thou shalt goest now!"

Whibbi used his power to send Chopper flying over the rainbow bridge and to the door. Chopper shrugged and entered the next area, where he heard the beautiful angelic music in the background. Using his Speed Dash, he made his way over to the stairs and entered the shrine.

Unfortunately, he found nobody around.

"Oh, dear… This isn't good…" Chopper trailed as he took a couple of steps into the shrine. "Not only is Jaydes gone, but Grambi and Luvbi are too! While I should be relieved that Luvbi's go—No, wait… I shouldn't be happy! I mean, I don't think something's right here!"

He even looked around in 3-D, but he didn't see any sign of Grambi nor Luvbi. However, he did notice something behind the throne. It was another dark block.

"Such an obvious location…" Chopper sighed as he threw a light ball at the block to destroy it, revealing the Light Orb. When it landed in his hands, he noticed that it was just like the Light Orb he threw at Maquano two years ago.

"Man… I haven't seen this thing in two years… Too bad that the person who gave it to me was just trying to trick me and turned out to be a witch's soul…"

He put the Light Orb away and sighed. "All right… Time to go back and see Merli. I can finally find out where the third sage is."

So with that, he hit the Star Block in the room to leave The Overthere and return to Flipside Tower.

* * *

**Rainbowside, B1-**

_"Ah, I see you return… But do you have the three orbs I told you about?" _Merli asked as Chopper walked into the house.

"Yes, I have them right here!" Chopper declared as he held up the Rainbow, Dark and Light Orb. He gasped when he saw them float out of his hands and over to Merli, who took them and combined them into a large orb.

_"Thank you for finding them, Chopper," _Merli thanked. _"Thanks to you, you can now find the answer to whatever you want. However, you may only ask __one__ question, which is why finding that last sage is important!"_

"_Hmmmmmmm… I can ask anything I want, huh?" _Chopper thought. _"I could get some answers to my past! …But, no. I don't think I should do that. I feel that's a little selfish of me…"_

_"Well? Are you going to ask a question?"_

"OK," Chopper took a deep breath and walked over to the orb. "Where can I find the third sage to help me restore the Pure Heart?"

He watched as the orb flashed and revealed a location. It looked exactly like Rainbowside, but it was at a tower.

"Rainbowside Tower? The third sage is there?!" Chopper gaped.

_"Hmmmmm… So the third sage is closer than we thought. Chopper, you must make your way up to the Rainbow Tower of Rainbowside and get the third sage's help! The Pixls, the Ancients and even I are depending on you!"_

"Got it," Chopper nodded as he waved goodbye to Merli and left the house. With that, he had to go up to the tower.

* * *

**Rainbowside Tower-**

"All right, third sage, I'm here!" Chopper shouted as he walked out of the elevator. "I need your help with the Pure Heart, and if I don't restore it, the Pixls are going to die!"

"Doo bi doo bi doo…"

"Huh?" Chopper noticed a depressed Luvbi singing sadly as she looked up at the sky.

"Oh, me… Why didst Mother and Father have to be taken away from me?" Luvbi asked as tears rolled down her face. "I can barely dost anything to get them back! And now The Void hast grown bigger as well…"

"Luvbi…" Chopper trailed as he slowly walked over to her. The Nimbi princess slowly turned around and weakly smiled.

"Oh, Chopper… My sweet prince! I missed thee verily!" Luvbi cried as she hugged Chopper, who felt a little bad for her and lightly hugged her back. "Seeing thee hither doth maketh me feel a little better…"

"What happened? What are you doing here?"

"Taketh a look at this note. Thy questions will be answered." Luvbi said as she took out a letter and gave it to Chopper, who began to read through it.

_Dear Girly Princess Thing,_

_I have taken your parents away to my base. Why? I wanted revenge on you for helping Chopper ruin my plans! So, what did I decide to do? I took your mother and father, the king and queen of death! Thankfully, I learned a couple of magic spells that allow me to go up against even them! If you see your boyfriend, show him this letter. I want to see him at the Comet of Darkness so we can finally end this once and for all! Yes, you must bring him there, or else you'll never see your parents! However, let's see if you can actually make it there first! Ha HA!_

_Shadow Doom_

"So Shade's the one responsible for taking your parents…" Chopper trailed. "And he's at the Comet of Darkness? You know, that was a place I heard about, and I wanted to go there after hearing about six people showing up there."

"So thou will goest there?"

"Of course! I'm not going to let some alien child take away your parents! I don't want you to have the same fate as me…" Chopper sighed. "Although, I also have a little problem of my own."

"Pray, what doth that be?"

"You see, I'm trying to look for a specific kind of person that can help me with the Pure Heart. I was told that I could find this…person…here…" Chopper's eyes widened as he soon realized who it was. "No way… YOU…? YOU'RE the third sage?!"

"Third sage? What dost thou… Wait a moment." Luvbi paused. "I doth remember when I was a Pure Heart, I was once known as a Sage of the Skies. Even if I am not a Pure Heart now, I doth believest that the power is still in me."

"Then… You can help bring the Pure Heart back to life!" Chopper gasped. "We can save the Pixls from certain death! We can also save your parents too!

"Then… There doth be hope?"

"Yes! Of course! It's just like my uncle would say! 'Don't give up! There's always hope!' Man, what a great hero he was…"

"…Thank thee for telling me, sweet Chopper," Luvbi smiled, blushing at him. "I doth believest a kiss is necessary."

"Yeah!" Chopper declared before he blinked. "Wait… What? I…uh… I don't know abut that…"

Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper and puckered up, ready to kiss Chopper on the lips. His cheeks began to puff up as he realized he felt like he was going to vomit, so he gestured her to stop and vomited off the tower.

"_**BLAAAAUGHH!**_"

* * *

**Rainbowside, third floor-**

"Man, I'm feeling great today, don't you agree, Captain Fishhead?" a young boy asked as he looked at his fish inside the fish bowl.

That is, until something landed inside.

"Hey… Since when did the fishbowl look so disgusting?" he wondered. "Say, where are you, Captain Fishead?"

Unfortunately, the fish in the fish bowl didn't appear to be moving.

"Captain Fishhead? Captain Fishhead?! _**CAPTAIN FISHHEAD!**_"

* * *

**Rainbowside Tower-**

"Ugh… That was disgusting…" Chopper groaned as he wiped his mouth, while Luvbi wasn't fully aware that he vomited.

"Pray, what's wrong, my sweet prince?"

"Nothing really… And PLEASE stop calling me your prince… I'm not in love with you…"

"Well, since our kiss was interrupted, I might as well giveth thee one now," Luvbi declared as she fluttered up to Chopper and kissed him on the cheek, making him gag as Luvbi hugged him and blushed.

"That's so disgusting…" Chopper groaned.

"Oh, Chopper… How much I missed hugging thee… Thou art still squishy as usual!"

"Luvbi… Please!" Chopper cried until he noticed something flashing in his inventory. Luvbi noticed this and let go of Chopper as he pulled out the Pure Heart, which was now a pale green.

"I don't believe it… The Pure Heart's restored! But how?"

"The Pure Hearts art the feelings of our souls. They liveth on when we feel love!"

"Ummmmm… OK. Well, we better bring this to the Heart Pillar immediately! Then we better take the Pixls too!"

* * *

**Rainbowside Outskirts, B1-**

Knowing that the previous Heart Pillars were down in B1 of the outskirts, Chopper went down there to find the Heart Pillar to the right. There was no wall in the way – except for dark mist that was impossible to go through.

"I doth believe that the Heart Pillar is past that darkness," Luvbi predicted. "But we dost not have anything to counter it…"

"Oh yes we do," Chopper replied as he tossed a charged light ball at the darkness, ridding it and revealing the Heart Pillar. Hearts fluttered over the Nimbi girl's head as Chopper walked over to the Heart Pillar and let the pale green Pure Heart go into the Heart Pillar.

When the pale green clock appeared around the Heart Pillar, a dark purple door was revealed to be at Flopside Tower. When the clock was gone, Chopper turned to Luvbi and explained that they needed to go.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

When Merlon noticed Chopper and Luvbi's arrival, he gasped, especially the Pixls, who were delighted to see him.

"You're back!" Cudge cried.

"And we're feeling better!" Starbow added.

"Yeah! It's so good to see you guys back!" Chopper cried as he hugged his Pixl companions.

"Yes, the Pixls are back to normal thanks to you, Chopper!" Merlon thanked. "And it appears that you found the third sage to help break the barrier!"

"It was broken with love," Luvbi explained as she blushed at Chopper. "Our love doth many things, which is why we deserveth to be married!"

"I'm… I'm not ready for marriage…" Chopper sweat dropped. "Anyway, that means only one Pure Heart remains…"

"Yes, that is true," Merlon nodded. "With the final Pure Heart, you will finally be able to reach the center of The Void and use the Purity Heart's power to put an end to the Chaos Heart's true power!"

"Then we must not make haste! We must leave immediately!" Thoreau declared.

"Say, Thoreau… I have a question to ask…" Chopper trailed. "Were you involved in the battle against the Pixl Queen?"

"…How do you know that?"

"A spirit named Merli told me that."

"My… My father?!" Merlon gasped. "So… My father's spirit does live on through this town… Though, it was such a shame to see him go…"

"I'm sure he was great," Chopper assured before turning back to Thoreau. "Anyway, you did help fight against the Pixl Queen, right?"

"I'm quite surprised that you know about this. Yes, I did help." Thoreau confirmed.

"How come you never told us, KA-BOOM?" Hommissile asked.

"You guys never mentioned it. In fact, do people even pay attention to us?"

"Look, I think I really ignored you guys for a while…" Chopper trailed. "After hearing Merli's story, I think I'm going to make it up to you guys. How does that sound?"

"I would love that!" Crystaline smiled.

"We'll have more of a part to the adventure!" squealed Carrie.

"Great! Now, let's hurry to Flopside Tower. We NEED to get that last Pure Heart and find my friends!"

With that, Chopper and Luvbi left the house with the Pixls.

"Let's hope they all come back safely…" Merlon trailed.

* * *

**Flopside Tower-**

"Here it is, Luvbi… This is the door revealed on the tower." Chopper said as they walked over to the ninth door of Flopside Tower. "This kind of reminds me of the door leading to The Underwhere, but it's a little darker…"

"Yea, verily… It doth look like it." Luvbi agreed.

"Well, we might as well go in…" Slim trailed.

"Wait!"

"Huh?" Chopper whirled around and saw Nolrem walk up to the two.

"Don't go yet… I wanted to give you some tips."

"Tips?" Chopper gawked.

"Listen, Luvbi… That door leads into the Comet of Darkness, which is presumed to be one of the most dangerous places in the known universe." Nolrem explained. "I want you to listen to Chopper carefully. If he tells you to stay, then you should stay. If he wants your help to fly him around, then you must do that. Chopper, you can pick her up when necessary and fly around."

"I got that," Chopper nodded.

"I understand," Luvbi added.

"And if you are ever in danger, call out for Chopper for help, or perhaps you could use your sage powers to stop any enemies in your way." Nolrem slowly nodded. "Chopper, protect Luvbi. Luvbi, protect Chopper. And please… Come back safely with the last Pure Heart."

"Then let us go," Luvbi said as she turned to Chopper.

"All right…" Chopper nodded as he and Luvbi entered through the dark purple door silently. The Pixls all followed through, determined to give as much help to the heroes as possible.

Nolrem slowly walked away from the door, hoping that Chopper would come back safely with the final Pure Heart and his friends.

* * *

**Originally this chapter was about Chopper going through pretty much every world to find the third sage, who left notes behind. However, I thought that it was completely pointless and made no sense at all and went for something like this, which turned out to be MUCH better. Not only is there some story behind the Pixls (which they do say in Super Paper Mario), but it actually gives them some notice, 'cause I've almost been ignoring them the whole time.**

**Anyway, yes, there were South Park references in here (what can I say? There are similarities between the two that are just begging me to parody!). For example, that part when Chopper vomited when Luvbi was going to kiss him. Yeah, that was a reference all right.  
**

**Next up is Chapter 19, which is another chapter I like. I'm sure most of you are tired of seeing just Chopper in two chapters. Rest assured, someone's going to be joining him next chapter. Who that person will be, you'll have to find out.  
**


	114. A Bone Chilling Discovery

_After the unexpected attack from a shadowy mist that was revealed to be Dimentio, Chopper knew he had to go find his friends. With the nineteenth Pure Heart finally restored, Chopper could continue his way and get a hold of the final Pure Heart. Luvbi was delighted to be with Chopper again, but she was also worried about the safety of her parents, who were being held captive by the evil Shade Doom. "I wonder what we'll see…" wondered Chopper as he noticed a creepy, alien-like world before him._

**CHAPTER 19-1**

**-A Bone Chilling Discovery-**

After the background was drawn and colored, a purple, alien-like world was discovered to be through the door. In 3-D, there was yellow energy inside of the center of the transparent ground, while the trim was purple. What was also creepy were some of the thick, purplish reddish tentacles that were slowly moving around. Some small, purple energy sticks were around as well, storing energy for the comet.

The first thing Chopper noticed when he and Luvbi walked out of the door was the statue of Shade holding his sword up, which was standing on a pedestal.

"So this is where the last Pure Heart is…" Chopper trailed. "I should've known that Shade would be holding it in his hands!"

"Well… This place doth look creepy…" Luvbi trailed, feeling a little nervous about the creepy alien world. "But for some reason, I doth feel a little bored without thy friends hither for me to tease."

"Hold on, I thought you were over that?"

"Well, sometimes something doth tick in me that wantest me to tease them."

"Why do you even do that anyway? I'll be honest… I really don't like it when you do that, especially to people like Tippi."

"Ahh, the answer to that is quite simple, Chopper: because it doth be so easy! 'Tis rare for me to get such a reaction from a butterfly girl such as Tippi. But, the poor girl hath a hard time trying to keep her cool, nay?"

"I don't know what to say…" Chopper trailed before Luvbi fluttered closer to him.

"So, how dost I look? Dost I still look as cute as ever to thee?" Luvbi asked, blushing at him. "I knowest thou art cute, but how cute dost thou think I am?"

"Errrr... Wait a minute, you asked me this before in The Overthere!"

"Verily? Well, I doth remember that being a long time ago... But canst thou answer my question anyway?"

"Ummmmmm… Well…" the Star Warrior sweat dropped as he stepped away from the love-struck Nimbi girl. "Uh… Chopper has died. Please select another call. Beeeeeeeeeep."

"Hee hee! Oh, thou art so shy, Chopper! Just tell me now!"

"Uhhhhhh… I…suppose?"

Luvbi sighed sweetly as she fell in Chopper's arms, making the Star Warrior shake in fear, with his arms and feet trembling a bit. With no one out to help him, this might be bad for him.

"Oh, Chopper… Let us kiss, please!" Luvbi puckered up, but Chopper let go of her and quickly zipped back from her. However, that didn't stop her from giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"And here I thought I wouldn't have to deal with this…" Chopper sighed.

"You're not soundin' very hero-like," Kickbrin noticed. "Heroes usually would marry the girl, y'know what I mean?"

"Yea, verily! That's why thou must marry me, Chopper!" Luvbi said as her eyes glittered at him. However, she stopped when she heard snickering. "…Pray, who doth be snickering at the moment?"

"Snickering? What do you mean?" Chopper gawked as he looked around and looked up to see two Spiky Skellobits snickering on a platform.

"Heh heh… Aw, look at da cute couple!" the first Spiky Skellobit snickered, getting on Chopper's nerves. "Isn't it just adowable?"

"Aw, come on! Why do you people HAVE to see stuff I don't like to be in? !" Chopper groaned as he face palmed. "First I'm forced to be around a girl kissing me, and now YOU guys show up! Though, I guess I need to help her anyway…"

"What are ya, five? Yer a bit too young ta be datin'!" the second Spiky Skellobit scoffed. "…Oh! I thought of a good joke!"

"What is it? Tell me it now!" demanded the first Spiky Skellobit.

"What did the princess say to the Star Warrior?"

"Ummm… I have no idea."

"'You're my shining star up in the sky!'"

"Hwah hawa! That's so funny!"

"That was HORRIBLE!" Chopper groaned. "Seriously! When you make jokes involving me with a girl that likes me, then you're not making a good joke!"

"Yea, verily, that doth be a terrible joke," Luvbi agreed, looking irritated at the two Spiky Skellobits.

"Oh, here's one!" the first Spiky Skellobit shouted. "Aw, look at the cute wittle couple! Did the wittle princess find her prince?"

"Shut up!" Chopper roared, hurling a light ball at the two Spiky Skellobits and sending them flying off the platform and destroying them. "All right, let's just get moving already. I'm already not liking this place so far…"

"Remember what Nolrem toldeth you," Luvbi reminded. "Thou shouldst pick me up and carry me around like a true hero!"

"This… This isn't the medieval times…" Chopper sighed as he picked her up bridal style while sweat dropping. _"This is going to be fun…"_

Chopper sighed and jumped over to the platform ahead and managed to jump over to a ledge leading down to a hill going down. He was a bit happy to see this, so he charged up a Speed Dash and went down the hill with immense speed.

"Yeah! This is fun!" Chopper cheered as Luvbi's eyes widened as she felt herself getting carried down.

"Ch-Chopper! Maybe thou shouldst slow down!" Luvbi stammered.

"Well, if you want me to carry you, then you're going to have to deal with it," Chopper declared as he ran through a loop ahead and found a small ledge leading up to a floating round platform.

"Hmmmm… Well, I don't see anything around here." Chopper looked down and gasped when he saw a bottomless pit before him. However, he saw a ledge up ahead higher than the platform, where he saw a blue, round door.

"That doth be a round door," Luvbi commented. "But how dost we get through hither?"

"Did you hear Nolrem's words, heroes?" Piccolo chirped. "He said to use the princess to fly!"

"Pray, why wouldst he… Oh, I suddenly remembered now. Chopper, my prince… Thou dost need my help, so I will helpeth thee across with my wings!"

"OK," Chopper nodded as he held onto her while the Nimbi girl began to fly over the bottomless pit and over to the ledge where the door was. When she got exhausted, she slowly began to descend to the ledge, where Chopper let go of her and landed by the door.

"That wasn't bad flying, I'll admit," Chopper commented, making Luvbi smiled as the children opened the door, which opened quickly while making a strange, alien-like sound as they headed through.

When they were in the next area, they noticed another hill going down to a ramp leading over to a pathway below. Chopper shrugged and ran down the hill and jumped off the ramp to land on the new pathway. However, there was something strange about the bottomless pits in the area.

There was a strange, alien slime covering it.

"Ew! What disgusting stuff doth be on those pits? !" Luvbi gagged before they noticed a Dark Creature fire a laser from his blaster at Chopper, which he was able to duck and avoid.

"Dark Creatures? Here?" Chopper gawked. "What are they… Wait, hold on. Didn't Dark say something about his army leaving him?"

"Who doth be Dark?"

"Shade's brother. If anything, he's probably better than Shade, that's for sure."

Chopper ran up to the Dark Soldier and hurled a light ball at it, sending it flying back and making it scream from not only the light energy, but the fact that it was blinded by the light, causing it to fall off into the slime, which it began to sink as it was incinerated instantly.

"So… That's what the slime does, huh?" Chopper smiled nervously. "That sure looks like fun…"

"Chopper, now is not the time for jokes! We art in a very serious situation hither!"

"Well thankfully, I think I'll be able to make the jump," Chopper made a jump over the slime and landed by the edge of the ground ahead. He decided to flip into 3-D and saw a secret path leading around two platforms up ahead that were going to a platform moving up and down.

He took the pathway in 3-D to be safer and jumped on the platform with Luvbi. They waited for it to take them up to the ledge, where they encountered two Dark Soldiers ready to blast them.

Chopper inhaled one of the lasers and spat it at one of the Dark Soldiers before using his hammer and striking one of them with a light smash, thanks to the power of his light powers.

When the next Dark Soldier tried to hit him with its blaster, he held Starbow up and let shooting stars come down on the Dark Creature. With that, he picked it up with Thoreau and threw it at the other Dark Soldier, defeating them both.

"That was enjoyable!" Starbow cheered.

Chopper nodded as he walked through a tunnel with the walls being lavender with a purple glow from inside them. There were new Dark Skellobit enemies with dark spears called Dark Skellos charging at the group.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he noticed a yellow ? block above him. When he struck it, a ninja star popped out, so he inhaled it and got a hold of the Ninja ability. He began to throw a couple of shurikens and kunais at the Dark Skellos to drive them back.

However, there was one that charged anyway, so Chopper grabbed it when he made a dash toward it and used his Air Drop to slam its head to ground after jumping up while grabbing the Dark Skello. He finished it off by slashing it with his katana.

The other Dark Skellos responded by throwing their spears toward Chopper, who threw Hommissile at them and sent them flying away. After that, Chopper continued on through the small tunnel until he found a path below him at the end of the tunnel. He picked up Luvbi, who fluttered across the slime and landed on the pathway.

"That statue of Shade doth be ugly, nay?" Luvbi wondered as she looked at the statue of Shade in the background in the center of the area. There happened to be two purple crystals next to it for some reason.

"Hmmmm… You know, those crystals might reveal something if I hit them…" Chopper trailed as he flipped into 3-D, only to find a Dark Creature over by a platform where one of the purple crystals were. He simply threw some kunais to defeat it and jumped over to the platform, avoiding the slime below him.

He let out a sigh as he hurled a light ball at the first crystal, which lit up one of the statue's eyes purple.

"Chopper! The statue doth have a purple glowing eye!" Luvbi cried.

"Really?" Chopper gasped as he flipped back into 2-D and was back on the platform. There, he noticed the left eye of the Shade statue was glowing purple. "Oh… Well, I guess I should go to the other then!"

He went back into 3-D and defeated the other Dark Soldier in the way to light up the right eye with a light ball. This made a platform appear over the slime ahead after a piece of the background was torn off like paper.

"Weird…" Screwdy trailed as Chopper jumped on the platform and noticed the ledge ahead had another small tunnel, so he used Luvbi to fly him over to the ledge and landed by the tunnel, which led up to a door ahead.

"Chopper… I dost not think we art alone hither…" Luvbi trailed.

Chopper pulled out a kunai just in case. He noticed some cloaked enemies lurking around the small tunnel, so he threw the kunai and managed to hit a Dark Creature in purple armor that gave it the ability to be invisible.

"A Ninja Creature? That's a new one…" Chopper struck it with his Quad Shock, dashing toward it and striking it with his katana. Another one appeared, but with Starbow, he was able to defeat them all. Sadly, he ended up losing his Ninja ability when one struck him with one of its daggers.

"Dang it! Not my Ninja ability!"

But with that aside, Chopper was able to go through the door ahead. However, he decided to be kind and hold the door (despite it opening on its own) to Luvbi, who blushed at him and fluttered on through.

"Such a gentlemen thou art, my prince!" Luvbi sighed.

"I'm not a gentlemen…" Chopper sighed as he walked into the next area to be in another small tunnel, but with some small Dark Creature babies that were all around the ground, making Luvbi shriek.

"What art those? !"

"They look like…babies?" Chopper noticed one of the babies coming closer to him, making him shriek and smash it with his hammer. It didn't have a lot of HP, so it was defeated easily. He simply smashed the others until a Dark Worm rose up from the ground and tried to fire a blast of purple energy at him, so he tossed a light ball into its mouth and made the light envelope it and destroy it.

Once Chopper took a platform to get out of the tunnel, he noticed some kind of flying saucer was on it, and up ahead was more slime. He knew that having Luvbi carry him through wouldn't work in the slightest.

"Well, we might as well use that, amore!" Flippay declared.

"Use what?" Chopper wondered until he noticed the flying saucer. "…Oh! You mean this thing? It looks like it floats, but…"

"Let us away, my prince!" Luvbi declared as she fell into Chopper's as he got on the saucer, holding onto him as pink hearts fluttered over her head.

"Oh, no… Not this whole thing again!" Chopper began to tremble in fear as Luvbi kissed him on the cheek. "Agh! That's so gross!"

"But this doth be so romantic!"

"I don't like romance!"

Chopper sighed as he used the flying saucer to go over the slime, which was surprisingly working for him. He could've used Carrie for this, but it didn't look safe for Pixls to get close to it, hence why they were above them.

"I do wish I could help you through here instead…" Carrie trailed.

"Yeah, I can agree with that," Chopper nodded as they went over to a pathway ahead to find some Dark Skellos on the upper ledges above them throwing spears down at them. Chopper tried to counter some of them with his hammer, but when there were Dark Soldiers around on their flying saucers firing at him, there was a problem.

"Great… Now these guys are here."

"They might be able to be knocked off," Luvbi informed.

"Maybe…" Chopper hurled a light ball at one Dark Soldier, knocking it off the flying saucer and into the slime. Another tried to attack him with its blaster, but he ducked and used Crystaline to freeze it, while Kickbrin knocked it off the flying saucer.

They noticed a ramp up ahead, so when the flying saucer took off, it landed over more slime below the ledge. They noticed a small slope leading up to a pathway, so when they got over to it, Chopper jumped off the flying saucer and ran into two Dark Wizards.

"Why art there two Shades?" Luvbi wondered.

"Those aren't Shade," Chopper mentioned. "They're Dark Wizards."

"Here, let me add to the collection!" the Necromancer grinned as he flew down and struck the ground with white lightning. Two Dark Skellos rose from the ground. "There you go! This should get back at you for what you left on me, Chopper!"

"Necromancer!" Luvbi growled as she looked up and noticed that Shade was standing on top of the Necromancer's head. "What art THOU doing hither? !"

"Isn't it obvious, Nimbi girl? This is my headquarters!" Shade chuckled.

"All right, where's Luvbi's parents?" Chopper asked, getting in his fighting stance.

"Idiot. You think I'm going to fight you right now? I've got a whole lot of crap I'm in the middle of right now! Besides… It's not fun simply fighting you alone. I'd rather fight you and the rest of your friends!"

"Well I don't know where they are."

"Believe me… I know where they are! Just try to find them! …If you can, that is!" Shade fired magic at the Dark Skellos with his wand and made them more muscular. "Have fun, Chopper…"

As the Necromancer began to fly off, Shade stuck out his green, forked tongue at Chopper, leaving him a little disturbed.

"What was with that tongue?" Luvbi gawked.

"I don't know…" Chopper trailed as he gripped his hammer. "But it doesn't matter right now… These guys need to go!"

The two Dark Skellos charged at Chopper, using their fists to attack instead. However, because they were strong and slow, Chopper was able to use this to his advantage when he quickly ran around them and kicked them with a light kick.

With his hammer, he was able to bash them a couple of times, but one of the Dark Skellos grabbed Chopper and threw him back, making him fall on his back. He quickly got up and tossed an ice ball at them to keep them frozen. With a charged light ball, he defeated the Dark Skellos.

"Thou didst it, my prince!" Luvbi squealed.

"Uhhhh… Not yet. There are still those guys." Chopper pointed out, dodging the dark magic the two Dark Wizards were hurling. While the Dark Skellos were tough, their magic was stronger.

It only took Chopper some ducking to avoid some of the attacks before he tossed some light balls at them. Of course, they did not like the light power enveloping them, but when Chopper used a light slamming kick on them, they were done for.

"Phew! What a relief!" Chopper sighed. "I'm sure my uncle, Chilbo, will be proud of me!"

"Pray, who doth be thy uncle?" Luvbi wondered.

"He was a great hero who managed to defeat an evil monster that was in control of another place on my birth planet. I don't know too much about it, but he was able to find its weak point and slay it, making that area a safe place. Of course, that was all before I was born anyway."

"What happened to him?"

"Well, he's dead, along with the rest of my kind… Yeah, I know it's sad, but I've learned to get a little used to it. I mean, I can't be saddened by it forever, right?"

"Yea, verily…"

"Let's move on," Chopper suggested as he ran over to the door up ahead and entered it, bringing him into an area where he was on a bridge with some slime down below. Some Dark Worms rose out of the slime and onto the bridge. However, one of the yellow ? blocks contained the Cutter ability, so he took it and got a hold of the ability.

He threw his cutter blade at the Dark Worm before going up to it and performing his Final Cutter attack on it. Sure, this was a great ability, but it wasn't as strong as Kirby's own Final Cutter. Perhaps he would find Kirby first in this place, like when he first found him after getting the second Pure Heart?

Well that wasn't something he was trying to think about when he finished off the Dark Worm. He carried on through the bridge until he saw some small platforms over the slime, with some of the slime firing up between the gaps. What made it worse were the Dark Skello Bombers flying above.

"Platforming… This is going to be fun…" Chopper sighed.

He threw his cutter blade and let it hit the Dark Skello Bomber, which knocked it into the slime and allowed him to jump over to the platforms and reach another pathway with a slope going down to a screw.

"Hey! I could get you through that!" Screwdy noted.

"Uh huh," Chopper nodded as he ran down the slope and used a corkscrew to make a small platform appear over by the slime ahead. He jumped on it and noticed the large gap ahead. He used Luvbi to fly him over to the gap and found two platforms ahead. One was going up to a ledge, while the other was going down to a pathway below. That appeared to be a speed-based area, while the other had a couple of small yellow blocks in the way.

"Pray, which way shouldst we taketh?" Luvbi wondered.

"I'll take the upper," Chopper shrugged as he smashed through the blocks with his cutter blade and found a door that led him into a small room with a yellow ? block. When he struck it, the Mirror ability was revealed to be inside, so he took it, which made two Dark Wizards appear.

However, with his ability to clone himself, he used this to his advantage and managed to take down the two Dark Wizards with mirror shards. Luvbi was left confused, but she blushed and smiled.

"Now I have many princes!" Luvbi gushed. "This doth be a dream come true!"

"Luvbi… Now's not the time for this stuff…" Chopper sweat dropped as the clones disappeared. "We're in a INCREDIBLY dangerous area at this moment! This isn't like the other worlds we've been in!"

"Well, we art save hither, thou knowest…"

"Then I'm going to go to that door ahead," Chopper headed through the door ahead and found himself in an area where he was in mid-air. He ended up landing on a brown platform with pieces of it slowly falling into the slime, so he crossed over the platforms until he found a bridge with more slime firing upward.

"Yeesh… That was a little close…"

"Chopper! Don't just leaveth me like that!" Luvbi cried as she fluttered over to him. "Thou knowest that I'm a princess! Thou dost have to givest me some respect!"

"Ummmmmm… Sorry?" Chopper sweat dropped as he turned to her and sweat dropped. "I just didn't want to, well, be kissed, maybe?"

"Oh, it's OK, my prince!" Luvbi giggled, kissing Chopper on the cheek, making him cringe as he wiped it off.

"That's so gross!" Chopper cried before making his way over the bridge and over to the door ahead. Apparently, this was a little shortcut if they didn't take the lower pathway.

When they left the area through the door, they were met up with two other doors. Unfortunately, the one to the right happened to be locked, and past those doors was a slope leading down to more slime. There was nothing else that could help them get through it, to their dismay.

"Dang it… There's no way we're getting through that." Chopper sighed.

"Well, we can always headest through this door hither," Luvbi informed, pointing to the left door near the Save Block and yellow ? block. When he hit the yellow ? block, he got a hold of a Star Shroom he used to recover 150 HP, and then he struck the Save Block.

"I'm sensing something dangerous if these are here…" Chopper trailed as he headed through the door into a tall area that was slightly big. Of course, it was not even close to being bigger than the area he fought Arctail.

"Well… I don't see much around here, that's for sure…"

"Broo ha ha ha… So, it is you who showed up…"

"Huh? Who said that?" Chopper wondered until he was met up with a blue, dragon-like monster with a skinny, hunched back spine, a cannon and wheels on his legs and a curly black tail. He let out a cold war, which made Luvbi gape.

"Thou… Thou art still alive? !" Luvbi squawked.

"Ah, yes… It's you, child… I thought you were already turned into a Pure Heart…" the monster trailed. "As for you, other child… Allow me to introduce myself! My name is **Bonechill**!"

"You… You're that monster that Mario once told me about…"

"Yes, I am that monster," Bonechill confirmed. "And I can see you're still the same as before, Chopper… No surprise."

"What do you mean? And how the heck do you know my name? !"

"Does that Sky Star ring a bell to you?"

"Well… All I remember is some kind of cold angel that…" Chopper paused as his eyes widened. "No way… That was YOU, wasn't it?!"

"Yes, that was me! That was back when I used to be a Nimbi… I was exiled from The Overthere after being too much of a havoc to Grambi, so I was forced into the harsh cold, where the Crystal King discovered me and trained me to learn to use ice!"

"Pray, thou were an apprentice to the Crystal King?!" Luvbi gasped.

"Broo ha ha ha! That being was a great teacher. If it weren't for him, then I wouldn't have been able to create my army of live Skellobits! …Or rather, they used to be Aliebits."

"Hmmmm… No surprise there." Chopper stated. "Now that you mention it, the Crystal King did tell us you were Chillbi and that you were once his apprentice..."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah... Look, let's not waste any time now. If you've come here for a fight, then let's just settle this once and for all! I know my uncle, Chilbo, wouldn't waste his time! He was a great hero, that's for sure!"

"Chilbo, you say? Broo ha ha ha… That name does sound a bit familiar to me…"

"What do you mean…? Hold on… Did YOU kill my uncle?!"

"Not quite… However, I do know something about dear Chilbo." Bonechill grinned. "And let's just say that all of those heroic things about him…weren't exactly true."

"OK, if you didn't kill my uncle, then how the heck do you know about him? Answer me!"

"If thou dost know what happened, then tell my prince!" demanded Luvbi.

"Isn't it obvious, Chopper? ! Your dear uncle is standing right in front of you!" Bonechill cackled, making Chopper drawn back.

"Wha… N-No… There's no way that you could possibly be Chilbo!" Chopper squawked as his eyes went white. "You were a hero, weren't you? !"

"Of course I wasn't a hero! You see, when Maquano came to invade our planet, I ended up encountering him. He was about to end up game, but I pleaded him that I would sell my soul to go to The Overthere. He wanted to kill me, but he decided to let me go to The Overthere only if I sabotaged the ships to prevent everyone from leaving. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them all, but those ships didn't belong to your kind! What made matters worse was when you managed to get out…"

"So, thou were only a selfish man to begin with?" Luvbi asked.

"Broo ha ha ha! You're one to catch my word, dear child. I always thought about myself and not your father or my own family! Thankfully, I ended up becoming a Nimbi without Grambi knowing what I've done. …Unfortunately, a dumb little Nimbi named Wenbi ended up hearing what I did and ratted on me, which got me exiled from The Overthere. However, I didn't go to The Underwhere…"

"And then I managed to beat you back by the area where the Wingels live…" Chopper trailed.

"Yes, and I was unfortunate to go to Underwhere Prison. My entire Nimbi body was eventually transformed into a monster, but because of the ice powers, I was somehow able to turn into this. That dark wizard who freed us offered me to stay on his comet, which is where we are right now."

"So… This whole time you were nothing but a selfish person who wanted to only save himself and not his close friends or family…" Chopper clenched his fists. "And here I thought you were a hero. I _admired_ you! And then this is what I discover from you!"

"Well, now that I've told my whole story, allow me to end your game! Once your gone, then your kind will be extinct, which means no one will stop me!"

Chopper jumped back when he saw Bonechill attempt to freeze him with his ice breath. He saw he had 440 HP, an Attack of 18 and no defense. However, the big problem here was the fact that he couldn't reach his head.

"Broo ha ha ha! I'll make sure that Shade receives a frozen Chopper popsicle!" Bonechill cackled as he spat a couple of ice balls toward Chopper, who used a mirror barrier to reflect it back at Bonechill's head, making him cringe.

However, he didn't feel good when hitting him.

"My prince… Art thou all right?" Luvbi asked as she noticed Chopper's head hung low.

"It doesn't feel right…" Chopper trailed. "Fighting my own uncle? It doesn't feel great to do something like this…"

"Broo ha ha ha! Then perhaps you should accept defeat!" Bonechill grinned. "Maybe your parents would've love it that way! My brother was always such an idiotic man. I mean, him being an idiotic otaku? ! It was laughable!"

"Don't you ever talk to my dad like that!" Chopper clenched his scepter and fired a mirror shard. Unfortunately, there was no way he could even reach the monster's head.

"Don't you realize that I'm too tall for someone like you? ! Pathetic!"

When Chopper looked up, he noticed some icicles that were hanging from the ceiling. He gasped and jumped out of the way before they could land on top of him. Bonechill even fired a large ice bullet from his cannon at Chopper as well.

"Even if I try to inhale them, there's no way I'll be able to reach his head…" Chopper trailed.

"Then allow me to help you," Thoreau declared. "I remember this guy, and I know for sure that you can throw those icicles and ice bullets at him if you jump high enough. Trust me, I know this."

"OK, I'll try to go with your plan," the Star Warrior nodded as he threw Thoreau at one of the icicles and held it up. When Bonechill stopped using his icy breath on the ceiling to make more icicles, he threw the icicle at Bonechill's head, making him cringe in pain.

"Braaaugh? What the…? How did you manage to hit my head? !" Bonechill gaped.

"It was thanks to me, of course," Thoreau declared.

"Brrrghh… I'll make you pay with your lives!" Bonechill brought his head down and attempted to freeze Chopper, who put up a mirror barrier to prevent himself from being frozen. Once he stopped, Chopper split into two and struck Bonechill's head once again.

"All right! This isn't as bad as I thought!" Chopper realized. "Don't worry, un—I mean Bonechill… I'm going to make sure you're returned to where you should stay in: Underwhere Prison!"

"Ha! I'll never go back there, puny boy!"

Bonechill spat a couple of ice balls toward Chopper, which he tried to deflect with his mirror barrier. They fired back at Bonechill, and it struck him in the head, since he was too slow to avoid the attack.

"Honestly, you were a lot faster before…" Chopper sighed. "Now you're some giant, slow Skellobit monster."

Bonechill merely scoffed at him as he tried to use his talons to swipe at him. However, since they weren't able to reach Chopper, he couldn't even hit him, so he fired ice energy shaped like a claw straight at Chopper, freezing him.

"Chopper!" Luvbi cried as she noticed Chopper shaking before he broke out. "Oh, thank goodness… I thought thou were done for!"

"Well, I was able to break out of there, so I'm fine…" Chopper sighed.

Bonechill let out another chilly roar as he tried to freeze Chopper with his icy breath, who retaliated by tossing a fireball into his mouth, causing his eyes to widen in pain as he opened his mouth, which black smoke began to come out of.

"BRAAGH! I HATE fire!" Bonechill roared as he fired a couple of ice bullets at Chopper, knocking him back. Luvbi tried to help him, but Bonechill slowly made his way over to Chopper and clawed at him.

"My prince, don't thinkest him as thy uncle!" Luvbi cried out. "Think of him as a monster!"

"That's not going to work, child," Bonechill cackled. "Sure, he may be putting up a bit of a fight, but he doesn't have as much willpower to actually take me down! Besides… I'm much bigger!"

"It's true you're big… But I fought a dragon bigger than you…" Chopper trailed as he fired a mirror shard at Bonechill, who cringed and knocked away Chopper's Mirror ability with another ice bullet.

"And now look at you! You've got no abilities!"

"He can fight thee without an ability, thou knowest!" Luvbi shot back.

"I suggest you stay out of this, little girl. You can worry about your little boyfriend later!"

"I will not let thee causeth harm to him…" Luvbi warned as she shot a white blast from her wings at Bonechill, making him let out a cold scream. Luvbi, on the other hand, was left confused.

"Pray… What happened? How couldst I do that? !"

"I think your, well… Sage powers are actually being active and helping you." Chopper whispered. "I mean, now Bonechill's completely stunned!"

"Then thou shouldst attack now, my prince!"

Chopper slowly nodded and hurled a light ball at the stunned Bonechill, who cringed in pain as he was able to move once again. He tried to attack Chopper with his talons when he was close, knocking the Star Warrior back. Bonechill fired ice bullets afterward, which Chopper managed to grab with Thoreau and throw them back at his head.

"Huh? What's with his face?" Chopper wondered as he noticed some scales fell off of Bonechill, which made him gape as some of the scales landed on his talons.

"My… My scales!" Bonechill gasped. "Boooarrrgh! Now you're in for it, Chopper! I actually didn't expect you to come this far against me…"

"I'm not enjoying it, but I know I have no other choice…" Chopper trailed as Bonechill used his ice breath to make icicles fall from the ceiling. When Chopper inhaled one of them, he became Ice Chopper.

"Oh, so now you honestly think you can fight fire with fire, huh? You should realize I am a master of the cold dark!"

"Actually, it's more like fighting ice with ice… We're not fighting with fire, you know…"

"That doth be a figure of speech, Chopper," Luvbi informed.

"Oh… Well, it doesn't matter at this moment." Chopper got in his fighting stance, but was unfortunate to be caught in Bonechill's ice breath. Luvbi gasped, but she noticed he wasn't frozen.

"Bruaahh? What's this?" Bonechill gaped.

"If I have the Ice ability on, then that means that you can't really freeze me," Chopper informed as he used his Ice Storm to attack the cannon and freeze it. He then tossed an ice ball at Bonechill, which surprisingly hurt him.

"Hmmmm… Mayhap ice dost not freezeth him, but ice attacks can still hurt him…" Luvbi deduced.

"Although, they don't seem to do as much damage, from what I can see…" Chopper trailed as he removed his Ice ability and jumped out of the way of the icicles. He used Thoreau to grab them and throw them at Bonechill's head and then used Starbow to make shooting stars fall on the monster.

"Hmph! For being the last of your kind, you do have a bit of skill…" Bonechill trailed. "But it's not enough to take me down!"

Bonechill clenched his fists as he fired an ice beam from his mouth toward Chopper, who tried to flee from it, but he ended up getting frozen. He shook a little before unfreezing himself and hurling a charged fireball at Bonechill.

"Man… I don't know what to think of right now…" Chopper trialed as he dodged Bonechill's ice beam. He then lowered his head and attempted to charge at the Star Warrior, but he was able to jump on his head a couple of times while performing stylish moves.

However, when Bonechill rammed his head at Chopper, it sent him flying across the area, making the monster cackle before he ended up getting struck by a white light that Luvbi unleashed.

When Chopper quickly shook himself, he saw Bonechill's head was vulnerable, so he ran toward him and struck him with a light smash, leaving the monster dazed. Bonechill managed to get his senses back to him as he turned to Luvbi.

"You, child… You are starting to get on my nerves!" Bonechill hissed. "I have a better idea on what to do with you!"

"Wh-What dost thou…" Luvbi's eyes went white as she was frozen by Bonechill's ice breath, making Chopper gasp.

"You… You froze Luvbi!" Chopper gaped.

"Brooo ha ha ha! Now your little angelic girlfriend can't help you!" Bonechill cackled. "How does that make you feel?"

"Honestly… As much as Luvbi ISN'T my girlfriend… What you did sickened me. And I'm going to make you pay for that, you monster…"

"Monster… I like that! That's exactly what I am!"

Chopper clenched his fists and hurled a light ball toward Bonechill, who ducked before it could strike him and made icicles fall from the ceiling. The Star Warrior grabbed one of them and threw it at Bonechill with the help of Thoreau, followed by Hommissile, which Chopper aimed at Bonechill's head.

"And then you go KA-BAOOM!" Hommissile shouted as Bonechill was left gaping after the explosion. He even tried to shoot Chopper with a couple of ice bullets, but he inhaled them and spat them at Bonechill's head when he brought his head down in order to bite him.

Bonechill was brought back by how Chopper's face looked. From seeing his friend frozen, he was certainly not happy with this guy. He even went out to spin his hammer around with fire energy while Bonechill's head with still on the ground.

"Urgh… You want revenge, do you not? I can tell it by the look of your face!" Bonechill grinned as he brought his head up. "Do you even realize where revenge will get you? Absolutely nowhere!"

"I… I know that." Chopper slowly nodded. "However, even if you are my uncle, you're acting more like a monster than an actual uncle."

"So you see me as a monster now? Broo ha ha ha… Then this should be interesting!" Bonechill grinned, using his ice breath to attempt to freeze Chopper, who jumped out of the way and threw a rainbow ball at Bonechill's face.

The monster retaliated by throwing a couple of gust tornados toward Chopper, which he inhaled and gained the Tornado ability. This backfired against Bonechill when Chopper spun in a tornado and moved upward, striking him a couple of times.

"_I need to think of a new strategy against him," _Bonechill thought as he tried to freeze Chopper with his ice breath. Unfortunately, this didn't work when Chopper was in a tornado and absorbed some of the ice energy to hit Bonechill.

"Brooah! My plan didn't work!"

"I guess not," Chopper stated as he kicked Bonechill's head with a flaming kick, following by a flaming spinning kick, making a couple of scales fall off the monster, leaving him with a few scales left. Some of them even landed on Chopper's gloved hands.

"Take this!" Chopper threw two light balls at once at Bonechill. He tried to avoid them, but he got struck in the spine instead. Thankfully, it didn't have much of an effect on him because of how tough his spine was.

"Huh? That didn't do anything!"

"That's because my spine is nearly invulnerable to all attacks!" Bonechill chuckled. "I think you should've realized this by now!"

Chopper simply used Starbow to make a couple of shooting stars fall on him while he went over to the frozen Luvbi and unfroze her with a fireball. He simply kept it close so the heat would help thaw her out.

In no time, she was completely thawed out.

"Ugh… What… What happened?" Luvbi moaned as Chopper managed to catch her.

"It's all right, Luvbi, you're fine," Chopper assured. "I… I just had to thaw you out, that's all."

"Oh… I doth remember getting frozen by yon monster."

"Are you two going to make out or what?" Bonechill groaned. "We're in a middle of a fight here…"

"Right…" Chopper trailed as he turned to Bonechill, who used his icy breath to freeze Chopper. When he broke out of his icy prison, his Tornado ability began to bounce around the floor (as a star, mind you). He was about to get it, but an icicle fell on top of it, destroying it.

"I'm afraid you won't be using any abilities to help yourself here," the monster declared as he made more icicles on the ceiling with his ice breath. Chopper did a back flip to avoid them and began throwing a couple of fireballs toward Bonechill. His ice breath was able to get rid of them.

"Pray… Doesn't fire melteth ice?" Luvbi gawked.

"I don't understand that either…" Chopper trailed. "That should've HIT you!"

"Broo ha ha ha! Oh, the silly minds of two children!" Bonechill cackled. "You see, my ice is stronger than your puny little fireballs. Not to mention that you're just shooting small particles, while I have a lot of ice breath with me!"

Chopper sweat dropped as he was frozen by Bonechill's ice breath. Luvbi tried to break him free, but he simply did it on his own before attempting to kick at the cannon, which didn't do a thing.

"Hero, you know that's not going to work," Crystaline noted.

"Ugh… I suppose you're right." Chopper decided to use Thoreau to grab an icicle that fell from the ground and throw it at Bonechill, who decided to change things up a bit by using his power to create a blizzard.

"Broo ha ha ha! Say hello to my blizzard, Chopper!"

At this point, the whole floor was snowy, and snowflakes began to fall around the area. Chopper was unfortunate to shiver, as well as Luvbi (though, the snow actually made her look a little prettier, which she liked).

"S-So c-cold!"

"Pray, the snow doth make me look pretty!" Luvbi squealed. "Dost thou agree, my sweet prince?"

"Luvbi! We're in the middle of a battle here!"

"Oh, I'm sorry…" When Chopper whacked some ice bullets at Bonechill's head, he let out a scream as Chopper managed to hurl a couple of fireballs at him and melt the snow away with some flaming feet.

"The snow doesn't really work on a place like this, honestly…"

"Well, it suits me rather well," Bonechill hissed as he clawed at Chopper, knocking him back. Luvbi's sage power went to use once again as another bright light struck Bonechill and left him stunned.

"Get him, Chopper!" Luvbi cried.

"Got it," Chopper nodded as he bashed Bonechill's head a couple of times with fire smashes and light smashes. Needless to say, the monster was getting severely injured from the fight.

"W-Wait, Chopper!" Bonechill begged. "Don't destroy me! You… You wouldn't destroy your dear uncle, right?"

"I know you're lying, Chilbo…"

"Actually… All of that was a lie! I was a great hero back in the day! I swear!"

"The way you attacked me didn't convince me…" Chopper trailed as he raised his arms and conjured up a light ball. Luvbi even added her sage power to the light ball, making it sparkle.

"That shouldst finish him off!" Luvbi declared.

"So… You don't believe me, then…" Bonechill trailed, glaring at his nephew. "Very well then! Since you're rather injured yourself, I won't take my time to destroy you!"

Right when he opened his mouth, Chopper looked up at his uncle as the monster prepared to use his ice breath. His determined look changed to a sad look as he imagined his uncle standing before him.

"_Goodbye…Uncle…_" With a tear rolling down his face, Chopper threw the light ball at Bonechill, causing his mouth to open wide as all of the scales on him fell off.

"_**BRAAAAAAAARGH! **_Chopper… How could you do this…to your own uncle?!" Bonechill screamed as he began to fall apart until he was no more. While Chopper should've felt happy to defeat his uncle (who had been lying the whole time), he felt horrible.

"Why, Chilbo… Why did I have to do it?" Chopper wondered as he shut his eyes and hung his head low. "The person I admired my whole life I had to put down myself… That makes me feel horrible…"

Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper to comfort him. "It's OK, my prince… Thou hadst no choice… I doth understand how thou feelest…"

"In all honesty, at least my uncle can finally rest in peace…" Chopper turned around and walked over to the door. "He may have been a liar, but if there's a way he can have a change of heart in the aftergame, it would make me feel happy."

"Let us hope…"

"We should get going now…" Chopper was about to leave the area, but he heard something drop from the ground. When he turned around, he saw a dark purple key before them.

"I think Bonechill dropped that," Chopper picked the key up and left the area and noticed the locked door to his right.

"Chopper, mayhap we can use that key to movest on!" Luvbi suggested.

"Yeah, we should do that. I don't think we can even move on ahead anyway."

When Chopper unlocked the door, they found themselves in a tunnel-like room with the slope moving at a downward angle. When Chopper saw this, he charged up a Speed Dash and moved on until he found the path end by a large gap of slime.

"Oh, me… This doth be dangerous…" Luvbi trailed. "Is there anything we can use?"

"Hey, I see a saucer here!" Chopper noticed as he jumped on and picked up Luvbi so they could go over the slime. Unfortunately, it didn't have enough juice, so when they got to the other side, it broke down.

"Crud… We can't even go back now…" Chopper even checked in 3-D, but he found nothing. "I think we're trapped…"

"Well… All we can dost is movest on…" Luvbi trailed as they found a small path going at an upward angle. Another thing that they could hear was some moaning. "Chopper… Be ready. There may be a monster there!"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Chopper assured as he made his way up the slope and stopped when he saw an alien-like tentacle up ahead.

Tipral was slowly getting up after losing his conscience.

"Ungh… I don't know what happened, but I don't feel so good…" Tipral moaned. "And this place doesn't look like my palace at all…"

Luvbi gasped as Tipral blinked a couple of times and noticed he wasn't back at his palace. However, what made him clench his fists was when he saw both Chopper and Luvbi looking at him.

"What the… What are you guys doing here? !" Tipral hissed as the two noticed a light purple glow around his fists. "You better answer me now before I kill you both!"

"Thou… Thou hast killed my friend Crysta!" Luvbi cried. "Why would thou dost such a thing? !"

"Great… It's you again, you little brat. And you should actually be thankful that I killed her!"

"Why shouldst I? ! She was my friend!"

"You do realize that she had the ability to live forever, right? Well, would YOU want to live forever? From what I heard from her, she certainly didn't. You should be happy that I did that for you."

"But thou were only trying to stoppeth us from getting the Pure Heart!"

"Hmph… That is true…" Tipral trailed as he folded his arms. "I'm not sure whether I hate you or Chopper more…"

"OK, let's not get into more arguing…" Chopper suggested. "Especially what happened before…"

"And what happened before?"

"It's…none of your concern."

"Fine."

"So, Tipral… Can you explain to me what happened without us getting into a fight? I'm a little too exhausted to fight for the moment."

"Fine, I'll answer your question and then kill you," Tipral declared. "From what I can remember, after our little battle, I ended up meeting a shadowy spirit that acted like Dim… Dimentio! So HE was responsible for sending me here in the first place!"

"I believe I met him too," Chopper added. "He's the reason why my friends are all separated! …Wait, hold on… I was told that six people were found here. If my friends are here too, then that means you were the sixth person…"

"Yes, that's correct," Tipral nodded before grabbed Chopper's arm and throwing him to the ground. "Now, let's just get this over with!"

When Chopper got up, Tipral jumped and prepared to strike him with a Star Spear. While he was weak, Chopper still had the energy to throw a light ball at Tipral, which knocked him to the ground.

"Wha… Light power? ! Where did you get that kind of power? !"

"I got it from a light pedestal… When I touched it, I ended up absorbing some of the light power."

"I see… However, that's not going to stop me from killing you!" Tipral was about to take out the Dark Star Scepter, but he realized that he didn't have it with him. Nor did he have the Dark Prognosticus on him!

"What the… Where did my scepter and book go? ! And the Chaos Heart… Oh no…"

"What?" Chopper gawked.

"Chopper, if no one's controlling the Chaos Heart, its power will go out of control. Basically, it's going to go right to The Void and get enveloped by the darkness inside to transform into the True Chaos Heart. Chances are, everyone is going to die."

"Hold on… Why wouldst thou be concerned over this?" Luvbi asked. "Thou wantest to use that power to destroy all!"

"I wanted to, but it appears that Dimentio took away that privilege. The only way to stop it now is to have all twenty Pure Hearts in possession to counter it. Only then could it prevent a disaster."

"And why should I listen to you in the first place?" Chopper asked. "You destroy my home world, as well as my friends'! I shouldn't listen to you one bit!"

"Chopper, you realize that if you don't listen to me, you will fail miserably. Everything, and I repeat, EVERYTHING will be gone. You know that World of Nothing? There won't be a World of Nothing when the True Chaos Heart's power is not controlled."

"So, you're saying that the only option for us is to…work together?"

"Nay! I dost not want him to join us!" Luvbi retorted.

"Don't think I WANT to join you!" Tipral hissed. "Besides, even if you were to stop an uncontrollable True Chaos Heart, you wouldn't be able to do it. I'm sure even this place wouldn't be easy for you to get through if you didn't have my help."

"How so?" Chopper asked.

"That slime over there. I've heard about that slime before… If you fall in the pool of alien slime, every atom in your body explodes as you begin to incinerate. It's painful, that's for sure. However, my shoes are capable to hovering over that without harming me."

"And how could I get across there?"

"I can teleport you across. We work together, we can both get something that'll help us both get to The Void and stop the True Chaos Heart from harming both of us."

"Fine… I guess we have no other choice." Chopper sighed. "However, I will never forgive you for what you did."

"And I don't regret doing it either after what you did to me. We're still enemies, all right? You and the rest of your pathetic friends will remain as my enemies while we travel together."

"I have no problem with that, especially when you crushed the wand that Tippi…or rather Timpani was using!"

"Don't even mention the word 'Timpani' to me…" Tipral trailed, giving Chopper a glare as he clenched his fists. "She's dead. I moved on."

**Tipral has joined your party! With his Star powers on your side, he is capable of taking down many undead beings and destroy many dangerous monster in his path as well! With his air shoes, he's capable of going across alien slime in his way without being harmed and move at the same speed as Chopper! His eyes are also able to help him see through dark places!**

"I guess you're not going to listen to me…" Chopper sighed.

"Let's just movest on," Luvbi suggested.

Tipral teleported Chopper and Luvbi over to the other side with his teleporting abilities. Once they were at the other side, Tipral simply skated over the alien slime without being harmed by it.

"Geez… He wasn't lying when he said he could go over that slime." Chopper gaped.

"We should go now," Tipral suggested as he skated up the slope ahead, while the other two followed him to the door to the area with the two doors. Of course, there was a pathway across the slime.

"See? That's something we can't get past." Chopper noted as Tipral made his way across to the pathway ahead and teleported Chopper and Luvbi across. Unfortunately, they were met with a Phantom Hand that rose from the ground, making Chopper shriek.

"Oh, no! Not a Phantom Hand! Get it away from me!"

"You're kidding me…" Tipral trailed as he snapped his finger and defeated the Phantom Hand with Star Magic. "I guess you do prove to be a bit pathetic than I thought you were…"

"What givest thee the right to insult my sweet prince like that? !" Luvbi exclaimed.

"And I see you're still in love with that kid too. Listen, get on my bad side, and I'll rip your wings apart. Got that?"

"Thou dost know that Chopper won't let that happen…"

"Yeah, I wouldn't," Chopper nodded.

"And why is she here anyway? It's not like she's needed here."

"Mine parents were kidnapped by the alien kid Shade," Luvbi explained. "And apparently the Pure Heart is located hither too."

"You mean this is Shade's headquarters? Hmph… I've always wanted to take him down again. Considering that both of us hate Shade, there's another reason for us to work together."

"I guess so," Chopper agreed.

They noticed up ahead blocking a platform was a dark, muscular Skellobit that resembled the Skelloknight. However, the main difference was that it was a Dark Skello in black armor and carrying a sword and shield.

"Pray… Haven't we seen something like that before?" Luvbi recalled.

"Yeah, back by the way up to The Peaceness…" Chopper trailed.

"This should be a problem," Tipral assured as he cracked his knuckles. "Being the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form means that these kind of enemies mean nothing to me."

When the Dark Skelloknight charged at them with its sword, Tipral simply swung his arm and fired a Star Spear, which was able to pierce through its armor and break it, leaving it vulnerable.

"Graaaaaah! I'll squish you, dark ball!" the Dark Skelloknight shouted as it ran toward Tipral with its sword ready. However, instead of using his own abilities, Tipral grabbed Chopper and threw him at the knight, who used its shield to block his attack.

"Ha! You missed me!"

"I wasn't trying to hit you, you know," Tipral mentioned as the Dark Skelloknight noticed its shield was knocked away after blocking Chopper. This gave Tipral the opportunity to finish it off by throwing a shadow ball and taking it out with a Star Spear.

"Chopper! Art thou all right? !" Luvbi cried as she fluttered over to Chopper, who slowly got up. She sighed in relief as he nodded and kissed his cheek.

"Ack! That was unnecessary!" Chopper cried before looking back at Tipral. "What was that all about? !"

"You should be thankful that you're still alive," Tipral scoffed. "And besides, it helped me defeat the Dark Skelloknight anyway."

"Ugh… I guess you're just going to ignore any help I give you then?"

"Probably not, considering that we'll have to both work together to get through here. You DO have the ability to flip, after all."

"Yeah, I do…" Chopper carried on ahead after wiping the kiss off his cheek and found a slope moving upward with boulders coming their way. Tipral tried to smash one of them, but it didn't work and ended up hitting him.

"Chopper. Flip. Now."

Chopper sighed as he flipped him and Tipral into 3-D while going around the boulders and reaching the door ahead, which they entered to find another large pool of slime up ahead, while they were standing on a platform.

Two Dark Wizards were flying over the slime and began to fire dark magic from their wands at them. Tipral simply snapped his finger and sent the two Dark Wizards into the slime with his Star Magic.

"That doth be a little gruesome…" Luvbi trailed as she watched the two Dark Wizards incinerate in the slime. Chopper decided to use some of the platforms sticking out of the slime to cross, but Tipral jumped and used his teleportation to get across and reach the other side, where he found some ledges above them with a boulder dropping to the ground.

After the boulder was gone, Tipral jumped to the right ledge above him, as well as Chopper. They jumped to the left ledge above them and to the right ledge to find a pathway with some gaps with slime below. Boulders were falling down as well.

"Well… I guess this isn't as bad…" Chopper trailed as he jumped after the boulder fell. Tipral simply teleported over to the other side to make things easier and reached an area with a couple of more gaps with slime below and some Ninja Creatures landing on the pathway and attempting to strike them with their katanas.

Chopper managed to bash one with his hammer with a light smash, while Tipral knocked them away with a Star Punch. He simply used his teleportation to cross the gaps and reach the end of the pathway.

"There isn't anything around here," Tipral noticed. "You're going to have to flip into 3-D, Chopper."

"Hey, who made you leader?" Chopper gawked.

"I'm just giving you a suggestion, you idiot."

"Don't call my sweet prince a…"

"Luvbi, let's not get into another argument," Chopper sighed as he went into 3-D and saw a platform to their right. They all got on it and landed on the next pathway moving to the left after going back into 2-D.

They defeated two Dark Wizards in the way and hurried to the door ahead, which brought them into a small tunnel and then a platform leading down to a lower platform floating above the slime.

"This doth be a bit tricky…" Luvbi trailed.

"Well, what are we gonna do about it?" Chopper shrugged as he ran through the tunnel and landed on the moving platform. Tipral followed him and landed on the platform up ahead to find a large gap with slime.

"Oh… This should be fun…"

"I can get through this slime without any problem," Tipral assured as he skated across the slime and teleported Chopper and Luvbi across. "I don't know how far we are in this comet. Unless… You guys know."

"I don't think we art verily far through hither…" Luvbi trailed.

"Great… Well, I guess it's not a big problem when I can crush all of these minions here." Tipral saw a Dark Soldier charging toward him, unaware that it was once on Tipral's side. Him, not caring about the solider, struck its face with a Star Kick to send it flying back.

"Why are Dark Creatures here anyway?" Chopper asked. "Don't they belong to Dark or something?"

"Dark told me that they left him to join Shade after discovering that his army was better than his. The Dark Creatures never really followed my orders, so I can simply crush them without feeling regret."

"Thou dost not feel any regret for anything…" Luvbi scowled.

"You mean for Chopper and his friends' home worlds? I don't feel any regrets for that, especially when they harmed me before!"

"Look, let's save these problems for later," Chopper suggested. "I would just like to get a move on before we end up in a fight and get ourselves hurt."

Tipral found two platforms moving up and down and jumped on them to find another tunnel with a slope moving downward with a loop ahead. Chopper and Tipral sped down the slope and went through the loop while jumping off a ramp to land on a small pathway with the rest of the floor being filled with alien slime.

And to make matters worse, there were Dark Worms coming out of the slime.

"What the… They're not harmed by it? !" Chopper gaped.

"It appears their skin is probably able to withstand that slime…" Tipral trailed as he went over the slime. He found a Dark Soldier on a saucer, so he threw a Star Spear and knocked it off before tossing the saucer to Chopper. "Here, you can use that to get through here. …Oh, and it can probably help your stupid girlfriend too."

Chopper groaned from hearing the word "girlfriend" and jumped on the flying saucer while holding Luvbi bridal style, who seemed to enjoy being held like that.

"This doth remind me of those tales of princesses being held by their shining knight in armor," Luvbi gushed. "And thou dost remindeth me of mine knight in shining armor!"

"Luvbi… For the last time, I'm not any of that." Chopper sighed. "We're in such a serious situation at this moment, and all you can think of right now is loving me? That's… That's not right!"

"That doth be true… But, being around thee doth make me happy…" Luvbi smiled as she kissed Chopper on the cheek.

"GROSS!"

"Get over it, Chopper!" Tipral snapped as he hurled a Star Spear toward Chopper, who jumped over it. "I can't believe the person who looks like me acts like a complete baby at some points!"

"And you tend to act like a downer at some points," Chopper added. "Now tell me, would you rather hang with someone who acts like a baby or a downer? …That said, both are pretty bad."

Before Chopper could continue on through the toxic slime, a flying saucer teleported into the area, where a Dark Creature wearing black armor with a device on its back appeared. It was holding a purple blaster that could fire rapidly.

"Uh oh… That's not good." Chopper gulped as he avoided the Dark Assassin's attack and hurled a light ball. However, it didn't fall off the flying saucer to his dismay when he got hit by a blast.

"Chopper! Art thou all right? !" Luvbi gasped.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine…"

"But thou art rather hurt…"

Tipral jumped and managed to dive down at the Dark Assassin, striking it with a Star Kick and then his Star Burst, which sent the alien flying off its flying saucer and disintegrated into smoke afterward.

"Oh… Well, that wasn't too bad." Chopper shrugged as he followed Tipral over to the tunnel ahead to find a slope going down to some more toxic slime. Luvbi cringed at the tentacles on the walls and ceiling of the tunnel.

"Ugh… I dost not like those…" Luvbi trailed.

"Well, don't worry about it. If I'm here, then that means that you're probably not going to get hurt."

Chopper went down the slope while still on the flying saucer, while Tipral skated down, gaining some more speed as he traveled through a gap of slime and found a pathway with a purple pipe before them.

"Hmmmm… Well, there isn't much else here, so we're going to have to go down this pipe." Tipral declared as Chopper got off the flying saucer after crossing the slime and followed him down the pipe.

When they came out of the pipe, they ran into a large Dark Creature with no armor and a large, purple sword. It most likely had a lot of HP compared to the other enemies, having about 400 HP, so they knew this would most likely take a while to fight against.

"Great… This is going to be fun." Chopper sighed as he began hurling light balls at the Dark Brute. It managed to swing its sword, but Chopper was quick enough to jump out of harm's way while Tipral threw a shadow ball to leave it stunned. After freezing time around the Dark Brute, he began to throw as many attacks as possible.

However, Chopper's hammer was able to finish it off before Tipral could make the final blow.

"Why did you do that?" Tipral asked. "I had it right where I wanted it!"

"Hey, I have to fight too, you know," Chopper mentioned as they found a purple crystal ahead. Chopper hurled a light ball at it and made a pathway reveal itself. There was more toxic alien slime, but with a couple of prickly mines around as well.

"Pray, art those mines in the slime?" Luvbi gawked as Chopper got on a flying saucer. "This doth not appear to be safe hither…"

"They can easily get destroyed if they get in contact with anything," Tipral informed. "Obviously a Star Spear would destroy them."

Luvbi went into Chopper's arms again (despite not wanting Luvbi to be close to him) as he began to go over the slime. Because she felt close to him, she rubbed her cheek on his, making him nervous.

"Why is thy cheek so soft, my prince?" Luvbi wondered.

Chopper eventually ignored this and used Hommissile to destroy a couple of mines in the way until they reached a waterfall made of toxic slime going downward. Tipral simply jumped down, while the flying saucer slowly landed below.

"Good thing that the fall wasn't too bad," Chopper sighed as he stopped when some toxic slime fired upward. Chopper had to stop until the toxic slime stopped and allowed him to move on. Some Dark Assassins appeared on flying saucers as well, with Chopper using Starbow to take them out.

When they found a high ledge ahead, they noticed that they couldn't find a way to get up there. The only thing they saw was some slime firing upward to the ledge.

"Mayhap we can use that slime to reach the ledge?" Luvbi suggested.

"Why would you think that would work?" Chopper wondered.

"Because thou will be fine on thy saucer! And yon hideous creature couldst simply teleport up there as well!"

"'Hideous creature'… I'm not too surprised to hear that again…" Tipral groaned as he teleported over to the ledge.

Chopper decided to listen to Luvbi and went over the slime where it fired upward. When this happened, the saucer went upward and was able to reach the ledge, where they found a pathway ahead with no gaps with slime.

"Well, that wasn't such a bad idea!" Chopper smiled as he got off the saucer. "I never knew you had some good ideas!"

"Yea, verily!" Luvbi blushed. "But I dost want thee to return the favor by kissing my on mine lips!"

"Yeah! That will… Wait, what? Gross!"

"But thou didst kiss me before! I know thou enjoyed it!"

"I did not! I only did that because I wanted to make you feel better! That's the LAST time I ever kiss a girl. EVER!"

"No one wants to hear you cry over a kiss, and no one wants to hear you love Chopper so much," Tipral scoffed as he walked on ahead, knocking a Dark Wizard out of his way.

"Hmph! He doth be rude!" Luvbi huffed, a little infuriated over Tipral. "All I want is a kiss from my prince, but he hath to interrupt!"

"Thank goodness…" Chopper sighed as he ran on ahead, knocking a Dark Wizard out of his way, which got up and struck Chopper with dark magic. He simply finished it off with a light sweeping kick and followed Tipral ahead to a tall platform blocking the way.

"There's something up there," Tipral noticed as he teleported onto the platform and found a chest, which contained a Comet Key. Up ahead, they saw a blue door that had a lock on it.

"I think there might be something of interest ahead," Luvbi noted.

"Yeah, but we have that Dark Skelloknight and the Dark Brute in the way…" Chopper sweat dropped as he whacked a Dark Wizard away with his hammer. When they got to the two large enemies, they got themselves ready to battle.

"So… Should we both take care of one of them?"

"Well, that's not a bad idea," Tipral noted. "I'll take care of the Dark Skelloknight."

"Then I got the brute!" Chopper smirked as he began to spin around the Dark Brute rapidly, making the alien dizzy and fall over. This gave Chopper the opportunity to charge up a light ball and hurl it at it, causing it to get enveloped by light energy. Although, this did not mean that it was down yet.

The Dark Brute lifted its sword and brought it down, but Chopper jumped on its head and performed a stylish move before using Starbow to make shooting stars fall on the Dark Creature. He finished it off by punching its chest with a light punch, which was able to destroy it thanks to the light energy.

"Wow… I guess speed really does help!"

As for Tipral, he had an easier time with his enemy. It didn't take long for him to destroy the armor on the Dark Skelloknight and punch its stomach with a Star Punch. It cringed as Tipral teleported behind the large Skellobit and kicked its face a couple of times.

"Take this!" Tipral roared as he swung both arms and fired two Star Spears straight at the Dark Skelloknight. However, before he could finish it off, Chopper jumped in and finished it off with a charged light ball, disintegrating it and leaving a Master Shroom Shake, which he took.

"There ya go! That's taken care of!" Chopper declared in relief before getting punched by Tipral.

"Why didst thou do that? !" Luvbi gaped.

"Next time, don't take care of something that I was taking care of!" Tipral hissed. "You're making me want to leave you and do this on my own!"

"Actually, you wouldn't be able to," Chopper mentioned. "I'm sure there are some things here that require light energy to get past. I know I can't go through here without you either, so we DO need to work together, sadly."

"Hmph… Fine." Tipral took the Comet Key out and unlocked the door, leading them into a small area with some floating asteroids leading down to a door where a yellow ? block was. There was a Save Block near them, so Chopper hit it to save their game.

"I doth wonder why there art asteroids around hither…" Luvbi trailed as she looked below and noticed some more toxic alien slime. "Please don't fall off them, my sweet prince! If thou dost die, then I won't have someone to marry!"

Chopper felt like he was going to puke over the word "marriage" as he jumped on the asteroids and reached the ledge below them. There, they found the yellow ? block and the door.

Once he hit the block, a Star Shroom popped out, so he managed to take it and rip it into two to give one to Tipral.

"Wait… Why are you giving me that?" Tipral asked.

"Well, I'm sure you got hurt a bit, so you might want it," Chopper answered. "And besides, if you run out of HP, then I'm probably screwed."

"All right, whatever," Tipral took the Star Shroom and ate it to recover 150 HP. They then moved on to the next area, which wasn't as big as the area where Chopper fought Bonechill, but it sure did look a lot different.

"Hold on… This room doesn't even look slightly alien-like!" Chopper gawked. "It reminds me of that underground room on that island while going over the ocean in that one world!"

"Dost thou mean the world where The Peaceness was?" Luvbi asked.

"Yeah, that one… And there are even some pillars here as well!" Chopper looked up at the sky and noticed the black all around. "Yup… And the whole area feels a little purplish as well."

"Hmph… Can't say much about this place." Tipral commented. "Though, the door appears to be up ahead."

"_**So, we meet again…"**_

"Hold on a second… I remember that voice!" Chopper realized as he saw the Soul Collector appear before them. "Hey! You're that phantom that we encountered before! What are you doing here? !"

"_**I should be asking you the same thing," **_the Soul Collector replied. _**"This is a place where I have come to take some souls. After all, I do collect them."**_

"Thou dost appear a bit strange…" Luvbi trailed.

"_**I'm one of the Tribe of Darkness. …Or rather, I used to be until I was killed."**_

"I know you…" Tipral trailed as he got a good eye on the Soul Collector. "I've seen your face somewhere."

"…_**So, it is you, isn't it? The one who murdered me back then. I see you're still alive, aren't you?"**_

"You should've stayed dead instead of becoming a phantom. People would've probably liked that a lot more!"

"_**That may be, but I could care less about what people think of me. Now that you're here, I can finally get revenge on you for killing me and turning me into nothing but a soul collector! I'm going to appreciate stealing your soul! And I'll gladly do the same thing with you, kid!"**_

"What? ! What have I ever done to you? !" Chopper guffawed.

"_**You idiot… I take people's souls! Since you are a wanderer, I'm going to take your soul! And thankfully, it shouldn't be a problem this time! I've gotten a little used to that rainbow energy!"**_

"Oh yeah?" Chopper flung a rainbow ball toward the Soul Collector, but it simply phased through it and hit the wall. "Uh oh… I guess he really has learned a few things from before…"

"_**Yes! Now I shall show you what I can do!"**_

The Soul Collector teleported behind Tipral and fired a dark spell from its wand at him. Tipral simply teleported in front of the Soul Collector and attempted to strike it with a Star Kick.

Sadly, it didn't seem to work.

"What? !" Tipral gaped before he was knocked to the ground by a dark spell while the Soul Collector cackled.

"_**Hwa hwa hwa… Well, it doesn't look like you're going to be hitting me anytime soon!" **_the Soul Collector grinned._** "You guys don't even stand a chance against me!"**_

Chopper pondered for a minute before realizing that he did have something that he could probably use.

"_Maybe this will work…" _Chopper thought as he hurled a charged light ball at the Soul Collector. When it struck the phantom, its eyes widened in pain as it felt light enveloping inside of it.

"_**WH-WHAT? ! What just happened? !" **_the Soul Collector looked down at its chest and noticed that its phantom-like appearance was more solid than before. When Tipral noticed this, he swung both arms and struck the Soul Collector with two Star Spears.

"_**Did I just get struck by light energy? ! That… That means I'm vulnerable to any attack!"**_

"Just like Hauntost…" Chopper trailed as the Soul Collector turned to him. "Yeah, I managed to get a hold of light energy. It looks like we can actually have a bit of a fair fight this time!"

"_**Fools… I may be vulnerable, but my attacks are still as powerful as ever!"**_

"Luvbi, stay back. Tipral and I got this."

"Of course, my prince," Luvbi nodded as she fluttered above the battle, trying to keep herself safe from harm. She watched as Chopper jumped out of the way of a dark spell the Soul Collector was firing. This thing had 440 HP, an Attack of 18 and a Defense of 6, which was nothing to laugh at.

The Soul Collector became frustrated as Chopper dodged the spells that were thrown at him and was spinning rapidly in a way to avoid them. Of course, Tipral found it stupid, but he was able to strike the Soul Collector by snapping his finger and hitting it with Star Magic.

"Chopper, let me use one of those Pixls you've got," demanded Tipral. "I think I could use one of them to help."

"I'll go by your side," Crystaline declared as she fluttered over to Tipral. When the Soul Collector tried to attack him, he tossed Crystaline at the phantom and left it frozen solid, which was enough for Tipral to use his Star Burst on.

"_**Grrrrrr… If only I were invulnerable to your attacks…" **_the Soul Collector groaned as he teleported above the ground and used more of his magic to make dark orbs of energy appear to their left and right.

"Whoa… This isn't good…" Chopper trailed.

"Well, I can probably help you," Barry informed, creating a spiky barrier around Chopper to protect himself. Tipral simply used Slim to turn sideways and avoid the dark orbs of energy flying toward him.

"Is this the best you've got?" Tipral scoffed.

"_**Those Pixls… They're getting in my way!" **_the Soul Collector tried to zap one of the Pixls with dark magic, but Reflecto was able to reflect the attack back at the Soul Collector, stunning it.

"Good thing Reflecto's here, or else we would be in some serious trouble!" Chopper smiled as he looked over at Reflecto, who remained silent as he went back over to the back by the other Pixls.

"He's one shy Pixl, isn't he?" Carrie noted.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to be a talker…" Starbow trailed.

The Soul Collector slowly rubbed its head as it blinked and noticed Tipral fired a Star spear its way. It teleported to avoid it and managed to strike Tipral with dark lightning, leaving Tipral paralyzed.

"Grrrgh… I…can't move…!" Tipral grunted.

"Just try to stay calm while I handle this," Chopper assured as he ran toward the Soul Collector, who turned around and fired a dark spell at Chopper, who managed to jump over it and hit the Soul Collector with a light kick.

"_**Curse that light power you hold!" **_the Soul Collector spat._** "Though… Dark power is something that can counter it, like light power can counter darkness."**_

"Yeah, I suppose that's true…"

The Soul Collector grinned as it destroyed the light ball that was thrown at it by using dark magic on it. Chopper gulped and jumped out of the way as Tipral managed to recover from the paralysis and attack the Soul Collector with his Star First.

"Now that I'm no longer paralyzed, you'll be expected to be met with death!" Tipral declared. "Though… You're technically dead…"

"_**I believe it'll be YOU who will be met with death…"**_ the Soul Collector created a couple of dark phantoms that resembled Boos that flew down to attack, but with some light balls, they were defeated with ease.

"Chopper! Don't let that thing defeatest thee!" Luvbi cried.

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen," Chopper assured as the Soul Collector created a dark sword and tried to strike Chopper with it, only to have him jump out of the way and hit a pillar instead. It got knocked over, which hit the Soul Collector and forced it to create bombs and throw them.

While Tipral struck the Soul Collector, Chopper inhaled a bomb to become Bomb Chopper and hurled a bomb straight at the Soul Collector. Unfortunately, this didn't work when it dodged it by teleporting, but it wasn't able to escape Tipral's teleporting Star Strikes.

"I don't know why I even chose to use the Bomb ability…" Chopper trailed.

"Well no matter what, I still love thee either way!" Luvbi sighed sweetly.

"Uhhhhhhh… Honestly, I have no comment over that."

"Chopper, just shut up and help me fight!" Tipral hissed, getting pinned to the ground by the Soul Collector, who was about to use its magic wand to strike Tipral with another attack. While it charged, the phantom grinned at him with its scary smile.

"_**Well, it looks like I have you right where I want you!" **_the Soul Collector cackled. _**"I've been waiting for this moment, you know! You have any last words before I end up killing you?"**_

"You're quite an idiot," Tipral scoffed as he teleported and kicked the Soul Collector in the face. "You should've known that that wouldn't work."

"_**Hmph… How stupid of me to forget that."**_

Chopper pulled a bomb out and chucked it at the Soul Collector, who simply threw it back at Chopper to send him flying back from the explosion. Luvbi wanted to go down and help, but she knew it would be too dangerous.

"_I just hopeth my prince doesn't loseth his game…" _Luvbi thought as Chopper got up, with some soot covering him. He brushed it off and created an ice bomb thanks to the ice power he had and threw one at the Soul Collector, freezing it.

"Hmmm? An ice bomb?" Tipral gawked.

"Well, sometimes you need to bring ice bombs to a fight," Chopper shrugged before the Soul Collector broke out of its icy prison. It fired a dark glob of energy at Chopper to deal some damage, but that ended up getting hit by Tipral's Star Magic.

"_**I believe you're the more threatening one," **_the Soul Collector deduced, creating a staff from its scepter and attempting to strike Tipral with it. It managed to hit him at least once, but Tipral teleported above it and slammed his fists down on its head, making it hit the ground.

"Since you're no longer a phantom, you can't go through the floor," Tipral scoffed. "Pathetic…"

"_**Pathetic? Oh… You've really messed with the wrong Tribe of Darkness!"**_

"I don't give much of a crap about that. You should've stayed dead, and that's what I plan on doing with you." Tipral declared as he stomped on the Soul Collector with Star energy on his feet and left the phantom cringing in pain.

"Why do you even want him dead?" Chopper asked.

"I killed him before, and that's how I want it to stay. How you managed to become this, I have no idea. In fact, I don't really care HOW you managed to turn into this."

The Soul Collector grimaced as it creating a dark X that formed a slash attack and made Tipral fall over on the ground. The Soul Collector was quite satisfied, until it got hit by a fire bomb.

"Sorry, I can't let you do that," Chopper stated as he tossed a charged light ball at the Soul Collector afterward. It made it cringe, but it was able to whirl around and create a dark shockwave that hit the two.

"Gah!" Tipral grunted as he winced. "Not bad… You do seem to put up a bit of a fight. Not that I'm surprised."

"_**If I didn't have the time to act before you killed me, I could've killed you instead," **_the Soul Collector hissed as it surrounded itself in a barrier. Chopper tried chucking bombs at it, but it didn't seem to break through.

"Hold on, I got this," Tipral threw a Star Spear at the Soul Collector, but the barrier around it was preventing him from hurting the phantom. "Great… Just what we needed. It doesn't look like this is going to work."

"Well, that's made of darkness, so I'm sure this might do something," Chopper used a light bomb at the barrier, which ended up shattering it. The Soul Collector wasn't surprised, but it fired dark lightning that paralyzed Chopper.

"N-No! I…can't move!"

"Quit whining, you'll get over it."

"Dude… You really shouldn't be like that. I'm starting to like you a lot less."

"I doth agree," Luvbi agreed.

"Look, I'll take care of him until you're no longer paralyzed, all right? Of course, if you want to cry over it, go right ahead."

Chopper frowned as Tipral hurled two shadow balls at the Soul Collector. It didn't do much, due to his attack being dark, while the phantom itself was a dark being. However, this allowed him to snap his finger and attack with Star Magic before kicking the Soul Collector in the face.

"_**I wonder… Do you enjoy killing?" **_the Soul Collector asked.

"That answer… I don't have much of an opinion on that. I only kill those who get in my way, simple as that." Tipral answered as he swung both of his arms and fired a Star Spear that left the Soul Collector in pain.

"_**And you know if you kill me… It's not going to get you anywhere."**_

"It'll certainly get me somewhere. You're in the way, and if I don't do anything about it, then I'd probably be dead."

"Uhhhh… Tipral? We don't have time for conversations!" Chopper cried, no longer paralyzed. "We still have to kick this guy's butt!"

"_**Oh, yes… Then there's you." **_the Soul Collector fired a small dark beam that blasted Chopper back over by the wall and got rid of his Bomb ability. It didn't matter too much, because he immediately got up and held Starbow up to let shooting stars fall down on the Soul Collector.

"I should be using those…" Tipral trailed as he used Hommissile to send the Soul Collector flying back. It teleported before it hit the wall and made dark orbs of energy rain down from above.

"Thou can dost it!" Luvbi cheered, almost being like a cheerleader.

Chopper kind of liked the cheering, despite being whacked in the face by the Soul Collector's staff. Tipral jumped in and tackled the Soul Collector, using Crystaline to leave it frozen.

"And now allow me to make my next move!" Chopper smirked as he jumped on top of the Soul Collector and used Screwdy's corkscrew to break through the Soul Collector's icy prison and leave it wincing in pain.

"_**What was that? !" **_it gawked.

"Just a little something to help take you down, I suppose."

"_**I see… Well, let's see how you top THIS!"**_

"…What are you doing?"

"Chopper, move out of the way. NOW!" Tipral shouted as a large dark orb of energy was made and thrown down to the ground. The blast knocked both Chopper and Tipral back to one of the pillars, knocking it to the ground.

"Geez… We're a little low on HP, aren't we?" Chopper sighed as he drank a Star Shroom Shake to recover 150 HP. He tossed the last of it to Tipral, who drank his and recovered 150 HP. He simply disintegrated the can instead of throwing it.

"Hmmmmm… Mayhap my sage powers couldst do something?" Luvbi wondered as she watched the Soul Collector create a large, dark claw that tried to swipe at the two. They simply jumped out of the way and attacked it with a light ball and shadow ball.

However, she then realized that she couldn't reveal her sage powers to people other than Chopper. With Tipral around, it wasn't a safe idea.

The Soul Collector summoned a couple of dark minions to attack, but Chopper simply destroyed them with some light balls. Unfortunately, this left him distracted when the Soul Collector created two swords and struck him with them both.

"_**Thankfully, my wand can transform into any weapon I desire," **_the Soul Collector grinned as it swung at Tipral, who teleported to dodge them and reappeared by using his Star Burst, sending the Soul Collector flying upward.

When Tipral tried to kick at it, it simply used its arms to defend itself from Tipral's attacks. To his surprise, he wasn't doing anything to the Soul Collector as he got struck twice by the Soul Collector's sword.

"Urk! What the heck? ! How did my attacks not work? !" Tipral winced.

"_**I put up a little spell to make sure when I guarded, I wouldn't get hurt! That certainly worked out we-"**_

"Hi-ya!" Chopper howled as he kicked the Soul Collector with a light kick, which knocked it back onto the ground. He looked down and tossed a rainbow ball to deal a bit of damage.

"Oh… So rainbow isn't as powerful against it now…"

"_**Of course it isn't! I told you that I ended up getting used to rainbow energy, so it's not going to hurt me that much now!"**_

"Oh… Well, you're pretty weak anyway, so it doesn't matter!"

"_**Gah… I just realized that… Oh well. Hopefully I'll get your souls soon!"**_

"I don't see that happening," Tipral scoffed as he clenched his fists and was surrounded by a light purple glow. "When this attack is unleashed, you're not going to be around anymore, that's for sure!"

"Wait… What are you doing? !" Chopper gawked.

"Chopper, I recommend that you stay far back as possible. I'm sure this might end this phantom!"

"_**Pah! I don't fear your stupid light purple glow!" **_scoffed the Soul Collector. _**"Just try it!"**_

"Hmph! Well, if that's what you want, then I'll give it to you! I don't think I've ever showed up this before when I previously killed you. THIS is what happens when you try to mess with me!"

"Uh oh… I think he's going to do THAT attack…" Chopper gulped. "Luvbi! You're not safe up there!"

"I'm coming, my prince!" Luvbi cried as she fluttered down to Chopper, who held her bridal style and ran to a safe place where they were least likely to get hurt. Chopper felt nervous, while Luvbi was gushing over him holding her.

"Oh, this doth be romantic right now! We shouldst kiss!"

"Luvbi! Not now!"

"So, are you ready to witness my ultimate power?" Tipral asked, clenching his fists as the Soul Collector smirked.

"_**I dare you," **_the Soul Collector scoffed.

"Very well… _**STAR BLAST!**_" Tipral unleashed his Star Blast, creating a large explosion that made the Soul Collector's eyes widen in fear. Chopper gaped as he saw the blast coming close to him, but Barry managed to shield him and Luvbi.

"Whoa… That was close!" Chopper sighed.

"Yea, verily… Thou art truly a hero, my prince!" Luvbi gushed, kissing Chopper on the cheek, making him feel sickened.

When the bright explosion faded away, the Soul Collector was left lying on the ground, weak. Tipral landed on the ground and walked over to the Soul Collector, putting his foot on his body.

"_**Grrrrghh… So… It looks like you managed to…best me…" **_the Soul Collector wheezed. _**"Though… I'm sure my death will haunt you in your future!"**_

"You may think that, but I'm simply just going to move on," Tipral declared, crossing his arms. "But tell me… Who are you really?"

"_**My name… My name…is Count Drak."**_

With these last words, the Soul Collector, or rather, Count Drak, slowly faded away, his phantom dying off. Tipral walked over to the door ahead and looked back at the two others.

"Are you two coming?"

"So you're just going to leave without caring?" Chopper asked.

"What is there to care about that guy? It's his fault he got in my way in the first place."

"So you still continue to lacketh a heart," Luvbi realized.

"Enough with that already. Let's just get out of here."

Chopper sighed as he followed Tipral to the door ahead, which led them back into the alien-like area that they've been seeing for a while. Up ahead was the Star Block, which made Chopper gasp.

"We're finally at the end! Hooray!" Chopper cheered.

"Let us movest on!" Luvbi declared as Chopper ran on ahead and struck the Star Block. Tipral slowly followed ahead, not using his air shoes to move faster.

"So we're delving a little deeper into the comet…" Tipral trailed. "Hopefully we find Shade so I can personally squeeze the life out of him!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Tipral joining Chopper, he was starting to wonder how his friends would react to him being with him again. After all, he was responsible for destroying their home worlds, and not to mention he didn't regret it. As they made their way through the comet, Luvbi continued to gush over Chopper, with things like "I can't believest we art together again! It doth feel romantic!" or "When we art done hither, we shouldst get our wedding ready!" Of course, it bothered him, but he dealt with it. Unfortunately, things weren't getting better as he noticed the area get a little darker._

* * *

**Yup, a lot of stuff was revealed here, and we even have Luvbi gushing over Chopper still (which I'm sure most people are getting annoyed of, that's for sure), and that's certainly bothering him. I'm not going to go into much detail over what happened, because you people should know by now.**

**Anyway, prepare for something else interesting next part.**


	115. Guardians in the Dark

**CHAPTER 19-2**

**-Guardians in the Dark-**

"So, it looks like we've made our way deeper in the Comet of Darkness…" Tipral trailed as he crossed his arms. "I don't think there's much else that needs to be said."

"What? This area feels pretty dark!" Chopper mentioned. "It's not that easy to see what's around here, you know…"

"Can thou stayest close to me, my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked, fluttering close to Chopper and holding onto him, which made his eyes widen and shake in fear. "I doth feel so scary here, dost thou agree?"

"Luvbi… Please stop that! I think everyone knows that you're merely faking that so you could somehow get some affection toward me. I don't want to be in a relationship. I mean, they're for old people!"

"Well, according to this sign here, we're on **Shadow Doom's Road**," Tipral explained. "Thankfully, I don't see any toxic alien slime around here, so we should be in the clear for this area."

"Mayhap this will be just like Underwhere Road?" Luvbi wondered. "When we madeth our way there before, it was just us. However, Tippi was with us, but now she dost not seemeth to be hither."

"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling too," Chopper agreed as he looked over at the pink energy poles that were around. However, he still didn't feel too comfortable about this place. "Unnngh… I'll be fair, I don't like how this place is. Especially those large tentacle things in the background."

"Yea, those doth look creepy…" Luvbi agreed, covering her eyes from the tentacles.

"You really think THIS is scary? You gotta be kidding me…" Tipral face palmed.

"We can be scared of whatever we want, hideous creature! Now backeth off before I am forced to smacketh thee with my wing!"

"Do that and you die," Tipral threatened as he noticed there was more writing on the sign. "Hold on… There's more on this sign."

_Those who wish to make their way through Shadow Doom's Road must get past the three guardians. You never know what they might ask you. It might involve answering questions, or fighting against something. You better be prepared if you wish to go to his castle._

Up ahead, there was a door that a Dark Wizard was standing by. It noticed the three and whipped its wand out and fired dark magic at him. Chopper simply jumped over the projectiles and stomped on its head while performing stylish moves.

"Woo hoo! Stylish moves!" Chopper cheered as Tipral snapped his finger and defeated the Dark Wizard with Star Magic. With that, the coast was clear, with them allowing entry through the door.

But Chopper quickly closed it when he found it to be pitch black in there.

"Oh, no… It's too dark in there!" Chopper frowned. "There's no way I'm going through there… Not after what happened in Underwhere Road…"

"What are you talking about?" Tipral asked. "I don't remember anything bad happening back in Underwhere Road in those dark places."

"Well, I sure remember something back there. When it's dark, then I'm not going to know who's around me. You know, like those Underhands and that stuff… And not to mention Luvbi was hiding in the dark and kissing me!"

"Oh, I doth remember that!" Luvbi recalled. "I did enjoyeth that! Kissing thee makest me so happy! Especially for a cute girl such as myself!"

"Ugh… _I'm going to have to get some sort of shield if I'm going to keep myself safe from her girly kisses…_"

"Anyway, let's not waste our time," Tipral suggested. "We already defeated a Dark Wizard, so I'm betting that there are possibly more through the door ahead. I say stay behind me, because I can see in the dark."

"I might use this to help me," Chopper declared as he created a light ball that he put near him. Luvbi stayed close again so she knew where Chopper was. "…Wait, that would leave me open!"

"But thou dost need to see," Luvbi mentioned.

"Fine… But I don't want you flying all over the place! I'm sure your parents would want you to be back with them in one piece. They entrusted me to watch you over before, so you need to listen to me, just like Nolrem said."

After their little conversation, they headed through the door and proceeded onward. The only thing they didn't notice was the Necromancer watching from above. As the door closed, he flew off, heading back to Shade.

* * *

**Shade's Throne-**

"Thou dost know that thou can't keepest us hither forever!" Grambi wheezed. "As a god, I have the power to endeth thee!"

"Too bad I managed to find out what can stop the king and queen of the aftergame!" Shade grinned under his hood. "So tell me… How does it feel like to be missing in your own world? I bet everyone must be worried sick!"

"Enough of this, Shade," Queen Jaydes snapped. "You can't keep us trapped in this barrier forever. It's going to eventually get weak, which will allow us to break through and put an end to your plan!"

"And poor Luvbi is out all alone…" Grambi trailed. "Thou art going to pay!"

"Oh, don't worry… I already sent out a little notice for her. As a matter of fact, I ran into her earlier before, along with his 'boyfriend' Chopper! Yeah, they're going to be coming here to try to stop me! Sadly, he doesn't have anyone to help him, so this will make my victory become easier!"

"I'm sure they'll come here eventually and defeat you," Queen Jaydes assured. "Most plans have their drawbacks anyway."

"Oh, well, if they somehow make it here, I have something that'll get in their way! That said, I'll be interested to fight against Chopper once again, but I want to test his skills with something else first…"

"Master! I've returned!" the Necromancer cried as he flew over to the throne and landed on the purple rocky ground.

"Necromancer, so you've returned? What did you find?"

"Well, I found Chopper making his way to Shadow Doom Road," the Necromancer explained. "…Oh, and there's someone else with him too."

"What? Is it someone like Kirby or Mario? ! Answer me now!"

"Actually, it's someone you probably wouldn't have expected. It's Tipral."

"Tipral? You mean Tipral from the palace who summoned The Void to destroy all worlds as we know it? Why would he be siding with Chopper? Sure, they did it before, but I thought those two HATED each other?"

"Chopper teaming up with Tipral? That doth sound strange…" Grambi trailed.

"Well, as much horrible things Tipral has done, if he's coming here to help, then we might as well accept it," Queen Jaydes noted.

"Yea, I dost agree."

"Yes, I thought the same thing, master," the Necromancer agreed. "Perhaps they formed a temporary alliance? Well, it doesn't really matter anyway. Our objective is to still stop them, right?"

"Yeah, I do want that," Shade nodded. "But don't kill them. I want to be the one who does the honors of killing them."

"Well, don't worry, master. Thankfully, I was able to get things prepared if those two even make it here. The army is all set up and ready to take them on! They won't even see it coming…"

"Excellent! That's what I like to hear! I can always count on you, Necromancer! Perhaps… Hmmmmm… I'm not so sure… Well, perhaps I could tell you a little secret no one else knows about."

"A secret? What dost thou mean?" Grambi gawked.

"Silence, fool! I wasn't finished yet!" Shade snapped. "Anyway… I think it would be best to reveal this to you. Not even Chopper, Tipral, or even my brother knows about this! Only I know about this."

"A secret, huh? Well… I suppose I could listen in…" the Necromancer trailed. "You ARE allowing me to listen, after all. I swear, by my undead magic that I won't tell a soul nor a dead being about this. You have my word."

"Good… Now, I'm only going to say this once. I will not repeat it again. And in truth, this might actually shock you a bit. There's a bigger reason why I have become this other than being useless as Dark's engineer."

"Another reason?"

"Yes…" Shade nodded as he began to explain everything to him. Due to his explanation being too long, it ended up getting fast forwarded to save up time. The Necromancer was at total shock in the end.

"And that's my story."

"I… I don't believe it…" the Necromancer gaped. "I've never known about this from you before! I am at utter shock!"

"Yes, I had a feeling you would be. I've never told a soul about this anyway."

"But did those two listen in?"

"No. I made the barrier soundproof just so they couldn't hear in to our conversation. Trust me, I think it was for the better."

"All right, I understand," the Necromancer nodded. "I will head out and check on Chopper and report any news if necessary."

"Please do that. Oh, and Necromancer…" Shade trailed as his minion turned back to him. "Could you tell those Skellobits by the front entrance that they're being replaced and are getting new, crappier jobs? I want to put those Dark Wizards there, considering they're the strongest of our minions."

"Why replace them?"

"They're not much use. We can just throw them out. I never planned on using them anyway."

"Very well, I'll do that," the Necromancer nodded as he flew off, leaving Shade, Queen Jaydes and Grambi. The barrier was no longer soundproof afterward.

"What do you think that alien boy was explaining to that Necromancer?" Queen Jaydes asked.

"I dost not know…" Grambi trailed. "But by the look on his face, it doth sound shocking…"

"Mmmmmm… I can agree."

* * *

**Dark area-**

"Yeesh… Why doth it have to be darker than Underwhere Road?" Luvbi wondered as the three closed the door shut. Chopper lit up a light ball so he could see his surroundings a little, while Tipral could see just fine.

"If my eyes were like flashlights, I'm sure you would be able to see," Tipral noted. "But, I can see the dark through my perspective only."

"Great… I don't even think this light ball will be enough." Chopper sweat dropped as he found the slope moving at a downward angle. He decided to go down it, where he ended up running through a loop and went down another slope until they reached flat ground, where Tipral noticed some dark gray ghostly beings with purple eyes and sharp teeth.

"I can see some ghosts around here…" Tipral trailed.

"Oh, great. Well that's just nice…"

"Eeeeek! Chopper! Helpest me!"

"Luvbi? What are you doing? !" Chopper gasped as he looked around for Luvbi. Sadly, his light ball wasn't enough to make him see the Nimbi girl. He eventually ended up running into her, who was being chased by some Dark Ghosts.

"Chopper! Get these ghosts away from me!"

"Ummmmm… OK, I'll try something." Chopper tossed the light ball at one of the Dark Ghosts, destroying it instantly by enveloping it in light. Meanwhile, the other Dark Ghosts began to open their mouths and shout loudly.

"They don't seem to be able to harm you," Tipral noticed. "We can ignore them."

"Oh, really? Well that's a relief. I suppose we should continue on."

"Oh, I wouldn't recommend that, Chopper…"

"Why not?"

"I can see some more of that toxic alien slime substance ahead. It's best that you don't touch it…"

"Well that's great. I was hoping we'd be through that stuff already… Oh well." Chopper sighed as he noticed a small purple crystal nearby, so he tossed a light ball at it to make a little bit of light around him to help him see what was around.

"I can see thee, my prince!" Luvbi hollered as she fluttered closer to Chopper as Tipral skated over the slime and teleported Chopper across. There, they found some Ninja Creatures throwing their blades like boomerangs toward them, but Tipral snapped his finger and knocked the blades away.

"I don't think I see any flying saucers around this area…" Chopper trailed.

"Then it looks like you'll have to rely on me," Tipral stated as he elbowed the Ninja Creatures and sent it flying back toward others. Chopper joined in and used Starbow to finish off the Ninja Creatures.

"Well that takes care of them!"

"How much darkness dost thou think will be hither?" Luvbi asked, now holding onto Chopper, who began to feel a bit uncomfortable. However, he decided to deal with it and followed Tipral over to some platforms moving up and down. They sank into the slime, which meant that it wasn't safe to stay on them for a while.

"This should be a problem for me," Tipral declared as he crossed his arms.

"What's there?" Chopper asked.

"Moving platforms. They go into the alien slime, so I suggest you be careful."

"Oh… That's bad." Chopper gulped as he watched Tipral jump onto them and cross over the slime. Because he didn't have much light as him, getting through felt a little difficult, especially when he couldn't see the platform.

"Art thou all right, Chopper?" Luvbi asked.

"No, because I can't see the platform!"

"This is going to be harder than I thought…" Tipral sighed as he fired a Star Spear at one of the platforms to light it up. He did it with the other platforms as well so Chopper could see them.

"I can see something stuck on those platforms," Chopper noticed. "I think they might show me where the platforms are!"

"Hold me close, my prince," Luvbi said as she put her wings around Chopper, which made his eyes widen and step away from the princess. "What's wrong, my sweet prince? Dost thou love my hugs?"

"That's not going to help me get across! Just… I'll just pick you up so you don't have to worry about finding me, OK?"

"I dost love that!" Luvbi gushed as Chopper picked her up bridal style and jumped over the platforms. The Nimbi girl blushed as he looked up at Chopper's face. How much she loved that face.

Two Dark Wizards noticed them walking along the pathway, so they readied their wands and charged at them, firing dark magic projectiles at them. Tipral simply jumped and stomped on one of them, while Chopper relied on avoiding the attacks instead, since he had Luvbi with him.

"Don't let these people move through here!" one Dark Wizard shouted as it fired a large dark blast from its wand at Tipral, which sent him flying back after failing to avoid the attack.

"Don't forget the kid! Shade wants him, you know!" the second Dark Wizard mentioned.

"Oh, yes! We certainly can't forget about him!"

"Hey, where are those Dark Wizards?" Chopper asked, keeping a light ball near him while Luvbi looked around worriedly.

"Chopper… I see purple eyes ahead!" Luvbi cried.

"What? Oh… I see them!" Chopper noticed before he got struck by a magic projectile. Luvbi gaped, but Chopper managed to hurl a light ball at one of them and defeat it, while Tipral got up and finished off the other.

"I think I can see more slime up ahead," Tipral noted as he went up a small slope and found a small ledge he jumped on, where he found more toxic slime ahead, as well as a light ! block ahead.

"I see something glowing ahead!" Luvbi noticed.

"It looks like a block, but it's glowing," Chopper noticed. "I think it might be some kind of light block."

"I doth wish we were back in the light. It would be so much more romantic than right now!"

"Well, at least we give off a bit of light," Starbow mentioned.

"Yes! Perhaps zee dark one can do something about that!" Bonjourang mentioned. "Oh, I just wish zee green plumber was here… I do miss him!"

"I'll see what I can do," Tipral declared as he skated over the slime and struck the light ! block with a shadow ball, which created a floating platform moving sideways. Chopper saw the platform and jumped on it, making sure he didn't let go of Luvbi.

Of course, some Dark Ghosts tried to get in their way, but they avoided them as they walked over to a bridge of small yellow blocks. When Chopper stepped on them, he noticed they were getting destroyed by some shots being fired by some of the Dark Soldiers.

"Run!" Chopper cried as he began to Speed Dash through the bridge until he found a small ledge leading to some small climbable mountains where they found a door up ahead.

After reaching the top, two Dark Soldiers were trying to stop them, but Tipral kicked them away and opened the door into another dark area, where they found alien slime shooting upward between some platforms. Two Dark Skello Bombers were flying around and throwing their spears down at them, with one hitting Chopper.

"Ack! What the heck? ! They can throw spears? !" Chopper winced.

"I'll handle them," Tipral declared as he snapped his finger and took out the two monsters before crossing the gap before alien slime could shoot upward again. Of course, Chopper waited until it stopped, then he jumped across.

However, everything changed for them when Tipral saw a ledge up ahead, where a Dark Wizard happened to be using a turret. When it saw them, it grinned and fired large globs of alien slime that began to bounce on the pathway.

"Heh heh heh! Let's see you avoid THIS!" the Dark Wizard cackled as he fired a couple of more toward them.

"This… This isn't good!" Luvbi gulped.

"Well, maybe going into 3-D might work?" Chopper suggested as he went into 3-D. Even then, the pathway was kind of skinny, so the balls of alien slime would still be in the way, so he went back into 2-D.

"That's not a good idea…"

"Well, then we have to avoideth them?"

"I'm going to do this my way," Tipral decided. "I'm not helping you through this."

"Wait! What the heck do you…" Chopper was cut off when Tipral teleported out of their sight, leaving Chopper to have a hard time seeing in the darkness. "Well that's just great! He ditched us!"

"Hmph! He definitely dost not have manners!" Luvbi scoffed. "But, I expect that from an evil being like him!"

"Well, I'll just try to get through this. Don't let go of me, OK?"

"I wouldst never let go of thee, my prince…" the princess sighed dreamily as she looked at him with her softened eyes and dreamy look. Chopper held a light ball near him as he began to run through the pathway, trying his best to avoid the balls of toxic alien slime bouncing his way.

"At least they bounce rather high. I'd be in some serious trouble then."

"Come on! Get hit by this stuff!" the Dark Wizard growled. "I wanna see what happens when heroes get struck by this!"

While Chopper kept dodging the slime, Tipral tapped the Dark Wizard on the shoulder, causing it to turn around and hiss when it saw him.

"Where'd YOU come from? !"

"Don't you realize that I can teleport?" Tipral questioned. "Or are you just as stupid as the other minions?"

"Gah! Take this!" the Dark Wizard aimed its wand at Tipral, but he managed to grab its arm and throw it to the ground. This made things easier for Chopper to get over to the turret and destroy it with a light ball.

"Whew! That took care of that!" Chopper sighed. "Wait… Why are you over here?"

"I decided to get rid of the Dark Wizard, but not for you. I found that enemy to be getting in my way."

"Hey! I'm not defeated yet!" the Dark Wizard hissed, grabbing Tipral's foot. He responded by stepping on its back to defeat it. They found a door ahead, to Chopper's relief.

"I still hate that you abandoned us," Chopper noted.

"Yea, I agree! If thou art working with Chopper to get through hither, thou shouldst at least stayeth by his side, hideous monster! My prince here was so brave… He even cares about me!" Luvbi smiled at Chopper as she kissed him on the cheek, causing him to gag.

"Augh! Stop that, Luvbi! Gross!"

"Hee hee!"

"You know, I can simply kill you if you keep calling me hideous," Tipral mentioned. "You're probably the only one we don't need here."

"I suggest thou shuttest thy trap! I technically am a goddess!"

"Guys… Please stop!" Chopper shouted before wiping the kiss off his cheek. "We're right by the door! We should just get going!"

"Yea, verily! Listen to my prince!"

"Luvbi… I'm not your prince."

"Fine, we'll go," Tipral mumbled as they walked over to the door. They were about to open the door until a statue of an armor knight beside the door became animate and made them froze.

"Stop right there!" the Dark Statue looked down at the three. Chopper and Tipral got in their fighting stances, but the Dark Statue didn't seem to react with its sword.

"Worry not, people. I'm not one to fight. I am simply a guardian of Shadow Doom's Road. Seeing as who you people are, I believe you guys are the intruders that people have been talking about, yes?"

"We just want the Pure Heart, that's all," Chopper explained. "We don't REALLY want to fight these guys."

"I want to kill them all," Tipral declared.

"Hmmmmmm… Well, I guess since you do want to go through here, I guess I have no other choice. My name is Guardoor Number One. And if you wish to pass through the door, you must answer my five quest—I mean, three questions. Get one wrong, and you can't go through."

"What happens if we can't get through?" Chopper asked.

"Nothing, really. You can simply try again if you want. Anyway, are you all ready?"

"Yea, just getest on with it," Luvbi sighed as she rolled her eyes.

"All right! You kids better make sure you have some good brains, 'cause this is AP material! A Dark Wizard comes to a parking lot and sees two Skellobits shouting at it. The Dark Wizard simply flips them off and leaves."

"Uhhhhhh… Interesting story." Chopper sweat dropped. "What do you mean by flipping them off?"

"These are all the facts," the Dark Statue finished. "_**NOW… **_Why did the Squiglet cross the road?"

"Uhhhh… To get to the other side?"

"_**DING!**_ Correct! That's the first question! Whoever you are, you must be a genius!"

"I highly doubt it," Tipral replied.

"All right, next question. A Nimbi girl meets a Skellobit boy, and they become friends. Eventually, they both fall in love, but their parents don't approve of it, because Nimbis and Skellobits hate each other. Unfortunately, for them, both the Skellobit and Nimbi kill themselves. They did it because… Well… Too hard to explain."

"That doth remindeth me of a story I once read," Luvbi recalled. "A romantic story at that! Romance is always such a great thing, isn't it, Chopper?"

"Well I don't like it that much…" Chopper trailed.

"Those are the facts," the Dark Statue mentioned. "_**NOW… **_Who's gray, handsome, and cool?"

"Oh, geez… THESE kinds of questions… Well… Ummmm…"

"How about the girl answers this?"

"Would it be thee?" Luvbi asked, looking uncertain.

"_**DING! **_Correct! I am definitely handsome. Even if you can't see my face under this helmet, I am definitely handsome."

"Sure thou art…"

"All right, next question," Guardoor Number One began. "You go to a hotel and to the manager. You wish to get a room for the hotel. The hotel manager says there are no rooms left. What would you do?"

"Crush him, of course," Tipral answered.

"Hmm… I could see that. The hotel manager gets beaten by you, and you take over the hotel. The hotel then belongs to you at this point. So, those are the facts. _**NOW… **_How many times did I say 'hotel'?"

"What the heck? !" Chopper gawked. "That's not fair!"

"Well you gotta answer the question…"

"You said it seven times," Tipral answered. "That last hotel counts too."

"_**DING! **_Correct! You all seem like you can go into an AP class when you're get into high school! I just KNOW it!"

"That didn't seem like 'AP' questions…" Chopper trailed. "And what is AP anyway?"

"Who really cares? You are allowed to go in! …Oh, and please don't tell master Shadow Doom about this. He really wouldn't like it if I was helping his enemies out. He'd kill me for sure!"

"Well, I'm sure they won't tell," Luvbi assured.

"He's going to be dead before we even get the chance to tell him," Tipral declared as he walked through the door into a small area with light and two doors. There was thankfully a Save Block, so Chopper hit it to save their game, but they also saw the furthest door to the right where three Dark Wizards were holding it shut, while the closest door to them was locked.

"Errgh… I don't know how much… I can hold it…" one Dark Wizard moaned.

"Pray, what dost thou think is going on there?" Luvbi wondered.

"I have no idea…" Chopper trailed. "It looks like someone must be in there… Kind of like in Underwhere Road where… Wait, could BLADE be in there? !"

"Do we have to approachest them, though?" Luvbi asked. "We could be in danger…"

"Yeah, you've got a point… Plus, those guys REALLY creep me out."

"How can they creep you out when they have their hoods up?" Tipral asked.

"I saw them without their hoods up. They're not as 'cute' as some people might think when looking at them."

"Well, then do you have an idea on how we can get through that door? It's not like we have anything to make them think that we're like them."

"…Or DO we?" Chopper realized as he remembered having the two Dark Wizard cloaks from before. "I think I still have those two Dark Wizard cloaks that I managed to snatch from two Dark Wizards before!"

"Cloaks? Can I see them?" Luvbi asked.

"Right here," he pulled out the two cloaks and put one of them on. "You can have the other, Luvbi. Tipral doesn't need one because he can shape-shift into anything he wants."

"I haven't really used that ability in a while, but whatever," Tipral's eyes became red as he looked over at the Dark Wizard ahead. Purple smoke surrounded him until he had the shape of a Dark Wizard.

"Well, that doth match the Dark Wizards over there…" Luvbi trailed as she put the cloak on. "But I dost not like how this looks! A Nimbi such as myself dost not deserve this kind of filthy robe!"

"Quit whining and grow up already. You can't expect everything to be the way you want it to be."

"Oh, and surely thou hast never had thy way, right?"

"I've BARELY had my way as long as I lived!"

"You had your way when you heartlessly destroyed my home world, as well as my friends," Chopper mentioned as he wore his cloak. "Of course, I'm sure you could care less about others, like Timpani…"

However, Tipral knocked him back by punching him in the face upon hearing those words.

"_**NEVER MENTION HER!**_"

"Timpani? Pray, who might that be?" Luvbi asked.

"…A name of no importance," Tipral answered. "Let's stop talking about this for now. We want to see what's through the door, right? Well, we should just go over to them now and ask them to let us in."

"Fine…" Chopper trailed as the three walked over to the three Dark Wizards, who were struggling to hold the door.

"Unnghh… So…much work…"

"How long do we have to hold this?"

"Until that monster stops…"

"What monster?" Chopper wondered until they heard stomping coming from inside. "Oh… That…"

"Huh? Is there someone here?" one Dark Wizard looked behind and saw the three. "Oh, man! I guess our leader finally brought in some reinforcements! So, you guys here to subdue the monster, right?"

"Wait, what on earth dost thou…" Luvbi was cut off when Chopper gestured her not to speak, so she listened.

"Well… What she's REALLY trying to say is that what you guys are talking about…" Chopper finished.

"Wait a second… Do we even have female wizards?" the second Dark Wizard wondered. "Though, technically… We're genderless beings. We even have a same voice! Unless…"

"_This isn't good…" _Chopper thought.

"You must be Dark Wizards that have some mental problems! So, tell us… Who's the girl wizard?"

"Well… She's… She's my girlfriend…" Chopper gulped, regretting those words as Luvbi began to swoon. "I'm just showing her everything around here."

"Well, we can't leave you here!" the third Dark Wizard mentioned. "You should get out of here immediately! We're in the middle of trying to keep this monster trapped in here! …Oh, and some guy in green was thrown in here as well. We thought he'd be something that the monster could play with."

"Wait… What? ! Uh… I mean, is there any chance we could go in there?"

"But… Your girlfriend…"

"Uhhhh… Master Shadow Doom sent us to come down here and subdue the monster! That's our job, anyway!"

"You serious? ! Did you even SEE that thing? ! It could tear down an entire skyscraper!"

Tipral grabbed the Dark Wizard's robe and pulled it closer to him. "Let us in, or we're going to make you regret your choice."

"You don't scare me!"

Tipral threw the Dark Wizard to the wall, leaving it dazed. "OK! OK! We'll let you in… But you better be quick, because we can't leave the door open forever! That monster might come out quickly!"

"OK, we'll go in there and take care of your problems! On one condition…"

"Tell us," the first Dark Wizard demanded.

"You help us get to where Shadow Doom is. You see, we got lost and ended up losing our map."

"OK, we'll promise you that. Now go in there quickly and do the job!"

The Dark Wizards quickly opened the door, demanding that they move quickly. The three gave them nods and headed through the door before the wizards immediately closed it.

"Let's hope they can do it…"

* * *

**Dark room-**

The first thing they noticed in the dark room were glowing, organic lungs around the walls, which grossed them out a bit. Seriously, where would you find lungs hanging on a wall?

"This place doth smell…" Luvbi gagged. "I don't like it hither…"

"Well we better be on the lookout. If we help those guys, then we can get the Pure Heart with ease!" Chopper assured.

"IF they even help us," Tipral mentioned.

"_**GRAAAARGH!**_"

"Huh? Who roared? !" Chopper gulped. "I don't like the sound of it…"

"Eeeeeek! Please! I beg you, Bowser! Don't scare me, again!"

"Hold on… Now THAT voice sounds familiar…"

The room lit up, and they saw Bowser stomping the ground angrily, while Luigi was over by the corner, cowering in fear.

"Man, why the heck did those wizard freaks put me in here with you? !" Bowser grumbled. "First I'm at the Ormani Highlands, and then a strange voice ends up teleporting me here! Not only that, but I haven't eaten in days!"

"Hey, don't think you're the only one in a bad situation too!" Luigi cried. "The Mushroom Kingdom's destroyed thanks to Tipral, and now the Pure Heart is nothing but rock!"

When Chopper, Luvbi and Tipral walked over to the two, Bowser was the first to take notice of them and give them a glare.

"What do you freaks want?" Bowser growled. "You came here to torture me again? ! Well I'm not going to let you do that!"

"I'm getting tired of torture…" Luigi groaned. "When will this all end?"

"Luigi! It's me, Chopper!" Chopper cried as he removed his wizard cloak and revealed himself. Luvbi removed her cloak as well.

"Chopper? ! Is that really you? !" Luigi gaped. "What are you doing here? !"

"It's kind of a long story…"

"Wait… Chopper? ! You're here now? And you even brought that fluffy thing here too?"

"I doth have a name, thou knowest!" Luvbi huffed.

"Wait, Luvbi? How come you're here?"

"Mine parents were kidnapped by yon evil alien child. Chopper came hither to help me and find the Pure Heart hither as well."

"The Pure Heart's here? What about the other one?"

"We got it restored," Chopper smiled. "Yeah, it's a relief, isn't it?"

"Wait a second… Before we go any further… We know who Chopper and the white fluffy girl is, but who the heck is that other one? Is he actually real?" Bowser asked, pointing at Tipral.

"I'm not real, actually," Tipral stated as he turned back into himself, making Luigi and Bowser gasp. "You're surprised to see me here, aren't you?"

"Tipral!" Luigi shouted, clenching his fists. "Why are you here? !"

"Listen, I'm in a hefty situation like you. We both don't like Shade, so Chopper and I decided to work together to get rid of him."

"And the Chaos Heart?"

"I don't have it with me anymore. I suppose it has gone to The Void to become the True Chaos Heart. At that rate, it could go out of control and destroy all existence. The only way to stop it is to get the last Pure Heart and go into The Void."

"And why should I believe you?"

"Because if I didn't help Chopper, he wouldn't be here by now. So, technically, you should thank me."

"Well…"

"Oh no!" Bowser growled. "You've screwed me over before, you know! I've actually heard that you kidnapped my kids and put them elsewhere! Not only that, but they're all gone!"

"And who told you this?" Tipral asked.

"Luigi did."

"…I'll deal with you later, Luigi."

"But that doesn't matter right now. I'm going to make you pay for what you've done to me! Oh, and that goes for you too, Chopper!"

"What? ! What do I have to do with this? !" Chopper gaped.

"For being a pain on my side for two years! You know, ever since the whole Star Rod incident! I'm tired of getting pushed around by you, especially when you humiliated me in the Glitz Pit! I think this calls for something special…"

Dark lightning came down on Bowser, transforming him into a bigger size. His shell became spiked and scaled, he became much more muscular, and his horns had more of a curve to them and were bigger. He was definitely more like a monster at this point.

"Giga Bowser…" Chopper trailed.

"Giga what?" Tipral gawked.

"Bowser's strongest transformation… He's definitely not a pushover like this…"

"_**Gwaa ha ha ha! I don't need that hag to become this now!" **_Giga Bowser cackled. _**"Now then… Allow me to put an end to your life! I'm going to enjoy watching you burn from my dark flames!"**_

"That is, if you can," Tipral scoffed, clenching his fists.

"Well… I'm sitting this one out!" Luigi gulped, cowering over by the corner.

"Luigi! …Ugh… Luvbi, go over to Luigi where it's safe…" Chopper sweat dropped as Luvbi fluttered over to the plumber. That meant it was only him and Tipral fighting Giga Bowser. Sure, he beat him twice, but he had ten friends with him then! Now he only has one, who technically isn't his friend!

Though… He still has the Pixls…

"_**All right! Enough chit-chat! Let's settle this the way it should've been this whole time!" **_declared Giga Bowser.

Giga Bowser opened his mouth, which made dark flames shoot out. Chopper gulped and jumped over it and hurled a light ball his way. Giga Bowser cringed as the light ball hit his stomach. He had a Max HP of 460, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 8. It surely wasn't a great thing for them, that's for sure.

"Whew… Well, I managed to hit him, that's for sure!" Chopper smiled as he tried to stomp on Giga Bowser's head. The only thing he witnessed was pain from his foot from the horns.

"_**Gra ha ha ha! Just try and jump on me!" **_Giga Bowser cackled. _**"In the end, it's not going to work for you, Chopper!"**_

"Then let's not jump on this ugly Koopa," Tipral suggested as he snapped his finger and struck Giga Bowser with Star Magic. It didn't send him flying upward, but he ended up holding his stomach in pain.

"Well… I guess he's too heavy to send flying."

"_**Grrrrrr! Take this!" **_Giga Bowser got in his shell and began to spin around, surrounding himself in a small blizzard that ended up freezing both Chopper and Tipral. It didn't take them long to shake out, however.

"This doth not look good…" Luvbi trailed.

"Since when can he freeze with his shell?" Tipral questioned.

"Since always," Chopper answered as he jumped over Giga Bowser's tail, which he tried to use in order to knock him back. Tipral teleported behind Giga Bowser and used his Star power to step on his tail, making the monster screech in pain.

"_**You stupid dark being! You just hurt my tail!" **_Giga Bowser whirled around and tried to chomp at Tipral, but he jumped back and hurled a shadow ball into Giga Bowser's mouth, making him moan in pain from inside.

"You know, I could simply do that again if you want," Tipral offered.

"_**Like that'll happen!" **_Giga Bowser scoffed as he spat dark fireballs toward Tipral, while Chopper readied his hammer and bashed Giga Bowser's head with a light smash. He even got in front of Bowser by spinning his hammer around and hitting the transformed Koopa's body.

"Strange… We're not doing too bad!" Chopper realized before he got struck with a dark flaming punch from Giga Bowser, which sent him flying toward the corner. Luigi gasped and got out of the way to avoid getting hurt.

"Be careful where you land, Chopper!" Luigi yelped.

"Well, then why don't you help us? Three people is better than two, you know."

"B-But… Look at him! He's huge!"

"Well, remember Dimentio Doom? He was much bigger than this guy! I know we can take him on!"

"_**Are you done talking? I'm trying to win here!" **_Giga Bowser shouted as he jumped and slammed the ground with his shell, creating a dark shockwave that Chopper was able to jump over, but Luigi ended up getting hit by it and hit his head on the wall.

"Ow! Just… I'm a little exhausted after getting sent here, OK?" Luigi groaned as Chopper sighed and turned back to Giga Bowser, whose arms were moving like crazy as he charged toward him.

"Ugh… Well, I better get back to fighting." Chopper declared as he slid under Giga Bowser while making the ground slippery with ice, which caused Giga Bowser to slip and fall on his belly.

"Now, let's see if I can try this again…" Chopper grabbed a hold of Giga Bowser's tail and attempted to swing him around. Sadly, because of how big he was and how weak his strength was compared to his, he wasn't even able to move his tail.

"_**Is this all you're going to do? 'Cause I have no problem with them when I can burn you!" **_Giga Bowser said as he put his hand on his chin.

"Geez… Did you gain weight or something? !"

"_**HEY! Don't go mocking my weight!"**_

Giga Bowser grabbed Chopper and threw him at Tipral, who simply kicked Chopper away straight at Giga Bowser's nose, knocking him back. This gave Tipral the opportunity to kick Giga Bowser in the stomach. Of course, he kicked Chopper out of the way first before doing so.

"HEY! You hit the wrong person, you know!" Chopper cried.

"Just shut up and help me fight this ugly monster," Tipral grumbled as he teleported before Giga Bowser could claw at him. Tipral slammed his fists onto Giga Bowser's nose, making him hold his nose in pain.

"_**Gah! Stop hitting my nose!"**_

"You wanted to fight us, so this is what you get."

Giga Bowser jumped in the air and landed on Chopper, flattening him instantly. When he got off him, he rushed at Tipral and sent him flying back with a dark flaming punch, which he didn't see coming.

"Well, I think he deserved that for hitting me at Bowser," Chopper shrugged as he used Starbow to make shooting stars hit Giga Bowser, making him turn his attention back at the Star Warrior.

"Please be careful, my prince!" Luvbi cried.

"_**Hmmmmm… Oh! Seeing you have your game end in front of your girlfriend would be pretty interesting, if you know what I mean!" **_Giga Bowser grinned.

"What? ! She's not my girlfriend!"

"Well, we definitely art in a relationship," Luvbi stated.

"But… Ugh… Whatever." Chopper jumped and performed a light spinning kick on Giga Bowser's face. The mutated Koopa retaliated by clawing at Chopper with dark energy, which made him scream in pain.

"_**Well! You sure do appreciate that feeling of pain, don't you? !" **_Giga Bowser cackled. _**"No worries, my pale green friend… That should definitely affect you greatly! Plus, you're even poisoned!"**_

"Dang it…" the Star Warrior coughed as he looked a little paler than before. "I need…Piccolo…"

"Right away!" Piccolo chirped as she began to sing a lovely song that began to cure Chopper of his status ailment. Meanwhile, Giga Bowser was about to freeze Chopper, but Tipral swung both arms and fired a Star Spear at Giga Bowser, making him skid back.

Giga Bowser tried to claw at Tipral, but his speed didn't help that much. Sure, he was a big, threatening monster Koopa, but he was still a bit on the slow side, which was hard when Tipral began to strike him with a couple of kicks and punches while moving fast.

"_**Garrgh! Quit it!"**_

"This is what happens when you think you can take on someone such as myself," Tipral declared.

"_**Sure, you may be a dark being, but you probably don't have what it takes to endure THIS!" **_Giga Bowser rammed his head into Tipral's, which emitted an explosion from Giga Bowser's head that sent Tipral flying across the room, hitting the wall. Luigi was left slack jawed.

"What was THAT? !" Luigi gaped.

"_**You see, in this form, my power is much greater than before. For example, my punches have dark flames, and even a head bash can emit an explosion! And that shell attack… You'll definitely be a frozen popsicle then!"**_

"Ugh… I don't like that…"

"So, thou art as much of a coward as thou art hairy?" Luvbi wondered.

"Hey! Stop calling me 'hairy'! I may have a mustache, but that doesn't qualify me on the 'hairy' category!"

"Hmph… Whatever." the Nimbi girl rolled her eyes as Chopper sped out of harm's way when Giga Bowser was about to belly flop him. Chopper ended up kicking Giga Bowser's nose with an ice kick, making him shiver.

"_**You little…! That was cold!"**_

"Hey! It really was, if you know what I mean!" Chopper smiled.

"Chopper… Save the stupid jokes for later." Tipral growled. "Or else I might end up kicking you at this ugly thing again…"

"_**And quit calling me ugly!" **_roared Giga Bowser.

"Well, you do look a lot more…hideous like that…" Chopper trailed.

Giga Bowser snarled at Chopper as he attempted to claw at him, only for him to roll out of the way and kick him in the crotch area. Though, in all honesty, it didn't seem to hurt him that much.

"Wait… I thought those areas usually hurt the most?"

"_**Gwa ha ha ha!" **_Giga Bowser opened his mouth and scorched Chopper with his dark flames, leaving him with a severe burn that did more damage every five seconds. Chopper was not pleased.

"Great... Now I have a severe burn…"

Tipral pushed Chopper out of the way and fired a Star Spear at Giga Bowser, but he simply got in his shell in order to defend himself.

"What? My Star Spear doesn't go through his shell? !" Tipral gaped.

"_**Works for me! Now, let's freeze things up a bit!" **_Giga Bowser suggested as he began to move all around the room, leaving off some ice energy along the way. Chopper tried to toss a fireball at it, but it didn't seem to work, leaving him frozen, just like Tipral.

"Wha? ! How did he freeze them so quickly? !"

"Well, they did shaketh out before," Luvbi mentioned. "I doth believe they can dost it again."

Chopper and Tipral managed to shake out of their icy prisons and see Giga Bowser charging at them, attempting to head bash them. Tipral teleported out of the way, while Chopper was sent flying back from the explosion created from Giga Bowser.

"_**Grrrgh! …Well, at least I managed to get someone." **_Giga Bowser grumbled as Chopper quickly got up and hurled a rainbow ball at the monster, followed by a light kick that left Giga Bowser cringing in pain.

"At least that light power is actually doing something," Chopper realized.

"Light power? What's that?" Luigi asked as he stopped cowering.

"It hast the power to countereth darkness," Luvbi explained while giving him an irritated look. "And thou art still being as cowardly as a wimp?"

"H-Hey! I thought you were done with those insults? !"

Luvbi ignored him as she watched Chopper jump out of harm's ways of Giga Bowser's claws, which attempted to poison him. Chopper ended up throwing another light ball at Giga Bowser, causing him to scream loudly.

"_**GWWAAAAARGH! STOP THAT!" **_cried Giga Bowser.

"Well, then maybe you should stop now and give up!" Chopper declared. "I'm not going to stop until you do!"

"_**Well, we'll see about that, then," **_Giga Bowser jumped in the air and attempted to ground pound Chopper. He jumped out of the way, which allowed Tipral to teleport in front of Giga Bowser and attack him with a Star Burst, which, believe it or not, sent him flying upward.

"So, it looks like that attack can send him flying…" Tipral trailed.

When Giga Bowser landed on the ground, a dark shockwave came from him, which forced the two to jump over it. What they didn't see coming was Giga Bowser's dark fireballs, which managed to hit both Chopper and Tipral and leave a severe burn on them.

"Yeesh… He's got a high attack power compared to other guys we've fought before…" Chopper coughed.

"Gah! We're running low on HP…" Tipral grumbled as he took a Star Shroom Shake Chopper had and took a sip from it, recovering 150 HP. Chopper drank some as well to recover the HP. He then crushed the can and threw it at Giga Bowser's nose.

"_**What the…? ! Did you seriously throw a crushed can at me? !" **_Giga Bowser growled as he stepped on the can, crushing it completely. He then ran toward them at full speed, attempting to ram into them again.

"I'm not letting that happen again," Chopper declared, flipping into 3-D and going behind Giga Bowser before going back into 2-D. Tipral simply teleported before Giga Bowser could crash into the wall.

"Thou didst it, my prince!" Luvbi squealed.

"Don't think it's over yet," Tipral warned as Giga Bowser got himself up, getting his horns out of the wall and turned around, clenching his fists in anger.

"_**I'm going to crush you guys until your games are over!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he began to spin around the room, emitting dark flames from his fists.

"Uh oh… We better move!" Chopper cried, trying to jump out of harm's way. Unfortunately, he ended up getting hit by the hideous Bowser's fists and got sent flying away.

Giga Bowser grinned as he prepared to scorch Chopper with his dark flames. But, things didn't work out the way he intended when Tipral managed to slam his foot on his tail with some Star power.

"_**MY TAIL! Not again!" **_Giga Bowser cried as he whirled around, preparing to burn Tipral, who simply kicked him in the nose with a Star Kick. He held his nose in pain, as if his nose was bleeding.

"So, how does it feel for you to get kicked around by me now?" Tipral asked as he hit Giga Bowser in the stomach with a Star Spear.

"_**Urgh… I'm still not letting you win…" **_he grunted as he clawed at Tipral, poisoning him. But, with Piccolo, he was able to cure himself and smash at his stomach by whacking at it with Star energy.

"I may not have my Dark Star Scepter in my hands, but I can still put up a fight!"

"Tipral… Let's not boast, because that's not going to help…" Chopper advised as he jumped over Giga Bowser, attempting to avoid the horns on his head. Giga Bowser managed to grab him and attempted to head bash him.

"My prince!" Luvbi cried.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper trailed, making Giga Bowser pause for a minute with a confused look.

"_**Wait… What? I'm trying to crush you here!" **_

"Yeah yeah, I know that, but I need to do something," Chopper ended up spitting in Giga Bowser's face, but it didn't do much.

"_**Nice try, but spit isn't going to stop me," **_Giga Bowser was about to throw Chopper across the room, but Tipral managed to attack with his Star Burst, sending Giga Bowser upward. Chopper got caught in it and got sent flying upward as well – only this time, he wasn't being held onto by Giga Bowser.

"Tipral! Don't hit me!" Chopper cried as he landed on the ground, while Tipral looked down at him with no remorse whatsoever.

"Pathetic…" he scoffed as he shoved Chopper away with his foot before Giga Bowser fell on the ground, creating a dark shockwave that hit Chopper, but Tipral simply jumped and snapped his finger, hitting Giga Bowser with Star Magic.

"Seriously, Tipral… You should really watch out for others…" Chopper moaned as he quickly got up and turned to Giga Bowser, who was apparently charging toward him. "You know what? No more getting pushed around!"

"_**Gwa ha ha ha! Well, I'd like to see you try!" **_Giga Bowser grinned as he attempted to claw at Chopper, who dodged his claw and kicked his stomach with light energy on his feet, followed by whacking at his head with his hammer by twirling it around.

"Well, you are pretty low on HP, which is pretty nice…"

Giga Bowser noticed this and growled to himself before slamming the ground with his fists in an attempt to make an earthquake. Chopper charged up another light ball, which he hurled at Giga Bowser, which meant that one more hit would do it.

"All right, only one more hit to go until you're done for…" Chopper trailed as he charged up another light ball. "I'll make sure this one will revert you back to your normal form! That'll do it!"

"_**Grrgh… Even if you take me down, I'm simply going to attack you anyway!" **_Giga Bowser grunted.

"Well, you'll be a little exhausted, so your chances of winning are pretty slim. You didn't have anything to heal you either."

"_**Maybe… Well, maybe I have something in store for you!" **_Giga Bowser opened his mouth and began to charge a dark fire attack. Chopper blinked as he watched the flames in his mouth grow bigger every second.

"Whoa… That's not good!"

"Finish him off, sweet Chopper!" Luvbi cried. "Thou hast to do it!"

"What? ! …OK!" Chopper nodded as he continued to charge the light ball.

However, it was Tipral who took Giga Bowser down by freezing time and striking the hideous Bowser multiple times while everyone was frozen in time. He finished him off by firing two Star Spears before reverting time to normal, where Giga Bowser fell over on the ground in defeat.

"And that takes care of him," Tipral declared, crossing his arms.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper gaped. "I was planning on dealing the final blow!"

"Deal with it. You're not going to get the final blow on everything."

"Geez… Even if we're working together, you still act like the same as before. Maybe it's time you changed your attitude."

"That is if you want to spend the rest of eternity in pain, you can try that."

"Oh, Chopper! Thou art all right!" Luvbi cried as she fluttered over to Chopper and hugged him while covering his cheek with her kisses, which he didn't like one bit.

"YUCK! Stop with the angelic cooties!" Chopper cried.

"Chopper! I'm so relieved that's over with!" Luigi sighed as he walked over to the three. "Here I thought that the fight would never end… I guess I was wrong, wasn't I?"

"Well… Let's not get into that." the Star Warrior suggested as Luvbi released him while he wiped his cheek. "Anyway, now that you're here, that means we need to find our five other missing friends!"

**Luigi has rejoined your group!**

"I wonder where they could be… I'm kinda worried about my big bro, now that I think about it…"

"Mayhap they art doing fine…" Luvbi pondered. "Well, I dost not knoweth…"

"_**Grrrghh… We're… We're not done yet!" **_Giga Bowser grumbled as he slowly got up and gave the four a threatening look.

"WAH! You're still up after that beating you got? !" Luigi gaped.

"_**I'm Bowser! …Or rather, Giga Bowser! I never, EVER give up easily!"**_

"Look, if you want us to kill you, then so be it," Tipral declared, clenching his fists. "You're just wasting our time anyway."

"Well… I don't think killing him is exactly the greatest idea…" Luigi trailed.

"Why not?"

"Sure, Bowser may be evil, but he doesn't deserve to die… In fact, there really aren't many villains that deserve to die, no matter what they've done. They could've had a terrible life before then, you know…"

Tipral blinked for a second before he stopped clenching his fists. For some reasons, those words seemed to have affected him a bit.

"Are you all right, Tipral?" Chopper asked.

"I… I'm fine…" Tipral trailed.

"_**Enough of this! I wanted a good fight, and that's what I plan on doing now!" **_Giga Bowser declared, charging up his dark flame breath. Luigi, on the other hand, noticed something above him.

It was a blue ! block.

"Hmmmmm… What would happen if I hit this?" Luigi wondered as he punched the block from underneath. This caused the area Giga Bowser was standing on to open up and reveal a hole where toxic alien slime was down below.

"_**Uh oh… This isn't good…"**_

Giga Bowser let out a gulp before he began to plummet to his doom into the toxic alien slime. When Luigi looked down, he cringed as Giga Bowser began to sink into the slime, his right arm sinking in last.

"Ohhh… That doesn't look too good…"

"Yeah, and we haven't really seen many people fall into that stuff either," Chopper noted. "That must be pretty gruesome…"

"Uh huh," Luigi nodded as the Pixl, Bonjourang, fluttered over to him.

"Oh, hero! You have returned!" Bonjourang cried. "You should've realized how much I missed you! You are definitely zee one that can use my powers wisely!"

"Oh! Bonjourang! I'm glad you're here! I haven't seen you in a while!"

"Maybe we should get out of here," Tipral suggested. "We can't stay in this room forever."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Chopper agreed. "Let's go!"

* * *

**Previous area-**

When the four left the room, they noticed the three Dark Wizards were still there, but when they took notice of them, their eyes widened.

"Wh-What in the world? !" the first Dark Wizard gawked. "Who the heck are you people? ! …Hold on, don't tell me you guys were in disguise or something…"

"Uhhhh… No?" Chopper answered. "We were…in there the whole time!"

"Really? Tha—Wait a second, no. I think we know who you guys are anyway! Master Shadow Doom knows all about you!"

"Uh huh! He's got that girl's parents too!" the second Dark Wizard added. "He's also been waiting to challenge you too, pale green kid! …What was your name again? Chorty? Choppin? Chopper? …Oh, Chopper!"

"Uhhhh… Luigi, now might be the time." Chopper sweat dropped.

"Got it!" Luigi nodded as he threw Bonjourang at the three Dark Wizards, knocking them over. One disintegrated and dropped its robe. "Huh? What's this? A robe?"

"You can probably use that for a disguise!"

"Really?"

"Well, we'll make sure we tell the others that you're in a disguise!" the two Dark Wizards remaining growled as they got up. "Of course… Taking you guys out isn't a bad idea either!"

Before the two Dark Wizards could attack, the area began to shake violently. The shaking was a little stronger by the door where they fought Giga Bowser, which surprisingly opened on its own.

"What the heck? !" Chopper gawked.

"Something's not right here…" Tipral trailed.

The only thing they could see through the open door was a large, green snout.

"What the…" Chopper slack jawed.

"Oh my…" Luigi trailed as his eyes widened. "Is… Is that…?"

"What in the name of Shadow Doom is THAT? !" the first Dark Wizard gaped. "I don't think I've seen something like THAT before!"

"Maybe… Maybe it's that monster!" the second Dark Wizard exclaimed.

"_**GWWWAAAARGH!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he opened his mouth and scorched the two Dark Wizards, instantly disintegrating them into smoke. The four simply backed away, with Luigi trembling in fear.

"Wh-Why did we have to end up in something like this? !" cried Luigi.

"We're leaving now!" Chopper cried, running over to the door, until he realized it was locked. "Uh oh… We don't have a key!"

"A key? You mean this?" the green plumber checked his overalls and found a Comet Key in his hands.

"A key? How did you…"

"One of the wizards ended up dropping it…"

"So that doth be why they were holding the door shut…" Luvbi trailed.

"Put the key in now," Tipral suggested. "We can't waste our time standing here when that ugly monster is still alive."

"I don't get it… What happened to him?" Chopper wondered as they headed through the door into a dark area. "Oh, great… Not another dark area… This is just what we needed…"

"It's dark in here!" Luigi shuddered.

"Yes, I just mentioned that…"

"There's not much around here, so we should move on," Tipral suggested as he found a pathway ahead leading to a couple of platforms over some toxic alien slime. There were even some Dark Skello Bombers flying around and tossing their spears onto the platforms, which barely missed them.

"I'll handle them," Luigi declared, striking the Dark Skello Bombers with his Super Jump, which was able to knock them down. Chopper managed to grab a hold of his hand before he could fall off the platform.

"Don't worry, Luigi! I got ya!" Chopper cried.

"Thanks… I appreciate that…" the green plumber sighed as Chopper pulled him up. Tipral fired a Star Spear on another platform slightly above them so they could see it. But upon jumping on it, they felt more shaking occurring as they jumped onto a larger platform with a bridge ahead.

"Thou shouldst goest to the bridge!" Luvbi cried as they crossed the bridge. However, the shaking got much bigger when they realized that there was actually an earthquake occurring under the toxic alien slime.

"Oh, man… This doesn't look good…" Chopper gulped.

The bridge broke off as they saw Giga Bowser stand before them. Except this time, he was much bigger than before. He let out a ferocious war, which was able to push them back due to the intense sound waves.

"Unnnghh… Bowser's so big now…" Luigi quivered.

"_**I'm going to make you BURN!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he began to spit dark fireballs toward them. Chopper squeaked as he grabbed Luvbi and ran away from the giant monster, while Tipral skated away, knowing that there wasn't much he could do to stop him.

Luigi, on the other hand…wasn't having an easier time.

"Guys! Don't leave me here!" Luigi cried. "I don't want to be crushed!"

Tipral stopped and turned around, giving him an annoyed look as he snapped his finger and teleported him away from Giga Bowser, who was about to smash him with his own fists.

"_**Dang it! I almost had you!"**_

"Whoa… I never thought you'd help me out, Tipral." Luigi gawked.

"Don't even thank me," Tipral mumbled as he turned around and found two ways to go, with one being rather difficult to reach, while the other had a big light ! switch standing in their way.

"We can't just stay hither and think! We have to movest on!" Luvbi cried as she turned around and noticed the sounds of Giga Bowser getting louder, meaning he was getting closer.

"It's so hard to see, though!" Chopper cried.

"He's getting closer, that's for sure," Tipral confirmed.

"Well, I'm not going to waste my time now!" Luigi cried as he performed a Super Jump to reach the ledge above them. He ended up bumping into a wall, which he noticed he couldn't get through. "This isn't good…"

"Holdeth me, my prince!" Luvbi cried as she noticed Giga Bowser getting closer and fainted in Chopper's arms, who ended up sweat dropping.

"Great. Just what I need… A girl who's hopelessly in love with me fainting in my arms." Chopper sighed. "This is all I need…"

Tipral simply hurled a shadow ball at the light ! switch, destroying the switch and revealing a wall just like the wall in Luigi's way. He let out a grumble as he turned around and saw Giga Bowser spit a dark fireball toward them.

He grabbed Chopper and jumped out of the way, allowing the dark fireball to break through the wall and reveal a path to take. He let go of Chopper (who was still holding onto Luvbi) and skated ahead.

"Tipral! I don't find it a good idea to drop me when I'm holding onto someone!" Chopper shouted.

"Just follow me if you want to live," Tipral suggested.

Chopper gave him an irritated look as he began to run on ahead. Unfortunately, Luigi was still stuck by the wall, which he was trying to break down. However, he realized he had Hommissile with him, so he tossed him at the wall and made a hole.

"Hey! That actually worked!" Luigi gasped. "All right, I gotta be quick now…"

"_**You're not getting away from me!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he clawed his way through both pathways, which was rather weak, considering that he was able to smash them with ease. However, he didn't seem to be catching up to them so easily.

"_**I'm going to have to get them from the front," **_the hideous giant Bowser sank into the toxic alien slime and began to follow the group from underneath.

Upon reaching a ledge up ahead where the two pathways met, they jumped on it and found a platform up ahead. However, they had to stop because Giga Bowser came out of the toxic substance and towered over them.

"How the HECK did you get this big? !" Chopper gawked.

"_**I guess that toxic substance I'm in had some kind of effect on this form," **_Giga Bowser grinned.

"So, I guess that the alien substance can have different effects on people," Tipral said as he crossed his arms. "Interesting… However, I suggest you get out of the way, or else I'll MAKE you."

"_**Bwa ha ha ha! I'd like to see you try!"**_

Tipral teleported in front of Giga Bowser's nose and delivered a Star Punch, making him yelp in pain as Chopper hurled a light ball at his stomach. While he was in pain, he was open for another attack.

"Go ahead, Luigi. Get 'em!" Chopper cried.

"Are you sure?" Luigi asked.

"Well, he's in our way! Hitting him with a Super Jump might work!"

"Oh! I think I should!" the green hero folded himself up as he crouched and launched himself upward to hit Giga Bowser's nose, which knocked him on his back and forced him to sink into the slime.

"Yes! We can move on!" Chopper fist pumped.

Tipral fired a Star Spear on the platform ahead so the two could jump on it. It began to carry them to the right, but they noticed Giga Bowser getting back up and following them.

"_**You're not going to get away from me!" **_roared Giga Bowser as he attempted to claw at them with his massive claws. Of course, since they were a bit small compared to him, his claws didn't even get them.

They jumped onto a platform moving upward to find another pathway, so they got on it and began to run for their lives as Giga Bowser smashed the platforms and spat dark fireballs their way.

"Yack! I don't feel safe!" Luigi yelped.

"Well, we have to move faster then!" Chopper declared.

"Then someone help me! I'm not as fast as you guys!"

"I can't when I'm carrying Luvbi, who happened to faint…"

Tipral groaned and teleported Luigi over to him, where he decided to drag him by the legs. Unfortunately, that wasn't good for Luigi either, because his nose was sliding along the pathway.

"Ow! My nose!"

"Deal with it, plumber," Tipral scoffed, which gave Chopper a look of disapproval as they found a platform up ahead, which was a bit of a long drop. What was worse was that there was a tight space up ahead on a large wall ahead.

"Uhhhhh… How do we get through here?" Chopper sweat dropped.

"I'll help ya, pard!" Slim declared, making everyone turn sideways as they went through the wall and found a platform moving upward ahead. When they turned back to normal and jumped on the platform, Chopper turned around and saw Bowser smash through the wall with his fist.

"Gee… That's not good…" Carrie trailed.

"Well, he sure has a lot of power in him!" Cudge stated.

"There must be something that can stop him…" Thoreau trailed.

The three jumped from platform to platform until they found another pathway with a slope going upward. Two Dark Skellos noticed them and attempted to throw their spears at them, but when they got a glimpse of the giant Giga Bowser, they were frozen in fear.

"Wh-What is THAT? !" the first Dark Skello shrieked.

"I don't know, but I can't move my legs!"

The three heroes jumped over the Dark Skellos that attempted to jab at them with their spears, but when Giga Bowser smashed his way through the pathway, the Dark Skellos were sent flying away by his immense power.

"_**Grrrghh… I need to find another way to get to them…" **_Giga Bowser grumbled as he sank into the alien slime.

When the heroes reached the top of the pathway, they noticed a lever on the ground with a sign next to it.

"Hey, what's that?" Chopper asked.

"It says, 'To flush toxic alien slime, pull on the lever,'" Tipral answered. "Maybe this can get rid of that ugly giant monster."

"_**I'M NOT UGLY!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he rose from the ground and appeared behind the ground with his fists raised up. _**"Now that I've got you where I want you, it's time to end this!"**_

"Oh, really?" Chopper wondered as he jumped out of the way when Giga Bowser tried to smash him. Tipral struck Giga Bowser's nose with a Star Spear, which left him off guard while Luigi hit his jaw with a Super Jump.

"How much HP does he even have at this point?" Luigi asked.

"I have no idea…"

"It's not even easy to see him too! I can only see those eyes of his!"

"And besides, he's holding onto the ledge," Tipral informed. "We need to get him to let go so we can use this lever to flush him out."

"Flush him out? Weird…" Chopper trailed as he jumped out of the way when Giga Bowser tried to scorch him with his flames. "I don't want to have Luvbi get hurt… Her parents wouldn't want her to be injured."

"Stop worrying over her as if she's your girlfriend. Just fight him already!"

"She's NOT my girlfriend! I just don't like innocent people getting hurt!"

"Innocent… Yeah, especially when she insults people who's done nothing to her…"

"_**So, how do you want this to end for you guys?" **_Giga Bowser wondered as he readied another fireball. _**"I can simply scorch you to ashes if you want!"**_

"That's unlikely," Tipral scoffed as he struck Giga Bowser's arms with Star Spears. Because of the pain Giga Bowser endured, he was forced to let go of the large platform and land in the slime.

"Do it now, Luigi!"

"Got it!" Luigi nodded as he pulled the lever, which began to flush out the toxic alien substance. When Giga Bowser got up, he noticed a large whirlpool that was pulling him in.

"_**Wait… What's this? ! What did you guys do? !" **_Giga Bowser guffawed.

"Technically, we flushed a toilet," Chopper answered with a silly look.

"_**WHAT? !" **_he noticed he was getting pulled deeper in the whirlpool down a large pit. _**"GWWWAAARRGHH! I'M GOING TO GET YOU GUYS NEXT TIME!"**_

They heard a loud thud as he sank into the whirlpool. Even all the toxic alien substance around was drained away, which made them all sigh in relief, especially Chopper, who was getting tired of seeing it.

"Phew… Finally! No more of that stuff for once!"

"What does that stuff do anyway?" Luigi asked.

"In all honesty, I have no idea… I never touched it, so how am I to know about it?"

While Chopper began to ponder, he heard Luvbi's moan as she slowly opened her eyes and found Chopper carrying her.

"Oh, Chopper…" Luvbi sighed sweetly, giving him a sweet smile. "I doth love the way thou art holding me… I can see thy cute face and thy beautiful eyes…"

"My eyes are just ovals… How the heck are they beautiful? I see nothing special about them…" Chopper trailed.

"Didst thou rescue me from that horrible monster? Didst thou destroy it?"

"Uhhhh… You fainted, so I caught you, but I didn't take Bowser down. Luigi flushed him down with a lever."

"Yeah, I did," Luigi confirmed with a nod.

"Oh, Chopper! Thou art truly a hero to me!" Luvbi squealed, hugging him and kissing the boy of his dreams. "Since thou hast destroyed the monster, thou hast to marry the girl, who would be me!"

"Bleh! Gross! Stop giving me angel cooties!" Chopper cried. "I'm not marrying anyone, and I'm NOT one of those heroes you kept talking about in history!"

"But we art meant to be!"

"No we're not, especially when I don't like romance."

"Hee hee! Oh, thou art too funny!"

"But I'm being serious!"

"Enough already!" Tipral snapped. "We don't have time for pointless arguing like that! We have to move on, all right? You DO want to find that Pure Heart, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Chopper nodded as he let go of the swooning Luvbi.

"Do you know where it is?" Luigi asked.

"In all honesty, no. I'm guessing it's over where Shade is, considering that this is his home base."

"Well that makes sense…"

They walked past the lever and noticed a crack on the wall ahead. Tipral decided to throw Hommissile at it, which broke through the wall and let them reach two platforms and a pathway leading to a door ahead. There didn't happen to be a statue there.

"Well, there's no statue here, so this isn't the door," Chopper stated.

"Statue? What do you mean?" Luigi asked.

"A statue by the door means that there's something we have to do if we're going to get through the door," Tipral explained as he entered the door ahead. They noticed that instead of the toxic alien slime, there were bottomless pits, which, while it didn't seem as bad, was a bit more dangerous.

"It's OK, my prince! I can helpeth thee hither!" Luvbi assured, fluttering over to her love.

"If you plan on helping me with your love, then no," Chopper answered as he noticed there were twirling platforms ahead. "Well… This appears to be something new. And what's this?"

He noticed a purple crystal nearby, so he tossed a light ball at it to make the area light up. "Hey! Look at this! Everything's lit up now!"

"Yeah! We can see everything now!" Luigi smiled.

"I don't think it's going to last forever though," Tipral mentioned. "I'm sure you've got limited time of that anyway."

"Oh… Then we better be quick." Chopper jumped on the platform once it stopped twirling and got onto the next one ahead to grab a hold of a ledge, where he found a higher ledge ahead.

"So many ledges… And now there's one that's too high for me to reach!"

"Well, I think I can reach it," Luigi assured as he used his Super Jump to reach the ledge. Tipral simply teleported himself up there, while Chopper was almost left to sulk at them.

"I can helpest thee up there, my prince!" Luvbi smiled.

"Well, uh… OK, fine." Chopper let out a sigh as Luvbi giggled and helped him fly up to the ledge. He tried to shield his face, just to make sure Luvbi wouldn't try to leave some of her kisses no his face.

When he got on the ledge, they found a slope moving downward ahead with a loop, which lead to a pathway with a slope moving upward to a ledge. Chopper simply charged up a Speed Dash and took off, while Tipral skated his way.

"H-Hey! What about me? !" Luigi gaped.

"Just jumpeth over the loop, haired one," Luvbi suggested as she fluttered over the loop and followed Chopper to the ledge that he landed on, which had two Dark Wizards and a Dark Skello waiting for them.

Luigi's Super Jump was all he needed to go over the loop and even reach the ledge Chopper and Tipral got to. There, he threw Bonjourang at the two Dark Wizards, while he jumped out of harm's way of the spear the Dark Skello threw.

"Dang it! I missed!" the Dark Skello grumbled as Tipral snapped his finger and defeated it with ease. That left the two Dark Wizards to fire dark magic at them. Luigi got struck by one, but he was able to get back up and jump on the first one while performing a stylish move. He ended up finishing it off with Screwdy's corkscrew.

"Phew… That's a relief." Luigi sighed.

"There's still another," Chopper noted as he kicked it with a light kick and finished it off, allowing him to move on through the pathway. He noticed a couple of pillars around, which looked pretty nice.

"I can see a door up ahead," Tipral noted.

"Good. That means we're getting out of here fast."

When they reached the door, they noticed another knight statue beside the door. Luigi was about to reach for the doorknob…until the statue began to move.

"_**Hold it!**_"

"Wah! What the heck? !" Luigi gaped. "Is this what you guys were talking about?"

"Yea, verily," Luvbi nodded.

"I am Guardoor Number Two. I am the guardian of the second door of Shadow Doom's Road." Guardoor Number Two introduced. "I see you people are the intruders that are invading this place, no?"

"So, does this mean you're going to end our games?" Luigi shuddered.

"As a Guardoor, it is my job to simply tell you what you must do in order to get through the door. However, instead of making you answer questions, I'm going to make you complete a puzzle."

"A puzzle? You mean we have to put something together with puzzle pieces?" Chopper gawked. "I don't usually like those…"

A portrait of Shade appeared beside the door, and a couple of pieces landed on the ground. "Complete this in two minutes, and I'll let you pass. Some pieces might need to be switched around, just so you know…"

"Great… This is going to be fun."

Tipral looked down at the pieces and picked one of them up. At this point, the timer began, and all four began to try to solve the puzzle. Most of them were spending a while with one piece.

"Guys! We can't spend time with one piece!" Luigi cried. "It's getting us nowhere!"

"I think I got some pieces together," Luvbi informed, putting at least two pieces together. There were about eight, if you wanted to know.

"Hmmmmm… You know, I think I might know this!" Chopper realized as he snapped a finger. He got two more pieces and managed to fit them with the pieces Luvbi got, while Tipral got the other two and let them join in.

"That means we only need to get the other two," Tipral declared.

"Got them!" Luigi shouted as he got the two pieces together and joined them with the other six, making a picture of Shade in front of them. They had about twenty seconds left, to their relief.

"Well, it looks like you managed to solve the puzzle," Guardoor Number Two nodded. "Congratulations. You may enter through the door."

Everyone (except for Tipral) sighed in relief as they entered through the door and into a light area, which was small with a Save Block nearby and a door up ahead. There also happened to be a door to their left.

"Pray, dost thou think there's something important thither?" Luvbi asked.

"I hope it's not another one of those old ladies…" Chopper shuddered, thinking about those hags back on Underwhere Road. "They were a bit creepy… Plus, they made us go all the way back here!"

"I don't know if going back is possible thanks to Bowser…" Luigi trailed.

"While I think we should go to that door ahead, we should check the other door just in case," Tipral suggested as he walked over to the left door and kicked it open. There, he saw a Skellobit wearing nerdy glasses and a white shirt with a Mushroom on it. He was sitting by his computer, where he was around some pictures with people like the X-Nauts and even Tamber.

"What the heck is this?"

"Errrr… What do you want?" the Skellobit asked. "You can't come into Skeeter's room!"

"And I suppose you're Skeeter?"

"Yeah, I'm Skeeter. Who the heck are you?"

"Someone that's not of your concern."

"Tipral, he doesn't have any weapons, so don't try to attack," Chopper suggested.

"He's technically on Shade's side, and anyone on that person's side will be crushed by my own fists!"

"Whoa, what? !" Skeeter gaped. "Who on earth are you talking about?"

"Your leader?" Luigi answered with a confused look. "Do you even know anything about him?"

"Uhhhh… No idea. I'm just looking up a forum called digibutter. nerr. It's such an awesome forum!"

"Oh crud… Not THAT site…" Chopper sweat dropped. "I ALWAYS hear about that from some chameleon named Francis."

"Francis? ! You mean the one who got that glorious picture of that rainbow butterfly? ! YOU KNOW HIM? !"

"Kind of…but there's not much I can say about him. I have no idea where that geek went anyway, so you can't get much from me."

"It would be such an honor to meet such a great geek such as him! Please! Let me see him!"

"We're in the middle of trying to get something," Tipral noted. "We don't have time to do anything stupid for you."

"Can you take me to his place?"

"No! Even if I had the ability to teleport to different dimensions, I wouldn't. Besides, I can only teleport to a specific distance. Just leave us be, or else I'll probably be forced to bash your face on the wall!"

"Tipral, that's not what we should do…" Chopper trailed.

"Chopper, just because we're working together at the moment doesn't mean I have to do everything you and your annoying friends do. Either you just keep out of this, or maybe the same thing might happen to you!"

"Hold on… I can help you get out of here, though."

"…What?"

"You see, there's a Dark Wizard out there that's a captain of the wizards around here. His name's **Giyron**. He also rides a Dark Creature resembling a dragon called Galdron. One thing for sure is that he's immensely dangerous. Much stronger than the other Dark Wizards. You see… If you're their enemies, then you might wanna know a little something about him, right?"

"Well, if it will helpeth us, thou shouldst tell us," Luvbi nodded.

"Only if you can get one of those wizards' wands, I'll let you in on the secret," Skeeter stated. "With my technology, I can probably work it to make myself get teleported to the great Francis's house!"

"Ummmm… Wouldn't that bother him?" Luigi asked with a confused look.

"No way! We're geeks! Geeks always like to talk to each other!"

"_Stalker…_" Chopper mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing!"

"Well, just get me a Dark Wizard's wand and come back with it. I'll tell you a little secret then. Trust me, you'll probably wanna know about it."

"All right, then that means we might have to disguise ourselves if we don't want to be caught," Chopper declared before he looked at the posters of Tamber, Geno, Heartsy, and even Scrub.

"Seriously, this guy has posters of all my friends!"

"Pray, who doth be the pink one?" Luvbi asked.

"That's Heartsy. She was one of my friends."

"Didst thou have any interest in her? !" From what Chopper could see, she didn't look too happy. "Were thou seeing other people? !"

"What the heck? ! No!" Chopper retorted. Thankfully, he didn't tell her that Heartsy was the same species as him, not to mention that it probably would've been worse if he spoke about Bow and Vivian as well.

"…OK, I understand, my prince," the Nimbi girl smiled and kissed Chopper's cheek, making him gag and wipe it off.

"So, are we going to go look for a wand?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, let's do that," Chopper agreed as they left the room and headed to the door. However, the first thing they did was put on the cloaks, while Tipral shape-shifted into a Dark Wizard.

"This doesn't feel comfy… Plus, it kinda smells."

"That's what I was talking about before," Luvbi recalled. "But, I believest we have no other choice…"

When they headed through the door ahead, they were in another dark room. However, this felt more like a palace area, because there was a staircase up ahead, and to the left was a high ledge that only Luigi could reach.

"I… I see a wizard up there." Luigi realized as he used his Super Jump. The Dark Wizard whirled around and took notice of the plumber with its purple glowing eyes.

"You almost startled me for a second," the Dark Wizard sighed. "Please… Don't do something like that again!"

"Whoa… Sorry about that… I didn't mean to scare you."

"Good. Anyway, I'm trying to make a little picture. Since you're here, do you mind holding onto my wand? I might have a bit of trouble with my painting if I have my hands full…"

"Wand? Ummmmmm…"

"Say yes!" Chopper shouted.

"Oh! Sure!" Luigi nodded.

"Great. Just be careful with it, OK?" the Dark Wizard handed Luigi the wand and then began to get to work with the painting. Luigi, unsure of what to do, simply jumped off the ledge and walked over to the others.

"That was easier than I thought…"

"Great! Now we can take this back to that geeky Skellobit person!" Chopper smiled. "Let's just get out of this area quickly…"

* * *

**Skeeter's room-**

"Hey, geek person! We've brought you something!" Chopper declared as Luigi held up the wand.

"You got it! …Wait, why are you in Dark Wizard cloaks?" Skeeter asked as Luigi walked over to him. "It looks weird…"

"Apparently those wizards don't recognize us as the enemy," Tipral stated. "Now tell us that little secret. You made us a promise, right?"

"Well… In all honesty, that was all just an excuse to simply make you get something for me! And now that you've done it, I can finally get out of here and go meet the great Francis!"

"So thou were only tricking us?" Luvbi asked with a glare.

"This feels so clichéd," Chopper face palmed. "Most bad guys tend to do this kind of stuff…"

"Well, so long!" Skeeter grinned after putting a gray coating around it and zapping himself with it.

However, like a lot of plans, they tend to backfire. The magic blast that zapped Skeeter only electrocuted him and made him fall over on his chair with steam flying around him.

"Ugh… I don't feel so good…"

"Well that's what you get for trying to fool us," Tipral scoffed as he turned back into himself and grabbed Skeeter and held him up. "Now… How about you tell us about that secret? It might prevent you from getting badly injured…"

"Uhhh… Y'see… You gotta collect as many Yeti bags as you can and give them to the Leather Maker so he can make something good. And once you're level 60, you can do those quests easily!"

"But there art no yetis hither…" Luvbi trailed.

"Idiot… We want REAL answers! Do you WANT me to kill you? !" Tipral roared.

"N-No… All right! I'll tell you!" Skeeter wheezed. "That monster Giyron has can be put to sleep to prevent you from getting hurt by it. If you have anything that lets you put enemies to sleep, then use it."

"Hey, that looks like something I can do!" Piccolo chirped.

"Then if we have to fight him, we'll make sure to use you," Chopper assured.

"So, is this all you have to tell us?" Tipral asked.

"Y-Yeah! Just let me go now!" Skeeter cried as Tipral dropped him and walked over to the door.

"Let's get out of here. We don't have time to deal with this nerd."

"Well… I guess we have no other choice…" Chopper trailed as he, Luvbi and Luigi followed Tipral out and back into the dark area where the staircase to their right was. They decided not to put on the disguises, since they could simply fight with ease.

"Let's just watch out for Giyron…" Luvbi trailed. "It probably wouldst be better to not see him, right, my sweet prince?"

"Yeah, sure…" Chopper trailed, getting annoyed with the term 'my sweet prince' as usual. Of course, everyone else was getting tired of that too.

"Do you always have to call Chopper your 'sweet prince'?" Luigi asked.

"And dost thou always hath to have that nasty hair upon thy lip?" Luvbi asked with a glare.

"I don't have time for these pathetic fights," Tipral scoffed as he made his way up the staircase. Two Dark Skellos noticed him and began to throw spears his way. He simply teleported to avoid them, and then he took them out by bashing their heads against each other.

"Well, I guess that's something," Chopper shrugged as he followed Tipral up the staircase. Luigi slowly followed up, trying to make sure there was nothing behind him. Unfortunately, it was hard for him to see, especially when it was dark.

"This place feels like a cave to me…" Luigi quivered.

"Thou shouldst be happy that there is none of that toxic alien slime around hither…" Luvbi groaned, rolling her eyes at the cowardly plumber.

At the top of the staircase, they noticed a platform above them that Chopper and Tipral couldn't reach. However, the pathway was curving upward and leading upside down to the platform that had a spring.

"Ah! This should be nice!" Chopper smiled as he charged up a Speed Dash and went up the pathway. Since he was moving too fast, he ended up missing the platform and falling face flat on the ground near the staircase.

"My prince! Art thou all right? !" Luvbi gasped as she fluttered over to Chopper.

"Unnghh… Yeah, I'm fine…"

"Well, I think I can reach this platform just fine," Luigi said as he used a Super Jump to reach the platform, while Tipral teleported up there. Chopper went back on the pathway and jumped onto the platform when the time was right. He ended up landing on the spring, which sent him flying upward.

"Woo hoo!"

He landed on the pathway above them and found a slope moving downward ahead leading to a loop. Chopper stopped for a minute when he flipped into 3-D and found a secret path to the left, which revealed a chest with a shake called a Max Shroom Shake.

"Whoa! A Max Shroom Shake! And here I thought I'd never live to see this!"

"A Max Shroom Shake? What's that?" Luigi asked as Chopper went back into 2-D.

"It can heal ALL of our HP. It's pretty useful, if you ask me!"

"I guess that's useful…" Tipral trailed.

"No time to be speaking about a drink," Luvbi cut in. "We hath to movest on! Mine parents art probably still worried sick about cute me…"

"They're not even your parents, remember?"

"Well they treateth me like they art mine parents! How darest thou sayest something like that to me!"

"You know what? Let's just go…" Chopper face palmed as he ran through the loop, as well as Tipral, who teleported Luigi past the loop. They found at the top of the pathway a Dark Wizard and a Ninja Creature.

"What's that?" Luigi asked.

"A Ninja Creature. Just watch out, because it moves fast."

The Ninja Creature jumping in the air and prepared to attack, but Luigi's Super Jump helped take it out with ease, while Chopper tossed a couple of light balls at the Dark Wizard to take it out.

"I don't think we're too far," Tipral noted. "I'm sure this is the smallest dark area we'll be in."

"You can see a door?" Chopper asked.

"Yes."

They followed Tipral up ahead to a door, which they entered into the next area, where they saw a fan with the air moving upward. They jumped on top of it to be carried up to another fan to the left.

"Let's just hope we don't fall…" Luigi trailed.

They found one more fan that carried them upward and landed on another staircase. To their dismay, there was a turret at the top of the staircase that a Dark Wizard was using. It began to fire dark blasts down instead of large balls of toxic alien slime.

"Chopper, we shouldst flip into 3-D!" Luvbi suggested.

"Yeah, I know that," Chopper nodded as he went into 3-D with everyone else. They simply dodged the shots and reached the top. Tipral grabbed the Dark Wizard and sent it flying upward with a Star Punch.

"That should take care of it," Tipral declared as they went back into 2-D. They turned around and saw a door up ahead.

The only problem? Guardoor Number Three was broken in pieces.

"Oh, no… We're too late…" Chopper trailed.

"Well well well… It looks like you decided to show up!" Everyone looked up and saw a Dark Wizard with a black cloak and a jagged stripe on his hood. Unlike the other Dark Wizards, he had red eyes. He was riding on top of a Dark Creature resembling a bit of a dragon, except it didn't have a mouth.

"So, you're Giyron, is that correct?" Tipral asked.

"That's right. I'm the Dark Wizard Captain!" Giyron confirmed. "And I suppose you guys are the intruders I've been hearing about, right?"

"Uhhhh… We're not intruders…" Chopper trailed. "We're Shade's delivery men! …And girl."

"Only an idiot would refer to Master Shadow Doom as 'Shade'. You're not delivery men! You're Chopper and that enemy of his Tipral! It's strange to see two enemies working together…"

"We have a common enemy, you know… It would make sense to take out that enemy first."

"Hmmmmm… Well, I suppose that's true… Now, if you were thinking about going through that door, well I'm afraid that won't happen. Originally, Guardoor Number Three would make you fight something, but it wasn't that threatening. So, I decided to take matters to my own hands and get rid of that statue!"

"Uh oh… That means you're fighting us? !" Luigi gulped.

"Yes… Now let's stop with this blabbering and get to the fight already! I've been waiting a long time for this! Come Galdron! We'll show these people what we can do!"

"Thou shouldst be careful, my sweet prince…" Luvbi trailed.

* * *

**Enter RPG Battle-**

Giyron and Galdron attacks!

Chopper has no idea what's going on!

Luigi starts to gulp!

Tipral could care less about this fight!

Chopper uses Piccolo!

Piccolo plays a strange song!

Galdron falls into a deep sleep!

Galdron is taking a nice nap!

Luigi uses his Super Jump on Giyron!

Impressive jump! Luigi does 20 damage to Giyron!

Tipral uses Star Spear on Giyron!

What a show! Tipral does 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron fires dark magic at Luigi!

Youch! Luigi takes 18 damage!

Giyron uses electricity on Chopper!

What a shocking attack! Chopper takes 18 damage!

Chopper shoots light energy at Giyron!

Who ever thought light could be so great? Chopper does 20 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses Hommissile on Giyron!

Ka-BOOM! Luigi does 20 damage to Giyron!

Tipral uses Star Burst on Giyron!

The distorted space did 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron builds up power for his next attack.

Galdron wakes up!

Galdron clawed at Chopper!

What pain! Chopper takes 18 damage!

Chopper shoots an ice ball at Giyron!

Giyron took 20 damage, and he became frozen!

Luigi uses his flutter jump on Giyron!

The stomp did 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron broke out of the ice!

Tipral uses Crystaline on Giyron!

Giyron froze while taking 20 damage!

Giyron is still frozen!

Chopper uses his hammer on Giyron!

The whacking attack does 20 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses his Super Jump on Giyron!

Impressive jump! Luigi does 20 damage to Giyron!

Tipral uses Star Burst on Guyron!

The distorted space did 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron broke out of the ice!

Giyron fires dark energy at Tipral!

Oof! Tipral takes 18 damage from the dark attack!

Galdron claws at Luigi!

What pain! Luigi takes 18 damage!

"Hmmmmm… So you are tough foes…" Giyron trailed. "I guess Master Shadow Doom was right when he said you could put up a fight…"

Chopper shoots light energy at Giyron!

Who ever thought light could be so great? Chopper does 20 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses Piccolo!

Piccolo plays a strange song!

Galdron falls into a deep sleep!

Galdron is taking a nice nap!

Tipral uses Star Spear on Giyron!

What a show! Tipral does 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron uses electricity on Tipral!

Tipral dodges like a pro!

Chopper uses Kickbrin on Giyron!

Now that's a kicker! Chopper does 20 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses Screwdy on Giyron!

Giyron got corkscrewed and takes 20 damage!

Tipral uses Star Punch on Giyron!

That sure packed a punch! Tipral does 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron had Galdron wake up and expel stinky breath!

Oh no! It's putrid! Luigi takes 18 damage!

Chopper shoots light energy at Giyron!

Who ever thought light could be so great? Chopper does 20 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses his Super Jump on Giyron!

Impressive jump! Luigi does 20 damage to Giyron!

Tipral fires dark Star energy at Giyron!

How dark! Tipral does 20 damage to Giyron!

Giyron began to build up power!

Chopper uses his hammer on Giyron!

The whacking attack does 20 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses his Super Jump on Giyron!

What a jump! Luigi does 20 damage to Giyron!

Tipral fires dark Star energy at Giyron!

His attack was unfortunate to miss!

Giyron fired dark energy at Chopper!

Chopper dodges like a pro!

Chopper attacks Giyron!

Chopper does 10 damage to Giyron!

Luigi uses his Super Jump!

Impressive jump! Luigi does 20 damage to Giyron!

Chopper, Luigi and Tipral defeated Giyron!

They received 16,400 experience points!

* * *

**Exit RPG battle-**

"Gah! How could I lose to a punch of people like you? !" Giyron gaped as he felt explosions within him. Before anyone could say anything, there was a flash, and he was gone, along with Galdron.

"That… That's not what I expected to see from him…" Luigi trailed.

"Well that's what he gets for trying to get in our way," Tipral scoffed as he crossed his arms. "Let's go already. We don't have much time to deal with more Dark Wizard captains like him."

Chopper let out a sigh as they entered through the door. They were led into a small area, but up ahead was the Star Block, leaving a smile on his face.

"Thank you! We're done with this!" Chopper cheered as he ran up to the Star Block and gave it a punch.

"Let's hope we find my bro and the others…" Luigi trailed.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_Relieved to be out of the dark and eerie path, our heroes began to see more light around the comet. Thankfully, they didn't have to deal with any more toxic alien slime along the way, considering that they were at a higher point in the Comet of Darkness. "Geez… Now I'm starting to like this place a lot more!" commented Chopper as they jumped up a couple of platforms to be in a more outside area of the comet. While the view was nice, the places was still as dangerous as ever. Why? Because a large battleship was seen off at the distance._

* * *

**I think the highlight of this chapter was the whole Giga Bowser moment. Yes, I did add in something that's a reference to the final fight in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I thought it would work, especially with Giga Bowser here.  
**

**If you people don't find Chapter 19 all that exciting, then maybe the next part is where it'll pick up. No more dark rooms, that's for sure (and I got annoyed with them too). Perhaps things will be taken up into the air next time (hint hint)? Well, we'll see...  
**


	116. Battleship Invaders

**CHAPTER 19-3**

**-Battleship Invaders-**

"MAN! I'm so relieved to be out of that darkness!" Luigi sighed as they found themselves in an area with a gray ground, a purpleish background, a black sky and a bit of outer space they could see. They could see a bit of The Void, but it didn't appear to be as big as it was in previous worlds. In fact, it was the smallest they've seen of it as of now.

"Geez… The Void's not even that huge here." Chopper noticed. "Thankfully, that should give us enough time to find the Pure Heart… Being homeless now makes me wonder how I'm going to go on with my life while that's up in the sky…"

"Or maybe we might be too late and be doomed," Tipral added.

"No, we won't be doomed. There's no way I'm going to let some darkness in the sky get rid of everything in existence! And Tipral… When all of this is over, you better do something to pay us back!"

"Yeah, I can agree with that!" Luigi nodded. "You DID destroy our worlds and many others!"

"I don't even have anything to give you in return," Tipral replied. "And I'm not going to give you anything. …Or maybe we should discuss a stupid topic like this ANOTHER time?"

"Ugh… Thou art such an insensitive monster…" Luvibi sighed as Tipral ignored her. She decided to flutter back over to Chopper with a smile. "So, art thou happy to be back in an area where we canst see?"

"Yeah, I certainly am," Chopper nodded. "Hopefully we can find the rest of my friends. I'm hoping that they're safe."

"Chopper, what about that large battleship?" Luigi mentioned, pointing to the battleship off at the distance. "You think there's something there?"

"Maybe we should go there. I'm thinking we might find something interesting there! Hopefully one of our friends is there, too!"

"I'll be happy if it's my bro!"

"I could care less who it is," Tipral declared. "All I want to do is find Shade and put an end to him once and for all. Maybe while we're in that battleship, we can destroy it as well."

"I still think you should stop being so blunt," Chopper suggested. "Why do you lack emotion except for anger? For a villain, that's not so interesting."

"Maybe you should stop giving such stupid remarks," Tipral suggested as he raised his fist by Chopper's face. "Because, you know, you might end up getting a large Star Punch to the face!"

"I'm not trying to mock you. I'm just giving you a suggestion… Do you always take things too seriously?"

"I swear I'm going to kill you… But, I don't think it's worth it now."

Before they could continue, they noticed a black and purple alien-like bat creature fly over them. Luigi quickly ducked and pulled his cap down in fear, while Chopper ducked like a pancake.

"It's all right, it's not after us," Chopper assured as he stood back up and watched the Dark Bat fly off. "That's a big Dark Bat, honestly… Usually we see small ones. I wonder if we could use one to fly…"

"Mayhap there is one we canst use!" Luvbi deduced. "That is, if we can findest one…"

"All we can do is move on, I guess…" Luigi trailed as he noticed the pathway ahead was flat with a couple of brick blocks ahead. There were even bottomless pits around as well. It was almost like a standard Mario platform area to him.

When Chopper punched one of the brick blocks, he noticed the Jet ability pop out. When he touched it, he ended up with the Jet ability. He didn't exactly want it, but he decided to keep it with him anyway.

Up ahead were two Dark Assassins firing at them. When Tipral tried to strike one with a Star Spear, it teleported to avoid and appeared in front of Luigi, who yelped and threw Bonjourang at it, knocking it back.

"What the heck was that? !" Luigi gasped.

"Dark Assassins," Tipral informed. "They'll teleport around the area and appear in front of you if you're not careful."

"Oh, geez… That's not good…"

"Well, if you can hit them, then it shouldn't be too bad," Chopper assured as he bashed the Dark Assassin with his hammer by using a rainbow smash. He finished it off by using his jet helmet and ramming into it.

"So, how many ability canst thou copy?" Luvbi asked.

"In all honesty, I don't know… There may be more that I haven't discovered yet."

"Well, I guess the world holds many things that we won't know for a long time," Luigi shrugged. "In fact, we might not know what will happen in the future too. Hopefully it'll be a good future…"

"I wouldst love a good future," Luvbi agreed as she fluttered over the bottomless pit ahead. Another row of brick blocks was ahead, with a Dark Skello on top. Tipral jumped over the pit and punched the blocks from underneath, dealing damage to the Dark Skello and knocking it to the ground for him to finish off with a shadow ball.

"I don't know why, but I'm kinda reminded of the beginning of this adventure, back on Lineland Road," Chopper recalled as he jumped over the pit and found a row of brick blocks high above them. Apparently they could be reached if they jumped on the blocks Tipral broke.

When Luigi looked at the battleship, he noticed it wasn't moving that fast. "I think we might have a chance to catch up to it if we're quick enough."

"Yeah, it's moving pretty slowly," Chopper noticed. "I think we might have a chance."

Up ahead was a platform moving up and down to a ledge, so Chopper simply jumped on it, while Tipral teleported up to the ledge, while Luigi used his Super Jump. After smacking his forehead, he followed them down a small slope to find a Dark Wizard firing magic at them.

Chopper jumped in the air and performed a flip as he stomped on the Dark Wizard, while Tipral snapped his finger and struck the Dark Wizard with Star Magic. Once Luigi defeated it with his Cyclone, it was gone.

"Let's just hurry up," Luigi suggested.

"Of course," Chopper agreed as he jumped over some spikes before him and found a large gap up ahead. When he went into 3-D, however, there happened to be a narrow bridge with a Dark Wizard in 3-D as well.

"What's wrong, Chopper?" Luvbi asked.

"There's another Dark Wizard, but in 3-D…"

"It's not going to cause a problem for us, so it's better to leave it be," Tipral suggested as he used his teleportation to cross the gap, while Chopper crossed the narrow bridge. Luigi, of course, was left in a pickle.

"Great… Something I can't do." Luigi sighed.

"Well, I might be able to do something, actually," Chopper realized as he used his Jet ability to hover over the bottomless pit and grab Luigi's arm to carry him across. "Geez… You're not heavy like Mario, but I have a hard time holding onto you!"

"Well, thanks…"

Once he put Luigi down, they found some purple skinny pillar-like platforms leading up to a ledge where a door was. Chopper simply flew up with his jet helmet, while Luigi was forced to do some more platforming.

"Man, when will I be able to do something on my own?"

"Thou dost not have to whine about it…" Luvbi sighed, giving him an irritated look. "We dost not needeth any of that."

"Luvbi, let's not start scoffing at people…" Chopper trailed. "I don't really like it when you start to do that…"

"Well, I am just giving him advice. However, I dost not want to maketh my sweet prince unhappy, so I'll listen to thee!"

Chopper sweat dropped as walked over to the door when Luigi reached the ledge. "I guess you're getting tired of her calling you that, right?"

"Ever since she first started calling me that…" Chopper sighed.

They headed through the door and found themselves on a platform. Below them was a pathway with a spring sticking out to the side. Chopper decided to jump down and let the spring make him move faster through the area as he went through a loop.

"See? What'd I tell you?" Luigi sighed.

"I might start calling thee 'Hairy Downer' if thou keepest up with that," Luvbi informed.

"Well that's great…"

Luigi used his Super Jump to go over the loop while Tipral skated through to go down a small slope, where Chopper stopped by spikes that were in the way. Up ahead he noticed a platform moving left and right over a pit where there were spikes.

"Yeesh… A lot of spikes today." Chopper sweat dropped. "Will we find something that doesn't have these purple alien spike things?"

"Maybe you should stop complaining and get over there with the platform," Tipral suggested.

"Or maybe you could tell me that nicely…"

Chopper received a glare from Tipral, who received a glare from Luvbi. Chopper shrugged and jumped on the platform while noticing some small Dark Bats up ahead spitting purple acid from their mouths at him. He used Barry to defend himself, while he used Kickbrin to send them flying back.

"Well that wasn't so bad," Barry said.

Chopper jumped onto the ground and found another Dark Bat flying toward him. He got ready to attack, but Tipral teleported and used his Star Spear to take it out while Luigi got on the platform and reached the two.

While the Star Warrior was disappointed he didn't defeat the Dark Bat, he didn't let it bother him and moved on ahead, using his Speed Dash to move faster while some Dark Bats flying above were dropping some acid bombs from their mouths.

"Ack!" Luigi yelped as he avoided the bombs. He followed the three over to a platform that led to another platform with a fan. "Oh… Well, I can do this!"

He used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the platform, only to find a Dark Skelloknight waiting for him. Chopper used his jet helmet to fly up there and charge straight at the Dark Skelloknight's head, which didn't do much against it.

"Ha! My helmet is designed to protect me from attacks like that!" the Dark Skelloknight cackled. "Just try that again! You'll see how much that won't do a thing against me!"

"Great… So basically, I'm not going to do much against you." Chopper sighed as his Jet ability was knocked away by the Dark Skelloknight's large sword. "Though, I guess I have no problem losing that ability…"

"I'll handle this," Tipral declared as he snapped his finger, making the Dark Skelloknight's armor break off because of the Star Magic attack.

"Wait, how come that worked?" Luigi asked.

"Apparently my ability allows me to break of this armor, especially a Dark Skelloknight's."

"But we still have the helmet to worry about," Chopper mentioned.

"Then I'll get it off," Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at the Dark Skelloknight's helmet, revealing the scar it had on its face. It growled as it rushed forward and tried to knock Tiprak off the platform.

It only ended up knocking Chopper and Luigi off instead.

"Chopper! Art thou all right?" Luvbi cried as she fluttered down to Chopper's aid. He slowly got himself up and rubbed his head in pain before standing up and stretching.

"Well, I'm not too injured, that's for sure…" Chopper trailed. "Although, I wish I could actually get up there, since I don't have my Jet ability…"

"Leavest that to me!" the Nimbi girl winked at him as she grabbed him and carried him up to the platform with ease. Luigi simply used a Super Jump to reach it. The Dark Skelloknight was using its shield to protect itself from Tipral's punches and kicks, which didn't seem to have a huge effect on it.

"Thankfully, my shield is much stronger than my armor, so this helps me," the Dark Skelloknight grinned.

"Well, you got any idea what it's weak to?" Chopper asked.

"Well, it's certainly weak to… Wait a second, I shouldn't tell you!"

While the Dark Skelloknight was distracted, Tipral teleported in front of the beefy Skellobit and used his Star Burst to deal massive damage. He was about to finish it off after two Star Kicks, but Luigi's flutter jump ended up defeating it instead.

"I had that, you know…" Tipral growled.

"I guess that was unintentional," Luigi sweat dropped.

"Whatever. Let's just use that fan ahead and go up. I'm sure we'll be able to find something to get to that battleship."

"Yup," Chopper nodded as he jumped on the platform with the fan and let it carry him upward to a ledge ahead. There appeared to be a speed bumper over by a loop ahead, making him smile.

Of course, Luvbi couldn't help but smile at him too.

"What're you smiling about?"

"Because thou art so adorable when thou art smiling!" Luvbi gushed as she blushed. "Thou shouldst smile more often! It makest me fall in love with thee all over again!"

"Oh, great… This isn't what I hoped for…"

"Let's just move on before we have to deal with more of this crap," Tipral suggested as he used the speed booster to skate to the loop ahead at a faster pace. Chopper let out a sigh and grabbed Luigi to help him while speeding through the loop and blasting through a couple of Dark Skellos in their way.

"It's nice to see you're able to blast through them," Luigi commented.

"Well, being fast does have its advantages…" Chopper trailed.

When he was launched upward by a spring, he landed on a ledge with a door up ahead. They headed through into an area where they saw an alien pole leading up to a ledge above them. There were even some small platforms to the side as well.

"Yeah, seeing something like this isn't surprising…"

"What do you mean?" Luigi asked.

"We climb poles a lot, so I'm not too surprised to see one here."

"Then let's just climb it," Tipral suggested as he grabbed onto the pole and began to climb upward. Unfortunately, he didn't notice an Alien Spark appear below him and make its way up to Tipral.

"Whoa, Tipral! Get on one of the platforms before you…" Chopper was cut off when Tipral got zapped by the Alien Spark, which cackled as it disappeared. Steam appeared around Tipral as he got on one of the platforms, looking furious.

"And why didn't you tell me about this?!"

"I was about to warn you, but I was too late…"

"Be glad that I'm not going to hurt you for that. However, next time, expect to get hurt!"

"If that's how thou art going to act, then thou dost deserve it, yon hideous, dark creature!" Luvbi spat, defending her 'prince'.

"Ummmmm… Yeah. Moving on." Chopper declared as he climbed up the pole. He noticed another Alien Spark following him, so he got on one of the platforms to avoid getting hurt.

"Oh, I think I remember those from cyberspace," Luigi recalled. "Though… They look a lot different…"

"Yeah, they're like recolors… But they look creepier…"

Luigi began to climb his way up with the others until they reached the top. They found a red ! switch on the ground while a sealed door was up ahead. From what they could see, they probably had to rush toward the door as fast as possible.

"This shouldn't be hard," Luigi declared as he kicked the switch and noticed the door open. Sadly, it seemed to close in only one second. "Oh… Well, this isn't going to be easy for us."

"Maybe I can use a Speed Dash to get through here!" Chopper declared as he kicked the switch and charged up a Speed Dash. When he took off, he ended up crashing into the door, leaving him dazed.

"OK… That's not going to work…"

"Then what couldst we do…" Luvbi pondered. "Surely someone hither has something that canst help us…"

"Maybe I can use my ability to stop time," Tipral mentioned, making everyone look over at him. "It's probably going to be a temporary one, but I think it'll be just enough for us to get through the door."

"How's that even possible when everything freezes but you?" Chopper asked.

"I can control who or what becomes frozen. I don't think that's something I've told you before."

"That could've helped us beat Bowser before…"

"I said it isn't temporary! Since I don't have the Dark Star Scepter with me, my powers are, unfortunately, not as powerful as they once were."

"Well, it doth not matter right now," Luvbi interrupted. "Just use that ability so we canst movest on! I'm starting to get a little impatient hither!"

"Bah! Fine…" Tipral kicked the red ! switch again and stopped time when the door opened. Everything but Chopper, Luvbi, Luigi and Tipral were frozen, so they went through the door before time went back to normal.

"Whew… Well that helped." Luigi sighed. "I'm glad we could get through that door…"

"No time to talk now! Dark Assassins dead ahead!" Chopper alarmed, hurling a couple of light balls at the Dark Assassins ahead. He hit one of them, but that wasn't enough for it to teleport behind Luigi.

"It's behind thee, hairy man!" Luvbi alarmed.

"What?! WAH!" Luigi yelped as he threw Bonjourang at the Dark Assassin to stun it. He paused for a moment and used his Cyclone to defeat it. "Phew… That was a close one! But at least it's defeated…"

Tipral snapped his finger as the other Dark Assassin appeared and defeated it easily with Star Magic. He carried on ahead to find two red ! switches by a door. Knowing what Chopper had to do, he flipped into 3-D and saw a number on them, so he went back into 2-D and hit the left and right one to make the door open.

"Wow… Left and right? Not a well-made puzzle, if you ask me…" Chopper trailed.

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed as they went through the door and found a tall pipe standing in their way. When Chopper went into 3-D, he noticed there was a bottomless pit, with the pipe standing on a small platform.

"Well, no going into 3-D here."

"Then I guess we have to jump over it then," Luigi decided as he used his Super Jump to launch himself over the pipe. Tipral teleported past it, which only left Chopper and Luvbi behind the pipe.

"Dang… Well this is nice…"

"Then I will helpest thee, my prince!" Luvbi smiled as she grabbed Chopper and flew him up to the pipe. When they landed beside Luigi and Tipral, they found a large pit up ahead with spikes below. There was another path past the pit, while a red ! switch was right by them.

"I'll check and see what this does," Tipral said as he kicked the switch. This triggered two platforms to appear over the pit, so he used them to cross. A timer appeared, indicating that there wasn't an unlimited amount of time on it.

"Uh oh… We better move quickly!" Chopper gulped as he jumped on the platforms and crossed over to find a pathway moving up to a ledge where a door was. When Luigi crossed over, the platforms disappeared.

"Another door already?" Luigi gawked.

"Looks like it. Let's not waste any more time, OK?"

They made their way up to the door and entered it, only to find a small pathway leading to a cliff. Chopper was forced to stop abruptly when he was running fast. He looked down and saw nothing but black below. Must've been another bottomless pit.

"Well, it looks like we won't be moving on through here…" Chopper sighed.

"What dost thou mean?" Luvbi asked.

"The road ends here."

"Wait, really?" Luigi gaped. "Then what do we do now? !"

"We're going to have to find another way," Tipral declared as he crossed his arms. "Maybe there's something in 3-D we can find."

"All right then," Chopper nodded as he went into 3-D. Unfortunately, he saw nothing around except for a sign. "Wait… There is a sign here! I bet this must be for something important…"

_The road ends here! Sorry, but you'll have to travel airborne from now on!_

"Oh… Well, we need to fly to move on." Chopper informed as he went back into 2-D. "Though, I don't know HOW we can do that."

"Can I helpeth thee?" Luvbi asked.

"You'll probably get too tired flying me across anyway. We need something else…"

Luigi noticed a large Dark Bat in purple armor flying over them. "What about that Dark Bat? It looks big enough to get on and fly on…"

"Dark Bat? Hmmmm…" Tipral looked up at the Dark Bat and noticed it flying down toward them. "I think I have an idea."

He teleported up to the Dark Bat and threw it down to the ground. When he teleported back down, he struck it with a Star Spear in order to subdue it. That's when he got on top of it and woke it up.

"Ummmm… Are you really sure it's going to…" Chopper was cut off when the Dark Bat began to obey Tipral and hovered off the ground.

"You just need to subdue it and get on its back," Tipral noted. "That's how it's going to listen to you."

"Well… I don't see any other Dark Bats around here…"

Two Dark Bat coincidentally appeared and attempted to attack Chopper and Luigi. The green plumber ended up jumping on one of them, while Chopper did the same thing in order to subdue it. They both jumped on a Dark Bat, which was now under their control.

"Hey, this thing's listening to me!" Luigi smiled.

"Well, we'll need one for Luvbi so it'll make things…" Chopper paused when he noticed Luvbi join him on the Dark Bat while holding onto him. "Luvbi… What are you doing?"

"I decided I wouldst stay hither with thee on this bat," Luvbi answered with a sweet smile. "Thou art the only one I want to be with anyway!"

"_Oh, geez… This isn't what I hoped for… _OK, fine. You can join me if you want."

"Well, at least we don't need to get one for your annoying girlfriend," Tipral noted.

"She isn't my girlfriend, dang it!"

"So, where do we go from here?" Luigi wondered.

"I guess all we can do is fly…"

The Dark Bats began to take off, while the heroes began to steer which way it went. Tipral noticed it could fire a pink blast from its mouth, which surprised him a bit, especially with the bombs in the sky.

"The Dark Bats are able to shoot out energy blasts, so use that to destroy any bombs in your way," Tipral informed.

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea," Luigi said as he made his Dark Bat fire at the bombs in his way. Chopper did the same thing while they flew forward. At this point, they were getting closer to the battleship.

Of course, he had Luvbi with him…

"Oh, Chopper… Mayhap after all worlds art saved, we can have a romantic date back in The Overthere! Over by one of the trees! It wouldeth be especially romantic with a romantic song playing as well! And when the sun sets, we can siteth on the cloud and shareth a romantic kiss when the moon rises! It sounds so romantic, especially for us… And then thou can taketh my hand to Grambi's Shrine while I'm in a wedding dress so we can finally get married so thou canst become the King of The Underwhere and…"

"Stop it! Stop it!" Chopper cried. "I don't want to think of that! That sounds like a nightmare to me!"

"It doth sound like a dream come true! We shouldst do that, yea?"

"Uhhhhhh… I can't."

"Thou cannot? Why?"

"Because… Because I have a terrible disease called Staritis that, uh… It makes you die when you go on dates."

"That soundeth preposterous!"

"But it's real!"

"Or thou art simply lying?"

"Well… Let's discuss this later, OK? I think I just wanna focus on getting to the ship and getting the Pure Heart." Chopper said. "…And also saving your parents."

"Good riddance," Tipral sighed, getting irritated with Luvbi. "I swear, if I have to hear something like that again, I'm going to…"

"You tend to say something like that, yet you never actually do it."

"You're actually making me want to now."

"Guys, I can see the battleship up ahead!" Luigi noticed, but he froze when missiles were firing their way. "Oh, no… They're firing straight at us too!"

"Well, then we should be fighting back," Chopper declared, making his Dark Bat fire blasts of energy at the missiles and destroy them. While he did that, Luvbi continued to swoon over him, which irritated him.

"…Seriously, that's not helping me, Luvbi."

"Yeah, I'm getting tired of it," Tipral agreed. "You're not even being helpful anyway, so maybe you should just leave."

"Uh, we can't let her leave. She needs to be back with her parents."

Aside from their stupid conversation, the Dark Bats moved forward and dodged a couple of missiles coming their way. This was the point where they all stopped the conversation and got back to business: destroying the missiles and reaching the battleship.

"Uh oh… There's a homing missile coming our way!" Luigi gulped.

Tipral managed to blast it with his Dark Bat and destroy it. "There. You don't have to worry about that anymore."

When they got closer to the battleship, they noticed a hangar they could go into, which was something they wanted top find in the first place. Tipral made his Dark Bat move forward to the hangar, while Luigi's followed his.

"All right, hold on tight, Luvbi," Chopper suggested.

"Why shouldst I?" Luvbi wondered.

"Because this Dark Bat's going to be moving pretty fast. You don't want to fall off, right?"

"Oh… Of course not!"

"Right, then hold tight!" Luvbi held onto Chopper while the Dark Bat moved forward to the battleship. All three Dark Bats performed barrel rolls when more missiles were being fired.

"Did… Did these Dark Bats do a barrel roll?" Chopper gawked.

"I think so," Luigi nodded.

"Well… That's pretty cool!"

"We better be prepared, guys," Tipral suggested as they flew in closer to the battleship. "I'm sure there are plenty of enemies to crush in there. If you plan on fighting, then you better be ready."

"E-Enemies?" Luigi stammered. "D-Did you say th-there are a lot of them? !"

"I don't know if there are a lot. I'm guessing there are judging by how big this battleship is."

"And let's hope one of our friends is in there too," Chopper added. "You know what they say… The more the merrier."

"Yeah, I doth agree," Luvbi nodded.

* * *

**Inside the battleship-**

Two Dark Brutes were patrolling the hangar, where there were a couple of Dark Bats resting. Little did they notice the three fly into the hangar and jump off their Dark Bats, which landed on the ground and began to rest.

"You think we'll be able to ride those again?" Chopper wondered.

"I highly doubt it, unless we subdue it again," Tipral informed, noticing the two Dark Brutes patrolling the purple hangar with the black floor. "It doesn't look like they notice us. This looks like a perfect opportunity to take them out!"

"Uhh… Tipral, there are two Dark Brutes in here. If we get both of their attention, fighting them won't be a good idea. When it comes to something like this, we need to chip them down one at a time."

"And what makes you think that will work?"

"Because if one notices the other getting attacked, it will simply go out and alarm more people, which means we'll be surrounded by a huge army. I'm fine with taking on multiple Dark Creatures or Dark Wizards, but they might call in more brutes, which could be bad."

"What makes you think multiple brutes is a bad thing?" Luigi asked.

"Those Hellspawn Royal Guards, Luigi… Now those things are MASSIVE! Taking on multiple Dark Brutes kind of feels like taking on multiple Hellspawn Royal Guards, which is, let me tell you, NOT a good thing."

"Fine, we'll go with your pathetic little idea," Tipral sighed.

"What? I think it works fine! You need to have a strategy when it comes to fighting. You can't go out with no plan in mind!"

"All right, whatever! Let's just fight them already!"

When both Dark Brutes were facing away from each other, Chopper hurled a light ball at one of them, which got its attention and made it charge at Chopper and his friends. Luigi, seeing the size of the Dark Brute, gaped.

"I almost feel like I just wet my pants…" Luigi gulped.

"Well don't! Keep your pants dry, please!" Chopper frowned.

The Dark Brute readied its sword and attempted to bring it down on them. What surprised Tipral was when he threw a Star Spear at the monster. It brought its hand in front of itself and managed to block the attack.

"What in the world?!" Tipral gawked. "Dark never told me that these brutes could do something like that!"

"Have you even seen them?" Chopper asked. "I know for sure I didn't!"

"Chopper! Not too loud!" Luvbi shushed. "Thou dost not want to get the other brute's attention, dost thou?"

"Well… No. I think I was a bit too loud there."

The Dark Brute brought its sword down, which everyone managed to avoid. Tipral simply delivered a Star Punch to its stomach before kicking its face. Chopper clenched his hammer and bashed the Dark Brute with a light smash, while Luigi finished it off with ease with a Cyclone.

"Phew! It's finally finished!" Luigi sighed.

"We still have the other to take care of," Tipral mentioned.

Tipral looked at the other Dark Brute, who didn't seem to notice the other Dark Brute's defeat. Since it didn't see him, Tipral threw a Star Spear to get its attention and make it stomp its way over to them.

"Wow, that thing is a bit fast…" Chopper trailed.

"But that's not stopping me from fighting it," Tipral mentioned as he teleported in front of the Dark Brute and began to throw as many attacks at it as possible, such as Star Spears, shadow balls and Star Punches.

Before they knew it, it was defeated. He also managed to grab a Master Shroom Shake while at it.

"Oh… I guess he took care of that…" Luigi trailed.

"Well, those guys are taken care of, so we should try to get out of the hangar," Chopper suggested as they rushed to the door ahead. They were led into a hallway with a pathway to go to the right and one to the left. They noticed a couple of Dark Skellos were to the left and some Dark Wizards were to the right. Thankfully, they didn't seem to notice them either.

"I say we go to the left first," Chopper suggested as he turned left and ran ahead. One Dark Skello attempted to throw its spear at Chopper, but he jumped and kicked its head, making it fall off.

"Gah! My body's moving all over the place!" the Dark Skello cried.

Luigi ran over to the Dark Skello's head and gave it a kick, sending it flying away into a couple of other Dark Skellos, knocking them over. Tipral teleported over to them and fired Star Spears to defeat them with ease.

"Watch out!" Chopper cried, using Starbow to finish off the remaining Dark Skellos that were about to attack them. "Phew… That was close!"

"Thou… Thou wiped them away!" Luvbi gaped.

"I guess they're not as strong as us," Tipral declared. "And Shade thought he would be able to stop us… We just proved him wrong."

Chopper decided to go into the door closest to him, which led them into a room where two Dark Soldiers were sitting on a couch and watching TV. When they noticed them, they got their weapons ready and open fired.

"You guys came here at a terrible time!" one Dark Soldier yelled.

"We were watching something cool!" the other Dark Soldier added as they both fired a charged shot at them. Chopper simply used Reflecto to deflect the attack back at them, while Luigi threw Bonjourang at them to leave them dazed. Tipral quickly finished them off with a Star Burst.

"Well that takes care of them," Chopper sighed as he looked around the room. There was, of course, the couch in the middle of the room, as well as a shelf with a couple of magazines and books. There was even a table over by the corner with mugs. A picture appeared to be on the table, and Shade's face was taped on Dark's head.

"Wow, and this is something I'd never expect to see in a battleship!" Luigi gaped.

"They left the TV on too," Tipral mentioned.

"Mayhap they were already watching it before we came hither," Luvbi said. "And there doth appear to be something on now!"

"What is it?" Chopper asked.

"A…trailer?"

"Why don't we take a look?" Luigi suggested as he took a seat on the couch. Chopper jumped on, and Luvbi sat next to him with hearts fluttering over her head (to his dismay). Tipral decided not to sit because he didn't want to sit next to them and watched the trailer.

"It says the movie's rated PG-13…" Chopper trailed. "What does that mean?"

"You've got to be thirteen or older to watch it," Tipral informed. "How do you not know this?"

"I really haven't seen movie trailers before…"

"That doth be surprising…" Luvbi trailed.

They saw a blue Skellobit on the screen doing some strange stuff. According to the voice that could be heard, his name was Todd Beider.

_"Todd Beider derp dee derp! Derp dee derpity derp! Until one day… Da derp da derp da derper derp!"_

"Wait… What's all of this?" Luigi gawked. "They're just saying 'derp' here…"

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged. "Are all trailers like this?"

"No, they're usually not," Tipral answered as they noticed Todd Beider freak out after drinking a chemical.

_"Derp dee derp… A teetley toe!"_

"This sounds like an interesting movie, though," Chopper mentioned.

_"From the creators of, **DER**, and **'TUM TA TITALY TUM TA TOO' **Todd Beider is, da derp dee derp da teetley derpee derpee dumb. Rated PG-13."_

"You know… Come to think of it, this kind of reminds me of something I once saw when my dad was watching some TV. Of course, he ended up switching back to some kind of anime show."

"Anime show?" Luigi gawked.

"He was an otaku."

"An otaku? What does that…"

"Please don't ask…"

Tipral decided to walk over to the door. "Well I see no point in coming here. We should just leave while we can."

"Hold on a second, there's a Save Block here," Chopper mentioned as he hit the Save Block to save their game. Afterward, they left the room and noticed another door to their left. A Dark Wizard happened to be guarding it.

Chopper ran toward the Dark Wizard and bashed its heads with his hammer and kicking it back with a light kick. The Dark Wizard quickly got itself up and began firing dark projectiles. Unfortunately, one ended up hitting Chopper, but when Tipral fired a Star Spear at the Dark Wizard, it was all over for it, especially when Tipral punched it to the wall.

"There, that's solved," Tipral declared as he walked over to the door. He paused when he heard a voice coming from inside. "Wait a second… I feel like I know that voice from somewhere…"

"How dost thou know it?" Luvbi wondered.

"I heard it. That's all."

_"Quit yapping and let me focus here! I've nearly missed every shot and I don't want to miss this one!"_

_"Poyo! Poyo!"_

"Hey, I hear it too!" Chopper gasped, recognizing that voice. "Kirby's in trouble!"

"Kirby? You know he's in there?" Luigi gaped.

Chopper kicked the door open to find a Dark Brute and Dark Skelloknight playing a game of darts. However, there was a major difference. Kirby was chained to the dartboard, and he was the bull's-eye.

"Well, I better hope that this dart doesn't miss the pink creampuff," hoped the Dark Brute as it readied the dart. "I've nearly tried EVERYTHING to hit a bull's-eye, but I haven't gotten one yet!"

"Do you have bad eyesight?" the Dark Skelloknight asked.

"Well… I kind of do…"

"Look, I'll show you how you can get a bull's-eye. Just watch and learn."

"Poyo! (Hey! You can't do that!)" Kirby guffawed.

"Gimme the dart and I'll show you what to do," the Dark Skelloknight suggested. The Dark Brute groaned and handed the dart to the knight, who proceeded to aim and throw it toward the shaking Kirby.

However, it didn't hit him because the dart was pulled away by Chopper's inhaling.

"Don't even try it," Chopper warned, catching the dart before it went into his mouth.

"Eh? How'd you get here?! Aren't you a friend of that creampuff?!"

"Maybe you should let my friend go, perhaps?"

"Poyo? (Chopper? Is that you?)" Kirby gasped.

"It's two against one!" the Dark Brute cackled. "There's no way you're going to beat us!"

Luigi and Tipral walked into the room as well, making the two enemies widen their eyes in surprise. Tipral, on the other hand, did something a little different. He raised his arms and created two boxes around the two enemies.

"Wait… What're you doing?" Chopper gawked.

"I'm not too sure…" Tipral trailed, realizing what he did. "I didn't know I was capable of doing this…"

"The only person I know who did that was…Dimentio," Luigi gaped.

"Pray, who doth this Dimentio be anyway?" Luvbi asked.

"He's someone that's been trying to kill us a while ago," Chopper explained. "He took the Chaos Heart and tried to use its power in order to defeat us, but it ultimately failed. …Unfortunately, it seems like his own shadowy spirit is still around."

"Wait, really?!" Luigi gaped.

"But I wouldn't worry about it. He can't do a thing in that form anyway! …Except some of his magic…"

"Anyway, how I got this or not, this should end these two quickly," Tipral assured as he snapped his finger. Before they knew it, the Dark Skelloknight and Dark Brute were screaming as the boxes they were in exploded.

After the explosions cleared up, they were gone.

"Hmmmmm… Oh, yes. Ever since I was fused with Dimentio with the Chaos Heart back in my castle, I found these strange powers I got. They must've been Dimentio's… I suppose he has some of my abilities as well."

"Well, let's not discuss that right now," Chopper suggested as he ran over to Kirby and tried to get the chains off him. "I need some help here! Luigi, do you think you can give me a hand?"

"I'm on it!" Luigi nodded as he rushed to his aid and helped him get the chains off Kirby. When he landed on the ground, he spun around and made a pose.

"Poyo! (It's so good to be with you guys!)" Kirby cheered as he hugged Chopper and Luigi. "Poyo! (I really missed you all too!)"

"Don't worry, Kirby. You're safe now." Chopper assured. "Though, I wouldn't say we're in a safe place…"

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed, fluttering over to them.

"Poyo? (What's Luvbi doing here?)" Kirby asked.

"I see thou still talkest in the 'poyo' language… I'm not so surprised."

"Now now, Luvbi… No insults, please." Chopper suggested before turning to Kirby. "Her parents were kidnapped by Shade, who probably holds the last Pure Heart."

"Poyo?! (Shade's here?!)" Kirby gaped.

"Well… This IS his home base."

"And I'm hoping to destroy him and his base as well," Tipral mentioned, turning away from the group with crossed arms. Kirby gave him a glare, despite him not seeing it.

"Poyo?! (And why is Tipral with you guys?!)" Kirby fumed. "Poyo! (He destroyed our own home worlds!)"

"You know, your friends probably wouldn't have rescued you if I wasn't there to help them. And don't think I still hold the Chaos Heart. It's probably lost in The Void somewhere, where it might go out of control and possibly destroy all."

"Poyo… (So that means…)"

"Yes, Chopper and I agreed to work together to at least stop this. It would take at least someone of evil and someone of good to go after the True Chaos Heart."

"Poyo? (Does this mean this is some kind of permanent truce?)"

"Truce? I wouldn't say a truce. I still hate you all, and I refuse to get involved in any of your activities. What will happen in the end? We'll never know."

"So let's not attack him for destroying our worlds," Chopper suggested. "I mean, I'm pretty mad about it too, Kirby, but without his help, I don't think we'll be able to find our friends."

"Poyo… (All right… I guess I have no choice…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo! (But you better not try to harm us in any way, Tipral!)"

"He's already done some of that to me to fight back…"

**Kirby rejoined the party!**

"Poyo? (Wait, so where's Sonic, Blade and Mario anyway? Did you find them yet?)"

"No… Unfortunately, we've found no sight of them yet."

"I'm a little worried about my bro…" Luigi trailed.

"Well, if we can findeth the rest of thy friends, then it should be easier to defeat Shade," Luvbi deduced. "So we shouldn't just stay hither. We have to get moving!"

"Of course," Chopper nodded before he remembered something. "…Oh! Kirby! There's one thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"Poyo? (What is it?)" Kirby asked.

"It's about that shadow thing you've been telling me about before… You see, I was told by a spirit that there is a being that manipulates others to do something that would actually harm them instead. I know I was told it would take the form of a hero."

"Poyo! (So you finally believe me!)"

"Well, I suppose it's the truth… By the way, what ever happened to it?"

"Poyo. (It's probably gone now. I'm fine with that anyway.)"

"Let's just leave this room," Tipral suggested. "I don't want to waste any more time here, because chances are something will…"

He heard the door open, so he jumped when they noticed a tall Skellobit that didn't look as muscular as a Skelloknight, but it was carrying a club around. It seemed to be dragging the club around, though.

"This doth be bad…" Luvbi trailed.

"I've been hearin' some noises in this room, so I decided to check it out," the monster known as a Skelloford explained. "And look what I find? I see a pale green puffball, a pink puffball, an angelic girl, a guy in green and a dark puffball!"

"Puffball? I'd suggest you rephrase that." Tipral warned as his fists clenched. A light purple glow also surrounded his fists. "Do you _want_ me to crush you?"

"Poyo… (I saw that Skelloford before…)" Kirby trailed.

"Wait… I come back from watchin' a trailer of Todd Beider to find the pink puffball out of his chains? !" the Skelloford gaped. "Well, this won't look good for Master Shadow Doom if he discovers a prisoner escaping…"

"Todd Beider? Does everyone watch that around here?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo… (I was tortured with it…)" Kirby frowned.

"Well, if you people are plannin' on escapin', then I'm afraid I can't let ya do that! Yer gonna get one heck of a clobberin' from my club!"

"Very well. I'll have no problem crushing your skull!" Tipral declared.

The Skelloford attempted to charge forward, swinging its club around like crazy. From what they could see, it had 430 HP, an Attack of 18 and a Defense of 6. It was definitely not as strong as some of the other people they've fought before. Giga Bowser was a lot tougher than this!

"Poyo, (Well, at least I can get back to fighting,)" Kirby said as he whipped out his Final Cutter and brought it down on the Skelloford after it spun its club around. It even tried to throw a bone at him, but he inhaled it and spat it back at it.

"So it can throw bones? That's a little scary…" Luigi shuddered.

"Most Dry Bones threw bones, so this shouldn't be a big deal," Chopper assured as he stomped on the Skelloford and attacked with a flaming slamming kick afterward, leaving it with a burn.

"Hold on… Since it's something from The Underwhere, does that mean that it won't burn from fire?"

"Fire usually doth defeat Dry Bones easily," Luvbi informed.

"Of course I know that."

The Skelloford grumbled as it tried to charge toward Kirby, who jumped over and used a Cartwheel to hit it. Tipral rushed in and teleported to attack with his Star Burst, sending the Skelloford flying upward.

"This looks like my chance!" Luigi declared, getting under the Skelloford and attacking it with a Super Jump. The Skelloford was left slack jawed when it landed on the ground. It quickly shook its head and gave them all a glare.

"So you all have a lot to throw at me, don'tcha?" the Skelloford growled.

"Well, we're heroes, so we're probably going to have a lot to throw at you," Chopper noted as he jumped up and tossed a couple of ice balls down at the Skelloford. One ended up freezing it, while Kirby inhaled one of them to gain the Ice ability.

"Kirby! I was going to throw it at the enemy!"

"Poyo, (But I want to use an ability to help us,)" Kirby replied as he kicked the Skelloford to the wall, breaking it out of its icy prison and making it get up. This time, it charged at Kirby and knocked him back with its club.

"Poyo… (That club kind of hurts…)"

"This shouldn't be too much of a problem," Tipral muttered as he snapped his finger, making the Skelloford get struck with Star Magic. But what surprised them was when Luigi hurled Hommissile at the Skelloford. It ended up exploding, with its head bouncing around the room.

"What just happened? !" Luigi gaped.

"That explosion must hath blown up its body," Luvbi noticed as Kirby began to chase after the head. "Though, I dost not knoweth if thou art able to catch up with it…"

Chopper tried to chase after it too, but he ended up tripping, as well as Kirby. Tipral face palmed and teleported over to the head and picked it up. The Skelloford's head struggled to free itself, but Tipral was holding onto it tightly.

"It looks like you lost already," Tipral stated. "So, what's it going to be?"

"Heh heh heh… You guys are pretty stupid, I'll admit!" the Skelloford chuckled.

"What are you talking about?" Chopper gawked. "You got blown up! You basically lost the fight!"

"Well, there's something you don't know about us Skellofords!"

"There's more of you?" Luigi gaped. "That's not good…"

"Well, Master Shadow Doom has many of our kind! He considers us better than those Skellobits or Skellos or…whatever else there are! You clearly don't know what other abilities we have!"

"Poyo? (The ability to yap in front of us?)" Kirby wondered.

"Heh heh… Good one, Kirby!" Chopper chuckled.

Tipral let out a groan as a whirlwind surrounded the Skelloford, forcing Tipral to move away. All of the Skelloford's body parts formed back together and helped reform the Skelloford.

"See? I have the ability to reform if you blow all of my pieces off!" the Skelloford grinned before Luigi ended up hitting it with a Cyclone. It growled and threw Luigi back with its club.

"We might want to stay far from it if we want to get some good hits on it," Chopper informed. "And I'm glad that that club didn't hit me."

"Please don't jinx it, my prince…" Luvbi trailed.

"Poyo… (She still calls Chopper 'her prince'… Great…)" Kirby sighed as he jumped and performed his Ice Sprinkle attack on the Skelloford without getting hit by its heavy club. It didn't freeze the monster, but it left it shivering.

"St-Stop with the ice!" the Skelloford shivered.

Chopper smiled and hurled a charged rainbow ball at the Skelloford while it was left off guard, bringing its attention back to him. It also was unable to avoid a light ball Chopper hurled at it. The light power he had made Kirby gape.

"Poyo? (Wait, you've got that light power back?)" Kirby gasped. "Poyo! (I haven't seen that light power since five months ago after you beat Rawk Hawk a second time!)"

"Yeah, I know," Chopper nodded. "I was able to get this back, thankfully. I believe it'll be of some great help too!"

"We don't have time for you to be talking about how great your light power is," Tipral scoffed. "We're supposed to be taking this guy down. He's in our way anyway."

Kirby turned around and noticed Carrie and Crystaline. While he was delighted to see the Pixls again, a reunion wasn't a good idea at this point. Kirby jumped on Carrie, who took him over to the Skelloford. While it was trying to swing at Chopper, he jumped up and landed on top of the Skelloford with Carrie.

The Skelloford let out a howl and tried to headbash Kirby, but it was distracted by Chopper's light kick, as well as Tipral's Star Kick. This gave Kirby the opportunity to ice skate toward the Skelloford and use his Ice Storm to leave it frozen.

"Geez, how many times are we going to freeze this guy?" Luigi wondered.

"I don't know, but now might be the perfect time to attack him, Luigi," Chopper mentioned.

"What do you mean?"

"Use a Super Jump!"

"Ah! I gotcha!" Luigi crouched and launched himself upward in front of the Skelloford, which broke it out of its icy prison and left it taking some major damage. Chopper followed up by bashing its head with his hammer.

"Grrrrr! Taste my club!" the Skelloford howled as it spun itself around and knocked both Chopper and Tipral back with its club. They slowly got up, with Tipral throwing a shadow ball at the Skelloford and hitting its head.

"If we can blow it up again, maybe we can keep hitting the head," Tipral pondered. "I'm going to need that missile Pixl, though…"

"I can certainly help, BA-BOOM!" Hommissile assured as Tipral grabbed the Pixl and threw it straight at the Skelloford, making it explode while its head began to bounce around the room.

"You honestly think blowing up my body will help you?" the Skelloford scoffed. "The same thing is going to happen again!"

"Unless we continue to attack," Chopper smirked as he jumped on the Skelloford's head and then used his hammer as a golf club to whack it over to Kirby, who kicked it over to Luigi.

"Hey, this looks fun!" Luigi smiled as he kicked the Skelloford's head over to Tipral, who simply kicked it upward with a Star Kick.

"GAH! I didn't know this would end up happening…" the Skelloford moaned as it landed on the ground.

"Who's up for round two?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo! (You can count me in!)" Kirby cheered.

"Sign me up!" Luigi nodded.

"I guess I can do it," Tipral replied.

"Oh no you don't!" the Skelloford roared as a whirlwind surrounded it and reformed its body back to normal. "Not this time!"

"Awwwwww… Well, fine. We'll fight the normal way." Chopper frowned in disappointment.

The Skelloford tried to lift its club, but Tipral quickly dashed toward the monster and struck it twice in a fast pace. It struggled to lift up its weapon, but it was able to move it enough to hit Tipral.

"Urgh… That weapon is getting in the way…" Tipral grumbled as he quickly got up. "I'd rather get rid of that thing first."

"Tipral, you should use ranged attacks," Chopper informed. "If that thing's far from us, then it's not going to be able to hit us!"

"And you really think that's going to work?"

"Well, I'm sure it will. Ranged combat is usually better than close range, especially when you're far from your opponent."

"Then let's see if it works," Tipral swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at the Skelloford's chest. It impaled it, leaving it to scream in pain as Kirby used Kickbrin to send the monster flying back.

"Poyo! (That worked out well!)" Kirby cheered.

"Well, it looks like this club's not working too well for me," the Skelloford realized as it tried to lift its club up again. "I think it's time I changed things up a bit!"

"And what do you plan on changing?" Chopper wondered.

"This!" the Skelloford threw its club toward Chopper, which sent him flying back while it pulled out a new club. Only this time, it was easier for the monster to carry and much deadlier, from what the others could see.

"It's just another club?" Luigi gawked. "Wait… What can it do?"

"It can poison you if it hits you!"

"That doth sound dangerous…" Luvbi trailed as she fluttered up to the ceiling. "I'll stay hither while thou all fightest! I dost not want to get poisoned!"

"Well, you're not fighting, so it's best to be somewhere safe…" Chopper trailed as he got up and used Starbow to make a couple of shooting stars fall on the Skelloford, leaving it off guard.

"Oh! Here's my chance to attack!" Luigi threw Bonjourang at the Skelloford's head, which left it dazed and allowed him to attack with his Cyclone, which sent it flying up. He crouched and launched himself upward at the Skelloford to do massive damage.

"Poyo, (And there's a nice little combo for Luigi,)" Kirby commented as the Skelloford got up. It rushed at Kirby and tried to swing its club at him, but the pink Star Warrior kept dodging each swing and tried to freeze the club.

"Kirby! That's not a good idea!" Chopper cried before Kirby got whacked by the Skelloford's club, causing him to become poisoned and pale.

Piccolo rushed to him as he coughed in pain. With her soothing song, the poison on him went away and allowed him to kick the Skelloford's chest, knocking it back and allowing Tipral to hit it with a Star Spear.

"Even with a poisonous club, I don't see this thing being much of a threat," Tipral commented as he grabbed the Skelloford from behind and threw it on the ground before using a Star Kick.

"What the… OK, can someone tell me how he can do that when our arms look the same physically? !" Chopper guffawed.

"I told you, I can do many things as a prototype. You're just some kid with abilities I don't know how you got."

Chopper made no comment as he conjured up a light ball and threw it at the Skelloford while it was occupied with Tipral. He ended up rolling out of the way when the Skelloford turned its attention to him and tried to hit him.

Of course, Kirby attempted to save him.

"Poyo! (Hey! Over here!)" Kirby called out, making the Skelloford turn to Kirby.

"You should be poisoned! What happened?!" the Skelloford gawked.

"Poyo! (I happened to cure it, of course!)"

The Skelloford growled before Tipral could grab a hold of it and throw it onto the ground, leaving it open for Luigi to attack with his flutter jump. When the Skelloford got itself up, Kirby ice skated to it and used his Ice Storm to freeze it.

"OK, it's frozen…" Chopper trailed as he ran over to it. He decided it would be best to smash it with a fire smash, which not only thawed out the Skelloford, but it left it with a burn as well.

"That burn should help us take it down quickly," Tipral assured as it punched the Skelloford in the stomach while Chopper tossed a light ball at it. However, it didn't stop the Skelloford from hitting all four with its club, poisoning everyone.

"Ack! I'm poisoned!" Luigi coughed, his face turning pale.

They let Piccolo play another song to help them cure the poison, while the Skelloford rush toward them. Kirby brought out his blade and used his Final Cutter to knock it away with ease.

"Guys, we should blow him up," Chopper mentioned. "You know, we want to make this fight easier for us, right?"

"Yeah, we didn't do that for a while," Tipral realized.

"Poyo! (Then let's use Hommissile on it!)" Kirby declared, grabbing the missile Pixl and throwing it at the Skelloford. It's eyes widened as it blew up, with its head bouncing around the room.

"Arrrrgh! You gotta be kiddin' me!" the Skelloford growled. "Now I'm nothin' but a head at the moment!"

"Yup!" Chopper nodded as he gripped his hammer and bashed the Skelloford's head with it, while Luigi was able to jump on it. While they thought this would be a breeze for them, it clearly wasn't when the Skelloford's head managed to hit Chopper's head, leaving him stunned.

"That head canst still attack…" Luvbi trailed as she looked down at the fight. "How come I didn't knowest that?"

"Hwa hwa hwa! Excellent! This should surely work out fer me!" the Skelloford cackled until Tipral grabbed the head and began to punch it. He punched it upward, which sent it flying up to the ceiling, allowing Luigi to strike it with a Super Jump.

"OK, I don't think it's too far from having all of its HP depleted," Chopper noticed. "So let's try to hit it as hard as we can."

"Poyo! (I'm on it!)" Kirby declared, preparing to freeze the head, but the Skelloford quickly jumped up and reformed. It was also able to strike Kirby with its club, leaving him poisoned. The Skelloford also hit Chopper's cheek with the club, poisoning him and leaving a red mark on his cheek.

"Piccolo! I need…Piccolo!" Chopper coughed.

"Poyo! (Me too!)"

Piccolo began to play another song and heal their poisonous status. With that, Chopper ran toward the Skelloford and used a light spinning kick on its head to strike it a couple of times. Luigi, meanwhile, followed up with his Cyclone, which was able to send it flying.

"I've got this!" Luigi assured as he crouched. Unfortunately, Tipral beat him to it and teleported up to the Skelloford, kicking it down with full force. Chopper followed up by jumping on it too.

The Skelloford got itself up, but it was quickly blown up when Kirby threw Hommissile at it. Its head began to bounce around, and just like before, Kirby kicked it over to Luigi, who gasped and kicked it away from him.

"Wait, are we doing what we did before?" Luigi gawked.

"Yeah, I believe so," Chopper nodded as he used his hammer to hurl it over to Tipral, who grabbed the head and glared at it.

"So, how does it feel to meet defeat?" Tipral asked.

"Wh-What do you mean?" the Skelloford asked, a bit slack jawed.

"I guess this might show you," he threw it upward, but before he could finish it with a Star Spear, Kirby got hit Final Cutter ready and struck the head with it. The whole thing disintegrated into smoke, defeating it.

"Poyo! (It's finally defeated!)" Kirby cheered as he did a small dance and made a pose.

However, Tipral was not pleased. "You fool! I was going to finish that monster off! What makes you think you could go out and finish it off? !"

"Hey! Don't talk to Kirby like that!" Chopper defended. "You already finished off the Soul Collector and a bit of Bowser, so you have no right to be angry!"

"…Fine. Let's just get out of here before we have to deal with more of those things."

"Yeah, we should," the pale green boy looked up at Luvbi. "OK, Luvbi! You can come down now!"

"Oh, Chopper…" Luvbi trailed as she fluttered down and placed one of her wings on his cheek, making the boy shake in fear. "Look at thy cheek!"

"He-Hey! St-Stop that, Luvbi! Do you always have to be like that to me? !"

"Poyo… (Here we go again…)" Kirby face palmed.

"But thou hast suffered an injury! Thou dost know I can't overlook that! As thy girlfriend and future wife, I doth have to take care of thee!"

"No you don't! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself! And you're NOT my future wife either!"

"Allowest me to heal it with a kiss!" Luvbi said as she kissed Chopper on the red part of his cheek. Of course, Chopper reacted the way most people expected.

"ACK! Someone help me! …Disinfectant! I need disinfectant!"

"Why do you need that?" Tipral face palmed.

"Because I just got kissed by her!"

"Idiot… That's not going to kill you."

"Says you!"

"But Chopper! It doth be destiny for us to marry! Rebbi didst say that anyway!" Luvbi gushed, pink hearts fluttering over her.

"That's it. If you keep kissing and gushing over me, I'm going to jump out of this battleship."

"Poyo! (But you can't do that!)" Kirby gaped.

"Of course I can! The author's not going to stop me!"

"Poyo. (No, you can't do that because there are no windows around here. So technically, your plan isn't going to work.)"

"Dang… Well, getting the Pure Heart is more important anyway. But someone really needs to help me get this lovesick girl away from me!"

"Well, I think we should go now," Luigi suggested, trying to change the subject. That ended up working for him when they decided to leave the room and return to the hallway. They noticed there weren't any more doors to the left, so they had to go to the right, where they found some Dark Wizards up ahead.

"Poyo… (Dark Wizards… I don't like them…)" Kirby cringed.

"Did you see their faces?" Chopper asked.

"Poyo… (Yes… It was certainly not pretty…)"

"What are you guys talking about?" Luigi asked out of curiosity.

"It's…best if you didn't know…" Chopper sighed. "Anyway, let's try to find a way out of here."

"Shouldst we check for other people hither?" Luvbi asked.

"I think we're bound to find others here, you know," Tipral mentioned.

They hurried on toward the Dark Wizards, with Kirby ice skating ahead and using his Ice Storm in an attempt to freeze them. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to work out when they simply thawed themselves out.

"Poyo?! (They can thaw themselves out?!)" Kirby gaped.

"How the heck is even that possible?!" Chopper gawked as he tried to freeze one with a charged ice ball. Of course, it froze a Dark Wizard, but it quickly thawed out. "I guess ice won't beat them…"

"We were created to be immune to such ice magic," one Dark Wizard snickered. "It looks like that's not going to help you here!"

"Well… Maybe this might." Chopper gripped his hammer and brought it down on one of the Dark Wizards, leaving it dazed and allowing Tipral to teleport to the Dark Wizards and finish them off with a Star Burst.

Once they were gone, they found two doors up ahead. The door to the far right happened to be lock, while the other near them wasn't, so they went in there to find a room with a couple of Copy Abilities.

"Pray, what kind of room is this?" Luvbi wondered.

"It looks like a room where we can choose an ability," Chopper noticed as he saw abilities such as Paint, Laser, Fighter, etc. "Yeesh! I don't know what to choose!"

"Just choose an ability so we can get out of here," Tipral grumbled. "We can't stay on this ship forever."

"Hold on, I wanna choose something."

"Great… So you're going to hold us up, right?"

"Let him choose!" Luvbi snapped, glaring at Chopper's counterpart. "Thou dost not hath to acteth like a jerk to him!"

"After what he's done to me? I shouldn't have to change my ways toward him."

Chopper finished looking for an ability and eventually chose the Fighter ability before leaving the room. The rest of the group left the room and followed him over to the door ahead, which was, of course, locked.

"Well this is great… It's locked." Luigi sighed. "And we don't have a key!"

"Poyo, (Actually, I think I might have one,)" Kirby noted as he pulled out a Door Key. "Poyo. (That Skelloford happened to be holding this, so I decided to take it before leaving the room.)"

"Oh! Cool! Unlock the door so we can get going." Chopper demanded.

The pink puffball gave him a nod as he unlocked the door, which led them into a room with a spring up ahead leading to a ledge high above them. Of course, they used it to get up there, where they found a Dark Wizard flying over them.

"I'll take care of that," Luigi assured as he crouched down and launched himself upward at the Dark Wizard, knocking it to the ground and allowing Chopper to grab it and send it flying away with a punch.

"See, Kirby? There's windows here!" Chopper mentioned, pointing to the large, glass windows that were in the background. "Of course, I won't jump out."

"Of course thou wouldn't, my sweet prince," Luvbi smiled sweetly.

Tipral decided to skate ahead and noticed a slope going down, so his speed started to increase. Chopper followed him and let his speed increase as they went through a loop going down to a lower area in the room. There, they found some platforms being carried upward by steam.

"Oh, so we've got this too," Luigi noticed as he and Kirby got through the loop. "I think we should jump on the platforms when the steam stops."

"That's what I was thinking," Tipral mentioned.

"Oh…"

When the steam stopped, they all jumped on the platforms, which allowed them to be taken up to the ledge above them when the steam fired up. There, they were met with two Dark Soldiers that began to fire at them.

"Poyo! (I have an idea!)" Kirby put Reflecto in front of him and allowed the blasts to be fired back at the Dark Soldiers, making them get hit by their own attacks. Tipral finished them off by throwing Star Spears at them.

"Poyo? (Aren't they your minions, though?)"

"Not really," Tipral answered. "They only listened to Dark most of the time, and they didn't really talk to me. I don't have a problem taking them down anyway."

"Sure thou dost…" Luvbi trailed as she rolled her eyes as they carried on ahead to a ladder they climbed up. They were met with a door, so they entered it into another hallway.

"Another hallway? Maybe one of our friends could be around here!" Chopper pondered. "If that's true, then we need to search thoroughly!"

"There are only two doors," Tipral noted. "One to the left and one to the right."

"Oh… So, what else is there, then?"

"Poyo, (Let's just check the right first,)" Kirby suggested as he ice skated his way to the right door. When Tipral looked at the left door, he noticed it was locked.

"We can only go to the right, I presume," Tipral stated as he skated to the right with the rest of the group.

When they entered the room, they found three Dark Skellos and a Dark Skelloknight that happened to be guarding something important. When they took notice of them, they got into action and charged.

"Poyo, (I think I can freeze them,)" Kirby declared, using his Ice Breath to freeze one Dark Skello. Chopper attacked the other Dark Skello with his Vulcan Jab, while Luigi finished off the third Dark Skello with his flutter jump and Super Jump.

"Phew! That takes care of that!" Luigi sighed. "No more of those guys!"

"Do you realize we still have that Dark Skelloknight to worry about?" Tipral mentioned, making Luigi's eyes widen.

"Oh… I forgot about that."

The Dark Skelloknight prepared to attack, but Tipral was able to break its armor off, leaving it completely vulnerable to attacks. Chopper, of course, attacked it with all he could especially with his Rising Break.

"Using the Fighter ability brings me back to Glitzville… Geez, that place was pretty intense." Chopper recalled.

"Glitzville? Oh! I think my bro told me about Glitzville before!"

"Yeah, it sure was something."

"Chopper, pay attention!" Luvbi called out, making Chopper look back at the Dark Skelloknight, who knocked him back with a kick. Tipral was able to jump on its head and punch the back of its head a couple of times with Star Punches.

"Get off of me!" the Dark Skelloknight cried, trying to shake Tipral off, but he continued to punch until he finished it off with a Star Spear. It also happened to drop a key.

"Hey, a key!" Chopper gaped.

"Poyo, (I guess we'll need it for that locked door,)" Kirby said as he picked it up.

"Yeah, we better take it there quickly."

They left the room and returned to the hallway. Kirby ice skated over to the locked door and unlocked it to move on to the next room. Unfortunately, they were forced to discover a couple of platforms attached to movable pillars that were slamming onto the ground.

"Oh… This… This doesn't look good…" Luigi shuddered as he stepped back. "They're m-moving rather f-fast…"

"Luigi's got a point…" Chopper agreed. "How are the ones who can't move as fast get through this? As a matter of fact, I don't know if _I'll_ be able to get through this…"

"Mayhap I couldst help!" Luvbi suggested.

"And what do _you_ have that could help us?" Tipral asked.

"Just some suggestions for thee…"

"That's not really help."

"Let Luvbi continue," Chopper suggested, shushing Tipral.

"I may not hath abilities such as thou all, but mayhap the dark, hideous one couldst use his ability to stoppeth time like before and maketh the platforms sloweth down. It didst work before, if I recallest."

"That could actually work…" Tipral trailed.

"Poyo? (Stop time?)" Kirby gawked.

"Yes, I can do that, if you didn't remember when you fought against me."

"Well, you should use it then," Luigi suggested.

"All right, this shouldn't take long…" Tipral clenched his fists and swung them, making everything but them frozen in time. Since the way was open now, they headed through and were lead to a small ledge leading to some platforms over a bottomless pit.

"Oh… Just some platforms." Chopper blinked.

They jumped on the platforms and began to cross the bottomless pit over to a skinny platform with a spring. Apparently it would lead up to a ledge above them, so they used it and got onto the ledge.

"Poyo? (How many paths are there that I can't go up?)" Kirby wondered as they saw the path curve up onto the wall. From what they could tell, it would lead up to a higher level in the battleship.

"Let's just hope we can find a way to destroy this place," Tipral hoped as he smashed the ground with his fist. "That'll weaken the army a bit!"

Chopper shrugged and went up the pathway onto the upper level, while Kirby simply took in some air and floated up. Luigi was lucky it wasn't too high for him to jump up to, so his Super Jump was all he needed.

"So, art thou going to follow them, yon hideous, dark creature?" Luvbi asked as she Tipral still didn't stand up.

"Yes, I'm going to follow once you get out of the way, you little brat!" Tipral answered as he stood up and glared at the Nimbi princess.

"Hmph! Fine! I'll leavest then!" Luvbi flew off with a huff, following the boy of her dreams to the upper level. When Tipral teleported up, they saw a spinning drum to their left.

"A gravity cylinder? I haven't seen something like that here…" Tipral trailed as he noticed a Dark Soldier up ahead, so he destroyed it with a couple of Star Spears.

"Last time I saw something like that, it was in that cyberspace place in Star Haven two years ago," Chopper recalled as he got on the gravity cylinder. When he stood on it, he didn't seem to fall when it moved upside down.

Heck, even when Kirby and Luigi stood on it, they didn't fall off either, which was nice for them.

"Wow! I'm not falling off this thing!" Luigi gaped.

"Poyo, (Yeah, this is interesting,)" Kirby commented.

"Let's try to get through this cylinder thing and move on," Chopper suggested as he ran across the cylinder and found a pathway moving at an upper left angle. Thankfully, there was a speed booster for him to use to increase his speed when moving up.

Tipral pushed Kirby and Luigi out of the way so he could make his way up there. The two heroes were not pleased.

"He doth be a bit rude," Luvbi commented as she flew up the slope, while Kirby and Luigi were forced to take it slow.

"Why did Tipral have to do that?" Luigi wondered.

"Poyo, (Well, I suppose he's always been like that,)" Kirby answered as they slowly made their way up.

"Oh… If only I could understand what you were saying…" the pale green plumber let out a sigh. "You know, I wonder what made Tipral into such a grump. You never really see him smile."

"Poyo… (I'm not too sure…)"

When they reached the top, they found a spring that led them to an upper level in the room. They ended up running into two Dark Wizards that were guarding the door. Chopper threw a punch wave at them with his Smash Punch. They were able to fire magic, but Chopper jumped out of the way and hurled an energy blast he charged up at them to defeat them.

"Thou didst it, my sweet prince!" Luvbi squealed.

"It… It was just two Dark Wizards…" Chopper blinked, giving Luvbi an irritated look as she swooned.

"Let's just go through the door already," Tipral groaned as he went through the door. Chopper followed through as well, followed by Luvbi, Kirby and then Luigi. They were brought into another hallway, but this time, there was only one door for them to take. Over to the left was a switch.

"What do you think that switch over there is?" Luigi wondered.

"Poyo, (It might be something important,)" Kirby noted.

"I'll go look myself," Tipral declared, teleporting to the switch. He noticed it was the main power switch, which was sealed off by glass. "So this can shut down the power of this battleship? What kind of idiot even puts something like this here?! Only an idiot would do that!"

"Well, I guess it's better for us?" Chopper shrugged. "It'll weaken the battleship, that's for sure…"

"Yes, that's true. Now I can finally do what I've been wanting to do to this place!" Tipral smashed through the glass and grabbed a hold of the switch. When he pressed it down, all the power in the ship began to shut down, making the place dark.

"Wah! It's dark in here!" Luigi cried.

"Yeah! I can't see anything!" Chopper agreed.

"Poyo? (How will we know where to go?)" Kirby gaped.

"Well, maybe we can… Hey! Someone's grabbing onto me!" Chopper cried.

"Hee hee! It's all right, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled. "It's only me!"

"Then I'm definitely scared! How are you able to know it's me anyway?"

"I'm actually used to being around the dark, since I sometimes goest to The Underwhere."

"Just go right so we can go through the door," Tipral ordered as he jumped over them and carried on ahead. Everyone listened and followed him to a door, where they found themselves outside and on the top of the battleship.

"Well, at least we're not in a dark room anymore," Luigi sighed.

However, since the battleship was moving, the wind current got stronger. What was even worse was that it wasn't blowing against them.

"Poyo! (Oh no! The wind's too strong!)" Kirby cried as he tried to hold onto the ground. Unfortunately, due to his light weight, he was sent flying away by the wind current.

"Oh, no… I'm getting carried off as well!" Chopper cried as he ended up getting blown away by the wind.

"Chopper!" Luvbi cried, flying toward him, allowing the wind to catch up to him.

Luigi let out a cry as he was being drifted away. Tipral, on the other hand, had other plans.

"Now that they're not on this battleship, I can finally make my plans of destroying the place!" Tipral pierced through the ship with his Star Punch and threw a Star Spear into it. He was hoping it would reach the core reactor of the place.

It turns out it actually did.

The battleship slowly began to tear apart and descend slowly as Tipral noticed a couple of explosions outside. With that, he released his grip on the battleship and was being blown away, along with the others.

* * *

**?-**

When the heroes were no longer being blown by the wind, they noticed they were being taken over to a gray observatory that happened to be in the Comet of Darkness. And because the place had its own gravitational pole, it started to drag them toward it.

"What's going on?! Why are we being pulled in by that observatory?!" Luigi gaped.

"I don't know, but let it do that," Tipral suggested. "It's better we land somewhere."

Everyone braced themselves as they landed on the observatory. For some reason, it reminded Chopper of the observatory he saw where Merlo was, but this was certainly not an observatory in safe territory. However, the biggest thing they noticed was a telescope and an upper level above them.

"Gee… This observatory feels empty…" Luigi trailed. "I don't see any of Shade's baddies here, so we should be safe."

"Poyo, (Yeah, we can relax here,)" Kirby agreed.

"Is there anywhere else to go, though?" Chopper wondered.

"Hey, are those voices who I think?"

"…Who said that?" Tipral asked.

"That voice doth sound familiar…" Luvbi trailed.

They noticed someone jumping off from one of the upper platforms and landing nearby. "Oh, man! I can't believe you guys are here!"

"Blade?!" Chopper gaped.

"Man, am I glad to see you guys!" Blade grinned as he grabbed Chopper and gave him a noogie. "You wanna know how long I've been here?"

"How long?" Luigi wondered.

"Five hours and seventeen minutes!"

"Poyo… (That's less than the amount of time you spend in school, I think…)" Kirby trailed.

"Yeah, I can agree!" Chopper frowned, still being noogied. "And will you stop that, Blade?! I don't have hair!"

"Oh, sorry…" Blade let go and stepped back. "It's just nice to see you all back here. …Wait, I don't see Sonic or Mario here."

"That's because we didn't find them," Tipral answered, crossing his arms. When Blade turned his head to him, he gaped at first, but then he drew his katana and glared at him.

"YOU! You're still at it?!"

"Blade, don't. He's with us." Luigi informed.

"But this guy destroyed our own worlds! Not only that, but our close were friends were taken away by The Void as well! Did you even SEE what our friends have become now?!"

"Yes, and I don't care," Tipral answered.

"You insensitive prick!" Blade rushed toward Tipral, but he ended up grabbing the ninja's arm and gripping it tightly, forcing him to release his katana, which Tipral kicked away.

"Listen, I don't have the Dark Star Scepter, the Dark Prognosticus AND the Chaos Heart with me! That disgrace of a minion Dimentio ended up leaving me with only my Star powers! So I suggest you back down before I end up hurting you, because even without that, I still CAN!"

Tipral let go of Blade's arm, while the ninja stepped back from him and gave him a glare before picking up his katana.

"Fine. He can stay here with us. But I still don't trust the bastard."

"I don't trust him either," Chopper noted. "But, Tipral and I agreed to work together to find the Pure Heart and defeat Shade."

"Wait… Shade's here?!"

"This is apparently his home base," Luigi shrugged.

"Then we can't just sit around! I always hated that guy, so maybe when we get to him, we'll be able to get back at him for all the terrible stuff he did!"

"Yeah, like Wenbi…" Chopper trailed.

**Blade has rejoined your party!**

"So how are we going to get off this observatory anyway?" Luigi wondered. "I don't know if there's any way off here."

"Oh, don't worry! There's actually a way we can get off here!" Blade assured. "There's actually a path I found that can take us to a strange area in the comet. It feels a lot different than this place, that's for sure."

"What does it look like?" Chopper asked.

"Well, I didn't get too much of a glimpse of the place…so I'm not too sure what it's like. Sorry about that."

"Great… That couldeth givest us a clue on where we would be going next…" Luvbi sighed, while Blade look over at the Nimbi girl.

"What's Luvbi doing here also? Why'd you invite your girlfriend to such a dangerous place like this?"

"First off, Luvbi isn't my girlfriend," Chopper began, giving Blade a glare. "And second, her parents were kidnapped by Shade, so that's why she's here with us. I actually found her at Rainbowside Tower."

"Wait… The king and queen of death were kidnapped by some alien kid? Are you serious? ! I mean, couldn't they simply get out themselves when they're the most powerful beings in the universe? !"

"That's what I thought, but I doth think Shade foundeth a way around that…" Luvbi trailed, her head hung low. "I doth miss my parents verily, though…"

"Those two people aren't even your parents," Tipral scoffed. "I don't get why you keep calling them that."

"Tipral, this isn't a good time to be saying that…" Chopper trailed, giving Tipral a glare, who glared back at him.

"Anyway, we should go check that road that I was talking about before," Blade suggested. "We might be able to find some way to reach Shade…wherever he may be and hopefully find both Mario and Sonic."

"Yeah, we still need to find them!" Luigi agreed. "I'm starting to get a little worried about my bro!"

When they looked over at the pathway they found ahead, Blade explained that that was the way they could take to get out.

"Poyo? (Well what are we waiting for? Let's move!)" Kirby declared.

"Leaving so soon? What a shame…"

"Yeah, we need to go before… Wait a minute." Chopper blinked as he looked at his friends. "Who said that?"

"I dost not think that voice belongeth to any of us…" Luvbi trailed.

"I'm over here," Everyone looked above them and saw Eggman in his floating machine, who happened to be looking down at them.

"Eggman? What're you doing here? !" Blade gaped.

"That's Dr. Robotnik to you!" Eggman corrected. "You know how annoying it is to always be referred to as 'Eggman'? Let me tell you, it gets irritating!"

"Look, we get it already," Chopper sighed. "You don't like the name Eggman. Go blame Sonic for that."

"That pesky hedgehog doesn't appear to be here, though. Oh well. Since you guys are here, I might as well go along with my plan anyway!"

"And what plan is that?" Luigi asked.

"Crushing you all!"

"Wait a second… How the HECK did you even get here in the first place?!" Blade asked.

"Oh, yes… I almost forgot about that." Eggman realized. "You see, I got a hold of a creation that I ended up finding in that world we fought before. I found out it had the power to go through dimensions! I remember it being called the Dimensionator. Using my crafty skills, I was able to transform it into a robotic being that could travel to other dimensions! However, I soon discovered that the Dimensionator was actually part of this comet, so I decided to come here and see if I could make this thing stronger!"

"And you plan on using it to crush us?" Chopper gawked.

"Of course! Maybe when I'm done with you guys, I'll use it against Sonic and put an end to him! And then I'll probably take over Mobius!"

"I don't think that's possible," Tipral stated.

"And why not?"

"Because I already destroyed that place."

"Wh-What?! B-But… Oh… I always hate it when other people have to get in my way. Very well. If I can't take over Mobius, I might as well take over another world. But first…"

Eggman's mech flew higher up as a purple robot surrounded in a dark mist was summoned. It was covered in purple plating, as if it was being roboticized. It had bright light purple eyes and had disembodied arms that could transform into weapons. What was strange was the fact that it had no feet or legs.

"Say hello to the Egg Dimensionator!"

"So it's just the Dimensionator with 'Egg' in it?" Chopper gawked. "Ummmm… Not too original, but OK."

"But you could never do something like this, right?" Eggman smirked as he went to the Egg Dimensionator's chest, where an empty cockpit was. When his machine joined with it, he was now controlling it. The cockpit was even covered by the armor plating to keep Eggman from getting hurt.

"With this by my side, there's nobody that will be able to defeat me! Oh ho ho ho ho!"

The five blinked as the Egg Dimensionator's arms changed to machine guns, which began to fire rapid shots at them. They quickly avoided them by running or jumping. From what they could see this thing had a Max HP of 460, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 9.

"Wow… That thing has the same HP as Giga Bowser, but it defense is stronger…" Chopper trailed.

"Well, let's not worry about that," Blade assured, readying his katana. "When we've got people like us here, then we don't have to worry about things like that! We took on freakin' Dimentio Doom!"

"Well, yeah… But how do we hurt this thing?"

"We just attack it. Simple as that." Tipral answered.

"Now I just need a certain Pixl that I haven't seen…" Blade trailed as he noticed Hommissile. "Hommissile!"

"Hero! Don't worry, KA-BOOM! I'll help you win this fight! SHIZOW!" Hommissile cried as he fluttered over to Blade, who grabbed him and threw him straight at the Egg Dimensionator's head. It cringed and turned to Blade.

"Hey, well that did something…"

"Watch this thing's head, blue cat!" Eggman shouted as the Egg Dimensionator brought its fist down on Blade, flattening him like a pancake. Kirby ran over to him and helped unflatten him with a bicycle pump.

"Have you always carried that with you?"

"Poyo, (I guess I always have,)" Kirby shrugged as Blade got up.

"Uhhhh… What the hell did you even _say_?"

"Just don't worry about it, Blade," Chopper suggested as he tried to hit the Egg Dimensionator with a couple of rainbow balls. However, what he didn't see coming from the robot was its ability to teleport.

"Thou shouldst be careful…" Luvbi trailed. "That thing couldst be anywhere…"

The Egg Dimensionator appeared above Chopper, where it dropped a couple of bombs that sent him flying upward. This gave Eggman the opportunity to press a button and make the Egg Dimensionator's fist slam down on him to make him hit the ground.

"Ow… That hurts…"

"Nyah ha ha ha ha!" Eggman cackled. "I'm loving this machine already! And some people actually thought I would be betrayed by it! Well, looks like I'm already in control of it!"

"You're rambling… Just…stop…" Blade sweat dropped as he jumped up to the Egg Dimensionator and slashed it with his katana. Surprisingly, it actually seemed to work well on it.

"Wow. That actually hurt the robot?"

Since the Egg Dimensionator was above the group, Luigi thought this would be a great time to use his Super Jump, so he launched himself upward at the robot and left its eyes to widen in pain.

"Hey! I did a lot to it!" Luigi gaped.

"Urrgh! Take this!" Eggman pressed another button, triggering the Egg Dimensionator's arms to transform into missile launchers. They fired missiles that homed in on the five.

"Poyo… (Hold on…)" Kirby tossed Thoreau at one of the missiles, which he was able to grab and give to Kirby. With it, he tossed it at the Egg Dimensionator, which sent it flying back because of how powerful the missile was.

"Hey! Not bad!" Chopper smiled as he used a Smash Punch to destroy one of the missiles. The other missile coming toward Kirby was frozen by his Ice Breath.

"You know, that gives me an idea…" Tipral trailed when the Egg Dimensionator fired more missiles at them. Tipral teleported on one of the missiles and began to jump from missile to missile until he got up to the robot.

"Ehhh?! What're you doing?!" Eggman gaped as Tipral delivered a Star Punch to the Egg Dimensionator's face, causing it to cringe in pain. Tipral landed on the ground as the Egg Dimensionator flew down closer to the group, which they could attack with ease now.

"Finally! Time to test out my fighting moves on this thing!" Chopper smirked as he jumped over a couple of blasts the Egg Dimensionator fired. He delivered a Rising Break to deal some damage, while Blade tossed a couple of shurikens at the robot. It did some damage, but not as much.

"Damn… I guess shurikens aren't going to work here." Blade mumbled.

"Then why did you use them in the first place?" Tipral asked.

"'Cause I was wondering if long range would work. …Actually, I almost forgot about something!" Blade readied his katana when it was clear and unleashed his Dragon Beam on the Egg Dimensionator, sending it flying back.

"What the…?! What kind of move was that? !" Eggman gaped.

"That's called the Dragon Beam," Blade smirked. "It's probably my strongest attack so far! I know for sure it can kick your ass too!"

"Well, we'll see about that… A mere move like that isn't going to finish me off so easily!"

Eggman pressed another button, which made the Egg Dimensionator fire some ice blasts. One of them hit Kirby, but because of the Ice ability had on him, it didn't freeze him, to Eggman's disappointment.

"Poyo! (Good thing I have this on!)" Kirby cheered.

However, it did end up freezing both Chopper and Blade, who quickly shook themselves to break out of their icy prison. Once they were free, Chopper tried to hit the Egg Dimensionator with an energy blast, but it summoned a portal and went in it instead.

"Great… This is just what we need." Blade groaned.

"Let's just try to me on the lookout…" Chopper suggested, eyeing the area for another portal. Little did they know a portal appeared from behind with a claw smacking them to the ground.

"Oh, me! It only needest to bring out its hand?" Luvbi gasped.

"Heh heh! I'm loving this thing even more!" Eggman grinned as the Egg Dimensionator came out of the portal. When the group got up, Chopper couldn't help but poke fun at that comment.

"If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?" Chopper asked.

"How can I marry a machine? That's theoretically impossible, you know."

Everyone had no comment, but the silence was interrupted when Tipral snapped his finger and hit the Egg Dimensionator with Star Magic. This caused the robot to fly toward Tipral and swat at him, sending him flying back.

"You know, now that I think about it, you were the whole reason why I was taken out of Mobius in the first place!" Eggman realized. "Maybe I'll make you pay the price for ruining my plans of taking over Mobius!"

The Egg Dimensionator attempted to smash Tipral, but he teleported out of harm's way and managed to kick the robot's face with a Star Kick, which followed up by Blade's katana slash and Hommissile, which he threw at the robot. It led out a roar as it opened its mouth and prepared to fire a large beam of energy.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gawked.

"Well, you might wanna get out of the way…" Luigi suggested. "That laser's probably going to deal a lot."

"Why not go into 3-D? That might work."

Chopper flipped into 3-D with everyone and managed to avoid the large beam that was fired. Eggman cackled, but he stopped when he noticed they weren't there. Little did he notice Luigi attacking with a Super Jump.

"Gah! What just happened?!" Eggman gaped. "That should've destroyed you all by now!"

"Well, I think you might've forgotten about flipping into 3-D," Chopper mentioned as the Egg Dimensionator flew down in an attempt to crush him. He jumped out of the way and hurled an energy blast at the robot, while Blade fired another Dragon Beam.

"Ohh… Well, we'll see how you like this!" Eggman pressed a button, which made the Egg Dimensionator's arms turn into laser cannons. A dark laser beam fired out of one of its cannons and hit Chopper, removing his Fighter ability. It also shot Kirby with one as well to remove his Ice ability.

"Poyo! (Oh, come on! My Ice ability's gone!)" Kirby cried.

"Heh heh! Now this'll be easy pickings!"

"Even though I still have that Dragon Beam that can kick this thing's ass," Blade added.

"Yes… I mean, you wish!"

"I had enough with this blathering," Tipral scoffed, firing two Star Spears directly at the Egg Dimensionator. The robot let out a roar as it transformed its hands back to its claws. One went into a portal and appeared behind Tipral to grab him.

"So this is your plan? To attack me from behind? What a cowardly move…"

"Well, if I tried to grab you when you saw the arm, it would be a lot harder to catch you! Anyway… Say your prayers!"

Tipral rolled his eyes as he teleported out of the Egg Dimensionator's grasps and gave it a punch to the face with a Star Punch. Its mouth was agape as Chopper charged up a light ball and threw it at the robot.

"Wait… What was that?" Blade gawked. "A new move?"

"Well, it's light power," Chopper explained. "I was able to get it on my own before I came to this comet. Pretty interesting, I suppose."

"Oh… Well that should help us, I suppose."

"Take this!" Eggman cried as the Egg Dimensionator summoned a couple of lasers that began to fire down at them. Luigi and Tipral ended up getting hit, but Chopper managed to flip into 3-D to avoid it, while Blade used Reflecto to reflect one laser back at the robot to deal damage.

"Poyo! (That worked out great!)" Kirby smiled.

Kirby's eyes widened as he saw the Egg Dimensionator's mouth open to let out some fireballs that scorched him. Chopper inhaled one of the fireballs and spat it back at the Egg Dimensionator. Luigi also threw Bonjourang, but it didn't deal as much damage than his Super Jump.

"Oh… Well, I guess I'm not going to be using Bonjourang to fight…" Luigi trailed.

His eyes widened when the Egg Dimensionator went through another portal. However, this time, instead of reaching an arm out, it flew out of another portal and charged straight at the group.

"Actually, I have a better idea to resolve this," Tipral declared, using his ability to freeze time. Everyone but him was frozen in time, allowing him to make his move. He jumped up to the Egg Dimensionator and began to bash it with a couple of kicks and punches. After hurling a charged shadow ball, he brought time back to normal as the Egg Dimensionator had smoke coming from it.

"Hmmmmm? I'm smelling something…burning…" Eggman trailed, sniffing the air around him until he realized what it was. "Oh, great… The Egg Dimensionator's starting to smoke up now!"

"Smoke up?" Chopper gawked. "Is that even a word?"

"Beats me," Blade shrugged as he threw Hommissile at the Egg Dimensionator while Eggman was distracted. After the explosion, Eggman got back to business and made the Egg Dimensionator fly down to the ground and try to crush them with its fists.

"Maybe I'll be able to squish you all!" Eggman grinned.

"That is, if you can get us," Chopper noted as he rolled out of harm's way, while Luvbi watched Chopper and make sure he doesn't get hurt that much. He was still a little bruised from the Skelloford, after all.

"Is it possible to climb this thing?" Blade wondered.

"If you wanna do it, then be my guest," Tipral answered before he got smashed by the Egg Dimensionator's fist. When he did manage to get himself up, he jumped back, but he couldn't help but look at the observatory.

"I can't shake the feeling that this place looks a bit familiar to me…"

No one heard him say that, so no one questioned his words as Chopper hurled a light ball at the Egg Dimensionator, Kirby used his Final Cutter to slash it, Blade used his katana to slash it, and Luigi used his Super Jump to strike the robot.

Things were going well…until Eggman had a new idea in his mind.

"This calls for something special," Eggman pondered. "Activate recovery!"

When he pressed a button, the Egg Dimensionator recovered 90 HP, leaving everyone to gape at the scientist.

"He…restoreth its HP?" Luvbi gasped.

"Hoo ha ha ha! I knew I'd like that! Now this'll be the perfect opportunity to crush you all with ease!"

"Oh, really?" Chopper said as he tilted his head.

"Yes. Really."

Eggman pressed another button, making the Egg Dimensionator open its mouth and fire a large beam at the group. This time, he successfully got them and left them low on HP, to his delight.

"Oh, boy… Look at our HP!" Blade wheezed. "We seriously gotta heal up!"

"Yeah, we should," Luigi agreed as he took out a Master Shroom Shake. He took a sip of it to recover 200 HP, then he passed it over to the others. When Tipral finished the last of it, he disintegrated it and snapped his finger to hit the Egg Dimensionator with Star Magic.

"I can't exactly remember all the details, but I do recognize this observatory…" Tipral trailed.

The Egg Dimensionator let out a roar as it tried to freeze Tipral with its ice breath, but Kirby's Final Cutter was able to interrupt it when he slashed at its face, causing it to shriek in pain.

"Ugh… I see that this thing has a bit of its senses…" Eggman groaned. "However, a mere shriek isn't going to stop me from winning this battle!"

The Egg Dimensionator's arms transformed into machine guns as they began to fire blasts of energy at the five. Tipral teleported to avoid the shots, but the rest of the group was unfortunate to get hurt by the shots.

"Geez! Those blasts are painful!" Chopper cried.

"We mostly always have to deal with this kind of pain, Chopper…" Blade informed.

Eggman felt satisfied with this, but when the Egg Dimensionator stopped, Blade threw his katana at the robot, which got stuck in its body. It was actually stuck in the cockpit, which Eggman didn't like.

"What the… Why is this sword in here?!" Eggman gaped.

"It's called a katana," Blade corrected as he jumped on the robot, which tried to shake him off. Eggman pressed a button and made a drill appear from its hand in an attempt to drill at Blade.

"You know, that's a stupid idea to pull off," Chopper informed.

"Why is that?" Tipral asked as he reappeared after dodging the shots.

"He's going to get Blade off by drilling at him. If you ask me, that's pretty stupid."

"Yeah, he'll just jump off and make the drill drill at the Egg Dimensionator!" Luigi realized.

"Poyo! (Yeah! That's dumb!)" Kirby agreed.

When Blade noticed the drill coming toward him, he grabbed his katana quickly before jumping off. Fortunately, he wasn't harmed by the drill, and he couldn't help but snicker when the drill hit the plating covering the cockpit.

"Gah! N-No! Not this!" Eggman cried, realizing the plating was completely weak and vulnerable.

"Yeah! This should be in the bag for us!" Chopper cheered as he tossed a charged light ball at the armor plating, breaking it off and revealing the cockpit, where they noticed Eggman's mouth was agape.

"I honestly wonder why my plans don't usually work…"

Despite that, Eggman pushed a button and made the Egg Dimensionator fire a beam from its mouth that sent the group flying back.

"Nyeah ha ha ha! So, how does that feel?!"

"Don't think that it's over for us," Blade moaned as he slowly got up.

"Oh, really? Why do you say that?"

"'Cause that machine of yours is pretty low on HP too. It's enough for us to finish the fight!"

Eggman gasped as Blade began to charge up his katana. "Oh, no… This isn't good. Egg Dimensionator! Ready another beam!

But it was too late. Blade finished the fight by using his Dragon Beam to impale the cockpit and leaving explosions all over the Egg Dimensionator. All of the armored plating began to fall off, making the Dimensionator regain control of itself.

Unfortunately, it didn't have long to do much when it exploded from a bright light that enveloped it. It might have been because of how much damage it had to deal with.

All that was left was Eggman and his mech, which had smoke coming out of it. Everyone else got up and noticed Eggman having a little fit.

"ARRRRRGGGGHHHH! I can't believe I failed to win! And that was probably one of my most powerful machines I've ever gotten a hold of too! Grrrrrr! You'll regret this! I'll be back!"

Eggman's mech began to take off slowly, but when Tipral snapped his finger, the mech was shot down by his Star Magic and slowly descending down the pit below.

"N-No! My mech's not working!" Eggman cried until his voice could be heard no more.

"Tipral! Did you kill him? !" Chopper gaped.

"He's probably not going to die," Tipral answered. "However, let him take care of himself. He'll find a way out of here."

"All right, then… We don't have time to help him anyway."

"We need to go to that pathway I was telling you guys about," Blade mentioned. "It should be just up ahead."

"Well then we should movest on then," Luvbi suggested.

Everyone agreed and took off, with the exception of Tipral, who turned back and looked back at the observatory.

"From what I can remember of a place like this… I know there was once an observatory where I was created…" Tipral trailed. "It didn't have much except for seeing some of the stars."

He noticed the large telescope was actually broken and covered in a bit of alien fungi. "This place is old, and I don't think I should be staying here anymore."

He turned back and began to skate over to the rest of the group, who were on the pathway at the moment.

"Where were you?" Chopper asked, noticing Tipral catch up.

"I was looking back at the observatory," Tipral answered. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Well… No…"

"Good. Now just keep moving."

When they continued on, they noticed a Star Block up ahead. "My prince! Thou shouldst hit the block quickly! We must movest on!"

"Of course," Chopper nodded as he rushed to the block and gave it a good strike.

"I wonder where this will even take us," Luigi wondered.

"We'll find out soon," Blade assured.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Kirby and Blade reunited with the group, the three now became five. However, Luvbi was not pleased because she felt they would get in her way of being with Chopper, especially when he could use his friends to hide from her. "This road doth be strange," said Luvbi as they got further down the road. "Yet, it doth look a bit creepy." Our heroes and Tipral agreed as they noticed stuff around them that looked more like being in a lab. With only Sonic and Mario missing, Chopper and Co. began to hope if they would find them around here._

* * *

**Obviously I can't have a Chapter 7-like chapter without parodying South Park, so there you go.  
**

**As you can see, each part of the chapter is having about two mini-bosses, so if you like seeing more fights, then this is obviously a chapter you'll like (just wait until Chapter 20. There's A LOT there). And before you ask, I do know there was something else called a Dimensionator from another game. The Egg Dimensionator is supposed to be somewhat like the Time Eater (it goes through time, this can go through dimensions).  
**

**However, I feel like Chapter 19's missing something... Oh, wait. The next part has that! :P  
**


	117. The Comet's Space Gadget

**CHAPTER 19-4**

**-The Comet's Space Gadget-**

"Whoa… Take a look at THIS place!" Chopper gaped as he noticed a couple of glass windows that showed the outer area of the Comet of Darkness, where they could actually see space. "So we finally get a better look at this galaxy from here, huh?"

"Poyo, (Yeah, it does look pretty nice,)" Kirby agreed. "Poyo. (I think it looks a lot nicer than Starland Galaxy.)"

"I don t think we've ever really seen space before, Blade recalled. Unless you wanna count the time we were in Tipral's Palace when we were fighting against Dimentio Doom. You know, out on that asteroid?

"Poyo. (Actually, we've been out in space before.)"

"Ummmmmm... Look, I have no idea what he said. Can you translate it, Chopper?"

"He said that we've been in space before," Chopper replied.

"What? No we haven't!"

"Actually, we did. It was before you joined us. We were trying to get the fifth Pure Heart, which turned out to be in Outer Space. You know Squirps, right? I think he said that he helped us get to the Whoa Zone in Outer Space."

"…Oh! Now I remember!" Blade realized. "Squirps told us about that whole thing when we were in that world with the ghosts and all that crap! And I remember that when we faced our fears, Chopper ended up seeing..."

Chopper instantly covered Blade's mouth before he could finish that last sentence. Luvbi raised an eyebrow out of suspicion.

"Pray, what was he going to say?" Luvbi asked. "And why didst thou shuttest his trap when he wasn't finished?"

"Well… It's nothing special." Chopper sweat dropped. "I ended up seeing...scary stuff. That's really it."

"I don't mean to interrupt the conversation and all..." Luigi began. "But don't we have to move on? We still have to find my bro and Sonic! Chances are they could be somewhere around here!"

"Poyo! (Yeah! I wanna get going!)" Kirby cried.

"I don't care whether or not you guys wanna find your friends. I just wanna get going because the sooner we go, the sooner we can crush Shade." Tipral said as he carried on ahead. Everyone shrugged and followed him.

Everyone was interested to see all of the lab stuff around. The ground was a mixture of the purple alien color and silver, and the large windows showed a great view outside. There were large tanks filled with alien fluid, and there were even some small terminals as well. Some Dark Wizards were by some of them and creating more Dark Wizards that were inside.

"So THIS is how the Dark Wizards were being made..." Chopper gaped, trying to be quiet before Tipral rushed in and defeated the Dark Wizard before it could finish. When he looked at all the tanks, he couldn't help but take a closer look at them.

That lab equipment around... So much of it looked familiar to him.

"What's wrong, Tipral?" Chopper asked.

"...It's nothing special," Tipral replied as he walked off, leaving the heroes to gawk at him.

"Yeesh… What's with him?" Luigi wondered.

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged. "He was just looking at one of the tanks, and then when I ask him something, he simply walks off like it wasn't my business. Or maybe he just hates me."

"Maybe the latter," Blade answered.

"Well it mattereth not," Luvbi declared. "After how he was being toward us, I'd rather stayeth out of his business. Alas for me, methinks. Anyway, we should movest on."

Everyone agreed and moved forward, walking past a couple of experiments along the way until they caught up to Tipral, who was taking a look at more of the tanks while he was walking.

"Look, Tipral… You can tell us what s going on." Chopper noted.

"It's nothing special. I was just taking a look at this place." Tipral replied before knocking Chopper back with a punch. "And you just happen to be in my way too!

"Whoa! No need to do that!" Blade gaped. "He didn't do anything wrong to you!"

"Poyo? (What's your problem?)" Kirby asked.

"And why dost thou always have to hit my sweet prince?" Luvbi asked. "Thou art as monstrous as thou art hideous!"

"Look, if you re going to keep that up, you might as well leave," Tipral suggested. "I told you guys not to get in my way before. I think you should do the right thing and leave me alone…"

"Oh, prithee… Is something bothering you?" Luvbi asked, giving him an annoyed look.

"You are, apparently."

Luigi let out a sigh, but he stopped when he saw two Dark Wizards coming toward them. "Guys! No time to be talking now! We've got company!"

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he saw the two Dark Wizards fire dark magic at the group. However, it ended up hitting Tipral instead. What made things worse was that it angered Tipral. A lot.

Tipral clenched his fists as he made his way over to the two Dark Wizards. They looked brave at first, but their eyes widened as they got struck by a Star Spear he hurled at them. They were soon finished off when Tipral slammed his fists down on their heads, making them drop a Star Shroom Shake. He, of course, picked it up before moving on.

Up ahead was a door, but they ended up stopping when they noticed a new enemy rise in front of them. Chopper instantly recognized the monster. It was a yellow, watery creature with a robotic head and green eyes. Its arms and legs were also robotic as well.

"No way… Is that…an Artificial Stardie?!" Chopper gaped.

"Wait… An Artificial Stardie?" Tipral gawked as the monster tried to attack with its robotic claw, which Chopper tried to block with his hammer. Unfortunately, it didn't do too much.

"How dost thou know about that thing?" Luvbi asked.

"I found these things five months ago in the Gravity Gadget in Starland Galaxy," Chopper explained. "They were pretty annoying if you ask me."

"I feel like I've seen these a long time ago…" Tipral murmured, remembering about a monster like that. He was left in a little trance as he began to think. An image of girl telling him that there was a monster called an Artificial Stardie was on the loose.

"Heads up, Tipral!" Blade hollered, making Tipral get out of his trance as he got hit by the Artificial Stardie's claw. He was knocked back, but he didn't let that stop him. He jumped forward and hit its face with a Star Punch to leave it off guard.

"Attack it now while you can!"

Blade nodded and unsheathed his katana. He rushed toward the monster and slashed at its body. His eyes widened when he realized it didn't have any effect against it.

"Crap! I can't hurt this thing with its liquid body!" Blade gaped.

"Then attack the robotic parts instead," Tipral noted.

"Maybe I could do something about that robotic head, KA-BOOM!" Hommissile mentioned, making Blade smirk as he grabbed Hommissile and threw him at the Artificial Stardie's head, making it explode.

"And that s how you wrap it up!" Blade declared as he walked into the door. Everyone else followed him into another area that looked a bit similar, except there weren't any tanks around. There were only smaller windows and a couple of Dark Wizards.

"Say, I wonder where all the Skellos went," Chopper wondered. "I don't see them around here…"

"Maybe they were only at the beginning areas of the comet?" Luigi mentioned.

"Well, if that s the case, then we won t have to worry about them anymore," Blade declared. "Nope! Not at all!"

"Blade… I don t think you've even seen them."

"Oh… Well damn."

"Let's take care of those Dark Wizards first," Chopper suggested, his fist surrounded in a yellow glow. One Dark Wizard spotted them and alarmed the others, allowing them to use their magic to create spikes on their heads.

"Poyo? (They put spikes on their heads?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo… (Weird…)"

"Even if they didst put spikes on them, I knowest my sweet prince will taketh them on with ease," Luvbi said as she smiled cutely at Chopper, who ended up face palming and sweat dropping at the same time.

"What? Why art thou face palming?"

"Let's… Let's just take these guys down…" Chopper sighed as he turned back to the Dark Wizards, which fired dark magic projectiles their way. He was able to toss a light ball at it, causing a small explosion.

Kirby took this time to run over to one of the Dark Wizards and inhale it. He spat it at the other to send them flying back to an Artificial Stardie that was there. It didn't attack them, but it jumped over them to reach the six.

"Artificial Stardie…" Tipral trailed as he clenched his fists. He said nothing else as he fired a Star Spear at it to leave it severely weakened. Afterward, he jumped on it and then slammed his foot on its head to disintegrate it.

All that was left were the two Dark Wizards.

"How do you know about these Artificial Stardie?" Chopper asked, eyeing Tipral suspiciously.

"You heard me murmur that?" Tipral growled.

"Well, I kinda did… Were you watching me when I was going through the Gravity Gadget?"

"No. I just encountered them once." Tipral bluntly answered before snapping his fingers at the two Dark Wizards. Luigi finished them off by throwing Bonjourang at them, leaving Kirby disappointed.

"Poyo… (Awwww… I wanted to finish it off…)" Kirby sulked.

"Sorry Kirby, but I don't think you can get everything you want," Chopper shrugged as they continued on. "It's strange that this place doesn't have any obstacles in the way. It feels a bit smooth here!"

"Yeah, I'll say!" Luigi agreed.

"It definitely doth be our chance of romance!" Luvbi smiled, fluttering closer to Chopper as pink hearts fluttered over the girl's head. Chopper, being the person he was, began to shake in horror.

"Poyo? (I thought you faced your fears, Chopper?)" Kirby recalled.

"Well, I guess it doesn't always work…" Chopper stammered as Luvbi began to gush. Everyone was, of course, annoyed.

"If only thy friends were not hither, then it wouldst be even better…" Luvbi sighed as she kissed Chopper on the cheek, leaving his eyes to widen in fear as he nearly fell over while being stunned.

"Luvbi, maybe you should realize this place isn't romantic in the slightest," Tipral growled. "This is an ALIEN LAB! You know, full of wizards and other alien things?"

"Yeah, and it's still not safe here too," Blade added. "If we stay here and let you be all over Chopper, we're probably going to get our asses handed to us."

"Stayeth out of this, smelly cat," Luvbi scoffed.

"Oh, great… You're insulting us again… Like I'm even surprised." the cat said sarcastically. "And here we thought you'd be done with that. What matters more? Being safe? Or some kid who has no interest in you?"

"Well I can chooseth to be safe while loving my prince!"

"I'm not even a prince…" Chopper mumbled as he quickly got up. "I'm just a ten year old kid who was thrown into this adventure because I somehow brought Tipral into another world. Why is it even my fault to begin with? !"

"Save the arguments for later," suggested Tipral. "Right now I want to leave this lab. I'm getting a bit tired of it anyway."

Everyone agreed and continued on. There were two doors, with the last one being at the far end of the room. They entered the closer one to find a small room with a couple of broken lab equipment and a large, empty tank.

"This room looks really old," Luigi commented, noticing how much of the stuff around them didn't even look like the stuff from the previous room. "And this large tank looks like it hasn't been used in a long time."

"Who would need that big of a tank to begin with?" Chopper wondered.

"Mayhap the mustachioed fatty would maketh a good fit in thither," Luvbi noted.

"Hey! That's my brother you're talking about!" Luigi gaped.

"But thou hast to admit that thy hairy brother would maketh a good fit for thither, dost thou agree?"

"Not in the slightest!"

"I think it was some kind of weirdo who was big compared to the other creations they must've had here," Blade shrugged. "I don't know… Chances are that could be the case. Or maybe they were running out of tanks?"

"Well, the only thing of interest here is this yellow ? block," Chopper noted as he hit the block. An Ultra Shroom came out, so they split it with the help of Blade's katana to recover 50 HP.

"Let's get going," Blade suggested as everyone left the room. Everyone but Tipral, that is.

He walked over to the empty tank to get a closer look at it. "I swear… This room feels awfully familiar to me. It looks like it hadn't been touched in centuries."

Tipral walked over to the table that was near the tank. There happened to be an old note with dust left on it. He decided to pick it up and blow off the dust before reading the paper.

And then his eyes shot open in shock upon reading it.

_Dear Shadow King and Queen,_

_It appears the creation that came from your DNA has finally been complete! We decided to name the creation as Tipral. We listened to everything you told us to give him. That DNA you both gave us to create him will surely help him become stronger when he's out crushing those who stand before you. He'll even be stronger than your two daughters! & However, we had a bit of a problem too. You see, we realized that too much power would be dangerous enough to not only destroy everyone, but even himself. We created these two rings known as Star Rings that will go on his wrists to help control his power so he doesn't end up harming himself. Thankfully, with both of your Negative DNA, he, too, will have the negative power that will keep him emotionless for his entire life. We are looking forward to bringing you your creation._

_We have dubbed this Project X_

Tipral lowered the paper and looked around him. He had finally realized where he was this whole time in this area.

"This is the place where I was born…" Tipral trailed as he closed his eyes. "But, is it true that I have the Negative DNA in me? They said I was supposed to be emotionless, but back then…"

However, he also realized Shade nearly ruined his first home, which made his shocked expression turn back to an angry one as he clenched his fists.

"Shade… So he decided to take this lab and completely transform it? Oh, now I have more of a reason to crush him once and for all… He hasn't really messed with me before, but now he finally has!"

He kicked the door open, where he noticed Chopper and his friends looking at him in surprise. Apparently they didn't get much further in the hallway. But they did seem a bit surprised by his expression.

"Whoa, Tipral… What's wrong?" Chopper gawked.

"Listen, Chopper…" Tipral began as he walked over to the group. "When we get to that bastard of an alien kid, let me give him a good beating! You let me do that, and perhaps I might not harm you as much."

"Poyo? (Wait, what's going on?)" Kirby gawked.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you why I want to crush him now, but I think he's crossed the line now."

"And he hasn't crossed the line before?" Blade gawked. "He MURDERED Wenbi! I didn't know that person, but I sure as hell don't like it when someone ends up killing an innocent person! Especially one that he tried to convert into killing us!"

"Yea, verily…" Luvbi agreed, lowering her head as she remembered Wenbi. "I doth feel sorry for his loss… He risketh his life to savest us."

"I know nothing about this Wenbi person," Tipral scoffed. "Let's just get going. I don't want to be staying in this place forever. It sickens me…"

"Ummmmm… All right…" Luigi trailed as they made their way to the door ahead, which was being guarded by another Artificial Stardie. Tipral took no time to finish it up as he hurled a couple of Star Spears at it.

"Damn! That didn't even take that long!" Blade gaped.

"Let's move on," Tipral declared as they entered the door. To their surprise, they were no longer in the inner part of the Comet of Darkness, but the outer part. They were practically out in space at this moment.

"Whoa! We're no longer in the inner part!" Chopper gaped. "Does this mean we're going to be traveling through space from now on? !"

"I dost not think Mother and Father are out hither, though…" Luvbi trailed. "I doth think Shade might be in the center of the comet."

They noticed a couple of pathways were above them and not even straight. In fact, there was one floating path above them that looked like it was upside down. However, up ahead was a green switch that was pointing up.

"What in the world…?" Luigi gawked as he walked over to the switch.

"Hold on, Luigi… Don't touch that!" Blade cried. Unfortunately, Luigi didn't get the message and ended up touching it. It began to brighten as everyone was taken off the ground and sent upward.

"Poyo! (Ack! This isn't safe!)" Kirby cried until they found themselves on the path that was previously above them.

"Nay, this doth not seemeth bad," Luvbi assured. "Thou hast only changeth the gravity of this place! I doth suppose this place hast plenty of that hither."

"Whoa, really? We actually get to change the gravity around here?" Chopper gaped. "No way! That actually sounds cool! I mean, the Whoa Zone had that, but it really wasn't out in space!"

"And it's nice to see that I'm not suffocating either," Luigi sighed. "I guess this area doesn't lack oxygen."

"Yeah, so that should be helpful for you, Luigi. Now, let's get a move on…" Chopper ran on ahead, not caring that he was upside down. Even though they were upside down, that didn't mean they were safe from harm. A Dark Wizard and a Dark Assassin happened to be waiting for them on the pathway.

"This shouldn't be a problem," Tipral assured as he charged at them. Kirby, however, was there to stop him.

"Poyo! (Hold on a minute!)" Kirby cut in.

"What do you want, you pink puffball?"

"Poyo. (Let us have a chance to fight. If you're going to be traveling with us through here, you have to at least let us have our chance to fight.)"

"Is that why you stopped me?" Tipral asked as he gave a glare at Kirby. "…Fine. I suppose I have no choice but to let you guys do your thing. However, don't expect me to listen to you the whole time…"

"Oh, don't worry, you'll get to fight something," assured Chopper as he jumped onward and gave the Dark Wizard a light sweeping kick. Blade unsheathed his katana and smirked at the Dark Assassin.

"It's been a while since I kicked some Dark Creature ass!" Blade smirked as he disappeared in a puff of smoke and appeared behind the assassin, slashing it a couple of times with his katana. Luigi joined in by using his Cyclone to send it upward and use his Super Jump to finish it off.

"Hold on… Why the hell are the Dark Creatures here with Shade?!"

"I'm not entirely sure," Chopper answered as he bashed the Dark Wizard with his hammer. "Although, I do think Dark said something about his army leaving him."

"Back in Dream Land? Oh, yeah… I think I remember that."

"Poyo… (Poor Dream Land…)" Kirby trailed as he finished off the Dark Wizard with his Cartwheel and then his Final Cutter. "Poyo? (So is that all of them?)"

"I know we ran into some Dark Brutes…" Chopper recalled. "They're real nasty, as well as the Dark Skelloknights."

"Dark Brutes? I always hated those." Blade frowned. "They're big, fat - well, I wouldn't say fat, but large. They're also pretty disgusting creatures too."

"You've fought them before?" Luigi gawked.

"Damn right I did! It was back in the Dark Mobian War. Back then, I was pretty good-looking and cool at the time, showing off my muscles and…"

"Oh, verily?" Luvbi asked with an irritated look. "Thou art surely making this up. Is thy brain that small?"

"Well… That's actually more of my friend, honestly." Blade recalled. "Bang would always do that. I was just the ninja who fought a couple of Dark Creatures that were attacking. Nothing special."

"I'm not too surprised to hear about you making that up," Tipral commented.

"Whatever. Let's just get moving. I don't want the blood to get in my head."

Everyone agreed and moved on ahead. They could see a platform up ahead, so they jumped on it and reached the next gravity switch that wasn't even touching the ground. This time, it was pointing to the right.

"Mayhap the gravity with changeth in a different way…" Luvbi trailed as Chopper touched the switch, making them all forced to the right on another pathway. They noticed downward was a Dark Assassin and upward was the right way, with a Dark Wizard, of course.

"Which do we take care of first?" Luigi sweat dropped as he looked both ways. "Both enemies are rather dangerous…"

"Poyo, (But we managed to take them down before,)" Kirby remarked, "Poyo! (We should be fine!)"

The Dark Assassin made its move first by teleporting out of their vicinity and appearing in front of Luvbi, who let out a gasp. Chopper jumped up a bit and bashed the Dark Assassin with his hammer.

"Phew… That was close…" Chopper sighed.

"Oh, Chopper! Thank thee for rescuing me!" Luvbi smiled, kissing the boy of her dreams on the cheek and making him cry out in fear.

"GROSS! Stop it, Luvbi!"

"Especially with some enemies around," Blade mentioned as the Dark Wizard fired dark magic at them. He spun his katana around and managed to deflect the projectile back at the wizard. It dodged, but it didn't stop Blade from striking it with his katana.

Kirby lunged at the Dark Wizard and tackled it to leave it off guard. When he got back up, he inhaled it and tried to take its ability. The only thing he got from it was absolutely nothing.

"Poyo? (Wait, I got nothing from that?)" Kirby gaped. "Poyo! (That's not fair!)"

"Well, I guess not everything gives you an ability," Chopper shrugged. "Let's just move up from here."

The group made their way up the wall until they found a platform that was moving u and down. It appeared to be sideways as well, so when it came close, they jumped on it and crossed over to the next pathway.

"I bet my Super Jump's going to be screwy around here," Luigi sweat dropped. "Especially with the gravity!"

"Actually, I don't feel the blog flowing into my head," Blade blinked. "I used to before, but it doesn't feel like it now."

"We're coming up to a loop," Tipral informed as they continued up. Chopper and Tipral helped the three through the loop and then found a spring that launched them up to a ledge where an arrow pointing up was.

They touched it, and soon they were on a large purple block that acted like a pathway. Their eyes widened when they saw an Artificial Stardie stretch its arm out and try to claw at them. They dodged, but it almost made Luigi fall off.

"Ack! I think I'm a little too close!" Luigi shrieked.

"Don't worry, I gotcha," Blade assured, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward him. Chopper decided to deal damage by using Starbow, while Kirby used Crystaline to freeze it.

"Poyo! (We did it!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uh… I wouldn't say that just yet, Kirby…" Chopper trailed.

"It's starting to breaketh out," Luvbi informed as the ice shattered around the Artificial Stardie. It was still in good shape, which made it bad when Kirby gulped.

"Take this!" Tipral shouted as he fired a Star Spear toward the Artificial Stardie, causing it to disintegrate and drop some Star Juice. When Chopper looked at it, he noticed it could recover 130 HP.

"Hey! This might come in handy!" Chopper smiled.

"Pray, what is it?" Luvbi wondered. "Dost it maketh thee fall in love?"

"…No. It's juice that heals you. If it was, I'd be barfing by now."

"But love doth be something special!"

"I don't think it's bad, it's just that I…"

"Enough of love already!" Tipral snapped. "Do we REALLY need to be discussing this? It's REALLY getting annoying!"

"Yeah, we're moving on," Chopper declared as he ran on ahead until he found a spring that could launch them down to another pathway that was down below (or above if they were looking up in the way the gravity was).

"Hold on a minute…" Blade pondered. "If we use this spring, will we be going up because of how things look for us, or are we going down because we're not at normal gravity?"

"Beats me," Luigi shrugged. "I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff…"

"Who cares? We just wanna go!" Chopper replied as he jumped on the spring and let himself get taken to the next pathway below (or above).

Everyone followed him to the next pathway and found another loop. What interested Chopper was when he was on the opposite side of the loop. He wasn't upside down for just a brief second.

"I think I can get through here no problem," Blade declared, turning into a log and appearing past the loop before Chopper.

"How'd you do that?" Chopper gawked.

"Ninja skills. Enough said."

Kirby and Luigi had no problems getting over the loop because their abilities were enough to let them go over it. Up ahead was another green switch which was pointing down, but it was moving around.

"Why is that switch moving?" Tipral wondered until he looked up. "Oh, now I see why…"

"What is it?" Luigi asked.

"We gotta be careful when using this switch. Just look above…or below you."

Everyone looked up in their direction and saw a pathway covered in spikes. The only thing they happened to notice was a platform moving left and right slowly.

"So thou hast to toucheth that switch at the right time…" Luvbi trailed. "That doth soundeth risky…"

"I just hope we don't get skewered by those spikes…" Luigi gulped.

"If you do, I'm not helping you," Tipral mentioned.

"You do realize we might need Luigi's help for some of this," Chopper defended. "And you seem to be targeting Luigi for some reason. What's he ever done to you anyhow? I'd say he's the nicest guy I've met!"

"Poyo, (Yeah, he is,)" Kirby agreed.

"Yup," Blade nodded. "He is nice."

"OK, whatever. I don't want to get in another pointless argument just like we always do." Tipral grumbled as he looked up and then at the switch. "At least try to help me find out when the time has come to hit the switch."

"All right," Chopper sighed as he did the same thing as Tipral.

"If anything bad happens, I'll try to help out," Carrie noted.

"Poyo, (But you can only carry one person at a time,)" Kirby mentioned, while Chopper simply translated.

"Well… We might have to come up with a way."

"I was thinking of that one thing we did in Fort Francis, but it was pretty uncomfortable," Chopper mentioned.

"What?" Tipral gawked.

"Nothing, really."

Unfortunately, Luvbi ended up touching the switch, which made everyone plummet downward. Everyone's eyes widened for the exception of Tipral's, because he was able to hover over the spikes with his shoes.

Luigi was lucky to land on the platform, while Blade ended up landing on Carrie, who happened to be hovering over the spikes. Kirby took in some air and floated over them, while Chopper grabbed onto his feet.

"Phew… OK, that was a little too close." Chopper sighed.

"Yeah, TOO close…" Blade sighed as well. "My heart is literally racing right now!"

"Luvbi, why did you hit the switch?" Tipral asked, glaring at her.

"That was an accident," Luvbi retorted. "Thou shouldst not be rude when asking a question like that!"

"We could've been skewered!" Blade gaped.

"Well, at least we're not dead…" Chopper sighed as Kirby floated over to the pathway past the platform. They noticed a gap between them and another pathway ahead, but below was a door that they could enter.

"Hey, this looks like something we could go in," Blade noted as they jumped down the platform and headed through the door. They were back in another lab-like area with a couple of tanks, as well as some Dark Soldiers ahead.

"We're back in the lab area…" Tipral trailed while clenching his fists, which Chopper noticed.

"Whoa, you seem a bit angered, Tipral," Chopper noticed. "Of course, you always are, but this looks different."

"Don't even ask me, Chopper. I have my reasons…" he lunged forward and hurled a couple of shadow balls at the Dark Soldiers. A Dark Worm ended up rising in front of him, but impaling it with a Star Spear was all he needed to get rid of it.

_"I'm going to make them all pay for destroying one of the few homes I've ever had!"_ Tipral thought as he walked up to a Dark Creature, grabbed it and threw it at the other before destroying them with a Star Spear.

"Well… I guess that takes care of that." Luigi shrugged as he hit the yellow ? block nearby. A Dark Shroom popped out and began to move all over the room, which made the plumber yelp.

"Agh! A Dark Shroom!"

"At least it isn't a Death Shroom…" Blade trailed, readying his katana as he slashed it a couple of times when it came close. He hit the other block, which had a Super Shroom.

"Poyo? (That's it? A Super Shroom?)" Kirby gawked. "Poyo… (That's disappointing…)"

"Well, you never know… There might be something else that'll be helpful." Chopper assured as they reached the end of the hallway to a door up ahead.

They entered through, only to find a stump in the small area. Not even Screwdy's corkscrew was able to work on it, which Blade happened to test.

"Crap! This doesn't work!" Blade frowned.

"Obviously we're missing something," Tipral noted.

"That looks like something only my bro could do," Luigi informed. "But, he's nowhere here, though."

"Dost thou mean thy smaller, chubbier hairy brother?" Luvbi asked.

"H-Hey! Don't scoff my bro like that!"

"Well, then we're going to have to go back," Chopper declared as he left the area, along with the others. They noticed the tanks were filled with alien fluid. "You think that's the alien fluid stuff that we had to go through before?"

"Then that could meanest that they dumpeth thy fluids thither…" Luvbi trailed.

They decided to check all the tanks, but they noticed one was empty, and there appeared to be something knocking on it from the inside.

"Wait a minute… Is that you, bro?!" Luigi gaped as he noticed his older brother begging to be let out. "Don't worry! I'll get you out!"

Luigi attempted to punch at the tank, but his punch didn't appear to make a crack in it. "My punches don't do much!"

"I guess the glass is pretty tough," Blade commented as Chopper tried smashing it with his hammer. Not even a dent was left on it.

"Yeah, it is," Chopper agreed. "A hammer doesn't even work well on it!"

"Well, I doth see a button hither," Luvbi noted, pointing to the button below the tank.

"Oh… I forgot about that." Luigi face palmed as he pressed it, causing the tank to open up and allow Mario to jump out.

Mario: Phew! I'm free!

"Bro! I missed you so much!" Luigi cried as he hugged his bro, who hugged back and gently patted his back. "How'd you get in there anyway?"

They let go, while Mario explained all the details to him. "Hmmmm… So you're saying you were out cold after that explosion and you suddenly found yourself stuck in that tank?"

Mario: Yeah, that's right.

"Well, I had to be stuck in a dark room with Bowser, who wouldn't stop whining in there! You don't wanna know how annoying that was."

"I was left on some observatory with no one else around," Blade noted. "It kinda sucked."

"Poyo, (I was put on a dartboard,)" Kirby explained. "Poyo. (I think that's much worse.)"

"I was sent out into space on some asteroid," Chopper explained. "I even met Squirps there, who happened to rescue you guys, right?"

Mario: I do think I remember him helping us…

"Apparently Ortorain told him that you guys were in trouble…"

Mario: That's interesting… But what's Luvbi doing here?

"For thy information, mine parents were kidnapped by yon alien kid," Luvbi explained.

Mario jumped up a bit and realized who it was.

Mario: This is where Shade resides?!

"Apparently," Chopper nodded. "And that means he's holding the last Pure Heart."

"Yeah, which might be why he was after them before," Blade realized. "I mean, he came to The Overthere for the Pure Heart, right?"

"That could be," Tipral answered, which got Mario's attention, making him get in a fighting stance.

"Hold on, Mario. He's actually on our side at the moment." Luigi explained, making Mario stop and ask why. "Well, we all have a common enemy, so we decided to take Shade down together. At least, that's what Chopper said…"

"And I don't have anything with me either. No Chaos Heart, no Dark Star Scepter, and no Dark Prognosticus."

Mario: How did you lose them?

"Apparently Dimentio's ghost is still lurking around, and he was able to somehow use the power he had to throw me in this place."

Mario: Well, it's glad to be back with you guys, I suppose.

**Mario has rejoined the party!**

"All right, so that means we need to find Sonic now," Chopper declared. "Now we can… Wait, there was something in that other room we didn't get a chance to do. I think you might be able to help us, Mario."

They headed back in the room up ahead to the stump. Mario took a look at it and nodded to the group before using his Ground Pound, which caused a hidden chest to be revealed under a sheet of paper.

"Man, those paper effects are pretty cool," Blade commented.

"It's better when it rips through the background," Chopper said as Mario opened the chest and got a Gravity Key.

Mario: A Gravity Key?

"That looks like it could be what the keys for here are," Luigi noted. "Let's just get out of here."

* * *

**Space Gadget, Area 1-**

Mario: Oh! This is strange!

"The gravity doth have many strange effects hither…" Luvbi began before glaring at Mario. "So if thou art going to whiniest about it, then thou might as well stayeth in the back of the group, mustachioed fatty!"

Mario: I'm not even that fat…

"Sometimes I doth get sick of being around yon hairy twins& I verily didst not enjoyeth thee taking me up to The Overthere before… At least my sweet prince Chopper came hither and madeth me enjoy the way to The Overthere for once."

"Poyo… (Talk about being a jerk…)" Kirby trailed.

"I second that," Chopper agreed.

They decided to move on, but this time, they were met with some platforms that had spikes on the bottom or spikes on the top. Occasionally, they would spin around, which left some of the people twitching.

"…How are we…going to get through that?" Blade gawked.

"Thou hast to figure out thyself," Luvbi decided. "I am going to simply flutter upward. I will definitely taketh my sweet prince up!"

"Uhhh… I'll take care of myself, thank you." Chopper assured as he jumped on a platform with spikes on the bottom. "I don't wanna touch those spikes, that's for sure…"

"This shouldn't be a problem for me," Tipral said as he teleported to the platform once Chopper landed on it. Luigi used his Super Jump to reach the platform as well.

"Do you know where the door is?" Luigi asked.

"Apparently it's upside down," Chopper pointed over to the right, where a door upside down on a platform happened to be there. There was a gravity switch pointing up at the top of the area.

They each made their way up the platforms and touched the switch, making the gravity change. This time, they had to land on the platforms when the spikes were on the top, to their dismay.

Mario: This isn't what I expected…

"Yeah, I know what you mean, bro," Luigi agreed.

When they made their way across the platforms, they entered through the door nearby and came across an area where they saw a pathway ahead with a glowing bridge that flashed and disappeared after five seconds. There were also Dark Wizards with stumps on their heads.

"…Stump Wizards?" Blade gawked.

"I guess that name maketh sense…" Luvbi trailed.

"But those stumps look too tough for us to take them on," Luigi noted.

Mario: I think I might be able to do something!

The red plumber jumped on top of the Stump Wizard, which tried to shake him off, but he was able to squish it with a Ground Pound. They could all see the wizard's eyes widen in pain by Mario's weight before getting disintegrated.

"Wow… The look of that wizard looked pretty… I don't know what to think about it." Blade blinked.

"Poyo, (Well take a look at that bridge ahead,)" Kirby noted, pointing to the flashing bridge ahead. It disappeared and then appeared again after three seconds. "Poyo& (It's probably going to take a lot to get past that…)"

"Maybe a Speed Dash might work!" Chopper smirked as he prepared to charge up a Speed Dash.

"And you're going to risk that?" Tipral asked.

"What else is there for me to do anyway?"

"Fine, go ahead and get yourself hurt. I could care less."

Chopper took off, going across the bridge before it could disappear. Tipral didn't look too surprised, but he simply teleported over to the other side with ease, leaving Kirby, Blade, Mario and Luigi to cross on their own.

"Well I'm not helping thee," Luvbi said as she fluttered across.

"Thanks," Blade grumbled.

"Poyo, (I think I can get over this,)" Kirby assured as he took in some air and began to float across. Chopper turned around and inhaled the others so they could get across and spat them out.

"You disgust me, Chopper," Tipral scoffed.

Chopper ignored Tipral as they carried on ahead. They found a gravity cylinder going upward, and once they got close to it, the gravity around it pulled them in, making them land on the cylinder.

"Wah! Why am I on here now? !" Luigi gaped.

"Isn't this like the one we saw in that battleship?" Chopper recalled.

"Poyo, (Yeah, it was,)" Kirby nodded.

Mario: I suppose the best thing to do is go up…

They walked up the gravity cylinder until they got onto the top, where they found a spring leading up to a green platform above them. There happened to be a Dark Wizard and a Stump Wizard waiting for them.

"Well, you know what to do, Mario," Luigi noted.

Mario gave his younger brother a nod as he jumped onto the platform and used his Ground Pound to defeat the Stump Wizard. The Dark Wizard took notice and struck the plumber with its dark magic.

"Bro! Hang on, I'm coming!" the green plumber jumped onto the platform and helped his brother out by using his Cyclone on the Dark Wizard. He then finished it off by jumping on its head.

"Well that takes care of them," Blade declared.

When everyone else got on the platform, they found a switch with an arrow pointing to the left. Once Mario touched it, they were sent flying to the left onto a pathway curving upward with a Dark Assassin near it.

Luigi grabbed a hold of Bonjourang and threw him at the Dark Assassin. While it didn't do much, it gave Chopper the opportunity to defeat it by using Starbow's ability to make shooting stars rain down.

"Hey! They didn't simply rain down! They actually rained down how the gravity is like with us!" Chopper smiled. "I like that!"

Mario: Yeah, I guess it's not too bad!

"Now we need to get through this pathway," Tipral noted. "Apparently it's going to require a lot of speed."

"Damn it… Another thing I can't get past." Blade grumbled.

"Don't worry, we'll figure out a way through this," Chopper assured.

"Well, I could always use those kunais to climb up…"

Blade pulled out his kunais, but before he could do what he planned on doing, Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and took off, while Tipral simply skated through the pathway that curved to the right. Even though it felt like they were upside down, if they stopped, they would end up getting pulled by the gravity.

Thankfully, going through that pathway wasn't necessary for the rest of the group when Chopper touched a gravity switch pointing to the right. They were taken to a long purple platform in height over to the right.

Mario: At least we didn't have to go through that.

"I don t blame you," Luigi nodded.

"Thou shouldst thank my sweet prince for helping thee all," Luvbi suggested, while Chopper shook his head and told her that they shouldn't. "Why not? Thou didst help us!"

"You're giving me too much credit…" Chopper trailed as he ran on ahead to find a Dark Wizard. He inhaled one of its dark spells and spat it back at the enemy, while Kirby finished it with ease with his Final Cutter.

"Poyo! (It's all clear!)" Kirby announced.

Upon reaching the end of the platform, they came across a gravity cylinder above them. There happened to be a spring that looked like it could help them reach the spinning drum as well.

"I'll try to go through first," Tipral decided as the spring launched him up to the gravity cylinder. He noticed a green switch on the spinning drum that was pointing down. "You guys might want to come here first."

"How so?" Luvbi wondered.

"Because there's another switch here."

"Well, we better listen," Chopper shrugged as he used the spring to launch himself to the spinning drum. Everyone else followed afterward, which let Tipral hit the switch so the gravity could be altered again.

While it didn't look like anything changed, when Tipral reached the top of the gravity cylinder, he was able to jump on top of it to find dark green platforms and another gravity cylinder up ahead moving upward.

"More of these, huh? I guess there's a lot in this place…" Tipral trailed.

Mario: But I'm sure we can handle it.

They jumped off it to find a Dark Wizard charging up a magic attack. Tipral, on the other hand, ended up throwing it off the platform to get rid of it with Thoreau. Unfortunately, that didn't help when it used its wings to fly back up.

"That's not going to work," Blade shrugged.

"Try all you want, but throwing me won't help you!" the Dark Wizard cackled.

"Fine then," Tipral grabbed the Dark Wizard and started to smash it with his Star Punch before disintegrating it with a Star Kick. Afterward, he jumped to the gravity cylinder ahead to get sucked in by its gravity.

When the rest got on the gravity cylinder, they noticed another one next to it, which happened to suck them in next. All they could do was move up until they reached the top and found a pathway ahead moving at a downward angle.

"Ooh! This should be nice!" Chopper smiled.

Mario: We could slide down here, which might help us.

"You think that s going to help us?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: Yeah, let's try it!

Mario and Luigi both slid down the slope while knocking a couple of Dark Wizards out of the way. They happened to find a gravity cylinder pointed to the side rather than upward, so they got on it and began to spin around on it.

"I'll go next," Tipral decided as he skated down the slope, his speed increasing as he traveled down. Chopper followed afterward, with his speed increasing as well. Kirby and Blade were forced to slide down while they watched Luvbi flutter down.

They jumped on the gravity cylinder ahead and watched as they began to move on it while it spun. They then jumped off of it and found a pathway leading to a door ahead. There was a Dark Wizard standing on top of three yellow ? blocks, while a Stump Wizard was over by a door.

Blade walked under the block and gave it a good punch from underneath, damaging the Dark Wizard and knocking it off the block. An Ultimate Shroom happened to pop out, so he sliced it into six for the group to eat and recover 100 HP. He then finished the Dark Wizard off with his Dragon Beam.

"I sure hope we find Sonic…" Blade trailed. "He's GOTTA be somewhere around here!"

Mario went over to the Stump Wizard and attacked it with a Ground Pound. When it was defeated, they headed through the door into the next area, which had a green pathway ahead with a high ledge ahead.

Luigi took this time to use his Super Jump to reach the ledge, while Kirby took in some air and floated up. Blade pulled his two kunais out and began to climb up, and then Tipral teleported up to the ledge.

That only left Chopper, Mario and Luvbi.

Mario: This isn't good.

"I think I doth have an idea for thee, my sweet prince!" Luvbi winked.

Chopper's eyes widened as the Nimbi girl flew closer to him with a cute smile. "Oh, no! You re not going to kiss me again! I m not going to let that happen!"

"Well, I shouldst giveth thee a kiss because I love thee! But, I m just going to helpeth thee up thither."

Mario: What about me?

Thou art too fat for me to taketh up! Plus, I dost not want to feel the hair that doth happen to be on thee!"

"…That's nice of you to say that, Luvbi," Chopper blinked before he felt himself getting grabbed by Luvbi and taken up to the ledge. That meant only Mario needed to get up the ledge.

"Poyo, (I'll get him up,)" Kirby decided as he used his inhaling to get Mario up to the ledge. With that, they carried on ahead to a couple of small, floating asteroids around the area that were slowly rotating vertically.

"Asteroids? You think this might be a problem for us?" Blade wondered.

"As long as we stay on them, we should be fine," Tipral assured as he jumped on the first one. Thankfully, there were no bottomless pits around, so they all felt relieved to find out they would be safe anyway.

"So what s it like?" Chopper asked.

"Find out yourself."

Chopper gave Tipral a blank look as he jumped on the asteroid. There was another one up ahead that had a spring on it, so when the others got to that asteroid, they were launched across a large gap and found an Artificial Stardie waiting for them on another green path.

"I've got this," Blade declared as he tossed three shurikens at the Artificial Stardie's head. He then jumped up and brought his katana down on it. Despite this, he ended up getting knocked back by its claw.

Kirby brought his attention to the Artificial Stardie and used his Final Cutter to strike it. He noticed a floating asteroid above them, so he tried to grab its head and try to throw it up. But, unfortunately, because he had bad physical strength against this watery monster, it didn't work.

"Poyo& (Well that worked out nicely…)" Kirby trailed as he got smacked away by the Artificial Stardie. Chopper tossed a rainbow ball at it next, but he ended up getting smacked when its arm extended over to him.

"You guys are pathetic if you can't take this thing on with ease," Tipral scoffed as he finished it off with one snap of his finger.

"We weakened it, you know," Blade mentioned. "You got pretty lucky, honestly."

Mario: Let's check that asteroid above us.

"I think my Super Jump might reach it," Luigi declared as he launched himself up to the asteroid. Luvbi smiled at Chopper, which caused him to make his eyes widen when he got lifted off the ground by her.

"No! Don't do that again!" Chopper cried as Luvbi giggled and kissed him on the cheek. "And don't do that either!"

"But thou art so cute to kiss!" Luvbi gushed as Chopper tried to face palm, but couldn't because he was still in Luvbi's clutches. Thankfully, when she let go of him, he quickly jumped over to the asteroid ahead and found a green pathway with a small staircase going up.

_"When will I ever be away from her here?"_ the pale green Star Warrior thought as Luvbi sighed sweetly over her hero.

"Sucks to be him," Blade commented. "He sure does get luved by Luvbi!"

"Quit it, Blade!"

"You know, I found that incredibly stupid," Tipral noted. "Although, I will say your friend is a lot dumber."

"Bang? Yeah. He is quite the idiot. But he's my idiot."

When everyone crossed over the asteroids, they went over to the small staircase and found a Dark Assassin and Dark Wizard waiting for them. Chopper tossed a charged light ball at the Dark Wizard, while Mario readied his hammer and bashed the Dark Assassin before it could teleport.

After Luigi used his Cyclone on the Dark Assassin, it was all over for it. Tipral proceeded to finish off the Dark Wizard by firing a Star Spear at it. He noticed its eyes widen in pain as the Star Spear impaled its body.

Despite it looking brutal to some of the people, they went up the staircase and found a pathway above them, as well as a green switch pointing up. Kirby gave it a touch to change the gravity so they were upside down.

"Poyo! (I love altering gravity!)" Kirby cheered.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun," Chopper agreed.

They were surprised to find another asteroid ahead that didn't appear to be too high for them to jump onto. Some of them felt a little awkward when they were on the bottom of the asteroid.

"So… What now?" Blade asked.

"I think this asteroid can moveth if thou hast enough speed," Luvbi mentioned as she noticed some arrows on the asteroid.

"So you put yourself to some use for once," Tipral commented.

"I didst help! This doth be none of thy business anyway!"

"She did admittedly help me through the comet at the beginning," Chopper noted.

"Hmph… Well, whatever. Let's just get this asteroid moving."

"Got it!" Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash while Tipral skated on it to make the asteroid move to the right. They ended up touching another green switch, which made them land on another movable asteroid. Down below was a pit of spikes.

"Ugh… I don't like the spikes…" Luigi shivered.

Mario: Don't use your Super Jump here then.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right on that."

Chopper and Tipral gained some speed as the asteroid began to move to the right. They found a green switch nearby pointing to the right, so when they touched it, they ended up on a purple pathway with two Dark Soldiers waiting for them.

Kirby tried to inhale them, but because they were too big, it didn't work out for him. He decided to use his Final Cutter, while Blade slashed at one of them with his katana. He even delivered a fire slash to leave it with a burn.

They were finished off when Chopper spun his hammer around rapidly with light energy, causing the two Dark Creatures to disintegrate.

Mario: Aren't the Dark Creatures on Dark's side?

"Yeah, they were, but some of them ended up with Shade because they thought he was better now," Chopper answered.

Mario: …Oh! I think I do recall Dark saying something like that!

"Anyway, let's keep going, all right?" Luigi suggested. Everyone agreed and made their way up the pathway. They noticed a gap that Chopper couldn't jump over, so Tipral used his teleportation to cross over the gap with ease.

"Thou dost know I can help thee across, my prince," Luvbi winked.

"After what you did? I'd rather not…" Chopper shivered.

Kirby decided to move on ahead by taking in some air and floating across the gap, which left Chopper, Luvbi, Blade, Mario and Luigi to cross over. That is, until Kirby started inhaling.

"Why is Kirby doing that?!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: He's helping us across!

"Yeah, even though Tipral could've clearly helped us," Blade added.

"And of course you have to bring me up…" Tipral face palmed. "How original…"

Chopper sighed as he carried on ahead while he noticed the pathway began to curve right side up. When he ran through that, he found a switch pointing down to the ground. He ended up touching it while the rest of the group was trying to get on that part of the pathway. Thankfully, they didn't have to worry when the gravity went back to normal.

"Well that solves that," Chopper shrugged.

They came across a door up ahead, so they entered it into an area where they found themselves on a platform right beside a Dark Wizard and a large water block that happened to be ahead.

"Water?! In space?!" Blade gaped.

"Trust me, I've seen this before," Chopper assured.

"Poyo, (Back in Starland Galaxy,)" Kirby added.

Mario: We'll just have to swim through this.

"Well, let s hope it won t be long. I can t hold my breath forever." Blade noted as they jumped into the water block. Luvbi, however, refused to go in the water block.

"Don't tell me you don t want to get your hair wet…" Chopper groaned.

"I'd rather be a dry, good-looking princess than a wet one," Luvbi stated, sticking her nose in the air. "And thou all cannot dost anything!"

Everyone else looked at each other and exchanged nods before pulling Luvbi into the large water block. Since she was unable to speak in the water, she ended up giving them a face before Chopper was forced to pat her bun of hair, which made her give him a cute smile.

Chopper ended up making the "I don't like it" look as they swam through the water block. There didn't appear to be much around, but when they got out of it, they landed on a blue pathway with a shorter water block ahead.

"Pray, my prince! I dost have an idea to helpeth me stayeth underwater!" Luvbi noted.

"You do? How's it done?" Chopper wondered.

"Well, all thou hast to do is put thy lips on mine!"

"What?! No way! That's disgusting!"

"It's romantic and helpful! Thou will maketh a girl verily happy!"

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about this water block anyway," Blade noted. "You can fly over it…"

"Wait… You're standing on top of the water!" Luigi gaped.

"Heh heh… Glad you noticed! You see, ninjas sometimes have the ability to walk on water, like what I'm doing now. I think this might come in handy instead of swimming!"

"Well, I still doth like my idea…" Luvbi trailed.

Blade walked on ahead over the water, while the rest had to swim through it. Tipral, on the other hand, actually used his shoes to go over the water. Luvbi flew into the water so she could use her idea. Unfortunately, that didn't work out for her until they found another large water block ahead. There happened to be a pathway below, while there was a door on a platform above.

"Well, time to hold my breath again," Blade sighed as he jumped in.

"Pray, Chopper! This doth be a good idea to try that out!" Luvbi noted as she fluttered closer to Chopper, who gasped and backed away.

"N-No, Luvbi! I don t want to do something gross like that!" Chopper shivered.

"But it'll help me goest through hither!"

"Well, I don't…" Chopper was interrupted when Luvbi kissed him on the lips and pushed him in the water block. He tried to push himself out of the kiss, but it turned out to be a failure because Luvbi was holding him tightly.

"Poyo, (Let's go up,)" Kirby suggested.

Knowing what Kirby said, Tipral swam up to the platform, while the others followed. Chopper was able to reach up to the platform and get himself out of Luvbi grasps, sticking his tongue out in disgust in the process.

"Gross! I can t believe that happened!" Chopper gagged.

"I loved that so!" Luvbi swooned. "Pray, we shouldst practice our marriage kiss too, thou knowest!"

"Marriage?! NO!"

Mario: Let's just go…

The group made their way through the large blue door and found themselves in a lab-like area, except the difference was that it was a small room with a force field barrier up ahead that had someone inside.

"Well, this room is a bit quiet…" Luigi trailed.

"Guys?! Is that seriously you?!"

"Wait… Sonic?!" Blade noticed Sonic trapped in the blue force field cell and hurried over to him.

"Hold on, Blade! Don't touch it!" Sonic called out before Blade ended up touching it and getting electrocuted. "There's an electric barrier over it…"

"Sonic?! Really? How'd you get trapped in there?" Chopper asked. "You're better than this!"

"This isn't my fault, Chopper… I was unconscious and found myself in here. I guess those baddies decided to throw me in here."

Mario: Any way we can get you out?

"Well, I m sure there s someone who s holding a key…" Sonic trailed. "But, I don t think that person is somewhere around here. You might wanna check out somewhere else."

"All right, we'll do that," Blade nodded. "You just stay there and try to keep yourself safe."

"Good! …Wait, what s Tipral doing here?!"

"We don't have time to explain those details," Tipral noted. "Maybe I'll tell you when we get you out of your cell."

_"Seriously… Why would Tipral be helping us out?"_ Sonic thought. _"After all he's done to us and our worlds… I still can t forgive him for that!"_

"We'll be back, so don't let your game end…or something," Chopper said as they all but Sonic left the room and returned to the previous area. Blade took a deep breath before jumping back in the water.

"Poyo, (It s still weird to see blocks on water in space,)" Kirby commented as he jumped in the water. Everyone else jumped in and found a pathway below when they ended up falling out of the block.

To their surprise, there was a door just up ahead, as well as a water block above. They decided to take the door instead, which brought them into an area where they found a loop ahead on the blue ground.

"Lots of color changes here…" Chopper trailed.

"Yeah, that's for sure," Blade agreed.

They went through the loop, but they stopped when they noticed a blocked pathway up ahead. However, there happened to be a gravity switch slightly above, so they used it to make them upside down. There was a long platform that they stood on, and below them was a platform with a door right side up.

"How are we supposed to get to that?" Luigi wondered.

"I can see another switch nearby," Tipral noted, pointing to the green switch near the door. When he touched it, they all landed on the door and entered it into another lab-like room, but this room was much bigger, almost like a battle arena.

"Huh… I don t see much around here…" Chopper trailed as he eyed the area. All he could see were some capsules and one up ahead that appeared to be frozen. "Hey, what's that?"

When he walked over to the capsule, he noticed a green Mushroom with red eyes and fangs holding a blaster and also a key. Chopper turned to the others and gestured them to come over.

"What is it?" Blade asked.

"The key's in there!"

"Really?" Luigi wondered as Chopper pressed a button to open the capsule. The mysterious alien Mushroom stepped out of the capsule while Mario and Luigi s eyes shot wide open.

Mario: Oh, no…

"I didn't expect to see something like that here…" Luigi gulped.

"Pray, why art thou so surprised, yon hairy twins?" Luvbi asked.

Mario: We've seen an alien like this as babies!

"Babies? Are you serious?" Chopper gawked.

"Yeah, they re called Shroobs, and they're not friendly," Luigi noted.

The Shroob quickly rubbed its head and looked around the area. When it took notice of the group, it raised its weapon and prepared to open fire. Thankfully, they were all able to get out of harm s way.

"So, this Mushroom wants to fight us for the key?" Tipral asked as he clenched his fists. "I'll give this thing just what it wants!"

"(You people want this key? Well you're going to have to take it from General Shroob, if you dare!)" General Shroob spat as it prepared to shoot another pink blast from its weapon.

"Did you guys understand that thing?" Blade gawked.

"Poyo, (Not at all,)" Kirby replied.

"(And you two mustached people remind me of two babies I've seen! …Well, it doesn't matter. I'm free from that capsule, and now I m going to start things off by ending all of you!)"

"Well, I don't know what it s saying, but it sounds like it wants a fight!" Blade declared, unsheathing his katana. "Let's go!"

Blade charged toward General Shroob, blocking its blast that it fired at him with his katana and attempting to strike it. However, it drew a blade itself. It was a curvy alien-like beam sword that was light purple.

"What? It's got a beam sword?"

"Well, beam swords are cool," Chopper shrugged as General Shroob struck Blade with its beam sword and left him dazed. This gave General Shroob the opportunity to knock him back with a blast from its gun.

"(Don't underestimate me! I m a general, you know!)" General Shroob scoffed as it jumped in the air and fired a couple of more shots. They could see it had 450 HP, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 8. This thing didn't look like it was going to mess around.

"Wow… You don't see Shroobs do that!" Luigi gaped.

Mario: It must be a different kind…

"…Or something made it become like this. It looks a little mutated, too!"

General Shroob charged up a shot from its gun and fired toward the group. Luvbi was in the way, which made Chopper grab her and pull her out of the way. Mario was able to use Reflecto to deflect the blast back at General Shroob.

Mario: He's stunned!

The red plumber gripped his hammer and smashed General Shroob s head to deal massive damaged, followed by his powerful Ground Pound that did even more damage. However, it wasn't long until General Shroob was able to blast Mario away.

On the other hand, Chopper saved Luvbi, and of course…

"Thou dost know how to rescue a girl," Luvbi swooned as she prepared to kiss Chopper, whose eyes widened and forced him to let go of her and return to the fight. Luvbi, of course, was not pleased and fumed.

"Hmph! Thou shouldst not leave a cute girl hither like that!"

Chopper ran in and tossed a light ball at General Shroob, who put up a glowing pink shield that ended up deflecting the shot back at him. He ended up inhaling and swallowing the light ball instead. Sadly, he didn't gain an ability from it.

"He can deflect projectiles too… That's nice…" Chopper sighed.

"Poyo! (Well that s not stopping us! We need that key!)" Kirby clenched his fists as General Shroob spun around and fired a blast from its gun at Kirby, who inhaled it and spat it back at the Shroob. This gave Luigi and opportunity to send it flying upward with his Cyclone.

While it was in the air, Luigi attacked it with a Super Jump, and soon after, Tipral slammed his fists on the Shroob's head to send it flying to the ground.

"(Ow… That was a bit painful…)" General Shroob moaned as Tipral landed on the ground and struck it with Star Magic. "(And I didn't see that coming!)"

"I don't know what you re saying, but if you re planning on giving that key to us, then go ahead and do it," Tipral declared as he clenched his fists. Sadly, this didn't work when he got blasted by General Shroob's gun.

"Guh… I guess that's a no."

Tipral quickly got up as Blade brought his katana down on General Shroob, who attempted to use its beam sword to fight back, but Blade simply kicked the Shroob in the face and performed a downward slash on General Shroob.

Mario helped Blade out by using Kickbrin, who was delighted to be back with Mario on General Shroob to send it flying toward the capsule.

"Don't make it get trapped in there!" Chopper cried. "We don't want that!

"(Freezing me won t get you this key, you know!)" General Shroob noted as he began to fire rapid shots at the group. Chopper and Kirby were knocked back (though Kirby was able to defend himself), while Blade spun his katana to deflect the shot.

"I wonder if I can land a combo on this guy…" Blade wondered before he got whacked in the face by General Shroob s shield. "Hey! That wasn't very nice!"

General Shroob jumped up again and began to fire down at the group with its gun. Because the Shroob was up in the air, this gave Luigi the opportunity to strike it, so he used a Super Jump to knock it to the ground.

"We can repeat this whole process to make this fight easy, you know," Luigi mentioned.

"Or maybe we can use an item?" Chopper wondered as he had a Thwomp Crusher for an item. "This could help us, perhaps?"

"Go ahead and use it," Blade nodded as Chopper summoned a large Thwomp to fall on General Shroob, flattening it entirely as the Thwomp disintegrated afterward. It quickly got itself up and fired a charged shot that knocked Chopper back.

"Poyo, (I could really use an ability to copy,)" Kirby pondered as General Shroob fired a laser toward him. When he inhaled it, he ended up getting the Laser ability, which allowed him to fire a shot directly at General Shroob.

"So Kirby's got an ability? Well that's good." Chopper slowly nodded as he got himself up. He used Starbow to make shooting stars hit General Shroob, which then allowed him to bash its head with his hammer.

General Shroob quickly shook its head and tried to attack with its beam sword, only to get kicked in the face by Tipral, who teleported in front of the Shroob to hit it. With a punch, he knocked it to the ground.

"All right, I suppose we can finish this up," Blade declared as he rushed toward General Shroob and attempted to bring his katana down on it. General Shroob retaliated by using its beam sword to block the attack and kick Blade in the crotch.

"Gah! Stupid…mushroom thing!"

"We should keep using that mirror Pixl against its ranged attacks," Tipral suggested. "It seemed to work before."

Mario: Yeah, that makes sense.

Mario grabbed Reflecto again, but General Shroob was no fool. It rushed toward Mario and used its beam sword to attack while Mario brought his hammer up to defend himself. Sure, a hammer wasn't as strong as a beam sword, but his Ultra Hammer could stand up to a weapon like that.

While General Shroob was occupied with Mario, Luigi attacked the alien with a flutter jump. He tried to snatch the key from General Shroob, but it whirled over to him and whacked his nose with its shield.

"Youch!" Luigi cried.

"(I can sense you, you know,)" mentioned General Shroob as Chopper managed to kick its head with light power on his feet. He even used a light jump to deal some extra damage as well.

"I don't know what you said, but I don t think you saw THAT coming…" Chopper trailed as he ducked when General Shroob attempted to slice at him horizontally. Tipral fired a Star Spear at General Shroob s head to stop it, while Kirby charged up a laser attack and prepared to fire.

"Poyo! (Gotcha!)" Kirby smirked as a pink laser fired out of his visor and struck General Shroob. At this point, things were starting to become a little easier for the group now that they knew General Shroob's strategy.

But that s when General Shroob realized this after Blade was able to deliver a kick to its face. It grabbed a plasma grenade it happened to be carrying and threw it toward the group. It actually stuck on Tipral, which he tried to get off him.

"What is this supposed to be?" questioned Tipral.

"(That's my plasma grenade!)" General Shroob cackled. "(That thing's going to explode on you pretty soon!)"

Before anything else occurred, the grenade exploded and knocked Tipral over by the door. General Shroob grinned as it prepared to fire at him, but Mario was able to stop the alien by jumping on its head.

"Sonic's speed could really help us against this thing," Blade remarked as General Shroob charged at him with its beam sword. The two ended up clashing, with both of them attempting to push each other back and attack.

Kirby was about to come in to attack, but Blade turned his head to Kirby with a stay back look which made the pink puffball back away. However, because he left his sight off General Shroob, it gave the alien an opportunity to strike back.

…But it failed when Blade used his hurricane slash to drive General Shroob back.

"(I thought that would work?!)" General Shroob gaped.

"You think I m going to let myself get hurt like that? Of course not!" Blade scoffed as he taunted his foe. Mario jumped on General Shroob s head afterward and then attacked with his powerful Super Ground Pound.

General Shroob cringed in pain as it was left dazed, allowing Kirby to shoot multiple lasers at the Mushroom alien. When he fired a charged shot, General Shroob used its shield to protect itself.

"Poyo… (That shield is a bit of a problem…)" Kirby trailed.

What made things worse was when General Shroob drew another blaster it happened to have and began to dual wield.

"It can dual wield guns now?!" Chopper gaped. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"You guys are acting like it s a huge deal," Tipral said as he cracked his knuckles. "Honestly. It isn't."

When General Shroob fired two blasts at Tipral, he threw two Star Spears to create an explosion. This gave him the opportunity to throw a shadow ball at General Shroob to leave it cringing in pain.

"(Gah! Dark power!)" General Shroob cried.

"It appears he doesn't like that. I should start using that more."

"Maybe light power might do something too," Chopper mentioned as his clenched his fists, which began to have a light glow surround them. Tipral clenched one of his fists as well, which had dark mist around them.

General Shroob brought its shield up to protect itself, but Mario bashed its head from behind with his hammer, which allowed Chopper and Tipral to throw a shadow and light ball at the alien.

"You know, we do kind of make a good team…" Chopper trailed.

"Don't even think about something like that," Tipral warned. "I still hate you for what you've done to me."

"I'm not saying we should. I still hate what you did to us!"

They stopped and turned their attention back to General Shroob, who got stomped on the head by Luigi s flutter jump. It pulled two shields out and used them to block Luigi's Cyclone afterward.

"Two shields? How can it use two?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: I guess it just likes to carry two?

Kirby tried to shoot at General Shroob, but it used its two shields to block the laser and deflect it back at Kirby. It was about to hit him, but Mario grabbed Reflecto and deflected it back at General Shroob.

"Bro! He's just going to deflect that attack back!" Luigi cried.

Mario: Thanks for saying that out loud… -_-;

"(Yeah! Thanks!)" General Shroob grinned until it got struck by a dark punch from Tipral, leaving it in severe pain.

"OK, so we re definitely more than halfway done with this guy," Blade noted. "Although, we need to somehow get rid of those shields… Is there anything that can stop them?"

"Maybe I can freeze them?" Chopper suggested.

"Well, I suppose you could try."

Chopper started off by using Starbow to make shooting stars fall on General Shroob. After a couple hit it, it used its two shields to protect itself from taking any damage. That's when Chopper tossed an ice ball at one of the shields, leaving it frozen solid.

"(What the…! My shield!)" General Shroob gaped as Chopper froze the other. "(Well that's great… Now my shields won't help me here!)"

Kirby smiled as he fired a charged laser at General Shroob, who cringed upon getting hit. However, this didn't mean that it was going to give up just yet. It turned to Kirby and fired rapid shots from its two guns and then drew its two beam swords.

"Two beam swords aren't going to help you win a fight," Blade mentioned before he got struck by the two beam swords. He gaped when he saw General Shroob spinning its two beam swords around him.

"Holy crap! How the HELL can he do that?!"

"No time to question that, Blade. We just need to fight!" Chopper called out as he flipped into 3-D to avoid General Shroob's spinning beam swords. When he went back into 2-D, he was behind the Shroob and jumped on its head while performing a stylish move. He also attacked with a light jump before getting knocked back by its beam swords.

General Shroob pulled out another plasma grenade and threw it toward Tipral again. This time, however, he teleported out of the way, but now it was coming toward Luigi. Mario gasped and pulled his brother out of the way so it hit the wall and exploded.

The Shroob charged at Kirby next with his beam swords, but Kirby's Final Cutter was all he needed to block its attack and strike it with the blade. Blade then slashed at it and struck it with a fire slash.

"(I've got an idea that won't require me to come up to you!)" General Shroob raised its two beam swords up, which seemed to resemble the letter X before it threw one of its beam swords.

"Whoa!" Chopper gaped as he ducked. Tipral, however, managed to catch the beam sword without a problem.

"(What the… Give that back!)"

"Oh, you want this, right?" Tipral asked as he looked at the beam sword. "Here, I'll give it back to you."

He teleported up to General Shroob and transformed the beam sword into a dark beam sword with his dark energy and managed to slash the alien general with it, leaving it screaming in pain.

"I don't think you need these weapons anymore," Tipral said as he kicked General Shroob with a Star Kick and took its other beam sword. He smashed their hilts, which destroyed both beam swords.

All that left General Shroob was its blasters and grenades.

Well at least attacking in close range should be easier, Blade noted as he prepared to make another move. General Shroob grabbed its blasters and began to rapidly fire at Blade while he blocked some of the attacks. Mario took this time to get on Blade's head so he could jump on General Shroob. This plan turned out to be a success after Mario attacked with a Super Ground Pound.

Now that General Shroob was open for an attack, Blade landed a combo with his katana and finished off with a Dragon Beam, which sent the Shroob flying to the wall and leaving it in severe pain.

Kirby walked over to the alien, but once it pulled out a plasma grenade, Chopper pulled Kirby out of the way and inhaled it instead and spat it back at General Shroob, which exploded and left it flying in the air.

"(What's wrong with me?! They destroyed my beam swords and shields, and now I'm getting my butt kicked!)" General Shroob cried as Luigi attacked with a Super Jump, while Tipral kicked it to the ground.

Chopper was about to toss a light ball at General Shroob, but he noticed Luvbi looked calm. Apparently she seemed to be praying with her wings held together. He decided not to question her, so he tossed the light ball at General Shroob.

"OK, he's almost down," Chopper sighed.

"Perfect. The sooner we get rid of this ugly Mushroom, we can free that annoying hedgehog friend of yours." Tipral said as he jumped up and threw a Star Spear down at General Shroob.

When the general looked at itself, it noticed it was heavily bruised up and knew it was going to be over soon. But even still, it didn't give up. General Shroob aimed its two blasters and began to fire charged shots.

"Watch out, bro!" Luigi cried as Mario ducked under some of the shots. He even used Reflecto to deflect one of the shots back at General Shroob to leave it stunned.

Mario: I guess one more hit should do it!

"Yeah! Go for it, bro!" Luigi cheered.

Mario gave him a nod and charged straight at General Shroob. Unfortunately, his attack failed when General Shroob whacked his nose with one of its blasters.

"(Have this instead!)" General Shroob shouted as it threw a plasma grenade at Mario, who gasped and jumped over it. It was now on the ground, and it wouldn't get off either.

But then General Shroob threw the Prison Key over by the grenade.

"(If I'm going to lose, then I might as well make you lose by destroying what you need!)"

"Oh, no! You re not doing that!" Chopper growled, but unfortunately, the grenade exploded, which made his gasp. When the explosion was gone, the key was gone as well.

"Poyo! (No! The key!)" Kirby cried.

"We needed that key!" Luigi cried.

"(Well I did my job!)" General Shroob smirked. Mario, angered by the Shroob, jumped on its head to finish it off, which made it fall over on the ground. However, it seemed to be grinning.

"I can't believe that prick did that!" Blade hissed as General Shroob disintegrated. Unsatisfied with their victory, they decided to walk away from the capsule.

"So now what?" Chopper asked. "We can't free Sonic now!

"We fought that thing for nothing!"

"Actually… I wouldn't say that…" Tipral trailed.

"What do you mean? Chopper wondered before noticing the Prison Key in Tipral's hands. "Wait a second… Is that the key?"

"Yes it is. What do you THINK it is?!"

"But… How did you get it?"

"Stupid Chopper… You don t remember my ability to stop time, don't you?"

Mario: You stopped time before the grenade exploded?

"Yes. However, it was very brief, so none of you noticed. If the key was destroyed, its parts would be everywhere."

"But why did you do it?"

"Because we probably can't destroy that stupid alien kid without that blue hedgehog. I'm sure we need him if we're going to progress."

"Yeah, good point," Luigi agreed. "Though, is that all you keep thinking about?"

Tipral ignored him and walked over to the door, but he happened to notice Luvbi still praying. "And what is she doing? Was she doing that the whole time?"

Luvbi heard him and opened her eyes to give him a glare. "If thou must knoweth, I was praying for my sweet prince to stayeth safe from harm! What else could I dost? I can't fight like thee!"

"Hmph… Whatever… Let's just go back to where that blue hedgehog is."

* * *

**Area 4, Sonic's prison cell-**

"Sonic! We re back!" Blade called out as the six entered the prison room. Sonic's ears perked up as he stood up and ran over to the group.

"Aw, man! Thank goodness! I was getting tired of being in here!" Sonic sighed. "You don't wanna know how bad this place is…"

"Stand back," Tipral ordered as he used the key to unlock the cell. Sonic jumped out and made a pose.

"Yes! I'm finally out of there!"

"That means we're all back together again!" Luigi realized. "Oh, man! It feels great to not be separated!"

"Yeah, it sure does," Chopper agreed. "Now that we have everyone here, we can stop Shade and get the Pure Heart he has!"

"Wait, Shade's here?" Sonic gawked.

"Yeah. This is his base. Well… We re kind of outside the comet at the moment, but that's not problem. We'll probably get to the center of the comet, which must be where he is."

"Oh… Well, I'll help you stop him so we can get that Pure Heart…but why is Tipral here? He destroyed our worlds!"

"You know I m responsible for getting that key," Tipral noted. "And besides, I don t have my scepter, book and even the Chaos Heart with me now. Plus, Chopper agreed to work together to stop Shade anyway."

"Oh, yeah… Two enemies having a common enemy… I see what you mean. But I'm still not going to forgive you for what you did."

"I know you won't. But right now, I want to crush that alien kid, so we re not going to stay here any longer!"

**Sonic rejoined the party!**

"C'mon! We re not staying here any longer!" Sonic stated as he sped over to the door, which almost knocked Luvbi down.

"Hmph! Have some manners for once, Knave!" Luvbi scoffed, giving the blue hedgehog a glare.

"…What's she doing here?"

"It's…kind of a long story," Chopper sighed as he sweat dropped. "Long story short, her parents were kidnapped by Shade."

"How does the king and queen of death, who just might be the most powerful beings in the universe, get captured by some alien kid? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Then again, Fawful makes no sense."

"Good point…"

They left the prison room and returned outside. Before Sonic could make any comments, they threw him in the water and listened to him choking until he landed on the pathway below.

"What the heck, guys?! Why didn't you tell me there was water?!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Because we knew you'd freak out," Blade answered as they made their way to the door. However, they decided to look up at the water block above. "Let's check that way."

"Yes, we should," Chopper agreed as he jumped into the water block and swam up and found an underwater path to the right. Blade grabbed Sonic and helped him through to a door that led into a secret room with a large row of coins.

"Poyo? (This is it?)" Kirby gawked.

"No, there should be more…" Chopper trailed as he flipped into 3-D. Not only did the coins multiply, but he saw a blue ! switch on the ground, so after collecting the coins, he kicked the switch to reveal a couple of Copy Abilities.

"Paint ability? Oh, man! I need that!" Chopper grabbed the Paint ability, while Kirby decided to take the Magic ability to replace his Laser ability. He now donned a red wizard's hat.

"Wow, you guys are lucky," Blade commented.

"We sure are! Now let's go back to the fifth area."

* * *

**Area 5-**

"Oh, is this what was in your way?" Sonic asked as they made their way to the blocked door with the large blue wheel in the front.

"Yea, verily," Luvbi answered. "They didst say thou couldst possibly dost this, Knave."

"Ugh… I thought you wouldn't be so rude to us." Sonic sighed as he curled up in a ball and used his Speed Dash on the wheel. This caused the blocked door to open up and allow them through. There, they were met with two Dark Soldiers that began to fire.

"Dark Creatures?! Here?!"

"Do we have to explain again?" Luigi sighed.

"No. We re just going to continue on." Tipral decided before he noticed one of the Dark Soldiers take out a grenade and throw it toward the group.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby raised his arms and made lightning strike both Dark Soldiers to paralyze them. Sonic waited for the grenade to explode before he curled up in a ball and defeated both Dark Creatures with a Spin Dash.

However, he continued to roll down because the pathway began to move down. Upon seeing this, everyone hurried down to get to Sonic. That's when he hit a gravity switch, causing them to all fall upward on another pathway.

"Whoa! What happened?!" Sonic gaped as he got out of his ball form.

Mario: You changed the gravity.

"Really? Wow! I wasn't expecting that!"

"Just shut up and keep moving," Tipral suggested as he began to hurry on ahead while Sonic looked confused. Nevertheless, they followed Tipral until they encountered some Thwomps slamming the pathway, and they were upside down as well!

"They're moving too fast…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: I know we could probably flip to get through them…

"Ummmmm… I don t think I can flip into 3-D when upside down." Chopper sweat dropped. "Sorry…"

"Then I'll just have to stop time," declared Tipral as he swung his arm. "This shouldn't be a huge problem for me."

Tipral stopped time just at the right moment for them to get past the Thwomps. When everyone made it through, he reverted time back to normal and noticed the pathway going at a lower angle from their perspective.

"So I suppose speed doth be important hither?" Luvbi wondered.

"Beats me, but I'm loving this!" Sonic grinned as he ran down, while Chopper followed next after his Speed Dash. They ended up going through a loop before finding another gravity switch pointing to the right.

They waited for everyone else to catch up before they touched the switch. They were falling toward the right and landed on a green pathway with a small ledge ahead. An Artificial Stardie was waiting for them.

"Wait, didn't we see this thing before in Starland Galaxy?" Sonic gawked.

"Yeah, we definitely did," Chopper nodded.

"Well I'll handle this thing," Sonic curled up in a ball and attacked its head with a Homing Attack. It surprisingly worked, considering that he homed in on the Artificial Stardie by its head. After two more attacks from Sonic, it was destroyed.

"That's still not that good," Tipral scoffed. "That's not a very effective strategy against some stronger enemies."

"Well it worked," Blade noted. "Anyway, moving on."

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed. "I doth want to be somewhere safe with my sweet prince!"

Chopper ended up sweat dropping, but he continued on and followed by jumping on the ledge and finding another gravity switch that was pointing to the left. They noticed there was a yellow pathway over there.

"Kinda reminds me a bit of that one place in the Space Colony ARK," Sonic recalled.

"Then you might know what goes on around here, right?" Tipral wondered.

"Errrr… I'm not sure. I've never been in this area before…"

Mario: We might as well hit that switch.

"Poyo! (I'll hit it!)" Kirby touched the switch, which made everyone fall to the left and land on the yellow pathway. There wasn't much else around except for a spring pointing to the right. From what they could see, it could bring them behind the green pathway they were previously on.

They did this and ended up behind the green pathway. They found another gravity switch that led them down. This time, they found a gap between the blue path they were on and the pathway leading up to a path curving up to a door on a ledge.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a bridge and also something behind the ledge. When he crossed over, he noticed a pipe, so they all decided to go in and find themselves in a lab-like room, which would resemble an underground room.

"Wait a second, what's that?" Blade asked as they looked up at the purple Megabite, which happened to be a Terabite. It began to fly all over the room, attempting to bite at the group. Luvbi even let out a shriek and fluttered over to Chopper.

"Helpth me, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cried. "I dost not want to get hurt by that thing!"

"Ugh… I'll get rid of it." Tipral groaned while he snapped his finger, damaging the Terabite. But, like most of these enemies, it didn't do much damage. "Great… I forgot these enemies don't take much damage…"

Kirby took this time to make lightning strike down on the Terabite a couple of times to finish it off. A chest appeared in the center of the room right by Tipral. When he opened the chest, he found a Max Shroom Shake inside.

"All right, I suppose this'll help us…"

"Now let's get out of here," Chopper suggested as they left the lab-like room and returned to the space area. They made their way up the ledge and entered the door, which led them to an area with a path curved up to a ledge just up ahead for them.

"Didn't we just see that, though?" Luigi gawked.

"Poyo, (We saw it in the previous area,)" recalled Kirby.

Sonic shrugged and used his Spin Dash to go up the curve and get on the ledge, while Chopper used a Speed Dash to make his way up. Up ahead was a large gap, but there was a blue wheel on the floor. There also happened to be a Dark Wizard between the gap firing magic.

Thankfully, Kirby was able to take care of it by using an ice spell to leave the Dark Wizard frozen solid. After Sonic finished his Spin Dash on the wheel, a glowing yellow rail appeared.

"Hmmmm? A glowing rail? That's interesting…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: It doesn't look like it s going to last forever…

"Then we need to move fast," Chopper suggested as he ran across the rail while ignoring the frozen Dark Wizard. Tipral teleported over to the other side, while the rest simply followed to a railing above them that was moving up.

"That transport device looks like it still works," Tipral noticed as he grabbed a hold of it. He was instantly taken up to a platform above them that had a Dark Soldier and Dark Brute waiting for him. He didn't take much time to finish them off with his Star powers before the transport device went back down to the others.

"Poyo, (It looks like we can only go one at a time,)" Kirby noted as he grabbed the handle next and let it take him over to Tipral. After a while, everyone else managed to get up to the platform and find another curved pathway going up.

"Oh, come on!" Blade whined. "Not everyone here can do this!"

Sonic went into a ball and used his Spin Dash to go up, while Chopper charged up a Speed Dash to make his way up. Blade resorted to climbing up with his kunais, while Kirby floated up and Luigi used a Super Jump.

Mario: What about me?!

"I'm still not helping thee, mustachioed fatty," Luvbi scoffed.

"Come on, Luvbi, just do it," Chopper sweat dropped. "I'm not going to take off my Paint ability just to get Mario up here."

"But he doth be heavy for me! He might weigh a ton!"

Mario: Well I certainly don't.

"Ugh… Fine. I'll do it myself." Sonic sighed as he jumped down, grabbed Mario and made his way back up after building some speed.

"Thou dost know that I could've done it if thou didst giveth me a kiss," Luvbi mentioned, fluttering close to Chopper, who backed away from her.

"Uhhhhh… No no! I don t want to catch your cooties!" Chopper cried. "I don't want to have to think about disinfecting my cheek from your kisses!"

"You seriously do that?" Tipral face palmed. "Look, I hate you a lot, but I didn't know you would do something THAT stupid!"

"At least I have better motives than you."

"…Yeah, that's true," Luigi nodded. "Actually, we all have better motives than him."

Mario: Uh huh!

When Blade carried on, everyone else noticed and followed him up ahead to a yellow block that was in the way. There was a pathway above them that appeared to look like a tunnel.

"OK, I think we need to smash this thing," Blade declared as Chopper whipped out Cudge and smashed the block with his hammer, revealing a yellow spring. They used it to launch themselves up to the pathway above that led into a tunnel.

"Whoa, what's that up ahead?" Sonic asked, pointing at the Dark Brute carrying a larger gun in its hand.

"Dark Brute… And it's holding a Plasma Launcher…" Blade gulped.

Mario: Oh… That doesn't sound good…

"I think I have an idea," Chopper sped over to the Dark Brute and painted it green to poison it. "Now it'll take a bit of damage for a bit with it poisoned. I think this should make it easier for us."

Tipral understood and fired a Star Spear at the Dark Brute, while it fired a plasma blast from its weapon toward them. Sonic grabbed Reflecto and deflected the shot away and back at the Dark Brute.

Since it was low on HP, Mario bashed it with his hammer to become victorious.

They continued on through the short pathway until they reached a railing curving up to a ledge above them in the tunnel. They did the usual and got themselves up, with Luvbi being forced to carry Mario up.

"Thou art so heavy!" Luvbi cried as she had a hard time lifting him off the ground. "Why dost thou not loseth weight for once?!"

Mario: Do you always have to talk about my weight?

"Luvbi, just stop whining about it…" Chopper sighed. "It's getting tiring now."

Luvbi remembered something, which gave her the energy to pull Mario onto the ledge. Afterward, she fluttered over to Chopper and gave him a smile before she got ready to pucker up.

"Wah! What're you doing, Luvbi?!"

"Well, I didst say something about a kiss if I didst that. And now that I didst it, thou shouldst kiss me on the lips! Thou would maketh a girl so happy!"

"No!"

However, Luvbi wasn't going to back down this time. She instantly brought her lips to Chopper's and kissed him on the lips, to his dismay of course.

"All right, all right already," Blade cut in as he grabbed Chopper and pulled him away from Luvbi. He began to wipe his mouth in disgust as Luvbi swooned over the boy.

Up ahead, they noticed a wall that was in the way. They couldn't even find a switch around to find out if it needed to be opened.

"Hold on, let me check in 3-D," Chopper went into 3-D and noticed three holes he could jump down. He helped the rest of the group into 3-D and decided to take the middle hole. They were greeted with a speed panel upon landing, which sped them up to a glowing railing that helped them reach a door.

"Quickly! Through here!" Luigi cried as they went through the door into an area where they found a high ledge ahead. Sadly, it looked like it wasn't high enough for Luigi to jump over.

"Hey, look! I see three puzzles!" Thoreau noticed a pipe nearby with a Dark Wizard coming out and two red ! switches that required them to be hit quickly.

Mario: I suppose you'll be useful here!

"Well, eetz about time I got to do something useful here!" Bonjourang cheered. "Zis puzzle doesn't look too hard for zee likes of me!"

Luigi grabbed a hold of Bonjourang and threw him at the switches, which he was able to hit at once. Mario, meanwhile, tossed Thoreau at a Dark Wizard so he could grab it for Mario and allow him to throw it at the blue ! block. This triggered a large spring to appear near the ledge.

"Prithee, doth this be some kind of joke?" Luvbi gawked. "Thine reward is merely a large spring?"

"Hold on a minute…" Sonic trailed as he checked the spring. "I think we can use this for something. I mean, we can put our own weight on this thing, right?"

The seven jumped on the spring, while Luvbi decided to fly up to the ledge herself. When they jumped at once, the spring didn't appear to move.

"This isn't going to work. We need some more weight to get this to work." Tipral informed.

Mario began to ponder, but after realizing what he could do, he jumped in the air and used his Super Ground Pound to send everyone flying up to the ledge. They landed right in front of Luvbi, who backed away and gave an irritated look.

"Thou always hast to land close to me," Luvbi groaned before noticing Chopper dazed. "Oh, Chopper! Art thou all right?"

"Does this girl have multiple personalities or something?" Blade gawked.

"Poyo… (I think so…)" Kirby trailed.

When Luvbi went over to Chopper, he seemed to back away from her, telling her he doesn't want her near him. Meanwhile, Sonic noticed a gap up ahead, but there also happened to be a small asteroid by them as well.

"Guys, I think we have a problem…" the blue hedgehog trailed.

"What is it?" Luigi asked until he noticed too. "Oh… This isn't good!"

"Wait a minute… Is that a blue ! block up ahead? If that's the case, then we need something to help us hit that thing…"

Mario then had an idea after looking at the asteroid. He took Kickbrin and used him to knock the asteroid over by the block. Once it was hit, a spinning drum pointing up appeared before them.

Mario: There we go!

"But why a gravity cylinder?" Luigi wondered. "I never liked those…"

"It's not big deal. You just go to the top and that's it." Tipral said as he jumped near the gravity cylinder, which pulled him in and allowed him to go up. Everyone shrugged and followed him up.

"How dost thou get out of the gravity?" Luvbi asked, getting sucked in by the gravity cylinder.

"Poyo? (Maybe fly away from it?)" Kirby shrugged.

"My sweet prince, canst thou tellest me what that gumball said to me?"

"Poyo?! (Gumball?!)"

"Ummmmm… OK, he said that you could probably fly away from the gravity cylinder." Chopper shrugged.

"Oh… Mayhap I will." With that, Luvbi fluttered out of the gravity cylinder's reach, allowing her to fly upward while the others reached the top. They landed on the pathway ahead, which had them being introduced to a plasma grenade from a Dark Soldier.

"Whoa! Heads up!" Sonic cried as he ducked. Tipral ended up grabbing it, but he couldn't throw it back because it was stuck to his hand.

"What the…! I can't get it off!" Tipral hissed as he felt an explosion from his hand. His glove was covered in soot afterward, but he didn't let it bother him as he clenched his fists in rage as he dove at the Dark Soldier and continued to beat it with a couple of Star Punches.

"Whoa, someone's pretty pissed…" Blade trailed as Tipral finished the Dark Creature off with a dark punch. He then got back up and looked at his soot-covered hand.

"Kind of reminds me of when you ended up punching the wall," Chopper recalled as he went over to Tipral, who ended up whacking his face with his other fist despite not even facing him.

"Bringing back horrible memories isn't going to make things any better, Chopper," Tipral remarked. "You're better off shutting up about that, or else the next time we meet another Dark Creature with a plasma grenade, it'll be YOUR hand that gets it!"

Chopper blinked before slowly backing away. Tipral glared at him for a moment before looking away and noticing another pathway a bit above them that was covered in flames. Touching it would be incredibly dangerous.

"Well that's great…" Luigi sighed. "How are we going to get through a flaming pathway?"

"Maybe I can help!" Crystaline chirped. "After all, I can freeze things!"

"But doesn't fire melt ice?" Chopper pondered.

"Yea, it dost," Luvbi agreed.

"Well, I certainly won't!" Crystaline assured as Kirby grabbed the snowflake Pixl and tossed her on the flaming pathway. It turned into a frozen one instead, allowing them all to make their way across to a railway going down.

"I'm going first!" Sonic declared as he rolled down the railway while in a ball. Mario and Luigi slid down, while Chopper and Tipral sped down with ease. Kirby and Blade… They only walked down there.

After the railway ended, they found a gravity switch pointing to the right. Mario gave it a good poke as they were all sent flying to the right. They ended up landing in a water block that was long in height.

Sonic, of course, was not having an easy time. Not only that, but he couldn't swim, which was making him sink _out_ of the water block.

Blade was thankfully there to help him escape from such peril though.

But even then, it wasn't getting any better when Luvbi quickly grabbed Chopper and put her lips on his, which made Chopper cry out despite being trapped in Luvbi's grasps. Luvbi, on the other hand, was looking delighted.

"Man, it must be hard having an obsessed girl over you, right bro?" Luigi asked as he eyed Mario.

Mario: I had difficult times with girls before…

"Oh, yeah… I remember that."

They continued to swim upward until they found a larger water block that was large in height and width next to it, so they swam out of the block and went in the larger one. Kirby touched the gravity switch pointing down so the gravity went back to normal. Past the water block was a platform with a door and a Dark Wizard waiting.

In fact, there happened to be two Dark Wizards in the water.

"Poyo! (Dark Wizards are in the water!)" Kirby gaped as he used his magic to strike the two wizards with lightning. Blade swam up to them and finished them off by slashing at them with his katana.

When they got out of the water block, Chopper was able to get his lips off of Luvbi's and continuously spit in disgust as Sonic attacked the Dark Wizard with his Sonic Wind, followed by a Homing Attack. Luigi finished it off with his Cyclone.

"I wonder how long we have to go through here," Luigi wondered.

"Hopefully soon…" Chopper coughed. "Seriously, I don't want to run into another water block, or else Luvbi's going to kiss me on the lips again!"

"Pray, I doth hope that happens," Luvbi gushed, pink hearts fluttering over her head. "That was sooooo enjoyable!"

Chopper felt like he wanted to kill himself as they entered the next area, which happened to have a starry road ahead, which surprised them all.

"A starry path? Wow!"

"I can actually see some of the comet," Sonic mentioned, noticing how much darkness was covering the place. "That's the comet, right?"

"We're not even far from it…" Blade trailed. "In fact, I still see some bits of the comet ahead. I'm talking about the rocky platforms."

"Really?" Sonic sped up ahead through the starry path. He ended up going through a loop on his way and finding a small ledge with the path he was running on having a spring facing him. He ended up braking in front of it.

"That was TOO close…"

"We've been through eight big areas so far…" Tipral trailed as he braked by the spring with his air shoes, which created flaming skid marks on the starry path. "If there's ten, then we're not too far from being finished here."

"I bet there's a way through this outer area that can lead us straight to Shade in the comet," Chopper pondered as he jumped on the ledge and noticed the moving purple rocky platform ahead.

"You think the gravity has something to do with this?"

Mario: Most likely.

They jumped on the platform and managed to defeat the Dark Assassin waiting for them. They couldn't help but take a good look at the starry sky before waiting for one of the platforms ahead. Two platforms happened to be circling around, so after jumping on one, they jumped on one that had an arrow pointing up.

"Ooh… This might be dangerous…" Sonic trailed.

"Poyo? (How so?)" Kirby wondered.

"I'm sure there's…wait, there IS a platform upside down!" Chopper gaped as he looked up. He gave the switch a whack, and then they were lifted off the ground and onto the platform above them.

"I don't know why, but this whole gravity thing is kind of making me sick…" Luigi mumbled.

Mario: Well let's not try to get sick, OK?

They waited for the next platform to come over by them before jumping on it. Sonic started to tap his foot because of how slow the platform was moving, but when they found the next one, which was moving up and down, they jumped on and found another starry path upside down.

"This should be interesting…" Blade trailed.

They walked across the starry pathway and found a switch that brought the gravity back to normal. They ended up landing on a large, yellow star, which surprisingly didn't seem to burn them.

"Wow! We're standing on a star!" Chopper gaped.

"But that doth be strange when stars art verily hot," Luvbi mentioned.

"Well apparently this one isn't," Sonic noticed.

They noticed another one ahead, so they jumped off the star and landed on a red one instead. Luigi recalled red stars being the coldest, while blue were one of the hottest. However, he stopped when he noticed a rocky platform high above them. His Super Jump was able to reach it, while Kirby floated up there himself.

"Oh, boy… Hold on a second." Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a pole to climb up. He got everyone else into 3-D and climbed up the pole with ease until they got on the platform, which Chopper went back into 2-D.

"Poyo… (Uh oh… This isn't good…)" Kirby gulped, noticing some gray platforms ahead slowly fading away and reappearing. "Poyo. (We have to be careful here.)"

They waited for the platform to reappear before jumping on it. There were a couple of other platforms they had to jump as well, so they quickly got on them until they landed on a purple platform with a couple of gray platforms close to each other disappearing at a fast pace.

"So what ideas dost thou hath, heroes?" Luvbi asked.

"You know, I'm not actually a hero," Tipral mentioned. "I'm only here to kill that alien and help get that Pure Heart."

"Look, that's not important right now," Sonic cut in. "We need to be fast to get through this."

"I know what to do!" Chopper smiled as he charged a Speed Dash and took off at the right moment, which helped him reach the starry pathway. He ended up finding a yellow ? block and Save Block near him too.

Blade took his time and used his hurricane slash to make everyone get sent flying over the platforms, while Luvbi was forced to take him across, which she didn't seem to enjoy.

"I'd rather helpeth my sweet prince through hither than thee!" Luvbi sulked.

"Oh, quit whining!" Blade said, giving her an annoyed look. "Ya gotta deal with it!"

Chopper hit the block and a Star Shroom popped out. Blade sliced it into seven pieces so they could all recover 150 HP. Afterward, they made their way across the long, starry path and over to a long, rocky platform with two purple rocky platforms above it. There also appeared to be spikes on the background of the platform.

"Gee… This doesn't look nice…" Luigi trailed.

"Well well well… It looks like you people made it this far!"

They looked up and saw the Necromancer fly down and land in front of the group with his sword ready. Everyone quickly got in their fighting stances.

"So, you're here to fight, right?" Chopper asked.

"And I hope thou hast not laid a hand on mine parents!" Luvbi growled. "If thou hast, then I will make thee pay!"

"Oh shut up, you. They're not even hurt!" the Necromancer snapped. "Well… Not yet, that is! And look at this! It appears everyone's back together again!"

"I'm going to rip that helmet off your head pretty soon," Tipral threatened as he clenched his fists in anger. "I want you to tell Shade that I'm coming for him, because I have a bone to pick with that kid!"

"Feisty little…"

"What's with that crack below your eye anyway?" Blade wondered, noticing the crack below the Necromancer's right eye.

"That was caused by that kid you have with you!" the Necromancer hissed, glaring at Chopper. "You… You nearly ruined my helmet from that weapon you carried!"

"All right, let's stop already," Chopper cut in. "Let's just fight, all right?"

"…Oh, yes. I almost forgot! Actually, I'm not here to fight you. I wanted to introduce you to a special friend…or rather, a type of minion created by Shade! It's a Dark Wizard much stronger than before! Trust me, a Wizrim is just what you need!"

The Necromancer flew up and struck white lightning on the ground, summoning a Dark Wizard with orange eyes, no legs, a black cape and a large wand that also resembled a scythe. The hood it wore reminded everyone of a grim reaper.

"So, what do we have here?" the Wizrim asked. "It looks like we've got a couple of unwelcome guests who need to be put out of their misery! No worries, great Necromancer! They will be gone…pretty soon!"

"Excellent! Do not fail me!" the Necromancer grinned as he flew off. "And don't think that's the last of that thing! There's plenty of more Wizrim's especially around the deeper area of the comet!"

"All right, so we just have to deal with this guy…" Sonic trailed as he taunted the Wizrim. "Bring it on!"

"With pleasure!" the Wizrim grinned as it flew forward, its dark mist being left behind as it moved.

Blade noticed the Wizrim had 460 HP, an Attack of 19 and a Defense of 9, which reminded him of the Egg Dimensionator for some reason. With that aside, he readied his katana.

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic shouted as the Wizrim was surrounded in a blue gust of wind. It cringed as it crashed on one of the floating platforms.

"Gah! This place will be your grave!" the Wizrim hissed as it fired dark magic from its scythe wand. Sonic ended up getting hit, but that didn't hold him back, especially when he was able to get up quickly.

Mario: A scythe that's also a wand? This could be tricky…

"Well, we've faced worse things…" Chopper trailed, tossing a light ball at the Wizrim. It quickly avoid the attack and brought its scythe down in order to hit Chopper. It ended up missing and getting its scythe stuck on the ground.

Luigi took this chance to jump on its head, which caused its eyes to widen in pain. He also added a flutter jump to the mix as well.

"Enough with that!" the Wizrim roared as it pulled its scythe out of the ground and managed to strike Luigi with it. The Dark Wizard didn't notice Mario bashing its head with his hammer in retaliation.

When the Dark Wizard turned to Mario, it fired magic at Mario that knocked him back. Blade tried to slash the Wizrim with his katana, but it was able to block his attack with its scythe.

"Yeesh… This thing knows how to block weapons!" Blade blinked.

"So what shouldst I do?" Luvbi asked as she watched the fight.

"Find someplace safe!" Chopper cried. "Anywhere!"

"Of course, my sweet prince."

"Hmmmmm… Maybe when I'm done ending your games, I might have an idea of what to do with that girlfriend of yours." the Wizrim grinned under its hood as Chopper ducked under its scythe that was about to slice him in half.

"You're not going to do anything to her, 'cause we're going to beat you!" Chopper shot back while gripping his hammer. He jumped in the air and spun it vertically at the Wizrim, hitting its face and making it cry out in pain.

"What's this? A stronger Dark Wizard crying out?" Tipral noticed. "I thought they could take as many hits as it could?"

The Wizrim hissed at Tipral as it fired dark magic from its scythe at him. He tossed a shadow ball at one of the projectiles to destroy both, allowing him to swing both his arms down to fire two Star Spears.

It tried to get away, but the Star Spears were quick enough to hit the Wizrim and leave it open for another attack, so Kirby used his Magic ability to make lightning strike the Wizrim and electrocute it.

"Gah… You may have your special kind of abilities, but dark magic triumphs all!" the Wizrim boasted.

"Poyo, (We'll see about that,)" Kirby smirked as he fired some icicles toward the Wizrim, which it managed to block by putting its scythe in front of it. It then flew up, which gave Luigi the chance to attack by using his Super Jump, which he was about to hit easily.

The Wizrim tried to hit Luigi with its scythe, but Blade was able to clash with the Wizrim and win it by kicking its face - which was vulnerable, and then he attacked it with a fire slash, leaving it with a nasty burn.

Sonic delivered a Homing Attack to its face while it was off guard and used his Whirlwind to send it flying upward. Sadly, it didn't appear to work for him.

"What? My Whirlwind can't do a thing to this guy?" Sonic gaped.

"I don't have any legs!" the Wizrim reminded. "I can't actually be lifted off the ground! And with the gravity around here, it's not like it's going to do a thing!"

"Hmmmm… That may be, but we can still hurt ya!"

"Yes, just like I can hurt you…"

Sonic attempted another Homing Attack, but the Wizrim brought its weapon up to block his attack. It struck the blue hedgehog with its scythe before getting pelted with a couple of shooting stars, which Starbow happened to be summoning.

"Take this!" Chopper cried as he hurled a light ball at the Wizrim's face. Not only did it leave it crying in pain, but it also blinded the Dark Wizard.

"My eyes! I cannot see!"

"Then that gives me the chance to attack!" Tipral declared, snapping his finger to strike the Wizrim with Star Magic. He then teleported over to it and used his Star Burst to send it flying up.

"Oh, cool! Now I can use my…" Luigi got cut off when Tipral teleported up to the Wizrim and began to beat it up before kicking it to the ground. "I… I could've attacked…"

The Wizrim cursed out as it managed to strike Tipral with dark magic from its scythe wand. The dark being tried to defend himself, but it didn't seem to work for him when he ended up getting knocked back.

While the Wizrim appeared pleased, Mario jumped on its head and performed a stylish move before using a Super Ground Pound to leave its eyes widening in pain. It tried, but it couldn't escape.

Mario: He's open for an attack!

"Poyo! (Great!)" Kirby smiled as he created a fire spell that scorched the Wizrim before it threw its weapon at Kirby, knocking him back. Chopper, using his paintbrush, was able to paint the Wizrim green to poison it.

"So, you can poison, huh? Well, being a wizard, I do have some skills of my own!" the Wizrim caught its scythe and used its magic to cure itself of the poison, leaving Chopper to gape.

"Are you serious?!" Chopper guffawed. "That's not fair!"

"When you have seven people fighting against you, you'd probably consider that fair in your eyes."

"Oh… I guess you have a point."

Kirby fired a lightning spell at the Wizrim, but it quickly dodged the attack and charged at Kirby, only to get hit in the face by Bonjourang. It didn't do much, but it brought its attention to Luigi - until Blade threw Hommissile at the Wizrim, bringing its attention to Blade.

But unfortunately, it didn't have enough time to take action when Blade unleashed his Dragon Beam at the Wizrim, sending it flying toward one of the platforms it happened to be near.

_"Ugh… This isn't going too well for me…"_

Chopper ran over to the Wizrim while it was dizzy and used his Paint ability to paint it white, freezing it, which allowed Mario to attack it with a Super Ground Pound. The Wizrim broke out of its icy prison and hit both Chopper and Mario with its scythe.

When it tried to attack Blade, he rolled out of the way and used Barry to block off its scythe attack. He unleashed another Dragon Beam, but it quickly got out of the way and hit Blade with dark magic.

"Geez… He can dodge that attack!" Blade gaped.

"Because he's most likely faster than that attack," Tipral noted.

Blade blinked as he ducked when the Wizrim attacked him. Tipral ducked as well and got on his hands and began to spin his feet around, which hit the Wizrim a couple of times from the Star energy on his feet.

"What's that supposed to be?!" the Wizrim guffawed.

"Looks like he's doing some kind of dance move…" Luigi trailed.

"It was an idea I had when trying to fight you," Tipral explained as he quickly got up and sent the Wizrim flying back with a Star Kick to the face. It growled as it quickly shook its head and threw its scythe.

Tipral teleported out of harm's way, while Sonic ended up getting hit by the scythe. The Wizrim teleported to the other side and caught its scythe, which it aimed at the group and fired multiple magic projectiles.

"Sure, Master Shadow Doom may have some great dark magic of his own, but his wand is not a scythe!" the Wizrim cackled.

"Well it's a sword that can summon fireballs from the sky…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh, really? Well, that's nothing special compared to this!"

The Wizrim noticed Kirby creating fireballs and firing them toward it, so it spun its katana around to deflect the fireballs. Everyone gasped as they took cover to avoid the fireballs.

"Hey! That's my move!" Blade guffawed.

"You didn't make it up, you know."

The ninja cat gave it a face as Luigi managed to use his Super Jump on the Dark Wizard, leaving it to try to attack Luigi. Its efforts failed when Mario used Kickbrin to knock the Wizrim to the ground.

Sonic made his next move by using a Spin Dash to hit the Wizrim directly. When he got out of his ball form, he ended up giving a thumbs up before the Wizrim flew up and aimed its scythe down at the ground.

"Let's see you handle THIS!"

The Wizrim fired a dark beam from its scythe that shot the ground and destroyed the middle part of it. Kirby stepped back, barely escaping the powerful attack the Wizrim performed.

"Poyo! (Part of the ground is destroyed!)" Kirby gaped.

The Wizrim grinned and fired small dark magic projectiles at the group, with Sonic using Reflecto to deflect them back at it and hit it. Chopper tossed a light ball, since he was too far to use his Paint ability.

This time, the Wizrim slashed at the sky with its scythe to open up a portal. Dark ghosts began to fly out and come down on the heroes. They didn't hurt them, but they were left distracted by them for the Wizrim to attack with its scythe.

Mario: That was just a distraction!

"Well, that happened to work out better than I thought!" the Wizrim cackled as the group tried to punch at the ghost. "Try all you want, but you can't actually hit a ghost!"

"If only we had Tippi's wand with us…" Chopper grumbled. "…Wait, maybe rainbow energy could work?"

He tossed some rainbow balls at some of the ghosts. While they weren't wiped out, they were left vulnerable, allowing Sonic to use his Whirlwind to catch them in a whirlwind and send them toward the Wizrim, whose eyes widened as it got hit by all the ghosts.

"How'd you do that?!"

"Oh, it's just something I'm only capable of doing," Sonic smirked. "Although… I think Shadow's capable of doing that too…"

The Wizrim looked like it didn't even care as it rushed over to Sonic and tried to hit him with its scythe. Sonic rolled out of the way and managed to get in a ball and attack it with a Spin Dash, while Luigi managed to stomp on its head afterward.

The Wizrim growled as it raised its scythe and made a dark beam fire upward. They noticed it coming down and homing in on them, so they ducked under one of the platforms so they wouldn't get hurt.

"Well that worked out a lot better than I thought," Blade commented.

"What? My attack didn't work?!" the Wizrim gaped. "Those platforms are seriously starting to get annoying…"

Mario: Good thing we used them, that's for sure…

"Now we can get back to crushing this poor Wizrim," Tipral remarked as he threw a shadow ball to keep the Wizrim off guard. He decided to grab Crystaline and throw it at the wizard to freeze it.

"I don't think that's going to keep it frozen forever…" Luigi trailed.

"I know, but that should give me some time to crush it!"

"Hold on, we're in this together," Chopper cut in, painting the Wizrim red to thaw it out and also leave a burn. Before the Wizrim could do anything else, Chopper charged up a fireball and threw it at the Wizrim.

"Grrrrr! Stupid ability!" the Wizrim used its scythe to knock away Chopper's ability, leaving him without an ability.

"My prince! Art thou all right? !" Luvbi gaped, getting interrupted by her praying when she sensed Chopper in trouble.

Chopper told her he was fine as we quickly got up. The Wizrim prepared to hit Chopper with its scythe again, but Blade jumped in and clashed with it by using his katana. Kirby also helped by using his magic to strike lightning down on the Wizrim.

"Thank you, Kirby!" Blade thanked as he slashed at the Wizrim to deal some massive damage. "Really appreciate it!"

"Poyo! (No problem!)" Kirby cheered.

The Wizrim hissed and managed to fire dark magic at both Kirby and Blade. The pink puffball's ability was knocked away, but he managed to inhale it again and regain his Magic ability.

As Kirby cheered, the Wizrim threw its scythe to try to hit Kirby. Mario noticed this and used Kickbrin to knock it out of the way and bash the Wizrim in the head with his hammer while it was unarmed.

"I'll have to improvise," the Wizrim muttered as it tried to punch Mario with its fists. Mario jumped out of the way with ease as Tipral jumped toward the Wizrim and managed to kick its face.

"With you weaponless, you'll go down very easily," Tipral remarked.

"Well… Not for long!" the wizard grinned as Tipral got hit by its scythe from behind, making his eyes widen in pain as the Wizrim caught its scythe and managed to fire dark magic at him. The only problem? Dark attacks didn't hurt him that much.

"You know I'm a dark being, right? Dark attacks aren't really going to do much against me!"

"So you're a ghost?"

"No, not quite…"

"Then what are you?"

"I am…"

Tipral was cutoff when Kirby fired icicles at the Wizrim, followed by Sonic's Homing Attack. It wasn't like Tipral cared if he didn't finish his sentence anyway, so he fired a Star Spear at the Wizrim, and then he let Chopper blind it with a light ball.

"Augh! My eyes!" the Wizrim cried.

With it vulnerable to Chopper's attacks, he decided to jump up and deliver a spinning kick, and afterward, he held Starbow up and let her shooting stars fall down on the Wizrim to deal some more damage.

"I'm sure he'll be finished quickly!" Starbow cheered. "His HP is rather low, from what I can see…"

"Yeah! I can see!" Chopper nodded.

"But that doesn't mean it's over…" the Wizrim growled, raising its scythe and ripping through the ground, tearing it apart with ease. Tipral tried to grab the scythe, but it didn't seem like it was working.

"This isn't going to work," Tipral groaned. "Try freezing it or something."

Chopper nodded and hurled an ice ball at the scythe. Unfortunately, that didn't appear to work, so Kirby used his ice magic to freeze it. That didn't work either, which left Mario to bash its head with his hammer.

Mario: One more hit might finish it off!

"Then leave it to me!" Sonic declared.

"You know it's nearly ripping through the ENTIRE platform," Blade noticed as the platform began to shake. "So you better be fast!"

"That's my middle name!" the blue hedgehog curled up in a ball and jumping up and spun around the Wizrim, surrounding it in a whirlwind he created. It seemed to be working, because its scythe was starting to slip away.

In the end, it ended up releasing its scythe, allowing Sonic to deliver the final blow with a simple Homing Attack.

"Don't think you'll see the last of the Wizrims!" it cried as it flew upward in pain. "I may be defeated, but you'll see plenty of us! And I'm sure they'll be much, MUCH stronger than me!"

With those words, the Wizrim slowly disintegrated, leaving the whole group to find a platform appear before their eyes. It had a door, which made most of the group (except for Tipral) smile.

"Poyo! (Yes! We're done with that thing!)" Kirby cheered.

"Uh huh! And we didn't have to use any items either!" Chopper smiled.

"Oh, how is my sweet prince doing?" the pale green Star Warrior felt himself being hugged from behind when Luvbi was able to tackle him to the ground.

"Get off, please!"

"Nay! I hath been too far from thee for quite a while!"

"It was only about seven minutes…" Blade trailed.

"It took us seven minutes?" Luigi gaped.

"Yup."

While Chopper got up, Luvbi still held onto him and began to kiss him on the cheek. Kirby couldn't help but face palm, but he was relieved not to be stuck with someone like her. Tipral, on the other hand, snapped his finger to make Star Magic appear between the rest of the group.

"Yo! What was that for? !" Sonic gaped.

"We have this door to go through," Tipral noted. "We're not wasting any time. We're going. Now."

"Yeah, we need to," Chopper agreed, getting out of Luvbi's clutches and wiping the kisses of his face. "We wanna get that Pure Heart immediately!"

Everyone nodded and headed through the door. They noticed they were getting closer to the comet as they noticed the area around them looking a bit dark. It was difficult seeing the stars, but what they could see was a platform high above them.

"How're we supposed to reach that?" Sonic gawked.

"Wait… Look at that!" Luigi pointed to a flying saucer that was right beside them.

"Pray, that dost remindeth me of the saucers my prince and I saw while exploring the comet…" Luvbi recalled.

"But there's no alien slime stuff here," Chopper frowned. "How's this supposed to work?"

"Hold on…" Tipral jumped on it, and he realized it could jump to incredible heights. It even put Luigi's Super Jump to shame. "It looks like this thing can help us get through here!"

There were a couple of more – seven to be exact. They each got on a saucer and leapt up to the platform above. Luvbi, of course, wanted to be held by Chopper, so he had no choice but to deal with her and her kisses that she continued to give him.

There weren't many platforms they had to use when they found an upreel handle that could help them lead up to another platform, so they grabbed it and let it reel them up to the platform. They noticed some falling platforms around the huge gap.

"Geez… This might be a little difficult." Luigi sweat dropped.

Mario: Well we conquered many platforms before!

"Yeah, that's true…"

They waited the right moment before jumping from platform to platform. Some Dark Wizards tried to stop them, but Kirby took care of them by using his thunder magic to knock them away.

To their surprise, they were already at the end of the area when they noticed another large gap ahead. Only this time, there weren't any platforms to help them cross. Chopper went into 3-D and noticed nothing to help them.

"Well, we're screwed," Blade stated.

"No we're not. I'll just teleport everyone across – except for Luvbi." Tipral noted.

"What? Why not me?" Luvbi asked, giving him a glare.

"Because you can fly yourself!"

"Hmph! Thou art not as much of a gentlemen as Chopper! Though, I dost not care because I love my prince!"

"Just… Just do it." Chopper sighed as Tipral teleported everyone across. They went into the door and into an area where they found a rail moving downward. They noticed they were getting much closer to the comet at this point.

"Is this… Area 10?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: I think so.

"It appears we're near the end…" Tipral trailed. "We should be in the comet sooner or later."

"Then let's go!" Sonic shouted as he got on the rail and began to go down. Chopper followed next, with Luvbi fluttering after him. Tipral waited for everyone else to go down before he went down himself.

As the rail ended, everyone jumped off and were led to a tunnel that reminded them of another tunnel they went through. Nevertheless, they ran through the tunnel, knocking the Artificial Stardie that was in their way and got to the spring that brought them up to the ledge with a pit up ahead.

"So, it appears there's a pit here?" Chopper wondered as he looked down. "I can't see that much of it…"

"Well we doth have no option," Luvbi noted. "We hast to get a move on!"

"Yeah… You're right."

Everyone jumped down the pit and landed on a red pathway below that began to move down. They noticed behind them was an explosion. Apparently they ended up stepping on a demolition switch to trigger it.

"Uhhhhh… Run!"

Chopper grabbed Kirby and Luigi's arms while Sonic grabbed Blade and Mario's and began to run down. Tipral skated down himself as he noticed Luvbi grabbing onto Chopper's back so she wouldn't get caught in the rubble.

"Why was there a demolition switch there? !" Luigi cried.

"I don't know! It might've been placed there because Shade knew we were going through here!" Chopper shouted.

"No time to talk!" Sonic cried. "Just keep running!"

Tipral appeared the most calm, probably because he feels nothing but anger inside of himself. He looked back and noticed the rubble getting closer, so he sped up and noticed a spring down below.

"So, it looks like we're getting out of here soon…" Tipral trailed.

"What do you mean?" Chopper questioned.

"There's a spring coming up."

They all noticed dead ahead was a spring. Upon touching it, it launched them off the pathway and straight for an entrance in the comet.

Before they knew it, they were back inside the comet.

When the group landed on the ground, they noticed the mixture of both gray and purple on the ground before them. They appeared to be in a tunnel, though, so they didn't get a glimpse of the sky.

"Well… We're back in!" Sonic smiled. "Never been in the comet, though…"

"And I can see a Star Block up ahead!" Chopper gasped as he saw the Star Block ahead. "I'm going to go hit it!"

Chopper quickly rushed toward the Star Block and gave it a whack to break it. At this point, everyone was relieved.

Tipral, however, still had his own thoughts from before.

_"All right, Shade… Be prepared! Now I'll be coming for you!"_

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With Sonic and Mario back in the team, Chopper and Co. were finally reunited and thus stronger. It took them some time, but they were able to escape the comet's space gadget and make their way back in the comet to the way leading to Shade Doom himself. Tipral continued to think about his revenge as the heroes continued through the tunnel. "We art getting closer to mine parents!" Luvbi gasped. "Oh, I bet they'll be so happy to see me again…" Everyone had their own trail of thoughts until they found another pit before them. Knowing it will take them to the right way, they jumped down while Chopper muttered, "Shade Doom, you're going down!"_

* * *

**And so with Chapter 19-4 finished, that leaves only Chapter 19-5. Yeah, we're getting pretty close to the end of this story. And it's also where things get a lot darker, probably much darker than Super Paper Mario (although, I'm sure it already is darker than it).  
**

**So yeah, I actually enjoyed this chapter. Some things were revealed, and I liked some of the fights against General Shroob and the Wizrim. However, I'm not sure if this is going to top Chapter 19-5, which has so much more to it.  
**

**You might wanna be prepared, because next chapter will probably be the longest chapter in the story so far. :P  
**


	118. A Soft Light in the Darkness

**CHAPTER 19-5**

**-A Soft Light in the Darkness-**

Once the seven landed on the ground, they noticed behind them was a large, purple background with a couple of stars. High above in the sky were some dark clouds, which were difficult to see because of how far they were. Up ahead was a tunnel that was moving down, and on the pathway leading to the tunnel were a couple of Dark Bats flying over.

However, Tipral could feel immense power in this area of the comet, which forced him to close his eyes tightly and put his hand on his forehead.

"Tipral, what's wrong?" Chopper asked.

"I can feel them… They're everywhere!" Tipral cringed.

"Who?" Sonic wondered.

"All of the dark power here… They're coming from all the Dark Wizards. They must be a lot stronger in this area than the previous ones. I suggest we stay cautious around here. After all, this is the way to Shade after all."

"But I wonder what those dark clouds up in the sky are…" Chopper trailed as he looked at the clouds. Luvbi fluttered beside him and looked up as well. "This is the deepest part of the comet, so I suppose it's going to be the darkest as well."

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed, despite feeling a bit nervous. While she was used to dark places, The Underwhere was nothing compared to the Comet of Darkness. All the monsters residing in this place… All of it didn't make her happy in the slightest. The only thing that made her safe was Chopper, the boy of her dreams, and hopefully the one she would marry in the future.

"Look, I don't care whether or not this place is heavily guarded," Blade said as he twirled his katana. "'Cause there's no way we're going to let some alien kid prevent us from getting the Pure Heart! We already know his strategy anyway, so defeating him shall be a breeze! Especially when it's seven against one…"

"Well I dost not know how thou art going to make thy way through hither, because I am not a fighter hither," Luvbi stated. "However, I'm hoping my sweet prince will protect me like a real prince would!"

"Luvbi, your gushing isn't helping anyone here!" Tipral snapped. "You wanna know why I hate you so much? You keep insulting me for no reason, and you can't ever shut up about Chopper! I don't know who to hate more, you or him! …Though technically, I think Chopper's worse after what he did to me."

"Well if I weren't hither, there wouldst be no way my sweet prince would've been able to make it hither! Plus, he wouldn't hath defeated Bonechill without my help either! Oh, how sorry I felt for him after being forced to defeat his own uncle.

"Wait… Bonechill is Chopper's UNCLE?!" Luigi gaped, which made Mario's eyes shoot wide open as well.

"Look, I don't wanna talk about it…" Chopper sighed as he closed his eyes. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to talk about this kind of topic. Someone whom I've admired for so many years was all just a lie…"

"Oh, I know how that feels, man…" Blade trailed. "Finding out someone you've admired turned out to be not what you expected can be a little tough. It's happened to me before when I was around your age. I just…don't remember it."

"Well at least my parents weren't big lies."

"Pray, Chopper! Why don't thou speakest about thy parents?" Luvbi suggested, smiling sweetly to him. "I wouldst love to hear about thy parents, thou knowest!"

"Poyo… (That won't make him feel any better…)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo… (Though, I do remember Silica's father working with him. Chopper's father was forced to kill Silica's thanks to Galacta Knight…)"

"All I can say is that my parents were Galaxy Soldiers," Chopper stated. "My dad used a sword called the Sword of Light and my mom used the Bow of Light. Yeah, their weapons had light powers to them."

"Didst they have hobbies?" Luvbi wondered.

"Well my dad was an otaku, which I have no idea what that is…"

"…An otaku?" Blade couldn't help but laugh, but he was trying not to. "Are you serious? A Galaxy Soldier, an _OTAKU?!_ Man! That's gotta be the funniest thing I've heard in a LONG time!"

Mario: Blade…

"Oh, yeah… Sorry."

Thinking about his parents made him think about an event when he was three. It was when his dad brought home a strange pet that his mom didn't want him bringing in. Chopper closed his eyes as he saw a vision of that scene.

* * *

_Chopper was laying in his small bed at the age of three, looking at the large poster of a star in the light blue room and also at his blanket, which resembled space with a couple of stars on it. _

_He continued to listen to a bedtime story being told by his mother, who was pale green just like him and had a pale green ponytail. She had an oval-shaped body and was wearing light blue armor with brown leather gloves and shoes. She was also wearing a green plate on her chest and shoulders., as well as a light blue headband with a yellow star embossed in it._

_"And then the little demon lived happily ever. The end." Chopper's mother, Tonberria, closed the book and noticed Chopper falling asleep. "Well, I guess he fell asleep after all. It's so nice to see him fall asleep like that. He looks like an angel…"_

_Tobnberria got up from her seat and gave Chopper a kiss on the forehead before going over to the doorway. She couldn't help but smile when she turned her head over to the sleeping boy._

_"Goodnight, Chopper," she said softly as she turned off the light and slowly closed the door. She sighed in relief as she went downstairs in the light blue living room and turned on the TV. She smiled and closed her eyes as she began to relax._

_"I guess I can finally have a break, since Toalune's not home yet… But Chopper looked so adorable when I saw him sleeping. I guess that's how most children are, I suppose…"_

_"**TONBERRIA! TONBERRIA!**"_

_Tonberria's eyes quickly opened as she heard that voice. Her relaxed mood changed to an annoyed as she heard the footsteps getting louder at the front door._

_"Great… There goes my relaxing time…"_

_A man taller than Tonberria came in the house. His skin was lime green, and he wore a light green helmet with a yellow trim on the bottom, a red tuft of hair, some gold and green plate armor, green gauntlets and shoes, a cape and also had a black upside down mustache._

_"Tonberria! I'm finally back!" the man named Toalune shouted. "You're not going to believe what was at the otaku convention!"_

_"Let me guess… Otakus?"_

_"Yeah! It was so awesome! Chopper should've been there! He would've liked seeing all of those cartoons!"_

_"Toalune, aren't those shows too much for Chopper? I mean, he's three! He's not old enough to watch them!" Tonberria explained. "And also, shouldn't you have been back here by eight?"_

_"Well, you know what happens when you're having fun… Anyway, I brought something home that I'm sure he'll like!"_

_"Is it another Octobar?"_

_"What? Oh, heck no! That thing already died. This is something even better! I bet you'll like it yourself!"_

_"What is it?" Tonberria wondered._

_"Just close your eyes, honey!" her husband ordered, so she closed her eyes as Toalune quickly ran out of the house and to his ship. She could hear him leaving the house, which made her feel suspicious._

_"Are you just trying to get away from me again? Because a lot of times you go somewhere just to avoid me yelling at you…"_

_"OK, Tonberria! You can open your eyes!" Toalune said as he came back in. Tonberria opened her eyes and noticed a yellow creature that resembled a monkey with a beak and wings._

_"Toalune! What the HECK is that?!"_

_"It's a Monird! They were giving them away for free, so I decided to get one. I'm sure Chopper will LOVE it!"_

_"Well… Get it out of the house! Don't you know what they can do?" Tonberria asked, getting annoyed with him. "I mean, they take their poo and throw it at you! You know how much I had to deal with that in the forest?"_

_"So what if they have to take a crap and throw it? It's their destiny to do something so…great."_

_"Great? What's so great about throwing poo? And how is it their 'destiny' to begin with?"_

_"But Tonbeeeeeeeeerria!" Toalune whined while Tonberria rolled her eyes. "I mean, he'll love it!"_

_"I don't think he'll like something throwing its…poop all over his room, you know… Return the Monird to where you saw it. If we were going to have a pet, it would be something that doesn't mess up your entire house."_

_Chopper listened to the conversation as he looked down the stairs. He could see Toalune pouting and leaving the house again, while Tonberria sighed and sat back on the couch to relax._

* * *

"Hey, Chopper! You there?"

Chopper's eyes quickly opened as Blade was waving his arms in front of his face. "My god… Are you going to have another one of those dreams where you saw something scary?"

"Well… I guess not…"

"All right, look, we don't have time to stay here and talk," Tipral cut in. "If we're going to be getting that Pure Heart, then we need to go through and crush Shade's army! …Then we can get to crushing him."

"Yeah, we might as well go," Chopper agreed.

"Well, guys, I guess it looks like we've reached the climax of our little game," Sonic announced. "Time to make the little Dark Wizard pay for his invasion of The Overthere and The Peaceness!"

"Let us away!" Luvbi demanded. "We can't slacketh now when we art so close!"

With that, the eight made their way to the tunnel ahead, with Chopper, Sonic and Tipral increasing in speed through the bright, pink tunnel. When they got out, they noticed a long road up ahead with an unreachable ledge above them and a couple of bridges.

"Heads up, guys!" Blade alarmed. "Dark Creatures are firing down at us!"

Mario noticed some of the shots firing down at him and ducked to avoid some of them. Chopper held up Starbow and made shootings stars hit the Dark Creatures and knock them off the bridge. Sonic was able to finish them off with a Spin Dash.

Some Dark Wizards were also on the bridge and happened to still be up on the bridge. Kirby simply used his thunder magic to strike the Dark Wizards with lightning and defeat them with ease.

Afterward, they moved on ahead through the long road, ignoring a couple of other Dark Soldiers that were trying to attack. Some threw plasma grenades, but at the speed they were going, it didn't seem like they would catch them.

A Dark Brute landed on the ground with a plasma launcher and prepared to fire. Tipral took action by getting up on its head and hurling Star Spears down at it, while Mario bashed it with his hammer. It was finished off when Blade threw Hommissile at the alien, destroying it.

"Looks like they're throwing everything they've got at us!" Blade smirked. "So this is going to be some fun!"

Up ahead, they happened to notice a strange ship that resembled a rock appear over the road and above the bridge. Before they could even get to it, they noticed a bone-like arm come out of the ground in front of them.

"Poyo? (Uhhh… What's that?)" Kirby sweat dropped.

A Skelloford ended up rising in front of them with its poison mace. It attempted to swing at them, but everyone jumped out of the way. Chopper ended up throwing a couple of fireballs at it to scorch it.

"Braaaaaagh! The flames! They burn!" the Skelloford howled.

Blade gave the monster a blank look as he was able to finish it off with ease with a Dragon Beam. "Wow… That was pretty easy. That thing barely even put up a fight anyway!"

"It was a lot more threatening on that battleship…" Luigi trailed.

"Mayhap thou already knowest how they are fought," Luvbi predicted. "Nevertheless, I knowest my sweet prince can takest on anything!"

"I don't deserve the credit…" Chopper face palmed.

"Right now, we need to try to see what that ship is," Tipral suggested, clenching his fist. "Destroying that shouldn't be too much of a problem!"

When they hurried over to the ship, they noticed it drop a Dark Brute down with a large, blue beam. Tipral fired a Star Spear up at the ship, but it quickly flew away, preventing him from harming it.

"Great… It escaped…"

"It's not the end of the world, but whatever," Chopper gripped his hammer and landed an upward thrust on the Dark Brute. Kirby froze it with some ice magic, and then Luigi finished it off with a mere jump.

"Well that was pretty easy," Sonic noted as they made their way to the end of the road. They noticed a ledge above them with two Dark Wizards and a Dark Brute holding a jagged sword waiting for them from above.

"Hey! Looks like they're here!" the first Dark Wizard cackled. "How about we give them what they so rightfully deserve!"

"Excellent idea," the Dark Brute replied as it jumped down from the ledge and tried to slice at the heroes. Chopper chucked an ice ball at the Dark Brute, but it brought its hand in front of it to block the attack.

"What the… How did it block my attack?!" Chopper gaped.

"Silly boy! Unlike other Dark Creatures, we brutes are capable to blocking some projectiles with our hands!"

"Huh… I never expected that…" Blade trailed.

"Then we'll have to try something else," Sonic declared as he clenched his fist and struck the Dark Brute with a Sonic Wind. It was barely able to lift it off the ground, but it gave him the chance to knock it out with a Homing Attack and defeat it.

"Wha?! Those guys defeated that brute!" one of the Dark Wizards gaped, while the other smacked its head.

"Look, they may have beaten them, but we're still here! And we're certainly not going to let some weirdos get to Master Shadow Doom so easily!"

"Hey!" Blade growled. "You looks like the weirdos here!"

"I mean, if they do, then chances are he could be crushed!"

"Then let's get 'em!" the two Dark Wizards landed in front of the group and fired their magic at them. They ducked to avoid the attacks, but Tipral simply teleported above them and fired a Star Spear down at them. Chopper then tossed a light ball at both to leave them in pain from the light energy.

With them weak, Kirby used his magic to strike the wizards with lightning. With them gone, they could get up to the door with the ledge. Although, the only problem was… The ledge was too high up.

"I think I might be able to reach this ledge," Luigi declared as he used his Super Jump to launch himself up to the ledge. He happened to notice a spring right by the door, so he grabbed it and tossed it below him.

"Try to use this to go up, OK?"

They took turns using the spring and got up to the ledge. Tipral was the first to land on the ledge, but something hit him from behind. He felt what was behind him and discovered a piece of paper to be there.

"Hmmmm? Where'd this come from?" the dark being got it off the back of his head and noticed some writing on it. He instantly knew whose writing it belonged to as he looked at it in silence.

"Hey, what's that you got there?" Chopper wondered as he walked over to the paper, only to have him get pushed away by Tipral, who wasn't making eye contact with him. All he did was simply walk through the door in silence.

"Well that was odd…" Luigi trailed. "There was something strange with him just now…"

"It mattereth not," Luvbi declared. "If something is bothering him, then it doth be none of our business. I mean, looketh what he hast dost to us!"

"I guess he didn't have as much of a good life as we did," Luigi shrugged. "Though, I'm not so sure what DID happen to him in the past. At least we've have a good life throughout our childhood and such."

"…Yeah," Chopper frowned, feeling a little saddened as he slowly went through the door, leaving Luigi confused.

"What? Did I say something bad?"

Mario: Don't blame yourself, Luigi.

"If thou didst say something bad about my sweet prince, I'm going to teareth thy hairy mustache off of thy lip!" Luvbi threatened, making Kirby pull her away while Luigi's face turned white.

"Luvbi! Don't blame him for making Chopper sad!" Sonic snapped. "Let's just move on, all right?"

They headed through the door and noticed a large gap up ahead. There weren't any enemies around, but they did see Tipral near the edge of the cliff, while Chopper was walking toward him.

Tipral looked down at the letter and started to read it.

_Dear Tippy,_

_Hey there, Tippy! It's me, Mimi! …I was getting worried about you, because you haven't shown up in the palace. We've been waiting for you in the palace for days! When will you be back? …Or are you REALLY coming back? Things haven't been getting any better in the palace lately. O'Chunks is starting to get a little lazier than before since you aren't around. Fawful and Mr. L have been fighting each other for the past few days, and they even made border lines, saying that one person stays on their own side, and the other one stays on the other side. Nassy is trying to discipline them and get them to stop, but it's not working!. They're just out of control! And Fawful's pig thing bothers me sometimes when it walks by. I don't like it! Dark Doom could help, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. It's like, he doesn't care anymore. They really seem to miss you. I miss you! Sniff… Please… Come back. I didn't even get the chance to tell you about my feelings toward you. You see, I… I… Golly, I can't really even say it to you if you're dead. I just hope you're alive..._

_Love,_

_Mimikins_

_P.S.: I went into your room and found a picture that looked a little old and damaged. I was thinking I'd put it here for you to look at._

Tipral looked down at the photo that he was given and noticed it was him and a little girl out on an open field. It was definitely one of his most cherished memories, despite him trying to get rid of it.

_"I'll hold onto this picture for now…" _Tipral slowly put away the picture and looked at the letter again. It looked as if Mimi put a lot into it, because he noticed some wet spots that could've been her tears. _"They must really miss me back in the palace… Well, I would've been there if it weren't for him!"_

"Hey, Tipral, I noticed you holding onto a photo," Chopper noticed, feeling a little better. "What was it?"

"It's none of your business, Chopper," Tipral replied angrily as he put away the letter. "And what're you doing right now?"

"Hey, are you guys all right?" Blade cut in as they walked over to the two. "…Wait, we have a gap here. How the hell are we supposed to get past this thing anyway? ! It's too big of a gap!"

"Don't worry Blade, I'm fine," Chopper assured. "I just felt a little sad because I didn't have much of an early childhood with friends. But that's not important right now."

"Poyo, (Yeah, we need to get that Pure Heart,)" Kirby noted.

"Mayhap thou canst holdeth me and alloweth me to flutter over the gap, my prince," Luvbi suggested as she fluttered over to Chopper.

Mario: That's probably not going to work…

"Poyo? (Maybe we have to check this gap in 3-D?)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo. (Maybe we'll find something there.)"

Chopper nodded and flipped into 3-D. He saw a narrow pathway with a couple of glowing saw blades spinning around, which made him back away from the narrow path.

"Uhhhhh…"

"Pray, what doth be the matter?" Luvbi asked.

"There are a couple of saw blades on the narrow path!" Chopper cried. "How am I supposed to get through that so easily?!"

"Just shut up and let us go through this," Tipral snapped. "Your complaining isn't going to get us anywhere, you know. It's probably not too hard to dodge those saw blades anyway!"

Chopper let out a sigh and helped everyone else in 3-D. They carefully made their way across the narrow pathway and jumped over the saw blades. There was a large, square-shaped platform ahead, so they landed on it and went back into 2-D to be greeted by a Dark Assassin.

"Well, what do we have here? A couple of intruders making their way through here?" the Dark Assassin gawked as it raised its gun and fired. Blade fired a Dragon Beam to send it flying off the platform.

"That takes care of it!" Blade declared until the Dark Assassin came back.

"I think thou art not able to throw it off a cliff…" Luvbi trailed.

Tipral sighed and snapped his finger, defeating the Dark Assassin with his Star Magic. Now that Chopper's Flip Gauge was full, he and everyone else went into 3-D and began to carefully walk through the narrow path again.

Once they reached the end, they went into 2-D again and walked through a tunnel and onto a bridge. Below them was a bottomless pit, which Chopper found to be a bit better than toxic alien slime.

Up ahead on the bridge were two Dark Assassins that teleported out of their sight and appeared behind them. Luigi heard the teleportation sound and whirled around to find them firing at them.

"G-Guys! They're right behind us!" Luigi cried.

Mario turned around, but he ended up getting blasted, along with everyone else. Kirby, however, was able to defend himself and barely take any damage with his Defend ability. He decided to freeze them with an ice spell to prevent them from teleporting.

"Poyo! (OK! They can be hit now!)" Kirby cheered.

"If only I can understand what thou art saying, gumball…" Luvbi sighed as Kirby gave her a confused glance. Nevertheless, Blade was able to use his Dragon Beam on the Dark Assassins to finish them off.

"And that takes care of them," Blade declared as they carried on ahead to the end of the path. They noticed two poles that they could climb up to reach the ledge above them. There were only two platforms between the poles.

"Oh, boy… This again." Chopper sighed.

"I bet some sparkies are going to appear and try to shock us…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Then we'll have to be fast.

They grabbed a hold of the poles and started to climb upward. Luvbi fluttered up to Chopper and watched him climb. She had an idea to get him close to her, but even then, Chopper probably wouldn't want to do it.

"My prince…" she began as she blushed at him. "Thou dost know that I can helpeth thee up thither by holding onto thee."

"Wh-What?! I'm perfectly fine with this!" Chopper assured, shivering in fear because of how close Luvbi was to him. "You don't have to help me with anything! I've done stuff like this before!"

"But I love thee! Of course I would tryeth to help thee!"

When a Sparky appeared, it began to move its way up the pole in an attempt to electrocute the group. They noticed this and jumped on the platform closest to them. Thankfully, it wasn't too far from where they jumped off.

Mario: This might take some time…

Eventually they reached the top of the pole and got onto the ledge to their right to run into some brick blocks that were in front of them. Blade, knowing what he had to do, threw Hommissile at the blocks to make them explode.

"There we go! All set!" Blade smirked.

"Let's hope we don't have another…" Chopper paused when he saw the door ahead was being covered in a couple of small star blocks. "OK… I was hoping there wouldn't be another thing in our way, but I guess this just had to be here…"

He held Starbow up and managed to destroy the blocks in their way, allowing them access to the door. But he stopped and flipped into 3-D to see a square-shaped hole up ahead, so he went through it to run into a chest that contained an item called a Spark and Chain, which creates an electric ball and chain to attack enemies around. He returned to the group and showed them the item.

"What's that supposed to be?" Luigi asked.

"It looks like some kind of ball and chain…" Tipral trailed. "Although, I don't know if that's even going to help us here…"

"Poyo, (It's better than nothing,)" Kirby shrugged as they headed through the door to an area with the path moving down. They found a Dark Wizard waiting for them at the bottom, so Sonic went into a ball and rolled down to knock it away.

"Ummmmm… There's nothing else here." Sonic noticed as he got out of his ball form.

"Well, when in doubt, flip about!" Chopper smiled as he raised a finger and flipped into 3-D with everyone else. While they had no idea how he was about to do it by raising a finger, they noticed a road down below, as well as a ramp they could jump off, so they jumped down and went back into 2-D.

They found a Dark Assassin waiting for them, but Chopper quickly froze it with an ice ball, followed by Kirby's fire blast, which was able to thaw out the Dark Assassin and allow Mario to finish it off with a simple jump.

They then jumped off the ramp and landed on the ground below them. There was a staircase going down to two Dark Assassins that were wearing black armor instead of purple.

"Well, looks like they're sending the best of the best!" Sonic smirked. "All right, then! We can take 'em!"

"Hold on, Sonic…" Blade began as he pulled the blue hedgehog back. "Those guys look a little menacing… We gotta think of a plan first!"

"We usually do what we do most of the time: attack them when they're off guard," Chopper informed. "I don't think we make that many plans…"

"Oh… Then you can go ahead, Sonic."

Sonic smirked and rolled down the staircase and hitting both Dark Assassins, though these were called Elite Dark Assassins. After they got hit, they teleported away from Sonic and over to Luvbi.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper whipped out his hammer and spun it around, hitting both Elite Dark Assassins and knocking them back.

"You know, that girl looks like she could be hung up for decorations," one of the Elite Dark Assassins mentioned.

"Nay! I'm not a decoration!" Luvbi shouted. "I'm a Nimbi princess! Thou dost not hath the right to treateth me like a decoration!"

"Well you're in our territory now!" the second Elite Dark Assassin mentioned. "That means we hardly give a crap whether you're a princess or not! We decide what you are, and to us, you're a decoration!"

Luigi finished them off with a Cyclone, followed by his Super Jump. Once they were gone, he landed on the ground and smiled. However, Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper and kissed him on the cheek.

"Agh! Luvbi!" Chopper cried.

"Oh, Chopper! I can't believest thou savest me from yon aliens!" Luvbi gushed as she hugged him.

"Wha? But I finished them off!" Luigi gaped. "…Oh, well it doesn't matter anyway. She probably doesn't give credit to any of us but Chopper."

"Well, let's not let that bother us," Blade suggested. "Right now, we gotta get moving! I don't like staying around here anyway…"

They went down the staircase, but they were stopped by a ledge with a barrier to prevent anyone from getting up there. Since there wasn't anything else around, Chopper flipped him and everyone into 3-D to find a pathway only in 3-D to lead them to the other side of the ledge before going back into 2-D.

"Interesting…" Tipral trailed as he looked to his right to find a platform stuck in the wall. "Well, I don't know how we're going to get that thing out, but it's better if we go to the left instead."

Everyone was about to take the left, but they saw a plasma grenade coming toward them. Chopper inhaled it, which ended up exploding inside of him. When he opened his mouth, smoke came out.

"Poyo? (Did that hurt?)" Kirby asked.

"…Yeah," Chopper slowly nodded before falling over on the ground.

"My prince!" Luvbi cried as she fluttered over to him.

"Oh, come on! He's faking it!" Blade frowned. "It's so obvious!"

Up ahead, they saw an Elite Dark Soldier firing at them with its futuristic assault rifle. Blade gasped and continued to dodge the shots coming his way until another plasma grenade was thrown their way.

Luvbi instantly pulled Chopper out of the way and turned him over so she could see his face. He looked a little dazed, especially with the smoke coming out of his mouth.

"Oh, Chopper…" Luvbi cooed as she leaned her head closer to him. Her lips started to get closer to his until…

"Luvbi, there's SMOKE coming out of his mouth!" Blade noted. "And you're seriously going to kiss him like that?!"

"Shuttest thy trap, smelly cat! All I want is a kiss from my prince!"

"I think you should be the one to shut up…" Tipral growled, clenching his fists.

"THANK YOU!" Chopper cried as he quickly got up and coughed out the rest of the smoke. "You saved me, Tipral!"

"You keep thanking me, and my fist is going to be between your eyes!"

"…Let's keep going!"

They noticed the Elite Dark Soldier was hiding behind a glowing shield which didn't seem to be affected by any projectiles. It seemed to absorb them, which irritated them, especially Tipral, whose attacks didn't seem to shatter the shield.

"Annoying shield!" Tipral growled as he raised his arms and trapped the Elite Dark Soldier in a box. With a snap of his finger, an explosion occurred inside, and once it stopped, the Elite Dark Soldier was gone.

"What the heck?" Sonic gaped.

Mario: Isn't that Dimentio's attack?

"We saw that when we fought Tipral," Luigi recalled.

Tipral ignored them skated until he found another wall. Chopper flipped him and everyone into 3-D and noticed a staircase, so they went up and went back into 2-D to be on the ledge they couldn't reach before. Well, they were actually near it.

Upon reaching the edge of the ground, they found a gap ahead, so a simple jump was what they needed to meet with two Dark Wizards behind some shields.

"Heh heh! With these shields, those heroes won't be able to hurt us!" the first Dark Wizard snickered.

"Yup! This is just what we needed for this place!" the second Dark Wizard grinned until Tipral teleported behind them. "Wait… But he's still here!"

"Yes, I know," Tipral replied before whacking them both with a Star Punch. He knocked them into the shield, which fell over and allowed the heroes to reach them. Mario defeated one by bashing it with his hammer, while Blade used his katana to land a combo on the remaining Dark Wizard.

With that, the group jumped over another gap and found a yellow block in front of them. Chopper simply bashed it with his hammer to reveal a blue ! switch. He kicked it to make a platform stuck in the wall stick out for them.

The only problem? It could only be accessed in 3-D.

"Geez… That sucks." Blade sulked. "How come there's a lot of 3-D stuff here?"

"Well, it hasn't been used much…" Chopper trailed. "I'm personally fine with that, though!"

He flipped him and his friends into 3-D, allowing them to cross the other side and go back into 2-D. There was a door up ahead blocked by a force field, while two Dark Skelloknights were waiting for them.

"TWO Dark Skelloknights?!" Luigi gaped. "Th-That's a little too much!"

Mario: Well we've managed to take on armies before!

"Wait… Oh, yeah! But that was mostly you…"

Mario: You were there…

"Look, if you're going to cower around like the coward you are, then go right ahead," Tipral scoffed, clenching his fists at the two Dark Skelloknights. "Right now, I'm going to give these two what they want!"

He swung both of his arms and fired Star Spears at the Dark Skelloknights, shattering their armor entirely. This time, he decided to shape-shift into one of the Dark Skelloknights with armor.

"…He just shape-shifted," Luigi gaped.

"Well, he can do that…" Chopper trailed.

Tipral lunged at them and brought his sword down on the two Dark Skelloknights. He knew he could do more damage with the sword, so he continued to hack at them until they were defeated. With that, he transformed back into himself.

"I should've thought of this sooner or later…" he trailed. "It could've come in handy for other fights…"

"Hmph… I'm not that impressed, verily…" Luvbi huffed.

"And I honestly don't care if you're not impressed. Right now, it seems like that door's still not working" Tipral noticed a lonely platform far ahead, but there was a large gap. He simply jumped and used his teleportation powers to reach it and give it a kick, allowing them full access through the door.

"So what are you guys waiting for? Let's move! We still have that alien kid to crush!"

They nodded and headed through the door into the next area. There, they found a purple rail going down to a pathway below. At the end of the pathway, there happened to be two platforms over a bottomless pit, as well as two Elite Dark Bats.

Everyone looked at each other and nodded before going down the purple railing and landing on the ground. A Dark Wizard fired dark magic rapidly at them while they were able to dodge the magic.

Chopper tossed a light ball at the Dark Wizard, leaving it stunned while Mario was able to take it down with a Super Ground Pound. Afterward, they made their way to the edge of the ground, noticing the platforms up ahead.

"Dark Bats, huh?" Sonic noticed the Elite Dark Bats over the platforms. "So… I guess I'll use them while you guys go ahead and do this the old fashioned way."

"Old…fashioned way?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: Jumping on the platforms…

Sonic jumped in the air while in a ball and attacked the Elite Dark Bats with a Homing Attack. The rest of the group, meanwhile, used the platforms to make their way over to a round area below them.

They looked down at the ground and noticed some purple energy inside the glass-like floor in the center. It looked nice, but it seemed like if they did anything wrong, it could cause some serious damage to them.

"I don't recommend touching that…" Blade suggested.

"Tell us something we don't know," Tipral suggested.

"Poyo… (Well I think that was important…)" Kirby trailed.

They made their way down the small slope to find another gap between them. They noticed up ahead were three TVs, but they also happened to notice a hologram of Shade, which looked a lot bigger than the TVs.

"Wait, did we already find him?" Luigi gaped.

Mario: That's just a hologram…

"If we found him now, it would've made this all too easy for us," Sonic remarked as he looked down the gap. There was nothing below them, and when he looked up, he could see the dark clouds. "I don't like those clouds…"

"Mayhap Shade is above them?" Luvbi wondered.

"I don't know… Let's just try to get over here." Chopper took a look off at the distance and saw a blue ! switch. "Tipral, maybe you can hit that switch for us? I'm sure it'll help us get over there…"

"Very well," Tipral teleported to the other side and gave the switch a good whack, making a bridge appear for them. They crossed over, but that's not all the blue ! switch did. Two Phantom Hands appeared and grabbed Chopper by his feet.

"EEEEEK! Get them off me!" Chopper screamed.

"Poyo… (Uh oh… Phantom Hands…)" Kirby gulped.

"My prince! Let me helpeth thee!" Luvbi hollered as she grabbed Chopper and tried to pull him away from the Phantom Hands. Blade gripped his katana and made them release Chopper by slicing at them.

"There we go. They let go of you." Blade assured.

"Thanks…" Chopper sighed while Luvbi blushed and kissed him on the cheek, making his eyes widen. "But things aren't getting any better!"

"I'm glad thou art better, my sweet prince!" Luvbi giggled. "I always like to see thee in such a good mood!"

"…She's not getting it," Tipral face palmed before they noticed the TVs beginning to play something.

"Poyo! (Hey, it looks like it's playing something!)" Kirby cried out. Unfortunately, what played was something most of the group didn't want to see, especially Kirby, whose eyes widened in shock.

_"Todd Beider is a very good spear thrower. With everything going for him."_

"Oh, great… Not this stupid thing…" Chopper groaned.

"Poyo! (The horror!)" the pink Star Warrior cried.

"It's…just a trailer…" Sonic trailed.

Mario: I don't see anything wrong with that…

_"Only problem is… He's about to become… A Mushroom!"_

_"I'm a Mushroom!" _Todd Beider cried.

"A Mushroom?" Blade gawked.

_"It's twenty four Mushroom comedy! Todd Beider is…a Mushroom! Rated PG-13."_

Mario: Was that me chasing the Skellobit?

"And why does it look like that was kinda stolen from something else?" Blade wondered before another trailer came up.

"Again?" Tipral groaned as they chose to watch the next trailer.

_"Todd Beider was a Squiglet. Then, he was a Dark Creature. And now, Todd Beider is…a stapler!"_

"Pray, how can a Skellobit be a stapler?" Luvbi guffawed. "This doth make no sense!"

"Exactly," Chopper nodded.

_"And he's about to find out that being a stapler is harder then it looks… Todd Beider is…the Stapler! Rated PG-13."_

With that, the TVs turned off, leaving most of the group in confusion. "That was a little short…"

"Poyo? (First it starts with 'da derp dee derpee derp' and he becomes a Mushroom…and now a STAPLER? …How the heck does they do all of this?)" Kirby gaped.

"Thou knowest, my prince…" Luvbi began, fluttering closer to Chopper. "Seeing those two Skellobits kiss doth remindeth me of us!"

"Wh-What?!" Chopper gasped as her lips started to get closer to his. He, of course, was acting completely nervous around her.

However, it stopped when the Phantom Hand was trying to grab Chopper again, making him back away from it. Tipral snapped his finger and did away with the two Phantom Hands easily.

"There. You can stop whining about it now." Tipral grumbled.

"Good… But there's still one problem." Chopper said as he looked back at Luvbi, who seemed to be swooning over him. "This isn't going to be fun…"

They continued on ahead and noticed another blue ! switch, but it was being guarded by a Dark Brute who was holding two jagged swords. This didn't bother them in the slights, especially when Blade used his Dragon Beam to send it flying.

"And that solves that problem," Blade declared as he kicked the blue ! switch. A platform hidden in the wall stuck out, allowing them to jump on it, but they noticed a road above them to their left.

"I think I can reach that," Luigi noted as he used his Super Jump to reach up. He found a spring, so he kicked it down to help the rest of the group get up. To their left, they found another ledge.

"I'm going to make this easier for me," Tipral declared as he teleported up to the ledge. Everyone was left annoyed, but Luigi used his Super Jump, while Kirby floated up. Blade took out two kunais and climbed up the wall to reach the ledge.

"It's a good thing I can use these," Blade muttered as he reached the top.

That left only Chopper, Luvbi, Sonic and Mario.

"So, my sweet prince…" Luvbi began, fluttering closer to Chopper, who backed away.

"This is definitely not my day…" Chopper gulped as Luvbi grabbed him and began to fly him up the ledge. When they reached said ledge, Luvbi still didn't let go of him. Since she was facing him, she took this chance to kiss him on the lips.

"AND… Cue Chopper crying over it." Blade declared.

Chopper: T_T

"Told ya."

"Hmmmmm… I have an idea!" Sonic used his Whirlwind in order to reach the ledge, but while he did that, he let Mario get lifted off the ground and onto the ledge. Up ahead, to their left, they saw another blue door.

"I'm not wasting any time here," Tipral noted as he skated over to the door and entered. Everyone else followed him as well.

Upon entering the next area, they noticed a small pathway leading up to some rocks. Tipral tried smashing at the rocks, but nothing was revealed to be behind them except for a Max Shroom Shake.

"Nothing? That's actually something!" Chopper noted.

"I guess there's nothing here…" Sonic trailed.

"Unless my sweet prince flipest into 3-D!" Luvbi chirped.

Mario: That's what I was thinking…

Chopper couldn't help but look at the purple torches that were around by the ledge they were on when he flipped into 3-D. He saw a pathway below them, so they jumped down and went into 2-D to find the tunnel going at a downward angle to a loop.

"Ah! Some speed!" Sonic grinned. "This should be interesting…"

"But we can't move through a loop!" Luigi cried.

"Yeah, that's true," Chopper agreed. "We'll do what we usually did, Sonic."

Sonic nodded and grabbed both Blade and Mario's arms, while Chopper grabbed Kirby and Luigi's. Tipral skated down the tunnel on his own while the rest sped through. Luvbi had no choice but to follow by flying.

"And they forgotest me!" Luvbi huffed. "How rude they art to leave a cute girl such as myself hither all alone!"

There were two loops they found, and the first one they were reaching appeared to have a couple of torches on the edges if they were to go into 3-D. It wasn't a big deal, but Luigi didn't feel good when he was upside down.

"Ugh… I don't like being upside down…" the green plumber moaned. "My head feels weird now…"

"Poyo, (Well it doesn't for me,)" Kirby replied.

As soon as they got through the loops, they ran down the pathway before them. Up ahead, they happened to notice some Dark Soldiers waiting for them, along with two Dark Skellos that were talking to each other.

Apparently, one ended up punching the other.

"Hey! What'd ya do that for? !" the first Dark Skello exclaimed.

"Ya told a stupid joke, ya know!" the second Dark Skello replied.

"Shut up, you two!" one Elite Dark Soldier snapped. "The intruders are here, so it's our job to take care of them!"

"Yeah! You two go up first! We'll set up a shield." the second Elite Dark Soldier mentioned as it put up a glowing shield while they got their weapons ready, as well as some grenades.

"Even if they get past us, they won't stand up to those Dark Brutes!"

When the Dark Skellos charged at the seven, Blade was able to cut the spear, making its pointy edge come off.

"Ha! Now you don't have a spear!" Blade mocked. "Now it's an…it's a stick!"

"Such a stupid joke you made, Blade…" Tipral groaned.

"Well, technically it's a stick," Sonic noted.

"Yeah, so I win," Blade declared.

"Just get out of my way!" Tipral barked as he whacked Blade out of his way and hit the two Dark Skellos with Star Spears. He hurled two shadow balls and defeated the two monsters with ease.

"Crap… Those two guys were useless…" the third Elite Soldier groaned.

"But we got the shields ready!"

"Of course."

Tipral threw a Star Spear at the Elite Dark Soldiers, but their shields prevented them from getting harmed by his attacks. Tipral growled as he clenched his fists, but then he remembered he could teleport, so he teleported behind the shields and throw the Elite Dark Soldiers over it.

"All right, if you want a chance to attack, do it now," Tipral declared.

"Oh… Cool!" Chopper smiled as he jumped on one of them while perfuming a stylish move. Kirby used his Magic ability to strike them all with lightning, while Mario and Luigi teamed up and stomped on one of the Elite Dark Soldiers to finish it off.

"I call finishing one off!" Sonic called out as he used his Sonic Wind to attack one of the Elite Dark Soldiers and finish it off with a Homing Attack. Blade took care of the other with a Dragon Beam.

"Thou dost know that my sweet prince can helpeth thee get past the shields by going into 3-D," Luvbi informed.

"My teleporting is much better," Tipral declared. "That won't be necessary."

"I think it might be an easier way to avoid getting hurt, too," Chopper added.

"Guys… No time to be talking!" Sonic cried. "Dark Brutes up ahead!"

There happened to be three Dark Brutes blocking the way up ahead when they hurried onward. There was also an Elite Dark Soldier on a high ledge manning a turret that fired light purple plasma rapidly.

Mario had an idea and used one of the shields to protect them from taking any damage. Most of the group liked this idea and stayed behind Mario, but Tipral simply snapped his finger and knocked the Elite Dark Soldier away.

"Grrrrrr! Well, let's see how you like this!" the Elite Dark Soldier took out a plasma grenade and threw it. "_**GRENAAAAAAAAADE!**_"

Blade gasped and used Barry to deflect the plasma grenade, but his efforts didn't seem to work out for him when he found out the grenade was actually stuck on Barry. The Pixl himself was sweat dropping as well.

"Oh, geez… I can't shake this thing off!" Barry cried.

"Well… Then we're taking cover!" Blade cried as he ran from Barry, just like everyone else. The grenade exploded, but Barry seemed to be just fine. No one noticed any scratches or burn marks left on him.

"So… Us Pixls aren't harmed by those items?" Carrie gaped.

"This should help us," Crystaline noted.

Blade fired his Dragon Beam to destroy the Elite Dark Soldier. With no one using the turret, they hurried on over to the Dark Brutes, who had their weapons ready to fire at them. Luigi ran up to one and tried to knock it back with his Cyclone, but it didn't seem to make it budge.

"What the heck?! That didn't work!" Luigi gaped.

"Well, you know what they say… The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" Sonic noted.

"Hmph… I don't think we should waste our time with them." Tipral suggested. "There's three of them, and that's going to waste our time."

"For once, I doth agree with the dark, hideous one," Luvbi agreed. "This could be hindering our time!"

They quickly ran past the Dark Brutes by jumping over them or going into 3-D. They found the pathway moving down a little until it became flat up ahead by a lift. They couldn't help but notice some of the purple smoke that was around. The dark clouds above were still there, and they noticed some back, small skyscrapers in the background too by the elevator.

"At least we don't have to jump down from here…" Luigi sighed. "That looks like a BIG drop."

"Poyo, (Let's get on the elevator and get going,)" Kirby suggested as everyone got on the elevator. Kirby kicked the red ! switch on the ground, making the elevator move down to the lower level in the area.

"I wonder if there's any kind of town here…" Chopper wondered.

* * *

**Outside Shade Doom's Castle-**

Outside of Shade's Castle, there happened to be an assembly going on, with one Dark Skello up on the stage. A couple of Skellobits, Skells, Dark Skellobits, Dark Skells and even some Skellobombers, etc. were sitting in their chairs, listening to the Dark Skello speaking.

"And then when those heroes come here, we'll give 'em what they so richly deserve!" the Dark Skello declared.

"Ummmm… Hold on a second…" a Skellobit cut in. "Shouldn't we be patrollin'? That is our job, after all…"

"Well… Uh… We're technically out here, and we can obviously see what's goin' on… This IS patrollin'! Trust me, yer just fine!"

"OK…"

"Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. And once we're done with those heroes, we're goin' to toss them into some of those pouches an' keep 'em sealed there fer eternity! That should surely please Master Shadow Doom when he sees his enemies sealed ferever! Hwa hwa hwa!"

"Excuse me, but what's going on here?"

"Oh, nothin' it's… Wait, Necromancer?!" the Dark Skello's eyes widened as the Necromancer flew up on stage and pushed the Dark Skello out of the way, making everyone silent.

"What are you guys doing? Shouldn't you be patrolling?" the Necromancer asked.

"Well… This is patrollin'!" the Dark Skello explained. "We were just…makin' plans for when the heroes arrive! We wouldn't want ya to think we would just go out there without a plan, right?"

"Ummmmm… Yeah… Look, I need to talk to you guys about something…"

"Is it about patrollin' this castle and protectin' it from any heroes?" a Spiky Skellobit asked.

"Well, yeah. Pretty much. …Well, kind of." the Necromancer pondered. "Hmmm… How should I put this? You see, you're all being replaced."

"Oh, of course we can," the Dark Skello chuckled. "After all, we're- Wait, did you say we're bein' _REPLACED?!_"

"Yeah, but you're not fired. You're… I suppose you're getting demoted. I highly doubt you'd stand a chance against them, really."

"Then who's replacin' us?" a Skellobomber asked.

"Those guys…over there," the Necromancer pointed at the Dark Wizards and Wizrims over by the castle's front entrance. There were even some Elite Dark Assassins and Elite Dark Brutes wearing armor in the group as well.

A Skell's eyes widened. "Are you SERIOUS?!"

"We've been doin' this for a LONG time…and yer replacin' us with the more evil guys?!" the Dark Skello gaped.

"Well, that's the point," the Necromancer explained. "They're evil…and strong…and they're actually SMART with their fights. You better go patrol the lower area of this comet. While you do that, perhaps a good friend can guard this place."

The Necromancer snapped his finger, and a gray cyclops wearing purple armor and carrying two black daggers slammed the door to Shade's Castle open. From the look on his face, he was definitely angry.

"Listen to me, Cyclut. I want you to stay here and keep watch of this area for those heroes. If you succeed, we will reward you. If you fail…then don't come back to us. Ever."

The Necromancer flew off after Cyclut gave him a nod. While he stayed put by the caste's front entrance, The Underwhere army were left shocked, as if they were suddenly betrayed by their master.

"This is a load of bull," a Skellobomber muttered.

"I know, right?" a Spiky Skell agreed.

"Oh my Grambi…" the Dark Skello gaped. "They took my _JOB!_"

"Dey tuk er jerbs!"

"Ya, dey tuk er jerbs!"

"Tuk er jerb!"

"_**DEY TUK ER JERBS!**_"

"_**DURKA DUR!**_"

"Derka dur!"

"_**DEY TUK ER JEBS!**_"

"Dey tuk er jebs!"

"Tako derka der!"

"Dey tuk er jebs!"

"They tuk ur jebs!"

"Deka jeb!"

"Dey tuk ur jerb!

"THEEEEY tuk ur jerb!"

"Dey tuk er jerb!"

"And most importantly…" the Dark Skello began, glaring at the army. "_**DEEEEEEEY TUUUUUUUK ERRRRRRR JEEEEEEEBS!**_"

The Underwhere army stood in silence as they blinked a few times.

"What the heck did we just do?" a Spiky Skell Bomber gawked.

"We did what destiny told us to do…" the Dark Skello trailed. "Our jobs…taken. By these…_WEIRDOS!_"

"We might as well go to The Underwhere then…"

"No. Screw Shadow Doom's idea! We're stain' right here an' finish the job! We're not lettin' these guys tuk er jerbs! …Ahem! Sorry about that."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention…" the Necromancer added as he flew back in. "We could hear everything you were saying."

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

* * *

**Back with the heroes-**

When the elevator stopped, they all stepped out and noticed a couple of buildings around them. They weren't big, but they didn't appear to have any enemies lurking around the area. Well, except for a Wizrim and Skelloford, that is.

"Well, looks like this turned out better than expected!" the Wizrim grinned, looking at the purple sack on one of the building's walls. "Eventually this thing will be transformed into one of us!"

"Look, I don't know much about you guys, but how'd ya get these wizard guys?" the Skelloford wondered.

"Oh, our master created us! However, for some… We threw them into these sacks and let the fluids inside do all the work. Eventually they'll lose their mind and body and be transformed into a Dark Wizard! They won't even remember a thing from their past!"

"Hmmmmmm? That sounded interesting…" Sonic trailed, trying to listen in to their conversation. "So they get some real PEOPLE into those sacks and transform them into Dark Wizards?!"

"I thought Shade just created them?!" Chopper gaped.

"Well, now we know what he's doing is pretty effed up," Blade declared. "We should try to free these people from these sacks!"

Mario: I was just thinking the same thing, Blade.

"Who said that?!" the Wizrim gasped as it turned around and noticed the seven. "So… It looks like you guys just showed up!"

"Shut it! We know everything about how these wizards are made!" Chopper snapped. "I suggest you free them NOW!"

"Yer… Yer kidding, right?" the Skelloford gawked.

"Hmmmm… So they know our secret now… Well, since they do, we might as well show them!" the Wizrim stepped out of the way and showed a Flipsidian, a person from Lineland Road, a prisoner from Merlee's Mansion, a Swamint, a Nimbi, Donut, Santa Claus, a Sunny, a Mooner, the remains of a Computernoid, a non-Old English Nimbi and a Cradian were kept in some of the sacks.

"Poyo… (Everything we've seen… They're…turning one of those people into wizards…)" Kirby trailed sadly.

"So, do you like what you see?" the Wizrim grinned. "Master Shadow Doom knew that creating some wizards himself could consume a lot of energy, and not to mention it would take him a while to recovery said energy. Eventually he resorted to this, which we all agreed was a much better idea for him to save some energy! Plus, he loves to see people suffer like this!"

"Nay… Doth he plan on doing this to mine…parents?!" Luvbi gasped.

"You mean that kind and queen of death? Oh, trust me… He's going to take care of them! There's no way you'll be able to help them either!"

"This… This can't be…" the Nimbi girl's head lowered down. "If mine parents becometh one of them… I wilt be alone!"

"We're not going to let that happen," Chopper assured. "We're going to save them before anything bad happens to them!"

"Not if we do somethin' about it!" the Skelloford barked as it swung itself around, using its club to spin around. Blade quickly readied his katana and was able to slice the club in half, leaving the Skelloford vulnerable.

It stepped back, but Tipral was able to do away with it by smashing at it a couple of times. The Wizrim tried to stop him by swiping at him with its scythe, but Chopper hurled a light ball to prevent it from attacking.

_"Why did Chopper do that?" _Tipral thought. _"I wouldn't expect him to actually save me from getting hit…"_

While the Wizrim was blinded, Blade began to land a combo on it with his katana, and then Mario performed a Super Ground Pound, leaving it very low on HP. Luigi was the one to finish it off with his Cyclone.

"Phew! That's finished…" Luigi sighed.

Mario: But we need to free those people!

Unfortunately, it was too late. The people in the sacks started to transform into Dark Wizards. Everyone, with the exception of Tipral, was gaping when they broke out of their sacks. They now resembled Dark Wizards, but the difference was that they weren't wearing their cloaks. Their creepy faces, with one side being black and burnt and the other side being a skull, could be seen before them.

"Wh-What the heck are THOSE things?!" Luigi yelped.

"Poyo! (That looks awful!)" Kirby cried.

Cloaks and wands were supplied from the walls, which the Dark Wizards grabbed and equipped. Thankfully, they couldn't see their horrid appearances, but Luvbi was still a little squeamish and grabbed a hold of Chopper and burying her face in his arm.

"I can't looketh at them the same way now…" Luvbi shuddered.

"I've seen it before… I didn't like it then, nor do I like it now…" Chopper trailed.

"We can't save those people now, but it's not like I would help them…" Tipral trailed, hurling a shadow ball at a Dark Wizard. "The only thing we can do is destroy them! We have no other choice…"

The heroes were unsure whether to fight, but they were forced to do so and began to fight back. Thankfully, they were able to defeat the Dark Wizards and hit the Save Block nearby. They ended up finding a large gap ahead with some small lasers pointing horizontally. It seemed to be moving up and down.

"I see the door up ahead, but the gap is too long," Blade noted.

"That's where I come in," Tipral said as he used his teleportation to get himself across. He teleported everyone else across as well and found a yellow ? block. They found an Ultimate Shroom inside, so they took it to recover 100 HP.

When they entered the door ahead, they found a large tunnel with a couple of Elite Dark Soldiers, Dark Wizards and even Wizrims waiting for them. There also happened to be a couple of brick blocks around as well.

When Chopper hit the yellow ? block near him, a Mega Star popped out and began to bounce around the floor. Chopper was about to grab it, but Tipral kicked him away and grabbed it himself.

"Hey! I was about to grab that!" Chopper gaped.

"I saw what this thing did to me before, so I'm going to use it again to gain that power!" Tipral declared, now transformed into a giant 8-bit version of himself. The enemies in his way didn't look frightened, but Tipral wasn't going to let them get away as he stomped with way through the tunnel.

"Poyo… (The first Mega Star we see here, and Tipral ends up getting it…)" Kirby pouted.

They simply followed Tipral, who continued to plow through everything in sight. Nearly everything but an Elite Dark Soldier was left standing when Tipral went back to normal size. It pulled out a plasma grenade and threw it toward Tipral, but he simply threw a Star Spear at it to blow it up.

"Uhhh… Take this!" the Elite Dark Soldier fired at Tipral, but there was no way it stood a chance against him. With a Star Burst, the Elite Dark Soldier was defeated, allowing them to move on through the door ahead.

When they came out of the door, they noticed a small path leading up to a ramp. There appeared to be another hologram of Shade there as well.

"Hey! It's another one!" Luigi noticed.

"That might just be a decoy to trap us, but it's our only clue we have right now," Sonic said. "Guess we'll just have to follow him!"

"Yea, verily. Following the holograms might helpeth us." Luvbi agreed.

They found a Dark Spiky Skello waiting for them up ahead, but it took Chopper his hammer to defeat it with ease before they jumped off the ramp and landed on the ground below.

There was a cage in front of them, but it was being blocked by two Elite Dark Assassins that teleported in front of them. A Dark Wizard was flying above them and using its magic to hurt the group.

"Great… This is going to be fun." Sonic sighed as he hit both Elite Dark Assassins with a Spin Dash. Kirby used his lightning on the Dark Creatures and Dark Wizard, which knocked it to the ground.

Kirby smiled and pummeled the Dark Wizard with a couple of fire spells until it was defeated, while Luigi used his Cyclone to send both Elite Dark Assassins flying up. He defeated one with his Super Jump, while Tipral teleported up to the last Elite Dark Assassin and landed a combo of kicks and punches before slamming his fists down on it to send it to the ground. With a final stomp, it was defeated.

"Well that seemed pretty easy…" Blade trailed. "I can't believe we can take on guys like them!"

"Well, that's because we've gotten stronger, I suppose…" Luigi trailed.

Mario: Uh huh!

The cage revealed a blue ! switch, which Kirby was able to hit. Over by one of the large blocks in the background, they could see a platform reveal itself. Chopper brought everyone into 3-D and helped them get to a spring to get them on the platform sticking out of the block. And getting onto the pathway up ahead before going into 2-D.

"Well, from what I can see, the door is being blocked by lasers…" Chopper trailed. "And I can see a dark crystal right near me."

"Poyo? (What about the other crystal I see ahead?)" Kirby asked, pointing to a light crystal past a platform.

"I'm going to need to be over there," Tipral said as he skated over there with his dark shoes. "It seems like we need to activate these quickly before they wear down."

"I'm up for that," Chopper nodded.

"OK then… You better be ready."

Chopper threw a light ball at the dark crystal, while Tipral threw a shadow ball at the light crystal. This caused the lasers by the door to disappear and allow them access through it.

When they reached the next area, they noticed a wheel by the wall ahead, which looked like something Sonic could use, so he got in a ball and used his Spin Dash on it, causing a stump to appear.

"Hit that quick, 'cause I have a feeling it's going to go back in the ground!" Sonic shouted.

Mario: I've got it!

Mario quickly landed a Super Ground Pound on the stump to slam it to the ground. The barrier blocking the ledge above them leading to a door shattered, allowing Luigi to Super Jump and Kirby to float up.

"Another ledge my prince needest help on," Luvbi smiled as she gave Chopper a wink, which left him a bit white.

"You react like that all the time around her…" Tipral face palmed. "You need to get over it right now."

"But… Her cooties!" Chopper cried before Tipral smacked his face and grabbed him.

"Cooties. Do not. EXIST! They're just something people made up to scare you!"

"But they can do a lot of terrible stuff to you! I've heard these things, especially when I was two and got kissed… That was horrible."

"Art thou saying thou had a girlfriend when thou were younger?" Luvbi asked, getting a bit jealous.

"Hey! It's not my fault that Heartsy of all people happened to be the one to kiss me and make me fear the cooties!"

"Hold on… That reddish pink girl we saw before was the first one to kiss you?" Blade gawked. "Whoa… I never knew about that."

"Poyo, (She told us when we first met her in Desert Sands,)" Kirby noted.

"Pray, my prince… Dost thou hath more girlfriends?" Luvbi asked.

"No, but three girls that I consider friends like me…" Chopper sighed, making Luvbi gasp.

"So… My chance of marrying thee is… Hold on, where art they now? They can't taketh thee away from me!"

"Luvbi… They're all gone. The Void took them all away…"

"Oh… Now I doth feel bad for saying that…" Luvbi trailed with a sad look. "If they art verily friends I thy eyes, I understand."

"Thanks, Luvbi."

"Now, let's get back to what I was talking about," Tipral cut in. "Chopper… You say cooties can cause many terrible things to happen to you, right? Well, answer this: have they EVER done anything to you?"

"Well… In all honesty, they didn't seem to do anything bad."

"See? They're NOT real. So you don't have to whine about it anymore, OK?"

"I suppose they don't exist…" Chopper trailed. "However, I still don't like getting kissed! I still find it gross when someone touches my face with their lips. Eeeughhhh…"

"Hmph… So that's not going to do much. Whatever. We're going."

Tipral teleported up to the ledge, while Blade got his kunais ready and began to climb up to the ledge.

"About damn time the conversation ended," Blade sighed. "I mean, I wanna get some spotlight in here for once!"

"Poyo? (What do you mean?)" Kirby gawked.

"…If only I could understand what the hell you were saying…"

Luvbi grabbed Chopper before he could say anything and helped him up to the ledge. While he felt nervous around the Nimbi girl, he wasn't going to cry about it. He knew he was overreacting, so it wasn't the best idea.

Once Sonic used his Whirlwind to get him and Mario up, they headed through the door to find another green hologram of Shade mocking them on the pathway.

"Another hologram?" Luigi sighed.

"That might just be a decoy to trap us, but it's our only clue we have right now," Sonic declared. "Guess we'll just have to follow him!"

They ran through the pathway ahead, noticing some creepy tentacles hanging from the ceiling. A Phantom Hand rose up in front of them and attempted to grab Mario's feet, but he bashed it with his hammer.

Mario: Don't even try to get in my way!

An Elite Dark Soldier holding a shield fired at them with its weapon, but Sonic was able to hit it with a Homing Attack to knock its shield away. This gave Chopper the opportunity to hurl light balls at it. They ran into an Elite Dark Assassin and a Dark Skelloknight that was guarding a dark ! switch.

"Looks like I can hit that switch," Chopper smirked.

"Let's take care of the enemies first," Blade suggested, slashing at the Elite Dark Assassin, while Tipral got rid of the Dark Skelloknight's armor. Chopper then held Starbow up and allowed her to make shooting stars hit both enemies and defeat them.

"Now the switch just needs to be hit…" Luigi trailed.

Chopper got to that and tossed a light ball at the switch, which created two platforms in 3-D to help them get across another road they need to access in 3-D. Using his power, he got him and everyone else into 3-D to help them cross the gap and get to the other side before going into 2-D.

"You know, we really need to get that flipping technique," Blade suggested. "Who gave that to you, Chopper?"

"Bestovius."

"We ought to go see him sometime…"

"Not now," Sonic cut in. "We need to get the last Pure Heart. I'm sure we're getting much deeper into the comet."

"Yes, I can feel it…" Tipral trailed as he skated on ahead through a small tunnel and through a long pathway with a ledge above them in the background with some Dark Wizards and Elite Dark Soldiers manning turrets firing projectiles down at them.

"Ack! We're under attack!" Luigi cried as he gripped his cap and pulled it down slightly. Sonic held Relfecto up as he ran through the pathway. Some small rubble was in their way, but Tipral's Star powers were able to smash through them with ease.

Mario: I wish we can stop them…

"Poyo! (I think I can do something!)" Kirby used his Magic ability to make lightning strike the enemies above. However, on the pathway, there were some Dark Wizards firing magic at them.

Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled some of the projectiles to spit back at them. Kirby froze one with some ice magic, but one Elite Dark Soldier fired at Kirby and knocked away with Magic ability.

"Poyo! (No! Not my ability!)"

A Dark Wizard on the ledge fired magic at it to shatter it, leaving Kirby saddened. However, his sadness ended when he noticed everyone running on ahead, so he followed them, despite not being as fast as some of them.

When they got to a tunnel ahead, they found a Dark Brute waiting for them. It was carrying a plasma launcher, so they knew they had to get close to deal some damage. After all, projectiles would be blocked by its hand.

Kirby started off by using his Final Cutter on the alien, and then following up came Tipral's Star Burst. Luigi was able to finish off the Dark Brute quickly with a Super Jump while it draped down a bit.

"Phew… Well that was close." Luigi sighed.

"Yea, verily," Luvbi nodded. "So, my prince… Dost thou hath any idea of what we will dost later?"

"Luvbi… With all the Pure Hearts, I can't just stay with you forever…" Chopper trailed. "Not only do I not know much about love, but the True Chaos Heart needs to be destroyed! Only the Pure Hearts can stop it!"

"Oh… That doth be a shame…"

Upon entering the tunnel, they were brought into an area with some rubble blocking their way to the door ahead. Tipral simply destroyed it with a Star Spear and found a door up ahead on a small slope. In 3-D, however, there was a hidden pipe they found that led them into a room with some Copy Abilities.

"Hey! This might be helpful!" Chopper smiled.

"My sweet prince! Grabbeth the Angel ability!" Luvbi squealed, noticing the Angel ability was available. She began to imagine him with the Angel ability and kissing Luvbi on the lips.

"I don't like that image Luvbi's imagining…"

"How can you see the image?" Sonic asked.

"It's pretty obvious…"

"Oh, yeah… I do see it."

Kirby decided to go with the Yo-yo ability, while Chopper decided to pick up the Plasma ability.

"Ha! Now you can't kiss me with this ability on!" Chopper smirked as he eyed Luvbi. "I'm sure it'll come in handy too."

"Hmmmmm… We'll see about that." Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper and kissed his cheek without getting shocked. Chopper's eyes widened as he wiped the kiss off his cheek. He rubbed his feet on the ground, but he accidentally touched Luigi, giving him a shock.

"Whoops… Sorry about that…"

"Unnghhh… Don't worry about it." Luigi moaned.

* * *

**Outside-**

When they jumped out of the pipe, they went to the door ahead and entered to the next area, which had another road, but it appeared to be moving slightly at a downward angle. Thankfully, there were no enemies around.

"So it's all clear from here?" Sonic wondered.

"Don't jump to conclusions so soon, hedgehog…" Tipral warned as he skated on ahead. As Chopper ran, an electric barrier surrounded him to protect him from getting hurt at some points.

At the end of the path was a ramp they jumped off to land on a platform. Their eyes widened when they realized they were surrounded by a couple of Dark Skellos, Dark Skello Bombers, Dark Wizards and Elite Dark Soldiers.

"You might wanna surrender now," a Dark Wizard grinned. "You're outnumbered!"

"Heh heh! I wanna get the green plumber!" a Dark Skello snickered. "He looks like he could be tested on with my spear!"

"Wh-What?!" Luigi gaped.

"And you know, the girl could be helpful with some of the work around here…" another Dark Wizard grinned. "Maybe we can make her into a Dark Wizard! It makes me wonder what a female would look like as a Dark Wizard…"

"Nay! Thou art NOT going to dost that!" Luvbi retorted.

"Dark Wizards are genderless, you know…" a third Dark Wizard noted, making the other face palm.

"Oh, silly me… Like it matters anyway…"

"Let's give 'em just what our master wanted!" an Elite Dark Soldier grinned as it began to fire. Sonic brought Reflecto up and managed to deflect the shot back at the Dark Creature.

"Grrrrrgh! KILL THEM!"

The enemies began to open fire, with some Dark Skellos throwing spears. Blade put up Barry to block the spears and then tossed a couple of shurikens at the Dark Skellos. Chopper was able to make a Dark Wizard fall over with a light sweeping kick, followed by a Plasma Wave he fired at a couple of enemies.

Blade decided to make things interesting and began to spin his katana around while moving toward the Elite Dark Soldiers. They brought up some shields, so Sonic knocked them away with a Homing Attack.

"Go get 'em, Blade!" Sonic grinned.

Blade nodded and managed to slash at the Elite Dark Soldiers to defeat them. Unfortunately, more soldiers landed on the platform. When they all looked up, they could see a ship.

"Another ship from those Dark Creatures…" Chopper trailed.

"So, if they're going to constantly spawn more of these enemies, then I have no other choice…" Tipral clenched his fists as he was surrounded in a light purple glow. Upon noticing this, Chopper's eyes widened and instantly stepped back.

"What's he doing?" Luigi asked.

"A Star Blast…" Chopper gulped.

The pale green Star Warrior managed to grab a hold of Luvbi and keep her safe as Tipral unleashed a Star Blast, which destroyed all the enemies around them, as well as the ship. The heroes got hurt from it as well, but they were at a further range, so they took less damage.

Mario: That was dangerous!

"You should be careful where you attack," Blade suggested, coughing a little.

When Chopper let go of Luvbi, the Nimbi girl blushed as she swooned and was hoping for a kiss, but Chopper noticed his Plasma ability was gone, making that ability nothing but a waste.

"Poyo, (I still have my Yo-yo ability,)" Kirby noticed.

"All right… Let's move on…"

They noticed a platform come down to pick them up, and then they got on and let it take them up to a ledge where a door awaited. The eight entered to find an alien slime that made some sort of rail.

"This looks like something we could hitch a ride on," Sonic said.

"But that might harm us…" Chopper trailed.

"Then I'll go first," Tipral decided as he got on the rail. When his feet touched them, it didn't seem to harm him. "Guys, it's all right. You can get on this if you want. Just be careful…"

Sonic got on next and began to use it as if it were a grinding rail, just like Chopper did. Kirby, Blade and the Mario Bros. used it as a slide and allowed it to take them out of the small area and into a larger area with a couple of taller skyscrapers.

"Wow… Look at this!" Luigi gaped as they saw some Dark Bats flying over.

"Watch out. Those things can…well, I'd rather not say it. But they'll drop something on you if you're not careful…"

"Thou shouldst not mention that…" Luvbi sighed, who happened to be holding onto Chopper, who had no choice but to hold onto her while they made their way over the large, bottomless pit down below.

Mario: Luigi, don't look down…

"I… I won't…" Luigi gulped as he ended up looking down and yelping. "OK! I don't wanna be around here now!"

Thankfully, they left the bottomless pit area and went into a tunnel that led them into a smaller area with two large stairs with two Elite Dark Assassins waiting for them. A Wizrim was there as well, and it ended up throwing its weapon toward them.

Kirby, however, was able to knock its weapon away with his yo-yo and pull the wizard over to him so he could slam it on the ground. Chopper spun his fists with light energy and attacked it until it was defeated with ease.

"It's weird that we had a mini-boss against this, but now it's a normal enemy…" Chopper trailed.

"Poyo, (I noticed that too,)" Kirby agreed.

Kirby grabbed one of the Elite Dark Assassins on one of the ledges before it could teleport. He was able to send it flying up to the ceiling, which allowed Blade to throw his katana up and let it stab it.

"And that's how you take down a Dark Creature with style," Blade smirked as he managed to catch his katana when it fell. Unfortunately, he ended up getting blasted by the last Dark Assassin.

Luvbi rolled her eyes while Tipral teleported over to the Elite Dark Assassin and used his Star Burst and then tossed a Star Spear at it to finish it off. The rest of the group climbed the two big steps and found a large tunnel with another hologram of Shade.

"What is he doing?" Chopper gawked as he noticed Shade giving them with his finger… "Oh, that's just jerkish!"

"Yeah, I mean, why would he give that to us?" Sonic gawked. "Isn't that a bit rude?"

"Dark gave me that plenty of times…" Blade muttered. "Lemme tell you: sometimes I do it back. Now… I've got one thing to say…"

Blade jumped down to the lower ground below him and began to shake his fist at the hologram while letting out profanity that had to be censored because of any lawsuits that could be given at any time.

Oh, and did I mention he gave two of them to the hologram?

"Yeah, you see this?! That's right! I'm flipping you off _twice_!" Blade spat. "And there's no way you can top THAT!"

"Blade… That's a HOLOGRAM!" Chopper face palmed. "He can't hear it!"

"Oh… Then why did I do that? Aw, man… What an idiot I am right now! That's almost as stupid as what Bang would do sometimes like when he…"

"Ummmmm… Yeah… Let's just move on." Sonic sweat dropped.

"Please…" Luvbi groaned.

They ran through the tunnel ahead, with Tipral hitting a yellow ? block nearby. A Speed Flower popped out. When he grabbed it, everything turned out to go at a faster pace, especially the Dark Wizards blocking the way of the rubble.

"Everything'ssofastnow!" Chopper chirped.

"Verily? Ohme! Itdothseemethlikethat!" Luvbi noticed.

Tipral stayed silent as he blasted through the Dark Wizards and the rube with his Star fist, as well as some rubble up ahead. He found another ramp leading over to a road that looked seemingly familiar.

When they jumped off the ramp, Luvbi grabbed onto Chopper so he wouldn't fall off, but it didn't matter that much, because everyone else managed to get on the road just fine. They saw a bridge above them with a couple of Dark Wizards, Elite Dark Soldiers and even Dark Brutes firing down.

"Takethis!" an Elite Dark Soldier cried as it threw a plasma grenade down. Since everything was moving at a fast pace, the grenade blew up quickly and knocked them all back. Chopper protected Luvbi so he took the hit instead. That's when the speed went back to normal.

"Oh, Chopper… That was verily sweet of thee." Luvbi blushed. "I doth sense that thou dost careth about me…"

"Well, I see you more as a friend than a _girl_friend…" Chopper sighed before Luvbi could kiss him on the cheek. "Ewww! I hate wiping those off constantly! Plus, having a girlfriend means I have to hold hands and spend time with them instead of going on adventures!"

"It's true," Sonic agreed.

"And secondly…"

As Chopper began to go on a rant, a couple of Dark Wizards on the bridge and ledges had irritated looks under their hoods. They were getting slightly annoyed with Chopper's rant, so one aimed its wand and fired a dark magic projectile down at him.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"Next time we go to order something, I'm buying it for you," one Dark Wizard congratulated, making the Dark Wizard who hit Chopper happy.

"Look, no time for any rants. We've gotta fight!" Blade informed as he readied his katana and attacked a Wizrim in their way. Tipral snapped his finger and knocked a couple of enemies off the bridge.

"Someone man that turret!" a Dark Brute ordered, pointing to a turret on the bridge.

"Lemme take care of it!" a Dark Wizard manned the torrent and began to fire. Tipral noticed a shield, so he hid behind it while he tossed a shadow ball at the turret to damage it. Sadly, that didn't seem like enough.

"Great... We're going to need more than that…" Tipral groaned.

Luigi pondered for a moment until he had an idea. He grabbed Bonjourang and threw him toward the turret. He was able to hit the Dark Wizard instead, making it fall off the bridge and on the road. Tipral skated up to it and bashed its head with his fist to defeat it.

He found more rubble in the way ahead, so he was able to smash through it and find a ramp at the end of the road. When he turned around, he noticed an Elite Dark Soldier throwing a plasma grenade down at the group. They were running over to Tipral, who noticed an explosion as they jumped.

But then he noticed a crate of plasma grenades. He grabbed one of them and threw it on the bridge where the enemies were.

A Dark Brute noticed the plasma grenade land right in front of it, so it kicked it - only to notice it being stuck on its foot instead.

"Oh, no… You've gotta be kiddi-"

The explosion was quite a powerful one, being able to take out all the enemies on the bridge. The Wizrim left charged, but Mario was able to send it flying toward the explosion with the help of Kickbrin.

"Ha HA! Take that!" Kickbrin smirked.

Mario: Nice work, Kickbrin!

"Good. Now we can progress." Tipral nodded as he took off on the ramp, while the rest of the group followed him. They were taken to the largest are they've seen so far, with a couple of ships over the big area. There were three platforms, with each being connected by a bridge.

What made it worse was that there was a huge army of Dark Skellos, Dark Creatures, Dark Wizards, and many other dangerous monsters waiting for them.

"Listen up!" the Wizrim began. "We can't let these heroes breach through that door ahead at ALL costs! We can't let him breach Master Shadow Doom's Castle!"

"The castle!" Chopper gasped. "So we're getting close…"

"It looks like those ships are supplying more troops," Luigi gulped, looking up at the ships flying around. However, he noticed a turret was right near them.

At this point, Chopper couldn't help but smirk.

"Oh, YES! THIS is what I'm talking about!" Chopper cheered as he manned the turret and began to fire at the ships. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be doing quite good with it with the confusing controls.

"How do you use this thing?!"

"You're too novice for this," Blade stepped in as he shoved Chopper out of the way and took control of the turret. "This job is for men!"

"But you're only fifteen…"

"And that's older than you."

"Yeah… Good point."

As Blade took control of the turret, he began to fire at the ships, and not to mention the enemies that were charging. A Wizrim appeared behind Blade, but Sonic was able to hit it with a Homing Attack, followed by Tipral kicking it and sending it flying away.

"Thou knowest, my prince…" Luvbi began. "Thou may only be ten, but thou still dost hath a girlfriend, unlike the smelly cat…"

"I don't have a girlfriend…" Chopper groaned. "I never said I loved you anyway, so HA!"

"I HAD a girlfriend, but she died," Blade answered. "Yeah yeah, it was tragic, but that was a couple of years ago."

After he destroyed the last ship, a Dark Wizard fired a charged magic attack that made Blade's eyes widen and force him to jump away from the turret before it could explode. Even then, there were tons of enemies to deal with.

Mario: There's too many of them!

"Hmmmmm… I think I might have an idea…" Tipral trailed. "You know, Chopper, light power CAN help you at a time like this, like my dark power can."

"What do you mean?" Chopper gawked.

Tipral raised his arms and began to create a large shadow ball. "You see, if we can combine light and dark power together, it might be powerful enough to destroy all of these enemies! Though, I don't know how this is going to work…"

"But I can't do that!"

"Really? Then explain how you could use that Master Glove attack to create a large light ball of energy? I'm sure you're capable of doing that right now!"

"Hmmmm… Maybe I'll give it a try…" Chopper raised his arms and began to create a ball of light energy. It began to grow bigger with the more power he held in it. Tipral did the same thing, and once both energy balls touched each other, they combined into one.

However, Luvbi couldn't help but feel that it wasn't enough. She closed her eyes and let out some white energy that she remembered using against Bonechill to help. When Chopper and Tipral looked up, they noticed how strong it looked.

"Wait… I don't remember that kind of power being put in there…" Tipral trailed.

"I didn't see that," Luigi shrugged, which made Luvbi sigh in relief. If she gave that away, the sages wouldn't be safe anymore.

Nevertheless, Chopper and Tipral threw the large energy ball toward the enemies, whose eyes widened as they were instantly defeated by the large ball of energy. One Wizrim was sent flying over by the edge of the bridge and was almost about to fall.

Luigi quickly ran in and kicked it off, sending it plunging to its doom.

"Whew! We did it!" Luigi sighed.

"I don't see any more enemies around here…" Sonic trailed. "Looks like we can progress onward."

"Poyo? (Don't suppose that was the last in the group?)" Kirby wondered as they hurried on ahead to the door. They were led into a tunnel with a staircase before them. They were purple and demon-like. Some tentacles were hanging from the walls like before, and the torches were black instead of purple.

"Oh, yeah… We're definitely getting close…" Chopper slowly nodded as they made their way up the staircase. They could feel the eerie wind blow through the room as they made their way to the top.

Up ahead was a large, purple door, along with a Save Block and yellow ? block. Inside the yellow ? block was a Star Shroom, which they split to heal 150 HP, while Chopper hit the Save Block to save their game.

"All right, let's go through here," Tipral suggested. "I want to finally have my chance to crush Shade once and for all!"

Chopper looked at his friends, who exchanged nods as they made their way through the door. One thing for sure was that getting that last Pure Heart from Shade was most likely not going to be easy.

* * *

**Next area-**

When the door opened, the eight noticed a dark purple castle up ahead, and they also happened to see a purple sky around as well. However, above them were still some dark clouds.

"There it is. Shade's Castle." Chopper said.

"Let's go now! We don't have time to mess around!" Sonic said until they felt the ground shake.

"Poyo?! (What's happening?!)" exclaimed Kirby.

They saw the castle began to come off the ground and ascend past the dark clouds in the sky, leaving everyone but Tipral to gape.

"He saw us coming…" Blade trailed. "Now how are we supposed to get to his castle now with it up in the sky?!"

"And past those dark clouds," Luigi added.

"Oh, no… Now we can't saveth my mother and father…" Luvbi trailed sadly. "How art we ever going to maketh our way up thither?"

"DEY TUK ER JEBS!"

"Wait, what was that?" Blade gawked. "And why did that sound so strange?"

"It's coming from over there," Tipral noticed, pointing at a large army from The Underwhere that were listening to a Dark Skello ramble on. A couple of Dark Wizards, Dark Creatures and other dangerous monsters were waiting by where Shade's Castle used to be.

"Listen now, Underwhere monsters!" the Dark Skello began. "When those other guys are preoccupied, we're goin' to charge at 'em and knock 'em away! There's no way they'll be able to stand to that!"

"Look, we can hear everything you're saying," a Dark Wizard spoke out. "Do you have a problem with us?"

The Dark Skello watched as the Dark Wizard flew down to him, so it grabbed the wizard and gave him a threatening look.

"Listen here, wizard dude! It was OUR job to guard the castle! That Necromancer has NO right to demote us like this! Besides, we've been waitin' to pummel the heroes for a LONG time! While you guys? You could've just gone out to do it yerselves!"

"Orders are orders," a Wizrim stated. "You listen to him, and you might not have to suffer. After all, he freed you from Underwhere Prison, so in return, you must listen to every word he says!"

"All right, what's going on here?" Chopper interrupted as he waved his arms around. "We're over here, for Pete's sake!"

"Chopper! Don't give away our position!" Tipral growled.

"It's not good…" Sonic trailed.

"Wait a second…" the Dark Skello let go of the Dark Wizard and turned his head by the door the eight came out of. "Holy… It's the heroes! And they brought that girl and…their enemy with them?"

Upon hearing this, Cyclut, who was snoozing, quickly woke up and made his way over to the group. When he looked at them, he let out a roar right in Chopper's face. The Star Warrior couldn't help but waft the air away.

"Geez! You're breath stinks!" Blade guffawed. "Get a breath mint or something! It'll help you, you know…"

Cyclut growled and punched Blade, sending him flying back.. The rest of the group quickly got in their fighting stances as Cyclut gave them all a glare with his single eye.

"MAN this guy's ugly!" Sonic commented.

Cyclut jumped over to where Chopper, Luigi and Tipral were standing and gave them a loud roar. Blade quickly got up and shook a fist at Cyclut.

"Wh-What does he want?!" Luigi cried.

"If he wants a fight, then I'll be willing to give him one," Tipral declared.

Cyclut took out a photo of him and a Dark Wizard and put it right in front of the three. When Luvbi fluttered over to Chopper, she noticed the picture as well.

"That…doth be nothing more than a Dark Wizard…" Luvbi trailed.

"Wait… That wizard has red eyes…" Chopper trailed. "He kind of reminds me of Giyron. …No, that IS Giyron!"

Mario: Giyron?

When Cyclut looked back at the picture, a tear came down his face as he began to whimper. Afterward, he put the photo away and let out another roar in anger as he took out his two daggers.

"Uhhhh… Yeah! He can take them down!" the Dark Skello declared. "And if he fails, then we'll do it!"

"All right! It's about time I got a chance to destroy someone different for once." Tipral said as he clenched his fists. Cyclut growled and charged at Tipral and tried to bring his daggers down on him.

The only problem? Tipral was faster than him, and the fact that his daggers were stuck on the ground.

"Weird… I don't see any HP on this guy…" Chopper trailed, noticing his HP was ? and his Attack was 19. While Cyclut was pulling his daggers out, he charged up a light ball and hurled it at Cyclut. He noticed it didn't do too much.

When Mario tried to jump on Cyclut's head, he also noticed it didn't do much.

Mario: We're not dealing that much damage!

"Whoa, really?" Blade gaped. "It must be his armor then…"

Kirby was able to fling his yo-yo at Cyclut before he pulled his daggers out. It seemed to slightly push him back over by the big hole that Shade's Castle left. It was certainly big and almost like a bottomless pit.

"Poyo, (I think if we knock him down that pit, we might be able to win,)" Kirby informed.

"Knock him down there? I'm fine with that." Tipral nodded as he snapped his finger and knocked Cyclut back. The Cyclops growled as he began to throw a couple of daggers to knock a couple of them back.

"Did you notice that when sharp objects hit us, we just get knocked down or something?" Chopper noticed.

"Yeah, I did," Luigi nodded. "It's kind of weird, but I'm fine with it."

"Thou all shouldst start driving him off the edge!" Luvbi nagged, despite them trying to dodge the daggers Cyclut was throwing.

Once he stopped throwing daggers, he began to rush toward the group, but Luigi's Cyclone was able to drive him back. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Cyclut from simply jumping in the air and slamming the ground with a shockwave to send the heroes flying back. The Underwhere army began to cheer for him.

"Yeah! Go Cyclut!"

"Kick their butts!"

"They're goin' down!"

Cyclut turned to the crowd and raised his arms as he bobbed his head, as if he was telling them to keep it going. Unfortunately, this left him completely vulnerable, so Sonic got in a ball and managed to charged straight at him with a Spin Dash and knock him back.

"Oh… I think that was a bad idea…" a Spiky Skellobomber sweat dropped.

Blade smirked as he fired his Dragon Beam at Cyclut while he was vulnerable. Not only did this knock him close to the edge, but it left Cyclut open once again, so Tipral kicked him off the edge.

"Well that was easy," Tipral remarked. "Did Shade honestly think something like THAT would be able to stop us?!"

He paused when he saw Cyclut grab the edge of the ground and pull himself up. It didn't seem like he fell at all, which shocked some of them.

"Dude… He can climb up with daggers too?!" Blade gaped. "That's not fair!"

Cyclut roared and punched Tipral, who got sent flying to Chopper and knocked him back as well. Cyclut grinned and then turned his attention to Luigi, but Tipral got up and fired a Star Spear at the cyclops.

"We're not done yet, you ugly cyclops," Tipral muttered as the cylops turned his attention to him. He let out a growl and charged at him with his two daggers. He was able to bring them down, but Tipral teleported out of the way and appeared a couple of inches away from him.

When Cyclut looked up, he ended up getting a foot to the face, which knocked him on his back. Despite this, he was still able to get up while not taking much damage. Cyclut grinned and taunted them.

"Face it, our attacks aren't going to do anything," Chopper groaned.

"Didst I tell thee to throweth him off the edge?" Luvbi asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't seem to be working…"

Mario: We gotta make sure he actually falls.

"You got any plans, bro?" Luigi asked.

"Mayhap the love between two will helpeth us!" Luvbi chirped as she looked at Chopper, whose eyes widened as he stepped back. Tipral, on the other hand, slowly shook his hand as he glared at her.

"Such a pathetic idea, you little brat… It's obvious that we need to destroy him! Your other idea was better anyway." Tipral noted.

"Well love doth be important! Thou dost not understand love like my prince and I dost!" Luvbi grabbed a hold of Chopper, who began to frown as he tried to break free.

"I know nothing about love…" Chopper trailed.

Tipral gave her a bigger glare until he got hit by Cyclut, who was able to bring his daggers down on him from behind. He got knocked back, but he was able to get up and sneer at Cyclut while Kirby managed to pull the cyclops back with his yo-yo.

Kirby tried to taunt the cyclops, though he ended up getting hit by his daggers. But that didn't stop him from using his Final Cutter and striking Cyclut. This gave Blade the opportunity to slash at him with his katana, but it didn't seem to work.

"Crap… My katana's doing nothing…" Blade sweat dropped.

"Try throwin' yer daggers and usin' yer big ones!" a Spiky Skellobit hollered, which Cyclut listened and began throwing daggers. While he did this, he got his two large daggers ready and tried to strike the seven with them.

"Luvbi, you might wanna find a safe place…" Chopper suggested. "You don't wanna get hurt, right?"

"Yea, I'll findeth a safe place," Luvbi nodded. "And, Chopper…"

"What?" Before Chopper could say another word, Luvbi quickly kissed him on the lips, making his eyes widen in disgust as Luvbi let go of him.

"Good luck, my sweet prince…" the Nimbi girl blushed at him as she fluttered to a safe area. Chopper quickly wiped his mouth in disgust, and unfortunately, he ended up getting struck by Cyclut's daggers because of being distracted.

Blade couldn't help but face palm as he threw a couple of shurikens at Cyclut. They simply bounced off his armor, making Cyclut snicker at him before hitting Blade with his two daggers.

Luckily, Blade was able to attack him with his Dragon Beam, which was strong enough to send him flying backwards. This gave Luigi the opportunity to throw Bonjourang at him to knock him back a little further.

"Hey, this isn't turning out to be too bad!" Luigi gaped.

"We just need to make sure this guy gets right to the edge!" Sonic said as he clenched his fist and allowed Cyclut to get hit by his Sonic Wind. The cyclops growled and knocked Sonic back with a dagger he threw.

"Gee, for a big guy like him, he's a fast one…" Chopper trailed as he gripped his hammer and blocked Cyclut's daggers. Unfortunately, that only pushed the Star Warrior back a bit while Cyclut snickered. Thankfully, Kirby was there to spin on his head while dashing at Cyclut with his Break Spin attack. That did nothing but get Cyclut's attention.

Kirby gulped as he was grabbed by Cyclut and thrown at Chopper, knocking them both on their backs. Tipral saw this as an opportunity to attack, so he fired a Star Spear at Cyclut's back to make him turn around.

Of course, Cyclut was still laughing because his armor protected him from harm.

"Hmph… So that's how you're going to play, right? Well, might as well get back to knocking you off the edge!" Tipral jumped up and threw a couple of shadow balls at Cyclut, who tried to block them with his two daggers. They ended up getting knocked out of his hands and right by a Dark Skell.

"Uhhhhh… So, is he goin' to take these?" the Dark Skell wondered.

Cyclut was about to take out two extra daggers, but he stopped for a moment and looked down at Tipral, who was using his fists to punch at him. Even if it didn't do anything, it was knocking him back a bit.

Instead, he decided to use his own fists to try to punch at Tipral. Both of their fists clashed with each other as they delivered a punch to each other. Cyclut's large fists didn't stop Tipral, however.

"A fist fight, huh? Well this should be interesting…" Tipral used a Star Punch to make his punches stronger, which was able to knock Cyclut near the edge. The cyclops turned around and noticed this, making him sweat.

"What's the matter? You're getting scared? For someone who's supposed to be one of Shade's stronger minions, you're not that strong. Now then… It's time for you to say goodbye!"

Tipral was able to knock Cyclut off the edge, sending him to his doom. He let out a huge scream as he ended up falling down the bottomless pit.

Though, the rest of Shade's army could notice Cyclut giving a thumbs up to them before they saw him plunge to his doom.

"Well… That was a bit…disappointing…" Chopper trailed. "It didn't seem to take that much to win the fight…"

"It doesn't matter. What's done is done." Tipral declared.

"That cyclops lost…" a Skellobit trailed.

"Yeah! That thing didn't even beat 'em!" a Spiky Skell guffawed.

"Hold on… Now that he's gone, maybe we can finish the job!" the Dark Skello realized. "Everyone! Grab yer spears! We're goin' to finish off the heroes!"

"Excuse me, but that's our job," a Dark Wizard cut in.

"Well YOU took our jobs!"

"Yeah, dey tuk er jebs!" a Skellobomber shouted from the background.

"Pray, what art they saying?" Luvbi gawked.

"Listen here, undead creature," a Wizrim hissed. "Shade ordered US to stand guard here! You guys were demoted, and therefore, you must leave!"

"You know, we kinda got rid of most of the enemies around this area…" Chopper trailed, but his words were merely ignored.

"Well it's yer fault fer takin' our jobs! We were here first! Ya snooze, ya lose, pal!"

"Look, it's either you go, or we have to settle this the hard way," the Dark Wizard warned, aiming its wand at the Skellobits.

"Oh, so ya wanna go, huh?" the Dark Skello aimed its dark spear at the Dark Wizard. "Then bring it on!"

Both armies clashed and suddenly, a big battle between the two commenced. The eight were nearly gawking at the whole event, with some Skellobits and Dark Creatures duking it out. They had no idea what to do at this point. Should they go in and fight? Or should they let them fight themselves?

"You know what? We should just sit here and relax." Sonic suggested, sitting down and stretching. "We could use a break for once!"

"Ummmmmm… OK…" Luigi trailed as he sat down and yawned. "Man… This hero stuff does make you a little tired, huh, bro?"

Mario: Yeah. Definitely.

They obviously knew the Dark Creatures, Dark Wizards and Wizrims would be able to win the fight, but with how many undead there were, it seemed like some of them were taken down with ease by many Skellobits, who were perhaps the weakest in the group by far.

However, because they were so weak, it only took the others about a hit to wipe them out. The Wizrim used its scythe to wipe a huge amount of Skellobits clean. The Skells and Skellos, however, took a little while to take down.

"We won't let these guys take our jobs!" the Dark Skello shouted.

"YEAH! THEY CAN'T DERKA DUR!"

"Your stupid words aren't going to help you win," a Dark Wizard scoffed. "You can always give up now while you can."

"Heck no!" the Dark Skello retorted as he charged at the Dark Wizard. The eight noticed a huge explosion, with a couple of Skellobits and Dark Creatures getting blown away from the blast.

"Holy crap! This is one hell of a battle!" Blade gaped. "And we're not a part of it!"

"Good thing, too," Chopper agreed, taking out an Ultimate Shroom Shake and sipping it to recover 100 HP. "Anyone want some?"

Everyone nodded, with Kirby snatching it from Chopper first so he could recover his HP. Tipral was the last to take a sip from the shake, and then that's when it was empty. He simply disintegrated it with his own magic.

"Do they really think they can keep this up?" Tipral asked.

"Probably not," Sonic shrugged.

"Poyo! (But it's better than us fighting!)" Kirby smiled.

When the explosion was gone, all that was left was the Dark Skello and Dark Wizard, who were both trying to push each other back with their own weapons. They both gave each other death glares while at it too.

"Listen, wizard-head!" the Dark Skello hissed. "Ya might as well stop now while ya can! 'Cause yer army's all gone!"

"Oh, really? Well look at your army! It's gone too!" the Dark Wizard mentioned.

"What?! You serious?! Oh, crud… This isn't good…"

"Oh yeah… Now that both army's are gone, our chances of defeating those heroes are slim. Nice going, genius."

"What? You guys came in and took our jobs! That's YOUR fault!"

"No, it's yours!"

"No, yours!"

Tipral couldn't take it any more and fired a Star Spear between the two, sending them flying off the edge and into the same pit that Cyclut fell off as well.

"OK… I guess that solves that." Luigi said with a blank face.

"Yup! And now the whole army's out of the way!" Chopper smiled as the rest of the group noticed two large hands grabbing a hold of the edge of the ground. Their eyes widened when they saw Cyclut slowly pulling himself up.

"…What? What is it, guys?"

"Behind you…" Luigi gulped.

Chopper turned around and saw Cyclut standing before them. However, his armor was gone, which showed his gray chest that was covered in many scratches and bruises. His helmet still remained on him, but now he was holding onto a large, jagged coffin.

"What's that? A coffin?" Chopper gawked.

"How is he still alive?!" Tipral gaped. "That pit was most likely too deep! …Or perhaps he was able to save himself first. But how did he get the coffin?"

Cyclut let out a roar as he swung the coffin and knocked Chopper back with it. Now that his armor was off, he was able to be hurt, so Tipral tossed a couple of shadow balls at him, causing him to cringe in pain.

"He seems weak…" Sonic trailed. "I don't know how much he can take either…"

Cyclut began to spin around, as well as the coffin. Both Kirby and Mario were knocked back, with Kirby losing his Yo-yo ability. He cried out, but this wasn't the time to be crying over something like that.

However, Cyclut stopped spinning when he got on top of the coffin and let it open up. There, they saw the ghost of Giyron come out and begin chasing them. They instantly ran away as Cyclut tried to smash them by bouncing around the area with the coffin.

"That's the wizard we fought in that dark place!" Luigi cried as the ghost of Giyron began to chase him around. When he began to chase Chopper, Luvbi gasped and grabbed him and flew up to avoid Giyron.

"Luvbi! Let go!" Chopper cried.

"Nay! I dost not want thee to get hurt!" Luvbi retorted. "Thou shouldst be safe!"

While Cyclut began bouncing around, Giyron returned to the coffin. He got off the coffin and held it like a weapon again. Mario bashed his stomach with his hammer, making his eyes widen in pain.

Mario: It doesn't look like he can take any more.

They could see how Cyclut struggled to hold the coffin. In fact, perhaps the fall might've taken away the energy he needed to fight. But that didn't stop Tipral from firing a Star Spear at Cyclut.

"Hmph… He's almost about to drop the coffin. Let me help him with that." Tipral skated over to Cyclut and fired two Star Spears so they could hit Cyclut's arms. To the cyclops's dismay, the coffin ended up falling over him and leaving him completely lifeless under it.

"He didn't seem to have much left anyway…" Sonic trailed as they walked over to the lifeless Cyclut. They noticed his spirit rise out of the coffin, along with Giyron's.

They slowly began to rise out of the comet.

"At least they died together…" Chopper trailed.

"Now then…" Tipral began as he looked around the area. There was no one except for them left. He then looked up at the dark clouds. "Now we have to get to Shade's Castle. I've been waiting for this whole moment…"

"Yeah, but we don't have anything to help us get up," Blade noted.

However, something ended up appearing out of the coffin. It appeared to look like some kind of glowing white orb. Everyone walked over to it and looked down at it.

"Well, I'm not touching it," Luvbi decided.

Mario was the first to touch it, and once he felt it, he found himself surrounded by a red glow, making the others surprised. Kirby touched it next, giving him a pink glow, Chopper got a light green glow, Luigi got a green glow, Sonic got a blue glow and Blade got a dark blue glow.

"Holy crap… I feel like some kind of power is surging into me…" Blade gaped. "As if I… I could launch myself high up!"

"Hmmmm?" Tipral decided to touch it, and he was instantly surrounded by a dark glow. That's when the orb shattered. "I guess my power was too much for that thing."

"Well, whatever this power is, why don't we try using it to get to the castle?" Sonic suggested, giving his friends a smirk.

"Of course," Luigi nodded as he jumped upward with his fist above him. At this point, he was now flying up, along with Mario and Kirby, who did the same thing.

"That's not fair!" Luvbi whined. "I get nothing?!"

Chopper sighed and grabbed her, making her blush while smiling at her prince as he flew up. Luvbi sighed sweetly as he held onto Chopper, pretending that she was a girl being rescued by a super hero she was in love with.

"This doth be a dream come true…" she sighed.

"Eeeeugh! Don't be thinking about romance!" Chopper gagged.

As they flew up, Sonic and Blade looked at each other and nodded before going up. That left only Tipral, who watched the group go up. Before he could go up, he began to think about the lab he was created in that was now a part of the comet.

"Shade… What you did to the place I was born was unacceptable." Tipral growled. "And now, you're going to pay with your _**life**_!"

Tipral then flew up thanks to the dark power he received.

When they all reached the front of Shade's Castle, the power they received wore off upon landing on the ground in front of the door. Tipral was the last to land and saw the door before them. It was gray and had Shade's face drawn on, which angered him.

"All right… Here it is." Chopper said. "He's right through this door."

After giving each other nods, they entered the castle.

* * *

**Shade's Castle-**

Once they entered the castle by kicking the door open, they noticed the interior was dark purple, just like Shade's Castle. There wasn't much around this hallway except for the red rug extended to the door ahead. There were some new Dark Wizards around this room with dark gray hoods and light purple eyes. They even had a black trim around their hood as well.

"Wait… I thought we were done with his army?!" Luigi gaped.

"Oh, no… That's not true. You see, Master Shadow Doom has other ones around here. We're called Shadow Wizards, and we don't like seeing you people around here!"

"Shadow Wizards…" Chopper trailed. "So these guys are his strongest minions? How come they were never around the outside of the comet?"

"'Cause we were told to stay here and wait for you guys," another Shadow Wizard answered as it aimed its wand at them and fired dark magic at them. They had much more HP than a Dark Wizard and had an Attack of 20, which shocked most of them.

"Those guys do 20 damage?!" Luigi gaped.

"Well that's not stopping me," Tipral declared, snapping his finger and hitting the Shadow Wizards with Star Magic.

"They got a lot of HP…" Luigi trailed as the Shadow Wizards got up and formed a tower. They all fired dark magic projectiles at once, which made Chopper get everyone into 3-D to stay safe.

Once they were back in 2-D, they were able to attack the Shadow Wizards from behind and defeat them with ease. They were just about the only enemies around the hallway, to their surprise.

"Strange… I thought we'd see more of those guys…" Sonic trailed.

"Poyo… (I guess Shade didn't have a lot…)" Kirby bet.

"Well it mattereth not. We must goest onward!" Luvbi declared, fluttering over to the purple door ahead. Everyone followed her to a much larger room with a couple of doors around and a staircase going up to the second floor of the room. There were also some statues of Shade between some of the doors.

"Weird… There aren't any enemies lurking around here…" Chopper trailed. "And the security back in the other room wasn't that great either."

"Well, the only thing we can do here is to check this place out," Blade noted. "So… How about we get to that?"

"I'll go check one of the rooms," Tipral declared as he walked into a light purple door in the middle of the room. There, he found a table and a couple of papers sitting on the table, which Tipral noticed.

He picked up the papers and noticed a photo of the space station he remembered being on before. He also found some blueprints to the comet taking in the space station and becoming part of the comet. There was even a little note as well, so he picked it up and read it.

_With this space station, we'll be able to double the amount of our army and make them even stronger with the type of resources that space station has inside! It'll come in handy for more Dark Wizards… But I also came across a photo that I found in here… I managed to get it in color, too._

Tipral noticed the photo by the side, and there he saw a picture of him and the same girl he saw before. Only this time, it was in color and looked much cleaner. He noticed a rainbow ribbon in her light brown hair that looked almost like butterfly wings.

Rainbow butterfly wings to be exact.

And then he began to remember the rainbow butterfly that was traveling with Chopper before. However, his anger got to him first when he read the note, so he grabbed it and tore it to pieces.

"The more I think about it, Shade must really want me to kill him if he's revealing all of this stuff here," Tipral growled. "And I will definitely grant him the wish to die, if that's what he so chooses!"

Tipral bashed the door open and took one more glimpse at the photo before putting it away. That was all in the past, and he didn't let it get to him. Timpani's gone, that's all he knew. He noticed over to his left, the rest of the group was checking out the gym Shade had.

"Nice gym…" Blade commented, seeing the dark background and the purple floor. Some of the weights looked pointy on the edges. "Although, why does Shade need a gym like this?"

"Maybe it was for someone like Cyclut…" Sonic pondered. "You saw how big he was!"

Mario: Oh yeah!

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Chopper agreed. "Anyway, let's check some other room."

They were about to go into the room Tipral was in, but he stepped in front of them. "There's nothing in here. You don't need to go in."

"Huh? Why not?" Luvbi questioned.

"There isn't anything in there. I checked it earlier."

"OK, fine… I guess I'll check upstairs." Chopper decided as he went up the stairs.

"Wait for me, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cried as she followed Chopper, who didn't seem to want her to come with him. But, because he didn't want to sadden her, he had no choice but to let her come.

"I guess we'll check down here?" Luigi shrugged.

"Poyo, (Might as well,)" Kirby nodded.

When Chopper got upstairs, he noticed two doors to his left. The first one appeared to be black, so he went through that door first, with Luvbi followed him in. They found the inside to be black with a couple of swords on the walls and even a helmet. There were even books on undead magic as well and even a dartboard of Chopper and his friends.

"So, this must be the Necromancer's room…" Chopper trailed. "That helmet and the other weapons in his room shows it. Plus, there's a skull on his bed."

"Chopper, look at that over thither," Luvbi said, pointing to a picture of four knights fighting against the Necromancer. One was blue, green, orange and red. They were carrying swords and firing magic such as ice, poison, fire and electricity at the Necromancer, who was flying above them with many dead bodies on the ground.

"I do recall the Necromancer saying something about four people who defeated him… So those are the ones, I presume?"

"It doth look like it… I wonder what happened then…" the Nimbi girl trailed as Chopper saw the four knights had mustaches and other stupid things drawn on them like stupid-looking teeth (even though they were wearing helmets).

"Well, if there's one thing I know, it's that he hates them so much, he wants to make them look stupid…with mustaches."

"We shouldst leave hither for now," Luvbi suggested.

"OK… Just one second." Chopper grabbed the marker the Necromancer had at his desk and drew a mustache on the Necromance in the picture. He also gave him stupid-looking glasses as well.

"Heh heh heh!"

When he left the room, he noticed Blade trying to kick the big door ahead down. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be opening because of the lock on the door.

"Come on! Why can't we unlock this thing?!" Blade cried.

"That's because the door's locked," Sonic mentioned.

"Yeah, I know, but we should be able to cut that lock off! I think it's only fair anyway."

"Poyo? (What did you find, Chopper?)" Kirby asked, floating up to him.

"The Necromancer's room was where I just got out," Chopper explained. "It's…actually kind of cool, if you ask me."

"Poyo! (Really? Let me see!)" the pink puffball pushed Chopper out of the way and rushed into the Necromancer's room, making Luvbi give the pink puffball a face.

"That was rudeth of him!" Luvbi huffed. "Who doth he think he is, pushing my sweet prince liketh that?!"

"I'm not even hurt… Let's just check the other room…" Chopper moaned as he quickly got up. They headed to the door to the far left and noticed the door was a bit grayish with some black to it. Two, purple eyes also appeared on it as well. "If I'm not mistaken, this is probably Shade's room."

When they entered the room, they noticed Tipral was inside as well, which he was able to spot them. There was a lot of gray on the walls, and there was a jar of green blood as well. There happened to be a picture of Shade with his green, forked tongue out.

Long story short, it was a creepy room.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Well what are you doing here?" Chopper asked.

"Checking to see if Shade has something interesting in here… All I found was a key." Tipral showed Chopper a key. "It doesn't look like I found anything special here. …Oh, this diary, perhaps. But it's protected by dark power."

"Then I'll handle it!" the pale green Star Warrior used his light power to do away with the dark power, allowing him to open the diary. "I might as well check through here. There might be some important stuff here…"

And he did indeed find something important. Something very shocking.

_Heh heh heh! Excellent! Everything is going exactly as planned! Not only did I manage to get this entire comet finished up, but I was able to take away my brother's army! …Wait, no! Dark isn't actually my brother! I'm just a parasite that invaded this universe and started as a speck of darkness! Getting this body was not such an easy task… But, I managed to get to a planet called Mondrao and find a little gray kid. He looked about Chopper's age, I guess. I entered his mind and slowly began to drain away his entire consciousness until he was dead! Now I've taken over his body, which I actually think fits me just fine! The black blade on my head and the black gloves and shoes were just a touch given to me when I took over and practically owned the body. The wings, too, were another thing! But there was one thing that was lacking in this world when I got off of Mondrao… I always liked the sight of people's death and their blood! I always thought it was…exciting. Little does Dark know that I "convinced" his father that I was his son and a Dark Creature mixed with the wrong DNA and turned into this. I only left Dark before because I wanted to ruin his life and make him pay the price for how he treated me! Oh, how much I want to let out my desire to make people suffer and cut them up, take all of their blood and dump it all over me. I never get much of an opportunity to do that. And little do people know that my name isn't actually Shadow Doom, nor Shade Doom! My real name is Drakonari! Hee hee hee!_

_But I can't let those fools discover my secret. But even if they did find out, they'll have to witness my true terror upon them! And maybe those two I have captured… Perhaps I could rip them apart when I'm through with the heroes!_

"No way…" Chopper gaped, now in complete awe over the writing in the diary. "I… I can't believe it!"

"Pray, Chopper… What doth be the matter?" Luvbi asked.

"Just… Just look at this!" he handed the diary to Luvbi while he was in complete shock. She took a good look through the writing and was shocked.

"Wh-What?! So this Shade is not the Shade we hath known for so long…"

"What? You found something?" Tipral wondered as Chopper took the diary from Luvbi and gave it to him. He decided to read through it and was a bit surprised as well. "Hmph… This isn't something I expected. So he was never Dark's brother this whole time. No wonder he didn't seem to care about leaving Dark."

"And not to mention this guy is CRAZY!" Chopper nodded. "And the fact that his body is actually a kid from my planet disturbs me so much! It almost hurts me to find out I was fighting against someone who had the body of one of my kind…"

"Chopper, don't let that get in your way. That kid is gone forever. Shade invaded his mind and drained it all until he was dead! But now we know his secret, so we might as well expose it to him and tell him there's more to him than we know about."

"But that couldeth be risky…" Luvbi trailed. "He doth say that he would showeth us true terror…"

"He said he wanted to dump someone's blood all over him. Does that sound like terror?" Chopper asked. "Well, I think so! I mean, Maquano enjoyed killing - heck, he destroyed my birth planet for fun! But Shade…no, Drakonari, sounds like he's a complete WACKO!"

"Well I prefer to call him Shade for now," Tipral declared. "Anyway, we have the key, and now we're going to get out of here."

They left and went over to the locked door, where everyone else was trying to get open. Blade was the one who was trying to bust through more, though.

"C'mon, door! Open up!" Blade growled until Tipral showed him the key. "Oh, thanks."

"Guys, we found something incredibly shocking…" Chopper trailed.

Mario: Really?

"Poyo? (What is it?)" Kirby asked.

"See for yourselves!" Chopper handed the diary to Kirby, who opened it and began to read through. The other heroes gathered up and looked at it as well. As much as they didn't want to read through that huge writing, they did it anyway.

And boy, were they shocked.

"Wh-What?! I-Is all of this actually true?!" Luigi stammered.

"Yeah… All of it…" Chopper slowly nodded.

"So Shade was never Dark's brother this whole time…" Sonic trailed.

"And all this time, he was just a parasite that invaded the body of a small kid of your kind…" Blade trailed. "That's kind of sad for the kid, if you think about it."

"Poyo… (And his real name is Drakonari…)" Kirby noticed.

Mario: This really is some important info!

"We're going to expose Shade with this," Tipral said as Chopper took the diary back. "That might weaken him…"

"Or it couldst maketh things worse…" Luvbi trailed.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Chopper said. "We're going through that door."

They hit the yellow ? block nearby to gain a Star Shroom, which they all took to recover 150 HP. After Chopper hit the Save Block, they decided to head through the door.

When they came out of the door, they noticed they were in a big room with light purple walls and some portraits of different worlds they've seen before, such as Lineland Road, Pristine Palisade, Sweet Kingdom, etc.

And below them were bodies. Dead bodies.

"Eeeek! Why art there dead bodies hither?!" Luvbi shrieked, grabbing a hold of Chopper.

"I don't know! I don't like it!" Luigi cried.

"Hold on…" Sonic paused and looked down at the bodies. "Those bodies look like enemies we've seen in different worlds!"

"And I doth see some D-Men, Nimbis, and even some of those ice people we hath seen!" Luvbi noticed, who was saddened to see innocent lives on the ground as well.

"Poyo! (Hey! I saw a room like this on a picture in the Necromancer's room!)" Kirby realized.

"Ah, so I see you like this room," a voice cackled in the room. "I designed it myself!"

They saw the Necromancer standing across the room with his wings out and his arms crossed. "So, you finally made it all this way… Can't say I'm surprised."

"Heh heh… You still have that scar on your helmet." Blade chuckled.

"Oh, I'll give you a scar to look at," the Necromancer growled. "Anyway, so how do you like this room I designed? I made this battle arena just for you guys! It really suits me, considering what I can do!"

"Enough! Mine parents better be fine!" Luvbi roared. "I'll maketh sure thou meeteth thy end, foul creature!"

"Heh heh heh… HA HA HA!"

"What's so funny?" Sonic asked.

"Do you honestly believe that I'm afraid of YOU, you little brat?!" the Necromancer cackled. "Look, I can see how I could be afraid of a little boy with powers, but a little girl? PBBBBBBBBBTH!"

"OK, can you explain to me why you have all of these dead bodies here?" Chopper asked.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, whenever I kill someone, I decide to take them and throw them here. Yup, that means I've traveled to every world you went to and killed at least one of each enemy and person you've encountered!"

"Poyo… (That's messed up…)" Kirby trailed.

"Look, I don't care about your explanations," Tipral cut in. "I just wanna fight you so I can go and kill Shade once and for all!"

"Oh, and we know his secret too!" Chopper smirked. "Trust us, he's not what you seem."

"I already know the secret to Drakonari," the Necromancer confirmed, slowly nodding to them. "He explained everything to me. Even I was in a bit of shock, you know…"

"He's so going to get weakened when we expose this to him," Blade smirked. "But seriously, what he did was horrible beyond belief!"

"All of us villains are horrible in their own way, including me!" the Necromancer raised his arms and made both doors seal shut, preventing them from escaping. "Now that you all can't escape, we can finally settle this once and for all! No Nimbis to help you this time, heroes!"

"Then throw everything you got at us!" Tipral exclaimed. "Maybe your helmet can be a little gift to Shade before I kill him!"

"We'll see about that!" the Necromancer flew up and zapped the ground, revealing a couple of Goombas, Squigs, Koopas, Boomboxers, Skellobits, Waddle Doo and Snowmen that charged.

"Luvbi, you might want to find a safe place," Chopper advised, getting into a fighting stance. "This might get ugly…"

"Of course," Luvbi nodded as she fluttered to a safe place in the room, while the Necromancer was flying over the ground, watching the enemies charge at the seven.

"All right! So we finally get to kick some ass!" Blade grinned. "And on some enemies we haven't seen in a while! This should be PRETTY easy!"

"Let's get started," Chopper smirked as he gripped his hammer and began to spin it around him. Many enemies were instantly defeated from his attack, but he ended up getting hit by a Boomboxer's sound wave, though it didn't do as much now.

Kirby smiled and opened his mouth to inhale the Boomboxer and spit it at a Waddle Dee ahead. He then inhaled the Waddle Doo and got a hold of the Beam ability, which allowed him to fire a beam whip from his wand at a couple of enemies in his way.

"Hey, Necromancer!" Sonic called out as he finished his Spin Dash to take care of a couple of enemies. "You might want to try a little better than this!"

"Hmmmmm… Then maybe I will!" the Necromancer zapped the ground and summoned some Dark Intruderbots, Shadow Boos, Sunoids, Moonoids, Red Vironoids, Dark Skells, Warbots and Dimensional Ghosts.

"Oh… Now the big ones are here…" Blade gaped, but that didn't stop him, especially when he used his Dragon Beam to attack most of the enemies. It didn't defeat them, but with Tipral s Star Burst, he was able to take out most of the enemies.

The Dark Skell, Warbot and Dimensional Ghost were a little more challenging. Chopper had to leave the Dimensional Ghost vulnerable by tossing a rainbow ball at it. Kirby used his beam attack and fired an energy whip at the Dimensional Ghost. Mario bashed the Dark Skell with his hammer, and Luigi was able to finish it with his Cyclone.

Sonic quickly finished off the Warbot, while Tipral defeated the Dimensional Ghost, leaving nothing else left.

"Oh, don't think that's all!" the Necromancer zapped the ground to summon Dark Skellos, Dark Wizards, Elite Dark Soldiers and even a Wizrim and Skelloford to aid him. Though this looked like a problem, they used their agility to attack, with Blade using some fire slashes on the Skelloford and Chopper tossing some light balls at the Wizrim. Tipral threw one of the Dark Wizards back and snapped his finger to defeat it.

"Even now, we've grown stronger than these things!" Tipral scoffed. "Face it, Necromancer! It's all over!"

"Oh, really?"

"Just watch this," Tipral was able to freeze time, and while he did that, he attacked every single enemy as fast as he could. Once he finished up, he reverted time back to normal and defeated all but the Skelloford and Wizrim. Even then, they were low on HP.

"Oh, I got this!" Luigi declared as he jumped on the Skelloford to defeat it and dodged the Wizrim s scythe and jumped on its head to defeat it. "There we go! They're all gone now!"

The Necromancer clenched his fists in anger, with a purple glow surrounding them. However, he calmed down and slowly flew to the ground.

"So… Then I guess it's up to me to finish this." the Necromancer declared, drawing his sword. He raised it and let lightning strike down on him. They noticed a dark mist was left behind him as his sword changed to a pure black color. He now gained purple eyes, which almost reminded them of Shade s transformations with purple eyes.

"What did you do?" Chopper gawked.

"Powered myself up, of course! You see, Shade gave me a little something that would boost my agility, speed and even power! Now let us put an end to this, heroes! And then when you're finished, I'll take care of that girl and her parents!"

"Thou wouldst not dare!" Luvbi shouted.

"Oh, trust me… I will. Now my sword is much stringer and capable of using powerful dark magic!"

"You don't scare me," Tipral scoffed. "Honestly, this isn't going to last very long."

"We'll just see!" the Necromancer grinned and flew forward, striking Tipral with ease with his sword and sending him flying to the wall with his armored boot. Everyone else gawked as Tipral slowly got up, but the Necromancer wasn't done yet. He grabbed as hold of Tipral and slammed his face to the wall.

Even though Chopper didn't like Tipral, he was helping him at the moment, so he had to do something. He hurled a light ball straight at the Necromancer s back, making him cringe in pain as he turned to Chopper.

"Unngh… Light power…" the Necromancer growled. "So you managed to get a hold of that, didn't you?"

"Yeah, right after I beat you before!" Chopper smirked.

The Necromancer took no time and used his necromancy to make dead hands grab a hold of Chopper s feet, which made his eyes widen. The Necromancer hurled purple balls of dark magic at him, which he tried to put up his arms to block, but it didn't seem to work that much.

However, he was able to see what his stats were. His Max HP was 480, he had an Attack of 20 and a Defense of 10.

"Oh… Well he's dangerous…"

Kirby frowned and charged up a beam attack and fired it at the Necromancer to stop him, which he was able to succeed in. The dead hands disappeared, but the Necromancer wasn't going to go down without a fight. He used his undead magic and jumped high up in the air and fired a skeleton down toward Kirby. But, he was able to destroy it with ease with another charged up beam attack.

"Impressive… I honestly thought you were one of the weaker ones…" the Necromancer trailed.

"Poyo! (I m NOT weak!)" Kirby retorted, giving him a glare.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Especially with what I can do!" the Necromancer snapped his finger and Kirby was sent flying up thanks to an undead fist that appeared under the pink puffball. He grinned and flew up to strike Kirby with his sword multiple times.

While the Necromancer was in the air, Luigi was able to attack him with his Super Jump to knock him to the ground. However, it didn't stop him from getting up and knocking Luigi back with a skeleton.

"Oh, man… His attacks are pretty strong…" Luigi moaned.

"Oh yeah, and did I mention my undead powers are far more powerful?" the Necromancer grinned as he fired a dark skeleton toward Mario. Kickbrin was able to help him and shatter the skeleton, but it didn't bother the Necromancer one bit. He swung his sword and fired a Dark Sword Beam his way. Since his sword had dark energy, his Sword Beam had dark energy as well.

Mario: Uh oh…

Mario tried to block it with his hammer, but the attack ended up knocking him back. The Necromancer flew up to him and struck him with his sword a couple of times, but Mario was able to at least bash his head.

"Hey, maybe we can have an even sword fight?" Blade suggested, jumping forward to attack the Necromancer. He was able to strike him back, but the Necromancer whirled around and slashed at him. Thankfully, he was able to recoil and throw a couple of shurikens, which he was able to slice in half with ease.

Blade guffawed while the Necromancer kicked his stomach and knocked him to the ground on his back. The Necromancer gave him an evil look as he raised his sword up. But of course, he was interrupted when Tipral grabbed him from behind and threw him back.

"We're not done yet," Tipral growled as he fired a Star Spear once the Necromancer hit the wall. He cringed in pain as the attack nearly impaled his chest, but he was able to get back in shape and throw his sword like a boomerang at Tipral…

…Which he happened to catch.

"You know, you're going to have to try better than that, Necromancer," Tipral scoffed, but he noticed the Necromancer wasn't getting angered. In fact, he seemed to be grinning. "And what's so funny?"

"Just watch," the Necromancer put his arm in front of him and opened his hand to allow his sword to get out of Tipral s grasps and return to him. Once he grabbed it, he trapped Tipral with his dead hands and was able to fly up and bring his sword down on him.

Tipral cringed, but he was able to kick him away and get up before tossing a shadow ball at the Necromancer, who retaliated by blocking the attack with his sword. Not only that, but it made the sword s power stronger.

"All right, now I know that I can t do that…" Tipral grumbled as he took Carrie when the Necromancer summoned more dead hands. Carrie was able to go over the dead hands and allow Tipral to fire two Star Spears at the Necromancer, which hit him head-on.

"Hey, guys! How come I didn't get a hit on him yet?" Sonic wondered as the Necromancer spun his sword around to block the next projectile Tipral fired. Since he was distracted, he clenched his fists and used his Sonic Wind of the Necromancer. This gave Blade a chance to attack him with his katana and finish off his combo with a Dragon Beam.

The Necromancer gave them a smirk under his helmet as he flew up and dove at an angle near the seven. Kirby brought his guard up to take minimum damage, while Blade used Barry to interrupt the Necromancer s attack.

"Oh, yes… Don't think I forgot about you!" the Necromancer ran straight at Sonic and began to slash at him multiple times. Even when the blue hedgehog brought Reflecto up, it didn't appear to do anything.

"Gah! I guess projectiles only get deflected…" Sonic cringed as the Necromancer made a dead fist strike Sonic upward so he could lung at him with his sword moving up. Mario tried to help, but the Necromancer kicked his stomach to make him fall over on his back.

"You guys are so pathetic!" the Necromancer scoffed. Here I thought you'd be a lot stronger against me! But look at you all! I'm practically kicking your butts! Heck, that boy was able to put up a fight back by that observatory!"

"That's because you powered yourself up…" Chopper trailed, gripping his hammer.

"Yeah, and I'm loving it!" he lunged forward, but Chopper was able to attack him with a light sweeping kick before he tossed an ice ball at him. He only stayed frozen for about a second before getting out.

"Sorry, but freezing me won't work!"

Chopper grumbled as the Necromancer rushed over to him and tried to hit him with his sword, but he jumped up and stomped on his head while performing a stylish move in the air.

As he landed on the ground, the Necromancer flew up and managed to zap Chopper with white lightning to knock him over. It also gave Luigi a chance to attack with his Super Jump, which knocked the Necromancer to the ground.

"I should be more wary where I fly…" the Necromancer hissed as he glared at Luigi, who threw Bonjourang at him and left him dazed.

"Now! You can attack him!" Bonjourang cried.

Luigi nodded and jumped on the Necromancer s head, but once he jumped off him, the Necromancer grabbed his foot and threw him to the ground. He brought his own fist to the ground and made a large, undead dragon appear on top of him.

"Yup! Now it's go time!"

The Necromancer rode around the dragon as it flew all over the room, knocking the seven over and getting hurt by a couple of fireballs. When it disappeared, the Necromancer jumped off and brought his sword down to the ground, creating a dark shockwave.

"Yeesh… He's learned a lot since I fought him before." Chopper gaped as he was flown to the wall.

"My sweet prince…" Luvbi trailed, flying closer to him. "Thou must have an idea to defeatest him, right?"

"In all honesty… I'm not sure what to do against him… The only thing I can do is just fight."

"If your girlfriend isn't a part of the fight, then she shouldn t be here," the Necromancer mentioned, readying a Dark Sword Beam.

"Hey! She isn't my girlfriend!" Chopper grumbled as Luvbi flew back up. The Necromancer readied his Dark Sword Beam, but Kirby was able to tackle him to the ground and deliver a kick to his face.

"Ummmm… Yeah! Good work, Kirby!"

Kirby smiled and readied another beam whip, but the Necromancer was able to kick him off and tear his beam whip with his sword. He grabbed Kirby and knocked him forward with a single swing from his sword.

Kirby let out a gape as the Necromancer flew forward until Mario used Kickbrin to stop him. The Necromancer simply flew up and spun his sword around at a fast pace to attack everyone. Blade was able to block his attack with his sword, but it wasn't enough to prevent himself from getting hurt.

"Ugh… Even if I block this guy, it's not going to do much…" Blade growled. "I gotta try something else."

The Necromancer brought his sword back as he began to store some power in his sword. Kirby quickly used his Final Cutter to strike him, while Chopper tossed a light ball at the Necromancer, who cringed in pain from the attack.

However, it didn't stop him from unleashing a large, dark tornado that came flying their way. Chopper flipped into 3-D with his friends to avoid the attack and then went back into 2-D to give the Necromancer a bash to the head with his hammer.

"What the… How did you…?!"

"I can flip into 3-D, you know," Chopper mentioned.

The Necromancer clenched his fist in anger and hurled a purple ball of energy toward him. Chopper inhaled it and spat it back at the Necromancer, but he was able to block it with his sword with ease.

"You'll have to try better than that!" the Necromancer scoffed before he felt himself getting kicked by Sonic.

"Don't even think about it," Sonic warned before he felt his leg being grabbed by the Necromancer, who flew up and threw him to the ground. He flew down and tried to put his sword through him, but Sonic was able to get out of the way and get the Necromancer s sword stuck in the ground.

As the Necromancer tried to pull his sword out, Kirby fired a charged beam attack at him, and then Mario delivered a Super Ground Pound to his head. Once he got his sword out, he blocked Mario's hammer and used a small dark gust to leave Mario dazed.

"Hey! That almost looked like my Sonic Wind!" Sonic gaped. "Except it was smaller!"

The Necromancer merely chuckled at Sonic and fired a Dark Sword Beam at him to send him flying. He quickly turned around and managed to block Chopper s hammer, which he tried to use to bash him.

"This new power gives me a better reaction!" the Necromancer explained. "So you all are practically screwed by now!"

However, Chopper was able to punch the Necromancer's face quickly with a light punch and make him dazed, allowing Chopper to bash him with a fire smash, leaving a burn on the Necromancer.

"Sure, you have a fast reaction time," Chopper began. "But I'm sure I'm much faster than you."

"Hmmmm… Maybe… But that won't help you here!"

Tipral teleported in between Chopper and the Necromancer and knocked them both back with a Star Punch. The Necromancer rubbed his helmet, while Chopper was moaning in a bit of pain, which made Luvbi a bit worried.

"Why didst thou dost that?!" Luvbi asked, glaring at Tipral.

"Because he was in my way," Tipral explained. "Now, allow me to take it from here."

Tipral watched the Necromancer get up and use his undead magic to make dead hands grab a hold of Tipral's feet. But that didn't stop him from snapping his finger and hurting the Necromancer with Star Magic.

"You know, Necromancer… Even if you hold me here, I can still fight you."

"Well, we'll see about that!" the Necromancer spun himself like a drill as he came flying toward Tipral. He teleported out of the way, while Chopper was forced to duck under the Necromancer. When he crashed into the wall, he got himself up, but he was quickly pelted by a couple of shooting stars.

Chopper smirked as he jumped over the Necromancer's sword slash, allowing him to bring his foot down on his head with ice energy on his foot. It didn't freeze the Necromancer, but it left him a little cold, which gave Luigi the opportunity to attack with a flutter jump.

"You made a dumb choice, plumber," the Necromancer hissed as he gripped his sword and began to swing at him. Luigi yelped and jumped over him, but the Necromancer didn't stop there. He hurled his purple magic at him and then knocked him to the ground with a skeleton he hurled at him.

"Eeek! I don t know what to do!" Luigi cried as the Necromancer flew up and store some power in his sword to use on Luigi. Blade stopped him and threw a shuriken to turn his attention to him while Tipral knocked him to the ground by bringing his fists down on him.

Now that the Necromancer was on the ground, Mario bashed his head with his hammer and then used a Super Ground Pound on him. The Necromancer was able to get up and make lightning strike Mario, making him cringe in pain.

Mario: So painful…

The Necromancer looked behind him and felt himself getting hit in the back by Kirby's charged beam attack. He flew toward Kirby and delivered a quick slash from his sword at him to knock away his ability.

"Poyo! (My ability!)" Kirby tried to get his ability, but the Necromancer caught the yellow star and shattered it with a single slash.

"Looks like you re not going to be having any ability to help you," the Necromancer chuckled as Kirby gave him a glare. Chopper took this opportunity to fire a charged light ball at the Necromancer to knock him to the ground.

"All right, that's it!" he declared as he slowly got up. "I'm surprised you all managed to push me to these limits… I guess it s time to change things a bit!"

"What do you mean?" Chopper asked as he saw the Necromancer hold his sword up again. Dark lightning struck it and made his sword longer and bigger. More dark power surrounded it as the Necromancer grinned.

"Whoa… His sword's much longer and bigger…" Blade gaped. "Damn! Not even I could do that!

"Blade… Now's not the time…" Sonic trailed.

"Well his sword is a lot stronger now."

"Now I'm capable of using powers beside darkness! Now I've got the elements on my hand as well! Just watch!" the Necromancer swung his sword at both Mario and Luigi, which made them frozen solid.

"Whoa!" Chopper ran over to the two and used his fire power to thaw them out. Tipral, however, didn't seem as scared and hurled a Star Spear at the Necromancer, who flew over to Tipral and tried to bring his sword down on him.

He tried to avoid his attack, but he ended up getting hit by his sword. There happened to be sleeping powder, which ended up putting Tipral to sleep. Blade was about to wake him up, but the Necromancer poisoned him with his sword.

So, Chopper was forced to slightly slap Tipral to wake him up. When he realized it didn't do much, he tried again, but this time, Tipral grabbed his arm and gave him a death glare.

"You made a dumb choice to do that, Chopper," Tipral growled as he threw Chopper at the Necromancer, knocking the two to the wall. Luvbi, on the other hand, was guffawing at Tipral for what he did.

"Thou art a foul dark monster for sure," Luvbi commented. "My sweet prince was trying to help thee, and all thou dost is throw him!"

"Do you want to join him with that Necromancer?"

"N-Nay…"

When Chopper slowly got up, the Necromancer punched him in the face and used his sword to leave him with a burn. That, however, didn't stop him from kicking his chest with a light kick. Meanwhile, Blade used Piccolo to cure himself of the poison.

"Ahhh! Much better!" Blade smirked as he turned to the Necromancer. When it was all clear, he fired a Dragon Beam at the Necromancer. It did enough damage to him, but when it stopped, he gave Blade a smirk.

"Hey! What's so funny?!"

"Oh, you didn't know, didn't you? I can do something similar to that now!" the Necromancer fired his own Dragon Beam. The only difference was that it was black instead of orange.

Blade gaped as the Dragon Beam hit him and knocked him to the wall, while the Necromancer cackled and slowly began to fly over to him. But, with him in the air, Luigi was able to hit him with a Super Jump.

"You little…!" the Necromancer grabbed Luigi next time he used a Super Jump and brought his sword down on him to leave him paralyzed. Mario helped Luigi and got him out of the way before the Necromancer could put his sword in his body.

"Grrrrrrr! Get back here!"

Mario allowed Kickbrin to knock him back, allowing Kirby to get on Carrie and jump on the Necromancer s head. When he got up, Kirby was able to hit him with his Final Cutter with ease. He used his own sword to block Kirby s blade when he tried to hit him again. He kicked him back and was about to hit Kirby with his sword again.

"And stay frozen, puffball," the Necromancer growled, glaring at the frozen Kirby. Chopper jumped in and stomped on the Necromancer s head and then tried to thaw Kirby out, but the Necromancer paralyzed him with his sword.

"Ack! I can't…move!" Chopper cried.

"Then that means free attacks for me!"

Blade struck the Necromancer with his katana and used Piccolo to cure Chopper of paralysis. The Star Warrior then thawed out Kirby while the Necromancer flew back to attack. He was, unfortunately, struck by Sonic's Sonic Wind.

"Did you honestly think I would let you try to attack while my friends are helping each other?" Sonic asked, giving the Necromancer a glare. He fired a Dark Sword Beam at Sonic, but he jumped out of the way and delivered a Homing Attack to him.

"Ungh… I don't know what s going on, but I'm not doing as well as before…" the Necromancer coughed, giving them a glare.

"Maybe because you wasted a lot of the power?" Chopper wondered.

"No… I can still feel that power in me. And I know it will destroy you!" the Necromancer swung his sword toward Chopper, but he ducked under it and managed to make him trip with a sweeping kick.

"Obviously you're not going to win when it's seven against one," Tipral pointed out, firing a Star Spear at the Necromancer, but he was able to block it with his sword and leave a burn on Tipral with his sword.

"Sure, it's seven against one, but I've got more skills that makes me triumph over you guys! Look at your own HP! You're practically running low by now!"

Mario: He's right…

"True, but look at you!" Chopper pointed at the Necromancer's HP bar. "You're running pretty low yourself! So that makes us even! …Right?"

The Necromancer growled and lunged forward, with Chopper bringing his hammer up to block his attack. Tipral managed to grab the Necromancer from behind and throw him up in the air with a kick before teleporting to him from above and slamming his fists down on him.

"Let's hope we can win this…" Luigi trailed.

When the Necromancer got up, his eyes were filled with rage as he flew up and began to make lightning strike everywhere on the ground. He was able to electrocute everyone, but Mario suggested that they all stood still. The Necromancer fired lightning down on them again.

But it ended up missing.

"Wh-What?!" the Necromancer gaped. "How come my attack missed?!"

Mario: Lightning can't hit the same place more than once.

While the Necromancer was infuriated, Luigi knocked him to the ground with a Super Jump, and then Tipral was able to kick him to the wall with a Star Punch. The Necromancer was quick to get up, but he was staggering a bit.

"Hmph… Not bad…" the Necromancer coughed, realizing that he was very weak by now. "But not enough!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Chopper declared jumping toward the Necromancer. He turned around and brought his sword up, but Chopper was able to knock it away with a single swipe from his hammer.

"Wh-What?!"

"It's over for you!" Chopper charged up a light ball and hurled it at the Necromancer, which made his eyes widen in pain. He let out a scream before he fell over on the ground on his back. All the dark power slowly faded away. His sword turned back to normal, and his eyes turned back to a red color.

"I… I can't believe I lost…" the Necromancer moaned. "Master Shadow Doom no, Drakonari… I'm sorry I've failed you.

"Well, thou got what thou deserveth," Luvbi declared, fluttering down to the group and giving him a glare. "After all what thou didst, thou hast paid the price!"

"All I wanted to do was please my master… But, I'm starting to realize something… My old master was a much better master to me than Shade… At least he gave me a little more respect than Shade."

"What do you mean?" Luigi wondered.

"You remember that Nimbi who joined Shade, right? Well, once he joined us, Shade began to pay more attention to him than me… It's almost like he thought I didn't exist!" the Necromancer clenched his fists in anger. "I've given him the help he needed, and I even stayed loyal to him. Did he give me anything in return? No. The only thing he did for me was freeing me from Underwhere Prison."

"So he didn't care about his own people?" Tipral wondered as he crossed his arms. "Can't say I'm surprised."

"But now, I've failed Shade, and I'm afraid I can't dare to see him again for failing him three times…" the Necromancer trailed. "So… I must ask you guys…to kill me."

"Wait… Kill you?!" Chopper gasped. "But… None of us can do that!"

"You must… That is my last wish. You people are heroes, right? Your job is to help people, and right now, I wish for you to help me end my life."

"Dude… There's gotta be another way." Sonic said. "There's no way I'm going to kill you! That's… That's too far!"

"And yet, you people have nearly killed massive amounts of enemies and some that were holding the Pure Heart, such as Master Mind. Yes, I saw you guys fight against him. In fact, when I was killing others in other worlds, I happened to find that city and decided to watch the fight between you and him."

"Yes… I remember that…" Blade trailed. "All the Cradians were practically brainwashed either way. They threw us out of the city too."

"If you guys could destroy that guy, then you can destroy me… I will be free then."

"But…" Chopper stammered before Tipral walked over to the Necromancer.

"If that's your wish, then I will do that," Tipral declared, preparing another Star Spear.

"Hold on, Tipral! This isn't the way for us to do it! We can't just kill him! It just doesn't feel right…"

"That's just you guys. I go my own way. And if he wants to die, then I'm going to give it to him." Tipral pushed Chopper out of the way and prepared to fire a Star Spear at the Necromancer.

"Farewell, heroes… It looks like I'm returning to my prison. Perhaps this time, for good…"

Once Tipral fired his Star Spear into the Necromancer, his eyes widened in pain until he stopped moving. They noticed his body slowly fade away, as if it was being taken back to The Underwhere where he belonged.

"And we never got to see what he was like under his helmet," Blade mentioned.

"Well, it doesn't matter at this point," Sonic shrugged. "He got what he wanted, and now he doesn't have to deal with Shade anymore. But… How do we get out of this room?"

"Yeah, I just realized that!" Luigi gaped. "The Necromancer didn't unlock the doors for us!"

"Hmmmmmm… Let's see…" Chopper looked down at the sword the Necromancer dropped. He picked it up and threw it straight at the door, which surprisingly destroyed both the door and the sword. "Oh… I was hoping I could use that."

"Well why doth that matter now?" Luvbi asked. "Hurry! We canst maketh it to mine parents quickly!"

They agreed and headed through the door ahead. There, they found the center of the room to be light purple, while the rest was darker. There was a Save Block and a yellow ? block in the room, so Chopper first hit the yellow ? block, which contained a rainbow mushroom called a Master Shroom.

"Hey, it's one of those!" Sonic noticed.

Mario: Yeah, it is!

"Poyo! (And it's really good, from what I heard!)" Kirby smiled as Blade divided it into seven pieces. They all ate their piece and recovered 200 HP in no time.

"That was GOOD!" Blade smiled. "Probably the best shroom I've ever eaten!"

Mario: But now we must go.

"The hairy man doth be right," Luvbi agreed. "Come on, my sweet prince! Let us movest on!"

"Yeah, we gotta do that," Chopper nodded as they all stepped on the light purple part of the room. Most of them looked surprised when they saw the part of the ground moving up and out of the castle.

"H-Hey! What's going on?!" Luigi cried.

"Poyo? (We're…leaving the castle?)" Kirby gawked.

As they got higher up, everything started to get darker. Once it stopped, they couldn't see anything else around but the ground around them. They could see some black rocks around the huge rock platform they were now on that could help prevent them from falling off.

"This place is so dark…" Luigi trailed. "I don't like it…"

"Wherever we are, we better be ready," Chopper suggested, his hands having a yellow glow around them.

"So, you've finally made it here at long last!"

They noticed two purple eyes above them before the place lit up. There, they saw Shade sitting on his throne without his cloak on. The arms of the throne happened to be two open hands that Shade's arms were resting on as he grinned at them. The area also seemed to have some kind of magic mist around them that they've never seen before.

"Shade! There you are!" Tipral roared, clenching his fists in anger. "You should've known better than to mess with me!"

"Oh, really? I never knew that space station was so special to you." Shade said with no emotion. "But, I needed that space station in order to make some stronger minions. You know those Shadow Wizards you saw in my castle? Yeah, those were powered up there."

"Wait… That lab area was where Tipral was created?!" Chopper gaped.

"Yes, it was," Tipral nodded. "I didn't tell you guys before because I didn't want you all to make a big deal out of it. For now, I m focused on killing this person!"

"And where are we?" Luigi asked.

"Good question!" Shade smirked. "You are actually at the highest point of the Comet of Darkness! No longer are you inside my castle! I decided to make this special because being at the highest point meant I was the highest of all my minions!"

Luvbi looked around and noticed her parents behind some of the black rocks. "Mother! Father! Thou art hither!"

"Luvbi, is that you?!" Queen Jaydes gasped, noticing her daughter.

"Luvbi?! Oh, thank goodness… Thou art OK…" Grambi sighed. "I suppose thy boyfriend helped thee get hither?"

"Yes… Now you guys are finally reunited!" Shade snickered. "And now I can finally get what I wanted!"

"Yeah… And we can kick your ass." Blade added. "Looks like there's no turning back now."

"All right, Shade, you might as well give up," Chopper suggested. "We took down your army, and now you're nothing! So, just release Luvbi's parents and give us the Pure Heart. That way, we don't actually have to fight you."

"Oh, we're not letting him go," Tipral growled. "We ARE going to destroy him!"

"Hold on… So you came all this way thinking I had the Pure Heart?" Shade guffawed.

"Well, that's where the last door at Flopside Tower led us…" Chopper trailed.

"Then there must be something wrong with that tower, because I never had a Pure Heart with me!"

Everyone: What?!

"Yeah, I guess you wasted your time coming here. We never said ANYTHING about having the Pure Heart anyway! If you WERE led here, then it must be located somewhere else in this comet that I don't know of."

"Great… It looks like we wasted our time coming here…" Sonic sighed.

"Well, not verily," Luvbi cut in. "We didst come hither to saveth my mother and father, nay?"

"Yes, she is right," Queen Jaydes agreed. "You didn't come here for nothing."

"All right, enough with the chit-chat!" Shade cut in. "I've been waiting for this moment for a while! Ever since I was humiliated those last two times, I've been getting VERY angry about losing to you people! Let us end this, shall we?"

"Oh, not yet, Shade! I think there's something I need to show you!" Chopper smirked as he pulled his diary out. "We happened to find your diary! You know, where you happened to put all your secrets about not being Dark's brother?"

Shade ended up gaping, but a sinister look soon came into his eyes as they slightly turned purple for a second. "So… You know everything about me now…"

"Pray, what's with thy look?" Luvbi asked, noticing his grin.

"Yes, it's true. Everything in there is true! I'm nothing but a mere parasite that just wishes death upon everyone!" Shade stuck his green forked tongue out, making some of the heroes cringe in fear. "And perhaps when I kill you guys, I'll leave this body and take over yours! Oh, how much fun will that be! It makes me want to tear away one of your arms and strangle you with them!"

"This guy's one crazy wacko…" Sonic gulped.

Shade jumped off his throne, and what people could see from him, he almost looked hyper. "You trashed my comet, destroyed my minions and even discovered everything about me. Now that you know my secret, I'm going to have to kiiiiiiiiiiill yoooooooou…"

"I don't like this one bit…" Luigi shuddered.

Shade took out his wand a licked it slowly, making most of their eyes widen before he surrounded himself with a blue shield. "And then when you're all dead, I'll use your blood as a nice bath!"

"If you're trying to scare me, think again," Tipral scoffed. "Your insanity isn't going to help you win this fight. It just shows that you've got nothing left!"

"That may be… But I much rather enjoy showing off my true self in a battle than hiding it all behind me! Now come on, heroes… Let us play a game…where I kill you all!"

Shade began to cackle maniacally as he fired a couple of dark magic projectiles from his wand toward them. From what they knew, they had to use Pixls to fight him, so Tipral was forced to use Carrie to jump on Shade's head to deal some damage to his blue shield.

"Keep attacking me, because I always enjoy feeling some pain myself!" Shade giggled as he jumped in the air and began to fire dark magic down at the group. Sonic used Reflecto to deflect them back at Shade s shield, which seemed to do damage.

"Luvbi, stay by your parents," Chopper suggested. "We'll take it all from here."

"Yea, I doth agree," Luvbi nodded as she flew over to her parents, who were shocked at how crazy Shade was all this time.

From what they could see from his stats, he had 470 HP, an Attack of 20 and a Defense of 9. Obviously that was what he had on his shield, and for some reason, he was moving much faster than before.

"Remember guys, this is just the same Shade we've been fighting before," Blade mentioned. "This is like the third time he's used this shield trick, and it s getting old…"

"Old? Then how about I make it new!" Shade charged straight at Blade and spun himself, with his shield being surrounded by spikes. Blade cringed in pain as he was knocked back, while Chopper used Starbow to make shooting stars hit his shield.

Shade turned to Chopper and began to fire magic his way. He inhaled it and spat it back at Shade's shield, which ended up healing his shield instead of hurting it.

"Now now, Chopper… If you're trying to fight me, you wouldn't be feeding my shield, wouldn't you?"

"Wait, what?!"

Shade grinned with his tongue out, giving him a creepy hiss before Luigi threw Bonjourang at his shield. This made the crazy alien child turn to him and use his wings to fly toward him.

"Oh, yesss… Then there's you, Luigi…" Shade pointed his wand at the green plumber, which made him step back in fear. "You are quite the coward, aren't you? Here! Let me make it all better for you!"

Shade let out a cackle as he began to fire dark magic toward Luigi, who yelped before Mario could pull him out of the way. Even then Shade was able to fire magic at the Mario Bros., which knocked them over on the ground.

"This blue shield is starting to get annoying…" Tipral growled as he continued to ride on Carrie, who was able to help him jump on Shade's shield with her landing on him first. Kirby tossed Crystaline at Shade's shield.

The alien kid turned to Kirby and began to fire some dark magic projectiles his way. Kirby inhaled them and swallowed them, but he didn't gain any ability, which disappointed him. Shade grinned as he raised his wand.

"Oh, what's that? You want something else! OK, then!" Shade giggled creepily as his shield changed red, which made Blade instantly attack his shield with his katana. He was able to jump away when Shade fired a wave of dark magic toward him.

"Yeesh… He was a bit crazy before, but not like THIS!"

"Let's not worry about that, Blade," Sonic suggested. "He wants to 'play', so we'll 'play' with him!"

"Don't you mean 'fight'?"

"Yeah, sure…"

Shade quickly came their way and fired a wave of dark magic that sent them flying over to the rocks. Luvbi couldn't help but look worried as Chopper tossed a couple of light balls at Shade's red shield.

"Please don't get hurt, my sweet prince…" Luvbi thought. "I doth worry about thy safety with someone like him…"

Shade let out a giggle as he fired a wave of dark magic at Chopper. He tossed a light ball, which was able to go through the magic and hit Shade's shield, which didn't make him get angry. He grinned sadistically and created a dark magic whip that resembled the Beam ability's beam whip and managed to hit Chopper with it and knock him back.

Luvbi shuddered in fear before Shade turned his head over to Luvbi, forcing her to cover her face in fear.

"Hee hee hee! What's the matter, little girl?" Shade cackled. "You haven't seen an insane boy who has a taste of killing?"

"Please… Just… goest away…"

"Keepeth away from my daughter, monster!" Grambi shouted.

"Maybe when I kill you, I'll use your beard for something…special…" Shade grinned before he got hit by Tipral's Star Spear. He turned around and fired a dark wave of magic at him, but he teleported above him and brought his feet down on him.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I forgot about you! Allow me to help you!" the alien child managed to jump in the air and fire a dark wave of magic at Tipral to knock him to the ground. He then charged toward him and spun around to create a spiky barrier around his shield, which Tipral was barely able to escape from.

Mario and Luigi slowly got up after escaping Shade and noticed his shield was red. He was chasing Kirby around, who took in some air and began to float above the psychotic kid. The two Mario Bros. exchanged nods and attacked, with Luigi using his Cyclone to hit Shade and Mario using his Super Ground Pound. This caused Shade to bring his attention to them.

"Oh, I always loved to tear away sibling's limbs and reattach them!" Shade cackled. "With their legs being where their arms were and their arms being where their legs were!"

Mario: Yeah… He's insane.

"Y-You really think he means that, b-bro?!" Luigi shuddered as Shade's green tongue was out. He licked his wand and fired a dark wave of magic their way. Luigi's Super Jump was all he needed to avoid his attack, while Mario was unfortunate to get hurt.

Once Sonic hit Shade with a Spin Dash, he was back to using his blue shield again. This time, he created two clones that helped him fire projectiles from his wand at the group. Kirby's Defend helped him take minimum damage, and Relfecto was able to harm the real Shade's shield.

"Remember guys… Don't back down!" Sonic reminded, jumping in the air and using Screwdy to hit Shade's shield, making the two clones disappear. However, he didn't care. He fired magic rapidly toward Sonic, making him jump shot over shot before jumping back and letting Kirby hit Shade with Crystaline.

"I don't know what's more dangerous… His projectiles, or his wave." Blade pondered before he got hit by a dark magic projectile Shade fired at him. He quickly got up and threw a couple of shurikens, but that only healed his shield.

"Keep throwing those, cat!" Shade grinned. "They'll surely make my shield stronger!"

"Not today, psychotic motherfu-" he was cut off when Chopper ran past him and spun his hammer around, striking Shade's shield with a spinning ice hammer that knocked Shade by the rocks by Luvbi and her parents.

When Shade noticed Blade charging at him again, he ended up getting hit by Hommissile, which did more damage to his shield. He noticed Blade was going for round two, which made him grin and change his shield to a light blue color.

"Let's see you hit me now!"

"Here it comes!" Blade shouted as he fired Hommissile his way, but Tipral quickly grabbed the missile Pixl and threw him to the wall instead. While Shade was a bit disappointed, he didn't care. Not in the slightest.

"Oh! How exciting! You made things more interesting, Tipral!" Shade cackled.

"Maybe you might wanna get out of that shield so I can break your arms!" Tipral threatened, using his fist to deliver a Star Punch to Shade's shield. He didn't even use his wave of dark magic on him. He simply fired more projectiles his way, which all hit Tipral.

However, that didn't stop Tipral from throwing a shadow ball at Shade and then a couple of Star Spears. What surprised him was that Shade didn't seem angry at all. He just continued to act like a psycho.

"OK, there's something not right about him," Tipral thought as he kicked Shade away from him, allowing Chopper to kick him with a light kick.

"So, Chopper… You know everything about me!" Shade giggled.

"Yeah, I do… Now stop with that! You're creeping me out!" Chopper cried as he ducked under Shade's magic.

"Did you read the part about me taking the life out of one of your kind and taking over his body completely?!"

"Yes… That was…very horrifying."

"Oh, yesss! It was most definitely…horrifying! Just imagine that happening to you! I can turn into a parasite right now and simply go into your head, where I will drain everything in you until you're nothing! Not only that, but it makes me stronger!"

"I hate that you had to do it to one of my kind, especially a kid! It's terrible!"

"Yesss…" Shade grinned, getting hit by a rainbow ball Chopper managed to hurl at him. "Keep throwing that at me! When I've killed you, I'm going to make you a balloon once you and your friends have nothing left. The pink puffball might make a great balloon too!"

Upon hearing this, Kirby fumed and used his Final Cutter to hit Shade's shield, which also knocked him back, especially when Kirby used his Cartwheel on him too. Shade let out a cackle and hit Kirby with his magic as he got up. He also transformed his shield into a light red color.

"Light red means…we need to use Pixls," Luigi deduced, grabbing Bonjourang and throwing him at Shade's shield. Shade, meanwhile, used his magic to fire dark blocks of magic their way.

"Those thing look like they can be thrown," Thoreau mentioned. "Heroes! Use me and throw them back!"

Mario nodded and used Thoreau's power to grab one of the blocks and throw them straight at Shade's shield. Chopper decided to destroy the others by hurling a light ball at them so they didn't get in their way.

Shade jumped over the group and landed behind Kirby and used his wave of magic to send Kirby flying back. He let out a snicker and came over toward the others with his magic ready.

"Come on, heroes! You don't mind a little magic from me, don't you?!" Shade giggled maniacally as he fired another wave near Chopper and Tipral. Chopper got hit, but Tipral was able to teleport away.

When Chopper slowly got up, he saw Shade was ready to perform another magic attack, so he used Starbow and made shooting stars fall on Shade s shield. Getting bored of the light red shield, Shade decided to change things up a bit and surrounded himself in a purple shield.

"A purple shield? What does that do?" Blade wondered as he threw a couple of shurikens at it. It seemed to deal some damage, to his surprise. "Hey! It looks like we can rush at him now!"

Mario: Ooh! That's good!

Mario ran toward Shade and jumped on his shield, but it only made the shield recover the damage Mario dealt to it, leaving him a bit surprised.

"Wait… Mario's jump didn't do anything!" Luigi gaped.

"From what I can see, physical attacks don't work," Queen Jaydes pondered. "You people must use ranged attacks!"

"I was just about to sayest that, Mother…" Luvbi trailed.

"So, we can't use physical attacks…" Tipral pondered as he looked up at the grinning Shade and threw a Star Spear at his shield. He then threw a shadow ball afterward to deal some extra damage.

"So… I suppose we can use Pixls too?" Chopper wondered as he held Starbow up and let shooting stars come down on Shade. It seemed to do some harm, which made Chopper smile. "Hey! It did work!"

Knowing that he had to use ranged attacks, Kirby threw Crystaline straight at Shade's shield. This made him turn his attention to the pink puffball and fire some dark magic his way. This looked more like a lightning bolt, which shocked Kirby a bit when it hit him.

"Hee hee hee! How did that feel, puffball?!" Shade cackled. "That sure was shocking, wasn't it?!

"Hey! Only I make the bad puns here!" Chopper fumed, tossing fire, ice, rainbow and light balls at Shade's shield. He turned his head to him with a sadistic grin and struck him with the same magic he used on Kirby.

Once Sonic realized what he could do, he clenched his fists and attacked Shade with a Sonic Wind, which knocked him back, but it didn't do any harm to him, of course. He got back up and tried to harm Sonic with his magic, but he was able to jump over it with ease.

"Sorry, but I guess you're just a little slow," Sonic scoffed.

"Oh, you're making me sick with anger now…" Shade snickered as he jumped in the air and fired his magic down like it was a lightning bolt. Mario was able to get out of the way and use Kickbrin on Shade once he landed on the ground.

"Bro! Watch out!" Luigi cried.

Mario looked confused as he turned to Luigi, but Shade managed to get the red plumber with his magic. Luigi gaped until he was struck with the same attack. Shade stuck his tongue out at them as he was able to leap over to Tipral, who swatted him away with a Star Spear.

"How someone like you can be acting like this, I don t know," Tipral said as he tossed a shadow ball toward Shade. However, he was soon struck with his dark magic, which caused him to get a bit angrier.

"So, how did you like your home now?!" Shade asked as he cackled. "Seeing everything alienified! It's so…perfect! Just the thing I wanted!"

"I'm going to KILL you for that!" Tipral was about to punch Shade, but he waggled his finger at him.

"Ah ah ah! Punch me, and my shield will simply recover!" Shade couldn't help but lick his wand again, but he stopped when Chopper was able to toss a light ball at his shield, which angered him.

"Oh, Chopper… Even though you thought I had the Pure Heart, I'm sure you wanted to kill me dearly, right?"

"Honestly… I don't know what to do with you…" Chopper trailed.

"Then let's have some fun for now!" Shade changed his shield to a black color, which made Tipral punch his shield. This time, it seemed to do damage, so he kicked at it to knock Shade over because of the force of his attack.

Knowing what this mean, Mario gripped his hammer and rushed over to Shade and bashed his shield with it. The alien kid rose his head and gave a grin before firing multiple projectiles at once.

"He's firing two in a row… That s not good." Luigi gulped.

"Well, I suppose this means physical attacks work, so I'm going in!" Blade rushed over to Shade and attacked him with his katana (which apparently counts as a physical attack). Kirby, meanwhile, attacked with his Final Cutter.

"Yea… Keepeth at it, heroes!" Grambi called out as Luvbi watched Luigi stomp on Shade's shield.

"Hee hee! Watch this!" Shade raised his wand and created a dark pulse that sent everyone flying back. Tipral was able to teleport back to Shade and punch his shield with a Star Punch, followed by a Star Kick.

"Your attacks don't impress me," Tipral scoffed. "When I had the Dark Star Scepter, I could do more impressive attacks with it than your magic."

"Then show me!"

"But I don't have my scepter with me, so I m forced to do this," Tipral disappeared, and once he appeared again, he was clenching his fists and harming Shade with his Star Burst attack.

He noticed a crack in Shade's shield, which made the alien kid gasp.

"My shield! I've spent so long coming up with it, and now you harm it!" Shade swung his wand and fired two projectiles toward Tipral. He got on Carrie and jumped over them before landing on Shade's head.

"Allow me to help you free yourself!" Tipral declared, bringing his foot down on the shield. Once his foot met with his shield, there was a bigger crack in Shade's shield, causing it to shatter.

"Yes! He's out of the shield!" Chopper cheered.

"Oh, but I'm just getting started!" Shade cackled, spinning his wand around before stopping and licking it. "Hmmmmm… This wand might have a better taste…with your _blood_ on it!

Tipral clenched his fists and punched Shade in the face, sending him flying toward the rocks again. Because he had no shield, he could get hurt, but he simply got up and started cackling.

"Do that again, Tipral! I love to have a scuffle!" Shade hissed.

Tipral gave him a glare as Shade flew up in the air and began firing his magic down. Blade gasped and spun his katana to deflect some of the projectiles back at Shade. The alien kid simply opened his mouth and took in the projectiles.

"Poyo? (What did he just do?)" Kirby gawked.

Shade spat the projectiles back out at Blade and knocked him to the ground. Everyone was a bit surprised, but they took no time, with Mario gripping his hammer and bashing Shade's head.

When Luigi was able to jump on the alien kid's head, he felt a little satisfaction to it as he landed on the ground. But he soon gulped when he saw Shade summon a purple crystal resembling the crystals they saw before when fighting him. It began to spin around and land right by his feet.

"Waah! That was TOO close!" Luigi cried.

They noticed his stats were the same as his shield. He still had 470 HP, an Attack of 20 and a Defense of 9.

"Wow… So nothing new to this fight?" Chopper gawked.

"New? Oh, I've got something new!" Shade created a dark ball of magic in his hand and threw it over to Chopper. He inhaled it and spat it back at Shade, which caused him to cringe in pain and try to summon ice magic to freeze him.

Of course, since he had fire, he decided to toss a fireball in order to melt it. Sadly, since there was more ice, it ended up cooling the fireball down. The ice magic ended up freezing Chopper, to his dismay.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi cried.

"Thou dost not hath to worry, Luvbi," Grambi assured. "They hath done much to get out of something."

Blade ran over to the frozen Chopper and used his fire slash to help thaw him out. Once he was free, he tossed a fireball to Kirby, who inhaled it and managed to get a hold of the Fire ability.

And since Shade was trying to attack Tipral with magic projectiles, Kirby came charging at him in a fireball and left him with a nasty burn. Shade grinned and used his magic to summon a wave to come down on Kirby.

"Poyo! (Ack! I never knew water could be so painful!)" Kirby cried.

"So remember, kids… The best way to take out someone who's on fire is to cover them in water!" Shade cackled, flying toward Kirby in an attempt to grab him. Sonic kicked him out of the way and charged up a Spin Dash before crashing into him once again.

As soon as Sonic got back up, he found Shade flying above him and charging a magic attack. Before he could even get hurt, Luigi was able to attack him with his Super Jump and knock him down.

"Don't even try that!" Luigi warned.

Shade brushed himself and fired a dark wave of magic at Luigi, which was able to send him flying to one of the rocks.

"And now to get back to this crystal," Shade decided as he flew up and used his magic to make the purple crystal fly back up. It began to spin around, but it was soon shatter when Blade fired his Dragon Beam at it.

"Ha! No more crystal for you!" Blade scoffed.

"Well that's OK! There's more to crystals, you know!"

"Huh?" Blade ended up getting struck by dark lightning that was summoned from the sky. He let out a scream in pain as he fell over on the ground for a second.

"Yesss! YESSS! Scream! Scream some more, cat!" Shade cackled as he began to fire more lightning down toward Blade. The blue cat gaped and began to dodge the lightning bolts.

"He's gone mad!"

Mario jumped in the air and landed on Shade, which interrupted his attacks and made him turn to him. He was able to use his magic to turn himself invisible, which allowed Shade to run up to Mario and tackle him.

Mario: What's he doing?!

Luigi tried to help Mario by trying to punch at Shade when he appeared for a second, but he ended up punching Mario s nose instead. While Mario wasn't happy about it, he decided not to get angry at Luigi and shook Shade off him.

Shade began visible and managed to grab a hold of Luigi. He aimed his wand at his head as he grinned at Mario.

"H-Hey! Get off me!" Luigi cried.

"Try to attack me, and your brother might have something coming…" Shade snickered as Mario began to sweat with his hammer in his hands.

Mario: I'm not so sure what to do…

But, since there were five others fighting Shade, Kirby was able to attack Shade from behind by spitting a fireball at him. This caused the alien kid to let go of Luigi and forced him to turn to Kirby. Meanwhile, Mario comforted Luigi, who was relieved to be safe from him.

Kirby spat a couple of fireballs from his mouth at Shade again, which he was able to counter by creating a small wave of water to destroy them. The red (because of the Fire ability) puffball gasped, but he wasn't going to give up so soon. He jumped in the air and charged straight at Shade as a fireball.

"Poyo! (Take this!)" Kirby cried as he hit Shade and left a burn on him.

Shade sneered and managed to grab a hold of Kirby and throw him toward Chopper, knocking the two to the ground, but the alien kid wasn't able to avoid Tipral, who landed on top of him.

"Did you honestly believe you were going to have it easy on you, Shade?!" Tipral growled, grabbing Shade s arm and swinging him around. When he let go, Shade was sent flying to one of the rocks, but he was able to spread his wings out and jump off the rocks and fire magic at Tipral.

Tipral, noticing this, teleported to avoid the attacks while Sonic was able to trap Shade in a Sonic Wind. While he was trapped, Sonic got in a ball and managed to hit Shade with a Spin Dash. When his Sonic Wind was gone, Shade tried to grab a hold of him from behind, but with Sonic's quills, they ended up harming him instead.

"Oh, the quills! They hurt!" Shade cried, almost acting childish. "Oh, how furious you're making me… I was hoping playtime wouldn't have to be this painful."

"There was never any playtime," Sonic noted. "What's wrong with you?!"

Shade aimed his wand at Sonic and unleashed a flamethrower. The blue hedgehog ducked under it, with the tip of his quills on fire. This caused him to run all over the platform as Shade let out a snicker until Chopper managed to bash him with his hammer.

"Don't leave yourself open, Shade," Chopper suggested. "Chances are, you'll simply get your butt kicked!"

Shade shot some dark magic Chopper's way, but he was able to jump over the projectiles and throw a light ball down at him. That hit him, but the ice ball he threw was melted by his fire magic.

"Don't you see? Fire melts ice! Yet… Ice can sometimes stop fire!" Shade cackled. "It's like they're both evenly matched!"

Chopper grimaced as he tried to inhale him. Despite being the same size as him, it didn't seem to have any effect. It was almost like there was some kind of ability he had that prevented him from getting inhaled.

"Hee hee hee! Are you trying to eat me? Oh, no! That's not how it's done here!" Shade smirked as he fired a dark lightning bolt at Chopper, electrocuting him. While Shade grinned sadistically, Blade used his hurricane slash and hit Shade with it. But because Chopper was close, he was blown back as well.

After Blade managed to slash at Shade again, the child noticed a cut on his cheek. A small amount of green blood began to come down his face and land on the ground. He used his finger to get some off and placed it on his tongue.

"That's gross!" Blade guffawed. "Who the hell DOES that?!"

The wound he left on Shade seemed to heal itself, but Chopper quickly acted and used Starbow to make shooting stars hit Shade. He was able to catch one of them and look at its brightness.

"Wait… That's not possible!" Starbow gasped.

"Now I'm wondering what this tastes like!" Shade opened his mouth and let his tongue touch it. He ended up feeling the hottest thing he had ever touched. "Oh! My poor, poor tongue! Hmmmm… Maybe this looks better on you, Chopper!"

Shade threw the star toward Chopper, who used his hammer to throw it back at him and knock him back. He felt a little dazed, which helped Kirby charge at him in a fireball and hit him. Shade retaliated by firing a dark wave of magic at him, which knocked him back and knocked away his ability.

"Poyo! (No! Not my ability!)" Kirby cried.

"You don t need an ability to fight," Tipral scoffed. "Use one of your own attacks or Pixls."

Kirby realized this and nodded, using Crystaline to freeze Shade. Unfortunately, the effect didn't turn out to be too long, because Shade was able to free himself from his prison with ease.

Chopper jumped on Shade a performed a stylish move, but Tipral punched Chopper out of the way and landed on Shade fist-first. Luvbi fumed as she saw Tipral hit Chopper, but her parents stopped her from trying to lunge at him.

"No, Luvbi…" Queen Jaydes scolded. "It's not worth it."

Luvbi frowned as Tipral managed to grab a hold of Shade's arm and throw him to the ground. He was about to put his foot down on him, but Shade was able to leave him paralyzed with an electric spell.

"Oh, how shocking that was!" Shade gushed. "Maybe you'll look better getting shocked when you're wet!"

"What do you mean…?" Tipral noticed a rain cloud Shade summoned above him. He was able to escape getting electrocuted and threw a Star Spear at the alien child. When he fell to the ground, he let out a cackle and fired dark magic projectiles, which Kirby managed to inhale all at once.

"Oh, look at you, pink puffball! You've gotten so fat!" Shade noticed. "Maybe you might need to work out a little more!"

Kirby gave him a glare as he spat the projectiles at Shade. He cringed, but he was able to use some poison magic to poison Kirby. His face started to get pale as he coughed up some small, purple clouds of poison.

"Just three minutes and you'll be dying…of insanity!"

Kirby quickly got Piccolo to help him cure himself of the poison, and then Chopper tossed a fireball at Shade, followed by a rainbow ball. He flew up in the air and began to summon small dark particles to the ground.

"What on earth is he doing?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: I don't know, but try to knock him down with a Super Jump!

Luigi gave him a nod and managed to hit Shade with a Super Jump, which knocked him to the ground and allowed Mario to use his Super Ground Pound. Shade struggled to get himself off Mario as he sat on him.

"My! Looks like someone's getting fatter!" Shade snickered.

Mario: Fat?!

Shade noticed his arm was right near his face, so he grabbed a hold of it and bit it, causing Mario to yelp and get off him. Shade got himself up and hissed at the Mario Bros. was his tongue was out.

"I still can't handle that green, forked tongue…" Luigi cringed as Mario held his arm in pain. "Bro! Are you all right?!"

Mario: It's just a bite. Nothing special.

Blade fired a Dragon Beam at Shade before he could grab Luigi and then tried to punch at him. Shade brought his wand up and managed to bash him with his own head. Because of his wings, he was able to fly around quickly with ease.

Luckily, Chopper was able to freeze his wings with an ice ball, causing him to fall to the ground. When he got up, he cheered evilly and made a leap over to him. He was going to bite his arm, but Chopper was able to punch him with light energy on his fists, causing him to fall over.

"I'm not going to let you bite me! Geez!" Chopper grimaced as his eye twitched. "So, what now? You're a vampire?"

"Didn't I tell you? I'm a mere parasite that takes over bodies!" Shade giggled as he fired a dark magic pulse that Chopper was able to jump over. He threw some rainbow balls down, but Shade created a dark barrier and blocked them.

But since he wasn't protected from behind, Tipral snapped his finger and managed to send Shade flying up. This gave Chopper the opportunity to jump up and use a slamming kick to knock him to the ground.

"This platform is pretty strong if that kid keeps hitting it," Sonic noticed.

"Well, that's just fine!" Blade assured as he threw Hommissile at Shade while he was on the ground. The explosion sent him flying upward, so Sonic used his Bounce Attack to reach him and use a Homing Attack to send him flying back down.

"Take this!" the blue hedgehog used another Bounce Attack, but this time, he was able to hit Shade while he was on the ground. He got out of his ball form and did a small break-dance before getting hit in the head by Shade.

"Hee hee! Don't let yourself get distracted, because you never know what Shady might do to you!" Shade cackled, knocking Sonic back with some dark magic.

"'Shady'? What the heck?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo… (Let's just focus on fighting him…)" Kirby suggested.

Tipral managed to grab a hold of Shade by the black crescent blade on his head and threw him down so the other side of the blade was stuck in the ground. Shade got himself up with ease and summoned a Dragon Beam of his own his way. Tipral crossed his arms and teleported out of the way, making Chopper get hit instead.

"Yeesh! He's pretty damn good with that!" Blade gaped. "And how come he can use that attack too?!"

"That may be, but he's almost finished," Tipral noticed as he punched Shade in the face, leaving a bruise on his cheek.

"Oh! You left a bruise on my face!" Shade cried.

"What's wrong? Are you going to cry about it?!" the dark being kicked Shade in the face and was prepared to bring his foot down on him again. "Here! Let me give you a hand with that!"

"Let's not get too violent, Tipral…" Chopper warned.

"This guy turned my birthplace into an alien-infested lab! I think I have every right to act this way…"

"And will revenge do anything to help? It'll just make you angrier!"

"It's too late for that, Chopper," Tipral declared. "This guy's almost finished. I might as well finish him off right now. …Or better yet, I'll throw him off this platform! He'll surely die then."

Shade grinned and managed to bash Tipral with his head to leave him a little dazed. Shade let out a cackle and hit him with more dark magic.

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere, Tippy!" Shade cackled. "And Choppy here can join you too!"

Chopper was twitching from that name, while Tipral was clenching his fists in anger. He may have not shown much anger when he kept hearing that from Mimi, but he was surely annoyed with getting called that.

"Don't! EVER! Call! Me! _**TIPPY!**_"

With his two arms, he swung them and fired two Star Spears directly at Shade, who continued to cackle until he was sent flying off the platform and screaming to his death as he plunged down.

And Tipral just stood there with his fists still clenched. Everyone else was relieved to be rid of Shade once and for all.

"So… It's finally over…" Sonic sighed.

"Poyo… (Good riddance…)" Kirby smiled.

"So, canst we goest back home, mine parents?" Luvbi asked, turning to her parents.

"Well, we might as well return," Queen Jaydes nodded.

"With yon alien child gone, our powers returneth," Grambi nodded, raising his wings to use his power. "…Pray, why dost my power not work?"

Chopper blinked for a moment and then realized something. "Maybe it's because Shade's not finished yet…"

They noticed a black glove grab a hold of one of the pointy rocks when they turned around. Shade managed to pull himself back up and land back in front of the heroes. Some green blood was dripping down from his crescent blade as he grinned sadistically at them.

"So… You all think you're so clever…" Shade snickered. "I suppose you guys are getting so sick of playtime, aren't you?"

"Yeesh! This guy NEVER gives up!" Sonic grumbled, getting in a fighting stance.

"Face it, Shade. It's over for you." Chopper declared.

"Hee hee hee! That's where you're wrong! We haven't had enough fun, Chopper! Maybe we can fight for real this time?"

"Fight for real? What on Clara do you mean?!"

"The guy's insane, of course he won't make sense," Blade mentioned.

Shade grinned as he touched the glowing sun on his crescent blade. It began to brighten for a moment and then get covered in dark mist. In fact, Shade's entire body began to cover in darkness as the whole area darkened.

"What's going on?!" Queen Jaydes gasped.

When the darkness formed up, they noticed Shade transformed into something unimaginative in ANYONE'S eyes! They noticed his round head had his mouth right above his two, purple eyes that were below his mouth. His crescent blade now had three spikes pointing up and three green eyes. His oval-shaped body had a green eye in the center of his chest with a crab-like claw for his upper right arm, a tentacle of his upper left, a lower right arm with pointy fingers and a lower left arm with pointy fingers, but the pointer finger being much longer. There was even a green eye on it as well! His feet only had three toes.

"What…doth be THAT?!" Luvbi cried.

_**"See? Now this is where all the fun begins!"**_ Shade cackled childishly. _**"Please, when you finish playing with me, allow me to tear out your eyeballs and let me put them on my monstrous body!"**_

Chopper had no idea how to react. Was this thing hideous? Was it scary? Or was it even disgusting. Those pupils in those green eyes sure did creep him out. And the fact that his mouth was where his eyes should've been kind of scared him.

But for some reason, he felt like he saw this thing before. It reminded him of what he saw while fighting the Necromancer at the Star Observatory. That hand and face looked similar to what Shade had turned into now.

"I… I don't wanna fight this guy anymore…" Luigi shivered. "This thing is just…unlike anything I've ever seen!"

"So, this is what you really look like, huh?" Tipral questioned. "Well it doesn't matter now. Whether you're hideous or not, I'm going to kill you!"

_**"This isn't my true form, but it's a part of me! And soon, you'll all be a part of me, like we're one happy, limb-tearing, family!"**_

"Well, looks like we have to fight you…" Chopper sighed. "I really don't wanna do this…"

With his size being bigger than them, it made him a much easier target. But the fact that he was so hideous creeped them all out. His stats weren't anything special, though. He had 480 HP, an Attack of 20 and a Defense of 10. A slight buff from before, that's for sure.

Shade stuck his tongue out as his tentacle managed to grab a hold of Chopper's feet and hold him upside down. With his long finger, he was able to flick the Star Warrior away and knock him and Tipral down.

"Guys… Get out of the way!" Sonic cried as everyone jumped out of the way and avoided the acid.

_**"What's the matter? A little bit of acid won't hurt you!" **_Shade cackled as he tried to attack Luigi with his tentacle. The green plumber let out a yelp and ran as fast as he could until he bumped into the rocks.

"Oh, man… I can't believe I'm trapped with this guy…" Luigi moaned.

Chopper charged up a light ball and tossed it at Shade, who cringed in pain before turning to Chopper. The pale green Star Warrior jumped back when he saw Shade's tentacle try to hit him.

He noticed Shade's tongue hanging down from his mouth as he dodged his acid. He held Starbow up and used her power to make shooting stars come down on Shade. The sky lightened up a bit, but it got dark once again when they were gone.

_**"We don't need any light for this place!" **_Shade grinned, revealing one of his fangs from his mouth. _**"The dark is so much nicer! Much better for killing!"**_

Chopper chucked a few fireballs to scorch him, but they didn't seem to have any effect on him, despite dealing damage. No burn was left on him, and all he got was a punch from one of Shade's fists.

Blade hissed at the monstrous atrocity and used his fire slash to deal some damage to his leg, but it didn't make Shade screech in pain. The monster merely hissed at Shade and snapped at him with his crab-like claw, making Blade back off.

"Wait, what am I doing?! I'm fighting this guy!" Blade gripped his katana and jumped toward Shade. He slashed at him with his weapon and managed to stab his body. Shade looked down and grabbed Blade with one of his hands.

One of his hands began to charge up a dark beam of energy to fire at him, but Sonic was able to use a Homing Attack and hit the arm Blade was being grabbed by, causing Shade to screech and let go of him.

_**"You seem to play a little hard! That's just what I like to see!"**_

"Yeesh… This guy is actually pretty hard…" Chopper sighed. "I mean, without an ability, I'm not sure if I'll be able to take this guy on with ease!"

Kirby jumped up to Shade's face and began to kick at it. The pink puffball gasped and managed to avoid the crab-like claw that Shade was snappingat him. However, his Cartwheel was able to hit his chest and right where one of the green eyes were.

_**"Aaargh! Don't hit my eye!" **_Shade cried. _**"It's not fun when you're blind!"**_

"Poyo! (You can see just fine!)" Kirby shouted until he was grabbed by Shade's tentacle and hung upside down. Shade grinned as he looked at the pink puffball flail around, trying to get himself free.

"Chopper!" Chopper whirled over to Luvbi and her parents. He noticed Grambi holding Galaxia up with his wings. "While thou were fighting against yon monster, I madeth this sword to help thee!"

"Galaxia?! No way…" Chopper gasped, but he noticed Kirby was still hanging. "Get a sword for Kirby too."

Grambi tossed the golden sword to Chopper, who inhaled it and got a hat and the sword in his hand when he swallowed it. Another sword was made, which Chopper took and tossed to Kirby.

"Kirby! Take this!"

When Kirby saw the sword, he inhaled it and got a hold of the Sword ability. With a smirk, he was able to slash at Shade's tentacle and cause him to release him grip on Kirby's feet.

"Poyo! (Yeah! Now we can fight!)" Kirby cheered.

_**"Hee hee hee! Not bad! Now die!" **_Shade flew up with wings that appeared on his back as he began to spit dark energy toward the ground. Chopper managed to swing one ball of dark energy back at Shade and hit him, but it didn't stop him from spitting more down. The energy exploded and created a pulse that hit all seven.

"So, he can still fly? Well that won't stop me!" Tipral teleported up to Shade and delivered a punch to one of his eyes. Shade cried, but he was able to whack Tipral with his crab-like claw, which knocked him to the ground.

_**"Here I come!" **_Shade screeched as he flew downward, ready to hit anyone that was in his way. Luigi noticed he was coming his way, which made him yelp and run over to where Luvbi was.

"Don't stayeth near me, hairy man!" Luvbi cried, pushing the plumber away.

"H-Hey!" Luigi cried as Shade landed in front of him. He let out a scream as he dodged the acid he spat near him. Bonjourang lightly smacked Luigi to stop his screaming.

"What are you doing?!" exclaimed Bonjourang. "Zis thing may be freaky, but eet's only freaky because you are getting scared of it! You must fight back!"

"But how can I fight back?"

"Use zee power of your attacks!"

Luigi blinked for a moment, but then he realized Shade's head was hanging down near him. It looked like he was going to breathe some fire on him. That's when Luigi clenched his fists, folded himself up and launched upward, hitting Shade's head from underneath and landing behind him. Jumping on his head was definitely a bad idea.

_**"Oh, how terrible it is for him to avoid me… I just only wanted to be friends with you, Luigi! After all, I always enjoy tearing at your arms and toes!"**_

Mario clenched his hammer and jumped up to hit Shade's chest, hitting the eye in the process. They noticed a bit of green liquid come out of the eye as it oozed down his body.

Mario: What's that?

"Uhhh… I think that's blood…" Luigi gulped, hoping he was wrong.

_**"My poor eye! I'm going to make you die die DIE!" **_Shade howled, trying to grab Mario with his pincher claw. Tipral was able to grab a hold of the claw and fire a Star Spear at Shade.

"When you're dead, I'll make sure you have no funeral," Tipral said as he snapped his finger and hit Shade with Star Magic. He was about to attack again, but Shade fired some dark energy at him and knocked him to the ground.

Shade jumped in the air again and slammed the ground, creating a dark shockwave that everyone was forced to jump over. Chopper saw this as an opportunity to attack, so he jabbed at Shade with Galaxia and caused him to get his attention.

_**"A sword? Well, this is going to get interesting!" **_Shade grinned as one of his arms turned into a spider leg and managed to swat Chopper away. However, there was a cut on the leg when Kirby slashed at it with his sword.

This made him change his spider leg back to his arm with the long finger. He tried to jab at Kirby with it, but he continued to dodge him and attacked him with a Sword Beam, which he didn't see coming.

"Spinning Sword!" Kirby cried out as he spun like a drill and hit Shade's chest. While he could only say "Poyo", he seemed to be able to say the type of move he was performing clearly.

"Hey, Kirby said a word other than that…word!" Blade realized.

"Blade, we're fighting here!" Sonic cried as they dodged Shade's foot. Shade flew up and spat down a large, dark bomb with a timer. Chopper gasped and began to slash at it with Galaxia.

"Don't try that," Tipral suggested. "That's only going to cause the bomb to explode."

"Then what's your suggestion?" Chopper asked.

"The only thing I can think of is to freeze the bomb. That'll most likely prevent it from exploding if nothing's working."

Kirby grabbed Crystaline and threw her over by the bomb, causing it to become frozen and prevent it from working. Shade noticed this and crushed the bomb by simply stepping on it.

_**"Awww… So the bombs aren't going to work… Hee hee hee! Then how about this?!" **_Shade tried to jab at them with his longer finger, but Chopper was able to swing his sword and fire a Sword Beam at Shade to stop him.

Shade let out a hiss and spat acid over by Chopper. Sonic quickly jumped in and used Reflecto to block the acid coming his way. The Pixl didn't seem harmed by the attack, to Sonic's relief. He clenched his fist and used his Sonic Wind on Shade afterward.

Shade, of course, was cackling and grabbed Sonic with his tentacle. He used him like a weapon and whacked Blade and Chopper with him, which knocked them both over by one of the rocks.

_**"Die! Die! Die!" **_Shade shouted as he kept whacking Sonic on the ground, who was starting to get a little bruised up from getting hurt. Chopper was able to get back up and toss a light ball at Shade to make him release the blue hedgehog. With another light ball at Shade's face, he was left blinded for a moment.

_**"My eyes! I'm blind!"**_

"Yeah! You are blind!" Chopper smirked. "Now you can't see!"

"Chopper, we can't get cocky now," Sonic mentioned. "I know I'm one to do something like that, but right now, that's not going to help us."

Blade grinned and took this time to attack Shade with his katana. It wasn't much, but when he attacked him with his Dragon Beam, it sent Shade flying toward Luvbi and her parents. Since they were behind some of the rocks, they didn't get hurt.

But when Shade got up, he looked down at the three with a grin.

_**"Don't worry! I'll make sure to spend some time playing with you when I'm done playing with them by killing them!"**_

Chopper managed to attack Shade from behind by slashing at his back, forcing him to turn around. Shade decided to fly up and ready another attack. This time, he fired a small dark beam of energy down near him. He tried blocking it, but he ended up getting knocked back.

But Shade wasn't done there. He vomited a dark puddle, which created two Phantom Hands that grabbed Chopper's feet when he was on the ground. He cried and tried to shake them off, but it wasn't working.

"Get them off! Please!" Chopper cried.

_**"Maybe I can torture you with your own fears!" **_Shade cackled, thinking about summoning their fears. _**"But that's too mild. I prefer to melt your face with my acid and tear your skin off using my feet."**_

Tipral snapped his fingers and got the Phantom Hands off. Shade wasn't pleased, but he decided to attack with some small globs of dark energy he shot from his mouth. When he landed on the ground, he tried to swat Tipral away with one of his arms, but he was much faster and capable of hitting his face.

"Don't you realize that you've become slower and a much easier target?" Tipral scoffed, hitting Shade with another Star Spear.

_**"Why won't you die already?! You're just being a nuisance!"**_

"Pathetic excuse…" Tipral dodged his tentacle and even a spider leg he was able to change his arm to. But, since he was halfway down in terms of HP, he decided to make the fight a little interesting.

Shade's face started to have green blood come down as he cackled. He ended up growing a sharp tail as well, and his toes became longer. He flew up and allowed his three eyes on his crescent blade to shoot small, green lasers at the group.

"Oh, no… This isn't good…" Luigi gulped, jumping in order to avoid the attacks. Mario pulled Luigi out of the way when he was almost about to be hit by one of the lasers. He decided to thank him later as Shade swooped down and tried to step anthem.

Since he was airborne, Luigi attacked Shade with his Super Jump and followed up with a flutter jump. However, because of the spikes on his head, he ended up taking damage instead. He held his foot in pain as he landed on the ground. It wasn't too much, but his foot did hurt.

Mario: Are you OK?

"Y-Yeah… I should be fine…" Luigi sighed.

Shade tried to step on Mario, but he was able to dodge it and bring his hammer down on his foot, causing Shade to yelp in pain. It also helped Kirby attack with his sword. He used another Spinning Sword to help knock Shade over on his back.

_**"Oh, poor me! Now I'm knocked over on the ground!" **_Shade cried as Kirby floated above him and brought his sword down on his chest. He let out a screech as the eye on his chest was bleeding.

"Poyo? (Did that defeat him?)" Kirby wondered until he felt himself get knocked away by one of Shade's arms.

_**"Let's test out my new tail!" **_the atrocity grinned as he noticed Blade throwing a couple of shurikens. Even though they stuck onto him, it didn't seem to do much. This only got Blade hit by Shade's tail and knocked over on his back.

He tried to get up, but Shade kept his tail on him to keep him from pulling himself up. That's when Sonic hit Shade with a Homing Attack to bring his attention back to him. Kirby also attacked his tail with his sword to get Blade free.

"Whew! Thanks, Kirby…" Blade thanked.

"Poyo! (Don't worry about it!)" Kirby assured.

"I don't know what the hell you said, but it doesn't matter."

"Hey, Kirby! This could help you!" Chopper informed, tossing a light ball to Kirby. The pink puffball nodded and let the light ball hit his sword. Knowing what it could do, it was now surrounded in light energy.

"Light Sword Beam!" Kirby cried, firing a Light Sword Beam at Shade, who felt the light energy deliver pain to him. He let out a screech, which helped Chopper jump up to him and slash at him.

_**"Stop it with the light! It ruins all the fun!" **_Shade cried.

"I'm not ruining the fun. We're trying to defeat you and save Luvbi's parents!" Chopper replied, firing a Sword Beam at Shade. This caused him to try to grab Chopper with his pincher claw, but he was able to jump back. When his long and sharp finger tried to jab at him, Chopper ended up cutting it off.

Everyone's eyes widened as they listened to Shade's cries. He cried almost like a child, but he seemed to be fuming with anger. He stomped the ground, creating shockwaves that hit Chopper and Tipral, and then he spat some acid near them.

"You know, your acid trick isn't going to work," Tipral noted. "You've been missing us most of the time."

_**"Hee hee hee!" **_Shade could only giggle and spit acid at both Chopper and Tipral, causing them to become poisoned. He even tried to freeze them with his ice breathe, but Luigi was able to get the two out of the way.

"Whoa… I actually saved two people!" Luigi gaped. "I know I saved people before, but from THAT?!"

He turned around and noticed Shade was spitting fireballs their way. Sonic got Reflecto up and deflected the fireballs back at Shade, leaving a burn on him. Blade also threw Hommissile to deal some extra damage.

"Man, this guy can take a lot!" Blade realized. "I don't know if he's stronger than the Necromancer or not…"

"The Necromancer was faster," Chopper recalled. "But he's got a lot too."

_**"Come on, heroes! I still want to tear your flesh away!" **_Shade cackled as Tipral got on Carrie and used her to jump on Shade's head. Because Carrie was immune to the spikes, he was able to harm him.

"Good. At least you're capable of hurting him with a jump." Tipral commented.

"Well, at least I'm helping, although I'm not too pleased to be helping an enemy…" Carrie trailed.

Shade tried to snap Tipral away with his tentacle, but he was able to teleport away and attack his body with a Star Burst. Shade cringed in pain, but he was able to knock Tipral away with his tentacle with ease.

Noticing their HP was low, they decided to have a Star Shroom Shake in order to recover 150 HP. Thankfully, it didn't seem like Shade was going to be healing himself, so they just watched as he breathed out ice, which was unfortunate to freeze Kirby and Sonic.

Blade helped thaw out Sonic, while Chopper helped Kirby. With them unfrozen, they charged at Shade, with Sonic using his Spin Dash and Kirby slashing at him with his sword. Sadly, the light power he had on it seemed to go away after the Sword Beam.

"OK, now that we're healed, we shouldn't have a problem beating you!" Chopper declared, spinning his sword around to hit Shade's legs. He ended up getting stepped on by the monster, but when he was about to get stepped on again, he held Galaxia up and listened to Shade cry out.

_**"You… You made me step on something pointy!" **_Shade cried. _**"You shouldn't have done that…"**_

"Well, I did!" Chopper clenched his sword while he held Starbow up. His dark breath was almost about to hit him until Shade was pelted by a couple of shooting stars. He ate one of them, which resulted in pain from inside his stomach.

"I guess insanity lowers your intelligence," Luigi realized as he took this chance to throw Bonjourang at him. "I can't believe it… I'm actually doing well against something this freaky!"

Shade turned his head to Luigi and shot a dark blast at him that knocked him over. Mario was about to help him, but Shade fired one at him too, knocking him over as well. They knew he was almost defeated, and that meant that the fight was almost over.

"Face it, Shade," Chopper began. "Even as…that, you're still not going to guarantee victory, you know!"

_**"Victory doesn't matter now! I just want to enjoy tearing you apart! I might end up wearing you as a towel for my blood bath!" **_Shade grinned.

Chopper's eye twitched, but he wasn't going to let his words bother him. After all, he was now a psycho, and psychos aren't one to speak the truth.

However, before Shade could continue on, he ended up getting hit by a dark Star Spear from Tipral, who was able to attack him while Chopper "distracted" the atrocity known as Shade.

"You're not too bad with distractions," Tipral noted before he kicked Shade in the face, giving him a bruise. "Well, he's almost defeated. I might as…"

Chopper stopped him and raised his sword. Shade quickly shook his head and hissed at them while his forked tongue hung out. Chopper clenched his sword and brought it back as it began to glow.

"Chopper, what are you planning?" Tipral asked.

"Let him dost what he doth be planning," Luvbi suggested. "Thou shouldst not discourage him!"

"Who said I was discouraging him?"

_**"Oh, I see what this is… Oh, how enjoyable this will be!" **_Shade cackled as he began to charge toward Chopper, who still continued to charge up some power.

"_It should be any second now…" _Chopper thought.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Blade were continuously bashing at Shade with their attacks, and Mario even managed to grab a hold of his back. This seemed to slow him down and try to shake everyone off him.

_**"You guys sure love to play! But I did say playtime would stop here! This is where death starts!"**_

Mario: Not likely!

"Yup! I think it's all over for you!" Sonic smirked.

_**"Hee hee hee! Oh, it's never over for me!" **_Shade grinned. _**"There's plenty of fun, bloodthirsty death to come around!"**_

"Poyo! (Not likely!)" Kirby smirked. "Poyo! (Just see for yourself!)"

Shade was able to shake everyone off, but at this moment, it was a bit too late for him to make an attack on Chopper, who just finished charging up his sword.

"Take THIS!" Chopper cried, jumping up to Shade and delivering a power slash with light energy on Galaxia.

_**"Blah! What the…?!" **_Shade let out a scream as a bright light enveloped him. His eyes widened too as the whole area lit up once again. They noticed Shade was reverting back to what he previously was. Not only that, but the place seemed to shake, and it looked as if the platform they were on was quickly descending downward.

"Yeah! We did it!" Blade fist pumped.

"It looks like it endest for him now…" Grambi trailed.

"Y-You…" Shade hissed, looking up at the heroes as he landed on the ground. "I said playtime was over, and yet you all manage to beat me in that horrifying form?!"

"Let's face it, Shade. It's over." Chopper declared.

"And now, it's time for me to get to business," Tipral cracked his knuckles and walked over to Shade. "I'm going to kill you once and for all!"

However, he was knocked back by one of Shade's dark spells he fired at him. He raised his arm as he growled at the heroes. They noticed his flaming sword was coming to him, and once he grabbed it, a red beam came down on him.

"But when you get me past three phases, you REALLY piss me off!" Shade roared, holding his flaming sword up. "I really wanted to have some fun, but when you get me to here, that's when I have to do things the hard way!"

"Fine then," Chopper declared, pointing Galaxia at him. "If this is how you wanted to end it, then so be it."

"Oh, and I also made sure this platform would plunge down!" he grinned. "So that way, whether I kill you or you kill me, we'll both end up dying in the end!"

"Thou art crazy!" Luvbi gasped. "So… It doth be over hither?!"

"Hee hee! Of course!" Shade nodded in a hyper tone. "Now we shall duel! It shall be the greatest of all duels! And even everyone from all around whether they're reading this story or not can watch as we kill each other mercilessly!"

Chopper gripped his sword as he noticed Shade instantly charge at him. The flaming sword he had was incredibly dangerous and unlike anything he's seen before. Even his stats were much more threatening than before. He had 500 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 12.

"OK, this is serious," Blade said as he charged at Shade, but he simply punched the cat and struck him with his sword, leaving a burn on him and knocking him back. "Hey! That's not fair!"

"But life isn't fair, Blady! Everyone knows that!" Shade cackled.

"I'm going to… Wait, did you just seriously call me 'Blady'? That's it. I'm definitely going to kill you now."

Shade let out a snicker and flew up while raising his sword. Before they knew it, fireballs began to fall from the sky like comets, and it forced everyone to move before they were scorched.

"That's right! Run! RUUUUN! Run like the filthy cowards you are!" Shade cackled as he watched them all trying to dodge the fireballs.

"OK, I guess he's gone mad now," Chopper admitted.

Shade swung his sword and fired a flaming Sword Beam at Chopper while his tongue hung out. The Star Warrior tried to block the attack, but he was only pushed back by the force of the Sword Beam.

Sonic used his Whirlwind to keep Shade occupied. He was hoping the flaming sword would end up going out, but it didn't seem to work. However, he managed to hit him with Screwdy's corkscrew quickly.

Of course, he had to find Shade spinning his sword around like a maniac toward him. Sonic tried to avoid it by ducking, but he ended up getting harmed by the sword and left with a burn.

"Aw, man! It doesn't look like ducking's going to help us here…" Sonic trailed. "We just need to be quick with dodging."

"We just need to find some sort of weakness to him…" Chopper pondered until he noticed Shade spinning near him. He heard his loud cackle as he was sent flying to one of the rocks.

"Oh, geez… That hurt…" he got himself off the rock and noticed a couple of burn marks on his face. Shade stopped and stuck his tongue out again.

"Awwww… Did I give poor Choppy some burn marks?" Shade snickered. "Well those burns look much better on you! Maybe I'll leave them on you when you're dead, along with everyone!"

Kirby attacked Shade from behind by jabbing at him. This caused the alien kid to turn around and try to attack him. The pink puffball managed to bring his sword up and parry his attack.

"Poyo! (Don't think it's just between you and him!)" Kirby noted. "Poyo! (It's seven against one!)"

"Hee hee! That may be… But that's not going to help you here!" Shade flicked at Kirby's face before whacking him with his sword. Kirby was left confused afterward.

"Poyo? (You can understand me?)"

"I took over the body of one of Choppy's kind! Of course they have the ability to understand the great 'poyo' language! Oh, how magical it is! Magic filled with death, blood, and tearing everything apart on you!"

"Ugh… That name… I can't stand it…" Chopper grumbled.

Shade jumped up and brought his sword down on the ground. It created a wave of fire on both sides that scorched everyone. Kirby even tried to freeze his sword with the help of Crystaline, but it didn't work.

"Ice probably isn't going to work," Tipral stated, snapping his finger and hitting Shade. "Let's just throw all we've got!"

Shade pulled his sword out of the ground and swung it downward to fire another flaming Sword Beam. This time, it was directed at Mario. When the plumber saw this, he quickly jumped over to keep himself from getting scorched.

Mario: That was too close…

Shade grinned and changed his flaming sword to ice as he flew up and summoned large chunks of ice down on the seven. Blade became frozen by one of them, while Chopper and Kirby sliced at them with their swords.

"Wait, his sword can change to different elements?!" Luigi gaped.

"Magic can do many things!" Shade squealed, firing an ice Sword Beam directly at him. Luigi yelped and jumped over the attack, landing on Shade with his feet instead. While the alien kid cringed, he was able to hit Luigi with his sword and leave him shivering.

He changed his sword back to fire as he made giant fireballs fall from the sky and thaw out Blade. Seeing his sword, he suddenly had an idea as he prepared to make a move on Shade.

"Time I fought fire with fire!" Blade declared, attempting to attack Shade with his fire slash. Shade quickly blocked his attack, and soon both were clashing with each other and trying to leave one another vulnerable.

"Oh! Fire! It's like we're fighting fire with fire!" Shade gasped.

"Yeah, you're damn right we are!"

Blade managed to kick Shade and successfully hit him with a fire slash. Unfortunately, this ended up being bad for him when Shade lunged at him and knocked him back. He then flew up and charged straight for him.

But with Luigi's Super Jump, he was able to stop Shade from hitting Blade.

Shade collapsed as Luigi walked over to him. His eyes slightly flashed purple as he got up and spun his flaming sword around maniacally, hitting Luigi and Blade in the process.

"Oh, how much fun it is seeing you suffer!" Shade cried as he kicked Blade's shin and attempted to slash at him again. Only this time, Tipral threw him against a rock across from them.

Shade got up with ease and raised his sword so fireballs could fall from the sky. Mario got hit by one, which knocked him over on his back. Shade about to jump on top of him, but Luigi grabbed Kickbrin and used him to knock him back.

"Don't even try to hurt my bro!" Luigi shouted as he grabbed Bonjourang and threw him at Shade's face.

"Ooh… So the younger brother is trying a little harder… I like that." Shade grinned, swinging his sword down and firing a small wave of fire Luigi's way. He tried to jump over it, but he ended up getting scorched and left with a burn. Shade stuck his tongue at him before getting bashed by Mario's hammer.

Mario's eyes widened as he brought his hammer up to block Shade's sword. Thankfully, his hammer was fireproof, unlike his normal hammer, which was made out of wood. But before he could try to attack him again, Chopper jumped on Shade's head with a light stomp, making the alien kid turn to Chopper instead.

"Hmmmmmm…" Shade grinned at Chopper as he decided to lick his flaming sword's flat side, which made Chopper cringe.

"You're literally LICKING a sword that's fire!" Chopper grimaced as he brought his sword up when he saw Shade charging at him. He blocked his attack and slashed at Shade, leaving a small scar on his cheek.

Shade didn't seem to scream in pain from his. He took the green blood dripping from the cut on his cheek and rushed straight at him, trying to leave some of his own blood on his face.

"What the heck are you doing?!" Chopper cried, kicking Shade away, who was laughing maniacally at him.

"Let my blood burn you, Choppy! _**BUUURN YOU!**_"

"No way!" he guffawed, shooting a fireball at him. Shade brought his sword up and let the fireball absorb it. Chopper grumbled to himself as he prepared to attack Shade with his sword again.

Shade jumped up again, but this time, he began to perform a cartwheel around the area while spinning his sword around. Chopper ducked to avoid his attack, and Kirby floated above him. When the time was right, he brought his sword down on him and sent Shade flying toward Chopper (though it's strange how a thrust downward could do that).

"Hee hee! I think I wanna do that again!" Shade cackled, turning back to Chopper and thrusting his sword toward him. Chopper ducked again and managed to kick at his feet with ice energy.

Sadly, that didn't seem to work, and Chopper ended up getting hit by Shade's sword. What made things worse was when Shade raised his sword again.

"Oh, come on..." Sonic groaned. "More fireballs?!"

"Oh, it's something else special," Shade grinned as he was surrounded by a flaming tornado that began to suck everyone in. Everyone tried to hold on to the ground to prevent themselves from getting sucked in.

"I'm not going to let myself get burned so easily," Tipral growled, tossing a Star Spear at Shade, but the fire seemed to stop the Star Spear from reaching him. Kirby threw Crystaline in instead, but that didn't seem to freeze the tornado, to their dismay.

When Shade noticed they weren't letting go, he stopped the tornado and spun his sword around rapidly to hit everyone. Luigi let out a yelp as he noticed his cape was on fire, so he took it off and began to shake it to get the fire off.

In the end, Sonic threw it to the floor and stepped on it to take out the flames. Luigi frowned and put his cap back on, which was now messy. And since Shade was charging at him, Blade stopped him with a Dragon Beam.

"Got 'em!" Blade grinned as he rushed over to Shade and swung his katana at him. He only struck him once, because when he tried to attack again, Shade brought his sword up and blocked his attack.

"You'll have to try better than that, Blady!" Shade snickered.

"Blady? Come on, now! That's such a stupid nickname!"

Shade gave him a grin and punched his face before firing a flaming Sword Beam his way. Blade gulped and got scorched, which gave Tipral the opportunity to strike him with a Star Spear.

Shade decided to blow on his sword and let some fire scorch Tipral. He let out a slight cackle before flying up to Tipral and striking him with his sword. Tipral grunted as he felt a burn mark on him, but he was able to punch Shade with a Star Punch.

"I'll admit, you are putting up a good fight," Tipral commented. "But that's not going to help you here, Shade!"

Shade only responded by jumping in the air and gliding over to Tipral, who tried to grab him, but ended up failing because Shade was able to swing his sword at him and scorch him again.

He let out another grunt and prepared to attack with a Star Burst, but when Chopper jumped in between them, he was forced to stop when he blocked Shade's fire sword with ease with Galaxia.

"I kinda wish Meta Knight was here..." Chopper trailed. "He's better at using Galaxia than me."

Shade performed a flip in the air and spun his sword as well, trying to slice at Chopper. His had was left on fire, which he had to shake to get the flames off. When he put it back on, he blocked Shade's attack and slashed him with his sword.

"Hee hee hee! You're all enjoying this battle, aren't you?" Shade grinned.

Mario: Not at all!

"Poyo! (We just wanna get out of here now!)" Kirby cried.

"Well you're not getting out of here, heroes! Like I said, we're all going to die, whether you kill me or I kill you all!" Shade's tongue hung out as he flew up to Chopper and attacked with an uppercut slash. Chopper managed to block it, but it pushed him back a bit.

While Chopper continued to block Shade's attacks, Sonic got up in the air and used his Bounce Attack to hit Shade and leave him dazed. Shade decided to make things interesting and make his sword full of electricity, which ended up changing it to green instead of red.

"I think he's got electricity now…" Luigi gulped.

"Then we'll fight fire with fire!" Chopper smirked, tossing a rainbow ball at Shade instead. "...Oh, wait. I completely forgot that I don't have the power to use electricity..."

Shade cackled and fired an electric Sword Beam their way. Kirby tried blocking it, but he ended up getting paralyzed, as well as Blade, who was trying to move, but was unable to.

"Damn it! I can't move!" Blade cried.

"Oh, how shockingly great it is to see you paralyzed like that!" Shade smirked, ready to thrust his sword straight into Blade's chest. Sonic was able to hit him with a simple Spin Jump to get his attention.

However, Sonic was not expecting himself to get shocked so easily when Shade pointed his sword at him. It left him in a daze, which allowed Shade to jump on his head and knock him to the ground.

But as soon as Chopper was able to swing his sword at him, he was knocked to the ground again. Chopper approached him, but he quickly got himself up and flew upward while raising his sword.

Before they knew it, they saw small sparks falling down from the sky and ready to electrocute them all. Not even Tipral was able to avoid it. Chopper flipped into 3-D, and he was still harmed by the electricity. The only one who didn't get harmed as much was Kirby, who used his Defend to take minimum damage.

When Shade flew back down, he turned to Kirby and repeatedly slashed at him with his sword to paralyze him.

"Since you refused to take much damage, I had to make you pay the price," Shade sneered, changing his sword to fire again. "Personally, I love the scent of your burning flesh from my sword! Oh, how fun it is to burn people!"

"Poyo! (You should try speaking in a way that doesn't creep us out!)" Kirby shouted.

Shade smirked and used his magic to recover 120 HP, which made everyone gape at him.

"He can heal?!" Chopper gaped.

Mario: You gotta be kidding me!

"This is going to be a long battle…" Luigi sighed.

Shade flew up again and made large fireballs fall from the sky again. Tipral had an idea and put invisible boxes around everyone and himself so the fireballs wouldn't harm them. When Shade noticed this, he looked a bit surprised.

"Hmmmm? What's that? You managed to avoid my fireballs?!"

"I should've thanked that stupid clown for that ability," Tipral muttered as he skated and jumped up to Shade and kicked him to the ground. He soon teleported to the ground and delivered a punch that sent Shade flying near Luvbi, Queen Jaydes and Grambi.

"That kid seems to take a lot..." Queen Jaydes trailed.

"Let's hopeth my sweet prince can win this..." Luvbi trailed. "But even then, we might all die..."

"Hee hee... That's right, little girl!" Shade snickered. "That way, there's no winner! Oh, how joyful that is! Maybe I can burn that bun of hair!"

Luvbi let out a shriek and fluttered back. Her parents faced Shade and told them to not threaten their daughter, but they were interrupted when Tipral snapped his finger and hit Shade with Star Magic.

"Oh... Let me get back to killing them..." Shade trailed as he whirled around and struck Tipral with his sword. Chopper joined in and punched Shade's face with a light punch, since it seemed the most effective of his elemental hand attacks.

Once Shade was left dizzy, Chopper attacked him with a light uppercut kick to send him flying in the air. This gave Luigi the perfect chance to attack with a Super Jump and knock him down.

"You people are starting to annoy me!" Shade whined, stomping the ground in anger like a child as he rapidly swung his sword down at a fast pace near Luigi. The green plumber stepped back and watched as Shade lunged at him.

...Until Mario jumped on him.

He was about to use his Super Ground Pound on Shade, but he kicked the plumber away and began to spin his sword around like he was in a tornado. ...And speaking of tornado, he was being surrounded in a small tornado that let him fly around the platform.

"Poyo! (This is intense!)" Kirby gaped.

"Yeah! I mean, whoever thought he was capable of THIS kind of stuff?!" Chopper gawked before he was scorched by the small fire tornado that came near him. He was covered in a bit of soot and was left with a couple of burn marks on his arms and face when he slowly got up.

"Did you enjoy the fire?" Shade grinned as he grabbed Chopper by the antennas and pulled him up to face him. "Because I can make it hotter for you if you want, Choppy! Hee hee!"

"Don't even think about it," Chopper growled, thrusting his sword toward him and knocking Shade back. Kirby took this chance to use his Sword Beam and strike the alien kid with ease.

Shade raised his sword to attack Kirby, but he noticed something suddenly hit his arm. He noticed a shuriken was now stuck in his arm, which happened to be tossed by Blade.

"Take THAT, Shade!" Blade smirked.

"Hee hee hee..." Shade simply pulled the shuriken out as if it were nothing, letting some of the green blood on his arm drip down from his arm until the wound was fully healed, making Blade's eyes flash white.

"He pulled it out as if it was nothing! What ARE you?!"

He even used his own magic to recover 120 HP.

"Are you serious?!"

Shade only replied with a grin as he shot a fireball from his sword straight at Blade, who blocked it with his katana and jumped in the air and threw Hommissile down at him. The explosion made him cough some smoke, giving Blade the opportunity to attack with his katana by swinging it at him.

But some of the smoke Shade coughed went into the sword instead, which made it stronger and allowed him to bring his sword down on Blade and leave him scorched. He noticed a burn mark on his tail and even some burns on his ninja clothing and gear.

He clenched his fists in anger as he saw Shade cackling at him. He also noticed the trail of fire left on the ground as well. But it didn't matter at this moment, because Shade was in a large, fire tornado.

Everyone grabbed a hold of the rocks on the ground, but it wasn't enough. They were sucked into the tornado and sent flying with a couple of burns on them. Everyone appeared to be in bad shape now!

"Ugh… We should seriously heal up…" Luigi moaned.

"Good idea," Chopper agreed as they soon landed on the ground. He took out a Master Shroom Shake and drank it to recover 200 HP. He passed it around until Tipral had the last sip and disintegrated the can.

As soon as Shade landed on the ground, Chopper jumped up and brought his sword down on him, followed by jabbing at him. Shade didn't seem to care and tried to swing at him, but he missed because of Chopper's speed.

"Look at yourself! You all don't look so good…" Shade grinned.

"You don't look so good either," Chopper retorted, noticing how his face looked. He still had some scars on his face, as well as a couple of bruises. Shade didn't care though. He twirled his sword around rapidly and charged straight at Chopper, knocking him back over by Tipral.

But this didn't seem to make Tipral happy at all. He felt more anger in him as he pushed Chopper off him and stood up.

"I've had enough of you!" Tipral roared, now surrounded in a light purple glow. He walked over to Shade and grabbed a hold of him with both hands.

"Ooh… Looks like someone's getting angry…" Shade snickered, sticking his green forked tongue out at Tipral.

"Oh, I'm getting angry all right! Especially after what you did! Listen here, Shade… When I say I'm going to kill someone, I _mean_ it!"

"It's so entertaining to see you get this angry! Come on! Let all the anger out in you! I want to see you SCREAM!"

"Then I'll unleash my strongest attack on you!" Tipral declared, his eyes glowing a light purple as he threw Shade to a wall. "_**STAR BLAST!**_"

Tipral unleashed a huge blast of Star energy in the area, which sent everyone flying back by some of the rocks. The throne Shade sat on was destroyed by the attack. The only one not on the ground was Tipral, who looked down at Shade, who was badly injured from the attack.

"Hmph… So you still live?"

"Hee hee hee!" Shade giggled, quickly getting up and striking Tipral with his sword. "That was fun! Gimme more! More! More! MORE!"

Tipral raised an eyebrow as he got up, but Chopper jumped in the way and brought Galaxia down on Shade. When the alien kid got up, he fired a flaming Sword Beam his way, so Chopper tossed some ice energy on his sword and fired an ice Sword Beam to counter it.

"Ooh! Opposite elements fighting!" Shade sneered as he tried to attack Chopper in a cartwheel. He tried to block his attacks, but he was knocked down by the fire sword and left with another burn mark.

"Geez… This guy's putting up a bit of a fight… But it doesn't matter here! You're almost done for!" Chopper smirked.

"We'll see!" Shade stuck his tongue out at Chopper as he used his magic to help himself recover 120 HP. Chopper let out a growl and hacked at Shade with Galaxia, followed by drilling at him.

Mario even spun his hammer around to deal some damage to Shade, followed by Sonic's Bounce Attack and Luigi's Cyclone. At this point, Shade had enough and used his magic to stun everyone but Chopper and Tipral.

"Poyo! (Hey!)" Kirby cried.

"I'll handle you guys later," Shade smirked. "Right now, I want to have some fun with these two!"

"Gladly," Tipral answered as he teleported in front of Shade a delivered a Star Punch in between his eyes. Shade held his face in pain as Chopper was able to toss a light ball at him to weaken him.

Even when he healed himself, it looked like he was going to be the loser.

But that didn't matter to him. No matter what, everyone was going to die here, so he simply spun his sword around and hoped he would be able to hit them both. Unfortunately, that didn't work, because Tipral was able to use his Star Burst, which countered his spinning.

"Face it, Shade. It's over for you." Tipral declared. "And now I'm going to finally have my revenge against you!"

"But why revenge? Revenge is so boooooooring!" Shade snickered.

"Yeah, revenge isn't always satisfying…" Chopper pointed out.

"Shut up, Chopper. Don't side with him!" Tipral retorted before he felt himself getting struck by Shade's sword, making him fall over. Chopper gasped and saw Shade flying his way, so he got his sword ready and blocked his attack.

While that was going on, the whole place was starting to shake as it continued to plummet. How fast was it going down? Nobody knew, but Chopper didn't have the time to think about that. He still had a psychotic kid to deal with.

Shade blew at his sword to allow Chopper to get scorched again. Chopper simply ducked and slid under the fire and managed to hit his feet with Galaxia. Shade cringed and tried to strike Chopper, but he seemed to block every hit.

_"I'm gaining some confidence now!" _Chopper thought as he managed to blind him with a light ball.

"Ack! I can't see!" Shade cried as he covered his eyes. Chopper smiled and noticed one more hit would be able to take him out – if he had enough power in his attack.

"Chopper!" Grambi called out, making the Star Warrior turn to him. "Thou must finish him with a powerful light slash! If thou succeeds, he will be defeated!"

"O-OK," Chopper nodded as he watched Shade still cry over him being unable to see. He tossed a light ball at Galaxia and allowed the sword to take in the light power. He raised his sword, which began to glow with light energy.

Everyone who was stunned was even gazing at the glowing sword.

"Hee hee…" Shade giggled, regaining his sight and giving Chopper a grin. "You honestly thought that would last forever, did you? Well, maybe it's time to put an end to this!"

"Yes, we're definitely ending this," Chopper smirked, readying his sword. "Look like you'll be the one losing!"

"What?!"

Chopper ran toward Shade, and with one powerful slash, he was able to deliver the final blow to the alien child. Not only that, but the heroes were no longer stunned and were able to move.

Tipral slowly got up and noticed Shade's eyes widening in pain. Chopper whirled around and looked back at Shade.

"Game over, Shade," Chopper smirked.

"Hee hee… Oh, I wouldn't be so sure on that…" Shade wheezed, giving them all a grin as his eyes flashed purple for a second. "I did say we'd all die at the end of this battle…"

"He's right," Queen Jaydes gasped.

"Well… So long!" Shade let out a cackle as he collapsed, resulting in the entire platform getting destroyed. Everyone's eyes widened as they were all plummeting to their doom while pieces of the platform flew away.

"HEE HEE HEE HEE… AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!" Shade cackled as he was sent flying out of the comet. The rest of the group, however, were going straight down instead.

"So Shade blew up the entire platform just to kill us…" Tipral growled, clenching his fists as he saw Shade disappear.

"So… What do we do now?" Luigi asked.

"All we can do is fall to our deaths."

Everyone but Tipral: _**WHAT?!**_

"But… I dost not want everything to endeth like this…" Luvbi cried. "We dost not deserveth to die so soon…"

"Well… I guess all we can do is say goodbye…" Sonic trailed.

"I wouldn't say that so soon," Queen Jaydes interrupted. "Grams and I are capable of using incredible powers. Thankfully, I believe our powers are returning to us."

"And we doth have enough power to saveth us," Grambi mentioned.

"Poyo! (Use it, please!)" Kirby cried.

Before they knew it, everyone was no longer falling. They felt the powers of the two aftergame rulers allow them to slowly descend instead. At this rate, they knew the fall would be much safer.

* * *

**Later-**

When they found solid ground below them, the king and queen of the aftergame stopped using their power as soon as they landed on the ground. There was nothing of any importance. It felt…very empty.

"Where are we?" Blade asked.

"I'm not so sure…" Queen Jaydes trailed. "Wherever we landed, we're somewhere safe. I don't see any monsters around here anyway."

"Well that's a relief," Chopper sighed, but he noticed his sword shattered, and now his hat was gone. "Great… Now my ability's gone."

"Poyo, (Same here,)" Kirby added, noticing his Sword ability was gone.

"Do you think Shade survived that attack?" Sonic wondered.

"Doubt it," Grambi answered. "That attack was verily powerful. We art lucky to maketh it hither alive."

Everyone took a look at themselves and saw how battered up they were. That fight must've taken a lot of energy.

"Well, if he's dead, then I'm satisfied," Tipral declared. "He deserves it anyway."

"But what about the Pure Heart?" Luigi reminded. "We came to Shade thinking he had it, but now we don't know where it is!"

"But the door brought us hither," Luvbi noted. "It doth hath to be hither somewhere!"

"Then… We have to search…" Chopper trailed, his voice sounding like he wasn't looking forward to it. "This is going to be fun…"

_"Chopper…"_

The voice caught everyone's attention, especially Chopper's, whose antennas were now perking up.

"Wh-What was that?" Luigi stammered.

"Show yourself!" Chopper cried, getting in a fighting stance.

_"Chopper… Please come here… Come here to your mother…"_

Up ahead, they saw two spirits waiting for them. While everyone was gawking at them, Chopper was the one who was surprised the most out of them all.

"Mom… Dad…" Chopper trailed as he slowly walked over to the spirits of his parents, who were smiling at him.

"Chopper's…parents?" Tipral gawked.

Chopper began to run faster over to his parents, with his mother opening her arms. He opened his arms too as tears ran down his face.

_"Come here, Chopper..." _Tonberria trailed as a tear came down her face as well.

When he reached his parents, he hugged them, not caring if his arms phased through them.

"Mom... Dad... I..." Chopper stammered.

_"It's OK, we're here for you," _Tonberria assured, patting Chopper's head, even if her hand phased through him. _"We've always been here for you, even if you never saw us..."_

Chopper began to remember all the times he saw his parent's spirits, from the flower field in King Lakilar's palace, his mother at Staris's Shrine, and even at Flower Hill at the Illusion Forest. He remembered those being simple allusions.

But this... This felt more real. For the first time in six years, he was actually talking to his parents.

"I... I don't believe it." Blade gaped. "These are your parents?"

_"Yeah, it's us," _Toalune nodded. _"You've all done a pretty awesome job collecting those Pure Hearts, I'll admit! I'm actually proud of my son..."_

"But we haven't found the Pure Heart here," Chopper mentioned, letting go of his mother. "The door led us to this comet, but not even Shade had it! I'm...kinda sorry if I have to go right now."

_"Chopper, the reason why you were led here is because you were being led here to us," _Tonberria explained. _"We've been waiting for you here, hoping that you'd finally show up."_

"The Pure Heart actually led thee all to them?" Luvbi gasped. "I didst not know that..."

"Then fork over the Pure Heart if you have it," Tipral demanded. "Just make it quick so we can get out of this stupid place."

"Tipral! That's not how things work!" Sonic retorted. "That may be your way, but for us, it's different!"

He closed his eyes and closed his arms. "Hmph... Very well. Take all the time you need."

"Wait... So you hold the Pure Heart?" Chopper asked, turning back to his parents after glaring at Tipral.

_"Chopper... I feel now's the time to tell you the truth..." _Tonberria trailed, closing her eyes. _"And... This might hurt you a bit."_

"The...truth? What do you mean?"

Tonberria floated closer to Chopper and placed her hand on his shoulder and then letting out a sigh before opening her eyes.

_"The final Pure Heart... It's...in you."_

Chopper's eyes flashed white as he placed his hand on his body. "You mean... I hold the last Pure Heart?"

He suddenly felt some pain in him when he noticed something flash in his body. Everyone noticed a feint image of a rainbow-colored heart trying to fight its way out of his body.

"Poyo! (It's a rainbow heart!)" Kirby gasped.

"What's...going on?" Chopper cringed as the rainbow heart slowly faded away in him.

_"Now that the Pure Heart has been revealed, it's trying to fight its way out of your body," _Tonberria explained, stepping away from Chopper.

_"It looks like its time has also come to come out too," _Toalune mentioned.

"So all this time, a Pure Heart lied in Chopper?" Luvbi asked. "It almost remindeth me of me being a Pure Heart..."

"But wait a second!" Chopper realized. "This rainbow heart... I thought it was just something that simply gave me all of these abilities and nothing else!"

_"That Pure Heart is unlike any other Pure Heart you've seen," _Tonberria explained. _"It gives the person abilities unlike anything they've had before. Not only that, but it chooses who it stays in, and the host protects it from harm until it needs to be released. That's why many called it the Sacred Heart – it was because how much power it had in it. Maquano knew about this heart, and he wanted to take it so he could use its powers for terrible purposes."_

"So this whole time I was there to protect a heart?"

_"Yes, Chopper. That's why we had to let Mondrao get destroyed and let you go. That way, he wouldn't get a hold of it. And with it in you, he couldn't of gotten it anyway, even if he discovered you holding it."_

"Hold on... You said you LET Mondrao get destroyed?!" Chopper gaped. "I thought you guys fought valiantly against Maquano's army?! You're telling me all of that was one big fat lie?!"

_"Well the ships were destroyed too," _Toalune noted. _"They wouldn't have been able to get off the planet anyway."_

"I... I can't believe everything I thought was a lie..." Chopper's head hung low as he shed a tear. "First I find out my uncle was not a hero and someone who actually sabotaged some of the ships to get a chance to live, and now I find out you people let Mondrao get destroyed? I... I tried stopping Maquano all those times for you all..."

"Chopper..." Luvbi trailed, fluttering up to him to comfort him.

"No... Let's just go." Chopper said as he turned to the group. "I don't want to waste my time with these liars. We should start going back to Flipside..."

Everyone watched as Chopper walked away from his parents, not even following him. Tipral opened his eyes and noticed him walking away. He had to admit, not even he was expecting Chopper to hold the final Pure Heart.

_"Chopper! Wait!" _Tonberria cried, flying over to him. _"Please... Don't go!"_

"Yeah, you shouldn't leave," Blade agreed. "It's a bit selfish of you to simple do something like that."

_"I'm going to have to agree with him," _Toalune nodded.

"Why should I listen to you guys?!" Chopper exclaimed, his eyes filled with anger. "You two always had to keep me at Daycare a lot because you always had to go out and do your job! And even when at home, you were always being overprotective of me, Mom, while you, Dad, always acted like a complete idiot and whined over stuff. Heck, you were obsessed with a girl's show and talking about it all the time!"

His parents were silent. Not even his friends had an idea of what to say.

"I literally had NOTHING fun in my life! And now, I happen to hold something that I was meant to protect for SIX years of my life! Great. Just great."

_"Chopper!" _Tonberria exclaimed, which got Toalune angry.

_"Son, you can talk to your mother all you want like that, but you can never, EVER talk to me like that!" _Toalune exclaimed.

_"Toalune! It's the other way around!"_

_"Oh... Well, son, you can talk to me all you want like that, but you can't talk to your mother like that! You wanna ignore us and be selfish? Fine! Go for it! You wanna let out the Pure Heart? Go ahead! Don't expect any sympathy from us, though!"_

"Well I don't want your sympathy!" Chopper retorted. "After all you've done for me, I don't need it!"

_"Hey! I've done a lot for you! I was going to give you a Monird for a pet! I was seriously thinking about you then!"_

"It just so happens that Monirds tend to throw their belongings everywhere! That wouldn't have helped anyone!"

_"Now you're acting like a brat! Heck, you never really did show some appreciation to us that much. We always gave you some stuff, but you did nothing in return."_

"That's because I was three!" Chopper cried, turning away with a sad look. "And honestly... I did get you something. I actually drew a picture of us out on a grassy field, holding hands. I made it just for you two. But I ended up losing it because a kid much older than me took it and ripped it into pieces..."

Toalune didn't know what to say at this point.

_"Chopper, please..." _Tonberria began, making Chopper turn around. _"Yes, everything may have been true, but the biggest reason why we got Meta Knight to get you off Mondrao was because we loved you and wanted you to have a good life. The Pure Heart also wanted you to have a good life as well. Don't you have a good life?"_

"I've been alone on Clara for many years... That doesn't sound like a good life to me..." Chopper trailed. However, he blinked for a moment when he realized something.

_"Oh... If that's the case, we're deeply sorry for everything that's happened to you."_

"Hold on... Actually, now that you mention it, my life hasn't been that bad. I've actually made a lot of friends along the way, and they've been a great help to me. And honestly, I couldn't have done any of this without them."

He turned to his friends with a smile. "Thanks, guys..."

Everyone but Tipral gave a smile back.

"Look, I'm sorry for acting so selfish toward you two... In all honesty, I didn't mean any of that. In fact, I love you two a lot. Even if there were bad moments, there were mostly good, now that I think about it."

His parents gave him a smile and shed a tear as they noticed the Pure Heart trying to fight out of Chopper's body.

"Mom... Dad... I think the Pure Heart wants to come out."

_"Chopper... We're not sure what will happen when you release the Pure Heart..." _Tonberria trailed. _"Many things could happen to you. There's a possibility that you could lose all your powers... Or it even might kill you. That Pure Heart is almost like an energy source."_

"If it means to save the world, then I have to do it. Many friends I've met before have died, and just leaving the heart in me feels like the selfish path to me. And... I don't want to be selfish."

"Wait... I might lose thee?" Luvbi cried, fluttering over to Chopper. "But... I don't want to lose thee!"

"Look, Luvbi... You had to make a sacrifice before. If you can do it, I can – if it does end up sacrificing my life..."

"But thou art the only boy I've ever cared about!"

"Luvbi... I..." Chopper's eyes widened as he felt Luvbi grab his cheeks.

"Couldst thou not forgetest about me?"

"I don't forget my friends. Ever."

Luvbi smiled as tears rolled down her eyes. She gave him a soft kiss on the lips before letting him go. Just this once, Chopper decided not to wipe it off his mouth.

Mario: Are you sure you want to do this?

"Poyo! (Yeah! You don't have to, you know!)" Kirby frowned.

"I'm doing this, guys. There's no turning back..." Chopper trailed, turning back to his parents. "I'm ready..."

Tonberria gave him a weak smile as tears rolled down her face. Toalune did the same thing as well. Chopper couldn't help but give a weak smile and do the same thing as his parents.

_"Chopper, no matter what happens to you, we will always be by your side," _Tonberria informed. _"Whether you become evil, good or even die, we will stay by your side."_

_"And also make your father proud," _Toalune added.

"Thank you... Mom and Dad... I... I love you two." Chopper slowly closed his eyes and opened his arms as the final Pure Heart began to fight its way out. With one flash, the Pure Heart was released from him.

Chopper, however, ended up collapsing.

"Chopper!" Luvbi cried, fluttering over to Chopper. She noticed he was motionless, but he didn't appear to be dead. "He... He's still alive..."

Queen Jaydes and Grambi checked him out as well and concluded that Chopper was still alive, but just barely.

"Well at least he's not gone..." Luigi sighed. "But even then, he's in a bad condition."

_"As for you, heroes..." _Tonberria began. _"For Chopper's sake, please take the final Pure Heart. It's also one of our wishes as well..."_

"We'll...take the Pure Heart," Tipral answered, slowly giving her a nod. "I never expected Chopper to pull something off like that..."

Even Cudge and Starbow were getting a little saddened, considering that they were the ones that he used the most.

"Please... Hang in there, hero." Cudge muttered.

"I don't want to lose you..." Starbow trailed.

"We can assure you that we'll take it," Blade nodded. "If Chopper dies... He'll be remembered."

_"Thank you, heroes... We really appreciate it..."_

Luvbi grabbed the Pure Heart and took it over to the rest of the group. "Listen... Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, Luigi, and even you, Tipral... I'm verily sorry for all the trouble I caused to thee. I shouldn't hath been so terrible to thee. And to maketh it up to thee, I want thee to taketh this."

Mario: We will.

"And don't worry about it, Luvbi," Sonic assured. "We knew there was some kindness in you. You just had to find it in your heart."

"Thank thee... Thank thee all." Luvbi weakly smiled, still tearing. "And please taketh care of Chopper..."

She placed the final Pure Heart before the heroes, which slowly began to float above them. All of the Pixls began to perform a sad dance as Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario, Luigi and Tipral held up the last Pure Heart.

Toalune and Tonberria looked down at the unconscious Chopper one last time before fading away.

**YOU GOT A PURE HEART**

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the end of Shade, our heroes managed to get a hold of the final Pure Heart, but at a terrible price. Luvbi couldn't hold back the tears as she looked down at Chopper while her parents took her back home. With the unconscious Chopper, our heroes decided to take the Pure Heart and him back to Flipside. All that remained were the unconscious Chopper, his friends and the final Pure Heart..._

* * *

**Definitely my favorite chapter I've ever written... :)**


	119. Chapter 19 Interlude

**Just so you know, this is the last interlude you'll ever see in this story. Yup, we're getting pretty close.**

* * *

Now Nastasia was getting frustrated. Not only did they not find Tipral anywhere in the palace, but back in the inner sanctum, Fawful and Mr. L were still fighting. And they didn't help her with the search either!

"Listen here, beanie. I don't know what's your beef with my mustache, but I don't like you mocking me for it!" Mr. L scoffed. "What're you, jealous? Jealous that I have a mustache and you don't?"

"Fawful laughs at your face! Why would I take the hairiness that has the hanging on your lip?" Fawful cackled. "Fawful hates mustaches! Hates them!"

"Well I don't like those glasses on your face, nerd! Ho ho! Oh, yes! I did indeed call you a nerd!"

"We'll see who's the nerd when Fawful gives you the beating of a lifetime!" Fawful declared as he rushed straight at Mr. L, who readied his thunder attack…

Except the fight ended up being a slap fight…

"Ummmm… Guys?" Nastasia tried to get their attention, but they continued to slap each other. It didn't seem like anyone was winning, though. "Guys! Stop fighting right now, 'K?"

Unfortunately, they still wouldn't listen.

"_**GUYS!**_"

Fawful and Mr. L stopped fighting and turned to the angry Nastasia. "Thank you! There's no point in fighting now! Just because Tipral isn't here doesn't mean you can go out of control. And since I'm here, that means I have to take care of the disciplinary around here. So be good minions and stop fighting! 'K?"

"Ehhhhh… I don't think so." Mr. L retorted. "He's the one that started it."

"I have chortles!" Fawful chortled. "Fawful laughs at your face again, mustache! You had the starting of the fight anyway!"

"I don't care who started it," Nastasia snapped. "Both of you stop now or else I have no choice but to separate you two and put you back in your rooms!"

"Separate us? Sounds like a good idea!" Mr. L agreed. "Put this terrible bean back where he belongs!"

"Maybe a shaving is what the mustache deserves!" Fawful cackled.

"That's it," Nastasia snapped her finger, and O'Chunks and Midbus rushed into the room and grabbed Fawful and Mr. L to pull them away from each other.

"Midbus! I need the releasing!"

"Midbus, don't," Nastasia ordered.

"Sorry, Lord Fawful," Midbus apologized. "Fighting won't help here. You relax."

"Lemme go, chunky," Mr. L grunted. "You're not helping me with your smelly odor, you know!"

"What?! What do yeh mean?! I washed meself an hour ago!" O'Chunks guffawed. "Of course, yer always one teh break me chain most o' the time!"

"'Cause you're such a big dope!"

"At least I listen teh what Tipral 'as teh say! Yeh, however, tend teh ignored 'im!"

"O'Chunks, Mr. L, I don't want you two arguing either," Nastasia informed, adjusting her glasses. _"Things just aren't working out here... When will Tipral finally come back here to help us?"_

As she pondered, Mimi came in the room with her eyes flashing white.

"Guys! I found something very important!" Mimi cried, forcing everyone to become silent as they turned to her.

"Is it important, Mimi?" Nastasia asked.

"Yes! It's incredibly important! I…or rather, we got this letter from Tipral!" Mimi took out a letter with dark handwriting on it.

"What?! Tipral?!" O'Chunks let go of Mr. L, who had a hard landing, while the bearded warrior ran over to Mimi to grab a hold of the letter. She simply brought the paper away from O'Chunks.

"No! You can't take it! I'm the one who wrote Tippy a letter, so I get to be the one to hold it!"

"Who cares about holding it?" Mr. L grumbled. "Just read it to us!"

"Hmmmm… Hold on…" Nastasia paused. "I think it's better to get Dark in here. If this is something Tipral sent us, we should all be here to listen."

"I'll go tell him," Mr. L declared. "I'd rather get away from you juniors. Especially the bean guy. That guy thinks he can mock the 'stache! Well, we'll see what happens when he loses his…"

"Just go!" Mimi shouted.

"OK! Fine! At least I'll get away from your annoying voice…"

Mimi blew a raspberry at him as he left the room and went into the hallway. He stopped at Dark's door and knocked on it.

"Hey! Darky! Nastasia wants you at the sanctum!"

Inside Dark's room, the lights were off, and Dark was going through a couple of journals of the Dark Creature's history. Apparently, he was trying to find any information on Shade and how he could get his army back.

_"Hey! Did you not listen to me?!" _Mr. L shouted, who continued to bang on the door.

"Nastasia… She promised me my army back if I helped her search around the palace…" Dark trailed as he stood up and turned to the door. "I guess she wasn't capable of keeping that promise."

_"Dark! It's not about that secretary lady right now! The bratty girl found some letter from Tipral or something!"_

"Tipral? So, he finally got a hold of us for once…" Dark walked over to the door and opened it. He used his cape to shield his room to prevent Mr. L from seeing before closing it.

"What were you doing in your room anyway?" Mr. L asked. "Were you brooding over something?"

His response was a smack to the face. "Ow! What was that for?!"

Dark simply moved on ahead, making Mr. L grumble as he followed him back to the sanctum. There, they saw Fawful was now released from Midbus's grasps and were all by Mimi, who was waiting impatiently for Mr. L and Dark.

"What took you two so long?" Mimi grumbled.

"You lack so much patience," Dark scoffed. "Just read the damn letter."

"OK! Fine!" the green girl gave him a snooty look before she began to read the letter, which everyone got closer to listen and see the letter.

_Dear minions,_

_If you couldn't tell by now, I've received the letter Mimi wrote for me. Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine. I was apparently sent to the Comet of Darkness, where Shade happened to reside. Since Dark will probably see this letter, I'll just tell him now that he's not his brother. Also, he's gone, so no worrying about him now. Though, I don't think the Dark Creatures will be returning anytime soon... Unfortunately, I've lost the Chaos Heart, Dark Star Scepter and the Dark Prognosticus. From what I know, that Chaos Heart could possibly be in The Void, which must mean the door leading to The Void should be revealed. But with me no longer holding it... Its power will now be out of control as the True Chaos Heart. There are two doors that lead inside. One is most likely where I'm at right now, while the other should be in my palace, in the sanctum. Go through there, and you'll most likely find me..."_

_-Tipral-_

"Whoa! So Tipral's still alive!" O'Chunks gaped. "Well that's great teh 'ear."

"Yeah! I know!" Mimi smiled, pink hearts fluttering over her head. "I almost thought he was gone..."

"Not too surprised," Midbus said.

"But now he has the requesting!" Fawful gaped.

"Ooh! So we finally get to go into The Void!" Mr. L grinned. "So, looks like we can finally get our chance to stopping those heroes once and for all! We obviously don't want them getting to the Chaos Heart, right?"

"But now it's out of control," Dark mentioned. "It might be a bit difficult trying to get a hold of it now."

"Well, Tipral gave us orders," Nastasia noted, adjusting her glasses. "Now's the time for us to get going, 'K?"

"Hold on a moment..." Mimi paused. "There's something else written down at the bottom."

Everyone stopped and took a look at the letter again. There was indeed another thing written.

_And beware of a certain shadowy jester that is roaming around..._

"Wait... Did 'e say beware of...Dimentio?" O'Chunks asked, his eyes widening. "But... Isn't Dimentio dead?"

"Of course he's dead," Mimi replied. "That stupid clown's no longer around here anymore. Though, I don't understand by 'shadowy'... Anyway, if Tippy wants us to go into The Void to stop the heroes, then count me in! Those meanies are going to pay for trouncing me!"

"Mimi, they trounced all of you," Nastasia noted, making Mimi give her an irritated look.

"I know, Nassy! I was talking about myself then!"

"Look, if you guys are going to babble, then I'm going," Dark declared, making his way over to the door to his left. "Now, where do you believe that door leading into The Void is?"

Before anyone could respond, they felt the ground shake as they saw a large, black door in the center of the sanctum.

"Oh... I guess that answers my question."

"If we are going into the darkness of fury, then we must have preparing!" Fawful declared, rushing back to his room. When he came back, he held a small, dark blue orb with a black star embedded on it.

"Lord Fawful... Is that...?" Midbus gawked.

"I have excitement! When we have the approaching of the heroes, Fawful will give them all I've got! And then, they will al drown in the river of saliva going down to the great pool of jello!"

"What the heck is that idiot saying?" Mr. L gawked. "Well, if we ARE going to go in, we might as well get everything we want prepared. Thankfully, I've saved up a special thunder ability I've kept with me for a while! That'll finish them off!"

"Yeah... I suppose we should all get our acts together." O'Chunks agreed. "That cat made a mess o' me back there! I'm gettin' back at 'im and the others!"

"I already know what I've got planned for them..." Mimi grinned sadistically.

"Very well," Nastasia nodded, adjusting her glasses. "In the meantime, Mr. L... Why don't you get that robot you made out here? I'd like to test that out, 'K?"

"Wait... What?!" Mr. L guffawed. "I made that thing just for me to control! There's no way you're taking it!"

"Do you really want me to resort to this?" she slowly put her hand over to her glasses, ready to use her brainwashing on him. Mr. L slowly backed away and nodded, and soon he was grumbling as he went back to get the robot.

When all the minions were out of the sanctum, Nastasia walked over to the door while pondering.

"You know... There's something that's been bugging me all this time... I actually remember hearing Tipral's name before... Before I joined him, that is. Though, remembering that name reminds me of a bad moment then..."

* * *

**Sagein Galaxy-**

Shade slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was actually still alive. Then again, he didn't seem to care whether or not he died, because he was starting to snicker in a disturbing manner.

"Those heroes... They think...they bested me..." Shade trailed. "Such a shame I never got to tear them apart and let it rain blood all over the place... But now they're probably still looking around for that Pure Heart! Hee hee... I don't need those things anymore. Besides, who needs those when you've got unstoppable dark magic by your side?"

The Comet of Darkness itself wasn't destroyed, but simply left there and no longer surrounded in dark mist, possibly because he was no longer residing there. He simply spun around joyfully flying past Rainbow Trail and the observatory Merlo was at.

But then he came across a large asteroid he ended up landing on. He happened to land outside of the Shrine of the Sages, where Chopper fought Arctail. Shade even noticed some of the remains of Acrtail as well.

"Someone...was here..." Shade trailed. "But such a disappointment to see them go! I would've enjoyed killing them!"

_**"Ah...ha ha... So... I've finally...found you!"**_

Shade looked around for the voice, but he ended up seeing Shadow Dimentio teleport in front of him instead. Unlike the others, what he saw was a full shadow of Dimentio floating before him.

"Ooh! Another playmate for me to rip apart!" Shade grinned. "How wonderful!"

_**"You cannot...rip me apart," **_Shadow Dimentio smirked as Shade tried grabbing a hold of him. _**"Oh, how...hyper you are...like a puppy jumping...in joy from...getting candy!"**_

"I can't rip you apart!"

_**"That's because...I'm dead. Well... Not...necessarily!"**_

"This isn't something I'm enjoying!"

_**"But do you know...what I'd...enjoy?" **_Shadow Dimentio gave a smirk as Shade stopped and looked up at him. _**"Ah! So I finally...got your...attention!"**_

"Oh, tell me what you enjoy!" Shade cheered. "Tell me tell me tell me!"

_**"All I need you...to do is...use your magic...to bring me back! Life is so...enjoyable."**_

"Life... Life is magical! And so is death!" Shade gave a sadistic grin as he thought of an idea. "So I'll bring you back to life, and then I'll be able to rip you to pieces! That sounds so fun!"

_**"Ah...ha ha ha... Very fun..." **_Shadow Dimentio grinned sinisterly as Shade reached for his wand and pointed it at Shadow Dimentio. Even if he was nearly tarnished by the heroes, he didn't care. With his dark magic, he was able to fire dark power at Shadow Dimentio, which surrounded him in dark smoke.

"You come back to life and I'll kill you afterward! It's so simply!" he cackled as he waved his wand and managed to get rid of all the dark smoke. Dimentio, fully alive, was revealed under the smoke, and he looked better than ever.

"AH HA HA HA!" Dimentio cackled. "At long last, I've returned, like a bear who just finish hibernating during the summer! And with all the powers I absorbed from those pathetic minions, I'm unstoppable!"

"Hee hee... And with you alive, your death shall soon come!" Shade snickered, charging at Dimentio until he bumped into an invisible wall.

It turns out, Dimentio summoned an invisible box around him.

"Oh, no no no. We can't have any of that right now, Shade." Dimentio grinned. "With me finally back to life, I can finally complete my plans and destroy those heroes and Tipral and his minions!"

"Well if they beat me, then they can certainly beat you," Shade scoffed. "I wanted to play with them, so I was forced to transform...into THIS!"

He placed his hand on his glowing sun on his crescent blade and tried to transform into the abomination he was once before. The only problem? The box was too small, which made it too tight for him.

"Your transformations aren't going to help you here... And besides, I've managed to steal a few things from Tipral while I was that phantom! I'll also take the True Chaos Heart as well! That'll suit me nicely..."

Shade reverted back to his normal form and tried to punch at the box.

"Let me out of here! Let me out! Let me out! LET ME OUT!"

"Oh, yes... What to do with you." Dimentio pondered, whirling over to him. "Well! Maybe you can be of some use to me! Maybe... Just maybe..."

He was interrupted by Shade's howls and his forked tongue that he stuck out at him, but none of it seemed to scare him in any way.

"So, would you want to play with those pesky heroes again?"

"Yes! Yes yes yes!"

"Then I have a special treat for you... Ciao!" Dimentio snapped his finger, which triggered an explosion from inside the box. Shade let out a scream of horror as it flashed inside.

When the flash was gone, Shade was no longer inside.

"Ah, yes... He'll definitely have some fun there! As for me... I might as well start my trip into The Void! I can't wait to see the looks on their faces! They'll be shocked like people spewing out orange soda during a crazy party!"

With a sinister grin, he teleported out of the vicinity.

* * *

"_Everything... Everything I ever loved and cared about is gone! And I even failed to fulfill her promise..."_

_I was filled with so much rage that I tried to go to the Tribe of Darkness and get revenge on the man who forced Timpani to leave forever and die. But all I found was the place destroyed._

_But there was one that was still alive._

"_Wh-Who are you?!"_

"_You people are the reason why Timpani is gone! Why? Why did you do this to her?!"_

"_Blumiere's father? He..."_

"_No, don't even speak. You're not worth my time..."_

_I killed the man and left the area. I continued to walk away, filled with nothing but hatred in my eyes and mind. With my powers, I caused much destruction to placed around me, including nature itself. _

_However, I did run across a woman that requested my help. She merely stood in my way, so I left her nearly injured and used some of my power to change her into a bat and put her in a trap I happened to find. How pathetic..._

"_I've lost the will to become happy... Nothing around here makes me happy, it only sickens me! And all of this happiness throughout the world makes me angrier... If I had to lose my will to become happy, then the world doesn't deserve its cheerful and happy life! And if I find anyone who opposes me, I'll make them perish!"_

* * *

**?-**

"Unnngghh…"

Chopper slowly opened his eyes and noticed he could see the blue sky above him, as well as a couple of clouds. He slowly got himself up and noticed his surroundings. He was in a beautiful flower field with many different kinds of flowers. A lot of the flowers he saw reminded him of the flowers he saw back on his planet.

"What's with all of the flowers… And where am I?" Chopper looked at his arms and noticed no burn marks on him. Over to his right, there happened to be a lake, so he checked over there and looked at his reflection.

There were no wounds left on him.

"Weird... I'm fully healed up... But where are all my friends?" he began to ponder for a moment until he realized what happened. "...Oh, right. I ended up giving up the final Pure Heart that was inside of me. Come to think all this time it was actually something needed to stop the Chaos Heart..."

He turned around and walked back over by the large field. He didn't want to run. No, he didn't want to ruin the flowers. That wouldn't be a good idea anyway.

Chopper wasn't sure of what to say, so all he could do was looked down at the flowers and at the sky. The place felt relaxing, that's for sure, but he was definitely confused about where he was. And wasn't The Void supposed to be up in the sky?

But the sky had a rainbow, and even the singing from the birds made everything so nice about this place. It was almost the perfect place for him. _Almost._

He stopped by one flower. It was a blue flower that he remembered seeing many times. It was the kind of flower he placed right by his mother's grave he made next to his house, and it was also a flower Crysta dropped. How she was able to get a hold of something like that, Chopper had no idea.

He picked up the flower and closed his eyes as he began to smell it. When he opened them, he looked up at the sky and almost saw a vision... A vision of the same kind of flower left on the table.

Not only that, but he heard a voice echoing his name in his head.

"Oh, geez... I don't think this is such a good idea." Chopper frowned, dropping the flower on the ground. "I should actually find a way out of here..."

"Chopper, it's OK..."

When Chopper looked up, he saw his mother looking at him with a smile. Unlike the last time, she was very much real and not a spirit.

"M-Mom?!" Chopper gasped, looking up at his mother. "Is that really you?!"

"Yes, it's me, Chopper," Tonberria answered. "You're safe now."

"But where am I?" he stopped when he saw Tonberria walking away from him. "Mom? Where are you going?"

He began to follow her, but this time, he started to run. But even then, he was never able to catch up to her.

"Please! Answer me!"

Tonberria stopped and slowly turned around to her son. "We're...where you belong..."

"Belong? What do you..." Chopper paused as he suddenly realized what she meant. "You mean... This is a whole different place? In which you mean...where you go when your...life...ends...?"

She slowly turned away from him and started to walk away. With what Chopper realized, he was starting to feel a bit saddened and even started to shed some tears. Even if releasing the Pure Heart may have done this, he was only ten. Ten year olds didn't deserve to have their life end so soon.

Especially when The Void was going to swallow all life as he knew it.

"Hold on, Mom!" Chopper continued to follow her until he noticed the field of flowers slowly going away. Now he was walking on a grassy field, and up ahead... He saw her floating over by a cliff.

"Please... Tell me what's going on... Am I really...well, you know."

"Chopper... Come to me." Tonberria smiled, holding out her hand.

He didn't know what was going on, and if he was...well, you know, then he wasn't happy in the slightest. And even then, he didn't want to be alone anymore.

And going to his mother was the only way to keep himself from being alone.

"I am, Mommy! I'm coming!" Chopper cried as he jumped off the cliff and tried to grab a hold of her hand. Unfortunately, he ended up missing and began to plunge down the cliff. He noticed his mother slowly waving.

"No, Chopper... You're not ready to come to the other side..." she said as a tear came down her face.

All Chopper could do was simply fall...

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

Chopper slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was back in Merlon's house in a small bed. He noticed everyone else in the house speaking to Merlon about the important details. They didn't seem happy at the moment, that's for sure.

But what he also noticed was Tipral's appearance in the room. He wasn't there...

Merlon slowly turned around and gasped when he saw Chopper sit up. "Chopper! You're finally awake!"

"Poyo?! (He's up?!)" Kirby gasped as he ran over to the bed. Chopper happened to notice his friends still had their wounds on them from the fight against Shade. When he looked at his own arms, he too had some wounds left on him.

"Guys... You're all here..." Chopper smiled as he gave Kirby a hug while shedding a tear. "I missed you guys..."

"Ya managed to hold up," Cudge smiled. "Good job…"

"Yeah, we didn't want you to go so soon," Starbow mentioned.

"You did a very brave thing, Chopper," Merlon commented. "And we were worried that you wouldn't make it."

"But how am I still alive?"

"Merlon was able to use some of his healing magic to try to get you back up," Sonic explained. "I think he was able to save you just in time..."

"But seriously, all this time you were holding the final Pure Heart?" Blade guffawed. "That's friggin' insane!"

"Yeah... I didn't necessarily expect that rainbow heart I've held in me for six years to be an actual Pure Heart..."

Mario: But how could he have had a Pure Heart in him when there were eight Pure Hearts before?

"I did read something in some of the old texts of something like that," Merlon recalled. "Apparently a ninth Pure Heart was also revealed to be a part of the original Purity Heart, but its power was much different than an original Pure Heart and could only be given to the one it chooses... Many people referred to it as the Sacred Heart."

"Which my mom carried with her before I was born..." Chopper trailed. "By the way, where is the Pure Heart?"

"It's right here," Luigi answered, holding out the rainbow Pure Heart. He decided to place it on the bed so Chopper could get a good look on it.

"I haven't really gotten a good look of it..." he smiled before he paused. "Hold on... If that thing gave me all those abilities, does that mean it's...gone?"

He put the Pure Heart aside and decided to open his mouth. Everyone got out of the way as he tried to use his inhaling. To his surprise, he actually still had it.

"Wait... How do I still have my abilities if I released that thing?!"

"Those old texts also mentioned that if the bearer kept the Sacred Heart in him or her long enough, they'll end up absorbing some of its power and turn the Sacred Heart into a normal Pure Heart."

"I guess I can still help..."

"Poyo! (You're not going right now!)" Kirby noted.

"What?! But we need to bring this Pure Heart to the Heart Pillar!"

"After what you had to do? You need to rest!" Sonic informed. "If you get up now, you're probably going to be a bit weak. After all, I think you've taken the most hits from Shade. Plus, with the whole Pure Heart thing, that must've took A LOT of energy."

"We'll be fair and actually wait for you to recover your strength before we go to the Heart Pillar," Blade declared. "After all, I think that's fair."

"And where's Tipral?" Chopper asked.

Mario: He had to do something...

"All right, I'm back," Tipral interrupted as he entered the house.

"Oh... Well, looks like he's back." Luigi shrugged.

"What were you doing anyway?" Blade wondered.

"I had to write a little something important," Tipral explained before he noticed Chopper up. "What's this? So you're finally awake, aren't you? I actually thought you were dead."

"Thanks..." Chopper groaned.

"So are we going to go place the Pure Heart in its pillar now?"

"No, 'cause he needs to rest," Sonic answered.

"He looks fine. We're going."

"Poyo! (Hey! You don't decide what we do!)" Kirby retorted.

"Look, if you guys wanna go, then just go," Chopper decided. "If you think I need rest, then fine. I'll rest."

"Hmmmmm... If I may have a suggestion." Merlon cut in. "Saffron does make some soup that can help regain your strength. If I could recall, you once went to her and gave some soup to Kirby and Meta Knight, right, Chopper?"

"Yeah... I did. I think you need a Fire Flower."

"If that's the case, we should all get some," Blade suggested. "After all, we need all the strength we need for what's coming up..."

"Fine, if we're going to get some soup for Chopper, then we have no choice," Tipral sighed. "After all, we need all the heroes to get into The Void."

"Wait... Merlon, are you in any way surprised to see Tipral with us?" Chopper gawked, noticing Merlon wasn't shocked.

"Don't worry, they explained everything to me," Merlon assured. "Tipral's no longer in control of the Chaos Heart. And now with it in The Void, the True Chaos Heart might be unleashed. He told me the only way to stop it is to destroy it with the Purity Heart."

"Oh... OK."

Mario: Let's go get some soup!

"I'll stay here with Chopper just to make sure he's OK," Merlon informed. "I'll be waiting for you here, young ones."

The six left the room, leaving only Chopper and Merlon in his house. The Star Warrior couldn't help but gaze at the beautiful Pure Heart. It was almost like the first time he first saw one.

* * *

**Outside Merlon's house-**

"G-Geez... Look at the size of The Void!" Luigi gaped, seeing The Void was much bigger than they saw it last time. "I'm getting worried now..."

"Poyo, (This world might be ending very soon,)" Kirby frowned. What made it even worse was that the people who walked around Flipside were no longer around. Sonic even peeked through one of the windows and noticed some of the people hiding under their tables and beds while shuddering.

"Geez... Everyone's so frightened!" Sonic gaped. "They certainly don't want to die so soon..."

"Look, let's just gather some Fire Flowers and go," Tipral demanded. "We're not going to sit here forever, you know."

"Dude, don't you realize that everyone's hiding in their houses because of The Void?!" Blade exclaimed.

"Yes, I can see that."

"And you know this was pretty much caused by you, right?"

"Yes, I know that. I honestly don't care. The only reason I'm with you guys is because it's impossible to reach the True Chaos Heart yourself."

The five heroes suddenly realized he was telling the truth. And even then, he had been a good help back in the Comet of Darkness. Anyway, they decided to head to the shop to get some Fire Flowers, but there was one small problem.

The shopkeeper, Howzit, wasn't there.

"Poyo? (Where's the shopkeeper?)" Kirby asked as he looked around the room. Some items were left on the shelf, including some Fire Flowers.

"If that shopkeeper's not going to show himself, we might as well take them," Tipral decided.

"W-Wait! Don't go!"

The six saw Howzit get out of the closet and run over to the heroes while trying to catch his breath. "You guys… You wanted to get something from here, right?"

"We need seven Fire Flowers," Blade noted. "We'll just buy them from you right now."

"N-No… Just take them." Howzit demanded. "The world is going to end soon, so money's not worth it at this point. My life is much more important than money!"

Mario: Are you sure?

"Yes! Just take it!"

Sonic wanted to object, but he decided to take seven Fire Flowers. Howzit said goodbye as he quickly tipped his hat to them before escaping back into the closet. With that, the six went to the first floor of Flipside.

"So… Who has any idea where this Saffron is?" Sonic wondered.

"Not me," Blade shrugged.

"I'm sure two people here might have an idea…" Thoreau trailed, eyeing both Mario and Luigi.

"Oh! I think we've been there once when they brought her some food for them to cook!" Carrie recalled.

"Yeah, we just need to take the Fire Flowers to her and heal you guys and the pale green one!"

"Then we should go," Luigi suggested as they headed over to Saffron's place. Saffron herself wasn't hiding, but she was pondering.

Mario: Hi, Saffron!

"Hmmmm... Don't I recognize you, sugar?" Saffron wondered as she took a look a Mario. "Oh, yes! I think I do remember now!"

"Look, we don't want to waste our time here," Tipral noted. "We need seven soups of that stuff that can heal you."

"You mean my Spicy Soup? One thing I know is that it'll sure turn that frown upside down, sugar!"

"Poyo… (I don't know if that'll work…)" Kirby trailed.

Mario: We have a friend that needs some. He's in some trouble!

"Oh, mercy! Your friend is in trouble, sugar? Well don't worry! I'll get some Spicy Soup coming! Since you brought seven Fire Flowers, I'll get to work right now!"

They gave the Fire Flowers to Saffron and then she began to get to work on the Spicy Soup. As she finally finished, Kirby could smell the goodness of the soup. It reminded him of when he first had a taste of it.

The six quickly took their soup and had a taste of it. Surprisingly, their wounds began to heal up, and they even had a lot of energy in them. Much more than they had when they fought Shade.

"Hey! This soup's pretty damn good!" Blade smiled. "Maybe I might just take a taste of this…"

Kirby slapped his hand before he could grab the last soup. "Poyo! (No! That's for Chopper!)"

"Whoa! Sorry…"

"I'll admit, the soup's not too bad…" Tipral trailed. "At least I feel much better."

Kirby took the soup and gestured everyone to follow him. He seemed to be holding the soup carefully so he wouldn't have to spill it anywhere.

"And don't wait too long, sugar!" Saffron mentioned. "It's much better when it's hot!"

"Don't worry, we'll get it to him in time," Sonic assured as everyone hurried out of her place. Once they were back outside, Blade couldn't help but smell the soup, but Mario simply shook his head.

"What? It smells good!" Blade noted.

"It does, but it's not for you."

"You know, we can always simply get another Fire Flower and…"

"To make us waste money? Bad idea…" Luigi trailed.

"Even if I don't like Chopper, we need a fully party to go to The Void," Tipral informed.

"I'm just joking, sheesh!" Blade sighed. "Let's just go."

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"Hmmmmm… So, you're saying you saw what was possibly the afterlife?" Merlon deduced, who was listened to Chopper's story.

"Yeah, and I saw my mom too…" Chopper trailed. "She said something about that place being where I belong… But I don't get it. Wouldn't she and my dad be in The Overthere or something?"

"Mmmmmmmm… You know, Chopper, that could've possibly been your mother's own afterlife."

"Wait… So she was in her own kind of Overthere?"

"Precisely. You see… Some people have their own kind of world when their game ends. There's more to just The Overthere, you know… The same goes for The Underwhere."

"Oh… I never would've known that…" Chopper picked up the Pure Heart and stared at it. "I really like this Pure Heart for some reason. Maybe because it reminds me so much of the rainbow."

"The rainbow is pretty, yes?"

"Uh huh. It looks pretty nice on my planet. I also like the fact that I hold some kind of rainbow power…whatever it is…"

Before Merlon could respond, Kirby rushed into the room while holding the bowl of soup up. He quickly placed it right by the bed Chopper was sitting on. Afterward, he began to flail his arms around.

"What's with him?" Chopper wondered.

"Poyo! (Hot hot hot!)" Kirby cried.

"Just drink the stupid soup so you can heal up," Tipral suggested. "We need to get going soon."

"Oh, so this is the soup?" Chopper grabbed it and began to sip it down quickly. His eyes flashed white as he almost felt like there was some kind of party in his mouth. Even his wounds started to go away.

"_**HOOOO-WEEEEEEEE!**_"

He jumped out of the bed cheerfully as he landed on the ground beside the others with a bright smile.

"Well, looks like he's better now," Luigi noticed.

"Are you suuuuuuuure?" Sonic asked, eyeing Chopper carefully.

"Well, I'm up, so I'm definitely fine," Chopper even proved it by charging up a Speed Dash. Thankfully, Mario was able to stop him before he could take off.

Mario: I guess he is better.

"Excellent," Merlon nodded in approval. "Now then... You must take the final Pure Heart to the final Heart Pillar. With that, you will be able to go to the final door – wherever that may be."

"Then we better get going," Chopper declared, grabbing a hold of the Pure Heart.

"...Are you sure you're fully recovered?" Tipral wondered. "Even then, I'm not so sure why you even have those abilities even if you let out the Pure Heart."

"Didn't Merlon explain that before?" Blade wondered. "He said something about Chopper having the heart in him long enough to absorb its unique power and make its power just like a normal Pure Heart."

"Hmph... All right then. Why don't you heroes show me where this next Heart Pillar is?"

"Poyo, (We can definitely do that,)" Kirby assured.

Merlon watched as the group began to exit his house. With that, he decided to go back to the Light Prognosticus and get back to where he was before.

"Hmmmmmm? It appears this is the last page of the Light Prognosticus!" Merlon realized. "Hmmmmm... Well I guess I'm too late to tell the heroes about this... Maybe if I can reach them, though..."

* * *

**Rainbowside, second floor-**

"What is this kind of place?" Tipral wondered as they reached the second floor of Rainbowside.

"It's a new kind of area," Chopper explained. "We call it Rainbowside."

"If I'm correct, then the Heart Pillar should be at the outskirts of this floor," Sonic deduced. "Remember the location where we put the eighth Pure Heart? I'm sure it's that location."

"Then let's go," Chopper threw his arms in the air and flipped him and his friends into 3-D. They rushed to the outskirts and went into 2-D. To their surprise, there was nothing standing in the way of the final Heart Pillar to their right."

"At long last... The final Heart Pillar..." Blade trailed. "Now we can finally do what we were meant to do as heroes..."

"Guys... Is it OK if I place the Pure Heart in the Heart Pillar alone?" Chopper asked. "This one... This one's a lot different than the others. Well, for me, that is."

Mario: Go right ahead. And take your time, too.

"Ummmmm... Don't take too long..." Luigi trailed. "Especially with The Void growing bigger."

Chopper nodded and jumped over the gap between them and the Heart Pillar. He took out the rainbow Pure Heart and looked down at it with a gaze.

"Well... Looks like this means goodbye, Pure Heart... I've been holding you for six years, but now it looks like we must depart. I'll still remember you."

He closed his eyes as he released the Pure Heart, which slowly began to get pulled into the Heart Pillar. Once both joined together, the heroes saw the last clock they'll probably ever see emit. It was a rainbow kind, just like the Pure Heart.

As for where the next door was, it happened to be located at Rainbowside Tower. It was a large, black door that had a strange, dark feeling to it.

"Well, it looks like you did it," Barry said. "Now where do we go?"

"The final door is located at the rainbow tower of Rainbowside," Olnerm answered, who happened to walk over to the group as Chopper gave one last wave to the Heart Pillar before jumping over to them.

"Poyo? (It's in Rainbowside now?)" Kirby gaped.

"Well at least we don't have to go all the way back there," Sonic sighed. "It'll be nice to actually go somewhere closer."

"I'll meet you guys at the tower," Olnerm noted. "Once you're prepared for the battles that await you, come to the tower."

When the rainbow shaman left, the seven decided to get themselves prepared and purchased some important items at the shop. They even got some badges from the Badge Shop just in case they needed to use anything in the final world. After all, they needed all they got.

"So, are you heroes ready?" Piccolo sang.

"'Cause we're ready when you are, pard!" Slim added.

"Yeah, we're definitely ready," Chopper nodded, putting away a Max Shroom Shake, along with a couple of other important items. "Come on, guys! Let's go to Rainbowside Tower!"

* * *

**Rainbowside Tower-**

When they reached the tower of Rainbowside, they happened to see Olnerm waiting for them. He seemed to be guarding the large, black door as if he wanted to say one last thing.

"It looks like you all finally did it," Olnerm began. "You've now opened the final door. With twenty Pure Hearts versus the True Chaos Heart. Through here awaits the dangers of The Void."

"Hold on, weren't we in The Void when we went in Castle Tipral?" Sonic wondered.

"That wasn't so deep in The Void," Tipral explained. "Where we'll be is in a much deeper place and is definitely the most dangerous of them all. I'm sure the True Chaos Heart is now in the center of The Void."

"Th-The center of The Void?!" Luigi gaped.

"Yes, and we're going to be going in there."

"Excuse me, but there was something I think I should share to you all about something I found in the last page of the Light Prognosticus," Merlon explained as he walked over to the heroes. "'Only those who have not abandoned hope can turn back the prophecy of doom. They walk forward into the future, no matter how dark and uncertain it may be.'"

"You all have worked hard to make it this far. You believed in yourselves, and you managed to get all twenty Pure Hearts…" Nolrem made his entrance and stood beside Merlon and Olnerm. "I wish we could go through this door with you, but I send you with all hope through my heart."

"Wait a second..." Sonic paused. "I thought both Merlon and Nolrem had no knowledge of..."

"I was able to get in contact with them," Olnerm explained. "I thought they would have liked to see you make your departure through this door."

"Ah, I see..."

"Well, with us and the Pixls by our side, The Void's not going to stop us!" Chopper declared, getting back on topic.

"Chopper... I'm afraid the Pixls can't go into The Void..." Merlon trailed.

"Wait... They can't?!" Blade gaped. "But they went in before with us!"

"That's because you were not in the most dangerous part of The Void," Nolrem explained. "If one brought a Pixl inside of The Void to reach the True Chaos Heart, the power would be too much for the Pixl and cause it to die."

"So we don't need to have those useless Pixls by our side? I'm fine with that." Tipral assured, which made all the Pixls glare at him.

"You heroes worked hard just to reach this point. All of your skills will be put to the ultimate test." Olnerm explained. "No Pixls, and no going back... You all must focus on your own abilities and tactics to reach the center of The Void."

"Poyo... (I really don't want to leave the Pixls behind...)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo? (After all they've done for us?)"

"You guys don't need to worry about us," Thoreau assured. "We knew we wouldn't be able to help you through this. Besides, it wasn't just our job to simply help you guys."

"Really?" Chopper gawked.

"We also had to watch and see if you could take care of yourselves, KA-BOOM!" Hommissile noted.

"And honestly, pards... I think ya'll are ready fer this." Slim declared.

"We saw how you all fought!" Carrie mentioned. "Remember when you took down that geek Francis? It was very interesting!"

"And you are quite helpful, amore!" Flippay sang. "The bathroom lacked paper, amore! Sweet, sweeet paper amore! But you brought more, more, amore!"

"And that word... **Tipralisafaker**!" Cudge recalled, which left Tipral confused until he gave Chopper a glare. "That's something I'll remember!"

"Oh, yes!" Piccolo chirped. "And the songs I heard! They made me feel so happy too!"

"Ya even managed to get me out of a lake!" Kickbrin mentioned. "All on your own, man!"

"And how you've been nice on Santa Claus's list..." Crystaline recalled. "It makes me happy to know I was with some good people."

"...You guys... You guys made me feel more comfortable around people..." Reflecto smiled.

"Reflecto..._spoke?!_" Sonic gaped.

"Mmmmmm-hmmmm! Speaking for the first time feels so...refreshing!"

"You guys even managed to settle zee dispute between two lands," Bonjourang recalled. "And, even if you all failed to do some stuff, you pulled yourselves together and didn't let it stop you."

"And to think we would even see this moment!" Starbow gaped. "Honestly, you heroes are something special. Sure, you may have ignored us at times, but when you did, we got to see what you were capable of without our helps. That was helping you prepare for this moment."

"Thank you, Pixls..." Chopper smiled.

"Poyo, (We're sorry you guys can't come with us,)" Kirby frowned.

"Even if we can't go, we can always wish you the very best of luck," Thoreau noted. "And remember... We won't forget you either, whether you come out of there alive or not."

"Now, heroes... Before you go, I have something I need to give to you." Merlon took out three small sacks and handed one to Blade, Mario and Luigi. "Though, I do wish I had something to give to you, Chopper, Kirby and Sonic, but I couldn't find anything that I knew could help you."

Mario: What's in here?

"It's something very important. Don't take it out until you need to. It should be useful in that situation."

"Thanks, I suppose..." Blade trailed as he put the small sack away. "What will we find in The Void?"

"Chances are you might see some worlds that have already been destroyed..." Nolrem trailed. "None of us truly know, though."

"Through this door, you may face some of the toughest opponents you've fought ever before," Olnerm explained. "With all the dark power in The Void, some of the enemies left will be even more powerful than some enemies you've fought where the final Pure Heart was. If you all feel you're ready for this challenge, then step into this door."

"I wish Tippi were here to see this..." Chopper trailed. "She would be proud to see us finally reach the last door."

"Don't worry, Chop," Sonic assured, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Maybe we'll find her some day. Maybe in person."

"Yeah, maybe..."

The ground began to shake again as they saw The Void grow bigger. One thing for sure was that this dimension was close to its demise.

"Let's not waste our time now," Tipral suggested. "We need to go into that void and stop that True Chaos Heart before anything bad happens..."

"OK..." Chopper turned to his friends. "So, are you all ready?"

"Poyo! (Definitely!)" Kirby nodded.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Sonic answered.

"It's time to kick some ass in that dark place!" Blade declared.

Mario: Let's-a go!

"Ummmmm... Yeah, I'm prepared" Luigi slowly nodded. "Though, I don't know how long I'll hold out."

"All right, then let's go," Chopper turned to the large door and opened it. Before them was a dark world no one had ever seen before. With a deep breath, the seven entered the door before the door closed on them.

"Chopper… Kirby… Sonic… Blade… Mario… Luigi…and you too, Tipral… Be strong."

* * *

**Yeah, the previous interlude was probably the shortest one, while this one was probably the longest. And with no Pixls being able to join the heroes in The Void, it makes the final world a lot challenging. If this were an actual game, I'm sure that would make the game much harder. But, this isn't a game, it's a story. :P**

**But, yes... We're getting close to the end now. Chapter 20 is, if you couldn't tell, the final chapter. It's definitely a lot longer than Chapter 19, so you might want to be prepared for that.**

**Even though I think there were some flaws to this story, I actually enjoy this, and I'm actually not sure whether I like this one or Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars more. As for favorite chapters... Well, it's a hard one for me to pick.**


	120. Enter the World of Darkness

_Twenty Pure Hearts. Six heroes. The Dark Prognosticus against the Light Prognosticus. And the True Chaos Heart. Everyone knew this would be their hardest mission yet, and with the Pixls unable to help, things were about to get harder. The Void continued to grow bigger as many worlds were meeting their ends. Could Chopper and friends reach the center of The Void and put an end to the True Chaos Heart and the dark prophecy once and for all? What else awaited them through The Void? These thoughts plagued the minds of our heroes as they reached the final act._

**CHAPTER 20-1**

**-Enter the World of Darkness-**

When the heroes walked out of the black door, they paused and noticed what was around them. Up in the sky was nothing but purple darkness with all the aspects of The Void they saw when they saw it up in the sky before. They looked at the ground and noticed it was black and purple, but what made it worse for Luigi was the dark lightning that could be heard in the background.

"Wah! What's with the lightning here?!" Luigi yelped.

Mario: Considering how dangerous this area is, there would be something like that here…

"Well, this place kind of reminds me of Dark Subspace World…" Chopper trailed. "Maybe Maquano's in the center of The Void! …No, it's probably unlikely, since he told me he's in Underwhere Prison."

"Poyo, (But now it's only us,)" Kirby noted, seeing only them and no Pixls around. "Poyo… (I feel a bit lonely without them…)"

"Don't worry, Kirby. We're still here. They probably want us to do our best whether we succeed or fail."

"Well, then we better get ourselves ready," Blade suggested, readying his katana when he saw some strange creatures flying above and coming down. "Looks like we've got some company here!"

They noticed a dark ball with bat-like wings and purple eyes spitting dark energy from its mouth down at them. Apparently it was called a Void Bat, which tend to fly around and attack anything in sight.

"Wah! What are those?!" Luigi yelped.

"Void Bats," Tipral informed. "I suppose the True Chaos Heart created some monsters that stop the living that are in here."

"That's not stopping us," Blade declared, tossing a couple of shurikens at the Void Bat, causing it to fall to the ground and allow him to strike it one last time with a simple slash, finishing it off.

"Huh… You took that thing down with ease." Sonic blinked.

"Yup, I sure did! Plus, with some of the badges we got, we should be able to perform some new moves to help us fight off the monsters around here."

"Well… This place feels a bit more unforgiving…" Luigi gulped, noticing a couple of dark purple Goombas coming their way. They had black feet and a light purple body, and they were most likely Void Goombas.

Mario didn't seem afraid and walked over to the Void Goomba. Unfortunately, he ended up receiving a headbonk from it when it leaped into the air and landed on Mario's head, leaving it dazed.

"Well, they don't play friendly…" Chopper sweat dropped.

Once the Void Goomba got up, Luigi delivered a jump attack to it, followed by Tipral snapping his fingers and defeating it with his Star Magic. There were two others ahead, but that didn't stop Sonic from curling into a ball and attacking them with a Spin Dash.

"That was too easy," Sonic smirked.

Unfortunately, he ended up getting hit by a Motobug with a dark purple back with black spots and a black head. It also tried firing small, dark projectiles his way when he was able to see, so he jumped to avoid it.

"Man, we're seeing many enemies we haven't seen in a while," Blade realized. "But not they're much stronger, if I could see."

"Poyo? (Will this be just like Castle Tipral and Tipral's Palace?)" Kirby wondered as he inhaled the projectile the Void Motobug fired and spat it back at it, while Chopper jumped on it to finish it off.

"Probably not," Chopper answered. "We're all prepared for this, right?"

"Yeah! We definitely are!" Luigi agreed.

A Void Buzz Bomber, which was dark purple like the Void Motobug, flew over and tried to fire shots from its stinger. When Luigi hit it with a Super Jump, it tried to attack him with its stinger, but one final jump finished it off.

Thankfully, there wasn't much around in this area. It was a straight pathway leading up to a black door up ahead. The only thing in their way were some Void Firebars that attempted to burn the seven. There were three of them to be exact.

Chopper simply went into 3-D to avoid the Void Firebars with the others and got past them. The door was just up ahead, but there appeared to be a Void Goomba and a Void Bat guarding it.

They got themselves ready, with Mario jumping out of the way from the Void Goomba's headbonk and then bashing it with his hammer. Blade used a fire slash to hit the other Void Goomba, while Chopper finished the Void Bat with ease with a simple light ball.

"Light power works well against these enemies," Chopper smirked. "Well, this should come in handy!"

They entered the door and came across a dark platform. A Void Waddle Dee, which had a black body and a dark purple face with white eyes was rushing their way. Unlike normal Waddle Dees, this one actually tried to tackle them.

"Poyo, (So these Waddle Dee are much more harmful,)" Kirby noticed as he inhaled it and spat it to get rid of it. He quickly jumped on the dark platform that formed a staircase for them to go up.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, they were met with a light yellow Shy Guy with a white mask. It looked like something they'd never expect to see in a place like this, considering the place was dark and all.

"What the... Who are you?" Tipral asked, clenching his fists.

"I'm a Void Anti Guy!" the Void Anti Guy introduced. "And you people look like you want to get through this door here, right?"

"Ummmmmm... I never knew Void Anti Guys were...this light..." Chopper trailed, sweat dropping a bit.

"Well, a normal Anti Guy's all dark and stuff. While me? I'm light and the most fearless thing here. Anyway, did you guys want to go through here?"

Mario: We'd like to!

"Heh heh! Sorry, pals! The only way you'll get through here is with a fight!" the Void Anti Guy declared. "And trust me, I'm not someone you'd want to pick a fight with. I'm incredibly, incredibly dangerous!"

"We've faced a crazy alien kid before," Tipral noted. "You shouldn't be any different."

"...Maybe we shouldn't fight," Chopper suggested.

"Why not?" Blade asked. "We can kick this guy's ass!"

"But I feel like we would need some serious help from our Pixls if we were to fight this guy. If we were going to face a powerful foe without our Pixls, then we'd need to be very, VERY cautious."

"I'm siding with Chopper," Luigi declared.

"Why?" Sonic asked.

"Because I don't want to fight that thing!"

The rest turned to the Void Anti Guy, who gave them all a smirk under its mask.

"So, you all want to fight me?" the Void Anti Guy got in a kung fu stance and even let out a kung fu sound. "Then maybe we should get started!"

Mario: I guess we should just leave him be...

"What? Aw, man!"

They all agreed to turn away from the Void Anti Guy (though Tipral didn't want to do it, but had no choice) and noticed another platform to their left. They found another staircase to take them up to a long platform with a couple of small bamboo leading up to a platform where a door awaited.

"Hey! That looks like something I can do!" Blade realized.

"But we shouldn't just leave that...thing back there," Tipral growled. "There could've been something important through that door!"

"I heard Anti Guys love Lemon Candy," Luigi recalled. "Although, this is a Void Anti Guy, so I don't know what the heck they'd like. We know lemons are sour, so would it like something sweet?"

"Errrr... I don't know if this is such a good idea or not..." Blade took out a piece of candy in a wrapper. "When we were in that world with all the candy and sweets, I snatched something, but I didn't get the chance to eat it."

"And is it even good now?" Tipral wondered.

"Doubt it."

"Poyo...? (Should we really...?)" Kirby thought for a minute before he opened his mouth to attempt to eat it. Chopper was there just in time to pull him away before the candy was in his mouth.

"Actually, why not use it on the Void Anti Guy? Maybe that'll work?" Chopper wondered.

"Worth a try," Sonic shrugged.

They headed back to the Void Anti Guy, who began to smell something sweet now that Blade was holding the piece of candy in his hands.

"Sniff sniff... Sniff? Hey, what's that you got with ya?" the Void Anti Guy wondered. "Is that..._CANDY?!_"

"Why… Yes, it is indeed candy!" Blade nodded, holding the candy in front of the Void Anti Guy. It tried to snatch it, but Blade pulled it away and gave him a smirk. "But… This is mine."

"Come on, man! Be a pal and give something to the poor! I've been living here for a long time, and I haven't eaten in days! I'll… I'll even let you through this door if you let me have that!"

Blade shrugged and handed the candy over. The Void Anti Guy gasped and grabbed a hold of it and began to eat it. They could hear it mumble on about how good the candy was, but they ignored the Void Anti Guy and headed through the door.

They found themselves in a small area with two chests. Chopper approached the first one and opened it. Instead, the chest ended up coming to life by having two dark disembodied hands and purple eyes. It even began to fly around as well while spitting purple fireballs at the group.

"What in the world?!" Chopper gaped. "Is this a fake chest?!"

"Poyo, (Looks like it is,)" Kirby confirmed, noticing its name was indeed a Fake Chest. It continued to spit fireballs, while Kirby inhaled one and spat it at the chest. A simple Cyclone from Luigi was all they needed to defeat it and make it drop a Max Shroom Shake.

"This should be useful," Tipral noted as he picked it up and put it away. "We should check the other one."

They opened the other chest and found an Invincibility Candy, which lets any of the heroes become invincible for a short period of time and deal damage to any enemies that make contact with them.

"Poyo! (Hey! I remember that candy! It's so good!)" Kirby smiled. "Poyo… (If only I could eat it now…)"

"Well we're not eating it now," Chopper noted. "We're getting out of this area!"

They left the area and went over to where they saw the bamboo. Since no one but Blade could reach up to the platform above, he used his ninja skills to land on each bamboo and stand on top of it.

"Any idea how we can get up there?" Luigi asked. "I know my Super Jump won't help me!"

"Poyo? (Couldn't I get up there?)" Kirby wondered.

"Well, I don't know…" Chopper trailed. "The bottom of the platform has spikes, and the bamboo is rather close to the platform. Plus, you can only get past the bamboo in 3-D."

Blade finally made his way up to the platform and noticed a rope attached to the ground. When he cut it, the platform didn't fall, but it created other platforms to help the rest of the group get up to him.

With that, they entered the door and found some platforms attached to some ropes. Below them was some strange, dark liquid. Tipral told them it was dark matter and it shouldn't be touched. And even then, cutting the ropes was a bad idea too.

"Blade… Don't cut the ropes, please." Sonic suggested.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do that," Blade assured.

They carefully jumped onto the platform before them, with Blade making sure his katana didn't make contact with the rope. Not only that, but there were Void Waddle Dee carrying spears as well.

However, that didn't stop Kirby from inhaling them and spitting them out. After all, he could eat anything, even if they were carrying sharp objects!

"These things kinda wobble a bit..." Sonic trailed. "I think we might wanna be a bit extra cautious..."

"Well I'd be even more cautious!" Luigi cried.

"Why?"

"I see Void Bats!"

They ducked as Void Bats flew down and tried to attack. Thankfully, the ropes weren't cut, so that gave Chopper the perfect chance to attack it by tossing a light ball to knock it into the dark matter.

Not even that creature could survive the terrible substance.

They jumped over two more platforms until they landed on solid ground and found some small blocks in the way. Blade simply destroyed them by swinging his katana until they found a large stump in front of them.

Mario: Leave this to me!

Mario jumped above the stump and used his Super Ground Pound to create a ladder below the platform that they used to climb down a small tunnel with some dark matter above them.

"I guess jumping's not a good idea here..." Luigi trailed.

"Poyo, (And we also have some enemies ahead,)" Kirby noted, pointing to the two Void Motobugs charging their way. Sonic reacted by using his Spin Dash to deal damage, while Blade lunged at them to finish them off.

"Well, that takes care of them," Blade sighed as they hurried on ahead and got past the tunnel part of the area and found a spring leading to a ledge. They used it to land in front of a dark crystal.

Knowing what he had to do, Chopper tossed a light ball to make a narrow pathway appear in 3-D that led to a door. Unfortunately, there was also a timer going, so he flipped him and everyone else in 3-D and made their way across while avoiding Void Bats that were also in 3-D.

They were relieved to be finally across, and they also noticed a yellow ? Block. They found an Ultra Shroom in there, so they split it into seven pieces and recovered 50 HP from them.

"Looks like there'll be a large variety of puzzles here," Chopper realized. "So, this place might be a bit interesting!"

"Only if it wasn't so dark and creepy..." Luigi shuddered.

"You'll survive, don't worry about it," Tipral assured.

They headed through the door to find a couple of platforms above them leading up to a brick block. They also noticed some large blocks colliding with each other, which could get in their way.

"Geez... We gotta be quick with our jumping here..." Chopper sweat dropped.

"Poyo! (I don't think it'll be that hard!)" Kirby assured as he jumped up to a platform and tried to jump again. Unfortunately, because the two blocks were getting ready to collide, he had to jump back down.

When the way up was open, they moved up as fast as the could before the two blocks could squish them. The platform above it happened to have a Void Goomba ready to headbonk them.

Mario readied his hammer and moved back so the Void Goomba could bounce back up. When it was open for an attack, he brought his hammer down on the Goomba, with Tipral jumping on it to finish it off.

"It can be finished just like a normal Goomba," Tipral scoffed. "Pathetic..."

They noticed some dark matter on the walls, which happened to be closer. There was also a Void Starman that was flying around, so Chopper inhaled it and got a hold of the Hi-Jump ability.

"Why did you get that?" Blade asked.

"Because we can't go up unless we have a good enough jump," Chopper answered.

Luigi tried to use his Super Jump to reach the platform above. Thankfully, he was able to succeed and land on the platform. Kirby took in some air and floated up, and Chopper launched himself upward with his Hi-Jump ability.

"What about us?!" Sonic cried.

Mario: Can't you use your Whirlwind to get us up?

"Maybe... But I don't know if it'll be enough..."

Sonic tried using his Whirlwind to get him, Mario and Blade up, but that didn't appear to work. Tipral waited for them to come down before grabbing their arms and teleporting them up to the others.

"That works too," Blade realized.

Now there were two ways to go, with one being blocked by a couple of small blocks that they could easily break through. The left pathway didn't appear to have high jumps, so most of the group took that way, while Chopper and Luigi went the right.

The only thing Chopper and Luigi happened to find was a dark purple spider called a Void Spider trying to attack, but Chopper's Hi-Jump was able to take it down with ease and reach the top of the area. Luigi's Super Jump helped him reach up as well.

The left side was just some simple jumps with a couple of Void Waddle Dee in the way. Blade and Mario took them out with ease, while Tipral teleported up to the top to keep himself from wasting any more time.

"OK, no more jumping..." Sonic sighed. "Honestly, I was getting a bit tired of jumping, personally..."

"Poyo, (But we have bigger problems,)" Kirby pointed up ahead to a thick pillar that led down to a bottomless pit. It also happened to be holding up a large platform above as well.

"I'll take care of that," Tipral assured as he tossed a Star Spear at the pillar. It didn't destroy it, but it did enough damage. "Hmmmmm? Well, I guess I need a little more power to it..."

"Let me try," Blade took out a shuriken and tossed it straight at the pillar. It stuck, but it didn't appear to do anything.

All he could do was frown.

"Blade, a shuriken is probably not going to smash that thing," Chopper noted.

Before Blade could respond, there was another crack in the pillar, which caused it to break off and make the platform land in front of them. Everyone looked at Blade in surprise as he smirked.

"Ha! Looks like you were wrong!" Blade scoffed.

"Actually, I just used my Star Magic to destroy it," Tipral noted, which made Blade fall over.

"Yeah, yeah... Let's just go already..." Chopper groaned.

They jumped across the platform and noticed a Void Buzz Bomber on another platform ahead. Blade tossed a couple of shurikens at it to destroy it, and then afterward they jumped on the ground ahead.

Mario: Is that a Koopa ahead?

What they saw was a black Koopa with a dark purple shell and dark purple sunglasses coming their way. Chopper simply jumped on its head to make it go into its shell, but it was able to flip itself over and spin around to hit Chopper and knock away his Hi-Jump ability.

"Hey! My ability!" Chopper cried.

"Looks like that Koopa's a big threat too..." Luigi trailed.

"But it's not stopping me from fighting it," Tipral clenched his fists and used his Star Burst to hit the Void Koopa when it made contact with his attack. It left the Void Koopa dazed, allowing Kirby to use his Final Cutter and Mario finishing it off with a Super Ground Pound.

Mario: That solved that!

"Bur there's nowhere else to go now," Blade noticed. "I... Wait, is that a rope I see?"

"Whoa, Blade! Don't cut it!" Chopper cried when he noticed Blade was about to pull out a shuriken. He was interrupted by a Darkling with red eyes and a red bulb on its antenna that fired red magic at Blade.

It was for the better anyway.

"Damn it. Well, I guess using a shuriken wouldn't be the brightest idea…" Blade trailed while putting away the shuriken.

Tipral grabbed a hold of the rope and began to climb up. Everyone else followed him until they found a platform they had to swing over to. Thankfully, it didn't fall down, so they were able to stand on it as long as they wanted to.

"Hey, I think we can use that pole to cross over this gap," Luigi noted, pointing to the pole above them that was horizontal. There didn't appear to be anything connected to it. Not only that, but a Darkling was waiting for them ahead.

Chopper was able to chuck a few light balls at the Darkling while he made his way across to get rid of it, which was nice to attack while holding onto a pole. When they got across, they were met with a dead end.

"Dead end? Come on!" Sonic groaned. "Why do we always run into dead ends?"

Mario: Maybe there's a secret?

"I'll take a look," Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed a ladder leading up to a hole in the ceiling. When they climbed up to the top, they noticed a bit of remains of a certain desert some of them remembered seeing.

"Poyo? (Is this Desert Oasis?)" Kirby gaped.

"Well, we saw Desert Oasis get destroyed… That could be possible."

They felt a little bit of sand on the ground, so Chopper took out his shovel and tried to dig for anything he could find. Blade also tried searching the area. He was surprised to find a dark purple key called a Void Key.

Mario: We could use some shovels too…

Tipral looked up and noticed some black platforms with a purple trim that resembled some of the squares in the background of The Void. "Hmmmm… Looks like you could probably use those platforms above us. I don't know what'll be there, though."

"I think I can reach them," Luigi said as he launched himself up to one of the three platforms with a Super Jump. He found a Void Bat firing dark energy at him, which he jumped over and attacked the enemy with a Super Jump to defeat it. He also found a chest, which contained Sleep Powder, which could put an enemy to sleep. However, it doesn't always work…

"Sleep Powder? Ummmm… OK…"

"No need to ask questions about that. I already have the key!" Blade said as he rushed on ahead to get to the door up a couple of small, ruin-like stairs. They encountered a dark purple Void Sand Bug that rose from the sand and spat poison at him, which he blocked with his katana.

"I just realized… If these guys poison us, then we can't use Piccolo to heal us." Sonic frowned. "Now I'm starting to miss the Pixls…"

"Healing items can help cure poison, if I could recall," Chopper remarked as he dug up a Shroom Shake. "…This might not do much, but I think we should take this with us anyway. It'll help cure our poison!"

Tipral snapped his finger and finished off the Void Sand Bug with his Star Magic. Afterward, they carried on through the door ahead to find another desert-like area, but with a couple of sand pits with small platforms above them.

"Hey! This place feels a bit familiar!" Chopper gaped. "Though… There's something I'm wondering…"

"What's that?" Tipral wondered.

"Does The Void take everything into it like someone eating something? The Void does swallow things and leave a world like nothing. …So maybe we might find things of our own world here!"

"Poyo…. (Maybe…)" Kirby trailed.

They noticed in the sand pits were some Void Sand Bugs that were spitting poison. Mario jumped over them and jumped on its head to leave it stunned, while Luigi followed afterward with a flutter jump.

"One more hit should do it," Luigi noted.

Sonic nodded and used a simple Spin Jump to defeat the Void Sand Bug. His proud look soon changed when he found out there was a pool of water up ahead. It appeared to be normal kind of water, but he wasn't pleased in the slightest.

"Water?! N-No… Why here?!" Sonic cried.

"You still fear water…" Tipral face palmed. "What a surprise…"

"Hey! It's not my fault I can't swim!"

Blade grabbed a hold of Sonic and ran over to the pond. They simply used the platforms to go over the sand pits and avoid any more Void Sand Bugs. Sonic struggled in order to break free, but Blade was able to toss him in and make him struggle to get out.

"Mmmmmmmmggggfffhhhhh!"

"Will he be OK?" Luigi wondered.

"He'll be just fine," Blade assured until he heard a timer going off. "…Wait a second. Be right back!"

He went underwater and grabbed Sonic so he could pull him up to the surface. Sonic began to gasp as he quickly began to breathe. Blade grinned at him, but all he got was a glare in response.

"No time to waste! Let's go!" Chopper cried as he jumped into the water. They found a tunnel underwater, so they swam through it and found the current moving down. They also saw a glowing white orb going down as well.

"Hey… Isn't that Desert Oasis I can see through there?!"

"Whatever it is, we should follow it," Tipral suggested.

They swam down and followed the current, but they happened to notice a couple of Void Gordos blocking the way. They were dark purple (oh, gee, what a surprise!) with black spikes and purple eyes. They tried to avoid them, though Sonic was having a harder time, since he couldn't breathe.

"Poyo, (We should really make sure Sonic's safe,)" Kirby noted as he took in some water to gain the Water ability and gave Sonic a bubble shield, allowing him to breathe. Blade glared at Kirby to make him do the same thing.

They found another tunnel at the bottom of the cave-like room to the right and went through to follow the light out of the water and in a strange, futuristic room that reminded them all of the flying pyramid.

"I'm getting some serious déjà vu all over again," Chopper blinked.

"Poyo? (Really?)"

"The flying pyramid in Desert Oasis. Remember it?"

"I think I do," Blade recalled. "But no time for discussion! We need to get moving!"

They noticed a small lift up ahead, as well as a dark purple Diam that was shooting a projectile at them. Chopper inhaled it and spat it at another Void Diam that happened to be right by the lift.

They used the lift and went up to find a platform to their left and one to the right. They found the platform to the left to have a locked door, while the one on the right happened to have a pole leading up to a hole in the ceiling.

"Poles... Oh, no." Blade face palmed as they jumped on the long platform and walked over to the pole. "I bet those spark things are going to attack us. And even then, we can't beat them!"

Tipral ignored Blade and began to climb up the pole, with Chopper following afterward. The rest decided to follow and go into a long room moving up. There was another pole to their right and some small platforms around.

"Why does the author like putting these poles around anyway?" Chopper wondered. "I find these things a bit uninteresting..."

"Poyo? (What are you talking about?)" Kirby wondered.

"You don't know about this whole author thing even when I said stuff like this before? ...You know what? It's not that important."

When they found Void Sparks on the pole, they jumped over to the other one. Sonic was unfortunate to get electrocuted by it, but he didn't let it stop him from climbing to the top, where a chest happened to be.

Chopper and Tipral ended up opening the chest at the same time and found a Void Key inside. Chopper tried to grab it, but Tipral was able to grab the key first and put it away.

"Hey! I was going to grab that!" Chopper frowned.

"Too bad for you. I got it first." Tipral replied.

"Ugh... Fine. We'll take it to the locked door."

* * *

**Previous room-**

They jumped back to the lift that reached them and then went to the long platform to the left. The only thing that left them off guard was a Darkling that tried to attack, but a light ball was all Chopper needed to take it out.

Mario: At least we know light is helpful here!

"Yeah, it sure is," Luigi agreed.

When Tipral skated over to the door, he took the Void Key out and unlocked it, which allowed the lock to break off and allow them through the door. No longer were they in the Desert Oasis area, but they did see some spikes sticking out of the flat ground.

"Hey, are those Dry Bones I see?" Blade wondered.

"They don't look like Dry Bones..." Chopper trailed as he saw one rise up from the ground. It was black with red eyes, which he remembered seeing before. "These are Shadow Bones, aren't they?"

"Poyo! (I think I remember seeing them in Dark Subspace World!)" Kirby recalled.

"I think these guys are weak to fire, so using fire isn't a bad idea," Sonic noted.

Blade readied his katana and jumped over the spikes to land a fire slash on the Shadow Bones. It didn't defeat it, but it was able to deal enough damage to it. Sadly, Blade ended up getting whacked by a bone the Shadow Bones grabbed a hold of.

Knowing they had to avoid the spikes, they jumped over them, with Mario jumping on a Shadow Bones that rose from the ground. His jump made it collapse and give Chopper the chance to chuck a fireball at it.

"Uhhh... Guys? A little help here?!" Blade called out, trying to fend off the Shadow Bones that was trying to hit him with its bone. He blocked its attacks, so Chopper helped get rid of it by throwing another fireball.

"Now that I think about it, it would've been cool if we had a fire Pixl," Sonic pondered. "We got an ice one, so why not a fire one?"

Mario: We never went into any volcanic world, though.

"Yeah, though, we were in some kind of area that reminded me of being inside a volcano... You know, the world with all the robots?"

Mario: Oh, yeah!

"Less talking, more destroying," Tipral mentioned as he destroyed some Shadow Bones by throwing a Star Spear. It was able to defeat the Shadow Bones like fire could, but that didn't surprise them.

They jumped over another set of spikes ahead and found a Void Buzz Bomber flying over some Shadow Bones. Blade smirked and tossed a shuriken at the Void Buzz Bomber to send it flying down to the Shadow Bones.

"Heh heh! That took care of that!" Blade smirked.

"The Shadow Bones isn't done yet," Luigi pointed out.

"Yeah yeah, I know. Lemme just finish it." he readied his katana and performed a fire slash to finish it off. With that, they hurried over to the door ahead that led them into a room with a staircase.

"A staircase? Why is there one here?" Chopper wondered.

"Who cares? We're moving anyway!"

On the steps, they happened to find some dark purple Boomerang Bros. throwing their boomerangs down toward the seven. Tipral snapped his finger and left one stunned, allowing Luigi to uppercut it from underneath with a Super Jump.

Chopper jumped up to attack the next Void Hammer Bro., but he ended up getting hit by its boomerang and was knocked to the ground. Kirby inhaled the boomerang and spat it at the Void Hammer Bro. afterward.

"Poyo, (It's not finished yet,)" Kirby noted.

Sonic gave this as a cue to attack, so he jumped and delivered a Homing Attack to the Void Boomerang Bro., which defeated it and allowed them to reach the top of the staircase. There was another staircase ahead, as well as a door.

"What's in the door?" Chopper asked.

"Go find out yourself," Tipral suggested, kicking Chopper over to the door and also knocking him over.

"That was pretty rude of you..." Luigi trailed.

"And do I honestly care? I'm much different than you, you know..."

Chopper sweat dropped as he got up and opened the door. They were led into an area with a small pond with a couple of bamboo sticking out and going up to a ledge where a chest was. A couple of dark purple Ninjoes called Void Ninjoes happened to appear and began to throw ninja stars.

"Ack! Ninjoes?!"

Mario: And there's an awful lot of them, too...

Most of the group's eyes widened as a ninja star was coming directly at them. Most of the group closed their eyes and prepared to get hurt by the object, but they didn't feel anything touch them or hear a scream.

Instead, they saw Blade with his finger through the hole in the center of the ninja star.

"What the heck?!" Sonic gaped. "How'd you do that?"

"That's a trick my sensei taught me," Blade grinned. "I thought it would come in handy against these guys, right?"

The Void Ninjoe gasped, but it decided to charge at Blade and try to attack with its katana. Blade gripped his own katana and slashed at the enemy to defeat it. He finished off the others with his Dragon Beam. He then proceeded up the bamboo and to the chest, where he found a Master Shroom Shake.

"All that for a crappy drink?! Come on!"

"It's a Master Shroom, technically..." Chopper trailed.

"Oh... Then why'd I say that?! That mushroom was pretty tasty!"

"Let's just leave this area," Tipral suggested.

They left the area and returned to the staircase. Instead of Void Boomerang Bros. waiting for them, they found Void Waddle Doo holding spears throwing them down at the group. Tipral grabbed the spear and disintegrated it before firing a Star Spear at the Void Waddle Doo.

They cleared out the last Void Waddle Doo before going to the top of the staircase. They found a door and entered it, which led them into an area with a couple of logs moving up rather than down.

"Wait a second... What's this all about?" Chopper gawked. "I see a waterfall, yet the logs are moving up?"

"This must be some kind of...inverted waterfall, maybe?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: Weird...

They found a Save Block near them, so Chopper hit it to save their game. They went on the logs afterward and found some Void Bats flying around. Chopper tried to take one out with a light ball, but it ended up missing, so Blade fired a Dragon Beam to take it out.

When they reached the third waterfall, they let it take them up to a rocky ledge where a door happened to be. Some of them were reminded of Sammer's Kingdom, but they felt like this was a lot easier than logs moving up.

"Wait... I think I see dark matter." Sonic noticed as he looked up. Not only that, but the logs were moving much faster, so they got off and landed on the rocky ledge. A yellow ? block was there too, so they hit it to find a Star Shroom. Blade sliced it into seven so they could all recover 150 HP.

"If a Star Shroom's here, then there must be something important up ahead," Luigi deduced.

"I'm ready to crush whatever's in my way," Tipral declared. "You people shouldn't get in my way."

"OK, fine," Chopper sighed as he opened the door and went through, along with the other six.

* * *

**Next area-**

When they walked out of the door, they noticed they were in a flat area with nothing of real interest. It was a small area that seemed like it would work perfectly fine for a fight. Not only that, but it seemed calm too.

"Hmmmm... Nothing much here." Chopper shrugged. "I see the door up ahead, so why don't we go?"

Before Chopper could walk over to the door, a shuriken landed right by his feet, causing him to stop when he saw a certain red cat facing him.

"So... You all showed up at long last!" Knife hissed. "Especially you, brother..."

"Knife?!" Blade gaped. "How the hell did you survive The Void?"

"Wait, if Knife survived The Void...then maybe my friends could still be alive in here!" Chopper gaped. "Then there might be some hope!"

"Or maybe this pendant I stole from that queen when I was left in the Underwhere helped me," Knife informed, holding a red pendant. "It didn't seem like anything important to her, so I took it myself and carried it with me. You see, when you left me to nearly die back in Sammer's Kingdom, I decided to take one last look at it when The Void was ready to destroy the world. Surprisingly I was surrounded by a red glow that helped me get swallowed into The Void while still very much alive. The pendant also absorbed a bit of the dark power here, which was given to me to heal my wounds and make me much, much stronger!"

"A pendant? That queen never mentioned that..." Tipral trailed.

"I said she didn't give much of a crap about it. Too bad this thing probably won't give me any more help. It's something it could only be used once, I believe."

"Well it doesn't matter now," Sonic said, getting in a fighting stance. "We're still going to kick your butt regardless!"

"This shouldn't take too long," Tipral said as he clenched his fist. "I once beat your brother before, so let's see how I do against you!"

"In all honesty, I could care less about you guys," Knife said as he glared at most of the group. "My real target is my brother!"

"If you're my intended target, then maybe you and I should settle this once and for all," Blade suggested. "I'll take you on _without _my friends."

"Wait... Blade!" Chopper gasped. "You honestly want to take him on yourself?!"

"Yes, Chopper. What's the point in him fighting you guys when all he wants is to kill me? Besides... He killed my sensei, he refused to die and he's been causing a hell of a lot of trouble for me ever since he turned evil."

"Heh heh heh! Yes! A battle between you and I! Excellent!" Knife grinned.

"Well I'm still going to crush this guy," Tipral decided.

"No, Tipral. This is MY fight!" Blade snapped. "You and everyone else go back to the other area. This could get a bit messy..."

The rest of the group gave each other a quick glance and then looked at Blade before giving him a nod. They left the area, with Tipral turning to Blade.

"If you're in trouble, then you're welcome to call me in," he noted. "I'm sure I could kill this guy easily."

"I probably won't need your help. Now go."

Tipral gave a grunt before he left, leaving only Blade and Knife.

"Good! Now this is what I like to see..." Knife smirked. "Two brothers, two ninjas, and a dark void for the atmosphere. Sounds fitting for a fight to the death!"

"Very well. Then let the best ninja win." Blade was about to give an honorable bow, but Knife rushed toward him and struck him with his katana, forcing him to clench his teeth in pain from the cut on his arm.

"There's no honor in this fight, brother! I'll kill you in any way I can imagine! I may have some scars on me, but I still have the energy to kill you!"

Blade tried to shrug off the small wound and readied his katana as he saw Knife attempt to slash at him again. He brought up his guard and blocked some attacks and even jumped over him to kick his face. He saw he had a Max HP of 500, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 8. Not as powerful as Shade, so he didn't seem as worried.

Knife sneered and tossed a couple of shurikens his way. He was able to deflect them and knock them to the ground. However, Knife was able to throw a couple of kunais, but they too ended up getting blocked.

"Ranged attacks won't help you, Knife," Blade informed. "I'll just continue to block them, you know."

"Oh, you'll get hit eventually…" Knife trailed as he jumped in the air and brought his katana down. Blade rolled out of the way from harm and managed to send his brother flying to the wall with a Dragon Beam.

Blade grinned until he noticed Knife fire a Dragon Beam of his own. It appeared to be dark red, unlike Blade's orange one. He tried to avoid it, but it followed him and sent him flying to the wall.

"Oh… And I think I forgot to tell you that the pendant gave me something similar to your strange dragon-like beam."

"_Damn... This is going to be a lot harder than I thought..."_

Blade got himself up and noticed a couple of shurikens flying his way. He threw a smoke bomb down to leave Knife confused, but it only angered him when he ended up getting struck from behind by Blade's katana.

"You coward! Attacking me from behind!" Knife hissed.

"What gives you the right to say that when you do that ALL the time?!" Blade exclaimed as he kicked Knife's stomach when he turned around. "Look, ninjas aren't always about facing your enemy head-on. They sometimes have to use subtlety."

Knife smirked and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Blade noticed a log in front of him, but he was soon struck in the back by Knife's katana.

"See? You ARE a hypocrite!"

Knife snickered and readied another attack on Blade, but he whirled around and tried to hit him with a fire slash. Knife ducked and managed to make Blade fall over on his back with a kick to his legs.

"Fuujin no Jutsu!" Knife cried as he summoned a large gust of wind to blow Blade back. Blade did the same thing and tried to blow Knife back, resulting in both of them getting sent flying to the wall.

Knife was the first to get himself off the wall and throw a couple of more shurikens. Blade gasped and barely dodged them. To make the fight a little more even, he threw a couple of shurikens toward Knife.

Surprisingly, both shurikens collided with each other and were knocked to the ground. Knife took this chance to jump in the air and try to attack Blade, but he too jumped up and began to attack Knife, who blocked his attacks.

It turned out they had so many similar moves that it was nearly impossible for both of them to hurt each other.

"Yeesh... We're both using the same moves!" Blade gaped.

"That's because we were trained by the same sensei," Knife noted. "Too bad that old man is now dead. Such a shame... If he were younger, he'd probably put up much more of a fight or even wear that ninja armor."

"You killed our sensei in his sleep... That's not how ninjas kill people!"

"Like I honestly care. Not even you are a true ninja! You were usually one step behind me anyway, so chances are I'll win this!"

"Well, I managed to beat you before, so I'm sure I can do it again," Blade smirked as he blocked Knife's katana when he saw it being swung his way.

"That's because you had your friends to help you! But now? You're going to have to face me without your stupid friends!"

Blade realized this, but he wasn't going to let himself simply lose, so he used a hurricane slash to send Knife flying again. He didn't see it coming, so he was able to hit him head-on, allowing him to jump up to his older brother and slash at his arm, leaving a scar.

Knife let out a hiss and grabbed a hold of Blade. He threw him to the ground and made sure his head was hit first before trying to bring his katana through his chest. Blade gasped and rolled out of the way, which got Knife's katana stuck in the ground.

"Heh heh! Perfect!" Blade smirked as he rushed in for an attack. Unfortunately, that didn't mean Knife was going to let himself open. He threw a kunai at Blade's arm, causing him to cringe in pain.

"Argh! What the hell...?!"

"Don't think I'm going to let my guard down so easily," Knife informed as he pulled his blade out of the ground and aimed it at Blade, who pulled the kunai out and noticed his arm was bleeding. "Oh, what's the matter? You bleeding? Wanna go back to your sensei and help him heal it for you? ...Oh, wait! He's dead! But I can definitely take you to him!"

Blade growled and tried to fight back by jumping when Knife tried to slash at his legs. He was able to toss a shuriken at Knife's arm and cause him to cringe in pain. He too was bleeding as well.

Knife hissed at Blade and jumped in the air once again. He tried to hit him with a Dragon Beam, but Blade rolled under it just in time to toss a shuriken at Knife's leg. It didn't stop him from punching Blade.

He tried to punch at Blade again, but his arm was grabbed by the blue cat and ended up getting kicked in the stomach. Knife hissed and used his claws to scratch at Blade's face, leaving a scratch mark on him and hissing at his brother.

Blade wished to use his own claws against his brother, but he didn't want to have to resort to using only his claws, so he hit Knife in the head with the hilt of his katana, leaving him dazed.

"Bet you weren't expecting THAT!" Blade grinned.

Knife shook his head and swung at Blade, who ducked under, despite some of his ninja outfit getting a bit ripped in the process. Knife, on the other hand, took out the shuriken on his leg and threw it at Blade's leg.

"Ack! My leg!"

"Now you know how it feels," Knife grinned, grabbing a hold of Blade and slamming him to the ground.

"That's not even a ninja move..."

"I know, but sometimes I like to improvise!"

"Well, how about I improvise myself?" Blade spun his katana like a wheel and began to run over to his brother, who did the same thing. When both katanas clashed, both were knocked to the ground.

Blade got up first and took this chance to perform a jutsu attack, while Knife was rushing straight at him. The blue cat opened his eyes and was surrounded in a ball of fire. Even his sword was surrounded in a fiery glow.

Knife tossed a couple of shurikens his way, but Blade blocked them and melted them because of how hot the flames were. He lunged at Knife and performed a combo on him. He finished off his combo with a jab before Knife was left scorched. The flames surrounding Blade were also gone.

"Impressive, brother…" Knife complimented. "I never expected you to perform some kind of fire jutsu. I'm sure you've used that _plenty_ of times on your adventures…"

Blade realized something and sweat dropped. _"Why didn't I use my jutsu moves throughout my adventures anyway?"_

"Heh heh… Typical Blade."

The blue cat clenched his katana and attempted to jab at his brother, but he blocked his attack and gave him a grin before throwing Blade up with his katana so he could perform an aerial attack on him.

Blade tried to block Knife's attack, but he was too late when Knife swung down and knocked Blade to the ground. When Knife landed on the ground, he stylishly put away his katana and put his hands in a position to surround himself in an ice shield.

"What the heck? An ice shield?" Blade gawked.

"I believe that's something you haven't learned, brother," Knife smirked. "And I don't think you learned this either!"

Knife raised his katana, which was surrounded by lightning energy. He managed to kick Blade's stomach and strike him with his katana, leaving him electrocuted. Blade even tried to attack him, but his ice shield protected him.

"Dang it... Stupid ice shield..." grumbled Blade.

"See? I'm invulnerable to your attacks!"

"That is, unless I melt it!" Blade performed his fire slash on Knifes ice shield, but it didn't seem to do that much. "What? That didn't do anything!"

"My ice shield is thicker than you think, so that much fire won't help you!"

"Maybe not...but I think this will!" Blade performed a couple of signs with his hands and was surrounded in a fiery glow again. He swung at Knife, which was able to melt his ice shield and allow him to combo his brother. The fire glow seemed to wear off afterward.

Blade smirked as he grabbed a hold of his brother while he was stunned and threw him to the ground. Knife sat up and grabbed Blade's arm and threw him to the ground on his back. This gave him a chance to drive his katana into Blade's chest when he stood up.

However, his katana was blocked by Blade's when he put it up to defend himself. He also kicked Knife in the shin and got himself up so he could swing at him. But, since his brother was one to act fast, he blocked his attack.

"Sorry, brother… But you should've realized how fast I can react!" Knife smirked.

"Crap! Ugh... This isn't good..." Blade gulped and jumped back when Knife tried to swing at him again. He tossed a couple of shurikens Knife's way, which all hit him. Even when they were stuck in him, he seemed to move just fine.

_"How is Knife still moving when I threw those at him?" _Blade thought. _"Unless... That pendant has something to do with it!"_

He looked down at the pendant Knife had and noticed it glowing because of the dark power from The Void. He also noticed his brother raise his katana and store some dark energy in it.

"Yeesh... That's a lot of power!" Blade gaped as Knife rushed toward him and struck him with a dark slash. Blade looked down at his ninja outfit and noticed how ripped up it was now.

"Well now... Looks like your ninja outfit is ruined!" Knife snickered. "Looks like you're going to have to get a new one! ...Oh, right! You can't! Our dear old sensei is dead, so that's impossible!"

Blade grit his teeth, but he stopped and decided to calm down. After all, fighting with rage isn't the best tactic. He decided to go with another strategy, and that involved disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Huh? Where'd he go?" Knife gawked, noticing Blade's disappearance. When the smoke was gone, he saw a piece of paper on the ground, so he picked it up and decided to read the message.

_This paper is property of Blade the Cat._

"Ha ha, very funny, brother..."

He took a look at the paper a little longer before his eyes widened. "Wait a second... This is a..."

He felt himself get knocked back by a kick in the back, which happened to be delivered by Blade. The blue cat smirked and struck his brother swiftly and left the sleeves on his ninja outfit get ripped.

Knife turned around and lunged at Blade, who ducked under his attack and managed to rip at his ninja outfit again with his blade. Now he could see the scars left on him from previous battles.

"See, brother? These are the scars I have because of you." Knife hissed. "I appreciate you doing this to me!"

"You're welcome, bro," Blade joked.

Knife growled and clawed at Blade's arm, which caused it to bleed more and make him screech in pain. But it didn't stop him from using a Star Shroom Shake to recover 150 HP. It didn't get rid of the wounds, but he did feel much better.

"Hrrrmmmm... So you're playing it that way, are you, brother?" Knife reached for a couple of ninja stars and threw them at Blade, who blocked most of them with his katana. As for the last one... He was able to catch it through the hole in the center.

"Bet you weren't expecting that, were ya?" Blade smirked.

"Wait... How the hell can you catch it that way?!" the red cat guffawed. "Not even I learned something like that!"

"Maybe because you were too busy murdering innocent people and trying to get a hold of some special power. Honestly, Knife... Why? WHY did you have to kill our sensei?!"

"That's none of your concern, Blade. What you should be concerned about is me trying to kill you!"

Knife swung at his brother, but he blocked his attack again and managed to send the red cat flying up before landing an aerial combo on him. Blade also began to spin rapidly to harm his brother as well, who got a couple of cuts on his chest, arms and legs when Blade was finished.

"Ah, so you're playing tough now! Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted to see in you! Now it's my turn!" Knife attacked Blade, who tried to fight back, but he couldn't stand up to an ice slash which left him frozen. Knife smirked and thawed him out with a fire slash before leaving a small cut on Blade's cheek.

The younger ninja felt a bit of pain on his cheek, so he poked at it and noticed some blood on his finger. He growled in anger as he saw Knife grin and draw another katana, which made his eyes widen.

"Two katanas?!"

"Did I mention this is our sensei's katana? I was able to take it from him when I killed him! I'm sure this will be of some use for me!"

Blade blinked before he noticed Knife rushing toward him. He tried blocking him again, but he was no match for two katanas and received a couple of cuts all over his body and was bleeding a bit more. Thankfully, the blood wasn't spewing out of him.

"Heh heh heh! See? You're no match for me!"

Blade sweat dropped and threw a smoke bomb down to make Knife cough. He used his kunais to climb up the wall to keep himself safe. There was no way he could stand up to his brother like that.

_"I need a better strategy..."_

When the smoke cleared, Knife couldn't find Blade anywhere. "So, you're going to be a coward again and refuse to fight, huh? Well, I guess I don't have a problem with that!"

Blade tried tossing a couple of shurikens down at Knife, but he saw them coming and managed to block them all with ease. He took out a shuriken and threw it at the wall, barely hitting Blade's tail.

"I see you there, brother! It's quite obvious, you know!"

Blade jumped off and dashed in the air to land on Knife's head. While he couldn't deal damage by jumping on someone like Chopper could, he could certainly attack by using his katana, so he used a fire slash on his brother to leave a burn on him and even burn a bit of his ninja outfit.

"Subtlety is what you're using on me? Why don't you be more of a ninja and fight me face-to-face!"

"Because ninjas mostly use that when they fight," Blade noted. "You're not being a ninja if you simply use brute force!"

"A ninja is capable of using force if necessary, and that's what I'm doing," Knife declared, kicking Blade when he landed on the ground and also attempting to attack him by spinning his katanas around. Blade stepped back and tried to break it with a kunai, but that didn't seem to work.

Blade decided to slide under Knife and his katanas and get behind him to attack, leaving a large scar on Knife's back and making him hiss as he whirled around and punched Blade under his head.

When Knife slashed at Blade again, his pants were left ripped up, and he even got a couple of bruises on his face after Knife decided to punch his face a few times. Overall, he wasn't looking too good.

"Oh, my, brother... You don't look so good! Here, allow me to help you end the pain!" Knife was about to drive his sensei's katana into him, but Blade blocked the katana and knocked it out of his hand.

"What?!"

Blade also slashed at him again and gave him a kick to the face. Even when Blade was a bit wounded, Knife was badly hurt as well. What made it worse was the fact that his HP was running low too.

"Be a ninja and fight fair with me," Blade suggested, aiming the tip of his katana at Knife. "'Cause I'm going to keep sneaking around and attacking you at the right moment if you don't."

"Like I need to take the words from my younger brother," Knife hissed as he grabbed the katana and jumped toward Blade and swung at him. Thankfully, Blade managed to block his attack and pushed him back. This gave him the chance to slash at him downward and leave him stunned.

Blade smirked and jumped behind him to grab him and throw him to the ground. Knife ended up throwing a shuriken at Blade's leg, which caused him to wince as his brother got up and ripped the bottom of his ninja shirt with two slashes.

"Ahhh... Now that's a nice place for me to drive both katanas into!"

"I don't think so," Blade hissed, blocking his katanas and headbutting him to leave him stunned again. Instead of grabbing him, he decided to land another combo on him instead and send him flying in the air again. He jumped up and used his aerial combo and finished his attack with a Dragon Beam.

"Unnnnghh... So you've got some good combos, I'll give you that." Knife grumbled as he fired his own Dragon Beam. Blade fired another and caused both of them to get sent flying back to the wall.

When they both got up, they were both pretty close to being defeated. Blade's HP was low, and so was Knife's, which meant whoever made the final blow would be the winner of the fight.

"So... I guess it comes to this, brother." Knife declared. "And I think I've saved this moment for last, now that you've driven me this far!"

"Well, let's see what you've got!" Blade rushed at his brother and vice versa, and soon both were landing combos on each other at a ridiculous speed. Neither on them were getting hurt, and sparks were flying everywhere as their katanas continued to clash. They even went in the air and continued to block each other's attacks.

"Hmmmm... Not bad, Blade!"

"Same with you, Knife..."

When they both landed on the ground, both clashed again, with both of them trying to push each other back. It seemed Knife had the upper hand with two katanas, but then Blade realized something. He kicked Knife in the shin, which left him off guard for a bit when he hopped around a tiny bit.

Blade smirked and kicked both katanas out of Knife's hands and landed behind him, making him gape. "What?! No... This can't be!"

The blue cat delivered the final blow and quickly slashed at him to make him collapse. Afterward, Blade put away his katana and jumped back over to his brother. Meanwhile, the rest of the group came in and noticed a bit of blood right where Knife was lying.

"Whoa... We sure missed something, didn't we?" Sonic gaped.

"That doesn't look too nice..." Chopper cringed.

"Unnnnghhhhh..." Knife moaned as he raised his head. "Blade... Whether I die here or not, the same fate is bound you happen to you in this world..."

"Honestly, I don't think I should kill you," Blade noted. "Our sensei told us killing wasn't the best thing to do in life, whether they be evil or not. You, on the other hand, don't seem to get it."

"Well what about you? You've probably killed a few people before, and you even killed me before!"

"Because I was trying to protect someone who would've died if I didn't do anything to stop you. I'd rather leave you here to die than actually do it myself. That way, I'm don't have to see your death again."

"Hold on, Blade... Are you all right?" Luigi asked.

Mario: You don't look too good!

"I'll be fine..." Blade sighed. "This fight was very rough, and even my ninja outfit is a bit ruined. But I don't think my sensei would want me to back down now. ...Speaking of sensei."

He walked over to his sensei's katana and pulled it out of the ground. "I think it's better if I keep this with me for now. I don't trust you with our sensei's katana."

He turned back to his friends and gestured them to follow him, so they all followed him ahead to the door. Knife slowly turned around and watched the group leave. He also took a look at his katana.

"I swear, brother... I will kill you, and I won't stop until you die..."

* * *

**Next area-**

When they walked out of the door, they were met with a long, flat area with a couple of enemies such as Shadow Bones and Void Ninjoes. There was nothing new around the area, that's for sure.

"Blade, are you sure you're all right?" Chopper asked. "I mean, look at yourself! You look terrible!"

"Don't worry, I think I'll be fine," Blade assured. "I just need something to heal myself."

Mario noticed a yellow ? Block near him, so he jumped under it to find an Ultimate Shroom. They were already at full health, so Blade took the whole silver Mushroom to recover 100 HP.

"OK, I think I've got plenty of energy in me."

"What about the cuts?" Sonic asked.

"They're not major, so I think I should be able to hold myself."

"I personally don't care," Tipral stated. "Right now, I want to get going. I don't know how far we are to The Void's center, but talking isn't going to help!"

"Poyo, (I hate to say it, but I agree with Tipral,)" Kirby frowned. "Poyo... (Talking isn't going to get us anywhere...)"

"Yeah, we should probably go," Chopper agreed, turning ahead to get hit in the face by a bone a Shadow Bones threw at him. "Well that was nice..."

Sonic used a Homing Attack on the Shadow Bones to make it collapse, while Blade slashed at it with a fire slash to finish it off quickly. The Void Ninjoes tossing ninja stars happened to be a problem too, but Chopper and Kirby inhaled their ninja stars and got the Ninja ability.

"Poyo? (Three ninjas? Isn't that a bit too much?)" Kirby wondered.

"OK, fine…" Chopper sighed and took off his Ninja ability. With that, they carried on ahead and defeated a couple of Void Ninjoes in their way. When Chopper found a Void Waddle Doo, he inhaled it to gain the Beam ability.

"OK, I think this should be fine."

A Void Ninjoe charged at them, but Luigi's Cyclone helped throw it upward, which allowed him to finish it off with a Super Jump. Despite how fast and dangerous they were, they didn't seem to have a lot of HP.

When they reached the end of the area, they found a locked door in front of them. Chopper flipped into 3-D, but he didn't notice anything around. But, when Luigi used his Super Jump, he found a hidden platform he ended up hitting underneath.

Mario: Are you all right?

"I'm fine…" Luigi moaned as he slowly landed on the ground before jumping back up. Kirby floated up instead and found a door. Because of this, he had to go back down and help some people get up, with Chopper grabbing a hold of Kirby's feet to reach the platform.

"You guys don't have to do that when I can do this," Tipral noted as he teleported everyone onto the platform. "See? That's taken care of."

They entered through the door into a small area where they found both Void Goombas and Spiky Void Goombas wandering around. When they spotted them, they attempted to headbonk them.

"There's a lot of 'em here," Blade noticed as he struck a Spiky Void Goomba with his katana and finished it off by tossing two shurikens at it. Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs at some Spiky Void Goombas, and Mario jumped on the normal Void Goombas, simply because the Spiky Void Goombas were gone.

Once they cleared the area, a chest appeared in front of them. Tipral opened it and found a Void Key inside. He showed it to the heroes before they left the small area and unlocked the door in the previous one.

Tipral kicked the door open and found a rope between them and the path up ahead. Not only that, but there was a Void Waddle Dee throwing a spear at the edge of the path. Tipral grabbed the rope first and swung across, knocking the Void Waddle Dee down the bottomless pit as well.

As soon as everyone crossed, they found another bottomless pit, but with some bamboo plants over the gap. There also happened to be some Void Bats above the bamboo, which gave Sonic an idea.

"Hey, I think I know what to do here!" Sonic smirked and jumped to perform a Homing Attack on the Void Bats and get across. Blade used his ninja jump to land on the bamboo and get across.

"Why are there bamboo plants over a bottomless pit anyway?" Chopper wondered. "It almost feels unfitting for this place."

"This place has remains of worlds that were swallowed up," Tipral informed. "So of course there might be something like this here."

Realizing the others couldn't get across, he teleported them to the other side and found a zip line leading down to lower ground. They took turns going down and ended up finding shallow water around them.

"Oh, no… Not water." Sonic gulped.

"It's only at our feet…" Luigi trailed.

"I know, but still…"

They found a small ledge to jump onto, but they were stopped when they noticed an enemy…or rather, someone who wasn't necessarily bad charging straight at them. Everyone but Tipral gaped and jumped away from its sword.

"Is that a Sammer Guy?!" Chopper gaped.

"Poyo! (Couldn't be!)" Kirby cried.

The dark purple Sammer Guy with light purple eyes let out a battle cry and tried to slash at Blade, who blocked its attack. Chopper charged up a beam attack and fired a blast straight at the Void Sammer Guy.

"I'm sure most of the enemies are going to be Void something," Chopper declared.

"What gives you that idea?" Blade wondered.

"Because they're corrupted by the power from The Void, I guess?"

The Void Sammer Guy got itself up and attacked Chopper, while Kirby rushed at the enemy and struck it with his small katana. He soon finished off the Void Sammer Guy by jumping and giving it a diving kick.

"Poyo, (That takes care of that,)" Kirby sighed, but he stopped when he found a dead end ahead, as well as another Void Sammer Guy. Tipral took action and jumped toward the enemy and landed a Star Punch on it. He sent it flying into the air with a kick and then teleported up to the Void Sammer Guy to throw it to the ground.

"Hmph... A dead end. Chopper, I think you should flip." Tipral suggested.

"Tipral, maybe we should..." Chopper froze when he saw Tipral's eyes. They seemed to give him a threatening look, and while he didn't fear Tipral as much now, he didn't want to get in a fight with him, so he threw his arms up and flipped everyone into 3-D.

There was something revealed to their right in 3-D.

"See? We've found a way to go."

They noticed a couple of platforms on the pathway, so they were forced to jump to avoid falling down a bottomless pit. When they reached the end, they were back into 2-D and found a Void Sammer Guy charging at them, along with two Void Ninjoes.

"Are they even trying?" Blade sighed. "I think we can take this!"

He tossed some shurikens at the Void Sammer Guy, while Sonic used his Sonic Wind on the two Void Ninjoes. While they were distracted, Tipral snapped his finger and finished them off with Star Magic.

"Huh… So teamwork does pay off." Sonic smirked.

"Yeah, sure," Tipral grumbled as he skated ahead to the door. There was also a yellow ? block, which revealed a Dark Shroom that tried to attack him. He jumped on it and destroyed it with a Star Spear.

"Yeesh… I was hoping we wouldn't see that." Luigi sighed.

They followed Tipral through the door into an area with a couple of lanterns around. They had black flames, which wasn't too much of a surprise, considering they were in The Void.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Chopper asked, pointing to some ruins up ahead. "What do you think those ruins could be?"

"Poyo? (Could it possibly be Sammer's Kingdom?)" Kirby wondered.

"I don't know… I don't think Sammer's Kingdom had ruins like this…"

Despite that, there happened to be some Void Sammer Guys around the area. Kirby dashed toward them while swinging his katana. He even managed to swing it at a Void Sammer Guy near him and leave a shockwave to knock it back.

Sonic got in a ball and finished the rest of the Void Sammer Guys around with a Spin Dash. He felt a bit sorry for hitting them, considering that Sammer Guys weren't necessarily evil, but he had no choice. Unfortunately, the door leading into the ruins happened to be locked.

Mario: Well there's probably something around here.

They turned around and gaped when they saw two ninja stars flying their way. Blade stepped in front and blocked the attacks with his katana, while Tipral teleported to the Void Ninjoes and used his Star Burst.

"Weaklings… Not even these…things can stand up to me!" Tipral scoffed. "Honestly, if this is what The Void's going to be like, then this should be easy for us!"

"But first, we need to find the key," Chopper informed. "So we should look around carefully…"

When Luigi looked to the left, he noticed some platforms leading up to a ladder, which could possibly go up to a door. "Ummmmm… Guys? I think there's something I found over there."

"Oh, I see it!" Sonic noticed as he ran over there. Once the rest reached him, they tried to find a way to get up to the platform, but alas, only Kirby could float up there. However, when Mario jumped, he ended up hitting an invisible block that drew a ladder to help them reach it.

Mario blinked for a moment, but then he shrugged and climbed up the ladder. Everyone else followed and jumped up a couple of platforms that acted like stairs until they reached the top platform and found a ladder.

When they reached the top, they found a yellow ? block that happened to reveal an Ultra Shroom. It wasn't much, but they took it anyway and headed through the door to find a blue ! switch in a small area. Chopper hit it, causing the wall ahead to disappear and a couple of Void Bats to fly after them from behind.

"There's too many of them!" Luigi cried. "We should just run!"

"Well, I think that's the only thing we can do..." Blade trailed as he began to run. There were even some spikes around, to make things worse, so they were forced to jump over and continue to run while dodging their attacks.

They found a hole for them to jump into, so they jumped down and let the Void Bats pass by. Apparently at the end of the area was a high ledge, so the seven got out of the hole and walked over to it to find a pipe.

"A pipe? Well this is interesting…" Chopper trailed.

The pipe led them into a small area with a large Void Sammer Guy waiting for them. The first thing they saw it do was bring its large sword down near them, which gave Luigi the chance to jump on its head. Mario jumped on its head too and delivered a Super Ground Pound to stun it.

Mario: Just a few more hits!

Chopper took this time to charge up a beam attack, while Kirby began throwing kunais at the Void Sammer Guy to weaken it. When his wand was fully charged, he fired a ball of energy straight at the enemy and defeated it, making it drop an Ultimate Shroom Shake.

"Woo hoo! That's something I like seeing!" Chopper cheered as he grabbed the shake. There was another large Void Sammer Guy in the room, but Tipral was able to finish it off quickly by tossing a couple of shadow balls and firing two Star Spears. It didn't drop anything, but it caused a chest to be revealed.

"Well, I guess that should help us…" Tipral trailed.

"I think we can get in the ruins," Blade said as he grabbed the Void Key from inside. However, he had to hold his knee in pain for a moment. "Ugh… My knees are killing me for some reason."

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know... Maybe I'm still a little hurt from fighting Knife."

"I'm sure you still are, especially with your ninja outfit ripped up," Chopper mentioned.

"But I'm still going. I still have enough energy in me to press on."

They decided to go back to the previous area and found a couple of more Void Bats flying their way. While they wanted to run, Tipral wasn't going to run this time and used his ability to stop time. He was the only one moving around now.

"I'm not going to flee so soon," Tipral scoffed. "After all, _I'm_ not a coward."

He fired some Star Spears at the Void Bats and snapped his finger at the rest to destroy them. When time was flowing back to normal, the six heroes noticed the Void Bats were all gone.

Mario: What happened to them?

"Don't thank me," Tipral suggested. "I think it's better we get out of here."

* * *

**Near the ruins-**

"Well, we have the key, so let's go in..." Blade trailed as he took out the Void Key and unlocked the door. They headed inside and noticed how dark the place felt. The walls were cracked and had a few holes, and there was a staircase going down. Some Void Boomerang Bros. were also on the steps.

Chopper made the first move and jumped in the air while pointing his wand at the Boomerang Bro. at a downward angle and fired beam-like energy at it. This angered the Boomerang Bro. and made it hit Chopper with a boomerang, knocking his Beam ability out.

"Hey! That's not fair! Learn to play a little nicer, OK?!" Chopper grumbled as he landed on one of the steps and threw rainbow balls at it to finish it off. Kirby jumped and kicked at a downward angle at the other enemy, but he ended up losing his ability too.

"Poyo! (Hey! That's not fair!)" Kirby sulked.

Chopper gave him a shrug as Blade jumped up and brought his katana down on the Boomerang Bro., finishing it off and allowing them to reach the bottom of the staircase. They found a staircase going up, but they noticed the door was locked.

"ANOTHER locked door?!" Luigi guffawed. "Come on! How many of these locked doors are we going to see?!"

Mario: I'm not too sure...

"Wait a sec... I think I know what to do." Chopper threw his arms up and went into 3-D with his friends to find a hole in the ground. They all jumped down and found a brick block after going into 2-D. Sonic hit it to make a ladder appear.

"Well I guess that'll help," Sonic shrugged.

They noticed a door in front of them, as well as a Save Block, so Chopper hit it and entered the door to find a reel on the ground, as well as two spots up ahead. Luigi had an idea and used his Cyclone on the reel, which made the two spots rise up and appear as stumps.

Chopper went into 3-D and noticed the second one had to be hit first, so he told Mario to hit it first, and then he hit the second one, which made a door appear ahead, as well as two Darklings that fired spells their way.

"Uh oh..." Blade gripped his katana and slashed both of them to take them out. They rushed through the door and found a path being blocked by a large, stone-like block. There also appeared to be a hole shaped like a square, as if it could fit through the hole.

"Hmph... I guess this needs to be smashed?" Tipral walked up to the block and punched it. Sadly, it didn't seem to do anything. Thankfully, his hand wasn't injured badly like in the Whoa Zone.

"Did you hand get injured?" Chopper teased before he got punched by the fist Tipral used.

"Does that answer your question?!"

"Whoa... No need to be that violent." Blade blinked. "That's not a good way to react either."

"Let's just get through here."

Kirby suddenly had an idea and opened his mouth and started inhaling. His inhaling got stronger, which made the block move a bit toward him. Chopper helped out and started inhaling, which made it fall into the hole.

"Well that worked. Let's go!" Chopper ran on ahead and found a loop, but there was a bit of a crack on the ground that he bumped into when he went through it.

"Don't worry, Chop, I got this," Sonic assured as he went through the loop as a ball and managed to tear through the ruin below to land on the ground, where he found a dark purple Cherbil called a Void Cherbil. Everyone else landed by him and saw the Void Cherbil as well.

"You gotta be kidding me..." Chopper groaned. "Now we have to encounter a...BUTT?! How many times have we seen this?!"

The Void Cherbil spat nasty, dark gas their way, which made Chopper gasp and duck. Tipral blinked before he snapped his finger to get rid of the Void Cherbil. Up ahead was some dark grass, which Blade cut to reveal a Void Key.

"Got the key!" Blade announced. "Now we can probably get the hell out of here!"

They headed back, which wasn't easy with the loop, and they were back in the area with the stairs. Of course, they had to climb up the ladder and get to the staircase ahead, where they found Void Bros. spitting fireballs and ice balls down. Chopper tossed a light ball at one to leave it stunned, while Blade performed an aerial attack with his katana to finish it off.

With the way clear, they went to the top of the staircase and used the key to unlock the door back outside. They noticed a stage where a large Sammer Guy was waiting. When they walked up, it didn't give a word and brought its sword down on Tipral.

"Ugh... So, that's how you want to play, huh?" Tipral teleported at its face and began to kick and punch at it until it was defeated. A Void Sammer Guy with a spike and a mustache noticed this and jumped in the air and tried to attack Tipral.

Blade was able to jump in and take care of the Void Sammer Guy, allowing them to get off the stage and find two Shadow Bones rising from the ground and throwing bones at them.

"All right, I think I know what to do," Chopper declared as he gave each Shadow Bones a fire stomp, and then he finished them off by tossing a charged fireball to burn them away.

Over by the door at the end were two Darklings and two Void Koopas getting in their shells and coming their way. Chopper jumped on the Darklings, while Mario and Luigi stopped the Void Koopas and kicked them away to send them crashing into each other.

"Even if they're stronger, they're still no match for a kick," Luigi laughed.

Mario: Oh, yes!

Blade was about to open the door, but he noticed something else was ahead. He found a picture of a couple of bamboo plants. The first, second and fourth were tall, while the third and fifth were short.

"What's this supposed to be?" Blade wondered.

"Yeah, I'm wondering too," Sonic agreed.

"I'm sure it's something for whatever's up ahead," Tipral noted. "Let's just go through the door and not waste any time."

They decided to head through the door, but Tipral stopped for a moment and took out the picture with him and the girl. The rainbow butterfly ribbon in her hair was bothering him, and it also made him think about the rainbow butterfly he saw before.

"No, I can't let this bother me," Tipral grumbled, putting the picture away. "She's long gone now, and what's in the past is over."

He went through the door and found the six heroes gawking at the six bamboo plants. Of course, since Blade remembered the portrait of the six bamboo, he cut the third and fifth plant, causing a couple of tall platforms to be drawn to a door that could only be accessed in 3-D.

"Hey, I see a Save Block here too," Chopper noticed, hitting it to save their game. They jumped up the tall staircase and found a yellow ? Block near the door. Sonic hit it to find a Master Shroom, so Blade split it into seven for them all to eat to recover 200 HP.

"Poyo! (That was refreshing!)" Kirby squealed.

"And now it's time for us to go through this door," Chopper declared, flipping into 3-D with his friends and going through the door.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Hey, doesn't this place look a bit familiar?" Luigi wondered as they walked out of the door. The size of the area almost reminded them of where Blade fought Knife.

"Nothing's here either..." Chopper trailed.

"_**ARGLE-DEH!**_"

"But that voice sounds familiar," Blade groaned.

Up ahead, they noticed O'Chunks was waiting for them, so they approached him, with Chopper in front.

"So, it looks like the words were true," O'Chunks confirmed. "Yer all tryin' teh get through 'ere an' put a stop teh The Void!"

"Yes, we're trying to stop The Void," Chopper nodded. "Now please get out of the way, because we don't have time to deal with you."

"Why would I listen teh yeh?! After all yeh've done teh me, I ain't gonna let yeh all get past 'ere so easily! After all, yeh've all been a fork in me rumpus, that's fer sure!"

O'Chunks happened to notice Tipral, which made him gasp. "Tipral! So yer safe an' sound like me mum's gravy! ...But what're yeh doin' with them?"

"Look, it's a long story, and I don't want to drag it on forever," Tipral noted. "We need to get going."

"Ehhhhh... Well, I could let yeh through, but not them!" O'Chunks stomped the ground angrily as he glared at the heroes. "They've caused so much pain teh me! I've tried all I could teh stop 'em, but I always failed! ...But now, I think I've got what I need teh beat them!"

"And I'm sure you're going to simply fail like before," Blade scoffed, stepping in front and taunting O'Chunks, who gaped and the cat.

"Errghh... Yeh know, Blade... O' all the people 'ere, I hate yeh the most... Honestly, if I wanted teh fight someone right now, it'd be yeh!"

"Then maybe I can grant your wish. If you want to fight someone here, fight me. Trust me, I think you'll be fine with it."

"Hold on, Blade..." Chopper cut in. "Look at yourself! After what you had to go through with Knife? No. We're doing this together."

"Guys, even if I look crap right now, I wanna make sure you guys get through. Plus, with how I am, maybe it's time I used what Merlon gave me. Maybe it'll help me fight against him..."

"Are you sure about this?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. Just get your asses out of here. I don't want you guys getting caught in this mess. That goes for you too, Tipral."

"Fine, if you want to get beaten up and get killed, go ahead," Tipral decided as he walked out of the room. Everyone else looked back at Blade, who gestured them to leave, so they followed Tipral out of the area.

"It looks like it's just you and me," Blade smirked, drawing his katana. "This time, I'm taking you on all by myself. No Pixls, and no friends to help me."

"Heh heh heh! Well, this should be interestin'!" O'Chunks grinned. "I'm goin' teh 'urtle into yeh like a 'airy comet, just like before! An' this time, I'm goin' teh go at full power 'ere!"

"So you're going to use as much gas as before?"

"_**SUPER ULTRA CHUNKY POWER!**_"

O'Chunks raised his fists as he grew to a much larger size. Now his fists were made of steel, and his boots had spikes at the bottom. He was also wearing some red armor, and not only that, he gained more hair, especially around his beard and his armpits.

"Bet yeh weren't 'specting THAT, eh? Where's yeh whiskery mouth now?" O'Chunks cackled.

"Hmmmm... So you got a bit hairier, OK... But I think I've got something else special for you!" Blade pulled out the small sack and opened it, which revealed a powder to shoot up ward. The blue cat guffawed, while O'Chunks cackled.

"That's yer special move?! Gwar har har har! I thought yeh were better than that, Blade!"

Suddenly, the powder surrounded Blade as he began to lift off the ground. O'Chunks stopped laughing when he noticed a puff of smoke surround Blade. When it was gone, the bearded warrior saw the blue cat wearing dark blue ninja armor, which his shoulder blades having spikes and his helmet only showing his eyes, since his mouth was covered (think of something like the Shredder's armor from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). His own katana was strengthened by the powder, and so was his sensei's blade, which he decided to hold with him.

"What...? Yer in armor now?!" O'Chunks gaped.

"Wait a second... This is the very armor my sensei wore when he was young!" Blade gaped as he griped both katanas in his hand. "Well now... It looks like this makes us even now!"

"Then let us settle this once an' fer all!" O'Chunks declared as he raised his fists in the air. "_**LET THE CHUNKIN' BEGIN!**_"

Blade got himself ready as he jumped when O'Chunks began charging his way. He was able to stand on top of his head and taunt him a bit before jumping off and letting O'Chunks hit himself.

"This is so easy," Blade laughed. "It's so easy, this might be fun!"

"Don't get yerself too comfortable," O'Chunks said angrily as he grabbed a hold of Blade's leg. "Yeh may 'ave that fancy armor an' stuff, but I'm capable o' so much destruction now!"

O'Chunks began to swing Blade around and brought him near the wall so it would be easier for him to knock him out. Once the bearded warrior let go of him, Blade got sent flying all around the area. O'Chunks grinned and began to dance stupidly as Blade landed on the ground.

"…Wait, am I supposed teh be doin' this?" O'Chunks wondered as he started to ponder. Blade quickly got up and swung one of his katanas, which fired a flaming beam of sword energy at O'Chunks, scorching him.

Realizing what power he had, Blade smirked and rushed toward O'Chunks and struck him with both blades. Unlike before, it looked like O'Chunks was able to take it. After all, he had 510 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 8.

"Whoa… Yeah, his stats are more threatening now."

O'Chunks smashed the ground with his fists, which caused an earthquake in the area. Blade noticed some rubble began to fall from the sky and land on top of him. O'Chunks cleared the rubble and grabbed a hold of Blade, who was now choking.

"Now do yeh see what 'appens when yeh beat me rumpus a couple o' times?" O'Chunks asked in a threatening voice.

"Yeesh… Why're you being so threatening?" Blade choked, only able to say a few things before he was thrown to the wall. He noticed O'Chunks charging at him again, so he jumped out of harm's way and managed to strike his back.

O'Chunks gave a growl and grabbed a chunk of the ground and threw it Blade's way. The blue cat gaped, but realized something. His sensei's ninja armor gave enhanced strength as well.

"_Hope this works…" _Blade thought as he brought his hands up. When he opened his eyes, he noticed he was holding onto the chunk O'Chunks threw at him. "Holy crap! I'm friggin' strong with this!"

"Wha?! Well, looks like we're evenly matched." O'Chunks realized. "But it ain't gonna 'elp yeh 'ere!"

O'Chunks smashed the chunk Blade threw back at him and then used his gas to propel himself toward Blade, making him gape as the bearded warrior crashed into him.

"Whoa, nelly!" Blade cried as O'Chunks held him up. "Look, man! We don't actually HAVE to do this! You know this place is extremely dangerous, especially when it's only us here!"

"An' why should I listen teh yeh?!" O'Chunks exclaimed. "The easier way is teh simply break yer bones! An' that's what I plan on doin' now!"

"Then… I guess I have no choice…" Blade threw a smoke down at O'Chunks's eyes, causing him to scream and release Blade, who landed on the ground and jumped away from the smoke.

When it was clear, O'Chunks found Blade and tried to punch him again. With the enhanced strength in his armor, Blade was able to block his punch and try to push him back. Afterward, he spun himself around as he jumped toward O'Chunks to hit him with his katanas rapidly.

O'Chunks cringed in pain and tried to clasp his hands together in order to smash Blade, but he ended up missing and ended up getting kicked in the face. Blade noticed the hair underneath his arms, which made him guffaw.

"Yeesh... I don't like seeing you hairier..." Blade said as his eye twitched.

"An' I don't like seein' yeh in armor!" O'Chunks countered.

Blade grimaced at O'Chunks as he dodged O'Chunks's punch and fired two sword beams his way. One was made of fire, while the other was made of wind. O'Chunks was both scorched and blown to the wall. But he wasn't done there, Blade rushed toward the bearded warrior and began to combo him until he finished his combo with an upward slash.

When he was done, he tossed a couple of shurikens at O'Chunks, and they happened to be surrounded in light energy. However, despite this, O'Chunks was able to crush the shurikens while grinning at Blade.

"What the... How'd you smash those?!" Blade guffawed.

"Didn't yeh notice me 'ands? They're made o' steel!" O'Chunks explained as he sent Blade flying back with a punch. The blue cat clenched his teeth in pain, but he pushed himself off the wall and surrounded himself in a puff of smoke.

When O'Chunks cleared the smoke, he noticed a log stood before him. He was about to smash it until Blade made him fall over on his back and proceeded to slash him while dashing around the area.

Unfortunately, when Blade stopped to taunt O'Chunks, the bearded man gave a grunt and jumped up to land on top of him, causing him to get flattened. O'Chunks picked up up and hurled him across the area, which made him cackle.

"Heh heh heh! Yeh should'nt 'ave taunted me like that!" O'Chunks scoffed. "'Cause yeh just left yerself open fer an attack!"

Blade grumbled and surrounded himself in fire energy with his jutsu. O'Chunks gaped, but he pounded his fists and rubbed them to give him tornado hands, which he used to blow the flames off Blade.

"You serious?! Tornado hands?!" Blade gaped.

"Yeah! When I chunk up, I mean it!"

O'Chunks picked up another chunk of the ground and hurled it toward Blade. Instead of using his strength to grab it, he used both katanas to slice up the rock into dust, leaving the bearded warrior to gape.

Not only that, but he dashed while in the air and kicked O'Chunks in the face. He also slashed his back to leave him cringing in pain. Even with the armor on, his katanas were somehow able to still harm him.

"Grrrr! Yeh think yeh can run away like that?! Well, when I give yeh the chunkin' o' a lifetime, then yer gonna regret runnin' from me!"

"I'm not going to let myself lose," Blade shot back as he struck the ground and fired a beam of fire and wind energy O'Chunks's way. He jumped in the air and landed near Blade to create a shockwave and stun him. While he punched him up in the air, he grabbed something he was holding onto.

A can of beans. Capable of giving such horrible gas.

He used his fist to smash the can and dump all the beans in his mouth. After swallowing, he felt a gurgle in his stomach. With a grin, O'Chunks began to fly into the air like a rocket with his...gas...and grabbed a hold of Blade.

"What the... You're seriously flying up with gas?" Blade grimaced.

"That's what I need teh defeat yeh," O'Chunks said as he threw Blade to the ground and prepared to stomp on him with his spiky feet. Blade gasped and rolled out of the way as a part of the ground had a large hole around O'Chunks.

"You keep damaging the battle arena, and we'll have no place else to fight, beardo."

O'Chunks let out a grunt as he slammed his fists on the ground and caused another earthquake. Blade noticed some rubble coming down near O'Chunks, so he dove toward him and pushed him out of the way...

Only to get hurled to the wall by him.

"Thank yeh fer savin' me," O'Chunks said. "Now lemme repay yeh fer that!"

Blade blinked as he managed to escape O'Chunks's fists and landed behind him. He was about to strike him with his katanas, but O'Chunks struck him first and began to spin his arms around and knock Blade back.

"Now I'm suddenly reminded of Luigi's Cyclone from that..." Blade trailed.

"An' now teh make thing's interestin'!" O'Chunks summoned a giant tornado to come flying toward Blade, who was forced to take out two kunais and climb up the wall. He was able to avoid the tornado, but he couldn't stay up long enough when O'Chunks crashed into the wall.

He fell down, but he was able to at least strike O'Chunks with his katanas once before sliding under him to avoid another punch.

"Your attacks are pretty slow," Blade informed. "It's making this a BIT easy..."

O'Chunks proved him wrong by hurling himself toward him and knocking him back. He did it again, but Blade was able to grab a hold of him and try to push him away with the strength he had. O'Chunks tried harder, but still, Blade was able to hold him back.

"'Ow are yeh able teh counter me strength like this?!" O'Chunks gaped. "Yer much smaller than me!"

"Just because I'm smaller than you doesn't mean I'm weaker," Blade said as he spun his katanas as he struck O'Chunks. He was even able to send him flying in the air. "See? I even did that to you!"

He jumped in the air to join O'Chunks and performed an aerial attack with his blades and finished off his combo by swinging his katanas down and throwing O'Chunks onto the ground once again.

However, that didn't stop O'Chunks from fighting back. When Blade was landing, O'Chunks aimed his butt up at Blade and used whatever gas he had in him to leave Blade coughing and wafting his arm around.

"Auuugh! O'Chunks! Lay off the gas, PLEASE!" Blade cried.

O'Chunks ignored the cat as he tried to kick him with his spiky feet. Blade put up his blades to block his feet and tossed a kunai at the bearded warrior to leave him cringing, despite punching Blade. O'Chunks cracked his knuckles while Blade ended up skidding back from the punch.

O'Chunks got another can of beans, but Blade lunged forward and struck him before he had the chance. At this point, both were delivering blow to blow, with Blade using his katanas and O'Chunks using his fists. They seemed to block each other's attacks as the attacks got faster.

"Huh... I'm actually impressed with you, O'Chunks." Blade complimented. "You're actually putting up a damn good fight!"

"Yer puttin' up one too," O'Chunks replied. "But yer armor ain't gonna help yeh beat me, yeh furry hairball!"

"Furry and hairball put together? Ummmm... I don't know if that makes sense..."

O'Chunks's clenched his fists and clenched his teeth as he looked constipated, from what Blade could see. It looked like he was ready to let another big one go, but all he heard was a squeak.

"What...was that?"

The bearded warrior blinked until he realized something: he didn't eat any beans. He whipped out another can, gobbled them up and got ready for another big one. Blade decided not to waste his time and used his fire jutsu to charge at him like a fireball.

O'Chunks ended up fart propelling and dodged Blade's lunge as he flew up in the air and landed headfirst. He was busy trying to get his head out while Blade decided to scorch him by using the previous attack that failed.

When O'Chunks got his head out, he cracked his knuckles and growled. "Oh, so yeh wanna see me get chunkier, 'uh? Well, I'm thinkin' o' gettin' teh that now!"

"Huh?"

"_**MORE CHUNKIN'!**_"

O'Chunks raised his arms again and gained spikes on his shoulder pads and gained a bigger beard and more armpit hair (which Blade commented on once again). Before he knew it, Blade was getting smacked around by O'Chunks's beard.

"What the heck?!"

"Bet yeh weren't 'specting me teh do that!" O'Chunks grinned. "When yeh mess with me chin hairs, then it's going teh mess with yeh!"

Blade dodged his beard again and threw one of his katanas in an attempt to cut off his beard. O'Chunks grabbed the katana and threw it back by Blade's feet, allowing him to take back the weapon.

"Thanks for giving me back my katana," Blade pulled it out of the ground and swung it. Now both katanas had its own kind of glow around it. One was surrounded in light energy while the other was surrounded in dark energy.

"What's this? Well, maybe this is a power my sensei was able to use when he was wielding two katanas!"

"Eh? Well, yer blades are no match fer me strength an' me beard!" O'Chunks slammed his fists on the ground to cause the room to shake a bit. Blade jumped and struck O'Chunks with a light and dark slash. He was even able to disappear before O'Chunks could get a hold of him.

The bearded warrior used his beard to search for Blade, but he ended up tripping and getting attacked by Blade's two drilling blades. He managed to grab a hold of Blade by the legs and hurl him around the room, but instead of dancing, he punched Blade when he came near.

Blade crashed into the wall while moaning in pain. When he slowly opened his eyes, he saw O'Chunks charging at him, which forced him to disappear in a puff of smoke. He appeared behind O'Chunks, he crashed into the wall, but instead, he drank a Master Shroom Shake to recover 200 HP.

"Whew... I think I needed that."

"Urgh... Where'd yeh go, yeh scrawny cat?" O'Chunks grumbled as he whirled around and noticed Blade finishing off the drink. "Ah! There yeh are!"

He jumped over to him and grabbed a hold of him. Blade, still holding the can, threw it at O'Chunks and managed to push himself out of O'Chunks's grasps with ease. Afterward, he spun his katanas rapidly and delivered a couple of slashes to O'Chunks, who couldn't handle his attacks.

"Are you ready to give up, O'Chunks?"

"Not by the hairs on me chin!"

"Then... I guess I have no other choice." Blade rose his katanas to store some power and then dashed at O'Chunks to deliver a couple of blows. He was even able to pierce through his thick armor and deal some massive damage to him. And he was much bigger than before, which made it seem more achieving for him!

With the strength he had, he was able to grab O'Chunks from behind and throw him to the ground. O'Chunks tried to grab his arm while on the ground, but Blade kicked his face to make him let go.

"Let's see how yeh deal with this!" O'Chunks clapped his hands together and caused rubble from the sky to fall on Blade. Some hit him, but he was able to slice through the rest of it and spin himself around as he attacked O'Chunks again. His head ended up getting bashed when O'Chunks gave him a powerful punch. If it weren't for the helmet, chances were he wouldn't be alive.

Blade decided to try another one of his moves and curled up in a ball and spun rapidly. He was surrounded in light and dark energy as he hurled himself at O'Chunks and sent him across the room. Although, his attack was stopped when O'Chunks brought his arms up and ended up skidding across the floor.

O'Chunks used one of his arms to punch Blade, only to have it blocked by one of his arms. Realizing something, he simply used his beard to send Blade flying back and made him hit the wall.

"Yeh see, Blade... Me brute strength is capable o' many things, such as crushin' yeh!" O'Chunks said as he clenched his fists. "An' because o' that, I'm not going teh let yeh hit me so easily!"

"Sure, you may have brawn," Blade coughed as he landed on the ground. "But you seriously lack a brain."

"An' what's that supposed teh mean when we're fightin'?!"

Blade answered by tossing a bomb shuriken and then threw his katana to make it explode in front of O'Chunks. It didn't send him flying, but his armor was left with some soot, and even he was a bit bruised up from the previous attacks he received.

"Huh? That's just a bomb!"

Little did he notice Blade kick him in the face and grab his katana before jumping in the air and bringing both blades down on the bearded warrior. He even managed to cut a bit of his long beard to keep him from using it against him.

"Do you want me to keep it at that? Or do I have to give you a close shave?"

"I ain't lettin' yeh get close teh me chin hairs," O'Chunks growled as he stored some power in his fists and delivered a powerful punch to Blade. He even grabbed another chunk of the ground and hurled it at him as well. This time, he was able to make it hit him without him grabbing it.

"An' now yer squashed like a little ant!"

Blade, however, was able to lift the chunk of the ground back up and tossed it back at O'Chunks. He saw it coming and smashed it easily with his fists before jumping over to Blade and punching him. Blade blocked his attacks with his weapons and tried to attack him, which was blocked by his fists.

"I'll admit, you're not even breaking a sweat," Blade commented. "Sure, you're a bit bruised, but you're playing tough. I like that!"

"I like 'ow yer givin' me a challenge," O'Chunks shot back as he grabbed Blade and threw him to the ground. "'Tis a shame yeh'll be long gone when I'm finished with yeh..."

Blade rolled out of the way when O'Chunks tried to punch him again and tossed a light shuriken at his back. O'Chunks grunted and spun his arms and himself to catch the blue cat. However, it failed when Blade put down another smoke bomb.

"Yeh can't throw smoke bombs ferever, cat!" O'Chunks yelled.

Blade done down and kicked O'Chunks's head before retreating back up. To try to counter this, O'Chunks began to stomp the ground to get Blade to fall. This worked, but the bue cat made it difficult and threw a couple of shuriken bombs down to not only hit O'Chunks, but to make it difficult for him to see.

"I KNEW this was a good idea!" Blade smirked as he landed on the ground and threw a dark shuriken at O'Chunks.

But the Scottish man wasn't going to let this stop him. He grabbed the weapon and managed to smash it with his own fists before letting his beard grow longer again and grab a hold of Blade.

"What an idiot!" Blade scoffed as he was pulled toward O'Chunks. "I'll just cut myself out of here easily!"

"Think again," O'Chunks grabbed a hold of his katanas and threw it to the side. "Now yer mine!"

Blade tried to break himself free, but he couldn't get out of his grasps because both of his arms were being held by his beard. He couldn't grab a hold of any weapons either, which made him be put in a tough situation.

"So, yeh got any last words?"

"Ummmmmm... Yes, actually! Could you pull down my mask?"

"Errr... If that's what yeh want, then fine." O'Chunks pulled down Blade's mask to reveal the lower part of his head. He ended up letting out a sneeze, causing O'Chunks to release him.

"Yeh sneezed in me eyes!"

"That's exactly what I wanted," Blade smirked as he put his mask back up and grabbed his two katanas. "Now let's finish this!"

He jumped toward O'Chunks and struck him with a light and dark smash to leave him severely low on HP. O'Chunks fought back, but he didn't have as much strength in him. All he could do was block Blade's next attack.

"You can't hold on forever, O'Chunks."

"I don't want teh disappoint Tipral, though! An' if I 'ave teh go through another punishment again, I don't know 'ow teh feel! Especially since the lass always gives me such harsh punishments! An' here I..."

"Here you what?" Blade gawked.

"Nothin'!" O'Chunks pushed Blade away and tried to punch at him, but it was over when Blade dashed and delivered the last blow with two single slashes.

"_**HUUUURRGHHH!**_"

A puff of smoke surrounded O'Chunks as he was reverted back to his normal self. Blade put away his two katanas and walked over to the injured warrior, who happened to be kneeling down and covered in bruises.

While that happened, someone else happened to be watching the fight as it made a clicking sound, as if a picture was being taken of them.

_**"Hmmmmm... Yes... This is good! Very good!"**_

The voice seemed to fade away, with neither of him hearing it._  
_

"Blade, listen teh me..." O'Chunks wheezed. "I don't want teh 'ave teh live with all the failure I've taken. Yeh better just end it now so me dignity is still with me. An' please, actually do it! Yeh heroes 'ave never finished me off before, an' now is the perfect time fer yeh teh do it!"

"O'Chunks, listen..." Blade trailed as he walked over to him. "Maybe working for Tipral isn't helping you with your fighting. Every time you try to stop us, you end up losing all the time. Perhaps it's just better to...move on. And no, I'm not going to end your game. Give yourself another chance!"

"Are... Are yeh sure 'bout that?" O'Chunks wondered as he slowly got up.

"Yeah. You just need a break. And if you want my help, I'll give it to you."

"We'll see about that, especially if you die here!"

Blade's eyes shut tight in pain as he felt something stab his shoulder. The voice was something else he recognized. His brother, Knife, had just stabbed him from behind and was now standing on him when he fell over.

"Don't think you've gotten rid of me yet, brother," Knife hissed as he turned Blade's head to his. "You should've killed me right there!"

"'Ey! Leave 'im alone!" O'Chunks growled as he grabbed Knife and threw him to the wall. Knife quickly got up and tackled O'Chunks and tried to take out another kunai. He was able to stab his arm, but O'Chunks didn't let it stop him. He slammed his head to the ground and put his foot on him.

"Don't yeh EVER do that again! Yeh 'ear me?!"

"I'm not going to let some beardo kill me," Knife sneered as he hurled a couple of shurikens at O'Chunks. It didn't seem to harm him as much, but he was starting to feel a bit weak.

"Oh, look! Looks like someone's getting a bit weak! That's just fine!"

He was about to attack O'Chunks again, but Blade punched him and made him turn back to his brother. He didn't care about the armor he was wearing, he just wanted to kill him. He didn't even bother to bring his katana either.

Knife dashed toward Blade, and once they clashed, Knife saw Blade's katana through his chest.

"Y-You... You..."

Blade said nothing as he took his katana out of him and sheathed it. Knife's mouth was left wide open as he slowly began to collapse onto the ground.

Knife was dead.

"Blade... Yeh..."

Chopper poked his head through the door and noticed both Blade and O'Chunks panting. "Hey, Blade! Is it over?"

Everyone else came in the area and noticed the armor Blade was wearing. They, of course, gave their comments on how cool it looked. But some noticed Knife on the ground and were left shocked.

"Is Knife..." Chopper gaped.

"Yes. He's dead." Blade finished. "It was the only thing I could do."

Mario: It's definitely not a nice sight...

Before anyone else could make any comments, the area began to shake violently, leaving everyone off guard and in surprise.

"Eh? What's goin' on?" O'Chunks gawked.

"Something's not right here..." Tipral trailed. Everyone looked up and noticed a ceiling coming down on them, kind of like the ceiling from Castle Tipral.

"Oh, no! It's over for us!" Luigi cried as the ceiling came down faster and closer to them. Mostly everyone covered their eyes and ducked so they wouldn't have to see themselves getting crushed.

But they didn't feel themselves getting crushed.

The people that didn't dare to watch opened their eyes and noticed the ceiling was being stopped by something.

"_**HUUUUURK!**_"

Blade was the first to notice O'Chunks holding up the ceiling with as much strength as he could. They also noticed him struggling a bit.

"O'Chunks... But why?" Blade gaped.

"What are yeh waitin' fer?! Get outta 'ere!" O'Chunks cried.

"Wait, why did you do it?" Chopper gawked. "You're not one to help us ever since you've helped us get through Castle Tipral."

"Blade, yeh saved me from yer brother, an' I think I 'ave teh repay yeh fer that! Just get outta 'ere! Yeh earned the right teh go 'ere, and I'm goin' teh ma sure yeh do that!"

"O'Chunks, look at yourself," Tipral said as he looked at him. "You're struggling with that! There's no way you can do that alone."

"You're doing this because I saved you from Knife?"

"Yeah, an' yer words 'ave touched me a bit... Just a bit!"

"Well, you really are chunkier than I thought," Blade rose his arms and helped hold up the ceiling. "After all, you saved me from Knife, and I think I should repay you for that as well."

"What?!"

"Blade! You can't hold that up!" Sonic gaped.

"Of course I can. After all, this armor gives me some extra strength," he assured as he turned to the six. "Look, everyone... You go on ahead. I'll stay here with O'Chunks and hold this up."

"No, Blade!" Chopper retorted. "We're not leaving ANYONE behind! I don't want this to be like last time!"

"So I should stay here and let this guy die? Chopper! I thought you were better than this! You and the rest of the group get out of here now. If I die, then I guess my sacrifice will be worth it for you all."

"But..."

"Don't give me buts! GO!"

Chopper let out a sigh and slowly walked past him and O'Chunks. Tipral took a small glance at O'Chunks, who weakly smiled at him as he watched him leave. Sonic was the last to go, but he turned to Blade first.

"Blade..."

"It's OK, Sonic," Blade assured. "Just go."

Sonic frowned as he walked into the door ahead, leaving only Blade and O'Chunks in the room.

"I want you to leave too," Blade said.

What?! I'm not leavin' 'ere! Yeh have teh go with yer friends!" O'Chunks retorted. "I can hold this thing all day!"

"This armor can let my hold this all day. ...And thanks for taking that line too."

"Well don't be actin' tough, Blade! Go!"

"I AM tough! Get your ass out of here, please!"

"No, yeh get out!"

"No, YOU!"

As they continued to argue, the shaking got a bit more extreme, which made them struggle even more.

"_**HUUUUUURGHH!**_"

* * *

**Next area-**

As soon as the rest of the six walked out of the door, they heard a loud thud coming from the other area, which frightened most of them a bit.

"Uh... Blade...?" Luigi trotted over to the door and tried to open it. He frowned as he was unable to open it and turned to the others.

"The door... It won't budge!"

"What?!" Chopper gaped. "See? I told him this wasn't a good idea! ...And now he's gone..."

"Oh, come on," Sonic assured. "Remember before? When something bad like this happened, everything turned out to be just fine."

"This is The Void. Chances are they could've died." Tipral replied. "And did you see how weak they looked? There was no chance of survival."

Mario: You're not making this any better!

"Even if Blade and O'Chunks sacrificed their lives, they wouldn't want us to stay here forever. We have to keep moving."

"But I don't want to leave any friends behind," Chopper frowned. "But I guess we can't just sit here forever... That's not the brightest idea anyway."

"Poyo... (I just hope Blade turns out fine...)" Kirby trailed worriedly.

With a sigh, Chopper walked over to the Star Block ahead along with the other five. Chopper struck the block, but he didn't feel as good when he hit it.

Hopefully things would turn out fine in the end.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_An endless labyrinth of mind-boggling turns and dark, evil and deadly enemies… This final journey was more dangerous and trying than Chopper, Tipral, and Chopper's friends had ever seen before. They carried on through The Void without their friend, Blade, who was lost in a duel along with O'Chunks. But there was no time for them to sit and cry about it. Chopper and Co. knew they had to reach the True Chaos Heart and put an end to it once and for all._

* * *

**Yeah, this didn't take as long as Chapter 19-5, that's for sure, and I'm pretty sure most of you are fine with that. Also, this is the first chapter I'm posting here from college. Don't expect updates to take about a month, though. I still have PLENTY of time to do something like this.  
**

**I find it funny that most fights involving blades don't show off any blood or scars like the battle against Knife. Logic can be so weird at times, don't you think? :P  
**

**I can't say much for this chapter, but I'm sure it'll get much interesting later. And just a bit of a warning: this chapter only had two mini-bosses. Expect the later ones to have..._four_. So, lots of action you'll be seeing in this chapter!  
**


	121. The Escape

**CHAPTER 20-2**

**-The Escape-**

To the disdain of the six, they felt The Void rumble from the inside, which made Luigi cower in fear and the others left gawking. Thankfully, the shaking stopped sooner as they thought, and they were now relieved. The only downside, however, was that Blade wasn't with them anymore.

"Poyo... (I don't know how many tremors we've had in here...)" Kirby trailed, trying to catch his breath.

"I find it kind of strange..." Chopper trailed. "Why is the destruction ravaging this place, especially since it's where all the destroyed worlds GO?"

"Chopper, the destruction from The Void could literally be anywhere, which includes this place," Tipral said. "And that's something we must be wary about. The destruction could tear apart this place as well."

"Well who would want to do something like that, if someone was actually controlling the Chaos Heart?" Luigi wondered. Mario pondered these questions as Sonic began to think about Blade.

"Honestly, I can't believe Blade did that..." Sonic trailed. "I don't know what happened between him and O'Chunks that made him stay with him. And how did Knife get in there as well? He may have found his own way through there, because we didn't see anyone sneak by..."

"Probably... And did you even see Blade? He was torn up from the fight against Knife, but then he gained some cool-looking ninja armor to fight O'Chunks. But even then, he looked beaten up. I kinda feel sorry for him..."

"I feel sorry that he had to kill his own brother..." Luigi trailed. "It's kind of sad when someone you know and love is gone or is someone you're forced to kill. At least my bro and I aren't like that."

Mario: Yeah, thank goodness...

Tipral closed his eyes and suddenly saw an image of someone he remembered being forced to go, but he quickly opened his eyes to get rid of that image. "Look, we're not going to be wasting any time here. We should go. Now."

"Poyo... (Yeah, I guess we should...)" Kirby trailed.

The area around them was flat, but that didn't mean everything was safe here. Black ghosts with purple eyes called Void Ghosts were flying around and trying to swat at them with their disembodied hands.

"Gh-Ghosts!" Luigi cried.

"Oh, relax!" Chopper assured. "We've seen ghosts like these before. They only distract you, not harm you!"

A Void Ghost was able to punch Chopper and knock him back, which made him sweat drop and Sonic face palm. Nevertheless, they tried to fight it when it became visible and defeated it with ease. Chopper got up and easily destroyed one of the other Void Ghosts by tossing a single light ball.

"How are you able to take them out easily?" Sonic gawked.

"Because he has that light power," Tipral answered. "You know, that kind of power is strong against enemies around these parts."

Chopper shrugged and carried on. Some Void Waddle Doo charged at them, but Kirby inhaled one and got a hold of the Beam ability, which he used to charge up an attack and fire at the other Void Waddle Doo. Sonic cleared through some Void Ghosts that became visible by using his Spin Dash.

They also encountered some black Boing-Oings that were bouncing around called Voing-Oings. Mario jumped on one, causing it to split into six, which they were all able to take out with a simple attack. There was another one ahead, which Chopper split into six with an ice ball.

Kirby blasted them all with a beam whip and pressed on to the door. When they walked out, they found a staircase going down, which they remembered seeing before. There were Void Bros spitting fire and ice balls from up the stairs, confusing most of them. Sonic jumped and performed a Homing Attack on it and then finished it off with a Bounce Attack.

"We've seen these enemies before," Sonic said. "Why are most of them recolored enemies of ones we fought?"

Mario: I always wondered that too...

"Then that makes it easier for us to fight," Tipral replied as he saw a black Bronto Burt with dark purple wings flying over the staircase. Luigi's Super Jump was enough to leave it low on HP. When he jumped on it one more time, it was defeated.

They reached the midpoint of the staircase and found two Void Koopas walking around. When they got closer, they got in their shells and readied themselves to attack. Thankfully, Sonic's Spin Dash was able to counter it and defeat them both.

"They didn't even have a chance to make an attack," Sonic realized.

"I suppose that's not bad," Luigi shrugged.

They continued down the stairs, with Chopper jumping on top of a Void Bro. and reaching the bottom of the staircase. Two Darklings attacked, but Mario and Luigi jumped on their heads to take them out.

They entered the door and found a bottomless pit near them, but they also found two moving platforms. One was moving sideways, which was near them, and the other was moving up. There happened to be a blue ! block near the platform moving up, and there was another one by two platforms that didn't appear to be moving.

"I guess those two blocks might trigger those two platforms," Tipral pondered. "Let's try to be careful with this. If any of us fall into the bottomless pit, then it's all over, and I don't wanna see that."

"Weird... You wouldn't care if any of us fell." Chopper said. "Why are you saying something like this?"

"Don't give me questions. It's better to listen than to ask."

"Poyo, (That's kind of true,)" Kirby agreed.

Tipral jumped onto the platform and got onto the next one. He threw a Star Spear at the blue ! block to make the other two platforms move. Everyone else followed and got on the next moving platform. Above them was a blue ! Block, which Luigi hit with a Super Jump to make another platform appear by the ledge ahead.

Mario: Is that a Sword Knight I see?

They saw a black Sword Knight with purple eyes holding a purple sword blocking the ledge. It was even charging some Sword Beams, but Tipral knocked it away with his Star Magic, while Kirby got on the ledge and charged up a beam attack to finish it.

"Well that worked out a lot better than I thought," Chopper said as he jumped onto the platform and reached the ledge. They saw a wall up ahead with two Void Goombas and a black Lava Bubble called a Shadow Ember. Surprisingly, ice didn't seem to affect the evil flame spirit.

"I got an idea," Sonic smirked and tried to hit it with a Homing Attack, causing him to get scorched instead. Tipral slowly shook his head and tossed a shadow ball at it, but it only absorbed its power instead.

"Poyo? (Don't you know that these guys can absorb dark power?)" Kirby asked, giving Tipral a look.

"I just wanted to see if that did anything," Tipral answered. "Even then, it was at full HP, so it didn't matter."

"Then light might work," Luigi deduced, which made Chopper toss a light ball at it and destroy it. He still got hit by a Void Goomba, as well as Mario, who gripped his hammer and bashed it to knock it back.

Sonic, annoyed about getting hit, got in a ball and attacked the Void Goombas with a Spin Dash. With the enemies cleared, they walked to the end of the path. Chopper went into 3-D and saw a hidden path behind the wall that only revealed a chest with an Ultra Shroom Shake, so he came back a bit disappointed.

"Nothing."

Mario: There should be something here...

"There's that wheel with the large open space," Tipral noted, pointing to the wheel stuck in the background. "However it doesn't look like it's moving. I don't have anything to help us with this."

A light bulb appeared over Kirby's head as he popped himself into the wheel and began to use his Cartwheel, causing the wheel to spin. Everyone watched as a door was drawn to their right.

"I guess that solves that," Luigi smiled while Kirby jumped out of the wheel. They hurried through the door into a small hallway-like area with a small pool of dark matter near them. Some Shadow Embers seemed to float around it.

"Poyo... (If only we had Carrie here to help...)" Kirby trailed.

Tipral simply defeated the two Shadow Embers by snapping his finger. He was also able to skate over the dark matter thanks to his dark shoes, while the rest was forced to jump over it.

However, it didn't take them too long to keep moving, because spikes suddenly rose from the ground in front of them.

Mario: Huh?!

"Uh oh... This might be some trouble..." Sonic gulped.

"We just have to jump over them. That shouldn't be too bad." Chopper said as he jumped over the spikes and found a Shadow Ember ahead. Tipral made his way across and took out the Shadow Ember. They ended up finding more spikes that rose in front of them.

When the others caught up, they decided to be careful and jump over them. Kirby had an easier time, because he was able to float over them, while the rest had to jump (Tipral could teleport, but he didn't here).

When they reached the end of the area, they noticed above them was a ledge, but a couple of Void Gordos were making up a small path to go up, and not even Luigi's Super Jump could get through that.

"How are we supposed to get through this?" Luigi asked.

"Poyo, (I'll handle this,)" Kirby assured as he floated in between the two rows of Void Gordos and got to the ledge. Tipral teleported the rest of the group up to the ledge, even though they could've CLEARLY done that before.

They noticed some black platforms going up to a door on the ledge ahead, but there happened to be some Void Bats and Void Bronto Burts flying around and causing a bit of a problem for them. Sonic even tried to stay on one of the platforms, but he was quickly swarmed by them.

"OK, this isn't easier than I thought..." Sonic trailed as he landed on the ground. "We need to take them out."

Luigi had an idea and used his Super Jump to attack a couple of the enemies. When he was landing, he was jumping on their heads and defeating them. His landing, however, wasn't the best. He ended up falling headfirst.

"Wow... Great landing, Luigi." Chopper blinked as he slowly clapped. "Now we should get going."

They made their way up the platforms and reached the ledge to find a door. No questions were asked as they entered into a small area to find...Tippi?

"Guys! I can't believe you're all here!" Tippi gaped as they all walked over to the rainbow butterfly. Tipral blinked for a moment and couldn't say a word.

"Tippi... But you're..." Chopper gawked.

"Yes... Unfortunately, the count and I were sucked into The Void and trapped here. Not only that, but this also caused me to turn back into a butterfly... But seeing you all here is nice, considering that I can't find the count..."

"Poyo? (The count?)" Kirby blinked. "Poyo... (Something's not right here...)"

"I hear ya," Chopper nodded. "This isn't right one bit!"

"Are you guys suggesting I'm a faker?" Tippi gaped. "After all I've done for you?! I even helped you get rid of The Void and aided you for part of your quest!"

"I know, I know," Sonic said. "But... Merlon said he used his magic to turn you into a Pixl. The Void couldn't do that!"

"Well, then I guess I wouldn't let you guys hit this blue ! block here that could teleport you to The Void. Only the real Tippi would be able to do that anyway." Tippi pointed out.

"Well, Tippi DID teleport me to Flipside..." Chopper pondered. "Maybe hitting this might not be a bad idea! What do you think, Tipral?"

Tipral still didn't say a word.

"Tipral? Is there something wrong?"

Mario: Well I don't think hitting the block is the best idea...

"Poyo... (Oh... I guess not hitting it is a bit too late...)" Kirby gulped after he hit the block.

"_**KIRBY!**_"

"Tee hee! You fell for it again!" Tippi giggled as the six fell through a hole below them. Purple smoke engulfed her as she transformed into Mimi, who was wearing a black dress with a Rubee embedded in it.

"Golly, you heroes are stupider than I thought!" Mimi cackled. "I mean, falling for that AGAIN?! I thought you'd have learned by now! ...Sorry for making you fall down though, Tippy!"

* * *

**Below-**

"Good going, Kirby!" Chopper groaned as he slowly got up. "You just HAD to hit that block!"

"Poyo! (Well you said it was all right!)" Kirby retorted. "Poyo! (So clearly it's YOUR fault!)"

"No, it's yours!"

"Poyo! (No, yours!)"

"Ummmmmm... Could you guys stop fighting?" Luigi asked quietly. Both Chopper and Kirby looked at Luigi before returning to their argument, which made him sigh.

However, Mario had the perfect solution. He gripped his hammer and bashed both of them to flatten them like pancakes. Sonic blinked, while Tipral stopped being silent, since the rainbow butterfly was no longer around.

"I'd say both of you are at fault here," Tipral said. "You both did something that caused this."

"And how come you didn't do anything to stop?" Sonic asked. "It was Mimi, after all..."

"I had the feeling too, but I... You know, just forget that. I don't want to get in a huge discussion like this."

"...All right. I guess that's something agreeable."

"Where are we anyway?" Luigi wondered. They noticed there was nothing around except for a door to the right and one to the left. However, when Chopper flipped into 3-D, he saw two others to his left and right.

"It's a round room."

He went back into 2-D and took the door to the left. There, they found a couple of wheels stuck together, with the bottom one having an opening. Since Kirby did this before, he used his Cartwheel in the wheel to make it move. This created a chest across some dark matter to their left.

"I'll get that," declared Tipral as he skated over the dark matter and opened the chest to find a purple shard. "What's this? It's rather...strange."

Mario looked above the wheels and noticed a Master Shroom Shake resting up there. He tapped Luigi's arm and pointed up at the wheel. Luigi gave him a nod and used his Super Jump to reach the top of the wheel to grab the Master Shroom Shake.

He seemed confident, but then dark purple Boos called Void Boos appeared, making his eyes widen.

"I should've never gotten that..." Luigi gulped.

Tipral was able to help him and teleported up to him and fired a couple of Star Spears at the Void Boos, sending them flying through the walls and making them go into the round area.

"Phew... That was a close one."

"You can thank me later, plumber," Tipral said as he teleported him down and walked out of the small area. They decided to go into 3-D and take the door to the left to find a room with a Void Waddle Dee holding a shard above them on a bridge. There happened to be spike pits it could fall into or even dark matter. However, there were switches to help it so they could snatch the shard.

"Oh, boy... I don't like this one..." Sonic trailed.

"I'll do it!"

"Poyo! (I'll do it!)"

Chopper and Kirby turned their heads to each other and gave each other glares.

"No, I'll do it!"

"Poyo! (No, I'll do it!)"

Mario: Am I going to have to do this again?

Tipral growled and made Chopper and Kirby bump heads to leave each other dazed. "I don't care who does it! Someone get that enemy to give up the shard!"

Mario sighed and decided to do it, so he stepped on a switch, making the Void Waddle Dee run on ahead. He hit the switches he needed to hit to make sure it wouldn't hit the spikes, but some he needed to be wary of because if he hit them, it could fall into a spike trap.

The last switch happened to have a wall blocking the Void Waddle Dee's way, while a moving platform happened to shift from left to right over the dark matter. When the time came, Mario hit the switch and allowed the Void Waddle Doo to use it to cross and land right in front of him.

And what was the best way to reward it? A bash in the head from Mario's hammer before he grabbed the shard.

"I'll be taking that," Tipral punched Mario and swiped the shard from him. "I think it's better if I hold onto this."

Mario: Mama mia...

They left the area and returned to the main one. Chopper went into 3-D again so they could go to the door to the right this time. They were met with a stump and a gate blocking their way. There happened to be a curved path moving up and leading to a shard.

"So... Looks like it requires Mario's Ground Pound and my speed?" Sonic deduced.

Mario: Looks like it.

"Maybe I could do something?" Chopper suggested.

"Probably not..." Sonic trailed.

Mario gave the cue as he used his Super Ground Pound to hit the stump. The gate opened, and Sonic took off with his Spin Dash and went up the curve that curved to the left as well. He was practically above the group now as he was met with a gate and a wheel.

He smirked and used his Spin Dash to open the gate and grab a hold of the shard. However, when he got out by the gate that mysteriously opened from grabbing it, Tipral took it from him.

"Hey!"

"Let's go," Tipral suggested as they left the area and went to the right door in 2-D. They were met with five crystal balls on the ground, as well as a sign that had dark writing on it. Chopper decided to read it first.

_**Those who know the secret and are obsessed must cool down as they explore a beautiful world with a rainbow. But then the flames will rise and darkness will consume everything. But in the end, light will shine and triumph the darkness.**_

"Weird sign... Unless... Wait a second!" Chopper walked over to the first crystal ball and tossed an ice ball at it, and then he hurled a rainbow ball at the second, and then a fireball at the third.

"What is it?" Luigi asked.

"Tipral, toss a shadow ball here. I think something might happen."

Tipral threw a shadow ball at the fourth crystal ball, and when Chopper tossed a light ball at the final one, the ground shook as darkness rose from the ground and emitted a purple shard. Tipral quickly snatched it and left the area, so everyone followed.

"Hmmmmm... This seems to form some kind of diamond." Tipral put the pieces together, and a dark diamond was formed and landed on the ground. When Tipral smashed it, it created a spring.

"Well, we can FINALLY get out of here," Chopper sighed before he glared at Kirby. "But we could've NOT fallen in here if it weren't for someone..."

"Poyo! (YOU suggested it!)" Kirby exclaimed.

"Well you..." Chopper paused when he heard a couple of voices from above. He noticed a couple of Maginan Troopers flying over the pit, not paying attention to what was below them (to the group's relief).

"What are those guys?" Luigi asked.

"Maginans..." Chopper trailed. "Those are Tipral's troopers."

"So they followed me here, I guess?" Tipral gawked. "No matter. If they find me, fine. If not... Well, I won't care either way."

When the Maginans left, they used the spring to launch themselves up to the area where they were in before they fell. Up ahead was the door, which didn't happen to be locked, so they entered it to move on.

They walked out of the door to find a cannon ahead. Knowing what they had to do, they jumped in and let it fire them to the right. They ended up in another cannon that was up ahead, which happened to be changing directions each second.

"I don't like being stuck in here..." Chopper trailed.

"It's kind of tight," Luigi added.

They fired themselves to the upper right, allowing them to land in a cannon that fired them into a wall. They could've gone the upper left, but they saw a pipe here, so they went down it instead.

Upon coming out, they were in a large area with a couple of brick blocks in a couple of rows. Some dark purple Koopas with black soccer shells called Voopa Strikes were on the blocks and kicking shells toward them.

Mario quickly took action and kicked one of the shells back. He also punched underneath a block to knock a Voopa Strike into its shell, allowing him to kick it with ease. Luigi also helped and jumped on the Voopa Strike on the top row of blocks to the left to make it retreat into its shell.

"These are just like all the other Koopas we've faced," Luigi recalled. However, he stopped when the Voopa Striker hiding in its shell jumped up and knocked Luigi off the blocks. Tipral teleported up to the Voopa Striker and punched it upward with a Star Punch, then he took it down by tossing a shadow ball at it.

"These things aren't THAT hard..." Tipral trailed.

He looked to his left and noticed a large light block in the way, so with a charged shadow ball, he was able to destroy it and find a Void Key. He put it away and walked back over to the pipe.

"We don't need to be here, so let's go."

Everyone followed him back to the cannons, which they used to go to the upper left and find one cannon aiming up to a platform where a door was. When they entered it, they were in an area with a ceiling above them. Some sparks happened to be striking the ground, but they were able to get past it.

"Uh oh... Cursya up ahead." Sonic alerted, pointing to the dark purple Void Cursya. "What does it do?"

"Hopefully it has no ability to get us out of here..." Chopper hoped.

Mario approached the Void Cursya and bashed it with his hammer. Thankfully, it only had 1 HP, so it was taken out in one hit. He gasped and backed away when a dark lightning bolt struck near his foot.

Mario: Mama mia!

"Poyo, (I see a conveyer belt up ahead,)" Kirby said as he pointed to the conveyor belt. When they got past the lightning, they jumped on the conveyor belt and noticed some Thwomps above coming down. Thankfully, they weren't too big for them. And even if Chopper went into 3-D, he saw some electric gates to prevent him from going around them.

"Looks like flipping won't work here," Chopper frowned.

"Then we have to move at the right time," Tipral suggested. "This conveyor belt, unfortunately, isn't helping us..."

When the Thwomp in front of them moved up, they quickly got past it to run into a Void Cursya that was coming their way. Sonic ended up getting hit and was unable to jump high – only slightly.

"Oh, come on! This isn't fair!" Sonic grumbled.

Tipral finished off the Void Cursya with his Star Magic before they found another Thwomp come down near them. It was the last one, so they didn't have to worry about any more of them, especially when they got off the conveyer belt.

Going through the door ahead, they found some platforms making a staircase with some Firebars on them. All they had to do was jump when it wasn't in their way while worrying about some Void Boos flying around.

"It doesn't seem like those turn invisible," Luigi noticed. "I guess we don't have to worry about facing them and attacking..."

When he reached the top of the platform, he noticed an Atomic Void Boo reveal its face, causing him to scream like a girl. Tipral simply teleported above it and jumped on it until it was defeated.

"I don't see what's scary about that," Tipral scoffed.

"Does anything scare you?" Chopper asked.

"I will not answer that."

"Poyo... (I guess something does...)" Kirby trailed.

They found some platforms leading to the ground, as well as some Firebars that were getting in the way. The next set of platforms had Void Gordos above the platforms, preventing any Super Jump, but Kirby was able to float up and reach the floor on the other side, which had a door waiting for them.

Once Tipral teleported the rest, they entered the door into a flat area with some Ultra Shrooms hanging from a string. There was also a locked door up ahead, to most of their dismay.

"Hold on... This is just like Merlee's Mansion!" Chopper guffawed. "Same thing goes with Castle Tipral..."

Mario: Oh, yeah!

"But... With the locked door, we should probably..."

Kirby quickly grabbed the Ultra Shroom, causing him to fall through a hole. Chopper frowned and jumped down to help him, while the rest decided to stay up and not have to deal with getting out.

As soon as Chopper landed on the ground, he noticed Kirby fighting off a large black Void Jawbus that was in the way. But, since his Beam attack wasn't doing much, he couldn't hit its tail.

Chopper groaned and went into 3-D to jump on its tail to take care of it. Unfortunately, it didn't happen to have a key with it, so a pipe ended up appearing instead.

"Kirby, I didn't say to grab it immediately!" Chopper exclaimed. "You need to learn to pay attention!"

"Poyo, (You said maybe we should, so I did it,)" Kirby declared. "Poyo. (That's partly your fault.)"

"I... You know what, I'm not going to bother arguing." Chopper went into the pipe to return to the others. Kirby was about to go, but he had a strange feeling in him that told him he wasn't alone.

"Poyo... (I think something's following us... Something...familiar...)"

He went back into the pipe to return to his friends (mostly). They didn't bother to discuss what happened down there, so they decided to check the second Ultra Shroom hanging. The only thing they found were two Void Boos and nothing else, so they got out and checked the third one.

They were greeted with a dark purple Void Growmeba.

"Oh, great... These things." Chopper sighed. "If Thoreau were here, this would be a lot easier for us."

"Or you could do this," Tipral trapped the Void Growmeba in an invisible box and snapped his finger, causing it to explode and let the Void Growmeba drop a Void Key that Tipral took.

Mario: That works.

"Now let's get out of here," Tipral went into the pipe like everyone else and walked over to the door ahead. There also happened to be a Save Block, so they hit it to save their game before going through the door.

And there, they saw Count Bleck in a small area waiting for them.

"Bleh heh heh heh... So you show up at last?" Count Bleck smiled.

"Count Bleck?" Chopper gawked. "No, it couldn't be you at all."

"Count Bleck wonders why you don't think it's really me. If you were looking for Mimi, she's just up ahead."

"How do you know?" Luigi asked.

"Because Count Bleck saw her! She is planning on ambushing you, and if you're not careful, you could easily fall into her trap. That's why Count Bleck stayed here after I overheard her mumbling about you guys coming here."

"And how did you get here, exactly?" Chopper asked.

"The Void sucked Timpani and I here, but we were lost. I searched everywhere for her, but sadly, Count Bleck cannot find her..." the count slowly shook his head. "But Count Bleck is relieved to see you all here."

"Well, we might as well get going," Luigi suggested.

Mario: How do we know you're really you?

Count Bleck opened his cape and opened his disembodied hands. "Do you not see this? The cape that is owned by Count Bleck himself! I thought the heroes were people to trust? Do you not trust Count Bleck?"

"Well... It's not that." Chopper said. "It's just..."

"You don't have to apologize. Count Bleck understands..." Count Bleck closed his cape and lowered his top hat. "I've been stuck in this place for so long, and I haven't found Timpani. Count Bleck doesn't want to have to do what he did before..."

"Poyo, (I apologize, but we should get going,)" Kirby said.

"Well, before you all go, Count Bleck just wanted to ask you a few questions..." he looked back up at the six and fixed his monocle. "Only three will be asked, and you must be as honest. Is that OK?"

"Ummm... OK..." Chopper trailed.

"What is the hardest thing for you to defeat? A Waddle Dee, a Darkling, or a Master Shroom?"

"Master Shroom," answered Sonic.

"Bleh heh heh… So, that one scares you more than anything? Interesting…mused Count Bleck." Count Bleck grinned. "Now… Which one of these monsters make you so scared, you would run to your mommy? A Void Robbie, a Dark Wizard, or a Shooting Star?"

"Those Shooting Stars seriously scare me so much," Luigi fake shuddered. "Anything but those!"

"Count Bleck understands. You are afraid of a Shooting Star? This is interesting…said Count Bleck. Which of these irritates you more than anything like what Count Bleck would hate? Galacta Knight, Francis, or Spaghetti?"

"What's Galacta Knight doing as a choice?" Chopper wondered. "That reminds me of..."

"Poyo! (You just answered his question!)" Kirby exclaimed.

"You are most angry with that? Bleh heh heh heh… This does amuse Count Bleck." Count Bleck pondered. "Unfortunately, I must leave, but we shall soon meet some day So, goodbye for now! BLEH HEH HEH HEH! BLECK!"

Count Bleck teleported out of the area, leaving the group with strange looks. Nevertheless, they entered through the door ahead to find a Master Shroom Shake sitting on the ground. They split it into six pieces so they could recover 200 HP, and then they proceeded into the next area.

"A Shooting Star... Well, that's a nice treat." Sonic grinned as he scooped up the item and put it away. "Now let's see what's through the next area."

As soon as they entered through the door, they noticed a pink crystal floating slightly above the ground. They also noticed a hot pink round figure in a white mask with a vertical and horizontal opening, two yellow horns on the top of the mask, red eyes, white shoulder pads, white boots, a white shield with a hot pink embedded in it, white wings and a hot pink lance encapsulated in it.

"What's that?" Luigi gaped.

Mario: I think we've seen someone like him before...

"Yeah, we have," Sonic agreed.

The warrior was able to break through the crystal and swing his weapon before landing on the ground. He whirled around and happened to notice the six staring at him.

"Galacta Knight..." Chopper trailed.

"It's you again... I recognize those antennas..." Galacta Knight growled. "Thank you very much for taking me here to see you! I was hoping for a little rematch after you beat me back on Pop Star."

"Poyo... (Nice job picking this...)" Kirby groaned.

"Kirby, now's not the time for this!"

"So, are we going to bicker around or are we going to fight?" Galacta Knight asked as he swung his lance and aimed it at the group.

"You're welcome to be smashed by us," Tipral declared. "I've never seen someone like you before. You definitely remind me of Knightmate, or rather, Meta Knight. Though I'm sure you might be just as weak."

"Then I'll prove to you that I'm more than you think. After all, I am the strongest warrior in the galaxy!" Galacta Knight charged and managed to knock Chopper away with a simple swing. Tipral tried to hit him with a Star Spear, but his shield helped him block it.

"Great... That shield can block practically anything then." Tipral groaned.

Galacta Knight flew up and spun vertically until he landed on the ground and sent an energy wave their way. Kirby floated over the attack and fired a beam attack at Galacta Knight, who shrugged it aside and jumped up and threw Kirby to the ground with his lance.

"Poyo... (He's certainly not holding back...)" Kirby moaned.

Sonic grinned and clenched his fist to use his Sonic Wind on Galacta Knight, which was able to leave him off guard and allow him to hit him with a Spin Dash. Galacta Knight didn't even have time to block it, which sent him flying back.

"Not bad... But let's see how you deal with this!" Galacta Knight moved his lance back and began to store some energy in it. They all noticed it glow as he approached them. With that energy, he spun himself and managed to hit Luigi, who didn't seem to be paying attention.

Mario: Luigi!

"Why didn't I see that coming?" Luigi groaned as he rubbed his head before Galacta Knight lunged at him and sent him flying to the wall. Mario retaliated by bashing the warrior's head, causing him to quickly fly behind Mario and lunge at him too.

But Mario was fast and did a backflip over him, allowing Chopper to land on Galacta Knight's head and perform a stylish move as well. Unfortunately, he ended up getting hit by Galacta Knight's Shuttle Loop and was knocked to the ground while the masked warrior began to glide over them.

"OK, he's definitely putting up more of a fight than before," Chopper sighed as he slowly got up and chucked some fireballs at Galacta Knight while he was in the air. Some fire caught his wings, but he managed to shake it off and land on the ground while turning around.

"Since we don't take turns making attacks anymore, I can go all out with my attacks," Galacta Knight grinned as he lunged at Chopper, who ducked and managed to make him trip and fall over.

"At least I can trip you."

Galacta Knight quickly got up, but he was bombarded with a couple of charged beam shots from Kirby, which forced him to put up his shield and block some of the attacks. He was even able to block Sonic's Spin Dash as well.

He lowered his shield and hit Sonic with a Shuttle Loop before gliding toward Mario. He held his lance in front of him and jabbed at Mario to knock him over. He soon hit the ground and flew up quickly, but that left him open when Luigi crouched and hit him from underneath with a Super Jump.

When he fell to the ground, he blocked Tipral's Star Kick and a couple of his Star Punches with his shield and hit Tipral with his lance once. Tipral retaliated by teleporting above him and chucking two shadow balls at him before hitting him with two Star Spears.

"What's this guy's stats?" Tipral asked.

"He's got 530 HP, an Attack of 22 and a Defense of 9," Chopper noticed. "Yikes... That's tough."

Mario had his chance to make an attack, so he tried to hit Galacta Knight with his hammer, but the problem was that he was much faster than him and managed to recoil and jump in the air while spinning. Galacta Knight fired another energy wave, which was able to hit Mario.

But before Galacta Knight could make another attack, Luigi used his Cyclone and sent him flying in the air, which gave him the chance to hit him with his Super Jump. Tipral teleported to him while he was falling and punched him near the door up ahead.

"Oh, I almost forgot something," Galacta Knight stored some energy in his lance and fired it at the door, which was now being blocked by pink energy. Chopper threw an ice ball to freeze him afterward, but he was able to break out and fly toward the pale green boy.

Of course, Kirby helped out and fired another charged shot at Galacta Knight, so he decided to go after Kirby and swung his lance at him three times, knocking away his Beam ability in the process.

"Poyo! (My ability!)" Kirby cried.

"I'll take care of that for you," Galacta Knight flew up and managed to shatter the yellow star with one swing. This forced Kirby to take out his Final Cutter and strike the masked warrior with it to knock him to the ground.

"Oh... So you have more than that! Not bad..."

"I also have something cool," Chopper smiled as he threw a rainbow ball and a light ball at Galacta Knight. He cringed from the attacks, but he quickly shook it off and spun his lance after storing enough power in it.

"Honestly, you're nothing compared to Shade," Tipral scoffed as he managed to kick Galacta Knight. He tried to punch him, but the masked warrior brought his shield up and blocked his punch. But that didn't stop him from throwing a shadow ball and teleporting it behind him.

"Ungh! How did you do that?!" Galacta Knight hissed.

"I have teleportation. Now if only it was able to teleport to different dimensions..."

Galacta Knight didn't care and lunged at Tipral, but Chopper managed to jump in and use his spinning kick to throw Galacta Knight back and knocked him to the ground. To them, it looked like he was defeated.

But to Galacta Knight, it was only the beginning.

"I didn't expect you to force me to go to these measures..." Galacta Knight groaned as he got up. "But it looks like I'm going to have to!"

"What do you mean?" Chopper questioned.

Galacta Knight swung his lance and now had a reddish pink glow around him. He flew up and fired vertical beam columns down at the six, which forced them to dodge when they saw where they stood glow.

"Yeesh! Did we anger him!" Luigi cried.

Mario: I guess so...

Galacta Knight flew down and managed to block Mario's hammer when he tried to hit him with it. What he got was a couple of lance strikes from Galacta Knight and one final thrust that knocked the plumber back.

He whirled over to Sonic and performed a downward thrust with his lance to send an energy wave his way. Sonic jumped over the attack and hit him with a Homing Attack, followed by his Whirlwind, which sent him flying in the air.

But Galacta Knight had other plans. He created beams shaped like swords and fired three Knight Beams down at Sonic to interrupt his Homing Attack. Luigi, on the other hand, managed to pull off a Super Jump and even jump on his head a second time.

But while Luigi was about to land, Galacta Knight spun himself and got in a dark pink tornado that he managed to knock Luigi back. When he stopped, he fired an energy wave toward Chopper.

"See, this is what happens when you have to bring me to this level," Galacta Knight hissed.

"Seriously, why do you have to get in our way?" Chopper asked, jumping over the attack. "We're trying to destroy something that's going to destroy everything! Don't you care about living somewhere?"

"You people shamed me back in Dream Land, and now I'm going to redeem myself. Plus, I never liked your father. I always heard him gushing over stupid stuff involving some kind of 'anime'. So that's why I made him kill one of his friends! Interesting, huh?"

"Oh... Don't you EVER talk to my father like that!" Chopper dove at Galacta Knight, but he put up his shield and fired a yellow projectile from his shield at Chopper. But that didn't stop him from inhaling it and spitting it at him.

Galacta Knight jumped back and flew up again, but this time he raised his lance and fired a beam whips that circled around the area. Kirby was able to avoid it easily, as well as Tipral, but for the others, not so much.

"How do you avoid that?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"That's a tough one to dodge..." Sonic trailed.

Galacta Knight flew back down and fired a projectile from his lance, which Kirby blocked with his Final Cutter and used against him. He tried to block the attack, but he wasn't fast enough.

Kirby went for another Final Cutter, but Galacta Knight blocked it and managed to slash at Kirby rapidly and knocked him back over by Sonic. This gave Tipral the opportunity to hit Galacta Knight with a Star Spear.

Sadly, his attack was quickly blocked.

"Ugh... He saw it coming." Tipral grumbled.

"There's a reason why I was the strongest warrior in the galaxy," Galacta Knight said as he flew up and fired a couple of Knight Beams down at him. Tipral teleported out of the way and jumped on top of Galacta Knight to throw him to the ground.

"Oof! Impressive..."

Galacta Knight shook off the hit and jumped in the air before thrusting his lance down on Luigi. He then tried to jab at him, but Luigi used his Super Jump to avoid him, so Galacta Knight flew over to the right corner and stored some power in his lance.

After he had enough power, he fired a couple of powerful projectiles from his lance at Chopper and Kirby. Chopper tried to inhale them, but he ended up getting hurt instead, while Kirby floated over them.

"Poyo, (At least I can float,)" Kirby said as he let out a puff of air and landed. However, Galacta Knight flew his way and prepared to swing at him, so Kirby tried to inhale him. Sadly, that didn't work.

"I don't think he can be inhaled..." Chopper trailed as he hit Galacta Knight with a light ball. "Too bad he didn't hand a sword to fight."

"That's because I play a little differently," Galacta Knight said as he flew up and made fire geysers fire up from the ground. Mario and Luigi were scorched, while Sonic's quills were barely touching the fire.

"Yeesh... That was TOO close!" Sonic sighed.

When the fire geysers disappeared, Galacta Knight flew back down and created a shockwave, but everyone was able to avoid it with easy. Tipral quickly snapped his fingers afterward and hit Galacta Knight with Star Magic.

"You know, Chopper... You should've said spaghetti instead." Tipral noted.

Mario: That would've been nice, actually.

"Francis could've worked too," Sonic added.

"OK, we get it," Chopper grumbled. "Let's just kick this guy's butt!"

Unfortunately, Galacta Knight got to him first when he lunged at him and sent him flying back. Mario jumped on him and performed a stylish move before dodging Galacta Knight's lance. He was also able to add his Triple Jump in too.

Mario clenched his hammer, knowing that he could get in another attack and bashed Galacta Knight with it. He got hit once by it, but he was able to bring his shield up and block the attack before slashing at him at a fast pace.

He finished his last slash and sent Mario flying toward Luigi, who failed to dodge and ended up falling on the ground with his brother.

"Unghh... Bro, maybe we should try working together." Luigi moaned.

Mario: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

"Yeah!" Luigi fist pumped as Mario jumped on Luigi's shoulders. With Luigi spreading his arms out and Mario holding his hammer out, the two began to spin around rapidly and came flying toward Galacta Knight.

"What is THAT?!" Galacta Knight gawked before he was struck by the attack that hurled him to the wall. He tried to get up, but he was still hit by another one of Mario and Luigi's spinning attack.

Having enough, he flew over them and went over to the left corner. This time, he prepared to store energy in his lance for a much stronger attack. Even when Chopper threw a fireball at him, it didn't seem to bother him.

"Get ready... Because this attack is going to deal a lot to you all!" Galacta Knight smirked as he unleashed a giant dark pink tornado called the Mach Tornado. Tipral teleported to avoid the attack, but everyone else couldn't escape the attack and was sucked in and flown into the air.

Galacta Knight seemed satisfied as the five fell to the ground and took immense damage. However, he didn't expect to be hit by one of Tipral's shadow balls. He whirled around and tried to hit him, but he began to skid back as soon as Tipral hit him with a Star Punch.

"You know, when I look at your face, it almost reminds me a bit of that one knight who faced me," Galacta Knight recalled.

"My only concern is taking you down," Tipral said as he threw a Star Spear his way. Galacta Knight was prepared for this and brought his shield up to block it. He even hit Tipral with a projectile from his shield.

Galacta Knight seemed pleased, but he was interrupted when Chopper jumped on him, and then Kirby followed up with a Cartwheel. He tried to hit Chopper with his lance, but he was faster and hit him with a light spinning kick.

"I didn't expect you to be this fast," Galacta Knight commented. "You didn't seem to use it against me when we fought last time."

"That's because it was hard to use speed when taking turns," Chopper retorted as he jumped up again and prepared to jump on him with light energy. Galacta Knight quickly jabbed at him with his lance and knocked him back, and then he blocked Kirby's Final Cutter with his shield and kicked him back.

Sonic, wanting a chance to attack again, threw himself at Galacta Knight in a ball and knocked him over. He jumped in the air and tried to hit him with a Homing Attack, but Galacta Knight blocked it.

"You seem much faster, though..." Galacta Knight trailed as he tried to hit Sonic, only to miss. He was struck by his Whirlwind and was sent flying upward. However, with his wings, he was able to glide down and hit Sonic and bounce off the ground to fly upward. Luigi tried to Super Jump him, but he missed.

Galacta Knight landed on the ground while thrusting his lance downward. Tipral took this chance to hit him with Star Magic and then a Star Spear. Since Galacta Knight was busy pulling his lance out, he was hit by both.

When he finally pulled his lance out, he charged up an attack and performed his Knight Spin to hit Tipral and Sonic. Kirby managed to duck under his attack, and once two yellow stars appeared after the spin, he inhaled one and spat it at Galacta Knight.

Kirby also managed to hit him with his Final Cutter when he was busy trying to attack Tipral, making him turn to him. A Shuttle Loop was all he needed to hurt the pink puffball and glide over to Chopper.

When Chopper saw him coming, he jumped out of the way and even jumped on Galacta Knight's head to interrupt his gliding. This forced him to fly back up and fire vertical beams down at the group.

"I can always throw more at you if you want," Galacta Knight said as he summoned twelve Knight Beams afterward. "Let's see you dodge this!"

The Knight Beams fired up into the sky and then began to fall down in many directions, forcing Kirby to put up his defenses, while the rest were forced to continuously dodge the Knight Beams. All six of them were harmed by this, unfortunately.

"It's good to see that I've got something that can do a lot of harm to you all," Galacta Knight. "This should be easier!"

"We should heal up," Sonic suggested, getting a Star Shroom Shake out and drinking from it to recover 150 HP. They each took a sip until it was all gone. Tipral disintegrated the can and snapped his finger to hit Galacta Knight with his Star Magic.

"You do put up a fight, but you're ultimately not a match for us," Tipral scoffed as he jumped in the air while Galacta Knight was up and kicked him to the wall. Galacta Knight pushed himself off and flew back to Tipral. He put his shield up to block any attacks coming his way.

But once Luigi hit him with his Super Jump, he decided to spin around in a tornado and hit a couple of them. Kirby was the only one to avoid it, so he flew up and threw him to the ground with his lance.

"Poyo... (Yeesh... He won't let anyone avoid some of his attacks...)" Kirby moaned.

Galacta Knight looked down at him and prepared to drive his lance into him, but Sonic's Spin Dash stopped him and knocked him away from Kirby. Now that he had to pay attention to Sonic, he used his shield to block his Homing Attack and slash at him a couple of times.

But before he could slash him one more time, Chopper performed an ice jump to freeze him and let Sonic jump back before Galacta Knight broke out of his icy prison and turned to Chopper.

"I was thinking about taking you or the pink one out first," Galacta Knight said. "So maybe I should get to that!"

He stored more power in his lance and prepared for another Mach Tornado. When Chopper saw this, he flipped him and everyone else into 3-D so they could get around the Mach Tornado when it was unleashed.

"That should take care of them," muttered Galacta Knight. However, he stopped when he saw six figures flip into 2-D. "Wait... Did you just _dodge_ that?!"

"Yes, we did, Captain Obvious," Chopper answered.

Galacta Knight glared at them with his red eyes and threw in another Mach Tornado with the remaining power he stored in his lance to send them flying in the air. When they hit the ground, the knight smirked.

"Thankfully I had some remaining power for another Mach Tornado. I supposed you deserved it for being a bit...cocky."

Luigi was the first one to get up, and he saw Galacta Knight coming their way. One of his small cyclones were able to knock him away when he started spinning around. Mario got up as well and grabbed a hold of Luigi's arms.

"Bro, what're you doing?!" Luigi exclaimed.

Mario: Another one of our special moves!

"Oh..."

Mario began to swing him around while Galacta Knight quickly got out of the cyclone. When he let go of Luigi, he flew toward Galacta Knight like a missile and managed to knock him to the wall.

Luigi grinned, but his face froze when he was hurled back at Mario. Galacta Knight quickly got up and flew back up to summon more Knight Beams to rain down on the six.

"Haven't you learned already?" Tipral groaned as he teleported to dodge them, while Kirby put up his defenses again. Chopper tried to inhale some of them, but it didn't seem to work out for him, especially when Galacta Knight summoned fire geysers to fire up from the ground and scorch them.

Once the geysers disappeared, Chopper jumped up to Galacta Knight and threw him to the ground with a light kick. He noticed how low he was on HP, which made him sigh in relief.

Galacta Knight quickly got up and fired a projectile from his shield at Chopper, who easily ducked like a pancake under it and managed to throw in an ice ball to freeze him. When he broke out, Kirby hit him with his Cartwheel and knocked him over by Sonic.

But before Sonic could hit him, Tipral appeared behind Galacta Knight and managed to send him flying back to Chopper and Kirby with a Star Punch.

"Hey! I was going to make a move on him!" Sonic frowned.

"Too bad for you. Looks like I made the attack." Tipral replied.

Despite almost being defeated, Galacta Knight would never give up. He would fight 'till the end, and that's what he planned on doing when he swung at Chopper and knocked him to the ground.

"Game over, Star Warrior," Galacta Knight smirked as he lunged at him. Chopper ducked again and managed to jump on his head and leave him dazed. Just one more attack would do it.

"All right, you're finished!" Chopper declared as he began to charge up a light ball. However, Kirby jumped over him and managed to kick Galacta Knight and deliver the final blow.

"Hey!"

Galacta Knight didn't let out a cry in pain or anything. He quickly got up while he was surrounded in a bright light and flew off before anyone could say anything.

"He...flew away?" Luigi gawked.

Mario: I guess he admitted defeat.

"Kirby! I was just about to deliver the final blow!" Chopper frowned, who stopped charging a light ball. "And I was prepared!"

"Poyo, (Well you didn't deserve it after making us fight him,)" Kirby said.

"I was just asking a question. That wasn't my true answer. I would've picked spaghetti!"

"Can we stop fighting or something?" Sonic asked, pushing the two away from each other. "I'm sure we'll confront Mimi through that door. I'm pretty sure he was pretending to be Count Bleck."

"Poyo? (Wasn't it obvious?)" Kirby gawked.

With all that aside, they decided to head into the door, which was no longer being blocked, to their relief.

* * *

**Through the door-**

"_**EEEEEEEEEEEEK!**_"

"Hey! That sounds just like Mimi!" Chopper said as he saw Count Bleck screaming in fear at the group.

"H-How did you manage to get through there?!" Count Bleck gaped as he was surrounded in purple smoke. When it vanished, Mimi was revealed to be under the disguise.

"Well that was pretty obvious," Luigi said.

"Poyo, (I just said it was obvious,)" Kirby reminded.

"I put everything you hated and feared the most in there!" Mimi whined. "Seriously, what DOESN'T stop you?!"

"Hey, we've gone through that before, and I don't want to have to go through it again!" Chopper cried.

"You dummy-heads are the biggest liars on the planet! Not only that, but I'm pretty sure you were the ones that harmed Tippy badly!"

"Mimi, I'm here," Tipral noted, walking over to her.

"I know you were there, Tippy!" Mimi smiled, her angry look phasing away to a cute look. "I seriously missed you, you know... Fawful and Mr. L wouldn't shut up, and Nassy would always be forced to yell at them!"

"Mimi, I was actually helping these heroes get the last Pure Heart. With me no longer in control of the Chaos Heart, things could go very bad."

"...Really? Are you sure about that?" Mimi blinked before looking back at the heroes and giving them a snooty look. "But those meanie-heads... I want to make them pay after all they did to me!"

"Poyo! (Hey! Tipral told you something important!)" Kirby shouted, walking up to Mimi. "Poyo?! (Why do you still want to fight us?! It's just a waste of time!)"

"A waste of time? Listen here, pinky, I get whatever I want, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it! But you? It seems like you've always been dependent on your friends to help you through this adventure! I'm sure most of the time you stay back and let everyone else do the fighting!"

Kirby gasped, and admittedly, he did seem to stay back most of the time and be dependent on his friends. They have been the ones that helped him throughout this adventure. But his surprised face turned to a bold look.

"Poyo... (So, you think I'm dependent on others...)" Kirby trailed. "Poyo... (If you want me to prove you wrong, then I'll take you on myself... Not even the Pixls are here to help me...)"

"Wait, Kirby... Are you sure?" Chopper gawked.

"Poyo! (Don't try to help me!)" Kirby snapped, making nearly everyone recoil. "Poyo! (This fight is between Mimi and I ONLY! You all stay back and let me take her on!)"

"Are you..."

"Poyo... (Yes... I have to learn to do things myself, you know... Please... This won't be like with Blade... I'll be fine...)"

"...If you insist," Chopper slowly walked away to the door, with the others following. Tipral took a glance at Mimi before leaving the area. All that remained were Kirby and Mimi.

"Well now! So you wanna take cute li'l me all on my own?" Mimi smirked. "All right, then! Since you agreed to do this, then I might as well make this fight super special for this occasion!"

"Poyo, (We all know how this will turn out,)" Kirby stated. "Poyo. (I beat you before. I can do it a third time.)"

"Sure, I made some mistakes then! But this time... I'm fully prepared!" Mimi grinned as Kirby saw an evil look in her eyes. _**"MIMIMIMIMI!"**_

Mimi began to crack her neck again, but even then, Kirby gave her a fearless look as her head to spin around. Once it was upside down, spider legs formed from her head and was now fully in her spider form.

"Poyo? (Haven't you learned?)" Kirby sighed. "Poyo. (You did this three times. This isn't going to guarantee you a win.)"

_**"****Oh, really? Then how about I spice things up a bit? MIIIIMIIII!" **_Mimi's spider legs now changed to dark, demonic legs, which were more jagged, and now she started to turn to a darker color too. Two red upside down eyes appeared below her mouth, and she even grew to a bigger size, kind of like O'Chunks. Two dark horns were on her head as well to prevent anyone from jumping on her head.

"Poyo... (Oh... That looks a little more threatening...)" Kirby gulped.

_**"****So, are you scared now? Do you wanna go cry to your friends about this?!"**_

Kirby almost felt like he wanted to get out right now, but that's when he remembered something Ortorain did. After he beat Masked Dedede, he got a hold of his mask, which gave him his hammer.

"Poyo! (No! I'm not running this time!)" Kirby took out the mask and ate it. Upon swallowing it, he gained the mask King Dedede wore, and he also gained the mechanized hammer, which had sparks flying around it. It was large for King Dedede's size, but it was resized so Kirby could hold it.

_**"****Oh, I see... So you're going to make things even... All right then! Let's settle this, you pink dummy!" **_

Mimi began to make her way toward Kirby, who held his hammer close to him. He noticed this time, she actually had HP. Her HP was 525, her Attack was 21 and she had 10 Defense. He was surprised to see that her stats were lower than Galacta Knight's.

But it didn't matter anyway. He jumped up and tried to hit her with his hammer. Mimi was able to shoot a Rubee out of her mouth and hit Kirby in the face and knock him to the floor. Thank goodness that mask was on him!

_**"****Now I can spit Rubees at you! This is going to work out perfectly!" **_Mimi hissed as she made her way over to the wall. Kirby let his hammer stand up and make the face open up. Missiles fired out and managed to hit Mimi when she got on the wall, making her fall.

"Poyo! (Don't think you're going to be going away so soon!)" Kirby barked.

Mimi mumbled as she turned around and tried shooting a couple of more Rubees out of her mouth. Kirby's hammer easily shattered the Rubees, which shocked her, but it didn't stop her from trying. After all, she would do anything to get what she wanted.

_**"****Ugh... I thought this fight would be a breeze for me..." **_Mimi groaned.

She got back on the ceiling and got above Kirby so she could drop some Rubees from above down on him. Kirby used his hammer to smash them and even managed to shake the ground a bit too.

"Poyo! (Even if you're up there, I can make you get down!)" Kirby smirked.

Mimi clung to the ceiling for dear life and began to shoot a barrage of Rubees down at him. He tried blocking some of them, but he ended up getting hit by at least two, making Mimi satisfied as she dropped down in front of him.

But with his hammer ready, he jumped in the air and bashed Mimi with it. While it did a lot to Mimi, she managed to knock him back by hitting him with one of her own spider legs. Kirby tried another move with his hammer and started to spin it around. Mimi tried to avoid it, but because he was approaching her faster, he was able to hit her a couple of times and leave her dazed.

_**"****Don't think snapping off my spider legs will save you!" **_Mimi scoffed. _**"Because these are unsnappable!"**_

"Poyo, (Well that doesn't matter at this point,)" Kirby said after he stopped spinning. He felt a bit dizzy, which gave Mimi the opportunity to hit him with a fire Rubee and leave a nasty burn on him.

As a response, Kirby opened up the face of his hammer again and fired a flamethrower out of it that scorched Mimi, leaving her with a burn as well. She hissed and tried to hit him with her spider leg, which Kirby blocked with his hammer, so she spat a Rubee at his face to leave him open.

While Kirby quickly shook his head, Mimi froze him with an ice Rubee. She seemed satisfied as she grabbed a hold of the frozen puffball with one of her spider legs.

_**"****Now to finish you off!"**_

But before she could do anything else, Kirby broke out of his frozen prison and hit Mimi with his hammer, forcing her to release Kirby. He even bashed her with a spark smash, which left her paralyzed.

"Poyo! (Hey! This is interesting!)" Kirby smiled.

He readied his hammer again and jumped in the air this time and spun his hammer to hit her again. This got her out of her paralysis and made her try to freeze him with another ice Rubee. Kirby was easily able to shatter the attack.

Grunting, Mimi retreated back to the ceiling and began to make Rubees rain down on Kirby. He tried blocking a few of them, but he ended up getting hit by a few. He didn't even have a chance to shake the ground either!

_**"****MIIIMIIIMIII!" **_Mimi cackled as she shot a poison Rubee at him, which he managed to smash before it made contact with him. He slammed the ground again, which caused Mimi to fall down. Kirby quickly jumped over to her head and delivered a blow there, making Mimi cry in pain.

_**"****You meanie-head! Oh... Now I'm going to make you pay..." **_Mimi's spider legs attached to the ground and ceiling, while she was surrounded with a Rubee on each side of her head.

Kirby gulped and put his defenses up as Mimi began to spin rapidly up and down the area. Not only that, but Rubees were coming out of the ground as well. But Kirby still continued to keep his defenses up to take minimum damage.

"Poyo, (Don't think your attacks will do much when I can defend myself,)" Kirby said as Mimi stopped spinning and landed back on the ground. She charged once again, but this time she had Rubees circling around her while Rubees from above were falling down Kirby's way.

Kirby gaped and jumped back to avoid the Rubees and then bashed them to get rid of them. Another Rubee came his way, but he had an idea. He readied his hammer like a bat and swung it at the Rubee to make it hit Mimi.

_**"****Ow! What was that?!" **_Mimi gaped.

"Poyo! (Just a little something for you!)" Kirby answered as he bashed one of Mimi's legs, causing her to screech and hit the wall. Kirby was about to attack again until Mimi climbed up the wall.

However despite this, Kirby was able to fire a couple of missiles at Mimi. While they hit her, she wasn't going to let herself fall off the wall and made Rubees rise up from the ground and hit Kirby.

_**"****Well, if I just do something like this, then I'll be winning this!" **_Mimi grinned as she spat two poison Rubees down at Kirby, who jumped out of the way and fired more missiles at Mimi.

_**"****Oh no you don't!" **_she dodged the missiles and landed behind Kirby. She spat a yellow Rubee at Kirby and left him paralyzed. This gave her the opportunity to smack him with one of her spider legs.

"Poyo... (I can't move...)" Kirby cringed.

Mimi jumped in the air and managed to attach to the ceiling while dropping a couple of Rubees down at Kirby. When the paralysis was gone, Kirby swung his hammer up at a Rubee and knocked Mimi to the ground.

This time, however, Mimi got to the corner of the wall and charged at Kirby. He countered this by thrusting his hammer upward when Mimi jumped toward him and struck her with electricity. Sadly, she wasn't paralyzed, but that didn't stop him from shooting a missile at her.

_**"****Do you really want me to stoop down to a lower level, dummy?!" **_Mimi exclaimed. _**"Actually... I think I will! That'll make things better!"**_

Mimi opened her mouth wider, which made Kirby's eyes widen when he saw her spit out a large Rubee. He even tried to smash it with his hammer, but it didn't work and ended up knocking him to the wall.

"Poyo?! (How did you do that?!)" Kirby gaped.

_**"****I have many secrets than just this transformation!" **_Mimi cackled. _**"And now, with it, I'll defeat you and then defeat your friends as well! What are you going to do? Cry for help? Mimimimimimi!"**_

Kirby got off the wall and slowly walked over to Mimi with a bold look. "Poyo. (No. I'm going to stand here and fight.)"

Mimi frowned slightly, but it didn't matter to her. She wanted to see this, and now she was going to crush him with a couple of her new moves, starting off by quickly charging while spitting out Rubees at him.

Kirby jumped in the air and floated over her. Once she hit the wall on accident, she was left dazed, allowing Kirby to land on top of her and bash her with his hammer. She quickly shook her head and turned to Kirby. Mimi opened her mouth again and shot a large fire Rubee Kirby's way.

"Poyo? (Maybe I can try something with this one?)" Kirby bashed at the large Rubee, but not even his hammer was able to send it flying away, which resulted in him getting burned by it.

_**"****Awwww... Your little hammer can't take my big, bad Rubees!" **_Mimi cooed. _**"Such a shame..."**_

"Poyo... (Maybe not...)" Kirby trailed as he lifted his mask. "Poyo! (But I'm pretty sure my gut can!)"

Kirby opened his mouth and used his inhaling to his fullest. Usually he would never inhale such large things because of how difficult they were to do it, but at a time like this, it was necessary.

Mimi noticed him inhaling the Rubee and gaped when he successfully inhaled it and spat it at her, knocking her back. She grumbled, and without thinking, she charged at Kirby, only to get hit in the face by his hammer.

"Poyo? (You honestly thought I couldn't inhale with this power-up on?)" Kirby smirked as he paralyzed her with another swing.

_**"****Fine, if you want to be like that, then I might as well try something else!" **_Purple smoke enveloped her, forcing Kirby to step back and cough. When the smoke was gone, he saw Sonic standing before him, but he looked a lot darker.

_**"****See? I can transform into one of your friends!" **_Mimi smirked. _**"Now let's see how you deal against them!"**_

Kirby's eyes widened as Mimi curled up in a ball and struck him with a Spin Dash at incredible speeds. He tried to dodge, but she was too fast for him and ended up getting hit multiple times.

However, even then, this Sonic wasn't the real Sonic and just a fake. Sonic would think just like himself, but Mimi never thought like him. He readied his hammer and began to spin it as Mimi came charging his way again.

Mimi was the one who got hit instead.

_**"****What?! How did you do that?!" **_Mimi gaped.

"Poyo, (You may have Sonic's moves, but you don't think like him,)" Kirby answered, swinging his hammer Mimi's way, who jumped back and hit him with a Homing Attack. When she landed on the ground, Kirby brought his hammer down and struck her with a wave of electricity.

Mimi realized this form wasn't working for her, so she transformed into a darker version of Blade. It felt a bit uncomfortable, but she was able to toss shurikens Kirby's way. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to do much.

_**"****Ugh... This form isn't doing any good for me... Especially against a hammer." **_Mimi rushed toward Kirby and jumped in the air to bring her katana down, but Kirby managed to stun her with his hammer.

She grumbled as she transformed into Mario, which let her jump on Kirby and even bash his head with his hammer. Even with the mask, Kirby felt the pain from it and was driven back.

"Poyo... (Yeesh... Mario's hammer is stronger than I thought...)" Kirby trailed as he defended himself from Mimi's hammer again. But, his was much stronger, so he kicked Mimi in the stomach and spun his hammer to hit her.

_**"****Owwie! Is there anything else this body has?!" **_Mimi whined as she jumped and performed a Super Ground Pound. Kirby didn't see it coming and ended up falling over from her weight.

Mimi seemed satisfied and changed into Luigi. Her Cyclone helped send Kirby flying in the air and allow her to hit him with a Super Jump. This left Kirby a bit exhausted, so he drank a Master Shroom Shake to recover 200 HP. That also have him the strength to stun Mimi with his hammer.

And since he had more time to make an attack, he thrusted his hammer upward to send Mimi up to the ceiling. This only made her fume when she landed on the ground and missed her jump.

_**"****How am I doing terrible with these other forms?!" **_Mimi gaped. _**"I mean, surely you wouldn't be able to fight back against your friends or even know how to fight against them!"**_

"Poyo, (You're not my friends,)" Kirby noted. "Poyo. (You're just you and don't have the same strategy. I said something like this before, remember?)"

_**"****Maybe... But I think I understand this form a lot more!" **_Mimi smirked as she transformed into a darker version of Chopper. Kirby was not happy and gave her a glare while gripping his hammer.

_**"****Oh, I overheard your arguing! I'm sure you want to get revenge against him right now, right?"**_

Kirby frowned and charged at her, but Mimi managed to jump on his head and kick him from behind with a light kick. He turned around and fired a few missiles, but Mimi inhaled them and spat them back his way.

"Poyo... (Oh... Projectiles could be a problem when she can just inhale them...)" Kirby trailed as he dodged the yellow star coming his way and hit Mimi with his hammer. That didn't stop her from freezing him with an ice ball.

Kirby quickly shook out of his icy prison and managed to unfreeze himself. Mimi continued to taunt him by sticking her tongue out at him which forced him to stun her with a wave of electricity.

"Poyo! (You changing into Chopper is helping me vent a bit of my anger on him out!)" Kirby exclaimed as he jumped in the air and hit Mimi with his hammer again. "Poyo! (Thank you very much!)"

Mimi grumbled and charged up a light ball to hurl Kirby's way. He floated in the air to dodge it and spun his hammer vertically to hit her, but she was able to quickly jump on him and then knock him back with a light punch.

_**"****Since I've encountered him and you quite often during this adventure, I have an easier understanding of his moves!" **_Mimi smirked.

"Poyo? (Why don't you fight me in your own form?)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo! (I'm already creaming you in your transformations! In fact, I know I can take them on too!)"

Mimi was silent for a moment, but she grinned as she turned back to her hideous form and swatted Kirby away with one of her spider legs. He quickly got up and sent a wave of electricity her way. Mimi simply jumped over it and spat a giant poison Rubee, which Kirby inhaled and spat back at her.

When she got hit by the Rubee, she was left poisoned, but considering that she was part spider and part mech right now (Mimi's spider form DOES show gears in her, you know), she wasn't affected by the poison.

_**"****Mimimimi... So, Kirby... How about I bring things up a notch again?" **_Mimi snickered.

Kirby readied himself as Mimi's spider legs grew long enough for her to attach to both walls. She was surrounded in Rubees as she began to spin around, forcing Kirby to put up his defenses when she came his way.

When Mimi stopped, Kirby took this chance to attack her with his hammer. He was surprised when he saw Mimi block his hammer with at least two of her spider legs, causing him to get smacked by another one of her legs.

"Poyo? (How is she able to do that?)" Kirby cringed as Mimi surrounded herself in a fire Rubee shield. Of course, it didn't seem to help her out when Kirby was able to smash through them with ease.

She backed over to the corner and prepared to charge at him, so Kirby began to prepare himself as Mimi charged his way. He spun his hammer and came her way too, resulting in them both hitting the wall.

_**"****Well! So far, both of us are pretty even at this point." **_Mimi realized. _**"But now this is where it all ends, dummy!"**_

"Poyo, (Throw whatever you've got at me,)" Kirby challenged. "Poyo! (I want to make this fight interesting!)"

Mimi grinned sadistically as her red eyes changed to purple, and even her entire body changed to pure black. Kirby tried to attack her, but it didn't seem like his hammer was doing much.

_**"****Being much stronger is fun! I should've done this at the start!" **_Mimi cackled as she fired a dark Rubee Kirby's way. He tried to knock it away, but his hammer didn't appear to do squat to it.

"Poyo! (Oh, no! This isn't good!)" Kirby gaped.

_**"****Are you going to ask for help now? Go on, do it!"**_

"Poyo... (No... I need to learn to overcome things myself... I've stopped King Dedede from taking food, defeated Nightmare, destroyed the Dark Matter and Zero and his second form, stopped Marx and his soul form and many more... If I could defeat them myself (though I didn't defeat some of them myself), I can do the same against you...)"

Kirby stored some power in his hammer and tried something new too. While King Dedede didn't perform something like this before, he was sure he could do something to make his attacks much stronger.

Mimi threw another dark Rubee his way, but she paused when Kirby's hammer grew to a much bigger size and smashed the dark Rubee. She didn't even have time to dodge the hammer coming her way, which was capable of damaging her.

_**"****How did you do that?!"**_

"Poyo, (I'm capable of a lot of things with abilities,)" Kirby smirked as he began to spin his hammer around. Mimi retreated up to the ceiling and began to drop a couple of dark Rubees to make sure they hit him.

His hammer was able to smash all of them and also make her fall in front of him, leaving her open for another attack.

_**"****Well I'm not giving up just yet!" **_Mimi spat as she hit Kirby with one of her spider legs and also hit him with a dark Rubee. Despite that, she STILL got hit by his hammer, and at this point, she was almost finished.

But that didn't mean she was going to give up so easily. She would do anything to get anything she wanted anyway.

Kirby had more confidence in him as his hammer was surrounded in a light glow. And, of course, light was capable of dealing a lot to dark and vice versa. She was sent flying to the wall with another swing of his hammer.

_**"****If I try to fight back, it's probably over, but if I run, that's not going to do much..." **_Mimi muttered as he dodged Kirby's hammer attack and managed to get behind him. She quickly smacked him with a spider leg, but when he turned around, he jumped in the air and brought the large hammer down on her head.

It seemed before the fight was evenly matched, but now it was turned to Kirby's favor.

When Kirby slammed his hammer to the ground, a larger wave of electricity came Mimi's way and stunned her. With the little HP she had, it seemed like her spider legs would most likely snap off from the power of his hammer.

She fired a large dark Rubee at Kirby, and to her surprise, it seemed to give him a bit of a hard time. But in the end, the pink puffball managed to throw it back at her and knock her down.

"Poyo! (This is it!)" Kirby declared as he raised his hammer and jumped in the air to prepare for his finishing blow. Mimi quickly got up and brought two of her spider legs up to grab a hold of the handle.

_**"****There's no way I'm going to let you defeat me like this!" **_Mimi cried. _**"You've been a pain for a long time, and I'm not letting it end like this!"**_

"Poyo! (You've forced us to do labor, you distracted us from trying to get the seventh Pure Heart, you've trapped us in Castle Tipral, you ambushed us in the winter world, you've forced me to go through a basement from your trap, you slowed us down on Mobius, AND you threw more traps at us!)" Kirby exclaimed. "Poyo! (I'm NOT letting you win this!)"

_**"****I told you, I get whatever I want!" **_she retorted, pushing Kirby's hammer back further. _**"And I'm not letting a person who's mostly dependent to defeat me!"**_

"Poyo, (I'm not really as dependent as you think,)" Kirby said as he pushed his hammer closer to Mimi. "Poyo. (I've taken on more hideous things than any of my friends, mostly on my own. And I'm going to prove it right now!)"

_**"****And how do you plan on doing that?"**_

Kirby was able to successfully hit Mimi with his hammer, leaving her stunned and also snapping two of her spider legs off, making her gape. He also managed to hit her another time to snap off two more, leaving her with two left.

But just before Mimi could get away, Kirby raised his hammer, which grew to an even bigger size and brought it down on her.

"Poyo, (That's how,)" Kirby replied as Mimi's last two legs snapped off, which made her fall on the ground in front of Kirby.

_**"****But... But... How did I lose to you?!" **_Mimi cried. _**"The hero who had to rely on his friends most of the time?!"**_

Before Kirby could say anything, an explosion knocked him back, forcing his ability off him. He was covered in a cover of bruises, and Mimi didn't look any better when she transformed back into herself.

Little did they hear a sound of a camera clicking in the background.

_**"****Excellent... This is just what I need!"**_

Mimi was nearly limping at this point as she glared at Kirby. "Y-You..."

She didn't have the strength to say anything else as she fell forward, trying to use her arms to prevent herself from collapsing. Kirby seemed satisfied as he walked over to her while smirking.

"Poyo? (So, did you learn anything from that?)" Kirby asked. "Poyo (Like not to underestimate people like myself?)"

"I... I..."

The five came back through the door and noticed Kirby facing the exhausted Mimi. Her questionable look changed to a sad one when she looked up at Tipral.

"Tippy... I'm so sorry for failing you..." Mimi cried, a tear dropping from her face. "I tried to win, but he was able to win. I bet you hate me right now."

"...I don't know what to say," Tipral said as he looked down at the girl.

"And to be honest, I... I really do like you. Whenever I was around you, I always felt so...happy."

Tipral blinked as he suddenly heard a voice in his head that said something similar to that.

_"Usually when I'm around you, I feel happy! Just like a friend should do!"_

Tipral quickly shook his head and looked down at the sad Mimi. "Mimi... You..."

They felt a shake from the ground, indicating that they couldn't be here forever. "We shouldn't stay here any longer. We might as well go."

"I guess so..." Chopper trailed as he went over to the door ahead, along with everyone else. Kirby was the last to follow, but before he could go in the door, he turned and saw Mimi on the ground still.

"Poyo... (You know, you should get going...)" Kirby suggested. "Poyo... (It's not safe here...)"

"And why do you care so much?" Mimi asked, turning to the pink puffball. "You should just leave me be! I don't care anymore..."

"Poyo... (Mimi...)"

The shaking got worse, causing both of them to let out a cry.

* * *

**Outside the following door-**

When the five got through the door, they happened to hear a loud thud coming from the previous area, which made most of them jump up in surprise.

"Whoa... That was TOO close!" Chopper sighed. "I'm glad we all got here safely..."

"Ummmmm... Where's Kirby?" Luigi asked, noticing Kirby's disappearance.

Mario turned to the door and didn't see him there. He walked over to the door and tried to open it. He ended up giving them all a head shake after trying a few more times.

"Oh, no..." Chopper gasped.

* * *

**Previous area-**

"What are you doing, you stupid puffball?!" Mimi cried, who was being held by the leg by Kirby, who was hanging by one of the spider legs that happened to be stuck to the edge of the floor.

"Poyo! (Trying to save you!)" Kirby replied. "Poyo... (If only I had the strength to float up... But I think that fight we had won't help me...)"

"I don't care whether you don't have the strength to float or not! It's better for you to let me go!"

"Poyo, (Look, you've been doing a lot of bad things toward us, but that doesn't mean you're not a person,)" Kirby said. "Poyo! (And as a hero, I should be helping you anyway!)"

"If you were a hero, you'd actually try to cooperate... But it didn't seem like you were doing that a little bit before!"

Kirby frowned as he closed his eyes. "Poyo... (You're right... I feel like I've done some unnecessary arguing with Chopper... And I honestly feel bad for not apologizing, especially at this point...)"

"Kirby, I'll be honest..." Mimi trailed. "You're not as bad as I thought you were. You're a bit...respectable, considering that you even helped me twice."

"Poyo... (I don't think you're completely evil... There's probably some good in you...)"

"...Maybe there is..."

Kirby noticed his grip was starting to loosen on the spider leg. "Poyo! (Hold on! I'm not going to let myself fall!)"

Unfortunately, he lost his grip on the spider leg when the ground shook violently, and he and Mimi began to plunge down below into the abyss.

* * *

**Next area-**

Chopper tried to open the door a couple of more times, but the door still wouldn't open, leaving his antennas to hang low, along with his face.

"Kirby..." Chopper trailed. "I don't believe it..."

"First we lost Blade, and now Kirby..." Sonic frowned. "This is bad..."

"I'm feeling awful too... We've been arguing a lot through this area, and I never even got to apologize to him. That makes things worse..."

Mario: What do we do now?

"Keep going," Tipral answered, making everyone turn to him.

"But Tipral, Mimi was in there too," Luigi mentioned. "You want to go on without her and Kirby?"

"We can't do anything about it now. That door won't open, so all we can do is move on."

Mario: ...I guess you have a point.

"But Kirby..." Chopper trailed.

"As much as I don't want to leave him back there, I don't think we have any choice..." Sonic noted. "We need to get to the True Chaos Heart before The Void destroys the whole universe, and if we stay here forever, we won't be able to stop it."

"I honestly don't want to leave him, but you have a point. I don't want the whole universe to be destroyed, and I'm sure Kirby would want us to continue on..."

"Good. Now we should get going." Tipral turned around and saw a flat area ahead with a couple of dark purple Koopatrols in black armor with purple eyes walking around. There were even a few bottomless pits and some yellow ? blocks. The first one Luigi hit contained a Death Shroom.

"Wah! It's one of those!" Luigi cried.

Mario readied his hammer and bashed the Death Shroom a couple of times to take care of it. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to avoid getting skewered by the Void Koopatrol's spike on its head when it came charging at him.

In retaliation, Mario bashed the Void Koopatrol, while Chopper chucked a light ball at it. All Sonic had to do was hit it with a Spin Dash, and it was defeated.

"Bottomless pits... I guess we need to be careful here..." Sonic warned, noticing a bottomless pit ahead, as well as some spikes. "And we have to make a long jump over there too. This should be fun..."

Tipral jumped over the bottomless pit and used his teleporting dash to get past the spikes. Another Void Koopatrol spotted him and came charging his way, but he simply had to snap his fingers to defeat it. He hit a yellow ? block near him, which happened to reveal an Ultimate Shroom.

As soon as the rest got across, he split it into five pieces and gave them a piece. While they all had a much bigger piece than before, it didn't feel as right.

"Having more taste of it almost feels a bit empty to me..." Chopper trailed.

"Yeah, especially since Kirby and Blade and not here to share it with us," Luigi agreed.

"You can grieve about it later. When we're fighting enemies, that will not help you." Tipral informed. "Now let's continue on. I don't want to be lurking around these parts when another violent shake could happen any moment."

"I guess you're right," Chopper agreed, finding a dark purple Knuckle Joe with black hair ahead. He inhaled it and got a hold of the Fighter ability, which helped when he saw a tall pipe ahead with a black Blade Knight standing on it. Thankfully, they could all reach it, so Chopper used his Rising Break to knock the Void Blade Knight off the pipe and allow them all to jump over it.

While the Void Blade Knight was low on HP, Luigi jumped on its head to defeat it before running into a Darkling and a black Mechawful called a Void Mechawful. Unlike the Dark Mechawfuls, they had spikes on their cannonball fists. Mario recalled seeing the Dark Mechawfuls, and now he wasn't so pleased to see them back.

Mario: Well this is great...

"What are those supposed to be?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: I guess they're Void Mechawfuls.

"Great... This should be fun." Chopper sweat dropped as he saw one of the Void Mechawful's bring one of its fists back and charge up a punch. Tipral fired a Star Spear at it, but it wasn't enough. It instantly lunged forward and punched, but it sadly missed when Luigi was able to counter it with a Super Jump.

While the Void Mechawful was a bit dazed from the attack, Mario performed a Triple Jump and defeated the robot, which dropped a Sparky item. Apparently this could allow one to have a Sparky follow them around, kind of like the ones they saw on the poles.

Mario: I guess this should be helpful.

He grabbed it and hurried over to a ledge where the door was. All he had to do was use his Triple Jump to get up to it, while Luigi used his Super Jump, and Tipral simply teleported Chopper and Sonic up the ledge.

They entered through the door and found a Void Jawbus blocking the way, so Chopper went into 3-D and jumped on its tail to defeat it before noticing a large chasm below.

"Ummmmmm... This might not be good..." Chopper gulped.

Luigi looked up and noticed some square-shaped platforms appear in front of them. They seemed to fade away, kind of like the platforms back in the space gadget in the Comet of Darkness.

"Looks like we're going to have to be quick here," Tipral said. "You guys better be fast enough."

"I'm ready for anything," Sonic assured.

When the closest platform appeared, they quickly jumped on it and began to cross the chasm. However, there were a couple of Void Bronto Burts flying around too, and they happened to be swooping down toward them too.

Luigi gasped as he jumped over one of them and managed to make it across first. When Tipral was in range, he teleported to the ledge ahead, and then followed Sonic, Chopper and then finally Mario.

Mario: That was close!

Up ahead, they found a black mantis-like robot ahead that instantly threw its scythe-like arms straight at Sonic, who ended up getting hit by it while the arms returned to the robot. When Sonic got a closer look at it, he realized what it was.

"Slicers..."

"Slicers? You mean those robots you said you fought in that metropolis place?" Chopper wondered.

"Yeah, and I can't believe we have to find them in a place like this..."

Mario jumped over the Void Slicer and jumped on it, which allowed Tipral to jump on it afterward and destroy it. There was a rotating cylinder moving up and down leading up to a ledge with a black, robotic crab with one claw being bigger and having spikes.

"Void Shellcrackers too? This is nuts!"

Chopper jumped on the cylinder first and was slowly spinning around on it as it slowly moved up. Before he could jump, he ended up getting hit by the Void Shellcracker's large claw, which extended from its body and hit him, knocking him off the cylinder.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gaped.

Luigi even tried to use his Super Jump, but the Void Shellcracker was able to hit him and knock him down too. That left Tipral to go up the cylinder and teleport before the Void Shellcracker could hit him. He simply fired two Star Spears and defeated it.

When the rest got up to him, they found the ground to be moving downward, so Sonic went first and began to run down the slope, followed by Chopper and then Tipral. Mario and Luigi exchanged looks, with Luigi going behind Mario.

"You go first!" Luigi suggested.

Mario sighed as he began to slide down, with Luigi watching him. Unfortunately, he ended up tripping and began tumbling down the hill. Apparently the hills continued to go down an infinite loop, but they noticed a path over by the right at the hill going down.

When they all had the chance to jump off, they jumped and got past the infinite loop of hills and found a door in front of them. They entered it to find some platforms above them with two Void Koopatrols walking around.

Luigi gave a nod and used his Super Jump to hit one of the Void Koopatrols from underneath, while the other got in its shell and charged at Luigi. Chopper jumped in front of the enemy and attacked it with a Vulcan Jab before throwing it to the ground, which allowed Mario to defeat it with his hammer.

There was a platform to the upper left that was blocked by a couple of steel blocks, which Chopper was unable to smash with any of his attacks. To the upper right was a Void Slicer, which quickly threw its blades. Sonic was able to defeat it by jumping underneath it with a Spin Jump.

"Whew... Usually their pretty good at hitting something, but probably not from before!" Sonic smirked.

Mario: I see some blocks over here!

"Hit them, Mario, because I can't," Chopper suggested, getting out of the way and allowing Mario to smash the blocks and reveal a door. They entered it to find a small area with the Fire and Ice ability, as well as a stump-like switch.

Mario inspected the switch, but since he could use a Ground Pound on it, he did that, which caused the floor to turn to ice, and an icy wind happened to be blowing throughout the area, causing Luigi to shiver.

"B-Bro... You shouldn't have d-done that..." Luigi stammered.

"Yeah, it's freezing in here!" Chopper cried.

"You better do something before I'm forced to harm you," Tipral threatened. "I'm not going to freeze here..."

Chopper gave Tipral a glare, but they were cut off by Sonic. "Hold on... Let's not turn this place back to normal. After all, there might be a reason for this!"

Mario: The stump moved back up, so I can hit it again.

While Luigi continued to shiver, Chopper ditched his Fighter ability and grabbed a hold of the Ice ability so he wasn't shivering. However, his icy aura did make Luigi feel a bit colder, causing him to back away.

But with the slippery ground, he ended up slipping and falling over on his back.

"Mama mia..." Luigi moaned.

"Remember, Luigi: just think "I'm not cold!" and you should be fine," Chopper said as he helped him up.

"Didn't you say that before?" Sonic wondered.

"What? I'm just trying to help him..."

Unfortunately, that didn't seem enough, and Luigi continued to shiver. Tipral shivered too, still giving Mario a threatening look to hit the stump, but when Mario pondered, he shook his head.

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't harm you for not getting rid of this harsh coldness," Tipral hissed.

Mario: We're probably going to need it!

"We'll just see what it does," Chopper said as he ice skated over to the door and left the area. Luigi was the last one to leave, but it was because of how slippery the ground was and how cold it was too.

They noticed the whole area around them had an icy wind and an icy ground. The Slicers and Shellcrackers were nowhere to be seen, to their surprise. Nevertheless, they climbed up some platforms above them and found a door.

When they came out, there happened to be a geyser up ahead that appeared to be spurting out a large amount of water to block their way. But because it was frozen, water didn't appear to be spurting out.

"So... I guess the ice managed to make this geyser here freeze..." Tipral trailed. "But even then, we can't get through here."

Mario: Or can we?

He whipped out his hammer and bashed the frozen geyser. It ended up shattering, which allowed them to go through. However, they ended up finding a black Chilly called a Void Chilly waiting for them.

Chopper ice skated up to the Void Chilly and used his Ice Breath on it, but it didn't seem to freeze it. Not only that, but it did little damage too.

"What the heck?! That didn't do much!" Chopper gaped.

"Don't you use your brain, Chopper? Those enemies are ice enemies!" Tipral sighed. "I'm sure you would've realized that by now."

"No need to get mad at something like that," he turned back to the Void Chilly and tossed a fireball at it to deal massive damage, while Mario jumped on it to defeat it. Luigi, of course, couldn't do much with the cold temperatures.

"Does someone have a blanket?" Luigi moaned.

"Hate to break it to ya, but I don't think we have one..." Sonic trailed.

"Oh, man... Then I'm not going to enjoy this..."

Luigi was startled by the sound of the lightning in the background, causing him to bump into Sonic. And because he ended up touching his quills, he let out a scream in pain, making everyone turn to him.

"What's wrong, Luigi?" Sonic asked.

"Remind me not to get too startled..." Luigi groaned. The rest shrugged and carried on ahead. They noticed up ahead another frozen geyser, but before Mario could smash it, a Void Mechawful broke through it and punched Mario, sending him flying back.

Sonic gasped and quickly got in a ball to hit the robot with a Spin Dash. Afterward, Chopper jumped in the air and spun around while blowing his icy breath around him, hitting the Void Mechawful with an Ice Sprinkle. When he landed on the ground, he used his Ice Storm to freeze it.

Chopper smiled as he kicked the Void Mechawful away, but he didn't notice a path in sight. But when he looked down, he saw a slippery slope down below.

"Ummmmmm... Looks like we have to slide down." Chopper sweat dropped.

"What?! Are you serious?!" Luigi gaped.

"Well then we might as well do it," Tipral suggested, walking over to Chopper and looking down. He decided to use his dark shoes to skate down instead. Chopper ice skated down, while Sonic tried to run, but ended up slipping and sliding instead.

Mario turned to Luigi and tried to get him to go, but the green plumber shook his head in response. Mario, getting annoyed, was forced to grab a hold of his arm and drag him over to the icy slope.

"Bro! Come on! You know I don't want to do this!" Luigi cried.

Mario: I'm sorry, but it's for your own good!

Unfortunately, both Mario Bros. ended up slipping on the ice and began to slide their way down. Both of them began to scream as they landed right on top of Tipral at the bottom of the area. He threw them both off, now surrounded in a light purple glow.

"You Mario Bros. better watch where you're landing!" Tipral hissed. "Because maybe next time, you won't be living!"

"Tipral!" Chopper snapped. "Look, I know you don't want to die like us, but you don't have any right to threaten them like that! All of that was just a big accident!"

"Chopper, you know very well that Mario was partly responsible for killing my father, just like both Kirby and Sonic were! And you... I don't think I have to explain everything to you."

"You need to learn to cooperate," Sonic noted. "You just lost two of your minions, so I'm sure you would want to try to find a way to help them!"

"I could... But I highly doubt they're alive." Tipral sighed. "O'Chunks risked his life to save us, while Mimi... She didn't get a chance to get out too soon."

"Like Kirby..." Chopper trailed.

Mario: We should probably move on...

Everyone agreed and moved on ahead. They noticed there was now a ceiling with a couple of icicles above them. One dropped in front of Chopper, causing him to recoil and end up bumping into Tipral, who got angered and knocked him forward. Chopper decided not to complain and ice skated through, avoiding a couple of icicles that fell to the ground.

Up ahead were a couple of ice forts, with a couple of dark purple Snowmos in black jackets hiding behind the forts and throwing a couple of snowballs. Chopper opened his mouth and caught one of them and spat a small chunk of ice at one of the Void Snowmos.

Mario: I see one of those switches!

"Hit it quickly!" Luigi cried, which made Mario quickly hit it with a Super Ground Pound. The ice quickly melted away, and the ground was back to its normal black and purple ground. Luigi was no longer shivering, and the Void Snowmos were sweating like crazy.

"Here! This'll cool things down a bit!" Chopper smirked, using his Ice Storm to freeze them and kick them to the wall ahead. A door was waiting for them, so they entered it to find a flat area with a geyser shooting at an upper right angle.

"Hey! Now that looks cool!" Sonic grinned.

Mario looked up and noticed a downreel handle on the ceiling. The ground where they stood was also pretty thin. He explained to them that they should use it to go down below.

"Why don't we just freeze this thing ourselves?" Chopper suggested, running over to the geyser and using his Ice Breath on it. It didn't seem to work, so he tried again. "OK, it's not working..."

"Maybe because that's not enough ice," Tipral said.

"Why not go back to the other area and make it cold?" Sonic suggested.

"Oh, no! I don't want it to get cold again!" Luigi cried.

They went back to the previous area and froze it, but when they returned, it didn't appear to be frozen around them.

"Weird... When we activated that switch in that one small area, the larger area was frozen too..." Sonic trailed. "What's going on here?"

Mario: Well, we should do like I suggested!

"Yeah, we ought to go with what Mario suggested," Chopper agreed, grabbing the downreel handle and descending down to the ground below. They discovered a Void Mechawful that fired a dark beam out of its chest and hit Chopper. Tipral teleported in front of it and managed to deliver a powerful Star Punch. To finish things off, he snapped his finger a couple of times to kill it off.

The path continued, with a couple of spikes blocking their way. They found a stump at the end of the road, and a Void Koopatrol happened to be guarding it, so Tipral struck it with a shadow ball, and then Mario bashed it a couple of times with his hammer. Sonic finished it off with a Spin Dash.

With that, Mario jumped on the stump and used his Ground Pound, causing the whole area to become cold and icy.

"I kinda wish this switch wasn't here..." Luigi shivered.

"Are you going to whine all day about it?" Tipral groaned, despite shivering a bit. "This is something we need to do if we're going to get through here."

They hurried back while avoiding icicles and managed to get back up to where they previously were in the area thanks to a spring. Now the water geyser was frozen, which allowed them to get on and reach the other side.

Upon landing on the other side, they noticed two geysers, with one above and one below. Mario simply smashed it to get through, but they were greeted by two Void Mechawfuls and a dark purple Shy Guy called a Void Guy.

Chopper ice skated toward them and used his Ice Sprinkle as he jumped in the air to hit both Void Mechawfuls and the Void Guy. The Void Guy was frozen, but the Void Mechawful's weren't due to their higher HP and defenses.

"Hey! See if you like this!" Chopper called out, jumping behind the two robots and kicking the frozen Void Guy into them. While they were distracted, Mario jumped on the first one's head, while Luigi did the same thing. Tipral snapped his fingers afterward and killed off both Void Mechawfuls.

Up ahead they noticed a frozen pool, but it appeared to be too hard for any of them to break through. Plus, there was a wall in their way, so they couldn't progress through anymore.

"Wait... I think there's another stump around here..." Chopper trailed until he found it. "Oh! It's just at the right!"

Near the wall, there happened to be a stump, so Mario walked over to it and hit it with a Ground Pound. The ice melted away and there was now a pool with the current moving down.

However, before any of them could fall in, they looked down first.

"Wait... Water..." Sonic blinked for a couple of seconds before realizing that he was over it. He gasped as he fell in, as well as Luigi and Chopper. Tipral's dark shoes prevented him from falling in, and he slowly began to shake his head as he let himself fall in.

When Mario jumped in, they were all carried through by the current, which went down and then to the right, where they found themselves in a small pool with a door sitting on a platform. Sonic quickly jumped out before he could drown.

"That better be the last time we see water..." Sonic grumbled. "I'm getting sick of it."

"You say that all the time, yet you do it anyway," Chopper mentioned.

"Whatever..."

They headed through the door and found a stump first thing. Mario hit it, causing the whole place to become a frozen wonderland. They noticed the Void Snowmos around the area were now throwing snowballs, with one hitting Mario's face.

Chopper ice skated over to them and chucked a few fireballs at them, while Sonic used his Sonic Wind to finish them off. Luigi made a small jump, due to shivering. However, he soon stopped when he looked up and saw giant icicles from above.

"Uh oh..."

Luigi backed away as it landed near him. It didn't seem to shatter, so Tipral jumped on it to see how sturdy it was.

"Hmph... OK, this might be able to help us..." Tipral pondered. "If you stay on it, it might not do..."

Since he was standing on the left side of the large icicle, it began to move down to the left and near Luigi, causing him to jump back. It didn't shatter, and Tipral was able to jump off it in time.

"I guess I would suggest being careful with these."

"Yeah, I guess that's a good point," Chopper agreed, jumping over the icicle. They noticed a pit ahead and an icy ledge that appeared to be too high to jump up. Not only that, but a Void Shellcracker was there too.

Mario: That looks dangerous...

Tipral simply snapped his finger and the Void Shellcracker was out of the way. This gave Mario the opportunity to use his Triple Jump to get across the pit and land on the icy ledge. He nearly slipped, but he was able to keep himself sturdy.

"I guess I have to do the work for most of you..." Tipral sighed as he teleported the rest over to Mario. They noticed a slippery slope moving down where two Void Goombas were, so Mario slid down and knocked them away and ended up bumping into a Void Mechawful that fired a laser and knocked the plumber away.

Chopper used his Ice Breath in an attempt to freeze it, but he was only punched away by the robot, so Sonic and Tipral attacked it and destroyed it.

With that out of the way, they noticed a frozen geyser moving at a lower right angle ahead, so they got on and allowed themselves to slide down to lower ground to find another stump.

Mario: I got it!

The red plumber jumped on the stump and made the ice go away. The geyser they were just on was now spurting water, with some droplets getting on Sonic, causing him to cringe.

"Well, at least it's not like I'm in water..." Sonic trailed.

They noticed the door up ahead had a gap filled with dark matter rather than ice, so Mario hit the switch to freeze the whole place up. The only problem? The door past the dark matter was frozen too.

"Great... How are we supposed to get through that dark matter?!" Luigi cried.

"I'll just teleport you all across," Tipral said as Mario unfroze the place and teleported everyone across. He decided to skate over the dark matter himself with his dark shoes and follow everyone through the door. They were in a small area with a Save Block and a yellow ? block. The door up ahead, however, was locked.

"Hold on, let me check something," Chopper went into 3-D and noticed a hole in the ground. When he jumped down it, he found two Void Koopatrols and a Void Mechawful there. With his Ice Storm, he froze them and managed to make a chest appear, which revealed a Void Key.

He returned to the group and showed the key. However, before going, they got the Star Shroom from the yellow ? block and then hit the Save Block before going through the door.

They noticed the next area was small like most others, but they noticed a stump in the center of the area.

"Hmmmmm? Now what could this be for?" Chopper wondered as he ice skated over to the stump. "Strange..."

"So you have the arriving!"

The five saw Fawful on his hovering platform float down and give them all a grin. Everyone but Tipral got in their fighting stances.

"Fawful!" Chopper cried. "Well... I'm not TOO surprised to see you here..."

"And Fawful has no surprising of seeing you here. You all keep coming back like dead bears rising from the dead! Such annoyance Fawful gets from you all!"

"Then how about you get off your platform and take us on?" Sonic challenged. "Maybe you might put up more of a fight."

"I have chortles!" Fawful cackled. "That's not why I arrive here as a delicate peanut! Fawful has made plans so secret that the secrets are so delicious to scoff down!"

"Fawful, we don't have time for this," Tipral stepped in. "If we don't get to that Chaos Heart soon enough, everyone, including us, will die."

"Fawful laughs at your faces! You don't have realization, Tipral? Why Fawful joined you like a magnet that attracts ketchup?"

"I offered you to join me back in The Overthere. You didn't come to me. I technically came to you."

"I have chortles! But you no nothing of the planning of Fawful! You see, Fawful has planned like a hungry goose! The plan of greatness when Fawful usurps the dark antenna and leaves him out like a boy who can't reach the bananas!"

"Wait, let me get this straight... You were planning on betraying me from the start?"

"Nyeah heh heh heh! You have correctness! ...But now that you discovered Fawful's plan, you must be rid of!"

"You do realize that you don't stand a chance against me," Tipral threatened, his fists now being surrounded in a light purple glow. "You can't even put up much of a fight either."

Before anyone could do anything, Midbus landed in front of Tipral, forcing him to jump back.

"Lord Fawful," Midbus started. "Let me handle this."

"So I'm betting you were part of this too, weren't you?" Tipral wondered, glaring at Midbus.

"I follow Lord Fawful anywhere."

"I have uneasiness..." Fawful trailed. "These heroes keep appearing like a stinky man coming back from a long vacation full of fat people! So Fawful will fight to help Midbus have victory!"

"So we're fighting two people at once? I can handle that." Sonic smirked.

"But Midbus has pride... So Fawful leaves them to you!"

"Oh... I guess not..." Chopper trailed.

"So I have to deal with another traitor," Tipral said. "You're nothing compared to Dimentio, so you won't be much of a problem for me to crush!"

"MIDBUS! POWER UP!"

Fawful drew his blaster, but instead of shooting the five, he fired an ice beam at Midbus. While he was in the icy beam, Midbus slammed his two fists together as his yellow, rough back changed to a brown, furry one. His hot pink skin changed to blue, while his belly was a lighter blue. Another thing added to him was a crown that appeared on his head.

Mario: What happened?!

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Luigi gulped as Fawful put his blaster away.

"Now Midbus has cold fury!" Fawful cackled. "And with cold fury, you shall all burn in the coldness of Blizzard Midbus!"

"Don't think you're going anywhere," Tipral hissed. "I have a bone to pick with you!"

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Fawful must bid you farewell for now!" Fawful took off on his platform through the door ahead, leaving only the five and Blizzard Midbus, who had a puff of ice coming out of his nostrils.

"Now you face hot wrath," Blizzard Midbus declared. "The hot wrath of my freezing blizzard attack! Here your long journey ends!"

"Not on my watch!" Sonic declared, running over to Blizzard Midbus, who ended up throwing a snowball at him to leave him dazed. Blizzard Midbus grinned and charged at Sonic, sending him flying over to the wall.

Mario turned to Blizzard Midbus and readied his hammer. The boar tried to punch at him, but he was able to jump on his arm and bash him with his hammer. He noticed his max HP was 520, he had an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 8. Nothing too spectacular.

However, before he could jump off his arm, Blizzard Midbus shot ice breath from his nostrils, which resulted in freezing Mario. Chopper gasped and ran over to him and thawed him out, while Tipral delivered a Star Punch to Blizzard Midbus's face while he was occupied with them.

"You have a strong attack," Blizzard commented, wiping the bruise on his face. "But that's not stopping me. Now I smash you!"

Blizzard Midbus attempted to punch Tipral with an ice punch, but he teleported out of the way and fired a Star Spear at him. Meanwhile, Chopper ice skated up to Blizzard Midbus and hit him with his Ice Sprinkle.

Sadly, that hardly did much.

"What? How come that didn't do much?!" Chopper gawked.

"Because he has ice powers, you idiot," Tipral answered. "You should've realized that by now!"

Chopper gave him a glare before ducking under Blizzard Midbus's ice punch. Even if it didn't do much damage, it still hurt him, so he used his Ice Breath, followed by tossing a fireball at him.

"Unnghh..." Blizzard Midbus grunted as he jumped back and got in a ball. He charged at Chopper and sent him flying back. Since he was coming Sonic's way, he got in a ball and tossed himself at Blizzard Midbus, forcing them to clash.

Both were apparently not being forced back from their clash, because from what everyone could see, they were still trying to knock one of them back. Tipral ended up ending this by snapping his finger and causing both of them to get knocked back by his Star Magic.

"Urgh... So you have strength." Blizzard Midbus grunted as he got up. "Your strength will be eaten when I use my own strength to destroy you!"

"Ummmmm... And what does that mean?" Luigi sweat dropped.

Blizzard Midbus replied by throwing a snowball toward Luigi, who gasped and jumped out of the way. When he landed, the boar used his crown's power to summon a couple of snowmen with a face that resembled Fawful called Snawfuls. They began firing snowballs their way too, but Chopper tossed some fireballs their way and let them melt.

Chopper gave Blizzard Midbus a smirk, but his smirk disappeared when he saw him create a giant snowball with a Bob-omb in it. He jumped on it and began to roll it over to the group.

"What kind of move is that?" Chopper gawked.

"One to crush you!" Blizzard Midbus answered as the large snowball got closer. Tipral noticed the Bob-omb sticking out, so he threw a Star Spear to make the snowball explode and send Blizzard Midbus flying to the ground.

With that, Luigi ran over to him and jumped on his head. He didn't have much time to get away when Blizzard Midbus froze him with his ice breath. Mario noticed this and used his hammer to shatter the ice around his brother, freeing him.

"Whew! Thanks for that, bro!" Luigi sighed.

Mario: No problem!

Blizzard Midbus clenched his fists in anger and tried to freeze the Mario Bros., but they got out of harm's way and performed one of their special moves. Mario grabbed Luigi's arms and began to swing him around. When he let go, the green plumber charged straight into Blizzard Midbus's stomach.

Luigi jumped off of Blizzard Midbus afterward and stomped on his snout, causing him to be angered and deliver a punch to knock him back. However, he didn't expect to be struck by Chopper's Ice Storm.

"Why do you try to freeze me when I can freeze?" Blizzard Midbus asked.

"Why can't you speak in a way that we can understand?" Chopper asked.

"Understanding? That's impossible. Only the dumb understand."

Chopper blinked for a moment before getting hit by Blizzard Midbus's ice breath. However, the only difference was that he wasn't frozen by his ice attack, which made Blizzard Midbus confused.

"I don't understand. You should be frozen like a popsicle!"

"Wow, you are a lot dumber than I thought. I have the freakin' Ice ability on my hands! Of course you can't freeze me!"

Blizzard Midbus growled and grabbed a hold of the ceiling above them. He began to hurl snowballs down at them, with one hitting both Chopper and Tipral. Mario managed to throw one back at him with his own hammer, forcing him to land on the ground instead.

Mario gripped his hammer and prepared to swing it when Blizzard Midbus charged at them with his fist, but all he had to do was spin it around and the blue boar was left dazed, allowing Sonic to send him flying to the wall with a Spin Dash.

"Ha! How'd you like the taste of my Spin Dash!" Sonic taunted as he pointed at Blizzard Midbus who crashed into the wall.

"Taste... Ha ha... I have no taste..." Blizzard Midbus moaned, jumping off the wall and getting in a ball again.

"Oh, looks like he's asking for it again!" Sonic curled up in a ball again and both him and Blizzard Midbus clashed. Neither of them were winning the struggle, from the looks of it, but Blizzard Midbus was suddenly surrounded in a white glow, which caused a flash. Everyone noticed Sonic frozen like a popsicle when the flash was gone.

"Muh muh muh... Lord Fawful will love an iced rat!"

Tipral took this chance to teleport to Blizzard Midbus and land a kick on his chest, knocking him over. However, that didn't stop Blizzard Midbus from freezing Tipral with his ice breath.

"I'll go handle this," Chopper ice skated over to Sonic and thawed him out with his fire, and then he thawed out Tipral, who only gave him a glare. "What? I helped thaw you out!"

"I could've gotten out myself," Tipral muttered. "Consider that a bit of a warning."

Blizzard Midbus cracked his knuckles as he summoned a couple of more Snawfuls. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to last forever when Chopper melted them with a couple of fireballs.

"Even with fire, you don't stand against me," Blizzard Midbus scoffed, using his ice breath on Chopper again. It didn't freeze him, so he stopped and punched him instead, knocking his Ice ability away.

"Hey!" Chopper gaped when he saw the star shatter. "That's no fair!"

He didn't have time to respond when he was frozen by Blizzard Midbus's ice breath. Tipral took this chance to snap his finger and hit the boar with Star Magic and then deliver a couple of punches and kicks to him afterward.

"Maybe when I'm through with you, I'll make you beat up your own master," Tipral suggested. "How would you like that?"

Blizzard Midbus didn't have time to reply as Tipral continued to beat him up. But that didn't stop him from grabbing the dark being and throw him straight at Luigi, causing both of them to collapse on the ground.

"Ow... My head..." Luigi moaned.

"Maybe you should go out there and fight," Tipral suggested, grabbing Luigi and throwing him at Blizzard Midbus. The green plumber screamed, but because of how fast he was flying at Blizzard Midbus, he sent him crashing into the wall.

"What did I just do?" Luigi looked up at the growling Blizzard Midbus and jumped away from him before his large hands could get a hold of him. Mario quickly jumped on his shoulder, which Luigi gave him a nod as he spun around, while Mario held his hammer out and spun it to hit Blizzard Midbus a couple of times.

Blizzard Midbus couldn't take much of the hits and got in a ball and knocked the two over. Sonic noticed him coming his way, so he jumped and used a Whirlwind, but not even that worked against him.

"Yeesh! This guy's moving fast!" Sonic gaped. "Heads up, Chopper!"

"Huh?" Chopper noticed Blizzard Midbus coming his way, causing his mouth to drop and his eyes to widen. Thankfully, since he was by the wall, he was able to jump off it and dodge Blizzard Midbus, who was left dazed after crashing into the wall.

When a yellow star appeared, Chopper inhaled it and spat it at the boar, while Luigi jumped on his head afterward. He didn't want to chance it and attack him when he could be making a move himself. That wouldn't be a smart move anyway.

"Guh... Let's cool things down a bit!" Blizzard Midbus declared, throwing Chopper and Luigi out of the way and hitting the stump in the center of the area by simply jumping on it. The whole area became a frozen wasteland, making most of the group cold.

"I-It's gotten really cold here!" Chopper shivered.

"Yes, we all know," Tipral muttered. "Stop pointing out such obvious things!"

"Now the battle is in my favor," Blizzard Midbus declared. "Now I'll smash you. And then you'll be pancakes. Then victory shall belong to Midbus!"

"B-Bro... Can't you d-do something about th-this?" Luigi asked, his teeth chattering.

Mario noticed the stump wasn't coming back up, so all he could do was give Luigi a head shake. "What?! O-Oh, no... Th-This isn't g-good..."

"And I d-don't h-have my Ice a-ability..." Chopper added.

"Muh muh muh! Now the fight is mine!" Blizzard Midbus grinned and began to charge up an attack. "Now be frozen!"

"Don't you mean 'begone'?" Chopper wondered, but was ignored when Blizzard Midbus let out a large amount of ice breath from his nostrils. Everyone rushed to the corner to avoid being frozen, which they weren't.

Mario: That was close...

When Blizzard Midbus noticed they weren't frozen, he was enraged and jumped on another giant snowball with a Bob-omb in it. Tipral, easily recognizing this move, snapped his finger and made the snowball explode, with Blizzard Midbus falling to the ground.

"Did you really think you could try to use that move on us again?" Tipral scoffed. "Listen, Midbus, I'm not as blind as these other people. If I see something obvious that'll work against you, I _will_ hit it!"

Blizzard Midbus grunted while getting up. But instead of charging at them, he began to stomp the ground, causing a couple of icicles to come down from the ceiling. One nearly hit Luigi's foot, causing him to scream.

"Wah! Are there icicles here?!" Luigi gaped.

"Well I'm not sitting here like a frozen goose," Sonic declared. "This guy's in our way, and we have to finish this!"

Sonic ran toward Blizzard Midbus, but because of the ice, he began to slide unintentionally, causing him to yelp as Blizzard Midbus charged and knocked him away with ease.

"Muh muh muh! Can you not handle the power of my blizzard?" Blizzard Midbus scoffed, readying an ice punch. Tipral teleported to the boar and attacked him with shadow energy around his fists (a shadow punch, I suppose). Blizzard Midbus cringed as Tipral jumped back and fired two Star Spears at him.

Despite this, though, Blizzard Midbus jumped in the air and performed a ground pound, which created an icy shockwave that everyone jumped over. This gave Luigi the chance to hit him when the boar decided to jump again to hit him.

"Why won't you freeze?!" Blizzard Midbus growled. "You are just cowards."

While he was in the air, Luigi was able to hit him with his Super Jump, interrupting his attack and making him fall to the ground. He took this chance to hit him with a Cyclone, while Mario jumped over Luigi and kicked Blizzard Midbus in the face. It didn't make him crash into the wall, but it surely did hurt him.

"Bro! I have an idea!" Luigi informed.

Mario listened to Luigi's idea and nodded in agreement. He readied his hammer and brought it down on Luigi, forcing him into the ground. While he moved toward Blizzard Midbus, Mario jumped forward and hit the boar with his hammer. When Luigi jumped out, Mario was now spinning his hammer and hitting Blizzard Midbus multiple times.

Blizzard Midbus swiped at them, but they were too fast for him, forcing him to charge at them with his shoulder in the front. Chopper (who was able to unfreeze himself), jumped out of the way and managed to use a fire stomp to hit him.

"Muh... So you carry fire?" Blizzard Midbus cringed.

"Didn't I show this to you before?" Chopper blinked. "You've seen it before, didn't you? ...Or are you one to not remember much?"

"Memory? I don't need memory. Only the weak carry memory." Blizzard Midbus said as he punched Chopper with an ice punch. While it didn't freeze him, he was holding his arm in pain.

"What's the matter? Did I make you cry?"

"N-No... I'm just cringing at your ugly face! What else?"

This only angered Blizzard Midbus as he raised his fists. However, Tipral jumped on his head first and interrupted his attack. Blizzard Midbus whirled around to Tipral and tried to freeze him, which Tipral dodged by teleporting.

"Stop teleporting!" Blizzard Midbus. "It gets on my nerves!"

"Not going to happen," stated Tipral as he kicked his stomach with his Star Kick and then used his Star Burst afterward. Not even Blizzard Midbus saw this coming, considering that he never witnessed Tipral's power.

He teleported again to avoid Blizzard Midbus's punch, which let Sonic hit him with a Spin Dash. The boar tried to fight back by curling up in a ball too, but Sonic was faster and struck him first.

Blizzard Midbus growled and jumped on another giant snowball. This time, the Bob-omb was hidden so its head wasn't sticking out, which Tipral noticed. He wasn't sure where he should attack.

"Great... I guess he did grow a bit of a brain." Tipral sighed.

"This might do something," Chopper chucked a few fireballs at the snowball, but it only got slightly smaller, to his dismay. "OK... It looks like that won't be doing anything for us..."

When the snowball exploded, everyone had to shield their eyes as they were blown back by the attack. Blizzard Midbus landed on the ground and used his ice breath to try to freeze them again. Mario managed to dodge it and hit Blizzard Midbus with a Super Ground Pound.

While Blizzard Midbus was dazed, Mario jumped on the four people who were frozen and managed to help unfreeze them. Tipral was the first to break out and fire a Star Spear at Blizzard Midbus. Chopper got out too and managed to deliver a fire kick, which made Blizzard Midbus's eyes widen in pain from getting scorched.

"Why must fire have harm on me?" Blizzard Midbus grunted. "Guh... Then my ball attack shall have destruction on you!"

He curled up in a ball and began to charge. Sonic quickly reacted and used his Spin Dash to charge at Blizzard Midbus. Chopper was in the middle, which forced him to jump out of the way when they clashed.

"That was TOO close!" Chopper sighed.

"Don't relax just yet," Tipral suggested as Sonic was sent flying their way. They saw Blizzard Midbus charging at them, but that's when Tipral froze time before he could hit him.

"I might as well chip him down a bit," he said as he struck Midbus a couple of times with shadow punches and finished off his attack with a Star Burst. When time reverted back to normal, Blizzard Midbus was knocked away and slack-jawed.

"No. Defeat is unacceptable." Blizzard Midbus grunted as he charged at them, but this time he tried to bash them with his shoulder. Mario stopped him by bringing his hammer down on his head, causing his crown to fall off.

"Well his crown is off..." Luigi trailed.

Blizzard Midbus quickly grabbed his crown and put it back on, leaving everyone a bit confused. But it didn't matter anyway – except him stomping the ground and making icicles come down from above.

"That's it! Time to heats things up!" Chopper declared, tossing a fireball into his mouth to gain the Fire ability. He charged at Blizzard Midbus in a fireball, melting all the icicles in his way and sending him flying to the wall. All of the ice on the ground began to melt away too.

Mario: The ice is melting!

Blizzard Midbus managed to push Chopper away and noticed the ice melting. "What?! Lord Fawful won't be pleased..."

"Yeah, he won't," Tipral agreed. "And he won't be pleased to see that his 'leader' had just defeated you!"

Blizzard Midbus threw a couple of snowballs toward Tipral, but his fists simply smashed them. The boar growled and grabbed a hold of the ceiling to throw snowballs down instead. This only led to his downfall when Luigi was able to hit him with a Super Jump and knock him to the ground with a stomp.

"Unghh... You. Now you pay!" the boar quickly got up and froze Luigi with his ice breath, forcing Chopper to thaw him out while using his Fire Breath to counter Blizzard Midbus's ice breath. He knew for a fact that he was winning.

However, Blizzard Midbus stopped and jumped back. He curled into a ball again while surrounded in ice energy. Chopper knew he couldn't take him on then, but then an idea suddenly struck him.

"Hey, Sonic!"

"Yes?" Sonic ran over to him.

"Get in a ball and charge up a Spin Dash. I might have an idea!"

Sonic shrugged and curled up in a ball. While he charged up a Spin Dash, Chopper lit him on fire, which didn't seem to harm him because of how light the flame was. But despite that, he was surrounded in fire energy, allowing him to charge at Blizzard Midbus and win the clash.

"Wh...What power...was that?" Blizzard Midbus gawked as he jumped back up. "Spinning Fire Ball of Charging Power?!"

"Ummmmm... Something like that." Sonic answered, getting out of his ball form and no longer on fire. Blizzard Midbus was pretty low on HP, and what they knew, a couple of hits would do him in.

Mario turned to Luigi and grabbed a hold of his arms. Even though he wasn't expecting this, he let Mario swing him around. When he let go, Luigi was sent flying at Blizzard Midbus. He made sure his feet hit him first, resulting in a powerful kick to the face.

"Guh... This. This isn't over." Blizzard Midbus growled, getting exhausted. He had another move planned, but when Mario jumped twice, it was over when he did a flip during his Triple Jump and landed on Blizzard Midbus's head.

Mario watched as Blizzard Midbus knelt on the ground, covered in the bruises from their attacks. They were a bit bruised too, but not as much as him.

"Muh muh muh... Muh muh... Muh..." Blizzard Midbus weakly cackled. "Though I fall here... None beat Lord Fawful..."

"That's where you're wrong," Tipral replied. "These people defeated him before, and I'm sure I can beat him too."

"Wrong... Lord Fawful... He carries something powerful. Now he will FINISH YOU!"

Blizzard Midbus felt a sharp, icy pain in his body that caused him to stand up. His entire body except for his head froze up. They saw his face was frozen in place, with his eyes widened, and his nostrils spewing out a small amount of icy air. At this point, they knew Midbus was finally finished. For good.

"Looks like that's the end of him..." Chopper trailed. "Is he...dead?"

"Honestly, I don't know..." Sonic trailed. "It's hard to tell whether he's dead or not from being frozen. Though... We can't just sit here forever and talk about this."

"Yes, we still need to get Fawful," Tipral said. "I have a bone to pick with him for his betrayal."

They went through the door ahead, passing by Midbus and entering the next area. They were greeted with two Void Koopatrols over by a railing on the ceiling above them. Dark matter happened to be below.

Mario: We better be careful here...

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," Chopper assured – until he got hit by one of the Void Koopatrols, which knocked his ability away. The two enemies snickered as they got in their shells and knocked them back. Mario used his hammer to counter one of them and knock it away.

Chopper managed to kick the other Void Koopatrol with a rainbow kick, knocking it over on its back. Sonic used a Spin Jump on it, and then Luigi finished off the Void Koopatrol with a simply jump.

Mario whacked the remaining Void Koopatrol with his hammer one more time to defeat it. He then grabbed a hold of the railing above and crossed the gap like everyone else. It wasn't too hard – unless you want to count some Shadow Embers jumping out.

"Guys! I think we should be careful..." Luigi trailed.

"You don't have to tell us, plumber," Tipral retorted. "We can see them just fine!"

"Tipral, didn't I tell you NOT to reply that way?" Chopper reminded.

"Chopper, I suggest you stay out of this. That would be the smart thing to do."

After they crossed the gap, they saw the door ahead, but a Void Mechawful was blocking the way. The difference, however, was its body. It had some iron plating on it, which was something the previous one didn't. And because it was similar to the Void Mechawful, it was called a Void Mechawful.5.

Mario: I recognize that kind of appearance!

"I guess it's a newer version?" Sonic wondered.

Surprisingly, its attack was the same, with the timer on its chest when he brought its spiked fist bal. Chopper chucked a few fireballs at it, but because of its high defenses it didn't seem to do much. Plus, they had a high defense against fire.

"Well fire's not going to work..." Chopper trailed.

Mario jumped on its head to avoid its punch, while Sonic attacked it with a couple of Homing Attacks. While it took many hits, they were able to defeat the Void Mechawful.5 and proceed through the door.

They were in a flat area with a yellow ? block near them. They were also met with some Shadow Bones and dark purple Pokeys called Void Pokeys wandering around, which none of them were excited to see.

"Considering that even touching a Pokey is tough, I'm not looking forward to fighting one," Chopper groaned.

Mario: It beats the Void Mechawful.5 though.

"Yeah, that's true."

Tipral made the first move and attacked the Void Pokey closest to them. While it got hit, it managed to whack a part of its body at them. Mario got his hammer ready and whacked it back at the Void Pokey to deal some extra damage.

The Shadow Bones, however, was giving Luigi a hard time, considering that his stomps only made it collapse. Chopper turned to it and chucked a fireball at it to defeat it, making Luigi sigh.

"Man... I can't believe I don't have fire to defeat those..."

There was another Void Pokey up ahead, as well as a Voing-Oing that was bouncing behind it. However, a Void Mechawful.5 landed on top of the Void Pokey, which ended up destroying it.

"Great... Well this should be fun." Sonic sighed.

Chopper started to chuck a few light balls at the Void Mechawful.5, which surprisingly did some damage to the enemy. A lot, actually.

"Whoa... Light can harm this thing? Well that works out nicely!" Chopper smiled.

While the Void Mechawful.5 was stunned from the light, Luigi jumped on its head with his flutter jump to finish it off. The Voing-Oing jumped on top of Luigi and left him off guard, but Sonic's Homing Attack knocked it away and split it into smaller Voing-Oings.

It only took Tipral's Star Burst to defeat them all.

Mario: I guess that's it for here...

"No it's not," Tipral replied, pointing to a dark purple Clubba up ahead that was sleeping. They decided to slowly walk over to it, but there was a small problem: its eyes were slightly open, allowing it to quickly get up and hit them with its spiky club.

"How did it know we were coming? We were quiet!" Chopper gaped.

"I think I saw its eyes slightly open," Sonic remarked. "I guess we gotta be fast against them?"

The Void Clubba charged at them and swung its club around. Sonic managed to jump on it with his Spin Jump, followed by Mario's Super Ground Pound. When Chopper froze it with an ice ball, Tipral snapped his finger and defeated it.

Unfortunately, they were put to a halt when they found the door ahead to be locked. The only solution? Flip into 3-D and discover an upreel handle by the wall leading to a pipe. There, they were met with three Darklings. One had green eyes, the other had blue eyes and the last had red eyes.

"More of these guys..." Chopper trailed, getting into a fighting stance. "I always hated these guys!"

The Darklings charged at them, but they were instantly destroyed by a light ball Chopper tossed. Just comes to show that light could destroy darkness.

"At least we're not dealing with Hellspawns," Sonic mentioned. "I found those guys a bit annoying. Wouldn't you agree, Chop?"

"Yeah, but I think the Darksprine Troopers were worse..." Chopper trailed. "But they're gone too! So I think it's safe for all of us!"

"Maybe we should focus on finding that key rather than talking," Tipral suggested. "I happened to see a strange block above us, but it's too high to hit. I think the green one can hit it."

When Luigi realized who he meant, he crouched and launched himself at the block. This created three chests that appeared. Chopper opened the middle, which was suddenly surrounded in smoke. When the smoke was gone, they found a dark purple Chain Chomp with purple eyes growling at them.

"Chain Chomps? Oh, great..." Chopper jumped over the Void Chain Chomp when it lunged at him. He tossed a couple of rainbow balls down at it to leave it low on HP. Mario bashed his hammer to defeat it. Unfortunately, the other two chests disappeared from a puff of smoke.

"Huh? What happened to the chests?" Sonic gawked.

"I guess I have to hit the block again..." Luigi used his Super Jump and hit the block to make three chests appear again. Sonic opened the third chest, and a Void Key happened to be in there.

Mario: Well at least we have the key!

"Yeah, let's take this to the door," Sonic suggested.

They returned to the previous area and jumped down by the door to unlock it. They were met with a hill moving up with some Void Goombas walking down. When Chopper approached the hill, he got hit in the head by one of its headbonks.

"Ouch! Yeesh! I didn't do anything wrong to it!" Chopper gaped.

"Everything's evil in here, so I don't think it would care," Sonic shrugged.

Mario jumped on the Void Goombas, but he saw a Void Koopa charging his way in a shell. He managed to jump on it just in time to stop it and kick it back up the hill. Luigi decided to go up the hill and find a Void Mechawful.5 waiting at the top.

"Uh oh..." Luigi gulped as he dodged its punch and jumped on its head. Mario bashed its armored plating with his hammer, but it didn't seem to do much. However, Tipral Star Spear was able to make it malfunction and explode.

They noticed to their left was a glowing platform that, when stepped on, created a staircase. Chopper was suddenly reminded of when he saw a staircase like this in Dark Subspace World.

But he didn't let that bother him. He followed the others up the staircase and onto a platform that a Void Bat was flying around. In fact, there was a platform to the upper right with a couple of Void Bats flying in place.

"Are those bats going to attack?" Luigi wondered.

Mario: Doesn't look like it.

"Then we'll have to teleport across," Tipral declared. "Looks like I'm going to have to do a lot here..."

"Well I don't think this is a problem for me," Sonic smirked. "All I have to do is use my Homing Attack and I'm golden!"

The blue hedgehog jumped and performed a couple of Homing Attacks on the Void Bats. Since they weren't completely different, Chopper tried to improvise and decided to jump on each Void Bat.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to reach the dark ledge.

"Ack! No!" Chopper cried as he flailed his arms and feet around to make it over to the ledge (you know, like in cartoons), but everything suddenly stopped in place.

All except for Tipral.

"Does he really think what he's doing will help?" Tipral scoffed as he jumped over to Chopper and teleported him over to Sonic. He then teleported back to Mario and Luigi and teleported them across before reverting time back to normal.

"Huh? What happened?!" Chopper gawked, noticing that he wasn't falling. "I'm alive!"

"And we're across the gap?" Luigi gasped.

"You can thank me later," Tipral said as he noticed a hill going down ahead. There was also a ramp leading up to a platform above a spiky pit. When Luigi saw the pit, he instantly gulped.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Luigi trailed.

They all made their way down the hill and jumped off the ramp to land on the platform. Unfortunately, it started to shake a bit, indicating that it was about to fall into the spike pit below. Thankfully, they were able to get into the door quickly.

When they came out, they found themselves in an area that appeared slightly hilly, but with some Giant Void Goombas walking around, as well as some Void Mechawful.5s. To make things worse, there were some Void Bats flying around and diving their way.

"Whoa... Now this is brutal." Chopper gulped, jumping away from one of the Void Bats and throwing a light ball to defeat one. Sonic decided to finish the others with the help of his Sonic Wind.

"There. They're gone." Sonic said.

"But we still have the other enemies to worry about," Tipral mentioned. "I don't think Fawful should be too far at this point."

Mario: With all the enemies here, I would have to agree.

Chopper couldn't help but look at the creepy smiles of the Void Mechawful.5s. That smile of Fawful's always creeped him out ever since he met that one bean under Peach's Castle two years ago. He reminded him of Fawful, especially his speech pattern.

_"I haven't even thought about that Fawful guy under Peach's Castle before, but now I'm realizing something here," _Chopper thought.

"Is something bothering you?" Luigi asked.

"Ummmmmm... No. Nothing! Let's just clear this area!"

Chopper jumped in the air and landed on the Giant Void Goomba. While it was slower than a normal Void Goomba, it was capable of dealing more damage. The Void Mechawful.5 up ahead was charging up a punch, which Sonic decided to counter with his Spin Dash.

When he sent it flying back, Mario finished off the Giant Void Goomba and jumped on the Void Mechawful.5 and landed a Super Ground Pound on it to defeat it.

When they reached the door ahead, they noticed it had a lock on it. However, there happened to be a switch by the door as well. Mario gave it a Super Ground Pound, which made that door disappear and another one appear.

Mario: Hmmmmm?

"That reminds me a bit of the Crystal Palace..." Chopper trailed. "That place was strange all right..."

"At least we can go through the door," Sonic mentioned as he opened it. Everyone followed him into an area with three pipes. One happened to be hanging from the ceiling.

"What's with all these ceilings?" Luigi asked. "It's like we're in these strange rooms..."

They also noticed some strange grins on the pipes as well, as if Fawful is somewhere around this area. They decided to check the pipe hanging from the ceiling, which brought them into an area with two other pipes, with one sticking out of the wall. Not only that, but there was a Void Mechawful.5 lurking around here as well.

Chopper jumped over to it and performed a light spinning kick on it to deal severe damage thanks to his light power, and then Tipral struck it with a shadow kick, followed by a Star Spear that destroyed it.

"I believe this is some kind of maze," Tipral deduced. "Let's try to be careful around here."

They took the pipe next to them, which led them into a shallow pool of water that only went to their feet, which made Sonic sigh in relief. Despite that, there was a Giant Void Goomba around, so they trounced it before taking the pipe to their left.

The next area had a few platforms that they were on as they came out of the pipe, and below them was dark matter, which they knew they shouldn't touch. There was a single pipe up ahead, so they took it into a small area with two Void Mechawful.5s and a chest ahead.

Mario: Well, we might as well take them out.

"I can handle this on my own," Tipral assured as he teleported to both Void Mechawful.5s and used his Star Burst. When they were sent flying in the air, he fired a barrage of Star Spears their way, destroying them in the process.

"You know, we could've done that..." Chopper trailed.

"You could've, but you didn't," Tipral opened the chest to find a Void Key, which triggered a pipe to appear in front of them. Nevertheless, they took it back to the first area of the maze and left that maze area in the process.

When they were all out, Mario hit the switch with a Super Ground Pound and made the locked door appear, which Tipral unlocked to allow them to enter the next area, where they found themselves standing on pipes. There were pipes on the walls and pipes on the ceiling!

"What the... What's this?" Luigi gawked.

"I have chortles!"

Everyone was alarmed by the voice when they saw Fawful pop out of one of the pipes. Chopper took no time and jumped on Fawful's head. However, another Fawful appeared in a pipe up on the ceiling.

"Green Antenna lacks pacing!" Fawful mocked.

Mario: There's more than one Fawful?

"That's not right!" Luigi gaped.

Another Fawful popped out of a pipe on the right wall. Sonic quickly attacked him with a Homing Attack, but he seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke, which left mostly everyone surprised. Were these Fawfuls just illusions?

"We're not going to just sit here and let these illusions get in our way," Tipral declared. "There has to be a correct pipe around here."

He closed his eyes and tried to focus, while Chopper was trying to jump on the Fawfuls that popped out of the pipes. However, he decided to go into 3-D, where he noticed a Dimensional Block on both sides. He decided to hit them and go back into 2-D. When he entered the pipe to his left, he came out of a pipe on the ceiling.

"Oh, no... We have these kinds of puzzles..." Luigi sighed.

"Well, the best we can do is try to search," Sonic suggested.

"No, we don't need to," Tipral stated, pointing to the lower pipe in the area. "That's the one we need to go in."

They all listened to Tipral and entered the pipe to land on the black and purple ground in the next area. They found three Void Mechawful.5s guarding the door ahead. A Save Block and yellow ? block were there too.

"Why do we have to deal with three of them?!" Luigi gaped as he backed away. Mario simply grabbed his shirt to pull him back, while Sonic jumped over to the Void Mechawfuls and used his Whirlwind.

It was not very effective...

"Oh, geez... This isn't going to be good..." Sonic trailed as he was punched away. Chopper ended up using his light spinning kick to hit the three of them, while Tipral teleported over to them and used his Star Burst. Mario walked over to them and spun his hammer to finish them off.

Mario: There we go!

Chopper smile as he hit the yellow ? block. However, instead of getting what he expected, a Death Shroom popped out and began to scurry around the area. Luigi quickly jumped back, while Tipral snapped his finger to leave it low on HP.

"Why was there a Death Shroom in there?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"I don't know, but I don't want it hitting me!" Luigi cried. Chopper simply jumped on it, and it was defeated. However, to make sure there was something around, he went into 3-D and found a yellow ? block there. He hit it to find a Master Shroom, which they all split to recover 200 HP.

"Whew! Now I feel better!" Sonic grinned.

"Let's hurry on ahead," Chopper suggested. "Fawful could be through here."

In an agreement, they went through the door.

* * *

**Next area-**

"I have surprise!" Fawful exclaimed as the five entered the small area. Fawful was standing in the center of the room with his head turned to them.

"You're not going anywhere, Fawful," Tipral declared. "I believe we have something to take care of, do we?"

"Do you honestly have believing of Fawful having loyalty to you? There was only one that Fawful could only stay loyal like a bear cub staying with its honey! And now Fawful has hatred on Green Antenna for destroying Cackletta!"

"Fawful, I didn't even do anything to her," Chopper retorted. "And you still haven't gotten over something that happened two years ago?"

"I have fury..." Fawful trailed. "Fawful's fury rages on like hail! Hail that will pour down on the mayonnaise! ...But Fawful also thanks you!"

"Hmmmmm? What do you mean?"

"Those Gold Beans you had giving to Fawful helped get everything needed to create new weapons and have acquiring of this!"

The green bean pulled out a small, navy blue orb with a black star embedded on it. "Do you see Fawful's pretty star? The Dark Star is a special item Fawful has had the desiring for a while!"

"And how did you get it?"

"Thirteen Gold Beans is all I had needing to take the Dark Star!"

"Wait... So you're the same Fawful I met two years ago..." Chopper trailed. "And all this time I helped you get what you desired?"

"Correct you have! And now Fawful will use such a thing to rain fury down upon you all!"

Mario stepped in and got in his fighting stance.

"What? The mustache desires a challenge against Fawful?" Fawful grinned evilly and then let out a cackle. "I have chortles! Such foolishness in a mustache!"

Mario: Well I was actually the one to defeat you and your leader.

Fawful was alarmed and drew his blaster. "Fawful does recall! Seeing the red mustache gives Fawful such fury! Fawful hates you so!"

"You hate all of us," Sonic mentioned.

"I have no desiring of fighting you heroes. Fawful shall take on the red mustache alone!"

Mario: I'm fine with that!

"B-Bro! Come on, now!" Luigi cried.

"I'd like to take him on too," Tipral mentioned.

Mario: He wants to face me only, so I suggest you listen to him.

After pondering, Tipral decided to nod. "Fine. We'll let you take care of him."

He left the room, followed by Chopper and Sonic. Luigi, on the other hand, wasn't sure whether or not to leave.

Mario: Luigi! Go somewhere safe!

"But bro..."

Mario: I'll be fine.

Luigi sighed as he slowly left the room, leaving only Mario and Fawful left. "I have chortles! Now that the ring is between Fawful and the mustache, Fawful can do the finishing! Cackletta will have pleasing!"

Mario: I beat you before, and I can beat you again!

"Nyeah heh heh heh... You underestimate Fawful. Do you want to have seeing of this Dark Star's power?"

Mario stood there with a blank look before Fawful made the decision for him. He gobbled it down like a turkey, which made the red plumber jump up a bit.

"_**I HAVE GORGING!**_" Fawful cried as he continued to eat the Dark Star and swallow it. "With the Dark Star in my body, I am absorbing its power!"

Fawful cackled as dark lightning zapped both doors in the area, preventing Mario from escaping. Dark lightning also came down around Fawful, which made Mario gasp.

"I...have..._**DARKNESS! **_So very darkness! The dark power builds like a skyscraper of evil! With the dark power in me, the mustache's game... _**It will be ended by Fawful!**_"

The dark power began to take over Fawful as his entire body was black. The only thing Mario would see were his spiral glasses, which were now red. Even his cloak was starting to change a bit. Instead of it looking flat, the edges were pointy, along with his collar.

Mario: Wait... I think I remember this!

He was brought back to when Fawful absorbed some dark power once in Dark Subspace World. Was this somewhat similar? Or was Fawful much stronger than before?

When the darkness faded away, Mario saw Fawful's cloak was now dark blue with a red trim on the edges. His shirt and pants were dark blue with a black star embedded on it to symbolize the Dark Star. The spiky collar appeared to be gray.

"Now you see Fawful's true dark fury!" he declared. "And you, mustache... You shall witness the fury of Dark Fawful!"

Dark Fawful summoned his Headgear, which went on his head and allowed him to float off the ground. Mario readied his hammer and jumped toward Dark Fawful, only to have him fly out of harm's way.

"Your silly hammer basher cannot reach Fawful!" Dark Fawful scoffed. "You lack such fury!"

Mario: This isn't good...

He suddenly realized something. Blade had that small little sack, and so did he. And considering Dark Fawful was a bit fast and could fly around, he felt like this was an important situation to use it.

Mario took out the small sack and opened it to let glitter fly out. It ended up landing on Mario, which changed his overalls and cap to a white color. He also found himself wearing a yellow cape as well.

Mario: Fire Flower and Cape ability combined together?

"Fink-rat! Fawful shall destroy you!" Dark Fawful barked. "For now it is the end of the final act of the finale's closing last encore! Mario! Now you shall witness Fawful's dark fury!"

Mario saw Dark Fawful's stats were something not to mess with. He had 540 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 11! But despite that, Mario felt confident now that he had both the Cape and Fire Flower ability with him.

"Taste Fawful's dark fury!" Dark Fawful cried as he hurled a couple of dark orbs of energy toward Mario. He spun his cape and managed to deflect them back at Dark Fawful. While he didn't get sent flying, he cringed in pain from the pain he received.

He decided to make it more interesting and flew toward Dark Fawful. With how fast he flew, he was able to make Dark Fawful crash into the wall and also make him fall to the ground as well.

Mario: Oh! I think I'm already understanding this!

Dark Fawful drew his blaster and fired a couple of shots that began to circle around the area near Mario. He cackled as Mario got hit by the blasts, allowing him to fire a dark ball of energy at him.

"Let the darkness be fired like firing a slingshot!" Dark Fawful declared. "I am thinking of ideas of finishing the mustache..."

Mario began to skid across the ground before getting himself back to Dark Fawful by flying up to up. Dark Fawful flung a dark ball toward him, while he threw a fireball to counter it. Though, the dark power appeared to be a little stronger when both exploded.

"Your balls of fire do not match up to Fawful's dark powers!" Dark Fawful scoffed.

The plumber got a bit annoyed and readied his hammer before flying his way. Dark Fawful got his laser sword, which appeared black in color now, and he used it to block Mario's attack.

Mario: Great, now his laser sword is dark!

Unfortunately, Mario's hammer wasn't enough to hit Dark Fawful, who managed to strike the plumber with it and leave him off guard. He also pulled out another laser sword and dashed toward Mario twice as he hit him.

"I have laser slashing!" Dark Fawful cried as he kicked him to the ground. He charged up a ball of energy and hurled it down at the plumber. Mario quickly got up and used his cape to deflect it back at Dark Fawful.

"Ouch! The darkness strikes like magnetic icing!"

While Dark Fawful cried in pain, Mario charged at him again and managed to spin his hammer around as well. Dark Fawful was hit a couple of times in the face before Mario delivered a fire smash to his stomach, which scorched him and knocked him back.

Mario readied himself, but he saw Dark Fawful surround himself in a dark glow as he flew upward and summoned two portals. One appeared to be above Mario while one was in front of him. There were also two dark portals near Dark Fawful.

"Do you have preparedness for Fawful's attack?" Dark Fawful grinned as Mario gave him a confused look. He summoned a large dark ball of energy and threw it into one of the dark portals near him.

Mario: What's going on?!

He heard something come out of a portal behind him, forcing him to jump out of the way when it came his way. He found another one coming his way, which he was able to destroy with his hammer.

While Dark Fawful look disappointed, he let his Headgear fire dark energy Mario's way. He countered this by throwing some fireballs up at them to knock them away, and he also managed to scorch Dark Fawful with some too.

"Ouch! Hotness!" Dark Fawful cried. "The biscuits are burning Fawful!"

Mario used this chance to stomp on Dark Fawful's head and also kick him to the wall. But despite that, Dark Fawful was able to jump off the wall and let his Headgear fire more dark energy toward him. While he was able to deflect some of the attacks, he got hit by at least two, and even then, Dark Fawful dodged the dark energy coming toward him with ease.

When the plumber landed on the ground with Dark Fawful, the dark powered bean let his Headgear connect to the ceiling, which allowed him to jump back and swing toward Mario.

Mario: Uh oh...

He tossed a couple of fireballs at him, but that didn't seem to stop him. His hammer, on the other hand, was able to knock him back and deal some damage, but Dark Fawful still came his way. Mario swung at him again and watched as he came back again. After another swing from his hammer, Dark Fawful swung backwards and knocked Mario to the ground face-first.

"I have chortles!" Dark Fawful cackled as he flew over by Mario and looked down at him. "Even with the hotness and cape that the red mustache has, his fury will never match that of Fawful's!"

Mario quickly jumped up and clenched his fists, which were now surrounded in a fiery glow. He flew toward Dark Fawful an delivered a couple of fire punches to him. He was even able to send him flying up the ceiling with an uppercut.

He flew up to Dark Fawful again and grabbed him. He was about to throw him down, but Fawful cackled and grabbed a hold of him too. Mario was then thrown to the ground while Dark Fawful fired a couple of dark blasts from his two blasters down at him.

As soon as Mario hit the ground, Dark Fawful fired a couple of more shots. When the plumber saw this, he gasped and did a backflip to dodge. Dark Fawful also landed on the ground and charged at him with both laser swords out.

Since he did that, Mario rushed at him with his hammer, and soon both of them were trying to attack each other with said weapons. Neither of them were taking damage because both of the were also blocking each other's attacks.

"Give up now, red mustache," Dark Fawful advised. "Or does Fawful have to rain upon the mustard of doom?"

Mario: Mustard of doom?

Dark Fawful spun himself around, which Mario put up his hammer to defend himself. He started to skid back to the wall behind him until he felt the wall on his back. Dark Fawful let out a small giggle before sending him flying into the air with his two laser swords.

Before Mario could hit the ceiling, Dark Fawful summoned a dark portal that brought him near the ground, allowed Dark Fawful to strike him and knock him to the wall to the right.

"And now the ketchup of destruction shall be upon you!" Dark Fawful declared as he charged at Mario. The plumber quickly jumped and let his opponent crash into the wall and become dazed.

Mario took this chance to jump on Dark Fawful's head before he got out of the daze and began firing shots from his blasters at him. All Mario had to do was deflect them and send them flying back at Dark Fawful.

When he saw this coming, he tried to fly out of the way, but Mario ended up throwing a fireball at him to stop him and make him get hit by the shots he shot himself. After Dark Fawful shook himself, he summoned a portal and entered it.

Mario: Where'd he go?

Dark Fawful appeared behind Mario and managed to kick him down. He then jumped on his head and landed in front of him while cackling.

"Do you have surprise?" Dark Fawful asked. "With Fawful's new power, an epic victory is Fawful's!"

Mario managed to toss a fireball at Dark Fawful's feet, causing him to scream while hopping around the area.

"HOTNESS! My feet burn with such hotness!"

While Dark Fawful was hopping around, Mario got up and shoulder bashed him to knock him back. He then flew up to him and delivered a couple of punches with his fiery fists before knocking him back to the left.

When Dark Fawful fell to the ground face-first, he raised his head and saw Mario flying toward him. He got up and flew up so he would miss, but he seemed to be following the green bean.

Mario: Don't think a trick will stop me!

"Well, I say to you that Fawful has a little trick for you, red mustache!" Dark Fawful cackled as he raised his arms and summoned a large ball of dark energy. Mario's eyes widened as he threw it down at him. He tried using his cape to deflect it, but it was too big and ended up making him fall to the ground.

"Nyeah heh heh heh! I have fury!" Dark Fawful let his Headgear fire a dark blast down at Mario. Thankfully, the red plumber got up and jumped back before flying in the air. He chucked a few fireballs at Dark Fawful and left him with a burn.

Mario: Are you going to make some predictable attacks on me?

"Predictable? Fawful lacks predictably! All Fawful has is fury, chortles and darkness! All Fawful wishes to do is let your gaming be over, just like the Mushrooms of your world will receive!"

Mario was left confused, but he noticed Dark Fawful firing a couple of dark balls his way, so he tossed some fireballs toward him. They didn't seem to work, so he had to smash them with his hammer.

Dark Fawful drew his laser swords and blocked the fireballs and throw them back at Mario. He tried dodging some of them, but he ended up getting hit by at least one and was left with a burn like Dark Fawful was.

"Now we both burn like crispy fried chicken!"

Mario tried to shake the burn off him, but he ended up getting hurt from it, just like Dark Fawful. Instead, he flew up in the air and began to throw a couple of fireballs down at Dark Fawful. At least three of them hit him, but he shot back at him with a couple of shots from his blasters to bring him to the ground.

Mario: We haven't gotten anywhere with this.

"I have agreement," Dark Fawful nodded raising his two laser swords. "It is time Fawful freshened up the battle between fury and chortles!"

Mario's eyes widened when he saw Dark Fawful's laser swords get longer. They even fired a sword beam straight at him, which ended up leaving him poisoned. This forced him to drink an Ultimate Shroom Shake to recover 100 HP.

"Fawful does not have approval of your healing items!" Dark Fawful did a cartwheel in the air while spinning his laser swords. He ended up firing a wave of energy Mario's way, forcing him to fly back up.

"_How am I supposed to get him when he's got incredibly dangerous weapons on him?" _Mario thought as he tried chucking a few fireballs. All Dark Fawful did was block them, forcing Mario to dodge them.

"Now your flaring blasts have no match for Fawful's laser swords!"

Dark Fawful summoned a dark portal that he jumped into. Mario decided to fly in and follow him before it closed. Another dark portal ended up appearing, where Dark Fawful was sent flying out of thanks to Mario's hammer.

Mario flew out of the portal and managed to throw him to the ground before Dark Fawful could attack him. When the bean lifted his head, his face was a little bruised up. Mario's nose had a large bruise on it too.

"Fawful commends you for your efforts," complimented Dark Fawful. "But now the mustache shall meet his doom!"

He lifted his arm while he let out a cry, which surrounded him in a couple of dark energy balls. Mario stood there confused, having no idea what to do. He was forced to do something when he saw them flying his way.

Mario: Mama mia!

With his hammer ready, he managed to throw them back at Dark Fawful and leave him stunned. This gave him the chance to hit him with a flaming Triple Jump, making the burn on him worse.

"The fury in Fawful grows bigger and bigger..." Dark Fawful trailed. "Fawful is hating you even more, red mustache! Much more than Green Antenna that I had the making of him help me!"

Mario: I'm not as gullible as him, you know.

"Yes, Fawful has understanding. But so much fury burns in Fawful's mind from the horrible event of you, mustache! And Fawful has loathing of that mustache... They are like hairs of the dirty trail of a horse in a barn built by a farmer who is crazy!"

Mario: I'm proud of my mustache!

"But now Fawful has enough speaking. Let our fury continue to rain down like curry on a stormy day!"

When Mario saw Dark Fawful fly up, he flew up and prepared his hammer. The one thing he noticed him do was throw one of his laser swords and fire at Mario with his blaster. He flew up to avoid them and chucked a few fireballs.

However, he noticed Dark Fawful's Headgear inhale the attack.

Mario: What the...

His eyes widened when the Headgear fired his attack back at him. Thankfully, his cape was able to deflect the attack and hit the Headgear. That's when he realized something: if he destroyed the Headgear, it would slow Dark Fawful Down!

_"I better make it quick, though," _Mario thought as he flew toward Dark Fawful while dodging his thrown laser sword.

Dark Fawful aimed his blasters at Mario and prepared to fire, but the plumber managed to hit his Headgear head-on, leaving some sparks flying around it. After Dark Fawful caught his thrown laser sword, he charged up an attack with his Headgear.

"And now Fawful shall have an ending to this battle!" Dark Fawful grinned sadistically as he fired a large, dark beam toward Mario. When he saw this, he quickly flew up, but the beam was following him to make things worse.

Mario: Mama mia! This isn't good!

"I have fury!" Dark Fawful cried until he noticed his attack stopped. "What? Has Fawful's machine had the unexpected malfunction?"

Mario thought of this moment to attack, so he flew to Dark Fawful's Headgear and delivered a fire punch to it. It started to malfunction again, causing Dark Fawful to fly all around the room.

"What is going on with Fawful's Headgear?!"

Mario continued to watch Dark Fawful crash into walls and the ground until it finally exploded, making Dark Fawful fall to the ground. Mario flew down and got his hammer ready while the bean was slowly getting up.

But the first thing Dark Fawful did was fire two charged shots from his blasters at him. He tried deflecting it, but it was too powerful for him and ended up knocking him to the ground.

"Now the epic battle of epicness shall begin like drizzled lettuce upon a small salad!" Dark Fawful surrounded himself in a dark glow as he ended up flying up without his Headgear assisting him, making Mario's eyes widen.

Mario: Wait, he doesn't need the Headgear for that?!

Dark Fawful summoned a large ball of dark energy and threw it down at Mario. He flew out of the way to avoid it, and then he flew up to Dark Fawful and delivered a fire punch, which led to him getting hit by his laser swords.

"Even without Fawful's Headgear, Fawful still has the ability to fly around like an annoying little fly around the garbage!"

Mario gave him a glare as he readied his hammer and blocked Dark Fawful's laser swords. He was able to win the clash when he kicked his knee and left him off guard, allowing him to bash his head.

Dark Fawful flew back down and took out his two blasters. He aimed up and began firing, causing Mario to fly down and toss a couple of fireballs in order to counter the shots. While both were putting up a fight, both of them were sent flying to the wall.

"Fawful is lacking HP..." Dark Fawful moaned. "And here Fawful thought his efforts had succession... But Fawful will not let the bad mustache man triumph against Fawful's fury!"

Mario: You can give up now if you want...

"Fawful says NEVER!" Dark Fawful hurled a couple of dark balls toward Mario, who did a couple of flips over them and fired a charged fireball his way. Dark Fawful fired a charged dark ball too, causing both to clash and explode.

Dark Fawful had another idea and combined his two laser swords together. It ended up forming a double-bladed laser sword, with one blade on each side of the weapon. Dark Fawful gave Mario a sinister grin as he threw it toward him.

Mario gasped and ducked under the laser sword, which came back to Dark Fawful like a boomerang.

"Look at you, mustache! You have the shuddering!" Dark Fawful cackled. "And now this fight will end like an egg breaking on a wall!"

Mario quickly shook his head to stop shuddering and readied his hammer. He was about to bash Dark Fawful with it, but it ended up getting sliced in half thanks to the psychotic bean.

Mario: My hammer!

"I have chortles!" Dark Fawful grinned. "Now your hammer is slice in half like a cucumber! And soon victory will belong to Fawful's!"

Mario looked down at the two pieces of his hammer. It was something he kept for a long time, and now it was completely broken. Plus, it was one of the few things he was able to use as a weapon.

He looked back at Dark Fawful with fiery clenched fists. He himself was surrounded in a flaming glow that surprised the bean a bit. But it didn't stop him from hurling a couple of dark energy balls his way.

"You have the look of the angry lion, mustache!" Dark Fawful scoffed. "And that anger will be ended by Fawful's fury!"

Mario punched toward Dark Fawful, which sent a large fiery fist at him. He was not expecting this, and this soon led him to being scorched and thrown to the wall.

"I have surprise! What has happened to the mustache?!"

Mario: This power feels so strange!

Despite this, Dark Fawful started to fire at Mario, but another fiery fist came his way, forcing Dark Fawful to jump over it. Even his projectiles were destroyed by Mario's attack.

Mario: Well whatever this power is, it should be enough to defeat you!

"Fink-rat! Fawful shall never have surrendering!" Dark Fawful howled as he flew up and threw his laser sword. Unfortunately, it ended up getting destroyed when Mario spun around and went in a flaming tornado. This left Dark Fawful alarmed when he realized his close-range weapons were all gone.

And then he took out his two blasters – which ended up melting from the intense heat of Mario's attacks.

"Fawful had no expecting of this!"

Mario: It looks like this fight's in my favor!

"But the fight has no ending as of yet!" Dark Fawful began firing blasts of dark energy Mario's way. He countered it with his own fire attacks, which managed to hit Dark Fawful and knock him to the ground.

Unfortunately for him, he ended up getting hit by his dark attacks, which made him lose his Cape and Fire Flower ability. His clothing was dirty and a bit ripped around the arms, and his overalls were ruined too.

Dark Fawful's cloak was a bit ripped too thanks to Mario's fire, and it was dirty like his too. One of his glasses were also cracked. But at the state he was in, he was looking weak. It seemed like only one more hit would be able to finish him.

After Mario tipped his cap, he ran toward Dark Fawful and performed a Triple Jump to finish off the psychotic bean. Dark Fawful ended up letting out a grunt before kneeling on the ground in pain. Mario ended up landing in front of him while crossing his arms.

Mario: It looks like I've won!

While he gave Dark Fawful a smirk, another click was heard in the background, and sadly, Mario and Dark Fawful couldn't hear it.

_**"Ahhhh... My collection is almost done! I just need a few more and I've got what I need!"**_

"Bro! You did it!" Luigi cried as he ran over to Mario through the door. Mario turned to Luigi and gave him a thumbs up.

"Good job taking down Fawful!" Sonic smirked. "Although... You don't look so good..."

Mario: Don't worry, Sonic. I'm fine.

"And it seems Fawful got what he deserved," Tipral noticed, looking over at the wounded Fawful. "Now it's time to finish this up."

"No, Tipral. I'll handle this." Chopper declared as he jumped over Mario and faced Fawful. "All right, Fawful... Tell us everything you know. Now."

Dark Fawful slowly looked up at Chopper and ended up screaming, "_**NOOAAAARGH!**_"

Chopper jumped back when he saw him get surrounded in darkness, which began to transform him into a small, black bug with Fawful's red glasses and grin. He also appeared to have four spider-liked legs, which changed into two pincer claws. He also had a small antenna with a bulb with the Dark Star embedded on it. I guess we can consider this the Dark Star Core.

"What is this?" Chopper gawked.

_**"****I have fury?" **_questioned the Dark Star Core as it jumped away from Chopper and over by the door.

"Hey! Come back!"

_**"****Fury?" **_the Dark Star Core questioned again as it escaped through the door.

"Chopper, why didn't you stop that thing?!" Tipral exclaimed.

"Hey, don't go blaming me for this! I don't know what I should've done anyway!"

Before an argument could commence they felt the area they were in begin to shake.

"Now's not the time for arguing. We gotta get outta here!" Sonic declared, running over to the door ahead. Tipral decided to follow him ahead, followed by Chopper.

"Come on, bro! We gotta get moving!" Luigi said as he headed over to the door. Mario nodded, but he looked down at his broken hammer and let out a sigh.

Mario: Well, I guess some hammers don't last forever...

He picked it up, but he noticed the ground was beginning to get torn apart. Mario gaped as he began to run over to the door ahead.

But in the end, he was too late when the ground he stood on tore apart and made him plummet down the abyss below.

* * *

**Through the door-**

When Luigi got in to the next area, they all heard a loud thud coming from the previous area.

"That was too close, right, bro?" Luigi sighed as he turned around. There was no sign of his brother. "Ummmmm... Bro?"

"Uh oh..." Chopper gulped as Luigi walked over to the door and tried to open it. His eyes widened as the door refused to open.

"It... It won't open!"

"What?! Are you serious?!" Sonic gaped. "No... This can't be right!"

"First Blade, then Kirby...and now Mario?" Chopper frowned as his antennas lowered. "They can't be dead! There's GOTTA be hope!"

"There's no surviving the destruction of The Void," Tipral noted. "Even if they somehow survive, there's no escape. They're going to be gone whether they like it or not."

"My bro always tries to find a way to get back and finish the job," Luigi recalled. "But... Him not being around worries me now."

"And I would probably follow his advice and go. I'm sure your fat brother would want that."

"Hey! No need to insult my bro like that! He's an inspirational person, and that's something you'd NEVER understand! He was not only my big brother, but my best friend as well..."

"Fine, if you want to stay here and grieve over his lost, then go right ahead. I'm going to be moving on ahead. Chances are I might have a better chance of surviving when The Void's destruction ends up attacking this area."

"Luigi... I really don't want to side with Tipral on this, but I don't think we have a choice." Sonic said. "We've lost Blade and Kirby also... If we were able to continue on after what happened to them, then we can do the same with Mario."

"I... I... Oh, OK..." Luigi sighed. "As much as I don't want to leave Mario behind, I guess there's not much of a choice."

"Don't worry, Luigi. We all feel the same way. Though, Tipral probably doesn't feel that way..." Chopper trailed.

"Let's just get out of here," Tipral suggested, pointing to the Star Block ahead. "And it better be quick."

Chopper ran over to the Star Block and gave it a good punch. Just like before, there wasn't any satisfaction with it.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With three heroes gone, the four remaining were forced to move on without their help. Chopper almost felt a little worried about the safety of everyone else as well. Was it possible that all of them would end up falling to the destruction of The Void so soon? Would they all be able to make it out alive? Even Luigi felt worried too – even more than ever. But knowing that he had went through things without his brother, he tried his best to continue on. As they continued on, they noticed the sky was slowly getting a bit darker._

* * *

**I was so lazy with the chapter... Then again, I tend to be lazy at some times, but this almost took me a month. Then again, this was a pretty long chapter... I mean, there were four fights in this chapter too. :P**_  
_

**Well, it looks like only four remain so far. And things will definitely be changing...a bit. As for the fights with Kirby and Mario, the giant hammer was a reference to one of Kirby's Super Abilities from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and Mario's large flame attack was a reference to his Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (though he doesn't make a flaming hand in that).  
**

**And I'm sure some people are wondering if I favor Luigi over Mario. Actually... I don't favor either one over one another. I actually like them equally. That's actually something I don't see from many people.  
**


	122. Thunder and Doom

**CHAPTER 20-3**

**-Thunder and Doom-**

The sky appeared to be slightly darker than before, considering that they were getting deeper through The Void. There also appeared to be some bright, purple cracks in the floor. Thankfully, they weren't anything that could destroy the ground.

But with three of the heroes gone, four were now remaining.

"Big bro... I can't believe we're moving on without him..." Luigi trailed as he shuddered under the ominous air of The Void. "And even without that ice stuff around, it's still a bit cold here..."

"Yes, I suppose it gets colder when you get closer to The Void's core," Tipral deduced. "And if it's getting colder, than that means we may not be too far."

"Then it looks like it's up to the four of us to do it," Sonic said. "And we better hope we don't have to deal with more baddies as well."

"Though we still have Fawful to worry about..." Chopper trailed. "He managed to get away, and there's no way I wanna leave that...whatever he turned into around here. Whatever he plans on doing, I'd rather not leave him."

"Imagine what kind of plans he might have in store now..." Luigi shuddered, thinking of an image of Fawful ruling the universe. "OK, now I think I wanna move on. I'd like to get through here as fast a possible..."

"That is for the better," Tipral agreed as he walked on ahead to find a conveyer belt floor. "Hmmmm... This could be a problem for you, plumber."

Luigi noticed the conveyer belt floor and noticed how fast it was moving. However, there was a small switch on it ahead that had an arrow pointing the opposite way. Sonic jumped on the conveyer belt and noticed a couple of dark purple Bob-ombs with black eyes on the conveyer belt too.

"Heads up, guys... We've got Void Bob-ombs!" Sonic alerted.

"Well fire should be able to take it out!" Chopper smirked as he threw a fireball at the Void Bob-omb's fuse. Unfortunately, this only caused him to be blown back by its strong explosion. "Whoa... That was big. Though, I'd say Bruce and Bombette have stronger explosions..."

Tipral, with the help of his dark shoes, managed to get over to the switch and hit it, causing the conveyer belt to move forward. When Luigi got on it, he was moving forward on his own.

"This is moving pretty fast!" Luigi noticed while seeing another Void Bob-omb rushing their way. Tipral tossed a shadow ball at it to knock it away while Chopper blew it up with a fireball.

When Sonic looked up, he saw an upreel handle leading up to another conveyor belt above, so he grabbed a hold of it and went up to it. He found a Void Slicer waiting for him there.

"Great... Just what I needed." Sonic sighed.

When it threw its blades his way, he jumped over them and managed to defeat it with a simple Spin Jump. He also found a Void Shellcracker over by a ledge, so he hit it and found a glowing light nearby.

"Hmmmmm? What's that?" Sonic noticed it was a red glow, and when he looked down, he noticed it was something he knew about. "Wait a second... Is this...a Chaos Emerald?!"

He picked it up and examined it. "No way... How did this thing manage to survive The Void? Is the emerald's power strong enough to withhold The Void's immense power? I'm not so sure..."

He jumped off the conveyer belt and landed by Chopper and Tipral below. They ended up getting off the conveyer belt floor and back on the purple and black floor. They were trying to fight off a couple of Void Bob-ombs and black Lakitus called Void Lakitus that were throwing black-shelled Spinies called Void Spinies.

Tipral jumped in the air and managed to kick the Void Lakitu, while Chopper began tossing light balls at the Void Spinies. When Luigi got off the conveyer belt, he finished off the Void Lakitu with a Super Jump.

"You guys are too fast for me..." Luigi sighed. "Can you slow down for once?"

"Hmmmmmmm... Well, I might have an idea." Chopper replied while kicking a Void Spiny away with light energy. "Remember what we did before when I grabbed your arm to help you get through a fast area?"

"Yeah... You think that might work?"

"I'm sure it will."

Sonic noticed a couple of Void Bob-ombs up ahead, so he curled up in a ball and threw himself at them to knock them away like bowling pins. However, since they didn't explode, their fuses were lit up, and they were looking angrier than before.

"Uh oh..." Sonic ran back to the group as the Void Bob-ombs exploded. Once they were gone, they were able to go up to the door ahead. "Ummmmmm... Guys? I think I have something important to show you."

"What is it?" Luigi wondered while Sonic took out the red Chaos Emerald and showed it to them. "...What is it?"

"What? You don't know about the Chaos Emeralds?! ...Then again, you all are from different worlds, so that would make sense."

"I remember you had an item like that when you traveled with me to get the Crystal Stars," Chopper recalled. "Though, I don't know too much on those Chaos Emerald things..."

"It's OK, Chop. Like I said, we're from different worlds."

They ended up finding a door up ahead, along with two yellow ? blocks. When Luigi hit both, a Dark Shroom and Death Shroom popped out and began to scurry around the area. Luigi yelped and ended up jumping on the Death Shroom, while Chopper destroyed the Dark Shroom with a light ball.

Tipral snapped his finger and defeated the Death Shroom. Before he could go into the door, though, he looked at the Chaos Emerald Sonic held.

"What are the point of those things?" Tipral questioned. "If they were able to survive The Void, then they must be powerful..."

"Yeah, they are pretty tough," Sonic replied while tossing the Chaos Emerald up and catching it when it came down. "If I found one here, then chances are there's plenty of more around here."

"We'll see..."

They headed through the door to find a platform above them and a cracked ceiling above that. Luigi thought it would be a good idea to smash through it with a Super Jump. Unfortunately, when he used it, he ended up hurting his own fist.

"Ack! I don't think I can smash that..." Luigi whimpered.

"Let's see what I can do," Sonic said as he performed a Bounce Attack and threw himself up. Thankfully, he was able to smash through the ceiling and leave an opening. Apparently they were in a big area with a path leading up to a spring that appeared to be aiming at an upper left angle.

"This is one big area..." Chopper gaped as dark lightning flashed in the background, making Luigi cover his eyes.

_"No, Luigi... Don't be such a coward right now..." _Luigi thought. _"You can do this! It's just lightning!"_

Tipral jumped on the path ahead and moved on. He found a Void Koopatrol ahead, so all he had to do was kick its stomach and send it flying to the spring. It got launched up to the high platform on the left.

"Huh... Well I wonder what'll happen to that guy..." Chopper wondered.

Tipral ignored Chopper and launched himself up to the Void Koopatrol with the spring. He ended up knocking it off the platform and right by Luigi, who jumped back as it landed on the ground.

But before the Void Koopatrol could attack, Luigi finished it off with his Cyclone before going to the spring. When he got on the platform, Sonic used his Homing Attack to hit the spring, and then Chopper launched himself up afterward. They were met with two brick blocks, which contained only coins, but when Chopper went into 3-D, he found a hidden block that created a ladder.

"Oh, cool!" Chopper smiled as he went back into 2-D. He climbed up the ladder to find a platform with two Darklings and a chest. After defeating them with light power, he opened the chest to get a hold of a Max Shroom Shake.

"So, what was up there?" Sonic wondered as Chopper climbed back down. "...Oh, a Max Shroom Shake?"

"Yeah, we're keeping it."

They looked to their left and saw a Void Lakitu flying around. Luigi, knowing what he had to do, used his Super Jump and managed to knock it down. They found a spring pointing up near them and used it to launch them up to another platform. A Void Cherbil was near a yellow ? Block. Sonic dodged its gas and hit the block, causing a Death Shroom to pop out.

"More of these guys?" Tipral gawked before he destroyed it with his Star powers. The Void Cherbil was defeated by Luigi's jumps. Chopper, however, refused to attack the enemy.

"No, I'm not jumping on a butt," Chopper declared. "It's not safe..."

"You can't get over anything..."

They found a bounceable platform up ahead leading over to another platform where the door was. Once they crossed over, they entered the door and found a high ledge in the next area.

"This looks like something I can do," Luigi said as he crouched down and used his Super Jump to get up to the ledge. Tipral teleported the other two up and followed Luigi ahead to a dark purple Robbie called a Void Robbie, which was sitting on the ground near a yellow ? block ahead.

"Oh, no... Not those..." Chopper frowned.

"Robbies are here too?!" Sonic gaped. "This isn't good..."

Tipral decided to walk over to the Void Robbie himself, but when its dark purple eyes opened, it let out a loud screech, causing everyone to freeze. While Tipral wasn't feared by it, its screech still froze him.

_"I don't understand... Does its screech have the power to freeze anyone in place?" _Tipral thought.

As the Void Robbie approached, they were no longer frozen in place, which made Tipral jump back and throw Star Spears at it. Chopper also helped by throwing some light balls to defeat it. Sonic would've used his Sonic Wind, but he didn't get any chance to make an attack.

"Dang... Well, maybe I can get the next one." Sonic shrugged.

Chopper his the yellow ? block and found a Star Shroom inside. They split it into four and recovered 150 HP from it. Up ahead there was another Void Robbie near a Firebar, which wasn't harming it.

"Wait, is this thing immune to fire?" Chopper wondered as he tossed a fireball at it. Sadly, it appeared to be immune to fire. "Well, there's no point in using fire against that thing."

"Well I think I've got an idea. Sonic Wind!" Sonic clenched his fist and hit the Void Robbie with his Sonic Wind. Chopper tossed a charged light ball at it afterward, and then Tipral destroyed it with his Star Spear.

"Too bad I can't do anything against it..." Luigi sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Luigi," Chopper assured. "I'm sure there'll be a lot for you to fight here. _I hope..._"

They noticed a platform above them that happened to have a pipe there. There was also a door up ahead that appeared to be locked. With Luigi's Super Jump, he was able to reach the platform while Tipral teleported Chopper and Sonic up to the platform.

They hurried through the door and went into the next area to find dark lightning strike in front of them. Luigi ended up jumping back to avoid it, but what they noticed up ahead were three brick blocks. They were also high up as well.

He used his Super Jump to hit each of them. One of them happened to drop a Plasma ability, which Chopper took to gain the Plasma ability. Thankfully, when he walked on ahead, he wasn't harmed by the dark lightning that much. He still got hurt by it anyway, though.

"While I could say that was stupid of you to do, it wasn't a bad idea to test that out," Tipral noted as he approached Chopper with crossed arms.

"Tipral, let's not get into this..." Chopper warned. "And if you even try to hit me, it's not going to help you, considering that I have Plasma on!"

"Well, maybe I can help you move on!" Tipral swung his arm and managed to throw Chopper forward and over by an electric floor ahead. There appeared to be a dark purple Warbot standing in front of him.

"Tipral! What was that for?!" Sonic exclaimed, noticing some static coming from Tipral's arm.

"Helping Chopper out. I can help you out too, you know."

Sonic gave him a glare before running past the dark lightning and approaching the Void Warbot. It happened to have both arms for guns, which it used to fire at the hedgehog. He was fast, and he was able to deliver a Homing Attack to it. Luigi followed up by landing a flutter jump on it. Chopper quickly got up and finished it off with his spark attack.

And when it was destroyed, he turned to Tipral with a glare.

"Thanks for that," Chopper thanked in a sarcastic tone. "That shows teamwork there."

"Don't thank me," Tipral retorted as he jumped on the platform above the electric floor. He found a Void Intruderbot approaching him, so he decided to throw a Star Spear at it and make it fall on the electric floor. It didn't seem to get defeated, but a couple of stomps did the trick.

They found a pole past the electric floor leading up to a ledge where a chest was. Chopper climbed up and opened it to find a Void Key. He jumped down and showed the other three the key afterward.

"Well, looks like we can get out of this annoying little area," Luigi said. "Let's make it quick, though."

"Yeah, it's not a bad idea," Sonic agreed.

* * *

**Previous area-**

When they walked out of the door, they landed by the locked door. Unfortunately, a Void Robbie was standing in front of them and let out a loud screech. Since Luigi was the closest to it, it grabbed a hold of him.

"WAAAAH! Get this thing off me!" Luigi cried.

When Sonic was no longer frozen, he attacked the Void Robbie with his Sonic Wind, forcing it to release Luigi, who began to jump on its head and then finish it off with his Cyclone.

"Phew... That was a close one..."

"Don't get too comfortable yet, plumber," Tipral warned. "We still have to keep moving."

Chopper unlocked the door ands hurried on to the next area. This time, they found themselves between two glowing platforms. Chopper jumped on the one to the right and created a couple of more dark glowing platforms to lead them up to a ledge.

"OK... Which way do we go?" Chopper wondered.

"I'll go left, I suppose," Luigi decided as he took the left platform up to a ledge. He happened to notice the ledge was rather high, so his Super Jump was able to reach it. That left only Sonic and Tipral.

"I'd suggest following Chopper, Tipral," Sonic advised.

"I'm not going to go the same way as him," Tipral replied. "You can, but it's for the better that I don't follow him."

"OK... Don't follow him then. I'll go follow him myself."

Tipral went to Luigi and teleported up to the ledge, while Sonic went up to the ledge where Chopper was. There was a spring that brought them up to a platform in the center of the area, while the way Luigi and Tipral went involved jumping on some platforms to reach them.

"Geez, there are many small platforms around here," Chopper realized. "And I see some lightning around as well..."

They looked up and noticed some lightning firing down on some platforms. Apparently some of the lightning was coming from a platform underneath. Nevertheless, they climbed their way up to the highest platform to run into a Void Lakitu. Luigi's Super Jump took care of it and allowed him to hit a blue ! block that happened to be above him.

A door happened to appear on the platform, allowing them to progress on to the next area, which was flat but with a couple of platforms around. Some of them had spikes on the bottom of them too.

"Yeesh... I don't like this..." Luigi trailed.

They noticed a couple of dark purple Shlurps called Void Shlurps roaming around, as well as some Void Bob-ombs. Since the Void Shlurps could only be defeated by explosions, Chopper removed his Plasma ability and inhaled the Void Bob-omb to gain the Bomb ability.

"Well, sometimes things need to be given up..." Chopper trailed. He placed a bomb in front of the Void Shlurp, causing it to inhale it and make it explode. It also dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake.

"I think it would've been better if it dropped something better," Tipral said before he noticed a couple of Void Bob-ombs plummeting down on parachutes. "Beware of those too."

Luigi gaped when he saw Void Bob-ombs coming down their way. He jumped on one of the platforms and ended up discovering a secret block. It turned out to be a ladder leading up to a platform. He climbed up the ladder to discover a Max Shroom Shake and a cannon firing Void Bob-ombs.

"Hmmmm? I wonder what I can do to this..." Luigi wondered as he tried hitting it. Sadly, it didn't seem like it worked, to his dismay. He had no other choice but to go back down to the other three, who were busy with another Void Shlurp.

"Too bad only bombs can hurt that thing," Sonic said. "It would be really nice to fight one of these things ourselves."

"I agree," Chopper nodded as he fed a bomb to the Void Shlurp. It ended up dying and allowing them to encounter three Void Bob-ombs coming their way. Luigi, however, ended up landing on one, causing its fuse to light up.

Luigi quickly jumped away, allowing Chopper to throw a bomb toward the Void Bob-ombs, causing them all to explode. They found a small hill going up and down ahead, which brought them over to a door and a platform floating next to it.

"What's with the floating platform?" Luigi asked.

"Let's see," Chopper jumped and ended up discovering a Death Shroom. He took out a bomb and let it blow up before heading through the door. They were led into a tunnel-like area with a couple of Void Chain Chomps with Void Warbots near them. There was also another platform near the four, which had a Lightning Shield that Sonic took.

"A Lightning Shield? Well I guess this might help..." Sonic trailed as he performed a double jump and landed on one of the Void Chain Chomps with a Spin Jump. He also paralyzed it thanks to the shield.

Chopper ran over to the Void Warbot and dropped a couple of bombs on it to blow it up. There were two Void Bob-ombs over by the door up ahead, but it appeared to be locked. Nevertheless, Tipral blew them up with his Star Magic.

"Great... The door's locked." Sonic sighed as he approached the door. "Now what?"

"Hey, I see a ledge over there," Luigi said, pointing to the ledge that was at the left of the door. "Though, it seems like my Super Jump can only reach it..."

Luigi crouched and launched himself up to the ledge, while Tipral grabbed Chopper and Sonic's arm and teleported them up there. They found a door and another Void Shlurp that inhaled the bomb and blew up.

After going through the door, they found a small hall going to the left and a spring at the end of the path. Surprisingly, there didn't appear to be any enemies roaming around, making things feel suspicious.

"Hmmmm... I sense something in here..." Tipral trailed, his antennas twitching a bit.

"Yeah, I'm not getting a good feeling in this room," Chopper agreed as he ran over to the end of the pathway. The wall happened to be in his way, so there was no continuing on. However, Sonic ran over to the wall and curled up in a ball, letting him smash through part of the wall and discover a yellow ? block.

When he hit the block, a Star Shroom popped out for them to recover 150 HP. Afterward, Chopper flipped into 3-D and found a glowing dark platform leading up to a ledge they couldn't see in 3-D.

"Weird..." Chopper muttered as he made his way up to the ledge with the other three to find a small little area with a wall up ahead when they got back in 2-D.

"A dead end? Great..." Luigi sighed.

"Well, we can always go back," Sonic assured. "Maybe we'll find something back there."

"Yeah, I don't think that's happening so soon..."

"What? We're going to..." Chopper paused for a minute when his eyes shifted around the area. "Hold on... No one has a voice like that here!"

"I know who does, though," Tipral noted.

Nastasia teleported in front of the four, making three of them jump in surprise.

"Hey, you're that one person who works for Tipral, right?" Chopper questioned. "I never really met you..."

"I remember she ended up doing something to my mind..." Luigi trailed.

"I think she's supposed to be a secretary..." Sonic trailed. "Well it doesn't matter. We'll be heading off now."

"Hate to break it to you, but you won't be going anywhere," Nastasia declared. "Not on my watch."

She adjusted her glasses and created a red barrier to prevent them from escaping. "'K... Now I just have to do the next step."

"Nastasia, we can't stay here forever," Tipral informed. "If we don't get to the True Chaos Heart now, we're _all_ going to die."

"Um, yeah... I could help you out of here, but helping out the heroes would be a bit frowned upon. You three, however, might make some good villains, so I might as well start the brainwashing, 'K?"

"If you're asking for a fight, then we'll give you one," Chopper declared, pulling out a bomb. "As much as I don't like hurting ladies like you, I think we have not much of a choice..."

Nastasia was about to brainwash them with her glasses, but she stopped her hand. "Yeah... I don't know if this is going to work. If that Princess Peach was a fighter, then you lot might be tougher. This might require some force..."

"Nastasia, we don't have time for this," Tipral noted. "I think it would be better if you simply let us leave."

"Tipral, I told you you could go, 'K? You can leave the others be here. Now give me a moment..." the secretary took out a remote and pressed it, which summoned a silver robot that floated down behind her.

"What's that?" Sonic wondered.

"It's a special robot designed by Mr. L. Um, yeah... I'm not sure how this specifically works. _Mr. L should've actually TOLD me how to use this thing first!_"

"You're using a robot you've never tried out?" Chopper gawked. "Strange..."

"Hold on a second... There's something about you that I seem to remember a bit, Nastasia..." Tipral realized as he squinted at her. Nastasia looked up at Tipral and noticed him squinting at her.

"Is there something wrong, Tipral?"

"Nastasia, have we ever met before? I mean before you joined me?"

"Hmmmm... I don't think so." Nastasia answered, pressing a button on the remote. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to make the robot respond. "'K... I don't think this is working out too great for me."

"I feel like I recognize you from the past... During a terrible moment..."

"The only thing I remember is being rescued by the count and being turned into a..." the secretary paused for a moment and remembered a vision of before being rescued by the count. She looked up at Tipral and almost saw an image of the past.

"No... It... It can't be! It... It was-" she was cut off when the robot activated and ended up knocking her toward the wall, causing her to get knocked out. Chopper, Sonic and Luigi jumped in surprise and got in a fighting stance as the robot landed in front of them.

"What IS that thing?!" Chopper gaped.

"I think this is one of Mr. L's robots he came up with," Tipral informed. "It's called the **Brobot L-Nator**."

"Brobot L-Nator?" Luigi blinked. "What kind of name is that?"

"That sounds like a stupid name," Chopper commented. "What does it do?"

"It can take some aspects of some people and combine their attacks," Tipral answered. "So it can copy an aspect you all have."

Brobot L-Nator gained a cap that resembled Luigi, quills like Sonic and antennas like Chopper, as well as green eyes, overalls, quills on the back, and feet and arms like Chopper's – with a laser sword and machine gun for hands.

"Uh oh... This isn't good." Sonic gulped. "Well, if it wants a fight, then we'll give it one!"

Everyone got prepared as Brobot L-Nator jumped in the air and curled up in a spiky ball. They noticed it had 530 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 10. When it flew down their way, Sonic jumped out of the way, while Luigi jumped on its head when it was left open for an attack.

When it charged its gun, Sonic hit it with a Spin Dash to damage it, and then Chopper began to hurl a couple of rainbow balls at it. Brobot L-Nator managed to block one of them, but it wasn't able to dodge Tipral's Star Kick.

"Why are you attacking it?" Sonic asked. "Your own minion made that."

"Yes, but this thing is in our way," Tipral replied. "And I would like to get a move on rather than deal with this thing..."

Brobot L-Nator flew toward Tipral and tried to shoot at him, but he teleported out of its reach and managed to teleport high above the robot while firing Star Spears. Brobot L-Nator turned around and fired at Tipral with a couple of shots. Thankfully, Tipral was faster and teleported back to the ground.

"Obviously this thing wasn't built to catch me."

Sonic managed to land another hit on the robot with a simple Spin Jump, and Luigi even managed to hit it with a Cyclone. Brobot L-Nator took action and bounced off the ground in a ball and landed on the left side of the ground while facing away from the group.

"What in Clara is it doing?" Chopper gawked.

He noticed it fly backwards and knock him away. With the quills there too, he ended up getting hurt as well from them. Sonic and Luigi were able to jump just in time, with Luigi jumping on Brobot L-Nator's head.

"It's got a predictable attack pattern, that's for sure," Sonic mentioned.

"Then this fight should be easy," Tipral said as he tossed a shadow ball at the Brobot L-Nator. It turned around and fired a small laser from its green eyes, which Tipral didn't expect and ended up getting hit.

Brobot L-Nator flew up and fired another laser down, which Chopper ran from, while Sonic used his Spin Dash to avoid it. Luigi was unfortunate to get hit by the laser and cringed in pain.

"That laser is painful!" Luigi yelped.

"We've dealt with many painful things, Luigi," Chopper mentioned as he hurled a fireball at Brobot L-Nator. To his dismay, the fireball didn't seem to deal too much. "Great… It has extra defense against fire…"

Brobot L-Nator knelt down as it was starting to blink orange before flying up to the ceiling and causing rubble to fall from above. Sonic performed a Bounce Attack and managed to smash through some rubble falling from above, while Tipral teleported to avoid it.

When Brobot L-Nator came back down, he slammed the ground and caused a green shockwave to come their way. Luigi managed to jump over it and land on Brobot L-Nator's head with his own feet.

"If my bro were here, we could land some cool moves on this thing together," Luigi said as he kicked Brobot L-Nator's face and knocked it back over by the unconscious Nastasia.

Brobot L-Nator turned its head and looked down at Nastasia. Afterward, it looked back up at the four and took a look at Luigi first. With a simple flash of its green eyes, Luigi was shocked and quickly turned to the other three.

"What did it just do?!" Chopper gawked as he noticed Luigi's eyes were red. The green plumber rushed their way and attempted to tackle Sonic, who jumped over him and hit Brobot L-Nator with a Homing Attack.

Luigi decided to go after Tipral, but it was a poor choice when Tipral sent him flying at Brobot L-Nator, causing both of them to crash.

"Tipral! Don't hit Luigi!" Chopper cried. "He may be brainwashed, but attacking him won't work!"

"I do things differently, Chopper. Deal with it." Tipral replied as he fired a Star Spear. Sonic quickly pulled Luigi out of the way and let Brobot L-Nator get hit by Tipral's Star Spear instead.

Tipral glared at Sonic a bit before turning back to Luigi, who was moaning and rubbing his head. From what they realized, he was now back to normal. "I guess the brainwashing doesn't last forever..."

"What happened to me?" Luigi wondered.

"You were..." Before Chopper could finish, Brobot L-Nator's laser sword arm stretched forward and tried to hit Luigi, but he decided to freeze it for a second and pull him out of the way before its arm could free itself from its icy prison.

Luigi whirled around and clenched his fists at Brobot L-Nator. He gave it a punch, but because it was made of metal, he ended up holding his fist in pain, trying hard not to cry or scream.

"Luigi, if Mario could smash blocks with his fists, you can handle punching something made out of metal," Sonic noted.

Luigi realized this and performed a flip before jumping on Brobot L-Nator. It decided to go up in the air, but he wasn't going to let it go so easily. He crouched and performed his Super Jump to damage it and make it fall to the ground.

Sonic ran up to it, but Brobot L-Nator quickly got back up and charged up a Spin Dash, forcing Sonic to back away. Even if his Spin Dash was strong, he didn't want to end up getting hit by the spikes it had.

"I'm suddenly remembering Silver Sonic now..." Sonic trailed as he clenched his fist and hit Brobot L-Nator with his Sonic Wind. Sadly, it didn't stop the robot from sending the blue hedgehog flying to the wall.

When Brobot L-Nator stood back up, it turned to Tipral and flashed its eyes. Sadly, it didn't work when Tipral teleported above it and stomped on its head before hitting it with a shadow kick afterward.

"Thankfully Mr. L actually told me about this robot beforehand, so I shouldn't have too much of a problem tearing it apart!" Tipral declared.

Brobot L-Nator rubbed its head a bit before firing a green missile at Tipral. He managed to destroy it with ease with a Star Spear, while Chopper landed a light slamming kick on the robot afterward.

It prepared to use another Spin Dash, so Chopper chucked a couple of rainbow and light balls at it to stop it. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to keep it from charging his way. He jumped, but Brobot L-Nator jumped too and hit him, knocking him to the ground, knocking away his Bomb ability.

"Great... It's being smart now." Chopper groaned.

Brobot L-Nator also fired a laser down near Luigi, which he jumped away to dodge and used his Super Jump to hit it once it stopped. However, it didn't make it fall to the ground, so Chopper was forced to throw Sonic up while he was in a ball with an uppercut kick.

Brobot L-Nator's eyes widened as it got knocked back by Sonic and crashed into the wall nearby. The blue hedgehog landed on the ground and curled up in a ball to charge up his Light Speed Attack.

"Time I busted out something I haven't used in a while!" Sonic declared as he continued to charge his attack. Luigi noticed Brobot L-Nator fall, so he managed to hit it with a Super Jump and even stomp on its head when he landed on it.

However, Brobot L-Nator grabbed a hold of the plumber and threw him to the ground, leaving a bruise on his nose. It curled up in a ball and prepared to finish off Luigi, but Sonic was able to attack it just in time with his Light Speed Attack. Even with the spikes it had, he was still able to hurt it and even leave it off guard too.

"That wasn't an easy thing for me to do..." Sonic cringed, who was hurt a bit by Brobot L-Nator's spikes. It landed on the ground again and fired a fireball their way. Chopper inhaled it and spat it back at Brobot L-Nator, whose eyes widened in pain as it got hit.

"Great... It has my elemental hand attacks!" Chopper grumbled.

It ended up charging a Speed Dash as well before it charged while firing at them. Chopper quickly jumped to avoid the shots, and Sonic used a Bounce Attack to jump over them. Tipral snapped his finger and managed to get in an extra hit on Brobot L-Nator, causing sparks to fly everywhere from it.

"So, it looks like it's coming close to being destroyed..." Tipral trailed. "And here I thought Mr. L's robot was stronger than this..."

_"CRITICAL DAMAGE! CRITICAL DAMAGE!"_ Brobot L-Nator shouted. _"COMMENCING REINFORCED WEAPONRY!"_

Brobot L-Nator's laser sword arm transformed into a claw-like arm, which was able to stretch out and hit Tipral, causing him to hold his arm in pain when he was knocked back. Luigi ended up jumping on it, which ended up hurting Brobot L-Nator.

"Wait... That can hurt it?" Luigi gawked.

"That's pretty interesting..." Sonic trailed.

While its arm came back, it continued to fire, which Sonic and Luigi were unfortunate to get hit by. Chopper, on the other hand, managed to jump on Brobot L-Nator's head and perform a stylish move before tossing a couple of rainbow balls at the robot. While it shook its head from the attack, its arms turned into drills and began to drill through the ground.

"Uh oh... This isn't good..." Luigi gulped.

"You know, this robot kind of reminds me of Metal Chopper..." Chopper trailed. "Its arms can change into different weapons, and he's capable of copying abilities like this robot here."

"Metal Chopper copies abilities?" Sonic gawked.

"Yeah. He hasn't been using it as much after his 'upgrade'..."

Brobot L-Nator popped out near Luigi and tried to hit him with its drills. It ended up failing when Luigi used his Super Jump to dodge it and land on the robot's head instead, stunning it for a couple of seconds.

Tipral skated behind Brobot L-Nator and delivered a Star Kick to make it crash into the wall. While he landed on the ground, Brobot L-Nator quickly got itself up and turned back to the four.

It looked at Luigi's mustache and ended up getting a robotic mustache of its own. The only difference was that it was able to take it off and throw it like a boomerang at them. It barely hit Luigi's cap and Sonic's quills, while Chopper and Tipral were a bit too short from its reach.

"Well that's a relief," Chopper sighed as Brobot L-Nator grabbed its mustache and put it back on. It also happened to have a nose that resembled Luigi, which left him with an annoyed look.

"Why does this thing think it can copy me?!" Luigi fumed. "When we find that Mr. L guy, we're gonna have a little talk with him!"

"Yeah, I can agree with that," Sonic nodded as Brobot L-Nator curled up in a ball and got near Sonic. It began to use a Whirlwind, which caused him to get sent flying up. He even got hit by Brobot L-Nator's Homing Attack.

"Wait, it can use a Whirlwind too?!"

When Brobot L-Nator landed, Tipral made his move and teleported over the robot. It didn't even have time to retaliate when Tipral began to kick down at it from a lower right angle. After five kicks, more sparks were flying everywhere.

_"INITIATING DEFENSES!" _Brobot L-Nator shouted as it raised its arms and surrounded itself in electricity. _"DEFENSES SUCCESSFUL! GIVE UP NOW!"_

"Give up? No way!" Chopper retorted while he ran up and tossed a couple of ice balls at Brobot L-Nator. While it was harmed, it didn't appear to freeze it, to Chopper's dismay. He ended up jumping on it, causing him to get electrocuted.

"Great… Now we can't even get close to it!" Luigi frowned. "Looks like I've got nothing left…"

Brobot L-Nator punched the ground, causing a wave of spark energy to come their way. They were able to jump over it easily, but it also left some spark projectiles that were coming at them from behind. Tipral and Sonic got electrocuted, while Chopper and Luigi were able to dodge them after what happened to the two.

"Wait a second…" Chopper pondered for a moment until he inhaled one of the projectiles to gain the Plasma ability. "Yeah! I've finally got this back!"

Brobot L-Nator jumped in the air and used a Bounce Attack to make the ground shake and stun them. It slammed the ground after getting out of its ball form to make an electric shockwave hit them. Chopper took the least amount of damage thanks to his copied ability.

Chopper began to run in place for a couple of seconds until he was surrounded in an electric barrier. Tipral snapped his fingers after quickly shaking himself and hit Brobot L-Nator with Star Magic.

"It looks like my powers are still capable of hitting this robot," Tipral noticed.

Brobot L-Nator's eyes flashed before it grabbed its cap and threw it their way. Luigi jumped over it and tried to jump on the robot, but because it was surrounded by electricity, he got hurt instead.

Luigi noticed Brobot L-Nator laughing at him, which made him annoyed, but he noticed its cape coming back his way, so he grabbed a hold of it and threw it at Brobot L-Nator. This caused it to almost fall on its back, and it was also no longer surrounded in electricity.

"I guess I managed to find out how to get rid of that!" Luigi grinned as he hit Brobot L-Nator with his Cyclone to make it fall over. Sonic jumped in and attacked it with his Homing Attack to leave some smoke coming out of the robot.

"Well, looks like this robot's gonna blow soon!" Sonic smirked. "That's just what we needed!"

Chopper smiled and unleashed his Plasma Wave upon Brobot L-Nator. It's eyes widened in pain while sparks continued to appear around it. Chopper followed up with a rainbow spinning kick afterward.

"It's nice to know that this thing is almost defeated," Chopper said as he landed on the ground and fired a Plasma Needle at Brobot L-Nator. "That way, we can get out of here before anything bad happens..."

"You know, I'm starting to wonder how Mr. L got something like this to work," Sonic mentioned. "It would take A LOT to make a robot like this. How did he even have the time to make it anyway?"

Before anyone could answer, Brobot L-Nator's fist stretched and hit both Chopper and Sonic, with Chopper's ability getting knocked away. The robot was also surrounded in more electricity afterward.

"I'll take care of this," Tipral declared as he snapped his finger and hit Brobot L-Nator with Star Magic. He then jumped in the air and fired two Star Spears afterward. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Brobot L-Nator from hitting him with a missile and knocking him to the ground.

"Ungh... I should've seen that coming!"

Luigi turned back to Brobot L-Nator, who threw its mustache his way. He was about to kick it, but Brobot L-Nator remembered what happened last time and stretched its arm again to grab it.

"What the heck?!" Luigi gaped.

"Well, it certainly has learned from its mistakes..." Chopper trailed.

It was about to put its mustache back on, but Tipral threw a Star Spear at it to force it back on and also damage Brobot L-Nator, causing the electricity surrounding it to go away and leave it vulnerable once again.

Chopper smirked and raised his arms to prepare his hammer, but he quickly realized that he didn't have it, so he jumped on Brobot L-Nator instead, with Sonic following up with a Homing Attack. Brobot L-Nator quickly gained conscience again and flashed its eyes at Chopper to make him get shocked by the same kind of energy Luigi got hit by.

"Ummmmm... Chopper?" Luigi blinked. "Are you OK?"

Chopper's eyes turned red as he chucked a few fireballs his way. Luigi shrieked and jumped over them while Tipral got rid of the fireballs with some shadow balls.

"Tipral... You really shouldn't..." Sonic was cut off as soon as Tipral kicked Chopper back at Brobot L-Nator, making them both crash into the wall. Chopper was thankfully no longer brainwashed, and Brobot L-Nator suffered from more damage as well.

"Ugh... What just happened?" Chopper moaned as he jumped up and rubbed his head.

"You were being brainwashed, so I had to take care of it," Tipral answered. "You don't have to thank me."

"And Brobot L-Nator's almost finished," Sonic added.

"Oh, really?" Chopper turned around to Brobot L-Nator and smirked. "Well, looks like we'll be seeing this thing l-ator when it's finished!"

"You fool... We don't have time for stupid jokes." Tipral growled. Because of that, Chopper ended up getting blasted by Brobot L-Nator's laser. Tipral didn't even help him up and fired a Star Spear at Brobot L-Nator.

While Chopper got up, Luigi noticed Brobot L-Nator fly up and fire a couple of missiles down. He decided to counter this with his Super Jump, which knocked it to the ground and allowed him to stomp on the robot while it was dazed. Sonic tossed himself at Brobot L-Nator with his Spin Dash.

Brobot L-Nator knocked Sonic away with its fist and even stretched it to try to hit him again. Chopper jumped on top of its fist and began to hurl some rainbow and light balls while Tipral teleported above it and performed a Star Stomp on it.

"This thing can take quite a beating..." Tipral trailed.

"Yeah, even in its condition right now," Chopper agreed.

Brobot L-Nator quickly shook its head as it managed to knock Tipral away with its stretched fist. Luigi was able to hitch a ride on it and deliver a kick to its face, making its head spin around like crazy. This also let him hit it with his flutter jump.

"You know, I wonder why it never copied any of Tipral's moves," Sonic wondered as Brobot L-Nator got in a ball and began to come his way. Tipral ended up snapping his finger and interrupted its attack to make it crash over by Luigi.

"Considering that it's a bit weak, dealing damage to this thing is simple," Tipral declared as he teleported over to the robot and delivered a Star Punch. Brobot L-Nator quickly got up and flew up to fire some lasers down while throwing its mustache as well. Luigi would've gotten the robot if he wasn't hit by its mustache.

"I think it's time I used another Light Speed Attack," Sonic suggested.

"Are you sure about that?" Chopper wondered.

"That might take some time to charge up..." Luigi added.

"I know, but it might be what we need to win!" Sonic got in his ball form and began to charge up his Light Speed Attack. Meanwhile, Luigi was able to get Brobot L-Nator back down with his Super Jump once it caught its mustache. However, to make things worse, its mouth ended up opening.

And it was starting to inhale.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Chopper guffawed. "It can INHALE?!"

"Well, I think Mr. L's Brobots could do that..." Luigi mentioned.

"Maybe it might like this," Tipral said, throwing a Star Spear into its mouth. Some explosions could be seen from the inside of Brobot L-Nator as smoke started to come out of its mouth. "I guess that did a lot..."

They noticed they were a bit low on HP, so Chopper got a Master Shroom Shake out and drank some of it to recover 200 HP. After Luigi and Tipral finished drinking some, they noticed Sonic was ready to make his move.

"OK! I'm ready!" Sonic declared, facing Brobot L-Nator, who readied its weapons and prepared to fire at them.

_"VICTORY IS USELESS! SURRENDER NOW OR PREPARE TO LET YOUR GAMES END BY MY HANDS!" _Brobot L-Nator shouted.

"Heck no! Especially when I've got THIS for you!" Sonic answered by barraging Brobot L-Nator with a couple of attacks thanks to his Light Speed Attack. Once he finished, Chopper charged up a light ball and hurled it at Brobot L-Nator, which was then followed by Luigi's Cyclone.

While it was nearing its end, Brobot L-Nator wasn't going to give up so soon. It flew up and clenched its fists as it was surrounded in a blue glow, which caught Sonic off by surprise as he got knocked away by it.

"What in the world?! How'd it do that?!" Sonic gaped.

"Obviously it has one last move to pull off," Chopper answered. "Well, if it wants us to play dirty, then I guess we might as well."

Brobot L-Nator's lasers became bigger and blue and surrounded Chopper by both sides. Basically, he was trapped and had to make sure he didn't get hit by its lasers. But since there were others fighting, Tipral was able to interrupt its attack with his Star Magic, with Luigi using his Super Jump to leave it off guard and knock it to the ground with his flutter jump.

After Brobot L-Nator landed on the ground, it elbowed Luigi in the stomach, causing him to wheeze in pain while the robot merely laughed at him.

_"YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A WEAKLING!" _Brobot L-Nator scoffed. _"FACE IT! YOU CAN'T BEAT ME!"_

"I've had it with people insulting me," Luigi growled as he got up and punched Brobot L-Nator in the face, causing its head to spin around. Even some smoke was coming out as well.

Before Brobot L-Nator could get into a ball, Luigi used his Cyclone and caught the robot in one, causing it to get knocked back and allowed him to use his attack again at a closer distance to make it get sent flying up. With a Super Jump, sparks began to fly everywhere.

_"WARNING! WARNING! SYSTEM MALFUNCTION!"_

Luigi clenched his fists and performed a flip in the air as he jumped on the robot. Once he jumped back over to the other three, a shining light came from Brobot L-Nator's body, which made it explode.

"Whoa... You just blew up the robot." Chopper gaped.

"Really? Well... I don't know about that..." Luigi said while rubbing the back of his neck.

"That was impressive, I gotta hand it to ya!" Sonic grinned, giving him a thumbs up. However, he paused when he noticed a bright blue light. "Wait a second... I know that light from somewhere!"

He noticed the remains of Brobot L-Nator happened to have a blue Chaos Emerald on the ground. Sonic quickly picked it up and put it away.

"Was that another one of those Chaos Emeralds?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah. I guess Brobot L-Nator happened to be holding it. I guess Mr. L went to my world and actually got a hold of this... But now it's ours!"

"Well, now that that's out of the way, I guess we can go," Luigi said, noticing the exit wasn't blocked anymore. "Though, a key wasn't dropped..."

"OK, we should get going," Chopper agreed before looking back at the unconscious Nastasia. "Tipral, didn't she say something about remembering you from somewhere?"

Tipral didn't appear to let out an answer.

"Tipral! Aren't you going to answer my question?"

"Looks like I'm not going to," Tipral replied as the area shook violently. "Looks like we should be going."

"But what about Nastasia?" Chopper asked. "We can't just leave her here unconscious! That would be horrible!"

"Even if she's a bit evil, it doesn't feel right leaving someone here to die," Luigi agreed.

"Nastasia will only slow us down! You better not make the poor decision and stay here to die! Because if you end up here dead, there's no way we'll be able to get to the True Chaos Heart."

"But..." Chopper was about to speak up, but he was teleported over to the door to get out, along with Sonic and Luigi.

"Tipral! What were you doing?!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Getting you guys out of this mess," Tipral answered as he kicked the door open and threw everyone out the door. He didn't bother looking back as he went through the door.

When they returned to the previous area, they heard a loud booming sound coming from the area they got out of. Chopper decided to try to open it, but it didn't appear to open, to their dismay.

"Looks like we can't go back in there," Chopper noted.

"I guess you all understand what I meant, right?" Tipral wondered.

"But we shouldn't have done that," Sonic stated. "We left someone back there and now she's possibly dead! And she was one of your minions! Do you not care about them?!"

Tipral was about to answer, but they heard a couple of voices near the locked door. The four crouched and looked down the ledge to see the door was no longer locked, but it now had a hole.

"Wait... Where did that hole come from?" Luigi gawked.

"You know, I have a feeling those Maginans came through here and busted that door open..." Chopper pondered.

"Maybe..." Sonic trailed. "We might as well go."

They jumped down over to the door and opened it to find a downreel handle and a pit down below. They took it down to a long tunnel with a small bridge up ahead and two Void Warbots patrolling.

"Hmmmm... Well, this seems a bit interesting." Chopper commented. "Let's move on, shall we?"

They made their way over to the Void Warbot, with Luigi jumping on its head with a flutter jump, followed by Chopper's light spinning kick. Sonic was able to finish it off with his Homing Attack.

"Guys, look what I'm seeing here," Sonic noticed some large, green bombs that were on the ceiling and near the ground. "Oh, boy... Looks like things might be getting a little more hectic."

"No, it doesn't have to," Tipral fired a Star Spear and blew up both bombs. "See? A projectile can blow them up."

"Oh... Well that's a good thing." Luigi said as they made their way across the bridge. Although, there happened to be a pipe below them sticking out of a wall. Chopper brought everyone into 3-D to go down and into the pipe.

They came across a large area with a yellow ? block near Chopper. He hit it to find a Wheel ability inside, so he took it to gain the ability. Up ahead were fire geysers shooting upward and some electricity on the ground.

He quickly turned into a wheel and began to make his way through the path. The fire geysers turned him into a flaming wheel, while the electric floor transformed him into an electric wheel.

"You know, I don't think I've seen this before," Luigi realized.

"We haven't seen this ability that much anyway," Sonic mentioned.

Chopper managed to run into a wall and ended up smashing through it to reveal a little secret. A chest was hidden behind the wall and had a Pizza Slice hidden inside.

"P-P-Pizza?!" Chopper gasped as he literally drooled over it. "What's pizza doing here?!"

He took it and put it away before returning to everyone else. He tried to keep it all a secret, but they could obviously smell the pizza. However, Chopper refused to speak as they left the area and got back on the bridge in the previous one.

Across the bridge, they were met with a dark purple Void Wheelie coming their way. Chopper, of course, was able to charge at it and defeat it by transforming into a wheel himself. Up ahead was a platform that appeared to be too high to jump, but with Luigi's Super Jump, he was able to get up, while Tipral teleported the other two up.

"Oh, I see an upreel handle!" Chopper said as he grabbed a hold of it and was taken up to the pathway above. When Luigi got a hold of it next, a large, dark purple Void Intruderbot with black eyes was summoned thanks to a black Void Securibot.

"Great... Now this robot called in some help." Luigi sighed.

Tipral took no time to talk and snapped his finger to damage the Void Intruderbot with his Star Magic. Chopper got into a wheel and knocked it back, but it was able to get up and fire a couple of missiles their way.

"Hang tight, I got this!" Sonic announced, jumping in the air and performing a Homing Attack on each missile and destroying the Void Intruderbot with his Spin Jump. "There we go! But what about the Void Securibot?"

They noticed it fly away as soon as it saw the Void Intruderbot get destroyed. Looks like they can't defend themselves.

"Cowards…" Tipral muttered.

They noticed a door up ahead on a high ledge that Luigi couldn't even reach. Thankfully, there were two moving platforms with fans that could help them get up. But with them moving, it looked a little difficult to get up.

Sonic made the first move and used the fans to get up. It took him a while, but he was able to get himself up to the door. Tipral followed up, followed by Luigi and then Chopper.

They found a yellow ? block by the door, and to their dismay a Dark Shroom came out and began to scurry away. It ended up falling off the ledge and down the pit they previously jumped out of.

"There's no point in following it," Luigi said. "I guess we should just move on."

"Yeah," Chopper agreed as they headed through the door. They found another glowing dark platform in a large area with nothing around, to their surprise. They simply jumped on the platform and let the platform move up.

They thought everything would be all right, but then two black C Units called C-X Voiders that had purple square-shaped eyes and two dark arm guns appeared on the platform and began firing.

Tipral kicked one off with a Star Kick to make it plummet. He was about to say how easy it was, but it was able to get back on the platforms with its jetpack and fire at him. Luigi tried to kick the other C-X Voider, but he ended up getting hit by a dark blast it fired.

"This is a strange C Unit..." Chopper trailed. "I don't think I've seen this kind before."

"That's because The Void's power may have changed their previous appearance in a way," Tipral explained.

Chopper gave him a nod before he ended up getting blasted by one of the C-X Voiders. He quickly got up and turned into a wheel to knock it off the moving platform. Thankfully, it ended up stopping by a dark vine they could climb up.

"Are we…going up into the heavens?" Luigi gawked.

"That's impossible. We're in The Void, not The Overthere." Sonic answered.

Chopper started off by climbing up the vine while throwing light balls at the C-X Voiders firing at him. Since it seemed to be the most effective thing to use against them, he continued to chuck light balls at them.

They ended up landing on a dark cloud platform with two brick blocks with a yellow ? block in between. Sonic hit it to discover an Ultimate Shroom. They took no time and split it into four to recover 100 HP.

"Ahhhh… Much better!" Luigi sighed. "I needed that!"

The two C-X Voiders flew up to them and rapidly fired at them. Tipral teleported above the one to the right and smashed it with his fists to destroy it. Chopper got in a wheel and destroyed the other with ease.

"OK, I don't get this area... Is this supposed to be a sky area or something?" Chopper wondered, getting back into his normal form.

Tipral happened to notice some floating pillars above them. "This seems like ruins of a tower, now that I think about it..."

"You don't suppose this is a tower in Dimensional X?" Sonic wondered. "That kind of disturbs me..."

They noticed a dark cloud above them, so Luigi used his Super Jump to reach up there and unintentionally hit a Void Lakitu. There was also a black Ruff Puff with purple eyes called a Void Puff. When Tipral teleported the other three up, the four saw it shoot a dark ball of electricity their way. Luigi jumped on it and performed a stylish move before stomping on it again.

Sonic used his Homing Attack to finish it off, allowing them to continue on. They climbed up another dark vine and landed on one of the floating pillars. The others happened to have two dark crystals sitting there.

"Hey, looks like I can use my light powers here," Chopper smiled as he tossed a light ball at the first one, causing a vine above them to appear. They climbed it to find a dark cloud going over to a door.

"Huh... This is cool." Luigi said as they walked over to the door to find a Wing ability pedestal, a metallic ground and a Void Warbot firing missiles their way. Chopper quickly grabbed the Wing ability and used his Shuttle Loop to hit the Void Warbot. Sonic got in a ball and destroyed it with a Spin Dash.

A Void Robbie was all that was left, and thankfully, none of them were near it. However, an idea struck Chopper as he tossed a light ball at the Void Robbie. This caused it to become stunned and approachable without having to deal with its scream.

"You know, that could help," Tipral realized. "Now let's get rid of this thing and see what we get from this."

Tipral snapped his finger and hit the Void Robbie with his Star Magic. Luigi approached the robot zombie and defeated it with his Cyclone after Chopper threw another light ball. This caused the area to tremor a bit as darkness created a chest in the center of the metallic floor.

Chopper approached the chest and found a Void Key inside. However, because of this, three Darklings appeared and hit Chopper with their spells. He retaliated by charging at them with his light fist in front of him. This defeated the Darklings and allowed them to leave.

They got back to the pillars, and Chopper chucked a light ball at the further dark crystal, making the other vine they used disappear and made a new vine appear above the closer dark crystal.

Tipral teleported over to the vine and began to climb up, with Chopper using his wings to fly up instead. They reached a dark cloud that had a tall pillar sticking up. Because they couldn't jump over it, Luigi used his Super Jump to get over it. Tipral teleported both Chopper and Sonic past it.

What surprised them was the small cloud moving up and down near them. Electricity seemed to be built up, which fired down to the ground. Luigi yelped when he saw it come down near his feet.

"OK… This isn't a safe area…" Luigi gulped.

"We should wait for the cloud to come back down, then we can use it to go up," Tipral informed. "That means you gotta stop cowering, plumber!"

"M-My name's Luigi, you know…"

"I don't care about your name. Just quit cowering before I'm forced to do it myself."

Once the cloud came down, they all jumped on it and let it take them up to a metallic cloud. Two Void Warbots were there and shooting at them. Chopper flew over the shots and ended up charging into one of them with a Shuttle Loop. Luigi managed to attack both of them with his Cyclone, allowing Sonic to destroy them with his Spin Dash.

"So, where do you think the door is?" Sonic asked.

"It's...above us?" Chopper gaped as he looked up and saw a floating locked door. "Hold on a moment... Something's not right!"

"Yes, the door's floating. We can all see it." Tipral noted.

Chopper gave him a confused look before he went into 3-D and found some Dimensional Blocks. He hit them to make them go into 2-D before flipping. With the key, they unlocked the door and moved on.

Upon entering the next area, they were standing on a metallic cloud with a metallic platform swinging to the left and right over a pit below. A C-X Voider was over by the edge of the ground, and when it noticed them, it fired.

"Heads up!" Sonic called out, using his Sonic Wind to attack the robot. Chopper fired a couple of feathers at it – even if it didn't do that much. It was then destroyed when Tipral hurled a shadow ball its way.

He turned to the three and gestured them to follow when the platform swung over to them. They all took it to the other side and found a loop up ahead. Luigi gulped as Chopper grabbed his arm and took off with the help of his Speed Dash.

"Slow down, Chopper!" Luigi cried.

"If I slow down, my face MIGHT skid across the floor!" Chopper replied. "I'm not as good as controlling my speed like Sonic is!"

Since Chopper was ahead, he ended up bumping into a wall up ahead, leaving him dazed while Luigi fell over on his back because of Chopper releasing him. However, neither of them had any fatal injuries.

"Heads up!" Sonic warned, making the two jump out of the way as Sonic rolled into a ball and smashed through the wall. Tipral stopped near Chopper and Luigi and looked at them with a glare.

"So are you going to just stay there and gawk? Or are you actually going to follow?" Tipral asked.

"Tipral..." Chopper began, approaching him. "You... Oh, forget it. Let's just go before we start another argument."

They headed through the hole and found another wall ahead with a yellow spring on the wall. Sonic got out of his ball form and hit the spring to go down a hill the opposite direction.

"Where's Sonic going?" Luigi asked.

"Well, if we hit the spring, we'll go down the lower path," Chopper answered. "Let's hope things aren't too fast..."

They used the spring to go down the hill to the left to also bump into a yellow spring pointing to the right on the wall below. There was a small ledge up ahead with a C-X Voider firing at Sonic.

Sonic used hid Whirlwind in order to send the robot flying, but it was able to stick to the ground to prevent itself from flying. When Sonic's Whirlwind stopped, Chopper jumped toward the C-X Voider and delivered a light kick to it.

"We've been seeing a lot of robots lately," Chopper remarked.

"Yeah, is this some sort of robot area?" Sonic wondered.

"It seems like it..." Luigi trailed.

They jumped on the small ledge and found a high platform over by a high ledge to the left. Apparently it was another climb for them, and it annoyed Tipral when he had to teleport Chopper and Sonic up.

"Wait... Why am I teleporting you up?" Tipral wondered as he turned to Chopper after landing on the ledge.

"I never said anything. You did it yourself." Chopper shrugged. "I could've used my Wing ability anyway..."

They found a light orb on the ledge, as well as a C-X Voider that fired at them. Luigi dodged its shots and managed to jump on its head, while Chopper charged into it headfirst and knocked it back. Tipral was able to fire a Star Spear and let it explode.

Tipral hurled a shadow ball at the light orb and made a platform appear above them. With Luigi's Super Jump, he managed to jump on the platform and land on the ledge above him to find another door. Tipral decided not to teleport Chopper and let him fly up on his own.

Heading into the next area, they found themselves on flat ground, but there was a glowing dark platform slightly above them. Once Chopper landed on it, it began to slowly move up.

"Uh oh... Get on here quick!" Chopper cried.

Luigi was the first to get on, followed by Sonic and then Tipral. They waited as it took them over to another dark glowing platform that appeared to be moving. On the other hand, there were Void Bats flying their way and spitting dark energy down at them.

"Ohhhhhh... Why did we have to run into these guys?" Luigi groaned.

"Calm down, plumber," Tipral snapped. "We've dealt with them before, and I'm sure we can handle them again."

He snapped his finger, causing the Void Bat to crash near them. Chopper pointed to the ground at the Void Bat and shot light energy from his finger to destroy it.

"Yeah! I really love this magic I have!" Chopper smiled. "Though, this is probably not the time to be so cheerful..."

"Mmmmm-hmmmmm," Sonic agreed, jumping on the platform ahead. They noticed a staircase made of dark glowing platforms that began to fall when they landed on them.

"Wah! Move quickly!" Luigi cried, making his way up to the ledge and finding a Save Block and a yellow ? block. The rest followed up and sighed in relief as they noticed the door up ahead. Luigi couldn't help but shudder at the sight of the black door. It felt somewhat ominous to him.

"Are you done shuddering?" Tipral interrupted. "We don't have time for this crap."

Chopper was starting to get tired of Tipral's remarks and walked over to him. "Tipral, I don't want you starting up another..."

Another small tremor occurred and made him fall over. His Wing ability also came off, to his dismay.

"Hey! Why did I lose my Wing ability to a tremor?!"

"It's not worth whining over," Tipral scoffed. "Let's just go through this door already."

Sonic hit the yellow ? block first to get a hold of a Master Shroom. He split it into four, and they all recovered 200 HP. After the Save Block was hit, they immediately headed through the door, hoping to get away from the tremor.

* * *

**Through the door-**

"Ugh... I haven't gotten ANYWHERE in this place!" the mysterious man in green and black muttered as he walked through the small battle area. "Tipral said he'd be here, right? Well where is that guy?!"

Mr. L heard a noise from above and looked up. The Dark Star Core ended up landing in front of him, making him gawk.

"What the... Is that you, Fawful?" Mr. L asked.

_**"****Mustache?"**_

"Yeah, yeah, very funny... I don't know how you even turned into something like that, but I think it makes a better look for ya – just not as better as I!"

The Dark Star Core turned away from Mr. L and scurried away over to the door ahead. "Hey! Come back here!"

It was too late. The Dark Star Core escaped through the door, leaving Mr. L in the small area by himself.

"Bah! Who needs him? I can go on on my own anyway!" Mr. L boasted. "Him and those other junior minions wouldn't have been as great without _my_ technology."

He heard another noise, but this time it was coming from behind. Mr. L whirled around and saw four people come in through the door. He was left both surprised and angry.

"Ho ho! What do we have here?"

Chopper noticed Mr. L looking at them with his arms crossed. "Oh, great... Mr. L's here!"

"You people are not who I wanted to see at this moment," Mr. L growled. "I just had to deal with Fawful, but he just scurried away like a coward! How fitting, considering that he can't put up a fight. That nerd..."

"Bad news for you, Mr. L," Sonic started. "We trashed your robot like I trash all of Eggman's bots!"

"What? Brobot L-Nator failed to beat you?! Preposterous! Bah... It doesn't matter at this point! I guess I have no choice but to handle this myself! I also got myself a little trinket too! I used one on my robot, but I decided to hold one myself!"

Mr. L took out a yellow Chaos Emerald, making Sonic jump in shock.

"He's got another Chaos Emerald?!" Sonic gaped.

"What? That's what it's called? ...And if you know about it, then there must be a special purpose to it! Heh! Well, I guess I might as well use it on you guys!" Mr. L smirked, but he stopped and looked at the party. "Say... You guys are lacking a couple of friends. I thought there were six of you?"

"We had some problems along the way," Tipral explained. "And it's none of your concern, Mr. L."

"Wh-Whoa! Tipral! ...Wait, what are you doing with them?!"

"I'd rather not explain all the details. But all we know is that Blade, Kirby, Mario, O'Chunks, Mimi and Nastasia are presumed dead."

"No, I don't think they're dead..." Luigi denied. "My bro ALWAYS finds a way to get out somehow! There may be hope..."

"Aw, what's the matter?" Mr. L grinned, finding an opportunity to taunt the plumber. "Couldn't save your brother? I guess it's 'cause your just a coward! But I guess that makes sense in a way, considering that you're always in the red guy's shadow!"

Luigi worried look changed to an angry one as he clenched his fists and grit his teeth. "Say that again!"

"You're a wimp. Nobody thinks you're cool. And you can never seem to prove how great you are compared to other people. Heck, you're nothing but trouble! How was the Chaos Heart able to destroy many worlds? 'Cause of you!"

"You... How do you know that?"

"I heard that clown saying some stuff about it before. It made me think whether he was faking his memory loss or not. But who cares about him? He's already dead! Just like the red guy!"

"I swear, if you continue to taunt me like that, I'm going to..."

"HA! You can't do a thing to me anyway! You always rely on your brother to help! You're weak. Plus, I don't like that 'stache of yours. That shag on your lip might as well be a backscratcher!"

At this point, Luigi was steaming. "That's IT! You can insult me all you want, but nobody insults the mustache!"

"Whoa..." Chopper gaped. "Luigi, simmer down..."

"Yeah. Listen to the kid." Mr. L suggested. "I can't believe he has more guts than you!"

"This 'kid' can't get a kiss from a girl without crying about it," Tipral remarked.

Luigi calmed down and got in his fighting stance. "Look, many things might be true, but I've managed to do things all on my own. And if you want me to prove that I can, I'll take you on myself!"

"Luigi, hold on..." Sonic gaped. "Are you really..."

"Don't worry about me, guys," Luigi said, turning to the three. "Leave this guy to me! You stay back and watch me do the action! I'd rather not let you guys waste time fighting him anyway. You need to conserve your strength! Let me take care of this, OK?"

"Luigi, come on... It's nice to see that you're standing up for yourself and not backing down, but he's holding a Chaos Emerald!" Chopper exclaimed. "And from what we saw, that thing can be dangerous..."

"Well, sometimes if you wanna accomplish something, you need to do it yourself. And besides... He made fun of my 'stache! I'm pretty sensitive about that!"

"...If you say so."

Chopper went back through the door, and Sonic followed up afterward. Tipral turned back and approached Luigi however.

"Luigi..."

"Tipral, stay out of this," Luigi said. "This is none of your business."

"I just wanted to say that I'm a bit surprised by your actions. I always thought of you as a coward and an annoyance. I suppose there is more to you..."

"...Thanks."

Tipral slowly nodded to him as he left through the door, leaving only Luigi and Mr. L to duke it out.

"You done with your talking?" Mr. L yawned. "Good. I seriously want to get this fight started and humiliate you in front of all your friends! Too bad your brother won't be able to see this."

"I'm not letting your words get to me," Luigi declared, gaining a confident look. "You can keep that attitude all you want, but it's not breaking Luigi! And besides, _I_ was the one that smashed your robot!"

Mr. L gasped and grit his teeth. "Oh, so you did! Then I'm probably going to enjoy ending your game even more! Now, let's see what this trinket can do..."

He held the yellow Chaos Emerald Up, which began to brighten up. Mr. L felt some power being absorbed from the emerald, which made a bright light appear around him. Luigi had difficulty seeing.

When the bright light was gone, Mr. L's cap changed to a black color, his eyes became green, his gloves were green with static coming out of them, and he also donned a green cape.

"Ho ho! This is quite a transformation!" Mr. L gaped. "And my thunder powers feel as good as before! The Green Thunder needs some kind of name for this transformation... Something like...**Thunder L**!"

"Thunder L?" Luigi blinked, unsure of what to think about the name.

"Yeah! It fits me very well now that you think about it! And thanks to that yellow gem thingy, I'm going to put an end to you once and for all!"

"No offense, but that's kind of what most bad guys say to us before a fight," Luigi mentioned.

"What?! Ridiculous! Only I... Grrrrrrr! If you want to get started, then so be it!" Thunder L fired a green electric ball Luigi's way, making him yelp and jump out of the way.

"_That was too close!" _Luigi thought. _"I don't know what I'm going to do to even hit this guy. It's not like I... Hold on a moment."_

Luigi checked his inventory and found the small sack he, Blade and Mario got from Merlon. They used theirs against one of Tipral's minions, so was it a good idea for him to use it to fight Thunder L?

"_No. This is a good time for me to use it." _Luigi opened the sack and let the glitters come out and land on him. After a flash, Luigi was now donning a black helmet and black shell that resembled a Buzzy Beetle shell. His cap and shirt were also white, and his overalls were now green.

"Well, what do we have here?" Thunder L noticed. "So you changed your clothing and got a helmet and shell. No big deal. It's not like it's going to help you against my attacks! So be prepared to lose, loser!"

Thunder L jumped back and charged up another electric ball. Luigi noticed his Max HP was 560, his Attack was 22 and he had a Defense of 12. He was definitely not too excited to be facing someone who had higher stats than Shade.

But he noticed something he held in both hands. Two small hammers that almost resembled Mario's Ultra Hammer were there. "Wait a second... I DO have the Hammer Suit on! But what about my overalls turning green?"

He ended up chucking a green fireball Thunder L's way, causing him to jump out of the way and look surprised.

"What in the world?!" Thunder L gaped. However, his gaping mouth changed to a smirk. "...Well, I guess this makes the fight a little challenging for me. This actually might be an enjoyable fight! Have at you!"

Thunder L made the first move and zapped the ground, creating a wave of green electricity that came Luigi's way. He was able to hurl a fireball to the ground and create a wave of green fire that came Thunder L's way.

Luigi was almost surprised. He never had this kind of power when he got a hold of a Fire Flower before! Maybe Merlon's magic was actually doing something helpful for him. Why else would he give it to Luigi in the first place?

Since he also had two hammers, he decided to throw them after both the flames and electricity cleared. Thunder L was not expecting it and got hit by both hammers, leaving him a little dazed.

"Gah! Stupid hammers!" Thunder L grunted while he quickly shook his head and grit his teeth at Luigi. "You got lucky there, plumber!"

"'Plumber'... It's strange that only Tipral called me that." Luigi noticed before seeing Thunder L fly toward him while leaving a trail of electricity behind. The green plumber began to skid across the floor when Thunder L delivered an electric punch to his stomach.

"Your going to pay for destroying my robot, you know..."

When Thunder L jumped back, he hurled a couple of electric balls his way, which Luigi began to counter by hurling fireballs. He also threw some hammers as well (because he apparently has unlimited hammers with his power-up) to distract Thunder L.

"Oh, I don't think so..." Thunder L caught one of the hammers and gave him a grin, making Luigi's eyes widen. "What's the matter? Surprised?"

"How on earth did you do that?!" Luigi gaped.

"That trinket's power is probably helping me! And I approve!"

Thunder L threw the hammer back at Luigi, but it was going at a much faster pace, causing Luigi to get hit by it and also get sent flying back to the wall. Thunder L also charged up an electric ball and hurled it Luigi's way.

Luigi jumped over it just in time and landed on Thunder L's head and showed off his stylish moves before landing. He even managed to hit him with his Cyclone and then uppercut him with his Super Jump.

When Thunder L got up, he gave him a grumpy look. "Not bad... I guess you've improved since our previous battle in Tipral's Palace."

"Of course I did," Luigi replied.

"Well, you're still no match for... You know what? Forget that. That usually comes off being clichéd and l-ame! I'm definitely not that!"

Luigi sighed and threw a hammer to get back to the fight. Thunder L saw it coming and ducked, and then when he stood he spun around and created an electric cyclone, which he preferred to call a Thunder Cyclone. Green lightning began to strike the ground, with one lightning bolt hitting Luigi.

"And now the Green Thunder strikes like a lightning bolt!" Thunder L declared. "About time, too!"

After his last lightning bolt, Luigi managed to hit him with a thrown hammer. He even got closer and swung two hammers he took out at Thunder L to slightly knock him back. But when Thunder L grabbed his arm, he delivered a nasty shock.

"Ho ho! How shocking!" Thunder L chortled.

Luigi quickly shook his head and noticed Thunder L charging up another electric ball. Since he was occupied with that, he threw one of his hammers and hit him. However, Thunder L was able to fire his electric ball back at Luigi, but he was able to duck under it without trouble.

Another idea Luigi had was using his fire powers and combined it with his hammers. When he began throwing hammers, they were now flaming hammers that left Thunder L with a burn upon contact.

"Gah! I guess I'm not the only one with that kind of plan..." Thunder L growled. "Well watch this!"

Thunder L did a backflip and put his feet on the wall across from Luigi. He jumped off the wall and was surrounded in electricity as he came charging toward Luigi. The green plumber tried throwing hammers and fireballs, but it didn't seem to work.

"Keep going! It's not going to help ya!"

Luigi's efforts to stop him failed, which ended up making him get knocked to the wall by Thunder L's charging attack.

"I think getting knocked to the wall is getting old..." Luigi moaned. "Almost all the enemies we fight do that."

"Well it's pretty fun," Thunder L smirked. "Which reminds me... I think I'll do that again!"

Since Thunder L's Cyclone was deadly, Luigi decided to try out his Cyclone. When he got up to him, he delivered a green Fire Cyclone that scorched Thunder L and sent him flying in the air.

"What in the world?! How'd you do that?!"

"If you could use a cyclone with electricity, then I can use one with fire," Luigi answered while he hit Thunder L with a Super Jump. While they were still up in the air, Luigi kicked Thunder L a couple of times to deal a little more damage.

Thunder L, however, wasn't going to let himself open like that. He grabbed Luigi's legs and made sure his head was facing the floor. Not even Luigi's hammers were stopping him from throwing him to the ground. Thankfully, Luigi's helmet prevented his head from getting a serious injury.

"_Thank goodness for the helmet," _Luigi thought.

"Great... That attack probably did nothing." Thunder L frowned as he landed on the ground. "All right, then... Might as well paralyze him while I can."

Thunder L fired a bolt of lightning at Luigi, but his attack had no effect on the plumber when he ducked and used the black shell on his back as a shield. He was left completely harmless.

"Hold on, shouldn't that attack have hurt you?"

"Well, I guess you just don't know a thing about the Hammer Suit!" Luigi smirked while tossing himself like a Koopa in his shell at Thunder L and making him cringe as Luigi passed him. He fired a wave of electricity as Luigi got up, causing him to get a nasty electrocution.

Thunder L was disappointed that Luigi was not paralyzed, so he tried to summon lightning bolts to hit him. Luigi dodged a couple while using his shell to defend himself, which was beginning to irritate Thunder L.

"You're starting to get more annoying than those junior minions," Thunder L mumbled.

"Well, maybe it comes to show that the darker side of someone is usually weaker in the end," Luigi stated.

"Oh, you still think I'm created from your dark side? I actually thought so too! But I ended up discovering that I never was."

Luigi seemed a bit surprised. "Wait... You aren't?"

"Nope. I'm you when you were brainwashed. Tipral just took that part of your mind away to create me."

Luigi was unsure of what to say, which left him open for Thunder L to hit him with a lightning bolt. Some of the lightning in the background flashed, and Luigi almost saw Thunder L made up of nothing but darkness with two white eyes glaring at him.

"Oh, and I still have memories of what happened before last time I was brainwashed. You know, when that clown trapped me in that weird box thing and also when I fought the red guy, the pink princess and the ugly turtle guy? Such a shame that idiots like those managed to beat me..."

"My bro and the princess are not as idiotic as you think," Luigi shot back. "And Bowser... Well, maybe he is..."

"Well that's just what you think, even though my thoughts on things are much better," Thunder L scoffed. "Anyway, we're wasting time. This is a fight I wanna finish! And maybe Tipral might be pleased!"

Luigi would have said that Tipral probably wouldn't have been pleased, he couldn't open his mouth because Thunder L sent a wave of electricity his way. Since the wave wasn't too tall, Luigi managed to jump over it with a Super Jump.

Thunder L grinned, expecting Luigi to be paralyzed, but he didn't expect two feet to land on his head and feet landing on the ground. He whirled around and saw Luigi stand up and ready two hammers.

"How did you dodge that?!" Thunder L growled.

"Your attack is easy to jump over, actually," Luigi explained. "After all, I can jump higher than my friends!"

"Yes... That's true..." Thunder L slowly nodded before noticing a hammer being flung his way. He caught it and threw it back at Luigi, who used two of his hammers to swat it away with a single swing. Luigi also threw two flaming hammers to leave Thunder L with another burn.

He would have admitted to Luigi about his skill, but he believed he had more skill, especially when he let his feet slide across the ground. This created a trail of electricity that shocked Luigi when Thunder L went past him.

When Thunder L turned around, he daw Luigi was left paralyzed, which left him grinning in delight.

"Excellent! This is just what I wanted!" Thunder L stated.

He readied an electric ball and threw it toward Luigi. Because he was paralyzed, he wasn't able to escape the attack and got electrocuted. Afterward, Thunder L began to summon lightning bolts.

"Unnnngh! I wish I could move..." Luigi moaned.

Thunder L smirked and let Luigi get electrocuted. Not even his helmet helped him because he wasn't using it for defense. Thankfully, this got him out of his paralysis and allowed him to throw a fireball at Thunder L.

"Gah! That paralysis didn't last that long..." Thunder L grumbled.

Luigi ran toward Thunder L and swung his hammers at him to leave him off guard. He followed up by kicking him in the stomach, forcing him to do a backflip and fire a wave of electricity Luigi's way.

But Luigi was prepared and used his Super Jump to get over it, making Thunder L clench his fist in anger.

"Stupid attack..." Thunder L grumbled. "If only it can reach him while he's doing that..."

Luigi prepared to punch the ground and send a wave of green fire Thunder L's way, but he delivered the punch and struck Luigi with his Thunder Punch, leaving him with a nasty shock and also knocking him slightly back.

"It's interesting that we're both using some kind of element against each other," Thunder L said. "And neither one has an advantage over the other. It makes the fight a bit even in a way."

"Well without that Chaos Emerald thing, you probably won't be able to stand up to me," Luigi stated. "So whether I defeat you or not, I can probably get you to stop using that emerald!"

"We'll see about that!"

Thunder L spun himself around with his arms spread out to create his Thunder Cyclone. Luigi saw what he did and created a Fire Cyclone. When they approached, they clashed, causing them to get sent flying back toward opposite walls. Luigi was left paralyzed, and Thunder L was left with another burn.

Since Luigi couldn't move, Thunder L began to approach him with sparks around his fists. He also gave him a little grin as well.

"Even though both of us ended up getting hit in the end, paralysis is much worse than getting a little burn."

He brought his fist close to Luigi's chest. "Now then... Let's finish this up, shall we?"

Before he could attack Luigi, the burn managed to interrupt his attack, making him clench his teeth in pain while Luigi was able to shake off the paralysis, allowing him to move freely.

"How l-ame!" Thunder L squawked. "I end up getting a perfect chance to attack, but that fire attack of yours interrupted me!"

"Seriously, those 'L' jokes are not exactly great..." Luigi commented. "But I guess this is my chance to attack!"

Before Thunder L could put up his defenses, Luigi spun his two hammers and swung at him. He even spun his hammers at Thunder L to do some extra damage and them delivered a fire punch to knock him on his back. He took out a Star Shroom Shake to recover 150 HP afterward.

Thunder L got up and was left infuriated. So infuriated that Luigi noticed his dark form appearing in front of him. The dark form quickly faded away when Thunder L calmed down.

"You know, using an item like that just shows that you can't put up a fight without healing yourself," Thunder L scoffed. "And because you're going to play unfairly, I might as well do the same thing!"

Thunder L whipped out a Star Shroom Shake and prepared to drink it, but Luigi threw one of his hammers at him to interrupt him. If only he had Thoreau, maybe he would've been able to snatch the drink as well...

"Good thing that hand Pixl thing isn't with you, or else it would've been able to steal that from me," Thunder L sneered.

"Really? I never knew that..." Luigi realized until he noticed an electric ball coming his way. He didn't have time to dodge it because of how fast it was moving. Thunder L grinned and tossed a larger electric ball his way while he was left electrocuted. The electrocution didn't last forever and allowed Luigi to dodge it while throwing green fireballs down at Thunder L. He jumped back to dodge them and tried firing a lightning bolt.

A smirk was left on his face once the lightning bolt hit Luigi, knocking him to the ground.

When Luigi got up, he noticed Thunder L hurling a large electric ball his way. He yelped and used his shell to defend against the attack. He then hurled himself and hit Thunder L in the stomach, causing him to hold it in pain while Luigi bounced off the wall and hit him again.

"Urgh... Now you're really starting to annoy me!" Thunder L exclaimed, rushing toward Luigi and kicking him to the wall to get him out of his shell form and leave him dazed. This gave Thunder L an opportunity to perform one of his stronger attacks. He began to charge up an electric ball while Luigi struggled to get himself back together.

"All right, ya coward, let's see how you handle THIS!"

Thunder L thrusted his hands forward and fired the large electric ball toward Luigi. Once he got himself together, he saw the electric ball coming his way.

"That doesn't look new..." Luigi blinked.

"You didn't see the whole thing left," Thunder L smirked. "Just watch!"

The electric ball stopped near Luigi, and then it began to fly above the plumber. It began to fire lightning bolts down on him, forcing him to defend himself in his shell. But because of that, he began to bounce around from the lightning bolts hitting him.

"Heh heh heh! Looks like you're screwed!"

Luigi suddenly had an idea that popped in his head. He stood up before the lightning bolt could hit him and ran over to Thunder L. Because the electric ball was following him, it went over to Thunder L, since that was where Luigi stood.

"What the..." Thunder L looked up and ended up getting zapped once Luigi jumped away. It didn't have much of an effect on him, but it forced him to get rid of the electric ball and cast a glare upon Luigi. "Very clever... That's not something I even planned ahead either."

"Honestly, I thought you would've planned that," Luigi said, blocking Thunder L's Thunder Punch with two of his hammers. He managed to kick him in the shin next and jump back to throw his hammers at Thunder L, which he lit on fire.

After Thunder L was hit by both hammers, he created two hammers out of his electric powers and swung at Luigi, while he swung at him with two of his hammers, causing both of them to clash.

The two gave each other a glare as they struggled in the clash. Thunder L, however, cast a grin and stepped on Luigi's foot, causing his eyes to widen and yelp out in pain. Because he had to step back, Thunder L was able to strike him a couple of times with his electric hammers and paralyze him.

"Gah! Paralyzed again!" Luigi cried.

"Yeah, keep crying," Thunder L scoffed. "I should've seriously brought a camera with me, 'cause this might be golden!"

"I'm not going to cry..."

"Of course you are! You're nothing but a coward and a wimp!"

Luigi did have to admit that he was both at times, but he was something Thunder L was.

"Yes, sometimes that's a bit true... However, that's much better than being something only made from darkness. At least I'm _real_!"

Thunder L's eyes widened, because he knew that was true. But he didn't care about that. He had him paralyzed!

"Look, if you're going to taunt me, it ain't gonna work," Thunder L declared, crossing his arms. "I've got you right where I want you, and now I get to hear you beg for mercy or cry out to your brother before I end your game! This might be the last time I see that dumb mustache of yours too!"

Luigi grit his teeth as he began to shake himself in order to shake off the paralysis. Thunder L raised an eyebrow, but he decided to attack, so he swung his hammers at Luigi, but he was able to move his helmet so his helmet took the blow from the hammers instead, leaving Luigi unharmed.

"What?! How did that not work?" Thunder L gaped. "I really should stop talking when I have my enemy where I want him. That's what makes most of the villains I've heard a lot about stupid anyway!"

Luigi was able to shake off the paralysis and throw a barrage of hammers Thunder L's way. The doppelganger threw a couple of electric hammers at Luigi, with both hammers crashing into each other and exploding. When some hammers got close to Luigi, he ducked and let the black shell take the hits, while Thunder L ended up getting pelted by a couple.

"OK, that's it," Thunder L raised his arms and put up an electric barrier, which prevented him from getting hit by any of the hammers flung his way. He pointed to the ground and made electric geysers rise out of the ground and hit Luigi. While he was being electrocuted, he ran up to him and punched him, sending him flying to the wall, causing his power-up to wear off.

"Heh heh heh... Excellent! No power-up means you don't stand a chance against me."

Thunder L approached the moaning Luigi, who slowly raised his head to look up at Thunder L. Right now, his cap and overalls were battered up, and he even had a couple of bruises left on his face, especially his nose.

"So, ready to give?"

"N-No..."

Thunder L raised an eyebrow. "No? You're not going to run away from me? I mean, I'm still all powerful while you have no power-up to help you!"

"I don't want to let my bro down," Luigi declared, slowly standing up. "I'm not backing down, whether my opponent is stronger than me!"

"All right! Then this should be a treat for me!"

With the strength he had, Luigi jumped over Thunder L's lightning attack and got an Ultimate Shroom Shake out to recover 100 HP. That should be enough strength to fight back...

"You can try to hit me, but I've got this electric barrier around me!" Thunder L smirked. "You're screwed!"

He began to fire a couple of electric balls Luigi's way, with him only dodging, since that was the only thing he could do at the moment. Sure, when it came to fighting, he wasn't the best, but when it came to dodging, he could do it with ease.

Thunder L was starting to get frustrated, especially since none of his attacks were able to hit Luigi at this point. He even noticed his barrier was started to get frizzled.

"Hmmmmm? What's with my barrier?" Thunder L gawked, noticing it fade away. "Hold on a minute... Something doesn't seem right..."

The next electric ball he was charging ended up fading away, and his transformation was starting to fade away too, turning him back to his normal appearance. Luigi was even confused as to what was going on.

"Huh? What's going on with his powers?" Luigi wondered.

"Wait... How come I'm back to normal?!" Mr. L guffawed, taking out the Chaos Emerald. "Is this thing's power temporary?!"

Luigi saw this as an opportunity to attack, so he rushed up to Mr. L and delivered a kick to his face, making him drop the Chaos Emerald. Luigi quickly snatched it before it fell to the ground.

"I don't understand... How can such a powerful trinket give me powers that are only _temporary_?!" Mr. L exclaimed. "Well... No matter. I can still use my electric powers anyway!"

He fired an electric ball Luigi's way, but before he could do anything, he felt some strange power that he never witnessed before. Was it the Chaos Emerald he was holding?

There was no different appearance to him, except for the flashing white light surrounding him. That power alone was able to send the electric ball flying back to Mr. L, who gulped before getting paralyzed.

"It's time I finished this," Luigi declared, running up to Mr. L and leaping in the air to perform a flip. Mr. L tried to shake off the paralysis, but Luigi was so close that he wouldn't be able to escape in time.

The stomp Luigi delivered to Mr. L was powerful enough to finish him and make him collapse on the ground. The power from the Chaos Emerald seemed to fade away from Luigi, which confused him because its power lasted much shorter than Mr. L's.

Meanwhile, there was another click sound that neither Luigi nor Mr. L heard in the background.

_**"****All of this is just too easy! It's hardly even a challenge!"**_

"Unnghhhh... Not... Not bad..." Mr. L moaned. "But I can't believe I let a coward beat me like that..."

"Look, you do put up a fight – when it comes to words," Luigi commented. "But you seem to underestimate some people. It's like bullies: they threaten people with words, but sometimes in the end, they're not as tough when it comes to a fight."

Chopper, Sonic and Tipral walked out of the door to the left and approached Luigi.

"I gotta say, you did a pretty good job!" Sonic commended, giving him a thumbs up. "We saw you lose that power-up, but you didn't back down yet and managed to pummel Mr. L down in the end!"

"Yeah, and it was thanks to this," Luigi mentioned, taking out the yellow Chaos Emerald. After looking at it for a minute, he gave it to Sonic. "I'm sure this is something you were looking for, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"I actually had a feeling Luigi wouldn't back down," Chopper smiled. "I know you've sometimes acted a bit cowardly, but we all knew you would at least try and help, which you've been doing this whole time."

"Uh huh..." Luigi nodded, looking up at the dark sky with a sad look. "I wish my bro and our other friends were here to see this..."

He and everyone else felt the ground shake violently from The Void's power.

"We don't have time to stay here," Tipral stated. "We'll be in some big trouble if we don't get out of here immediately!"

Everyone agreed and made a run over to the door. But when Luigi tried to approach the door, he felt something grab a hold of his foot.

It was Mr. L.

"H-Hey! Let go of my foot!" Luigi cried. "I can't stay here forever!"

"I'm not going to let myself get defeated by a coward like yourself!" Mr. L exclaimed, his appearance changing to his dark one. "If I'm going to go down, then I'm taking you down with me!"

"What?! No!"

Mr. L felt a bright light from withing his chest that was starting to tear him apart. Along with The Void's power that was making dark lightning strike the ground, Luigi felt like he was in a dangerous situation.

He saw his sight fade away from Mr. L's explosion and the whole area being torn apart by The Void.

* * *

**Through the door-**

Upon getting through the door, the three heard a large booming sound from the previous area they were in.

"What a relief..." Chopper sighed. "We barely got out of there!"

"Wait a minute..." Sonic paused for a minute and noticed that Luigi wasn't around. "Where did Luigi go?!"

"Oh no..."

Sonic approached the door and tried to open it. But alas, it would not open.

"The door's not opening!" Sonic gaped. "But that means... No..."

"Luigi can't be gone now..." Chopper murmured. "After what he did all on his own?"

"I also felt something else through that door..." Tipral trailed. "I felt like there was an explosion, as if someone tried to destroy himself."

"Hold on... Are you saying that Mr. L destroyed himself?" Sonic blinked. "And that's one of the things that..."

"Yes, that and along with The Void tearing that area apart. It seems like Luigi has also fallen along with the other three. I suggest we get moving."

"And not at least try something to get through there?!" Chopper guffawed. "I'm PRETTY sure we could do SOMETHING to help Luigi! There's always a possibility!"

"This again, Chopper? I've been hearing you and the others say the same thing over again after we lose someone. And not everything is possible. This isn't YOUR world, and we can't do everything YOUR way!"

"I kind of hate to say it, but I guess Tipral's right..." Sonic trailed. "Like the others, I'm sure Luigi would want us to press on. Plus, you said before that staying here forever isn't the brightest idea."

"I guess you guys have a point..." Chopper trailed. "Man, I feel like such a hypocrite right now..."

"Don't let it get to ya, Chop. The most important thing for us is to press on. Maybe all three of us will be able to get to the True Chaos Heart and destroy it!"

"And with your slow friends gone, they won't be able to slow us down," Tipral mentioned.

"You're not making this better, Tipral," Chopper pointed out before approaching the door. "But, I guess we must go..."

The three walked over to the door and entered the next area. The first thing they were greeted by was a hill and more dark lightning in the background. There were even two loops to go through as well.

"So there's some speed here now?" Sonic blinked. "Well... I guess that's something interesting."

Chopper charged up his Speed Dash and took off by running down the hill. Sonic decided to follow by running down, while Tipral skated through the two loops. Past the loops was a hill moving down and a small ledge to jump onto ahead, but there was a spring below the ledge pointing in the opposite direction they were moving.

They ended up stopping by the spring and jumped onto the small ledge. Up ahead they noticed a Dark Creature that was completely black in dark purple armor. Its purple eyes even looked frightening.

"Dark Creatures? Here?" Sonic gaped. "So does that mean that..."

"You know, those Dark Creatures don't seem to be any ordinary kind..." Tipral noticed. "I'm betting that some of The Void's power got to them and turned them into that. They're much different now."

"It's kind of like the enemies in some of our worlds," Chopper realized. "Because of how close The Void was, they were getting a little corrupt by it."

"I see... The only way to get past them is fight." Sonic prepared to curl up in a ball, but the Void Creature spotted them and began to open fire. Tipral interrupted its attack by snapping his finger, while Sonic followed up with his Spin Dash and left its eyes widened in pain.

Chopper was able to finish off the Void Creature by delivering a light spinning kick. Because of the light power, it was much more painful for the Void Creature, causing it to disintegrate like most defeated enemies.

"I think I saw a platform that was above this ledge," Tipral recalled, turning back to his left and looking up. There was a platform leading up to a path above. "I don't know where it goes, though."

"I can't reach it, so there's no point," Sonic said, running on ahead. Chopper and Tipral ran on ahead and followed him to find the path curving upward to a high ledge. Thankfully, because of how fast they were moving, they were able to run up and grab a hold of the ledge.

Sonic didn't have a problem getting up, but Chopper was having a hard time pulling himself up. But thankfully, he was able to get himself up after a bit and was greeted by a Void Bat that tried spitting dark energy at him. All it took was a light ball to destroy it.

When they ran on ahead, they noticed another hill going down, but there was also a path above the hill with a platform leading over to it. Sonic tried to use his Spin Dash to jump to it, but it wasn't enough for him to reach and ended up rolling down the hill instead. Tipral, however, managed to teleport up to the platform.

"I'll see what's up here," Tipral decided while skating on ahead through the pathway. He noticed a dark purple metallic enemies covered in spikes with the side spikes being larger. From what he knew about these, they were Bristles. But these were more dangerous and known as Void Bristles.

Tipral was about to approach the enemy, but its spear-like spike poked out and nearly touched him. He snapped his finger and hit the Void Bristle and then finished it off with a Star Spear. It was a bit surprising for him to see such an enemy that was able to take a couple of hits like that well.

He skated up to the spring ahead pointing to the upper right and launched himself off. Tipral happened to notice Chopper and Sonic running down the hill and reaching a spring that got them up to the ledge he was about to land on.

"What the heck? You got here so quickly!" Chopper gaped as soon as he saw Tipral land on the ledge.

"What was the point of going that way to begin with?" Sonic asked.

"There probably wasn't," Tipral answered. "But, I did run into some kind of enemy covered in a couple of spikes."

"Enemy covered in spikes?" Chopper pondered. "That...sounds just like a Bristle!"

Before they could say anything else, they heard something fire, and when they turned around, there was a dark laser that barely got Sonic's foot. They found two Void Creatures firing at them.

Sonic smirked as he began to charge up his Light Speed Attack. While he did that, Chopper began to toss some light balls at the Void Creatures, while Tipral hurled some shadow balls.

"Why are you using those when we're against enemies that are pretty much dark?" Chopper asked.

"This attack still works against them. It's just not as strong as that light power..." Tipral mumbled.

Once Sonic finished charging up his attack, he prepared to get himself ready while Chopper and Tipral got out of the way. He went all out on the Void Creatures and managed to defeat them in about five seconds.

When the attack was finished, they ran on ahead and found a door waiting for them. They entered an area with a loop going down, so the first thing they did was go through the loop and go down another hill, with Sonic being in front.

"This is really fun, I'll admit!" Chopper cheered.

"We've done this a couple of times, though," Sonic recalled. "I'm sure you'd be used to it by now."

"Oh... Well that makes sense."

When they reached the bottom of the hill, there was a spring pointing the opposite direction that made them move down a lower hill to the left. Another spring was there, but there was also a platform above it that appeared to have a green glow.

"Hold on a sec..." Sonic stopped right by the spring, causing both Chopper and Tipral to stop.

"What is it, Sonic?" Chopper asked.

"I saw something on that platform," Sonic answered as he jumped on the platform. He found a green Chaos Emerald lying there, so he scooped it up and put it away. "There we go! I got a Chaos Emerald!"

"So that's...four emeralds so far..."

"It doesn't matter too much to me. Let's move on." Tipral suggested, using the spring to make himself go down the next hill. Chopper and Sonic followed him and stopped by a wall with a blue wheel sticking out on the corner.

Sonic curled up in a ball and charged up his Spin Dash to make a platform stick out of the wall. However, there was not much time for it to stick out, so they hurried up and got to the top of the ledge. Up ahead was another wall, but there was also a spring pointing at an upper left angle to a glowing dark platform.

Chopper went first and launched himself up to the platform, followed by Tipral and then Sonic. The platform created a couple of more platforms that were in an upper and lower pattern that led to a path ahead.

However, when they began to jump from platform to platform, there were some Void Bats flying over them and spitting dark energy at them.

"Yeesh! They always have to be in the most annoying locations!" Chopper exclaimed, ignoring the enemies and reaching the path ahead. Though, there was a Void Shellcracker that tried to stop him, he jumped over its large claw and jumped on its head.

While the Void Shellcracker's eyes widened in pain, Sonic finished it off with his Spin Jump before running over to the door ahead. A yellow ? block was waiting for them, and when they hit it, a Dark Shroom came out.

Tipral's foot came down on the Dark Shroom and left it destroyed before he skated over to the door. Chopper and Sonic followed him to a flat area with some rubble nearby that Sonic seemed to remember seeing before.

"Is that...Tails's Workshop?" Sonic gawked before running over to the ruined workshop. "I didn't expect it to be somewhere around here."

Chopper noticed some Void Creatures up ahead, making him grab a hold of Sonic's tail and pull him back. "Not a good idea, Sonic! We don't have time to be looking when we've got monsters here!"

The three Void Creatures spotted them and prepared to fire. Sonic noticed one's gun shooting gray energy out. When he hit that Void Creature with a Homing Attack, he noticed a Chaos Emerald was in it.

"Whoa... Where'd you get that from?" Sonic gawked.

"Found it here," the Void Creature answered. "And now I'm going to blast you with it!"

Before it could fire, Chopper hit the Void Creature with a light ball and disintegrated it. Sonic decided to use his Whirlwind to send the other two Void Creatures flying, allowing Tipral to teleport up to them and slam his fists down on them. As soon as the two Void Creatures flew down, Chopper kicked Sonic upward while he was in a ball and defeated both enemies.

"Whew, I'm glad we took care of that," Sonic sighed after landing on the ground and picking up the gray Chaos Emerald one of the Void Creatures dropped. "That means there are only two emeralds left to find!"

"Yes, because those things are so important," Tipral said sarcastically, making Sonic give him a confused look.

"Is there a problem?"

"Maybe we should be focusing on getting to the True Chaos Heart rather than getting those emeralds you care so much about?

"...I'm going to ignore that," Sonic answered as he ran on ahead and stopped when he saw a slippery hill below him leading into water. His eyes widened, but when Chopper reached him, he accidentally bumped into him and caused him to slip down.

Chopper gaped as Sonic fell in the water, while Tipral stopped behind Chopper. He heard a splash, indicating that there was water.

"So I guess the blue hedgehog decided to go for a swim?" Tipral asked, with Chopper giving him a nod. "Well, we might as well get him. I remember that he can't stay underwater forever."

"What's water even doing here anyway?" Chopper wondered while he began to slide down. "Wouldn't it be dangerous in a dark place like this? In fact, it doesn't look like it's deadly..."

Tipral followed Chopper down into the water and landed on the underwater ground, which looked nothing different than what it was anyway. But what they did notice was Sonic trying to take in some air bubbles.

Noticing Sonic's inability to breathe underwater, Chopper inhaled some water to gain the Water ability and created a Bubble Shield which surrounded the blue hedgehog and gave him some air.

"Whew... That's much better!" Sonic sighed.

"And what's the point of the water ability anyway?" Tipral asked. "It doesn't look like it's anything helpful."

"It's helpful underwater," Chopper explained. "I can swim faster with this, and I'm also capable of dealing with fire enemies more easily. So, I don't think this ability is completely useless."

"Personally, I really don't care. I say we should keep going." Tipral tried to skate underwater, but because of the water, his speed was hindered. However, he could simply swim, so he did that just like Chopper.

Sonic, however, was forced to go down the hill by curling into a ball and hitting a Void Creature that happened to be in the water as well. They were all wondering how this thing could be swimming underwater, but it didn't bother them too much. Chopper fired a charged ice ball to leave the Void Creature. Thankfully, since it was underwater, freezing it was much easier.

Not only that, but the Void Creature began to slowly float up, allowing Tipral to deliver a shadow punch and destroy it. They decided to move on ahead and find a ledge that Sonic could reach by using a spring. There was a tunnel they could go up ahead, but there was also a platform moving up and down above them near the tunnel.

"Where does that platform take us?" Sonic wondered. "Well, maybe I might find out!"

Sonic used his Bubble Shield's ability to bounce up to the platform. However it ended up falling to the ground instead before Sonic could jump, making him fall near the tunnel and look disappointed.

"Then we have no choice but to take the tunnel way," Tipral said, swimming through the tunnel, which appeared to not be so narrow as he thought. In fact, when they reached the end, they noticed the ground was a bit thin where they were standing.

Tipral looked down at the floor and tried to smash it with his foot. Unfortunately, it didn't appear to be enough. Sonic's Bounce Attack, however, was able to smash through the floor and land right on top of some spikes on the ground, causing him to lose his Bubble Shield.

Chopper's eyes widened as he swam down and got Sonic away from the spikes. Tipral swam down and noticed another thin wall up ahead. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to smash through it when he punched at it.

"Great... This isn't working." Tipral groaned.

Sonic took in an air bubble before using his Spin Dash to smash through the thing wall and the others that were in their way. When he reached the end of the path, he found a light ! block on the ground.

"Hey, it's one of those blocks!" Chopper noticed as he swam over to it. "I guess my light power won't do much against it."

"Doesn't look like it. I know mine will work, however." Tipral said while Sonic was starting to choke. He even noticed the timer, causing him to flail his arms around, despite Chopper and Tipral noticing.

Tipral struck the light ! block with a shadow ball, causing the water to drain, which left everyone confused. But Sonic didn't care, because he could finally breathe again, which was what he wanted all along.

"Whew! No more water!" Sonic sighed. "I feel MUCH better!"

"But where do we go from here?" Chopper wondered.

"Try flipping into 3-D," Tipral suggested. "We're bound to find something."

Chopper shrugged and flipped into 3-D. He did end up finding a secret path up ahead, so he got the other two into 3-D and made their way through the tunnel and to a larger area with a pedestal that had a light blue Chaos Emerald on it. There were also a couple of platforms above them as well, but they weren't sure why they were there.

"Hmmmmm... Well, it's not like it really matters, right?" Chopper wondered.

"Well, it might be a way out," Sonic replied, grabbing a hold of the Chaos Emerald. Unfortunately, the ground began to shake, and water began to flood the area, causing Sonic to yelp. "OK! I'm going up!"

He began to jump up the platforms, which Chopper and Tipral did as well. Void Bats jumped out of the walls and charged at them, but thankfully they were fast enough to avoid them and reach the top, where the water ended up stopping.

"Whoa... That was a close one!" Sonic sighed.

"It's not like anything bad would happen anyway," Tipral said as he walked over to the door ahead. "Let's just move on."

They hurried on through the next area, where they noticed some small, glowing mushrooms on the ground. They were glowing a dark color, which didn't surprise them. There were, however, two Void Motobugs coming their way and a Void Creature carrying a sword called a Void Swordsman throwing its sword their way.

"Heads up, guys!" Sonic warned, ducking under the sword. Chopper ducked like a pancake as the sword went under him, while Tipral knocked it away, making it hit the Void Motobugs and destroy them in the process.

The Void Swordsman managed to catch the purple sword, but it was already defeated when Sonic attacked it with a Spin Dash, followed by Chopper attacking it with a Tidal Wave, which was able to make it drop an Ultra Shroom Shake. They took it anyway, because it was better than nothing (even if it wasn't worth as much now).

Chopper decided to remove his Water ability and run up to a bounceable mushroom they found ahead. They jumped on it and let it bounce them up to the ledge above them, which led to a hill moving down. They took no time and quickly ran down and through a loop, which led them to another hill going down until it became flat and led up a wall they ended up running up.

However, they were not able to reach the top of the wall, which happened to have a spring pointing down, indicating that they were not going to be going up anyway, so they ended up going down and backwards until they noticed that they were going down another hill that was beside the one they previously went down.

"Yeesh... And I didn't even have to flip to do this!" Chopper gaped as he bumped into another spring by the wall ahead and went down the last hill. At the bottom of the hill was water, which they were able to go across because of how fast they were moving.

"Thank goodness I'm not going in there!" Sonic sighed.

"The water will definitely slow us down, so I wouldn't go down there either," Tipral agreed.

After crossing the water, they were forced to stop when they fell into a small pit that had two springs facing each other, making them go back and forth between each spring. They quickly jumped off and dodged a Void Creature's laser blast. Tipral noticed a Void Swordsman throwing its sword, so he jumped over the Void Creature and jumped on top of the sword.

"What in the..." the Void Swordsman was cut off when Tipral fired a Star Spear, with Chopper jumping above him and firing two light balls to defeat it. Sonic used his Light Speed Attack and went all out on the Void Creature to defeat it. After that, they hurried to the door ahead and found a Save Block and a yellow ? block.

"Looks like we've got something coming up," Sonic said, hitting the yellow ? block to find a Star Shroom. They split it into three to recover 150 HP, and after that, Chopper hit the Save Block.

"I'm sure there's something coming up ahead," Chopper pondered. "Why else would those blocks be here? It's pretty coincidental if you ask me."

"Just open the door already, puffball," Tipral suggested. Chopper sweat dropped and opened the door, which led them into an area with a long road ahead. There were no glowing mushrooms around, but there were some strange, alien-like tentacles out of the ground that were thankfully not in their way.

"Say, doesn't that look like those things we saw in the Comet of Darkness?" Sonic recalled. "Do you think The Void swallowed that place up?"

"Doubtful," Tipral answered. "The Void wasn't even that big where that comet was. However, maybe some things there were sucked in and thrown in here."

"Maybe..." Chopper pondered while something began to slowly fly above them. None of them saw it, but it was purple with one big, purple eye with a black body that had six, small tentacles.

"Well I don't wanna waste time here," Sonic shrugged, walking on ahead. "There doesn't appear to be much around here! I'd rather get a move on if I were you guys!"

"Oh, going so soon, Sonic? Why not make things interesting?" the black alien said as it flew down in front of Sonic, making him jump back.

"What in the world? Who are you?"

"And why is it so ugly?" Chopper gawked.

"What? You don't recognize my voice? Dark Doom?" the alien wondered.

"Dark?! How can he transform into...whatever that thing is?!"

The alien wanted to face palm, but he knew it wasn't too much of a stupid question. "That's because I'm able to communicate with this thing. This is something my father once used, but after what happened to him, I decided to use it, but instead I changed it up a bit! I suppose I should say that this thing is called **Doom's Eye**!"

"Doom's Eye? ...Oh, yeah! Now I remember!" Sonic exclaimed while snapping a finger. "Black Doom used that thing! I didn't expect you to use it..."

"I would have showed it to you earlier, but it wasn't quite ready yet with the design."

"Look, I don't have time to chat with you. We've gotta get going!"

"And why do you think I came here? To let you pass? Of course not!"

Chopper whirled up a light ball and fired it at Doom's Eye, which was able to fly out of the way before it could get hit. "Well fighting your new toy isn't going to help you, Dark!"

"I never said I was going to be fighting you," Doom's Eye mentioned. "I've got a 'special' surprise just for you! It may be one of the only things I have left in my army, but it should be enough to destroy you! _**Come out here, Dark Bull! Your time has come!**_"

"Dark, this is no time to be playing games!" Tipral roared. "We need to go! NOW!"

Doom's Eye looked down at Tipral and slowly shook its head. "Well... You're a bit too late with that, Tipral... I've already blocked the door ahead, and I wasn't expecting you to be with the heroes. And there's no going back to let you through either..."

"So I have no choice but to fight your own monster?"

"It appears so... But seeing you fight it can give me some new ideas in the future to make it stronger!"

"Well we're not afraid to take on this Dark Bull!" Chopper declared. "Where is he?"

"Heh heh heh..." Doom's Eye chuckled. "Right behind you!"

They heard a roar from behind, which made the three turn around and see the Dark Bull in front of them. It was just like the one they saw before, but this time it had black and purple armor for better protection from harm.

"I've seen this alien thing before in my castle. It ended up getting crushed."

"That was the old one. This one is much stronger than before." Doom's Eye explained before glaring at Sonic. "And you're not going to be able to crush this thing like before, hedgehog! I've noticed what you did before, and I took notes on that!"

"Yeah yeah..." Sonic started to stretch as he looked like he didn't care. "Tell me something I care about."

"Oh, you'll care when my Dark Bull takes care of you! _Have fun..._" Doom's Eye slowly flew out of their sight until they were gone. All that was left was them and the Dark Bull that let out another roar.

"Hmph... Well Dark can't do anything to open the door, so fighting this ugly alien shouldn't be much of a problem!" Tipral declared, turning to the roaring, hideous monster.

"But wouldn't this thing understand that Dark is loyal to you?" Chopper wondered.

"These things don't really care. They were made by Dark and led by him. They don't know too much about me anyway, so I can crush them with no problem!"

The Dark Bull opened its hideous mouth and let out purple flames, causing them to jump away. Since the path was long, they decided that it was best for them to run. After all, they could find something to fight this thing anyway.

"At least we can outrun this thing," Sonic smirked. "That way, we don't have to worry about dealing with this thing!"

The Dark Bull ended up flying up and over the three before landing in front of them. Chopper and Sonic were left surprised, while Tipral didn't seem to care and began hurling Star Spears. Sadly, they didn't seem to do too much to its body.

"Great... Attacking its body is useless!" Tipral grumbled.

They noticed that it had 570 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 10 for its body. Its eye, however, had no defense, which gave Sonic the idea of jumping and hurling himself at the Dark Bull's eye with a Homing Attack. They all heard it scream in pain as it moved its head away from them.

"Well, looks like we know a good place to attack this thing!" Sonic smirked. "That's just what we needed!"

"Ah, so that's how you hit it... I was wondering if that was it." Tipral said as he waited for the Dark Bull to reveal its eye again. When he skated close enough, he jumped in the air and delivered a Star Kick to its eye, which made it scream again and quickly close its eye. Because of that, it was difficult for it to make an attack.

But once it was ready, it began to fire purple waves of energy to the ground, catching the three off guard when they were forced to jump and then gain enough speed to catch up to the monster.

"I never thought we'd be fighting something while running," Chopper realized. "Though, I do remember fighting Tipral at his palace while running a bit..."

The Dark Bull shot a purple blast of energy at Chopper, which knocked him back and even slowed him down, forcing him to use his Speed Dash in order to catch up to the others. Sonic even tried to hit the Dark Bull with another Homing Attack, but it spat another blast of energy and hit him. Chopper almost got hit by Sonic when he was knocked back, so he ducked and was safe.

"Sorry about that, Chop," Sonic apologized.

"It's not your fault," Chopper assured.

The Dark Bull let out another roar while trying to burn them with its purple flames. Tipral teleported above it and kicked its head, unfortunate to hit its eye. Chopper managed to reach the Dark Bull and jump to its eye to stomp on it with a light jump, causing it to let out another scream.

When he landed on the ground, he began to charge up a rainbow ball and hurl it at the Dark Bull, but Tipral beat him to it and fired a Star Spear at its eye to make it howl in pain again and make it close it. Chopper simply let out a sigh, but he noticed the Dark Bull shoot fireballs their way.

"Uh oh... Heads up, people!" Chopper cried.

Sonic jumped over the fireball and used his Spin Jump on the Dark Bull's fat body to slightly damage it. When its eye was vulnerable, he was able to hit it with a Homing Attack while performing a stylish move in the air. Since the Dark Bull's eye was vulnerable again, he attacked it a second time.

"Couldn't we have done this to the Dark Bull when we were in Castle Tipral?" Sonic asked. "'Cause we're seriously kicking this ugly thing's butt!"

Sonic was about to attack again, but the Dark Bull flew back and created some Dark Bats that came out from behind and flew to its aid. At this point, they were wondering if the Dark Bull was actually something that creates Dark Creatures...or is even a female.

"So is this thing...a she?" Chopper gawked, dodging the Dark Bats coming his way.

"Dark told me that all Dark Creatures are genderless," Tipral answered. "Him, however... He's a he, but he's a bit...different. I don't think he explained that to me."

The Dark Bull summoned more Dark Bats that flew toward them, with one getting in Tipral's face. He quickly threw it away, but he ended up getting hit by a wave of purple fire that the Dark Bull ended up shooting to the ground, which was enough to knock him way behind. It also shot two more waves that both Chopper and Sonic jumped over.

"You hanging there, Chop?" Sonic asked, catching up to the Star Warrior.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine," Chopper nodded. "Though I can't say the same for Tipral..."

Chopper did a flip in the air before landing on one of the Dark Bats and decided to hitch a ride on it. Though it was still moving the opposite direction the Dark Bull was, he was able to toss a rainbow ball at its eye. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to scream in pain like it usually would.

"Huh... I guess it only screams when it's something more painful..."

He decided to fire some fireballs at it until Tipral teleported back to the Dark Bull and knocked the fireballs away, making them hit the Dark Bats around, including the one Chopper was riding on. This caused him to plummet and hit the ground, but he quickly got on his feet and used his Speed Dash to follow.

Once he finally caught up, he cast Tipral a glare.

"Why did you do that?! Things were working out just fine!"

"So you don't have a Dark Bat with you. Deal with it." Tipral suggested.

The Dark Bull roared at them as it prepared to charge up a powerful attack. From what they could see, it looked like it was a giant beam that it needed to charge for a moment before firing it. Sonic attacked it with a Homing Attack, but it didn't seem to stop it from charging, even if he hit the eye. Tipral even snapped his finger, and it still didn't do much to stop it.

"This is nice," Sonic sighed. "This thing just won't learn to give up!"

"Well, then maybe we just need to avoid it," Tipral said.

"And how do we do that?"

Tipral teleported out of the way and appeared above the Dark Bull, but instead of attacking, he was quickly teleporting dashing toward it while the Dark Bull opened its mouth wide and fired a beam. Thankfully, Chopper was able to get into 3-D and get Sonic out of the way to avoid it. To them, this monster looked a bit uglier than it was in 3-D.

"Yeesh... And I thought it was ugly before. Now look at it!" Chopper guffawed.

"I couldn't disagree with you more there..." Sonic trailed.

When the Dark Bull stopped, Chopper flipped Sonic and himself back into 2-D while Tipral slammed his fists on the Dark Bull's eye with Star energy, causing it to scream in pain while he jumped back and fired a Star Spear to deal some extra damage. He decided to throw a shadow ball at it, but it ended up eating it instead and swallowing it.

"What the... How did it...?" Tipral was left confused until he noticed the Dark Bull wincing in pain from the inside, which gave him the idea of what happened. "Oh... Now I see what happened!"

The Dark Bull decided to summon more Dark Bats, which made it fly back and let them attack. Not only that, but it began to shoot some purple fireballs at them to make it even harder for them to dodge. But Sonic had a plan and got in a ball while Chopper kicked him at some Dark Bats. Tipral ended up catching him when the Dark Bats were gone and threw him at the Dark Bull's eye.

Chopper gave Tipral a thumbs up, while he cast a small glare and turned back to the Dark Bull, which was starting to get a little exhausted. They noticed that it was about to charge another dark beam, so Tipral teleported above the ugly creature and prepared to attack it once it finished unleashing its attack. Chopper got Sonic into 3-D and avoided the attack as soon as it started firing.

The Dark Bull stopped to take a breath, allowing the three to make their moves. Chopper tossed a light ball at its eye, followed by Tipral's Star Spear, and then Sonic used his Spin Dash to approach the large monster and hit its eye with a Homing Attack. From what they could see, it was starting to have enough.

"Hey, I can see the end of the path ahead!" Chopper noticed.

"Yeah, I see it too!" Sonic agreed.

But before they could reach the end, the Dark Bull stopped over by two platforms that were floating above the ground. The three were forced to make a sharp stop that barely made them hit the wall because of how fast they were going. When they got over to the Dark Bull, they heard it roar again as it flew over them.

"Looks like it's phase two," Tipral declared while clenching his fists. "We only brought it down a little... Now let's finish this up!"

The Dark Bull ended up growing a sharp tail from behind that looked like a sword, which worried Chopper a bit. Once it flew to the ground, it spun itself around in order to swing its tail at them, but Sonic jumped over its attacks and tossed himself at its eye when he saw his chance.

"Bulls-eye!"

When Sonic landed on the ground, the Dark Bull shot fireballs up into the air and let them rain down, which almost reminded them of when Shade summoned fireballs from the sky. However, these were not as difficult to avoid, and it even allowed Tipral to throw a Star Spear because of its eye being vulnerable. But despite this, he didn't pay attention to the fireball coming down on him, which left him with a burn.

"You really should pay attention when there are fireballs coming down..." Chopper trailed, jumping back from the fireball that was about to hit him.

"OK, then let's see what you can do to fight this thing!" Tipral exclaimed as he threw Chopper straight at the Dark Bull. He ended up missing the eye, but he ended up crashing into its stomach, which was better than nothing to say the least. But because he was close to the monster, it opened its mouth and started to suck him in.

"Whoa!" Chopper began to flail his arms around while running from the Dark Bull in order to avoid being inhaled. Unfortunately, he ended up getting inhaled and spat out toward Sonic, causing both of them to crash and fall over.

The two got up and saw the Dark Bull sending out more Dark Bats to fly after them. Chopper decided to do what the Dark Bull did before and began to inhale some of the Dark Bats flying toward him. He then jumped on the right platform and spat out a yellow star at the Dark Bull's eye.

"That's what happens when you try to use a move similar to me!" Chopper declared.

"That should keep the Dark Bull a bit dizzy," Tipral muttered as he snapped his finger and hit the Dark Bull. Sadly, he only hit its body, which didn't seem to make it flinch. "Oh, yes... Now I remember... Their bodies are capable of dealing with things such as fire or ice without it making it feel harmed. I guess they don't feel much from my attacks to its body... But its eye is the only thing that doesn't have those kinds of resistances..."

When the Dark Bull flew down, it flip backwards and fired a purple blade that resembled a moon crescent their way. Chopper decided to inhale it and gain a hold of the Cutter ability, while Sonic used his Sonic Wind and hit the Dark Bull while keeping it vulnerable to his Homing Attack.

Chopper readied his cutter blade as soon as the Dark Bull prepared to charge a dark beam. He quickly threw it and let the blade hit the monster's eye, causing it to flinch and stop charging its attack. He then ran toward it and grabbed the blade while Tipral delivered a shadow punch to the eye.

"I'm surprised how easy this thing is," Sonic realized. "It takes a lot of damage when we attack its eye!"

"Yes, this thing really isn't that hard," Tipral agreed. "But I do think this thing can do a bit more than I thought..."

"Like what exactly?" Chopper asked.

Sonic turned to the Dark Bull, which appeared to look like it was ready to shoot something out of its mouth. More Dark Bats were summoned that flew their way, but then the Dark Bull opened its mouth and began to vomit disgusting green stuff that ended up killing off a couple that were in its way. Also, a small portion of the ground melted off from the vomit too.

"Oh, geez..." Sonic shuddered. "It just vomited, and a small portion of the ground melted off too!"

"What?! Eeeugh..." Chopper gagged. "That's not good..."

"And I didn't even know that," Tipral realized. "If you two want to live, then I would suggest you avoid its vomit."

Despite already knowing this, Chopper and Sonic decided not to talk back and got in their fighting stances. The Dark Bull swung its tail forward and tried to hit Tipral, but it teleported out of the way, leaving Chopper to use his cutter blade to try to counter its attack. Both blades hit and slightly knocked the two away, giving Chopper the chance to throw his blade as fast as he could. It only hit the side of its body, which made a small amount of green blood drip to the ground. A small hole was made through the ground as well.

At this point, they knew that a Dark Bull's blood was like its vomit.

"Oh, man... This might be a problem." Chopper gulped.

"Or you can stop worrying and just fight this thing!" Tipral exclaimed.

Chopper frowned while Sonic charged up his Light Speed Attack. Meanwhile, the Dark Bull swung its tail at Chopper and knocked him away while Tipral jumped off the left platform and fired a Star Spear at its eye, causing it to cringe and recoil. He also threw a shadow ball, but it only hit above its eye, to his dismay.

"OK! I'm ready!" Sonic declared, who was surrounded in some glittering light energy at this point. Chopper decided to attack the Dark Bull by jumping on its eye and then bashing it with his helmet above its eye. Sonic took this as an opportunity to attack, so he went all out on the Dark Bull, but Chopper was also caught in it, which caused him to lose his Cutter ability in the end.

"You should've gotten out of there quicker," Tipral scoffed. "Or maybe that was just you being too foolish..."

"OK, why is it that you always have to be more harsh to me?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Because of either you and the blue hedgehog, I hate you more. But I can't abandon you either because if I went out alone in The Void, I would not have much of an easy time... Keep that in mind."

"Fine... But don't think I like you either. You DID destroy our worlds, after all."

They were interrupted by the Dark Bull's roar and a purple fireball that hit them both, leaving them with a nasty burn. Chopper decided to fight back by hurling a charged ice ball at the Dark Bull to freeze it. Tipral smashed through the ice and hit the Dark Bull's eye afterward with his Star Punch.

But it wasn't done yet. When Sonic landed near the monster, it swung its tail and sent the blue blur flying back. It also opened its mouth and fired a large dark beam that all three were caught in and took massive damage from it.

"Yeesh! That was one heck of an attack!" Sonic wheezed. "You two think we need to heal ourselves?"

"Well I guess it's for the better," Chopper nodded, taking out a Master Shroom Shake. They each took a sip until the empty can was crushed and thrown at the Dark Bull's head, which surprisingly left it dazed for a moment before it breathed out purple fire. They used the platforms to dodge the fire and attacked its eye at once, making the Dark Bull howl in greater pain than before.

"I think we got it!"

"No, not yet..." Tipral trailed when he noticed the Dark Bull quickly shake its head. "It still has room for a couple of new tricks..."

The Dark Bull started off by flying over to the platform over to the right. The three watched as it vomited on the platform and let it melt away. It then flew above them and prepared to do the same thing to the other platform. Seeing what they saw before, they jumped off just in time when the Dark Bull committed on the platform and melted it away, leaving nothing for them to use.

"Looks like it's just this monster and us now!" Sonic declared as he stood up. "This thing may have a couple of new tricks up its sleeves, but we still have enough strength to take this ugly thing down!"

The Dark Bull roared angrily, which made Chopper cover his antennas because of how loud it was. "OK... I think it wasn't happy with the comments we made on this thing earlier..."

"Who cares? Now stop standing there and fight!" Tipral shouted as he grabbed Chopper's arm and threw him straight at the Dark Bull. Sonic gave Tipral a glare until they saw the Dark Bull get hit in the eye by Chopper's light punch.

The Dark Bull began to inhale again, but to stop it, Tipral threw a shadow ball into its mouth, hoping that it would damage it from the inside. Unfortunately, that did not work when it spat the shadow ball back at him and knocked him back from the group. The Dark Bull flew down and prepared to charge another beam, which suddenly gave Sonic an idea.

"Chopper, maybe while I'm in a ball, you can kick me straight at the Dark Bull's eye!" Sonic suggested. "That might hurt it big time and stop its attack!"

"Ummmm... Are you even sure that that'll work? Especially since we have a limited amount of time."

"The more time we talk, the less time we'll have to attack!"

Chopper quickly nodded and jumped behind Sonic. Once he got in a ball, he started to charge up his Spin Dash. The Dark Bull was getting ready to fire its attack, but when Chopper kicked Sonic at its eye, it ended up screaming in pain and stopped charging its attack.

Tipral teleported back to the two and noticed the damage they've done to the Dark Bull. "Hmph... Not bad. Maybe at this rate we'll have a bigger chance of defeating this monstrosity."

Because the Dark Bull didn't have anything new up its sleeves, it decided to fly over them and squish them with its own weight. Sadly, it was slow, and they were fast, which didn't work out too well for it. Tipral, on the other hand, had a new idea up his sleeve. He teleported Chopper above the Dark Bull and let him stomp on its eye with light energy, while he and Sonic teleported above as well.

"See how you like this!" Sonic grinned as he curled up in a ball and got slammed into the Dark Bull's eye with Tipral's fists. He then finished off his attack by firing two Star Spears at its eye and then stomped on it as well. After getting away from the Dark Bull, it whirled around to them with its eye giving them a look of anger. It turned red, which was what gave them the idea.

"Errr... This might not be good." Chopper gulped.

"So it's only red. Big deal. That's not changing this battle in any way." Tipral stated before firing a Star Spear, which the Dark Bull easily avoided. "Hmmmm... So it looks like it's much faster now."

"That's what I meant by this not being good!"

The Dark Bull roared as it breathed out fire, which was much bigger than before and even scorched Chopper and Tipral. Sonic managed to get away just in time and used his Sonic Wind after the Dark Bull finished. Chopper and Tipral ended up getting caught in it as well, which angered Tipral in the process.

"You should be careful where you use your attacks, hedgehog..." Tipral hissed.

"Sorry 'bout that," Sonic shrugged before ducking under the Dark Bull's tail. It was angered more when they dodged its attack, so it decided to charge at them in order to get them. Tipral teleported out of the way just fine, but Chopper and Sonic ended up getting knocked away and burned in the process due to it breathing fire as well.

After it finished, Sonic had some strength to hit its eye, so he tossed himself at the Dark Bull's eye with a Homing Attack and left it off guard again. Chopper also threw in a fireball and a light ball to burn it and deal additional damage.

"Say, where's Tipral?" Chopper asked. "He ended up teleporting out of the way, but I don't think we've seen him come back..."

"Well he should be coming back," Sonic replied. "Either that, or I have no idea..."

The Dark Bull flew back and spun its body around to hit the two, but before it could hit them, everything suddenly froze in time. The tail was barely touching Chopper and Sonic, and in between them and the Dark Bull, Tipral appeared.

"Well, looks like I came here just in time..." Tipral trailed. "No matter. There's no way I'm going to let this monstrosity live anyway."

He clenched his fists and surrounded himself in Star energy, not caring that this attack would hit his allies. With time frozen in place, he could take his time temporarily charging up the attack.

"_**STAR BLAST!**_"

Tipral unleashed his Star Blast upon both the Dark Bull and Chopper and Sonic once time reverted back to normal, sending both flying away from him. The attack also left both sides exhausted as well, with the Dark Bull being covered in a couple of burns and bruises to its eye.

"Tipral... What did you do?" Chopper wheezed.

"I used something to severely damage the Dark Bull," Tipral answered.

"But we were there!" Sonic shouted. "Don't you have any regard toward us?!"

"If I knew that would kill you, then I wouldn't have used that attack. The Dark Bull, however, looks like it's almost finished."

Chopper got an Ultra Shroom Shake out and took a sip from it to recover 50 HP, and then he gave it to Sonic. They offered some to Tipral, who finished off the drink and disintegrated the can afterward. With that out of the way, they turned back to the Dark Bull, which was coming back their way while summoning a swarm of Dark Bats to help it. At this point, they knew that they were in serious danger.

"No way am I letting this thing get to us again!" Sonic declared. "Come on, Chopper! Let's show this thing what we've got!"

"Yeah!" Chopper shouted while raising a fist. "...What are we going to do?"

"Something we've done before. Get ready to kick me soon!"

While the Dark Bull charged at them, Sonic curled up in a ball and charged up his Spin Dash. Chopper quickly kicked him and sent him flying at the Dark Bull's eye which was enough to stop it from charging and leave it open for another attack. Chopper bolted toward it and did a flip in the air before landing a light slamming kick to its eye, followed by a light ball.

"That's it, this thing's toast," Chopper declared, charging up a rainbow ball and another light ball. "And I've got a few ideas on how to take care of this thing!"

"You've had your chance," Tipral declared, landing near Chopper and kicked him out of the way. "It's time I did a little something!"

While he fired Star Spears at the Dark Bull, Sonic charged up his Light Speed Attack. Tipral gave the Dark Bull no chance as he went all out with his Star powers and left it covered in many more burns thanks to his powerful abilities. He also noticed Sonic readying his Light Speed Attack, so he teleported out of the way to let him make the finishing blow.

"Go ahead, blue hedgehog. Finish it."

"I'm on it! Let's go!" Sonic jumped toward the Dark Bull and unleashed his Light Speed Attack upon it. He kept going for the eye for the most part and didn't give it a chance like Tipral did. Once he was finished, he jumped away from the Dark Bull and watched it let out a scream of pain.

"Well that settles that! That was WAY too easy!"

"Yeah, we destroyed that thing," Chopper agreed. "I don't think Dark's going to be pleased with us!"

Tipral noticed something strange about that Dark Bull, however. "Guys... I think we might have another problem."

"What is it?"

"You should see for yourself, Chopper."

Chopper looked back at the Dark Bull and noticed its body getting bigger. "What the... It's growing bigger!"

"Wait a sec... That thing looks like it's going to explode..." Sonic gaped. "Doesn't this thing have...well..."

"This might not end well..." Tipral raised his arms and put an invisible box around them as the Dark Bull got bigger. While Tipral knew what was going to happen, Chopper and Sonic watched the Dark Bull grow bigger and bigger until...

_**KA-BOOM!**_

Chopper and Sonic's eyes widened when they saw the Dark Bull explode and leave all of its nasty green and dangerous blood behind, which began to rain down to the ground. Thankfully, because they were in the invisible box, they were left unharmed by its contagious blood.

"That was gross!" Chopper gagged. "I don't know what's grosser, being kissed by someone like Luvbi, or having to witness this!"

"Honestly, I've never seen anything this bad," Sonic cringed. "Why would it die like THAT?!"

"This is why I put up this barrier. If that blood got over us, chances are we'd be melting by now." Tipral explained after he got rid of the barrier. "You should be lucky that I have Dimentio's barrier power."

"Speaking of Dimentio, I'm surprised we haven't heard him around," Chopper realized. "You'd probably expect him to be around here by now..."

"Well he's dead, so there isn't much that he can do now," Sonic shrugged. "It's all over for him!"

Tipral walked over to the door ahead and gestured them to follow. "If we keep going on from here, we might be able to reach the deeper areas of The Void. And from what I know, it's more dangerous than what we've gone through."

"If only our friends were here to help..." Chopper sighed. "Blade, Kirby, Mario and Luigi... I really miss them."

"I miss them too," Sonic agreed. "Let's make them proud, OK?"

"Yeah..."

Tipral was about to open the door, but he noticed a purple glow over by the green blood from the Dark Bull. "I see something glowing over there... It's probably nothing important, though."

"A glow? What color is it?" Sonic asked, getting a bit curious.

"It's purple."

Sonic's ears perked up as he quickly ran over to the glowing object, picked it up and then ran back to the two. He showed them the seventh and final Chaos Emerald.

"This is the last Chaos Emerald!" Sonic smiled. "It's great to know that they're all safe! I'm guessing that the Dark Bull ate it."

"Wait a minute, can't you transform into something with those?" Chopper wondered. "Because I saw you do that before."

"Yeah, I can. However, I think it's best that I don't do it now. I'd say it should be for something very important."

"OK, you got your last emerald. Now let's get going." Tipral suggested. "I don't want to be standing here all day..."

Chopper and Sonic finally agreed and followed Tipral through the door. The first thing they were greeted by were two Void Creatures firing at them. Tipral jumped to avoid the shots and fired two Star Spears that hit both enemies and left them off guard. Chopper bounced off their heads and then threw a large light ball down at them to defeat them.

"So... If Dark's in this place too, then where do you think he would be around here?" Sonic wondered.

"Well, we'll have to find out ourselves," Chopper shrugged.

There wasn't too much around the area except for a flat ground and more Void Creatures that were firing away at them. Some were even on some glowing blue platforms above that were apparently moving forward. Tipral wanted to go after them, but they were a bit too far to reach, unfortunately.

"The only thing we can do is avoi-" Tipral stopped when an explosion knocked them away, which apparently came from a Void Creature that was on one of the platforms. Enraged, Tipral fired a Star Spear, but it missed.

"Tipral, you're not going to be able to attack anything above," Chopper noted. "Just forget about it."

"Stay out of this, Chopper," Tipral coldly replied before skating ahead. Chopper let out a sigh and followed ahead, along with Sonic. They happened to notice a Void Slicer throwing its blades their way. Apparently Tipral ignored it and jumped over it.

Sonic dodged the Void Slicer's blades and hit it with a Spin Jump. Chopper jumped on its head and then threw a rainbow ball to destroy it. When they ran past a small mushroom that was glowing blue, they saw a hill going up, with a speed booster there to help them.

Since running up a hill would be difficult when building up speed, they used the speed booster and were running at full speed up the hill. Any Void Creatures that got in their way were blown away instantly.

They found a spring at the top of the hill that launched then to the upper left, where another path was with a hill going up. Sonic decided to get in a ball and use the speed booster to go even faster and plow through the Darklings and Void Creatures that were about to attack.

"I never knew going so fast would make us plow through these guys," Chopper realized.

"Well don't think that this'll happen often," Tipral informed. "Because this might be the last we see of this."

They were launched off another spring that led them to a flat path to the upper right. A Void Swordsman and Void Creature were guarding a locked door that was up ahead. The Void Swordsman started off by throwing its sword, but Chopper inhaled it to gain the Sword ability.

"Only two Void Creatures," Tipral said while cracking his knuckles. "This shouldn't be a problem."

The Void Swordsman got out another sword and charged at the three. Chopper rushed toward the enemy and used his sword to block its attack and then jab at it a couple of times before slashing at the Void Swordsman. Tipral teleported above the Void Creature and dove at it with a Star Kick, followed by a Star Punch that was able to finish it off. Chopper finished off the Void Swordsman by spinning his sword, which he added light energy to it.

"Well, I guess that takes care of 'em," Sonic said before running over to the door. "Too bad this door's locked..."

Chopper decided to check in 3-D, but unfortunately, he didn't find anything around. However, when he moved back over by the edge of the path, he noticed a brick block that wasn't in 2-D. After hitting it, a ladder was drawn, which they could see when they went into 2-D.

"That solves one thing," Chopper declared. "Now let's climb this thing."

The three climbed the ladder to a platform where a door was revealed to be in 3-D. Upon entering it, they were in a small area with a black Megabyte enemy called a Petabyte that was flying around and trying to ram into them.

"Oh... Not these kinds of things... Luigi would've been very helpful against these monsters..."

"There's only one, so it should be too bad," Sonic assured, waiting for the Petabyte to come down and come their way. He got in a ball and struck it with a Homing Attack, followed by Tipral snapping his fingers afterward to hit it with Star Magic. Sonic finished it off with his Bounce Attack, in which it dropped a Void Key. Sonic caught it before it even hit the ground.

"Don't worry! I've got the key!"

"Now we can get moving," Tipral said while he opening the door to leave. Chopper and Sonic followed him out and returned to the locked door. Sonic unlocked the door and opened it to the next area.

The next area appeared to be tunnel-like, with the ceiling at a low level. Up ahead were some black and purple striped barrels that were moving up and down through the ceiling. One thing for sure was that they do not want to get crushed by that thing if they stood below it.

"Barrels... Yup. Now I'm remembering Carnival Night Zone..." Sonic sighed. "That was such an excellent time."

"What do you mean by that?" Chopper asked.

"That was sarcasm, you know."

"Oh..." Chopper blinked before running over to the first barrel. He waited for it to go up into the ceiling before going through. Sonic got through it by using his Spin Dash, while Tipral simply teleported past it.

Past that barrel were two barrels in a slightly larger part of the tunnel moving in opposite directions. The bottom barrel was moving on the small pit and leading over to a ledge ahead. The top barrel was in their way, so once it was away, they jumped into the small pit and jumped over the bottom barrel.

Once they got to the ledge, they moved on ahead to avoid getting crushed by the barrels. They reached an even larger area in the tunnel and saw a barrel on the wall. It wasn't going through the floor, since that small section the barrel was in appeared to be moveable.

Chopper landed on the barrel and noticed it move up and down. There happened to be a ledge above them, but it was too high for any of them to reach. Tipral couldn't even teleport that, high, considering that his teleportation was a bit limited without the Dark Star Scepter.

He continued to jump on the barrel, but it didn't appear to be reaching the ledge. In fact, it wasn't even close.

"What's going on? Is there something that needs to be done?" Chopper wondered. "I keep jumping on it, but it won't go up!"

"I'll handle this," Tipral threw Chopper off the barrel and used his Star powers to land a Star Jump in order to make it move down more. Unfortunately, not even that worked. Chopper ended up going into 3-D while Sonic pondered over the barrel. He saw something like this before when he was in Carnival Night Zone, but it was something he wanted to forget.

Now he wished he never forgot.

"Great... I forgot how this thing works." Sonic face palmed. "I know it had to do something with...er..."

"Great. The hedgehog doesn't have a clue." Tipral sighed. He noticed Chopper come back into 3-D. "So... I suppose you have some ideas."

"Well, I found some sign..." Chopper trailed. "It said something about that barrel, though. Something about moving up and down. Something about using the D-Pad to move the barrel up and down?"

He jumped back on the barrel and pondered for a moment. "D-Pad... Hold on, maybe the 'Great Being Who Watches Us' can help us with this? ...Or someone from a far dimension?"

To their surprise, the barrel began to move up and down. Each time it moved, it went higher and lower. There happened to be a secret area below with a chest and a pipe. The chest had a Max Shroom Shake, and the pipe brought him back to the barrel. With that, they used the barrel to reach the ledge and run into some rubble that was on a hill going down.

Sonic decided to roll into a ball and go down the hill while ripping away some of the rubble. Chopper and Tipral followed him down and went through a loop that led them to a door that was guarded by a Darkling and Void Creature.

Chopper decided to fight the Darkling, so he jumped above the enemy and thrusted his sword downward. Unfortunately, his attacked was dodged, and he ended up getting hit by an electric spell that the Darkling fired. It even began to laugh at him until Tipral hit it with a shadow stomp.

The Void Creature was having a tough time trying to hit Sonic, since he was attacking it at a fast pace. He even slowed it down even more when he used his Whirlwind. This sent the Void Creature flying up in the air and allowed Sonic to finish it off with his Homing Attack.

"Well that was easy," Sonic said while Chopper and Tipral finished the Darkling. Sonic immediately opened the door, and the three reached the next area and found a couple of pillars in their way. Sonic tried to smash them with his Spin Dash, but they appeared to be too strong for him.

"Hmmmm... Well, let's look in 3-D." Chopper flipped into 3-D, but there were even pillars in 3-D blocking his way. However, he noticed something that was up ahead. Something they saw before in this dark world. "Say... Isn't that the Doom's Eye thing that we saw before?"

"Really?" Tipral approached the pillar and cracked his knuckles. "I might as well knock these down. I think I have the strength to do that!"

He slammed his fist on the pillar in front of him using his Star power, causing it to fall over, along with the other pillars. There were a couple of Void Creatures that were crushed by the pillars, but Doom's Eye was the only thing that didn't appear to be crushed.

"Hmmmm? Now what do we have here?" Doom's Eye turned and saw the three coming its way. "So they defeated the Dark Bull... Such a disappointment, but what else was there to expect?"

"All right, Dark! It's over!" Sonic declared. "There's nowhere else to go!"

"Sonic, that's not really Dark... That's that...thing he's using." Chopper whispered.

"...Oh. Whoops! But seriously, Dark. Why not just show yourself rather than use that Doom's Eye?"

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not too far from where you are," Doom's Eye replied. "In fact, I believe I'm reaching the deepest and darkest point of The Void!"

"And that means the True Chaos Heart is closer," Tipral added. "Look, Dark. We don't need you to waste our time. Just get out of the way."

"If we meet, I'll let you through, but for Chopper and Sonic... Their fates will be unknown!"

"Unknown fates? Well I'm not letting that stop me!" Chopper declared, walking past Doom's Eye and swinging his sword to knock it to the ground. This left Doom's Eye angry and forced it to shoot a red laser from its eye at Chopper, destroying his Sword ability in the process.

"Hey! Not cool!" Sonic retorted, using a Homing Attack to hit Doom's Eye and send it flying away. Doom's Eye was about to fly back and attack, but it decided that it should simply move on.

When the three saw this, they hurried on ahead, running through a loop in their way and a glowing platform that created a dark glowing staircase for them to go up. Some Void Bats were getting in their way, but Chopper destroyed them by throwing a couple of light balls to destroy them.

When they reached the ledge at the top of the staircase, they noticed something different about the door. It appeared to be much darker, and it even had a large, black heart embedded in it too. To them, it resembled the Chaos Heart.

That meant they were getting closer...

But when they went through the door, they saw a door up ahead, as well as a yellow ? block and a Save Block. The yellow ? block contained a Master Shroom that recovered 200 HP, and afterward, Chopper hit the Save Block to save their game. The door ahead appeared to be slightly bigger in size too, which was interesting to them too.

"Hmmmmmm... Yes, I'm sensing the way up ahead is much more dangerous." Tipral informed. "And with only three of us, it's not going to be easy."

"Then let's not waste time and get a move on," Chopper suggested. "We don't have much time to lose!"

After exchanging nods, they headed through the door.

* * *

**Next area-**

The three noticed that the area they entered was not very large, but it was much bigger than the previous area they were in. The dark sky continued to loom over them, with the dark lightning getting more intense.

And the door up ahead was darker just like the previous two doors.

"Hmmmm? So, you showed up quicker than I thought." Dark remarked, noticing them coming out through the door. "Such a shame... I was expecting to go further in, but stopping you was another thing I had planned anyway."

"I believe you won't be doing any stopping," Chopper stated as he and the other two approached him. "We need to go on ahead."

"And let my enemies through easily? I'm afraid not." Dark drew his blaster and aimed it at Chopper's head. "I swear, I should've ended your game sooner than before. You're lucky to make it all the way here..."

"Well, what you sent after us wasn't a match for us," Sonic shrugged. "You're just not doing your job well."

"Not doing a good job? Well, maybe you might want to ask my brother about that. He's the one that stole my damn army in the first place! That Dark Bull was one of the only things I had left!"

"Your brother? Ah, yes..." Tipral pondered. "We actually found out some very interesting information about him."

"Really? I would like to know this, Tipral."

"It seems Shade is not exactly who you think he is. He's actually a parasite that drains the body of someone and uses it for itself. He said to your father that he was your brother, but mixed with the wrong DNA. And his real name is actually Drakonari."

"So, let me get this straight... This whole time, Shade was never actually..."

"You're correct. He's not your brother."

Dark clenched his fist and grit his teeth in rage. "I swear... I'm going to find that bastard and make him pay for taking my army AND my life! I'm going to rip him apart!"

"Shade is already dead. He ended up killing himself."

"Damn... I was hoping to do it myself. Well, I guess I can let this anger out by ending your games, Chopper and Sonic! Especially you, Sonic... If I there's a person I hate more than Shade, it would be you..."

"What for?" Sonic gawked.

"You were partly responsible for stopping the Black Arms invasion, and you helped Shadow defeat my father. Plus, you even did some serious damage to some of my Dark Creature bases as well, which nearly sabotaged my plans! And even then, I can't stand your personality. I think it's too annoying."

"Are you asking for a challenge?"

"If that's what you think, then yes," Dark grinned as Doom's Eye flew to him. "I can deal with Chopper later. You, on the other hand, are a major nuisance and deserve to have your game end by my hands! Plus, fighting only you might be more enjoyable for me!"

"All right, then! If that's what you want, then that's what you'll get!" Sonic declared.

"Sonic... You don't have to do this..." Chopper trailed. "I should help you."

"No way! If our friends got to take on some on their own, then I can do the same thing. They managed to beat them, so I'm pretty sure I can do the same thing as well. And even if I lose, Dark might be weakened, and it might be easy for you to beat him."

"Oh, I don't think that'll actually do much," Dark smirked. "I decided to bring a little something that would help me just in case I ran into you guys. And I'm sure that it will be enough to guarantee me victory!"

"So you brought something to make a fight interesting, huh? Well then this is just the fight for me!" Sonic smirked. "I just happen to have a little something that I can use to fight as well!"

Sonic took out the seven Chaos Emeralds and let them circle him. He jumped in the air and took in the Chaos Emerald's power, turning his blue fur into a golden yellow, while his quills were flowing upward instead. Dark seemed a bit surprised, but he seemed to grin afterward.

"The Chaos Emeralds? You know, even in your super form, my Dark Emerald's power could possibly surpass your form!"

"Oh, really? Then show me!" Super Sonic challenged.

"Sonic, are you sure you want to do this alone?" Chopper asked.

"Don't worry too much about me, Chop. I've faced Dark before, and I still know his strategies that he's used before. You might want to leave this area, though... This fight might get rough."

"Well..."

Tipral grabbed Chopper and dragged him over to the left door without saying a word. With them out of the way, all that was left was Super Sonic and Dark.

"You know, you can't protect your friends forever," Dark stated. "Just because Chopper isn't here doesn't mean he'll be safe, especially when you're finished!"

"There's no way I'm going to let you harm him or anyone else," Super Sonic growled while clenching a fist. "After all the damage you've caused to the people of Mobius, it's time we put an end to this!"

"Yes... I agree with you. However, let me get myself ready too." Dark snapped a finger, which made Doom's Eye get absorbed into the Dark Emerald. He grabbed the emerald and let himself absorb its power. His third eye opened, creating a flash that surrounded Dark in complete darkness.

"What the heck?!"

When the darkness faded away, Super Sonic saw Dark was completely black, with curved spikes on his large shoulders, three purple eyes, a larger moon crescent on his head, and deadly claws and feet. To him, it looked like a demon as if it was its shadow.

"I see you're surprised," Dark grinned, showing his sharp teeth. "Dimentio may have had some immense power when he threw me in with the Chaos Heart, but did you have any ideas on what I could do with this power on my own?"

"You don't even look like the abomination Dimentio turned you into."

"That's because I'm using the Dark Emerald's power at its fullest. It can open my third eye fully and transform me into the perfect demonic Dark Creature – which is the strongest of all Dark Creatures! You're now looking at Perfect Dark Doom!"

"It's just your name with 'perfect' added into it... Well, whatever. Freaky look aside, let's do this!"

Perfect Dark smirked and drew a purple blade that he also got from the Dark Emerald's power. He dashed toward Super Sonic and tried to lunge at him with the blade, but the golden hedgehog flew out of the way and got in a ball to try to hit him. Perfect Dark saw this coming and grabbed a hold of him before throwing him back. He then charged up some dark energy in his hand and hurled it Super Sonic's way.

Super Sonic hit the door, and once he saw the dark energy coming his way, he flew over it and charged at Perfect Dark again. Since Perfect Dark wasn't fast like him, he knew the fight wouldn't be too bad. But, when he noticed his stats, Super Sonic realized that the fight might be a lot harder than what he was expecting.

_"A Max HP of 580, an Attack of 23 and a Defense of 12? Oh, boy... This might not be good..." _Sonic thought.

"Let's see what this blade can do," Perfect Dark smirked as he swung it and fired a dark wave of sword energy Super Sonic's way. He brought his arms up to defend the attack, but it wasn't enough and pushed him back. As Super Sonic, he didn't have many new moves except for flying and extra speed, but Perfect Dark was completely different... He was nothing like Dimentio Doom, that's for sure.

Perfect Dark dashed Super Sonic's way and lunged at him with his blade. All Super Sonic did was boost upward and then downward to hit Perfect Dark in the head with his own head. It made him fall over, but it didn't stop him from trying to attack Super Sonic with dark energy.

"You may have super sonic speed to help you, but this power is unlike anything you've seen before!" Perfect Dark hissed as he got up. "It's nothing like my father's transformation either..."

"Well, you know what they say: speed triumphs power!" Super Sonic smirked.

"Yes, keep thinking that, Sonic... I'm sure it'll do you no good in the end."

Perfect Dark stepped back and threw his blade at Super Sonic, followed by firing a purple Swift Strike that not only hit Super Sonic, but made his blade go faster and hit the golden hedgehog as well. He cast a grin before doing a flip in the air and catching his blade. He kicked his Swift Strike further while Super Sonic ended up near the door.

Super Sonic noticed the Swift Strike coming faster his way, but instead of dodging it, he had an idea. His boost attack would knock projectiles back. It was something he would usually do when he was fighting against Eggman. Though, this was more of a purple blade, which isn't something he knocked away before.

He decided to give it a try and used his boost to hit the Swift Strike. Sadly, it didn't work, and it only caught him in the attack and got him knocked back to the door again. Perfect Dark seemed satisfied and started to approach his opponent.

"Not too super now, are you?" Perfect Dark scoffed. "And this is the same person who defeated Perfect Chaos in his super form!"

Super Sonic pushed himself off the door and flew up before Perfect Dark could make another move. It didn't bother Perfect Dark too much, but he did not expect to be attacked from behind from Super Sonic's boost. This made him fall over on his face while Super Sonic landed in front of him and prepared to charge up a Spin Dash.

Perfect Dark would've attacked Super Sonic, but he was hit by his Spin Dash. This instantly brought him up, but Super Sonic turned back and hit Perfect Dark again and left him dazed.

Super Sonic got out of his ball form and clenched his fist, shouting "Super Sonic Wind!" to make a yellow gust of wind hit Perfect Dark and even lift him off the ground. He took this time to dive down at the yellow hedgehog with a powerful, dark kick that Super Sonic dodged easily.

"Heh heh... Now THIS is what I want to see from you!" Perfect Dark smirked. "At first, I thought you weren't doing too much. This fight should get more interesting!"

"Well, I have faced monstrous things before in my super form, and you're nothing different," Super Sonic mentioned. "But enough of that. I don't want our talking to interrupt our battle!"

"For once, I agree with you."

Perfect Dark aimed his blade to the ground and struck it, causing a wave of dark energy to come Super Sonic's way. He simply flew over it and knocked Perfect Dark away with his boost attack. Nothing too special.

He decided to make another move, but Perfect Dark made his move first and used a revolving kick to keep Super Sonic off guard to allow him to grab a hold of him and throw him to the ground headfirst. Perfect Dark knocked him back while he was on the ground with a powerful kick.

"Did I mention my martial arts are much better than before?" Perfect Dark mentioned. "It comes with an all-new hedgehog ass kicking!"

Super Sonic got up, and once he faced Perfect Dark, he noticed him take two blasters out and fired at him at a fast pace. The lasers he fired were more of a reddish purple, but that was nothing important. He simply flew around to dodge the shots while Perfect Dark cast an evil grin, as if he was enjoying this.

"I could do this all day if I wanted to," Perfect Dark said. "Especially to you!"

"And I could fly around all day avoiding your shots," Super Sonic shot back. "...Or I can do this!"

Super Sonic flew behind Perfect Dark and spun around him to create a yellow tornado. His Whirlwind ended up lifting him off the air and allowing Super Sonic to hit him a couple of times in his ball form. After one more hit, Perfect Dark was able to kick Super Sonic and knock him away. His Whirlwind also wore off as well.

Perfect Dark conjured up more dark energy and fired it Super Sonic's way before he landed on the ground. Since the yellow hedgehog was already hit and open for another attack, he was hit by Perfect Dark's dark energy. Thankfully, he had no problem flying back up and charging a Spin Dash while he was still in the air.

"A Spin Dash in the air?" Perfect Dark gawked. "That is very unexpected..."

However, that didn't stop him from making a plan of his own. He threw his fist to the ground and created a dark shield that protected him. Once Super Sonic charged at him, he was left unharmed and let the shield do its job. Super Sonic, on the other hand, was left a bit shocked.

"What the... How did you..." Super Sonic paused when he noticed the shield around Perfect Dark. "...Oh, wait, it's a shield."

"Well, you noticed that very quickly. I thought you'd be questioning why you couldn't hurt me." Perfect Dark said. "Well, I suppose I should show you a little something new now that I'm invulnerable!"

With a snap of his finger, Perfect Dark was surrounded by a couple of dark blades that began to circle him. He began to approach Super Sonic as well and fired the dark blades toward him when he noticed him fly back. They missed, but it didn't bother him too much. After all, his shield kept him invincible!

But Super Sonic probably had what it took to break through a shield like that. He curled up in a ball and threw himself at Perfect Dark, but he ended up bouncing away after hitting it. It seemed to flash a bit, but Perfect Dark didn't notice and simply grinned at the hedgehog.

"Just give up now, Sonic," Perfect Dark suggested. "I'm already powerful in this form! You? You don't have many new attacks in your super form!"

"Well, just because I don't have many other attacks doesn't make me weaker," Super Sonic smirked before charging at Perfect Dark. Since his shield flashed before, he was wondering what would happen if he hit it again by boosting.

This time, the shield shattered, making Perfect Dark's eyes widen. "What the hell? My shield is broken?"

"Looks like your shield isn't as great as you said it was. Oh well..."

"But that's not going to make me give up so easily," Perfect Dark hissed as he surrounded himself with a couple of blades, causing Super Sonic to back away. But he wasn't done there just yet. Using his cape, he teleported out of Super Sonic's sight and appeared above him.

He brought his blade down and managed to deal greater damage to Super Sonic when it sent him flying back. Also, the blades Perfect Dark had around him hurt him as well, which did even more damage. He then fired them at Super Sonic, but he got up and knocked a couple of blades back at Perfect Dark with his boost, causing him to get hurt instead.

"Gah!"

Super Sonic managed to hit him with his boost afterward, and while Perfect Dark was still off guard, he charged up his Light Speed Attack and managed to unleash it upon him. This left Perfect Dark in a bit of a bad condition but Super Sonic was also in a bit of a bad condition too.

"Well, looks like someone's throwing all they've got at me," Perfect Dark said. "Although, I'm not sure if you'll keep doing that..."

"What do you mean?" Super Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you know what your super form uses? Rings! And I assure you that you probably don't have enough rings to last this whole fight."

Super Sonic's eyes widened upon the thought. Perfect Dark saw his expression and gave a grin. "Which is a shame, because I don't think I've shown you everything on this form! Well, I might as well finish this..."

Perfect Dark began to charge up some dark energy, but instead of fighting, Super Sonic flew off. This caused Perfect Dark to stop and watch the yellow blur get smaller every second.

"Hmph... So he thinks he can go find more rings, huh? Heh heh heh... I should follow him!"

Perfect Dark's cape transformed into black and purple demonic wings, in which he used to take off and go after Super Sonic. He was a bit surprised to see him already find some rings in the sky. So apparently some rings left from Mobius were able to survive in The Void just fine.

"Dang, you can fly too?!" Super Sonic gaped. "...Well, it doesn't matter too much. I've just gotten enough rings to fight back, so don't expect this fight to get any easier!"

Perfect Dark gave his response by firing at Super Sonic with his two blasters. Of course, he was able to dodge every shot, but he was not able to dodge a kick to the face delivered by the hedgehog at a very fast pace. Super Sonic even hit him with a Homing Attack, which was also very painful to him.

At this point, Perfect Dark was not having an easy time with fighting against Super Sonic. With the rings he collected, he certainly got much stronger. But then again, his rings _could_ be knocked away...

Perfect Dark decided to try this out and waited for Super Sonic to charge at him. He put up another shield, but it ended up being pointless when it got shattered anyway. But this gave him his chance to attack. When Super Sonic was about to fly back, he delivered a kick to the yellow hedgehog, and then he hurled dark energy at him afterward. He noticed a couple of rings get knocked out of him.

"Well, Sonic! It looks like your super form can lose more rings if I deal enough damage!" Perfect Dark grinned. "So much for being stronger!"

"Crud... I forgot about that." Super Sonic mumbled. "Thankfully, there are plenty of rings here for me to get, so I won't worry too much about that."

Not caring about what Super Sonic said, he flew backwards and began to fire dark energy at Super Sonic. It wasn't much, because the super-powered hedgehog was able to dodge them and boost into Perfect Dark. He tried to bring up his arms for defense, but it didn't seem to be enough.

_"Stupid hedgehog... Why do you have to be so damn fast?" _Perfect Dark cursed.

"Hey, there's one thing I always wondered about you," Super Sonic said. "Something about you and being half Dark Creature and half hedgehog."

"That whole idea?" Perfect Dark hissed as he approached Super Sonic and punched his stomach with his dark power. "That is one thing I refuse to tell ANYONE!"

"Guh... Well, how are you half hedgehog and half alien? Was your mother a hedgehog?"

"...Yes. She was. Those events were all before my father invaded Earth."

"I see... Well where were you born anyway?"

"On Mobius. However, many Mobians in my town accused my mother of being a danger after I was born, so they took her and killed her. As for me... They decided to let nature kill me by throwing me into the river. While they thought I was dangerous, they could not simply kill a baby."

"Huh... I never knew this..."

"That's because I never tell _anyone_ about my past. Anyway, my father, Black Doom, ended up discovering me when he sensed one of his kind on Mobius, so he took me back and raised me to become this! After he and the Black Arms fell, it was only me left, so I decided to create my new army by using some of my DNA. I called them Dark Creatures. As for the Dark Emerald... It was a gift from him for me to use to crush anyone in my way, such as you, Sonic..."

Perfect Dark opened his hand and fired dark energy at Super Sonic, which knocked him away. "First I'll destroy you, and then once all worlds are gone, I can finally repair my army and make a world suitable just for me!"

"You know... I don't think that can happen now..." Super Sonic said as he charged into Perfect Dark with a boost. "With Tipral no longer having the Chaos Heart in his hands, the only option to stop the rampaging heart is to destroy it. If not, we'll all lose our games in the end..."

"If that's true, then I'll focus on what I want to do right now: end your game!"

Perfect Dark flew above Super Sonic and began to hurl dark lightning down at him. He ended up getting hit by at least one of his attacks, but the others he was able to quickly avoid. This left Perfect Dark frustrated – especially after Super Sonic hit him with a Homing Attack. His frustration also led him to miss a punch.

Super Sonic felt a little more confident in himself, so he decided to fly above Perfect Dark and boost into him from above. Perfect Dark saw this coming and threw his fist upward to hit Super Sonic. He was left slack-jawed, unable to question how he was able to hit him when he was boosting toward him so fast.

"Take this!" Perfect Dark howled, firing a couple of small meteors at the super-powered hedgehog. The meteors appeared to be moving much faster than before, and it was rather difficult for Super Sonic to dodge. All but three were able to hit him and make him fly back.

And while that happened, Perfect Dark aimed his blasters and fired a couple of shots at him to leave him a bit satisfied. He even charged a shot and fired at the hedgehog, but at that point, he completely forgot Super Sonic's ability to knock things back at someone with his boost, and that is exactly what he did. This left Perfect Dark off guard and in pain from his own attack, and it let Super Sonic send him flying back with his boost.

Noticing his HP, Super Sonic took out a Master Shroom Shake and drank it to recover 200 HP. Seeing this baffled Perfect Dark, so he took action by charging into him and also grabbing a hold of him.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Super Sonic gaped.

"You obviously have more of an advantage in the air," Perfect Dark stated. "It's time to change that!"

He began to fly down, with Super Sonic's head pointing down to the ground below. Before Perfect Dark could crash into the ground, he threw Super Sonic and made him hit the ground instead. Once he landed, his wings turned back into his cape and performed a revolving kick that hit the yellow hedgehog in the process. Not even his quills were protecting him!

Even with the HP recovery, Super Sonic was still likely to lose most of his HP. Perfect Dark wasn't looking too well either, especially since he was covered in a couple of bruises from Super Sonic's attacks. And he was probably going to get even more if the fight continues.

Perfect Dark surrounded himself in another dark shield while readying his dark blade as he coldly hissed, "You're going down!"

He let out a scream as he used his cape to teleport above Super Sonic and bring his blade down. While he missed, he teleported again above Super Sonic and tried to hit him. This process repeated a couple of times until Perfect Dark was able to hit Super Sonic and then deliver a kick to his stomach with as much force as he had.

At this point, Super Sonic knew that Perfect Dark was getting exhausted, and the only way for him to win was to throw everything he had.

"Someone's getting a little angry now..." Super Sonic gaped.

"And that anger won't go until I destroy you!" Perfect Dark yelled. "Do you even realize what I've been through ever since I joined Tipral's side? It started off nice, but my so-called 'brother' just HAD to ruin it for me! That's probably NOTHING compared to what you've been through!"

When Perfect Dark tried to punch Super Sonic, he was able to grab a hold of his arm to stop him from hitting him. However, he was struggling, because his arm was shaking. "Believe me, Dark... You may have gone through a lot, but I've been through a lot myself throughout this quest."

"Oh really? And what would that be?"

"My world... Or rather, _our_ world was destroyed by The Void. Not only that, but all of my friends from Mobius are now gone."

"That's it? That's hardly any- Wait, _our_ world?" Perfect Dark's eyes widened in shock. He knew he wanted to let his enemy suffer, but even then, causing harm to him actually caused harm to himself as well. Mobius was where he lived, after all.

"Yes, and that was all Tipral's doing. We can end this right here and stop the True Chaos Heart together."

Perfect Dark thought for a second, but his thoughts of destroying his enemy came to him first, leading him to fire dark energy at Super Sonic to knock him away. "There's no way I'm going to help you. Even if Mobius got restored, there would be the part where I had to deal with you. Kill you first, and then I can rule Mobius with ease!"

"Unghhh... You just don't understand..." Super Sonic moaned before quickly getting up. "Fine. I guess I have no choice but to defeat you."

Perfect Dark grinned and threw his blade while firing some meteors directly at Super Sonic. He flew over the obstacles and knocked some meteors that came in contact with him away at Perfect Dark. His shield shattered after one meteor, and the rest Super Sonic knocked away hit him. He noticed him taking deep breaths as he slouched forward a little.

_"I can't let myself fall in defeat yet... That annoying hedgehog is not going to win!"_

When Perfect Dark caught his blade, he jumped in the air and then came down to create a dark shockwave. Since Super Sonic was off the ground it didn't do a thing to him. It even gave him a chance to knock him back with a Spin Dash. He followed up by kicking Perfect Dark in the face, which ended up leaving a small amount of green blood to drip from his mouth,

Super Sonic readied himself as Perfect Dark got up, wiped the blood below his mouth, and lunged forward with his fist. However, instead of actually punching Super Sonic, he grabbed a hold of his legs and started to swing him around in a way O'Chunks would. But instead of letting go, Perfect Dark threw him to the ground and began to fire at him with his blasters.

"_**GAK!**_"

Perfect Dark seemed satisfied, but not satisfied enough. He jumped and performed an angled downward kick on Super Sonic as soon as he got up. He got his blasters ready and began to fire, but sadly, his attack missed when Super Sonic was able to get up and kick him in the face. He grinned as Perfect Dark was sent flying to the door to the left.

"You know, Sonic..." Perfect Dark began. "You still have to worry about your ring count. We're down here, and you probably don't have the time to grab more rings!"

"Yeah, yeah, keep thinking that," Super Sonic said while rubbing below his nose. "I DO believe I've got a new move I haven't shown!"

"Too bad I won't get to see it," Perfect Dark aimed his two blasters at Super Sonic and began to fire. The yellow hedgehog grinned and clenched his fist.

"Time Stop!"

Everything suddenly went frozen, with the laser blasts Perfect Dark fired near Super Sonic's face. He shrugged it off as he flew back up into the sky and came back after ten seconds to hit Perfect Dark with a Homing Attack before his ability wore off. The Dark Creature overlord almost gaped when he found himself in more pain.

"What the hell?! What did you just do?! And did my attack just miss?!"

"It was my Time Stop ability," Super Sonic explained. "And now I've got plenty of more rings! I think it should be enough to defeat you..."

Perfect Dark clenched his fists in anger while he grit his teeth. He fired dark energy at his enemy, but his Sonic Wind was able to get to him first. But despite that, Super Sonic ended up getting hit by his attack in the end. Perfect Dark used this opportunity to teleport above his enemy and perform an overhead slash as he came down on top of Super Sonic. He managed to hit him every time and after he finished, Super Sonic was left pretty bruised.

"Well, look at you, Sonic!" Perfect Dark chuckled. "You're not looking good, are you?"

"You're not looking any better," Super Sonic shot back. "But seriously, you'd rather destroy me than actually bring back our world?!"

"Of course. Better to get rid of you first, because you're already here. It would be a waste of time to just destroy the True Chaos Heart if I still have to deal with you. You're not going to convince me in any way, hedgehog!"

Super Sonic let out a sigh and clenched his fists. "Fine. If that's how you want to do it, then it looks like I have no other choice..."

He curled up in a ball and began to charge up an attack that made him get surrounded in a yellow glow. When Perfect Dark saw this, he swung his arms back and began to charge up a powerful attack in his hands. There was no way he was going to let this hedgehog finish him like this.

"I hope you're ready for this, Sonic!" Perfect Dark exclaimed. "Because this will end our battle once and for all!"

The glow around Super Sonic got bigger, and it was also burning more rings faster than before. But he needed this much rings if he was going to use this powerful attack. And if Perfect Dark had a powerful attack coming, he was going to need a lot of power to even counter it!

With all the power charged, he threw himself toward Perfect Dark, but he also had his attack charged and fired a dark beam his way. Super Sonic was caught in the beam, and it was definitely causing harm to him, as well as making his ring count get lower every second.

_"I can't let this attack stop me!" _Super Sonic thought. _"I NEED to win this fight."_

Super Sonic tried to get closer to Perfect Dark, while he was trying to drain the ring energy out of him. He noticed Super Sonic's eyes being shut tight and his gritting teeth, which gave a sign to him that he was in pain. This motivated him more to annihilate Super Sonic.

"I can keep this up all day," Perfect Dark cackled. "You? You're just going to run out of rings!"

Super Sonic pushed himself forward, but maybe, just MAYBE he could throw in something to distract Perfect Dark. His Sonic Wind could probably do something about it, but he was unsure. But he decided to try it out anyway, and it succeeded. Perfect Dark was caught off guard, and his attack was getting weaker.

"What did you just do?!"

Super Sonic grinned and pushed himself forward and crashed straight into Perfect Dark with full force. Instead of knocking him back, the Dark Emerald came out of him and fell to the ground, letting it shatter in the process. Dark also fell face flat on the ground in defeat before Super Sonic landed in front of him.

With the ring energy burnt away, the Chaos Emeralds left Sonic and turned him back to normal. The seven emeralds were scattered on the ground, and Sonic couldn't help but let out a sigh.

_**"****Excellent! Simply excellent!" **_the unknown voice cackled after another click. _**"This means I just need two more, and everything will be ready for me! However... I don't think getting these last two will be as easy..."**_

"My Dark Emerald... Shattered..." Dark gaped. "And I let myself lose like this!"

"Well, I didn't want to have to resort to that," Sonic wheezed. "But you have to face it: you lost."

Dark slowly got up and wheezed as well. "Very well... I admit defeat. I acknowledge your ability to take me on, even in my perfect form.

"I'm glad you've learned something. ...Well, there's one thing I don't think you understand yet."

"About Mobius getting destroyed? Perhaps I will say something to Tipral about that. And Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"All that stuff regarding my past... Don't share it with anyone. That's just between you and me!"

Sonic gave him a nod before they heard the door behind Sonic open. Chopper and Tipral walked through the door and approached the two.

"Sonic..." Chopper trailed.

"It's all right. I managed to win...and maybe Dark may have learned a little something from this fight."

"Oh, really?" Tipral questioned, crossing his arms.

"Tipral," Dark started. "When it came to destroying all worlds, didn't you realize that one of your enemy's worlds belonged to one of your minions?"

Tipral seemed rather surprised. "You never told me that you lived on Mobius. You said absolutely _nothing_ about it. And even then, I would've given you your own world – until the plan backfired, which ended in this."

Dark realized that he was right. He didn't tell him that he lived on Mobius. He raised his arm to say something else, but they felt the area tremor. This was not a safe place to be in anymore...

"Uh oh... We better get out of here!" Chopper gulped.

"Yes, I would have to agree," Tipral nodded, making his way past Chopper, Sonic and Dark. "I don't want to waste time here."

Chopper walked past Sonic and Dark and made his way over to Tipral, while Sonic and Dark were following. But because of their weak state, they couldn't move as fast, which Sonic was surprised with. Dark was going the slowest because he was in an even weaker state than Sonic.

But Sonic couldn't progress any further when he heard a scream and something that sounded like something was getting ripped open. He turned his head and saw Dark grabbing a hold of the ground, trying to prevent himself from getting sucked into the dark portal that tore through the background.

"Unnggh... How did this portal appear?!" Dark exclaimed, struggling to hold on.

Sonic himself was getting sucked in slightly, and noticing Dark in this situation did not make him feel good. Once Dark lost his grip, Sonic sprang into action and grabbed a hold of his arm while trying to move away from the portal.

"S-Sonic... What're you doing?!"

"Trying to save you," Sonic answered, cringing as he tried to keep going. But with the portal getting bigger, he was not progressing any further.

Chopper even heard the screams before he could open the door and gaped at what he was seeing. "Sonic!"

"Unnnghhhh... C-Chopper!" Sonic wheezed. "Just go! You don't have time to spring into action and try to help me!"

"No way! I'm NOT leaving you behind! You're one of my last friends left, and I don't want to lose you!"

"Look, I understand it's hard to just leave me behind like this, but there's something more important for you to do! The others were willing to risk their lives to help us, and I can do the same for you."

"I know, but it just makes me feel guilty to leave my friends behind..." Chopper trailed while hanging his head low. "It feels like I could do something to help you."

"Believe me, Chopper... None of us would want you to help us when we're in this situation when all worlds are getting destroyed. Put yourself in mine and everyone else's situation right now. Would you want your friends to continue on without them?"

"Ummmmmmm... I guess you have a point, Sonic... But I just don't want to lose you just like the others!"

"Believe me... I don't want to lose you or any of my friends either. But, it's a risk I'm willing to take."

Chopper was silent for a moment until he felt someone grab a hold of his arm. "We don't have time to be standing here making choices all day! If you can't make a decision, then I'll make it for you!"

"Tipral!" Chopper gaped. "Stop! Now!"

Tipral refused to listen and dragged Chopper through the door. The pale green Star Warrior looked back at his hedgehog friend in sadness as the door shut behind him. Only Sonic and Dark were left, along with the dark portal trying to suck them in. Sonic even felt some sadness in him too.

"So what now, hedgehog?" Dark asked. "At this rate, we're both going to die! And we could've used their help!"

"If we asked for their help, we'd be putting them in more danger," Sonic explained. "And if they were caught in here, who else would stop the True Chaos Heart?"

"Hmmmm... I suppose you have a point. You know, for someone annoying, you aren't as stupid as I thought."

"Well, my friend Tails is much smarter than me. I think he has some more interesting things to say if you're thinking about learning something."

Dark growled at him before Sonic was slowly getting sucked in. Dark noticed his feet getting caught in the portal. Unfortunately, there was no escape in the end, and both Sonic and Dark were sucked into the portal before it closed.

* * *

**Through the door-**

When Chopper and Tipral were out of the previous area, they heard the loud tremor stop, and they heard a loud thud there as well. Chopper slowly turned around and decided to attempt to open the door.

No luck.

"Ohhh..." Chopper moaned. "Blade... Kirby... Mario... Luigi...and now Sonic are gone..."

"There was nothing we could do about it," Tipral stated, crossing his arms. "And helping any of them wouldn't have been worth it in the end. We should just get going now before we waste our time."

Chopper's eyes shot wide open as he turned to Tipral. "Are you saying that you have no regard toward the loss of your minions and my friends?!"

"I see no point. Honestly, I don't have much regard toward anything anyway with all the hatred in my heart. And why should I have regard toward them? That will only slow us down!"

Chopper was absolutely shocked at what Tipral was saying. Sure, he didn't expect him to weep over the loss of his minions, but hearing him say that he doesn't care was what shocked him. And this was something he had to deal with for a while.

However, instead of staying shocked, he clenched his fists and glared at him.

"That's it, Tipral. I've been getting tired of your attitude lately." Chopper said in a serious tone. "Ever since you've joined my friends and I in the Comet of Darkness, you've always acted harsh toward us and even used me as a punching bag multiple times! And my friends and your minions selflessly risked their lives to help US! Yet, you don't seem to care?"

"Have you forgotten what's going on here?!" Tipral asked, clenching his fists in anger. "If we have to show our sympathy toward them, then it's only going to slow us down! You've been doing enough if it, and it's done nothing but waste time! It just shows how idiotic you can be!"

"Oh, believe me, Tipral... I'm not as 'idiotic' as you think. And I actually have a heart too! Well, more of a heart than you ever will."

"Face it, Chopper. You know what I said it true." Tipral crossed his arms and turned away from him while closing his eyes.

"So, if you think it's better not to care about losing someone you care about and selfishly ditch them, then I guess you would leave Timpani behind in a situation like this because she would be just as useless, wouldn't you?"

Tipral's eyes widened, but they turned to anger as he turned to Chopper with a light purple glow surrounding him. "That 'Timpani' you speak of has NOTHING to do with this situation, Chopper! Are you ASKING me to incinerate you right here?!"

Chopper did not let himself get scared and stood his ground. "Look, Tipral, I don't want to cause a fight. Not in this situation. You getting this angry kind of contradicts what you were saying before."

"Chopper, you don't want me to go to this level," Tipral warned. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut..."

"Tipral, I don't think you have ANY right to be angry with what I just said. I was simply making a point. In fact, I have more of a right to be angry with you, especially since you destroyed my world. But do I rage at you like you are doing to me? No. Because in the end, rage isn't worth it."

Tipral, realizing his reasons, decided to back down. "Fine... I see the point you were making. In all honesty, my minions were actually the only ones that were actually kind to me. I suppose I didn't show much regard because I didn't want to have to spend time grieving over them."

"Thank you for being honest," Chopper smiled. "Now, I suggest we get going... Staying here makes me feel a bit sorry for what happened to Sonic and the rest of my friends..."

"Very well. We will go." Tipral nodded. "And for the record, I still don't like you. But, I think I can tolerate you _slightly_ more."

Chopper noticed the Star Block up ahead and decided to run underneath it and give it a good punch. While he was saddened by the loss of Luigi and Sonic, he felt like he got a little more out of this.

Perhaps there is more to Tipral than he thought.

**END OF CHAPTER**

_With the loss of both Luigi and Sonic, all that remained were Chopper and Tipral. They have been big enemies for a long time, and they knew they had to put their differences aside at this moment because of a greater threat: The Void. They noticed that the sky was starting to change as well. No longer was the sky purple darkness, but more of a mixture of both black and purple. "Yes, the sky indicates that we are getting deeper into The Void," confirmed Tipral as he skated through. "However, I don't believe we are too close to the True Chaos Heart...yet." Chopper, listening to Tipral, understood and progressed with him. The very air in The Void grew heavier and even more ominous with every step. The only thing they could do was plod forward in silence…_

* * *

**This chapter should not have taken me longer than this..._  
_**

**I spent almost TWO months with this chapter! OK, part of it had to do with the hurricane, but before that, I was just a bit lazy. So, I deeply apologize for those who waited a long time for this to be updated. I also kinda apologize if some of this story feels a bit on the repetitive side (I don't think I'm that good when it comes to the level designs for this place, sadly :P).  
**

**However, I thought some of the fights were much better, with the Perfect Dark vs Super Sonic one probably being the best in Chapter 20. However, maybe that might change a bit...  
**

**Personally, I find the next two parts of Chapter 20 more interesting because of what happens. What, exactly? Well, you'll find out. ;)  
**


	123. Near All World's End

**CHAPTER 20-4**

**-Near All World's End-**

With the sky being unlike the other areas they were in, Chopper and Tipral knew that they were going into the more dangerous area of The Void. And without the help of Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi, making their way through here was not going to be an easy task. And Chopper and Tipral had a feeling that they'll have to put up a bit of a fight against the enemies too.

"Well, it looks like we're in the inner part of The Void," Chopper said, looking up at the evil sky nervously. "I can't believe we have to move on without my friends..."

He quickly blinked for a second and shook his head. "No! That's not something I need to be thinking of right now. Our friends wanted us to keep going, and that's something we need to do!"

"Yes, and with only us left, reaching the core of The Void will be difficult. However, I don't think there is anyone else that is trying to stop us from reaching the True Chaos Heart, so we should be fine from here on."

Chopper took a step forward and looked up at the black and dark purple sky. "Considering how deep we are in The Void, I can't help but feel that this place reminds me of Dark Subspace World a bit. Maybe Darksprine Troopers might be in here? ...Nah. They're all gone!"

"Hmph... Think whatever you want, I don't really care." Tipral stated. _"Ugh... I can't get that name out of my head! I should REALLY thank Chopper for bringing up something like that..."_

"Tipral, is something bothering you?"

"Hmmmmm? No, I'm fine. But you're not going to be helping us if you continue to ask me that. While you're the person I hate more than anyone else, I understand that we have to work together."

Chopper gave him a nod. "Yes, I know we have to work together, even if we don't get along too well. ...But, maybe we might become friends later on."

He brought his hand out in a way to shake Tipral's hand, but his counterpart swatted his hand away. "Don't even think about it, Chopper! I'm not here to make friends with you."

Chopper's smiled faded away, and he decided to turn around. "Well... I guess we better get going then."

They saw the path ahead and noticed that, just like most of the start of each chapter in The Void, it was pretty flat. There were also some platforms above the ground with yellow ? blocks above them. Chopper jumped on the first platform and hit the block to find a Mushroom. It was disappointing, but he decided to split it into two so they could both recover 10 HP.

When he landed on the ground, Chopper also had other thoughts. He lost his friends, sure, but what about those Sages? Is it possible that they could help them? No, not likely. He's already too far in The Void to get help from them!

"Oh, by the way, Chopper..." Tipral started. "I already know about those three Sages. You don't have to keep it a secret."

Chopper's eyes widened as he turned to Tipral. "H-How did you know about them?!"

"The Dark Prognosticus happened to inform me before I lost it, along with the Dark Star Scepter. It stated, 'When a Pure Heart is lost, one shall search for the three Sages to find the Pure Heart. But only one shall know about the sages, and nobody else.' And I had a feeling that the 'one' was you."

"But I thought no one else knew about that!" Chopper gaped. "How did the Dark Prognosticus catch something like that?"

"I'm not sure, but it doesn't bother me too much. But, I'll be fair and not tell anyone about this."

Chopper gave him a nod before he heard the sound of a spear being thrown. He recoiled when he saw the spear land right by his feet. The two looked up and saw a Dark Skello giving them a glare.

"Hwahwahwa! So yer the fools that Master Shadow Doom hates so much!" the Dark Skello cackled. "I'm goin' to please him and take ya down!"

"A Dark Skello? Here? How did you get in here?" Tipral gawked.

"A door appeared in the Comet of Darkness, and a couple of us decided to go in here! And look at what we happened to run into! I'm goin' to please Master Shadow Doom now!"

"Shade's gone," Chopper stated.

The Dark Skello's eyes widened in shock, but they soon turned to anger as it took out another spear and aimed it at them. "Then I shall avenge him! You won't be leaving this place alive!"

Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled the Dark Skello's spear near him and spat it at the undead creature. Tipral teleported up to the Dark Skello and fired a barrage of Star Punches, followed by a single Star Kick that finished it off. He also teleported up to a platform and hit two yellow ? blocks that were there. To their dismay, two Death Shrooms came out and began to scurry around the place.

Sure, one Death Shroom could be dealt with easily, but _two_? Chopper did not feel comfortable at this point – which soon became worse when he saw dark purple Void Bones rising up ahead and two Dark Skellos charging their way. Tipral stepped in front and swung his arms to fire some Star Spears at the Dark Skellos. One even hit the Void Bones and did severe damage to it.

Chopper was hoping to get into some action, but he couldn't shoot a fireball in time when he noticed the undead army annihilated and the Void Bones reduced to ash thanks to Tipral's Star powers. But the two Death Shrooms were coming back their way, but Tipral also destroyed them in as well.

"Well, I guess the only thing I can do is simply follow," Chopper murmured as he followed Tipral up ahead. There were Void Bones resting on the ground beside the door, which happened to be blocked by a barrier. Chopper took this as a chance to attack, so he threw a fireball at it. Sadly, it didn't seem to have any effect.

"Huh? How come fire didn't work?!"

"That's because these Void Bones are much different," Tipral explained. "Because they were taken in by The Void, they have gained a few more defenses. However, light power might do the trick."

Chopper smirked and aimed at the ground near the Void Bones and shot some light magic from his hand to deal some massive damage to the enemy. However, it was Tipral that finished it off with his Star Magic. But even then, the barrier around the door wouldn't shatter.

But Tipral happened to sense something, so he gestured Chopper to switch them both into 3-D. He agreed and flipped into 3-D to find a secret trail behind the door. This led to a small area where two Void Bones were, as well as a door.

Chopper jumped on the two enemies with his light stomp and then hurled a large light ball down at them to defeat them. Once they entered the door, they were met with a light orb at the end of the small area, and two dark purple Pigarithms called a Boaraithms with tusks moving around. It was certainly much faster than the previous types of these ugly things.

"I haven't seen these things in a long time," Chopper gaped.

"Well, it's better to just get rid of them right now," Tipral declared, stomping on the closest Boaraithm. It shrunk to a smaller size, but this time, there were two of them scurrying around if the big Boararithm was ignored. Chopper gaped, but Tipral ignored him and snapped his finger to split the enemies into four.

"Oh, geez... Not only is the smaller version faster, but it's worse with four of them!" Chopper gaped.

Tipral did not let Chopper's words bother him as he teleported in between the four small Boararithms and used his Star Burst to destroy them. That left the other Boararithm, so Tipral approached it, but Chopper managed to jump on it first to make it smaller and split it into two. Tipral, getting angry over this, kicked Chopper at one of the Boararithms to split them and shrink them.

"Hey! Why did you do that?!" Chopper exclaimed. "Did you even listen to me before?"

"You were in my way," Tipral noted. "The only way we're going to actually work together is if you don't get in my way when we're fighting enemies."

Chopper quickly got up and kicked the larger Boararithm near him to split it into two smaller ones, which he finished off with a sweeping kick. All that remained was the light orb after Tipral finished the rest. He simply tossed a shadow ball at it, causing a tremor to occur in another area.

"Uh oh... That didn't sound good..." Chopper gulped.

"That tremor didn't sound like the previous ones," Tipral remarked. "We should leave and check what that was."

"Good idea."

They left the area and returned to the door in the previous area. The barrier surrounding it was now gone, which gave them access to the next area. They took no time and quickly entered through the door.

"Well well well! It looks like they finally ventured their way into the inner part of The Void!" a mysterious voice echoed through the area. "And with only two of them, surely things will be dangerous – especially with all the obstacles ahead! Oh, they will be trapped like a puppy surrounded by small cans of food! But in order to fully complete my plan, I need them out of the way first!"

The voice paused, as if it knew there was someone watching. "Oh, and attention to you people reading this like a bunch of lazy, unemployed workers. I have a favor to ask you. Will you not tell those two of my existence? For those of you who refuse, a small price you will have to pay. …A price that has to do with being my slave for all eternity! Follow them, and don't let them spot you. I must get them at the right moment. Ciao!"

* * *

**Next area-**

When Chopper and Tipral walked out of the door, the first thing they were greeted was a Dark Skelloknight in the center of the area, and on the platform, there was a Dark Wizrim grinning at them. There were also a couple of old pillars around as well.

"So... It looks like we have some welcomed guests!" the Dark Wizrim hissed. "Why don't we show them around?"

"Of course," the Dark Skelloknight readied its large sword and came charging at the two.

"Hmph... You pathetic weaklings again? Please... We've already fought you enough times." Tipral scoffed, readying his Star powers. "Oh well. I could always crush another one of Shade's minions!"

Tipral jumped in the air and fired a Star Spear at the Dark Skelloknight to destroy its armor and leave it vulnerable. He then proceed to jump on its head a couple of times and leave it no chance to attack. Chopper couldn't help but watch him pummel down the Dark Skelloknight, but he had problems as well.

"Don't think you're gonna be going so easily," the Dark Wizrim warned, appearing in front of Chopper, who recoiled. "There's a reason why I'm even here in the first place!"

The Dark Wizrim swung its scythe wand at Chopper, who ducked by flattening himself, which helped him avoid the weapon. He then jumped on the Dark Wizrim's head with a light jump and kicked it over by the Dark Skelloknight.

"_I think I might have an idea," _Chopper thought, jumping in between the Dark Skelloknight and the Dark Wizrim. Tipral stopped fighting the Dark Skelloknight and made it bring its attention to Chopper instead.

The Dark Skelloknight lunged forward and tried to hit Chopper, while the Dark Wizrim swung its weapon at him at the same time. He had just enough time to jump and let both enemies hit each other instead. Both took a large amount of damage and allowed both Chopper and Tipral to jump on them to defeat them.

"Yeah! We defeated them!" Chopper cheered. "And it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!"

"Don't get too excited just yet," Tipral noted, approaching the door nearby. "Apparently this door is locked."

"Oh... Well that stinks. Do you have any ideas?"

Tipral looked at one of the pillars and knocked one over with a Star Punch. All that was revealed in the pillar was a Max Shroom Shake. Tipral took it anyway and put it away, while he smashed the other pillar, only to find a Dark Skello hiding in it.

"Oh... Uhh..." the Dark Skello blinked before it got up and aimed its spear at the two. "Yer goin' down! Taste my spear!"

It was about to jab at Tipral, but he grabbed its spear and threw it to the side. Despite being freaked out, the Dark Skello took out another, so Tipral snapped his finger and destroyed the Dark Skello with Star Magic. He then kicked the third pillar and knocked it over, revealing a Void Key.

Tipral picked up the key and walked over to the door just up ahead. Once the lock was off, they proceeded into the next area and found the road to be flat – until they noticed the ground curved up to the wall ahead. Not to mention there were Darklings with purple eyes and purple bulbs on their antenna that had black spikes. Also, their hands were more like claws by being long and pointy.

"Well, look what we've found!" one Darkling hissed. "That pale green boy looksss ssso familiar!"

"Oh, yesss! Why don't we help him out?" the second Darkling suggested.

"Ooh... That'sss a good idea!"

The two Darklings flew Chopper's way, but he and Tipral started moving and quickly went past the two Darklings, causing them to spin around. They were left dazed and confused as they watched the two make their way up ahead. Nevertheless, they faded away and caught the two before they could go up the wall.

"Where do you think you're going, kid?!" the first Darkling exclaimed.

"We didn't have a chance to sssee much of you!"

"See me? ...Hold on, aren't you those Darklings from Dark Subspace World?!" Chopper gaped. "Oh, geez..."

"Ssso nice of you to figure out! And now, we ssshall make you pay for what you did!"

Both Darklings fired their spells Chopper's way, who shrieked and jumped on top of one of them. Tipral did the same thing, except he slammed his fists on the other Darkling to leave it in severe pain. Unfortunately, his Star powers were not enough to defeat them so easily.

"Hmph... I guess these things are a lot stronger than I thought..." Tipral trailed.

"That'sss right! And there are more than jussst usss here!" one of the Darklings cackled.

Chopper bounced off the Darkling he was on and hurled a light ball down at it, causing its eyes to widen in pain as light started to envelop from its body. When it was fully enveloped by the light, it was destroyed, leaving the other Darkling surprised. But it attacked anyway until Tipral kicked it and got destroyed by another light ball.

"Looks like light power can destroy these guys easily," Chopper smiled. "I'm actually relieved to have this power, when I think about it more."

"Honestly, you don't have to tell me. I just wanna get a move on right now." Tipral stated.

Chopper shrugged and charged up a Speed Dash to take off and go up the wall. But what he didn't expect was a dark glowing barrier that got in his way and made him fall back down.

"What the heck?! Those looked like those glowing platforms from cyberspace!"

Tipral decided to skate up the wall to see himself, but he didn't expect the barrier to appear so quickly in front of him. He bumped into it and fell down near Chopper, who was already up.

"The only way we'll actually get through that is if we stop time," Tipral noted. "I guess I'm going to have to do that, but we have to be quick. It _won't_ last forever, you know."

"Yes, I know," Chopper nodded before Tipral stopped time for the exception of them. Chopper charged his Speed Dash again and took off without the barrier getting in his way. Tipral followed him up the wall and noticed the wall curve up underneath a path, making them move upside down instead.

But they had to jump off because there were spikes facing them. They were surprised to land on a glowing dark platform that seemed to be slowly moving to the left and leading to a spring pointing to the upper right.

"Well, this might be helpful," Chopper smiled, despite seeing a black Vironoid with purple eyes appear out of a small portal and land in front of them. It was certainly bigger than previous Vironoids, that's for sure. But a powerful kick to its face by Tipral's foot was able to knock it off.

They were about to relax for a moment, but the Void Vironoid managed to latch onto the platform from below with its spider-like legs and climbed back up to them. Chopper decided to throw an ice ball to leave it frozen, and when Tipral teleported above it, he slammed his fists on its face and disintegrated it, making it drop a Thunder Shield item, which could prevent them from taking damage from electricity.

"This should help us!" Chopper smiled, picking up the item and noticing the spring getting closer. "OK, we should jump right now."

They used the spring to launch themselves up to the path to discover a Void Vironoid attacking a Dark Skello. The undead creature wasn't doing such a good job at defending against it, but it was certainly putting up a fight. The Void Vironoid was swiping its sharp legs at the Dark Skello, and it was using its spear to block its attacks. But the two had a feeling that the Void Vironoid would win.

But when they approached them, they stopped fighting and went after them instead. Chopper was able to knock the Dark Skello away by striking the ground near it with light energy. Tipral grabbed a hold of one of the Void Vironoid's legs and then hurled a shadow ball into its face. While it was trying to shake itself back together, Tipral defeated it by teleporting in front of it and using his Star Burst.

"Pathetic," Tipral scoffed.

Chopper defeated the Dark Skello by simply inhaling the thrown spear and spitting it back at it. "OK, they're out of the way! Let's get going!"

They headed over to the door ahead and ran into another small area with two Darklings firing their dark magic at them right away. They both got hit by the attack, with Chopper falling asleep and Tipral becoming paralyzed.

"Gnnnnngh! I can't move!" Tipral grunted. "What kind of effect does this magic have?!"

"Our magic can have any effect!" one Darkling cackled. "It'sss ssso niccce!"

Tipral growled as he tried fighting off the paralysis. The Darklings knew he was ticked, especially since a light purple glow was around him. "I swear, I'm going to murder you two!"

The Darklings didn't look at all threatened, but they decided to turn to the sleeping Chopper. Since he was not fighting back, they decided to hurl their spells at him. This work him up and left him with a burn.

"Ow!" Chopper cried. "Am I burning right now?!"

"Just shut up and get rid of them!" Tipral hissed.

Chopper blinked before turning to the two Darklings. He tossed a fireball at one and an ice ball at the other. He then dashed over to them and performed a light spinning kick, which made them explode from the light. Tipral also managed to break out of the paralysis.

"You know, that Thunder Shield item could've came in handy there," Tipral noted. "But it's too late for that."

"Yeah," Chopper nodded as he looked back ahead. "Say... Where's the door? I see a wall here..."

"Then check in 3-D."

He flipped into 3-D and noticed something strange that he noticed. There was a light purple rift torn through the wall that gave off a chilly feeling when Chopper approached it.

"Hmmmm? What's this?"

"What do you see?" Tipral asked before Chopper flipped him into 3-D. "Hmmm? A rift in The Void? I suppose with us getting closer, there are some things being torn away around here."

"Well, we might as well go in," Chopper declared as he jumped in. Tipral followed through, which brought them into an area with a long curved purple and black checkered half pipe in a 3-D perspective. Both instantly moved as fast as they could through the half pipe and noticed a couple of bombs in their way.

"Geez! I never expected this! If this was a game, we'd probably be controlled in a 3-D perspective with us moving forward instead! Then again, that's what the narrator said..."

"I don't know what you're talking about, nor do I care," Tipral scoffed, trying to catch up to the Star Warrior. But because they were at equal speed, and Tipral as behind, he was not likely going to get to him. But he didn't focus on him too much, because he was too busy dodging some of the bombs in his way.

But when there were bombs all over the ground, the two were forced to jump over them and then meet up with a Dark Wizrim that flew down and blocked their way. Chopper responded by bringing his fist in front of him while charging up some light energy too. This sent the Dark Wizrim flying away and allowing the two to continue.

"What kind of rift is this anyway?" Chopper wondered, moving over to the right to avoid another bomb. "It feels so...weird."

"I don't know, but I think I see another rift up ahead," Tipral noted, pointing up ahead at the rift ripped open. After jumping over some bombs, they jumped into the rift and were taken into a small area.

"Whoa... Everything's back to normal." Chopper sighed. "That was pretty cool, I'll admit! But sometimes I want to slow down too..."

Up ahead were two Dark Skellos and two Darklings over by the door fighting each other. Of course, they heard Chopper and Tipral and went after them instead. Chopper jumped on the Darklings with a light jump, while Tipral used his Star Burst on the two Dark Skellos to send them flying away and defeat them.

"That was hardly a challenge," Tipral scoffed.

"Yeah, I agree," Chopper nodded. "Anyway, let's go over to that door ahead."

They walked over to the door and entered it, but they ended up falling through the door and landed over by the open rift. Chopper was left incredibly confused, while Tipral started to ponder.

"Looks like we have one of these puzzles that we need to figure out..." Tipral trailed.

Chopper flipped into 3-D and noticed something odd. There were two pathways, with one to the left and the other to the right. He helped Tipral into 3-D and took the left path into a small area with a light ! block floating above them. Tipral whipped out a shadow ball and fired it up at the block. A door ended up appearing before them, so they headed through...

...Only to be back where they were before.

"Huh?! What's with this puzzle?!" Chopper gaped.

"We should try the other way then," Tipral suggested.

Chopper flipped him and Tipral into 3-D and took the right way instead. When they reached the small area, they noticed a pipe sticking out and a door up ahead. They decided not to risk going into the door and went down the pipe instead.

* * *

**Through the pipe-**

The first thing they were greeted was a dark purple and black shell coming their way. The Void Koopatrol got up after hitting them and began to charge at them with the spike on the top of its helmet. While it was left open, Tipral knocked it over onto its back with a Star Punch, and then Chopper jumped on its belly to defeat it easily. With a Void Koopatrol having no defense when flipped over, attacking it then was not so hard.

"I think this is some kind of tunnel," Chopper noted as he prepared to run ahead, but he recoiled when he saw something strike the ground near him. "Whoa! What just hit the ground?!"

"It looks like there are Void Thwomps here," Tipral noted, looking at the dark purple Thwomp with purple eyes. "And since they're moving fast, I don't know if running past them would work."

"Then I'll flip," Chopper declared, going into 3-D and running around them. He ran into a Darkling waiting for him at the end of the tunnel-like area and simply jumped on its head to find a dark ! switch on the ground. He threw a light ball back at the Darkling while throwing one at the switch, causing the area to shake a little.

What surprised him was a small little line illuminating on the pathway, so he followed it back to the main area and noticed the line moving up, to the right, down, all the way to the left, up, to the right, and then up to the door.

"I think I know how to get through this," Chopper smirked.

"Yes, I can see that illuminating line on the path," Tipral said as Chopper flipped him into 3-D. "I guess those two other doors were simply decoys. This must be the right way to go."

The followed the illuminated path until they reached the door. After opening it, they were led into an area with a steep hill ahead and another one beside it, but there was a apparently a long string on that side leading down to the bottom for some reason. Nevertheless, they ran down the hill and reached the bottom to run into a dark purple Boomboxer with purple eyes and a black headphones called a Void Boomboxer.

"Oh, great... Not these guys." Chopper sighed, avoiding the sound waves that were being fired his way. About ten of them were being fired at once, and not only that, but the Void Boomboxer spat a musical note out that hit Tipral in the face.

"Unnngh!" Tipral covered his antennas, as if he heard something loud. "That music note is too loud for me!"

Chopper tilted his head in a confused manner while turning to him. "I didn't hear anything..."

But once he got hit by the Void Boomboxer's music note, he heard a loud noise and covered his antennas. "Aaagh! OK! I see what you mean now!"

Tipral shook off the loud sound and jumped on the Void Boomboxer to leave it stunned. Chopper also shook off the loud noise and jumped on its head afterward. But since it had high HP, Tipral had to finish it off by throwing a Star Spear.

With that enemy out of the way, they decided to see what was ahead. The flat ground was short, but they noticed a reel handle going up the steep hill they previously saw before when they went down the other hill. Tipral grabbed it, but then he felt Chopper grab a hold of him, so he shook off the pale green Star Warrior and let him drop.

"There's no way I'm going to let you touch me like that," Tipral said coldly. "You can get up here yourself."

"I was just going to hold you by your foot," Chopper shrugged. "And believe me, I've been through worse."

Tipral ignored Chopper and let the reel handle take him up to the top of the hill. When he let go, it went down to Chopper, who grabbed it and used it to reach Tipral. The first thing they noticed was the large gap between them and the door ahead.

But they also happened to notice a glowing white orb flying high above them. It slowly passed them, and when they got a better look at it, they noticed it was another world The Void had already consumed.

Just thinking about it made Chopper feel a little sad.

"What are you getting so upset about?" Tipral asked emotionlessly.

"Seeing another world get consumed kinda fills me with a bit of sorrow," Chopper explained. "And giving up the final Pure Heart like that... I don't want it to be all in vain."

Tipral suddenly remembered something that he never got to say because he did not want to say it around anyone else. But now that they were the only ones lingering around The Void, he knew this was the perfect time to say it.

"Chopper..."

Chopper looked up at Tipral, wondering what he wants to say to him. "What is it?"

"I never thought you had it in you to give up the Pure Heart like that. You always seemed like an annoying kid when I first joined you back in The Underwhere. However, while going through the Comet of Darkness, you've somehow matured a bit. And seeing you give up the Pure Heart makes you more...respectable."

"Are you saying you have some respect for me after what I've done?"

"You could say that."

"This...is very surprising from you," Chopper realized. "You hated me ever since I first met you, I defeated your parents and Maquano, and I managed to kick your butt a couple of times. And you've hated me for so long...and now you have a some respect for me after what I've done? That's...nothing I'd expect."

"Yes, I know. In all honesty, saying it around your friends would not be such a good idea because it would still linger over them and probably annoy me. I'm hoping you don't do the same thing."

"Well..." Chopper looked back at the gap. "I guess I shouldn't. Anyway, we need to find a way to get over here."

Tipral tossed a Star Spear at the gap and noticed it didn't go further down the deep gap. In fact, they saw a platform flash in front of them for a small moment before fading away. "Looks like we found an answer to that."

Chopper flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D and noticed when one of them hit the gap with a projectile, there was more to the platform than they expected. It actually branched off to the left and then to the right to the door. Chopper kept throwing light balls so they could see the path and eventually reached the door.

Entering the next area, they found a flat ground with a couple of bottomless pits. There was a black Longator with purple eyes between two bottomless pits as well. Past the Void Longator was another Void Boomboxer that didn't happen to notice them.

"Huh... This area feels like one similar one in Castle Tipral..." Chopper trailed. "You know, those Longators?"

"Yes, I would have to agree you with there," Tipral nodded as he tried to get a better look at the door far ahead. "OK, we just need to go through that door. Nothing special."

When Chopper jumped over a pit, the Void Longator stretched its head and tried to hit Chopper, but he was able to stomp on its head easily and perform a stylish move in the air. Tipral followed him and hit the Void Longator with a shadow stomp and then a Star Spear to finish it.

Chopper, wondering if he inhaled one of the Void Boomboxer's projectiles, decided to inhale the music note it shot his way. Upon swallowing it, he gained the Mike ability and used it to destroy the Void Boomboxer instantly with loud noise/terrible singing. Tipral even covered his antennas to avoid hearing him.

"Yeesh... I have such a bad singing voice..." Chopper sighed. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we should move on."

They entered the door, only to come out of the previous door they entered.

"What?! Is this some kind of puzzle again?!"

"This is very strange..." Tipral pondered. "Seeing puzzles like this isn't exactly what I expected."

He looked up and noticed a small rift tear open. Sparkly magic came out and came Chopper's way. Tipral quickly pulled him away and let the magic hit the floor instead.

"What the heck?" Chopper gawked. "Whoa... I guess you really did save me there. But it's strange to see you do this for me..."

"Don't get too used to it. If you were gone, then getting through this place would not be as easy." Tipral noted. "So neither of us can die here."

"Well, this gives me an idea, though," Chopper looked at the rift slowly closing and flipped him and Tipral into 3-D to enter it. To their surprise, they were not in another half pipe. They were just in another flat area that looked a little smaller. There were three light ! blocks above them, though.

However, there was something different about these blocks. They were all flashing, with the first one flashing two times in a second, the middle flashing once and the final one flashing three times in a second. This gave Tipral an idea and hurled shadow balls at the three blocks the same amount of times each one flashed. They felt the area around them shake for a bit before it stopped.

"What do you think happened?" Chopper wondered.

"We should find out," Tipral suggested as Chopper flipped them both into 3-D and jumped through the rift. When they got to the door, another magic sparkle fired out of a rift and hit Tipral from behind.

"Unnngh! Who's firing those?!"

"I'm not so sure..." Chopper trailed. "Though, by the sound of it, it feels like I remember hearing it before..."

"Well it doesn't matter right now. We need to get a move on." Tipral stated as he opened the door and headed through. Chopper followed him through the door as well.

When they came out of the door, they noticed two different paths they could take. The only below had a large bottomless pit with small, square-shaped platforms with the outer part being purple and the inner part being a black color. It almost reminded them of the square pixels they could see in The Void.

The upper path, on the other hand, had black Crystal Bits with purple eyes that were waiting for anything to come by. A black Duplighost with a purple trim and purple eyes was also lurking around as well. There was a loop ahead, but overall, there wasn't too much, but it was certainly an easier way to go.

"I'm not sure which way we should go..." Chopper trailed. "The top path looks easier, but there are more enemies there... But the lower area appears to have no enemies, but the jumps look difficult."

"We'll take the lower path then," Tipral decided. "I don't want to waste my time with those enemies."

Tipral teleported over to the lower path and onto the second platform. Since Chopper couldn't teleport, he had to be careful and jumped on the first platform. While he was quite a fast person, small platforms were certainly not his thing. Tipral wasn't having such a hard time, that's for sure.

Tipral made it to the larger platform that led down to a hill. When Chopper finally crossed the platforms, they headed down and ended up running into a door. A Void Duplighost was certainly waiting for them. It was about to transform, but Tipral delivered a Star Punch that sent it flying toward the void-like wall. Chopper would've used his Mike ability, but Tipral already took care of the enemy.

Nevertheless, they went through the door to find an area filled with many Copy Abilities and a yellow ? block. Inside the block was a Master Shroom that they split to recover 200 HP.

"Wow... Look at all of these abilities!" Chopper gaped. "There are so many of them!"

"And there's another door here," Tipral mentioned. "Just pick an ability so we can get going. We can't stay here forever."

"Yeah, good idea," Chopper jumped over to the Paint ability and decided to use that. "I don't think I used this power in a while... Plus, it's very helpful!"

With the Paint ability in his hands, Chopper Tipral through the door and into the next area. The door they came out of was in mid-air, and it made them land near another door to the left. Dark purple Void Clubbas were sleeping, but their eyes were slightly opened. Also, there was a hill going up.

The Void Clubba got up as the two approached and tried to swing its spiked club at them. Thankfully, they had enough time to recoil and avoid the slow attack.

"At least these guys are slow," Chopper noted as he jumped over to the Void Clubba and covered it in yellow paint, causing it to become paralyzed and take damage from electricity. Tipral delivered a kick to its face, but even then, it still wasn't finished off.

"Great... These guys have a lot of HP." Tipral sighed. "No matter... These guys are slow."

Chopper finished off the Void Clubba by jumping on its head, and then they proceeded over to the hill ahead. There were some dark purple Spiny Tromps coming down their way. Fortunately, Chopper's flipping helped them get past them. The only problem was that there were a couple of holes on the hill that couldn't be seen in 2-D.

"Oh... Well this is nice..."

The holes weren't too easy to avoid, but the Spiny Tromps coming down were also a bit of a problem as well. At the top of the hill were two Darklings and a Dark Skello Bomber that were fighting each other. But when Chopper and Tipral arrived in the scene, they went after them instead. Unfortunately, it didn't take much for them to lose the fight against the two.

"Well, that takes care of that," Tipral stated as he walked over to the door. He was about to open it, but when he touched it, the door wiggled and fell on top of him. Chopper tried to get the door off, but it was too heavy for him.

"Why are there fake doors now?!" Chopper gaped.

When the door got back in position, Tipral was cringing in pain as Chopper helped him up. "A fake door... Then where could the real one be?"

Chopper decided to check in 3-D, but he didn't see any hidden passages around. "Well, there's certainly nothing around here."

"Then that means we have to look back down the hill," Tipral noted. "We were led into a dead end."

They made their way back to the previous door that they were by before and noticed another path. There were skinny platforms that they had to jump across to find another door sitting on a platform.

"This might be the door," Chopper smiled as he entered through, only to come out of the door they passed by. Tipral decided to go through to avoid having to make his way across the platforms.

"Hmph... Looks like both ways are not the way to go." Tipral stated while crossing his arms. "There has to be a way."

They looked back at the Void Spiny Tromps and noticed one was sparkling. An idea sparked in Chopper's head as he tossed a light ball at the Void Spiny Tromp. Surprisingly, it did damage. But when he hit the other Spiny Tromp near it, it didn't do any damage.

"Weird... The sparkling Spiny Tromp can take damage, while the others don't? You find that a bit strange, Tipral?"

"Hmmmmm... Maybe we might have found out where we can go..."

Tipral snapped his finger and hit the sparkling Spiny Tromp with Star Magic to destroy it. A rift portal was left behind, which gave the two an idea to go in. But once they entered it, they noticed something was weird.

They were floating in midair.

"Oh, geez!" Chopper cried. "What happened?!"

Not only that, but they were also moving to the right. It was almost like the half pipe, but this was in a 2-D perspective and almost like a 2-D shooter in a way.

"This must be some strange remains of other worlds here," Tipral deduced. "It's strange, but we have to go through it."

All they could do was forge onward and avoid a couple of bombs called Void Bombs, which, if struck, would leave off a massive explosion. They did their best to avoid the bombs and noticed enemies such as Dark Wizrims come in and try to swing its scythe wand at them.

Chopper dodged its scythe and hurled some light balls at it at a fast pace, while Tipral hurled shadow balls at it. Because of how fast they were throwing their projectiles, the Dark Wizrim didn't have a chance to attack them again. To Chopper, he felt like he could throw projectiles faster while in the air.

Obstacles such as rocks and Void Bombs were continuing to get in their way, so Tipral destroyed one with a Star Spear. Unfortunately, the explosion ended up catching them in it and sent them flying back. Tipral was left annoyed, but he decided to stay calm and avoid the bombs.

"I never would've expected to be an area like this here..." Chopper trailed, dodging a bomb by moving below it. "It's almost like Outer Space in a way... Except we're moving forward without trying to."

Another Dark Wizrim appeared in front of Chopper and tried to slice him, but he managed to get out of the way just in time. Its scythe barely touched his foot, making him left off guard for a moment. Tipral hurled a Star Spear at the Dark Wizrim and knocked it away, which gave Chopper the chance to hurl a couple of light balls and then cover it in white paint to leave it frozen.

He shattered it with a flaming kick and proceeded over to the rift that was up ahead. Tipral followed him through into a long area with a door up ahead. They were surprised to see nothing around.

Well, except for a Dark Skelloknight that was holding its sword near itself on the flat side, as if it were a statue, waiting for the enemy to approach.

"Huh... Well this doesn't seem too bad." Chopper smiled. "Just a Dark Skelloknight! We've seen these guys before, that's for sure!"

When they approached the Dark Skelloknight, it swung its sword back and readied its weapon while putting up its shield. "Halt! You will not be passing through this door!"

"And who's stopping us?"

"I am, you fool..."

"Well, if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get," Tipral declared, cracking his knuckles. "It surprises me that a door leading into here was in the Comet of Darkness..."

"At first, I wasn't sure what it was, but many went in, and some never returned," the Dark Skelloknight explained. "But now that my enemies are here, I can finally accomplish the task I was given by Master Shadow Doom!"

The Dark Skelloknight charged at them with all its might, but it was surprisingly shot by a blast that pierced through its armor and hit its chest. The Dark Skelloknight recoiled and held its chest in pain as it looked up at the two.

"How did you...?"

"Hey, that wasn't me," Chopper answered with a shrug.

"I didn't pull that off either..." Tipral trailed. "I don't think we're the only ones here..."

Maginan and Dark Maginan Troopers began to fly down while firing at the Dark Skelloknight. Chopper ducked to prevent himself from getting hurt, while Tipral gawked at his firing soldiers.

"So, YOU people shot me..." the Dark Skelloknight cringed. "What kind of people are you?!"

"All we know is that you're part of Shade's army," a Dark Maginan said as it landed in front of the armored undead knight and aimed its blaster at its head. "And being minions of Tipral, we don't like that!"

"So you might as well surrender and die!" a Maginan suggested.

"Hmm hmm hmm... There's no way I'm going to surrender this easily!" the Dark Skelloknight used the strength it had to stand up and raise one of its gauntlets, as if it was trying to make Tipral's army stop.

"That undead knight's just raising its arm! Nothin' special!" another Dark Maginan scoffed. "Let's just destroy this guy, huh?"

Maginan Troopers were ready to fire, but they were hit by a dark magic attack coming from a Dark Wizrim that appeared beside the Dark Skelloknight. Several other minions such as Dark Skellos, Dark Wizards and Dark Skellofords appeared and began to fire their weapons.

In the end, it turned out to be a massive battle, and Chopper and Tipral could only watch.

"I can't believe we're seeing a massive battle!" Chopper gaped.

"Well this can give us time to get past them," Tipral stated while crossing his arms. "They're all too busy killing each other, which gives us a chance to get past them easily!"

"But we might get hurt if we go past them!"

"And don't you remember about moving fast? It's not hard with that kind of speed!"

"Oh... Well, I guess we'll give it a try..." Chopper readied a Speed Dash and raced his way past both armies. Unfortunately, one Dark Maginan threw a grenade, and Chopper happened to be near it, which caused him to get sent flying over to the door with his Paint ability knocked away.

"Ack! Come on, not my Paint ability!"

Tipral had no problem getting through both armies. All he had to do was teleport past them, and he was already over by Chopper. The only thing they saw was a Save Block and no yellow ? block. However, in 3-D, Chopper discovered...an Ultra Shroom.

"What? Just an Ultra Shroom?! What a bummer..." Chopper split it into two to recover 50 HP, while Tipral did the same. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing...

"All right, let's get moving," Tipral suggested as he opened the door. Chopper followed him through, wonder what would lie ahead.

* * *

**Through the door-**

While the previous area where the battle took place was rather big, Chopper and Tipral entered an even bigger area. The size of the area could be compared to large areas Chopper had seen such as the top of the castle back by Lineland Road and the big area near the Shrine of the Sages.

"Whoa... This area is huge." Chopper gaped.

"Yes, it is admittedly big," Tipral agreed. "Though, I'm not so sure if this place is safe..."

The dark purple and black floor didn't feel any softer, which made Chopper ponder for a moment. When they took a step away from the door, it ended up disappearing, making Chopper's eyes widen.

"Oh, crud! The door's gone!"

"Then all we can go is move on," Tipral stated as he walked on ahead. "However, I don't see a door around here..."

Chopper decided to follow him, but he didn't have a chance to take enough steps when a loud, booming robotic voice roared through the large area.

_**"****STOP RIGHT THERE!"**_

Tipral stopped and looked around carefully for the dark robotic voice. With the ground shaking violently, he was extra wary, but he didn't have to look around him when he noticed a large dragon-like creature rising from the ground.

It was a black robotic dragon resembling both Dracktail and Arctail with a dark purple underbelly and larger wings and claws. The side of its head had dark spikes, and even its antenna was covered in darkness. And because it was bigger than the two previous dragons, Chopper had no idea how to react.

_**"****WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?! I DEMAND ANSWERS!" **_shouted the large dragon. _**"I AM VOIDTAIL, A CREATOR FROM THE TRIBE OF DARKNESS. I HAVE BEEN SLEEPING IN THIS DARKNESS FOR 1,500 YEARS, AND NOW YOU TWO COME HERE AND WAKE ME UP. YOU ARE FOOLISH TO WALK IN HERE."**_

"We're in your territory?" Tipral questioned. "Well guess what? We're not turning back. We can't even do that anyway because the door's shut."

_**"****THEN YOU TWO ARE TRAPPED HERE. AND THOSE WHO ARE TRAPPED WILL DIE BY MY CLAWS."**_

"You're probably the third dragon I've seen on this adventure," Chopper noted. "To be honest, even if we fight, you're most likely going to lose."

_**"****SO... YOU HAVE BESTED OTHERS LIKE ME?" **_Voidtail questioned.

"That's right."

_**"****SO YOU BESTED MY TWO MECHANICAL SIBLINGS... THEN I SHALL PUNISH YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO THEM! AND I SHALL NOT MAKE THIS EASY FOR YOU!"**_

Voidtail let out a roar as it sunk into the ground, making Chopper's eyes widen a bit, while Tipral was left confused. "Chopper, what is this dragon thing doing?"

"It's getting ready to fly out..." Chopper trailed, getting in a fighting stance. "We better be ready!"

Tipral stepped back as Voidtail flew up into the air while shooting dark fire out of its mouth. They looked up and watched as small fireballs began to rain down from the sky. They took no time and dodged the fire that was raining at a very fast pace, especially since it came from a dragon.

Chopper even tried to get rid of some fireballs with his ice balls, but they didn't seem to be too effective, unfortunately. The only thing he caught was its unknown amount of HP and its Attack of 22.

"Hmph... Well, it's just going to fly away from us?" Tipral asked.

"No, not likely," Chopper shook his head before he saw Voidtail above them flying into the background. "It's flying into the background... I suggest we be careful now..."

When it turned around, it began to fly toward them while opening its mouth. It breathed more fire, which created a large wave of fire that the two barely escaped from. They also had to worry about getting charged at by the dragon as well, which wasn't as easy when it was moving rather fast.

"Not even Arctail did this..." Chopper frowned.

Voidtail then flew to the right and began to drop a couple of bombs on the ground near Chopper and Tipral. They quickly took off and tried to flee from the bombs until Voidtail flew off the borders of the large area.

"Where is he going?" Tipral asked as the dark dragon was out of their sights. "And how is he going to come over here?"

"He's going to...charge straight at us," Chopper gulped, seeing Voidtail charge their way while chomping the ground. "But I do believe I have a solution to this!"

Chopper flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D and stepped aside to allow Voidtail to pass them. With its back exposed, they jumped on the robotic dragon and hitched a ride up into the dark skies.

"So we're hitching a ride on this dragon's back? Very interesting..." Tipral mused. "So we're supposed to hit that antenna, huh?"

Chopper gave him a nod and prepared to fight against the black Voidles that appeared on Voidtail's back. They were shooting small, round dark projectiles out of their beak mouths, but the difference between the Arcles and the Voidles was that these shots were homing.

"Uh oh... Their shots are homing!" Chopper gaped, dodging one of the shots that went past him. Thankfully, they didn't turn around and follow him, which was a relief.

Tipral made his way over to Voidtail's head while knocking away a couple of Voidles with some Star Kicks. The first thing he did was hurl a shadow ball at Voidtail's antenna, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

"Great... That doesn't work." Tipral grunted.

"Maybe you shouldn't use any attack involving darkness," Chopper suggested, which made Tipral fire a Star Spear at Voidtail's antenna instead. The results were Voidtail screaming in pain from the attack.

_**"****NO... NOT THERE!"**_

"It looks like someone can't handle an attack to the antenna!" Tipral said as he snapped his finger and hurt Voidtail with Star Magic. Voidtail howled out in pain again and decided to spin its entire body to shake them off.

_**"****YOU SHALL FALL!"**_

Both Chopper and Tipral jumped at the right moment before they could end up falling. This allowed them to stay on Voidtail's back and deliver more attacks. Chopper even threw a rainbow and light ball to make Voidtail scream again.

"I know I had to hit Dracktail three time to make it go in a loop, and for Arctail, it was ten..." Chopper pondered. "I wonder what it is for Voidtail?"

"That's not important. What's more important is destroying this thing!" Tipral prepared another Star Spear, but he got shot by one of the Voidle's projectile. Chopper also got hit by one, which made him throw a fireball to knock away a Voidle. Tipral, however, grabbed one Voidle and threw it at Voidtail's antenna. Chopper would've questioned how he did it, but he decided to go back to throwing light balls at Voidtail's antenna.

After ten hits, Voidtail couldn't take it anymore. _**"THE PAIN... YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!"**_

Voidtail began to perform a loop to get Chopper and Tipral off. Chopper, having experienced something like this, did his best not to fall off. When they couldn't get further on Voidtail's back, Chopper jumped off its tail and ended up landing on its antenna, which made it screech in pain. Tipral simply teleported over to Chopper.

"So this is all it's going to do?" Tipral wondered. "If so, that's a bit pathetic for a robotic dragon. Especially for one that is supposedly stronger than its brothers!"

Voidtail responded by turning its entire body upside down to make them fall. But the two were able to jump in time and land on its underbelly instead. Voidtail looked down at them in frustration.

_**"****YOU TWO ARE VERY STUBBORN TO STAY ON," **_Voidtail commented before shooting a purple projectile out of its mouth. _**"BUT YOU CANNOT HOLD ON FOREVER."**_

Chopper tried to block the attack by throwing a light ball, but Voidtail's attack was bigger, so the light ball did nothing and ended up knocking Chopper back. Voidtail took this as an opportunity to turning its body again, so it did just that. But to its disappointment, Chopper and Tipral were still on.

Tipral grabbed a hold of Chopper and tossed him up to Voidtail's antenna. His light punch was enough to harm Voidtail, but Chopper also managed to deliver a couple of jumps to its antenna. Tipral teleported up as Chopper finished and stomped on its antenna with Star energy.

_**"****ARRRRGH! I HAD ENOUGH!" **_Voidtail flew downward and started to go into the ground below. Since Chopper and Tipral couldn't hold on then, they jumped off and landed on the ground, wondering where Voidtail could remerge.

"This dragon isn't as strong as it said it was," Tipral scoffed. "Well, it'll be its own fault when it ends up meeting its demise."

They noticed the ground shake near them, which gave them the idea to jump back. They were barely able to escape getting harmed by Voidtail, who flew out of the ground while keeping an eye on them. They didn't know, but this robot had one trick up its sleeve.

Instead of flying into the background, Voidtail dove down at the two in an attempt to chomp them. Tipral grabbed Chopper and teleported out of harm's way, letting Voidtail dive back into the ground in the process. It soon rose out of the ground and flew to the right.

"I guess it plans on charging at us," Chopper said, getting ready to flip. "Be ready to get on its back!"

But instead of charging at them, Voidtail stopped and raised the upper part of its body so it could get a better look at the two. It opened its mouth and began to spit dark fireballs at them, which Chopper was able to counter with a couple of charged ice balls, which was more effective than normal ones.

"I don't think Voidtail's going to let us get on its back so easily," Tipral mentioned. "So we're going to have to improvise!"

Tipral snapped his fingers and used his Star Magic on Voidtail's nose. While it didn't do any harm, Voidtail let out a hiss and tried to gobble him up. Tipral teleported out of the way and let Voidtail's head get stuck in the ground.

"Oh! That's not bad at all!" Chopper smiled. "I like that idea!"

"Get on this thing's back quick before it gets its head out of the ground," demanded Tipral while he jumped onto its back. Chopper followed him and landed on Voidtail's back just in time when the robot pulled its head out of the ground. It looked around for the two, but it couldn't find them.

_**"****YOU TWO ARE AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE," **_Voidtail said. _**"YOU ARE NOT VERY HEROIC IF YOU ARE HIDING FROM ME."**_

It flew up in the air and tried to scan for the two, but it realized where they were when it felt pain from its antenna. Voidtail turned its head and saw Tipral firing a Star Spear straight at its antenna. It certainly wasn't going to let itself get hurt so easily.

Voidtail used its claw and let it take the hit instead. It then opened its mouth and began to breathe dark flames upon Tipral and Chopper, leaving them with a nasty burn while getting hit by some of the Voidles.

"Grrgh... Are you asking me to push myself to a greater limit?!" Tipral hissed, clenching his fists in anger.

"Tipral, we're not going to get anywhere if we decide to yell at it," Chopper noted. "We need to just stay calm and take Voidtail down."

Tipral was hesitant at first, but he agreed and began to fire Star Spears at Voidtail's antenna, while Chopper hurled some light balls. Voidtail decided to fly in another loop to get them off, but Chopper and Tipral knew its strategy and managed to land on Voidtail's antenna together after jumping off its tail.

_**"****YOU TWO REFUSE TO GET OFF MY BACK. NOW I WILL MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO STAY ON!"**_

"Just try," Tipral scoffed as he and Chopper landed on its head. "You'll just try and try, but you're not going to get us off."

_**"****THEN I WILL HAVE TO RESORT TO THIS," **_Voidtail turned its head and started shooting dark fireballs at the two while using its claws to swipe them off. Chopper ducked like a pancake under the claws, while Tipral put up an invisible box that protected them from the fire.

"Hmmmm... Maybe I have something I should also show you!" Tipral clenched his fists and swung them back. "Star Rain!"

Star energy shaped like small spears began to rain down from the sky and ended up hitting Voidtail's antenna a couple of times. Chopper ran up to Tipral, who threw him up to Voidtail's antenna and deliver a light kick. Voidtail screeched and began to spin its body around.

"That's your idea of trying to get us off? Please..." Tipral scoffed as he used his dark shoes to hover in midair, while Chopper grabbed a hold of Voidtail's antenna. The robot dragon tried to shake its head violently to get Chopper off, but it wasn't doing that good of a job.

"Uuuwaahhh!" Chopper cried, being left dazed when Voidtail ended up giving up. But since they attacked its antenna about forty times, Chopper realized that they needed to throw ten more attacks to take it down.

And since he was holding on to the antenna, he could probably take it down easily!

But before he could attack, he saw a Voidle flying his way, causing him to get knocked off Voidtail's antenna and land on the dragon's nose. But Voidtail was too busy screaming in pain to deal with Chopper.

"This should finish you off," Tipral declared, snapping his fingers a couple of times and letting multiple Star Magic attacks hit Voidtail's antenna nine more times. Chopper expected it to be defeated, but it didn't appear to be.

"Oh... I guess it's not finished..." Chopper gulped, suddenly getting shaken off by Voidtail. Tipral tried to get to him, but Voidtail spun its body around and made him fall to the ground.

Chopper ended up landing on the ground face first, while Tipral was able to land on his two feet. Voidtail even flew down and stopped near them so it could raise its head and ready itself to attack. It started off by opening its mouth and charging up a fireball, which gave Chopper an idea of his own.

"Maybe this could work," Chopper said as he charged up an ice ball.

"Chopper, it's probably not going to do much harm," Tipral noted. "That's dark fire, and it's much different than normal fire."

"My ice attacks did something to the other fireballs, though."

"That's because they weren't massive like this one."

"Hmmmm... Then I have an idea!" Chopper charged up a light ball and combined it with the ice ball. With them combined, he fired them at Voidtail's mouth. With ice and light combined, Voidtail couldn't take the attack, and its charged up fireball was gone as well. It also did damage to its systems as well.

_**"****BZZZZZZZZZRT!**_"

"Ha HA! That worked!" With Voidtail's head crashed onto the ground, they took this chance to jump on its head again and deliver pain to its antenna. Tipral started hurling Star Spears, while Chopper was hurling his elemental hand attack. They even worked together by combining a light ball and shadow ball and threw it at Voidtail's antenna for their tenth hit.

From those hits, Voidtail quickly raised its head and tried to shake it to knock the two off, but it wasn't doing such a good job at it. It's claws, however, were able to at least get a good hit on both of them.

_**"****IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT ELSE I CAN DO, THEN WATCH THIS!" **_Voidtail's tail struck the Voidles on its back and made them surrounded in electricity. Chopper accidentally touched one and got a bad shock.

"Ouch... Well, we're not hitting them physically." Chopper started hurling fireballs at the Voidles while Voidtail flew up. This time, it decided to fly upside down so it could make the two fall. The Voidles didn't even fall and were stuck on Voidtail's back as if they were magnets.

But Tipral wasn't going to let himself fall so easily. He grabbed a hold of Voidtail's back and tried to keep a hold of it. He saw Chopper fall, so he grabbed a hold of his arm and tried to pull him up. However, it was not exactly easy either.

"Oh, geez... I can't believe what we're in right now!" Chopper sweat dropped. "Are you going to be able to get closer, Tipral?"

"Not likely," Tipral grunted. "I'm holding onto you, while I'm holding onto Voidtail. How is it possible for me to move?!"

Chopper pondered for a second until he turned to the Voidles. Some were firing projectiles at them, so he started throwing light balls to get rid of them. He then turned back to Voidtail's antenna and started hurling light balls with his free hand. It seemed to be doing the trick.

_**"****YOU TWO ARE STILL ON?!" **_roared Voidtail.

Chopper fired one last light ball at Voidtail's antenna, causing it to fly right-side up again. Chopper and Tipral were back on their feet, and they were ready to finish this fight once and for all.

The Star Warrior started off by grabbing Tipral's arms, and then he started to swing him around, which knocked away the Voidles that were approaching them. He released Tipral, who struck Voidtail's antenna about six times. Once he landed, Chopper fired a light and rainbow ball at its antenna. At this point, sparks were flying around Voidtail.

_**"****AAARGHHH... SYSTEMS...MALFUNCTIONING!**_

"This is the end for you, Voidtail," Tipral declared, clenching his fists, which were surrounded in Star energy. "_**Star Rain!**_"

Tipral Star Rain rained down upon Voidtail, and its antenna was struck multiple times, which was enough to defeat the dragon.

_**"****AAAAARGH! I'M FINISHED!" **_Voidtail cried. _**"I DON'T BELIEVE IT. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO BEST ME? WHO ARE YOU TWO?"**_

"I'm Tipral, a prototype of an Ultimate Life Form," Tipral answered.

"And I'm Chopper the Star Warrior of Planet Clara, and I'm also the hero of the Light Prognosticus!"

_**"****SO YOU TWO ARE NOT JUST ORDINARY PEOPLE... VERY WELL... I ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ABILITY. I WILL LET YOU MOVE ON FROM HERE. BUT BE WARNED. I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS CREATED BY THOSE ANCIENTS! THERE IS ANOTHER. ONE WHO IS MUCH STRONGER THAN ME AND WITH MORE ABILITIES. YOU BEST BE WARNED." **_

"Wait... Who is this other being created by the ancients?!" exclaimed Chopper.

_**"****THAT YOU WILL FIND OUT YOURSELF. FOR NOW, I WILL TELL YOU NO MORE."**_

Voidtail let out a scream as its back began to explode and reveal it dark, bony spiny from underneath. Chopper wasn't so surprised. He already saw the previous two dragons with a bony spine. It also split apart and fell from the sky.

"Let's not waste any time," Tipral suggested. "We should get off."

Chopper nodded and jumped off Voidtail's head with Tipral before its head could explode. Once they landed on the ground, they happened to see a Voidle fall in the background, which was another reminder of the other two dragons.

Up ahead, a door was drawn and colored purple and black, which gave them the idea that Voidtail made the door appear before its death. The two approached the door and noticed some remains of Voidtail fall behind them.

"Let's hope that'll be the last we ever have to run into another one of those guys..." Chopper hoped. "That was the third one I faced!"

"I highly doubt we'll run into more of those," Tipral said. "Anyway, we should move on."

"Hold on... What do you think Voidtail was saying when he spoke about another being created by the ancients? That sounds kind of dangerous..."

"I wouldn't worry about it."

They opened the door and found themselves on a small platform with a yellow ? block next to them. Chopper struck it and found the Parasol ability. He gained the ability and looked below the platform. There were apparently some Void Waddle Doos floating downward with their own parasols. Also, there were a couple of Void Bombs around too.

"Oh, geez... This looks dangerous..." Chopper gulped. "But I guess I can descend slowly..."

He jumped off the platform and used his parasol to slowly float downward while avoiding some of the Void Bombs. Tipral decided to descend on his own by using his dark shoes, which helped him float down slowly.

"Wow, you seriously have a lot of things similar to me," Chopper gaped. "I guess because we look kinda similar."

"Yes, I will agree with you there," Tipral replied. "You should be aware of your surroundings. Me talking to you might keep you off guard."

Chopper realized this when he found himself near a Void Bomb. He quickly moved out of the way, while Tipral was about to throw a Star Spear at it. However, realizing from last time that the radius of the explosion was big, he decided against it. But he did use his Star powers against the Waddle Doo so they weren't in his way.

They weren't too far from the ground, but the last obstacle in their way were Void Bombs lined up horizontally. They seemed to slowly move as well, and there was only one opening to go through. Chopper managed to descend through the opening, but when Tipral went down, he was a little too close to a bomb, which made them all explode and made him drop to the ground in pain.

Chopper almost got caught in the explosion, but he was able to softly land right by Tipral, who grunted in pain. There was a Void Sir Kibble up ahead that threw its cutter blade their way, but Chopper put up his parasol and blocked the attack before swinging it at the enemy. Tipral got up and finished it off with his Star Magic.

There was a door up ahead, so they took no time and headed through into a flat area with two Dark Skellos that spotted them. The first thing they did was charge their way, but when Chopper jumped on one of them, he ended up phasing through it.

"Huh?! Why did I phase through that enemy?" Chopper gawked.

The Dark Skellos changed at Tipral and ended up going through him. He noticed them slightly flashing when he turned his head to them. "Looks like those aren't real. The Void might be trying to play tricks with us."

"But they look so similar!"

"Then if you don't see them slightly flashing, then that means they aren't real. Try to keep that in mind."

Chopper gave him a nod and scurried on ahead to find a Void Cursya blocking their way. Having dealt with them before, Chopper knew not to make any physical attacks and hurled a light ball to defeat it. Just one hit defeated it. Way too easy!

He smiled as he delivered a punch to a Darkling while his fist was surrounded in light power. Sure, his punches weren't exactly the strongest, but with light power against Darklings like that, it was easily destroyed. He hurled a light ball at another Darkling ahead, but it only phased through it.

"Drat... That wasn't real..."

Chopper prepared to run on ahead, but he noticed something else was strange. There was a small portion of the ground that was flashing too. This gave him the idea that he would simply fall through the ground. He jumped over it, while Tipral performed a teleporting dash in midair to pass it.

The area wasn't too long, but they happened to find a door up ahead that was flashing, so when Tipral tried to open it, his hand phased through the door.

"Hmph... So the door's aren't real either..." Tipral trailed. "Hmmmmm... Then let's try this wall here."

Chopper approached the wall and flipped him and Tipral into 3-D. They saw the left corner flashing. "OK, that was way too easy! Do they really expect us to think that these puzzles are hard?"

The two went through the flashy part of the wall and came across a small area with a flat floor, but when they went into 2-D, the floor was covered in spikes for the exception of a platform a door was on. Unfortunately, that door was flashing as well.

"OK, I guess I stand corrected..."

"Hmmmmm..." Tipral turned around. "I suggest we go through that flashy floor. Maybe we might find something there."

They left the small area and went over to the flashy section of the floor in the larger area. When they fell through, Chopper slowly floated down to a dark crystal that happened to be there. Once he landed, he tossed a light ball at the dark crystal and felt the area shake around them. Whatever was happening, it was occurring somewhere else.

Thankfully, a spring was there to help them, so they used it to launch themselves out of the pit and back on normal ground. They noticed the door up ahead was no longer flashing.

"So that dark crystal made that solid..." Chopper trailed. "Well that was interesting!"

"Let's move on," suggested Tipral while he headed through the door with Chopper. When they entered the next area, they noticed how small it was. There was barely anything in it! Well, except for another torn rift.

"Another torn rift? Man, we're seeing a lot of these!" Chopper gaped as he approached the rift. He and Tipral jumped in, only to find themselves in the same area. Everything around them was completely black, but they were outlined white, while the floor was outlined white too. The area was much longer than before.

"I... I look kind of like you!"

"That rift changed how this area looks. We both look rather similar in a way..." Tipral trailed.

They noticed two Darklings ahead were similar to them as well, but their eyes and their bulb were white along with their outline. They flew after them, but Chopper and Tipral sprang into action and jumped on their heads to take them down.

Chopper tried to flip into 3-D, but when he threw his arms up, he didn't feel himself entering the third dimension. "Huh?! I can't flip in 3-D here!"

"Really? That's odd..." Tipral trailed. "Well, we can't do much around here except for moving on."

They didn't seem to find much around, but they approached a platform and got on it. It slowly ascended upward while there were Void Bats flying around and trying to swoop down and attack. Tipral used his Star Rain to get rid of them and waited until a platform to the right appeared for them to jump on.

Once on the platform, they noticed some some Void Bats flying above them and dropping bombs on them. Thankfully, Chopper's parasol was able to defend them against the bombardment of bombs being flung at them.

"Thank goodness for this parasol..." Chopper sighed.

The platform carried them over to a platform that formed stairs as soon as they stepped on it and made their way up to find a hill going down. They decided not to ask questions and quickly went down, which helped increase their speed. One section of the downward hill stood out, though. It had a light glow to it, which was something no one would expect from a dark world such as The Void.

"Whoa... Look at that!" Chopper gaped as he ran on the light part of the hill. No longer was he black with white outlines, but back to his normal color. "Whoa! This is really weird!"

Tipral skated past it and was normal like Chopper was, but as soon as they passed it, they were back to the previous appearance. "That was strange... Hmmmm... I guess we might find more of these around here."

When they reached the bottom of the hill, there was still no slowing down. They ran past through a couple of speed boosters that increased their speed even more and led them up a curved wall that was glowing as well. Chopper was actually very delighted to be going up a glowing wall for a change considering that bad stuff that happened in The Void.

"I can't believe there's actual LIGHT in The Void!" Chopper gaped. "This is so…unique!"

Above them was a glowing light ring they happened to go through, which launched them up in the air and made them land on a glowing cloud. However, when their feet were not on the cloud, the previous appearance was shown. Nevertheless, Chopper hit the yellow ? block above him and found a Death Shroom, which went off the cloud and over to a spike pit below to the right. And past that pit was another pit, but there were no spikes located there.

"So the Death Shroom isn't affected by spikes…" Tipral trailed. "Well we can take care of it when we go down that pit."

"At least the parasol'll help me," Chopper sighed as he jumped off and began to slowly float past the spike pit and over to the other pit. Tipral performed his teleporting dash and then slowly descended with his dark shoes. Chopper landed first, but the Death Shroom bit him, which took away half of his HP.

"Ack! You've gotta be kidding me!"

Tipral knocked it away and used his Star Spear to destroy it. "You should be careful when there's a Death Shroom around…"

"Ugh… Yeah." Chopper grumbled. "Well, at least the door's here."

They headed through the door and went into the next area to find a white ! switch in front of them. Chopper gave it a good kick, which made the ground around them shake. They noticed a path open up ahead, but it was covered in dark mist. When Chopper approached it, he couldn't go through because of how painful it was, but Tipral was able to walk through it with ease.

"Hmmmm… Well, this doesn't seem to be affecting me." Tipral noticed as he walked over to a white ! block floating above him. With a simple strike, the dark mist near Chopper disappeared, allowing him to get to Tipral. There wasn't much up ahead except for a small portion of the ground having a glow. They stepped on it so Chopper could use his flipping powers to go into 3-D.

He happened to notice a path over to the left corner in 3-D that was not glowing. When Chopper stepped off the glowing section, he noticed a glow around him which was slowly beginning to fade away. The two quickly went over to the path before the glow could fade away. When it did, though, Chopper and Tipral were thrown back into 2-D and were in a long, but small tunnel.

The only thing they had to worry about were the Void Koopa Strikers that were kicking shells around. Tipral kicked one back and hit one of the Koopas, but it did very little damage, so he jumped on one's head to make it retreat back into its shell. He kicked it and knocked it toward two other Void Koopa Strikers in the way. Despite not being defeated, both Void Koopa Strikers kicked some shells their way.

"I've got this!" Chopper declared, using his parasol like a bat and swinging the shells back at the Void Koopa Strikers. Tipral jumped on one of the shells and delivered a Star Punch to one of the Void Koopa Strikers to send it flying to the end of the tunnel. There was a small portion of the background taped up, but when one of the enemies crashed, the tape fell off and a torn rift opened up.

"Another rift? Let's check it out." suggested Tipral, who dashed over to the rift while Chopper followed from behind. They ignored the Void Koopa Strikers and jumped in, despite them going after them. Everything was no longer black around them, and they were also back to normal.

"Whew… That sure was something." Chopper sighed. "Anyway, I don't see much around here except for another long road."

They heard two others jump out of the rift, and when they turned, they saw the two Void Koopa Strikers land and prepare to charge at them. They simply jumped and let them run on ahead.

That is, until something grabbed a hold of them and began to suck the life force out of them. Chopper was left in shock, but Tipral was still left with the angry expression on his face.

"Isn't that…a Metroid?!" Chopper gawked. "What are they doing here?!"

It wasn't just a Metroid, but a black Metroid called a Metroid X. As soon as it finished sucking the life force out of the two Void Koopa Strikers, it recovered some HP and even grew a bit bigger in size. It squeaked when it saw Chopper and Tipral and began to fly toward them. Tipral tried to hit it with a Star Spear, but it hardly did any damage.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper charged up an ice ball after jumping over the Metroid X and hurled it at the alien. It was instantly frozen, which allowed him to perform his spinning kick, which was enough to shatter the alien and destroy it for good. "Ah! Now I remember!"

"What?" Tipral questioned.

"Metroids can't stand ice! I guess my ice powers might come to use here!"

"Then you should be wary of any of those things. It doesn't seem like normal attacks are going to hurt those aliens."

Up ahead, they noticed two doors they could go through. A platform with a small staircase led up to the upper door, while there was a lower staircase that went down the lower section. Most of the time, they would choose the upper path, but they decided to take the lower one instead. That ended up leading them to a pit with a ladder beside them on the platform they were standing on. There were two Metroid Xs flying around in midair too.

Chopper decided to slowly descend down while throwing ice balls at the Metroid Xs. Tipral followed him and punched the frozen Metroid Xs to shatter them and reach the bottom of the area. The only thing they found was a small block lying on the ground. When Chopper picked it up, he cringed in pain when he felt something shoot up into his hands.

"Unnngghhh! What's going on?!" Chopper exclaimed while staring at his hands. He noticed a dark glow around his hands and also saw a slight image of a dark version of him in front of him letting out a cackle before fading away. He threw his hands forward, and a dark blast of energy was fired forward and ripped through the wall ahead. The dark glow around his hands faded away.

"That…was weird… It felt like that dark box thing had some strange dark power in it that seemed a bit temporary. But it was so painful…"

"Let me try it," Tipral picked up the box and felt dark energy drive into him. Unlike Chopper, it didn't feel painful to him, and his hands were surrounded in a dark glow as well.

When a Metroid X flew at him from behind, he swung his fist back and struck the Metroid X. This time, he was using the dark power, and that was certainly enough to take down the Metroid X.

"So… It looks like I was given a little something to help me! Not bad!" Tipral walked over to the ripped wall and noticed something. There happened to be a Void Key lying on the ground. Tipral scooped it up and put it away. "Let's check the other door."

"All right," Chopper nodded.

* * *

**Previous area-**

When they walked out of the door, they noticed a Void Creature that spotted them firing at them. Tipral ended up firing a blast of dark energy at the Void Creature and taking it down with ease. There was also a Void Vironoid, but a Metroid X ended up getting to it first and sucking the life force out of it. Tipral jumped up to the Metroid X and used a dark kick to easily defeat it.

"It looks like that new dark power is coming in handy!" Tipral noticed. "And now I have no problem taking down these aliens."

"Metroids," Chopper corrected.

Tipral jumped over to the upper path and made his way over to the door. Surprisingly, the door wasn't locked, so the two headed through into an area with a couple of broken tanks on the ground. For some reason, the area they were in was almost like a destroyed facility, but all that was left were broken tanks and even some Metroid Xs that were lurking around.

"More Metroids..." Chopper gulped. "You certainly DON'T want these guys to even touch you! I heard they can suck the life out of you!"

A Metroid X perked up and spotted Chopper. It charged at him, which he countered by bringing his parasol in the way. The Metroid X simply snatched it and ate it as if it was a life force. Chopper took this opportunity to freeze it with an ice ball and jump on it to shatter it.

"With all these Metroids around here, it makes me feel like Samus's world was destroyed by The Void..." Chopper realized. "I've never met her personally, but it would've been really cool to see her."

Tipral fired dark energy at two Metroid Xs to wipe them out and noticed some remains of enemies they've seen before around. There were Void Koopatrols with their life force completely drained, as well as some Dark Skellos. They were practically lifeless!

"Wow... I don't know what was with those Metroids..." Chopper gaped. "Look at what they did with these enemies!"

Tipral decided to take a good look at them for a minute. They didn't seem like that was the only thing that happened to them. In fact, some Dark Skellos were missing a few arms and legs, and their spears were split in half.

"Hmmmmmm... It seems like those Metroids weren't the only things that were here." Tipral pondered. "I don't think those Metroids could literally tear up those Skellos and destroy most of a Koopatrol's armor."

Chopper took a look himself, and a sudden feeling of horror was in his eyes. Could there have been something much more dangerous lurking around? It may not be the size of Voidtail, but it could be something more dangerous...

Nevertheless, they progressed ahead and saw a long pit of dark toxic substance. Tipral simply used his dark shoes to make his way across while taking Chopper across. They were met with a Dark Skelloknight by a locked door that had its shield smashed and its sword sliced in half. Even most of its armor was torn up!

"Unnghh..." the Dark Skelloknight spotted Chopper and Tipral and tried to stand up. "Y-You..."

Tipral was ready to finish the Dark Skelloknight, but Chopper stood in front of him. "No, Tipral! I think this...whatever he is has suffered enough."

"This Skelloknight is going to attack, so we have the right to attack," Tipral retorted. "So get out of the way!"

"There is no use," the Dark Skelloknight said while limping. "My sword is ruined, and there's not much I can do. But have you seen the monster?"

"What monster?" Chopper asked.

"It is something unlike anything I've seen. It's been wandering around this area with those strange alien creatures, but instead of sucking the life out of things, it just tore them apart! It was even strong enough to break through my armor and destroy my sword. That's how deadly the monster is."

"Well, we can't do much, so we should be going," Tipral said as he took out the Void Key. "There's no point in helping."

"Tipral, this guy may not be on our side, but is it right to just leave it here to die?" Chopper guffawed.

"No, leave me here," the Dark Skelloknight suggested. "I'm already in pain, and it's better that you go on ahead. Truth be told, I kind of want to return to The Underwhere. I can finally rest in peace there. And I certainly don't want to waste your time, considering that you're doing something yourself."

Chopper stared at him with a surprised look for a couple of seconds. "Wow... A lot of enemies we've faced have simply attacked us, but you... You're actually not too bad."

"Thank you... Now please go. And if you see that monster, don't hold back. That tail of his, however, is the most dangerous part of him."

Chopper nodded before he followed Tipral through the door. All the Dark Skelloknight could do was lie back down and slowly close its eyes, hoping to return to The Underwhere very soon.

* * *

**Next area-**

When Chopper and Tipral walked out of the door, they came across some spikes in front of them that stretched out through most of the area. There were also Dark Skello Bombers flying around and throwing their heads down. Chopper hurled a light ball to defeat one with ease. With them out of the way, Chopper and Tipral looked at the spikes carefully.

"Hmmmm… Maybe there might be a secret here?" Chopper wondered. "That might be a possibility…"

He flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D to discover a secret path among the spikes. However, it was small, so they had to be careful. It didn't help that some Dark Skello Bombers up ahead could also go into 3-D. What a bummer.

Nevertheless, they got past through the path by going up, to the right, up some more, etc. When they flipped back into 2-D past the spikes, they found some dark, toxic gas nearby, which Chopper was unable to get through. Tipral, on the other hand, was able to do it with ease with the help of his dark shoes. But he felt something in his way. He placed his hand on the invisible wall that he happened to feel.

"What's this? There's something strange here…" Tipral trailed.

Chopper wanted to see what it was, but he couldn't, so he went into 3-D to see what it was. "Oh! Tipral! I can see some kind of wall in the way! All you have to do is jump, since it doesn't completely block your way!"

Tipral listened to Chopper and jumped over the invisible wall and landed on solid dark ground. There was a door up ahead, and also two Dark Skellos and a Spiky Dark Skello over by the door snickering and cracking stupid jokes. Needless to say, Tipral was certainly not amused.

But there was something he noticed above him. There happened to be a light ! block when he looked up. Unsure of what it would do, he tossed a shadow ball at it, and suddenly Chopper was teleported over to Tipral.

"Whoa… Thanks for teleporting me here!" Chopper gaped. "Usually you're not able to teleport others from a distance like that!"

"That wasn't me…" Tipral trailed.

Chopper paused for a moment. "Wait… Then who did?"

"It doesn't matter anyway. What matters is that we get past those three enemies that are blocking the way."

When the three enemies heard them, they turned their heads and quickly got in their fighting stances, with the Dark Spiky Skello in front. "Well well well! What do we have here? Yer the people that Master Shadow Doom hates so much! It's so nice to see you two here!"

"Don't get too excited," Tipral replied. "Your leader is dead. He ended his game when he tried to end ours."

"Wait, _what?!_" one Dark Skello gaped. "Ya mean our leader's finished?!"

"Yes," Chopper nodded. "You might as well give up now."

"Wait, you except us to give up so easily?" the Dark Spiky Skello aimed its spear toward the two. "Well think again, punks! We'll show you no mercy!"

They charged at them, but they stopped for a moment when they fell over in pain when they felt like something pierced through them. Chopper and Tipral were left confused, but they noticed dark lightning strike down on the three enemies and turn them into a dark purple color. Their spears both had points on both ends as they got up and spun their weapons.

"So… This is how some of the enemies have become…that." Chopper gaped. "That's a bit surprising."

The Void Skellobits let out battle cries as they charged at them. Chopper tossed a couple of light balls at them, while Tipral snapped his finger a couple of times to hit them with Star Magic. However, Chopper ended up getting hit by one of their spears, and one even threw a spear at Tipral.

"Ugh… Things aren't looking too good here." Chopper gulped. "I mean, I lost half of my HP so far, and from this damage, I don't know how long I'm going to last!"

"Then use one of the Shroom Shakes to heal yourself," Tipral suggested. "Then you won't have to worry about a game over."

Chopper agreed, but they still had to worry about the Void Skellobits first. Tipral teleported to them and used his Star Burst to finish them off, and then they proceeded over to the door, with Chopper using an Ultra Shroom Shake to recover 50 HP.

"You know, I'm still wondering how I got teleported over here…"

"It's not important. Let's just go."

They finally entered through the door, but unfortunately, they did not happen to know that they were being watched on their way through.

"My my, it looks like my plan is going smoothly," a mysterious voice whispered. "Oh, that block was just a little present for you to keep going, Chopper. Ah ha ha ha. Once I set my eyes on them like a cat stalking its prey, I knew they would indeed be tough foes… I shall continue to follow them and see what they are capable of performing!"

* * *

**Next area-**

Chopper and Tipral walked out of the door onto a platform, but the only thing they saw was a glowing yellow platform near them. They simply jumped on it to create a couple of more glowing platforms that led upward.

"Well, looks like this is all there is here," Chopper shrugged.

"Then let's move on," suggested Tipral.

But when they went up the platforms, there were some Darklings that appeared and tried to attack. Chopper hurled some light balls and took care of them. But that wasn't the only thing occurring. Below the supposed bottomless pit was an actual ground, and there was certainly more going on down there than what they expected.

It was a battle between the Maginans and Shade's army.

"Get those missile rollin' Demolition Maginan!" a Dark Maginan shouted. "If we don't get any explosives in here, we're goin' to get screwed!"

"I'm on it!" the Demolition Maginan, which carried explosives and had a bandoleer with grenades, took out a missile launcher and fired at some Shadow Wizards, Dark Wizards and even Dark Wizrims. Many were sent flying, and even Skello body parts hit parts of the platforms Chopper and Tipral were on.

"Whoa... This is definitely not a safe area to be in!" Chopper gulped. "Why are they fighting?!"

"My minions don't like Shade's army," Tipral explained. "Since Dark hates Shade, it's only fair to allow our minions to fight them. Besides, I think they were getting in the way anyway."

"Medics! Quit your whinin' and go help those Maginans in need of assistance!" the Dark Maginan shouted again, making the medics go out and help the ones that were injured. Most of Shade's army could not handle the blasts and explosions the Maginans fired at them, but some of them were able to harm Tipral's army.

"Yeesh! That looks so intense!" Chopper gaped.

"Keep it down, Chopper!" Tipral shushed. "While they are fighting Shade's army, they're still after you!"

Chopper realized this and nodded to him before going up the platforms and to the top one. A door happened to be there, and two Void Skellobits were in the way, ready to charge at them. There was also one Metroid X that was floating around as well, so Tipral destroyed it easily with his dark power, while Chopper started hurling light balls at the Void Skellobits. Chopper even charged up a light ball and threw it at the enemies to take care of them.

With that out of the way, they carried on through the door into a small area with a couple of pillars around them. There wasn't a door to be seen, but there was certainly something else that was in the room. Four Dark Skelloknights were standing like statues with their swords pointing upward. Chopper's eyes widened in shock, while Tipral was left unfazed.

"Whoa... I don't think we fought four of them at once!" Chopper gaped.

"I think they'll each attack if we get closer to each of them, so as long as we fight only one at a time, things won't be as difficult," Tipral informed.

Chopper agreed and slowly began to approach the first Dark Skelloknight. It took notice of him and began to slowly make its way over to Chopper. However, the other three Dark Skelloknights noticed its companion going, so they followed it as well, which made Chopper left with a puzzled look.

"Ack! Now they're all after us!" Chopper shrieked.

"Don't get too cowardly, Chopper," Tipral snapped. "I think I have an idea to take them all down."

He summoned his Star Rain to destroy the four Dark Skelloknights' armor, leaving them completely vulnerable. But Tipral wasn't finished just yet. He clenched his fists and was surrounded in a light purple glow. Even though the Dark Skelloknights were quicker without their armor, that left them open for any attack, especially a Star Blast coming from Tipral.

Chopper, knowing that the attack was dangerous, got on the floor away from Tipral and covered his head as Tipral unleashed his Star Blast upon the four Dark Skelloknights. It didn't destroy them completely, but they were left with very little HP. Chopper even got a little hurt by the blast radius.

"So they're not finished yet. Well, then I should just finish them off one by one." Tipral snapped his finger and let his Star Magic hit the four Dark Skelloknights and defeat them. Some ended up dropping Ultimate Shroom Shakes, but behind some of the pillars that were destroyed, there was a Max Shroom Shake and also a blue ! Switch. The switch ended up creating a door up ahead.

The only thing they were led into was a small area with a Save Block, a yellow ? block, and three abilities such as Mirror, Plasma, and Tornado. Chopper decided to go with Mirror, since it was an ability he never got to use in a while. The yellow ? block contained a Star Shroom, so they split it to recover 150 HP.

Another thing they noticed were a couple of dead Void Creatures on the ground that had their armor torn up from something. Chopper seemed a bit disturbed by this, and the thoughts of the dangerous monster returned to his head.

"Oh, geez... I don't like this one bit." Chopper shivered as he hit the Save Block.

"Don't worry too much," Tipral suggested. "If this monster appears, we can take it."

Chopper let out a sigh as they headed into the next area, which was rather large in size. It wasn't as big as the area where they fought Voidtail, but it was quite an interesting place, especially with the two panels that were in the center. One was black while the other was pale green.

"Panels... Let's go take a look at them." Chopper suggested, walking ahead and stepping on the pale green panel. Tipral stepped on the black one, and suddenly, the ground around them began to ascend upward into the sky. "What's going on here?!"

"Hmph... Well, looks like we're going to be heading up. Interesting..." Tipral commented as he looked down at the floor. The dark floor seemed to give off a reflection of his own face, which he could see very easily. Chopper even looked down at his reflection and decided to make a stupid-looking face. However, there was something else in his reflection as well.

Purple glowing eyes.

"Huh? What's that?" Chopper gawked as he looked up and heard a loud howl from above. A black pterodactyl monster with spiky shoulders, a tail with a jagged edge and jagged wings was flying their direction. However, something seemed odd about this monster. It's almost if Chopper recognized it.

The monster swooped down after Chopper ducked and ended up missing his attack. When he turned to the two, he spread his wings out and let out another roar.

"Isn't that...Ridley?" Chopper gawked. "Last time I ever saw this guy, he was in Hell! But now... Now The Void's darkness has gotten into him... This could be dangerous..."

Ridley, now known as Ridley X, opened its mouth and fired a beam of dark energy their way. Chopper quickly conjured up a mirror and managed to reflect the attack back at Ridley X, which caused him to screech and plummet downward. That is, until he flew back up while in a bit of pain.

"If this monster wants a fight, then we'll give it one," Tipral declared. "This thing doesn't even look remotely scary!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right..." Chopper agreed before turning to Ridley X. "OK, Ridley! Bring it on!"

Ridley X roared and flew over the platform. They noticed he had 580 HP, an Attack of 22 and a Defense of 12. With his long tail, he tried to jab at them, but Chopper and Tipral jumped back, but not far enough to fall off the platform. Tipral fired a Star Spear, but Ridley X dodged it with ease.

"He's a fast flyer, I'll admit," Tipral sighed. "But that won't guarantee victory!"

Ridley X flew slightly up and began to shoot dark fireballs down at them. Chopper put up some barriers, but they quickly shattered and hit the ground. Thankfully, the platform wasn't caught on fire, or else there would be a real problem. But that wasn't all Ridley X was going to do. He swooped down and attempted to grab one of them, but Chopper was able to use his Mirror Shards to hurt Ridley X instead and leave him off guard. This let Tipral deliver a Star Kick to Ridley X's chest, which seemed to be glowing a bit for some reason.

Chopper shot a light ball straight into Ridley X's chest, which made him let out a scream before slamming the platform and causing a shockwave. But since both Chopper and Tipral were on the ground, they were left stunned. Plus, the shockwave hit them as well to leave them off guard even more. This allowed Ridley X to swing his tail and knock them over.

"That thing's tail is pretty long," Chopper realized. "Much longer than I thought!"

Tipral got up first and fired two Star Spears at Ridley X. One struck his chest, while the other ended up hitting his tail, which was good enough. Tipral also teleported when Ridley X swooped down to grab him and then appeared behind him to strike his head with a Star Spear.

Chopper jumped up and watched Ridley X fly back and prepare to charge at them. He flipped into 3-D and move to the right so he wasn't in Ridley X's way. Chopper went back into 2-D as soon as Ridley X flew past the platform to plan his next move against the dragon-like monster.

"So… Have any ideas, Tipral?" Chopper asked.

"No. We just started this fight." Tipral hissed.

Ridley X slammed his whole body on the platform, which started to tilt to the left. Chopper felt himself sliding off, but he tried to stay on by attempting to run to the other side of the platform. While that happened, missiles were fired from Ridley X at Tipral, which sent him flying Chopper's way.

"Missiles? He can shoot missiles?!" Chopper gawked before putting up some barriers. They blocked the missiles, but the barriers were shattered in the process. That didn't stop him from firing some Mirror Shards at the monster, though. Tipral also added in his Star Magic to strike Ridley X twice before the pterodactyl could fly into the background.

The two were left surprised, but there was no time to be acting like that when Ridley X quickly flew their way and then upward as soon as he got close. When Chopper and Tipral looked up, they saw Ridley X flying down directly at them. Tipral responded with his Star Rain, which was enough to send the flying dragon monster crashing onto the platform.

Tipral also fired some dark energy straight into Ridley X's mouth. Since he was used to getting blasted in the mouth, it wasn't all that much of a big deal. He simply grabbed Tipral and slammed him onto the platform, while Chopper was whacking Ridley X with his wand to get him to release him.

Ridley X felt Chopper hitting him, which was doing very little damage to him, so he looked down at the Star Warrior. Instead of grabbing him, he flicked his finger at him to knock him over. He then turned his attention back to Tipral and let out a roar. Tipral was left unfazed. But Ridley X didn't care. He opened his mouth and prepared to eat him, but Tipral's eyes flashed light purple, which caused Ridley X to be get hit by his Star Spark, making him release Tipral.

"Your teeth don't scare me," Tipral scoffed, jumping up to the stunned Ridley X and delivering a Star Punch to his nose. He fell over on his back, and when he got up, his tail was stuck to the platform. He tried to get his tail out, but it didn't seem to work. And since he was too busy trying to pull his tail out, this left him open for a couple of more attacks.

Tipral clenched his fists and fired two Star Spears at Ridley X's chest. This brought his attention back to Tipral and it even made him lunge toward him. Tipral took one step back, which was too far for Ridley X to grab him when he tried to approach him. However, he was not all about brawn anyway. Unlike most monsters, he was quite the intelligent one.

He decided to turn his attention to who he believed to be the weaker one, Chopper. He was still knocked over, and getting a hold of him wouldn't be a bad idea. And he was even close enough for him to reach!

Ridley X grinned and approached the pale green Star Warrior. Chopper slowly got up and saw Ridley X coming his way, making him jump up in surprise and use his Mirror ability to split himself into two clones. When the pterodactyl alien attacked one of them, his hands simply phased through the clone. The two Choppers soon became one as Chopper split himself into two, with one appearing on the other side of Ridley X. Chopper smirked as Ridley X slightly screeched before the clone disappeared. He stepped away from him afterward.

"Looks like someone's stuck!" Chopper smiled, noticing Ridley X's tail stuck to the platform. "We could just stay back here and use ranged attacks!"

Unfortunately, Ridley X was able to get his tail off the platform, which allowed him to lunge forward and attack. Tipral grabbed Chopper and teleported them behind the pterodactyl alien. Ridley X searched for them, but when he turned around, his tail ended up hitting both of them, which got his attention when he heard their grunts. He grinned as he grabbed both of them and flew up in the air.

Chopper struggled to get himself free from Ridley X's grasp, while Tipral did nothing and let the monster look at him in the eyes. His eyes flashed light purple again as a Star Spark struck Ridley X and forced him to release him and Chopper, who landed back on the platform.

"Yeesh… I thought this Mirror ability would come in handy, but it doesn't seem to be doing much!" Chopper sighed. "I need some kind of other power to help me!"

Ridley X hovered down onto the platform and spread his wings out to summon a couple of enemies. A Metroid X, a Waddle Doo and a Knuckle Joe appeared. Chopper instantly removed his Mirror ability and inhaled the Knuckle Joe to gain the Fighter ability. Maybe this one would help him more!

"This should work much better with fighting," Chopper smirked, charging up an energy ball while Ridley X fired a couple of missiles their way. Tipral snapped his finger a couple of times and let his Star Magic destroy the missiles. Chopper finished charging up the energy ball and fired it straight at Ridley X's chest, causing him to let out an ear-piercing screech that made Chopper and Tipral cover their antennas.

"Aargh! This ugly monster is WAY too loud!" Tipral hissed.

"And that screech is WAY too painful for me to hear!" Chopper added.

Ridley X covered his chest in pain, but he decided to go back up into the air again. Obviously his strategy by being around the two wasn't working, and he needed a new one to win this battle. He flew away from Chopper and Tipral and then flew their way while dropping a couple of bombs on the platform. One blew up near Chopper and knocked him back a bit.

"Looks like he's deciding to fight while in the air," Tipral noticed. "We'll have to get him while he's open."

When Ridley X flew over the platform again and dropped a couple of more bombs, Tipral tried to fire a dark blast of energy his way, but because of the speed he was going, the attack missed. Tipral was a little annoyed, but he had a little idea of his own. It would surely work against someone like Ridley X!

Tipral waited for Ridley X to come back, and once he was near the platform, he used his Star powers and stopped time for a brief moment. Ridley X was over the platform with no defenses up, so Tipral used his Star Rain to pummel him down, and then he fired a Star Spear straight into his chest. Once he stopped time, Ridley X stopped and held his chest in pain for a moment.

Chopper seemed satisfied when he noticed Ridley X cringing and cheered. While they were distracted, Ridley X opened his eyes, grinned, and then he fired missiles their way. Chopper stopped and flipped into 3-D to dodge the missiles. When he went back into 2-D, he saw Ridley X opening his mouth and firing a small, dark beam onto the platform, which Tipral got hit by. He retaliated by firing a Star Spear, but that was easily dodged.

"I'll admit, for an ugly monster that uses a lot of power to fight, he is smart," Tipral commented.

"Yeah, he does know how to strategize…" Chopper agreed. "Does he even have control over himself? I know The Void can do some really bad things to some people. Then again, I bet Ridley would be the same whether he was this or not."

While Ridley X was ready to fire another beam, Chopper rushed up to him and used his Rising Break to strike Ridley X's jaw and sent him flying away from the platform due to how powerful the attack was. However, that didn't stop Ridley X from firing his beam attack, which came their way.

"Oh, geez!" Chopper jumped just in time to avoid the beam, while Tipral teleported above the beam to dodge it. Ridley X flew over the platform again and dropped a few bombs, with one being a Void Bomb.

"Chopper, whatever you do… Don't. Touch. The bomb." Tipral warned. "It'll stay there for a while, but maybe we can get that monster to touch it so it'll hurt him instead of us."

"I guess that's not a bad plan…" Chopper slowly nodded. "But we need to get Ridley on this platform."

They saw Ridley X flying their way over on the left side, but he changed things up by spinning his body around like a drill. He moved so he was moving across the platform to knock them off. But Chopper and Tipral outsmarted him and flipped into 3-D, which made Ridley X run into the Void Bomb instead. Let's just say he was left with some major injuries after that.

When the two were back in 2-D, they noticed the damage left on Ridley X. Parts of his body were scarred, with a purple glow coming from each scar. They weren't sure whether that was blood or even an inside part of his body. Chopper was certainly hoping it was the former of the two, since that sounds less worse. But since Ridley X was a little off guard, Chopper jumped and kicked, firing an energy wave straight at Ridley X. He didn't even have the time to react.

"Take that, Ridley!" Chopper taunted before landing on the platform. "Honestly, you're not as tough as I thought you'd be!"

"I concur," Tipral agreed. "Flying around isn't going to help you, you know."

Ridley X responded by landing on the platform and clawing at them. Tipral tried to block his attack, but it was too powerful and made him flinch. Chopper was able to get in a Vulcan Jab, but he stopped when Ridley X's tail jabbed near his foot. Despite this, Chopper was able to throw in a fireball and scorch the alien pterodactyl. This made Ridley X fly back up and take off once again.

"Hmmmmmm... Maybe if we burn his wings, he might be forced to stay on the ground and fight us." Chopper pondered. "And then we can deal some serious damage to him!"

"The only problem is that attacking him while he's moving in the air is difficult," Tipral noted. "I would have to freeze time if we were to burn his wings."

"Well, then we have no other choice."

Chopper's antennas twitched as he heard Ridley X roar again. He flew over them while dropping a couple of bombs down. Tipral create a box around the bombs so they would explode inside them. This actually gave Tipral an idea of his own.

"Hmmmmmm... This invisible box could actually come in handy." Tipral realized. "But it may be dangerous. I'm going to need your help here, Chopper."

"All right," Chopper nodded. "So what's that plan?"

Tipral explained the whole plan, and all Chopper could do was nod. "OK, I guess I'll try it out. Though, I don't know if I'm actually going to succeed in this task."

They saw Ridley X fly above the platform and come down while spinning his body. When he crashed onto the platform, the two were stunned for a brief moment, but Chopper sprang into action and jumped on Ridley X's head and then onto his back. He started to deliver fire punches and fireballs upon him to deal some massive damage to him, while Tipral prepared to create a box around him.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out when Ridley X flew back up and tried to shake Chopper off. But rather than continuing to shake, he actually tried to grab Chopper off his back. He had arms, so why not use them?

Chopper gasped and tried to avoid his claws. He knew he was an intelligent monster, but he didn't expect him to try to grab him off his back. Plus, he didn't want to be grabbed by something like Ridley X anyway, so he was forced to abandon his plan and jump on the alien and back onto the platform.

Tipral was certainly not pleased.

"Why did you get off him?!" Tipral exclaimed. "You were supposed to stay on!"

"I know, but he was actually trying to grab a hold of me," Chopper explained. "Trust me, this is not the generic monster that most people have seen or faced. Ridley is a smart and strategic fighter!"

"Then we have to outsmart him."

Chopper suddenly had an idea and waited for Ridley X to fly down. Once he did so, Chopper tried to distract him and kicked his nose with light energy. Ridley X responded by trying to grab him, but since he was smaller and faster than him, it was a bit difficult to do so.

When Tipral was given the cue, he trapped Ridley X in an invisible box, which he tried to break out of. Thankfully, Chopper wasn't in the box either, so this gave Tipral the opportunity to snap his finger and let an explosion commence inside the box. They could hear Ridley X screech in pain from each explosion, which was something both of them were not happy to see.

But when the box was gone, Ridley X was still standing, but still looking a bit battered up. Even his wings were a bit damaged, but it didn't stop him from trying to take off and throw a couple of bombs at them. Both ended up getting hit and were left a little exhausted as well. But they still had enough energy to fight back.

"His wings appear to be weak, so I think one attack should work," Tipral unleashed his Star Rain and let Ridley X get hit by the attack. His wings ended up burning, and he was forced to land on the ground. Even then, he wasn't going to let himself go so easily. Even on ground he was a force of nature.

"It's just you and us now," Chopper declared. "There's no flying anymore! Now we can finish this!"

Ridley X roared as he lunged toward them and tried to knock them off. Chopper threw his arms up and went into 3-D to go around him before flipping again. When Ridley X noticed his targets were gone, he turned his head slightly to see if they were behind. Chopper and Tipral (who teleported over by Chopper) didn't expect to get hit by his long tail when he turned his entire body to them.

"We better be careful of that tail now that he's on the ground," Tipral warned. "It could get in our way."

Ridley X grinned and used his tail to knock them near the edge of the platform. He knew they couldn't fly, so knocking them off wouldn't be much of a problem. He decided to lunge at them again, but Tipral struck him with a Star Spark and left him stunned. Since his chest was vulnerable, Chopper ran up to him and delivered a kick to his chest. It didn't send him flying back, but it surely did hurt him a lot.

"Better hit him in the chest," Chopper suggested as he jumped off the monster's chest and skid back across the platform. Ridley X roared at them and prepared to shoot a blast of energy out of his mouth. But Tipral forbid him from doing that and fired a Star Spear straight into his mouth to leave him stunned once again. Two Star Spears were fired at Ridley X's chest, but that only got him angrier.

To make himself stronger, Ridley X's eyes flashed, and he was suddenly growing in size. He didn't grow too much, but his size was like a quarter of the platform. And with him towering over the two, it certainly did make him look menacing, especially the roar he let out on them.

"So you grew in size. That's hardly threatening." Tipral scoffed. "You're still the same as ever."

Ridley X tried to claw at them, but Tipral jumped on his head, while Chopper ducked like a pancake and barely avoided Ridley X's claw. Tipral continuously snapped his finger and harmed Ridley X with Star Magic, which left him distracted for a moment. Chopper took this chance to charge up an energy ball and hurl it at Ridley X. Because of this, he summoned a Starman and Metroid X to attack. Tipral destroyed the enemies, while Chopper hit Ridley X's face with a light spinning kick.

"You should realize that bigger doesn't always mean better," Chopper noted, throwing in a punch at the pterodactyl alien's nose. "Plus, it makes you an easier target!"

Ridey X responded by trying to bite at him, which made Chopper recoil and land on the platform. Knowing that he was much bigger, that meant he was heavier as well, and why not use his weight to his advantage? With that, Ridley X decided to jump in the air rather than fly (since, you know, his wings were burnt), and then he came down and caused the platform to shake violently.

Because the two didn't see it coming, they were left a little stunned. Ridley X shot a beam at them and knocked them off the platform. Victory was now his. Bigger usually isn't better, but sometimes it is if you're someone like Ridley X.

He approached the side of the platform, but his grin suddenly faded when he saw Chopper grabbing a hold of the edge while holding onto Tipral, whose eyes were closed at the moment. Chopper's Fighter ability was also knocked out, so he was left with no ability now.

Ridley X could've just stepped on Chopper's hand to get him to fall, but he was a bit sadistic, and watching some people suffer was much more entertaining. His breath certainly caught Chopper's attention when he looked up and saw Ridley X looking down at him.

"Ummmmm… Hi?" Chopper sweat dropped.

Ridley X grinned in response, but all he got was a light ball to the face, causing him to screech and back away. Chopper, using the strength he had in him, threw Tipral up onto the platform and then pulled himself up. It was very difficult for him to do that, but in an emergency like that, he had to push himself to do something difficult.

Tipral was still a bit unconscious, so Ridley X decided to try to go after him. Chopper forbid this and stomped on his head with a rainbow jump. Ridley X let out a slight screech, but he swatted him away with his claw back by Tipral and then let out a roar before getting ready to use his tail against him.

"Eat this!" Chopper cried, charging up a light ball and firing it straight into Ridley X's mouth. He felt pain in his chest, which started to glow from the light ball. Chopper decided to use his spinning kick on his chest, which caused greater pain to the alien. This suddenly gave him an idea. He charged up another light ball while punching Ridley X's chest with fire energy.

Once Ridley X could get a hold of himself, he grabbed a hold of Chopper and tossed him up into the air. He could've just ate him if he wanted, but why not have a little fun? Using his tail, he smacked Chopper to the ground and left him a little exhausted. His face was left a little bruised when he got up, and he was slouching a bit.

Ridley X began to approach Chopper, while he threw a couple of fireballs at him. He didn't seem to stop moving from the fireballs, but they were surely hurting him. So instead, Chopper charged up an ice ball and threw it at Ridley X to leave him frozen for a brief moment. He used this time to drink a Max Shroom Shake to recover all of his HP, while he put the rest in Tipral's mouth so he could recover all of his HP too.

"Unnghh..." Tipral slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Chopper. "Did you just do that?"

"Well who else?" Chopper shrugged.

"Hmph..." Tipral huffed while he slowly got up. "I didn't expect you to do something like that for me, especially since I did a lot of bad things to you."

"Well, Tipral... You did kind of save me back at the Voidtail fight. You grabbed me when I was about to fall, and I thought I should actually return the favor. You even helped my friends and I through a lot, and I was actually surprised when you let me have the seventeenth Pure Heart. And if I didn't return the favor, I'd feel too guilty!"

"I see... Well, I guess I have no other choice but to thank you for what you've done for me."

Chopper couldn't help but smile. "I kind of wish you were more like this. You actually seem a bit like a friend now."

Tipral gave him a nod before they saw the frozen Ridley X shake and break out of its icy prison. "There's no time for conversations now. It looks like we better finish this fight up! I don't think he's got much left!"

Ridley X started off by trying to jab them with his tail, but they jumped in the air, with Tipral landing on his tail. He approached his head, forced his mouth open, and then he fired a Star Spear into his mouth, while Chopper landed a light kick onto Ridley X's chest. The alien screeched and grabbed a hold of Chopper and threw him at Tipral.

But that didn't change things that much. Tipral fired a Star Spear, but Ridley X lowered his head and let it go over him. He let out a short roar before lunging at them. Tipral grabbed Chopper's arm and teleported them behind the alien. Ridley X decided to use his tail to try to find them, but they knew what was coming and avoided his tail.

Chopper decided to eat one of his own fireballs to gain the Fire ability. When Ridley X whirled around, he prepared to fire a beam, but Chopper turned into a fireball and fired himself straight into Ridley X's mouth. He didn't go further into his body, but now Ridley X was coughing small bits of fire from his mouth. Tipral punched his chest with his Star Punch, making Ridley X gasp.

"Look at you! You were putting up more of a fight before, and now you're weak!" Tipral scoffed. "You're even less intimidating – not that I found you intimidating in the first place."

Chopper even turned into a fireball again and struck Ridley X in the chest. He tried grabbing the Star Warrior, but the fire was a bit too painful for him, making him screech and move his claw away. When he got out of his fireball form, he breathed fire on Ridley X's face. Sadly, his ability wore off when he got smacked away by Ridley X's claws.

"Ugh... Great. Now my Fire ability's gone." Chopper sighed.

"It's no big deal. We've worn him out big time." Tipral explained. "I don't think he's got much left now."

Ridley X then remembered something. He could still knock them off the platform! But then there was the fact that the two had more strength in them now, so it didn't seem like that would work. The only option he had was firing missiles and using some of his physical attacks against them. But while he pondered, he felt something hit his chest and force him to let out a screech.

"Thinking for too long won't help you, you ugly monster," Tipral scoffed, kicking his face and leaving Ridley X exhausted. He would've done something else, but Ridley X hissed and grabbed Tipral and Chopper and held onto them tightly. He rose his head and shot a couple of fireballs so they would rain down on them.

Chopper struggled, but he couldn't get his arms out of the monster's grasps. They were too strong for him!

The fireballs rained down and struck the two. Ridley X didn't seem to get harmed by them for some reason, but every time Tipral got hit by a fireball, he was getting much angrier at the monster. Ridley X let out a small cackle until he look at Tipral, who was now surrounded in the usual glow.

"You're forcing me to throw in my deadliest attack, are you not?!" Tipral exclaimed, his eyes flashing and striking Ridley X with his Star Spark. He and Chopper landed on the ground after Ridley X lost his grip on them, but it didn't appear that Tipral was finished just yet.

Ridley X decided to think quickly and grab Tipral again, but Tipral was able to grab his arm and prevent him from grabbing him. He squeezed it harder, and it was starting to hurt Ridley X's arm in the process.

"We're finishing this fight _my_ way," Tipral declared. "And you won't find it pretty!"

The pterodactyl alien's eyes widened as Tipral clenched his open fist. He knew that he wasn't going anywhere now, and that this fight was over.

"_**STAR BLAST!**_"

Chopper gulped as Tipral unleashed his Star Blast upon the entire platform. There was a blinding light that prevented Chopper from seeing what happened, but he was certainly getting sent flying off the platform, and that was not what he wanted.

But Ridley X had it worse. MUCH worse. His whole body was starting to incinerate from the attack. Pretty much everything from him incinerated and was gone. But was he gone for good? Maybe. Maybe not.

Once the flash was gone, Tipral was the only one left standing on the platform. He looked down at some of the ash that was left behind – most likely from Ridley X after he destroyed him. But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone crying out near the platform.

He approached the other side of the platform and saw Chopper hanging onto the edge.

"Oh, geez…" Chopper gulped. "I don't know what's gonna happen now…"

He felt grab a hold of his hand and pull him up. Once he got on the platform, he saw that Ridley X was gone. "Oh… So I guess Ridley's gone for now. Though I don't believe that will ever be the end of him."

Chopper looked back at Tipral. "Well thanks for helping me up. I was a little worried that your attack would end up knocking me off the platform."

"Be lucky that you survived," Tipral replied. "And there was no way I was going to let your game end. I need you."

"Need me? Why?"

"Because that's the only way we'll get through this darkness. You have light power, while I have dark. Both of those would be needed if we were to progress through this place. Also, if you weren't here, I don't know if I would've stood a chance against that ugly monster."

"I guess I understand what you mean," Chopper nodded. "I don't think I could go through here on my own, and I'm actually very thankful you're here to help, even if we were enemies."

Tipral gave him a nod before they felt the platform slowly move to the left. "Hmph… Well, looks like the platform's finally moving again. I guess defeating that ugly monster helped fix that problem."

There was actually a ledge up ahead that led over to a door. When the platform stopped in front of the ledge, Chopper and Tipral got off the platform and walked over to the door. Relieved to no longer be in a fight, Chopper opened the door into the next area.

Upon walking into the next area, they noticed some platforms leading down to a larger platform below, and then there were more platforms moving down from the left to another large platform, etc. However, there were a couple of Shadow Wizards lurking around, especially two that were on one of the platforms. They've only fought these guys in Shade's Castle, but now they're up against them again.

Then again, they're not as tough, since a lot of enemies have stronger attack power than them.

Chopper and Tipral got in their fighting stances and dodged the magic the Shadow Wizards fired at them from their wands. Chopper jumped on the first Shadow Wizard on the first platform, while Tipral got the other wizard on the second platform. They didn't even have a chance to hit them when Chopper and Tipral jumped on their heads. One even dropped a Master Shroom Shake, so lucky for them.

"This should be useful," Chopper smiled as he picked up the item and put it away. "OK, let's see what lies below us."

They headed down the two smaller platforms and onto the larger platform. Tipral suggested that they jumped down from here, but when Chopper looked down from the right, all he saw was a bottomless pit. However, there was a secret path in 3-D that they found that led them to a secret door only seen in 3-D. It brought them into a small area with abilities such as Tornado and Suplex. Chopper chose to take Suplex and then threw himself at the Darkling to give it quite a beating.

Once they were done there, they left the secret area and went back to the large platform. There was a Shadow Wizard waiting down at the second large platform to the left after they jumped down a couple of platforms.

"So nice to see Master Shadow Doom's enemies here!" the Shadow Wizard hissed. "I shall make him proud and destroy you myself!"

Not wanting to repeat what he said to other minions of Shade, Tipral jumped and fired a Star Spear down at the Shadow Wizard. Chopper followed up by grabbing the wizard and slamming it on the platform after a large leap. With that out of the way, they went down to the last large platform before reaching the bottom, and a Dark Wizrim happened to be waiting for them on that platform.

But they also heard something below them on the bottom ground. It sounded a lot like Bullet Bills being fired…

"Oh, great… I don't like the sound of that." Chopper sighed. "Just what I wanted to hear around here…"

There was no time for complaining when the Dark Wizrim tried to hit them by swinging its scythe. Chopper ducked under it, while Tipral teleported above its head and fired a dark blast at the enemy. The dark attack seemed to do a lot of damage, so Chopper added a light ball to the mix. To their surprise, the Dark Wizrim didn't seem to stand a chance.

"Wow! Usually these guys would take a while to defeat!" Chopper gaped. "And now they're like pushovers!"

"Yes, I guess you're right there," Tipral said, jumping down onto the ground. They found a long pathway ahead, but there was also a large gap that led over to a door ahead. A dark purple blaster called a V. Bill Blaster was firing Void Bills their way. But hey, it's not much of a bad thing now, since they don't have to get into RPG fights with them!

Chopper grabbed the first Void Bill approached them and threw it onto the ground to let it bounce off the ground. It crashed into another Void Bill that knocked both of them away.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to do that again with the large gap between them and the door ahead. The V. Bill Blasters were still firing Void Bills their way, but there didn't appear to be anything hidden in the gap. It was just another bottomless pit.

After ducking under another Void Bill, Chopper pondered over what they should do. Tipral could probably use his teleporting dash to get over the pit, but what would he do? Sometimes help is necessary, but there are times where one has to do the job on one's own.

"I'll just teleport you across this gap," Tipral suggested.

"No, I might have a better idea," Chopper declared, now finished thinking. "Maybe this idea might work for me!"

When a couple of Void Bills were fired, Chopper bounced off each Void Bill and landed right by the door and in front of the V. Bill Blasters. He would've used a hammer to take down the blasters, but all he could do was jump on them and even land a couple of kicks. Tipral eventually teleported over to him and finished off the V. Bill Blasters.

"An interesting move you pulled off…" Tipral commented. "Now let's progress onward."

Chopper opened the door into an area with a loop nearby. It was actually a very small area, which didn't bother Chopper in the slightest when he charged up a Speed Dash and went through the loop and down to a lower section. There, he found a door in front of him.

"Hey, Tipral! I found the door!" Chopper called out.

Hearing that, Tipral went through the loop and landed near Chopper. "So you have… Well this was a rather pointless area to be in. Might as well get moving."

They opened the door, but to their shock, they ended up falling through a bottomless pit that led them back to the previous door. Chopper slowly got himself up and looked at his surroundings.

"What the… Oh, don't tell me this is one of those stupid puzzles!"

"Looks like it," Tipral confirmed, getting up as well. "If that's not the way we need to go, there surely there's another way we can go."

Chopper decided to flip Tipral and himself into 3-D, which revealed a pipe behind the door they were near. Chopper was unsure whether to be happy or ticked, but he went into the pipe with Tipral nonetheless.

The pipe ended up taking them on top of the loop, where a pipe happened to be hanging over. They also found a platform and a ledge leading over to another door, where a Dark Wizrim and Void Skellobit were. They didn't appear to be battling, though. It seemed like they didn't care about each other.

"You know, I expected them to attack each other at this point, but I guess not," Tipral said. "Well, we might as well finish the job ourselves."

Tipral fired a dark blast of energy at the two enemies and sent them flying over to the wall. Chopper then grabbed the Void Skellobit and threw him at the Dark Wizrim before hurling a light ball at them to defeat them. With a smirk on his face, he approached the door and opened it for Tipral.

"You don't have to hold the door for me."

Chopper blinked for a moment and decided to just go in himself, with Tipral entering through next. They were led into a small area with the door up ahead. However, there were two Void Skellobombers flying around and dropping some Void Skellobait. Tipral teleported to one, but he stopped when he felt the ground shake slightly. When he moved back, it stopped shaking.

"Something's not right here…" Tipral trailed. "Why is the ground shaking when I approach this one section, but not when I'm here?"

"Kinda strange, if you as me," Chopper commented. "Should we try flipping?"

"That's probably for the best."

Chopper threw his arms up and flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D once again. This time, they found a glowing purple line that was leading over to the door ahead. Of course, the line was not going straight. It went up slightly, then to the far right, up, slightly left, down, left, up, and then to the right and then up to the door. It only took them about a minute and a half to follow the line to the door.

They were brought back into 2-D before entering the door to an area that looked familiar to them, especially with the shooting and explosions. Upon jumping on one of the glowing platforms, they discovered another battle between the Maginans and Shade's army. So far, the battle was evenly matched.

"Eat this, wizard scum!" a Maginan Demolitionist shouted while throwing a plasma grenade at a Dark Wizrim. It tried to pull the explosive off, but because it was stuck, it was impossible to get off. The Dark Wizrim exploded, along with a couple of other wizards around it.

"Yeah! Take that!" a Maginan shouted as it shot at a Shadow Wizard. Another Dark Wizrim appeared behind the Maginan and prepared to slice its foe with its scythe wand.

"Behind you!" a Dark Maginan warned before getting hit by a Shadow Wizard's dark magic. The Maginan turned around and saw the Dark Wizrim swing its scythe, so it rolled away to dodge the attack and fired at the Dark Wizrim. Unfortunately, its fate was soon sealed when an Elite Dark Soldier fired a plasma grenade at the Maginan.

"Uh oh…"

_**KA-BOOM!**_

Chopper's eyes widened at the sight of the explosion. Sure, a Maginan Demolitionist was able to conjure up an explosion from a plasma grenade, but it was nothing like this! This was NOTHING compared to the grenades the Dark Creatures had in the Comet of Darkness!

"Geez… This is a little intense here…" Chopper trailed. "Maybe it's best for us to move on."

"I think it is for the better," agreed Tipral. "One side wants us both gone, and another wants you out of the picture."

Chopper nodded and jumped up the last few platforms before reaching the door. The two entered into a hallway with knocked over pillars on the ground. They saw the door just up ahead, which made Chopper smile.

But when they took a couple of steps, they heard the ground shake. Above them, they saw the ceiling was starting to slowly descend onto them. With Chopper's eyes widened, he performed a Speed Dash and tried to reach the door up ahead. The only problem was… The door was starting to move further away from them.

"What the heck?! What's up with this area?!" Chopper gaped.

"It must be a lot longer than we thought," Tipral explained while following Chopper. "Whatever you do, _DON'T STOP!_"

They continued onward, and Chopper couldn't help but worry about the ceiling and the door ahead. Something was bound to happen, and it wasn't going to be good. All they could do was run for the door.

But as they made progress, the door was not moving further, but closer, which indicated that they were reaching the door. They took no time to stand around as soon as they got to the door and quickly opened it and headed into the next area.

They were surprised to see what was beyond the door.

"No way…" Chopper gaped as the door slammed shut. "Is this a dream?!"

Chopper and Tipral found themselves in a large courtyard with black flowers, a bridge going over some black water, and a large tower in the center. The ground was no longer purple and black, but now it was gray. The Void's sky could still be seen, but there was no lightning striking the background. In fact, with the flowers and a bit of grass, it made this place feel a little serene…in a strange way.

"Who ever thought a courtyard would be in The Void?" wondered Chopper. "It's almost like that courtyard in Dark Subspace World and the Palace of Shadow. Except there weren't any flowers to be seen there…"

There were no enemies in sight, nor were any people. Only Chopper and Tipral were lurking around the courtyard.

"So there's nothing to bother us. I'm fine with that." Tipral said while he crossed his arms. "I don't mind having a break."

"Yeah, agreed," Chopper nodded, walking across the bridge and hitting the Save Block. He also hit a yellow ? block near him to acquire a Master Shroom. He ate a piece and handed one to Tipral.

"No, you can have that."

Chopper raised his eyebrows. "What? Really? Why not? Don't you need to heal yourself?"

"I didn't take too much damage, and I know you enjoy those," Tipral replied. "Plus, I think it's fair for you to do that. You helped me out there against Ridley, and you even defended me before when your friends did not like the idea of me joining. I think you deserve to have that whole Master Shroom."

"Are you sure?"

"Go ahead and have it. I'm not going to repeat myself again."

"OK… Well, thanks." Chopper finished off the rest of the Master Shroom. "I'm really surprised with this change. I guess with the True Chaos Heart going crazy, you actually want it to be stopped."

"The reason why I want that thing to be stopped is because if it isn't stopped, everyone is going to die. Not even The Underwhere or The Overthere will be left when the True Chaos Heart is finished with its job."

"That's a scary thought… Well, let's not waste any time. We need to keep moving!" Chopper declared, crossing over the next bridge and making his way to the end of the courtyard. "Uh oh…"

"What is it?" Tipral asked.

"There's no door here!"

"What?! Great… Then this is a problem…" the dark being pondered while Chopper looked over at the tower. "Well… I think I do have an idea, Chopper…"

Chopper cocked his head as Tipral pointed to the tower. "You see that tower there? If I'm correct, that is the **Tower of the Chaos Heart**. I once read about a tower like that in the Dark Prognosticus, and it holds information on The Void and the Chaos Heart's power. It's been around for 1,500 years, so I'm not sure if all the information is still in there."

"How do you know that's the exact tower?" Chopper wondered.

"There was an image of it in the book. It was very old, but I recognize its appearance. But the only problem I see here is how we're going to get to that tower."

Chopper noticed a glowing light orb on its pedestal, but when he tried picking it up, it wouldn't come off the pedestal. He looked over at the other side of the courtyard and noticed the same thing. "Ummmmm… What about these orbs? They kinda stand out in this courtyard."

"Orbs?" Tipral approached Chopper, who backed away from the orb so he could get a closer look. "What are these doing here in the first place? They seem very out of place in this courtyard…"

"That's what I was thinking too! Maybe you should…" Chopper stopped there when Tipral shot a shadow ball at the orb to change its appearance into a dark orb. "…Yeah, you can do that."

Tipral teleported to the other light orb and turned it into a dark one. This caused the ground to shake violently as a bridge was drawn to reach the Tower of the Chaos Heart. However, the only way to access that bridge was to go into 3-D.

Chopper approached the center of the courtyard with Tipral and flipped into 3-D. They crossed the bridge and made their way to the entrance of the tower. The door itself was black, while the whole tower was gray, as if it was to resemble the Chaos Heart. There was even a gray heart embedded in the door as well.

Taking a deep breath, Chopper opened the door and entered the tower with Tipral.

* * *

**Inside the tower-**

The Tower of the Chaos Heart's interior was not exactly what Chopper thought he would see. The room they entered was not exactly big, but there was a lift in the center of the room that could take them up to another floor if they wanted. The walls and the floor were gray with small black hearts all over the place, but the center of the floor had a large, black heart. There was an eerie feeling in this tower, and for some reason, Chopper didn't like it.

"Ugh… I don't like this place." Chopper quivered. "Don't you ever get that feeling of being lonely, Tipral?"

"Perhaps…" Tipral answered, not paying too much attention to his question. "Hmmmmm… I believe we can gather information on the Chaos Heart at the top of this tower. That lift can take us up there."

The two approached the lift, but they paused when they saw it ascend on its own. Chopper tried to jump to get to the lift, but it was too high for him to reach. Tipral even tried to reach it, but not even he could reach it.

"Gah! Dang it! I guess that lift is too fast for us." Tipral growled.

"Couldn't you just teleport us to the top of the tower?" Chopper asked.

"My teleportation is limited, remember? I can't teleport all the way to the top of this tower."

_**"****Ah, so you've arrived!" **_a dark, mysterious voiced called out, which echoed through the room. _**"I've been waiting for your arrival."**_

"Huh? Who said that?!" Chopper cried. "In fact, who are you?!"

"Show yourself," demanded Tipral. "Maybe then we'll go a little easy on you."

_**"Relax, I'm not here to fight! In fact, I'm here to congratulate you two on making it all the way here! You've fought through many hardships, and you even managed to overcome the dangers of The Void. That takes a lot, and that proves your bravery has gone unnoticed."**_

"You didn't answer my question!" Chopper exclaimed before hearing a click, as if someone was taking a picture. "Ummmmm… What was that little click sound?"

_**"****Very well, I might as well introduce myself. I am simply a servant of the Ancients, sent here to give power to the true hero. I am impressed with how you ventured through this darkness, and I have a feeling you are indeed the true hero. Believe me, my eyes do not deceive me. But whether you are the true hero of the legend or not is yet to be seen… I will give you a new challenge!"**_

"A new challenge? We don't have time for your challenges!" Tipral barked. "We have more important things to do!"

_**"****Hush, dark one," **_the voice retorted before a couple of black blocks landed on the ground. _**"I will assign you two two trials that you must complete. Only then will you be allowed to see me and gather the information you want on the Chaos Heart."**_

Chopper looked down at the blocks in confusion. "So what do you want us to do with these then?"

_**"****You must put those pieces together like a puzzle. What you'll be putting together, you can figure out on your own. However, you will only be given two minutes to finish the task, or else you cannot progress to the second trial. I'm afraid there are no continues, my friends… But if you do complete the task, you will progress to the second trial."**_

"Putting pieces together? That doesn't sound like a difficult task…" Tipral mused.

_**"****You two may now begin."**_

They looked up and saw that there were two minutes on the clock. Chopper quickly picked up one of the pieces and tried to see where they had to put it. However, Tipral grabbed the piece from him and dropped it on the ground.

"Hey! What was that for?!" exclaimed Chopper.

"We should take care of the corner and outer pieces first," Tipral suggested. "It makes things much easier."

Chopper shrugged and gathered some of the outer pieces and put them together. It didn't take too long to get that out of the way. When the outer parts were all put together, they only had a minute left.

"All right! We have all the outer pieces with just a minute to spare!" Chopper smiled. "…Wait, a minute? That's not good…"

"Then we need to be quick," suggested Tipral, putting some inner pieces together. They only had four pieces to go, and thirty seconds left. "OK, we just need one more piece now. Where is the other piece?"

Chopper's eyes widened as he looked around him. "Uh oh… I don't see that last piece anywhere!"

He was about to walk over to Tipral, but he accidentally tripped and fell over. Tipral noticed this and walked over to the Star Warrior. But instead of helping him up, he noticed what he tripped over.

The last puzzle piece.

He would've asked why Chopper was standing on it, but there was no time for questions. Tipral grabbed the piece and put it in its exact spot. It ended up forming a puzzle of the Chaos Heart.

_**"****Well done, you two! You completed the first trial! I knew you two were able to do it!"**_

"It wasn't that difficult," Tipral scoffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the walls. "Tell us what's next."

_**"****Very well, if I must…" **_the dark voice began. _**"Take this lift to the second floor and I will tell you what your second trial is."**_

The lift from before came down, so Chopper and Tipral got on and let it take them up to the second floor. While the first floor was gray, this room was a darker gray with the same black hearts on the walls and floor. Except this time, there were statues of familiar enemies around.

_**"****While the first trial tested your brains, this one will test your strength," **_the dark voice explained. _**"The second trial involves defeating all of the enemies that I summon in this room. Every single one. This time, there is no time limit. Your game just can't end, that's all!"**_

"Just a fight against a couple of enemies? That's not too hard!" Chopper smirked. "Tipral and I can handle that!"

"Well, so much for not fighting here," Tipral murmured. "But that's not much of a big deal. I don't mind destroying anything you summon."

_**"****Excellent! Though, I must warn you… This may not be an easy task for you, for these enemies were created by my power. However, if you succeed, then I will recognize you, little boy, as a true hero and grant you great power. As for you, dark one… Perhaps I can give you a little bit of this power as well."**_

"I don't want your power," Tipral retorted. "But I _will_ fight what you throw at me."

_**"****With all that said… Good luck!"**_

Two dark beams shot some statues and made four Void Goombas come to life. Chopper and Tipral got in their fighting stances and waited for the Void Goombas to attempt to headbonk them. Tipral delivered a Star Kick to one that was about to attack, and Chopper grabbed one and slammed it on top of another. To make things easier, Tipral used his Star Rain to get rid of the rest of the Void Goombas.

"OK, that was too easy!" Chopper exclaimed. "That wasn't even a challenge!"

Two other statues were struck, and two Void Koopatrols were now roaming freely. One ended up charging into Chopper, leading to his ability being knocked away. Tipral simply punched the ground with a Star Punch when the enemies were near him. The small shockwave knocked the Void Koopatrols on their backs, leaving them vulnerable to be attacked.

"Now we have an easier time attacking these guys," Tipral noted. "Better start attacking them while you can."

Chopper quickly got up and jumped on the closest Void Koopatrol's underside. He continued to bounce off the enemy while performing stylish moves until it was finally finished. Tipral sent the other Void Koopatrol flying with a Star Punch, and then he finished it with a Star Spear.

The third round contained a black Dark Skelloford, a Dark Wizrim and a Dark Skelloknight. Tipral decided to start off by destroying the Dark Skelloknight's armor so it would be easy to take down. Chopper decided to use his speed in order to fight against the Dark Skelloford, knowing that it was slow with the club it carried. He delivered punches and kicks to its face, while Tipral focused on the Dark Skelloknight. The Dark Wizrim decided to stay at a far range and fire dark magic from its weapon.

After a couple of hits, Chopper was able to take down the Dark Skelloford, and Tipral's Star Burst helped finish off the Dark Skelloknight. Now all that was left was the Dark Wizrim, who flew over to them and tried to attack them with its scythe wand. Tipral's Star Spark helped hurt and stun the enemy, while Chopper attacked with his light spinning kick.

Tipral was about to kick the Dark Wizrim, but it used its weapon to block Tipral's foot. Chopper's light ball, however, was able to defeat it with ease.

"Well, that should be the last of them," Chopper sighed. "Man, who ever thought we'd have to take on those kind of guys? I mean, we've seen plenty of them!"

_**"****Don't relax so soon, hero. There's just one more round." **_the dark voice called out. _**"Let's see how you go up against this!"**_

Over by the left corner, two Dark Skelloknights appeared, but behind it was a Skelloknight in dark purple armor, a helmet that completely covered its faces except for its purple eyes, a black tuft of hair on the top of the helmet, a large, black sword, a black cape, and a dark purple elegant shield. It raised its sword, which began to glow with dark energy.

"What kind of Skelloknight is THAT?!" Chopper gawked. "Is that supposed to be a Void Skelloknight or something?!"

"Looks like it," Tipral confirmed, using his Star Rain to get rid of the Dark Skelloknights' armor. The Void Skelloknight's armor, however, was not broken off, to their surprise. "Well it looks like my Star powers aren't doing much to that thing's armor."

Tipral decided to take care of the Dark Skelloknights first and continued to use his Star Rain on them. The attack simply bounced off the Void Skelloknight's armor as if it was nothing. Nevertheless, the Dark Skelloknights were out of the way, and all that was left was the Void Skelloknight.

"OK, how are we supposed to beat this thing?!" Chopper gaped. "It's practically invincible!"

"Not every enemy is invincible," Tipral noted. "Have you even tried your light power?"

"Oh… Well, no." Chopper tossed a light ball at the Void Skelloknight, but it didn't seem to do too much. However, it did seem to have an effect, because the enemy suddenly became blind from the bright light. "Oh! That DID do something!"

Chopper decided to use a charged light ball and hurled it at the Void Skelloknight. This time, it actually did something better. A bright crack appeared in the Void Skelloknight's armor, and while it was blind, there was no one stopping them from breaking its armor. Tipral rushed in and punched the crack, which was enough to break the armor off the enemy.

"Good. We found a way to break this enemy's armor. Now let's finish it off while we can."

They saw under the Void Skelloknight's armor was a dark purple tunic, so its upper part of its body wasn't completely bare. But who cared about that? Chopper certainly didn't when he tossed a light ball at the Void Skelloknight before it could knock Tipral away with its large sword.

"Gah! …Well, this enemy is certainly stronger than before." Tipral grunted, quickly getting up and hitting it with a Star Spark. "But that's not stopping me from taking it down!"

He fired a Star Spear, but the Void Skelloknight put up its shield and blocked the attack. Meanwhile, Chopper hit it from behind with a couple of light kicks, which was able to help bring its HP down easily. Tipral soon finished it off with a Star Spear.

"FINALLY!" Chopper sighed. "They're gone!"

_**"****Well done! You two have passed the final trial! But before you meet me, please use this to heal your wounds."**_

A glowing light appeared next to them, and when they stepped on it, they were fully recovered. _**"Now, please take the lift."**_

Chopper smiled when he saw the lift appear for them. They used it to reach the third floor, which had a black background with gray hearts on the walls and floor. In the center of the room was a large pedestal with a replica of the Chaos Heart. It was obviously not real because dark power was not flowing from it.

But up on the ceiling, they noticed some dark mist hovering over.

"Are you that mysterious voice?" Chopper asked. "Well, we're finally here, so could you give us that power you promised?"

"And the information on the Chaos Heart," Tipral added.

The dark mist didn't appear to respond, which annoyed Chopper a bit.

"Well? Are you going to say something?"

_**"****Heh… What's up, you two?" **_the dark voice asked, sounding more sinister than before._** "Oh, did I promise you some power and information? Heh heh heh… Sorry, but that was all just a lie! About those dumb Ancients… I don't really work for them one bit!"**_

"Wait, so you made us do all of that for nothing?!" Chopper gaped. "You son of a…fish!"

"So you made us waste all of that time for something like this?!" Tipral growled. "If that's the case, we should get going."

They were about to leave, but the lift was gone and the hole was also sealed, preventing them from escaping.

"Wait… So you weren't created by the Ancients?" Chopper wondered, curious about what the voice said before.

_**"****Don't get me wrong, you two. They did CREATE me…but I work for my own cursed powers! Anyway, the name is Shadoo. I've been watching you explore The Void, testing you to study you, and now… I have completed all of my clones! Well… The clones for the heroes are not fully complete, but the minions are! Now that they're gone, I can take their place!"**_

The dark mist suddenly faded away, and instead a flip box appeared and revealed a shadow version of O'Chunks. Chopper jumped in surprise, while Tipral's antennas perked up.

_**"****Grah-fargle bargle! Now yer gonna get a taste o' me chunks!" **_Shadoo O'Chunks shouted._** "Not only did I get their abilities, but also their personalities! Time teh chunk on it!"**_

"Wait a minute… A shadowy…thing that can duplicate into other things…" Chopper pondered. "Where have I heard that before?"

_**"****Probably from when I helped the Pixl Queen!" **_Shadoo O'Chunks answered. _**"Yeh should've listened teh yer friend about me tryin' teh make 'im get rid o' yeh, but looks like I've got teh do it meself! Such a shame… It would've made more sense teh be fightin' yer stupid pink friend!"**_

"Don't even CALL my friend stupid! Come on, Tipral! Let's take this guy down!"

Tipral nodded and lunged forward, getting ready to make his move on Shadoo O'Chunks. Surprisingly, he only had 100 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 8. That was surprisingly not threatening.

_**"****Yeah, I tried teh get 'im teh get rid o' yeh, but since it wasn't workin', I decided to leave an' return 'ere," **_Shadoo O'Chunks explained. _**"But when I saw yeh all makin yer way 'ere, I decided teh use me powers an' whatnot teh make clones o' yeh an' finish yeh if yeh ever got 'ere! An' now I plan teh replace yeh when yer finished!"**_

"That's not happening," Chopper declared, jumping on Shadoo O'Chunks's head. "You see, I've fought Tipral's minions _plenty_ of times! By now, I pretty much know their move set! There's no way you stand a chance against me!"

_**"****That may be true, but the dark one 'as never fought 'is minions!"**_

"Oh, really? I don't think they're so tough myself. If they lost to Chopper before, then I'm sure I won't have any problems defeating you either."

Shadoo O'Chunks managed to grab a hold of Tipral and swing him around before releasing him. He was about to perform a dance, but Chopper was able to land a spinning kick and leave him off guard. Usually he would do something such as use Thoreau to leave him stunned, kind of like when he first fought O'Chunks. But now he doesn't have any Pixls, so that would be a difficult task.

Chopper jumped out of the way when Shadoo O'Chunks punched the ground near him, which caused a small earthquake. This gave Tipral the chance to hit him with his Star Spear, followed by a Star Kick. Shadoo O'Chunks tried to grab him again, but Tipral teleported above him and landed a stomp on his head.

"The thing is with O'Chunks is that he's slow and focuses more on brawn than brains," Tipral noted.

_**"****I may not be so smart, but since yer nothin' but a wee toddler, I can toss yeh around like a sack o' potatoes!" **_Shadoo O'Chunks scoffed while pounding his chest. Since he was distracted, Chopper tossed an ice ball and froze the dark bearded warrior, while Tipral snapped his finger and struck Shadoo O'Chunks with Star Magic. Tipral would've made another attack, but Shadoo O'Chunks was no longer frozen, and this allowed him to land on top of Tipral with a ground pound.

Noticing this, Chopper inhaled the yellow star left by Shadoo O'Chunks's attack and spat it back at him. He was now off Tipral, who Chopper helped up, and that also allowed both of them to combine a shadow and light ball together to throw at Shadoo O'Chunks. This left him dangerously low on HP.

"Look at that, you're almost finished already," Tipral noticed, looking at Shadoo O'Chunks's HP bar. "You're not exactly the strongest enemy we've run into. In fact, I'd consider you one of the weakest."

_**"Well I'm not goin' teh let meself lose so easily!" **_Shadoo O'Chunks shot back. _**"Try teh take me down! I dare yeh!"**_

Tipral shrugged and fired a Star Spear at Shadoo O'Chunks. The dark bearded warrior grinned and jumped in the air, hoping to strike Tipral once again. However, his plan backfired when he saw Tipral teleport in front of him.

"Thought you could try to escape one of my attacks, huh?" Tipral wondered.

Before Shadoo O'Chunks could say anything, Tipral grabbed him and tossed him to the ground. With both fists ready, he slammed them down on Shadoo O'Chunks and destroyed the doppelganger of O'Chunks. While this Shadoo could've used O'Chunks's stronger form, it didn't appear that he did.

"That's it?" Chopper gawked. "That was hardly a fight!"

"I wouldn't say it's finished so soon…" Tipral trailed, still sensing Shadoo's presence. "He's still here."

_**"****That's right!" **_the two saw a shadow doppelganger of Mimi appear in front of them. She cracked her neck once again in order to transform into her spider form, which Chopper found to be unpleasant. Tipral never even saw her transform into her spider form, and he was a bit surprised.

"This is how Mimi transforms?" Tipral gawked. "Well, that's a strange way to transform. But it's no big deal."

When Shadoo Mimi was in her spider form she began to shoot black Rubees at the two. This was another point where Chopper felt like he needed Thoreau, but then again, he had his ability to inhale objects!

"_Might as well use it here," _Chopper thought, inhaling the Rubees and spitting it back at Shadoo Mimi. Tipral even landed a jump on the doppelganger girl and left her a little dazed. Shadoo Mimi had 100 HP, an Attack of 21 and a Defense of 9, so nothing had changed from Shadoo O'Chunks that much. Plus, Shadoo Mimi's fighting style was very obvious to Chopper, so he landed a jump on Shadoo Mimi as well.

"So, what does Mimi do in her spider form, if I may ask?" Tipral asked.

"Throw Rubees, climb up the walls, drop Rubees. Mostly Rubees." Chopper answered, trying to make sure Shadoo Mimi wasn't listening in carefully. "She's not that difficult, honestly."

Shadoo Mimi ended up whacking Chopper with one of her spider legs. "Oh… And I think she does that too."

_**"****Mimimimimi! Oh, you dummy heads are so stupid sometimes!" **_Shadoo Mimi cackled. _**"This is going to be soooo easy for me!"**_

"Don't get your hopes up," warned Tipral, his eyes flashing and making Shadoo Mimi get hit by a Star Spark. Despite being stunned, she was still able to fire a Rubee at Tipral's face. He quickly got it off him and threw it back at Shadoo Mimi, who let out a slight scream.

She fled from the two and climbed up the walls so she was up on the ceiling. That's when Rubees were beginning to rise from the ground and hit both Chopper and Tipral. She seemed satisfied, but not satisfied enough. She started dropping a couple of Rubees down, with one of them nearly hitting Chopper's foot.

"Yeesh! That was a bit too close!" Chopper cried. "But what stinks is that I don't know how to get her down… Thoreau helped Kirby and I get her down when we first fought her in her spider form."

"Then I have an idea," Tipral used his Star Rain and let the attack hit Shadoo Mimi and make her land on the ground. Chopper inhaled another Rubee and spat it at her, followed by a jump to the head. One of her six spider legs ended up snapping off.

_**"****EEEEK! Not a spider leg!" **_Shadoo Mimi cried. _**"I'm going to make you regret that, stupid hero!"**_

"It's not my fault you want to destroy me," Chopper shrugged. "I was just defending myself!"

_**"****Well you're the ones who gave me more of a beating than I did! But anyway, I don't want to get off topic. Time to go bye bye!" **_Shadoo Mimi jumped over to the left side of the room and began to charge at Tipral. Using his teleportation powers, he teleported at the right moment, and then Chopper jumped over her so she could crash into the wall. While she was dazed, Chopper chucked a fireball and left her with a nasty burn.

"Since spiders hate fire… I guess this works!"

However, Shadoo Mimi wasn't burning like crazy from Chopper's attack. She smirked and began firing Rubees his way. He prepared to guard, but Tipral's Star Magic blocked the Rubees and made them drop to the ground. He also hurt Shadoo Mimi with his Star Magic because she wasn't making any moves.

"The only ones whose attacks I mostly know are Fawful and Dark's," Tipral recalled. "But Mimi doesn't seem like too much of a threat to me."

_**"****But I'm not truly Mimi! So I may not play exactly like she does!" **_Shadoo Mimi exclaimed.

"That's true, but you're much weaker in that form," Chopper smirked, inhaling a Rubee and spitting it at her. While she was dazed, he threw a rainbow ball and made another spider leg snap off.

_**"****Will you stop that?!"**_

"Gladly," Chopper smiled, letting Tipral jump and land a Star Punch on Shadoo Mimi when she least expected it. She was left dazed again, so Tipral decided to yank off a spider leg himself.

"Pathetic," Tipral scoffed, dropping the spider leg on the ground, which angered Shadoo Mimi as she whacked him with one of her three remaining spider legs. Tipral skid across the floor with his arms up, barely guarding the attack Shadoo Mimi left on him. Chopper was prepared to freeze her, but her spider legs attached to the ceiling and floor so she could spin her head. Four Rubees appeared on her head so neither of them could hit her.

Chopper tried firing the ice ball at her, but the Rubees around her were able to stop the attack.

"Great… The best we can do is… Wait!" Chopper flipped into 3-D with Tipral and moved aside so Shadoo Mimi could fly all over the place in a straight direction. When she finally stopped, they went back into 2-D and saw how baffled Shadoo Mimi was when she saw them unharmed.

_**"****What?! How did you DODGE that?!" **_Shadoo Mimi gaped.

"You must've forgotten that I could flip," Chopper said, jumping on her head and making her fourth spider leg snap off. Tipral helped stun her again and made her fifth spider leg snap off with his Star Spear. For them, things were looking good, but to Shadoo Mimi, they were not.

"You've only got one spider leg left," Tipral noted. "Did you really think you would stop us in this form?"

_**"****At least I was able to weaken you," **_retorted Shadoo Mimi.

"Hardly," Tipral snapped his finger and left Shadoo Mimi stunned with his Star Magic. To finish her off, he jumped and landed a Star Kick on the doppelganger of Mimi, which not only snapped her last spider leg off, but also defeated her when she disintegrated.

"Considering that Shadoo has more duplicates, there's bound to be more," Chopper said, getting in a fighting stance.

Shadoo Fawful appeared with his Headgear and let out a cackle. _**"At last! The battle of all battles will begin! Fawful will destroy you, and then you will be mixed within the dressing of a salad that is made of shadow!"**_

"Yeah… He still doesn't make sense." Chopper face palmed, hurling a light ball at Shadoo Fawful and making him screech in pain. "At least the light power does hurt him the most. Maybe I should start using that more?"

Shadoo Fawful still had 100 HP like the other two doppelgangers, but his Attack was 22, and he had a Defense of 10. Not to mention he still had that speech pattern that Chopper found very annoying.

Tipral, however, felt a little more confident against Shadoo Fawful, since he once fought against him back in The Overthere. While he doesn't remember his move set a hundred percent, perhaps he might start to remember as they fight him.

"Come on!" Chopper taunted, ready to take on Shadoo Fawful. The dark doppelganger shot dark globs energy out of his Headgear, which landed near his foot. Chopper got rid of the dark energy with the help of his light power, which he shot near his foot. He prepared to fire another light ball, but Shadoo Fawful was already hit by a shadow ball.

_**"****So the dark antenna has striking!" **_Shadoo Fawful spat, shaking his had rapidly before taking out his blaster and shooting at Tipral. He was able to dodge two of the shots, but ended up getting blasted by the third. He let out a grunt while Shadoo Fawful couldn't help but cackle.

In order to shut him up, he hurled a Star Spear and sent him flying to one of the walls. It left his Headgear a little damaged, but it was still able to work just fine. To make matters worse, Shadoo Fawful was starting to fly all over the place, making it difficult to catch the dark doppelganger.

_**"****You lack the attacking to catch Fawful!" **_scoffed Shadoo Fawful, who continued to shoot dark globs of energy down at the two. Chopper ended up getting hit by a couple, but Tipral couldn't take it any longer and decided to stop time in order to make things work his way.

Once everything was frozen in time, Tipral could see Chopper already getting hit by some of Shadoo Fawful's attacks, while the doppelganger himself was grinning, despite his shadowy appearance being difficult to see his grin. Tipral started off by hitting him with his Star Spark, and then he hurled two Star Spears, followed by a snap of his finger as soon as time went back to normal.

_**"****Urk! Fawful feels pain!" **_Shadoo Fawful cringed, feeling the large amount of pain delivered to him. An explosion emitted from his Headgear, causing him to crash over by the right wall.

"Great! We…got him?" Chopper gawked, unsure of how his Headgear exploded. "Hold on a second… How the heck did his Headgear explode in the first place? Did you do something, Tipral?"

"I simply stopped time and did a little bit of damage to him and his Headgear," Tipral answered. "Now that he can't fly around anymore, it's best for us to finish the job."

_**"****I have pain…" **_Shadoo Fawful muttered while getting up. _**"But Fawful still has the energy of a flying moose! Now you shall taste Fawful's fury, with an extra hint of sprinkles on top!"**_

Chopper face palmed and charged up a light ball while he dodged Shadoo Fawful's blaster. The shot ended up hitting Tipral instead, who retaliated with a Star Spear. Chopper was forced to duck again and let Shadoo Fawful get hit by the attack before he could fire his light ball. It was enough to leave the beany doppelganger blind and in pain.

_**"****Ouch! Brightness! It is the light of pain!"**_

"Don't you mean, 'Ouch! HOTNESS! It is the overheat!'?" Chopper wondered, trying to imitate Fawful's voice. All he received was Shadoo Fawful's laser sword hitting him. "Ouch! Now THAT hurt!"

"Keep in mind that this isn't the real Fawful," Tipral reminded. "He's not as powerful as the real Fawful. He's just a clone."

Chopper nodded as he ducked under Shadoo Fawful's laser sword. Tipral decided to pull Chopper out of the way so he could punch the doppelganger in the face. He was hoping to break his glasses, but it was probably difficult to see because of Shadoo Fawful's appearance. He decided to add a Star Kick so he could see Shadoo Fawful crash into the wall. Tipral was reminded of the real Fawful betraying him so he could become leader.

"You know, because of how angry I am at Fawful for betraying me, I can simply take all of that anger out on you!" Tipral realized, teleporting over to Shadoo Fawful and grabbing him. "Too bad that person is still alive, or I would have already killed him by now!"

"Tipral! Calm down!" Chopper cried, seeing Tipral throw Shadoo Fawful across the room. The doppelganger was low on HP, and only one more attack would most likely do him in.

But he had no time to react, because Tipral already destroyed him with his Star Spear. "And that takes care of you."

Unfortunately, Shadoo still had more doppelgangers. Shadoo Mr. L teleported in between Chopper and Tipral and struck a boastful look.

_**"****What? You destroyed three of my clones already?! L-ame! Hey, Mr. Pale green starwarrior thatjumps andcopies abilities andruns reallyfast! And you too, Mr. Darkone thatlooks likepalegreen! Let's just settle this once and for all! Have at you!"**_

"Mr. L… Well, he's just like Luigi…in a way." Chopper pondered. "This shouldn't be too difficult!"

Shadoo Mr. L conjured up some electricity and fired it Chopper's way. "Oh… I completely forgot about his thunder powers!"

Tipral teleported in order to dodge his attack and snapped his finger so Shadoo Mr. L could get hit by Tipral's attack. The doppelganger jumped on his head and taunted before hurling an electric ball their way. Chopper inhaled it to gain the Plasma ability, and he surrounded himself in an electric barrier once Shadoo Mr. L tried to jump on him. The results were quite shocking.

_**"****No fair!" **_Shadoo Mr. L whined. _**"You can't just take my powers and do that to me!"**_

"There aren't any rules in this fight," Chopper smirked, charging up a Speed Dash to create a small electric barrier around him. Once his attack was fully charged, he fired his Plasma Wave upon Shadoo Mr. L and left him paralyzed. He had 100 HP, an Attack of 22 and a Defense of 11.

"Good thinking, Chopper," Tipral complimented before hitting Shadoo Mr. L with his Star Spark. "Taking his ability and using it against him? That's the best idea I've heard for a while. Especially since it can paralyze."

_**"****Gah! That… That makes no sense!" **_Shadoo Mr. L howled. _**"And here I thought this doppelganger would be very useful…"**_

"Doesn't look like it!" Chopper smiled, jumping on Shadoo Mr. L's head and even landing a shocking kick. Eventually Shadoo Mr. L shook off the paralysis and tried to attack with a Super Jump. But since Chopper and Tipral were on the ground, the attack was deemed pointless.

Shadoo Mr. L made a face, but that didn't stop him from hitting Chopper and Tipral with his electric attack. Tipral was paralyzed, but Chopper didn't seem to be too harmed by the attack. In fact, it helped him charge up another Plasma Wave that he fired on the doppelganger. Shadoo Mr. L wasn't going to last very long.

Chopper thought this fight would be a lot more difficult, but he didn't care. He prepared to jump on Shadoo Mr. L, but he had a plan himself and used his Super Jump to knock away Chopper's Plasma ability and even deal some massive damage.

_**"****Ho ho! Now who's got the last laugh now?!" **_Shadoo Mr. L chortled.

"You certainly won't," Tipral replied, teleported in front of Shadoo Mr. L and striking him in the face with a Star Punch. That was enough to destroy the doppelganger of Mr. L, who was much easier than they thought.

_**"****This isn't over yet," **_Shadoo hissed, appearing as a dark doppelganger as Dark Doom. _**"I still have this doppelganger left! And even if you defeat me, I will still have more doppelgangers to use against you!"**_

Chopper gave Shadoo Dark an irritated look, but he shrugged and dodged Shadoo Dark's kick. This doppelganger was certainly the strongest of the five, with 100 HP, an Attack of 23 and a Defense of 12. Tipral knew some of Dark's moves himself, but he knew of all the minions, he would most likely put up the biggest fight by using strategy, speed, and power.

But Chopper faced Dark plenty of times with his friends, and they were able to take him down no problem. Since Chopper knew Dark's attacks, he was able to avoid Shadoo Dark's blasters and kicks.

"You need to come up with a new strategy with that doppelganger," Chopper scoffed. "'Cause it's certainly not going to do much to me!"

Tipral ducked when he saw Shadoo Dark fired two shots his way. He was not one to duck like a pancake like Chopper, but he had his ways of avoiding shots. Tipral teleported up to Shadoo Dark and landed a Star Kick on him. He would've landed a punch if Shadoo Dark didn't use his cape to teleport away from him.

_**"****Don't think I'm letting you win so easily this time," **_Shadoo Dark hissed. _**"You've destroyed my other creations, and now I'm going to throw everything I've got on you!"**_

Chopper hurled a light ball his way, which Shadoo Dark tried to block with his cape. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work, since it went through and struck the evil doppelganger. _**"Huh?! Your light powers seem to go through my cape! How is that possible?!"**_

"Maybe because light power triumphs dark," Chopper answered, his fists surrounded in a light glow. "And I'm going to make sure that my light power takes you down!"

"Then again, dark can triumph light," Tipral added. "But that's not important. I just want to crush this guy off so we can finally get out of here."

_**"****That is if you can get out of here!" **_Shadoo Dark smirked, teleporting over to Tipral and grabbing him. He jumped in the air and spun around like a twister before slamming his opponent to the ground. Tipral let out a grunt as he got up, but he was able to get in some Star Magic on Shadoo Dark before he could make another move. Chopper also made him trip with a light sweeping kick once he approached him.

But as soon as Chopper could jump on him, Shadoo Dark grabbed him and threw him onto the ground. He cast of a grin that Chopper couldn't see, but he wasn't paying too much attention to his facial expression. The two blasters in his hand were a much bigger threat.

_**"****Say your prayers, hero!" **_Shadoo Dark cackled.

He was about to pull the trigger, but he was struck by a Star Spear and knocked away. His shots ended up hitting the replica of the Chaos Heart, but instead of breaking it, the shot ricocheted off the replica and hit Shadoo Dark instead.

Chopper seemed satisfied, which made him charge up two light balls. Tipral charged up two shadow balls and waited for Shadoo Dark to get up. He quickly fired the two shadow balls his way and left the doppelganger flinching from each shadow ball. Tipral was wondering how a dark being such as Shadoo was getting hurt by dark energy.

But then Chopper threw his light balls at Shadoo Dark, which seemed to do much more damage than the shadow balls. _**"You, hero…**__**Now that I think about it, you're probably the bigger threat to me! Maybe I should focus on getting rid of you first!"**_

Shadoo Dark jumped in the air and prepared to hit Chopper with a lightning fast kick. But, Tipral had other plans when he stopped time just before Shadoo Dark could strike Chopper. He started off by hitting him with some Star Magic a couple of times, and then he landed a Star Punch. Once he reverted time back to normal, Shadoo Dark found himself knocked to the wall.

Tipral approached Shadoo Dark while he was trying to get up. He noticed the angry eyes of Tipral getting closer, and his fists were surrounded in a light purple glow, indicating that he was ready to finish him off. Shadoo Dark found the chance to make his move and shot Tipral before he could land a punch on him. He teleported up to him and then landed a couple of kicks and punches to send him flying to the wall.

_**"****Hold on… Wasn't I supposed to get rid of the hero first?" **_Shadoo Dark realized before turning to Chopper. He drew his blasters and fired at the Star Warrior, only to have his shots get thrown back when Chopper inhaled and spat the projectiles back. _**"Lucky shot, hero! For a kid, you certainly do put up a bit of a fight!"**_

"Why thank you!" Chopper smirked. "I've been doing this hero business for six years, so of course I might put up a big fight!"

_**"****Six years… I see… But all of that hard work won't get you anywhere here! You see, this place is-"**_

Shadoo Dark felt something strike him from behind. Tipral happened to fire a Star Spear his way to interrupt his little speech. "Look, you can cut the monologue so we can actually finish this."

Shadoo Dark turned his head to Tipral and started to fire at him with one blaster while firing at Chopper with the other. Chopper quickly flipped into 3-D while Tipral teleported above the doppelganger to land a Star Kick on his head. But that didn't stop Shadoo Dark from firing a Swift Strike at him.

_**"****I should remember to use this more often," **_Shadoo Dark reminded while he fired small meteors Tipral's way. Chopper went back into 2-D and jumped on Shadoo Dark and then landed a light slamming kick to add in a little more to his attack. This angered Shadoo Dark, who grabbed Chopper and threw him straight at Tipral. Both crashed onto the wall, with Chopper being left in a daze.

_**"****Well, looks like the tides have been turned to my favor! Heh heh!" **_Shadoo Dark smirked. _**"It ends here!"**_

"Now hold on a second…" Chopper paused, now out of his daze. "What kind of name is Shadoo anyway? That's such a stupid name for someone like you!"

_**"****My name represents the word 'shadow', and it makes sense for me because I can become shadows of others. Your name, however… It makes no sense! It doesn't even fit you!"**_

"Oh, yeah? Then I'll prove it!" Chopper's right hand was surrounded in a light glow, but he first threw a rainbow ball at him before performing a chop that wasn't stronger than his punch, but it was able to still hurt Shadoo Dark and leave him low on HP. "Is that enough for you?"

Shadoo Dark knew he couldn't handle anymore, so he tried to make a getaway, but Tipral grabbed a hold of his cape and pulled him back. "I'm not done with you just yet, Shadoo! The fight's not finished!"

Shadoo Dark struggled to get away, but Tipral's grip was too strong. A Star Spear was all Tipral needed to finish off Shadoo and leave the doppelganger of Dark in defeat.

_**"****Unnghh… Wh-What?! I was…so very…close. How was this possible? I copied them exactly how I imagined…and I was defeated?!" **_Shadoo Dark gaped._** "No… I cannot lose so soon…"**_

Shadoo Dark disintegrated, but Shadoo was not completely gone. The dark mist left from Shadoo made an escape over to the blocked exit.

_**"****So long for now, you two! Don't expect this to be the last of me!" **_Shadoo hollered before making an exit out of the tower. Thankfully, the blocked lift was now open for them, but before anything else could be done, a dark ! switch appeared in the room.

"Great… He got away." Chopper sighed. "And he said something about this not being the last time we meet. …I kind of wish Kirby was here for this. He would love to get back at this Shadoo for trying to mess with him."

"Shadoo's gone for now, so we shouldn't worry about him at the moment," Tipral noted. "But this switch… You need to hit it."

Chopper nodded and struck the switch with a light ball. That was all he needed to make something outside the tower shake. Surely something big happened, so they wasted no time and left the tower.

* * *

**Courtyard-**

When they got out of the Tower of the Chaos Heart, they noticed the end of the courtyard to the right now had a door. Chopper smiled as he approached the door, but he frowned when he turned back to the courtyard.

"I don't think we'll be seeing a place like this anymore…" Chopper trailed.

"Well, not everything is that peaceful here," Tipral noted. "We're in The Void. It's supposed to be filled with danger."

"I guess you're right. Let's get going, I suppose." Chopper opened the door, and he and Tipral entered a small area. The floor was back to being dark purple and black, and the air around them was heavy like before. There were three white blocks in the area, which almost reminded Chopper of those blocks in Castle Tipral.

"If this puzzle is just like the one in my castle, then this shouldn't be hard," Tipral declared, hitting the second block to create a door. He entered, only to come back out ten seconds later.

"What is it?" wondered Chopper.

"It's a dead end. There's nothing of interest in there."

"Oh… Then let's try the third one!" Chopper hit the third block, which made a door for them to walk in. They found themselves in another similar area to the previous one. There was a Darkling roaming around, but a light ball was all Chopper needed to destroy it.

They chose to hit the first block, which created a door. It led them into another area with three blocks. But instead of hitting the second block, Tipral hit the first block.

"Sometimes each block isn't always used," Tipral noted. "We should try going through the first door again."

"All right…" Chopper shrugged, following Tipral through the door. This time, instead of the same area, they were met with a larger area with two pits and a locked door ahead. A Save Block was over by it as well, which made Chopper smile. "Hey, we may be nearing the end!"

"We're not near the center of The Void yet," Tipral informed. "However, we should be going into deeper territory through that door. Unfortunately, it appears to be locked…"

Chopper noticed some ripped holes in the background, which gave him an idea. He flipped Tipral and himself into 3-D and jumped through one of the holes. They found a chest and two yellow ? blocks. Not to mention there were two Dark Wizrims and two Dark Skelloknights.

"Yipe…" Chopper gulped. "Four strong enemies!"

The two Dark Skelloknights detected Chopper and Tipral's presence, so they began to make their way over to them. Sure, there was no Void Skelloknight in sight, but two Dark Skelloknights was a bit difficult too. And fighting two Dark Wizrims was no laughing matter either.

Nevertheless, the two began to fight the enemies, with Chopper handling the Dark Wizrims, and Tipral handling the Dark Skelloknights. All Tipral had to do was use his Star powers to break their armor off and then teleport so he didn't get hit by their swords. It didn't take too long for him to take down the two Dark Skelloknights.

Chopper probably had an easier time, thanks to his light power. He simply threw light balls at the two Dark Wizrims, and they were soon finished. He did get hit a few times, but it wasn't anything big.

He opened up the chest to get a Void Key, and he also hit the first yellow ? block to find an Ultimate Shroom. He split it with Tipral so they could recover 100 HP. The other block contained a Star Shroom, so they ate that too to recover 150 HP.

After going back to the other side of the wall, they stopped and heard another battle occurring below them. Only this time, they weren't as close to the fight like last time. They could see it was a fight between more Maginans and Shadow Wizards, Wizrims, etc. The Maginans were obviously winning.

"Heh heh! Do these fantasy idiots really believe magic and swords will help them?!" a Dark Maginan scoffed, blasting a Dark Wizrim. "Our weapons are vastly superior!"

A Void Skellobit charged at one of the Maginans, but its spear did squat to its armor, so one of the Maginan's allies shot it for them. There were even some dark purple Maginans in the fight, and they seemed to be vastly superior to the other enemies on the battlefield.

Then came a Void Skelloknight that joined into the fight. It raised its sword and swung it, which was enough to send a couple of Maginans flying back. One Dark Maginan approached it while blasting at some other enemies.

"Yeah, yeah… You got dark purple armor, so what?" the Dark Maginan taunted, while the Void Skelloknight remained silent and cast a glare upon the trooper. A retractable blade came out of the Dark Maginan's wrist as it tried to lunge its fist forward. "Well bring it on!"

But there was one trooper Chopper noticed that caught him off guard. There was a taller trooper in black and dark purple armor. Purple eyes could be seen through its helmet, and there was a lighter purple spike on the left and right side of its head. It held a futuristic assault rifle and wore a jetpack that seemed vastly superior to the Maginans.

"You people can fight all you want, but there's something more important for me to do," the trooper declared. "Us remaining Darksprine Troopers are NOT going to let our leader's nemesis get away with destroying him! He may think we're all gone, but he will be proven wrong…"

Chopper gulped as the Darksprine flew away from the battlefield. "Oh, no… Not a Darksprine Trooper… I remember those guys being much bigger threats than anything I've faced thus far!"

"Then we shouldn't linger here any longer," noted Tipral. "Unlock the door so we can get moving!"

Chopper nodded and hit the Save Block near the door. With that out of the way, he took out the key, unlocked the door, and headed through the door with his dark counterpart.

* * *

**Next area-**

Once through the door, they noticed the area they stood in was just like any other fighting arena. In fact, the two were no longer surprised to see an area like this because they've already encountered these kinds of places! But at the same time, they were surprised, because they knew there was no one else they knew that wanted to get rid of them.

…Or was there?

A loud booming sound could be heard from The Void, and that gave them a feeling that they weren't safe here. Thankfully, the tremble was slight, and things began to calm down afterward.

"Strange… Why would we be in a similar area like this?" Chopper wondered. "Haven't we already encountered all of your minions?"

"Yes, we have," Tipral nodded, but his antennas started to twitch. "But… I can feel some kind of strange power in here. A power that feels so familiar. It feels like…magic?"

"Ah ha ha ha! Salutations, Chopper and Tipral! It's been a while…"

Chopper and Tipral saw Dimentio in the center of the area, greeting them with his demented smile. The two were left in complete shock as they approached the excited jester.

"_D-D-Dimentio?!_" Chopper gaped and left completely off guard by the sight of Dimentio. "But… You… Tipral's Palace…"

"You thought I was destroyed back at Tipral's Palace?" Dimentio finished, giving him a smirk.

"Y-Yeah…" Chopper slowly nodded, his eyes still bugged out.

"My my, Chopper… You seem rather surprised by me being here. And you too, Tipral! I'm sure you two missed seeing me wander around and giving you pleasant dialogue."

"Get out of the way, Dimentio!" Tipral roared. "Or I'm going to blow your head off this instant!"

"And you haven't seemed to change either, my good friend! Why, I was just thinking of you guys while I was off being dead like a god who is stalking a person he is interested in."

"I don't want your stupid similes, Dimentio. GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Dimentio ignored Tipral and noticed the group. "And what's this? You are the only two left of seven! You seem to be missing a pink pancake, a blue spiky hedgehog, a fluffy cat, and two hairy men! It seems like your little army has fallen apart!"

"As much as I want to blow your head away, we probably don't have the time for that. I suggest you get out of the way or else!"

"Hold on, Tipral… I wanna know HOW Dimentio is still alive!" Chopper said as he cast a glare at the jester. "You are going to explain everything to us right now!"

"Ahhh, I see now. You two are interested in how I came back to life?" Dimentio wondered.

"Honestly, I don't care. Just leave now."

"Ohhhh… Yes, you two have very limited time in this realm! Very well, allow me to take my bow and exit the show so you can reach the core of The Void." Dimentio smiled, snapping his finger and disappearing while leaving the air to ripple near him.

"What the…" Tipral gawked.

"Well, just as soon as you defeat me! Ah ha ha ha ha."

"No way…" Chopper frowned. "We're not playing another one of your stupid games!"

"So, you don't wish to know how I managed to come back to life? Such a shame… I just wanted to have a little fun, and you refuse to play my game?"

"I'll just move on through the door then," Tipral decided, approaching the door ahead and attempting to open it. Sadly, he couldn't get anything.

"…Oh! Did I mention I used my magic to block the door? The only way you'll be able to go through is if you play my game! The same rules are applied to before. Only this time, I'm not going to make it as easy for you, for you two have proved to be worthy foes! If you can finish my little game of tag, I might share some information on my comeback…involving magic!"

"Grrrrr!" Tipral growled. "Fine! We'll play your stupid game! And then when we're done, I'll simply crush your head and then move on!"

A dark ! block appeared above the two, which Chopper knew he had to hit. As much as he didn't want to play this stupid game with one of his biggest enemies _again_, it was the only way to progress. With a light ball in his hand, he hurled it straight at the dark ! block, and they were soon out of The Void.

* * *

**CHAPTER 1-2**

When Chopper and Tipral appeared from the ripple of air, they noticed the green grass on the ground and the path up ahead. The sky above them was completely blocked by The Void, indicating that this world's end was coming.

"We're back in…Lineland Road?!" Chopper gaped. He turned around and noticed the other path going to Mount Lineland. "Strange…"

"I can see that clown up ahead," Tipral noted, pointing to the jester who was simply flying away on his own past the weak enemies. "I'd like to catch that freak before it's too late!"

"All right, let's hope I remember where to go…" Chopper walked over to the pipes after jumping over some bottomless pits and pondered. A Piranha Plant popped out of the middle pipe and tried to bite him, but his fireball took care of it. "Oh! I think I know what to do here!"

He flipped into 3-D and discovered the same brick block behind the pipe. He hit it to create a ladder that led up to a small trail of clouds.

Tipral followed Chopper up the ladder and onto the clouds, where they jumped off and landed on a hill moving up. Chopper jumped on a Koopa and kicked its shell over to the Waddle Dee before getting knocked away by a Spiny Tromp rolling down the hill. All Chopper did was flip into 3-D and go around the Spiny Tromps before reaching the top of the hill and finding a light ! block.

"I'll handle this," declared Tipral, hurling a shadow ball at the block, causing them to get teleported out of Lineland Road.

* * *

**CHAPTER 2-1**

"Whoa… This is Gloam Valley!" Chopper gaped. He also happened to find Dimentio flying ahead. "And there's Dimentio!"

Chopper found himself on a small island, and there was a small one just up ahead past some cannons that were underwater. He could just swim over there, but not in 2-D. That's way too dangerous.

"I think I have a better idea," Tipral said before teleporting to the other side. He also helped Chopper to the other side as well so he didn't have to deal with the cannons.

They thought they would have to travel through this entire area to find a block, but they happened to find a dark ! block on the island with a couple of coconuts hanging from the trees. They stood back so they could fall on the ground and explode before Chopper struck the block with a light ball. They were soon out of this world.

* * *

**CHAPTER 3-2**

"Hey… We're in the Tile Pool!" Chopper realized, noticing the water around him. They happened to see Dimentio taking the way to the left past the undertow. They followed him while avoiding the Bloopers and Cheep-Cheeps that were swimming around.

Thankfully, Sonic wasn't around to deal with the Tile Pool, so Chopper didn't have to worry about taking him through the undertow. The light ! block, however, happened to be at the very beginning of the area.

"Huh… Well, I never knew we'd see this block here…" Chopper trailed.

"Let's just get out of here," Tipral said before striking the block with a shadow ball, teleporting them out of the Bitlands.

* * *

**CHAPTER 4-3**

The two were teleported into Outer Space, in a large area with many brick blocks in sight. From what Chopper could remember, this was where he had to go find Squirps some chocolate so he could open the gate. However, the only difference was that the blue wormholes were all gone.

"What is this supposed to be?" Tipral asked.

"Outer space, or rather the Space Bypass," Chopper answered. "And Dimentio's bound to be around here somewhere."

There were Eeligons roaming around on the brick blocks, but they decided to ignore them and search around for a dark ! block. It happened to be located in the upper right, rather than the way to Twinkle Mart.

"Well that was easy," Chopper said before striking the block with a light ball and teleporting out of the vicinity.

* * *

**CHAPTER 5-5**

The two were teleported into King Neptunian's Palace, but what they thought would be peaceful and clean turned out to be just what Chopper had seen when he came here before. Polluted waters, a brownish floor, and ruins everywhere with destroyed plants.

"And here I thought Neptunian would fix this place up," Chopper frowned.

But before they did anything else, they noticed they were in an underwater tunnel, and the current happened to be pulling them away. Chopper decided to stay calm and let the current pull him through the tunnel, and once a pole came up ahead, he grabbed it so he didn't get hit by any spikes.

"I don't believe I was here before," Tipral mentioned.

"Well, that explains why you don't know of this area," Chopper said. "Though, I think we _were_ here before."

He let go of the pole and passed a couple of other poles, causing him and Tipral to be carried downward and to the bottom of Neptunian's Palace. Chopper could tell by the blue walls and also the waterfall they happened to come out of. Beside Neptunian's door was a light ! block.

Tipral conjured up a shadow ball and hit the block to teleport them out of Neptunian's Palace.

* * *

**CHAPTER 6-4**

"Uh oh… Not the Sand Castle." Chopper gulped as he and Tipral were teleported in the Sand Castle. Or rather, on it because they were outside on a bridge. "Wait a second… Wasn't this world destroyed?"

"Or maybe this is just an illusion…" Tipral pondered.

"Ah ha ha ha. You're doing very good so far!" Dimentio applauded, using his magic to bring in an army of Big Bandits to charge before disappearing. He left behind a dark ! block as well at the end of the bridge.

However, because these Big Bandits were weak, they were easily defeat Chopper's jumps and Tipral's Star powers. They were literally gone within seconds.

And that gave Chopper enough time to get them out of this desert by hitting the dark ! block. The thought of how they were able to come here was strange, but he didn't want it to linger over his head for too long.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7-5**

"The Overthere?" Chopper gawked, noticing his surroundings. They were indeed in The Overthere, but instead of being near the shrine, they were in Overthere Sector 2, where they saved a Nimbi from some Skellobits. There was also a door up ahead that led into Overthere Sector X. But by now, that place was empty.

But The Void in the background was much bigger than before, and it was certainly prepared to swallow up this world soon. They decided not to waste any time and jumped over to the other cloud and over the small pillars. They assumed the light ! block was where Blubi was.

"Great… We're going to have to make one heck of a climb." Chopper sighed, trying to reach one of the clouds above him. Tipral was thankful enough to teleport him and Chopper up the clouds and up to the small Overthere building where Blubi once was.

"You know, I wonder how Luvbi's doing right now… I mean, after what happened with that final Pure Heart and all… She must be depressed right now!"

"Honestly, that's not important," Tipral replied. "We're supposed to be focusing on catching Dimentio!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right…"

Tipral tossed a shadow ball at the light ! block, and they were soon out of The Overthere.

* * *

**CHAPTER 8-4**

"Wait… Castle Tipral?" Chopper gaped as he and Tipral were teleported into Castle Tipral. They were in a room with mirrors, which Chopper was certain it was the first one because a couple of Dimentios appeared behind the mirrors and fired magic their way.

"What's the matter?" Dimentio mocked. "You don't remember your own castle, Tipral?"

"If only you'd stop being a coward, I can destroy you," Tipral hissed. "I wanted to simply move on, but since you have to do this, you're REALLY getting me angry!"

"Just ignore him, Tipral," Chopper suggested. "He's purposely trying to get you angry. He's Dimentio. He's demented."

Since there was no dark ! block around this side, Chopper decided to go into 3-D with Tipral and jump through one of the fake mirrors. To the left in 2-D, there was a dark ! block waiting for them.

"Too easy!" Chopper smirked before teleporting out of the castle with Tipral once the block was struck.

* * *

**CHAPTER 9-1**

"What is this world?" Tipral gawked when they were teleported into a world full of sweet treats. "Why is there so much candy and sweets in this world?"

They saw Dimentio fly past a Choconut that spotted the two. It began to charge at them until Chopper ate the enemy. He had a strange feeling in him, but he tried not to let it out, because it would be bad.

They made their way down the hill ahead and then ran into a large, jelly-filled donut. Chopper remembered what he had to do on this thing and began to run on it. Tipral did the same thing, causing the donut to move up to the ledge above them. That was where the door was, but when Chopper tried to open it, it wouldn't open.

"There's no block around here!"

"Then it must be located somewhere else…" Tipral pondered, jumping off the ledge. The donut still didn't go down to the bottom, but Tipral did notice something. It happened to be a light ! block. "Well looks like I found our answer."

He struck the light ! block, and they were teleported out of the ninth world.

* * *

**CHAPTER 10-3**

Chopper and Tipral found themselves in a mountain, but they could see that they were at the top. How did they know? There was a sign telling them this was the top, and there were the snowboards, skis and tube on the ground as well.

"Wait a minute… Do we have to go down this mountain?!" Chopper gaped.

"If that's the only way we can go, then we have no choice," Tipral answered. "Just forget the skis. We can go down the mountain ourselves."

"OK…" Chopper followed Tipral down the mountain. He was a bit cold, since he didn't carry any winter wear with him. Also, he definitely wanted to avoid the water in this world after what it did to him last time.

After making their way to the bottom, they were at the frozen lake, which was nothing but chunks of ice floating in the water. The center ice chunk happened to have a dark ! block waiting.

"There it is," Tipral said. "We need to get there."

Chopper nodded and hopped to each ice chunk until he got to the center one. Tipral teleported over to him so the Star Warrior could strike the dark ! block with a light ball and teleport them out of here.

* * *

**CHAPTER 11-2**

"Phew! I'm no longer cold!" Chopper sighed while being teleported to the next world. It was, of course, the Metallic Fortress. "Oh… It's this world. This is definitely one of those worlds I didn't enjoy too much."

Chopper moved up the small hill and saw some electricity on the ground. "And it just HAD to be this part…"

Tipral noticed a Robbie and a Securibot lingering around, so he decided to destroy the Securibot with a Star Spear. A light ball instantly destroyed the Robbie, which surprised Chopper.

"Now we don't have to worry about them," Tipral noted. "Let's go."

They jumped over the electric floor and went around the tall pipe via flipping. The loop afterward was very simple, and it was able to help them go down the hill faster and stop by the door. Apparently there was no block there.

Chopper had an idea strike his head as he ran back through the loop and used the platforms to go on top of the loop. Tipral followed him and discovered a light ! block was floating on top of the loop.

"Hmph… Dimentio sure knows how to fool us." Tipral said before hitting the block with a shadow ball.

* * *

**CHAPTER 12-4**

Both Chopper and Tipral were teleported into a hallway, and both of them definitely knew where they were at this point. After all, they both explored this mansion eight chapters ago.

"We're in the Mansion of Nightmares?" Chopper gawked. "Well… This is interesting."

"And how are we supposed to find the next block?"

"I have an idea," Chopper went into 3-D with Tipral and explored the only hallway in 3-D to reach another hall. Back in 2-D, they discovered a dark ! block over by the left. Chopper struck it with a light block and they were out of the mansion.

* * *

**CHAPTER 13-1**

The two were transported into Sun Town, which was surprisingly empty at the moment. Chopper was wondering why people weren't walking around, but then he realized what it could've been.

The Void lingering up in the sky was big. Very big.

"Oh, geez… This isn't good…" Chopper frowned. "This world may decay pretty soon…"

"I see the block over there," Tipral informed, pointing to the left. The block was surprisingly right there in front of them, but they didn't have much time to be around anyway. Tipral struck it with a shadow ball, and they were soon out.

* * *

**CHAPTER 14-2**

"Hey… It's one of those virtual worlds I was placed in when I was into cyberspace!" Chopper gaped, noticing the green virtual world around him. They saw Dimentio fly up ahead, but they were soon stopped by Chopper Viruses and Kirby Viruses.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot about them." Chopper jumped on the Chopper Virus, while Tipral hit the Kirby Virus with Star Magic. But realizing that they had limited time, they passed them and went down the hill to get launched up by a spring. They landed on the ledge and went past the viruses of Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi and reached the door to find a dark ! block.

With one light ball, they were teleported out of cyberspace.

* * *

**CHAPTER 15-5**

"Wait… Is this the path to Elbi's Shrine?" Chopper questioned as they were teleported to The Peaceness.

"The Peaceness? Oh. This place…" Tipral realized after looking at the sky. "Well this place is doomed to fall too, so we should get a move on."

They made their way up the stairs to Elbi's Shrine, but they didn't find a block in sight. They felt the ground shake around them, indicating that The Void grew bigger.

"Crud… I don't know if we have much longer to be here." Chopper gulped.

"Hold on…" Tipral walked over to the edge of the floor and noticed a block on the cloud. "We can jump off here and hit the block."

"You found the block?"

Chopper followed Tipral onto the cloud and teleported out of The Peaceness after Tipral struck the light ! block.

* * *

**CHAPTER 16-4**

"What the… I don't think I've been here before." Chopper paused, noticing his surroundings in Tipral's Palace. "I mean, I've been in this palace before, but it wasn't a room like this."

They were in a room with a couple of high platforms they were standing on, and also there was a door ahead that most likely could not be opened. Nevertheless, they began to search around for a block. Sadly, they found nothing.

"Nothing's here…" Tipral trailed. "Though, have we checked in 3-D?"

"Oh… No we didn't." Chopper flipped into 3-D and saw a small tunnel to his left. He and Tipral jumped into the tunnel and found the dark ! block at the end. Chopper got a light ball ready and threw it at the block, teleporting them out of the palace.

* * *

**CHAPTER 17-3**

They happened to teleport in the very first area of the forest, but by the end where the door was. Dimentio happened to be flying over to the left.

"Huh… We're back in this underground forest…" Chopper trailed. "I'm surprised we aren't huge here."

"No time to be thinking of that, Chopper. Follow him!" Tipral demanded.

They went down the hill and ran past a few Brushers and spinning tops. They didn't have the time to fight them. They just wanted to get to the next block and get out of this place. Chopper was not much of a fan of it.

After going through the bumpy path, they found the staircase leading up to the cavern. The top of the staircase happened to have a light ! block waiting for them. Tipral skated up the stairs and struck the block with a shadow ball.

* * *

**CHAPTER 18-1**

Chopper soon had a deep frown when he realized where the block teleported them too. Gone was all the color of all the worlds they've chased Dimentio through, and now they were in the World of Nothing, the remains of what were Dimensional X, Sammer's Kingdom, Mobius, the Mushroom Kingdom, Pop Star and Clara.

Chopper was unsure of what to say when Tipral spotted Dimentio flying on ahead.

"Let's just go after him," Tipral suggested.

"OK…" Chopper sighed before he began to trudge through the remains of the worlds. He even saw the black lifeless bodies of his friends around too. Apparently no one dared to go into the pale green door of Flopside Tower when the news came out about the worlds being destroyed.

But what saddened him even more was when he realized he was with the person who destroyed these worlds. But then again, Tipral did have a bit of a change when they were working together. Now they're on the same page with their goal.

Before Chopper could think of anything else, he heard Tipral's voice holler, "Chopper, the dark block's here. Hit it so we can get out of here."

Chopper noticed the dark ! block near the remains of some of Chopper's friends, so he struck the block so he didn't have to see their lifeless bodies in front of him. They not only looked creepy, but it made him feel terrible.

* * *

**Sagein Galaxy-**

"Huh? What is this place?" Tipral gawked, noticing the rainbow-like trail they were now standing on.

"We're in…Sagein Galaxy?" Chopper gaped. "Why are we here?"

They could hear Dimentio's cackling ahead, forcing them to follow him through Rainbow Trail. Chopper wasn't expecting to be back here, but he was glad to return to this place – without having to deal with Metal Chopper or Maquano.

They ran through a couple of corkscrews and loops and eventually reached the area where Chopper faced Phantom Maquano. They knew they were close to the end of the trail, but the light ! block was already near them at this point.

"Hmph… Let's just get out of here." Tipral said, hitting the block with a shadow ball and disappearing with Chopper.

* * *

**CHAPTER 19-5**

"Whew… We're finally at the last area!" Chopper sighed, getting teleported to the large area with Tipral. They knew this was the big area where they fought an army of Dark Creatures and wizards. The turrets were still there, and the door up ahead happened to be open.

"Let's move!" Chopper said before running off to the door ahead. Tipral skated after him through the door and up the stairs. Surprisingly, there happened to be no enemies in sight, which was very nice.

The door to where was once Shade's Castle was open too, and they noticed everything was a bit of a wreck. Some pieces of the platform they fought Shade were on the floor, but the castle still remained above them.

"Not much has changed since we were here…" Chopper realized.

"That I can agree with," Tipral said before noticing the dark ! block near the rubble. "Chopper, there's the dark block. You might as well hit it."

Chopper nodded and approached the block. With the light power in his hand, he struck it, and they were teleported out of the Comet of Darkness.

* * *

**The Void-**

When the two were finally teleported back into The Void, they were actually relieved to be back in the darkness. As much as it was nice to see those worlds, trying to chase after Dimentio was a big pain.

"Finally… We're finished!" Chopper sighed.

"So, were you enjoying my little game?" Dimentio chuckled, grinning at the sight of the exhausted two.

"Dimentio… We had enough of your stupid games." Tipral growled as the two approached him.

"I must congratulate you two on making it all the way back here! You were able to go through twenty worlds, yet you seem a little exhausted!"

"That should be enough of your games for now," Chopper stated. "You're not messing with us any longer."

"Messing around? Oh, no. Magic is something to be taken seriously. You should've known that by now. But, why did I decide to play that little game with you? Perhaps just to have a little laugh! Ah ha ha ha. Did you have a little laugh too?"

"Shut up, Dimentio," Tipral hissed, firing a Star Spear his way. Dimentio summoned a Rubee and blocked his attack. "What the…"

"Now now, Tipral… We won't be having any of that right now! Anyway… Since you two have finished my game, I suppose I should be fair and explain everything to you. That is what you want, right?"

"Yes, explain to us HOW you managed to come back to life!" demanded Chopper. "I mean, you were killed after you took the Chaos Heart for the third time! There's no way you could've lived after committing suicide!"

"Hush now, little Star Warrior so I can explain," suggested Dimentio, making Chopper stay quiet. "You see, after I destroyed myself back on that asteroid, I actually left a shadow of my spirit behind. You see, for my plan to work, I had to let myself lose to you!"

"So you purposely di-"

"When did I say you could talk? …Now, where was I? Ah, yes! To fully complete my plan before coming back to life, I had to not only gain power from my own magic, but from your minions, Tipral! Chopper, remember when O'Chunks was going nuts in that cavern?"

"Yeah…"

"That was just me possessing him! Wasn't that simply magical? And from that, I was able to gain some of O'Chunks's powers! As for the others… They were much easier to gain their abilities, since they were already in one place! …Well, except for Dark, but getting his powers was simple too."

The jester turned away from the two and continued on. "However, my plan wasn't fully complete. I still had to get myself to come back to life. To do this, I had to send Tipral to the Comet of Darkness and Chopper to Sagein Galaxy so he could restore the Pure Heart with the powers of the three sages. So with that, you could finally get to the comet and meet up with Tipral and your friends so you could defeat Shade Doom."

"Wait, so you did all of that?" Chopper gawked. "As much as an evil, psychotic jester you are, I have to commend you for that. That did help us get the last two Pure Hearts…"

"And that's what I was planning!" Dimentio smirked, turning back to Chopper and Tipral. "With Shade finally defeated, I just needed him to use his dark magic to bring me back to life. You see, the only way a shadowy spirit can be brought back from the dead is if a dark wizard uses his dark magic on the spirit."

"So you… Hold on a second! Does this mean Shade is still ALIVE?!"

"Very much alive. In fact, he's actually in this darkness too! Isn't that just wonderful? Ah ha ha ha! Now he can get his revenge on you if he ever finds you! And now that I am alive, I can finally get what I want: the True Chaos Heart!"

"Too bad you're never going to fulfill your plan," Chopper declared, getting in a fighting stance. "We're still here, and we're going to stop you!"

"Oh, yes, I nearly forgot about what I was going to do with you," Dimentio realized. "Since you two are a waste of time, I shall end your games. So, Tipral… Shall we get started?"

"Tipral? But what about me?"

"Yes, you are in fact a nuisance, but I think it would be much more enjoyable to face off against my ex-leader! I want to see how strong he has become ever since we fought back in his castle! You are of no importance to me…_yet_."

"Well I'm standing by his side," Chopper declared. "He's helped me through a lot in this darkness, and he's even saved my life a couple of times! Why should I just leave him to fight you? We're in this together now, and we're going to destroy the True Chaos Heart and save every world!"

Before Chopper could continue, he was punched in the faced and knocked over. He let out a grunt before slowly getting up. He cast Dimentio a glare, but he noticed he was too far to even punch him. But then he turned to Tipral, who was casting off a glare while his right fist was surrounded in a light purple glow.

"T-Tipral…? You did that?" Chopper gaped.

"Chopper, I was _never_ your friend," Tipral stated coldly.

"Wh-What?! B-But… What about all of those times you helped me?!"

"I helped you because I was trying to gain your trust. You see, if I never helped you or saved you, you would still be angry at me, and most likely you would not want me to help you out. I was surprised how much trust you showed to me, even when I destroyed your world. It just shows how gullible you are."

"Then my friends would've seen through your intentions!"

"They would have… You're right. But they were convinced by you that I was actually trying to help you guys stop the True Chaos Heart. See, they trust you much more than they would trust me. Does that make sense?"

"…So you've been using us this whole time so you could reach the True Chaos Heart. Is that it?" Chopper asked, a hint of both sadness and anger in him. "You still chose your thoughtless side over trying to be thoughtful? And let me guess, you want the True Chaos Heart's power as well?"

"I'm glad you finally figured it out," Tipral slowly nodded. "Dimentio's not the only one with that kind of plan. But for now, our partnership is over!"

Chopper's head hung low with a feeling of betrayal in his mind. Tipral crossed his arms before Chopper looked back up at him.

"I suggest you get out of here before anything bad happens to you," the dark being suggested. "As much as I hate you, I will let you off on a head start. That way, maybe there's a chance you will reach the True Chaos Heart first and be able to destroy it. But that honestly depends. Going through the rest of this darkness on your own is very difficult."

Chopper stood silent again before turning away. "You really disappoint me, Tipral… Here I thought I could trust you with your help, but in the end, you're still nothing but a monster..."

He slowly began to walk off in sadness over to the door ahead, which was now unlocked by Dimentio's magic.

"Ah ha ha ha. How tender. I think I almost shed a tear." Dimentio chuckled emotionlessly. "All this time, Chopper was just being used by Tipral so he could reach the True Chaos Heart himself! I will commend you on your efforts, Tipral! Gaining his trust and making his friends trust you a bit! You did a much better job than I did! Bravo!"

"Shut up, clown," Tipral snapped. "I will deal with him later. For right now, it's _you_ who's going to have their game end once and for all! And I will make sure your game ends for good!"

"Ah… The anger in you builds up like a pot overflowing with boiling water! I see we both want to use that dark power for destruction! Since we're on the same agenda, maybe we should work together?"

"Don't even try to convince me. I will NEVER work with you. Now stay still so I can finally blow your head away!"

"If we must use the act of violence, then so be it," Dimentio declared, floating off the ground. "And now we battle, like two cowboys who are waiting to pull the trigger on their guns on a cold, snowy day!"

Dimentio cast off a grin and easily dodged Tipral's Star Spear coming his way. With the new powers he had gained, he can finally test them for the first time. And who was a better person to test them on other than Tipral?

"Oh, Tipral, there are so many powers I want to show you. It'll be exciting, like a child eager to open a present on Christmas day!" Dimentio smiled while hurling his magic down at the dark being. All Tipral did was dodge it with his teleporting powers.

"I already know your moves, Dimentio," Tipral replied. "I've faced you before, and I didn't forget what you could pull off!"

From looking at Dimentio's stats, Tipral saw he had 600 HP an Attack of 24 and a Defense of 14. Yikes… That's a lot more than the other enemies they've faced…other than the Void Skelloknights. But that was a different story. He wanted to reach the True Chaos Heart, and he wasn't going to let some jester get in his way.

For the first time, it truly felt like a villain vs villain battle.

Dimentio was prepared to hurl more of his magic at his enemy, but Tipral teleported in front of him and struck him with a Star Kick. The jester didn't get sent flying, but he teleported away from Tipral instead so he could use his magic again. This time, he tried creating a box to trap Tipral in, but the procedure was slow, and trying to catch him in a box during a fight was difficult.

"That box trick isn't going to help you here, you know," Tipral hissed, letting his Star Magic get to the jester. Despite hitting him, he didn't appear to be in any bad condition. Then again, this was the start of their battle.

"So, Tipral… What do you plan on using with that Chaos Heart, hmmmm?" Dimentio wondered, teleporting behind Tipral. "You never explained to me why you want that True Chaos Heart. To destroy all worlds?"

Tipral replied by elbowing his face and knocking him back. "My answer is none of your business, clown!"

"Hmmmm… A feisty one you are… Well, I was planning on ending your game, so I might as well do it now!" Dimentio snapped his finger, and suddenly a bright, blinding light appeared, preventing Tipral from seeing. He tried to figure out where Dimentio was, but all he received were magic attacks from behind and to his face. This only got him angrier now that he was being attacked while he was nearly blind.

Dimentio's laugh only got him angrier as he attacked with his Star Rain. He still heard the jester laughing at him, which made him know that Dimentio didn't even get hurt by his attack.

"Stop hiding, clown!" Tipral roared. "Come out and show yourself so we can actually fight!"

"I'm right behind you," the jester smirked, appearing right behind the dark being. But when he turned around, he disappeared in a flash. Tipral clenched his fists in anger before he felt himself get surrounded in an invisible box. When he turned around, he saw Dimentio giving him a demented smile.

"So, how does it feel to be so easily fooled?" Dimentio smirked, getting ready to snap his finger.

"And you're just going to defeat me right now?" Tipral asked. "I'm sure you wanted a better fight than this."

"You're absolutely correct, my dark friend. And that is why this is most likely not going to end your game."

With a snap of his finger, the box exploded from the inside, harming Tipral as well. The white flash was gone as well, making it much easier to see what was around. Tipral, though, was kneeling on the ground in a bit of pain, but it wasn't enough to do him in so easily. He beat this clown before, and he's going to beat him again. That Chaos Heart was going to be his!

"You seem exhausted, Tipral! Just like a man who was working hard all day!"

"Enough with the similes!" Tipral yelled out, firing a Star Spear that was able to strike Dimentio. "Your similes are the last thing I want to hear from your mouth, clown! That's asking me to kill you in a painful way!"

"But why would you want to end my game…" Dimentio asked, snapping his finger and disappearing. When he appeared again, there were now three Dimentios flying around. "…When I'm here to entertain? After all, I'm a magician, and magicians are made to entertain!"

"You don't entertain me, Dimentio. In fact, you make me want to tear your head off. And your entertainment makes me want to bang my head against O'Chunks's behind."

"Looks like someone has no sense of humor. I'm just wasting my time with my entertainment. Let us get back to our duel!"

The three Dimentios raised their fingers and fired five blots of magic in Tipral's direction. Remembering this attack, Tipral teleported past the magic attacks and tried to punch one of the Dimentios. His fist ended up phasing through it, and it allowed one of the other Dimentios to hit him with his magic.

"I'm afraid you've chosen poorly, my friend," Dimentio stated.

"I'm not, and never will be your friend, you poor excuse of a clown!" Tipral hissed, snapping his finger and hitting the correct Dimentio with his Star Magic. He ended up disappearing while leaving the air rippled before teleporting above his dark foe. He was about to create another explosive box, but Tipral used it as a platform to hit him with a Star Spear.

Perhaps now was the time to show Tipral some of his newer magic skills. He raised his hands up and allowed flames to rise up from the ground. Tipral noticed the flames and stood in between them. This was just like Galacta Knight's fire geysers, but these looked much more difficult to avoid.

He even spun his body so he could fire icicles in all directions at a fast pace. They soon melted and became freezing cold energy that left Tipral frozen. Dimentio smirked and snapped his finger, triggering a magic attack involving a lightning bolt zapping Tipral and leaving him paralyzed.

"Ah ha ha ha. It's so nice to see you suffer like a starving and abused dog." Dimentio smirked dementedly. "Things seem to be my way now after the beating you gave me back in your castle!"

Tipral tried to fight the paralysis, but Dimentio knew he was having a difficult time and decided to float to the ground and walk over to him. "Face it, Tipral. You can't win against me now. I've got all the power in the world!"

"And power is all you care about?" Tipral cringed, still struggling over the paralysis. "For a villain, your goal is very clichéd. Even Maquano simply wanted power just like you!"

"Oh, and what are your intentions, Tipral?" Dimentio wondered. "Why don't you share them with me!"

"I don't need to tell you my intentions," Tipral began as he broke out of his paralysis. "Because they are not any of your business."

He delivered a shadow punch to Dimentio's face, which sent him flying to the right wall over by the door. Just to make sure Tipral wouldn't get out, he used his magic to seal the door. He'd take care of Chopper later. For now, he wanted to have some fun with Tipral.

"The Dark Prognosticus states that only a dark beings power can handle the power of the True Chaos Heart," Tipral explained while he approached the jester. "You cannot handle it. It'll only destroy you and your soul."

"Ah, yes, that book," Dimentio began, suddenly reminded of the book. "Of course that's what the book would say. Like Tippi would say, nothing is decided by fate. That book was just a means to ruin one's life!"

"And how do you know this?"

"Isn't it obvious, Tipral? My knowledge of the Dark Prognosticus is like a student being given the obvious answer when he still has no knowledge of the question!"

That's when realization came to Tipral. "You… So you're the one who wrote the Dark Prognosticus… You're the true originator."

"Ah ha ha ha. Why of course. I wrote the entire book to tear away the souls of those who read it! And you happened to be one of the few whose soul was torn away thanks to my writing! You see, that was another key to bringing me back to life when I was first defeated by Mario and Co.! I mentioned myself in the book so if anyone tried to take the book, I would be brought back so I could resume my plan to watch those suffer from the prophecy and take the Chaos Heart for myself! I really must thank you for all of this, Tipral. If you hadn't gotten that book, my plan would've been a complete waste."

"Well there's a flaw in your explanation," Tipral explained, trying to punch Dimentio but missed. "My soul was already lost before I got a hold of the Dark Prognosticus. That was all a thousand years ago."

"Ahhh… So you once did have a soul." Dimentio smirked, rising up into the air once again. "Well, none of that is important. I don't need you anymore, so I must dispose of you."

Dimentio tried to hit him with another thunder spell, but Tipral teleported in front of the jester and landed another shadow punch on him. He would've punched him again if he didn't teleport away from him. Dimentio decided to teleport again after a snap of his finger so there were three Dimentios instead of one.

Knowing what he had to do, Tipral let his Star Rain rain down in the area, which helped discover the real Dimentio when he got struck. He teleported, and the other two clones were also gone and reappeared on the ground.

"My my… Maybe it's time I showed you my brand new powers." Dimentio declared. "That's one of the few reasons why I came here to fight you!"

With his fist clenched, the jester struck the ground with a powerful punch, which made the ground around them shake. Dimentio grinned as Tipral was suddenly struck by a couple of dark rocks that fell from the sky. He tried to defend himself, but the shaking left him stunned and unable to move.

To add to this, Dimentio clenched both fists and used an ability he would never expect to use. He let out a large fart and began to fly all over the area. Tipral, now being able to finally move, saw him fly his way and delivered a powerful Star Punch. It was enough to stop Dimentio's attack and leave a small amount of gas behind. In fact, all they could hear was a small squeak.

"Ah, such an unnecessary sentence from a writer, like a boy making an inappropriate joke in a strict area," Dimentio said before noticing Tipral jump in the air and fire a Star Spear in his direction. To counter this, he summoned a red Rubee and fired it at the attack. Both clashed and exploded.

"So I assume you've gotten all of my minion's powers," Tipral wondered as he landed on the ground. "I was already fighting doppelgangers of my minions earlier, so this shouldn't be anything new."

Dimentio fired another Rubee at the dark being, but it was easily destroyed when Tipral fired dark energy at him, which was enough to deal a lot of damage to the jester. But he still kept his smile and fired his magic his way, which was able to strike him and allow him to make his next move.

"I'm not sure what is more enjoyable; playing around with my good friend Tipral, or reading and exposing our dear Mimikins's diary to everyone else?" Dimentio smirked as he prepared to freeze Tipral. "Well, I constantly read the girl's diary, and sometimes that gets old. But this doesn't feel old!"

Tipral prepared to hit him with his Star Magic, but the jester flipped into 3-D. "Ah ha ha ha. Don't think I forgot about this ability now!"

"Flipping into 3-D isn't going to make you a better fighter," Tipral scoffed. "So come out of there so we can actually fight rather than having you hide!"

Dimentio responded by hurling his own magic down at Tipral. While he was not visible in 2-D, his magic was able to be seen. Tipral fired a Star Spear at the magic and made it explode. Disappointed, the jester flipped back into 2-D and tried to scorch him with his fire magic. Sadly, Tipral knew the position of the flames and was able to get in between two flames that rose up.

Instead of using his own magic, he snapped his finger, and he was suddenly holding two blasters. "I'm not one to carry blasters around, but that small bean minion of yours does have the ability to use blasters and laser swords! …Oh, yes, and he can use that Headgear too. His manner always seemed like a laughing school boy…"

"I was hoping to get my hands on him, but that dark power he absorbed turned him into a little critter," Tipral noted. "When you're finished, I plan on ending his game, and then I'll most likely be going after Chopper and the True Chaos Heart!"

"There's just a little question I'd like to know," Dimentio began. "Do you really think you can defeat Chopper?"

"He has beaten me in the past, but that was because he had help. I never fought against him when he had no assistance. Since he no longer has help, the fight is likely to be in my favor this time."

"I see… But it's a shame you may not have your chance to fight him yourself. After all, you're facing someone who can do THIS!" Dimentio fired both blasters Tipral's way, and he was able to knock him back by the right door. The jester prepared to fire again, but Tipral threw a Star Spear his way.

But Dimentio had other plans. Using Nastasia's power, he was able to change the direction of the Star Spear and send it back Tipral's way. Not expecting the attack, he ended up getting hit by his own attack. That was something Chopper would usually do against him, but seeing something like that from Dimentio was unexpected.

"Surprised?" the jester smirked while Tipral got himself up. He was certainly not looking too good from this fight, and he seriously needed to get his act together. He was being toyed around by this freak show!

Dimentio changed the blasters into laser swords and teleported in front of them so he could swing them his way. Tipral jumped back and dodged the attack and tried to hit the jester with a shadow ball. Sadly, the attack was blocked by Dimentio's weapons, so Tipral teleported behind him and struck him with a Star Kick. Both of Dimentio's laser swords dropped, so Tipral disintegrated them with his Star powers.

"That's enough of those weapons," Tipral declared. "Haven't you already learned by now? I already faced doppelgangers of my minions. Of course I'll be expecting the same thing!"

"Oh, really?" Dimentio's hands were surrounded in green electricity, which he used to summon lightning the size of a tornado. It began to come Tipral's way, but his teleportation helped him reach Dimentio and jump on his head. That was obviously something that came from Mr. L.

He also added in a couple of small meteors that began to go after Tipral. A couple were knocked away, but the rest were able to hit Tipral and leave him a bit exhausted. Dimentio raised his arms and summoned a giant meteor that nearly took up the whole floor. Thankfully, Tipral got to safety before the meteor could even harm him.

As soon as the meteor was gone, Dimentio hovered over Tipral and looked at how exhausted he was. "Now look at you, Tipral. You so worn out, like an elephant who had been jogging all day without a break. Not even you are strong enough to defeat me now! But just think of what powers I will possess with the True Chaos Heart. It'll be very…_magical_."

"I told you already that you couldn't handle power like that," Tipral stated. "The power will most likely overwhelm you and destroy you! The Dark Prognosticus states that I have the power needed to cause utter destruction to the universe with the help of the Chaos Heart. That is, if it's really true."

"Oh, yes, it's true that you yourself can cause such destruction with the True Chaos Heart. After seeing what powers you were capable of when you were created, I knew I found the right person capable of using the Chaos Heart's power!"

"Wait… You've known about my whole past?"

"Absolutely," Dimentio nodded. "In fact, you're one of the reasons why I wrote the Dark Prognosticus! After seeing what you could do, I just had to find a way to use you as my puppet to get the Chaos Heart! Though you yourself were not one to use your power at the time, the count's father was able to make you let it out! I was hoping for you to get the Dark Prognosticus, but apparently the count was the one to get it first."

"So you're one of the reasons why I've become this?!" Tipral hissed, getting ready to grab a hold of the jester. "The more I think about it, you deserve to be burned, frozen, electrocuted, stung, bitten, torn, and blown up for everything you've done to me!"

"Oh, I didn't do _everything_," the jester assured, dodging Tipral's Star Spear. "Your emotions got to you first, and you caused yourself to mostly become this. You lost your only friend, and now you've become an evil being…like me!"

"I already said this before, and I don't want to have to repeat myself again. I'm THROUGH with the past!"

"Or _ARE_ you? Hmmmm? Perhaps you still dream about past events like a girl who can't get over a breakup? Do your thoughts of your friend, **Timpani**, still trouble you, my dark friend?"

"_**ENOUGH!**_" Tipral stood up and struck Dimentio with a powerful punch called a Star Nightmare. The punch was so powerful, that a couple of items dropped from Dimentio's inventory. A couple that looked very familiar to Tipral.

"So… You've been carrying the Dark Star Scepter and Dark Prognosticus ever since you sent me to the Comet of Darkness?"

"Unngh… Even as a shadowy spirit, I am still capable of carrying things…" Dimentio coughed before getting back up. "Now be a good friend and give those items back to me."

Tipral picked up the two items and cast the jester a glare. "Do you really think I'm going to give these back to you? The Dark Star Scepter and the Dark Prognosticus were two items I needed to use the True Chaos Heart to its full potential. And now that I have my scepter back…"

He raised his scepter and fully healed himself. "I will show you what I'm capable of!"

For the very first time in a while, Dimentio was actually nervous. Sure, he had all of Tipral's minions powers at his side, but the Dark Star Scepter was one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. And he was facing the person who knew how to wield the weapon!

Dimentio tried to protect himself by surrounding himself with a couple of Rubees, but when Tipral swung that scepter, he fired a dark star that went through Dimentio's Rubee shield and struck the jester. He even tried firing some dark Rubees his way, but Tipral spun his scepter and blocked the projectiles with ease.

"You may be a skilled manipulator, but I think it was very dumb of you to bring this scepter with you when you were planning on facing me," Tipral noted, using his dark shoes to approach Dimentio easily. He could float, but he needed the Chaos Heart's power to do that.

"Ah ha ha ha… Yes… Now I see…" Dimentio said nervously. "I guess I've underestimated your power…"

Tipral stopped and looked down at the jester, who was hiding a smirk. Before he could get closer, he used his magic to trap Tipral in another invisible box. "Well, looks like I've taken care of you, so-called 'Ultimate Life Form'."

"So-called? What do you…"

"Oh, you don't know too much about your background? You were never meant to be an Ultimate Life Form! You were just created to be used by your 'parents' and then get thrown away like a broken toy! I'm sure the whole 'Ultimate Life Form' project was for someone else. You're just some dark being with immense power that only had temporary use."

He didn't want to believe it, but Dimentio was indeed correct. It didn't seem like his parents cared for him too much when he first met them and only cared about their revival. If he was some Ultimate Life Form, he would've gotten a little more respect, which he never received that much.

"You may be correct, but that's not going to stop me from achieving my goal!" Tipral swung his scepter at the invisible box and shattered it completely, making Dimentio a bit surprised.

Tipral jumped far back and then flew forward while rapidly firing dark stars Dimentio's way like a machine gun. The jester tried to dodge some of them, but he got hit by a few before teleporting away from the dark being. While Tipral was worn out at first, the same thing was starting to happen to him now.

Dimentio prepared to fire more of his magic at Tipral, but he was able to turn to the jester and fire a small dark beam that destroyed the magic attack and knocked Dimentio to the ground. But he wasn't done there. Tipral skated up to the jester, waited for him to get up, and then struck him with his Star Nightmare.

"Why fight now, Dimentio? Why fight now?" Tipral asked. "You're not going to be winning this fight when I'm holding this scepter."

"Ah ha ha… Yes, I do see that… But I'm not defeated yet." Dimentio noted. "Even when you hold that, I still have the strength to fight back!"

The jester struck the ground with a powerful punch to stun Tipral and let rubble fall down on him. He then grabbed the dark behind in a way O'Chunks would, swung him around, and released him so he was flying all over the place. Dimentio couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"So this is the kind of fun O'Chunks gets when he does this," the jester smirked. "Too bad his brain is small like a dodo bird jumping off a cliff. After all, he lets himself get distracted so easily with his stupid dances and poses!"

While Tipral was getting up, Dimentio spun himself and allowed his ice magic to get to business. Many icicles pelted Tipral when he got up, forcing him to put up his Dark Star Scepter for protection. Sadly, not every icicle was blocked from his weapon.

"You may carry a powerful weapon, but you are not invincible with no Chaos Heart," Dimentio stated. "And because of that, I can make you fall over like a tripping baby!"

The icicles soon became freezing cold energy, which made Tipral teleport away from so he wouldn't become frozen like before. Dimentio even tried to paralyze him, but Tipral was quick and was able to avoid it.

"Did you forget that I'm much faster than you?" Tipral asked.

Dimentio ignored his question and snapped his finger again to teleport. He reappeared as three again, with each firing five shots of magic down at Tipral. They would've been effective if Tipral didn't deflect them back at the jesters with a single swing of the scepter. A couple phased through two Dimentios, but a couple got the real one and forced him to teleport while getting rid of the two clones.

When he teleported again, he used Dark's powers and fired a Swift Strike at Tipral. But that wasn't able to push him back when he easily jumped over the attack and struck the jester with another dark star. Tipral also healed some of the damage Dimentio left on him from some of his previous attacks.

Despite being in a bad condition, Dimentio wasn't going to give up so easily. He had all this power, and he wasn't going to let it go to waste. With a snap of his finger, he was able to hit Tipral with his Star Magic.

"What the… How do you have my powers?!" Tipral gaped.

"Don't you remember when we fused back in Castle Tipral?" Dimentio reminded. "When you separated us, I was left with a bit of your power. I suppose you were left with a bit of my power as well…"

"Yes, I was."

"Then we both share something in common," the jester smirked. "See, this is why teaming up wouldn't have been such a bad idea! But, once again, you disappoint me, so I'm forced to end your game instead."

"That is if you actually do that," Tipral retorted, charging up an attack in his scepter. "There's no way I'd let you take me down so easily, especially with this weapon in my hands!"

The attack was fired, and out came a large, dark beam that Dimentio was caught in. He let out a scream in pain, but tried to keep his positive look at the same time. At the same time, he was able to use his magic and strike Tipral with green lightning. This interrupted his attack and left him in a slight paralysis.

"Very clever, clown…" Tipral growled.

"I believe the correct term is jester," corrected Dimentio. "Or perhaps 'overlord' will fit me more once I take over the True Chaos Heart and use it to become the ruler of all worlds! I might call the universe 'Dimentio's Paradise'!"

"You're never going to have your paradise, Dimentio. Not when I'm around…" Tipral broke out of his paralysis and swung his scepter at Dimentio's face, leaving a small bruise on his mask. …If that is even his mask.

"Such a harsh attack! Your behavior is like an uncontrollable child who would hit their elders if they refused to listen to him!"

"I don't like you, so of course I'm going to do that. You should know better, clown."

"So be it…" Dimentio sighed and flew back so he could try to hurt his foe with a couple of Rubees. He even added a couple of meteors to make it more difficult for him to dodge them. Tipral easily teleported over to the jester and knocked him to the ground with a Star Punch. He added some dark stars to the mix to prevent Dimentio from getting up. Last but not least, he fired a small, dark beam that created a hole in the ground.

He landed on the ground and looked down at the hole he created. With Dimentio finally defeated, he turned away from the hole and began to walk over to the door ahead.

Well, until he was knocked over by a magic spark.

"Ah ah ah, Tipral!" Dimentio scolded while teleporting in front on him. His poncho and hat were a bit dirty and a little ripped from the attacks dealt by Tipral. "Creating holes in the floor are not going to help you win a fight, you know."

Tipral hissed as he raised his head. "Get out of my sight!"

"Still filled with anger, I see… I'm actually going to miss your anger when your game is finally finished."

Tipral quickly got up and tried to punch the jester, but dodged the attack easily. "Now you're getting to my serious side, Tipral. And you certainly don't want me to be serious. It does dampen the mood and makes me a bit crazy."

He ignored Dimentio and let his eyes flash before Dimentio was unexpectedly struck by his Star Spark and left stunned.

"Time I showed you what this scepter can REALLY do!" Tipral exclaimed, knocking the jester away with his Star Nightmare, while at the same time he was charging the scepter's power. Once fully charged, he fired a large, dark beam at Dimentio, but this time the jester did not have the strength to attack.

Once he finished that attack, Dimentio was still standing, but still weak. Tipral charged up more power with his scepter so it was soon surrounded in a dark glow before charging at Dimentio. All Dimentio could see was Tipral charging at him before he was struck by the dark power within the scepter.

"_**NOOOO!**_" Dimentio cried in defeat as he fell to the ground. Tipral approached him and took out the Dark Prognosticus.

"I guess I might as well finish you with something you made yourself," Tipral raised the book to make the final blow, but he felt something slip out. "Hmmmmm? What was that?"

He found two pictures lying on the ground, so he picked them up and got a closer look at them. The first picture showed a little girl with light brown hair, a white dress and a rainbow ribbon resembling a butterfly in her hair with a dark round being that Tipral knew was himself. The other picture showed the same girl, but more grown up with a blue man in a top hat, cloak and monocle that looked a lot like Count Bleck. In fact, those two people looked like the ones he first met when he got the Dark Star Scepter.

Tipral finally realized who that girl was in the picnic. It was Timpani, his best friend. The one he nearly killed.

"So… You finally put the pieces together…" Dimentio weakly said as he got up. "The same girl you nearly killed was Timpani all along. And that butterfly… That is what became of her when you hurt her. Isn't that just…magical?"

Tipral noticed Dimentio's demented smile and almost lost it. "I don't want to hear a word from your mouth!"

"OK! I… I cry uncle, Tipral! Mercy! You're much too strong for me, and all I can do is say uncle!"

"Fine, keep it that way," Tipral declared. "After all you've done for me, I suppose letting the Dark Prognosticus finish you off will give off a bit of irony."

"Y-Yes… That is a bit of irony. My own creation is what will be finishing me off. …However, I believe I can't let that happen just yet."

Dimentio raised his hands and created a box around Tipral, whose eyes widened. "What are you doing?!"

"Completing part of my plan," the jester smirked. "I'm obviously not going to let you of all people take me down. With you finally out of my way, I can focus on the True Chaos Heart! And maybe I'll pay that boy Chopper a little visit as well!"

"So, you want things to end this way, huh?" Tipral raised his arms and created a box around Dimentio. "If you're going to be taking me down like this, then I'm bringing you down as well! So long, Dimentio… I may go down, but at least I'm bringing you down as well!"

"If that's the case, then I have one thing to say to the both of us…" Dimentio began as he prepared to snap his finger. "Ciao!"

Both snapped their finger at the same time, and both boxes began to explode from the inside. Tipral could be heard screaming from the explosions, but the only thing he could think of was those two pictures and even Timpani.

He almost regret his actions…

_Almost_.

* * *

**Through the door-**

Chopper heard a loud explosion coming from the door, which caused the area he stood in to shake violently. His arms and feet were shaking, and he almost lost his balance on the dark floor.

The shaking soon stopped, and Chopper couldn't help but dart over to the door in an attempt to open it. He tried pulling it, but he couldn't get the door to open. Tipral was stuck in there with Dimentio – if they are even alive.

He slowly shook his head away and hung his head low. "I guess it's just me in this darkness… I can't believe it. All of my friends are gone, and someone I thought I could trust was just using me this whole time… I guess Tipral was right. I am pretty gullible…"

He looked up at the dark sky and saw some of the lightning flashing in the background. "And not only that, but I'm starting to talk to myself! I guess this is what happens when you're all alone in a dark world. …But I guess if both Tipral and Dimentio were killed off, that means I don't have to worry about them getting in my way. But… It stills makes things feel very lonely for me…"

Chopper took a deep breath, raised his head and clenched his fists. "But there's no way I'm going to back down so easily. My friends would want me to move on, and that's exactly what I'm going to do! And if Tipral or Dimentio are still alive, I'm not going to let them get in my way either! Being the last hero left, I have to finish my duty and destroy the True Chaos Heart!"

With his monologue finally finished, he found the final Star Block up ahead and made a dash for it. Once under the block, he gave it a punch from underneath and broke the block.

If only he was able to smash the block with a friend…

**END OF CHAPTER**

_The darkness became heavier and greater through the deeper section of The Void. Blade, Kirby, Mario, Luigi, Sonic and Tipral were all gone. Chopper was all that remained. Without his friends to help, traveling through The Void would be very difficult for the young hero. It was up to him to reach the center of this darkness and put an end to the True Chaos Heart once and for all and save all worlds from their destruction. With Tipral's betrayal, Chopper took no time to grieve for him, nor did he take the time to cry for his other friends. Chopper knew he had to quick and ran as fast as he could through The Void alone. What thrilling conclusion awaited him? Chopper made his way to the deepest section of The Void while his antennas blew through the frigid wind._

* * *

**Well that sure was something, wasn't it? ...OK, I'm sure most people knew that Tipral was planning on betraying Chopper in the first place. Go blame Chopper for trusting him then. :P  
**

**I actually liked the whole villain vs villain fight between Tipral and Dimentio. I really think it was one of the moments that stood out big time. See, this is what I said about Chapter 20 getting better. But will Chapter 20-5 beat this one? Well, we shall see.  
**

**Some people are probably wondering if there will be any new enemies in this place, since most of the enemies you've seen are pretty much enemies we've already seen in this story. Well, expect some new enemies in the next part! After all, it's the last chapter before the final battle!  
**


	124. A Story of Love and Tragedy

**CHAPTER 20-5**

**-A Story of Love and Tragedy-**

With all of his friends gone from the destruction of The Void, it was now Chopper standing in the darkness on his own. The dark purple and black sky still lingered over him, and the glowing purple path that was revealed to be in 3-D on the black ground. He noticed a bit of purple in the ground as well, almost resembling water a bit. But after a long travel through The Void, he believed he was near the end.

"So it's just me in this place…" Chopper trailed, looking at the darkness in the sky and the flat ground. "Sure, I was alone in Sagein Galaxy, but I soon gained help. This time, it's just me… Kinda reminds me of when I was back in Flipside at the very beginning."

He couldn't help but reflect back at the events from before, such as meeting Tippi for the first time and seeing Tipral rise after he was sent into another world and unable to escape for five months. Chopper even thought back to his previous adventures, such as going to the Mushroom Kingdom for the first time to stop Bowser, Maquano and the corrupt Staris. There was even the quest to collect the twenty Crystal Stars, where he fought against Grodus, Gemerl and his nemesis Maquano in the center of Dark Subspace World. And on this quest, he got a hold of twenty Pure Hearts and had to go up with the likes of Tipral, Dimentio and Shade. Then there was his very first adventure six years ago. All because of the destruction of his birth planet by Maquano, he had become what he is today.

But what was the most important part in his adventures were the friends he made. While he made very little on his first adventure, he met many others from Mario's world, and he even made friends with those from other worlds, such as Squirps, Luvbi, Sonic, Kirby, and Tippi.

But all of that was now gone. All wiped out from The Void's destruction.

However, his reason for coming here was to use the Pure Hearts to stop the True Chaos Heart. All twenty were needed to destroy it, and if he could reach it, then all of the damage would be undone. But it is not an easy task for someone ten years of age. No Pixls were here to assist him, and he didn't have many weapons on him either.

Chopper took a couple of steps and tried to see what was up ahead. The area appeared flat, but he didn't see any sight of enemies. Maybe there weren't any enemies here at all? That would be very nice. It would be an easy way to the center of The Void!

His thoughts, however, were interrupted when the ground began to shake violently again. Chopper fell over, but slowly got up after the shaking stopped. That was one of the few things he did not want to see from this darkness.

"I wonder how things are back in Flipside, Flopside and Rainbowside…" Chopper trailed. "Merlon and the other two must be really worried about us. How am I supposed to tell them about what happened to the others when…or IF I make it back in one piece?! …It may even be difficult for me to even tell them too. And I really need to stop talking to myself! It's not good!"

He began to think about the other worlds and their safety. After all, he explored the worlds while chasing Dimentio down. Some of them were nearing its end. But what about Flipside, Flopside and Rainbowside? How were things looking there?

* * *

**Rainbowside Tower-**

At the tower of Rainbowside, the three shamans, Merlon, Nolrem and Olnerm looked worriedly up at the sky and watched The Void grow bigger. They knew at this point their world was going to be destroyed very soon.

"I don't know if this world has much time left," Nolrem noted. "The Void continues to grow bigger, and at any rate, our world does not have much time left… I worry about the dangers the heroes are going through…"

"Let us hope the heroes can stop The Void in time…" Merlon trailed. "After their many successes, I have high hopes for the heroes. They managed to destroy The Void before, and I believe they have the skills to reach the center of The Void."

"That was Castle Tipral they went through," Olnerm noted. "The Void is much more dangerous than the castle. I fear for the heroes' safety, since there was something written in the Light Prognosticus."

"Something in the Light Prognosticus? I would have known about this…" Merlon took out the book and went to the last page. Unfortunately, he didn't notice a page was actually missing. "Oh, no… There's a missing page in the prophecy!"

"I was just getting to that," the rainbow wizard pulled out the last page and showed it to Merlon. "I deeply apologize for this mess. I let my nephew borrow the book, but he accidentally ripped the last page off. I kept it hidden for many months, hoping you wouldn't discover its loss. At the state of this world and all worlds, you might want to take a look."

Merlon took the page from Olnerm and read the text out loud. "'Though six heroes stand against chaos in The Void, only one shall receive the purity needed to defeat the chaos.' Hmmmm… This is very troubling… Does this mean…"

"It appears that only one will be able to survive the destruction of The Void. This is what worries me… And if only one remains, then reaching The Void's core will not be easy. I don't wish to bring you two down, but I believe we need to do something to assist the heroes…or hero in need."

"If only we had help from Tippi…I mean Lady Timpani," Nolrem sighed. "I believe she would be most helpful to the heroes."

While the three shamans spoke, the Pixls looked up at the sky and hoped the heroes were safe. But from what they heard from them, things were not looking too good, especially since The Void was almost the sky at this point.

"Oh… If only we were to help them." Thoreau sighed. "That would be rather smashing. But alas, it doesn't seem like our job will be very useful at this moment. I do hope the heroes are safe. Ever since I got the taste of sweet freedom, I swore I would do anything to help them."

"I still remember the answers those heroes gave me when I asked them a few questions…" Carrie recalled. "I still believe that the heroes think Francis is a nerdy butterfly fanatic. Let's just hope they don't get hurt or injured. Is that even legal?"

"C'mon, guys! No need to worry about them! They'll be fine!" Screwdy assured. "They've gone through many obstacles! Plus, they're heroes! They're supposed to be the victors! All we can do for right now is live live LIIIIIIIIIIIVE!"

"I really hope they come out, fine, BA-BOOM!" hoped the missile Pixl, Hommissile. "Because if all worlds are destroyed, I'm probably going to EXPLOOOOOOOODE!"

"C'mon, heroes! Remember about kickin' them butts you always liked to kick around!" Kickbrin exclaimed. "Whenever you're in trouble, one of the best solutions is to deliver a kick to the…"

"Hold on, zee kicking is not zee way of fighting," Bonjourang corrected. "While I respect your opinion, monsieur, the act of kicking is not exactly zee best way of fighting. Oh… If only we could go into Zee Void, but that darkness would destroy us if we even stepped in!"

"I'd have to agree with ya," Cudge sighed. "If we were in there, the heroes would be kickin' even more butt! But I guess not… I guess it's all up to their skill at this point…"

"Heroes, the stars will always be on our side – even if you cannot see them in the darkness," Starlow said. "But all I can say is good luck."

"The True Chaos Heart is very powerful," Merlon noted. "And reaching it is a difficult task on its own. In order to help the heroes out, I believe I should call my brother so he can send the sages to assist them. I believe this would be the perfect time to do so."

"The sages Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi?" Olnerm gawked. "Do you really believe we should send them out too? That would be putting their lives in danger! …But at the same time, they are our very last soap. …Wait, what did I say?! Hope! Very last HOPE! If we don't, then all worlds are as good as doomed…"

"It looks like we have no other choice," Nolrem deduced. "Merlon, you must call your brother immediately. His power is strong enough to send the sages deep within The Void. Tell them to get Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi!"

"All right, I shall call them," Merlon declared, pulling out a blue cell phone. "…But I've rarely used this phone before, so this is not something I'm usually used to."

After dialing the number, he awaited his brother's call.

* * *

**Sagein Galaxy, Star Observatory-**

Merlo couldn't help but look up at The Void in the sky. While it wasn't enormous like in many other worlds, it was starting to grow a little bigger. However, he had a feeling the area his brother was was not going to last long.

However, he was sensing something from The Void. Something that wasn't good.

"Oh, dear…" muttered Merlo. "From what I can sense of the heroes, Chopper seems to be the only one left. Is it possible the others are… No! I cannot think such words. It's not of my culture to think of that!"

He heard his cell phone going off, which caught his attention. "Hmmmmm? What now? Who would be calling me at a time like this?"

The yellow cloaked shaman took out his phone and answered it. "Hello? Who is calling me? I don't think this is a great moment to be calling me…"

_"Merlo? Are you there? It's your brother, Merlon!"_

Merlo's eyes widened in shock. "Merlon?! Why… I haven't spoken to you in a long time! Has it been…two decades since I last saw you?"

_"Yes, it has been a while, but this is not the time to be speaking about a reunion!" _Merlon's serious tone made Merlo listen carefully. _"You have the power to summon and teleport the sages, correct?"_

"Ahhh… So you need me to bring the three sages to The Void, is that correct? I was considering doing that. I sense that of all the heroes, Chopper is the only one progressing. I can't get a signal on the others…"

_"Oh… That's not good. Then this situation is very dire. It is very important for you to bring the sages to The Void so they can help young Chopper fight those who oppose him."_

"I will definitely do that, brother," Merlo nodded. "You can count on me."

_"Thank you, Merlo… You know this means a lot. Perhaps when your game ends, you will become a Nimbi in The Overthere."_

"I am glad to be helping you, brother. I'm sure our father is proud of us… I'll be seeing you." Merlo hung up his phone and put it away. Knowing that he had a job to do, he approached the center of the observatory, where three panels were. There was one with an image of space, another with a forest, and the third one had an image of the heavens.

A barrier surrounded Merlo as his hands began to glow pink. He closed his eyes and prepared to conjure up a little spell.

"By the power of the Ancients, I summon thee! Prince Squirps! Ninbot! Princess Luvbi! Your powers are requested!" Merlo raised his arms and fired his spell upward. In a matter of seconds, Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi were teleported on their supposed panels.

"…Squoh? What happened? Squirps was in the Whoa Zone talking to Mommy, and now Squirps is here? Where is Squirps anyway?" Squirps wondered, looking at his surroundings. "Isn't this the space place Squirps was kidnapped and then rescued by the space grunt?"

Ninbot looked around his surroundings as well. Squirps was indeed correct. They were back in Sagein Galaxy on the Star Observatory. While this wasn't a place he'd expect to be back in, there was most likely a reason. But his thoughts were interrupted by a sniffle beside him.

The little Nimbi girl, Luvbi, was sobbing a bit. She was still depressed over the incident of the final Pure Heart released from Chopper. While she knew he wasn't dead, the state he was in saddened the girl. The three guys looked over at the sad girl, unsure of what was wrong with her.

"What's wrong with this girl, squirp?" Squirps asked. "Did she lose someone important?"

"Yea, verily…" Luvbi sniffled. "My sweet prince must verily be in bad condition right now after he released the Pure Heart from his body. I doth worry about whether he will live or die…"

"Who's your prince?" the green alien boy wondered before his eyes flashed. "…Is it me?!"

"Nay! Why wouldst I date a hideous alien like thee?" the words coming from the girl saddened Squirps a bit, which Luvbi noticed. "Oh… Forgivest me. I didst not mean to hurt thy feelings. I'm just verily worried and sad."

"Well, you can rest assured, Princess Luvbi," Merlo cut in. "Chopper is just fine. However, I don't know if he will be soon now that he is stuck in The Void by himself."

Those words were enough to make the girl smile. "My prince doth be fine? Oh, thank thee very much! …But now he is stuck in The Void? Oh, that dost not maketh things any better."

"This is why I need you and the other two to go into The Void. Chopper is going to need some help, and with your three powers, you should be able to allow him to use the legendary Star Rod!"

Merlo walked over to the dome-like building and took the Star Rod off its pedestal. He went back to the three and handed the Star Rod to Luvbi. "You MUST give this weapon to him at all costs! With you three sages finally back, you can restore its power and allow him to destroy anything in his path! It will also help against the True Chaos Heart, so you must remember to give this to him."

"Yea, I will dost that," Luvbi nodded, putting the weapon away. "I dost not want to disappoint Chopper…"

"So where do you want us to meet him?" Ninbot asked.

"I will teleport you somewhere safe in the deeper section of The Void where Chopper could be," explained Merlo. "Do not leave that room. Chopper will find you on his own."

"How do you know the space grunt will find us, squirple?" wondered Squirps.

"Trust me… He will."

The sky began to shake violently, causing The Void to grow. "We don't have much time for a conversation! You three need to get there immediately and help! Without your help, we may never see all worlds again…"

Using his teleportation magic, he raised his arms again. "_**YOU…GO…TO…THE VOID!**_"

With the purple glowing energy in his hands, he fired his magic at Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi, and they were soon out of Sagein Galaxy.

"Good luck, Sage of Space, Sage of the Forest and Sage of the Heavens and Skies," Merlo murmured. "Please… Do what you can to help Chopper."

* * *

**The Void-**

"Hmmmmm… Well, I'm sure some of the people are doing OK…" Chopper trailed. "Maybe some worlds are far from their destruction! …Oh, who am I kidding? Flipside is bound to be destroyed by now! Well, the only thing I can do is try to move on."

He made a couple of steps, but then he remembered something. "Hold on… Didn't Dimentio say Shade was still alive? If that's the case, then I better be on guard. Not to mention Fawful…in that whatever form he is is still lurking. But those are only two threats. Nothing too big! …Right?"

Chopper took a deep breath and gave a determined look. "OK… I think I'm ready to go. The True Chaos Heart awaits, and I must make it there in time. _And hopefully I can make it there in time…_"

He took off, noticing a small hill going down that helped increase his speed a little. There were some enemies around, though. Three Darklings (the same from 20-4) were lurking around and noticed the Star Warriors presence. They looked eager to see him show up, especially on his own.

"Well well well! Look what we have here!" one Darkling smirked. "Looksss like we've got sssome unwanted company in thessse partsss!"

"Let usss dessstroy thisss Ssstar Warrior, and then we ssshall celebrate!" the second suggested.

Chopper stopped when he realized there were three Darklings that appeared out of thin air. "Oh, crud! Three Darklings!"

"I don't think you'll be going anywhere!" the third Darkling said while conjuring up a spell. Once fully charged, it fired it at Chopper, which he inhaled and spat back at the enemy. He tossed a single light ball, and it was easily defeated.

"Isss that light power he'sss holding?!" the first Darkling gawked, dodging another light ball flung its way. It decided to get close up to him so it could fire magic, but Chopper jumped on its head instead and performed a stylish move. The second Darkling tried to hit him, but Chopper landed a light jump on its head, and it was soon defeated. All that remained was the first Darkling.

"Look, I don't have time to be dealing with the likes of you," Chopper explained. "I have a heart to stop!"

"And what makesss you think I will let you passssss?"

"If you won't let me, then I'll be forced to do it myself," he jumped forward and shot a couple of light balls down at the Darkling. It dodged them and hurled a couple of spells at the Star Warrior. One hit him, while the other one was easily inhaled and spat back at the Darkling. Once stunned, Chopper charged up another light ball.

"Take this!" he cried, firing the light ball at the Darkling and destroying it once and for all. With those enemies out of the way, he progressed on, but he had to stop when he found a yellow ? block nearby. He struck it and got a hold of an Ultra Shroom. With nobody to share it with, he inhaled the whole mushroom and recovered 50 HP.

"I really miss sharing this with my friends… But then again, this thing really does taste good…"

He found a Void Creature, a dark purple Void Choppa and a Void Pokey just up ahead. Chopper was about to jump on the Void Choppa, but it flipped into 3-D, causing him to miss and fall over. The Void Pokey up ahead tossed a piece of its body in his direction, so he tried to kick it.

Unfortunately, since it had spikes, it ended up hurting his foot.

"YOUCH!" Chopper cried, holding his foot in pain while the Void Creature began to fire his way. Thankfully, he had enough time to jump in the air and land on the Void Creature's head. Despite being alone, there was no way he was going to let himself get defeated so easily.

He tossed a couple of fireballs at the Void Pokey while tossing some light balls at the Void Creature. They were easily defeated with those attacks, but there was still the Void Choppa. He didn't want to leave any enemies around, since he believed that they would probably follow him, which is something he doesn't want.

Thankfully, the Void Choppa made its appearance in 2-D and flew down to Chopper. He couldn't attack it with a spinning kick, so he inhaled the enemy and swallowed it. It was not too big for him to eat anyway!

"That takes care of that," Chopper sighed.

He finally reached the door, but he noticed two enemies he had never seen before. The two enemies were around Mario's height and were covered in black armor. To be a bit more specific, they had small, black shoulder pads, a black helmet that didn't cover their faces, which were merely black with purple glowing eyes, and their head was square-shaped. A symbol of the Chaos Heart appeared to be embedded on its helmet as well, which gave Chopper the idea that they were from the power of the True Chaos Heart. However, the weapons they held were dangerous as well. One was carrying a dark beam sword in its hand, while the other held a blaster.

What are these enemies named? They are called Voidrins.

"Whoa… These are new enemies!" Chopper gaped. "I didn't expect to run into something new in here!"

The Voidrin Shooter fired a glob of dark energy, which resembled a small void that reminded Chopper of Count Bleck's dark magic. He simply jumped over it and fired a light ball at the Voidrin Shooter. Sadly, it wasn't able to destroy it in simply one hit. The Voidrin Swordsman tried to strike Chopper with his dark beam sword, but he ducked under it easily and managed to throw in a light sweeping kick.

With both Voidrins trying to attack him, trying to fight back was difficult. They were pretty quick, and so were their attacks. Plus, their attacks did a lot of damage if they even hit him!

Thankfully, Chopper was able to defeat the Voidrin Shooter by jumping on it, but attacking the swordsman close up was not as easy, so he tried to throw in some rainbow balls. When he threw in one last light ball, the enemy was defeated, allowed Chopper to progress through the door.

…Only to land in the middle of the area after falling from the sky.

"Huh? What in the world?!" Chopper gawked. "Is that door even real?!"

He went back to the door and noticed that it was not a real door. In fact, it looked much lighter than what the door would usually look like. Chopper decided to check in 3-D, where he found a door on the supposed wall in front of him. He took it to another area that was a big bigger than most areas, since there was one platform slightly above him with a yellow ? block.

By checking in 3-D, he discovered a brick block that created a ladder. He climbed up it and struck the block, but the only thing that came out was a Death Shroom, which went off the platform and began to scurry around.

"Ugh… That was just a trick." Chopper groaned. However, there was another platform he could jump over to that seemed to lead the right way. The ground below him apparently led into a small wall. Ignoring the Death Shroom below him, he jumped over to the larger platform and found a gap between him and another platform. Void Bombs in a circle were moving around it, but thankfully there was a bomb missing, allowing anyone to jump through the circling bombs.

When he found the perfect moment, he jumped through at the right moment and found a door waiting for him. Chopper headed through and found an area with some platforms rather than solid ground. Down below was a bottomless pit, so there was no jumping down there.

"Yeesh… Since when were there bottomless pit areas in this place?" Chopper wondered. "…Oh, I think there was before."

He jumped on one of the large platforms and found three Voidrins waiting for him. A Voidrin Thrower, which happened to be holding a dark boomerang, threw its weapon Chopper's way. He ducked under the attack and noticed a Voidrin Swordsman charging his way. It only took him a single jump to dodge the enemy and make it fall off the platform and into the bottomless pit.

"Ha HA! Looks like you're done for!" Chopper smirked, watching the Voidrin Swordsman fall. His smirk stopped when he saw it disappear, so he turned around and noticed a small, dark portal appear. The Voidrin Swordsman jumped out while letting out a creepy cackle.

"Oh… They can escape bottomless pits."

He decided to eat one of his own fireballs to become Fire Chopper so he could charge through the three Voidrins as a fireball. He scorched the three enemies, and he even knocked away the Voidrin Thrower's boomerang. The Voidrin Shooter fell into the bottomless pit, only to come out of another dark portal.

Chopper breathed out fire, which the three enemies were caught in easily. With one last fireball, they were defeated, which made the Star Warrior sigh in relief and remove his Fire ability.

"…Wait, why did I do that?!" he wondered before trying to catch the bouncing yellow star. Sadly, it fell into the bottomless pit, never to be seen again. Chopper sighed and continued on, jumping on a lower platform and noticing a floating door below the higher platform. He checked in 3-D for anything, but all he found was a platform below the door with yellow Dimensional Blocks.

Knowing what he had to do, he jumped onto the platform and brought the blocks into 2-D and then he flipped back into the second dimension to go through the door. He was only in a small area with two abilities. One was Wheel, while the other was Wing.

"I don't think Wheel will help me when there are bottomless pits, so I'll go with Wing," Chopper touched the Wing ability panel to gain the power, then he left the small area. With the Wing ability, he flapped his wings and got on the higher platform while flying over some Voidrins. He decided to throw light balls down at them, since he remembered he didn't want to leave enemies around.

A Voidrin Shooter began to fire up at the flying Star Warrior, but he was too fast to hit, and all of the shots missed him. Chopper decided to fire a couple of feathers down at the Voidrins and defeat them.

He noticed high above the platforms was a lonely platform that looked like it could only be reached by flying. Chopper flew up to the platform, but he noticed the door was locked, making him frown.

"Great… Well, I'm sure there's another way for me to go." Chopper jumped off the platform and began to glide down. He happened to notice another floating platform with a door, but he noticed it was fake. However, at the end of the area was a faraway platform with a yellow ? block and a door. He let himself glide over to the door, but he hit the yellow ? block first to find a Super Shroom.

He was a bit disappointed, but he took the Super Shroom anyway to recover 20 HP and proceeded into the door to discover a large pool. Chopper was about to jump into the pool, but he paused when he saw a couple of creatures…or things lurking around in the water.

Underhands.

Chopper was instantly reminded of the River Twygz now that there were Underhands lurking in the waters. Taking a deep breath, he jumped into the water and let himself sink to the bottom. There happened to be a small tunnel at the bottom, but Underhands were blocking the way.

He realized he couldn't defeat Underhands with any of his attacks. Tipral could easily do away with one with his Star powers, but him? He hardly had anything to help him win against an Underhand!

"Wait… Have I ever tried using light power against them?" Chopper wondered, swimming away from an Underhand. He conjured up a light ball and tossed it at an Underhand. It let out a screech before it died away, making Chopper smile. "Hey! It actually worked! I guess I do have a way to take them down!"

He destroyed the Underhands in his way and sunk down to the bottom of the tunnel. He found a chest surrounded by two large blocks. Chopper checked to see if there was anything in 3-D, but all he found were more blocks surrounding the chest. However, one appeared to be a little cracked.

_"Hmmmmm… Maybe I just need to destroy that block!" _the Star Warrior thought, spewing a small shot of water at the block and crumbling it. He swam over to the chest and opened it, revealing a Void Key. Sadly, he couldn't go back up because a barrier suddenly appeared on top of the tunnel, preventing any escape.

"Huh? Oh, great… There's no way out of here now!" Chopper cried as he flipped into 2-D and got away from the blocks. "How am I supposed to get out of here?"

He went back into 3-D and discovered a secret path he could take, as well as a dark panel. What could it be for? He was not fully sure. All Chopper could do was take the secret path and find another door that led him into a small area with a strange, dark crystal near the edge of the floor and a large, bottomless pit up ahead.

"A dark crystal? This certainly looks much bigger than the usual dark crystals I've seen…" Chopper approached it and tossed a light ball at it, but it didn't seem to be affected. "Nothing? Well that's great…"

He pondered for a moment, unsure if touching it was a good idea. Well, he didn't have anything else left to do, so why not? Chopper placed his right hand on the dark crystal, which caused a sudden spark in his body that destroyed his Wing ability. He also felt a large amount of pain drive into his body too.

"ACK!" Chopper cried as he noticed his arm was covered in dark sparks. Whatever was happening, it wasn't good.

He eventually pulled his arm away from the crystal and held it in pain. The sparks began to go into his body as well, which seemed to be triggering something in his body.

Chopper finally opened his eyes and let out a slight scream. His entire body was surrounded in darkness, and his eyes became a glowing white. His mouth was no longer visible as well. He quickly shook himself and looked at his reflection through the floor.

_**"Wh-What? Oh, no… Not this… Not my dark super form!" **_he gasped. _**"I was hoping this would be gone when I released the Pure Heart! But it looks like… Wait a minute…"**_

He paused for a moment and looked around. _**"Am I actually controlling myself?! Is it for real?! Normally this power would be uncontrollable for me, but it looks like I'm actually controlling it! That's…really good! ...Er, I don't know about that. It still hurts me."**_

The power eventually wore off, turning him back to normal. "So it's only temporary… Well, I don't mind that too much. I mean, if I can actually control it, I won't cause much harm to people and can focus on the more dangerous targets! Though, I don't like the fact that I'll lose HP when I use it…"

**With Dark Super Crystals, Chopper can temporarily transform into Dark Super Chopper! In this form, Chopper is much stronger and capable of wiping out enemies, and he is able to fly around and strike enemies below with his power! However, you will lose HP in this form, and it is not recommended to use it in its full length. To revert out of Dark Super Chopper at an earlier moment, shake the Wii Remote.**

Chopper noticed a lonely platform up ahead where another Dark Super Crystal was. An idea suddenly struck him, and he touched the crystal again. Only this time, it wasn't painful as before and quickly reverted him back to Dark Super Chopper.

_**"****All right, let's see how I can fly around with this new form. I never really got to try it out much before." **_Chopper jumped and used his ability of flight to make his way across the large chasm and to the door. He quickly entered it to run into a Void Koopatrol, Void Skellobit and a Voidrin Swordsman.

The Void Skellobit and Void Koopatrol charged at their target, but Chopper was able to charge up an attack in seconds and hurl dark energy at the two. The Voidrin Swordsman charged, but Chopper charged at the enemy and sent it flying to the dark and transparent wall. All it took was one more dark blast to take care of the enemy. But just to make sure, Chopper shook off the dark super form so he wouldn't lose any more HP.

Three chests appeared after defeating the enemies, which all contained Max Shroom Shakes. Pleased to acquire the items, he returned to the previous area, flew over the chasm in his dark super form, and then transformed back into the dark form again after he reached the other Dark Super Crystal.

_**"****I guess that dark panel requires this form to step on," **_mused Chopper while leaving the area. He went back into 3-D and returned to the tunnel he was in and stepped on the panel. This caused the barrier to shatter and allow Chopper to swim back up. He of course, shook off the dark form.

"Now to unlock that door," declared Chopper.

* * *

**Large area-**

Returning to the large area, Chopper got the Wing ability again and flapped his wings to reach the high door that was locked. After unlocking the door, he entered the door and went into the next area. Apparently there was a building far up ahead, but there was a large amount of rubble blocking the flat ground as well. Thankfully, a Dark Super Crystal was near a couple of Voidrins that were lurking around.

Chopper touched the crystal and turned Dark Super Chopper so he could fire a dark blast of energy at the Voidrins. What was also nice was that the dark energy went through each Voidrin and struck the rubble. It was able to destroy it and leave the way to the castle-like building open.

But despite having this dark form, he was not invincible. A Voidrin Shooter shot Chopper, which ended up hurting him, along with the HP he was losing while in the form. He shook off the dark power and decided to fight off the Voidrins on his own. At this point, he felt like he didn't want to use this dark form anymore. It just didn't feel…right.

Chopper ducked under another shot the Voidrin Shooter fired and tossed a light ball to finish it. His dark super form already did a lot of damage to the remaining enemies, so taking these guys out would be easy.

All he had to do was perform one last attack on the Voidrins and he would be just fine. He started off by jumping on the Voidrin Swordsman, and then he bounced off it and stomped on the Voidrin Thrower and then the shooter. Before he knew it, all three enemies were defeated.

"Well that's a relief," Chopper sighed, getting an Ultimate Shroom Shake out. "I kinda wanna heal myself now. I'm not sure if I should actually use those dark crystals unless I actually NEED to."

Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and took off for the ruined castle ahead. He wasn't sure what that castle was or used to be, but that wasn't anything important at this moment. He needed to progress through this darkness and reach the True Chaos Heart in one piece.

"Wait… I don't see a door!" Chopper realized, stopping in front of the castle. He decided to check in 3-D, and thankfully the door was there. "Oh… Well, I guess this is just like Castle Tipral and Tipral's Palace with this door!"

He headed through the door to discover a large room with a small staircase leading down to a pedestal. Chopper noticed on the pedestal were two people. It was a female human on the left and a male in a top hat holding up a heart that appeared to be broken in two. Chopper had to flip into 3-D to go around it and see it from the front.

Chopper got a better view of the statue when he looked up, and he was a bit surprised. "Hey… That guy on the right kinda looks like Count Bleck! But the girl on the left… I don't know who she is… And what's that broken heart in the middle?"

He soon discovered that this was not the only statue in the large castle area. Chopper moved on ahead and found a statue of a strange Pixl. He couldn't get a good description of the Pixl's appearance, but he was instantly reminded of what Merli told him. Could this have been the Pixl Queen?

But there was another statue that made him gape. Over by the side by the statue of the two, there was one statue of a round figure with two antennas holding another broken heart. Chopper got closer to the statue and realized who it was.

"Is that…Tipral?" Chopper gawked. "I never knew there was a statue of him here…"

He noticed some writing on the pedestal. Thankfully, it happened to be in a normal language that was understandable.

_According to the legend, it is said that this being was responsible for saving a little girl in a space station and brought her back to her home with the Tribe of Ancients. However, many years later, the legend was said that this being attacked and nearly wiped out the tribe, leaving very little left. Apparently this attack was after the moment the Tribe of Darkness was destroyed. After that, this being never returned…_

"So Tipral nearly wiped out a part of the Tribe of Ancients? Yeesh… I know it's nothing like Maquano, but that's kind of shocking. I wonder who even wrote this, and I also wonder where I am!"

He returned to the other statue that can easily be seen. There happened to be some words written down on the pedestal, so he decided to read it.

_In this legend, it was said that a human girl and a person of the Tribe of Darkness fell in love, but the father from the Tribe of Darkness did not approve of the relationship over the two because of the fear that the Tribe of Darkness's powerful bloodline would be diluted. The man's father ended up cursing the human girl and forced her to wander the dimensions until her game was over, causing his son to take the Dark Prognosticus and murder her father and the rest of his tribe. Where he went, none have known…_

"So if that was Count Bleck, then the human girl must be Tippi!" Chopper deduced. "And all of this was caused by the count's father… As much as I'm not a big fan of romance, that's just not right!"

He noticed a small glimmer of light underneath the statue, which caught his attention. "Huh? Was that…_light?!_"

Chopper wanted to get a better look, but it was difficult to see with the statue over it. Chances were, there was a secret underground path! However, this statue was big, and Chopper believed he wouldn't be able to push something like that. Nevertheless, he gave it a try and placed his hands on the statue and prepared to push.

It was much lighter than he thought.

"Wha…? This statue isn't even that heavy!" Chopper gawked while he pushed the statue, revealing a secret path. "Ah-ha! I knew it!"

He smiled as he jumped down into the secret path, eager to know what was down there.

* * *

**Secret area-**

Chopper ended up landed on a spring, which helped him gently land on the floor. There wasn't much around except for a small staircase ahead leading to a section of the area with a couple of stain-glassed windows. When he got a closer look, he could see that they were stain-glassed windows of a green alien, a robot ninja and an angelic girl. There were also giant statues of some shamans from the Tribe of Ancients lingering over the round floor.

But there were three panels on the floor that Chopper noticed up the staircase. There, he saw Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi facing away. They were apparently looking up at the statues and the stain-glassed windows.

"Squirple-squee!" Squirps squealed. "Squirps didn't know there was a window with my face! Squirps does look handsome!"

Ninbot stared at his window and noticed him holding his katana up high like someone was victorious. The forest was in the background, yet he was confused on why it wasn't a metallic forest. That was where he lived anyway.

Luvbi, on the other hand, was not thinking too much of her stain-glassed window, but she was thinking of Chopper. She was starting to feel worried about him and if he would make it here. Being alone was not an easy thing, and she certainly didn't want him to be alone.

"Squirps? Ninbot? Luvbi?" Chopper gaped as he walked up the stairs. He smiled as he approached the three, who turned around and spotted the Star Warrior.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi cried, dashing toward Chopper and unexpectedly tackling him to the ground. "Thou art OK! I missed thee so much!"

Squirps and Ninbot watched as Luvbi began to smother Chopper's face with kisses, which he did not seem to be enjoying at the moment.

"Ack! Luvbi! Stop it, please! That's gross!" Chopper cried. "Your kisses are not helping me!"

He was silenced when Luvbi placed her own lips on his, making his eyes widen in fear once again.

"Squeh squeh squeh!" Squirps chuckled. "Squirps doesn't know why, but Squirps finds this very entertaining!"

Ninbot gave the green alien an unimpressed look and slowly shook his head. "Squoh? What? Squirps find this very funny? Don't you have a sense of humor, squirple?"

Luvbi finally got off Chopper, but she still continued to swoon over him. "Thou dost not know how much I missed thee! I thought thou weren't going to make it when thou released the Pure Heart…"

"I probably wouldn't have made it if it weren't for my friends…" Chopper replied while getting up and wiping his face.

"What happened to your friends anyway?" Ninbot asked. Chopper's face suddenly fell, remembering what happened to his friends. "Oh… I apologize for bringing up a touchy subject…"

"You don't have to apologize. You didn't know what happened to them. But, I guess I should tell you guys." the pale green Star Warrior let out a sigh as he prepared to tell his story. "Last time I saw Blade, he was holding the ceiling with O'Chunks. He wanted us to go on because he didn't want to leave O'Chunks there himself. I don't know what happened to Kirby, Mario and Luigi because I didn't witness what happened to them. But for Sonic… I saw him getting pulled into a void with Dark. I would've helped him, but Sonic suggested I go on, and even then, Tipral was pulling me out of there."

"So Tipral went into The Void with thee…" Luvbi trailed. "I supposed he is lost in The Void as well?"

"I guess so… He and Dimentio. Apparently this whole time Tipral was using my friends and I to get to the True Chaos Heart. And I let myself believe what he said so easily… Why am I so gullible?"

"Tipral betrayed thee? I knewest there was something with him!" the Nimbi girl replied in an angry tone. "He doth be nothing but insensitive, selfish, and hideous! I always believest he was horrible!"

"You mean that dark person who jumped on Squirps in the Whoa Zone?" Squirps wondered. "He was terrible! Squirps was left in such a daze thanks to him!"

"Hold on a second…" Ninbot cut in. "Who is Dimentio?"

"Oh, yeah… I guess you guys don't know." Chopper realized. "Apparently he came back to life. But whatever happened in that room between him and Tipral, it's most likely over. But I still have that feeling of gullibility in my mind. Do you guys know why I'm gullible?"

"Chopper, I guess there may be one reason…" Luvbi sighed. "Since thou art a child such as myself, it doth be very common for children to be gullible. That's one of the many aspects of life. Eventually children will grow and become much smarter and immune to gullibility. Thou shouldst not be too hard on thyself. Thou dost not want to bring others down too, right?"

"Well… I guess you're right, Luvbi." Chopper smiled, looking up at the Nimbi. "I never would've expected to hear something like that from you. I guess your father must have told you some good things, right?"

"Despite being a child, I am naught but a demigoddess," the Nimbi girl blushed. "And thank thee for that compliment, my sweet prince. Thou art flattering me!"

"Hey, heart-winged girl, squark!" Squirps chirped. "Don't forget about that rod thingy that shaman gave us! You have to give the space grunt the rod, squrip!"

"…Oh, me! I shouldst not forget!" Luvbi gasped, taking out the Star Rod and handing it to Chopper. "Merlo sent us hither to assist thee. Thou needest the Star Rod if thou art to progress. It'll make traveling through hither much easier!"

"Gee… Thanks!" Chopper smiled, taking the Star Rod from the Nimbi princess. "…Wait, it's not glowing. Did it lose its power?"

"Well it's our job to restore its power," Ninbot noted. "Us three will lend our power into the Star Rod and allow you to destroy darkness in your path!"

"Squirp! Squirps is going to be useful after a while!" squealed Squirps.

"Be ready, my sweet prince…" Luvbi suggested.

Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi prepared to lend their power to the Star Rod, but they felt the ground around them shake violently. The three would've continued, but they were suddenly teleported out of the room, making Chopper jump in surprise.

"Squirps?! Ninbot?! Luvbi?!" Chopper exclaimed. "What happened to you guys?!"

Instead of their voices, he heard a dark laughter echo through the room.

_**"****Foolish Chopper… Did you honestly believe you would be safe here with the three sages? That's where you're wrong!"**_

"Who… Who are you?!"

_**"****What? You don't recognize my voice? We have faced each other before, but I let you off easy. Now that you're here alone, I can have some fun with you!"**_

"Where are my friends?!"

_**"****Oh, don't worry… They're safe. I've just taken them away from you so you couldn't achieve that power from the Star Rod! With them out of your sight, there is no safe haven for you, Chopper! And now, you shall fall into eternal slumber!"**_

Chopper noticed dark flames surround the circular floor, while two Void Skelloknights dropped from above. The swung their swords at Chopper, which he jumped back to avoid the shots.

"This is where your quest ends, mortal," the first Void Skelloknight spoke. "There is no escape from here!"

"Surrender and die!" the second Void Skelloknight added.

"I don't think so!" Chopper shot back while clenching his fists, which were surrounded in a light glow. "Not until I get my friends back and stop The Void!"

"Then you are a foolish child."

One Void Skelloknight raised its sword, which was now surrounded in a dark glow, and then it swung the sword to fire a dark sword beam Chopper's way. Since it was moving in a horizontal fashion, Chopper had no problem jumping over the obstacle. But he still had to get the Void Skelloknights' armor off, and with two of them, that wouldn't be an easy task.

Chopper dodged a sword swing and delivered a light jump to one of the Void Skelloknights. He ended up jumping on its head another time to break off its helmet and reveal its face. It was black with purple eyes, from what he saw. He was even able to jump on its head and do some damage.

"Ah! Maybe I can just remove their helmets so I don't have to worry about them moving faster!" Chopper exclaimed, an idea suddenly striking him. "This shouldn't be too hard!"

The same Void Skelloknight jumped in the air and tried to drive its sword down into Chopper. Sadly, his attack missed when Chopper sped past it and left the enemy's sword stuck in the ground. Chopper jumped on its head one last time and forced the enemy to let go of its sword.

To prevent the Void Skelloknight from taking its sword back, Chopper inhaled it so he could gain the Sword ability. He was able to add in some light power to the sword and slice off the rest of the Void Skelloknight's armor. Then he began to hack at the enemy until it was defeated.

"You may have taken down one of my comrades, but you won't take me down!" the other Void Skelloknight roared, trying to strike Chopper with a jump slash. Thankfully, Chopper dodged the attack and destroyed the enemy's armor, leaving it completely vulnerable to attacks. That's when Chopper began to jump and hack at it until the Void Skelloknight brought up its shield for defense.

"Crud… I forgot about that shield." Chopper grumbled.

The Void Skelloknight ended up knocking Chopper back with its shield. He almost hit the flames surrounding the ground, but just barely. And since the Void Skelloknight's armor was off, it was able to move much faster.

"Even with my armor off, I can easily catch up to you," the Void Skelloknight noted, swinging his sword at Chopper, who brought his sword up to block the attack. "Huh? How can a puny sword like that block a large sword like this?!"

Chopper could only shrug before he jumped over the Void Skelloknight and landed a light spinning kick to its face before finishing it off with a downward slash. This caused the flames surrounding the area to disappear and allow Chopper to sigh in relief too. The battle was challenging, but he became victorious.

"I can't believe I took on two Void Skelloknights on my own," Chopper realized. "Well, I guess the speed I have helped me beat them. Usually speed triumphs power! …Or is that brains?"

Since he could now leave, he decided to go back to the spring and take it back up to the large castle area.

* * *

**Castle area-**

Just when he got out of the secret area, the statue began to move on its own and close the passageway. While that occurred, there were some Shadow Wizards that moved past him and not paying attention to the moving statue. Chopper was confused on why they ignored him, but then he looked up and saw why.

There were two Maginans and one Dark Maginan following the Shadow Wizards.

"We have found the Shadow Wizards! I repeat, we have found the Shadow Wizards!" the Maginan Private alarmed.

"Very good, Private! You may fire when ready!" the Dark Maginan ordered.

The Maginans began to fire down at the Shadow Wizards. Some fought back and fired their magic at the Maginans. Even some Dark Wizrims appeared to help by firing magic at the Maginans.

"Heads up, guys! We've got a couple of Dark Wizrims! This might be a bit difficult." the Dark Maginan warned. "If you see any shots comin' your way, then you gotta MOVE!"

"Got it, sir!" another Maginan replied, shooting a Dark Wizrim and knocking it to the floor. "Uhhh… Sir? I think there's a major problem… There's too many of them!"

"What?!" the Dark Maginan noticed more Shadow Wizards and Dark Wizrims appearing. Even some Void Skellobits were joining the party! "Crap… We might be outnumbered! Backup might be required here."

Dark portals suddenly appeared, and Voidrins began to jump out of them and attack the Shadow Wizards, Dark Wizrims and Void Skellobits. The Maginans seemed surprised, since they stopped firing.

"Hey, Colonel… Do you see that?" the Maginan Private gaped.

"Yeah, I certainly do," the Dark Maginan nodded. "Looks like those Voidrins are fightin' them! Even though they may not be on our side, maybe it's best to help them at this moment. These wizard dudes are WAY too annoying, and if these guys help us, maybe things'll be easier!"

"But we can't forget that these guys are enemies too."

"Yes, that's definitely true."

While the fight endured, Chopper tried to sneak his way through the castle grounds and make his way to the door. Thankfully, no one seemed to pay attention to him. That is, until he made his way out of the door.

"Hey, sir… I think I just saw Chopper!" another Maginan noted, which grabbed the Dark Maginan's attention.

"What? You serious?!" the Dark Maginan stopped firing and grabbed the Maginan. "I want the information now! WHERE is he?!"

"Well, sir… He walked out of that door."

The Dark Maginan released the soldier and looked over at the exit. "I see… Well, as soon as we take care of these guys, then we'll go after him and pay him a little visit! I'm sure he'd appreciate that from us!"

* * *

**Through the door-**

Chopper let out a sigh of relief as the door closed. He was finally out of that mess, and thankfully no one spotted him. Apparently he was no longer in the castle but on a bridge leading over to a barren field. There was also a Save Block near him, so he struck it to save his game.

"Well, that sure was something, but I don't have time to stay in there. I have to go find Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi!" Chopper said as he took out the powerless Star Rod. "I need this thing's power restored…"

He crossed the bridge and felt the dark ground on his feet. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be any enemies around, so he was safe from harm. "Well, walking through here shouldn't be too bad, right?"

_**"****Ah-ha! I found you at last!"**_

"Well I spoke too soon…" the Star Warrior sweat dropped.

_**"****Hey, I said I'd be back, and I meant it!" **_Shadoo said while the dark mist appeared in front of Chopper. _**"And this time, no one's here to help you now, hero! It's just you and me!"**_

"Seriously, Shadoo? Have you even learned? I beat you last time, and I can surely do it again!"

_**"****That's because you had your dark friend with you. …If he even is your friend! Your clones are finally complete, and this time I won't be holding back! Now is when I'll beat you and take your place as the hero!"**_

"Cl-Clones?!" Chopper gawked as a dark doppelganger version of Luigi suddenly appeared before his own eyes. "What in the world…?"

_**"****Oh, little hero… Blessed soul… I must destroy you with the power of shadow!" **_Shadoo Luigi declared, deciding not to capture the personalities of the heroes. _**"And once you fall, my clones will finally take over!"**_

"Not on my watch," the Star Warrior challenged, swinging his sword. "Even if I had help from Tipral, this shouldn't be anything new!"

Chopper readied his sword as Shadoo Luigi began to come his way. Since he fought Shadoo Mr. L, he knew this fight would be pretty similar. But what caught him off guard was when Shadoo Luigi spun his body and tried to catch Chopper in his Cyclone. Plus, small little cyclones were firing from his sides, which Chopper got caught in.

"Crud! I forgot about those!" Chopper gulped, his Sword ability getting knocked away. He ended up inhaling it, but instead of swallowing it, he spat it at Shadoo Luigi and slightly knocked him back.

_**"****Let's see what this clone is capable of!" **_Shadoo Luigi said as he jumped in the air and began to flutter Chopper's way. He decided to stop him by flinging an ice ball, which was able to leave Shadoo Luigi frozen in the air. The only problem, however, was that he couldn't reach him when he was that high.

At least he could see what his stats were. He had 100 HP, an Attack of 23 and a Defense of 8. To him, he wasn't too alarmed because the clones of Tipral's minions had the same amount of HP as this clone.

Shadoo Luigi managed to break out of his icy prison and land a jump on Chopper's head, making him cringe in pain. He never really felt a jump from Luigi's feet before, but now that he got hit by it, he finally knew that it was quite painful. _"I guess I've got the feeling of many other Goombas that Luigi must've jumped on…"_

With Chopper close, Shadoo Luigi tried to hit him with a Cyclone. Unlike last time, Chopper was caught in the big one and sent flying in the air. Shadoo Luigi got his chance and struck Chopper with a Super Jump.

"Yeesh! OK, that was pretty painful…" Chopper grunted. "But that doesn't mean I'm giving up so easily!"

Before Shadoo Luigi could jump, Chopper jumped on his head instead and tossed a couple of fireballs at him, leaving him with a burn that harmed him every five seconds. Chopper even threw him up in the air with an upper kick and began to attack with a rainbow spinning kick afterward. Sure, Shadoo had these clones, but he knew the real ones were much stronger and more strategic than Shadoo's clones.

"Take this!" Chopper cried, throwing his foot down on Shadoo Luigi and making him fall to the ground. He was about to land another jump on Shadoo Luigi, but his Super Jump knocked him to the ground.

_**"****Nice try, but I have the upper hand when you're in the air!" **_scoffed Shadoo Luigi.

"True, but you're not looking good in the whole HP line," Chopper smirked. His smirk faded when he saw Shadoo Luigi whip up another Cyclone. He decided to inhale one of the smaller tornados and gain the Tornado ability, which made Shadoo Luigi gawk.

_**"****Uh oh… This doesn't look good."**_

"Try this on for size!" Chopper cried, spinning in a tornado and catching Shadoo Luigi in it. This was enough to defeat the doppelganger of Luigi and knock it away, never to be seen like the other doppelgangers.

But Shadoo still had more clones. Another one appeared, and it looked like a shorter version of Luigi. Chopper obviously knew this was Shadoo Mario. Chopper was definitely unsure whether this would be a difficult fight or not. He never actually faced his friends before…

_**"****Surprised to see one of the legendary plumbers in front of you?" **_Shadoo Mario asked.

"Legendary? I wouldn't call _you_ legendary. You're not the real Mario!"

Shadoo Mario jumped toward Chopper and attempted to stomp on him. Chopper spun in a tornado again and managed to catch him in a tornado and send him flying away. He had 100 HP, an Attack of 23 and a Defense of 9. Nothing too special.

Chopper was prepared to attack Shadoo Mario in another tornado, but he took his hammer out and bashed his head, leaving him dazed. Shadoo Mario also jumped on him, and it felt much more painful than Shadoo Luigi's. Maybe because Mario was more professional when it came to stomping on enemies?

However, Chopper himself was good at stomping enemies too – though he didn't do it as much as Mario, nor was he most likely better at it than him, he at least had some experience. He tried to jump on the clone, but Shadoo Mario jumped in the air too, which caused them both to bump into each other.

Chopper tried to grab Shadoo Mario while they were both still in the air, but he got to him first and prepared to throw him to the ground. Chopper ended up blowing some powerful wind to blow Shadoo Mario off him. After all, his Tornado ability was capable of letting him blow strong winds.

_**"****Not bad, hero," **_Shadoo Mario complimented. _**"You're putting up a bigger fight than last time!"**_

"That's because I had Tipral helping me," Chopper replied. "I don't need his help to beat you now!"

Shadoo Mario ignored him and got his hammer out again. Chopper tossed an ice ball his way, but his hammer was able to help block the attack. But when Chopper fired a light ball instead, it actually hurt him.

Remembering from last time, Shadoo Mario started to dodge the light balls being fired his way. _**"You would think I wouldn't have learned from our last fight… Well, don't expect that light power of yours to reach me!"**_

Chopper stopped firing light balls and decided to try something different. He spun into another tornado and flew after Shadoo Mario, which only failed when Shadoo Mario performed a Triple Jump to leap over the tornado. Chopper never got much of a good look at Mario's jumps before, since he was too busy fighting bad guys, but he felt like he just did.

_**"****What's the matter? Are you amazed at the great Mario's jumping skills?"**_

"Quit your boasting! It's not going to make you cool!" Chopper shot back. "You're not even the real Mario! In fact, I bet Mario's jumps would be much better and cooler than what you could do!"

All Chopper received was a stomp to the head. _**"Yeah, I stopped listening to you when you told me I wasn't Mario."**_

Chopper's Tornado ability was knocked away and shattered when Shadoo Mario bashed it with his hammer. This left Chopper a little ticked, and when he saw Shadoo Mario prepare to jump on him, he opened his mouth and started to inhale the clone. Shadoo Mario tried to resist, but the winds were too strong for him, and he was caught in Chopper's mouth.

Now that Chopper had Shadoo in his mouth, he could probably do away with him if he just swallowed him. Well, unfortunately, that didn't seem to work out, because Shadoo Mario was able to break out of the Star Warrior's mouth easily. He even kicked him in the face and knocked him over.

Chopper, now dazed, was left off guard, and it gave Shadoo Mario the chance to bash his little head and flatten him like a Goomba. Shadoo Mario performed a flip, but Chopper quickly regained control of himself and used his speed to dodge the jump. Shadoo Mario was already toppled on the floor.

"_OK, he's open, so I might as well make a move," _Chopper jumped in the air and surrounded his feet in a light glow before stomping on Shadoo Mario. The doppelganger's eyes widened in pain as he let out a screech. Thankfully, it was hardly painful for Chopper to hear unlike Ridley X.

Chopper charged up another light ball while Shadoo Mario got up. He noticed the doppelganger getting his hammer out and preparing to charge, and since it was raised up, he was open for an attack! Chopper quickly jumped and threw the light ball at Shadoo Mario, and then when he landed behind, he threw in a rainbow ball.

_**"****Gah! Very clever, hero…" **_Shadoo Mario grumbled. _**"Sure, you may have all of this speed to help you out, but speed doesn't help you win a fight, you know. I have all your friends' tactics, and I'm going to use them against you!"**_

The Star Warrior doubted that. The only thing he seemed to get was their appearance in a dark form and their abilities. It would hardly make sense for him to have something like that. So Chopper ignored him and jumped on Shadoo Mario's head when he had the chance and performed a stylish move. He was eventually knocked back down when Shadoo Mario landed a Triple Jump on him.

"Hmmmmm… You're running pretty low on HP, Shadoo!" Chopper smirked, noticing his HP bar was rather low. "I think one more hit should do it for you!"

_**"****I don't believe that will be happening, hero," **_Shadoo Mario shot back as he gripped his hammer and began to spin his body around, along with his hammer. Chopper knew Mario's Ultra Hammer wouldn't let him move around when he did this, so he just waited for the doppelganger to finish.

_**"****I… I can't move?!"**_

"See? You don't know everything about my friends." Chopper stated, finishing off the clone with a simple jump to the head. He smiled, having a feeling of accomplishment until he saw a shadow clone of Blade land on the ground.

_**"****Well… Looks like this should make things a little interesting!" **_Shadoo Blade smirked, readying his katana. _**"Let's see how you stand against this clone!"**_

Chopper finished drinking a Star Shroom Shake and threw the crushed can at Shadoo Blade's head, leaving him in a daze. He had 100 HP, an Attack of 24 and a Defense of 10. The can didn't do much, but when Chopper jumped on him with the light power in his feet, it did much more.

Shadoo Blade decided to retaliate as Chopper jumped off him by throwing a couple of shurikens his way. To make the fight more interesting, Chopper inhaled one of the shurikens and gained the Ninja ability. He threw a couple of kunais in Shadoo Blade's direction to block the shurikens and make them drop to the floor.

_**"****Making the fight a little even, are ya?" **_wondered Shadoo Blade while he jumped in the air and threw shurikens at Chopper. Even if he was a ninja, his attacks missed when Chopper dodged them in a fast pace and grabbed a hold of Shadoo Blade as soon as he landed on the ground.

"Let's go for a little ride," Chopper smirked, jumping high in the air with Shadoo Blade. He made sure his enemy's head was facing the floor before he began to plummet to the ground. Shadoo Blade hit the floor, and he was left dazed, allowing Chopper to strike him with his small katana.

But Shadoo Blade wasn't going to finish there. He kicked Chopper and then struck him with his katana afterward. Remembering a powerful move the original Blade had, his katana was surrounded in dark energy, which made Chopper's eyes widen.

_**"****Eat this!" **_Shadoo Blade fired a Dragon Beam in Chopper's direction, which caught him in the attack and sent him flying far back. Shadoo Blade dashed over to him and made a big leap into the air to drive his katana down into the Star Warrior.

"Whoa!" Chopper jumped back and threw a kunai as soon as Shadoo Blade's katana was stuck to the ground. He struggled to pull it out, especially with Chopper throwing a couple of kunais his way. He ended up ignoring his blade and threw a couple of shurikens at Chopper.

An idea suddenly struck Chopper's head as he flipped into 3-D and went around the doppelganger. Once in 2-D again, he delivered a kick to Shadoo Blade's head, which made him knock down by his katana. The doppelganger pulled his blade off the floor and swung it at Chopper. Thankfully, his ability wasn't gone, or else he would be pretty annoyed like the other times.

_**"****I thought being in this form would be much easier as a ninja, but I feel like I move a bit slow at times!" **_Shadoo Blade realized. _**"This is not how a ninja's supposed to be like!"**_

"Technically, Blade was considered the slowest in movement because his attacks did the most damage, and if he were both fast and powerful, the author would consider him overpowered," Chopper explained.

_**"****That's a stupid idea…"**_

"Well it works just fine here!" Chopper tossed a light ball at Shadoo Blade before he could land another Dragon Beam on his face, and then he finished off the doppelganger with a swing of his small katana.

"You know, the real Blade would've put more of a fight than you did. I mean, yes, you do have the abilities and appearances of my friends, but they are so weak compared to my friends! I don't think I would even be able to defeat them if I was actually fighting them!"

_**"****Well then… Let's see how you fare against THIS?!" **_Shadoo Sonic landed on the ground, and the first thing Chopper felt was the doppelganger knocking him over with a Spin Dash, which helped knock away his Ninja ability. Shadoo Sonic even destroyed the yellow star containing the said ability.

Chopper slowly got up and discovered that Shadoo Sonic had 100 HP, an Attack of 24 and a Defense of 11. _"Really? Are they all going to have about 100 HP? That's just making this fight repetitive! And I already fought against him before!"_

Shadoo Sonic stopped and taunted Chopper. _**"The speed of this hero is definitely something I'm impressed with. I've never felt any speed like this before! And with it, I'm certainly going to take you down!"**_

Chopper noticed Shadoo Sonic getting in a ball and charging up a Spin Dash. He quickly jumped and let Shadoo Sonic fly by so he could charge up an ice ball. Sure, this clone was fast, but he may not be if he tried to freeze him.

When Shadoo Sonic came back his way, Chopper tossed an ice ball and left the doppelganger frozen solid. Chopper quickly jumped in the air and performed a fire jump on Shadoo Sonic, which not only thawed him out, but it also left him with a burn. Shadoo Sonic would've gotten in another ball, but the burn kept hurting him.

_**"****Grrgh… Fine, looks like I have to fight you in another way." **_Shadoo Sonic knocked Chopper back with a Homing Attack, and then he clenched his fist to try to hit him with a Sonic Wind.

But Chopper saw the attack coming and jumped forward and hit Shadoo Sonic with an ice punch. He kinda knew that Sonic was afraid of water (everyone pretty much knew), but this was the closest thing to water he had. He soon thawed out the dark clone, who was soaking wet after the ice was turned into water. While he was trying to shake the water off him, Chopper jumped on his head and performed a stylish move.

"You should've remembered something," Chopper noted. "Sonic doesn't like water that much. That's probably why that doppelganger can't handle water that much."

_**"****Oh, the water's not too much of a big deal anyway," **_Shadoo Sonic curled up in another ball and began to charge his way. Chopper decided to charge up his Speed Dash and charge at the doppelganger as well.

Both crashed into each other and were sent flying backwards. Shadoo Sonic was a quick one to get up and try to hit Chopper with another Spin Dash. Chopper didn't even have time to get up when he was hit by the Spin Dash and sent flying in the air because of it. But he quickly got control of himself while in the air and inhaled Shadoo Sonic as soon as he tried to attack him in the air.

By spitting him out, he left the doppelganger low on HP, and Shadoo Sonic was certainly not happy with this.

_**"****What in the world?! How did you bring me down this far already?!" **_Shadoo Sonic gaped.

"Well most of my enemies grew stronger HP wise, while you didn't," Chopper explained. "And since I've grown stronger power wise, I can certainly finish you off with THIS!"

He performed a flip in the air and finished off Shadoo Sonic with a light jump. Chopper would've celebrated the defeat of the clone, but Shadoo's voice still echoed around him.

_**"****Four of my clones…defeated?! Well, I gotta say, hero, you're not too bad on your own. But I'm certainly not giving up the fight so soon!"**_

Shadoo Kirby appeared in front of Chopper and inhaled him in an instant. The doppelganger spat him out and let him fall over before he ran his direction with the Fire ability on him.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gaped. "How does he have the Fire ability on him?!"

_**"****I said I had your friends' abilities, and since I found some abilities like this, I thought I could use it against you! Also, I was hoping to use this clone for a while, since I had to appear as some shadow of this form myself when meeting your friend!"**_

"Kirby wouldn't have fallen for your tricks, which I believe he didn't. You're just going to have to accept the fact that you can't manipulate us!"

Shadoo Kirby growled and charged at him in a fireball. All Chopper had to do was perform a flip in the air and then jump on him.

Only problem? The flames on the doppelganger's head ended up scorching the Star Warrior.

Chopper wasn't surprised to see the doppelganger's stats. He still had 100 HP, an Attack of 24, but a Defense of 12 instead. And it was still feeling repetitive to him. In fact, this fight was feeling a little repetitive with the small amount of HP these clones had!

But that wasn't important at the moment. Right now he was facing Shadoo Kirby, and there was no way he could touch him physically. Using fire wouldn't work either because it would most likely heal him. However, there was still using ice…but water would have been much more effective. Well, he had no other choice.

Chopper ate an ice ball to gain the Ice ability. When Shadoo Kirby spotted him, he went into a fireball and charged at him, but Chopper used his freezing cold breath to freeze the fireball and make it fall to the ground, shattering entirely. Shadoo Kirby fell over, which let Chopper strike him with a light ball.

_**"****Hmmmm… Ice… Well, I think I'll take care of that!" **_Shadoo Kirby got up and blew fire on Chopper, which helped get rid of his Ice ability. Shadoo Kirby smirked and removed the ability. With his Final Cutter out, he prepared to strike the Star Warrior with the blade.

Well, until he flipped into 3-D.

_**"****Huh? Where'd you go?"**_

"I'm over here!" Chopper replied, jumping on Shadoo Kirby from behind. The doppelganger turned around to find him, but Chopper appeared behind Shadoo Kirby again and jumped on him a second time. This time, it was with some light energy.

But Shadoo Kirby wasn't going to give up so easily without a fight, so he floated up into the air so Chopper couldn't reach him. Now that he couldn't get to him, he turned into a stone and fell on top of Chopper, causing him to flatten like a pancake. Shadoo Kirby couldn't help but giggle at him.

_**"****Look at you! You're flat like a pancake!"**_

"That's pretty obvious…" Chopper grumbled, getting himself up and unflattening himself. "Anyway… What was I planning on doing? …Oh, yeah!"

Chopper sent Shadoo Kirby flying with a rainbow kick and then jumped up to him to throw him to the ground with a light slamming kick. However, Shadoo Kirby was quick to get up, and he opened his mouth and tried to inhale Chopper while he was coming down his direction.

He was unfortunate to get caught in Shadoo Kirby's mouth and spat out for the second time. Plus, he was running a bit low on HP, so he drank an Ultimate Shroom Shake to heal at least 100 HP. With some energy back in him, Chopper tried to inhale Shadoo Kirby.

_**"****You honestly believe using a similar attack against me is going to work? It's not even stronger than this clone's!" **_Shadoo Kirby scoffed.

Chopper ignored him and waited for Shadoo Kirby to get sucked in. With the clone in his mouth, he spat him out and then used a Speed Dash to catch up to him and land a light spinning kick.

_**"****You cheap player! Trying to attack me while I'm off guard?!"**_

"Sorry, but I have to do something if I'm going to hit you," Chopper shrugged while hitting Shadoo Kirby with another light ball. With low HP, Shadoo Kirby had a feeling that if Chopper made a few more attacks on him, he would be finished, and that's not something he wanted.

Shadoo Kirby got his Final Cutter out and kicked Chopper first before jumping in the air with the weapon. Chopper was caught in the attack and sent flying to the left, so Shadoo Kirby put on the Wheel ability and began to go after him. Of course, the Wheel ability was removed as soon as Shadoo Kirby reached Chopper.

"OK, how the heck are you able to switch abilities without having to inhale an enemy?!" Chopper exclaimed.

_**"****Since I identified the powers your friend used, I decided to use them to my advantage! I'll just constantly do this and win the battle easily! You won't have any chance!"**_

Chopper tried to punch Shadoo Kirby, but he dodged the punch and grabbed Chopper. _**"Now, let's get back to business!"**_

"I think you grabbing me isn't going to do much. There's a little problem." Chopper's foot began to glow as he kicked Shadoo Kirby with a light kick. "You forgot about my feet!"

Shadoo Kirby screeched in pain while Chopper finished off the doppelganger with a light spinning kick. "Ha! Looks like you've got no more!"

_**"****Oh, really? Did you honestly believe I would have no more?!" **_Shadoo scoffed. _**"Well this next clone is bound to blow you away!"**_

Shadoo searched for the clone he had, but he noticed it was missing. _**"Wait… What?! I swore I had that clone with me! Did I not copy it?! Urrgh… Very well then. I had two clones left, but it looks like I only have one instead."**_

"One? Well, that shouldn't be…" Chopper ended up baffling when he saw a shadow version of himself appear in front of him. "Hey! That's me!"

_**"****Heh heh! That's right!" **_Shadoo Chopper smirked. _**"And I've got all of your abilities too! Let's see how you fare against yourself!"**_

Shadoo Chopper had 100 HP, an Attack of 24 and a Defense of 13. It didn't sound too bad, since he only had an extra point of defense. Chopper would have hit him with a light ball, but Shadoo Chopper did the same thing, which made both attacks crash into each other and cause a slight explosion.

"Ugh… How is this fight going to work out if we're both going to be using the same attacks on each other?" Chopper grumbled.

_**"****Oh, don't worry about that," **_assured Shadoo Chopper. _**"I have my own ideas of winning this fight!"**_

Shadoo Chopper charged up a Speed Dash and tried to charge into Chopper, but he flipped into 3-D to avoid him and walked over to the left slightly. Shadoo Chopper went into 3-D as well and froze Chopper with an ice ball.

_**"****You know, if my manipulation on your friend actually worked, I would have made a clone of you and probably lead your friends straight into danger!"**_

"I highly doubt they would even do that," Chopper retorted, breaking out of his icy prison and going back into 2-D (his doppelganger flipped as well). "They're a lot smarter than that!"

_**"****Yeah, but they'd believe you! They're your friend, after all!"**_

That's when Chopper remembered Tipral's words to him. He would've hung his head low, but he decided not to let that bring him down. Why does he need to listen to the words of this guy anyway?

Chopper responded to Shadoo Chopper by delivering a rainbow kick to his face. He followed up by jumping on him and then bouncing off his doppelganger while performing a stylish move. All Shadoo Chopper could do was stand and gawk at the Star Warrior.

_**"****You were supposed to cry and stuff! Why didn't you?!" **_exclaimed Shadoo Chopper.

"Because I shouldn't be listening to what a villain like you has to say," Chopper declared, hitting Shadoo Chopper with a light ball and then hitting his face with a light spinning kick. Shadoo Chopper was just left slack jawed after falling over on the ground. But he realized that trying to harm them mentally doesn't always work.

So he decided to do what was best: simply beat the living snot out of him!

Shadoo Chopper equipped the Fighter ability and began to attack Chopper with his Vulcan Jab. The only good thing about being punched by his doppelganger was that the punches weren't as powerful as a punch coming from someone like Mario. But, these were still pretty painful.

_**"****I have every Copy Ability you've gotten a hold of right here!" **_Shadoo Chopper smirked, grabbing Chopper and throwing him far. _**"And I plan to use these abilities to my advantage!"**_

Chopper groaned as he slowly got up and saw Shadoo Chopper coming his way. With an ability like that, he had a feeling fighting him with be a bit difficult, so he jumped to dodge Shadoo Chopper's punch and grabbed a hold of the bandanna wrapped around his head. He managed to yank it off and eat it so he too could gain the Fight ability. Another bandanna appeared on Shadoo Chopper's head, but Chopper didn't seem to care.

"Now that we're more even, this fight should be interesting!" Chopper declared, getting in a fighting stance.

Both fighters launched themselves in each other's direction and began to deliver punches to each other at incredible speeds. It was difficult to see who was getting hit or who was delivering the hits because each fist met with the other. They continued this until their arms started to get tired.

Shadoo Chopper, on the other hand, cast a smirk and fired an energy ball Chopper's way. He ducked under it and hurled an energy wave at his doppelganger, in which he dodged as well. But Shadoo Chopper made the mistake of trying to hit him with a Rising Break. Chopper simply stepped back and waited for Shadoo Chopper to land on the ground, and then he hurled another energy wave at him and then dashed over to him so he could grab his doppelganger.

_**"****Very clever, hero…" **_Shadoo Chopper muttered, charging up a fireball in his hand. _**"But I believe you've fallen right into my trap!"**_

"Trap?" Chopper would have thrown his doppelganger, but Shadoo Chopper had already hit him with a fireball. He was forced to release Shadoo Chopper, but not before throwing an ice ball that froze the clone. Despite being burned, Chopper still approached his frozen doppelganger and shattered the ice around him so he could grab him again.

"OK… Let's try this again." he threw Shadoo Chopper across the ground and made him fall over by the bridge. He was not in a good condition, and Chopper was feeling enough energy to finish off Shadoo, so he charged up an energy ball and hurled it at his clone to leave him very low on HP.

"So, Shadoo… Do you have anything else to say before I defeat you?"

_**"****Well… I have something to show you!" **_Shadoo Chopper replied, firing a charged energy ball his way. Since this counted as a projectile, Chopper was able to grab a hold of it and fire it back in Shadoo Chopper's direction. _**"Wh-What?! How did you learn to do that?!"**_

"Well, I can grab a hold of anything that counts as something I could inhale, so that kinda counts," Chopper answered. "But that's nothing important! What IS more important is finishing you off!"

Shadoo Chopper ended up getting hit by the energy ball, leaving him with a slim amount of health left. He was eventually defeated when Chopper charged up to him and delivered a powerful kick to his face. All Shadoo could do was let out a screech of pain in defeat.

_**"****Augh… I was…so very…close to…defeating…the small hero…" **_Shadoo Chopper moaned._** "With the…power of…the Pixls… I almost…got revenge…on…the Ancients…"**_

"Pixls? There are no Pixls here!"

_**"****Of course there…aren't! That was…all in the past… You may…have defeated me…but…there are many more…challenges that…await! Just you…wait…hero!"**_

Shadoo Chopper let out a slight cackle before he disintegrated, just like the dark mist of Shadoo above. Shadoo was gone, and most likely for good.

"Hmmmmm… You know, I wonder why Shadoo wanted revenge against the Ancients…" Chopper pondered. "Did they do something terrible to him? That's something I wish to know in the future…"

Up ahead, he noticed a door reveal itself. Chopper smiled and performed a Speed Dash to make his way over to the door. There, he found himself on the dark glowing floor again, but with a Voidrin carrying a bomb rushing in his direction.

"Uh oh…" Chopper fired an energy wave in the Voidrin Bomber's direction, sending it flying into a couple of Void Bombs blocking the path ahead. They all exploded, as well as a Voidrin Shooter standing by the bombs.

As soon as he reached the edge of the platform, he found a gap between him and a smaller platform with a vertical row of Void Bombs in between the platforms. Chopper sighed and stepped back to toss a fireball at the bombs to blow up so the way was cleared.

"At least those bombs were all together," Chopper sighed, jumping across the gap and then jumping on the next platform after that was a little lower. When he saw the platform slightly higher, he found a Voidrin Thrower throwing its boomerang, which made jumping to the platform a bit difficult.

He could've used his Fighter ability, but he would have to hit the Voidrin Thrower at the right moment if he were to knock it off the platform. Once it caught its boomerang, he jumped and fired an energy wave. He liked the sound of the punching sound it made as the Vodrin Thrower began to plummet into the bottomless pit.

Of course, it came out of a dark portal, but Chopper already jumped off the platform and landed on the ground below. There happened to be another floating platform above shaped a bit like a C, meaning that only one side could be accessed. Unfortunately, a block was also in the way, preventing any entry.

But that wasn't the problem right now. The Voidrin Thrower jumped out of a dark portal and chased after Chopper with its boomerang. It hit him, but it didn't stop him from approaching the enemy and hurling an energy wave its way. He quickly finished it off with a Vulcan Jab.

"OK… Now how am I supposed to get onto that C-shaped platform above?" Chopper wondered as he looked up at the platform above him. "There has to be a way up there! I mean, there's a reason why it's there!"

He decided to check for anything in 3-D. He actually found a brick block that created a ladder, and also a Voidrin Swordsman that was apparently wandering around in 3-D. He ignored the enemy and went back into 2-D to climb up the ladder and onto the top of the platform. There, Chopper found a yellow ? block that contained a Master Shroom, which he happily took.

"Mmmmmm! Now that was yummy!" Chopper smiled. "Now, let's see how I can get to that chest…"

He went back into 3-D and noticed two Dimensional blocks by the edge of the block in the way. Chopper had no problem landing on the blocks, and he was also able to get past the large block and grab the Void Key in the chest.

"OK, that was easy. I was expecting something a little more challenging…"

He jumped onto the larger platform ahead, only to discover a dark portal. Instead of Voidrins, Maginans flew out. There were about three of them. The same three he saw back in that castle area.

"Well well well! Looks like we found ya, kid!" the Dark Maginan smirked. "Don't think you'd be getting away from us now, would ya?"

"And get a load of the bandanna he's wearing!" the Maginan Private laughed. "It looks so stupid on him!"

The soldier thought the others would be laughing, but it soon noticed the other two weren't laughing and giving him an annoyed, look, making him quiet down. "Oh… My bad. Continue on, sir."

"Good. And keep quiet for the rest of the conversation!" the Dark Maginan snapped before turning back to Chopper. "Now… You see here, Star Warrior, we have orders from Tipral to take you down. Of course, we were always told to blast you, and now that you're all here alone, it makes defeatin' you a lot easier! I'll make sure to-"

"Well there's a problem with your order," Chopper cut in. "I don't think your leader is around anymore."

"Hold on a sec…" the other Maginan started. "Are you saying our leader's game is over?"

"Well… I guess."

"I'm guessing _you_ were the one who did him in."

"Not at all," Chopper replied, shaking his head. "I don't even know what happened to him back in that fight between him and Dimentio! But I'm assuming he and Dimentio are gone…"

"So… You don't know what happened, huh?" the Dark Maginan aimed its weapon at Chopper. "Well if he's gone, then we'll let his soul finally rest in peace by bringing you down once and for all! He would very much appreciate that!"

Chopper gulped and dodged the shot that nearly hit his foot. It was even less safe around here with these enemies trying to kill him, so he jumped to the platform ahead where a locked door happened to be, and he unlocked the door and progressed through the door.

"Don't let that kid get away! There's no way we're letting him out of this darkness alive!"

"What if we fail?" the Maginan Private asked.

"We won't. Chopper can't even leave this place, and if he even tried to move on ahead, a couple more of us will be there to stop him! Believe me, he is going to have a tough time roaming through this place!"

* * *

**Next area-**

Chopper came across a long path leading up to a loop, but at the same time, he was not safe with a couple more Maginans lurking around. This time, there were two Dark Maginans flying around, and they ended up spotting Chopper.

"Ah, so you finally show up," the first Dark Maginan said. "We were just looking around for something to shoot at! Looks like we found some target practice! Although small, it should be pretty helpful when it comes to shooting other small things!"

"Wait… How will that help us?" the other Dark Maginan questioned. "Does it even matter?"

"Well… When you think about it, not really. Anyway, let's get back to what really IS important! Destroying the Star Warrior!"

Chopper gulped and tried to run on ahead. The other three Maginans from the previous area came out of the door, and they noticed the two Dark Maginans watch Chopper make a getaway.

"Uh oh… There goes Chopper." the Maginan Private sighed. "And he's too fast for us! We can't get him when he's moving like that!"

"Calm down, Private," the Dark Maginan snapped. "We have a gadget in our jetpacks that were designed to chase down fast people such as Chopper. Just activate 'em and we'll be after him in no time!"

The Maginans all activated a gadget on their jetpack, which made their fly faster than before. They chased Chopper through the loop and down a hill and began to fire. Chopper saw the shots and turned his head as soon as the hill became flat ground.

"Oh, geez… I got some enemies on my tail." Chopper grumbled. "At least their aiming's bad."

"Yeah, sir… He's kinda right." agreed the Maginan Private. "We can't even seem to shoot this kid!"

"Just shut up and fire, Private!"

"Oh… Right, sir!"

The soldiers continued to fire, while Chopper was forced to speed up. He was lucky that their shots were missing, because they never thought of shooting him where he was going to be instead of shooting him where he was.

Chopper ended up running up a hill, which was starting to slow him down. He began to sweat as he heard the shots getting louder. A missiles was fired from a Dark Maginan's missile launcher that ended up blowing Chopper forward and also made him fall to the ground.

"Ha HA! Got 'em!" the same Dark Maginan fist pumped. "Told ya I'd be able to hit the kid!"

"Well now that we got him, let's just open fire instead of approaching him!" suggested the colonel. "Surrounding him and waiting for him to surrender is just a dumb and clichéd idea anyway!"

Unfortunately for them, Chopper already got up and began to run on ahead. They stopped talking and continued to fire at the annoyed Star Warrior.

"OK, I can't just run forever!" Chopper groaned. "I need to learn to fight back against these guys! Maybe then they'll learn to leave me alone!"

He began chucking light balls in the air to create one large light ball. He did this before with his Master Gloves, and he was hoping he would be able to do something like that with his light power. Hopefully he had that kind of ability without those Master Gloves…

"What is he doing?" one Dark Maginan gawked. "Is he just throwing light balls up into the sky? He didn't even hit us!"

"What a lousy move!" laughed another Maginan.

Chopper noticed his plan was working, making him smile as he threw more light balls into the sky to form one large light ball. Once it was big enough, he stopped throwing light balls and focused on running instead.

"He stopped throwing those light ball things," the Maginan Private noted. "So should we keep firing?"

"…For the fourth time… YES!" the Dark Maginan near him yelled before he noticed something glowing in the sky. "Wait a sec… What the heck is that thing in the sky?"

"Looks like a giant light ball to me…"

They gulped as the light ball fell on most of the Maginans and destroyed them. All that remained were two Dark Maginans that were firing more missiles at the Star Warrior. Sadly, their missiles were missing most of the time, and they were getting a little aggravated.

"COME ON! Why can't these missiles hit their target?!"

"Yeah, I know! We got him one time, but now they're all missing!"

_"Well that's a good thing," _Chopper thought while smiling. _"I really like the fact that the missiles aren't getting to me!"_

His thoughts were instantly shattered when he ended up bumping into a wall ahead. There was no other way, and when he turned around the two Dark Maginans caught up to him and smirked.

"Well, looks like you have nowhere else to go, Star Warrior!" the first Dark Maginan grinned.

"So you're just going to have to surrender and die now!" demanded the second Dark Maginan.

"Wait a second… Why isn't it 'surrender or die'?" Chopper wondered. "What's the point of surrendering if I would end up dying anyway?"

"Well, because it… You know what, forget that. Let's just get rid of you once and for all."

Chopper sweat dropped, but he suddenly realized something. He threw his arms in the air and flipped into 3-D before the shots could be fired. When the Dark Maginans noticed Chopper was gone, they were suddenly left confused.

"What the… Where'd that kid go?" the first Dark Maginan asked.

"I swear he was here…" the other trailed. "Wait a second… Maybe he has that weird power to flip into the third dimension! I remember Tipral once said something about that!"

"…What the heck are you talking about? What third dimension? There are multiple dimensions that were already swallowed up!"

"Oh… Well I'm sorry about that, sir."

Chopper couldn't help but snicker at the two's behavior. They barely had any knowledge of flipping, and he couldn't be seen by them either. What was also nice was that there was indeed a path he found up ahead leading to a door, but that was only accessible in 3-D.

He approached the door and opened it to a small area with a block in front of him and a large spiky path ahead leading to a small hole that looked like the shape of the block in front of him. There was also a Void Skellobomber flying around and dropping its head onto the floor.

Chopper started off by getting rid of the Void Skellobomber by jumping and attacking it with his Rising Break. It didn't defeat the enemy, but a light ball was enough to get rid of it and make it drop a Thwomp item.

"This might be helpful," Chopper said while taking the item. "Now… Let's see what I'm supposed to be doing here…"

He flipped into 3-D to discover that there was an open path in the spiky path, so he decided to push the block through the open path until he got past the spikes and reached the hole. The only problem? There happened to be two holes shaped like the block, with one to the left and the other to the right. Chopper decided to push the block into the left hole, but nothing happened.

Well, except for two Void Bob-ombs that fell from the sky with parachutes and tried to blow up on him.

Chopper's eyes widened as he went back into 3-D and returned to the door. He actually found another block waiting for him, and thankfully the two Void Bob-ombs blew up, so he didn't have to worry about them.

"OK, let's try this again… Only this time, I'm not going to put it in the same hole." Chopper pushed the block to the other side in 3-D and pushed it into the right hole rather than the left. This made a door appear for him, as well as a Voidrin and Darkling. His Vulcan Jab was able to take care of them before entering the door.

But when he came out of the door into the next area, the background was a little different. It seemed to show a reflection of himself, which Chopper decided to take a look for himself. From the look of it, the background was a bit like a mirror.

"Oh, cool! A mirror background!" Chopper smiled. "This might be pretty cool!"

Up ahead was a Dark Super Crystal over by a bottomless pit. Sadly, there didn't appear to be anything around over by the bottomless pit, so going over there would be pointless in Chopper's dark super form.

But there was something else Chopper noticed. There happened to be a Darkling in the mirror sneaking up on him, but when he looked in the direction the Darkling was coming, he couldn't see it except on the mirror, leaving the Star Warrior confused.

"What the heck?! What's with this place?!"

He decided to punch where the Darkling would have been, and to his surprise, he noticed the Darkling in the mirror get hurt. Chopper couldn't help but smirk as he began to fire a couple of light balls that destroyed the enemy.

There was also a Voidrin Shooter in the mirror over by the Dark Super Crystal. Chopper was able to jump on its head and then touch the crystal to gain the temporary dark super form. He flew over the bottomless pit to see if there was anything around. There was only a yellow ? block that contained an Ultra Shroom, so he ate it to recover 50 HP. He returned to the ground and went into 3-D to discover an opening in the mirror background.

_**"****Hmmmm… Very interesting…" **_Chopper trailed as he went back into 2-D and discover to his right a door. Upon entering it, he discovered a glowing light pedestal with light orbs surrounding it. It almost looked like a beam of energy was firing at each orb from the pedestal.

Chopper guessed that destroying it was the only option, so he fired dark blasts of energy at the orbs and pedestals to destroy them before shaking the dark power off him. It was something he was hoping he wouldn't have to go through another time.

Before anything else could be done, he heard shaking coming from the previous area, so he left through the door, flipped back into 3-D to go to the other side, and found a Void Duplighost wandering around a door near him. Chopper landed a couple of Vulcan Jabs on it to defeat it before progressing through the door.

He found himself standing on a platform near another Dark Super Crystal, and he also saw a path below him with a loop and a hill moving down. However, he noticed an upper path he could take that had a few obstacles in the way such as large square platforms surrounded in spikes, and there were Void Skellobombers and Dark Maginans flying around.

"OK… Do I take the upper path, or do I go to the lower part?" Chopper wondered. "I'm sure taking the upper path would be so much easier, but being in that dark super form might drain some of my HP…"

Chopper let out a sigh and touched the crystal to become Dark Super Chopper, and then he flew over the ground and made his way past a few enemies in his way. There were small platforms with arrows to help him not go too high up in his flight.

A Dark Maginan tried to fire at him, but what Chopper did was make a huge jump in the air to blast off to a high ledge that happened to lead to an alternate path. There was even a small amount of rubble in the way, so Chopper dashed through it all to smash through the rubble and disintegrate it.

Even the Voidrins and Void Creatures did not stand a chance once Chopper charged into them. But since he didn't need the form anymore, he reverted back to his normal form and found two bouncy platforms that led to two loops. And since his speed didn't slow down from the two platforms, he was able to run through them both and run down a steep hill leading to a spring pointed at an upper right angle.

He launched off the spring and caught a hold of a zip line to head down to a ledge where a door happened to be. There was a Darkling firing a spell his way, but he did away with it with a light ball before progressing through the door into a new area. This time, he came across a large area with a path leading down and a platform with a spring. There was also a Voidrin Thrower over by the platform too.

"OK… So should I use that spring that leads up to some missile, or do I take this path over here…" Chopper wondered. "I guess I'll take the more interesting route."

Chopper landed a kick on the Voidrin Thrower and then bounced off its head to reach the platform and bounce off the spring. The missile had a handle, so he was able to grab it and activate it, making it fly up in the air.

"Ooh! This is actually really nice! …Let's just hope I don't hit anything in the way. I don't think that would be too nice."

Void Bombs and Dark Maginans were lurking around the skies, and Chopper certainly didn't want to bump into any of them, or else this missile would be history. What made things worse was when the Dark Maginans were firing.

"Keep firing, soldier!" one Dark Maginan shouted. "This kid's going to be toast when we shoot him off that missile and send him crying to his mommy!"

This ended up angering Chopper and forced him to fire a light ball at the Dark Maginan's jetpack, causing it to malfunction and make the soldier fly all over the place until it crashed into a Void Bomb, causing both the Dark Maginan and the Void Bomb to explode. Thankfully, Chopper was no longer in its range to get hurt by it.

He eventually reached the path above and let go of the missile to land. A yellow ? block was near him, as well as a Void Koopa and two Void Goombas that tried to headbonk him. Chopper dodged them and hit the yellow ? block to make the Magic ability pop out. Knowing that was more useful, he took the power and became Magic Chopper.

"Now this should make things a bit easier! …Maybe." Chopper cast lightning that struck the two Void Goombas and the Void Koopa, leaving them paralyzed so he could finish them off with some fire magic.

He ran on ahead and noticed a pole up ahead with a spiral path leading down to a loop, which he took to catch a zip line going down to a spring. It ended up launching him up to a loop that led him down a small hill and onto the ground. Thankfully, a small ledge helped slow him down because there was a bottomless pit past the ledge.

Chopper jumped onto the ledge and found a platform he could jump on that led to a dark glowing slide. Upon getting on it, he happened to spot some Dark Maginans in the distance shooting at some Dark Wizrims firing at them. …Wait, they didn't look like Dark Wizrims!

"Huh? What's with those Wizrims?" Chopper wondered, tilting his head. The Wizrim appeared dark purple, and it had threatening purple eyes and a double-bladed scythe wand. It was twirling its weapon around and firing dark magic at the Dark Maginans, who looked like they were having a tough time.

"Could that… Could that possibly be a Void Wizrim?!"

He ended up sliding down as he watched the Dark Maginan trying to fight off the Void Wizrim, and it was certainly having a tough time as well. It had a double-bladed scythe! Of course that would be pretty dangerous! Not to mention one of the blades damaged a small section of the trooper's arm armor.

"Geez! This guy's putting up one heck of a fight!" the Dark Maginan wheezed. "My shots don't seem to do much when it's constantly blocking them with that weapon! And it even has magic it can shoot out too!"

The trooper revealed a blade hidden in its arm and tried to jab at the Void Wizrim, but it easily blocked the attack and struck the Dark Maginan with its weapon. Chopper's eyes widened in surprise at the fight. Before, he was seeing the Maginans taking down these guys, but now it looked like the fight was much different with the Wizrim being much stronger.

While he was sliding, he happened to knock a couple of Void Goombas away, which he was happy with, but he wasn't happy when he saw the slide end. It made things worse when there was no floor connected to the slide!

Thankfully, he ended up landing on a platform near another long path leading down to a door ahead. Chopper jumped off the platform, charged up a Speed Dash, and ran down the pathway until he landed on a platform where the next door was. This led him into another area with mirrors, but this time, he noticed a large bottomless pit and two Void Skellobombers flying around, as well as a Voidrin with wings called a Voidrin Flyer. They were apparently dropping bombs to the ground.

"Voidrins flying around now? Yeesh… I wonder how many of these guys are here." Chopper sweat dropped. "Not only that, but I don't see any floor around except for where I'm standing! Yeesh… But on the other hand… I can knock these guys out easily!"

He raised his arms and let lightning strike down on the four enemies lurking around. Chopper smiled after striking them one last time and defeating them. With that finished, he decided to flip into 3-D, since he could get a better view of the mirror background.

There, he noticed a hidden path revealed on the mirror. Sure, he couldn't see it on his side, but the mirror helped reveal the path he needed to go. With that, he followed the visible path on the ground until he got to an actual section of the floor that was visible on both sides.

"OK, so the only way to see where I'm going is if I go into 3-D," Chopper deduced after flipping back into 2-D. There, he was met with a Voidrin Bomber charging in his direction. Thankfully, an ice spell was able to stop it from even hitting Chopper and left it frozen solid.

He jumped over the Voidrin Bomber and cast a fire spell to thaw it out and let the bomb explode on the Voidrin Bomber, thus defeating it. With that settled, Chopper went back into 3-D and discovered some Voidrin Flyers flying around in 3-D too.

"Great… I almost forgot that there are some enemies that may be around in 3-D as well." Chopper sighed, following the path he saw on the mirror to reach the door ahead. His lightning spell took care of the Voidrin Flyers, and when he went back into 2-D, he found an unconscious Shadow Wizard lying on the ground, making him confused.

"What the heck? What's this Shadow Wizard doing unconscious?" the Star Warrior would have jumped on the enemy to take care of it, but he felt like that wouldn't make him feel like a better person. Instead, he decided to get a better look at the enemy and noticed some small spots on its cloak.

"Those spots… What are they supposed to be?"

Chopper would've pondered about this, but the Shadow Wizard's eyes opened, and it saw Chopper and grabbed him.

"Ack! You're not unconscious!"

"I was, but your voice happened to wake me up," the Shadow Wizard hissed. "Too bad I don't have the energy to end your game at this moment. Stupid little bug thing happened to jump me all of the sudden!"

"Bug thing?" Chopper wondered, cocking his head. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"That bug thing with those red eyes and that strange grin. From what I heard, it said something like 'fury'. I would've squashed it, but it suddenly jumped on me and knocked me out. Ugh… I swear I'm going to get that little bugger!"

"Hey… That sounds a lot like Fawful!" Chopper realized. "Ever since he turned into that…thing, my friends and I have never been able to catch him. I'm guessing he's somewhere close!"

While Chopper was suggesting to himself that he should try to stop him, the Shadow Wizard was slowly reaching for its wand and aiming it at Chopper. "Well… You go ahead and do that. Right now, I have to finish something."

"Like what?" Chopper wondered before seeing the Shadow Wizard's wand aimed at him. His eyes widened as he jumped over the magic and defeated the wizard with a jump. After all, it was pretty weak. But he couldn't help but feel bad about hurting a wizard in a weak state.

But then again, it was trying to destroy him.

Well, it wasn't something he should be trying to discuss to himself. He opened the door and moved on to another small area with no mirrors. But he did see an enemy he didn't remember seeing for a while. There were a couple of them too.

"Are those…Muths?" Chopper gawked, watching the giant mammoth-like creatures roam around. They were dark purple, and their tusks were much bigger than a normal Muth or even a Mega Muth. The last time Chopper remembered seeing them was inside that mountain in the snow world.

Thankfully, he wasn't too far from them, so they didn't happen to spot him and charge in his direction. But he was prepared for anything if they even tried to approach him. He had the Magic ability on, and that was a power that would most likely help him against these guys.

Chopper decided to take things slow for once and approached the Void Muth in front of him. It happened to spot him and began to charge his way. Chopper tried to stay calm and prepared to make his move when it began to get closer.

"Chew on this!" Chopper shouted, firing an ice spell to the ground and making chunks of ice rise out of the floor. The Void Muth was stuck in the ice and was left frozen. Chopper smirked and followed up with a fire kick that thawed the enemy and even left it scorching.

This also gave him the chance to continually bounce on its head and defeat it after a while. It dropped a Bone-In Cut for Chopper, which he ate to double his attack power for ten seconds.

Smirking, he used his fire magic to make fire rise from the ground and hit two Void Muths at the same time. Now that his attack was stronger, he could do much more damage and do away with these enemies. After defeating the two with more fire magic, one dropped another Bone-In Cut.

But Chopper had a sudden feeling that fighting these guys would take a while.

And indeed it did. After a couple of minutes (five to be more precise), Chopper had taken care of every single Void Muth that was in the area, both in 2-D and 3-D. It was a long fight, but Chopper felt like it was worth it. It felt like he became stronger attack and HP wise, and that was perfectly fine.

So he approached the door and headed into the next area to discover a couple of Dark Maginans and Shadow Wizards fighting in the air. There weren't many, but one was certainly struggling against a Void Wizrim, and another Dark Maginan was struggling against a wizard in a dark purple cloak and had purple eyes. Oh, geez… Another dangerous enemy, and it was most likely a Void Wizard.

"Crud! How are we supposed to fare against these guys?!" exclaimed a Dark Maginan who got struck in the chest by a Void Wizard's magic. "These guys are so much stronger! And they're so much different too!"

"Ugh… Well we shouldn't let that stop us from fighting back!" another Dark Maginan shouted. "We've got better technology than these idiots! We're bound to kick their butts in no time anyway!"

"Yeah, let's hope…"

The Dark Maginan fighting the Void Wizrim was apparently losing at this point, with most of its shots being blocked by the Void Wizrim's weapon. Unfortunately, its weapon got sliced in half, forcing the trooper to resort to its pistol, but that wasn't enough for it to be defeated by the Void Wizrim.

"Whoa! That Wizrim just defeated that Maginan!" Chopper gaped. "And here I thought the troopers were going to be the ones victorious in this fight. Well, I guess it doesn't look like it…"

Realizing that he spoke a little too loud, he covered his mouth. He certainly didn't want any of them hearing him. Sure, they wanted to kill each other, but they ALL wanted to end his game.

Thankfully, the enemies didn't appear to be paying too much attention to him, so he slowly snuck his way past the enemies. The only problem was the door up ahead, which was being guarded by two Void Wizards. Maybe he could fight them, but that would bring the attention to the others, which would make them try to fight Chopper instead. Not too much of a good idea.

To his relief, the Void Wizards moved away from the door to fight two Dark Maginans that were firing down at them.

"Let's take 'em out!" exclaimed the first Dark Maginan. "They're gonna wish they've never messed with us!"

"Plus, they're blocking the way too!"

The two Void Wizards exchanged glances and then flew up to them with their blood-stained wings (which still disturbed Chopper) and fired magic out of their wands at the two troopers.

_"Phew! Thank goodness I don't have to deal with them!" _Chopper thought. _"Now the way is open!"_

Chopper ran as fast as he could through the door and headed into a smaller area. The violence could still be heard through the door, but that wasn't important. He had a feeling they'd be too busy dealing with them.

"Well at least this place has no en…" Chopper paused when he saw two Void Wizards staring at him. "Oh…"

The Void Wizards let out a creepy cackle as they aimed their wands at Chopper. Dark purple magic was fired his way, which Chopper easily dodged. However, the only problem was that this magic was homing, so it started to follow Chopper around, which he noticed.

"Oh, come on!" Chopper ran over to the two wizards and let the magic hit them, only to have the shots disappear by their wands. Geez, they were not as stupid as he thought they were!

Nevertheless, he tossed two light balls at them to stun them, and then he used his fire magic against them to scorch them. After all, they were kind of similar to the previous wizards, so the fight wasn't going to be much of a challenge.

A simple jump defeated them and allowed the door ahead to reveal itself. There was also a Save Block and yellow ? block too. Chopper would've approached the door, but something dropped from the sky and scurried over to the door.

"Wait… Isn't that the bug thing Fawful turned into?!" Chopper gaped, noticing it go through the door. "So I'm close now! I've gotta catch it before it moves on!"

He ate the master Shroom from the yellow block, and then he saved his game with the Save Block before entering the door. He wanted to be quick, or else getting to Fawful would be almost impossible.

* * *

**Next area-**

When Chopper walked through the door, he came across a large area with a couple of platforms above him. There didn't appear to be a door up ahead, so it appeared that the Dark Star Core wasn't going to be going anywhere.

Speaking of that, the Dark Star Core was already scurrying away until it noticed no door around.

"I gotcha, Fawful!" Chopper declared, speeding up to the Dark Star Core and making it turn to him. "You've got nowhere to go!"

_**"…****Fury?" **_the Dark Star Core questioned as it looked up at Chopper.

"You've got nowhere else to go, so you might as well stop here."

Instead of answering, the Dark Star Core decided to get closer to Chopper, which made him back away from the creepy grinning whatever it is.

When Chopper backed far away enough, the Dark Star Core raised its two small arms and grew to a much bigger size compared to Chopper. It now had three jagged spider-like legs, two jagged arms and hands with three fingers, and the Dark Star that was attached to its antenna. Chopper could see the Dark Star glaring at him, and even the Dark Star Core was grinning evilly and cackling.

Chopper blinked for a moment with his mouth wide open. "Oh… Uhhhh… Oh, great. I was hoping this would be a lot easier, but I guess things have changed, haven't they? So be it. It's my job as a hero to stop you, and that's what I intend to do by defeating you!"

He clenched his fists and jumped on one of the platforms to hit the Dark Star Core with a light ball. Sadly, it didn't seem like it was harming this thing, and he could tell when it let out a creepy cackle. Chopper sighed and took a look at its stats. The Dark Star Core had 640 HP, an Attack of 25 and a Defense of 14. That was just for the Dark Star on the antenna, though.

That wasn't the only thing. Apparently the Dark Star Core had other stats aside from the Dark Star such as the red glass eyes, which had 80 HP each and a Defense of 8. And each of the three legs had 60 HP and a Defense of 6.

"Oh… So I can attack multiple sections of Fawful?" Chopper wondered before noticing a shadow arrow being fired his way. He looked up at the Dark Star, which was about to fire another shadow arrow, but he jumped out of the way and threw a light ball, which seemed to leave it's eyes widening in pain.

Chopper smirked and fired fire magic at the Dark Star Core's eyes, causing its hand to cover its eyes, while the other grabbed Chopper and held him over by the Dark Star, which fired a dark pulse that left Chopper flinching.

"I wish this thing could actually talk," Chopper winced. "It would make this battle much more interesting."

He managed to break out of the Dark Star Core's grasp and jumped onto one of the platforms. Chopper raised an arm and let his lightning magic hit the Dark Star, but this only made the Dark Star Core knock Chopper off the platform with one of its hands. Now that he was on the ground, the Dark Star Core's arms went into the ground, and dark balls of energy went through its arms and were coming in Chopper's direction.

Chopper used his lightning spell to strike the balls of energy and destroy them, and then he let an icicle fall from the sky and land on one of the Dark Star Core's eyes. This gave him the chance to also hurl a couple of light balls at its legs. Sadly, only two of the legs were lifted off the ground.

"Oh… Well this isn't good." Chopper frowned. "I guess I can't really hit Fawful's weird leg things while his eyes can see them."

The Dark Star Core let out another cackle as its antenna, arms and legs disappeared and began to chase after Chopper around the whole area. Chopper gulped and began to jump from platform to platform to avoid the evil Dark Star Core getting closer and closer. If this was a straight run, then sure, he would be able to get away from this thing, but he was jumping, and jumping for him was not faster than running.

_**"****FURY!" **_the Dark Star Core roared when Chopper took one glance at the giant bug thing. He let out a yelp and jumped off the platforms when he noticed it getting much closer. He raised his arm and let lightning strike the Dark Star Core's eyes, which was enough to crack them and leave it blind. Its legs, arms and antenna reappeared, allowing Chopper to hurl an ice spell at the legs.

After a fire spell, the three legs were gone, and the Dark Star Core came crashing to the floor. The bottom half of its body was left destroyed and splattered on the floor, but the upper part of its body was still there, as well as the Dark Star on the antenna.

"OK… So I can finally attack it with ease." Chopper started off by jumping on the platforms and making his way up to the Dark Star. He performed a light jump and was being stylish when he bounced off.

Unfortunately, things were not going to be as easy as he thought now when a shadow arrow appeared and began to spin around the Dark Star. Chopper quickly got down on the floor, but the shadow arrow aimed for the floor and started to spin then. It began to get faster as it continuously spun too. Chopper just focused on jumping every time the arrow got near his feet.

_"OK, I just need to jump to dodge this. Nothing difficult!" _thought Chopper as he jumped one last time, which made the Dark Star finally give up and fire the shadow arrow in Chopper's direction.

"What?! Oh, come on! …Well, maybe I could use something to throw that thing back?" the Star Warrior wondered, since he noticed the shadow arrow was approaching him rather slowly. "Maybe my Magic ability has something that'll give me a hand…"

Chopper created a hammer out of fire and swung it at the shadow arrow. This caused the weapon to be thrown back at the Dark Star and leave it stunned for a while. Smirking, Chopper struck it with lightning and then jumped up the platforms to use a light jump to do extra damage.

Was this being affected by light just like most dark enemies? That was something Chopper wondered.

After throwing a light ball at the Dark Star, it took action by charging up a powerful beam. Unfortunately, Chopper wasn't sure what it was going to do, but he had a feeling the attack was going to be powerful. Maybe getting behind it was the better idea.

_"I better do that then," _Chopper flipped into 3-D and went behind the Dark Star Core. He noticed a giant, purple beam fire out of the Dark Star for a brief moment until it stopped. Chopper took this chance to jump up the platforms and hurl a charged light ball at the Dark Star.

"I bet you weren't expecting that!" Chopper smirked.

The Dark Star finally detached itself from the Dark Star Core's antenna and used its power to revitalize the rest of the body. Chopper gaped after he heard the creepy cackle from Fawful. How was it able to do something like that?!

Dark lasers were also being fired from the Dark Star Core's antenna and were following Chopper around. He ended up leading them to the Dark Star, but the shots only disintegrated before it touched the Dark Star. Chopper was left disappointed, but he managed to land in a jump on the antenna.

The Dark Star Core took action again and let its eyes flash to make the whole area covered in dark smoke. This made things difficult for Chopper because he could barely see where the Dark Star Core was.

"Ugh! I don't like this one bit!" Chopper cried. "How am I supposed to get to Fawful when everything's covered in smoke?!"

For some reason, he could see two glowing eyes and below the eyes were glowing red eyes. That was most likely the Dark Star Core cackling, while the Dark Star above was probably going to make another attack. However, it didn't appear to make one, which Chopper noticed and brought his guard down.

"What is it doing?"

Since his guard was down, the Dark Star Core fired a blast of dark energy in Chopper's direction and knocked him off the platforms. He was not pleased, and it made him even more annoyed when the Dark Star Core was laughing at him. But at the same time, he was annoyed with himself.

"Why did I bring my guard down like that?" Chopper sighed. "That was so dumb of me!"

He noticed a hand trying to reach him, which he reacted just in time to avoid it and land on the Dark Star's arm. He ran up to its face and fired a lightning bolt at both eyes. Chopper even hit its antenna with a lightning bolt too.

"OK, I still need to focus on hitting the antenna, but it'll make things easier if I get the legs and eyes down too! Then again, that antenna's probably going to still attack me, so the choices are kinda tough…"

The Dark Star Core's mouth opened, and out came some dark poisonous breath that Chopper was forced to cover his face from. Unfortunately, he still got a little poisoned by it, which turned his whole face pale. The Dark Star Core cackled maniacally and used its other hand to throw Chopper off its arm.

"Geez… I don't feel so good…" Chopper coughed, taking damage from the poison every five seconds. "Too bad Piccolo's not here… Her music always helped cure status ailments…"

He decided to take out the closest thing he had to curing poison and drank a Super Shroom Shake to recover only 20 HP. Chopper did away with the can and was no longer feeling sick. An ice hammer appeared in his hand as he climbed up to the top of the area and slammed the hammer on the Dark Star Core's antenna.

Chopper would've hit the antenna again, but the hammer was shattered by a small dark laser the Dark Star fired. That didn't matter anyway, because he was already near the Dark Star Core's antenna, so another light jump was able to hurt the Dark Star and the Dark Star Core.

Another idea struck Chopper's head, making him create a sword out of fire. He prepared to hit the Dark Star's Antenna, but its mouth opened and let out a scream that not only made Chopper fall to the ground, but it also blew out the fire sword. The Dark Star Core let out another cackle and picked up Chopper and lifted him over to its antenna so the Dark Star could detach itself and appear next to him to fire a dark pulse.

"Oh, this again? This isn't so hard to dodge." Chopper jumped to dodge the pulse attack, and then the Dark Star Core raised its arm even higher, while the Dark Star rose to his height again. Another pulse fired from the Dark Star, but Chopper had no problem jumping over it like before.

That's when the Dark Star Core finally gave up trying to hurt Chopper like this and dropped him to the ground. Chopper sprang back into action upon landing on the floor and created an electric bat that he used to hit one of the Dark Star Core's eyes and also its antenna. Thankfully, that bat left one of its eyes cracked.

"Ahh… Well, if I can crack the other eye, then that means I won't have a problem destroying the legs!"

He prepared to fire another lightning bolt at the other eye, but the Dark Star Core made its move first and threw Chopper to the ground. He was able to get up quickly and react in time when he saw the Dark Star Core spew out its poison breath.

"When in doubt, flip about!" declared Chopper, flipping into 3-D and avoiding the attack. After the Dark Star Core finished its stinky breath, it noticed Chopper was missing, leaving it confused.

Well, until its other eye was cracked by a rainbow kick Chopper delivered from behind.

"And that'll help you win a fight!"

Chopper landed on the lowest platform and looked down at the three legs. A lightning bolt hit all three legs, but before he could destroy them, the Dark Star Core's antenna began to flash, forcing him to look up instead. The whole area ended up getting fogged up, and the only thing he could see were two red cracked eyes getting closer.

Oh, and that cackle. He could hear that too.

"Ugh… I really hate that cackle of Fawful's…" Chopper mumbled. "In fact, I don't know if Fawful is being controlled by that thing or vice versa. I'd say he's controlling its power, but I don't think he can say much…"

The Dark Star Core's head appeared in front of Chopper and began to chase him around. Sadly, Chopper couldn't do much, because when he hurled a light ball at the enemy, it did practically nothing. The only thing he could do, however, was run.

To make matters worse, the Dark Star from the core's antenna was trying to charge in his direction, forcing him to jump each time it came his way. He tried jumping on the Dark Star, but because it was surrounded by a green glow, he was hurt and pushed back near Fawful instead.

Thankfully, the fog faded away, and the Dark Star Core's arms and legs both appeared, along with its antenna. Chopper also noticed something with the Dark Star. It eyes were closed shut, possibly from the cracked eyes on Fawful.

"Hmmmm… Is it possible that the Dark Star Core is blind? Or am I just thinking too deeply…" Chopper wondered, quickly dodging a dark laser the Dark Star fired down at him. He already hit the legs before, so maybe he just needed to strike them with a powerful attack to destroy them!

He created a fire sword and rushed over to the first leg he saw. Chopper slashed it a couple of times and let it disintegrate. He also fired some lightning at the third leg and then threw the fire sword to destroy it. That left the middle leg, but the Dark Star Core already noticed him and grabbed him.

_**"****Chortles!" **_cried the Dark Star Core while it rose its arm so the Dark Star could detach and fly down to Chopper's height. It didn't even have a chance to send a dark pulse because of the light ball Chopper managed to toss first.

But the Dark Star Core still kept its grip on Chopper and tried to crush him with its other hand. Chopper only had one arm left free, but he couldn't get out of the freaky bug's grip.

_"I guess I have no other choice but to…" _Chopper looked down at the remaining leg and fired a spear made of electricity to destroy the leg and make the Dark Star Core crash onto the floor. Just like before, the lower half splattered all over the floor, and the only thing left to fight back at the moment was the Dark Star.

"Well, looks like I took care of that without any problem!" Chopper smirked as he pointed up at the Dark Star. "Now it's just you and me!"

He fired electric arrows at the Dark Star, which was able to pierce through the round…whatever the heck it was. This only made it fire small shadow arrows in his direction, which Chopper dodged by using his Speed Dash to blast off. While he jumped over the Dark Star Core, he hurled a couple of light balls at the antenna and then jumped up the platforms to fire poison magic to poison it.

Well, it would've been poisoned, but this wasn't like other enemies that had more of a life. The Dark Star was just a mere object.

"Oh… So the poison barely did anything…" Chopper sighed. "Great. Just great. What else could I do?!"

While he pondered, the Dark Star charged up a giant beam and fired it at Chopper while he was distracted. Not only did he take a lot of damage, but he lost his Magic ability as well. That too was shattered by the beam, leaving the Star Warrior with no Copy Ability.

Chopper landed on the floor face flat, obviously injured by the attack. He was even covered in a couple of small burns on his arms and a bit on his face. But that didn't stop him from getting up and tossing a weak light ball at the Dark Star. It didn't do much damage like his other light balls, but it was enough to harm the antenna.

But what made things worse was when the Dark Star detached from the antenna and prepared to heal the rest of Fawful's body.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper cried, jumping up to the Dark Star and tackling it to the floor. Trying to grab a hold of it was difficult because of how heavy it felt to him, and the fact that it could attack him still made things even more dangerous. Which was why he was blown back by its dark laser.

"Ugh… Honestly, I wanna know what this thing is. Fawful somehow absorbed its power, and he was suddenly turned into that…bug thing. And I'm talking to myself again!"

The Dark Star floated up and summoned a few enemies to assist it. He saw a Starman, Blade Knight and a green angel called an Annie. While getting the Angel ability would have been nice, Chopper inhaled the Starman instead and got the Hi-Jump ability, which he used to propel upward and tackle the Dark Star.

Both he and the Dark Star crashed into the wall, but the Dark Star came out OK and flew over to the remains of Fawful and revitalized the rest of the body. Now the Dark Star Core was revitalized, allowing it to go on the core's antenna once again.

"Oh, great… Now I have to go through that whole cycle again! …Unless I just stick to attacking the antenna instead?"

He made a big jump up to a platform below the Dark Star Core's antenna and followed up by propelling himself up to the Dark Star to charge into it. The Dark Star didn't take it too well and fired a small dark laser at Chopper that ended up missing. Chopper used his cape as a parachute to slowly float onto one of the platforms that were at a higher distance from the Dark Star Core.

_"OK, I don't know if Fawful could actually get me from here…" _Chopper thought while hitting the antenna with a light ball. He wished his Hi-Jump ability could do a little more, which made him wonder if getting the Angel ability was actually the better idea.

The Dark Star Core's antenna continued to fire lasers at Chopper, but he kept jumping from platform to platform to easily dodge them. He even propelled downward to hit the Dark Star again and recoiled when it tried firing another shadow arrow his way. Only this time, it was homing.

"Uh oh… Not good!"

He jumped over to a couple of platforms as fast as he could to avoid the shadow arrow, but he suddenly had an idea that could possibly work. Chopper headed back to the Dark Star Core's antenna, jumped on it, and let the shadow arrow hit the Dark Star while he was behind it. Let's just say the Dark Star didn't take it too well and was left stunned.

Chopper smirked and hurled at least two light balls until the Dark Star Core took action and began to grab some of the platforms and hurl them away, limiting the amount of platforms in the area.

"Are you kidding me?! Why would you do that?!" Chopper gaped.

_**"****DARKNESS!" **_the Dark Star Core cackled, grabbed Chopper and letting glowing energy flow through its arm and make contact with Chopper. Each time he was struck by the glowing energy, the grin on the Dark Star Core appeared to get wider.

It eventually threw Chopper to the ground and let his Hi-Jump ability get knocked away. Thankfully, the ability was still bouncing around, so Chopper was able to inhale it just in time, but instead of swallowing it, he spat it at the Dark Star Core's antenna as soon as he got to its exact height. He had a feeling the ability wouldn't be too helpfully anyway.

More glowing energy flowed through the Dark Star Core's arms as it tried to grab Chopper again. He easily dodged the arms this time and left the Dark Star Core blind for a moment with a light ball. Chopper proceeded up to the top platforms remaining and jumped on the antenna stylishly after bouncing off. He also added a light slamming kick too.

The Dark Star Core would've grabbed him again, but like before, it ended up missing. But the grin on its face certainly didn't wear off just yet. It cackled and let the Dark Star detach from its antenna so it could fly over Chopper and fire small lasers down.

Chopper was unfortunate not to know about the Dark Star lingering over him until he got hit by one of its lasers. He looked up and saw the target firing another laser. Thankfully, he managed to get out of the way just in time before the laser hit the platform.

"I guess Fawful is trying out some new strategies..." Chopper mused. "Not bad. I'd commend him for that if he was actually speaking to me..."

The Dark Star began to rapidly spin around while firing lasers all over the place. Some came in Chopper's direction, but they weren't too difficult to avoid. The only problem was avoiding them when they ricochetted off the walls, since he didn't expect something like that to happen.

"Great... Now they're ricochetting off the walls!"

He ducked under one laser, and then he jumped off a platform to avoid another. He tried to hit the Dark Star with at least one light ball, but that wasn't enough to stop it from firing more all over the place. He decided to land on the ground and stay over by one of the Dark Star Core's legs so the lasers could most likely hit them. Sadly, he forgot that the legs could lift off the ground while the eyes were not cracked.

Chopper frowned before getting shot by one of the lasers and knocked over. The Dark Star took notice of this and attached itself to the Dark Star Core.

"Stupid lasers..." Chopper grumbled. "Why does this guy have to be annoying? Even his voice is annoying!"

He noticed the Dark Star Core sink its hands into the ground and let more energy surge through its arms. The ground started to shake, and suddenly the ground was starting to glow. Chopper took this as a sign to get off the floor, so he did just that.

The floor was instantly filled with heating energy that got even brighter, and since the Dark Star Core noticed Chopper off the ground, it tried to swat him off the platforms so he could get hit. But the Star Warrior wasn't going to make this easy and jumped on its arm as it reached out.

Sadly, the energy surging through its arm was enough to harm Chopper and make him fall onto the ground. He wasn't sure what feeling he received from hitting the hot floor, but the only thing he could do was let out a cry while rocketing upward.

"YEEEEOUCH! THAT'S HOT!"

The Dark Star Core grabbed Chopper again and brought him to its antenna so the Dark Star could do its job of attack. Fortunately, Chopper could move freely, so he got two light balls ready and threw them at the antenna when it was about to make an attack. He also jumped off the Dark Star Core's hand and landed a light kick to the antenna too.

"I kinda wish my friends were here to help me fight him…" Chopper trailed. "It would be nice to have someone to talk to while I fight Fawful."

He looked back up at the Dark Star Core's antenna, which was giving him a glare. It fired a laser his way that was easy for him to dodge, but after dodging, a strange feeling entered his mind.

Fawful getting a hold of the Dark Star was technically his fault, after all. If he didn't go after those thirteen Gold Beans two years ago, Fawful may have not likely gotten a hold of this kind of power.

But at the same time, he remembered that one of the reasons why he was here was to fix the mistake he and his friends made with the resurrection of The Void (though technically, the second time it was partly his own fault). And since he was now duking it out with Fawful with the Dark Star's power, he could fix the mistake he made two years ago.

And Chopper was going to make sure that mistake would be fixed.

The Dark Star Core opened its mouth, and an apparition of Cackletta appeared and charged at Chopper. With a confident look, he performed a flip over the apparition and chucked two fireballs at the antenna. He also jumped over the two hands that charged at him and jumped on the Dark Star Core's antenna three times before landing on one of the higher platforms.

"Listen here, Fawful!" Chopper exclaimed. "I may have helped you get that Dark Star thingy, but I'm going to fix that problem by defeating you! You understand?!"

The Dark Star Core responded with a cackle while its antenna fired lasers toward him. Chopper opened his mouth and inhaled one to gain the Laser ability, which he used to fire a charged laser at the antenna. He also fired two lasers at the dark being's eyes to slow it down.

"Let's see how you like this!" Chopper cried, firing a laser at the wall, which ricocheted and hit the Dark Star Core's antenna. The Dark Star's eyes widened in pain before it got hit by a rainbow jump that was happily delivered by Chopper. When he bounced off, he flipped and landed a light jump afterward.

At this point, he knew the Dark Star Core was not looking too good. Maybe he had a chance after all!

He jumped over another laser and charged up a laser while flinging a light ball at the Dark Star Core's antenna. This caused the Dark Star to detach from the antenna again and chase after Chopper while surrounded in a glow. Chopper even tried hitting it with a light ball, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

_"So the antenna's invincible, so what?" _Chopper thought. _"Avoiding it isn't so difficult if it's chasing me around!"_

Chopper landed on the floor and ran under the Dark Star Core's legs. That apparition of Cackletta was still around, and it was chasing after him now. He hurled a light ball that only phased through the apparition, so the only way for it to go away was to simply run away.

The Cackletta apparition let out a cackle and was catching up to him. Chopper tried to slow it down by jumping up a couple of platforms and leading it to the Dark Star Core. It eventually faded away while the Dark Star dropped a couple of dark bombs onto a couple of platforms. Chopper jumped off the platform he stood on to avoid the radius of the explosion on other platforms. A couple of them were destroyed in the process while the Dark Star attached itself to the antenna.

"Finally! Now I can finish this up!" declared Chopper, firing the laser he was charging for a while at the antenna. Its eyes quickly closed shut in pain, leading to the Dark Star Core's eyes to close too. Chopper smirked and jumped onto the remaining upper platforms to chuck a few more light balls.

At this rate, the battle would be finished in no time.

Unfortunately, his Laser ability didn't last for too long when the Dark Star Core spat a dark blast from its mouth at Chopper, knocking his ability away and shattering it in the process. He was left disappointed, but it was no big deal. Light power was probably enough to help finish this ugly thing off.

The Dark Star Core's antenna started to store some power in order to fire a large, dark beam like it did before – only that time it was when the rest of Fawful's body was unable to move. Chopper flipped into 3-D and went around the Dark Star Core so he could get behind it and watch the antenna fire a gigantic dark beam.

_"Good thing I wasn't caught in that," _Chopper thought, letting out a sigh. _"I'd probably be a goner!"_

When the attack was finished, Chopper's hands and feet were now surrounded in light power as he jumped up to the Dark Star Core's antenna and began to deliver a few punches and kicks. His kicks seemed to be more effective, so he decided to spin his foot and let the light power do the job. That was, until he was blasted back onto the top platforms by the antenna's laser.

Chopper looked at himself and noticed the bruises and burns left from the Dark Star Core's attacks, and then he compared them to his opponent. It didn't look like there were any scratches left on the Dark Star Core! Not even one! But maybe the power from the Dark Star Core was starting to get weakened. Even the antenna was looking a bit weakened without scratches.

He pulled himself together and made a big leap to kick the Dark Star Core's antenna, but once he saw a shadow arrow pop out, it was time to stop and land on one of the platforms. At least a couple of more hits would probably do it in. _Maybe_…

Chopper tried tossing a light ball, but the shadow arrow only deflected it back, forcing him to jump onto another platform while dodging the shadow arrow spinning around. He could hear the annoying cackle the Dark Star Core let out while he continued to jump over the shadow arrow until it stopped and decided to fire it his way.

"Uh oh… I don't know if I have anything that could help me deflect that thing back at the antenna!" Chopper realized. "My Magic ability had something, but I don't think I have anything to…"

He paused when he remembered something he still had in his inventory. The Star Rod still happened to be in his possession when he pulled it out. While it lacked power, it could possibly help…

"Well, might as well try," Chopper gripped the de-powered Star Rod and waited for the shadow arrow to come his way. He swung it as soon as it got close, and it was flung back at the Dark Star Core's antenna. Its eyes widened in pain, giving it a sign that it was in severe pain.

Now was his chance to finish it off! With the light power in his feet, Chopper put away the Star Rod and made a big leap to the Dark Star Core's antenna. It would've tried to grab him if he weren't too high from its reach, but all it received was pain from Chopper's light jump.

When he landed on the floor, he noticed the Dark Star was completely frozen. "Did… Did it work?"

A bright light emitted from the Dark Star Core's antenna, causing it to explode upon being completely covered in the light. There was also a large, dark explosion that came from the rest of the body. Chopper had to cover his eyes in the process.

When he felt the explosion stop, he opened his eyes and saw nothing remaining of the Dark Star or Fawful. Even the platforms around were gone as well.

"Finally… The fight's over." Chopper sighed, letting himself relax a bit. "That was one heck of a battle…and it was all done by myself! Though… I guess this means this is the end of the Dark Star?"

Chopper looked around, and his frown changed to a smile. "Well… I'm glad I finally fixed one problem I caused. However, there's still fixing the bigger problem…"

_**"****Why… The failing…"**_

The ten year old stopped smiling when he saw something fall in front of him. It was the Dark Star Core…or rather, Fawful. He was back to the size he previously was in the bug form, but unlike the bug form, an antenna and legs did not appear on his body. Two teeth were missing from his grin of defeat.

"Huh?! Oh, no… You're still at it?" Chopper gaped. Though, from hearing his actual voice in a dark tone, he had a feeling that the dark power of the Dark Star was no longer corrupting his mind.

_**"****You…antenna… with…why…fury…whenever…" **_Fawful mumbled.

"Look, Fawful. Face it, you lost."

_**"****But Fawful… just wanted…to acquire leadership like…Cackletta… The…loss of…Cackletta motivated Fawful to…step up… But I have failure… Fawful tried… Fawful gave the 110 percents… Fawful worked the overtime… Fawful was the team player… Fawful put in the hours… Fawful got the hands dirty… Fawful…"**_

"OK, I get it!" Chopper cried. "You don't need to ramble on!"

_**"****But every time… Always… The Green Antenna arrives… Always in Fawful's way… Alwaysalwaysalways…"**_

Chopper couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Fawful. After all, Cackletta was probably the only person he ever cared about, and he most likely wanted to follow in her steps. Then again, Fawful was always crazy, and a villain like him is always a villain. But at a state like this, he had nothing in him.

"I always got in your way because technically, _you_ ambushed _me_ most of the time!" Chopper explained. "Well, you actually ambushed me and my friends… But you understand what I'm telling you. At a state like this, you're pretty much done. You're done with this evil business."

_**"****I have remorse…" **_Fawful trailed. _**"Fawful understands… Fawful realizes the pain delivered to the heroes… Fawful gives up… Fawful will disappear with no troubles like you want…"**_

"You don't have to leave forever! Maybe you can have a change of heart! There's always a chance, you know!"

_**"****No no… Fawful must disappear to prevent more troubles…" **_the dark bean denied. _**"Now here Fawful goes… The disappearing… Forever disappearing…"**_

_"Strange… Why would Fawful choose to disappear?" _Chopper thought. His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed Fawful's grin get wider while he grew to a much bigger size.

_**"****WITH YOU!"**_

Chopper gaped while Fawful was surrounded by a bright light, causing him to explode. It was a powerful explosion, and it was even able to send Chopper flying back over by the door he walked through.

Thankfully, the explosion didn't really injure Chopper when he was able to slowly get up. There were a couple of more bruises left on him from the explosion, but they didn't feel too painful.

"OK… I don't understand what Fawful was trying to pull off…" Chopper trailed. "Did he…just destroy himself? I guess he was evil until the very end… What a shame. But he and that Dark Star thing are finally gone, so I don't have to worry about them for now!"

A door was also revealed up ahead, making him smile. He was wondering where the door would be, and now that it was revealed, he could finally get out of this area. The only problem, however, was that he was a bit wounded, so he had to be a bit cautious.

Chopper took a deep breath and entered through the door up ahead. He only fought two big enemies, so he had a feeling things would only get much more difficult from here.

Coming out of the door, he was in a flat area with a hill going down up ahead. There were a few Voidrins lurking around, as well as some Dark Maginans. Thankfully, there weren't any wizards in sight, to his relief.

Actually, he wasn't relieved. He was pretty low on HP, and there were enemies around! A couple of hits from them and he would be done for. But… There was a yellow ? block nearby, so his worries went away when he discovered a Master Shroom come out of the block after hitting it.

"Ahhh… Much better!" Chopper sighed, now healed from the wounds and burns from the battle. "That was actually very nice!"

He proceeded on ahead, but he was forced to stop when one Voidrin Shooter spotted him and began firing his way. Chopper inhaled one shot and spat it back at the enemy before jumping on its head. He even managed to pull off a stylish move while he was still in the air before landing. Though, the Voidrin Shooter was still alive...

Thankfully, he didn't have to worry too much about finishing it off, because a Dark Maginan happened to do the job for him.

"Gack! I missed!" the Dark Maginan spat. "I got that Voidrin thing instead! Maybe my next shot will be luckier..."

Chopper looked up and watched the Dark Maginan fire down at him. It was flying around with its jetpack, so there could be something he could do to distract the trooper. He started off by throwing a light ball at its jetpack. Unfortunately, it barely did much damage.

"Sorry, kid, but you're not making my jetpack malfunction!" the Dark Maginan cackled. "It ain't strong enough for that!"

It fired another shot, so Chopper inhaled it and knocked it away after spitting the projectile in its direction. He also finished off the Voidrin Shooter with a light ball and ran down the hill. The Dark Maginan quickly shook itself and glared down at the running boy before chasing him.

Chopper didn't even look back and continued down the hill before meeting up with a loop. He was already moving fast, so going through the loop was not so bad. The only thing he was worrying about was the Dark Maginan chasing and firing at him while he was running down.

"Whoa... Things might get a little too fast!" Chopper gaped, noticing his speed increase as he continued running down. "Where does this lead to?!"

He looked up and saw two Darklings join in the fight, forcing him to dodge the spells coming his way. Great. Now he had three enemies on his tail. This was just what he needed...

There actually happened to be a spring on the wall he was running down, which cast a smile upon his face when he finally reached it. Now he was launched to the upper right onto a black platform with a purple trim. It kind of reminded him of those squares up in the sky from The Void's darkness. There were actually three of these platforms and a bottomless pit down below.

Of course, the three enemies were something to worry about too.

"You might as well stop running and fight," suggested the Dark Maginan. "...Or, you could run and be a chicken! We're not leaving, that's for sure!"

"Yesss... You could be the baby or the idiot!" one of the Darklings hissed.

"OK, let me ask you this..." Chopper began. "What are you trying to achieve by destroying me?! Your leader may be gone now, but why do you still have the need to go after me?! You people are technically _free_ from his rule!"

"You're ssstill the enemy," the second Darkling replied. "You sssee, we don't like you, and after what you've causssed in the passst, we wisssh to sssee you sssuffer!"

"Well _sssorry_," the Star Warrior responded, trying to imitate the Darkling.

"Insssult my tongue again and you'll get it!"

"Forget hisss insssultsss," the other Darkling suggested. "Let usss focusss on taking down thisss boy!"

The two Darklings fired their magic while the Dark Maginan was shooting at Chopper. To dodge it, he did a backflip onto the next platform and hurled two light balls to take out the two Darklings. They didn't even stand a chance against that power.

However, the Dark Maginan was able to handle one light ball thrown at its face. Chopper could've made another move, but he decided to use one of his items instead, such as the Thwomp. It grew to a bigger size upon pulling it out and went over the Dark Maginan before coming down and crushing the trooper.

Chopper smiled and jumped up to the last platform and noticed a trail of rings going down to the floor below. He wasted no time and let himself free-fall downward and land on the floor. He noticed a few holes on the floor, making him flip into 3-D to discover a narrow pathway. It was certainly a small one, and it made things worse with the Void Skellobombers that had the ability to flip into 3-D.

"Void Skellobombers... That's just what I needed to get in my way." Chopper groaned while carefully walking across the narrow walkway. The Void Skellobomber took notice of Chopper and tried throwing its head down. He wasn't sure how its head came back on, but he didn't care.

It wasn't too hard to make it to the other side, to his relief. But what awaited him back in 2-D was a locked door. Chopper groaned and approached the door to see if there were any hidden paths.

"Great... Nothing. There wasn't even a hidden path in 3-D either! This is just what I needed..."

He turned around and went back to the narrow walkway. Upon flipping into the third dimension did he discover something down below. There was actually no bottomless pit down below! Only a Void Boomboxer and Void Wizard were down there!

Nevertheless, he jumped down and landed on top of the Void Boomboxer. After bouncing off, Chopper had to watch out for the Void Wizard's magic coming his way. The homing magic still bothered him, and it didn't seem to do much when he tried leading it to the Void Boomboxer.

But the Void Boomboxer wasn't going to let itself get attacked so easily. The headphones it wore were at maximum volume, and a huge sound wave was fired from both sides of the headphones.

Chopper cringed while trying to block the loud screeching sounds. He didn't know what kind of sounds they were, but he didn't care. They were just too much for him!

"Augh! Those sounds are just _unbearable!_" he cried.

Thankfully, the cringing sounds didn't last too long, but he was still left off guard, thus allowing him to get hit by the Void Wizard's magic. But that only encouraged Chopper to fight back more by jumping on both enemies.

The Void Wizard tried to stun Chopper, but it missed and ended up getting defeated along with the Void Boomboxer. He sighed in relief as he opened the chest and got a hold of a Void Key.

"You know, I don't think I needed to fight them for this key..." Chopper realized.

There was a spring to the left in the pit that helped bring him back up to the narrow pathway, but he was forced to go into 3-D and move carefully again. The Void Skellobomber took notice of him again and started to toss its head onto him, which it failed to do once he crossed the walkway.

With the Void Key in his hands, Chopper unlocked the door and headed into the next area. He found a small portion of the floor slowly spinning vertically, as well as a Void Spiky Skellobomber flying around. Past that small portion was a Void Skelloknight, and behind it was a dark purple metallic enemy with purple eyes and spikes on its head while holding a spinning, sharp shield. There appeared to be something glowing on its back too.

"Hmmmm... Let's see what happens when I step on here..." Chopper stepped on the spinning portion of the floor and made his way across. Surprisingly, he didn't fall off when he slowly moved along with the spinning ground. "Yeah... This is definitely strange."

Eventually he made his ways across and avoided the Void Spiky Skellobomber's head being thrown down. The only thing he had to worry at this point was the Void Skelloknight approaching him. The other enemy, known as the Spinier Shield, followed from behind. All Chopper could do was wait until the Void Skelloknight swung its sword so he could jump over it to attack.

Though, his plan ultimately failed when he got hit in the heads by the Void Spiky Skellobomber's head, resulting in him being dazed and then struck by the Void Skelloknight's sword. While the weapon wasn't jagged, it certainly had a lot of power in it.

"A small boy does not stand a chance against me," the Void Skelloknight scoffed. "Surrender now, and maybe your game may end less painfully."

"Ugh... I don't think so!" Chopper retorted, quickly getting up and inhaling the Void Spiky Skellobomber's head that was still on the floor. He spat it at the Void Skelloknight, but it didn't even harm it. However, it was a good enough distraction for it to loosen its grip on its sword. Chopper smiled before inhaling the sword to gain the Sword ability.

"What?! Very clever..."

Chopper jumped over the Void Skelloknight while getting its helmet off with a swing from his sword. He then sliced through its armor with a light slash. Despite being armorless and weaponless, the Void Skelloknight was far from finished. Another sword appeared out of thin air, which was used to try to attack Chopper. He was lucky to parry the attack just in time.

"I see you're surprised by this," the Void Skelloknight noticed, seeing Chopper gape. "The Void's power that surged into my body has somehow granted me the ability to create another sword out of thin air."

Chopper was unsure of whether this Skelloknight's mind was its own at the moment or if it was corrupted by The Void's power. He didn't bother asking questions and attacked the Void Skelloknight while it was left off guard. He was still trying to be aware of the Spinner Shield behind him, so he jumped over the enemy while attacking it to worry less about it.

When the Void Skelloknight fired a Sword Beam, Chopper flipped into 3-D to avoid them, and then after going into 2-D again, he charged up light power in his sword to hopefully do away with the enemy.

"See how you like this!" Chopper cried, firing a Light Sword Beam that destroyed the Void Skelloknight and even hit the Spinner Shield. Sadly, it was left unfazed, to his dismay. "So light power doesn't affect these guys? Well that's nice..."

There was still the Void Spiky Skellobomber he had to worry about, so he jumped up to the enemy and spun his sword vertically a couple of times to let its dark, angelic wings fall off and make it fall to the ground. Now it was a normal Void Spiky Skellobit, but it was certainly not going to leave itself vulnerable, so it started to charge.

Chopper let out a sigh and finished it off with a light slash.

"Well, at least that wasn't too hard," Chopper said, turning back to the Spinner Shield. "Now for you."

He fired another Sword Beam in its direction, but like the other attack, it had no effect on it. Chopper even tried approaching it, but its free hand stretched and tried to jab at him like a spear. Even jumping over the enemy didn't seem to work, to his dismay.

_"Ugh... It won't let me even jump over it! Unless... It's hiding something behind its back!" _Chopper thought, pondering for a moment.

The Spinner Shield began to charge toward Chopper, while he put his flipping to use and got behind it in 3-D. He discovered a purple glowing spot on his back, which he struck with his sword and defeated the enemy in a single hit.

"I guess they have very little HP..." Chopper trailed. "I have no problem with that."

He noticed the ground move upward and then down like a giant lump or pimple. Going at a normal pace wouldn't help that much, so Chopper used his Speed Dash to go up the hill and then down. There was another he ran past and then he was going down a hill with a loop ahead. No enemies in sight, to his relief.

Past the loop was a small ledge for Chopper to jump over slightly and run through the next loop. A spring happened to be on the edge of the floor, which launched him over to another section of the area with a Dark Super Crystal on one platform and a dark crystal over by transparent dark platforms.

There were two other platforms over the transparent platforms too. Two dark portals with Voidrin Bombers and Swordsmen were popping out. Light balls were useful in taking them out and also clearing the platforms by hitting the dark crystal.

"Forget that Dark Super Crystal," declared Chopper. "I'm not risking it..."

He jumped through the cleared platforms and to an alternate tunnel path with a spear on the floor and on the ceiling. They would retract for a moment and then pop out of the floor or ceiling after a couple of seconds, so Chopper had to make his move at the right time.

Oh, and the two Void Wizards forming a small tower at the end weren't helping either.

"So... I guess I have to watch out for these spears AND their magic?! This isn't helping me one bit!"

When the first two spears retracted, Chopper quickly jumped past them and ducked when the Void Wizard on bottom fired its dark magic. Jumping couldn't worked too, but his ducking could make many projectiles pass over him. Afterward, he jumped past two more pairs of spears and reached the Void Wizards.

Their eyes widened when Chopper fired a light ball in their direction. They were knocked over by the door and then stomped on by Chopper's two green feet. One even dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake.

"I'll take that!" the Star Warrior exclaimed, picking up the item and heading through the door to find something surprising. "What the... Giant stars?"

Over a large bottomless pit, there happened to be some giant black stars with a purple trim. There was only a Dark Maginan that had the ability to flip into 3-D flying around. No big deal for Chopper. Right?

He jumped on the first large star and noticed it move counterclockwise. Chopper was forced to jump before he could fall into the pit below, and it even got the Dark Maginan's attention.

"Huh?" the Dark Maginan turned and took notice of Chopper. "Well, what do we have here? The little boy I was hoping to find!"

"Great... The trooper spotted me." Chopper groaned. "Thanks..."

"You're welcome! This should be fun..." the trooper was about to pull the trigger on its weapon, but dark lightning fired down from the sky and hit the Dark Maginan. Chopper gaped as he jumped back over by the door. He wasn't sure what happened, but he had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

The Dark Maginan's dark gray armor changed to a black color, and its weapon and eyes were dark red. There were also some curved spikes on its arms and legs and a retractable spike on the top of its helmet. It said nothing as it fired a dark purple laser from its blaster in Chopper's direction.

Chopper brought his sword up and tried to block the attack, but it only shattered the weapon. The Void Maginan felt pleased and fired a plasma bomb from its grenade launcher it now sported. Chopper jumped over the blast radius and began to jump from star to star while avoiding the Void Maginan's dangerous shots.

_"I'm now weaponless, and I don't know how I'm going to take that Void Maginan down!" _Chopper thought, jumping to the last star and reaching a dark platform. He removed his Sword ability and began launching light balls at the Void Maginan. They seemed to be doing some damage, to his luck.

He hit the brick block to find the Paint ability, so he took that ability and waited for the Void Maginan to land on the platform. It drew its hidden dark blade and lunged forward in Chopper's direction to hit him.

"Don't even think about it," Chopper warned, attempting to jump on the Void Maginan, only to get hurt by the spike that popped out from its helmet. He held his foot in pain while letting out a cry. But that didn't stop him from paralyzing the Void Maginan with yellow paint.

The Void Maginan tried to attack, but it couldn't move, allowing Chopper to shoot fireballs, ice balls, rainbow balls and light balls to finish it off. It was thankfully the only one around, so he could proceed up ahead. There was just a small pit below he needed to jump over. Nothing bad.

But when he jumped, he felt something hit him from above. Above him was an invisible coin block.

"What the heck?! Are you serious?!" Chopper gaped, barely able to cross the pit. "Whose idea was that?!"

He traveled up the small hill and found another Spinner Shield. The same process from before was repeated from the previous Spinner Shield, and once behind, Chopper chucked a fireball at its back to destroy it.

There was a door just up ahead, but when Chopper got a better view of it, it happened to be locked.

"Locked? Great... Well, there must be something hidden here..." Chopper threw his arms up and flipped into 3-D. Indeed there was a path over to his left he took to reach an alternate area. There was a Void Key on the floor waiting for him, as well as a glowing white orb that reminded Chopper of the ones he saw flying up in the sky before.

It seemed to depict a volcanic wasteland.

"I guess that was a world that was consumed by The Void..." Chopper trailed. "I'm guessing this is where it stays, considering that it doesn't move... Well, at least I have the key in front of me."

He approached the key, but a Void Wizrim landed in front of him and grabbed the key first. Chopper quickly got in a fighting stance, but the enemy gave him a glance before flying into the orb.

"Ack! No!" Chopper cried, trying to chase after it until stopping in front of the giant glowing orb. "Great... It got away. I'm not sure what to do at this point... I guess I might as well go after it."

He jumped into the orb at a quick pace, hoping to catch that Void Wizrim.

* * *

**Fiery wasteland-**

Chopper was expecting the world to be very hot and full of brown and red, but when he landed on the rocky floor, he noticed everything was all gray, as if time was stopped. Everything was so colorless and almost lifeless too. It was the exact opposite of what he saw before entering.

"I can't believe it..." Chopper gasped. "Inside The Void, the world feels so emotionless and...kind of depressing. And it's also..."

Chopper had to stop when he felt himself cringing in pain. For some reason, being in this world was actually hurting him. Was it because he did not fit with everything else in this bland dimension? He wasn't too sure.

The Void Wizrim didn't get any farther, that's for sure. It was flying away, but it too was suffering from this dimension as well. Chopper simply jumped from rock platform to platform and reached the large one to encounter the enemy.

"OK, listen..." Chopper started, still wincing from the pain of the dimension. "The only option here is for you to hand over that key! Then maybe I might let you go..."

The Void Wizrim looked at the key and then back at Chopper. The only response he received was its double-bladed scythe wand being thrown his way. Chopper yelped and jumped over the weapon before splattering red paint on the Void Wizrim. As soon as it caught its weapon, it was scorched by the flaming paint. It still managed to hit Chopper with its scythe wand, though.

With Chopper harmed by the scythe, he tried throwing some paint cans at the Void Wizrim. Its only defense was slicing the can in half, but that only let the paint splatter all over it. It happened to be white paint, which helped freeze the enemy. A flaming spinning kick was all he needed to thaw out the floating wizard and leave it low on HP.

He would've finished the Void Wizrim off, but the atmosphere was already doing damage, and it apparently took care of it and made the Void Wizrim drop the Void Key.

"Well, I guess this world was too much for the Void Wizrim..." Chopper trailed picking up the key. He winced again as he felt the pain from the colorless world. "I seriously need to get out of here!"

He hopped back over to the platforms and jumped into a dark portal that he happened to come out of upon entering this world.

* * *

**The Void-**

Upon returning to the dark, barren wasteland of The Void, the pain was no longer lingering in Chopper. He took one glance at the white orb and saw the color of the world like before, unlike what he saw _in_ there.

"Well, let's get to unlocking that door," Chopper sighed, returning to the locked door after going into 3-D. He unlocked the door and headed into the next area. He was quickly reminded of the column of ascending and descending platforms from Castle Tipral and Tipral's Palace. At least, they were there, if he fully remembered.

With two Void Maginans firing at two Void Wizards, Chopper had a feeling everything around here was going to be full of these corrupted enemies. Whether they had full control of themselves, he didn't know.

"_I sincerely hope something like that doesn't happen to me..." _Chopper thought, shuddering from the thought. _"I definitely wouldn't want to be corrupted from the darkness of The Void!"_

He started by jumping on the first column of descending platforms. He avoided the Void Skellobomber flying in between the platforms and landed on the ascending platforms. "OK, now this is definitely something I remember..."

While crossing the platforms, he saw one of the Void Maginans pull out a rocket launcher and fire a dark missile at the Void Wizard. Its magic helped turn it back at them, but they only flew under so the missile would miss.

_"Wow... They're going all out..." _Chopper thought upon landing on the ground. At least, he thought it was the floor.

He remembered a pipe being hidden in 3-D in Castle Tipral, so he went into 3-D to see if there was anything interesting. What he found instead was a small walkway to his left leading to a pipe. That only brought him to a small area with the Ninja and Pirate ability.

"Hmmmm... Well, I've been using the Ninja ability a lot, so I'll go with Pirate." Chopper took the Pirate ability and gained his usual captain's hat and eyepatch. He returned to the previous area and let the cannon pop out of his mouth to fire a cannonball at the Void Skellobomber in his way. He always enjoyed using that move.

There were four more columns of platforms ahead, which he jumped across to reach the door ahead. He would've left the two Void Maginans and two Void Wizards to fight, but one missile came his way, forcing him to jump out of the way.

"Oh, crud... I think they know I'm here!" Chopper gulped, turning around, only to realize the missile only came his way on accident. "Oh... They're still focused on hurting each other..."

He pondered whether or not he should get rid of them, since he didn't want to worry about them following him. But at the same time, Chopper avoided a few enemies in the past, and they didn't seem to go after him. Plus, they didn't spot him, so they'd probably be too busy fighting.

Chopper entered the next area and saw how flat it was. It wasn't even that big, to his surprise. He also saw a path in the background and another on the other side (which would probably be considered close up on a TV screen). Walking to the end of this road only led him nowhere. ...And also to a Void Wizard.

He drew his cutlass and slashed at the Void Wizard. When it fired a close-range magic attack, Chopper jumped back and fired a cannonball from his mouth at the wizard, and then he finished the job by lunging his cutlass at the Void Wizard. It got sent flying away before disintegrating. Chopper was relieved that it didn't drop an item.

"All right... So where am I supposed to go from here?" Chopper wondered. "I guess I have to flip?"

He went into 3-D and saw two paths he could take. One to the upper left and another to the lower right. Chopper chose the upper left and found himself in the background upon flipping back. There was also another enemy waiting for him. A dark purple Void Jawbus.

"Great... Not these guys!" Chopper tried shooting a cannonball over the beast, but its head popped out and took the hit instead, doing absolutely no damage. His best bet was to go into 3-D, which helped him get behind the Void Jawbus and strike its glowing purple tail a couple of times to defeat it.

He reached the end of the path in the background and went back into 3-D to find another path to his right that led to another path across from the other where the Void Wizard was. This time, he encountered two Void Cherbils that were spewing out their terrible gas.

"This shouldn't be too hard," stated Chopper, who shot cannonballs at the two enemies and then swung his cutlass to finish them off. Afterward, he ended up stumbling upon a pipe ahead, which led him to another section in the background. Sadly, there was nothing hidden around except for a yellow ? block containing a Dark Shroom. It didn't get much far before it got squished by a cannonball.

"Well, there's not much here. Might as try that other way."

He jumped back into the pipe and went into 3-D to take the right path. Things felt a little stranger for him because usually he was used to going into the background at times. But this... He was never in the foreground before.

The only thing he had to worry about were the two Void Spanias and Void Fuzzies lurking around. Chopper only had to toss some light balls to get rid of them, considering that they could only get him at a close range. Nevertheless, he was able to take a mid-left path in 3-D to find a door.

"Well that was not much of a tricky maze... It was actually pretty interesting!"

Chopper headed into the next area through the door to find himself standing on a platform, and below him were different colored blocks. They were definitely larger than other blocks he saw before, but the red ones had a large circle in them, indicating that they acted like bombs. There were mostly yellow blocks, but the blue ones were somehow connected to the red bomb ones.

He jumped down onto the lower platform and looked at the two red blocks next to him. Chopper decided to hit the right one with his cutlass, causing the red block to explode, along with the blue ones to his right.

"Oh... So the explosion opened a path below!" Chopper realized, taking the time to go down the open path and onto some more blocks around ten feet below. Once again, there were two red blocks he could hit on either side, so he jabbed at the left block with his cutlass, destroying the blue blocks on that side.

He jumped down and destroyed some yellow blocks that stood in his way to drop down even further to the next platform with blocks. Unlike the others, there was a Void Spiky Skellobit that tried to poke him with its spear. It only took a cutlass attack and two cannonballs to take care of the undead creature.

Chopper destroyed the red blocks and dropped down to the last platform full off blocks. A Void Jawbus happened to spot him and try to bite him, but flipping into 3-D helped take out its tail.

After destroying the red blocks, he jumped through the open way and landed on a large platform below where he found a door. There were a couple of other small platforms above to the side, but there wasn't much there except for a dark portal and also a yellow ? block.

But the Voidrin Bomber was what worried him the most.

"Great... One of these guys..." Chopper jumped on one of the platforms while the Voidrin Bomber jumped on the large one. The fuse wasn't activated on the bomb on the Voidrin's head, so he decided to shoot a fireball at its fuse to let the bomb do the work for him. The Voidrin Bomber was left defeated from the explosion, and it let Chopper grab the Super Shroom in the yellow ? block.

"A Super Shroom... Well, I suppose that's better than nothing..."

He jumped back to the large platform and entered the door into an area full of smaller platforms and a bottomless pit below.

"Crud... This isn't what I was hoping to go through." Chopper groaned.

Jumping onto the small platforms was no easy task. Even if there were many of them around, landing on one was not an easy task. Plus, with the two Void Maginan Troopers patrolling the skies, Chopper might have a problem.

They also happened to spot him, making them fire down at him. Chopper started to jump onto each small platform and tried shooting light balls at the Void Maginans. He managed to hit them with at least one, but the light didn't envelop them like it would with the Darklings.

Speaking of Darklings, there were two that greeted him up ahead.

"Crud... This isn't good..."

He jumped toward the two Darklings and swung his cutlass to deal some damage to them, and as soon as he landed on the small platform slightly above on his right, Chopper defeated them with two light balls. It was when he got to a larger platform did things get a little more interesting.

Chopper turned to the two Void Maginans and got in a fighting stance, but two Void Wizards flew in and knocked the two troopers away. He was left in a confused state, but he jumped over to the locked door on the last platform. Chopper had a feeling there was something missing here.

Returning to the fight between the two sides, Chopper went into 3-D and discovered a small hole...that he happened to be standing over.

"Oh, crud..." Chopper gulped as he fell through the hole and surprisingly landed on a platform below. "...Oh, well that wasn't such a bad landing."

He went back into 2-D and discovered another large white orb in front of him. From what he could see, it was a speedway with a couple of skyscrapers in the background and a red sky. It almost looked a little similar to a place called Stardust Speedway.

"Interesting... I'm guessing that the key is somewhere in here..." the ten year old let out a sigh. "Great... This isn't going to be fun..."

Chopper made a quick jump into the orb before anyone could go after him.

* * *

**Speedway world-**

Chopper had a rather smooth landing when he entered the new world, and just like the previous one, it was dull and frozen in place. He was standing near a hill going downward and up to a loop, but the pain from this world made him stop looking.

But hey, there weren't any enemies to bother him!

"If traveling through this world wasn't so painful, I'd probably be a little more interested in this place..." Chopper winced. "But, I have to find the key, so I better start going, and fast."

He took off down the hill and through the loop. Even though the pain was still surging through his body, Chopper still carried on and went through a long corkscrew up ahead. He couldn't help but notice the large statue in the background. It was a bit difficult to see what it was, considering that it was too far for Chopper to see.

The speedway seemed to end after the corkscrew from what Chopper could see, but when he got closer, platforms appeared out of thin air, making Chopper surprised and even made him trip and fall over.

"Ow! What... What the heck was that?!" Chopper gaped, slowly getting up and brushing himself off. "Did platforms suddenly appear before I could fall into some kind of abyss?"

He decided to take it a little slow and went at a slower pace than before. While progressing on the platforms, the ones behind him started to fade away as more appeared in his direction.

Well, they stopped appearing when he noticed a chest on a platform in the distance. But Chopper easily discovered some hidden platforms in 3-D that led to the platform. However, unlike the others, these were actually moving.

"That was too easy," Chopper said, reaching the platform with the chest and getting the Void Key from inside. "All right, time to backtrack all the way back..."

He raced his way back after going past the platforms in 3-D and finally reached the portal leading back into The Void. A quick jump was all he needed to return to the darkness.

* * *

**The Void-**

When Chopper returned to the large platform, he discovered the enemies he saw before were still duking it out. One of the Void Maginans threw a plasma grenade, which missed and landed right by Chopper. The explosion knocked away Chopper's Pirate ability and left some soot on his face. Thankfully, the enemies paid no attention to the grenade and continued fighting.

_"I better keep it quiet so they don't see me," _Chopper thought, quietly jumping to the platform with the locked door. He saw a Save Block and yellow ? block too, so he recovered 200 HP from the Master Shroom and also saved his game.

"Wait a second..." the Star Warrior paused for a moment. "Usually when there's something like this, I'm expected to fight someone! But I already took care of Shadoo and Fawful! Who else could there be for me to fight? Unless...Shade is through here..."

He gulped, remembering the last time he faced off against him. Discovering what was written in his diary really did change his mood after exposing his secrets. And to think what he would be right now... Those thoughts made Chopper shudder. But he knew he had to progress onward, so he grabbed a hold of the door and pushed it open.

_"If Shade wants a fight, then I'll be ready!"_

* * *

**Through the door-**

When the door closed behind him, Chopper noticed that the area he stumbled upon wasn't actually small. In fact, there was a raceway just ahead with the hill moving down and leading to a loop. He was actually a little surprised.

"Oh... So Shade is not here, I guess..." Chopper trailed. "Well, I guess I'm safe for now."

Four Void Maginans landed in front of him and aimed their blasters at his head. "Why did I speak so soon?"

**"**_**Stand...where you...are!" **_one of the Void Maginans said in a dark voice, yet it seemed to pause every few words. _**"We've...got you!"**_

"Wait... I thought The Void's power is corrupting your minds!" Chopper gaped. "There must be an explanation!"

_**"****You...URK...will not...be...ooooog...going...any...further!"**_

Something seemed a bit off here. It almost sounded like the troopers were in a bit of pain, but they seemed to be standing just fine. Unless... Unless these Maginans were trying to fight off the corruption? That's what Chopper seemed to assume. That probably made the most sense to him.

_**"****Stand...where you are!" **_another Void Maginan demanded. _**"You...are trapped!"**_

Chopper tried to flip into 3-D to get past them, but they too had the ability to flip, so he discovered them in 3-D as well.

_**"****That trick...gurg...won't work!"**_

Chopper let out a sigh and went back into 2-D. "Great... I guess I really am trapped."

_**"****Say your prayers...Star...Warrior!"**_

The Void Maginans were about to pull the triggers on their guns, but they were interrupted by an explosion...which actually came from one of the troopers. They stopped to look at the blown up Maginan, but they were destroyed in the process.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gaped, noticing the troopers get destroyed. "Whoa... They're gone! Thank you for the..."

When the smoke was cleared out, he saw the figure standing in front of him very familiar. It actually seemed to resemble Chopper a bit, and the only one here that would resemble Chopper...

"No, it couldn't be you, Tipral... You were destroyed in that fight with Dimentio!"

"You're right, I'm not Tipral," the voice replied, clearing away most of the smoke. "I don't really care for that meatbag anyway."

_"Meatbag? Oh, no..." _Chopper saw a metal replica of him standing in his way.

"Wait... Chopper?!" Metal Chopper's eyes widened before he tried shooting at him. Chopper, however, managed to jump over the bullets and land on top of his metal doppelganger's head.

"What the heck are you doing here, Metal Chopper?!"

"And I wanna know what _you're_ doing here, Chopper!"

"I don't have time for questions! I have to go!" Chopper declared, making a run for it before hearing another word from his robot counterpart. He did not have time to fight someone like him, and honestly, he didn't care how he got in this place anyway.

"Oh, no! You're not getting away from me!" Metal Chopper roared. "I didn't forget what happened back on that rainbow speedway!"

Metal Chopper flew after the Star Warrior, and he was able to catch up with him very easily. After Chopper got past the loop and the bumpy hills, he stopped in front of Metal Chopper on the flatter part of the speedway. He tried to get past him, but Metal Chopper wouldn't let him through.

He even tried jumping, but Metal Chopper flew up and knocked him back. Apparently talking it out was perhaps the best option.

"Listen, I don't have time to be dealing with you!" Chopper cried. "Just let me through!"

"We didn't finish what we were settling before," Metal Chopper mentioned. "I could've defeated you easily, but that no-good demon knight ghost thing happened to show up and send me here!"

"Wait... Maquano sent you here of all places? But why here?"

"I don't know, but I don't care at this point. I've been searching this entire place for an exit, but I never found one! So much for trying to destroy you... Oh, wait a second, I think that all changed now that you're here!"

"Metal Chopper, this is not the time for this," Chopper noted, trying to keep his guard up in case he got attacked. "Every single world is at stake here! Do you really want everything to get destroyed?! That means no making a robotic army, no worlds to take over, no nothing! Our games... Our games will most likely be...over."

"Chopper Chopper Chopper..." the metallic version of Chopper slowly shook his head. "You honestly think making a robotic army is what I care about? Sure, the thought of it sounds nice, with me being able to wipe out all those meatbags, but that is not my biggest priority. Far from it. I have one bigger goal in my mind. Take a guess at what it is."

"Let me guess... You want all the pizza in the world?"

"No! I want YOU gone for good! You've been a major pain ever since we first fought six years ago! Even when I left Maquano, I still failed to defeat you! Do you know how it feels to lose to you every single time?"

"Oh, wow... All you wanna do is defeat me. What a surprise." Chopper yawned. "So, you don't care about all worlds getting destroyed, right?"

"That's correct."

"So I guess it's all true that you have no care over anything whatsoever. If you're trying to be like me, then you're doing it all wrong. You're more like Tipral than me."

"Yes, now shut up so I can finish you," Metal Chopper suggested, trying to grab a hold of him. He ended up missing and fell over, while Chopper landed behind him and took off.

Metal Chopper quickly got up and noticed Chopper escaping. "You're not escaping from me, Chopper!"

With his jetpack ready, he blasted off after Chopper. He would've stayed on the ground, but he thought it would be much easier to get to him while being above. It would also help him spot Chopper too.

He noticed him run through a loop and through a corkscrew, so he flew down and managed to get on the speedway so he was beside Chopper.

"How'd you managed to catch up to me so easily?!" Chopper gaped.

"My jetpack's capable of many things," Metal Chopper noted, readying his blue laser sword. "This won't hurt a bit!"

Chopper slightly jumped over the weapon when Metal Chopper tried to swing at his feet. They noticed the speedway curve a little more to the left, which made jumping for Chopper a little more difficult, since he could easily fall into a pit below. But for Metal Chopper, he felt like he was at an advantage.

Noticing this, Chopper sped up through the speedway and ran past Metal Chopper. He actually discovered the speedway was ending and leading up to an area with some sections of the floor being flashy, and above were some platforms and bumpers one could bounce off.

But Metal Chopper caught up and tried to crash into him. Since Chopper was no longer running on a curve, he jumped over Metal Chopper so he could fly straight past him. Both of them ended up in the larger section of the area, and to Chopper's delight, the door was up ahead.

However, Metal Chopper shot at the door to create an invulnerable barrier, and one was even made to prevent Chopper from going back to the speedway.

"Now you're not progressing or turning back," Metal Chopper declared. "And we can finally settle this once and for all!"

Chopper sighed and got in a fighting stance. "Looks like I have no other choice... I didn't want it to come to this, but I guess the only way to get to the True Chaos Heart is to defeat you..."

"A fight with you is all I need! Nothing more, nothing less!"

"And how do you plan on getting out of here? You don't know the way out of here, you know. And even if you tried backtracking the way I went through to enter The Void, you can't because some of the doors have been sealed shut. You'll be trapped here for all eternity, you know!"

"That doesn't matter as long as I finish my main mission: destroying you!" Metal Chopper declared, clenching one of his metallic fists. "And there's nothing you can do to alter my mission!"

"Your main mission is like most bad guys' missions," Chopper scoffed. "But why do I care so much? I'll give you what you want, since I have nowhere else to go. But we better make this quick!"

"Oh, I'll make this quick all right," the metallic counterpart replied, changing his hands to machine guns. "All you have to do is hold still and it'll all be over!"

He fired bullets rapidly at Chopper, but he managed to jump in time and avoid the shots. He spun in the air before landing on Metal Chopper's head and forced him on his back before landing in front of him.

"Sorry, but I'm not going to let you get me so easily," Chopper stated. "Duty calls, and you can't let anything stop you from fulfilling that duty."

Metal Chopper was quick to get up, and he tried grabbing Chopper, who was too fast for him and jumped away. This only irritated the robot more and made him fire at his enemy once again. Too bad his shots were not even hitting Chopper.

However, when Chopper stepped on the flashy section of the floor, he was launched upward to one of the platforms above. Metal Chopper noticed this and flew up after him. From analyzing Metal Chopper, Chopper discovered that he had a max HP of 660, an Attack of 26 and a Defense of 14. Yikes. That's a lot!

And though Chopper did not take Metal Chopper seriously most of the time, he could see the rage in his eyes and a feeling of death he wanted to deliver to him. But, the gunshots being fired from Metal Chopper's machine guns stopped Chopper's thoughts and made him jump across the platforms to dodge them.

"Seriously, Metal! Haven't you learned?!" Chopper exclaimed. "I'm too fast for your gunshots!"

Metal Chopper ignored him still and continued to fire in his direction. Chopper ended up bouncing off one of the bumpers and jumped on his enemy's head again to stun him and allow him to hurl a light ball in his face, leaving him blind for a moment.

"What the... What is this?!" Metal Chopper roared. "I don't remember you using this against me in that fortress!"

"Oh, yeah... I think I forgot to mention that I've got a few new moves on me now." Chopper noted. "Obviously I was going to be much stronger if you planned on taking me on."

"Yes... That is true... However, I'm sure you would've realized I got stronger myself."

Metal Chopper stopped firing his machine gun and changed one of his arms to a missile launcher. He fired a missile on the platform Chopper was standing on and blew him off it. He was left bouncing on the bumpers, allowing Metal Chopper to fly up to him and grab a hold of him.

"Don't you remember that I carry some of your data?" Metal Chopper wondered, holding Chopper by his feet while he hung upside down. "I'm capable of doing THIS to you!"

He flew upward slightly before flying downward while spinning. He made sure Chopper's head was facing the floor so the damage done to him would be even greater. Upon crashing onto the floor, Chopper fell over on his back while in a dazed state, and Metal Chopper readied his machine gun and fired.

Unfortunately, his plan of finishing Chopper at this point was a failure when Chopper inhaled the bullets and spat a yellow star at his robotic counterpart. This knocked him onto the flashing floor and sent him flying into one of the bumpers. It even made him fall to the floor again since he hit the bumper on its bottom.

"Wait a second... What do you mean by having my data? You mean my usual jumps and stuff?" Chopper wondered.

"Not necessarily," Metal Chopper grunted, slowly getting up. "You know those Copy Abilities you use?"

Chopper was left confused until he found himself getting hit by multiple punches delivered by Metal Chopper. He finished off his combo by firing a charged beam that sent Chopper flying to the blocked door.

"Yeah. I have them!"

The ten year old noticed Metal Chopper firing another missile his way, forcing him to take action by inhaling it and gaining the bomb ability. He threw the bomb in his hand in Metal Chopper's direction, but he too chucked a bomb toward him and made both bombs crash into each other and explode.

_"Oh, geez... He does have a lot of my abilities." _Chopper realized. _"Sure, Shadoo may have had some, but this is Metal Chopper! He's been around longer, and he probably has better experience with them!"_

Metal Chopper pulled out another bomb and threw it at Chopper again. "Eat this, Chopper!"

"Ha ha, very funny..." Chopper groaned, his face covered in soot from the explosion. "Such a clever joke you pulled off..."

"I wasn't trying to be funny, meatbag," hissed Metal Chopper. "Now just shut up and let me end your game!"

Chopper flipped into 3-D and managed to get behind Metal Chopper and drop a bomb beside him in 2-D. He then jumped on his head to get his attention, making him fire his machine gun once again. Of course, the bomb behind him interrupted his attack and forced him to shoot homing missiles.

"Let's see how you like homing missiles, Chopper!"

While dodging one was easy, avoiding three of them was not. To stop the missiles, Chopper chucked some bombs at two of them so they would blow up, but he was hit by the third, making his Bomb ability get knocked out in the process.

_"Well, I don't need to use my Bomb ability to win this fight," _Chopper thought. _"I can still use some different strategies against him!"_

Metal Chopper charged at him and prepared to grab Chopper, but he had other plans. He ducked under his robot counterpart and threw a rainbow ball while he noticed he missed Chopper. Metal Chopper quickly turned around and cast a death glare at Chopper.

"What was that you just pulled on me?" Metal Chopper hissed.

"A little rainbow ball that I got from touching a rainbow," Chopper answered, hitting Metal Chopper with another one.

"You touched a rainbow to gain that power... That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Metal Chopper's fingers grew longer and sharper like claws and charged at Chopper so he could claw at him. His claws almost hit Chopper, but every time the metallic counterpart tried to claw at him, he would always avoid them.

Metal Chopper was getting pretty frustrated at this point, so he retracted his sharp fingers and decided to fight with his blue laser sword. Chopper would've dodged the attack, but Metal Chopper was much faster and managed to strike him a couple of times and kick him onto the flashing floor.

Before Chopper could do anything, he was sent flying upward and ended up hitting one of the bumpers, which threw him back onto the flashing floor. It continued to repeat for him, which Metal Chopper seemed to be liking.

"Ow ow ow ow! This is crazy!" Chopper cried.

"Hmm hmm hmm! You can stay like that all you want!" Metal Chopper cackled. "...However, seeing you like that for a while is eventually going to get old. And I'd rather end your game than toy with you!"

Metal Chopper fired a laser while Chopper was in the air, making him fall onto the non-flashing section of the floor instead. He launched a couple of more missiles at Chopper, who yelped upon seeing them come his way.

But instead of running, he inhaled them and fired them back at Metal Chopper. Unfortunately for Chopper, Metal Chopper was not as stupid as he thought, and he quickly covered himself in needles to take minimum damage. Not even a light ball was able to go through those needles!

"You'll have to do better than that, Chopper!" Metal Chopper cackled, the needles on his head disintegrating.

"If that's what you want, then that's what you'll get!" Chopper's fists were surrounded in both fire and ice energy, and then he charged at Metal Chopper. Seeing this as a stupid move, the robotic being readied his flamethrower and prepared to scorch the Star Warrior.

But Chopper disappeared with a single flip.

"What the... Where'd he go?!"

Chopper appeared on top of Metal Chopper and landed a stomp on his head. While he was off guard, Chopper spun his arms and hit both Metal Chopper with fire and ice energy. It was like he went from being burned to frozen, etc. He stopped when Metal Chopper was frozen and then jumped back to charge up a fireball.

While it would be a better idea to leave Metal Chopper frozen like that, chances were he was going to break out pretty soon. So, a charged fireball would most likely help Chopper deal more damage to his enemy. Well, his plan would've worked until Metal Chopper broke out himself.

Even still, Chopper's fireball was fully charged, so he fired it at Metal Chopper and scorched his robot counterpart. Sadly, the fire didn't burn him.

_"Dang it... I was hoping to leave a burn on him!" _Chopper thought, jumping over Metal Chopper's laser sword swing.

"Hmmmm... I think I have an idea!" Metal Chopper exclaimed, a light bulb appearing over his head. Even though Chopper heard him, he didn't know what his counterpart was going to pull off, so his only option was to attack before he attacked first.

Sure, he got in a light ball, but Metal Chopper was able to spin his laser sword vertically on the ground to send Chopper flying back, and then he fired a missile so he could store some power in his laser sword.

"Ugh... What's he planning this time?" Chopper moaned, seeing Metal Chopper storing power in his weapon. "Wait a second... Is he planning a Sword Beam?!"

"That's right!" Metal Chopper grinned, swing his sword and firing a blue Sword Beam in Chopper's direction.

Unfortunately, Metal Chopper was not expecting Chopper to inhale the Sword Beam.

"Wait... What?!"

Chopper swallowed the projectile and gained the Sword ability. Metal Chopper was almost left speechless, and he didn't even have time to dodge Chopper's lunge attack, which knocked him onto the flashing ground.

"You stupid little kid! You were lucky!" Metal Chopper roared, trying to gain control in the air again. "However, I'm not going to let THIS be out of luck!"

Metal Chopper's hands turned into laser cannons, which he used to fire blue lasers at Chopper. There was no point in blocking the lasers, so he went into the air with the help of the flashing floor and spun his sword vertically in the air to hit Metal Chopper. Chopper was even able to leave a scratch on one of his counterpart's arms.

"You foolish meatbag! Look what you've done to me!" Metal Chopper fired a laser at Chopper and knocked away his Sword ability. "And don't think you'll be getting to that ability anytime soon!"

He blasted Chopper's Sword ability and left it completely shattered, leaving Chopper with no ability. But that didn't stop Chopper from kicking Metal Chopper away with the help of his light power. But that didn't seem to be hurting Metal Chopper as much as enemies such as Voidrins or Darklings.

Upon landing on the ground, Chopper saw Metal Chopper ready his machine guns again and fire in his direction. All he did was run from the shots and jumped when he fired near his feet or tried to shoot him where he was going to be. Metal Chopper was certainly getting some fun out of it.

"That's right, meatbag! Run all you want! But it's not going to help you in the distant-" he paused when he noticed his machine guns were no longer firing bullets. "What the... I'm out of ammo already?!"

Upon noticing this, Chopper threw a rainbow and light ball in his direction to knock him over by the barrier where the door was. He even got ready to jump on Metal Chopper, but like any fight, the bad guy usually had a strategy for something like this, especially someone like Metal Chopper.

Metal Chopper knocked Chopper away with a punch and then began to roll up in a ball while being surrounded in needles. It was almost like Sonic's Spin Dash in a way, which was not good.

"Crud!" Chopper cried, jumping over Metal Chopper when he came rolling his way. He noticed him quickly turn back and come back in his direction. But when he jumped, Metal Chopper jumped too and knocked Chopper on the floor. After getting out of the ball form, his needles faded away, and he grabbed Chopper.

"You know, I think I have an idea of what to do with you," Metal Chopper flew up to one of the bumpers and began to throw Chopper into it, which bounced him back to Metal Chopper. He continued to do this to leave Chopper completely dizzy so he would have a harder time fighting.

Chopper eventually fell to the floor, where he was trying to find Metal Chopper, but his sight was giving him problems.

"Ugh... So...dizzy!" Chopper moaned. "It's hard to see and move!"

"Now that you're in that state, let me introduce you to my giant laser cannon!" Metal Chopper's arm changed into a giant laser cannon, which he aimed at Chopper and began to charge up. "With you like that, there's no possible way that you'll be able to avoid my laser!"

Despite being dizzy, Chopper unintentionally walked on the flashing ground and was launched up onto one of the platforms just before Metal Chopper's laser cannon fired. He actually noticed Chopper land on the platform, and boy, was he angry.

"My attack..._missed?!_"

While on the platform, Chopper was able to quickly gain control of his movements again and looked down at the giant blue laser being fired down below. He was actually surprised that the barrier blocking the door was not affected. What a strong barrier that was!

Metal Chopper was left frustrated, and that frustration led to Chopper landing a light jump on his head. He even ate an ice ball to gain the Ice ability so he could attack him with his Ice Storm and summon ice chucks from the floor to hurt Metal Chopper. Maybe switching to different powers wasn't such a bad idea?

"It's time this battle got a little cooler!" Chopper declared, using his Ice Breath to freeze Metal Chopper and kick him into the barrier to his left. The ice shattered around Metal Chopper, and he was left a little dazed from the attack.

Chopper got ready to make another attack, but Metal Chopper beat him to it and used his flamethrower to get rid of his Ice ability. But that didn't stop Chopper from inhaling some of the fire and gaining said ability.

All Metal Chopper could see was a fireball charging in his direction. He tried to stop it, but he only got knocked back even further on the barrier. Chopper also removed his ability and performed a light spinning kick on Metal Chopper too.

"Guh... So, you have gotten a lot better." Metal Chopper groaned. "But that's certainly not going to get in my way!"

Metal Chopper grabbed Chopper and threw him across the area. He flew over to him, but instead of actually attacking, he landed in front of him with no weapons pointed at him.

"I think I mentioned something about copying your data, right?" Metal Chopper recalled.

"Yeah, you already told me that you copied my data," Chopper replied, quickly getting up and getting in a battle pose. "I get it, OK? You're using some abilities that I've used in the past."

"Yes, you're correct. But now that I think about it, there is some data I carry that you probably don't know of!"

"What do you mean...?"

"You'll see," Metal Chopper's eyes flashed as he lifted off the ground and began to brighten. Chopper had to cover his eyes from the blinding flash, but when he was able to see Metal Chopper, he definitely looked different. First off, the light green plating on him was now golden yellow, and his eyes and jetpack were now red rather than blue. His green feet were a darker yellow, but his silver hands didn't change.

"Oh, no... Did you seriously..."

"That's right! I've gotten the data of your super form!" Super Metal Chopper exclaimed. "And with this new power in my disposal, I'll use it to _**crush you!**_"

Chopper's eyes widened when Super Metal Chopper began to fire light energy from the sky, which started to rain down upon Chopper. He quickly dodged the light and used the flashing floor to jump up to Super Metal Chopper and deliver a punch.

"Oh, don't even try that," advised Super Metal Chopper, who grabbed a hold of Chopper's arm and started to hang him over the floor. "You know, now that I copied this power, you're less likely to win this fight!"

He threw Chopper to the floor and then stomped on him for additional machine guns gained unlimited ammo, and when he fired, bullets embedded in light energy fired Chopper's way. Sadly, his attack missed his opponent, and all he got was a kick to the face.

The only problem? It hardly did anything.

Chopper's eyes widened as Super Metal Chopper fired a yellow laser, which threw him onto the floor and left him battered up in the process. Super Metal Chopper flew down and grabbed a old of Chopper.

"Face it, Chopper. You've lost!" exclaimed Super Metal Chopper. "You can't stop me like this!"

Chopper wish he could've done something to fight back, but Super Metal Chopper's grip was too strong. "I think it was supposed to end up like this anyway. Sure, I was programmed to be similar to you, but I was also made to surpass you in every way!"

"If that's true...then how come it usually ended up with me defeating you most of the time?" Chopper wheezed.

"Probably because you were lucky most of the time. When you beat me those last few times, your friends were helping you then. But now, you've got no one to help protect you! I bet they abandoned you, didn't they?"

"Don't talk about my friends like that..." Chopper warned, a hint of anger in his voice.

"Oh, now I see! They're dead, aren't they? They had to sacrifice their lives just to save you? That's very interesting! I guess that makes you the lonely little boy you always were ever since you lost your mommy and daddy and your birth planet!"

"_**SHUT UP!**_"

Super Metal Chopper felt himself get thrown back by the left barrier, and when he saw Chopper, no longer was he pale green, but covered in darkness with large, glowing white eyes.

"What in the world?!" Super Metal Chopper gaped. "This isn't anything I've found from copying your data!"

_**"****You want to see true power?! Then allow me to demonstrate!" **_Dark Super Chopper roared in a very angry tone as he rushed at his enemy and drove him into the barrier with a powerful dark punch. Super Metal Chopper was actually harmed by this, and it left him shocked.

But that's not where it ended just yet. Dark Super Chopper charged up a small beam of dark energy and fired it at Super Metal Chopper. His eyes nearly widened in pain, and it left him a bit exhausted when the dark beam stopped. He had no idea what kind of power Chopper had now, but from what he could see, it was dangerous.

"Sure, you may have that...form of yours, but that won't stop me from fighting back!" Metal Chopper fired his machine gun at Dark Super Chopper, only to have them bounce off his body. He stopped that and charged straight at him, which knocked Dark Super Chopper over by the other barrier. The light blast he fired seemed to even hurt him as well.

"HA! It doesn't look like you're invin-" Super Metal Chopper felt himself get cut off when Dark Super Chopper grabbed him and threw him to the floor. He fired dark energy down at his foe, but that didn't stop Super Metal Chopper from fighting back. He fired some light energy at the attack being thrown at him, causing an explosion between the two.

_**"****Give up now, fool!" **_Dark Super Chopper suggested, floating onto the floor and slamming Super Metal Chopper's face to the floor. _**"And don't give me any of that BS in order to run away!"**_

And that's when Super Metal Chopper realized something. Chopper most likely did not have complete control over this form. Why would he even use the term "BS" anyway? That didn't make much sense. He would've thought more into it, but Dark Super Chopper began to hurl more dark energy down at him. The fact that he could fly made it much worse for him.

Super Metal Chopper put up a shield to protect him from said blasts, only to have it shatter after Dark Super Chopper fired one more blast. This only angered him more and made him teleport in front of Super Metal Chopper and deliver a powerful dark punch.

"I don't think so!" the robot counterpart raised his arm and blocked the attack. He tried to attack by swinging his now yellow laser sword, but he was left surprised when Dark Super Chopper was able to grab it. But at the same time, it looked like the light from the weapon was hurting him.

"I wanna know where you got this form from," demanded Super Metal Chopper, who punched Dark Super Chopper in the face with his free hand and fired a light missile to blow him back. "Did you gain this ability somehow?!"

_**"****How I got this is none of your business," **_Dark Super Chopper retorted while charging up a dark beam. _**"The only thing I care about is tearing you apart and leaving you in the dust in this darkness!"**_

"Forget it then!" Super Metal Chopper charged up a light beam and fired it in his opponent's direction. At the same time, Dark Super Chopper fired the dark beam, which pushed the light beam away from him.

At this point, the two were struggling to push their own attack toward each other. They were definitely using up a lot of their power to win the struggle, but neither of them were winning it.

_**"****There's no point in trying to continue this, you piece of scrap metal!" **_Dark Super Chopper hissed. _**"You're not going to get anywhere by doing this!"**_

"And you certainly aren't going to get anywhere with this either, meatbag!" Super Metal Chopper shot back. However, he had a plan up his sleeves that his opponent would never expect to do. He teleported behind Dark Super Chopper and let the dark beam hit the barrier, and he tried to grab him.

_**"****I don't think so!" **_Dark Super Chopper quickly turned around and swung his arm, making Super Metal Chopper recoil. _**"I'm not as stupid as you think, tin can! That power you hold is not enough to stand against me!"**_

"Hmm hmm hmm!" Super Metal Chopper slightly chuckled. "Oh, really? From what I remember, this data I gained gives me light power! You, however, are filled with dark power at this point! That means I can do THIS to you!"

He landed a light punch on Dark Super Chopper and flung a large light ball of energy at him afterward. To follow up, Super Metal Chopper fired a barrage of light missiles in his direction, hoping to finish off his enemy.

Only two missiles hit Dark Super Chopper, while the rest were destroyed by a wave of darkness fired from his hand. He even flew down to smash the flashing sections of the floor to prevent them from working. Super Metal Chopper was slightly impressed, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from charging at him.

"Wait... Where is he?!" he exclaimed, noticing Dark Super Chopper's disappearance. "I just saw him a second ago!"

_**"****Foolish robot," **_mocked the dark Star Warrior, appearing behind Super Metal Chopper and firing a dark beam that did a large amount of damage. In fact, it left his enemy with a lot of scars on his metallic body. While him? It was hard to notice because of the darkness enveloping his body.

"Gah... How did Chopper gain this much strength?" Super Metal Chopper grunted, looking up at his enemy, who slowly descended onto the floor. Little did he know that his dark form was actually doing much more harm to himself.

Dark Super Chopper slowly approached him while charging up more dark power in his hands. _**"You made a very big mistake by trying to anger me, Metal Chopper! Do you know what happened to those who made me use this power against them?! The results were very nasty!"**_

"You... Are you really controlling this power?!"

_**"****Ever since I've gotten a hold of the Sacred Heart, there was something I felt in myself when I first turned into this form. It sounded like something was telling me something... It wanted darkness! Power! Destruction!"**_

When he finally approached Super Metal Chopper, he punched him twice. The second punch was able to send him flying upward before he hit the floor. Dark Super Chopper looked down at his enemy angrily. He was weak, that's for sure, and he could easily do him in now.

_**"****I'm going to end you once and for all! That way, you'll never be a pain in my side ever again!"**_

He prepared to charge up more dark energy, but something else was in his mind too. The pain it was dealing to him. Not just physically, but emotionally. In his mind, he wanted to revert back to himself, but the anger he lashed out already took control of him in this dark form.

In fact, his anger was what made him feel bad when he got to speak to his mother while he was left unconscious many years ago. Did he want to disappoint his mother yet again after all these years?

The darkness slowly faded away from Chopper, and he was back to his normal form. Now there were sound bruises and burns left on him from what Metal Chopper delivered to him. There was even a small hint of sadness in his eyes too.

"Why did I let this happen to me?" Chopper wondered. "I tried controlling my anger, but I let it get to me too easily..."

Super Metal Chopper noticed Chopper in his normal state and quickly got up. "Well well well! Looks like you decided to revert back to your normal form! How nice of you to do that! Now I can finally finish the job!"

Chopper had taken a lot of damage while in his dark super form, but instead of trying to attack, he stayed calm, which made Super Metal Chopper suspicious.

"You're rather calm... I mean, look at yourself! You're injured, beaten, burnt!"

"I don't need my dark super form to beat you," Chopper declared. "...Well, yeah, it did help me beat you down a bit, but in the end, there's one problem to that form unlike something like Super Sonic."

"And what's that?" Super Metal Chopper wondered, slowly trying to raise his arm to shoot his enemy. But because of how weak he felt, he didn't even have enough strength to do so. The power seemed to be fading away, and he knew it.

In the end, Metal Chopper was back to his normal self, and he was also very exhausted as well.

"I thought this power lasted forever unlike Super Sonic!"

"Yes, that's true, but you're not truly invincible like he is. In fact, if you wear out your strength, you're bound to turn back to normal. Plus, it'll make you pretty much unconscious because of how much energy you're using. If that happens in a battle, you're definitely going to be open, and chances are you'd lose if you knew nothing about its weaknesses. That's why I find that form risky a lot of times."

"Well, there's one problem with that," Metal Chopper said while getting up. "You're a living being, while I'm a robot. Robots don't tire as much!"

"Wait... But what about-"

"Robots can recover rather quickly. I bet you weren't expecting that!" Metal Chopper launched a bunch of missiles Chopper's way, whose eyes widened in surprise. He completely forgot that he was programmed with the ability to recover. No wonder why he said he surpassed him.

_"I'm not giving in so easily yet," _Chopper thought. He opened his mouth and prepared to inhale the missiles. Every single one of them went into his mouth, which Metal Chopper did not expect.

He spat them back in Metal Chopper's direction, whose eyes were widened in both surprise and fear.

"Oh, no.."

Chopper gave him a small wave as the yellow star full of missiles made contact with Metal Chopper, causing the missiles and Chopper's robot counterpart to explode in the process.

When the smoke was gone, Chopper saw all of Metal Chopper's robot parts fly everywhere in the sky. His head, however, landed right in front of him.

"So... Who's the superior one now?" Chopper asked, looking down at the angry Metal Chopper's head.

"Listen here, meatbag," Metal Chopper hissed. "You may have beaten me this time, but I'm bound to come back in the future. I've done it before, and I'll simply do it again. The cycle will only continue from here."

"Well, then if you come back, then I'll be prepared to fight you again. You'll just be the same old Metal Chopper like every single time. I've been fighting you for six years, so of course I'd probably expect that. Anyway, I've got to get going. I can't stay here any longer, you know."

Metal Chopper could only give him a death glare. He couldn't even hop around either. "I hope you suffer through this dark void. Plus, you're not going to find much ahead. But if your game ends, I'll remember to go find you in The Underwhere when I come back!"

"Well, we'll see about that. But for now, adios!"

Chopper kicked Metal Chopper's head like a soccer ball and sent him flying away from his sight. He turned away and slowly walked over to the door, which was now open for him now that the barrier was finally gone.

For some reason, the battle against his foe felt the most satisfying out of all the battles against him thus far. It made him smile a bit.

"Well, I better keep going," Chopper stated. "Though, I should be a little more careful now that I'm traveling closer to The Void's center..."

He pushed his way through the door and wondered what awaited him ahead.

* * *

**Next area-**

When Chopper walked out of the door, he encountered a speed booster just up ahead, as well as two Void Maginans that were flying around. Wasting no time, he used the speed boost to increase his speed and go up the tall lump on the ground and eventually down.

Of course, he had to deal with the two Void Maginans firing down at him. And with low HP, one shot from them could do him in.

Running on flat ground was no real chore for Chopper, but what was a bit of a chore was avoiding the trooper's shots and making small jumps while at it too. But a Void Wizrim actually came in and went after the Void Maginans, to his surprise.

_"Oh, nice! That Void Wizrim can keep them company while I try to heal!" _Chopper thought, taking out a Max Shroom Shake and drinking it to recover all of his HP. He threw the can back, which ended up getting sliced in half while the Void Wizrim was spinning its weapon at the Void Maginans.

"Ahhh! Much better!" Chopper smiled, now fully healed of the injuries from his fight against Metal Chopper. It was nice that he had these items, because without them, he probably wouldn't have made it this far.

And since he had much more energy, he could run much faster away from the three enemies and leave them to their business. This allowed him to run down the hill below to increase his speed even more. He even ran through a loop and ran up the floor (or wall), which started to curve upward after going past the loop.

Chopper was sent flying upward because of how fast he was moving, but he landed right by the edge of the floor. He noticed a small pit with two springs facing each other, which he jumped over, and up ahead was a wall.

"I guess this is what Metal Chopper meant by when he said I wouldn't find much ahead," Chopper recalled. "Then again, I have something that he doesn't!"

He heard something behind him, so he turned to discover a dark portal and a Voidrin Swordsman jumping out before it closed. Chopper could've just escaped now, but he decided to fight back and started by throwing a light ball. He found himself a little guilty of making the first strike, but then again, these enemies probably want him dead.

The Voidrin Swordsman responded by throwing its sword, but Chopper had no problem jumping over it and landed a stomp on the enemy's head, which he made more dangerous with his light power added. Eventually he took it down when he inhaled its sword and spat it back in its direction.

"OK... Now let's see what's behind this wall." Chopper threw his arms up and went into discovered an open area leading to a door ahead with spikes popping out of the floor in most of the area. He carefully made his way through while studying the floor. Thankfully, Chopper was in a safe zone as soon as the spikes rose up again.

He waited for a moment for the spikes to retract, and then he ran over to the door ahead. Chopper reached for the door, but he noticed something written on it.

_**To the person who has made it this far,**_

_**Congratulations on your efforts, hero. Making it this far is certainly no easy feat. But through this door, all of your skills will be put to the ultimate test. If you succeed, then you will reach your destination. Failure will result in your demise.**_

"All of my skills will be put to the test, huh?" Chopper fixed the cuffs on his gloves and opened the door. "Then I'll try to be prepared."

He walked through the door, and what he found through the next area was a flat ground, but unlike the other areas, the path was lit up by lanterns with black and purple flames. It didn't do too much to lighten his surroundings, but it was not something he saw often.

Three Void Goombas and two Void Koopas were lingering around here, but what also caught Chopper's attention were the three empty orbs past them. Obviously he had to use one of his elemental hand powers on them.

"These guys? Well, I wouldn't consider them much of a threat..." Chopper trailed, dodging a Void Goomba's headbonk and jumping on another. He even got one Void Koopa to hide in its shell after jumping on it. One kick helped knock away the enemies around him.

He turned his attention back to the three orbs. Using something such as fire or ice could do the trick, so he tossed fireballs into the orbs. Unfortunately, they all disappeared inside the orb.

"Huh... So I guess that's not it... I guess there's something else I have to do."

Chopper flipped himself into 3-D and discovered a small hole nearby he could jump down. Below was a lower section that contained two Darklings that could flip into 3-D and a depiction of ice on the floor with three, small vertical lines below it. What that meant, Chopper had no idea.

The two Darklings, on the other hand, were getting a bit annoying. Chopper dodged their spells with a jump and landed on their heads with a light jump before jumping back up through the hole above.

"OK, I don't understand why there were those two lines near that depiction of ice..." Chopper trailed. "Is there some kind of key to those orbs?"

He approached the three orbs and remembered that the ice depiction had two lines. Chopper pondered over this until he realized what that meant.

"I should've known that was it!"

Chopper's hand began to glow white as he tossed an ice ball at the second orb. Now it was filled with ice. "OK... So there must be some clues around here that can help me find out what needs to be in those other two."

Going back into 3-D, he noticed something behind the door. There was some kind of rainbow with one line, indicating that it could be a one. Chopper went back into 2-D and noticed something else. One lantern had three, small lines below it. It was a bit difficult to see, but it was there.

"Well, looks like I know what to do now," Chopper smiled, approaching the two other orbs and tossing a rainbow ball in the first and a fireball at the third. The ground slightly shook as a door appeared past the orbs in 3-D.

After going into 3-D, he entered through the door and found another flat area. This time, there was a walkways in the background and foreground like he saw previously, and in front of him was a Void Biospark and Void Waddle Doo. They spotted him and charged until Chopper ate the Void Biospark and gained the Ninja ability.

With his katana, he dashed toward the Void Waddle Doo and finished it with a single slash. Afterward, he approached the door that was surprisingly ahead.

"That was too easy," Chopper scoffed, entering through the door.

Only to come out of the previous door.

"Oh... Well that wasn't right then."

He flipped into 3-D and entered the foreground to find a Void Jawbus and Void Spania lurking around. Throwing kunais at the Void Spania finished it off, and getting behind the Void Jawbus's tail and attacking it took care of it.

The door Chopper approached here happened to be fake, because it ended up falling on top of him once he started to open it. He slowly got himself up, relieved that the helmet he wore protected his head from serious damage.

"I guess that's not the right door either," Chopper sighed, going into 3-D and finding another path ahead leading to his left. He exited the foreground and returned to 3-D to find another door, as well as a Voidrin Shooter and Spinner Shield.

The Spinner Shield took notice of him first and began to charge. Its shield helped block Chopper's kunais, forcing him into 3-D to destroy it with a single swing of his katana. He would've attack the Voidrin Shooter, but it already shot him with a dark blast and knocked away his Ninja ability.

"Ugh... I hate it when that happens!" Chopper groaned, dodging its next shots and jumping on its head to perform a stylish move in the air. He finished it off with a light jump and bounced off of the enemy to land on a Void Cursya he didn't take notice of by the door.

"Dang it! I can barely jump!" he cried, struggling to make a full jump in the air. "And I don't have Piccolo to help either... Well this is nice..."

Despite being unable to jump freely, he chucked a fireball at the Void Cursya to defeat it.

The door just up ahead ended up disappearing as soon as Chopper opened it, making him fall over on the ground face first. He let out a grunt before getting up, and he decided to go into 3-D and head into the background. Technically, it was the second section of the background because he passed the previous one.

A Void Maginan and two Void Koopatrols were patrolling the area, and there was also a door up ahead. Chopper was unsure of how long this would end for him, but he started off by taking out an Invincibility Candy that he had with him. He didn't get to use it that much, but now was probably the time.

"I've never tasted this thing before... I wonder what it tastes like?"

He dropped the candy in his mouth, and when he took a look at his arm, he saw it was flashing, along with his entire body. Chopper also felt a lot of energy in him, like he was invincible or something.

The Void Maginan tried to shoot at him, but the shot only bounced off Chopper and backfired in its direction. Chopper smirked and charged at the three enemies, knocking them away and allowing him to enter through the correct door.

Going into the next area, Chopper noticed a large gap between him and a door up ahead. Two Void Skellobombers that had the ability to flip in 3-D were flying around and dropping their heads down the bottomless pit below. There was also a dark crystal near the edge of the floor.

A Void Bob-omb charged straight at him, but with the invincibility he still possessed, Chopper knocked away the enemy and threw a light ball at the dark crystal. Despite being lit up, he didn't see anything on the bottomless pit.

"Hmmmm... Well, I think I know what to do here." Chopper flipped into 3-D and discovered a narrow pathway over the bottomless pit. It was also glowing and slightly flashing. "Oh... I don't think I can take my time here!"

He carefully crossed the narrow path, which actually curved to the left and right at points. But he eventually reached the door ahead while his invincibility and curse wore off. Now he was more relieved than before.

The next area was much different than the previous ones. There were now glowing heart-shaped lanterns full of black darkness, and there were different types of entryways around. Chopper saw about ten of them.

"Oh, geez... This isn't what I was hoping to see..." Chopper groaned. "Castle Tipral had an annoying maze like this too... I bet this one is much worse..."

Three Void Fuzzies and a Void Koopatrol were around this area for Chopper to defeat. A couple of ice balls helped take care of the Void Fuzzies, and he even froze the Void Koopatrol so he could defeat it with a few rainbow balls. It dropped an Ultra Shroom Shake, which Chopper happily took.

"I'll just drink this to heal my HP..." he drank the shake and recovered 50 HP before disposing the empty can. "Now let's see... From what I can remember, I have to find the correct door, right?"

Chopper flipped into 3-D and saw two open entryways to his right and one to his left. Going through the left one, he found two Void Spiky Skellobits that charged at him when he went back into 2-D. Since jumping on them wouldn't help, he inhaled one and spat it at the other and then finished them with a light ball.

"I take it that I'm going to be facing every enemy I've encountered in this dark place..."

He found another entryway to his upper left in 3-D and found four Boararithms after flipping into the second dimension. Three stomps on each of them defeated them, so he went through another entryway to his left.

Chopper discovered a door all the way to his left once he flipped back into 2-D. There were also two Void Creatures and a single Void Vironoid too. Oh, and also a yellow ? block containing the Needle ability.

"Well, might as well take it," Chopper took the ability and used his power to roll up in a needle ball and charge toward the three enemies. He even left some needles on them so they could explode and deal more damage. Only the Void Vironoid was left, but Chopper finished it off with a light ball.

With that aside, he approached the door and opened it. It was sadly a fake door.

"Oh, no... You've gotta be kidding me... There's fake doors here?!"

Thankfully, it didn't fall over him like the other fake door did. It simply fell into the background. Despite that, Chopper was annoyed and went into 3-D. There was actually a lower entryway by the door to his right he took to find another door to his left in 2-D.

"I hope this is the right one..." Chopper grumbled, slowly opening the door. He was happy it was the right one.

He found a similar-looking area to the previous one he was in, but the heart-shaped lanterns had a small shade of dark purple to them rather than black. Chopper also noticed a Void Cursya and a Void Anti Guy patrolling.

_"Weird... Void Anti Guys are enemies here?" _Chopper thought, nearly grimacing at the sight of them. They really did stand out compared to most of the other enemies because of how much they glowed.

He took care of the Void Cursya and approached the Void Anti Guy. It spotted him and tackled him. The attack wasn't as powerful as he thought, but it did the same amount of damage as a Void Maginan's attack.

When the Void Anti Guy got up, it charged at Chopper again, only this time it was stomped on a few times and beaten. Chopper proceeded to go into 3-D and took the lower right entryway this time. It was a small little area, but only one Spinner Shield was there, along with a chest.

Defeating it was easy, and the reward Chopper received from the chest was great as well. Even though he had enough Max Shroom Shakes, this was still something important.

He took the way to the right into a larger area full of Void Cherbils and two Void Vironoids Chopper ignored and took a lower right entryway to run into two Void Wizards and a Void Skelloknight up ahead by the door.

But Chopper certainly didn't want to waste his time with these enemies. He took out another Invincibility Candy he had and became invincible thanks to it. Plowing through the wizards and armored warrior was a snap!

He entered through the door into the last major maze area, where he ran past two Void Boos and Void Bones in his way. The heart-shaped lanterns were now a dark purple color compared to the previous ones. Chopper went into 3-D and took the middle right entryway and ran into a single Void Wizrim. He was able to beat it easily before the invincibility wore off.

Smiling, he went over to the upper right entryway and discovered two Phantom Hands that grabbed a hold of his feet. Seeing them made him nearly scream.

"Oh, no! Not these guys!" Chopper cried. "I was hoping I wouldn't run into them!"

The Phantom Hands let out a screeching squeal as they tried pulling Chopper into the shadows. He winced while trying to shake them off, but it was difficult with two grabbing a hold of them.

He let out a small whimper when he tried punching at them. Light power seemed to do very little against them for some reason. None of his attacks seemed to be doing much at the moment.

But to his luck, a Voidrin Shooter ended up shooting at one of the Phantom Hands, making it release one of Chopper's feet. Upon realizing this, he turned to the other enemy and shook it off easily. They were much weaker when they weren't grabbing a hold of someone.

He gave a more determined look and struck both enemies in a rolling needle ball. He even hit the Voidrin Shooter, but its shot knocked his ability away afterward. But Chopper didn't care. He finished the three off with a light ball and proceeded to the upper right area to find a Voidrin Swordsman, Shooter, Thrower and Bomber with the ability to flip.

They threw everything they had against him, but Chopper was faster, and his speed helped him attack each of them and finished them off with his light power added. They were tough opponents at first, but now he knew their strategy, and taking them down was much easier.

Chopper finally reached the final section of the maze area, where he met up with three Void Maginans ready to shoot at him. He opened his mouth and inhaled each shot coming his way. When he spat the projectiles back at them, they were sent flying toward a large, dark crystal that stood in the way. Their jetpacks even malfunctioned, causing some to crash and explode.

He had a feeling of satisfaction upon defeating them, but only one obstacle was left in his way.

"A giant dark crystal..." Chopper gaped, looking up at the large object. He threw a light ball at it, but that didn't seem to do much. "No... I think I'm going to need a lot more than that."

He started to charge light power in both his hands and his feet so he had enough power to take care of the dark crystal. Once fully charged, he jabbed his right fist into the dark crystal, making it envelope in light. Chopper kicked it multiple times and then finished it off with the remaining light power in his left hand.

The dark crystal shattered in his path.

"Whoa... I can't believe I pulled that off." Chopper gaped, watching the crystal disintegrate and reveal a door. "I guess as you learn to use your power more, it will become stronger."

He proceeded through the door and found a transparent stairway before him. As Chopper made his way up, he heard a battle below the stairway. The wizards and Maginans he previously fought against were all corrupted by The Void's power and were fighting each other to the death.

Chopper couldn't help but stop to check the battle out. Many of them were struggling against each other, and some were very worn out. These were powerful enemies, but apparently they too were capable of exhausting themselves to this point.

"These fights really haven't led to anything..." Chopper trailed. "What are they even fighting about now? Do they have much of a reason?"

He slowly trudged up the stairs while watching the battle ensue. From what was going on, a few Void Wizrims and Maginans were being destroyed in the process. It was certainly not a nice sight.

At the top of the stairs, however, there was a door with a black heart embedded in the center. "Is this it? Am I finally reaching near the end? I sincerely hope so!"

With Chopper's hopes risen, he opened the door and found himself in a large area suitable for a fight. There was a depiction of the Chaos Heart in the center of the floor, and there were small black hearts all over the torn walls. Up ahead was a sealed door, and in 3-D were two doors.

But at the same time, things felt quiet. A bit too quiet.

The air around Chopper seemed to grow heavier, and for some reason, a strange, eerie sound could be heard around him. It felt a little unsettling, especially since he was alone.

The very first thing Chopper did was look back at the door behind him in case if enemies jumped out to attack. Surprisingly, no one did.

"OK... I think I should be safe here..." Chopper sighed, stepping away from the door and approaching the door ahead. He tried opening, it, but it would not open. "Oh, great... Is this one of those doors that can't be opened with something like a key?"

It was certain that the True Chaos Heart was somewhere behind this door. But what also worried Chopper were the three sages. He never found them anywhere through this darkness, so most likely they were close. Finding them was certainly the key to restoring the Star Rod's power and destroying the True Chaos Heart.

Not knowing what else to do, Chopper flipped into 3-D and saw a door to his left and another to his right. He chose the right door and found a small area with a small, deep pit before him. But for some reason, he couldn't approach said pit because a barrier got in his way.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gawked, knocking on the barrier a little. "Oh... I guess I can't go this way then..."

There was thing that did catch his attention, however. There were four lanterns above him. However, not all of them carried fire. In fact, only one had fire, while the others had ice, rainbow and light.

"Weird... Well, that must be something important." Chopper checked the order of the lanterns. In order, it was rainbow, ice, fire and light.

He left that area and decided to check the door to his left. It was a small area with four orbs on the floor rather than lanterns off the ground in the previous small area. But he remembered the order of the elements, so he got to work, starting with the far left orb.

Once he shot the correct ball of energy in each orb, the small area began to slightly shake as a giant light orb began to slowly float down in front of Chopper. He noticed a massive field of many different kinds of flowers.

"That place... It looks so familiar..." Chopper trailed. "I might as well check it out."

He placed his hand on the orb, and suddenly, his body was enveloped with white light as he began to travel into it. Hopefully there was something helpful in this new world.

* * *

**?-**

Upon entering through this new dimension, Chopper noticed something different compared to the other worlds he traveled through from the light orbs. This world had actual color inside instead of the usual dullness.

"Whoa… This isn't what I thought it would turn out to be…" Chopper trailed, looking at the bright blue sky and at the flowers below. "Hold on… This IS the place I was in that weird dream I had! But… I don't understand… Was that…some sort of vision?"

He walked around the large flower field, but there didn't appear to be much around. Running wouldn't be the best idea either. Chopper didn't want to step on the pretty flowers.

Chopper eventually stopped walking and picked up one of the blue flowers on the ground. It looked just like the one at his mother's grave.

When he looked up at the sky, thoughts of his parents suddenly began to plague his mind.

* * *

_"Mommy, why do I always have to go to this Daycare?" Two year old Chopper asked as his mother, Tonberria began to slowly put down her son. _

_"Well, it's because your dad and I have an important job," Tonberria explained, opening the door to the Daycare. There was a large blue matt on the floor, as well as a couple of kids playing around. Some were even being bullied, while the adult in the room was trying to stop the bullying. "If we took you out, you would be in grave danger."_

_Tonberria looked over at her husband and noticed him gawking at a manga he was reading called Sakura Sho-jos. She quickly took it away from him._

_"Aw, come on, Tonberria!" Toalune whined childishly. "I was just getting to the good part!"_

_"Toalune, you promised not to take that with you," his wife noted._

_"What? No! I can't go out there without this! It's entertainment!"_

_Tonberria face palmed at his stupidity, but she remained calm. "Chopper is going into Daycare for the first time. Wouldn't it be best to say goodbye to him?"_

_"Oh… I'm sorry for that…" Toalune replied in a surprisingly mature manner. He walked over to his son and kneeled down. "Listen, son… I promise you we'll be back here to get you. You'll be perfectly safe here. There are all these kids you can play with while we're gone, so you won't be so lonely."_

_"But what if they don't like me?" Chopper asked._

_"If they don't like you, then I guess you shouldn't talk to them. In the meantime, we'll be back for ya at three. Maybe we can have a little father and son hangout!"_

_"OK!"_

_"OK then… I love you, son." Toalune said while rubbing the back of his head and looking away from Chopper. He stepped away as Tonberria kneeled down to her son._

_"Are you sure you'll be back to pick me up, Mommy?" Chopper asked._

_"Of course, Chopper," Tonberria nodded. "This is a perfect opportunity for you to make some new friends! That's one of the greatest things about Daycare for children such as yourself!"_

_She kissed him on the cheek and stood up to let Chopper into the room. "We'll see you at three, Chopper!"_

* * *

Chopper couldn't wash away those thoughts in his mind, and it made him miss them. After all, he lost them at the age of four, and he was lucky to have gotten off that planet. …Well, lucky doesn't sound like the best term.

"Why did all of this have to happen?" Chopper sniffled. "Everything I know and love are now gone, and I've been feeling pretty lonely through this darkness. I don't know who would understand how I'm feeling at this moment…"

_"It's OK, son… I think I understand."_

Chopper slowly turned around and saw a spirit of his father standing in front of him. Behind him was his mother, and many other spirits including Chopper's partners he had traveled with, Merlumina, Squirps's mother, Squirpina XIV, Crysta, Colonel Disk, Wenbi, Bang, Night, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Meta Knight, Fumu, Bun, Knuckle Joe, Silica, Kit Cosmos, Sir Arthur, and Ortorain.

It was mostly everyone he had met that had sadly perished from The Void or other circumstances.

"Everyone's all here…" Chopper trailed. "I thought every single one of you had perished…"

_"We have perished," _Crysta confirmed. _"But our spirits have stayed safe in the colorful field full of beautiful flowers. It is the only safe place we could linger…"_

_"Unfortunately, all of those who had their games end by The Void do not go to the aftergame," _explained Merlumina. _"It was said 1,500 years ago that when The Void takes in anything in its path, they are stuck in the darkness and wither around as spirits. At least, that's what I remember. I was a young girl back in the day, and I was very attractive to many people, especially two men who stumbled upon me… And then…"_

_"We get it already," Koopla cut in. "You don't need to ramble on like you've been constantly doin'."_

_"We've heard that for such a long time," Bruce added._

"So I guess The Underwhere and The Overthere are not crowded with you guys then…" Chopper trailed, looking down at the flowers. "I'm sorry about the loss of you all. I didn't mean for this to happen."

_"Chopper, this was never your fault," _Tonberria replied, approaching Chopper. _"None of this was your fault."_

"But it _is_," he retorted. "Tipral needed something to revive the Chaos Heart, and it was something involving me. In all honesty, if Tipral never got what he needed from me, then he would not have brought back The Void."

_"Out of curiosity, what was it that you did to bring back The Void?" _Vivian asked.

"I was kissed on the lips…"

_"Oh, yes, I do remember something," _Merlumina remembered. _"According to the Light Prognosticus, there are three ways to summon the Chaos Heart, which will summon The Void. The first is to unionize a fair and noble princess and a monster king… The second option is to steal five of the six heroes' dreams and use its power to summon the Chaos Heart… And finally, the hero whose dreams were not taken must kiss a princess on the lips…"_

_"That doesn't sound good…" _Tails trailed. _"So you ended up kissing a princess…"_

"But it wasn't I who kissed her! She kissed ME!"

_"At this point, it no longer matters," _Flyer said. _"Chopper, there's always a chance to fix something."_

_"Yes, listen to your friend," _agreed Tonberria. _"You shouldn't put yourself down like this. You are getting so close to the True Chaos Heart! By putting yourself down, you're only going to cause harm to yourself. That's not something I want to be seeing from my son…"_

Chopper frowned as he looked at his mother. "I'm sorry, Mom… It's just… I feel like it's my fault because I not only caused The Void to return, but I was so convinced that Tipral was going to help, only to have him backstab me in the end when we encountered Dimentio…"

_"Gullibility is a common thing among children your age. It's something you grow out of and will eventually learn in the future."_

"But the thing is, he wants to destroy all worlds! I was pretty much helping him all along! Saying something like that isn't going to make me feel better!"

_"It's not too late to fix your mistakes, though," _Meta Knight mentioned. _"Remember five months ago with the Crystal Star incident? You didn't listen to me, but when you realized you made a big mistake, you decided to fix up the mistake by defeating Maquano and restoring peace to the universe."_

_"He's right," _Bow nodded. _"Not all worlds are finished yet."_

_"You still have time to fix your mistakes…" _Vivian trailed.

"…I think I understand," Chopper slowly nodded. "I do remember those past incidents caused by me. And I do remember fixing that up."

_"If you're not too late, you can get to the True Chaos Heart and destroy it," _Flyer informed. _"With The Void's source of power finally gone, all worlds will return to normal again."_

"How am I supposed to destroy it, though?" the Star Warrior wondered. "I was told that I need to destroy it, but I don't know how."

_"You will find out when the time comes," _Ortorain informed. _"Right now, you shouldn't linger here any longer. We're worried that it might have some bad effects on you. However, I should mention something… I'm sensing some strong energy coming from the area where that sealed door is. I don't know what it is, but it feels like something or someone is waiting for you there."_

_"And to get through that sealed door, a weapon is needed that you may find in that pit where the lanterns are," _Colonel Disk informed. _"Try to be on the lookout, though. With some dangerous enemy that could be in your way, being cautious is not a bad idea."_

"OK… Thanks for the information…" Chopper trailed, looking at his group of friends. However, there was one thing he noticed. "Wait… Where are Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi?"

_"We don't know…" _Heartsy answered. _"We haven't gotten a clue…"_

_"We don't believe those who have died inside The Void linger as spirits like us," _Geno explained. _"Their fates…are unknown at this point…"_

_"But don't let that discourage you from continuing on,"_ Tonberria suggested. _"They'd want you to continue on. They're not as selfish as you think."_

"I guess so…" Chopper trailed.

_"Now thou must forgeth onward," _Wenbi declared. _"Thou dost not have to worry about us. We will be fine hither."_

Chopper looked up and saw a shining light fall from the sky and land on him. He felt himself floating off the ground and slowly ascending into the sky. When he looked down, all of his friends were waving goodbye to him.

_"Good luck, Chopper…" _Tonberria slightly smiled. _"We hope you are successful in your task."_

Chopper slightly smiled and began to wave goodbye to his friends. A tear dropped down his face and phased through Tonberria's face while he slowly began to wave goodbye.

"I miss you guys so much…"

* * *

**The Void-**

Chopper slowly exited the light orb and landed on the dark floor. He turned his head back to the orb and notice it slowly drift away. He could not believe he saw all of his friends who had either risked their lives to save him or had their games ended by The Void. And this is what happened to them? It not only disturbed him, but it also saddened him a bit.

But he was told there was a weapon that could help him breach through the sealed door over by the other door. That was something he needed.

Chopper opened the door and returned to the round area, while the door he walked out of disappeared into 3-D. He slowly took a couple of steps, but a ghastly voice suddenly echoed around him.

_**"****So… I finally found you!"**_

A strange cackling could be heard around Chopper, but before he could react, he felt himself get hit by a projectile. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he wasn't alone here.

"Who's there?!" Chopper called out. "Show yourself!"

He didn't get a response except for dark magic being thrown in his direction. Chopper quickly got out of the way and went into 3-D to go to the right door. The small area was the same as before, but now the barrier blocking the pit below was gone.

"Huh… So the barrier that was in my way is finally gone… Well, I was told to go down here, so that's what I should do."

He jumped down into the pit, which eventually led him into another round area, but this time with two doors in 2-D and two others in 3-D. Unlike the other round area, there was no Chaos Heart symbol on the floor.

There was another dark projectile coming his way, which made Chopper yelp and go into 3-D. He took the path to his left and entered another similar-looking area. More projectiles were being fired at him, but he didn't know who or where it was coming from. He didn't care. He hurried over to the door straight ahead in 2-D and entered through it.

Upon entering into the next similar area, Chopper recoiled when dark lightning struck the ground near him.

"Oh, geez! I could've gotten hit there!" Chopper cried. "Thankfully I didn't…"

He flipped into 3-D and went to the door to the right to enter the next area, then he hurried to the door straight ahead so he didn't have to run into another magic attack. At the same time, Chopper noticed a few mirrors around this time, where he noticed two glowing white eyes staring him down.

"Is that…Tipral?" Chopper gaped, noticing a projectile fire out of the mirror. He dodged it just in time and hurried through the door.

"How many of these places are there?" he wondered, entering the next similar room and dodging dark lightning coming down from the sky. He quickly headed over to the left door in 3-D and entered another area. This time, there were some Phantom Hands roaming around.

_"Oh, no… I was hoping I wouldn't run into them…" _

He conjured up a light ball and threw one at one of the Phantom Hands. The light ended up stunning it, allowing Chopper to approach it and finish it with a jump. At a far range, he didn't feel as worried, but up close where they could attack, it was a major problem.

Chopper finished the other one off with the same strategy and went into 3-D to take the right door. He was led into another round area, except there weren't two doors in 3-D. Only one straight ahead.

"I guess I went the right direction," Chopper realized, running over to the door to open it. He was disappointed that he was in another round room. But, there was one thing different compared to the others. First off, there were no other doors with the exception of the one Chopper walked out of. And lastly, there was a chest in the center.

He approached the chest and kicked it open. Inside was a silver hilt that strangely looked familiar to him when he picked it up.

"Wait a second… Isn't this…" Chopper opened his mouth and ate it to suddenly gain the Spectral Sword ability. In his right hand was the rainbow-colored laser sword. "The Spectral Sword? But… What's it doing here? How did it survive The Void?!"

Then again, he mostly kept his Spectral Sword in a chest in his own house. But how it managed to survive, he had no idea.

Up ahead, a dark beam appeared, as well as a Save Block and yellow ? block. He hit the yellow ? block first to get a Master Shroom, then he hit the Save Block to save his game. He had a feeling something important was through this beam.

Chopper quickly ran into the dark beam, and he was instantly transported out of the area.

* * *

**Through the beam-**

When Chopper was able to see his surroundings, he noticed he was back in the area with the sealed door up ahead. He knew he had to break that seal with his Spectral Sword, so he slowly approached the door…

Until a dark projectile fired near him.

**"**_**Oh, I don't think so…"**_

Chopper looked up and saw darkness forming a phantom-like being. When the darkness faded away, Chopper quickly got in a fighting stance.

"Maquano!"

_**"****Surprised to see me here, are you?" **_Phantom Maquano asked, glaring down at his nemesis. _**"I must congratulate you for making it through that maze set up just for you. Though, I suspected you would go through that with no problem…"**_

"I should've known you would still be around after Metal Chopper mentioned you…" Chopper trailed.

_**"****Ah, yes… That fight between you and him I was watching the whole time! I never knew that kind of anger would drive you to be like that! Maybe if you were on my side in your dark form, we would both be unstoppable."**_

"Well don't expect me to join you, because I'd _never_ join you after what you've done to me."

_**"****Hmmmm… Yes, I just thought of that. And there's also the fact that you've foiled my plans many times. Now I'm just in my phantom state. But I came here so I could finish the job."**_

Phantom Maquano drew his sword and pointed the tip down at Chopper. _**"I'm sure you have time to face me."**_

Chopper's Spectral Sword turned on, showing off the rainbow light coming from the laser sword. "Well… I could do that, but…"

He charged toward the door ahead and attempted to slash it, but Phantom Maquano beat him to it first and fired a dark barrier that prevented him from destroying the door. _**"But what, Chopper?"**_

"Great… I guess I have no other choice…" Chopper muttered, turning back to the floating dark phantom. "Fine… We'll fight this out. I was warned about something being in my way, so don't expect me to be surprised."

_**"****Well good luck with trying to hurt me," **_scoffed Phantom Maquano. _**"You honestly haven't learned from before!"**_

"What do you mean?"

_**"****None of your attacks aren't going to destroy me. That means I can easily defeat you with something like THIS!" **_Phantom Maquano fired dark energy down in Chopper's direction, but he wasn't going to dodge it like before. He swung his weapon and sent the projectile flying back at Phantom Maquano.

However, instead of getting hit, Phantom Maquano caught the dark energy and absorbed it.

"Well, maybe I couldn't beat your phantom before, but I've got something I didn't last time! Watch this!" Chopper charged up a light ball and hurled it in Phantom Maquano's direction. The light managed to harm him and leave him completely vulnerable to attacks.

_**"****AAACK! What have you done?!" **_barked Phantom Maquano. _**"I'm not invulnerable anymore!"**_

"Then it looks like the fight has turned to my favor!" Chopper smirked, readying his Spectral Sword. "Let's finish this!"

**"**_**So be it…" **_Phantom Maquano shook the pain off him and glared down at Chopper. _**"I hope you're ready, Chopper!"**_

Phantom Maquano flew down and lunged at Chopper with his sword. He missed his attack when Chopper jumped over him and struck his back with his laser sword. Unlike before, this attack was actually harmful to him.

"Not so invulnerable now, are ya?" Chopper taunted, watching Phantom Maquano turn to him in anger.

_**"****Sure, I may be vulnerable to attacks, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up so easily!"**_

Phantom Maquano fired another dark ball of magic down at Chopper and then fired a Dark Sword Beam in the process. Chopper swung the magic back in Phantom Maquano's direction while jumping over the next attack. But like before, Phantom Maquano grabbed the magic and threw it to the ground, creating a dark pulse attack that knocked Chopper back.

When Chopper got up, he tried to check his opponent's stats. Apparently Phantom Maquano had 680 HP, an Attack of 27 and a Defense of 15. Definitely a lot stronger than Metal Chopper, but that wasn't going to stop him from fighting back.

While his Spectral Sword may be a bit similar to his Sword ability, he had better experience with this weapon, especially when he has it as his ability. Chopper aimed his weapon at Phantom Maquano and fired small, spectral lasers in his direction. A few of them were blocked, but he ended up getting struck by at least two lasers.

After shaking off the pain, Phantom Maquano disappeared and suddenly appeared in front of Chopper. A swing from his sword helped knock Chopper away and over by the door behind him.

_**"****Oh, and just to be sure…" **_Phantom Maquano threw his sword in Chopper's direction, despite him not being his target. Chopper ducked under the sword and noticed it hit the door, causing a dark barrier to surround it. _**"You're not going to be escaping any time soon!"**_

"I don't plan on escaping," Chopper stated. "I have to get through that sealed door, and if it means defeating you, then so be it!"

Phantom Maquano seemed pleased as his sword came flying back to him. He flew higher up in the air and fired dark magic down at Chopper. In response to this, Chopper spun his laser sword and deflected the attacks back at Phantom Maquano, except the dark magic was no longer dark.

Chopper's nemesis didn't have enough time to react and got struck by the magic. He winced, but it wasn't enough to stop him. Phantom Maquano descended to the floor and brought his sword back, which began to charge up some dark power.

Seeing this, Chopper began to charge up some power in his Spectral Sword. His weapon took less time to charge up, and in no time, he fired the attack Phantom Maquano's way. He was hit at the moment he fired his Dark Sword Beam down at Chopper.

Unfortunately, Chopper didn't get his chance to block his attack and was struck by the Dark Sword Beam. Phantom Maquano couldn't help but grin at the pain he was in.

**"**_**Ah, yes! That's what I want to see from you!" **_Phantom Maquano exclaimed. _**"As soon as I am done with you, I'll have no problems trying to get my body back!"**_

"There's a little problem with that, though," Chopper started, jumping up to Phantom Maquano to attack. "The Void's probably going to destroy The Underwhere as well. It's not likely you'll be able to get it in time."

Phantom Maquano whacked Chopper away from him. _**"Hmmmm… Yes, that is true, but I plan to slow down the True Chaos Heart's power so I can get to The Underwhere in time. Then I'll probably destroy that thing, since I want the universe to end by my **__**own**__** hands."**_

"Then why don't we both destroy the True Chaos Heart so we can both get what we want?"

_**"****Would you really want that?" **_Phantom Maquano asked, spinning his body along with his sword. Chopper held up his Spectral Sword to block the attack. _**"I wouldn't help you. I still have enough power to defeat you, so helping you wouldn't be worth it."**_

Chopper frowned and struck Phantom Maquano when he was open after he finished spinning his sword. It would've been nice to have someone help him destroy the True Chaos Heart, but at the same time, this was one of his biggest enemies. Why would he work together with someone he utterly despises?

Phantom Maquano punched the ground near him to attempt to knock his opponent back. Chopper jumped at the right moment and spun his laser sword vertically at Phantom Maquano, followed by a light ball to the face. But that only got the dark phantom angrier.

With his sword, Phantom Maquano swung upward and sent Chopper flying in the air. He flew up and swung at him before swinging his sword downward to make Chopper crash onto the floor. He was about to drive his sword down at Chopper, but his enemy had other plans.

Chopper quickly got up and flipped into 3-D to avoid the attack before going back into 2-D. He threw the Spectral Sword at Phantom Maquano like a boomerang, which hit the phantom's chest a few times. Phantom Maquano tried to grab it, but Chopper ran up to him and used the light power in his feet to deliver a kick to his chest before getting his laser sword back.

_**"****Ungh… Impressive…" **_grunted Phantom Maquano. _**"I see you've learned a few tricks with that thing. Or maybe I'm just forgetting the last time you fought me with that stupid sword."**_

"Probably the latter," Chopper answered, attempting to drive the Spectral Sword into Phantom Maquano's chest. It probably wouldn't phase through him if he was vulnerable right now.

Phantom Maquano saw this and brought his sword up to block the attack. He knocked Chopper away from him with a bit of his own dark magic, and then he proceeded to fire a stronger magic attack in his direction upon flying back up.

Seeing the attack coming his way, Chopper swung his Spectral Sword at the attack and sent it back at Phantom Maquano. Rather than catching it, he swung it back in his direction. This reminded Chopper of the past fights he endured where he had to throw an attack back at his opponent, so this wasn't anything new to him.

All it took him was another swing from his laser sword to send it flying back at Phantom Maquano.

_**"****Are we really going to resort to a petty game of tennis?" **_Phantom Maquano asked, swinging the magic back at his enemy. _**"You realize that if we continue this, we aren't going to get anywhere!"**_

"Well I'm not stopping," Chopper replied, throwing the attack back.

Phantom Maquano gave him a suspicious look, but he didn't care. He had his own plan to keep him off guard. Upon swinging the magic back at Chopper, he teleported behind him and tapped his arm.

But what he received was a fist full of light energy to his leg.

"Nice try, Maquano," Chopper said while swinging the magic at him while he was off guard. This sent him flying to the left door. Getting up was nothing difficult.

_**"****How did you know…?"**_

"I had a feeling you were going to try to distract me. Plus, you kinda tapped me on the arm, which gave me the idea that you were behind. I wouldn't say that was the best move…"

Instead of getting angry, Phantom Maquano only smirked. _**"Hmmmm… Yes, you're right, Chopper. That was rather dumb of me."**_

Chopper's confident look faded away slightly. "What do you mean?"

_**"****However, wanna know something that wasn't dumb of me? Teleporting those three friends of yours at the moment you were going to restore the power of that stupid Star Rod!"**_

The Star Warrior's eyes widened in shock. "What?! But why?!"

_**"****Because I wanted to see you have a hard time," **_Phantom Maquano chuckled. _**"If the Star Rod's power was restored, then it wouldn't have been as fun to see you suffer like you used to when you were four! Plus, it would've made traveling through here way too easy."**_

Chopper gave his nemesis a cold glare. "I can't believe you would do something like that… But at the same time, I'm not surprised to see you do something like that."

_**"****I know. That's what's so great about being me." **_

Phantom Maquano flew in the air again and snapped his finger. Suddenly, a couple of blades began to circle around Chopper, but spinning his Spectral Sword helped wipe them out. He fired another light ball at Phantom Maquano, which sadly missed.

"Where are they?" Chopper asked. "I want an answer from you. Now."

_**"****Hmmmm… You know, now that I think about it, I don't remember exactly where they are." **_Phantom Maquano answered, which only got Chopper mad. _**"I teleported them to a random place in The Void. You never know, they could be right where you and your friends started here!"**_

"You better not have hurt them!"

_**"****Oh, don't worry. I didn't hurt them. …Yet!"**_

Chopper clenched his fist and prepared to charge at Phantom Maquano, but dark lightning struck Chopper and made him fall over on the floor. A cackled echoed through the room as Phantom Maquano raised his sword and let dark lightning strike it. Chopper had a feeling he was the one who made that dark lightning hit him.

As angry he was, he didn't want himself to get too angry. That rage from Metal Chopper was certainly something he wanted to forget, and that would only hurt him in the process. So he stayed calm and pushed himself back up to deflect Phantom Maquano's thrown sword back his direction.

Phantom Maquano had no problem catching his weapon and fired dark magic to the floor. Dark fire instantly shot out of the ground, with one scorching Chopper. Despite that, Chopper swung his Spectral Sword and summoned a strong gust of wind that blew out the fire.

The gust even caught Phantom Maquano and sent him crashing onto one of the barriers. But he didn't let that stop him from firing a Dark Sword Beam at Chopper.

"This again? Come on…" Chopper sighed and jumped over the attack so he could swing his sword twice and summon two Sword Beams. One was made of fire energy, while the other was electric. With one swing, he sent them flying to Phantom Maquano, burning and paralyzing him in the process.

_**"****Gah! Not bad, Chopper… If I could move, I'd show you something new!" **_Phantom Maquano hissed.

"Well, you're not moving right now, which lets me do this!" Chopper smirked and hurled two charged light balls at Phantom Maquano. He was about to throw his laser sword until he got struck by dark lightning.

He could see Phantom Maquano let out a slight chuckle as more dark lightning began to fire down. Chopper continuously dodged each attack and threw his Spectral Sword at Phantom Maquano to stop his attack. Even though the attack hit Phantom Maquano, he was able to move again.

Phantom Maquano caught Chopper's Spectral Sword and threw it back at him, as if he was trying to hurt him with it, but it only stabbed the ground near Chopper's foot.

"Why are you giving me this back?" Chopper questioned.

_**"****Because I have no use for it," **_Phantom Maquano answered. _**"And I'd rather let this fight be more challenging than easy. It makes destroying you much more satisfying!"**_

Chopper was surprised about him being a bit honorable. Then again, he said he wanted the fight to be more satisfying, and Chopper being weaponless wouldn't be as satisfying for him. Nevertheless, Chopper pulled his laser sword off the ground and prepared for the worst.

_**"****Now, I did say I'd show you something new!" **_Phantom Maquano raised his arms, and dark energy began to materialize above him. It was beginning to create a large ball of darkness. Chopper's eyes widened as it got bigger.

_**"****Take THIS!"**_

He threw the ball of darkness in Chopper's direction and watched as the Star Warrior's laser sword tried to deflect it. Sadly, it was too big, and Chopper was only struck by the darkness.

When Phantom Maquano got a glimpse of Chopper again, he noticed he was a bit battered up from the attack. Some small marks from the dark energy were on his face and arms. It almost left him shivering. Then again, The Void was a bit of a cold place too.

"I almost forgot about the cold feeling this whole place gives me thanks to that dark attack…" Chopper shivered.

_**"****Then allow me to heat things up for you!" **_Phantom Maquano opened his free hand and let a burst of dark fire burst out. Upon seeing this, Chopper fired a large, blue laser made of water energy that put the fire out and struck Phantom Maquano in the chest. This gave him the chance to jump up to his enemy and strike him with the light energy in his Spectral Sword.

"So, let me get this straight…" Chopper began, hitting Phantom Maquano with a light kick and jumping back to avoid Phantom Maquano's sword swing. "If you were watching me go through this place on my own, then you were watching my friends and I when we first entered The Void!"

_**"****You're partially correct," **_Phantom Maquano replied, throwing his sword in Chopper's direction and firing dark magic in the sky to let it rain down. _**"I only discovered you when I saw you fighting that robot thing that secretary lady sent out. Upon seeing you guys, I wanted to follow you through The Void and see what you would run into. It was rather interesting to see you and Tipral working side by side! Well…until he betrayed you!"**_

"Don't even remind me…" the Star Warrior muttered, spinning his laser sword above him to block the magic coming down on him. "But I'm not worrying about him or Dimentio any longer."

_**"****That's good to hear, because I'll be the only one standing in your way now!"**_

Chopper managed to knock Phantom Maquano's sword back at him and then throw a light ball to slightly stun him. He then charged straight at him and threw his Spectral Sword surrounded in light energy at the phantom. While it phased through his body, the light still managed to hurt him.

Seeing his sword bounce off the barrier, Chopper chased after it until Phantom Maquano landed on the floor and threw magic to the floor. Darkness seemed to fired upward in Chopper's direction to prevent him from getting the Spectral Sword. He also saw Phantom Maquano jump in the air and swing his sword in Chopper's direction. He was glad he missed.

"Hey! What ever happened to the whole challenge?!" Chopper exclaimed.

_**"****I was considering throwing your weapon back to you, but then there's the fact that you still hold light power. That's already enough to fight me!" **_Phantom Maquano hissed. _**"Now hold still!"**_

Chopper jumped over Phantom Maquano and snatched his Spectral Sword before swinging at his back. The phantom turned to Chopper with a clenched fist.

_**"****You know, I was actually considering letting those three friends of yours live, but at this point, I'm starting to change my mind!"**_

"There's no way I'm going to let you do that," Chopper retorted, blocking Phantom Maquano's sword and stepping on his foot, which hardly did much. He decided to go into 3-D and go over by the door he entered to reach this area. When he got back into 2-D, he charged up a Spectral Sword Beam.

"I hope you like a Spectral Sword Beam, Maquano!" he hollered as he swung three Sword Beams toward Phantom Maquano. Not even his sword was enough to block the fire, ice and light he fired. Phantom Maquano cringed from every hit, but he had a trick up his sleeves.

_**"****Let's see you deal with this!" **_he threw the magic at Chopper, which turned into dark dust that made Chopper suddenly fall asleep. _**"Heh heh heh… Well, looks like that worked after all!"**_

He charged up more of his dark magic and hurled it at Chopper. It ended up waking him up, but Phantom Maquano didn't care that much. All he cared about was defeating Chopper, which he was getting close to doing.

Upon realizing his HP was low, Chopper drank a Master Shroom Shake to recover 200 HP before disposing the empty can. He threw it straight at Phantom Maquano, but it only phased through him. The empty can did slowly disintegrated, however.

"OK… I think I might have the energy to fight back now." Chopper sighed, getting under Phantom Maquano and hitting him with an upward slash. He also threw a light ball to make Phantom Maquano wince in more pain.

_**"****Gurgh… Why must I hate light power so much?!" **_Phantom Maquano grunted. _**"If only it didn't do as much harm to me…"**_

Chopper: ^.^

_**"****And I'm willing to wipe that look off your face too!" **_Phantom Maquano roared as he performed an overhead slash downward to hit Chopper. Sadly, his attack was blocked and allowed Chopper to charge into him with his laser sword like a drill. Even then, Phantom Maquano was able to hit him with at least one magic attack, and fortunately for him, it paralyzed Chopper.

"Gah! Great, looks like I'm not moving for a while!" Chopper cried.

Phantom Maquano cast a grin under his helmet as he lunged forward and struck his enemy with a single swing of his sword. He even stabbed the ground to make his dark magic rocket upward below Chopper so he was sent flying in the air.

_**"****This is all too easy for me," **_Phantom Maquano chuckled, throwing his sword at Chopper and letting it drop his HP down a couple of times from each hit before letting his sword come back to him. _**"Just imagine what I could've done with my **__**real**__** body!"**_

"Ungh… That's not happening…" Chopper groaned, now able to move after he landed on the floor. "I'm not going to let you even get your real body after what you did last time!"

_**"****We'll just see about that!" **_Phantom Maquano teleported high above the ground and raised his sword, which began to slowly grow bigger. He threw it straight to the ground and caused the ground around Chopper to shake violently, as if an earthquake was being triggered.

"Hold on… So you were the one who made me lose my friends, is that correct?!" Chopper asked, remembering this shaking from somewhere.

_**"****I said before that I only encountered you when I saw you fighting that robot thing, so none of that was my doing. I'm just doing this so I can put an end to you!"**_

Chopper looked above him and noticed some dark blades falling from the sky. That must've been something Phantom Maquano was trying to use again, him, so he spun his Spectral Sword in order to block them. Afterward, he jumped in the air and then hit Phantom Maquano with an upward slash.

"Why don't you actually come down here and fight for real rather than stay up there?!" suggested the Star Warrior.

Phantom Maquano's sword turned back to its normal size as he floated down and fired a Dark Sword Beam in response. Chopper put his flipping to use to dodge it, and then he struck his foe three times with his Spectral Sword after flipping again. Phantom Maquano noticed a small bit of light fade away on his chest. This wasn't a good sign for him…

Chopper noticed this and couldn't help but smirk. "Well… Looks like I'm finally getting something done here!"

_**"****Oh, I'm not done yet! I'll just simply heal myself!" **_Phantom Maquano started to use his magic to heal himself, but he didn't feel himself get healed. _**"…Wait, what? It's not working?!"**_

"Huh?"

_**"****My healing powers aren't working! Perhaps because I am just a mere phantom… If I was in my real body, this would've surely worked. Gah! Fine then, I'll just have to take you out the hard way!"**_

Phantom Maquano disappeared, but when he reappeared, there were about five Phantom Maquanos surrounding Chopper. They were slowly getting closer, with their swords raised above them.

"Wait… What?!" Chopper gaped.

_**"****Looking for me?" **_Phantom Maquano cackled.

Chopper flipped into 3-D, but they were still able to see him. In fact, they were circling around him now.

"_How am I supposed to find the real one?" _Chopper thought. _"It's not like I can hit them all at once! …Or can I?"_

Chopper spun his Spectral Sword around, along with his entire body, which helped hit every single Phantom Maquano. The fake ones seemed to disintegrate, while the real one was hit a couple of times by his laser sword.

Phantom Maquano stepped back and panted heavily as Chopper flipped back into 2-D. _**"I guess that wasn't the best idea to pull off… So be it! I'll just have to resort to my shadow demon form to destroy you!"**_

He closed his eyes and prepared to transform into his almighty shadow demon form, but when he opened his eyes, he noticed he was still just a phantom. _**"Are you kidding me? I can't use that form in this state?!"**_

Chopper took notice of this and smirked. "Well this is interesting! I was actually worried about your shadow demon form, but now that you can't transform into it, I think we all know who's going to win this fight!"

_**"****Don't get your hopes up just yet, Chopper! Even as a phantom I'm no pushover!"**_

The Star Warrior ignored him and swung his Spectral Sword at Phantom Maquano, expecting to get a good hit on him. All he got was a phantom sword blocking his attack and knocking him back from the force of Phantom Maquano pushing him away. He noticed the phantom jump up and attempt to bring his sword down on him again, but his Spectral Sword was all he needed to block it.

Chopper's left hand was free while trying to block Phantom Maquano's sword, but he was struggling at the same time. Physically, he was much stronger because of his bigger arms and demonic strength. Chopper…was nothing like that.

But with his free hand, he managed to hit Phantom Maquano in the chest with a light ball, which helped stun him and let Chopper strike him a couple of times with his laser sword. Phantom Maquano winced in pain after Chopper struck him with one last attack.

"Look, Maquano, we can just stop here so you can let me through," Chopper suggested. "I REALLY don't have time to stay here and fight!"

_**"****It's too late for that," **_Phantom Maquano retorted. _**"We're already fighting right now. I'm not going to simply stop here and let you through. That would be a stupid move on my part."**_

"And you don't care that every world is at stake here?! Even the aftergame is most likely going to get destroyed!"

_**"****It's actually one of the last places that would get destroyed, actually," **_the phantom corrected. _**"I would have plenty of time to slow the process of the True Chaos Heart and then get my body back! But wasting your time here… That doesn't sound so bad!"**_

He let out a cackle as he lifted his arms and fired another large ball of darkness back at Chopper. Since he couldn't throw it back, he was forced to dodge the attack and fire some lasers from his Spectral Sword to hit Phantom Maquano. Each shot actually hit him, surprisingly.

Phantom Maquano tried to not make a big deal out of it, but the problem for him was that he was running low on HP. Chopper could probably land a couple more hits on him and he would probably be done for. There was no way he wanted to be humiliated like this again after the last six years.

He was going to be victorious this time.

It was time for him to go all out on Chopper, so he teleported in front of the Star Warrior and began swinging at him in a fast pace. Chopper didn't even see it coming, and neither did he have the time to block his attacks either.

"What the… What are you doing?!" Chopper exclaimed.

_**"****Finishing this!" **_Phantom Maquano roared, grabbing a hold of Chopper and throwing him up in the air. _**"You've forced me to resort to this, Chopper! You should know what happens when you make me stoop to this level!"**_

While Chopper was in the air, he flew up and swung him higher up so he could grab him again. He didn't drop him yet, but he held him by his foot so Chopper was looking down at the floor below. He was much higher than he thought.

"Are you planning on dropping me?" Chopper asked.

_**"****Oh, I'm definitely planning on that," **_Phantom Maquano nodded. _**"Do you think you can survive a fall like this?"**_

"Well, I was able to survive a couple of falls. I fell off a train, which was most likely a long fall for me. I don't think everything here is necessarily realistic, you know."

_**"****Even then, the force of the impact might not let you handle it. And I'm guaranteed to make sure that the impact is huge! But, I'm done talking for now. Enjoy the ride!"**_

He threw Chopper downward and watched him plummet to the ground below. Yeah, he was expecting him to survive the fall, but he had a feeling it was probably going to leave him a bit hurt.

It turns out the latter didn't happen.

Phantom Maquano looked down and noticed Chopper slowly falling to the floor. His eyes were widened in surprise.

_**"****What?!"**_

Chopper noticed he was slowly falling and was left surprised too. "Huh? What's going on here? I'm not falling to my doom?"

When his feet touched the floor, he noticed he didn't have any injuries. "Hey! I don't know what happened, but whoever just did that, thank you! …Or maybe it was something I had?"

Phantom Maquano teleported back to the floor and lunged at Chopper, expecting to hit him. But Chopper was prepared for this and ducked under his sword. One swing helped weaken Phantom Maquano even further, and it also made him teleport away from Chopper as well.

_**"****I don't know how you managed to slowly land like that, but I'm going to make it all up to you!" **_Phantom Maquano swung his sword a couple of times and summoned at least four Dark Sword Beams. He pointed his sword at Chopper, and they were fired in his direction. _**"This time, luck won't save you now!"**_

"So that's how you wanna play, huh?" Chopper swung his laser sword a couple of times and fired some Spectral Sword Beams at Phantom Maquano. "Then I guess I'm going to play the same way!"

Both attacks clashed, and both Chopper and Phantom Maquano were hit by each other's attacks. They were both left exhausted from the aftermath, but they still had some strength remaining in them to finish the fight.

Chopper looked at himself and noticed the bruises and burns left on his arms again. Great, this is just what he wanted too. And it was also hard to see what wounds he left on Phantom Maquano as well. But then again, Metal Chopper was left weak in his super form, but he didn't look like it from his appearance. Maybe the same thing was going on with him.

_**"****Don't think it's over just yet, Chopper! I've still got a little present just for you!" **_Phantom Maquano raised his right arm, making dark energy materialize above him. It was small, but it looked dangerous. _**"This is more than enough to take you down in a single blow!"**_

He cast a grin as he fired it in Chopper's direction. _**"I hope you appreciate this little gift!"**_

Chopper slightly gaped and tried to jump over it, but that didn't stop Phantom Maquano from firing more. _"Oh, come on! He has even more of those!"_

He had a light ball ready as he continued to charge at Phantom Maquano, but it wasn't long before he finally got to him and managed to strike his chest with the light ball. Phantom Maquano could feel some light envelop in his chest, which made his eyes widen in pain.

_**"****Oh, no… Don't tell me…"**_

Chopper smirked and used some of the light power in his Spectral Sword to finish him off with a powerful light slash, which left a light scar upon the phantom's chest. The result was the light growing bigger and enveloping Phantom Maquano's body.

_**"****You… YOU… I can't believe you actually had it in you to do this to me." **_Phantom Maquano screeched before closing his eyes. _**"But you do realize you can't necessarily kill a ghost, right?"**_

"But you're not a ghost," Chopper replied, stepping back. "You're a demon. …Or a phantom, I guess."

_**"****Yes, I guess you may have a point. But don't get your hopes up so soon. I don't believe this will be the exact end of me. I will only be returning to The Underwhere in my prison. And what will I do next? Well, I'll have to plan that out later. I'm hoping to get back at Queen Jaydes and the rest of the universe afterward once I finally rise again! …But that may be in the future."**_

"That is if you ever come back."

Phantom Maquano ignored Chopper and gave him a glare as the light enveloped every single part of his body except for his head. _**"Goodbye for now, Chopper. That is, until I make my comeback again!"**_

His head was soon enveloped in the light, and then his entire phantom started to slowly disintegrate.

_**"****The cycle will only continue from here!"**_

Chopper listened to the voice fade away before letting out a sigh. "Finally… I'm finished with the fight."

He looked at the barriers, which faded away as well. "Which means I can finally…"

Chopper approached the sealed door, and with one slash, it crumbled, revealing a slightly larger door in front of him. He smiled slightly and turned his Spectral Sword off, knowing he won't need it. He then progressed through the door.

When Chopper entered the next area, what he saw ahead was a long staircase. Probably the longest staircase he had ever seen before. It was split into at least four sections. Thankfully, Chopper found an Ultimate Shroom to eat to recover 100 HP before going up the stairs.

When he reached the top of the first portion of the stairs, he was greeted by two Void Wizards firing their dark magic in Chopper's direction. Thankfully, his Spectral Sword was able to block their attacks, and after hitting them with a dashing slash, he left them with a burn.

"Whoa... This weapon really is powerful against enemies like those." Chopper realized, throwing his laser sword at them while it spun and waited for it to come back. "It's a force of nature!"

Once he caught it, he progressed up the next set of stairs. He could see a Void Skelloknight and a Void Wizrim waiting there, but when they spotted Chopper, they immediately got into fighting positions and moved down the stairs.

"You are not moving any further!" the Void Skelloknight bellowed as it prepared to swing its sword. But when it saw Chopper ready to attack, it brought its shield up.

Its shield was sliced in half by the Spectral Sword.

"Wh-What?! My...my... My shield!" the enemy looked down at Chopper in shock. "What kind of weapon is that?!"

"A weapon that's capable of defeating you," Chopper answered, slicing the Void Skelloknight's armor in half. Three slashes was all it took for Chopper to finish off the enemy. It was that strong.

Upon seeing this, the Void Wizrim began to slightly sweat, but it still had the guts to attack with its double-bladed scythe wand. It spun it around like crazy while firing dark magic, which only got deflected by Chopper's Spectral Sword. Its weapon also got sliced in half.

The Void Wizrim's eyes widened before it was quickly finished off by a few more slices from Chopper's weapon. He hit the yellow ? block nearby too, which made a Death Shroom pop out. A stab instantly destroyed it.

"I never knew this sword was strong enough to take care of these guys with no problem..." Chopper gaped. "It was all so difficult before, but not anymore..."

He went up the third section and discovered five Voidrins and a Spinner Shield waiting just for him. Chopper fired a Spectral Sword Beam that sliced through the Spinner Shield and left it completely shattered, while the Voidrins were letting out screeches before they slowly disintegrated from the combination of fire, ice, electricity, etc.

Now there was only one last part of the staircase that led up to a door. After Chopper climbed up the stairs, he was met with three Void Maginans that were firing in his direction. His Spectral Sword blocked their shots and struck them instead. Chopper smirked and threw his weapon at them to defeat them. The weapon soon returned for him to catch.

"Wow... That was easy!" Chopper gaped, finally reaching the door at the top of the staircase. He looked at the door and saw the black heart embedded on it. "Hmmmm... So this could be where the center of The Void is... I just hope I'm not too late..."

He let out a deep breath before pushing the door open.

* * *

**Through the door-**

To his disappointment, he was not actually led into the center of The Void. If that were the case, then the True Chaos Heart and The Void's core would be here. Sadly, that was not the case here.

What he DID find was a large and tall place with a small pool of water that was up to Chopper's feet. The pool itself was shaped liked a heart, and the water was black. The center, however, did not have water. There were three beds placed in the center on dry ground and was also surrounded by dark purple curtains, and in those beds were three people.

"Hmmmmm?" Chopper treaded through the small pool and finally reached the center. After getting past the curtains, he noticed in the three beds were Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi. All three of them were sleeping. _"Oh, thank goodness they're here! I was almost worried for a second!"_

Chopper approached the bed Luvbi was in and noticed she was breathing. He was relieved, but also worried that the three could be unconscious – or whatever state Ninbot was in that defined being unconscious for a robot. Trying to shake them away would probably be a bad idea.

"Hey, Luvbi! Can you hear me?" Chopper asked, trying not to be too loud. The area around him was silent, so it wouldn't be too difficult for her to hear. Plus, his voice echoed around too. "Luvbi? You're...uh...sweet prince is here!"

Luvbi slowly began to smile and let out a dreamy sigh in her sleep. "Oh, my sweet prince... Thou hast come hither to protect me! Thou art so sweet!"

"Luvbi, wake up, seriously."

"Hmmmm?" Luvbi's eyes slowly opened, and she raised her head to see where she was. "...Pray, where am I? I thought my sweet prince was hither..."

"Uhhhh... I'm kinda here..." Chopper trailed, slowly backing away from Luvbi. Her eyes softened and her heart fluttered when she saw him looking at her. "Uhhhh... Hi?"

"Oh, my sweet prince!" Luvbi cried, jumping out of her bed and grabbing a hold of Chopper. She began to place kisses all over his face, making him let out a cry in fear. This ended up waking both Squirps and Ninbot.

"Squeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuurp… Squirple squeeple squinks!" Squirps yawned, stretching his tentacles before noticing what was going on. "Squoh? Is that the space grunt being attacked by the angel thing?"

Ninbot turned on and noticed what was going on. "Hmmmm? I'm...awake again?"

When Luvbi finished her kisses by kissing Chopper on the lips, she let go of him and left the boy to wipe his face in disgust. That's when Squirps and Ninbot finally approached him.

"The space grunt has come back!" Squirps cheered. "Squirps thought we disappeared for a moment! In fact, that's what Squirps was dreaming about, squirple!"

"That did happen, though," Chopper mentioned. "You three were about to restore the Star Rod's power, but you were suddenly teleported away from me and most likely here..."

"But who didst that?" Luvbi asked.

"I already found out who did it. He's gone...for now."

"He is? I see..." Ninbot trailed. "So... Us sages must do our job and give you the Star Rod's full power."

"Squiiiiiirp! Squirps is on it!" Squirps opened his mouth, and a bright white light shot out at the Star Rod Chopper pulled out. Ninbot opened his hand, making the same light go into the Star Rod. And finally, Luvbi closed her eyes, and light came out from her body and into the Star Rod.

When Chopper held up the Star Rod, it flashed and brightened around the four. No longer was it dull with no power, but a bright yellow Star Rod.

"The Star Rod hast finally been restored..." Luvbi stated. "Now thou art capable of fighting back powerful weapons like yon Dark Star Scepter!"

Chopper smiled as he lowered the Star Rod. "Thanks, guys... I really do appreciate the help. I've got a little more confidence now since I was forced to go through here on my own."

"I'm happy to help thee, my sweet prince!" the Nimbi girl smiled, kissing him on the cheek. His face turned red in disgust, but he tried to hold it off.

_"Hey! I think I found something over here!"_

"Squoh? Squirps just heard something!" Squirps warned, alarmed by the voice. "We're not alone here, squirple..."

"_Whoa! What a huge place!"_

"I hear it too..." Ninbot trailed with shifty eyes. "Be on the lookout."

"No, I think you three should find someplace safe," Chopper suggested. "I'll go search for that noise."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I have the Star Rod AND the Spectral Sword on my side! I'm perfectly fine! You three aren't as prepared as I am for something like this. So... Find someplace safe. Please."

"Squirps might as well find a safe place..."

"Very well, I'll respect your decision."

"Just come back in one piece, my prince..."

The three stepped away from Chopper and used their own sage powers to teleport out of the area. The curtains and the bed disappeared in the process too, leaving only Chopper in the gigantic area. Him and a dark rope that happened to drop down from above.

Chopper approached the rope and looked up to see where it led. It was much longer than he thought. "Well... I guess I should climb this thing. Maybe I'll be led to whatever's around here..."

He grabbed the rope and started climbing up. Sure, climbing a rope wasn't the hardest thing, but what was difficult was trying not to look down. Higher up, Chopper could see a small platform connected to the rope, and above the small platform was a much larger platform.

Chopper sighed in relief as he got himself onto the small platform, but before taking a break, he flipped into 3-D and jumped on the Dimensional Block he saw above him and managed to get onto the larger platform before going back into 2-D.

"Phew... Well that's a relief." Chopper sighed. "That climb took me a while..."

"Hey, I think I heard something!"

Chopper's antennas sprung up as he looked around in an alerted state. He saw a dark purple armored trooper slowly descending from above. It didn't seem to notice Chopper, but he recognized the appearance.

_"What's a Darksprine Trooper doing here?!" _Chopper thought, his mouth agape at the Darksprine. _"I thought they were all gone ever since I defeated Maquano in Dark Subspace World!"_

"There was something I heard here for a moment..." the Darksprine trailed as it looked down on the platform. When it spotted Chopper, its eyes slightly widened for a moment. "Chopper...? Hey! Guys! I found Chopper!"

"Uh oh... There's more?" Chopper mumbled as two more Darksprines joined the other. "Three? Three Darksprines?!"

"Yup!" the second Darksprine nodded. "And you thought all of us would be all gone by now... Not the case here!"

"And I'm surprised you even made it this far on your own," the third Darksprine complimented. "I mean, going through all of that danger? That takes a lot for someone like you. I'm guessing we took a different way than you, though..."

"Listen, I don't have time for this," Chopper explained, hoping they would be convinced. "I need to get to the True Chaos Heart now! And I'm not even that far from it!"

"Too late for that, Chopper! Anyway, I'm sure you know why we're even here in the first place, so to put it short, it's time to meet your end!"

The three Darksprine Troopers began to fire at Chopper with their assault rifles, but like always, Chopper had no problem avoiding the shots. The only problem was that the Darksprine's weapons didn't require reloading, so they were continuously firing purple lasers at him.

"Can't you stop?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Ummmmm... No." one Darksprine answered before going back to shooting. Chopper was forced to retaliate by chucking a few light balls at them. Three of them hit the three troopers, but even then they weren't too harmed by it. Then again, these troopers were made to stand up to many different kinds of attacks.

One shot even hit Chopper, and compared to the Void Maginans, these did much more. In fact, the Darksprine appeared to be stronger than any other enemy he had faced around here. Looks like the strongest was saved for last then.

He decided to put his Spectral Sword to use and started to spin it in order to deflect shots back at the Darksprine. Being prepared for this, they put their arms in front of them and made a small barrier block the shots. Chopper sweat dropped and fired some Spectral Sword Beams at them. That surprisingly destroyed their barriers.

"Crud... Those barriers don't seem to work too well against that thing." a Darksprine sweat dropped. "Whatever. That's not stopping us."

Chopper threw his Spectral Sword at one Darksprine, which surprisingly did a lot of damage to it. Upon getting his weapon back, a light ball managed to destroy one of them.

"Well! Looks like you're not as entirely strong as I thought you were!" Chopper smirked, firing lasers from his weapon at the other two Darksprine. He managed to take out another one, which left one one more.

"Gah... Whoever thought you'd take us down like this?" the Darksprine Trooper moaned. "I gotta give you some credit, though. Whatever you got, it sure made you strong."

"So, will you let me go?"

"Not a chance!" the Darksprine raised its arm and fired a metallic string that would wrap around Chopper – if it wasn't cut by the Spectral Sword. "That's not all I have in store for you!"

The Darksprine flew toward Chopper at full force, hoping to knock him off the platform. But once it made contact with Chopper, it was instantly destroyed by a yellow star that fired from Chopper's Star Rod.

"Well that wasn't so hard," Chopper smiled, putting away the Star Rod. "If that's the last of the enemies I have to deal with, then I'll be pleased."

After letting out a sigh, Chopper approached the next rope that was hanging down from a small platform above. Thankfully, this climb wasn't as long as the previous, but when he got onto the platform, it was small. Very small.

But it wasn't as small as he thought. Upon going into 3-D, he discovered that the width of the platform was much wider than he thought. They were still narrow for him to cross, so he had to be careful when walking to the center platform where another rope was. He climbed it up to another similar-looking platform like the other and flipped into 3-D to go to the left of the narrow pathways. There was a platform all the way to the left where a door was.

"I guess that's where I need to go," Chopper said as he approached the left side of the narrow path. There was a small little switch with a star labeled on it, which gave him an idea. "Oh, I think I know what to do here."

He took the Star Rod out and swung the switch, creating two glowing light platforms, which helped him jump onto the platform with the door, and thus, it allowed him to move on.

Chopper was hoping to reach The Void's center, but to his disappointment, it was a slighty big, silent area with a Save Block and a yellow ? Block. The air sounded very eerie and heavy. Much more than it was when he fought Phantom Maquano.

"I'm close..." Chopper trailed. "Very close..."

He hit both blocks and got a Master Shroom from the yellow ? block. After recovering the lost HP from the Darksprines, Chopper approached the door in front of him, took a deep breath, and entered.

* * *

**Next area-**

When Chopper walked out of the door, he walked a couple of steps until the door closed shut behind him and startled him. Most of the time a door closing shut didn't startle him, but in a silent area like this, it certainly did with its echoes.

"Ugh... The more I progress, the creepier this place becomes..." Chopper winced, taking a couple of more steps. There were some statues of Chaos Hearts lined up, and on the floor was another depiction of a black heart. Although, this one was much bigger than before. He guessed this was indeed the road to the center of The Void.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to charge up a Speed Dash in order to get to the True Chaos Heart quicker.

"_Hee hee hee hee hee hee…_"

"Huh?" Chopper stopped charging up his Speed Dash and looked around. "What was that I just heard? ...Was it just my imagination?"

Instead of running, he cautiously walked onward, his eyes darting around the area. However, little did he know he was being followed.

"_Oh, Chopper... I'm coming for you!_"

Chopper quickly turned his head, but he saw nothing. "Who's speaking to me?"

When he looked back in his direction, a figure was standing in front of him. Actually, the figure was _very_ close to him.

"WAH!" Chopper jumped away while the figure let out a small cackle. "Who ARE you?!"

The figure looked up at Chopper with its creepy grin and its purple glowing eyes. Scars were still left from his face and arms, and even his black gloves were a bit torn up.

"Shade..."

"I've…b…e…e…n waiting f…o…r...y…o…u...C…h…o…p…p…e…r…" Shade cackled.

"What the... What's with your speech pattern?" Chopper asked, a little freaked out. "What...happened to you?"

"You made me this..." Shade slowly began to approach Chopper, who tried to step away, but he felt his arms being grabbed by the freaky alien. "L...o...o...k...a...t...m...e..."

Shade opened his mouth, and his green forked tongue began to hang out of his mouth, making Chopper gape.

"Let go of me!"

"Y...o...u...changed...m...e..." the freaky alien child hissed. "You...h...a...d...to see...w...h...a...t...w...a...s...in...the...diary . Now...y...o...u...see...me...a...s...who...I...a.. .m..."

"Stop with that weird speech thing! It's hard to understand what you're saying!"

"That...jester sent...m...e...h...e...r...e..." Shade explained in a creepy voice. "I...was lost...trapped...i...n...s...a...n...e..."

"Please! Stop it!" Chopper managed to free one of his arms and punch Shade, knocking him back slightly. But that hardly affected Shade, because he started to twist his head so it was upside down. Chopper was forced to cover his eyes.

"You will...not escape...from here...a...l...i...v...e..." Shade said as his head twisted right-side up. Green blood began to roll down from the blade on his head, but it didn't appear to be painful to Shade. He just looked at Chopper with his purple glowing eyes and his tongue continuously hanging from his mouth.

Chopper tried not to freak out and stayed calm. "Look, Shade... I have to get going. The True Chaos Heart is most likely just up ahead. You being here is not helping. And even if you want that heart's power, I wouldn't get you get past it."

"But I don't want...the Chaos Heart. All...I want to do...now...is...t...o...k...i...l...l...y...o...u! K...i...l...l...y...o...u..."

"But why?"

"You revealed...my...s...e...c...r...e...t... Those...who have...discovered...my secrets...were..._m…u…r…d…e…r…e…d…_"

Shade drew his wand and used its dark power to block the way back and also made the statues of the Chaos Heart and the symbol on the floor transform into a symbol of his face. He let out a cackle before lowering his wand.

"Now we shall finally put an end to this!" Shade grinned as he took out his flaming sword, which was now glowing purple. "Tearing you apart...will be...s...o...m...u...c...h...f...u...n!"

"So be it," Chopper declared, turning on his Spectral Sword. "I guess it's come to this..."

"Hee hee hee... I am looking forward...to seeing...y...o...u...d...i...e!"

Shade began to approach Chopper and prepared to strike him with his sword. But instead of using his blade, he fired dark magic at Chopper instead. It was too fast for the Star Warrior to dodge, and he was hit by the small blot of magic. What made things worse was that Shade wasn't done there. He jumped in the air and raised his sword, which made small, purple comets rain from the sky.

"What the heck?!" Chopper cried, avoiding the comets that could've done a large amount of damage to him. In fact, he noticed that Shade had 700 HP, an Attack of 28 and a Defense of 16. OK, it was twenty more HP than Phantom Maquano, but Shade was a smaller target, and he seemed much faster at that.

Shade licked his wand before firing two projectiles of magic in Chopper's direction. They were also homing, which made escaping them more difficult.

But his Spectral Sword, on the other hand, came to be quite helpful against those projectiles. Spinning his laser sword helped deflect them back at Shade, which he didn't bother to block for some reason. Even then, it didn't look like Shade was in any pain. He was just...looking crazy.

"More! More!"

Chopper gawked before he saw Shade fly up in the air and fire more comets downward. He decided to see if he could block them with his Spectral Sword, but they were too big, making him get hit by at least one and also leading him to get knocked on the ground. Shade continued to cackle like a maniac before approaching Chopper.

Before Shade could try anything, Chopper quickly got up and swung his Spectral Sword at him, which he responded by letting out a squeal that was so cringe-worthy to Chopper. When was the last time he ever squealed in a fight?

He tried to get in another hit, but Shade brought his sword in front of him and blocked the attack, while he used his wand to hit Chopper with a close-range magic attack. Shade grinned before licking some of the green blood he managed to get off from his finger.

"Oh, geez..." Chopper closed his eyes shut and looked away from Shade. "I... I don't know how long I can take this creepiness."

"Come on, Choppy! Why don't we...p...l...a...y...!" Shade giggled, swinging his sword to fire a Nova Sword Beam at his enemy. Upon hearing this, Chopper opened his eyes and managed to avoid the attack just in time.

He charged up a light ball while Shade was being crazy again and managed to throw it into his face. While it hurt him big time, Shade was not pleased.

"The light... I..._**h...a...t...e**_...t...h...e...l...i...g...h...t!"

Chopper gulped as Shade tried to grab a hold of him again, but thankfully, he managed to get around him by going into 3-D and landed a jump on his head afterward. Chopper even performed a stylish move while in the air.

When Shade got a glimpse of Chopper again, he swung his sword down and let a wave of purple fire come flying in his direction. Chopper tried blocking it, but his Spectral Sword couldn't handle that much fire, so he was left scorched.

"Yes... Yes...! Y...e...s...!"

Chopper was almost wondering if Shade ever encountered any of his own minions around this area. The ones transformed by The Void, mind you. In fact, how was he still wounded from the previous fight yet still have more HP than last time (well, more like the final form)?

But he had no time for thinking when he saw Shade charging straight at him once again. Chopper took action by striking him with his Spectral Sword, and then he jumped in the air and swung his sword downward on him to leave him frozen.

"That should stall him for a while," Chopper sighed before Shade was able to easily get out. "Oh..."

"Let me hear you scream, Choppy!" Shade squealed. "S...c...r...e...a...m!"

_"It's hard to understand what he's saying!" _the Star Warrior thought. _"He's just saying these things at random! And why does he want me to scream?!"_

Shade fired magic to the ground, and suddenly fire geysers appeared below Chopper. Upon noticing the flames, he jumped out of the way before they could shoot upward, while Shade touched the flames and let it burn his hand.

But despite that, his hand completely healed after the fire was gone. Yet the scars left of him from the previous battle weren't?

And his Spectral Sword... It was able to plow through powerful enemies like the Void Skelloknight, but it wasn't dealing as much damage to Shade. Perhaps because he was something much different.

The flames disappeared, and Shade jumped in the air and flew down at Chopper at a lower left angle. Chopper, thankfully, managed to hit him with his Spectral Sword before there was any chance of him attacking. While dazed, Chopper struck him with his light kick and then threw in a rainbow ball.

Shade let out a hiss before spinning himself like a ballerina. His sword spun around too, and it was getting closer to Chopper.

Blocking the attack was probably not going to help, so Chopper went into 3-D and moved around Shade before flipping into 2-D again. When Shade stopped spinning, Chopper threw his Spectral Sword and let it spin while it hit Shade before it returned to him. Even then Shade was still giggling like a psycho.

"You shouldn't have...done...t...h...a...t..." Shade moaned, firing a wave of dark magic at Chopper that sent him flying away. To prevent him from going any further, Shade created a barrier that stopped Chopper and even hurt him.

"Ow! What the heck?!" Chopper winced as he got up. He turned to the barrier and frowned. "Thanks, Shade... That was really appreciative!"

"Hee hee hee! S...o...m...u...c...h...f...u...n...w...e...w...i. ..l...l...h...a...v...e...!"

Chopper decided to stay away from Shade for a while and shot lasers from his Spectral Sword. There were blue, red, yellow and even white lasers being fired at Shade. Of course, they each had an effect on him, but Shade only brushed it aside and shot more magic at Chopper.

This time, Chopper was prepared for the attack and swung his laser sword to deflect the projectiles. They were sent flying back to Shade, who didn't even bother to block them. He just let them hit him.

And he laughed. Continuously.

Chopper could've twitched, but he tried to remain calm and not freak out. He shot more lasers and tried to hit Shade, but surprisingly, all of the projectiles were blocked at a speed not even Chopper could block with a weapon. Heck, not even Maquano could do something like that!

"What the..."

Shade spun around again, but instead of spinning his sword, he spun his wand and let projectiles fire all around him. Jumping over them wouldn't help, so Chopper went into 3-D. They were even firing in 3-D too, meaning he had to keep cautious.

"Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper!" Shade repeated crazily. "I'm...h...a...v...i...n...g...f...u...n...!"

Chopper flipped into 2-D again and spun his Spectral Sword at the remaining magic projectiles. They were much easier to block than the previous ones, leading to Shade getting hit by at least two of his own attacks.

"Chopper Chopper Chopper Chopper!"

"Will you stop repeating my name?!" Chopper cried, throwing Shade a fire punch when he got close to him. Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from getting behind him and grabbing a hold of his arms.

"Chopper..." Shade hissed. "A...r...e...y...o...u...h...a...v...i...n...g...f ...u...n...?"

Chopper's eyes widened as he struggled to break his arms free, but Shade was going to make sure he wouldn't get away. At least, not yet.

Shade cackled and flew up with Chopper, and then he dropped him so he could lunge at him with his sword. But to Chopper's surprise, he swooped up before his sword made contact with him.

When Shade landed on the floor, his green forked tongue decided to hang out of his mouth while he decided to perform a cartwheel while spinning his sword vertically. A trail of purple fire was left behind him while trying to hit Chopper, who ended up scorched in the process.

"Victory won't be yours!" Shade giggled. "You...are...all...a...l...o...n...e..."

Chopper slowly got himself up and looked at the crazy alien. "I may be alone, but that's not stopping me from continuing on and defeating you. I'm so close..."

"Yet you're so far!"

Shade threw his sword and let it fly toward Chopper, who threw his sword in order to counter it. They were both knocked back and caught by their owners, who both fired Sword Beams that made an explosion in between them. Even when Chopper fired a light ball, Shade countered it with his dark magic.

If this continued, they weren't going to be getting anywhere.

"That's it. I have to get in close." Chopper sighed as he ran toward Shade and swung his Spectral Sword. He managed to get in at least one hit, but when he swung another time, Shade stepped back at an incredible speed.

Shade took some of the green blood on his finger when he was close enough to Chopper and tried to rub it on his face. Chopper took notice of this and grabbed his arm. He didn't want to have any of that stuff on his face. Especially something as disgusting as, well, alien blood. Plus, he had a feeling it would sting on his face too.

"Don't be so shy, Chopper!" Shade exclaimed in a creepy voice. "The blood! I...t...i...s...g...o...o...d..."

"No it's not!" Chopper shrieked, hitting Shade with his Spectral Sword again. After backing away, Shade felt a scar on his cheek and noticed a burn was left there. He let out a screech and ascended off the floor to start firing his dark magic at Chopper.

Most of it was easy for him to avoid, but then Shade started to fire blots of magic like a machine gun from his wand. Chopper was left agape for a moment before getting back to his senses and blocking the attacks.

And while he did this, Shade continued to giggle like an insane child.

However, he eventually stopped and landed on the floor. Chopper happened to find another wave of purple fire coming his way, so he flipped and avoided each wave Shade fired from his sword. But eventually he went back into the second dimension and landed a stomp on the alien child's head, leaving him stunned for a brief moment.

_"Better act quick!" _Chopper thought, delivering a multiple amount of swings from his Spectral Sword on Shade until he blocked them with his purple flaming sword.

And while they were clashing, Shade began to twist his head like before.

"Wh-What the heck are y-you d-doing?!" Chopper gaped.

"Hee hee hee! S...o...m...u...c...h...f...u...n..." Shade moaned, his head completely upside down. Chopper backed away and avoided Shade's swing again to cover his face. This was not something very common, especially for someone who had taken a _child's_ body.

Shade eventually turned his head back to normal and raised his sword while in the air to make more comets fall from the sky. One hit Chopper and knocked him on the ground while being left with a burn.

"Ugh… Those comet things are so strong…" Chopper groaned, getting himself up in the process. "I don't know how long I'll last against him if he continues this."

"You can always give up, Choppy!" Shade grinned. "There's always a chance to surrender…and…g…o…b…a…c…k…"

"Well I can't go back because there's a barrier in the way!"

"Hee hee… I almost forgot. I have a better idea in store…for…you!"

Shade let out a snicker as spider legs began to form out from his back and lift him off the ground. To Chopper's relief, he was not in his spider form. He was just himself…except with three tall spider legs on his back.

Not much had really changed in the fight, except that Chopper couldn't jump on him, and also most of Shade's attacks involved him trying to swing one of his spider legs at the pale green Star Warrior.

Shade even jumped in the air and tried to land on top of Chopper, but he had other plans. He swung his Spectral Sword when Shade landed, and he managed to hit two of his spider legs and cut a part of them off.

"Ha! Looks like you can't do much when you're not completely balance!" Chopper smirked, noticing Shade struggle to keep himself balanced. Now that he was closer to the ground, Chopper performed a flip and jumped on the alien's head. Unfortunately, that was all he could do before Shade sent him flying back with one of his other spider legs.

After Chopper got up again, the spider legs that were cut off only regenerated, leaving Shade to snicker at Chopper.

"Try all you want!" Shade exclaimed. "The fun will continue to last! …F…o…r…e…v…e…r…"

One of his spider legs went through the floor and appeared behind Chopper, smacking him and leaving him dazed. Shade approached him as soon as the spider leg returned to him, a grin now forming on his face. It was a grin that gave Chopper a bad feeling.

Since getting close would be too much of a risk, Chopper began shooting lasers from his weapon and let each shot hit Shade. He didn't flinch, but it seemed to be doing some harm to him now that he was scorched. Plus, since it was fire damage, it seemed to be doing something with Shade's spider legs for some reason after a while.

"What the… Well, looks like there's been some…problems." Shade hissed, letting the spider legs snap off on their own and allowing him to land on the ground unharmed. "But…it only gets better, Chopper… M…u…c…h…b…e…t…t…e…r…"

"_At least I don't have to worry about the spider legs," _Chopper thought, getting into action and jumping on Shade with his light jump as soon as he had the chance. This ended up angering Shade and made him hit Chopper's cheek with his scorching sword.

"_**WAH!**_" Chopper cried, feeling a burn on his cheek. "Oh, geez… This really does hurt!"

"You…delivered pain to me…then…I shall deliver it…t…o…y…o…u…"

Shade swung again, but thankfully Chopper managed to block it in time and hit Shade with a rainbow kick, followed up by an ice ball that froze him for about a brief moment. Chopper jumped back just when he broke out of his icy prison and tossed a light ball and then a fireball. Shade easily blocked the fireball with his sword.

"Chopper…" Shade started, lowering his head. "How does it feel...to be…a…l…o…n…e?"

When Chopper took a look at Shade, he saw him slowly raise his head, where he noticed some green blood dripping below his eyes.

"None of your friends are here… I could easily tear them apart and bathe in their blood, but they are not here to support you. That means I can have…fun."

"What do you mean by 'fun'?" Chopper gawked, noticing Shade's hand reaching for the now purple glowing sun on his blade crescent. "Oh, no… Shade! Please! No no no no no! I don't want you to turn into…_that!_"

"Hee hee hee…" Shade touched the glowing sun, which brightened and then got enveloped in darkness. His entire body was enveloped by the darkness, and he was soon transformed into his hideous form that Chopper couldn't bear to look at from before.

It was like revisiting a nightmare. Except this time, there was no one to help him.

_**"****How do you feel, Choppy?" **_Shade asked. _**"D…o…y…o…u…f…e…e…l…g…o…o…d…?"**_

"No! Stop!" Chopper cried, hurling a light ball at Shade and making him screech. He didn't even want to see this atrocity either. The only reason why he had an easier time before was because his friends were there to back him up. But to fight him without friends like this? He didn't want to think too far.

Shade made the first move and stretched his tentacle in order to grab Chopper. The loud snapping sound of his tentacle near Chopper's foot made him nearly yelp and jump. But when Shade tried grabbing him again, Chopper sliced it with his Spectral Sword.

_**"****Hee hee hee… So…foolish…" **_Shade grinned, his tentacle regenerating in just a second, making Chopper shake a bit.

Shade charged at Chopper and attempted to step on him with his large foot, but Chopper got out of the way in time and swung his Spectral Sword at the eye in Shade's chest. He let out a small squeal before Chopper struck him again. This time, his squeal got even louder.

But Chopper tried to hold his own and prevent himself from possible vomiting or crying out in fear. That's just what Shade wanted, right?

Another thing he had to worry about was the crab-like claw that was snapping at him when it got close. It even got sliced off by Chopper, but like the tentacle, it only regenerated.

_**"****Hee hee hee! Tearing your limbs will now be…so…much…e…a…s…i…e…r…" **_Shade cackled.

Chopper winced when the…whatever he was now began to spit acid out of his mouth. Getting close to it was way too risky for him, so he went into 3-D where he was safe. He was a bit surprised to know he was a bit 3-Dish in this form. It wasn't something he paid much attention to the previous fight. Then again, it was probably because he was too busy fighting him.

The arm with the long finger tried to attack Chopper by extending its finger, but that too got sliced off and easily regenerated.

"_I don't think slicing pieces of him off are going to work," _Chopper thought, his eyes widened at the monster. _"They're just going to come back!"_

_**"****Oh, Chopper…" **_Shade nearly sang, making his arm go through the floor and grab Chopper's foot when it rose near him.

_**"WAAAAAH!**_" Chopper shrieked, trying to pull his arm off his foot. "Wh-What are you d-doing to me?!"

_**"****The fun is just…st…a…rt…i…ng…" **_

Shade opened his mouth again and got ready to vomit more acid, making Chopper gape. However, an idea suddenly struck his mind.

After conjuring up a light ball, he hurled it into Shade's mouth, who happened to swallow it whole. The result was Shade coughing in pain and forcing himself to release Chopper, who sighed in relief. Light also happened to be enveloping his mouth, but from what Chopper could hear, he was in pain.

Deciding not to waste time, Chopper ran toward the hideous being and spun his body like a drill once he jumped. He managed to stab the eye in his chest and leave him even more vulnerable to pain, so he started to swing his Spectral Sword full light power at Shade, who let out more squeals.

_**"****URK…the light…p…a…i…n…"**_

Chopper threw another light ball at him, which helped the light enveloping his mouth. But that didn't stop Shade from grabbing Chopper with his tentacle and throwing him onto the ground. But thankfully it wasn't too much of a big deal for Chopper when he got back up.

"_Well, I've definitely weakened him a bit," _Chopper thought. _"I really want to get him out of that form, though…"_

He took out the Star Rod and looked at it for a moment. Using that to fight Shade wouldn't be a bad idea, but he wanted to save it for something more important. His Spectral Sword was already helping him enough anyway.

"Maybe I might use it once…" Chopper decided before looking back up at Shade. He gave the Star Rod a swing, and a yellow star fired at the abomination, causing Shade to squeal loudly from the light.

_**"****AIIIYEEEEEEEEEE!" **_

Having enough of this, Shade reverted back into his normal form and was kneeling on the ground in pain. While he coughed, small light particles began to come out of his mouth. Eventually he got up and cast off his creepy grin.

"It's not over yet…" Shade snickered. "N…o…t…o…v…e…r…"

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped, noticing Shade's right hand turn into a long whip that hit Chopper in the face and left a mark. When his hand turned back to normal, the alien skipped over to the Star Warrior and swung his sword in his face, leaving another burn, but much more severe.

"Hee hee hee!"

Chopper winced as he rubbed his burnt cheek, but he had no time to cry over it, because Shade was about to swing again. He brought his Spectral Sword in front of him and parried the attack.

"Shade! Really! What has gotten into you?!" Chopper cried. "Why do you act like this?!"

"Leaving me like this was the wrong choice," Shade hissed. "You've…ruined…me… You…left me…to this… N…o…w…I…w…i…l…l…r…u…i…n…_**y…o…u…!**_"

"What do you mean by ruining you?! Dimentio was responsible for bringing you here! Blame him!"

Shade ignored him and let his tongue hang out before pushing him back. He fired dark magic from his wand, hoping to hit Chopper, but the projectiles were easily blocked and thrown back at him. Even still, he was left unfazed.

"The secrets are what ruined me… Choppy…don't you realize…reading someone's…secrets is a bad…idea?"

Chopper was not sure what to say at this moment. All he could hear was Shade's creepy giggling while he raised his sword and summoned comets to fall from the sky. Chopper ran from the comets, and as soon as he was close enough, he dove at Shade with his Spectral Sword and knocked him to the floor.

"Is that all you've got against me?" Chopper asked, striking Shade while he was on the floor.

Shade got up and wiped the small burn left on his face. "Now that I think about it…"

He turned to one of the statues and used his magic to lift it off the ground. Shade tried smashing the statue onto Chopper's head, but his Spectral Sword did the job for him by slicing it in half.

"That's not going to work," Chopper stated. "Think of something better."

Shade gave him a smirk and used his magic to recover 150 HP. "Is that better?"

"H-Hey! That's not fair! You shouldn't be allowed to heal yourself!"

Shade ignored him and swung his sword so another wave of fire could be flown at Chopper. He tried countering it with a Spectral Sword Beam, but the wave of fire seemed to go through it and scorch Chopper. On the other hand, Shade was hit by the attack too.

But because he was a bit low on HP, he drank a Star Shroom Shake to help recover some of his lost health. Using a Max Shroom Shake was a bit too risky at this point. It was better saved for something else.

Shade slowly rubbed his head from the pain he received before his eyes flashed at Chopper, who looked at him in return. At the same time, dark lightning also flashed in the background, and a small tremor occurred.

"I don't know how much time is left…" Chopper trailed. "Listen, Shade… Moving on is a necessity. You need to understand the circumstances here."

"I don't need to," Shade retorted. "I'm already happy! Happy enough to rip you apart, vomit on you, and squeal!"

_"He doesn't care… If only he did…"_

Shade grinned at Chopper as he stabbed the ground with his sword, causing him to be enveloped in a purple, fiery tornado. The statues of him were sucked in and destroyed in the process, and even the barriers started to shake a bit. Chopper, however, was started to get sucked into the deadly tornado, and even running was difficult.

While he ran, he fired blue lasers made of water energy at the tornado, but that didn't seem to be doing too much.

"Chopper…" Shade moaned. "T…h…e…r…e…i…s…n…o…e…s…c…a…p…e…"

The tornado only got bigger, and it got closer to Chopper as well. More lasers were being shot, but they continued to do nothing. Shade's glowing eyes and face could be seen through the tornado, and from the look of him, Chopper had a feeling he was probably satisfied.

Looking at his Star Rod again, he let out a sigh and swung another star projectile and let it fly at the tornado. _"I was hoping to only use the Star Rod once against Shade, but it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon…"_

The star hit Shade, which stopped his attack and made the purple tornado fade away. This also left him off guard, which helped Chopper fire a Spectral Sword Beam and then a charged swing that did much more damage than a normal swing. What was also nice was that Shade was starting to become low on HP.

"Hee hee… Don't get so happy yet." Shade knocked Chopper back with a kick and used his magic to recover 150 HP. "And I've also got something else in store!"

Chopper gawked as Shade sliced through the ground and let darkness fire out. Using his wand, he fired the darkness in Chopper's direction, who was trapped and also felt himself wincing in pain as well.

"Ack! What is this?!"

"A present…from…m…e…" Shade grinned twirling his wand and letting the darkness recede so he could finish the job. "Seeing you suffer… It makes me…h…a…p…p…y…"

Chopper would have said something about how Shade was speaking, but he didn't want to have to repeat himself again. Instead, he created a light ball and swung his Spectral Sword like a bat to send it flying at Shade, who winced from the hit, but was able to fire his magic repeatedly.

As for Chopper, he only spun his laser sword in order to deflect Shade's magic.

"Stop blocking my magic!" Shade whined. "I just want to _**watch you suffer**_ so then I…can…k…i…l…l…y…o…u..."

Having enough of his speaking, Chopper jumped on Shade's head and, while in the air, threw his Spectral Sword at him.

"I honestly don't want to repeat what I told you before…" Chopper groaned. "And if you continue to do that, it's probably going to make me less afraid."

In response, Shade grabbed Chopper's Spectral Sword and threw it back at him. It only stabbed the ground, but Chopper was able to retrieve it and see Shade twisting his head again.

_"…OK! I think I take back what I said before!"_

Shade snickered as he transformed one of his hands into a whip and tried smacking Chopper. Slicing the whip was no option, so Chopper jumped on top of it and used it to approach Shade and deliver a light kick to his face. That was more than enough to knock him on the floor.

Chopper was at a safe distance as he looked down at Shade. "So you must've had enough, right?"

"Hee hee…" Shade giggled, slowing raising his body to face Chopper. "N…o…t…e…v…e…n…c…l…o…s…e…"

He used his wings to fly in the air and even tried to dive toward Chopper with his sword in front. Chopper was struck at least once and knocked back before Shade decided to land on the floor and fire three Comet Sword Beams. Not even Chopper could handle all three of them.

But he wasn't finished there. He touched the sun on his head and let it envelop into darkness. Chopper was expecting him to transform into that hideous abomination, but instead, Shade's right arm was transformed into a dark, monstrous hand that created a wave of energy shaped like said hand to grab Chopper.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gaped before feeling himself get thrown to the ground. When Shade released him, he threw his hand, only this time, it delivered a punch to Chopper's face. "What is that?!"

"Just something I can do," Shade grinned, letting the wave fade away before Chopper could run toward him. He swung his Spectral Sword, but Shade's dark hand managed to block it. "See? Your stupid blade is useless! Now we can have fun once and for all…"

Chopper frowned and delivered a light punch, which made Shade screech and turn his hand back to normal. "I guess not."

Shade growled at Chopper and tried to bite at him, but Chopper swung his Spectral Sword and left another burn on Shade's cheek. But what Chopper could see, Shade was getting angrier at this rate.

"Grrrgh… I was hoping for fun, but still you decide to hurt me!" Shade yelled. "You're sincerely asking for me to _**kill**_ you…"

"Face it, Shade. You're getting weak. I can tell."

"Hee hee… But so are you…"

"That's not going to stop me from trying to defeat you, though."

Shade gripped his sword and wand tightly and then touched the sun above his head. "Then… You leave me with no other choice. You…will…meet…your…_**e…n…d…!**_"

He slowly started to spin his body and arms around, and when he increased, Chopper noticed purple fire and dark magic circle around his body. Not only that, but darkness started to envelop him as well.

"Oh, no… This isn't good." Chopper gulped. "If he finishes that attack, then chances are I might not be standing…"

Ignoring Shade for a bit, Chopper looked at his Star Rod and Spectral Sword. "Hmmmmm… What if I combine some of the power from the Star Rod and Spectral Sword? Maybe I can use something like…the Spectral Star Beam?"

He decided to act quick and added some of the power from the Star Rod to his Spectral Sword. It was now glowing yellow as he started to prepare his attack. Looking back at Shade, he noticed the darkness and purple fire grow bigger. It was almost started to suck Chopper in too.

"H…e…e…h…e…e…" Shade moaned. "Y…o…u…w…i…l…l…n…o…t…l…i…v…e…t…o…s…e…e…a…l…l…w…o…r …l…d…s'…d…e…m…i…s…e…"

Chopper could tell Shade's voice was getting weaker with all the power he was using up in his single attack. But he didn't care, because his attack was prepared, and he had to make the final blow.

"Well, I'm sure I might live to see your end," Chopper stated as he raised his Spectral Sword. "_**Spectral Star Beam!**_"

He swung his Spectral Sword, and a wave of spectral energy combined with the Star Rod's power was fired in Shade's direction. It pierced through the large amount of darkness conjured up, which began to fade away as Shade let out an ear-piercing squeal.

"Ugh… That was unbearable…" Chopper moaned, covering his antennas from the loud squeal. He took a glimpse of Shade, who was now lying on the ground and approached the defeated alien child.

However, the big difference was that his eyes were black once again.

"Chopper…" Shade wheezed. "Con… Congratulations… I never thought to see this day…"

"What? What do you mean?"

"I never would have thought you'd be the one to finally finish me off… Even as my enemy, I never guessed the powers of the Star Rod would be in your hands. If only you didn't get a hold of that Star Rod… Stupid sages…"

"Wait… How do you know about the Star Rod?"

"It carries the power that a parasite such as myself can't stand. I knew of its existence in Sagein Galaxy, but I didn't want Luvbi to be taken to that world like how Squirps and Ninbot were. By keeping her away, restoring the Star Rod's power would be inevitable."

"But Luvbi was taken to Sagein Galaxy," Chopper corrected.

"Yes, she was taken there, but only to the Comet of Darkness. She couldn't use her sage powers to restore the Star Rod then. That's one of the few reasons why I kidnapped her parents and sent her that letter. It would help keep you and her away from that stupid Star Rod."

"But I ended up getting its power restored, so it ended up backfiring on you."

"Ungh… Yes, it did." Shade let out a cough, realizing that he was getting weaker. "Chopper, before you go, Drakonari here has a little something to say to you…"

Chopper blinked for a moment, looking confused. "What do you want?"

"I want…" Before Shade could continue, his eyes flashed purple for a moment, and he raised his body and let out a hiss at Chopper, who jumped back when he saw him try to grab him. However, he stopped and slowly fell down again, but this time, completely motionless.

Chopper was left panting as Shade's body was slowly fading away from existence. He was actually expecting something nice to come out of him, but it looked like he was crazy until the very end. A bitter beginning and a bitter ending…

He stood silent for a moment before he decided to take off. With the barriers finally gone, it was time for him to reach his destination. There was no one else in his way except for the True Chaos Heart now.

But while he ran, many voices were plaguing his mind, especially the voices of the people he had met through this journey.

_"I am Tipral. I am the chosen executioner of the Dark Prognosticus, the one who has returned to his own dimension…to get revenge!"_

_"My name is Tippi… I am what is known as a Pixl… A sort of fairy…"_

_"Pale green, two antennas, white gloves… And green shoes! Tippi, you have really outdone yourself…"_

_"What a costume you've dressed yourself into! You look like you leaped out of the hidden pages of the Light Prognosticus!"_

_"O'Chunks is me name! An' I'm no common thug, little lass. I thug fer the darkest o' darks, Tipral hisself! It's time that yeh've been taught a lesson fer messin' with 'im!"_

_"It's so pleasant to meet you! …And your antennas! I am Tipral's master of dimensions, the pleaser of crowds… I am…Dimentio! Remember the name well…"_

_"Poyo! (What? You expect me to stay here and do nothing while all worlds get destroyed? I can't do that! Besides, it's not a good idea to leave Chopper to go off on his own! He wouldn't have many people to talk to!)"_

_"Now, let's get down to the chase! Tell me where we are NOW! And where are my men? I need them to help me!"_

_"Well, hi there! Big welcome! Welcome to Merlee's Mansion!"_

_"You ready? Here goes! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE! TWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUR! SEVENTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN! THREE-POINT-ONE-FOOOUR! ONE MARZIIIIIIIIIILION!"_

_"Fine job on that Mimi, yes! The Pure Heart's safe, evil's repressed."_

_"Whoa now, you want to know where Fort Francis is? I mean, come on, look, nobody likes having their butterfly kidnapped by a geek, but it's dangerous! You might possible get…geekified."_

_"If we're going to stop Tipral, then we have to work together! C'mon, Chopper! I bet it'll be fun!"_

_"I may have been kept in prison for many months, but I certainly haven't forgotten my moves that I once used to fight you!"_

_"That was the only known copy of the Nerr2Babe patch, and now it's gone forever!"_

_"You're the ones looking for the Pure Heart, squirple? Hm! Cuter than I thought!"_

_"This place may seem like Flipside, but do not be mistaken! You WERE in Flipside, but then you flip-flopped sides… Friends, you are in Flopside!"_

_"Yeah, ever since that whole battle at that strange world, I was thrown somewhere in his dark castle. Though I was able to find my way through that castle… I got caught and was sent here."_

_"**CRAGLEY HO!** 'Into the Palace of Eternal Death! A Flint Cragley Cragtrotting Adventure!'"_

_"Hee hee… But avert thine eyes whilst we climb, lest thou succumbeth to my cuteness!"_

_"Hee hee hee! So I finally get to meet THE Chopper! I've always thought you were one to get attention from many people! Allow me to introduce myself!"_

_"So you're the new so-called 'hero' of the Light Prognosticus! Count Bleck is sickened for what you've done to my poor, poor Timpani!"_

_Mario: Oh, yes!_

_"You all have come. As I expected. Now it is time. Now we will fight! Then you will all lose! And you will cry!"_

_"I have chortles! Of course Fawful will lay the destruction on you all! That is my main goal, after all! And as soon as I lay the fury upon you all, I will have the taking of the Pure Heart and I will have the destroying!"_

_"My name is Ninbot. Fear not, people. I am not your enemy. You have stepped into a world where non-robots and non-machinery are hated beyond belief."_

_"All right, then a battle we'll have! Have at you!"_

_"I am one of Tipral's minions. A more…honorable one. I am known as Knightmare."_

_"I can't believe you left me back at the winter world… I thought I would never find you guys…"_

_"The SunMoonFlower! It's half sun, half moon and half flower! It's said that this dangerous beast lurks around Day and Night Land! I'm super sunious!"_

_"So… Are you guys coming? We need to search for a Pure Heart. You might need my help for this."_

_"It was meant to be such a secret that those who discovered it were forced to live here to prevent them from telling others about it. Yes, it is indeed quite depressing for some people…"_

_"Greetings, heroes! My name is Ortorain. I expected your arrival…"_

_"Since you two are a waste of time, I shall end your games. So, Tipral… Shall we get started?"_

_"As much as I hate you, I will let you off on a head start. That way, maybe there's a chance you will reach the True Chaos Heart first and be able to destroy it. But that honestly depends. Going through the rest of this darkness on your own is very difficult."_

"I've met so many friends and enemies along the way…" Chopper trailed, the voices in his head fading away. "But now most of them are all gone…"

The feeling of betrayal from Tipral still haunted him. He couldn't believe that he was actually helping one of his greatest enemies this whole time. But then he remembered that he still had a chance to redeem himself, because he was so close to the center of The Void.

"I wish my friends were here for this… It feels much more complete to destroy the True Chaos Heart with them."

He caught glimpse of a large door up ahead at the end of the pathway. It was black with the center embedded with a depiction of the Chaos Heart, just like the trail on the floor. Chopper was also approaching a yellow ? block, which stopped to hit. A glowing yellow Mushroom popped out and landed on the floor. He ate it to fully recover his HP.

"That's probably the only Max Shroom I'm ever going to see…" Chopper trailed as he approached the Save Block near the door. Saving his game was an important thing too, especially since this was the end.

With everything finished up, Chopper slowly approached the large door in front of him.

"OK, Chopper… You can do this. There's only one more obstacle in the way… Destroying it is the only thing I have to do, and then all worlds will be saved."

He took a deep breath as he reached for the knob. "All right… Here it goes."

Chopper kept a bold look and pushed the door open.

* * *

**That was the longest chapter I've ever written in a while. However, it'll probably be the last time I ever have to write something this long. And that means the remaining chapters here will not be incredibly long for those who don't like the length of these.**

**At first with the thoughts near the end, I was planning on putting the voices of other like Yerfeys, the Pixls and other minor characters, but I thought it would have dragged on for WAY too long, so I decided to leave it like this. And for Shade... Well, he's a creepy thing or whatever he is.**

**Also, Chapter 20-5 isn't completely over yet. The finale is technically a part of this chapter, except I'm separating the finale so it's much easier for readers to read through. Plus, I like the idea of separating the finale from this.**

**There's not much else I can say here. Next time, we will be getting to zee final boss.**


	125. One Jester to Rule Them All

Beyond the door, Chopper was amazed at what he saw. The center of The Void was much larger than what he thought it would be. It was much larger than the large room in Castle Tipral and Tipral's Palace. The only exception was that there were no platforms in sight. The center of this area also contained a large core. In the core was darkness, but a few worlds could be seen through. The ground itself was black with a few purple glows inside. The sky itself was dark purple and rather misty from the darkness emitted from The Void's core.

"This place is massive…" Chopper gaped, taking a look at the core. The center was shaped like a black heart, while the outer regions were mostly purple and gray. It didn't look like it was attached to anything either.

When he walked underneath the core, he noticed something rippling through the core. A large, black heart appeared to float down in front of Chopper. The air was rippling around it, and black mist surrounded it too. He also couldn't help but shiver because of the cold air it was giving out.

"So this is the True Chaos Heart…" Chopper trailed as he stared at the heart. "I was expecting it to be a bit different. This is kind of a disappointment…"

He lowered his head for a moment to charge up light power in his hands, and when he looked up, he gave it a glare.

"All right, Chaos Heart! I've come this whole way to do away with you, and now I can finally do that! It's time to finally fix the mistake my friends and I have caused!"

He prepared to deliver a punch to the True Chaos Heart, but he also sensed something else. The sound of magic could be heard, and it was getting louder any second.

A magic projectile landed in between him and the True Chaos Heart, slightly knocking him back.

"Oh, you silly little boy…" another voice cackled. "Did you really think you would be able to get rid of the True Chaos Heart this easily? Oh, you are so foolish!"

Dimentio arrived and floated above the True Chaos Heart. "You've really done a great job making it this whole way, Chopper. I must commend you for your efforts!"

"Wait, Dimentio?!" Chopper gaped. "I thought you were…"

"Ah ha ha ha. Yes yes, I'm very much alive, Chopper. Unfortunately for Tipral, he does not have true experience with that sort of move he tried to pull off… But enough about him. This is _my_ moment!"

"_Your_ moment? I wouldn't let you try to take that heart, you know…"

"Oh, so naïve… You hardly understand the True Chaos Heart's power." Dimentio sighed. "Using light power isn't going to destroy the True Chaos Heart. It's already absorbed so much power, which is exactly what I wanted!"

"Yeah yeah, you want power. I don't care about that." Chopper groaned. "Don't you villains ever think of something original?"

"Letting myself lose to you before is counted as original? Tsk tsk tsk… If I hadn't let myself lose when acquiring the Chaos Heart, my plans wouldn't have succeeded! And I have you to thank for that!"

"Wait… Why?"

"Well, for a couple of reasons. One, defeating me while I was fused with Tipral allowed me to at least gain his minions' trust when they believed I forgot all about that incident (though they probably may have been a bit suspicious). Second, defeating me again led me to become a shadowy mist, which helped me gain the powers of Tipral's minions. And third, you helped clear the way of the enemies that were in the way. I never knew you had such power with that Spectral Sword of yours. The way you sliced your way through enemies... It was like a ninja cutting his bread up for a delicious breakfast."

Chopper gave him a glare as he decided to continue. "There was no way I wanted you to die, so when I saw you plunge against that phantom, I decided to help you out!"

"You… You helped me?"

"Of course! I wanted to repay you for what you and your friends have done for me! Helping me acquire the Chaos Heart twice and letting me become more powerful was great for me! Of course, leaving you all to die was not a good idea when The Void was destroying your world, so I used some of my power to help out! Wasn't that just nice?"

"It would have been…if you weren't doing it for evil purposes," Chopper retorted. "Wait, hold on a minute! If you're still here, then where did Tipral go?"

"Ah yes, Tipral…" Dimentio trailed. "He was unfortunate enough to not make it here. We won't be seeing him anytime soon! How funny! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

"Look, if you're going to just make jokes, then you're wasting my time. I have a job to finish!"

"But why finish something when you can start something greater?"

Chopper blinked for a moment while looking confused. "…What are you saying?"

"You see, ever since I watched you fight against the many obstacles in your way, I've grown to appreciate your skill! You _and_ your friends! But sadly, it seems your dear friends are all gone… Such a shame... It would've been great if they were here for you. But at the same time, it seems better for me."

"Better?! Don't try talking about my friends in a bad way!" Chopper growled, ready to strike Dimentio at any moment.

Dimentio ignored Chopper and continued on. "Considering that you're the only one standing at this point, I'd like to offer you a little something!"

The jester disappeared and teleported behind Chopper. He placed his hand on his arm and smirked. "You see, as a magician, I am capable of performing glorious magic tricks to please my audience. I can also grant a person such as you every wish you desire. With just a wave of my hand, I can make it appear!"

He waved his hand, and in front of Chopper was a large buffet.

"A… A buffet!" Chopper gaped.

Dimentio smirked and waved his hand at the buffet to make it disappear. "I can reward you with many great opportunities! You want a world that you desire the most? I can grant you it! Power? I'll give you it like a child begging for a video game!"

"Hold on, what are you getting at?"

Dimentio teleported back to the True Chaos Heart, giving him a demented smile. "I can offer you as much as you want! …But in return, you must join me and fight by my side! Besides, everything you love and care about will be all gone, so joining me is the only logical choice! We can rebuild those worlds in our order, and with both of us working together, we'll be unstoppable!"

"Join you…?" Chopper trailed, pondering over the decision.

"I can also help bring your friends back too if you wish…"

The ten year old continued to ponder over these thoughts while Dimentio continued to give him that demented look. Eventually he decided, but the look on his face wasn't what Dimentio expected.

"Absolutely not!" Chopper exclaimed. "Why would I join someone as evil as you?! You've been manipulating us from the very start, and all you've done is cause even more harm to us! And even if I did join you, I'm pretty sure you're just going to betray me just like you betrayed Tipral! And I'm not even sure you would give me those kinds of wishes!"

Dimentio gave him a look of disappointment. "Hmmmm… So you spit upon my offer? Very well then… I don't necessarily need you to rule all worlds. I was just giving you a little offering… It looks like your usefulness has been…used up, so it appears I must finally put an end to you by ending your game."

Chopper got in a fighting stance and fired a light ball at Dimentio, but he only swatted it aside, making him gape.

"Now now, Chopper… I haven't even got started yet! I never told you how I'd end your game!" Dimentio smirked and pulled out the Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter, which was entirely surrounded in a dark mist unlike before. "With the Dark Star Scepter, the Dark Prognosticus and the True Chaos Heart's power combined, I'll be even more powerful than Dimentral and Dimentio Doom _combined!_ As for the host… I can easily use myself for this kind of concoction I'll be creating!"

"Not on my watch!" Chopper cried, attempting to jump on him, but Dimentio created a barrier that he bumped into. "Ack! No! Don't even try it!"

"Don't be so hasty, Chopper! This is my part!" Dimentio lifted the True Chaos Heart above him and grinned. "Ladies and gentlemen… It's time that you all witnessed the greatest magic show your eyes will catch upon like a curious monkey! It's time you witnessed…The Ultimate Show! _**AH HA HA HA HA!**_"

Dimentio threw the True Chaos Heart into the air, which was sucked into a dark void, along with the Dark Prognosticus and the Dark Star Scepter. He eventually flew into the darkness himself, and what Chopper could feel was an intense, violent tremor that nearly made him fell over.

"Wh-What… What's he doing?!" Chopper cried, losing his balance completely.

After a dark flash, square-shaped platforms were created that had purple eyes and a mouth resembling Dimentio. The platforms were black with a purple trim, and a few of them had faces ranging from happy, angry and sad. But what also disturbed Chopper was the eyes and mouth that were now in the sky. He could hear a booming cackling from the sky that sounded like a giant's voice echoing through a room.

"This… This is just like that dream I had!" Chopper realized, gaping at the situation. "No, not a dream… A nightmare! A nightmare that's come true!"

Dimentio himself was a bit different from before. His lavender side of his mask was now gray, and the yellow eye on the black side of the mask was purple. Dimentio's jester hat was now a mixture of dark purple and black, with the square-shaped tips on his hat being black as well. His poncho had the same design as his hat, except this time, he wore a black cape. When he began to float down, a dark mist was left behind.

"Now the True Chaos Heart is mine! With these new powers in my disposal, every single world will now be in my control! I will finally become the king of all worlds, while everyone else shall bow down to me like obsessed worshippers! I have also become unlike anything before! You may call me **Chaos Dimentio**!"

"You didn't really change that much with the exception of the cape…" Chopper trailed, reaching out for something. "But I've got some bad news for you, Dimentio! There's one little problem to your plan!"

Chopper took out the Star Rod and fired a star at Chaos Dimentio. …Except it didn't appear to make him flinch.

"Ah ha ha ha… What was that problem now?" Chaos Dimentio smirked.

"Wait… Huh?!" Chopper fired more stars at Chaos Dimentio, but they continued to do nothing to him. The jester decided to let out a yawn while Chopper continued shooting stars at him. "This isn't right! My attacks aren't working!"

"Now it's time to show you what I can pull off," Chaos Dimentio raised his finger and then threw it down at Chopper's direction. His magic was now a mixture of black and purple, and it let off an explosion about contact with the floor. The radius of the explosion even knocked Chopper away a little.

Chopper even jumped on one of the platforms and landed on Chaos Dimentio's head, but just like before, it didn't even leave a mark. That's when Chaos Dimentio swatted him away and snapped his finger, which summoned a barrage of Rubees to fire down at him. Chopper tried blocking them with the Star Rod, but he couldn't block them all and ended up getting pelted by many of them.

Bruises were left all over his face from the outcome, but it didn't stop him from shooting more stars from his Star Rod at Chaos Dimentio. All he heard from the jester was his psychotic cackling as they bounced off him.

"Ah ha ha ha. And here I thought the hero of the prophecy would be a match for me!" Chaos Dimentio grinned dementedly.

To make matters worse, one of the platform's expressions changed to an angry one as it shot out a black square-shaped fireball from its mouth, which hit Chopper upon contact. Chaos Dimentio even threw his fist in Chopper's direction, which created a dark wave shaped like his fist to punch Chopper and knock him off the platform. It seemed kind of similar to what Shade was able to pull off.

Chopper was left dazed, but he still tried to hit Chaos Dimentio when he teleported in front of him. Chaos Dimentio easily grabbed his fist and threw him backward, now having the strength of O'Chunks on his side.

"I don't understand…" Chopper moaned. "The Star Rod is supposed to stand up to this kind of power when restored! Why isn't it doing anything?!"

"Looks like a certain prophecy was wrong," Chaos Dimentio grinned. "I'm too powerful for the Star Rod and you! Your attacks are like little pebbles being pelted at an armored fighter! Because of the True Chaos Heart, I am invincible! There is nothing that you can do to stop me!"

"Ungh… I'm not going to let that stop me, thought." Chopper growled, kicking Chaos Dimentio with his light power. Of course, it hardly did anything, so Chaos Dimentio pushed Chopper aside and flew over to The Void's core.

"For now, it is time for every world to come into my hands… I shall create something that suits me best, and I will make sure everyone will bow down to me! Those who refuse will fall like a bee that had died from stinging a bird!"

With a wave of his hand, Chaos Dimentio began to transform every single world into what he imagined. Chopper even lowered his guard to see what he was doing to all worlds.

The first thing he could see through the core was Merlon, Nolrem and Olnerm in Rainbowside. They were looking up at the sky worriedly, but the sky and them flashed brightly, and they were soon wearing a mask and outfit resembling Dimentio. This continued in many other worlds, such as Lineland, the Bitlands, Sweet Kingdom, The Peaceness and Cradian City.

"No… You're…_jesterizing_ the whole universe?!"

"Isn't it just spectacular?" Chaos Dimentio cheered. "Just think about it! A universe where everyone resembles me, while I am their king! It's just what I've been dreaming before I finally achieved the True Chaos Heart! And you can only stand there like a stunned sloth!"

The jester smirked as every single world began to turn to his image. "My plan is almost complete! The only thing that now stands in my way is you, Chopper…"

Chaos Dimentio flew down to Chopper and raised his arms. "I'm sorry, my green friend, but since you refused my offer, I have no choice but to put an end to your pathetic misery. It is for the better anyway. You can finally go back to your friends!"

Chopper felt himself getting trapped in an invisible box, making him lower his head. "I guess it's all over, then… I've come all this way to stop the True Chaos Heart, but Dimentio ends up stealing it again and winning… I don't know how I can win this…"

_"Wait! Chopper! Don't give up yet! There is still hope!"_

"Huh?" Chopper lifted his head and looked around him. Chaos Dimentio paused for a moment and looked around the area too. "Whose voice was that?"

_"Chopper, it is Blumiere," _the voice answered. _"I can finally feel your presence in The Void. I can also feel another's."_

"Why, count! I would have never expected to hear your voice!" Chaos Dimentio grinned. "But, I have to cut this short. I have a game to end here!"

"_You're not going to be ending anyone's game, Dimentio," _Blumiere stated. _"There's one flaw to your plan."_

"Hmmmm? What could you possibly…" Chaos Dimentio looked down at Chopper and noticed a bright flash emitted near the boy. He was now shimmering with light, which forced Chaos Dimentio to snap his finger and let the box explode from the inside, taking Chopper in the process.

However, he looked just fine after the explosion.

"Wh-What?! What is this?!" the jester gaped, continuing to snap his finger. The twenty Pure Hearts made their appearance and surrounded the box Chopper was in and shattered it completely. Not only that, but it helped heal the wounds left on Chopper and granted greater power to the Star Rod.

"I… I feel like I've recovered my strength!" Chopper gaped, looking at the glowing Star Rod. "But how did I…"

_"You can thank me later, Chopper," _Blumiere said. _"But now, you must put an end to this! Defeat Dimentio once and for all!"_

Chopper nodded and turned to Chaos Dimentio with a smirk. "You're going down, Dimentio!"

Instead of being shocked, Chaos Dimentio grinned. "Ah ha ha ha. Then we shall fight then. Our final battle will be like two samurais dueling for sushi!"

Chopper leapt onto the platform above him and watched Chaos Dimentio hurl magic in his direction. With the Star Rod, he was able to deflect the attack with ease and send it flying at Chaos Dimentio, who flew out of the way just in time, but failed to see a glowing yellow star flying his way.

"Urgh-gah?!" Chaos Dimentio gaped, feeling immense pain from the attack. "So… I'm not invincible to your attacks anymore…"

"Looks like it," Chopper smirked, jumping on Chaos Dimentio's head and hitting him with a light ball. "Now we're even!"

"Ah ha ha ha… Yes… Even." Chaos Dimentio teleported out of Chopper's reach and reappeared above The Void's core. While Chopper jumped a few platforms up to him, he could hear Blumiere's voice informing him something.

_"That is Chaos Dimentio, a blend of Dimentio, the Dark Prognosticus, the Dark Star Scepter and the True Chaos Heart. With all of that dark power, Dimentio has finally gained the power he needs to rule all worlds. Max HP is 1,000. Attack is 30. Defense is 18. Chaos Dimentio is capable of using attacks ranging from O'Chunks, Mimi, Fawful, Nastasia, Mr. L and Dark with his own little twist. He is capable of using the dark powers of the True Chaos Heart and the Dark Star Scepter as well. Make sure to be fast when he tries to make his move. The platforms will help you reach Chaos Dimentio, but at the same time, they will hurt you. This is truly the final battle, Chopper… Every single world is depending on you now."_

Chopper slowly nodded with a determined look as he began to fire stars at Chaos Dimentio. He dodged two, but three ended up striking him and making him wince, but not enough to make him stand down. This was just the beginning of the fight anyway!

When Chopper jumped toward Chaos Dimentio, a blot of dark magic was fired from the dark jester, knocking Chopper onto a lower platform. Now that he was far from his reach, Chaos Dimentio summoned a Rubee barrier to circle him. They were black Rubees with a different kind of effect.

"I wouldn't try to get close if I were you," Chaos Dimentio warned as Chopper jumped up to him again. "Touch me, and you're probably going to get hurt by these Rubees!"

"Then I have a simple solution," Chopper fired a small, light beam from the Star Rod and destroyed the black Rubees and also hurt Chaos Dimentio in the process. He then hit his face with the rod and left a bit of a mark. "There's one thing that's bugging me about you… Is that a mask or really your face?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Well… Ummm…"

"Very well, I guess I have no other choice…" Chaos Dimentio placed his hand on his face…or mask…or whatever it was, but he was hiding a smirk, which Chopper didn't notice. He suddenly felt himself get hit by a spark of magic from behind, and it also made him fall off the platform and onto the ground.

"Ah ha ha ha! So easy to distract! Heroes don't usually leave themselves distracted, Chopper!"

Chopper grunted quietly while he quickly got up. Hearing Chaos Dimentio scoff at him like that was certainly not making him happy, so he jumped up to him and delivered a light kick to his face while he cackled.

"Oof! Hmmm… Well, I guess I shouldn't have been so distracted." Chaos Dimentio said while teleporting away from Chopper. When he reappeared, he raised a finger and conjured up a magic projectile – except when he threw it, it split into five sparks. And to make sure Chopper would get hit by at least one, he teleported behind him and grabbed a hold of his feet.

"What the…"

Chaos Dimentio grinned as he began to swing Chopper around while flying around the area. He watched where the sparks flew and threw Chopper at each of them. After that, he grabbed his foot and hung him over the ground.

"Oh, Chopper, you're just as light as a starving baby who hadn't eaten in weeks!" Chaos Dimentio said in a demented manner. "You know there's a problem with heroes being light, right?"

Chopper responded by hitting him with the Star Rod, forcing him to release him and cause him to fly away. "Ugh… Choosing to reply with force… That's something I'd expect more from Tipral."

"You making fun of me made me do that," Chopper retorted, quickly getting up. He swung at Chaos Dimentio again, but the attack was blocked by the jester's own disembodied hands. "Huh?!"

Chaos Dimentio gave him a smirk before using his free hand to hit him with a spark of magic. This sent Chopper tumbling back, which the jester couldn't help but laugh at. He decided to fly over to Chopper and trap him in another box, but Chopper got up already and swung the Star Rod at him.

After teleporting away, Chaos Dimentio clapped his hands together and made the ground around Chopper shake violently. This helped keep Chopper off balance and allowed the platforms to shoot fireballs at him. He only managed to deflect one at Chaos Dimentio, but the rest were able to hit him when he fell over.

Chopper slowly got up, but he felt his face being grabbed and soon lifted off the ground. Chaos Dimentio smirked and began to throw him over to The Void's core, where he crashed straight into.

"You may be strong enough to hurt me, but I still have the power to defeat you!" Chaos Dimentio cackled, throwing three sparks of magic at Chopper while he was still stuck to the core.

When Chopper finally got his face off the core, he noticed the sparks of magic flying in his way and jumped on top of the core to dodge them. The sparks hit The Void's core, barely leaving a scratch. In the meantime, Chopper couldn't help but watch more worlds become jesterized by Dimentio's power. Seeing something like this was incredibly daunting to him.

Just imagine what would've happened to his world if it were still around...

Chaos Dimentio raised his hands and tried to surround Chopper in a box, but to his dismay, he jumped and landed on the box before making a leap onto Chaos Dimentio's head. He flipped in the air after bouncing off him and landed on a platform below him. Unfortunately, it wasn't for long because its face changed to a sad expression, causing it to slowly disappear.

Chopper nearly lost his balance on the disappearing platform and plummeted to the ground. To his relief, he landed on his feet and destroyed the magic spark thrown in his direction with a light ball.

"Surprised about the platforms, aren't you?" Chaos Dimentio asked, appearing on a platform above Chopper. "It's all right, my little friend! Surprises are like a turtle coming out of its shell!"

"I wouldn't consider you a friend after all you've done," Chopper replied, firing a star that Chaos Dimentio that he easily dodged. "I mean, simply trying to steal something at the very last moment? I'd consider you a bit of a coward..."

"A coward, you say? Ah ha ha ha ha. With this kind of power, I wouldn't be considered very cowardly."

"That's not what I'm saying! ...Well, I am kind of saying that..." Chopper trailed as he struck Chaos Dimentio with a fired star. "Most of the time you fought my friends and I, it was when you gained the Chaos Heart's power. You only fought us in your normal form, and you were a bit of a pushover... I mean, Tipral actually put effort in his fighting against us and he was a bit of a threat, but you? Hardly! I'd consider you a weak villain on the strength side."

"Hmmmmm... I do understand what you mean." Chaos Dimentio replied, using his hand to block Chopper's Star Rod being swung at him.

"Wait... You do?" the Star Warrior gaped, his antennas sprung up.

"I was not exactly the strongest minion of Tipral's. However, if there was one thing I had greater than any of them, it was having a brain. And there is a saying that brains triumph brawn, which sounds very suitable for me compared to the others! O'Chunks most likely had the brain of a pea, Mimi was too busy obsessing over Rubees, dresses, her diary and even Tipral. Fawful had a bit of a brain, but his choice of words were like a person talking while chewing their food. Nastasia was always trying to be too tidy like a woman overdoing her work. Mr. L was too obsessed with making a new Brobot, and Dark... Well, he was a bit more sane compared to the others. I, however, had a stupendous plan that ended up succeeding for me! And all it required were you and your friends to do all the dirty business for me!"

"You're still not a good fighter," Chopper pointed out. "And that's where we are in this situation."

"That's where you're wrong," Chaos Dimentio smirked, pushing Chopper back and nearly hitting his foot with a Rubee. "Taking the powers Tipral's minions possess gave me the skills needed to triumph over people such as Tipral and you and your friends! I don't just have my manipulating skills, I also carry O'Chunks's strength, Mimi's ability to control Rubees, Fawful's weapons, Nastasia's hypnotic powers, Mr. L's thunder powers and Dark's martial arts...and possibly the ability to deflect projectiles with a cape! And also I-"

Chopper, having enough of hearing Chaos Dimentio, fired an ice ball at him, which he blocked with his cape.

"Yes, that's something I can do. You want me to show you more of their powers? Observe!" Chaos Dimentio looked at one of the platforms and put a finger near his eyes that caused a sparking flash, causing the platform to shoot multiple fireballs in Chopper's direction.

To stop them, Chopper took out his Spectral Sword and sliced them in half, allowing them to go past them and hit the ground behind him. Chaos Dimentio seemed a bit impressed, but not too much. Nevertheless, he snapped his finger and disappeared from Chopper's sight.

Looking for the jester, Chopper jumped up a few platforms so he was on a platform above The Void's core. He could see at least five Chaos Dimentios appear, and unlike before, they were all split up, making it difficult for Chopper to find out which one was the real one.

Twenty five sparks were being fired straight at him, so he raised the Star Road and created a weak barrier that blocked the magic attacks. The last one ended up shattering the shield, but he didn't care. That was all he needed to protect himself for a bit.

Seeing this, Chaos Dimentio snapped his finger again, and the clones he created all disintegrated. He simply let the platform Chopper was standing on do the job for him by disappearing, thus making him fall onto a lower platform. But Chopper was able to land with ease and shoot a star at Chaos Dimentio.

"Let's see how you cope with this, my little friend," Chaos Dimentio smirked, conjuring up a dark ball of energy. He fired it down at Chopper, who brought his Star Rod in front of him to block it. Chaos Dimentio continued to fire more, and Chopper continued blocking while being forced back.

But eventually he had a chance to make his move and fired a light ball at Chaos Dimentio while he was continuously firing. It left the jester surprised, but he stopped for a minute and smirked.

_"Ah, I seem to be doing something wrong here..." _Chaos Dimentio thought. _"To get to your enemy and defeat him easily, you must be more subtle with your attacks."_

Chaos Dimentio took out an explosive – something that Mr. L would most likely use with Brobot, and he tossed it down at Chopper. He watched as Chopper prepared to step back, but he ended up stopping for a moment.

"Wait... That bomb's not even on!" Chopper noticed. "What gives?"

Chaos Dimentio ignored him and fired two Rubees down at him, which he easily threw back by using his Star Rod as a bat. He even began to fire stars at the jester, who yawned and put up a barrier to block the attacks. But under that boring look was a scheming face ready to pull off a trick.

With a snap of his finger, the bomb exploded in front of Chopper, leaving his face covered in black soot once the smoke cleared away.

"Ah ha ha ha," Chaos Dimentio cackled. "You obviously are not good with paying attention. Your attention span is like a student in class daydreaming over a school lesson!"

Getting annoyed with Chaos Dimentio's mocking, Chopper shook himself to get the soot off him and jumped up to the platform where Chaos Dimentio was floating by. He was about to make a move, but Chaos Dimentio summoned a dark spectral Headgear resembling Fawful's that shot a dark ball of energy down at Chopper. Thankfully, his Star Rod helped him block the attack.

"You know, it would be interesting to see what you and your friend's worlds would look like now if they weren't destroyed," Chaos Dimentio pondered after getting hit by Chopper's Star Rod. "It would sound pretty magical!"

"Don't even bring that up PLEASE!" Chopper retorted, attempting to stomp on Chaos Dimentio, who stepped out of his way and let him fall to a lower platform.

"Ah ha ha ha. What's wrong, Chopper? Are my jokes irritating you?" the jester asked with a smirk. "I certainly have plenty more of those!"

Chopper was getting a bit more annoyed with Chaos Dimentio and prepared to swing his Star Rod again, but Chaos Dimentio appeared in front of him and grabbed a hold of the Star Rod and lowered it so it wouldn't hit him. Chopper struggled to raise it up, and Chaos Dimentio could tell.

_"Chopper! Don't let his mocking get to you so easily!" _Blumiere's voice echoed. _"That will not help you win this fight!"_

"Oh, no worries, my dear count," Chaos Dimentio assured. "Our little friend here is certainly being entertained my my jokes. See how irritated he is?"

_"Chopper, what was the one thing that helped you win in the previous fights?"_

Chopper thought for a moment while he struggled to raise his weapon. After a moment, he tried to stay calm and put a little more effort without trying to get frustrated. Chaos Dimentio could tell by his face, which grew a little more confident as he kicked the jester and then fired a light beam from the Star Rod once Chaos Dimentio's hands were no longer grabbing the rod.

"Well, looks like someone is changing their ways a bit," Chaos Dimentio smirked, feeling a little challenge. "And to think that The Void was brought back thanks to _you_!"

Chopper ignored the jester and raised his Star Rod. It flashed for a moment before it began to summon shooting stars from the sky, which rained down specifically on Chaos Dimentio. Even when he flipped into 3-D could he not escape the powers of the Star Rod!

_"Ah, now that's what I remember from you most of the time. You never tried to let yourself get too frustrated!" _Blumiere exclaimed. _"I shall leave the rest to you, Chopper!"_

"Thank you," Chopper smiled. "And maybe it's time I put a little more effort in fighting with the Star Rod!"

Chaos Dimentio let out a grumble after going back into 2-D, but he wasn't going to go down just yet. He hadn't used much of the powers of the Dark Star Scepter yet.

"Hmmmm... So you think you can perform such an attack like a wizard with ridiculous magic?" Chaos Dimentio asked as he raised his disembodied hands. "Well, let's make it a little more even, shall we?"

Dark stars began to fall from the sky and rained down upon Chopper. He winced in pain as a couple of them hit his head, but he tried using his Star Rod as a bit of a shield. It slightly worked, but it still made some dark stars hit him. To counter this, Chopper fired multiple stars at Chaos Dimentio, but with his hypnotic powers, he was able to send them flying back.

"What the..." Chopper jumped onto a platform above him just in time, but he had to jump on another when the platform he was on faded away. While he tried reaching the jester, Chaos Dimentio took out two dark laser swords and flung them in Chopper's direction, which he swatted away with his Star Rod.

"Hmmmm... Not bad, Chopper! You do have some skill..." Chaos Dimentio commended. "Such a shame you chose not to join me. I see some potential in you..."

"Don't even ask me about joining you," Chopper retorted. "I'm never joining you because of what you did. I just want to fix my mistake!"

"Then so be it... The Dark Prognosticus never stated that you need someone from the hero side to join them. It was simply created to ruin one's life."

"And there's also that whole Dark Prognosticus thing... It almost seems like you're obsessed with that!" Chopper said as he struck Chaos Dimentio with a fire and ice ball. "And how do you know so much about it?"

"Ah, yes... My memory of the Dark Prognosticus." Chaos Dimentio smirked, throwing a spark of magic at a rainbow ball Chopper threw. "While it may be obvious to those who watch us, to you it may not be! It's just as obvious as a yellow person standing in the middle of red pigs!"

Chopper blinked for a moment, which left him off guard and even left him thrown off the platform by Chaos Dimentio's punch. He wasn't sure what he meant by that, but after thinking for a bit, his antennas perked up.

"No way... Don't tell me..."

"Mmmm-hmmmmm!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes. I am always deadly serious."

"But that can't be possible!" Chopper exclaimed. "That thing was written probably around 1,500 years ago! You couldn't have been alive back then! You don't look THAT old! ...Come to think of it, how old ARE you?!"

"Does age really matter in the end, Chopper? What matters is what I get out of the Dark Prognosticus when others end up using it! And it's all thanks to discovering Tipral that inspired me to make such a wonderful gift to the universe. It even made the Tribe of Ancients create the Light Prognosticus to try to counter the book! Not only that, but I've created a cycle with the Dark Prognosticus!"

"A cycle?"

"The Dark Prognosticus states that for one to succeed in their plans of destroying all worlds, you need a bearded, burly warrior, a spoiled brat with an obsession for Rubees, a Dark Creature ruler and a jester from the aftergame. So even if my plans fail, I would make my return in the future! ...Maybe perhaps when you have children! Or it could be even sooner..."

"You? Come back? There's no way that's going to happen." Chopper growled, hitting Chaos Dimentio with a Star Beam. "If there's no Dark Prognosticus, then there's no you!"

"Ah, but destroying that is not so easy," Chaos Dimentio mentioned, crashing into The Void's core, but safely getting himself off. "Not even you can destroy the book. ...Oh, don't get me wrong, something can destroy it, but it's nothing you'll never know in the future! That's one of the reasons why I like myself! I've managed to plan ahead of time!"

"Well, if I can't stop you in the future, then I can certainly stop you now!" the Star Warrior declared, leaping off the disappearing platform, dodging the fireballs being shot at him, and delivering a light kick to Chaos Dimentio.

"Hmmmm... Very well then. Just remember I won't be holding anything back on you, Chopper. I will show you everything I'm capable of!"

Chaos Dimentio aimed his finger at Chopper, and suddenly smaller sparks of dark magic began to fire out his finger like a machine gun. Chopper jumped and ran on the platforms to dodge the magic before throwing the Star Rod into Chaos Dimentio's face, knocking him back slightly and making him teleport over to the upper right.

Chopper spotted Chaos Dimentio and fired a star, while he conjured a blaster that materialized in his hand and shot a laser that destroyed the star before letting it disintegrate in his hand.

"Hmmmm... You know, Chopper, about that face up in the sky..." Chaos Dimentio began, getting Chopper's attention. "There's much more to it than you think."

"...What do you mean?" Chopper asked with a suspicious look.

Chaos Dimentio smiled dementedly as he snapped his finger, causing the sky to let out a booming cackle from before. Chopper looked up at the face, but he also noticed something else coming down from above.

He let out a cry before jumping to one of the platforms next to him. A giant fist resembling Chaos Dimentio's fell from the sky and hit the ground. Chopper noticed that Chaos Dimentio was actually controlling the hand, and that was a problem.

Chaos Dimentio moved the hand back up and tried to smash Chopper once again, but each time it missed because of how slow it was. There was even a bit of disappointment in Chaos Dimentio's eyes, but he didn't consider it too much of a big deal. He had plenty of more attacks anyway.

In fact, he wanted to use one that was much more powerful.

"Let's see how you deal with this!" Chaos Dimentio created a large dark ball of energy and aimed it at Chopper. But rather than throwing it, it only shot a dark beam that caught Chopper in it and left him bruises and hurt afterward. "Ah, and my attack was successful, like two, hairy wizards having a magic scuffle while learning new magic."

The darkness in his hand faded away, and Chopper was left lying on the ground from the attack. He slowly got up, but he noticed something else falling down on him. It was a giant fist, and it managed to strike him with ease, leaving Chopper dazed when he finally got up.

Chaos Dimentio smirked and snapped his finger, making lightning come down from the sky on Chopper. He managed to get out of the way just in time and hit Chaos Dimentio with a Star Beam, causing the giant fist to disappear and also making the jester teleport near the ground.

"Oh, Chopper... I have a little something to show you!" Chaos Dimentio cackled, firing magic to the ground that caused the floor to become icy and slippery. Chopper almost slipped, but he got on the moving platforms and dodged the fireball coming from the right.

"You're going to have to try better than that, Dimentio," Chopper scoffed, charging up an attack in the Star Rod. "I mean, I expected something a little more dangerous..."

"Dangerous? Ah, now that I can pull off!"

He raised his hands, and suddenly, from the sky, dark beams of energy began to fire downward on Chopper. Thankfully, he was able to spot them just in time to run, but they were easily catching up to him until he reached the other side of the floor with nowhere else to go.

But he also realized another thing. He could easily avoid them! So he flipped into 3-D and got around the dark beams and went back into 2-D when they were gone. Chaos Dimentio noticed he was perfectly fine and stopped cackling, so he wrapped the right side of his body with his cape, and once he opened it, three dark balls of energy were revealed. They were slow, but they began to follow Chopper when he noticed them and tried avoiding them.

"Ah ha ha ha. Running away is futile." Chaos Dimentio grinned. "They're homing!"

Chopper noticed them following him, making him frown and run. They were going to follow him anyway, but he had no other ideas. Avoiding them was the only option, and it didn't help when the platform he stood on had a sad expression and began to disappear, while one above him to his right had an angry expression and was shooting a fireball in his direction.

He eventually stopped avoiding the homing shots and fired a Star Beam that obliterated them instantly. Chaos Dimentio was caught in the blast and ended up crashing into The Void's core. He took a moment to brush himself before flinging some fire and ice magic at Chopper, burning and freezing him for a moment.

"This is so easy, like a clown performing a level one task," Chaos Dimentio smirked. "...Ah, I see I am a little tarnished from that last hit. I can simply fix that up!"

He raised his disembodied hands and recovered 180 HP. Chopper was left gaping while the jester gave him a face that almost resembled a troll face.

"Wow..." Chopper trailed. "Just... Wow."

Chaos Dimentio raised his finger and let his magic do the trick, while he snapped his other finger to summon a couple of dark beams from the sky. Chopper was a bit annoyed, but dodging the beams felt too easy for him anyway. He was even led to Chaos Dimentio, allowing him to bash his head with the Star Rod after leaping up a few platforms.

"So, you've handled five of me so far..." Chaos Dimentio trailed, snapping his finger and disappearing. When he reappeared, there were much more than Chopper expected. "But can you handle eight?"

Chopper's eyes widened when he saw all eight Chaos Dimentios raise their fingers and fire forty sparks all over the large area. It was a bit too much for him, but he didn't hold back and blocked the magic while firing stars at the Chaos Dimentios.

"Hmmmm... Well, let's see how this works!" Chopper raised the Star Rod and let it flash for a moment. Every enemy that was around were instantly struck with a spark of star energy. Since there were clones, only one happened to hit a real target, and that was the real Chaos Dimentio.

When the jester tried to fire a blast of dark energy at Chopper, he was only delivered with a small, light beam coming from the Star Rod. He winced in pain, but after the beam faded away, he began to wheeze.

"Ugh... That Star Rod's power is strong. Very strong..." Chaos Dimentio grunted. "I think I may have underestimated you in this battle... But then again, it was all because of luck thanks to that Star Rod!"

Chopper would have tried to speak back, but he had to admit he was right on that. "What's wrong, Chopper? You realize the truth, don't you? Most of the time you were lucky because you had people to help you. Even that Star Rod is helping you at this point."

The ten year old was unsure of what to say again as Chaos Dimentio smirked and fired a dark wave shaped like a fist at Chopper to knock him off the platform and onto a lower platform. Chopper was able to get up quickly and hold the Star Rod in front of him as an act of defense against Chaos Dimentio's next punch. Surprisingly, the Star Rod's power was pushing back the dark power in Chaos Dimentio's hand, which he happened to notice.

"Hmmmm... Well, the Star Rod is certainly doing its job well... But your chances of winning are very slim, I'm afraid! To stop pure chaos, six heroes are needed! I only see one! Ah ha ha ha! ...But then again, the Dark Prognosticus never mentions that I can use the True Chaos Heart's power!"

"Wait... So what does this all mean?" Chopper gawked, suddenly realizing this. After all, Merlee did say six heroes were needed to stop pure chaos.

"Well, perhaps not all prophecies come to be! This is a perfect example! In fact, I only wrote the Dark Prognosticus so I could see how torn up people would come to be when they discover what's inside the book. Count Bleck and Tipral already fell into my hands before, and it helped with my plan as well! They were the puppets, while I was the puppeteer!"

"That's...unbelievable. Why would you do something to ruin a person's life like that?"

"Because it's very entertaining, and it helps me acquire the Chaos Heart easily!" Chaos Dimentio smirked, struggling a bit against Chopper's Star Rod. "But, I'm sure a child wouldn't understand, so let's finish this."

He tried to strike Chopper with his other hand, but he felt his arm get knocked back by the force of the Star Rod against the dark wave shaped like a fist. With him off guard, Chopper reached the platform Chaos Dimentio was near and delivered a stomp to his head, and while in the air, he pointed the Star Rod down at him and fired multiple stars. Chaos Dimentio tried blocking them with his hands, but the light was too painful for even him to touch.

This eventually led to him begin stomped on again, but this time Chopper's feet were surrounded in a light glow.

But when Chaos Dimentio looked up at The Void's core, he noticed that every single world was now in his own image. It had taken some time, but each world was finally wearing hats, masks and ponchos resembling him. But what made his grin widen was the chants he heard from them.

"_**HAIL LORD DIMENTIO!**_"

Chopper stopped to look up at the core too, and he was left utterly shocked.

"Wh-What was that?!"

"Ah ha ha ha. Every single world is now in my hands!" Chaos Dimentio cackled. "Everyone shall soon bow down to me – as soon as I'm finished with you, of course."

Chopper blinked for a moment before he noticed a spark of dark magic being fired down in his direction. He finally got back to his senses and dodged the magic spark. Seeing every world now jesterized like this was very disturbing, but at the same time, he knew how he could stop it.

Chaos Dimentio whirled around to try to attack Chopper, but what he received was a blow to the face from the Star Rod. Letting out a grunt, he fired magic, but Chopper only deflected it back at him.

"Such rotten luck you're getting from that Star Rod," Chaos Dimentio mocked. "It's like a game entirely based on luck."

"When I think about it now, it's not all about luck," Chopper said, blocking a dark star Chaos Dimentio fired at him. "It's about how you use the weapon. It's the person that makes the weapon good, not the weapon itself. ...At least, that's what I was taught by an old friend that's deceased..."

"Hmmmm... I would applaud him, but I'm too busy trying to end your game." the jester replied, teleporting behind Chopper and knocking him off the platform with a punch. He then used his magic to recover 180 more HP, which made Chopper sigh, but it didn't stop him from firing a Star Beam at the jester.

"I could constantly heal myself the whole time, and you wouldn't be able to beat me!" Chaos Dimentio smiled dementedly. "Your best bet is to surrender and let yourself die. It's already too late to join me."

"That's not going to stop me. If I have to die, then fine! At least I will remember doing something good before I die!" Chopper declared. "You can't change that!"

Chaos Dimentio slightly shrugged and began firing his magic at Chopper once he was above him. It was countered by a few light balls, and he ended up receiving a blow to the head and soon a glowing bright beam of light that struck The Void's core and Chaos Dimentio.

But Chaos Dimentio didn't care too much. He would just heal himself again later. Right now he focused on crushing Chopper by raising a fist and summoning a giant fist from the sky. He brought it down and tried to crush Chopper, but to his surprise, the Star Rod was stopping him from smashing the Star Warrior.

"Well, looks like someone's picking themselves up lately..." Chaos Dimentio trailed. "Ah ha ha ha. Very funny, Chopper."

Chopper gave Chaos Dimentio a smirk before a beam fired from the Star Rod and destroyed the giant fist in the process. Chaos Dimentio let out a small shriek, considering that the pain from the giant fist was connected to his own hand. He rubbed his hand to ooze the pain and let his eyes flash so Chopper could be struck by dark lightning.

For Chopper, he was left paralyzed for a moment, allowing Chaos Dimentio to go in for the attack and grabbed one of the moving platforms. Using the strength from O'Chunks, he threw it in Chopper's direction and even summoned some Rubees to fall above him as well.

But Chopper was prepared and fired a large Star Beam that went through the platform and sent Chaos Dimentio flying back. Only Rubee managed to scratch Chopper, but he tried to hold off the pain left on his cheek and focused on Chaos Dimentio. He could easily wear him down at this point if he didn't heal.

Chaos Dimentio brushed himself off and gave Chopper a smirk. "Bravo, Chopper! Bravo! But let's see how you deal with this!"

He raised his hands and began to conjure up a large dark ball of energy. Unfortunately, that stopped when he felt a little pain. "Urrrgh... Hmmmmm... Something didn't seem right there for a moment..."

Chopper: ?

_"I felt something painful for a moment... That's not something the True Chaos Heart is supposed to cause..." _Chaos Dimentio thought. _"Is the Star Rod's power doing this to me?! It doesn't seem like it..."_

While he was distracted, he felt himself get struck in the chest by a yellow star, followed by the Star Rod hitting him in the face. Chopper landed on the platform the jester was near and started chucking a few light balls. He was not holding anything back at this point, even if he was a little wounded from this fight so far.

"You stupid Star Warrior," Dimentio hissed. "You're making a foolish mistake!"

He threw the dark ball he finished conjuring up and managed to send Chopper flying to the ground. With a smirk, Chaos Dimentio flew to the ground and looked down at the injured Chopper.

"So, ready to give up yet?"

"No..." Chopper wheezed, slowly raising his head. "I'm certainly not finished yet."

"Hmph... Very well." Chaos Dimentio raised a finger, but the pain returned, and it was much bigger than before. "Urk! What is this pain?!"

"Pain?"

"Is the True Chaos Heart dealing this pain to me?! I did everything I planned! What is going on?!"

"Maybe... Maybe it's because the True Chaos Heart did not choose you... Perhaps you can't handle its power." Chopper deduced.

"What? What would you know about that?"

"The Sacred Heart," the ten year old started. "It chooses its host, and I was apparently its host. Perhaps there is much more to the True Chaos Heart than you think..."

Chaos Dimentio also remembered something Tipral told him that was starting to haunt his mind.

_"The Dark Prognosticus states that only a dark beings power can handle the power of the True Chaos Heart. You cannot handle it. It'll only destroy you and your soul."_

_"Was the prophecy truly correct?" _Chaos Dimentio thought. _"None of it was completely true!"_

Seeing this as an open opportunity, Chopper stood up and used his Multi-Star ability to fire a couple of stars at Chaos Dimentio. He tried to fight it back, but the pain was causing him to wince and weaken him every moment.

Chaos Dimentio managed to throw in at least two magic particles at Chopper, but they seemed much weaker than they were before. It still left a few marks on him, but it didn't stagger him further. Chopper's powers were not getting weaker, and they were in fact causing much more pain to Chaos Dimentio.

Even the platforms were slowly starting to lose their faces, and the sky was started to become shaky. This gave Chopper a sign of victory coming close, and he was slowly gaining more confidence and was even smiling.

After throwing a light ball at Chaos Dimentio, it looked like he was very close to defeat, according to the screams the jester was letting out.

"Aaaargh! You... You little..." Chaos Dimentio wheezed. "I swear I will make you suffer, like a father abusing his son by strangling him!"

"I don't see that happened anytime soon," Chopper declared, charging up an attack within the Star Rod. "But before we end this, I have one thing to say."

"And what would you have to say to me that's important?"

Chopper smirked and pointed the Star Rod at Chaos Dimentio. "_FEEL THE WRATH OF MY LEVEL 10 ANTENNAS, FOOL!_ _**HAAAAAAAAAH!**_"

He fired a large, yellow beam that struck Chaos Dimentio, causing a few flashes to come out of him while his eyes widened in pain.

"_**Grrrrgh-Aaggh?!**_"

The platforms slowly began to disappear, and both Chopper and Chaos Dimentio landed on the floor, except the jester was lying on the ground.

"I... I can't believe it..." Chaos Dimentio wheezed. "You managed to best me with this power... The power I've been wanting all this time to rule all worlds."

"Well maybe you were overestimating yourself," Chopper commented. "You always seemed so overconfident in your plans, but you always seem to overlook some flaws to your plans, such as me defeating you at this moment."

"But I don't understand... Why did the True Chaos Heart not choose me? I've gathered all this power just to be accepted by the heart, but yet it still refused to accept me..."

"Well... Maybe...there is someone with greater power... Or maybe you don't know how to use it correctly... But at this point, it doesn't matter for you anymore."

Chaos Dimentio slowly got up, but he felt a sharp pain within his body. He noticed a bright light that was starting to envelop his body. "Urrrk... Unnnghh... Even if I've failed now, I will surely come back in the future. As long as the Dark Prognosticus still exists, the cycle will simply continue with the next person! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

As he continued to cackle, the light completely enveloped his entire body. "C-Ciao!"

Chopper watched as Chaos Dimentio slowly disintegrated from his sight, leaving behind the Dark Star Scepter, which landed on the floor past Chopper, the Dark Prognosticus and the True Chaos Heart, which continued to emit its dark glow.

"It's... It's over..." Chopper sighed, holding his right arm while he lowered himself. He had taken quite a few hits from the battle, but now it was finally over. Dimentio was finally gone, and he surely hoped it was for good.

He looked up at The Void's core and noticed everything was turning back to normal - with the exception of The Void, which continued to linger over every world. Now there was only one thing left to finish up.

However, Chopper couldn't help but look down at the Dark Prognosticus. He had seen the Light Prognosticus before, but he never truly got a glimpse of the Dark Prognosticus. It was certainly different from the other book, especially the reddish pink and the black.

"Should... Should I really open this book?" Chopper wondered, picking up the book. "I mean, this contains secrets that could possibly destroy one's life. Is taking one little look too dangerous?"

While he pondered over this, the dark mist surrounding the Dark Star Scepter slowly began to move away from said weapon and started to form a figure. It was even noisy, which made Chopper turn his body to the scepter.

But what made him shocked was the figure that now stood before him.

"Tipral..."

* * *

**I always imagined Dimentio ruling every world with people dressed similarly to him. I'd say it's something that would fit him well if he were king of every world.**


	126. The Rise of Chaos

Tipral finally got a glimpse of his whereabouts and finally realized where he was. He picked up the Dark Star Scepter and turned his attention to Chopper, who was standing next to the True Chaos Heart and holding the Dark Prognosticus in his hands.

"Give that to me," demanded Tipral, holding his hand out, expecting Chopper to hand him the book.

The injured Star Warrior looked at Tipral with an uncertain look and then looked down at the Dark Prognosticus with uncertainty too.

"I said give it to me!" Tipral roared, dashing at Chopper and knocking him to the ground, dropping the Dark Prognosticus in the process. Tipral caught the book and kicked the Star Warrior away from the True Chaos Heart. "That jester honestly thought he could handle the True Chaos Heart's power... And he thought using the Dark Star Scepter to absorb me into it would work. His plan was obviously flawed."

Tipral looked back at Chopper, who slowly got up and gave the dark being a look of sorrow. "I have to say, I commend you for defeating that jester. But unfortunately for you, you won't be destroying the True Chaos Heart anytime soon."

"Tipral... All of this just for revenge?!" Chopper exclaimed, a few tears coming down his face. "Is getting revenge on me all enough to destroy every single world?! There are innocent people out there that you just destroyed thanks to resurrecting The Void! Was it all worth it?!"

Tipral slowly lowered his head and shook his head in the same pace. "Chopper... My intentions have _nothing_ to do with you. Not even close."

Chopper's angry yet sad expression slowly changed. "Wait... What do you mean?"

"I might as well explain it all now," Tipral declared. "I've kept this a secret from everyone, so consider yourself lucky. I won't repeat it a second time either."

Chopper was not sure how to respond, but he let Tipral give his explanation.

"A thousand years ago, I was created in a space station by a few scientists with the DNA from the Shadow King and Queen. I was successful, but I was admittedly too strong, and my power ended up killing them. Two wrist rings to control my powers were meant to be put on me." Tipral explained, showing the golden rings on his wrists. "These exact ones. They come off, and chances are my power would be too much for even me, and it could possibly kill me in the process."

Tipral lowered his arm and turned away from Chopper. "It turns out I was never some Ultimate Life Form. I was just meant to be a dark being to be used to take over a few places and then disposed of later. I was supposed to be some soulless demon, but since my 'parents' had negative DNA in them, my DNA turned out to be positive, thus giving me a soul."

"A soul?"

"Yes. And that's why I felt remorse for the death of those scientists. Sorrow was filled within my mind at that point...until I met her."

"You mean Tippi?"

"Yes, Tippi...or rather, Timpani. She was a very nice girl, and she eventually became my friend. Apparently she was taken to the same space station to see the experiments, but she was accidentally left there. I was there to keep her company, and we ended up having lots of fun. However, upon realizing I could teleport, I decided to bring her back to her home, which she allowed me to stay at. Everything was going great at that moment, but she eventually grew older and fell in love with someone after she discovered him injured by a cliff. While we still had fun together, she seemed to be spending more time with him..."

"Are you talking about Count Ble- I mean Blumiere?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, it was Blumiere," Tipral nodded. "She grew older, and I was soon becoming more lonely. I was saddened by this, but things were still fine because she was still my friend. Making new friends, however, was not easy, especially since people were only scared of me. Things only got worse from there when Timpani was suddenly placed with a curse and fated to wander all dimensions forever until she died. This left me completely _shattered_. And that was when my rage started to completely take over me and turn me into what I've become now."

"So you were never angry your entire life..."

"You probably would have already known by now if you saw that picture of Timpani and I in my room."

"Oh... Yeah, I remember that."

"Anyway, I took all of that rage and tried to find Blumiere's father so I could kill him, but I was already beaten to the punch. The Tribe of Darkness was left in complete ruin when I arrived. There was one remaining member of the Tribe of Darkness I discovered, so I used my powers I hadn't used in a while and destroyed him. I also ended up letting my rage out on the Tribe of Ancients, which left most of them in ruin with some exceptions. I even ended up turning one girl into a bat and trapped her in a cage to make her suffer in order to get rid of my rage, but nothing helped me calm down."

"A girl turned into a bat by your power?"

"Yes, and when I think about it more, I know who that person was..."

Chopper remained silent for a moment, unsure of what to say, so Tipral decided to continue from where he left off.

"I thought I would eventually get over the loss of Timpani, and I've tried to get over it to this day, but I never did... All I could feel was anger over the loss of Timpani, and anger over the happiness I saw while I ventured around the world. It couldn't stand to see something like that. I felt like I wanted them to feel the same way if I could never regain happiness!"

Tipral held the Dark Prognosticus in front of him so Chopper could see it. "But then I discovered this book, which gave me the answers to what I can do. The True Chaos Heart contains the power to eradicate every single world as if it never existed, and with that, I could wipe out all the troubles that I had to witness and deal with."

"But destroy all worlds because you could never become happy?" Chopper cried. "Why do something like that?"

"Honestly, I don't care about destroying all worlds. I only care about wiping out the love and happiness lingering each world! Maybe then, my anger would finally go away!"

"But there are different solutions to this! You... You could get some help at least! Maybe I could help you..."

"Chopper, you're the last person I'd ever want help from," Tipral said coldly. "While you are not the sole reason for making me want to destroy all worlds, you've been trying to stop my plans. Why do you still continue to do so? The Dark Prognosticus is the true prophecy of all worlds! The end is eventually bound to come! The Light Prognosticus is only there to try to stop the end from coming!"

Chopper frowned and slowly looked down.

"But I do have to give you credit for trying to stand up to me before. But still, you're too gullible, considering that you believed I was your friend and willing to help you. Even my minions thought they would get what they wanted when everything would be wiped out from existence. I only needed them to stall you and your friends until I had no need for them and would dispose of them. But it looks like The Void did the job for me. And to think they would get their own perfect world..."

"Perfect...world?"

"Yes, I would have given them a perfect world for them to live in when all worlds would be destroyed. At least, that's what I made them believe. I once had a perfect world myself back then..."

With a wave of his scepter, the darkness surrounding them was changed to a large, grassy landscape with many different types flowers on the large field and a blue sky above them.

"This is what my perfect world would have been with Timpani. Unfortunately it looks like none of that will come to be..."

He waved his scepter again, and the area around them reverted back to normal. "At this point, it's only better to just leave every single world in ruins just like you and your friends' worlds."

With those words hurting him a bit, Chopper tried to approach Tipral, but he was only knocked back. "Oh, yeah... I think I forgot to mention something... With all worlds wiped out, it'll be as if the destruction of your birth planet would have never happened. I'm sure you of all people would understand considering you had lost something dear to you."

"But I wouldn't want to do something as low as this," Chopper replied. "Please, Tipral... Do you really have to do this?"

"It's too late for that," Tipral retorted. "You aren't going to change my goals anytime soon!"

"Then... I have no choice but to stop you..."

"Hmph... Very well then. If you're going to stand in my way, then I'll gladly put an end to you. I wanted to see how my new powers will work with the True Chaos Heart's power."

"But Dimentio couldn't handle its power..." Chopper noted. "What makes you think you can?"

"The True Chaos Heart gets its power from hatred, while the Pure Hearts get their power from love. With all the hatred burnt within my mind, combining my powers with the True Chaos Heart would be enough to create chaos and destruction to every world, thus destroying them. Dimentio may have written the Dark Prognosticus, but he doesn't know everything about this heart!"

Tipral grabbed the wrist rings on his wrists and removed them both. "If the True Chaos Heart needs a host with immense power, then I shall grant it its wish! I will not let anyone, including you, Chopper, stand in my way!"

"Tipral! Wait!"

It was too late. The True Chaos Heart, combined with the Dark Prognosticus, began to absorb into Tipral and envelop him in darkness. Chopper felt the ground around him shake violently. Much more than when Dimentio was transforming.

After a big, dark flash, many platforms appeared around the area with a depiction of a dark star embedded in them. They began to move around in a fast manner as well, and while that was going on, the darkness around Tipral began to fade away.

Tipral's eyes and mouth changed from white to purple, and his arms had curved spikes, with one big curved spike on his shoulders. His white gloves were now black with a purple heart embedded on the front side. His fingers were slightly pointy as well. There were also purple glowing stripes on his arms and feet too. A dark mist seemed to be left behind as he slowly landed on the floor.

"Do you see this, Chopper? This is what the True Chaos Heart's power can grant me! It has transformed me into the powerful **Chaos Tipral**! With this power, I will finally wipe away all love, happiness, joy, and you from existence!"

"You... You look more like a shadow demon..." Chopper gaped. "Similar to Maquano..."

"Maquano's shadow demon form is hardly anything compared to what I have become!" Chaos Tipral roared. "As for you, I shall soon see your end before I destroy all worlds!"

"You may have gained that kind of power, but I have the power to counter the Dark Star Scepter," the Star Warrior declared, holding the Star Rod up. "Not even you can handle this thing's power!"

Chopper aimed the Star Rod at Chaos Tipral and prepared to fire a blast of star energy at him. However, he felt himself lowering the weapon and looking down. "I... I can't... Not because I'm weak, but for some reason... I can't attack."

"Can't attack me? What for?" Chaos Tipral asked, now hovering off the ground.

"It's just... I don't want to fight you or even kill you. You're probably one of the only people I know who isn't destroying all worlds just for power... And to hurt someone whose heart was left broken makes me feel terrible..."

"Then this fight makes it easier for me," Chaos Tipral stated, firing a dark star and knocking Chopper over on the ground. "I would have expected you to be a bit more heroic and actually stand up to me! But it doesn't look like that'll happen!"

Chopper slowly got up and was left panting. He knew he should defend himself, but at the same time, he didn't want to hurt Chaos Tipral. "Tipral, there honestly has to be a better way to solve this. I mean, Timpani isn't gone, you know!"

"She means _nothing_ to this anymore! Bring her up again, and I'll make sure your game over is more painful than ever!" Chaos Tipral roared, teleporting in front of Chopper and delivering a couple of dark punches to his face before hitting his face with the Dark Star Scepter. This left a couple more bruises on his face, and it was starting to leave him exhausted.

"I can't believe you still refuse to attack. You wanted to save all worlds, right? Then the most logical thing for you to do is fight back!"

Chaos Tipral raised his scepter and fired dark stars into the sky, which began to rain downward on Chopper. He tried defending himself with the Star Rod, but the majority of the time he was pelted by them. The Star Rod was hardly helping at all.

Chopper could only watch as Chaos Tipral dove down and kicked his face. He also felt himself get grabbed by his counterpart.

"What's the matter, Chopper?! You don't have it in you to fight me?! Do you know what they call people like you?! WEAK!"

He started to shake the Star Warrior violently, who did nothing to fight back. Chopper could only wince in pain as a tear dropped down his face. Chaos Tipral didn't care and continued shaking him.

_"Chopper..."_

Chopper opened his eyes and looked around the area. From somewhere, he heard someone call his name, but he wasn't sure where...

_"Whose voice was that?" _Chopper thought. _"It sounds so familiar..."_

He looked over at Chaos Tipral, who continued to look at him angrily. It didn't seem like he heard the voice.

Chaos Tipral ignored Chopper's stare and threw him to the floor. "If you're not going to fight back, then I might as well get rid of your weapon for you!"

"Wh-What?!" Chopper cried, feeling Chaos Tipral grab the Star Rod and pull it away from him. He tried to keep a tight grip on it, but Chaos Tipral was too strong and managed to yank it out of his grasps. He gaped as he saw Chaos Tipral crush the Star Rod and let it shatter.

"Your little toy is not strong enough to defeat me in this transformation!" Chaos Tipral roared. "Not even the Pure Hearts – which you already used up, will stop me now!"

He flew off the ground and began to charge up a dark beam of energy. Chopper could definitely see the rage in his purple eyes, but at the same time, it almost looked like he saw sorrow in them too.

_"Tipral..." _

Chaos Tipral's antennas slightly perked up from the voice he heard. Chopper heard the voice as well, but this time, he realized who it belonged to.

It was Timpani.

_"Tipral, please stop this! This isn't the same person I've known since a child! Destroying all worlds won't help solve your problem at all!"_

Chaos Tipral ignored Timpani's voice and fired the dark beam at Chopper, who was now left in many battle scars as he was continuously struck by the beam. He was left dazed and almost beat when Chaos Tipral ended the attack.

_"Look at what you're doing to poor Chopper! Is this all worth it?"_

"I've already made my decision!" Chaos Tipral shouted. "You have nothing to do with this anymore! I'm not turning back."

"Unnnghh... Please, Tipral..." Chopper moaned. "You can always stop here... It's never too late..."

Chaos Tipral flew down to Chopper and grabbed him by his antennas. "You're right, Chopper. It's usually never too late for anything. However, I'm doing all of this by choice, and my choice is to wipe every single world out from existence of all of its love!"

He slammed Chopper to the floor and fired a dark ball of energy that left him limping. Chopper was barely holding his own at this point, and it looked like he could fall at any point. Chaos Tipral noticed this and figured it was time to end this.

"I might as well finish the job now," Chaos Tipral declared, looking down at Chopper. "Goodbye, Chopper. You were a opponent that once put up a fight against me, but now you have lost."

His eyes flashed, and Chopper felt himself get struck by Chaos Tipral's Star Spark. He slowly kneeled to the ground in exhaustion and tried to keep himself from collapsing. Some healing items could help him, but he didn't even have the energy to grab one of his items.

"I'm...sorry..."

At that moment, Chopper collapsed.

"Weak until the very end," Chaos Tipral scoffed, turning away from the fallen Chopper and turning his attention to The Void's core. "It's time to finally put this to a close!"

With the True Chaos Heart and Dark Star Scepter's dark power combined, he fired a dark beam of energy into the core, causing it to shake violently until it was completely enveloped in darkness. Everything around him began to shake violently as well.

"The end shall soon finally come..."

* * *

**Rainbowside Tower-**

"The worlds are trembling..." Merlon trailed, noticing the area around him and the two other shamans shake violently. "Has the world finally come to an end?"

"...How unfortunate," Nolrem said with a hint of sadness.

"And to think hope would finally come..." Olnerm trailed.

With a single flash, the composition of the world around them began to go crazy until nothing remained.

* * *

**Lineland Town-**

"Whazzit?! Somethin's not right here!" Yerfeys cried, feeling the violent shaking coming from The Void. "Izzat dark thing in the sky causin' this?!"

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Yerfeys turned to a little blue boy who was hurrying over to him. "Everything's so shaky! I'm scared!"

"It's... It's goin' to be all right, Maxy. Just close yer eyes and you'll be just fine."

Maxy listened and closed his eyes while hugging his grandpa. Yerfeys hugged back and looked back up at the sky, which flashed before the composition around them started go crazy.

Soon enough, Lineland was gone.

* * *

**The Peaceness-**

"Say, Pherrance..." Tillip began, noticing the ground shake around them. "Something does not seem so right here..."

"What do you mean, Tillip?" Pherrance asked, trying to let out a fart but failing to do so. "Do you mean that thing in the sky?"

"Yeah... Do you think this may be...the end?"

"Which end? My end?"

"No! The end of the world!"

Pherrance stopped laughing and frowned. "Oh... I guess our time here has finally been cut to an end..."

The area around them flashed, and soon the world's composition started going crazy until the world was destroyed.

* * *

**Cradian City-**

"All worlds tremble..." one Cradian trailed. "This world end very soon..."

"Those people... The one who destroy Master Mind..." a second Cradian began. "You think... You think they try to stop this?"

"I thought of that... There must be reason why they take brown heart..."

Their thoughts were stopped by the flash in the sky, and soon the world was no more.

* * *

**?-**

"Oh, Blumiere... I can't believe it..." a human girl with light brown hair, a rainbow ribbon resembling a butterfly in her hair and a white dress with a rainbow stripe at the waist trailed. "My pleas failed to stop Tipral..."

Timpani and Blumiere were in a large grassy landscape with a pretty blue sky. There was no sign of The Void.

"I guess that means all hope is lost..." Blumiere sighed, slowly shaking his head as his blue eyes looked down.

"What?! We can't just let Tipral destroy all existence!" Timpani cried. "There has to be something we can do that will be more helpful! If not, Chopper's game might be over very soon..."

"We cannot," he said simply. "The True Chaos Heart is too powerful to stop with Tipral's powers combined. Not even the Pure Hearts are able to go up against it."

"So we're just going to stay here and watch the end?! There must be something we can do!"

"Timpani, why are you so focused on trying to stop Tipral?"

Timpani lowered her head and turned away from him. "Because I do believe Tipral's soul still remains deep within his heart. When you became Count Bleck, I believed there was still a way to help bring you back to your senses, and I was right."

"But Timpani, the True Chaos Heart is powered up by hatred, and with Tipral's hatred added into it, there may be little soul in his heart! This isn't like the normal Chaos Heart I used!"

"I still believe we can do something about it," Timpani said, turning to Blumiere. "Even if there is little hope, you never, ever give up. Besides, I believe most of this is my fault. It's honestly because of me that Tipral has turned into what he's become now."

"No, my dear Timpani, I believe I'm the one to blame here," Blumiere objected. "I let the Dark Prognosticus get to me first, and I did very little to help Tipral. If I had found Tipral, maybe this wouldn't have happened."

"Don't bring yourself down so much, count! You need to think positively!"

Timpani and Blumiere turned their heads and saw three figures teleport into the area. There they saw O'Chunks, Mimi and Dark approaching the two. O'Chunks was carrying an unconscious Blade on his shoulder, and part of his clothing was ripped to be used as a bandage on Blade's arm where he was stabbed. He was also carrying Mario and Luigi on his arms, and Nastasia on his other shoulder. Mimi was carrying an unconscious Kirby on his back, and Dark had an unconscious Sonic in a piggyback ride.

"You guys..." Timpani gaped, noticing the five heroes. "They're..."

"They'll be OK," O'Chunks assured, slowly putting down Blade, Mario, Luigi and Nastasia. "They're only unconscious, but we managed teh save their lives. They'll surely get up soon."

"But how did you find us?" Blumiere gaped.

"We found them."

Three other figures teleported into the area as well, who happened to be Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi. They approached the group as well with smiles.

"We found them lingering in The Void, squirp!" Squirps cheered. "They weren't in a very good condition, so we had to get them somewhere safe!"

"It turns out we felt a light around The Void and found this world and felt your presence," Ninbot explained. "This was the only safe place we could find."

"We were convinced to do this because they doth save the heroes' lives..." Luvbi trailed. "I dost not know if they would hath lived if it weren't for them..."

O'Chunks looked down at Nastasia. "We were lucky teh find wee Nastasia lyin' on the ground before they found us. She doesn't look like she's in a good condition either..."

"Nastasia..." Blumiere trailed, looking down at the secretary.

"But... Where's Chopper and Tippy?" Mimi asked. "Everyone's all here, but those two aren't..."

"Mimi..." Timpani began. "They're both at the center of The Void, nearly fighting to the death. ...Well, at this point they aren't. Tipral has already gained the power of the True Chaos Heart and is using it to destroy everything, but most of all the joy, happiness and love."

"So I'm guessing the whole deal with the perfect world was just to get us to distract the heroes, is that it?" Dark asked, hints of anger in his voice. "I can't believe I was being used..."

"An' 'e was not too bad o' a leader either!" O'Chunks gaped. "Why would 'e do somethin' like that?!"

While O'Chunks and Dark were not too pleased, Mimi seemed to take it the hardest. "Tippy... He was just using us as pawns to get the True Chaos Heart for himself? And why would he want to destroy love and happiness? Those are things I love!"

"I'm sorry, Mimi..." Timpani apologized. "I understand how you feel... But didn't you say that we should think positively?"

Mimi realized this and wiped the tears off her face. "You're... You're right! Tippy may have fooled us, but we shouldn't just back down so easily! Listen, count, no matter what, we'll always be by your side!"

"Yeah! I believe yeh were the one who gave us the most respect when I think about it!" O'Chunks realized. "I always liked teh see yer smile a lot! It kinda brightens the mood a bit!"

"I guess I'm in," Dark declared. "If there's anything we can do to stop Tipral right now, then I'll be up for it."

"My... My minions..." Blumiere smiled. "Thank you..."

The twenty, empty Pure Hearts circled above the group, and with a flash, they were restored. Not only that, but they all began to combine into one, creating a bright yellow heart that was the same size as the True Chaos Heart.

"The Purity Heart!" Timpani gaped, watching it slowly float into her hands. "This was the same exact heart used against the Chaos Heart!"

"But Timpani! The Pure Hearts don't stand a chance agai-"

"You said the _Pure Hearts_. You said nothing about the _Purity Heart_. Maybe with this, we can stop Tipral and maybe restore his poor soul..." Timpani smiled. "But Chopper needs this more than any of us... He is at the brink of death, and only this may be able to help him."

"Soul?" Dark gawked. "What do you mean?"

"I'll explain much later. For now..." Timpani slowly closed her eyes and let the Purity Heart slowly disappear. The group all watched it disappear from their sights and decided to pray for Chopper's safety.

Perhaps there was much more hope than they thought.

* * *

**This may be one of the darkest things I've written. ...OK, maybe it doesn't compare to Shade, but maybe the impact here is bigger.**

**But on that note, the next chapter is where the true final battle begins. For some fitting music suggestions, perhaps songs such as Bowser's Inside Story's final boss theme, The Battle For Everyone's Souls (Persona 3) or even Vergil Battle 3 (Devil May Cry 3) would be fitting. Then again, you don't have to listen to those if you don't want to.**


	127. Purity vs Chaos

Chaos Tipral looked down at the collapsed Chopper for a moment. "Hmmmm... Is his game truly over? I could do something right now, but the possibilities of him living right now are very slim."

Before he could do anything, a couple of bright flashes emitted near Chopper, causing Chaos Tipral to back away and cover his eyes. When the flashes were gone, he looked back at Chopper. The Purity Heart was now lingering over him.

"The Purity Heart? But... How?"

A bright flash emitted from Chopper, and soon the wounds left on him were now fading away. His eyes slowly opened, and he was soon standing up.

"Wh-Wha...?" Chopper mumbled, blinking for a moment. "For some reason, I feel so much better right now..."

"The Purity Heart..." Chaos Tipral trailed. "I don't know where it came from, but I'm not going to let it get in my way!"

He fired a dark beam at the Purity Heart, but it only deflected it back at Chaos Tipral and knocked him back. For Chopper, he felt the Purity Heart absorbing into him, causing him to be lifted off the ground.

"I'm... I'm feeling something powerful!" Chopper realized. "A familiar power too!"

A bright, yellow light soon surrounded Chopper, and his pale green skin changed to a golden yellow, while his green shoes changed to a darker yellow. Chaos Tipral even got a glimpse of the new power Chopper had gained, and it looked all so familiar to him.

"So... You've gained your super form." Chaos Tipral said coldly. "Ever since I saw you fight Maquano in that form, I always wondered what it would be like to take you on like that!"

Super Chopper blinked for a moment as he sparkled from the light. His HP had increased all the way to 1,000, and even his Attack power was raised to 40. It was just like when he had faced Maquano...

"I was never expecting this..." Super Chopper trailed, looking at his golden arms. "But, I think it will be enough to take you on, Tipral..."

"Don't get your hopes up!" Chaos Tipral hissed. "Sure, you may be in that form, but you're not truly invincible! The True Chaos Heart is much stronger than the Purity Heart at this point! My power comes from hatred, while yours comes from love, which you don't contain much of!"

Super Chopper would have frowned, but he decided to give him a determined look. "There's where you're wrong! I do have love! The love of my friends, my family! ...And even those who've fallen...in love...with me..."

"No matter... I haven't shown you much of the True Chaos Heart's power before, but now you'll get a full glimpse of it! Chopper, prepare for the end!"

Super Chopper clenched his fists and got in a fighting stance. "All right, fine! I don't want to destroy you, but if I have to fight, then I have no choice..."

Chaos Tipral dove down and prepared to deliver a punch to his foe, but it was easily blocked by Super Chopper, who delivered a headbutt to his head and knocked him away so he could fire a small beam of light at him.

And it actually hurt him, to his surprise.

"Ugh... So you can hurt me. It's not much of a big deal to me." Chaos Tipral growled. "I'm still not going to hold back!"

Chaos Tipral began to spin the Dark Star Scepter and then hurled it in Super Chopper's direction. He tried catching it, but he was only hit in the face a couple of times. Chaos Tipral grabbed the scepter when it came back, charged up a dark beam and fired it at his opponent, who tried to block it with his hands, but ultimately failed.

While Super Chopper flew toward Chaos Tipral, he could hear Timpani's voice echo through the area.

_"That's Chaos Tipral... This dark being has now absorbed the True Chaos Heart and the Dark Prognosticus to become an all-powerful figure of darkness. He was once by best friend as a child... Max HP is 5,000. Attack is 50. If Defense is raised, Defense is 20. He will use all the powers in his possession, as well as the powers from the True Chaos Heart. But you can probably stand up to him and hopefully defeat him, for that is what you must do... For the sake of all worlds... And to help restore the poor soul that is deep within Tipral's dark, broken heart..."_

Hearing the word "broken heart" saddened Super Chopper a bit as he delivered a light punch to his counterpart. He tried punching again, but Chaos Tipral grabbed his arm and fired a dark blast of energy that made him crash into the core.

Super Chopper let out a grunt as he flew off the core and fired a couple of light blasts at Chaos Tipral. He countered them with dark energy, causing explosions between the attacks until he teleported in front of Super Chopper and punched him in the face.

He tried landing a second punch, but Super Chopper teleported above him and struck his head with a light kick.

"You..."

"Apparently I'm capable of teleportation in this form," Super Chopper noted. "That makes us equal."

Chaos Tipral gave him a growl and swung his scepter at Super Chopper, he flew back to dodge it and charged straight into Chaos Tipral, sending him crashing into one of the moving platforms.

When Chaos Tipral stood up on the platform, he clenched his free hand and raised it in the air. His Star Rain was much stronger than before, now in a black color rather than a normal light purple. Super Chopper tried to defend against it, but it barely helped him take less damage. Chaos Tipral grabbed the platform he was near in order to smash his face. Super Chopper attempted to push it away when it made contact with him, but his physical strength was hardly enough to stop it.

"Even in your super form, you lack the kind of strength I possess!" Chaos Tipral scoffed. "That doesn't sound so 'super'..."

Chaos Tipral released the platform and flew down toward Super Chopper. He swung his arm and fired a Star Spear at him to knock him to the ground, and then he prepared to shoot another dark beam at him. Thankfully, Super Chopper got up in time and fired a light beam to counter his attack and create a small explosion that knocked both of them back.

But Chaos Tipral was quick to get up, and when he bashed the floor with the Dark Star Scepter, dark stars began to rise up from the ground in the same manner as the Rubees that would rise from the ground from Mimi's attack. Super Chopper got up and flew off the ground to avoid them before hurling light balls at his opponent. A dark barrier was created to protect Chaos Tipral from the oncoming light attacks.

While he protected himself from Super Chopper's attacks, Chaos Tipral's eyes flashed, and Super Chopper was unexpectedly struck by a Star Spark. Now left stunned, Chaos Tipral charged into him and delivered a punch that sent him crashing by the large door.

Super Chopper let out a small grunt before getting himself up, and soon he found himself flying above a couple of dark explosions that were ripped through time and space itself by Chaos Tipral's scepter.

"What... What was that?!" Super Chopper gaped.

"When I said that the Dark Star Scepter was the most powerful weapon in the universe, I meant it," Chaos Tipral hissed. "It's power has even doubled thanks to the True Chaos Heart! That's more than enough to end your pathetic little game!"

He teleported above Super Chopper and swung the Dark Star Scepter downward to try to hit him, but his opponent flew back, so he lunged toward him upon landing. That missed as well.

"I'm not too surprised to see you not fighting back as much," Chaos Tipral noted. "It makes you such an easy target!"

"I told you, I don't want to kill you!" Super Chopper cried, blocking a punch coming his way. "This isn't the real you! The fact that I would be killing someone who only wanted to be happy and have a friend makes me feel absolutely terrible! I mean, I could've at least been a friend if you said this before."

"Chopper... You will never be considered a friend to me. And even then, you're the last person I'd ever be friends with."

For some reason, those words hurt Super Chopper more than they should.

"After all you've done to me, I would _never_ let you be my friend. You would only make it worse for me." Chaos Tipral said coldly. "In fact, one of the reasons why I stole your name and body in the first place was to try to see if my life would change for the better! It turns out that didn't work out too well for me."

"And you never went for help?"

"No one would be able to help me out, and you especially wouldn't!" Chaos Tipral pushed Super Chopper back and grabbed him before slamming his face onto the platform closest to him. Sure, Tipral was violent, but not this violent. Super Chopper had a feeling the hatred from the True Chaos Heart changed his behavior – certainly for the worse.

Eventually Super Chopper tried to stop his violent urge and pushed himself away from the platform when Chaos Tipral tried slamming his face in again. Noticing this, Chaos Tipral decided to throw him onto another platform. If it weren't for Super Chopper's teleportation, he would have certainly taken some mortal damage.

Chaos Tipral sneered at Super Chopper before he raised the Dark Star Scepter and summoned dark stars from the sky. Unlike before, Super Chopper was able to stand up to them by firing his Multi-Beam, which let him shoot multiple light beams. This helped destroy the dark stars in his way, and it also knocked Chaos Tipral onto one of the platforms.

In anger, Chaos Tipral slammed his fist on the platform he crashed into, leaving a large mark in the process before charging straight into Super Chopper and sending him crashing into another platform.

And while that occurred, Chaos Tipral unleashed his Star Rain upon Super Chopper to make up for him teleporting last time.

"Die!" Chaos Tipral roared, dashing at Super Chopper and swinging his scepter, which missed his target. "Dodging isn't going to continuously help you during this fight, Chopper! You have to learn to be more offensive!"

Super Chopper had to admit he wasn't fighting back too much. He did have the Purity Heart's power, so it wouldn't hurt to attack Chaos Tipral a bit. Maybe it could help. Right?

Chaos Tipral spun his scepter and fired multiple dark stars toward Super Chopper. He also tried blasting him with dark energy with his free hand. But none of that was able to stop Super Chopper from charging straight at him and knock him back with a powerful light punch.

While he was sent flying, Super Chopper charged up his light beam and lunged his arms forward to fire the beam at Chaos Tipral. It sent him further from Super Chopper, but his teleportation helped him get back to his opponent easily.

"So now you're putting up a fight!" Chaos Tipral sneered. "I might as well do a little something myself!"

He waved the scepter near him and raised his Defense to 20 temporarily. "This should help me against you defensively!"

When Super Chopper delivered a punch, Chaos Tipral let him deliver the hit. While he felt some pain from the attack, he didn't even flinch. Super Chopper was left gaping before Chaos Tipral grabbed him and blasted him with his dark power, sending him flying to The Void's core.

_"Tipral, please... You must stop this." _Timpani said, her voice echoing through the sky. _"This isn't the same person I was friends with as a child..."_

Despite hearing the voice, Chaos Tipral ignored Timpani and flew forward, ready to fire a dark beam at his enemy. Super Chopper recoiled and teleported behind Chaos Tipral, but he quickly whirled to him and grabbed his arm.

"Tipral, please... Listen to Timpani!" Super Chopper cried. "This isn't leading anywhere!"

"I told you, NO!" Chaos Tipral roared, punching Super Chopper in the face. "I've dealt with so much for a thousand years, and I'm sick of having to deal with the rage and pain inside me! Especially since I am an ageless being!"

"...Ageless?"

"Yes, even through the years, my age in appearance does not change! Imagine having to go through the suffering I've been through and to find out you're a creation that lives forever! Do you understand me?!"

"Ummm... Well..."

"Of course you wouldn't," Chaos Tipral hissed. "Sure, your birth planet was blown up – which I had a part in, but you don't have the gift...or should I say _curse_ of living forever! You wouldn't understand this kind of pain!"

At that point, Chaos Tipral swung his arm that was grabbing Super Chopper and knocked him onto a lower platform. To make matters worse for the Star Warrior, Chaos Tipral delivered a powerful, dark kick that managed to break through the platform and send Super Chopper crashing to the floor.

He raised his arms and conjured up a large, dark ball of energy he would hurl at his opponent, but Super Chopper already got up and began to rapidly fire light balls. They all hit Chaos Tipral, but it didn't stop him from throwing the powerful ball of energy at Super Chopper.

"Let's see you handle that!" Chaos Tipral exclaimed.

Super Chopper brought his arms in front of the dark ball and tried to stop it with as much strength as he had. He was admittedly struggling with it a bit, but he eventually managed to push it away and deliver a light kick to the ball, sending it flying back toward Chaos Tipral.

He was caught in his own attack and ended up crashing through a couple of platforms, but eventually he threw the attack away from him and snapped his finger, allowing Super Chopper to be struck by Star Magic in the process.

Before Super Chopper could attack, Chaos Tipral teleported in front of him and struck him with a Star Punch and then a stronger version of his punch called the Star Nightmare. It knocked his opponent back slightly, so he tried to go in for the next attack.

"Let's see how you like this!" Chaos Tipral roared, smashing his fist onto the closest platform to create a small supernova that had a force strong enough to knock Super Chopper back when he wasn't even close to it. He then teleported to Super Chopper and swung the Dark Star Scepter downward to send him crashing to the floor once again. Thankfully, the injury wasn't too bad.

"Ungh... This is much more painful than some of Maquano's attacks..." Super Chopper moaned, slowly getting himself up. "I mean, Tipral's attacks are so much faster, and his Attack power is even stronger..."

"I already told you, Maquano's power can't compare to mine now," Chaos Tipral said. "This isn't just your typical battle, Chopper... Even in your super form, you can't fully overpower the True Chaos Heart!"

Super Chopper would've responded, but he was too busy trying to dodge a dark blast of energy being fired down at him.

Chaos Tipral growled and tried to charge at him with a powerful kick, but to his surprise, Super Chopper was able to grab his foot and fly upward so he could throw him onto a platform below with the strength he possessed. It wasn't as big of an impact as Chaos Tipral's throw, but it was still rather effective.

Unfortunately, at this point, Chaos Tipral's defense boost wore off, making the pain hurt more.

"Grrrgh!" Chaos Tipral grunted, pushing himself off the platform and casting a glare at Super Chopper. "You were lucky that defense boost wore off on me! Don't expect things to get easier for you here!"

Before Super Chopper could make an attack, Chaos Tipral used his scepter's magic to create dark thats that circled around him. "Try to approach me, and you will experience pain."

Super Chopper frowned, but he quickly realized another thing: he didn't have to approach him. He had ranged attacks, after all.

"All right, then... I'll listen to you." Super Chopper decided, firing a light beam at Chaos Tipral. He saw this coming and tried to stop the attack with his own hands. Using two hands was difficult, but having to use one to pull a little trick up his sleeves was a difficult task as well.

With a snap of his finger, the dark stars circling him disappeared and reappeared around Super Chopper instead. He didn't take notice until he felt them strike him, forcing him to cancel his attack and swat away the remaining ones. This let Chaos Tipral fire a beam from his scepter and deal some severe damage to Super Chopper.

When his attack ended, Chaos Tipral teleported behind Super Chopper and grabbed a hold of him by his feet. The ten year old struggled and tried shooting light balls, but Chaos Tipral put his hand in front of each attack to easily block them. With all his might, he threw Super Chopper at The Void's core, which made it shake for a moment upon impact.

Super Chopper couldn't help but take a look at the core. He had to wave his arm a bit to clear out the dark mist, but what he saw were more worlds he had never traveled to or had gone to being swallowed up by The Void. Worlds such as Outer Space, Sweet Kingdom, Sun and Moon Land, and even Cyberspace were slowly fading away into nothingness.

He turned his head and saw Chaos Tipral charging straight at him, so he flew up and landed on the top of the core to see Chaos Tipral crash into it. It didn't take him long enough to get himself off, but he couldn't help but see the worlds slowly getting swallowed up from existence.

"There are many worlds out there," Chaos Tipral stated. "But even then, they don't have much time left!"

"Tipral, please..." Super Chopper trailed.

"I told you, I'm not changing my decision!" he roared, teleporting up to Super Chopper and punching his face. Super Chopper brought his arms up to defend himself, but the force of the punch slightly drove him back. "I'm sick of all the happiness and love I've been witnessing throughout the millennium! Is it fair that others get to have such great lives while others such as myself are miserable?!"

"Well..."

"No. It's not fair at all, and having to be lonely and angry is nothing fun. It's only fair that all joy should never exist if I can never be happy again!"

"But that's just selfish!" Super Chopper cried, ducking under Chaos Tipral's scepter swing. "The world doesn't revolve around you. There are innocent people who had nothing to do with you that are probably dying! Is it right to just wipe them out?!"

"I don't want you lecturing me, Chopper. I want to change, but it appears this is the only way to go. I'm already miserable enough, so let everyone else be miserable!" Chaos Tipral raised his scepter upward and let it summon a giant, dark vortex. "This will be your end..."

Super Chopper felt himself being sucked into the giant portal, so he started to fly away from it. But even then, the force was very strong, and not even his speed was able to outrun it - or in this case, outfly it.

"Tipral! Honestly... This isn't the answer! Find your true self that still lies inside you!"

"Maybe if you start to shut up, I'll go easier on you!" Chaos Tipral sneered, catching Super Chopper into the portal and watched as he spun in it. "If not, then I'll fight much harder than before! Starting with THIS!"

He raised his scepter again, but he paused when he heard Timpani's voice echo through his mind.

_"Tipral... You don't remember this voice, do you not? It's your friend, Timpani... You would listen to me, right? You must stop this, please... Find your true self!"_

Chaos Tipral ignored the voice again, but not as much as before. He turned his attention back to Super Chopper and brought his scepter down to let the vortex explode with Super Chopper in it so he could take mortal damage. He then landed on the platform the ten year old fell on and kicked him off.

"How much of a beating can you take?!" Chaos Tipral growled. "That attack should have killed you by now!"

"Ungh... Tipral..." Super Chopper moaned. "I'm not going to let myself die so soon... Not until I help you get back to your senses!"

"Then you are foolish," he said simply.

Super Chopper quickly got himself up and quickly flew back when he saw Chaos Tipral dropping from the sky to kick him. While he was left open at this point, Super Chopper fired a light beam and knocked Chaos Tipral over by the large door. What followed afterward was a dark beam to Super Chopper's face.

Chaos Tipral stepped back and swiftly swung his Dark Star Scepter, creating some dark explosions that were heading in Super Chopper's direction. He flew up to dodge them and attacked Chaos Tipral with his Multi-Beam. But while he did this, Super Chopper felt a little bad at the same time when he saw him get hurt. He felt like he shouldn't, but he couldn't help it.

But Chaos Tipral showed no sympathy whatsoever. All Super Chopper could see was hatred in Chaos Tipral as he fired multiple shadow balls straight at him. He avoided them just fine and responded with multiple light balls, each of them hurting Chaos Tipral.

"Don't think I didn't come prepared for this," Chaos Tipral snarled, using the Dark Star Scepter's power to recover 600 HP. "I can literally do anything destructive with the Dark Star Scepter and True Chaos Heart combined!"

Super Chopper was unsure of how to react before noticing multiple dark stars being fired from Chaos Tipral's scepter. He didn't have enough time to dodge, so he tried to create a light barrier to protect himself. Sadly, that did not even last long enough, because after the fourth star, it shattered.

"Oh, no..." muttered Super Chopper, wincing in pain from every dark star that hit him in the face. Chaos Tipral stopped his attack and teleporting in front of him instead to swing the scepter as hard as he could against his face, and then he blasted Super Chopper with dark energy to knock him onto one of the lower platforms.

"The fact that you don't have what it takes to actually kill me is something that makes you much weaker than me," scoffed Chaos Tipral, firing another dark ball of energy at his opponent. "And that makes ending everything much easier!"

Super Chopper stood up and saw the dark energy flying in his direction. Instead of dodging, he moved his right arm back and delivered a light punch that stopped the attack in its place. With a forceful push, it was sent flying back at Chaos Tipral, only this time, it held light power.

Chaos Tipral cringed in pain from the attack, failing to block it. _"Ugh... I nearly forgot how annoying light power can be to me. Last time I endured something like that, it was when I fought Chopper and his stupid friends in Dark Subspace World!"_

He quickly shook off the damage and threw the Dark Star Scepter at Super Chopper, who, to his surprise, caught the weapon. But despite catching it, the scepter seemed to cause harm to him because of how dark and powerful the weapon was, so he was forced to drop it.

"Ack! I don't understand!" Super Chopper cried. "Why is that so painful when I touch it?!"

"That answer's simple," Chaos Tipral replied, kicking him and retrieving the Dark Star Scepter. "You cannot handle its dark power. You're the complete opposite of what this thing is."

"Even if I could use it, I would never do such a thing!" the Star Warrior cried as he tried kicking Chaos Tipral, only for it to be blocked by his scepter. He felt his foot get grabbed by Chaos Tipral, who threw him over by the large door and proceeded to fire more dark stars.

Unlike last time, Super Chopper was fully prepared for this. He opened his mouth and let all the stars go into his mouth, and then he spat them back at Chaos Tipral. Instead of being dark, they were now glowing yellow. Chaos Tipral brought his arms in front of him and defended against the attack, even though it drove him back.

Angered over this, Chaos Tipral flew straight over to The Void's core, passing by Super Chopper and leaving him dazed in the process.

"Perhaps now is the time for one of my stronger attacks!" suggested Chaos Tipral, his fists now balled up. A dark glow surrounded him as the whole area around him and Super Chopper began to shake.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" Super Chopper cried, feeling the shaking despite being off the ground.

"Ending this!" the dark being roared, ready to unleashed his powerful Star Blast upon Super Chopper. But as he continued to charge up his attack, Timpani's voice echoed around them.

_"Can you hear me? It's Timpani. You can't let this anger control you. You're not truly a monster. You have a heart. A soul. Please, don't let the power of the True Chaos Heart get to you..."_

Despite hearing her voice, Chaos Tipral unleashed his Star Blast upon Super Chopper, but unlike before, it did not feel as strong. It didn't even feel as strong as what Super Chopper would've expected.

He looked up at Chaos Tipral, who had his eyes closed tightly as he was putting his hand on his head, mumbling. To him, something didn't feel right. It felt like something suddenly surged through his body.

"Is... Is it working?" Super Chopper gaped, watching Chaos Tipral let out a small moan. He eventually opened his eyes and looked down at Super Chopper coldly.

"I don't understand why, but something just weakened my attack all of the sudden," Chaos Tipral growled. "You were lucky, Chopper... But luck won't help you here, I'm afraid!"

He lunged forward and grabbed Super Chopper and then proceeded to shake him violently. "And because you were so lucky, I'm not going to be as easygoing as I was before! I'll make sure you suffer the same way I had to!"

When he finished shaking him, he punched him and sent him crashing into The Void's core. Chaos Tipral slowly flew over to Super Chopper while being surrounded in another dark glow.

"Chopper, let me ask you this: why do you not choose to fight back in the same manner you would fight Maquano?" Chaos Tipral asked, preparing himself to swing the Dark Star Scepter.

"Because..." Super Chopper began, blocking his attack by trying to grab the scepter. "I can at least understand some of your misery..."

"Then convince me," he demanded, noticing Super Chopper struggle against his scepter's force.

"When my birth planet was destroyed, I felt pretty miserable back then... I was pretty lonely when I had to try to save Clara from Maquano's destruction. And I even felt a little miserable when I was forced to actually kill someone relatable to one of my parents... I never wanted to have to go through something like that again..."

"The only way you are going to destroy the True Chaos Heart at this point is if you kill me," Chaos Tipral stated, giving him a glare. "That's the only way."

"N-No... I'm sure there's another way..." Super Chopper denied, not wanting to consider that option. "You can always stop this yourself, you know!"

"So I have to repeat myself again?!" Chaos Tipral pushed Super Chopper back and hit the top of his head with the Dark Star Scepter. "I'm not changing my ways! _**EVER!**_"

He raised his scepter, but this time, it transformed into a giant, dark hammer. He tried smashing Super Chopper with it, but he was apparently faster and swift enough to dodge the oncoming hammer swings. When Chaos Tipral realized his hammer wasn't doing anything, he decided to strike the core instead, which helped summon giant, dark stars from the sky to plunge down upon Super Chopper.

Gaping, Super Chopper flew under one of the platforms to take cover. But even then, that hardly did anything. The platform he hid under got struck by the stars, and it was soon smashed and disintegrated, leaving him wide open for an attack.

He took cover under another platform immediately, but that too was destroyed like the other. Chaos Tipral noticed him flying to other platforms and decided to snap his finger to get rid of the stars. His Dark Star Scepter reverted back to normal during the process as well. At this point, nearly half of the platforms were destroyed.

Super Chopper was a little confused on why Chaos Tipral stopped, but he realized what the answer was when he felt himself get kicked from above. He crashed onto the floor, and soon he felt himself get caught in a dark beam Chaos Tipral happened to shoot from his hands.

After finishing the attack, Chaos Tipral dove down at him and swung the Dark Star Scepter in the process. While Super Chopper had little time to react, he was able to teleport just in time and reappear above Chaos Tipral and land a kick to his head. While Chaos Tipral was skidding across the floor, Super Chopper charged up a light beam and fired it at Chaos Tipral.

Eventually Chaos Tipral got up and teleported in front of Super Chopper to deliver another punch. Super Chopper saw the attack coming and landed a punch as well. Their fists soon collided, and a large explosion between them blew them away from each other.

When the air was clear around them, they were both slowly panting. Chaos Tipral had a couple of bruises on his face, but Super Chopper looked more injured compared to him, especially the scars and bruises left on his face and arms. Even a small part of his gloves were a bit torn.

"You're not as easy to kill as I thought," Chaos Tipral commented. "Even at this point you're still standing... You should've been defeated a while ago by my attacks!"

"I told you, I'm not backing down," Super Chopper retorted. "There are so many worlds at stake here..."

"And most of them are getting destroyed too," Chaos Tipral mentioned, looking up at the core. Places such as The Underwhere and Overthere, the Metallic Fortress, and even Tipral's Palace were being wiped out from existence. "I will leave them all in ruin, and I will be the only one left standing. Only then will I be able to regain my happiness..."

"But how can you become happy when there is nothing left? You'll be lonelier than before!"

"But I will at least know that all kindness and joy will have never existed, as well as many terrible experiences I've gone through," the dark being looked back at Super Chopper. "With everything gone, hope will finally return, and my anger will most likely go away with no troubles left."

Super Chopper gave him a sad look while slowly shaking his head. "I can't believe you refuse to listen to a word I say... I may have not known you as who you truly were, but that doesn't stop me from doing something to help!"

"You can help me," Chaos Tipral stated, getting Super Chopper's attention. "You can help me by dying!"

He flew up into the air and raised his free hand. "_**Star Comet!**_"

Super Chopper looked up and noticed what appeared to be glowing dark comets falling from the sky. It reminded him of Tipral's Star Rain, but this one looked much deadlier by being larger in size, despite being similar in size to the comets Shade used before coming here.

Though he tried to use the remaining platforms as cover, they stood no chance against the dark comets and were easily destroyed. There were no platforms remaining in the aftermath, and now Super Chopper was left with a couple of burns all over his face and arms from Chaos Tipral's attack.

But he still refused to give up despite these wounds. When Chaos Tipral tried to punch him, he blocked the attack with his own hand and delivered a powerful headbutt to Chaos Tipral's face, making him skid back and cover his face. When he felt his face, he felt a bruise, making him ball up his fist.

"You're going down..." Chaos Tipral hissed threateningly, now surrounded in a dark glow. Super Chopper wasn't sure what he was planning but he tried to prepare himself.

Chaos Tipral let out a battle cry of anger as he disappeared from Super Chopper's sights and reappeared above him by falling from the sky. The Star Warrior saw him coming down, so he backed away and let him land, but he only teleported upon landing. The same thing was expected, and Super Chopper found himself constantly moving thanks to Chaos Tipral falling from the sky to kill him.

And it made things worse with no platforms to help protect him. All that was left in this area were him and Chaos Tipral fighting to the death.

After Chaos Tipral fell from the sky one last time, he lunged at Super Chopper instead, and with the Dark Star Scepter's power, he knocked Super Chopper back. He snapped his finger afterward and created a couple of dark balls that were around him and pointed at Super Chopper before the projectiles came flying at him.

Despite trying to block the attacks, Super Chopper only felt the full force of each attack and was nearly left staggering at the moment. Seeing this, Chaos Tipral teleported to a short distance near Super Chopper and slowly began to approach him.

What Super Chopper noticed was his free hand charging up some dark power.

"You're making this a lot harder for yourself, you know," Chaos Tipral noted. "What? You don't have much strength to fight back?!"

He ran up to Super Chopper and kicked him, knocking him onto the floor. He began to slam his foot on him continuously afterward. "What's the matter, Chopper?! Is the True Chaos Heart's power too much for you to take?!"

After he finished stepping on him, he watched Super Chopper slowly stand up. He had been standing for quite a while, but he wasn't sure how much punishment he could take anytime soon.

Chaos Tipral was finished charging his attack, so he raised his arm in Super Chopper's direction and prepared to fire.

_"Tipral... You can stop this..." _Timpani trailed. _"There is a way for you to stop everything right now. Give everyone a chance... Give all worlds a chance... Give yourself a chance... I don't want your poor heart to stay broken."_

"Aargh!" Chaos Tipral cried, firing the attack at Super Chopper while putting his free hand on his head. "Shut up! Shut up! I don't want to hear any more from you!"

Super Chopper prepared for the worse, but the attack didn't seem to harm him as much. He looked up at Chaos Tipral, who felt a slight bit of pain from inside while he was shaking his head.

"You're not going to force me to do anything!" roared Chaos Tipral. "You cannot do anything to stop me at this moment! I did give everything a chance, but they did not help give me what I wanted!"

All Super Chopper could do was blink at him confusingly.

_"I guess Tippi's words are starting to get into him..." _Super Chopper thought. _"I surely hope I don't have to do the unthinkable..."_

Chaos Tipral eventually stopped and gave Super Chopper a glare. "Listen here, Chopper. Maybe I might consider making your death painless if you consider trying to stop that voice. It's making me sick!"

"I... No..." Super Chopper stammered. "That voice is trying to get you to do the right thing!"

Instead of replying, Chaos Tipral snarled and tried punching Super Chopper in the face. Surprisingly, it didn't seem as strong as before from what he felt. Chaos Tipral noticed the same thing and was left surprised.

"Wh-What... S-Something's not right..."

"You're growing weaker..." Super Chopper trailed, moving Chaos Tipral's fist away from his face.

Chaos Tipral grew angrier by the moment, and he jumped back and slammed the ground with the Dark Star Scepter.

"If I'm growing weaker, then I will hold absolutely _nothing_ back!" Chaos Tipral shouted, disappearing from Super Chopper's sight and letting dark explosions emit through the area. Super Chopper took off in the air to avoid said explosions, but they continued to follow him. Chaos Tipral eventually appeared in front of Super Chopper and kicked him into the dark explosions.

Super Chopper let out a few cries from the pain, but he managed to pull himself together and charge into Chaos Tipral to send him flying back. To make sure he was still not holding back, Chaos Tipral used the scepter's power to raise his Defense to 20 once again.

"And when I say I'm holding nothing back, _**I mean it!**_"

Chaos Tipral began to rapidly snap his finger and attempted to catch Super Chopper in his Star Magic. When he realized that failed, he decided to combine his Star Rain and Star Comet together to make both attacks rain down from the sky upon Super Chopper. When looking up, he almost saw a light show – only this one was darker than usual light shows.

_"He's throwing everything against me!" _Super Chopper thought, wincing when he felt one of the attacks hit his arm. _"I can't just dodge these forever!"_

He started to fire light up into the air, which created light comets in the shape of Chaos Tipral's Star Comet. They continuously rained down from the sky and even caused explosions upon contact with the Star Comets. These explosions knocked both Super Chopper and Chaos Tipral away from each other.

Thankfully, Super Chopper managed to pull himself together first and fired a barrage of light attacks at Chaos Tipral, who didn't even have a chance to defend. The light attacks were soon finished off by a light beam, making Chaos Tipral crash into The Void's core before the attack ended.

Chaos Tipral grunted as he got himself off the core. He saw another light attack coming his way, but he was prepared for this attack and delivered a dark punch that instantly destroyed it. Afterward, he used the power of the True Chaos Heart to recover 600 more HP.

But despite healing, he didn't expect to be struck by a foot to his face. Super Chopper had already made it to him while he was healing, and with the help of that kick, his defense boost was destroyed in the process.

"How did you manage to attack me so quickly?!" sneered Chaos Tipral.

"I may be pretty fast on my own, but in this form, I'm much, much faster!" Super Chopper exclaimed.

He prepared to kick him again, but Chaos Tipral grabbed his foot just in time. "Faster doesn't always mean better, though."

While Super Chopper struggled to get his foot free, Chaos Tipral charged up another dark attack and prepared to fire. What he didn't expect was a light blast to hit his face, which forced him to release Super Chopper.

"Well, sometimes it is," Super Chopper declared, charging up another light attack while Chaos Tipral growled.

While Super Chopper charged his attack, Chaos Tipral looked back at The Void's core. He punched it with the back of his fist, and a dark beam shot out of the core and hit Super Chopper, stopping his attack in the process and even leaving him dazed. Chaos Tipral took this as an opportunity to punch, but Super Chopper managed to shake off the daze just in time to block his punch.

At the same time, though, he was struggling to hold off the punch.

"Even if I may be growing weaker, you too are becoming weak at the same time!" Chaos Tipral exclaimed. "And I think I might just have enough power to eliminate you before all worlds perish!"

While Super Chopper was struggling to hold off Chaos Tipral's punch, he had a light beam ready to be fired. He eventually flew back and fired it, but what he didn't expect was Chaos Tipral to fire a dark beam at the same time. Both collided, and both were trying to push their way toward each other.

But in the end, the dark beam was able to win the struggle and push away the light. Super Chopper put one arm up in front of him to endure the attack, but it hardly helped, especially when Chaos Tipral teleported above him and swung his scepter downward. Thankfully, he didn't crash onto the floor like usual.

He noticed him drop from the sky again, but unlike before, Super Chopper raised his fist and managed to deliver a light punch that stopped Chaos Tipral's attack and sent him flying upward. He eventually stopped in place to raise his arms, which summoned a large dark ball of energy he conjured up.

It was much bigger than what Super Chopper had seen before, and he tried hurling light balls to stop it. Not even that was enough.

"Try all you want, but you're not stopping me!" Chaos Tipral roared, hurling the large ball of darkness down at him foe. Super Chopper was nearly left agape at the situation, but he brought his arms up and tried to push it away when it made contact with him.

Noticing this, Chaos Tipral decided to finish up the job by snapping his finger. The massive ball of darkness exploded, and Super Chopper felt himself being sent flying in the air. It angered Chaos Tipral to see his foe was still moving.

He looked up at Super Chopper and noticed him flying down in his direction. He tried stopping him by hurling his scepter, but Super Chopper easily avoided it by teleporting in front of Chaos Tipral and kicking his face. Seeing the mark he left on Chaos Tipral actually made Super Chopper sadden a bit.

"I can't believe I'm even doing this to you..." Super Chopper trailed. "All I'm trying to do is help, but I'm being forced to injure you like that."

"The fact that you can't kill me makes you such an easy target for villains!" Chaos Tipral hissed, reclaiming his scepter when it flew back to him and swinging it at Super Chopper, who tried to push the weapon away from him. "A hero who can't put themselves up to destroy someone like me is nothing more than a pathetic, worthless and weak hero! You are fitting that criteria very well!"

"But there's such a difference between someone like you and someone like Maquano or Dimentio! I don't usually have problems fighting those kind of people because they don't care too much of others and were pretty much evil to begin with! While you have not shown signs of a heart or soul, I know there really is one inside of you! Don't you understand?"

"There is no turning back from here," the dark being stated. "I would have wanted this all to end much earlier, but it appears this is my only chance of accomplishing my main goal. And you will not stop me!"

Chaos Tipral pushed Super Chopper back and threw in an uppercut and then a kick that sent him flying. He unleashed his Star Comet and let the comets hit him, and to finish off his attack, he began to charge up a deadly dark beam.

Not even Super Chopper had enough time to react when he was caught in the darkness.

Chaos Tipral listened to the cries emitted from Super Chopper and stopped the attack. Now his enemy was left staggering on the floor, just like he was before he transformed. He concluded that a couple of more attacks would be enough to finish them off.

Super Chopper was left panting, and he barely had the strength to do much in this state. He could easily transform back to normal with so little strength left, but he still refused and slowly tried to move until he was forced to kneel.

"I... I... I can't do it..." Super Chopper admitted, now feeling defeat. "He's too strong..."

Looking up at The Void's core, he noticed two worlds only remained thus far. People from the Bitlands and Merlo from Sagein Galaxy were looking nervously at The Void's large size. Their end was bound to come very soon.

Chaos Tipral floated beside the core, glaring down at his opponent. "Look at you, Chopper! You're unable to even stand up at this point! I thought you had what it takes to actually go up against the True Chaos Heart, but at this rate, the Purity Heart is not powerful enough to stop me!"

Even despite being the one victorious at this point, he was also a little exhausted from battle, but not as exhausted as Super Chopper. He didn't care anyway. The fight was all over.

_"Please... This is not the true Tipral I've come to love as a friend! Do you not remember the wonderful times we had when I was younger? You were caring, gentle, and even willing to help me when I was in trouble! Don't you remember...?"_

Chaos Tipral prepared to charge his attack, but he stopped when he saw an image of him and Timpani in a grassy landscape, looking up at the sun. His angry look soon faded at the image.

* * *

_We would usually gaze at the sun when it would rise up in the morning, and at times, you would try to predict at what time it would eventually rise that morning. You were usually wrong a lot of times, but neither of us cared. We mostly laughed!_

_I remember you were always there for me when I was having a few problems. Especially the moment when I tripped once and started to cry. You showed great concern over me... I even remember the exact words we both said..._

_"Timpani? Are you all right? What's wrong?" you asked me while I held my knee in pain._

_"My knee! It hurts!" I cried out. "It's hurting..."_

_"What... What am I supposed to do?"_

_I remember when I was crying, you even started to cry as well. You couldn't even bear to see me cry, so you did all you could to stop the cut on my leg. And from that day forth, you always had a fear of me crying. _

_"Tipral, you're the greatest friend I've ever had," I said._

_"And you too are my best friend, Timpani," you replied. "I will make sure nothing bad ever happens to you, and I will remain by your side. I promise..."_

* * *

The image slowly faded away from Chaos Tipral's sight as the words "I promise" continued to echo in his mind. He was unsure of how to react at this point.

When he looked down at Super Chopper, he noticed him trying to fight back the injuries, but at this point, he was not succeeding. He didn't even have the energy to attempt to stand up.

At this rate, it would be over for him.

A quote from an old friend even began to enter his mind.

_"No crying until the end."_

This indeed felt like the end for not just him, but the entire world. Tears started rolling down his face as he slowly looked up at Chaos Tipral.

"Honestly, is this what you want? A world where there is nothing of joy or color? Does your inability to become happy have to be the fault of every single world? Why, Tipral? _WHY?!_"

Chaos Tipral watched Super Chopper slowly lower his head and close his eyes shut. "Go right ahead, Tipral... If you want to destroy all worlds so badly, then you can go ahead and finish me... I have nothing left in me now."

Looking at the scepter and his arms, Chaos Tipral had something bugging his mind. _"Is this...right for me? Is this all worth it?"_

That didn't stop him from striking Super Chopper with a dark ball of energy. The Star Warrior slightly winced in pain, but unlike before, it felt like very little pain. His eyes slowly opened and looked up at Chaos Tipral. He was not looking like his angry self.

In fact, his face was slowly turning a bit sad when looking at the crying Super Chopper. Unfortunately, that stopped when he quickly closed his eyes and covered his antennas.

_"Something's not right here!" _Chaos Tipral thought. _"I'm...starting to feel something..."_

He fired a dark star at Super Chopper this time, which felt even less painful than the previous attack. Though Super Chopper could be happy by this, it was possible that this was just enough to put an end to him.

Chaos Tipral slowly opened his eyes and gazed at Super Chopper, whose eyes were slowly closing. Seeing the tears coming down his face made him feel a little remorse as well.

_"Tipral..."_

Chaos Tipral slowly turned his head and gazed at The Void's core. There, he could see Timpani's face. Her child-like face.

"Tim...Timpani...?"

_"Tipral, please... Don't do this... You're only going to cause harm... Especially to yourself..." _Timpani said with tears now rolling down her face. _"The fact that you've turned into something like this hurts me more than anything else. To think my best friend would now be destroying all worlds, just like how my love wanted to destroy them before this... Don't do this... I beg of you!"_

Seeing the tears from Timpani's child-like face in the core nearly pierced through Chaos Tipral's broken heart. Tears were now rolling down his face as he turned away from The Void's core.

Super Chopper slowly raised his head and noticed tears dropping onto the floor. He looked up at Chaos Tipral and saw the tears coming from him. This may have been the very first time he saw him cry...

The dark mist surrounding the Dark Star Scepter slowly faded away, and the weapon was soon dropped to the floor, making a loud thud. Chaos Tipral slowly floated to the ground and looked at the injured Super Chopper.

They both stared at each other for a while in silence. Eventually the silence was broke off when Super Chopper heard dark power being conjured up in Chaos Tipral's hand. He prepared for the worst, but he stopped when he noticed where the attack was being aimed.

Chaos Tipral's attack was being aimed at himself.

"Tipral...? What are you doing...?" Super Chopper gaped as the attack was fully charged. "Tipral! NO!"

The attack was fired direction at Chaos Tipral, and he was soon engulfed by the giant beam of darkness. Super Chopper could only be left agape as he witnessed something not even he could have imagined.

The beam finally gone, Super Chopper noticed Chaos Tipral was now left limping, and the injuries left on him were greater than his. He watched him stagger over to him, and when he approached him, he wiped a tear coming down the boy's face with his demonic finger.

"I'm sorry everything turned out like this..." Chaos Tipral said weakly. "All I wanted was to destroy all happiness, but...I feel something sparking in me. It feels nothing like anger... It feels...unlike anything I've felt for so long."

Super Chopper could only weakly smiled at him.

"Thank you, Chopper... I thank you for helping me find my true self... I'm sorry about all your friends, though... I wish I could help them, but I feel it's too late. It's over..."

He closed his eyes, and the True Chaos Heart came flying out of his body, reverting him back to his normal state. Only this time, his white eyes were no longer glowing, but now a dullish gray.

With very little energy left in him, he soon collapsed.

Super Chopper was unsure of what to say at this point. He wasn't sure how to feel either. He wasn't even sure what to think. All he could do was stare down at Tipral's body.

The True Chaos Heart eventually appeared before him, but it soon disappeared and caused the area around him to shake. He would have done something, but he was soon feeling the Purity Heart's power fading, and soon his power was released just like Tipral's.

Chopper could only look at Tipral's body before he collapsed near him.


	128. A Soul's Restoration

Forty-five minutes had passed since Chopper fell unconscious. Nothing much had changed during that time. The True Chaos Heart continued to rampage and cause havoc to all worlds remaining, and chances were it would all be over in no time.

Chopper slowly opened his eyes and noticed where he was. With a bit of energy left in him, he slowly got himself up and stretched.

"Ungh... What happened?" Chopper moaned, rubbing his eyes before looking at his whereabouts. "...Oh, yeah. I remember now... Tipral tried to release the True Chaos Heart by..."

He stopped and looked down at Tipral. He wasn't sure whether or not he was alive at this point, but sorrow began to fill Chopper's face. "I can't believe what he just did... I mean, trying to commit suicide to free the True Chaos Heart from himself... I feel so bad for him..."

Chopper also noticed the Dark Star Scepter, the Dark Prognosticus and Tipral's two wrist rings lying beside each other. He looked further and noticed something else he didn't see before.

It was a large door. However, unlike the other doors, this one was glowing with light.

"A door? What's this door doing here?" Chopper wondered as he staggered over to the door. He placed his hand on it, and it ended up opening on its own. With curiosity now filling his mind, he decided to see what lied through the door.

* * *

**?-**

Chopper could not believe what he saw upon coming through the door. For the first time in a while, he had actually seen a world filled with color and no darkness in the sky (aside from the area with all of his perished friends, of course). It was a beautiful green landscape with a bright blue sky. It almost reminded him of what Tipral showed before they fought.

"What is a place like this doing here in The Void?" Chopper wondered, looking up at the sky. "This place is too beautiful to be close to The Void's center..."

He decided to explore the landscape by slowly running. Eventually he felt like he had enough energy to run, and he started running faster. It felt nice to be running in a beautiful landscape. They were not common on his planet.

Eventually he stopped when he saw a large altar and a temple in the background. Over by the altar, there were several people there. But what caught him off guard was when he realized Tipral's minions were there.

_"Oh, no... Not Tipral's minions!" _Chopper thought. _"I have to be ready for this..."_

He slowly got in a fighting position when he began to approach them, but unfortunately for him, they already spotted him in time. And then the unexpected happened.

"Great wallopin' potatoes!" O'Chunks nearly cried out. "Chopra! Yer safe an' sound!"

"...Huh?" Chopper gawked before he felt himself being grabbed by the large, bearded warrior and received a noogie. "Ow!"

"I can't believe yeh finally made it! Everyone thought yeh'd be in some deep chunkin'!"

"...Everyone?" When he was released, he suddenly felt himself being caught in a hug. Mimi's hug. "Mimi?! What... What's going on here?! I thought you people wanted me dead?!"

"Well, things started to change," Mimi explained, releasing Chopper from her hug. "We were told everything. Everything about Tipral..."

"Yes," Dark nodded. "We know why he caused all of this havoc."

"Wait a moment, before we get into any more details, I need to know something!" demanded Chopper, looking as confused as ever. "How are you guys still alive? I thought something bad happened to you all!"

"Well, when I was tryin' teh hold the ceiling, I ended up fallin' through it," O'Chunks explained. "The landin', however... It wasn't a great feelin' to land on me rumpus."

"I fell through the floor and ended up landing on O'Chunks," Mimi explained. "Golly, it was sure of a soft landing! ...But when I realized it was O'Chunks, I quickly got off."

"I don't know what happened after I got sucked into that vortex, but those two found me out cold," Dark explained. "However, there was one thing we managed to do that I'm sure you'd be happy to know about."

Dark pointed over by six sleeping bags. There he saw Timpani, Blumiere, the three sages and his five friends who were lying in the sleeping bags. They were awake, and their injuries were treated.

"Guys!" Chopper cried, running over to his friends. Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi blurted his name at the same time as they jumped out of their sleeping bags and rushed over to Chopper. They all got in a group hug before letting go.

"Poyo! (Chopper! You're safe and sound!" Kirby cried, glomping Chopper afterward.

"But how did you guys live?"

"O'Chunks, Mimi and Dark told us that they saved us," Sonic explained. "I don't remember everything, but why does that matter? We're heroes! We're not supposed to go down easily!"

"Yeah," Blade nodded, looking down at the bandage on his arm that was replaced by O'Chunks's torn clothing. "I should be really grateful for O'Chunks for saving me at the last moment. He surely did risk his life to help me..."

Mario: He even managed to help me too!

"I was almost worried for a moment when Mr. L tried to take me out with him..." Luigi shuddered. "But I didn't expect to survive that explosion. It was almost a miracle..."

"But at least we're all together!" Sonic grinned, giving a thumbs up. "That's what's important!"

Chopper smiled and gave a thumbs up as well when Kirby got off him, but he was eventually glomped again. This time, by Luvbi.

"My sweet prince!" Luvbi cried, happy beyond belief to see her prince back. "Thou art OK!"

"Wah! Luvbi! Get off me, please!" Chopper cried, being turned on his back so Luvbi could plant kisses on his face. While the heroes could have been annoyed, they were laughing instead. But eventually they had to get him away from Luvbi, so Mario pulled him away from her, who was left annoyed, but understood why that was done.

"Squirps is glad to see you all right, space grunt!" Squirps smiled, hi-fiving Chopper. "We all thought you were in danger, squirp!"

"Well, I thought I was too..." Chopper looked over at Ninbot, who only replied with an approving nod. He looked over at the sleeping bags and noticed Nastasia was still unconscious in one of them. "Nastasia..."

"We're not sure what's going on with her..." Sonic trailed. "She still didn't get up."

"She will be just fine," Timpani assured, approaching the unconscious secretary with a bowl of soup. "This took a while to make, but I think this will be just enough to wake her up."

While she fed Nastasia the soup, Chopper couldn't help but gaze at her and Blumiere, who stood beside her. This was the first time he'd ever seen her in her true form, and he was admittedly surprised by her appearance. He had seen very few humans throughout the years.

"Tippi... Is this...the real you?" Chopper gaped.

"Oh, Chopper!" Timpani gaped, finishing up the soup and looking up at Chopper, unaware of his arrival from before. "You're all right!"

"Yeah... I don't know how long I could've lasted..."

"Yes, we were very worried about you," Blumiere nodded. "It seemed as if all hope would be lost for you, until... Well, you know..."

"Yeah..." Chopper trailed, reminiscing what happened in the end of the battle.

Eventually they heard a moan and turned their heads to Nastasia, who slowly began to open her eyes and sit up. She felt her glasses next to her and put them on. The first thing she saw was Blumiere looking down at her.

"C-Count...? Is... Is that you?" Nastasia wondered.

"Yes, Nastasia, it is me," Blumiere nodded. "You're safe now."

"Oh, count... I missed you so much..."

"Everythin' will be fine, wee Nastasia!" O'Chunks assured, walking over to the secretary and putting his hand on her shoulder. "Yeh'll be just fine!"

As if he jinxed it, the area around them started to tremor, nearly startling everyone around them.

"Agggghhhh! It's…happening!" Luigi cried.

"The True Chaos Heart is still on a rampage!" Blumiere realized. "Soon, everything will be completely wiped out!"

"How do we stop the True Chaos Heart then?" Blade asked. "If it's all out of control, what do you think can stop it?"

"That answer is very simple," the count started. "Do you remember how we managed to banish the Chaos Heart before?"

"Eh?!" O'Chunks gawked.

"But we don't want you going again!" Mimi cried. "We just managed to reunite with you! Don't go so soon!"

"I'm sorry, my minions..." Blumiere trailed, lowering his top hat. "Love is all that is needed to stop something as dangerous as the True Chaos Heart... Combined with the Purity Heart, it is bound to work."

"If that's the only way, then there is no other choice," Dark stated.

Blumiere turned to Timpani, who nodded and grabbed her hand. The two slowly began to go up the stairs to the altar ahead. Nastasia could only look in sadness as she lowered her head.

Luigi turned his head to his brother, who replied with a nod as both Blumiere and Timpani reached the top. The True Chaos Heart was waiting on a large pedestal in between them, and soon the Purity Heart began to hover above it.

"It pains me to believe that this kind of havoc was brought back..." Blumiere sighed. "If I hadn't let that Dark Prognosticus get taken so easily, none of this would have ever happened... I'm sorry for everything that happened to you, Timpani."

"There's no need to be sorry," Timpani assured, giving him a smile. "I have made several new friends along the way, and I even got to experience a few worlds I had never gone to. And even if we had been separated, I would still love you until the very end."

"And I will still love you until the very end. I had always thought about you even when we were separated. That's how much you mean to me... Even in a hundred years, that will never change."

The two both smiled at each other, and soon their faces began to become closer and closer together until...

"Wait! Stop! Don't do this!"

Blumiere and Timpani stopped and turned their heads down at the bottom of the altar. Everyone else turned their heads too to see who was calling.

It was a limping Tipral, who carried the Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter in his hands.

"Tipral...?" Timpani gasped, putting her hands over her mouth. Everyone else let out a gasp as the dark being staggered past them and reached the top of the altar.

"Tipral... You're still alive?" Chopper gaped, walking up to the top where Tipral stopped. His friends walked up there to join him.

"Tipral..." Blumiere trailed, unsure of what to say.

"If you two use love on the True Chaos Heart, you will only make it worse..." Tipral explained. "The heart's power has become too full of hatred and darkness that not even the power of a married couple can destroy it..."

"How... How do you know this?" Timpani asked.

"When I looked through the Dark Prognosticus, it stated that the power of the True Chaos Heart would be nearly impossible to stop. Not even the power of love combined with the Purity Heart can stop it..."

"Then... Is all hope lost?" Chopper asked, looking a bit sad. Everyone else felt sad in the process as well. "All we can do is just die?"

"No, there is one thing..." Tipral stated, making everyone look back up at him. "In order to banish the True Chaos Heart, one chosen by its power must link themselves directly with the Purity Heart and use the power to banish the True Chaos Heart from existence. However, by doing that, they along with the True Chaos Heart and what else was linked to them will cease to exist... And that is something I'm willing to do..."

"Tipral... Are you saying that you're willing to stop the True Chaos Heart by giving up your life?" Timpani gaped.

"But that's crazy!" O'Chunks gaped. "Why would yeh try that?!"

"It's the only way to stop the True Chaos Heart. And besides... All of this was my doing. It would only be fair for me to redeem myself after the chaos that was created by my hands... Plus... I want to give all worlds a chance..." Tipral trailed, a few tears rolling down his face. "A chance to be happy again..."

Even if Mimi was unhappy with what he tried to do before, she felt even worse than before. "But Tippy! Why would you sacrifice you life just like this?! I was hoping for things to come back to normal, but not with you being wiped out from existence!"

"Mimi, you must understand... While letting my game end at this point sounds terrible, it's for a greater good. Wouldn't you do the same thing if every world could be saved if you gave up your own life?"

Mimi sniffled and looked down, unsure of what to say.

"I'll respect your choice," Dark said. "Even if you were using us the whole time, seeing such a change in heart from you is very...surprising. It almost makes me feel...a bit happy..."

Tipral slowly turned his head over to Nastasia. "Nastasia, I hope your future becomes bright. I will pray to see your life change for the better."

"Thanks..." Nastasia trailed, unsure of how to react. "I hope your future becomes bright as well..."

"Squirps is surprised by how much he has changed," Squirps mumbled to the other two sages.

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed. "I knewest him as an angry, heartless being, but his selflessness doth make me smile..."

If Ninbot could smile, he most certainly would.

"Chopper, I want you to have this..." Tipral turned to Chopper and placed one of his golden wrist rings in the boy's hand.

"Why are you giving me this?" Chopper asked, looking down at the ring and then back up at Tipral.

"I don't need it anymore. I want you to hold onto it for now. You can do whatever you want with it." Tipral turned to Timpani and gave her his other one. "And you can keep this. It can be a sign of remembering me..."

"Tipral... I'm not sure what to say..." Timpani trailed, looking down at the ring and then at Tipral.

"You don't have to say anything, Timpani," Tipral assured. "Now please go... I have to finish this."

Timpani and Blumiere stepped away from Tipral and let him finish the job. He approached the True Chaos Heart, but he couldn't help but look back at the entire group watching him. O'Chunks and Mimi were sobbing, while most of the others were looking at him in sadness.

"I'm sorry that it's all come to this..." Tipral trailed, the tears now returning. "I'm sorry for everything I've caused to everyone. I hope you can all forgive me..."

"...I forgive you," Chopper smiled, while others nodded in agreement. With such a nice feeling, Tipral felt a new feeling in his heart. It was happiness.

And for the very first time, he gave the group a smile.

"Now go," Tipral commanded. "It's time to put an end to this..."

He let the Purity Heart fall into his hands and absorbed its power. His dark skin was much lighter, and his gloves and eyes were changed to a glowing yellow. A halo and angelic wings now appeared on him. The light around him was bright enough to blind the group for a moment while he approached the True Chaos Heart.

With the Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter in his hands, he let out a cry as he stabbed the True Chaos Heart with the scepter. A bright light soon enveloped him, along with everything else that made physical contact with him.

Everyone else could feel shaking around their feet.

"Aaagh! Everything's shaking!" Blade cried. "Are we too late?!"

Eventually the shaking stopped, and instead they heard something else.

"Hey, I hear something," Luigi noticed, closing his eyes to listen carefully to the sound.

"Are those...bells?" Mimi asked.

"Yes... The bells are giving their blessing for Tipral's actions..." Timpani trailed, looking down at the ring she now wore on her wrist. Blumiere put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him with a smile.

* * *

**The Bitlands-**

The Koopa Strikers, Motobugs and Hammer Bros. were sweating in fear at the size of The Void and the violent shaking around their feet. They had a feeling this world was about to meet its end very soon.

However, bells soon began to echo through the dimension, and The Void was slowly beginning to disappear, cleansing the sky of the darkness. Upon realizing this, the enemies were left with relief.

"That...thing in the sky! It's gone!" the first Koopa Striker gaped. "Does that mean...?"

"I think so," the second Koopa Striker nodded. "Everything's starting to get restored!"

* * *

**Sagein Galaxy-**

"The Void... It's disappearing..." Merlo trailed, taking notice of the disappearing void in the sky. "The heroes must have finally done it..."

* * *

**The Peaceness-**

With The Void's presence disappearing, The Peaceness had finally returned to its former state. The Nimbis who were cowering in fear over The Void were now celebrating.

"Pherrance! That darkness in the sky!" Tillip gaped. "It's gone!"

"Gosh, Tillip, you're right!" Pherrance exclaimed. "And I'm feeling greater than ever too!"

A fart came out of Pherrance, and soon the two Nimbis were laughing hysterically over their farts. Many others Nimbis began to let out farts, and soon laughing could be heard from everywhere.

And they farted happily ever after.

* * *

**Cradian City-**

With Cradian City finally back, the Cradians all celebrated over the death of The Void. The same two Cradians who wondered about the heroes looked up at the beautiful, starry sky.

"This may have been those peoples' doing," the first Cradian noted.

"Yes, I agree," the second Cradian nodded. "Perhaps we be wrong about them... Maybe they not so bad..."

* * *

**Dimensional X-**

Ortorain slowly opened his eyes and noticed where he was. He found himself back in his own homeworld, right in front of the portal to Clara. A smile was left upon his face as he looked up at the petals falling from the sky.

"Thank you, heroes... Thank you for what you've done!" Ortorain cheered.

* * *

**Sammer's Kingdom-**

Jade Blooper, the Sammer Guy of the first gate, found himself lying on the ground ever since The Void destroyed Sammer's Kingdom. He let out a moan before he heard someone shout his name.

"Jade Blooper!"

He was left started and quickly got up to see King Sammer looking happily at him when he turned to face him.

"K-King Sammer!" Jade Blooper stammered. "I..."

"Doesn't it feel great to be alive?"

All Jade Blooper could do was rub the back of his head in confusion while he slowly nodded.

* * *

**Mobius-**

"Unngh..." Gemerl let out a moan as he rubbed his head. From what he could remember, he was fighting Chopper until The Void stopped him. But when he looked around, he saw no Chopper, and neither did he see The Void. "What the... What happened?"

"It looks like everything is turning back to normal," Tails deduced. "Each and every world is coming back to life!"

"I bet Sonic had a part in this!" Amy smiled, her hands clasped together.

"Yeah... We oughta congratulate him." Knuckles suggested. "...Well, you guys can. I need to go guard the Master Emerald."

"Then how come you're not guarding it right now? What if Rouge decides to go pay it a visit?"

Knuckles's eyes widened at the thought of the emerald being stolen, and soon he was running. "I swear, if that bat girl even touches that emerald, I swear I'm gonna..."

His voice was soon beginning to fade as he ran off in the distance. While Amy and Tails laughed, Bang and Night were rubbing their heads, unsure of what just happened at the moment.

"Are we...alive?" Bang asked, looking at his arms and legs.

"Of course we are, idiot," Night replied. "It's too obvious."

"Don't suppose Blade took some part in this, right?"

"Uhh... Yeah!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means everything's back to normal!"

A grin soon appeared on Bang's face. "Sweeeet... Now I go hit on some girls!"

As he began to run off, Night felt his hand connecting to his face.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

"Hnnnnngh..." Koopla moaned, who slowly got up and opened her eyes. Everyone else slowly began to get up in the process and noticed The Void no longer lingered over them. "What the... Hey! I'm alive! YEAH!"

"What? Really?" Mallow gasped, looking at his arms. "Hey! I am alive! Yay!"

"I have a feeling Mario was part of this," Parakarry smiled, looking up at the sky. "...And Luigi as well!"

"And I believe Chopper had some part of this as well..." Vivian smiled.

"Of course Chopper would have had a part in this," Bow said. "And I think I have an idea of what to give him as a little reward."

"Let me guess..." Shadower began. "A kiss?"

"Mmmmm... Maybe something he might like." the Boo princess shrugged. "I think he deserves to earn a little slice of cake or something. ...And maybe I might add in a little kiss as well!"

"Just like what Princess Peach would give to Mario!" Kayzee giggled.

"Heh heh heh... That sounds funny." Bruce chuckled. "But I don't know if Chopper's accept your second offer, Bow!"

"I'm sure he would," Bow retorted. "He loves food, and the only way to get to him is to get to his stomach first!"

"I'd like to see what happens!" Bombette giggled.

"Well, I hope when Contadre comes back, I finally get to battle with him in the Glitz Pit!" Scrub smirked. "With the new skills I've got, I don't think he'll ever stand a chance against the Great Contadre Jr.!"

"Great Contadre Jr.? Man! This kid's got some cool on him!" Yosho smirked. "And it makes it cooler, since yer a Yoshi like me! I bet you'll grow up to be a great ladies man!"

While Scrub and Yosho began to have their talk, Geno slowly looked up at the stars. "Chopper... Kirby... Sonic... Blade... Mario... Luigi... We shall be forever left in your debt."

* * *

**Staris's Shrine-**

"Unngh... I feel something strange..." Johnson the X-Naut moaned, slowly getting up. "What on earth just happened?"

Lord Crump looked up at the sky and saw no darkness lingering over them. "Whuh? Hey, Grodus! That darkness in the sky's gone!"

"Yes, I know that, you blubbering twit!" Grodus snapped. "Perhaps with everything back to normal, maybe we can makes plans for us to rise once again."

Lord Crump and Johnson looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Grodus's head. "Why are you two giving me that look?"

"Errr... Well... You see..." Johnson began, unsure of what to say. "We don't exactly have the right resources to rise again. We're the only X-Nauts standing at this point, while the rest who did survive left us. I don't think that will be so easy..."

"Oh, I was thinking of taking over as leader and..."

"You will never be the leader. Not with your stupidity." Grodus declared, making Johnson snicker.

"Well... I was able to make a powerful robot! That's something an intelligent person could come up with!"

"That was destroyed by Chopper. Your machine was obviously flawed. ...But aside from that, I think I want to relax for a while."

Johnson nodded in agreement as they looked up at the sky. Staris too looked up and couldn't help but wish the heroes his thanks.

* * *

**Pop Star-**

When both Fumu and Bun finally reached the field where Knuckle Joe and Silica were lying, they noticed them slowly getting up.

"Sis! They're just fine!" Bun noticed as they reached the two.

"Ugh... What happened?" Silica moaned, slowly getting herself up. "I don't know what was going on..."

"Yeah, me too," moaned Knuckle Joe, getting up as well. "I don't remember a thing since that dark vortex in the sky came in..."

"You two were corrupted by its presence," Fumu explained. "But now it appears to be gone..."

The two Star Warriors looked up at the sky and noticed the clear blue sky. However, there was still the burnt forest that still existed.

"What happened to the forest?" Knuckle Joe asked.

"It must have been burned down..." Fumu answered. "The forest will eventually come back, though. It might take some years, but if we do something to help, maybe it might come back faster!"

"Hmmmm... That doesn't sound too bad." Silica smiled. "Say... What do you think happened with that dark vortex anyway?"

"I bet Kirby had a part in stopping it!" Bun answered.

"Yes, I think so too," Fumu smiled. "But in the meantime, we should go check the residents of Cappy and Hatty Town. We should see how things are going there."

The four agreed and decided to head over to the towns. Silica stopped and looked up at the sky. She almost saw a constellation of her family up there. Her mother, father and brother.

She eventually followed the rest of the group afterward.

Out in the distance, Meta Knight was watching them from the castle, and soon he found himself looking up at the sky.

"Thank you, heroes..." Meta Knight muttered. "You've done a fine job."

He slowly turned away and began to head inside the castle.

* * *

**Clara-**

Flyer slowly opened his eyes and saw the bright blue sky of Clara above him. The others even noticed this too and were left surprise.

"The Void... It's gone..." Flyer trailed, breaking the silence.

"I guess that puffball finally got the job done," Tamber, said, breaking through his rope and untying Flyer. The rest were eventually untied after a couple of minutes.

"Well, it looks like peace has finally returned once again," Ghoster said, looking at the environment with a pleased look. "And that means I can finally go back to pranking! Haw haw haw!"

"Please... There are better things than that." Flyer scoffed before looking at C-2 Choppor. He was still badly damaged from last time. "Oh... I think I might have an idea here!"

He took his tools out and started to fix up C-2 Choppor. When he finished, the robot was finally running again.

"What...happened?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"All worlds are restored, I guess," Flyer shrugged.

"I'm so grateful for what Choppy did," Heartsy smiled, thinking about Chopper. "All worlds are back to normal, and now I can finally think of some new plans to see him and maybe even try to go on a date with him!"

"Pbbbbbbth! You still use that stupid girly nickname for Chopper?" Tamber laughed. "Come on! That's just so lame and-"

_**WHACK!**_

Tamber was left lying on the ground with a large bump on the top of his head. Heartsy glared down at the brown furball with her Hearty Hammer in her hands.

"Make fun of me or my boyfriend and I might leave two bumps on your head next time!"

"Relax, babe!" Ghoster assured. "There's no reason to hit someone with a hammer for making fun of you! Naw... Atomic wedgies are much more fitting!"

Heartsy looked down at Tamber with an uncertain look. "Uhhhh... I don't think it's possible with him..."

"Wha? Oh, dang!"

While that occurred, Flyer decided to look up at the sky, and C-2 Choppor joined him.

"Choppor... There's a strange feeling in my mind..." Flyer trailed. "While Chopper and his friends may have had some part in this... I feel like the end of The Void was done by someone else..."

"What gave you that idea?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"I feel a strange voice in my head... It sounds like the voice of someone I remember running into with Chopper before... Only it feels like he's changed..."

* * *

_Timpani, this is what you wanted, right? Love and happiness to be spread throughout each world? I am willing to grant that for you and all those you love and care about. You deserve it just as more as I do. And I thank you for restoring what I once wanted in my life..._

_Blumiere, I'm sorry I couldn't keep that promise of watching over you after Timpani was forced to leave. My anger quickly took me over, and I soon forgot about everything related to you... I hope you can forgive me..._

_O'Chunks, Mimi, Nastasia and Dark... I may have used you as pawns from the very beginning, but of all the people I've met while I was doing my terrible deeds, you were probably the only ones that were actually nice to me... I apologize for everything I've caused to you at this point, and I hope things work out for the better for you all..._

_Chopper, Kirby, Sonic, Blade, Mario and Luigi... I feel terrible for all the trouble I've caused for you all... I'm sorry for destroying your worlds, and I'm sorry for using you all to get to the True Chaos Heart... I hope my sacrifice to bring back everything you love can make you forgive me for my troubles..._

_Thank you all... I will surely miss you!_

* * *

"...per! ...Chopper!"

Chopper slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was back in Flipside – or rather, Flipside Tower. He looked up and saw Sonic looking down at him before he was able to get himself up.

"You all right, Chop?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, I'm all right..." Chopper nodded. "We're...back in Flipside?"

He found his friends with him, and across him were O'Chunks, Mimi, Nastasia and Dark. Behind the heroes were Squirps, Ninbot and Luvbi, and above them was The Void, which was the same size before the heroes entered the door in Rainbowside Tower.

"Poyo! (Hey! Look up there!)" Kirby cried, noticing The Void's size slowly shrinking. Everyone took a look as well, and in a matter of seconds, The Void was finally gone.

"Squow! That darkness in the sky's gone!" Squirps squealed.

"I guess The Void's closing..." Luigi trailed.

"Yes. It is proof that the Prophecy of Destruction has not yet come to be."

Merlon and the Pixls joined in with the group and faced the heroes. "And all worlds have finally been saved… The prophecy has truly lost its power… Thusly, the world that was lost returns to normalcy. You have done well, heroes. It is all thanks to you."

"You shouldn't thank us for stopping The Void," Blade said. "That was not our doing."

"Mmmmmm? Then who was responsible?"

"Tipral..." Chopper answered.

"Tipral? The one who held the dark prophecy? What happened to him?"

Chopper started to explain all the details to Merlon, and most of the things he said left some of the heroes and minions surprised.

"Dimentio came back?!" Mimi gaped.

"'Ow'd 'e do that?!" O'Chunks exclaimed.

"But it doesn't matter now. He is gone." Dark stated. "And hopefully this time, for good."

"Hmmmm... So after finding his true self, Tipral repaid your acts of kindness by giving up his life to stop The Void..." Merlon trailed. "I never would have imagined the holder of the True Chaos Heart performing such a selfless act..."

"Yea, verily," Luvbi agreed. "Mayhap there art demons with good hearts out there..."

"I wouldn't call Tipral a demon... He was just a lost soul..." Chopper trailed. "A lost soul in need of help..."

"And as for Tippi and Count Bleck... Where do you suppose they went?" Luigi wondered.

"Hmmmmm... Not even I would know where their presence is at this point..." Merlon trailed.

"Ummm... They're just fine." Nastasia spoke up, now smiling at the group. "They don't have any worries now... And...um...the count is living with Tippi in...um...peace...and I...yeah, I..."

Everyone was startled when she began to break down crying. "WAAAAAH! C-C-Count! NOOOO! Why did you have to leave so soon?! What am I supposed to do now?!"

"'Ey, wee Nastasia!" O'Chunks called out, trying to console with her. "I'm sure the count is livin' just fine an' happy knowin' yer still fine! An' remember what Tipral said before, lass! He wanted yeh teh 'ave a great future! We can help yeh with that! So pull it together, 'ey?"

"Yeah, he's right, Nassy!" Mimi added with a smile. "Everything's not over yet! We still have the future ahead of us! Maybe we can finally try to build the world the count wished for! Or maybe we can build it the way Tippy wished for too! So, c'mon! Give us a big smile!"

"Oh, O'Chunks... Mimi..." Nastasia sobbed before pulling herself back together. "Y-You're right. Yeah, I can't just sob forever. That's not something the count would approve seeing me do. We have to create the ideal world that, um, the count and Tipral wished for in their hearts… A world of love and happiness, not war and hatred. Yeah, let's all pencil that in. An appointment…of hope."

"Farewells are bittersweet," Merlon sighed, lowering his head. "But as long as you live, you can never escape them. To feel sadness is to live…but as long as you are alive, the future is a blank page."

He brought his head back up and looked at the group. "To celebrate your return, I've asked Saffron to make some of her celebrated snacks for us. Let us heal our weariness by devouring a banquet of sumptuous sweets!"

"Poyo! (YESSS! That is what I'm talking about! Make a path, people!)" Kirby cried out, running past everyone and making his way to Saffron's place.

"Yeesh... Kirby sure can run like crazy!" Sonic gaped. "But hey, we get some free snacks! I'm definitely in for that!"

Everyone else ended up following Kirby down to Saffron's place as fast as they could, eager to have some meals. The only two that stayed behind were Chopper and Merlon.

"Hmmmm? What is it, Merlon?" Chopper asked, hearing Merlon mumble before heading to Saffron's place.

"Ah, Chopper… I'm thinking of Tipral's deed of restoring all worlds back to normalcy..." Merlon trailed. "Do you think he has finally become happy?"

"I would assume so. He sounded like he felt truly happy for once..."

"Ho ho ho ho! Yes, yes. Of course." Merlon chuckled. "Well, let's have at those snacks… I'm sure you're eager for them!"

"You bet!" Chopper smiled, watching Merlon head to Saffron's place. He began to make his way down too, but he stopped and looked down at the ring he held in his hand and then up at the sky.

"Thank you, Tipral... We'll never forget what you did... I'll cherish this ring as much as you did. I promise."

And with that, Chopper ran off to Saffron's place.

_So the dark prophecy was averted and peace reigned. The Dark Prognosticus and Dark Star Scepter were wiped out from existence… Count Blumiere and his love, Lady Timpani, both vanished… Tipral's sacrifice was remembered by Chopper and his friends... And so the story of the lost book of prophecies comes to an end… May we meet again in another time and place…_

* * *

It had been four weeks since The Void was destroyed thanks to Tipral's brave sacrifice. Everyone eventually returned home after their meals, and peace was restored in all worlds. Sure, people such as Kirby, Mario and Sonic had to deal with their nemesis now and then, but that was usually common in their world.

As for Chopper, he had no troubles during those four weeks. No one had bothered to attack his planet, so he was spending most of his time doing the things he loves most: eating, running, jumping and watching some television with his brand new HD TV, since he ended up smashing his older TV by accident.

But rather than watching some stupid 4Kids, he was watching something that entertained him more.

It was entitled Super Paper King Dedede. It starred King Dedede and Escargon as the protagonists and Chopper as the villain. The animation was poorly done like the previous anime, and it looked absolutely amazing – in a hilariously bad way, of course. He was laughing the majority of the time anyway!

"Oh my gosh! This is so bad that it makes it so laughable!" Chopper laughed, being able to see how worse the animation was in HD. "I mean, seriously! How did King Dedede even find out about this adventure anyway? Did he get the information from someone?"

There was a box of pizza beside him, which he was eating while watching. On the table beside him, there was a picture of him and Flyer, the other two pictures with his partners and finally a golden ring in between the pictures.

When he finished his last slice of pizza, he heard a knock coming from the door. He quickly turned off the TV and ran over to his door. His eyes nearly widened when he saw a tall person wearing an orange Varia Suit standing in front of him.

"Wait a second... Aren't you...Samus?!" Chopper gaped.

"Hmmmm... You know me? That's surprising..." the bounty hunter Samus Aran trailed. "Well, I don't know how you do, but I'm not going to complain about it."

"But what are you doing in front of my house?"

"Well, let's just say that someone wanted me to deliver this to you. Why me? I'm not entirely sure, but since I had nothing else to do, I decided to take the offer."

Samus took out a box and handed it to Chopper. "She said it was very important."

Chopper looked down at the box and decided to open it. The first thing he noticed was a letter, so he read it first.

_Dear Chopper,_

_I had a great time traveling with you and your friends. But at the same time, I'm starting to miss you... I'm sure you and your friends were wondering what happened to Blumiere and I after Tipral sacrificed himself to save the universe... Well, let's just say we had a little honeymoon to finish. I'm deeply sorry for leaving you all like that, but I decided to make it up to you. Aside from this letter, you'll find something else in the box. I had to spend 999 coins just to get it from Francis. He calls it Tiptron! It's something that's supposed to resemble me and have my personality to boot! It's a little something I thought I could get for you so you could remember me... Well, I hope this letter and the delivery gets to you safely! I asked one of the greatest bounty hunters in the universe to take it to you! Pretty strange for a bounty hunter to do a delivery, huh?_

_Yours forever,_

_Lady Timpani, aka Tippi_

Chopper opened the box wider, and soon a rainbow-colored Pixl resembling Tippi flew out. The only difference between her and Tippi were the antennas that looked more jagged and round at the end.

"Hi, Chopper! It's me, Tippi! Ask me anything and I'll investigate it!"

"Hmmmm..." Chopper let Tiptron's power go into his mind, and soon rays of rainbow light began to emit from his eyes. "Yeah! I can't believe I'm doing this again! Thanks, Tippi!"

"You're welcome," Tiptron spoke, while Samus was confused.

"What in the... What is that?!" Samus gawked, covering her visor when the light was flashing on her.

"That's Samus Aran. She is known to be one of the greatest bounty hunters in the universe." Tiptron continued. "Most of the time when she's working, she prefers to be alone most of the time. But there are times when she can't get her job done and is forced to help save a planet that is in danger."

While it almost sounded like the Pixl was insulting Samus, she decided to take it as a compliment as Tiptron left Chopper's mind.

"Oh, yeah... Before I forget... That's not the only thing I came here for..." Samus noted, slowly beginning to step aside.

"Wait, really?" Chopper gawked. "Then what else are you here for?"

"Hey, Chopper!"

When the bounty hunter fully stepped aside, Chopper was left startled when he saw nearly all his friends right behind before his very eyes. He hardly even noticed them before because he was too busy paying attention to Tiptron and the letter.

"G-Guys?! What're you all doing here?!"

"Chopper, remember that little party that Tipral lured us in back in Trinado's Castle?" Sonic asked. "Well, Kirby thought of an idea of throwing a party there. This time, a real one."

"You serious?"

Mario: Oh, yes!

"Poyo! (We got most of the things prepared! All we need are the people!)" Kirby cheered.

"And we're hoping nothing gets in our way this time," Blade added.

"I certainly wouldn't want that..." Luigi trailed.

"A party? That sounds nice..." Tiptron trailed.

"Hey, maybe when we're there, I can show you my moves, Contadre!" Scrub suggested, punching the air. "I'm telling you! I can totally take you in the Glitz Pit now!"

"Maybe, Scrub... Maybe..." Chopper smiled.

"Who wants to race?" Sonic asked, getting in a position to race to Trinado's Castle.

"You're on!" Chopper challenged, getting in the same position as well. Soon the two were racing to the castle for the party, while the rest began to follow.

It seemed as if everything was back to the way things belonged, and everyone was happy once again.

A spirit watched the group from afar making their way to the castle. He also happened to catch Chopper running back to his house and grabbing something that he found familiar to him before he ran back off in the distance. He now saw Chopper wearing the item on his wrist.

"_A new day brings a new adventure. But for now... Rest easy, heroes."_

With one last smile, he slowly began to fade away from this world.

_**THE END**_

* * *

**After spending almost two years rewriting this story, it is finally over...**

**For those of you who didn't know from before, I started this story around October 25, 2009 and finished it on April 23, 2010. But I didn't think the quality was exactly as great, so this is what it had become. And I have to say, I'm actually pleased how it turned out in the end.**

**I could've probably executed this and probably the finale a little better, but honestly, I feel satisfied with how it turned out. The ending is much better than the previous two stories in my opinion, and I feel it was written better.**

**Now... There were a couple of people who asked me if I was going to make a Paper Chopper: Sticker Star (if that's what it's going to be called anyway). The answer is... Yes, I do plan on doing it. ...But, I don't plan on doing it right now. I want to focus on a few other stories at the moment, and maybe if I get those done, you might see a fourth entry. I can't guarantee it'll be published around this year or next year, though... Plus, I haven't thought of that much ideas for it anyway, but I have the other stories I'm working on to keep you company until then! ^^**

**Plus, those two stories I'm working on are not even close to being as long as this, so it may be easier to read!**

**So, what was your favorite moment in this story? Had a favorite chapter, character or boss? I don't know why I'm so curious over that, but hey, I'd like you know your thoughts. :P**

**This is a rather long author's note, so I might end it here. I wanna thank you all for reading this, and if you managed to read through every single chapter, I commend you for that (whether you liked it or not – even though I wouldn't understand why you'd still be reading this far if you didn't like it)! **

**And yeah, I can't believe I wrote a fic with over 1,000,000 words! I didn't expect this story to have this many words in the end.**

**See you all next time!**


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